Chapter Text
Everything hurt. The floor was cold, too cold, his head pounded and he could hear ringing in his ears. Morro tried to open his eyes, only to immediately close them again after seeing light for the first time in what felt like forever. The noise, the lights, his own breathing, everything was too much all at once, especially after having nothing for so long.
Opening his eyes again (and forcing them to stay open while they adjusted to the light), he checked his surroundings. He was in the middle of what looked to be a ritual circle, but it seemed like there was nobody around. The rest of the room was quite dim, the ritual circle only being lit up by 17 candles, (which, by now, were almost fully melted.) Grabbing a candle and looking at the room in full, it resembled an abandoned temple more than anything, the floor was made of stone and the walls were lined with ancient stories.
The shock and pain of being brought back from the dead had distracted Morro from the fact he had been brought back from the dead, he was alive. After coming to this realisation he scrambled to his feet too fast and his head started swimming, his vision went black for a second and he fell to his knees, unused to standing on human legs after so long. Cursing under his breath, Morro tried to stand again, this time slower. Taking a few small steps across the temple, he managed to regain his balance and read the stories that lined the walls.
Upon closer inspection, Morro realised that they weren't stories, but something more like instructions. A cold sense of dread ran through him as he read what the instructions were for. A revival spell. But something wasn't adding up. It says on the instructions that a revival circle and candles were needed.. but also a large amount of energy? Morro looked back at the circle where he was so ungraciously raised from the dead, trying to find anything that could've made the energy that was needed for the spell, but he found nothing. He also couldn't find whoever had made the ritual in the first place, had they really just run off? Before Morro could try to unravel his thoughts someone pushed him from behind, effectively knocking him off his feet and causing him to lose the balance he had only just regained. He remembers screaming on his way down, the person behind him yelping in surprise as his head met the hard floor with a crack and soon after he went unconscious.
-----
Wu had sent the ninja out on a mission to retrieve some ancient artefact from one of Ninjago's forests. He hadn't bothered on telling his ninja why he would need this artefact, only that they had to look for it and bring it to Cyrus Borg before it "got into the wrong hands" or something. Kai was just about to burn his way through some of the forests undergrowth (much to the other ninjas dismay, and Zane ranting about the environment and climate change), when a blood curling scream rang out loud enough to reach them in the middle of the forest. Instantly Kai put out his flame and looked to the rest of the team, Lloyd instructed them all to move towards the source of the scream, either someone was in serious danger or were genuinley crazy, either way it seemed like it was the ninjas business.
They walked in the direction the scream had come from until they reached a worn down temple. It was made of black stone bricks and had vines twisting inside small cracks in the wall, trees wrapped around it as they grew, showing its age. Carefully (as to not accidentally knock down the entire dark temple, the thing looked ancient), the ninja made their way in. It was pitch black inside, a stark difference to the early morning light of the forest outside, the dark hallway lit only by Kai's flame. After a bit of walking around and retracing their steps, the ninja finally found a staircase, and started moving up it. The room they emerged in was covered, ceiling to floor, in ancient-looking scripts and paintings. The centre of the room had a circle surrounded by almost-melted candles, but the most eye-catching part of this room was the person standing on the opposite side. They were holding a candle, reading the scripts. That must have been the person who screamed, there was no one else around, Zane tried calling out to them.
"Hello? Are you alright?" The ninja waited, but the person didn't seem to acknowledge them, too lost in whatever they were reading. Zane tried again, slightly louder this time,
"Hello? Who are you?" The person still didn't react to the voice, frozen in place. Zane decided to move closer to them, cautiously of course, and try to get their attention.
As he got closer to the person (who seemed to be a male), Zane realised that the man (boy?) was shaking. Being close enough now, Zane reached out his metallic hand and tapped the boys shoulder, who jumped, screamed and turned around before slipping and falling to the ground with a horrible crack, then falling unconscious.
"Zane, what happened?" Lloyd asked before moving closer to the nindroid and unconscious boy. Zane remained silent, scanning the boys face.
"Zane, who is it?" Lloyd called out to him again, curious at his brothers actions.
"Lloyd, you can see who it is, but I'm afraid you aren't going to like it." Zane replied cryptically.
"Well that isn't ominous at all," Kai added before stepping forward to join Lloyd.
"Whoever it is, they need medical help, especially with that fall," Cole moved toward Zane, whoever it was in this temple they cant be that bad.
Kai, Cole and Lloyd crossed to the other side of the large room, why would anyone be in here? That question was soon answered when Kai rushed forward and was almost able to punch the unconscious (and unarmed) boy in the face, if not for Cole quickly holding him back with his super strength.
Lloyd gasped and shouted, "Morro?!"