His Other Half | Ninjago

Chapter 9| Cupid's Arrow: Strike One

Y'all read the title, y'all know what's gonna happen!

Disastah is about to ensue!

Candy! 🍭

☯️~☯️~☯️

Centuries had passed. Generations came and went, dynasties rose and fell, legends turned to dust, promises were made and broken. Wu and Garmadon stood through it all, their supposed ages increasing significantly slowly and providing means to endure all that life threw at them.

Now, grown young men, the brothers had become more experienced and adept at fighting, surviving and facing life in general. By now, the stories of their skills and accomplishments had traveled far and wide and they had become well known.

One of them, however, wasn't doing that good. The strange thing was that no one knew if Garmadon's condition was getting better or worse. He had learned to control his anger the best he could but the transformation was now picking up pace.

The venom of the Great Devourer had resulted in mood swings that came and went as they pleased. One moment he would be excited and the next, the smile would fade and violence would take over. The transitions were so aggressive and sudden, no one could guess what emotions were going to manifest themselves next.

Garmadon's nightmares became more frequent and his outbursts, more violent. One was so severe that it eventually led his brown eyes to permanently become red with an ominous glow in them. He looked more menacing due to it and so people kept his distance from him.

The word about him being the first victim of the Devourer's poisonous wrath had finally got out. It was done so to warn people so that, in no way, could Garmadon be triggered to hurt and destroy.

The brunet never really complained about him being treated like a monster that had been let loose nor did he give any indications of having a problem with it. At least, that was what Garmadon confirmed himself. It could be a lie that he didn't feel insulted from all the horror stories about him.

But if Garmadon had been blessed with that much endurance then Wu had been endowed with an equal amount of observance.

Quiet, mature for his age, wise eyes decorating a young face, Wu read his older brother like a book. Page after page was filled with sorrow and hurt and Wu knew that his brother was just lying. He was being destroyed from the inside at the aspect of being labeled as a thing that you had to avoid at all costs.

Like a deadly virus in a pandemic or a ferocious lion in the savannahs. Like the monster under your bed or the shadows of doubts in your mind. Garmadon was taken as such things. Wu couldn't imagine himself in that position and day after day, the guilt of exposing his other half to that infernal serpent snapped at him.

He would see the shame and self-hate in Garmadon's crimson eyes everytime a mother would pull her child away from his path or when he would manage to overhear the fearful whispers of the passers by. But on the brunet's face, their would always be a ghostly expression of calm and peace. He would always have an I-don't-care-what-you-think-of-me attitude.

But it was all a lie and Wu knew it.

When the blonde consulted his father regarding the matter, the First Spinjitzu Master advocated that mingling with society on a positive mutual level would perhaps make Garmadon be more open towards people.

Wu couldn't help but agree with that suggestion. Before now, Garmadon had been extremely unpredictable. Exposing him to the outside world was a big blunder Wu and his father hadn't been ready to pay the price for.