Chapter Text
One
Lloyd manages to drag Morro to Jumanakai village a few months after he gets kidnapped. The villagers who had disappeared had moved back to their homes, all with the same story.
They had awoken in the morning, with a harsh voice telling them to take their things and flee the village. Only after the ghosts had disappeared, the voice had also left the villagers, and they soon came to their senses.
Lloyd had let them resettle, before asking Morro to take him to the village, so he could get his candy stash back.
“Please,” Lloyd asks, already deploying his puppy eyes. “You promised when this was all over, you’d get me more candy.”
Kai and Cole snicker as Morro fidgets where he stands. Lloyd chose the perfect time to ask, right before Wu would come out to begin the afternoon training, so even if Morro said no… At least Wu could try to convince him otherwise.
“I did say that, didn’t I?” Morro sighs after a moment of silence, and Lloyd nods quickly.
“You did say that! Come on, Morro! At least this time I don’t have to pretend I’m dad to scare the candymaker!” He says, and Morro rolls his eyes and grins at the memory.
“Wait,” Cole raises a hand, looking at Lloyd with a frown. “That was you?”
Lloyd darts his eyes around the ninjas, who all look at him with dawning looks of realization. He thought he told them about almost running into them in Jumanakai village but looking at their baffled faces, he guesses not. “Uh…”
“Hold on, hold on,” Jay waves his hands around, before gesturing at Lloyd and Morro, “You were pretending to be your dad to steal candy?”
“Yes…?” Lloyd answers, still unsure if he is getting in trouble or not. He just wants candy, not an interrogation!
“The village that we got a call for, saying that Lord Garmadon had returned, only a day before it became a ghost town?” Zane adds in, also frowning.
“That sounds about right,” Morro says with a laugh. Lloyd scowls at him, the traitor.
“I wanted candy,” He says crossing his arms, “So I got it. It’s not my fault everyone is super scared of Dad.”
Cole slaps his forehead, “Should we teach you that stealing is bad? You know that it’s bad right?”
Lloyd feels indignant, “Of course I know that! Morro was going to make me return it, but he was scared of you guys,” He says, as Morro turns to look at him murderously.
He sticks his tongue out at his cousin. Two could play this game.
“You were scared of us?” Kai looks at the ghost incredulously. “Us? ”
“I wasn’t scared of you,” Morro dismisses, “I just didn’t want to be reminded of who I used to be,” he says, and Lloyd feels bad, but as the Ninja turns to interrogate his cousin, he has an opportunity to go ask Nya or someone else to take him to Jumanakai village.
But as soon as he turns around, he bumps into his uncle. “Uncle Wu!” He says pulling out his puppy dog eyes out once more. “Can me and Morro go to Jumanakai Village?”
Wu looks at him carefully, stroking his beard, as Morro yells at him “Don’t ask Wu, he’ll say no!”
Oops.
Vaguely Lloyd can remember Morro telling him that his dad used to sneak him candy, since Uncle Wu wouldn’t let him have it often, and realizes his error of judgment.
But Wu winks at him, and says pretty loudly, “I did order a shipment of sugar cubes from there if you too wanted to pick it up for me.”
Lloyd cheers, as Morro screams at the two of them indignantly, “WHAT?”
Needless to say, Lloyd got his candy, Wu got his sugar cubes, and Morro was stuck with the knowledge that Wu was more relaxed with the rules regarding Lloyd than he used to be with Morro.
Two
Lloyd stares at the uniform, his brow furrowed. He’s been staring at it for a while, but he still can’t make up his mind.
“Whatcha doing, kid?” A voice calls from the doorway, and Lloyd turns around with a sheepish grin.
“Hey, Jay,” He greets, before sighing, turning back around to look at the green Gi. “Nothing much.”
Jay walks up behind him to ruffle his hair, which Lloyd tries to duck out of, but he also looks contemplatively at the Gi. “Think it’ll fit you now? You’ve had enough growth spurts, I’m sure you won’t trip now.”
Lloyd chuckles, memories of his smaller self so eager to try on the legendary outfit, that he’d failed to roll up the pant legs or sleeves. He’s fallen so many times that Morro had just raised him in the air enough that he was as tall as the others, and wouldn’t trip.
“Yeah, probably,” He says, going silent again. He’s still wearing his yellow uniform, something he had begged his uncle for last year when he’d grown inches out of his old one. He didn’t want to be the Green Ninja then, despite being able to fit into the clothes.
He just didn't feel ready to accept the weight of what being the Green Ninja meant.
“I know I said I’d wait,” He starts, thinking about the long conversation he’d had with his cousin. Morro had agreed to give it time, to let Lloyd enjoy his childhood. He shouldn't rush this– his destiny. He was going to take his time and get the feel of what being the protector of Ninjago actually meant.
But now…
“You’re starting to consider it?” Jay asks quietly, and Lloyd nods.
“For a while now, I guess,” Lloyd mumbles. “Since Darkley’s tried to kidnap me.”
He’d gotten an invite saying he’d won an honorary degree of excellence, with promises of a ceremony and cake. What it actually was, was an attempt to bring back Lloyd to the dark side.
Something he’d managed to reverse, bringing his old classmates to see the good of the world, rather than the bad.
Jay snorts, “Seriously?”
Lloyd turns nodding, “Yeah! Helping them see the good inside…felt good I guess. I liked doing it. Helping them.”
The Master of Lightning goes silent, nodding thoughtfully. “But you don’t have to be the Green Ninja for that,” He challenges Lloyd. “You could still be the Yellow Ninja and help people. So what flipped the switch?”
What had ‘flipped the switch?’ Lloyd thinks hard. “Well, I think a part of it, was the lesson that you taught me that day. Do you remember that?”
Jay shrugs, “Kid, I say stuff a lot. I barely remember what I said yesterday, let alone a year ago.”
Lloyd snickers, “Fair point,” he says, straightening up. “That day, we were trying to figure out how to light a lightbulb.”
“Ohh yeah!” Jay nods his head, “You just kept shattering the glass. We swept so much that day.”
Lloyd hums in agreement, “But you kept telling me how to harness the power inside of me… And I guess that made me realize that I was made for more, y’know? Like, being the yellow ninja was great when I didn’t know what my elemental power was. But now I do, and I know I can be better.”
Jay has a grin on his face, looking at Lloyd proudly. “Aww, look at you growing up,” he coos, wiping away a fake tear. “I’m so proud.”
Lloyd laughs, “Shut up,” he says, pushing Jay away as he tries to ruffle his hair again.
“No, but seriously,” Jay grins, “I’m proud of you, kid. It took a lot to realize you weren’t ready to be the Green Ninja, and now it’s a lot to realize that you are now.”
Lloyd’s cheeks feel warm, “Thanks, Jay.”
Jay brushes it off with a wave, “Aww, what it’s what I’m here for. Now come on, I think Zane’s making pie, and I’m starving.”
Three
Morro was a terrifying person. He was very good at hiding it when it came to Lloyd, who he made sure would never discover how violent Morro could be when he tried hard enough. But sometimes his personality of being a top general of the Preeminent’s command snuck through– like the time when he confronted Misako, after learning Lloyd was the Green Ninja.
He’d managed to keep it together for the most part, until he learned about a museum that was going to showcase the Allied Armor of Azure for a Day of the Departed festival, and had accidentally caused a windstorm near Ignacia in his anger.
Thankfully no one was around him, during his bout of anger, but even when he made it back to the monastery, everyone could tell he was in a bad mood.
A day later, after he’s managed to calm down, he finds Cole.
“I need help,” he says, and Cole looks at him warily.
“You do?”
The two of them had built an understanding of each other throughout the years, and right now the only one Morro could entrust with this predicament was the Earth Ninja. He was removed enough from the problem itself and could keep a level head in extreme situations, which made Cole the perfect candidate.
Morro nods, “Yes. The Ninjago Museum of History has an artifact that can release ghosts from the Curse realm. I need help getting into the museum before anyone tries to put it on and potentially release more ghosts.”
Cole grimaces, “Yeah I can see why that would be a problem. I mean, not that I’m reluctant to help, but why can’t you do it yourself?”
“The artifact is surrounded by deepstone, a material deadly to ghosts. I’ll need help removing it from its case,” He explains, and Cole nods in understanding.
“And why can’t we tell the others?” He finally asks, and Morro shrugs.
“I plan to destroy this artifact so it can never be used again, and something tells me the others wouldn't want to do that.”
“Not even Zane?”
“Knowing him, he’d manage to convince me that it shouldn’t be destroyed, and right now, I don’t see a reason to spare it.”
Cole shrugs, “Alright, let’s do this. Just let me grab my scythe and we can get out of here before Wu can make us set up for the Day of the Departed.”
Before long, both of them had made their way into the museum, and were scouting it out briefly, before night could fall. They were going to do the operation closer to midnight, but it was always good to scout during the daytime, just to make sure they knew where they were going.
The museum was under heavy guard, but that was no surprise, seeing as though the Armor was a newly recovered artifact, and the museum still didn’t know its worth.
“I guess if you caused I distraction, I could sneak in and disable the alarms and take off the case. Then you could do whatever you wanted with the armor,” Cole says, after most people have gone home, and security becomes lax. For the past couple of hours, they had been scouring the ins and outs of the museum with a map that Zane had provided with minimal questions, and Morro felt confident that this would go smoothly.
“That works for me,” he confirms, and Cole hands him a small piece of machinery.
“It’s a communication device,” Cole explains, after seeing Morro’s confusion. “You put it in your ear, and it lets you listen and talk to me.”
“Handy,” Morro comments, adjusting the device in his ear. “Although I wonder if it’ll turn incorporeal when I do?”
Cole shrugs with a small laugh, “Great question– I have no idea.”
They split ways, Cole sneaking in through a back entrance, where staff and security entered, and would locate the place the armor was kept for safekeeping.
Morro got the fun job– a job he would enjoy immensely as long as it never got back to Lloyd.
He sneaks into a hallway where a watchman pretends to fight and arrest a statue of his uncle.
“Hmmm… Hands up, Lord Garmadon! All four of them!” The watchman announces, and Morro tries to stifle a laugh as the watchman pulls out a fake sword, and adjusts the statue’s arms. Just because these days, it was common knowledge that Garmadon had four arms, didn’t mean the museum needed to include it here– although Morro would admit that his uncle would get a kick out of seeing himself in the Hall of Villainy.
“Oh, that's right. Ninjago won't be seeing the likes of you anymore. Good riddance. Hyah!” The statue of Garmadon topples over, masking Morro’s quiet cackles. Oh, how he wished to be able to record this to show to the others.
Maybe he could convince Cole to hack into the security footage afterward. Afterward, he reminds himself, as he floats to the other side of the room, as quietly as he can.
The watchman turns to another statue, and Morro tries to leave, only to bump into a pillar on accident, and the watchmen startled, use his flashlight to scour the room. Oh, come on… How did he hear me? Morro grumbles to himself, not wanting to fully turn incorporeal because if Cole needs him, he wants to be able to know about it.
Morro returns his attention to the watchman, “Who's there? The museum's closed. I know Spinjitzu!”
Morro rolls his eyes, and Cole’s voice comes crackling in his ear. “I can’t find it– I’m pretty sure it’s in one of these safes, but so far nada,” The ninja tells him, and Morro frowns.
“Okay, I’m going to question the security guard,” he mumbles, hoping he is far enough that the guard won’t hear him.
“You're not going to reveal yourself, are you?” Cole asks alarmed, and Morro doesn’t respond, turning intangible and invisible, letting the communication device clatter quietly on the ground. He’ll explain later.
Right now he’s going to enjoy scaring the daylights out of this guy.
He takes possession of the flashlight, promptly shutting it off before pulling back out. Possessing an inanimate object was a lot different from a live being, and it didn’t bring back bad memories for Morro, so he didn’t find it unnecessary to stop. It just meant everyone living in the Monastery had to be wary of floating weapons and vases.
The watchman quickly fixes his flashlight, but the unease has taken root, and it is very hard to remove something than to add to it. And Morro fully plans to add to the unease.
For example– just right now. The watchman turns around and scares himself without any help from the ghost watching him, by looking at a Grundle– a being that has been extinct for centuries.
Usually with unease, comes some sort of soothing mechanism– a way to prove to the mind that it was all paranoia and not real. Some people sing, some people blabber– in this case, it’s: “I'm legally required to share I've unlocked my Full Potential.”
Morro can’t help it– he laughs out loud at the statement, only to laugh harder, as the watchman freaks out at the sound, and turns to focus his light on a newly finished Green Ninja statue. Morro snorts. The irony was too great.
Morro wants to turn on the Lloyd statue, curious to see what the recorded voice says, but seeing as though he has actually possessed Lloyd, he turns on the switch without taking control of it.
“I am the Green Ninj-ja,” Lloyd’s voice comes filtering through the statue. “I am the Gr-Green Ni-Nin-Ninja.” The statue shakes dangerously, before losing an arm, and Morro turns away, to muffle a chuckle.
“That's it. I'm calling it in. Let's see who's laughing now,” The watchman grumbles under his breath, pulling out a square device, before Morro pokes him in the back.
The man whirls around, eyes wide when he locks eyes with a ghost. “I need some help,” Morro says, letting his voice chill over every word. “And you're going to help me.”
The watchman gulps.
“You’re late,” Cole says, frowning as he rests on the Armor of Azure’s display case. Turns out the watchman’s information was correct.
“I lost the comm,” Morro says apologetically, raising the small thing up to show Cole. “Figured we didn’t want evidence.”
“Aside from the traumatized security guard?” Cole asks dryly, and Morro shrugs.
“He’ll be fine. He’ll have a nice ghost story to tell his friends, and a month from now, will probably only barely remember it.”
Cole rolls his eyes and pushes himself from the display case. “Whatever you say, man. Have fun destroying this thing. I’m going to go clear the footage.”
“Can you get the footage of me scaring the watchman?” Morro asks before Cole can melt into the shadows. “It’ll be funny to watch.”
Cole snorts, “Sure. I want to see what you did to the poor guy.”
“Not as much as I could have done,” Morro jokes, and waves the Earth Ninja off.
After Cole disappears, Morro turns to look at the armor. It had saved him from the Preeminent’s clutches, brought him to Lloyd, to Wu, to his family– and he was so grateful for it.
But it needed to be destroyed before another person like Morro used to be, could take advantage of the armor’s abilities.
So Morro finds a hammer and makes quick work of hammering it into a nonfunction piece of metal. It’s only when he stands back to admire his work, that his vision swims, and he falls to his knees.
He’s sinking.
Sinking into the cold, tar-like darkness, no light to be seen except for the speckles of stars he can see all around him, which swallows him whole.
He’s cold.
He is so cold.
He used to be cold back in the Cursed Realm, deep in the Preeminent’s clutches. Right?
But he wasn’t anymore, wasn’t he?
He is cold.
So, so cold.
It takes him a moment to realize he shouldn’t be able to feel cold, that he is not real– a memory of something that once was.
A shadow. A whisper.
Not real.
But he is freezing.
He shouldn’t be. But he is.
And that means he is real.
He’s trembling violently, trying to claw his way out of the darkness’s grasp, trying to escape, trying to return to his home– to his family, when his arms give way, and he falls into darkness.
Now the stars are gone, and he is in complete darkness, and so, so, alone.
Help! He wants to scream, but here in the void, here in the nothing, he can’t say a word.
“Morro,” something whispers and he clings to that voice. “Morro,” it hisses.
Was he dead or alive? Or was he something in between?
“Morrooooo,” the voice croons. “Morro,” The voice sighs.
He wants to shiver, he wants to scream.
Cold.
“Soon you will return to me,” The voice warns, and Morro is sinking again. “You always do.”
He is so cold.
“Morro!” Cole’s voice breaks through the darkness, and suddenly he’s floating upwards, past the voice, past the stars, up, up, up, until he launches upwards, floating a few feet above the Earth Ninja.
“Are you okay?” Cole asks him urgently and Morro fights the urge to hide somewhere where that voice could never find him again. “You became see-through, and you weren’t responding.”
“The armor,” He gasps searching for air he doesn’t need, after a moment of silence. “We have to destroy it.”
“You did,” Cole says carefully, gesturing to the heap of metal on the ground, and Morro shakes his head.
“No,” He says, still feeling like he should be gasping for air. “We need to throw it into a volcano or something because that thing is still operational,” He hisses, pointing to the deformed metal.
“What do you mean still operational?” Cole asks, before his eyes widen, “You went back?”
Morro forces himself to nod, hating that her voice was still ringing in his ears.
“Okay,” Cole breathes out, and something in Morro’s frantic face must make Cole look sympathetic. “Okay. I’ll call Zane and Nya to help me transport this to a nearby volcano, or I can ask Kai to melt a few rocks, or something. I promise we will destroy all of this, and I won’t tell anyone that you went back,” Cole says, forcing Morro to meet his eyes.
“You go back to the monastery and talk to Wu about all this. He’ll know what to do.”
Morro nods numbly, Soon you will return to me, you always do, ringing in his ears.
Wu will know what to do. He always does.
Wu looks troubled. “Are you sure you went back to the Cursed Realm?” He asks, after listening to everything, and Morro shrugs.
“Maybe. What were you thinking?”
“A premonition or something of that sort,” Wu says, handing him a cup of tea. He can tell it’s warm from the steam billowing up, but he can’t feel it. He doesn’t even feel cold anymore.
“You think it was telling my future,” Morro looks at him baffled, and Wu rubs his temples.
“You just listed symptoms that I usually experience, feeling cold, the sinking feeling, faceless voices,” Wu tells him, sitting across from him on one of his mats. “I don’t know much of the cursed realm– did you feel like that at all when you were there?”
The cursed realm wasn’t cold. Yeah, it was dark and suffocating, but it always felt sweltering, the stomach of the Preeminent digesting cursed souls for all eternity.
Morro shakes his head, “I guess not,” he says hesitantly. Wu looks at him sadly.
“But Grandfather said the Preeminent wasn’t going to ever be released,” He protests weakly, her voice sounding in his ears, Soon you will return to me, did that mean he was going to go back to the cursed realm?
He really, really hopes not.
Wu looks at him sadly and holds him tight.
“As the Final Battle nears, and risks become harsher and harsher, I fear we must hold to those we keep dear, otherwise we will be swept away from everything that we love.”
Usually, Morro would roll his eyes, and dismiss his father’s words– but today, with the Preeminent’s voice repeating in his mind, he can only cling tighter, and hope that he would never return back to her.
Four
“Come on kid,” Morro chides as they hike to the bottom of the mountain– or rather Lloyd is doing the hiking since Morro is lazy and is just floating. “You’ve been waiting four years for this, and now you're getting cold feet?”
“No,” Lloyd scowls and Morro looks at him unimpressed, crossing his arms, and floating backward, so he can properly look disappointed at Lloyd.
“Oh really? The only way to create an elemental dragon is to overcome your fear–”
“I know how it works,” Lloyd snaps at him, but Morro doesn’t take the bait.
“So tell me, why are you scared?” Morro taunts, as he leads them to a grassy field at the base of the mountain, and Lloyd doesn’t know what to say.
It wasn’t the peer pressure– Lloyd knew that the Ninja only cared that he wasn’t pushing himself too far, and were helping him hone in on his powers that correlated with their own.
Wu was the same as he’d always been, an ear to lean on, a place to get advice filled with riddles, and a means of obtaining caffeinated tea– which Misako frowned on constantly– since he’d let Morro take reigns of most of Lloyd’s training.
Garmadon had decided not to train him and had focused on just being Lloyd's dad. This had helped the fear that if Garmadon did have to face Lloyd, Garmadon wouldn’t be able to anticipate much of what Lloyd had learned, but it also made it harder since Garmadon wasn’t just some faceless villain Lloyd had to fight.
It was his dad.
“I feel like the more I get better at being the Green Ninja, the closer the Final battle gets,” Lloyd finally admits. “And that means I have to fight Dad, and I don’t think I can.”
As soon as he finishes his sentence, he feels a pull in his gut, and suddenly very reassured, as energy flows through him. A minute of figuring out how to envision a dragon next to him leads to a sparkling emerald-green dragon and a beaming Morro.
As Lloyd stares in awe at his elemental power in corporeal form, Morro places a hand on Lloyd’s shoulder.
“If you’re this reluctant to fight your dad, your dad is ten times more scared to fight you,” Morro says, probably trying to sound comforting, but that only made things worse. How could they fight if neither participant wanted to?
“I’m telling you, it’s going to be a stupid battle like you want to permanently dye your head neon green again and he’ll say no, you fight and game over,” he teases, and Lloyd snorted, his fears temporarily forgotten, as he thought of his hair bright green.
“Trust me, the first time was good enough,” he said sighing at Nya’s antics, and Morro shrugs, his eyes looking mischievous.
“Want to race?” Morro asks, forming his own translucent dragon, changing the subject completely.
Lloyd can’t exactly overcome his fear, at least not yet, but after admitting it, he felt lighter and was confident that he would be able to settle into the role of the protector of Ninjago easily enough and be able to gain a reputation for himself.
But that was for later.
Now he would race his cousin in the sky, on top of a dragon he had wished to create since that fateful day in an abandoned village and the arrival of a bright green portal.