(A/N) Hello again! Before you continue reading: there are some parts of this fic that won't make sense unless you've read my fic Nightprowlers Part 1: Neverender. I strongly recommend you read that first.

...Did you read it? Good! I am releasing this little tragic love story between Lloyd and Heather to fill the gap between my story and season 5. It's a series of memories across the space of about 13 years. This is my first love story and first tragedy, so go easy on me! WARNING: this fic contains a scene revealing Lloyd's problems in two very descriptive paragraphs. You'll know when you see it. I consider it accurate since I have had depression before. Now read!

Shattered by Destiny

Lloyd picked up the old photograph on the small table in his new office at Chen's old palace. It was one of the few possessions he had chosen to take with him when they fled the monastery two months ago. In the picture, seated on the ledge of a stone-walled, wooden-roofed well were two figures: his younger self in his father's robes, smiling with his arm around the shoulders of a black haired, hazel eyed, fair skinned beauty in a pink dress kissing him on the cheek. He smiled sadly as memories began to flood back to him. Although it was really twenty years ago, it felt just like yesterday when he first woke up in that cottage...

He remembered that day well. The room was warm and smelled of herbs and teas. He could hear birds outside as he awoke.

"Ugh..." Lloyd groaned, his eyes still shut. His legs were killing him for some reason.

"You're finally awake?" a feminine voice asked.

"Ugh...where...where am I? What happened?" the green ninja asked groggily.

"You were attacked by a pack of shadow wolves," the voice responded. "I saved you and brought you here. You shouldn't have tried to fight them on your own." Then Lloyd remembered.

Sensei had taken him into the woods for another one of their training trips to prepare Lloyd for becoming a Sensei one day. They had been meditating on a large rock when suddenly a pack of overly-large, black wolves came out of nowhere and attacked them. They had almost beaten the animals off when a wolf bit Wu on the arm. When Lloyd had stopped fighting to check the wound, another wolf grabbed the sensei-in-training by the leg and dragged him off. Although Lloyd had used his energy blasts, the wolves seemed not to be affected in the least by his power. Soon other wolves joined in, and he was bitten over and over again, especially on the legs. A wolf approached him, growling and licking its razor-sharp teeth. Just when it looked ready to bite his neck to kill its next meal, a dark shape with a spear fought it and all the other beasts away from their prey. He had passed out just as the figure bent over him.

Lloyd opened his eyes all the way. He was lying on a bed in a small room cluttered with what looked like various healing supplies and medicines. There was a figure in a dark pink, hooded cloak bending over him, his or her face obscured by the hood."Where have you brought me?" Lloyd asked nervously.

"To my home. My mother and I are Masters of Aloe. We practice the art of making magical teas and medicines for healing and other purposes. We live alone in the middle of the forest. You are the first outsider I have ever seen in my life. Now hold still. I have to dress this wound."

Lloyd jumped as he felt a sharp stinging on his leg. "Aah! It hurts!"

"I said hold still, silly!"

"Sorry. How long have I been here?"

"Two days. And you'll be staying here until you get better."

"How long will that take?"

"Months. You were near death when I fought those wolves back. Those wounds are almost fatal. Your legs are so damaged, you'll have to use a walking stick from now on. And it will have to be one of our spirit staffs. Without one, your legs would be as useless as if you were paralyzed from the waist down. And don't think it's temporary. It's not."

"Spirit staff? What's that?"

"Spirit staffs are special walking sticks that harness the power within you to give you strength you would otherwise not have." It was then that the figure took off the hood to reveal the most beautiful girl Lloyd had ever seen. Her hair was as black as a midnight sky, put up in a bun loosely held up only by two chopsticks. Her face was pale, and she had bright, almond-shaped hazel eyes. He wouldn't have been surprised if she were an angel.

"I must be dreaming."

"No, you're not dreaming," the girl said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. She walked to the other side of the room and picked up a black bamboo stick. "I need a strand of your hair."

"What? OUCH! That hurt!" Lloyd clutched his scalp where the girl had yanked a blonde strand right off of his head.

"I'll just take this, put it in the spirit staff's power chamber, and...there!"

"What the...why are there glowing green symbols on it?!" Indeed, as soon as she had placed the hair inside a small diamond-shaped hole in the side of the staff, symbols had appeared spiraling down the stalk.

"It means it's working. In five months time you'll be able to use it and be on your way home."

"No! I have to get back to the Ninja now! We we're in the middle of a war with the Black Dragons! They're just a small group now, but if we let them grow in number-"

"Stop wiggling like that!"

"Oof!" Lloyd had attempted to get up, but his legs wouldn't work, and he ended up falling headfirst onto the wooden floor.

"See? You try to get out of bed, and you fall down. You're just making things worse! And what's a ninja? You seem to be making as little sense to me as I am to you."

Lloyd pulled himself back up onto the bed. It wasn't easy, seeing as his legs refused to do their job. He must look pathetic to this girl. "You don't know what a Ninja is?" he asked, looking back at her.

"I've never been outside the forest. My mother says it's too dangerous in the outside world."

Lloyd paused for a moment, thinking. He certainly knew how cruel the world - and destiny - could be. But she should still be able to know about what's outside the forest, shouldn't she? Maybe he could teach her. "If I'm really gonna be here as long as you say I am," he sighed, "I might as well explain what a ninja is."

"By the way, what's your name?"

"Lloyd."

"I'm Heather."

Heather. Lloyd liked that.

It was a clear night outside, and Lloyd and Heather were out enjoying a walk in the garden, Lloyd using his new spirit staff. It was quite a beautiful garden. There were multiple different healing plants growing, as well as an assortment of decorative flowers and shrubbery. There was a small fish pond, and a large cherry blossom tree in full bloom. "Heather, look! There are so many stars out!" Lloyd pointed at the heavens, but the girl remained silent. "Heather? Is something wrong?"

Heather paused before answering. "Lloyd, you've been here for nine months. Your wounds healed five months ago."

"And?"

"...You've spent five extra months here instead of going back to the ninja."

Lloyd didn't say anything. Heather tried again.

"You have the walking stick now. You could go home; you have the strength with it. What's keeping you here?"

Lloyd felt a pang of hurt in his chest. "Heather, are you saying you don't want me here?"

"O-of course not!" she stuttered. "I-I was just wondering why you're not going back now that you are well enough to leave."

Again, Lloyd didn't respond. He didn't quite know how to word it...

"Lloyd?" Heather asked.

"...Heather... there are many reasons why I have not left. One is that I have never felt what it's like to not have a target painted on my back. Another is that I'm not just known as the Green Ninja; here, I'm a name, not a title. And here, destiny can't find me and hurt me again. But I think the biggest reason I haven't left is... you."

The pair stopped underneath the cherry blossom. Heather felt stunned at his words. "Me?" She whispered.

"Heather, I don't know exactly how to say it, but, I can't leave this place. Now that I've met you, I'm not the same anymore." Lloyd took her hands and interlaced his fingers with hers. The space between the two grew noticeably smaller.

The two were silent for a moment. Heather stared into Lloyd's green eyes, seeing nothing but sincerity. A strange feeling began to well up inside of her. "It's funny, because, I kind of feel the same way."

"Really?" Lloyd asked. Their faces were so close now that he cold feel Heather's breath. It smelled like fresh raspberries.

"Yeah." And with that, the two shared a passionate first kiss while pink petals from the cherry blossom fell around them.

"Lloyd! Are you serious?!" Lloyd watched Heather's shocked reaction to the ring he was holding out to her. He had fashioned it himself using a rare stone he'd found in the forest creek and Heather's mother's jewelry kit. They had been sitting quietly on the ledge of the well when Lloyd decided to pop the question.

"Heather, It's been two years since we first met and I have never been able to leave. I just can't go back to my old life."

"But you're the Green Ninja! They'll surely miss you!"

"I don't care anymore. You're the only person who really matters to me. I know for sure that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Now I'll ask you again: Heather, please marry me! I promise I will make you happy!"

"Lloyd..."

"Yes?"

"Yes."

It was one year after his and Heather's wedding that Lloyd was sitting on the bench in the garden when his wife rushed up to him. "Lloyd! I have big news!"

"Hold on, Heather. Slow down! What is it?"

"Lloyd, I had a dream last night, and my mother translated it in a dream tea ritual, and something wonderful has happened!"

"What? What is it?"

"Lloyd, its finally happened. I'm finally pregnant!"

Lloyd, Heather, and Heather's mother were gathered in the bedroom. After a long period of being in labor, a small bundle was being cradled in the arms of the exhausted mother. "Lloyd, look at her. She's beautiful! And she has your eyes! See?" Heather turned the cooing baby so that her husband could see her.

"I can't believe it. I'm a father!" Lloyd gasped.

"What should we name her?"

"Your family always named their children after plants, right?" Lloyd asked Heather's mother.

"That is correct," the old tea maker answered.

"Maybe we should go with that."

"Hmm...when I look at her, I think of a flower," Heather told him.

"What kind of flower?"

"I'm thinking something purple...maybe a violet."

"Violet?"

"Yes...yes, that seems to fit her."

Lloyd opened the door to see the last person he'd expected to come knocking. "Kai?!"

"Lloyd!" Kai exclaimed with glee. "We've been looking everywhere for you! Lloyd, don't shut the door on me! What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Lloyd answered coldly. "Except maybe the fact that you seem to have invited yourself in before waiting to see if I would."

"Lloyd, everyone had thought you were dead! We looked and looked, but we could never find you. But...wow. You're really alive."

"What do you want, Kai?"

"I want you to come back home."

"No."

"What?!"

"Kai, it's been four years since I last fought. I'll hardly have it in me."

"Lloyd, you're the Green Ninja! Why would you have to worry about losing a single step? And since when have you been one to back away from duty?"

"Since I realized that I do have the ability to make choices, Kai!" Lloyd argued, banging his walking stick on the ground. "All my life I've been at the mercy of destiny at its most cruel! I've lost so much to fate. Why? Because I allowed it to take things from me. I thought there was no other choice. I thought there was no other way. I thought there was no other life. But my time in the forest has taught me otherwise. I realized I do have a choice. So I chose to stay here. To live life as a normal person. And you know what? I've enjoyed it. And I plan to stay."

"Lloyd, are you listening to yourself?! Come back to us! Ninjago needs you!"

"Not as much as my family does."

"We are your family!"

"No, Kai. I have a family of my own now. In the time that I've been missing, I've gotten a wife and had a child. She's only two years old. I can't leave them. I'm sorry, Kai. The answer is no."

"Lloyd!"

"Goodbye, now, Kai."

"Lloyd! Don't you shut this door on me! Lloyd! LLOYD!"

One night four years later, Lloyd opened the door to an even more unwelcome sight. The Black Dragons. They'd found them. And leading them was none other than Vladomir Chovin himself. "Lloyd Garmadon. Not dead after all, hm? You look like an old man with that bamboo walking stick," he sneered. "It took us so long to find you, I was beginning to think you really were dead. You just fell right off the map. I wish my agents were as good at staying hidden as you are."

"Vladomir, I have caused you and your organization no trouble for a long time. Leave." Lloyd asked calmly.

"I don't think so," Vladomir refused. "We've been wanting to get revenge for that time you and your ninja friends got twelve of our top agents arrested."

"Vladomir, I'm trying to end this peacefully."

" 'Peacefully' is not the way we Black Dragons deal with anyone. Gildman, set the place on fire!"

"Yes sir!"

"NO! HEATHER! VIOLET!" As the house was set ablaze, Lloyd ran inside. All he could think about was getting his family out safely. He rushed up the stairs, woke his wife and child in their room, and was about to enter his mother-in-law's room to save her too when the roof above the door began to collapse.

"Mother!" Heather cried, but there was nothing they could do. The cottage was quickly burning up. Apparently, the Black Dragons had lit the house in several places to make it burn faster. The three had no choice but to leave while they still could. The three rushed outside to find the criminals gone, their work having been done. The house was consumed by fire. Smoke rose into the night sky. Heather fell to the ground, weeping for her mother.

If only I had been quicker, I could have saved us all, Lloyd thought guiltily.

Lloyd, Heather, and Violet had been traveling through the woods all night. By the time they reached their destination, dawn was breaking, and they were exhausted. But they had made it. They stood before Lloyd's father's old monastery.

"But, Lloyd, I-" Heather began to protest.

"Heather, what choice do we have? They just burned down the house."

"Lloyd, I trust you, but I don't know if I'm ready to live in society."

"Heather, the Ninja will understand. Besides, I can't hide from fate forever. It always catches up to me, no matter what I do to try to hide from it. The fire taught me that."

"Is this the place?"

"Yes, we're here. I'll knock." After rapping the door a few times, they heard a jovial voice inside.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" the voice promised. When the doors opened, it was exactly who Lloyd had predicted. That cheery tone could only have been Jay. The blue ninja's face lit up with excitement at the sight of his long-lost friend. "Lloyd! You're back!" he exclaimed.

"Hey, Jay," Lloyd greeted with a smile that he didn't quite feel to the core. Jay didn't seem to notice.

"This is great! Wait til you see- is that kid yours?"

"This is Violet," Lloyd introduced."She's six years old."

"Well I've got big news for you, too! I'm a married man!"

"What?!"

"Man, we've got a lot of catching up to do!" the lightning wielder told him happily. "Come inside! You're in luck! Zane's cooking an early breakfast!"

Two years later, the monastery was under attack. Amidst the chaos, Lloyd managed to grab his wife's arm as she was rushing outside. "Heather, no! It's too dangerous!"

"Lloyd, you taught me to fight just as well as you can. I can get back those kids!"

"Heather, no! I'll get them! Heather!" Lloyd ran after her. She began to fight the kidnappers, but she suddenly fell to the ground. Lloyd ran faster. But he was too late. The kidnappers loaded her into the airship with the four kids. "HEATHER! NO! LET HER GO!"

"Lloyd!" Someone grabbed his arm. It was Cole. "Stop! Come back! We can't do anything! They're gone!"

Lloyd struggled against the iron grip. "No, Cole! I have to get her back! I can't lose her too!"

"Lloyd! Listen to me!"

But Lloyd didn't listen. He couldn't hold it in anymore. He had just suffered another loss. And this time, all his feelings, all his suffering, all his pain finally exploded out of him."NO!" he shouted, wrenching his arm from Cole's grasp. "YOU listen to ME! All my life destiny has done NOTHING but TAKE from me! First, my normal life before I was suddenly thrown into the life of a ninja! Second, it took my childhood when I had to use Tomorrow's Tea! Then, it took my golden power! And my FATHER after that! And now it's taken the one I LOVED! I must be CURSED! What's the point of LIVING when EVERYTHING you hold dear is TAKEN from you?!"

"Lloyd! Listen to yourself! You sound like you don't want to go on!"

"MAYBE I DON'T! You don't know what it FEELS like when destiny CRUSHES you until you can't BREATHE and you SUFFOCATE in its horrible clutches! You don't know what it FEELS like when you are put to the test so many TIMES and you want to just CRY but you CAN'T because people look up to you! You don't know what it FEELS like to be haunted by NIGHTMARES every night about all the HORRIBLE things that have happened to you! You don't know what it FEELS like when you just want to QUIT so everything can just be GONE and you don't have to DEAL with this cruel world anymore and you don't have to DEAL with your tormented soul SCREAMING for MERCY, wishing someone would just END the agonizing pain!" Lloyd turned his eyes to the heavens and shook his fist at the stars. "DO YOU HEAR ME, DESTINY?! YOU DID THIS TO ME! YOU SHATTERED ME INTO A MILLION PIECES!"

"LLOYD! Listen to me!" Cole grabbed Lloyd by both shoulders and shook him, trying to snap him out of his rage. "You still have someone to live for! You have an eight-year-old daughter to take care of! You're all she has left now! You can't leave her all alone!"

Lloyd's head drooped. He fell to his knees as the tears began to roll down his cheeks.

"Lloyd, are you crying?"

"I'm sorry. I've just had such a rotten life. I thought I could run away from destiny by hiding in the woods. But it just keeps catching up to me. I just... can't... hold in the pain... any longer..."

Cole bent down and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Lloyd, it's okay to cry every once in a while. But we just need to keep going when the tears stop. A ninja never quits, no matter what may happen. You've had a lot of pain in your life, but that doesn't mean you should give up now. I remember when you used to give us talks about moving on and never giving up. You need to listen to your own advice. Now stand up, dry those eyes, and let's move on."

"You're right, Cole. I need to keep going. I need to be there for Violet."

"And don't worry. We'll all help you. You deserve a break. Rest for the next few days."

"Thanks."

"Now let's go home."

Drew poked his head into Lex's room. Only two months had passed since they arrived at the island and already Lex had covered the walls with math and a rainbow of sticky notes. The pint-sized mathematician himself was reading a textbook in the corner. Drew sighed sadly. He still remembered the day he was put in charge of this poor kid.

He remembered it all too well. The prison cell was cold. Its white cement walls were maddeningly bare. In the corner on the bed was a dying Heather weakly cradling her newborn baby boy in her arms.

"Drew, come close," she whispered.

Drew obeyed. "What is it, Mrs. Garmadon?"

"Drew, I am very close to death. I know you're young, but I need you to do something for me."

"W-what is it?"

"Take care of Lex."

"What?!" Drew cried. "But I don't know anything about babies!"

"I know that, and I'm sorry, but if you don't take him, then the Black Dragons will kill him. Teach my baby the way of the ninja. Don't let the Black Dragons raise him to be evil."

"I promise I won't let them."

"And...make sure...he sees his father...one day," the woman breathed before her eyes slowly closed. Drew began to panic.

"Mrs. Garmadon!"

No answer came. She didn't even stir.

"No! You can't die now! You can't leave me all alone!"

No response came. She was gone.

Drew buried his face in his hands. "No..."

(A/N) And there you have it! My first love story/tragedy! Personally, I think it's more successfully a tragedy than it is a love story. But what do you think? Please comment and tell me how it was! Thank you!

P.S. I got my very first piece of constructive criticism in a review of Nightprowlers Part 1: Neverender (rewrite)! Thank you, nanytefa1! It means so much to me you have no idea!

One more thing: I am still accepting OCs for Nightprowlers Part 2: 21st Century Ninja. If you want one of your OCs in the story, give me a name, basic description of appearance, a Meyers-Briggs personality type (if not applicable, just give me a personality with strengths and weaknesses), their element, weapon, and color if they have them, their age, and a past event or two. I really like to know my characters before I start. It won't be a huge part, but the character will be in a scene or two!

Review! INFJwriter signing off!