A Single Pale Garmadon

Wu's impatience

"Uh.. erm.. well..." Lloyd stammered, looking around nervously.

"What's wrong Lloyd? Jay said that out of everyone here you'd know the most about the snake people."

"Well then I'm going to need to have a word with him," the green ninja declared through his teeth, glaring into the distance in the direction Wu came from. "Listen, Wu, I know just as much about the ancient snake tribes as the rest of us. Why do you have a sudden interest in them anyway?" Lloyd asked, looking back to where he was washing his dragon.

"It's not sudden, I'm just trying to get caught up on Ninjago's history! Though my memories are slowly returning, and I'm starting to have those magical visions, I've still got a really long way to go."

"Hm. How... much do you know about them so far?" Lloyd asked, looking somewhat skittish for reasons Wu couldn't quite figure out.

"Well, I know that they were locked away for a long time because of bad things they did, until some person released them. Probably someone who is pure evil for doing such a horrible thing." Lloyd flinched as if he'd been physically hit. Wu continued anyway, not quite getting the message. "And then there was this snake that was the craziest of all, and was bent on releasing the Great Devourer. Which he was successful with, creating havok in Ninjago. That thing killed people!" Lloyd seemed to almost curl in on himself on the spot. The dragon did a better job of picking up on the small ninja's emotions better then Wu, and gently nudged Lloyd's chest reassuringly.

Lloyd shakily exhaled "look, Wu, I don't entirely feel up to talking about this right now. Why don't you go to Kai, he might know something I don't."

"Ughhhh whaaaaat? I've already been to Kai. I've been going on a wild goose chase all day! First I went to Cole, then he sent me to Jay and Zane, then they sent me to Kai and Nya, then Kai sent me back to Jay, then Jay sent me to you! Wait... Kai told me specifically not to come to you, but he didn't tell me why-"

"IT'SbecauseIdon'tknowanything!" Lloyd cut in sharply and quickly, almost making the sentence blend into one jumbled word. "Kai told you not to come to me because I know virtually nothing about those snakes!"

"But Jay said-"

"Forget what Jay said! And for the record, that person didn't turn out to be completely in the wrong afterall, because snakes aren't really evil. Snakes are just mad at human for locking them away. Back in the day there was this guy whose ability was that he had a way with words. He used this for his own personal gain and lied to both snakes and humans alike turning them against each other, just to get his way. Sure, snakes looked like they were gonna try to take over Ninjago and kill us off or whatever, but the snakes thought we'd do the same! So the Serpentine War happened, and humans were victorious. Snakes swore their revenge and yadayadayada. Neither of us were in the right or the wrong, but it proves the power of misunderstandings and distrust. In fact none of... any of this would have happened if we'd had a civil conversation and talked it over instead of going at eachothers throats..." before Wu knew it the green ninja was lost in his thoughts, his eyes looking haunted.

Wu was just confused. "W- I don't- you just contradicted literally everything you just said." His blonde haired relative didn't respond, instead ducking his head and facing towards his dragon so Wu couldn't see his expression. "Why can't you talk to me about this??"

"Hey Lloyd! I found this really wierd plant i thought you might wanna check out over by th-" a certain perfectly timed fire ninja interrepted only to stop himself noticing the situation. Gears started to turn in Kai's head, as an expression of growing concern and low-key panic started to bloom on his face. His focus was on the ninja of energy at first, eyes burning into the back of his companion as if it took physical effort to force himself not to run over and hug him. Lloyd whipped his head around suddenly, one of his bright red eyes suddenly visible, giving Wu chills up his spine.