"Hey, watch this," Garmadon told his general. "Kokes is super mad at me right now, but I've got something to fix that like, immediately. Watch closely, you'll need this soon."

The serpentine general nodded, flicking his tongue out nervously as he saw the Lady Iron Dragon storming towards them.

"Get back here, Garm!"

Garmadon turned around with a grin, holding a green bundle. "Koko, darling, can you hold Luhloyd for a moment?"

The bundle giggled. Koko melted as she took her child from Garmadon's arms. "Aww, who's a cute baby? Who is the cutest baby in the world?"

Lloyd laughed out loud. Koko smiled at him.

Garmadon elbowed his general and pointed. "See? Lifehack."

"I know you just did this to shut me up but I can't even stay mad at you because I'm holding my baby!"

"Okay," said Garmadon. "Time to head out! General Number One, keep an eye on things while I'm gone. I'll probably be back in, I dunno, two days? Remember the lifehack!"

Koko jerked her head up and grabbed one of Garmadon's arms before he could get too far away. "Oh boy, Garm, you are not getting off that easily. I'm coming with you."

"Ah, no. Luhloyd, tell her no."

"Aaaa," said Lloyd.

Koko rolled her eyes. "You can't hide behind a baby whenever I'm mad at you. We're all going. All three of us. Lloyd deserves to meet his grandparents."

Garmadon winced and made a quick gesture to his general that the serpentine understood as, "Get out of here right now or you're dead." Once the general was gone, Garmadon turned to Koko with a serious expression.

"You know what my parents were like," he said. "Sure, maybe Lloyd deserves to meet his grandparents, but my parents don't deserve to meet him. I mean, I don't see you talking about taking him to meet your parents."

"My parents are dead," said Koko.

"See? Exactly!"

"Your parents aren't dead, Garm."

"You don't know that! I didn't even tell you about my family until my brother showed up for no reason!"

"That's why I'm mad at you, Garm!"

Garmadon sucked in air through his teeth. "Listen, I'm only doing this to cut ties with them for good. And maybe yell at them a little bit. Why do you want to come with me?"

Koko smiled. "What better way to get back at your parents than to show them what you've accomplished without them?" She held up Lloyd to face him. "Lloyd, say, 'I'm the ultimate weapon to unleash on my terrible grandparents, and I have unspeakable powers of cuteness inside me.'"

Lloyd looked up at his father and giggled.

"This baby could kill God," Koko said, in the most serious tone of voice Garmadon had ever heard her use. "With cuteness."

"That lifehack won't work on me, Koko," Garmadon said. "I've made up my mind. You and Luhloyd–"

"Dada," said Lloyd.

"–are definitely coming with me oh my goodness was that your first word? Koko, was that his first word?! Say it again, Luhloyd!"

---

"I'm starting to have second thoughts about bringing Lloyd with us," Koko said, as they picked their way through the jungle. Lloyd was sleeping, wrapped up and carried on her back, and she was constantly checking to make sure no bugs had crawled in with him. "You didn't tell me your parent's house was all the way out here."

"If I had, you probably would've gone looking for them by yourself," Garmadon said, brushing a spiderweb out of his face. "We should reach the mountain soon enough."

Koko adjusted Lloyd's sling for what must have been the hundredth time during the journey. "You said you lived in a temple, right?"

"Yep! The Temple of Fragile Foundations."

"Excuse me?

"The name's pretty literal, too. Whole dang place felt like it was gonna fall apart the entire time I lived there. Not a great place to raise kids, but, my parents didn't really care about that stuff." Garmadon sighed. "'Least Wu turned out fine."

Koko frowned. "You didn't turn out that bad, Garm."

"I'm an evil warlord, master of the dark ninja arts, and the future ruler of all of Ninjago. I'd say I'm pretty bad."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah."

The trees started to thin out as they went uphill, and soon they were climbing on stone. Koko could see the top, shrouded in mist. While she tried to make out the details of the obscured building, the rock shifted beneath her and she slid a few feet towards the edge of a cliff.

"Whoa! Koko, are you–"

"I'm fine, Garmadon," she interrupted, grabbing hold of a rock sticking up to stop her descent. "I can take care of myself, you know–"

The rock broke off in her grip.

Garmadon barely managed to grab her hand in time to stop her from falling over the edge. Koko grabbed Lloyd's wrap with her free hand, thanking the God she didn't believe in that she still felt his weight on her back. Garmadon pulled her up onto relatively stable ground, and they both took deep breaths as Koko tried to calm her racing heart.

"That freaked me out," Garmadon said. "No way we're staying long here. Go in, yell at my parents, get out."

"Sounds like a plan," said Koko. Lloyd shifted in his sling, and she glanced at him briefly to make sure he hadn't woken up.

The temple was huge. Garmadon rapped at the door a few times, and waited for a full minute. Koko took Lloyd out and held him in her arms.

"They're not answering," she said.

"Yeah, I noticed. Maybe they're asleep." Garmadon paused. "Or dead."

"They're not dead, Garm."

"They're super old, they might be." Garmadon lifted up the placemat and picked up a key. "Might as well let ourselves in."

As the door creaked open, Garmadon turned on the light and called out, "Hey! Your second-favorite son's come to visit!"

"Shh," Koko hissed.

"What, do you hear something?"

"No. Lloyd's waking up. I think he's hungry."

On cue, Lloyd squirmed in her arms and opened his eyes, his face scrunched up.

"Ah," said Garmadon, as Lloyd started crying. "Gotcha. Sorry about that. Kitchen's that way, if you want to wait there while I check the other rooms."

Koko sat in the kitchen while she fed Lloyd, looking around. It looked like a fairly ordinary kitchen. Lots of fake fruit, for some reason, mixed with some overripe real fruit. There was a bunch of bananas riddled with brown spots, just past the time they'd be good to eat. Koko felt a prickle of uneasiness and she looked away.

"Maybe they left," she wondered out loud. "Took a vacation. Wu didn't say anything about them… what do you think, Lloyd?"

"Ah gah," said Lloyd. She smiled at him.

She heard the thump-thump of footsteps coming down the stairs and glanced over at the entrance to the kitchen. "Hello?" she said.

"Sorry, just me." Garmadon walked in. He had a strained smile on his face and was wringing all four hands. "So, uh, I've got an update on the whole 'my parents not being dead' situation." He took a deep breath. "They're dead."

Koko gasped. Lloyd giggled.

"Yeah," Garmadon said. "Found their bodies up in the bedroom. Either they died at the same time, or when one of them woke up and realized the other was dead–well." He coughed into his hand and turned back to the door. "That's that, I guess! Visit's over, let's go."

"Garm, wait–" Koko stood up with Lloyd. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine! I'm super fine! Why do I care that my parents are dead? It's not like, y'know, they cared about me!" His voice shook. "Not enough for it to actually matter, anyway."

"Garm–"

"What did I even expect to find here, anyway? What did I think would happen? This is probably, like, the best case scenario. Well, I dunno, it might've not been necessary for me to have to see their actual, factual dead bodies."

"Garmadon–"

"Yeah, probably the ideal scenario would've been to get here and realize that this whole place had just collapsed, and there was no more temple, and their bodies were at the foot of the mountain or some junk, and nobody had to go looking for them." Garmadon growled. "I shouldn't be upset about this. Why am I upset about this?!"

"Did I ever tell you why I killed my father?"

Silence fell over them. Garmadon slowly turned his head to look at her with his mouth hanging open.

Koko frowned. "…I did tell you I killed my father, right?"

"Uh, no?"

"Oh."

"That's kind of a heavy bomb to drop on me, lady!"

"I assumed you knew! It's not something I would want to hide from you, I just…" Koko frowned. "It's not something I like talking about. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Garmadon looked like he was going to throw up, but he attempted a casual shrug. "It's cool, no big deal. Let's just hope it doesn't run in the family."

Koko looked down at Lloyd, who was drifting back to sleep. "That's not even remotely funny."

"Yeah, you're right. So, why did you kill your father?" Garmadon paused. "Unless you don't want to talk about it."

"No, this is… as appropriate a time as we're going to get."

Koko rocked Lloyd in her arms as she spoke. "Well, my parents were both warlords. Warlord and warlady, I guess. I was their only child, so of course I would train to become as great as them, maybe even surpass them. My father had this idea that we were the chosen ones, that we were pure of heart and destined to rule over not just Ninjago, but the world."

"Alright," Garmadon said. "Cool."

"Father executed everyone he deemed not pure enough, based on what he claimed was the will of his master, locked away in an alternate realm–who, of course, only he saw or spoke to."

"Ah. Uncool."

Koko looked away. "On my sixteenth birthday, he–he deemed my mother impure. He killed her." Despite the memories of that day dredged up inside her, bringing with it a piece of the grief she had felt, Koko cracked a bitter smile. "So unless you end up doing that to Lloyd, I don't think you have to worry about him killing you."

When she looked back, Garmadon was staring at her with wide eyes. "Koko," he said. "Koko, I had no idea."

"Like I said, sorry about that."

"You don't have to be sorry, I mean–my gosh, no wonder you don't like to talk about it!" Garmadon took a step towards her, then hesitated. "This is when I'm supposed to hug you, right?"

"It's fine, Garm." Koko took a deep breath. "What I'm trying to say is… even though your parents didn't love you the way they should've, it's normal to feel… to grieve when they're gone. We're their kids, after all. When I was a kid, I didn't hate my father. I saw everything he did, and–I loved him." Koko wiped her eyes with one hand and looked down at Lloyd again. "I wanted him to love me, too. Even if he never asked me if I wanted to be a ninja, never asked me if I wanted to follow in his footsteps–" Her voice shook. "–that's such a horrible thing to still feel bad about. He killed my mother! Why do I care that he forced me to train? If he hadn't, I would never have been able to kill him! Why am I–why am I–"

She felt four arms wrap around her, and Koko broke down in sobs, leaning against him. Lloyd stirred in her arms.

"I wish I could tell him I hate him," she said. "I wish I could make him realize everything he did to me. I wish I could inflict the same pain on him. And part of me still thinks–that's such an awful thing for a daughter to want!"

"It's okay, Koko, it's okay."

"I shouldn't even be upset right now, I'm not the one who had to see my parents' dead bodies. Not recently, anyway."

Garmadon sniffled and moved a hand to his face. "Don't cry on me," Koko mumbled into his chest. "I don't want to have to treat a burn today."

"I'm–I'm sorry, Koko, I–"

"Dadabah," said Lloyd.

Garmadon and Koko quickly broke apart. Lloyd was smiling his toothless smile up at them. "Baduh," he said.

Garmadon smiled, fiery tears running down his cheeks. "We might have to stay for the night," he said, wiping his eyes. "Unless you want to hike through the jungle in the dark."

"Are you sure?"

"We just won't stay in my parent's room. 'Cause they're dead in there, and that's gross."

Koko shuddered. "Right. Where else is there to sleep?"

---

They ended up both trying to fit in Garmadon's old room. The bed was too small one way to fit all of them, and too short the other way for Garmadon's height. Lloyd was the only one who managed to sleep through the night, which was a miracle of its own.

In the morning, they had what remaining food that hadn't gone bad. "Are you going to tell your brother?" Koko asked as Garmadon played with Lloyd.

"No. Maybe. He's not gonna want to hear it from me, so probably not." Garmadon frowned, while Lloyd reached for his hands. "Should probably tell someone. Maybe I'll leave a note for the mailman."

With the light coming in the windows, Koko noticed something she hadn't noticed before. "Are those pictures of you?"

Garmadon groaned as she walked over to the wall. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. None of them are very flattering."

Koko reached out and hovered her hand just over a family photo. She recognized Wu, which meant that the boy next to him must be Garmadon. He was smiling, but it looked strained, almost as if he was in pain. Koko raised her gaze to the mother and father standing behind them, and felt–

"Waaahh!"

"No, no, Luhloyd, it's okay, it's okay–Koko? Can you come back? I think Luhloyd needs to be changed."

She took one last look before turning away. "I'm coming, Garm."

---

On the way back, Koko felt different.

Maybe it was that she told Garmadon about her father. That would make the most sense. Maybe it was that Lloyd was crying all throughout the journey home. Maybe it was the memories of her childhood that kept bubbling up, nostalgia mixed with grief for what she never had.

Maybe it was how Garmadon kept telling Lloyd that he couldn't cry like that when he was a ninja like them. "You really need to hurry up and get big so we can start your training!" he said. "Don't you want to be a great warlord like your old man?"

"Lloyd can be whatever he wants when he grows up," Koko found herself saying.

"Well, yeah, obviously, but why would he want to be anything but a ninja master? I mean, both his parents are! And we're awesome!"

Both of her parents had been warlords. Koko shoved those thoughts down. Garmadon kept walking, carrying Lloyd as their baby wailed, chattering all the while about the cities they would conquer, the villages they would pillage, until the whole world knew to fear the Garmadon family name.

"Man," Garmadon said, "that's a lot of crying! At least he'll only stay a baby for seven years, right, Koko?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"He'll be a baby for seven years, right? Or will it take longer?"

The sheer absurdity of the statement was enough to snap Koko out of her thoughts. "Babies don't stay babies for seven years, Garm. They grow up much faster than that."

"Really? I stayed a baby for seven years."

"You did not."

"I did! Didn't you notice in the pictures? I'm seven years older than Wu, but when I was born, my parents put so much pressure on me to uphold the family name, I stayed a baby until he was born to avoid the responsibility!"

"Well," Koko said, "let's not do that to Lloyd."

"'Course not. Luhloyd can stay a baby for as long as he wants."

"Hopefully not seven years." Of course Koko would love and support Lloyd no matter what, but seven years as a baby… hopefully he wouldn't inherit those genes from his father.

The arrived back at the base in one piece. Garmadon went to order the generals around, and Koko brought Lloyd back to the temporary hut. They would move on soon, to find another city, and Garmadon had been hinting the next place they conquered would be their home to raise Lloyd.

While she rocked Lloyd to sleep, doubts rose up in her mind again. "You can be whatever you want," she said to Lloyd. "You can be a baby for seven years. I won't mind. You don't have to be a warlord if you don't want to be. You can have all the options I never had. That's the only thing parents can do, right? Be better than our parents were before us."

"Dada," Lloyd said. Koko smiled at him.

Lloyd would choose his own future. Garmadon would see that, eventually.

He had to.