Chapter Text
The days passed by. Time carried along as a gentle and steady breeze.
Much to his disbelief, he and Echo went on many, many dates. Every time they went out, he still couldn’t quite seem to force his mind to grasp the idea that this was real . This was happening .
Regardless of what activities they’d planned, Echo always seemed to be able to pull a sizable amount of money from his orange-slice purse. He’d gifted Morro a lime-colored version a week into their dates, and though he had nothing to put in it, he never left the house without it.
He had no idea where the copper nindroid had been getting all the money to fund their excursions. Frankly, it was beginning to freak him out. They’d spent more on their frivolous dates than Morro had collectively spent on himself throughout his entire existence. Which, frankly, was a small sum, but still .
His confusion was cleared when he’d caught Lloyd sneaking bills into Echo’s purse in the dead of night. The purse hung by its hook near the front door, and Lloyd’s eyes glinted in the dark like a feral cat caught in the middle of some unspeakable midnight mischief. Morro nodded to him, and he nodded back. They went on with their business.
When it was clear that snow would soon grace the mountains of Ninjago, they took the opportunity to hike along one of the trails Cole had recommended. A beautiful evergreen path, thin and winding, ferns and liverwort threatening to overtake it entirely. The coastline here stayed green year-round, despite the plummeting temperature.
They arrived in the morning, coastal mist still clinging to the fresh forest air. Streaks of sunlight bounced through the mist, dappling the forest floor in bright patches of light. Birds sang their morning songs in the towering branches of redwoods that reached up into the distant haze of the morning sky, larger than life. Which of them had been here when last he wandered Ninjago? How small had these giants been when he was alive? Was it possible for any to be older than Wu himself?
Morro pulled up his pant leg and did one last check on the metal plates Zane and Nya had used to reinforce the healing crack along his leg bone. It wouldn’t do if the thing decided to give out in the middle of their hike. The cold air hurt, but the peaceful air of the forest was already worth every ache.
Morro shook his head and covered his leg, pulling out the tiny map that Cole had drawn for them, chicken scratch on scrap paper.
“He said it wasn’t too hard of a climb, but this map is shit . Fuck, it might get us more lost than we’d get without it,” Morro mumbled, looking between the forest trail and the map.
“Jay fixed my internal compass. I’m sure it’ll be fine!” Echo said, tugging him up the path, “Come on!”
Echo pulled him up the trail, sprinting up to the first fork in the path, and dashing to the left without much hesitation. His honeybee-patterned rainboots splashed through puddles and mud. Morro’s own worn combat boots, once Nya’s, hopped over every puddle. He twisted away from a particularly large splash that Echo sent in his wake.
“Hey, can you slow down? You’re kicking up a lot of uh, muck.”
Echo’s pace slowed, and he came to a halt along the path, turning around with an awkward smile across his face. “Apologies! I got a little excited. It’s just… I’ve never seen trees this big! And so many! The trees around the temple are nothing compared to this ,” He brought his arms up and spun around to emphasize his point.
Morro nodded, “Yeah, they’re really something, huh? I haven’t seen these woods since I was a kid. Usually, you remember things being bigger when you were young, but I think this is an exception,” He looked up to the distant peaks of branches, swaying in the sky. “My memory couldn’t do it justice.”
“You’ve been here before?” Echo tilted his head, and turned to continue up the trail.
“Yeah, I wandered around a lot after I uh…” He grimaced, “ran away from home. Thought I’d find something I was looking for out here. I didn’t.”
He stopped along the trail, his sight catching on a tangled mess of a raspberry bush, choking the creekside on the slope below them.
“Hold on one second,” He said, sliding down the slope, away from the trail.
“Oh! Alright!”
He ground his boots to a halt just before the thorny brush, grabbing onto the mature fronds of a particularly large fern for support. The plant didn’t protest and held his weight as he leaned forward against the slope to pluck handfuls of fresh leaves from the raspberry bush. Being so light had its perks, after all. He tucked the leaves away in a little cloth satchel and made his way back up the slope to the trail.
“I thought berries were typically summer plants,” Echo mused.
“Nah, just needed the leaves. Speaking of which…” Morro jumped up to grab a pine branch that hung low over the trail, stripping the needles from it and adding them to his pouch.
They continued down the trail well into the afternoon. The mist slowly ebbed away, and the animals awoke from their slumbers. Tree squirrels scurried through the bushes, crows cawed from the branches, inspecting the hiking duo, and bees emerged from their hives, basking in the kiss of sunlight and pollinating the silver-flowered shrubs along the path, buzzing merrily.
Morro continued his plant gathering as they went, grabbing little sprigs of herbs and winter berries. He cut a chicken of the woods from a rotting log, bagging it and slotting it carefully into his pack between the canisters of water and fuel they’d brought for Echo.
“That doesn’t look like a plant…” Echo furrowed his brow, tapping a remaining fruit with a cautious finger and watching the fungus bounce slightly.
“It’s a mushroom. A good one too. They’re edible,” Morro said, gathering more with the foraging knife he’d stolen from Cole’s pack.
It had been lent to him, but pretending he stole it made everything easier.
“You seem to know a lot about plants,” Echo said, voice trailing off with naked curiosity.
“This one’s a fungus. But, yeah I spent a lot of time out in the wild,” Morro shrugged, “When you’ve got a human body to feed, you’ve gotta know this stuff. Even before I… ran away… I was a pretty decent forager. Wu’s tea addiction and all, you know?”
“Oh! I see.”
“I think I see a clearing ahead if you want to take a break and draw. Your fingers are twitching. It’s pretty obvious you want to make some sketches,” Morro said, adding the last of the mushroom to his pack and throwing it over his shoulder.
They made their way up the trail, climbing up atop a massive boulder that overlooked the never-ending sea of green and pulling out their things. Echo’s sketchbook was out in a flash, etching the rough shape of the verdant landscape, taking precise notes in the margins about the angles and colors of light that broke through the canopy of trees. He felt the way the calm, coastal breeze flowed around them as he watched Echo draw, lost deep in concentration. Morro brushed some stray hairs from his face and reached into his pack, pulling out a canteen as if it were a lit bomb and extending it towards Echo.
“Don’t wanna interrupt your process, but you’re probably running low, Sunshine.”
Echo stilled his drawing and pulled up his polka-dot shirt, opening his chest compartment and craning his head to check his pressure gauge, the needle precariously low.
“Oh! You’re right,” Echo grabbed the canteen from Morro’s careful grip and filled his boiler compartment before shutting the compartment and pulling his shirt back down.
“Too excited about the art, huh?”
“Of course I am!” Echo cried, “just look at the view!”
Morro chuckled, “The view’s great and all, but you need to take better care of yourself. All the pretty places in the world are no good if you’re not alive to see them.”
“I’ll take better care of myself when you do first! So there! We are at an impasse!” Echo flickered his hologram back on just to stick out a tongue at him, and Morro broke into cackling laughter.
The first snow of the year was a lovely one, calm and quiet under the moonlight. When dawn broke, Kai made half-burnt pancakes while the rest of the family built snow sculptures in the courtyard. Jay had been horrified to discover that neither Morro nor Echo had ever made a snowman, and rambled on in great detail about all the best techniques. He insisted he’d taken Best in Snow five times at the Ninjago Mother-Son Snowman Contest.
He thought Echo’s snowdroid turned out better than Jay’s snowman, but he was definitely biased.
They were certainly both better than the monstrosity of a snowbird he’d sculpted himself. The damn thing looked like something out of the cursed realm. Echo called it “cute”, but he was pretty sure finches weren’t supposed to look so… vile.
Zane had taken to spending his spare time out in the garden, sitting in the snow, enjoying the scenery as the surrounding forest was cast in an icy glaze. He happily conversed with some unseen person for hours at a time. Cole would occasionally bundle up, bring his sticker-encrusted CD player outside, and sit with them.
Wu avoided him. He spent day and night cooped up in the library his students had finally unpacked and reshelved. The ninja would bring him meals, and check in with him, but Morro knew that disrupting him would be of little use. The old man could take all the time he needed.
He understood well enough just how old his father figure was, and how, to him, days could pass by like minutes without his notice. For someone over one thousand years old, Wu’s perception of time was understandable. He took a long time to think through things and heal. At least, in his undead body, he didn’t have to worry about dying of old age before Wu was ready to speak to him. A few months were nothing to either of them.
They had time. He’d waited for this long enough. He could wait a while longer. He could fix this.
He needed to fix this.
Lloyd had been avoiding Wu in turn. He’d stand outside the library door, staring at the handle and worrying his bottom lip with his fangs. As far as Morro knew, the kid hadn’t spoken a word to his uncle about their inhuman natures. He suspected the kid was waiting for the same thing he was.
Without the need to sleep, and with his leg injury, he found himself with a lot of extra time. He’d torn through Electrical Engineering for Dummies in days and asked Cole for another. He finished Robotics and You in half the time. Soon, he’d taken to hovering around the lab while Nya worked, ignoring the way her eyebrow twitched when he leaned in too close to observe her craft.
For something he’d once considered fantastical future tech, everything about it just… clicked in his mind in a way few things did. Circuitry design mesmerized him the most. It was as if some strange fixation had been awoken in him. Everything clicked, he couldn’t get enough of the stuff.
The only thing holding him back was an audiobook he’d smuggled out of one of Jay’s accounts: Programming for Pros . There were so many words . It wasn’t as simple as logic gates and mechanics when it involved actual writing .
Maybe he should actually practice reading. Ugh.
Jay forgot his favorite mug in the workshop a few months later and screeched when caught Morro hunched over a homemade mech leg in the middling hours of the night, illuminated by the light of a blowtorch.
Apparently, his aptitude for this stuff wasn’t… normal.
Though his new hobby seemed to unnerve Jay, Nya was happy enough to take him under her wing, ranting for hours about the specifics of her mechs and showing him how various tools in the workshop functioned.
A large, overstuffed letter arrived from some Dareth guy, who apparently referred to himself as the brown ninja . The Master of Nature, perhaps?
The confetti from opening his New Year’s party invitation had been a pain to clean up. They were still pulling pieces from between the floorboards a week later as they prepared to leave for the event.
The fracture in his leg had blessedly fused together enough at that point, and he no longer needed the metal plates they’d used to reinforce his bones. The fracture on his rib was much the same, only slivers of eerie green glow leaving any indication that he’d been injured in the first place. He’d been beyond relieved when they’d noticed the bones healing themselves. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to worry about completely losing a limb from falling out of a tree in the future.
“Glad my useless leg decided it was good enough to heal, finally ,” Morro rolled his eyes and hunched over his newest metalworking project. “Not sure how that works but I’m not complaining.”
“Of course it was gonna heal,” Lloyd scoffed, “Why wouldn’t it?”
“I’m dead, kid. I’m made of bones.”
“Well, back at Darkley’s we’d push our teachers down the stairs all the time, and their bones always healed.”
Morro paused his welding for a moment, shaking his head, “Not everyone went to a school with Skulkin staff, Tiny.”
“Oh… right,” Lloyd scratched the back of his head, “I guess that wouldn’t be common knowledge.”
Morro snorted.
“Anyways, what are you still doing in the workshop? We’ve got that party tonight, remember ?” Lloyd asked.
“I don’t even know the guy. You’re sure you want me to tag along?” Morro asked over the crackling sparks of the welding torch, “Wouldn’t it be bad luck for an undead to show up at a New Year’s party, of all things?”
“We’re not just gonna leave you here alone on the first day of the new year. That’s just… sad,” Lloyd said.
“Don’t look at the light.”
“I’m not ,” Lloyd whined, “Now even you’re treating me like a baby. What has the world come to?”
“You are a baby.”
“Fuck you.”
Morro barked a laugh and turned off the torch, flicking the welding mask to his forehead.
“Zane told you not to use the hologram while you’re in the lab.”
“Zane’s not my mom,” Morro stuck out a holographic tongue at the kid.
“Oh, I’m sorry, who’s the baby here?”
Morro huffed a laugh, “I’ll go get dressed. Just don’t expect anything fancy.”
He chucked his tools back into the tool chest and slunk upstairs to change.
“You better not wear any black!” Lloyd shouted from downstairs, “And no ripped jeans! You’re gonna jinx us all!”
“Guess I’ll just go naked!” Morro cackled over his shoulder, relishing in his cousin’s frustrated cry.
He changed into a plain red shirt swiped from Echo’s collection. It stood out in the dresser atop all of his other shirts. A pristine red square sitting innocuously against a wild cotton-candy rainbow of patterns and textures. Knowing Echo, he’d planted it for this exact situation.
Morro threw on his only pair of unripped jeans, black with large belts and pockets, decorative zippers, and chains. He did a quick check in the mirror, turning off his hologram for a moment to check that the eyeliner on his skull had remained unsmudged. He undid his ponytail and tied it back into a high half-bun before turning the hologram back on. He eyed the reflection.
Lloyd would just have to compromise on the pants. He shrugged at himself and stomped down to the kitchen, pulling out a stack of little red boxes from behind Nya’s hulking box of fiber bars.
“You couldn’t have just hidden them in your room?” Lloyd asked, leaning around the doorframe and peering at the boxes. “There’s only seven.”
“Eighth one’s special,” Morro waved him off, “I’ll be out in a second.”
Lloyd raised an eyebrow but left.
He pulled together his gifts and found a human-looking Echo waiting in the foyer, dressed in a vibrant red sweater, embroidered with little golden hearts, his arms piled high with gift boxes. He must have managed to get Tai-D to leave the remnants of the confetti mess alone, as the little bot was now spinning around Echo’s feet, dressed to the nines in a little red bow tie.
“Happy new year, love!”
Morro took some of the gift boxes from his boyfriend’s pile, trying to lighten the load. “I thought we had to wait ‘til midnight to say it.”
Echo shrugged, beaming. The air around him vibrated with excess energy. Who could blame him? It was his first holiday, after all.
“Let’s go!” He chirped, “Everyone else is already on the ship. We shouldn’t keep Miss Nya waiting!”
They boarded the Destiny’s Bounty and took off towards the glittering skyline of New Ninjago City. Night fell as they approached. The shimmering glow of the skyscrapers grew more dazzling under the curtain of a moonless sky. It was as if the spiraling towers of glass had been dipped into glowing, molten gold. Fireworks popped and crackled over the harbor, every street awash in a scarlet glow of lanterns hanging from eaves and over streets. They were the veins of the city itself, warm and pulsing with red-blossomed life. He’d never seen anything like it.
Echo leaned in over the railing with Tai-D in his arms, staring wide-eyed at the transformation the city had undergone. Morro held the back of his sweater’s collar as he leaned precariously over the edge. Sure, if Echo fell it wouldn’t do much of anything, given that he weighed hundreds of times more than Morro’s skeletal body. It certainly made him feel better, though.
Nya docked the Bounty along the piers, children with firecrackers froze and gaped as the ship touched down, soaking them in a generous helping of seawater. Morro cackled as their sparklers doused, even as the salty spray misted his own cheeks.
Their destination wasn’t far from the shore, so he followed the ninja on foot through the crowds of chattering and smiling civilians, too preoccupied with their own merrymaking to notice the flock of celebrities when they weren’t dressed in their usual colors. He squeezed himself next to Echo and took his hand, scanning the crowd’s faces for any sign that he might be recognized.
“We’ve gone out before. No one’s going to notice,” Echo reassured him. Morro grimaced and kept a sharp eye on the crowds.
It was funny. The average citizen of Ninjago didn’t seem capable of recognizing him with a face that wasn’t green or transparent. He supposed it made sense. What kind of weirdo would suspect a random human walking down the street was actually the famous evil ghost freak that had tried to kill them all not long ago? Even if they saw the resemblance, the more reasonable conclusion was that he was a random citizen with an unfortunate resemblance to the totally dead villain.
Zane had once attempted to reassure him about the whole thing. He’d cited some facts about how seldom humans actually observe each other’s faces, and how putting on sunglasses and walking funny was enough to fool the average person into thinking you were someone else. Apparently, when hiding from the authorities in Stixx, a baseball hat had been enough for most people to overlook the titanium nindroid entirely .
None of that stopped him from worrying, but he was begging to wonder if he should be more concerned about the average Ninjago citizen’s facial recognition abilities than his being noticed.
They came to a stop beside a three-story wooden building, decorated with the familiar fixings of antique architecture and adorned in red lanterns so bountiful that he feared for its structural integrity. Old, twisting pines grew around the shape of the building, bending and bulging to compensate for the structure. The branches were adorned with golden string lights that corkscrewed around the branches, up past the rooftop. If the venue was any indication, maybe this Dareth guy really was the Master of Nature.
Their party walked up three flights of stairs, all the way to the top floor, passing other doorways swelling with the clamor of celebration all the way up the stairwell. Finally, they arrived at their door. Lloyd stepped forward first and slid it open.
The space was a wide open room with a balcony that overlooked the dazzling lights of the harbor. A large, polished table with a turntable at the center, circled by red-cushioned chairs. It was blanketed in twinkling string lights, punctuated by colorful dragon-shaped lanterns.
A man in a muddy brown jacket with gravity-defying hair twirled from his spot at the balcony, leaning casually against the railing and sending them a dimpled smirk as he sauntered towards them, “Welcome, ninja, to Sensei Dareth’s New Year’s Bash.”
Who was this guy? Morro fought to keep his face from cringing.
“Wow, Dareth! This is actually nice,” Nya said, surprise left unveiled.
“Better than last year, that’s for sure!” Kai said, slipping into one of the chairs and kicking back.
Cole set down the bags of gifts on a side table, adorned with a fancy vase and fresh plum blossoms, “Don’t say that yet. We haven’t even had the food!”
Dareth’s eyes landed on where Morro stood, still holding his boyfriend’s hand like a lifeline. Echo’s grip tightened at the sudden attention. “Oh-hoho! I see you brought some new friends back there! Where have you been hiding these guys, huh? Scoot over, Zane, let me get a good look at ‘em,” Dareth said, nearly tripping himself as he stood up from his “suave” lean against a chair.
Zane stepped aside, and Morro clenched his hand around Echo’s tighter.
“This is my brother, Echo, and his boyfriend, erm…” Zane trailed off, gesturing hand pausing on Morro as his eyes flooded with uncertainty.
Better to rip the bandage off early.
“Morro. My name’s Morro.”
The blood drained from Dareth’s face, and he wobbled on his feet. He grabbed a nearby chair to steady himself and put on a forced, terrified smile.
“The, ah, one I’m thinking of?”
“Yes.”
“Ha, right, okay. That’s normal. This can be normal,” Dareth leaned over to Cole, whispering loudly in his ear. “What in the name of the First Master have you been doing on that floating island of yours?!”
“Oh you know, the usual. Finding our enemy resurrected from the dead, dredging up secrets from alternate timelines, dealing with the fallout. The usual,” Jay released a sharp bout of laughter, settling into the chair beside Nya and her brother.
“It wasn’t that bad ,” Cole said, sitting down next to Dareth and leaning back in his chair. “Coulda been a resurrected Chen, or the Overlord or something. Morro’s probably the best outcome we could’ve hoped for.”
“Stop saying things like that, or it’s gonna happen next!” Jay shrieked.
“Pfft, as if,” Cole rolled his eyes.
“Anyone know when sensei’s supposed to get here?” Kai asked. “Will he even show up? He’s been so cagey since…” he looked at Morro, who repressed a flinch, “the thing happened.”
“He didn’t say,” Zane shook his head and sat beside Cole.
Lloyd took the seat next to Kai, “Just mentioned something about that old bookstore he likes. Knowing him, he’ll show up when…”
“When what?” A painfully familiar voice asked from behind Morro.
He startled and looked over his shoulder. Wu stood in the doorway, a forced smile on his wrinkled face.
“It’s wonderful to be with you. All of you,” He said, voice clipped and tired. He walked around the table and took the seat that faced the door, one spot away from his nephew, leaving two empty spaces between him and Zane. He patted the empty spot beside him.
“It would be a pleasure, to have my son sit beside me.”
Morro felt his soul retract in his marrow, eyes bouncing between the vacant seat and the father figure who had been avoiding him for well over a month. Slowly, he managed a nod and pulled a slightly reluctant Echo along with him into the empty chairs. Echo sat Tai-D down in his lap.
“Wait. W-wait wait wait! Wu has a kid?! You’re his kid ?!” Dareth asked, slumping into the chair he’d been using as a crutch. “I can’t keep up.”
“Adopted,” Morro added.
“And Zane has a brother? When did this happen? Did you adopt him too? Last time I checked, nindroids didn’t have human siblings,” Dareth frowned.
“Oh!” Echo flickered off his human disguise, revealing his copper face and glowing eyes, “I’m not human,” He turned the hologram back on.
Dareth’s eyes went even wider. More sweat bloomed across his brow, and for a sickening moment, Morro thought he’d say something rude about Echo’s appearance or tell Morro he needed to leave. Dareth opened his mouth…
“Wait. I ordered enough food for eleven people but only nine of you actually eat,” Dareth eyed the door, sweat glistening on his temple. “Maybe I should go and ask for a partial refund.”
Morro sagged with relief, tension easing.
“Oh, don’t you worry about the extra food,” Cole said, leaning forward and rubbing his hands together.
“Wait, Eleven?” Morro murmured to himself, eyeing the empty chair that sat between Lloyd and Wu. Who else was missing? Someone important enough to sit between the uncle and nephew…
The vague shape of an older woman flashed in his mind, bespectacled with a long silver braid.
Oh.
He cringed to himself and ducked his gaze from the empty seat, willing the familiar, yet alien abandonment to calm itself. Poor kid.
He looked back up at Lloyd. Thankfully, he didn’t seem too bothered by the empty space.
As if to interrupt his vestigial rumination, their food was brought up, and the mahogany table was piled high with bountiful and extravagant dishes.
Billowing clouds of flowery, umami fragrance bloomed from the turntable. Heaping piles of rice passed around in a flurry of clinking bowls and serving utensils. A massive prosperity salad twirled around the table as each of them tossed in a new ingredient, lettuce and quail egg and salmon and radish, mixing together into mouth-watering abundance. Fish and dumplings and towers of spring rolls carouselled the arrangement. Steamed pork belly glistened under the twinkling lights, golden shrimp crunching pleasantly.
Cole whispered loudly to Zane, “Come on man, run some kind of analysis on the pork belly! Use your super-eyes! Which one’s the best? I know you know.”
Zane smiled knowingly as the turntable carried the pork to Kai, who expertly snagged a specific cut of meat on its revolution.
“That one.”
“Noooo! Kai! Come on !”
“You snooze you lose, Rockhead!”
After making sure everyone had filled their own bowls, Morro began to grab a few pieces for himself. The hologram could make him look normal enough while eating, even if the food clipped through his lips at times.
“What does it taste like?” Echo asked, leaning over to inspect his spring roll.
He hummed, trying to think of a way to explain this one, “You know the sound that fresh lettuce makes when you snap it in half, and all the water sprays out? Picture that, but made with dried-up leaves sitting in the sun.”
“Ohhh,” Echo said, nodding.
“You guys are weird,” Jay said, stealing a dumpling from Nya’s plate. “You know, if you’d let me install those gustatory and olfactory sensors you wouldn’t have to make up weird metaphors every time we eat.”
“Maybe later,” Echo chirped, “I’m still not used to the full-body touch receptors.”
“Smelling isn’t always a good thing,” Zane added, “Have you ever been inside a perfume department ?” He spat the words as if they were a curse, shuddering.
“Ugh, yeah, you’ve got a point there,” Morro grimaced, “Wu had this one incense that would give me migraines all the time when I was a kid. I’d literally barf.”
“You never told me that,” Wu frowned, “If one of my incense was causing you illness–”
Morro waved him off, “It was your favorite, the clove one. Besides, blowing the smell away every night was good practice. What was I supposed to do, take that away from you? Nah, that’d be like banning Jay from coffee.”
Jay gasped at the mere insinuation.
Wu frowned and sipped his tea.
“So, uh, Morro,” Dareth said, leaning out of the way as Cole moved to grab more rice, “You’re looking… alive.”
He chuckled, “Oh yeah, I’m wearing one of those holograms too,” He leaned forward and shot the man his most wicked smile, “care to see what’s under it?”
Dareth tensed up, sweat coating his forehead in seconds, “Uh.”
Echo reprimanded him with an eye roll and a flick to the head as he cackled. “Don’t concern yourself, Mr. Dareth. He’s not scary.”
“Aw, you’re saying I’m losing my touch?” Morro nudged his boyfriend.
“You’d have needed a touch in the first place.”
Morro held a hand to his heart and fell back as if wounded. Echo giggled.
“Stop flirting at the table, it’s gross,” Kai whined.
“Is that what they call it?” Lloyd released an exaggerated gag, a tiny grin dimpling his cheek.
Stomachs were filled, drinks were had, and the table was cleared, save for a bowl of fresh oranges. The strange, extended family talked about everything and nothing well into the night, laughing at each other’s antics and sharing the warmth of familiar company. Dareth’s shoulders had relaxed somewhere around the second hour, and he could even bear to walk within five feet of Morro. He’d count that as a win.
Wu overlooked the whole affair in silence. He must have gone through five pots of tea throughout the whole banquet, and Morro once again found himself pondering whether he’d ever seen his sensei use the bathroom even once in his whole life.
True to his word, Cole had wolfed down any remaining food scraps long after the rest of the party had stuffed themselves. Morro could have sworn he saw the guy eating leftover shrimp tails and roughage of all things. He couldn’t really hold it against the guy. He’d be doing the same thing if he still needed to eat.
Uncooked noodles dusted with raw sugar had always been his favorite. He’d even called them “cookies”. Now that he’d had a taste of Zane’s baking, he could never go back.
“My internal clock says that it is now sixty seconds to midnight,” Zane chimed in over the excited buzz of the banquet.
“Oh sweet! Time for the best part!” Kai said, rushing over to the balcony.
“I dunno, I think we already did the best part,” Cole laughed, following his friend. “Woulda been better if I got that piece of pork.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It was life-changing ,” Kai smirked.
Cole let out a frustrated cry as the rest of the party squeezed in around them on the balcony. Morro found a spot beside Zane and Echo but was crunched in by the weight of warm bodies around him, clamoring for a spot. Zane held Tai-D out over the railing to give the little bot a good view.
He looked over his shoulder. Wu stood far behind them and watched with a quiet smile as he cradled a cup of tea in his hands.
The night air was chilly, but the cold didn’t seem to bother him much these days, aside from the occasional aches along the lines where his bones had fractured. Parades of lion dancers filled the sprawling port square, drum beats reverberating through Morro’s ribcage like his very own heart. Ships decorated with lights shimmered across the water on the horizon as the ocean rippled and swayed. Children screeched in excitement and scrambled onto their parent’s backs.
One by one, civilians below them stopped what they were doing to stare at the sky in anticipation, hooting and laughing. Some held up phones to record the show.
The people of the city counted down from ten in an ear-splitting chorus, the ninja around him joining in, voices growing tighter with anticipation as each number passed. Morro relished the overpowering feeling of anticipation as he counted along under his breath.
“Three, Two, One!”
A whistling rocket. Popping galaxies of gold glitter filled the night sky, reflecting over the harbor’s crests and glinting waves. People cheered and whistled, music filled the streets between the punctuated pop of fireworks.
“Happy New Year!”
Echo grabbed him and his brother and held them close, beaming as he cheered with the crowds. Nya pulled Jay into a dip and landed a kiss on his lips. Kai ripped handfuls of sparklers from his jacket pockets and set them alight all at once, bellowing with a triumphant howl as Cole shielded his eyes from the blinding light. Dareth started dancing. At least, that’s what Morro thought he was doing.
His own trio had fallen quiet, gazing up at the sky as if the great weight of the last year had been lifted from their shoulders. Zane had a wide smile on his face. Echo, awestruck and silent, watched each of the fireworks explode with absolute rapture in his eyes.
He couldn’t recall when he’d last felt so alive . Even when he’d still been a creature of blood and warmth, nothing could compare to the way he felt at this moment, surrounded by sound and cheer. The fireworks popped and flickered and flew through the air, painting the curtain of night in a shower of gilded sparks.
He was whole. He was present .
The last of the fireworks drizzled from the sky as liquid stars, drifting towards the endless sea before finally dimming.
The clamor of the gift exchange erupted behind him as he stared out at the sea. He focused on the drums from the harbor that thrummed along his bones. The simple, pounding, organic sound resonated with him as the rest of the noise faded away into a gentle hum. He imagined taking a single, steadying breath as he leaned into Echo’s side, letting the wind flow through and around him in a comforting whisper. His fingers clenched around the banister, resolution flooding through him.
He could do this. This was it.
Morro left the nindroid brothers to exchange gifts as he crept over to the pile of gifts he’d accumulated. His was much smaller than those of the ninja, but hey, he did what he could with what he had. Internally thanking Lloyd for not asking if any of the gifts were stolen, he plucked a plump red envelope from the pile.
Wu stood at the head of the table, smiling and offering his gratitude as his students brought him their gifts one by one. Morro waited beside the wall, tapping the nerves from his foot as Lloyd hugged his uncle and offered his gift, falling into a conversation that seemed to go on forever . Eventually, the Green Bean left to receive a gift from his rabid guard dog of a brother, and Morro made his move.
He stepped up to his adoptive father, eyes on the floor and fingers fiddling over the length of the envelope. He stopped before him, stock-still. He heard Wu open his mouth to say something.
“Here,” Morro stuck the envelope out with both hands, eyes glued to his feet. “For you.”
He pretended not to notice the tremor in Wu’s hands as he took the packet.
“This is…” Wu breathed, disbelieving.
“You’re not supposed to open it yet.”
“But I can tell. It’s the same blend, isn’t it?” The old man said, voice quivering, “From when you were little.”
“I’ve been going on lots of hikes. Gathered and dried it myself,” Morro shrugged, “I know you like the fresh stuff.”
Wu pulled him into a tight hug, and Morro forced down the gut instinct to jerk himself away. Without an immediate reaction, he found his bones paralyzed by shock, arms suspended at his sides. Carefully, he found the strength to lift his quivering hands and return the embrace.
“I’m blessed to have you here, my son.”
“And I’m glad to be here,” Morro said as his voice trembled, “I’m sorry. For everything.”
“Oh hush,” Wu said, pulling him closer.
Eventually, they broke the embrace. Wu’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears. “If you ever wished to resume your training,” He spoke slowly, “There is a place for you on their team, I’m sure of it.”
Morro chuckled and shook his head, a wide smile pulling at his face. “Not interested. I’m sick of it. I think the wind is too,” He gazed out into the harbor, out to the crowds of happy people, and felt his smile soften, “I need something new.”
“I see,” Wu sighed, “I suppose that is your choice, but know that our dojo is always open to you.”
“‘Course.”
“You… will be staying with us, won’t you?” Wu asked.
Morro barked a clipped laugh, “What do you think I’ve been doing this whole time?” He shook his head, “I need to… atone for what I did. I can’t exactly make it up to everyone if I go running into the desert and hide in a hole.”
Wu’s eyes widened, forehead creasing with deep surprise. “You have changed, my boy.”
Morro’s chest bloomed with gentle warmth, “Thanks.”
Wu brushed his fingers through his beard at a speed that implied he was still worrying over something.
“What?”
Wu sighed, “I believe I have much change to go through myself. Even at my age, there is still room for improvement, no?”
Morro smiled and huffed a laugh, but couldn’t bring himself to verbally respond. Instead, he released his doubts, and all the crushing inhibitions, and pulled his father in for another hug.
“I’m sorry, son,” Wu said, almost too quiet to be heard.
Morro’s chest clenched, and he tightened the hug. There were still times when he couldn’t quite convince himself he wasn’t living in a dream. This was one of them.
“We’ll be okay,” Wu whispered, “we’ll be just fine.”
Morro nodded into his shoulder and pulled away. “Sorry, I’m not the most comfortable to hug.”
Wu scoffed, “The comfort does not reduce how much it means to me.”
A wave of embarrassment rushed over him, and he glanced back at the party, to where Echo was tearing open a gift as Zane chuckled behind him. Should he tell Wu about…
“Well, don't let this old man take up too much of your time,” Wu said, poking his side with a bamboo staff. “Go on, have fun.”
Morro glanced between the party and his adoptive father. He gave a small nod and wandered back over to his gifts. His mind reeled from the exchange, as though his head was floating away from his body. He snapped himself out of his daze and shuffled through the gifts.
One by one, he handed out presents to the rest of the ninja, an assortment of small things he’d thought they’d enjoy: A big bag of coffee grounds for Jay, partially to replace the ones he’d lost to the incident ; A particularly high-quality whetstone for Kai that he’d let the guy interpret however he wanted to; A thick scarf for Cole for his days out in the snow; An absolutely ridiculous cartoon penguin keychain for Zane that he just knew the guy would love; And a new set of wrenches for Nya after what he’d done to her last set. He cringed at the memory.
They’d all accepted their gifts with grace, and given him modest packages in return. It was more than he could have hoped for, really. Kai handing him gifts of any kind just felt wrong . He’d never received a gift from anyone other than Wu before, and he could barely keep himself from opening them right there, regardless of how rude he’d look. With much reluctance, he placed the gifts in a pile with the rest.
Now, he only had one more ninja to go.
He eyed the corner of the room, where Lloyd stood beside Dareth, rubbing his back. The man sobbed and clutched an oversized trophy engraved “ #1 Brown ”. He’d watched Jay engrave the monstrosity. The Master of Lightning had run out of space for the word “ ninja” and hadn’t had time to replace it. He’d worried over it, but Nya had simply rolled her eyes and told him Dareth wouldn’t care.
Looked like she was right.
He quietly approached Lloyd and tapped on his shoulder, gesturing to the other side of the room with his head. Green nodded and followed him to a more quiet corner that didn’t have a sobbing middle-aged man in it.
“This is for you,” Morro said, holding out his gift. It was a simple rectangular box, wrapped in red. From the golden ribbon, a little origami dragon dangled, Lloyd’s name carefully spelled across its spine.
“You really didn’t have to.”
“What was I gonna do, not give something to my baby cousin?” Morro said, letting the snark ooze from his voice, “What am I, some kind of monster?”
“No, it’s just…”
“Just what?”
“Is this your first New Year? I can’t remember you celebrating,” Lloyd admitted.
“Of course I celebrated. Nothing like this , though. Usually a quiet meal with Wu. I’d give him tea, and he’d give me some spending money. Your dad came over once… It was nothing fancy,” He shrugged. “It’s not like I remember you celebrating either. Unless you count that glasses kid setting firecrackers off in your bed.”
“We don’t need to talk about that!” Lloyd babbled, checking if anyone had overheard.
“I’m also recalling vague memories of a certain someone getting their revenge by releasing thousands of crickets into a dorm room…”
“Shut uuuuup,” Lloyd groaned, head in his hands.
“You know, I’m pretty sure we’re both functionally immortal. You’re gonna have to put up with me forever, now.”
“I’m going to dump spiders in your dresser, Morro. I’ll make sure they’re all carrying eggs. I swear I’ll do it.”
“Love to see you try, loser,” Morro reached out and roughly ruffled his hair before he could think better of it. He froze and retracted his hand. “Sorry.”
Lloyd looked at him wide-eyed, before shaking his head and giving him a sharklike grin, “Spi-ders.”
Morro relaxed and rolled his eyes, “You could do that to me, sure. But what about Echo? We share a room.”
“He’d probably befriend all the spiders and give them names.”
“Shit, you’re right.”
Lloyd laughed, pointed teeth on full display. He froze and sniffed the air, eyebrows furrowing. He raised the gift to his nose and his pupils widened, black enveloping his green irises until only a sliver of emerald remained.
“No fucking way.”
Morro smirked, leaning in, “I had a feeling you’d like them.”
“How?! They stopped making these years ago ! I haven’t had one since I was still stealing all my candy. How did you…”
Morro shrugged, “Some research, some sticky memories from an annoying bean sprout, and a lot of help from Zane. Found an old wrapper and took it to him for chemical analysis. All that junk.”
“You made them?” Lloyd eyed the package with his blown-out eyes. He looked ready to tear into the thing on the spot, traditions and manners be damned.
“The recipe’s in there too,” He added.
Lloyd shook his head in disbelief, “I changed my mind. No spiders for you.”
“Wow, no spider attack from the famed Green Ninja,” He held a hand to his empty chest, “I’m honored.”
Lloyd’s eyes snapped to him, “Don’t test me.”
Morro cackled.
“I uh, got something for you too,” Lloyd shuffled his feet and pulled out a tiny box from his pocket, “It’s nothing huge, just, you know. A thing.”
Morro took the gift from Lloyd’s hands as gently as physically possible, feeling his eyes widen. He looked down at the little box, unable to force an intelligible comment from his throat.
“Kid, this box could contain a bone-eating bacteria and I’d still be touched,” Morro shook his head, “You really didn’t have to.”
“Hey,” Lloyd shrugged, “It’s our first year as family, might as well try to start it off right.”
Morro had to stop looking at the little box before his hologram started crying.
Blessedly, a hawk screeched across the room, snapping their attention to where Echo chatted with his brother, watching Tai-D and Zane’s bird make indecipherable noises at each other and occasionally breaking into peals of laughter. When did the bird get there?
He sighed, willing a little breeze to circulate through his ribs as he gathered his courage.
“Time for that eighth gift,” He mumbled, looking back at his cousin. “Hey, just wanted you to know I’m about to do something really… important. Really dumb too, probably. Just. If you see anyone try to interrupt me and Echo… could you do me a favor and keep them away?”
“Why? Are you proposing or something?” Lloyd scrunched up his nose.
Morro balked, “What?! No, no it’s nothing like that.”
“...If you told me, I’d try to stop you, huh?”
“Probably.”
Lloyd groaned, rubbing between his eyes. “Fine, you won’t be interrupted.”
Morro patted his back, sure to put a little too much force into it, “Thanks kid. You’re my hero,” he took a step away before pausing and looking back at his exasperated cousin, “Happy New Year, Lloyd.”
“Yeah… you too,” He mumbled, frowning as his eyes flitted over to the chair that had remained empty all night.
Morro crossed the room to where his boyfriend stood, poised and gleeful, the atmosphere making him look even warmer than he usually did. The brothers’ conversation stilled as they noticed his approach. Echo clutched one last gift under his arm. His smile glittered.
“Can we talk?” Morro started, gesturing with his head. “On the balcony?”
“Of course!” Echo waved to his brother as they retreated from the cheerful din of the party, and into the open night air on the balcony.
The celebration on the street had calmed slightly, though lights still glowed and cheerful music still rang through the night air. He settled himself against the railing, crossing his arms and relishing the sea breeze that swept between his bones, whispering quiet assurances.
He spread the senses outward, savoring how the wind blessed every lantern with its touch and sent the glittering lights of every sparkler dancing in its own graceful rhythm. It brushed against the frame of the balcony, and swept around them both, ebbing and flowing and never still. He caressed the wind’s hand, and let it slide through the individual strands of his hair in a gesture of self-comfort, savoring it while he could. His oldest, dearest friend.
They both needed this. He knew that, in the depths of his heart. He knew.
Life was funny, wasn’t it? Had he told his past self what he was about to do, they’d have tried to strangle him. They’d scream, they’d call him an idiot and reel with horror. When that didn’t work they’d use their wind to punt him onto the surface of the moon for daring to be such a massive idiot. He rolled his eyes and smiled at the thought. What a drama queen.
Putting the thoughts of his past incarnations to rest, he looked out into the dark distance of the harbor, to see where the sky met the ocean and moved together in a dance far older than even the First Master. So much bigger than him, than any of them.
The wind took a deep breath for him, and he looked into his boyfriend’s eyes.
The conflict he’d been feeling must have shown on his hologram’s face. Echo was looking at him with open concern, frowning, but waiting patiently for him to speak first.
Echo’s trusting face sent another wave of doubt roiling through him. Could he really do this? What if it was too much? What if he’d read the situation wrong? Echo would understand. Fuck, he probably already knew what Morro was about to ask him. Sure, he’d tried to hide it, but nothing ever seemed to get past the android.
No, he could do this. This would be best for all three of them.
Morro placed a hand over Echo’s, letting his sense of resolve take over. He’d already thought this through. This was right, more right than he’d been in a very long time.
“Echo,” He began, trying to keep the nervous tremor from his voice, “I have a gift for you, but I need your permission first,” He started, keeping his voice as soft as he could.
Echo’s eyebrows furrowed further, and he nodded slowly. “Of course… but what–”
“I need you to know that you don’t have to accept it,” Morro blurted out, stumbling over his boyfriend’s unspoken question, “but I’d like you to hear me out… Usually, you’re not supposed to open gifts until later, but this one’s… a special case.”
Echo blinked owlishly at him, tilting his head, “What do you mean?”
“If you’ll allow it,” Morro took a deep, unnecessary breath and relished the way the air flowed between his ribs, and then stilled in anticipation, every particle hovering around him as if the world had held its breath, waiting for the words it had longed to hear for so long.
“Echo, I’d like for you to take my wind.”
“What?!” Echo jolted upright, alarm lighting his face. He retracted his hand, holding it to his chest as steam began puffing out from beneath his hologram, causing it to flicker around the disruptions.
Morro flinched back, “I could have phrased that better,” he shook his head in an attempt to recenter himself.
“What? I didn’t… you never gave any indication…” Echo, for once in all the time he’d known him, seemed genuinely surprised by something.
Had he really not noticed? He way he’d sent little breezes Echo’s way on their outings as if to test the waters. Whispering to the wind, long conversations in the night over sessions of origami-crafting, making sure he was right . The wind had clung to Echo like a protective friend, refusing to ruffle the papers of his sketchbook, keeping the bouts of excited steam away from his eyes, rolling a dropped pencil back towards him. The wind had done it all and more. It loved Echo as much as he did.
Morro smiled at his boyfriend, “It’s okay, really. I’ve had a long time to think about this. The wind and I… we were always meant to move. I’ve denied us both that for far too long,” He whispered to the wind, and plucked needles from the pine trees that arched above them, swirling them around in his palm. “I wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t brought me back. It gave me another chance, another life to save us both… it’s only right for me to return the favor.”
“But you love the wind! Your powers are a part of you. I couldn’t take that away!” Echo shook his head.
Morro hummed, his boyfriend’s concern tugging his mouth into a bittersweet smile. “You wouldn’t be taking them away, Echo. It’s a gift,” He laughed quietly, “I see the way you look at your brother when he uses his powers. This just… feels right. I don’t think there’s anyone better suited to the wind than you.”
Echo stammered, bringing a hand up to his chin, tapping nervously as he glanced towards Zane, laughing at some odd dance Cole and Jay were doing. He hummed.
“I need to move on,” Morro added, “I’m tired of the fighting, and the violence. I’ve let the wind define me my whole life. Need fresh start, to be honest,” Morro scoffed at himself, “Look at me, selfish even when I’m gift-giving.”
Echo looked out to the harbor, furrowed eyes darting about. His hand stilled on his chin as he tilted his head and fell into a look of deep contemplation.
The hesitation was something he’d expected, but that didn’t make him any less nervous about it at the moment. This was a big decision, for both of them. He’d give Echo as much time as he needed. The way things were going, he was fairly certain that his boyfriend would receive his powers anyways, in the event of his death. He cringed internally and banished the thought from his head. None of that. Kai hadn’t made a cremation joke in at least a whole week.
Morro rested a hand on Echo’s. “Like I said, Sunshine, you don’t have to–”
Echo shushed him, and pulled him away from the railing. Morro raised an eyebrow, but let his boyfriend grip his shoulders, eyes on the ground as if ensuring he was situated in the perfect place. After a step backward, a quick full-body glance, and a nod, Echo began to stalk around him. He looped around, over and over, eyes never leaving him as he stepped across the balcony in a calculated clockwise motion. Morro realized what his boyfriend was doing and barked a laugh, holding out his arms for better observation and smiling.
“Yep, get a good look,” Morro said, but paused, glancing back into the dining room, “Do you need me to turn off the hologram?”
Echo shook his head, “That’s quite alright. Now, hush.”
Morro snorted and complied.
Echo continued on like that, pacing around him again and again with a deep look of pensive apprehension riddling his gaze. He was already expressive without the hologram, but his human face made his focused thought process all the more intense .
Echo’s feet stilled against the wooden boards of the balcony, the creaking of the boards growing quiet. He looked back up at Morro’s face. Even through the disguise, his eyes brightened, honey light spilling from his human eyes. His back straightened, and he faced Morro fully.
Morro lowered his arms, fiddling with the tips of his fingerbones as he waited for Echo’s prognosis. The wind stilled once more as if to quiet the rest of the world so it could listen .
Echo approached him, and looked directly into his eyes.
“I want to,” He decided with a firm nod.
Morro’s chest ached and stirred. He stepped forward hesitantly.
“You’re sure?”
“Of course,” Echo said, before pausing, his face pulling into a frown, “It would have been nice to see you summon your dragon, though. I truly did want to see what a dragon made of wind would look like…”
Morro huffed out a laugh and smirked, “Pretty sure I could, but I guess if you wanna see that wind dragon, you’re gonna have to summon it yourself.”
Echo shoved him playfully, “That’s so mean!”
Morro looked back to the dining room, where Lloyd’s family sat around the table, hooting and eating fresh oranges over some complicated board game Zane must have smuggled into the party. The titanium nindroid watched with obvious shock across his face as Tai-D played a single card, causing everyone to scream and groan.
“How?! How are you so good at this?!” Kai cried.
Jay shook his head, face pale, “They're beating Zane. Someone pinch me and wake me up.”
The little robot made a few indecipherable beeping noises and placed some tokens on the board, before pinching Jay for good measure, earning a yelp from the Lightning Ninja.
Morro snorted at the bemusing sight and smiled.
“It’s not like the ninja and I won’t be there to help you figure it out,” He grinned, gesturing loosely to the mess in the banquet hall. “Plus, I’m sure we’ll be making lots more origami in the future.”
Echo gave a small smile and leaned into him, moving around his arm to rest his head upon the crook of his neck. The warm, lanterns twinkled behind him, dazzling him in a golden halo of light as he looked out at the harbor.
“I’d like that.”
They silently observed the festivities together. Gaggles of children chased each other with sparklers and couples walked through crowds hand in hand, careful not to lose sight of each other through the noise of celebration. Old folks enjoyed reunions with their children and grandchildren, hongbao exchanging hangs, tight hugs, and joyous greetings. A stray cat was fed generous servings of fish by a stall vendor who cooed over it, scratching behind its ears. All of it lit in the brilliant red-gold glow of the city and adorned with the heavenly scent of street food.
The sky above all the sound and light was empty, cloudless, and vast. Boundless beyond comprehension. An empty canvas begging to be painted.
All it needed was its artist.
“How do we do it?” Echo asked, voice soft and calm.
Morro’s thoughts stilled, and he felt his cheekbones flush with embarrassment. The emotion was no doubt mirrored across his disguised face.
“... I, uh, have no idea.”
Echo’s laugh chimed like a crystalline bell. “Perhaps it’s like the exchange of any other gift.”
He spun and took Morro’s hands in his own, one at a time. Bone and metal meet beneath holographic flesh, cold and warm all at once. Echo rubbed a thumb over the back of his own and looked up at him, smiling with silent invitation.
Morro refocused on his own hands, and shut out his senses, letting the world blur and quiet into a meditative haze. He searched in the depths of his being for a flicker, a shred of what he was looking for.
He let the quiet take over his mind and grasped in the dark. Slowly, the outline of his soul glinted on the edge of his perception. He focused on it, allowing the sensation to fill out the shape of his existence, a glowing mist of aura, branching from one source like lightning from a stormcloud. There, at the core of his chest was an opalescent ball, tangled together with endless threads that individually held the shape of the sky in their wire-thin widths. He reached out with his inner being, and envisioned his soul one strand at a time, twisting with the wind in its eternal dance. A whirlwind, entrapped within his ribs for far longer than it ever should have been.
Slowly, he cradled the whirling tempest, the little swirling ball of pure movement and breath deep within his bones. He urged them forward, reassuring and patient. The strands of pure, unfettered motion and infinite space carried themselves along the length of his humerus, through the branching bones of his radius and ulna.
He ran the soft wind along his carpals as a gale along a rocky mountain path, and down to the tips of his fingers, where the air flowed from him, and into the hands that gently supported his own.
A deep, yawning relief filled the void, almost instantaneously, and Morro nearly crumpled from the feeling.
It was him, alone. Deep down, he’d feared that without the wind, he would cease to be entirely, nothing but a shell of his former self. But here he was, still standing against everything that had been thrown at him. The shape of his soul, pressed against the ever-churning mechanisms of a doomed destiny that had denied him this peace for far too long.
The wind had moved on. He existed without it, despite the whispers of doubt that had plagued him his entire life. None of them were true. He wasn’t just the wind. He was himself. He was finally himself.
He was at peace, and now, so was his oldest companion, finally moving; truly moving after decades trapped within the very antithesis of its being. A bird uncaged, returning to the sky.
Echo gave a small gasp, his eyes flashing with an overpowering yellow light through the surface of his hologram. His hands tightened around Morro’s.
Morro listened.
For the first time in his memory, the air didn’t speak to him. The lanterns swayed, the tree branches fluttered, the ships kept sailing in the harbor, and the world continued to move, in all its vibrant color and life.
But the wind whispered nothing at all.
He let the tension drip from his shoulders and pulled Echo close.
“I can hear it…” Echo whispered, “it’s beautiful.”
“And now it’s yours,” He said, pulling himself into Echo’s shoulder and resting his head against the warm metal. He took in the sedate huff of steam on his cheek, mind reeling at the quiet of the world around him.
Sounds, beautiful sounds, carried by air, delighted his senses. The ninja laughed from the dining room. Music, bright and happy, danced through the night. People sang and cried. The flapping of bird wings echoed across the endless city rooftops. Echo’s steam hissed within his chassis, and Morro pulled him closer, relishing in the sounds of movement and life in the dead of this moonless night.
He never needed the wind. He never needed power . How could he, when he had everything he could ever want, right here?