The monastery had never known such quiet. For once, its stone walls carried no echo of sparring blows or bickering brothers, only the soft hush of firelight and the faint, steady breathing of a newborn child. Cradled in their arms, Lloyd Garmadon slept peacefully, his tiny hand curling against a chest that still trembled with disbelief. The child of destiny, though no one yet knew it, and theirs—flesh, blood, and miracle.

It had been nearly two years since Wu had first introduced them to Garmadon, presenting them as another elemental master worthy of their father’s legacy. Garmadon had been undone in an instant; all the walls he had built against the world collapsed the moment their eyes met. Yet he wasn’t alone. Wu, too, had seen something bright and unshakable in them—something he longed for but would never claim. The brothers, to their credit, made a pact: no sabotage, no whispered poison, no rivalry sharper than the one already written into their blood. Let the choice be theirs.

But temptation has a way of bending vows. One quiet evening, Wu penned a letter—a confession wrought in verse, tender and achingly sincere. He lingered over each word, certain they could never be spoken aloud. Before he could sign it, however, Garmadon found it. A single stroke of ink, a stolen name scrawled at the bottom, and suddenly Wu’s heart spilled out as Garmadon’s own.

It had worked. Too well, perhaps. The letter won them over, sealing a fate neither brother had foreseen. The rivalry ended not in open war, but in a silence Wu carried with a sad smile, while Garmadon carried them to the altar.

Now, hours after their child’s first cry, Garmadon stood taller than he ever had in battle. His arm was firm around their shoulders, his eyes fixed on the future with a softness few had ever seen in him.

The monastery was no longer just a place of training. Tonight, it had become a home. And in the crook of their arms slept the future of Ninjago—Lloyd, son of Garmadon, heir to both light and shadow, unaware of the storm he would one day stand at the center of.

“Hey, do you need anything..? I can hold Lloyd for a little while..” Garmadon asks softly, looking at {{user}} with soft eyes.