A figure walked to stand beside him, casting the boy in shadow. They don't stand too close, maybe an arm's reach apart, but close enough to call it a bonding moment. An awfully silent bonding moment, at that- the only noises being Lloyds laboured breaths and the sound of rustling forestry hundreds of feet below them- but a bonding moment nonetheless.

The latter appreciated the silence, too. It gave him time to catch his breath.

If I had used my powers, I wouldn't be so out of breath. He pushes the thought down.

Lloyd stared down at the view below them. The Dark Island really didn't seem so dark from up there.

After a moment, his lungs stopped aching, and his breath returned to normal- as normal as it could be this high up. His heartbeat steadied shortly after.

Something bumped his shoulder, and he looked to his left to see his father. He stood tall, arms folded behind his back, glancing down at Lloyd as if asking to speak. Lloyd raises his eyebrows a little.

"How long do you think they will take?" Garmadon questioned. His gaze was scrutinising, like a judge in court, or a college professor.

Lloyd huffed. "I don't know, you tell me." How was he supposed to know? He wasn't exactly around to hear the plan.

"I meant-" Garmadon pinched his nose with a sigh. "In the past, how long did it take to retrieve someone?"

Lloyd smirked at that. "Last time it took them a week." It had been when Lloyd's amazing disguise didn't work, and he had been imprisoned by Harumi and her little gang. He'd been in chains, cages, and chains again by the time he was rescued, and heck, if he hadn't escaped first they probably would never have found him.

Garmadon made a face like he was holding back a remark.

Lloyd continued.

"The others told me about when Samukai captured Nya... I think they said it took a couple weeks." Yeah, a couple weeks. Kai had to train, then they had to get the golden weapons. Poor Nya had been tied up all that time.

Garmadon makes another face.

"When I got captured by Pythor- also probably around a week, and when Zane got captured by Chen... a few months. To be fair we thought he was dead." He remembers seeing Zane alive and well (and silver) after all that time thinking he was dead. It was shocking, to say the least. Benefits of being a nindroid, he supposes.

Another thought pops into his head. "Oh, and when I got possessed... yeah, maybe another week or two." Oh, Lloyd remembers that like it was yesterday. Trapped behind his eyes, watching his body move without him- it was something he wouldn't wish on anyone.

Garmadon opens his mouth for a second, looking like he wants to say something, before snapping it shut. It opens again, and this time he speaks. "Have you ever saved someone within a few days?"

Flaxen hair swishes as Lloyd nods, slowly. "I think it only took a couple hours to save Jays mom the last time she was kidnapped. And we broke out of prison pretty quickly. Maybe..." Lloyd counts the days. A frown stretches across his face. "...Okay so maybe it wasn't that quick."

His father sighs. His arms swing forward to fold across his chest neatly, still somehow a terrifying figure despite his relaxed appearance. He guesses it came with the creepily inhuman face. Maybe the red eyes as well. The height, too. In fact, everything about his father was oddly frightening no matter the situation. Even now, with the sun in the sky, and hardly a cloud in sight, he still assumed the aura of a warlord.

Lloyd sighs as well. His hands flex beside him and Lloyd glances down at them. Tanned skin meets his eyes, short nails caked in dirt, mystery blisters adorning pale palms, some spotted in red from his recent escapades. Lloyd couldn't imagine how he looked next to his father: Torn Gi covered in plentiful holes, blood staining his front, mud staining his legs. His hair was greasy by now, sticking unpleasantly to his forehead, and his face felt unclean. It wasn't his first time being this messed up, he was more than used to surviving- but he'd never felt this humiliated. Something about standing next to such an untouched figure made him feel weak.

"Son?" A voice spoke up.

Lloyd snapped up, staring at his father with widened eyes. "What?"

Red eyes turned to slits as they stared back. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Uh, no."

A shake of his head. "I was saying that the ninja said it would only take a few days, so I will to ignore those factors." Garmadon wags his hand dismissively in the air in front of him. Lloyd laughs airily at the gesture.

Everything about him- it feels like he's my dad again.

Chapped lips smirk mischievously. "It might take them more than a day or two to cross the endless sea alone. When they get here they still have to look for us-" Lloyd cuts himself off as he realises something. The metallic tube at his hip makes its presence known. "Did they give you a tracker?"

His father's eyebrow cocks. "A what?"

...

"...So they gave you a flare, but not a tracker?" Lloyd questions. His father hesitantly shook his head. Lloyd hangs his own in defeat, pinching his eyebrow. How could they make such a mistake? It's not like they were short on resources! And seriously, if Jay had had the half mind to give the Dark Lord a flare, why had he not given him a tracking device?! Not just Jay, but Nya, Cole and Wu as well! How had none of them realised this possibly fatal mistake?

He looks to his father, who shrugs half-heartedly, as if to say "What's done is done." Lloyd can't help but huff, mumbling an "Oh my goodness" under his breath.

"Do you have a tracking device?" Garmadon badgers.

Lloyds breath hitches. "Okay- no," he sighs, "I took it out while I was-" while I was searching for Harumi, "-When we split up."

Why he didn't mention his search for Harumi, he's not exactly sure. His father knew he had been looking for her- unintentionally, yes, but he knew, and he was okay with it. So why had he felt the need to stay silent?

"Oh, come on, Lloyd. Tell him you're-"

"And you didn't put it back in?" Garmadon quizzes him, finally facing him instead of the view.

"No, that one's on me." Lloyd groans loudly, frustration audible in his voice. He finds himself digging the heels of his palms into his eye sockets, his face contorted in regret.

"With how long it takes to fly across the endless sea, and how long it might take them to find us... we might be up here for a while."

His nose twitches.

Calloused hands drag over his face, and he would have winced at the pain it brought him had it not been for the stress of being stuck on an island. Damnit, how could he be so stupid to not see the ambush from a mile away?

That mayor- was it Lestyn?- had been acting erratic, too eager to welcome strangers into his village. And Lloyd had realised it too, simply assuming that he was a strange man, that he was not used to outsiders.

Not to mention when he was investigating the wharves. It was strange, and that was saying something coming from him. He'd seen a fair share of strange, but this was a whole different kind of strange. As soon as he arrived at the docks, it seemed as if all but the elderly had rushed to take their boats out, paddling like madmen into the high tide, the lack of motors surely taking a toll. (really Lloyd, is it that shocking that an off-the-map village is underdeveloped?)

Those who remained weren't any better- the old man with the basket of fishing hooks, the other old man who asked him for his boots, and most importantly the old woman who had told him to "watch out for devil ray." What that had meant, Lloyd couldn't begin to imagine. Perhaps it was a warning. Perhaps he should have listened.

But what really didn't sit right with him was how empty the area had been once he returned to The Bounty. Right before he was-

Every sign of life on those wharves had been wiped the second he returned. It set a bitter taste on his tongue.

They fled, he resigned. No witnesses.

Lloyd was so sure of it; the entire village was a part of his ambush, it had been planned since they got to town- But why? Why, he could not say.

Why had they fabricated such a story? Why had they radioed Ninjago City police station for help? Why trick a group of people they didn't even know into capture? And why him, of all the ninja?

A chill dragged down his spine as he relayed the events in his head.

The village radioed Ninjago City police station for help. A perfectly smart thing to do in their situation. A dangerous weapon had been stolen, and could possibly be used against them. They needed help, and the police station could help.

The village radioed Ninjago City for help. But something about the sentence sat wrong in his stomach.

The village radioed Ninjago City. That's it. The radio.

They didn't even have motors, how would they have radios?

It hadn't just been planned since they got to the village, no. It had been planned since someone on the outside radioed for help.

The explorer, Lloyd realised. The explorer planned everything, and the village people are helping her.

No... that wasn't it. The explorer was threatening them. They weren't helping. With a spear so powerful it could transport a living being thousands of miles away in a matter of minutes, to an island so unreachable and dangerous, the explorer wouldn't earn their help- she'd take it. And the father and son were the case in point. An example of what would befall their fellow villagers if they dared defied her rule.

The onslaught of revelation after revelation left his head aching.

Something presses against his shoulder, and it snaps his attention back into the waking world.

He peels his hands away from his face, cringing at the feeling, and looks towards the perpetrator. Who else could it be but his father.

Garmadon smiles at his son, but it doesn't quite reach his lips. "Look on the positive side, son- we're already halfway through day two! And we have that fly thing-" He gestures to the tube attached to Lloyds belt.

"Flare," Lloyd corrects.

"-Flare thing. As long as your uncle keeps those ninja in check, they'll reach us in no time." The hand at his shoulder squeezes, and the comfort works wonders. Lloyd's mind is practically wiped of worry, and he feels his shoulders loosen. He hadn't even realised they were tense.

His eyes drift up, over to the horizon, and he spots a long gathering of clouds far away. A hand shelters his eyes, blinking away the sun, as he focuses on it.

Clouds gather above land, he remembers. It was something Wu had told him years ago, when they had been out at sea. It's how great sailors find new land- they look for the long white cloud.

He blinks again, trying to focus his eyes on the thin line that was the horizon. Was there land? But he could see nothing.

A breeze ruffles the sparing grass under his feet, and suddenly Lloyd remembers they are on a cliff- how could he forget?

Garmadons eyes look at him expectantly, and Lloyd sighs, contempt.

"Yeah.. you're right."

The hand leaves his shoulder, not without a hearty pat. Lloyd smiles at his father, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

After a moment, he peers over the edge of the cliff, looking down at certain doom. Vertigo slams into him as another realisation wracks his mind. "Did we climb up here too soon?"

Lloyd watches as his father tenses, a similar realisation creeping onto his face; His lips press into a thin line, his eyebrows furrow shallowly. His own eyes peer over the ledge as well. "Possibly..." He nods, drawing his eyes away from the plummet. "We can just stay up here until they find us."

Greasy blonde hair swishes as the younger shakes his head. "There's no shelter, food, water or anything up here. We'll have to climb down eventually."

Garmadon tutts his tongue. He turns away from his son, vermillion eyes scanning the cliffs top. Lloyd was right. Nothing but grass, rock, and dirt lay atop the small area, an occasional root curling out from underground. Where the roots came from, he didn't know.

His gaze returns to below them, where a plentiful supply of food, water, and shelter lay, just waiting to be used for their benefit. The Dark Lord sighs.

Lloyd huffs a laugh at the defeated look adorned on his face, and Garmadon shoots him a playful glare before laughing as well.

"It seems... we were a bit too enthusiastic." An arm pulls to rest firmly on his hip, his other hand dragging up to rub at his temples with an outstretched hand that blocked his eyes from sight. It doesn't block the embarrassed smile that stretched across his face, looking foreign and strange on the Lord of Darkness' face.

For a moment, Lloyd truly feels like his dad is back.

"There is no way I'm climbing back down immediately, though." Lloyd huffs through smiling lips, laughing admission. "It was hard work for me just climbing up here, how hard is it gonna be to get down?" He glances at his father when the smile reaches his eyes, only to see his father staring right at him, a complicated look on his face.

The smile slowly fades from his face, mixing with a look of confusion. "...What?" He mutters.

His father opens his mouth, before closing it again. He sighs. "I fear that... you will struggle to get down."

What? Lloyd goes to respond, to ask what he meant, but his father speaks before he can.

"Just listen. You can use this opportunity to learn, son, to train." Dark hands find their way to his son's shoulders, gripping firmly. Lloyd feels his look of confusion melting away into concerned understanding, his brows furrowing deeper and his nose scrunching with his face.

"...What do you mean?" Green eyes plead for an answer.

"I want you to use your Oni power."

-

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IMPORTANT END NOTE:

Readers, it is time you make a choice. How will Lloyd react?

Option A

Option B

What these options entail is for me to know and you to find out.