Outbreak: Ninjago's Dark Dawn

Chapter 19: A World Without Lloyd

Five years. Five long, grueling years had passed since the final battle. Since Lloyd's ultimate sacrifice. The city of Ninjago, though still scarred, had slowly risen from the ashes of the apocalypse. Buildings that had once crumbled under the weight of destruction now stood tall once more. Streets once filled with wandering hordes of undead were alive again, with people rebuilding their lives. But despite the physical recovery, the emotional wounds of those who had fought in the battle were still deep, raw, and bleeding.

The sky over Ninjago was calm today, a pale blue that stretched endlessly overhead, but in the hearts of the ninjas, it felt heavy, like the weight of the world still pressed upon them. They had won the war—Ninjago had been saved. But the cost of that victory haunted them every single day.

Kai stood at the edge of the city, overlooking the skyline from the top of a rebuilt tower. His fists clenched as he stared out at the horizon, the memories of that day replaying in his mind like a torturous loop. Lloyd's face. His decision. His sacrifice.

"I should have known," Kai whispered, the words barely escaping his lips. "I should have seen it coming... I should have stopped him."

He had been Lloyd's older brother in all but blood. It had been his job to protect him, to make sure he didn't do something reckless. But he hadn't been there when Lloyd had made his choice. The guilt weighed him down like an anchor, pulling him into a sea of regret. Even after all this time, the pain hadn't lessened.

Nya approached quietly, placing a gentle hand on Kai's shoulder. "He didn't want us to know," she said softly, her voice thick with shared sorrow. "Lloyd made his choice, and he saved all of us. You couldn't have stopped him, Kai."

"I could've tried," he snapped, but his voice faltered. His anger wasn't directed at her—it was at himself. At the world. At the unfairness of it all.

- - - - - - -

Elsewhere, Cole wandered through the still-rebuilding parts of the city, his steps slow and deliberate. He was no longer the Cole he used to be. The infection he had fought had left its mark, making him weaker than before. But the worst of it wasn't his physical limitations—it was the burden he carried inside.

The guilt gnawed at him day and night. Lloyd had sacrificed himself to save Ninjago, and yet here he was, still standing, still alive. Cole should have been the one to fall—he had been so close to succumbing to the infection. But somehow, he had survived, while Lloyd...

His heart ached at the thought. He couldn't help but feel responsible. Maybe if he hadn't been so focused on his own battle, on holding back the transformation, he could've done something to change the outcome.

"I'm sorry, Lloyd," Cole murmured under his breath, as he walked past a memorial that had been erected in Lloyd's honor. A statue of their fallen leader, tall and proud, stood in the city square, a reminder of the price of their victory.

Every time he looked at it, Cole's chest tightened. He couldn't escape the feeling that, somehow, he had failed Lloyd. Failed his friend.

- - - - - -

Zane sat quietly in the rebuilt monastery, his usually emotionless face now clouded with contemplation. He was processing the events of the past five years, still struggling to understand the depths of his own existence. Lloyd's death had sent him spiraling into an existential crisis—if someone as powerful, as good as Lloyd could be taken from them, then what did that mean for the rest of them? For him?

He had pushed his analytical mind to the limits, trying to make sense of the parasitic plague, of the alien influence that had nearly destroyed their world. But the one thing Zane could never fully calculate, never fully comprehend, was the cost of losing someone as irreplaceable as Lloyd.

"His sacrifice was logical," Zane would sometimes tell himself, a cold comfort to ease the pain. But no amount of logic could soften the blow. Lloyd hadn't just been their leader—he had been their friend. And his absence left a void that nothing could fill.

- - - - -

For Garmadon, the weight of guilt was unbearable. He had been the one to help Lloyd perform the ritual. He had known the consequences and yet, he had let it happen. There wasn't a day that went by where he didn't replay that final moment, where he didn't wonder if he could have done something, anything, to change Lloyd's mind.

In the years since, Garmadon had disappeared from Ninjago. He had retreated to the distant mountains, where he could be alone with his grief. He couldn't face the world anymore. Not after what he had done. His son was gone, and it was his fault.

There, in the solitude of the peaks, Garmadon built a shrine for Lloyd. It was a place where he could sit and mourn in peace, far from the city that reminded him of his failure. Every day, he sat by the shrine, speaking softly to the air as if Lloyd could hear him.

"I never wanted this for you," he would say, over and over again, hoping that somewhere, somehow, Lloyd would know. "I wanted to protect you."

But he hadn't. And that failure haunted him every day.

- - - -

Five years after the incident, the city of Ninjago had healed. Buildings had been restored, the streets were no longer empty, and life had returned. But the heart of the city still ached. Lloyd Garmadon was gone, and his absence was felt in every corner, every shadow.

The remaining ninjas had carried on, but not without difficulty. They continued to fight for peace, to protect the city Lloyd had died for. But the grief never fully left them. Kai, Nya, Jay, Zane, Cole—they all carried a piece of that burden with them, each in their own way.

Even now, as they stood before Lloyd's statue in the city square, they couldn't help but feel his presence. Lloyd had given them a future, one filled with hope and possibility. But that future would always be tainted by the loss of their brother, their leader.

As they laid flowers at the base of the memorial, a somber silence filled the air. The world had been saved, but Lloyd had paid the ultimate price. His sacrifice would never be forgotten.

And though the wounds of their hearts would eventually heal, the memory of Lloyd—the greatest warrior Ninjago had ever known—would live on forever.

"Thank you, Lloyd," Kai whispered, his voice breaking as he looked up at the statue. "We'll never forget you."