We Hope Your Rules And Wisdom Choke You

Chapter 13: A song to keep us warm

Wind through his hair away from his face as his eyebrows furrowed. Green eyes grew wide as his heart thundered in his chest.

He muttered. "What?"

His father just looked at him as if he were the fool, as if what he was asking of him was to be expected. The gentle and almost bitterly understanding look on his face made Lloyd feel nauseous.

"You have an amazing power, son!" A step forward. "This is the perfect opportunity to harness it, to train its destructive nature for your own gain-"

"No." Lloyd interrupts him, shaking his head to further prove his point. "No, I'm not doing it." His stomach was doing flips.

"You're overreacting, Lloyd." The voice tries to reason. "You've used it before, what point is there in denying its use?"

He ignores it.

Garmadon reaches out a hand, "Just listen to me," He pleads. Lloyd opens his mouth to interrupt him again, to refuse his proposal, but the outstretched hand beats him to it. It rests firmly on his shoulder, comforting him in an almost sickly way. Lloyd forgets what he was going to say.

Garmadon takes this as his time to speak. "You are exhausted, son. Don't try to say that you are not. No food or water will do that to you." Another hand, dark as night, rests on his other shoulder. "I worry that climbing down will only exhaust you further; I worry for your safety."

Lloyd just shrugs his hands away, taking a step back to avoid those deep red eyes. (how could he find comfort in those?)

"I'll be fine on my own," He snaps. The malice in his voice comes as a surprise, even to him. "There's no way I'll ever rely on dark power, not for anything."

Guilt eats away at him as he utters the words. The voice seems to know this, taunting him for lying to his own father. He opts to turn around, facing the view instead of his father. He realises how close he had been to the edge of the cliff. One step further, and he'd be tumbling down towards certain death.

A hand grabs at his nearest shoulder, and Lloyd shoves it away. Again, it grabs at his shoulder, trying to get Lloyd to face him, but he just shoves it away once more, cursing his father for being so relentless, so stubborn.

"There is no shame in relying on your birth powers, son." A hand snakes its way back to Lloyd's shoulder. "They are a part of you-"

This time, Lloyd smacks the hand away, a little more aggressive than he'd anticipated, and swivels to face his father anyways. "Well I don't want them, and I sure don't need them!"

"Whether you like it or not, they are a part of you and there is no shame in that-!"

"Yes, there is!" Lloyd all but yells. "You saw what the Oni did to Ninjago, what they did to the other realms- How can I be a protector if my powers are only used to destroy?!"

Lloyd takes a careful step backwards as his father takes one charging step forward, pushing him to the edge of the cliff. He quickly glances behind him, at the deadly drop, and back to his father whose face is laden with frustration. For a moment he's unsure of his father's intention.

"You misunderstand the potential of your powers!" The dark lord points an accusatory finger at him. "It can give you strength like no other, it can make you invincible if you just let it overrun you-"