Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lloyd was just slipping on his jacket when someone knocked on the open door of his hospital room. He turned to see Kai standing in the doorframe, dressed in casual clothing similar to his own and smiling. “Hey buddy!” he said. “Happy to finally be getting out?”

Lloyd grinned back as he zipped up his overnight duffel bag, which Zane had brought a change of clothes in on his last visit. “I’m definitely not going to miss hospital food,” he replied.

“Well you’re in luck, cause Cole’s making something special for you today.”

“Oh no, not Cole’s cooking. Maybe I should stay another day,” joked Lloyd.

“Nah come on, grab your stuff and let’s go. Everyone’s dying to see you.”

“We’re leaving right now? Is it just you who came to get me?”

“’Fraid so, everyone else is busy. Why, am I not good enough company?”

Lloyd nudged him playfully with his elbow as he walked past him through the doorway. “I guess you’ll do,” he teased. Kai put his arm around his shoulder and walked him down the halls.

When they reached the reception area Kai led Lloyd right past the front desk. Lloyd looked back hesitantly. “Don’t I need to be officially discharged or something?” he asked.

“Your mom talked to them about that earlier already,” Kai answered lightly.

“Oh… I don’t remember her coming to see me.”

“You were asleep, she didn’t want to wake you.”

When they got outside, Kai hailed a taxi. While Lloyd gingerly maneuvered into the car with his bag on one shoulder and gripping his midriff, which was still sore despite his recovery, Kai had smoothly slipped into the passenger seat and told the driver where to go.

They were on their way. Lloyd breathed out deeply in relief, leaning back in his seat. He couldn’t wait to be home.

“Hey!” the driver called suddenly, looking at Lloyd through the rearview mirror. “I recognize you! You’re the Green Ninja! How cool is that?”

“Isn’t it?” said Kai, glancing back at Lloyd with a smirk.

Lloyd returned the smile wearily. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Wait’ll I tell my kid about this! He’ll get a real kick out of it.”

Glad someone is, thought Lloyd, noting bitterly the driver hadn’t paid attention to the fact he’d just picked up the Green Ninja from a hospital. Thankfully the rest of the ride passed by in silence aside from the drone of the radio and Lloyd drifted off for a bit.

Through his muddled, half-asleep thoughts, it occurred to him to ask Kai, “Where are we going, anyway?”

“What do you mean? I’m taking you home.”

“I mean are we going to the tea shop, or the Bounty? Or is the Bounty at the tea shop...?”

“You’ll see when we get there.”

Lloyd grimaced. “Kai.”

Kai chuckled. “Okay Lloyd, I’m gonna be honest with you, but this is just between you and me; we’re all throwing you a surprise welcome back party. So make sure you act like you didn’t know, okay?”

Lloyd’s annoyance dissipated. “That’s nice of you guys. Though, honestly I’m not much in the mood to party.”

“It’s alright, you don’t have to do anything, just sit there and let us enjoy having the real Green Ninja back.”

Lloyd grimaced again. The Green Ninja… somehow he didn’t really like how that sounded anymore. It only made him think of… well, someone else who’d been obsessed with the title. Someone he was trying very hard to forget. He wondered if the others would understand if he asked them never to bring up the last few weeks again. It was over, and he wanted it to stay that way.

The taxicab finally slowed down, to a gravelly halt on the side of a road in… the middle of nowhere it looked like. Lloyd vaguely recognized it as one that led to one of the many rice field villages on the outskirts of Ninjago city (maybe even the one he’d raided candy from years ago as a kid), but it wasn’t visible from where they were. On one side stretched the endless ocean, on the other was a yellowed grass field, in the middle distance of which was a forest of dark trees.

“You don’t wanna tell your kid you charged the Green Ninja, do you?” Kai needled the driver.

“Oh, uh… of course not-”

“Great!” Kai got out and slammed the door behind him, then opened Lloyd’s. “Come on, greenie.”

“Where is this?” asked Lloyd as he got out of the car, holding his duffel bag to his stomach. “Where’s everyone else?”

"They're not far, just follow me." Kai gestured towards the field. “We figured you’d prefer some place quiet and out of the way.”

Really out of the way, thought Lloyd, walking with him off the road. The taxi drove away, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. Lloyd watched it go with a sense of foreboding.

Kai once again put his arm around his shoulder, gripping him tightly. “Let’s go!” he urged.

They walked through the brush and grass and down a short hillock, the road soon disappearing from sight behind the rise. Lloyd looked over his shoulder one last time before Kai steered him into the shadow of the trees. Here there was no path to follow, but Kai seemed sure of his direction and didn't slow, weaving through the trunks confidently. After a few minutes of this, during which time Lloyd thought for sure they must be lost, not even able to tell where they had entered the forest anymore, the trees finally cleared and sunlight broke through again, as the floor began to dip into a reedy, marshy grass area. In the clearing stood a large, abandoned-looking barn, its wooden walls nearly black with age.

(Lloyd.)

Kai gestured to the rundown barn. “There. Everyone's inside, waiting to surprise you.”

“How’d you even find this place?” Lloyd asked, feeling the temperature cool significantly as they stepped into the dark shade of the structure.

“I used to hide out here as a kid,” said Kai, smiling a strange, grim smile. “It sucked that it was so far from anywhere but it was the one place I could sleep with a roof over my head. Couldn’t believe it was still standing when I checked it out yesterday.”

(Lloyd, stop…)

Lloyd looked at Kai with confusion – or tried to as he was still holding him close to his side. “What are you talking about? Didn’t you and Nya live at your father’s blacksmith shop?”

Kai didn’t answer, instead pulling up the worn but thick plank of wood barring the front door of the barn and pulling it outward with his free hand. Inside it was musty and gloomy, and it took Lloyd’s eyes a few seconds to adjust to see anything. Not that there was much to see, as the large room was completely empty. Even the remnant strands of straw strewn across the floorboards were not very many, as they must have rotted away a long time ago.

“Where is-?” Lloyd began, before he was shoved to the ground. Caught off guard, he only just managed to catch himself with his hands, which scraped painfully against wood, but he barely had time to lift his head before a foot stepped down hard on his back, aggravating his sword wound. He cried out in pain.

(Lloyd! No, no!)

“Naïve little green ninja.” The voice was echoey and deep, laced with gravel and sadistic glee. Lloyd had never heard it with his own ears before, but he recognized it immediately, and a chill ran through his veins. “Guess you never learned that it’s the people who claim to care about you the most… that you should trust the least.”

Something hit Lloyd hard in the back of the head and he knew no more.

At first it was hard to tell the difference between opening his eyes and closing them – the view of dark wooden planks hardly provided much of a contrast from the blackness behind his eyelids.

“Finally awake? Good. This wouldn’t be as fun if you just slept through the whole thing.”

Lloyd blinked himself conscious and lifted his head. Before him stood Kai, holding a katana in one hand, and wearing… was that his green gi? The very same one he’d been wearing when he’d been… not himself… that the paramedics had scissored through to administer cardioversion to Lloyd after Kai had stabbed him; mostly black, but with green fittings and obi. The jagged edges of the gaping tear in the middle hung off on either side, the sword slash on the stomach just differentiable by the crusted bloodstains. Underneath the gi Kai wore a dark green undershirt, and around his shoulders, a familiar looking black cloak that was mostly holes.

Lloyd took all this in in a single second without actually processing any of it, as he simultaneously became aware that his hands had been cuffed behind the back of the chair he was sitting in. He pulled his hands slightly against the metal rings, causing a twinge to travel up to his shoulder.

“What… Kai, why am I…? Is this a prank?”

“Not as such. But it is going to be pretty funny. To me.”

Lloyd kept his gaze resolutely fixed to the floor as he said, “Kai, please, uncuff me. I don’t like this. My wound is still sore and this hurts.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry your majesty. But you’re going to have to get used to it. You’re not moving from that spot for awhile yet.”

It was definitely Kai’s voice this time, albeit harder than Lloyd was used to hearing it. He looked up at the older ninja, searching the brown eyes for a sign.

“Seriously Kai, please. I’m still tired. Where’s everyone else? Guys? Guys, come out!”

“Are you really this stupid? Or do you just trust the red ninja that much?”

Lloyd started to tremble. The chains of his cuffs clinked audibly together.

Kai grinned in satisfaction.

“Maybe this will make it easier to understand your situation,” he said, and transformed. Not drastically but in the blink of an eye, almost melting into his new form before Lloyd’s eyes; still the same height and stature, still the same face and even style of hair… but the hair turned black as pitch, the skin took on a green, ghostly tinge, and the eyes grew vein-like, dark shadows around them, making them look more sunken in than they were and giving Kai’s face an almost skeletal impression. “Nice to finally meet you in person, Green Ninja,” he said in the voice Lloyd had heard before getting knocked out.

Lloyd’s heart froze over completely and he shook more violently against his bonds. “M-… M-…”

“Forgotten my name already?” Morro leaned Kai’s body down face-to-face with Lloyd, grabbing the back of his chair. “That hurts you know, considering how close we’ve been until just recently.” He patted Lloyd on the head. “Don’t worry. We’re about to spend a lot of quality time together.”

“No.” Lloyd fought against the fear threatening to choke him and raised his voice. “No! KAI! KAI, WAKE UP! FIGHT IT, PLEASE, FIGHT HIM OFF-!”

“SHUT UP!” Morro yelled, slapping Lloyd across the face, so hard his head snapped all the way to the side. “It’s too early for you to be screaming that loud. Not that anyone can hear you but me.”

He paused as though listening for something, then smirked. “Well, and the red ninja. He can hear everything I’m hearing. See what I’m seeing.” He grabbed Lloyd roughly by the hair and pulled his head back as far as his neck would stretch. Lloyd winced, still too dazed from the slap to pull away. “Feel what I’m feeling. And he can’t do a thing about it. You remember what it was like. What it took for you to come back to yourself. As you can see… that trick isn’t going to be so easy to pull off the second time around.” He wrenched Lloyd’s head down as he let go.

In his head, or possibly in his soul, or whatever space his soul occupied and now shared with another’s, Morro could hear the rage and threats of the red ninja in question.

(You are going to pay for this! Let him go!)

Make me.

“Now…” A flame burst from Kai’s fist, Morro’s fist, and he lifted it high to shoot it up into a lantern hanging from the rafters of the barn roof above, illuminating the room in an oppressive orange glow. “Let the fun begin.”

Chapter Text

“Fun…?”

“Hopefully,” Morro replied with a sardonic smile. It was disconcerting, to say the least, hearing his voice come out of Kai’s mouth, and see his expressions twist Kai’s facial features. “I mean, for me, not for you. Unless you happen to discover something new about yourself today.”

“What? I- I don’t understand.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

(You still have time to stop this. He’s just a kid, he’s younger than he looks! Literally, there was a whole thing with some magic tea-)

Blah blah BLAH, do you really think I care? I mean do you even hear yourself right now? You saying there’s a suitable age range for torture?

(Tor-… What?)

What did you think I got all this stuff for?

Without gesturing physically, Morro drew Kai’s attention to the tool bag he’d left on the floor against the wall, next to which stood a large, weather-beaten wooden table laden with tools. Tools Kai recognized hazily as ones Morro had taken from the ninja's own storage, and others that he'd bought – using Kai’s own money on top of his body – at a hardware store in Ninjago City the other day. Kai hadn’t been fully conscious at the time, watching the world shift around him as though in a dream, but now it dawned on him that Morro had been preparing this barn, his supposed childhood hideout, for when he brought Lloyd here. Luring him in using Kai’s face and voice.

Kai’s mind’s eye rove slowly over the tools laid out on the table, the dread building in his soul as he took in each one; a coil of chains… pairs of pliers and gardening shears… a heavy-duty pipe wrench… a crowbar… a hammer and nails… a fireplace poker... a taser... a carving knife.

I don’t have a specific plan for each of them, I just grabbed whatever looked like it’d make for a more interesting time.

(No. No no, you can’t.)

“I can and I will,” Morro answered aloud.

“Can what?” Lloyd asked worriedly.

Morro ignored the question. “You have no idea how much pent up rage I’ve got right now,” he snarled at Lloyd, raising his katana threateningly. “Got your stupid ninja buddies to thank for a lot of it since they went and ruined all my plans. I want to destroy something so bad. I want destiny to lose something for once instead of taking something from me!”

He thrust the point of the sword at Lloyd’s nose. “And guess what, Lloyd? That something gets to be you.”

(You are NOT hurting Lloyd!!) Kai screamed in Morro’s head.

Go ahead and stop me, pawn.

Morro stepped back to the table and pushed it aside, causing the tools to rattle loudly. Lloyd noticed them for the first time and blanched as he realized what their intended purpose was. “Don’t worry little green ninja,” Morro said, noticing this. “We won’t start with these right away. After all you won’t be in much condition to fight if we do.” He dusted his hands off, the table now a fair distance away from Lloyd’s chair.

“Fight?”

“We haven’t had the honor of pitting our skills against each other. Your ninja friends were barely even worth wasting time on, and I don’t expect you to be much different, but it’ll be nice to have it confirmed once and for all; who is truly worthy of being the green ninja.”

“I just came out of the hospital after getting skewered,” Lloyd reminded him. “This would hardly count as a fair fight!”

“I could level the playing field if you prefer.” Morro flipped the katana around in his hand so the blade was facing him.

Lloyd had a split-second vision of him driving it into his stomach.

“NO!” he shouted. “Please, no, don’t hurt Kai!”

“I’m not going to hurt Kai, idiot. You’re the one that’s supposed to do that.” He thrust the sword in Lloyd’s lap, laying the blade blunt-side across his knees.

Lloyd looked from the sword to Morro with horrified realization.

(What’s with this sick obsession of making us hurt each other while you’re possessing one of us? Do you enjoy it or something??)

Oh relax, he’s not even going to be able to touch a hair on your spiky little head with me at the wheel.

(You really think a lot of yourself, but you haven’t seen what Lloyd can do.)

Touching. Morro’s mental voice was laden with disgust. Try to remember that him doing well would spell very bad trouble for you.

“You can’t expect me to fight you seriously while you’ve got Kai hostage!” Lloyd yelped desperately.

“Gonna have to, cause if you don’t fight back I might end up killing you and then we’ll never get to the actual fun stuff.” Morro took the coil of metal chains from the table in one hand, then dug around in the toolbag Kai had noticed earlier and unearthed a large black key. With it he unlocked one of the cuffs on Lloyd's hands.

As soon as his hand was free Lloyd swung his fist around at Morro’s head, but it was caught easily without Morro even looking up. In a flash he’d coiled the length of black chains around Lloyd’s arm and twisted it behind his back, forcing him down to his knees, the katana falling from his lap to the floor.

“Argh!”

“Hold your horses,” said Morro irritably. “Can’t have you running away mid-fight after all.” So saying, he linked the end of the chain to the cuff on Lloyd's hand, dodged away when Lloyd took a swing at him again, and backed up the length of the chain to the barn wall, where a metal ring protruded, supposedly meant to tether animals. He looped the chain through the ring and secured it with a padlock he pulled out from his cloak.

“Made of Vengestone,” he said as he loped back to Lloyd. “No Elemental Powers allowed. And before you cry about it being unfair, I’m not going to use mine either.” He smirked. “Or the fire ninja’s.”

“I can’t use spinjitzu like this!” Lloyd protested.

Morro snorted. “Man, you’re such a baby. If you need spinjitzu to beat me then we’ll know for sure you’re not meant to be the green ninja. I sure don’t need spinjitzu to beat you.”

Morro scraped his foot in an arc across the floor as he got into a fighting stance. “Come on. Right here, right now.”

Lloyd looked at him uncertainly. For a second he was transported back to the monastery, facing off against Kai in a harmless training session. ‘Come on, little grasshopper. Show me what you got!’

He contemplated using spinjitzu anyway to try to break free of the chains, perhaps even barrel through the wall of the barn. How strong could that wood be? As soon as the thought occurred to him though, he dismissed it, knowing it probably wouldn’t turn out the way he wanted – the length of chain would likely end up twisting around him as he spun, tripping him up or, even worse, injuring him if it wrapped around his chest or neck. Plus, Morro would hardly just stand there and give him the time he needed to accomplish anything with that plan.

On top of all that… against the rational part of his mind, Lloyd wanted this fight. Perhaps even more than Morro. He needed to pay him back for all the misery he’d suffered while possessed.

He picked up the sword Morro had given him off the floor… and flung it across the room. It hit the wall and fell with a dull clatter.

“Fine,” he said. “But I’m not using that. You are not going to make me hurt Kai like you made him hurt me.”

Kai inwardly recoiled in guilt.

Morro shrugged Kai’s shoulders. “Suit yourself,” he said, then dashed forward to the inside of Lloyd’s range, taking him by surprise.

Lloyd only just managed to pull his chin back in time, dodging the uppercut that came by a hair’s breadth. Instinctively he forced his body low and swept his foot at Morro’s legs, but Morro jumped up above the sweep and kicked both of his feet out at Lloyd’s head. The hit connected, and Lloyd sprawled backwards to the floor. When he opened his eyes he saw Morro flying above him, coming down with a fist aimed at his head. Lloyd twisted away and Morro punched the floor where his head had been, the wooden boards splintering beneath him.

The chain jangled noisily as Lloyd shook it out, not wanting to get tangled in it. He’d barely got his bearings when Morro came at him again, raining punches and kicks in quick succession. Lloyd blocked and parried each one, but couldn’t find a chance to retaliate. He ducked, dodged, and weaved between Morro’s attacks, until he finally found a split second’s break to grasp the chain of his cuff in his hand and swing it around Morro’s right arm, much the same way Morro had done to him earlier. He twisted around behind Morro’s back, yanking his arm with him, and Morro grunted in frustration… before launching himself in the air and backflipping clear over Lloyd’s head, landing behind him with his arm facing the right direction once again. Too late, Lloyd realized their situations had reversed and his move had backfired on him, as Morro gripped the chain and yanked Lloyd towards him by his cuffed wrist.

Rather than take the chance to attack again though, Morro grasped the front of Lloyd’s shirt, freezing him in place. “None of that, Lloyd,” he growled, though his lips were pulled up in a relishing grimace. “This is only to stop you from using your powers and escaping. You threw away the weapon I offered, you don’t get another one.” He pulled Lloyd’s cuffed wrist up in front of him. “If you don’t use this, then I won’t either.”

Lloyd considered him for a moment, then nodded once. “Fine.”

Morro pushed him away, letting go of the chain. Lloyd let it drop to the floor. He got into form, his arms raised, knees bent, and back straight, just as Wu had taught him. Morro mirrored him with a leer.

“Go.”

They ran at each other and exchanged blows in the middle. Lloyd had to block more than he could attack, his unprotected arms feeling like they were getting bruised black and blue, from elbow to wrist, under his jacket sleeve, but eventually managed to match Morro’s speed enough to catch him off guard once, twice, three times, landing hits to his midriff, upper thigh, and face (Sorry Kai, he thought).

Morro’s grimace became more pronounced with displeasure as he saw Lloyd keeping pace with him. His punches became more vicious, drawing blood from Lloyd’s cheek as his knuckle just grazed him. Lloyd could actually hear the whoosh of displaced air after each swing. In fact…

Doing his best not to lessen his focus on parrying the blows in question, Lloyd watched Morro’s arms and legs carefully as they whipped and swung towards him, each miss accompanied by a small but audible boom. Was it just him, or were Morro’s attacks getting faster, the arcs of his kicks and punches becoming shorter?

The fight had brought them closer to the wall (thankfully the one where the end of the Vengestone chain was tethered), and Lloyd found himself being backed against it. He tried to give himself room by swinging widely on his next kick, which proved to be a mistake; it left him open, and Morro was able to land a painful hit right on his sword wound. Lloyd gasped from the pain, the breath knocked out of him, and involuntarily he doubled over, exposing his head. Morro wasted no time, finally catching him with an uppercut that sent Lloyd’s head flying back up against the wall behind him. Morro followed up with a roundhouse kick, and it was only because the uppercut had in fact cut Lloyd’s agony over the blow to his wound short that he was able to duck out of the way before the kick took his head off. As it was, when Morro’s foot connected with the wall instead, it cracked the thick wooden boards and sent splinters flying.

Lloyd had dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way. Now he looked up at Morro in shock. He’d definitely seen it this time, or more accurately, felt it; Morro’s leg, shooting towards him much faster than it realistically should have, had been accelerated by a blast of air.

He was using wind to push his limbs forward as he attacked.

“You said you wouldn’t use your Elemental Powers!” Lloyd yelled.

Morro blinked at him, then smiled in amusement. “I’m not,” he said.

“You’re using wind to make your hits faster and stronger!”

“Maybe you’re just in denial over the fact that I’m faster and stronger than you.”

(You’re really not using them?)

There’d be no point in winning if I lied about it.

Lloyd gritted his teeth angrily. His stomach still throbbed where Morro had hit him and he resisted the urge to curl up on it. He would love to tighten his guard, but the best course of action right now was to sacrifice a bit of defense to strengthen his offense, because he wasn’t getting another chance to escape after this fight; he knew Morro wasn’t planning on letting him move around freely again any time soon, much less give him the opportunity to knock him out. If he could just get one good blow in, he’d be able to find his way back to the others, and they could figure out how to rescue Kai together.

“Grrraaaaarrrgghhh!” Lloyd yelled, psyching himself up as he launched at Morro.

(Come on, Lloyd!)

Lloyd jabbed, kicked, punched, swung, and struck, not letting himself pause for a moment even as Morro blocked every strike. Much as he hated to admit it, it seemed Morro’s guard was just as tireless as his assault had been. He never dodged or whipped out of the way of any of Lloyd’s strikes, but met each one of them to stop them in their tracks, grinning in satisfaction all the while. Lloyd feared his stamina would give out before Morro even broke a sweat.

When Lloyd jabbed at Morro with an open palm-thrust again and Morro blocked it with his forearm like he’d expected, Lloyd didn’t pull back this time. Instead he grasped Morro’s arm tightly and shoved it down, removing his guard, then bounced up on the balls of his feet and brought his leg up to slam Morro in the side of the head with his knee.

Morro was finally forced to dodge, dropping down under the arc of Lloyd’s leg and rolling on to his back, bracing his feet against Lloyd so that he pitched forward. On his backroll Morro threw Lloyd off, then unfolded from the roll into a handstand. When he’d flipped himself upright again Lloyd was still picking himself up, shaking the chain dangling from his wrist impatiently out of the way.

He’d been preoccupied for only a half second, but it was all the time Morro needed to close the distance between them again. When he swung his leg this time, the kick connected with Lloyd’s head.

As Lloyd reeled from the blow, his ears ringing, Morro grabbed his shoulder by one hand and made a flat, open-palm blade with the other. He jabbed Lloyd just under the diaphragm, forcing bile up his throat, then aimed for his sword wound… one, two, three, four, five times… before letting Lloyd drop to the floor as he choked and vomited with pain.

Lloyd was on all fours, saliva dripping from his mouth.

Morro jumped up and brought an axe kick down on his neck. Lloyd flattened to the floor.

(No!)

Morro huffed in displeasure at the sight of him. His amused smile had completely disappeared. Without looking away he struck his arm out to the side, and a tornado of wind burst into existence and shot out like a torpedo. It hit the wooden table and sent the tools that had lain upon it flying.

“That was almost too easy,” growled Morro. “I want to throw up. This is the might of the Green Ninja?” He kicked Lloyd hard in the side. “What could Master Wu possibly have seen in you? What is it that you have that makes you more worthy than me?!” He kicked him again.

(Leave him alone or I’ll–!)

You’ll what? Morro curled his lip in disgust. Then a stunned look crossed his face.

Something… a feeling… something he’d said had resonated with the angry ninja in his subconscious. A memory of bitterness and outrage that his words had engendered before Kai could clamp it down, trying to smother it instead with concern for his young defeated leader. Morro’s smile returned. “This isn’t the first time you’ve heard something like this, is it?” he said to Lloyd.

The Green Ninja lifted his head weakly, looking up at Kai’s warped face with bleary and confused eyes.

“Hahaha… Even your own teammates don’t believe in you. No wonder they didn’t put in more effort to save you from me all those weeks ago.”

Morro bent down and lifted Lloyd up under the armpits, dragging him back to the lone chair near the wall and upturned table. He sat him down on it, then pulled his hands behind the chair’s back and cuffed them together once more. He left the chain connected to one of the cuffs. It was almost pulled taut by the distance from one side of the barn to the other.

“Which is why I’m suddenly feeling a lot more confident that we’re going to have a lot of time to kill in here.” Morro lifted the table back upright again and collected the various tools scattered around, laying them back on its surface. Then he pushed the table closer to Lloyd so that they were in his view.

“You rest up, get your strength back. I’m not in the habit of kicking someone when they’re already down, so we’ll start with this stuff later.”

(You literally just kicked him while he was down, you bastard.)

“I find that hard to believe,” mumbled Lloyd dizzily.

“I said it’s not a habit, not that I’ll never do it,” said Morro. “Mouth off while you can, but keep in mind no one’s around for miles, so you’d be wasting your breath calling for help. I’d suggest you use this time to think carefully about what toy you want us to start with first when your break is up. You’re probably going to like it better than my pick.”

Morro grasped the top of Lloyd’s head and peered into his unfocused eyes. The shallow cut on Lloyd’s cheek had left a smear of blood, he observed. “Welcome to the beginning of the end,” he jeered, “of your time as the Green Ninja… or any kind of ninja, really.”

Chapter Text

Morro was gone for just under an hour. In that time, after he’d stopped seeing double and the pounding in his head had lessened, Lloyd had tried feverishly to break free of his bonds. The wooden chair he was cuffed to was tall-backed, but he thought he could lift his joined arms off of it if he could just stand up. Unfortunately that proved impossible to do in his position. He couldn’t even turn in his seat without bending his arms painfully at joints that he didn’t have, nor was there enough room on the seat for him to pull his feet up to try and push himself up to stand on it. His legs were still free though, and he found he could lift the chair off the floor with his back and walk around by bending double. So doing he crossed the large room to where his chain was padlocked to the wall, and studied the metal ring. He thought he could probably knock it out by swinging the chair at it, and proceeded to do just that. But turned around to get the chair legs to hit the ring, he couldn’t see where he was aiming, and even after several tries there was no impact of wood on metal. He realized too that, bent over with the chair on his back like a turtle, he couldn’t muster enough force to knock the ring out of the wall even if he did hit it. He let himself fall backwards so that the chair hit the floor on all fours and he was sitting in it again, panting in exhaustion from his endeavors.

When he noticed that the barn door was nearby he started calling for help, disregarding what Morro had said. The road wasn’t far away and there was always a chance that someone might be out there to hear him. This far out of Ninjago City, more people walked than drove to get around; surely a villager or two could be taking the path carrying wares to sell or trade with their neighbors?

“Hello! Hey! I’m in here! Somebody, get me out of here! HEY!”

He kept it up for what felt close to twenty minutes before he got tired. He thumped his head against the back of the chair in frustration.

For the rest of the time he just sat there, eyes closed, trying not to think of anything. His stomach growled and he realized he hadn’t eaten anything since he’d woken up that morning. Deliriously he wondered if Morro would feed him anything while he had him here.

He hoped he wouldn’t be here long. The ninja were bound to notice he and Kai were missing eventually. How they would find this place he wasn’t sure, but he knew they wouldn’t give up until they did. And they had their powers this time, they could summon their dragons to search faster.

He could be home before the day was out.

At long last, there was the sound of wood being moved and the door to the barn opened, letting in blinding white daylight that was obstructed by a tall silhouette entering. When he shut the door behind him Lloyd blinked at the figure and became more alert.

Kai walked towards him. He was wearing the casual clothes he'd come to pick up Lloyd in and carrying the duffel bag Lloyd had brought from the hospital.

It was Kai.

“Kai? Oh thank-!”

Kai’s hair darkened to pitch black, shadows appeared around his eyes, and his skin became overcast in sickly green.

Morro regarded Lloyd with derision. “You didn’t think it’d be that easy to get rid of me, did you? Your precious red ninja is hardly even putting up a struggle.”

Kai seethed at the lie. He’d been fighting tooth and nail (figuratively) to regain control of his body the whole time Morro had been out. Unfortunately his efforts so far had been completely in vain. It scared him quite a bit how little Morro seemed to even notice his existence, how unbothered he was by the phantom in his stolen head.

“Anyway what are you doing all the way over here?” Morro said now to Lloyd. “Don’t tell me you didn’t complete your assignment. Tsk tsk.”

Lloyd tried to cover his disappointment with a question. “Where did you go, anyway?”

“If you must know, I went to get some more supplies.” Morro indicated the duffel bag, which bulged slightly at the bottom with the weight of whatever stuff Morro had put in it. “You’re a lot more high maintenance than you’re worth.”

He went around behind Lloyd and started to pull his chair backwards, back across the room to the table of work tools, the chain clinking as it trailed behind. He turned Lloyd towards the table. He set the duffel bag on the floor with a grunt and faced Lloyd with his hands on his hips.

“Now, this is your last chance to tell me what you picked. Go on.”

Lloyd didn’t even glance at the table top. “You’re crazy. I’m not playing along with whatever you’re trying to do.”

Morro rolled his eyes. “Suit yourself.”

He bent down to open the duffel bag and took something out. It was an ordinary brown pants belt.

For half a second, Lloyd wondered with astonishment whether Morro was planning to hit him with it. But instead he went around behind Lloyd again and held one of his wrists, pushing the Vengestone cuff up his arm a bit. He wrapped one end of the belt around Lloyd’s wrist and closed it with his hand, then removed it and came back around Lloyd to the table. Lloyd followed his movements with a nonplussed expression.

(What in Ninjago are you doing?)

Morro only smirked in reply.

From the table he took the gardening shears and used it to cut off both ends of the belt, leaving the buckle on one piece and two notches on the other. He tossed the rest of it aside, then he picked up the hammer and small plastic box of nails. With them he nailed the two ends of the belt to the far end of the table so that the buckle was facing the tail, which he’d pinned by hammering the nail through the lower notch. He tugged at the two pieces to check that they wouldn’t come loose, then nodded in satisfaction.

“What is that?” Lloyd finally asked, though he had an idea and didn’t like it.

“Sorry for the wait,” said Morro. “Had to get creative. Ain’t many places in Ninjago where you can get yourself a table that already comes with straps.”

Once more he walked around behind Lloyd and unlocked his right cuff. With one hand he restrained Lloyd’s wrist before he could try to hit him, with the other he took the dangling cuff and closed it around the top of the back leg of the chair, just under the seat, so that Lloyd’s left hand was locked down to his side. Still holding Lloyd’s right hand tightly, he walked back around to the table. He dragged Lloyd forward by the arm so that his upper body leaned over the table top, and pulled his wrist to the space between the two ends of the belt.

Lloyd struggled awkwardly against Morro as he one-handedly looped the notched belt end through the buckle over his wrist, securing his hand to the table. The makeshift strap was tight enough that Lloyd couldn’t pull his hand through it.

Morro straightened up and surveyed his handiwork. Lloyd now looked like someone trying their best to reach something at the far side of the table without leaving their seat, his chest lying on top of it, his stomach pushed against the edge.

(What are you going to do to him, you psycho…) said Kai, though his mental voice was more full of fear than anger.

Well if you’d just shut up for a minute you’ll see.

Lloyd made a strained noise as he struggled in his seat, craning his neck over his stretched shoulder to look at Morro.

The latter still held the hammer in his hand. He thumped its head lightly against the table next to Lloyd.

“This is my first pick,” he said. “We can work our way up from here.”

Lloyd’s breath hitched as he eyed the hammer. He looked up at Morro in panic. “I don’t understand, what do you want from me?”

“I told you. I’m going to have some fun. I’m owed some.”

He clamped his hand over Lloyd’s bound wrist, pressing it hard against the table. “Spread out your fingers,” he ordered, as Lloyd had bunched them into a fist. When Lloyd didn’t comply he took a nail and held the point over the back of Lloyd’s hand. He raised the hammer threateningly. “Do it or I nail your hand down. You think I won’t?”

Lloyd slowly uncurled his fist and splayed his trembling fingers.

“Good. Now here’s how this is going to go. I’m going to ask you some questions. Any time I don’t like your answer, I play whack-a-mole with one of these.” Morro nudged the tips of Lloyd’s fingers with the cold head of the hammer. “Simple rules, right?”

“I don’t know anything!”

“I suspected as much. But why don’t you just wait and listen to what I ask first.”

He raised the hammer in the air and held it.

“So, first question: Before we met, did Wu ever tell you about me?”

“No.”

Morro raised the hammer higher and swung it down.

“Wai-!!”

Hard, heavy metal struck the top half of Lloyd’s pointer finger.

“Aaaaarghh!” Lloyd pulled against the belt strap and jolted in his seat. His finger, now a bright pink, quivered involuntarily.

(Bastard!!)

“I was telling the truth!” Lloyd yelled. He hissed through his teeth at the dull throbbing of his finger.

“I said I’d hit you if I didn’t like your answer, not if you lied,” said Morro wryly. “That said I don’t want you lying to me either.”

He raised the hammer again. “Next question: How long were you training with Wu before you became the Green Ninja?”

Lloyd panted, trying to push his chair away from the table with his feet to give some space between his midriff and the table edge. “A couple of weeks, maybe,” he answered.

The hammer came down again, striking the same finger.

“Aaaaooww!!!” Lloyd stomped the floor, the only release he could find for the pain. Tears stung the corners of his eyes. “What’d I say?!”

“A couple of weeks was all it took for you to become the Green Ninja.” Morro sounded repulsed. “I was training for years!”

(That’s what this is about?) said Kai incredulously. (You’re jealous of how Lloyd became the Green Ninja when you couldn’t?)

Jealous is an ugly word, Morro answered neutrally. I only want to know how much compensation I deserve. He chuckled darkly. Consider each hit a dollar.

Once more he lifted the hammer.

“Did you know about the prophecy of the Green Ninja when you started training?”

Lloyd averted his eyes and shifted uncomfortably.

“Answer.”

“…Yes. No-!”

The same finger again. The angry redness was now as bright as a tomato, the flesh almost as swollen. Lloyd growled through clenched teeth, his eyes screwed tight shut.

(Stop! Stop doing this! He’s never done anything to you!)

That’s not the point, snarled Morro. Out loud he said, “That was three for three. You’re really bad at this, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say!” shouted Lloyd angrily, stamping his foot again.

“I don’t want you to say anything specific,” said Morro. “But if you want some say in how this goes, I’ll let you choose the finger from now on. Give you time to brace yourself, and give poor pointy here a break.” He flicked the damaged pointer finger and Lloyd winced.

“Alright. Tell me what Wu told you about the Green Ninja.”

“He didn’t,” panted Lloyd. “The guys told me. They found out about it first.”

“You mean Wu didn’t explain it to them, either?” demanded Morro, confusion in his voice.

Lloyd shook his head. “Not at first. They told me they found a scroll and asked him about it.”

Morro just looked at Lloyd for a moment, frowning. Then he jerked his chin. “Tell me which finger.”

“What?” Lloyd gasped. “What’s wrong with what I said? Why do you care whether Wu told us about the Green Ninja or not??”

“I’m the one asking the questions here,” growled Morro. “For that, you forfeit your right to choose this time.”

He brought down the hammer on the same pointer finger once more. This time, when it hit, there was a small cracking sound, and a pain so white-hot burst in Lloyd’s head that he jumped in his seat, rocking the table, and screamed the loudest he’d done so far.

“AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGHHHHHH!!!”

He stomped both of his feet repeatedly against the floor and shook his other hand against its cuffs, jangling the metal loudly. “You broke it!” he wailed.

Morro didn’t comment. A cold, angry look had come over his face.

He didn’t tell you, he thought, and Kai realized in his panic that Morro was talking to him. He tried to keep it a secret this time so none of you would end up like me.

(Probably didn’t want to repeat the same mistake he made with you!) said Kai viciously. Too late, he realized antagonizing his and Lloyd’s captor was not the best thing he could do right now.

As though to prove his point, Morro bared his teeth and swung his arm down again, striking Lloyd’s broken finger once more. Lloyd howled and thrashed, his feet kicking up a thunderstorm under the table.

“OWWWWWWW-HO-HO-HOHH!!” He sobbed once and lifted his head towards Morro. “Why?!”

“I got pissed off,” said Morro coldly.

To Kai he said, If you’re also going to play you have to accept the rules of the game.

Kai was muted in shock. He couldn’t believe this was happening. He couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that his very own hands were being used to make this happen. It was like he was caught in a nightmare, having no control whatever over the things he was seeing.

He had to wake up. This couldn’t go on.

Lloyd pressed his chin against the table top and groaned. A tear streaked down his cheek.

Morro raised the hammer.

“Tell me what you think of Wu,” he said. “Is he a good sensei?”

Lloyd took a shuddering breath. He knew his honest answer would definitely qualify as one Morro wouldn’t like, but he put as much defiance in his voice as he could muster as he said it. “He is.”

“Pick one.”

Lloyd’s teeth chattered. His pointer finger felt like it had lava running through its capillaries. He swallowed and tentatively lifted his pinkie. “This one.”

The words had barely left his mouth before Morro smashed the hammer down on the little finger. Lloyd jolted and clenched his teeth, muffling the yell trying to escape his throat.

“Think you might be letting family ties cloud your judgment, Lloyd,” taunted Morro. “If Wu was so great, you wouldn’t have gotten trashed by me so easily.”

“I was stabbed with a sword!” raged Lloyd, punctuating his stressed words with a foot stomp each.

“Pitiful excuse,” jeered Morro. “I’m literally dead!”

“You sure don’t sound like it.”

Morro swung his hammer down and Lloyd cringed, screwing his eyes shut, but the swing was just a feint and the hammer stopped just above Lloyd’s hand. Morro chuckled nastily.

“Next question. Do you enjoy being the Green Ninja?”

Lloyd squirmed and panted. Sweat trickled down his face. The forced bent position of his body was starting to bother him almost as much as the pain from his fingers. “Not so much right now,” he answered, sarcasm leaking into his voice.

Morro laughed again, this time from genuine amusement. He shook the hammer head at Lloyd. “Okay, you get a pass for that one. What about the rest of the time? Do you like being Ninjago’s big beloved hero?” He said the last with a mocking tone.

Lloyd closed his eyes. “Not… particularly,” he said after a moment.

Morro’s scowl returned. “Tell me which one. Fast, before I choose.”

Lloyd opened his eyes and looked at him devastadedly. “You want me to enjoy it?”

“I told you not to lie to me,” spat Morro.

“I’m not lying, I swear!”

“Choose a finger.”

“No, please, Morro don’t-”

CRACK. Lloyd’s pinkie was smashed again, and a second audible sound of bone breaking could be heard, just before Lloyd filled the air with his screams.

“AAAAAARRRRRGGHHHH YOU ASSHOLE!”

“Language, Chosen One,” said Morro. “What would your mother say if she could hear you?”

At the image of Misako’s face flashing through his mind, Lloyd bit his lip and shut his eyes again, dislodging a few more tears. If his mother could have heard him just then it would probably break her heart. Hers and any one of the others’ if they could also hear and see what he was going through. Then he remembered that one member of his family was here with him, hearing and seeing – and, according to Morro, even feeling ­– everything.

He opened his eyes and looked up hopefully at Morro. At Kai wearing Morro’s evil expression.

“What are you looking at?”

Lloyd searched his eyes and said nothing.

Morro seemed to understand. “The red ninja? You think he’s going to help you? He’s been quiet for the past few minutes while I’ve been giving you the world’s most inefficient manicure.” He grinned wickedly. “Trust me, he’s hopeless. In fact that makes me think of another question.”

He leaned down a bit nearer to Lloyd’s head. “What did Wu’s other students think of you becoming the Green Ninja?”

Kai almost stirred then, but forced himself back to focus.

Lloyd blinked rapidly, his thoughts awhirl. “They were cool with it,” he said. “They helped train me. Especially Kai, he helped me the most.”

“Oh that’s right, you guys call yourselves ‘brothers’, don’t you,” said Morro, coating the word in acidic contempt. “But you don’t actually know if they really were ‘cool with it’, as you say. Maybe they secretly all hate you.”

“They’re not like that!” Lloyd protested. And, knowing he was asking for it but thinking it was worth it, he added, “They’re not anything like you.”

Morro struck his ring finger this time. Lloyd just managed to keep himself from crying out too loudly by biting his lip so hard he tasted blood.

“Not that I expected any different, but what I’m getting out of all this is that the title of the Green Ninja is wasted on you, Lloyd.” Morro shook his head. “How long has it even been, anyway?”

“Four… four years,” panted Lloyd. Both his arms started to tremble and he wished he could bend them. How long was Morro’s ‘game’ going to last anyway? Would he keep interrogating Lloyd until all his fingers were broken? Would his other hand be next after this one had been completely mutilated? A chill ran up his spine at the thought.

“And in all that time you never thought that maybe you weren’t deserving of being seen as a hero?” said Morro. “Or do you actually believe you’re a great ninja warrior?”

Lloyd sucked the blood from his lip and swallowed. He was so hungry. He couldn’t be thinking of food right now but he was suddenly very aware of how empty his stomach felt. “Of course I’ve thought… that I wasn’t good enough,” he murmured. “And I don’t think I’m great, but… I think I’ve done alright so far. Considering.” He shut his eyes and braced himself.

When nothing happened he peeked up at Morro hesitantly.

Something strange was happening. Morro’s teeth were clenched in a pained grimace, and the hand holding the hammer, still lifted in the air, was shaking. A noise of exertion issued from his mouth, and sweat appeared on his forehead.

“…Kai?”

At his name, Kai’s eyes flashed back to their natural brown, and they rolled down to Lloyd. He unclenched his teeth and answered in a shuddering breath. “…L-Loyd…”

“Kai! Kai, fight him!” Lloyd pulled against the belt strap in his efforts to turn towards Kai, his neck twinging as he lifted his head above his shoulder. “You can do it, Kai! You’re stronger than he is! Fight him!”

“Ahh… Lloyd… I… I’m so-…”

“No!” yelled Lloyd in despair. “No, no, you can do it, Kai! Please, you have to, you gotta stop him!”

“I’m… trying…” Kai’s hand lifted the hammer high above his head, shaking all the while.

“You can do it, Kai, you’re stronger! You can beat him!”

(NO YOU CAN’T!!) Morro shouted in fury. (There is no way you’re stronger than me! None of you pissants are stronger than ME!)

“Lloyd…”

“Kai, please–”

Kai’s arm swung down like an executioner’s axe. Lloyd turned his head away and yelped.

BAM!!

Lloyd’s fingers burned with pain… but it was not new pain. When he opened his eyes and looked down the length of his arm, it was to find Kai’s hand holding the hammer head to the table, right next to his thumb. As he watched, Kai lifted the hammer slowly, revealing a perfect circle indentation in the wood.

Both boys were breathing hard. Lloyd felt the beginnings of a smile on his face as he met Kai’s wide eyes.

Kai stared at him in shock for a moment.

Then, a frightening, ugly mask of outrage and hatred fell over his face. Furiously he raised the hammer again.

Lloyd’s mind blanked. “Wh–”

SMASH SMASH SMACK (crack!) SMASH BAM-!

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!”

Morro rained the hammer down on Lloyd’s fingers, not caring about accuracy anymore and striking them indiscriminately, even missing and hitting the back of Lloyd’s hand. Over and over he swung his arm high and raked it down in a furious arc, his teeth bared all the while, his black eyes bright with manic ire. Kai had been pushed back to the deepest layers of his subconscious completely, hardly even able to voice a coherent thought through the furor of Morro’s emotions. All the while Lloyd thrashed in his chair and screamed, the belt chafing at his right wrist and the Vengestone cuff digging into his left, as his body strained against both in its effort to straighten.

The barrage stopped when Lloyd finally pulled his hand so forcefully it scraped under the belt strap and popped out from under it. Morro smacked the table twice more where Lloyd’s hand had been before he stopped himself, watching Lloyd as he brought his hand close to his chest and sobbed over it. All of his fingers minus the thumb were swollen to the size of sausages, the pointer finger turning a mottled purple color, the pinkie bent slightly inward at the second knuckle.

Morro was huffing from exertion, examining the pieces of the belt still nailed to the table. The buckle half had ripped just slightly around the nail. With the other end of the hammer head he pried the nail up, and hammered it back in again in an unbroken space of leather.

He set the hammer down and sighed. “No more questions,” he said. He looked at Lloyd with scorn. “I’m not in the mood anymore. I feel like shit.”

Lloyd only keened in agony.

Then Morro said the words he’d dreaded he’d say. “We’ll do the other hand. Until I feel better.”

Lloyd looked at him with something close to hysteria. "But... but you just said-!"

"I'm sick of the questions," clarified Morro. "So we'll just skip that part."

As he set about exchanging the Vengestone cuffs from Lloyd’s left hand to his injured right, Kai managed to come to himself again, watching the proceedings in exhaustion but with an intense feeling of guilt and horror. He wished he could close his eyes, cover his ears, as he felt his hands close the belt over Lloyd’s wrist once more and pick up the grip-warmed handle of the hammer.

(Somebody… please… wake me up…)

Chapter Text

“Anyone seen Kai?”

Zane, who was hanging up the end of a streamer on the wall, turned his head all the way around his back to shake it at Nya.

Jay was blowing up a green balloon. While he wrestled with it for a bit to tie it off, he said, “Not since a few hours ago. He said he was going to visit Lloyd.”

“Kinda pointless when we’re picking up Lloyd anyway,” said Cole, holding Master Wu up on his shoulders while the old man stuck a banner to the ceiling. The other end had already been hooked in place. Spread out the banner read “Welcome home, Lloyd!” in painted letters of red, blue, black, white, cyan and gold. It would be the first thing to greet Lloyd when he entered the dojo behind the shop front of Steep Wisdom, where the ninja had once done their training with Sensei Garmadon.

Nya swatted Cole’s shoulder, which didn’t throw off his balance a bit but did make him say, “Ow,” in protest. “He’s eager to see his little brother, sue him,” she said. “Guess he figured he’d stay and wait for us so we can all leave together. I’ll just call him to make sure.”

“Cell phones are not allowed inside the hospital,” Zane reminded her.

“Oh, right,” said Nya, closing her phone and pocketing it reluctantly. She turned to the others. “Then are you guys all ready?”

“Zane and Jay will stay behind to help finish up with the decorations,” said Wu, leaping down from Cole’s shoulders.

“What?” said Jay, pausing in blowing up another balloon, this one gold. “Why me?”

“Because if you went you’d be too busy talking to Ny-… uh, too busy talking to help Lloyd,” said Cole, stuttering sheepishly at Jay’s warning look.

“Well, more or less, yes,” Wu corroborated.

“Ugh, fine. Go on already.”

“We’ll be back soon,” said Misako, as Zane helped her down the stepladder she’d been using to pin up balloons. “With my son.”

Zane, Wu, and Jay waved them goodbye as Nya, Cole, and Misako left through the tea shop’s door, crossing the shop to its front entrance, which had a sign hanging declaring the shop was CLOSED.

Outside, Cole cracked his knuckles and wrung his hands out. He blew air through his mouth in preparation. “Here goes nothing,” he said.

Aside from Nya, who had only recently come into her powers and couldn’t yet do it anyway, all the ninja had had trouble summoning their dragons ever since Lloyd’s… incident. Understandably so, given that Nya doubted any of them hadn’t been affected by what had happened. Especially Kai. Nya wondered suddenly if he’d used his dragon to reach the hospital on his own that morning.

Cole’s own dragon now materialized before them, it’s scales thick and earthy brown. It lowered its head down to Cole, who gave a whoop of joy. “Alright! Still got it! Come on, ladies.” He gave Misako a leg-up onto the dragon’s back, while Nya jumped up on its hindlegs to sit on its flanks.

With everyone settled, Cole snapped the reins, and the Earth Dragon rose into the sky with a beat of its wings.

It took hardly a few minutes for them to fly to Ninjago City. At Misako’s direction, Cole circled well above the parking lot of the Ninjago City Hospital before dematerializing the Earth Dragon, letting them drop down to the ground without disturbing the other visitors getting into or out of their cars (though every one of them stopped to look up and stare at the great winged beast before it poofed out of existence, a few kids pointing excitedly). Casually, the trio crossed the lot to the hospital entrance.

Inside, Misako approached the counter. “Hi, we’re here to get my son, Lloyd Garmadon,” she said to the nurse. “He’s getting discharged today.”

The nurse checked something on her computer before nodding and waving them towards the elevators.

“Boy, betting Lloyd can’t wait to get out of this place,” said Cole as he pressed the button to the overnight patients’ floor.

“Almost as much as we can’t wait to have him back with us,” said Nya. She looked at the floor sullenly as the elevator went up.

“What’s wrong Nya?” asked Cole.

“Oh, nothing,” she said. “I’m not worried about Lloyd or anything.”

“Lloyd will be absolutely fine,” Misako assured her. “He’s very strong, he won’t let this hold him back for long.”

No, thought Nya, but Kai still might.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. “You’ll see,” continued Misako as they stepped out and walked the familiar route to Lloyd’s room. “He’ll be back in his green gi and leading you all on missions again before you know it.”

Nya knocked on Lloyd’s door before opening it. The bed inside was empty, the covers disheveled.

“Lloyd?” she called as the three of them entered the room, looking around even though there were no blind spots from the doorway.

Cole knocked on the door of the bathroom. “Lloyd? You in there buddy?” he called. He tested the handle and found it unlocked. “He’s not here,” he said as he stuck his head inside.

“This is strange…” said Misako, looking at the unmade bed and the stand beside it. “His change of clothes are gone.”

“And Kai isn’t here either…” said Nya. She put a hand to her mouth. Something’s not right, she thought.

“They must both be down at the cafeteria,” said Cole lightly. “And they took Lloyd’s stuff ‘cause they weren’t planning on coming back up here.”

“Yes, that must be it,” said Misako with a smile. She patted Nya’s back. “Let’s go see.”

When they arrived at the cafeteria though, a quick sweep of all the heads bent over trays at the tables showed no sign of either Kai or Lloyd.

“There was a coffee stand just outside,” said Cole. “I’ll go check if they’re waiting in line.”

“Lloyd doesn’t like coffee,” said Nya, but Cole had already ducked out of the cafeteria in a rush. Misako was still craning her neck to look out over all the tables, looking for the tell-tale sign of Kai’s gelled hair spikes or Lloyd’s thatch of blonde.

Nya’s stomach was starting to hurt. She wrung her hands together, thinking hard about where else her brother and her friend could be.

Cole returned, frowning pensively. “They’re not there,” he said.

“Oh this is ridiculous,” said Nya frustratedly. She stomped across the cafeteria to the glass doors at the back that led outside. Cole and Misako exchanged a glance before following her.

Nya shoved through the doors, marching past a picnic table full of doctors on their break. When Cole and Misako had caught up with her she’d pulled out her cell phone, flipped it open, and clicked on Kai’s number in her contacts. Impatiently she tapped her foot while the phone dial toned in her ear.

The phone rang several times. Nya’s foot slowed its tapping as her frustration morphed into dread. Pick up… Pick up, Kai…

She turned to look at the other two, her lip trembling. “He’s not-” she began.

“Hello?” said Kai’s voice in her ear.

“Kai? There you are!” Nya breathed a sigh of relief. “Sheesh.”

“Uh, yeah, it’s me,” said Kai, sounding amused. “Who’d you think it would be? You did call me, right?”

“What took you so long? No never mind that, where are you? Is Lloyd with you?”

“Yeah, he’s with me. Sorry I didn’t call you earlier, we were just having so much fun I forgot.”

“Why’d you guys leave the hospital?” Nya demanded, annoyance quickly replacing her worry now that she’d heard Kai’s voice. “You know he’s still recovering! And did you forget we’re supposed to be taking him home today?”

“No I remember, I meant to bring him back soon, just lost track of time.” Kai flippantly waved aside her concerns in his ‘no big deal’ tone. “Just thought he’d want some fresh air for a bit.”

As Kai talked, Nya became aware of a strange noise in the background; a distant but high-pitched keening. It almost sounded like the collective scream of people on a rollercoaster.

“Kai, where are you?”

“We’re…” Kai trailed off, and Nya wondered if he was looking around for a street sign. But then:

“Hey, stop! Leave him alone! NO WAIT- AGH!”

Muffled thumping noises issued from the phone as though it had been dropped, Kai’s shouts of protests becoming distant.

“Kai? Kai!”

Nya could feel Cole and Misako leaning closer to her, trying to hear the phone. Kai’s voice suddenly became clear again. “Nya! Nya, they’ve got Lloyd! They’re taking him, I gotta- AGH! No! GET BACK!” His voice cut off as the phone seemed to have been dropped again.

“Who? Kai, who’s taking him?” Nya shouted into the phone. The doctors over at the picnic table raised their heads.

“Taking who?” said Cole, eyes widening at Nya’s panic. “Is it Lloyd?”

“Nya what’s happening?” asked Misako, gripping Nya’s arm.

“I don’t know, he just-” Nya stopped as a loud click went off and the phone beeped. She looked at the screen in shock. The line had cut.

She thumbed the call button again. After waiting for a bit, a robotic voice interrupted the dial tone: “Sorry, the number you are trying to reach is not available. Please try ag-”

She closed the phone. Cole and Misako were looking at her with worry and confusion.

“What happened?” they both said.

Nya could only shake her head.

Morro took both halves of the phone and snapped it in two. Then he dropped the pieces in the swampy pond in front of him. Behind him, inside the barn, Lloyd was still shouting, unaware that Morro had already ended the call.

Kai was raging in his head.

(You bastard, you fucking snake, son of a-!)

ReLAX, it’s just a phone, Morro answered. Though their mental voices didn’t have any volume, Morro’s always managed to quell Kai’s whenever he spoke. It was still annoying that he had to keep doing it to shut the red ninja up, though. When did these things even become such a big deal? A phone in my time stayed inside the house. Not that I ever had one, but that just goes to show; look how much better off I am without it!

Smirking, Morro turned back to the barn, stepping noisily through the long brush of yellow weeds and swampgrass as he made his way to the barred doors.

Lloyd stopped shouting when Morro entered the barn. He was as Morro had left him, his torso lying across the table, his left arm stretched out, his wrist strapped down. The fingers on that hand were already purpling.

Morro grinned down at him evilly, enjoying the light of hope vanishing from Lloyd’s eyes as he realized whoever had been on the phone still knew nothing of his plight.

Morro picked up the hammer, discarded right next to Lloyd's hand. “Sorry about the interruption,” he said, bracing Lloyd’s arm against the table with his other hand. “Good news is I bought us some more time. So.” He raised the hammer above his shoulder, aiming carefully. “Where were we?”

As soon as they arrived back at the tea shop Nya leaped from the Earth Dragon’s back to barge through the shop doors. “Master Wu! Jay, Zane!” she called, bursting through the back door to the dojo. She was stopped in her tracks by a burst of confetti flying into her face, accompanied by the trumpet of party-blowers.

“Welcome back!” Wu and Jay chorused, while Zane blew on his noise maker again. Nya spat out bits of confetti as Cole and Misako came up behind her.

“Oh, sorry Nya!” said Jay nervously, brushing the rest of the confetti off her shoulders and hair. She pushed his hand aside, ignoring the look of hurt on his face. “Uh, where’s Lloyd?” he asked.

“That’s just it, guys,” said Cole. “Lloyd’s gone!”

“Gone?” said Zane.

“What do you mean, Cole?” asked Wu sharply.

“Wu, my son is missing,” said Misako urgently. “Along with Kai. We asked the hospital staff and no one saw them leave or where they went. And when Nya called Kai-”

“They were attacked!” cried Nya. “Or kidnapped or something, I don’t know! It sounded like someone grabbed Lloyd, and then Kai tried to help… Ugh, if only he’d told me where they were!”

“Calm down, Nya,” said Wu, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Think carefully, now. Can you think of anything that might help us find out where he called you from?”

“Why does it matter now where they were?” said Cole angrily. “We should be figuring out who took them!”

“If we can find their last known location,” said Zane steadily, “we can ask anyone in the area if they saw anything.”

“Exactly,” said Wu. “Come on, Nya. What did Kai tell you?”

Nya shook her head. “I don’t know, he said… he said they were having a lot of fun and lost track of time… and there was this weird screaming noise in the background.”

“Screaming?” said Cole.

“Yeah…”

“Mega Monster Amusement Park!” said Jay. Everyone gave him a look. “What? It makes sense! It’s fun, and there are people screaming… and it wouldn’t be the first time bad guys showed up there,” he added bitterly.

“Well…” said Nya hesitantly, “I did think the screams sounded like people on a rollercoaster…”

“It’s as good a place to start as any,” said Wu, then more grumpily, “Although if it turns out Kai really did decide to take Lloyd to an amusement park while he was still recovering he’d better hope I don’t find him.”

Nya giggled a little, soothed by her master’s initiative. Mollified, she went to stand beside Jay and took his hand. “Mind if I ride with you?” she asked.

Jay did his best not to blush and failed. “Y-yeah, yeah, sure!” He squeezed her hand as they followed the others to the tea shop exit. “Don’t worry, Nya. We’ll find them both before the day is out, you’ll see.”

“I’ll stay here in case they come back!” Misako called. One by one she watched each of the ninja summon their dragons and take off, Wu riding with Zane and Nya with Jay. She continued to stay outside and watch the sky long after they’d disappeared into it.

Chapter Text

(Please) Kai begged. (Please just let me wrap his fingers. I promise I won’t try to free him, but let me treat him, please–)

Yeah, that’s definitely gonna happen. Morro snorted, though somehow only in his head; his face, Kai’s face, was completely impassive on the outside as he pulled his dark green shirt over his head.

(Then you do it! Just don’t leave them like that, he might never be able to use his hands again!)

Well YEAH. He won’t need to. I already said this was the end of him being a ninja, didn’t I? You think I didn’t mean it? By the time I’m done with him, Lloyd Garmadon won’t ever be able to put on a mask or carry a weapon again.

(Why, why are you doing this?? What’s your goal in doing this?)

A goal? I had one, remember? You and your little ninja squad were the ones who stopped me from reaching it, so now I’m left with nothing. Really when you think about it, this whole situation is your fault.

(If you really have nothing then you can start over! Make amends with Wu, say a proper goodbye–)

Kai had evidently struck a nerve, as Morro’s mental voice flared with anger. You think I give a damn about Wu? He’s a decrepit, washed up old man who’s beneath my notice! There is nothing he can say or offer to assuage me.

(Then punish me!) Kai offered desperately. (Let Lloyd go and you can keep me, I helped ruin your plans as you said, Lloyd had nothing to do with it–!)

From what I can tell so far, nothing I do to you will possibly make you feel any worse than you already do. So thanks, but no thanks. You’re an annoyance, but you’re not any more relevant to me than Wu. So shut up and deal with it.

Morro finished up putting on Lloyd’s shredded green ninja gi once more, tying off the obi around his waist a bit more firmly than he’d meant to in his irritation. Kai’s day clothes of white shirt, red jacket and jeans had been tossed aside in the yellow grass outside. Morro picked them up and trudged back to the barn door.

The only thing I have left that I want is the Green Ninja. And now that I have him I’m not letting him go until I’ve ground him to dust, piece by piece… until there’s nothing left of him.

To that, Kai had no response left but his overwhelming fear, worry, and dread. Nothing he’d tried had got through to Morro in the slightest, whether it was threats, bargains, or pleas. It seemed the only option left to Kai now was to try to overthrow Morro’s control of his body himself.

But since his short-lived victory during the ‘whack-a-mole’ session, rather than finding it easier, Kai was struggling even more to reinstill his will over Morro’s. It didn’t even feel like he was being restrained anymore; where before the metaphorical limbs of his consciousness could at least push and shove against their bonds, now it was as though he had no limbs at all, nothing with which to push. He could still feel his physical limbs, the mush of the ground beneath his feet, the pull of clothes against his skin, even the slight breeze against his hair, tickling his forehead… but he felt them as a spectator, a passenger, in his own mind.

He could do nothing but watch now as Morro stood in front of the slumped form of Lloyd once more. Lloyd had been returned to a normal sitting position in his chair, his hands cuffed behind his back. His head was leaning slightly against his shoulder, his closed eyelids twitching fitfully. His mouth was pressed closed, and Kai knew he was trying to bite back the pain in his hands. All of his fingers were now swollen and bent, ranging in dark shades of blue, red, and purple. Kai wondered how long they could stay in that condition before the damage became permanent.

“Hey, little green ninja,” Morro greeted him loudly, making him startle. “How are you feeling?”

Lloyd glared up at Morro with utmost hate in his eyes. “How do you think?” he said. His voice came out raspy and low, and Kai felt his heart clench; Lloyd had literally screamed himself hoarse during Morro’s ‘game’.

Morro chuckled. “Woah. Sounds like you swallowed a saw mill. Gotta fix that. Our next game won’t be as satisfying without your sweet vocal accompaniment.”

He walked past Lloyd’s field of vision to the barn door again. Outside, he searched along the walls of the barn until he found an old rusted milk bucket, almost hidden in the overgrown grass. “Aha!” he said. “It’s still here!” He chuckled again. “Wow, this place really has been abandoned for years.”

The comment dropped ominously in the well of Kai’s consciousness.

Morro took the bucket to the small pond where he’d got rid of Kai’s phone and dunked it in by the handle, careful not to touch the water. When it was half full he returned to the barn. Kai suddenly felt the faintest hope as he remembered; water was lethal to ghosts! But of course Morro wouldn’t have forgotten that, so Kai tamped down his anticipation and waited.

Morro carried the bucket to Lloyd and presented it to him with the air of giving a surprise gift, holding it up by the rim and bottom, slightly tipped towards Lloyd’s mouth.

“Ta-dah! Bottoms up!”

Lloyd only had a second to look incredulous before the rim of the bucket was pushed against his teeth, and he hastily opened his mouth.

As soon as Morro pulled the bucket back, Lloyd spat his mouthful of water at him. In the same instant, Morro raised a hand and a burst of wind blew against the droplets of water, so strong it stopped them in midair and swept Lloyd’s hair back. Morro gritted his teeth from the effort, but the water rippled in the air and didn’t reach him, and when he put down his arm and the wind dissipated, the spray dropped to the floor with a quiet slap.

“As if I didn’t see that coming,” said Morro, smugness dripping from his chin. “Now I’m not going out for another refill, so I want you to think hard about whether it’s worth wasting what’s left in here.” He showed the inside of the bucket to Lloyd, then held it to his mouth again.

This time Lloyd drank and swallowed; the water was foul, but he was desperately thirsty. He coughed a bit when he’d finished, and tried to remove residual muck and bits of foliage from his teeth with his tongue.

“Good boy.” Morro tousled Lloyd’s hair, a gesture that made his spine crawl. He shook his head out from under Morro’s hand.

“Don’t do that!” he snapped.

Morro blinked in surprise, then scoffed. “Pfft! Well that returned the fight in you. Any specific reason why?”

Lloyd looked away. He did not want to tell Morro that Kai was the one who would always ruffle the top of his head like that.

Unfortunately he didn’t need to, as Kai himself had also inadvertently thought the same, and Morro caught the memory like a wriggling catch on a fishing line. “Ohhhh hahaha! Your big brother, huh? It’s okay, Lloyd, he’s still here. Just pretend this is from him, it technically is.” He scratched Lloyd’s head again, this time a bit harder, digging his fingers into his scalp and pushing his head down.

Again Lloyd shook his hand off angrily. “Stop it!”

Morro’s smile dropped and his eyes turned cold. He scowled hatefully down at Lloyd for a moment. Then, without warning, he punched the side of his face. “Fine. You like it rough, huh? Then let’s stop wasting time.” He threw the bucket aside – it bounced and rolled away with a loud clatter – then whipped around and grabbed something from the tools table.

Still seeing stars from the punch, Lloyd lifted his head dazedly to the sight of Morro bearing down on him while pulling apart the handles of the pair of gardening shears.

(Wait, no–!)

“No, wait, wait wait Morro!” Lloyd scrambled in his seat as Morro went around behind him, pointing the blades of the shears at Lloyd’s hands. “NO NO STOP! STOP DON’T– PLEASE NO!!”

The image of those overlarge scissors closing over one of Lloyd’s swollen, broken fingers and slicing through it, snapping bone, spurting blood, flashed through both of Lloyd's and Kai’s minds at the same time. Lloyd felt the cold blade brush against one of his hands and screamed. “NOOOOOOO!!”

The shears snipped closed. Lloyd felt the metal crawl further up his wrist and stopped struggling, though he still trembled with fear. The shears snipped again and Lloyd felt no pain (well, no more pain – every nudge against his fingers caused them to flare up). He craned his head over his shoulder as much as he was able and saw what Morro was doing; he was cutting through the sleeve of Lloyd’s jacket, working the shears up his arm. When he’d reached Lloyd’s shoulder Morro continued snipping the fabric apart up to the neck, separating the top of the zipper from where the hood was attached.

The front right side of the jacket fell and dangled off Lloyd’s body, exposing the lighter green shirt he wore underneath. Morro then slipped the shears under the left sleeve of the jacket and cut it up just the same. When he’d finished, he cut up both sides of the jacket from the bottom, from Lloyd’s waist, up to the cuts in the shoulders. The front of Lloyd’s jacket fell away completely once he’d done so, slipping off his lap to the floor, and Morro pulled the back off from between Lloyd’s arms. He swept the jacket, now in two pieces, aside with his foot. He regarded Lloyd critically, eyes running over the long-sleeved shirt he still wore.

He stood behind Lloyd again and started cutting up the sleeves of the shirt as well.

(What are you planning, you sick fuck?)

Kai’s mental voice was low and dangerous as he watched Morro expose Lloyd to his bare skin.

Just getting them out of the way, assured Morro, peeling the ruined shirt off Lloyd’s back and tossing it aside. He would’ve had a hard time getting them off himself with those hands, after all.

He set the shears back down on the table and leaned against it, looking down at Lloyd in satisfaction. Lloyd looked defiantly back at him, trying to still his shivering. It wasn’t exactly warm inside the barn, despite the fire in the lantern flickering overhead, but it wasn’t too cold either. Still, he felt all too vulnerable with nothing on his torso, and the fact that Morro had migrated his target from Lloyd's hands to his body did not exactly thrill him. He still had a bandage wrapped around his lower abdomen, clean and white, and all that protected Lloyd’s sword wound from Morro’s machinations, whatever they were.

“Alrighty. Here’s our next game.” Morro swept his hand over the rest of the tools on the table, watching Lloyd’s eyes following his movements, before settling on… the carving knife. He held it up by the handle for Lloyd to see, the short, slightly curved blade flashing in the firelight. “I’m going to write a message with this, one letter at a time. You have to guess what letter I’m writing just by feel.”

He went to where the bucket had rolled away and picked it up, then returned with it to Lloyd, stopping at his side and setting the bucket open-end-down next to him. He sat on it, then put a bracing hand on Lloyd’s right shoulder. Lloyd’s heart thundered in his chest, his breathing becoming rapid. He stared at Morro with wide eyes. All anger and defiance had gone from his expression, leaving only horror. “Morro… Please don’t do this.”

Morro studied Lloyd’s right arm, holding the knife’s blade against the skin as though comparing their colors. “Not a lot of room on this scrawny stick of yours, so try not to mess me up. I want it to be very clear. It’s a message to your friends after all.”

He tightened his grip on Lloyd’s shoulder, shoving him back against the chair. By this point Lloyd was practically hyperventilating. “Morro… please…”

“Penalties,” said Morro. He pointed the knife at Lloyd’s cheek. “Every time you guess wrong, or don’t guess at all, I tally it right here.” He indicated Lloyd’s heaving chest. “And I won’t go on to the next letter until you’ve guessed it right. The game only ends when I’ve written the whole message. Sound good?”

Lloyd whimpered and shook his head.

“Too bad.”

Morro held the blade to the top of Lloyd’s upper arm and dug it in.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!”

Lloyd’s head snapped back against the chair back, his Adam’s apple bulging out. As he had done when his fingers had been getting hammered he stamped his foot against the floor. Morro pulled the tip of the blade down Lloyd’s skin, deliberately slowly. Blood beaded up from the lines drawn.

Morro pulled the blade back, not letting go of Lloyd’s shoulder. “What letter was that?” he asked.

Lloyd gasped like a drowning man before answering. “Yuh-… Yoo.”

Morro actually looked impressed. “That’s right! Great job, Lloyd!”

Lloyd thought morbidly of evenings he’d spent as a kid – back when he’d physically looked his age – whiling away around the monastery with Nya while the others had been out on whatever heroic mission or stakeout Wu had set them on. He remembered the soft press of Nya’s finger on his back through his shirt, tracing random shapes and letters. Guess what this is, she’d say.

Oh yes, he was familiar with this game. Just not this particular version of it.

“Next one.”

Lloyd gritted his teeth, but the pain was not any more bearable as the blade dug into his flesh again, and he couldn’t stop himself screaming once more.

(Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop!)

You stay out of this. Morro shoved Kai back to the furthest recesses of his mind. Just watch and enjoy the show.

“So? What is it, Lloyd?”

Lloyd coughed from the strain in his throat, and Morro waited patiently for him to finish. A drop of blood trickled down from the “U” in Lloyd’s arm to the floor.

“Eh-eh-en,” choked Lloyd.

Morro patted his shoulder. “Alright! Guess we’ve figured out where your strengths lie. The motherfucking alphabet!” Morro laughed uproariously, the sound echoing in the large space. “Number three!”

Lloyd jerked his head left and right, trying to shake the agony from his brain as Morro cut him again. He took even slower to do this letter than the previous two, and Lloyd found himself unable to focus on its shape, only wanting it to stop, stop, stop.

When it finally did Lloyd tried buying time when Morro prompted him for his guess, letting himself wait out the stinging pain by breathing hard, in and out. A tear fell from his chin and landed on his belly, just above his bandage, and he wondered vaguely when he’d started crying.

“Well?” demanded Morro.

“Uh-uh… Oh.” gasped Lloyd.

“Wrong,” said Morro, and snicked the knife across Lloyd’s pectoral, leaving a scarlet diagonal. Lloyd groaned between his teeth.

Morro returned the knife to Lloyd’s arm, holding the point to the top of the first stroke of the last letter. “I’ll write it again to give you another chance,” he said lightly. “Pay attention this time.”

(NO, DON’T!)

Lloyd’s throat all but tore open as he screamed again. The sharp point of the blade felt as though it were injecting a burning acid into his wound as it traced along the cuts of the third letter, blood spurting out around its edges. Despite Morro’s restraining hand, Lloyd slammed back and forth against the chair back, pulling and twisting against his cuffs, the pain in his ruined fingers completely forgotten. Morro’s knife slipped and he gave an annoyed “Tch!” as he pulled it away. He started to turn it threateningly towards Lloyd’s chest again when Lloyd bellowed up to the rafters “DOUBLE-YOO, DOUBLE-YOO, DOUBLE-YOOOOO!!”

“One ‘W’,” said Morro, grabbing Lloyd by the neck and pressing him back against the chair until he stopped moving, “but yeah you’re right.” He adjusted his seat on the bucket, nudging it a bit further along Lloyd’s side, before pressing the knife to his arm again. “Next.”

And on it went. Morro had cut the first three letters large enough that there was only room for one more on his upper arm before he had to move down past his elbow. On Lloyd’s forearm he cut four more letters, taking his time with each one, dragging each stroke out to an eternity of burning hot pain. Lloyd’s concentration whittled away to nothing with each cut, his mind leaving no room for anything, no thought, except how much it hurt, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts-!!!... As a result he guessed wrong three more times, eliciting the same number of slashes on his chest, breastbone, and ribs, despite, as Kai screamed at him, unheard from inside Morro’s head, that the word Morro was writing should have been very obvious by the fourth letter, and leading to most of the lower half of the word shining more prominently in thick scarlet than the previous half, as Morro had double cut the letters guessed wrong. Not liking the asymmetry, Morro informed Lloyd he would be going over the letters he’d guessed correctly again, and ignored Lloyd’s hollered protestations of “NONONONONONOPLEASE!PLEASE!!PLEASE!!!”

When the message had finally been carved to Morro’s satisfaction, he swiped the bloodied knife clean with his gloved thumb and forefinger, stood up from the bucket and stretched his arms above his head. He gave a sigh of finality, then swept past Lloyd to the duffel bag dumped on the floor against the wall. Lloyd heard the sounds of him rummaging around in it but didn’t look up. His hair had fallen lankly over his face, his forehead was cold with sweat. A thread of saliva dangled from the corner of his mouth to the floor between his legs where he hung his head, threatening to snap with every shake of his body that was wracked with sobs and coughs. He made no attempt to pull it back in his mouth, nor shake it loose.

Morro straightened up from his excavation of the bag. “Aha!” he said, and Lloyd knew he was lifting up whatever he’d found, but couldn’t bring himself to see what it was. “Here we go! This was actually the hardest thing for me to find, believe it or not. Apparently they don’t make many of these anymore.” Morro’s voice followed his footsteps back to Lloyd’s right side where the message was scrawled, jagged and dripping. Morro seemed to adjust himself, then a bright flash erupted to the accompaniment of a loud click, followed by a brief buzzing sound. Morro laughed quietly to himself for a bit, then stuck something under Lloyd’s nose. “There. What do you think?”

Lloyd was looking at a photograph, a square one with a white border. It showed a sideview of himself in the chair, his expression dead-eyed, a red welt on his cheekbone where Morro had punched him. His hands cuffed behind the chair back were also visible, the unnatural thickness and angles of his fingers a clear testament to the treatment they’d suffered. And on his arm, stretched out almost horizontally because of his leaning forward with his head lowered, the word Morro had carved stuck out prominently against Lloyd’s pale skin, easily legible despite its unevenness.

U N W O R T H Y

(How could you?) Kai’s admonishment had no strength behind it, too consumed with grief as he was. (He’s just a kid… Lloyd… oh Lloyd I’m sorry, I’m so sorry baby brother.)

“Like it?” said Morro. “Won’t your friends be happy to see you again!” He took the photo back and tucked it into his pocket. “I’m gonna go deliver it to them. After that I might come straight back here, I might not, who knows? I didn’t really get to enjoy having a live body again while I was possessing you and you’ve honestly made me nostalgic.” He pinched Lloyd’s cheek where he’d punched him, then turned and strolled back to the exit. “So you can go ahead and pass out, or sleep, or try your luck calling for help again, I don’t care. But whatever you do–” He snapped his fingers, and the fire in the lantern overhead went out with a quiet whoomph! “–you can do it in the dark. See ya later, baby brother.”

When he’d closed the door behind him, the barn became almost pitch dark.

But the blackness did nothing to dispel Kai’s face from Lloyd’s vision, his once friendly features twisted in sadistic glee as he stuck the carving knife into his arm. And though it was Morro’s own voice that had spoken the words, for some reason Lloyd couldn’t help but hear the echo of “See ya later, baby brother” in Kai’s voice instead, and he found himself shivering violently, and, for the next hour or so, couldn’t get himself to stop.

Chapter Text

Before leaving Morro once again dispensed with Lloyd’s gi, bundling it up and tucking it away next to a brush of grass next to the barn wall, keeping the dark green undershirt and putting on Kai’s jeans. He’d grabbed a strip of Lloyd’s sheared shirt as well, stripping off the sleeve and tying it over his head like a bandana. Your stupid hair stands out too much, he said to Kai. I have half a mind to cut it all off.

Normally such a proclamation would’ve filled Kai with horror, but at the moment he was too worked up over Lloyd to care at all about what Morro did to his hair. (You can’t just leave him like that! He was still bleeding, he could die!)

I didn’t cut him that deep, don’t be dramatic. That kind of thing always looks worse than it actually is. That’s the whole point.

(Oh you’ve had experience carving words in people’s arms before, have you?) Kai snarled.

Words, no, said Morro calmly. But I’ve had my fair share of knife fights, and I’ve also been on the receiving end of warning messages like that. Lots of territorial big guys in the slums I grew up in wanting to scare off little kids from their turf. Nothing says ‘back off’ like drawing blood, even if it’s just a little.

(That wasn’t ‘just a little’, that was his whole freaking arm!)

Morro patted Kai’s pockets, checking that the key to Lloyd’s cuffs, Kai’s wallet, and of course the photograph were all present. He’ll survive a few hours. And it’d be a waste to have gone through all that trouble and not let him fully appreciate my work for a bit, he added with a nasty smile.

(Oh you shithead… I swear once I’m free I’m gonna find a way to get you your own body again just to pay you back for this, I will make you go through everything you’ve done to him ten times over, I fucking promise you.)

Good luck with that.

Morro adjusted his black cloak over his shoulders, then summoned his dragon… which in actuality was Kai’s dragon, but a corrupted, ghostly form of it. It was almost hard to see in the afternoon sunlight, but Morro mounted its back with no problem and urged it up into the sky, leaving the barn behind for the third time that day. In no time at all they’d flown out over the ocean, circling around to Ninjago City, its tall spires and skyscrapers visible even from a distance.

As he had the previous times he’d visited, Morro flew the dragon high overhead, just above the clouds, skimming over the rooftops of the buildings below before swooping down on one with a large billboard on one side. He vanished the dragon and walked over to the edge, surveying the city below. Kai watched the tiny cars and pedestrians trundling along through the streets and wondered at the normality of it all, the contrast to the suffocating, scream-filled horror of the barn so striking it made him feel light-headed. Morro felt it too, and he stepped back from the edge cautiously. Don't tell me you’re afraid of heights.

(No, I just got whiplash for a second there. You know, what with torturing my little brother one hour and then casually going into town the next.)

Morro chuckled out loud. Well your whiplash might get a little worse soon, ‘cause I’m thinking about having some lunch. I haven’t eaten at all since I got out of the Cursed Realm and I’m starting to get a hankering for it. Who knew torturing could work up such an appetite?

Kai longed to regain control of his hands again to choke his own neck.

Morro ignored the waves of bloodlust. So, Kai, you know this place better than I do. Where do you suggest a departed soul should go to for his first meal in a flesh and blood vessel?

Kai almost suggested something sarcastic and vulgar, then had a split-second idea. (Chen’s Noodle House is really good…)

Morro contemplated this in silence for awhile. The wind rippled through his cloak and Kai inwardly shivered, wondering if Morro felt the cold too.

Finally Morro shook his head, smiling the way an adult does at a child who’s just given a very silly answer. Nice try, lover boy. Get it through your head that I can see everything that goes on in it, no matter how fast you think you've thought of something. I know you just want me to go there so the Master of Amber will see you.

Kai had known it was a long shot, but disappointment still filled his heart. Skylor would have known something was wrong, he was sure of it.

How about somewhere you won’t be recognized, huh?

(I’m one of the ninja) Kai pointed out irritably. (Someone’s bound to recognize me no matter where we go.)

You’re just one of the ninja, said Morro, walking along each side of the building and scanning the streets below. You’re not the Green Ninja. Without him the rest of you are basically nothing. I think you’re overestimating your importance a bit, don’t you?

Using Airjitzu, Morro suddenly launched himself off the building and glided down to the roof of another, this one shorter than the first. He looked down to the streets below, seeming to have found a target, and dropped down the side of the building again to the alley beneath. As he crept around the corner, Kai saw what had caught his interest – a convenience store across the road, its white fluorescent lights bright even in the day. Morro pulled the neck of his cloak up over his nose and mouth and skulked towards it, walking with his hands in his pockets and affecting a very convincing natural manner despite his shady appearance. A mechanical bell rang out as he opened the door, and he nodded at the cashier’s greeting.

He went straight to the refrigerated lunches. He took some considerable time looking over each item, though Kai couldn’t guess at his thought process as he picked up and put back each one; Morro was only thinking to himself, not to Kai, and evidently the ‘seeing everything that goes on in your head’ ability only worked in one direction, on account of the head they currently shared belonging to Kai, he assumed. This didn’t stop Kai from conjuring up the grossest parallels to each food item he could, discouraging Morro from wanting to take any of them – (I’ve had that before, it tastes like dog shit that’s been left in a puddle of sewage for hours… That one’s so greasy it’ll leak worse than a loaded baby's diaper… That one’s good if you don’t mind a few worms and maggots wriggling down your throat or getting caught between your teeth) – until Morro returned the bento he’d been holding disgustedly and shut him up with, You know the longer we spend here the longer Lloyd will be left on his own to bleed out, dumbass.

Finally Morro settled on three different flavors of onigiri, piling the triangular plastic containers in his arms. He looked up at the TV monitor mounted in the corner of the ceiling, just behind the registry, showing security camera footage of the store. Watching the screen he walked down the aisles to the far end, then raised his free arm and thrust it out. A burst of wind shot out from him, whirling down the aisle and smashing against the shelves so violently that they broke off, spilling food packages and boxes everywhere, and the glass door of an ice cream display shattered completely.

As the few other customers in the store and the man behind the registry counter all left their places to converge on the site of the destruction, Morro slinked by unnoticed to the exit and ducked out. He ran back across the street to the alley and Airjitzu’ed up to the roof of the building again.

(You could’ve just paid for them) grumbled Kai. (I’d rather you have used my money to buy food rather than ‘toys’ for your sick games.)

Stealing’s easier and doesn’t leave a trail. I played it safe at the hardware store because there were more people. Didn’t want to get caught before the game even started.

Kai mulled over the experienced way Morro spoke of fighting and stealing; while Master Wu had told him and the other ninja that Morro had been a homeless orphan when he’d come to the monastery, it hadn’t fully gotten through to him what that meant in regards to Morro’s life before that point. After all, he and Nya had also lived alone without their parents for a long time, and their life hadn’t been too drastically different than anyone else’s. Aware of Morro listening in on his thoughts, Kai quickly stifled his empathy, infinitesimal though it was.

But Morro’s focus had honed in exclusively on the onigiri in his hand. He turned it around several times, studying it from all angles, even sniffing it, before taking a big bite. A shudder of surprise and pleasure wracked his whole body as he chewed, and he closed his eyes. Holy shit that tastes good… I actually forgot that food tastes good. Damn.

(Cool. I hope you choke on it.)

You’re the one who’d be choking, said Morro, enjoying himself too much to put any venom in his rebuttal. He eagerly took another bite.

Morro using Kai’s mouth, his tongue, his teeth, for eating, was without a doubt the weirdest thing Kai had experienced while being possessed so far; he could feel and taste the food just as fully as Morro could, but he had no autonomy over how fast or slow he chewed or when he swallowed. As such he didn’t exactly feel the same amount of satisfaction as Morro did at filling their shared stomach. It rather felt as though he were being force-fed through a tube, and he tried to divert his mind from the process. While Morro unwrapped a second onigiri he gave him a mental poke.

(Hey. When are you planning to let Lloyd go? You can’t actually keep him forever. At the very least–) He paused, hating himself for saying it, (–at the rate you’re going you’ll run out of body parts to maim sooner rather than later.)

Let me worry about that, said Morro, annoyed at being distracted. There’s always more ways to crush a man’s soul. Especially someone as coddled as Lloyd.

(Don’t talk about him as if you understand anything about what his life has been like! Just because you think you had it more rough as a kid doesn’t make you better than him!)

Oh please. I’m not better than him because I had such a sad hard life growing up. I’m better than him because I’m better than everyone! I mastered Airjitzu, I control the wind, I trained hard and defeated all my contemporaries… I was made to be the greatest ninja Master that ever lived! My name should have passed down into legend, but that life was stolen from me!

(By Lloyd?? He didn’t do anything except be born! Why can’t you just accept that that destiny was never yours in the first place? It’s not that hard to move on!)

Morro stopped chewing for a second, lowering his half-eaten onigiri. Is that what you did? Move on and accept the cards that were given to you? While someone you know to be less worthy than you makes off with the destiny that should’ve been yours?

Kai was so taken aback at having the conversation turned on him that he fumbled with his words. (That’s not… I mean, I don’t… I don’t think Lloyd is less worthy than me.)

Sure you do. Gratified at Kai’s uncertainty, Morro resumed eating. I can tell, you know. You’ve done a good job burying your resentment deep inside you, but the longer we stay together like this the easier it gets peeling back the layers of your mind. When I was possessing Lloyd I only needed a meat suit, and he was pretty quiet almost the whole time. But you just won’t stop opening the floodgates, pissing and whining to me about every little thing… You didn’t stop to think that left your own emotions and memories unprotected, did you.

(I have nothing to hide from you) Kai lashed back. (Psychoanalyze all you want. That’s not what I’m talking about right now. I want to know how long you plan on keeping Lloyd locked up. Haven’t you gotten it out of your system yet?)

You think I’m just a sore loser throwing a tantrum, don’t you? You still don’t realize I was serious about grinding Lloyd Garmadon to dust. A few hours isn’t even close to enough for what I want to achieve.

(Which is what?? What do you hope to accomplish before my friends catch up to you and rescue Lloyd, and exorcize your sorry ass back to the Cursed Realm where you belong?)

That would be telling. Morro polished off the last of the onigiri, brushing the sticky rice from his mouth and licking them off his fingers. He burped appreciatively, then stood up and summoned his dragon. Time to stop by a certain tea shop for refreshments.

They flew most of the way to Steep Wisdom, then Morro dispensed of the dragon to walk silently along the pathways, darting between the shadows of the trees, his footsteps hardly rustling the grass. Kai felt his heart lift for the first time that day as the shop came into sight, the Bounty looming behind it. Through the windows, the shop appeared deserted, but Morro waited patiently until he caught a flash of salt and pepper hair; Misako moving around the counter in the shop front, wiping it down.

Seems like the rest are all out looking for you, said Morro. Perfect.

When Misako’s back was turned from the window, Morro used Airjitzu to fly up above the tea shop and land on the roof. Just as he had at the convenience store, he shot a blast of air at the deck of the Bounty below on the other side of the shop, a gale strong enough to tip the whole ship back slightly and splinter through a stack of crates and send barrels flying. The noise brought Misako running out the door, and Kai heard her call out “Lloyd? Is that you?” before she hurriedly climbed up the ropeladder to the deck. Morro quickly jumped down from the shop’s roof and slipped through the front door just before it swung closed.

(You’re gonna get caught) Kai taunted. (She won’t be gone long and then you’ll be trapped here.)

Like that old lady will be able to stop me. Morro opened the door behind the counter to the back room, then walked straight down the hall to the dojo. From there, past the hardwood floor of the training area, several doors led off to the ninja’s bedrooms, but Morro didn’t hesitate at all to head towards the one that belonged to Wu. Kai realized then that Morro was picking out the layout of the shop from Kai’s own mind, as he’d unconsciously pictured it while they walked through his home.

Inside Wu’s room Morro looked around for only a second before he found the perfect place to leave his message; a small butsudan in the corner, displaying a picture of Garmadon as he had looked before joining the ninja on their adventure on Chen’s island. Morro carefully propped the photo of Lloyd against the frame.

Muffled voices could be heard outside the room. Like the ninja he was, Morro darted to the window over Wu’s bed and slipped through it in a flash, leaving no trace of himself in the room aside from the one he’d left deliberately. Outside he used Airjitzu to levitate up to the roof once more, lying flat against the tiles under the shade of a tree looming overhead. He edged along the roof until he was able to peer over to the front of the shop, where he was just able to catch three Elemental Dragons disappear as their masters ran down the path to the shop’s entrance.

(They’re back…)

Just in time, snickered Morro. I almost want to go down and join them just to see their reactions in person. In fact…

Morro waited for the door to shut, then crept over to the side of the building to drop down once again to the grassy floor. Bent double he walked along the wall until he came to a slightly open window, through which the voices of the people inside could clearly be heard.

“No sign of them?”

“No, we searched everywhere and asked around. No one recalled seeing Kai or Lloyd.” Wu sounded dejected and tired. “Anything happen while we were gone?”

“I heard noise on the Destiny’s Bounty,” replied Misako, “but there wasn’t anyone there. I think the ship slipped a bit and things got knocked over.”

“We haven’t searched everywhere,” said Jay. “Only in Ninjago City. For all we know Kai and Lloyd could be on the other side of the Realm!”

“We can’t possibly search all of Ninjago, Jay,” chastised Cole. “Not without any clues. Maybe we could ask Ronin for help?”

“I feel we would only be wasting time trying to enlist his help,” said Zane. “You know he would not do it for free, and we would likely end up on a chase for something else he wants in return.”

“We’ve gotta ask somebody, there’s no way we can do this on our own, even with our dragons!”

“Where did you all look exactly? Did you start with the areas closest to the hospital? Kai wouldn’t have taken Lloyd far, would he?”

“Of course we did, but like we said, no one saw anything–”

As everyone argued and talked over each other, Nya slipped away without anyone noticing. She pulled her shoes off as she trudged to the room she shared with Misako and dropped them indifferently to the floor next to her bed. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Kai’s number for the thousandth time that day, unsurprised but no less disappointed when it went to voicemail. Sighing she sank down on her bed and flopped back, putting her arm over her eyes. Think, Nya. Where would Kai go? Who would attack him and Lloyd?

Well, she could think of several answers to the second question. There was no shortage of enemies the ninja had racked up throughout their years of protecting Ninjago. But most of them were currently safely locked away in Kryptarium Prison. Was this a new enemy they faced? Did someone see an opportunity to take down the Green Ninja while he’d been hospitalized? But how could anyone have known? Lloyd’s recuperation had been kept discrete by the hospital staff, and even Dareth, excitable and exploitative as he was, had been sworn to secrecy before he’d been allowed to visit.

Still… the possibility was not off the table. Had they not only just recently been attacked, unprovoked, by Morro, someone they’d never even known anything about? And he hadn’t even been the first person from Wu’s past to show up with ill intentions. Their master had lived for a very long time… Odds are there were still a few unsavory acquaintances he hadn’t told them about.

Without really thinking about what she would look for, Nya found herself gravitating towards Wu’s room, almost in a trance. And once she entered, she found her gaze drawn inadvertently to the butsudan in the corner. At first she didn’t immediately register that there was anything out of the ordinary there, and she shook her head as though snapping herself back to attention. Then she looked again, blinked several times, and looked closer.

In three strides she came up to the butsudan and snatched up the small square photograph.

“Maybe this is all a prank,” Cole’s voice echoed from the dojo. “Maybe Kai and Lloyd will show up on their own later and just did all this to mess with us.”

Nya didn’t hear Jay’s retort to this suggestion, loud though it was. Her eardrums were pounding thunderously. Her stomach dropped lower and lower with each detail she took in.

Blood, such red blood… ‘Unworthy’… His hands were cuffed… Why did his fingers look like that?... His face had been beaten… His eyes, his eyes were dead… Was he –… Was he dead? Was he dead?

She sank to the floor, never taking her eyes off the picture in her shaking hands.

Dimly she became aware of a voice calling her name.

“Nya? Nya, where’d you go?”

Jay spared a cursory glance into Wu’s room, then darted back in when he saw Nya. “Nya! What are you doing here?” He put a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t even look up. “Nya? What’s wrong? What is that?”

“Jay? Oh, uh…” Cole hesitated in the doorway, but Zane pushed past him without preamble.

“Nya, let me see.” Jay shook her shoulder urgently.

“Nya? Your heartbeat has risen to an alarming rate,” said Zane. He kneeled down on the floor next to her and put a hand on her wrist. “What is it that’s distressing you?” Gently but firmly he pulled her hand towards him and plucked the photo from her. She didn’t resist.

Zane stood up, and Jay and Cole pressed on either side of him. “What is that?” asked Cole.

There was a shocked silence as they took it all in.

“… Oh my God…”

“I’m gonna… I’m gonna be sick.” Jay turned away and leaned against the footboard of Wu’s bed.

“Is… Is he…?” Cole clenched his hand into a shaking fist.

Zane shook his head. “No, no he can’t be… Why would they leave us this if he was?” He looked down at Nya still on the floor. “Did it come with anything else? A ransom note? Where did you find it, Nya?”

Nya trembled. “On the… on Garmadon’s shrine…” She gestured towards it.

Zane studied the picture again, his eyes narrowed in pain. “Lloyd… Who… who would do something like this?”

Nya hugged herself and said nothing.

“We have to tell Master Wu,” said Cole, taking the photo and turning to the doorway.

Nya stood up quickly. “Wait! Not right now. Misako is with him. She can’t…” She covered the photo with her hand and pushed it down. “She can’t see him like that.”

Cole nodded grimly and tucked the photo in his pocket.

“Lloyd…” choked out Jay.

“Whoever did this is gonna pay,” growled Cole.

“If there were only any clues to find out who it is,” said Zane. “Aside from the fact that they clearly don't… have a great opinion of Lloyd. And that their motivation seems to be to cause emotional stress to Master Wu.”

Nya looked at him in surprise. “You think?”

“Why else leave it in his room?”

The four of them mulled this over, none coming to a conclusion they liked the sound of.

Jay suddenly snapped his fingers. “His room! That means someone’s been in here!”

“Without being seen by Misako,” added Cole. “And if they knew this was Wu’s room, that means they’ve been here before…”

“Kai…” whispered Nya. Zane put a hand on her shoulder. “Do you think… Do you think he was threatened to do this? With Lloyd…” She covered her mouth, too horrified at all the images rushing through her head to continue.

Wow. Your friends might not be as dumb as I thought they were. Morro carefully stepped back into the shadow of a tree, out of sight of the windows. It’s annoying that they found my message before Wu, but I’m thinking it’s time we got outta here.

Kai was too overcome to answer. The frustration at being so close to his sister and brothers, hearing their voices not a few feet away and separated only by a wall, and not being able to call out to them… it felt like he might explode. The only solace he could find out of the situation was the proof that Morro’s rash eagerness to show off would likely lead to his own downfall, if he had a mind to do something similar again after this.

If Morro heard this observation of Kai’s he chose to ignore it, focusing instead on finding the right moment to move away from his hiding place unnoticed. The young ninjas had seemingly taken their discussion away from their master’s room as their voices faded away from the window, and Morro turned on his heel and sprinted away from the tea shop, staying on the soft grass. When he’d gone far enough he summoned the corrupted fire dragon once more and flew off into the sky.

Chapter Text

To Kai’s agitation, Morro did not fly the dragon in the direction of the barn, but back to Ninjago City, where he landed on the roof of a building once more. He said nothing as he observed the activity in the streets below, and Kai soon became impatient after a full minute had passed. (Alright you’ve delivered your message. Now let’s quickly get back to Lloyd.)

I’m calling the shots here. And I’m not quite ready to go back yet.

He reached under his cloak and pulled something out by its strap, looped over his shoulder. It was the instant camera he’d taken Lloyd’s picture with.

Kai was dubious. (When the heck did you bring that?)

Before I left, obviously. Guess you were too busy being annoying to notice.

(Well, what did you bring it for? Birdwatching??)

Morro smirked and lifted the camera to his eye. Something like that…

When Cole showed the photo of Lloyd to Wu, after Zane had offered to take Misako on his dragon to talk to the hospital again, Wu looked just as he had when Morro had first appeared at Steep Wisdom in Lloyd’s body. That is, he looked as though he’d seen a ghost. He blanched almost as white as his beard, and his hand shook as he held the photo. Cole, Jay, and Nya could find nothing to say, avoiding each others’ gazes.

“This… Ah… This can’t…” For the first time since they’d known him, the ninjas’ master seemed at a loss for words.

Cole put a hand on his elbow bracingly. “Sensei, maybe you should sit down?” he suggested.

Wu snapped his eyes from the photo to give him an irritated look. “I’m old, Cole, not decrepit. There’s no time to be sitting around.” He gripped his staff tightly. “Morro has my nephew.”

“Morro?” said Jay. “Woah, Sensei, hang on a minute. How can you possibly know that?”

“It must be him,” said Wu. “He left this for me. To show that he hasn’t forgiven me. Because he was denied the title himself, he wants me to see that he can do whatever he wants with the Green Ninja.” Wu lowered his head so that his hat hid his eyes. “When the Golden Weapons didn’t react to him and he refused to accept it… I told him it must be because he was unworthy.”

“But,” said Cole, “how could it be Morro? I thought he was gone for good after Kai, you know… I mean he can’t be possessing Lloyd anymore, we can still use our powers.”

“Not to mention it’d be pretty hard to write like that on your own arm, much less with a knife,” said Jay with a shaky laugh. Cole punched his shoulder. "Ow..."

“He doesn’t need to possess someone to harm Lloyd,” Wu reminded them. “He only possessed Lloyd before because he needed a Spinjitzu Master.” He looked at Nya. “However, if he is possessing someone, the most likely person would be…”

“Kai?” she answered. “I thought of that too.”

Jay and Cole stared at her in horror as the same thought crossed their minds. “Are you saying,” said Jay slowly, “that Morro did that to Lloyd… while possessing Kai?”

“It’s a possibility…”

“Man…”

“Let’s not assume the worst case scenarios here,” said Cole hurriedly. “Maybe Kai is just being held prisoner too.”

“That’s your best case scenario?”

“Whatever the case,” cut in Wu, “the likelihood that it is Morro who is behind this narrows down our search; there aren’t many places where he could keep them without being noticed, much less places he would be familiar enough with to feel this confident. You ninja go find Zane and tell him to bring Misako back here. I have to break this to her gently. Then he’ll join you in your search.”

“Where are we looking this time?” asked Jay, trying to keep the whine out of his voice for Nya’s sake; he didn’t relish the thought of flying around randomly looking for a needle in a haystack again.

Wu flashed him a look full of foreboding. “Our old home, and Morro’s. The monastery.”

Lloyd’s eyes had adjusted to the gloom. The daylight outside was just bright enough to penetrate through the thin spaces of the wood boarded walls of the barn a little. But while he could see the outline of the table in front of him and even the black shadowy puddles of the remains of his shirt and jacket on the floor, if he craned his neck enough, there wasn’t much else to look at. The one high window had been boarded up well, and the far end of the barn behind him where the entrance was faded into deep shadow, giving him a strange feeling of vertigo if he looked that way for longer than a few seconds.

Unlike the last time he’d been left alone, Lloyd quickly gave up trying to free himself from the chair; though the pain in his arm was no worse than a constant sting – well, multiple stings, eight letters’ worth to be exact – it was cold and sticky with blood, and Lloyd deduced he was losing enough of it to drain him of a significant amount of energy. He felt exhausted and dizzy, and it was tiring even trying to keep his head up or sit upright. After a bit of wiggling he managed to shift his cuffed wrists lower down the chair back so he could slouch in his seat and rest his head and shoulders. His fingers sent bolts of hot fiery pain with every movement, the broken pointer of his right hand so heated it felt like it would burst its skin. Nothing could distract him from it, and he spent an indeterminate amount of time just clenching his teeth, groaning and banging his head against the chair back.

Just how long would Kai be gone? Did he even want him to come back? Him coming back would likely mean more agony, wouldn’t it? But the thought of just being left here alone in the dark, miles from anyone, was also frightening. And not knowing which would happen was even more frightening still. How many hours had passed since he’d been brought here, anyway? It couldn’t have been a full day, yet it felt like forever… Had Kai delivered his ‘message’? Had his friends and family seen what had been done to him yet? What would they think when they did, what would they do? What had his mother thought? God, he hoped she hadn’t taken it too hard… and he hoped even more that she and the others had some idea now about how to find him… Ugh, his fingers hurt, his arm was numb and cold. Pain, pain, pain, how was he supposed to sleep like this? Was he sleepy? Sleep might be good. He was tired, and frankly, more than a little bored. Just go to sleep, go to sleep…

“Go to sleep, Lloyd.”

“I’m not tired…” he said, his head nodding.

“Even ninja need their rest. Go on, Kai will take you to bed.”

“Why do I have to-? Oh fine. Jay do NOT un-pause my game!”

An unnaturally warm hand took his and pulled him along. He walked with his eyes half-closed, bumping against the owner of the hand. Its side felt hot too.

“Mm, Kai you’re warm.”

“I am the fire ninja, after all.” The warmth pulled away from him.

In his room. He was stopped before he could fall into his bed. “Woah there, sleepyhead. Get into your pj’s first.”

He made a noise of protest.

“You’re not sleeping in your gi, okay? Come on, you don’t need my help.”

He tried pulling his hands through his sleeves, but he couldn’t move them. They were stuck to his sides.

An exasperated sigh. “Fine, I’ll get it off for you.”

Cold metal against his wrists. A snipping sound. His shirt fell away and he shivered.

“Did Wu ever tell you about me?”

“No.”

He looked up and saw only glowing red eyes in a shadowy face. The figure reached down and took his hand again. Its own hand was burning hot.

“Do you enjoy being the Green Ninja?”

“No, Kai, I just want to sleep.”

His pointer finger was gripped tightly in a fiery fist.

“Tell me which one.”

“Not today, okay? I have to go home.”

His finger was bent back on itself. The figure came closer. He could see its face now.

“You are home.”

Suddenly Kai had a sword in his hand. “Tell me fast, before I choose.”

“That’s not fair,” he whined. “You have to let go of me first.”

“Wrong answer.”

The sword was rammed through his stomach. He gasped in shock. Kai’s face filled his whole vision, leering down at him.

“See ya later, baby brother.”

“No! No! Kai, stop!” Lloyd shouted and thrashed and jolted awake, then winced and swore at the sharp twinge of pain that shot up from his fingers at the sudden movement. He blinked furiously at the dark, trying to see if it had changed in any way. Had he slept for a long time or only a few minutes? It was impossible to tell. He sank back down in the chair and tried to get his breathing under control.

Was his stomach alright? He strained his hands trying to bring them to his front to feel it, before remembering they were cuffed behind his back. It was just a dream, it didn’t happen, he told himself.

Except, it had… Not in that exact way, but it was something that had happened in the real, waking world, and not too long ago. Kai had run him through with a sword. Kai had asked him those questions. Kai had-

Lloyd stiffened as he realized his mistake. A cold chill ran up his spine.

Kai… He had been thinking of Kai this whole time. Thinking of when Kai would come back, dreaming of Kai interrogating him, remembering when Kai had… But it wasn’t Kai who’d brought him here. It wasn’t Kai who’d mercilessly used his arm as a carving board, or smashed his fingers to a pulp. It had only looked like Kai. It hadn’t even sounded like him! How could Lloyd’s subconscious have mixed it up?

Morro was nothing like Kai. Kai would never, ever, have voluntarily done the things Morro had made him do. He should not be having nightmares about Kai. Kai was the one who would save him if the others couldn’t.

And yet… he hadn’t managed it till now. Aside from that brief moment he’d wrested control from Morro and stopped one hammer strike, there hadn’t been a single sign of Kai’s emergence. Lloyd had had experience being possessed, he knew how difficult it was to regain autonomy for even a few seconds, but… wouldn’t it be different if he were being forced to do something like this? Wouldn’t being forced to torture and maim someone he cared about, someone he loved, be enough motivation to try a bit harder? Like when people got an adrenaline rush that allowed them to lift heavy objects off of children who were being crushed. Morro had said Kai could hear and see everything…

Had Lloyd’s suffering not affected him at all?

Lloyd groaned and even stamped his foot angrily against the floor. The thump echoed loudly in the empty space. What was wrong with him? How could he actually be blaming Kai in this situation? It was Morro, it was all Morro. He had to keep his subconscious in check, he could not let Morro get into his head. For surely part of the reason he’d chosen to play his ‘games’ while possessing Kai was for that exact purpose. Lloyd didn’t know why, he didn’t see how it benefited Morro to make Lloyd afraid of his own brother, but he could not let him succeed. Morro might hold physical power over him, but he would find it far more difficult to gain control of his mind.

Resolved, Lloyd tried going back to sleep. It felt like an eon had passed before he managed it.

Nya carefully sifted through the debris until she’d unearthed what she’d seen the corner of: a picture in a cracked and dusted glass. She wiped the surface clear, then sighed at what she saw. A shadow passed over her shoulder, darkening the picture.

“Find something?” asked Jay.

While it annoyed her a little to have him hover over her like that – she knew he’d been disappointed that she’d opted to ride behind Cole this time (she’d have to make sure to sit with Zane on the return journey just to make it clear there was no importance attached to whom she chose to ride with… This would all be so much easier if she could manifest her own dragon.) – there wasn’t any real reason to snap at him. So she just lifted the picture into the light for him to see. It was of her and Kai, arm in arm in front of a nice view. She remembered it hanging on the wall in one of the now demolished hallways of the monastery.

“Nothing really,” she said. “Nothing helpful, anyway.”

Jay’s expression fell. “Hey, Nya… I know things don’t look so great right now, but… you know we won’t give up until we find them.”

He offered her his hand to help her up. She took it.

On the other side of the remains of the monastery, Zane and Cole stopped searching and shook their heads at each other. Neither of them had found anything helpful either.

Nya pulled the photo from its glass. She took a deep breath and let it out. “Alright,” she said, her voice loud and business-like. “It’s clear they aren’t here. You guys think so too?”

“Yeah, we even checked the trap doors and underground storage,” said Cole, stepping around the mounds of broken wood and stone towards them. “Can’t see where else they could be.”

“In retrospect, it wouldn’t make much sense for Morro to be here if he didn’t want to be found,” said Zane. “If he intended that message for Master Wu, he must have known this would be the first place he’d think to send us.”

“Then we’re back to square one?” Cole sighed. “Or do we ask Master Wu where else Morro might hang out?”

“I feel we would end up running around in circles.” Zane tapped his chin in contemplation. “Morro sent that message because he was confident Master Wu wouldn’t be able to guess where he is keeping Lloyd.”

“Ugh, this is such a waste of time!” burst out Jay. “We can’t keep looking around blindly based on guesses. Who knows what that psychopath could be doing to Lloyd next? Not to mention Kai.” He stopped and glanced back at Nya guiltily. “Sorry, Nya.”

“No, you’re right,” she said. “We lost our chance to find them by just flying around a long time ago. We have to trace things back to the beginning. And… we might need help doing that.”

“What kind of help?”

“The traditional kind,” she said grimly. “Like the Ninjago Police Department.”

The boys looked at each other, seemed unable to think of any reason to disagree, and nodded.

“Great. Then let’s head back. Zane, I’ll ride with you.”

She folded the picture of her and her brother and tucked it in her pocket.

Out of the handful of photos Morro had taken, he set aside two in particular. The rest he picked up and incinerated in his hand, the flames and ashes blowing out in the wind. I gotta admit, this power of yours is pretty cool.

Kai was roiling with anxiety and anger. (I swear if you go near any of them, if you even look at them again-)

You’re gonna strain yourself adding more people to your worry list. Just keep your thoughts on the Green Ninja for now. We’re finally going back to him, you’ll be happy to know. Only this time… He picked up the two remaining photos. I’ll come bearing gifts.

Chapter Text

Although Kai wore a watch, Morro hadn’t bothered to check the time once. The day had turned cloudy and the sun was out of sight, so Kai had no idea how long they’d been gone. It felt like it had been entirely too long to him, and the apprehension was all but killing him, to the point that even Morro felt it prominently enough to be annoyed. Aren’t you supposed to be a ninja, for crying out loud? Stop getting so worked up.

(Just hurry. Please.)

Morro rolled his eyes.

Light spilled into the barn when he opened the door, but he once again shot a ball of fire up at the lantern hanging from the roof to illuminate it further. Lloyd’s back was to them at the far end. He didn’t react to the sound of Morro’s footsteps as he approached. Kai’s heart continued to hammer until he saw Lloyd’s full condition as Morro circled around to his front.

Lloyd was slumped low in his seat, his head resting on his shoulder. His left arm was a fright, splattered in russet red, the blood having dripped, dried, and stained down from the letters in such a ruinous mess that the word ‘unworthy’ was just barely legible. His eyes were closed and sunken, framed by bluish bags. His face was clammy looking and pale, strands of hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. If he was breathing it wasn’t apparent, and Kai felt the world falling away from him.

(No… no no no no… LLOYD!)

Don’t panic, he’s probably just passed out. Morro removed one of his gloves and pressed his fingers to the base of Lloyd’s neck. Both he and Kai felt how weak and slow his pulse was.

“See, he’s fine,” Morro said out loud. “But… tsk.” Suddenly his movements became hurried as he swept up Lloyd’s shirt from the floor. Almost angrily he tore off the sleeve, stripped it in two and used the pieces to bind Lloyd’s arm, wrapping them all the way up from his wrist to his shoulder. After tying them off he bent down in front of Lloyd and tapped his face sharply. “Hey. Lloyd. Wake up! Wake up, dammit.”

Lloyd’s eyes fluttered open.

Morro smiled. “There he is. You were starting to worry me there, little buddy.”

The words and the relieved cadence with which they were spoken did more to bring Lloyd back to awareness than the light slaps. He looked at Morro with tentative hope. “Kai…?”

Morro made a face. “I keep forgetting.” He closed his eyes for a moment, and his hair darkened to black, his skin to green.

Lloyd recoiled and made a despairing noise. “No…” he groaned. “No, no.”

“What, not happy to see me?” said Morro in his own voice, patting Lloyd’s cheek. “But I’ve brought you a present this time!” He straightened up and pulled the last of the onigiri he’d stolen from the convenience store out of his pocket. He opened the plastic container and tossed it aside, then unwrapped a corner and held the rice ball to Lloyd’s mouth. “Eat up. We can’t keep playing if you don’t get some strength back.”

Lloyd tiredly opened his mouth and took a bite. He felt humiliated to be fed this way, as if he were an animal or infant, but he was too hungry and light-headed to protest. Morro said nothing as Lloyd slowly made his way through the onigiri.

When he finished he muttered, “Thirsty.”

Morro brought him the milk bucket, half filled with pond water again. In his eagerness to wash down the saltiness of the onigiri and soothe his raspy throat, Lloyd didn’t even consider trying to spit the water at Morro as he had last time. When he’d drunk his fill he shivered and said, “I’m cold.”

“Well that’s good!” said Morro. “Cause our next game involves something I’m sure will warm you up in no time.”

Lloyd closed his eyes, partly to hide his disappointment; he’d hoped Morro might have had enough of his ‘fun’ for the day now that he’d dropped off his message to the others.

“This time around, though, you’ll get a special prize! That’s part of what took me so long to get back; I had to do a bit of running around to get them just right for you.” Morro pulled the makeshift bandana off his head and set the camera down on the table as he talked. He took out the pair of photos from his pocket, and set one of them carefully down on the floor in front of Lloyd.

Lloyd kept his eyes closed.

“Hey,” said Morro, impatient, “open your eyes and look. You’ll want to see this, trust me.” He tapped the floor next to the photo with his foot.

Reluctantly, Lloyd opened his eyes, keeping them lowered to the floor. When he saw the photograph his expression changed from one of uneasiness to confusion.

The picture showed a boy of about eight to ten years old. He wore a purple jacket and bicycle helmet. He had a look of passive contentment on his face, his head turned askance, presumably waiting for traffic to pass. Lloyd frowned at the image, wondering what it was supposed to mean.

“Uh-huh,” said Morro, as though Lloyd had asked a question. “There. This kid’s name is Nelson. He was riding around on a bicycle today. I followed him home. He lives in an apartment in Ninjago city. Based on all the stuff in his room he seems to be a big fan of you ninja.”

Lloyd’s uneasiness returned in full force. He kept his gaze lowered.

Morro slapped the second photo down next to the first one. “Now you probably don’t need me to introduce these two.”

The picture had been taken from afar through a window. An elderly couple sat together at a table, coffee cups in hand and smiling at each other. Lloyd recognized them immediately.

Ed and Edna Walker.

“Jay’s parents,” he said in a hushed voice.

“Bingo. I know where they live too. Plucked the location right from the red ninja’s mind.” Morro nudged the corner of the photo with his toe. “Doesn’t surprise me they live in a literal dump. Out of all you pieces of garbage, that blue ninja did seem like the lowest of trash.”

(Fuck you!) raged Kai, forgetting for the moment that he himself had called Jay trash more than once before.

Lloyd tried to keep his breathing even, not wanting to give Morro the satisfaction of seeing him unsettled. “Why did you take these?”

“I’m glad you asked. See, I figured you’d have gotten bored of being the only one playing my games, so I wanted to introduce some new players for this one. They don’t exactly know they’re playing yet, but it’s alright for now. Like I said, they’re also the prize at the end. It depends how well you hold out.”

“Get to the point already,” said Lloyd through clenched teeth.

Morro grabbed a fistful of his hair and jerked his head up, and Lloyd quickly screwed his eyes shut again. “The point, Lloyd,” Morro growled, “is this; I’m in the mood to play with fire. I haven’t had a chance to make use of your beloved red ninja’s powers yet. Specifically, I think a bit of arson sounds like a pretty good way to spend the evening. Bet you that cures my frustration for awhile.” He brought his face right up close to Lloyd’s, almost nose-to-nose, and Lloyd felt his breath against his eyelids. “And I want you to be the one to choose. A stranger, or the family of a teammate? Which would the heroic Green Ninja deem more important to save?”

Lloyd almost opened his eyes from shock but resisted. “What?”

(You unspeakable sadistic fuck…)

“You heard me.” Morro let him go, backed up to the table of tools, and picked up… the iron fireplace poker. It was the kind that had a long hooked end, the flat of which was perpendicular to the rod. In one hand Morro created a flame, with the other he held the hook of the rod in the middle of the fire’s tongues. Lloyd didn’t see this, as he’d diverted his gaze resolutely to the floor again, where the unknowing faces of the boy and Jay’s parents mocked him. “Whichever one you pick, I go out again tonight and set fire to their home while they’re asleep. Survival is completely up to fate, and we both know how well fate seems to favor you, so I’d say you have a good chance of winning this thing. That is, getting an outcome of no one dying. Whatever happens I’ll let you know tomorrow morning.”

The firelight danced tauntingly over the photos.

“But just to make sure the game doesn’t end too early, ‘cause that’d be no fun, you have to complete a challenge before you make your choice.” Morro turned the iron rod slowly in the flame. It had turned a glowing red color but was already brightening. “You have to count to… let’s say thirty. That’s a nice round number. And we’ll keep track with this.” He extinguished the flame and waved the now dangerously bright orange end of the rod under Lloyd’s nose. Lloyd felt its heat in the space between and pulled back sharply, shutting his eyes once more.

(No, no, no, no…) Kai had run out of words. His thoughts were nothing but a stream of denial.

“Hehehe… Clear on the rules?”

Lloyd’s voice shook as he spoke. “You can’t make me choose something like that. This doesn’t make any sense!”

Morro looked down at him pitilessly, his gaze as cold as the poker was hot. “Hm. Well I don’t feel like repeating myself. And this is going to cool down soon if we waste any more time, so I’m just gonna start. You’ll catch on quick, I’m sure.”

(NO, DAMMIT!)

Lloyd braced himself, unable to see where the brand was coming but tensing his entire body for it. He pressed himself back against the chair, sucked in his stomach, tucked his head in, unable to stop these involuntary attempts to hide despite knowing there was no escape.

It wasn’t enough to prepare him for the agony.

The thick line of hot metal pressed against his shoulder, just under his collar bone. Had Lloyd not known what was happening, he might have thought the flesh there had been clipped out in one piece, in a single clawed swipe that spanned several seconds; the heat was so intense it didn’t burn, it bit, it dug into his skin and pierced through to his very being. The animal cry that was forced out of his throat was nothing like the screams of pain Kai had had to endure hearing before. It wasn’t just voiced discomfort this time. It was a sound that came from the depths of a soul in excruciation.

Morro kept the poker pressed against him for about five seconds before removing it, creating a flame in his free hand again to reheat it. Lloyd gasped and coughed and shuddered, but still with his eyes closed shut the whole while. On his left shoulder there was now a dark pink, half-inch thick line mark.

Morro said nothing, so Lloyd received no warning for when he pressed the end of the poker to his skin again, this time against the right side of his chest. The line of white-hot metal crossed over the hair-thin cut Morro had put there before, the penalty for guessing the wrong letter a few hours ago. Once again the inhuman scream ripped through Lloyd’s throat, his head thrown so far back his nose pointed straight upward.

Five slow seconds and the metal was removed again. Lloyd’s voice took a few seconds longer to fade out to a low sob.

(No no no no no no…)

Morro tapped his finger against the hook of the poker, deemed it sufficiently burning hot still, then jabbed it into Lloyd’s side. His face showed no emotion as Lloyd writhed and screamed again, as Kai continued to lament inside his head.

When he lowered the poker after the allotted five seconds, this time, he spoke. “I’m not going to keep track, by the way. You’re the one who has to let me know when we’ve reached thirty. So what does this make it?”

Lloyd’s teeth chattered and he sucked in a breath between them. “Th-th-three,” he obliged.

“Good.” Morro’s voice didn’t change tone. He observed Lloyd with the air of waiting for a certain reaction. Not getting what he was looking for, he fired up his hand again. “Keep counting.”

The burn marks increased. Aside from Lloyd’s bound left arm and his neck and face, every inch of his torso was a potential target.

“S-s-seven…”

Morro chose the locations randomly, so Lloyd had no idea where to expect the next searing chunk of torment. At one point his head was roughly shoved down and the iron burned into his back, between the shoulder blades.

“Nngh! … Twelve.”

(No, thirteen. That was thirteen, he already did twelve, tell him!)

I told him he had to keep track. Not my problem if he messes up.

But Morro was still annoyed about something. He lowered the poker and just looked at Lloyd for a moment, even as the metal started to cool. Lloyd’s face shined with tears and sweat, his shoulders heaving with suppressed sobs. By this point he looked as though he’d contracted a severe case of hives, one that manifested only in finger-length straight lines.

But his eyes were still unyieldingly closed.

“Okay, I gotta know,” said Morro. “What’s with the blind man act?”

Lloyd pressed his lips together, focusing on redirecting his breathing through his nose.

“Is this some kind of trick? Like if you can’t see it coming it’ll somehow make it hurt less? That makes no sense.”

Lloyd said nothing, silently relishing in the unexpected reprieve.

In a way it was a trick, but not for the reason Morro guessed. Lloyd’s brain had been tricked. The rational part of him knew it was Morro, but what he saw when he opened his eyes was Kai. He had to trick his brain again to counter the first trick, to accept the truth; if he couldn’t see Kai and only heard Morro’s voice, then it could only be Morro subjecting him to this nightmare.

He might not be able to protect his body, but he would protect his sanity. Ninja never quit, after all.

Morro huffed in irritation. “You’re starting to piss me off, Lloyd. Hearing you scream and cry like a baby is all good, but I can’t see the fear in your eyes if you keep them closed. I want you to look at me. I want–”

Abruptly he stopped, and Lloyd didn’t see the sadistic glee creep up on his face as understanding dawned on him. “Wait a minute… That’s it, isn’t it? You don’t want to see me.” He grabbed Lloyd by the chin and pulled his face towards his own. Lloyd whimpered in fright at the unexpected contact but still refused to open his eyes. “You don’t want to see your pwecious big bwutha huwting you, do you? Aww, how about that? Saw right through me, huh?” He patted his cheek and stroked his hair, eliciting another frightened whine.

(Oh, Lloyd…)

“Well good job figuring it out, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna let you get away with this. There’d be no point in using this meat sack if you won’t appreciate it, and if I can’t use him then I’ll have to get rid of him. After all, he might tell on us if I just let him go, and then all our fun will have to stop.”

Finally Lloyd’s eyes sprang open. His heart fought like a caged bull, ramming itself against his chest. He looked wildly up at Morro, who’d stepped back to the table and put down the fireplace poker, to pick up the knife instead. He brought it up to his neck, to Kai’s neck, and pressed the point against his jugular. “Say goodbye, Lloyd.”

“NO! NO NO DON’T! DON’T!!”

“Why not?” said Morro, and for some reason in that moment, with a cocky grin on his face and his eyebrows raised in a joking, daring arch, he looked more like Kai than ever. “If you don’t like it, then I don’t need this body.”

“No! No, please, please not Kai, please don’t hurt him–”

“I’m not hearing a convincing argument here,” sang Morro.

The pain in Lloyd’s chest as his heart continued to hammer now overrode every other injury he’d sustained. His face and neck felt hotter than the worst of his burns. He struggled to speak through gasps of breath. “You're bluffing. If… If you kill him you won’t be able to use fire anymore. This game will be over before it’s even reached the halfway point.”

Morro conceded with a nod. “True. But I can always get another Elemental Master – I’m sure we could have some great fun with the lightning ninja’s powers – whereas you’d still have a dead fire ninja. The sacrifice isn’t a big deal for me. Can the same be said for you?”

Lloyd silently pleaded Morro with his eyes. Kai ached to reach out to him. He felt so helpless, so uselessly insignificant, feeling his own hand pressing a knife to his neck while his little brother begged him not to kill himself, with the cuts and burns and broken bones that same hand had inflicted still not even close to healing. Lloyd may have feared for his sanity, but Kai was already one step away from losing his own.

“I’m waiting, Lloyd. Yes or no?” The knife point dug into Kai’s neck slightly; a drop of blood ran down and disappeared under the neck of his shirt.

Lloyd shook his head defeatedly. “No. No, it can’t.”

“So…?”

“I’ll keep my eyes open. I p-promise.”

Morro put the knife down. He patted Lloyd’s head again. “Good. Now let’s get back on track.” He picked up the iron poker and engulfed the end in flames once more. “Do you remember where we were?”

Lloyd sniffed and shook his head again.

(What? Lloyd, no! Thirteen! Thirteen!)

“Okay, I’ll help you just this once,” said Morro innocently. “It was nine.”

Lloyd said nothing for a moment, looking at the floor where the photographs lay. Then he nodded slowly.

(Lloyd?! No way, you know that’s a lie! What are you doing??)

Guess he really does like it rough, huh? But there was a note of knowing amusement in the way Morro said this that made Kai wonder if he’d understood something Kai hadn’t.

“Alright then.” Morro lifted the poker and purposefully slowly brought the glowing hook end close to Lloyd's face. He laughed at Lloyd cringing back, pressing himself flat against the chair back and turning his head away from the iron. Morro nudged it to within a millimeter in front of Lloyd's cheek and held it there for a second, then whipped it down and stabbed it against Lloyd’s sternum.

“nnnggrraaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!”

One…

Lloyd couldn’t even hear himself scream anymore.

two…

He didn’t even half a mouth to scream with.

three…

He was nothing but screaming.

four…

His entire world consisted of nothing but the pinpoint supernova on his chest. Pain, pain, pain, pain–

five.

The world slammed back around him once more as the iron was removed. His throat closed up, his lungs demanded air, and each one of the previous phantom hurts vied for his attention in the vacuum left by the latest explosion.

And still Morro looked at him expectantly.

“Hahh… Ahh… uhuhh… nnn… n-nine.”

“Perfect.”

(Oh Lloyd, no, God no…)

The game continued.

There wasn’t a single moment of silence from Lloyd from that point on, nor was he able to hold still; his whole body became wracked with an uncontrollable shaking, and he was constantly short of breath. In the brief intervals between each branding, he cried, gasped, coughed, mewled, moaned, and whined, only stopping long enough to croak out a consecutive number.

Except, the numbers weren’t always consecutive. When he missed count again and said “fifteen” instead of “eighteen”, Kai thought for sure that the pain had scrambled his head. When it happened again and Lloyd gave a number five counts behind the last one, Kai began to wonder incredulously if it were on purpose.

(Why?! Why is he letting you do this to him?!)

I told you man, he’s a closeted masochist, guffawed Morro.

(No, no, there has to be a reason, he can’t take any more! Lloyd! LLOYD!!)

Hey, shut the fuck up, you’re distracting me. Morro caught himself and removed the poker from Lloyd’s midriff, having left it a few seconds longer than usual; the skin there was a darker shade of red than the rest of the burns. It’s up to him to decide how much more he can take. He’s got determination if nothing else, I’ll give him that.

(But why?)

Well, let’s ask him, shall we?

“Hey Lloyd. You sure you learned to count in that evil school you went to?”

Lloyd hiccupped. His nose had started to run.

“Not that I’m complaining, but we’re taking quite a while to reach the big three-oh, aren’t we? What’s the hold-up?”

The Vengestone cuffs clinked together loudly as Lloyd shook. He rested his head back against the chair and looked at Morro with bloodshot eyes. “You… c-can’t… make m-me… choose.”

“The prizes, you mean?” Morro shook his head. “You poor stupid sob. What’s your plan? To keep this going as long as possible until you pass out? That’s not going to stop me. If I don’t get a pick from you, I’ll just go after both of them.”

“No,” rasped Lloyd. “That’s an… empty threat. You don’t… care about them… that much. You j-just… want me. That’s the only… only purpose you have… left in your… m-miserable ex-s-s-istence.”

“I don’t make empty threats, Lloyd,” said Morro dangerously. “You don’t want to test me on this. It wouldn’t inconvenience me in any way to burn down that kid’s whole building and that entire junkyard on the way back. I could sit and watch all of Ninjago burn to the ground, and I’ll make you watch with me. Keep playing the martyr, it makes no difference to me, but I’m telling you right now: you’re not going to achieve anything. Either you decide one person’s fate, or I decide three. There isn’t going to be any other outcome.”

He burned the end of the poker once more. “So. What number are you on now?”

Lloyd’s eyes widened. He suddenly burst out in a manic laugh. “I f-f-forgot.”

What do you think, hotshot?

(Twenty-nine!!)

Har har. I’d burn you too if you weren’t immune.

“I’d say seventeen. Bend your head, there’s no more room left on your front.” He held Lloyd’s head down by the neck and pressed the rod to his back. Lloyd’s guttural wailing resumed.

Up to twenty-three Morro continued to mark Lloyd’s back. Twenty-four to twenty-seven were tallied on his right arm. After the twenty-eighth, on the inside of his wrist, Lloyd’s voice finally gave out and his head drooped. Morro lifted him by the hair and slapped him hard. “Hey. Wake up, you little shit. I told you not to close your eyes, remember?” When Lloyd didn’t respond he shook him and said “If you’ve really checked out, I’m hitting both Nelson’s place and the Walkers’. You sure you’re okay with that?”

(Fucking hell, leave him alone, please!!)

Lloyd made a small, strangled noise, and his eyelids slowly lifted. Blearily he looked at Kai’s face.

Morro smiled encouragingly. “Good to go?”

Lloyd nodded brokenly.

“Alright, then.” He gripped his arm. “Just a few more to go.”

The hot metal pressed into his skin and hissed. Lloyd jolted awake completely, slamming his head against the chair back. “RRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGHH!!”

Five seconds.

Morro reheated the poker while he waited for Lloyd to speak.

“Ahh… hahh… hhh… I… I dun… I dun nno… unnhh…”

Tears poured ceaselessly down his cheeks, one drop after the other.

Morro said nothing.

(Come on Lloyd, come on. Twenty-nine, say it! It’s almost over, say it!)

“Tin… tune… twin tee… hhah… ungh… twen nee… s-s-s-ix…”

(NO NO NO LLOYD!!!)

Morro smirked. “If you say so.” He grabbed the pair of gardening shears from the table and used it to cut through the bandage around Lloyd’s stomach. The sword wound underneath was visible, just above and to the left of his belly button. The skin was a lighter shade, the flesh wrinkled and slightly caved in. A droplet of sweat that had been running down Lloyd’s chest skirted around it.

“Better hope you reach the finish line soon,” said Morro, “or I’ll have to take your pants off next.”

(Just end it, please, stop hurting him, I’m begging you! Please! Please! Please!)

If he isn’t giving up, said Morro, strangely serious, then I’m not either. Like hell his resolve is greater than mine. I said what I said, I’m not backing out of it now.

He hovered the smoldering iron over the sword wound threateningly, then pressed it into the flesh beside it.

Lloyd’s scream was nothing but a voiceless intake of breath now.

“Twen tyy… ssssevennn…”

“That’s right.”

Twenty eight (again)… twenty nine…

“Ready to make your choice, Lloyd?”

“Nnnnggh… no… nuh…”

“All up to you, hero. Better hurry before your lights go out.”

“Uhhuhuh… hhuh..”

He could hardly think anymore. He was a patchwork of pain. He knew he couldn’t just let Morro hurt both the young boy and Ed and Edna so he had to hang on, he had to hold out… Torturing him was the only thing keeping Morro here, the only reason he’d remained in this realm, in this room, the only reason he kept coming back, so Lloyd had to let him do it, he had to keep him here, with him, in this living nightmare for eternity, or at least until someone, anyone, came to wake him up, until Kai woke up, if he had a mind to, if he even still had a mind… But no one was coming, no one was waking up, and Lloyd couldn’t do this forever, he couldn’t even do it for a whole night… Even if his resolve was strong enough, his mind wasn’t, his body and soul weren’t, and if that was true then he had to choose, he had to make the terrible decision, because as awful as it was, gambling with one or two lives was the better option than gambling with all three, and it wasn’t guaranteed that anyone would die because of him, or even get hurt, there were firefighters and police and ambulances, there was real help out in the real world, there were heroes who could cover for his weakness, he was the Green Ninja but he was still just one man, a kid even, pathetic and useless and powerless, so what could he do, what more could he do?

“Th… th… thirr… t-ty.”

“Congratulations,” said Morro solemnly.

He gripped Lloyd's head by the hair, raised the poker up to his face and pressed the burning hook to his cheek.

The sounds that issued from Lloyd’s mouth then didn’t bear describing. They would haunt Kai’s waking thoughts for a long, long time.

Morro dropped the iron rod to the floor where it thudded resoundingly. Then he went down on his haunches and picked up the photographs, holding one in each hand. He presented them to Lloyd. “Tell me who you picked.”

Lloyd was still reeling from the burn on his face. His eyes rolled in their sockets, and it took some effort for him to focus them back on Morro and the pictures.

“The… the k-kid… Nelson.”

At least in the middle of the city, help would come quickly.

“For sure? How selfish of you, Lloyd. What do you suppose the kid will think if he ever found out his hero decided to sacrifice him to save his own people?”

(That’s enough, just leave him alone now. Please just… leave him alone.)

Funny how a few hours ago you kept bothering me to come back here to him.

Kai was too tired to exchange jibes with him. His nerves were shot, his emotions were completely spent. He honestly felt like he might be passing out too, and distantly wondered what would happen to him if he did. But for now he kept his attention on Lloyd. The boy’s tears had finally dried up, his breathing had calmed down, and his entire body had rag-dolled. His eyes were still open, but the light had gone out in them. He simply gazed at Morro with listless defeat.

Morro straightened up from his crouch and flicked the photo of the Walkers onto the table. He stuffed the photo of the boy in his pocket.  

“Okay. I’m gonna go pay Nelson another visit. You just…”

He trailed off. Lloyd had completely shut down. His head lolled against his shoulder, his eyelids were slackly closed. The pink burn mark on his cheek looked to Morro like a red exclamation mark, vibrant and accusatory.

Morro looked up at the lantern high above and snapped his fingers. The flame in the lantern went out. He slowly shuffled towards the door.

He had no idea why, but somehow he felt as though he’d come out the loser in this one.

Chapter Text

When Morro stepped outside, dusk had already fallen. The air was a bit chilled, the world overcast in cobalt blue. If he had to guess, Kai would’ve said the time was around seven in the evening, which meant it had been about twelve hours since Morro had taken Lloyd from the hospital.

A whole day, but it felt like it had been much, much longer than that.

Morro had once more donned Lloyd’s ninja gi. He shook out his hands, laced his fingers together and cracked them. “Oh that’s right,” he said out loud. “I should get the camera again. Gotta give Lloyd his prize, after all, and he might not believe it if he doesn’t see it with his own eyes.” He had been smiling as he spoke, but the smile faltered when he felt something cold and wet roll over the corner of his lips and slide into his mouth. He tasted salt. He blinked, raised a hand to his face, and touched the wetness under his eyes.

Tears were rolling freely down his cheeks. Morro watched them fall off his chin and disappear into the grass below with soft ptt! sounds with complete dumbfoundedness.

“What’s this..? What the shit is this?”

Kai said nothing, but Morro could feel his grief expanding like a noxious gas filling a room, infecting the nooks and crannies of his body. Furiously he wiped his face with his gloved hands, even as his eyes continued to well up and spill over. “This is you. Cut this shit out right now. It’s fucking pathetic.”

Still Kai said nothing, but now Morro’s brain flooded with images and sounds as he probed through Kai’s consciousness; Lloyd slamming his head back against the chair and howling as the iron rod burned him; dark red blood welling and spilling in thin rivulets as Morro had run his knife through Lloyd’s flesh; the crack of the bone of Lloyd’s pinkie finger as the hammer had struck down; Lloyd’s animal cries, the way he’d thrashed, pleaded-

Morro lowered his hands from his face and watched them shake in amazement. Then he felt a rush of dizziness. “Wait… ugh. Ulp–”

He took two staggering steps, bent at the stomach, and threw up into the grass. The goopy, half-digested mush of the convenience store onigiri made a splatting sound as it hit the ground.

Morro groaned. “You jackass. That was my lunch. Control yourself.”

Kai answered him with just the barest trace of indignation, muted by his overwhelming sorrow for Lloyd. (That wasn’t me. If I was still able to affect my body like that, I would’ve taken over by now and freed Lloyd.)

Well why in the Cursed Realm would it be me?

Now Morro sensed something akin to bitter wryness, that made him imagine Kai giving him the patronizing look of an adult who knows the damage is already done but relishes telling off the child who wouldn’t listen. (Talk about pathetic. You try so hard to act tough. You think you’re such a badass. It doesn’t cover up the fact that you weren’t that much older than I am when you died. I know you’ve been literally dead inside for years, but even you couldn’t possibly not be affected.)

Affected by what? The charm of the Green Ninja?? You think I feel bad about any of this? I’ve been having the time of my afterlife making that little shit squeal!

Kai pulled up another memory, the first-person view of the poker burning against Lloyd’s cheek while Morro restrained him by the hair. (There’s no way you can do that to a person, no matter who it is, and not be affected by it. Not if you’re still human.)

Morro grunted and straightened up. He swayed a bit on his feet, but clenched his teeth and firmly ground his heel in place. “I’m not human. Or at least I wasn’t.”

He turned around and re-entered the barn, lighting a fireball in his hand – inside it was pitch dark, and Kai couldn’t see anything of Lloyd besides his motionless silhouette on the fringes of the firelight, as Morro quickly walked past him to the table to grab the instant camera. On his way back out Morro paused beside Lloyd’s chair for a second, and Kai dared to hope that he would at least check on him, or even cover him with one of the discarded pieces of his jacket. As soon as the thought had occurred, however, Morro shook his head and moved on, leaving Lloyd to be swallowed by the darkness once more.

Humans are weak, pitiful creatures.

Kai had no idea if Morro had meant the statement for him, nor whether he’d been talking about Lloyd, Kai, or himself.

Around an hour or so earlier, while Lloyd had been counting his fifteenth burn mark (the first time around), Nya and the other ninja were at the Ninjago City Police department. They were squeezed into a single cubicle, with Nya sitting in the only chair in front of a desk belonging to a detective, whose name plaque proclaimed him to be called Tommy. Detective Tommy had a square, unshaven jaw, and a bad attitude. He raised an eyebrow critically at the photo of Lloyd that Nya had put down in front of him.

“So the Green Ninja is missing?”

“That's what we've been telling you!” said Nya, exasperated.

The detective leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “A person isn't officially ‘missing’ until after forty-eight hours. Even if that person is a ninja.”

“But we have proof he's been kidnapped right here!” said Cole, brandishing his hand at the photo.

“That could be a doctored photo,” said the detective. “Do you know how many ransom notes and threatening letters people bring in here that turn out to be a prank?”

“Why on earth would we be coming in here for a prank?!” railed Nya in outrage. Cole and Zane both put a restraining hand on her shoulders as she leaned angrily out of her seat to bear down on the detective. “This picture was left for us after Lloyd and my brother disappeared!”

“That’s exactly it,” said Detective Tommy. “Why would a kidnapper just leave a picture like that without any demands? And anyway, this is the Green Ninja, isn’t it?” He curled his lip into a sneer. “Isn’t he supposed to be super powerful? Hard to believe he’d just get kidnapped like that.”

“You’d be surprised how often it’s happened before, actually,” said Jay with an apologetic laugh.

“Perhaps,” Zane said cuttingly, stopping Cole and Nya as they turned furious, attack-ready glares on Jay, “we could speak to someone else about this?”

“What for? You want to waste someone else’s time?”

“Absolutely not. On the contrary we would likely be able to resolve our problems faster with a detective who doesn’t hold a prejudice against us ninja.”

Now it was Detective Tommy’s turn to lean over the desk, slamming his hands down on top of it and making the photograph flutter. “Yeah, well good luck with that! Pretty much all of us here in the force think you ninja are nothing but trouble! All you do is cause destruction and leave us to pick up the mess!”

“Yeah, saving yours and everyone else’s asses!” countered Jay.

Everyone spoke up at once, their voices raised to shouting levels. They fell silent at an even louder shout of “That’s enough!”, and turned to find the whole floor staring at their cubicle, and the Police Commissioner, a late middle-aged man with a large grey mustache, walking towards them.

“Is there a problem here, Tommy?” he said in his gruff, no-nonsense voice.

“I got it under control, sir,” said the detective, averting his eyes sheepishly. “These kids just won’t listen, that’s all.”

“You’re the one who’s not listening!” began Nya, but the Commissioner spoke over her.

“Now, now, there’s no need to get so worked up. Tommy’s just doing his job, I’m sure. What’s the problem, little lady?”

“The problem is that my brother and the Green Ninja are missing, and this jerk doesn’t want to help us find them! How is that doing his job?”

The Commissioner’s mustache swiveled as he wrinkled his nose. “Hmm. Well, it is our job to find missing people, but only when we know they’re actually missing, you know. We can’t give this case a higher priority just because you’re ninja, you understand.”

“Some maniac has Lloyd locked up somewhere and is torturing him!” said Cole, grabbing the photo from the desk and thrusting it in the Commissioner’s face. “What’s higher priority than that?”

The Commissioner took the photo and frowned at it. His lack of a big reaction made Nya feel like she would explode.

He gave the photo back to Cole. “Simon!” he barked. Another police detective appeared by his side a moment later, this one clean-shaven and wearing glasses.

“Yes, sir?”

“Help these ninja fill out a missing person’s report.”

“Sure thing.” Detective Simon ushered the ninja to an open desk on the far side of the room. “This way, please.”

“So you’re going to help us?” asked Nya cautiously.

“Just fill in the report for now and we’ll see what we can do.” With that the Commissioner turned back to his office. Detective Tommy sat down and crossed his arms once more in what Nya suspected was a gloating way. She resisted the urge to punch the stupid smirk off his face.

The ninja gathered around the desk Detective Simon brought them to as he took the seat behind it, and pushed a form towards them along with a pen. Nya began filling in the form, asking the others for corroboration over some of the facts and details it needed written down: how long ago Kai and Lloyd had last been seen, what they had been wearing, if they had licenses for transportation (she hesitated a bit before adding that they could both manifest mystical flying dragons as a note), and so on. When she’d read over what she’d written and showed the form to Zane, who nodded in agreement, she pushed it back towards the detective, who also nodded but didn’t look over it. “Right. If you could provide a recent picture of the missing persons that would help, too.”

“You mean besides this one,” said Cole sadly, putting down the snapshot of Lloyd. Nya felt gratified to see Detective Simon’s eyes go wide at the image, the bloody word ‘unworthy’ reflected in his pupils. He nodded again, but took the photo to put it in a copy machine behind him.

The ninja simultaneously pulled out their phones (except Zane, who could store pictures in his head without one), and began looking through their camera folders. Nya herself was not the type of person to take a lot of pictures – Kai usually took enough for both of them, though most of his featured himself – and so the first picture she could find that clearly showed both Kai and Lloyd was an old one; Lloyd was still a little kid in it, back before he’d been aged up. He and Kai were both smiling at the camera, Kai holding Lloyd in a playful headlock.

“Found one!” exclaimed Jay, startling Nya. He practically shoved his phone in the detective’s face. His over eagerness made Nya wonder if he’d purposefully tried to find a picture first in order to show her how helpful he was being in getting her brother back.

Detective Simon leaned back a bit, and nodded once more. “Uh, yes, that’s good. Send it to this email and I’ll print it.”

As he wrote down on a sticky note, Cole, Zane and Nya huddled around Jay to see the picture. It was a selfie of Jay with Lloyd and Kai, all three of them drenched but grinning widely, standing in front of a giant tank with an equally giant, monstrous looking whiskered fish. Not much of the fish could be seen in the small photo aside from its eye, but both Zane and Cole made small gasps of recognition.

“Is that the Fangfish we caught?” asked Cole, smiling in delight at the memory.

“Yeah! No way was I gonna let it go without proof.” Jay’s voice turned somber as he added, “This was the same day Lloyd first got possessed by Morro. Remember?” He gazed down at the phone with such sadness in his eyes that Nya regretted her thought about him showing off for her; Kai and Lloyd were his brothers, too. Of course he’d do whatever he could to find them, even without Nya there to impress.

“Feels like such a long time ago, huh?” murmured Cole.

Each of the ninja privately reflected on the terrible events that had happened since that day.

Detective Simon had printed the image and was stapling it to the form, along with the copy of the ‘unworthy’ photo. Then he pulled out a file from under the desk, put the form inside it, and laid the file on top of a stack of others in a tray. He tipped his policeman’s hat at the ninja and made to leave the desk.

“Wait!” said Nya. “That’s it? What are you going to do now?”

“Oh, well we’ll put out a notice that the boys are missing, you know to other stations and in the newspaper, and then we’ll wait for any leads that might get phoned in.”

“You mean you’re just going to wait until someone does the work for you?” said Jay angrily. “If it was just about seeing anything suspicious, we’ve already spent the whole day searching ourselves and found nothing! You guys are detectives, you’re supposed to, you know, detect things!”

Unlike Tommy, Detective Simon at least had the grace to look apologetic. “That’s just our procedure I’m afraid, Mr. Lightning Ninja sir. Once something turns up that proves there’s more urgency needed, or after forty-eight hours have passed, we’ll send out a search party and assign someone on the case.”

“This is bullshit!” yelled Cole, and heads turned towards them again. “We can’t wait forty-eight hours, Lloyd’s in trouble right now!”

Simon shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “I’m sorry. Really. You’ll have to take it up with the chief.” He backed away and quickly disappeared behind a door that, according to the sign, lead to the bathroom.

Nya balled her fists by her sides, feeling her recently found elemental power surging through her. A few seconds later, a yelp could be heard behind the bathroom door, along with a rushing sound and toilets flushing, and the door burst open to release a flood of water and a sopping wet Detective Simon slipping and staggering out. As all the detectives in the room exclaimed and stood up from their desks, the Commissioner stormed out of his office again with a growled “What’s going on out here–?” and immediately slipped and fell over Detective Simon. Detective Tommy rushed to help him up, only to fall on top of him too as the Commissioner missed his offered hand and grabbed his shirt.

Nya winced. “Oops…”

“We should probably go now,” said Cole, pushing her along towards the elevator. Zane and Jay hurried after.

Inside the elevator, Nya slumped against the wall. The others awkwardly avoided looking at her.

“Well that was pointless,” grumbled Jay.

“Not necessarily,” said Zane. “It was optimistic and perhaps a little arrogant of us to expect immediate action. They did not exactly refuse to help. They just… might take awhile giving it.”

“It’s so unfair!” Jay stomped and ranted out of the elevator as the doors opened. “How many times have Lloyd and Kai saved the city without anyone even needing to ask, and the one time they actually need saving the police want to take their sweet time with it? How does that make sense!?”

“What do we do now?” asked Cole. “The sun’s going down. It’ll be too dark to see anything on dragonback.” His mouth pulled down in dislike at the idea as he said, “Do we call it a day?”

The others exchanged reluctant looks.

Nya wrung her hands together. “If you don’t mind… could one of you keep helping me look? We can treat it as a normal patrol of the city, I don’t actually have any other ideas. I just… don’t think I can go home right now.”

“We understand, Nya,” said Zane. “I am not tired, of course. I will be happy to escort you.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m not tired either,” said Jay pointedly. Cole nudged him in the ribs. “Ow… Okay I’m a little tired.”

“We’ll update Wu and Misako on the situation,” said Cole. “After that…” He trailed off.

“We’ll figure things out, Nya,” Zane assured her. “We always do.”

“At least Kai and Lloyd have each other, wherever they are,” chimed in Jay. “Or at least that’s our best case scenario…”

She nodded. They said their goodbyes and split up.

Morro was wearing his – well, Lloyd’s – mask this time, so that to casual onlookers he was almost invisible in the gathering dark. He sailed over the rooftops soundlessly, alternately using airjitzu or just jumping lithely from wall to wall. While the city was brightly lit, the buildings all looked much the same to Kai, but Morro navigated the concrete canopy with seeming purpose and ease until he stopped on the fire escape of the twelfth floor of an apartment complex. He peered at the window in the building opposite, through which a boy’s lit bedroom could clearly be seen. Ninja memorabilia decorated the shelves and walls – Kai wasn’t even aware of half of the merchandise existing; Dareth must have been quite busy in his campaign to sell the ninja to the public. Any other time Kai would have been quite excited to see his iconic red gi on a poster like the one in Nelson’s room, but right now all he felt was dread.

“We’re here,” whispered Morro. He stepped back into the dark, cool shade of the building so he couldn’t be seen through the window, sinking to a crouch on the metal floor of the fire escape landing.

(You’re not actually going to do this, are you?)

Like I said before: I don’t make empty threats. Morro rubbed his hands in anticipation. Or perhaps from the cold, the wind was fairly chilly this high up.

Kai tried to appeal to him again. (This kid’s got nothing to do with anything! There’s no point in doing this!)

I have a point for everything I do. And the point right now is to reward the Green Ninja for his tenacity. It’d be such a waste for him to have held out that long only to get nothing in return, don't you think?

(In what backwards worldview would you call this a reward?!)

He chose the kid. I’m giving him what he asked for. His reward is that the Walkers are left alone.

(Stop twisting everything around, you know what I meant!)

Do I? Morro chuckled cruelly.

Kai tried probing through Morro’s thoughts the way Morro so easily probed through his, but no matter how he approached it he was met by a barrier. Not a solid wall he couldn’t bend, but a repelling force that stretched like a membrane around Morro’s side of their shared mental space, pulsing with the spillover of his emotions – impatience, excitement, vengeance, even trepidation – but never breaking to show Kai the full depth of his thoughts. Kai had to wonder if this defense was consciously erected on Morro’s part; he recalled Lloyd mentioning, the few times he’d been coaxed into speaking about his own experience in possession, that Morro’s imaginings of the fruition of his plans had been so consuming that there had hardly been room for Lloyd to form thoughts of his own. “Half the time I was out of it,” he’d said to Kai, eyes cast down unseeingly at the food on his hospital tray, “half the time I had to fight to even keep myself together… to even remember who I was. The clearest thing I can remember was when Morro was about to… kill Nya. Everything before that is just fuzzy.”

Kai’s own possession had so far been very different from what Lloyd had described; he was still very much aware of everything going on around him, still had a sense of his own identity, and could voice his thoughts and emotions as easily as speaking aloud. Contrary to Morro’s subconscious consuming his, it was his stray feelings and ponderings that kept getting noticed by Morro, in such frequency that Morro believed Kai still had enough influence over his body to make himself weep or vomit. If he hadn’t already been given evidence to the contrary, Kai would’ve held out the hope that all this meant he would have a better chance at breaking through Morro’s possession. The much more concerning possibility that Morro was, in fact, purposefully separating his consciousness from Kai’s in order to hide his plans now affirmed itself to him. He grasped at the small comfort that if this really were true, it must mean that Morro believed Kai could somehow do something to stop him if he could see his into his mind… but it didn’t make it less frustrating that he couldn’t.

Seeing that Morro apparently wanted to wait awhile before committing his promised act of arson, Kai tried to talk him out of it once more.

(Look… I get that you’re mad, alright? I thought for sure I was going to be the Green Ninja too. But–)

Please, stop. Morro sounded disgusted. Don’t even try to play the “I understand what you’re feeling” act. I’ll say it for the last time; I don’t back down on my word.

(But I really do understand! I mean I will never understand how or why you could do what you did to Lloyd, and I’ll never forgive you for it–) Kai tried very hard to swallow his fury. (But I know what it’s like to think you were meant for something special, only to be told differently. I mean I only followed Master Wu at first to save my sister when she was kidnapped, but after I first got my powers, and then finding out about the Green Ninja… I started liking the idea of being someone important, someone cool, someone who mattered.)

Wow, you have me all figured out, don’t you? How about you shut up already before you put me to sleep and I’ll have to reschedule this for another night?

(But this isn’t how you want to make yourself important, Morro! If you really believe you were meant to be the Green Ninja, who’s supposed to protect people, you can’t possibly want this–)

Ugghhh shut up, shut up SHUT UP! Morro actually raised his hands to his ears and pressed them closed, clenching his teeth. All you fucking do is talk! Of all the things to pick up from Wu; he was all talk too. All his stupid ‘wisdoms’, his false assurances, his lessons, they all came to nothing! If you’re going to make a promise, make sure it’s one you can keep! If you resolve to do something it’d be meaningless to not do it! If I learned just one thing from that charlatan of a sensei it’s to make sure I never let myself get taken in by words or promises again! Not unless they’re mine! And my word was that I’m going to set fire to that kid’s room.

He snapped his attention back to the bedroom ahead, drawing Kai’s attention as well. The door had opened, the lights had come on, and the boy from the picture Morro had taken, sans the bicycle helmet, entered the room.

And that’s just what I’m going to do.

(Wait, listen, if you’d just–)

Enough. I’m done humoring you. Keep it up and I’ll bite through your tongue.

The barrier seemed to solidify and expand, pushing Kai farther back from where Morro’s spirit dwelled. Now even trying to form a directed thought was a trial, and Kai meekly backed down, cowed more by Morro’s dexterity of control than by his threat.

For a long time afterward, they simply waited.

Little Nelson did not do much that they could see in that time other than write at his desk, presumably completing homework, and then play around with some action figures. At one point he raised his head and looked to the door like someone had called his name, and his shouted reply faintly reached Morro and Kai through his window and across the street to where Morro crouched in the shadows. Night fell, street lamps came on, Nelson left his room for a bit and returned, then disappeared from sight of the window to the other side of the room, where Kai supposed his closet must be. Sure enough, when Nelson came into view again to prepare his schoolbag on the desk, he was wearing purple pajamas printed with silver ninja shurikens. He climbed into bed, only the foot of which was visible through the window, and after a few minutes his mother came into the room to kiss him goodnight and turn out the lights.

Kai internally squirmed in discomfort at his unwitting voyeurism. He briefly wondered whether Morro felt at all uncomfortable about spying on a little boy like this, then remembered he was planning to literally set fire to the kid in his sleep. He was an evil villain who’d kidnapped Lloyd and tortured him, not to mention he’d wanted to unleash an eldritch monster on Ninjago that would have definitely killed hundreds of people. It was true what he'd said, he wasn't human, and trying to appeal to his better nature was an exercise in futility. Kai silently boiled with rage.

Morro continued to wait, an hour, two hours… At last he made his move, using airjitzu to launch himself from the fire escape landing to the window ledge. Nelson had left the window open to let in the cool night air, and Morro was able to slip in without trouble, feet landing soundlessly on the floor. He crept past Nelson’s bed, on which the boy’s bundled form lay breathing deeply and peacefully, and grabbed the waste paper basket from under the desk. He set it in the middle of the room and pulled out a crumpled twist of paper from inside it.

Kai forced himself to make one last effort, shoving against the mental barrier.

(You don’t have to do this, just think about it for a second –!)

Morro ignored him; he conjured a flame in his fist and held it to the twist of paper. He dropped the flaming paper into the waste basket, where the flames quickly spread to the rest of the discarded notebook pages inside.

Morro then turned to each of the four walls in turn and shot out a fireball from his fist, aiming for the various posters on display. When those had caught fire he walked back to the foot of Nelson’s bed, and touched a flaming finger to the corner of his blanket. It caught. The room was soon alight with the dance of flames.

(No! No no, you can’t do this!)

Don’t tell me-  said Morro, climbing out of the window to the ledge outside… and shutting it behind him, -what I can and can’t do. He airjitzu’ed down to the floor twelve stories below, and ran down the alleys until he reached the corner of a street that gave him a good vantage point from which to watch the fire.

At first there was nothing to see but Nelson’s lighted window. Kai willed him or one of his parents to wake up and realize what had happened, but then the window exploded outward and fire poured through, licking up the wall outside the building.

It wasn’t long before cars and pedestrians took notice of the fire, stopping in the street to witness the destruction, cries of alarm and entreaties to call the fire department ringing out. With everyone’s gazes directed upward, no one noticed the brief flash of Morro’s instant camera as he captured the burning apartment.

Morro lit another flame in his hand to see the picture by. “Not bad. That should be proof enough, right?”

Kai’s fury had reached its peak. (And you wonder why you couldn’t be the Green Ninja?!)

Morro’s grin dropped to a scowl. Sulkily he stuffed the picture in his pocket. He raised a shaking fist, considered it for a moment, then turned and punched it hard against the wall.

(OW! What the fuck?!)

Morro shook out his hand. He winced through his teeth, seemingly having underestimated how much the punch would hurt. He rubbed his knuckles. Fuck… Your fault for not shutting up. He hissed and shook the hand again. If this makes it hard for me to torture Lloyd again I really will ditch your body in a hole somewhere and get one of the other ninja.

“Hey look! The ninja!”

Someone on the street was shouting and pointing upward excitedly. An icy blue and white dragon, glowing slightly in the dark of the night, swooped overhead towards the burning building. On its back Kai could just make out the white-clad figure of Zane, and behind him, the cyan and red mask of…

(Nya!)

The dragon hovered outside one of the closed windows of the apartment, and the two figures jumped from its back and broke through, one after the other. Flames soon filled the opening after them. The people below cheered and gasped, and hardly anyone turned at the arrival of the loudly blaring fire truck that came threading through the halted traffic.

(Nya! Zane! Yes!)

“Hmph.” Morro grunted in a put out sort of way, but Kai was surprised to feel only the slightest bit of anger from him. He simply watched from his hiding place and waited like everyone else for the two ninja to appear again.

At first, it looked like nothing had changed, except that the fire had, if anything, spread even more throughout the apartment, threatening to engulf the whole floor soon; the windows were all alight with flame, the smoke had thickened to a thundercloud, and bits of glowing debris had started to fall down the side of the building. People in various states of dress were coming out of the entrance on the ground, carrying whatever items they’d deemed valuable enough to rescue, though none of them seemed to be hurt aside from a few being a bit soot-smudged by the smoke.

Up in Nelson’s apartment, Zane and Nya were using their powers to put out as much of the fire as they could, Zane creating ice barriers to halt the progress of the flames, Nya shooting blasts of water at the walls and floor to douse them. Standing by Zane were a man and woman, both coughing. Both faced away from the escape of the window Zane and Nya had broken through, where the dragon waited to take them to safety. Instead they anxiously watched Nya, calling to her in between their coughs to get their son, he was still in his room, and they would not leave without him.

“You need to leave now!” Zane shouted at them over the roar of the flames. “We will have a better chance to save your son after we get you to safety!” As he spoke he shot blasts of ice around him, trying to push back the flames from the couple.

“I think I can get through, Zane!” Nya yelled back to him. She too shot an elemental blast at the blackened door of Nelson’s room, drenching it in water, before roundhouse kicking it open.

“Nya, wait!” Zane’s readings had instantly spiked as the door swung in and Nya charged through to the inferno beyond it, not really needing PIXAL to tell him, “Zane, the fire is much fiercer in that room, you have to stop her!”

Zane hesitated, then turned to the worried couple and took each of them by the shoulder firmly. “I was made to protect those who cannot protect themselves,” he said, more to himself than them. “Nya can protect herself. She will rescue your son. You two need to come with me.”

Inside Nelson’s room, Nya didn’t stop shooting deluges of water before her, desperately trying to clear as much of the ground as she could so she could walk further in and see around the room. When she paused to take a short breather, she heard a groan, and turning to her left she saw a large bookcase had fallen on the floor… with someone trapped under it.

“Hey!” Nya called. Quickly she bent and gripped the end of the bookcase. Right away she knew she wouldn’t be able to lift it completely, so she yelled, “Kid! Are you awake?”

Nelson blinked at her and, much to her relief, yelled back in a clear voice, “Yes, Miss Ninja!”

“I’m gonna pull this off of you, and you have to quickly get out of the way when I do, okay?”

“Okay!”

She pulled up the bookcase, just managing to lift it a few inches off of Nelson’s legs. She wished she had her Samurai X mech right then, but Nelson complied to her words well and wriggled clear of the shelf just before her strength gave out and she let it drop to the floor with a grunt. She bent down to take Nelson’s hand. “Let’s go!”

“I can’t move my legs!” cried Nelson.

Without preamble Nya picked him up and charged back through the bedroom door, across the living room, and jumped through the broken window, landing on the Titanium Dragon’s back where Nelson’s parents caught them. The dragon dived down to the accompaniment of the crowd’s cheers.

(Yes! Yes, they did it! Aw, Nya!)

Kai basked in the happiness and relief he felt, the first since he’d been possessed a few days ago. It quickly turned somber again when he felt his body move without his influence, as Morro pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against, watching the rescue with folded arms and a scowl on his face.

Goody goody. The ninja save the day again.

He walked away from the crowd, turning his back on the sirens of police cars and the screech of news report vans.

Think we’ll just skip this part when we tell Lloyd about it tomorrow, huh?

The last of Kai’s euphoria evaporated. He yearned to turn his head, to find Nya and Zane in the crowd and call for help… but his head didn’t belong to him anymore.

“Got it, Vinny? Alright… This is Gayle Gossip, coming to you live with a special revelation! It seems Ninjago has got itself a surprising new hero to thank for tonight’s incredible fire rescue, Nya the Girl Ninja!”

“Girl ninja?” Nya’s pleased expression instantly morphed to one of annoyance. “Why not Water Ninja?”

“Perhaps no one actually saw you use your powers while we were in the building,” Zane reasoned. The two of them were watching the news report from a distance, sitting in the back of an ambulance with blankets around their shoulders, Nya with a mug of coffee in her hands. Another ambulance held Nelson and his parents. Both Nelson’s legs had been broken, but he was in relatively good spirits despite his home being destroyed. One of the firefighters had rescued a purple ninja mask from his bedroom, thinking it belonged to one of the ninja. The mask had in fact been made by Nelson, and he’d been very happy to have it back. Hugging it to his chest, he had profusely thanked the firefighters and Zane and Nya for saving him. The gratitude had filled Nya with warmth; she’d done her fair share of rescuing before as Samurai X, but the anonymity of the role had meant she never got any recognition for her heroics. Her mood was slightly ruined now on hearing her new persona introduced to all of Ninjago City as just The Girl ninja. “I wish I hadn’t let them take my picture now,” she grumbled.

“Excuse me. Ninja!”

Zane and Nya turned their heads in surprise in the direction of the familiar gruff voice; the Police Commissioner was ducking under the cordon that had been erected around the two ambulances to keep nosy reporters and curious well-wishers away from Nya, Zane, and Nelson and his family. When he reached them he pulled off his cap deferentially.

“Erm, well… I just wanted to say, you know… that was some nice work you did. You ninja always come through when we need you.”

Neither of them said anything in reply, looking at him expectantly.

The Commissioner cleared his throat. “Ehem, so um… About your visit earlier today. I was thinking we could get started on investigating your brother and the Green Ninja’s disappearance. When we get back to the office I’ll have Simon pull up your report and we’ll lay out a plan of action. If you feel up to it, perhaps you’d like to… ride back with us? Give us your opinion on our first steps?”

Nya tried to tamp down the hope that had bloomed in her chest. She shared a look with Zane. “Would uh… Would Detective Tommy be on the case too?”

The Commissioner chuckled. “Yes, but don't worry. So will Detective Simon. And of course I’ll oversee every step of it personally. This is a high priority case, after all.”

It was high priority several hours ago, too, thought Nya bitterly, but the grateful smile that spread across her face was genuine as she said, “We would love that very much. Thank you, Commissioner.”

The Commissioner nodded his head at her and put his cap back on. As soon as he’d crossed through the cordon again Nya sighed and leaned against Zane’s shoulder. “I can’t wait to go home,” she said.

“Me too,” said Zane. But when she continued to rest against him for ten more minutes, he let her. The police had made her wait; they could stand to wait a bit more for her.

(The monastery?)

Morro walked carefully through the debris, slowly taking in his surroundings as though scanning for something.

(Why the monastery? I thought we were going back to Lloyd.)

I’m tired, said Morro. He shifted some wooden boards out of the way of what used to be the entrance to the living quarters, standing almost exactly where Nya had stood earlier that day looking for signs of Kai. I wanna sleep. And I don’t really like the idea of sleeping in that empty old barn, especially with Lloyd there.

(Why? Think he’ll break through his chains somehow and stab us with the same knife you used on him?)

Morro picked his way through the ninjas’ old home… his old home. There was no roof – the terracotta tiles littered the hallways – but at least some of the walls still stood here, enough to keep out the wind. Not enough to keep out the Master of Wind, though.

No, I just know what it’s like sleeping there already and I don’t feel like revisiting that experience.

He poked into each of the ‘rooms’, assessing their respective comfort and shelter, before settling on, ironically, what used to be his old room (though it was unrecognizable as such now, even to him). Most of the bed was still in one piece, and was easily cleared of rubble with a few sweeps of Morro’s hand. He sat down on the mattress and began pulling off his gloves and boots. As he did he stared around absently. The courtyard was visible through the broken wall. Kai didn’t focus much on the view, until something appeared near the edge of the mountain summit. Two somethings… Two figures. A man and a child, their backs turned to Kai. The boy was holding the string of a kite, which swayed back and forth across a golden sun. The man watched it for a bit with his hands behind his back, then patted the boy’s shoulder.

(It’s not too late, you know… I’m sure if you talked to him again, Master Wu would forgive you.)

The apparitions disappeared, and the sun was replaced by the moon as the reality of the night resituated itself in Morro’s mind.

Him forgive me?

He huffily lay down on the bed, turning his back on the open end of the room. He lied to me! He made me believe it would be me! He set me up for success without ever once teaching me what to do with failure. Maybe I…

Kai was stunned to feel a lump in his throat. That was definitely not him.

Morro swallowed it down. Maybe I wouldn’t have died the way I did if he had. He pillowed his head with his arm and closed his eyes. The mental barrier had returned, and Kai saw no more memories as Morro drifted off to sleep in a matter of minutes.

Kai, however, remained awake.

It was another strange experience of having his consciousness disconnected from his body; he was breathing rhythmically, his limbs were heavy and slack, he could see nothing but the darkness behind his eyelids… but Kai himself was not asleep. Tentatively he called out to Morro, poking the barrier that separated them, but Morro didn’t respond. This, somehow, unnerved Kai more than feeling his body moving around and his mouth and voice saying words at any point throughout the day; he was completely cut off from the world now, adrift in a black void, literally trapped in his own body. Feeling panicked, he tried pushing at his limbs, willing them to obey him as easily as they once had. Maybe now that Morro was unconscious Kai would have a better chance at taking the wheel? Maybe their roles could be reversed and Kai could awaken his body and Morro would just be the phantom voice in his head? Annoying, sure, but leagues better than the current state of things.

He pushed again, pushed and shoved, fighting to break through the invisible walls he wasn’t even sure existed… until he emerged into a world bathed in moonlight.

He gasped in surprise and fell to his knees, on the broken tiled floor of the room. He blinked several times at his hands.

His hands weren’t right. He could see through them.

He stood up swiftly and looked down at himself. His whole body was transparent.

“What the heck…?” He spoke at normal volume, startlingly loud in the silence. It was the first time he’d actually heard his own voice in awhile. Turning back to the bed behind him, he saw the still form of his own body.

“Oh shit. Did I die?!”

Kai rushed back to the bed, his feet not quite touching the floor so that he more so glided than walked. He put his hands on his – Morro’s? – shoulder and arm, and pushed once again. His hands sank into Morro’s – his! – body, up to the elbows… and suddenly he was in darkness once more, sucked completely back to the space behind his closed eyes.

(Morro?)

No response, other than a soft snore.

Kai hesitated, then pushed himself outward again. Much quicker this time, he fell out of the bed, landing as lightly as paper on the floor. He checked his see-through, softly glowing hands, checked his more solid, still snoring body on the bed, then got to his feet. He hovered an inch or so off the floor, bobbing slightly like a balloon.

“Okay…”

When he’d been hoping for a role reversal this hadn’t exactly been what he’d had in mind.

But if he really was a ghost now, or a spirit, or whatever, he should take advantage of it as much as he could. He could worry about the implications and fix it later. The most important thing right then was getting help for Lloyd.

He floated out of the monastery and down the stone steps on the side of the mountain.

While it was much faster than walking and it was good not to have to worry about his footing in the dark of the night, Kai knew before he reached the bottom that it wouldn’t be feasible to make the entire journey to Steep Wisdom this way. While he felt tireless and was sure he could go the whole night without needing a break, he did not want Lloyd to have to wait that long for rescue. So when he came to the end of the stairs he stopped gliding and tried to focus. He concentrated on his power, dwelling somewhere inside him, and projected the form of his Elemental Dragon in his head…

It worked.

The Fire Dragon appeared before him, the real one this time, uncorrupted by Morro’s influence. “No way!” laughed Kai. “Oh man, it’s good to see you!” He nuzzled the dragon’s head. As he did so he noticed the two of them shared the same level of transparency, his hands visible through the dragon’s burning red scales. Touching it felt like nothing, but it nudged him affectionately in the chest with its nose. Kai gave it one last pat before climbing onto its back.

“Alright, bud. To Steep Wisdom.”

It roared once and launched itself into the air.

The journey took less than ten minutes, the crisp air seemingly passing right through both rider and dragon. As they passed over the tea shop’s roof, Kai jumped down and passed right through it, landing behind the counter inside the shop. He turned towards the shelves on the wall behind it and charged through them without fear, phasing through the walls straight to the dojo, where he burst in on Cole, Jay, and Wu all sitting around in meditation.

“Guys! Guys, I’m back!”

None of them looked at him.

Kai swooped over to stand in front of Jay, waving his hand through his head. “Hey! Jay, it’s me! Can you hear me?”

Jay didn’t open his eyes.

Kai tried Cole next. “Cole, dude, come on! This is no time for meditating, Lloyd needs us!”

Cole yawned but also kept his eyes closed. Wu side-eyed him over his shoulder. Kai quickly put himself in his Sensei’s line of sight. “Master Wu! You can see me, right? Please!”

“If you’re bored, Cole,” said Wu sternly, “perhaps you should just go to bed.”

Cole opened an eye, looking straight through Kai to Wu. “I’ll go when Zane and Nya come back.”

“Are we sure they even will come back?” said Jay, breaking out of his own trance in a way that made it clear he hadn’t been able to suppress his thoughts any longer. “How do we know the same person who got Kai and Lloyd won’t go after them, too? Maybe we’re all targets. We never should’ve let them go off on their own!”

There was the sound of doors opening and closing and rapid footsteps.

“Oh hey, it’s them,” said Jay.

Kai rushed towards the entrance to the dojo as Nya came running through it.

“Sis, you have to–!“

Nya didn’t stop, steamrolling through him without even noticing. Zane followed after her.

“Master Wu! Everyone! Great news!” she called out.

“You found Kai?” said Cole, uncrossing his legs and standing up. Jay and Wu followed suit.

“No, but listen! The police agreed to help us find them! For real this time!”

“The police?” said Kai skeptically. But the others all looked excited and relieved, Jay even moving to give Nya a hug before thinking better of it. “What are the police gonna do?”

As though answering his question, Nya said, “They checked the security camera footage at the hospital. We saw Kai and Lloyd leave together, and take a taxi at the exit.”

“A taxi!” Cole smacked his forehead. “Why didn’t we think of that? It makes sense, both of them had pretty good reason to not be able to summon their dragons at the time.”

“You have all just become too reliant on your dragons to get around,” lectured Wu.

Nya quickly spoke again before he could start. “Anyway, the camera caught the license plate of the taxi they took. Now all they have to do is call the taxi company to check which of their drivers was on duty in that car, and then ask him where he dropped them off!” She clasped her hands together. “We’ll finally have a lead on where they are!”

“Yes!” cheered Kai along with the others. “Yes, yes! Why didn’t I think of that? The driver knows where he took us, he can take you all to Lloyd! Oh Nya!” He threw his arms around his sister and hugged her from behind. She didn’t react, or even shift under his weight as he had none, but he squeezed her as tightly as he was able. “This nightmare will finally be over.”

“When will they call the company?” asked Wu.

“Tomorrow morning,” said Zane. “They said we can be there when they do it. They would have done it tonight while Nya and I were at the Police Department, but it seems it is past calling hours for them.”

“That’s fine. We can wait one night. And hopefully so can Lloyd and Kai.” Wu sighed deeply, a weight clearly falling from his shoulders. “At last we can get some rest. I suggest you all go to your beds now so we can be there as soon as we can tomorrow morning.”

“We always wake up at 5 AM anyway, Sensei,” said Jay, but yawned and nodded as he followed Cole and Zane to their shared room. Kai watched Nya go to hers, her smile still visible in the corner of her mouth. Then Wu turned out the lights and retired as well.

Kai breathed out in relief. That is, he did the motion of breathing; no actual air entered his intangible lungs, but he didn't care about that. “It’s almost over. Just one night.”

His own words echoed in his head and he became anxious again. He glided back down the halls and through the shop walls to the outside. Crickets chirped in the night. His dragon was still there, tossing its head as he approached.

“Let’s go,” he told it, jumping onto its back. “To Lloyd.”

The dragon obeyed.

The trip had always taken Morro around twenty minutes whenever he flew to or from the woods that contained the hidden old barn. Kai reached it within half that time. Like before he opted to drop straight down from the dragon’s back to fall through the roof, landing weightlessly inside. Immediately he looked around for the familiar sight of Lloyd’s chair and glided across the floor to him when he found it.

“Lloyd! Hey!”

Lloyd was just as Morro had left him. Somehow, even though Kai perceived it to be pitch dark inside the barn, he could see Lloyd very clearly, down to the pink stripes of the burns all over his chest and arms. He was slumped low in his chair, his upper body leaning against the chair back, his head resting on his shoulder.

Kai instinctively reached for him to shake him awake. But while he was able to rest his hands on Lloyd’s shoulders, he couldn’t move him an inch. “Lloyd, can you hear me? Buddy?” He put a hand under Lloyd’s cheek, trying vainly to raise his head. “Please, little brother, tell me you’re alright.”

Up close, he could see now that Lloyd was breathing; in fact his breath came out as a mist from his mouth, and he was shivering in his sleep, the metal cuffs on his wrists clinking slightly as they shook. While Kai himself couldn’t feel any cold at all, he realized how low the temperature must be in this large, dark, empty room in the middle of nowhere at night. “Oh, Lloyd… I’m so sorry… You don’t know how sorry I am. I’d free you right now if I could.”

Distraught, Kai rubbed his hands over Lloyd’s arms, trying to soothe away the goosebumps. As he did so, he thought about how he’d been able to summon his Elemental Dragon; he could only ever do that while he had his powers. Intrigued, he turned his focus inward, directing heat to his hands, as he’d done many times before. While no flames appeared, his transparent palms started glowing, a red-gold light that washed over Lloyd’s skin.

“Hey, it’s working!” said Kai excitedly. He got as close to Lloyd as he could, standing to his side and wrapping his arms around his shoulders through the chair back. “I got you, buddy, I got you.” As he rubbed his now warmed hands up and down Lloyd’s chest and arms, Lloyd’s shivering began to subside, and his breathing became deeper and more even.

Soon he began mumbling in his sleep.

“Mmn… Kai…”

Kai stepped back a bit to look at him. “Lloyd? Can you hear me?”

“Kai…”

“I’m right here, buddy. I won’t leave you. I promise…” Kai stopped himself, thinking back on the last promise he’d made with crushing regret. I’ll look after you from now on. He closed his eyes. “I promise I won’t leave.”

Lloyd didn’t wake, but he mumbled again, his voice quiet but distressed. “Kai… No… stop…”

“Stop? Stop what?”

“Please… don’t… don’t hurt me…”

“No…!” Kai was aghast. He grasped Lloyd’s shoulders again beseechingly. “No, no, Lloyd, that’s not me!  It’s not me, Lloyd, I would never hurt you, you know that!”

Lloyd shook his head fitfully, his breathing quickening. “No… Help... Help me...”

“I swear, Lloyd.” Kai cupped Lloyd’s face in his hands. Had he been solid he would have awoken him, so fiercely did he hold him in his anguish. “I’ll get you out of here. If it’s the last thing I do I am going to save you.”

Tears leaked out of the corner of Lloyd’s closed eyes. “Please…”

“Shhhh.” Kai tried thumbing the tears away to no avail. He pressed his forehead against Lloyd’s instead, willing him to feel his presence, to banish the nightmares from his rest. “Shhh, go to sleep now. Go to sleep. I’m here. I’m right here.”

And like he promised, Kai stayed with him the whole night, holding him in his arms, tirelessly smoldering like an ember to share his warmth until the sun rose and light leaked in through the wooden walls. Lloyd didn’t wake when Kai was suddenly whisked away in the blink of an eye, his soul reeled back to his body the moment Morro woke up back in the monastery. When Lloyd did wake up he recalled only that he’d slept in warmth and safety, and wished fervently the pain of his battered body would allow him to return to it.

Chapter Text

Morro was still throwing off the last dregs of sleep when the original owner of his stolen body returned, which was just as well, as it meant he didn’t pay attention to Kai’s brief panic and disorientation at having Lloyd and the barn disappear before his eyes, replaced by the ruined walls of the monastery and a bright blue sky. It took him less than a second to realize he was back to being trapped, as Morro yawned and stretched Kai’s arms above his head, and another second to feel an uncomfortable mix of both relief and disappointment – relief that it seemed he was still connected to his flesh and blood body enough that he was pulled back to it automatically, disappointment that he was taken away from Lloyd and returned to a position where he couldn’t help him.

Then he remembered what he’d heard at Steep Wisdom last night, and his relief and hope returned. He quickly tried to stifle those feelings before Morro could notice them, as the evil ghost cracked Kai’s neck and fingers and got out of bed.

Morro gave a deep, satisfied sigh. “Wow… I feel good. Sleep is good. I mean I could sleep as a ghost, but it doesn’t actually do anything for you, you know?” He started doing some stretches, facing the morning sunrise. There might be a lot of things that suck about having a live body again, like getting hungry and tired, but stuff like food and sleep almost makes it all worth it.

(Yeah? Don’t get used to it. Eventually my friends will find us and you’ll be sent back to where you belong.)

Kai stopped himself before his thoughts could give him away, but Morro only gave a mental shrug. Whatever you say.

When he was done stretching, Morro immediately called up the Fire Dragon (now back in its corrupted ghostly form) and flew it to the barn in the woods.

Not a lot of time had passed since Kai had been in the barn as a spirit, but he still felt worried at what state they would find Lloyd in when Morro opened the door and strolled inside. He was instantly soothed when he saw Lloyd turn his head at the sound of their approach, vainly trying to see over his shoulder as Morro came up behind him.

“Boo!” Morro grabbed Lloyd by the shoulders, making him hiss when his fingers dug into his burns. “It’s Day Two! How’re you feeling, Chosen One?”

“Please let go,” groaned Lloyd through his teeth. His voice had gone hoarse again, such that it was hardly recognizable. Morro clenched his fingers harder, deliberately pressing into the pink-red lines of skin until Lloyd cried out. Then he released him and leaned against the table in front of him.

“So. Today I was thinking–”

“Morro.”

Morro raised his eyebrows in surprise, then crossed his arms. “Yes, Lloyd?”

Lloyd seemed hesitant to continue. His face reddened and he averted his eyes. “I need to… you know…”

“What?”

The red in Lloyd’s face deepened with miserable embarrassment. “I have to go.”

“Go?” said Morro, incredulous. “Sorry, are you needed at a very important meeting or something? How are you not getting that you’re not going anywhere?”

Lloyd gave him a look that was half-pleading, half-confused.

(He has to use the bathroom, you fucking dumbass) snapped Kai.

Bath…? Morro’s impatience disappeared. Oh. Oh. Ew. Hm. Guess that’s another con of having a living body I forgot about. Gross.

He laughed aloud and smiled at Lloyd. “Ah I’m just messing with you, Lloyd. Don’t piss yourself. Literally. Hang on a second.”

He walked past him to the other side of the barn, where the end of the chain locked to the cuffs on Lloyd’s wrists was padlocked to the metal ring in the wall. Morro unlocked the padlock and took hold of the chain, winding it around his arm as he walked back to Lloyd.

He picked up the knife from the table before going around behind Lloyd’s chair. With one hand he held the knife to Lloyd’s neck, with the other he unearthed the key to the Vengestone handcuffs and unlocked one of them. “Put your hands together in front of you,” he ordered. Lloyd obeyed, trailing the chain attached to his still cuffed wrist over his lap. Keeping his knife to Lloyd’s throat, Morro closed the other cuff around Lloyd’s free wrist again. He nudged Lloyd to get up, then pushed him towards the door of the barn.

Like a dog on a leash, Lloyd lead Morro out of the barn into the crisp morning air outside, Morro never lowering his knife and keeping a firm hold on Lloyd’s chains. “Alright, go on. Don’t pee in the pond over there unless you don’t mind drinking from it later. Find a bush or something. You’ve got ten seconds to finish your business before I come over to drag you back.”

“I need way more than that!” Lloyd protested, his scratchy voice cracking on the rise. He raised his cuffed hands, the fingers attached to them purple and blue and sticking out at different angles. “With my hands like this it’s gonna take me forever!”

“Fine, till the count of thirty then.”

Lloyd flinched and his face blanched. Morro smiled wickedly. “Oops. Loaded phrase? Okay, okay, five minutes. Starting now. Run.”

Lloyd hesitated for half a second before darting off into the brush of weed grass and shrubbery.

(He doesn’t deserve to be treated like this. He never did anything to you.)

I don’t give a shit. It’s just his luck that he was chosen by destiny, that’s all. Nothing personal.

(Oh, that makes it all better then.)

They waited, Morro checking Kai’s watch. The chain quivered back and forth as Lloyd moved around out of sight.

Hey. Does this mean that, eventually, I’m also gonna have to… you know, go?

Kai’s outrage immediately flared up again. (In your fucking dreams!!)

I don’t like the idea any more than you do, but if I keep eating, then, you know, eventually–

(Then don’t fucking eat! I know you don’t need to. I’d rather starve than have you touch my–)

Screw that, food is delicious! I am definitely going to eat again! Morro thought for a moment, recalling how he’d thrown up yesterday. Maybe it’s not something we need to worry about, so long as our stomach gets emptied one way or another.

Kai didn’t bother replying. He was pretty sure that wasn’t how it worked, but in any case, if Nya and the others really were going to the police today like they’d said, then it wouldn’t even be an issue soon; he and Lloyd would be found before noon.

Morro gave Kai the mental equivalent of a suspicious glance. Kai quickly smothered his thoughts with disgust at the prospect of Morro having to use the bathroom in his body.

Lloyd, meanwhile, had finished his ‘business’ and was struggling to pull his pants back up. His thumbs were the only fingers that had come out of Morro’s first game mostly undamaged, so he hooked them through the belt loops of his jeans to do so. He had to use his other fingers to zip up his fly though, and he bit his tongue to bear down the pain. Once he’d done it he took a moment to examine his hands carefully – it was the first time he’d been able to get a good look at them since they’d first been subjected to Morro’s hammer. Needless to say, they worried him quite a bit. Their dull, aching throbbing was constant. Then of course there were the burns all over his body, which had flared to life as soon as he’d woken up, prickling and sizzling and making him wish he could peel all of his skin off, or at least jump into a pool of cool water. Some of them hurt more than others – the one that Morro had let burn a few seconds longer, just under his ribs, one on his lower back, and of course the last one on his face. Lloyd looked around at the foliage surrounding him, wondering if he could conveniently locate some aloe vera to rub on some of the burns, but the chain attached to his cuffs suddenly pulled sharply and he was yanked forward, just barely keeping his footing to step over where he’d squatted.

Morro kept pulling the chain until Lloyd stumbled into sight again. “Finished?” he called.

Lloyd nodded.

“Good.” Morro snapped the chain down, pulling Lloyd to the floor and then dragging him quickly through the nettles and dirt back to the barn entrance.

Lloyd spluttered and kicked, screeching as his back scraped painfully against the edge of the wooden floor of the barn as he was pulled inside. While he curled up in pain, Morro locked the end of the chain to the hook in the wall once more.

“I could’ve walked!” said Lloyd angrily.

“Sorry, but I couldn’t risk you trying to use spinjitzu to pull the chain out of my hands,” explained Morro, grabbing Lloyd by the ankles and dragging him back to the chair. He pointed the knife threateningly at him once again, gesturing for him to sit in it. When Lloyd did so Morro unlocked his cuffs once more and had him put his arms behind his back to cuff them again.

“Alright. Now, to get back to business.”

“Wait, Morro.” Lloyd licked his lips and swallowed. He looked directly into Morro’s eyes. “Please. Please don’t do this. I’m sorry about everything that’s happened to you, really–”

“Don’t you dare,” snarled Morro, lunging at Lloyd, grabbing him by the hair and pressing the knife to his neck again, “feel sorry for me! The only pitiful person in this room right now is you! Look at you, completely helpless, completely under my power.” He pulled Lloyd’s head back, strands of golden hair splitting from their roots. Lloyd keened in the back of his throat. “I’ve made destiny’s little golden child my bitch. And it’s so much more fun than I ever thought it’d be. So don’t feel sorry for me. I’m having a great time. And I’m itching to have some more.”

Morro leered at him, a manic glint in his deep black eyes… then his leer slipped. He frowned in confusion. Not letting go of Lloyd, he turned his attention inward, to the second consciousness in his head.

The red ninja was clinging desperately to something. A memory. One they both had. Of…

The taxi? No… the driver. Why are you thinking about the taxi driver?

Kai tried as hard as he could to sound unconcerned. (No reason. I was just remembering how you used me to kidnap my own brother, that’s all.)

Morro froze. Lloyd strained against his hold, wondering and dreading what he would do next.

…No. You were feeling hopeful. Or trying to remind yourself that there’s hope. Because of the driver. Why is that?

(I’m not hopeful. It was just a stray thought, okay?)

Morro had leaned down to Lloyd’s eye level while he’d been talking to him. Now he straightened up slowly. Without letting go of Lloyd’s hair, he went to stand behind him, raised the knife, and drove the point down towards his right eye… and held it.

Lloyd had shouted in fear at the knife coming down. “NO! No please, don’t-!”

Morro yanked his head back even further. “Shut the fuck up for a second.”

To Kai, he said, Tell me what you thought of, or I remove his eye.

(OKAY! Okay! I’ll tell you! I was just thinking that the taxi driver might remember where he dropped us off!)

Yeah. So? He’s not going to tell anyone.

(Yeah, maybe. But it’s something. It’s the only hope I have. That’s all I was thinking.)

Morro paused while he searched rapidly through Kai’s thoughts, as though rummaging through a sock drawer.

No. You had more certainty than that. Like you know that it’s only a matter of time before someone comes here. Someone like one of your team. But why would they think to talk to a random taxi driver? And there’s probably hundreds of them in the city.

Underneath his horror, Kai realized something as he inadvertently remembered Nya announcing to the others that the police would help them; Morro couldn’t see it. Tentatively, he recalled how he had stayed with Lloyd last night, keeping him warm in his intangible arms. Morro drilled through the recesses of his mind… and passed right by the memory.

He couldn’t see them. All the things Kai had seen and heard while he’d been out of his body, Morro couldn’t access. Only Kai’s feelings about them.

(You’re right, it’s a slim chance. So you’ve got nothing to worry about.)

But Morro could tell Kai was hiding something from him.

Tell me what else you thought of.

(That’s it, I swear!)

Fine. Hope your green ninja looks good in an eye patch.

(NO WAIT-!)

Morro dug the knife point into the flesh under Lloyd’s eye. Kai actually felt it scrape against the bone of his eye socket.

Lloyd screamed bloody murder, almost more from shock than pain.

(NO NO STOP I’LL TELL YOU! I’LL TELL YOU JUST PLEASE STOP!)

“Please! Oh please don’t do it, Morro please–!”

“Shhhhhhhhh.” Morro removed the knife, transferring it to Lloyd’s throat once more, pressing his mouth against his ear and pulling his head somehow even further back until Lloyd’s pleas were choked off. He spoke low and dangerously. “Shush! I’m thinking very carefully about something right now, so I need you to be quiet or else you’ll break my concentration and my hand will slip. Right through your eyeball. Got it?”

Lloyd’s voice was small and breathless. “Y-y-yes.”

“Good boy.”

Go on.

Kai scrambled to put his words in order. (My friends… might have thought to check the security cameras at the hospital by now. It’ll show us taking a taxi. Then all they’d have to do is call the taxi company to ask which driver was in that car at the time, and he'll tell them where he took us.)

Morro considered his words for a long time. Not a sound was made in the barn, apart from Lloyd’s hitched breathing. A thick stream of dark red blood ran from the wound under his eye down the side of his face, past his ear, and dripped audibly to the floor.

Well… That’s a problem.

Morro let go of Lloyd and picked up his katana, which he'd leaned in its scabbard against the wall when he'd entered the barn. “Change of plans, Lloyd. There’s something important I gotta take care of, otherwise all our fun might get ruined. You’ll be okay without me for an hour or so, right?”

(Where are you going?)

To find the taxi driver, obviously.

(How? How exactly are you going to find him? You don’t know his name, and you can’t call the taxi company because you threw away my phone, and even if you used a pay phone you don’t know the number, and even if you got it from somewhere, what would you even tell them? 'I want to know the name of the cabbie that picked me up from the hospital yesterday so I can cut him down?')

Morro pulled on his ninja mask and turned to leave.

(Just admit you’re going to be caught sooner or later! You’ve been dead for years, you don’t know anyone, you’ve almost spent all my money, you don’t have connections, you don’t have anything!)

I have you, said Morro, completely unfazed by the forced triumph in Kai’s mental voice. And I think for now that’s going to be enough.

He opened the door to the barn.

(Wait, wait… Please, fix his eye first. It would suck if you came back to find destiny’s golden child bled out to death while you were covering your tracks, right?)

He’s been very resilient so far. I doubt a small cut like that is going to kill him.

(I’m begging you, alright? Please, I’m on my hands and knees. Figuratively. Take care of him before you go this time. He’s… he’s yours now, right? So he’s your responsibility.)

I’m not trying to make him my pet, you know. But Morro did put down his katana and returned to Lloyd, who was raising his face up to keep the blood from falling faster.

To both Kai’s and Lloyd’s utter confusion, Morro bent down to Lloyd’s foot, keeping to the side so Lloyd couldn’t kick him, and removed his shoe and sock. He tossed the shoe out of the way and wadded up the sock. Then he located Lloyd’s green shirt and ripped off the remaining sleeve.

Lloyd watched him with wary eyes.

Morro grabbed his nose, pinching his nostrils shut. When Lloyd gasped for air, Morro shoved the sock into his open mouth and tied the shirt sleeve over it. Lloyd lurched and gagged but couldn’t make a sound. The sock tasted foul and filled the back of his throat, making it hard to swallow.

Morro cut off more strips from the shirt with the garden shears (it no longer even resembled a shirt now), and used them to tie Lloyd’s ankles to the chair legs.

“Just in case anyone does come out this way today,” said Morro.

(I said to fix his eye, not choke him!) raged Kai.

And just what exactly am I supposed to use to fix him, genius? Like you said, I don’t have anything. If you stop wasting time, maybe I can go get some bandages or something after I deal with the taxi driver problem. Happy?

Kai wished he had an outlet for his frustration; he was so sick of being caught in this paradox, of wanting to get Morro away from Lloyd but also needing him to return to him as soon as possible. (Fine, fine! Then let’s go already!)

Okay, okay, keep your spiky hair on.

He left the barn, with Lloyd safely trussed, gagged, and bleeding inside.

While Morro was up in the air, on his way to Ninjago City, the rest of the ninja were having breakfast. Everyone was a bit antsy; Cole accidentally toasted his bread twice and didn’t notice until after he’d already smothered it in peanut butter, Jay poured milk in his glass and juice in his cereal bowl, and Nya just sat at the table with an empty plate in front of her until Zane offered her a dumpling from his own. She nodded gratefully but didn’t really taste anything as she ate, her mind too full of all the possibilities that could crush her hopes today.

When Wu came in to suggest that they head off as soon as they could, the ninja all immediately left their seats with relief.

“Whose turn is it to wash the dishes today?” said Wu irritably, wrinkling his nose at the half-eaten food in the sink.

Jay slowed on his way out the door. “It’s Kai’s,” he said, and Wu’s expression softened. Jay gave an encouraging smile. “So that works out, right? Since we’re definitely getting him and Lloyd back today.”

“Indeed,” said Wu quietly.

(So. Explain to me how you plan on finding him?)

Hang on a moment. We probably don’t want to be thousands of feet above the ground while I do this.

Like before, Morro circled the dragon down to the roof of a tall building with a billboard on it. When he landed the dragon disappeared and Morro sat down in the shade of the billboard, leaning his back against it.

(So?) Kai pressed. He didn’t know why he was being pushy. If Morro really did have a way to find the taxi driver then Kai had to stall him as much as possible, not urge him on. Morro didn’t know the ninja were planning this very morning on finding him too, so he had no reason to rush.

Kai supposed it was just plain curiosity; he couldn’t see how Morro could find the taxi driver, much less before the police did.

So. Morro took a deep breath and let it out. I’m going to search deep into your mind, down to subconscious level, and try to see if I can get his name from your memories.

(That’s… it? But you always do that! I thought you were going to do something special.)

I can easily see the memories you recall the most clearly. But finding details of things you didn’t really focus on or pay attention to is something else. I haven’t done it before. Who knows what could happen? You might lose your mind, he added ominously.

Kai didn’t know what to say to that. He wasn’t fully convinced Morro could do what he said, but he kept up his guard (insofar as he could keep up a guard).

Morro closed his eyes. He took another deep breath.

At first, it didn’t feel all that different than usual – there was the familiar but slightly uncomfortable sensation of something digging through Kai’s head, shuffling through his memories, working backwards through the events of the previous day. Much as it pained him to relive them, Kai latched on to those of Lloyd’s tortures, trying to distract Morro with them, but Morro impatiently shook them aside. He skimmed over the trips into the city, fastforwarded through the first “game” and the fight with Lloyd… and settled at last on the inside of the taxi.

The dash… The city sliding by the window… the driver’s voice saying he had a kid who was a fan of the Green Ninja… Lloyd’s voice, asking where they were going…

(I don’t remember anything else. Your plan failed.)

Morro said nothing. His consciousness narrowed to a sharp point and zeroed in on the memory of getting into the car, turning to talk to the driver, glancing at him for barely long enough to take in a bearded face and sideburns. Sweeping his gaze to the backseat, to Lloyd, unsuspectingly settling in his seat with his bag…

Kai’s head began to hurt as Morro replayed everything, forcing the details into sharper focus.

An ornament dangling from the rearview mirror, but he couldn’t tell what. The numbers on the radio. A card hanging from a lanyard, dangling from a cubbyhole in the dashboard.

There. The ID card. What did it say?

(No!) Kai fought against the image, willing it to stay blurry.

Morro pushed back, conjuring the words on the card into existence. Kai’s head felt like the rope in a tug-of-war, with the memory of the ID card as the knot. He felt himself being split in two, trying desperately to hold onto his end.

But the nature of the situation was just too swayed in Morro’s favor; after all, trying to remember something had always been easier than trying to forget it.

Almost… got it…

(No, no! I don’t remember, I didn’t even look at it! I was thinking about–)

The best defense was a good offense. Lloyd’s trusting face, meeting his eyes in the rearview mirror, his mouth turned up in a tired smile, burst into Kai’s head, superimposed over the ID card.

Move! growled Morro.

Not good enough. Lloyd’s face disappeared. Kai's head exploded with pain as the full image of the ID card was ripped crudely from the recesses of his brain.

NNC TAXI LICENCE

JOHN LYLE

ID NO….

(Agh!)

Kai broke through the surface of his mind, gasping for breath, his head pounding. Morro was doing the same, but literally – he gripped his head between his hands, holding it between his knees, breathing hard.

Then he smiled.

Got it.

Kai felt dizzy. (Ah… Ugh… My head. That sucked…)

It probably would’ve sucked less if you hadn’t fought against me.

Kai didn’t deign to reply to this. (Well now that you have his name, how is it going to help you find him, huh?) he said harshly.

There was a brief silence, in which Kai had the distinct impression of being looked at as though he were a complete idiot.

Have you never heard of a phone book?

“Uh-huh… Yes, I’ve got it. Thank you so much for your cooperation. Have a nice day, ma’am. Thank you.” Detective Simon put down the phone, at long last it felt to Nya. While she liked his amiable demeanor, she wished he’d used just a bit more authority while speaking, instead of waiting patiently while the taxi company had put him on hold, and putting up with the snarky attitude of the woman who’d eventually answered his questions on the other end, her tinny voice so affronted at being bothered by the police Nya could hear most of what she said through the receiver. So it took her some effort not to grab the phone from Detective Simon immediately after she’d heard the driver’s name, and demand to be given his address faster.

Detective Simon looked up at the ninja with a pleased smile. “Alrighty, we got the address,” he said needlessly, waving the slip of paper he’d written on. “His name is John Lyle. Now they said his shift starts soon, so we can visit him when it ends at around three PM or so–”

“Three PM?” said Cole. “That’s hours away! You just want us to wait until then?”

Detective Simon blinked owlishly; clearly this was not the reaction he’d expected. “Well, you know, almost ninety percent of detective work is waiting–”

“Screw that!” Nya swiped the paper from his hand. “We’re going over there right now!” She stormed out of the office, ignoring the Police Commissioner and Detective Simon’s protestations, grabbing the first hand within reach and dragging the ninja attached to it after her.

Of course it turned out to be Jay. “Woah, woah, Nya, slow down! I know you want to find Kai, but why are you so panicky?”

“I’m not panicky. I just…” She slowed to a stop in front of the elevator and sighed. “I just have a very bad feeling. I need to know where Kai and Lloyd went. Now.”

Jay nodded slowly. “Yeah. Okay.” He looked around the hallway, spotted a large window, and grinned. “Then let’s go.”

This time he pulled her by the hand, running towards the window. When Zane and Cole turned on the corner at the end of the hall they were just in time to see Jay push the window open and jump through it, pulling Nya after him. They fell out of sight, only to reappear a second later on the back of Jay’s Lightning Dragon, shooting off into the distance.

Zane and Cole exchanged a look, shrugged, and went after them.

After Morro found the address in a pay phone ((Of course I know what a phone book is) Kai had grumbled when Morro had flipped to the white pages with the air of showing off something very obvious, (I just never used one, okay? We have internet now.)), he’d asked the first pedestrian he’d seen to point him in the right direction. Then he’d flown the rest of the way on dragonback after taking cover in a building under construction. Despite himself, Kai was impressed by his resourcefulness. He supposed having to move around quickly with very little aid was something Morro had had to learn at an early age before he’d lived with Wu. Not a drop of doubt that he might not find John Lyle had entered his head since he’d forced Kai into sharing his existence. Discovering the depth of this confidence had conversely shaken Kai’s own, and he became terrified at the now very real possibility that Morro would take care of the problem before Nya and the others could get there.

Morro crept around the corner of the neighboring building, watching out for any passersby.

Kai desperately tried to make out the sound of police cars on the road or the flaps of dragon wings above.

Okay. I’m going in.

(Wait, wait! What exactly are you going to do?)

What do you think? I’m going to kill him, obviously.

Even though Kai had expected this answer, he was still shocked at the complete lack of guilt in the thought.

(You’re a ghost, it’s not like you’ll go to jail if you get caught! Are you seriously going this far just so you can keep playing your messed up ‘games’??)

I told you before, I have my reasons. And they’re none of your business. Morro speed-walked to the front door of the building. He noted John Lyle’s name on the intercom pad, then ducked around to the side again, casing the windows. I am not letting this random guy ruin everything. Which means I have to kill him.

(There has to be another way!)

Well there isn’t! What do you want me to do, make him pinkie promise to never tell anyone? Either I get rid of him or I make him forget, and that’s not happening.

Morro found an open window. He used airjitzu to reach it.

(Wait, you can make him forget? You mean forget where he dropped us off? How?? Do it!)

By messing with his memories, explained Morro, pushing his feet through the window and slipping inside. He landed lightly in a hallway, doors with welcome mats and shoe racks lining both walls. Scrambling them with my own. But I’d need to possess him to do it. And we both know that’s not happening. Not unless you pinkie promise not to run away as soon as I give you your body back.

(No... Oh no...)

Kai wasn’t refusing. His denial was one of disbelief and frustration; he couldn’t believe the opportunity to escape Morro had finally presented itself… and he had to let it pass. There was no question that Morro would kill John Lyle if Kai ran away.

(Fuck. FUCK. God damn it. I hate you so much. Fine, go ahead and do your fucked up brain scrambling thing. I promise to stay put until you’re done.)

Morro frowned as he loped towards the elevator. I wasn’t being serious. Why would I let you go for even a second? How do I know this isn’t just a ruse to escape to save Lloyd? I’m sure you care more about the Green Ninja than some random taxi driver, don’t you?

(Of course I do. But Lloyd would never forgive me if he found out I let someone die to save him. And I wouldn’t be a true ninja if I let that happen.)

Aww, how noble of you. But I still refuse. There’s nothing in this deal that would benefit me. I’d only be sparing him for you. And why on earth would I do anything for you? You’re pissy and annoying.

The elevator pinged and the doors opened. Morro entered and stabbed his thumb on the button to Lyle’s floor.

(Yeah? Well I’ll be a lot more pissy and annoying with you if you do kill him. Having to stay put just for you to use me as a puppet again instead of saving Lloyd will suck, but in the end my situation won’t change. Least I won’t have a dead father on my conscious on top of all the nice memories you’ve left me of torturing Lloyd.)

So, you’re asking me to spare the taxi driver by trusting you not to run away, and in return you won’t be as annoying as you could be? You’ve got to be kidding. No deal. Come back when you’ve got a better offer.

(I can’t give you anything! I don’t even know what you fucking want!)

There’s nothing I want from you I can’t get myself–

Morro stopped. When the elevator pinged again and the doors opened he didn’t immediately leave, thinking over something Kai couldn’t hear.

Then he smiled.

Hmm. Heh. Well, actually… I can think of ONE thing.

Kai found the switch in attitude foreboding. (What is it?)

Your cooperation. After we take care of this problem, I’m going to have some breakfast, and then we’re going back to keep playing with Lloyd.

He walked down the hall, matching the doors to the positions of the intercom buttons at the entrance.

And I want YOU to decide the next game.

He stopped in front of the second to last door.

(Wh-… What…? Why??)

None of your business why. You asked me what I want. I want you to willingly offer me another idea on how to make the Green Ninja wriggle in agony today. That’s something I can’t take from you by force – you’d have to actually think about it.

(You want me to… You can’t make me do something like that!)

Exactly. I can’t make you do it. I can control your body but not your free will. So it’s the only thing you can offer me. Either do it or I take out John Lyle.

(No, no there has to be something else!)

There isn’t. You have nothing. A lot more nothing than me. If you’re going to waste time, then just forget it.

Morro raised a finger to the doorbell.

(No wait, wait! No… Fuck. Okay I’ll do it. I’ll choose something. Okay?)

The finger lowered. Morro crossed his arms. Great, then let’s hear it.

(Now?)

Yes, now. And fast, before someone comes out here. You really think I’m going to trust you to keep your end after you get what you want?

(How do I know you’ll keep yours and not just kill him anyway?)

I told you. I follow through on my promises. Look. I swear, if you tell me how you want to torture Lloyd next–

(I DON’T want to fucking torture Lloyd, you sick fuck!)

–then I’ll temporarily possess John Lyle to mess up his memories instead of killing him. If you try to make a run for it while I’m doing that, I’ll make him cut his own throat. Deal?

Kai couldn’t believe the turn things had taken. He wondered if it were possible that the police had already spoken to John Lyle and were on their way to the barn with Nya and the others right now. He clung to that hope, prayed for it to be true, even though he knew it was too early in the morning, it didn’t seem likely, but oh wouldn’t it be wonderful, for Morro to return to the barn only to find that Lloyd wasn’t there, so it wouldn’t matter whether Kai chose the next torture method or not because Morro would never get the chance to use it, he’d never use Kai to hurt Lloyd again, and then even if he continued to possess Kai and elude the ninja for weeks or even months, at least Lloyd would be safe.

But if it wasn’t true, if the police still had yet to arrive and John Lyle was still the only person who knew Lloyd’s location, and if these last few seconds of stalling still wouldn’t be enough time for them to get here, and Morro would get what he wanted even if Kai convinced him not to make him a murderer, and Lloyd lost his first real chance at getting rescued… then it would all be Kai’s fault. If he hadn’t heard Nya’s plans, Morro would never have thought to come here.

It was all his fault. And being forced to add to Lloyd’s suffering was his punishment.

(Just… just give me a minute–)

No minute, tell me now! I’ll know it as soon as you think of it. So come on, brainstorm!

(You… You could…)

Yeah?

(Fuck… I can’t do this…)

Morro knew Kai was just lamenting. He knew he’d won. He waited patiently.

(God… Fuck… Okay, okay… You had a stun gun. In the barn? That’s it. That’s what I choose.)

The stun gun, huh?

(I’ve heard they hurt like hell) assured Kai venomously. He’d also heard they didn’t leave any lasting damage, so at least there was that.

Morro nodded. Cool. What else?

(What ELSE?)

It can’t just be giving him a little zap every few seconds, that’s boring. It’s a game! Where’s the twist? What’re the conditions and penalties? Get creative!

(I don’t fucking know, okay? I’m not a psychopath like you!)

Well push your mind into unexplored corners for just a little bit, before I decide to kill the cabbie after all.

Without warning, Morro pressed the doorbell. Kai could hear it trill inside the apartment.

(No wait, wait! I can think of something, just wait!)

Too late to wait now, said Morro, as the lock turned and the door opened a crack, the door chain still latched.

“Can I help you?”

Morro raised his arms and blasted the door inward, snapping the chain. John Lyle flew backward into his apartment.

(WAIT WAIT LET ME THINK!)

Then think.

Morro quickly strode into the apartment, using a swirl of wind to push the door closed behind him. He pulled his katana from its scabbard and bore down on the taxi driver, pointing the blade at him menacingly.

(Shit shit shit! Games… Games…)

Kai’s thoughts kicked into overdrive. All the video games he’d ever played with Cole, Jay, and Zane flashed through his head. He dismissed them. He thought of training sessions with Wu, physical challenges meant to hone his and the others’ ninja skills. Some of them had felt a bit like games. There was one they’d played in the early days, before Lloyd had even joined them, though Kai had used it again while training Lloyd himself…

I can work with that.

(What? But I didn’t –)

You thought of it. That’s enough. Let’s do this thing.

Kai snapped back to the present world, taking in the scene before him; Morro had John Lyle backed up against the wall at sword-point. The man had his hands raised, his eyes wide and terrified. Kai suddenly wondered why his family members hadn’t come out to investigate the noise, until he realized the cyclone of wind Morro had conjured to whirl throughout the apartment was so strong it was actually pinning John Lyle to the wall, his feet several inches off the floor. Kai could just hear cries of fear under the roar of the wind coming from the hallway leading off from the living room where they stood.

Morro pulled out the knife he’d used on Lloyd from his pocket, and threw it on the floor in front of the taxi driver.

Okay then. Now it’s time to keep your end, noble ninja.

(I won’t move) promised Kai.

Morro left his body.

To Kai it felt as though he were being completely drained from the inside, and filled up at the same time. The dragging force of Morro’s consciousness, now in ghostly form, vacating his mind and freeing his limbs, made him drop to his knees, and the katana slipped from his hand as his arms fell to his sides. His body resituated itself around him, heavy, floppy, exhausting, overwhelming… There was too much of it, too much of him, too much to keep track of, too much energy was needed just to keep his head up, just to open his eyes and make out the shadowy form of Morro flying through John Lyle’s chest, making him lurch forward as the wind died and released him.

Kai swayed slightly, watching the man before him spasm and shake his head. Then Lyle’s hand snatched the knife on the ground and raised it to his neck. His eyes glared in Kai’s direction. “Stay right there,” he growled.

Kai nodded heavily.

Satisfied, Morro got straight to work. Lyle groaned and fell to his knees, though still keeping the knife in place, gripping his head with the other hand.

“Dad?!”

Kai turned in the direction of the voice.

A young boy dressed in pajamas stood in the mouth of the hallway, clearly having just come out of his room. His hair was disheveled, and he gazed in horror at the sight of his father holding a knife to his throat.

Kai forced himself to move his sluggish body. He stood and pulled the kid as gently as he could towards him.

“Don’t move!” gargled Lyle.

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Kai, holding the boy to his side.

“What’s wrong with him? What’s wrong with my dad?”

“He’ll be fine,” said Kai, restraining the boy from going to Morro. “Just wait a minute, he’ll be fine.”

They stood and watched as Lyle continued to moan and make choking noises, tugging at his hair and swaying back and forth. Kai worried that Morro might go overboard in messing up his memories and turn the man insane. He tried to tell himself this was no different than what Morro had done to him to get the memory of John Lyle’s name in the first place. He hoped he was right.

Some seconds later, Lyle finally straightened and threw his head back, dropping the knife, and Morro swooped up out of his body. Kai pushed the kid behind and away from him, throwing him to the floor, just before the ghost dived at him.

In an instant he was back to where he’d been before, squeezed and crumpled down to being just a thought, a voice, a passenger once more, his will yanked from inside his limbs and contracted back to the dark nothingness of wherever he resided while Morro took his place at the ‘wheel’, as he called it. Morro only staggered once before he shook his head, glanced sharply at John Lyle, who’d collapsed to the floor, and darted for the knife and then the katana and then dashed towards the nearest window, which he shoved open.

The taxi driver’s son saw the masked ninja leave out of the corner of his eye as he ran towards his feebly stirring father.

“Dad! Dad, are you okay?”

John Lyle sat up rubbing his head. “Ungghhh… What happened to me?”

The intercom phone buzzed.

Seeing his father was alright for the moment, the boy automatically got up to answer the com. “Hello?”

“Hi. Does John Lyle live there?” A young woman’s voice.

“Yes?”

“We’re here to ask him something. We’re the ninja and–”

“They’re here with us, the police.” A second voice, this one a man’s.

The boy hesitated, watching his father pick himself up and look around the windswept living room with bewilderment.

“Okay…”

He buzzed them in.

Morro airjitzu’d up the roof of the neighboring building. Neither he nor Kai noticed the police car parked on the side of the street below.

Feeling regretful?

(No.) Kai’s mental voice was muted.

Yeah you are.

(I regret that I couldn’t use this chance to help Lloyd, not that I stopped you from murdering a man. Let’s just… Let’s just get back to Lloyd now.)

Okay, hold your horses, said Morro cheerfully. I said I wanted some breakfast first. Also you want me to get something to patch his eye. Remember?

Kai sighed.

Morro leaped across the rooftops, away from the building that now housed the ninja that had just missed him.

Chapter Text

When the ninja reached the door to John Lyle’s apartment, with Detectives Tommy and Simon – who’d quickly followed the Elemental Dragons in their patrol car at the Commissioner’s command – it was to find it already open, and a young boy, a little older than Nelson, and with a bad case of bed hair, standing in the opening, blinking at them wide-eyed as they all gathered in front of him just behind the threshold.

“Lyle residence?” inquired Detective Tommy pompously.

“Yeah…” said the boy.

The two detectives flashed their badges at him. The boy barely gave them a glance, his eyes traveling from the faces of the PD’s to the more ostentatious figures of Cole and Zane, who were both taller, behind them. Nya got the impression the kid was having trouble comprehending exactly whom he was looking at, his mind still catching up with his eyes.

“Would it be alright if we come in?” asked Detective Simon kindly. “We just have a few questions for Mr. Lyle.”

The boy nodded, his eyes still wide. He stepped aside as the detectives came in, followed by the ninja in all their usual gear. “Woah,” he said appreciatively.

“What the heck happened in here?” blurted out Jay, looking around at the turned over living room. Nya nudged him firmly in the side.

A man in his forties, fully dressed unlike the boy, was seated on the couch at the end of the room, leaning on his knees and rubbing his forehead. He looked up as the group marched towards him. “Denny? What’s going on?”

“Dad, the ninja have some questions for you,” the boy said, deftly putting himself between the detectives and Lyle to sit next to him. The movement could have been taken as one of seeking protection from strangers, but to Nya it rather looked as though Denny were trying to protect his father from them.

“The police have some questions for you,” corrected Detective Tommy, raising a warning hand in front of Jay, who was standing nearest him, as though he expected him to refute it. In fact Jay wouldn’t have said anything before the hand gesture, but now he felt the urge to interrupt the stuck-up policeman just to annoy him. He crossed his arms and scowled at the back of his head instead. “Sorry to disturb your morning, Mr. Lyle,” the detective continued, “but could you tell us about some passengers you picked up from the Ninjago City Hospital at around 8 am yesterday?”

Nya’s anxiously beating heart stumbled on itself at Lyle’s answer. “The hospital? I didn't drive by the hospital yesterday.”

Detective Simon pulled up the enlarged printed photo of Kai and Lloyd Jay had sent him from his phone. “Security footage shows you picking up these two individuals,” he said. “You don’t recognize them?”

Lyle peered at the photo and shook his head. “No… Wait, isn’t that the Green Ninja? Denny here is a big fan. I think I’d remember if I’d had him in my cab.”

Denny turned a confused frown on his father. “But… Dad, you did drive the Green Ninja yesterday. You told me so! Remember?”

“I did?”

“Where did he drop them off?” asked Nya, unable to keep silent.

Denny looked at her shyly. “Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t really believe it at first, so I only asked my dad what he looked like and what he said and stuff. I didn’t think about where he was going.”

“Did you write it down somewhere?” asked Detective Simon. “In a record book maybe?”

“Record book?” Lyle gave a short laugh. “My mind’s a steel trap! I never needed a record book.”

“Yeah? You might want to think about keeping one,” said Detective Tommy, looking irritated.

Lyle’s demeanor became defensive. “Listen, are you sure you have the right cabbie? Cause I’m telling you, I didn’t pick up those two boys yesterday.”

“Please Mr. Lyle, it’s important,” cajoled Nya. “Try to think back to yesterday morning, just try.”

“Yesterday morning I…” Lyle trailed off, his eyes going distant. His frown of concentration fell away, and his face turned pale. He raised his hands to his head, and started breathing haggardly in and out.

“Dad? Are you okay?” Denny grabbed his shoulder with both hands, but his father didn’t seem to notice him.

“What’s wrong with him?” said Nya, alarmed.

Lyle started making distressed, gasping noises. “Ah… No…” he wheezed. “It’s… It’s horrible…! He… He’s just…!”

“I don’t know,” Denny answered Nya, not taking his eyes off his father. “He was doing this just before you came, too. Maybe something hit his head in all the wind.”

“Wind?” said Zane sharply.

“Yeah.” Denny turned to the ninja, encouraged by the recognition in Zane’s voice and the serious looks in his and Cole and Jay’s faces. In contrast, the detectives looked back and forth between them and Lyle in bewilderment. “There was all this wind inside. It was so strong it pushed me against the wall and I couldn’t move!”

“What are you talking about, kid?” barked Detective Tommy. “What do you mean, a wind inside?”

Nya bent down in front of Denny. “Was there anyone here with you? While it was windy?”

“No one’s been in here but me and Den,” said Lyle with a groan, rubbing his head and turning his attention back to Nya. “My wife divorced me a few months back.”

Denny blinked at him in astonishment. “But, dad… he was just here. You saw him!”

“Who?”

“The Green Ninja!”

“What?”

“WHAT?” yelped the ninja and detectives.

Denny startled at their reaction. “Yeah. I thought he came with you guys. But like, ahead. He stayed until the wind stopped. Then he went out through the window.”

“When was this exactly?” asked Nya, her voice trembling.

“Right before you rang downstairs…” Denny started to look upset. “Wasn’t it him?”

Nya straightened up. “Zane! Cole, Jay!”

“On it!”

The boys raced towards the window Denny had indicated, and one after the other, jumped through. Nya could hear the roar of their dragons as they were summoned mid-fall.

“Woah, woah, what’s going on, what’s this about?” spluttered Detective Tommy. “What exactly do you mean, the Green Ninja was here? Are you sure it was him?”

“Well, he was wearing a green mask,” said Denny doubtfully, “so I couldn’t see his face. And to be honest, he didn’t sound much like the Green Ninja. I’ve heard him on TV plenty. ‘Go, reading, go!’”

“Denny stop making up stories for the police, this is serious!”

“But dad, you saw him! How could you forget, it JUST happened!”

“I’m gonna need you to explain everything that happened before we arrived in exact detail, Denny,” said Detective Simon, pulling out a notebook and pen.

Lyle at last found his strength and stood up, pulling his son towards him. “That’s enough! I don’t know what’s going on, but you are not badgering my son! I’m late for work and he has school!”

“Sir, this is for an investigation–” began Detective Simon, but he was pushed aside by Lyle walking to the door to show them out.

“Then you can come at a more reasonable hour, after I’ve had a chance to calm down my son.”

“Dad, I’m not scared, I don’t mind–”

“You can go now, officers.”

“We’re detectives, actually,” said Simon pathetically, putting away the notebook in defeat, but he and Detective Tommy did as he asked and made their way to the door, with Nya hurrying along behind.

As she passed by, Nya felt a tug on her sleeve and turned to see Denny looking at her in earnest. “Is Lloyd in trouble?” he asked. “I mean, has he done something bad?”

She tried to smile reassuringly. “No. Nothing like that.”

“Because he didn’t seem like he was doing anything bad. He told me my dad would be okay, while he was… freaking out.”

Nya nodded thoughtfully. “But it didn’t sound like him?” Denny shook his head.

“Let’s go, girly,” said Detective Tommy, pulling her down the hall by the hand.

She wrenched it roughly out of his. “Excuse me!” she hissed. “My name is not ‘girly’, and I can walk myself!”

Detective Tommy was not impressed. “This is why we didn’t want to come here right away! You scared off our only witness! How about you chase after those other ninja and leave the rest of this work to us professionals, huh?”

“You don’t even understand everything we just heard,” retorted Nya, refusing to be cowed. “That wasn’t Lloyd they saw in there. It was Morro!”

“Morro… who?” asked Detective Simon.

“He’s a ghost!”

The look the two men exchanged made Nya immediately regret what she’d said.

“A ghost?”

“Erm…”

“It’s true! The wind Denny was talking about proves it!”

“You believe everything that kid was saying?” scoffed Detective Tommy. “Sounded to me more like he woke up from a bad dream.”

“But you saw how messy the room looked!”

“Not any more messy than my place,” smiled Detective Simon ruefully. “That’s just how apartments look after your wife leaves you. Believe me, I know.”

Nya grunted loudly in frustration, stamping her foot against the floor. She knew that would only serve to make them take her less seriously, but she couldn’t help it – they were being so unhelpful. “You know what, fine! I’m going! Back to people who actually understand everything! Call me when you find something useful while you’re ‘investigating’.”

“Will do,” said Detective Simon quickly, cutting off Tommy’s scathing reply. He let her pass them into the elevator first, and didn’t protest her closing the doors on them to take it alone.

By the time Nya had walked out into the morning sunshine she was thoroughly regretting how she’d lost her cool. Though she still resented Detective Tommy’s attitude and ignorance about Morro, she knew it would not do her nor Kai and Lloyd any good to pick a fight with people who were actively looking for them. Still, she wished she had allies who could better understand the precariousness of the situation, or who’d at least been in similar ordeals that it wouldn’t stretch their imagination much to believe in ghosts. Ronin knew of course, but like Zane, Nya really didn’t think calling in his help would speed up their progress more than just slow it down. Dareth would be all for helping any way he could, but if she had to be honest, there really wasn’t a whole lot he could offer.

Was it time to call in some favors? Had it got to that point? Someone else might have said that her being this desperate after only one day meant she was overreacting…

No, she wasn’t. She knew things were very wrong, and that Kai needed her. Even though he’d understood that she was able to take care of herself, it didn’t mean she didn’t cherish how much he’d always gone out of his way to look after her. How could she not put her all in finding him now?

Lloyd needed her too. Oh sure he was the Green Ninja, the city’s hero, and they all had played their part in rearing him up to be the leader that he was now. But she was the one who’d always been with him from the beginning, his fellow left-behind, and she’d been the first to accept him when Wu had taken him in. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel as responsible for him as if he were her own little brother, too.

They needed her. So she would pull out all the stops she could to bring them back.

She pulled out her phone and flicked through her contacts to a number she hadn’t used before. After all they barely knew each other except through her brother. Hopefully that connection was still strong enough.

“Skylor? Hi, it’s Nya. Kai’s sister? Yeah, well, that’s kind of why I’m calling…”

Of course I looked through his memories first before I scrambled them, Morro explained, sounding insulted that Kai would think him so stupid as to not do so. He didn’t tell anybody anything.

(Perfect) said Kai bitterly. The stolen microwave egg sandwich Morro was eating (un-microwaved of course) tasted of acid in his throat, at least to him.

It is, said Morro. I can guarantee you no one’s ever gonna think to look for that barn now. The Green Ninja is completely mine. Until I break him down to nothing.

Kai didn’t bother replying. He’d learned by now that asking why would get him no answers. As heavy as it made him feel, he instead wallowed in his misery and dread at thinking of Lloyd’s capture extending to, not just several more hours, but days, even weeks if Morro was careful enough in keeping him alive that long; better than thinking about his dwindling hope that the police had talked to John Lyle before Morro had gotten there and rescued Lloyd already. Kai never wanted his thoughts to give him away to Morro again.

It was going to take some practice though, compartmentalizing his mind the way Morro did. He knew if he could wait it out until Morro fell asleep again that he could use his time as an out-of-body spirit to do some serious planning for letting Nya and the others know where Lloyd was, seeing as how Morro wouldn’t be able to see those memories. It still stung him that his first venture in that form had already backfired on him so horribly.

And there was still so much of the day left. Too much time for Lloyd to be left in Morro's possession.

Morro swallowed the last bite of his sandwich and brushed the crumbs from his gloved hands. Alright, a deal’s a deal. Time to get something for Lloyd’s poor boo-boo.

Again Kai bit back his retort. He didn’t want to give Morro any reason to change his mind.

Morro jumped down to street level, keeping to the shadows in true ninja style. He slunk along the alleyways and corners until he came to an open area of shop fronts lining the road. Pulling down the mask from his head he scanned the signs until he found an arts and crafts store, which, to Kai’s bemusement, he entered.

(What the heck do you want from here?)

You’ll see.

Kai did, and he didn’t like it one bit, even though Morro actually paid for the items this time, even accepting the receipt and plastic bag that were presented to him.

(You can’t be serious. Get fucking bandages or something!)

You want me to treat his wounds, you’ll let me do it my way, or not at all.

Kai couldn’t think of any way to argue. Morro pulled his mask back on.

Unbeknownst to either of them, as Morro exited the shop and made his way back to the shadows of the alleyways, they were being watched.

“Psst! Hey, guys! You’ll never guess who’s just walking around out there!”

The three shady figures standing in the dead end of the alley looked up at the man serving lookout, then to where he was pointing. Their guarded expressions turned into ones of astonishment.

“Is that…?”

“The Green Ninja?”

“Must be. He’s clearly a ninja. And he’s wearing green.”

“Hey,” called a female voice behind them. The three guys turned back to the last figure in the dead end, wearing a hoodie and with one hand in her pocket. She hefted a bulging plastic bag in the other hand and tossed it to one of the guys. “How about you give me a demonstration on just how good this stuff is. Before we close the deal.”

“What do you mean?” said the man who caught the bag.

The young woman smiled. “I mean if this stuff is as good as you say… then defeating someone like the Green Ninja should be no problem.”

The three men exchanged looks and grinned.

Nya met up with the others a few blocks down from Lyle’s apartment. The despondent looks on their faces told her they hadn’t found any sign of the mysterious ninja that Denny had seen.

“I can’t believe we just missed him!” whined Jay.

“We’re still not even sure who it is, though,” said Cole. “The kid said it was Lloyd, but… how could that be? We saw him in that picture. He’s a captive. I mean Morro could be possessing him again, but if that were true we wouldn’t be able to use our powers, and according to the kid the wind appeared while we were on our way here, on our Elemental Dragons!”

“What he saw was the Green Ninja,” said Nya. “Meaning someone wearing a green gi like Lloyd’s. Someone who was clearly possessed by Morro, given the powerful wind in their apartment.”

“You’re thinking Kai?” Cole’s voice was subdued.

Nya shook her head, though not in denial, just frustration. “I don’t know what to think. We still don’t know anything. I thought for sure we’d get a real lead this time, but… Morro beat us to it.”

“How could he have known we were coming?” wondered Jay. “And since when did he have the power to give someone amnesia, anyway?”

“We could make conjectures all day long,” said Zane, “but unless we get some real information we won’t get anywhere. We do know for sure that Morro is involved now, and that he is using somebody to move around in the open, wearing a green gi.”

“Sick bastard,” muttered Jay disgustedly. “He’s so desperate to be the Green Ninja he’s parading around as one while he’s got Lloyd captive…”

“Detective Simon called me a few minutes ago,” said Nya. “He said they’ve got people looking into the photograph we got. Cole, I think you should bring them the original again, just in case they need it.”

“Sure.”

“I’ve also called Skylor and told her to be on the lookout for Kai, in case he shows up at her place. Could you guys call in favors from the other Elemental Masters to do the same?”

“Good idea, Nya,” said Jay.

“In the meantime…” Nya sighed. “In the meantime I guess… we just go on doing things like normal.”

They all looked at each other awkwardly. Nothing was normal about this.

“Speaking of which…” said Zane, “my sensors are picking up signs of a scuffle some distance away.”

“A scuffle?” Cole arched his eyebrow, amused.

Zane shrugged. “It might be worth checking out.”

“He’s got a point. Let’s go, then.”

When the ninja did arrive at the sight of what had clearly been, as Zane put it, a ‘scuffle’, with a small crowd gathered around three men lying in various states of beaten-up on the floor, they were once again too late to catch the Green Ninja in time; he’d vacated the area before the first of the onlookers had come on the scene. However one of the beaten up guys informed the ninja vehemently that he’d attacked them unprovoked, and that they would be pressing charges.

“Did he have his mask on?” demanded Nya, grabbing the lapel of the man’s jacket.

“Yeah he had a mask on,” replied the man, shrugging her off roughly. “And he stole from us, too!”

“What did he take?”

“Uh…” The man glanced shiftily at his friends. They shook their heads at him. “Nunya business, that’s what.”

Nya looked at him dubiously. “Okay… Well did you see where he went?”

“No, cause I was on the floor, after he decked me in the face!”

Before Nya could ask anything else, the sound of police car sirens caught everyone’s attention. The three guys started looking even more shifty and panicked, and they turned tail and ran, pushing through the crowd. One of them, whom Cole had been helping up, pushed him away so forcefully he slammed backward into Jay behind him, and the two went down together.

“Agh! Cole, you’re crushing me! Get off!”

“What in blue blazes is happening here?”

The familiar gruff voice of the Police Commissioner reached them from the open door of the police car, as the man himself got out. “What are you ninja doing now?”

Nya didn’t feel like explaining. Zane helped Cole and Jay to their feet. “Yeesh,” said Cole. “That guy was stronger than he looked.”

“How about you kids go find something useful to do and stop impeding in our work, huh?”

“Yeah…” sighed Nya. “We’ll do that.”

If only something useful would turn up.

(What exactly do you want with those?)

I have no idea, said Morro, tucking the bulging bag into the folds of his gi. But it might be useful. Those losers weren’t even worth the energy, but there was definitely something not normal about them, right? And it had something to do with this. Figured I’d take it as payment for doing my civic duties as the heroic Green Ninja, you know? Cleaning up the streets.

(You will never be the Green Ninja) said Kai savagely.

Well. Not while the old one’s still alive, anyway. Morro grinned at the instant cold that filled his stomach, uncomfortable as it was. He heard no more from the red ninja for the rest of the trip.

Kai had known it was a slim chance that Lloyd would have been found while they’d been out, but the disappointment he felt was still crushing when Morro entered the barn to find Lloyd sitting in his chair near the iron ring in the wall where his chain was tethered. His face was pale underneath the dried streaks of blood that painted his right cheek, and his heavy-lidded eyes looked at Morro with tired resignation, his chest rising and falling shallowly.

Lloyd had got moving as soon as Morro had left. With a lot of jerking he’d managed to pull his bare foot through the bind Morro had tied around his ankle, and had used his toes to pull off the shoe from his other foot and help loosen its bind as well. When he’d gotten his feet free he’d pushed them back into his shoes, hefted the chair on his back, and turtle-walked to the other side of the barn to the iron ring, where he’d sat himself down and started kicking at it from the side, endeavoring to dislodge the ring from the wall. Twenty minutes of this had yielded no results aside from Lloyd becoming very, very tired, the loss of blood from his face making him dizzy. The intended few minutes’ rest he’d taken had turned into a loss of consciousness that had only just ended before Morro had opened the door.

Morro now put his hands on his hips and shook his head at Lloyd. “Again? Aren’t you persistent.” He stood behind Lloyd’s chair, gripped it and leaned it on its back legs. “This is a problem we’re going to have to fix soon, you know,” he said to Lloyd ominously. “And you are not going to like how we do it.”

He dragged him back to the table at the opposite wall, turning him towards it. Then he untied the shirt sleeve from around his mouth and removed the sock. Lloyd hacked and gagged; his mouth was very dry and tasted disgustingly of sweat.

Morro affected the same pose as before he’d left, leaning back against the edge of the table in front of Lloyd, as though no time had passed. “Okay Lloyd, I’ve got good news and bad news. Bad news is there was someone who could’ve told your ninja friends where to find you. That’s why I had to leave, to take care of it.”

It took a few seconds for Lloyd to concentrate on the meaning of the words. “Was…?” he said hoarsely.

“That’s the good news. I got rid of him! Now there’s no one left who knows about this place. It’s gonna be just you and me for a good while yet.”

“Wait… Wait, what did you do? Who-?”

“Oh and that reminds me. I never got to give you your reward for yesterday!” Morro dug into his pockets and pulled out the photograph. He held it up close enough for Lloyd to see. “That’s little Nelson’s apartment. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Lloyd’s eyes widened as he took in the image. His eyes lingered a bit on the bottom left corner; Kai knew he was checking the date and time, lending the photo credibility.

Finally Lloyd swallowed and asked, “Is… Is he okay?”

Morro leaned down close to Lloyd’s face and grinned wickedly. “What do you think?”

Whatever Lloyd saw in his expression seemed to convince him, because he shut his eyes tight and turned away, clenching his jaw in regret.

“Aw don’t feel too bad,” said Morro, patting the top of his head. “At least everyone you actually care about is safe, right?”

Lloyd gave him a baleful glare. “You’re a monster,” he rasped. “How could Master Wu have ever thought you could be the Green Ninja?”

Morro swung his fist at Lloyd’s cheek. Blood from the cut under his eye sprayed out as his head was knocked aside.

(Bastard!)

Lloyd only grunted, hanging his head dolefully. Morro had taken on his cold and hateful expression as he looked down on him. “Oh yeah,” he said neutrally, “I brought something else back. Can’t have you bleeding out from a stupid cut after all.” He pulled out the plastic bag he'd got from the arts and crafts shop from his pocket, inside from which he lifted two small objects that he held close to Lloyd’s face for him to inspect. Lloyd’s blood ran cold when he saw it was a small sewing needle and bundle of black thread.

He tried coating his fear with sarcasm. “I don’t suppose you got any anesthetic to go with it, did you?”

“Anesthetic?” Morro’s evil laugh echoed around the room. “What fun would that be?”

He turned Lloyd’s chair around and tipped it backward, leaning it against the edge of the table, so that Lloyd lay almost horizontally against the chair back. Lloyd’s heartbeat accelerated. The simple change in position terrified him; having no contact with the floor and with Morro looming over his head, he felt even more powerless. Never had he been so completely at the mercy of someone else. Even when he’d been put in a cage by the Serpentine or shackled by Soto’s crew he'd still had some semblance of autonomy, and could entertain any number of ways to escape, desperate though they may be. But like this, with Morro's full attention on him and him alone, and his body weak and incapacitated, there wasn't even a sliver of a possibility of defending himself.

Morro could do anything he wanted to him. And would.

As Morro threaded the needle and pinched the wound under his eye closed, Lloyd began to tremble.

“Try to hold still. No don’t scrunch your eyes up like that, you’ll fuck me up. Relax.”

(Relax? You’re seriously asking him to relax while you’ve got a needle to his eye?!)

“You must have had stitches before,” Morro said aloud to Lloyd.

Once again Lloyd pushed down his fear with false bravado. “I’ve never had them done by someone who’d given me the wound in the first place.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not planning on making it worse. On purpose.”

With no warning given, he pushed the needle through.

Lloyd hissed between his teeth, seizing up tightly. He felt the thread pull through the thin flaps of flesh, saw it zip past his eye. Morro jabbed the needle through again and Lloyd couldn’t stop the sounds of pain that escaped him.

“Shh shh shh, don’t move.”

“Rrrrrgghh!”

It seemed to take much too long to seal the cut. Morro was very slow and careful, never accidentally poking Lloyd’s eye, even as a joke. The effort to not move his head or even twitch his face so as not to cause Morro to mess up or pull the thread too hard was a Herculean task for Lloyd. He couldn’t even stamp the floor this time to release some of the tension in his muscles, his feet dangling in the air, stiffening each time the needle pierced through his skin again, biting, waspish. The thread running through the cut felt just as painful, like a sharp paper edge, and the sight of it staining red as it extended past his view made him feel light-headed. He gritted his teeth, keening piteously.

“Shhh, almost done.”

Though Morro spoke in his own voice, it was low and quiet for once, and with those words he almost, almost sounded like Kai. Lloyd froze completely beneath his hands, watching the concentration on his face and trying with all his might to ignore the pain.

Kai’s attention, unlike Morro’s, was pulled away from the needle and thread sewing Lloyd’s wound closed, and more towards Lloyd himself. He saw his steely eyes boring into him and knew Lloyd was looking for him.

(Hang in there, Lloyd. I’m so sorry, it’s almost done, please hang on…)

He wished with all his heart that Lloyd could hear him. This whole ordeal might have been just a bit more bearable if he could at least provide him that small comfort of knowing he wasn’t alone.

When at last he was done Morro tied off the stitches and cut the ends with his knife. Lloyd winced at the slight pull of the thread. He couldn’t see it, but he now had a crescent shaped line of small black, uneven x’s tracing the edge of his eye-socket, pulling his lower eyelid down slightly.

Morro righted his chair up and scooted back a bit, smiling at his handiwork and then at Lloyd, as if to say “that wasn’t so bad now, was it?”. His expression was so uncharacteristically gentle that Lloyd just stared at him for several seconds. For all the world he looked so much like Kai that it hurt, and Lloyd found himself shouting at him in his head, Wake up, why won’t you wake up! How can you just sit there, aren’t you going to stop him? Can you really not stop him? Even for me? And Morro stared right back at him and his smile became a little smug, just as though he’d heard exactly what Lloyd was thinking.

Lloyd looked away. Morro laughed again.

He slapped his hands against his knees. “Alright! Now we can finally start the day. Sorry to keep you waiting, Lloyd. But I think you’ll like our next game.”

He turned to the table top, sweeping his hand towards the small box of nails. Lloyd immediately stiffened, his heart skipping a beat, but Morro walked past him all the way to the barn door. On the floor in front of it he scattered the nails, then bent down and turned each one on its head, so the sharp points were sticking up.

When he returned he removed both of Lloyd's shoes and remaining sock, throwing them underneath the table. “You’ll be happy to hear that you’ll get to walk around for this one,” he said, by way of explanation. “Of course, that area is off limits, hence the little booby trap.”

Lloyd knew it’d be pointless to question how some nails on the floor would be an obstacle for him if he tried to leave; sure enough Morro continued. “Now I know this is going to sound hypocritical, considering how much of a stink I made yesterday about you keeping your eyes open.” As he spoke, he picked up Lloyd’s jacket from the floor and used the shears to cut one of the stripped sleeves off. “But for this game, you have to be blindfolded.”

Lloyd did not like the sound of that. “Wh-Why?”

“Because,” Morro wrapped the sleeve around Lloyd’s eyes and tied it fast, “this is a challenge to test your ninja skills. I know you’ve done this training before.”

Lloyd felt Morro’s hands grip him under the armpits from behind, and in a swirl of wind he was unexpectedly lifted clear out of his chair, his linked arms sliding up the chair back until it fell away beneath him; Morro was using airjitzu to pull him off the chair, so as not to have to go through the trouble of unlocking the Vengestone cuffs. He carried him to the middle of the barn and turned in a circle with him before putting him down. Lloyd felt the vibration of the floorboards through his bare feet as Morro touched down near him.

His voice came somewhere to his left. “I’ll give you one minute to catch me. You could even try to knock me out if you do. But if one minute passes and you can’t find me, I give you a little zap with this.”  

Unprepared as he was for it, the sharp jab of the stun gun’s prongs to Lloyd’s side, the crackling sound of the electricity, the smell of burning, and of course, the punch of the fifty thousand volts shooting through his muscles, all made him let loose a yell of surprise that morphed into a roar of pain as his body froze up and crashed to the floor. His broken fingers screamed in protest at the impact, but he couldn’t move for several seconds, only trying to catch his breath.

“And then you get another minute.”

The pain had gone as soon as the gun had broken contact with his skin, but Lloyd still found it difficult to regain purchase of himself, not least because he couldn’t use his hands to get up.

Morro’s voice came from a bit farther away. “And just to keep things interesting, we're gonna make a little bet about how long it'll take you. I say I can evade you for at least an hour. Meaning you get zapped sixty times. If you can catch me before that time we can end the game and I'll give you something to eat. If not, we’ll just keep playing until you do.”

(Sixty times?? You’ll kill him!)

You chose the stun gun because it’s non-lethal, didn’t you?

(Yeah, but sixty times!)

If he can’t catch me. You really don’t have much confidence in your Green Ninja’s performance, do you?

Kai hated to admit it, but Morro’s words made him feel guilty. He knew Lloyd wasn’t weak. He knew he was a capable ninja. But seeing him completely freeze up and keel to the floor like that had fazed him. He hadn’t counted on Lloyd getting tazed looking so disturbing.

“I did train like this before,” groaned Lloyd, pulling his legs up under him to stand. “Sans the ‘zapping’. But when I did my hands had been free at least.”

“And actually functional, I’m assuming,” pointed out Morro. “They’d be useless to you now even if I uncuffed you. But are you really going to let a thing like that stop you?”

Lloyd turned drunkenly towards the sound of his voice. His foot kicked something aside as he moved – something plastic? Ah. It was the container holding the onigiri Morro had brought him before. He shook his head to clear it. “Ninja never quit,” he muttered.

“Atta boy.”

Morro’s voice came from behind him, but when he swung his leg around to aim a kick it only swept through empty air. He staggered, almost losing his balance over the chain trailing from his cuffs, then firmly planted his feet in place and listened.

There was no sound. Not even soft footsteps. Lloyd wondered if Morro had stopped moving as well. Tentatively he shifted a foot forward, then the other.

(How is this fair? He can’t find you if you don’t move, but you can hit him any time!)

This was your idea, remember? And why the heck would you think I’d ever make this easy for him?

Morro smirked as he watched Lloyd shuffle around uncertainly. He checked Kai’s watch, and the slight rustle of movement made Lloyd turn his head in his direction.

Oh whoops.

Lloyd heard a sudden rushing sound and felt a faint wind reach him; Morro was using airjitzu. He stood his ground, listening for the progress of the wind through the room, for the touch of Morro’s feet on the floor when he landed.

There. It was very light, but he felt it. He ran and leaped, aiming a flying kick at where he thought Morro stood.

Again he sailed through nothing… No, something caught his leg in midair and pulled him down. He landed hard on his back, howling at the pain of his fingers getting crushed under him. A foot stepped down on his sternum and he once again felt the sharp teeth of the stun gun’s prongs dig into his skin, and the punch of the electric shock coursing through his body, seizing him up.

“Aarrgghhh!”

“One minute,” announced Morro. He removed his foot and disappeared before Lloyd regained control of his muscles again.

One minute, he thought. I can do this. I’ve done this. It’s one of the oldest trainings in the book. A ninja has to be aware of his surroundings at all times, even if he can’t see anything. I have to listen, feel, wait…

'Drown out the noise, son.'

But there was no noise, there had not been for the past day (days…?), none save for him and his screaming, and Morro’s sarcastic quips. They were the only two people in the world, and now that Morro had quieted Lloyd felt even more alone, lost adrift in the darkness. It would have been a bliss to hear some noise.

'Focus, Lloyd. Your fears do not control you.'

I’m not afraid, father, thought Lloyd, getting breathlessly to his feet once more. And it was true, he wasn’t afraid. He couldn’t be. His hands still hurt, his burns still flared, his cut up arm felt numb under its wrappings, and his new amateur stitches felt like some sharp-toothed creature was clamped to the skin under his eye. But he could move, he could run, he had a fighting chance. And Morro, when you got right down to it, was just another rival student.

He couldn’t lose this one.

“Take your best shot!” he shouted into the void.

He heard the slightest intake of breath, like someone scoffing. Without turning his head in that direction, he surreptitiously slid his feet towards it. His heart pounded in his ears, but he ignored it, listening for the smallest rustle of clothing, the faintest shift in footing, as he inched his way closer and closer, or what he hoped was closer and closer.

(That’s it, Lloyd, that’s it…)

Like I’m going to just stand here and let him come.

Morro summoned a sphere of wind once again and airjitzu’ed up and over Lloyd’s head, landing on his other side, stun gun held ready. He’d barely landed though when Lloyd’s foot came swinging, aimed dead-center towards his temple. Morro just managed to duck in time, but Lloyd felt how close he’d come and whirled around on his heel, swinging the same foot again, just as Morro straightened up. Morro caught his ankle just in time, baring his teeth with the effort of stopping the kick. He pushed Lloyd’s leg into him, knocking him off balance. This time Lloyd twisted his body as he fell so that he landed on his good arm rather than his hands, but he still winced at the blow. Morro waited for him to lift himself up before lunging, jabbing the stun gun into his neck.

The sensitive area of nerves getting shocked made Lloyd really scream this time; his brain seemed to light up in his head, his limbs fell numb, and though he could still breathe and think he felt nothing but utmost agony for the five seconds Morro held the taser against him. He dropped to the floor again.

(Fuck, you’re toying with him!)

I told you, it’s a game! Morro’s thoughts were somewhat maniacal, and Kai recognized the fervor with which he reveled in his small victory; Morro liked proving himself better than others, especially the Green Ninja.

And it was with just as much fervor that he hated being challenged.

Lloyd sucked in gulpfuls of air and wearily stood up. Morro glared at him as he turned his sightless gaze past him and grinned.

“Wow, amazing,” he taunted shakily. “You’re so good at knocking out an unarmed opponent who can’t see you!”

“You’re not an opponent!” snarled Morro, alerting Lloyd to his location. Lloyd charged towards him, keeping his head low, and Morro sidestepped him with a sneer. “You’re my entertainment!” Lloyd charged towards him again, but pulled up short just before he reached him. He heard the quick shift of Morro’s step as he made to dodge Lloyd’s feint, and once again swung his leg in a wide sweeping kick, aiming true for Morro’s head.

(Yes!)

Morro jumped high, lifting himself into the air with a gust of wind, flipping over Lloyd and landing behind him, striking him in the back with the stun gun for the fourth time.

(No!)

“RRRRRRRRGGHHHHHHH!!”

Lloyd stiffened and shuddered in place, then fell face forward, landing hard like a wooden board. His whole body ached, his brow throbbed where it had struck the floor, and his limbs wouldn’t obey him. He gasped into the wood beneath him, dragging air in and out of his lungs, trying to restore rhythm to his breathing.

“Hah!” Morro laughed cruelly. “Three minutes down, fifty seven to go. I could do this all day.”

Lloyd squirmed painfully to his feet. He swayed where he stood, but shook his head. “You won’t even get five minutes.”

“Is that so?” Morro’s expression instantly became ugly with fury.

“Oh yeah. After all, I’m a better ninja than you.”

The quiet grunting sound Morro made just before he swung his fist was all the warning Lloyd needed to dodge, pulling his head back sharply, and Kai understood; provoking Morro into attacking meant that Lloyd didn’t have to search for him.

“According to who?” demanded Morro, circling around Lloyd like an angry panther, impatient with its prey.

Lloyd actually let out a barely suppressed giggle before he answered. “Destiny.”

Kai felt Morro explode with rage. When he raised his fist it burst into flame, and he roared as he swung it at Lloyd.

'The key is balance. Let your opponent fight himself.'

Lloyd could hear Morro coming at him, could feel the heat of his flaming fist just before he ducked down, tucking his head in, and rolled Morro over his shoulders and back. He threw him backwards with the momentum of his own charge, and heard him crashing to the floor… and the clatter of the stun gun flying out of his hand and skittering away.

No sooner had Morro sat up than Lloyd’s leg came whipping at his temple… and finally connected. Morro went flying with the force of the strike, even sliding across the floor a few inches before stopping.

Lloyd teetered on his feet for a second, still unable to keep good control of his balance with his hands bound. He was breathing hard, on the alert for any sound of movement, but the barn was deathly quiet once again, with only the distant drone of insects outside providing any ambience. He shuffled tentatively towards where he thought Morro was. He searched with his foot, until his toes pressed against something soft. “Morro?”

“You did it, Lloyd!”

His voice went as unheard as it was when he was trapped in his own body, but Kai still felt elated enough to cheer as he stood to the side in his intangible spirit form, having pulled out as soon as he realized Morro was unconscious. He watched Lloyd nudge Morro – Kai’s body – with his foot again, flinching back in case of any reaction. Satisfied that Morro was out for the count, Lloyd backed away from the body, crouched to the floor and rolled forwards in a somersault. He winced at the pain in his fingers, but on the roll he was able to pull his linked arms up over his tucked in legs and knees, so that when he came upright his hands were in front of him once again. He slipped his thumbs under the blindfold and pulled it off his head.

“That’s it, Lloyd, that’s it,” chanted Kai. He stood over Morro, on the opposite side to Lloyd, watching him bend down and search through his pockets until he found the key to the Vengestone cuffs, which he slipped into the pocket of his own jeans, and then searched again until he found another, larger key: the one to the padlock linking his chain to the hook in the wall.

Lloyd spared a quick glance at Morro’s slack face. “Sorry, Kai,” he whispered.

“Don’t worry about me, just go!” urged Kai.

Lloyd hurried towards the ring, holding the key precariously in his cupped palms. He hesitated when he looked at the padlock. There was no way he was unlocking it with just his thumbs. Gritting his teeth, he forced his twisted fore and middle fingers to grip the head of the key and push it into the keyhole. His hand shook and dropped it.

“Come on, Lloyd, come on, you’ve got this!”

Lloyd groaned as he picked up the key again, but he steeled himself and held the padlock firm with one hand while he fumbled the key inside with the other. He got it in. He took a deep breath, bit his tongue, and in one quick twist, coerced his broken fingers to grab the key and turn it. It hurt like hell, he couldn’t completely suppress a low grunt of discomfort and his hand sprang open again as soon as he let go, his digits clawed and throbbing… but the padlock clicked open. He pulled it off the chain and slipped the links out from the ring.

“Yes, yes! Go!”

Lloyd didn’t need telling. He quickly gathered up the length of chain towards him, looping it over his good arm. It was heavy, but better than having it drag at his feet. He ran to the barn door, carefully pushed the nails on the floor away with the side of his feet, and shoved through it.

Outside it was midmorning, and Lloyd cringed from the sunlight, too bright after the gloom inside the barn. He’d forgotten to get his shoes, but he didn’t feel like going back for them. He needed to leave now.

He edged along the walls of the barn, rustling through the tall grass, heading towards the thick of the woods Morro had walked him through the day before. Kai followed alongside him, floating just above the floor. “Faster, Lloyd, come on!”

Lloyd had just reached the edge of the barn when he hit something with his foot and tripped, pitching forward into the ground. “Lloyd!” Kai instinctively bent to help him up, but his hands passed through his shoulders. He looked back at what Lloyd had fallen over. Under his legs, previously hidden by the tall yellow grass, was a fallen, corrugated metal sign. The printed black letters had faded with age, but the covering of foliage had evidently protected it enough from the elements that they were still legible.

PROPERTY OF F. SAKI

Kai took this in within a second, before he was suddenly whisked backwards as though through a vacuum tube. When next he was aware, he was blinking at the dull wooden floor of the barn.

Morro was waking up.

Lloyd had gotten to his feet and regathered the chain in his arms. He ran into the cover of the trees when he heard an angry shout far behind him. Quickening his pace, he weaved aimlessly between the tree trunks, unmindful of the snap of twigs under his feet.

“LLOYD!!”

His heart doubled in speed, and he pushed himself even faster, not knowing where he was going but only knowing he had to get away. If he could just find the road…

A powerful gust of wind burst outward from behind him and bulldozed through the forest, like the aftershock of an explosion, blowing the leaves from the trees and knocking Lloyd clear off his feet. He faceplanted into the dirt.

“You’re not getting away from me, Lloyd!”

Morro’s voice was louder now, closer, and Lloyd could hear his rapid footsteps disturbing the forest floor. Knowing if he stood up there was a good chance Morro would see him, Lloyd wriggled on his stomach, pulling himself forward with his cuffed hands.

“There’s no way you beat me! That was a fluke! I’m still better than you! I OWN you! You are not getting away!”

He couldn’t get caught, not now, he was so close, he wouldn’t get another chance like this…

The chain of his cuffs snagged on something. He squirmed around to pull at it. It wouldn’t budge. Lloyd got to his feet and pulled again. It broke free, sending him stumbling back a few steps… and falling against Morro, who’d just dropped down from a tree behind him.

“Gotcha.”

Morro shoved Lloyd to the floor, knocking the wind out of him, and stomped his foot down on his chest.

(NO! No no no no no!)

Too fucking bad.

Morro was not in a good mood. He glared down at Lloyd with utmost rage and hatred, his mouth curled open in a bare-teethed grimace. He pressed his foot down hard on Lloyd’s ribcage. “You little piece of shit. Where do you think you’re going?”

“I won!” choked out Lloyd. “I beat you!”

“And didn’t I say what your reward would be if you did? ‘Cause I don’t remember saying you could leave.”

Morro stepped off him and pulled him up by the chain between his cuffs. He turned him around and pushed him forward, then pulled his sword out of its scabbard, which he’d grabbed on his way out of the barn. He poked its tip into Lloyd’s back. “Walk.”

Lloyd obeyed.

Kai was beside himself with frustration and dismay. (No, no, no, no, goddammit! You son of a bitch, why couldn’t you have stayed down?)

Morro ignored him.

When they entered the barn again Morro let Lloyd walk almost all the way back to his chair at the far side of the room… but then he grabbed the back of his head and shoved him down to the floor again, hooking his foot around Lloyd’s ankles to knock them out from under him.

(What are you doing? Just let him rest, you said you’d give him a break if he beat you!)

He’ll get one, said Morro. But I also said there’s a problem I need to fix. I’m about to do that now.

“Alright, Lloyd,” he said aloud. “Fair is fair. You can get back to your seat in a minute. But since you won’t be needing the use of your legs anymore, it’s high time we make sure you can’t use them. Can’t have you trying to make an escape like that again. Otherwise you’ll miss all the rest of our fun.”

Lloyd was too busy struggling to pull his hands out from under him to stop Morro when he shoved his foot under Lloyd and turned him over on his back. He sat on top of him, grabbing Lloyd’s cuffed hands and shoving them over his head, then hooked his leg around and under Lloyd’s.

Kai recognized the grapple and knew what was coming. (NO-!)

Morro twisted Lloyd’s leg up and to the side, sliding off him the other way. There was a loud cracking sound.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGH!!”

Lloyd’s leg now stuck out at an unnatural angle, broken at the knee. Morro stood up and dragged him to the chair, not even waiting for him to finish screaming. He lifted him up by the armpits and dumped him into it.

“Let me know when you want breakfast,” he said coldly.

The only response was a partly agonized, partly enraged wail.

Chapter Text

Once Lloyd had finished moaning over his broken leg, Morro gave him his reward, which turned out to be a meager breakfast of a single, very badly bruised apple. He plopped it into Lloyd’s hands, sat up on the edge of the table, and watched him with the barest hint of a smile on his face.

Lloyd was starving, but he quickly saw how difficult the task of eating this single apple would be; such a solid food needed him to have a firm grip on it to bite into properly, and with his fingers being the way they were (now more sore than ever after the abuse they’d suffered when he’d fallen on them so many times), he could really only handle cupping it between his two palms. He’d managed to get through three bites of the unsatisfyingly dry fruit before he fumbled and it leaped from his grasp, bouncing once and then rolling away across the floor.

Lloyd looked at the distance it had gone from his chair, then turned uncertainly to Morro.

Morro shrugged his shoulders, unconcerned. “I’m not getting it for you. You pick it up.”

Kai saw the way Lloyd’s face fell and his heart ached. He could see him mentally struggle with the decision to either leave the apple where it was, or swallow his pride and debase himself to crawling after it. Kai knew he must be hungry – the only meal he’d had in more than twenty-four hours was the onigiri Morro had given him yesterday. He also knew it had been a conscious choice by Morro to lower the quality of food this time around to dehumanize Lloyd. Forcing him to eat it off the floor was just added humiliation.

In the end, Lloyd gave in and arduously started lowering himself from the chair, wincing all the while as his broken leg twinged with every move, no matter how slow. After he’d settled himself on the floor, he carefully laid down along his side, putting as little pressure on his right leg as possible, and started sliding and wriggling towards the apple, in much the same way he’d done in the forest when he’d escaped. Well, when he’d thought he’d escaped.

Morro tracked Lloyd’s painstaking progress in silence.

When Lloyd reached the apple he gingerly pushed himself back up into a sitting position, his right leg sticking out at an awkward angle, clamped the apple between his cuffed hands like a clamshell, and lifted it to his mouth.

Lloyd resolutely avoided looking at Morro as he continued eating, even though he could feel his gaze on him, unblinking and empty like a shark’s. He still didn’t turn when Morro spoke, looking off into the distance at nothing.

“I saw your friends yesterday. When I was out delivering our message. I heard them when they found it, too. Gotta say, their reaction was pretty underwhelming.”

Lloyd chewed his apple, trying not to betray the way his stomach tightened at the mention of the other ninja.

“How much do you think you’ll be missed, really, if they never saw you again?”

Lloyd swallowed, took another bite, stared at the wall.

“How about Wu? How long before he forgets about you? The way he forgot about me.” Morro’s voice carried just the barest trace of bitterness. Lloyd still didn’t answer.

(I seem to recall you saying something like how all we ever do is talk. But look at you. Hypocrite. Blah blah blah.)

The barrier surrounding Morro’s consciousness suddenly expanded and contracted, effectively shoving against Kai’s consciousness in a way that, ridiculously, felt very much like a slap. It was almost funny, and Kai chuckled for the first time inside Morro’s head.

Morro scowled to himself but ignored him. “Even your mother,” he continued. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t she the one who threw you away in that evil boys’ school and didn’t contact you again for years?”

Lloyd’s blank expression didn’t change, but he stopped chewing.

“She’s probably glad you’re gone. I haven’t seen much of her, but from what I remember when I first arrived at their stupid tea shop…” Morro slipped down from the table and walked over to Lloyd, bending to leer over his head. “…she and Wu seemed pretty close. How long has it been since your father was sent to the Cursed Realm? A couple of months? A year? Or did she make her move as soon as he was out of the way?”

“Shut up!” Lloyd finally turned his face to Morro’s, an angry light in his eyes.

Morro was only encouraged by his reaction. “She’s already forgotten about one Garmadon so quickly. Who’s to say she won’t forget the other?”

“For your information, my mom loved my dad. And both she and my uncle love me.” Lloyd narrowed his eyes defiantly. “There’s nothing you could ever say that’ll make me think otherwise, so stop wasting your breath!”

(You tell him, Lloyd!)

Morro looked quite annoyed, but he restrained himself with a smile again. “Well. If that’s true, they’ll probably be wanting an update on you by now. Boy are they in for a shock.” He straightened and gestured his hand in an up and down motion in front of Lloyd. “You’re a real horror show right now.”

Lloyd did look a sight, in comparison to when Morro had last taken his photo. Where yesterday his face had been mostly unmarred, it now sported the gone-magenta burn mark on his left cheek, a welling bruise on his forehead from where he’d hit the floor when he’d been stunned, and of course the messy black stitches under his right eye, the wound underneath of which still glistened red. Dried blood caked his ear and the hair behind it, and streaked down his right cheek and under his chin.

“Of course, when I say update, I do mean sending another message like yesterday’s. Kill two birds with one stone, you know? You get to play round two of one of the greatest hits, and your friends get to see how you’re doing.”

Lloyd’s expression mirrored the way Kai felt at Morro’s words.

“Another…? Wait, you mean you’re…” Lloyd’s voice went hushed with despair. “…You’re going to cut me again?”

“Bingo,” said Morro. He smiled down at the way Lloyd’s mouth quivered, the half-eaten apple forgotten in his lap. “With slightly different rules, but basically the same end results. And, you know, on your other arm this time.” He loped casually back to the table, picking up the carving knife and inspecting it. “Hmm, think I might need to wash this. I’ll be right back.” He rapped Lloyd on the head with his knuckles as he passed. “You finish your food.”

(You can’t do this. Once already was enough!)

You’re not the one who decides how much ‘enough’ is. Frankly, I’m thinking of making this a daily thing. Keep them wanting more, eh? Your ninja friends, I mean.

Daily… Kai’s earlier premonitions of Morro keeping Lloyd captive like this for days returned to him and he felt sick.

Morro faltered a bit in the doorway of the barn. Hey, he warned, stop that. You’re not even the one on the receiving end so I don’t know what you have to feel so nauseous about. Lloyd’s a big boy, he can handle it.

(Being on the deliverer’s end in this mess is not that much better…)

Morro washed the knife in the pond outside.

Lloyd, meanwhile, was frantically trying to think of something he could do, anything, to stave off the hell he knew was coming. While he was no longer bound to the chair his broken leg meant he couldn’t move around even if there was anything useful nearby he could use. Morro had taken back the key to his handcuffs of course, but even if he’d had it it would’ve been impossible to use with his broken fingers, given he could barely hold an apple without dropping it. He was stuck, thoroughly stuck, and the knowledge of that made him feel too despondent to bother trying even the most petty thing to cross his mind, which was keeping some bits of apple and seeds in his mouth to spit into Morro’s eyes when the opportunity arose. What would be the point? He couldn’t go anywhere. It would only serve to annoy Morro enough that he would take it out on him.

He had no choice but to bear it. Bear it until…

Until what? For his team, his family, to find him? Surely they would, eventually? That’s what they did any time any of them was captured, they rescued each other. It might take a couple of days (he tried to ignore the way his insides clenched at the thought), but it would happen.

Either that, or Kai would wake up and help him escape. Definitely. Eventually. He just had to be patient. He remembered what it was like being possessed. He knew it was hard. He couldn’t blame Kai, he mustn’t blame him, for taking so long…

But he hoped that he would do it soon.

Morro returned, wiping the knife with the end of his cloak. Before he came to Lloyd he dug around in the duffel bag, on the floor next to the tool table, and pulled something out, something small enough to be hidden in his fist so Lloyd couldn’t see what it was. He pocketed it and returned to Lloyd’s side.

“Up you get, hero,” he said, pulling Lloyd up by the right arm. Lloyd struggled to his feet, balancing on his left leg and allowing Morro to hold him around the shoulders to support his weight, and walk him back to his chair. After he’d sat down, Morro tilted the chair from behind and scooted it right up close to the table, positioning Lloyd in front of where the belt buckle he’d nailed to it the morning before still was.

“Given that this next word is going to be on your right arm this time, it’ll be a little awkward to write on it the same way as before. So…” Morro grabbed Lloyd’s wrists and pulled them across the table, forcing him to lean forward. He held them down by the chain of the cuffs with one hand, and deftly buckled the belt strap over Lloyd’s right wrist with the other. When he was done he unlocked the cuff from Lloyd’s buckled wrist, and walked around to Lloyd’s left to take his free hand and lock it down to his side, closing the cuff around the chair’s leg. It was the exact same position he’d put Lloyd in yesterday, during the first ‘game’, and Lloyd couldn’t help breaking out in a cold sweat at the familiarity. His broken fingers seemed to throb more intensely then, as if warning Lloyd they had no capacity to suffer further abuse.

He knew it wasn’t his fingers he had to worry about this time though. Morro braced one hand against Lloyd’s shoulder and carefully positioned the knife over his upper arm.

“Okay, Lloyd. Here are the new rules. As you can see, you won’t need to guess the letters this time, they’ll be clear to you as soon as I carve them out. So what you’re going to do instead is pick an animal that starts with the same letter, and make that animal sound for me.”

Lloyd had been fighting very hard to keep his cool up to this point – he still remembered what it had been like to have his arm cut into last time, the wounds still stinging fiercely under their makeshift wrappings, and the sharper the memory became as he got closer to experiencing the same thing again, the closer he’d come to breaking down and begging Morro to not do it – but now at Morro’s words his nerve gave way to sheer bafflement.

“What?”

“You heard me,” said Morro, chuckling at Lloyd’s reaction. “I’m the one who’ll be making the guesses this time. You have to clue me in on the animal you thought of by making its sound. I don’t think I have to tell you that the penalty for not following the rules is getting another cut. On your back this time.” He tapped the side of the knife between Lloyd’s shoulder blades. “So no telling me what you thought of! Think of it like charades, except you can’t move.”

“I’m… I’m not doing that.” Lloyd was looking up at Morro like he’d asked him to grow corn out of his ears. “You’re not being serious.”

“Llo-oyd.” Morro sang his name in a teasing but somehow dangerous sounding way. “I’m holding a very sharp knife, that I’m about to stick into your arm. Of course I’m serious.”

Kai, who knew something about Morro’s game that Lloyd didn’t, was spilling over with rage on Lloyd’s behalf. (Oh you sick, twisted bastard. Like hearing him screaming isn’t enough?)

I don’t know man, I don’t think those vocal chords of his will be able to hold out forever. He already sounds like a chain-smoking toad. Gotta savor it while we still can.

“So, you ready?”

Lloyd stared up at Morro imploringly, his chin quivering.

“Kai…” he whispered. “Kai, please… Please stop him. I know you can do it, you can, please don’t let him do it–”

(Oh Lloyd, I CAN’T, I really can’t! I’ve tried! Don’t you think I would if I could?)

Even as he spoke Kai expounded every bit of energy he could muster to break through Morro’s mental barrier, or even just to push his will back into his hand and force it to lower the knife. His efforts were as wasted as usual.

“Okay I’m just gonna start,” Morro cut him off, unimpressed. He sawed the knife through Lloyd’s flesh for the first stroke.

Lloyd tried to hold back, he really did. Aside from his throat feeling very sore from all the strain he’d put on it already, he didn’t want to give Morro the satisfaction of knowing how much he was hurting, how sharp and unbearable the pain. But he only managed to keep his reaction limited to a suppressed groan for the first stroke before he couldn’t take it and his mouth gaped open to release a gravelly yell.

When Morro finished the first letter he tapped the knife against Lloyd’s arm. “Well? What animal starts with ‘U’?”

Lloyd shuddered, waiting for the pain to dissipate before answering. “Unicorn,” he spat.

Morro sighed. “First, that’s not a real animal, and second, you were supposed to do the sound it makes. Remember? Penalty for you.” He leaned around and swiped the knife down Lloyd’s back. Lloyd jerked and cried out.

“Alright, you’re excused this time since there aren’t many animals that start with ‘U’. But you could at least give me a little whinny.”

Lloyd tried to clear his throat as he waited for the next letter. When it didn’t come he looked up to see Morro with his arms folded expectantly.

“Well?”

“What’s the point,” said Lloyd, a slight whine in his voice, “if you already know what it is?”

“Let’s not pretend we both don’t know the answer to that, Lloyd.” Morro leaned close to him and gripped his arm over the wound, pressing his thumb hard into the cuts, making Lloyd hiss sharply. “It’s because I think it’d be funny. The only reason you’re still alive right now, the sole purpose of your existence, is for my amusement. So if you can’t amuse me,” he dug the tip of the knife point into the bloodied cut of the ‘U’ and Lloyd’s throat tore open with a short scream, “then you’re useless to me. And do you know what I do with useless things?” He twisted the knife inside the wound. “I break them apart and throw them away. So whinny.”

Lloyd slammed his foot down repeatedly, shook his head back and forth, but nothing would shake the pain. He swallowed as much saliva as he could gather to soothe his throat, and shakily opened his mouth.

“Ne-e-eighh… Ne-e-eighh.”

“Good effort,” said Morro, and removed the knife, before promptly driving it in again beneath the ‘U’ to write the next letter.

Lloyd didn’t bother holding back this time. It just hurt too much.

When the cutting stopped he opened his eyes and looked blearily at his arm, the letter upside down from his view. It was an ‘N’.

(What the hell kind of animal starts with an ‘N’?)

Lloyd deliberated, then quietly said, “Newt.”

Morro viciously slashed the knife down his back again.

“I don’t get it. You’re perfectly happy letting yourself get fried longer than you have to, and condemning an innocent kid to a fiery death–”

“That was you!!”

“– but you draw the line at making animal noises? You really are a masochist.”

Lloyd had nothing to say. He couldn’t explain it himself anyway, other than that his pride was one of the few things he had left. He didn’t want to let go of it that easily.

“No need to feel embarrassed, Lloyd. It’s not like anyone’s gonna hear it but us,” needled Morro.

(Fucking liar.)

“Come on, Lloyd. What sound does a newt make? I genuinely don’t know. Educate me!”

He ran the knife point down the slash on Lloyd’s back he’d just given him. Lloyd shook with agony but couldn’t pull away, strapped down and pressed up against the edge of the table.

“RRRRRRRRGGHHHH! Okay! Okay, I’ll do it!”

He caught his breath, gulped, then made a squeaking, clucking sound in the back of his throat.

“Ah that’s pretty lame. But whatever, you pass. On to the next one.”

The next letter was ‘W’, and Lloyd took the chance to combine his answer with his cries of pain this time, howling in agony up at the roof.

“AAAAAAAWOOOOOOOOOOOOUHHH!!”

“A wolf!” said Morro excitedly. “Now we’re talking.”

Lloyd was ashamed to feel himself turning red in the face. It didn’t matter, it really shouldn’t matter. But it still felt awful all the same.

“Alright. Next one.”

Wu watched Misako bag the box of tea the customer had chosen and hand it over the counter with a smile and cheerful “Come back again!” She really was one of the strongest women he’d ever known; looking at her, you’d never have guessed that her son had gone missing just the other day. Of course, she still hadn’t seen the photo of Lloyd that Nya had found – when Cole had returned home briefly to fetch it, saying he wanted to give it to the police, Misako had also been busy minding the shop – so it could be that she didn’t believe he was in true danger. Her son was a ninja leader after all. Not seeing him for a few days or even not knowing where he was was par for the course. He’d taken care of himself before, and the team was working diligently to find him.

When the bell to the shop’s door jingled as the customer left, Wu walked up to stand beside Misako and put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re not just putting on a brave face, are you?” he asked.

She smiled at him, putting her hand on his. “No, Wu. I’m not. My son is strong. I’m sure wherever he is he’s doing fine.”

The bell jingled again, and the Ninjago City postman entered, carrying a small envelope. “Good morning, all!” he greeted them. “Got a special delivery for you!”

“For us?” Misako looked at Wu, but he shrugged his shoulders. He hadn’t been expecting anything either.

“It’s from the Green Ninja!” said the postman.

“What?” Both Wu and Misako hurried from around the counter and converged on the man, who clutched the envelope to his chest in surprise at their approach.

“What did he look like?” demanded Wu. “What did he say to you?”

“Look like? Well he was a ninja wearing green, of course. Didn't see his face since he had his mask on.”

“Did you see where he went? How long ago was this?”

“Mmm ‘bout fifteen minutes maybe. I came as fast as I could,” the postman added defensively, “but this shop is a little out of the way you know. He told me it was very important though.”

Wu rushed to the door at the back of the shop. “I’m going to tell the others!” he called over his shoulder. Misako watched him leave with a nonplussed expression, then blinked down at the envelope the postman put in her hand. He tipped his hat to her and turned to leave.

The envelope had something small and weighty in it. She went back behind the registry counter for a letter opener.

Wu, meanwhile, had contacted Nya on the phone. “He might still be somewhere in the city! Search around the post office!”

“Will do,” replied Nya. “Listen, Sensei, there’s something else. Detective Simon called to tell me they were able to trace what camera the photo came from, and which store it was sold at. There aren’t that many made like it anymore, so the store owner remembered who bought it very clearly. From his description it sounded like Kai! Kai bought the camera and maybe even took that photo of Lloyd!”

“Yes, Kai… Or more likely, Kai possessed by Morro,” said Wu grimly.

“He told the police that Kai had bought something else too, while he was there.”

A loud scream echoed down the hallway all the way from the tea shop.

“I’ll call you back, Nya,” said Wu, hanging up before she could say goodbye. He ran down the hall and burst back into the tea shop. “Misako! What happened?”

Misako was leaning back against the shelves, staring in horror at something on the counter top. The envelope was ripped and discarded beside it, and a small, black rectangular object lay near as well. Wu picked up the flat square with a shaking hand.

It was another photograph of Lloyd, and he looked even worse than in the previous one. The picture had been taken from the front, and all over Lloyd’s torso bright pink and red burn marks were visible, including one on his left cheek. The right side of his face was a mess of blood, and someone had sewn a line under his eye, pulling his lower eyelid down slightly, giving him a lopsided looking gaze. His left arm had been wrapped up in some green cloth (also stained through with dried blood) and was handcuffed at his side to the chair he was sitting in, but his right arm lay extended in front of him, purple and blue-fingered hand resting on his lap, so that the word that had been vertically carved into his arm was clearly visible: “U N W A N T E D”.

“Wu… What… How could…?” Misako was confused more than anything; her son may have gotten in plenty of danger before, but she never would have fathomed anything like this. This hadn’t been done with a purpose in mind. Hurting Lloyd, and showing off the results to her and Wu, was the purpose. It couldn’t have been more clear than if the perpetrator had shouted it in her face.

Wu put down the photo and picked up the small rectangular device, which turned out to be a recorder. He found the play button and pressed it. A slightly muffled voice came out of the small speaker at the end.

“The only reason you’re still alive right now, the sole purpose of your existence, is for my amusement. So if you can’t amuse me…” The pause was filled with a guttural scream – Lloyd’s. “Then you’re useless to me. And do you know what I do with useless things?” More sounds of agony. “I break them apart and throw them away. So whinny.”

For a moment there was nothing but the sound of labored breathing. Then came Lloyd’s voice again, braying like a horse. Misako turned to Wu with a look of stupefied shock, as though imploring him to explain just what they’d both heard. He looked back at her with equal bewilderment, shaking his head.

The recording continued (though Morro had paused out the part after the newt, where he confessed to the arson of Nelson's apartment), with more of Lloyd’s screams of undeniably intense torment, and Morro – for it was his voice, Wu recognized it even through the low quality of the recorder – demanding him to imitate more creatures. After Lloyd howled like a wolf, he hissed and snapped like an alligator, groaned and lowed like a narwhal (that one took a minute for Morro to figure out, and he did something that caused Lloyd to grunt in pain each time he tried to just tell Morro what it was), and roared and growled like a tiger.

When his screams started up again Wu angrily pressed the stop button and threw the recorder to the counter top. To his surprise, Misako clamped her hand over it and pulled it towards her. “Wait, wait!”

“Misako there’s no point in listening to that, Morro just wants to toy with us–!”

“There might be a clue to where they are!”

“Lloyd didn’t know he was being recorded,” said Wu sadly as she pressed the play button again. “He couldn’t have given any clues.”

Misako just let the recording play, and Wu braced himself for the rest. He heard his nephew crying and moaning piteously, before being prompted for another animal imitation. This time Lloyd made a strangled, trumpeting noise that Wu imagined him blowing between his pressed lips, and Morro correctly inferred it as an elephant. Then the screaming again, now exhausted and strained. And then…

“Woof… Woof! Ruff, ruff, ruff!”

He even whined at the end like a dog, though to Wu that sounded genuine. He closed his eyes.

“Good boy,” came Morro’s voice, and the recording stopped. Misako lowered it back to the counter and put a hand over her eyes. Then she turned and left through the back door.

“Misako…” But Wu could think of nothing to say. He looked down again at the photo of Lloyd. His nephew was looking at the camera, with his chin stuck out in brave defiance… but his eyes were dark and emotionless, completely empty of hope.

Wu shouted wordlessly and swung his staff at the shelves behind him, dislodging some boxes to the floor.

Morro ducked back from the window he’d been peeking through to see his former Master’s outburst, leaning against the wall beside it and smirking triumphantly.

(That was his mother you piece of shit.)

Morro’s smile slipped a bit. I couldn’t control who heard it, he said, and for a wonder Kai thought he actually sounded a bit guilty. He changed his mind when Morro continued. She took it better than Wu, though. Either she’s a tough cookie, or she really doesn’t care that much about her son after all.

(Maybe you’re just projecting!) accused Kai recklessly. (Considering whatever mother you had just dumped you in the streets!)

My mother, said Morro as he walked away from the shop, was a weakling. She ended up the way she did because she couldn’t protect me. Just like how neither you nor Wu, nor his own mother, were able to protect Lloyd. And where did you end up?

Kai didn’t want to give his honest answer. A nightmare, he thought. He’d ended up in a nightmare. And it was still only just beginning.

Chapter Text

When the ninja returned to the tea shop with the detectives, Wu refused to play more than the very beginning of the recording. Looking at Nya and the others with a grave and haunted face, he told them that there was nothing on it they needed to listen to, other than Morro’s voice, and that the detectives could listen to it on their own later. Misako had left as soon as she’d told the policemen everything about how the picture and recorder had arrived.

“So you recognize the person in this recording?” confirmed Detective Simon.

“Morro was my former student,” nodded Wu. “He was the Elemental Master of Wind.”

The detective exchanged a look with the Police Commissioner. He put the recorder in an evidence bag, along with the second photo of Lloyd. “We’d have to double check with our tech team of course, but it looks like this photo was taken with the same camera as the first one, right?”

“I assume so…” Wu shook his head slowly. “And the word ‘unwanted’… It could be another reference to something I said to Morro. I told him destiny didn’t want him to be the Green Ninja. Now he’s labeled Lloyd to be the same.” He raised a shaking hand to his eyes. Cole, who was standing next to him, squeezed his shoulder.

“Speaking of the Green Ninja,” said the Police Commissioner, “you said the delivery man said it was the Green Ninja who sent these to you?”

“He said he couldn’t see his face, just that it was a ninja wearing green.”

“That’s just what Denny Lyle said,” said Nya.

“So if we presume based on the pictures that the real Green Ninja, Lloyd Garmadon, is having his movements restricted, it could be the person in the recording is perpetrating the Green Ninja and going around causing trouble for... whatever reason. This Morro.”

“That’s what we’ve been thinking since the beginning!” said Jay, and both Nya and Zane whapped him on either side. “Ow! What? It’s true!”

“Didn’t you tell Detective Simon about your suspicions?”

“They did, sir,” said the detective hurriedly. “Only the girl said he was a ghost.”

The Commissioner arched his eyebrows so high five layers of wrinkles appeared on his forehead. “A ghost?”

“That’s what Tommy said.”

“But it’s true!” said Jay. “You ever heard of Yang’s Temple? It’s actually haunted! Like, full of ghosts!”

“Yeah, and Morro had other ghost minions from the Cursed Realm helping him!” put in Cole.

“I see,” said the Commissioner slowly. “And are they still helping him now, do you think?”

“No, because we defeated them all. Water gets rid of them.”

Nya disliked the way the policemen shared a look with each other again. It was very quick, but she caught the unspoken words between them: These kids are talking some weird ninja nonsense again.

“Well, putting aside whether ghosts exist or not,” said Detective Simon, “is it possible that the other missing ninja, who bought the camera and voice recorder, could be the impersonator, or at least be in cahoots with them?”

Nya had been about to explain how Morro was almost certainly possessing Kai, but the insinuation of Kai having had a willing hand in Lloyd’s kidnapping immediately filled her with outrage. “No! No, Kai would never, ever do something like this to Lloyd! He loves Lloyd!”

“I’m not making any judgments, just searching all the avenues.” Detective Simon raised his hands in a peace gesture. “He was the one who escorted Lloyd after all, and we have no proof that wasn’t his voice on the recording – there are voice modifiers and things.”

“If his voice was modified it’s because he’s got an evil ghost possessi–!” Zane clamped his hand over Jay’s mouth.

The Police Commissioner sighed. “Well, doesn’t seem like we’ve got anything further to discuss here. Aside from…” he turned to Wu, “the matter of going public with the kidnapping of the Green Ninja. Given how comfortable he seems to be moving out in the open, it would be wise to have people alert us right away the next time anyone sees the fake Green Ninja. I’m sure the city would love to do its part in bringing its hero home safe.”

Wu hesitated. “I wouldn’t want you to get distracted with false leads from people looking for their five minutes of fame.”

“You let our public liaison team worry about that. Don’t worry, there won’t be giant wanted posters on the sides of buildings or anything like that.”

Wu nodded heavily, then the detectives tipped their hats and left.

“Why didn’t we tell them more about Morro!” exclaimed Jay. “They should be focusing on Morro!”

“We will focus on Morro,” said Wu. “We know him better, and we shouldn’t waste any more time trying to explain something that could push the authorities away or make them take us less seriously. They can do their part. We need to stop chasing shadows now we know for sure that it's Morro who has Lloyd.”

“But Sensei, you already told us to search the monastery,” said Cole hopelessly. “And it’s unlikely that Morro could be keeping Lloyd all the way in Stiix when he apparently keeps coming back to Ninjago City. Where else could he be holing up that’s familiar to him?”

“We’ll have to start digging deeper,” said Zane. “Find out more about Morro’s past. Sensei, you took care of him into his teen years, but you don’t know much about his childhood before he came to you, do you?”

“I confess I don’t,” murmured Wu.

“Then that’s what we should be looking into. Even if the police find Morro and take him into custody, there’s no guarantee he will tell us where he is keeping Lloyd. He has nothing to fear from jail, after all.”

“Research?” whined Jay.

“You’ll survive, Jay,” said Cole, patting his shoulder in mock comfort. “Besides, you can do it for Lloyd and Kai.”

“Yeah…” Jay sighed heavily, though not from exasperation; Nya could tell he was thinking about his brothers. “You know, it does suck for Lloyd of course, but I also just… can’t imagine how awful it must be for Kai, too, if he really is the one who took those pictures, and…”

Nya shuddered.

“It’s insane that Detective Simon even suggested that Kai would be working with Morro,” added Cole grimly. “It’s like Nya said. There’s no way Kai would ever hurt Lloyd of his own free will.”

Lloyd’s hands were back to being cuffed behind him, around the chair back. As Morro had been transferring them he’d seen the skin around his wrists had been rubbed red by the metal.

His right arm was wrapped in the last remaining strips of his shirt (thankfully Morro had done it before leaving this time, unprompted by Kai – perhaps he'd learned a little from the last time), and he’d been given (dirty) water to drink. Despite these small amenities, Lloyd was seething with fury and regret. Morro had revealed to him the voice recorder and played a bit of it for him after he'd called him a ‘good boy’, and Lloyd had nearly been consumed with despair when he realized that Wu and the others would be hearing it. Their leader, their great Green Ninja, reduced to crying and barking like a dog.

Morro hadn't yet told him what he had in store for him next after he returned. But he'd picked up the as-yet unused crowbar from the table and tapped it menacingly against his palm.

“You know, I’ve been chatting with your ninja brother in the time you’ve been here.”

Lloyd felt his heart lift a little for the first time in… days? Had it been two full days yet since he’d been brought to this room, or less? It was hard to gauge time when there were no windows. “You mean Kai? He talks to you?”

At least he was still in there then, even if he was trapped in this nightmare too.

“I found out we’ve actually got a lot more in common than I thought,” Morro continued. “He doesn’t know what happened to his parents either.”

Kai startled. (I never told you anything about my parents!)

If you're going to take a jab at my mother, Morro explained, you should've expected that I'd see memories of yours.

Morro continued talking without missing a beat. “He got beguiled and tricked by that… snake oil salesman Wu–” he spat the words in disgust, “–into believing he was destined to become his student, too. And he also believed…”

He jeered down at Lloyd with barely suppressed glee.

“…that he should’ve been the Green Ninja.”

Lloyd felt a trail of goosebumps rise on his arms at the sight of Kai uttering those words. Though the situations were slightly different, it reminded him all too much of when Kai had held Chen’s staff briefly several months ago at the Tournament of Elements, his eyes glinting red and furious as he all but shouted in Lloyd’s face: “It should’ve been me who became the Green Ninja!”

“And the fact that it’s you,” Morro continued, “the sniveling brat of a failed overlord who’s done nothing but leech off the successes of others better than you…” He circled Lloyd’s chair as he talked, tapping his crowbar against Lloyd’s knees, the chair legs, and the dangling chain. “It still eats him up inside. It lights a raging fire in his soul. You know it’s true. He even told you himself, didn’t he?”

“That wasn’t him, that was just the staff talking!” Lloyd tried to sound defiant, but he was rattled at the fact that Morro knew so much about his and Kai’s history. He remembered what it had been like to have Morro in his head, how much easier it became for him to dig through his thoughts and memories the longer he’d stayed. But that had been after at least a week and a half of the possession, and Kai couldn’t have been taken over for more than a few days.

Unless… it had been a lot longer than that. He had no way of knowing just how long he'd really been here, did he?

“The staff only forced him to finally reveal what he’d already been thinking the whole time. Face it, Lloyd. The reason you’re never getting out of this alive, the reason your precious ‘big brother’ is never going to fight me off to rescue you,” Morro paused to relish in his taunting, “is because he doesn’t want to. He’s been enjoying my fun just as much as I have.”

This statement stunned Lloyd out of his train of thought completely.

(That’s a FUCKING lie!! Don’t believe him, Lloyd!)

“No!” Lloyd shouted angrily. “That’s not true!”

“I’ve actually been doing him a favor!” Morro laughed in Lloyd’s face. “Letting him live out all the fantasies he’s been keeping locked away in his head for years.”

“There’s no way Kai would ever-!”

“Some of these games were actually his ideas, you know?” Morro brushed his fingers tellingly against the bruise on his forehead. Lloyd flinched away, and Kai was devastated to see just the smallest flicker of doubt in his eyes.

(You sick, twisted bastard. That’s why you wanted me to give you an idea for a torture game? You could’ve just lied to him!)

Yeah, but it’s more satisfying to know I’m telling the truth. And you were offering and all.

(You shithead… You fucking…)

Abruptly Lloyd relaxed against his chains, and gave Morro a derisive smile. “This is the lamest torture you’ve tried so far,” he said. “There’s no way I’d ever believe Kai is enjoying anything you’re making him do, not in a million years. Kai, I don’t believe it for a second!”

“Oh you wanna hear it from him? Let’s do it then!”

(What?)

Morro transformed before Lloyd. Or rather, Kai did – his hair lightened from black to brown, the shadows around his eyes faded away, and the ghostly green hue all over his person disappeared. He was Kai again. Kai dressed in Lloyd’s torn green gi, but otherwise Kai as Lloyd had always known him.

Lloyd didn’t dare to hope just yet.

(What the hell? What are you doing? Give me back my body, dammit!)

“Lloyd…” said Kai, his voice back to being his own. He gazed down at Lloyd with an unreadable expression.

Lloyd searched his dark eyes for half a second and then promptly closed his own. “I’m not listening. I know it’s still you, Morro.”

“Lloyd, it’s me. Look.”

Lloyd heard a rustle of movement, and despite himself he opened his eyes again. Kai had put down the crowbar and gone over to the wall, where the milk bucket, still half full of water from the last time Morro had given Lloyd a drink, stood safely out of the way of Lloyd's kicking radius. He pulled his glove off, lifted the bucket by the rim, and with deliberate movements, poured water over his free arm. He flexed his dripping hand at Lloyd, his expression cool and calm.

(What?? That's… That's impossible… Why?!)

I thought so. Looks like your vessel has accepted me as its true owner.

Kai felt a black hole open in his stomach. (…What?)

I’ve been using it like it was my own body, after all. Eating, sleeping… You didn’t wonder why I wasn’t kicked out after I fell unconscious earlier?

(You mean after Lloyd totally kicked your ass with a blindfold on and his hands literally tied behind his back?)

Kai spoke with as much aggression as he could muster, but when he made to struggle against the invisible bonds that held him and found that he couldn't, not even a little, a nihilistic dread such as he had never felt in his life filled his being. Or what was left of it.

Lloyd felt his own stomach drop too. He shook his head slowly. “No… It’s a trick. If you’re really Kai you would’ve freed me by now.”

“Lloyd, listen to me,” said Kai steadily, approaching him. “I need you to know…”

“NO! I’M NOT LISTENING!”

“I need you to understand.”

“You’re not Kai! Mmf–!” Lloyd twisted away, but Kai’s hand was strong as it clamped over Lloyd’s mouth. With his other hand he gripped the back of Lloyd’s head by the hair, and without warning, he shoved Lloyd sideways off the chair to the floor, sliding his arms off the back. He braced his knee against Lloyd's stomach, where his sword wound screamed in protest. Lloyd’s bound hands and mangled fingers were crushed painfully under him as he took the brunt of Kai’s weight, the chains digging into his back.

(Leave him ALONE!!)

“You have to understand something.” Kai leaned his face right up to Lloyd’s, neither his tone nor his expression changing beyond growing a bit colder. His hand smothered Lloyd’s mouth and nose, muffling his cries of fear and pain. “I am never going to let you go. I am going to keep you here for the rest of your short, miserable little life, because I hate you. I can’t stand the sight of you. And gutting you with that sword was the most satisfying thing I’ve ever done in my life.” Kai’s lips pulled back into a grin. “And I can’t wait to do it again. After I’ve had my fill of hurting you some more…”

He held up the hand that wasn’t gagging Lloyd, and it burst into flame, inches away from Lloyd’s face.

(STOP!)

“Slowly…”

He brought the flame down to Lloyd’s chest.

(STOP IT!)

“Painfully…” He pressed his flaming hand to Lloyd’s skin, just above his heart, and Lloyd thrashed wildly, screaming beneath his other hand. “Punishing you the way you deserve. For taking my destiny away from me… For even existing in the first place… You’re a mistake. You shouldn’t have even been born. Even you know it.” He trailed his burning palm slowly down Lloyd’s ribcage, restraining his kicking, twisting body with his knees, locking his legs around Lloyd’s. He leaned close to whisper in his ear, making sure he heard every word. “You know your mother loved Wu. Still loves him, more than your loser of a father. She wishes every day she’d chosen Wu.

“And so do I.”

Finally he removed his hand from Lloyd’s mouth, and the full volume of Lloyd’s screams of agony filled the barn to the rafters, ripping from his throat, unbroken, primal.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!”

(LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE!!!)

In his head, Morro only laughed at Kai in response.

Lloyd jerked his head back and forth, arched his back, bucked violently against the floor, but Kai’s fire never broke contact with him, as Kai traced his hand slowly over whatever unburned skin he could find, making sure not to linger too long in one spot. Lloyd’s howl at last transitioned to coherent words, albeit shouted at the same decibel.

“STOP!PLEASESTOP!PLEASE!!”

“Apologize to me, Lloyd,” Kai said, not bothering to raise his voice. “For ruining my life.”

“I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY!” Lloyd cried. “PLEASE LET ME GO, PLEASE, PLEASE! I’M SORRY!!”

“Who are you saying sorry t-”

“KAI!!!!” Lloyd screamed, and Kai felt his own name knife through his heart. “I’M SORRY KAI, I’M SORRY FOR EXISTING, YOU’RE RIGHT, JUST PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME GO, KAI PLEEEEASE!”

Kai removed his hand from Lloyd’s body, extinguishing the flame. He stood up, went to fetch the bucket, and dumped the remaining water on Lloyd’s burns. Then he tossed it aside, grasped Lloyd by the shoulders, and hauled him up off the floor. He dragged him back to the chair and dropped him unceremoniously onto it, leaning his torso against the back. Lloyd gasped and cried out with every movement of his body, tears streaming down his face.

“… Alright,” said Kai genially. “Since you asked so nicely. But I hope you realize this isn’t the end, Lloyd. Not until I’m satisfied. It’s my turn to have some fun now. And I’m not even close to finished yet.” He turned his back to him.

“K-Kai…” Lloyd whimpered, his breath hitching so that he could barely speak. “Kuh-Kai please, p-please, let, let me go, Kai-”

“What was that?”

Lloyd forced in a deep breath, and it came out again as a sob. “Please… Kai… I’m s-sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m sorry…”

“That’s what I thought you said.”

Kai walked to the other side of the barn, towards where the chain was attached to the wall. As he took out the key and bent down to inspect the padlock, he finally took notice of the steady stream of murderous rage bombarding the inside of his head.

(KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU I’M GOING TO KILL YOU RIP YOU APART SHRED YOU TO PIECES-!!!!!!)

Too bad for you, replied Morro, his close-lipped mouth turning up in a smirk. I’m already dead.

Chapter Text

Lloyd was hanging by his wrists from the rafters, dangling almost exactly in the center of the barn, with the fire lantern flickering overhead, illuminating him in a sort of shapeless spotlight. Kai – Morro – had used airjitzu to lift the end of his chain up over the central beam in the roof, and pulled it down from the other side, locking it in place back through the ring in the wall when Lloyd had been suspended just high enough for his toes to not be able to brush the floor.

This new position already hurt, with Lloyd’s arms aching at the sockets from having to hold his weight, his wrists and hands strained bloody against the Vengestone cuffs, and his broken leg throbbing in protest at the force of gravity pulling it down… but of course that wasn’t even half of the torment.

***

“The time is now 6:22 PM on [REDACTED DATE]. This is Detective Tommy of the Major Crimes Unit. Present is arresting officer Anders. Subject is Taro Hunt, who’s agreed to divulge some information about a wanted suspect in the kidnapping of Lloyd Garmadon. Mr. Hunt, you agree to being recorded for this interview, right?”

“Ab-so-lutely.” Taro Hunt grinned, showing teeth that hadn’t been properly brushed in months. “I want all this on record, officer.”

“Then please state your purpose. For the record.”

“I’m offering a deal. Heard you was looking for the Green Ninja. Well I don’t know where he is, but I know something interesting about him you might wanna hear.”

Detective Tommy flared his nostrils, looking at Hunt as though he seriously doubted whether anything he had to say could be considered interesting. “Go on.”

***

Kai had experienced power boosts before. With the life he led, he had had his fair share of moments where his Elemental Powers had been amplified, giving him the feeling that he was capable of anything, such as when he had reached his True Potential. There were also times where the power came from some legendary object or weapon, such as when he had held the Staff of Elements.

But he couldn’t remember a time where he had felt power of the kind that came with immense physical strength. Not that he wasn’t strong of course, he was a ninja, and he had trained his body to peak condition. But every body had its limitations, and those could only be pushed with more training. No magic staff or sword would instantly give him muscles he didn’t have, or endurance past what his heart could take. None that he had yet beheld, anyway. He would be lying if he said he’d never felt a smidgeon of jealousy towards Cole for his superhuman strength, especially given that that really did come from a mystic source (and never mind Cole’s insistence that he’d still be stronger than Kai even without powers).

He never would have imagined that the moment he finally did get the chance to surpass Cole in strength, he would be wishing more than anything that he were as weak as a newborn kitten instead.

***

“I didn’t see it happen personally,” Taro Hunt admitted, “but I was told about it by some of the other guys.”

“Which other guys?” asked Officer Anders.

“Ah-ah-ah.” Hunt wagged his finger. “I’m not givin’ you any names. I agreed to cut a deal but I ain’t rattin’ on anybody.”

Officer Anders sat back in his seat and crossed his arms, his eyes shooting daggers at the criminal.

“Anyway,” Hunt continued, “what I was told by my colleagues was that they got screwed over by the Green Ninja in the middle of a drop. Buyer wanted to see the stuff in action, so our guys took some and went up to him to just, you know, bother him a little.”

“Your druggie friends picked a fight with someone who looked like the Green Ninja,” Detective Tommy clarified. “And they got their asses handed to them, as far as I understand.”

“Well according to my druggie friends, it wadn’t exactly a fair fight, you see.”

“Sure,” said Officer Anders. “On top of it being three on one, they also took something. Hardly seems fair at all.”

“It was the Green Ninja that took something,” sniffed Hunt. “But, uh, literally I mean. He stole it off my guys after he beat ‘em. With no mercy,” he added after a thought.

“Yeah? And what did he steal?” inquired Tommy in a bored voice.

“What do you think, Sherlock? The stuff, duh.”

***

Morro could feel the blood coursing through his veins. He flexed his hands into fists, clenching and unclenching his fingers, and was aware of the way every fiber of every muscle contracted and relaxed over each other. His skin almost felt tight against him as he all but burst with energy, his head clear of distractions or superfluous thoughts, his heart beating powerfully, if slightly faster than it would even after intense activity.

Kai felt it all too, though his own thoughts remained sober. More’s the pity, as he watched Lloyd’s terrified face become larger and clearer in his field of vision as Morro approached him, and felt his own hand reach forward and close around Lloyd’s neck, squeezing just enough to cut off his fearful breathing without outright choking him.

Morro grinned euphorically. “I could break you,” he said in Kai’s voice, “so easily right now. I could make you disappear from my life forever, right this second. No one would even blame me, because they’d think it was Morro who did it. But I won’t.” He released Lloyd, who gulped and involuntarily chattered his teeth together. “Because then it’d be over too fast for me to enjoy it. I want to savor every moment I spend breaking you, Lloyd.” He grabbed a fistful of Lloyd’s hair at the forehead and held his head steady, pulling his other fist back. “I hope you’re ready.”

Lloyd shut his eyes just before the fist swung towards him.

***

“So what does this stuff actually do?” asked Detective Tommy irritably.

“Why do I gotta tell you that?” Taro Hunt pursed his lips derisively. “It don’t got anything to do with your case, does it?”

“If you’re telling me the person I’m looking for is currently in possession of some illegal contraband he stole off of your ‘colleagues’,” Detective Tommy made air quotes with his fingers, the condescension in his voice outweighing any amount Hunt had put into his expression by a country mile, “then it does got something to do with my case. Unless you’re telling me you just wasted my time to report the Green Ninja for stealing a bag of candy. ‘Cause there ain’t no deal if that’s true.”

Officer Anders smirked, and Hunt’s eyes flicked to him and back to Tommy nervously. “He can tell ya, he’s the one who busted me for carrying the stuff.”

“I want you to tell me. You know, for the record.” The corners of Detective Tommy’s mouth turned up infinitesimally, the barest hint of a mocking smile.

“Fine,” scowled Hunt. “It’s like this…”

***

As much as Lloyd had braced himself for the impact, the imploding, blunt force that hit him was far beyond what he had expected, and for several seconds the shock of it kept the pain at bay; his mind blanked, his vision flashed white, his ears rang, and when he came back to himself he found he was looking straight up at the ceiling, his neck bent all the way backwards and aching fiercely. He’d only just begun to straighten his head when a second blow expelled all the air from his lungs, as Kai’s fist seemed to punch a hole straight through his midriff. Bile forced its way up his throat and he spat it out. His shoulders twinged painfully as his body tried to fold forward and was stopped by his raised arms. His hair was grabbed again, his head forced up, and a third punch smashed against his cheekbone.

Had he been hit full on by a semi truck he thought the pain might not have been as bad.

***

“They’re called Shinju pills,” said Hunt, “’cause they’re white but kinda shiny. And you can eat them like candy, but having more than one’s a bad idea.”

“Why is that?” said Tommy.

“Because the pills are supposed to make your heart beat three times as fast as normal. Gives you an instant kick of energy and adrenaline, and the strength of a fucking monster. For a full fifteen minutes, sometimes more. Takes a toll on you to have one too soon after the other though, plus you get addicted. And having more than one at the same time? That’s just asking for a heart attack.”

***

It didn’t take long for Kai to get into a rhythm with his punches. Both his fists were lifted in a boxer’s stance, and alternately he threw left and right hooks at Lloyd’s body and face. The force of his blows was so strong, only picking up with the momentum of his swings, that Lloyd began to sway back and forth on the impact, like some kind of grotesque punching bag. For several minutes, Kai wordlessly, methodically, went about the business of beating Lloyd Garmadon black and blue.

Then, when he seemed to run out of steam, breathing hard from exertion and wilting slightly, he stomped back to the duffel bag at the far end of the room, took something small from it that he put in his mouth and swallowed, and returned looking reinvigorated.

And the beating continued.

***

“So that’s why your friends thought they could take on the Green Ninja.” Tommy said it like a statement that barely mattered to him.

“Coulda done wonders for our business if they’d taken him down, that’s for sure!”

“But they didn’t. Sounds like your stuff ain’t actually that good.”

“What we were selling was one of the purest batches on the streets!” said Taro Hunt, affronted. “Only reason they lost is because the cheating scum used his fire powers on them!”

***

The burns on Lloyd’s chest were still raw and agonizing, and every time Kai hit him in that area the pain was so great that Lloyd couldn’t even feel the next few punches.

***

“Fire powers?” Tommy raised an eyebrow. “The Green Ninja doesn’t have fire powers.”

“Yeah he does! He’s got all sorts of powers, don’t he? Anyway they showed me the burns they got off him.” Hunt scratched the bristles on his jaw thoughtfully. “Not sure I believed them about the wind, though.”

“Wind?”

“Yeah. They kept saying how the wind suddenly got so strong it kept pushing them over every time they tried to atta- uh, defend themselves.”

“Right…” Tommy turned to Officer Anders. “This all happened earlier this morning?”

“That’s what he says,” the cop answered. “I took him in some time around noon.”

“Hmm.” The detective wrote down some things in his notebook.

“So uh… That good enough for you?”

“It’s not particularly helpful,” sneered Tommy, “but it’s more interesting than I thought, I’ll give you that.” He turned to Anders again. “I think we’re done here.” He turned off the recorder.

“What about my deal?” demanded Hunt.

“Well if we do find the Green Ninja and he has this Shinju stuff on him,” smiled Detective Tommy, “then maybe we’ll talk about you getting something in exchange. Maybe pancakes for breakfast.”

Lloyd did not believe that Morro had swapped out for Kai. Of course he knew that this was all just a ploy to make his suffering even worse. It may have looked and sounded like Kai to a disturbingly accurate degree, but it wasn't him.

But ever since ‘Kai’ had taken over, things had changed slightly, and for the worse.

Firstly, ‘Kai’ did not leave Lloyd alone for long stretches of time like Morro had done the day before. After he’d finally grown tired of simply beating Lloyd to a bloody pulp, he sat down against the wall directly across from him to rest, hands on his knees, his knuckles stained with red, and watched Lloyd. He didn’t leave the barn, didn’t talk, he simply sat and stared, his eyes traveling up and down Lloyd’s body as though replaying the cause of every bruise in his mind. Though Lloyd couldn’t have done anything even if he’d been alone, he wished he could wallow in his agony in private; he hated being surveyed in this way, trapped and wretched, as though he were a hunter’s catch on display, serving only to proclaim said hunter’s pride and victory.

Secondly, there was no more pretense of ‘games’ being played in the tortures. After Kai had rested for about an hour, eyes pinned on Lloyd the whole time, he abruptly got up, went outside, and returned some minutes later with an armful of stones and rocks. He set them down, fetched another one of the pills he kept swallowing from the duffel bag and knocked it back dry, then went to the ring in the wall where Lloyd’s chain was padlocked. With his unnatural new strength he unlocked the chain and pulled it down so that Lloyd was lifted even higher, until there was about two and a half feet of space between his heels and the ground. Kai secured the chain to the ring again, then got down on the floor and set to work setting the stones in a circle underneath Lloyd. When it was done he left again and came back with yellow brush grass and broken tree branches, and set the whole lot down inside the circle.

Lloyd couldn’t see directly beneath him, but he got the idea of what Kai was doing and started to beg him to stop.

“Morro! Morro, please, please, I can’t take any more, PLEASE let me down, I’ll do anything–!”

“Morro’s taking a break, little buddy,” said Kai, arranging the last clump of grass, straightening, and cracking his fingers together. “And I feel like roasting something.” Flames burst from both of his hands. “And that something gets to be you.”

He held his palms out to the pyre, and a stream of flames shot out from them and lit the yellowed grass and wood. Though there was no fuel to grow it, Kai’s fire was Elemental, and he was able to feed it and control it until it filled the circle right up to its stone edges, and the tongues stretched up to lick the underside of Lloyd’s feet.

The heat was intense and searing, and Lloyd instantly started kicking his legs in an effort to get them away from the flames. His broken leg hung like a deadweight, so he had to sway his whole body at the hips to move it away. Though his throat was swollen and sore from all the screaming he’d done so far, he still couldn’t stop himself from crying out each time his feet passed through the fire, as it climbed high enough to brush his ankles.

Kai stood back and watched him in silence once more, his face impassive, unsmiling, but his eyes held steady in concentration, drinking in the sight of Lloyd wriggling and swinging like a fish on the end of a line.

“AACK! AAH! AAAAGGGHH! AAAHAAAHAAAHAHAAAA!!!”

Blood started running down Lloyd’s arms from his wrists as they were pulled and twisted in their cuffs, the skin rubbed raw. His hands had turned almost completely purple from the lack of circulation reaching them. And his feet slowly turned dark red and brown as they were cooked by the flames, despite their flailing motions.

“MORROOOO!! MORRO PLEASE!! AAAAAAUUGGHHH!!!”

Kai just shook his head slowly at him, unblinking.

In his head, the thoughts of the red ninja were just a wordless exclamation of horror.

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

For almost a quarter of an hour Lloyd kicked and swung his lower body wildly, but as he grew exhausted and unable to keep his feet out of the flames for longer than a few seconds at a time, and Kai showed no signs of dousing the fire, he began putting his focus on using his mangled hands to grip the chain tethering his cuffs to the ceiling. He roared with the pain of forcing his fingers to cooperate, curling around the chain and gripping it hard, so that in that second’s grip, he was able to pull his whole body upward by a few inches before his strength left him and his feet lowered into the flames again, his wrists snapping back down sharply against the cuffs.

“OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOHOHOHOHOOOOOOHHH!!”

He hung limply for a few seconds, head thrown back in an eerily ghostly wail as his feet were stroked and cooked by the flames. Then he sucked in a huge gulp of air, flexed his biceps, clenched his hands into as solid a pair of fists as he could stand (he was unable to see it, but a splinter of bone in his right forefinger burst through the skin), and once again lifted his whole body in a chin-up, blood squirting from his wrists under the handcuffs. His feet were pulled up out of reach of the fire, and he even managed to lift his unbroken leg at the knee, tucking the other leg under it to bring it up.

He held that pose for a full minute while Kai watched.

Then he released the breath he’d been holding, the energy drained out of his arms, and he fell limp once again, his feet dipping back into the flames. He gave up completely, letting his head fall all the way back and howling brokenly to the ceiling.

Seeing this, Kai at long last took the milk bucket outside, returned with it full of water, and poured it out on the fire. The tongues receded and flickered out, but Lloyd didn’t quiet down for a long time even after that.

Once he was capable of coherent thought again, it occurred to Lloyd that Morro’s games, despite having been designed so that he would always lose (even if he ‘won’) had provided one crucial thing that he now missed with their absence – distraction from pain. While keeping track of numbers or guessing letters or coming up with animals had by no means made his suffering bearable, they had given him something to think about, something to focus his mind on so that the physical pain wasn’t all-consuming. Now though, that small mercy had been taken away from him, replaced with nothing but a silent gaze filled with hate. He had nothing to justify the senseless brutality he was put through; no one’s life threatened but his own, no one to be strong for, no opportunity to show up or defy his tormentor. Only pain for pain’s sake, or even more devastatingly, for the pure pleasure of it.

He watched Kai’s back as he carried out the blackened remains of the pyre, and closed his eyes, unwilling to see that mask-like, inhuman face when he came back in.

After there was no evidence left of the fire but a black sooty stain on the floor, Kai gave Lloyd a break to cool down, as it were. In that time, once he was able to ignore the way his feet pulsated with burning heat, Lloyd worked up the will to ask to use the bathroom. In response, Kai only folded his arms, stared up at him and smiled a deeply cruel smile. He stayed that way for so long, just staring, that Lloyd became convinced he intended him to go as he was, dangling three feet off the ground, in front of him, and his tenacity nearly left him then and there. He practically wept with relief when Kai finally moved to the ring in the wall and opened the padlock.

Lloyd was lowered none too gently to the ground, his broken leg searing with agony as it crumpled beneath him, overtaking the small relief he felt at finally lowering his arms, shifting the cuffs up his wrists to soothe the torn skin underneath. When he’d pulled himself into the least painful sitting position he could manage, Kai plopped the metal milk bucket down pointedly in front of him, said “You get ten minutes before I come back,” and left the barn.

Lloyd only allowed himself one of the ten to agonize over and then relent to using the bucket he drank from as a toilet, rather than find a corner; it would take him ten minutes just to move that far. He whimpered miserably, cursing under his breath, as he arduously set to the task of standing on one leg, on a burned foot, and pulling his pants down with uncooperative hands.

“Thirsty?” Kai said when he’d come back, picking up the bucket by the handle and holding it out to Lloyd without looking at the contents. He laughed at his reaction. “Don’t worry, I’ll wash it out. The things I do for you,” he added mockingly over his shoulder as he went outside.

It was a blessing that Lloyd was returned to his chair rather than hauled back up by the chain… but only a tiny blessing. Kai ate more of whatever it was that was making him so freakishly strong, and resumed his pulverizing of Lloyd.

This time though, he talked in between each punch.

“No one actually cares about Lloyd Garmadon, you know.” WHAP.

“Uh!”

“They don’t see you. They only see the Green Ninja.” WHOMPH.

“Mmph!”

“You’re not the Green Ninja because you’re the greatest.” SMACK.

“UHH!!”

“People only think you’re the greatest because you’re the Green Ninja.” POW.

“OUGH! Nngh…”

Kai forced his head up, leaning his face down to Lloyd’s. “They don’t know you like I do. That you’re just a disgusting little snot-nosed brat.”

Lloyd shut his eyes. He didn’t want to see Kai’s face while he wore that expression.

He received another punch in the gut. Kai held onto his hair and kept him from pulling his head down as he groaned.

This went on in a continuous, almost monotonous manner until Lloyd lost consciousness. Blood dripped from his mouth, spilling over his swollen lip. His left eye had been blackened, and he couldn’t open it fully when he was awoken some time later (he couldn’t tell how long, but the barn was considerably darker – the fire lantern had burned low).

“Lloyd. Hey, wake up.”

“No… please…”

The words, the way Lloyd whimpered as he said them, the way he flinched away from Kai’s touch seemingly by instinct before even coming fully awake, made Kai’s heart tighten painfully.

“Lloyd, come on. I’m getting you out of here.”

Lloyd tried to locate the voice, rolling his head along his shoulders as he barely had the strength to lift it. Kai was looking up at him earnestly, crouched down on his haunches beside him.

“Kai…? Is it you?”

In answer, Kai shuffled to Lloyd’s hands, and there was the sound of metal clinking. The Vengestone cuffs fell away, and Lloyd’s aching arms swung down to his sides. He nearly tipped forward off the chair, but Kai put a hand gently against his stomach to stop him. “Easy there. Come on, we’ve gotta hurry. I don’t know how long I can hold him off.”

He helped Lloyd to his feet, draping his arm around his shoulders. To his surprise, Lloyd pulled it back.

“I-It’s okay, I can walk.”

Kai gave him an injured look.

“Sorry, I just…” Lloyd looked aside tiredly. “If he… If he suddenly comes back, I don’t want him to be able to get me again so easily–”

“I understand. Go on, Lloyd. I’ll stay back here.”

Lloyd shuffled laboriously towards the barn door while leaning against the wall, dragging his broken leg and worse burned foot along on the floor. He put pressure on those spots of his feet that hurt least, soon reaching the threshold where hard wood fell away to grassy dirt.

He looked back over his shoulder. Kai stood by his chair still, watching him. His face was half hidden in the gloom.

Lloyd stepped down onto the cool spongy ground, stumbling a bit without the support of the wall. He carefully turned himself ninety degrees to the door so he could hug the wall of the barn from the outside. He took a step.

The sound of rapid footsteps on hard wood neared him from behind. He stifled a gasp and hopped forward futilely, knowing it was too late.

Sure enough, the footsteps became a run that halted just behind him and he was grabbed and pulled backwards to the ground, and promptly dragged by his arms over the foliage for a short distance. Then he was flipped over, his head was gripped and then shoved down into a shallow body of water, and held there.

Lloyd hadn’t had time to hold his breath, and his nose and airways filled fast as he thrashed his limbs in panic. Just when he thought he would black out he was pulled out of the water, coughing and gasping. It was not yet dark outside, but Lloyd had trouble seeing the face of the figure holding him, his hair stuck to his forehead and over his eyes, his vision blurry. But of course he knew who it was, and he cursed himself for being fooled for even a moment. It was his last thought before his head was pushed down again, submerged in the murky brown pond.

When Kai pulled him back up he scolded him. “I can’t believe you fell for that. I already told you, I’m never letting you go.”

Lloyd was dunked down and held under again. His lungs burned with the lack of oxygen.

“You didn’t listen to me, Lloyd,” Kai said when he raised him back up, his nails digging into the back of Lloyd’s scalp. “I don’t know how much clearer I can be. I was testing to see what you’d do, and you failed.”

Down he went again. He came up spluttering ten seconds later, two wet streams running from his nose and over his mouth. Tiny bits of leaves and dead insects stuck to his face and hair.

“Isn’t it my job as an older brother to teach you a lesson when you misbehave?”

Lloyd spat and blew through his mouth in an effort to speak. “W-we’re… not… b-brothers…”

“Well,” said Kai, releasing him and letting him collapse to the ground, “not anymore. In fact, we never were.”

Chapter Text

“What’s your name?”

“L-Lloyd G-G-Garmadon.”

“Luh-Lloyd? Guess that’s why it’s spelled with two L’s, huh?”

While Kai talked he circled around Lloyd's chair, swinging the crowbar in his hand leisurely back and forth.

No, not Kai. Not Kai. Lloyd had to stop thinking of him as Kai, because it couldn’t be. No matter what Morro wanted him to believe. That conviction was the only thing Lloyd had left to hold on to, and even that was slipping out of his grasp.

“Who am I?”

Lloyd forced himself to stop shivering for a moment and shot him a glare.

“…Morro,” he answered defiantly.

(Lloyd, don’t-!)

Down came the end of the crowbar on his shoulder, the smack of metal on flesh loud enough to echo. Lloyd groaned in pain.

“Try again.”

Lloyd cringed as far away from him as he could. “Y-You’re not Kai- ARGH!”

SMACK. SMACK. His shoulder and back.

“Fine, the easier question then,” said Kai, mild exasperation in his voice. They had been at this for what felt like hours but he didn't even sound bored. “Are you the Green Ninja?”

Lloyd didn't answer, still recovering from the abuse.

Kai swung the crowbar and hit him again, this time on the upper arm. That one really hurt.

“Are you?”

Lloyd’s head reeled for a second before he dizzily turned it in his direction. “…I am!” he shouted.

(Lloyd!!)

SMACK. SMACK. WUMPH!

Other shoulder, ribs, stomach. Lloyd gasped and folded forward over his sword wound, the pain driving out every coherent thought from his head.

(Why are you being so stubborn? Just tell the bastard what he wants, Lloyd! Better than letting him hurt you!)

“I don’t know why you’re being so stubborn,” Kai said with a sigh, resting the crowbar on his shoulder. “You’ve got nothing to lose at this point. The others aren’t coming to save you any time soon. Not even Master Wu knows about this place. Morro never told him.

“Last chance: are you the Green Ninja?”

Lloyd retched drily before answering. “Nuh- Nuh-… No.”

“Who is the Green Ninja?”

“Y-y-you.”

“That’s right. And who am I?”

“Y-you’re a p-p-piece of cra-”

(For fuck’s sake, Lloyd!)

Kai swung the crowbar several times in quick succession, battering Lloyd's body from every direction. The hooked end of the bar clipped Lloyd’s face on one of the backswings, leaving a bloody gouge on his cheekbone, mercifully below the stitches under his eyelid, which had already stretched and pulled horribly from the beatings earlier. With each hit Lloyd would begin to cry out, only to be cut off by the next. Only when the assault had ceased was he finally able to throw his head back and howl without interruption for a full eight seconds, his voice becoming scratched and choked by the end. On top of the angry, red-raw burns still screaming all over his chest, and his ruined fingers that felt like nothing but clumps of nerves attached to his hands that throbbed ceaselessly, his broken leg, his swollen feet, his torn face… the pain was all too much to bear. Surely he’d go insane from it, his brain would implode, there was no way anyone was built to withstand this much at once.

“You know I will say this,” said Kai, speaking after Lloyd had fallen into relative silence, as though nothing had happened, “I am feeling just a little sympathetic towards Wu right now; being a sensei must be annoying. You repeat the same things over and over and over and some students are just so stupid, they still don’t learn!”

Lloyd coughed and spluttered in an effort to clear his throat, sweat dripping from his brow. “M-maybe you’re just a l-lousy t-t-teacher.”

“Shut up.” This time the crowbar swung straight at his ear. Lloyd’s head snapped a full ninety degrees at the impact, his vision flashing white. “I didn’t ask a question.”

Lloyd slouched forward in his seat. His forehead almost touched his knees, his wrists straining against their cuffs. He closed his eyes, waiting to pass out. Unfortunately he didn’t.

Kai sighed. “Let’s take it from the top again. What’s your name?”

“Llo–” Lloyd started to cough violently. Flecks of blood spewed from his mouth and spattered the floor between his feet.

(What’s the POINT of this?? You’re that pissed that you couldn’t be the Green Ninja? You need to bully someone completely under your power just to feel important? Are you that lifeless?)

Really not getting the whole “I’m literally dead” situation, are you?

Lloyd gathered the blood in his mouth, spat it out and shuddered. “Lloyd,” he croaked dully.

“Are you the Green Ninja?”

“………no.”

“Who is the Green Ninja?”

This time Lloyd only hesitated for a second. “You are.”

“Come on, be more specific! Who am I?”

Lloyd lifted his head unwillingly, and looked at Kai’s face with an anguished expression. He shook his head in denial. “You’re not Kai, I know you’re not Kai–”

“How do you know I’m not?”

“Because Kai would never do this to me!” Lloyd bawled at the top of his voice, and promptly started coughing again from the strain.

“Wouldn’t I? Do you really know that? How much do you actually know me, Lloyd? What do you know about what I’ve gone through, ever since Wu conveniently decided to take you in after all the trouble you caused?”

(Shut up, shut up, stop speaking for me!)

“I worked my butt off training to be a great ninja, I was clearly better than the others, I did everything my master said! And then along comes this snot-nosed little pissant who could barely even throw a punch, and for no reason destiny decrees he’s the one who gets all the glory, all the power, without having to do anything? While all my hard work goes to nothing? You really think there isn’t any possibility that I’ve fantasized about doing this for a long, long time?”

(None of that is how I feel! That’s all you, you sad, pathetic fuck!)

Lloyd spoke in a hoarse, halting voice, his head still hanging over his knees. “I know… that Kai w-wanted to be… the Green Ninja. I know h-h-he d-didn’t like me… at first…”

(God, Lloyd…)

“But h-he… promised… t-to look after me. After I lost my dad. He said he’d protect me…”

“Maybe I got sick of having to play the role that destiny forced on me,” said Kai, shaking the end of the crowbar at Lloyd’s head threateningly. “Maybe the thought of being the Chosen One’s baby sitter lost its appeal.”

(I’m not protecting Lloyd because destiny says I have to. I’m doing it because I want to!)

No one asked you, you waste of space.

Lloyd lifted his head a bit, looking up at Kai through his disheveled hair. Kai wasn’t looking at him, frowning to himself as though remembering something unpleasant.

For the first time that day, Lloyd smiled. “Doesn’t look like Kai agrees with you,” he said softly.

Kai’s eyes flashed dangerously. Rather than use the crowbar this time, he backhanded Lloyd with his wrist guard. Lloyd grunted as his head snapped again. A line of blood trickled from his nose.

“This is getting us nowhere," huffed Kai. "Back to the basics it is. But…”

He went back to the table and set the crowbar down, picking up the large pipe-wrench in its stead. He hefted it in his hand. “Same dance, different tune. I don’t think you want to be on the business end of this, so make it easy on yourself.

“What’s your name?”

Lloyd eyed the giant wrench warily. “Lloyd…”

“What’s my name?”

Lloyd looked at Kai's face and trembled.

Kai struck the wrench at Lloyd's chest, right where his burns were worst, and the pain was so great Lloyd couldn’t even scream anymore. His mouth gaped open in a voiceless intake of breath.

“Come on, big shot, what’s my name?”

Lloyd froze. An echo of a voice – the same voice that had just been speaking to him with such contempt and malice – passed through his mind like a dream of another life.

'Don’t worry, big shot. I’ll watch over you from now on.'

Teasing, reassuring…

Loving.

“Kai…” he moaned.

“Oho,” said Kai, his voice lifting. “Finally learning?”

The same voice. But it couldn’t be. It just didn’t match his current reality.

“Kai…” Lloyd took a shuddering breath… and began to cry. The tears fell down his nose and chin into his lap. They were different than all the tears shed during the previous tortures; those had been due to physical pain and had been forced out of him. This time it was pure sadness that made him weep in earnest, calling the name of one he knew would give him comfort if only he were nearby, the way any crying child would.

Kai’s heart shattered to pieces at the sight.

(Oh Lloyd… Lloyd, baby brother, I'm right here, please, please don't cry, I'm still here, don't cry…)

Out loud he said, “Oh please. Cut that shit out.”

But Lloyd’s sobbing only increased in intensity. “Kai… M-make him s-stop. P-please, don’t- don’t let him h-hurt me anymore, please, K-K-Kai-”

(I’m trying! I’m really trying, Lloyd! Forgive me, please-)

Kai started laughing.

“I can’t take it anymore, I want to go home, I–”

(So do I buddy, don’t you think I’ve been trying??)

“Pathetic!” crowed Kai gleefully. “You’re a fucking disgrace to the title of the Green Ninja–”

“I don’t want to be the Green Ninja anymore!!” Lloyd wailed.

“THERE IT IS!” Kai raised the wrench in celebration. “That’s the magic phrase! Good boy, Luh-Lloyd!” He put his hand on Lloyd’s head and stroked his hair, as though rewarding a puppy for good behavior. “Of course that’s just the first step, but hey it’s progress. I’d say that earns you a break.” He turned around to fetch food from the table, which he’d collected from the woods.

(You are going to pay for this. I swear by all the sixteen realms I will MAKE YOU PAY.)

Hey if you’re lucky, you might continue down the same path I did and get your revenge a few decades after you’ve already died.

(This is revenge, what you’re doing? If that’s really what you want, shouldn’t the person you should be punishing be Wu??)

So quick to sell out your sensei. And that’s just what I’m doing.

Kai had been so preoccupied with the conversation he hadn’t paid attention to what Morro was doing.

(Hey… What is that? Is that…? Wait, wait, what are you doing??)

Experimenting.

Lloyd was met with a mushy, overripe fruit shoved under his nose. “Here,” said Kai, “have this… well, I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely some kind of fruit. Found it under a tree and everything.”

Lloyd’s stomach was uncomfortably empty, but he turned his nose away.

“You can’t tell me you’re not hungry. And you can’t afford to be picky. It’s this or nothing.” When Lloyd still refused to eat Kai rolled his eyes and grabbed his nose, pinching it closed. “You’ve always been an ungrateful little shit. Eat it.” He shoved the mess into Lloyd’s mouth as soon as he opened it to breathe. The fruit tasted bitter and muddy, but Kai held his hand over Lloyd’s mouth so he couldn’t spit it back out and he was forced to swallow the whole thing. He choked and spat as soon as Kai released him.

“And some water to wash it down.”

The metal bucket – the only one, that Kai had rinsed out in the pond outside as he’d promised but which nonetheless disgusted Lloyd when he remembered what it had held most recently – was lifted to his lips, and Lloyd let the gunky water fill his mouth. When Kai lowered the bucket Lloyd shot a spout of the water at his front. No wind appeared to stop it this time, but it splashed harmlessly against him.

Kai shook his head as though he were disappointed. “When are you going to get it, Lloyd? It’s me. I’m here because I want to be. Morro’s not done with you yet either, so I am going to get my kicks in while I still can.”

“Even if that were true,” rasped Lloyd, “there’s no way you would be okay with being possessed again, if you’re really Kai. Just because you both supposedly hate me doesn’t mean you’re cool with each other.”

Kai let out a small breathy laugh. “Have you considered maybe my hatred of you is stronger than my hatred of being a puppet?”

(Oh there is nothing and no one in the world I hate now more than YOU.)

Lloyd only glared back at him. He didn’t look away as Kai tried to stare him down.

Kai scoffed, conceding to break eye contact first. “Well, break’s over. Time to switch things up.” He set the wrench back down on the table and picked up the stun gun. “I'll admit I'm pretty excited to try out this thing for myself, even though it's simple. You've earned it.”

Lloyd wasn’t listening. He was frowning in mild fear and confusion, breathing shallowly. “Wait…” he said. “Wait. Something… Something’s wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“My… My chest… My chest hurts…”

Kai arched his eyebrow ironically. “Well that's not exactly surprising.”

Lloyd shook his head slowly. His breathing had become more harsh. “No, I mean… I mean from the inside… My heart… Ah…”

Lloyd straightened and leaned back in the chair, stretching his neck up, instinctively trying to provide as little resistance as possible through his airways, his mouth gaping open like a fish. “My… heart…” he gasped. “Feels like… it's going… to explode… ugh…”

“Oh that.” Kai poked the ends of the prongs of the stun gun with his finger, unconcerned. “That's probably the, ah, ‘medicine’ I put in your food. Just some pills Morro got off of these useless losers who tried to jump him. Fast-acting stuff, huh?”

Lloyd’s eyes widened. His lungs heaved desperately. “What…? What… What does… it do…?”

“Well from what I could tell after trying them out myself, one pill is enough to get your blood pumping fast enough to give you temporary super strength. You might have noticed I packed a meaner punch than I usually do while I was, ah, having fun with you. I didn’t want to risk taking more at the same time without knowing what would happen though. So I figured, why not use this convenient guinea pig I have right here?” Kai stepped towards him, reached out, and placed his palm to Lloyd’s chest, where his heart was. It beat erratically and, yes, unnaturally fast. Faster even than Kai’s had when he’d taken the drug earlier. He grinned in satisfaction. “I might have upped the dosage a bit over what's recommended. That'll probably make for a very interesting combo with this.”

He pressed the button on the taser. It crackled loudly, blue and white sparks dancing from its pointed ends.

Lloyd recalled what it had been like to be shocked while he’d been in relatively better condition. His entire body went hot with panic. “Ah… hahh… No… N-no please… I c-can’t… I don’t think… I can… take it…”

“You’ve held out incredibly well so far. I think you’ll be fine. The first few times anyway.”

“Nnno… no… hahh… please… uhh… p-please…”

“We won’t know what’ll happen until we try. Moment of truth.” Kai pulled his hand away from Lloyd’s heart and poked the stun gun into his middle, just under his diaphragm. He pressed the button.

The gun buzzed, Lloyd jolted, his chest jutted out, and his neck arched all the way back as he roared, his voice cracked and sore. Kai kept the gun in contact with him long enough that he started jittering in his seat before he removed it. When he did Lloyd gasped loudly, and his wheezing resumed.

“HAhh… hahh… I… I can’t… It hurts… Kai, please… p-please don’t…”

Kai said nothing, only watched him. Lloyd leaned his head back again, gulping air, his heart feeling like a ticking time bomb in his ribcage, one that simultaneously punched him from the inside with every tick. “Ahh… Haaah… Haahhh… I c-can’t… I can’t breathe… Ungh!”

Kai responded by pushing the stun gun into his right shoulder blade and pressing it on once again. Lloyd cried out and tried to jerk away, but there was nowhere for him to go, his back braced against the chair. The volts of electricity instantly spread through his entire body, like barbed wires running under his skin. He seized up, every muscle tightening. It felt like being battered by Kai’s “super” punches all over again, only everywhere all at once. His heart was the worst of it, a supernova of pain that threatened to burst out of his chest entirely.

(Stop, stop, you don’t know what you’re doing!)

That’s why this is an experiment. Kai felt Morro’s fascination with Lloyd’s reaction to the taser, watching him shaking. He pulled the device away and Lloyd’s shoulders dropped and he sobbed.

“Aahhaaaahh! Uhhuhuuhuh… Uhhh, haah… P-pleasssse… S-stop it, please…”

Another jab and shock. Lloyd thought he actually felt his vocal chords snap as he hollered his agony to the rafters.

(Please, please, leave him alone! Morro, PLEASE!)

Kai pulled the stun gun away, and lowered it. Watching.

Saliva had begun to spill down Lloyd’s jaw, his mouth still wide open with his helpless efforts to pull air into his lungs. His eyes were closed, screwed tight shut with suffering as the pain in his chest only increased. His skin felt tight against him, as though his muscles had all swollen to twice their size; even the Vengestone handcuffs felt like they’d closed even tighter around his wrists, and they jiggled and shuddered with suppressed energy.

“Ahh, haah, hhaaahhh, it… it hurts… I can’t… no… no… I can’t…”

“You know,” said Kai conversationally, “I should probably document the effects of this for prosperity’s sake. I’m sure they matter to somebody. Too bad I don’t have the voice recorder anymore.” He held the stun gun up to his mouth like a microphone. “Symptoms of overdose include extreme shortness of breath. Hyper salivation.” He put his hand under Lloyd’s chin and tipped it up a bit, observing the strands of saliva falling from his jaw. “And of course.” He put his hand to Lloyd’s chest again. “A dangerously accelerated heartbeat. Hypothesis. When coupled with 50,000 volts of electricity,” he touched the stun gun to the side of Lloyd’s neck, “may lead to cardiac arrest.”

(NO NO NO STOP!!)

When the taser shocked him again Lloyd made a low growly sound through his teeth, freezing up and shivering as though he’d been caught in a blizzard. Knives speared through the inside of his neck, down his shoulders and arms… They disappeared when the taser was pulled away, but his lungs still expanded and collapsed at much too rapid a pace, almost matching the speed of his heartbeat. 

It hurt… It hurt so much… It felt like his heart was battering itself to a bloody pulp against his insides. It wasn’t just that it was beating way too fast, it was as though it were pumping shards of glass through his veins, piercing its inner walls. He couldn’t stop gasping, he couldn’t breathe. His mouth still ran uncontrollably, drool trickling down his chin, but he couldn’t keep it closed because he couldn’t drag in the air he needed otherwise. And all the while his heart was burning, burning alive, heated with the speed of its beats, faster now than a hummingbird’s. There didn’t seem to be enough room for it, eventually it would explode out of him, rend him asunder from the inside out.

And all the while Kai watched.

For the third time, he reached out a hand and pressed his palm against Lloyd’s heaving chest, over his heart. Lloyd’s burned skin was hot under his hand, and Kai could feel the unnatural drumming of his heartbeat, still getting faster, accelerating towards the end of its run. Lloyd could barely keep his eyes open for the pain, but he squinted them at Kai now, pleading with him one last time.

“Kai… Kai, please… please d-… don’t do it… please… please…”

Kai ignored his words, focused instead on the thrumming under his hand.

(He’s dying… Oh God, he’s dying, you’re going to kill him, please don’t do it-)

He pulled his hand away and jabbed the prongs of the stun gun in its place… and pressed the button.

Lloyd jerked upright once more, his head snapping back, his eyes rolling up to the whites. He didn’t make more than a small hiccupping noise this time as his whole body shuddered in place, the tendons standing out in his neck.

Kai kept the current running for almost ten whole seconds.

(STOP IT, PLEASE!! )

He removed the gun.

Lloyd’s shoulders slackened and his head slumped forward. He fell completely still and silent.

Morro lifted his head up by the chin and tapped his face sharply. “Hey. Lloyd. Wake up. Come on.” He frowned and pushed Lloyd back in the chair. He held his fingers under his nose, felt no breath, then pressed them to his throat and waited.

There was no pulse.

(No… No no no no no no… Lloyd? Lloyd?!)

Morro pulled up one of Lloyd’s eyelids. The pupil beneath was dark and stared at nothing. He pressed his palm to Lloyd’s chest again. His heartbeat was non-existent.

“He’s dead.”

Kai felt his whole world crashing down around him. Everything he ever was, every thought and emotion he’d ever experienced, was expunged from his mind as though they’d never been, as though he’d just dropped into existence in that moment, his brain hardwired with a single objective that demanded to be carried out immediately.

(Save him! SAVE HIM!!)

Morro hesitated.

I… don’t know how.

With those words, it was suddenly very simple, as natural as flexing a muscle; Kai BURST through the barrier dividing his consciousness from his body and shoved Morro aside, slamming into the forefront of his mind with the abruptness of being thrown from the seat of a car braking to avoid a crash, stopped only by the windshield of his own vision. He gasped at the sudden reversal, of his limbs feeling like they were his again, of his lungs responding to his panic and shock, and he spared himself a single, overstimulated second to reorient to the physical world and remember how to breathe, before he lurched towards Lloyd and grasped at him like a drowning man would a life preserver.

“Lloyd! Lloyd, can you hear me? LLOYD!”

As he called his name he kept repositioning his hold on the boy, shaking him by the shoulders and then moving his hands to his chest, his neck, his face, as though trying to wipe away all the previous hurts those same hands had wrought. When Lloyd still didn’t respond Kai fumbled in his pockets, pulled out the key to the Vengestone cuffs, and went around behind him to unlock them. It took him frustratingly longer than necessary because his hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

As soon as he’d freed his arms Kai ducked under Lloyd’s side to catch him before he fell off the chair, and lowered him carefully to the floor. Splayed out on his back, the extent of Lloyd’s injuries were on full display, a gallery of all he had suffered etched in various shades of pink, red, blue, and purple, across his torso and arms, his fingers discolored and misshapen, his face gaunt and beaten, burned on one side, sliced and haphazardly put back together on the other… For a moment, Kai was too overcome at the state of him to do anything but brush Lloyd’s hair off his forehead and cup his face with a shaky hand, minding the rough stitches under his eye. “Oh, Lloyd… God…”

He took a breath to steady himself. Then he tipped Lloyd's head back, held his nose closed, lowered his mouth to Lloyd’s and blew into his airways.

Morro observed without comment.

After two breaths, Kai sat up and pressed his hands, one over the other, against Lloyd’s chest, counting under his breath. Thirty compressions… Sickeningly he was reminded of when Morro had made Lloyd count out the number of times he’d burned him with the fireplace poker.

“Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty.”

He bent over him and breathed into his lungs again. Two breaths. Then he pumped his chest again.

“One, two, three, four, five-”

(It’s too late. He’s gone.)

“SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Kai roared into the empty barn, not pausing the compressions.

Morro shut up.

Kai continued, performing two more cycles of CPR. Lloyd didn’t wake.

“Come on… Come on… Come back to me, come back, please…”

Kai’s eyes had started to well up and his vision blurred. Impatiently he scrubbed them with his sleeve as he once again finished compressions and moved to give Lloyd mouth-to-mouth. After the rescue breaths, he raised a fist and slammed it down hard against Lloyd’s heart. “Come ON! Come on, Lloyd!” He pounded his chest again. “Wake up! You can't go, not like this! Come on!”

He brought his fist down again… and again… and again… and then more weakly… and then left it where it was.

He looked at Lloyd. His eyes swam again, and soon the tears were raining down onto his little brother’s lifeless face. “No… Not like this… Oh Lloyd, no… Please, no…” His words trailed off into a moan. With his fist still pressed to Lloyd's heart, Kai clutched his head with his other hand, carding his fingers through Lloyd’s hair.

He sank down onto his shoulder and sobbed into his neck.

“Nooo… No-ho-ho-hoo… Oh Llo-ho-ho-hoooyd…!”

For an endless minute he just lay like that, hugging himself to the beaten body on the floor and crying his heart out against it. There was no other sound in the room. Morro’s presence barely registered as more than a neutral observer, his own feelings about the death of the Green Ninja unfathomable and, to Kai, unwanted and irrelevant.

Morro was surely aware of this, so it could either have been a sadistic desire to further add insult to injury, or else a carnal one for self-destruction as a form of punishment, that made him say to Kai: Look on the bright side. Now we can be the Green Ninja.

Kai’s reaction was instantaneous; he roared in anger, pulled himself off Lloyd and lunged for the dropped stun gun. He raised the device to the side of his neck, jabbing the prongs into his skin, his mouth pulled wide into an ugly, bared-teethed grimace, his nostrils flared, flames of fury dancing in his eyes. He put no real thought into what he was doing; all he knew in that moment was that he needed to punish Morro, even while he still dwelled in Kai’s body. He needed him to feel even a fraction of the pain and misery he'd put Lloyd through. Just before he could activate the stun gun though he stopped, an idea forming in his mind. He lowered the gun slowly, looked at it, then looked at Lloyd.

(What are you doing…?)

Kai scrambled back to Lloyd and pressed the stun gun to his chest.

(It’s too late, it’s been too long. He’s DEAD, do you understand?)

“No,” said Kai. “No he’s not. Not like this. I won’t let him.”

He pressed the button.

The stun gun zapped loudly, and Lloyd’s chest actually jumped. Kai put it aside and began to do CPR once more. Two breaths. Then one, two, three…

Just as he was thinking about giving his heart another zap, as Kai finished the thirty chest compressions, his arms aching… Lloyd gave a small gasp, turned his head, and started coughing.

To Kai, in that moment, it was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard.

“YES! Yes, Lloyd, that’s it!” His eyes filled again with tears, this time of overwhelming relief and happiness. It washed through his whole body, sapping him of almost all his energy. He reached for Lloyd’s shoulders, intending to lift him from the floor and hold him tight… but his hands froze in midair before him. He strained them against an invisible force that seemed to have grabbed hold of the very fibers of his muscles, preventing him from gathering his revived brother in his arms… and in fact was pulling them back, and raising them to his own head. He grabbed fistfuls of his hair and groaned.

No… No, no no, let me go, let me go you son of a bitch!

(It’s not over, I’m not done!)

Oh yes you fucking are!!

Lloyd’s coughing subsided, and he sucked in exhausted gulps of air. The roof of the barn spun far above him. He turned his head away dizzily.

Next to him, Kai literally struggled with himself.

I’m not letting you hurt him again! You are never touching him again! You will never make me do anything to him ever again, you twisted, vicious, evil-

(This body is mine now, I’m not done with it! You will give it to me!!)

“Aaaaahhhh…”

Lloyd blinked the haziness from his eyes and tried to make sense of what he was seeing. It was Kai, and he was in pain, clutching his head and bent double on his knees, making strained, choking noises. Lloyd wondered detachedly whether whatever was happening to him was a good thing.

NO! I’m getting him out of here! You’re done! It’s over! I’m not your puppet anymore!

(You don’t tell me what to do! I’m stronger! I’m in control! And this body is mine !)

“No… aah… Rrrrgghh–!”

Kai lowered his head to the floor, still holding it with both hands. His eyes screwed shut, beads of sweat dripped down his nose… Then he gasped in much the same way Lloyd had, and opened his eyes.

Lloyd watched him catch his breath, leaning on all fours, before he turned his head in his direction. They searched each other wordlessly, green eyes to brown, one pair tired and wary, the other wild and fierce.

Lloyd dared to ask, in a voice as rough as sandpaper: “What happened…?”

Kai only continued to stare at him for a moment, breathing hard, harder even than Lloyd.

Then, abruptly, he got up, snatched the Vengestone cuffs off the floor, and roughly pulled Lloyd’s arms up by the wrists. Lloyd flinched at the cold of the chain trailing over his skin, but had no energy to resist as Kai cuffed his hands together and dropped them to his stomach before stomping off to the barn door. “Where are you going?” Lloyd croaked after him. He got no reply. The door slammed loudly, and Lloyd heard the wooden bar being settled in place on the other side.

Morro stumbled a few steps into a clump of long grass, then bent over his knees and threw up. His head was pounding, and Kai shouting obscenities and threats at him didn’t help.

(You killed him! You fucking bastard, you killed him! I will never forgive you, NEVER, I am going to make it my life’s mission to bring you back to life just so I can play games with YOU! The fucking Cursed Realm will look like a fucking butterfly meadow compared to the hell I’m going to give you!)

“Shut up,” said Morro weakly. He knelt by the pond and splashed water over his face. “He’s fine, isn’t he? Your precious Green Ninja lives to see another day.”

(Another day of what? More games?? More punishment for something that was never his fault? He’s a person, a fucking human being, and you’re torturing and playing around with him for no fucking reason other than to make yourself feel better! But look at you! Do you feel better, Morro? Do you feel like a fucking legend right now?)

The only reason I’m feeling bad is because of you . If you would just disappear I wouldn’t be having any problems doing what I’m doing.

(If I wasn’t here your games would be over right now! Lloyd would be DEAD! You-)

Kai broke off, and his thoughts became shaky and halting just as though he were still crying aloud with his own voice and breath.

(You killed him… You made me kill him… And I brought him back but I still haven't saved him, he’s still going to suffer and die again because you just won’t let go… Why can’t you just let it go?)

I can’t let it go. Morro curled his hands into fists, shaking in anger. I can’t, because it isn’t fair. It was never fair and no one is going to make it right for me. So at least, at the very fucking least, I want to get back at Destiny any way I can. To show it it was wrong about me, that it had no right to tell me what I can and can’t be. Not without consequences.

It was at that moment Kai finally understood the full danger of the situation Lloyd was in; Morro’s anger was not towards him. He didn’t care about Lloyd at all. Lloyd wasn’t the problem, he wasn’t the true object of Morro’s feelings of bitterness and revenge. He was just the proxy, the conduit. Morro was angry at something that had no name and could not be punished, not physically or judiciously. His revenge would never be satiated, never be satisfied, because Destiny would never acknowledge him. It didn’t matter if Lloyd told him he was the Green Ninja, that he’d given up, that he was sorry, because Lloyd wasn’t the one Morro wanted an apology from.

But Destiny couldn’t and wouldn’t apologize, or cry at his feet, or admit it was wrong and offer to make things right, no matter how thoroughly he broke its cherished Chosen One. Much as he tried to derive satisfaction from Lloyd’s suffering, the fact of the matter was, Lloyd’s suffering meant nothing to Morro at all. And it was perhaps the realization of this fact that had Morro so shaken now. A kind of hopelessness had risen up inside of him, potent enough that Kai felt it overriding his own. It was just as Kai had been trying to tell him for the past two days; there was nothing left for Morro. There would be no deliverance. He’d put the Green Ninja to death and no lightning bolt had struck him down; no higher being had come to bargain him for the Child of Destiny.

Destiny didn’t care.

And yet, he still…

I'll never let it go. Morro stood and staggered back to the barn. I don't have anything else.

When he came in it was to find that Lloyd had dragged himself across the floor to his discarded and torn jacket. He’d pulled it over himself and curled up beneath it, shivering slightly.

(Just leave him alone, let him sleep!)

Morro marched towards him, bent down and ripped the jacket away. Lloyd cringed in on himself, looking up at Morro – at Kai – warily.

They stared at each other, Kai’s nostrils flaring, his eyes ablaze. Lloyd searched into them as deeply as he could, trying to find a sign, any, of the man he’d always known.

“Kai,” he finally said. Kai stiffened. “Did you… Did you save me? Did you bring me back?”

After Kai had left, Lloyd had reached up with his numb hands and touched the right side of his neck and shoulder, feeling the wetness there. He couldn’t think of how his unchecked drooling could have ended up there. And it hadn’t felt like drool.

“You did, didn’t you?” he whispered. “Didn’t you...? Kai…?”

Kai clenched his jaw. He turned away, stomping angrily towards the ring in the wall, and Lloyd heard him unlocking the chain. When he saw him return to the center of the barn and looking up to the roof, Lloyd knew what was coming and immediately despaired.

“No, no! Please Kai, no, don’t pull me up again, I want to lie down, please just let me stay here-!”

(He’s not asking for much, just leave him!)

Morro ignored him. He spun upwards in a ball of whirling wind, taking the chain with him, flew over the central beam in the roof, and pulled the chain down the other side. When it pulled taut, Lloyd was dragged across the floor by the arms and then lifted into the air, crying out in protest all the while. “NO NO NO!! AGH!”

Unaided by the Shinju pills, it took Kai more effort to pull Lloyd’s weight up, but he quickly shoved the hook of the padlock in place as soon as he’d looped the chain far enough that Lloyd’s feet left the floor. Breathing hard, Kai spared one last glance back at Lloyd, moaning and crying but breathing normally otherwise, snapped his fingers up at the lantern in the ceiling and extinguished the fire, submerging the room in total darkness… and left the barn without a word.

Chapter Text

Jay was snoring loudly, his face pressed against the page of the book he had been (sort of) reading. Cole raised the tall stack of books he was carrying (a lot of them chosen only for their thickness and not because he thought they would have anything relevant in them), and let them drop down with a slam on the table right by Jay’s head, making him snap awake with a cry of alarm.

“Bwaaahaa!”

“Shhhh!”

The annoyed archivist who’d grudgingly showed them to this room drowned out Jay’s outburst, her finger raised to her lips. Cole sent her an apologetic look, even though he personally didn’t see what harm a little noise would be, considering he and the others were the only ones currently in the archives room of the Ninjago City Library. But, well, better to stay on her good side. After all, they still hadn’t found anything super useful in all their searching so far. They’d need to hang around a good while yet.

“You could’ve just woken me up like a normal person!” Jay hissed at him angrily when the archivist had turned back to the shelves.

“Well why were you asleep in the first place?” Cole hissed back.

“I told you, researching is boring! I can’t help it that it put me to sleep! Besides, it’s not like you guys made any progress in the meantime, so would I really have made much of a difference?”

“You don’t know that we didn’t make any progress!”

“Did you?”

Cole hesitated, shifting his eyes aside. Nya was sitting at the table opposite, surrounded by books and sighing heavily, while Zane was perusing the filing cabinets.

“…Well, no,” Cole admitted.

“See??”

“Shh!”

“Yeesh, sorry.”

It was true that since they’d come here a few hours ago, none of them had managed to scrounge up any further information about Morro besides the fact that he’d existed – the archivist had brought the Ninjago Census record and helped them find the pages to the date Wu had given them, and they had found Morro’s name, under two people who, it could be presumed, must have been his parents. They’d lived in one of the many villages on the outskirts of the city (before there had even been much of a city), and Morro’s father and then his mother had died a few years apart, when Morro had still been very young, but of course the census didn’t say much more than that. It hadn’t even mentioned if either of them had been an Elemental Master, whether of Wind or otherwise.

There followed a long, tedious, and mostly blind search through every book they could find about that particular village, Elemental Masters throughout the ages, and records of orphanages and children’s homes. Nothing had turned up any sign of a kid that could’ve been Morro.

Zane came to their table carrying multiple folders. When they’d first arrived at the library he’d immediately asked for access to the archive’s database, but the librarian had informed them that unfortunately they had not converted everything to digital yet, especially the older records. Undaunted, Zane had dedicated all his energy to scanning and speed-reading through as many texts, journals, articles, and diaries as possible to make short work of narrowing down their search for anything even remotely related to Morro. He spread the folders now over the table in front of Cole and Jay. Nya left her own pile of books to join them.

“I worked on the assumption that Morro’s parents’ deaths were casualties of the Serpentine War – the timing is about right and their village was one of the ones that had been pillaged by the tribes. From there I’ve cross-referenced records of war orphans, or children who went missing in the years between Morro’s mother’s death and when he came to stay with Master Wu, with newspaper articles about incidents and gangs involving street urchins.”

“And?” pressed Jay.

Zane sighed. “And nothing. Nothing concrete anyway. There just isn’t a lot of detailed information to be had about homeless children.” He showed them a slip of paper on which he’d written a – very short – list of his findings: Child A – alleyway knife fight incident, Child B – petty theft… he hadn’t even been able to find any names. “Some of these might be Morro, but it is impossible to know for sure. I wasn’t able to find many clear photographs, either.”

“Kinda sad when you think about it,” said Cole. “It’s like if you’re not in the ‘system’ then suddenly you don’t really matter.”

“Well considering this orphan grew up to become an evil torturer,” scowled Nya, “I’m not feeling that broken up about him, to be honest.”

“You know what I mean,” said Cole, raising his hands placatingly.

“Ugh, remind me again why we don’t just go to the Cloud Kingdom?” groaned Jay. “I’d be willing to make the trip through the Wailing Alps again if it meant we could find out exactly what Morro did with Kai and Lloyd just by asking! Or even getting them to write down that he frees them and then explodes into green jelly!”

“The Writers of Destiny would not share information like that ‘just by asking’ them, Jay,” replied Zane, slapping his list back down on the table forlornly. “Much less write events to suit our desires. It would not be… allowed. Our fate is to figure this out on our own. It would be arrogant of us to think we can bend destiny to our will whenever we wanted.”

“Yeah,” said Nya quietly, “like Morro wanting to be the Green Ninja. Sometimes you just… have to accept what destiny throws at you.” She looked at her hand, clenching her fist, thinking about her powers. The Water Ninja… It wasn’t what she had chosen, and she still wasn’t totally fine with the idea. But if she trusted that it was what was written for her, that it would help her down the road, whether to finding her brother or finding her place in the world, she wouldn’t complain. She’d use whatever she could.

Jay hesitated before saying, “But if you think of it like that… aren’t you saying that we have to just accept that Lloyd and Kai are gone?”

“No way.” Nya’s eyes turned bright and fierce. “That’s different. Their being gone isn’t a done deal. As long as they’re still out there, we have a chance to find them and bring them home. Accepting isn’t the same as quitting.” She grinned ruefully at him. “And ninja never quit. Right?”

Jay smiled back. Man… He knew it wasn’t the time, but he was reminded again of why he still loved her.

He sighed too, though in a less hopeless way than Zane had. “Okay, pass me those articles, Zane. There’s gotta be a thread here we can follow somewhere.”

Zane’s mouth quirked up. “Indeed,” he said. He, Cole and Nya took seats around the table and began poring through the books and papers with renewed vigor.

Morro walked for a long time. Not in the direction of the road but further into the forest, on the other side of the clearing where the barn resided. He didn’t seem to have any destination in mind, and was completely unresponsive to Kai’s demands to know what he was planning on doing now. Kai wasn’t sure if he was lost in thought, or if he wasn’t thinking of anything at all.

Like always whenever they left the barn, Kai was worried about Lloyd; his anguished pleas to not be suspended from the roof again kept echoing in his mind. His relief at having successfully revived him had long since dissipated, and he couldn’t help but think that Lloyd was now surviving on borrowed time. Oh he didn’t think he was in danger of dying soon, at least not while he was left alone like this, but the thought was far from comforting. Kai couldn’t allow him to endure any more punishment.

Enough was enough. He had to do something.

But if he’d thought that his recent success at finally overthrowing Morro’s control meant that it’d be easier to break through again, he was sadly mistaken; the barrier blocking him away from Morro’s soul, and the ‘control center’, as it were, of Kai’s body, was just as impenetrable as ever. Kai desperately tried to conjure up the emotions that had consumed him in the moment he had wrested autonomy from Morro – it had been so effortless, so natural – but he just had no idea what exactly he’d done differently. Rather than the door locking shut and the key disappearing, it was as though there had never been a door in the first place, even though he would’ve sworn that there had been one. His determination to save Lloyd was just as strong as it had ever been since the beginning, if not more so, and yet it still didn’t seem to be enough to regain him the ability to move even a single pinkie. Was it really going to take Lloyd almost dying again for the door to reappear?

He couldn’t afford to wait for that to happen. Lloyd might not be so lucky next time. And in any case, Kai gaining control hadn’t made it any harder for Morro to immediately reclaim it again, the moment it became clear Lloyd would survive. As much as it pained him to accept defeat on that front, the fact of the matter was that beating Morro permanently and saving Lloyd himself just wasn’t in the cards. Kai’s short-lived success had only confirmed that. If he was going to help Lloyd, he had to think of some other way.

Unfortunately he wasn’t going to be able to plan freely with Morro in his head. He had to go spirit mode again. Which meant Morro needed to go to sleep.

(Come on, that’s enough) he berated him now. (I’m getting tired. Why don’t you just lie down and take a nap under a tree so we can rest?)

Morro still didn’t answer him, but he did finally stop. He was standing under a wide break in the trees, and he wearily leaned his head back to look up at the sky. It was bleak and grey, just turning to dusk. Crows called to each other in the tree tops as they settled in for a roost.

For awhile he just stood like that, staring into the endless drop of clouds above. Then, absently, without looking away, he dug around in his pocket and pulled out something small and white. He knocked back the Shinju pill and swallowed it dry.

Kai was incensed. (The fuck are you doing with that?? Stop feeding me that shit! I’m the one who’s gonna have to deal with the consequences later, you know!)

Morro closed his eyes as he waited for the drug to kick in. His heart started thrumming, his muscles tightened, and his mind sharpened. He felt significantly less tired when he opened his eyes again.

Later? he finally said, sounding as dreary as the sky looked. What ‘later’ are you talking about? You don’t seriously believe you’re ever getting your body back, do you?

The foreboding thought had, in fact, made itself known to Kai even before Morro spoke.

(But… you can’t possibly–)

I told you, this body is mine now. Did you think I was just borrowing it for awhile before I went back to being a ghost, getting sent back to the Cursed Realm the next time it rains?

Morro spread his arms out, savoring the way the breeze caressed his face and swept his hair as it passed. I like being alive again. It’s worth it even if I have to put up with you being in my head for the rest of my life.

(It’s MY head! It’s MY life!! You can’t stay here!)

Then take it back. Morro smirked. Except you can’t, can you? Not for long, anyway. I’m still stronger than you.

(What do you want to stay here for, anyway? You can’t keep torturing Lloyd forever!) Kai remembered something then and changed tack. (What about your Master, huh? Don’t you want to go back to her? Seeing as how you couldn’t bring her over to this realm!)

Morro’s smile slipped. He dropped his arms, and his somberness returned, clouding Kai’s mind like a soporific itself. My Master… doesn’t forgive very easily. She must have realized I failed awhile ago. I don’t expect a warm welcome if I returned to the Cursed Realm now.

His hands crept up to hug his arms and he shuddered. For the tiniest moment, Kai heard echoes leaking through the barrier; tormented screaming and pleading, evil roaring and laughter. Then it cut out as though a switch had been flicked.

Morro dropped his arms. Without making any movement, he summoned the Fire Dragon, as ghostly and corrupted as ever. It bowed its head to him and he languidly climbed on to its back.

I’m starving, he announced. What was the name of that place you mentioned?

(What place?)

A bolt of pain shot through Kai’s head as Morro speared through his memories, snagging on what he was looking for and jerking it up to the surface of his mind.

I don’t feel like messing around right now, said Morro dully.

Kai reeled from the invasion, too stunned to argue. Great. Now it didn’t even take him any effort to pick out specific memories whenever he wanted.

Morro flew the dragon up out of the woods and swerved it around until they found the road, following it towards Ninjago City. The whole way Kai’s apprehension kept building, as he wondered just what on earth would happen now if Morro really did go where he seemed intent on going. Was this a good thing? Could this really all end without any action from him? Or were they heading towards a disaster that would put another person Kai cared about in danger?

As always, Morro landed the dragon on a building rooftop, well out of sight of the people below, and descended on his own to the ground using airjitzu to break his fall. Darting across the streets only when there was no one around, he made his way towards the neon-lighted front door of Chen’s Noodle House family restaurant.

A bell jingled when he opened the door, and he poked his head in to scope out how full the place was. Surprisingly, it was mostly empty, with just two other customers, men in business suits, sitting at a table near the back, heads bent and talking in low voices. Morro quietly walked up to the counter.

A red-haired woman in bright amber colors put down the notepad she’d been writing in and approached him from behind it, a ready smile on her face. “Hi, good evening, welcome to–”

She froze when she saw Morro, his face shadowed in the aesthetically dim light. He returned her surprised stare with a cautious one of his own.

(Skylor…)

Kai didn’t need the Shinju pills for his heartbeat to double in speed.

“Kai?” said Skylor. She blinked several times, as though he were an apparition.

“Yeah,” grunted Morro, lowering his gaze and scowling slightly.

(If you hurt her… I swear if you hurt her…!)

I told you, I just want food. Morro’s mental voice sounded tired. While he’d felt briefly nervous at Skylor’s recognition, his predominant mood remained what could most accurately be described as depressed.

Kai didn’t feel at all sorry for him. Unfortunately Skylor seemed to.

“Are you okay?” She opened up part of the countertop and came through it towards him, reaching for his arm but not touching him. “Come here.” She led him towards a table, in the front corner of the restaurant, farthest away from the other customers. “Sit down. Go on.”

Morro sat. Skylor left without another word.

Ten minutes later, during which neither Morro nor Kai had anything to say to each other – Kai too lost in his anxiety over the unexpected situation, Morro in his bizarre melancholy – Skylor returned carrying a large, steaming bowl of ramen. She set it down in front of Morro.

“Here.”

Morro’s eyes widened at the food. Then he scowled again. “I can't pay you anything,” he said. “I forgot my wallet.” Which wasn’t strictly true, but Morro had completely depleted Kai’s money anyway.

Skylor waved her hand dismissively. “It’s not like you and the others haven’t ‘forgotten’ to pay up before. Besides, you really think I'd take money from you right now, with your face looking like that?”

Morro looked up at her.

What does she mean? What do I look like?

(How should I know?)

She smiled at his confusion. “Just eat. You'll feel better, trust me.”

“Trust you...”

Morro picked up the chopsticks, snapped them apart, and lifted the fish cake and some noodles to his mouth.

Skylor watched him chew and swallow, then sat down on the other side of the table as he eagerly stabbed his chopsticks into the bowl for more.

“It's delicious.” Morro’s voice was wondering and grateful.

Skylor laughed. “Well of course it is, Kai. I made it.”

Heh. I like her.

Morro internally chuckled at Kai’s furiously incoherent reaction to that statement.

Skylor sat and watched Morro eat. When he was halfway done she got up and returned some time later with a glass of water, which he downed in one long gulp. “Woah, easy tiger,” she said as she sat back down. “It’s just water. Haven’t had any of that in awhile?”

“You have no idea,” muttered Morro. Skylor looked concerned, but said nothing else until he’d polished off every last bit of the ramen. “Now. Are you going to tell me what's wrong? You can talk to me you know. That might be news to you, since you hardly ever call.”

Dick, Morro scolded Kai.

(I do NOT need to hear that from you!)

Hey, I only tortured a guy to death, never ignored a girl friend.

“I've been... busy, you know,” said Morro vaguely.

Skylor waved her hand again. “Yeah yeah I know, life of a hero.” She pressed her lips together tentatively. “Your sister's looking for you. She said you've been missing since yesterday morning.”

Morro only looked at her, unforthcoming.

“So if you don't want to tell me what happened to you, at least put her mind at ease. Should I call and tell her you're here?”

“No, I... I'll walk there myself.” Morro frowned into the empty ramen bowl. She’s a friend of yours? he asked Kai suddenly.

(Obviously.) Kai realized too late the question was only meant to coax more of his memories of Skylor and all he knew of her – or at least the first things that came to his mind when he thought about her – for Morro’s perusal.

Morro pushed his bowl aside and gave Skylor a serious look. “Can I ask you something?”

Skylor nodded.

“Why are you here?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Because I work here?”

“No,” growled Morro impatiently. “Why are you working here? What's the point? I mean did you really decide one day that your destiny was to serve noodles forever?”

Skylor leaned back and crossed her arms. “Never pegged you for the philosophical type. And one, I don’t know that I’m going to do this forever. It’s just what I’m doing right now. And two, I didn’t exactly choose it. It just kinda happened naturally. Family business and all that, remember?”

“But you don’t have to stick with it, if you didn’t want it,” pressed Morro. “You could do something more amazing, more important, if you wanted. You’re powerful and talented. Don’t you think you deserve more?”

Skylor tilted her head quizzically at him. “I appreciate the compliments, Kai. But to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure where you’re going with this. Maybe you think making food isn’t ‘important’, but I find it fulfilling enough.” She darted her eyes pointedly to the empty bowl. “And apparently so do you.”

Morro bowed his head, and Kai was astonished to feel his sheepishness and guilt. “That’s not what I meant,” he mumbled.

“Does this have something to do with that?” Skylor pointed at Kai’s chest. Morro looked down, confused, before realizing she was talking about Lloyd’s torn gi. He hadn’t changed out of it.

“I was there, you know,” Skylor said, her voice subdued. “When you held the Staff of Elements. All that talk about wanting to be the Green Ninja…” She hesitated, and Kai could feel the unspoken question hanging in the air: ‘Where is Lloyd? What have you done to him?’ She didn’t ask it.

Morro crossed his arms sulkily, covering the green trimmings of the gi. “Well what if it does?” He glared at her. “What if it’d been you? If you’d been told you could do something amazing, only for it to not turn out the way you thought?”

“Did you forget what happened with my father? And all the big plans he had for me, only for it all to have been a lie?” Skylor shook her head. “Kai, I don’t know what you’ve been through while you were missing, but if you’re looking for reassurance that abandoning everything and everyone in your life to pursue a ‘greater calling’ is the way to go, I’m not sure I can give it to you. I’ve seen firsthand what wanting something you’re not supposed to have can do to a person. And so have you.”

(She means Chen) said Kai, purposefully conjuring up the relevant memories this time. (And how he wanted to become an Anacondrai and steal the Elemental Powers.)

Morro snorted. “That’s different,” he said. “What your father did was a lost cause from the beginning. There’s no way he could’ve become an Anacondrai. Not without consequences, anyway.”

“And there aren’t consequences to trying to be the Green Ninja when there already is one?”

Morro tapped his fingers against his arm pensively. Then he smiled at Skylor. “I can’t think of a single one.”

She pinpointed him with her gaze. “What about Lloyd?”

His smile dropped. He returned her stare, giving nothing away with his own. “What about him?” he said neutrally.

At Skylor’s slightly alarmed expression he let out a very natural, endearing laugh, that made her lips twitch a bit despite herself. “Ah, don’t worry about it,” he said. “It was just a hypothetical question.” He got up from his seat. “I think I should go home now. Thanks for the food,” he added.

“Don’t mention it.” Skylor stayed sitting as she watched him leave.

When Morro stepped outside his mood was a bit improved. He stretched his arms and sighed. Think I’ll find a tree to sleep under after all, he said. Man, that was good. Can’t imagine why you’d leave a girl like that hanging when she makes food that good.

(I am SO not talking about that with you.)

Morro shrugged and began walking, in no particular direction. He seemed content just strolling along the street, watching the activity around him. He slowed as he passed by a shop with TV monitors in the window, the screens all showing the same news report. While the audio was muted, the images and tagline made it clear what it was about: “Green Ninja: MISSING”, under an image of Lloyd in his full ninja gi and mask. Or at least, Kai could tell it was Lloyd. He knew him well enough he could recognize him just by his eyes and brow.

“Pfft. As if that’d help,” scoffed Morro.

Kai was inclined to agree, but he couldn’t help thinking that Lloyd's face being obscured must have been a deliberate choice. Ergo the news wanted people to specifically be on the lookout for a ninja in a green mask.

At least they’d finally caught on. If only Morro were wearing it right now.

Morro must have realized the same thing Kai had, for he crossed his arms over his front, hiding the green obi and sashes of his gi as he’d done in Chen’s Noodle House. Time to go back to the sticks, I think.

“Kai?!”

Morro whipped around, arms instantly up, ready to fight.

Kai’s stomach dropped like he’d missed a step going down the stairs.

Running towards him was Nya, with Zane behind her.

Guess she called her after all.

To Kai’s dismay, Morro didn’t sound panicked. If anything, he was geared up, as though he’d expected this to happen.

Nya stopped short a few paces away from him, breathing hard from running. She stared at him for a moment, looking him up and down. Then she thrust her hands out at him and a spout of water materialized and drenched him.

“Hey!” Morro spluttered, his raised arms becoming defensive. When the water stopped he shook his hair out and gave Nya an affronted look. “What the heck, Nya?”

“Kai?” Nya launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his shoulders. “Kai! Oh! Thank goodness! It’s really you!”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?” Morro patted her back, bending awkwardly under her embrace.

Kai’s thoughts were in complete disorder as he felt his sister in his arms. So close and yet so horribly far away.

(No! No, Nya, get away! Don’t trust him, it’s not me!!)

“It is good to see you safe and sound, brother,” smiled Zane, patting Morro’s shoulder.

“Yeah… Uh.” Morro looked down bemusedly at the top of Nya’s head. “Gee. Did you really miss me that much?”

(Gee?? Oh you are not going to pull this off.)

“Of course I did!” Nya finally pulled back from Morro (much to his relief), but she kept hold of his arms as she talked. “I didn’t know where you were or what happened to you, I looked all over the place for you! What about Lloyd? Is he with you? Is he… Is he okay?”

“Lloyd?” Morro cocked his head at her. “Isn’t he at the hospital?”

Both Nya and Zane’s faces fell. “What? But… You picked him up from the hospital, remember? Yesterday! And then I called you, and you two were attacked, or kidnapped, by–”

“Who?”

“You…You really don’t remember?”

Morro shook his head.

(Really? The amnesia act? That’s my sister. She’s going to know something’s wrong, just you wait!)

She has no reason to. I never stopped looking like me while I was possessing Lloyd, and she’s already seen that water doesn’t work. Plus, why would I bother pretending to be you?

As it had several times before, Morro’s unshakable confidence disturbed Kai, making him feel inversely doubtful. It did beg the question though. (Why are you pretending to be me?)

He didn’t get an answer.

“You know what, it’s fine,” said Nya gently. “The important thing right now is to get you home.”

She was beyond relieved and ecstatic that she’d finally found Kai, but she still had her concerns. When Skylor had called her Nya had warned her that he might be possessed by Morro, and to try to test him out with water. Skylor had then told her how bad he had looked. “Whatever happened to him it must have affected him a lot,” she’d said. “And… He’s wearing…” She had changed her mind, just told Nya she would stall him until she arrived before she hung up.

Now, after getting over the initial joy of seeing her brother again, Nya could see what Skylor had meant; Kai looked lost, tired, and gaunt. His usually lively, spiky hair had wilted with neglect, he was generally unkempt and disheveled, and there was a closed off, haunted look in his eyes. And, of course, there was Lloyd’s gi… The same one he’d worn when Kai had run him through with his sword, the dried bloodstains just visible against the black fabric.

Even though she was burning with questions, she could see he didn’t need to be badgered right now.

She took his hand. “Come on. I’ll ride behind you while Zane goes back to the others. Wu and Misako are out too.”

After Skylor had told Nya of Kai’s condition, she’d thought it best if only she and one other came to fetch him. “If it’s really Kai I don’t want to overwhelm him,” she’d explained. “And if it’s Morro, Zane’s ice will be the most useful in stopping him running away.”

“You want us to just hang around here, then?” asked Cole dubiously. “Whether it’s Kai or Morro, there doesn’t seem much point to keep researching now – either of them can tell us where Lloyd is.”

“You two can go get the Police Commissioner and one of the detectives,” said Nya. “They’ll want to talk to Kai, too.”

“Whatever you say, Nya.” Cole chuckled slightly then.

“What?”

“Ah nothing, it’s just… Back when we were chasing Morro around, the four of us kept arguing over who would be the best leader without Lloyd.” Cole smiled at her warmly. “And here you are, taking charge throughout this whole thing and doing better than any of us did.”

Nya didn’t blush easily, but she felt her cheeks heat up then. “Thanks, Cole. That means a lot.” She didn’t fully agree with what he’d said – after all they hadn’t ended up finding Kai on their own – but she was happy to hear she’d been accepted among them. As a ninja, as opposed to just Kai’s sister.

Destiny worked in strange ways.

Morro hesitated as Nya looked at him expectantly now.

(You won’t be able to hide how your dragon looks. She’ll know I’m still possessed.)

That’s an easy fix.

“Actually, sis,” said Morro, adopting an apologetic, helpless expression, “I don’t think I can do it. You know…”

“Oh, right,” said Nya, her eyes instantly softening with sympathy. “I’m sorry. It’s okay, we’ll take it slow. We’ll ride with Zane, then.”

(FUCK!)

Ha ha.

Zane summoned the Ice Dragon and Morro helped Nya onto its back.

(You will NOT touch her! Let go of her hand!)

But that might hurt her feelings.

(Don’t you dare hurt her, I swear if you do anything to her-!)

Why would I want to hurt her? Morro smiled innocently at Nya and she beamed back at him. She’s my sister.

He was so cold. His whole body ached. His broken leg agonized him. His arms felt like they would rip out of their sockets any minute. His hands were in a perpetual state of one second away from imploding into a mess of blood and bone shards. There was so much pain, coming from so many different parts of his body he could hardly focus for longer than a few seconds on any of them before one overrode the other. Or rather, he couldn’t sit with any one of them for too long before he had to force himself to move to the next one. It was like some kind of messed up speed dating event. Oh, hello, what’s your name? Second-Degree Burns? Oh, your interests are continuing to flare and cook as though you were still on fire? Very impressive, big contender for the final pick. Yes, and you are? Knife Slashes? What a stinging personality! Your potential for spawning sepsis makes you worthy of consideration! Ah, and you must be Cracked Rib! You thought you could sneak past here unnoticed, didn’t you? Not with that siren-loud call for attention!

Oh he wanted to lie down. He wanted to sleep. He didn’t want to think about anything. He didn’t want to see any more visions in the impenetrable dark, of Kai holding the crowbar, or winding his fist back, or just standing there staring at him hungrily, devouring his agony as though it were the most exquisite feast. He wanted to scream it all away, release even a fraction of all the hurt, fear, and loss that was eating him up from the inside out, but his throat was too sore and swollen. Another candidate for a date.

Leave me alone. Please, leave me alone, I just want to sleep, I don’t want this, I don’t want to wake up, life is a living nightmare and it hurts, it hurts, please don’t wake me up, I just want to –

He stopped the thought from forming, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. No, he didn’t want that. Not really. He couldn’t, he mustn’t. Ninja never quit. They were looking for him, out there, wherever there even was. He had to still be here when they found him. He couldn’t give in. Ninja never quit. There wasn’t any way they weren’t looking for him, they couldn’t all have abandoned him, not like Kai, not the brother who had betrayed him, dragged him back to this world of pain just to leave him again, the one who’d given up, the one who’d quit, but ninja never quit, ninja never quit, NINJA NEVER QUIT!!

… But was he even still a ninja anymore?

Chapter Text

When they arrived at Steep Wisdom (the sign on the front door declaring it closed, the lights turned out), Nya immediately took Morro’s hand again and led him to the back of the shop, to the ninja’s home. Zane followed behind, speaking to someone on the com built into his head.

“Alright, I will let them know. See you when you get here.” Zane lowered his hand and spoke to Nya, walking with her and Kai to the living room. “Cole says he and Jay will be here with the police in an hour or so.”

“Great,” said Nya, pulling Morro towards the sofa and motioning for him to sit down. She didn’t let go of his hand. “That’ll give you time to clean yourself up and rest, Kai.”

“Cole also said that Detective Simon wants a picture of Kai in the state he was found,” added Zane. “To help in their investigation.”

“Right…” Nya was looking at Morro’s hand. She sank onto the seat next to him. “Kai… Is this… Is this blood yours?”

Morro’s knuckles – Kai’s knuckles – were stained red.

“I don’t know,” said Morro, frowning at the bloodstains as though he’d just noticed them.

(God you’re such a bastard.)

I really don’t know, though; some of it might be mine. I wasn’t exactly pulling my punches.

Nya took her phone out of her pocket and held it up in front of Morro. It emitted an artificial clicking sound as she took his picture. Kai was aware of quiet shutter noises coming from Zane as well; the man could record everything he saw with his eyes in any case, but he probably wanted something ready to give the police.

Nya left the room for a bit and returned with a washcloth. She sat next to Morro and began gently wiping his hand clean.

Kai could feel Morro restrain himself from smirking. Caught literally red-handed and they still don’t have a clue.

(Laugh it up while you can. It’s only a matter of time.)

Hah. Wanna bet?

“If I may, Kai,” said Zane, taking Morro’s other hand, the knuckles of which were also bloodied. “I might be able to determine the DNA if I take a sample.”

“Go ahead,” said Morro, outwardly still dazed, inwardly amused.

Nya handed Zane a dry cloth and he rubbed it over Morro’s hand. “For the detectives,” he explained, putting it down on a side table. Then he looked intently at the remaining blood, his robotic eyes scanning and his advanced brain analyzing.

After hardly a minute, he blinked and looked up at Nya, his expression disturbed. “Nya… This is–”

“Going to take awhile, right?” finished Nya hurriedly, taking Morro’s other hand and wiping the blood from it, much faster than she had the first. “That’s okay, you can tell us later! For now Kai can go wash up and change, maybe take a nap if he wants! Sound good, Kai?”

“That sounds great,” said Morro, smiling at her. Her own forced smile faltered a little in response. She squeezed his hand before letting go.

Morro got up and left the room, heading towards the bathroom Kai shared with the others.

They’re afraid of how you’ll react, he observed. To knowing you have Lloyd’s blood on your hands.

Kai had nothing to say to this. The last five words sent a chill down his spine.

Morro did his business in the bathroom, then took a hot shower. Both he and Kai came to an unspoken agreement not to exchange any words, opinions, or feelings during either process, aside from Morro closing his eyes and letting the water fall over him with obvious contentment. When he’d finished he found Kai’s towels from the hall closet, dried himself off in the boys’ bedroom, then rummaged through Kai’s clothes until he found an unassuming pair of pants and T-shirt to wear.

He transferred the handful of Shinju pills he’d brought with him from the pocket of Lloyd’s tattered gi to the back pocket of his pants. Kai broke their pact of silence with an angry outburst of (Stop that!) when Morro absentmindedly put one of the pills in his mouth and swallowed.

When he returned to the living room the low voices that had been speaking stopped, and Zane and Nya turned to him expectantly.

“Hey,” greeted Nya. “You look much better. Except…” Her mouth turned up in a fond smile, a dimple forming on her cheek. “No hair gel?”

Kai’s hair never fully lay flat, but while it was wet it wilted significantly, giving his head the look of a misused paint brush. Well, actually that was how it looked normally. So perhaps a paint brush that had been pressed against the wall for too long.

Morro touched a strand of his damp hair. “Oh, right,” he grunted, unable to keep the note of annoyance out of his voice.

Nya laughed. “You’re just not you without your quills.” She walked past him to the bathroom he’d used and returned with a bottle of hair gel. “I’ll do it for you if you want.”

Morro more fell into his seat than sat as she pushed him down by the shoulder, standing behind the sofa. He pulled a face as she ran her fingers through his hair.

This feels weird. Is it normal for her to be this nice to you?

(Not this nice, no) said Kai sadly. (And she always told me my hair looked stupid. She must have been worried about me.)

Morro seemed to relent to enjoying the sensation of his hair being gelled for him. To Kai’s disgust, he realized Morro was taken with the idea that someone should be tending to him out of worry.

All while Lloyd was left beaten and bloody and hanging from a chain like a piece of meat…

“There we go,” said Nya with satisfaction. “Now you’re really back.”

(Oh Nya…)

“I can get some food for you if you would like,” said Zane, getting up from his seat.

“Uh, that’s okay,” said Morro. “I’m still full from Skylor’s.” He paused for a second, thinking, before adding “Thanks.” He turned his head around at Nya to include her in his gratitude.

Kai wasn’t sure if he really felt that way or if he was just committing to the bit.

Neither Zane nor Nya suspected anything. “Let us know if you need something,” said Zane.

“You can wait here with us until the others come back,” said Nya, “or you could go in to sleep for a bit–”

“Sleep sounds good,” said Morro feelingly. Nya nodded to him as he got up and returned to Kai’s bedroom.

Kai tried to tamp down his anticipation. At long last.

Morro yawned widely and let himself flop down on Jay’s bed, which was the bottom bunk under Kai’s own. He wriggled under the covers and sighed. Aw man, a real bed. And sleeping with a full stomach. And being clean. It doesn’t get better than this.

Again, Kai wasn’t sure if Morro was really just expressing himself, or if he was playing it up, perhaps to get a rise out of Kai, but in either case he wasn’t interested in distracting him and delaying his drift off to unconsciousness. He let his silence speak to his own supposed fatigue.

Barely ten minutes later, Morro was snoring against Jay’s pillow. Kai poked at the mental barrier. It didn’t give way, but Morro’s thoughts were only white noise. Kai immediately pushed himself outward, and his vision returned to him as he floated lightly to the floor, in a weightless see-through body of his own. He swept back to the living area, relieved to find Nya and Zane still there, seated across from each other on the couches, Nya with her phone to her ear.

“He’s sleeping now,” she was saying. “But you were right, Skylor; something’s off about him. I don’t see how he could be possessed, he took a shower and everything.” Nya had seen the steam on the mirror in the bathroom when she’d gone in to fetch the hair gel, and she’d popped into the boys’ room and poked at the towels Kai had (typically) left in a pile on the floor, to see that they were really damp. “He’s just kind of… out of it. He forgot to gel his hair up.”

“Damn,” said Skylor. “That does sound serious. Jokes aside, let me know when you guys figure out what happened to him later. And if you get any updates on Lloyd, too. Saw the poor kid on the news. I hope he’s alright.”

“Me too.”

“About Kai, he…” Skylor paused. “He said something weird about Lloyd. Well, he said a lot of weird stuff, like about the purpose of life or something, and when I asked him about the green ninja suit, and about Lloyd, he said, ‘What about him?’ Like with a very straight face.”

“Well he did lose his memory,” said Nya hesitantly. “I don’t think he knows Lloyd is missing yet.”

“I guess… that might have been it.”

“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Nya assured her, and herself. “Thanks so much again.”

“Hey I didn’t do anything, it was a coincidence he showed up.”

“He was attracted by how great your food is,” smiled Nya, and Skylor hummed in appreciation. They said their goodbyes and hung up.

The whole time they’d been talking, Kai had been sitting at the coffee table, pressing his finger into the surface, focusing all the heat he could generate into it to try and scorch the wood.

“Come on, come on, come on,” he muttered under his breath.

“Skylor doesn’t have any more idea what’s wrong with him than we do,” Nya informed Zane, speaking to him across the coffee table, straight through Kai’s bent head. She accepted the steaming cup of tea he offered her, pulling her legs underneath her on the couch.

“I didn’t think so,” Zane nodded grimly. He fixed his glowing blue eyes on her. “When do you want to tell him that Lloyd is missing? I don’t think it would be a good idea for him to find out from the detectives.” He frowned. “Especially if it is Detective Tommy that’s coming.”

“I know Lloyd’s missing!” growled Kai, clenching his teeth in frustration as he rubbed his finger across the table, willing for at least a black smudge to appear. “I’m trying to tell you where he is!”

“I don’t know,” moped Nya. “He just looked so… defeated I guess, I didn’t want to spring that on him. He took it really hard when he hurt Lloyd, even after Lloyd forgave him.”

“He’s not going to forgive me this time if I don’t help him!” Kai slammed his fist down on the table, but his hand just swung right through it. He tuned out Nya’s words – “If we’re right and Morro really did possess him while doing everything we saw in the photos…” – and tried to think of something else.

“Okay,” he thought out loud. “Clearly I can’t make enough heat to burn anything. But I can heat things up. That should be good for something. What if I–” A light bulb blinked on in his head. He looked at Zane. “Wait. Heat. Heat vision! Zane, buddy!” He got up and grabbed Zane by the shoulders. The ice ninja didn’t even blink, gaze still locked on Nya in sympathy through Kai’s transparent form. “Zane, you have heat vision, don’t you? Or no, wait, heat vision means shooting laser beams from your eyes, right? Whatever, I mean the thing where you can see temperature! You have that, right??”

Zane of course didn’t answer him, but Kai’s excitement was mounting. He had it, he was sure. He just needed to get Zane to turn on the temperature-reading thing. (Infrared? Yeah, that was it, he was seventy percent sure.) Kai hurried around the coffee table to Nya on the opposite couch. He activated his powers (or whatever this pale shadow of his power was) to the maximum, aiming his palms at her.

“Maybe it’s a good thing Kai can’t remember anything,” Nya was saying. “We don’t know the details yet of course, and he doesn’t seem to have any injuries, but I can feel it in my gut that it was something awful… Or maybe it’s the reverse, and he lost his memory because of how awful it was.”

“There’s no need to stress yourself unnecessarily about this yet, Nya,” soothed Zane. “At least Kai is with us again. And whether he remembers or not, his being back brings us one step closer to finding Lloyd.”

Nya nodded tiredly. They lapsed into silence, Nya sipping her tea. Then she started fanning herself. “Whew. Is it just me or is it kinda hot suddenly?”

“That’s it, sis,” muttered Kai, not lowering his hands but looking back at Zane expectantly.

Zane shrugged. Without making a sign, he switched to thermal vision. The air around Nya was warmer in color than the surrounding. “There seems to be a warm air pocket around you.”

Nya pursed her lips at the cup in her hand. “Maybe it’s the steam.”

“No! No air pocket, it’s me!” Kai turned around, stepped away from Nya and waved his arms at Zane, imagining he would see a red Kai-shaped silhouette. In actuality, only the air around Nya remained a bit orange. Zane’s infrared imaging picked up Kai not at all.

Kai jumping-jacked sideways towards the wall, willing Zane’s eyes to follow him, but to no avail. “No! Why can’t you see me?!” He balled his hands into fists. In a split-second flash of inspiration, he called up his dragon. It burst into existence above him, its wings spreading out to the full width of the room, their tips passing through the walls. It settled its forelegs on the floor, through the furniture, and both Nya and Zane were consumed in its glowing gold-red girth. But neither made any sign of noticing a thing.

“Come on!” raged Kai. “A dragon as big as life, you can’t see it??” He floated around to the dragon’s head. “Burn the wall or something, come on!”

The dragon shook its head at him and made a low, somewhat disdainful rumbling sound in the back of its throat.

“You can’t? What kind of dragon can’t breathe fire? You’re a FIRE Dragon, for crying out loud!”

The dragon bumped its head against Kai, knocking him over. He sank a bit through the floor.

The dragon was vanished with an unamused expression on its face. Kai sat up and groaned in frustration. He looked at his hands, through which the hardwood floor was visible. “What even am I? This is worse than being a ghost.”

He put his head in his hands. Thinking. Then slowly looked up.

Maybe…

He glided towards his sister again. She’d drained her cup and put it on the coffee table, then settled into the couch with her arms crossed, staring forlornly at nothing. Kai inched right up to her.

“Sorry if this works, Nya,” he said. “But it’s for Lloyd.”

He put his hand out, letting it pass through her… then moved so that the rest of him followed suit. He settled his limbs in the same position as hers, turned his head so that his chin aligned with hers, closed his eyes, and turned his focus inward, trying to merge his will with this new ‘vessel’, as Morro had called it.

After a moment, he opened his eyes, and called, “Zane?”

Zane didn’t look his way.

Kai tried lifting one of Nya’s arms. His own faded one did instead.

Nya fanned herself again with her other hand. Kai’s didn’t move with hers.

“Oh come on.” Kai tried to make himself small, to find that space in the mind he occupied when in his own body with Morro. But he didn’t feel any different. Which is to say, he didn’t really feel anything. He might as well have just been a pair of floating eyes, superimposed over Nya’s face. He didn’t feel any control over her physical body at all.

Kai slid away from her, fisting his hands in anger once more. “I can’t even possess someone?? What is this? How is this even fair?!” He buried his face in his hands.

After several minutes of moping, Kai sighed and left the room. Maybe he could find something at least a little more flammable he could try to leave a message on for his friends to discover later. He couldn’t give up yet. No matter how hopeless it seemed.

Morro woke up around an hour and a half later. In that time, Kai hadn’t managed to make any more progress on any surfaces he tried throughout the ninja’s home than he had on the coffee table, even on the straw tatami mats stacked on the side in the dojo. He returned to Morro grumpy and disconsolate, and was uncommunicative when the ghost mockingly asked him if he’d had a good sleep, because he sure did.

Morro emerged from the bedroom to find Zane and Nya in the dojo, greeting two people who’d just come in to join them. He stopped in his tracks.

When Wu saw Morro he also froze. Then he handed his staff to Misako without taking his eyes off the boy, and rushed across the room towards him, his long beard sweeping back in his haste. Morro flashed him a bright smile.

“Hey, Master W–”

His words caught in his throat as he was engulfed in the old man’s arms, his head pressed against his shoulder.

Kai felt a warm, almost painful rush of affection spread through him. He couldn’t recall Master Wu ever hugging him before, much less this passionately; his sensei was gripping him like he was afraid a strong wind would carry him away.

And judging by his dumbfounded silence, and the sudden onslaught of old memories filling Kai’s mind – memories that were not his, memories of a much younger Wu, beardless, stern, distant, and watchful – it was the first time Morro had ever been hugged by his former Master too.

“Thank goodness you’re safe,” murmured Wu, the tiniest tremor in his voice.

The words reverberated in Kai’s mind; Morro was replaying them, examining every detail about how each had been said. Savoring them even, perhaps.

Morro slowly lifted his arms to put them around the old man’s back, but Wu pulled away from him then, moving his hands up to either side of Morro’s face. “Are you alright? You’re not hurt?” he said urgently.

Morro only stared at him, his mouth slightly agape. Kai had the impression he was too stunned to speak.

“Kai?” Wu’s eyes crinkled in concern.

Morro blinked and shook his head. “I’m… I’m fine. Sensei.”

Wu let out a relieved sigh. He patted Morro’s cheek and turned away.

Misako stood beside him, holding out his staff. She nodded her head at Morro. “It’s good you made it back to us, Kai,” she said softly.

Kai could read the sadness in her eyes and knew she was wishing Lloyd had been found with him.

Hmph. Aren’t you well loved.

(It’s called having a family. Something you wouldn’t know anything about.)

Morro glanced at Wu.

No family I had ever did me any good, anyway.

“Cole and the others haven’t been back yet?” asked Wu.

“No,” said Nya. “They’re taking awhile. Did you two find anything?”

“I had to bully the Explorer’s Club into cooperating,” said Misako, “but even then they didn’t have much information about ghosts we didn't already know.”

“We stopped by the museum as well,” said Wu, “and asked about any mystical objects they might have that could be used to summon ghosts, like the Allied Armor.” He shook his head. “No results.”

“Am I missing something here?” said Morro. “Why are you looking for ghosts? I thought we defeated them all.” Kai had to admit that his phony confusion sounded pretty real.

The others all looked at each other uncomfortably. Wu put his hand on Morro’s shoulder. “So it’s true you don’t remember. Kai, there’s something… Something terrible has happened. And it’s not your fault, but–”

“Guys! Hey, we’re back!”

Jay of course.

“Let’s meet them in the living room so the detectives can sit,” said Misako.

It was a tight fit, but when Cole and Jay saw Morro they both barreled heedlessly around the people and furniture towards him, Cole making it first and practically suffocating him in a bear hug, being quite a bit taller than Kai.

“Kai! Man were we worried about you, buddy!”

“Oh… um, thanks- uh!” No sooner had Cole let go than Jay threw himself at him.

“It’s good to see you, man!”

I… hate this, thought Morro, pulling away from Jay and trying to keep his disgust from showing. Really, really hate this.

(Good.)

When Cole and Jay stepped back Morro was able to see the Police Commissioner and Detective Simon behind them, eyeing him critically. Behind them was a third person.

“Sorry we took so long,” Cole was explaining. “We were picking up someone.” He gestured for the third visitor to come forward, and a man with black-and-white hair, a goatee, and dark sunken eyes edged between the policemen. “Zane said Kai couldn’t remember anything, so we thought Neuro could help.”

Kai felt his hopes skyrocket.

(YES! FUCK YES! Cole, Jay, you’re geniuses!)

Morro inwardly scowled at Kai’s sudden exuberance. Who the hell is this Neuro guy?

He got the answer to his question as soon as Kai thought of it, but Kai wanted to gloat anyway.

(He’s the Master of the fucking Mind, fuckwad!)

What does that mean?

“This is great, you guys!” exclaimed Nya, nearly as excited as Kai at the sight of Neuro nodding his head at them and shaking hands with Wu.

(It means you’re toast. No matter how good you think you are, nothing in your head – in MY head – is going to be safe from the Elemental Master of the Mind!)

Kai was very much gratified to feel Morro finally furious and panicky.

You’re making this up. The fuck kind of element is Mind?

(Don’t know. And right now, I really don’t fucking care.)

The Police Commissioner stepped in front of Neuro, blocking him from Morro’s view. “Before we get to that, though, we’d just like to ask the red ninja here a few questions. Get our facts in order. Is that okay, son?”

Morro fixed his expression from one of annoyance to cautiousness. “Sure.”

The police sat on the couch opposite to Morro, the coffee table between them. The others stood supportively on Morro’s side of the room, Wu and Nya sitting on either side of him. Neuro remained standing by the doorway, looking politely away at nothing.

The inane questions began. Detective Simon asked Morro what the last thing he remembered was, to which he shrugged and replied “Getting into bed to sleep, I guess.” When asked why he had been wearing the torn ninja gi belonging to Lloyd Garmadon he said he had no idea. “What about the blood on your knuckles?” said Detective Simon, referencing the picture Nya had taken on her phone, which she’d handed to him. “Did you get into a fight before your sister found you?”

“If I did I don’t remember,” said Morro, allowing his irritation to show. “I don’t remember anything. So I’d like to know what exactly all this is about.”

Nya put her hand on his arm. “Lloyd’s missing,” she said softly when he looked at her.

(I know…)

Inadvertently, Kai’s sadness aided Morro in giving the right reaction. His frown fell away, replaced by wide, concerned eyes. “Missing? What do you mean?”

“The Green Ninja was kidnapped,” supplied the Police Commissioner bluntly. “Yesterday morning. We have video footage of you and he leaving the Ninjago City Hospital. A few hours later your sensei and friends were sent this photo.”

Detective Simon pulled it out on cue. “It’s a bit distressing,” he warned, and put it down on the coffee table. Kai didn’t want to see it again, but Morro bent down to inspect it.

Again, Kai’s anger and grief at the image gave Morro exactly what he needed to sell the bit. He snatched the photo up and gripped it in both hands. “What the hell…? Is this a joke?”

“This one was delivered earlier today.” Simon put down the second photo.

The situation was too messed up. Kai felt his gorge rising. Morro doubled down on the act. “I’m going to be sick…”

Nya rubbed his back. “Kai…”

“Who did this?” asked Morro in a dark voice. “Whoever did this…”

(A slimy, disgusting snake. No, calling you a snake is an insult to the snakes!)

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” said Detective Simon. He pulled out his own phone and showed another picture to Morro. “Do you recognize this man?”

“No,” said Morro honestly.

“This is the proprietor of a shop that sells cameras.” He didn’t elaborate, watching Morro’s face.

Oh. I remember now. I bought that camera from him. Took him forever to get the kind I was talking about. Hm.

Morro pressed his lips in a hard line. Simon finally lowered the phone. He took out a notebook and flipped to a page, reading off it. “Have you been to the Ninjago City post office recently?”

“No.”

“Do you recognize this address?” He read aloud the street, building, and apartment number of John Lyle. Morro shook his head.

The Police Commissioner had his arms crossed and was watching Morro with a very stern gaze.

Simon tapped his pen against the notebook. “Do you know what Shinju pills are?”

“What?” said Nya. “What on earth are you talking about?” She had been feeling more and more nervous and frustrated with each question. She did not like the way the Commissioner was looking at Kai. And why did it feel like this interview that was supposed to be about finding Lloyd had turned into an interrogation?

“Never heard of them before,” said Morro, without inflection.

Detective Simon held his gaze for a moment before closing his notebook. “Let’s change the subject. You have fire powers, right?”

Morro raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Have you ever used those powers for… let’s say, not strictly legal activities?”

“None of my students would abuse their powers like that,” said Wu imperiously.

Oh that’s rich, thought Morro. So quick to cover for your failure.

“Sir, please.”

“Why are you asking about his powers?” demanded Misako. “Is there a point to any of these questions? He already told you, he doesn’t remember anything from the past two days! Can we just let Neuro read his mind already so we can find out where my son is?”

Detective Simon leaned back, putting his notebook away. He and the Commissioner looked at each other before the latter nodded. They both got up from the couch, and Neuro, who’d behaved as though he hadn’t been listening to the conversation, came over and took their place without saying a word.

(Finally.) Kai braced himself to yell as loudly as it was possible to make a mental voice yell.

Morro clenched his jaw, his guard all the way up.

Neuro spoke in his low silky voice. “I don’t need your permission to see into your mind,” he told Morro. “But for courtesy’s sake, I will ask: do you consent to this?”

Morro searched him carefully. He looked at Nya, who nodded in encouragement.

“If it’ll help find Lloyd,” he said.

“Very well.” Neuro lifted his hands to either side of his head, pressing his fingers against his temple, and closed his eyes.

Fine then.

Kai felt a strong pressure against his brain. A nauseating feeling of vertigo rose up within him and Morro groaned, lowering his head. Neuro’s power came at him in a wave, pushing into him at a steady rate. It was so overwhelmingly relentless Kai almost forgot to call out for help.

(Neuro! I’m in here! I’m possessed! Lloyd is here!) He threw up the image of the barn in the woods, trying to hold it in his head as clearly as possible.

The wave hadn’t reached him yet. It clashed against Morro’s mental barrier from the other side… and halted there.

“Hrm,” Neuro grunted, frowning but not opening his eyes. “There’s a shield in his mind. It’s very strong.”

“Would it hurt Kai if you break through it?” asked Cole.

“He should be fine.” Neuro rubbed his fingers against his head as though soothing a migraine. “But I can’t be delicate about it.”

Morro groaned again, pressing his face into his hands. Nya stopped herself from touching him, not wanting to interrupt whatever Neuro was doing.

The wave of mind force pulled back from the barrier and rolled forward again to batter against it. Kai could feel the aftershock of the blow and marveled that it wasn’t enough to take it down. He started battering against the barrier from his side.

(Come on! Come on! I’m in here!)

Seeing that his attack wasn’t making much of a difference, Kai tried to skim along the barrier to reach around it towards the crashing wave. Within it, Morro was gathering his strength, waiting.

“Nnghh… I think… I have it…” Neuro was practically vibrating with effort, sweat forming on his brow. Detective Simon backed away a few steps, looking afraid that the man might combust.

Kai kept trying to move past Morro’s shield, but each way he turned it rose up to meet him, blocking him away from the battle being waged on the other side. Despite that, Kai could feel it weakening under the continued bombardment, and contented himself with stepping back, letting the inevitable happen. (It’s almost over.)

Don’t… be… so… sure…

Morro also waited for the wave to break through, holding something to himself, poised to let it loose against the intruder at the right moment.

The moment came. Neuro’s mind wave steamrollered over the mental barrier towards Morro.

And was thrown back again by a nuke of memories.

“AH!!” Neuro’s eyes flew open and he gasped. Then he grabbed his head with both hands and shook with pain. “Aah… No… Stop!”

“What’s happening?” asked Jay, unconsciously moving towards him like everyone else. No one had the courage to touch Neuro as he writhed and groaned, Kai doing the same across from him, pulling at his hair.

“Urrrgghhh!”

“Kai? Kai?!” Nya tried pulling Kai’s arms down but he shook her off.

“Why does this keep happening?” said Detective Simon, looking more baffled than anything.

Neuro’s eyes had grown wide with horror, clouded with something none of the others could see, except perhaps Kai. “No… It’s… It’s terrible… Stop! Stop it!... He’s just a kid!”

“Is he talking about Lloyd?” said Jay shakily. Cole shook his head, looking out of his depth.

“Aaaarrrgghh!” Kai roared, pulling at his head as though trying to pop it off his neck.

Zane suddenly jumped onto the coffee table between them. “ICE!” he bellowed. A blast of cold air and frost burst out from him, hitting both Neuro and Kai. Their voices cut out, and when the mist cleared they were revealed shivering a bit in their seats, flakes of white on their lashes and eyebrows. Both had finally let go of their heads, though they gasped and screwed their eyes shut with residual pain.

Kai took the chance to push against the barrier, to attack Morro while he was down… but it was back up again, wavering a little but as impenetrable as though nothing had happened.

(No… No!)

Morro shuddered. Nya slowly put a hand on his shoulder, and this time he let her.

“Ugh… My head,” muttered Neuro.

“Sorry, what just happened?” grumbled the Police Commissioner.

“The same thing that happened with John Lyle,” Nya realized. “That’s why Kai can’t remember anything.”

“Neuro, what did you see?” asked Cole.

Neuro shook his head, looking a bit shell-shocked. “I don’t… I don’t know. I didn’t recognize it. But it was some place outside of this realm. And it was…” He put a hand to his mouth. “It was horrible. Too horrible to describe.”

(Was it… Was that the Cursed Realm…?)

Morro nodded, whether in answer to Kai’s question or in agreement to what Neuro had said, Kai couldn’t tell.

Zane, stepping down from the table, asked Neuro, “Would you be willing to try again?”

Neuro shook his head. “No way. If you hadn’t stepped in we both might have gone insane. Those memories in Kai’s head were put there with malicious intent. Probing them further will only lead to the destruction of one or both of our minds.”

“You’re kidding,” said Jay in a hushed voice. “There’s nothing you can do?”

Neuro looked at Morro. “Not anything I’m willing to risk. I’m sorry.”

Even though no one made a sound, the disappointment in the room was palpable. Misako took her glasses off and covered her eyes with her hand.

(Is this what you did to John Lyle?)

Pretty much.

(Then… how come I didn’t actually lose my memories?)

Because I used it to defend our mind, not attack it.

Kai mulled this over. Once again he was stunned into submission due to having been confronted with just how formidable Morro’s competence under pressure really was. He could feel, beneath the ghost’s fatigue, how proud he was of his new accomplishment, of singlehandedly beating out an Elemental Master at his own game. His already inflated ego had just been given another boost, and Kai didn’t relish what that would mean for him and Lloyd going forward.

Aside from that though, a new train of thought had occurred to Kai.

(But you could make me forget everything that’s happened if you wanted to.)

Morro seemed surprised at the statement, but quickly decided there wasn’t much harm in answering. Sure. But I’m not planning on ditching your body any time soon so there’s no point. You’re annoying enough already without also being an amnesiac.

(…You could make Lloyd forget too.)

Morro scoffed. That would be a complete waste of the last two days.

Kai had expected as much. If he thought there was a hundred percent chance he would make it out of this mess with Lloyd alive, he might have considered bargaining for Morro to take away all his memories of being possessed. But if Morro refused to do the same for Lloyd, there wouldn’t be a point; Kai wouldn’t leave Lloyd to shoulder the tragedy of everything that had happened by himself.

Again, assuming they ever both got out of this mess alive to shoulder anything…

The Police Commissioner sighed. “So, let me get this straight,” he said. “We have the man who we know was the last person seen with the missing Green Ninja – a man who was confirmed to have bought the camera that took threatening photos of the missing person, and was witnessed and confirmed by several people has been running around Ninjago committing crimes like breaking into people’s homes, shop-lifting, and potentially even arson–”

“Arson? What are you talking about, you didn’t tell us anything about this!” stormed Nya.

“The CFI’s that investigated the fire at that little boy’s bedroom last night,” supplied Detective Simon, “weren’t able to find any kind of fuel at the point of origin – no gasoline, no lighter, no matches, no faulty wires. It was like the fire just happened out of nowhere.” He inclined his head at Morro. “Like it was done by someone who could make a fire appear out of nowhere.”

“And someone reported seeing a shady figure outside the apartment window that night,” continued the Commissioner, his mustache bristling. “Anyway, this man that we can reasonably conclude is that same man, especially given that he was found wearing the clothes all the witnesses described – clothes that belonged to the ninja that was kidnapped – is now telling us he has no memory of the past thirty-six or so hours, and has some kind of shield in his head that stops even a mind-reader from being able to see into his memories without going crazy. Convenient, huh?”

“Hey, bucko,” said Jay, pushing past Cole and Misako to step up to the Commissioner’s face – which was difficult, given he was several inches shorter than the older man. “I don’t like where you’re going with this. Don’t forget that we came to you for help. Throwing around accusations against our friend who we’ve been looking everywhere for and found without you doesn’t count as ‘helping’ in my book!”

“I haven’t accused anyone of anything,” said the Commissioner, lifting his nose haughtily. “But if it looks like a duck–”

“The hell does that mean?”

“Enough, Jay!” snapped Wu, trying to step around Nya and Kai to reach him.

Misako came to Jay’s aid instead. “Listen, Commissioner,” she said, her voice level but hard. “Everything you’ve said so far is just conjecture. Unless you have some actual proof that Kai had anything to do with my son’s disappearance besides being the last person with him when it happened, you can’t convict him of any crime. So either tell us with a hundred percent certainty what it is you think he’s done, or leave him alone to rest if you have nothing else useful to say.”

Kai was touched by Misako’s defending him; he knew she and the others suspected that he’d been the one to do to Lloyd what they’d seen in the pictures, even if under Morro’s possession. He felt his heart expand with love for his family as they all stood and gathered around him, shielding him from the eyes of the policemen.

Neuro remained seated, watching the standoff with passive interest. Detective Simon shuffled his feet nervously, glancing at the hallway leading back to the tea shop. “Sir?”

The Police Commissioner regarded the ninja with careful consideration. His eye twitched. Then he turned to leave. “Fine then,” he said. “Getting proof shouldn’t be too hard.” He looked down at the side table as he passed, casually pulled a latex glove from his pocket and put it on, and picked up the cloth Zane had left there earlier – the cloth he’d used to wipe up the blood from Kai’s hand. He held it out to Detective Simon. “Bag this,” he barked.

Detective Simon showed his palms. “I… didn’t bring any?”

“Oh for goodness’ sake.” The Commissioner pulled his glove off around the cloth, tipped his hat perfunctorily, and the two of them left.

Wu, Misako, and the ninja all stood in seething silence for a minute.

Neuro cleared his throat. “Um, could I trouble someone for a glass of water?”

Misako gestured for him to follow her to the kitchen.

“Why the hell,” rumbled Jay, his voice building in volume like a thunderstorm, “was there a bloody rag left just lying around?”

“We used them to clean Kai’s hands,” said Nya miserably. “They were covered in blood.”

“Uh, whose blood?” asked Cole.

Zane looked apologetically at Morro. “Lloyd’s.”

“Oh that’s just perfect!” declared Jay, throwing up his hands. “Can’t get any more incriminating than that! Whose shit-for-brains idea was it to leave that out in the open just begging to be picked up by the fuzz?”

“Withholding information that could help an investigation is a crime,” intoned Zane pathetically.

“Oh you were going to GIVE it to them??”

“Cool it, Jay,” said Cole. “They’d already made up their minds about Kai; they would’ve found some other evidence anyway.” His face turned grim. “The really bad news out of all this is that we couldn’t get to Kai’s memories about Lloyd.”

Morro looked around at each of the ninja in turn. “Wait a minute, I’m confused,” he said. “How come I’m the only one surprised by the fact that I had Lloyd’s blood on me?”

(Ugh. Stop, just stop.)

Master Wu answered him. “We believe that Morro has been… possessing you while keeping Lloyd captive, Kai. And that he might have hurt him using your body, too.”

Morro stared at him. “That’s… That’s terrible.” He shook as he spoke. Only Kai was aware the shaking was due to him holding back laughter.

“Yes, it is,” said Wu. “But none of us blame you. We will find Lloyd and bring him home.” He sighed. “But for now, perhaps we should have dinner and turn in for the night. We can discuss what the next best course of action will be over food.”

Neuro declined joining the ninja for dinner and wished them luck in finding Lloyd, promising to be on the lookout himself and to come again if they needed him. To Morro he said, “I will look into my family’s history with my Elemental Power – perhaps one of the previous Masters would have some kind of idea on how to get that… thing out of your head.” He shuddered a little as he recalled the visions of the Cursed Realm.

(There is definitely a THING in my head that needs to get out) thought Kai glumly. (But I’m not sure anymore that Mind Powers are going to cut it.)

I’m not a thing. Morro sat at the dining table gleefully, having been told he didn’t need to help with setting it up. I’m poor little traumatized Kai Smith. And now I’m back with my family where I belong.

No one ended up being in the mood to discuss much of anything over dinner, and so they all ate in silence. This suited Morro fine, as he was more interested in the food than any talks of what the ninja would do next to find Lloyd. His smugness at having evaded Neuro’s detection hadn’t waned, and he was confident that there were no more real leads they could follow.

Kai was starting to feel the same, and became antsy at Morro going back to sleep again so he could come up with his own plans in peace. Also, he just really wanted out of his current situation – being unrecognized by his own family while he sat among them wasn’t anywhere near as bad as being forced to torture his little brother, but it still didn’t feel good. Both he and Morro noticed how they kept shooting glances at him, alternately smiling when they saw him looking or quickly averting their gazes.

Your friends are creeping me out.

(They’re just worried about me.) Kai could see Cole out of the corner of his eye spacing out, watching Morro eat while holding a spoonful of food halfway to his mouth. Jay nudged him and he snapped out of it.

(How can’t they tell that something’s wrong? It should be obvious it’s you! Or that I’m not myself at least.)

Kai hadn’t meant to think “out loud”, much less to receive an answer, but Morro did reply to him.

They have no idea what happened to you. They might have their suspicions and some of them might be true, but all they really know is that something bad happened, and that you were involved. Of course you’re not yourself.

There was the barest hint of satisfaction in the way Morro said this, and Kai realized he’d already thought of all of it when he’d made the decision to let Nya take him home.

When they’d finished eating, Jay jokingly informed Morro that it was his turn to do the dishes. “We knew you’d come back at some point, so even the stuff from breakfast is still there, haha.”

Morro looked at the stack of dirty plates in the sink. Chores. Huh. Haven’t done that in a long time.

“Um, Kai, that was a joke,” said Jay, when Morro picked up the sponge and turned on the faucet. “Me and Cole will cover for you today, you go and rest.”

“I want to do it,” said Morro.

Jay looked at Cole behind Morro’s back and lifted his finger to the side of his head, whirling it around in circles.

Cole shrugged. “I’ll dry, then.”

Morro did the dishes. Kai couldn’t even find any sarcastic remark to say to this bizarre scenario.

When they were done he and Cole joined the others in the dojo, where Wu was leading the ninja in meditation. They sat with them without a word, legs crossed and hands cupped in their laps.

Kai took this chance to ask Morro some very pressing questions.

(Are you going to sleep here?)

He felt Morro’s slight irritation at being interrupted.

Well it wouldn’t make sense NOT to sleep here.

(Then you’re going to leave Lloyd the way you did for a whole night??)

Ugh, again with this? Wanting me to go back to Lloyd just so you can beg me to leave him alone again?

(Yeah, how dare I worry about him, huh?)

Morro opened his eyes, too annoyed to keep his concentration. Then you’ll be happy to hear I’m not planning on staying here permanently. I’m going back to Lloyd tomorrow. There’s no point in keeping him alive if I don’t get to have my fun with him. Plus he still thinks there’s hope that you’re on his side. I need to keep breaking it.

Kai wasn’t sure if he was happy about this news or not. (How do you plan on ditching my friends? They could follow you back to the barn and find him.)

I’ll find my chance. You should’ve learned by now I have a way of making things work out for me.

Kai was starting to learn that. He didn’t know for sure whether ‘Destiny’ had ever really had it in for Morro, because it sure seemed to be siding with him now.

After Wu declared the meditation over, the ninja simply shifted positions, relaxing in their places and turning to face each other. The gathering had turned into a meeting by unspoken agreement.

“So,” said Cole. “Back to the drawing board. We’ve gotta figure out where Lloyd is ourselves. The police think Kai is the culprit so they’re probably not focusing on anything but arresting him right now.”

“And as soon as they get confirmation that that blood was Lloyd’s,” said Jay, “they’ll have enough evidence to do it. Thanks again, Zane.”

“I said I was sorry!”

“No you didn’t, you just said–!”

“Jay, please,” scolded Nya.

“What Cole said was right,” Master Wu cut in, taking charge. “We need to return our energies into finding out everything we can about Morro. If you felt you weren’t able to gather enough information from the library, you can return tomorrow.”

“The library is a dead end, Sensei!” said Jay. “I’m not just complaining because I hate research, even though I do, but the fact is that there’s only so much information you can get about a person who wasn’t around during social media.”

“That’s why you have no choice but to go old-fashioned.”

“That is true,” said Zane, tapping his chin contemplatively. “But searching through books isn’t the only ‘old-fashioned’ method there is. Despite the little amount of directly helpful data we were able to scrounge from the archives, we did find out some things. One of which was the name of the village Morro was born in.”

Morro, who’d been listening to the conversation with apathy up to this point, stiffened just a little.

“It is still standing, and there are families that have had roots there for generations. It is not unlikely that someone there might remember something about Morro or his parents. We can visit them tomorrow and ask around.”

The others looked around at each other and nodded eagerly. “That sounds like a great idea,” said Nya. “We’ll leave first thing tomorrow.” She turned to Morro. “Kai? You think you’d be up for coming?”

Morro met her gaze steadily.

My home…

He gave her a sideways grin. “Sure. I wanna help find Lloyd. And get payback on that bastard for possessing me,” he added as an afterthought.

Kai thought his insincerity was most apparent then, but the others seemed relieved to hear him joking.

“Right then.” Jay checked the clock on the wall. “It’s not too late yet. Who wants to play some video games before bed?”

The others stared at him pointedly.

“What? Too soon? Shit, sorry, sorry.”

“It’s alright, Jay,” said Master Wu. “One does not need to act as though the world stops turning when a tragedy strikes. We have more hope now than we did before. Spend your evening how you want.”

“Yeah…” Jay still looked embarrassed.

Morro was struck with an idea. Which one is the muscle head again?

Kai answered without thinking. (Cole…?)

“Cole.”

“Yeah, Kai?”

Morro stood up and got into form. “Spar with me.”

Everyone looked at him with surprise.

“Uh, you sure? Maybe you wanna just play video games with Jay–”

“I don’t have a scratch on me, I’m good. I want to train.”

Wu nodded in assent when Cole glanced at him. His grin grew wider as he stood up too. “You’re on.”

Morro was brought one of Kai’s red practice gi’s to wear, and while he was putting it on he surreptitiously slipped a Shinju pill from his pocket and swallowed it.

(Are you fucking kidding me?)

Weren’t you the one who was always wishing you could be stronger than the earth ninja? Morro turned to face Cole, his muscles swelling and his blood thundering. I’m making your wish come true.

In the end, Morro won three out of the five matches he fought against Cole. In the first round Cole had been so caught off guard by Morro’s strength that he’d lost almost immediately, and had demanded a rematch. He’d held out longer the second round, but was eventually overwhelmed again. Jay, thoroughly distracted out of playing video games, had rushed to the kitchen and brought back a bowl of nacho chips to share with Nya and Zane while they watched.

After the effects of the Shinju pill started wearing off though, Morro’s energy levels dropped sharply, his heart beating in an erratic stutter like a dying car engine, and Cole finally beat him in the fourth round. Kai figured Morro would quit then but he angrily insisted on another match, to which Cole hesitantly agreed. Morro didn’t last for more than half a minute, and when he landed on his back so hard the wind was knocked out of him and he gasped in pain, Cole hurriedly went to help him up and told him he should probably just turn in for the night.

“You’re not looking so good.”

“I’m not weak, okay?” Morro jerked his arm away from Cole’s helping hand.

“I never said you were–”

“I’m going to bed.”

Although Kai didn’t want Morro to take any longer than necessary to go to sleep, he couldn’t help rubbing salt in the wound.

(You couldn’t last ten seconds against him without drugs. Some legendary warrior you are.)

Shut up. It was because of the drugs I lost. I only used them because you thought you were weaker than him.

(Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that. God, you’ve got an excuse for everything. Nothing is ever your fault.)

I said shut the fuck up. I want to sleep.

(Don’t let me stop you.)

Kai did end up regretting pushing his buttons once Morro was in bed though, because the dead ninja was so busy fuming, tossing and turning under the covers, it took him quite a bit to drift off. By the time Kai was assured that he was out and left his body, the other ninja were all coming in to sleep as well. On his way through the house he passed Nya nodding off at the kitchen table, a book open in front of her. On closer inspection it looked to be an encyclopedia of locations in Ninjago; it was open to a page about famous villages in the region, one of which Kai was sure was Morro’s birthplace. He smiled fondly at his sister. “Thanks for not giving up on us, sis.”

Feeling a little guilty he’d never done this while he’d had his own body, when she could actually feel it, he kissed the top of her head and then left.

The moment he was outside Kai summoned the spirit of the Fire Dragon (apologizing to it for chastising it earlier, to which it grudgingly accepted), and flew it to the barn. Like before he could see very clearly in the pitch black darkness, and got a shock at the sight of Lloyd dangling in the center; he couldn’t have looked any worse than he had when Morro left him, but the time away must have clouded Kai’s memory. Hardly an inch of him wasn’t discolored with bruises in varying stages, burns, or dried bloodstains. His head hung so limply it almost looked like his neck was broken, and his hands were a deep, worrying shade of purple above the Vengestone cuffs. If he hadn’t been shivering and making distraught, pained noises in his sleep, Kai might have believed he’d really died this time.

“Oh God. We have to get you down from there.” Kai glided to the ring in the wall, wondering if he could really afford to waste time even attempting to melt it down. Definitely not. If he couldn’t even scorch a wooden table there was no way he was making a dent in the metal chains. He punched the wall in fury, though of course his fist just whipped right through it.

Lloyd cried out in fear just then and Kai’s anger immediately faded away, replaced with desperate concern. He rushed back to Lloyd, heating himself to warm him.

"Lloyd! I’m here, I’m here.” The uselessness of those words depressed him. He hung his head. “I’m here but I can’t do anything. I’m trying, I’m really trying, you have to believe that. But I can’t DO anything!”

To Kai his own voice sounded loud, but there was no echo in the large barn and Lloyd didn’t stir. Kai looked into his beaten face dejectedly and spoke in a quieter tone.

“So you have to hang on until Nya and the others find you. Okay? Please try to hold on. Don’t give up on me. You can’t ever give up, you hear me? Ninja never quit! You’ve been so strong already, and I’m so proud of you. I know it’s hard, but please, don’t… don’t make me survive this without you. I don’t know what I’d do…

“But I know you’re almost done. You can’t take another day. And it’s not fair to ask you to. If I could just talk to the others! They’re not even close to finding out where you are. And I can’t even leave them a message!”

The last word triggered something in his mind. Message… Sending a message.

I’m thinking of making this a daily thing.

Had he meant that? Because if he had then there was at least one guaranteed way of communicating with the others through written words. A way that Morro himself used to deliver updates about Lloyd to them.

If Kai could hijack that method, could he not leave a little message of his own, with Morro none the wiser…?

As the implications of this line of thought dawned on Kai, he looked up at Lloyd in horror. “No. No, no, no. There has to be another way. I WILL find a way, Lloyd! And I’m not leaving here until I think of something!”

He called up the Fire Dragon again. It filled more than half the space in the barn. Kai patted its nose and murmured to it, “Will you keep him warm for me?” and the dragon cattily turned in circles around Lloyd before settling down, curling its body and tail around him and nuzzling him with its head. It closed its eyes as though going to sleep, but the golden reddish glow surrounding it became brighter and Kai knew it was heating itself up. Satisfied, he started pacing up and down in front of it, forcing himself to think.

He began by making a mental checklist of everything he already knew didn’t work while he was in spirit form. Everything he’d already tried at the ninja’s home, of course. Possessing objects was out too, after he experimented by trying to merge with the wooden chair and then the crowbar (a vague hope in his mind that if it worked he could use it to pry the metal ring from the wall). His spirit dragon seemed to have all the same limitations he did, given the looks it gave him and its refusal to cooperate each time he tried coaxing it.

He was forced to conclude that spirit mode wasn’t going to do him any good apart from allowing him space to think. There wasn’t even much use in the knowledge that anything he saw and heard in this form would be safe from Morro; it was pointless if Kai himself couldn’t touch or speak to anyone. He had to think it all over from scratch.

On the surface, the most obvious solution was the one he’d tried first and most consistently, and had failed each time; forcibly taking control of his body back from Morro. It could be done, he knew that, but he had to assume that he could only do it for a few seconds at a time, if he managed it at all, like he had the first day when Morro had been going to town on Lloyd’s hand with the hammer. This might be useful if he was able to gain control enough to at least shout the name of the barn’s owner within earshot of Nya or the other ninja, but given that Morro wasn’t planning on staying with them for long he couldn’t count on this chance. He needed a backup plan.

Kai had decided long before that if he had the opportunity to share only one word with the others, it would be F. Saki; ever since he’d seen the name on the sign outside of the barn, when Lloyd had almost escaped on his own, Kai had dwelled over it in his mind, both consciously and unconsciously, when he realized that Morro couldn’t see it at all. He couldn’t be certain that Morro didn’t know the name of the barn’s owner, given that he’d stayed here as a child, but he thought it likely that he didn’t; based on things he’d said, Kai was sure the place had already been abandoned then, and that Morro had never met F. Saki in person. Maybe he’d seen the sign before, if it had been standing up straight in his day… but maybe he couldn’t read it? Kai didn’t know how young Morro had been when he’d been orphaned; he doubted he would’ve been taught how to read on the streets he kept referring to, those few times he’d spoken of his childhood. Maybe he hadn’t learned until Wu took him in? Kai wished he could ask him. Then again if he could ask his sensei something like that he would be able to just tell him where Lloyd was.

Kai stopped pacing and checked on Lloyd. He’d stopped shivering, and though he still whimpered he was quieter than before. Kai sat down on the floor and leaned back against the Fire Dragon.

F. Saki was his best bet. Rather than try to throw ideas at the wall with no rhyme or reason, it might be easier to come up with a plan if he worked with that name as his base. Sure the last time he’d gotten info while in spirit mode had backfired on him, but he thought this might be safe, this time. If he was working on the assumption that Morro could only see memories Kai already had before he was possessed, or that Morro himself also had while possessing him – basically anything that would have been recorded in Kai’s physical brain – then there shouldn’t be anything to give him away. Morro had seen the taxi cab in Kai’s thoughts because that was a memory he’d also had, that Kai had associated with what he’d heard Nya and the others talking about. But neither Morro nor Kai had at any point seen the sign outside the barn, at least not with Kai’s actual eyes.

In theory, if Kai was able to bargain for control of his body again rather than try to take it, and used that time to hide the words ‘F. Saki’ in the next message Morro would want to send tomorrow, Morro shouldn't be able to see his thoughts that that was what he was doing–

No, no! He wasn’t doing that. He would not pursue that idea further. In the first place, Morro would never agree to let Kai take over that gruesome task, no matter what other torture ideas Kai could offer in exchange. And of course it would be very suspicious for Kai to even want to take control while doing that in the first place! That plan was a bust. He needn’t worry about it.

Except…

What was Morro’s main goal right now? To convince Lloyd that Kai was his enemy. To break his hope. It wasn’t enough that he had almost destroyed the Green Ninja physically, he wanted to break his spirit too… by using his bond with Kai. A bond that, to Kai’s very rueful joy, had proven strong enough for Lloyd to not believe Morro’s theatrics so far. He knew Kai well enough that no matter the beatings he’d taken, the psychological torment, the relentless questioning meant to brainwash him, Lloyd could feel deep down that the monster putting him through all this wasn’t really his big brother, or so Kai hoped.

But if it really were Kai torturing Lloyd, with his own hands? Lloyd would probably be able to feel that, too.

Morro wouldn’t be able to resist that opportunity. Hadn’t the real purpose of him asking Kai to offer up ideas for more games, despite the risks of letting Kai go for that brief time in John Lyle’s apartment in exchange, been to subtly manipulate Lloyd into believing that Kai was against him? How much more enticing would Kai actually, willingly holding the crowbar, or hammer, or knife, be?

Kai had no heartbeat, but somehow he felt a loud drumming noise pounding in his ears.

No no no no… This couldn’t be the way. There was still so much wrong with that plan. It wasn’t reliable, it wasn’t reasonable… and if he conceivably ever did go through with it, it would be the most unforgivable thing he ever did in his life. He should forget it.

But Kai sat. And sat. And thought. And shook his head and re-thought. And groaned and futilely pounded the floor and shouted in frustration. But each kink in the unforgivable plan, each dead end he came up against with a sense of release, he found a way around it in the next second. It was like he’d knocked over the first of a line of mahjong tiles, each tipping the one in front of it, so that they began to form a picture as they spread out across the floor. The hours ticked away, the world outside the barn passed heedlessly by, and the picture formed itself to clarity in Kai’s mind, quite against his will. Even after it was complete and Kai brutally shoved it aside to make space for something, anything else to use instead, it was there, mocking him. It emitted such a strong pull that he was too distracted to come up with anything else, and every half-formed idea he did think up was worthless anyway. Every method possible to leave some kind of clue for his friends to find, depended on him being back in control. And Morro would never let him take control again, except, except, perhaps, for that one reason, which Kai couldn’t present to him in any other setting but here, in this barn, in the midst of destroying Lloyd, for the sake of destroying Lloyd.

It wasn’t worth it. Nothing could ever be worth doing that. But for the sake of argument, when Kai forced himself to weigh the means and the potential outcomes, taking into account that if he didn’t do this terrible, horrible thing, that Morro would do it anyway, without any good coming of it except Lloyd’s image of Kai remaining unbroken, if his faith in Kai were strong enough to withstand it… he found the scales tipping in favor of the outcomes. Because nothing mattered to him more right now than Lloyd being found, found alive, and still mostly in one piece. He would heal, it might take him a long time but he would heal, he couldn’t do that if he was dead, and Kai had already come so close to losing him forever that he didn’t have it in him to bet on his survival for another day. He had to do something, he had to do something.

Even if that something was this.

Kai stopped thinking entirely. He sat for a long time just staring at the floor, already in mourning for everything he was going to lose. He didn’t get up until he saw light filtering through the cracks in the wooden walls of the barn and knew that dawn had arrived.

The dragon hadn’t moved at all through the entire night, but it lifted its head now as Kai approached it. He rubbed its snout in thanks, then sent it into non-existence. It left no afterimage.

Kai went up to Lloyd. He was wheezing through his mouth and nose. Kai hoped he wasn’t dreaming of anything. He stroked his hand over his cheek and spoke in a barely-there whisper.

“Lloyd. I have a plan. It’s completely desperate. And terrible. And even if it somehow works out perfectly there’s no guarantee that it’ll help you… But it's all I have. If we wait for the others it'll be too late.”

Lloyd only whined a bit in response.

“So if there’s a chance you can hear me right now, I need you to remember something.”

Kai held Lloyd’s face in his hands and pressed his forehead to his. While he couldn't shed any tears as a spirit, his voice was still thick and choked with emotion as he spoke.

“I love you, little brother. I love you so much. Even if you end up hating me, that won’t change. No matter what I say, no matter what I do tomorrow… please at least try to remember that.”

When he pulled back, Lloyd snuffled and opened his eyes a tiny crack. He slowly lifted his head, wincing a bit at the ache in his neck, and blearily looked at Kai.

“Lloyd? Lloyd?”

But when Lloyd's vision adjusted to the darkness he saw only the dark wooden walls of the barn. He closed his eyes and moaned in despair. He was still here. God, he was still here.

The sheer heartbreak on his face made Kai turn away.

“I’ll be back.”

Chapter Text

For the first time, Kai returned back to his body before Morro woke up. In fact everyone was still asleep, and when Kai entered the boys’ room it was to find Cole, Jay, and Zane completely dead to Morro’s tossing and turning in the top bunk, mumbling and groaning in discomfort. Remembering Lloyd’s own fitful sleep, Kai took savage pleasure at the sight. Then he became a little curious despite himself, and floated up to the bed to re-enter the cage of his mind.

Back inside his body, Morro’s essence was still guarded and Kai saw only blackness, but echoes and sounds leaked through the mental barrier, fluctuating in volume.

Agonized, blood-curdling screams. “Please! Please stop! PLEASE!!”

YOU ARE FILTH. YOU ARE NOTHING. YOUR ONLY PURPOSE IS TO SERVE.

“Yes, yes, I serve! I swear I’ll do anything, whatever you want, I do, just please, PLEASE have mercy!!”

THERE IS NO MERCY FOR THOSE WHO ARE CURSED. THIS IS YOUR ATONEMENT. EMBRACE IT.

“No… No!” Morro jolted awake just as Kai had decided to wait out the time as a spirit instead, just to get away from that terrorizing, unearthly voice, which now cut off as though someone had hit the mute button. Morro sat up in bed, panting in fear and looking wildly around, confused about where he was. Kai quickly spoke to him before he could try to get out of the bunk and fall to the floor.

(Morning, douchebag. Bad dream?)

Morro put a hand to his face, found it covered in sweat. He took a deep, steadying breath.

A dream… Yeah, it was just a dream. I forgot about those… He shook his head, stifling a wry little laugh. Sheesh… Even in a living body they find some way to get to you.

(They?)

Morro hugged his knees and laid his forehead against them. The punishers.

Kai didn’t ask him to elaborate. He was a bit rattled from the remnants of the nightmare, filtered but still so much clearer to him than the memories that had been thrown at Neuro, and didn’t want any further reason to start feeling sorry for Morro. Again he reminded himself of the state he’d left Lloyd in and threw another barb at him. (I don’t get you. How could you do that? When you know what it’s like, how you could possibly put someone else through that and call it ‘fun’?)

It’s exactly because I went through it that I’m enjoying dishing it out. Morro’s answer was bitter and reluctant, as though he felt annoyed or even embarrassed to have to say it. Besides, it should’ve been him in the first place, not me. He’s the one who wanted to become a villain, wasn’t he?

Kai was thrown by this perspective. Lloyd’s brief stint as an ‘evil’ villain had been so pathetic, Kai honestly forgot sometimes that that was how he and the ninja had first met him. It was strange to imagine a universe where Lloyd had continued down that path, before eventually meeting his end and subsequently winding up in the Cursed Realm. It hadn’t occurred to him before that Morro might view that universe to be the same in which he became the Green Ninja, perhaps even being the one to deliver the blow that would condemn Lloyd to an eternity of punishment.

He really did see himself as a hero whose destiny had been stolen. Stolen by, of all people, someone who would’ve been his nemesis.

Kai shook himself out of his reverie. Just because he understood didn’t mean he agreed.

(Lloyd’s actions have nothing to do with yours! If you suffered so badly in the Cursed Realm it’s because you deserved it! It was your own actions that put you there!)

Morro sniffed and climbed down the ladder of the bunk bed, past Jay’s snoring head.

I didn’t do anything except everything my Master asked me to do. Everything. Tell me how that’s deserving of punishment.

(It wasn’t everything you did before the Golden Weapons rejected you, it was after!)

Oh is that so? Morro silently made his way through the hallway to the dojo, tip-toeing along the wall to Wu’s room. Tell me then, judge, what was it that I did? Did Master Wu tell you that? Did he regale you with all my horrible escapades after I left him?

Kai grudgingly had to keep silent on that; he didn’t know. Master Wu had only said that Morro had sworn to find the Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master, and had never returned. Kai and the others had eventually found Morro’s body themselves, decayed down to the skeleton, deep in the Caves of Despair.

Morro carefully pushed open the door of Wu’s room so that it wouldn’t creak. No, huh? Probably because he didn’t know, either. Never bothered trying to find out what happened to me, I bet. He didn’t even know I’d died, did he?

(… No) admitted Kai, remembering Wu’s words after telling Morro’s story; “I am saddened he was banished to the Cursed Realm. But what worries me more is that he escaped.”

(No, I don’t think he did…)

And when he found out he didn’t give a shit. Morro’s thoughts were laced with venom and barely suppressed rage. He’d heard the echo of his former master’s words in Kai’s memory.

Wu wasn’t in his room. Morro stepped more naturally on the tatami mats, walking around the bed to the closet. It was only when he’d slid it open and started poking around at the folded up clothes inside that Kai paid attention to his surroundings. (Hey, the fuck are you doing?)

Looking for something to wear. Morro quickly ran his fingers over the neat stacks of clothes before stretching up to check the shelf above. A very specific something.

Kai suddenly understood. (The green gi? Seriously? Man you have such a one-track mind.)

I’m just taking back what’s rightfully mine. Morro shut the door of the closet and looked around the room. He lit up at the sight of an ornately painted trunk tucked away in the corner beside Wu’s bed, a desk lamp on top of it. He ran towards it eagerly and set the lamp aside, and pulled up the lid. Inside were various bound scrolls, canvases with calligraphy on them, an ancient looking vase, ceremonial robes, and, wrapped in thin paper near the bottom, a torn corner revealing the green fabric inside, was…

“Yes!” Morro’s hushed voice was sincerely excited. He sat on the edge of the bed with the folded gi in his lap, running his hands lovingly over the patterns. It was the same gi Kai had played around in once, when he’d fantasized about being the Green Ninja himself. The same gi that had eventually been given to Lloyd to wear, though it had been adjusted for his smaller stature then. Morro noted the size and frowned.

Did it shrink in the wash or something?

(I told you) said Kai solemnly, hoping to pay back Morro in guilt-tripping. (He’s younger than he looks.)

He wasn’t entirely sure if it worked; Morro said nothing in return.

“Kai? What are you doing here?”

Morro whipped his head around to the doorway, where Wu stood with a steaming cup of tea.

“Sensei. Um…”

But when Wu saw the green gi his expression turned to one of grave understanding. “Ahh… I see. Forgive my intrusion.” He set the tea down on the dresser, came over to Morro’s side of the bed and sat down next to him with a sigh. “I miss him, too.”

“Hm,” grunted Morro. He kept his eyes down, still absently stroking the fabric.

“But I promise we will find him. And when we do we will take measures to stop Morro from attacking either of you or anyone else again.”

Morro’s hand stilled. “By sending him back to the Cursed Realm?”

Wu looked uncomfortable. “Oh, well… If it’s necessary. And with the Realm Crystal destroyed there shouldn’t be any way for him to come back again afterwards. We can put it all behind us.” He put his wrinkled hand over Morro’s. “The past stays in the past. It will take time but both you and Lloyd will move on from it. As I did.”

Morro had become as stiff as a rock, and nearly just as cold. The anger that had simmered inside him when he’d made his point to Kai about Wu earlier resurfaced and boiled under his skin, threatening to leak through him like molten lava.

Move on… I was just a mistake he had to ‘move on’ from. And he hid me in the past and didn’t tell anyone anything about me. Not until he had to, and only then just to say that I needed to be sent back, to where I can’t tarnish his reputation again. It’s…

(It’s all your fault.)

Morro was taken aback. The cold voice of the red ninja was heavy with sullen realization. And it was directed not to the hijacker of his body, but to the old man sitting beside him.

Kai was boiling with anger too. Not on Morro’s behalf, though hearing the dismissive way his sensei had talked about his old student had shaken him quite a bit more than he would’ve believed – if he, Kai, had ever gone astray, if he’d made the wrong choices, would he be deemed a mistake to be buried in the past and never brought up again too? – but out of resentment for how much grief Lloyd could have been spared if Wu had taken just a bit more care in fixing his mistakes. Morro’s own actions had surely landed him in the Cursed Realm, yes, but why hadn’t Wu done more to stop him before then? And afterwards, why had he thought it was fine to simply “move on”, and pretend it never happened, not even telling his current students about the fate of the last student he’d believed would be the Green Ninja?

Morro was a monster. But who’d failed to take responsibility of the monster, and still refused to?

Nonverbal as they were, Morro only got the gist of Kai’s thoughts. But in that moment he felt, for the first time, united with the annoying voice he’d trapped in his own head against a common foe, even if for different reasons.

He raised his head slowly to look at Wu.

“This is all your fault.”

At first it was as though Wu hadn’t even heard him. Then he blinked a few times and returned Morro’s gaze with a disconcerted one of his own.

“Kai?”

Morro glared at him, unblinking, fire dancing in his pupils. Wu’s eyes flicked back and forth between them and his face crumpled in shame.

“Ah... I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Morro earlier. I... I didn't want you and the other ninja to doubt my instruction–”

“Not that,” spat Morro between his teeth. “Us knowing wouldn't have stopped him coming back. It goes back further than that. It's your fault because you made him believe.”

“What..?”

“Do you have any idea what that's like? To be all alone in the world, to have grown up with nothing, no hope of ever leaving an impact on anyone, of ever being important enough to be remembered or missed by anyone... and then to finally be given that hope, to believe it's your destiny to become something great... only to have it snatched from you? Only for it to have all been a lie?”

Wu shook his head slowly at him, eyes narrowed in concern. “Kai, you didn't have nothing. You had your sister. And now you have brothers who will stand by you through anything... and you have me.” He squeezed Morro’s hand.

Morro’s eyes widened in shock. Then he pulled his hand away and turned his head.

“I was... I was talking about Morro, not me.”

“Yes, I know. And I don’t blame you for sympathizing with him. He was a lot like you, you know.” Wu paused for a moment. “I do feel responsible for him,” he said slowly. “That's why I never told you and the others about him. I was ashamed of my failure.”

“Failure...” Kai felt pain slash through his heart. For once it wasn’t his own, though it hurt no less.

“Morro was the best student I ever had,” continued Wu, not noticing. “He deserved a better teacher than me. Or perhaps, it was because I wanted to be a teacher to him first and a friend second that I was unsuitable to train him. That wasn't what he needed. He needed to know how important he was to me, Green Ninja or not. Maybe if I'd just told him... Maybe he wouldn't have gone down the path he did. He could've grown up in the monastery, with me. He might even have become a Master himself! Heh... Can you imagine? He could have helped train you boys with me. And Lloyd as well. Perhaps, like you, he could've found contentment enough in guiding and protecting the Green Ninja even if he couldn't be the Green Ninja himself.”

Both Morro and Kai were stunned by this idea.

“I can't... I can't imagine that at all,” mumbled Morro.

“You didn't know him when he was alive like I did. I'm sure the Cursed Realm didn't help his personality any... but he was not a bad person. Driven maybe, and a little arrogant, but...” Wu looked sadly at the green gi, tugged it gently off of Morro’s lap. “No matter what he's done to Lloyd – even if it will make Lloyd hate me – if I can, I want to save Morro. I truly do.” He wrapped the paper back up around the gi and returned it to the trunk.

(If he actually knew everything you’d done to Lloyd) said Kai bitterly, as Morro brushed past Wu and crossed the room. (There's no way he'd forgive you. And even if he does, I won't.)

At the doorway Morro paused.

“You can only save those who want to be saved.”

When Wu turned around to answer – with what words, he did not know – Morro had already gone.

Breakfast that morning wasn’t as awkward as dinner had been the night before. Morro still kept his focus entirely on his food and ignored the others except for when he was asked to pass or get something, but he didn’t receive any long furtive stares this time; everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts about what the day would bring. After they were all done he helped clean up, then shuffled along with them to the dojo to suit up as they prepared to leave. He tried not to pull a face as he put on Kai’s red gi and gear.

Red is such a loud color. Normal people don’t wear it.

(Well that works out then, because ‘normal’ is definitely not the word I’d use for you.)

“Well then,” said Wu once the ninja were ready. “While you’re gone, Misako and I will once again try our best to find something that could help us summon ghosts. I did a bit of digging in my scrolls and there’s a likelihood there are still artefacts out there that could be useful. So, as unpleasant as it’s going to be, we’ll be paying Ronin a visit in Stiix today.”

“Which means we probably won’t be back until later,” said Misako. “So we’re closing the shop for the day, but it would be really helpful if one of you could get some things we need whenever you come back. I left a list in the cash register.”

The ninja nodded, then made to leave, except for Jay. “Hold on a minute,” he said. “Maybe we should take a picture with us. You know, of Morro? I mean maybe some people would recognize his face more than his name.”

The others all looked expectantly at Wu. Morro crossed his arms and scowled.

“Ah. Hm.” Wu looked a little embarrassed. “A picture of Morro… I’m sure I had one, but it was probably lost when the monastery was destroyed.” He lifted his hand apologetically.

And yet a lot of other happy family photos survived, thought Morro acidly, his eyes flicking pointedly at the framed pictures lining the walls.

Kai tried not to let his mind conjure up the inside of the Destiny’s Bounty, which was also adorned with photos, before remembering he didn’t care about hurting Morro’s feelings and purposefully fixed the image in his mind. Morro ground his teeth together. Yeah. Thanks.

“I could draw him,” Cole suggested.

“I don’t want us to lose too much time,” said Nya uncertainly.

“I’ll be fast, trust me.” Cole was already getting paper and pencil from a drawer and sat down on the floor. “Tell me what he looked like when you first found him, Sensei.”

Wu stroked his beard thoughtfully as he described him. “He was just a bit older than Lloyd was when he first came to us. Large, dark eyes. Round nose, not too big or small. His mouth was always turned down, but his lips were straight, not curved. Sharp jawline and cheekbones…”

Cole drew as fast as Wu talked, and stroke by stroke, a sulking, not conventionally handsome but strikingly featured boy came to life on the paper. The other ninja gathered around Cole admiringly, looking over his shoulders. As they had all seen Morro as a ghost, they supplied their own recollections of what he’d looked like, to which Wu would nod or correct. Morro himself stayed silent, watching his youthful likeness materialize with a strange feeling Kai couldn’t name but that twisted his stomach. When Wu had run out of details to give, Cole quickly shaded the drawing with the side of the pencil lead, darkening young Morro’s hair and lending depth to his sunken eyes, making them look even larger and yet more piercing, then held the page up with a flourish. “What do you think?”

Jay whistled. “Cole, buddy. You’re in the wrong job.”

“It’s amazing!” marveled Nya, touching her finger to sketched Morro’s face. Cole beamed with pride.

Kai could feel Morro wanting to say something criticizing, but no words formed in his mouth. He stared at the drawing very intently, that twisting feeling in his stomach intensifying, and it dawned on Kai that this was very likely the first time Morro had seen himself in decades, much less his younger, more innocent self.

Cole carefully folded the drawing and tucked it in the folds of his gi. “Okay, I guess we’re ready now. Kai, do you think you could summon your dragon today?”

Morro grumbled incoherently at the floor and shook his head.

“Then you can ride with me.” Cole’s smile slipped a bit at the pissed off look on Morro’s face. “Or Jay, I guess.”

“Or Zane,” said Jay quickly, glancing surreptitiously at Nya, who pretended not to notice.

Wu rolled his eyes. “Just go, please.”

Morro ended up riding with Cole after all. He’s less annoying than the blue one, and the Ice Ninja gives me the creeps.

(Zane gives you the creeps?)

He’s not human.

Kai burst out laughing at that, so loudly that Morro winced in annoyance behind Cole. When he finished he said soberly, (Zane’s more human than you will ever be.)

They said nothing more to each other the rest of the way. The ninja didn’t exchange any words either, other than to correct their course, flying out further inland. It was Jay (who’d visibly held himself back from showing any pleasure at having Nya sitting behind him) who first spotted the village they were looking for below, which was distinctive in the shapes of its wide tile-roofed houses, rather than the more common thatched roofs of the rice field villages. They all skirted the edges before diving down some distance away, so they could respectfully enter on foot.

Despite it being a few hours before noon still, people were out and about, kids with dust-kicked knees on bicycles playing in the streets, women sitting on doorsteps fanning themselves or sweeping, and men pushing wheelbarrows or pulling wagons. Most everyone had sun-bronzed skin, dark hair like Morro's, and wore sandals, and they looked curiously at the ninja as they passed.

“Soooo…” said Cole. “Do we make like an announcement, or just start going up to random people and ask them?”

“I think the survey approach would be best,” said Zane. “We can rule out asking very young people, and prioritize adults that look to be at least fifty years of age. Either some of them knew Morro as a child, or were familiar with his parents.”

“Or it might turn out that no one remembers him because he didn’t have any friends,” said Cole, nudging Jay in the side. Kai snickered with them while Morro glowered. “Still, kinda wish I’d made another copy of this.” Cole unfolded the sketch of Morro. “We could get done quicker if we split up.”

“We’ll walk together,” said Nya. “And spread out within sight of each other. If anyone finds out anything we can call each other quickly.” Already she was making her way towards a middle-aged woman sitting behind a fruit stand.

“Well, at least we don’t stand out too much here,” noted Jay, nodding at the various colors of clothes people wore. “Makes you wonder where Morro got his emo look from. Maybe he was banished for being such a gloomy little cuss.” He and Cole sniggered again.

You know, I think I might actually kill them, hissed Morro.

(Aww, did they hurt your feelings?)

Morro pointedly left Cole and Jay’s side and followed Zane, who called up to a man hammering planks down on the roof of a shed. “Excuse me? May we take up just a bit of your time?” The man stopped hammering and peered down at them. “Is the name ‘Morro’ familiar to you?”

The man shrugged and didn’t elaborate, returning to his hammering. Zane looked at Morro, perplexed. Morro shrugged as well. “Looks like this will take awhile,” he said, unhelpfully.

Undaunted, Zane and the others continued down both sides of the street, stopping at each stranger standing or walking by. They passed the drawing of Morro around, urging everyone to think if they at least knew anyone who resembled him. They had Morro’s family name from the census, but even that didn’t seem to ring any bells.

The whole time, Morro himself just tagged along with one or two of the ninja at a time, never asking anything himself. At one point he zoned out of the conversation Nya was having with a talkative street vendor and simply gazed around the village, looking for something familiar.

Kai nudged Morro’s attention towards a man in a red paisley shirt, wiping down a motorcycle. (Hey. Look. Red.) He chuckled. (That guy looks pretty normal to me.)

Morro made a disparaging noise in the back of his throat. Well you’re sure enjoying yourself.

The retort had been made reflexively, without any real intent behind it, but it did snap Kai back to the seriousness of his situation. Apart from not being in control of his body, it had felt so wonderfully natural being with his team again; he’d been so wound up and agitated for the past two days, he’d inadvertently let himself relax and behave as though he really were out on a simple mission with them.

But he couldn’t afford to relax. If Morro really was planning on leaving the ninja soon to return to the barn, then this was Kai’s last chance to try to communicate with them, to shout out his clue for them, if he could just take control for even a few seconds like he’d done before.

If he could do that, then he wouldn’t have to resort to the gruesome plan he’d come up with last night.

So he blocked out his surroundings, blocked out the voices of his sister and brothers and the villagers, blocked out Morro’s unenthused attempts to muster nostalgia for the home he couldn’t remember and that couldn’t seem to remember him, and threw all his energy at breaking down the barrier in his mind. The wall was still doorless, and he could only barely struggle to land a punch on it, but he gave it everything he had.

And made about as much damage on it as an ant against a rock.

(Come on. Come on! Fucking thing, let me in!)

What’s your problem all of a sudden? Kai’s attacks had made so little impact Morro hadn’t even noticed.

Kai saw no point in hiding what he was doing. (I can’t break down this stupid WALL! How is it so freaking strong? Even when you’re asleep it’s up!)

Seeing there was nothing to worry about, Morro turned his attention back to the street, watching a group of children kicking a ball around. Because it’s yours.

That stopped Kai in his tracks. (What? What do you mean it’s mine? This?) He nudged against the mental barrier. (This is mine??)

Your body’s, anyway, said Morro. It was here when I first possessed you. I’m controlling it like I’m controlling every other part of you, but I didn’t make it.

Kai was flabbergasted. (But… Neuro acted like it shouldn’t be there. Like it was something you put in my head.)

He probably just assumed someone must have put it there, Morro shrugged. Or being a ‘Master of Mind’ means they don’t usually pose a problem for him, I suppose. I mean who would believe that you would have such a strong mind shield? But everyone has one, trust me, they’re just not usually so noticeable. Getting through them is part of how a ghost can take control of someone. The security guard had one. The taxi driver. Even Lloyd had one. But they all paled in comparison to yours. Morro’s lips twisted up in a smirk. It’s one of the reasons I knew you’d make a great vessel. And why it took me awhile to take over. I’ve been possessing you ever since you stabbed Lloyd, you know.

The revelation made Kai feel sick, and Morro’s smirk vanished as his insides squirmed. (You’re saying… my own mind is keeping me out?)

Basically. But because I’m telling it to, Morro added, as though he couldn’t let Kai get away with the idea that his imprisonment wasn’t still due entirely to Morro. His eyes followed the progress of the ball as it was deftly passed back and forth between the kids. At one point it spun away from them and towards Morro, who backed up as it bumped against his ankles.

“Uh…” He looked up and down from the ball to the kids, who called to him to pass it to them. When Morro didn’t comply, Cole appeared at his side and punted the ball towards them with a happy grin, then ran amongst them to join the game.

Kai was busy mulling over what Morro had told him – he was especially disconcerted by the fact that Morro had explained it at all, because it meant he thought that even if Kai did know he couldn’t do anything about it – so he was startled when Morro asked him, How far back do you remember your childhood?

(Huh?… I don’t know, I remember when Nya was a baby. So like, three or four maybe?)

Then I must have been younger than that when I left here, mused Morro. Cause I don’t remember anything about this place.

(…So, you never went to any school, then.) Kai tried to make the observation sound casual.

Morro was defensive anyway. No. What’s it to you?

(Nothing) said Kai lightly. (Just curious how you learned to read and write is all.)

Morro crossed his arms. Wu, he said shortly.

So Kai had been right. Morro wouldn’t recognize the name of the barn owner.

He redoubled his efforts to bring down the barrier. Knowing now that it was his, another part of him that had been hijacked like his limbs and eyes, Kai changed tactics and tried coaxing it to obey his commands instead of attacking it. Morro let him do it, unbothered.

“What’s Cole doing?” demanded Jay, coming up beside Morro.

Morro shrugged. “Playing with a bunch of kids, obviously,” he said.

He winced as Jay shouted, “Hey Rockhead! Quit fu-!… screwing around and get your butt back here!”

“Like it’ll make a difference!” said Nya glumly, joining Jay and Morro. “This is going to take all day. There could be just one person left in this entire village who remembers Morro and we could still miss them!”

“But what else can we do?” said Zane helplessly. He had the drawing of Morro with him, held limply at his side. “We have no other leads.”

Morro suddenly snapped his head to the side, feeling someone’s eyes on them. A little girl was staring in concentration at the ninja. Following her line of sight, Morro saw she was looking at the drawing. Frowning as though she were trying to decide if it looked familiar or not.

Morro snatched the paper from Zane and went towards her.

“Hey!”

“Kai…?”

The others followed behind him at a short distance as he approached the girl. Her hair was done up in a messy bun, and she looked up at Morro curiously without fear. He bent down a bit and held the drawing in front of her. “Do you know who this is?”

The girl’s eyes flicked to the drawing and back to him. She shook her head.

“Come on, Kai, there’s no way a kid that young would know Morro,” said Jay.

“But I know someone who looks like him,” said the girl, voice ringing clearly.

“Can we see them?” asked Morro urgently. The girl shrugged and beckoned him to follow her into the house behind her. The others looked around uncertainly before doing the same.

When they entered it was clear the house belonged to someone very old – it was pristinely neat, with carved knick knacks and ornaments on all the surfaces, and half finished projects of weaving and knitting spread out on the chairs. The girl carefully maneuvered around the end tables and clean rugs to a dresser, and pulled out one of its drawers. Without needing to search for it she lifted up a stack of papers, quickly shuffled through them, and put them back after keeping one of them. She returned to Morro and handed him the photo. The others huddled around him to see.

It was sepia toned and wrinkled, and featured a man and a woman, standing together and looking expressionlessly at the camera. The man had a mustache and hair that looked like it was usually unruly, but which someone had attempted to tame with a wet comb. The woman he had his arm around was…

“Holy sh-…” Jay glanced at the girl and stopped himself again. “…shoot. That’s freaking Morro!”

“The resemblance is uncanny, yes,” said Zane.

Morro’s fingers had gone numb as he stared at the picture. He slowly swiped his thumb over the man, then turned his gaze to the woman. Her eyes looked exactly like how Cole had drawn Morro’s, and she shared the same prominent jawline, polished cheeks and hard mouth. Her hair had been swept back in a tight bun, but it was as raven black as her husband’s. And her son’s.

Kai was in as much awe as Morro was, so much so that he’d paused in trying to take back control of his mind shield.

The little girl tapped the underside of the picture. “Turn it,” she said.

Morro flipped the photo in his hand and the blood drained from his face. In a tight cursive handwriting, a single word had been written: Morro.

Nya snatched the photo from him. “No way!” she exclaimed. “It’s them! Morro’s parents! I can’t believe it!”

“Finally we struck gold!” whooped Cole.

Morro looked at the girl. “Is this their house?” he asked in a hushed voice. Then, even more hushed: “Are you their granddaughter?”

The girl scratched her cheek contemplatively. “Umm, I don’t know!” She suddenly looked excited. “I’ll ask grandma!” And before anyone could say anything she flounced off to another room, the door swinging closed behind her.

The ninja stayed huddled by the front door, but Morro unabashedly strode further into the room and stood in the middle of the sitting area, watching the door the girl had disappeared through expectantly. A few minutes later it opened, and the girl reappeared, leading a stooped old woman by the hand.

Jay quickly went over to her to help her to a rocking chair, clearly her favored seat based on its worn cushion, and she quietly thanked him. Though her hands shook as she laid them down on the armrests of the chair, she didn’t look all too ancient in the face, wrinkled but still alight with knowledge and memory. She looked imperiously up at the ninja one by one before settling her gaze on Morro, who surveyed her very closely. Looking for a family resemblance, Kai thought.

“Good morning, gentlemen. And young lady,” she said, inclining her head respectfully to them. They all instinctively nodded their heads back, aside from Morro. The old woman’s voice was weathered but clear as she continued. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”

“We’re so sorry to bother you like this, ma’am,” began Nya, but Morro was already holding up the photo of his parents in front of her in one hand, and the drawing of himself in the other.

“This. These people. Do you know them? Are they your family?”

“Kai, dude,” said Jay quietly, putting a hand on his arm to try to push it down. “Too intense there.”

But the old woman leaned forward a bit, the little girl holding her chair steady from the side, and looked carefully at the drawing. “This is Morro?” she said.

“Yes!” said Morro excitedly. “You remember m-… him?”

The old woman raised her eyes above the pictures to look into his. “Why do you want to know?” she asked guardedly.

“He was a student of our Sensei,” Zane explained. “He hasn’t seen him in years, so we are trying to find out more about him.”

“Sensei…” The woman seemed to turn the word over in her mind. “So he had a teacher. That’s good.” She smiled a little sadly. “Hmm. Good for him.”

Morro was impatient. “So did you know him or not?”

The woman’s demeanor suddenly became strict. She furrowed her eyebrows at Morro and barked, “What’s your name, boy?”

Morro was startled into answering. “… Kai.” He straightened a bit and added haughtily, “Master of Fire.”

“Nice to meet you, Master Kai. I am Miss Gracie. And this is Alina.” She petted the hair of the little girl, who giggled. “Now that we know each other I will answer your question: no, I do not know him. I never knew this Morro. But,” she raised a finger before Morro could say anything, “I’ve known his name for a long time. I can still recall how her voice sounded when she shouted it, over and over again.” She jutted her chin at the old photo.

“Please,” said Nya. “Tell us everything you know.”

Gracie gestured for the ninja to sit, and they all took places on the cushioned wooden benches. Morro was left looking around, finding no space left, until Alina carried over a little stool. He sank down on it, now forced to look up at the old woman rather than the other way around.

“After the Serpentine War,” she said, “this village was weakened and defenseless. Our men had gone off and gotten injured or killed in the fighting. And as far away from any neighboring villages or towns that might have helped us as we were, we were easy targets for pillaging. Vagrants and thieves regularly came to make off with whatever we had left that was valuable. When all of that was gone,” her face darkened, “they started coming for our people.”

The ninja waited with baited breath.

“One day a group of bandits came for the children. They had a wagon ready and just scooped them off the street as they drove. When some mothers tried to hide their kids in their houses, they broke down the doors and set fire to everything to smoke them out.” She nodded her head at the photo again. “That woman was one of those mothers. I did not see exactly when they’d taken her son, because I was busy trying to rescue my own. I was holding one of his arms while the thief had him by the other, trying to drag him onto the wagon, and we were yanking him back and forth between us.” Her lips trembled a bit, and she took a moment before she went on. “One of the others clubbed me with something and I fell. And then I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear someone shouting like her soul was being ripped from her body. Over and over again she screamed: ‘Morro! Morro! Morro!’”

Morro gripped the sides of the stool, his heart thumping. As Gracie had spoken, Kai actually heard the voice of the woman screaming his name. He didn’t think Morro was imagining the scene; he couldn’t say how he knew for sure, but it felt like it was a memory. Perhaps the earliest he had.

“She stopped all of a sudden,” continued Gracie, “and when I could see again I was still on the ground, and so was she, next to me. Her face was turned to me. Her eyes were open but…” She trailed off, glancing at Alina. She closed her mouth pointedly, and the ninja understood.

(She didn’t dump you.) Kai would rather have swallowed nails than apologize to Morro, but he wanted to assuage the guilt he felt just then for what he’d said about Morro’s mother the other day. (She died trying to protect you.)

Morro looked down at the photo in his hand.

And she failed, he spat angrily, gritting his teeth.

Seeing him looking at the photograph, Gracie said, “Her house was one of the ones they’d burned down. When we all dug through the mess to see what was left, that picture was found. They told me her husband had died in the war, and both their parents were long gone, so there was nothing left of their family. None that any of us knew anyway. I felt sad for her, so I kept that. Just for some proof that she existed.” She reached over and put her hand on Morro’s over the picture. “Please keep it. If you find Morro somewhere, he deserves to have it. And if you can’t find him, give it to his teacher.”

Morro silently slipped the photo inside the front of his gi.

Alina looked perturbed at the exchange. If Kai had to guess, the photograph had been a fixture of her grandmother’s house for as long as she could remember. It didn’t matter that she never knew who the people in it were, just that they were one of the curiosities that kept her company when she came over to visit and had to entertain herself. An idea hit Kai then, and he poked Morro to get his attention. (Hey. Give her the drawing.)

Huh?

(Give the girl the drawing!)

Confused, Morro nonetheless slowly held out the paper to Alina, who took it eagerly. She smiled with delight at the sketch, and promptly bounded off with it.

“Alina!” Gracie scolded her.

“Thank you!” called Alina carelessly, already rummaging through a drawer and pulling out a notebook and pack of crayons.

“You’re welcome,” mumbled Morro. He got up from the stool, turning to leave, but Nya came around him to take his place in front of Gracie.

“Please,” she said. “I know this is a long shot, but do you have any idea where those kids were taken?”

To her amazement, Gracie nodded her head without hesitation. “Yes I do. My son told me, when he came back to us as a young man. Alina is his daughter. He lives in Ninjago City.” She quirked her mouth up in a shriveled smile. “Would you like his address?”

“Oh yes, please!”

Gracie recited it for them, along with her son’s phone number, and Nya typed them down on her phone. “His name is Luka. He was nine when he was taken from me, so he still remembers most of that time. I never asked him if he knew what became of little Morro, but he’s sure to know something.”

“Thank you,” said Nya. She clasped both of the old woman’s hands in hers, then turned to leave. The other ninja nodded their heads at her politely and followed.

Morro was the last out. He hesitated in the doorway, then quietly said over his shoulder, “Thanks.” He left quickly before the woman could respond.

Aside from Morro, who was quiet and contemplative the whole ride to Ninjago City, the ninja were all in high spirits. They had agreed to waste no time in going to see Alina’s father. The sun was at its apex in the sky, and the brightness of the day reflected their cheery mood.

The only other person besides Morro who wasn’t feeling very optimistic was Kai. While he was happy for the others that they had found a trail to follow and were doing so with gusto, he couldn’t help but think they were trying to dig a tunnel with a spoon; even if piecing together Morro’s life story eventually would lead to the discovery of F. Saki’s barn, it was going to take way too long at this rate. This Luka person might not have even known Morro that well, and provide no further aid to their progress besides deferring them to someone else to interview. And then, supposing they did manage to track down every person alive who’d ever interacted with Morro, what guarantee was there that that would lead them to the forest where the barn was located? From the way Morro had spoken about it he’d discovered the barn and stayed in it by himself. Perhaps no one had ever known he’d stayed there, or that he had even been in that area. When he’d come to Master Wu, he’d been completely alone.

Kai only felt more apprehensive when Morro noted the time and said, We lost the whole morning already. It’s been an interesting trip, I’ll give it that, but I think it’s about time I ditch these losers. Poor Lloyd’s probably had enough arm-stretching for one day, don’t you think?

(No!) yelped Kai, clawing at his invisible cage with renewed fervor. (No, you can’t go back! Not yet!)

I thought you were worried about Lloyd. Morro was amused by Kai’s last ditch effort struggling.

(Yeah but I don’t want you to go back to hurting him more!!) And of course, he still had yet to take control while within earshot of the others. He had to, he had to, it was now or never!

Morro chuckled to himself, unheard by Cole over the roar of the wind rushing over their heads. Having a place to eat and sleep has been nice and all, but I prefer the activities back at the barn. There’s no point in staying away any longer. Field trip’s over.

(What about this Luka guy? Aren’t you curious about him? I know you want to know about your past just as much as my friends do! More, even!)

He’s not going to say anything I don’t already know. I’ve gotten everything I’m interested in. His hand moved up to the side of his chest, where the photo of his parents was safely pressed against his heart.

The ninja finally started urging their dragons downward, breaking through the clouds to swoop over the skyscrapers of the city. Nya, riding behind Jay again, led them in the direction of the street Gracie had given her. Like Morro had done several times with Kai’s dragon, they landed at the top of one of the buildings, and used Airjitzu to drop down from surface to surface to the street below. Jay silently offered Nya his hand, but she sulkily brushed past him and mumbled “I can do it myself.” He watched her disappointedly as she leaped and bounded down the balconies on the side of the building and jumped to a neighboring, lower rooftop.

When they’d all gathered at the front door of the duplex Nya pointed them to, Cole rang the bell and a harried woman resembling Alina answered. When told that they wanted to talk to Luka, she informed them that he still had a few hours of work left before he’d return. Nya asked then if it would be alright if they came later, and Luka’s wife nodded her head distractedly before closing the door.

“Now what?” said Jay, as they walked away in a random direction.

Cole shrugged. “Patrol?”

“That would be a good idea,” said Zane, cocking his head, “considering I can hear police sirens right now.”

The others heard it too and ran towards the sound, but it soon became clear that the warbling was getting louder on its own.

“Uh, is it just me, or are they coming to us?” said Cole.

No sooner had he finished the sentence than the black and white vehicles appeared around the corner and drove right up to the ninja, boxing them in on both sides, red and blue lights flashing.  The doors opened and uniformed officers got out, looking like they meant business. One of them was the Police Commissioner, and he marched up to the ninja with another officer wearing sunglasses in tow.

“Commissioner,” said Zane. “What seems to be the problem?”

“There is no problem,” growled the Commissioner. “This is the solution.” He nodded to the officer next to him, who pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and approached Morro.

“Kai Smith the Red Ninja,” he intoned. “You’re under arrest for the kidnapping and aggravated assault of Lloyd Garmadon.”

“WHAT?” shouted the ninja.

“Hey!” Nya shrieked in protest as the officer roughly grabbed Morro by the shoulders and pulled his hands behind his back.

(Shit! Wait, wait, Nya! NYA!)

Morro let himself be cuffed without resisting.

Nya confronted the Police Commissioner. “What proof do you ha–” But she stopped when he pulled up an evidence bag with a card and a bloody rag inside it.

“DNA tested. It’s the Green Ninja’s alright.”

“Fuck, I told you guys!” railed Jay. “No one ever listens to me!”

“Then why didn’t you remind us not to come here, Big Brain?” Cole shot back at him.

“I got distracted okay!”

“Hey, Chief,” the arresting officer interrupted. “Check this out.” He’d pushed Morro up against the hood of the patrol car and searched his pockets, and now held out the small handful of Shinju pills Morro still had left.

“Well what do you know.” The Commissioner snatched the pills and jiggled them in front of Morro’s nose. “Thought you said you’d never heard of these before.”

Morro sneered up at him. “I didn’t know what they were called until you told me.”

“Hah!” The Commissioner handed the pills to another officer and held up his finger in triumph. “Looks like we can add possession to the charges!”

At that, Morro, face still pressed against the car, burst out into uproarious laughter, as though it were the funniest joke he’d ever heard.

“What? What is that? Kai?” Nya tried vainly to get around another officer blocking her path with his arms, trying to see Kai. “What’s so funny? What’s going on??”

“That’s enough!” barked the Commissioner. “We’re taking him in! And if he wants to claim innocent now with that amnesia act, he’s gotta lawyer up!”

“Let’s go, you lunatic,” said the arresting officer, pulling the still chortling Morro to the backseat door of the car.

“Wait!” Nya finally managed to dodge under the policeman’s arms and ran to the open car door, looking in at Morro seated inside. “Kai…!”

Morro grinned at her cockily. “It’s okay, sis,” he said. “You guys can find out the truth, right?”

Nya stared at him with watery eyes.

(Nya! NYA! Goddammit!) Kai nearly shouted out the name F. Saki then, out of pure desperation, but he stopped himself. He couldn’t let Morro hear the name, not if he couldn’t say it out loud, with his own mouth. He still needed it, because now it truly did look like he would have to go with his backup plan. Who was he kidding; there had only ever been one plan. He had been fooling himself thinking he had any more chance than usual to break through the possession on his own.

(Nya… I’m sorry.)

Morro winked at her. “Don’t worry about me.”

Nya nodded slowly and backed away. Morro’s door was shut and soon the car drove off, her fearful and confused face sliding away behind the window.

For the next ten minutes, all was silent inside the police car as it sped through the streets of Ninjago.

(Well at least you can’t go back to Lloyd, now) grumbled Kai.

You sure? Morro wriggled his hands behind his back. These are just regular handcuffs.

(Huh?)

Suddenly the car bucked violently upward, as though it had hit a high bump. However it didn’t fall back down, but continued soaring through the air for several feet, the windshield showing the tops of the buildings and the cloudy blue sky.

The policemen cried out in alarm, gripping the handgrips and armrests, while Morro somehow managed to stay straight. Gravity then finally caught the car again and pulled it down, and it crashed so hard against the pavement the windows on all sides shattered. The car’s horn blared ceaselessly in distress, the driver’s face buried in the airbag, the officer next to Morro in the backseat falling back dazedly. Morro, who’d cushioned himself with a whirl of wind in front and behind him at the impact, now shifted backwards towards him and quickly located the keys to the handcuffs, then unlocked them within a matter of a few tense minutes. “Hah!” He stuffed the cuffs in his pockets, then flung the door on his side open and climbed out.

The anxious crowd that had gathered around the car backed away as Morro emerged. A second later another black and white appeared and skidded to a halt behind them, its siren blaring. The passenger door opened and the Police Commissioner stepped out, eye twitching and face red. “Ninja!” he hollered.

Morro saluted him, then threw his arms out so that a wave of wind expanded from him on all sides, knocking back the people in the crowd and throwing the converging police officers off their feet. With a flick of his fingers he threw flames of fire at each of the wheels of the crashed car and the Commissioner’s, causing the tires to slowly melt into the pavement. Then he jumped up, summoned the Fire Dragon beneath him, and shot straight up into the sky.

He didn’t straighten out until he’d cleared the clouds, and the city and land was completely obstructed beneath him. Then he skirted along just above them for a mile or more, before dipping down underneath them again to survey the land.

When he got his bearings, he steered the dragon purposefully towards a forest in the middle distance. No place like home, he joked.

In no time at all, Morro was on foot again and throwing aside the wooden beam from the front doors of the barn. The afternoon sunlight flooded inside with him, illuminating the sorry sight of Lloyd hanging in the middle. Lloyd cringed away from the light, blinking his eyes in pain. When his vision returned to him and he saw Kai standing in front of him, dressed back in his usual red, he wept without restraint.

“Kai… Oh Kai, thank god. Please, please let me down, oh please…!”

Morro stared at him consideringly.

(Lloyd…)

All of Kai’s stress and anguish that had sloughed off him throughout the day returned with a vengeance at the sight of Lloyd, at the sound of his shameless pleas. The contrast of this setting against the lively, wholesome community of Morro’s village just a few miles away was so great, Kai’s mind almost couldn’t grasp that what he was seeing was really real. That this was really Lloyd hanging before him, beaten beyond recognition and weeping pitifully for mercy.

Something knotted inside his stomach.

“Kai..?” Lloyd bleated. “Please… I’ll do anything, whatever you want, just ple-e-e-ease let me down…!”

The knot in his stomach tightened further, and his skin chilled over, and Kai realized, when he remembered where he’d heard those familiar words before, that these were Morro’s reactions, not his own.

Morro slowly walked past Lloyd to the table at the far side of the room. He picked up the crowbar. Walked back to Lloyd with it in hand. Lloyd didn’t even seem to notice it. His eyes were locked to Morro’s, his voice just a prayerful whisper.

“Please… please Kai, please, please let me down, Kai, please…”

(No!) sobbed Kai, as his arms wound the crowbar up over his shoulder like a baseball bat. (No, please, let him down, please don’t–!)

Morro didn’t listen to either of them. With an ice cold look on his face, he smacked the metal bar against Lloyd’s exposed side. Lloyd cried out briefly, then resumed his mantra. “Kai plea–”

Morro bashed him again, more viciously this time. When Lloyd continued to beg he bared his teeth and swung the crowbar several times in a row without pause. He huffed with exertion, then prowled around behind Lloyd and began striking his back. The wounds from when he’d slashed him there with the knife the previous day broke open and started to bleed.

(Stop! STOP! STOP IT!)

Morro circled back around to Lloyd’s front and hit him again, stopping him every time he even attempted to open his mouth other than to grunt or cry.

Again, and again, and again.

The head of the crowbar grew more bloodstained as Lloyd fell more silent. Finally his eyes closed and his head drooped forward, and blood dripped from his open mouth.

(LLOYD! You BASTARD!!)

Morro dropped the crowbar to the floor with a clang. “That’ll teach you,” he hissed. “There’s no… mercy… here…” Suddenly he clawed at the front of his gi, pulling the photograph of his parents from it. He stared at them witheringly for a moment, then held the photo in both hands and tore it down the middle. Then he tore the two pieces again, and tore those pieces again, then crumpled the pieces in his hands, and they burst into flames.

Kai was too upset over Lloyd to ask why he’d done it, but Morro explained anyway.

“Now no one will remember them.”

Chapter Text

Not in the mood to return to Steep Wisdom, the ninja had popped into a small café nearby to wait out the time until Luka returned home from work. Or at least, that was the assumption, but in light of Kai’s arrest all four of them were secretly thinking to themselves that they had better revise their plans. They sat at a table and each ordered a drink, but none of them knew what to say, so they simply sat around occasionally sipping at their straws, avoiding each others’ gazes.

None of them noticed a man passing by the window and giving a start when he saw them, nor when he pulled the collar of his jacket up to his mouth and spoke into it. They did look up when the man entered the café and approached their table, an officious look on his face.

“Ninja,” he said. “The Chief wants to speak to you. Outside. He’ll be here soon.”

Before any of them could say anything the man left, clearly expecting them to follow him without question.

“What the heck?” said Jay.

“A plainclothes officer,” Zane realized. “He must’ve been the one to tell the others where we were.”

“What could they want now?” ranted Cole, but he got up after Nya, the rest following suit.

The plainclothes policeman stood just at the end of the sidewalk. Before the ninja even reached him a civilian car pulled up in front of him. The Police Commissioner got out of the passenger side and slammed the door angrily (the driver, clearly a normal citizen, took offense at this and drove the car away). “He escaped!” was his greeting.

“Who, Kai?” said Nya, nonplussed.

“No, the Mayor. Yes, Kai! He resisted arrest! Two of my officers are injured!”

“He attacked them?” asked Cole. “That doesn’t sound like him.”

The Commissioner’s mustache wiggled. “Well, not directly, I don’t think. But he did run away!”

“Alright, Kai!” said Jay. “Badass!” Cole thumped him on the head.

“If he didn’t attack anyone, how’d he escape?” asked Nya.

The Commissioner seemed reluctant to explain. “It’s the darndest thing! The car just… flew up out of nowhere and crashed. He came out completely fine, handcuffs off, and set fire to our wheels. Then a dragon just appeared out of thin air and he flew off on it!” He shook his fist at the ninja. “I swear, Tommy was right, you ninja think you’re above the law, just because you’ve got some fancy powers!”

“Woah, woah, woah, Kai used his dragon?” said Cole. “Are you sure?”

“I’m not blind, sonny! I think I know a dragon when I see one!” The Commissioner straightened up importantly, trying to collect himself despite his eye twitching. “So. We’re gonna need one of you to lead us back to your tea shop and let us in. He’s a criminal on the run now, but it’s likely he’ll return home first. That’s our best chance at catching him again quickly, so I’ll not hear any arguing or noodling. You either cooperate with us now, or we book in a ninja of a different primary color!”

Zane and Cole clamped their hands over Jay’s mouth before he could yell at the Chief. Nya said, “Give us one minute,” and turned around to huddle with the other three without waiting for permission.

“Guys, we have to listen,” she whispered quickly. “If we get in any more trouble it’s just going to cost even more time we could be using to find Lloyd.”

“Agreed,” said Cole. “But are we going to talk about the elephant in the room? If Kai could use his dragon all along, why’d he tell us he couldn’t? And why’d he run away in the first place?”

“That’s not important right now,” said Zane. “We can discuss that when we don’t have Ninjago’s finest breathing down our necks. Right now we need to decide how we’re splitting.”

“Zane, you’ll go,” said Nya immediately. “You’re the least likely to bug them and put us even more on their bad side than we already are.”

“Wow okay, we didn’t really need that explanation,” hissed Jay before he could stop himself.

Zane nodded. “You three will talk to Luka then?”

“Not exactly,” said Nya, “but I’ll explain later.” She pulled away from the huddle and turned back to the Police Commissioner. “Alright, we’ll cooperate. Zane will take you to Steep Wisdom. And these are some other places Kai might show up at.” She pulled out her phone and quickly typed out a list.

The Police Commissioner looked significantly mollified at this. “Much appreciated,” he grunted. He peered at the screen when Nya showed her phone to him, then pulled out a walkie-talkie and started barking orders into it, directing officers to the locations. “And someone come pick me up,” he added irritably.

In less than a minute, a black and white arrived, and Zane stepped forward with the plainclothes officer when the Police Commissioner opened the back door. After the car drove away, siren off this time, Nya took Jay and Cole each by the hand.

“I need one of you to come with me,” she said.

“Uh, where?” asked Jay, trying to stop himself from blushing and failing.

“I gave the Chief other places to go so he wouldn’t get suspicious,” Nya explained in a rush, “but there’s one place I didn’t tell him about. I’m pretty that’s where Kai is going to go. I want to find him and talk to him.”

“That’s great,” said Cole slowly, “but why do you want one of us to go with you?”

Nya looked down with a pained expression. “Because I wouldn’t be able to win in a one-on-two.”

Seeing her upset, Jay allowed himself to squeeze her hand just a bit. To his relief she didn’t protest, and in fact squeezed his back. “You think Kai is working with Morro?” he asked gravely.

Cole looked at him sharply. “What? Why would you think that?”

“He lied to us,” whispered Nya. “And to the detectives. He’s been weird all day. And when the Chief talked about the car flying… Doesn’t that sound like it could’ve been Morro? Using his wind powers?”

Cole’s eyes widened in understanding. “But… Why would–?”

“I don’t know why. That’s why I have to find out. But if it turns into a fight, I want to make sure I’m the one who wins. So it would help to have some backup, if Morro really does show up too.” She looked at them pleadingly. She knew it was selfish of her to leave the decision up to them – they were supposed to be fine now, the three of them, there shouldn’t have been any big issue about her choosing one over the other, they weren’t like that – but she wasn’t stupid, she knew Jay still thought he had a chance, and she hadn’t the courage to do anything that might encourage or discourage him. She felt even more angry at herself for even being hung up about this in the first place when there were much more important things going on… but she couldn’t help it.

Jay could see her struggle and understood exactly what she was asking. His insides squirmed uncomfortably with guilt. Why did he have to make things so difficult for her? Why couldn’t he ever not be annoying? Her brother was being hunted down by the police, for goodness’ sake. She didn’t have time to be worrying about being stuck with him and his nonsense.

He sighed. “I’ll stay and talk to Luka,” he said.

Nya wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed, but she smiled at him gratefully. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Jay smirked. “I’ll probably get more out of him than Pebbles for Brains here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” grumbled Cole, but he lightened at Jay letting go of Nya’s hand and patting his shoulder before walking away.

“Good luck getting Kai back,” he called without turning.

Nya almost said something in return, but didn’t.

“So,” said Cole, startling her. She became conscious of the fact that she was still holding his hand and let go. “Where is it you think Kai is going to go? Chen’s Noodle House?”

“No,” she said. “Though I should probably warn Skylor about the police showing up there. Let’s just get out of the city first. I’ll tell you on the way.”

(Is he alive?)

In that moment, Kai knew for certain that his mind would shatter if the answer was no.

Morro pressed his fingers to Lloyd’s neck. Both he and Kai felt a pulse, faint though it was. Kai melted with short-lived relief.

He’s pretty durable, isn’t he?

Despite his anger at the casualness of the comment, Kai had to agree a little. He was no medical expert, but just looking at Lloyd he felt amazed that he wasn’t dead yet. For the first time he wondered if perhaps Lloyd’s powers weren’t playing a part in keeping the Green Ninja alive.

Still, he looks like he could use a pick-me-up.

At that, Kai felt a mix of hope and anxiety, which quickly morphed into outrage and terror when Morro fetched one of the Shinju pills from the still half-full plastic bag and opened Lloyd’s mouth. (What do you think you’re doing?! Stop!)

What, it’s medicine. Get his heart running. Morro tipped Lloyd’s head back a bit, put the pill carefully into his mouth, and clamped his jaw shut. He massaged Lloyd’s throat with his thumbs, inducing Lloyd to swallow, then opened his mouth again to check that the pill was gone.

After a few seconds, he checked his pulse again, and nodded in satisfaction to feel that it had quickened. There, see? No harm done.

(That you know of!) Kai wished now that Morro had taken the entire stash of pills with him when he’d left yesterday, so that it would’ve been confiscated when he was arrested. He felt jittery and breathless whenever Morro took one and the strengthening effects wore off, and the after effects seemed to take longer and longer to dissipate each time. He did not think for a second they would provide any health benefits for Lloyd, especially after what they’d done to him last time.

(You take as many as you want, I don’t care anymore, finish them all off. But you are not giving any more of them to Lloyd!)

Sheesh. What I get for trying to help him for once.

Morro stood back a bit, folded his arms, and simply observed Lloyd in silence then. Kai wondered if he was contemplating his next method of torture. He was extremely anxious over Lloyd’s endurance now. There didn’t seem to be a part of him left that hadn’t been injured in some way, which made Kai fear that Morro might start moving on to more… permanent forms of harm. Whatever the case, he couldn’t put his plan into effect until Morro decided to repeat the torture of the previous two days, that of writing a word on Lloyd’s body with the knife.

Part of Kai was hoping that Morro wouldn’t want to write another message though. After all, he’d gotten what he’d wanted out of the previous two already, which was tormenting Master Wu and seeing his reaction to them. If he was done with that particular ‘game’, then Kai wouldn’t have any chance of going through with his desperate, terrible plan. Which, of course, meant he was back to having no way at all of getting help for Lloyd, which was also terrible… but selfishly he didn’t want to have the memory of Lloyd looking at him when it was really him doing the torturing, of feeling the knife cutting through his flesh first-hand, even if there was the tiniest chance that it would lead to Lloyd’s rescue. He’d borne up so much already during Lloyd’s capture. He didn’t think he could bear that.

But if the opportunity presented itself, he’d have to take it. He had no choice.

So he waited in the silence as Morro continued to just stand there.

Finally Morro moved, stepping up close to Lloyd. He looked him up and down for a second, then slowly circled around him, pausing to inspect his marred back, before returning to his front. He reached out a hand, brushed the tips of his fingers against Lloyd’s stomach.

Kai’s hackles rose in alarm.

(What are you doing, you fucking creep?)

Kai could feel Morro’s resentment at the unspoken accusation. Calm the hell down. I’m just deciding where to put the word of the day. Can’t let the ninja think I’ve gone on vacation.

Kai’s chest constricted. There. There it was. The chance he’d been waiting for, had been dreading. He couldn’t let it pass.

(You already got your message across, didn’t you? What could you want to say this time?)

He had to at least make sure it was worth it to go through with his plan before he put it into effect.

I want Wu to know that he's taken too long to find his precious student. That he's basically abandoned him the way he abandoned me. So something along those lines.

Kai’s heart dropped heavily into his stomach. That was almost too perfect.

(You mean like… ‘forsaken’, or something?)

I was going to just say ‘abandoned’ but you know that actually sounds cooler. Look at you, freely offering up ideas of your own accord! I've rubbed off on you!

Kai didn’t have to feign despondency at his suggestion for the word that would be carved into Lloyd’s flesh being accepted; he had no choice but to go through with his plan now. He had been prepared to argue over the choice of word, perhaps using the excuse of wanting one with less letters or strokes than Morro's pick, which would have been feeble. The first and most difficult hurdle of his plan had been overcome with unexpected ease, and he felt a bizarrely similar fear to that of being called up first to present in front of a class when he still felt far from ready. But the stakes for failing were much, much higher.

It was all or nothing. He took a metaphorical deep breath and plunged.

(Morro.)

He registered Morro’s surprise at being addressed by name.

What?

(After you… take the picture, can I please patch him up? Not just the new word, his wounds need redressing. Please. I’ll give you whatever you want in exchange.)

You’re dreaming if you think I’m letting you out NOW. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve been spending the last day and a half convincing the Green Ninja that his precious ‘big brother’ hates his guts. Don’t you think it’ll ruin my credibility if he sees you crying like a little bitch while you fix his boo-boos?

Had he only cared about Lloyd getting treated, Kai could’ve then settled for asking Morro to do it in his stead, but he might just agree to that. And that’s not what Kai needed.

(I won’t cry, I won’t even talk to him or look at him! I just… I want to take some of his pain away, even a little. *I* want to, myself, even if he doesn’t believe it’s me, or even if he does but thinks I hate him. It’s not like I’ll have any chance to free him, you’d just take over again in a second as soon as I even think about it, right?)

I’m trying to crush his hopes completely, you know. Even if he doesn’t recognize it’s you, I don’t want him thinking I’ve developed a soft spot for him.

(Treating his wounds wouldn’t be soft. You want to keep him around for as long as you can, right? To keep having ‘fun’. So it’s natural you want to keep him in… working condition.) Kai steeled himself; he was about to dangle the bait. (I won’t do it for free. I’ll pay you back, like before. You want me to choose another game to play with him afterward, I’ll give you one.)

Kai waited in anticipation, which was hopefully all Morro would be able to tell he was feeling; unless Kai thought it ‘aloud’, Morro couldn’t know that what Kai was hoping for was that he would turn down the offer in favor of another.

Sure enough:

The price for something like this is a little higher than last time, you know. Sure you won’t have any chance of helping Lloyd escape, but there’s still the risk of you undoing everything I’ve worked on with him up to this point. You’re going to have to do better than just coming up with activities.

Kai didn’t entirely have to fake the desperation in his voice. (You’re the one who said I have nothing else to give you! Please, you won’t lose anything by me doing this. Lloyd might even lose more hope if he realizes I’m really back in control and still won’t help him escape!)

There. Kai almost felt the moment Morro caught the bait as though he really were holding a fishing rod. He shoved down the triumph that threatened to rise inside him, reminding himself of the more terrible caveats that came with his victory.

If it’s being in control you want, said Morro sinisterly, you can have it. But it’ll be under my terms.

Kai feigned cautiousness, but the apprehension he felt was real. (What do you mean?)

You can have an hour in control again. But, before you take care of Lloyd… you’ve gotta write today's message. You, yourself, like you said.

Kai made his thoughts go blank, as though he’d been frozen dumb with horror and shock. Then he responded with the very true opinion that wouldn’t give his plan away. (Just when I think you couldn’t get any more sick and twisted… You say something like that with such goddamn delight. You soulless, lifeless, pathetic–)

Insults are neither a yes or a no. It makes no difference to me really, so before you refuse, ask yourself – how much is treating Lloyd really worth to you?

Kai wanted to accept, but he didn’t want Morro to think he was too eager and get suspicious. And, oddly since there was no one to judge him for it, he also didn’t want it to ever be said that he had jumped at the chance to hurt Lloyd of his own volition.

(There’s no way I could do that! It’s bad enough experiencing it when you do it! If you’re so worried about my treating him ruining the fucked up image of me you’ve built up in his mind, how do you think I could hold it together better when I’m the one holding the knife?)

If he ends up thinking it’s really you while you’re torturing him, then it doesn’t matter if you treat him afterwards. The damage would already be done. It’ll be a little challenge for you instead of him for once, wouldn’t it? The risks are about the same for me; I can just take over again if I see you ‘breaking character’. If you do though, I won’t let you treat him afterwards. See you have to work for your rewards in this world. Not all of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouths.

(This is fucked up… How did things get this fucked up?)

I’ve been asking myself that for decades. Morro sounded morbidly serious as he said this. So? Challenge accepted?

Kai pretended to think it over, though the agonizing reluctance he felt over the choice was genuine. He didn’t want to go through with this, but it was the only plan he had. Feeling certain that Morro would decline now that he’d latched onto the idea of Kai taking the torturer’s role, he offered another deal to keep up the pretense of only wanting Lloyd to get treated.

(… Couldn’t… Couldn’t I just give you another game idea in exchange for you bandaging Lloyd yourself?)

Booooring. I’m not doing games anymore, least not while I’m being you. I’ve made up my mind, it’s this or nothing.

Kai hesitated a bit longer. Morro could feel that he wanted to accept. Look if you think about it, wouldn’t you rather be the one holding the knife than me? You could go easy on him, though not by too much obviously.

The issue with that though, was that for Kai’s plan to work, he couldn’t afford to go easy on Lloyd. He of course didn’t mention this to Morro.

(…Fine. I’ll do it. But only if we get an actual first aid kit. I’m not doing this just to use more strips of his shirt and dirty pond water. It’d be a miracle if he hasn’t already gotten an infection by now.)

Okay, nurse. Where do you suggest I steal something like that? No way we’re going back to the tea shop, it’s definitely crawling with cops waiting to nab me.

(I know. There’s somewhere else we can go. I haven’t been back there in years. It should be safe.)

And where’s that?

Kai felt a lump in his throat as he recalled simpler times. Another life, long, long before any of this mess ever happened.

(Home. My old home.)

Unlike Morro’s birthplace, the village of Ignacia was about as common and traditional a Ninjagoian village as you could get. It was quiet and dull, and almost everyone outside was working rather than playing. Not in a bustling and lively way either, but in a drearily routine, no-talking kind of way. Kai was instantly reminded of how bored he would get here sometimes as he watched the rice farmers trudge along. And yet, he didn’t entirely dislike it. It was safe, and familiar. A few villagers even raised their hands in greeting to him as Morro walked by.

(Just up there) he directed him. (Four Weapons Blacksmith.)

Hm. Cute. Morro stopped for a moment underneath the sign that pictured the four Golden Weapons – that Kai hadn’t known were supposed to be the Golden Weapons for years until he became a ninja – before stepping under the eaves.

(There’s a loose plank under the porch. The spare key is behind it.)

Morro found it and used it to unlock the corrugated metal door barring the shop entrance, pushing it up and stepping under it. Inside the air was musty and stagnant, dust covering the surfaces. Kai felt a pang of nostalgia as Morro’s eyes swept over the anvil and furnace. (Okay, the first aid kit should be in the cabinet, under the counter there. Take it and let’s go. I don’t want you poking around in mine or Nya’s old rooms!)

“I seriously could not give less of a shit about that,” muttered Morro as he opened the cabinet and dug inside. He found the first aid kit at the back, and dragged the white metal box out by the handle. As he was straightening up, there was a creak, and he whipped around instinctively to the wooden stairs leading up to the Smith family’s living quarters. Feet appeared at the top step, and descended carefully down, followed by another pair. When they’d stepped down far enough to reveal the people they belonged to, Morro’s demeanor became relaxed and friendly.

“Nya. Hey.”

Nya and Cole stepped off the stairs and moved to stand in front of the shop entrance without taking their eyes off Morro.

Kai immediately lunged at the mental barrier, pressing himself against it in an effort to push it down. (Nya! Nya!)

It pushed him back and he fell away from it, like a child brushed aside by a preoccupied adult.

“What are you guys doing here? No, never mind,” Morro said before Nya could answer, “dumb question. Of course you’re here for me. So then how’d you know I’d be here?”

“You’re my brother,” said Nya quietly. “I know you. You’re in trouble, and this is the only other place left that you know well enough to hide out in. Only…” She hesitated. “You haven’t been acting much like my brother.”

“No?” Morro seemed genuinely confused.

“No… I mean, when you found out that Lloyd was missing, you were upset, but… then you just kinda let it go.” Nya shook her head. “The Kai I know would’ve been frantic about finding Lloyd after seeing that picture. Especially if he was told he had something to do with him getting hurt. But you’ve barely spoken since you talked to the police, like you’re not interested at all in helping find him.”

“Uh, just who was it who found that girl in Morro’s village?” Morro pointed out. “I’ve helped plenty. Crying and whining about it wouldn’t have helped Lloyd any, would it? Besides, if you thought there was something wrong, why didn’t you say anything sooner?”

Kai was curious about that himself. He tried not to feel bitter towards his sister for not trusting her instincts.

“I didn’t know what you’d gone through,” admitted Nya. “I thought it might’ve just been PTSD or something… But the fact that you let yourself get taken by the police just to escape again made me very worried.”

“Oh that?” Throughout the conversation, Morro had subtly been shuffling himself closer and closer towards the weapons rack on the wall beside him. He’d left his katana back at the barn. “I told you not to worry. I had a plan. After all I can’t help Lloyd much if I’m behind bars, can I?”

“The feds found drugs on you, Kai,” said Cole, crossing his arms sternly. “And they said you escaped on a dragon. Why’d you hide those things from us?”

“Ah, I just found those pills in my pocket, you know.” Morro inched a bit more, eyes flicking back and forth between Nya’s slight but solid frame and Cole’s significantly tall and muscular one. “I didn’t know they were drugs.”

“Shinju pills,” said Cole. “We searched them up while we waited for you. They make a person super strong temporarily.” He narrowed his eyes at him. “You used them to win our spar, didn’t you?”

Morro scoffed. “Oh, really? Like I couldn’t beat you without being juiced?”

“Kai.” Nya’s voice carried a note of finality. “Please, stop. Either tell us what’s going on, or we’ll capture you ourselves. We know you’re not telling the truth.” She raised her hands slowly, and both Kai and Morro noticed only then that she had been holding them stiffly at her sides the whole time, and moved them now as though she were pulling on invisible strings.

Morro looked around, saw nothing, then sneered at her. “Well since you seem to have it all figured out, why don’t you tell me what the truth is?”

Nya didn’t mince words. “Morro is here.” Her lips pressed into a hard line. “Make him come out.”

Morro raised an eyebrow at her and chuckled. “Well if he was,” he said, “what are you going to do about it?”

Nya raised her eyes slowly upward. Morro looked up too.

The entire ceiling was obscured by a canopy of floating, wavering water.

“Oh.”

With a grunt, Nya brought her hands down, and the pool of water came crashing over their heads with a resounding splash. A warrior’s helmet and armor that had been hanging on the wall were dislodged from their hooks and clattered to the floor as well, adding to the noise. Cole had thrown his arms up over his head, but Morro let the water drench him, his spiky hair bending only briefly under the impact before straightening up again, glistening.

When the puddles had settled and the only sound left was the dripping and trickling of water off the surfaces, Nya and Cole looked around expectantly, then at Morro, who wiped his face and flicked water from his gloved hand.

“Did… Did we get him?” asked Cole.

Morro shook the first aid kit, dislodging more water, then tied it through the handle to his side with his obi.

Using his own voice, he said, “Yeah. You got him.”

Then he darted at the weapons rack and grabbed a glaive.

As soon as he moved, Cole punched his fists at him, directing dirt clods from outside to rocket into the shop over his shoulder and towards Morro. They didn’t come fast enough though, and Morro flicked them easily aside with the glaive before charging forward, driving the blade towards Nya. Cole clenched his fists again and pulled them up, intending to throw up a wall of earth in front of her, but no such thing happened, and while he stood looking confused Nya dodged aside as the glaive sliced the air where she’d been standing. In the same second, Morro whirled the butt of the glaive sharply and smacked it against Cole’s stomach while he was distracted, eliciting an “Oomph!” from him before he stumbled back but didn’t fold. The wooden handle of the glaive snapped on impact against the Earth Ninja’s rock solid body, and Morro was left holding just the upper half with the blade head, which he whipped around in Nya’s direction, pushing aside the arm she’d been about to use to chop against his neck. Cole then grabbed Morro around the chest, pulling him back to force his arms up, but Morro only flailed for a moment before twisting his arm around to grip Cole’s in his hand, which burst into flame. Cole immediately let him go, stumbling back and howling, and Morro kicked Nya in the chest as she darted at him. She fell back and crashed against the fallen helmet and armor on the floor, crying out in pain.

The shop entrance was now unblocked, and Morro dashed through it quickly, jumping off the porch outside and whirling around to face the two ninja as they approached the threshold.

Morro held the sharp edge of the glaive blade against his neck.

“Woah. Stop right there, ninja.”

Cole and Nya froze, Cole gripping his burned arm, Nya poised with her hands raised to use her powers.

“Back the fuck up. Unless you want to see your beloved brother’s bright red blood painting the dirt.”

Cole and Nya stepped back into the shop, eyes wide with horror.

“Morro,” rasped Nya. “How…? The water–”

“Won’t work anymore,” Morro finished for her. “This body is more mine now than the Red Ninja’s. But that doesn’t mean I won’t get rid of it as soon as it makes trouble for me. So. I’m gonna be going now. And I can’t have you guys following me and stopping my fun so I’m going to lock you in.” He held up the spare key to the shop. “But first, throw out the key you used.”

Nya only stared at him. He looked like Kai, but it was Morro’s voice. Her power, the one she’d trained so hard to be able to use for the express purpose of combatting ghosts, to defeat this ghost, had been useless. She was at a complete loss.

“Do it!”

She took the key from her pocket and tossed it over the porch. Morro picked it up and pocketed it. “Good.” He threw his hand out at them, and a wave of wind blasted towards them through the shop entrance, hitting them both squarely and sending them flying backwards into the shop. They hit the opposite wall so hard that they were knocked out, both of them slumping to the floor, revealing two dents in the white stone wall. Neither of them moved.

(Nya!! Cole! Shit!)

Morro threw aside the broken glaive and pulled down the door of the shop, locking it firmly.

Alrighty. That was fun. Now let’s get back to the real fun, shall we?

Kai had nothing to say.

Chapter Text

When Morro returned to the barn, Lloyd still hadn’t woken up. Morro checked for his pulse again. When he found it he turned around unconcernedly, untied the first aid kit from his waist, and set it down against the wall. At Kai’s insistence of it being part of the deal to provide Lloyd with better care than he’d been given up to this point, Morro had asked one of the passing rice farmers back in Ignacia for a bottle of clean water. The woman had looked bemused by Morro’s damp clothes and hair, but had given him two full canteens anyway. Kai had been so grateful he’d urged Morro to offer to pay her for them, but Morro only thanked her perfunctorily and gone on his way. Now he put the canteens on the floor next to the first aid kit, and went back outside.

It was a bright afternoon, and the sun beat down warmly. Morro found a spot under the sunlight next to a bent tree and pulled off the robe of his gi, beating it out and stretching it on the trunk of the tree to dry off. He sat down in the grass beside it, leaning back and humming contentedly at the warmth on his face.

How about I treat him instead? he said conversationally.

(What?)

He lay down on his back, folding his hands under his head.

It doesn’t have to be you. The point is for Lloyd’s wounds to get treated, right? I can do that. After you’re done cutting him up.

So vehemently sickened was Kai by the backwards image of Morro healing Lloyd right after Kai had tortured him, that he retorted without even thinking.

(That’s not what I agreed to! I’m going to do it, that was the deal!)

What if I changed my mind? Morro’s mental voice was teasing and unbothered. What if I say it’s either me, or not at all? Are you going to say no?

Kai was flummoxed at the sudden turn. Not because it ruined his plan in any way; on the contrary, Morro’s fickle decision showed that he still had no idea that it was the torture, rather than the healing, that Kai intended to make use of, and was simply trying to rile Kai up. He might even have some twisted aspirations in making Kai look bad (well, worse) to Lloyd by treating Lloyd’s wounds himself. Whatever the reason, it shouldn’t matter to Kai whether Morro did it or not.

Except… even though it wasn’t necessary, Kai did want to be the one to treat Lloyd. Knowing he was doing it for a greater good wasn’t going to make torturing his little brother any easier; bandaging him afterwards might help him feel like he was atoning for his crimes. To him it was worth fighting his case for. If Morro still refused he’d just have to accept, and his plan could still play out without a hitch.

(I don’t have the assurance of being able to take back control whenever I want like you can. How can I trust you to do it? The whole reason I even asked was so that I could help Lloyd the way I want!)

Morro contemplated this in silence for a moment, staring at nothing. Kai wasn’t sure why, but he got the belated feeling that he was being tested on something. He became more nervous as the seconds ticked by.

Finally Morro shrugged. Alright, you have a point. Don’t ever say I don’t keep my promises.

(Oh, yeah, wouldn’t want to ruin your reputation) sneered Kai, though he didn’t put much force into his words, not wanting to piss Morro off and make him change his mind again.

Morro checked his watch. Just a few more minutes to the hour. I’ll let you out then.

Those few minutes felt impossibly slow to Kai while he waited. Yet when Morro got up, donned his somewhat drier gi and reentered the barn, it still felt way too soon. He wasn’t ready, he wasn’t ready. So much could go wrong. The whole idea was wrong already.

But he had no other choice.

Morro stood directly in front of the still unconscious Lloyd. He checked his watch.

I'm keeping control of this, he said, nudging the mental barrier. If I feel you even think about turning it against me, I'll attack first.

One hour.

He closed his eyes. There was a strange sensation of a revolving door turning, Kai being forced to move with it, so that he and Morro switched places. When he opened his eyes again it was Kai who gasped and stumbled a bit under the weight of his own body, which he suddenly had to hold up on his own. He took a second to breathe, bending and bracing his hands against his knees. Then he straightened and looked at Lloyd with grim determination.

Okay.

He went up to Lloyd, put a hand to his clammy face. He could feel the pulse in his neck, but Lloyd didn’t wake.

Listen, he said to Morro. I’m not helping him escape. I just want to move him. To make it… easier. To write. So I can get this over with as fast as possible.

He fished around for the key to the Vengestone cuffs, and reached up with it to free Lloyd’s wrists. He braced himself as Lloyd fell into him, arms flopping down to his sides. Kai unhooked the cuffs from the chain while he was at it, tucking them into his obi with one hand while he held up Lloyd against his shoulder with the other.

(Hey, if he wakes up he’ll try to run-)

Look at him. Do you really think he’s capable of running anywhere?

He could feel Morro’s suspicion, his consciousness already pushing up against his, ready to take his place in a second. Kai ignored him, keeping his eyes on Lloyd’s face as he settled him in his arms. He carried him to the table at the far end of the barn and laid him down on it, unceremoniously sweeping the torture instruments aside onto the floor.

He already knew how he was going to do this, but he was extremely reluctant to go through with it. Seeing Lloyd laid out before him and unresponsive like this reminded him all too much of when he’d thought he’d lost him the day before. He brushed Lloyd’s face again, a silent apology.

(Get on with it. If he wakes up and sees you looking all heartbreakingly at him like that, you’ll ruin everything. And then I’ll make the tortures much worse.)

Kai gritted his teeth but pulled his hand away. He took the Vengestone cuffs from his waist and closed them around Lloyd’s ankles. Then he ducked down and picked up the shears from the floor, and quickly went to locate something he hadn’t thought about since the first morning of Lloyd’s capture – the remainder of the belt Morro had used to strap Lloyd’s wrist to the table. He found it (after some searching that became hurried and panicked – the dark brown of the leather camouflaged the belt well against the wooden floor of the barn), brought it back to Lloyd, and measured out sections of it. He cut it into pieces with the shears, then used the hammer and some of the nails gathered from the floor to pin them to the table over Lloyd’s wrists. He hammered a nail through one of the links in the middle of the chain of the Vengestone cuffs as well.

He could feel the ghost of Morro’s smirk in his mind. (If he isn’t capable of running away, why the restraints? Maybe you’re getting into the role after all.)

I just don’t want him moving around while I cut him! He might fuck me up and make me hurt him worse.

Which was true of course, but Kai also wanted to make sure the message was as clear as he could make it. It didn’t mean he wasn’t sick to his stomach as he looked down at what he had done. He felt even more nauseous when he realized he would have to put a third strap over Lloyd; he couldn’t have him try to sit up.

There was just enough of the belt left over. Hating himself, Kai nailed it down around Lloyd’s neck.

He checked the time. Ten minutes had passed.

Finally he took out the knife, hovering it over Lloyd’s abdomen. It flashed in the orange firelight, sickeningly sharp.

(Wait. Wake him up first.)

You really think he’ll be able to sleep through this? said Kai incredulously. But he put down the knife and went to fetch the milk bucket. He took a deep breath, trying to school his expression into one of cold detachment. Then he poured the water over Lloyd’s face.

Lloyd didn’t wake up all at once. His breath only hitched a bit and he was slow to open his eyes. The monotonous wooden world of the barn came into focus, the rafters far above hung with cobwebs crossing over the dark void of the roof beyond. Lloyd first became aware that he was lying down – mercifully, blessedly, finally he was down, and the gritty sting of the wood against the unhealed slashes and burns on his back was worth exchanging for the ache in his wrists and shoulder sockets to be relieved at long last, though his arms had lost all feeling. Then he realized that he not only couldn’t feel them, but couldn’t move them at all, that they were pinned to the floor(?) at his sides… then that there was something fitted around his neck, not quite choking him but not affording much space to move either, also pinning him down… and then, finally, he saw Kai, looming over him from the side, a hard, closed off look on his face.

Their eyes met. Lloyd came fully awake and was immediately afraid.

Kai forced himself to smile. “Rise and shine, Lloyd. You know what time it is?” Lloyd only stared at him, trembling. Kai tried to stop his own hand from shaking as he lifted the knife for Lloyd to see. “It’s time to send another message to the others.”

(Your voice sounds weird. Fix it.)

I’m trying, I’m trying.

If Lloyd had noticed Kai sounding off, he didn’t show it, or didn’t care; he’d understood where the next message would be written. “No. No, please. Kai, I don’t want to. I don’t want to.”

The childishness of the words nearly made Kai fall to pieces then and there. What was he doing? What on earth was he doing? Nothing could possibly be worth this.

(If you can’t go through with it, then the deal’s off. I’ll do it.)

No! He couldn’t back out now. And he definitely couldn’t leave Lloyd at Morro’s nonexistent mercy after Kai himself had prepped him like a frog on a dissection tray. No. It’s like you said, I’d rather it was me than you.

Kai tried to fix the unnatural pitch of his voice by speaking the truth. Or, most of it. “Don’t worry, it won’t take as long as the last two times. Unlike Morro, I’m not interested in making you play any games. I just…” His smile fell. “I just want to hurt you.”

Lloyd’s eyes had already filled with tears. They trickled down the side of his head as he begged, his voice broken and whispery. “Kai, please. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please don’t. I don’t… I don’t want to, please, please…”

“It’s not your choice,” Kai bit out, more to cut him off than anything. “I do feel bad about how this will make the others feel, when they see it. But… I want to do this. I have to do this.”

Lloyd shook his head minutely. Kai could see him straining his hands against the belt straps, but fortunately or unfortunately, Kai had either nailed them down too well, or Lloyd was just too weak to loosen them. “No no no… You don’t have to do this, Kai! Please!”

Kai leaned over and placed his left hand against the side of Lloyd’s stomach, above his sword wound. With his other hand, almost in a daze, he touched the point of the knife against his skin.

Lloyd couldn’t lift his head up to see it, but the moment he felt the cold edge of the knife his mind melted to a puddle. He couldn’t do this anymore. He didn’t want to be brave. He just wanted it to be over, he wanted the nightmare to end, but every time he woke up it was still going, and it just kept getting worse, because now he couldn’t even convince himself it was Morro looking at him from those dark eyes.

All he saw was Kai.

“Oh please, please Kai, I don’t want to, it hurts, Kai, please!!”

I’m sorry.

It was such a useless, meaningless word. ‘Sorry’ was not something you said when doing something like this. But he had nothing else.

Emptying his mind of every thought, Kai pushed the knife point in.

“AaaauuuAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!!”

If Lloyd had thought for even a second that having been cut into twice before meant that he’d be somewhat used to it by now, he was immediately corrected with the first stroke. He didn’t know if it was because he was strapped down, adding another layer of powerlessness and fear already, or because his midriff was a more sensitive area than his arms, but he felt that the pain was even more intense than the previous times. It consumed him completely, firing up atomic explosions in the neurons in his brain.

Kai was nearly sent into a panic at the immediacy with which Lloyd screamed, his cries sounding as though they were a physical thing being dragged mercilessly out of him, tearing up the walls of his throat. His stomach shuddered and pulled taut under Kai’s hands, but the knife point wasn’t shaken away. In his shock Kai hadn’t stopped the motion of pulling it across through the upper layer of Lloyd’s skin, for the first stroke of the ‘F’, making it a bit longer than natural, and he quickly pulled the knife out and dug it back in for the next stroke without pause before he could lose his nerve. If he gave himself even a second to think he would stop, he had to write out the whole letter in one go, just the way he would with a pen and paper.

But he did have to pay attention, because ‘F’ was the first initial of the owner of the barn, the clue he needed to send to Nya and the others, which meant, as he’d already planned, that he needed it to stick out a bit more from the other letters. He had to make sure it was thicker, deeper, than the rest of the word.

So when he drove the knife in, he pushed it deep enough that the blood that welled up around it was dark, and twisted it slightly as he dragged it down to widen the wound.

“AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH! AAAH! AAAAH! AAAAUUUGGHHH!!”

Fuck, oh fuck, I’m going to be sick-

(You hurl in front of him and it’s over. Don’t even look like you’re going to hurl.)

Kai swallowed the bile in the back of his throat as surreptitiously as he could. Not that it mattered, as Lloyd was too busy screaming to look at him.

‘F’ was done. He removed the knife, and shifted it to the right of the wound.

One down, seven more to go. Blood stained the fingers of his left hand as he braced it over the first letter.

Lloyd’s chest was rising and falling in rapid succession as he gasped for breath. While the knife had been in him he had involuntarily pulled up against the restraints, but now his body had fallen back flat against the table. His hair, wet from the water Kai had woken him with, was plastered to his forehead, and his face was red from strain. Tears poured down past his ears.

“K-K-Kai,” he shuddered out. “P-P-Please. Please d-don’t. N-No more, please.”

“We’re just getting started, Lloyd,” Kai heard himself say. He turned the knife on its edge and pushed it into his epidermis.

“UURRRRRRRGGHHHHHH!!!”

This was the ‘O’, and it was a letter Kai didn’t need. To that end, he had to make it less conspicuous than the ‘F’ beside it, to make it further stand out… but therein lay the real challenge (as if forcing himself to do what he was doing while acting like he was enjoying it wasn’t already the hardest challenge of his life so far); he had to make sure it didn’t stand out to Morro. Kai had to focus on carving the letter in order to do it right, but he also needed to somehow make sure Morro didn’t notice him doing that. He could avert his eyes of course, given that Morro could only see what he was seeing, but he didn’t trust his ability to write the letters with the detail he needed without looking. And he did not want Morro to ask him to repeat anything if he wasn’t satisfied with the results.

Therefore he needed to direct his attention to something else. Having been in the passenger seat for the majority of their time together, Kai knew it was possible. Their minds were still entirely separate, so they could think about different things at the same time. He recalled how he had ignored the movement of Morro’s fingers while he’d been stitching up the cut under Lloyd’s eye, even though Morro had kept his sight on it the whole time and had been preoccupied with the task; Kai had only been focusing on Lloyd.

So Kai needed something to distract Morro while he focused on making sure his hidden message was clear. And what would distract Morro more thoroughly than his favorite past time – bitching about Lloyd being undeserving of the title of the Green Ninja?

“Do you know why this is happening to you, Lloyd?” Kai said, his voice like a stranger’s to his own ears.

Lloyd sobbed once before answering. “Nooo!” he moaned grievously. He didn't know, he couldn't fathom why. This wasn't something that was supposed to happen in a million years. Not Kai, not this.

An unfortunate side effect of talking while slicing through flesh was that Kai unthinkingly slowed down the latter activity. He was still only halfway through the first long stroke of the letter.

“Karma. This is even less than you deserve, you know. And I don’t just mean because you got handed the green gi for basically nothing.”

Second stroke. Lloyd jerked under his restraints and yelled as the knife pierced him anew, his good leg kicking up but instantly getting pulled back down by the short chain of the Vengestone cuffs, nailed to the table.

“Everything bad that ever happened was your fault.”

“Aaaaaahaa… Aaauuuugggh!”

Kai’s hand was shaking. He readjusted his grip on the knife before he lowered it for the next letter. ‘R’. At least it was a simple one.

“You released the Serpentine, who awakened the Great Devourer… whose venom led to the Stone Army being reawakened.”

Lloyd arched his head back, shaking and wailing, as he was cut again, his neck pressing up against its strap, practically choking him.

“You got yourself captured by the Overlord… and drained of your Golden powers… which led to the Overlord getting the Golden Weapons… which led to Zane sacrificing himself!”

Old, bitter thoughts that Kai only entertained during his lowest moments… or, admittedly, sometimes just on days when Lloyd annoyed him, or said something he didn't like, or even just when he was in a bad mood and heard anyone praising the Green Ninja for the team’s efforts… all were dredged up to the surface of Kai's mind. He hated that they existed at all, that they came to him so easily now, but he was aware of Morro taking note of each memory as he spoke of them, and he knew his plan was working.

By the way Lloyd responded to Kai’s condemnations, it seemed it was working too well.

“Nooooo! Kai, ple-e-e-ease!”

‘S’ was next, and it was another significant one. He had to make it deep and thick.

“And because Zane was dead,” continued Kai doggedly, “Chen tricked us into coming to the Tournament of Elements… which led to him opening the Cursed Realm, and letting Morro escape! This was all, your, fault!”

“I'm SORRY!” sobbed Lloyd. “I'm sorry, Kai! PLEASE!!”

“What good is ‘sorry’ going to do me, Lloyd?” Kai couldn’t keep the genuine anger out of his voice. He didn’t want Lloyd apologizing to him. This was already hard enough. “Nothing will ever make this right! Destiny. Chose. You! To be the hero! So you. Have. To pay. The price!”

Kai jerked the knife jaggedly on each stressed word, hoping the prominence of the strokes could be attributed to the intenseness of his emotions. He let his eyes inspect the completed ‘S’ for only a second before turning them to Lloyd’s face, which had gone pale as a sheet and contorted with agony.

(You’re sure getting into the role) said Morro, and Kai’s heart skipped a beat. But he didn’t detect suspicion so much as mild surprise. (I thought you said you weren’t going to talk to him.)

If he’s concentrating on what I’m saying then maybe it’ll distract him from the pain, Kai invented wildly. He hoped it was true, though he was beginning to wonder if perhaps his words weren't further exacerbating the damage done by the knife, judging by the way Lloyd was crying. He couldn’t remember it being nearly this bad the last two times Morro had done this.

No. Don’t think. He was halfway there. ‘A’ was another prominent letter, and so was ‘K’. He had to keep talking.

“Do you know what word I’m… carving into you right now?”

“RRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHAAAAAAA!”

“It’s ‘forsaken’…” Mechanically Kai put his free hand to Lloyd’s knee and held it down without looking; Lloyd had been shaking his leg too much. “Morro chose it to let everyone know that you… that your time is almost up.”

“Uhhuhuhuh… nooo… AAAAAAHH!”

Kai wished he had thought to put a gag in Lloyd’s mouth before he’d woken him, so he wouldn’t have to hear the awful, unbearably tormented sounds he was making. But doing so now would show weakness; Morro wanted him to uphold the image of a Kai who wanted to hear Lloyd's suffering. If he thought Lloyd would recognize Kai’s attempts to drown him out as guilt, Morro would switch places with him and take over. And he would make Lloyd scream louder.

At least, that’s what Kai tried to convince himself of.

‘K’. Three long strokes.

“But it’s not just about you, Lloyd. You know Morro feels like he was forsaken by destiny… well so do I. The…” His words caught in his throat. He forced them out. “The Staff of Elements wasn’t lying. I meant what I said. It should’ve been me who became the Green Ninja.”

“UuuugghhhhAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHH!!”

There was no transition between Lloyd’s sobs and screams anymore, no pause of breath. He writhed and pulled and twisted his head this way and that under the restraints, but there was no escape from the molten pain, or the poisonous words.

“If I had been the Green Ninja, I wouldn’t be where you are now. Because I wouldn’t have gotten myself caught so easily as you!”

He jerked the knife one final time and pulled it away, affording a quick glance down to reposition it carefully before looking back at Lloyd’s face. This next bit would be tricky, because now he needed an ‘I’, which wasn’t in the word ‘forsaken’. He intended to write it as a small nick at the top left of the ‘K’. Thankfully it was an easy letter to write and make look like it was an accident, but Kai didn’t want to risk looking at it while he did it. He kept his eyes trained on Lloyd instead, holding the knife ready as he dealt his final blow of distraction.

But Lloyd beat him to it when he spoke next, gasping between every word.

“Yes… you… w-would.”

“What?” Kai didn’t want this dragged out any longer, but ignoring Lloyd now to continue cutting him might draw Morro’s attention back to his message.

Lloyd’s eyes found Kai’s and fixed them in place, his face shining with sweat and tears. “If you… h-had been… the Green… N-Ninja… it would… be you… on this… table… right now… And Cole… or J-Jay… or Zane… would be h-hol… holding the… the knife…” Lloyd swallowed and clenched his jaw, and his gaze turned accusatory. “Except… you wouldn’t still… be here… because any… any one of them… w-would have… f-freed you… by now. Be…cause… n-none of them… are as… weak… and terrible… as you!”

(Hah. Well look at that. Guess his faith in you has finally shaken after all.)

Kai ignored him. He leaned down, bracing his hand on Lloyd's shoulder, making sure Lloyd had nowhere to look but at his face (and that Morro had nowhere to look but at Lloyd), and furtively placing the point of his knife against Lloyd’s skin in a way that it would be pushed in by Kai’s torso without him realizing.

Now was the time. Lloyd had given him an opening to retaliate. He opened his mouth and said aloud, for the first time in his life, the deepest, darkest thought he’d held inside him for four years, the wish he’d buried down in guilt and horror whenever it threatened to even lift its ugly head in his subconscious or worst nightmares.

“I should have chosen the Fangblade over you,” he whispered between his teeth.

Lloyd’s reaction to those words – the slight widening of his eyes in disbelief, the little color left in his face draining away, the infinitesimal fall of his mouth, and, accumulatively, the way his whole face just seemed to crumble apart – almost made Kai forget to accidentally-on-purpose slice the knife through him while Morro drank up the scene. In the back of his mind, he knew, he knew that if he and Lloyd lived through this, if they ever somehow returned to their normal lives… this was the moment that was going to haunt him forever. That look on Lloyd’s face, when his own brother renounced him.

When he, Kai, not Morro, finally broke him.

He was almost glad when his cutting of him made Lloyd screw his eyes up and wince in pain instead, and then felt further terrible for feeling glad. He pulled away from Lloyd, nicking him once more for the short second stroke of the ‘I’, pretending that his hand had just ended up there as he’d straightened up. He gave it a cursory glance before moving the blade over for the second to last letter. With his secret message done and having no need to alternate the thickness of the wounds anymore, Kai didn’t speak again as he carved out the ‘E’, deliberately trying to make it as shallow as he could to spare Lloyd at least that much.

Despite his efforts, Lloyd still cried out in pain, his voice so hoarse he didn’t even sound like himself anymore. At the end of the last stroke of the ‘E’ it petered out, his eyes rolled up to the whites and closed, and his head slumped to the side, mouth falling slackly open.

Kai immediately put down the knife and rushed to his head. “Lloyd? Lloyd?”

(He just passed out) said Morro. (Probably from the stress and fear.) His tone carried a strange mix of admiration, jealousy, and even apology as he added, (You might have scared him more than I ever did.)

From fear…

Kai reached his hand to Lloyd’s face.

(No concern, remember? Finish what you started. At least he’s asleep for this one.)

Kai hurriedly scratched the tip of the knife at the right edge of Lloyd’s stomach, forming the ‘N’. Sure enough, Lloyd didn’t wake, even though Kai could see him breathing shallowly.

The moment he was done Kai dropped the knife to the floor and picked up the shears, making to cut open the strap on Lloyd's neck.

(Wait. Take the picture now. While he's like this.)

Kai almost protested, but he could think of no reason to. His job was only half done until the evidence of his heinous, unforgivable actions were in the hands of his friends back home, where hopefully, by some miracle, they would be able to discern the hint he'd left. That he'd carved into Lloyd's body…

He dumped the remaining water out of the milk bucket unmindfully on the floor, turned it over at the foot of the table and stood on it, holding the camera up high to capture Lloyd’s full length.  Before he could press the button though, Morro said (Wake him up. I want him looking at the camera), and Kai felt like he might literally erupt into flames with rage.

I will NOT! He's been through enough! He needs to rest! I held up my end of the deal and now I'm going to let him sleep and escape from this hellhole for just five fucking minutes! You got that?

Kai felt Morro's surprise and then slight resentment, like a sulky child that had been chastened, but for a wonder he didn't argue.

Kai took the picture.

After pulling out the photo he allowed himself just a second to look it over before tucking it into his pocket, then hurriedly stepped down from the bucket and picked up the shears again. He cut through the straps on Lloyd’s wrists and neck, then used the hammer to pry up the nail pinning down the cuffs on his ankles.

He put his hands under Lloyd’s shoulders and legs and pulled him off the table, cradling him in his arms once more. He felt Morro nudge him warningly and refrained from saying ‘sorry’ aloud like he wanted to, from begging Lloyd’s forgiveness, and in silence carried him to the middle of the room where the light was brightest, and laid him gently on the floor. The word ‘FORSAKⁱEN’ had become a mess of smeared and dripping blood from the jostling of Lloyd’s body.

(Alright. A deal’s a deal. You can use whatever time you have left to fix him up. I’d hurry if I were you.)

Wait, just wait.

Kai’s whole body was shaking. He looked at his hands, smeared with crimson.

I… I gotta wash my hands.

(Up to you. It’s your own time you’re wasting.)

Kai checked his watch. Nearly twenty minutes had passed.

Twenty minutes?? He had been torturing Lloyd for twenty minutes? How? How, when he had sworn to do it as fast as possible?

He staggered outside and sank to his knees by the pond. He dunked both his hands in, then scrubbed them together underwater. The blood diluted away to nothing in the murk.

He could feel his heart pounding in his throat, threatening to suffocate him. No… Something was actually rising up his esophagus. Oh…

Kai turned his head aside in time to avoid contaminating the pond, and threw up violently in the grass. He shuddered, acid coating his mouth. He spat and gasped and retched again, and before he knew it his breath had caught and he was sobbing.

In an uncommon show of tact, Morro let him do so without comment, not even when Kai gasped loudly enough to be heard by Lloyd in the barn, if he’d woken up.

When he’d pulled himself together, swiping the damp from his face, Morro said, (You didn’t have to do this, you know. You could’ve lived the rest of your life blaming me for the whole thing. Was it really worth this much?)

Kai screwed his eyes shut against more tears threatening to well up. As if he had any right to cry! How messed up was he, feeling this sorry for himself after what he’d done to Lloyd?

“I just… I… God…” He put his face in his hands, pressing hard against his eyes, wishing he could disappear into the black void. He sucked in a deep breath, let it out slowly. I just wanted to do something for him. To feel like I’m helping him in any way, at all. I couldn’t take another day of doing nothing but watching him get hurt. If I… If I could at least have one memory of doing something good for him, maybe I can stay sane. It doesn’t matter if he hates me. I just… I need this. I need to help him hang on.

Kai knew how selfish he sounded, but he honestly couldn’t care less what Morro thought of him. Who was he to act concerned as if it had nothing to do with him, anyway?

(Well then you better get a move on.)

As Kai trudged back to the barn entrance, Morro warned, (If he jumps you when you go in there, I’m taking over and blasting him away. And then you can forget about the first aid.)

I really doubt he’d have the energy to jump me even if he was awake. Besides, he’s still wearing Vengestone cuffs, remember?

Morro’s worries were proven baseless as soon as Kai entered the barn; Lloyd hadn’t moved at all. Checking his watch, Kai hurriedly grabbed the first aid kit and canteen bottles from the floor, and sat on his knees by Lloyd, rolling up his sleeves. From the first aid kit he found sanitizer and cleaned his hands with it. Then he opened one of the canteens, wetted a cloth, and carefully wiped up the blood around Lloyd’s cuts. Belatedly he realized that Morro could now see the word up close, and there was nothing to distract him from noticing its unevenness – Kai was hardly going to wake Lloyd up now to verbally assault him. He had to content himself with avoiding looking at the letters directly. His thoughts were drenched in anxiety, but that wasn’t cause for suspicion – of course he was anxious about Lloyd.

When he’d cleaned up his stomach, Kai found some antiseptic wipes and used them to clean the cuts themselves. He did this quickly, then finally pulled out the roll of bandages, opting to cut off strips of it rather than wrap it around Lloyd’s middle, to save as much of it as he could. He taped them down over pads of gauze pressed against the wounds, and breathed a sigh of relief. With the bloody word completely covered it didn’t look quite so bad. It didn’t erase what he’d done, he knew that. But at least he’d cleaned up his own mess.

With the pair of scissors he’d used to cut the bandages, Kai carefully snipped through the cloth wrappings around Lloyd’s left arm – the one that had been mutilated first, two days ago now. The strips of shirt had stuck to the cuts in places, and Kai had to peel them off slowly to avoid reopening the wounds. He was relieved at first to see that most of the letters of “UNWORTHY” had started to scab over, but as he pulled the last of the bloodied cloth away he winced at the sight of Lloyd’s skin red and swollen around the strokes of the ‘N’ and ‘W’, on his upper arm; the wounds were infected, just as he’d feared. Kai laid the back of his hand on Lloyd’s forehead. Thankfully there was no fever; it wasn’t too bad yet. He rummaged around in the kit for antibiotic gel, squeezed a daub of it on his fingers and applied it liberally to the cuts. He hoped he was doing this right – Zane had always been the designated medic of the team.

It became awkward trying to work on Lloyd’s arm while he was lying down, so Kai brought his chair over (no, the chair, not his chair – Lloyd didn’t belong in it, it was just all that was available), and hefted him into it. When he’d settled him so that he wouldn’t topple, Kai brought the bucket and sat on it, and began winding bandages around the worst of the wounds. When that was done he cleaned and wrapped his wrist as well, where the skin had been rubbed away by the handcuffs.

As far as his hand went, Kai didn’t know what to do; the fingers were so bent out of shape that it seemed pointless to try to wrap or splint them (and the first aid kit didn’t seem to have anything to splint them with, anyway). He was too afraid of damaging them further to do more than clean the area where bone had split through the skin – it set his teeth on edge each time he brushed against the white splinter. Silently praying that it wouldn’t be too late to save them if – when – Lloyd was rescued and taken to a hospital, Kai laid his hand down carefully on his lap so it wouldn’t dangle. Then he got up and shifted the bucket around with his foot to Lloyd’s other side to treat his right arm.

When he’d sat down and lifted the arm, he got a small scare when he noticed Lloyd’s eyes open and looking at him. He froze for a few seconds, watching Lloyd watching him. Then he averted his gaze and started cutting the cloth wrappings away.

“Kai…”

Lloyd’s voice was quiet enough that Kai could pretend not to hear it. He tossed away the bloody cloth strips and wetted the washcloth again to wipe Lloyd’s arm down with.

“Kai.”

Kai ignored him, his jaw clenched.

Lloyd was exhausted. Not just physically, but mentally. For the past… he didn’t even know how long now, but ever since ‘Kai’ had supposedly taken over as his tormentor, he’d been fighting two battles at once; the first against the unending pain and fear, the second against the unraveling of his own mind. The second battle had been fairly easy at the beginning, to convince himself this was all just a vivacious plot of Morro’s to make him believe he’d been abandoned. It didn’t even need convincing of; he knew Kai. To think that he would ever, ever do any of the things he’d been doing to Lloyd because he wanted to was not only unthinkable, it was ridiculous.

At least, it would have felt that way in a normal setting; if Lloyd had been sitting at home, warm, fed, safe, and surrounded by his family, with Kai sitting beside him on the couch playing some video game with Jay and Cole. But here, in this large, dark, empty room, with nothing and no one to keep his attention besides this twisted, nightmare version of Kai, literally beating it into him, over, and over, and over, how much he was hated… there was bound to be a final straw.

And this latest torment might just have been it, because even though Kai hadn’t looked or sounded much different than before, Lloyd had felt a difference – something in his voice, the look in his eyes, the things he’d said… but most of all the fact that he’d clearly not been enjoying what he was doing. He’d seemed angry, and determined… but not joyful. Which set him quite apart from Morro whenever he’d played his ‘games’. Lloyd couldn’t imagine that Morro would be that good an actor.

Which could only mean it really had been Kai mutilating him on the table. His brother, the Red Ninja, the one who’d given up the Fangblade to save him…

‘I should have chosen the Fangblade over you.’

Lloyd stared at Kai’s face as he wound bandages around his arm, his brow slightly furrowed in concentration. With an effort, Lloyd lifted his other arm, stiff with its new dressing, shifted in his seat and grabbed Kai’s wrist with his palm and thumb, stopping him mid-wind. Silently he beseeched him to meet his eyes.

Kai froze again, holding Lloyd’s arm and staring resolutely at the wounds for a moment. Then he caved and lifted his head.

Lloyd searched his dark brown eyes, feeling the last flame of hope dying away inside him; this was the same Kai. The same man who’d loomed over him with a knife while he’d been strapped down. He had no way of knowing if it had been him all along since after the second message torture, but it hardly mattered, because he was here right now, looking right at Lloyd. Looking at him and saying nothing. Fixing him up so he could be broken down again, after he’d already broken him with his own hands. Not saving him, not giving him any kind of sign that things would be alright. Lloyd couldn’t think of a single reason, if this really were Kai, why he wasn’t helping Lloyd escape right now. He couldn’t think of any reason why Morro would be allowing him this much control, if Kai hadn’t beaten Morro and taken it back himself.

No reason, except for the one Morro had said – that Kai was on his side, willingly helping with the tortures.

That Kai hated Lloyd and wanted him to suffer. Wanted to make him suffer.

Lloyd felt a pain in his heart, more agonizing than what the drugs he’d been given had inflicted on it. He dropped his hand, defeated, closed his eyes and turned his face away.

Kai tried not to take this show of rejection too hard. But it still hurt.

He tied off the bandages on Lloyd’s arm, then cleaned and bound his wrist. After that he tapped the back of Lloyd’s head, indicating for him to lean forward. Lloyd did so without turning to look at him, and Kai cleaned and patched up the slashes on his back.

While he was doing that he had a thought. Can I give him some of the water to drink? he asked Morro. He must be dehydrated. From all the blood loss. And the crying, he didn’t say.

He could already feel Morro’s refusal. (Not part of the deal.)

But what does it matter?

(It would be caring too much. He’ll drink the water I give him later, when I want him to.) He paused. (Also your time is up.)

What? How would you know that?

(I’m estimating. But I bet I’m right.)

Kai checked his watch – Morro was right.

No. He couldn’t leave things like this. He thought he could stand it if it was for the greater good, that the ends justified the means, but Lloyd turning away from him like that and holding back his tears had twisted something inside him. He had to give him some kind of sign, some semblance of hope.

Kai put his hand on Lloyd’s shoulder and squeezed it gently, trying to pour everything he couldn’t say into the gesture.

Then he was shoved aside and his hand wasn’t his anymore, even though he could still feel it. It acted of its own accord, turning its grip on Lloyd vicelike, digging the nails into his burned skin. When Lloyd only tensed a bit in response, Morro opened Kai’s mouth and commanded in Kai’s voice, “Look at me.”

Lloyd still refused to turn his head. Morro grabbed his face and forced him around.

He stared into the dull green eyes of the golden-haired ninja, looking for any hint of defiance. Evidently he could find none, for he released Lloyd’s chin and left his seat, pushing the bucket away with his foot. Then he searched around in his pockets and conjured another pair of handcuffs, thinner than the Vengestone ones on Lloyd’s ankles. Kai recalled them being the ones Morro himself had been cuffed in when he’d been arrested.

“Well, you know the drill,” said Morro, affecting the forced monotone of voice that Kai had been using rather than his own jovially malicious one. “I’m off to deliver the new message to the others. So you’ll be on your own for an hour or so, which means…” He walked around behind Lloyd’s chair and yanked his arms back, holding his bandaged wrists in one hand and clamping the handcuffs over them with the other. Though Lloyd groaned in discomfort he didn’t resist. He knew it was no use. No promises of staying put or logical arguments that he couldn’t leave even if he tried would do anything. Kai wanted nothing from him.

Except for him to suffer.

Which was why he wasn’t surprised either, though no less dismayed, when Kai pulled out Lloyd’s sock from under the table and wadded it up. “Open wide,” he said. Lloyd did.

Well he’s just completely given up, said Morro as he stuffed the sock in Lloyd’s mouth. You were right. You were the key to making him lose hope. Well done.

(Don’t talk to me.)

Kai watched Lloyd’s eyes as Morro tied a cloth strip around his mouth. It could have been a trick of the light, but he could’ve sworn the green had completely left them.

Chapter Text

When Morro had barred the barn door and walked a few paces away, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the photo Kai had taken. Kai shoved down the nervousness that threatened to rise in him, and tried to cover it with resentment. (Are you happy? Cause I’m never doing that again.)

“Hmm.” Morro appraised the picture, holding it up to the light.

Kai tried distracting him. (You're going to go send it to Master Wu and the others now, right?)

Mmm... No. Morro lowered the picture and looked back at the barn.

Kai struggled to keep the panic out of his thoughts. (You want to torture Lloyd some more first? It seems a little pointless to go immediately back to injuring him after I've just treated his injuries. Let him have a break, go out and deliver your sick message.)

Except, it's not really mine, is it?

A deadly beat of silence. (What do you mean?)

I mean I wasn't really the one who wrote this, or even came up with it. It'd be meaningless coming from you.

(I'm sure Master Wu won't notice the difference. He'll probably be too busy helping Misako recover from the heart attack this will give her when she sees it, if he doesn't get one himself!)

Nah. I don't like it. I think I'll just get rid of this. Morro conjured a flame in the hand not holding the photo.

Kai couldn’t stop himself. (NO NO! GODDAMMIT STOP!!)

Morro held the picture up just above the fire. What difference does it make to you? I would think you'd want your sensei to be spared from seeing what you did.

In that moment, if Kai had had a body of his own, he would have gotten down on his knees and put his hands together in supplication. (Listen to me... I did NOT just do... the most awful thing I've ever done in my life... for fucking NOTHING.)

You didn't do it for nothing. You got to treat Lloyd's wounds, didn't you? That was the deal.

(But... but it...)

Or was the real goal this picture all along?

Kai’s heart dropped into his stomach.

Morro’s mouth quirked up in a triumphant smirk.

When I told you I wanted to be the one to treat Lloyd’s wounds, you didn’t back out of torturing him to offer something else instead, like you did before. I was changing the deal, it would’ve made sense for you to do the same. The fact that you insisted on staying in control made me think you wanted to pull something while doing the first aid. But I couldn’t see anything suspicious. So it must be this.

(I wasn’t trying to pull anything! I just wanted to help Lloyd!)

What's in here that you want your friends to see, huh? Morro peered at the photo, eyes scanning it from corner to corner, before they settled on the cuts on Lloyd’s stomach.

Oren? What does that mean?

(Fucking nothing!! I don’t know what you’re talking about!)

Morro squinted.

F... sak? Does it stand for something? Or is it sake? As in for the sake of something. Or are you asking for a bottle of sake? What does it mean? Is it a code?

(That's just the way the letters turned out! I wasn't concentrating on making them look perfect, you know!)

Morro extinguished the fire in his hand, and Kai wilted with relief. But then he said, Fine. Maybe I’ll go in and finish taking out Lloyd’s eye after all, if that’s how you’re going to be.

(Morro. Morro, no, please, you don't need to do that-)

Tell me why you want this picture delivered. What do those letters mean?

Morro sounded oddly frustrated, and Kai felt him digging around in his head, trying to forcibly drag Kai’s thoughts from him as easily as he’d done many times before.

(They don't mean anything, you paranoid bastard! That's just how they turned out!)

Tell me or I’ll-

Kai threw caution to the wind, hoping that Morro’s confidence in his own abilities would work against him this time; he wouldn’t believe that there was a memory Kai possessed that he couldn’t access, and Kai just had to trust that the entirety of his plan would be masked by virtue of being conceived while Kai was a spirit.

(Look through my head! Go on, look through my entire life, every memory I have! You're not going to find those words anywhere because they mean NOTHING! They're not a code, they're not a name or a place, they're just random letters!) He put whatever meager guard he had down and opened himself out.

Morro didn’t go easy on him. He tore through the open gate to Kai’s memories, his subconscious, his very essence, and rifled through them with the fervor of a bloodhound digging out burrowed game. In super fast forward, Kai saw his life flash before his eyes, snatches of moments from both before his ninja days and after, in the company of family, friends, allies, strangers, and enemies. Flashes of letters written and sent, comics and books he’d read, signs, newspapers, and even movie posters. A piercing migraine bloomed in his head, and Morro groaned and dropped to his knees, the photo falling from his hand. Kai’s skull felt like it was splitting open, exposing the gray matter inside. He fought the instinct to resist, wanting Morro to see he had nothing to hide, secretly praying that at no point would the image of that buried metal sign Lloyd had tripped over come up in Morro’s search, especially when it reached the last few days and Morro scrutinized every detail as though with a fine-toothed comb.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but had really only been less than a minute, Morro let out the breath he’d been holding and lowered his head to the cool grass, pressing his palms against his temples as the migraine faded out. Kai, just as fatigued by the invasive scouring of his mind, if not more so, waited in silence for his verdict.

Morro reached for the picture and plucked it from the grass. His hand shook as he looked at it again.

If they really don't mean anything, give me one good reason why you’re so worried about me getting rid of this photo. What's it to you?

Kai had had about enough. (You want to know why? Because I know you'll still want to show off and send another message to Wu today, which means you'll cut Lloyd again, even though I already did it! And I am done with that! Lloyd is done. Do whatever other fucked up thing you want but you have filled your quota for blood messages!)

Morro considered Kai’s words very carefully. Then he snorted.

There's hardly any room left to write another word anyway. Did you think I'd go for his legs next?

(I don't fucking know, okay? Don't ask me! You're not getting another torture suggestion as a freebie!)

“Hahaha!” Morro laughed aloud and stood up. Alright, Kai. I believe you. You did what you promised, and that deserves its due. I know the importance of recognizing hard work. We'll let Lloyd rest and go send this double heart attack. I was lying anyway, you know. I like the picture. I think it’s the best one so far.

(You’re so fucking welcome.)

The only issue now though is I can’t exactly drop it off at the tea shop like usual, and I don’t think going into the city is a good idea either. You’re a wanted man now. Anyway Wu and his girlfriend probably aren’t even back yet from Stiix. So, you wanna help me think of some other way to get this to him? ‘Cause otherwise I won’t have anything to do but go back inside right now and start playing my next game with Lloyd.

(Fuck… I don’t know, you could…)

Kai’s first thought was that he wanted the photo to go to Zane – as the smartest of their group he would be the most likely to decipher Kai’s hidden message – but presumably Zane was with Jay in Ninjago City, visiting Luka to find out more about Morro. Kai suddenly wished, perversely, that Morro hadn’t revealed himself to Nya and Cole; if he’d kept up the appearance of being ‘Kai’ he could’ve still been privy to the ninja’s movements and plans.

This train of thought led Kai to remembering: there was a way for Morro to communicate with the ninja.

As soon as Kai thought of it, Morro knew of it too, and he reached around to the back of his neck and pulled up Kai’s mask that came with the red gi he wore. The mask that had a communication device woven inside it.

This thing? How’s it work? Can I call someone specific on it?

(It’s not a phone, it’s like a two-way walkie-talkie. Only me and the others can hear through it. I’m not a tech head like Jay or Nya, but I’m pretty sure it can’t be traced like a phone either. You just press the button if you want to use it.)

Morro pushed his thumb against the comm in his ear. There was a quiet sound like someone tapping a microphone, but nothing else.

“Uh, hello?” said Morro, using Kai’s voice. “Can anyone hear me?”

He waited for a bit, but there was only silence.

What gives?

(You’re out of range) said Kai. (I don’t know how far these things can reach but we’re in the middle of nowhere right now. No way they’ll hear us all the way in the city.)

Morro’s furrowed brows lifted in enlightened glee. So we gotta get closer to where we know some other ninja will be.

(Yes…?)

Morro summoned the corrupted Fire Dragon and mounted its back. Feeling like paying your home village another visit?

Morro landed the dragon just on the outskirts of Ignacia, under the cover of a natural outcropping. He could see the village spread out before him, and at the far edge, the Four Weapons Blacksmith. Barely eighty minutes had passed since he’d last been there, so it wasn’t unlikely that Cole and Nya were still there too.

Morro pressed his hand to the comm and spoke, this time in his own voice. “Hello? Ninja? Can you hear me?”

There was a pregnant pause. Then came Nya’s voice in his ear, muffled a bit by radio feedback.

“…Morro? Why are you still here?”

Morro smirked in triumph. “I should be asking you that. I know you ninja are pathetic, but how have you still not found a way out of that blacksmith’s shop by now? Is a locked door really such a tough challenge?”

“We only woke up a few minutes ago,” groused Nya. She and Cole were in fact now standing outside the Four Weapons, Cole listening to the conversation on his own comm next to her. “You owe us a new lock.” Despite the situation she’d refused to break open the window of her parents’ shop as Cole had first suggested. Not that she thought anyone would come to steal anything, but she hadn’t wanted to leave the place looking abandoned.

“Well while you guys were napping, I’ve been busy being productive. By which I mean I’ve got something to show for it that I’d really like you to see.”

Nya and Cole exchanged a look, and Nya could see by Cole’s blanched face that he’d understood the same thing she had. She swallowed.

“So I’d like for us to meet,” Morro continued. “Just me and you. Not the meathead, though. He can stay back. I’m not coming out just for you guys to try to ambush me again. Don’t forget I have your brother hostage. And you’ll never find Lloyd if you get rid of me. So I was thinking we could–”

“No.”

Morro stuttered to a halt. “No? What do you mean, no?”

“I’m not meeting you,” said Nya. “You want to give us another photo of Lloyd, right? Well we don’t want it. There’s no point in letting you get off on seeing us suffer. I think I can imagine what you’ve done to him, and it won’t make us any less hell bent on getting him away from you and making sure you pay for it.” She said the last through gritted teeth.

Cole had nodded his agreement at her, then supplied his own two cents. “Yeah, fuck off, Morro. We’re not playing your sick games.”

Morro was stunned into silence for a moment, during which Kai tried very, very hard to control his panic and rage; he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard, couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that his plan, which had miraculously overcome every obstacle so far, could end up getting unknowingly ruined by his own sister. It took every atom of self-control he possessed to keep quiet, to wait and see what Morro would do. In a twist of fate, Lloyd’s salvation, that Kai had sacrificed so much to secure, now lay in the hands of the one who’d imprisoned him in the first place.

He held his nonexistent breath as Morro spoke.

“Hm. Okay. If that’s how you feel, then I guess I have no reason to leave Lloyd alone anymore. It’ll be nonstop fun and games from now on, just me and him. Until you find us somehow. Or until he quits.”

The last four words rang ominously in the ears of Cole, Nya, and Kai.

Nya looked at Cole worriedly. He only shrugged, deferring the decision to her. “How about a trade, then?” she said. “Something in exchange for getting the photo to Wu?”

“Such as?”

“You could let Kai go.”

“Fat chance,” Morro scoffed. “So he can tell you where Lloyd is?”

“You can erase his memories,” suggested Nya, knowing it was a long shot. “For real this time. I know you can. At least then Kai will be back with us.”

While Kai wasn’t too keen on the idea of his memories being erased – as blissful as it would be to forget everything he’d done to Lloyd, he hated the thought of Lloyd coming out of this ordeal thinking the worst of him for reasons he couldn’t even recall, and be unable to explain himself – he much relished the idea of aiding the others in rescuing Lloyd, perhaps even figuring out his own clue that he’d left, over being used to continue torturing him for however much longer it would take them. His hopes were immediately dashed however when Morro gave Nya his answer.

“Sorry, Water Girl. I’ve grown pretty attached to this body. I don’t want to give it up that easily. It’s my chance at living a second life after I’m done with the Green Wonder. Far away from you and Wu and anyone else.”

Nya and Cole exchanged wide-eyed looks of alarm; it had never occurred to them that Morro would want to stay in Kai’s body permanently. “Hey,” said Cole, “hold on a minute. Who said you could–?”

“Anyway a whole ass person for one measly photo is hardly a fair exchange,” Morro cut over him. “Maybe think a little smaller. In fact let me ask you something that’ll give you an idea. Do you know the last time your boy Lloyd had anything to eat?”

The turn of the conversation was unexpected, but now that Nya was forced to think of it her heart weighed heavy at the thought of Lloyd being starved on top of being physically harmed.

“Not since yesterday,” Morro answered his own question. “And even then what he ate could only just be qualified as food. Alas,” he sighed in mock distress, “I can’t go into town to get anything decent for him. I can’t even go home to fix him something as simple as a sandwich. Come to think of it, I’m feeling a little peckish myself. Breakfast was so long ago.”

Cole’s fist shook at his side, and Nya knew he was also thinking of how Morro had sat among them that morning eating their food, with none of them the wiser. He must have been secretly laughing at them the whole time! “You want us to… bring you some sandwiches… in exchange for another picture of Lloyd?”

“Right!” said Morro happily. “I give you something for Wu, you give me something for Lloyd. Makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“How would we know you’d even give the food to Lloyd and not just throw it away?” said Cole. “Or worse, eat it all in front of him?” He winced as he realized he’d unwittingly given Morro some cruel ideas.

“How would I know if you actually gave this picture to Wu or not, instead of just throwing it away?” said Morro. “We’re in the same boat here. You’re just going to have to trust me.”

Both Nya and Cole belt out short laughs of derision. “Yeah, right.”

“You think I’m ‘evil’, but I’ll have you know I’ve never broken a deal so far.” Morro smirked. “Even your brother can tell you that.”

(Doesn’t mean you’re not a liar.)

I’ve never lied! Morro was affronted. I told you before, I don’t say things I don’t mean.

Kai conjured up the memory of Morro leaning over Lloyd’s arm the day before, the knife in his hand scarlet with blood, his other hand gripping the voice recorder in his pocket. “No need to feel embarrassed, Lloyd. It’s not like anyone’s gonna hear it but us.”

Eh, one time. Nobody’s perfect.

(And the fact that you’ve been pretending to be me and literally lying to him about me hating him doesn’t count?)

Was that all really a lie though? I don’t remember making you say all that stuff to him earlier about wishing you’d let him die in an inferno so that you could get a cool sword–

(SHUT UP! SHUT THE HELL UP!!) Kai beat against the mental barrier in a fevered rage. (Don’t ever talk about that to me ever again!!!)

Morro chuckled darkly.

“What’s so funny?” came Nya’s voice in his ear. “Were you listening?”

“Sorry about that, sis. What were you saying?”

“I said I’ll do it. For Lloyd. Give me some time to go back to Steep Wisdom and get the food. Cole will go meet up with Jay.”

“And what’s my guarantee of that?”

“You're just going to have to trust me,” replied Nya scathingly.

Morro smiled. “Touché. You get half an hour then. I’ll wait around the tea shop. Keep this wire thing on you so I can tell you where to meet. If I get a single whiff of the cops or another ninja, then you’ll get your brother’s body back after all… with no occupants.”

The comm went silent. Nya and Cole lowered their hands in unison.

“Let’s hurry back,” said Cole. “We can tell the police he’s coming. Only this time we’ll get some Vengestone so he can’t use his powe–”

“Vengestone?” said Nya dully. “You have any handy? Or can get some in just half an hour?”

Cole stammered for a moment before collecting himself. “Er, well, then, we can get Zane to trap him in ice until we find some–”

“What if his powers don’t work?” Nya’s voice was still monotonous and blunt. “You were having trouble using yours, weren’t you?”

Cole looked away shiftily. “Y-… Yeah, I did. They felt weak. It’s probably because…” He heaved a sigh. “Because Lloyd isn’t doing so good right now.”

“Exactly. And even though my powers aren’t connected to Lloyd’s, they’re still completely useless against Morro. So I don’t know about you, Cole, but I’m having trouble thinking of any way to take advantage of this stupid deal besides just going home and making a goddamn sandwich, like he said.” As Nya talked her words became more bitter and frustrated, her mouth curling in a grimace. “That’s all the Girl Ninja is good for. If I can even be called a ninja!”

“Woah, hey, where’s this coming from?” Cole reached for her shoulder tentatively but didn’t touch her. He’d promised Jay he’d back off. “Of course you’re a ninja! Even if you haven’t reached your Full Potential yet, you mastered your powers faster than any of us did! And even before that you were already fighting for Ninjago as Samurai X, saving our butts more than once before we knew it was you.”

“Hah!” Nya rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Samurai X, yeah… I loved it, you know? ‘Cause it was mine, I chose to do it and made it work. But when Master Wu said I had to be the Water Ninja I accepted that. Yeah it was hard but I could also make it work, you know? I had to make it work. Except now it doesn’t, right when it really matters suddenly it’s useless, and now I’m left with nothing to do but…” she paused, looked at Cole with eyes full of regret, “…quit.”

Cole considered her for a moment. Then he reached for her hand and squeezed it firmly. Screw backing off. Nya was his friend. “If you do that, then it doesn’t matter whether your powers work or not. You’d be choosing not to be a ninja. Which is totally up to you, but… Kai and me and the others have lost our powers before. And that didn’t stop us from doing what we can do instead. Know why?”

Nya fought a small smile. When she answered Cole spoke the words with her. “Because ninja never quit.”

“Right. Maybe we can’t do anything right now. But it doesn’t mean we can’t do anything, you know? Besides, there’s no way you’re giving up on Kai. Or Lloyd.”

Nya shook her head. “No.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “No I’m not.”

Cole smiled and let go of her hand, but she moved into him for a hug and he gladly wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you,” she said softly.

Cole agreed to find Jay and exchange information with him while Nya updated Zane at Steep Wisdom. When he dropped her off there she found the shop empty except for the Nindroid himself, standing at attention by the counter as though he’d been waiting for her.

“Zane,” she said quickly, “listen, there’s not much time. Where are the officers you came with?”

“They had to step out for awhile,” said Zane, smiling pleasantly. “I offered them some tea to drink while they waited, but I think the particular flavor I prepared disagreed with them.” He opened the divide of the counter and stepped through towards her. Speaking at a lower volume, he said, “I heard your whole negotiation with Morro. I gather he is currently possessing Kai, isn’t he? And has been this whole time.”

“You gather right,” said Nya grimly. “How’d you hear us all the way in Ignacia?”

“You forget, I am a Nindroid. My communication system’s range is quite a bit wider than yours. Unfortunately I didn't know where you were and couldn’t come over to assist you while the policemen were here. They were clearly suspicious of our involvement with Kai’s escape, and were keeping as close an eye on me as they were looking out for Kai.”

“Well, there’s nothing real suspicious about what I’m going to do now,” sighed Nya, moving past him to the back door. “Unless they think I might switch out the baloney for a weapon.”

“Baloney? I’m not sure I follow.” Zane followed her as she made her way to the kitchen.

“You heard what Morro said. I’m making a sandwich for Lloyd. And Kai.”

“That’s it?” Zane watched her dubiously as she started opening the cabinets and fridge and getting all the fixings out. “Would this not be a good opportunity to try to capture Morro ourselves?”

“You’re the Nindroid,” said Nya lightly, already laying out two slices of bread and slathering mayonnaise on one and ketchup on the other – Lloyd and Kai’s favorite condiments respectively. “You tell me how we’re going to set a trap for him while he’s immune to water and your powers aren’t at full capacity.”

Zane looked at his hand, turned towards the opposite entrance to the kitchen, and thrust his palm out towards it. A smattering of ice shards shot at the floor and stuck there, but not enough ice had appeared to block the whole doorway as Zane had intended. “I see,” he said concernedly. “Lloyd…”

“Which is why it’s important that he gets his strength back.” Nya ripped up some leaves of lettuce and slapped them down on top of the two bread slices. Then her face lit up at a sudden thought. “Finish these for me, will you?” she told Zane, dashing out of the kitchen, back through the hallway to the shop and bursting outside.

Ever since they’d been living here, the ninja had had to leave the bulk of their weapons and gear in the Destiny’s Bounty, given that there wasn’t much room inside Garmadon’s old dojo. Nya often missed her Samurai X cave and its grotto of machinery and mechs, but for the moment the thing she needed was a relatively simple piece of technology that she was sure she could find an example of somewhere on the Bounty. She went into the sleeping quarters, where the boys kept some of their lesser used hobby-related things, and rummaged first through Jay’s then Cole’s trunks of miscellaneous junk. Ironically it wasn’t until she dug through Kai’s things that she finally found what she was looking for: a tape recorder. An older model than the one Morro had used and sent to Wu and Misako, but still serviceable. She breathed a sigh of relief to see a tape already inside it, and unmindful about what was on it, rewound it to the beginning and pressed record.

“Lloyd. I don’t even know if you’ll hear this, but I…” She hesitated. There was no time to practice this. She tried to imagine Lloyd was right in front of her, as she had seen him in the last photo Morro had sent. Sitting in a tall-backed chair, burns all over his torso, his arm ripped open and bloody… and his eyes almost drained of hope as they looked straight at her.

When she spoke again her voice was hard and clear. “You are stronger than him. You hear me? He is not going to break you! We are definitely going to find you. We will get you back and we all will save Kai together. You are the greatest ninja in the realm! And ninja never quit!”

She let the tape run a bit more, but couldn’t think of anything else to add and pressed stop. Perhaps it wasn’t the most inspirational speech in the world, and maybe Lloyd wasn’t in a condition where a few words would provide any comfort… but the empty look in his eyes had made her feel he needed some assurance that he hadn’t been forgotten, that he needed to hear someone else’s voice other than that of his tormentor.

And she would not allow him to hear that voice be uncertain and scared for him.

Morro directed Nya via comm to a copse of trees about a mile east of the tea shop. Zane offered to follow her and try to jump Morro from behind or encase him in ice (“I’m sure I could at least freeze his feet to the ground,” he said, a note of doubt in his voice), but Nya didn’t want to risk it. “He didn’t want to trade Kai,” she said, “because he knows he can use him as leverage. He’s not afraid of killing ‘himself’ if he thinks things will go south for him. He wants to keep doing… whatever he’s doing to Lloyd.” Nya’s voice was strained. “More than he wants to keep Kai’s body for himself.”

Zane had nodded heavily. “We cannot compromise Kai’s safety,” he agreed. “But when he leaves I will try to see which direction he will go. Following him on dragonback would be too conspicuous, so at least we can try to narrow down the possible locations Lloyd could be."

Morro stood waiting for Nya with the carving knife held against his throat. As soon as he saw her he wiggled it so that the sunlight reflected against the blade, flashing it warningly towards her. She nodded to show she’d seen it.

“You got what I asked?”

Nya held out a brown paper bag towards him. He took it from her and one-handedly unrolled the top to look inside. Two plastic-wrapped sandwiches lay at the bottom, one on top of the other. Something else, heavier and boxy, lay with them, nearly hidden.

Morro held the bag out to Nya. “The hell is that?”

Nya reached into the bag and pulled out the tape recorder. “A message for Lloyd.”

“That wasn’t part of the trade.”

“Food for one photo. Voice message for the one you sent yesterday.”

Morro snorted. “Take it the fuck back. Like there isn’t a tracker in it or something.”

“There isn’t!” said Nya honestly, though now that he’d said it she really wished she’d thought of the idea before. No sooner had the thought come than she was forced to retract it though, when Morro nudged her to hold the paper bag so he could take out first one and then the other sandwich, pressing them between his fingers as he felt for anything small and hard hidden between the bread slices. When he was satisfied that there was nothing inedible he dropped them back in the bag, took it and rolled it closed again, then stuffed it into his gi.

As he produced the photo Kai had taken from his pocket, Nya thrust the tape recorder at his chest before he could give it to her. “Either you take this to him or I rip that picture in two.”

Kai restrained himself from yelling at her. No point when she couldn’t hear him and Morro could.

Morro slowly slipped the photo back, lifted a finger and pressed play on the device. Nya’s voice rang out, repeating what she’d said in the Bounty. A bit of silence. Then new audio, what had been recorded on the tape already, played from the middle; the sound of running water overlaid with someone singing loudly and obnoxiously. The singing cut off abruptly as Kai’s voice, higher pitched with youth, angrily shouted, “Jay you piece of shit, gimme that!” followed by Jay’s hearty laughter and footsteps as he ran away. Sounds of a scuffle. Then silence.

Morro raised an eyebrow at Nya. Haughtily, despite her burning cheeks, she put the recorder in his hand. “Just… play the first part. Look.” She opened the tape holder and showed it to him, closed it and opened the battery compartment, even removing and returning the batteries, then deftly split the device down the middle along the seams and showed him the inner workings. "No tracker." She snapped it together again.

“Pfft.” Morro seemed too much at a loss to argue further. He pocketed the recorder and extracted the photo again, handing it to Nya, who took it with forced impartiality. Her composure immediately broke when she saw it properly.

“Oh! Oh Lloyd! No...!”

The awkwardly light-hearted mood engendered by the tape audio was instantly killed. Nya was horrified at what she saw; Lloyd’s injuries had multiplied tenfold since the previous photo. He was lying down – strapped down – on a wooden table, and almost every visible inch of him was bruised or bloodied. His chest had been badly burned, the skin there meaty pink, cratered in some places and bumpy with swollen blisters in others. His chained feet were bare, and it took Nya a second to realize that rather than being dirty they had also been burned, charred a dark burgundy. His right leg was bent unnaturally at the knee, making her think it must be broken. And of course, a new word had been carved into him, this time on his stomach, just under the mostly healed wound he’d sustained on Kai’s sword. Starkly clear even against his mottled skin, jagged and uneven, the letters ‘FORSAKEN’ glistened wetly in the dim light of whatever room he was in. Unlike in the previous two photos, his eyes were closed, his head slumped heavily to the side. As though he were asleep, or unconscious, or…

“Is he...?” Nya choked on the word.

“He's still alive. For now. And if you want him to stay that way you’ll give that to Wu. Or you can give it to the cops, but then of course you’d have to explain where you got it from. And I don’t think you’d get on their good side if they knew you knew where I was and didn’t tell them.”

Nya shook her head in grief, unable to tear her eyes away from Lloyd. “What's the point of this?” she breathed. “We already knew it was you since the first one.”

“I just thought you might want to see what your big brother's been up to since the last time you saw him.”

“You’re not my brother!”

“No duh.” Morro rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I meant.”

When Nya understood his implication she looked shocked, then repulsed. “That's a disgusting lie. You are sick.”

Morro leered over her. “Why would I tell such an obvious lie unless it were true?”

Nya stared at him, her eyes flicking back and forth between Kai’s. Slowly she raised her hand to his cheek, and Morro stiffened in surprise, not lowering the knife from his neck.

“Kai,” said Nya softly. “I'm so, so sorry. I'm going to free you, I swear.”

Kai’s heart ached with love and sorrow.

Morro hummed in amusement. He took her wrist and firmly pulled it down from his face.

“How do you know he wants to be freed?” he said.

She wrenched her hand out of his grasp. When she put the photo in her own pocket, Kai had to stifle his overwhelming relief by reminding himself that the chance was still very slim that she would even notice there was a clue in it, much less figure out what it meant. There was also the fact that now that Morro was done he would be returning to Lloyd, which could only mean more aimless torture. His insides successfully filled with dread.

Morro jerked his chin up at Nya, emphasizing the knife still pressed to his throat. “Now turn around and walk away. Don’t stop until you’ve counted two hundred steps.”

Nya turned and walked.

Morro waited until she’d gone far enough that she looked as small as a thumb tack before he moved himself, never dropping the knife from his neck, looking left and right for any signs of an attack or tail.

(Pretty sure we’re alone. You can put the knife down now.)

Morro ignored him. He slowed his walk and cocked his head, listening. Then, he went up to a nearby tree, put his left hand flat against the trunk, and stabbed the knife clean through the back of it.

Kai's head burst with shock and pain.

His mouth opened and he screamed into the air, scaring birds into flight, the pain so visceral and jarring that it took him a few seconds to be conscious of the fact that yes, it was him screaming, not Morro, he now stood with his hand pinned to a tree and leaking dark blood, and it was he who cried and cursed as he reached for the handle to wrench it out. No sooner had his fingers brushed against the tip though than he was shoved back and Morro took over again, sweating and gritting his teeth to choke down the tail end of Kai's interjections.

"This is just a warning, ninja!" he hollered into the grove. "Next time I hear you anywhere near me it goes through his neck! You hear me?!"

Zane, who'd listened to Kai's guttural cries with horror and guilt, made himself go very still, holding his arms in as close to his sides as he could so that no bit of him could be seen from behind the tree he was pressing against. He raised the sensitivity on his audio receptors, listening for when Morro pulled the knife out of Kai's hand and continued on his way. He did not move a fiber until Morro's footsteps against the grass had faded out, and then he simply slid down the trunk to sit at the base and catch his unneeded breath for a minute, unable to respond to Pixal's worried queries in his head until he'd banished the image of Kai lying dead on the ground with a slit throat, the ghost of Morro floating over him.

Chapter Text

When Zane returned to Steep Wisdom he and Nya had barely exchanged looks of regret and disappointment before the officers returned, clutching their stomachs and looking a little peaky. They questioned Nya’s presence in the shop, to which she archly replied that she lived here and could come and go as she pleased. “Especially since my brother is a wanted criminal now,” she said forlornly, hugging her arms and making herself look scared and vulnerable. The officers tactfully backed off.

Right then a phone started ringing and one of the policemen pulled it from his pocket and answered it. “Chief? Yeah, no dice here either… Doesn’t seem like it, no… Yeah he’s still here, the girl too. Right, sure.” He held the phone out to Nya. “Commissioner wants to speak to you,” he said.

Nya took the phone, making a snap decision in her head. “Hello?”

“Afternoon, Miss Ninja,” the Commissioner said gruffly. “Thought you might like to know your brother didn’t show up at any of the places you gave us.”

“He’s not stupid,” murmured Nya, coating her voice in gloom. “He would’ve guessed you’d be waiting for him. What are you going to do now?”

The Commissioner sighed. “Well, it’s unlikely he’ll turn up so conveniently now. So as nice as it would’ve been to take him in and get to the bottom of this case directly from the source, it’s better we pull back for now and put our energy into finding the Green Ninja ourselves. We’ll probably find Kai there with him.”

“Good,” said Nya with honest relief. “I still can’t believe Kai would do something like this, but you have our full support; if we see him anywhere we’ll let you know. Right now the most important thing to us is finding Lloyd.”

Zane gave her a quizzical look but said nothing.

“Much obliged,” said the Commissioner. “We’ve got analysts going through those photos to figure out possible locations. We’ll let you know when we get any major breaks. Pass the phone back to the officer.”

Nya did, and after a few words of assent the officer hung up and informed Nya and Zane that he and his partner would be taking their leave. Both ninja let out sighs of relief when the front door closed behind them and their footsteps faded out.

“Cooperating with the police would be in our best interests,” Zane said, nodding his head, as though Nya had just given him a full explanation of her actions.

“I figured,” said Nya, resting her elbows against the counter top of the shop till. “Chasing Kai is chasing Morro. It’d actually be a good thing if they catch him, though I don’t think they will.”

There was a pause. “Morro gave you the photograph, then?” asked Zane quietly.

Nya nodded once.

Zane hesitated, knowing the natural next question would be to see the photo and not wanting to ask it. Nya felt the unasked question hovering in the air and ignored it too.

“I am sorry, Nya,” Zane said instead. “You were right. I should not have tried to go after Morro. Kai is fine,” he said quickly when he saw the alarm on Nya’s face, “but Morro hurt him to warn me away.” He shook his head. “If what you said is true about him being immune to water now, it will be difficult for us to capture him as long as he has Kai. I hate to say it, but it would be more prudent for us to continue to look for Lloyd first, and… leave Kai as he is for now.”

Nya pressed her mouth closed to stop her lips from trembling. “Yeah,” she said after a moment. “I know. Morro said he… wants to keep using Kai’s body after… after he’s done with Lloyd. He won’t do anything else to him as long as he’s not threatened.” She took a deep breath, and when she spoke again her voice was mostly back to normal. “So we need to find Lloyd soon.” So saying she took out her phone and flicked to Jay’s number. He answered on the first ring.

“Nya? Hey, I was just about to call you. Cole filled me in about Kai.” Nya could practically see Jay stop himself from cursing in her ear. “He was right with us that whole time…”

Nya didn’t want to think about Kai anymore. She really needed to hear some good news for once. “Did you talk to Luka?”

“Yeah.” Jay gave a long heavy sigh. Not such good news then. “He didn’t have a whole lot to tell, to be honest. Big surprise, Morro was a little anti-social even as a kid.” Begrudgingly he mumbled, “Though I guess getting kidnapped and seeing your mother killed right in front of you would do that to you.”

“What did he say? Tell me everything.”

“Hang on, I wrote it down.” Nya could hear paper rustling, and was privately a lot more grateful now that Jay had been the one to talk to Luka; while Cole was solid and dependable in a lot of ways, Jay was definitely the more organized and meticulous of the two, belying his loud and complaining nature. She put the phone on loudspeaker for Zane’s benefit as Jay resumed speaking. “So, Luka remembers that he and the other kids were taken somewhere far away – they were blindfolded the whole trip while a guy told them what they would be doing – and when they finally got there they were told it was an underground factory.”

“That sure gave me flashbacks,” came Cole’s slightly distant voice. Jay shushed him.

“They were forced to sew patterns on carpets and tapestries and stuff like that – they used kids because they have small hands and could make precise stitches, you know? And there wasn’t a lot of time for them to like, socialize with each other, they pretty much had to work the whole time except when they were eating or sleeping, which was only for a few hours at a time. But Luka knew all the faces of the other kids; he was shut up there for around two years he thinks, and Morro was there the whole time with him.”

“That is terrible,” said Zane in consternation. “I did not know something like that could happen in Ninjago.”

“Not all evil is about taking over the world, buddy,” said Cole sadly.

“The good news is those kidnappers eventually got caught and the factory was raided by the cops,” continued Jay, “but the kids had no idea what was happening and thought they were in trouble too. So Luka and a bunch of the others, Morro included, managed to give them the slip and escape on their own. They lived off the streets of old Ninjago City, stealing what they could to eat, sleeping in dumpsters. A fight broke out between two of the oldest kids and the group split after that, and unfortunately Luka went off with a different group than Morro. But,” Jay stressed before Nya could be disappointed, “a couple more years later he finally got picked up and taken to a foster home, and he met the ringleader of the other group there. He asked that kid about the others that were with him, and he said they’d all followed him up until he’d got caught shoplifting, except for one who’d left them a couple months before then. ‘Morro, you know, that gloomy little dude with greasy hair,’ was what he said. He told Luka Morro had wanted to try to make it on his own – ‘thought he could do better than us somehow’ was how he put it – and said he was gonna head ‘away from the sea’, cause the thought of being on a boat scared him. Luka remembered all that word for word because he’d always been a little worried about Morro, since he came from his village and was the youngest kid at the factory.”

“Thank goodness for that,” said Zane. “This is very useful information for us.”

“Is it?” said Jay uncertainly.

“Yes. ‘Away from the sea’ would mean south of Ninjago City, which is where the monastery is located. Morro must have eventually found his way to Master Wu within that year or so. He would have been the right age, too.”

“So?”

“So now we have a timeline of everywhere Morro had been before he left Master Wu to find the tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master. We can narrow down the locations he would be familiar with, that are close enough to Ninjago City that he could fly to it every day in a short amount of time.” Zane went through the back door of the shop to the ninja’s home and returned not too long later with a rolled up map. He spread it on the counter and waved his hand over a space of land in between Ninjago City and a black ridge Nya knew to be the Mountains of Impossible Height, where the Monastery of Spinjitzu was situated. “These lands are mostly empty of people. If Morro had found a place to shelter in while he was traveling, it’s not unreasonable to suspect that it might still be there, all these years later. It would be an optimal place to keep Lloyd without fear of being discovered.”

Nya suddenly felt light-shouldered with hope, as though gravity had stopped pulling quite so hard as it had been for the past few days. “That’s a lot of ground to cover,” she said guardedly, “but if we could get the police to send out a search party…”

“What can we tell them, though?” asked Jay. “They don’t even believe Morro exists, remember? They’re gonna ask for a reason why we think Lloyd could be there, if he even is.”

“Listen,” said Nya excitedly, “I told the Commissioner a few minutes ago that we’d help him catch Kai. What if we spun it so that Kai thinks we’re still on his side, and that he came to us for help and gave a clue about where he’d be? Jay, you can tell them that he came to you directly – he found you at one of those arcades you’re always playing at, anything – and told you he was hiding out in the woods ‘somewhere south’ where he’s keeping Lloyd, and that he’d like you to help him out by keeping the police off him and bringing him food and stuff. Morro practically did exactly that with me and Cole!”

“You think they’ll listen?” asked Jay doubtfully.

“They have to,” said Zane. “We were the ones who reported Lloyd missing. If they need convincing, I can send you the audio I overheard of Morro talking to Nya on the comm. You can say you recorded him in secret on your phone. Of course, I’ll edit the voice to sound like Kai’s, and snip it to only include the part about him asking to meet: ‘Just me and you,’” Zane recited. “’Not the meathead, though. He can stay back. I’m not coming out just for you guys to try to ambush me again. Don’t forget I have your brother hostage. And you’ll never find Lloyd if you get rid of me.’”

“Hey, that’s good!” said Cole. “It could sound like he’s talking about Lloyd instead of Kai. Though, uh, maybe you can cut out the meathead part too?”

“While they search the woods in the south,” continued Nya, “Cole can go check out the factory those kids were locked up in. There’s a small chance Morro could be keeping Lloyd there, too, but there’s no reason for us to know about it, especially if it was closed off years ago, so we’ll keep that to ourselves from the detectives. Zane, you go with Cole to search it, just in case Morro really is there. Luka can tell you where it is, right?”

“He already did,” said Jay. “Poor guy looked like he had to make sure someone else knew it existed, I guess to not erase all the shit he went through while he was there. He said he visited it once, after he found his mom again.”

“That’s great.” Nya said nothing for a bit, not having anything else to add and waiting for someone to refute her plans or offer something better. No one did. She felt both reassured in herself again, and a little trepidatious. “Well… Let’s hope things pan out this time.”

“Amen to that,” said Cole. “See you in a bit Zane. Good luck, Jay.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” grumbled Jay. “You go check out the creepy abandoned slave labor factory, I get the truly awful job of dealing with Detective Douchebag. Later, Nya.”

The phone clicked. Nya sagged a bit over the map on the counter and Zane put a hand on her shoulder. “It is a good plan, Nya,” he assured her. “We are getting closer. I can feel it. And once Lloyd is safe we will pour all our energy into freeing Kai from Morro’s grasp.”

She looked at him. He hadn’t seen the picture, still now burning a hole in her pocket. None of them had. “It has to be soon, Zane,” she said. “We have to find Lloyd soon. In such a short amount of time, Morro did… while Cole and I were asleep the whole time…!” She exhaled slowly. “You know, I think I’ll go to the police too. Someone needs to make sure Jay doesn’t blow his top in Detective Tommy’s face.”

“Yes. I think that’s a good idea.”

Morro didn’t fly the dragon straight to the barn this time, but dropped down from its back amongst the surrounding woods instead. Leaning against a tree he cut a length from the end of Kai’s obi and wrapped it around his bleeding hand, wincing and biting his tongue. Fuck, that hurts. Stupid ninja.

(Yeah, ‘cause it was one of them that did this to you) said Kai sarcastically. He couldn’t pretend it didn’t hurt him too though, and he kept quiet as Morro continued winding the cloth tight. He noticed then that Morro had purposefully injured Kai’s non-dominant hand, and remembered again what there was to look forward to after this. Dread fell over him as Morro tied off the cloth with his teeth and carefully pulled his glove over the bandaged hand.

But Morro still didn’t turn towards the barn, instead finding a shaded base of a tree to sit under so he could eat his sandwich. Again Kai kept silent while he did so, not wanting to distract him from resting, maybe even falling asleep, wishing to draw out the time before they returned to Lloyd to unleash another nightmare on him as much as possible.

When he was done Morro stood and leisurely started strolling under the trees in the direction of the barn, every so often stopping to examine the lower branches. At one point he broke off the end of one and lifted it to his open mouth, before tossing it aside. He did the same to a slightly thicker branch, then another.

Kai had no idea what he was doing.

(The fuck are you up to now?)

You’ll find out. Morro shook the base of another low branch and broke the whole thing off, hefting it in his hands.

(What’s the point in hiding it from me? It’s not like I can do anything about it.)

Knowing you can’t do anything, you really still want to know?

(Yes. I do.)

Morro opened his mouth wide, held the branch up in front of his teeth as though about to take a bite, and slid it sideways, from the thinner end to the thicker. He stopped, held the branch firmly and shifted his hands so that they were spaced a few inches apart.

Well too bad. Just between you and me, your live reactions are almost as entertaining as Lloyd’s. And this one’s going to be a doozy.

Morro took out the knife and cut notches on the branch where he’d held it. Then he put it down, stood one foot on the space between the notches, and pulled at one end of the branch until it broke off. He tossed the end away and did the same with the other end, then used the knife to hack off the remaining jagged bits until he just had a hand’s width of wood left. He opened his mouth to its fullest extent, held the branch piece to the edge of his teeth, then nodded in satisfaction and pocketed it.

Kai was starting to feel more worried than weirded out. (You’re going to force-feed him wood now??)

Why do that when I’ve got a perfectly good sandwich made specially for him? said Morro innocently. At last he walked out to the clearing where the barn stood and went inside. Lloyd didn’t turn at the sound of the door opening, but Kai could tell he was awake because he was sitting up. He could see the frame of his shoulders in the gloom, shivering involuntarily, the police handcuffs clinking.

Morro took the tape recorder out of his pocket and dropped it into the open duffel bag against the wall, then pulled the plastic baggie of Shinju pills out of it. Kai hadn’t really thought Morro would play Nya’s message for Lloyd of course, but he still felt sad that Lloyd wouldn’t get to hear it.

He could’ve used every word of encouragement he could get right now.

“Guess who's ba-ack!” sang Morro as he came up behind Lloyd, and he was using his own voice again. He slapped his hands down on Lloyd’s shoulders, making him flinch. “Did you miss me? Bet you did.”

Lloyd watched him as he circled around to his front. Morro let him process his ‘return’, smiling warmly at him. To Kai’s astonishment and chagrin, he actually saw a little reassurance in Lloyd's eyes as he took in Morro’s now green-tinged skin and black hair. His shivering even abated a little.

Morro noticed too. “You did miss me! Awww, poor little Lloyd. That Red Ninja sure did a number on you, huh?” He crooned in mock sympathy, ruffling Lloyd’s hair. For once Lloyd didn’t shake his hand away, though he kept his gaze lowered dismally. “Least he patched you up, though. Now you're all refreshed and ready for more fun games with me!” Morro untied the cloth strip from Lloyd’s mouth and removed the sock. “Are you hungry?”

Lloyd nodded meekly at the floor.

“Thirsty too, I'll bet.”

He nodded again, more slowly.

Morro picked up the canteen of water Kai had used to clean Lloyd’s wounds, uncapped it and lifted it to Lloyd’s mouth. Lloyd drank eagerly, closing his eyes in relief at the cool clean water soothing his sore throat. He didn’t care if he looked pathetic. There was no one else here who did.

Morro let him drain the canteen, then pulled the other sandwich from the front of his gi. Lloyd stared at it in utter shock, as though it were his first time seeing one, and he hesitated when Morro unwrapped it and held it out to him.

“It’s fine, don’t worry,” said Morro. “Look.” He lifted the top slice of bread up, showing Lloyd the contents, then pulled a chunk of the sandwich off and popped it in his mouth. “Not poisoned.”

Lloyd ate, and after the first bite he immediately dropped his guard again, gratification clear to see on his face. Though the sandwich wasn’t particularly big, he took his time finishing it, savoring each bite as though he wanted to commit the taste to memory.

As though it were his last meal.

When he was done he stared in disbelief as Morro uncapped the second full canteen of water and held it out to him. When he didn’t move Morro rolled his eyes, lifted the canteen and tipped his head back, letting the water pour into his mouth. He swallowed and smacked his lips. “Refreshing.”

Lloyd drank from the rest.

When he was done he croaked, “Thank you.”

Morro grinned at him amusedly. “Damn. He must have really messed you up, huh?”

(You bastard…)

So I’m a bastard for giving him food and drink now? Good to know.

Lloyd reminded himself that Morro was no more on his side than Kai was. “As if you don't know,” he muttered.

“Hahaha. You're right Lloyd. I do know. I saw the whole thing. And it actually gave me the idea for our next game.” Morro pulled Lloyd’s chair back to its usual place in front of the table at the far end of the barn, facing him towards it. Then he took the bag of pills from his pocket and dropped it on the floor in front of Lloyd, who marveled at how many there still were, it being his first time seeing the source of the drugs.

“They're called Shinju pills. I think you remember what they do. Pretty cool in single doses. Kai was able to beat the Earth Ninja three times in a row with these.”

“Cole? He fought Cole?”

“Just a spar in the dojo, don't worry.”

“The dojo? He went back home?”

“That's not the point, but yeah he spent the night back with your team. Where do you think he got the change of clothes from?” Morro pulled at his red gi.

Lloyd’s thoughts tripped over each other as he frantically tried to decode what this meant. Kai had gone home, back to the others, and had apparently cleaned up and changed and even slept in his own bed. And Morro did not seem at all worried about this development. Ergo, Kai had not told the others where Lloyd was, or at the very least, they hadn’t been able to figure it out just from talking to him. In fact they seemed to have enough time to spare for Cole to fight him in a friendly spar. So Kai really had betrayed him, and he was either hiding it from the others, or… or they just didn’t care about where Lloyd was.

This was assuming of course that it really had been Kai who’d last left Lloyd. But if it had been Morro, why on earth would he have gone back to the ninja and risk getting found out, and for his ‘fun’ to end? It didn’t make any sense. The best and most likely case would be that Morro was simply lying about the whole thing. But where would he have gotten the clothes from? Would he really have bothered stealing them? Especially considering how fond he'd been of wearing Lloyd's green gi despite its torn and bloodied state. And if he was going to steal another gi to wear, of course it would’ve been one of Lloyd’s green ones, not Kai’s red.

He didn't know what to think anymore. He wasn’t used to thinking of Kai as an enemy, but he had run out of straws to grasp at to believe otherwise. He almost didn't hear what Morro said next, he was so mixed up.

“Anyway the point is, these things make you really strong. But as we found out from Kai's little experiment, they can also be deadly.” Morro picked out a handful of the pills and put them on the table behind him. The rest he returned to his pocket. “So I was thinking... what if we used them again? Not on you, don't panic. On me. Or more specifically, on the treacherous brother who hurt you.”

“What…?”

(What??)

Morro brushed Kai aside. You were the one who told me I could have as many as I wanted, right? That I could do whatever other ‘fucked up thing’ I wanted, right? Well that gave me an idea.

Lloyd stared in confusion at Morro. “I thought… Aren’t you and Kai in this together?”

“Against you? Sure. But he’s still pissed at me for attacking his sister – you know, his real sibling? – and I’m honestly not that fond of him either.” Morro leaned down towards him menacingly and Lloyd pressed back against the chair, his blood running cold at the sight of Kai’s face so near him, even if it looked a little different now. The bandaged wounds on his stomach throbbed, the fiery burns above them flared, and Morro said:

“Don't you want to get revenge after everything he did to you? Here's your chance. If you wanna skip your turn in this round, just tell me to take another Shinju pill, and I will. Unless,” he shrugged, patronizing, “you still don't think that was really him. In which case, you can choose to take the punishment instead. That should really stoke your martyr complex.”

Lloyd was finding it difficult to keep up. The solace that the food and water had brought him was rapidly being eroded away and it was muddling his already light-headed brain. “Wait. So… You’re saying either I choose to get tortured some more… or you make Kai take enough of that stuff to kill him?”

“That’s the bare bones of it, yeah. Doesn’t having a say in things make them more interesting?”

It took Lloyd only a second to see there was no real choice at all; despite everything that had happened, despite his doubts, despite the fear that had paralyzed him while Kai had done what he’d done… Lloyd didn’t want him to die. And remembering all too well how it had felt when he’d been forced to take the drugs himself, he knew there was no chance that he wouldn’t, if Morro followed through on his word; incapacitated as he was, Lloyd wouldn’t be able to revive Kai if his heart stopped, as Kai had revived him.

He couldn’t risk it. Lloyd was hurt, betrayed, and confused by Kai’s involvement in his suffering, but even if all those memories of Kai guiding him and smiling at him had been fake all along, even if Kai hated him, Lloyd couldn’t just let him go. The chance that he might return to being the Kai from those memories, that he was even now buried somewhere behind the monster who’d disowned him, was still not zero. Lloyd had endured so much already – what was a little more pain compared to potentially condemning his best friend, his big brother, to an unjust death?

He gulped. “What punishment?” he asked, his tone resigned.

“Good question.” Morro talked while he searched the floor under the table, where Kai had swept aside the torture tools earlier. “It can’t be tit for tat, I don’t want to accidentally kill you again after all. But it has to be something at least as painful, otherwise the choice would be too easy. So…” He found what he was looking for; the pair of pliers, unused since the first day he’d brought Lloyd to the barn. He held them up triumphantly and announced:

“I'm going to yank out a few of your teeth with these.”

Lloyd felt all the blood drain from his face.

(No… NO!)

“No. No, no, you're not serious. You, you wouldn't–”

“Do you really think I wouldn't? Really?”

Lloyd stared at him in horror and saw that he meant it. In fact Lloyd’s questioning of his sincerity might have strengthened it all the more. His heart immediately started hammering painfully against his ribcage, an ironic reminder of what would happen to Kai’s own if Morro took too many of those pills.

Lloyd forced himself to speak at a level volume. “Morro. Please, no. Not that. I don't... I don't want that. Please, please, just this once–”

“If you don’t want it, then you can get out of it very easily. Just tell me you want me to take the pills instead. I'll start with two, which was half the amount Kai gave you. Then another, if you choose. And so on until I pass out. Or die. Again.” Morro shrugged carelessly. “Then I guess I'll just find another vessel and get rid of the body. If you don't want to risk the Red Ninja's life though, then the game ends when I've pulled out as many teeth as I've taken pills – meaning two minimum. So choose carefully.”

Before Lloyd knew what was happening, Morro had snatched a pill from the pile on the table and knocked it back, swallowing audibly. He shuddered with pleasure as power surged through his muscles. “That’s one,” he said. He took another pill and laid it carefully on the floor, in Lloyd’s sight but a safe distance away.

Then he lunged at Lloyd.

Lloyd barely had time to process what was happening, the explosive pain in his broken leg as Morro’s weight hit against it clouding out every other thought, before Morro had wrenched his jaws open. As he tried to keep Lloyd's mouth ajar with one hand, reaching into his pocket for something with the other, Lloyd found the lucidity to loosen his grip by shaking his head, and then biting down hard on Morro’s gloved pinkie. Morro hollered and clubbed Lloyd round the face several times before Lloyd cried out and let him go, his already bruised eye throbbing. Morro pressed his knee hard against Lloyd’s bandaged middle and once again shoved his fingers into Lloyd’s mouth, hooking them to the side. Lloyd felt something hard being pushed against his teeth then, the cylindrical shape covered in bark, gripped in Morro’s free hand. Morro turned the branch piece lengthways as he shoved it under Lloyd’s teeth, the bark scraping and flaking away painfully under his incisors. Lloyd once again tried shaking his head to impede Morro’s progress, but the branch was exactly large enough in diameter to lock in his jaws, rendering him incapable of opening them any wider to dislodge it. Morro forced it as far back in Lloyd’s mouth as he could, fixing it in between his upper and lower molars, tucking the ends inside his cheeks. The sharp edges where Morro had hacked the branch off poked and tore the inside of Lloyd's mouth, blood welling at the stretched corners of his lips. When it was secure Morro pulled his hand away and retreated from Lloyd, panting with effort, watching as Lloyd lurched forward in his seat and gagged. The branch was stuck in his jaws, he couldn’t even push it out with his tongue, and bits of wood and bark had fallen into the back of his throat. He coughed, but couldn’t spit them out.

(Lloyd! Shit, oh shit, no no no!)

As Lloyd kept retching Morro took another pill from the table and tossed it into his own mouth. “And that's two,” he rasped. He picked up another pill and put it on the floor with the first one. “Now the choice is yours, Lloyd. Do I take out one of your pearly whites, or take a white pearl instead? Nod for the first option, shake your head for the second.” He held up his hands, fingers splayed. “You have ten seconds to choose before I do.” He put down his pinkie, then ring finger.

Lloyd’s mind raced with panic and terror. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want this. He could’ve handled more pain, more cuts or burns or strikes, he could heal from those, but his teeth, his teeth wouldn’t grow back, and as much as getting burned alive had hurt somehow the idea of having a piece of him ripped from his head sounded like it would hurt a lot more, he couldn’t do it, he didn’t want it, no no no no…

But if Morro took the pills, Kai would die. Even if Lloyd gambled right and he survived three or four, Lloyd couldn’t let him keep taking them until they killed him, and if he changed his mind later he would have to lose more teeth, better to only lose two now and end it early, two was alright, he could handle two, they were only teeth, it was fine, they could be replaced, but Kai couldn’t, Kai couldn’t.

Morro was down to three fingers.

Hacking out a sob, Lloyd nodded.

(Lloyd... Oh Lloyd, no.) Kai didn't know what to feel. He couldn't even think of the deeper implication of Lloyd still choosing to save him over sparing himself, even after everything he’d done, so distraught was he at what was about to happen. And once again it was his fault, it was all his fault, if only he'd learn to control his impulses and kept his fucking mouth shut.

Morro smiled at both of their miseries. “No take backs,” he said. He picked up the pliers and swooped on Lloyd again, grabbing a hank of hair at the top of his head to hold him steady. He carefully placed the pliers around Lloyd’s top left canine and clamped it firmly. Lloyd shuddered at the hard coldness of the metal.

“See the trick is,” whispered Morro, adjusting his grip on the pliers, “you can’t pull it straight on. You’ve gotta wiggle it around a bit to loosen it first.”

The fist holding Lloyd’s hair tightened even more, and Morro jerked the pliers towards him, pulling at Lloyd’s tooth outward from his mouth. Lloyd flinched in spite of himself, screwing his eyes tight shut against the pain. Only no pain came. His head was just tugged a bit along with his tooth.

Morro wasn’t perturbed. Teeth were very strong after all. He pushed down on the pliers in the other direction, inwards, then jerked it out again. Then inwards, then outwards, in quick little movements, trying to seesaw the tooth in its place. Like loosening a stubborn screw with a wrench. For a full two minutes he did this, until Lloyd finally whimpered a bit, the beginnings of an ache forming at the base of his tooth.

“It’s my first time doing this myself,” Morro informed him breathlessly. “But I learned a lot about how it’s done. In the Cursed Realm.”

He unclamped the pliers from Lloyd’s tooth for a moment, wiped it dry with his gloved thumb and forefinger, then gripped it again more firmly. When he yanked on the pliers he gave it more force this time, and Lloyd made a noise of pain as his head was pulled and the hairs Morro had hold of strained from his scalp.

Back and forth again Morro wrenched at Lloyd’s tooth, and it became harder and harder for Lloyd to keep quiet, as the ache steadily built up.

“You probably won’t believe this, but I've actually been going easy on you, Lloyd.” Morro once again readjusted the grip of the pliers on the tooth, raising them closer to the gum. “That's what made coming up with all these games so challenging.”

He jiggled the tooth in place a bit, then resumed pushing and pulling.

“Unlike in the Cursed Realm, your limbs won’t grow back if I cut them off. Your flesh won't regrow if I peeled it back strip by strip to the bone.”

Lloyd groaned, and Kai cried out in alarm in Morro’s head; a drop of blood had started leaking from the base of the tooth.

“You wouldn't have lasted this long if I’d showed you everything I learned in my time there.”

Morro started yanking at the tooth in earnest, crowbarring it in a ninety degree direction. It still wasn’t completely loose, but Kai could see it moving and pushing against the gum. More blood squeezed out and filled the space around it, slickening the metal of the pliers. Morro removed them and cleaned them with his gloves.

“I'm only a ghost while I'm in a living realm. In the Cursed Realm? I had a body. One that didn't need to eat or sleep, but could sure as hell feel pain... And of course, I couldn’t die. Cause I was already dead.”

Suddenly Morro grabbed the back of Lloyd’s chair, turned him around, and leaned it down against the edge of the table, so that Lloyd was reclining. Morro held him by the hair again, bracing his head against the chair back, and once again used the pliers to yank on the canine. Lloyd was squalling with each pull by this point, not just from the pain but from the visceral fear of feeling his tooth suddenly pop out of him, this time, or this time, maybe this time…

“At least you know your suffering will end. Eventually I'll either just leave and never come back, and you'll rot away in here, or you'll succumb to the pain and never wake up. Either way it won't be untold decades that feel like centuries, like it was for me!”

Yank, yank, yank, yank– something finally gave, and then Lloyd was screaming, a long, horrified scream that was muffled by the branch in his mouth, and a more significant amount of blood was spilling down from his upper jaw to his lower one, splashing the branch piece and the back of his tongue. The tooth hadn’t come out, but it had finally partly ripped away from the gum from behind, its roots sliding out from their cubbyhole when Morro lifted it upward. He let go of Lloyd’s hair and brushed the tears from his face, leaning down to speak into his ear.

“So I say this as a comfort to you: You are going to die here, Lloyd Garmadon. Useless, unloved, and forgotten. And years later, when Wu moves on to train a new batch of students, you'll just be another tragic story he keeps to himself.”

He braced his palm against Lloyd’s forehead, secured the pliers around his tooth tightly, and this time, with an almighty wrench, pulled the tooth straight out from the gums, ripping a piece of the pink flesh on the front away with it. The tooth flew from the metal clamps of the pliers as they arced backward, trailing droplets of blood, and clattered against the wall to the floor.

Lloyd’s throat was ripped raw with the force of the inhuman bellowing that tore out of him.

Had he been asked at any point during his capture which torture hurt the worst so far, Lloyd would’ve answered with whichever one had come last, up until Kai had burned him directly with his fire. The burns still tormented him, more intensely than his broken fingers, all throughout when Kai had beaten him while he’d been suspended and while he’d been cut.

The pain that shot through his mouth now when his tooth had come out completely erased the burn pains, for the first time since their conception. It drove out every rational instinct and thought from his head, reduced him to a drooling, bleeding thing of tears, snot, stimming convulsions, and wordless caterwauling. Pain such as he’d never even believed it possible to survive drilled through his upper jaw and spread to his whole head, and he shook and slammed himself against the chair back repeatedly to beat it out.

(Stop it! Stop it, Lloyd!)

As usual it was no use. Kai could neither close his eyes nor block his ears to the disturbing sight of Lloyd thrashing and wailing like an animal caught in a trap, twisting itself in its death throes, blood gushing from the space in his gums and drenching his forced open mouth and chin. What was worse was that Morro was shaking as well, but with pride-fueled adrenaline, staring in awe at Lloyd as though cherishing a work of art he’d just completed. Lloyd’s chair slipped off the edge of the table from his rocking and he crashed to the floor, his destroyed hands crushed beneath him, making him roar even louder. Wordlessly Morro lifted him up, letting the front legs of the chair fall down with a slam.

He stepped back a bit, looked around at the floor, found Lloyd’s tooth. He bent and picked it up with quivering fingers, then had to brace himself against his knee for a moment before he could straighten up, the world swimming briefly before his eyes and his heart stuttering in an effort to keep up with the unnatural pace induced by the Shinju pills. He gulped in a huge breath, rose up slowly, then brought the tooth over to the two pills he’d put on the floor earlier, setting it carefully to the right of them.

Morro turned to Lloyd, who was still sobbing and rocking in his chair. “One down,” he panted. “One more to go. Now the choice is yours again, Lloyd. You want me to take out another one and end this early? Just nod yes.”

He held up ten fingers again, but had barely put down the first before Lloyd gave him an answer. Choking and moaning through the branch in his mouth, he shook his head vigorously from side to side, flecks of blood flying with the movement. He didn’t even think about it. The conditions of the game had flown clear out of his head. All he knew was that he did not want more of this pain.

Kai was in shambles. He didn't know what choice he would've made, couldn’t look at it objectively, because he didn't want to die, he didn't, especially without ever knowing if Lloyd would be saved, and if he had to be pragmatic, cruel and selfish as it sounded, losing two teeth was the smaller sacrifice and the smarter option. But who was he to even dare to talk? He wasn't the one who'd been tortured half to death already. It was hardly fair, that throughout this whole ordeal Lloyd had had to suffer so much, probably scarred for life both figuratively and literally, while Kai only had the one wound in his hand. So he couldn’t blame Lloyd, he wouldn’t hold it against him, but it didn’t change the fact that he was terrified as Morro obligingly reached for another pill, his tightened muscles twitching and making his fingers jerk a bit as he picked it up.

(You’re not actually going to do this, are you? I thought you said you wanted to keep my body! Why are you just throwing it away now?)

High stakes always make a game more fun, said Morro stonily. He pressed the pill between his lips and dry swallowed it. A few seconds later he swayed and stumbled backwards, hitting the edge of the table. He gripped the front of his gi, pressing his fist against his heart, the thumping of which had gone past the realm of uncomfortable and crossed into quite unbearable. Morro breathed hard through his mouth, unable to take a deep enough breath. Like Lloyd before him he was feeling the effects of an overdose of the Shinju drug, and the same thought that had occurred to Lloyd earlier crossed through Kai’s mind; if his heart stopped there would be no way to restart it. Even if Lloyd had been free of his bonds he wasn’t in any condition to revive someone.

For the second time that day, though less literally than the first time, Kai’s life flashed before his eyes. (Ahh… No… No, no, you can’t do this! It’s my life! It can’t end like this! Not after what I did!!)

Your life, said Morro, struggling to stand up straight again, fumbling another pill in his fingers, is in HIS hands now. Or what’s left of them, anyway. So take it up with him.

Morro gingerly laid the third pill on the floor with the other two. He turned around slowly to face Lloyd and lifted his hands again. “Alright,” he gasped, to get Lloyd’s attention, as the boy was still consumed in his own agony, sobbing and pooling blood and saliva in his lap. “Now you owe me three teeth. Choice is yours again. Wanna go for it?” He lowered his pinkie, counting down.

Kai’s heart was in excruciating pain, not just from the drugs but from Lloyd. He was torn in two, loathing himself for hoping Lloyd would opt for losing another tooth, yet wanting to hope for Lloyd to spare himself and not worry about Kai. He tried to convince himself that Morro had taken enough of the pills to have built up a resistance to them and would only pass out, he’d be fine, it’s fine Lloyd, don’t hate me, don’t hate me, please remember what I said!)

All this in the six seconds it took for Lloyd to make his decision again; he shook his head, choking on a regretful cry.

(Oh Lloyd, please!)

Moment of truth, said Morro, slapping his hand down on another pill, spilling a few from the pile off the table as he slid it off and licked it from his palm. His chest constricted as pain pierced through his heart, and he clutched at it as he sank to his knees, gasping and panting. “Augh… Haah! Uggghhhh fuck this hurts. RRGH! Haaah… Haa…”

Morro stretched his neck up as though trying to keep his head above water, drool spilling from the corner of his mouth. He massaged the area over his heart, trying to soothe its rapid fire drumming. By this time Lloyd’s sobs had quieted to a low keening, and he watched Morro through the hazy film of tears in his eyes.

When Morro noticed him looking he took one of the pills that had fallen to the floor, leaned to the side and stretched to put it with the three next to the pulled tooth. The tally now stood at four to one. Morro shakily held up both hands once more.

“Three more,” he wheezed. He counted down the seconds.

(Goddammit… Lloyd I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please say yes, I don’t want to die, PLEASE, I can’t help you if I die, I’m sorry Lloyd, please!)

Lloyd was only just waking up to his surroundings again. The back of his head ached where he’d slammed it repeatedly against the chair, but it was still a feeble pain compared to that in the root of his gums. The empty space where his tooth had been throbbed terribly, blood still leaking from it. He couldn’t stand the thought of going through it anew, he’d reached his limit, he wasn’t strong enough for this.

But Morro was on the floor, and he was clearly in agony, pressing one hand to his heart as soon as he'd counted five seconds, his face flushed and dripping with sweat, his teeth clenched and bared. If he’d been telling the truth, he’d now taken as many pills as Kai had force-fed Lloyd. Which meant it was very likely that another one would kill him. One shake of his head and Lloyd would essentially be condemning Kai to death, and he’d be left here, bleeding and bound, with Kai’s dead body, while Morro would either continue his games as a ghost or perhaps possess one of the other ninja to continue where he’d left off.

But the pain! It was killing him, it was destroying him, he didn’t think he could bear anymore. He didn’t know if it was possible for one to go insane from pain but he knew he was close to it, there wasn’t a part of him left that wasn’t screaming. He was trapped in his own body, it was ruined, and he wanted out, he was done, he wanted to quit already–

But ninja never quit.

So just before Morro could put down his last finger and make the decision for him, Lloyd bobbed his head up and down, tears rolling off his nose. He braced himself against the chair back and bit down on the branch piece as Morro approached him with the pliers.

(Oh Lloyd, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please forgive me!)

Quiet. Morro’s hand shook as he lifted the pliers up to one of Lloyd’s incisors, next to the remaining canine. I need to concentrate.

As before, Morro wrenched at the tooth in an inward and outward direction, trying to jiggle it loose in its socket. He had to pause for breath more often than before, and spat mouthfuls of spit aside. At one point he stumbled back away from Lloyd when he’d pulled and the pliers slipped off the tooth, and Lloyd roared in pain and alarm as hair was ripped from the top of his head where Morro had gripped it, the golden strands clutched in his fist as he fell on his backside. He sat there panting and groaning, releasing the hairs to press his hand to his chest. “Ahh… Shit… Fuck… This shit is killing me…”

(Then stop! Just stop! You’re not getting anything out of this! You’ve hurt him enough for one day! For a fucking lifetime!!)

Kai’s admonishments only fueled Morro’s determination. He clamped his mouth closed, forcing air through his nose, and gripped the pliers more firmly. “I… keep… my… word…” he huffed out. He got to his feet and bore down on Lloyd with rejuvenated vigor.

He didn’t stop again until he’d pulled the second tooth clean out.

“Two down,” he said dully, his voice barely audible over Lloyd’s renewed wailing, setting the second tooth down next to the first, “two to go. If you’re up for it. How about it, Lloyd?”

Lloyd was too busy screaming and bleeding to have heard him.

Morro grabbed him by the ear to stop him. “I said… How about it? Another tooth? Huh?”

He let him go so he could give his answer… and Lloyd shook his head. Well, he more so swayed his whole upper body because moving his head at all hurt the wounds in his mouth too much.

Morro put a heavy hand on Lloyd’s head and patted it drunkenly. “Atta boy,” he said. Then he stumbled back, thumped against the table, scooped up another pill and brought it to his mouth.

(NO!! YOU FUCKER, STOP!)

Morro gulped the pill down.

A few seconds in which he just swayed on the spot, Lloyd bawling in the background. Then he choked a bit, then coughed, then folded forward, spitting up a stream of bile, fell to his knees, to all fours, spluttered and gasped, and blood dripped from his nose. Oh it hurt, he had not missed this, hadn’t missed it at all, but it would be gone soon, he knew that, that was the beauty of a living body, one way or another when things got too much it would shut down, and if it didn’t, well, the choice was up to the Green Ninja, to Destiny, let it have its way, it had already done so his whole life.

(No, don’t you fucking quit on me! I’m not ready, I can’t leave, what about her, what about them, what about HIM? They need me!! You can’t fucking quit!)

Sorry. I’m… not… a ninja…

Morro slumped facedown on the floor. His eyes rolled up, and drool poured from his mouth. He stopped moving.

Lloyd’s bawling redoubled in intensity as the green haze faded from Kai’s body and his hair brightened back to brown. No ghost appeared, but Kai lay completely lifeless before him. And there was nothing he could do about it.

“AAAAAAWWWGGGHHHHH…! AAAAAAHAAAAAWWWGH!”

“Lloyd! Lloyd, stop!”

Kai tried blocking his own discarded body from Lloyd’s view, tried to grip the boy’s head to steady him, but of course even if Lloyd could have seen him he was see-through, and his intangible hands couldn't hold him.

“It's not your fault, Lloyd. You hear me? It's not your fault! I'm still here so I must still be alive. I'm fine.” He clamped his hands over his ears, but that did absolutely nothing to drown out Lloyd’s anguished cries. “I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine we're fine!”

But it wasn’t fine, because Morro wasn’t getting up and he didn’t seem to be breathing, and even though Kai couldn’t check for his pulse like this he was sure his heart had stopped, it had practically been pinballing in his ribcage from how fast it had been beating, the pain had been insurmountable. Now Kai felt nothing and he was more frightened than ever, because if Morro, if his body, wasn’t dead yet then it soon would be, and then what would happen to him? Would he be pulled back into his body to suffer the death itself with it? Would he simply poof out of existence? Here one second, thinking and feeling, and then gone the next, into eternal nothingness? Would he wake up in the Departed Realm? Or, perhaps, given what he’d done to Lloyd, perhaps, he’d find himself in the Cursed Realm instead, and be subjected to every torture Lloyd had gone through ten times over, at the hands of the punishers Morro had mentioned. And they would laugh and jeer and ignore his excuse that he’d had no choice, because there was no mercy, he had brought this on himself.

He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t stand not knowing, of being stuck in this purgatory as a bodiless soul with Lloyd screaming at him in agony for the remainder of his surely very short existence.

He had to leave. He had to find a purpose. He had to take even a few steps towards making amends before he was stamped out forever. He couldn’t leave this world without ensuring his sacrifice had not been in vain.

“Lloyd, I… I’m sorry. I’m sorry… I have to go. I’m… I…” He stared unseeingly at Lloyd’s grotesquely disfigured form, the animalistic yowling and moaning issuing from it echoing in the large space. Then he turned his back on him and half-ran, half-glided across the room and through the barn wall. He kept running through the woods outside, the world rushing in a blur around him, and he didn’t even stop when he summoned his dragon beneath him, calling it on instinct as he cleared the trees and flying away on it, urging it to go as fast as possible, towards his last chance at salvation.

Chapter Text

Neither Wu nor Misako were particularly fond of Ronin – the hustling rogue had made life needlessly complicated for them and the ninja more than once – but it had to be said, he really came through when it counted. It paid to know someone who had no qualms about dealing with unsavory and suspicious types from all corners of the realm; he kept his ear to the ground about all sorts of potentially useful (and valuable) bits of information a more honest person wouldn’t be privy to. Case in point, when Misako had explained that they were looking for a way one could summon a specific ghost, other than the lost Allied Armor, Ronin had cocked a sardonic brow and leaned casually against the counter of his shop. It was all the confirmation they needed that he knew something.

“I may or may not have had a scrapped contingency plan in case I couldn’t pay off my debts to Soul Archer and got thrown into the Cursed Realm,” he said, opening a cupboard at the bottom of the overflowing shelves behind him and sifting through the dusty scrolls and tomes inside. “But seein’ as how I don’t gotta worry about that anymore thanks to the ninja gettin’ rid of the sonuvabitch, I’m feelin’ magnanimous enough to share it with you free of charge.”

He came up holding a weather-beaten brown journal, the pages yellowed with age, slapping it down on the counter top. Wu and Misako leaned forward curiously as Ronin flipped the book open. He didn’t have to search for the page he wanted because a plain faded bookmark had been left there. Curled, auspicious writing that had been traced over with a pen to preserve legibility graced the top half of the page, beneath it a sketch of a necklace with a large pendant.

“The Soul Amulet?” read Wu aloud.

“That’s right,” said Ronin. “Conjured up by a crazed sorcerer who wanted to bring back his dead brother. Didn’t work out quite like he’d planned; it brought his ghost back to this realm, but that didn’t mean he was alive. Even possessing his body didn’t work.”

“That’s fortunate,” said Misako. “We don’t want to bring Morro back to life.”

Wu lowered his head so the brim of his hat hid his eyes.

“And there are no other conditions or, let’s say, undesirable consequences to using this?” pressed Misako.

Ronin shrugged. “None that I can think of. Long as you’re not cursed, you can bring your soul back from anywhere with it. There’s just three things you need to make it work.” Ronin counted them off on his fingers. “One, the amulet, obviously. Two, the original body of the person – doesn’t matter how decomposed it is as long as there’s summin’ solid to put the amulet on. And three, people you trust to put those things together for you, if your departed ass happens to be trapped somewhere, like the Cursed Realm, and you can’t do it yourself.” He pulled a toothpick from his breast pocket and wedged it between his teeth. “Guess which ones I was missing.”

Wu frowned. “The amulet doesn’t work on cursed souls?”

“Nope,” said Ronin.

“Then it wouldn’t help us,” sighed Wu. “Morro is a cursed soul.”

“From what I understand, Morro just did some bad shit and then croaked,” said Ronin. “He wasn’t banished or thrown into the Cursed Realm by someone else. Just made some not-so-smart choices.”

“I suppose you could say that,” mumbled Wu. “Would that really make a difference? It’ll work on him?”

“Trust me, I studied up hard on this thing to make sure I could use it as my emergency exit. If I hadn’t been able to pay Soul Archer off, I wouldn’t have been ‘cursed’ even if he’d sent me to the Cursed Realm, because it was my own choice dealin’ with him in the first place. It wouldn’ta been an ideal solution, but better bein’ a ghost in this realm than trapped for all eternity in the Cursed Realm.”

“The body…” said Wu slowly. “The ninja mentioned they’d found Morro’s skeleton in the Caves of Despair. It’s feasible we can ask one of them to retrieve it.”

“Perfect! Then we have no time to waste,” said Misako. To Ronin she said, “You’ve been a big help to us, Ronin. I promise, we’ll return the amulet to you when we’re done with it.”

Ronin grinned, the toothpick cocked jauntily in his mouth. “Nice. You let me know when you find it and I'll prepare a display case.”

Misako’s face fell. “You don't have it?”

“Whoever said I did? I only got as far as tracking down this journal by the last guy who saw it.” He tapped the open book. “After reading that, the shiny trinket sorta lost its appeal.”

Wu and Misako once again bent over the page, Misako adjusting her glasses. They skimmed the first couple of lines detailing what the Soul Amulet was and all the things Ronin had already told them – accurately, it seemed – and focused on the final part, which described the author’s worries over the amulet falling in the wrong hands, and his intention to render it harmless by casting it into…

“The Cursed Realm??” said Wu. He looked up at Ronin sharply. “The Soul Amulet isn’t even in Ninjago?”

Ronin’s uncharacteristic generosity suddenly made a lot more sense. He shrugged. “Tolja it was a scrapped plan.”

“How’d they even manage that?” said Misako, turning the page of the journal but only finding a tonic recipe (that seemed to include human eyeballs) as the next entry. “Throwing the amulet into the Cursed Realm, I mean.”

“Get this,” said Ronin, jerking his thumb at Wu. “Apparently he asked your brother if he could put it on one of those Anacondrai Generals he banished so it would go with them.”

“My brother?” Wu turned the page back to look at the sketch of the amulet. “He didn’t tell me. I wonder if he knew what it was… In any case, I don’t recall any of the Generals wearing this when we saw them in the Corridor of Elders, so it must still be in the Cursed Realm.” He looked up at Ronin. “You’re sure you can’t think of anything else that we might use?” Ronin shook his head emphatically. “Then the Soul Amulet it is then.”

“But Wu, how are we supposed to get it out of the Cursed Realm?” asked Misako, confused surprise in her voice as she watched him walk towards the black landline phone on the wall. “Lloyd burned the Book of Spells, and the Realm Crystal is destroyed. We have no way of reaching it!”

“There is one way,” said Wu grimly, making to lift the handset off its hook and giving Ronin a look when it didn’t budge. Ronin rubbed his thumb and forefingers together pointedly and Wu rolled his eyes as Misako took out two coins from her purse and gave them to the rogue. “Though I’m not completely sure if it will work.” Ronin pocketed the coins after a brief inspection, pressed something under the countertop, and the thin metal bars that had been holding the phone speaker down retracted. Wu muttered ominously as he dialed Nya’s number. Maybe he really should get a mobile phone of his own already. Or at least suck up his pride and ask to borrow Misako’s next time.

“Hello?” came Nya’s voice through the speaker.

“Nya,” said Wu. “Misako and I might have found something. It’s very slim, but it could help us to get Morro away from Lloyd.”

“Would it get him away from Kai, too?” asked Nya glumly. “’Cause there’s something you should know."

Wu listened with growing dismay as she told him about Kai having been possessed by Morro the whole time he’d stayed with them, the police’s failed attempt to arrest him, and her and Cole’s confrontation and later deal with him. “Well,” he said when she’d finished. “That’s all bad news… But fortunately it shouldn’t affect our own plan, uncertain as it may be at the moment.” He told her everything about the Soul Amulet, then asked, “Has anyone gone to Mystake’s Tea Shop yet?”

“Huh?”

“Misako asked for one of you to run some errands for the shop while we were gone, remember?” said Wu, trying not to sound exasperated. “She left a list of things we needed in the register, most of which we get from Mystake’s–”

“Oh, yeah yeah! Don’t worry, Sensei, I brought that with me, I just haven’t looked at it yet. I was planning on going there after Jay and I were finished talking to the police. Which reminds me, I haven’t told you, we do have some good news. To cut a long story short, our dig through Morro’s past led us to finding the general area he might have had a hiding spot in. The Commissioner agreed to send out a search party there. Even though it’s outside his jurisdiction,” she muttered under her breath, “as Detective Tommy kept kindly reminding us. Really good thing I decided to catch up with Jay, he looked close to knocking his block off–”

“Nya,” said Wu sternly. “Focus with me. When you go there, ask Mystake for Traveler’s Tea. It is the only way left to us to reach the Cursed Realm. And we’ll discuss which one of us will be going there later so don’t you and Jay try to use it right away!”

“Okay,” grumbled Nya. “I mean, yes Sensei.”

“Good. Now call one of the others to volunteer to return to the Caves and get Morro’s remains.”

Wu heard Jay’s faint voice saying “Not. It.” Nya must have him on speaker.

“Bring the tea to Steep Wisdom,” finished Wu, “and we’ll meet up with you there as fast as we can.” He hung up, then returned to the counter.

“Leavin’ so soon?” said Ronin archly.

“Actually,” said Wu, “we might have some more business with you before we go. How much Deepstone do you have in stock?”

Of course the first place Kai went to to search for Nya was Steep Wisdom, but he somehow knew before phasing through the wall into Garmadon’s dojo that no one was home. Why would they be hanging around? They were all out looking for Lloyd, not knowing that the key to his location was with Nya. Frantically he swooped through all the rooms calling for her just in case, but he found no one.

“Dammit! Dammit! Where are you, Nya? I don’t have time!” He dived through the wall back outside to where the Fire Dragon was waiting. He paced up and down in front of it. “Where would she have gone? What would be their next step after finding out I’m possessed? Aahh dammit!” He couldn’t think, he couldn’t calm down; the image of Lloyd trapped in that room with his lifeless body was seared in his mind’s eye, leaving no space for anything else except the paralyzing fear that he would cease to exist any second. He yelled wordlessly in frustration, wishing he could kick something.

As he passed in front of its nose again, Kai was suddenly nudged sharply by the Fire Dragon. It rumbled in its throat when he looked at it, then turned to show him its haunches, spreading its wings. As soon as Kai understood what it wanted he immediately obliged and jumped up onto its back, and it wasted no time waiting for him to get settled before it shot up into the sky. It turned its head purposefully, gliding through the air at full speed, which was blissfully faster than it ever was when it was solid. Kai bent low on its back, though he didn’t feel at all in danger of falling off – as spirits they were more connected somehow, as though they were one entity, the dragon and he – and let go of his anxiety to pour all his faith into his steed.

The landscape below very soon gave way to the familiar grey gridwork of the city. The dragon took him across the length of it to the north side, where it bordered the shore of the continent. It dove down, and ahead Kai could see another large figure in the sky getting bigger and bigger as they flew close to it. It was…

“Jay? Nya!”

The Fire Dragon was sailing practically wingtip to wingtip with Jay’s Lightning Dragon, and Kai could see Jay with Nya behind him very clearly on its back, gazes turned downward at their destination. As the nose of the Fire Dragon passed that of its lightning counterpart, a strange thing happened that made Kai gasp; the Lightning Dragon turned its yellow lamp-like eyes on the Fire Dragon, then tilted its head slightly upward and to the side so that it was looking straight at Kai.

Kai met its gaze, dumbfounded. It snorted and turned its head straight on again.

Soon it started to dive, turning in wide circles around a street where a large shop with a neon steaming tea cup stood. The Fire Dragon followed suit. When they’d landed, Jay and Nya jumped down and headed towards the shop. Kai quickly patted both dragons in thanks and raced after them.

“What’s her name again?” Jay was asking.

“Mystake,” said Nya. “I’ve met her before. Once. She’s kind of… let’s say a little eccentric. It took forever for me and Wu to find that Tomorrow’s Tea because she’d forgotten where she put it.”

“Oh, well that’s reassuring,” said Jay, lowering his voice as they entered the shop.

The door swung closed on Kai but he just passed through it unmindfully, sticking as close to Nya as he could, glowing red and gold from the heat he was desperately generating to get her attention. “Come on, Nya, tell me you have it!”

“Good day,” greeted the old woman standing on a rolling ladder, stocking the shelves. “What can I get for you?”

“We’re from Steep Wisdom,” said Nya. “Misako sent for these.” She held up a slip of paper.

As Mystake climbed down the ladder, Kai moved around to Nya’s front. “Nya,” he implored, “Nya please. Please sis, listen to me! I’m almost out of time and Lloyd needs you! Please, tell me you still have the picture!” He hovered his hands over the side of her waist where her pocket was, willing the fabric to catch and at least smoke a little.

Mystake walked up to Nya and Jay, but halted suddenly and frowned. She wore a hat like Wu’s, and she pushed the brim up slightly, peering at the two of them as though they were out of focus. “Ninja?” she said.

“Uh, yes?”

“Hmm.” Mystake’s strangely small black eyes darted from Nya to Jay and back, then she took the list from Nya’s hand, gave it a quick glance, and turned back to the shelves without asking anything more. Nya and Jay simply stood awkwardly, watching her move around the shop, while Kai continued his fruitless attempts to draw Nya’s hand to her pocket. At one point she did rub her thigh absently, frowning at the uncomfortable heat she felt there.

“Come on, sis, please!”

Mystake put all the items she’d gathered in a tote bag and set it on the counter by the register. She checked the list one last time, nodded to herself, and said, “That should be everything.” And she named the price.

Taking out the money (which was in the opposite pocket from the one the photo was kept), Nya said, “There’s one more thing we need. Traveler’s Tea?” As though asking for permission.

Mystake crossed her arms. “You’re the girl who came with Wu, aren’t you?” she said. “Where does he want to go now? Tea doesn’t grow on trees, you know.”

“Uh, doesn’t it though?” said Jay.

Nya spoke over him. “It’s really important.” She steeled herself, knowing she was about to say something that might get them thrown out. “We need to go to the Cursed Realm.”

That made Kai do a double take. He stepped back from Nya, staring at her as though she’d gone insane. “What? Why the hell do you want to go there?”

Mystake, meanwhile, had only raised a thin eyebrow and tilted her head. “A need to go to the Cursed Realm? Well. It must be important then.” She opened her hands out to them and shrugged. “Unfortunately, Traveler’s Tea is not strong enough to get you to that particular realm. Even if I gave you my entire stock.”

“Seriously?” lamented Jay. “But we don’t have any other way!”

“Despite all appearances,” said Mystake, “I cannot make the impossible possible. The tea will not reach the Cursed Realm.”

“Oh…” Nya didn’t know what to say. While she hadn’t relished the idea of opening a portal to the Cursed Realm – after all it was the exact thing the ninja had been trying to stop Morro from doing while he’d been possessing Lloyd – she had clung to the assertiveness in Wu’s voice when he’d told her about the Soul Amulet. It had given her hope that they would be able to save Kai from Morro, and consequently hasten their rescue of Lloyd if the search party yielded no results. It felt like every time they seemed to take a step towards making their family whole again, they immediately ended up right back where they started. “Well, then… Thanks anyway.”

She turned forlornly to leave, and Jay hastily grabbed the tote bag she’d forgotten before darting ahead so he could open the door for her.

Kai rushed in front of her too, spreading his arms. With her head hanging she walked right through him. He made to grab her shoulder, uselessly trying to pull her back. “Please, please, I can’t go without knowing you’ll find Lloyd! Please Nya!”

“Wait! Come back!”

Nya and Jay paused in the doorway and looked back. Mystake walked towards them with her finger raised. “You can go to the Cursed Realm, if you want,” she said.

“We can?” said Jay.

“No, not you.”

“Me?” said Nya.

“Of course not,” said Mystake impatiently. “But you can come inside to listen if you’re interested.” She beckoned over her shoulder with her hand and headed for a door at the back. Jay and Nya looked at each other quizzically. “Follow me, come on,” urged Mystake, and they hurried after her. Kai streaked behind them.

The back room was, no surprise, a tea room, with a low table in the middle and cushions and armchairs surrounding it, a stand with a basin and boiler in one corner, and shelves full of tea sets, incense, and ornaments. Mystake gestured for the ninja to sit while she opened a cabinet in the corner and took out a strange instrument from it, that had the look of an hourglass whose center had been replaced with a thermometer, long and thin, bulbous at the bottom, and filled with a bright violet liquid that reached halfway up the glass. A little silver bell was attached to the top side of the brass frame, string stretching from it to a tab inside the glass. Mystake carefully set the contraption down on the table in front of Jay and Nya. “My own invention,” she said proudly. She slapped Jay’s hand down when he reached to poke the bell.

Before either of them could ask for an explanation, Mystake returned to the cabinet and procured a tray with a simple kettle and teacup on it, put it down as well, and directed Jay to fill the kettle with water from the basin and put it on the boiler. To Nya she brought a bowl and pestle and told her to grind the dried leaves she poured into it. Bemused, Nya did as she said. Then the old woman settled herself in one of the armchairs, and ordered them to bring her a complete cup of the brew when it was ready.

“Uh, we kind of have stuff to do–” said Nya, fanning herself from the heat as she paused grinding.

“You won’t have to do anything,” Mystake cut her off. “It’s the spirit hounding you that has work to do.”

Kai looked at her sharply.

“You mean Morro?” said Jay, bringing the steaming kettle of water to the table. Mystake nodded for Nya to tip the leaves from the bowl into it.

“I can’t tell who it is,” she said. “But they clearly want to tell you something, girl. They’ve been smothering you from the moment you entered my shop.”

Kai, who’d been sitting right next to Nya, shot up from his place so fast he rose several feet off the floor. Could it be? Someone actually knew he was here? Someone who could talk to his friends?

“I don’t know what you mean,” said Nya slowly. She fanned herself again. “Are you saying there’s a ghost here?”

“Not a ghost,” said Mystake, taking the full cup Jay presented to her. “A living person. One banished from their body. I recognize the signs. They are very persistent.”

“…Kai?” said Nya in a hushed voice, and Kai cried out in stunned joy. She repeated herself, louder this time. “Kai? Kai’s here? Right now?”

“Uhh, Nya?” said Jay, looking back and forth between her and Mystake nervously. “Kai’s possessed by Morro, remember?”

“Whoever it is,” said Mystake, “if they are an ally of yours, then they can easily help you with your problem.” She lay back against the cushions of the chair, making herself comfortable. “A spirit can cross realms without the need for any magic.”

“Wait, what?” said Kai.

Neither Nya nor Jay had expected this either. “Really?” said Nya. “You mean… if Kai’s here, as a ‘living spirit’, he can get the Soul Amulet for us himself? Just like that?”

“Living spirits cannot be perceived on our plane of existence,” explained Mystake, nodding in answer. “They are on a higher plane, one that spans all realities. To cross over from one to the other would be as simple as stepping over a threshold. And you want him to bring something back? Also simple – all souls have solid bodies in the Cursed Realm. He will be seen and heard, too, though. So best not make it a long visit.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Kai sank back down to the floor and walked through the table to stand in front of the old woman. “I did not agree to this. I don’t know if I’m even going to be around long enough to just go exploring through the Cursed Realm looking for some, some thing! I just want them to see the picture I took!” He threw his hand at Nya and Jay, and tried to catch the tea lady’s gaze. She looked past him.

“I will need to show him how,” she said. “So I will join him briefly on the spirit plane. As for you two, if you want to know anything from him, wait for the bell.” She jutted her chin at the strange instrument on the table. “Yes or no questions only.”

“I’m so confused,” said Jay, watching as Mystake tipped her head back and drowned the cup of tea he’d given her in one long draught. When she’d finished her hand promptly dropped to her lap, the tea cup rolling to the floor (Jay dived forward to catch it), and her head sank against the headrest. Her eyes closed, her mouth fell open, and she snored once, very softly. Kai, Nya, and Jay all stared at her.

“What the hell…?” Jay murmured. “Did she just put herself to sleep?”

Nya looked to the hourglass-looking device. “I think… we’re supposed to wait.” She crossed her legs and relaxed her shoulders. After looking at her for a moment Jay sighed and settled back in his seat as well.

“Wait for what?” said Kai uncertainly. He hovered a few inches above the floor, in the middle of the room, looking at Mystake’s prone form in the chair. Her breathing was steady and deep, as though she’d already been asleep for a full hour instead of a few seconds. Then, the air around her brightened, just the tiniest bit, and the grey muted colors of her cardigan and hair brightened too, to a shimmering gold, and when Kai blinked the gold had lifted off her body in the shape of a person, complete with wide-brimmed straw hat, that floated upward and then straightened and sank back down to the floor, landing weightlessly on her feet, and Kai was looking at a transparent afterimage of the woman still sleeping in the chair. The apparition yawned and cracked her back, only there was no cracking sound and she frowned, miffed.

Kai gaped at her. “Hey! Hey! You're like me! Then that means... you can see me? You can hear me?”

“I hear you,” said Mystake evenly. “And I see you.” She looked at him directly for the first time, smiling crookedly. “You're one of Wu's students, aren't you?”

“Yes!” said Kai excitedly. “Yes, I'm Kai, the Red Ninja! Master of fire! My body's been possessed by an evil ghost, another student of master Wu's, from a long time ago. Please, you have to help, he kidnapped Lloyd, you know Lloyd? The Green Ninja, Wu's nephew, and he's... he's in danger. He doesn't have much time left. You have to tell my sister where he is so she can save him!”

“I'm afraid I can't do that.”

Kai’s rush of words crashed to a halt. “What?”

“Or rather, I probably could, but I won't.”

“Why not??”

“Because when I return to my body,” said Mystake, turning to regard her dozing self, “I will forget everything we talked about. I'll even forget about meeting you. Such is the way of spirit walking.”

“No. That can't be! I've done this several times now! I still remember everything! I always do!”

“Then you must have been disconnected from your body since the first time. You say you've been possessed? It must be because the ghost has taken over.”

A foreboding feeling fell over Kai. “He said my body accepted him as its true owner. Do you know what that means?”

“What it means is that your body now views you as an intruder, or an uninvited guest.” Mystake paced around to sit on the other side of the table to Jay and Nya, the strange device between them. “Aside from a special brew like the one I just took, the only way a person can spirit walk is if they are on the very cusp of dying, or when there is a very strong rejection of the body against the soul. This must have happened to you when the ghost took control and used your body as his own. And the more time you spend outside of it, the more thoroughly you will be locked out.”

“So… part of why I can't take back control is because I've been doing this spirit walking thing?” Kai tried to process this, then forcefully stopped himself. “Well... Well that's something I can worry about later. I'm still alive, right? As long as I'm alive I can still do something. The important thing is to help Lloyd. You know so much about this spirit thing. You must know some way I can talk to Nya and Jay! They have to see something, it's important!”

“I'm afraid the most that you can affect the physical world in this realm is by what you have been doing.” Mystake cupped her hands around the belly of the tea kettle. They glowed a brighter red-gold.

“You mean raising the air temperature a few degrees?” said Kai.

“It's how I recognized you were here.”

“You mean any, uh, spirit walker can do this? I thought it was just a weaker version of my powers.”

“You've heard of how ghosts make a room cold when they're around? A living spirit does the opposite.” She patted the floor next to her and Kai sat down, then she took his hands and held them to the bulb at the bottom of the glass in the device, filled with the unknown purple liquid. “This is a special substance not found anywhere else in the realm. It is even more sensitive to heat than mercury. Between the two of us, we can generate enough heat to move this line up.” She pointed to the middle of the glass tube where the liquid ended. “The rest will be up to your sister and your friend to understand. Of course,” she added, “if you find the Soul Amulet in the Cursed Realm and your friends use it to free your body from the ghost, you will have a chance to tell them whatever you like for yourself.”

“That'll take too long,” said Kai. “Lloyd can't wait for me to save myself first.”

Mystake smiled at him. “You are a kindhearted protector,” she said.

Kai looked away uncomfortably.

“Very well. Let's hope your friends are smarter than they look.” Together they focused their heat into their hands, and the purple liquid began to rise.

Nya had been nodding off, resting her chin in her hand, when Jay hit her arm lightly. “Nya, look!”

The liquid had already shot up to the top of the glass when Nya shook herself awake, and when it pushed the little tab inside, the string holding the bell on the side of the device moved up and down and shook the bell. It jingled lightly, then became still and silent when Mystake and Kai pulled their hands away and the liquid fell. Nya and Jay stared at it wide-eyed, and then Nya said, “Ma'am? Is... that you?”

“Ring for yes,” Mystake told Kai, “nothing for no.” They touched the bulb again, the violet line stretched up, and the bell jingled.

“Guessing that’s a yes?” said Jay, glancing at Mystake’s sleeping body in the armchair.

“Is Kai with you?” asked Nya.

The bell rang again.

“Is the sky orange?” Jay asked, before Nya got too excited. Nothing happened. “Is it blue?” The bell rang. “Is Zane with Cole right now?”

“How should I know, Jay?” mumbled Kai. Mystake followed his lead and kept her hands in her lap.

“Does Kai sing in the shower?”

“Fuck’s sake, Jay, quit wasting time!” Kai disgruntledly returned his hands to the glass bulb and Mystake did the same.

“Jay, seriously?” Nya was saying. She stopped when the bell shook again.

Jay gave a short laugh of triumph. “Hah! Okay, so that’s really Kai, and he wasn’t with us when we talked about how we’d split up. We should probably fill him in on Master Wu’s plan, you know, if he really is gonna be able to go to the Cursed Realm by himself.”

“I don’t care about that right now,” growled Kai. “Ask me about Lloyd, guys!”

“Kai,” said Nya. “We might have found a way to help you. There’s an amulet in the Cursed Realm that can bring souls back from anywhere in the sixteen realms. We want to use it to pull Morro’s ghost out of you. Then you can tell us where to find Lloyd.”

“No, dammit!” Kai slammed his hand on the table. It whooshed right through it. “You have a way to find Lloyd! It’s in your pocket, Nya!” He got up and once again moved close to Nya’s side, bending down to warm the place where he thought the picture must surely be. “Just right here!”

“Wait, Nya,” said Jay. “Why don’t we just ask him where Lloyd is? I mean at least have him confirm for us if we’re looking in the right place.”

“Umm…” Nya looked around the room. “I didn’t bring the map with me. Do you think there’s a map anywhere in here?”

“Even if there was, I couldn’t tell you exactly where to go!” Kai jerked his head at Mystake. “Help me out here, please!”

Without a word, Mystake joined him and put her hands over his. They were huddled so close together and to Nya that their spiritual forms practically overlapped each other, but after a few seconds their combined efforts finally gave the effect Kai had been hoping for this whole time; Nya yelped and jumped up and away from where she’d been sitting, slapping her hands at her side. “Ow! Hot! What is that?” She shoved her hand into her pocket, and her face changed when she remembered what she had in there, and slowly pulled the now rumpled photograph out.

“What’s wrong Nya?” asked Jay, who’d got up when she did. He leaned over to see the picture. The blood drained from his face. “Oh. Shit…”

“Morro gave this to me,” she said quietly. "To give it to Wu. I... I couldn't bear to show it to the rest of you." She rubbed the bent corner between her thumb and forefinger. The heat had already started to fade, but it was still unnaturally warm, even for having been pressed against her for hours. She frowned at it. “I’ve been feeling hot ever since we got here. Do you think… Kai wanted me to see this?”

Bling-a-ling-a-ling!

The little bell jumped about as the purple line shot up and down several times, the tab in the glass tube flipping back and forth. Jay and Nya watched it until it stopped. “I’m gonna say that’s a yes,” said Jay.

Nya sat back down on the floor and smoothed out the picture on the table. “Kai,” she said, her voice hard. “Is there a clue in this picture? A clue to where Lloyd is?”

Bling! Bling!

Nya dropped her gaze down to the photo, trembling as she was met once more by the appalling display of Morro’s last word to Wu. She tried to look only at the word alone, and ignore the gruesome canvas it had been carved on.

“A clue?” said Jay. There was a quiver in his voice, too. “Why would Morro leave a clue for us on finding Lloyd?”

Morro’s own voice suddenly played in Nya’s mind then: “I just thought you might want to see what your big brother's been up to since the last time you saw him.”

Could it really be? Could Kai have…?

No. Just look at the word, Nya. ‘Forsaken’… For… sake…

“F?” she whispered.

The bell tinkled. She carried on. “Sak… F Sak? Is that it?”

The bell was still.

“F… ren…?”

“No, it must be ‘sak’,” murmured Jay. “But it’s missing something.” He squinted at the picture, turning it a bit towards him. “That’s an ‘i’. Right there, see it? ‘F Sa-ki.’”

The bell danced wildly as the purple liquid rushed up and fell down the tube in quick succession. Bling! Bling-a-ling! Bling! Bling-ling-ling! Bling! Bling! –

Mystake gently put her hands down over Kai’s, stopping him from sweeping them through the device again.

“Is it a name, Kai? The name of the place where Lloyd is?”

“Yes,” sobbed Kai. In this form he couldn’t cry, but he knew if he were in his own body tears would be streaming down his face right now. He let Mystake take his hands and press them over the glass bulb. The bell jingled. It sounded like the happy laugh of a fairy.

“Holy fuck.” Jay got up and went to the door. “We gotta figure out who this is. Like now!”

“What about her?” said Nya, pointing at the sleeping woman in the armchair. “We can’t just leave without saying anything. Mystake?” Nya called out to the room at large. For no reason she spoke in a louder voice than she had been so far. “Should we wake you up?”

“That would be nice,” said Mystake, perfunctorily cupping her hands over the glass bulb. Kai was still too overwhelmed to offer his help, so the liquid took a bit longer to expand and push the tab, and the bell wasn’t shaken hard enough to give more than a tired little tinkle. Regardless, Nya quickly rushed to the old woman and started shaking her shoulder, urging her to wake.

“Oh yes, before I go and forget you,” Mystake said to Kai, “I should show you how to realm hop. Once the Green Ninja is found I presume you’d like to expel the ghost from your body and return to it, yes?”

“Well, yeah,” said Kai, “but can’t it wait? I can come back later, right?”

“Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today,” said Mystake, smiling knowingly. “It won’t take any time, I promise you. To do it you need only envision a specific destination or inhabitant of that realm, and then just step into it. What’s another realm you’ve visited before?”

“Um, only the Cloud Kingdom.”

“Alright.” She took his hand and stood side to side with him. “I want you to step forward with a person or place from the Cloud Kingdom in your mind, with the belief that when you put your foot down, you will be there.”

Kai thought of the Writers of Destiny’s temple. Following Mystake’s lead he lifted his foot and took a large purposeful step, closing his eyes midstride. When he opened them he was still holding her hand, and they were standing at the edge of one of the floating islands of rock, the breathtaking sight of the other islands with their alabaster towers hovering amongst the clouds.

“Woah,” he breathed. He looked down at himself and saw he was still see-through.

“And now we go back the same way,” said Mystake. Together she and Kai took another step forward, and this time Kai saw the world around him change back into that of the dingy tea room, as instantly and undramatic as flicking between photos on a phone. It was a bit disorienting.

Mystake released his hand and patted him on the shoulder. “There you go! As simple as that. I think that’s all, then.”

“Yeah,” said Kai absently. “Thanks. For everything.” His eyes were downcast as he said it.

“What ails you, Master of Fire?” asked Mystake. In the background, Nya called Jay over to help her.

“I'm the worst,” whispered Kai. “I should be mad that I can’t just tell Nya exactly where Lloyd is... but I feel relieved. Because if it had been that easy it means that what I did to him would have been for nothing!” He covered his face with his hands. “I feel more relieved that my fucking clue, that I left by torturing my little brother, got through, than I am of Lloyd getting rescued! God, I’m such a bastard!”

Mystake put her hand on his shoulder. He couldn’t feel it, but he heard her speak, in a wise old voice that sounded familiar to him. “Nothing in this world is ever for nothing, except for nothing. And even then it might lead to something! Everything happens exactly the way it must. Perhaps you cannot understand in the moment how it could be good, but if you trust in your destiny, and let it guide you on your way, you will reach a point where looking back will show you exactly where the roads diverged, and where they might have led. And at least for some of them, you will think ‘how lucky I am where I am!’”

Kai lowered his hands and breathed out slowly. “I don’t think I understood all that.”

“It’s alright,” smiled Mystake. “I’m a crazy old tea lady. It’s part of the job description to say something cryptic. Now I better return to my body before your friends think I’ve slipped into a coma.”

She turned towards the armchair, where Nya and Jay had propped her body up and were taking it in turns to lightly slap her cheeks, their voices getting more shrill with panic as they called her. She stood directly in front of herself, about faced, winked at Kai, and let herself fall backwards into her body. When Jay raised his hand to slap her again she caught his wrist with her flesh and blood hand, opened an eye and glared at him with it.

“Oh! Heh heh. You’re awake.”

“Mm.” She pushed him and Nya aside and rose from the chair. As she had done as a spirit she put her hands on her back and cracked it, and sighed with satisfaction when it actually made a sound this time. “Ahhh, there we go. Well. I hope you both got everything you needed. Did the spirit agree to go to the Cursed Realm, then?”

“Oh. Um, we didn’t actually talk much about that…”

Kai quickly bent over the thermometer contraption and heated the glass bulb.

Ding—ling.

“Oh, that was a yes!”

“Yes you’ll go to the Cursed Realm, Kai?” said Nya.

The liquid crawled upward. Kai removed his hands when he saw that the others had understood.

“Good!” said Mystake. She turned to Nya. “Now since you want him to bring something out of the realm, this is important: he cannot control where he will end up in the realm he is crossing into. And while he can hold and carry the amulet in the Cursed Realm, it will fall from him as soon as he brings it back with him to this one. So you should agree on a place for him to cross over and return to. It will be the same place in the Cursed Realm as well.”

“Like a save point in a video game,” said Jay.

“Got it,” said Nya. “Thank you so much, Mystake.” Jay expressed his thanks as well. He carefully picked up the thermometer by its brass frame. “Could we borrow this?” he said. “It’d help if Kai could tell us for sure when we find the right ‘F. Saki’ or not.”

“Definitely,” said Kai. Mystake nodded her assent.

“What is this stuff, anyway?” Jay peered at the bright purple color in the glass tube.

“Extremely rare,” said Mystake. “Only I know where to get some in the entire realm.” She smiled her knowing, mysterious smile. “Oni’s blood.”

“Huh.”

Chapter Text

He woke up feeling like he had been run over by every truck in the world. His whole body ached, and there was an uncomfortable tightness in his chest. This wasn’t alleviated when he pushed himself off the floor, hands flat on the ground, his knees shaking, his head pounding. His face was sticky with saliva, which had pooled into a puddle around his mouth, and no sooner had he lifted his head than he felt a lurch in his stomach and a mouthful of liquid puke and bile forced its way up his throat and he spewed it out. He was vaguely aware of a noise in the background, that of some kind of creature braying in alarm. He wiped his mouth with the back of his gloved hand, wincing at the wound in it that he’d forgotten, then slowly looked up.

His heart skipped a beat with fright at what he saw – a lopsided face with a mouth stretched open to its full length, full of a mass of blood, looking right at him and grunting wordlessly – then he remembered that it was merely Lloyd, still in his chair, and that the thing in his mouth was the piece of the tree branch he’d put there, completely coated in dark red blood from the gaps in Lloyd’s teeth.

He ignored his prisoner’s insistent calls for attention and looked past him to the middle of the room, where the canteen bottles and first aid kit sat on the floor. Laboriously he got to his feet and shuffled towards it, stumbling and falling twice on the way. When he got close enough he dropped to his knees, reached for the canteen that still had water in it, and shakily uncapped it and lifted it to his mouth, gulping down all that was left in one go. He threw the bottle away when he was done, sat back and just concentrated on breathing for a moment, pressing his hand to his heart and trying to soothe away the painful tightness.

Lloyd continued to make louder and more urgent noises behind him. He pretended not to hear.

When at last he felt somewhat normal again – or at least, like he’d only been hit by one truck instead of several – he stood up again and walked more surefootedly back to Lloyd.

Without saying a word he picked up the pliers from the floor. Lloyd’s cries immediately turned into screams of hysteria and terror at the sight. As he bore down on him the boy pressed back and uselessly shook his head from side to side. He gripped him under the jaw to hold him still, brought the pliers to his mouth…and wedged the ends of it between the side of his lips and the edge of the branch. The pliers couldn’t open wide enough to clamp around the full diameter of the piece of wood, but it acted well enough as a crank for him to jerk it a bit further out of Lloyd’s mouth. When Lloyd realized what he was doing he stopped struggling and fell silent, breathing hard with residual fear.

When he’d pulled the end of the branch far enough out he dropped the pliers and used his fingers to inch it the rest of the way. He managed to get a firm grip around it, and wrenched it clear from Lloyd’s mouth, holding him by the back of the head as he did so. Flecks of sawdust and bark came away with it as it scraped under Lloyd’s teeth. Lloyd gasped and shuddered, working his jaw up and down but not closing it completely despite how much it must ache; his upper gums still throbbed excruciatingly, and even the touch of his lips closing over them would be painful.

He knew. He’d gone through the same before. Countless times.

He dropped the branch piece to the floor and kicked it aside. Then he said, in a gravelly voice that wasn’t his, “How long was I out?”

Lloyd wasn’t looking at him. He was mewling and weeping and rocking in his seat.

He grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head up, leaning down practically nose-to-nose with him. “Hey,” he said, “I’m not in the mood. How long was I out?”

Lloyd struggled to speak. “I… I dun… I dunnnno-o-o-oh… I don’t…”

He shoved him back disgustedly and checked his watch. It was less than an hour until twilight.

The days were so long here. He hadn’t been able to tell them apart back in the place he’d been before, if there even had been days. Maybe time stretched out to endlessness no matter how short it actually was, if you had no way to perceive it. He hoped it was true for this realm too. Three days wasn’t nearly long enough, but he’d just about gotten bored of this whole affair. Still, he wasn’t going to leave things unfinished.

As such he regarded the whimpering ninja before him thoughtfully, taking note of the few bits of him left that were still undamaged and riffling through the corresponding tortures he still hadn’t tried.

He’s still kicking. What do you think? One last game before the day is out?

No answer. He frowned.

Hello-o-o? You there?

He poked around in the space in his mind where the annoying voice usually resided. But even without checking he knew something had changed. There had been no invasive emotions of fear or relief when he’d advanced on Lloyd and freed his mouth, no anger when he’d manhandled and interrogated him. His mind felt strangely empty. No, that wasn’t it. It was more like… it was finally all his. No longer stretched thin to cover for two souls, the blanket of his inner conscious was snug and secure around him, making him feel fully safe and private in his head for the first time.

He’d won. The body was his. He was alive again.

“He’s gone. Hahaha. He’s gone! I finally got rid of him!”

Lloyd trembled and hiccupped as he looked up at Kai’s face, alight with mad triumph. “Wh-who?” he asked.

The triumph became more pronounced as Kai looked down at him, grinning from ear to ear. “Morro,” he said. “I’m free at last, Lloyd. Do you know what that means?”

Lloyd threw his very last hope into the ring. He wasn’t confident in his chances. “You gunna l-lemme go?” he slurred.

Kai closed his eyes and shook his head at his naiveté. “Nice try. You have any idea what you look like right now? I doubt the cops will just let me off with a slap on the wrists. You’re not going anywhere.”

“…Then… are you g-gunna kill me?”

“Do you want me to?”

Lloyd shook his head, a stray tear crawling down his cheek.

Kai’s smile disappeared.

“You don’t want to die?”

Lloyd shook his head again. “No,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I don’. I dun wanna die, pleash, pleash Kai, don’ kill me, pleash don’ kill me–”

Kai grabbed his hair again, pushing him back as he jeered menacingly at him. “You’re afraid of death, you coward?” he spat between his teeth.

Lloyd’s dull, suffering gaze came alive just the tiniest bit then with some surprise. “'M not afraid… But I don’t wanna die. I can’t.”

Immediately he could see he’d made a mistake. Kai’s face turned dark and ugly with pure wrath. His eyes widened, his nostrils flared, his lips curled back in a grimace. “The fuck you don’t,” he said witheringly. “Don’t give me that noble hero crap. I told you not to lie to me!” He struck Lloyd hard with his hand, twice. “You don’t want to die? You want to keep playing with me, is that it?”

“N-n-no…”

He slapped his other cheek, and the wound under Lloyd’s eye bled through its stitches. “Stop fucking lying!!”

“I’m n-not…”

Kai slammed Lloyd's head against the chair back before letting him go. Huffing he started pacing up and down in front of him, hands clawed and shaking as though he wanted to rip and tear at something. After three times back and forth, he suddenly roared and upended the table, which crashed with a disproportionately loud bang that multiplied as it echoed off the walls. The remaining Shinju pills that had been on it scattered with a sound like quietly falling rain.

“What is it gonna take?!” yelled Kai. “What the fuck more do I have to do?! There’s no fucking way you still wanna live after all this! No way it’s gonna take more than this!”

He whipped his head around, looking for one of the tools on the floor. He dove down and grabbed the gardening shears. “But you asked for it. You don’t wanna die? I don’t believe you. So until you learn to tell the truth, I’m just going to have to make you wish you would!”

He pulled the shears open and bore down on him.

“My database covers named locations and landmarks within a twenty-two mile radius,” Cyrus Borg explained. “All of Ninjago City and its surrounding areas. Would that be sufficient, do you think?”

“I think it’s… more than sufficient, yeah,” said Nya, marveling at the wall-to-wall size screen displaying a bird’s-eye view of the city. Kai whistled in agreement, but didn’t think it worth the trouble of heating the Blood Glass to show it. They had already taken up more time than he would’ve liked to get here.

Enlisting Ninjago City’s most brilliant mind to help find out who or what F. Saki could be referring to was Pixal’s idea. When Nya and Jay had contacted Zane and Cole and informed them of the latest monumental news (significantly paraphrased), Zane had told them of Pixal’s immediate suggestion to visit her creator, because she remembered him having had a project in the works of an aerial map that recorded every registered address and named landmark in the northeast corner of Ninjago Island. “Wait wait wait,” Jay had said, “You mean to tell me we could have just watched out for Morro to see where he went on this map the whole time?”

“Pixal says it is not a live surveillance system, as that is unethical,” Zane had answered after a moment. He added after another short pause, “She wants me to say it with more reproach because how dare Jay think so little of Cyrus Borg for inventing such a thing, or that she wouldn’t have mentioned it before now if that had been the case.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry, Pixal.”

Nya had promptly agreed to follow Pixal’s advice to pay Cyrus a visit, then had asked Zane and Cole how their search into the factory Luka had mentioned was going. It didn’t surprise her when they said that the place was completely empty, and had been for a long time. “Okay, then we need to move on quickly with Sensei’s new plan. He said one of you guys have to go to the Caves of Despair and bring back Morro’s body.”

“Already called dibs on NOT being it!” said Jay.

“I have recordings of our time through the caves,” said Zane. “I will be able to find my way back to the exact location we found him.”

“Great. Go as soon as you can. And uh, you might want to bring a big plastic bag with you.”

“Affirmative.”

“Uhh, so,” came Cole’s voice. “You gonna tell us why we need Morro’s decayed body?”

“There’s no time to explain, but we need it if we’re going to force him out of Kai’s body. Meantime, you and Jay will be on standby until I find out where Lloyd is and tell you.”

“Okay. But what if Morro’s with him? He could threaten to kill him if he thinks he’s being ambushed.”

“He’s not with him,” said Nya. “A trusted source told us he’s… out of commission at the moment.”

“What trusted source?”

“Kai. There’s no time to explain!” She spoke over him when Cole started to ask the obvious question. “Just suffice it to say that we’re extra sure Morro is not going to be a problem right now. But we also have to hurry so be ready to go as soon as I call you!”

Answering Nya’s yes or no questions through the Blood Glass about the condition of his current state had taken even more time that had pushed Kai’s patience to the limit, especially since it took longer for him alone to heat the Oni blood enough to get it to shake the bell (eventually Nya had just accepted any obvious upward movement of the blood as an answer) but she hadn’t wanted to call up the others until she’d understood exactly what had happened to Kai and why he seemed to be an invisible ghost now. At least Mystake had shared all the spirit lore she’d told Kai before they’d left, but that had made Nya even more worried and prompted her to interrogate Kai in a panic; What do you mean close to death? Was Kai dying? Did Morro stab him? Then was he passed out? Where was Kai’s body right now, with Lloyd? Would Kai be alright if he returned to his body? Would Kai please go back to his body before it died and she lost him forever?

“Dammit, Nya!” Kai had left the Blood Glass and gripped Nya’s face in both his hands, turning up the heat as much as he could so she knew he was touching her. “I know you’re worried about me and I appreciate it, but I’m not going anywhere until you figure out where Lloyd is! So please, move already!”

Nya put her hands to her cheeks, which had turned flush. “Kai, is this you? Quit it!”

“Not until you calm the fuck down,” said Kai. He watched her fan her face without pity, Jay hovering at her side in concern.

Finally Nya huffed and took the Blood Glass, tucking it under her arm. “Okay, I get it! You want to help find Lloyd first. I should have known. Jay, take me to Borg Tower already.”

“Thank you,” sighed Kai.

Now he floated just behind Nya in a large computer room – in fact the same room in which he and the others had been hooked up to some advanced tech chair things that had sent them to the Digiverse several years ago, but it looked a lot different now – and watched the screen over her shoulder zoom out to show the full width of the circle Borg’s map – simply named, Borg Maps – encompassed. A cursor in a search bar at the bottom flickered in and out of existence, and a sidebar next to the map expanded to show a list of criteria with checkboxes.

Cyrus Borg, sitting at the keyboard, typed in “F SAKI” in the search bar. When he pressed enter, another sidebar appeared on the opposite end of the screen, showing the text search results, while red circles appeared on various points on the map, most of them within the city but spread out at random.

Borg read aloud the first result. “Saki’s Karaoke House?”

“Definitely not,” said Nya. She quickly scanned the rest of the addresses. “Try Saki Warehouse?”

Borg clicked on the name, and the map automatically zoomed in on one of the red circles, a point just on the very outskirts of Ninjago City’s seaside. Nya crinkled her nose doubtfully. “I guess it is remote enough… Is this it, Kai?”

She watched the violet liquid inside the Blood Glass carefully, waiting for it to so much as twitch. After a few seconds in which nothing happened she turned back to the screen. “No. Keep scrolling.”

“There’s over fifty results here,” said Borg, adjusting his glasses as his eyes swiftly swept over the many red dots on the map. “Do you have anything else that could narrow it down?”

“I just don’t think it’s in the city. Right Kai?”

The blood crawled steadily upward. Nya didn’t wait for it to reach the bell before continuing, though Borg watched it jingle with wide-eyed fascination. “It’s somewhere south. Probably.”

“Hmm.” Borg checked and unchecked some of the boxes on the first sidebar, then pressed the search button again. Less circles appeared on the screen. A lot less; only five this time, but three of them turned out to all belong to the same family of graveyard keepers that seemed to be in competition with each other, given the triangular configuration of their plots, one was the name of a very large and old tree, in honor of some historical figure, and the last was the name of an underground Serpentine tunnel called Saki’s Tail, long since caved in.

Nya raised her hands hopelessly. “None of these are it! Are you sure the place is called Saki, Kai?”

Kai heated the glass, but as the blood crawled up he began to doubt what he’d seen on that metal sign. It had been very old after all, and while the letters he’d noted had been clear enough, he wondered now whether there had been more that might have rubbed away completely throughout the years. Maybe F. Saki was not the full name?

Thankfully Borg seemed to come to the same conclusion, for he unchecked another box on the sidebar and said “Perhaps we shouldn’t use the exact wording. It could be an abbreviation for something.” He pressed search again, and the number of results tripled, this time including names like Sakima and Fujisaki (Nya jumped at that one, but it turned out to be a sushi stand in one of the rural villages).

“This is a manageable number,” Borg said, trying to cheer her up. “I’ll just go through them one by one, it shouldn’t take long.”

Nya’s phone rang just then. It was Detective Simon. “Hello?”

“Good evening,” said the Detective. “Just a quick update. We’re still searching the southern woods. Based off the photographs, and the echo quality of the voice recording, our analysts have given us an approximation for the size of the room Lloyd is being kept in. It’s likely empty, abandoned, and wooden, so we’re keeping a lookout for shacks, sheds or barns.”

“That’s good,” said Nya, though she said it without really listening to herself. “Thanks.” She hung up, then stared at the map on the screen, thinking. “Mr. Borg,” she said slowly, “could you search places by type instead of name? Like, for all the farms in that area?”

Kai looked at her sharply.

“Absolutely,” said Borg, changing the criteria in the sidebar and typing “farm” in the search bar. The number of red circles decreased again, but as he scrolled through the list Nya shook her head at each name. “None of them are Saki…” She tried to think of what other kinds of places would need a barn or a shed. “Orchards?”

Borg renewed the search. Three results showed up. None of them had Saki either, but one began with F.: Fujita Figs. She asked Borg to click on it, and the map zoomed in on a plot of trees just on the edge between the Birchwood Forest and the Wildwood Forest. When Borg clicked on the red circle, images and a text box of information popped up. Kai leaned forward and looked at the pictures intently, trying to decide if that structure he could see in the background of one was Morro’s barn or not.

Borg scrolled through the textbox. “The land still belongs to the family, but the orchard has been out of business for decades. It was founded by…” His breath caught with excitement. “A Miss Fujita Sakiyo!”

“That’s it,” said Nya. “It must be it. Right?”

“There’s a contact number here for her closest living relative,” said Borg. “Let us see.”

He clicked on the number, a new blank window appeared with a telephone icon on a dark blue backdrop, and a dial tone rang throughout the room from the computer’s large speakers. When it clicked a middle aged woman’s voice chirped, “Hello?”

“Miss Fujita?” greeted Borg, changing his voice to sound reedier and frailer. “Apologies for calling out of the blue like this. My name is Bryce Ford. Are you related to Fujita Sakiyo?”

“She was my grandmother,” answered the woman. “She passed away before I was born.”

“Oh, I am sorry to hear that. I was a regular customer of hers. I suddenly remembered the figs I used to buy from her and became interested in finding out about whatever happened to the orchard. Are you running the business now?”

“No, my dad shut it down years ago. No one knew how to take care of the fig trees. Last I remember anyone going out there to check on it, the whole orchard had run wild and overgrown.”

“I see,” said Borg. “Does your father not worry about squatters?”

The woman had already become disinterested in the topic. Nya could imagine her shrugging as she said, “My dad sold off everything valuable. The only thing left is the storage barn, and it’s empty. Between you and me, squatters are welcome to it. At least someone would get a use out of it.”

“That is true. Well, perhaps, if you would give me permission, I could pop by the place to pick some figs for myself? I do miss the taste.”

“Help yourself, Mr. Ford.” There was a pause in which the woman pointedly waited for Borg to end the conversation. He did graciously, cut the call, and wheeled his chair around to face Nya. “Well?” he asked in his own voice.

Kai was already cupping his hands around the Oni Blood Glass.

“I think that’s it,” said Nya, her heart pounding. She felt it pound even harder when the bell on the Blood Glass rang. Without further ado she whipped out her phone and thumbed Jay’s number. “Jay! I think we got it! We’re gonna send the coordinates to you and Cole right now!”

Borg nodded and immediately turned back to the computer, clicking and typing rapidly. Kai sank to the floor, not tired of course but needing to express his relief anyway.

They found him. They finally found him. They were going to rescue Lloyd.

Nya finished talking to Jay and closed her phone, then, mirroring her brother without realizing it, sank to her knees with a long exhale. Kai sat facing her and smiled. “Thank you, sis,” he said softly. “You’re amazing.”

“Oh Kai,” said Nya, startling him into thinking for a second that she’d heard him. “I hope he’s really there.” She fumbled for the picture of Lloyd from her pocket and looked at it sadly. “I never want to see him like this again.”

“You and me both,” mumbled Kai. Thinking of Lloyd, he wondered for the first time since leaving what he looked like right now. Of course, nothing could have changed, given that Kai was still here, which meant Morro had neither died (yet) nor woken up.

Maybe Kai wasn’t dying after all. Maybe the pills really had just knocked Morro unconscious. Maybe, fantastically, he and Lloyd really were going to both get out of this whole mess alive before sundown.

Or maybe… Maybe his body HAD died, and Morro was back to being a ghost, and even now was back to torturing Lloyd, and he, Kai, was stuck in this limbo existence of being a bell-ringing spirit forever…

Suddenly he felt incredibly anxious and wanted to go back to Lloyd right away. But he didn’t know how to tell Nya.

His sister was still looking at Morro’s last message to Wu. She frowned at the word on Lloyd’s abdomen. “Kai…” she said quietly. “When you come back… there’s something I need to ask you about.”

Kai stood up, feeling scared. He was glad he couldn’t talk to her directly right then. He manifested the Fire Dragon as Cyrus Borg rolled towards her, putting his hand on her shoulder and asking if she was alright. The last thing Kai heard her say before he and the dragon had phased through the wall of the building and flown off across the city landscape was her asking Borg if she could borrow a vehicle to drive back to Steep Wisdom. “I’ll meet you there, Kai.”

Kai knew his foreboding had been right as soon as the dragon landed by the barn; bloodcurdling screaming was issuing from inside.

“No no no. No, please, no. Not now.”

When he dived through the wall, he received a shock in the form of Morro – Morro in Kai’s uncorrupted body, looking no more worse for wear from the Shinju overdose – crouched on the floor by Lloyd’s legs. Kai braced himself for whatever inhumanity he was about to see as he glided towards them to get the full view of Lloyd in the chair, and yet still shouted in horror when he saw what Morro was doing.

The leg of Lloyd’s pants – the right side, the broken leg side – had been cut away up to the thigh. The other leg had been shackled to the chair by the Vengestone cuffs, presumably so Lloyd couldn’t kick Morro. The upper thigh of his right leg was bright red and bloody. Morro was leaning over it with the knife in his hand, which he was using to peel back the top layer of Lloyd’s skin. He sawed and hacked through it, ignoring Lloyd's screaming and thrashing, then pulled the resulting strip the rest of the way off with his hand, yanking it back like ripping masking tape from a box top.

Morro was skinning him alive.

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Kai leaped at Morro, aiming to tackle him to the floor, but he fell right through him and stumbled out on his other side. Morro didn’t seem to notice a thing. He’d cut off the end of the strip of skin with his knife, having pulled it all the way up to the knee, his hands slick and bloodstained. He threw the strip near where Lloyd’s teeth still lay on the floor, on a pile of other sickly beige-grey bloody strips of skin. Not far from this pile, the tape recorder Nya had traded with Morro sat on the floor, the wheels of the cassette inside spinning, the record button pressed down.

“So?” he said, putting his hand on the exposed patch of raw flesh on Lloyd’s leg and squeezing it, prompting Lloyd to let loose another garbled scream. “How about it, Green Ninja? Will you say it?”

Lloyd gasped and spluttered, his head so clouded with pain he forgot how to form words.

“Just say the words, Lloyd. Say you wanna quit.”

“I… I c-… I c-ca… an’t… I can’t.”

Morro’s voice – which was really Kai’s voice – became significantly angrier than it had just been. “What do you mean you can’t? What does that fucking even mean? It’s so easy! Just say it!”

Lloyd struggled to keep his head up. “N-n-no…”

Morro gritted his teeth. “Fucking piece of shit.” He brought the knife to Lloyd’s leg again and viciously pared the edge through his skin. Lloyd seized up and let loose another strangled, throat-damaging scream.

“Oh shit.” Kai stumbled backward, unable to process what he was seeing. “Oh shit! No, no! Lloyd!!”

He tried again to merge back with his body as Morro held the peeled-up section of skin in his fist and wrenched it back, parting it further from the blood-red flesh beneath. But Kai wasn’t pulled back in to the space in his head he’d occupied before, and when he shifted to the side away from Morro he saw that the ghost hadn’t noticed a single thing remiss. And all the while Lloyd screamed.

When Morro had yanked and sawed off the length of skin all the way to the knee, Lloyd’s screaming cut off and his head swayed downward, his shoulders slumped, and his eyes became unfocused. Morro snatched a white Shinju pill from the floor and shoved it between Lloyd’s jaws, then smothered his mouth and nose with one hand while gripping the back of his head with the other. “No no no, you’re not getting out of this unless you go all the way! If you’re going to sleep then you better plan on not waking up! Got that?”

Morro held Lloyd’s head up, suffocating him, his neck stretched out so that the pink line of where the belt strap that had held him down on the table had chafed him was visible. After several seconds, Lloyd’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, and Morro released him. Lloyd’s eyes were clear again, the drug sharpening his consciousness, but he looked no less distressed and agonized, his face awash with tears and mucus.

Morro gesticulated at Lloyd with his knife. He panted a bit as he spoke. “Now this can all end if you just say it, Lloyd. I’ll make it quick, and painless. Doesn’t that sound good? Huh? Then just admit you want out. Do it!”

“I c-… I c… I can’t!” sobbed Lloyd.

“You can’t? You can’t? You can’t? Because you don’t want it? Or because you won’t let yourself?”

“I don’t know… I don’t know, I can’t, p-ple-e-ease.”

“Don’t fuck with me, you little shit!” Morro grabbed Lloyd’s hair and shook him as he shouted in his face. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fucking fair. He’d broken within the first few hours of torture. How many times had he begged them to kill him? To put him out of his misery? He’d done much of the same things to the Green Ninja as the punishers had done to him, and yet he still thought he could handle more! “There’s no fucking way! Stop giving me this 'ninja never quit' crap and say the fucking truth! You want to quit! You want me to end it! There’s no way you don’t! Say it!”

“N-… nno-”

Morro returned to flaying off another strip of skin.

“AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!! NO! NO! NONONONONONO I CAN’T!”

“Shut the hell up!” Morro shook Lloyd’s head again, spit flying from his mouth in Lloyd’s face. “That is BULLSHIT! There’s no fucking way! A little pissant like you! What the FUCK could you possibly have to stop you from quitting? What does the great ‘Green Ninja’ have that makes him different, huh? What is it, Lloyd?! Tell me, I fucking BEG you!”

In the relative silence that followed Morro’s tirade, both he and Lloyd became aware of a sound, a new voice that belonged to neither one of them. Morro turned his head to the tape recorder. The record button had popped back up and the play button was down. The cassette had reached the end of its tape, and had automatically rewound back to the beginning and played itself.

“Lloyd. I don’t even know if you’ll hear this, but I… You are stronger than him. You hear me? He is not going to break you! We are definitely going to find you. We will get you back and–”

Morro pressed the stop button.

“Nee… ah…”

He looked slowly at Lloyd, who was resting his head against the chair back, chest heaving. “Nya… Nya…”

“Fucking hell.” Morro stood up, glaring at him. “That’s it, isn’t it? It’s THEM. Those fucking ninja. Of course you don’t give a shit about one of them betraying you when there are five goddamn more waiting outside, do ya! As long as your precious Master Wu and so called brothers are still alive you can’t let yourself quit.” He said the last in a mocking voice, waving the knife under Lloyd’s nose before shoving it into the holder in his belt. In his normal voice – jarringly normal, after all his belligerence – he said, “Fine. That’s it. You win Lloyd. I’m finally going to give you what you want. I’ll tell them where you are. I’ll bring them here, to you. And then,” he gripped the back of Lloyd’s neck, “I’m going to kill, each, single, one of them, while you watch. And THEN, if you ask me to kill you next, I won’t don’t it. You can go back to Master Wu, and tell him that it was all your fault he has no students left.”

So saying he picked up one of the used cloth strips off the floor and tied it around Lloyd’s mouth. Then he left the barn, slamming the door behind him.

“Lloyd!” Kai grasped Lloyd by the shoulders, generating heat for no reason other than that it was the only thing he could do. “Oh hang on, hang on, please hang on! Cole and Jay are coming for you. It’ll all be over soon!”

Lloyd moaned and laid his head back. His eyes were bloodshot, his face deathly pale.

So overcome with worry about Lloyd, Kai only just then thought over what Morro had last said. At first he felt no cause for alarm; how exactly was Morro meant to gather the ninja and bring them back here all on his own, much less kill them? He was outnumbered, he couldn’t possibly overpower them all at once. Besides, he didn’t know where they all were. Zane was probably already at the mouth of the Caves of Despair, and he had gone away from where Cole and Jay were heading, which was (hopefully) here.

The place he’d naturally go to first would be Steep Wisdom…

Which was where Nya would be by now. Nya, who would without question do what Morro said if he threatened Kai’s body like he had done before.

Kai’s heat turned down as the cold realization hit him.

“Oh no…” He glanced from the tape recorder to the barn door and back. “He’s going after her. He’s going after Nya!”

He swooped towards the barn door, paused, looked back over his shoulder at Lloyd.

He so wanted to stay to witness for himself when Cole and Jay came to rescue him. But…

“They’ll be here soon, Lloyd,” he said, convincing himself as much as his little brother. “You’ll be fine. I’m sorry.”

He phased through the door and left. It wasn’t lost on him that that was the second time in an afternoon that he had left Lloyd alone after a brutal torture.

For several minutes after that, Lloyd just sat and breathed without thinking of anything. There was no more room inside him for anything but pain. Even the effects of the Shinju pill had worn off prematurely, unable to compete with the tidal waves of agony. A different kind of drug was encroaching on his brain, darkening the edges of his vision and causing his head to slip to the side and land on his shoulder. It was the kind of drug that kicked in when the body had had enough, when the mind couldn’t put up with any more without shattering completely, and Lloyd let it take him, because he’d also had enough, he was tired, so tired, he wanted to sleep, no, he didn’t just want to sleep, he wanted to check out, vacate the premises, lock the doors and windows and never look back, he was done, ring all you want, you’d find nobody home. His eyes drooped closed, and he welcomed the merciful darkness.

For about ten minutes.

Then, quite against his will, he could see again, and he was on the floor, hands pressed against the wood planks. His hands…

Lloyd sat up and looked at them. They were free, and, more incredibly, they were healed. And… transparent? As were his arms, which were covered by the sleeves of the jacket he’d worn when he first left the hospital, now whole again and as see-through as the rest of him. Lloyd inspected his stomach, his face, his unbroken legs, and found everything exactly in order, even his clothes were all in one piece and back on his person again. Except he couldn’t even feel himself, and he was neither hot nor cold, and dread fell over him as he had a thought, and turned around to confirm it.

When he saw himself sitting slumped in the chair, shackled, gagged, bruised, bloody, and beaten, Lloyd cried out in shock and fell back. He stared at his inert body with wide eyes, shaking his head minutely with denial. “Shit… Oh shit. It’s me…” He crawled a bit closer, taking in the details of his injuries. With each one he noticed, and the memory of how it had happened, he became more and more aghast at just how much he had endured. He looked terrible. If he had seen himself before now as someone else, he would have thought for sure he was dead.

Dead… Yes. That must be what had happened. He was…

“No… Oh no.” He got to his feet and cupped his hands around his own face. He couldn’t lift his head off his shoulder, and his eyelids didn’t even twitch. “I’m so sorry. I really tried…”

He could think of nothing to do but gaze regretfully at the ruined vessel that used to be his.

Then, hushed voices came from outside.

“This is it. It has to be.”

“You boys stay back, let me check it out first.”

“The door’s big enough for all three of us, let’s just go in at the same time.”

“Wai–”

The barn door was flung open, and Lloyd shot up to see over his own head. Three men stepped into the room, the one in the middle a bespectacled, uniformed officer, holding a gun in both hands. The two on either side of him had masks on, but as soon as they saw Lloyd’s body in the chair they uncovered their faces and ran towards him. Both stopped and gasped when they reached him.

“Lloyd! Lloyd! Oh my God!”

“Fuck, oh fuck, what’d that bastard do to him?”

“Cole… Jay…” Lloyd’s soul lifted in joy to see them again, but only for a second before despair washed over him again, even heavier than before, and he sank back down to the floor on his knees as he watched his friends frantically check over his broken body. “You’re too late… I’m already…”

Jay had pulled the cloth tie off of Lloyd’s mouth while Cole tried to break the chain of Lloyd’s handcuffs with his bare hands. His cheeks puffed with the effort, but while the Earth ninja was usually strong enough to lift a car, he couldn't seem to snap the thin metal, nor get an adequate grip with both hands. He huffed and let it go. "It's no use," he said dismally. "With Lloyd so weak like this my powers are useless." He turned to the policeman. “Detective Simon. Come look at this. These handcuffs one of yours?”

Detective Simon holstered his gun and came over. He nodded grimly after taking a look at Lloyd’s hands. “Yeah it’s ours. I can open ‘em, here.” He unhooked a small key from his belt.

While he unlocked Lloyd’s wrists, Jay inspected the shackle on his ankle and cursed. “These are different. Morro probably still has the key with him.” As he looked around without hope for a key his eye caught on something glinting on the floor nearby. The four pills Morro had used as a tally were there, and next to them… Jay frowned, picked up one of the red-stained pills, then turned green when he brought it close and saw what it really was. “A… tooth…” He turned back to Lloyd.

Cole stared at him in horror, then gingerly put his hand to Lloyd’s mouth and pulled his lips back. Both he and Jay swore at the sight of the dark gaps in his teeth. "Shit...!”

“I’m gonna kill him,” said Jay, shaking with rage. “I’m gonna find a way to bring that bastard back to life and then I’m gonna kill him.”

“You’ll need to get in line,” growled Cole, helping Detective Simon lower Lloyd from the chair to the floor, lifting the chair up slightly so he could slide the Vengestone cuff off the its leg, and hissing when he saw that Lloyd's back had been almost as abused as his front.

Lloyd had gone numb watching the scene before him. The depth of the cruelty of fate that his friends should find him mere minutes after he’d already succumbed to the pain was too much for him to comprehend. He heard Detective Simon call an ambulance on his phone, his voice calm but urgent, saw first Jay then Cole take off the outer robes of their gi’s and lay them over Lloyd’s torso, tucking them around his shoulders and arms, and watched Cole lean over him with a heartbroken expression, brushing his face and softly calling for him to wake up… but it all meant nothing. He was gone. He hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye.

“Lloyd, buddy, come on,” Cole whispered, gently shaking him by the collarbone.

Jay, sitting on Lloyd’s other side, lifted his hand and pressed his thumb against Lloyd’s wrist. “There’s a pulse,” he said. “But it’s weak.” Furiously he blinked back the wetness in his eyes. “Fuck, man… He didn’t deserve this. This is just…”

“Monstrous,” supplied Detective Simon in a grave voice, having finished talking to the hospital. “Yeah. I’d like to say I’ve seen worse, but…” He shook his head. “We won’t rest until we put the Red Ninja behind bars,” he promised.

Cole and Jay looked at each other uneasily.

Lloyd, meanwhile, had straightened up at Jay’s pronouncement that he was still alive. Could it be true?

And if it was, was it a good thing…?

No one said anything again after that, aside from Cole and Jay murmuring to Lloyd that he would be alright, help was coming soon, he just needed to hold on a bit longer. They wouldn’t stop touching or petting some part of him, except of course for his exposed, broken and skinned leg, which made them both grit their teeth in anger every time they glanced at it. When at last Detective Simon’s walkie-talkie blared on to inform him that the ambulance had stopped at the side of the road and paramedics were on their way with a stretcher, Cole volunteered to go out and guide them back. Jay, meanwhile, pulled out his own phone to call Nya. Though he let the call ring several times, she didn’t answer. He frowned at the screen with concern.

Cole returned with the medics, and they wasted no time lifting Lloyd onto the stretcher they’d brought and carrying him out, one of them already checking him over as they walked. Jay gave one last glance over the room, face darkening at the tools scattered about, the bloodstains on the table and floorboards, the chain that had suspended Lloyd dangling low from the ceiling, then stood up and followed Cole and Detective Simon out. The sounds of their progress through the brush and grass soon faded away, and Lloyd was left alone.

Unlike Jay, Lloyd didn’t feel the need to look around the barn before he wearily made his way to the partly opened door. He never wanted to see this place again.

Cautiously he squeezed through the opening, noting how his footsteps made no noise as he stepped outside, and that the grass didn’t flatten beneath his feet. So even though he wasn’t dead, he was very much like a ghost in some ways, and that made him wonder if he could fly. Without knowing how he did it, he lifted himself a few inches off the ground, and even smiled a bit. He’d always liked flying. The thought made him want to try something else.

He lowered himself back down, closed his eyes, took a deep breath (though he was aware no air entered his lungs, if he even had lungs), and in his mind called to that deep, nameless core part of him that housed his Elemental Power. When he opened his eyes, a dragon, near as tall as the barn, stood before him, emerald green and shimmering but just as transparent as he was. Lloyd laughed once in delight at seeing his old friend; it was the first time he’d seen it in its uncorrupted state since before Morro had possessed him.

“Hey, boy! Good to see you again!” The dragon lowered its head to him and he patted it affectionately. The pats turned into a desperate hug, and though he shed no tears Lloyd shuddered against the dragon’s nose, holding tightly to it as though it could protect him from all the evil in the world. It rumbled, loud and low, from deep in its belly, and gently nudged him back.

Against the textureless scales of its brow, Lloyd whispered, “I just want to go home. Can you take me there?”

The Energy Dragon nodded in his embrace. Lloyd let go of its head, stood back as it lowered its wings and belly to the floor, and then climbed up onto its back. Not caring about whether it understood where ‘home’ was, he laid his head down between its shoulder blades, and let it carry him upward, out through the canopy of trees and into the twilit sky.

Chapter Text

Kai hadn’t left the barn by more than a few minutes after Morro had. So when he launched his dragon into the air, he’d expected to see Morro on his own dragon (well, the corrupted version of Kai’s dragon) flying up ahead of him. Instead he saw clear darkening skies and the leafy green sea of treetops below, with nothing stirring but a bird diving down into the canopy.

Wait… Not a bird.

It was a person. A person falling from a great height to the ground.

“Oh CRAP!” shouted Kai, kicking his dragon into overdrive after the falling figure, even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to save Morro – save his body – even if he did catch up in time. As it was, they got close enough to witness Morro twist himself around midair and throw out his arms just before he plunged into the trees, a shockwave of wind expanding out from him as he summoned his Elemental Power to cushion his fall. Kai urged the Fire Dragon down into the trees and pulled it to a hover there, its ethereal wings unobstructed by the crisscrossing branches.

On the ground where he lay on his back, Morro was easily discernible by the bright red of his gi. Kai breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw him slowly sit up with a groan and rub his head, leaves falling off his shoulders. When he’d checked that no part of him was broken, stretching out his arms and legs one by one and patting his sides, he got to his feet and looked around, frowning in confusion and annoyance.

“His dragon disappeared while he was flying,” Kai thought out loud. He looked down at the head of the Fire Dragon. “You disappeared… Because I called you. And there can’t be two of you at the same time.”

The Fire Dragon gave a horse-like snort. Kai took that as agreement.

“Hah!” He watched gleefully as Morro closed his eyes and stood still for a moment, clearly trying to summon the Fire Dragon to existence, and then once again looking around at his surroundings in consternation when it didn’t appear. “Yes! Take that, asshole!”

No sooner had he finished celebrating than he became anxious again, wondering what Morro would do next. He was closer to the barn than anywhere else, and might take it in his mind to return to it. Kai didn’t relish the idea of him being there when Cole and Jay came for Lloyd.

But no, Morro seemed determined to follow through on what he’d promised. With a set jaw and determined steps, he took a few steps north-east, towards the setting sun, whose rays knifed between the trunks of the trees; the direction of Steep Wisdom. He gathered the wind around him and used it to propel him forward, weaving between the trunks of the trees in a short burst that launched him several feet across in one second. He ran a few steps more, aimed himself carefully, and did it again. Soon he was lost to sight in the thick of the forest.

“Fuck,” breathed Kai. “Nothing’s going to stop him… Not unless we get him out of my body once and for all.”

Feeling significantly less stressed now that he knew Morro’s progress had been slowed down, Kai nonetheless nudged the Fire Dragon as fast as it could go to the tea shop.

When he arrived some ten minutes later, he landed the dragon outside and instructed it to stay put rather than vanishing it, wanting to make sure Morro wouldn’t have any chance at summoning it to his side if he decided to try again.

When Kai phased through the door of the shop it was to find it lit and empty, but he’d seen the sleek and expensive-looking mech parked innocuously outside in the shade of the building and knew Nya must be somewhere. Swooping through the hallway to the living room and then the kitchen he found her pacing up and down in front of the dinner table, where she’d set the Oni Blood Glass and her phone.

Kai rushed to the glass and heated the bulb with his hands. The blood crawled up and triggered the silver bell to ring.

Nya stopped midstride and stared at it. “Kai?” she said.

Kai heated the blood again before it could drop all the way back down. The bell jingled again.

“Oh geez.” Nya huffed and flopped herself down on one of the chairs. “There you are! Don’t scare me like that. I thought you’d disappeared or…” She let the unspoken word hang in the air.

“I’m okay, sis,” said Kai quietly. “But that’s kind of the problem now.” He pulled his hands away, stumped on what he should do next. He had no way of warning Nya that Morro was on his way, nor could he prompt any conversation about the Soul Amulet. He shook his head at his powerlessness.

Fortunately Nya decided to catch him up to speed on her own. “Master Wu didn’t want me and Jay to use the Traveler’s Tea until he came back first. ‘Course, we’re not going to use any Traveler’s Tea, but we do need to know a bit more about the amulet anyway…”

“We don’t have time to wait for Master Wu’s approval, Nya,” said Kai exasperatedly. “I’d go right now if I knew where the damn thing was. Could you just call Misako or something?”

At that exact moment, the warbling sound of the landline phone reached them, and Nya grabbed the Blood Glass as she rushed down the hall and through the shop’s back door to answer it. Kai followed close behind, hoping it wasn’t some customer calling about an order.

“Hello?”

“Nya. Perfect.” It was Misako. Kai couldn’t make out what she was saying even though he leaned his ear in close by Nya’s head, but he recognized her voice. “I wasn’t sure which one of you would be at the shop so I called the landline rather than try you each one by one. Listen, we’re almost there, but we’re going to land on the Bounty so we need you to make sure to clear some space on the deck. Would you do that now, please?”

“Land? On the Bounty?” said Nya. “Why exactly…?”

“We’re bringing something big,” Misako explained, “and we need room for it. You’ll see when we get there.”

And she hung up.

Nya blinked at the earpiece, which beeped at her unhelpfully. She set it back on the phone and once again picked up the Blood Glass, and swiftly made her way out of the shop. Puzzled, Kai glided after her. He had no idea what she was doing when she climbed up onto the Destiny’s Bounty and started pushing aside the boxes and barrels on the deck, but he felt a bit appeased at the fact that she wasn’t in the shop anymore; maybe once she was done he could convince her to hide in the lower decks, so that Morro would think no one was around when he eventually made his way here. Of course, that wouldn’t matter if Wu and Misako got back before he did… Kai sat next to the Blood Glass, which Nya had set down on the deck, and kept ready to activate it to get Nya’s attention once she was done. Just in case.

***

For most of the journey, Lloyd kept his head laid down against the Energy Dragon’s back and paid no mind to where they were going. He closed his eyes, but quickly found the sensation of seeing nothing but a black void while feeling nothing – not the wind rushing past, not his weight against the dragon, not the pull of gravity as its wings beat up and down – too frightening to try to sleep through, which, he put together, he probably wasn’t physically capable of in his current state anyway. So he sat up properly and tried to enjoy the serene sights of the landscape, shadowed under the fading orange horizon. Paradoxically he was a bit saddened that the expanse of space around him and the freedom he’d been afforded didn’t make him feel more euphoric, given how long he’d been locked up (not that he knew exactly how long that had been); perhaps not having a body to feel the outside air with made a bigger difference than he would’ve thought.

His body… Whenever he remembered it, remembered seeing himself sitting chained lifelessly in that chair, he felt a knee-jerk reaction of banishing the image from his head. Not because it had been horrific, though it had been, but because he didn’t want to feel any connection to what had happened to it, to him. He’d heard once that a person could go insane if they looked at their reflection in a mirror for too long. He wondered if literally seeing one’s own body from the outside, especially after that body had been so thoroughly ruined as his had been, could do the same, and his subconscious was trying to protect him by distancing itself from his physical form. Or, perhaps, it was just as simple as he himself not wanting to confront what had happened to him, what had been done to him, to spare himself from the grief and trauma he wouldn’t be able to escape from when he returned to his body and woke up in a hospital bed for the second time in the span of a month.

If he woke up, that is.

Pondering all this in a melancholic, detached sort of way, Lloyd was surprised when the Energy Dragon turned its head down and began to dive, signaling its intention to land. The ride had barely lasted a quarter of an hour – enough time that the sun had set completely and the first stars had blinked open. Lloyd saw with an aching rush of nostalgia the familiar shape of the grounded Destiny’s Bounty below as the dragon circled in for a landing, in the light of the automatically lit lanterns hanging from the roof of his uncle’s tea shop.

He slid down from the Energy Dragon’s back and rubbed the top of its head affectionately. “Thanks, boy,” he said. With a nod of its head, the dragon vanished, and Lloyd walked to the front door of the shop. In the gloom, and in his eagerness to return somewhere familiar and safe, he didn’t notice the faded outline of the Fire Dragon curled up against the wall, even when it opened its eyes to watch him.

When Lloyd, after experimentally poking his hand through the closed door, disappeared inside, the Fire Dragon got up and flew to its master on the ship in two beats of its wings. Kai was startled when it landed suddenly next to him on the deck, its tail and wings passing through several stacked boxes and objects, Nya walking unknowingly through its hind leg carrying an armful of rope. “Woah, hey. What is it?”

The dragon grunted and tossed its head meaningfully at the tea shop.

“…Morro? Is it Morro? Crap.” Kai didn’t think he could’ve gotten here already on foot. Maybe he’d managed to summon his own Elemental Dragon of Wind? Kai scrambled to his feet and leaped from the ship, catching himself midair and floating the rest of the way, shooting straight through the wall of the building.

***

The first place Lloyd had gone was the bathroom, inside of which he checked the mirror above the sink. He was unsurprised, though no less freaked out, when he saw only the tiled wall behind him in the reflection. After taking a moment to calm down, by convincing himself he was more put out about not being able to see his face sans injuries rather than because he was going through an existential crisis, he swept through the door and flew to the dojo, where he sat himself down, crosslegged, on the floor. He sighed with relief. Normalcy, at last. Well, except for the fact that he wasn’t actually here, and neither was anyone else… but at the moment he kind of preferred that. There was a small part of him that wondered where everyone was, but he was too content to be home to care. Gazing around the dim room, he was almost able to conjure the image of his father standing before him, dressed in his Sensei attire and giving him the stern look that always preceded an impartation of wisdom…

He was startled out of his reverie by a loud curse.

“Dammit, Nya!”

That voice…

Lloyd shot up from the floor, looking in the direction of the short hallway that led to the kitchen.

Kai emerged, scratching the back of his head in frustration. Beneath his shock, Lloyd took in the fact that he was floating a few inches off the floor, and that he was see-through.

“Of all the times to forget your phone,” Kai grumbled. “What if they’d called about…?”

He stopped as he became aware of Lloyd standing there, watching him.

“Lloyd…?”

He couldn’t have looked more astounded than if… well, than if he’d seen a ghost. For his part, Lloyd couldn’t think of a single thing to say as he stared back at him. But he didn’t need to.

“Lloyd? Lloyd!” Kai came running – well, half running, half gliding – towards him, and before Lloyd could decide if he was happy to see him or not, the other ninja had collided against him, arms wrapping around him, and whirled him around several times in a tight embrace, the two of them levitating off the floor.

“I can't believe it! Lloyd! Oh little brother!”

Kai was holding him so tightly that Lloyd couldn’t pull away, but it didn’t feel like anything, and he felt sure that he could just phase through Kai’s arms if he tried. So he let himself be hugged, wondering (in an impassionate way that surprised him) whether this Kai might possibly be the real Kai. His Kai, his big brother. The one who’d promised to look after him…

Kai held him for a bit longer before gently pushing him back at arm’s length, gripping him by the shoulders. “What happened to you?” he demanded. “How are you here right now?”

“I... don't know,” said Lloyd. “Are we both dead?”

“No, no we're not,” said Kai quickly. “I promise. We'll be alright, Lloyd.”

Kai held Lloyd’s face and compulsively brushed his hair back several times, even though it wasn't in the way. Again, given his intangibility, Lloyd didn't mind – at least not as much as he thought he would about Kai touching him – but the expression on Kai's face worried him a little; the older boy was looking at him as though it were the first time he'd seen another human before, his eyes sparkling with wonder and hunger.

Finally he seemed to have drunk his fill, or at least forced himself to focus, for his gaze hardened and he clenched his jaw, though he didn't let go of Lloyd. “Is... Is Morro possessing you right now?” he asked.

Confused, Lloyd said, “No, he's…” And he realized the truth of it then when he thought back on the last he’d seen of ‘Kai’, and saw the intense concern in the eyes of the Kai in front of him now: “He’s still possessing you...”

Kai nodded to himself, looking perturbed but unsurprised. “Did you see him on your way here?”

Lloyd shook his head. “He left me. After he...” A thought came to him. “Kai, have you been here the whole time? While I was–?”

“No,” Kai assured him, sensing the hurt behind Lloyd’s question. “No, only whenever he went to sleep.” His voice became heavy with remorse. “I saw everything, Lloyd. I know everything he did to you. And I'm so sorry.”

Lloyd looked at him carefully. Away from the featureless, fire-lit four walls of the barn, away from the deliriousness induced by the pain, away from the suffocating fear of waiting for whichever version of Morro or Kai would greet him next with another promise of torture, Lloyd felt able to think clearly for the first time in days, and within a moment he reasoned that if this Kai was the same sort of spectral being as him, then he must have left his own body as well. Which meant it must really be him. “So it... it was Morro the whole time,” he said. “Who was hurting me I mean.”

Kai paused for only half a second before lying. “Of course it was.”

Lloyd let out a breathy, humorless laugh, which multiplied into a, it sounded to Kai, slightly manic chortle. Then he stopped, put his face in his hands and took a deep breath. “I knew it,” he whispered shakily. “I knew it couldn't be you! There were a few times I almost thought...!”

“It's okay, buddy. I wouldn't blame you...”

Kai tried to stave off the guilt that gnawed at him by telling himself that, if Lloyd really wasn’t possessed, he’d forget this whole interaction anyway once he returned to his body. It made no difference whether Kai told the truth or not. No point in upsetting him with it right now.

When Lloyd pulled himself together and dropped his hands, Kai said, “Lloyd, this is important. Did you see what happened to you? Before you came here I mean.”

Lloyd nodded gravely. “Cole and Jay found me. They took me to the hospital.”

“That's great!” Kai was so relieved he sank a bit lower, his feet phasing through the floor. “That's great... Thank God. You'll be okay, Lloyd. It's finally over. You're safe.”

Remembering how bad he’d looked when he’d seen his body from the outside, and Cole and Jay’s grief-stricken faces, Lloyd didn’t entirely agree, but he saw no reason to argue the issue right then. “What about you?” he said, frowning at Kai. “Morro is still using your body. And he's definitely not asleep right now.”

“Yeah, I... I can't go back to my body anymore, apparently. It thinks it belongs to Morro.”

“What? What does that mean?”

Kai shook his head dismissively. “It's complicated, but don't worry about me, Lloyd. I'll be fine. Nya and Master Wu are working to help me. Right now you have to get back to your own body.”

Lloyd’s face fell. “Right now? Why? What happens if I don't?”

“I don't know exactly, but the fact that you're here isn't a good sign. It means you're... you're close to dying.”

“But you said we're not dead!”

“Not yet. But you wouldn't be like this if you were just taking a regular nap, Lloyd. Please, go back. No one's using your body right now so it can't wake up without you.”

For some reason Lloyd looked extremely reluctant.

“What's wrong?” asked Kai.

“What if I don't want to wake up?” said Lloyd quietly, not meeting his gaze.

Kai stared in shock. He dropped his hand from Lloyd’s shoulder. Lloyd hugged himself around the middle. “I don't feel anything right now,” he elaborated. “No pain, no cold, no fear... Nothing can touch me. And you're here. The real you. I...” He looked up at him with wild desperation. “I don't want to go back to that nightmare, Kai. It hurt so much–”

“Lloyd, hey.” Kai gripped his shoulders again, speaking softly. “You're going to be fine. You said you're in the hospital now, right? They've probably got you so doped up you won't be able to feel anything. Your mom will definitely be there waiting for you, and the guys too. I promise you you're safe.”

Lloyd was unconvinced. He hung his head. “But I'm broken. I don't know if I'll ever...” He looked at Kai with heartbreak in his eyes, and Kai knew he was confessing the real reason behind it when he said, “I can't be the Green Ninja anymore.”

Kai’s soul ached for him. He knew how much it cost Lloyd to admit to this fear. He had always taken his title seriously, and with pride, the mantel that had been forced upon him without him having any say in the matter. It had been in defense of that title that had allowed Lloyd to remain so strong in the face of Morro’s machinations, and Kai couldn’t bear the thought of that strength breaking now, at the very end, after the danger had passed.

“Listen to me,” he said firmly. “Morro blocked his thoughts from me, but I could still feel most of his emotions. And you know what? He never felt like he beat you, Lloyd. Not even once. That's why he didn't stop, why he pretended to be me. No matter what he tried, he could see that it couldn't break you. You were stronger than him. You held on. You will always be the Green Ninja.”

Lloyd stopped himself from asking Kai just whom he thought he’d been holding on for. He let himself take comfort from his words, meager as they were. “Thanks, Kai.” He hesitated. “Still… Can’t I just… stay here with you a little longer? Please.”

“I’m not hanging around here either, buddy.” Kai’s face turned grim and resentful, almost annoyed, though not at Lloyd. “I have something I need to do.”

Lloyd perked up with curiosity. “What is it?”

“I’ve gotta help Nya and Master Wu get Morro out of my body. And fast, before he hurts someone else.”

“How are you going to do that?”

Now it was Kai’s turn to hesitate. He really didn’t want to tell Lloyd he was going to the Cursed Realm. “There’s something I gotta get first. Something only I can get.”

Lloyd could tell Kai was hiding something from him. “Kai,” he said sternly, “tell me the whole plan. If you’re on a mission then I should know what it is. We’d get it done faster by working together.”

Kai had to smile at the ‘leader voice’ Lloyd had instinctually used. It was a strange thing to think, given that unlike the others he’d seen a lot of Lloyd in the last few days… but he’d really missed him.

“Alright,” he sighed. “It’s called the Soul Amulet. And it’s in the Cursed Realm. Lucky for me, apparently you can cross realms by spirit walking like we’re doing right now. I’m going to pay the Cursed Realm a little visit, grab the Soul Amulet, and bring it back here, so that Wu and Nya can use it to drag Morro’s ghost out of my body once and for all.” He shrugged. “Piece of cake.”

Lloyd’s mouth had fallen open wider and wider as Kai talked. He blinked, closed his mouth, and tried to compose himself. “Okay. Cool. Steal something from the Cursed Realm. We can do that.”

“There’s no ‘we’, Lloyd,” snapped Kai. “I have no idea what it’s like over there. This is about my body. There’s no reason for you to come too.”

Lloyd snorted. “Sure, Kai. I don’t have anything to do with this at all. Not like I don’t wanna help de-possess you from Morro and make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else.” He shook his head derisively, dropping the sarcasm. “I’m going and you can’t stop me.”

“But–”

“Kai!” Lloyd gave him a look that was somehow both fierce and brittle. “No offense, but I really don’t want to hear you tell me what I can and can’t do anymore. I want to make my own choices again. I…” His eyes glinted with shame. “When I go back to my body I’m not going to be able to do anything for myself for a long time. I just want to take this chance to feel like I’m in control again. To feel normal. Just for a bit. Please.”

Kai was hurt by the accusation, but he knew Lloyd had every right to feel the way he did. How could he refuse him when he put it like that? And, if he was being honest, it would be reassuring to have someone with him.

“Fine. You can c-… I mean, do whatever you want. But be careful, okay? According to a mysterious old tea woman who I think might be even older than Master Wu, we’ll be heard and seen while we’re there. So we gotta stay low profile.”

Lloyd smirked. “We’re ninja, Kai. Low profile comes with the job.”

Kai chuckled and ruffled his hair. He noticed Lloyd’s smile slipped when he did that, and inwardly cursed Morro.

He cleared his non-existent throat. “Come on then. Let’s go.”

“Just like that?” Lloyd didn’t sound panicked, just intrigued. As though going to the Cursed Realm were as normal as having a spur-of-the-moment picnic.

“I meant outside,” said Kai. “To the Bounty. We gotta debrief with Wu first. I don’t even know what the Soul Amulet looks like.”

The two of them walked out through the wall, where Kai’s dragon stood waiting for them, surrounded by fireflies. It playfully nudged Lloyd’s head with its snout, as though it were just as happy to see him as Kai had been. Lloyd was surprised but pleased, and rubbed its jaw in return before following Kai to the Bounty.

An unexpected sight met them as they approached the ship. Hovering several feet above its deck was a familiar, helicopter-like vehicle, its propellers beating a loud and rapid whump-whump-whump noise; R.E.X. Inside its bubble glass body, R.E.X.’s owner, Ronin, was visible at the controls, maneuvering the craft carefully in order to settle a large metal cage, hooked on a cable dangling from underneath, onto the Bounty’s deck, where Nya, Wu, and Misako stood, waving up at Ronin to direct him.

“Woah… What’s going on?” said Lloyd, as he and Kai climbed over the ship’s side.

“Don’t know,” said Kai, “but looks like they just got here, so hopefully someone will explain.”

The cage finally touched down to the deck with a dull thump, and Nya clambered up its side and onto its top to unhook the cable. Ronin winched it back up into R.E.X., then flew the craft off to park it out of the way.

Nya jumped down from the cage and stood next to Misako and Wu. “Is this what I think it is?” she asked.

“Depends,” said Misako. “If you think it’s a single-cell prison made completely out of Deepstone, then you’d be right.”

Kai whistled appreciatively and smirked at the idea of Morro being inside of the cage.

Lloyd just looked wistfully at his mother.

“When whoever went to fetch Morro’s body–” started Wu, to which Nya supplied “Zane is.” Wu pursed his lips and continued. “When Zane returns with Morro’s body, we’ll put it in here, and then put the Soul Amulet on it. That way Morro’s ghost should be summoned inside of the cage, but won’t be able to leave it. And then… we’ll decide what to do with him.”

Kai scowled. “Oh I can think of a few things,” he muttered through his teeth. Lloyd dropped his gaze and said nothing.

By this point Ronin had joined them on the deck and leaned against one of the stacks of boxes Nya had pushed aside, crossing his arms. “That’s assuming of course that you’ll be able to get the Soul Amulet,” he said casually.

“Yes.” Wu turned to Nya. “Did you bring the Traveler’s Tea? If Mystake refused I’ll go over there myself and try to reason with–”

“We didn’t get Traveler’s Tea,” said Nya, “because she said it wasn’t strong enough to reach the Cursed Realm anyway. But we do have a way to get there.” Nya looked around for the Blood Glass, then pulled it closer to the middle of the deck. “Kai,” she called, “are you still there?”

Kai pulled Lloyd by the hand towards the Glass. “Come on,” he said, “this’ll be easier now with two of us.”

Wu, Misako, and Ronin all watched the strange contraption with puzzlement, none of them seeing Kai and Lloyd leaning down by it. Following Kai’s lead, Lloyd cupped his hands under the bulbous bottom of the long glass. “Heat it up,” Kai instructed. Lloyd was baffled, but attempted to do as he said, willing his hands to glow as Kai’s did. It worked almost instantly, and Lloyd felt the warmth generated by him seeping through the glass to the luridly colored liquid inside.

The Oni blood shot up to the top of the glass, the bell jingled, and Wu and Misako startled.

Nya breathed a small sigh of relief. “Phew. Good. It’s hard to tell when he leaves.”

“What are you talking about, Nya?” said Wu.

Very quickly, Nya explained everything Mystake had told her and Jay about spirit walking and her suggestion to let Kai cross into the Cursed Realm to find the amulet. This lead to Nya remembering that Lloyd’s location had been discovered and she eagerly told Misako that Jay and Cole had gone to find him. The whole time she spoke, Wu frowned at the Blood Glass. Or at least, to a spot just above the Blood Glass. To Lloyd, sitting by the device in Wu’s line of sight, it rather felt like his uncle was looking at him.

“Hey,” he whispered to Kai, forgetting that no one else could hear him, “has anyone ever seen you while you’re like this?”

“Not once,” said Kai.

“’Cause it feels like Master Wu is looking at me…”

“Can’t be. Believe me, I tried every way possible to get anyone to notice me, and the only one who did was Mystake.” Kai paused, then amended, “Well, Jay’s dragon saw me, once. Maybe only dragons can see living spirits.”

Lloyd looked at Kai. “Master Wu isn’t a dragon,” he said dumbly.

“Are we so sure?” Lloyd was stunned to hear a dark bitterness in Kai’s words. “Maybe he is and he just never told us. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Lloyd looked back at his uncle. The old man was definitely trying to see something in Lloyd’s direction, squinting like it was just out of focus.

When Nya had finished speaking, Wu and Misako exchanged a worried glance. “Is it really you, Kai?” Wu asked the Blood Glass (except he was still looking at Lloyd).

Kai and Lloyd heated the blood. The bell rang.

“Can you really reach the Cursed Realm?”

The bell rang again.

Wu gripped his staff in both hands. “I’m not sure I like this,” he said. “It feels too unreliable… I had hoped to travel to the Cursed Realm myself, to spare anyone else the danger.”

“Danger?” said Nya, Wu’s nervousness affecting her. “But, Kai’s body is here in this realm, right? He can’t get hurt over there. Right, Kai?”

“I don’t actually know,” said Kai, nonetheless heating the glass again, “but there’s no use worrying about it. What other choice do we have?”

Nya relaxed a bit when the bell jingled, but Wu’s gaze turned irritable. “I somehow doubt that the possibility of danger would stop Kai in any case.” He sighed. “Alright then. If Kai’s body is out of commission then it’s more important than ever that we capture Morro before he tries to possess someone else. Hopefully the amulet will be where we think it is. But if it’s not, Kai, you come straight back here and return to your body, you hear me? Don’t try to look aimlessly around for it.”

“They don’t know that Morro is still possessing me,” Kai said to Lloyd grimly. He rolled his eyes. “Because Nya forgot the damn phone. One missed call from Jay.”

Misako laid down the journal Ronin had showed her and Wu on the floor in front of the Blood Glass, opening it to the page, and the illustration, about the Soul Amulet. “This is what it looks like,” she said. “According to Ronin, one of the Anacondrai Generals was wearing it when Garmadon banished them to the Cursed Realm. We’re hoping, since he took their place and none of them came back with it, that it will be where he is.” She shrugged helplessly. “It’s the best bet we’ve got.”

“Well,” said Kai, “that’s a nice coincidence, huh?” He smiled teasingly at Lloyd, but softened when he saw the look on his face.

“At least one of us has to stay here,” said Nya, “to get the amulet when Kai brings it back. Mystake said he won’t be able to control where he ends up over there when he crosses, so he should stick to coming back to the same spot he left. Which will be here, right Kai?”

The bell jingled.

“Great. So… I guess now, we just wait.”

“Okay,” said Kai, standing up, prompting Lloyd to do the same. “That’s everything. We should go now, get this done as fast as possible.”

“Are you that worried?” said Lloyd. He was finding it hard to be anxious about anything in this form, but that instantly changed when Kai said, “Morro’s on his way here. He said he was going to bring back someone to the barn to kill them, remember?”

Lloyd looked at Nya, the recording of her voice that had saved him echoing in his mind. “Oh…”

“Gimme your hand.” Kai led Lloyd away from the Blood Glass where everyone was gathered, to stand in a more open spot of the deck. As they moved, Lloyd saw Wu’s head turn and follow them. “Crossing over’s easy enough. Just think of your dad while you step forward.”

“Sure…”

“Um, Kai… did you leave yet?” Nya asked the Blood Glass.

“Just about,” said Kai. “On the count of three.”

Lloyd waved his free hand at Wu. His uncle’s eyes widened at him.

“One. Two… Three.”

The both of them took a synchronized, exaggerated step, and suddenly, somewhere in the half second between while his foot was in the air to when it touched down, the world blinked around Lloyd, and the Bounty, the landscape, even the sky, was gone. In their place was the cavernous but suffocating inside of a vast, dark space draped in cobwebs, mulch, and rot, black thorns and what seemed to be giant rib bones acting as foliage. The floor was sleek and wet, the air was musty and dirty, and the light was minimal and cheerless, somehow adding to the gloom rather than dissipating it. Lloyd let go of Kai’s hand, and as he did so he realized.

“Hey. We’re solid.” He pulled at the front of his shirt and jacket sleeves; they were just as real as the rest of him. Somehow he found that more bizarre than having a body again - did clothes have spirits too? - but put it out of his mind as he pinched the skin on the back of his hand and twisted it. “It hurts,” he observed.

Even as Kai spoke Lloyd could tell the difference between being in this realm and their own; his voice actually carried on the air here, and bounced against the walls. It was like he’d been given an upgraded microphone. “Morro said he could feel pain while he was here,” Kai said. “Remember?”

Lloyd looked at him sharply. “When’d he say that?”

“When he was…” Kai faltered, then opened his mouth and tapped one of his canines with a finger.

Lloyd felt – he could feel again, oh no, he could feel things – goosebumps crawl up his arms. “Oh. Yeah. Right. I heard him, but I wasn’t really listening…”

Kai imagined not. “Lloyd…” He reached out his hand to squeeze Lloyd’s shoulder.

And like a startled animal, Lloyd reflexively slapped his hand away, eyes flashing with panic.

Kai froze. Lloyd stared at him, wide-eyed, breathing rapidly. Then he blinked and wrapped his arms around himself, hunching his shoulders, and averted his gaze.

Kai tried not to be upset at this reaction, or the lack of an apology or excuses. “If… If you want to go back, that’s fine. You don’t have to do this with me.”

Lloyd took a deep breath (the foul smell of sewage and rot filled his nostrils) and let it out slowly. “No. I’ll stay. I want to stop him. For Nya.”

Not you, a smug voice in Kai’s head (too uncomfortably similar to Morro’s mental voice) dug at him. Just Nya. Why would he care about saving you, after what you did?

Kai shook the thought away. “Come on then,” he mumbled. “Let’s go find Garmadon.”

While of course he had no idea where to look, there was only one direction to go, a meandering path that plunged ahead into the green-lit mist, forests of dead branches, bones, and thorns lining the sides.

As Lloyd made to follow he rubbed his eyes, trying to dispel the fear that had returned so easily with the advent of a physical body – was he really so weak? – and noticed something on his right hand when he lowered it from his face.

A tattoo-like bruise covered half his palm, a purple, spiky spiral that traced his lifeline. Cautiously he pressed his finger against it, but there was no pain. It was as though it had been embedded into his skin.

Kai looked over his shoulder at him. “What is it?”

Lloyd hid his hand. “Nothing. I’m coming.”

“I guess he really left,” said Nya, coming up from her crouch by the Blood Glass, satisfied that the blood inside hadn’t moved an inch.

“Yes…” said Wu slowly, looking around somewhere in the opposite direction. “Seems like he did.”

“So… we’re just expecting the Soul Amulet to just… pop into existence at some point right in our hands?” said Ronin skeptically, still leaning back against the stack of boxes. “Not the most reliable method of getting a piece of jewelry in my book, but hey, no skin off my bones. I’ll just have to charge you all something else in return for my delivery services if it doesn't.” He jerked his chin at the Deepstone cage.

Misako pressed her lips together in annoyance but ignored him. “If you believe this will work, Nya, then I’ll believe it too,” she said. “But in all honesty, right now, while we have nothing to do but wait, I’d really like to know what’s become of my son. Would Cole and Jay have reached him by now?”

“Pretty sure they must have…” Nya trailed off as she dug through her pockets, feeling miscellaneous small objects (including the F. Saki photo of Lloyd – she would ask Kai to burn it when both he and Lloyd were a hundred percent safe) but not finding her phone. “Oh, crap. I left my phone inside! Hang on, I’ll be right back!”

She jumped over the side of the ship and practically flew into the shop, throwing the back door open and racing down the hall to the kitchen. She snatched up her phone from the table and cursed under her breath when she saw three missed calls from Jay.

Just before she could press the button to call him back, though, a hand appeared from behind her and pressed a stained knife to her neck. “Put it down,” said a cold voice.

Nya slowly returned the phone to the table.

She held perfectly still as the owner of the hand crept around her, appearing in her field of vision. As soon as he saw her eyes meet his, the figure that looked like her brother pulled the knife away from her throat and brought it to his own. With his other hand he shoved her backward, away from the table. She thumped against the refrigerator, knocking magnets to the floor, but refrained from making a sound.

Morro was breathing hard like he’d run a marathon, his hair even more wild than Kai’s was normally. In stark contrast to the almost playful attitude he’d displayed the last time Nya had seen him, he looked furious and vengeful, mouth pulled in an ugly grimace and eyes fierce and alight. “You are going to come with me,” he intoned.

Nya opened her mouth to reply but he spoke over her instantly. “No no no no don’t even try to fuck with me right now. I am NOT in the mood. Just come outside with me so you can summon your dragon.”

Nya tried again, speaking quickly. “I can’t. I don’t know how to summon one.”

Morro took a step closer and bared his neck at her threateningly, the overhead light flashing against the knife blade. “What did I just fucking say?”

“I’m not lying, I only got my powers just recently! I haven’t even reached my True Potential yet!” When his fury didn’t abate she said, “You’re threatening my brother, why wouldn’t I listen to you unless I really can’t do it?”

“Well then,” growled Morro, “unless you want to spend the next few minutes trying to keep your brother’s blood inside his neck, I suggest you find someone who can summon a dragon.”

Nya hesitated. “Master Wu is outside…”

Morro blinked, then his smug old grin returned. “Perfect,” he said. He jerked his head to the doorway. “Let’s go, then.”

Nya carefully walked where he’d indicated, pausing when he called her to halt so he could stand next to her, putting a warning hand on her shoulder. Without lowering the knife, he steered her towards across the dojo, through the front shop, and, at the main entrance, transferred the knife back to her throat before kicking the door open.

“Where is he,” he spat out, when he looked around at the dark and saw no one.

“On the Bounty,” said Nya shortly.

“Call him.”

She bit her lip.

“Call him down, now.” She winced as the knife cut into her skin by a hair’s width.

“Sensei! You have to get down here, quick!”

Misako’s face appeared over the side of the ship along with Wu’s. Both of them stood still while they took in the scene below them.

“Oh no…”

“Morro…?” Wu seemed to sag a bit.

“That’s right,” Morro called back. “Now come down from there so you, me, and dear old Sis here can all go on a little trip together.”

Without a word, Wu threw his staff overboard and bent to roll down the rope ladder over the side. When he’d climbed three rungs down Misako made to step down after him, but Morro warned her off by hiking the knife up higher, forcing Nya to tip her head back. “Ah ah ah, just the old man!”

Ronin joined Misako at the rope ladder, and the both of them looked on as Wu stepped down onto the grass, picked up his staff and strode toward Morro and Nya.

He stopped a few paces away, and Nya thought she must have imagined that he’d slumped earlier because he stood with perfect posture now, head held high and back ramrod straight, hand behind his back. The hand on her shoulder twitched, and Nya wondered (hoped) if Morro might be feeling a little nervous under his old master’s strict gaze.

His voice sounded unbothered though, as he ordered, “Summon your Elemental Dragon. Now.”

Wu raised an eyebrow. “You can’t do it yourself?”

“My fire powers are connected to Lloyd’s power, right?” Morro sneered. “Looks like he’s fading away.”

“I meant your Wind Dragon,” said Wu calmly. “You still have your wind powers, do you not?”

The sneer disappeared from Morro’s face. “I never learned to do it,” he bit out. “Because you never taught me!”

“I could not have taught a student who was not there,” said Wu. He inclined his head. “Or who refused to heed the experience of his teacher. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink it.”

Morro snarled. “Do you really think you’re in a position to be lecturing me right now? I’ve got three of your students hostage.” He grinned. “Lucky for you, I’m taking you to see your favorite one. I’m sure he’ll be very happy to see you.”

Wu’s eyes met Nya’s. A thought passed between them, unbeknownst to Morro, and they both steeled themselves for the night ahead.

“Very well,” said Wu. “If you are so eager to charge towards your own destruction… so be it.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, and in a flash of golden light, the Elemental Dragon of Creation materialized. Morro pushed Nya towards it, returning the knife to his neck once again. She climbed up onto the dragon’s back, and reached down to help first Morro then Wu up in front of her.

The dragon rose into the air with a beat of its sand-gold wings, its white whiskers sweeping past its jaws the same way as Wu’s beard. It was soon lost in the gloom of the night, and Misako and Ronin stood looking at where it had gone, at a loss for what to do.

Chapter Text

Jay was sitting on the ground against the wall of the hospital building, head between his knees, hand mussing his hair into a rat’s nest from nerves as he tried for the hundredth time to get Nya on the phone. Cole was pacing back and forth in front of him, muttering to himself. When they had first arrived in the ambulance, Lloyd had immediately been wheeled away on a gurney, doctors and nurses already swarming around him, the paramedic rapidly listing off the injuries he’d sustained – “Multiple lacerations and second degree burns, untreated for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, blunt force trauma to face and torso, severe bone fractures in both hands, skin avulsion on upper thigh-” – and then they had been stopped at the doors of the emergency room and told they would be informed of Lloyd’s condition within two or three hours, depending on how extensive his immediate treatment would need to be. At a loss, they had sat for a time in the waiting room before becoming restless and deciding to wait outside instead, where they had received a call from Zane updating them on his situation in the Caves of Despair. It had been both good news and bad news.

“He’ll be fine, he’ll be okay,” Cole was saying now. “He wasn’t seriously injured. I mean!” Cole stopped and shot Jay an apologetic look, “I don’t mean he wasn’t hurt pretty bad but, like, it was all surface-level stuff, right? I mean at least he wasn’t stabbed like last time, he’s not in danger of… of dying or anything. Morro wasn’t trying to kill him, he just wanted him to feel as much pain as possible–”

“Cole, holy shit!” swore Jay, whipping his head up and glaring at him, nearly slamming the phone against the floor. “Can you just shut up for two seconds, I’m already one second away from losing it!”

“Sorry, I’m sorry, just nervous.” Cole sighed and slid down the wall to sit next to him. Noticing the way Jay’s eyes moistened, despite his attempts to hide it by turning his face away, Cole rubbed his back soothingly.

Jay let out a long breath. “Yeah, me too. I don’t know why Nya’s not answering. What if something happened?”

“Do you have Misako’s number?”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “But what do I tell her about Lloyd?”

“Tell her the truth,” said Cole simply. “That we’re waiting and we don’t know anything yet, but he’s… he’s getting help. And we’ll know soon enough how…” The words ‘how bad he is’ drummed in his head and he stopped himself from saying them aloud. “…how he’s doing.”

Jay did not look encouraged. Resignedly he scrolled past Nya’s name to Misako’s.

“Hello?”

“Hi, um. Did you and Sensei make it back yet?”

“Quite a bit ago, yes.” Misako sounded agitated. “Are you calling about Lloyd?”

“That’s one of the reasons,” said Jay. “They took him into the emergency and kicked us out, so we don’t really know if he… I mean, I’m sure he’s going to be okay now, you know, but I’m not a doctor, so – ” He suppressed a groan as Cole shook his head exasperatedly.

“It’s alright, Jay,” said Misako. “There’s nothing else you can do for him. Thank you both for saving my son.”

“Ah, it was Nya who figured out where he was. Speaking of which, is she around? There’s some things she’s gotta know.”

“What happened?”

Jay, still a bit high strung, answered automatically, not noticing Misako sidestepping his first question. “Zane called. Good news is he found Morro’s body. Bad news is, he’s kind of stranded now; his Elemental Dragon isn’t appearing. Cole and I can’t summon ours either, we tried. You know, because of… of Lloyd.” He paused, letting his irrational guilt for their powers’ reflection of Lloyd’s health fill the silence. Misako said nothing. “So if Master Wu is with you, maybe he can use his to go get Zane.”

“That will be difficult,” sighed Misako, “given that Kai showed up and forced him and Nya to go with him somewhere.”

“What?” Jay yelped, loudly enough to make Cole flinch back. “Kai? Like, Kai Kai, or possessed Kai?”

“Possessed, I’m pretty sure. But he still looks and sounds like himself.”

“Shit,” said Jay before he could stop himself, but Misako didn’t comment on his language. “That was the other thing I wanted to warn Nya about; Morro wasn’t at the barn. What is he planning to do with her and Master Wu?”

“I’m not sure,” said Misako slowly, “but from what I could hear him saying to Wu… I think he plans on taking them to Lloyd. Or where he was keeping Lloyd at least.”

Jay shot an anxious look at Cole. “What… What’ll he do when he sees that Lloyd’s not there?”

“I don’t know, but it’s more important than ever that we keep going with the plan as quickly as possible. I’ll send Ronin to get Zane, and hopefully Kai will be back soon with the Soul Amulet. Which means I have to wait here for it. So… if you wouldn’t mind, could you and Cole please stay with Lloyd? And let me know as soon as he wakes up?”

Jay took heart from her confidence that Lloyd would wake up eventually. His anxiety eased. “Yeah, of course.”

He hung up.

“What happened?” asked Cole.

Jay explained the situation and heaved another long sigh. “Dammit. If I could use my dragon I could’ve gone to help Nya…”

“Master Wu is with her. She’ll be fine… hopefully. Plus there’s what Detective Simon told us before he left. That’s gotta help. A little.”

“I guess…” Abruptly Jay stood up and dusted himself off. “Let’s go back in. This is going to be a long night.”

Though they hadn’t been walking for more than a few minutes, Lloyd could already imagine the monotonous, dreary hopelessness one would feel being trapped in the Cursed Realm for eternity; there didn’t seem to be any concept of night or day, no sunlight to be found anywhere, and a hazy, noxious miasma permeated the air. Plant life was non-existent, unless the pitch black, stone-like vines of thorns and giant bones poking out from every direction on either side of the slippery path counted. The path itself, when Lloyd looked more closely, seemed to be comprised of the backbone of a gargantuan creature, or at least in the shape of one, and indeed when he looked off to the farthest walls on either side, giant arcs resembling ribs, bent inward, could be seen in the haze. The air was humid and strangely compact, water oozed rather than dripped from surfaces, and every so often a chill would crawl up Lloyd’s spine as he felt something unseen brush across their path, either overhead or behind him, with a sound like a sharp intake of cold breath. He wondered if Kai felt it too.

The only comfort to be found in the whole place was the warm light from the fireball Kai held in his hand to illuminate their way. “Stay close,” he’d said to Lloyd when they first set out, after using his fire to scorch an X mark in the side of a large gray ‘tree’ in the place they’d arrived (“Nice, we can use our powers here, least there’s that…”), so that they could return to where they’d crossed realms to step back onto the Bounty. With the amulet in hand, if all went well.

As they walked, Kai kept stealing glances at Lloyd. Though he knew this was just a corporeal form of his spirit and the ‘real’ Lloyd was still in critical condition back in the Ninjago City Hospital, it felt good to see him whole and healthy beside him. At the same time though, it was a little off-putting just how normal Lloyd’s whole demeanor had been from the moment Kai had seen him at Steep Wisdom. Aside from when he’d stopped Kai from touching him, he seemed to be holding up rather well, all things considered. Kai wanted to believe this calm acceptance would last when Lloyd returned to his body and woke up… but he had a feeling it very likely wouldn’t. As such, this could be the last chance he’d have to easily talk to his friend for awhile.

Kai cleared his throat. “How do you feel?” he asked. At the panicked look Lloyd shot at him he clarified, “A-About meeting Garmadon I mean.”

“Oh… that.” Muted relief fell over Lloyd’s countenance. Kai didn’t miss it, and a heavy weight pressed down on his stomach; of course Lloyd wasn’t alright, to be so skittish at the merest suggestion of confronting what he had gone through. He cursed Morro in his mind once again.

“It doesn’t feel real, to be honest,” Lloyd said. “I mean it’s all happening so suddenly. Becoming a spirit, finding you, coming here… An hour ago the idea of seeing my dad again was the furthest thing from my mind.”

“I’ll bet,” Kai mumbled, though not loudly enough for Lloyd to hear him. More clearly he asked, if only to distract Lloyd from thinking about anything from more than an hour ago, as he seemed to wish, “What are you going to say to him?”

Lloyd shrugged, smiling helplessly. “No idea. What would you say if you could see your dad right now?”

“Me? Pffff… I guess the first thing I’d tell him is… that I took care of Nya and she’s doing okay.” And hopefully that’s still the case, he thought privately.

To his pleasant surprise, Lloyd laughed in response. It made Kai smile. “What?”

“Nothing,” said Lloyd. “Just... It’s so you that that’s the first thing you thought of.”

Before Kai could think of what he meant by that, he saw Lloyd’s expression turn somber. “Lloyd, what’s wrong?”

Lloyd shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry, I just…” He looked up at Kai, all traces of humor gone. “I can’t believe it’s really you. Part of me still thinks this must all be some kind of fever dream. Or that we’re both dead, or I’m dead, or it’s another trick by Morro–”

“Lloyd.” Kai stopped walking, forcing Lloyd to stop too. “I swear to you it’s really me.”

“I know. I mean, most of me knows it, but…” Lloyd hunched in on himself. “But don’t walk behind me,” he whispered.

Lloyd’s delirious, half-asleep voice from the first night in the barn echoed in Kai’s head. ‘Please… don’t hurt me.’ He felt his throat constrict.

Oh Lloyd… How was he ever going to fix this?

“Lloyd, I – ”

Kai was interrupted by a loud, inhuman scream.

“What was that?” Lloyd jerked his head in the direction of a second wail resounding off the cavern walls.

“Cursed Souls,” said Kai quietly. He felt a drop of sweat run down his face. Or maybe it was just the humidity. “But… we’re good. I mean we should be fine, right? We’re not here because we’re cursed.” He laughed nervously.

“Yeah.” Lloyd nodded. “Yeah, no, we’re good. We’re just passing through.” He glanced back the way they’d come, at the straight path that disappeared into thick greenish fog. “Though it’d be nice if we could get where we’re going a bit faster.” An idea came to him and he craned his neck over the tops of the bones and branches sticking up into the air in the distance. “Maybe we could ask for directions?”

Kai gave him a long look. “Ask? For directions? Here? Who do you want to ask, exactly??”

“Well there can’t be nobody around.” Lloyd spoke with infuriating matter-of-factness.

“Not what I meant,” said Kai, rolling his eyes, but he jumped back in surprise when Lloyd suddenly levitated off the floor in a whirl of wind, spinning upward until he’d cleared the tops of the sharp and boney foliage to see over them. He stopped spinning, suspending in midair for a split second as he reached his apogee, before gravity claimed him and he dropped back down, catching himself just in time by spinning and encasing himself in a spherical cushion of wind once more to break his fall. He smiled in a self-satisfied kind of way, then noticed Kai gaping at him. "What?"

"When did you learn Airjitzu?"

Lloyd blinked at him, looking as though he hadn’t even considered that what he’d just done was out of the ordinary. “Morro learned it while he was possessing me.” He shrugged. “So I learned it, too.”

“Oh. Huh.”

Kai felt like there were implications to this that should piss him off (or depress him) if he thought about them too hard. Fortunately Lloyd didn’t let him do so.

“Anyway, there’s more paths on the other side of the thorns, and there were people on them.”

“What kind of people…?”

Lloyd made a face. “Suspicious looking people,” he admitted. “Wearing cloaks and hoods, and carrying weapons. I think they might be, like, jailers.”

“We’re not asking them for directions,” said Kai flatly.

“What are they gonna do, toss us in a cell? If they give us trouble we can fight, we have our powers!”

“There’s only two of us and we don’t know how many of them there are, I’m not risking us getting locked up before we’ve even found the amulet–”

“Agh!” Lloyd threw his arms up in frustration. “You never listen to me. Even when it’s a plan you’d usually be the first one to come up with–!”

“There’s too much at stake right now, I’m trying to be careful!”

“Being careful isn’t going to get us anywhere, it’s just going to waste time!”

As the boys argued, a shadowed, silent figure circled around them under cover of the tangled black branches of thorns, unnoticed by either of them.

“Is that what you’ve been doing for the past few days?” Lloyd shot at Kai. “Being careful?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kai’s face turned dark with outrage.

Guilt flashed across Lloyd’s and he looked away uncomfortably. “Forget it,” he mumbled. “It’s not important right now. I just want us to save Nya as soon as possible.”

Kai refused to let it go. “You think I don’t want that too? You think I’m not taking this whole thing seriously? You really think, that I’ve just been dicking around the past few days while I literally had to feel every terrible fucking thing Morro was making me do?”

As he talked he advanced on Lloyd, flame still in hand, the light throwing menacing shadows on his face, and Lloyd took a fearful step back. Seeing this, Kai stopped short. “No, hey,” he said, switching from hard anger to soft regret in an instant. “I’m not going to hurt y–”

“Pardon the interruption.”

Both Lloyd and Kai jumped out of their skins at the new voice speaking directly beside them, issuing from beneath the hood of a very tall, gray figure that neither of them had noticed appearing.

The stranger, dressed in ancient, torn robes that looked like they had been spun from cobwebs, lifted his head up slightly so they could just about see his face, the lower half more visible than the top, a wide toothy grin visible in an extremely dry and cracked face. Filmy silver eyes glinted at them. Though he appeared as solid as they were, there was an unearthly, phantom-like feel about him nonetheless.

Kai and Lloyd glanced at each other uncertainly.

“I couldn’t help noticing,” continued the stranger, his voice as dry and cracked as his skin, sounding as though it might have been deep and smooth once but had weathered to creakiness with use, “the sound of lively voices not screaming in agony. And what do I find when I come to investigate; not one, but two Living Souls! We haven’t had your kind here for millennia. This realm is not the preferred destination spot of most.” Like Lloyd had said, he carried a weapon in his papery hand, a small axehead on the end of a staff with a sharp point – a halberd – that he inclined slightly towards Kai, poised to spear him through at a moment’s notice. “Which is why I must ask what it is that you are doing here? You are disturbing the misery.”

“Uh…” Kai scrambled to think of something. “We’re just… uh…”

“We’re here to see my father,” said Lloyd, announcing it like he were demanding an audience with an official.

The phantom turned his halberd on Lloyd, who raised his hands in surrender but looked no less stubborn. The phantom’s eyes flicked over him appraisingly. “And who, pray tell, is your father?”

“Lord Garmadon.”

The milk-white eyes widened. The stranger lowered the halberd. “Well!” The big toothy grin returned. “So it is! Forgive me, my sight is not what it once was. Yes, I see… The Green Ninja. Or at least, the former Green Ninja.”

Kai glared at the stranger as he chuckled. Even his laughter resembled a creaking staircase. “He still is.”

“Oh of course.” The phantom waved his hand. “As you like it. I am the Head Punisher of the Cursed Realm, faithful servant to the Preeminent. I know these caverns better than I know my own reflection. It would give me great honor to guide you to Garmadon’s cell, if you would allow me.”

“We would,” said Lloyd, ignoring Kai’s distrustful look. “Lead the way.”

The Head Punisher bowed his head, still smiling a little, then turned with a sweep of his robes and walked on without further ado. Lloyd pulled Kai by the arm to follow after him. Their echoing footsteps added to the symphony of moaning and crying that, Kai only then realized, had been playing in the background ever since they had arrived.

The Head Punisher made no noise at all.

After a flight spent in complete, stony silence, Morro tersely told Wu to bring the dragon down, into a break in the treetops of the woods below. As they descended, the sloped, washed-out top of the roof of a barn, more of an overlarge shed really, came into view, the darkened body of the structure practically camouflaged against the surrounding tree trunks in the darkness. The Dragon of Creation dipped its toes into the water of a swampy pond a few feet from the barn and coasted to a landing with the elegance of a swan. Before Wu could vanish it beneath them Morro grasped his wrist warningly, his other hand still holding the knife to his own throat. The old man nodded gravely to show he understood, and Morro let him go and slid down the dragon’s side to the floor, his feet splashing at the edge of the pond. He turned to face Wu and Nya, backing up to give them room to join him. When everyone had dismounted the Dragon of Creation disappeared, the soft glow of its scales and wings fading with it.

“Get inside,” said Morro, jerking his head back at the barn door. “Quickly.”

He waited until both had slipped through the door before entering himself.

The inside of the barn was dimly lit by a lantern high overhead. A chain dangled beneath it from the rafters. Nya just had time to take in the overturned table at the far end of the room, the empty chair in front of it, and the various objects (and bloodstains) strewn on the floor around them, before Morro brushed past her and Wu, and froze to a standstill with his back to them.

“……….What?”

His arm finally, slowly lowered from his neck. He rushed towards the chair and turned it around, as though by doing so Lloyd would somehow materialize in it.

“No… No no no no, NO! How… How the fuck could he have–?”

He was cut off when he was rammed to the side by a golden tornado.

Master Wu stopped his spinjitzu to see Nya tackle Morro to the ground with a cry, knocking the knife from his hand. For a few seconds the two of them wrestled, Morro trying to break Nya’s hold of him while reaching for the knife, until she swiped it away, leaving herself open in that moment. Morro struck her in the face with his wrist guard and shoved her off, but no sooner had he scrambled to his feet than Wu cried “Ninja-GO!” and attacked him with spinjitzu again. Morro was caught off balance as he dodged out of Wu’s way, and Nya grabbed him once again, this time from behind, trying to restrain his arms and pull him to the floor.

She gasped when she was suddenly spun around and lifted into the air, a sphere of wind whipping around her, as Morro used airjitzu to pull her up with him to the roof. The ascent was slow and swerving with their uneven weight, but Morro managed to steer them to the central beam, where he landed just beside where the length of chain was draped over it, and with the momentum of his final spin, swung Nya out over the twenty-foot drop to the wooden floor.

“Nya!” yelled Wu.

Nya fell… and caught the chain.

It pulled taut against the ring in the wall, and she swung like a pendulum back and forth beneath Morro, who watched her with a dawning glint of an idea in his eyes. He pulled something tiny from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and with savage anticipation, bent down to grab the top of the chain… and started pulling Nya back up to the wooden beam, increasing her distance from the ground.

As he pulled the chain up, Nya shimmied further down it, frantically glancing from one direction to the other to gauge the risk of letting Morro take the fight to the roof or dropping to the ground and perhaps breaking a bone. There wasn’t enough time to think, however, before she’d run out of chain, and Morro ended up making the decision for her, heaving her up enough so that her chin cleared the beam, giving her a strained smile and wink, and then letting the chain go. She plummeted, inadvertently releasing her lifeline in surprise.

Wu spun himself into a spinjitzu tornado one more time, directly beneath her. She landed back-first against the top of the tornado, which broke her fall but also broke Wu’s spinjitzu. The old man crumpled under her. Her head slumped over his arm, her hair fanned against the floor. Her eyes were closed, and neither she nor Wu moved.

Morro airjitzu-ed down from the roof.

From the floor next to the duffel bag Lloyd had brought from the hospital, Morro picked up Kai’s katana in its scabbard. He unsheathed it, and approached the knocked out girl and man. Standing over them, he pointed the sword down at the girl’s neck, fuming with rage, silently goading himself to do it…

Nya’s eyes opened and her leg swung in the same instant, kicking the sword out of Morro’s hand. She punched her foot into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. As he doubled over she got to her feet and aimed a roundhouse kick at his head. It connected, and he reeled sideways. While he forced himself out of his daze Nya snatched the dropped katana and turned it on Morro.

He blinked at her in surprise, for a moment looking like the brother she’d always known and adored. Then the ugly hatred that twisted his features to a stranger’s returned. “What are you, stupid?” he growled.

Nya gritted her teeth and forced him back until she had him against the wall. His expression didn’t change while he walked backward, watching her with an almost daring look in his eyes. When she held up the sharp side of the sword under his chin he sneered at her. “Go ahead,” he spat. “I’m not the one who’ll die if you kill me. Go on, do it!”

Nya just stared at him, torn in two. She didn’t lower the sword.

Morro laughed evilly. “Face it, you’ve got nothing to threaten me with! That’s the whole point! This whole fucking thing was because Destiny took everything away from me! Why shouldn’t I take everything away from you, then? Huh?! What are you going to do about it? When I have everything you love and there’s nothing left in this world I care about!”

“That’s not true.”

Morro’s gaze snapped up over Nya’s head to the old man behind her.

Wu stood without his hat, which had fallen off when Nya had fallen on him, and had swept his long beard over his shoulder and held it there, out of the way of his other hand, which held Morro’s knife against his wrinkled throat.

Nya didn’t think she’d ever see anyone look more astounded than Morro did right then. His mouth fell open, but now he had absolutely nothing to say.

She threw a nervous look back at Wu over her shoulder. “Sensei! What are you doing?”

Wu didn’t answer her. “Morro,” he said firmly. “Surrender Kai to us, or I send myself to the Departed Realm.”

Laughter that started as short, incredulous exhalations of breath, built up to bubbling chortles, and finally burst forth to full blown howls of mockery. “HAAHAHAHAHAHA!! Are you fucking serious?! Please tell me this is a joke! Do you actually believe I give a single solitary molecule of a crap about you?? Go ahead and kill yourself, see if I care! As if you’d even have the guts!”

“It’s not about ‘guts’,” said Wu, still calm as he stared Morro down. “Killing oneself is a cowardly action that serves no purpose at all. But if it is what it takes to snap you out of your madness, then I won’t hesitate to resort to it. I cannot expect reason to sway the mind of one who’s already decided he has no use for it.”

The mirth disappeared from Morro’s face and he glared at Wu in disgust. “Ughh, you talk, and talk, and talk! You’re not going to confuse me with your talking again, you old has-been! If you ‘won’t hesitate’ then do it already! Leave another student behind to fend for herself, see what ‘purpose’ that serves!”

“Release Kai, and I won’t have to.”

Now Morro looked at Wu as though he’d gone mad. “Are you even listening?? I don’t care about you, you bastard! What you’re doing now isn’t a threat, it’s idiocy! Have you actually gone senile in your old age?”

“Then why didn’t you kidnap me instead of Lloyd?” countered Wu. “If anyone deserved punishment for your mistakes it was me. Yet you could only bring yourself to taunt me from afar, and in ways where I wasn’t always guaranteed to see your efforts. You didn’t even intend to bring me here to hurt me, did you? I was just convenient transportation.”

Morro gaped at him. “You think that because I chose Lloyd to torture instead of you it means I care about you? Are you screwed in the head?? I was punishing you by breaking your precious Green Ninja! How was that not obvious?”

Nya had taken a step back from Morro by then, the sword still ready in her hands but no longer directly held up against him. Morro hadn’t even noticed, eyes locked infuriatedly on Wu as though Nya were just a piece of furniture in the way. Furtively she wondered if she could tackle Morro again and restrain him once and for all while Wu was distracting him, but it would be difficult while he was standing with his back to the wall. She could throw the sword far away and just try her luck until she got him… but Morro had his powers and airjitzu, he was bound to break free of her again, and as long as there was a weapon in the room he would use Kai’s body against her…

“I see,” Wu was saying. “You were trying to get to me by punishing my student. The student whose successes should have been yours, correct?”

“That’s right!” snarled Morro.

“So all of this was done for my suffering.”

“Yes! …What?”

“Which means…” Wu had also slowly been changing position, though unlike Nya he’d brought himself closer to Morro, and even though Nya stood between them his fire-cast shadow loomed over the both of them and Morro actually flinched beneath it.

“…that you actually do care about me quite a bit.”

Morro’s eyes were white all around, his pupils contracted to pinpricks. He almost seemed to be vibrating in Kai’s skin as he looked up at his former Master, as though it were taking every fiber of his being to keep his rage contained.

The suspended, timeless moment of quiet was broken by a booming voice from outside.

“This is the Ninjago City Police! We have you surrounded! Release the hostages and come out with your hands up!”

The Police Commissioner. And, judging by the shine of white light that slipped through the slats of the wooden walls and partially open door, and the increasingly loud rumbling sound of helicopter propellers overhead, what he’d said was true. Seemed he wasn’t taking any chances of letting his suspect escape this time.

Nya startled when a hand took her arm, lowering her sword down, but it was just Master Wu, gently pulling her to stand beside him without breaking eye contact with Morro or lowering his other hand still holding the knife to his neck. Morro’s eyes darted back and forth between them like a cornered animal.

“It’s over, Morro,” said Wu. “If you kill Kai and return to being a ghost, Nya will defeat you with her powers without hesitation. And I won’t stop her.”

Nya demonstrated by summoning a ball of water above her palm, her eyes hard and her mouth set.

“And even if you somehow manage to make it out of here with Kai’s body,” continued Wu, looking more sad than scornful as he looked at Morro, “where will you go? Your time in this realm was done a long time ago. There’s nothing left for you here.”

Morro bowed his head so they couldn’t see his face. When seconds passed without him saying a word, Nya started to believe that he’d really given up.

Then he spoke in a low, seething voice.

“Oh. Fine.”

Nya’s hair blew sideways, tickling her face. The sash of her obi fluttered too, as did Wu’s robes. The various miscellaneous objects all over the floor of the room, some of which Nya couldn’t guess the origin of and didn’t really want to know – torn pieces of clothing, some stained black with dried blood, plastic food containers and wrappers, a pair of rumpled socks, a broken-off piece of a tree branch, the brown paper bag she’d given Morro, shiny white pills and bloodied teeth, iron nails, a bundle of black sewing string, a clump of blonde hair, the ashy remains of burnt grass and paper, a square polaroid photograph, peach-gray strips of ripped skin, empty canteen bottles, a pair of pliers, a crowbar, a taser, a wrench, shears, a hammer – all crept and rattled slowly or were rolled and swept along swiftly depending on their weight, as a draught of wind swirled in a circle along the walls of the barn, gaining speed and force with each rotation, until it had become an indoor hurricane. The chair was knocked over and pushed across the floor, the milk bucket rattled thunderously as it rolled on its side in drunken ellipses, the metal box of the first aid kit, its lid not latched firmly, was thrown open and its contents sent flying to join the vortex. And the fire in the lantern overhead danced wildly as the lantern itself swung upward, almost parallel to the central beam of the roof.

Wu’s grip on Nya’s arm became tighter, as though he were afraid she would start flying too, but where she and Wu stood seemed to be the eye of the storm and they only felt the wind sweep around them. It blew Morro’s hair and clothes fiercely, but he didn’t even sway on his feet, head and shoulders slumped forward, arms hanging limply.

“Fine. If you want to be right so bad then it’s just like you said.”

When Morro spoke this time, it was not in Kai’s voice as it had been up to now. It was deeper, angrier, and echoing, as though spoken through a cavernous tunnel. And when he lifted his head to glare at her and Wu she saw black shadows grow around his eyes. His hair darkened to jet, his skin turned a muted green, and his red gi darkened to a greenish gray as though seen through a filter. A cloak full of holes literally grew into existence from around his neck, whipping dramatically in the wind like dark wings.

“I did all of this for you, Wu. And now that Lloyd’s gone the game is over. Which means you should have no complaints if I show you just how much I care about you… by destroying you and your last student together!”

There was a strong pulse in the air, a shockwave exploded outward through the walls of the barn, and a chorus of alarmed cries could be heard all around outside. There was a thunderous battering sound as the wind beat against the barn from the outside as well as in, and explosive cracking sounds as the wooden boards began to bend inward and break.

As one piece, the four walls of the barn wrenched up from the floor, the sharp points of nails visible from the under-edges of the wood, along with the surrounding night illuminated with flashlights. The lantern finally fell from the roof as it was ripped off the top of the walls, and crashed to the floor in a shattering of glass and bent metal.

The cries of alarm from the surrounding crowd of policemen turned to yells of terror as the barn walls were ripped asunder, spinning and splintering into a tornado of sharp wood. As one body they backed away from the vortex, widening their cordon, and the Police Commissioner struggled to make himself heard over the storm, even with his megaphone, to order them all to keep their firearms ready. They were dealing with a rogue ninja.

His deranged laughter penetrated through the cacophony of the tempest.

“You were wrong about me, Sensei! You said Destiny didn’t want me to be the Green Ninja. Well, I make my own destiny. And now yours is coming to an end!”

***

Kai had been worried that the Head Punisher would lead them on a deliberately roundabout route to get them lost, and tried to be as surreptitious as he could about leaving markers on white bone landmarks on the side of the path every time they took a turn at a crossroads, letting the phantom and Lloyd walk a bit ahead while he quickly burned an X or slash with his fire. The Head Punisher never looked back to see if they were following him though, and in the end they only made three turns before the path became a straight shot through a particularly condensed fog and thicket of thorns again, in the depths of which the huddled figures of other prisoners (some of them familiar) could be made out.

“Who was that? Was that Lloyd?”

“You’re seeing things again, Master Chen.”

Kai kept his eyes forward and hurried up to Lloyd’s side. Lloyd didn’t react to him; his newly returned heartbeat was picking up in rhythm as his anticipation mounted, for he could see past the cloaked form of the Head Punisher an open cell, more of an alcove, at the end of the path, in which a single lonely figure in white and green kneeled on his knees, his grey head slumped hopelessly, his arms forced out from his sides by chains that weren’t long enough to allow him the reprieve of sitting and resting properly.

Lloyd ran past the Head Punisher. “Dad!”

Garmadon lifted his head, astonishment on his lined face. “Lloyd?”

Lloyd threw his arms around his father’s shoulders and pressed his face to his neck. “My son,” said Garmadon, joyfully and yet full of sorrow at the same time. He hugged Lloyd back in the only way he could, by nuzzling his head against his cheek.

Kai and the Head Punisher stopped at the mouth of the alcove. When Garmadon saw them his eyes twinkled warmly at Kai’s smile and nod, and then hardened with wariness at the Head Punisher’s silky grin.

Lloyd let go of him and gripped the chain shackling his arm. “I’ll get you out of here, Dad.”

“There’s no use,” said Garmadon. “These chains will not break.”

“Did you come here to bring your father back with you?” said the Head Punisher amusedly. “It would not have worked, even if he were not chained up. You can only bring your own soul when you cross realms. Sorry that you wasted the trip.”

“I didn’t come here to free him,” said Lloyd sulkily. “I just wanted to see him. Kai did too, right Kai?”

Kai heard the pointedness in his voice and quickly entered the alcove. He stood by Lloyd so that the two of them blocked Garmadon from the Head Punisher’s view, and in the limited privacy of the small space created by their huddle they spoke under their breath.

“Hello, Kai.”

“Hello, Sensei. It’s good to see you again. Well, I mean, it’s not good that you’re here, but–”

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Lloyd cut in. “Dad, I’m really happy to see you, but we actually came here for something else.”

“What is it, Lloyd?”

“Have you ever heard of the Soul Amulet?”

Garmadon’s brow rose in surprise but he promptly answered, “Yes, a sorcerer asked me to send it here with one of the Anacondrai Generals when I cursed them. Why?”

“Do you think it could still be here?” asked Kai. “I mean is this the same place where they were kept, before you got here?”

“I have no way of knowing,” said Garmadon, then jerked his chin at the Head Punisher. “But he would definitely know. He knows every inhabitant of the Cursed Realm, and revels in visiting each of us in turn to watch our punishments.”

Lloyd gave his father a deep, sad look then, sympathy for their shared pain squeezing his heart.

“Asking Creep Face over there about the Anacondrai Generals out of nowhere might make him suspicious,” said Kai. “If the amulet is here, we just need to find it. If it’s not then… then we’ll have no choice but to be upfront about it. He’s been weirdly helpful so far. Maybe he wouldn’t mind bringing it to us himself.” Kai’s mouth twisted in distaste. “Though I’d much rather he not know anything about it, to be honest.”

He pulled away from the other two and raised his hand in a gesture that suggested he was taking his leave. “You two talk, I’ll pretend to give you some privacy while I look around,” he murmured. Then he wandered around the inside of the alcove, scuffing his feet against the floor and peering into the walls of thorns in what he hoped was an idling way. Lloyd and Garmadon did continue talking, still in low voices but loud enough to be heard and distract attention away from Kai, Garmadon asking about Misako and Wu and the other ninja and Lloyd catching him up on what had transpired since he’d gone.

The Head Punisher stood like a statue at the cell’s mouth, his thoughts unfathomable as his eyes were hidden by his hood.

Kai snapped his fingers, summoning a small flame, trying to act like he was just amusing himself but really wanting to see into the small gaps in the thorns.

Please, he thought. Please be here somewhere.

***

The only thing that now separated the ‘inside’ of the destroyed barn from the ‘outside’ was the rectangle of the wooden floor, at the edge of which Morro levitated a few feet above, his clothes and hair whipping around him in a blurred frenzy. The raging wind had expanded outward to include the surrounding trees, branches and leaves getting caught up with the debris of the barn. The cordon of police officers had backed farther and farther away, as had the helicopter overhead, the only evidence of its presence, now that the din of its propellers had been drowned out, a blinding searchlight that speared down through the eye of the storm over Morro, Wu, and Nya.

Nya and her sensei’s positions had switched; now she was the one holding him by the arm, trying to pull him back as he tried to get closer to Morro.

“You just had to ruin everything!” Morro raged at them, his glare fixed on Nya. “I know you had to do with Lloyd escaping somehow! I wasn’t even gonna kill him! I just wanted to prove he wasn’t as great as you all believe he is, just because he was ‘chosen’ to be the Green Ninja!”

“Prove to who, Morro?” demanded Wu. “To Destiny? Or to yourself?”

“To you, alright?!” Morro swiped his hands down in frustration, and the vortex of wind around him pulsed with the movement, a blast of air exploding inward, nearly knocking Nya and Wu off their feet. “Is that what you want to hear? Well I’m not even lying! I wanted to bring you here so you could see for yourself how completely I broke your little Chosen One!” A savage grin pulled his lips back. “He was begging for death near the end, he couldn’t hold out waiting for you to take your sweet time finding him. He told me himself that I was a better Green Ninja than he ever was–!”

“Lloyd never had to be the Green Ninja for me to be proud of him!” Wu shouted to make himself heard over the roar of the wind. He reached out his hand towards Morro, pushing against the buffeting air and pulling against Nya’s grasp. “He never needed the green gi for me to love him!”

“OH IS! THAT! SO!” Morro hollered. Somehow, instead of drowning him out, the windstorm amplified his voice so that it seemed to boom all around them. “SO HE’S JUST BETTER THAN ME IN EVERY WAY, IS THAT IT?!”

“That’s not it!” Wu stretched his fingers, fumbling for the edge of Morro’s flapping cloak. “It’s the same for you! It always has been! I never needed you to be the Green Ninja to be proud of you!”

“YOU DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ME!” Morro struck Wu’s hand away. “EVEN NOW YOU JUST WANT THE RED NINJA BACK! YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO ME, I’M OLD NEWS TO YOU! AND YOU KNOW WHAT? I DON’T CARE IF YOU DO! I DON’T NEED YOU! I NEVER NEEDED YOU! IT WAS YOUR FAULT I DIED! IT WAS YOUR FAULT I NEVER… NEVER GOT TO…!”

“I do care, Morro!” Wu reached out his hand again, turning his palm up in supplication. “I need you to see that! You were not just a student to me, any more than Lloyd or Kai or any of the others are! You were never just a candidate for a prophecy! And you never needed to prove anything for me to care about you! Because I – ”

“NO!” roared Morro, and this time the anger in his cry was joined by an agonized despair. “NO, DON’T SAY IT, DON’T YOU DARE SAY IT–!”

Wu finally pulled his hand out of Nya’s and was able to take the step forward he needed to reach Morro. He stretched up to his full height and even jumped a little, to grab his hand.

“Because I love you!”

***

Kai casually loped back to Lloyd’s side in front of Garmadon, glancing cursorily at the Head Punisher. “I found it,” he whispered between his teeth. Lloyd kept his face impassive, but his eyes widened the tiniest amount. “But it’s stuck. I need you to distract him while I try to get it out. Just a couple of seconds.”

Lloyd nodded, said out loud, “Just a bit longer, okay?”, then waited for him to walk back around to the inside of the alcove. Seeing that he was ready, Lloyd turned around to face the Head Punisher, sizing him up.

“Lloyd…?” said Garmadon.

Lloyd took a deep breath. “Ninjaaa GO!”

Lloyd spun into a spinjitzu tornado and charged at the Head Punisher. The phantom had a split second to look comically surprised before he was knocked backward. Lloyd stopped his spin and grabbed the halberd, trying to wrest it from the Head Punisher’s hands.

From the moment Lloyd had shouted “ninja go”, Kai had gone into action, shoving his hand through the largest opening he could find through the thorns and stretching his fingers towards where he saw the glint of gold of the band that held the amulet.

Lloyd succeeded in pulling the halberd out of the Head Punisher’s grasp. With it he raced back towards Garmadon and raised it above his head. “Yaaaah!”

Kai had pulled the band enough to close his fist around it. He quickly whipped his hand back out from the nest of thorns, wincing as his skin was torn on the sharp points with the brash motion. When his hand emerged, it was dripping with blood from gashes spanning his elbow to his knuckles, and holding the band of a golden necklace from which dangled a rich emerald-colored jewel. A perfect match to the illustration in the journal Misako had shown them.

Kai thrust the Soul Amulet in the folds of his gi.

It was at that point that Lloyd had made his battle cry as he brought the halberd down on the chain holding Garmadon’s arm, swinging it down like a regular chopping axe and getting no reaction whatsoever, except for the clashing sound of metal on metal.

“Oh… Oops.”

“I told you, son,” said Garmadon, sighing dramatically. “Nothing can break these chains. Not even a weapon of the Cursed Realm, unless they see fit to release you.”

“It was worth a shot,” said Lloyd, graciously holding out the halberd to the Head Punisher. He took it back silently, mouth turned up at the corner in a way that made Kai think he knew exactly what they had done.

The sooner they left, the better.

“I think it’s time for us to leave now,” he said to Lloyd, resting his hand on the knot of his obi in order to hide the bump of the amulet with his arm.

“Yeah.” Lloyd looked back regretfully at Garmadon. He hugged him tightly once more. “Goodbye, Father. I love you.”

“I love you too, son. I always will.”

Lloyd brushed a tear from his cheek over Garmadon’s shoulder before he released him. “Okay,” he said to Kai. “Let’s go.”

They stepped over the invisible threshold of Garmadon’s ‘cell’. The Head Punisher stood before them expectantly.

“Thanks for bringing us here,” said Kai curtly. “We can find our own way back.” When the Head Punisher did not respond, Kai took it to mean that they could go, and he pulled Lloyd with him to step around the specter.

But their path was blocked by the Head Punisher lowering his halberd horizontally in front of them.

“The son of Garmadon stays here.”

Both Kai and Lloyd stopped in their tracks.

“What?” said Lloyd. “Why?”

“Like hell he is!” Kai stepped in front of Lloyd, throwing his arm out protectively. “What for?”

The Head Punisher smirked. “He has been cursed. And now that he has come here he cannot be allowed to leave. He belongs to the Preeminent.”

Lloyd gaped at him over Kai’s arm. “I wasn’t cursed!” he protested. “I came here by choice, with Kai. You can’t keep me here!”

“Your ignorance is amusing.” The Head Punisher stepped forward and darted his hand under Kai’s arm, ignoring his cry of warning as he grasped Lloyd’s wrist. He turned his hand so they could see Lloyd’s palm, where the strange faded purple mark stained his skin. “Did you think this was just a trick of the dark? It marked you as a Cursed Soul the moment you stepped foot in this realm.” He released Lloyd, and Kai pulled him back to his side by the shoulder, frowning at the mark uneasily.

“There are two types of souls that are sent here,” continued the Head Punisher, his creaky voice containing just the barest hint of pleasure at delivering bad news. “Those who were cursed by others, and those who cursed themselves by living wickedly. The majority of those in the first camp were cursed by means of magic and sorcery.” He inclined his head slightly at Garmadon, eyes flashing with mock deference. “However there is a rarer case, where an innocent soul is sent to us by no magical means. And that is when a Cursed Soul puts them to death by their own hands. Not a quick or accidental death either. One that was done slowly, with malice, full of misery and pain. You can see why we don’t have many of them; most cursed ones remain here. But the Preeminent’s general seems to have indulged himself during his extended vacation in Ninjago.”

Lloyd stared at him with dawning horror. “You’re saying…” he said, “that Morro killed me when he gave me the pills… and that makes me Cursed?"

“Precisely.”

Kai drew Lloyd behind him again. “No!” he snarled. “That’s bullshit! Lloyd didn’t die!”

“As good as.” The Head Punisher shrugged.

“But he woke up!” Kai pressed indignantly. “His body is still alive right now, back in Ninjago!”

“And had he stayed we could not drag him to this realm until the end of his life again, when his soul departs from his body. Normally those killed by cursed ones stay dead. But clearly the grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master is a special breed.” The Head Punisher’s sardonic smile turned nastier. “Which is exactly why our Master is not going to let go of this chance. Morro might not have known what he was doing when he sent Her your soul, but with that act he’s more than made up for his failure. A prize like this is not so easy to come by. It would be folly to let it slip through our fingers.”

He snapped his own, and almost literally out of nowhere, armored and masked phantoms appeared behind Lloyd and grabbed him by the arms. One of them held a pair of chains and shackles, and had already closed them around Lloyd’s wrists while the other two restrained him, all before Kai had even turned around.

“Hey!” Kai grabbed at the arms of the punisher shackling Lloyd and tried pulling him back, but the punisher was completely unfazed. Kai might have been just a light breeze to him for all the affect he had.

Lloyd struggled against the rock solid grips of the other two guards, to no greater avail. “No! No, no! Get off me!”

“Why don’t we just pick up where Morro left off, shall we?” said the Head Punisher. He nodded to the guards holding Lloyd. “Take him to the flaying chamber.”

Lloyd’s head snapped up to stare at him with wide-eyed terror. “No. No! No no, please! Please d–” He was cut off by the guards lifting him off the floor, one carrying him under the arms, the other holding his legs, which the third guard was also shackling together. When he was done they promptly started to carry him away. “Hey! No! No! Dad! DAD! KAI!”

“Son!” yelled Garmadon.

“Get your hands off him!” roared Kai. He clawed at the back of one of the guards’ cloak. Without looking the faceless punisher threw him off with one swing of its arm, flinging Kai backwards. He landed on the floor before Garmadon, stunned at the unexpected strength of the specter.

The Head Punisher looked down at him with amusement. “Don’t worry. He will be in very capable hands. Oh,” he added as he turned to follow the procession, “and don’t think you can use the trinket you stole to bring him back to your realm. You are free to take it. It won’t work on him.”

Kai watched him stroll leisurely away, Lloyd’s frightened denials echoing ahead.

“No…” he gasped. “No, this can’t be happening!”

“Kai!” Garmadon was looking at him earnestly, straining against his bonds. “Listen to me. You can save him!”

“What?” Kai stood and turned to him.

“If Morro was the one who cursed him,” Garmadon explained quickly, “then he can take his place. Just as I took the place of the Anacondrai Generals I cursed! Return to Ninjago, send Morro back here. Lloyd will be let go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Reasonably sure,” said Garmadon uncertainly. He sighed. “They must abide by the rules.”

Before Kai could respond he was distracted by Lloyd’s voice calling to him, loud and desperate.

“Kai!! Kai, help! Help me!”

Kai shook his head, breathless with panic. “I can’t just leave him here. Ugh, I’m so sick of leaving him! This is my fault. I let him come with me!”

“You can save him, Kai,” repeated Garmadon firmly. “He will just have to endure until you do.” He looked off into the distance where the punishers had taken his son, eyes clouded over with suppressed hurt and worry.

“No, you don’t understand! He’s already endured! And if I… If I go back to my body now, I might…”

Kai raised a shaking hand to his mouth as a horrible realization hit him.

“I might forget he’s even here… and… Master Wu…”

‘If I can, I want to save Morro. I truly do.’

Garmadon couldn’t have followed Kai’s train of thought, so he let it go. “If it is the way things have turned out,” he said heavily, “then it is the way it has to be.”

In other words, accept your fate. Accept that everything has a purpose, is part of a plan, because you couldn’t know where the paths of destiny might lead so you had to believe that it would lead to something good. He wanted to believe that, he did believe it, if by no other evidence than that even though he’d wanted so badly to be the Green Ninja and destiny had denied it to him, it had provided him with something better instead, someone that became worth more to him than any colored gi. And that someone was being taken away from him again, and maybe that was destiny’s plan too. But maybe, just maybe, his own actions were also part of that plan; maybe destiny had taken his love and determination into account and knew that he couldn’t, he wouldn’t just stand by and let things be. Maybe the difference between fighting your destiny and working with it were being true to yourself while not breaking the trust of the people who cared about you, and that’s where Morro had failed.

So when an idea suddenly formed in Kai’s mind with the clarity of a finely cut diamond, it really felt like fate was guiding him at that moment, and the anxiety and fear left him completely as he said to Garmadon, “No. Not this time. Sensei, how do you get the mark off him? If you could trade with him, how would you do it?”

Garmadon looked startled at his change in attitude and question, but he answered, “Reciting the incantation while holding his hand should be enough. But I am already cursed myself, I can hardly-”

“What’s the incantation? Tell me!”

Garmadon blinked at him, and then he understood. “Kai…”

“Hurry before I can’t catch up to them!”

After a moment’s thought, Garmadon said, “It is too long for you to remember. But it should be just as effective written down.”

Kai looked around, found a broken-off thorn on the floor. He picked it up and pressed the point to the palm of his uninjured hand. It cut through his skin with hardly any pressure applied, a tiny drop of blood welling from the spot. “Okay,” he said. “Go.”

Garmadon quickly but clearly spelled out the incantation and Kai wrote it down, gritting his teeth at the slight sting of the cuts but not complaining otherwise. It was fine. This was nothing compared to what Lloyd had been through. What he’d put him through.

When Garmadon was finished (the full spell having covered Kai’s whole palm and some of his wrist in bloody scrawls), Kai immediately dropped the thorn, pulled the Soul Amulet from his gi to put it around Garmadon’s neck, and turned to run after the punishers. He paused when Garmadon called him.

“Kai! …Thank you.”

Kai smiled sadly at him. “I promised I’d look after him.” He nodded his goodbye.

Thankfully the procession had not yet reached the end of the ribcage-like corridor leading away from Garmadon’s cell, so Kai only had to run straight on before he caught sight of the Head Punisher and his goons, the bright blonde of Lloyd’s hair among them, up ahead.

“Wait! Wait, stop! Stop! You can’t take him!”

The guards stopped when the Head Punisher did, the wasted phantom regarding Kai with annoyance as the ninja bent to catch his breath. “And why not? Are you going to stop us, boy?”

“No,” said Kai. He approached Lloyd, who was still being held off the ground by all three punisher guards. “I’m just going to say goodbye.”

Lloyd looked at him with a nonplussed, slightly betrayed expression as Kai took his shackled hand in his cut one.

“I’m sorry, Lloyd.”

He squeezed Lloyd’s hand, and a light glowed briefly through their clasped palms. Kai felt something rather like a snake dig through his skin and wrap around the base of his thumb, and the sharp pain of a heated brand made him groan and sink to his knees, pulling Lloyd down with him so that the punishers were forced to set him down.

“Kai?!”

Kai let go of his hand to look at his own. The incantation he’d cut into his palm was gone, the skin healed as if it had never been pierced in the first place, and in its place was a purple spiral marking like Lloyd had. When Lloyd saw it he turned his own palm up. But for the stains of blood from Kai’s cuts, it was unblemished.

“It worked,” breathed Kai, smiling weakly. “Yes…”

Before Lloyd could respond, the Head Punisher roughly pushed him out of the way and yanked Kai’s hand up, glaring at the Curse Mark. “What trickery did you pull?” he demanded furiously.

“Morro killed Lloyd while possessing me,” said Kai triumphantly. “He used my hands to kill him. Technically I’m just as responsible for cursing him. And I’m the one who brought him back. Seems like that’s enough of a fair trade.”

Kai got some satisfaction at seeing the look on the Head Punisher’s face change as he realized Kai was right. Then he bared his teeth in fury again. “This can’t be!” Without warning he swung his halberd at Lloyd’s head, but both Lloyd and Kai’s cries of alarm were cut short when it passed clean through him as though he were a hologram. The Head Punisher looked stunned for a second, then he rounded on Kai, murder in his filmy eyes. “You meddling piece of filth! Who do you think you are?” He swung the broad side of the axe at Kai, and this time it connected.

“KAI!” shouted Lloyd.

The Head Punisher blocked him from bending to help Kai with the staff of his halberd. “Green Ninja, you are free to go,” he said disgustedly, throwing out the words as though they left a bad taste in his mouth he’d rather get rid of as soon as possible. “And you had best hope we don’t see you back here again unless you bring another sacrifice.” He turned the spike of the halberd to Kai, who was wiping blood from his temple. “As for you. You shall pay dearly for cheating the Preeminent out of Her prize. And for your hand in destroying the Realm Crystal! The most wretched souls in all of the realm will not envy the punishment you will suffer!”

“That’s okay.” Kai looked at Lloyd, his eyes full of remorse. “I deserve it.”

The Head Punisher spat at the floor. “Martyrs.” To the guards he barked, “Put the chains on him.”

The guards wordlessly began unlocking the shackles from Lloyd’s wrists and ankles. As soon as he was freed Lloyd knelt down to Kai, watching in despair as the chains were transferred to him. “Kai… I…”

“It’s okay, Lloyd.” Kai didn’t resist as the punishers shackled his hands. “Don’t worry about me. You can go back now. You’re free.”

“No, I’m not leaving you here!” The punishers stood Kai up, and while one of them chained his feet Lloyd grabbed the hand with the mark, squeezing it between both of his own. “How do I take it back?” he said desperately.

“Not telling. And yes you are. Garmadon has the Soul Amulet. Go back for it, then get home. If you stay away from your body any longer you really might die.”

“And you won’t?” Kai was pulled roughly away, his hand slipping out of Lloyd’s, and the guards began to march him on after the Head Punisher, who’d gone ahead without waiting. “What am I going to tell Nya and the others?” Lloyd cried after them.

“It’s alright.” Kai raised his voice as he was led away, though Lloyd followed behind. “Once they trap Morro and send him back here, I’ll be sent back to my own body.”

“How do you know?”

Kai looked over his shoulder at Lloyd, smiling reassuringly. “He was the one who cursed you. So he can take your place. Or, hopefully, the place of the person who replaced you. Like your dad did.”

Of course, once Lloyd did return to his body he’d forget everything that happened while he was a spirit, and would have no idea that Kai was in the Cursed Realm. The last thing he would remember was being in the barn, getting hurt by Kai. As for Morro, Kai knew there was a likely chance that Wu wouldn’t be able to bring himself to send his first student back to an eternity of torment again. He might even just let Morro remain in Kai’s body and live out the second life he wanted, once it became clear that Kai wouldn’t be coming back to claim it. The thought made him sick to his stomach; he dreaded that outcome more than the prospect of being tortured indefinitely.

But Lloyd didn’t need to know all that.

“I’m sorry, Lloyd,” he said, turning his face away. “I’m sorry for everything.”

Lloyd slowed to a stop. “I’m gonna get you out of here,” he called after Kai. “I promise!”

Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Kai thought to himself. At least that was one thing he’d learned from Morro throughout this whole mess.

***

“Lloyd!”

At the look on Lloyd’s face, Garmadon knew Kai had succeeded at what he’d planned. “Oh son… I’m sorry.”

Lloyd screwed his eyes shut as though in pain. “It’s my fault,” he said. “He told me not to come and I wouldn’t listen.”

He opened his eyes and shot his father an affronted look when he heard him chuckle. “Why is that funny?”

“It’s not,” said Garmadon soberly. “I was just relieved. To know you had someone who cares so much about you to watch over you in my stead. And that you care so much about to protect him in turn.”

“Protect him.” Lloyd scoffed. “Yeah, right. I did a great job of that. And I’m going to be a real big help protecting people when I wake up.” He shook his head, angrily blinking the tears from his eyes. “He broke me, Father. I tried to be strong, I really did. But now I… I can’t be the Green Ninja anymore.”

Somehow admitting this to his father hurt more than when he’d admitted it to Kai, and he felt himself burn with shame.

“Lloyd. Son, look at me.”

Lloyd looked up.

“It was never the color of the gi that made you who you are,” said Garmadon softly. “It was the color of your heart. Don’t give up. Ninjago still needs you.”

Lloyd gave him a watery smile. His heart lightened, then fell heavy again. “I wish I could save you, too. I don’t want to leave you to suffer here forever. Even a few days was too much for me. But you…”

“Whatever happens to me, wherever I am… I will always be with you. There comes a time when every boy must become a man. What sort of man, is up to him.”

Lloyd straightened his back and nodded. He lifted the amulet up over Garmadon’s head, held it in both hands. He walked backwards a few steps to keep his father’s loving smile in sight.

Then he turned and ran down the path, to follow the trail of markers that Kai had left behind.

***

In the pause caused by Morro’s shock, Wu said it again. “I love you, Morro.”

“No…” Morro shook his head emphatically at him. “No, no, no, that’s a lie! If you loved me then you wouldn’t have let me go! You would’ve stopped me!”

“I was young, and you were my first student.” Wu held Morro’s hand tighter, in both of his own. “I thought leaving you alone while you were angry and hurt was the right thing to do, because I didn’t want you to push me away. It’s not an excuse for my failure–”

“I’m NOT a failure!!! Stop calling me your FAILURE!”

“No, you’re not!” Now it was Wu’s turn to stare in shock. “Morro, you are not the failure. I am! I failed you!”

It was as though he’d cast a spell, one that slowed down time and muted the noise all around them; the flying debris in the hurricane lost speed in their lap around the barn floor, enough that they were no longer blurred together; wooden boards tumbled and crashed over each other to the ground, as did the heavier small objects, including each of Morro’s torture implements; the hammer’s head buried into the dirt, the crowbar cartwheeled through the air until it clipped a tree branch and lodged in it.

The air stopped bashing against Nya’s ears and stinging her eyes, and she opened them wide to see Morro, both feet back on the floor, staring at Master Wu with utmost horror and pain. And she heard Wu despite the quietness of his reply, even heard the catch in his voice as he spoke the last word.

“I failed you. And for that I am sorry.”

Morro’s eyes glistened. He shook his head at Wu. “I died… trapped and alone. And then afterwards, when they...” He bared his teeth in disgust as tears fell down his cheeks. “I thought you would come save me. But you didn’t even look for me. My body is still there, rotted away and forgotten.” He mustered up his anger again. “If you had spent half the energy you gave looking for Lloyd to find me–!”

Wu pulled Morro towards him by the arm he held, and engulfed him in a tight embrace. For the second time in his stolen life, Morro found his nose pressed into his master's shoulder, and felt arms around him that held him not because they wanted to immobilize him, but simply for the act of holding him. He choked out a sob and let the tears flow. “Why didn’t you save me?” he wept.

Wu stroked the back of his head. “I could only save someone who wanted to be saved.” Feeling the disappointed slump of Morro’s shoulders against him, he pulled the boy up and cupped his face in his hands. “But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have tried. I’m sorry, Morro, my son. I’m so sorry.”

Morro buried his face into Wu’s chest and broke down in his arms. The two of them sank to their knees, and Nya wearily did the same as the energy left her legs. She looked all around them, but though she could hear voices in the darkness, she couldn’t see anyone.

Morro soon calmed down, his sobs whittled to sharp hitches of breath. Wu gripped him firmly by the shoulders and pushed him away again, so that they were face to face. “You have to let go now," he said softly. "Holding on like this avails you nothing.”

“I can’t go back…” moaned Morro. “I can’t. It hurt so much… They wouldn’t stop no matter how much I screamed and begged. For decades. Not until I agreed to free her. And now that I failed again she’s going to make it worse! You can’t send me back there, please Sensei, please let me stay.”

“You can stay,” said Wu, and Nya’s entire body tensed up until he continued, “But not in Kai’s body.”

Morro’s self-pitying visage turned cold and impatient. “You don’t even know what he did. He’s no better than me!”

“You’re both important to me. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

Morro scoffed. The pity returned, but this time it was directed at Wu. “You’re a fool. Of course you have to choose. After what I did to them neither Lloyd nor the Red Ninja will ever forgive me. Or you if you let me stay.” He turned his gaze on Nya and jutted his chin at her. “What about her? You think she’d agree to it?”

“All I want is my brother back,” said Nya, lending as much ice to her tone as she could. “I couldn’t care less what happens to you.”

“Heh. Yeah… You and everyone else.”

Morro sat back on his heels and let out a long, final sigh. “Fine. I’m tired. You win. But just so you know I can’t guarantee he’ll be alright when I let him go. I haven’t heard from him in hours. Usually he never shuts up.”

He closed his eyes, and when Nya saw that he really meant to go through with it, a thought came to her. “Wait! There’s one thing you have to do first.”

Morro opened his eyes. “Yeah? And what’s that?”

Nya scowled at him. “You have to prove him innocent.”

Morro frowned like he wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but then his brow lifted in understanding. His mouth twitched humorously. “He promised he’d bring me back to life just so he could repay me for everything I did to Lloyd. It’d be better for me if he was locked up.”

“If you’re afraid of Kai’s wrath,” said Nya, narrowing her eyes, “then you don’t want to see me when I’m angry.”

Morro chuckled. “Actually, I think I would like to see that.” But he stood up and walked off the edge of the wooden floor, heading in the direction of where the flashlights, the few that were left on, were pointed from. Nya and Wu quickly followed behind.

The Police Commissioner pushed his way through the huddled bodies of his men, megaphone in hand, and stopped short at the sight of Morro. Detective Tommy came to stand next to him.

“Alright, Mustache Man. I’m surrendering.” Morro first reverted his form back to Kai’s natural look, making sure the police saw him clearly in the circle of the helicopter’s searchlight, which had followed him faithfully. Then he closed his eyes, bent his head back… and rose up in his ghostly form at last, Kai’s body crumpling like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Nya darted forward and caught him under the arms.

Morro rose into the air, stopping when he was high enough for all the officers to see him when they craned their necks. Both the Police Commissioner and Detective Tommy’s jaws dropped to their full extent, their eyes practically bulging at the specter.

“My name is Morro.” His eyes dropped for a second with regret before he reclaimed his heritage. “Son of Haru and Angel. I kidnapped Lloyd Garmadon, the Green Ninja, and started the fire of the apartment building in Ninjago City two days ago. I used Kai Smith, the Red Ninja, as my vessel. He wanted no part of it and is innocent.” He shrugged. “Mostly.”

The policemen continued to gawp at him like fish out of water. Morro rolled his eyes. Without warning he dived down towards Detective Tommy... into Detective Tommy, whose eyes became shadowed and expression turned bored as he snatched the megaphone from the Police Commissioner's hand and spoke into it in his face, "I am possessing him right now". Then, just as suddenly, he rose up out of Detective Tommy, who gasped and dropped to all fours, and dove into the Police Commissioner next, who then pulled Detective Tommy up by the arm, took the megaphone back from him, and spoke into it again straight in the detective's ear "Not a fun experience, hardass, huh?" He rose up out of the Police Commissioner as well. The Chief swayed on the spot for a moment before falling backward.

Morro returned to his previous spot in the air under the helicopter's spotlight. He turned to look at Nya and Wu. “Was that good? Cause I don’t know what else–”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence. A flash of purple light burst from him, and Nya blinked, and when she looked again, he was gone.