Chapter Text
They ran the training course two more times, both Morro's and Lloyd's confidence growing. During a short break after the third run, Lloyd surprised Morro by asking if he could try the course himself.
And after a lot of deliberation... Morro let him, carefully moving aside so the boy could take control. Lloyd took it in stride, more concerned about the heavy poles and blades swinging around his body, but for Morro, the experience was... eye-opening, to say the least.
It was the first time he inhabited a body — or anything, really — without taking all control. He was part of the body but wasn't. He could easily take back control, but didn't have it at the moment. He could slip out of the body, but right then and there, he was just kind of along for the ride.
And just like that, Morro understood the horror of possession. Because he could imagine... he could imagine not having those options. He could imagine being stuck in a prison that quite literally had no way out, leaving him trapped and helpless, forced to do things he'd normally do anything to prevent.
He could imagine being the Green Ninja and watching his own hands and weapons and powers hurt his brothers.
Like a lot of things that happened that day, Morro put the realisation on the back burner and focused on walking Lloyd through the training course. Because as much as Wu hammered it into him to 'never put off until tomorrow what can be done today', this he could deal with later (or never. Preferably never.)
They were still practicing when the lockers in the living area shook like crazy, and three rattled-looking teenagers all but fell out of them. Lloyd's concentration immediately fell apart, and an incoming barrage of swords would have sliced them to ribbons had Morro not quickly taken control. Pushing off the ground and twisting into a pirouette, he took them through the last stretch of the course, simultaneously cloaking Lloyd's features. His feet hit the ground, and he straightened just as Kai, Cole, and Zane zeroed in on him.
Kai's eyes immediately narrowed.
"Well, look who's early," he drawled, making Morro roll his eyes. "I don't remember saying you could make yourself at home, windbag."
"Like I need your permission, firecracker," the ghost countered, silently thanking the Wind for helping him even out his breathing faster.
"Were you training?" Cole asked before Kai could retort, eyes flicking between the still-active training course and Morro's sweat-drenched shirt and flushed face.
"No, I was finger-paining," Morro deadpanned, draping Lloyd's hoodie back over his shoulders. "Obviously I was training. Been a while since I had a proper obstacle course around, so I figured I'd make use of it while you guys were wasting time at school."
Cole frowned and crossed his arms.
"Uh-huh. Speaking of school, you wouldn't happen to know how a literal thunderstorm appeared in the hallway near the chemistry labs, would you?"
"Oh, did it? Well, the weather is pretty crazy today," Morro said with the most shit-eating faux-innocent grin ever to grace a person's face.
Kai seemed on the verge of combusting when the lockers rattled again and the remaining two Ninja popped out. Morro didn't even have time to make a wry remark about their tardiness before the Lightning Ninja ran over to him, his usual awkwardness seemingly forgotten.
"Care to explain this?!" he asked in a volume a thousand times louder than they'd ever heard from him and promptly shoved a phone right into Morro's face.
The possessed teen momentarily went cross-eyed before growling and shoving the screen a bit farther so he could actually see what was on it. It seemed to be some social media app — 'Chirp,' Lloyd supplied as if that was supposed to mean anything to Morro — opened on a blurry video of a teenager flitting high above the city skyline underneath a stormy sky. His face was only a little more than a pale-white smudge, but anyone who knew Morro could tell it was him.
"Huh, news really does travel fast here," Morro mumbled, studying the looping video. "They could have gotten my good side, though."
"You can fly?!" Jay, Kai, and Nya screeched in unison.
"One of my many talents."
The Ninja stared as Morro pushed off the ground and weaved between the Water Strider's legs, not even bothering to hide his smug grin. The group of teens oohed and aahed, and Morro thought he heard Zane say, "You are very rebelliously breaking the laws of physics." in that creepily cheerful tone of his.
"You're controlling the wind again," Cole noted when he rejoined them on the ground. "If you can straight up fly with it... How do you do it? Master Wu said he knows, but he won't tell us anything else."
"It's my elemental power, obviously," Morro said, lifting a hand and letting a soft breeze ruffle their hair.
'Show-off,' Lloyd chuckled, yelping when Morro gave him the mental equivalent of an elbow jab.
"Yeah, but how do you do it?" Nya asked, suspicion mixing with poorly hidden eagerness in her tone. "Did you, like, go to superhero school or inherited a magical artifact or got bitten by some radioactive... uh... wind... bird?"
"It's a ninja thing," Morro said by way of Wu-ish explanation, because the whole system of inheriting powers via genetics versus legacy never made much sense to him, and neither he nor Wu knew which category he belonged to anyways.
"But we're ninja and we definitely can't do that!" Jay screeched, hands flying up to cover his mouth a moment later.
Morro felt his eyebrows rise in confusion and quickly pushed the emotion back before the Ninja or Lloyd could notice. Who was he to question this Wu's teaching methods?
"Sucks to be you," he concluded with a grin, and Lloyd once again caught a few rather painful scraps of memories where a group of teens in gis pelted Morro with fire and lightning and some other elements he couldn't see clearly.
Kai was already growing redder again, mouth opening to curse Morro out some more, when—
"Would you be willing to teach us?"
It took a moment for Morro to realise what the White Ninja was asking, and his brain felt like it shut down for a moment. He blinked, head turning mechanically towards the nindroid as if he was the robot between them.
"Would I what?" he asked dumbly.
"Your control over your powers and your fighting prowess — even with what little we have seen of it — are very impressive. You claim it is a 'ninja thing', and we are ninja, but Jay is correct that we cannot do what you do. Would you be willing to teach us?" Zane repeated with a polite smile.
Teach?
He really did say 'teach', didn't he? It wasn't the first time Morro heard that word, but before, it was always, 'We'll teach you a lesson for stealing, street rat.' or, 'Let me teach you the way of the ninja, child.' or, 'It's time someone taught you about true strength, spirit.' But no, this time, someone was asking Morro to pass on his own knowledge. As if it was something good. Something of value.
And that... that wasn't right. He... Morro wasn't the teacher. Wu was the teacher. Morro was just... Morro. For him to teach — teach the Ninja whose alternative versions he actively fought against and indirectly caused his second death — was just...
Morro's eyes slowly trailed from the Ninja to the training course. The very sharp, very bruising, very deadly training course that they apparently needed to have lower settings for.
An ominous smile slowly crept across his lips. Were it anyone but the robot of the group making the request, they would have probably changed their mind just from seeing it.
"Well, who am I to deny the younger generation my hard-earned knowledge?"
...
Teaching was the one thing Morro had never even considered he'd enjoy, and yet as he watched the Ninja line up in front of the still-running training course, he felt giddiness equal to the other Lloyd's from that one time he accidentally entered a comic book store while in his body.
The Ninja didn't look as excited. Nya maybe a little, and while Kai acted annoyed, he was clearly curious about what Morro could teach them, but Jay seemed nervous enough to jump out of his skin. It was hard to tell what Zane was thinking under his smile, which had gone from mildly deranged to politely interested, and Cole seemed cautiously optimistic but equally worried for his team. Morro didn't fault him for that. As far as the Ninja knew, he was still a wild variable, after all. Naive leaders only got their teammates killed.
Once they were all lined up, they stilled. Morro waited for a few seconds, but no one was moving.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" he prompted, not bothering to hide his annoyance.
The teens looked at him with wide eyes. To Morro, they very much resembled a bunch of freshly woken up owlets.
"You want us to... go? Just like that?" Jay asked with a nervous shiver.
Morro cocked his head at him, expression stuck between incredulous and annoyed.
"Yes? Did you think I'd hold your hand and meditate with you to open your third eye or something? You already have a sensei for that. I need to know where you guys are at before I tell you how much you suck."
Jay flushed a deep red and started mumbling something into his scarf. Morro was about to snap at him to speak up when Cole spoke up instead.
"What Jay is trying to say is that when we use the course, it's usually more..."
"Survivable?" Kai finished, folding his arms. "For starters, you can actually see the obstacles. Honestly, I'm pretty sure this is faster than when Master Wu uses it."
The grin on Morro's face grew to inhuman proportions.
"Perfect."
Kai's brow twitched in irritation. If anything, all the Ninja seemed even more reluctant to move, and Morro couldn't have that. He was already way too excited to see them get knocked around.
"Hey, Earth Boy is the one who wanted to do this. If you're too scared to go, less work for me," he said innocently.
His ruse worked laughably well. Kai's already red face turned an almost concerning shade of his gi colour before he launched himself at the course with a wordless yell. His teammates reached out to stop him but were far too slow. Morro just leaned back, wishing he had some popcorn with him.
The Red Ninja cleared the first set of spinning poles with relative ease, and the swinging planks only slowed him down a little, but the swords tripped him up a bit. Morro could see the exact moment he realised that while the blade may have been dulled, they could still cause a fair bit of damage. He managed to stumble his way through them regardless, but it seemed to be mostly luck. The shock upset his balance, and the very first dummy he faced ended with him flying out of the course with a shout, soaring an impressive distance before landing at Morro's feet, probably adding a fair bit of road rash to his newly earned bruises.
Smirking, Morro leaned down to him and said, "Making yourself at home, Firecracker?"
Kai barely had enough energy to flip him off. With how much his hand was shaking, it only served to make Morro's smirk wider.
Still, as much as Morro disliked the Red Ninja, he had to admit the kid did pretty well... for a civilian. By ninja standards, he had a long, long way to go, though compared to his teammates, he was a master in the making.
Cole went next, and Morro had to hold back a laugh when he got launched out almost instantly. He was pretty sure the Black Ninja just set some kind of record for the fastest wipeout, but that was quickly beaten by Jay, who didn't even make it past the first obstacle. Nya was better, getting as far as her brother, but her determination to take every metaphorical enemy head-on ended up with her almost decapitated (Morro may have yanked her out at the last second with his wind, but only because Wu probably wouldn't thank him for getting one of his students killed). Zane made it the farthest, only getting knocked down by the final dummy, but Morro could see it made no more difference than if he'd fallen on the first obstacle.
As much as his soul was healing by watching a version of his former enemies get beaten senseless, towards the end, it was just getting sad.
"Do we have superpowers yet?" Jay mumbled from where he'd landed face-down.
"No. You five are pathetic," Morro told the pile of groaning teenagers plainly.
He got a bunch of protesting whines in response, which he wasn't about to entertain.
"Firecracker—" He pointed at Kai, who glared weakly at him. "—you won't get anywhere by flailing around and hoping for the best. There's a rhythm to the course, and it's there for a reason. Earth boy, your lack of flexibility is as laughable as it is fake. I don't know what game you're playing, but it's obvious you can do more, so do more."
Cole quickly looked away from him, looking like he'd been caught in a lie. Morro didn't care enough to press him, and instead turned to Jay, who nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Bluebell, the obstacles are meant to hurt you, and you are meant to not let them. Cowering in a battle will get you killed. Cowering on the training course will get you broken bones, capiche? And robot boy—" Zane sat up with a startled beep, smile breaking to show overwhelming fear that Morro couldn't care less about. "—it's not enough to just do the course. Like I told Firecracker, there's a rhythm, a pattern."
He started moving to demonstrate, his borrowed limbs cutting through the air with sharp, precise swings and kicks.
"You need to feel the motions, let your muscles learn that pattern to the point it becomes instinct. When you're in a fight, you don't have time to think through every move, attack, and counterattack. You need to train your body to do those motions for you, until eventually..."
With a crack of wind, his Spinjitzu erupted around him, slowing the world to a crawl and letting him see in perfect detail as the Ninjas' expressions morphed into shock and surprise. He enjoyed the attention for a few more seconds before slowing to stop, the silvery currents dispersing around him.
"You won't have to think at all, and you'll be able to use the freed focus to fight while already fighting," he finished smugly, resisting the urge to take a bow at their absolutely awestruck expressions.
"That sentence does not make logical sense," Zane said with a frown.
"It's not supposed to make sense, sprocket brains. Trying to find logic in it is exactly why you're failing."
"Well, in that case," Kai said, pulling himself to his feet and facing the training course with a renewed fire in his eyes, "call me the king of nonsense, because if I'm ready to ace one test in my life, it's this one."
"Isn't that the truth," Nya mumbled jokingly before taking her spot behind Kai.
The others joined somewhat more reluctantly, but not one of the Ninja backed out. Morro wasn't impressed, per se, but he was reluctantly leaning towards the 'mildly less irritated by the colour-coded morons' stance. Truly, would his legendary character arc never cease?
He sat back on the couch in the living area and watched the Ninja take turns on the course, occasionally calling out a tip or two — always coupled with a properly jabbing remark, of course.
Oddly enough, Jay was showing the most improvement, but only when he thought Morro wasn't watching him. Zane was apparently genuinely lost as to how to follow Morro's advice, while Kai and Nya were apparently just unwilling to do so. Cole seemed to have similar issues to the Blue Ninja, but rather than feeling anxious, he seemed like he didn't want Morro to see something in his movements. The few times the ghost managed to glimpse him without being noticed, he saw him mumbling something under his breath, almost like he was counting his steps.
It made Morro curious as to what the real story behind all this was, but he stopped himself before he could start getting ideas. It was enough that he had one ninja slowly turning him into his personal therapist. In the end, he was just making sure this batch of the assorted skittles was strong enough to protect his kid. He couldn't leave him with sub-par protectors, now could he?
. . .
Wait—
Wait, no. No, that wasn't— Morro didn't just—
A questioning poke from Lloyd and a periodic clicking sound from the door facing the docks just barely saved Morro from an impending existential crisis. He turned mechanically as Wu stepped into the warehouse, a teapot in hand. Numbly, Morro realised that they must have been training a lot longer than he thought, seeing as the storm had almost passed, leaving behind a sky full of tattered dark clouds with the sun hanging low over the horizon.
"Ah, welcome back, students," Wu said with a smile, causing a commotion to break out at and around the course as those very students noticed his arrival and subsequently lost their focus and got punished for it. "I am glad to see you take so diligently to your training. And Morro, it is good to see you again."
Morro, currently experiencing complete mental overload from simply existing, only nodded curtly.
"The tea is almost ready," Wu continued, setting the kettle on the living space table. "Once poured, it should allow us to see inside Morro's realm. That alone will not be enough to open a passage, I'm afraid, but once we establish contact with someone from the other side, we can guide them to complete it. Now all we need is something from your realm, Morro. If you do not have anything you are willing to lose, a bit of hair should be enough."
Morro was already reaching up when he paused. Yes, he didn't have anything of his own he could use, but that unfortunately extended to hair and any other physical aspects as well.
Clicking his tongue in distaste, he twirled one of Lloyd's currently-black curls around his finger.
Well, full possession did imbue the body with the ghost's essence.... which was pretty much the only thing Morro did have.
'Will that work?' Lloyd asked worriedly.
'Let's hope so,' Morro mumbled, for once not feeling like hiding his worry (and hope) behind snark.
Taking out a throwing knife — 'Wh-where did you get that?!' 'Snagged it from fire boy.' 'WHAT?!' — Morro cut off the chosen curl and handed it to Wu, relieved when the colour only faded the slightest bit. Wu accepted it with a nod, and Morro tensed as he held it against the light for a few moments.
Apparently seeing what he needed, Wu dropped the hair into the teapot, closing and shaking it slightly as motes of purple smoke drifted out of the nozzle. The Ninja slowly gathered around them, nursing their various bumps and bruises with quiet groans but still looking the teapot over curiously. Morro watched the smoke with a quizzical expression that bled into surprise when Wu suddenly tipped the teapot over and poured the tea on the floor.
Instead of spilling into a puddle on the ground, the liquid floated up, gathering in an orb eye-level with Morro. Once every last drop joined it, the entire surface bled into the deepest black, swallowing even the smallest ray of light. The orb rippled and pulsed, like a lake trapped in a single small space. Their reflections blinked back at them, strangely misshaped by the movement.
They waited with baited breath for what would happen next, but for the longest time, nothing did.
After a minute or two, Kai started shifting impatiently on his feet.
"Hey, Master, does this thing have a fast-forward button, or—"
As quickly as the blackness came, colours exploded within the orb, rushing across the surface in wide streaks. Nearly from one second to the next, the orb was transformed into an almost video-like image. The Ninja plus Morro were now looking through it into a room lit up by warm sunlight.
Morro's breath hitched.
Almost everything within the room had changed, but he still recognised it as the largest room of the Monastery. His Monastery. The once-barren walls were covered with paintings of mountain ranges and forests, with several photographs hung up in between. The previously empty space used for meditation was taken up by several potted plans, a small coffee table and a couch strew with cushions, all of it set up against a large flat-screen TV with massive speakers that took up one whole wall.
And on that couch lounged two figures in gis.
The one in red was sitting upside-down, legs thrown over the headrest and swinging slightly as he read some scroll. His head was hanging off the couch and his expression made it clear that whatever he was reading only barely had his attention.
The other one had his head on the red one's stomach and a game console in hand. He was facing away from them so only his blond hair was visible, but no one in the warehouse missed that the gi he was wearing was bright green.
'Is that...'
Morro's eyes were glued only to that person. He looked like he was trying to will him to turn around with only his stare. Kai, on the other hand, was much more interested in the one wearing his colour.
"Hey, that guy is copying my style!" he fumed, but his anger quickly turned to confusion when he took a closer look. "And... my face?"
The red ninja in the orb looked away from his scroll and his eyes landed right on them. His jaw dropped and he just stared for a bit before his limbs went flying in all directions in surprise.
"Holy shi—!"
His flailing caused the couch to tip backwards, and both ninja yelped as they tumbled off it and out of sight. There was a moment of shuffling and several shouted curses before two heads popped back up behind the overturned couch.
"Kai, what the hell?!" the man in green whined, rubbing his head.
"He has my name too?" Kai screeched, apparently still not making the connection.
Not that Morro cared.
The Kai in the orb wordlessly pointed at them, causing the man in green to turn towards them.
Morro thought that he was ready, that after being stuck with this world's Lloyd and even sharing his face often, he could handle seeing the one who stole his destiny.
He was wrong.
Overwhelming anger still flooded his mind, tinting the edges of his vision red as Lloyd's green eyes met his borrowed black ones.
'Lloyd? What do you mean Lloyd? Is that... me? Morro, is that me?!'
Morro ignored the panicked questioning of his Lloyd, as well as the fact that he was thinking about the spirit of the body he was possessing as his Lloyd.
The Lloyd in the orb slowly moved closer, caution mixing with intrigue in his eyes. He looked older — much more so than he should after just two weeks — fiercer, stronger, but also... even more broken, just not in the same way Morro had left him.
Morro unwittingly stood up straighter as Lloyd came to stand in front of the orb.
"Hello, Lloyd," he greeted, proud that he could keep his voice even.
There was a collective gasp around him and most of the Ninja tensed.
"Did... did he just say Lloyd? A-as in Lloyd G-G-Garmadon?" Jay asked quietly.
"What game are you playing here, Morro?" Nya growled slightly, hand clenching into fists as she glared at the possessed teen.
Morro ignored them both.
Lloyd lifted a hand, bringing it closer to the orb. With some hesitation, Morro mirrored the motion and—
Lloyd poked the orb, his hand getting flung backwards the moment it presumably hit the orb's surface.
"Wha— don't poke it!" orb-Kai yelped, jumping forward to yank orb-Lloyd away.
"It looks like a bubble, I wanted to see if it would pop!" the Green Ninja retorted.
Morro stumbled a step back.
No... after all that... it didn't work? It opened right in the middle of the Monastery and didn't fucking work?!
"You shouldn't poke it anyways! With our luck, if it did pop, it would take out the whole Monastery!"
"Don't act like you weren't thinking about it too!"
"Why is there another Kai in your world? Morro, what kind of place are you from?"
"And why does Lloyd Garmadon have a gi there? Is this a trick? Who are you, really?!"
'Morro, answer me!'
It was too much, too many voices asking questions, too many people bearing down on him. All that, and the useless spell only showed the Ninja from this world the truth without giving Morro anything!
Even in this world, Wu failed him.
Even in this world, Destiny was taking everything he could care about.
Orb-Kai leaned closer, inspecting the orb from his end.
"Hmm, doesn't look like it's getting ready to explode. I'm gonna go get Sensei and the others. Do not touch that thing," he said pointedly as he headed for the door.
Orb-Lloyd flapped his mouth mockingly, smiling innocently when orb-Kai glared back at him. As the shoji door closed behind the Fire Ninja, orb-Lloyd went to right the couch, throwing curious glances at the orb.
"Master, what's going on?" Cole asked tensely when Morro continued not to provide answers. "Why is there another Kai in that orb? And why can't he and... that other ninja see us?"
Wu looked at the orb again, humming slowly. He didn't look nearly as surprised as the Ninja, more apprehensive about something.
"I'm... not sure. The tea was supposed to provide two-way communication, but it's an old blend. There must be something I missed, or perhaps something from Morro's world is interfering with the tea's magic."
"Okay, that does it!" Kai bristled. He marched over to Morro and yanked at his shoulder to turn him around. "It's time you tell us what the hell is really going on here!"
"Yeah, Morro, tell us!" Lloyd joined in.
Everything froze.
It took Lloyd a moment to realise that he said those words aloud, using his own mouth. His hands flew up, again on his own accord, and he could see they were their usual shade, not the pale almost-white of Morro's full possession. The few strands of hair falling in front of his eyes were blond, not black.
Morro had unpossessed him? When? And, more importantly, why?
"Morro?" he asked tentatively, looking around for the ghost, but he had either turned invisible or was somewhere out of sight.
"Lloyd? Lloyd Garmadon?"
Every muscle in Lloyd's body turned to lead. Only now did he realise that the Ninja were staring at him, the usual resentment and hate in their faces mixing with fear and distrust.
Without the possession, they could see his true face.
His secret was out.