the butterfly effect | l. garmadon

two

  Misako knew that Lloyd was the Green Ninja. She knew that one day, her son and her husband would have to fight.

  It was foretold by prophecy, and despite the impossibility of stopping it, Misako was determined to try. Surely there was a way to turn Garmadon back? Surely there was something to prevent such a horrific battle from happening between her two most beloved people in the world?

  While Misako searched every museum and every archeological site she could get access to (and every one she wasn't allowed in), Lloyd's boarding school got overtaken by the awful students that he called classmates. He tried to join in on the festivities as they paraded around the school, but it all made his tummy churn with guilt.

  He was kicked out by the other kids and was homeless at eleven. His mother still believed that he was in the boarding school. He resented her for that.

  Then he may have released some snakes. It wasn't a good idea, but then again, he wasn't exactly trying to be good. He just managed to cause more trouble for his arch enemies the ninja, and that was great until he was betrayed. Then his enemies suddenly became his babysitters.

  Then, finally, after he'd tried to get back at the serpentine and got caught, Lloyd met his father. Their reunion was less full of evil laughter and more awkward than how Lloyd had imagined it over and over again when he laid in bed at night.

  He imagined that his father would be overjoyed at the thought of having a son. He thought that his father would've been like one of those cool dads that would visit the other kids in the boarding school - all slick and rich-looking and making secret handshakes with their sons. He thought that he would've brought him in for a hug and give him a noogie and then tell him all the ways to incapacitate a man.

  Instead, Lord Garmadon looked sick. It made little Lloyd panic. 

  Was it the red eyes? Lloyd had thought that Lord Garmadon would like his red eyes - they looked just like his! Or maybe it was the small, stubby fangs that showed off when he smiled? They were hardly as sharp as his father's, sure, but they were definitely there!

  But maybe he didn't like the red eyes and fangs, much like how everyone else Lloyd met didn't? When his father stared at him with a still, pale expression, Lloyd desperately mustered back his green eyes, but his fear of not being accepted by his father kept causing them to slip back into a frightened red.

  But then, the cruel and awful Lord Garmadon did something that Lloyd never thought he would do;

  He cried.

  Lloyd stiffened when the maniacal tyrant pulled him into a hug, clutching at his small body as he sobbed. He glanced at Wu, but his uncle just stood to the side and watched with a forlorn, lost expression.

  "I'm sorry," Lloyd heard Lord Garmadon weep. Lloyd was so lost, so confused. "I'm so sorry for making you look like a monster."

  And now, folks, that's not really anybody should say to an eleven-year-old boy who'd already suffered from the hand of bullies due to his inhuman looks. Lloyd knew that he was weird. He knew that he was different. He was called a monster by kids his age, sure, but to be called one by his own father?

  Despite that first, initial mishap, it turned out that Lord Garmadon, while being the embodiment of evil, furiously loved his son. He was awkward and unsure to begin with, having missed out on the past eleven years of practise, but the effort to spend time with Lloyd was there, even though he didn't really get to spend time with him at all.