It was after breakfast, and the Destiny's Bounty had just landed on the edge of Ninjago City Bay. Nya was going to the hospital for that crack in her ankle, and Kai and Zane were going with her. Jay was going to be picked up by his parents any minute. Lloyd's parents were talking about leaving for home too even though they had already had a brisk morning roof-top leaping instead of a jog to clear cobwebs that had accumulated for far too long.
"Ready to go?" asked Koko.
"Just a minute," said Lloyd. "I want to talk to Master Wu first."
Lloyd's skin was still a little more lemony than canary-yellow, but his hair was nearly normal and the reflecting dots in his eyes were pure white again. His muscles all worked again too, even if he did feel a touch stiff in the joints.
He thought Master Wu was just behind him in the main area of the ship, but as he looked around, he seemed to have disappeared.
"Hmm..."
"Now where'd that old, wise, ninja man, sensei man of a brother of mine disappear too?" sniffed Garmadon crossing one pair of arms and shrugging with the other pair.
"I'll go look for him," said Lloyd.
"Maybe he's lecturing the prisoner," Garmadon teased.
First Lloyd went through the dojo training area to get to Master Wu's tea room, but he was not in there. He was not in his spa room or even in his private bathroom.
"Master Wu?"
Maybe he was out on deck.
Quickly, he turned and made for the outside of the ship, but though he did see a person, it was not Master Wu. It was Cole. He was leaning deep in thought over the rail out into the ocean. Sea gulls cried; their echoes circled round the cliffs. The surf was peaceful with the sound of a gentle wind. The sky was just about as blue as it could get too, but there was no sign that Master Wu had even been there.
"Hmm," murmured Lloyd.
Maybe he was with Kinkomi. After all, someone had to drop him off at prison.
He decided to go back inside. Cole did not look like he wanted to be disturbed, but just as he was about to turn, Cole turned faster.
"Hey, Lloyd," he said just loud enough to be heard over the surf.
Lloyd paused.
"Hey."
"You going home?"
"Y...eah," said Lloyd. "You haven't seen Master Wu, have you?"
Cole shook his head.
"Oh."
There was a long silence between them except for Lloyd slowly walking up to the rail. As soon as he was close, Cole turned back over the rail to look out at the ocean.
"You... okay, Cole?"
"Hmm?" asked Cole as though he had not noticed until now that Lloyd had reached his side. "Oh. Yeah, I guess."
Lloyd stared down at the sparkling of the water just out of the shadow of the ship. "Look, I... I'm sorry about..."
Cole shook his head again. "Lloyd. You don't have to apologize for everyone else's mistakes all the time, you know."
Lloyd sighed.
You mean like with my dad? A voice asked Lloyd in his head, but he shook it away himself. He got it from his mom. He shrugged.
"It was my duty," said Cole still rather solid as he leaned over the rail leisurely.
Or was it only for solidity? Lloyd knew that he had been reading Cole wrong for a long time. Even now even if Cole did not exactly look sad, he did look very thoughtful.
"I'm the one who was not giving you the support you needed in a way that the others would follow," said Cole. "Master Wu was right. I may not be the leader, but because I knew I wasn't the leader anymore, I didn't think I had a duty at all. Well, deep down, I knew."
Lloyd gave a gentle nod. "But you shouldn't beat yourself up about it either."
"Yeah... I know."
"We all have duties that we forgot about, I think," said Lloyd.
"Probably."
"But we just gotta pick ourselves up and... keep going again," Lloyd said faltering more than he had originally intended. "It's what... keeps us going."
Well, it was awkward talking like this with Cole. He had always thought of him as his older brother, after all. Cole turned to Lloyd with a raised brow, but his smirk was friendly enough. He let out a little laugh.
"One thing's for sure," said Cole looking once more out at the ocean. "We all know how long a ways you've come from your beginnings."
Lloyd shifted with embarrassment at first, but he quickly smiled too.
"Thanks," he said.
"But you still gotta long way to go before you can mentor talk," said Cole, and he laughed a little again.
"Mentor talk!?" exclaimed Lloyd. "How'd you know that Master Wu was beginning to teach me mentor talk?"
"Well, I didn't," Cole admitted after a short pause to consider this, "but you were definitely trying to sound like Master Wu just now."
Lloyd sighed.
"I told you, you would suck," said a voice suddenly behind them.
The two boys jumped and turned not surprised to see Master Wu there and yet at the same time a little startled.
"How long were you there?" Lloyd gasped.
"Long enough," Wu said smiling through his beard. "I'm glad you have all learned from your experience."
"Do you think it was destiny?"asked Lloyd.
"Hmm, maybe. After all, with the help of Garmadon, now the banana charm of the Monkey King is destroyed, and no one can command a crazy monkey army of that size ever again, but either way, you still had to respond correctly too it, and I think from what I see, I can retire from being full leader of this Ninja Force with full confidence in you all to continue to grow stronger."
"What?" asked Cole.
"You're retiring?!" Lloyd cried. "No. No, Master Wu. You can't retire! Not yet."
"Relax..." said Master Wu closing his eyes. "I'm not retiring yet. You still have a ways to go until then, but when I do, and I truly get too old for this sort of thing, you will be ready to take over with Cole's help and everyone else to support you. A leader is worthless without the support of those under him, after all."
Cole smiled, now truly leaning leisurely on the rail as he turned around fully onto the deck of the Destiny's Bounty.
"Here's a question I have, though..."
"What is it, Cole?" asked Master Wu.
"If both you and Garmadon were taught all the herbal and medicinal secrets of the world and all that from your mother, couldn't, between what you know and what Garmadon knows, you make a cure for Garmadon's condition?"
The oddness of this next pause was more than before. Lloyd' eyes popped, and he turned sharply to Master Wu. Master Wu closed his eyes mysteriously and wrapped his arms behind his back.
"Well?" asked Lloyd.
"It is possible, but before recently, Garmadon did not want to be cured, and I have not had time to bring up such a thing since."
Lloyd and Cole exchanged glances as they tried to figure out if Master Wu meant it or he was just hiding the fact that he had not thought of it until Cole brought it up. Or had it been meant for a test for either his students or his brother? Maybe a mixture of all? Their glances seemed to agree.
"Then I'll go tell him now!" said Lloyd suddenly and hurried off to do just that.
"Thanks, Master Wu," said Cole after a few moments.
Master Wu turned to Cole curiously.
"Y'know, for everything," Cole added.
"I'm going to tell you a secret, Cole," said Master Wu. "I may not have taught you originally because I wanted to so much as I wanted to find the Green Ninja, or, if you weren't the Green Ninja, only to keep you from doing harm later in life to mankind, or whatever, but mostly because I wanted to make sure whether or not any of you were the Green Ninja..."
"Yeah?"
"It was all worth it, and you all soon came to mean as much to me as my own family, even if it did not always seem like it," said Master Wu calmly. "So... thank you, Cole, for everything."
Cole nodded and smiled. Then he blinked. "Speaking of family..."
He had almost forgotten to tell his father what had happened to him, but he did not finish saying that. Master Wu knew anyway, and he nodded for him to continue making the phone call.
"Hey, Dad..."
OWARI