Chapter Text
As Garmadon stood tall, across from his son, he felt something he had not felt for a very long time, since before his resurrection, Dread.
Garmadon stood still for a moment with eyes wide as he looked upon his son, stumbling slightly as something dripped down his face.
A Shakey claw moved up to intercept it and he realized it was tears.
Tears?
Suddenly the battle felt so incredibly silent.
Everything had felt so distant to him till this exact moment.
Thoughts not completely his own, mind not whole, but now a startling moment of clarity.
“Lloyd?” He then hears himself ask, and suddenly his body feels much different from before in a way he can't yet decipher, but no less familiar. However the feeling was ignored, the man's attention fully on his son.
His beautiful son, who he couldn't even remember why he was fighting.
Blond hair perfectly catching the light of the moon above them, suit damaged but no less befitting of the ninja he was.
When had his son gotten so big? He suddenly wondered. Gotten so strong and good. It felt like only yesterday he had been born, kicking and screaming but no less perfect. The day his son was born was by far the greatest day of his life.
It was by the cruelty of destiny he hadn't gotten to spend more of Lloyd's life with him…
Sometimes he felt like it was a cruel joke from his father himself, to give him such a wonderful child only to then pull him away. But that never made him love the boy any less.
He finally looks his son in the eyes, and oh his son's eyes… changing from an amethyst purple back to their green emerald hue, so different from the red eyes they once shared… though Garmadon had always seen Lloyds as closer to Ruby's than his own blood red eyes…
But their color wasn't the only thing that changed. For slowly he watched as the eyes slowly lost their anger and rage, instead gaining a horrified light.
Why was his son looking at him like that?
That's when he heard the faint drip drop and slowly, he looked down to see the new wound on his form and- oh
Oh
Suddenly the pain hits him all at once, he stumbled again at the next few drips, AGONY radiating from the large gapping wound in his side, both arms going to hold it and-
Wait, only two?
Suddenly thinking becomes much harder for him once again.
Holding the wound hardly helps- his arms- his human arms and hands simply becoming sticky with bright red blood.
Suddenly, there were more arms attempting to hold him as he fell to his knees.
Green eyes filled with tears stare into his own and he can't help but smile because those are his son's eyes and he had always loved his son's eyes, no matter their color.
He can hardly hear his words, be they his own or Lloyd's but that matters not because the only good that had ever come from him held him in his arms, like he had done so many years ago now.
“My son, why are you crying…?” He asks, raising a bloodied palm to his face, gently caressing his face and tucking a stray lock of his hair behind his ear, leaving a trail of blood upon his young face.
“Dad-” his son whispers before all he could out after were sobs, and only then it hits him.
He didn't have much time left.
And suddenly he feels so much guilt for becoming whole again only as he left his son alone again.
The pain he had brought his son would forever be his greatest crime.
Slowly his son then pressed their foreheads together as his vision began to blur, the pain beginning to fade, but with it, everything else as well. “I'm so sorry-” his son whispers, full body sobbing as he does so.
But Garmadon can not let his son blame himself. So after letting their heads rest together for a moment longer, Garmadon then, with the last of his strength, gently shakes his head and covers his son's mouth. “I will never blame you my son…I'm just happy I got to see you…one last time, whole...” he whispers.
Soon after his eyelids began to feel heavy, and he was sure he felt his own father call out to him. Voice apologetic and kind, sad and pained as well, but it had felt so long since he had heard such a tone be directed at him. He feels gentle arms pull him up, soothing him like when he was small, as his eyes close, the image of his son blurring with his father as his arm falls from his son's lips, and then he is gone.
-
Lloyd didn't know what happened.
One moment he was fighting his father, or what was left of him, and then the next his anger took over And his father suddenly had a horrible deep looking wound.
It took him a few moments though to realize he had been the one to deal the wound, a faint purple glow originating around his hands which then quickly was dispelled as realization coursed through him.
Soon though his eyes were pulled back to his father, hearing a small grunt of pain, and with the sight of his father his rage all but dissipated.
Watching his father- his dad shrink down and his body change, and suddenly- too quickly it wasn't the Oni shell in front of him, but his dad, his loving human father.
The older man's eyes were wide, in shock, Lloyd was almost surprised he could still stand.
Tears fell down his face, and suddenly Lloyd couldn't breathe as he saw those eyes on him, looking confused but so loving as they stared at him.
Did he even realize what was happening?
What Lloyd had done to him?
Oh god- what had Lloyd DONE-?!
Terror suddenly consumed him as he all but froze in place, his dad's brows furrowed at what Lloyd was guessing at his own expression before slowly looking down and all Lloyd wanted to do was shout not to look at what Lloyd had done, or perhaps he had said it, he couldn't tell over the ringing in his ears. But not looking wouldn't change what had happened anyways.
If the other ninja tried to say anything to him, he didn't notice, for only moments after attempting to hold his wound with his arms, blood dripping down from the wound and onto the floor. Garmadon then began to stumble and Lloyd went off like a rocket over to him to catch him-
The pain was all too clear now on his dad's face now, as if it had only now finally registered. But even so, he still looked at his son with so much love it nearly broke Lloyd's heart in two, smiling at him like he hadn't been the one to do this to him.
Tears streamed down Lloyd's face, because this wasn't supposed to happen-
Slowly, Lloyd then watches as Garmadon lifts a hand to his face, “My son, why are you crying…?” his dad asks, gently caressing his face now and tucking a stray lock of his hair behind his ear that had gotten loose during the battle.
Lloyd could feel the trail of blood on his face from the bloody palm, and it took everything in him to resist nuzzling his face into that human hand, as bloody as it was because it was his dad’s hand and he had missed his dad so much, and now- now he was dying.
The scent of iron overpowered absolutely everything else as he cried, “Dad-” he then whispers, he had so much he wanted to say, yet too little time.
They had no supplies with them, and his wound was too big for him to last long without treatment. Lloyd then sobs more when he notices blood beginning to bubble up from his father's smile, smearing against his lips and teeth.
And suddenly, guilt and regret crossed his father's face, and despite how much he wished he wouldn't, he knew his dad would blame himself.
Slowly Lloyd then pressed his forehead against Garmadon’s as his dads eyes began to unfocus, he wasn't ready to lose his dad so soon- not again. He sobs again, “I'm so sorry-” he then whispers, full body sobbing as he speaks to him.
But after a moment of silence, Garmadon shakes his head and covers Lloyd's mouth with his hand, and suddenly now Lloyd doesn't just smell his father's blood but tastes it.
“I will never blame you my son…I'm just happy I got to see you…one last time, whole...” Garmadon then whispers before his eyelids then begins to flutter closed and Lloyd panics.
“No- no no NO-! Dad please- please you need to stay with me-! DON'T LEAVE ME-!” Lloyd cries out from behind his hand, but Garmadon can't hear him now, as his arm falls, and all too suddenly his dad is gone and Lloyd
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