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“You want to do what?” Jay squawks.
“This is why I didn’t want to tell you. I knew you’d make a big fuss out of nothing.” Cole hisses, averting his eyes. He wanted to sit on the roof for a bit, have some time on his own. He’s done it before, finding the highest point he could climb to so he could think.
“Nothing? Are you crazy? You’re a ghost, Cole! A ghost! You can’t go up there when a storm’s on the way!” Jay’s hysterical now, hand grabbing onto Cole’s shoulder when he tries to turn away. It’s his way of showing he cares, which would be nice if he wasn’t blowing a completely normal thing he had been doing for years out of proportion.
“As much as it pains me to admit it, Jay’s got a point. We’re all new to this. We don’t know if you can take a rainstorm.” Kai says, leaning against the door.
“Oh, easy for you to say. You’re not the one who’s dead.” There it is. They’ve all been dancing around the d-word ever since Yang’s temple and now he’s finally gone and said it. There’s a wince from Jay, averted eyes from Kai, and eyes full of sympathy from Zane. “Look, I’ll be fine.”
“There are multiple layers of eaves on the roof.” Zane reports. “They should protect him from the rain if it starts pouring.”
“You sure?” Jay confirms. Concern glitters in his eyes, tone wary like he’s just asked to walk blindfolded across a tightrope dangling a thousand feet over a pit of lava and sees nothing wrong with it. Actually, considering their skills the blindfolded tightrope over lava would be pretty plausible. Fine, like Cole’s asked to walk into the maw of the Great Devourer.
“Yeah. I just need some time to think.” He hates it. Hates the otherworldly rasp that comes with his voice, hates the pale green glow that lights the area, hates the way he can’t even feel the warmth of Jay’s hand on his soldier.
Kai looks like he’s about to say something, but Zane holds out a hand to stop him. “If you ever feel like talking, we’re here for you. I needed some time when I discovered I was a robot. Just promise me you’ll come to us sometime soon. Nothing good comes from bottling up your emotions. How about we check in at sunset?”
“Yeah.” He gets that Zane’s trying to help but it feels hollow in the moment. He tries to starts up the ladder as the others trickle out of the room. It takes a few tries to make sure his hands can connect with the wood.
—————————
The rain was always soothing to him back when he was human. Kai made snarky jokes about watering plants. He would snipe back that he was the master of earth, not nature. Kai’s response to that was calling him the master of mud. Another running joke they’d have to put to rest.
The sky is a bleak grey, which is so heavyhanded Cole would have laughed if he had any energy to. The town of Styx lingers below, red lanterns lining roofs or signposts. There’s two nearby, golden glow masking his ghostly aura. He said he came up here to think, but he doesn’t even know where to start.
There’s no way to come back to life after death and he’s chased down enough bad guys to know that any methods that grant immortality usually have some sort of horrible twist or are actually metaphors or something else stupid, so it looks like he’s stuck like this forever. Forever. That’s such a long time. Kai wouldn’t last that long. Neither would Jay. His father wouldn’t last, Nya wouldn’t last, almost everyone he had ever known… would he even last that long? Water was everywhere. It was the planet’s lifeblood. Cole used to drink it every day, for crying out loud! He was in a city suspended above the water and had visited other port cities in the past. If he took an accidental slip into the harbor below, that was it. He was surrounded at all sides by a foe he could never hope to beat. Water drips onto the tiles. For a couple of seconds he thinks he’s crying, but that would be impossible. Ghosts don’t cry. He looks up to the sky to see rain slowly fall. It’s drizzling.
Cole scoots back, trying to mind the window behind him so he won’t phase through it. The thought of going back downstairs and having to hear someone say I told you so would probably result in him running into the sea. Really, he’s still not sure how he managed to avoid sinking into the vast expanse of water below. Does it take a certain amount of water to kill him, or will any bit do him in? His hand slowly creeps forwards, palm facing the sky. It’s about to cross the awning when a voice rings out.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Cole jerks back as if his hand actually made contact, whirling around to where the voice came from.
There, leaning against the slanted roof and trying very hard to look like he doesn’t want to shelter underneath the awning is Morro. How dare he even show up after what he’s done to Lloyd. Cole’s feet scrabble for purchase before finding their footing as he pulls out one of the throwing stars that line his gi. They came with him when he died, thin immaterial slivers that radiate the same ghostly glow. He has no idea if they’ll even hit, but they’re technically ghost shurikens and Morro’s a ghost and if he aims right he can hit where his heart would have been. The really weird thing about this entire ordeal is that he isn’t puppeting Lloyd’s body. Hopefully that means he managed to escape, but then Morro wouldn’t be here. Cole’s ready to summon up a snarky quip but his heart really isn’t in it so he just sighs, “What do you want?”
“I just want to talk. I swear.” Maybe it’s just because he’s never seen Morro when his face wasn’t twisted in a hateful snarl or an arrogant sneer, but he almost looks lonely. He raises his hands up in surrender, taking small steps forwards.
Cole’s distrust battles with his curiosity before he slowly lowers the weapon, not fully putting it away. “Fine. But if you make any wrong moves I’m calling everyone else.”
For a couple of seconds Morro opens his mouth to object, but quickly closes it and says, “Fair.” He awkwardly shuffles so he’s underneath the awning but not next to Cole. Kai did that too.
The only sound is of the rain pattering against the roof. It’s a nice, relaxing white noise and it does nothing to dispel the tension as Cole runs through hypotheticals in his head. Morro can’t be trying to trick him, there would be a lot of more believable lies in that case. It couldn’t be a sneak attack either, otherwise he wouldn’t have announced himself. The chances of this being a peaceful surrender were practically zero. That left only one option on the table.
“Alright, get it over with.” Cole huffs.
“Get what over with?” Morro asks.
“The speech. The join me and together we can rule the galaxy or Ninjago or noodle empire one. You point out my friend’s weaknesses and say that they’re holding back my true power, I yell that I’d never do that and our strengths as a group makes up for our individual flaws, you say something about how we could have been great together, we fight. I’ve heard enough of those for a lifetime.” Maybe he has, considering the fact that he’s dead now. He’s tempted to say it out loud, but it would just make things more awkward for the both of them. First Spinjitsu Master, he’s worrying about making Morro feel awkward.
“You seem to have given this a lot of thought.” Morro huffs. He looks somewhat amused, smile beginning to curl against his face. The second Cole notices it, he tries to stamp hit back into a somber frown.
“I had to. It’s happened to two of us already, and there’s probably more on the way.” He runs his hands over the tiles. They’re pointed forwards, allowing any rain that would hit to slide off without getting the inside wet. For a shoddy motel they picked out of a hat, it was pretty nice as far as things went.
“Care to elaborate? I’ve been trapped in the realm of the deceased for quite some time.” There’s a hunger present in his voice, the same hunger that was there when Morro was demanding that they hand over Wu’s staff. A yearning for information. As long as he doesn’t slip up, Cole can maybe get a bit out of him too.
“Ninja never quit.” Cole sighs. “Besides, there’s always someone trying to mess up something. A lotta guys who have beef with Sensai. No offense, but you’re like the third guy so far who’s kidnapped Lloyd. Oh, and the second this conversation’s over, you and I are going back to fighting. Don’t think I’m letting you off the hook for that.”
“Didn’t expect you to. Besides, I don’t want to recruit you.” Morro sweeps his gaze over Styx, eyes indecipherable.
“Oh.” Well, now Cole feels stupid. “You could’ve fooled me.”
“Evidently, I did.” A smug smile rips across Morro’s face. Ugh. Cole’s going to punch him extra hard for that later. “The real reason I came here was to see how you were holding up. I’m a bit surprised you became a ghost without major changes. Usually people who die in non-traditional ways and come back are a little less… human.”
“Oh. News to me.” That’s one bullet he managed to dodge. Cole’s actually way more grateful he has legs.
“You didn’t think Soul Archer and Ghoultar were like that before they died, did you?” A wry smile.
“I’ve seen weirder.” Cole confesses. “You died naturally?”
Morro shrugged, an expression so causal it felt unnatural coming from him. Was shrugging even a thing back when he was alive? “Starvation’s about as average as dying can get.”
Eugh. Dying due to starvation was one of Cole’s worries. Sure, he could dispatch foes with ease, but hunger was a deep and ancient enemy that no one could escape. He always made sure to keep a well stocked supply on missions as a result. The others might tease him, but if worst comes to pass, Cole will have enough to keep him alive until rescue comes. “So where do magic curses land on the scale of normal deaths to unnatural?”
“I suppose it depends on what kind of curse it was. Something that eats away at your souls overtime practically guarantees a ghost if there’s anything left. Something that just kills you instantly would have a lesser chance of leaving anything behind. I’ve talked with plenty of souls trapped in the realm of the departed and found a tiny bit of overlap. It’s a miracle you’re here.”
“Gee, I should have bought a lottery ticket instead of searching for the other scroll.”
A snort. “You having unfinished business helped.”
“I was always curious about what that meant. Like, it can’t be something small like a grocery list otherwise we’d have ghosts everywhere, but I’ve seen some really busy people croak without finishing even a quarter of the stuff they intended to do.” These curiosities have become way louder ever since his own dead, but there’s no way he’d voice that to Morro.
“That one’s still up in the air. I’ve had a few chats with other ghosts over that subject too. The popular theory is that it depends on how important your business is personally. Looks like you’re in for the long haul.” There’s an elbow in his side. It carries the illusion of friendship, of camaraderie, of a shared history.
“Yeah.”
Their conversation dies down. Dies. Hah. That’s a pretty good one. He’ll have to come up with some ghost themed jokes for any future bad guys. Again, he’s tempted to say it out loud but it still feels a bit too soon. He bets Morro knows a couple good ghost puns. Asking him would put him in a bit of a weird situation when he wanted to know why Cole was asking such a specific thing, so he veers the question into a more serious one so the temptation stops.
“Does it get easier? Being a ghost?”
“I suppose. If you spend enough time you just forget what it’s like to be human altogether. That’s why a lot of ghosts possess people. I never realized how nice it was to feel the wind on my skin until I got skin back in the first place.”
“Yeah. By hyjacking Lloyd.” It’s a petty thing to say to someone who has been trying to play nice, but it was going to happen one time or another. He can’t just sit here and get all buddy-buddy with the man who’s currently puppeteering his friend’s body so he can try and doom Ninjago.
“Oh, I’m sorry, is there a secret way to get a flesh body excluding possession that you’re privy to?” Morro scoffs back.
“Don’t say flesh body. That sounds disgusting.”
“That’s what it is!”
“Still gross. Still possession.”
“Can we have this conversation some other time? One where we’re fighting for the sake of the world and not having a civil discussion?” Cole’s kind of impressed that Morro has the audacity to ask such a thing after everything he’s done, but he is nothing if not a tad bit desperate for any firsthand experience for his new condition.
“You’re making it really hard, pal.”
“That’s not a no.”
The slightly hopeful tone causes a genuine laugh to spill out of Cole. He’s sitting on a roof in a rainstorm that could kill him with one of their worst foes and they’re talking about how it feels to die because they’re dead and it’s so ridiculous it’s funny. Morro looks a little spooked. Hey, that’s another good one! Cole lets out a long sigh. “I miss cake.”
“What?” Morro’s tone is incredulous.
The look on his face alone gets another snicker out of Cole. “Cake. Don’t tell me you’ve never had cake before.”
“I have, it’s just… that’s what you miss the most about being alive?”
“I’m trying to be funny.” Humor was the flimsy shield that the ninja bore in the face of ancient horrors and near death experiences. Most of the time the jokes they cracked weren’t even good, but it had been so hardwired into his brain at this point that it came like second nature.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Anyway, I miss cake. I miss being able to eat things in general, but especially cake. We would always celebrate after a big event with it, from birthdays to the defeat of the Overlord. Sometimes we’d try and all bake together. Granted, we were cleaning flour out of the Bounty for days and it was a real pain to scrape all those eggs off the wall, but it was fun. The cake didn’t taste half bad, either.”
“Master Wu used to cook for me. I always liked the spring rolls he made.”
“Really? I’ll have to ask him for the recipe sometime. Not to brag, but I make a mean dubious creature soup.” That just makes him even more confused. Another inside joke lost on Morro. It was kind of sad. Sensei said that he was more solitary that his other pupils. Did that mean that he had never bantered with his friends, never had friendly competition over stupid things, never stayed up till the wee hours of morning talking about their life?
“How dubious were the creatures you ate?”
“Super dubious. I’m talking mad dubious. Immensely dubious. Dubious to the second power. Couldn’t be more dubious if it tried, and believe me it was tryi-“
A harsh bark of laughter pierces his ramblings and continues into a wheezing chuckle. Morro’s laughing. Actually laughing, at something that’s actually funny and not related to their misfortune or foolishness. “I bet you don’t miss eating that.”
“One of the few perks that come along with being dead, I guess. A bit unfair that I can’t fly.” Cole snarks.
He isn’t expecting an answer, which is why he jumps the tiniest bit when Morro responds with, “It’s because you’re more tethered to the earth than I am.”
“Like, fresh meat? Or, in this case, dead meat?” Cole’s on a roll. He needs to write these down before he forgets them.
“I was talking about your element, but that too. Don’t feel too bad about not getting to fly. The first few days I was getting blown around like a tumbleweed. It was humiliating.” There’s the familiar snarl of Morro’s words. It lets Cole pretend, if only for a little bit, that they haven’t had this conversation. That they’re still just distantly connected foes that’ll strike each other down with no softer, kinder emotions that could get in the way.
He could never pretend for long. “That must’ve been rough.”
“It was. But I got a handle on it eventually.” Pride seeps into his voice, the exact same when Kai would brag about figuring out a new technique or Jay would work out the kinks in an invention that had been bothering him for quite some time.
“I’d rather stay on the ground, anyway. Falling freaks me out, even if I can’t break my legs anymore.”
“I’d say the opposite. There’s nothing better that the rush in your hair as you fall.”
“Of course the master of wind likes falling through the air.”
“Of course the master of earth wants to keep his feet on the ground.”
The drizzle has ended as the sunset starts to pierce through the gray clouds. It’s pretty. It means the end. “Guess I’ll be seeing you. Zane wanted to talk when the sun fully set, and he’s not gonna be pleased to see you here.”
“I suppose. Goodbye, Cole.” He stands up and begins to shuffle to the top of the roof so he can get a better foothold. “…Thank you for indulging me.”