Chapter Text
Morro slowly opened his eyes, the bright light blinding him. His eyes felt heavy and were pounding from all his senses being overwhelmed. Something was terribly wrong. He desperately tried to remember the last thing that had happened to him, but his mind was too foggy to pull the memories back. He thought he heard a voice calling to him. No… there was a voice. The sounds slowly reformed and made sense to him.
“Hello? Hello? Oh man are you okay? Oh gosh, oh jeez…”
Morro’s sight began to unblur, revealing a young girl to him. He figured she was about his age. She had fairly light skin, dual brown and orange colored hair, and was dressed in a mustard brown jacket and dark purple pants. What struck out most to him was her magenta eyes. They were incredibly bright, almost piercing to look at.
“Oh no. Oh man I screwed this one up bad!” The girl began pacing back and forth. Morro had no clue what she could be talking about. He began to turn his head, taking in his surroundings. It took a moment, but he recognized where he was. He felt his heart sink lower in his chest. “The Caves of Despair…” he thought. “This is where I... died…”
Something was definitely wrong.
“Okay! Okay! Listen I um, I need to explain something!” the girl said frantically. She was panicked and shaking. “I didn’t mean to… oh man I um, I didn’t know!”
Morro groaned and sat himself up straight. “Stop stuttering and tell me what’s going on!” His frustration was apparent in his voice, and it made the girl more nervous.
“Don’t be mad at me! I, um, I, I,” she stuttered.
“Spit it out already!”
“Okay! Okay! Let me explain!” She shut her eyes and grabbed the sides of her head with both her hands. “I have this power, I can, um, make inanimate objects alive. With my life force. And control them. And I saw your body and I thought, I thought.” Her breath got shaky. “I thought I could maybe animate it. But I didn’t know this was gonna happen!! I swear I didn’t know!”
That’s when the reality of what was happening hit him. If he was in the Caves of Despair, then he was in Ninjago. Somehow this girl summoned him from the Departed Realm. Morro looked down at his body. His hands were real, actual flesh. He was alive again.
“How did you do this?” Morro asked, turning his face to the girl. He could tell she was terrified at this point, she looked like she could pass out at any moment.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure. I’ve animated bones before, this has never happened before.” She looked like she was going to cry. “I’m so sorry,” she said softly.
Morro felt his anger bubbling up in his veins. He groaned and got up on his feet. “You stupid girl! I was dead! I was at peace in the Departed Realm and your idiocracy brought me back here!”
“I’m sorry, I swear I didn’t know!” she cried. “But you couldn’t possibly be at peace, that much I do know! I’ve animated bones before, this never happened before!”
“Whatever you did you need to undo it right now!” Morro said as he bared his teeth, trembling with rage. What kind of careless moron would tamper with someone’s body like that? It was beyond disrespectful! The girl furrowed her brow, now looking more annoyed.
“You think I didn’t try that when you started growing back skin and organs and stuff!? I can’t!”
“What do you mean you can’t!?”
“I mean I CAN’T!” she shouted back. “Something is stopping me, I can’t make your body inanimate anymore! I’m SORRY !” She covered her mouth and looked shocked at her tone of voice. Her eyes met with Morro’s and he could see the tears begin to stream down her face. “I’m so sorry… I didn’t... I didn’t mean to… ”
Morro took a deep breath to calm himself. Her voice was genuine, filled with pain and regret for what she had done. For some reason, seeing her cry made him feel odd, almost like he was feeling her pain. There was no use continuing to yell at her, clearly this was getting the both of them nowhere. If this girl could really control what she animated, and if she really is animating Morro’s body, perhaps it was best not to get on her bad side.
“Okay, listen, you’ve made a mistake. A big mistake. But I think there’s someone here in Ninjago that will know how to fix this,” he said, slowly walking closer to her. “We’ll just go and find him. His name is Master Wu.”
She squinted. “Master Wu? Why?”
“He… was my sensei,” Morro replied. “He may know what you did to me and how we can undo it.”
“Okay, yeah, that sounds good, where is he?” Morro paused. He wasn’t exactly sure how long he’d been gone since the Day of the Departed. They could be anywhere.
“We’ll go into Ninjago City and ask around. They’re ninja, they move around a lot.”
“Oh!” the girl exclaimed. “I know where that is!” Morro gave her a sarcastic look. Who doesn’t know where Ninjago City is? “Aw stop looking at me like that! I’m just trying to reassure you!”
“Oh believe me, I feel very reassured,” responded flatly. The girl frowned. “ Whoever he is, he’s not terribly nice,” she thought . “I guess I just gotta be nice to him then!” She held out her hand.
“I’m TJ,” she said smiling widely, revealing a small gap in her front teeth. Her smile was uneven and crooked, but still pleasant to look at. It seemed genuine.
Morro looked at her hand and noticed she had some kind of magenta vein pattern on her hands. He’d never seen anything like it before. TJ realized what he was staring at, and her face changed from smiley to awkward. She cleared her throat audibly. Morro paused for a moment, then shook her hand. “Morro.”
“Morro, aw, that’s a cute name!” Morro blinked in confusion. He had never heard that one before. She let go of his hand. “I really am so sorry for yelling at you, I swear, I hate yelling.”
“It’s fine. I guess I was yelling too.”
“Oh no, it was more like screaming,” she laughed. “But it’s okay, I get screamed at a lot!” TJ paused for a moment, then her face lit up red with embarrassment. She didn’t mean to put it like that. “I mean, I mean um-”
“It’s fine, you don’t need to explain it to me.”
She smiled in thanks. “Okay. Let’s get out of this cave and onto my bike, shall we?”
“You have a bike?”
“Yeah! It’s really nice! I can even drive it without animating it!” she beamed proudly, showing off her incredible skill set. Her pose was that of a goofy superhero with her arms bent outward. Morro let a small chuckle out from her silliness.
“Very impressive.”
“Yeah, thanks! Come on, let’s go!” TJ went to grab Morro’s hand, but he pulled away suddenly. TJ’s eyes widened at his sudden movement and she pulled her hand back.
“Don’t,” Morro said. “I’m coming with you to fix your mess you made of me. I’m not your friend.”
“Ah, haha, sorry,” TJ trailed off as she rubbed her hands. The light in her eyes dimmed a bit. She seemed ashamed. “Just, um, follow me.” TJ motioned at Morro with her hand, and the pair began walking through the caves together.