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Chapter Text

Morro’s spirit had been returned to the land of the living twice already, so when he felt it – his soul being dragged out of the cursed realm, this time completely without his own volition and back to Ninjago – he wasn’t exactly shocked. He felt more annoyed than anything. What is it this time?

He feels random people phasing through him before he can even open his eyes. When he does, the hustle and bustle of Ninjago City surrounds him. No one is paying attention to him, no one can see him - this is different. He attempts to possess someone, but he passes through anyone he tries. 

Floating around for a bit, he takes in all the changed sights of the city. He must’ve been gone for a long time, because he doesn’t recognize any of these stores or businesses. What are pilates? There’s an abundance of construction sights, too, so the ninja must have just stopped some world-threatening force of evil. He wonders, briefly, how long it took for Stiix to be remade. 

He explores a retail store, aimlessly looking for something to recognize. As he stops at the electronics area, the broadcast playing simultaneously on all sizes of television catches his eye. 

“Good afternoon, Good Morning Ninjago! I’m Robin Roberts, and this is Michael Strahan - here to bring you an overview of Lord Garmadon’s latest attack!”

Garmadon? That wasn’t possible- he saw him in the cursed realm, uncorrupted. And yet, the image shown on screen was almost a picture-perfect replica of what he saw in Lloyd’s memory. Is this why he’s here? Why-

“Last Monday, Lord Garmadon attempted to crash the stock markets and take over Ninjago City all in one. As always, the Ninja forced him to retreat, saving our beloved city from further destruction!”

“And as always, the question of ‘When will it end?’ rages on! And speaking of burning questions, one of our journalists managed to snag a moment with the elusive Green Ninja.”

Morro has to blink several times to understand what’s going on against the program’s editing. A clip plays of a man grilling Lloyd on his identity, while he fist fights one of Garmadon’s goons. He replies, simply, ‘No comment,’ as he sweeps the goon’s feet out from under her. He sounds older.

The news anchors theorize about whatever secrets the legendary Green Ninja may be holding and then start getting into the Garmadon Forecast- whatever that was. Morro scoffs and decides he’s done with this store - how far has Ninjago fallen to where debating the obvious is considered entertainment? 

His curiosity is replaced with annoyance and he momentarily forgets his (possible?) situation with Garmadon until he finally sees someone he knows. It’s one of the ninja – he doesn’t know his name, but it’s one of them. 

Finding Master Wu here would be ideal, and where there’s ninja, there’s Wu. 

He’s more than a little peeved when the time he spent thinking of an entrance turned out to be in vain - the nindroid’s eyes, vacant of life and vibrant blue, only looked past him. What’s the point of being here if he couldn’t do anything? Last time, his purpose was to warn but he doesn’t have anything to warn them of and he couldn’t, even if he did. Morro isn’t able to feel his fingers when he tightens them into fists, but the ninja feels the gusts of wind that follow.

“Brrrr,” The ninja announces it like he has something to prove, “I feel cold, as a regular teenage boy would. Where is my scarf?” 

The robot’s voice was a lot less convincing than Morro remembers, but memories do get foggier the longer you spend in the Cursed realm, and who knows how long he was there? 

He follows him without thinking about it, not paying attention to any of the city that’s already lost its allure, simply zoning out instead. He hardly realizes it when they walk into the warehouse of a junkyard. It takes him saying, “Hello, fellow teenagers,” for Morro to finally look up and find all the other ninja - except for Lloyd. He opens his mouth for a moment before remembering it’d be useless.

“Hey, Zane.”

“Where you been, man?”

“I was just checking out some new tunes at a popular record store,” Zane replies, as robotic as ever. The one tricked by Master Yang, Cole, looks over, “What artists?” There’s no way he’s imagining it now- his voice has completely changed.

He blinks slowly, “Loading. Loading.” Morro rolls his eyes and decides to stop listening at that point. He stares up at the giant mechanical suits that tower over each of them. There’s one to correspond with each of them, even Lloyd- where is Lloyd? More importantly, where is Master Wu?

Morro phases through the green mech dragon, like he’ll find some kind of answer inside. Its construction is a little beyond his understanding of technology. He assumes their real dragon must have been killed in battle, because there’s no reason he can think of to replace it with a fake one. 

The other mechs, however, he could see the benefit in. He’s about to explore the lightning jet when an unfamiliar voice joins the fray of the others.

“Guys, Master Wu said we should be training while he’s gone. At least a little, come on.”

Morro turns to finally see the Green Ninja. He lowers his feet onto the ground, ever-thankful that he’s able to do so in this form, and walks over to get a closer look. Lloyd’s back is turned to him, but he doesn’t need to see his face to know who it is. 

The water ninja groans, “Yeah, but he’s not here.” 

“He’ll never know! So chill, Lloyd,” Jay adds, seeming to fumble for a few seconds to agree with her. The other sighs, pressing a hand to his face, turning around.

“Okay, well I still- we should try a little, I think. So-”

Lloyd screams. 

He falls back and crashes into Kai, who yelps out a “Hey!” The two of them knock out the controller from Zane’s hands, who comments something Morro can’t be bothered to catch because Lloyd is staring at him. “What just happened?” Cole stares between them.

“Lloyd! What happened to this realm? Why is everything different? How is Garmadon alive?” Morro rushes forward, bombarding him with questions. The Green Ninja has to know something- he has to. Lloyd squints and he tilts his head to the side, “What…?” He looks at the other ninja seemingly for some guidance, but they’ve already moved on. His mouth drops open for a second before he asks, “I’m sorry, do you guys not see that? Jay? Nya?”

Kai gives him a concerned glance, “What’d you see?” 

Lloyd looks back at him, incredulous. “Wh- the ghost!” He gestures wildly behind him at Morro. The others just look between him and the empty space they can see. “The ghost? That’s right in front of us? Seriously? None- None of you see that. Okay. Of course.”  

“Scanning, scanning…” Zane’s head turns to Morro’s direction, and his eyes illuminate an even brighter blue. “There is no one there, Lloyd.” 

“You’re seeing things again, dude,” The girl says, looking back at the video game without a second's thought, “You gotta get more sleep, man.” He looks peeved for only a second before simply pressing a hand to his face and sighing. “I sleep fine, Nya.”

The lightning ninja’s eyes flicker over to him, “That’s not very convincing.” 

He turns back around to question Morro, “So what do you want?” The other ninja mumbles, “I don’t know, just take a nap or something.” 

“Not you, Jay,” Lloyd takes another look at the lot of them and decides to go back outside, pushing open the rusty doors of the warehouse and slipping out; he follows, of course.

“Um… Okay. Where do I even start?” He starts after they’re a few steps outside, running a hand through his hair, “I haven’t been… haunted before? I guess? So, what’s… your name?”

Morro’s smile fades, slowly. This is different, and something’s seriously wrong here. He realizes that Lloyd didn’t recognize him earlier, either. That news station- why were they questioning the Green Ninja’s identity? Were they being serious? He floats up to look through the slit of the warehouse doors, at the ninja playing inside. He just assumed they upgraded their looks, but with everything else… “Um… Hello?” 

He snaps out of his train of thought and looks down at Lloyd, who’s staring up at him with a frown. “You know my name,” he says, clinging to denial at this point. 

“No, I– I really don’t. Am I supposed to recognize you? Did you work for Garmadon?” Lloyd scrutinizes his appearance, trying to recognize him, and dragging out the ‘o’ in ‘supposed’. He lowers his feet onto the ground, “No! I’m Morro- Morro, Master of Wind, I opened the portal to the Cursed Realm, I possessed you??” 

He looks at him for a moment before slowly shaking his head, “Yeah, no, you have me confused with someone else.” 

Morro’s frustration eases and his shoulders droop as reality slowly sets in. Garmadon is alive and terrorizing the city, nobody knows who the ninja are- this isn’t his Lloyd. This isn’t his Ninjago.

He stares at the boy in front of him. It’s Lloyd, it looks exactly like him, but this isn’t Lloyd. The Green Ninja never talked like that, he never let his bangs grow that long, and he was never this.. awkward. He thought he had a good idea of what realms existed but - was this one he missed, or something else entirely? He just- appeared here. No explanation, no message to give.

This wasn’t reincarnation, he had all of his memories and he wasn’t alive. Were they reincarnated? Did Garmadon, the Overlord, or whoever else remake the world? How could he even begin to fix something like that? Master Wu was apparently gone right now, so there wasn’t a soul he could seek real answers from.

Even if he was, only Lloyd can see him and- and he’s still talking .

“–outfit is kinda cool, though. Anyway, you should probably just pick someone else to bother. This- this won’t be a lot of fun for you, or whatever? I’m not–”

“Quiet,” Morro interrupts him before he can ramble on any longer. He needs to think- there has to be a reason he was sent here, and some way to leave too. Though, the idea of dying a third time was a little exhausting.

He doesn’t know if the world has been made anew, or if this is a product of mass brainwashing, or anything else he could dream up. Until he can find out what exactly is happening here, he’ll just have to treat this Lloyd as a different version than the one he knew - and that goes for this place’s Master Wu, too. Maybe these ninja are about to face an unimaginable beast and only he has the power to stop it. 

He hasn’t seen much of them, but they seem to lack discipline - he’s not exactly the best person to go to when it comes to that, either.

“How many of you know Airjitzu?” He decides to start there. If there’s something coming, they’ll more likely than not need one of the most powerful ninjitzu arts. It’d be a shame if it was, say, randomly forgotten for no reason.

“Air-what?” Lloyd tilts his head to the side a little, eyebrows scrunched together. Morro sighs, “What about your spinjitzu? You know that at least, don’t you?” 

“Well, we’re not great at it yet, but yeah,” He shifts where he stands in place, looking between the ground and Morro. “You said you’re the Master of Wind, right? Did you- Did Master Wu train you, too?”

“Yes. Apparently a lot better than you,” He nods, frowning. He wasn’t exactly a master of Spinjitzu himself, but he was a kid when he abandoned Master Wu. What are their excuses? “Why don’t you know how to fight? Any of you?” If they had the time to build an array of mechanical suits, surely Master Wu had time to train them, and surely it must’ve been a while since he started. 

“Well, we can go hand-to-hand. Master Wu wants to teach us more, but it seems kinda pointless ‘cause we have the mechs.” This team was a disaster waiting to happen. He rolls his eyes, “And what do you think is going to happen if they’re destroyed, idiot? Tools like that should be addons to you.”

The ninja looks to think about that, looking down at the ground quietly. “You seem to know all that stuff. Could- Would you teach me?”

 “Teach you?” 

“Please. I want to be a better ninja,” he says, and there’s finally a similarity between the two green ninja that isn’t superficial - Lloyd’s drive. It exists even in this version of him. His earnesty makes Morro pause. Could he?

There’s no telling what’s coming to this Ninjago, and in the other, well… Maybe this time, he can be a help to the green ninja instead of trying to take the title for himself. He’ll make his own Master Wu proud, even if he may not exist anymore. 

He nods once, “Let us begin now, then.”

Lloyd’s face lights up with determination and he nods back, “Okay, I’m ready! Let's go! How do I start?”

He smiles a little at his eagerness, but hardens his face back into a frown. “Show me what you can do right now,” he watches Lloyd start to spin, gaining speed, and then- falling on his ass. 

“Stop laughing,” Lloyd says, annoyed, as Morro practically cackles.

“This is the Green Ninja?” He asks incredulously, holding his stomach. If he existed in this place, who knows if he did, maybe he would be the Green Ninja after all. No- that’s not right. He stops laughing suddenly and clears his throat. The Green Ninja was a matter of destiny, not skill. He has to stop thinking about it like that.

He looks at Lloyd, who’s up on his feet again, and sighs quietly. “You have to find your inner-balance first. Channel your element,” he says holding a fist up to his chest. Lloyd closes his eyes and tries to focus, “Balance. Channel my element, okay…” He stops and looks at Morro, “What’s my element?”

Morro’s fist falls back to his side and he just stares at him. “How long have you been a ninja for?” He finally asks.

“We started uhh- a year ago, maybe?”

“A year.”

“My dad started attacking the city and Master Wu couldn’t do it all on his own so he chose us-”

Exactly how weak was this world’s Garmadon? And how incompetent was this world’s Wu? Or were the ninja just impossible to teach? Morro interrupts him again, “Shut up. How.. How have you managed to survive for this long?”

Lloyd opens his mouth and is probably about to launch into another ramble, when one of the other ninja push open the creaky warehouse doors. “Lloyd, your dad’s attacking again. Suit up!” Nya yells over to him, not wasting any time before she runs back inside again.

Lloyd turns to him, “This is how.”

Morro follows him back in and Lloyd yells ‘Ninja go!’ just in time to be in unison with the others. He hears Zane start to load in his ice tank, and Cole putting on a music record. Jay hasn’t gotten into his jet yet, instead jumping up to the visor of Nya’s water strider. “Hey, Nya… Do you think we could do a combo together? Like, you douse the bad guys in water, and then I use my lightning…” 

Nya is pressing various buttons on her control panel, getting everything up and running. She replies distractedly, “Yeah, sure, if we get the chance to.” He fidgets with the frays of his gi, “Okay- okay, great! I’ll just come find you- WAH! ” He takes one step too far back and falls off the strider. Nya is quick to extend one of the mech’s limbs to catch him, chuckling. 

“Focus, Romeo!” Lloyd calls out to him as he works the controls on his own mech. Jay laughs, embarrassed, and scrambles away to his vehicle.

Lloyd is the first to leave the warehouse as its roof opens in two, flying through the air and typing away at the green screen illuminated before him. He looks up when Morro uses Airjitzu to reach him, landing next to Lloyd in front of the control panel. “What was that?” He asks, eyes wide.

“Airjitzu,” Morro grins, and he feels a familiar swell of arrogance in his chest. He pushes it down.

“I hope you’re a good teacher, ‘cause that’d be really useful. It’s kind of easy to get knocked off here, you know?” Lloyd says as he scouts the ground from above, looking for where Garmadon and his generals have attacked. 

“Green Ninja! Help!” A civilian waves from below, running from a building that’s been set on fire. Debris falls one after the other on the ground behind her, almost chasing her as she sprints. Lloyd lifts her up on one of the dragon mech’s claws and carries her to safety. “Nya, we need you at Ms. Thompson’s bakery shop! It’s on fire,” he speaks over the radio. 

The civilian fans her face and sighs dreamily, “Thanks, Green Ninja.”

Morro glances around the scene in the city - people are running everywhere, people dressed in shark and sea monster costumes are destroying buildings left and right, and he thinks he hears distant, maniacal laughter. He spots someone climbing up the dragon’s tail, and finds it’s another one of the shark-head people. He blasts a gust of wind in their direction and sends them flying. 

“Nice shot!” 

Lloyd flies them to a large ivory bank, where a bunch of Garmadon’s guys are heading into. He presses a button on the control pad, and a small missile fires from the mech - all of them are blasted away. One of them fires a spear up at the dragon as they fall, and Morro counters it with an air current, only a tad stronger than a breeze. 

“Lloyd, your dad’s going for the mayor!” Jay calls out on the radio. Lloyd switches gears immediately, “I’ll get him.” He flies the mech towards the center of the city like he’s done it a thousand times before, readying another, stronger missile. 

Lord Garmadon, in all his four-armed glory, turns to face him as they approach, “Ah, the Green Ninja–”

He’s blown up by a missile.

Morro blinks stupidly and then takes a few steps forward to look through the smoke filling the air. “...Did you kill him?” Lloyd just sighs, “No. Unfortunately, he’s survived a lot worse. He’s fine, but he’ll retreat now.”

As he predicted, a few seconds later, Garmadon emerges from the ashes. “Seriously, Green Ninja? I didn’t even have time to finish my speech. That’s just rude.”

Lloyd readies his hand in front of the button, “You want another one?”

“No, no, I can admit when I’ve been defeated. Until next time, Green Ninja…” Lloyd quietly mocks him to himself. Garmadon closes his eyes and clears his throat. Then, he screams, “RETREAT!” The nearby generals scramble to comply, packing up their weapons and beginning to run back the same direction they came. Others on their own mini-mechs pick up those on foot. They all yell out to retreat as they pass by the ready-made chaos, spreading the word of their orders.

They watch the lot of them retreat, and when they’re finally gone, Lloyd slumps over a little. “Just another day of blowing up my dad, that’s… fine,” He mumbles, and then turns to him. 

“Morro, right? Well… Do you still, uh- think we’re completely useless?”

Chapter Text

“Morro, right? Well… Do you still, uh- think we’re completely useless?”

Morro looks out into the city- he sees citizens all over coming out of their hiding places, Nya putting out the last embers of buildings that were set ablaze, and most notably of all, he hears cheering all around. He knows it’s not for him, but he tenses all the same. 

“Not bad,” he smiles a little. 

Jay’s voice calls out on the radio, “Good job, guys.” Lloyd looks over to it as they hear the others agree. “Let us get food to celebrate!” Zane replies, his robotic voice sounding a tad more enthused than usual. 

“I’m in.”

“Let's do it.”

“Only if it’s not that crappy steak restaurant,” Nya sounds disgusted. “Yeah! They’re- They’re the worst,” Jay laughs a little too loudly, and then mumbles a little farther away from his radio, to someone else, “Cancel that reservation, please.”

Lloyd takes out his phone from the semi-safe place it was tucked into within his gi and checks his notifications. “I’m out,” he then responds to them, “My mom just reminded me I have to be home for dinner. Another time, guys.” He turns his radio off and flies them back to the warehouse to drop off the mech.

“Hasn’t anyone tried to follow you before?” Morro asks as they fly, glancing between the mech and the amazed civilians on the street staring up at it. The other boy answers with a shrug to his shoulders, “Garmadon tried once. He pretended to leave and then just hung off the tail. Well- I mean, of course I knew he was there, and I flung him off into the ocean off the beach. That’s where they come from every time- so.” 

He can’t say he understands the point of the ninja keeping their identities secret. If there was one thing he knew about his Garmadon, aside from his battle prowess, it was the love he had for his son; and vice versa. If he found out he was near-killing him everyday, there’s no way he’d keep attacking him. At least not without some semblance of change.

He looked at Lloyd, “Just tell him who you are.” 

“Umm... He wouldn't really, well, care," He runs a hand through his hair, and then adds, a tad quieter, “I don’t think he even remembers he had a kid.” Morro stares at him, “Oh.” The rest of the ride is pretty quiet.

When they arrive back at the warehouse, they’re the only ones there. Lloyd hops down from his dragon mech, Morro following behind. “So, are you following me, like, all the time now?” He finally asks when they get outside and he’s still there.

“I have nowhere else to go,” Lloyd turns around when he says that. He looks like he wants to ask something, but he just turns right back around and keeps walking. “Feel free, then… I guess,” he says, looking ahead. He wasn’t exactly looking for permission, but he supposes it’s nice to have anyway. 

As they walk, or float in Morro’s case, he takes the silence as an opportunity to think about how he’s going to train Lloyd. He hadn’t exactly had a lot of guidance himself when learning Spinjitzu, only having vague memories of guiding comments made by Wu before he left- the memory of which grew a little hazier with every day on the road. His skill in it was unpracticed to the point where he didn’t typically use it in battle - but he’s assuming that the real Green Ninja will excel at it a lot more. 

And after he learns Spinjitzu, Airjitzu is sure to come easily to him afterwards. Both Morro and the ninja’s team learned it on the fly. No pun intended. 

The biggest piece of advice he could remember from Master Wu was what he had already told Lloyd- find your inner balance, channel your wind, Morro. It looks like he’d have to put in more practice himself to be a half-decent teacher. 

When Lloyd opens the apartment door, his mom is on him in a second. “Lloyd, I was so worried- did any of them hurt you? I swear, when I get my hands on him–”

“Mom! Slow down, I’m fine,” He says, pushing her hands away from his face. He sighs when she begins to diligently check his arms and legs for injury. “I saw on the news that you were on the scene of the attack today,” She explains, face crumpled into worry. Lloyd clams up immediately, “Uh- What do you- I wasn’t there. I was just hiding with the other kids. I don’t know what you mean.”

“But there was a picture they showed on the program. Don’t you dare lie to me, Lloyd. You’re supposed to be staying out of trouble, like we talked, right?” She scolds him, and somehow she sounds both soft and harsh at the same time. She brings up the news clip on her phone and shows him. The news anchor Morro remembers from before is seen claiming that Lloyd Garmadon was at the scene of Garmadon’s mayhem, possibly being there to join his father. There was a blurry picture of a blonde teenager in a hoodie caught from behind shown on screen. 

“See? You’re right here,” She points at the near-blob, as if he couldn’t tell what she was talking about. He glances at Morro with an almost exasperated expression, as if to say, Look what I have to deal with. “That’s not me. I promise, Mom, I was hiding,” he then points at the figure’s outfit, “Have you ever seen me wear that much blue? That’s more of Jay and Nya’s thing.” 

She looks between Lloyd and the photo and sighs after a moment, nodding. “I’m sorry for accusing you, I just worry, Lloyd.” He’s already started to walk away and into his room, “It’s fine. I- I get it. Really.” 

Morro sticks behind for a moment, and watches her face as his door closes. She frowns, upset at his abrupt leave, but then shakes her head and puts on a smile. “Dinner, okay…” she mumbles as she walks over to the kitchen. 

He follows after Lloyd then, simply phasing through his closed door. If he thought the rest of the apartment looked cramped, it was nothing compared to this room. It was all-too narrow, with only space to walk a few steps before you’d run into his bed. There was one, lonely poster pasted on the wall and a shelf, but not much else. 

Lloyd himself was laying face-down on his bed, weary from the day. “Your mom’s nice,” Morro comments, and he jumps, sitting up to look at him like he already forgot he was there. “I- Yeah,” He fiddles with the strings on his hoodie, “She can be a lot, though. As you just saw…”

“So she doesn’t know you’re the Green Ninja, either?” He crosses his arms. Lloyd shakes his head, “She’d never let me do it if she knew.” 

Lloyd’s mom here was completely different from the woman he saw in his Lloyd’s memory. She was a whole lot younger, for one, and she seemed much more present. “Morro, about earlier- when you said that you didn’t have anywhere to go,” he glances between Morro’s face and his clothes, “You don’t have, like, family to visit? Or- or any friends?”

“I’m not from here. But, no. I don’t have a family, and I did not make friends when I was alive,” He shakes his head. Before Master Wu took him as a student, he went from place to place stealing what he could too fast to form connections, and after… He definitely didn’t make any friends after.

“Oh. Um, sorry. I hate it when people bring up my family and I just did the same thing. That’s… not great of me.”

Morro ignores him, caught up in the memory of tearing down his peers, physically and emotionally. He was always hungry to grow stronger, and the other students Wu would put him up against to spar were puny in comparison. He’d call them all pathetic, and Wu would simply apologize to them later. They all hated him, but no one could touch him. He supposes it’s a form of karma that he quite literally cannot touch anyone now. 

“You said you weren’t from here. What did you mean by that?” Lloyd asks, frowning as he unzips the backpack that’s been shoved to the side of his bed to make room for the floor. The question of his situation is a little more interesting than distant memories, and he snaps back to reality and watches him shuffle through folders and papers in the bag while he replies, “I’m from a different Ninjago.” He’s not sure how else to describe it. 

“What, like a different timeline or something?” Lloyd glances over, his hands pausing in his bag. 

Morro takes a moment to think. He’s been questioning what this place is all day, considering all sorts of explanations for why everything’s different. While an alternate timeline doesn’t explain how he got here and why, it does seem like a good description for what he’s seen thus far. “Perhaps,” he answers.

Lloyd pulls out a piece of paper from his backpack and Morro flicks his wrist out of curiosity, summoning a breeze to flip the paper on the bed so he can see it. There’s a bunch of symbols he doesn’t understand written on it. “That’s my math homework?” Lloyd answers him before he can ask, picking it up. He gives him a weird look, “Did your Ninjago not have school, or…?”

“We did, but I didn’t go to one,” Morro says, watching him take a pencil from his bag and begin to write. The only semi-school he went to was Master Wu’s dojo, and he didn’t exactly teach him science or mathematics there. “Where I come from, the ninja didn’t hide their identities. They didn’t go to school, either,” Lloyd glances up at him, intrigued.

  “What was I like? If- If there was a different me, that is.”

Morro hums and thinks of how to put it into words. The most he saw of Lloyd was through the memories he carded through, or the constant resistance he felt while inhabiting him. The moments he remembered most clearly from Lloyd’s memories was his struggle against his father’s darkness, and the final battle between them. “He always kept going,” is how he decides to describe him. 

Lloyd seems to contemplate that. He stares down at the paper, apparently homework, and is quiet for a moment. Morro himself wonders if this Lloyd will live up to the expectations that the other version of him set, or if he’ll diverge and become something entirely different. “Is there- I mean, you being here, does that mean there’s another- you here- that’s going to join the team?” He speaks with pauses every few words, like he’s confused just by thinking about it.

Morro looks away, “I am not a ninja.”

Lloyd seems to pick up on the fact that it’s a touchy subject, simply nodding and going back to scribbling random symbols on his homework. Morro feels like it’s a good time to take a step back and think about everything going on. He exits the apartment and floats up into the dusk sky, closing his eyes and wishing he could feel the dimming sun rays on his face. No rest for the wicked, he supposes.

He wonders if he’ll ever see the Ninjago he came from again- if he’ll ever see his Master Wu. They left things on pretty good terms the last time he was an apparition, but having been around crowds of people for most of today, none of whom can see him – it makes loneliness creep up in his chest, and he can’t help but long for the one person who had always seen him. He’s sure that feeling will only worsen once the Wu belonging to this place returns from whatever mission he’s engaged in. 

Teaching Lloyd Spinjitzu was going to be a challenge for him, to say the least. He was quite unpracticed with it himself, and he didn’t know how to use it without wind – which he kind of has to, since Lloyd doesn’t have access to his element. Or even knowledge of what it is, apparently. As far as he knows, it’s the combination of the other core elements, along with energy itself. In any case, he’ll likely have to take the time to sharpen that skill. 

It was a sort of cruel twist of fate, being made to believe that he was the Green Ninja, and end up only having to help him. He likes it better than attacking him, and perhaps that’s the reason he was sent here in the first place, to aid a team of ninja in need of training. 

The stars have begun to shine in the sky by the time he returns to Lloyd, and he finds him asleep. The homework he had been working on earlier was tossed along with the backpack on the limited space of the floor. He blows it face-up again, and it’s only half-completed - that makes him smile a little.

After a night of frustration that only his feet can touch the ground, Lloyd’s mom wakes up and begins to prepare breakfast. Not ten minutes later, Lloyd himself comes out from his room, maybe drawn out by what Morro would assume is a nice aroma from the food. His eyes widen a little when he sees him, like he’s only just remembering that the events of the previous day were real. “Uh, hey,” Lloyd says, awkwardly waving at him.

“Good morning, Lloyd!” His mom calls from the kitchen, a little ways away, “Breakfast is ready.” She gives him a big smile, and he returns it with a smaller one as he walks over. His plate is already set out for him, and he takes a moment to feed his fish before sitting down at the table. 

He’s about to grab his fork, and Morro uses a controlled gust to make it move away from his hand. He does this several times before Lloyd glares at him, “Do you mind?” Morro laughs while the other’s mom gives him a strange look and asks him what he means. 

As soon as Lloyd is finished eating, it’s off to school. Morro is semi-curious about what he missed out on, though it probably won’t be the same as it would be in his own world. When they reach the bus stop, Lloyd’s met with a withering glare from each and every one of the students already waiting there. 

“It’s usually like this,” Lloyd says when his confusion shows on his face, though it’s not really an explanation in of itself.

Everyone within Lloyd’s radius is immediately repelled as he gets on the bus and finds a seat. He’d assume that this was because of the photo mistaken for him from the newscast, but Lloyd had already told him this was the norm. Morro simply stands in front of his side of the bus seat, his legs phasing through it. “They’ve always thought I worked for my dad, so,” Lloyd explains further, staring out the window. 

“But not Cole, and Kai, and all of the other ninja?” 

Lloyd makes a so-so gesture with his hand, “I- I think Nya might’ve been on the fence about it, but everyone else was pretty much the same as them.” He nods his head in the direction of the students that were not-so conspicuously whispering about him. “When we started training, they saw for themselves who I was and.. yeah.”

Morro isn’t too surprised by that revelation and voices that, “The Green Ninja from my timeline started on bad terms with the ninja as well.” Lloyd smiles at that, happy to share something with the mystery version of him that he’s definitely already put up on a pedestal.

There’s only more coldness to be greeted by the rest of the student body when they arrive at the actual school. Morro thinks he has to be imagining it when the people in the courtyard go silent, all at once, as soon as Lloyd gets off the bus. He smiles through it, walking only a little stiffly as he enters the building’s high doors. While he knows it’s not directed at him , the bad attention is already getting on Morro’s nerves. 

They walk inside, and Cole and Kai spot him right away. “Hey, guys,” Lloyd smiles at them, but it strains a little when he sees how serious they look. Concerned, maybe. “Dude, did you see the news last night?” Cole gets straight to the point.

“Does anyone here talk about anything other than you?” Morro grumbles, and Lloyd chuckles. “Not the day right after an attack,” he glances at him. He looks over, back at the other ninja when Kai places a hand on his shoulder. “This could get bad, Lloyd. It’s always just been rumors but now there’s proof. Be careful,” Kai pats his shoulder and then slides his hand off it. 

Lloyd sighs and deflates a little, “But it wasn’t me. It didn’t even show the guy’s face.” 

“We know it wasn’t you, but how do you think they feel?” Cole motions to the several students watching them with contempt. Lloyd looks at them and then at Morro, “I don’t really see a difference.” One of the students watching them takes a picture and then walks away, showing their friends the photo and laughing. This whole thing was starting to feel a little over-the-top. It could all be solved so easily, too.

“Lloyd, why haven’t you revealed who you are to them?” Morro asks while a group of cheerleaders walk past the four of them, each glowering. Lloyd shakes his head, “It wouldn’t be right. I’d just be doing it for- for people to like me, you know? Master Wu always tells us to rise above that kinda stuff.”

Morro pushes, “The Green Ninja deserves respect. They’ll never stop if you keep taking it.” 

“Uh, Lloyd?” Kai stares while he, to their knowledge, talks to himself.

Lloyd waves a hand at the two other ninja dismissively, “Hold on, Kai- I don’t think it would even work, Morro. They’d probably just start hating the Green Ninja too, and I cannot be dealing with that on top of everything. Okay?”

The other two look at each other. “Should we call his mom?” Cole mutters to him. “I… don’t know. He’s coping, I guess,” Kai shrugs.

A loud bell begins to ring from speakers high up on the walls. Morro looks around, a little disoriented at the god-awful sound, and Lloyd tells him, “That means it’s time to go to class.” He finally turns back to the others, “Alright, lets go, guys.” The three of them get going, and he follows behind them.

Morro’s curiosity of school was quelled within the first thirty minutes - the rest was just torture. At some point, he started making random papers, pens, markers, and other items fly off of random people’s desks out of pure boredom. Lloyd had mumbled to him to stop, that he’d get him in trouble - which didn’t even make sense, because how would they connect that to him? He obliged when a student did, in fact, accuse him of being behind it. 

He could’ve cried in relief when he followed Lloyd out of his last class. Finally, they’ll be able to train, and he can do something. 

“I can do the first half of it,” Jay says, about some arbitrary assignment they were tasked with. He was the only other ninja Lloyd shared his last class with, so he was the only one present, besides Morro- not that anyone could know that. 

They round a corner and Lloyd’s reply is cut off as he runs right into someone. She staggers back, and her face instantly grows hostile when she realizes who it was. “Sorry, sorry- I didn’t see you,” He apologizes and tries to side-step around her, but she steps in front of him. 

Jay backs away a little as the girl’s friends stand around her, already sensing this would be trouble. “Everyone knows, Lloyd. Don’t pretend you’re a nice guy,” Morro is almost caught off guard by how serious the hatred in her voice is. Lloyd just sighs, exasperated already, “It wasn’t me in the photo.”

One of her friends, a large guy, takes a step closer to him with a look too threatening for comfort. Morro raises one of his hands, ready to blast the lot of them away. Lloyd turns around, almost like he sensed it, “Don’t attack them, Morro.”

The guy rolls his eyes and gestures wide with his hands, “Oh, great, you told off your imaginary friend for us.”

Jay quietly interjects, “Let's go, Lloyd.”

“No, he doesn’t get to leave,” The girl looks at him, and he shuts up; his hands visibly shake where they’re fidgeting with the frays of his scarf. She turns back to Lloyd, “My dad has had to rebuild his store six times! Six! All because of you and your shitty dad.”

Lloyd stares at the floor, apparently trying to bury his head in the sand like he usually does. Over the next few minutes of her insults, his face barely changes.

He only reacts when she laughs meanly and says, “I kind of feel bad for you sometimes. I bet you have to bend over backwards to get him to love you. It didn’t work, though, did it? Considering you’re still going here and not living with him. At least you had the decency to try to keep it secret before.” Only then do Lloyd’s legs move, and he walks right out of the school. Jay hesitates to go after him, and the group watches him go, the girl’s sneer unmoving. Morro doesn’t hesitate, on the other hand, and he floats - more like glides, really - through the air to catch up with him quickly. He stops right in front of him, nearly mirroring how what just happened started.

“They’re worse whenever my dad attacks, okay? It- It’s whatever, I’m used to it,” Lloyd tells him, and yet it’s pretty clear from the way his eyes are shimmering that he’s about to cry.

“Why did you just stand there? You would have defeated them easily,” Morro asks, disbelieving. “Green Ninja! Answer me,” He demands after almost a minute of silence.

“I’m not going to attack random people for not liking me. I can handle it, it’s always been- I’m fine with it, okay?” He has half a mind to possess him and make him go back. Having that thought makes a taste of guilt fill his mouth, but to be fair, it was progress. There was a time where he would’ve actually done it. 

Morro pushes that inner conflict to the back of his mind, “We have to train,” he reminds him; Lloyd shakes his head. “No. No, I- I don’t want to train today anymore.” He goes to keep following him and try to motivate him, but Lloyd interrupts him, “And don’t- don’t follow me right now, okay? I want to be alone.”

Morro lands his feet on the ground, and stops. “Fine.”

He watches the other boy walk away, his shoulders hunched together with his forest green hoodie pulled over his head. 

He can’t understand.

Chapter Text

By the time Morro returns to Lloyd’s home, the sun has set and they’re cleaning up dinner. Admittedly, he hadn’t meant to give Lloyd space for that long - he had gotten more than a little lost between the array of buildings that all look identical from the outside.

“Sweetie, what do you want to do for your birthday?” His mom asks while she scrubs a plate clean. Lloyd, who’s drying a cup, just shrugs, “Uh… Nothing?” She sets down the plate and puts her hands on her hips, and he looks like he regrets saying that, knowing he’s in for a lecture. “Sixteen is a big birthday, Lloyd. We should celebrate! Why don’t you invite your friends over?” 

Lloyd spots Morro and sends him a wave as he hangs up the dried cup. “I don’t know, Mom. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal,” She hands him the plate she’s just finished cleaning, and he goes to dry that one as well. “Of course it’s a big deal! You only turn sixteen once,” she gives him a big, excited smile in the hopes of garnering one back. He manages a small one, “Yeah, but you only turn every age once…”

“I don’t see the value in celebrations like that, either,” Morro floats above him, drying the plate in an instant with a twist of his finger. Lloyd blinks up at him, “Thanks.” 

“We have to have a cake, at least. I’ll bake you one!” His mom says, and she straightens the nametag on her blazer. Morro ducks his head down to read it, and it seems almost like a nickname of what his Lloyd’s mom was called. “Yeah, sure, that sounds good,” Lloyd replies, almost dismissively. 

Lloyd sets down the dish towel and yawns, long and performative, “I- I think I’m gonna go to bed, now. Goodnight, mom,” he’s already walking while he says it, and Morro wonders if he always rushes to his room, or if it’s only because he’s here. He motions for Morro to follow and he rolls his eyes, because he was obviously already going to. Koko tells him goodnight, and they go.

When he shuts his door, he leans against it and looks up at Morro. “About, uh… earlier,” Lloyd brings it up, but it doesn’t look like he knows what to say. He tugs at one of his hoodie strings and looks around briefly, “Just- You know, that’s not how I usually act…? So… If you could forget about it, that’d be great.”

Morro studies him for a moment. He seems to be back to normal, assuming his normal is awkward and hesitant. Morro crosses his arms, “You’ll never be a good ninja if you let pathetic remarks stop you from training.” The students at Lloyd’s school were stupid, plain to see just by the fact they hadn’t figured out he was a ninja yet. It was one thing to allow them to treat him like dirt - it was another entirely to actually believe them.

Lloyd winces, maybe from the fact Morro had decided to not forget about it, and he nods, “I get it- Like I said, that’s not how I am most the time.” He sits down on his bed and looks away. It looks like he wants to say something. “What?” Morro asks, blunt. Lloyd shakes his head and sighs, “Nothing.” 

“Uh, I don’t have school tomorrow, though, so you can train me,” He glances at him, “And.. Could you, y’know, leave for a second so I can change? I had to sleep in my jeans last night and it was not- not fun.” 

“Very well,” Morro replies, to both requests. He phases through Lloyd’s door and absentmindedly watches Koko turn out the lights in the apartment and head to her own room.

Morro taps his foot impatiently on the floor, though it makes no sound. He’s been waiting for Lloyd to wake up for hours. The sun has long come up, and Koko’s been watching television for what he’d guess is an hour or two. He thinks he’s about to wake up for one hopeful second, and then he just turns his head to settle even more comfortably into his pillow. That does it.

He walks through his bed and brings his face close to Lloyd’s, and yells, “GET UP!”

Lloyd’s eyes snap open and he jumps at least a foot into the air, and wow phasing through people is really unpleasant. “Dude-”

“We should have left hours ago. Pack your things,” Morro just crosses his arms and watches the other boy drag a hand along his face. He opens his mouth to say something else, but Lloyd sits up and groans, “I’m going, I’m going.” His voice is quieter and rougher than it usually is, and Morro personally finds it an improvement. 

Morro is annoyed again at the ninjas’ secret identities when Lloyd again needs privacy to change into his gi because he apparently didn’t wear it under his civilian clothes today, and instead brought it in a duffel bag. This Green Ninja wastes too much time, he thinks. “Okay! I’m ready!” He calls from inside the warehouse and Morro returns, walking instead of floating.

“Now,” He starts, “You have to improve your spinning. There’s no point in trying to learn spinjitzu if you can’t keep your balance.” Luckily, during the obscene amount of time Lloyd took in sleeping, he was able to gather a list in his head of what to say. 

Lloyd positions his feet to begin, and then pauses. He looks at Morro, “Could you show me, maybe?”

Morro nods and walks him through it as he does it himself, “You need to keep your balance centered, don’t put too much weight on one f- Ugh-” He trips over his own feet and falls through the floor. Well. He was never a master. Morro floats out of the ground, having been met with a face full of the gravel underneath the warehouse’s floorboards, and back onto his feet. Lloyd isn’t laughing, and he isn’t sure if that’s better or worse. 

“You… can do spinjitzu, right?” He asks the question with such genuine concern that it makes embarrassment sting at Morro’s chest.

His face burning, he yells back, “Of course I can!” Lloyd has to brush his bangs away when gusts of wind blow them in front of his eyes. Morro huffs and tries again, without instruction this time. He can tell it’s unpolished, but Lloyd can’t, on account of how impressed he looks when he stops. 

“You’re talented,” Lloyd means it as a compliment, but he shakes his head, “Talent does not exist. And as I was saying, don’t put too much weight on one foot.” 

Lloyd nods and spins on his feet to the right. He doesn’t trip, but he isn’t going very fast, either. Morro walks over to him, “Stop. You have to wind up, first- watch.” His spinjitzu stance begins with spinning a step to the right, and then using that momentum to spin left. “Got it,” Lloyd tries again, this time winding up left and then spinning right, but he does it slowly, to try and get the steps down before going quickly - something Morro hadn’t even thought to suggest. 

Every time he accidentally steps on one of his own feet, or he nearly falls, he stops and tries again. “Keep your knees straight,” Morro advises after a few attempts, and Lloyd follows it. 

He isn’t sure how much time passes with Lloyd slowly moving through the steps of spinjitzu, but he’s eventually able to do it without tripping every time. After another success, Lloyd pauses practice and turns to Morro, his body only swaying a tad from dizziness, “How am I doing?”

How was he doing? Morro takes a moment to think back to how quickly he learned spinjitzu. He hadn’t taken it slow, instead jumping into trying to use it for combat. It had taken… probably months for him to grow decent at using it. It’s hard to compare, with how differently Lloyd is learning, but he supposes that he’s doing quite well for less than a day of trying. The problem is saying as much out loud. Lloyd is looking at him with a small, almost hopeful smile, as he wipes the sweat away from his forehead. Morro hesitates.

“You are… a hard worker,” he manages, and the other looks pleased enough at that. 

Morro feels a similar sort of embarrassment as earlier when Lloyd grins up at him. He looks away and says, “You’re nowhere near perfect. Keep going.”

He’s about to, when his ringtone begins to play from the duffel bag, a fittingly ninja-themed song. “That might be my mom,” Lloyd explains when Morro shoots him a look, and he retrieves his phone from the bag. He looks at the caller and hums thoughtfully before picking up, “Hey- Nya, what’s going on?”

The girl says something on the other line, Morro can’t hear what, but it makes Lloyd’s face turn pink. “I didn’t- I mean, I was fine. I am fine.” That definitely piques his curiosity, so Morro walks over to Lloyd and leans into the phone to hear what she says to that. 

“Yeah, yeah, you’re always fine. But it’d be fun anyway, right? Come on!”

“Um…” Lloyd moves the phone away from his ear for a moment to check the clock, and then replies, “..Okay, sure. I’m on my way.” Morro blinks, looking at him. 

Nya gives him some address Morro won’t remember, and they get off the phone. Lloyd takes a full step away from him and then stuffs his phone back into the duffel bag, instead trading it for his civilian clothing. “What’s so important?” he asks, because if he needs his civilian clothing, that means that it’s not a mission or any threat, so why would Lloyd end training early? 

“Well… Nya invited me to hang out with her and the guys-” Morro frowns, “-to make me feel better, ah… after yesterday, you know.” 

Hang out? He thought Lloyd was less lazy than the other barely-ninja in this world… Well, he supposed he still was - after all, the others hadn’t trained at all today, but he still expected better from the Green Ninja of all. Lloyd’s hands fidget with the tie of his gi. “You’re the Green Ninja! You can’t blow off training to just- do nothing ,” He almost-yells, and he has to bite back the resentment that threatens to come forth from the back of his mind. He never took breaks, he never slacked off, why wasn’t he–

“It’s not- nothing, Morro. They’re just tryna cheer me up,” Lloyd looks almost confused at his reaction, then throws his regular hoodie over his gi. “I already trained for three hours- it’s, like, okay to call it a day. Chill out, man.” 

“You-” Morro starts, and he cuts himself off because he knows he’s about to yell. He forces the wind at his fingers to dissipate, and he takes a breath. Finally, he grits out, “Where are we going?”

Lloyd sprays an obscene amount of deodorant on himself and says, “It’s a new arcade that opened up, I think. Nya didn’t give me a lot of details.” Morro doesn’t say anything, because he doesn’t know what that means, so he just drifts outside the warehouse and waits for him. For all he knows, an arcade could offer some sort of training, like a dojo. Or, well, something productive.

Arcades are not, as he finds, productive at all. Especially not ball pits. The environment was shiny and new, apparently having been recently rebuilt after Garmadon destroyed it, and Morro was a little surprised that Lloyd was allowed entry with how everyone seemed to treat him.

“Would you at least play a game?” Morro asks him, and Lloyd throws one of the plastic balls through him. “Yeah, yeah. I’m just tired after training,” He waves him off,” You could go watch one of them play.” 

He glances over to the other five ninja. Cole is playing some rhythm-based music game, his feet tapping quickly across four coloured arrows on the ground. It was a little impressive, if he was being honest. The others were less interesting- Jay and Nya were playing something that required headsets, and Jay kept bumping into her, apologizing profusely, and then doing it again. Kai and Zane were in front of what looked like a giant slot machine. Kai cranks the oversized handle while Zane goes on about the probabilities of winning each amount of tickets.

Morro looks back at Lloyd, “You only trained for a few hours.”

“A few hours is a lot!” He argues, fidgeting with another plastic ball, “What’d you do for fun, anyway? When you were alive?” 

He shrugs, “I liked to spar.” It was rare that Wu brought in a student that could pose a challenge for him, but he revelled in the feeling of victory every time he won against one of them. It’s hard to say if he’d be able to enjoy it in the same way now.

Morro’s eyes flick over to a child running up to the ball pit. Before she can reach it, a man - her father, assumedly - grabs her hand and scolds her, then dragging her away. Lloyd sees it too and finally stands up, sighing, only stumbling a little with the balls following around him, “Guess I should stop hogging, though.”

He wades out of the ball pit, “I’ll show you the best games, Morro. Come on!” 

“Fine,” Morro lands his feet on the ground and follows him over to the machines. It doesn’t seem like they’ll be leaving any time soon, so he might as well go along with it. Lloyd walks in front, and as he follows him, he spots another teenager out of the corner of his eye. He’s glaring at Lloyd, like most of the parents present are. 

The other boy doesn’t notice him, but the teenager pushes off the wall and starts approaching. Morro flings him into a trash can with a spit of wind. Not today. 

“What about that one?” Morro asks, pointing at the game Kai and Zane are at. Lloyd shakes his head, “No, that one never gives you anything. They always waste half or more of their tokens on it.” He watches as the machine lands on 10 tickets, and Kai shakes Zane while yelling about his probabilities being inaccurate. 

Lloyd walks up to a different ticket-giving machine and smiles at Morro, “This is the better one to farm. It takes actual skill.” There are various amounts of tickets bound up in rubber bands, behind glass. There’s a metal claw hanging from the top, and it moves as Lloyd moves the controller. He presses the only other control on the machine, the button, and the claw comes down.

It comes up empty, and Lloyd enters another token into the machine without pause. “You, uh… never get anything the first few tries.”

Morro watches him try a few more times, and the game seems aimless. He doesn’t know why Lloyd is even trying with the regular controls when he has him here - he kicks up a sharp gust of wind inside the glass, and several bundles of tickets fall into the shute. Lloyd blinks several times and then looks at him, almost pouting, “It’s not fun when you do it like that.”

“Is it fun to fail over and over?” He asks, a little dumbfounded. 

Lloyd sighs, then smiling at him, “It’s, you know- it’s about winning after failing a bunch of times. I was gonna get it this time!” He definitely wasn’t, but he turns back and keeps playing the game normally anyway.

Morro grumbles, “This is stupid.”

Lloyd takes a break after a little while and orders some of the very unappetizing-looking pizza. He’s sat down at one of the tables, and Morro stands across from him, a little awkwardly. “So,” he asks in between bites, “Are you… having fun?” Morro huffs, “No. This place is pointless.”

“Okay, I know you can’t touch, uh, anything, but give it a chance! Have fun.”

He doesn’t reply, simply looking at the snotty kids running around the games, and the ninja, who were fighting over who gets to play a random, inconsequential game first - except for Kai, who seemed to be approaching. “It’s not that bad,” Lloyd says, before turning to Kai.

The fire ninja stops in front of the table. “Hey, buddy, how are you doing?” He says it like Lloyd is a wild animal ready to bolt. He notices it, too, and gives Kai a weird look,” Um… Fine?” The ninja looks between Lloyd and the supposed empty space he’s been talking to. 

Kai looks hesitant and his mouth opens and closes a few times before he asks, "So! Lloyd... Who's your friend?" Well, Morro was waiting for someone to ask. He's sure Lloyd is competent enough to think of s-

"Uh, my. Dead......dog...

"WHAT?!"

"Down, boy."

Kai watches as Lloyd pats the air, and Morro just stares at him as his hand phases through him. The fire ninja nods and clamps a hand on Lloyd's shoulder, "Nya and I had a cat that died when we were younger. Cope any way you can, right?" He walks away after that.

“Why would you say that?” Morro hisses after he’s gone. Of all the ideas he could’ve had… It was clear Lloyd was having a two-way conversation, a dog didn’t even make sense! 

“I panicked,” He's grimacing like he regrets it, at least. Morro rolls his eyes, “Whatever. They’ll think you’re insane either way.” From how Kai reacted, it’s safe to assume that most people don’t believe in ghosts here. Who knows if they exist beyond him, too? 

Nya invites Lloyd to play a two-player game with her after he finishes eating. It’s pretty simple- they both shoot a water gun at targets and try to get more points than the other. With Nya’s lack of qualms about playing dirty and the surprisingly large mobility range of the water guns, she shoots water on Lloyd’s face right as he’s getting ahead of her. 

“Ah! Nya!” He takes his hands off the handles to cover his face. She just laughs and goes back to shooting the targets. He looks a tad more miserable with his wet bangs sticking to his face, and ends up winning against her anyway. “No way!” Is all she says before huffing and leaving to go see whatever Jay was playing. 

Morro can’t help but laugh when Lloyd looks at him with droplets of water still falling down his face and hair. He blows wind over his face like a high-powered hair dryer, and he’s a little impressed when all he has to do is run his hands through his hair a few times to get it looking perfect again, after the wild look the wind gave it. 

He follows Lloyd over to the game Cole and Zane are playing. “Air hockey,” Lloyd tells him, like that phrase means anything to him at all. “How are you so good at this, dude?” Cole stupidly asks the robot, sounding a little too frustrated.

Zane slides the puck into Cole’s goal with ease, hardly having to move his disc at all. “I downloaded several videos of professional air hockey before we began,” He replies, after the game is apparently over.

“Ugh…” Cole resets the game, placing the puck back onto the middle of the table. He turns to Lloyd, “Hey, you wanna play?” 

He looks hesitant, “Uh.. sure. You know I’m pre- pretty bad, though.”

Cole nods and replies sagely, “That’s why I’m asking you, man.” 

Morro thinks ‘pretty bad’ may be the understatement of the year. Lloyd doesn’t make a single goal and fails to defend his own almost every time Cole tries. It’s an absolute wipeout, and it hurts Morro to watch. After the first game, Lloyd asks to play again, and it’s turning out to be a repeat.

It makes him wish he could play for Lloyd- and… perhaps he could. He hasn’t been able to possess anything else, but maybe it’d be different with him. Lloyd’s the only one that can see him, or hear him, so if he could just try…

Morro floats over to Lloyd from where he had been watching, “Lloyd.” The boy glances at him, “Kinda trying not to lose right now, Morro.” 

He rolls his eyes, “You’re doing that anyway. Listen, I think I can help you.”

Lloyd shakes his head, trying and failing to hit the puck to Cole’s goal, “Nah, don’t use wind.” 

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Morro says, and Lloyd fails to block Cole once again , and he groans, “Okay, you know what- Fine, just do it. Uh, whatever it is.” He nods and tries to channel the same energy he used in his own world to possess people, and walks into Lloyd.

He blinks his eyes open, and his solid hand is on the disc. It worked. “Di- did you just possess me?” Lloyd asks, and it’s not inside his head like he was used to- Morro looks to his left and double takes. Lloyd’s there, in a form similar to his own spectral one. “I- Yes,” He answers, before easily sliding the puck into Cole’s goal. 

Morro easily wins the game within a few minutes, and Cole’s completely dumbfounded. He tries not to say much, knowing that the others would be able to hear the change of voice, and luckily Lloyd’s physical appearance remains the same.

He leaves Lloyd’s body as soon as he wins, returning him to his own. It feels good to win, especially with how gobsmacked Cole looks, but regret quickly crawls up his throat- he didn’t want to ruin whatever alliance he had with this Green Ninja, or scare him, or… “That was, uh, an experience,” Lloyd comments, bringing up his hands to stare at them. “I didn’t think you had it in you, I’ll be honest,” Cole replies, and Lloyd looks between him and Morro, “Me neither.” 

Cole challenges Kai to play, then, and Lloyd walks off to another game. “I'm sorry if that was…” Morro tries, and it’s difficult to find the words for an apology, “...Uncomfortable.” 

Lloyd shakes his head, grinning at him, “No, this is cool! You should’ve told me you could do that earlier- now you can actually play the games.” The weight in his chest dissipates and Morro asks, a little uncertain, “And you’re fine with that?” 

“It was weird, but yeah,” he responds, shrugging. “Maybe you’ll like it, now.” He’s a little more than relieved that Lloyd’s apparently okay with being possessed because it’s such a sharp contrast to how it was before he came here- but he supposes he did ask permission beforehand, even though he didn’t specify what he was trying to do. The fact he wasn’t trying to steal Lloyd’s life was probably… a factor, as well.

For the rest of the time they’re at the arcade, they alternate between Morro possessing him and not, and he had to admit, the games weren’t terrible when he got to play them. He only got angry a couple times when he went against Lloyd’s advice and tried the slot machine game, of course gaining nothing beyond a few tickets. 

Lloyd gave all the tickets they won to Jay, who was apparently pooling everyone’s together to buy a giant Green Ninja plushie. It was low quality and Morro could’ve sworn he already saw a rip in the fabric, but Lloyd seemed happy enough when Jay gave it to him. 

“I think the Garmadon-themed game might’ve been in bad taste, though. Just a little,” Lloyd says as they’re walking to his home. They’ve split off from the other ninja by now, and Morro’s walking side-by-side with him. “Maybe,” He replies. Lloyd had been shockingly good at that one, and Morro remembers how freaked out the people outside of their circle had looked, watching. He laughs a little. 

Lloyd looks at him, pleased, “You warmed up to it, huh?”

Morro shrugs, “Hm, it’s something to do with spare time, I suppose. You still shouldn’t have blown off training for it.” Mindless fun wasn’t something he liked to indulge in, but again, it wasn’t terrible. “I did train, Morro,” he looks exasperated at that. It makes him crack a little bit of a smile, and distantly, he wonders if he could have befriended the Lloyd from his world. It was too late for that now, but it wasn’t with this one.

Chapter Text

The next Garmadon attack was a few days later. It was afternoon, and Lloyd and Morro were killing time in a café. 

“How do you drink that?” Morro asks, disgusted. He had possessed Lloyd to try it- with his permission(!)- and it was worse than any slop you could drink off the Preeminent’s tentacles. 

Lloyd shrugs, sipping a taste of it, like he was trying to understand the other’s dislike, “I don’t know. It’s really not that bad after you get used to it, you know?” 

“I don’t know,” he deadpans. Master Wu had only ever given him tea when he was alive, and there was certainly no coffee in the Departed Realm. It was a place for the dead to rest, so there wasn’t anything you could seek energy with at all.

He hasn’t told Lloyd a lot about his life, and he can see the curiosity light up his face. Morro shakes his head and answers before he can ask, “Wu served me tea, and I didn’t have anything to buy coffee with before that.”

Lloyd nods, “Uncle Wu only gives me green tea.” He snorts at that.

“So, before you were with him…Like, I know you didn’t have a family, but where were you? An orphanage?” Lloyd asks before taking another sip of his drink, Morro using wind to cool it off a little beforehand. 

“I was on my own,” Morro tells him, “Master Wu found me only when I tried to steal from his garbage.” The memory is still vivid in his mind, and it’s a fond one - but he was confused, to say the least, when it was happening. One moment he had no home, and the other a freakishly old man had offered him a place in his dojo, only with the price of training. He stops the memories of his past there these days, even if it hurts less now - he’d prefer to not look back on Wu’s expectations, or his inability to live up to them. 

Lloyd fiddles with his cup, sliding it between one hand to the other on the table. Morro watches the movement as he explains shortly, “I died after I left his monastery.” 

“So you have, like, unfinished business with him? Is that why you’re a ghost?”

He shakes his head, “No. Well… I did, before, but that’s not why I became a ghost. Where I come from, everyone does after they die - you just live in the Departed Realm. That’s where I was before I came here.” Morro prefers to leave the Cursed Realm unmentioned- he figures it’s a piece of his past Lloyd doesn’t need to know about. Not yet, at least.

“Okay, I kind of want to ask something else, but I don’t know if it’s… okay?” Lloyd talks slowly, wringing his hands, “Umm… Like, were you in battle? When you, you know.” He draws a line across his neck, then glancing away, unsure.

Morro sighs, “It’s fine. When I died originally, it was from an explosion inside a cave.” Lloyd almost looks confused that it wasn’t some grand story of valour, and he asks, “Really? That was all it took? Er- I mean! I just wouldn’t expect that because you’re really strong! Not to…um..” He fumbles over his words, and Morro has learned to tune most of it out at this point. 

“Yeah, yeah,” He interrupts him, waving his hand dismissively, “I get what you meant.” Lloyd drinks more of his coffee, and they sit in quiet for a minute or two, until the café’s door rings open with a new customer. Neither of them pay it any mind, as they’ve gotten accustomed to the sound within the near hour they’ve been there - not until the owner of the store, who had made Lloyd pay extra, yelps loudly. She drops the drink she was bringing to a customer, and rushes to try and run out of the store. Morro watches as one of Garmadon’s generals, dressed in a fish-themed helmet, blocks the exit, while other goons dressed similarly charge at her. Lloyd is already getting up, and he avoids the chaos to rush to the small, secluded bathroom hidden in the back. 

Morro blasts the general away from the door, allowing many of the trapped customers to run away. He’d been wondering when Garmadon would attack again, and he supposes the time is now. Lloyd exits the bathroom a minute later, now dressed and masked as the Green Ninja, and he groans as he joins Morro, “I knew it’d been too quiet.” 

Lloyd doesn’t have his sword or his mech, and is reduced to using whatever he can find around him to fight against the enemy, on top of regular punches and kicks. The fish head-clad general lets go of the shop owner and goes to jump over one of the tables- to charge at Lloyd- Morro forces the table to tip over, on top of her, with a sharp gust. The other boy throws a couple chairs on top, too, to keep her down for longer. 

“We gotta get to the warehouse!” He says to him, while ducking away from a crab. He tries to catch another, but it flies past him while his arms fumble uselessly. The crab lands on one of the customers that hadn’t escaped yet, and he jumps over to pry it off of them. 

When the shark head is out of marine life to fire at him, he resorts to throwing the crab-firing gun at him, while another goes to sneak up on him. “Lloyd, move!” Morro yells at him as the sneaker is about to jump on him. The idiot is trying to catch the gun and isn’t even listening - he groans and flies into him.

Morro only has a second to dodge away from the goon, dropping the empty crab-firer carelessly, causing them to trip right into the one that threw it. “Give a guy some warning next time,” Lloyd says, huffing when he returns to his body, and Morro rolls his eyes while the other handles the last of them, “You were about to be hit.” 

“I- I could’ve handled it! Have a little faith,” Lloyd replies, using a chair to block the last dope left from attacking. He swings it at them, and Morro adds a little extra force to it with his wind. “Let’s go,” he says.

They catch the Good Morning Ninjago broadcast playing on display televisions on the way. “Garmadon is back once again, and that means stay inside! And especially stay away from coffee shops of any kind-the dark lord is cited as stating he was ‘craving an espresso’ and that any and all cafés were to be conquered!” The male reporter chirps, and Lloyd sighs as they run past it (floating in Morro’s case), “It’s always something like that.” 

“Really?” Morro snorts. He has to admit it’s a little difficult to keep up with Lloyd-he’s a good runner.

“Mhm. You know, once he had all the gyms destroyed ‘cause he decided everyone should have ‘dad bods’,” Lloyd tells him, making air quotes. Morro almost laughs as Lloyd wades between fleeing citizens, “That can’t be true.” He looks back at him, his eyebrows high on his masked head, “No, seriously! And who had to pay for it? Me- and his generals, probably. I- I heard a rumour that he throws half of them out every time he fails- and he fails a lot .”

Morro shakes his head, then laughs freely. Lord Garmadon seemed absurdly goofy in this world- he can’t remember a time he overheard anything but brooding from him in the Cursed Realm- not to mention what he saw in the other Lloyd’s head. 

He loses his Lloyd for a moment, in the chaos of the raid, and he blows some of the goons out of his way carelessly. When he catches up to him, he ponders out loud, “How does he manage to get so many employees? They seem very-” One of the goons dressed in a fish helmet tries to rush Lloyd, and he kicks him away easily, “-Loyal to him.”

“I don’t know, I actually think about that a lot,” Lloyd answers with wide eyes. He jumps at an abrupt surge in the ground, and his eyes snap to look behind them. 

Morro looks, too, and it seems the other ninja were arriving on the scene already - Cole was in his quake mech, and the surge he sent through the earth was enough to knock quite a few of the generals down. A couple of them get up right away and begin to climb up its large wheel, and Cole shoots at them, grabbing the ones he misses and throwing them aside.

“Why are you still on the ground, man?” Cole asks as he rolls over, taking down more goons on the way. “Jay, give him a ride!” He talks into the radio, and the jet flies overhead soon enough. 

The cockpit is clearly only built for one person, and Lloyd ends up smushed into Jay’s side. “We need a better system than this,” He mumbles, and Morro snickers at how stupidly grumpy he looks. He himself has to awkwardly squat, to have his feet grounded, without actually sitting down so he won’t accidentally lean back and fall out. At the least, he’s able to phase through Jay. 

“Sorry, buddy,” The lighting ninja replies, sending him an apologetic look - he has his mask on, but Morro’s sure he’s smiling shyly.

Lloyd shakes his head, “It’s- fine. Just get us to the warehouse.” Jay nods, dutifully, momentarily ignoring the fight going on underneath them. Garmadon has brought goons with their own jets, though, and one of them flies in front of him and yells, “Stop right there, Blue Ninja!”

Jay has to swerve the controls of his jet to dodge the spears and crabs hurled at them, and Lloyd is tugged between slamming into the glass of the cockpit and right back into Jay’s side. At one point, the jet flies upside down and Morro falls right out of it. He rushes with airjitzu to catch up once it’s right-side up again, and returns where he was - he looks at Jay, hoping a little to feel secure in the ninja’s face, but he looks absolutely terrified. Morro realizes, then, that the jet’s movements were erratic with panic, instead of the precise dodging he assumed. 

There has to be a better way than riding with this lunatic. “Can’t you take over?” He asks Lloyd, who looks like he’s about to hurl. “I don’t know how to fly this-” The jet swerves again, and he clasps his hand over his mouth, and wow Lloyd might actually throw up. 

“D-Do you mind-?” Lloyd asks the other ninja, and Morro can see his patience dwindling.

“I’m terrible under pressure!” Jay practically screams it, but they’re finally past the enemy jets at this point, so he takes a deep breath, “We’re almost there, though. Only- Only a few more minutes!”

Lloyd sighs with relief, “Okay. Thank you.” He and Morro share a look, and Morro would have laughed if the other didn’t look so tense. 

The rest of the ride is, rejoicefully, less chaotic. Jay drops Lloyd off, and by extension Morro, and zooms off to resume fighting. When his feet reach the ground, Lloyd shoves off his mask to take in a few gasps of air. “Wow, I thought that would never end,” He says before pulling it back over his head and walking to the warehouse’s entrance. 

“Is he always like that?” Morro asks, maybe a tad condescendingly, and the other just shrugs, shoving open the wide, creaking doors - they head in.

Morro looks around inside to find that all the other mechs are gone. Were they all together when the attack started? Actually, he does remember Lloyd turning down a hangout earlier, citing exhaustion from training so much - but he and Lloyd were out and about all day today. Oh- did he ditch them to hang out with him?

“Come on, Morro!” Lloyd calls from above, and Morro looks up to see him already standing at the dragon’s controls. “Right,” he huffs, using airjitzu to get up quickly.

The chaos they return to is more unmanaged than usual, due to the short absence of the Green Ninja. It’s hard to find a place to start, and he watches Lloyd’s eyes scan over the conquered coffee shops and the goons running in and out of the banks. They don’t see Garmadon yet, but he can’t be too far away. 

“Lloyd, there,” he points down at one of the cafés run wild with shark and fish headed villains. There are civilians inside, being held there while the goons hold the doors. Lloyd nods and quickly locates any other shops in a similar situation, then sending tiny, precise missiles to blast open the doors. Many of the goons are sent flying, and the ones that aren’t, Morro launches them away himself with wind. 

The civilians can finally leave the store, and they cheer for Lloyd. He only nods at them in return, but Morro can tell how much he’s beaming from the glints in his eyes. “We gotta find Garmadon,” Lloyd tells him as they move on. 

One of Garmadon’s generals approaches the blown-away goons, on a mech smaller and less sophisticated than the ninja’s own. “Lord Garmadon says,” She takes a long sip from a coffee mug - and Morro can’t tell if that’s part of the message or not - and then announces, “Focus all your efforts on bringing down the Green Ninja! Stall him!”

He isn’t sure how they think announcing their plan in front of the Green Ninja is a sound idea, but they comply, and the dragon mech is swarmed by idiots dressed in shark, fish, and crab costumes within seconds.

Morro tries to blow them away, but there’s so many- and only more are approaching. They’re not just climbing up or jumping onto the mech, they’re using spears and swords to try to dismantle it- Lloyd is not ready to fight all of them without it. Not alone, at least. The boy in question struggles to shoot at them- whenever he gets a few away, more jump on. 

“Keep them away from the controls!” Lloyd yells to him, and he nods, focusing on the ones closest. The goons are targeting the missile launchers, and Morro doubts they’ll be able to destroy the mech, but that is definitely going to be a problem if he doesn’t stop it- Lloyd has given up on using the launchers at this point and pulls on a lever, causing a compartment on the mech’s ground to open up, revealing his sword.

While Morro handles the goons charging towards them, Lloyd fights the ones focused on damaging the dragon. He has to say he’s a little pleased at the other’s improvement- he only has to intervene and fling one of them a couple of times. “You’re improving,” He tells him, in between swings of his sword, and Lloyd laughs, a little nervously, “Am- Am I? Thanks.” 

By the time they have the enemy under control, the mech is damaged- not beyond repair, but its processors whirl with too much effort when Lloyd tries to get it flying again. The radio still works, thankfully, and he speaks into it, “Does anybody have eyes on Garmadon?”

Kai answers, “I’m up against him right now! Jay, I need back up.”

“Can’t someone else help? I’m a little- WAAAH!” There are sounds of fire- most likely crabs- before Jay’s radio cuts out. Lloyd and Morro glance at each other.

Nya replies a second later, right as Lloyd is about to interject, “I can be there in five- hang on, bro!” 

Before Kai can confirm with her, Lloyd does interject, “Wait, Nya, Kai- I’ll handle my dad, just give me a minute to get there.” He can’t be serious. The others agree with a little reluctance, and Morro crosses his arms, “Lloyd. Let them fight him, you cannot win against him right now.” This Garmadon was goofy, but his generals were clearly trained a little better this time and Lloyd could not take the both of them on. 

“Sure I can! I-” Lloyd tries again to get the mech up in the air, having it take a running start, but it falls to the ground again, and he lands on it with an ‘oof’. Morro gives him a look.

 He waves it off, “I’ll just fight him without it! I mean, you said I was getting better.” He jumps off of the dragon, impulsively starting to run one direction without even thinking to ask Kai where they are. “I got this, Morro.”

“Why are you acting so stupid?” Morro floats in front of him, not exactly blocking his way, though Lloyd does stop, “He has an army! Just let the others do it. You’re needed here.” He motions around them, and some of the goons had regained their bearings and had gradually taken over the coffee stores again, while others were readying to attack the Green Ninja once more. 

Lloyd looks around, reluctantly considering it. He knows he can’t argue, and sighs after a moment, deflating a little, “Fine. You’re right.” He runs back over to the mech and talks through the radio, “Never mind, guys- my dragon is down. Uh… he’s all yours.” The words sound awkward coming out of him.

Zane chimes in, then, “Great decision, Lloyd, there would have been a 78% chance of failure if you had fought Lord Garmadon without it.” Cole agrees, “You would’ve been pummelled, man. Good call.” They all seem to be aware of this obsession with fighting Garmadon himself.

Lloyd sighs, a little frustrated, and answers, “...Yeah. Thanks.” He jumps back down to the ground, kicking away a crab-helmeted girl who tries to lunge at him. “Hey, 22% isn’t that bad,” He tells Morro, who was giving him a very much I told you so look. 

“Maybe not for you,” He says, smirking. Lloyd walks over to him, they face towards the surrounding enemies together, and he truly is glad Lloyd made the not-idiot decision. With how upset he seemed about his relationship with Garmadon, he seemed a little too eager to take him down - the other Lloyd was the exact opposite. Glancing at him, Morro wonders just to what extent they differ.

Chapter Text

Sure enough, the bullying was worse the day after. They’re on the morning’s bus ride, and Lloyd has earbuds in, listening to a song Morro had declined to listen along to. He had never heard a lot of music, especially not when he was alive, and he’s reluctant to start. There were too many kinds, and he felt he’d rather have his introduction to music happen elsewhere, rather than a school bus with barely-functioning air conditioning. …Not that he could feel the difference. 

The act of Lloyd simply bopping his head to the song was, like everything else his classmates saw him do, treated like an evil deed that needed to be righted. Morro is, naturally, bored out of his mind, and is just observing the students, when he sees a boy take gum out of his mouth. He expects him to stick it under the already dirty bus seat, like he’s seen a few people do, but the guy just rolls it between his fingers, glowering through Morro at Lloyd. 

Morro only has a few seconds to react when he raises his arm and throws the wadded ball of gum, and he sends it flying back with wind. The gum bounces off one of the seats and lands, to be forgotten, under it. 

“How does he do that?” The gum-thrower asks, looking annoyed. “I’ll bet his dad gave him a force field,” The girl sitting next to him, who had watched the attempt, replies, “An invisible one, you know.”

Morro rolls his eyes and stops listening to them, looking over at Lloyd to see if he noticed. He’s relieved when he sees the other is still staring out the window, listening to music with contentment. If he hadn’t stopped the gum, it would’ve landed in Lloyd’s hair, and he thinks that would’ve been terribly unfortunate. He glances back at the guy who had thrown the gum, and he wishes it would’ve landed in his hair instead. It was clear school would be nothing but an annoyance today, although, perhaps that would be a nice change of pace from the unending boredom of waiting for Lloyd to finish the classwork so he could speak to him.

“Happy early birthday, by the way, man,” Jay says, looking up from his paper at Lloyd. It’s in the same kind of nervous-child tone that this version talks with. It’s better than hearing him scream during battle, Morro reasons. “What are you thinking of doing?” Jay adds, asking. 

Lloyd glances away from his own papers at him, “Uh… Thanks, and I don’t know. Not much?” 

Despite Koko’s pushing, he hadn’t agreed to a party or anything of the sort. He supposes Lloyd wouldn’t want any more attention than he usually gets, which Morro can only sort-of understand. Though, if it were him having to deal with the idiots currently eyeing him, as if he’s doing something wrong by just speaking to a friend in class, maybe he’d feel the same way about it. Regardless, birthday celebrations specifically seemed pointless to him. He likes celebrations only when there was an actual accomplishment to celebrate, and unsurprisingly, simply being alive did not fit Morro’s standard for such. Especially when they were too young to have truly achieved anything spectacular, unlike someone like Wu or even Garmadon.

“Really? You don’t want a party?” Jay asks, as if it was any surprise.

Lloyd hums and returns his eyes to his paper and resumes his writing on it, “No, I- I really don’t.”

Morro doubts he really could have a party, even if he wanted to. He and Koko’s apartment hardly have enough space for the two of them and the other ninja to fit inside, let alone dance, or… whatever high school parties entail. The ninja could pool money together to reserve some restaurant, or simply go to one of their homes, but Lloyd is so stupidly selfless he probably wouldn’t want to cause the trouble. He wouldn’t want to cause any problems for his mom, either-he wasn’t sure how much it cost to live in this Ninjago City, but from the way he’d heard Koko talk about it sometimes, it didn’t seem like they had a lot of extra money lying around. It makes him wonder a little if he really doesn’t want one, or if he’s only saying so to prevent said trouble.

“They wouldn’t have a problem helping. If you wanted one,” He tells Lloyd, a little stiffly. 

The other doesn’t look up that time, simply shaking his head, “No, I know. Just really don’t.. like parties..” He sounds distracted, his focus split between talking and whatever he’s writing. 

Morro glances up, disinterested, when the teacher calls up one of the students to collect a graded paper, scolding them for not writing their name. They get up and walk over to her desk, and it’s the student that sits behind Lloyd. He’s only memorable from how frequently he glares at the back of his head. 

“Lloyd, did you finish already?” Jay asks, “Do you have the answer to this one?” Said boy looks up, and leans over to glance at which question it was. Morro glances down at what Lloyd had been writing, now unblocked from view. Interesting. Jay looks, too, and asks, “What’s that?” Lloyd circles the right answer on Jay’s paper and waves his hand, “Oh, it’s-”

“Notes for spinjitzu?” The guy, who’d been returning to his seat, reads aloud. Lloyd tries to grab it, but he’s faster. “And these are bullet points,” He announces to the several classmates that have looked up, and then begins reading out the list, “‘Maintain balance, keep your feet weighted, channel your energy, find your element…’ And there’s a little,” He turns the paper around, holding it up to show the now grown number of people looking, “Doodle here. Of a fake Green Ninja. Is this serious?” He laughs, mean spirited. 

Lloyd’s face has turned red from embarrassment, but there’s no sign of panic on his features. He reaches out to grab the paper, but the classmate holds it higher, making Lloyd’s hand clench into a fist and drop back down onto the desk. “Seriously, what is this? Is this supposed to be you?” He looks around at the other students, and a girl- in fact, the same girl from last week that had upset Lloyd so badly- snickers. 

Morro looks at the drawing, and it’s of him, poorly drawn, but it’s recognizable through the green streak Lloyd had used a highlighter for. “Um,” Jay speaks up, and his voice is too quiet to be anywhere near commanding, “Maybe you should just.. let it go? I- I mean, everyone likes to think about being a ninja… sometimes…” Unlike the one at an actual risk of his identity being revealed, Jay looks anxious, though that could easily be chalked up to the minimal confrontation. Neither Lloyd nor the student really acknowledge his attempt.

“No, it’s not me,” Lloyd, having given Jay a look, replies “It’s just a, uh… character. That I thought of!” Morro tries to ease the tension in his shoulders by commenting, “It should’ve been a dog.” It earns him a brief smile, before the other asshole starts speaking again. 

“This is just sad. Does he fantasize about being a hero in between destroying buildings?” The student entertains, looking around at the other classmates as if he’s giving some kind of comedy act. “Just-” Lloyd tries, his hands moving a little to get the paper back, and he interrupts him, “No, no, I think this should be on display. Your, ah… character.” He smiles meanly at him before walking over to the teacher’s desk- the teacher who, for some reason, is doing absolutely nothing- and grabs a thumb tack, then pinning up the paper on the grey wall.

A few of the other students leave their seats to view it, and of course the teacher steps in then, ordering them to sit back down. The guy obliges, snorting as he walks past Lloyd, then sitting back down behind him. 

“Are you good?” Jay mumbles, nudging him. Lloyd nods, sighing, “Yeah. Yep, I’m good.” Morro glances over at him at the sound of his voice, strained with frustration. Lloyd’s glaring down at his desk, his arms resting pressed together like he’s about to put his head down, and visible tears have brimmed his eyes - not enough to fall, but enough to catch Morro’s eye. “Or so you like to imagine,” The loser behind him quips, and why is everyone at this school so- Lloyd’s hands become fists again, for a moment, before the tension releases in his body and he sighs. He looks more defeated, now.

Morro’s head snaps to look at the guy, and it takes pretty much everything in him not to pummel him right away with a tornado or something of equal strength that’d communicate how angry he is. It wasn’t fair. Lloyd, after yesterday’s victory, had gone to the bus with more optimism than usual- he was better than fine. Of course one of the mindless drones here would drag it down right as he felt proud. 

It wasn’t even that the bully had really gotten to Lloyd, just now his mood was dampened back to the imperfectly concealed gloominess it usually was at school- it was just a reminder of how ostracized he was. Morro looks at the teacher, then, and he feels like screaming. Now she’s looking at the paper, half-smiling at the little doodle of him on it like she’s concealing some type of humorous outburst. He resolves to do something before he can barely think about it - people like this need to have some type of consequence, because they’re definitely not getting it here.

The ninja linger inside a little longer than usual, even after the school day’s ended. Maybe because the worst people in the school have already left - together, even, and it makes one wonder if they orchestrate their idiocy together. The separation of the groups gives Morro the perfect opportunity, and the only drawback is trying to find a reasonable excuse to go. He hasn’t really left Lloyd alone since he found him, beyond common privacies and when that girl had gotten to him. He tunes into the current conversation a little, hoping to find an opening.

“I’m trying to fix up this motorcycle, but it’s kind of a big project with everything going on,” Nya says, leaning against one of the lockers. “Would you like me to download a building manual for the model type?” Zane inquires, standing stiff as ever. Jay looks between the floor and her, his hands pulling at the frays of his long scarf.

Kai shakes his head, “Nah, she knows how to build it.” 

“Mhm, it’s mostly done anyway,” She nods, “It’s just hard to find the time, you know?” Jay builds up the courage and looks up at her, “I can help! My parents are into…making stuff, so.. If you need extra hands.” His voice had lost confidence along the way, but he did it. 

Nya doesn’t look as excited as him by the idea, but she smiles, “Yeah, sure. Can you help today?”

Jay smiles back, shy and relieved, “Yeah, I- I can make that work.” Lloyd looks at Morro, commenting quietly enough to where only he can hear, “Can you believe- Uh, are you okay?” He blinks at how visibly scrunched up Morro’s face and posture are. “..Yes,” he replies, and decides he had better take his chance now, “But I’m going to take a walk.” 

Maybe he over-thought it, because Lloyd just shrugs and says, “‘Kay. I’m going straight home, by the way.” He appreciates him saying as much and nods, then floating out of the school. 

Luckily, the group of fools is still outside. It’s a kind of large group, containing the boy who sat behind Lloyd, the girl from the previous incident, a cheerleader Morro just barely remembers as being annoying, and some others. They’re all standing around, not unlike the ninja, planning some activity or other. Morro smiles a little, because there are so many possibilities with what he could do.

They’ve put themselves into the perfect setup, he realizes, because on the other side of the wall that they’re leaning on, there’s the school’s large dumpsters. If the gum display early this morning hadn’t been enough to convince Morro of the trash bags’ disgusting contents, then the other things he’d witnessed the students doing were. It was good enough for the first time, he supposes.

Morro floats over to the dumpsters and swings open their covers - they’re surprisingly heavy, and it takes some effort. When he manages it, the covers make a loud sound, banging against the steel back of the dumpsters. 

The noise makes the group jump a little, along with some other nearby students. He looks at them, and thinks that it’ll be a little too difficult to aim all the trash at them if they’re running around and presumably screaming. It’s an easy fix - Morro summons large swipes of wind and knocks them all off their feet, one by one. The girl and the cheerleader even knock into each other as they fall. “Ow, what the-” She screams as a trash bag, wet for some reason, splats onto her. It remains intact, so Morro figures he isn’t throwing them hard enough. 

The bully girl shoves the trash bag off of her with disgusted hands, right onto one of the others. “Who did that?” She hops to her feet and stomps over to the dumpster, looking inside, expecting to see someone, or maybe even an animal, hiding inside. Instead, Morro flings another trash bag at her, this time with enough force to where, when it crashes into her, it both knocks her down again and bursts open. He’s ever grateful for being unable to smell, because she looks like she’s going to throw up - the others in the group aren’t too far behind her.

Morro keeps an eye on them, pushing them back down with forceful winds whenever they try to get up. He ignores the girl, who’s already crying and trying to peel off all the trash sticking to her, to focus on the guy from earlier today - he’s really the one that sparked this, after all. Morro wonders, for a moment, if he should’ve possessed Lloyd to do this. They would’ve respected him afterwards, no doubt.

As fun as it sounds, he already knows Lloyd would never agree to it. The other Lloyd wasn’t exactly happy when his body was used to hurt his fellow ninja, and while these are only moronic civilians, he’d predict a similar reaction. 

In any case, Lloyd will be able to enjoy seeing them suffer like this as long as it wasn’t him doing it, he thinks. Morro sends multiple trash bags onto the guy from earlier, watching in delight as old fruit peels and candy wrappers stick to his hair and his clothes. “What’s going on- are we being haunted?” The cheerleader asks, pom-poms in hand, trying to lift himself up and again being pushed back down by a current.

“Yes,” Morro says, even if they can’t hear him. It brings him joy either way. 

He blows a trash bag carelessly into the cheerleader’s face, not caring for him as much as the others. Glancing over to the other people present in the group, he spots the boy from this morning on the bus, and what do you know? Gum’s blown into his hair. Morro can’t help but laugh- Lloyd was going to love this. 

Morro turns back to the school just in time to see its main doors swinging open, and the group of ninja exiting. He allows the wind to let up on the tormented group, and lowers himself down to stand next to them. 

“Ow! Don’t just pull it out, you idiot-” The boy with gum stuck in his hair yelps as one of the others tries to get it out. 

The girl is uselessly attempting to get the mystery stains left by the trash off of her clothes with just her hands, still crying. The guy from class was gasping for air because apparently the imbecile somehow managed to taste one of the pieces of garbage.

Morro can see the ninjas’ faces change in real time as they’re presented with the scene. Kai and Nya hold back laughs, while Jay goes something like ‘ooh, yikes’, and Morro doesn’t pay attention to the others because he sees Lloyd’s face. 

Lloyd stares at the bullies, on the ground, most of them crying, all arguing, with garbage stuck to their clothes, skin, and hair. Most of the garbage in their hair was really tangled into it because of all the wind. Lloyd says something to the others and then walks with barely concealed haste, simply pointing at Morro and then pointing outside the school campus. He follows him, looking down at the other’s hands balled into fists with a little confusion, while his smile slowly fades. 

As soon as they’re away from the bullies and friends, Lloyd whips around and yells, “What did you do?!” 

Morro blinks, “I-”

“You just attacked innocent people! You can’t just- do that, Morro,” He says, and his tone has an undercurrent of desperation. Morro scoffs - so that’s where this was going - and he replies, “They’re not innocent.” 

Lloyd rolls his eyes, and they both ignore the people walking by giving him weird looks. “I- I don’t care if they’re mean, they don’t know any better!” He argues, his hands gesturing around wildly, “You should know better than to hurt people that can’t fight back-”

“No, you’re overreacting,” Morro interrupts him. The only way he hurt them was by dirtying their clothes and their hair. “I could’ve hurt them if I wanted to. All I did was throw trash!” Lloyd stammers for a moment, then making a frustrated sound, “They’re just civilians. And ‘all you did’-” He makes air quotes with his hands, “-was bullying.”

Is he serious? “You’re not trying to say I’m as bad as them,” Morro denies, anticipating a lecture already, “It was in retaliation.” 

“What do you think they’re doing?” Lloyd’s voice raises again, “They really think I’m helping my dad - all they can do to retaliate is- is ignore me, or make fun of me, or whatever!” 

“Why don’t you do something about it?” Morro asks him, with an air of incredulity. He doesn’t understand- Lloyd has all the power to be accepted by his classmates, and everyone in this city for that matter, if he’d just- “Tell them who you are,” He voices his thoughts, “You’re taking it, and for what?”

Lloyd looks more annoyed at that, “I already told you, dude. I’m- I’m a ninja to help people, okay? I’m not using it for that!” His hands rake through his hair. 

“Okay, so what about earlier?” Morro snaps, crossing his arms, “If you really didn’t want anyone to know, you wouldn’t have written ninja notes where they could be found.” Lloyd’s qualms with this were stupid- literally everything in his life would be improved by telling people. 

Lloyd laughs at him, and he frowns harder, “Do you really think they’d figure it out, just from that? I knew they’d just make fun of it- there’s no danger there.” 

Morro huffs, “What danger is there? It’s not greedy to want respect, or-”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe I don’t want my dad to find out I’m the one he’s been fighting this entire time,” Lloyd says it with almost condescension, like it’s obvious. It didn’t make sense- they had no relationship anyway, so what was the problem? Morro shakes his head, “Whatever! The reason people hate you here is simply because they don’t know what you’re like. Telling them is- is just showing them!” 

“No, you don’t get it,” Lloyd says, with his hands held halfway between them, like he wants to physically shake some sense into him, if he could. “You’re right, Lloyd, I don’t! They would realize exactly who they’ve been bullying- you’d be respected and feared!” With how he’s seen the other be treated, the civilians deserved to be a little scared. They’d never mess with him again. 

Lloyd tugs at his hair for a moment and then replies slowly, like he’s talking to a child, “You shouldn’t want to be feared- Morro, that’s not a normal thing to want.” 

Maybe he was right, but Morro couldn’t be bothered to think about it right now. Lloyd was still talking, anyway, “You’ve acted like your Wu was so much better at training you, but you don’t understand anything! Hurting civilians is wrong, full-stop. Period. That’s it,” He says, and then finally turns away from him. “I’m going home- don’t follow me.” 

Morro says nothing, and watches him leave. His anger fizzles down into regret, instead. He disagrees with Lloyd’s sentiments, but now he’s messed up, like he knew he would the second he saw Lloyd. Floating back towards the school campus, the bullies are gone, leaving a trail of garbage behind. They were probably pulling it off as they were leaving, and he almost laughs before the constriction of anxiety returns to his chest. 

He was unsure about how long he was supposed to stay away from Lloyd. Morro’s sure he didn’t mean forever, anyway, because it’d be a little too ridiculous for him to forgive his classmates and hold a grudge against him for messing with them back. 

The sky has long darkened when Morro decides it’s been enough time. Lloyd will already be asleep, but he figures that looking at him may give him a revelation of sorts. When he phases through the apartment door, he finds the lights aren’t completely out. 

Instead, they’re dimmed, and Koko is talking on the phone. “My son does not have elemental powers of any kind,” She speaks quietly enough to not disturb Lloyd’s rest, but she seems to be struggling to do so, the sharpness of her tone making it raise at points. “He will not be apologizing for something he didn’t do,” Morro watches her rub at her face, exhausted. It’s clear this isn’t the first phone call. “I understand, miss, but how could he have done something like that without being there?” Oh.

Morro’s glad that his fingers don’t phase through himself so that he can slap his hand to his forehead. Of course Lloyd’s being blamed- he’s not supposed to be this stupid; everything’s a mess now. 

“Please, miss, try to think rationally,” Koko has to suppress her own anger while managing the other parent’s, “Lloyd cannot control the wind.” It’s a little sad that she has to argue the plausibility of Lloyd doing it, rather than the fact he never would- nobody would believe her. The person on the other line is going on for a while, and Morro chooses not to listen in, because it’ll only upset him more.

“I’ll only pay for the clothing if you don’t report this to the school,” Koko offers, firmly. The other parent seems to agree, because she nods her head, and says, “Okay. Goodbye.” She sighs as soon as she hangs up, and tosses the phone to the couch. He watches her finally turn out the lights, and retreat to her room.

Just as expected, Lloyd is asleep when Morro enters his room. He can just barely make out the details of his face in the dark, and he stares. Lloyd’s bad mood showed even in his slumber, with his eyebrows drawn together, and his mouth twisted into a small frown. He probably fell asleep still angry at Morro. Beyond his hard expression, he looked vulnerable. 

As much as Morro had been used to conflict and distrust in his life, and his afterlife, he couldn’t say he’s comfortable with it. Well, it was one thing when he felt he was on the right side, and he.. did not feel that way right now. 

Any satisfaction he got out of ruining those idiots’ clothing was ruined by Koko having to pay for them- that alone was enough to regret it- not even to mention the argument. 

Morro wasn’t sure how to diffuse something like this, or if he even should. Maybe Lloyd would come around, and laugh about it? If he would just get rid of the foolishly strict moral code that controlled him so, he’d be able to understand. 

…But he wouldn’t really be Lloyd without it, would he? Nobility was a trait that he saw present in him even in the childhood memories of the other Lloyd, though he couldn’t say for certain about his. It was just annoying that his ethics were so stupid, and so unfair to himself, and so… good. 

And, maybe, he likes that. The only person, beyond his enemies (former enemies?), that would call him on wrongdoings was Wu - and even then, he’d do it with an air of resignation. Maybe it was something he should’ve always had, if he had grown up with friends, but he finds himself a little fond of how straightforward Lloyd was. Though he’s been dead for a long time, he never exactly grew up, so- perhaps it wasn’t too late for him. 

If he really thought about it, he could see where Lloyd had been coming from- a little. Garmadon attacked often - it was likely that most of the people at his school had been personally affected by one of the raids before. Morro did know how easy it was to redirect anger towards the wrong place- and the false photo on the news would only make it more guiltless for them.

It was an awful situation from all fronts. He’d like to say that if he was one of the boy’s regular classmates, he wouldn’t judge Lloyd just based on who his dad was, but would that really be true? Wouldn’t he have taken his anger out on him, too, and most likely done worse than the bullies are doing now? Wouldn’t he have justified it in the same way that he justified haunting the bullies today, and in the same way they do? 

Even so, it was difficult to think about it like that. Morro glanced over Lloyd’s face once more - his bangs were in his eyes, and he shifted a little in his sleep to move them away. Morro thinks, then, that he’d do it for him- if he were able to. 

He can’t imagine knowing Lloyd and hating him, but none of his classmates, nor the newscasters, or anyone in Ninjago City do know him beyond his family and the ninja. If he could just show them, just a few of them, what he was really like, it’d make Lloyd’s life that much easier- but he won’t agree to tell anyone. At least, not now. Although…

…If they found out on their own, would he be able to take issue with it?

By the time Morro’s finished formulating his plan, sunlight is shining in pleasantly through the window of Lloyd’s cramped space. He looks as the boy himself begins to wake. Lloyd hums softly, and then blinks open his eyes; he jumps when he’s faced with Morro right in front of his bed, watching. “Uhh,” he rubs his eyes and sits up, “‘Morning, I guess?”

Morro only had experience in making amends through redeeming himself somewhere else, but he supposes it’s time to try something new. “I’m sorry,” He says, and the other perks up a little at that. The words feel awkward in his mouth, but he forces them out, “I shouldn’t have… done.. That.” He looks away as he talks, embarrassment creeping up his spine, “You’re getting blamed for it. I didn’t mean for that to happen… but I should’ve known it would. So.. Sorry.” 

When Morro returns his eyes to Lloyd, his expression is interesting. His eyebrows are raised high up on his forehead, his eyes are wide, and there’s a small, awestruck smile on his face. He looks way too surprised. Were his standards for Morro really that laughably low?

He huffs, feeling more embarrassed from that reaction, “Stop looking at me like that.”

Lloyd’s smile grows and he stutters, “Uh, sorry- I just, well, I haven’t gotten a lot of apologies before. It’s… I mean, it’s okay. It’ll blow over, you know?” His hand raises, like he’s about to try touching him, before it falls back down to the bed, remembering last minute that it’s impossible. 

“I guess so,” Morro shrugs; he hopes it will. If he was truly honest, he still thought the bullies deserved what they got, but he’d done what he always did with revenge. Overreact with anger, and turn to cruelty. He had to stop doing that if he wanted to be better- good, like Lloyd. 

Lloyd nods at him, reassuringly, and Morro manages a small smile to match his grin. “Alright, now leave so I can change,” He tells him, and Morro complies.

That day at school, Morro sets his plan into motion. It’s noon, and Lloyd’s heading to lunch with his friends. They were all talking about where to hang out after school, and he figures that’s his window of opportunity. There’s around a fifty-fifty chance of this going right, so he takes a long breath before turning to Lloyd, “I can look for places to go.”

The other eyes him, “..Okay, but don’t get into any trouble.”

He offers Lloyd a smile and replies, “I’ll try not to.” With that, he floats away from the school and stands at a random part of the city for ten minutes or so, going over the steps in his head. It was relatively easy, but he was feeling nervous. Maybe he should’ve spent the time actually looking for somewhere to go. 

When he comes back, he finds Lloyd washing up in one of the bathrooms. Perfect- he takes a moment to slip out, before the other sees him, to locate some of the bullies. Lloyd always used the bathroom secluded away from the main school areas, and his usage of it reinforced its vacancy. 

He finds two of the people he’d tormented the previous day, standing near their lockers and chatting - the girl, and the guy from class yesterday. The boy is holding a packet of papers, and Morro walks up to get a closer look- it’s a take-home test. It’s sure to be important to him. Morro takes another breath because the timing here has to be perfect, and then uses wind to make the stapled papers blow right out of his hands.

“Woah-” He tries to grab them as they’re carried away, but it’s no use. “This again?” The girl asks, looking a tad anxious already. 

He goes running after it, and of course she isn’t following. Morro rolls his eyes and sends off her backpack in the same direction, it having been resting on the ground next to them. She blinks in surprise before starting after it. 

Morro rushes back to the bathroom where Lloyd’s waiting, keeping up the wind current as he goes. “Lloyd!” He exclaims, as he enters. The other turns around from the mirror he’d been staring into, and raises an eyebrow. “What’s going on?”

“Your dad’s attacking,” He tells him, lowering his feet to stand on the tiled floor. That really gets his attention- “Already?? You gotta be kidding, ugh,” He throws his hoodie over his head, having worn his gi underneath just in case, and takes the mask from its front pocket. Shrugging off his jeans and his shoes, he shoves the mask over his face and rushes out. There was an exit to the school only a few feet outside the bathroom, so he’d assumed it was safe to change right there. 

Before Lloyd can leave through the exit, Morro flings the mask off with wind. “Morro! Why did you do that? What if someone-” He gestures to the right of Lloyd. He looks and his eyes go wide, and the two bullies are staring right back at him. The retrieved test falls from the guy’s hands.

“...sees,” He mumbles, tensing up.  

The girl’s hand is raised, pointing at him with shaking fingers. Both of them look absolutely shell shocked, with open mouths. Lloyd unfreezes and laughs too loudly, “Hey- Hey, guys! What’s up? I was just– you know, cos… playing… at school.”

“You are a ninja,” The male bully says in disbelief.

“No! No, I’m not- I just, you- you know, the Green Ninja is cool-” He fumbles and looks at Morro, frantic, “Why did you do that??” Lloyd grabs his mask from the floor and puts it back over his head, fearing someone else walking into the hallway and seeing; it doesn’t exactly help his already unconvincing denial. 

“You’re the Green Ninja,” The girl says, her hand falling to her side. Lloyd turns back to them, waving his hands, “I’m not! I’m just a really big fan, and I just- um-” he can see it’s not working and just deflates, “...Don’t tell anyone. Please.” 

Lloyd glances at Morro with a suspicious expression, already suspecting he set this up on purpose. Morro just grins at him, hoping to maybe soften whatever anger is probably bubbling up in him. He’s not sure if it works.

“Of- Of course we won’t!” The guy answers, his voice a little higher-pitched. “I- We are so sorry,” He looks at his friend, and she nods, quickly. Morro hopes they aren’t afraid of Lloyd outright, because he knows he wouldn’t like that, even if it’s the outcome he had suggested to him- he hopes that his floundering personality is enough to ease their nerves.

“You’re… sorry?” Lloyd asks, slowly. Morro remembers him mentioning that he thinks revealing his identity would make everyone hate the ninja, too. 

The girl takes a step forward, “Yeah, seriously! I… This is unexpected, to say the least, but- I mean, if you’re the Green Ninja, that means you’ve been trying to stop Garmadon…” She looks at the other with a wide-eyed expression, “That means the picture was fake, Jet!”

“...Oh, man,” The guy, apparently Jet, mumbles, “Everyone thinks you’re totally evil, dude.” 

Lloyd laughs breathily - and Morro can see how relieved he is - “Yeah,” he says, “I- I know. But, uh… it’s fine.” He blinks, hard, as disbelieving by their reaction as they are by this entire revelation. 

“We won’t tell anyone,” She reiterates their promise, “For real. I… We’ll try to get the others to leave you alone?”

He shakes his head, and sounds a little choked up when he speaks, “It’s fine. I- I can handle it. I don’t… I don’t blame them, I didn’t blame you.”

Regret is etched, perhaps permanently, onto the two of their faces. “We’ll try anyway,” Jet says, looking between her and Lloyd. “Thanks… This has been, uh, cool- but there’s an attack going on right now. I gotta go,” Lloyd says, turning to the exit door.

Morro shakes his head at him, and the other gives him a confused look, and he just shrugs. “...Okay, never mind, I guess someone fed me misinformation.” 

“It’s okay, we’ll leave you now!” The girl says, her anxiety apparent, and Morro’s glad because she doesn’t seem afraid of him , but more so guilty. She hastily picks up her backpack, probably grateful it’s zipped and all of its contents are safe inside, and pulls Jet away by the arm, who scrambles to retrieve his ever-lost test while she does so. 

After they’re gone, Lloyd takes his mask off and stares at him. “Well? Was it as bad as you thought?” Morro asks him, with a small smile.

“No,” Lloyd answers, eyes gleaming, “It wasn’t.” 

Chapter Text

Lloyd begins with winding up to the left, his knees straight and his eyes focused. There’s visible sweat dripping from one of his eyebrows, then being absorbed by the fabric of his mask, evidence of the blistering heat that only he, out of the two of them, could feel. With a kick of his feet, he spun, and his appearance blurred into a tornado of green.

“Yes!” Morro can’t help but be excited- this is the first time his friend’s succeeded- “That’s perfect, Lloyd.”

“Really? I’m- I’m doing it?” Lloyd asks, just as excited, and it’s purely impressive until he smacks right into the wall. The sound reverberates throughout the warehouse. “...Ow.”

Morro floats over to him, as he pushes off the wall, holding his forehead and rubbing at it with one hand. He looks at Morro, and then shoves his mask down from his head- his blonde hair is messed up and needs a wash (or maybe even two), but his eyes are shining. “That was spinjitzu?” He asks with a heavy breath, grinning.

“Element-less spinjitzu,” He corrects, giving him a smile of his own, “Welcome to being a real ninja.” He lowers his feet to the ground and eyes Lloyd. He looked happy, but along with his mussed hair and sweaty face, there were marks of exhaustion through his features. They’d been out here for too long. “Let’s return home,” Morro tells him, and the other’s eyebrows raise at that. “You’re ending training early?” 

Morro shakes his head, “Who’s the workaholic now-? Look around, Lloyd,” He gestures around to the few windows littered around the warehouse. The light peering in was a honey yellow, and the setting sun was visible through the west windows. “Oh,” Lloyd blinks, then smiling after a beat, “Let’s go, Morro.”

The night was mind-numbingly dull, as usual, after Lloyd went to sleep. Exploring the city had lost its novelty after the first week or so- he had to be grateful that the other didn’t sleep very much. That is, except for days like this one, where he was thoroughly drained from training. He’s considered asking to possess him so that he can sleep, but what good would that do? Lloyd was perpetually tired from his double life, and ghosts were unable to rest even within sleep.

And so, Morro usually took to floating in the sky- he’d watch the usual light clouds float by, and try to memorize stars. He would think about the events of the past day, as he’d already exhausted thought on just about every other subject he could think of. With more and more days passing- he’d already lost count of how many since he’d gotten here- his thoughts were more and more glued to Lloyd.

It was out of necessity, truly. He’s sure his wonderings would be split equally upon the ninja, if each of them could see and talk to him as well. Though, perhaps, he would still like Lloyd a little more.

Lloyd was immature- the other one, from his own dimension, was not- and that had infuriated him endlessly, because how could someone a year or two younger than him be so much better in every way? Despite being in control through possession, the feeling of having to look up to him was ever-present. In the end, it was due in partial favour to him that Morro let himself die again. He had pushed it away as much as he could, but still, Lloyd had an influence on him.

The belief that this Lloyd was immature by comparison, he didn’t think he was wrong, per se, but it had grown more complex. While he would tumble over his words, and for some reason allow Garmadon’s generals to escape instead of detaining them, he was still a better developed person than Morro in most ways. Amazingly, he’s grown not to mind the fact.

Morro sighs, staring up into the sky. He’s been down this exact path of reasoning countless times before. He needed something to do. 

Well, he supposes he could simply fly around the city, haunting people, but he was tired- maybe even more so than Lloyd. Learning a new world in place of your own was a lot to take in, especially while mentoring another teenager. Though incredibly boring, the nights did supply him with a reprieve from it all- even if all he did was think about it.

Morro was relieved, as always, when Lloyd finally began to stir. He’d returned to his room once the sky had grown orange in the sunrise, and waited semi- patiently. He was fond of this routine, too, as hearing the other boy mumble under his breath while his hand instinctively ran through his hair to smooth it over was endearing in a way. 

Today was, admittedly, a tad exciting. He was never one to celebrate pointless birthdays or anniversaries- but Lloyd had just started to get the hang of spinjitzu, and surely that made cake and good wishes worthy. And so, Morro had to concede that he was looking forward to Lloyd’s birthday. It was tomorrow, which meant today, Morro could figure out what to say about it. Most gave two words and called it a day, and while he valued brevity (especially when having to praise), he wanted to say something more. 

“Lloyd,” He says when the other’s eyes open. Lloyd groans, his hand dropping from his hair, and he sits up. “Morro, do you just…” He looks at him, “..Uh, watch me the whole night?”

Morro huffs, “Of course not. I’m not here for most of the night.”

His dark eyebrows raise, turning to curiosity, “Really? Where do you go?” Lloyd shoves his covers off, and gets up to stand next to where Morro floats. “...The stars,” Morro mumbles, because he realizes it sounds a tad silly to say out loud, but Lloyd just smiles at him. 

“That tracks,” He says, pulling out an outfit from under his bed, as the cramped space of his room doesn’t even allow for a dresser. “You can’t really do much else, huh?” Lloyd glances at him, as if it was a revelation. 

“Yes. Being a ghost in this world grows stale quickly,” Morro replies, and he phases through the door to give him privacy before then saying, “I think over the same topics again and again.” The topics being Wu, Lloyd, and himself, to name the most frequent. 

Lloyd comes out a couple of minutes later, dressed, and simply replies with, “Huh.” They go over to the kitchen, and he feeds his fish. There isn’t any food set out like there typically is, and Koko’s door is still closed. Morro checks, and she’s still asleep. “Does she have to work today?” he asks, floating back over to Lloyd’s side.

“Yeah? Wait, is she still asleep?” He stares at Morro, and walks over to her room when he confirms. “Uh- Hey, mom!” He calls out, knocking on the door, “You’re gonna be late!” 

Koko swings open the door a second later, her orange bangs sticking up on her head, “No!” She rushes past him to the bathroom, frantically beginning to brush her hair and teeth at the same time. 

Lloyd grabs one of her blazers and dress pants from her closet and places it onto the sink beside her. “Thanks, sweetie,” She says, her voice muffled by the toothbrush. Morro uses wind to blow over her ID, and it thankfully lands on top of the clothes instead of her. He’s been getting progressively better at being precise with his element, thanks to it being the only thing he can do to influence most items. 

While she rushes to get ready, Lloyd pours a bowl of cereal for each of them. “Did you ever eat anything? As…a ghost…” His question trails off, seemingly realizing how stupid it is.

“From time to time,” Morro tells him, “When possessing someone. But, no, there weren’t any ghost-foods, Lloyd.” 

Lloyd pours milk into each bowl of cereal and answers somewhat sheepishly, “Right, yeah- ah, that makes sense.” Morro smirks a little and crosses his arms, “What did you think I was going to say?” The other boy waves a hand in the air, while he grabs utensils for the food, “I- I don’t know! There are movies and stuff where ghosts eat food that’s made for them. Dead food, I guess.”

“How would that work? Meat and plants are already dead when the living eat them,” He pauses, “Mostly. Is ghost food double-dead?”

Koko toes on her dress shoes and then takes one of the bowls of cereal, “I’m going to head out now, honey. I have a meeting starting soon that, thanks to you, I haven’t missed- wish me luck! I’ll see you when you get home.” She kisses his forehead, “Be safe!” Lloyd mumbles a reply, wiping off the kiss, before turning back to Morro, “They’re fake, it’s not supposed to be, like, realistic, you know?”

Morro snickers, “Then why’d you ask about it?” Lloyd sighs, and replies ever-eloquently with, “Shut up.” 

They make it to the bus stop right as it’s coming, and finding a seat is the same old experience. The biggest difference is how genuinely unbothered by it Lloyd seems today. It’s been a pattern for the past few, since the two of his classmates learned of his identity. He’s listening to music, like usual, but from the noise Morro can hear bleeding from his earbuds, it sounds more upbeat than his usual melancholy. 

“What is that?” He asks.

Lloyd picks up the earbud he had left out of his ear, and holds it up, offering for Morro to listen along. “I liked it when I was a kid.” Morro moves his hair aside and leans his ear in to hear, because why not? Maybe the disgusting environment of the school bus will make the music’s appeal stick out more. 

The song was exactly what Morro would expect from a younger Lloyd. He didn’t know much about the intricacies of the instruments or melodies, but the lyrics were optimistic to a point of naïveté. 

Lloyd’s arm must have been getting tired from holding it up, as one song plays after another, over the course of the entire bus ride, but he doesn’t complain. He, of course, ignores the looks he gets from the other students as well. “This isn’t what you normally listen to,” he comments, after a few of them. 

The other shakes his head with a small smile, “No. But I feel alright today.”

When Lloyd (and Morro) stepped off the bus, the two students from a few days ago went up to them right away. The guy, Jet, was holding a box of things. “Lloyd Garmadon!” The girl, who Morro still didn’t know the name of, said, “We, um…” She looks at her friend, and he holds out the box to him, “We have the stuff we stole from you.” 

Morro peers inside, and there are various little items like pens and pencil sharpeners, along with clothes and even a backpack, and the paper that Jet had stuck to the classroom wall was placed on top. He looks at the drawing of himself, and smiles a little. It was poorly drawn, but its charm remained. 

Lloyd took the box from him and grinned at the two of them, “Wow. Thank- Thank you guys, really.” 

“We don’t have the phone, though,” The girl says, “We smashed it. Sorry.” Is that why his phone looked so new? “Ah, oh- um, that’s fine,” Lloyd chuckles, looking between them, “I wanted a… replacement, anyway.” He grips the box with two hands and looks down at its contents, “Thank you, though.” The two of them leave, the nervousness they’d approached him with now eased. 

Morro can’t resist. He kicks up a breeze, making the paper fly up and stick to Lloyd’s face. He jumps and has to fumble to hold the box with one hand and peel the paper off with the other, “Morro!” 

“How do you know that was me?” He asks, turning his head away to hide a smile. “It’s not even windy,” Lloyd balls the paper up into his fist, and puts it back inside. Just to annoy him, Morro pushes a gust to flow through the school’s courtyard, making Lloyd’s bangs blow into his eyes. He laughs loudly when the other shoves them away and sends him a heated look. 

He follows as Lloyd finds Nya and Jay and walks up to them. She was whispering something into his ear while he looked visibly nervous. Jay jumps when he sees Lloyd, “H-Hey, buddy! What’s going on? Because there’s nothing going on…here…”

Nya sighs shortly, “Subtle,” and then turns to Lloyd, “Hey, man. What’s in there?” She looks down into the box.

Lloyd’s big smile returns, and his voice drips with excitement, “I got some of my stuff back! For, uh, no reason.” He could assume that was only a half-lie from Lloyd - he doubted he’d ever ask for anything back, even with those two changing their behaviour. It was probably the first time it happened, too, unless one of the other ninja stole from him prior to their friendship. 

“Oh, yeah,” Jay comments, picking up one of the shirts stuffed into the container, “I remember when you lost this. I guess it wasn’t really lost, haha…” 

Morro’s eye catches one of the students staring at Lloyd, winding up to throw a paper ball at him, and he’s readying to blow it right back, and then one of the reformed bullies takes it from their hand. They react with irritation, of course, but she seems to convince them to stop. It seems he won’t be Lloyd’s only protector, anymore. Good.

“I told you it’d get better!” Nya says, lightly punching his shoulder. “What’d get better?” Kai asks, arriving with Cole and Zane in tow. She picks up a few of the pens and homeworks from the box and holds it up for the three of them to see, “Lloyd got some of his stuff back.”

“Really?” Cole walks up to the box and takes a record out of it, “My Smiths! But you said broke it,” He takes the vinyl disc out of its cover and examines it, and Morro’s not sure about him, but he can’t see any scratches. Lloyd greets Kai and Zane before replying, “Well, I… I forgot it at my desk one day when my dad attacked, and it wasn’t there when we got back. It was just kind of easier to say broken,” he chuckles.

Cole looks up at him after sliding the disc back in with a frown, “Dude, I yelled at you for hours about that. You could’ve said it was stolen.” Kai, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, says, “You would’ve just freaked out on him for not keeping it safe.”

A couple of them laugh at that, and the group begin to head into the school. “Zane, did you write our essays?” Nya asks, and Morro watches him print out the essays with his own stomach, then handing a packet to each of them. “Yes. I think you’ll find them very illuminating!” He replies, then laughing in increments of ha, ha, ha’s.  

Lloyd mumbles to Morro, “The essays are on electricity. Like, how lights were made.” He nods, vaguely remembering that during the endless hours of teachers droning on. It doesn’t make Zane’s joke funny, but good to know, he supposes. Speaking of lectures, he was not looking forward to today’s set of it. 

“Why did you want to come here?” Morro asks, looking around at the small crowd of people walking through the halls. The shopping mall was large, and the amount of customers inhabiting it looked small by proportion. Many of the stores had metal gates covering their entrances, and it was too early for them to be closed as they came right after school, so they must be completely closed down. He’s floated through here before, but never quite paid attention. 

Lloyd shrugs, “Ah- No reason.” He starts walking to what looks like a men's clothing store, calling back to him, “Come on, Morro!” 

He follows, as always, and the store seems like one of the more populated ones. There are hoodies, and jeans, and graphic tees, and it all seems pretty in line with Lloyd’s style. Morro even thinks he spots a bracelet he’s worn before. 

A little girl tugs on her dad’s shirt and whispers in his ear when he crouches down, pointing at Lloyd. The dad looks up at him and picks her up, leaving his basket forgotten on the floor, exiting. Lloyd either didn’t see it, or didn’t care, because his upbeat mood didn’t sink into quiet resignation or disappointment, as it may have in the past. “You’re happier,” Morro comments to him, then asking with a slight smile, “Will you admit you’re glad they found out?”

“It’s not just that,” Lloyd shakes his head, and he sets down a shirt he was looking at to instead gaze up at him, “I’ve just been… you know, less alone, lately. I- I mean!-” and he launches into another ramble, “Not that my friends are bad, or they aren’t amazing, it’s just hard to- to connect to them, sometimes? But you,” Morro blinks at him, “You’re, uh- cool. The others are just as used to everything as me. It’s always been that way.” He turns his head away to gaze over the same shirt, “But, I don’t know… You get mad about it, and you did something about it. I’m not- not expecting them to, or anyone, but it’s nice. You know?”

Morro raises an eyebrow at him, “I make you happier?”

Lloyd fumbles to answer, face burning, “Well-! I-I mean- I mean yeah, you’re my friend. So, haha…” 

“Oh,” He looks away, at the shirt Lloyd’s been checking out. “Do you even have money to buy that?” The other boy clears his throat, then says, “Well… I’m just looking, here.” He turns away from the shirt rack, saying, “I do have some money, though - civilians tip us, occasionally. I, uh, know where I’m spending it. Already.” 

Morro hums, and he’s a little surprised that the ninja aren’t being formally paid by the city, though it’s easy to assume most of their funding goes to rebuilding every few days. “Where?” He asks. 

Lloyd walks past him, not through even though he could, out of the clothing store. Morro follows, walking instead of floating now, and they enter an electronics store. There isn’t a customer in sight, only one tired employee around their age behind the register. “Welcome in,” She calls out, then looking back down at her phone. 

“You don’t have anything to do when I’m asleep, or even in school,” Lloyd says, walking to one particular section right away. He picks up a large box with two hands, and turns around to present it to him. “I’m getting you a TV,” He smiles, “I’ll just put it on when I go to bed, and you can watch that.”

Morro looks between Lloyd and the unbought TV, quiet. He hasn’t received many gifts, and is unsure on how to proceed. “...Thank you,” He replies after a moment, his head lowering as he glances up at him, almost bashful. “Don’t you already have one in your living room?” He asks, while Lloyd walks over to the register. “Well, yeah, but mom wouldn’t let me keep it on all night if no one’s watching it.”

“I see,” He nods, unsure of what else to say. Lloyd uses cash to buy the TV, and then hurls the box easily over his shoulder to carry home. 

They manage to dodge any incidents on the way that may damage the television, despite a few Did you steal that?’s from older civilians. Before hopping up the stairs leading to he and Koko’s apartment, Lloyd takes the TV out of its container, along with the cords, discarding the box into a recycling bin. “She’d worry if I showed up with a bunch of money, without warning, you know?” He says to him, and Morro isn’t sure how taking it out of its packaging will help, until they enter and Lloyd tells his mom that it was an old TV his friends fixed up for him.

“Oh, how nice! An early birthday gift,” Koko claps her hands together, with a pleased smile. “You can put it up in your room. Do you need any help?”

He shakes his head, dismissive, “No, no, I’m good.” 

It only takes a half hour or so to set the television up, and it ends up to the left of Lloyd’s bed, in front of it, to leave space for Morro to float and watch. “Will it keep you awake?” Morro asks, frowning down at him. “Nah, I’ll set it to low volume,” Lloyd says, doing so on the remote. “Here, this is a good one to start with,” He selects a show, but pauses it for now. 

“What’s it about?” Morro asks, while the other grabs his pajamas. Lloyd shrugs, “It’s about a dystopian future, or something. I, uh… actually haven’t seen it,” he laughs. Morro smiles in return, “How do you know it’s good, then?”

Lloyd folds his pajamas onto his bed, unzipping the dark jacket - surprisingly not green - he wore today. “Well, Jay and Kai liked it. They’re more into TV than me,” he shrugs.

Morro steps out for him to change, and while he didn’t exactly trust either of those two’s tastes, he was looking forward to having something new to occupy his time. When he comes back in, Lloyd’s changed and settling into his covers. He turns out the light and unpauses the show, having put subtitles on in case it was too quiet for Morro to hear, which he appreciates. 

The program isn’t terribly interesting, but it was mounds better than being alone with his thoughts for five hours, after seven of the exact same thing during Lloyd’s school day. Morro may have gotten a tad sucked into it, actually, because when the sun began to rise, he realized he hadn’t thought of anything to say for Lloyd’s birthday. Shit. 

Morro reaches up his hand to try and do some manoeuvre to pause the TV with a slap of wind onto the remote, so he could think, when a ninja-themed song interrupted him. Lloyd’s phone was ringing.

Chapter Text

Lloyd is already groaning when he wakes up. “Someone’s calling you,” Morro tells him, stupidly, and he tries to lay the embarrassment to rest as quickly as it comes when he mumbles back, “Yeah, I heard.”  

He picks up the phone and answers with a groggy, “Hello?” There’s chewing sounds on the other end, and someone moving, and the answering Hello is familiar enough that Morro phases through the bed to be next to Lloyd, so he can see. Garmadon.

“What do you want?” 

Morro rolls his eyes and says, “He called you.” Lloyd shushes him as if his dad will really be able to hear, whispers, “I know-” and then looks back at the screen, “Uh, you called me.” Garmadon eats a spoonful of cereal and then replies, “Oh, I must’ve butt-dialled you… Who is this?”

Any hope in Lloyd’s eyes quickly fizzled into exasperation, the kind of tired he shouldn’t be after just waking up on his birthday. He sighs, “It’s Lloyd.”

Garmadon doesn’t answer, and squints into the screen like he has to try to recognize him. That sours Morro’s mood, too. After a few more moments, the other boy clarifies because he has to, apparently, “Lloyd, your son.” 

“No, my son is totally bald and shorter than me,” Garmadon shakes his head and takes another bite of cereal, then takes a moment to apply moisturizer to his onyx face, for some reason? Wait, did he say Lloyd was bald–

“Yeah, surprise. I’m not a baby anymore.”

– Oh. 

Morro physically kicked himself, luckily being hidden by the bed he was phasing through. It seemed that being a restless spirit had finally begun to rot his head. Or worse, the idiocy of the citizens of this Ninjago City had rubbed off on him. “Don’t you see me on the news…?” Lloyd asks his dad, “They talk about me pre- uh, pretty often.” 

“I don’t watch cable,” Garmadon says, with a television remote in his hand. “How old are you? You’re seven, right, you’re seven?”

Lloyd looks at Morro with that, and he shrugs in return, “No, I- Sixteen.” He sighs again, short and under his breath, “Just add nine to that…”

The camera moves on Garmadon as he gets up, hastily replying, “Huh. Well, good talk.” He moves to hang up, and Lloyd reaches his hand up as if he could physically stop him from doing so, “Wait! You’re just gonna- are you sure there isn’t a special reason you may have called me, today…” He trails off when he glances at Morro, watching him, apparently embarrassed to be doing this in front of him.

“Specifically today…?” He asks, a little quieter, and his eyes return to his phone. Garmadon is, of course, completely apathetic- or maybe unaware, Morro thinks. He answers with a little laugh, “I didn’t call you, my butt called you.”

Lloyd’s face shifts to disappointment, a look that’s become all-too familiar when it comes to that man, “Oh…”

“Well, no reason to chat.”

“No reason–?”

Garmadon is walking now, and he ignores him, “Dad’s gotta go to work- gotta get that green ninja!”

“Wait.” He sounds less urgent and more defeated, already.

“Buh-bye!” Garmadon covers the camera and then hangs up. Lloyd drops the phone on the bed, and his head lands back on his pillow with a groan. “I don’t know what I expected,” he says. Morro tries to lighten his frown, “Who cares? Happy Birthday. Get up.” It sounded a little more motivating in his head.

Lloyd covers his face with his hands and screams a little, then sitting up, “I am, I am... I’m going to change.” 

Morro drifts out of his room, and over to the kitchen. Koko is humming to herself, with breakfast already set out for Lloyd, cheery as ever. She’s become endearing in a way, her words of encouragement to Lloyd were always a nice break from having to fend off the people trying to mess with him. 

Lloyd comes out dressed, with a tired, “Hey, mom,” and then a quieter, proper greeting to Morro, “Morning.” 

“Lloyd, Happy Birthday!” Koko says it as soon as she turns to see him, and he envies the enthusiasm she manages with it, just a little. Lloyd nods at her, just a small dip of his head, with a kind of forced smile. It wasn’t fair for his mood to be dampened so early- and so, Morro uses his wind to shoot a cut-up bit of egg into Lloyd’s parted mouth. “Wh-” He looks scandalized, and then laughs, light, after swallowing it, “You’re so weird.” 

“Birthdays aren’t weird, Lloyd,” Koko answers instead of him, “All of your friends had parties, and you went! It’s not bad to want to celebrate you, too.” 

Lloyd barely acknowledges her, “Yeah- mhm. Uh, could you turn that up…?”

She follows his gaze to the television, where a news section that’s unsurprisingly about Garmadon is playing. She nods slightly before grabbing the remote and increasing the volume. Morro sighs under his breath.

He recognizes the newscasters as the same as the ones he saw the first day he arrived here, and he does his best to tune out their shrill, annoying voices. 

They advise everyone to stay inside, as the chances of Garmadon attacking were supposedly extremely high. It always happened right when Morro would get comfortable- he guessed that the citizens of Ninjago City had just learned to never feel secure. “Garmadon said he had to get the Green Ninja,” He says, “He’ll attack today.”

Lloyd nods, glancing away at Morro, “I just hope it’s after school, at least. I’m sick of…” He looks over to his mom, “...running, and hiding.” 

Koko presses a kiss to his forehead, which he subsequently wipes away, and answers, “The ninja will protect us, don’t worry! I have to get to work now, but I’ll see you when you get home.”

“Bye,” He offers her a weak smile, which she accepts with a large grin of her own. Once she’s gone, Lloyd sighs and brings his empty bowl to the sink, and Morro asks him, “Are you ready?”

The other turns back to him, and pulls his hoodie over his hair, “Yeah, I… Let’s make it a good day.”

Morro notices the growing chaos outside before Lloyd or any of the other students do. “Lloyd-” The booming sound of a building’s collapse catches their attention before he can warn them. “Oh-” The teacher jumps up from her desk, “It’s Garmadon! Duck and cover, everyone.”

Garmadon’s forces could be seen just a little ways away from the school, bringing down various businesses and heading for the mayor’s office. 

“Thanks, Lloyd,” the other students groan in unison, apart from the ninja and Jet- who looks expectantly at him, instead. Lloyd gives him a small smile, before turning to the teacher and raising his hand, “Can I have a bathroom pass?” The ninja not-so-subtly ask the same thing right after him, drawing Jet’s attention.

The teacher, who’s already hid underneath her desk, pops her head out to answer, “Now? Uh… Do whatever you want, I guess. Just be careful!”

They rush out and fly down the hall with skill that only comes from many, many repetitions. Morro literally flies to keep up with them, doesn’t run, as it’s surprisingly easy to trip over yourself as a ghost; which was something he unfortunately found out in front of Lloyd and very much did not want to repeat. 

Lloyd swings open his locker - they don’t even bother with locks - and jumps inside; the others follow. Morro tries not to get confused with the path as he floats after him, and he finds that he hates phasing underground. “How did you manufacture this without the school knowing?” He asks, while Lloyd pulls his mask over his head. “A lot of sneaking in after dark. It- It was not great.”

“Interesting,” Morro comments, and he uses airjitzu to hop the rest of the way, up into the warehouse. It was, unsurprisingly, an even stranger visual than just floating through the ground. “Wu allows you to do that?”

Lloyd hops up to his dragon mech and answers, “Yeah, it was actually his idea.” He fiddles with various buttons on the menu, powering it up, and throws his dao over his back. “It lets us get here way faster, as- as you’d imagine. Keeps everyone safer.”

“Let’s go!” Kai yells, and he jumps up through the opening in the warehouse’s ceiling. Each of them takes the time to call out when they’re ready, and Lloyd shouts orders into the radio, “Okay, ninja team, let’s do this- Follow me! Jay, you’ll be taking the air-” 

“Uh, when do I not?-”

He follows side by side with Lloyd’s mech through the air, while the others do so on the ground below, in their own suits. “-Nya, water- Kai, Zane, Cole, get to downtown!” Morro spots several of Garmadon’s army flooding into a police station, and he cuts them away with a sharp wind. 

Kai and Cole have already made it, and Kai says as much- sharkheads swarm the arms and legs of his mech, and he struggles to burn them off. “Hold on, I’ve got you covered,” Cole fires an earthquake, knocking them down, “I made a new track about us, you want to hear?” The goons are half caught between running away from Kai’s flamethrowers and running towards the fire to try and dismantle them. “Obviously, bro, but maybe not right now!” 

“I’m going after Garmadon,” Lloyd flies his mech towards Ninjago Tower, and Nya replies, “Yeah, we figured.”

Morro hears screams and looks around, disoriented, but finds that it’s mostly coming from Jay, who’s speeding his jet away from the enemy’s own jets while shooting lightning aimlessly. Mostly. “Not so fast,” He points out a bus dangling over an overpass, “Lloyd, look.”

“Argh- He does that every time,” He groans and switches gears, instead flying over to the bus. The young children inside go from yelling to cheering, even though they haven’t been saved just yet. A crab soldier jumps out from hiding and rams the bus further over, and it sways with an uncertain balance. “Hold on, I got you!” Lloyd yells out to them, and he fires at her.

“Wait, Lloyd, you idiot-” Morro groans as the bus is pushed off the edge by the explosion. “Oh no. Sorry-” The dragon mech twists as it flies underneath the overpass, and he has to come and float after it. He slows the bus’s fall by blowing up wind, to cancel out the air coming down a little, and Lloyd thanks him before catching the bus into the arms of the dragon. 

The kids return to cheering, and Morro can see his eyes light up.

“Thanks, Green Ninja!”

“I want to be you when I grow up!”

Lloyd salutes them, and it’s easy to sense his smile even with the mask on. One kid holds up a blue marker, and a poster of the ninja he apparently brought to school, yelling, “Sign my poster! I won’t sell it!” He huffs out a laugh and calls down to him, “Sorry, maybe later. Stay safe, kids!”

He sets the bus down safely onto a nearby road, deserted in the panic, and sets his course back onto Ninjago Tower. Morro lands back onto the mech, and teases, “You were a little steadfast back there.”

“She would’ve made the bus drop either way,” Lloyd says. Zane’s lifeless voice sounds out on the radio, “Lloyd, your father- er. I mean. Lord Garmadon is nearing the mayor’s office.” He speeds up the dragon a little, to where Morro can just barely stay on, and answers, “Got it, Zane. I’m on it!”

“Fair enough,” Morro agrees. 

Garmadon was in a new shark-themed mech of his own, and he ran to hide behind a building as soon as Lloyd got close. “You’re slow, Green Ninja! You can’t catch me!” The metal of the suit’s legs clanked on the ground as he ran between buildings, and Lloyd sighed. “Where am I, Green Ninja? Can’t find me?”

“I can see you right behind that building,” Lloyd doesn’t even put in the effort to yell it to him, “Your shark tail is sticking out.” 

“Oh,” Garmadon moves out of view, and then runs back the other way, to hide behind a different building poorly. Morro had to laugh- the building he chose to hide behind was made out of glass. He wasn’t hidden in the slightest. 

Lloyd, on the other hand, only seems more agitated by the second. He rubs a hand over his mask, “Do you actually think you’re hiding right now? Do you actually think I can’t see you?”

“Well, if you can see me, why don’t you shoot me- Ow!” 

Garmadon runs away, hilariously slow with how huge the shark mech was. “You’re not getting away,” Lloyd shoots a missile in front of him, forcing him to come back the other way. “Stop- Just stop it,” He dodges the live sharks Garmadon tries to throw at him, “Why do you want to conquer Ninjago so badly?” 

Garmadon lowers the squid he was about to throw, and holds it to his chest. “There’s something very special to me here,” He says and his eyes grow misty with flames, “Just to let the walls down, for a second, Green Ninja- I lost something… sixteen years ago.”

“What? What- What is it?” Lloyd’s eyes have gone wide, and he’s leaning over the control panel of the dragon, fighting forgotten. Morro perks up a little, too. This should be good- maybe this Garmadon wasn’t so bad after all. “Is- Is it alive, or? What?”

Garmadon’s face scrunches up, and he waves two of his hands, “Alive? No, I meant the guitar I had in college. It was so expensive, and I traded it stupidly for, like, a stroller or something.” He throws the squid at them, and it plops sadly down next to Morro.

Lloyd’s shoulders slump immediately, and his hands ball up into fists, “Really? That’s what you meant- That was a stupid trade?”

“Well, what else would I mean?” Garmadon asks, and he crosses his lower set of arms. Did he seriously not get it?- Morro couldn’t exactly blame him for not wanting to speak about his son to someone he perceived as a stranger, but even a ‘I miss my child’ would do. Clearly the walls he let down had another set, reinforced behind them. 

“I don’t know! Something else, maybe someone- Think about it!” Lloyd was trying, but it was too vague. Morro leans in, near his side, and tells him, “He doesn’t know who you are. You have to ask directly.”

Lloyd glances at him warily, then back to Garmadon, who was tapping his chin with one of his clawed fingers. “Like,” He calls out, “You know- family? Don’t you have a family? Is- Is that why you’re here?”

Garmadon crosses the top set, too, and answers, “Well, I have my brother, but that guy is a total loser. Every time I try to conquer Ninjago, his teenage students come and stop me, as you know- Why teenagers, anyway? I was like, Wu, you know you can’t make kids work like this again, but he never listened! It’s messed up, ninja, it’s messed up. Anyway, besides that, I haven’t talked to any family in years.”

Again? Morro files that away for later- Lloyd looks just about ready to take out his dad for real. “Really. Really, you haven’t spoken to any of them in years?” He asks, with a voice strained in anger, “What about, like, I don’t know- today? You’re sure?”

Garmadon starts again, but this time there’s no pretense of progress, laughing as he replies, “Well, I guess there’s my kid, but I don’t really consider him family-” 

“Of course you don’t-”

“-But I guess he was in my life, too. I would look into his little eyes… and I would think,” Garmadon’s hands reach out, to mimic cradling a baby- Lloyd pauses and blinks a few times, “Yes? Yes, what- what did you think?”

“I would think…” Garmadon’s eyes close, remembering, before they snap back open, “What am I supposed to do with this kid? He’s lazy! He can’t walk, he doesn’t say anything, couldn’t even talk at all!-”

Lloyd tenses with so much frustration that his fists visibly shake, “Shut up! Shut-”

“He was bald, like, I don’t want a hairless, crying son for the rest of my life-”

Morro feels irritation stab at his own chest- he reminds himself that Garmadon didn’t know who he was talking to, and was probably so stupid that he didn’t even understand- Lloyd keeps trying to yell over him, “No! You’re done! Shut up!”

“And so, looking at him, that’s when I made the decision to go away and live a great life!” Garmadon, of course, ignored him. Ignored everything wrong about what he was saying.

“Argh! That’s it–” Lloyd slams his hand down on the fire missile button, and he presses it several times after that. Various explosives shoot from the dragon’s different parts- its claw, its eye, even its head. They auto-target onto Garmadon, and explode one after another, and the distant screams of his goons sound out.

Lloyd just keeps firing more and more, to the point where neither of them can see past the thick fog of smoke- and Morro genuinely wonders if Garmadon will survive this. That being their final conversation would be… something. 

He finally runs out of explosives, and his chest heaves with great effort. Only then, does Lloyd’s expression shift from rage to a twinge of anxiety. He flies the dragon mech over to the thick cloud of smoke, and disperses it with flaps of its wings- then lands right in front of the shark.

Garmadon is unharmed, and his laughs are broken up by coughs, “Jeez, Green Ninja- what’d I ever do to you? Your missiles are very accurate! Unlucky for you-” all four of his arms gesture around to the force field protecting him, “-I just upgraded all of my shields!” 

Lloyd switches back to irritation right away, and doesn’t catch what Garmadon says under his breath, but Morro does- “...That’s all I seem to have, at the moment. Just my favourite shields…” He raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t point it out.

“Face it, Garmadon! You will always fail!” Lloyd yells, and he tries his best to look intimidating. It’s unclear if it works on Garmadon, because it certainly didn’t for Morro. “Why don’t you just give up, and go away for good?”

“Well, anything can happen. Like this!” Garmadon deactivates the shields for a few seconds to throw a bomb at Lloyd. It doesn’t explode on impact, but the fuse is shortening quickly. Lloyd fumbles to catch it, and Morro sighs and blows it away- off to a safe distance. “We need to work on that,” He tells him.

Garmadon laughs, and several of his army join in, “What was that? Did my brother teach you telekinesis instead of how to catch? Did you guys see that?” He looks around at them, and they verbally confirm that they did see that. 

“Yeah? Well- Well take this!” Lloyd tries to throw the squid back, and it lands on his face. Garmadon and his goons laugh louder, as he struggles to get it off. “Ow, ow–”

“Wow! Who taught you how to throw, kid?” He asks, putting the shield back up just in case Lloyd does manage to get the squid back. He manages to get the animal off of him, and he sets it down instead of trying another throw, “Well, interesting that you asked that, uh- no one. ‘Cause, I- I never had a dad to teach me that stuff.”

Morro mumbles, “I’ll teach you.” He whispers back, “Not really the point I’m trying to make here, Morro.”  

“You know, I never- I never learned how to ride a bike,” Lloyd raises his voice again to them, “Or shave-”

Garmadon just finds it amusing, and he leans on his control panel to laugh more, “Well, it shows, that was awful. And you know, what’s funny, I know how to do all of those things. It’s just sitting there, idle in my brain- never taught them to anybody.”

“Mhm. Yeah, yeah- good to know,” Lloyd nods stiffly at him, “Can you just go- you aren’t winning this time-”

The other continued to ramble on, “It’ll probably just die with me, when I die. If I die… Which’ll never happen-”

Lloyd starts to shake with anger all over again, and he groans, “Ugh! Just leave, please, leave Ninjago forever–”

“I will never die.”

“–and get out of my life!” 

Garmadon pauses and looks up at him with a kind of weirded out expression, “Huh- Get out of your life…? Weirdly kinda personal, isn’t it?”

Jay, who was apparently listening to the entire exchange, goes Oh boy over the radio. Morro honestly doesn’t see the downsides in him knowing who Lloyd is, but Lloyd seemed to clam up right away. “Wha- Uh, no?” 

Garmadon shakes his head, and laughs, “Asking about my family, can’t throw… You’ve got a lot of issues, Green Ninja, and I hope you get the chance to work some of them out before I’m back-” He turns the shark mech around, and it whirs mechanically. “And when I do return, I’ll have something really wicked in store for you- then you’ll really want me gone!”

Impulsively, Morro floats into Lloyd and possesses him, then yells, “Fuck you!” 

“Morro-” 

“Woah, there are kids here, Green Ninja. Watch your mouth,” Garmadon looks back at them only once, “Geez.” He and his army begin to recede back to the beach, to return to the volcano- he leaves Lloyd’s body and lands beside him.

He watches his father leave for a few moments before turning to him, “Morro- Warn me next time!” 

Morro shrugs, “If I asked, you wouldn’t have let me do that,” after a beat, he adds, “...But, yes. I’ll ask you next time.”

Lloyd’s eyes were back on his dad, staring as he slowly disappeared. Morro could see him trying to put on a brave face, but visible tears were glistening in his eyes. Well… He still hadn’t planned what to say, but this was the time. The other guides the dragon mech up again, to go and fly back to the warehouse. Morro hesitates for a few seconds, before speaking up, “...Lloyd.”

“Mhm?” He hums quietly. 

“You’re… a good ninja. A good person. I wasn’t friends with the you from my world, but you make me think maybe I could’ve… been. You’re-” Lloyd turns his head to look at him, and he stumbles just a little, “-a good ninja… I already said that… You’re- You’re just– Enjoy your birthday.” He crosses his arms and looks away

Lloyd is silent for a few moments before replying, “...Thank you. I have been. I mean, not- you know, before he came. Even though it was school, it really wasn’t that bad today… Because of what you did! With Jet, and Belle-” Morro guessed that was the girl’s name, “-and just… I-I don’t know, being there. It was.. not bad, kinda fun, even. So- so thanks.” He laughs, only a little subconsciously, and resumes the dragon mech’s path. 

Morro nods, “Yeah… you’re welcome.”

Lloyd carefully lands the mech onto the empty spot left for him by the others, and tugs his mask off right away. “You wouldn’t believe how hot it gets under there,” he comments, and then hops down. Morro follows, and lands his feet on the floor.

“Lloyd!” Cole walks over to him, and pats his shoulder, “That was rough stuff, man.” The others approach, too, and Zane agrees, “Yes. It was highly poignant.” Morro wonders how many times they’ve had this conversation- and how many times Lloyd’s avoided it- “It wasn’t… really rough, haha. Just regular fighting…”

Jay rubs his hands together and joins in, “Well, fighting Garmadon is easy for me because he, like… isn’t related to me. That must be really complicated for you.”

“Not… Not that complicated-”

Nya, standing nearby, slings an arm around Jay’s shoulders, making him jump, “Yeah, dude. I felt for you.”

Lloyd looks around at all of them, and crosses his arms, “Nothing- There was nothing to really feel for. I don’t really, uh, I don’t really know what you’re… referring to.”

Nya glances at Kai, “The dad-” and he finishes her sentence, “-Yeah, the- the dad stuff. You got really emotional, we saw it.” Morro glances at the ninja, and they’re all nodding in agreement. “We’re here for you, Lloyd,” Zane pats his shoulder, too, stiffly. 

“Wait, do you guys hear something?” Cole asks, looking around. He walks over to the entrance of the warehouse and swings the doors open. The ninja’s ship- the Destiny Bounty- flies down and lands in the water, in front of the dock. “Master Wu is back!” Nya turns away from Lloyd to look. They all do, but Morro catches a glimpse of a white beard, sneaking up behind them.

“Boo,” Master Wu greets sagely, “Hello, my students.” Jay jumps and yells; Nya has to catch him from falling. He doesn’t look that different from the Master Wu that Morro knew- just as old, with more expensive clothing… “I was on a deep, spiritual journey that took me to depths inside myself I never knew existed,” He answers one of their inquiries. The new voice would take some getting used to, for sure. Morro hummed with thought.

“Yeah, you’ve got a pretty harsh tan line,” Cole laughs. Wu’s head snaps to him, “Don’t judge me!” His personality is definitely… different, too. 

Zane’s voice mimics excitement- Morro wasn’t sure how alive he really was, if he was being honest- “Did you witness our vanquishing of Lord Garmadon?”

Wu strokes his beard with one hand, and the other is crossed behind his back, “I saw your fight, yes. And I saw Garmadon retreat, but you did not defeat him.” He shakes his head, too, to emphasize that point.

“What?” Jay asks, “But we got rid of him!”

“There’s nothing ninja about any of you ninja,” He answers, joining his hand to the other behind his back, “You don’t need machines or explosives, you can win the fight with only your own strength. Your names aren’t for show, they represent what you can create.”

Kai looks excited, “I can make fire?” Wu lights a small flame on one of his fingers, to demonstrate, “Yes. Nya, you can make water. Zane, ice. All of you have it- you only need to find it… inside.”

Lloyd goes up to him, enthusiastic, “Okay- Okay, what’s mine? What’s my element, uncle Wu?”

“Green.”

Morro can’t help it- he laughs, long and loud. Lloyd looks at him, “Wh-” he groans and turns back to Wu, “Green isn’t, uh- an element. Seriously, what is it?” Morro floats over to him, with an amused smile, “Life, idiot.”

“Oh-” He looks at Wu, “Life?”

Wu, who had pulled out a book titled Ninjanuity, throws it away, “I guess you’re more advanced than I thought. Now-” he steps back to face all the others too, “Have any of you practiced your spinjitzu?”

That really makes Lloyd light up, “Yes! Yes- Yeah, I- I have!”

“Let me see,” Wu says, “Demonstrate.”

Lloyd looks at Morro, and Morro nods at him, “You can do it. Or… I can possess you if you fail.” He shakes his head, “No, no. I’ve got this- you’re not exactly a master, either. No offense.”

“I only fell one time-”

“Hurry up, Lloyd,” Wu unknowingly interrupts, crossing his arms. The others look expectantly at him, though Jay looks more nervous than anything, as per usual. “Okay- Okay. I can’t do it with my element, yet, but-” He winds up left, kicks, and- he succeeds. 

“Wow!” Nya says, enthused, and she shakes Jay a little, “We gotta learn that!”

Lloyd stops spinning and the green tornado fades, accidentally phasing right through Morro in the process, “Sorry.” Morro shrugs it off, as Wu steps forward. “Good,” he says, “Come with me, nephew. The rest of you, learn to do that. Read my book.”

Cole picks up Ninjanuity from the floor with a smile- Lloyd’s demonstration seems to have boosted morale- or just motivation. Morro feels proud.

“Come, Lloyd,” he repeats, “It’s time for mentor talk.” He walks out of the warehouse, and towards the docks. Lloyd follows in tow, and Morro comes too, of course. 

“What do you think this’ll be about?” Lloyd asks him, and he shrugs. “A lecture, maybe. We’ll find out.”

Chapter Text

Wu walks them aboard the Destiny’s Bounty, and faces the water, in thought. “So… About Garmadon,” Lloyd says, “I-”

“We aren’t alone,” he interrupts, and turns to him. “You’re being followed, Nephew,” Wu starts aimlessly feeling the surrounding air, searching. Morro jumps a little when his hand goes right through him. “There’s a ghost right here,” He says, apparently being able to sense him there. Turning to Lloyd, he asks, “Did you know it was there?”

Lloyd pauses far too long before laughing and trying to play it off, “What? You’re- a ghost? That’s- That’s crazy, Master Wu.”

Morro sighs, “Just tell him. He already figured it out.” The forced smile fades and he nods to Wu, “Yeah… Yeah, I know he’s there- I can see him.” 

“You can?” Wu says, too-sagely for what he’s saying, “That’s really freaky. And weird.” 

Lloyd doesn’t argue, and crosses his arms. “It’s the ghost of my dog, the. The dead one,” he nods, weakly, and Morro groans. “Why are you- why that, again? He’s going to know you’re lying!”

“That’s what I told Kai! It- It has to be consistent,” Lloyd says back, stupidly proving he wasn’t a dog immediately. “Kai would’ve thought I was insane, and I don’t want my uncle to think I’m crazy.”

“Master Wu would not think you’re crazy,” Morro huffs, and then gestures with one hand at him, “What do you think you look like now? And what if he can see me?” Lloyd winces and glances at Wu, who’s silently watching him, “Wait, can he?”

Morro shakes his head, “I don’t think so. It took him a second to find me- anyway, tell him the truth. Just don’t…” If there was a parallel of him in this world, he wasn’t ready to deal with it. Would he even be alive here? “Don’t use my name. Make one up.” He was a little apprehensive about putting that into Lloyd’s hands, considering the entirety of the dead dog thing, but he wasn’t great at coming up with things like that on the spot, either.  

“What is he telling you?” Wu finally asks.

“...To tell you that he’s a human,” then, looking at Morro, “You’re a human, right?” He nods. “Yeah- okay, he is.”

Wu hums, and tries to run his hand through his beard, but it gets caught in a tangle. “Ow-” He pulls his hand away, “And he is the one who’s taught you spinjitzu, yes?”

Lloyd confirms, and shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “Yeah. But how did you figure it out?” he folds his hands together, “I mean- you wouldn’t have heard me talking to him. Weren’t you watching from a distance?”

“Yes, but I saw several attacks be repelled away from you before they could hit. And,” Wu turns away to look into the ocean, again. “On my trip… I got a fax from Zane saying that you were talking to yourself and creeping everyone out.”

“I- Oh.”

Morro has to hold in a laugh, making Lloyd send him an unamused, sideways glance. “Well,” he says, “I was talking to him- yeah… Uh, his name’s M… Mario.” 

“That’s a very strange name,” Wu says, “I wonder if he is from this time at all…” He looks at the empty space next to Lloyd, trying to eye Morro and failing. He moves to be in his eyeline, just out of mercy. “Anyway, though, Master Wu,” Lloyd steps forward, “About my dad. He said he was going to come back with something big. What if we’re not prepared for it?”

Wu’s face grows more serious, “What my brother comes back with is not the problem. Your reaction is.” A breeze, a naturally occurring one, flows through them. Lloyd asks, “You mean how I fight, and stuff…? I- I haven’t tried spinjitzu in battle yet, I don’t know if I’m ready.”

He shakes his head, “I don’t mean your fighting, Lloyd. Because of your connection to Garmadon, you react impulsively,” Lloyd opens his mouth to refute that, but Wu shushes him. “You do. It’ll only grow worse if you let it continue on.”

“So, what? Am I supposed to not care? ‘Cause, I- I’ve been trying to do that for my whole life,” Lloyd answers, already a little worked up about it, “And it doesn’t work.” 

Morro tells him, “You do go for Garmadon every time. He’s just telling you not to let it consume you, what you do in battle.” Lloyd sighs, “Okay… I guess so.”

“You seem close,” Wu comments.

Lloyd looks at him, and Morro nods, so he says, “We are. I mean, pre- pretty close. He follows me everywhere, so.” Wu raises a long eyebrow, “Everywhere? Even in the shower?” Lloyd flushes red, “What? No! Obviously no!”

“If you say so,” Wu shrugs, “Now! Go home and rest.”

Morro agrees, “Yeah- your Mom is probably freaking out right now.” Lloyd’s eyes go a little wide, “Oh no! I forgot- we gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow, Uncle- and- and just to reiterate, he does not follow me into the shower.” He nods slowly, “Yes… I believe you.”

“Ugh… Okay, let’s go,” he turns away from him. “We had better go fast,” Morro says. Lloyd nods and starts to head off; he, on the other hand, hesitates, looking at Wu. The old man is staring right through him, watching his nephew exit. Lloyd looks behind his shoulder and calls out, “Come on, Morr- Mario!” 

Surprise flashes on Wu’s face, like he recognized the name he almost said. Morro lingers for just a moment longer, thinking, before floating off to join him. 

Koko is just getting off the phone when they enter. “Lloyd!” She discards it onto the kitchen counter and rushes over to him, “Finally, I was so worried about you! What happened?” He replies while she checks him for injury, “Hey… Sorry, I- I took the long way home.”

“Why didn’t you text me? We got the family plan just for that,” She reminds him, backing away to cross her arms. “I know- I… Sorry,” He shrugs awkwardly, and fidgets with the hem of his hoodie. “I’m just glad you’re okay,” Koko sighs, loud and relieved, “Now that you’re home, I’ll make your favourite!”

Lloyd looks up at that, “Dumplings?”

“Mhm,” She walks over to the fridge and pulls out the supplies, “I bought all the ingredients yesterday. It’ll be a late dinner-” she glances outside the window, into the darkened sky, “-but it’ll be great. I have your cake, too.”

Lloyd smiles, small, “You didn’t, uh- have to get one of those.” She’s begun to put the dry ingredients into a bowl, “I wanted to! Do you want to invite any friends over?” He glances at Morro, then shakes his head, “No, it’s fine. I’ve got, uh… enough here.”

“Okay, but you know they’d love to come,” Koko reminds him, whisking the ingredients together.

“Yeah… I’m gonna go to my room, so just tell me when it’s ready?” He turns and starts walking, Morro following behind as always. “Yep!” She replies, “It shouldn’t take too long.”

In his room, Lloyd sits down on his bed and takes off his sneakers, then shoving them under it. “Today’s been something,” He mumbles. 

“Bad?” Morro asks.

Lloyd pauses and looks up at him, “...No. Not bad.”

He pulls out his pajama set, and Morro turns to leave the room. “You can stay,” Lloyd says, “Just- You know, just… turn around.” He nods, and faces away. The other keeps talking as he changes, “This is actually one of the better birthdays I’ve had- ha. I mean, this is my first one with friends.”

Morro had forgotten just how recently Lloyd had met the other ninja. “What was it like?” he asks, “The other times.”

“Confusing, when I was really little,” He answers, “You can turn around, now. I’m done.” Lloyd is tousling his hair when he turns to face him again, as effortless as his hairstyle altogether. He sits back down on his bed, laying back and sighing. After a moment, he comments, “It kinda sucks that you can’t sit down,” he tilts his head to the side, “Do you ever get tired?”

“Yeah,” Morro nods, “All the time. Being a spirit out of rest is exhausting in general.”

Lloyd makes a small noise of thought, then saying, “Well… My element’s life, apparently. Maybe I can bring you back.” He shrugs with a smile.

“No,” Morro lands on the ground, “I died out of my own fault. It’d be…” he looks away, searching for words, “...I’d be undeserving.” Lloyd doesn’t know what to say to that, and it shows. His dark eyebrows furrow a tad, in confusion, and he just asks, “Why? Didn’t you die in a cave explosion?”

He doesn’t want to talk about this with him. 

“It was what led up to that,” He says, and quickly adds, “But I’m not going to share that. Not right now.” 

Lloyd nods, “Okay. That’s- that’s fine.” He’s clearly curious, but he doesn’t push. There’s silence for a few moments, and Lloyd looks around, before his gaze lands on the television, mounted on the wall and waiting. “Hey, uh…” He starts, quiet, before clearing his throat and speaking up, “Morro, what if I stayed up with you tonight? We could, uh- watch stuff.”

“Don’t you need to sleep?” He asks, looking at Lloyd with a little surprise. He shrugs, waving a hand flippantly, “I sleep every night. What’s one day without it?”

Morro hesitates to accept, “What if your dad attacks tomorrow?” 

Lloyd’s face tenses and he sits back up, “He won’t. He said he’s coming back with something bigger, that’ll take time,” he chuckles, “And besides, his employee morale is probably really low. They’re not going to come back with this huge thing in just a day.” 

“You’re right,” Morro nods, “Alright. Let’s see how long you can stay up, then.” Lloyd grins at him, “Great- I’m tired of letting him ruin everything, anyway. Normal teens get to stay up all night.” Morro returns his smile.

“Lloyd! Your dumplings are ready,” They hear Koko call out from the kitchen.

A bowl is set up for Lloyd. Koko is eating her own serving, and she smiles when he comes out. “Thanks,” he says, and sits down at the counter, picking up one of the dumplings with his chopsticks, and he plops it into his mouth. “Is it good?” Morro asks, and he nods with a pleased smile. “Mhm,” He answers after a moment, “These are the best.”

Morro had to admit he missed eating. Even when possessing the other Lloyd, he hadn’t really engaged in it beyond what was necessary to keep the body going. He was too focused on his goals to enjoy any of it, and the same went for when he was alive. He appreciated that Lloyd was able to.

“So,” Koko asks, “How was your day? I mean, besides your father attacking.”

Lloyd eats another dumpling before replying, and he seems unbothered to have to repeat it to her, “It was pretty good, all- all things considered. Better than the other birthdays.” She perks up at that, “Really? That’s great!” 

“Yeah,” he agrees, eating another. Morro wonders what they should watch together- he’d begun to watch a show the previous night, but it being on all night meant he got through most of the first set of episodes, and he’d rather not have to explain what’s happened so far. Lloyd had said he wasn’t really into tv, so maybe it didn’t matter… 

After the two of them finish the dumplings, Koko asks him, “Are you ready for dessert?” She opens the fridge and takes out a one-layer birthday cake, pulling out a lighter for the singular candle placed on top. “Guess so,” Lloyd answers, a little hesitant. 

“You know, you… deserve this,” Morro tells him, with awkward pauses as usual. The other sighs and nods, “Yeah- Yeah, I know.” Does he?

Koko places the cake on the counter, to the side, and takes both of their bowls to the sink, trading them in for two clean plates. “Now, how big of a piece do you want?” She turns back to him with a cake cutter, setting down the plate in front of him. Lloyd shrugs, “Uh- just, like, a normal size.” 

“Are you sure? You only turn sixteen once!” She asks, and Lloyd glances at Morro. “Uh… Okay- Okay, make that a bigger slice, then.”

Koko smiles at him, and cuts a sizeable piece of the cake, transporting it carefully to his plate. She grabs him a fork and sets it in front of him, too. “Thanks,” he nods at her. 

Morro watches him take a bite, and asks, “What does it taste like?” He’d never actually had cake before. Of course, he never would’ve been able to afford it before becoming Wu’s student, and then Wu himself didn’t know how to bake. 

Lloyd looks at him and grins, “Why don’t you find out yourself?” He holds out a hand that Morro can’t take, but the message is clear. “Oh,” Morro says, suddenly shy, “Okay. Sure…”

He possesses Lloyd’s body, and the other appears next to him in the form of an apparition. Using the fork, he takes a bite of the slice. It’s all-sweet, and a little overwhelming for him, but it’s not… unpleasant. 

Lloyd, on the other hand, seems to take an interest in being a ‘ghost’ while Morro tries it. He phases his hand through the counter, himself, and then through him- “This is really weird,” Lloyd says. He doesn’t reply for fear of Koko noticing that her son is not himself at the moment, but nods. 

“Too weird,” Lloyd adds after a moment, “Can I have my body back?”

Morro exits, and the other sighs in relief. “Thank you,” he tells Lloyd, “I liked it.” Lloyd just smiles at him, “What are friends for?” 

Koko chuckles, and they both look at her- Lloyd clams up a little. “Don’t be embarrassed!” She says, waving a hand at him, “I remember when you’d talk to your imaginary friends all the time. I think it’s sweet you haven’t forgotten about them.” Geez… Just how lonely was this guy?

“Yeah- Right,” He nods.

“When you almost said Morro earlier, Master Wu looked like he recognized it,” Morro finally brings it up, much later that night. 

They had decided to watch a series of connected movies. It wasn’t particularly interesting to either of them, but it was something to occupy their time. He sighs, “But if there’s a version of me here, and he thought that I- or he- could be a ghost… then I’m dead here, too- or not in contact with him anymore, at the least. And if…” He trails off. If he was either of those things here, too, then did he make the same mistakes? 

Morro looks over at Lloyd when he doesn’t answer, and finds his eyes closed and his breaths calm. Of course he fell asleep in the end- he shakes his head and laughs, quiet to not wake him. It was near morning, anyway, so he had to give him some credit.

He’s fallen asleep without his blanket covering him, and Morro manages to get it onto him with gentle wind. “You wouldn’t have the answer, even if you were awake,” He mumbles, staring at the other’s peaceful expression, “Why would I try to seek them from you?”

He has the ghost of a smile on his lips, and Morro can’t help but mirror it, “I guess I’ve learned to lean on you.” Maybe that wasn’t so bad.  

Lloyd wakes up late. He, for once, didn’t mind it- he had stayed up very late, and the comfort of that presence was enough for Morro to let him sleep in. It was the weekend, anyway, and they could always train another time. 

Also, every time he was going to wake up Lloyd- first at eight, then ten, then eleven… The other looked so carefree, he was reluctant to have him return to the issues that came with being awake. There was beauty in the sleepful bliss that Morro dearly missed, and Lloyd was a display of it- both in that metaphoric sense and, well… the physical sense, too. 

And so, he busied himself by going around Ninjago City and observing what the others were doing. Since he and Lloyd were watching a movie series when he fell asleep, when the film ended, Morro couldn’t exactly pick up the remote and find something else. 

Half of them were still asleep when he floated in- Kai, Zane (if you could even call being powered down sleep), and Cole- but surprisingly not Jay. 

Morro found him in Nya’s workshop with her, and they were busy at work with that same motorcycle he had offered to help her with. The way they interacted was only a little painful to watch now, which made him wonder if Jay’s shyness was due in part to the others always being around when he tried to shoot his shot.

The two of them would be digging through a toolbox to find whatever they needed, and Nya would notice a smeared bit of oil or dirt on his face, and she would wipe it off with surprising hesitation- like she was testing the waters. Jay would, of course, react by hiding his face and blushing, simply turning his head away since he set his scarf aside for this, and she would giggle. Jay would be flustered, but he wouldn’t clam up or say anything terribly idiotic. It was sickeningly sweet, but it almost made Morro want to observe them more often, to find out what kind of progress they had made in private to get here. 

After checking up on all of the ninja, Morro headed to the Destiny’s Bounty to see what Master Wu was up to. He wondered if this version of him was truly that goofy, or if it was only an act he put on for his students. The ninja, apart from Lloyd, were younger here, after all. 

Wu was gazing upon a picture when Morro arrived, with a regretful expression that he’d seen directed at himself many times. It gave him pause, and he hesitated before moving closer- the photo was of Wu and Garmadon, younger. Teen years, maybe. Garmadon’s skin was fully onyx, then, and he already had four arms- he wondered if he was just born that way in this world. What a cruel fate for a child that’d be.

He looked up at Wu when the man sighed and began to mutter to himself, “Oh, Garmadon.”

It looked like he was right- this version of him wasn’t really like that after all. “You were so…” Wu grazed his thumb over the photographed Garmadon.

“...Ugly.”

Morro didn’t think he’d watch Wu anymore. 

He took a few more detours around the city through sights he’d already seen, before returning to home- to Lloyd’s home. It was around noon, and he almost couldn’t believe he’d wasted so much time essentially doing nothing. Though, as of late, nothing seemed to be a large chunk of his activities.

The citizens of Ninjago City were calm, and friendly towards one another. The days after Garmadon attacks were filled with both reconstructions and a lot of relief - it meant they were safe for a few days, at the least. He had to roll his eyes at more than a few I bet Lloyd Garmadon had something to do with this ’s, but other than that, it was nice. Despite the common destruction and invasion, there was a sense of community that he rarely got to witness in his own Ninjago. 

It all came crashing down at the sound of devious laughter, distant. 

Morro already knew what it was, but he went and checked away- he floated up high into the sky, to get a good view of the beach, and sure enough, Garmadon was back. With upgrades, apparently.

When he arrives back into the apartment, and Lloyd’s room, the other is already awake. Barely. He’s on the phone with someone, but Morro doesn’t wait. “Lloyd!” He floats over right away, “Your father is back already- he’s attacking.”

“Hold on-” Lloyd tells the person on the phone, and he looks up at Morro. “I know. Kai is telling me right now. Uh, he’s asking me where I am.” 

Morro blinks in surprise at that revelation- did he really waste enough time to where Kai had already gotten up and ready, found the Garmadon attack, and charged into battle? “Oh,” He replies, simply, and groans internally. He shouldn’t have accepted Lloyd’s offer- if he had gotten up in the morning as usual, they’d already be there, and Lloyd would be ready. Morro didn’t need a companion through the night before, why would he even…

“I know, I know- I’m on my way,” Lloyd is already getting up and throwing off his pajama shirt, acting too hastily to care about privacy at the moment. Morro looks away, still. “Who else is there? Okay, uh- alright, don’t go for Garmadon, focus on protecting civilians and buildings. I’ll- I’ll be there soon.” 

He hangs up, and turns to Morro as he throws on the top half of his dark gi. “I’m so sorry, Morro. I shouldn’t have stayed up, you warned me about him coming back… Ugh- I just- I just wanted to have fun, but I wouldn’t have if…”

“It’s fine,” Morro holds up a hand, with an averted gaze, “Don’t apologize to me for something like that,” he says, even though he’d kind of been thinking the same thing, only with a spin of self-blame, “We’ll beat him.” He wasn’t sure how powerful Garmadon’s new technology was, but they had an entire team of advanced mechanical suits. He was sure to go down. 

Lloyd sighs, raking a hand through soft hair, “You’re right, you’re right- just… this sucks.” He fully turns away so the other can change his pants, and he replies, “I know. Let’s just get this over with - there’s plenty of sun left in the day for afterwards.” Maybe they could visit that café again…

Lloyd nods and, fully suited up, walks over to his door and almost opens it, before freezing, “Wait- Morro, is my mom home?” He looks over his shoulder, assuming that he would’ve checked, and he’s correct.

“No. Go ahead,” He says.

As he’s running and Morro is floating, Lloyd glances at him and asks, “Hey, Morro, do you think you’d be a faster runner than me?” He thinks for a second before answering, “I’m not sure. Why do you ask?”

“Well, if you are, then you could possess me. We could get there faster, you know?” 

Morro hums, then shakes his head and admits, “I think you’re faster.” He supposed he could use airjitzu to boost his speed, but he’d rather not have Lloyd deal with a bunch of headlines talking about The Green Ninja has Wind Powers?! What else is he hiding? 

“Okay,” Lloyd shrugs.

They make it to the warehouse as soon as they can, after several delays of civilians in danger. Every other suit is already gone, and Lloyd scrambles a bit faster with the realization that he’s dead last. “We shouldn’t have stopped for the cat,” Morro says, whirling up onto the dragon with airjitzu. Lloyd hops up after him and huffs, “It could’ve gotten hurt!”

“It’s just an animal, Lloyd,” Morro says, sighing.

“Yeah- so? We’re all animals,” He responds, and they leave it at that, as the mech powers up. 

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Lloyd insists on going after Garmadon. He speaks over the radio, “I’m going for Garmadon! Do any of you know where he is?” He flies right by a civilian being ganged up on by goons dressed in fishbowls and crab hats without even looking. Morro deals with them himself- blowing the person away from them. 

“A block away from Ninjago Tower,” Kai answers, “But Zane and I are already here, so I think-”

“Got it! I’m on my way,” Lloyd assumes he’s heading for the mayor’s office- they’re already flying towards the area. “Lloyd, Jay asked for backup,” Zane speaks over the radio, “His communications are currently down.”

He barely reacts, “He’ll be fine. Guys, I’m coming, just- just go and fight off his army.” Morro keeps looking out for people in trouble, and he notices several that he uses wind to aid, all of which Lloyd didn’t notice. “Lloyd, focus,” He says, “Remember what Master Wu said.”

“Yeah, yeah- I see him!” 

It’s hard not to see Garmadon, really. Morro thinks he must’ve underestimated the skill of his employees, because somehow in a single day, he’s come back with a giant mechanical suit, reinforced with what looks like Vengestone. Oh, boy. The head of the suit, where Garmadon sat, was of course constructed to resemble a hammerhead shark. Instead of explosives or real weapons, he was shooting sharks and dolphins at buildings and at people, also simply crushing things under the mech’s feet, one inoffensive hot-dog stand in particular. 

“Well, hello, Green Ninja!” Garmadon yells as he sees him, the suit turning slowly for him to be able to look. 

Lloyd shouts back standard ninja-speak, and immediately launches into blasting missiles towards him, uncaring of collateral damage- or, it seems, about anything else happening around them- because there Jay’s jet was, being overwhelmed by the army’s own jets, all reinforced in Vengestone. 

Whether or not he’s realized that lightning is useless on them, Jay’s given up on fighting altogether and is simply trying to fly away. He’s sure if he was closer, there’d be loud screaming to punctuate it.

Morro tries to alert Lloyd, because he’s the only other one with a mech that could fly, but he won’t even look away from Garmadon- or where Garmadon was standing- another giant cloud of smoke had collected from the countless bombs.

Jay goes down pretty swiftly, and he’s ejected from the vehicle rather unceremoniously- Morro is stunned, for a moment, thinking that he’s actually about to witness one of them die- but Jay falls over a water bank, and luckily Nya is nearby on her own mech. A skyscraper blocks his view, but he assumes she catches him in time. 

Now, he seriously needs Lloyd to listen. He floats in front of his view of Garmadon, “Lloyd. Jay just-” 

“Jay’s down!” Nya yells over the radio, “His jet’s out of commission, but he’s with me.”

That makes Lloyd react. “Oh no-” He looks around, hurriedly, like he’s coming to, and the smoke cloud around Garmadon settles. He’s completely unharmed. 

The suit doesn’t have a single scratch on it. 

Meaning Jay’s mech got destroyed for nothing- Morro hardly has the time to open his mouth, to tell Lloyd to let go of beating his goddamn father, when Garmadon reaches a giant, metal hand and grabs the dragon mech from the sky. “No!” Lloyd tries every button he can to get away, but the missile reserves have been exhausted, not that they would help either way. “Come on, come on-”

“You having trouble with that dragon mech, Green Ninja?” Garmadon taunts, and he partially crushes the dragon’s neck under the fist, getting a better grip on it. Getting a better grip to… “Lloyd, you have to–” He tries, but it’s too late. Garmadon tosses the mech, and tosses it far, yelling, “Now, that’s a throw!”

“No!-” Morro scrambles to float, to fly after it- it falls into the ocean, near the docks, and Lloyd falls in with it. He really rushes then, but when he reaches the sinking dragon, he can’t find him.

“Lloyd!” He calls out to him, but there’s no response- he can’t see past the deep blue of the water, and he can’t just go in. There was no way to know if he’d still be destroyed by it and returned to the Departed Realm without jumping in and taking that risk- and if he did get sent back, and Lloyd was dying- what could he do, worlds away?

What could he do, either way, actually? With every second Lloyd didn’t come up, he felt more hopeless. What would Garmadon do when the Green Ninja’s body was found, only for it to be his son? What would Morro–

His head turns, sharp, at the sound of gasped breaths. Lloyd’s resurfaced- barely floating above water, with nothing to grab onto.

“Shit-” He blows over some debris left behind by the dragon mech, and Lloyd hooks his arms over the top of it, then coughs for several seconds, pulling his mask off. “Tha- ugh… Thanks,” He manages. 

Lloyd grabs the radio off one of the other broken pieces, and speaks into it before it can break, “I’m down, guys, I’m down- Nya, I need a lift.” 

“I’m on my way!” Nya answers after a moment, her voice glitched, as the radio sheds sparks. He drops it into the ocean, and rests his chin on the debris he’s holding onto. “Lloyd, maybe you should fall back,” Morro says, tainted with worry, “Regroup, find Master Wu.”

Lloyd wipes away wet bangs from his eyes and shakes his head, “No- No, I have a plan.” He was shivering in the cold of the water, and Morro uses wind to at least dry his hair. “What?” He asks.

“Well, if he’s impenetrable from the outside, then I just gotta get in,” Lloyd answers, after thanking him. “Here, dry this, too-” He holds up his mask, and Morro does so. He pulls it right back over his face, and Morro asks him, “Do you mean through its mouth? Garmadon’s right there, how are you going to do that?”

“Kai’s mech is tall enough to get me started, at least,” Lloyd says, right as Nya pulls up with her water strider. “Get on, bro!” Jay calls to him, and motions to the space next to him, above the cockpit. It wasn’t safe or secure, but better than nothing. “That’s… risky,” Morro frowns, floating next to Lloyd as he hops up, hoping he’ll just be able to keep up like that. “We have to be risky,” Lloyd says, “He’ll conquer Ninjago otherwise.”

Nya drops him off back onto the street, near Garmadon, at Lloyd’s request, and Jay wishes him luck. Lloyd tells her, “Just protect the people- I’m going for Garmadon. Tell Kai to wait for me.” She doesn’t look all-too confident in his plan, either, but nods and glides away, informing the others on the radio. 

Lloyd’s running as soon as she’s gone, and Morro rushes to stay side-by-side with him. “Are you sure about this?” He asks. With multiple mechs down already, risking another didn’t look like the best idea. He supposes he trusts Lloyd’s judgement, but he also trusts that Lloyd is losing sight of this situation in pursuit of his father. “Look, I know your dad is an asshole, but-”

“Fire Ninja!” Lloyd yells, waving up at him. The street was swarming with Garmadon’s army, and he’s a little surprised that the other remembered to use the code names because of it. Still, he sighs in exasperation, “Don’t ignore me.” 

Kai lowers one of his flamethrower arms so Lloyd can jump on, and Lloyd turns to Morro when he follows, “Sorry, but just- just trust me, okay?” He looks nervous, but not unconfident in himself, so Morro concedes. “Fine. But we have to be careful.”

The mech wades through the swarm of sharkheads and crabheads, and Kai tries to hit them with fire, but it does little more than knock them back- and it doesn’t exactly knock them far. They try to climb onto the suit, but he’s able to physically kick them off- as long as he keeps moving, he’s able to resist them- but not defeat them. This is bad.

“I just need you to boost me up,” Lloyd tells Kai, as they zero in on Garmadon. Garmadon’s suit was larger than Kai’s, but it was something. “Got it,” Kai replies, and he shouts to Cole as they pass by him, “Stay close, man! We might need backup!” 

Cole gives him a thumbs up with the mech’s metal hand, before knocking away some goons trying to crawl up his suit. 

Garmadon hasn’t yet made it up to Ninjago Tower- he’s crushing garbage cans under his feet, and laughing maniacally. There weren’t even any civilians to intimidate around him, just his goons dressed in fishbowls and occasionally being hit by one of the sharks he shoots out. Kai sneaks up behind him, and raises his mech’s arm. 

Lloyd’s eyes scan for a good place to jump onto, so he could crawl up all the way. Garmadon thankfully hasn’t noticed them yet, but the army has. Multiple of them start shooting crabs right at Kai, making the glass of the cockpit start to crack and waver. “Uh, hurry up, bro-” He says, trying to stomp them out. 

“I’m trying, hold on,” Lloyd rushes and grabs a random bit of Garmadon’s suit, at the back of its leg. Garmadon bends the leg to kick at something else on the ground, and Lloyd goes swinging with it. He falls off, and Morro slows his fall- Kai very distractedly catches him, and holds him up to try again. 

The goons had gotten closer, now trying to dismantle the legs of the fire mech. Kai tries to blow flames at them, but now that they have something to hold onto, it’s essentially useless. Lloyd grabs another piece of Garmadon’s leg, and finally starts to climb up. Kai hovers below while trying to fight off the army- the mech’s legs were completely covered in them. Morro manages to blow a few of them with weak grips off, but the rest are immovable. They grab and throw off piece after piece of metal, to where Kai’s suit struggles to remain standing. 

Morro’s about to possess Lloyd and just use airjitzu to get up, when Garmadon suddenly turns. In his hand, was one of the crabheads, who has apparently informed him of what’s happening. “Well, well!” He yells, then flings Lloyd off with two metal fingers, like an ant. “You never know when to give up, do you, Green Ninja?” Garmadon laughs, long and loud. “You’re no match for me and my army, not now!”

Lloyd lands on his feet, and looks to Kai- the goons have nearly reached his cockpit, and so he's smashed it open and gotten out. “I’d keep tossing you around, but I have a city to conquer!” With a readying stance, Garmadon’s mech jumps high, landing halfway up Ninjago Tower. He grabs onto the building and continues up, in the same way that Lloyd had tried. This was not… good. Morro realizes, then, that they’re losing. 

“No!” Lloyd yells, desperate, but Cole is in tow- He rolls up to the two of them, “Lloyd, you can use my suit to get up there.” Kai tries to fight off the army as they come, to prevent them from getting to Cole’s as best he can. “Okay, thanks-” Lloyd jumps up, and Cole tells him, “We’ll stall,” then looking to his radio, “Zane, we need your help here. Come get me and Kai.” He gets out of the suit, and Lloyd enters. Morro phases through the glass to stand next to him, and it’s similarly cramped to Jay’s jet. 

“Affirmative. I am on my way,” They hear Zane answer. Cole joins Kai on the ground to fight off the army, and Lloyd struggles with the controls. “Hurry,” Morro hisses, because things are not looking good. The only hope they had was to stop Garmadon from inside, and he isn’t exactly believing it’ll work. Even so, he knows Lloyd won’t stop now, so he just tries to aid.

Lloyd scales up the side of the building, avoiding any windows, with Cole’s mech. Several shark and crabheads follow them up, by holding on, but it’s too late to get them off, now. They get up after Garmadon does, and he’s looking around at all the chaos. Lloyd goes to use the mech’s element, but Morro stops him, “His suit is made out of Vengestone. You just need to get up there.”

“What’s Vengestone?” He asks, and Morro holds back a groan, instead just explaining, “It renders elements useless. That’s why Kai’s fire wasn’t working against the army.”

Garmadon notices them, and laughs again, “You can’t stop me now, Green Ninja! I’m already here!” One of the metal fingers opens and produces a forked flag, black, with a skull resembling his own, spray-painted on both sides. “Possess me,” Lloyd tells him, quickly.

Morro obliges, and he uses airjitzu to get up to the shark mech’s open mouth. Garmadon blinks in surprise, “Okay, I didn’t know you could do that- unfair.” Lloyd floats up after him after struggling to figure it out for a few moments. Morro raises his fists, but Lloyd moves in front of him, “No- Let me- Morro, he’s my dad. I have to take him down.”

“You’re less experienced than me-” Morro answers, and Garmadon goes, “No, I’m not!” But Lloyd looks at him with desperate eyes, and he just says, “Please.” Morro hesitates, and then nods, “I’ll help in my own way, then.” He leaves Lloyd’s body, and Lloyd jumps into action as soon as he does. 

He takes Garmadon off guard with the switch from talk to fighting, and sweeps his feet out from under him. Morro pushes him down again with wind when he goes to get up, and Lloyd searches for something to use as a weapon. Garmadon finds one first- reaching for a crab cannon before Morro can notice. 

Garmadon shoots it at him until it’s empty, then using it as a blunt weapon. “Give up, Garmadon,” Lloyd says, as he wades around his hits, “You came back with all this, and I’m still here!” Morro uses wind to push Lloyd more safely out of the way of the hand cannon, but he doesn’t realize that Garmadon is just pushing him out until he grabs him and replies, “You’re the one that should give up, Green Ninja.” He throws him out of the shark’s mouth, and he lands into the restricting arms of the goons that had followed them. 

“No-” Lloyd and Morro say it at the same time, and Morro blows Garmadon hard into the wall of the cockpit before floating down to try and help his friend. They’ve tackled Lloyd to the ground, and are holding him there. “You’ve lost, ninja!” Garmadon calls out, and places the flag down.

Lloyd is made to face out from the building, down into the city. Morro struggles, but they were immovable with wind- not only were they on the ground, they had used grappling hooks and knives to anchor themselves there, like they were expecting it. He tries possessing him again, to physically throw them off, but the Vengestone armour made it too heavy to get all of them off. He leaves his body, and just watches with Lloyd as the anarchy below just gets worse. 

Zane’s tank had already been torn apart, and he, Kai, and Cole were nowhere to be seen- the banks and police stations were overflowing with the army, and every building that wasn’t a skyscraper had at least been damaged. He looks at Lloyd, and of course his eyes are shining with unshed tears. 

Garmadon walks over in his mech, and kicks Cole’s off of the roof- it’s destroyed in the fall. He then exits the shark suit, “Woo! I win, queue the music!” One of the goons not holding Lloyd down pulls out a speaker and starts playing music from it. 

The others let go of him, too, and Lloyd just stays down. He doesn’t look at Morro, or at Garmadon, staring at the roof’s floor. “Are you gonna cry?” Garmadon asks, leaning in with a wide, toothy grin. “I’m not going to cry,” Lloyd answers, quiet and defeated. “I bet he’s gonna cry!” The person with the speaker says, and they all laugh at him. 

“I’m not going to cry-!” Lloyd shoots up to his feet, angry now. Morro blinks as he rips off his mask and throws it aside, “Dad.” 

Garmadon’s mouth falls open and his overgrown eyebrows come up. A few of the sharkheads gasp. “That’s right! It’s me, your son,” Lloyd announces, and it almost seems like he’s just throwing this in his dad’s face to have some kind of win. Morro can’t say he’s against it. “Lloyd…” Garmadon mumbles, at least not having to take the time to recognize him, this time. “You ruined my life,” Lloyd says, snatching his arm away from a goon that tries to grab it. 

“How could I ruin your life? I wasn’t even there,” Garmadon asks with such genuine cluelessness that it’d be funny, if Morro hadn’t seen the life ruining firsthand. 

Lloyd doesn’t dignify that with a response, and he runs to the edge of the roof. He glares at Garmadon, and he says, “I wish you were dead.”

That makes Garmadon really react, but Morro doesn’t stick around to watch. Lloyd jumps off the ledge of the roof, grabbing a flag on the way and using it as a parachute, and of course he follows. The fall with the parachute is slow enough to where he can float beside him, and Lloyd does, in fact, cry. 

He avoids looking at Morro, instead around at the destroyed streets and buildings- the crabheads and fishbowl heads all cheering in celebration, some dancing. “This is my fault,” He says. 

“We’ll get him,” Is all Morro can manage for a reply.

Chapter Text

Morro tried not to look around as they ran. The civilians had all fled inside by the time Lloyd had landed off the makeshift-parachute, so luckily there was no danger of his identity being discovered, mask left on the rooftop where Garmadon was surely ruminating the words spoken so harshly (and rightfully) to him. Unlike him, however, Lloyd couldn’t stop looking, even if it was only making the tears fall quicker.

They said nothing as they went for the docks, to try and talk to Wu like Morro had suggested. It was clear how much Lloyd regretted not listening to him now, and he pulled back any comments he may have teased with, otherwise. This wasn’t the time. 

Lloyd wipes his face when his feet hit the wood, and he runs to the edge. Destiny’s Bounty was utterly destroyed- only broken pieces remained, floating just above the water. “Oh, no,” Lloyd mutters, for what feels like the hundredth time today, and he climbs over a cluster of broken debris, that looks like it had been snatched right from the ship, to look into the ocean. Morro follows, and his shoulders slump when he sees it- Wu is nowhere to be seen, but his hat is floating, lone, in the water.

“What do we do?” Lloyd asks, turning his head to look at him, with a miserable face. If he were able to, he would’ve reached out and wiped the tears clinging to his eyes. “I don’t know,” Morro answers, and he feels just as defeated. He couldn’t teach Lloyd everything, and sure as hell not the others- how were they supposed to defeat Garmadon now? They had no master, no mechs- 

“Lloyd!” Someone calls, and they both look up. Nya’s water mech glides towards the dock, wading around the debris. The others are all holding on, and Zane in particular looks nervous, making Morro wonder if he’s functional in water here. The mech isn’t destroyed, not exactly, but the glass of Nya’s cockpit is cracked and fragmented, and one of its legs is missing. Lloyd wipes his face, and sighs with relief, “Guys. You’re- you’re okay.” He glances back down at Wu’s hat, maybe reminding himself that not everyone was unharmed. 

Cole hops off the mech and crosses his arms, “Yeah, barely.” Morro winces a little- this should be fun. “Any one of us could’ve died.”

Jay timidly raises his hand, “Yeah. Like- like me…” Nya gets out of the mech and nods at him with an empathetic look, before jumping onto the docks as well and looking at Lloyd, “You put all of us in danger. Kai and Zane were already there, you could’ve helped him” 

Lloyd’s deflated within seconds, and he glances over at all of them, “I know. I’m sorry, guys, I just…” Jay frowns at him and jumps away from the mech himself, “If you knew, then why didn’t you?” His voice is surprisingly steady, in confronting him. Kai joins them, and tells him, “Because all he cares about is beating Garmadon,” he looks at Lloyd, “I lost my mech because of you!” Zane nods, and he carefully jumps to the docks, “Nya’s is the only one left intact. We have no weapon capable of defeating Garmadon.”

Cole joins in again, “We could’ve been protecting people, but you made us all help you. And it didn’t do anything.” Morro couldn’t say he disagrees with their points, but really, what were they supposed to do? The mechs were no match for Garmadon or his army, it seemed inevitable- though, if Lloyd had taken a second to realize that and had them retreat, they could’ve come out with all of the mechs functional. Or, at the least, they could’ve helped Wu.

“I know,” Lloyd says again, “I know, and now Master Wu is dead… because of me.” He stares down into the planks beneath his feet, away from the others’ anger, and perhaps more importantly, disappointment. 

“Huh?” Nya asks, “Oh. Wu’s not dead. He’s napping in my mech right now.” Lloyd’s head snaps back up, Morro looks, too, and sure enough- how had they not seen him? Wu was inside the cracked cockpit, slumped against its wall, missing his hat. “Why is he sleeping now?” Morro asks. Why is everything so bizarre here?

Lloyd blinks several times, and then asks, “Uh… Can we talk to him, then?” They all watch him as he sleeps, and Jay says, “I dunno. He said he was going to meditate on his nephew’s failings, or whatever…” Lloyd sighs, “Right. Okay, I’m going to wake him up-” He hops to the cockpit, but then just stands in front of his uncle, a little unsure. Wu wasn’t snoring, or really moving at all, and Morro might’ve assumed he was dead anyway, if he had seen him there. 

Morro floats over next to him, and hums in thought. Lloyd reaches out a finger, to just lightly poke him, and Morro instead sends a large gust of wind, slapping right onto Wu’s face. “Ah!” He jumps awake, “Who did that?! Lloyd…” Lloyd shakes his head and puts his hands up, taking a step back, “No- that- that wasn’t me, that was Mario,” he looks at Morro, “Mario, why did you do that?” 

“Who’s Mario?” They hear Cole ask, and it goes unanswered. 

Wu bonks Lloyd on the head with his staff, “Unacceptable! I was trying to rest for the journey ahead.” He walks past him, to the others, and Kai looks curious, “A journey? You’re leaving again?”

He folds his hands behind his back, somehow sliding the staff into his sleeve, and answers, “Yes. On the other side of the island, there holds the key to defeat my brother, where you must follow the right path.” Wu then sighs, too dramatically, and says, “I will go alone…”

“Why?” Lloyd asks, getting back on the docks, “We can help you. Right, guys?” He manages a smile around at them, but their own faces range from unsure to distrustful. Not distrustful of him as a person, like the rest of Ninjago City’s population, but untrusting of his leadership. Morro’s sure that hurts more. Jay, of all people, says something, “I don’t know… The last time you had a feeling we should do something, it didn’t end so well. Like... an hour ago.”

Wu sighs again, louder, “It’s a very long journey, and I am very, very old. All who go on it must have great patience, courage, and hard work. It’s too bad none of my students possess any of those traits…” This was just too obvious. Morro turns to Lloyd and ruins the magic a little by outright telling him, “He’s trying to get you to go.”

Lloyd blinks at him, and then groans. He whispers back, “He always does stuff like this… but, either way,” He turns away from the ninja, and his uncle, and that managed smile falls, “Should I go? I thought- I thought I was good at leading, but clearly- I mean, what- what if, next time, one of them do die because I was focused on something stupid?”

Morro frowns, and he just looks at him for a few moments, to gather the words. He isn’t sure how to go about it, but he tries, “You’ve made mistakes, yes. Well… what you did today, it doesn’t erase everything else.” He half-pauses, unsure, “...They’re angry with you, but they’re still.. your friends. You just need to prove you can be followed, and here’s a way to do that.” 

“I don’t know,” Lloyd says, shrugging self-consciously. 

Morro sighs a little- he isn’t good at this. “I mean,” he replies, “If you think that makes you bad, or whatever it is you’re feeling right now, then other people are hopeless.” Other people means himself, and Lloyd picks up on it, asking, “You’ve done stuff like that before?”

“Much worse,” He answers vaguely. 

Lloyd searches his face for a few moments, before finally nodding and turning back around, standing up a little straighter. The others were, of course, watching, but he doesn’t pay it any mind right now. Instead, he pulls confidence into his voice and he says, “Master Wu, we’re coming with you.”

He looks around at the others, and he says, “Come on, guys. If you don’t believe in me, believe in him. He can lead us, and teach us how to be real ninja.”

“Students,” Wu glances around at all of them, “Are you willing to give Lloyd a second chance?” Their responses aren’t exactly no’s, more like not yet’s. It’s better than the former, at least. Morro can’t blame them, either. “You have a long way to go to regain your friends’ trust. And luckily, the journey ahead of us is long,” Wu says, now to his nephew, “So… I guess you all can come...” Morro would like to say he wasn’t fooling anybody with that faked reluctance, but…

Jay smiles like it’s a comfort, “Well, okay. If Wu says it’s fine.” Kai looks, fittingly, fired up, and he asks Wu, “Sensei, what weapon are we looking for? Are we awakening our elements?”

Wu doesn’t answer completely, “Your powers are part of it, yes. Now! The fate of Ninjago rests in your hands, are you ready?”

“Sure,” Cole nods.

“Affirmative!” Zane smiles, and it’s a little endearing. 

Nya glances back at her suit, and then asks, “Can we bring my mech?” Wu shakes his head, “The terrain we travel comes too cramped for any mechanical suits, and they will hinder your ability to learn. We begin in the Jungle of Lost Souls.” 

“Creepy,” She says, and she gives one last, long look at it, before hopping in the cockpit, to at least go and park it in the warehouse, hidden away and safe from Garmadon’s army. “After the Jungle of Lost Souls,” Wu says, once she’s returned, “We must be careful to take the right path, to not end up unable to cross the Bridge of Fallen Mentors.”

Morro and Lloyd look at each other, and Morro asks, “The Bridge of Fallen Mentors? Is he serious?” He could accept the jungle’s name as regularly ominous, but that was just… well, he didn’t even know what to say about it, other than he suddenly feels he knows what’ll go wrong on this journey. 

“Come, students,” Wu says, turning to lead them through the city, “Garmadon only grows stronger.” 

The city was still largely abandoned, and it now left Morro with an eerie kind of feeling. Ninjago City was so densely populated, that seeing it all empty like that, without the lustre of adrenaline, was unnerving. Many of the destroyed buildings still had smoke flowing from their exploded tops, burning from fires, though smaller now. 

The ninja chatted on the way, about what they were going to use their powers for- Zane claiming he’d use ice to cool his regular human insides- he tuned most of it out. Lloyd was largely quiet, so he spent the walk thinking. As they went, he couldn’t help the feeling of on-edge - but not from the city’s vacancy. 

Morro looks around, and he eventually spots a shark staring right back at him - staring right back at the team, actually. Not a real one, it was plastic and its eyes were translucent glass - someone was not-so subtly peaking through it. Spying. He would’ve mentioned it to Lloyd, but he decides against bringing up Garmadon again so soon.

The jungle is humid- though Morro can only tell by the sweat dripping down the others’ faces- and overrun with oversized insects. One would assume he’d be comfortable with bugs like that- he was faced with much worse in his own travels- but his stomach pricked with discomfort when any of the giant flies flew close. Of the two of them, Lloyd was relatively unbothered by it, and winced with the others whenever Jay would scream.

“Uh, you know they can’t see you, right?” Lloyd asks, when a too-large roach flew through him, and he noticeably shuddered. “I know,” He answers sharply, embarrassed, “I just don’t like them.”

Wu leads them along the terrain, all while playing a continuous tune on his staff, apparently doubling as a flute. Kai asks for a break, once, and Wu refuses, “We will rest at sunset, no earlier,” before returning to his song. He manages to carry the tune as he climbs rocks, uphill. 

Morro simply floats to the top and waits for Lloyd and the others, and to their credit, they’re only a little behind. They each must be tired, but they push on, jumping down the hill, to wade through tall grass. Jay is terrified of what critters may lay in it- Morro floats over altogether- and Nya holds Jay’s hand to help him through. 

“Couldn’t we have gone around that?” Cole asks, shoving a spider, the size of his fist, off of his arm. The hill had only been a narrow incline, around otherwise flat ground, and it was unnecessary to go through it. Well, unnecessary assuming Wu wasn’t trying to teach the ninja something, which he rarely isn’t. 

Wu doesn’t reply. Kai does, though, seemingly picking up on it too, “I think it’s more about the journey. Right, Sensei?” Said master holds a thumbs up, never reprieving from his flute. 

Morro is easily growing bored, floating above while the others actually travel through the environment, and he wishes he could, too. He jumps at the sound of another scream, by Jay of course, yelling to Get it off! Get it off! while an arachnid the size of his back slowly crawled on him. Maybe for the best that he can’t.

Nya wacks the spider off, and calmly says, “Easy, Jay.” She’s seemed less and less annoyed by his antics, lately.

The grass of the unmarked path they’re on teeters off into stone; that, too, dwindles to the ledge of a cliff. The only way to cross to the rest of the jungle is by jumping on the rocks piled high, an unstable set of pillars. Wu wastes no time, balancing perfectly as he leaps across them, only making small pebbles fall from their stacks. 

The others follow, though a few look uneasy, but Lloyd pauses to break. “Man, today is a lot,” He says, hands on his knees, hunched over a little as he catches his breath.

“Are you okay?” Morro asks. He must be exhausted after everything that’s happened.

Lloyd nods, and stands back up, rolling his shoulders, “Yeah- Yeah, I’m fine. Being.. a ninja..” Morro looks him up and down, and then shakes his head, “You need a break. Let me take over.” 

The other protests, “No- I mean, like you said, this is my chance to prove myself to them.” 

“You’re no good if you fall and injure yourself,” Morro says, crossing his arms, and glancing over the ledge. 

Lloyd looks, too, and then back at him, “...Okay. Fine, but just for a second.”

Morro nods, and possesses him - he waits for Lloyd to gain his bearings in apparition-form, before hopping across the mounted stone. He’s admittedly a little out of practice, and has to catch himself on the next piled pillar before he can slip on the last. Past the stone, on the other end of the ledge, they find a small clearing in the jungle, where the others are.

The ninja are moving with Wu, who’s stopped his playing. Morro joins them, before leaving the body. “What are we doing, uncle?” Lloyd asks, imitating his movements as well.

“All of your elements, but especially you, Lloyd, come from this lush, green world. We are feeling the energy around us,” Wu explains, his hand turning a little in the air, feeling. He pulls his staff from his sleeve again, and puts his bearded mouth to it, to play, but he freezes. “What was that?” he asks.

Morro glanced around - he hadn’t heard anything. The others pause as well, and Wu’s eyes track the jungle for movement. His hand reaches out and closes around dust in the air, and he smells it, before saying, “I sense the presence of evil.” Lloyd’s expression shutters.

“Students! A true ninja knows when to fight, and when to become one with the elements,” he motions to the surrounding environment, “Quickly! Blend into the shadows.”

But there weren’t any shadows to speak of - the only thing around the clearing were trees of bamboo, widely spaced. The ninja try anyway- Lloyd at least climbs a little higher on a stick of bamboo, but the others just try to hide behind them normally. Not a single one of them are hidden. “You are all terrible ninja,” Wu sighs, despite the faults of their surroundings, “I will take care of Garmadon myself.” He turns around, to search the bamboo for his brother.

Morro floats over to Lloyd, who now only reeks with disappointment. “I should’ve known he’d ruin this, too,” He mumbles, as Wu comments, “He’s close!” 

Garmadon was close - the only one who couldn’t see him was Wu. He hadn’t seemed to notice Wu, either, though. Garmadon is clothed in no armour, only a green cloak, tied shorts, and a hat to protect against the sun, not that he could tan. Their backs are facing each other, moving in slowly as they back up, and Garmadon says to himself, “Real close…” 

“Really close!” Wu says, bizarrely unaware, until the moment they bump into each other. Both jump back, and shout “You!” 

They all watch as Garmadon and Wu silently stare each other down, closer and closer. “Are they going to do anything?” Zane, for once, asks. “Oh!” Garmadon says, like he’s just noticed him, “Hello, brother. Where are your little ninja- ninja nerd- where are your little ninj-nerds? Pfft.” 

“They’re surrounding you, perfectly hidden, ready to strike,” Wu says too confidently, and not even Garmadon is stupid enough to not notice them, when he looks over. Lloyd stares with a hard expression, and Garmadon’s red eyes linger for a moment. Morro’s surprised he’s showing his face so soon after what was said.

“Students!” Wu yells, “Next lesson: how to fight like a true- ow!” Garmadon kicks the staff, and it hits Wu in the face. Kai winces, “Ooh, ouch.”

Wu strikes back again with his staff, landing a hit to Garmadon’s bare abdomen. “Ow!” He yells, before they lunge at each other. Garmadon has no weapons, and almost every punch is dodged, and then countered with a hit by the staff. “Should I help him?” Morro asks, even though Wu doesn’t look like he needs it.

“I… don’t know,” Lloyd answers, grimacing when Garmadon’s hit hard in the face. “This is kind of hard to watch.” He nods in agreement, while Garmadon’s back hits the ground. 

He gets back up, and backs away into the bamboo, making Wu’s staff catch on it instead. “Ha!” Garmadon says, “Can’t hit me, no- ow!” Wu throws his staff directly into his face, through the bamboo. “Your dad is kind of bad at fighting,” Nya says, watching with a perplexed expression, “How did he manage to get an army in the first place?” 

Garmadon proves why a second later, ducking underneath Wu, rising behind him and stealing his hat of all things. He places it on his head, and mocks him as his brother continues to fight, “Look at me, I’m Master Wu!” he just barely blocks his staff from hitting his shoulder, “Today’s lesson is how to be a child soldier.” Of all the things for him to have a conscience about…

Wu knocks his hat off his head and grabs it midair, but Garmadon uses that opportunity to kick him back. The bamboo breaks his fall, and he replies childishly, “It looks like you need a lesson on how to shut your stupid face!” He jumps back up, but Garmadon has something up his sleeve - “Here’s something you won’t learn in school! The Seven Deadly Butterflies of Shaolin–” he starts throwing red, fluttering butterflies at Wu, who blocks them from reaching him. Did he have any normal weapons? Why is it always a living being?

“I don’t need butterflies to defeat you,” Wu says, backing away from Garmadon as he hits the insects away. 

They move past Morro and the ninja, and Cole says, “I think we’re hidden right now.”

“I can still see you!” Wu yells at them, only half-focused on beating his brother. “Ugh,” Lloyd jumps off the bamboo and runs after them, “Come on, this way!” Morro floats after him right away, but the others hesitate. “Oh- okay! But- but not because you told us to!” Jay calls out, running, and the others follow. 

Wu and Garmadon have fought their way to a bridge- “Is this the Bridge of Fallen Mentors?” Morro asks, frowning. “I think so,” Lloyd says, then turning his head back, alert, “Look out, he’s behind you!”

“Where?!” Wu asks- Garmadon had been nearly knocked off of the bridge, but crawled underneath and came back up through the other side. “Here!” Garmadon yells, jumping to kick him, but Wu steps out of place before it connects. 

Garmadon doesn't seem worried about his chances, though, on a bridge of that title. “Face it! You’re out of moves, Wu,” he says, outstretching all four of his arms, in the way that a red panda stands straight up, in the effort of looking intimidating. It doesn’t work, and Wu answers, “Oh yeah? How about this one?”

He kicks the bridge directly, making bamboo stalks fly up- he catches them, and starts throwing them around him. “Uh oh-” Garmadon utters, and he tries to move out of the way, but the cage has already been formed. The spaces between the bamboo are too thin for him to squeeze out of, and he groans, pulling at the bamboo, “You have got to be kidding me!” 

“I call it: The Caged Monkey!” Wu announces, and his posture relaxes, assuming the fight to be done. Zane brings his hands to his face and says, “Gasp.” 

Morro heaves a sigh of relief- they could leave Garmadon trapped here, take back Ninjago, and Wu hasn’t even fallen. “I really should’ve found him during the fight,” Lloyd says, and he looks frustrated with himself.

“Don’t dwell,” Morro says, “It already happened.” 

Wu turns away from Garmadon, caged, and puts his staff back into his sleeve. “And that, students, is how you fight like a true ninja,” his sage cadence returns. Morro glances at Garmadon, and finds him- smiling?

“Huh,” he says, leaning against the bamboo, “Well, a true ninja would’ve counted all seven butterflies.” 

Wu turns back to him, and counts on his fingers, “I did! One, two, three, four, five, six…” 

“Seven,” Garmadon grins nastily.

The seventh butterfly suddenly flies next to Wu, and he yells, stepping backwards instinctively, and, well. There it is.

“No!” Lloyd yells, rushing to the edge of the cliff, as Wu falls into the river below. He uses his own hat as a flotation device- he’s okay, but being carried downstream quickly. “Lloyd! Always remember–” He coughs out some water, “Stay on the right path, find your inner peace–” he’s swept up by the river’s current, and several of them yell. 

“Master Wu!”

“No, no, no-”

“We need you, don’t leave!”

Lloyd’s face has fallen again, and he just mumbles, “Uncle Wu…” He takes a step forward, like he’s considering diving in after him, but Morro shakes his head, “We’ll meet back up with him later.” He nods with a wobbly expression, trusting him to be right. 

“Well, well, well,” Garmadon says, looking all-too pleased, “It looks like your precious ninja master’s gone,” and he looks at Lloyd, then, who reluctantly returns his gaze, “Now come on, Lloyd. Open the cage, let out your papa.”

Morro rolls his eyes, and Lloyd reacts similarly, “Oh, now you want to be my dad?” 

Garmadon puts on a stern face that only ends up seeming goofy, “I’m not going to tell you again, Lloyd. One… two…” Lloyd’s eye twitches in annoyance, and he stares him down without moving. “Three…” He remains still, and Garmadon looks confused, humming, “I thought that was supposed to work with children.”

“Yeah, like five year-olds,” Lloyd cuts in, but as always, Garmadon talks over him. “Listen, Lloyd, and friends whose names I don’t know.”

Jay replies, too-happily for whom he’s talking to, “I’m Jay!” Garmadon rolls his eyes, “It’s not a question.”

“Oh,” Jay turns away, embarrassed, and Kai gives him a weird look. They shouldn’t even waste the time of talking to Garmadon - it’s likely he’s only trying to distract them so he can escape, before they can get back to Ninjago. “Now!” He says, “For you to make it through this journey alive, Lloyd, you’re going to need someone to teach you the ninja way.”

Lloyd crosses his arms, not convinced in the slightest, “We don’t need your help. You don’t know anything about being a ninja, and- and anyway, we’re here to stop you.”

“In fact, I do know about being a ninja,” Garmadon answers, ignoring the latter of his argument. “You don’t get to be a conquering warlord without knowing a thing or two about the ninja arts… dark ninja arts,” he creepily hisses and shakes the bamboo cage with all four of his hands, making Jay jump. 

Cole, on the other hand, steps forward, and asks, “You’re a ninja?” 

Garmadon grins, now that at least one of them is taking the bait, “Indeed I am. And to get out of this jungle alive, you need a ninja master.” It wasn’t terribly illogical. 

“Wu is our master,” Lloyd replies, then looking at the others, to try and quell their worries before they form, “We’re not going to die. We can make it to the temple on our own!” 

None of them look particularly believing. “I don’t know, Lloyd…” Nya says, “We don’t have anybody to lead us.”

“We don’t have mechs,” Kai adds on, nodding at her. Zane agrees, “There is a very high likelihood of getting lost, without guidance.” They weren’t wrong. Maybe it’s worth the risk?

Lloyd looks between them, uncrossing his arms to gesture at his dad, “Okay, but- but this is Garmadon. He’s just going to attack us the minute we let him out!” They all look at him, and Garmadon works to make himself look as innocent as possible, “I would never!” 

“Then, why are you trying to help us?” Lloyd asks, “I know you can get out of there.” Garmadon holds two of his hands up, in surrender, while the other two remain around the bamboo stalks he’s held in. “My motivations are mysterious and irrelevant, Lloyd,” He says, “Without me, you’ll never survive.” 

Lloyd shakes his head, clenching and unclenching fists to perhaps stop himself from lashing out, and he looks at the others, “We can do this, guys. We just- we just have to remember what Master Wu said. Stay on the right path, find our inner peace.”

“All I can really remember is that we need a ninja master,” Cole says, slightly apologetic, “And you are not a ninja master.”

“Okay, well- we can just go back to Ninjago City,” Lloyd tries, voicing what Morro’s been thinking, as well, “He’s trapped, at least for a while. We can take it back.” Garmadon laughs, ugly and loud, “Have you forgotten my army’s reinforcements, Lloyd? You were helpless with all of your technology, and now you don’t even have that.” 

Morro sighs- the Vengestone, of course. He doesn’t know what the point of this journey exactly is, yet, because why unlock their elements to use against armour immune to it?- but he trusts Wu, even that version of him. Lloyd turns to him, for support, but he can’t give it. “We have to,” says he, “I can only help you, and I’m limited even in that; either way, I’m not a master, either.” If the ninja died, all hope was lost in getting Ninjago back from Garmadon. Whatever Garmadon’s motivation may be, they have no options.

Lloyd stares at him, hard, for a minute. Then, he shuts his eyes, and strainly says, “Fine. We take him.”

Garmadon smiles, and it’s hard to tell if it’s a purely malicious expression or not, “Fantastic.”

Chapter Text

They’re both trying to ignore him. 

“How do you get so many people to work for you?” Nya asks Garmadon- the others are lagging behind to speak to him, while Lloyd (and Morro) focus on travelling through the jungle. It’s early in the evening, to where the sky has only just begun to darken.

Morro sighs, looking at him, “Do you still have your phone?” Having a clock would help them keep track of days, if not anything else. “Yeah, I-” Lloyd takes it out from one of the inner pockets of his gi. It’s still slightly damp, and won’t turn on. “Oh.” 

Zane, overhearing, recites, “It is five-oh-four o’clock.” How he thinks he’s hiding his being a robot, Morro has no idea.

“Well, we have a lot of benefits,” Garmadon answers Nya, “You know, healthcare.” Morro looks back at him, reluctantly, and he’s pretty much just lounging, as a few of the others work to carry the cage through the terrain. “We do fire a lot, but uh,” Garmadon is speaking ever-so casually, “That’s really the fault of the employee. No background checks- so, ninja, if you ever want to join.”

Nya, to her credit, doesn’t seem charmed, “Yeah, no.” 

Kai, holding up the back end of the cage, chimes in, “I thought you were against kids fighting, or whatever?” Garmadon nods, gesturing with one of his many hands, “Well, I meant when you’re older.” 

Lloyd keeps his head forward, but it’s clear he’s listening, too. He rolls his eyes and mumbles, “Maybe we should throw him down a cliff, just leave him there.” Morro would certainly enjoy that. “Not yet,” he answers, “He has to lead us to the temple, first.” 

“I know, I know,” Lloyd waves a hand. 

Garmadon’s transitioned into bad-mouthing his brother again, “It’s just like Wu to leave me to lead a bunch of children. I always have to clean up his messes.”

“Like what?” Jay asks, timidly glancing over. Garmadon groans, “Well, you know, one time, when we were kids, he lost this katana. Of course, I had to go get it.” Morro looks back again- it sounds similar to a story he heard from the other Wu. “Long story short, I have these, now,” He waves his two lower arms.

Cole, carrying the front of the cage, looks confused, “How did retrieving a sword make you have four arms?” Kai shakes his head at him, “He’s lying, just ignore it.” As much as he’d like to believe so, it didn’t seem like it. It seems there are more similarities in this world to his own than he originally thought.

“You asked. Jeez,” Garmadon replies to him. ”I didn’t ask, Jay did,” answers Kai, shaking the cage a little to mess with him. “Well,” Garmadon says, “It doesn’t matter. In any case, all this landed me a wife.”

“You’re married?” Cole asks. 

Garmadon shakes his head, smoothing his cloak over with two of his hands, “No- Uh, well, not anymore. But she’s totally still in love with me-” he looks ahead, then, “Right, Lloyd?”

Lloyd doesn’t reply, his eye twitching. “He gets it,” Garmadon says, not very convincing, “But, ah, who needs her? Right? I can have anyone I want!” He flashes a big grin to somehow appear charming- it only seems to impress Jay- and he calls out to his son again, “What about you? Have you had a girlfriend yet, Lloyd, or did I raise you wrong?”

“Don’t… talk to me,” Lloyd says, too patient given the circumstances. Garmadon turns back to the other ninja, chuckling as if it’s actually funny, “That was a joke. I didn’t really raise him.”

“We know,” Cole sighs. 

Morro uses wind to knock Garmadon into the bamboo of his cage. “Ow!” he rubs his back with all four of his hands, “Which one of you did that?”

“It- It was just wind, I think,” Jay answers, “We don’t control the weather…”

Lloyd, glancing at them, snickers. His smile fades when Garmadon looks at him, and his head turns right back around. “I wish Wu was still here,” he mutters, stepping over a branch. Morro nods, and then says, “We should break here.”

They had come upon another clearing in the jungle, and to its right was a pool of water punctuated by a waterfall. It was nice to look at, even if he was unable to bathe. Everyone was tired, and they were unlikely to find a place better than that to stop. Even so, Lloyd replies, “No- No, Master Wu said we wait until sunset.”

“We’re resting now?” Jay asks mishearing. The others perk up at that- “Oh, finally,” Kai drops the back end of the cage, making Garmadon fall backwards. “A little warning, ninja?” he asks, resembling a roach fallen on its back, struggling to get up.

Lloyd turns around, “No, no- I said we aren’t resting. Master Wu told us, not until the sun’s going down.”

Cole sets down the other end of the cage, “Come on, man. We’ve done a lot today.”

Nya looks up at the sky, “I mean, it’s kind of going down.” 

Lloyd looks to Morro, for help. “You need to rest,” Morro says, “More than they do. We’ll get to the temple tomorrow.” Lloyd’s hands were shaking, and his steps had grown wobbly in the past hour- if it had been just himself, of course he’d keep going, but there was no reason for Lloyd to. They wouldn’t be able to complete the entire journey today, either way, so they might as well stop now. 

“Don’t be such a workaholic, Lloyd,” Garmadon cuts in, sitting down in the cage. Lloyd takes a slow breath, perhaps preparing himself, now that it’d look like he was agreeing with his dad. “I can’t stop you,” he says, to the ninja, “So, just… let’s- let’s collect some materials, and set up camp, okay?”

“I will gather leaves,” Zane says, walking off to the nearby trees. Their leaves were large enough to lay over the ground, and form makeshift beds. Jay kicks a stick away from the ground beneath him and then sits down, “I am so tired.”

A little while later, the sun was setting, and they’d set up for the night. Neither the ninja nor Garmadon had brought supplies, so they were making do with what they could find. They’d managed a fire, ironically through Kai, with many of the dry sticks. Garmadon, and a few of them were sitting around it, while Jay and Nya sat together. She’d placed a bunch of leaves under them, from branches broken right from trees, and it looked like they were going to sleep next to each other. Kai was eyeing them, more with curiosity than irritation.

Lloyd, on the other hand, had set up a little farther away from them, no doubt to be as far away from his father as he could. He sat, smoothing over the leaves set under him, maybe to look like he was doing something. “How do you feel?” Morro asks. He’s sitting, too, but not on the ground- floating.

“I don’t know,” Lloyd answers, matching his quiet tone, staring down, “I mean, j- you know, it sucks...” He looks up at Morro, then offering up a smile, “What’d you think? About their fight?”

Morro blinks, then glances at Garmadon, “Well… I’ve never seen butterflies used for weaponry. It was effective, though, I suppose.” If it hadn’t ended with them being forced to keep Garmadon around, he may have laughed at Wu’s departure. 

“Yeah,” Lloyd says, frowning again, then talking of the others, “I just- I want to be mad at them, you know, but- but I can’t. I got us here.” It was technically true. “We would’ve lost and ended up here, either way,” Morro answers, “But, yeah. You messed up.”

Lloyd nods, “Sorry for almost drowning, and uh- scaring you.” He chuckles then- it’s a quiet sound, just for him, and it’s pleasant to the ears. “It’s fine,” Morro says, “I would have helped you, but ghosts dissolve in water.”

“Wait, what?” Lloyd’s eyes go wide and he looks over at the waterfall, “Should we camp somewhere else? What does dissolving mean for you?”

Morro shakes his head, “No, we don’t need to move.” He doesn’t know for sure if water’s dangerous to him here, all he has to go off of is what it did to him in his Ninjago. “I’d just be sent back to the Departed Realm.”

“You… wouldn’t be able to get back here, would you?” Lloyd asks, now viewing the pool of water with anxiety. “I don’t think so,” He replies. 

“I don’t think my dad would save me. Even if it’d stop him from dying.” Lloyd then gives him a long look, growing into an expression he hasn’t seen on him before. Pity. Morro feels uncomfortable with it, even before Lloyd says, “I wish you didn’t die like that. Like- you’re as young as me.” He looks away, and forces himself not to answer defensively, “I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t.” 

“I know. Morro, you’re- I mean, I think you’re my best friend.” His eyes snap back to Lloyd, as he speaks, “But, look… If you want to… Do you want to go back to the Departed Realm? ‘Cause- ‘cause if you do, you… should.”

Morro stares at him. “I’d be fine on my own,” Lloyd says, though unconvincing, and the smile he gives doesn’t help, either. This was just like him- if there ever was a time Lloyd needed companionship, it was now. Either way, despite his unending exhaustion, being here was certainly more interesting than the Departed Realm. “No,” Morro answers, “Don’t be stupid.”

“Are you- are you sure…?” Lloyd, of course, asks. “I want to stay,” Morro tells him, as firmly as he can. Lloyd brightens a little, and smiles wider than he has all day, “Great! Uh- cool… that’s cool.” 

Lloyd falls asleep quickly, despite the discomfort of the ground. He seemed to feel a little better after they talked, even with his dad continuing to ramble about nothing nearby. His hair is messy from the events of the day, and messier in sleep. Even so… Pretty, Morro thinks. 

He turns away from Lloyd, sharply, to ignore that truth. The others had fallen asleep, as well. He floats around, to observe- it was a shame he didn’t get to use the television Lloyd had bought for him more before this. He could float all the way back to Ninjago City, but he’s not sure he’d be able to find them again. The jungle was a long, dense biome. 

The only sound left in the area, beyond the rustling of trees and animals in the night, was the whispering of the fire. Morro would’ve put it out himself, for safety, but it seemed Garmadon was still awake. Garmadon was standing in the cage, his top set of hands grasping at the bamboo, back turned to him. Well, he’s not sure wind would be the greatest cure to a fire, anyway. 

Zane appeared to be powered down, quite literally, and he sat entirely motionless on the ground- unbothered by the roots and sticks underneath him, unneeding of comfort in that state. Kai had slept right next to the fire, perhaps to try and understand it as his element. The light of the flame reflected nicely onto his face, and his hair, but Morro moved on without a second glance.

The only interesting thing going on, besides maybe Garmadon, was Nya and Jay. They had fallen asleep together, and Nya’s arm was thrown around him, comfortably. Were they a couple, already? Morro stares.

Jay had been scared about this journey from the start, and having to work with Garmadon certainly didn’t ease his feelings. He looked at peace now, which was a rarity on him, with the comfort of her so close. It was sappy, stupid cuddling- Morro burns with envy. At least among all the differences and changes of this world, one thing stayed the same- Morro being physically incapable of having what he wants. 

Maybe out of frustration for the day’s events, maybe out of frustration for being incorporeal, Morro floats over to Garmadon’s cage. Lloyd has a problem with him attacking civilians, but he never said anything about attacking his dad. He won’t do any damage, anyway- he’ll just give him a well-deserved scare.

Morro raises his hand, ready to-

“I wish you were dead,” Garmadon says, out loud only to himself. He repeats what Lloyd said to him like he’s trying to make sense of it. Morro lowers his arm, and listens instead.

He lands his feet on the ground and walks in front of Garmadon, to view his face. He was staring through Morro, up at the sky, and he couldn’t discern what emotions lay in his expression, beyond confusion. Does he really not understand?

“What does it mean?” Garmadon asks, pulling at the bamboo with an air of chagrin. He groans and steps back, sitting down once more. He rests his chin in one of his hands, while another fingers at the ground, below the stalks of bamboo and into the dirt. Is this why he came?

Morro can’t bring himself to throw him back with wind- instead, he simply blows his cloak up, into his face. “Argh-” Garmadon holds it back down, “Wow, not my night..” Morro does nothing beyond it, and returns to Lloyd’s side as always. 

He assumed Garmadon’s coldness and casualness towards Lloyd was born from malice, or simply apathy, but- maybe, like most things, it seemed, in this world, it’s only resulted from stupidity. Though, it’s possible Garmadon is in love with his sense of self so deeply to the point where anyone at all wishing death upon him is confusing. 

 Either way, he’s never put in any effort, and he’s only ever hurt Lloyd- it doesn’t matter, Morro decides. Perhaps there is a redemption waiting for Garmadon, but until he sees it, he won’t be holding his breath.

With a sigh, he looks up at the sky and waits for morning. 

“Yeesh, Lloyd,” Garmadon says, “I can give you my workout, if you want.” He and the ninja are bathing in the pool below the waterfall, mostly clothed, of course. Lloyd only took off the top half of his gi. “Thanks, Dad,” he mumbles, sarcastic, folding and setting it aside. 

He steps into the water, as far away from Garmadon as possible- they had simply lowered his cage in halfway- while still around the edge, so Morro could stay close. “I thought he wanted everyone to have dad bodies, or whatever you said,” Morro says, floating near, as the other dipped his head back to wet his hair.

“He goes through a lot of phases,” Lloyd replies, combing his fingers through his hair. They watch Garmadon childishly splash some of the others with water, and share a glance. If Morro did that, he’d make it fun. 

Nya swims over to them, her black hair down and wet. “Hey, your dad wants to know when we’re moving on,” she says. Of course he’d get someone else to ask, rather than going over and doing it himself. “I- uh, I don’t know,” Lloyd answers, pushing damp bangs out of his eyes, “After we’re done in the water.” 

“Okay,” she nods, and she moves to go and tell him, but pauses. “Are you… okay?” she asks, “Like, this has to be a lot for you.”

Lloyd lets out a breath, then nodding in turn, “Yeah- yeah, it’s… I’m alright.” He looks more tired than just seconds ago, like the mere reminder of the weight at his shoulders is enough to exhaust him. “Thanks for asking,” he smiles at her, still nodding, “I, uh… I’m sorry about your mech. Even if it isn’t completely gone like the others.” 

Nya pats him on the shoulder and says, “It can only go up from here,” noticeably not accepting his apology; she swims back over to Garmadon, relaying the message. 

Lloyd looks down at the water with a frown. “Keep your head up,” Morro tells him, sending a gentle breeze through him. “Like she said, it’ll only get better.” He sighs, wiping water from his face, “I know. It’s just- they were the first ones- out- outside my uncle and my mom- to give me a chance. They’re the last people I wanted to let down.”

“I understand,” Morro replies. 

They watch Nya talking to Garmadon- he’s grinning stupidly, lounging half-way in the water. Despite all of his talk about how dangerous this area is, how they’d die if they strayed from him, he doesn’t seem all-too hasty to leave. “He’s going to stall,” Morro says. 

Lloyd rubs at his face with his hands, “Yeah.” 

“We can take the time to relax, though,” Lloyd says, taking a breath and trying to make the best of it. “Garmadon can’t destroy any more of Ninjago while he’s here, anyway.” Garmadon’s speaking to just about the only one that cares to listen at the moment: Zane, who’s sitting at the edge, away from the water- looks like he isn’t waterproof, after all. 

“I suppose you’re right,” Morro nods, looking while Cole and Kai chat, the former bopping his head to imaginary music. “Could we combine our powers?” Kai asks, gesturing between them. “You could make a bunch of rocks, and I could set them on fire. They wouldn’t stand a chance!” Cole crosses his arms and replies approvingly, “Flaming hail. I like the sound of it.”

Nya’s trying to unlock her powers, while Jay watches. “Inner peace… Inner peace…” She repeats to herself, feeling the small waves around her. “Y-You can do it!” Jay cheers her on. “Do you feel anything?” 

“I… might…” She brings her hand out of the water and twists her wrist to the side, trying to control it. Morro can’t help himself. “Ah-!” She yelps as water splashes up, directly into her face. He laughs loudly as she looks around, bewildered- he looks to the side, only to find Lloyd’s gaze already upon him. Lloyd laughs, “You’re a jerk.”

Morro grins back at him. Lloyd then exits the water, of course with soaked pants. “Do you want me to dry you off?” He asks, raising his hand already. “Hm- no, thanks,” Lloyd shakes his head, “I want to try getting it off myself.”

“Very well,” He stands back, as the other walks away to give himself room. It’d be good for him to be prepared, in case of any danger they encounter. Morro is expecting, just a little, for this trip to culminate into another fight with Garmadon, even before they make it to the temple. Without the shark mech, and Lloyd using spinjitzu, they may just have a chance- especially if they all unlock their elements.

It was also, of course, useful in the mundane- Lloyd spins, performing mostly elementless spinjitzu- the water of his clothes come flying out. Morro ducks out of the way, even though a few drops wouldn’t really do anything, either way. “Ha- it worked!” Lloyd says, coming to a stop. The lower half of his gi is perfectly dried, along with his hair, though it looks very mussed. Morro nods in approval, with a smile and crossed arms.

“I guess my brother did teach you something, after all, huh?” Garmadon calls out, “Not bad, son.” 

Lloyd sends him a flat look, “Don’t call me that,” then turning to Morro, “Do you think I’d be okay using it in fights, now?”

Morro shrugs and floats over, “Decide for yourself, ninja.” He seems happy with that response, and looks over at the others. “Hey, guys,” he steps to the edge of the water, “I think we had better get a move on, now. Uh- maybe… if you guys think we should, yourselves, you know…” 

“It’s hard not to listen to him,” Jay comments honestly, glancing around, then down at his hands, “My- My hands are all pruney, now. I’m getting out.”

The others chatter, agreeing, and exit the water. Garmadon, however, makes no effort to move. “Come on, dad,” Lloyd says, patience thin enough as it is. It may be a tad silly for him to be unallowed in calling Lloyd son while Lloyd could call him dad, but whatever it takes to get back at him, Morro supposes. 

The ninja redress in the layers they had removed to bathe, and the clothes that are soaked seem to help against the heat. “Much better,” Kai, in particular, says. Zane isn’t faring as well, “I seem to be overheating.” His (sort of) unnerving neon blue eyes were twitching, in the way a computer glitches, rather than the way a human naturally does so. They can’t have that. Morro sends gusts of wind, small enough to seem normal, targeted to him. It seems to help, even if the air itself is warm.

Lloyd ties his gi, and turns to Garmadon again. Garmadon was still floating in the water, with his eyes closed and his hands resting at the back of his head. “Just a few more minutes, I’m still dirty,” he says. “You said we’d move on once everyone was finished.” 

Lloyd rolls his eyes and grabs the front of the bamboo cage- “A little help, guys?”- while Garmadon lets out an indignant, ”Hey!” Once it’s dragged out of the water, Cole and Nya take over, lifting it from the ground. “Oh, that’s real nice, ninja,” Garmadon complains, “Stuff like this is why the only person willing to train you is Wu.”

“You literally offered to let me join you,” Nya rolls her eyes.

Morro walks over as Lloyd presses his palms to his eyes, evidently trying not to react. “Let’s go,” he says, “Ignore him.” Lloyd nods, sliding his hands back to his sides, “It’s going to be a long day.”

Chapter Text

“I can’t wait to unlock my element,” Lloyd says, looking ahead. He and Morro are, again, walking ahead of the group. They’ve only been travelling for an hour, and the sun shines as bright as ever down onto them. The other’s hair looks more golden under its shine, and admittedly, Morro keeps looking. “I mean, how does life even work?” Lloyd ponders- it’s nice to talk about something other than Garmadon- “Am I gonna, like- I don’t know, grow plants? I don’t get how that’d really be useful in fights.”

Morro smiles, and he replies, “There are a lot of carnivorous plants.” He didn’t know, exactly, what Lloyd’s power would be like, either. The Green Ninja’s element was always vague in his world- he’s likened it to energy or something of the such. 

“Hm, yeah,” Lloyd steps over the large root of a tree, to avoid tripping, “Or I- I could trip them. With… vines.” When the others pass over the same place, Jay isn’t as lucky. “Or roots,” Morro says, snickering, while Jay is helped up. 

He looks at Lloyd again, “Perhaps you’ll be able to suck the life out of someone.” If he’s able to give life, who’s to say he won’t be able to take it away? “Eugh,” Lloyd winces, “Sucking the life out of someone?  I-”

Garmadon, who had finally shut up, distantly says, “That’s what she said.” 

Lloyd forces a sigh instead of a shout, and he mumbles to Morro, “I’m so tired of this.” Considering this is the second day, the road ahead of them is long. Lloyd shakes his head, and finishes his earlier sentence, “I don’t think I’d want a power like that.” 

Morro shrugs at him, “It could be useful, at times.” He wouldn’t be one to suggest he kill his father, but… well, he could drain a little, right? “I don’t want to kill anyone,” Lloyd replies. He then smiles a little, “You’re so, like- morbid, sometimes. Why was that your first thought?”

“Most of the battles in my world are life or death,” Morro answers truthfully, “The ones I’ve been in, that is.” 

Lloyd hums, looking off to the side. Then, he says, “Well, not anymore.”

“I know. I’m dead,” Morro replies, flat. 

“That’s not what I meant!” Lloyd gestures with his hand, “I meant, like… the fights here aren’t that dangerous. You’re, uh… safer. Even if you can’t really be hurt now! And if you could…” He clears his throat, “I- well, we would protect you.” 

Morro laughs softly, “Thanks.” Lloyd is ever-charming. “Wait- could I make zombies?” he asks, with wide eyes. “If- if I gave something dead a little life…” One of the others behind them, listening in, goes ’What?’

“Who’s morbid now?” Morro shakes his head, chuckling. “I suppose you could.” He glances at him a few times, as Lloyd seems to stare, with a thoughtful expression. “...You’re not trying it on me.”

“Th- That’s not what I was thinking!” Lloyd answers, flustered. “I just meant- look, I know you don’t want to be brought back…” Morro sighs, and replies slowly, “...Yes.”

They had to wade through a thick patch of trees as they keep talking- or rather, Lloyd and the ninja wade, while Morro phases through it all and Garmadon is carried through without any of his own effort. “Well,” Lloyd ducks under a branch, “Maybe I could bring you half-back! Then, you can sleep, and you can touch stuff… but you’ll still, uh, be dead.”

“That sounds a lot like the zombie idea,” Morro rolls his eyes, though he’s more amused than irritated. “It’s not!” Lloyd says- he looks back at him as he’s walking, and he runs right into the trunk of a tree. “Ow-” he rubs at his nose. 

Morro floats over to him and inspects his face, with an actual reason this time, “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah… ugh,” Lloyd runs a hand through his hair, now less golden with the leaves’ cover. “I’m just glad my dad didn’t see that.”

“Oh, I saw it!” Garmadon calls out, from a little ways back. “Wh- how did you even hear me from there?!” Lloyd asks, whipping around. He hadn’t been speaking particularly loud. “I have sensitive ears,” says Garmadon, holding two of his hands up to emphasize them, “One of the side effects of being bit, you know.”

Lloyd’s eye twitches, “What are you talking about? You’re not a vampire.” 

Cole, holding up one edge of the cage, chimes in, “Yeah, dude. We aren’t that stupid.” A few of the others hum in agreement. “It wasn’t a vampire, I’m not crazy,” Garmadon rolls his eyes, crossing both rows of arms, “It was a snake. Pretty small, but it got a little bigger after biting me. That’s what gave me these things.” He shakes his own hands. “A snake gave you four arms?” Nya asks. 

“I have found no such records of serpents like that of your description,” Zane says, after a few moments of searching databases. It’s a miracle he can still get a signal. 

“See,” Lloyd gestures to him, and then turns back around. “He’s so- ugh…”

Morro hates to burst his bubble, but… “Actually, he’s telling the truth.” There must be some difference in how it happened here and how it happened to the other Garmadon, but the basic story is exactly what Wu told him - Wu lost a katana, Garmadon went to retrieve it, and he was bit and corrupted by a snake. “Wha-” Lloyd pauses, and deliberately lowers his volume to whisper, ”What? How do you know?” 

“Master Wu told me the story in my world,” he explains, “It’s… there are similarities you wouldn’t expect, between our timelines.”

Lloyd gives him a long look before grumbling, “I’m not admitting he was right.” 

Morro laughs a little, and they shift into quiet. The more he thinks about the similarities and differences between the two Ninjago, the more he wonders about his own existence. Wu did look like he recognized the name. If there exists an alternate version of him- and he’s not dead- then, where is he? Is he involved with Wu and being a ninja at all? Would he even be born around the same time the others are, or would it have been years before their time? The thought of finding himself here, and him being an old man, close to Wu and Garmadon’s ages… interesting. It sounds like it’d be impossible to find out, though, in his situation.

Someone else can, though. “Hey,” he says, looking at Lloyd, “Do you think you could, ah…” How does he phrase this?

“What?” Lloyd asks, and he glances over, emerald eyes curious. Looking into them makes him more… apprehensive, and so, he stares away. “Well,” he tries, “I’d like to know if I exist here.” 

“Master Wu is the only person that would know,” he explains, “When we reunite with him, could you find out…?” He’s nervous in asking, as he is nervous in the answer. This Ninjago is much more lighthearted at the least - it seems, anyway- so perhaps his story would run differently, here- better, here. 

Lloyd nods, humming, “Sure. I- I thought you didn’t want him to know about you, though?” He pulls a stray leaf from his hair, and absentmindedly, Morro has it fly around a bit before gently falling to the ground. 

“I still don’t,” Morro says, “Not yet.” Not ever, depending on what the alternate version of him would be like. He can’t imagine showing up as the worst version of himself, if the other him was good. “Okay,” Lloyd replies, and he looks disappointed, but says nothing. 

The thick forest of trees tapers down, until the path is relatively clear again. Morro is looking up into the sky, grateful his eyes cannot be burned, when Zane speaks up. “I sense a fork in the road,” he says, then walking ahead. 

They have, indeed, come upon two paths, and their presentation is near comically obvious. One side, the literal (and clearly metaphorical, as well) right side is bathed in the sun, with lush green plants, and colourful flowers. It leads into a river, that which maintains the area’s beauty, with a narrow path alongside. They would have no trouble collecting food and water along this path.

The other, of course, is the opposite. Its trees cover all sunlight, and so, all that grows there are herbs that do not need a lot of it. There are cobwebs, and several spears sticking out of the grass. Rocks have piled high along its avenue, surely holding many oversized insects underneath. Despite its darkness, however, there is no wilting. There have many fights here- as shown by the spears, and the manmade scratches along the trees, and unnaturally broken branches- and yet, the forest persists. Morro can see nothing edible, nor any water. 

”The Right Path: Long, arduous, and enlightening,” reads Nya, off the two signs, pointed to each, ”Shortcut: Possible evil skeleton graveyard.”  

Garmadon’s opinion is surprising to no one. “Oh, yeah! Shortcut, here we go!” He says, drumming his hands on two of the bamboo stalks imprisoning him. “Okay, wait a second,” Lloyd says, turning around to the others. “Master Wu said that we should stay on the right path.” 

The ninja don’t look receptive to Lloyd or Garmadon. “I don’t want to listen to either of them,” Kai mumbles. “I agree,” Zane replies, “I believe I’d rather we choose our own way.” Nya nods, and says, “Maybe we shouldn’t go through either. Make our own way!”

“I don’t think that’s…” Lloyd trails off, quiet. He glances around them, considering, and then sighs, long and reluctant. “...Well!” he starts, speaking more confidently, “Master Wu is the one that fell down the bridge. So, I… uh, I think we should listen to Garmadon. Let’s go through the shortcut!”

Garmadon seems impressed, “Yes! Ugh, thank you, Lloyd.” 

Jay tilts his head to the side and asks, while fidgeting with his fingers, “Really? You agree with your dad?” 

Lloyd has his hands on his hips, and he answers, “Yep…! He is the only master out of all of us. And you guys are, uh…” his face melts a little, “Bad at… directions?” 

“Hey!” Kai is defensive immediately, “I’m great at directions! We’re not the ones that got lost trying to find the pizza place!” Nya drops one end of the cage, carelessly, to cross her arms, “Yeah, what are you trying to say, man?” 

Morro is confused, as well. “Why are you agreeing with him?” Lloyd just glances at him with a near sneaky smile. Huh. 

Cole drops the other end of the cage, making Garmadon fall flat on his ass. “Ninja…” he grumbles. “You know what?” Cole looks around, “I think we should go on the right path. Clearly, they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“Affirmative,” Zane comments, and he turns to the path, “There are many collections of fruit and water- which, of course, I also need- as a growing boy. We will be safest there.”

Kai trades places with Nya, picking up one edge of the cage, and Jay replaces Cole. “Yeah, let’s go,” Kai says, and they all begin to move towards the clear better option. Huh.

Morro hangs back with Lloyd for a few moments. He grins at him, “That was sly,” he says. He didn’t know the other was capable of being like that. “Yeah, well…” Lloyd replies, “Desperate times, you know?”

They follow behind the ninja now, and take the time to look around. “Woah…” Lloyd bends down to pick a few small berries, off pods connected to leaves. They’re a vibrant red, with one black spot. At least, he thinks they’re berries. “Don’t eat those,” Morro says, “Those are Rosary Peas. Poisonous.” 

Lloyd inspects them in the palm of his hand, “Huh. They’re pretty, though.” He hums and drops them down into the grass. Morro shrugs, “I guess so. Here, wash your glove.” He points over to the river they walk beside. “Ah- good thinking,” Lloyd takes it off and dumps it into the water. “Soap would be better..”

“That’ll work well enough,” Morro replies.

Lloyd stands back up and holds the glove up for him to dry. He blasts it with wind, “Oh-” Lloyd shuts his eyes. The gust flowed past the glove, of course, and hit him directly in the face. Morro laughs, and his apology is only a tad sincere, “Sorry. You shouldn’t have held it in front of your face.”

“Yeah, lesson learned- ha,” Lloyd replaces the glove to his hand. “Do you think this water would be safe to drink?” 

Morro glances down at it- it seems clear enough. “It’s all we have, until Nya can make it,” he says. They’ll just have to hope it hasn’t been contaminated by the Abrus growing so closely, or by cleaning the glove in it. “Maybe we should have your dad try it, first.”

Lloyd chuckles, “Maybe. We should start gathering food, though.” He catches up with the others and repeats that sentiment to them. “Finally! I was starting to think you were going to starve me,” Garmadon says. “I can’t eat anything with seeds in it, so you have to find fruit without it,” he tells all of this to Lloyd, rather than any of the others readying to look for food, “And I won’t eat anything sticky. It’s just gross- a gross feeling. Eugh.”

“We’re not here to serve you, dad,” Lloyd answers, annoyed already. “You- you do remember you’re our prisoner, right?”

Garmadon dips his head back and laughs, even as his helmet bonks against the cage, “Sure! But don’t forget why you kept me around in the first place, Lloyd- I have a very big appetite, and if I don’t eat, I’ll pass out and be all useless. Who will guide you then?”

“You’re so insufferable,” Lloyd says, gritting his teeth and looking away. 

Garmadon seems offended at that notion. ”Me? At least I know who you are. Koko had no idea! Who’s the absentee parent, now?” Oh, no.

Lloyd pauses, in both his expression and his walking. “Wait,” he says, slow and processing, “You told her?” Garmadon nods shamelessly, with that big ugly smile of his, “I know, you’re welcome. No more secrets! Your mother-son dynamic is fixed.” Lloyd slowly turns to Morro, and holds out his hand. His expression is strangely calm. 

Morro eyes him curiously, before possessing. He looks at Garmadon, but doesn’t reply for Lloyd- and speaking of, as soon as Lloyd appears in that apparition form, he pulls at his hair and screams. He then starts muttering unintelligibly, but Morro does catch stupid and fucking hate him.

“I’ll take over for a while,” Morro whispers, to make the change in Lloyd’s voice less audible. Lloyd sighs and deflates, “Thanks. I’m going to go scope out some food- I just need… haha, I need a breather.” He’s been so stressed already these past couple days - it’s surprising he hasn’t snapped to one of them. “Very well,” Morro replies, quietly still. Lloyd walks away, phasing through trees- hopefully he won’t go too far and get lost.

Nya walks over to Jay, “Hey, you want to look for food?” He lights up, “Oh. Oh- yeah! Sure, Nya!” Garmadon’s cage is set down to rest, a safe distance away from the river - Garmadon somehow tilting it and falling in is the least of what any of them need. “I’ll come, too,” says Kai. 

“Oh… uh, no thanks, bro,” Nya replies, and she fidgets for once. “We’d, uh… rather go alone.” Subtle.

Kai shrugs, “Alright. I’ll go on my own, then.” Zane pops up next to him, “Would you like me to aid you? I know everything about plants!”  He agrees and they set off together, hopping across to the other side of the river. Nya and Jay go in the other direction, where Lloyd had gone. 

That leaves Cole, he, and Garmadon. Morro sits down, against a rock, and stares where he went. Lloyd seemed so eager for his dad’s attention before, and it was kind of hard to watch, but this might be even worse - not because he’s irritated with it… He’s a little worried. Being around Garmadon twenty-four-seven after everything that happened- he should’ve anticipated how stressed and angry Lloyd would be.

“Hey, Lloyd,” Garmadon speaks up, inching to the edge of his cage and keeping his volume low, like he’s about to share a secret. Morro glances at Cole- he’s dipping his feet into the water, humming something to himself. Too far away for Garmadon to bother, apparently. He sighs- at least he can give Lloyd some reprieve through this. “You wanna know why I wear a helmet so much?”

He doesn’t listen. In fact, he doesn’t even look, as the other talks. There’s too much to think about, he doesn’t have the time to listen to Garmadon’s ramblings. 

“Well- when I was a child, maybe around your age… I fought this monster. I beat it. Of course. But I was left with this, like, really bad scar around my scalp, and no hair will grow there. I can’t handle the stares around my battle scars… Which, I have many.”

There’s no way that story is true. Morro ignores it, shaking his head- his bangs fall into his eye. Or… Lloyd’s eye. He pushes it away, and pauses. He wonders…

”Wu would never tell you this, but I was always the stronger brother. Every time we’d spar, he’d be like, ‘I have learned, brother.’ And every time, it’d be like, ‘Uh, no you haven’t.’ What an idiot, right?”

Morro slips one of the gloves off of his hand. This is pathetic. 

…

He brings the ungloved hand up to his hair, and feels. It’s nice- definitely rougher than it might usually be, what with so much fighting, and having zero access to shampoo earlier. It’s… Morro covers his face with his hands and groans. Maybe it’s better he’s a ghost, so he can’t try anything like that with his own hands. How stupid. 

”And then he’d bring this little twerp around, and be like, ‘Brother, this is my prized pupil. I would like for you to help train him.’ And it’d be just, ‘why am I doing your job, Wu?’

…What? 

Morro drops his hands. “His prized pupil?” he asks, looking at Garmadon at last.

”Wow. Sounds like your voice is finally dropping, Lloyd. Anyway- He wasn’t any good. I’d fight him and win, and he’d break the sparring helmet, or whatever, and storm off. And then Wu’d get mad at me, and tell me that wasn’t the point! Like, alright, I did your job for you without being paid, and you can’t even accept the work? Wow… I guess, hah, my skills were too much for that kid. He couldn’t even accept one loss.”

Garmadon’s definitely gotten his attention now. He hopes that he’ll elaborate- of course not. He rubs a hand over his face as Garmadon just goes on and on. 

”Stuff like that is why my army is so much better than having students. I always have them under control! Every time one of them steps out of line, or says something stupid or boring, I fire them off my volcano.”

Morro just waits for it to be over. What’s the point of this, anyway? Why is Garmadon trying to make small talk to the kid he abandoned? He’d like to ask, but he doubts Garmadon would answer something so direct truthfully. In any case, he doesn’t want to expose his own identity through his voice. Instead, Morro simply raises an eyebrow at him- Garmadon mistakes it for interest in his talkings. 

”Well, no one really knows where they end up… I’m sure they’re fine, you know, just on a retreat to learn from their mistakes, or something. Because they respect me so much! I’m very respectable. That’s what everyone says.”

What is he doing? Garmadon didn’t brag this much to the other ninja, why… Oh. 

Morro stares- he stares, because Garmadon is trying to impress him. He’s trying to impress Lloyd.  

”Morro!”

He looks up to see Lloyd running- “You- you will not believe what I just saw,” he says, stopping and panting, even though it shouldn’t really be exerting any energy, as an apparition. Morro stands up, and exits his body- “What?” If Lloyd's this shocked, it must be good.

Lloyd starts to say something, and then glances down at his hands, “Uh, why’d you take my glove off?”

“Oh-” Morro clears his throat, face burning, “Well, it- it got dirty. So I… washed it again.” Of all the times to mess up a lie. He doesn’t seem to notice, at least- “Oh, thanks. Anyway…” They step farther away from Cole and Garmadon, so they won’t insert themselves, and Lloyd glances at the trees he’s just returned from. “So, I was looking for fruit, or seedless berries,” he says, with a low, quiet voice.

He leans in a little, “And I saw Nya and Jay. I went, to- to see if they found anything… They were making out.”

Morro blinks - before bursting out laughing. “Ha! I knew it!” he exclaims, crossing his arms. “I knew there was a reason.” 

Lloyd tilts his head to the side, “Huh? You knew already?” He sees the couple in question, returning to the others. Jay is, of course, red - Nya looks completely normal. “Well, I figured they’d grown closer. Or something like that. Haven’t you noticed?” He gestures over at them, and Lloyd looks. “I- well, I guess so. She’s seemed less annoyed by him lately.”

“And he’s been less nervous around her. Not to mention they were cuddling last night,” Morro nods, with a smirk. He imagines what Lloyd’s face must’ve looked like, seeing that, and he laughs more. Lloyd eyes him for a moment, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

Then, he asks, “Have you dated anyone before?”

“... Huh?” Morro looks at him, squinting his eyes. What a bizarre question. “Um… no. Why?” 

Lloyd runs a hand through his hair, looking away, “Well- I just… uh…” The longer he stammers, the redder his face gets. “...Nevermind.” Morro’s about to ask what his deal is, when Kai and Zane return, as well. They haven’t brought back any food, unlike Nya and Jay, and their faces are grim.

“Uh, guys,” Kai speaks- he and Lloyd go over to the group. “We found… something.” Cole looks curious, and stands up, putting his boots on, before jumping across the river to meet up with them, destroying the purpose of taking them off in the first place, as they’re splashed with water. “I’ll stay back with Garmadon,” Nya says, sitting down next to the cage. 

Apart from her, the rest of them follow Kai and Zane. “We have found evidence,” Zane announces, as they walk, “That Master Wu has been here.”

“Yeah. But, it’s…” Kai trails off, as he and Zane stop walking. They turn around to the group, and Lloyd walks ahead to check it out, Morro following.

The serene atmosphere of the environment is dulled with what they see - rocks split in half, appearing as though they’ve been thrown, trees with slices and bent off branches, spears stuck into some of them… It’s incredibly similar to what the shortcut’s path looked like. And what else, than Wu’s same old hat, sitting alone on the ground?

“Why is that always what he loses?” Morro asks. 

Lloyd covers his face in his hands, and wracks a sigh. He then looks upon the scene once more. “Oh- guys, look,” he points to light fabric ripped and caught on a bush, “That’s- that’s from his clothes.”

“This means there’s people here,” Kai says, “We think they took him.” 

Zane nods, “There is no other explanation. And…” He pulls a large, leafy branch to the side- behind it, reveals a direct cross-path to the shortcut. It’s dark, and eerie, just as before. It’s been carved out, recently, like whoever did it cut their way directly to Wu. They must’ve caught him by surprise. 

“We have to go,” Lloyd says, with a muted expression. 

Cole agrees, “Yeah. Garmadon can help us.” If all his stories about being superior to Wu had even a nugget of truth to them, he’ll be useful. “I don’t know, guys…” Jay looks into the darkness, “I think Wu is strong enough to get away by himself. And- and what do we know, anyway? Maybe he won, and he took them as prisoners!”

“He wouldn’t have gone there,” Kai points out, shaking his head, “Or left his hat. I mean, maybe you’re right…”

Lloyd turns back to them, with a frown, “We can’t afford to be wrong. We need our teacher.” Despite their lowered opinions of him, no one can find the words to disagree, or the spirit to. 

The seven of them come back to Nya and Garmadon. “Bad news,” Cole says, “We’re going on the shortcut anyway.” Garmadon’s face grows malicious- or maybe he just smiles like that…? “Finally come to your senses, huh?” he asks.

“Why?” Nya stands, “I thought we all hated Lloyd and Garmadon’s plan.” 

Zane explains to her, and to Garmadon, “Master Wu is in danger. We must find him.” She looks worried, and has Jay relay the details to her.

Morro, on the other hand, watches as Lloyd paces. “He’ll be fine,” Morro tells him, “He’s surely survived worse than whatever they’re doing.” Lloyd’s fists tug at his hair, “I know. I- ugh… No, I don’t know anymore. What do we do? How do we know Garmadon is going to help us at all? Maybe he hired them-” 

“Don’t overthink,” Morro says, floating in front of him, to stop his pacing. “He knows he’ll be stuck in there forever, if we don’t find Wu. We cannot trust him, but he’s what we have. We may not need him, anyway. You can do spinjitzu now, remember?” He doesn’t know if he’s helping, but he’s trying.

Morro glances around at the ninja- they’re all stressed, and likely all hungry. “We should find food before we leave, to bring along with us. You’d feel better.”

Lloyd nods, for a few seconds. “Okay. Yeah- okay, you’re right. Nya, Jay!” They look up. “How much food did you bring back? Is it enough for everyone?”

“Oh, um…” Jay picks up what they have- it’s only a few fruits. Nya has a handful of berries, taken from her pocket. 

“Alright… that’s, okay…” Lloyd takes a deep breath.

He recovers as best he can, and says, “I think we should get more food,” he’s clearly trying to make it sound like a suggestion rather than an order, “I’ll- I’ll fight better, less hungry. You know…” They seem to accept it. “We’ll stay back and watch Garmadon,” Nya says, dragging Jay to sit down with her, “But we did see more trees with fruits. Over that way, past the first clearing you see,” she points towards a certain part of the forest. 

“Got it. Okay, we better hurry,” Lloyd says, taking another breath, before starting to head that way. Morro walks beside him, watching his expression. “I can do this, if you want,” he offers. He’s not sure how receptive Lloyd is to relinquishing control over things like this, but it’s not directly about his father, so. “No,” Lloyd shakes his head, pushing aside a branch as he walks, “We- we have a plan… kind of. I’m nervous, but, uh, I’m fine.”

Morro regards him for a moment longer. His hands are shaking. Nope. “I’m sorry,” he says.

“For what-”

Morro possesses him, and grins. “Just try to relax, alright?” he looks up at Lloyd, who is glaring, if only light heartedly. “It’s not going to help anyone if you drop dead before the fight, dumbass.”

“I guess you’re right,” Lloyd’s arms, which had crossed, fall back down to his sides, “I just feel like I have to fix all of this, because it’s my fault. Right?” 

Morro rolls his eyes, ”You didn’t capture Wu. But… yes. I understand.” He adds that last part, quieter. He doesn’t want to stop Lloyd from redeeming himself- it’s not like he would have given over the reins- but he doesn’t want to see him any more stressed out, either. “We’ll find him,” he says, then. “Together. …with the others, too, of course.”

Lloyd smiles, a little wobbly, “Together,” like he’s conveying that it’s okay for Morro to have said it that way.

Morro nods, “Alright.” He looks back at the environment before them, and gets to work.

Chapter Text

“Here,” Lloyd hands Garmadon several pieces of fruit, and a container of blueberries. The container is rudimentary and carved from wood- Zane found a guide in his databases on how to create them, so they’ll be able to carry along their food. “Do these have seeds?” Garmadon asks, taking one of the guava and holding it up. “I don’t know. You’ll have to spit them out,” Lloyd replies. 

It’d been near impossible to find food that fell into having zero seeds and being non-sticky, but Lloyd had insisted Morro try anyway. He claimed it was so they wouldn’t have to hear him complain.

“Ugh,” Garmadon groans, “I guess that’ll do. Thanks.” He sets them on the floor of the cage, and the spaces in between the bamboo is just narrow enough to stop them from falling through. The container of berries, he holds in his hand, and starts eating. Lloyd lingers, maybe waiting for something else, before shaking his head and walking away. 

Morro floats beside him, “You didn’t have to do that.” He wouldn’t. 

“I know,” Lloyd sighs, “I just…” He doesn’t finish that sentence- instead, he looks around to see if the others are ready to move on. It hadn’t taken too long, an hour or so, according to Zane’s clock, but they had to get going soon if they wanted to find Wu that day. 

Cole’s placing a crudely-carved cap onto one of his containers, while Nya is finding places to store them in her gi. Jay, for once, is prepared - he simply places his berries into the little pockets at the front of his uniform, and leaves the bigger fruit to Nya. Zane, tasked with creating the containers, didn’t collect any food- it’s not like he needs it, anyway. Morro wonders, for a moment, how he does eat. Does he need oil?

Kai is the one that asks, “Are we ready yet?” 

“Just about, bro,” Nya says, adjusting her clothes, “Okay- yeah!” 

Cole and Jay are the ones that carry Garmadon’s cage across the river, boots growing heavier with the water flowing into them. Zane and the others again jump over, and he and Kai lead them all back. Zane picks up Wu’s hat and wears it- it sits very awkwardly over the flat top of his hair, before squishing down. 

The path looks just as ominous as it did earlier- a few giant spiders crawl up a tree, and Morro’s face twists uncomfortably. Just get it over with.

“Are you going to use spinjitzu?” He asks, before they cross over. Lloyd nods, pushing his hair to the side, “Yeah, I- I mean, we don’t have any weapons. I kind of have to.”

Kai is the first that walks towards the dark path, with confidence probably born of simple arrogance- and despite his straight posture and tough expression, his shoulders are squared together, tense. None of them really want to go in there - besides Garmadon.

“Do you guys always waste this much time?” Garmadon asks, arms behind his head, lounging back against the cage’s wall. He’s one to talk. 

Lloyd’s expression sours, and he looks over at him, “You could be leading us, you know. Like you said you would.” He crosses his arms and follows Kai, along with Zane and Nya. Morro hangs back for a second, to watch Garmadon’s expression- he looks grumpy, almost, before smiling widely. “Well, if you insist,” he says, sitting up straight now instead, “Let’s go.” Jay hesitates, hands shaky, before following after the others, Garmadon and Cole in tow. 

Morro walks over to Lloyd, instead of levitating, “I hate this already.” The environment seems unnaturally lit with cold blues and pale greens that resemble his own skin, and it doesn’t make the oversized insects look any cuddlier. Lloyd nods, looking a little grim himself, “Whatever it takes to find Master Wu.” Whatever it takes to get rid of Garmadon, he doesn’t say, but that sentiment is just as clear. 

Besides the bugs, the environment seems almost devoid of life. The only signs they can find of other people being here are skeletons, scattered among the ground. Nya pokes one with her foot, and goes, “Creepy.” The plants are large, but not overgrown, like they’ve been recently cut to make it easier to walk through. 

“Why are there so many skeletons…?” Jay asks, looking uneasily at one as they pass by. 

Garmadon, who seems comfortable and right at home, answers, “Well, there’s not much to eat here besides other people…” Lloyd and Morro share a glance, unsettled, before Garmadon laughs and says, “Joking, joking… I don’t know why. It wasn’t like this before.” 

“You’ve been here?” Lloyd asks, curious for once. He steps over a large millipede, and smiles at Morro, who uncomfortably shudders before walking around it. “Oh, many times,” Garmadon says, waving a hand, “Many times.. I haven’t been here in a while, but I still know my way around.” He looks at Kai and points out to the plants in front of him, “Don’t step on that. It’ll find a way to get to you, even if you’re wearing shoes, and you’ll have a rash for days. It’s so inconvenient.”

Kai nods, and walks around the small patch of plants. As he passes by, their stems seem to grow a smidge, like they’d literally find a way to get to him. Kai shudders, and mumbles, “I hate this place.” 

Morro sighs, as they walk. He hopes that they can get back to the other path soon, but he sort of knows better than to expect it all to go perfectly. The ninja are all inexperienced without their mechs, and Garmadon is in a cage. He can help, too, but if any of them wear Vengestone like Garmadon’s army, he’s essentially useless. He hates that feeling, as it crawls up his spine and settles into his chest. 

“You okay?” Lloyd asks, quietly. Morro looks at him, and he’s displeased with how the lack of normal lighting makes it harder for him to make out his features. He shakes his head, and replies, “Fine.” Lloyd doesn’t seem to believe him- he can just barely see his eyes squint- and he reminds him, “The bugs can’t get to you.”

Morro huffs a laugh, “That’s not what I was thinking about, Lloyd.” After a pause, “But, thanks. For, um…trying.” He looks away as the words come out, stiff as they always do when it’s like that. Lloyd doesn’t comment on the tenseness, he never does, just smiles and continues on. 

When a spider crawls up the side of Garmadon’s cage, he crushes it in his hand, uncaring that it’s near the size of his fist. He holds it up, inspecting, and Morro thinks for a one disgusting moment that he’s going to eat it. He doesn’t, thankfully, and tosses it away carelessly. It lands on Cole’s face- who screams and throws it off.

Cole groans after he wipes his face with his arm, looking at Lloyd and saying, “Your dad sucks, dude.” Lloyd doesn’t say anything, just nodding, having heard it a hundred times in a hundred different ways. Garmadon, viewing that reaction, crosses two of his arms and turns his head away, unspeaking for once.  

Morro floats over to him, just to see what his expression looks like- huh. He expected an ego-driven anger, or offence, but Garmadon only looks confused - like he’s racking his brain for any reason that Lloyd could feel that way. Morro can’t believe he’s that oblivious.  He has to be lying to himself, at least.

Back to Lloyd he goes, who asks, “Is he pouting?” Morro makes a so-so gesture, and replies, “It’s hard to tell what he’s doing.” He’s reluctant to tell Lloyd, that it seems like Garmadon truly doesn’t understand the issues in his actions. It’d only make him angrier. Rightfully so.

Eventually, they come upon ruins. Broken, crumbled pillars, with more decaying skeletons than anywhere else. It looked like the entrance to something, but it seems that that entrance has lasted longer than whatever was behind it. Garmadon recognizes it, saying, “Oh, this place,” but his eyebrows furrow together like something’s wrong. “What?” Lloyd asks, noticing it, too.

“Look there,” Garmadon points at the ground, near mud. There are recent, filed footprints, and many of them. “Well, we already knew people had been here,” Kai says, looking down at the tracks, “Who else would’ve taken Wu?”

Zane steps forward, and scans the mud, then the surrounding ground, “These footprints indicate many more than we expected. Perhaps even hundreds.” It sounds like an army.

Lloyd’s hands clench into fists, and he sharply turns to Garmadon, “It was your army, wasn’t it? You just dragged us out here so we couldn’t get back to Ninjago!” Morro floats next to him, and calls to reason, “Lloyd, don’t jump to conclusions. Why would he point it out first?” Garmadon isn’t to be trusted, but he doubts that man would really be smart enough to plan it all out like that. 

“Calm down, yeesh,” Garmadon rolls his eyes, “It wasn’t me.” His words don’t do much to convince Lloyd, but Morro’s do. “Do you really think those goons could sneak up on Wu?” he asks. Lloyd glances warily at him, “Okay- so who–”

Both of them jump as a spear flies past Lloyd’s face, clean and nearly precise. “Ambush,” Morro says, turning around to find whoever’s hiding. 

“Oh, man-” Lloyd looks around, and the air seems to change, as several figures appear and crawl down from the trees. There aren’t very many, maybe five or six, but it’s threatening nonetheless. Garmadon looks scrutinizingly at them, trying to make out their forms, until his face startles with surprise. “Oh my gosh,” Garmadon says, “You won’t believe this, Lloyd…”

The small group gets closer, walking slowly like it burns them to walk, and some of them are wearing… crab helmets… Morro sighs.

“Those look like my former General 1’s!” Garmadon grins, waving to all of them, “Wow, you guys look great! Have you been tanning, or something? There isn’t a lot of sun here, not sure how you did that.” The one that walks in front is a sharkhead that Morro vaguely remembers telling the army to retreat, before. His face twitches now, and he seems unhinged rather than afraid and dutiful. “We,” he says, holding up a torch the size of his entire frame, and a spear in the other, “Were fired.”  

One of the others, a woman, walks beside him, sipping a foam cup that’s half burned away, “Out of a volcano.” In her other hand, a dull sword, likely stolen from one of the many skeletons. She laughs, with burnt hair and clothes black with ash. 

Lloyd backs up, and asks his dad, “Garmadon, did you fire all of these people?” Garmadon shakes his head, “No, no! There was way more than this. Come on.”

“That’s not a good thing,” Lloyd says, strained. “It’s fine, Lloyd!” Garmadon waves his hands dismissively, “These guys love me! We’re like family- right?” 

One of them, a fishbowl head that’s half-filled with ash, retains eye contact with Garmadon as they throw down one of the lit torches in front of the cage. Jay yelps and drops it, running  away from the inflamed ground. “Shit- okay, ninja go,” Lloyd says, rushed. He stomps out the fire himself, as Cole and Kai jump into fighting. 

Kai tries to pull the torch away from the sharkhead, ducking away from the spear as it aims for his head again and again. Cole goes for the girl, and she says, ”Augh- no!” when he tosses away the long-empty cup. She dives after it, and Lloyd goes after her- the cup crushes easily under his foot. 

Zane’s fighting is coordinated, but sloppy in execution- he’s covered by Jay, who screams any time the lost general’s chainsaw gets close. Morro tries to keep them from getting to Garmadon, blowing them away, but it’s difficult with how persistent a couple of them are. His wind only makes the fires grow taller, and he has to try and manoeuvre his element around them. One gets close, and tries to jab her spear into the cage, to hit Garmadon. “Ow-!” Garmadon’s arm is cut, but not stabbed, as he dodges as best he can with the limited space. “Come on, guys! It’s me!” He’s still trying to reason with them, in vain, as they yell and laugh.

When Lloyd’s surrounded by three, he breathes in before performing spinjitzu- it isn’t perfect, but he manages to get two of them flung away, into the dirt, where Nya and Kai can keep them down. Morro is distracted by watching him for a moment- he really has improved…

“Garmadon, fight already!” Lloyd yells, as the sharkhead tries to lift one end of the cage, to capture him. 

Morro snaps back to reality and forces him down, and the cage lands half on top of him. Garmadon looks at Lloyd, and his face hardens, before he punches the sharkhead through the bamboo. It isn’t efficient, and another one of them comes to try and take the cage away. “He can’t fight like that,” Morro says, pushing her away. 

“I know, I got it-” Lloyd runs over and steals a spear, pulling it out of the bamboo, and uses it to slice open the cage. “Now make yourself useful!” he hands the spear to Garmadon- Garmadon looks surprised, and then smiles. “I’ve been useful this whole time!” he gloats, and he aids Zane and Cole with the girl, “You were always distracted, anyway!” She goes down with bleeding cuts- apparently stabbing is too violent for Garmadon- and the three of them kick her, as well. 

Morro spots one, the general wearing the fishbowl, retreating. He could’ve pulled them back, but he doesn’t, instead watching. Wherever they’re going, it must be where Wu is. 

Lloyd again uses spinjitzu, rounding up several of the lost generals and dizzying them. Their weapons are thrown across the ground, and Nya hastily jumps out of the way of the chainsaw, still on and buzzing. Lloyd seems a little dizzy himself after doing so, but he fights on. He and Garmadon take down the last one standing, while the others make sure the ones that are down stay down. 

“Not too shabby, Lloyd!” Garmadon says, crossing his lower set of arms at his waist. Lloyd shakes his head, but he says, “Thanks- are- are all of them down?” 

Nya grins and smashes her fists together, “We crushed them!”

Garmadon nods in approval, and then sighs, long and loud, “That was weird… having to fight my own generals, it’s like they had this blind hatred of me… well, I guess none of you would understand.” Lloyd looks irritated again, and he says, “Uh huh. Right.”

“I mean it!” Garmadon says, looking to him with wide eyes, “My generals are supposed to respect me, and love me. What’d I ever do to make them so bad?” He lightly kicks at one of the unconscious crab heads. 

Lloyd tenses, and Morro bites his tongue. “Garmadon, that was your fault!” he says, gesturing to him with frustration, “If you didn’t treat your employees so badly, that wouldn’t have happened, and Wu never would’ve been taken! And don’t talk to me about not knowing what it’s like–” Here we go... “–to be hated for no reason! You don’t know what that’s like! Everyone hates you, and they should!” 

Garmadon’s mouth falls open a little, but he says nothing. “Everyone hates me because of you!” Lloyd yells, pulling at his hair, “And you couldn’t even stick around when you ruined my life- I don’t know how to throw, I don’t know how to ride a bike, because of you! The only reason I have friends at all is because Master Wu forced them to get to know me.” He motions to the other ninja, who all reluctantly agree. Garmadon’s expression is clipped, and he looks away. 

Lloyd laughs humourlessly, “I- I don’t even know why I say anything to you at all.” He turns away, and drops his hands from his hair, “We have to figure out where to go next.” The subject is shifted away from, but Garmadon’s emotion- shame?- remains, and he stares at the ground.

The others are reluctant to move on, as well, but Kai finally says, “...We could, uh… interrogate one of them, when they wake up?”

Morro floats over to Lloyd, and goes to mention what he saw- but Zane speaks first, “I believe I saw one of the lost generals escape, retreating there,” he points in that same direction. “Yeah,” Morro says, “It must be the direction of their base.”

Lloyd nods, “Okay. Let’s go there, then… What do you guys think?” He looks around, and they each agree. It doesn’t seem like any of them are hurt- not badly, at least. When no one objects, he turns and starts to move in that direction.

Kai steps forward, though. “Wait,” he says, before glancing at Garmadon and walking closer, lowering his voice, “Are you okay, dude?” 

Lloyd sighs, just as heavy as his shoulders, and he nods slightly, “Yeah- yeah, I’m good. We just need to keep moving.” Kai still looks concerned, but doesn’t stop him again. Morro watches him closely as they walk- there’s dirt on his face, his expression is hard but, as always, his eyes give him away- they shine with tears he won’t let out yet. 

Morro tries, as gently as he’s able to, “Lloyd…” The other just shakes his head, and shuts his eyes for a few moments, to force them to dry, “Later.” He gives Lloyd a long look, but concedes for now. Garmadon takes the time to pick up the fruit that had gone flying when his cage was broken- well, the fruit that wasn’t smashed. 

The general is gone by the time they follow, but bits of ash have fallen from the fishbowl helmet in their haste to flee. It’s hard to see in the darkness, but Zane manages with his scanners.

The lost generals’ hideout is impressively large for how little resources there are. Walls made of wood logs carved to end with sharp points- it’s the most they’ve been able to see since going after Wu, from all the lit torches and fires. It bathes everything in reds and oranges, nice to look at, but dangerous. The base is built around a volcano, of all things. 

“There,” Nya points upwards, “There’s no one in that watch tower.” She, a little nervously, climbs a nearby tree and uses it to jump into the tower. She nearly slips, but makes it. Garmadon is the first to follow, but he climbs up the wall instead of using the nature. It’s a little creepy to watch. “He’s like a spider,” Morro comments. Lloyd doesn’t laugh, but he smiles slightly. Good enough, for now.

It’s cramped inside the watch tower, but luckily, they stay hidden. Downwards, the general that ran away is hurriedly informing the others of what they saw. “Garmadon is here! And the ninja,” they say, expressions switching so quickly that it’s near unnatural.

“Finally- it worked!,” one of the others grins, and she twitches in the same way, “We’ll be ready when they’re here! Guard Wu!” 

Each of the ninja, and Morro, perk up at that. He really is here- but where? “I don’t see him anywhere,” Jay says, searching for white clothing in a sea of red and black. Morro can see the pit of lava, bubbling in the opening of the volcano, and he wonders if they plan to throw Wu or Garmadon in there. 

“They have to have him imprisoned, somewhere,” Lloyd says, “Come on, guys, look.” Garmadon is the first to notice it- he points to one of the wooden buildings, “I bet he’s in there. It’s obvious- ugh, they’re lost without me.”

It resembles a house, but unlike the others, it has zero windows, and it’s considerably smaller. Two lost generals are standing on either side of its door. “If they’re keeping him here, it has to be that,” Cole says, “It looks run down.” 

Lloyd glances at Morro, for his opinion, and he nods. “Okay,” Lloyd’s eyes flit between the building and the generals, as some of them go to guard it, “How do we get there?”

Nya glances over the base and says, “Well, we don’t have to take them all down. We just need to get to Wu.” Of the couple hundred there, many of them are sharpening their weapons or chanting - few are guarding him. “Yeah, but won’t they all just come at us?” Cole asks.

The base is cramped and cluttered with all the small houses, weapons, and materials gathered around. No matter how they approach it, it’ll be chaos- unless they use stealth, and Morro knows they can’t do that. 

“We can’t fight them all,” Kai frowns, leaning forward to get a better look. Lloyd sighs, and agrees, “No, we can’t. But we have to do something.”

Garmadon speaks up, “Alright, alright. You win…” He readjusts his cloak, as they all turn to him, “What you need is a distraction. What’s more distracting than their former beloved leader?!” 

Nya rolls her eyes, “I don’t think you were ever their beloved leader.” Lloyd glances at Morro, the question of if they should trust Garmadon, to aid in that way, left unspoken. “I don’t know,” Morro says, “It’s risky, no matter what we do.” A decoy isn’t a bad idea- and who else would distract them, than the man who stuck them all there?- but if Garmadon uses it to sabotage them, it’s hopeless. 

Lloyd’s eyes return to the base, down below. Some of the generals are dancing together, geared and ready, speaking of finally being able to fire Garmadon. Others are forging new tools, lighting more torches, going over planned formations. Lloyd nods to himself, and he says, “I’ll do it, too.”

He turns to Garmadon, “We don’t trust you- and with two of us, we can distract more of them.” 

Garmadon is surprised, and he blinks once before replying, “Well, all right! Father-son bonding, let’s do this.” He wraps one of his arms around Lloyd’s neck, annoyingly smothering for someone so absent. “Ugh…” Lloyd grumbles.

“There’s still an issue with our plan,” Zane states, “We are not ninja.” Not them, maybe, Morro thinks, smug. He’d definitely consider Lloyd to be one, by this point. “Well, you’re a robot,” Cole gestures to him lazily, ignoring Zane’s immediate assertions that he is not, “Can’t you find a tutorial, or something?”

Garmadon grins, wide, “Come on! I’m a ninja master, you don’t need that when you have me.” His confidence seems to be even more arrogant, now that Lloyd’s volunteered to work with him.

A few of them look at him, before Nya says, “Yeah, no… show us a tutorial, Zane.”

“Of course,” Zane chirps robotically, before his unnaturally blue eyes make way for a screen on his face. His mouth functions as a speaker for the videos that play- the subjects are… embarrassingly basic. 

The tutorials go over how to blend in with your surroundings through putting mud on your face and such- “Did you guys really not know this, before?” Morro asks. He knows they hadn’t learned that much, but still. “You saw how we hid in the bamboo forest,” Lloyd replies, a little grimly. 

It might’ve made him angry before, but Morro just laughs a little. At least they’re learning now. On the battlefield... “You would’ve been hopeless, if I hadn’t come here,” he says, more playful than serious.

“I’m trying to pay attention, Morro,” Lloyd says, staring ahead into Zane’s screen-face, but he smiles, too. The others seem genuinely invested, while Garmadon is yawning and waiting for it to be over. Surprisingly, he doesn’t start talking and distract them, not even to Lloyd. 

When the screen fades back to Zane’s regular face, he smiles, “I feel much more prepared.” Nya is excited, too, “Yeah! Let’s do this.” She looks back at the lost generals with a revitalized confidence, “If we can sneak up on them while everyone’s distracted, we can steal their outfits and blend in! Nobody will even realize Master Wu is getting rescued.”

“Great idea, Nya,” Lloyd says, and he looks like he feels better, too. He takes a breath, and says, “Okay, Garmadon. Let’s go.”

Garmadon woops and they head off together. “Morro, where should we drop in?” Lloyd asks, glancing at Morro as he floats alongside them. He scans the area and replies, “Wherever the most people are.” 

The torches and fire everywhere thankfully cast shadows upon them, and keep them hidden. Lloyd and Garmadon hop across the spiked wall, too quickly to be hurt by its pricks, and pause on top of a different watchtower. Lloyd jumps on top of its roof instead of inside, and Garmadon follows. 

“So,” Garmadon says, “Who’re you talking to?” 

Lloyd blinks and sends a wide-eyed look to Morro. Neither of them really thought he was smart enough to notice. “It’s none of your business,” he shakes his head, of course trying to keep personal conversations out.  

Garmadon grins, ”Morro…” He says the name like he’s feeling it out. “Is that your imaginary boyfriend?”

”No!” Lloyd yells, too loud, “Just- w-would you shut up and focus on this, please?” A few lost generals look up.

Garmadon holds up two hands, “Alright, alright. Touchy.”  

Morro watches as several charred crabheads and sharkheads squint up into the darkness, readying their weapons. “Lloyd,” he says, “You just gave yourself away.” Lloyd looks at him, and then down at where he points, “Are you serious?” he asks, with a pink face, “Just one thing after another…”

“What’d he tell you now?” Garmadon asks, with a curious smile.

Lloyd sighs, “That we aren’t hidden anymore.” He motions down at the generals, who they’ve lost the element of surprise against. “I should’ve done this alone,” Lloyd crosses his arms, “You already made me mess up!”

Garmadon groans, “Come on, Lloyd. You didn’t have to scream. I’m the one they want, anyway!” 

Morro looks, as one of the lost generals raises their torch up, and- “Look out!” Lloyd jumps away just in time, as the torch is thrown and whizzes right past him. “Oh, man,” he says, as the generals start to chant and yell, “Okay, no planning- we gotta go.”

Garmadon wastes no time, fearlessly jumping down from the watchtower, as they swarm around him. “Hey, guys!” he announces his presence to those who haven’t noticed, “How many of you missed me?” Lloyd is unsure of what to do. He shakes his head and jumps down, too, “Hey, generals…!”

Morro keeps his eyes on the small building Wu’s being held in. He can see Cole and Kai each sneaking up on one of the people guarding it. They look at each other, nod, and clamp their hands over their mouths, dragging them away to defeat them quietly. Morro uses his wind to pull more generals in towards Lloyd and Garmadon, to keep their eyes away from that. 

“None of us missed you,” One of them says, with a twitching eye and a manic smile. She swipes at Garmadon with an axe, which he dodges. He hops up to another building, low enough for them to try to attack, but high enough for him to avoid it. Taunting, he yells, “Oh, no! Not my own generals- betraying me after becoming so awesome! I’m doomed!”

Lloyd kicks a torch when it’s shot towards him, knocking it from the general’s hands. He grabs it and starts waving it around in front of him, to dissuade them from getting close. “Doomed?” he says, with a loud, performing voice, “I- I think you guys are pretty weak! Uh… Stay back!”

The ex-goons climb on top of each other to reach Garmadon, all screaming, and Garmadon calls, “Lloyd! Throw me that torch!” He tries- it falls flat on the ground, in front of him. 

Garmadon groans, “I forgot about that.” Lloyd instead goes to knock the generals off of each other instead, using spinjitzu to round them up and send them flying. Morro uses wind to knock over sets of metal, blunt weapons, falling over them to prevent them from getting back up. “Not bad,” Garmadon says, when the other hops up the roof, too. 

“We have to keep moving,” Lloyd tells him. More generals were charging and throwing spears, ones they duck away from as quickly as they can. Lloyd tugs out a spear that just barely grazes him, going through his sleeve and pinning him to the wall behind them. “Let me show you how to throw,” Garmadon says, taking the spear.

Lloyd kicks a torch away that comes flying at him, “I don’t need to know how to throw-” he ducks, letting another spear hit the wall, this time without his sleeve, “Not right now!”  

Morro multitasks between trying to help them and trying to help the ninja. He tries to keep some of the generals pushed down, or their weapons flung away with wind, while pulling away any that are close enough to Wu to notice his rescue.

One of them, with wind, he slams into a building. ”Ow!” they say, familiar, and Morro blinks. He realizes the freckles, now, peeking out of the fishbowl half-full with ash. He’d apologize to Jay if he could- as an alternative, he floats him back to his feet with a gentle gust. “Sorry,” he mumbles anyway.

“Come on, it’s easy,” Garmadon says, and he demonstrates how to throw, before handing the spear to Lloyd, “Just try it!” 

Lloyd looks annoyed, but he takes it anyway. He tries to throw the spear, and it doesn’t even go a foot before it lands. It clanks as it falls off the roof. “Okay, okay, good try,” Garmadon pulls another, stuck in the wall. “Come on.” 

“Ooh, we’re over here!” He yells at the generals, as they run and jump across buildings. “Okay, now.” Lloyd holds the spear up, ready to fail, but Garmadon goes over and corrects his posture. 

Lloyd rolls his eyes and throws it- it flies through the air, uncontrolled, and phases through Morro before bouncing off the ground and nearly knocking down a cat, shattering the window next to it. Morro stares at it- how did they get a house cat here? “Run for it!” Garmadon says, dragging him along as the generals chase them. Lloyd looks surprised with himself.

They run along more buildings as the mob of generals chase them, and Garmadon kicks off shingles from the roof and throws several at them. He hands some to Lloyd, who looks a little more openly nervous now. “Quiet your mind, Lloyd,” Garmadon says, while Morro holds them back. It might not be the best time for a lesson like that, but better late than never? “Go for it!” he calls, to Lloyd.

“Okay,” Lloyd nods, and he stops running so that he can aim. He holds up the roofing tile, trying to remember the right stance. Garmadon stands beside him, “Throw like no one’s watching except your judging father.” Lloyd rolls his eyes, “Not helping.”

“Oh- right,” Garmadon nods, “Go for it. You can do it.” It’s a little forced, like he’s never had to encourage anyone, and he probably hasn’t.  

Lloyd throws the tile, and it lands on the head of one of the general’s burnt shark helmet. “Aha! Look at that!” Garmadon cheers, “I actually taught you something!” Lloyd looks at him, then looks away, with a faint smile. 

“Okay, come on!” Garmadon says, picking off more shingles and handing them to Lloyd. They both throw them at the generals as they run, taunting as they go. Morro looks back at the building Wu’s in- the original guards have been replaced, and the door is open. They're in. He grins and watches Lloyd.

They’re working together- more, they’re having fun. Garmadon laughs when Lloyd manages to knock someone down completely, just by throwing a tile, pointing and claiming he ‘never liked that guy anyway’. Lloyd doesn’t laugh, but he’s smiling, and it’s so breathtaking that Morro doesn’t realize anyone’s snuck up on the two before someone grabs Lloyd.

“Time to fire you!” She yells, and she pushes Lloyd off the roof before Garmadon can stop him. “Lloyd-!” Morro rushes over to him, abandoning everything else. “No!” Garmadon yells, too, and he jumps down, while the woman laughs maniacally

“I’m okay- I’m okay, I think. Just- just my arm,” Lloyd pushes himself up to sit, holding one of his arms. There’s an irregular bump in it- injured. “Woah! Yikes,” Garmadon says. He grabs it, and Lloyd flinches, “Don’t just-!”

More lost generals swarm around, relentless, and Morro pushes them back with large, sweeping gusts of wind. One of the others comes running, tearing off the heads to their disguise so they can identify them. “Lloyd, are you good, man?” Nya asks, while putting a general into a chokehold.

“He’s fine!” Garmadon yells back, “I think he broke his arm.” He looks at the arm and holds a hand over his mouth, “Oh, I’m gonna puke- that’s bad!” 

Lloyd panics the more he does, “It- it’s going to be fine, though, isn’t it? It’s just-”

”Like that? No! We don’t have any casts here for you, Lloyd,” Garmadon replies, uncomforting as always. “But you’re gonna- you’re gonna be fine, let me text your mother.” He pulls out his phone, something he’s apparently had the whole time, and starts typing. “What?!” 

Lloyd slaps the phone out of his hand with his non-broken arm. “Dad, no- I need you! Stay with me, be here with me now, alright? Just- do something!” Garmadon looks around, hands up, “Okay, okay- I’ll find- I’m gonna find something.”

He rushes over to a table, set outside a building that looks to be a restaurant, tearing off the worn tablecloth. “Okay, I have to move it, Lloyd,” he says, crouching in front of him now. “Wait!-” Lloyd yelps, hiding the broken limb defensively against his chest, “It’s not gonna- it’s not gonna hurt, right?” 

“What? Who gave you that misinformation?” Garmadon asks, clueless, “No, your arm’s broken, it’s going to be agony! Now give it here.” Lloyd gives him a flat look, and its effect is lessened by the panic. “Okay- fine,” he says, and he slowly pulls his other arm away so that Garmadon can grab the broken one.

Garmadon slowly inches forward, and he nearly grabs it, before pulling away completely, “Ugh, I wish your mother was here to do this.” Lloyd kicks him, “Just do it! You’re killing me.” Garmadon nods rapidly, “Fine, okay-”

He first throws the table cloth over one of Lloyd’s shoulders, and then slowly, he urges the arm up to slip it underneath. “Ow-!” Lloyd jumps, and he flinches away. “Just relax!” Garmadon says, finally trying to comfort. He pulls the tablecloth under his arm, and then ties the sling together. “How’s that?”

Morro distractedly watches Lloyd feel out the sling. “It’s- it’s okay,” he says, grunting in pain. “Nya!” he calls out to her, “Did the guys get to Wu?”

“They should’ve!” she replies, kicking down another general tirelessly, “Come on, let’s get outta here!” Lloyd nods. Morro blasts as many as he can away so they’ll have a path.

Garmadon urges him to his feet, and he steps away, “I can walk on my own. My legs aren’t broken.” Garmadon’s face shutters, and he looks away, “Right. Yeah. You’re right.” Lloyd looks at him, considering, before clearing his throat, “But, uh… I- I mean- it’d be nice to have… help.” He blinks like he’s surprised he really said it.

Garmadon smiles, and throws Lloyd’s unbroken arm around his broad shoulders, to help him walk. “Let’s go,” he says. Nya and Morro cover them as they rush out, slowed slightly by Garmadon and Lloyd. They make it outside the lair, all in one piece. The generals seem to give up, to regroup. 

Outside, the others are waiting. “How do you feel?” Morro asks, floating beside him. Lloyd sends him a small, private smile, “I don’t know- I…” The others have taken off their disguises, too, but none of them look pleased; Wu isn’t there. Lloyd looks, and his face falters a bit, “Wait, where’s Master Wu? You guys didn’t rescue him?” 

Kai shakes his head, “We tried! We got in the building, but he wasn’t there.”

Morro groans, “You have to be kidding…” Were they wrong about who took him? They couldn’t have been! He curses himself for not going and checking before they went with the plan. “Ugh, this is just like him,” Garmadon rolls his eyes, “So dramatic.” Lloyd deflates fully, “Really?”

Nya crosses her arms, “What about clues? Did you find any?” Zane nods, with a frown that looks more neutral on his features, “We did. It appears he escaped on his own before we arrived.” 

Jay makes a sound of frustration, “Gh- I told you guys he could handle it! I got slammed into a wall trying to do that.” Morro winces, and mumbles to Lloyd, “That was my mistake.” Lloyd looks amused at him, for a moment, before turning to the team and sighing. “Okay. Well, that’s… not ideal. But that means he’s okay!”

Cole speaks up, “We think we found which direction he went in. We can probably catch up to him.” Lloyd sighs again, more relieved, “That’s good. That’s what we’ll do, then.” No one argues with his decision, this time. “He’s slow, anyway,” Garmadon says, “So old.” 

Jay tilts his head to the side, “Aren’t you the same age?” Garmadon, still with his arm around Lloyd, replies with wide eyes, “No, I’m actually the youngest. I thought I always gave off that vibe.” Nya shrugs, “A little, I guess. Less mature.”

Garmadon snaps his head over to her, “Hey-! That’s not what I meant.” Morro looks at Lloyd- who’s already looking at him, and he gives that same smile. Things are looking up.

Chapter Text

They travelled fast - as fast as they could, with Lloyd’s broken arm. He’d convinced Garmadon that he could walk on his own now, but not Morro. He was possessing Lloyd- he’s had many a broken bones before- and luckily, the pain of it doesn’t follow Lloyd into his apparition form. Catching up to Wu was a big task in of itself. 

“Guys… how do we know we’re going in the right direction?” Jay asks, after tripping over a fallen branch. Zane stops too and scans the area, “We cannot know for sure that it was Master Wu, but there are recent foot prints.” Garmadon sidles up beside him, looking down at the tracks, and he groans, “Yeah, that’s his big ugly feet. Right, Lloyd?” 

Morro does his best to smile and nod in reply, or whatever he would’ve done in response to that. He looks at Lloyd, who’s bewildered, but not upset, “He’s actually talking to me,” he says. Morro doesn’t know how to feel about that, yet. Garmadon still ruined his life.

They continue on, in the direction of the footprints. Wu is a kind of wildcard, in that he could travel either extremely quickly or extremely slowly. He’s worried they won’t be able to find him, and even more worried that they will. 

Lloyd said he’d ask Wu about any past students he might’ve had, and he’s afraid of the answer. Since coming into this world, he’s felt… okay. The burn of resentment that used to consume him so readily only remains in whisps, and no longer directed at Lloyd- either version. He’s seen the way his companion has changed, because of him, and he feels like he can be good… but what was his fate here, if he had one at all? 

It’s unsure if this Wu is as secretive as the other. Perhaps another version of him is alive, and they’ll find him, too. Maybe he never trained at all, maybe he’s living somewhere else in Ninjago entirely. Maybe he had parents.

He hopes it’s one of those, even if the last would be foreign to him.

The sun hangs low in the sky when they take a break. Morro grows worn out as Lloyd’s body does, and he leans over with hands on his knees, catching his breath. He should give him training in stamina… he looks up, and Garmadon is approaching with an unsure smile that fronts itself as confident. His two lower arms are folded behind his back.

Lloyd floats by him and says, “I’ll- I’ll, uh, take over from here.” Morro nods and releases, the physical exhaustion fading as soon as he’s purely ghost again. “Hey,” Lloyd says, to his dad, now breathless himself. 

“You don’t know how to catch,” Garmadon says, blunt, before clearing his throat with one hand over his mouth. “I thought, you know, since we’re taking a break,” he unfolds his arms and shows him what he’s brought- rocks, to catch. “You might want to learn from a master,” he finishes, giving a haughty laugh, though his nervousness is transparent through it.

Lloyd glances at Morro with wide eyes, before nodding at him, “I mean… sure. I guess that’d probably be… useful, yeah.” The hesitance in his voice clears when he sees Garmadon grin widely. “Okay, son, let’s go- woo!”

Morro watches them go, so that he can continue looking around while they all rest. There was a bigger chance of losing Wu’s trail like this, so the least he can do is keep searching himself. Besides… he feels like Lloyd and Garmadon should be alone for that. Whatever strange bonding is happening, he doesn’t want to meddle with it, for now.

He looks along at the other ninja- Zane, who’s wiping dirt from his gi, disappointed that its light colour is being stained, Nya, who eats some of her stashed food with Cole, Jay, who’s wiped out on the ground and resting, and Kai, who’s sitting, but looking around as well, keeping an eye out as best he can. He respects the effort.

The dark, spider-filled forest had cleared into lighter pastures, more like the correct path. Morro floats around, keeping mind where they are, and finds animals everywhere. It’s hard to see many of them through the darkening sky, but he finds an owl or two peering right through him with wide yellow eyes, along with brightly coloured frogs and other reptiles. Being in an area more lively helped ease the tension in his shoulders, especially now that the giant insects were less visible. 

There was more fruit to pick in this area, and maybe he’ll advise Lloyd to take more before they move on. An added delay won’t be good, but neither would starving.

Morro floats up high into the sky, like he always used to in the city. The stars are brighter here, and he’s glad for the ninja’s ironically brightly-coloured clothing so that he may keep track of them. He isn’t sure he could even spot Wu from up here, but it’s the least he can do right now. 

He sees trees, clearings, and rivers, on and on for miles. Beyond that, he can see a temple in the distance, hidden behind and on top of a mountain. That must be their destination- it’s incredibly far away. At least Garmadon can’t ruin Ninjago City any further with him here. Still, it could take weeks to travel there, and many more to return. Maybe there’s something they could…

…

What is that?

Morro strains his eyes in the dark. Is that a painting of a dragon? He glances down at the ninja, to memorize where they are, before floating towards it- it has to be something. The closer he gets, the more he realizes… It’s a flag. There’s three flags.

Destiny’s Bounty.

Thank god.

Morro lowers his feet down onto the deck, somehow refurbished and improved. Its strung lights glow dimly, attracting little attention to themselves, and more to the detail of the ship. It looks nearly identical to how it did before, but with higher quality wood and metals. He walks and phrases through the two doors in front of him, and inside, is Wu.

He grins right away, finally. They can finally get somewhere on this mission- the old man is sound asleep, calm, like the wilderness he’s surrounded in gives him no fright at all. It probably doesn’t. 

Lloyd and Garmadon are sitting, eating together, when Morro returns. He pauses his news, floating and standing next to him, to ask, “Did you have fun?” Lloyd looks up at him, and smiles, bright and happy like it should be. Perhaps Garmadon isn’t so bad, after all.

“Yeah, I… I know how to catch, now,” Lloyd says, laughing a little, “Finally, right? Though… it sucks that it wasn’t with my dominant hand.” Morro smiles back earnestly - he’s glad Lloyd is still able to function with an injury like that. Garmadon claps a hand over his back and exclaims, “Yeah, he can catch! Mondo, or whatever your name is.” Lloyd doesn’t correct him, snickering. 

Morro sighs and crosses his arms, though not really feeling irritated. “I found Wu,” he says, without any build-up at all. Lloyd’s eyebrows shoot up, and he blinks. 

“What? Really, I was that off?” Garmadon asks.

Lloyd doesn’t answer, instead standing up and walking over to the others. “Guys!” he says, in a louder, announcing voice, “We know where Master Wu is!” He turns to Morro and asks, quieter, “You know where he is, right…?” Morro nods, smiling at him, and he reiterates to them, “We gotta get moving!”

All at once, they all perk up. “Huh? How?” Nya asks, standing up and abandoning the fruit she’d been eating. “Who cares how? Finally," Kai says, eyeing Garmadon, as he hops onto his feet as well. Jay, still laying down, breathes a loud sigh of relief. They’ll be able to be led by their actual master again. 

Cole packs up his food, and turns to Lloyd, “Do you think we can catch up to him tonight?” 

Morro shrugs, “It isn’t that far away. We just need to go now.” Lloyd relays as much to him. 

Garmadon seems quiet for a moment, watching them all celebrate. Morro looks at him, with a small frown, because what is he going to do now? There isn’t any reason to keep him around anymore, and there isn’t any reason for him to stay anymore… but he and Lloyd had just started to connect a little. He’d like to assume Garmadon will stay away from Ninjago for now, but why would he? His ambitions lay in conquering Ninjago and stopping them, not building a relationship with the son he abandoned. 

The warlord seems thoughtful on this himself, looking between Lloyd and the open sky, maybe to figure out what he should do. Lloyd turns around and looks down at him, “Come on, dad- we need to move.” 

Garmadon hops up from the grass, grinning toothily, “Of course! You all still need me to guide you to my idiot brother. I wouldn’t trust his sense of direction, anyway…”

“Yeah, whatever,” Nya says, stretching out her legs in preparation of running again, “You just don’t want us to leave you to die out here.” Garmadon makes a dismissive pfft noise, ”Please, ninja. You have a way higher chance of dying here than me, with or without my help. Now come along! We have to trudge onward.”

Morro’s surprised with how little resistance he puts up - last time, it took almost an hour to convince him to get moving. “Did you motivate him?” he asks Lloyd, floating beside him, ready to possess again if need be. Lloyd shrugs, “I- I don’t know. He’s probably just excited to get back to tormenting the city. I’m kind of shocked he stuck around past getting out the cage.”

Morro hums with acknowledgement, before falling to quiet. He hopes that Wu and Garmadon won’t fight again, and have one of them scared to death by a rodent or something. Even if Garmadon tries to start one, he supposes they can fly away on Destiny’s Bounty, assuming it can still fly. “Hey,” he speaks up again, looking at the other, “Master Wu was on Destiny's Bounty. How do you think he got it fixed that quickly?” 

Lloyd only looks mildly surprised. “I’m… not sure,” he answers, “I think he has one of those shipping subscriptions.”

“They deliver to the jungle?” Morro asks, scrunching up his face with puzzlement. Why is this world so bizarre? 

Morro directs them around the endless trees and moss, flying up more than a few times to remind himself of where Wu is. With having to keep an eye on his arm, and having to rely on Morro’s direction, Lloyd doesn’t lead them terribly quickly. Their speed is, at most, a jog, despite their best efforts.

It’s late into the night when Morro gazes upon those intricately designed dragon flags again. The ninja, in their exhaustion, had slowed down to only trudging along, continuing just with the motivation of reuniting with their teacher at last. Even Lloyd’s eyes droop as they approach, and Garmadon more than once has to catch him before he can fall over, along with Morro’s wind keeping him upright, and Garmadon grumbles each time even though he looks more satisfied with being useful in that way.

“Destiny’s Bounty…?” Kai asks, stopping and looking up at the ship with a slowed movement, Lloyd of course not stopping to explain. “Ugh, we’re here,” Lloyd says, and his emerald eyes seem brighter at least, “I hope he has beds…” 

“Let’s get this over with,” Garmadon mutters, then hopping up onto the deck. Of all of them, he seems to have the most energy left over, aside from Morro himself. The rest all sluggishly follow, and he notes Zane’s slowness, too– is he pretending to seem more human, or does he actually need rest?– Kai yawns and reaches for the cabin’s handle, calling out, “Sensei Wu, we found you!”

There’s a dull thud from inside, and Kai shoves open the door, worrying. Wu is rubbing at his bald head for one moment, and standing in front of them the next. “Ah- yes, my students,” he says, clumsily folding his hands behind his back, “I was… expecting you.” Was he?  

He walks out of the cabin and nods with approval, “You have all done well to discover me here. It was all a… lesson.”

Garmadon steps forward right away, crossing a set of arms, “Hey, Wu. Don’t give them the credit, I had to guide them! Why’d you fall into that river, anyway? Geez…” Wu sighs slowly, and doesn’t even argue, “I don’t know, brother.” It’s easier not to. 

Wu pulls him inside the cabin, while the ninja take a look around the repaired ship, and some go to find beds. Morro phases through the door and listens in. “How did you manage to convince them to help you?” Wu asks, seeming genuinely intrigued. 

“How do you think?” Garmadon asks, grinning, “I showed them how awesome I am and what a loser you are. They all saw you fall down from the bridge- pretty embarrassing, by the way.” Wu sagely brings the end of his long sleeves together, but his voice is threatening in undertone, “There are plenty of trees nearby - if you want, I can put you into another cage.”

Garmadon falters for a second before making another pfft sound, “Yeah, right. I could knock you off the bridge, I can knock you off of here anyday, brother.” Morro isn’t sure if he believes that. It isn’t titled the Ship of Fallen Mentors, after all, and that is apparently the deciding factor in this place.

“Anyway, though,” Garmadon says, waving a hand, “I’m thinking I’ll stick with you guys. It’s only natural, right? I’ve been here for half of the way.”

Wu squints slowly, “Why would we trust you? I don’t think you’ll stop yourself from sabotaging our mission. We are trying to defeat you, if you’ve forgotten.”

Garmadon rolls his eyes, “Thanks for the notice, Wu- really, I don’t care about your mission! You’ll never beat me now. I’m here to figure out what Lloyd meant when he said, ’I wish you were dead.’ Once I figure that out, then I’ll know what to do about it… hm…” Morro isn’t sure whether to be surprised or not. He isn’t even going to try to sabotage them? Perhaps there is no prophecy, in this world, for Lloyd to defeat him. He hardly seems like a villain serious enough to have a prophecy about, anyway.

“...What do you think it means?” Wu asks, hiding his own bafflement. 

Garmadon taps at his chin, before throwing his hands up in the air like it’s a lost cause, “I don’t know! Kids talk so cryptically, you know how it is.”

“Yes… we may never know. I accept your motivation, brother,” Wu tells him, nodding slowly. If it’ll keep him there and out of Ninjago City, why not, he supposes. The two of them head back out the cabin, along with Morro, and it seems the others are waiting for them; Lloyd gives him a curious look.

“Now!” Wu says, sharply to the lot of them, “I’m going back to sleep. We will continue our journey tomorrow - Garmadon will be staying here. No questions! I don’t feel like it.” 

Jay, fidgeting with his hands, grins despite his tiredness, “No more wild animals, yay! O-Okay, Master Wu, where can we sleep?” Wu taps the wood deck with his staff, “There are beds downstairs. Now, no more questions, I need-”

“Wait,” Lloyd says, grabbing his uncle’s shoulder. He rubs sleepily at one of his eyes, before telling him, “I need to talk to you about something. It’s, um… important? Kind of important… maybe.” He looks at Morro, who takes in a breath slowly. He’d kind of assumed Lloyd would ask the next day with how late it is, but he seems to have underestimated the other’s reliability, for better or for worse. “It won’t take that long!” Lloyd says, after yawning, “I… think. Or, well, it depends on what you say, I guess.”

Garmadon tilts his head to the side, “What do you have to ask, Lloyd? Whatever he can tell you, I can tell you better.”  

Lloyd shakes his head, “No, sorry, Garmadon. It’s, uh… you wouldn’t know. It’s about teaching.” He turns back to Wu, who strokes his beard. “Fine,” he replies, “Come along, nephew. The rest of you, figure it out.” He turns around to lead him inside the cabin.

Zane waves stiffly, “Goodnight, Sensei.” Nya takes Jay’s hand and they walk down the stairs together, of course going to share a bed. Morro lingers long enough to see Kai sigh and Cole pat his shoulder, before following. 

He’s nervous to know about another him, but maybe excited, too. Maybe this world’s version of him will be well-off and happy, and it’ll comfort him in knowing that he isn’t doomed to the same fate in every timeline. Or… more likely, he’ll grow jealous towards the other… Instead, maybe this world’s him will be so awful and poor-fortuned that he’ll feel better about himself. He almost likes that option better.

Lloyd and Wu are sitting across from each other on the wooden floor, with the former’s back against the wall. He glances up at Morro, giving a nervous (and tired) smile, before Wu speaks. “Now… What did you want to ask me about, nephew?”

Morro sits floating next to them, as Lloyd makes a vague gesture with his hand, “You’ve been… uh, around for a long time. So, I was just wondering…” He looks for confirmation one more time, and after Morro nods, he asks, “Did you have any students before us?”

 “Is this about your ghost?” Wu asks, sitting with a practiced calm.

Lloyd tenses up, “Uh…! No, I’m just- just curious, you don’t seem like ah… a beginner… haha. So, did you?” As he watches him fumble, as usual, Morro feels appreciative that he’s still trying to keep his identity a secret, even if it doesn’t seem to be working. He knows they’ll have to come clean and tell someone eventually - probably Wu - but still, he dreads it. 

“I did,” Wu answers sagely, “A long time before you were born.”

Morro’s eyes snap to him- he calms himself down before he can get too excited or nervous, because it could’ve been anyone, but Lloyd doesn’t hold back in the same way. “You did?!” he asks, perking up, “What was he like? Where is he?” He hadn’t realized how much the other was interested in this, too.

Wu makes a long humming sound, thinking, before answering, “Ambitious. Between me and my brother, he probably would’ve been a better student of Garmadon’s.”

Lloyd tilts his head, while Morro sighs - if it was him, in that description, he was either incredibly stupid or incredibly power-hungry; perhaps a terrible combination of both. “My dad?” Lloyd asks, eyebrows furrowed, “I- I guess he wasn’t that bad, when he taught me to catch and stuff. But… why, Sensei?” He glances at Morro, maybe to figure out if that would be true about this version, as well.

“They’re both too confident,” Wu says, retrieving a few stray berries from his sleeves, and eating, “Maybe not a teacher– they would’ve been good friends... I knew he couldn’t be the one to protect Ninjago City, even in his strength, whether the threat was my brother or not.”

Morro knows what that means. Overconfident is sugarcoating- they were power-hungry. Still, there’s a chance it wasn’t him. Right?

“I told him to read my book, Ninjanuity, and to go on a journey of humility,” Wu explains, wiping the stain of berry juice from his mouth. “Did he say no?” Lloyd asks, scratching at the back of the neck and looking to Morro again. 

Wu sighs, long and tired, “I’ve had to rebuild this ship many times, usually because of my brother. It’s been destroyed more times than you’ve been on it, Lloyd, and one of those times was in fact him. He grew so angry he pulled a tornado from his hands, and afterwards, he left.”

Morro deflates, and then he tenses, and then things feel too loud. It was him. It sounded exactly like him. How badly did he hurt Wu, in a meltdown like that? Did he stay away and uselessly die on his own, too? Is he fated to have nothing more than a teacher that he fails again and again?

“When did he go?” Lloyd asks, or maybe, “Where did he go?” It’s hard to hear the difference. He forces himself to pay attention to Wu’s reply, over the noise of his thoughts. 

Wu rubs a hand along his chin, into his beard, “For years afterward, I heard stories of civilians being tormented with wind. He somehow always evaded me, though, and eventually I stopped hearing of it. I don’t know where he is… do you, nephew?” He looks knowing, then, but Morro doesn’t care anymore.

 He floats out of the cabin and away from Destiny’s Bounty altogether, up into the sky, near the stars he’d earlier thought of Lloyd’s face while gazing upon. 

Even if it isn’t exactly the same, and this Wu talks of no green destiny, it’s still… He already knows where the other him is - dead and alone, a restless soul inside of a world without spirits. If there were ghosts, he doubts the ninja would have gone without meeting him.

Apparently instead of seeking revenge, he’d terrorized civilians, too. Messing with them is fun at times, but with that much anger, he doesn’t think it would’ve been as harmless as his activities nowadays, or even as tame as what he’d done to Lloyd’s bullies. He tries to picture himself alive, tearing down houses and businesses with tornadoes. He feels sick with himself. 

With so much time in this world, and around Lloyd, he’d forgotten of his blunders in a way - especially coming off helping Wu on the Day of the Departed - but he shouldn’t have. At the end of the day, he’s bad. He doesn’t think there’s a single world where he didn’t ruin his own life. All for what? At least in his own, being the Green Ninja was decided by something beyond himself, but here… Wu couldn’t trust him to save or even protect anyone. He isn’t stupid enough to hope that the student spoken of could be anyone else, even if he hasn’t heard their name, not anymore. 

What is he doing here? This was all such a futile effort to repair his mistakes, befriending the Lloyd of this world and trying to help him, and he’d grown beyond his purpose. What was his purpose? To be a lesson for Wu? To be an obstacle for the real Green Ninja?

He shouldn’t be here. Wu is there to teach Lloyd, not him- it must’ve been a freak accident that he was put into this world. He’s selfish and he’s arrogant, he’s too ambitious, if he was supposed to be anything else, why would it be the same? 

Does he even possess the will to be good? Was all of this more selfishness? He knows Lloyd can handle himself, but he wants to teach him and protect him, he wants to be the one that does it. Even now that Lloyd knows spinjitzu, and he’s with his teacher and he’s connecting with his dad, he still wants to stay here instead of returning to the afterlife. He knows he’s already blown his shot at living, and yet he wants Lloyd to be able to bring him back, because he’s selfish and he wants to touch, and–

”Morro! Come down here!”

Lloyd’s followed him, of course. Morro looks downward, and even he can barely see him through the trees - he must’ve run after him right away. 

Reluctantly, Morro floats to the ground, and he averts his eyes right away. “What’s wrong? That- That sucked, I guess, but you seem…” Lloyd looks over his face for a moment, “...What’s going on?”

He doesn’t know what to say- he doesn’t know if he should say it. Acknowledging his real role in the other Lloyd’s life feels like acknowledging that they shouldn’t be friends. Maybe he’s right to think that. “It’s-” he struggles, “Lloyd, it’s… the same. It’s the same thing I did. I just-” he looks away and pulls at his hair, hoping to pull the answers out of them,  “...I’m always a fool, regardless of what world I’m born into.”

“That’s not true,” Lloyd says, stepping forward, “I… okay, hold on. So, you left being Wu’s student, and being a ninja? What’s- I mean, that’s not that big of a deal. Unless you mean you hurt civilians, too?” He squints, and the both of them think back to that incident with those bullies. Morro groans, “I- no. Not civilians, I suppose, for the most part.” He’d wanted their admiration more than their terror, after all.

His chest feels like it’s sinking into itself, with sharp bursts of anxiety, and he feels like he can’t breathe without getting his thoughts out, “I was supposed to–” he shakes his head. No. “...I was told… that I was to become the Green Ninja,” he looks at Lloyd, “In the Ninjago I was from, the Green Ninja would rise above all the rest. They were destined to dispel evil.”

Lloyd’s mouth falls slightly agape, but he closes it and nods at him, to urge him to continue; Morro’s face twists. “It turns out that the only real destiny of mine was failure!” he exclaims, before purposely lowering his voice and speaking again, “I spent years trying to prove to Master Wu that I was the one, that he was wrong, that I… that’s why I died so stupidly, I was so caught up in it that I couldn’t read the danger of my situation. I didn’t care.”  

Lloyd does talk, then. “I’m…” he hesitates, before moving closer, “I’m sorry, Morro. I don’t… think you’re a failure, though. Not any more than me, or anyone else here.”

“You don’t get it,” he turns away stormily. 

The other walks around him, so that Morro has to face him again. “I do!” he says, pressing a fist to his chest, “My dad’s attack - I did, like, everything wrong, and I let everyone down. It’s- it’s not the same, yeah! But I understand, not living up to… what you’re supposed to be.”

Morro’s shoulders square defensively- he doesn’t know why it’s always anger- and he yells, “I wasn’t ever supposed to be the Green Ninja, it was always you!”  

Lloyd takes a step back, caught off-guard, and he makes himself release his fists and relax. It wasn’t him, he knows that. “You don’t understand,” he says, still too heated, “I didn’t come here after dying, Lloyd, I was sent to the Cursed Realm. I escaped when Garmadon sacrificed himself.”

“My dad…?” Lloyd’s eyebrows raise for the second time today, ”That’s how he died there.”

Morro nods slowly, softened slightly as the other’s face turns somber. “...Yes,” he replies, “He’d redeemed himself, but I had not.” 

He looks away, sighing quietly. During his time here, he hasn’t frequently returned to these memories… even so, they’re fresh in his head. Lloyd stares at him and waits.

“I was overcome with it all,” Morro tells him, calmer now, “I hated you. After I escaped, I went and I stole your body because I wanted your life . I didn’t think you deserved what you got, but I was wrong.” He didn’t deserve it, and clearly, there isn’t a timeline where he does. He had no way of understanding Lloyd’s struggles until he was inside his head, as well.

Morro holds his arm and looks down, bitter towards himself even in the time that’s passed, “It was all pointless. None of it could change my destiny to yours- all I did was cement my own. I hurt you and your friends, and you all- or they all- got rid of me in the end.” He looks up at him and meets his eyes, for the first time since leaving, “I know what I’ve done. Even after all of the pain and… trepidation I’d caused, Master Wu still tried to save me. Tried. I suppose part of my ambition just came from wanting him to be proud of me, but he never could. That was my fault, not the destiny, but everything after that.”

Lloyd blinks once, and then twice - he doesn’t know what to say, and how could he? He’d expected nothing else from saying things like this. “I aided him once after that,” He tells him, “But it…” Morro turns and takes a few weightless steps away, letting go of his arm and looking up to the sky. “You can understand now, can’t you?” he asks, “There was no Green Ninja prophecy here- at least, Master Wu hasn’t mentioned it- and still, the version of me here still died in the same arrogance. If we share a soul, we share a rotten one. I thought I…”

He looks down at his hands, and ponders the destruction held within them, “I thought I could…” He feels like he’s been tugged down to the ground, from whatever cloud he’d been floating on since transporting to this world.

Morro hears him step forward. Lloyd says, “I don’t think you’re a bad person at all.” It’s so… blunt. He stills, staring through the trees, as the other talks. “Look, I-I don’t know everything you did, but you’ve… that me was a different person. You haven’t done anything to me. If anything, hah, you’ve made my life better, so-”

“But I have,” Morro argues, looking at him, “I’ve put you into situations where you’ve been blamed for my wind. It makes them treat you worse.” He can’t count the amount of times he’s overheard students theorizing over what gadget he borrowed from his dad to do that, or if he’s somehow going to be Garmadon’s secret weapon against the ninja, using wind. 

Lloyd shrugs, “I guess so, but they would’ve found something to blame me for either way, it’s not-”

“I tormented your classmates,” Morro says plainly, “I didn’t even consider that you’d be blamed, and that your mom would have to pay for their clothing.”

Lloyd says, exasperated, ”Morro,” but he doesn’t stop, “I revealed your identity to those people. What if they exposed you? What if they’re doing it now?” He speculates, because they’d have no way of knowing, all the way out here. There’s no guarantee the rest of Ninjago City would respond positively in the way Jet and Belle did. Morro shakes his head, “I shouldn’t have–”

”Just!” Lloyd yells over him, “Be quiet, okay? For a second? First of all, nobody would believe them if they tried. And why are you, like… it was good, Morro. Things got better because of you doing that, why get nervous about it now?” 

Because they can’t afford to return to Ninjago City with the Green Ninja’s reputation being distrusted. Because he doesn’t want to see even them turn on him. Because he needs a reason to be angry with himself. He doesn’t voice any of those, and stays quiet as requested.

“You’ve made me happier, Morro,” Lloyd says, earnest, “I mean that. And I-I don’t just mean with all these gestures. You taught me Spinjitzu, you’ve protected me from spitballs, and crumpled-up paper balls, and attacks from my dad’s generals- which, yeah, I notice. But more than that, you’re- you’re here everyday. I was so lonely before.”

Morro feels embarrassed, at the first thing. He’d sort of thought he was being discreet. “Look…” Lloyd says, sighing and pressing a hand into his soft hair, “I remember- I remember when I was little, my dad was everything to me, you know? I dressed in all black,” he chuckles, embarrassed as well, “I’d try to wander away from Mom so that I could try to get to him, whenever he’d attack - at a lot lower scale, by the way - so he’d see me and take me, and we could be a family.”

He looks down at the sling around his arm a moment before continuing, as if to remind himself of that experience to soften whatever memory this will be. “One day, I did it,” he says, “He was raiding the apartment building next to ours for who-knows-what. I managed to sneak away, and I waited for him at the very bottom floor.”

Lloyd hesitates, swallowing to relieve the pressure of his jaw at having to return to this. “He looked at me and walked right past, without saying anything at all. He didn’t even know who I was.”  

Morro looks at him with a thoughtful frown. It must’ve seemed that way, but was it really the truth?... Should he bring this up at all? Maybe it’d help. “...He might’ve,” he decides, “Didn’t he ask if you were still seven? How old were you when that happened?”

Lloyd’s eyes widen, and he’s gobsmacked for a moment or two. It’s clear he didn’t expect for Garmadon to remember that interaction at all. “Oh…” he mumbles, “I… don’t know if that’s better.”

He doesn’t know, either. 

“The first night with him,” Morro says, “With him in the cage. I overheard him, and he told Wu about it tonight, too. He’s here to figure out what you meant when you said you wished he was dead.” Lloyd’s expression shifts, maybe to empathy. “I don’t know if he’s lying-” Morro tells him, “-but he seemed confused, in truth. I think he’s ignorant of it all, or maybe he isn’t, and he wants to try. I don’t know.”

Lloyd seems to soak up that information. He looks down at the sling again and mutters, “I don’t know how to feel about that, but…” Back up at Morro, ”Thank you for telling me.” Morro nods simply- he hopes it does something. Even so, he doesn’t truly believe he’s on the side of Garmadon bonding with him, especially after that story. Lloyd glances up at him, having more to say.

“My classmates…” he starts, “Without it all feeling like some exclusive club me and my dad were in anymore, all of the excluding, and the bullying… I’m not- Morro, I’m not perfect. I hated them. If I had your power, I don’t think I’d be a ninja at all.” With that confession, he turns his head away uncomfortably, “I would’ve done the same as you- or the same as the one that lived here, I guess. It was only after I did become a ninja, that I- that I realized. All of the destruction… I don’t blame them or resent them now, but that doesn’t mean I never… did.” 

With everything else, Morro doubts Garmadon ever went and destroyed he and Koko’s apartment- no wonder he didn’t understand before... It doesn’t feel like the same. He believes Lloyd would still be justified in hating them if he did now, but maybe… he supposed he could’ve had grievances with Wu without doing the things he did, too.

“What I mean is,” Lloyd says, “I know what it’s like to envy, and to- to hate, to be drowned like that, and I know it isn’t forever. Clearly it wasn’t for you, either! Okay?” 

He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, while Morro stares at him. “It was probably my destiny, or whatever, to join my dad, and just… snap,” he says, “I think I defied it. I don’t think you see it, Morro, but you- you did, too.”

Lloyd smiles, beautiful and genuine. “I don’t care if you were supposed to die in a cave,” he says, “What you are to me is…” His cheeks flush pink and he looks away, “...A great friend. Really. You’re helping me help Ninjago, and that’s all I want. And you just-!” Apparently revitalized, he turns back to Morro and moves too quickly, trying to gesture with his hands, and hissing at the movement of his broken arm.

“You just gave me helpful information about my dad,” he says, a little pained now, but meaningful, “So… either, you beat your programming, destiny, fate- whatever- or there wasn’t any to begin with.”

Morro is stunned.

Lloyd grins at him and takes some steps back, “I’m going to go to sleep, okay? I’m… so tired. You rest, or- you know, whatever you can. I’m-” he turns away, back towards Destiny’s Bounty, “I’m excited to keep journeying with you tomorrow. Goodnight.”

Morro stands there for a very long time.