Chapter Text
His body wasn’t obeying him. He’d been here before, a little more than a year ago, but this felt different. Instead of the cause being him growing in an instant (which had hurt) and his center of balance shifting and keeping him from the perfect control he needed, he was a prisoner. The other-worldly presence that was holding Lloyd down had complete control, and Lloyd couldn’t fight back. He didn’t even know how to fight back.
It didn’t help that the power the presence—Morro. He called himself Morro—brought felt terrifyingly like the black fire Kai had commanded when he’d killed Chen. It was dark, black, burning with cold rage. Lloyd couldn’t feel a hint of light in the ghost, and that hurt more than anything.
Being possessed was like being chained. Lloyd couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t hope to find a way out of this mess. He had a strange, sort of passive perception of what was going on around him, and he could hear outside of himself.
What he heard made him want to vomit.
This ghost was using Lloyd’s body to hurt people. Morro had used the Allied Armor to summon more ghosts to Ninjago, probably also from the Cursed Realm. The plan was to find the First Spinjitsu Master’s tomb, loot the Realm Crystal, and release the powerful, starving, sentient part of the realm on Ninjago. To do that, they needed a specific relic that Morro hadn’t shared with Lloyd yet.
Lloyd had to stop them. He had to find a way to fight back.
Morro’s voice laughed right next to Lloyd’s ear. “Good luck with that, Chosen One,” he sneered.
Lloyd closed his eyes to the darkness, feeling the winds around them as Morro used Lloyd’s elemental dragon to take them somewhere.
“Where are we going?” He tried.
Morro huffed, the impression of a sly grin filling Lloyd’s mind. “You will see.”
Lloyd grumbled, but he knew he wasn’t going to get anything out of the ghost, no matter how he pestered. And he really wanted to pester.
“What do you have against me, anyway?” Lloyd asked.
Morro growled. “You have what was supposed to be mine.” He said it so simply, so honestly, with so much hate in his voice, Lloyd wanted to curl up and hide. Morro actually believed that; Lloyd could feel it. The dark power of his wind wrapped around him, horribly, brutally honest.
But Lloyd knew that wasn’t how destiny worked. He hadn’t wanted to be the Green Ninja, but when Chen had taken his element from him, he’d felt something he’d always had vanish. It didn’t matter what Wu had thought, or Garmadon or Lloyd’s mom. Lloyd had always been the Master of Power (or Energy, or whatever the hell it actually was). That meant he had always been the Green Ninja.
“You don’t know shit,” Morro shot off. “Now shut up about it.”
“How about you shut up?” Lloyd fired back. “And keep out of my thoughts, you pathetic mop bucket in desperate need of a live wire to put you out of your misery.”
“I will tear everything you care about to the ground, you ignorant child.”
“Oh, I’m the child? I’m not the one trying to take something that was never supposed to be mine.”
“I am supposed to be the Green Ninja,” Morro growled, rage flooding off of him.
Lloyd sighed. Morro reminded him of Kai, back before the incident with Chen. Kai, in his efforts to remain hidden, had given the character he’d played a jealous trait. He’d hated that he wasn’t the Green Ninja, and he’d fought to achieve it until he’d realized that he was meant as a protector. Lloyd wasn’t completely sure how much of that situation had been a lie, but Kai kept his promise as much as he was able.
First Master, Lloyd missed his brother.
They landed near Wu’s new tea shop, in the space they’d built for training in the back. Lloyd was forced to watch as Morro wiped out Cole, Zane, and Jay by throwing them around with the wind. Jay tried to fight him with spinjitsu, but Morro just used the wind to redirect the tornado. When Cole tried the same move, Morro interrupted it with a burst of a stronger gale. Zane went down when he was thrown against the wall. The moment they were down, he sauntered through the front door like he owned the place.
Misako’s eyes widened. “Morro-”
That rage burned a little hotter. “Where’s Wu?” Morro demanded, his voice growling out past Lloyd’s lips. It felt… weird. Really weird.
Misako’s eyes flickered to look over their shoulder, and Morro fell for it. He turned to the door and immediately had to dodge a ball of fire that flickered gold.
Lloyd’s breathing picked up. “Kai!” He tried calling out. They’d gotten him out!
Morro grinned viciously. “The magician,” he greeted as their vision cleared. Kai looked furious, his eyes narrowed, golden fire flickering across his clenched fists. He was in a red gi, black and gold fire embroidered on either side, and Wu was right behind him.
“Master Wu,” Morro said, his voice filled with derision and disgust.
“Let him go,” Kai said, his voice level, his gaze burning. “Now.”
Morro spread his arms out. “And why would I do that? I saw the gold in your fire, magician. You can only wield creation. Besides, you could never hurt your precious chosen one.”
Kai’s scar twisted as he grimaced. Lloyd could tell that no matter how things turned out, Kai was definitely going to be pulling his punches.
Lloyd wanted to tell him—beg him—not to hold back. Lloyd could take it, and Morro needed to get his ass handed to him.
Kai, of course, couldn’t hear his pleas. He launched himself at Morro, fist flying, but Morro managed to dodge. He threw Kai back, but the fire ninja pulled himself back to his feet. He stepped forward again, magic churning through the air as he started muttering a spell. He didn’t get a chance to finish it, though, because Morro threw a shelf at him.
Lloyd almost sobbed when Kai went down.
“Morro,” Wu commanded, spinning his staff. “Stand down.”
Morro sneered. “You’re weak, old man.”
He called his element, the heavy, black power spinning through him and into the store around them. It picked up papers and books, cups, teapots, all twisting and churning around the room supported by Morro’s destructive wind. He sent the mini-tornado directly at Wu, and that was when Lloyd saw it. A spark, a tiny flicker of hope. It was there for barely an instant, and then, as soon as Wu managed to dodge the torrent of items, gone.
But Lloyd had seen gold in the vast pit of darkness.