IGNORANGE IS BLISS

Part2:

By the time they made it to Jamanakai Village there were skeleton army people everywhere. Lord Garmadon was already constructing a fortress. There was also something hidden beneath a gigantic veil/cloth.

"Well, if it isn't the ninja!" he spotted them.

"You bet its us!" Jay retorted. "Who else is so skilled in the art of speed, stealth, and-"

"Technically-" Zane interrupted him,"We have not mastered everything, we still need to improve on-"

"Zane!" he barked.

"For instance, if we had been "masters" of the art of stealth, we wouldn't have been spotted!"

"Zane's right..." Cole added. "Plus, if we were that stealthy we wouldn't even be having this conversation with him-"

"SILENCE!" Garmadon exploded.

(Not literally.)

"Dad!" Lloyd shouted.

Father and son's eye met.

"SON!" Lord Garmadon smiled. He ran down from his fortress. He tried to run over and pick Lloyd up to hug him, but all four of the others intervened.

"STEP AWAY FROM THE GREEN NINJA!" Cole commanded. "I have a...I have a..."

He was going to say something scary that he wasn't afraid to use, but then he sneezed.

"A...booger." Jay finished.

"WHY MUST YOU PETTY NINJA ALWAYS INTERFERE WITH MY PLANS!" Garmadon changed the subject.

"Because your plans are evil!" Jay responded.

"Can I go see my dad? PLEASE?" Lloyd begged.

"NO WAY!" Kai answered. "Do you want to start the...ending...battle thing?"

"Once it's over will I get to be with him?" Lloyd asked. "I mean the ending...battle thing..."

"YOUR SUPPOSED TO KILL EACHOTH-"

He stared at Lloyd's baby face and puppy-dog eyes.

"I mean...I...don't know..."

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" Garmadon shouted sadly, "Skeleton Army, CHARGE!"

It was interesting, the chaos that followed. Somehow, Garmadon and his army triumphed against the five ninja. Perhaps it was that they were out numbered, or that there was technically only four, but somehow, the ninja ended up captured. Normally, this would not happen, I would think...but that's just how it happened.

Garmadon was quite happy with his victory. He had the ninja right were he wanted them. Lloyd was separated from the rest, and brought before the Dark Lord.

They stood before each other for only a moment.

The ninja waited, hoping they had prepared Lloyd for what was to follow.

But what followed was not the "ending...battle...thing." or the Final Battle, the proper name for it. It was far more shocking. It...was...

A HUG!

DUH DUH DUH!

After they had resurrected from dying of shock, the ninja picked up their jaws from the ground and blinked.

"Now that your here with me," Garmadon smiled, "I want to celebrate the anniversary of the best day in my life!"

"Wow...you'd think this would be more about Lloyd..." Jay mumbled.

"MY SON'S BIRTHDAY!" Garmadon proclaimed. He picked Lloyd up and let him ride piggy-back.

"Pull this lever and it will reveal your birthday surprise!"

Lloyd pulled hard. Underneath the covers was a brand new tree house. Lloyd was the happiest boy in the world. He hugged his dad again told him he loved him.

Garmadon replied the same.

"Can I play in it?" Lloyd asked, excitedly.

"What else is a tree house for?" Garmadon asked, grinning.

Lloyd let out a happy, "BUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" and ran towards the entrance.

"Wait!" he stopped, starring at his father, "What about my friends? Will you let them go, too?"

"Why let let them go? Then we won't have to be separated and you won't have to train and learn to fight me!" Garmadon told him.

"Well...it's not that I like training, but...they're my friends...I want them to celebrate and be with me..."

"You can always walk over to their cage..." Garmadon suggested.

"THIS HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH!" Sensei Wu emerged.

He was a true master of stealth.

"BROTHER!" Garmadon growled. "You've come to take Lloyd away from me!"

"Of course I have!" Sensei answered. "This is no place for a child!"

"You mean with his father on his birthday?" Garmadon countered.

"No! I mean with all these skeletons! Who would let their child walk around amid a bunch of living dead skeletons? Why do you even work with these people—they don't have any brains!"

He meant that in the literal sense.

"You also must remember," Wu continued, "We are enemies, brother!"

"Do we have to fight all the time—even on my birthday?" Lloyd said in a small voice. He was the master ofthe baby face and the art of the puppy-dog eye.

Wu and Garmadon looked at each other in silence.

"Lloyd, this is war—between good and evil—wrong and right!" Kai explained from his cage.

"Well, I suppose, if you would be kind enough to join our little party, I would let your pathetic ninja go free..." Garmadon bargained.

"Garmadon! We...are not supposed to...we're adversaries, we're...what would father think?!"

"Do you want your ninja or not? I want Lloyd to be happy, and I'll do what ever it takes!"

"This is a trap, isn't it?" Sensei asked.

"This is flexibility." his brother answered, shrugging. "You honestly thinkI would plan inviting you to a party?"

Wu shook his head, agreeing whole-heartedly. Garmadon would never engineer such a situation on purpose.

"What do I have to do?"

"You and your petty ninja must participate in the birthday party in whatever way Lloyd wishes...then they will all be set free..."

"What about Lloyd? He must train with the others...he must fight you, it is inevitable. He is...the chosen one."

An awkward silence followed. Lloyd clung to his father, tightly.

Garmadon looked down at the small boy who wanted so desperately to stay with him.

His eyebrows lowered. Hatred filled his being. This was all Wu's fault.

"HAVE IT YOUR WAY!" he barked, trying not to sound like he was hurt, "BUT FOR THE PRESENT...WE PARTY!"

The skeletons broke out in cheers. Kai, Cole, Zane and Jay were released. It was an awkward party, to say the least, with Lloyd being the only one that enjoyed himself to the fullest. However, it was not completely ruined by such high levels of strange, because everyone pushed past the oddness of it all to some extent, and everyone had a moment that was enjoyable at least once. Perhaps later I will add a chapter on the festivities that occurred during the affair.

The most awkward part was really the ending, in which Lloyd had to say goodbye and Garmadon and his armies were defeated and pushed out of the village. Lloyd of course was very upset, not just because the party had ended so...violently...but also that his present from his father had been demolished.

As they walked home in silence the birthday boy was on the verge of tears. Nya met them half-way to the Dojo, and offered them a ride in...whatever she had been driving at the time.

They were about a few blocks from the Dojo when they came across Zane's demolished garden.

They mutter their apologies and told him it had been Lloyd fault, but he didn't hear. It slowly walked over to the remnant of the little plant, which had been smushed into the ground.

He picked up it's shriveled form and straightened it's brown leaf, which had been green only hours before. It fell off.

Zane blinked. He again scooped out an opening, and stood the plant upright. He didn't need a shovel, the dirt was freshly plowed.

The ninja watched him in silence, half sorry, half bored. Zane was so weird.

As for the rest of his garden, Zane decided to fix it later. It was getting dark. They made their way home, and Lloyd crashed onto his bed, muttering what a terrible day it had been.

The rest of the gang also went to bed, everyone but Zane. He stayed awake, listening to the silence.

"Zane?" Lloyd asked through the dark. Though he said it quietly, it was clear enough to be heard over Cole's snoring.

"Yes?" Zane opened his eyes.

"Why aren't you sleeping like everyone else...is it because Cole's bunk is right above you? You can switch with me...I'm not sleepy at all."

"No." Zane replied. "If Cole was being to loud I would just put him on mute."

"Oh."

"Why are you not fatigued?" Zane inquired. Lloyd had been running around the entire day. The boy hesitated.

"I'm sad." Lloyd answered. His lower lip quivered. "I miss my dad."

"I do not understand," Zane replied, "Today you had an opportunity to associate with Lord Gamadon and-"

"I know! I know!" Lloyd rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't understand."

"Stupid robot..." he thought to himself.

"I am sorry you are grieved." Zane responded.

Lloyd laid still. Zane was sorry he was sad. It meant something to the child.

"Hey Zane," Lloyd said quietly, "I'm sorry about your plant—I mean, if it dies now and doesn't get to grow, you know."

"It might still grow," Zane answered, "It has a 50% chance of survival, it might one day become a tree."

"A tree?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes," Zane answered, "A peach tree. Since this city is so sunny I decided to see if I could cultivate peach trees. Then I can produce home-made peach cobbler, and not have to just use peaches for the store. I will need a lot of trees, though... "

"What's a "cobbler" taste like?"

"Very delightful." Zane replied. "Delicious, deletable, and delightful."

"Well, sorry I wrecked your cobbler idea..." Lloyd apologized again. "I guess we both had kind of a bad day..."

"Actually," Zane answered, "I enjoyed today very much."

"Why? Today was awful! It was a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day! I had a rotten birthday, and your peach tree got ruined!"

"If you can find one thing in a day that was good, it makes it a good day." Zane explained.

"Well...?" Lloyd asked, "What happened that was good today?"

They sat in silence, thinking of what good could have possibly happened.

"I KNOW!" Zane exclaimed loudly. In the bed next to him, Kai startled and shifted position.

"What? What was good today? The party? The candy?" Lloyd wondered.

"Cake?" Cole muttered on the top bunk, tiredly, before falling back to sleep.

"No!" Zane answered. "It was sunny all day! Even now at night, it's perfect!"

Lloyd moaned and went to sleep. Zane smiled, completely content. He was completely happy with the knowledge that today had been a wonderful day.

The rain poured down over the Dojo as Zane drifted happily off to sleep...

THE END!

Notes to the reader:

*This is because The Serpentine had kidnapped Lloyd, and he was still mad at them for that.

1. This story has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, Jay, Nya, or Cole.

2. It sucks to have a birthday around Valentine's Day because nobody cares about your birthday...(Speaking from experience)

3. I know someone with a birthday on Valentine's Day.

4. If at any point you were confused about about either this story or Valentine's Day, then I apologize. This story didn't really have a plot when I wrote it so the time period is messed up.

5. Obviously this isn't really as funny as the last story, but that mostly is because their wasn't any plot.

Thanks for reading and praying for my illness—they still don't know what's wrong with me! :P

God Bless! & Happy Valentine's Day!

-Splendidscadinavianskylineski

ℜεaḓ αη∂ ℝ℮vḯ℮ẘ!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!