Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first thing Morro noticed was that the ground was cold. Like, really, fucking cold. Like shitty diner ice cold.
Which was weird. Not the shitty part, Morro’s whole life was shitty, but the cold part. When you’re dead you normally don’t feel things. Other than self-loathing and regret, you’re pretty numb.
And Morro would know that, because he’s been dead since before being dead was cool. Since he was 15, actually. Never even got to have a proper emo phase.
Tragic, isn’t it?
But back to the floor. It was really cold, but it was solid too. It wasn’t like the mushy ground in the Cursed Realm, it was like something solid, like the floors in the monastery.
Morro breathed wrong. Wait-fuck-how the hell do you breath wrong if you don’t breathe?
It hit Morro like a train he jumped infront of.
He was alive.
Again.
For the third or fourth time. It was like the FSM couldn’t decide if he wanted Morro dead or not.
“If you don’t get up I will kick you so hard your parents will feel it.” The voice was sharp, female, and familiar, but Morro was too lazy to place it.
Morro muttered, “I don’t have those and neither do you.”
The reaction was violent and immediate.
She kicked him so hard in the ribs he thought he was genuinely going to throw up all the nonexistent food he never ate.
“Don’t fucking say that to me, dirt bag.”
Wheezing, Morro pulled himself up and opened his eyes. For a second he was completely and utterly stunned by the overwhelming brightness of the living world, before the pain in his rib brought him back to earth.
“What the hell, dude?” He groaned before looking up at his attacker.
She had lipstick(???) smeared across her eyes and forehead, and her long hair was white. She looked his age, so he doubted it was from age, but based on her ratty and torn black-purple gi, he didn’t think she could afford a wig.
“Don’t insult my parents.”
Morro bit back his sour reply and focused on getting up and relearning how to breathe. Relearning how to walk infront of some one you don’t know was a humbling experience, but a quick one, nonetheless. Once he could successfully do both of those things and he was less overwhelmed by the bombardment of senses, he turned to the girl.
He recognized her the second his brain turned on, which, to no one’s surprise, took far too long.
“ Harumi.” Morro said the word like he was trying out speech, like he was testing his new vocal cords.
“Ghost.” She responded, staring level and emotionless back. The only hint that she felt anything was the slight curiosity in her features. In the silence between them Morro glanced around, taking in their surroundings. It looked like modernized Ninjago City, but there was a dark tint to everything. And there were statues.
Statues of humans screaming.
They were silent, of course, but Morro could sense their terror. Their screams were just an octave higher. Just barely out of reach.
There was something else missing, Morro just couldn’t place it.
The black-purple fog seemed to clear, just slightly, and Morro turned back to Harumi. “Morro. Grandson of the FSM.”
She tilted her head in a cruel way, a knife-like smile splitting her pretty face.
“Lloyd told me about you. Said you were… Cruel. And had a tragic past. Never mentioned the FSM though. Strange. Wouldn’t that make you cousins?”
She had moved too close to Morro, and held her hand too close to his face.
He backed away, feeling like the same scared kid that had died all those lifetimes ago. He was missing something.
He couldn’t place it. What was he-
The wind.
Where was his wind?
He held an arm out, waiting for the familiar flutter that had stayed with him through life and death and possession and death again. He waited and waited, but it didn’t come.
He needed his wind. He needed his wind like he needed his anger.
Without his wind and his anger he really was just a scared, hungry kid.
He had promised himself never to become that kid again, but he couldn’t even keep a promise to himself. No wonder everyone seemed to break their promises to him when he couldn’t even keep one to himself.
“Morro.”
Morro flinched, he shouldn’t have, but Harumi sounded too much like The Mother. To much like her and her manipulation and her double truths and her lies.
“Morro.” She tried her voice softer, but it still sounded like The Mother. Morro could feel her tentacles, wrapping around his chest, around his mouth.
He couldn’t breathe.
But that meant he was alive and if he was alive-
He could stop obeying The Mother. He wanted to stay alive. He wanted to finally not fuck it up. He wanted to finally have one life he didn’t regret.
“Morro. Son of the FSM. What the fuck is happening with you?” It was enough to wake him up, to clear his head. He realized he was curled on the ground, hugging his knees like they would save him from screwing up again. Without a word he picked himself up, dusted off his filthy and ragged gi, and nodded at Harumi.
“I’m fine. He turned away and pretended not to hear Harumi’s, “Jeez, I guess Lloyd was right about the traumatic backstory, haven’t seen some one freak out like that since the Colossus…”
She went quiet.
A few minutes into walking through the dissipating fog Harumi asked, “ Where are we going?”
“ I don’t fucking know. I haven’t been to Ninjago City since I possessed Lloyd. And even then he was whining too much for me to absorb the scenery.”
“Never seen someone talk so casually about possessing a child.” Harumi muttered, “but whatever. I assume you don’t now what year it is?”
“Yeah, of course I do. Just ask the guy who was dead for fifty years to give you the date. Do you think I fucking know?”
Harumi stayed silent, and as they walked the last of the fog dispelled.
Something flashed nearby. Morro jump, silencing a scream. Harumi turned towards the flash, and her eyes lit up.
“Perfect.” She muttered, before running up to the bright screen. Morro followed her up to the screen, eyes widening. It was a map of the city, with directions to everywhere and a date in the bottom corner. August 21st 2029.
Morro tried not to wince at the realization that he’d been dead for a lot longer than he had thought.
“Ok so we’re here.” She muttered to herself, pointing at some pink section near something called Borg Towers, “and if we want to go… Where do we want to go?”
She glanced back at Morro.
“The monastery.”
She stared at him for a second, before mumbling to herself and studying the map.
“So we can take a bus to… to exit 67 and i guess we would have to walk… Walk, like, four miles, plus the stairs up, so 5 maybe… Can you do that?”
She gave him a once over before murlttering, “so that’s a no. Ok ummmm,”
“ Excuse me? Ex-fucking-cuse me? I am perfectly capable. I don’t give a shit about whatever the fuck-“
“-yeah yeah I know. We’ll need to get food… how the fuck are we supposed to do that? I’m to known and your…” she glanced at him, “your you.”
“What about those?” Morro pointed at the mechanical thing. Lloyd had called them cars, but that might just be ninja slang.
“A car? I guess. Check if it’s open.”
Morro walked over, and curiously pulled on the big red door. Nothing happened. He tried again, putting more force into it, and then with a ‘pop!’ The door clicked open.
“Ummm, Harumi? It worked.”
Harumi looked towards him, suprised, “Oh. It worked. Huh.” She ambled over to Morro and entered the car, grabbing a key he hadn’t seen.
The car roared.
Morro did not jump/screech/freak out. Morro was calm and collected and got in the car with a straight face.
He was not prepared for Harumi’s driving. But because she was going so fast he didn’t see the statues of people cracking, returning to skin and flesh.
Neither of them knew they had just witnessed the end of the Oni’s short command over Ninjago.
And because of Harumi’s driving he didn’t notice that when t he last statue cracked, his wind came back.

Chapter Text

Going to the monastery was Harumi’s first mistake.
Her second, and perhaps the one that really fucked her up was bringing the one and only Morro with her.
Morro, she thought to herself as she drove through the familiar streets of Ninjago City.
Morro, the one Lloyd had told her about. The one that had tortured him, nearly killed Wu, almost possessed a realm, and turned Cole into a ghost. That Morro.
But the Morro in the car next to Harumi seemed nothing like that. He seemed like a scared, out of place, child.
Like you were, once, she thought to herself.
But Harumi was no longer a scared child. She was an angry, vengeful child. An angry, vengeful child that had a list of regrets longer than the list of casualties she had caused. So many people, so many families cut in two, so many children like her, stranded in a world they didn’t want to stay in. Harumi was scared the children would turn out like her. Scared they would learn to stop hurting themselves and start hurting others. Scared they would take the knives out of their hearts and stab others in the back.
Mostly though, she was scared for all the potential Lloyds. All of the children that would give everything they had just to be used and thrown away.
She foucused on the road infront of her, and tried to take her mind off what a she had done. But all she could think of was how these very streets had been torn apart mere months ago. Torn apart because of her.
FSM, she hated herself.
She looked over at Morro and wondered if he hated himself too. She wondered if his arms were covered in scars too. Wondered if he had thought death would be easier than staying in this hollow world.
He made eye contact with Harumi and startled her out of her thought process. His eyes were heterochromic, one bright green, the other rotting brown. Jet-black hair framed his face, a green streak cutting through it. His gi looked like it had survived multiple lifetimes (which, to be honest, it probably had). But there something that stuck out about him: his bones. He came from a lifetime of hunger, (or so she thought based on his sharp cheek bones, bony hands, thin wrists and pale skin.) There were deep gashes of purple sleeplessness under his eyes, but there was something else too. All ghosts had markings, a unique under-eye pattern specific to that soul. They normally vanished when you regained life, but Morro’s seemed to have engraved themself into his skin permanently. They weren’t green though, they were vitaligo. The near white patterns contrasted with the medium brown of his skin and the dark black of his hair.
Strange, but she liked them.
She turned back to the road and looked at the nearest sign. It was blue, and had the words “To Exit 67” in big white letters with an arrow underneath. After she turned off of that, she would just have to drive a mile or two through farmland before she made it to the monastery.

~

It was a shorter drive than she thought it would be, and silent the whole way. Harumi had hoped she would have hours to formulate her re-introduction to the ninja, hoped she would have days to perfect her pitch and tone.
But she didn’t.
She had minutes because they were at the monastery now, all of its steps reaching towards the sun.
She was not prepared.
Morro jumped out of the car the second she stopped it like the lunatic he was. He almost started running up stars before she grabbed his sleeve. “Morro, what in Wojira’s name are you doing? We need a plan. We can’t just run up there,”
For a second Morro just stared at her, before taking his sleeve back and muttering, “Fine, weezer.”
She cocked her head at what he had said (who said ‘weezer’ in this day and age?), before she said, “We need a plan. If we’re lucky they won’t kill us on sight. If we’re luckier they’ll hear us out. We need to give them a reason not to hurt us.”
The silence that stretched out between them said everything.
There was no reason the Ninja shouldn’t hurt them. They had done terrible things, and neither of them deserved this second (or forth, Harumi wasn’t sure where Morro was at) chance at life.
They both wanted it though.
A second, two, before Morro spoke.
“Wu. I think-I remember-“ Morro hung his head, muttering, “he said he was sorry. Wanted to make things right. To… Fix things, I think? It might not-probably won’t work, but… I don’t know. It’s all I have, I guess.”
It only took Harumi a second to connect the dots. Lloyd had told her Wu and Morro had been close, and here he was admitting that. Nya had said Wu had had students before, and it made sense Morro was one of them. But Morro didn’t have an elemental power, did he?
“Ok, ok that should work. I-“ she tried to make herself seem small and unsure, like anything but a threat, “Do you have an elemental power? I don’t.”
Morro looked at her for a second and half-heartedly held his hand up and gave it a spin. He seemed almost surprised when the wind responded, dust swirling around his bony hand.
Harumi was not expecting the delight in his eyes as he observed the wind.
Who would have thought someone who looked so broken could be made so happy by something so simple?
Or maybe it wasn’t simple. Maybe it was all he had when he died, all he got to keep when he departed this realm.
“So, wind?” She asked.
For a second he appeared surprised before he deadpanned, “No shit. What else would it be? Moving air? Invisible gas?”
“Geez whatever, weezer.”
He rolled his eyes at her before asking, “Do you have a plan? Or do you have a death wish?”
Both really. “I’m going to try and convince Lloyd to let me stay,”
“Sounds a lot like manipulation.”
Harumi swallowed her guilt down with her knives and morning coffee.
“It is.”

Chapter Text

Morro began rushing up the steps of the monastery, his monastery, almost the second Harumi went quiet. He was so blind sighted to what would happen that he almost let himself hope.
Hope that Wu would welcome him home, hope that he could train and cook and shower and just exist.
That was all he really wanted.
To exist. Not to seek revenge or to struggle against some great evil he couldn’t help. Just to exist. To feel things again.
To be Wu’s son again.
Was that too much to ask for?
Yes.
It always would be.
He paused for a second on his rush, a strange sensation stopping him in his tracks. His legs were burning. Like, they fucking hurt. And his lungs felt scrapped dry. He was breathing heavy when he eventually looked for Harumi. She was much slower than him, and was only halfway up.
He turned to keep moving, but after a couple steps his legs started aching again.
Wait.
He remembered this. When you’re alive you can only move so much. He was alive, and with that realization all of the memories of his tired body came back too. It was like he had rediscovered the Law of Gravity.
How could he have forgotten something so basic?
He decided to wait for Harumi, because he was a good person. Definitely not because his legs hurt and his lungs ached.
As he waited he spoke to the wind again. It wasn’t technically ‘speaking’, but he communicated with it.
He smiled as the wind swirled around him, greeting him back to the living world. He laughed at how it ruffled his hair, the wind was the family he never had. I get to see Wu soon, he told the wind, I get to see Dad soon. The wind danced, echoing his enthusiasm. Soon Harumi caught up to him and they got back to walking.
Up, up, up, to the home of their greatest enemies.

~

Morro froze when he saw the monastery up close. Harumi didn’t. Harumi kept moving, until Morro grabbed her sleeve.
She looked at him questioningly.
“Wait… I-“ all the thoughts of how Wu would welcome him back home were long gone, dust in the wind, “Harumi, I’m scared I-I don’t have a plan… This was really fucking stupid, I’m sorry. We should go back.”
But Harumi wasn’t looking at him, her eyes were fixated on something behind him, and she looked utterly terrified. He glanced behind him, and a little black nose thing with a red dot beeping in and out of existence stared back at him.
Weird.
Why was Harumi so scared of it?
“Harumi.” He said again, “We shouldn’t-this is stupid we should do something else please.”
When she turned back, her posture was like she had never been scared. She looked like a completely new person, full of confidence and control, “That’s no longer an option. They know we’re here. They will follow us if we run.”
Morro stared at her, and she let out a humorless chuckle, “Let’s go die like the legends we are.”
“We’re more like monsters.”
“Same thing.” Harumi shrugged as she pushed the door to the monastery roughly open.
Morro flinched as the door creaked, and he spared one last helpless glance at the black thing, before stepping into the courtyard of the monastery.

Chapter Text

Harumi stalked into the monastery courtyard, hiding all of her fear and oozing nothing but control. Or at least she hoped. If anyone saw how desperately afraid she was, they would leave her. Not that she had anyone to leave her, but she couldn’t look weak.
Her eyes caught on Kai immediately. Nya was next to him. Jay at her side. Zane next to Kai, and Cole next to him. They were all armed. Their eyes were all so full of so much anger it felt like she had already been attacked. Kai and Nya though, they were a different level. Normally, the ninja frowned upon killing, but they looked like that was the farthest thing in their minds. The hatred was a world in itself, a world where Harumi and Morro died very slow(very deserved) deaths.
But Harumi could keep herself together.
She could die with a straight face, she had already planned her last words.
She could keep herself together with Kai and Nya and Zane and Cole and Jay all glaring bullets.
But someone was missing.
She saw him, and her breath caught. She choked on the regret she had swallowed, and stumbled back.
It was Lloyd.
He looked so desperately terrified.
He looked so alone, so broken.
His faded green eyes bore into her.
Every memory of him she had slammed her backwards another few steps until she hit something.
Lloyd haunted every corner of her broken mind, every memory a cobweb.
Laughing, joking, kissing him.
Running with him, telling him secrets, training with him.
Lying to him, hurting him, taunting him.
Betraying him.
His faded green eyes.
Crying, dripping tears.
The cuts on his face, on his wrists, dripping blood.
His faded green eyes.
His faded green eyes and all of the things she had done to a child.
He was frozen, and his faded green eyes were glued to Harumi’s. She wanted him to look away. For her own sanity she needed him to look away. Please, please, please look away.
“Look away.” She rasped out, so silent Morro’s wind stole it away.
He didn’t. FSM, he didn’t. He didn’t look away, and his faded green eyes tore Harumi apart like starved animals tore apart rotten flesh.
Being physically torn apart would hurt less than this.
Being stabbed in the heart would hurt less than this.
“Kill me.” She whispered, hoping Lloyd heard it. Hoping Lloyd stabbed her through the chest and threw her head over the monastery walls.
She didn’t know if Lloyd heard her.
Kai did though, and he lunged at her, blade red hot, his hatred heating the air and boiling her skin.
“Gladly.”
Harumi shrieked, backing up.
It did no use.
Kai was stalking towards her. She searched around her, desprately searching for a way out, but all she saw was Morro, right next to her, the terror she felt written all over his face.
“Kai stop.” Nya’s voice was clipped, like she didn’t actually want Kai to stop.
Kai turned around, all anger and rage and wild heat, “Why? They deserve all of it.”
Nya, voice still clipped, said, “We have not decided what we are going to do with them. We are not killing them yet.” Yet.
“No. I’m not letting them hurt us again.”
“Kai-“
“Remember what they did to Lloyd?! You want that to happen again?!”
“Wu. Said. Stop. Lloyd. Said. Stop. If you really care so much back away and help Lloyd.” Nya’s voice was sharp, furious.
“Fine,” Kai laughed, “Sure, just one more thing.”
And then he got so, so close to Harumi and Morro she felt his skin melting. He was staring at something intensely, but it wasn’t Harumi.
It was Morro.
And Morro looked like the epitome of panic.
He did not breathe, and he did not blink as Kai pulled a dagger out and grabbed his head.
He did flinch, though, when the dagger came down.

Chapter Text

Morro didn’t dare breathe in the flaming air as Kai loomed over him, eyes gleaming in that manic way only a killer’s could. Morro didn’t dare blink because he was going to die and he didn’t want the last thing he saw to be darkness(again). Morro didn’t dare speak when Kai grabbed his head, because he didn’t want to beg for another chance or to scream for help in his final moments.
Morro did flinch though, when the knife came down, because FSM this was too much and Morro wasn’t strong enough. He never had been, and he never deserved this chance at life, and god, he wanted it, but it was too late now.
Because he was going to die, and he was never going to tell Wu he was sorry, because oh, god, Morro was so sorry and he was never going to tell Lloyd he was sorry because he was dying now and Lloyd would never know how much he regretted it and how much he regretted everything and how he wished he had never been brought back and how the Mother had made him do it, which was a half lie and how everything Morro was was a lie.
Morro wouldn’t say he saw his life flash before his eyes, because he had had only 4 hours, maybe, of life, and that was an all time low, even for him.
Morro didn’t reach out for the wind because it was too late and he was too scared, so he told it goodbye instead.
When the knife came down, it didn’t sever Morro’s head and neck, strangely. It sliced the air next to Morro’s head.
Morro was trembling as Kai shoved him against the wall, whispering, “Do anything fucker, and it will be your head next time.”
And then he was gone, leaving Morro petrified and frozen against the wall. Harumi stared at him, wonder and shock warring across her face.
He was alive? Her expression said.
Morro’s own thoughts mirrored the confusion.
FSM, he was still alive, wasn’t he?
She glanced down, and Morro was about to look down when a loud voice scared the living(?!) shit out of him. He had already been trembling, but he flinched now too and stared towards the voice.
“What is the meaning of this?” Fuck. Fuck. It was Wu. Wu, dad, sensei, that Wu. Fuck no. Morro couldn’t handle this now. Not after Kai, he couldn’t.
All that positivity at his not-death dispelled like fog.
Fuck.
Jay piped up, his voice too loud, “I told you Morro and Harumi are back.”
“Impossible. J-“
Wu’s voice cut off.
Morro was to scared to look up, he was to scared to meet Wu’s eyes and see the disappointment Morro had become. He was terrified to see Wu’s disgust at his failed son.
“Kai. Kai. K-Kill me. Please-Kai.” Morro didn’t know if Kai heard him, he didn’t look up, he just stared at his trembling hands. FSM, why had he thought he could make it up? Why did he think he could fix what he had ripped apart? Why had he thought he deserved a fourth chance when he had screwed every other chance up?
He tore his eyes from his shaking hands and grabbed Harumi. She flinched, “Kill me. Harumi, please, this-this- I don’t-I can’t try again. Kill me.”
“I can’t.” She whispered, so quiet.
“Why?” Morro ignored the way his voice broke.
“Because I’d still be alive after.”
Wu’s voice cut off his response, “Morro. Don’t say this.”
Morro jumped, instinctually looked toward the source of the voice. It was Wu, who was now in front of the furious ninja. Wu and Morro kept that cursed eye contact, and Wu’s face was unreadable.
“Morro-“
“Don’t- I’m sorry- Please don’t talk. I-I need vengestone, I’m to dangerous-please. I don’t want to hurt you again, please I need chains please.”
Morro heard the wind screaming distantly, that this was a terrible idea, that he shouldn’t risk being defenseless, but Morro ignored it.
And when Wu reached out, Morro swiped the small piece of vengestone from his hand like the pathetic starving orphan he had once been. He held the vengestone close to his chest, and looked away from Wu. He looked away from the ninja. He looked away from Lloyd. And stared at the small black stone veined with orange that had finally silenced the wind.
His cracked, dry lips formed a weak smile at the rock.
He hadn’t died. Pretty fucking impressive, right?

Chapter Text

Harumi watched numbly as Cole cuffed her and Morro, bringing them down some elevator(she assumed it was a secret, it opened up behind the living room TV) and shoved them into a cell. There he took off the handcuffs and clamped a metal bracelet on Morro’s wrist. It looked like it hurt. She was glad she wasn’t Morro. Either way, both Harumi and Morro were in a cell together, both trembling. The difference between them though (other than the bracelet, which she assumed was vengestone), was Harumi went numb when she got truly upset. She would cut her emotions off and let her logic take over. Morro, though, looked like he let his emotions protect him. Let his emotions control him instead of logic. That was the key difference. She regretted what she had done without feeling anything, while he regretted what he had done because of passing emotions.
Or maybe not.
She had only known him for a day.
She tried to keep busy, tried to focus on Morro, but eventually her mind bored of him, and it turned to its demise:
Lloyd.
FSM, his faded green eyes chased her as she tried to close her eyes. Sleep didn’t come, it never did. So she pretended to sleep, eyes half open and heavy lidded. The old red kabuki paint on her face itched, and she idly wondered if she would get a chance to shower before she died again. Morro was passed out in a corner when Jay came in, balancing two plates. Harumi tried to ignore the flip her stomach did at the thought of food, and she waited until Jay had put the food down to open her eyes and stare at him.
“Hello.” His shoulders stiffened considerably, and he fumbled with the key in his hand.
“Hey.” She tried to keep herself cool as Jay pushed the food through the little trapdoor on the bottom of the cell.
“Zane didn’t know what to make, sorry.” Jay’s voice was awkward and clipped, and he fidgeted with the keys in his hand. Harumi looked down at the plates, and saw pasta with tomato sauce on the side. It looked good. Strange, Jay was apologizing to her, of all people. In the back of her mind she classified him as a people pleaser and said, “Don’t be. Thanks.”
Harumi reached for one of the plates, starving, but Jay stayed. She cocked her head at him.
He sighed, chewing on his lip, “He said he’d bring water.” A second later, “Sorry, give me a second.” And Jay rushed out of the room, glad to be away from her.
There it was again, ‘sorry’. He said it twice, in a three sentence conversation. And the way he futzed with the keys and chewed his lip showed he was scared, nervous.
She tried to ignore how happy she was that she could make someone so uncomfortable. Her life rested in his hands, she should be trying to make him like her.
She thought of how to do just that as she ate her pasta. A few minutes later, Jay came back, two water bottles in his hands.
“Sorry,” he muttered, “Lloy-he was busy. Here.” Jay shoved the water bottles through the bars in the cell, plastic crinkling.
“Don’t-don’t worry about it,” She tried to make her voice gruff, but not too gruff, like she was warming up to him. If she had been warming up then, she thawed now. “I was really thirsty, thanks. And the pasta is good. Really good. Could you tell Zane I like it? I mean, I doubt he cares-I’m a criminal and all, but y’know.”
Jay nodded slowly, like he was taking in this persona Harumi had crafted for him.
“I-I will,” He turned away, hurrying towards the door before stopping at the door frame, “Bye, Harumi…”
And he was gone. Harumi felt that was one step towards whatever she was working towards. Not dying? Hurting Jay? Setting herself free? She didn’t know, but quietly, to herself, she muttered, “Goodbye.”
She finished her pasta and thought until Morro woke up, which she guessed was about an hour later.
He woke with a start, eyes not half as wide as Harumi had thought they would be. Someone like him seemed like he would have terrible nightmares. His eyes found hers, the confusion fading away quickly.
“Fuck.” He muttered to himself, bringing his knees to his face and hugging himself.
“What?” Harumi deadpanned, asking out of pure boredom.
“That was the best I’’ve slept since-since my first life… FSM, It’s been ages since I slept like that-no nightmares, no Mother-just sleep.” His voice sounded like wonder, sound like bewilderment and joy. A second later he sniffed and caught sight of the pasta. Morro’s eyes rounded, and like a savage animal he snatched the plate and began tearing it apart.
He looked like a rabid, desperate, starved animal.
Harumi averted her eyes.
It must’ve only been a minute or two later when Harumi heard the plate put down and looked back at Morro. Despite what he had said about his sleep, the bags under his eyes looked full, as if the sleep hadn’t let any of the wind out.
“You didn’t take the water.” Harumi observed.
“No.”
“Why not? You're human now. You have to drink.”
“I’d rather not.” He yawned. That rubbed Harumi the wrong way. All at once, she wished to hurt Morro like she had hurt Lloyd. Who was he to say things like that to her? He was the scum of the Earth. He had wasted, what, four? Four lives. He was useless and starving and all alone. She could have his head for this. If Garmadon were still here, she could kill him again. She could stab him through the dull, meaningless heart. She could have the Colossus destroy his home and he could watch his life slowly bleed out, watching lazy blood ooze out of his lifeless body.
Harumi realised all at once that that was not a normal train of thought when someone disrespected you, and she turned around. Harumi curled into her own ball on the other side of the cell, disgusted by her mind.
It made sense, the fact that she had been condemned to the Cursed Realm, she thought to herself, it made sense why Kai had tried to kill her

Chapter Text

Morro kept forgetting to breathe. Like he would sit there, curled up in his stupid little ball, and then his lungs would start burning and he’d realize, oh! Fucking! God! I! Forgot! To! Breath!
So he’d breathe, curse at himself, and continue on wallowing in his own misery.
And then he’d forget again. And again. And again.
It was so annoying. Why did humans have to breathe anyway? Because they needed air? Oxygen? It was so stupid. Air was useless. Oxygen was useless. Breathing and inhaling and exhaling were all stupid and useless.
Who invented breathing in the first place?
Whoever they were, Morro would fight them. They had beef. A lot of beef.
And speaking of random things he hated about being alive, drinking was on there. Not alcohol, he had loved that stuff while he was in Lloyd’s body, but water. He hated water so, so much. Well, he didn’t hate it, he feared it. But he would never admit that to himself. He would never admit that he was terrified of something as basic as water.
So instead he ‘hated’ it.
But he also needed it.
He needed it because he was alive, and he was stupid and he was human. Because stupid human bodies need stupid human water because they were full of stupid human blood. But FSM, he hated water. But his fucking alive body needed to breathe, and drink, and it probably needed to sleep, which was another one of those things he hated. Because Morro didn’t sleep.
He had nightmares.
Today had been a rare, rare, RARE exception to this rule. But Morro still feared-no, hated- he still hated sleeping. When you slept you were unconscious and people could hurt you. When you were trapped in nightmares you had nowhere to run.
Overall, Morro hated sleep. Another thing Morro hated, now that he thought about it, was that he would have to go to the bathroom again. He would have to shower. Showering was basically prolonged, controlled drowning. And Morro wanted no part in it.
Would the Ninja even let him or Harumi shower? Or go to the bathroom? Or change?
Morro remembered how long he had worn the same clothes, and didn’t like what he came up with. It was basically a tradition now, to wear the same old, ragged, tattered gi he had all the way back in his original life.
He wondered now why his mouth and throat were so dry. It was dry because he needed water. And FSM he hated water. He also hated sleeping, showering, eating, water, breathing, other people, the Ninja, and the Mother. So, life in general was what he hated.
But Morro wasn’t just a hater. He was more than that. He was a smart hater.
There was a difference.
(He hoped)
But back to the point. The water was still here, undrunk, and his throat was dry. So he grabbed it, and unscrewed the camp. He stared at it for a mere second, wondering if this was the day he would die, at the hands of a plastic water bottle. It didn’t matter. He had nothing to live for.
He took a swig.
The sensation was so fucking otherworldly that he sputtered and spit it out, choking. He coughed a few more times and wiped his face with his sleeve. His throat was still dry though. So he steadied his hand, remembered to breathe, and tried again to drink it.
This time it worked, but FSM it felt weird, and he hated it. But he was surprised he hadn’t died. He was glad too, mostly just surprised. Either way he capped and threw the water bottle across the cell. Harumi looked like that had been the funniest thing she had ever seen.
“What?” No response, “Do you have a fucking problem?”
Harumi suppressed a smile, “No.”
Morro would strangle her one day. He glared at her, before wiping the remaining moisture off of his face. It was strange, the fact that it didn’t burn like it should’ve.
A faint sound from the doorway caught his attention, and he strained his ears. It sounded like a voice.
“Just do it.” The voice was so quiet he couldn’t recognize its familiarity. Probably Jay, he thought to himself, here to take the plates away like some slave. Or maybe, it's Cole to take this thing off my wrist.
It wouldn’t be Lloyd though, because Lloyd was too weak and terrified to confront them.
Morro had a tendency to jinx things though, and guess who it was.
Lloyd shuffled through the door, eyes on something-someone?-outside of Morro’s view on the other side of the door. There was a figure outside of the door Morro realized. The figure shifted, and revealed himself to be Kai. He nodded at Lloyd, and Lloyd took a few terrified steps forward.
Harumi was pretending to sleep, and Morro knew he should do the same, but he was too slow.
“Morro.”
Morro tried to maintain his disgusted front, and slowly lifted his gaze to Lloyd. Something glittered behind him, and Morro saw Kai holding fire, eyes full of rage, mouthing the words, ‘Hurt him and I kill you.’
Morro swallowed, and looked back to Lloyd’s fearful eyes. Only they weren’t as scared as they should have been. They were angry.
Morro forgot to breathe.

Chapter Text

Lloyd was shaking as he stepped toward his two greatest enemies. Or at least he was pretty sure he was trembling. Kai had said he wasn’t, but Kai had also said he never stole any of Lloyd’s comics. In short, Kai was not a reputable source.

In short, Lloyd probably was trembling as he stepped towards Morro and Harumi.

Morro, freaking Morro, the one that had possessed him. The one that had almost possessed all of Stixx.

And Harumi too.

Harumi, she chased his nightmares like the biker gang she had lead. Like the father she had resurrected.

They were both there, Morro’s eyes fixated on Lloyd. Lloyd remembered those eyes. Remembered those eyes laughing at Lloyd as he struggled to get up.

“Please. Help me-“

“Why would the beloved green ninja need MY help?”

“I-I can’t-“

Lloyd remembered those eyes staring at him with such disgust it hurt.

“This is who got the green gi? This pathetic thing is better than me?”

”I-“

”No one is better than me. Not whatever this failure is.”

Lloyd remembered those smug eyes as Morro dropped Lloyd down into the waterfall.

One eye was green, one was shit brown.

”Lloyd.” Morro’s voice was quiet and raspy, but not like it had been then. It had echoed when he had been a ghost, it had been hallowed out. He remembered the voice from his nightmares, from his memories, and from his greatest fears. He flinched at the voice.

Somehow Lloyd found the bravery to respond, though it was barely a whisper, “Morro.”

Silence. Silence. Silence. 

“You’ve gotten tall.”

Lloyd froze. That would be such a normal thing to say, had it not been Morro. Nya could have said that, or Jay, or Kai. Cole could’ve made a joke about his height, calling him Green Bean. Zane could’ve told him exactly how much he had grown since last year. Wu could’ve said he looked just like Garmadon.

It could’ve been something normal.

Something family would say to each other.

But Morro had said it.

Morro. 

“What?” He whispered, backing away the smallest step. 

”You’re taller.” Morro shrugged. He freaking shrugged. Like this was all normal and good and Lloyd was making it weird. Like Morro had any right to say something like that.

Like they were long estranged family.

(They were, but that wasn’t the point.)

“Don’t-don’t say that.” Lloyd tried to keep the stutter out of his voice. He forced himself to stop backing up. Forced himself to calm down. Nya had told him that breathing helped to calm you down. Breathe air in. Breathe it out.

Air.

Wind.

Morro.

Morro did not get the hint. He didn’t seem to think that this was weird or out of the ordinary or anything. ”Why not? How old are you anyway? 15? 16?”

Lloyd gawked at Morro, for the first time not out of fear. 15?

He had been 15. 

When Morro had possessed him.

5 years ago.

Morro seemed to notice the look on Lloyd’s face, “What? Am I that off? 18? What?”

Lloyd closed his mouth and took in another breath.

”I’m twenty.” 19 actually, but details didn’t matter.

Now it was Morro’s turn to gawk. And he did.

”You-You’re 20?! 20? FSM, you’re fucking older than me?” He fixed his confused green and shit brown eyes on Lloyd, “Right?”

”Yeah…”

”Holy Mother, thats… That’s weird. Thats really fucking weird.” Morro seemed to think over it before flashing Lloyd a cat’s grin, “Little Green’s gotten older hasn’t he?”

Lloyd backed up, breath catching. Little Green. Morro had called him that, when he had tortured him. When Morro had tortured a little kid for something he had never wanted. 

Lloyd had never wanted to be the green ninja. He had never wanted this fate. He had never asked to be tortured.

Morro had done that because he wanted too.

”What’s Little Green going to do now?”

”Shut the fuck up.” Lloyd distantly noticed that his voice was too loud and too aggressive. Lloyd distantly noticed that Harumi woke up and looked confused. 

Lloyd was too focused on the way Morro flinched and looked at him. Morro looked at him like he didn’t know who Lloyd was. Like he didn’t know that he had actually hurt Lloyd.

Like Lloyd had taken the joke too far.

”Shut the fuck up.” He repeated, “You-You don’t get to say that to me. Not after what you did. Not after what you did to me. Do you even fucking remember? Did it cross your mind that you hurt me? Hurt my friends?”

Morro was about to open his mouth, eyes still wide and confused, when Lloyd cut him off.

He would regret it later, he knew.

”You fucking hurt Wu. You know that? You hurt the only person who would ever give a shit about you and your pathetic life. How does that feel?”

Morro closed his mouth and stared at him.

There was hurt in his eyes, Lloyd knew, but it was hiding behind anger and confusion and betrayal. Betrayal? Thats rich.

Morro looked away, too weak to hold eye contact. He glared at the floor. 

Lloyd kept staring at him, staring at the person who had hurt him so much. The person who didn’t-couldn’t-even hold eye contact.

Morro muttered, to the dirt and dust and rust, “I didn’t mean to.”

Of course he didn’t mean too. No one ever meant to destroy a realm. Accidental possession and torture was actually a very common thing. 

Lloyd didn’t expect Morro to continue, but he did, “It doesn’t change anything. I know. I don’t mean anything to anyone anymore. FSM, I deserve it. Wu deserves you. Deserves a green ninja that will actually help things. Deserves one that isn’t cruel and self-destructive and lost.”

Morro seemed to struggle to breath.

The words came out like Morro’s own throat was fighting them. 

“The green gi didn’t deserve me.”

Then his eyes rolled back to Lloyd, “Is that what you wanted, Little Green? I finally said it? Happy? Fucking happy now?”

No. Lloyd was not. Because Morro was still here, still alive, still calling him Little Green.

No. Lloyd was not happy.

He almost said that when a voice cut him off, “You two are so hopeless.”

The voice was lazy and calm, controlled and in power. Like she knew both of the boys in front of her were pawns in her game.

Both of their heads snapped towards her like elastic bands. 

Harumi.

Chapter Text

The two boys turned away from tearing each other apart to stare at her. They both turned a shade paler, which was surprising, considering how pale they already were before. Morro was malnourished-but-also-why-is-lil-green-so-savage-now? pale, and Lloyd, Lloyd was fuck-my-two-worst-enemies-are-talking-to-me-after-they-died-and-came-back? pale.

Overall, neither of them looked happy to see her. She wasn’t surprised, she didn’t like seeing herself in mirrors. Speaking of mirrors, when was the last time she had seen one?

That didn’t matter. She mentally slapped herself.

”This is a fun family reunion, don’t you think?”

Silence.

Lloyd got paler? Again, how?

His faded green eyes stood out to her though, tying her down to all of her sins.

”We are not family.” Lloyd’s voice was a torn whisper, like if he went louder he risked it breaking completely.

Fuck. Were they not? Had she read the subtext wrong?

Morro looked down, muttering, “Who thought he could lie now?”

Harumi smirked, “You were 6 years ago. He can do a lot of things now.” She stood up, and looked over Morro. 

She did not look at Lloyd. His faded green eyes would find all of her remaining secrets if she met them. 

“I’m sure he can.” Morro met Harumi’s eyes, and they had a staring competition until Morro looked away muttering “Stupid fucking blinking.”

“Is blinking too hard for you? Strange you can possess Lloyd, almost a realm, turn Cole to a ghost and kill a couple people, but not blink? Huh.”

Morro snorted, pulling his knees closer to himself and deadpanning, “Lloyd blinked for me. Obviously.”

Lloyd growled, “Obviously? How the fuck is that obviously?” His voice was upset, that same tone from earlier when he and Morro had been gatting at each other.

Harumi spared a glance at him, prepared for a raw vulnerable look back, a heartbroken whisper, but. 

But…

But Lloyd’s look back was angry and pissed and guarded. Guarded.

Immediately she felt the same way Morro had, shocked by the way Lloyd had changed. When had he learned to guard his emotions? Who had used his emotions against him? Who had hurt him to the point where-

Oh.

Harumi got it real quick.

She had, hadn’t she?

FSM, all of it flooded back to her again.

Something flew by her head, crinkling and light. She flinched away so hard she accidentally hit her arm on the cage’s bar. When she looked down at the thing that had sailed towards her head she realised almost immediately that it was a water bottle. The label read ‘100% spring water!’ in big cheerly letters, and the bottle was half full.

She gave an accusatory look up at the source of the projectile, and landed on the expected suspect, Morro. He stared at her evenly.

“Hey, lipstick freak. You look like you saw a ghost or something.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him. Lloyd muttered, “FSM you're not funny.”

He squinted until it hit him like a freight train headed straight for his head. “OH! OH, because I used to be a ghost! Ohhhhhhh.” Then a self satisfied little smirk spread across his pale face, “I’m actually quite funny, thank you, weezer.”

Silence fell, thick and suffocating. It was strange, Harumi thought. They had just been talking, chattering like children, until now. Now it was like it should be, it should be awkward and deathly and uncomfortable. Morro and Harumi were bad people. Lloyd was a hurt person. Kai in the doorway was an angry person. Bad, hurt, and angry did not mix well. They mixed like oil and water. Evil, slick oil and pure, injured water.

She wanted to wash the oil and dirt off of her hands, to cleanse herself finally, but she couldn’t. The oil had embedded itself in her hair, in her skin, in her ribs. The oil had crusted around her chest, forming a wall around her heart no one could break. She was better this way. Better loving no one other than her dead parents.

She still wanted to scrape at the oil though.

“When can we shower?” She tried to make her voice small and non-threatening. Harumi twirled her hair as she waited for a response, before facing Lloyd again. She hated facing Lloyd. Hated facing the bleeding wounds and scarred tissue from wounds she had inflicted. But she looked anyway. He was fidgeting with his hands, a habit Harumi remembered from her life, and he had shrunken, like he could pull himself into a tiny void and disappear for forever. He noticed her lingering eyes, but he didn’t meet them. 

“I’ll go ask.”

And he fled from them, like they could really hurt him from behind bars.

~

Lloyd never did come back, rather Jay came back again and took the dirty plates. He said that there would be a time tomorrow when they could shower and clean up. At that Harumi thanked him, keeping up the shy, scared persona she had with him. Morro had been quiet since Lloyd had left, Kai going with him.

They were alone again, and it was night time. They should have slept, but Harumi refused to sleep in front of Morro. She hadn’t felt threatened by him at all, but you never know until it's too late. She didn’t think Morro knew how to sleep. So they both ended up hugging their knees to their chest in the dark on opposite sides of the cage waiting for the other to sleep. Which, surprise surprise, didn’t happen.

Harumi rested her head on the cool metal bar, worshipping the freezing tendrils that spread across her cheek. It was so cold, but it kept her from sleeping. Kept her from watching that building fall again. Kept her from breathing her last breath a second, a third, a fourth, a hundredth time.

Chapter Text

Morro’s eyes hurt because they were stupid. Not because he forgot to blink, or didn’t sleep, or probably was dehydrated.

Because they were stupid.

His lungs were stupid too, in case you were wondering.

~

Morro tried not to sleep, and succeeded. He waited the entire night, mind hooked on his conversation with Lloyd.

You’ve gotten taller

What?

You’re taller.

Don’t say that!

Lloyd had stuttered, had freaked out. His eyes had gone wider and he had staggered backwards. He had looked at Morro like Morro had done something wrong, again. Morro hadn’t been trying to hurt him again. All Morro had done was notice Lloyd’s increase in height. Was that so bad?

He hadn’t been trying to be bad.

He had been trying to make small talk.

Not that Lloyd had helped at all. And Lloyd, Lloyd was 20 now. 20. FSM that was so strange. Lloyd was older than Morro now. Older than Morro.

And Morro was what? 15?

No…

He looked back in his memory, and shoved past the darkness, the jealousy and anger and betrayal, to find his age. He found it. Morro was 16 actually, still a little bit too young to die. Or so he thought. Maybe that was the average age people starved to death alone in caves now. He wouldn’t know. Of course he wouildn’t. 

He had been dead for 40 years.

He had been dead for 40 years too long.

He had been dead for so much longer than he had been alive. It would make him upset, make him hate the divinity that had done it to him, if it wern’t for 2 things.

1. He was already so full of hate, he didn’t think he could possibly contain anymore.

2. He had done it to himself.

He had run away, he had left Wu and died. He had refused Wu’s hand and died again. He had failed to hurt Wu and died again. He bet the way he would die this time would be something to do with Wu. Maybe Wu would say he could never forgive him, and it would be too much. Maybe Wu would try to help Morro and it would all go south. Maybe Morro couldn’t handle life. Maybe there were reasons why Morro had been dead for so long. Maybe one of them was because he wasn’t safe to be around living, bleeding people. Maybe it was safest for him to be locked away, trapped in a cage made of death.

Or a literal cage, like the one he was in right now.

It was really dark, now that Morro thought about it. It was very, really dark. The only light was a little red dot in the corner of the room. It didn’t make a sound, it simply blinked down at Morro and Harumi. Harumi was probably still awake. She didn’t seem like the person to sleep around stangers.

Strangers like him.

Strangers with checkered pasts and torn gi’s. Strangers with green streaks in thier hair and hollow eyes. Strangers that flinched at loud noises and panicked internally at loud voices. 

Strangers like him.

Strangers that possessed children because of jealousy. Jealousy. What hoax. What a stupid, terrible thing. He had done so many things because of jealousy. Because he had deserved to be the green ninja.

He had.

He did.

Didn’t he?

Something deep down in his gut said no. 

That traitorous gut feeling said he never had.

He tried to shut his mind off for the rest of the night, but failed.

Becasue Lloyd had grown up with the scars Morro had given him, and Morro had never grown up at all.

~

Zane came in the next morning. He brought two plates of eggs and two water bottles and he said that they would get bathroom access after they ate. Morro of course ate like a pig, but didn’t touch the water. Just looking at the water made his eyes hurt more. Stupid.

Stupid eyes. Stupid water. Stupid lack of sleep.

Harumi ate slower than Morro, and as she finished he got up and stretched. His neck broke.

Fuck?

His neck—

It had cracked-

The bone-

Oh. Oh. Stupid neck, stupid eyes, stupid Morro.

When your alive your joints can pop without being destroyed. He twisted his back, and sure enough.

Crack!

Morro felt even more stupid than before, which was an impressive amount of stupid.

”Morro, you seem to lack hydration and sleep.”

Morro never flinched at strange, unexpected voices. Why would you ever think that? When he turned- turned, not flinched- towards Zane, he saw strangely bright blue eyes and skin. Skin?

”I thought you were a robot?” Morro blurted. He had been a robot, right? If Morro remembered right, Zane had been metallic. He had had sheets of metal as skin and hair that looked like titanium. And he had talked like a pirate, right? Or was Morro just being hysterical? Was it both?

”I am a robot.” 

“Didn’t you have a pirate voice?”

Zane’s eyes flickered, “I believe in the time period that you fought with us, Jay had tinkered with my vocal system due to interference caused by a unique underwater weed durning our time in Styx. And yes, he did change my vocal patterning to give myself a pirate dialect.”

Morro wasn’t sure what half of those words meant. “But you have skin. How are you a robot with skin? What happened to your lense?”

”I am still a robot.” Zane flashed, and suddenly he was that same metallic silver, and unmistakably a robot. He flashed back into his human appearance, “It is an advanced cloaking technology that allows me to appear as a human would. By the dictionary definition I do not have skin, but rather an exoskeleton made of solid titanium. An exoskeleton is defined, according to Ninjago City Archives, as-“

”FSM, it is to early for this. Morro, stop asking dumb questions. Zane, in the kindest way possible, please shut up.”

They both glared at her as she stood up.

”Are we getting out of this cage or what? I need to get this paint off my face.”