#And like what if Nya didn’t want to tell Wu because she doesn’t want him to go through something similar again

[pinkplatiploo]

Uggg something something what if Nya still had a weird connection/urge to remerge with the ocean especially during times of high stress or anger ect.

Then what if Sensei G is still around and they talk about having to fight urges to keep their humanity. And to not hurt the people closest to them again.

[zebaji]

Summary:

“You have a ranked list of the enemies you’ve faced?” Morro asks, and everyone shares a devious look with one another. Oh no , he thinks, but at that point, it’s too late. 

“Of course we do!” Nya smirks, “How else do you think we cope?” She asks, and Morro stares at her, trying to see if she’s being serious. She is, Morro realizes, and while he should feel concerned, he was also on their list, so really, this was a problem they all needed to face.

Or: Morro is a zombie and the Ninjas decide to go on a road trip to turn him back into a human. Realizations and bonding ensue.

{This is one of the fics I'm doing for @morrotober's summer event :D The topic is road trip, but I couldn't help but add some plot and worldbuilding and all that fun stuff!

Fic is under the cut, let me know what you think!}

A Road Trip with a Reformed Evil Zombie

In all honesty, just the idea of having a road trip was something to dread about. But to actually commit to it– well Morro can’t promise if everyone is going to survive the week that it’s going to take to this so-called Temple of Life. And he isn’t even alive!

Oh, this was going to be a nightmare, Morro sulks as he watches Jay and Cole cram countless bags of luggage into the Land Bounty, and Kai and Zane fill a large chest with ice and food. 

At least Wu wasn’t coming with them, thankfully– the old man had told him that he would clear out Morro’s old room into something fitting a living person before they came back from the temple. There were actually tears forming in Wu’s eyes when he said it, much to Morro’s disgust and shame.

He’s filled with disgust because Wu? Crying over him? Morro wanted to scoff and tell him to save the pathetic tears for someone worth crying for. The shame is because it was Morro who caused the sadness. He didn’t realize that Wu actually cared– Morro shakes his head, abruptly dismissing the many emotions going through him at an alarming pace, instead focusing his thoughts on watching these Ninja, who despite somehow managing to defeat him at his greatest, run around the monastery’s courtyard like hungry headless chickens.

If Morro were a better person, which he isn’t, he’d offer to help them pack up the Land Bounty and have them on their journey much faster than the pace they are currently at. However, he is more than content to watch them and bask in the sun’s heavy rays. He hasn’t felt the heat in so long it hardly bothers him that for everyone else it is sweltering and irritating to be outside. He isn’t a good person, despite what everyone seems to think, and has blatantly refused to use his wind to cool everyone down.

Never mind that his powers aren't working and he just isn’t telling people. No, it’s because he refuses to participate in this nonsense that the Ninja have determined is important– like bringing him back to life. He’s already somewhat alive, he doesn’t need to be any more!

But apparently, the Ninja have already made their decision, and now, they are going to make the journey to a temple nestled somewhere south, even more south than Metalonia, to a place where Wu is confident in bringing Morro completely back to life.

Because right now, he is simply a rotting corpse, one that isn’t exactly rotting– since he doesn’t smell or have flesh falling off of him with his every movement– but a corpse nonetheless. He can touch the bones in his chest and a portion of his skull, there are green veins of the poison running through the tattered remains of his skin, thick and matted black liquid that pours out of his poisoned green eyes if he forgets to blink.

All nuisances, he’d complained, ignoring the way he was quite literally grotesque to be even looked at for more than a few moments. He told himself he didn’t care. It was just remnants of his injuries in the Cursed Realm and then falling out of a portal that was trying its hardest to keep him from exiting, he told himself and the others. Nothing that was needed to make an entire week's worth of travel. But his argument had been ignored and everyone had begun preparing around him like he was a ghost again.

Morro doesn’t know how he feels about it all, and as such doesn’t move from his position, standing in the monastery’s courtyard as everyone finishes packing. He doesn’t bother to move, even as Lloyd walks up to him, carrying water bottles that he has been passing around to everyone in the heat. “Here,” He offers, and Morro warily takes the bottle.

He has mixed feelings about water– any person who had been a ghost for decades would be, especially when it had been the cause of his second death. But it also helped him realize that he wasn’t a ghost any longer, since Nya blasts him with water every time she feels like it. He thinks he’s gotten used to it, but every now and then it still stings like acid streaking up his limbs, mixing with the poison running in his veins, giving him another slow and painful death– Morro jolts from his musings when he remembers that Lloyd was here, waiting for him to take the bottle.

“Thanks,” He says uncertainly, and Lloyd gives him a small– almost knowing– smile as he walks away, back towards the others who are complaining about the heatwave.

Despite everything with the mad scientist and his zombie creations, Morro still doesn’t understand how Lloyd can handle being around him, let alone be kind to him. He doesn’t deserve it– something the other Ninja have vehemently agreed with him on at first, but after… after everything, with Morro sacrificing himself for the Ninja and becoming this half-monster– zombie– creature– thing, everyone seems to have forgotten how bad Morro used to be.

“We want to help you,” Lloyd had said after Morro had realized his powers were gone and he could feel the heat of the fire. When he could see bone in his fingers and could breathe in fresh air. A monster– and not just figuratively.

“Why?” He had demanded, whirling away from the mirror that he had been staring at for the past five minutes so that he could fully glare at Lloyd, only to falter when the Green Ninja didn’t even flinch at his decaying appearance. “I possessed you,” He hissed, feeling a mixture of satisfaction and guilt, when Lloyd finally paled and took a slight step back. 

“I invaded your mind,” Morro continued, taking a step closer to the Ninja. “I almost killed you, ” He sneered, and Lloyd took a deep but shaky breath and stared back at him.

“You did,” He said plainly as if Morro had told him that he had broken a toy and not everything that he had done.

“So why do you want to help me? ” He demanded, shoving the hysterics somewhere deep in his ribcage. It was too bad that his ribcage was very visible and open at the moment.

“You saved me,” Lloyd had said, leaving no room for argument. “Sacrificed everything that the Doctor had promised you, to save me. From dying. From becoming like my father. An evil zombie–” Lloyd made a face, and Morro looked on, a brief flash of amusement on his face. After all, Morro had taken his place as this supposed, evil zombie. “Okay, sorry, just a zombie, but you get my point! I owe you. Maybe not my life, since y’know, I’m not exactly over everything that you did, but it’s enough to want me to help you.”

 Morro had stared at Lloyd in silence– Forgiveness was not something he had been afforded in his very long undead life, and it was an odd feeling to gain it now. “Alright,” He said at last, and that had spurred the start of this…trip to the Temple of Life. 

And now, preparations are complete and Morro is crammed into this boat on wheels with his once-enemies for the next few weeks. “You brought the portable stove right?” Nya asks, jumping into the driver’s seat. The others have strapped into the seats behind her, and everyone is unbelievably quiet. Morro hadn’t realized how tense the silence had been, but now that he does, he can see that everyone is on edge. He highly doubts it’s because of anyone other than him. He knew this was a bad idea.

Kai nods his head, either oblivious or trying his hardest to ease the tension. Most likely the latter. “And the propane, the grill, the lighter, the lighter fluid, and the charcoal for some reason. Honestly, Nya, just because I don’t have my powers doesn't mean I don’t know how to start a fire,” He rolls his eyes, and Morro is surprised that despite Kai’s loss of powers, he can still manage to joke about it. Morro is still in denial that his powers are gone because he is sure that the reason has something to do with his half-mortality. Not anything else.

Nya scoffs, her eyes focused on the road, as Wu and Pixal wave them off and they start to make their way out of the mountains. “Are you sure? We lived in Dad’s shop for how many years, and I still don’t think you can light a fire without matches.”

Kai glares at her, looking offended as he crosses his arms, “Master of Fire, Nya, I don’t need matches! ” He reminds her in a splutter, and everyone shares an amused look. From there, chatter breaks out, lighthearted and pleasant, and out of the corner of his eye, Morro can see Kai and Nya share a relieved look at each other.

Well, until Jay demands that everyone should start singing 99 Bottles of Tea and Kai lets out a strangled scream and launches himself out of his seat to tackle Jay. Morro blinks at the scene and sighs when Zane is the only one to try and separate the two– everyone is too amused to even try.

Lloyd suggests they play eye-spy, a game that people play on long trips, but the leader of the Ninja forgets who he’s playing with, and Morro watches for the next hour as everyone competes to find the most mundane thing they can spot and get away with.

“Something yellow,” Cole says confidently, staring at the Desert they have just entered.

“Is it sand?” Morro asks dryly, “Or the sun? Because that’s the only thing outside right now.” 

Cole sniffs and points to the bright yellow exit sign. After they pass the sign, there really isn’t much other than the sand and sun. No one wants to play anymore, which Morro is thankful for– until Zane starts reading his book about Ninjago out loud, and has everyone groaning silently in their seats.

Morro is silent for the next few hours, watching as the landscape turns from the familiar mountains into a dry desert. How big was the Desert of Doom? He didn’t remember it being this vast, Morro glares at the sand as if it's the desert's fault that his memory is failing him.

“Y’know, I used to live here,” Jay tells him casually, as the sun sinks to the ground, and Nya stops at a nearby rest stop so that they can stretch, eat, and swap drivers. Lloyd and Zane are out looking for a vending machine to get snacks, and Kai is pulling out the portable stove, while Cole and Nya are outside clearing up a picnic bench for all seven of them. “Before I became a Ninja. They run a junkyard, though it’s closer to the city than where we are right now.”

Morro casts a look at the Master of Lightning. He knew the previous one– Libber, he remembers wistfully. The only one who hung out with him, even though he was being an asshole to all of Wu’s other students. “I didn’t know Libby was still alive,” He says quietly, his voice hoarse and crackly. Jay’s eyebrows fly up, “Libby?” He repeats, sounding confused as he hands Morro two folded-up camping chairs. 

Morro frowns, “Libber? The previous Master of Lightning? The person who gave you your powers?” He says, feeling like he’s missing a crucial piece of information as the two of them carry the chairs to the picnic bench. The weather is nice– which is a pleasant surprise considering that they’re in the desert. It’s even a little windy, which makes his long and tangled hair flutter slightly. It’s nice– really nice.

“You knew my bio mom?” Jay pauses and eyes Morro with surprising intensity, and if he could turn red, he probably would have. Even still, he feels the back of his neck warming.

“I mean, I wouldn't exactly say I knew her. I didn’t really have friends back then,” Morro coughs nervously, grimacing when tar fills his mouth. “And besides, she was either hanging out with Lily and Obra, or on dates with Gordon– some upstart actor who had this weird obsession with pudding cups– wait, did you say ‘bio-mom?’” Morro pauses, almost losing his grip on the chairs as he stares at Jay, who’s shrugging at him sheepishly.

“Uh, yeah. I found out I was adopted a few years back– and the only person who knows is Nya. I figured that if Wu hadn’t brought up knowing the person who had lightning before me in the decade I’d known him, then he wouldn’t know either,” Jay says bitterly. 

Morro can’t say he’s surprised. “Well, that’s Wu for you,” He says, his own bitterness creeping out. “Never says the things he should, and says the things he shouldn’t.”

Jay snorts in understanding, “Yeah, well. Me and Nya tried to find stuff on her, but we never found anything. I didn’t even know her name,” Jay is quiet, and Morro understands. He knows what it’s like to know nothing about the people who were supposed to care and yet didn’t, and being desperate for an answer.

“If you want, I can tell you what I remember about her,” Morro offers, startled by how he genuinely means it. Maybe it’s just because he understands, or maybe it’s because he finally has a heart beating inside of him for the first time in 70 years. Whatever it is, Jay gives him a sincere smile. “That would be awesome. Thank you.” 

Morro nods with a shrug, and they join the others; Kai is grilling something on the small stove– the smell of sizzling meat wafting through the air, and Morro absentmindedly wishes he had a complete stomach so that he could eat– and Lloyd and Zane have returned with a pile of chips and drinks.

There aren’t a lot of people milling around– it is late at night in the middle of nowhere– so it’s quiet and peaceful. Relaxing and soothing– something that Morro hasn’t felt in decades, and casting a quick glance at his companions, they haven't had in a while either.

“Alright!” Kai says a few moments later, grinning as he waves a spatula in the air, “Burgers are done!”

“I think I speak for everyone that this is the best quest we’ve had in a while,” Cole says as they all load their plates with food. “Honestly, this feels more like a vacation than anything–”

“Don’t jinx it!” Jay interrupts with a yelp and goes to knock on the wooden bench. “If some rabid beetle named Bernie pokes out of the sand again, I’m feeding you to it!”

The group goes silent, and Morro looks around, once again feeling like he’s missing something vital before everyone bursts into wild laughter. “Bernie?” He asks uncertainly to Zane, who at least manages to choke down his chuckles to explain.

“The last time we were in the Desert of Doom, an ancient beetle named Beohernie attacked us and ate the Thermolytic Kinetic Inverter, which resulted in me retrieving it from the beetle’s stomach,” Zane explains like half of any of those words means anything to Morro. “Jay nicknamed it Bernie.”

“But the only reason it attacked us is because we were being reckless and were driving off of the road,” Cole jumps in, no doubt reading Morro’s unimpressed look. “We’ll be safe on the path we’re on.”

“Knowing your luck, I highly doubt it,” He says dryly, and the Ninja don’t even bother to argue, instead just laughing harder. 

“At least with this quest, you’re the worst thing we’ll have to deal with,” Lloyd says, still grinning wildly, even if Morro wanted to take offense, his guilt won’t allow him that, so he offers a small smile instead.

“Uh yeah, Morro– I think out of all the villains we’ve faced, you’re top five. You’re actually scary so if we have to deal with some like… I don’t know. Ultra Violet or the Mechanic? You’re dealing with them,” Jay informs him, and Morro’s eyebrows raise in curiosity, as he ignores the reminder of once being a ‘villain’.

“You have a ranked list of the enemies you’ve faced?” He asks, and everyone shares a devious look with one another. Oh no, he thinks, but at that point, it’s too late. 

“Of course we do!” Nya smirks, “How else do you think we cope?” She asks, and Morro stares at her, trying to see if she’s being serious. She is, Morro realizes, and while he should feel concerned, he was also on their list, so really, this was a problem they all needed to face.

“So am I at least top three?” He asks instead, and Lloyd raises a hand.

“For me you are,” He says, grinning at Morro like that was a sentence to be smiling at. Which it wasn’t. These people are crazy, Morro thinks, before once again remembering where and who he is. But so am I, He sighs to himself and gestures for Lloyd to continue.

“It’s Harumi, you, and then Dad,” Lloyd lists off, and Morro should not be this surprised over the revelation. But he’s beating Lord Garmadon? Nice.

“I’m beating your dad?” He clarifies out loud with a snicker, and Lloyd shrugs, taking a bite out of his burger.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“How? Can I ask what the criteria are?” He dares to ask, and Lloyd grins again and shakes his head.

“Nope.”

“But I’m winning?”

Lloyd shoots him a look, although his lips betray a smile. “This isn’t a competition!”

Morro raises his hands in surrender, “You’re making it sound like it is!”

Lloyd snags a chocolate bar from the table, “My trauma, not yours,” he mutters, his mouth full of candy. 

Nya grins sagely in agreement, “For me, you're like top four,” She shrugs, and Kai nods with her. Jay shrugs, “I don’t know, I think he’s my fifth one?”

“Morro’s my third too,” Cole says, and Zane agrees with him. 

“Thanks, I think?” Morro grins uncertainly.

“Again, this isn’t a competition,” Lloyd grumbles, but he doesn’t seem too put off by the rankings. 

Cole pats Morro gently on the shoulder, “It’s alright, he’s just mad because he’s my number one villain,” He says with a wide grin. “After all, he did release the Serpentine and made our lives miserable for five years straight.”

Lloyd chucks the candy bar at Cole and then immediately dives after the bar before it can hit the ground. “I was ten! ” Lloyd screeches on the muddy floor, as everyone bursts into laughter once more. “I was ten, and you hung me up a pole! What was I supposed to do?”

“Not release the Serpentine!” Cole laughs as he leans back in his seat. From there on out, the rest of the meal is the Ninja trying to tell Morro the most ridiculous story they have– the best one Morro has heard is, “When the Ninja turned into children.” He had seen it vaguely in Lloyd’s memories, back when he was… possessing him, but the tale is much funnier when Kai and Jay do their squeaky voices, and Lloyd goes into extreme detail about the Fritz Donnegan competition.

So this is what peace feels like, Morro notes, as the Ninja’s laughter is the only sound around them. Everyone else at the rest stop is gone, and there is a faint buzz of insects around them. The sky is clear and he can see the stars so clearly, it’s almost jarring. Wind flutters around them– or in Morro’s case, through him, and it’s a pleasant night to be outside.

But then everyone is yawning and packing up, and Zane is offering to take the next shift so that everyone who requires sleep can get it. Morro doesn’t think he needs to sleep and doesn’t say much as everyone bids their goodnights and ducks into the back of the Land Bounty where all the bunks are.

It’s an hour after Cole, the last person to disappear into the back, leaves, and Zane eyes Morro, who is sitting next to him in the passenger seat. “Perhaps you should at least try–”

“I’m not going to sleep,” Morro cuts in with a scowl. “Don’t even start.”

Zane nods his head slightly, and they fall into silence once more. Morro watches as they pass a single car, small lights that grow and grow until they cross paths, and then the road is only lit by their own headlights once again. It feels oddly lonely, and now Morro’s desperate for any noise or proof of life that isn’t just him.

“Have you ever done this before?” He asks. Zane gives him a questioning look, his glowing eyes boring into Morro’s side. He shifts uncomfortably. “Like, have you, gone on a long trip before?”

“A few times,” Zane says with a shrug, returning his sights back to the road. “Not as peaceful as this, however. Usually, it’s because we’re attempting to save the day or something along those lines.”

“So you don’t have…vacations?” Morro asks, the word feeling foreign on his tongue. Cole had said it earlier, and it had been bouncing around in his mind for a while. “You don’t just explore Ninjago because you want to? Just have the roads take you around the realm you’re supposed to be protecting?”

“It would be nice to travel without worry. Sounds idyllic in a way,” Zane is quiet, the metallic ring in his voice disappearing for a moment, and Morro catches sight of a billboard that looks like it’s about to fall off. In faint letters, the sign read: Sylvia’s Splashy SuAquarium. 10 Exits Away.

“You ever gone to those sad little roadside attractions?” Morro asks, refusing to let his voice fall into nostalgic territory when he remembers going to that weird fortune-telling lady who loved selling bad advice to Wu. “Ones that leave you wondering why people decided to make that their entire life’s work?”

Zane catches him staring at the billboard, “I have not. But it would be interesting to explore. Perhaps on our way back, we can go?” He offers, and Morro shakes his head and leans back in the seat.

“I mean we can if you and the others want to, but I don’t think I want to do water,” He says, just as they pass another billboard, this time for some alien museum exhibit. “Maybe we could do something like that,” he points towards the sign. “The others would probably get a kick out of that.”

Then Morro wonders when he started to care about what the others would like.

Zane laughs, oblivious to Morro’s realization. “True,” he says. And then, “Do you mind if I put on a podcast? I haven’t been this far south before, and I’d like to know what we could encounter.”

Morro shrugs, “Go for it. It might be nice to know what has happened since I was dead.” He rests his head in his palm, as Zane presses a button, and a slow and evenly paced voice comes out of the speakers, talking about some forest that they’ll probably drive through later that week.

His eyes droop downwards, as the desert finally becomes more mountains, and he’s asleep before the sun rises.

+*+

Two days later, they’re driving through the Forrest of Luminescence, and Morro is reminded of the deep ocean, with no sky in sight, leaving the world around them dark and mysterious. The trees and plants all glow in different colors; blue, pinks, and greens, pulse as the Land Bounty’s lights brighten up their path. He thinks he spots a few birds, but they could be fish for all he knows. This place is unlike anything he’s ever seen.

“Dibs on taking out the bike,” Nya shouts, jolting everyone out of their awed stupor. She’s out on the deck before anyone can process her words, but when they do, everyone shoves against each other, all desperate to get to the other bikes that made their way onboard.

Morro watches, once again wondering how absolute children managed to defeat him, and shakes his head when he hears cackling and shouting echoing from upstairs on the deck. 

Cole– who is driving, and cannot participate in all of this– also shakes his head, but Morro suspects it's for a different reason than him. “I want to go, Zane can you take over?” Cole asks, and Zane rolls his eyes before returning to the book he’s reading.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

Engines roar in the quiet and Morro spots four motorbikes racing ahead of the Land Bounty a few moments later. Cole drops his head in defeat, “Aww man,” He complains, and the Land Bounty speeds up to keep up with the other vehicles.

Morro snorts, “Did you not bring enough for everyone?” He asks, and Cole shakes his head, just as Zane puts his book down and excuses himself to call Pixal and start lunch– grilled cheese sandwiches and a large garden salad.

“Only a few so if in case we were stranded or needed to get someplace where the Bounty couldn’t– we wouldn’t be stuck like last time.”

Morro nods his head, “Makes sense. Back… Back before I first managed to escape the Cursed Realm, Bansha taught us how to kill inanimate objects. It’s how Wrayth turned that motorbike into the bike that followed you to the train station.” he says, ignoring the way Cole eyes him nervously.

“While turning bikes into ghosts is super cool, in a super creepy way– You can’t do it anymore right?” He asks, and Morro shrugs, smirking slightly.

“Who knows?” He says mysteriously. “I am part ghost after all.”

“Not for much longer,” Cole points out, his eyes briefly flickering to Morro before staring back in front of him.

“Yeah,” Morro says quietly. He still doesn’t know how he feels about that if he’s being honest with himself. Mortality was not a good look on him after all– how many times had he died?

“After the Day of the Departed,” He starts, only to falter, feeling oddly hesitant. He shouldn’t be, he tells himself angrily. He had helped the Ninja fight against the mannequin-ed versions of their previous enemies and Sensei Yang. He had been helpful. He did good.

And yet, Cole had turned back into a human that day. Morro had died again, possessing a doll that looked eerily like him. He feels bitter and doesn’t have enough willpower to dampen the feeling.

“What was it like turning back into a human?” He says, his voice sounding strangled. “You didn’t exactly have this in-between state like I do. How painful was it for you?”

Cole is silent, guiding the Bouty to trail after Kai’s bike. “I wasn’t a ghost for as long as you,” he says finally, as the sky finally peaks its way through the dense trees. “It just felt like a super long nightmare. Something that didn’t feel real. But I still sometimes freak out about water,” he laughs deprecatingly. “And I still run into walls.”

Morro nods, that part made sense– he's only had this decaying flesh for less than a month and keeps forgetting that he now has bones and muscles and can no longer float with the wind.

“And I guess, adjusting to eating and drinking again was rough. And showering– oh man, I’d forgotten how nice it was to feel clean, ” Cole continues, and Morro grimaces. In his partially alive body, he still didn’t have the need or desire to do basic human necessities, but he supposes he should be mentally preparing himself for that. Human, he thinks, allowing for some wonder to enter his thoughts. It has been a while– and Morro isn’t sure that he’s ready to be whole and real again.

“But don’t worry dude,” Cole says, seemingly understanding his thoughts. “You’ll get the hang of it. And we’ll be here to help if you want it,” He says, and Morro hates that his vulnerability is that readable, but doesn’t say anything. There isn’t much point, anyway.

“Thank you,” he says, and wonders if he means it. He doesn’t know. 

Zane comes back, looking cheerful. “I’ve informed Pixal on our whereabouts and made food,” he says, pressing a button on the large dashboard. “Food is ready if you want to come back on board or if you would like to stop,” he tells the Ninja on the bikes. Cole takes control of the button. “And so we can swap drivers!”

Lloyd’s voice crackles back, giving them the affirmative, and in ten minutes everyone is back on the Bounty, digging into their lunch. Morro looks on, and wonders if the food quality has improved since the last time he ate– which was almost seventy years ago. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing, becoming human.

+*+

“I should have known that this wouldn’t have been a peaceful trip!” Kai seethes, as he uses his sword to cut a path through the dense jungle. Morro trails after him, 50% sure that they are walking in the wrong direction.

“Seriously! Were you expecting to be ambushed by goblins?” Kai whirls around and looks at Morro as if he expects Morro to say yes. “I didn’t even know goblins existed in Ninjago!” He continues, ignoring Morro’s reply, not that Morro gave him one.

“I don’t they’re called goblins,” Morro finally juts in, as Kai wipes away the sweat from his forehead. “Don’t be disrespectful.”

Kai stares at him for a minute, “Are you… being serious? They literally chased us away from the Bounty calling us demons, and you want me to be nice to them?” He asks bewildered, and Morro sighs, tilting his towards the sky and regretting literally all of his life choices. All of them. Even the good choices that he’s made were not that great if this is where he has ended up.

“Obviously I’m not being serious, I took care of them, remember?” he drawls out the words slowly, rolling his eyes, and then wipes at his face with a scowl when the black liquid starts leaking out of the corners of his eyes. His vision is already impaired, he doesn’t need to be completely blind, he grumbles to himself, cursing how irritating it was to be in between life and death. He didn’t mind either side, he’s finally determined to himself– but toeing the line? It’s really bothersome.

“Yeah about that– remember that you agreed to the no-killing rule?”

“An odd way of saying thank you, but I’ll take it,” Morro snips back, smirking when Kai shoots him a disgusted look but goes silent anyway.

The two of them resume walking, and Morro’s confidence in Kai taking them back to the Bounty dwindles with the setting sun. “Do you have any idea of where you’re going?” He snaps, suddenly losing all of his patience– which to be fair, isn’t a lot as it is– and Kai levels Morro with a glare of his own.

“It would be a lot easier if you could just float over the trees and see where the Bounty is,” He snaps back, and Morro narrows his eyes– ignoring the reminder that he was powerless.

“Oh, sure. Like I’ll be able to see anything in the dark,” He crosses his arms, and Kai scowls at him, no doubt reading the underlying statement. Won’t be able to see at night, even if your companion is the Ninja of Fire. 

“Come on,” Morro snaps, pushing past him. “We don’t want to lose any more daylight, because we’ll be useless in an hour.”

“Low blow, dude,” Kai growls, but Morro shrugs, continuing through the jungle. “Especially since you don’t have your powers either, do you?” Kai says it like he’s won a game, and Morro bristles silently, but he doesn’t turn around. He won’t take the bait. He’s better than that.

“Because, back before you came out of the portal machine, you practically created a tornado anytime something ticked you off,” Kai continues, and Morro keeps his lips tight. “And now I don’t even feel a breeze.”

Morro doesn’t say anything. Unfortunately, that doesn’t deter Kai. “You could have told us– It’s not like it’s not just you who doesn’t have their powers,” he accuses, and as the last streaks of light in the sky start to fade, Morro frowns and whirls around– his patience evaporating in the wind, no pun intended. 

“And what,” He grits his teeth, desperately trying to keep his cool– a hard feat to do with the Ninja of Fire– “Do you think you would have done? That’s right, nothing. I know how this works– I need to regain my powers by overcoming my fear or some crap like that– something which I can’t control!”

“What do you mean? You know why your powers are gone?” Kai asks peering at him with almost knowing eyes, and Morro scoffs, resuming their trek.

“I’m comfortable being a ghost and I’m comfortable being a human. Being stuck as both at the same time is a painful experience and I have hated every second of it. As soon as we get to this temple, and I become a human, I’ll have nothing holding me back and my powers will return,” He says, not leaving any room for doubt.  He refuses to believe anything other than that is the cause for his loss of power. 

“Careful dude, you’re sounding like a supervillain again,” Kai warns lightheartedly, no doubt trying to ease the suddenly heavy mood, and Morro stares at him stoned-faced. Kai shrugs undeterred, “But are you sure that’s really why they're gone?”

“Of course it is,” Morro dismisses, spotting something glowing in the distance. “What else could it be?”

“Okay,” Kai says, sounding uncertain, but then he spots the glowing lights too. “What is that?”

Morro squints, shouldering past a few more trees to come closer to a building with flashing lights and a sign for… gas prices?

“Is that a gas station?” Kai demands, standing next to him. “In the middle of the freaking jungle?”

Yes. Yes, there is.

It looks like a normal gas station that he’d probably find in the cities, which is jarring, considering the jungle landscape that spreads over most of the southern parts of the realm. There is even a road in front of the establishment, with a car parked to the side of it. All the gas pumps are vacated, but the point is that there is a station with no other civilization surrounding it. They could have at least added a restaurant next to it, or something.

Kai shrugs nonchalantly, “Eh, I’ve seen weirder. But I swear if it’s run by greedy cultist goblins who think we’re demons, I’m going to lose it,” he mumbles as he stalks towards the station.

Morro trails after him, feeling wary of it all as they get closer– or maybe it was because of the decent gas prices. Despite being born before cars were even a thing, and having no idea what the ideal gas rates should be, he’s heard enough of Zane’s grievances to know that gas was more expensive than ever before.

“And what are you hoping to accomplish?” He asks as they cross the paved road. “I don’t exactly think there’s a strong enough signal here to call the others.”

“Might as well ask,” Kai says cheerfully, as they open the door, and a small bell chimes. “Who knows, maybe the goblins have long-range!”

“I highly doubt that,” Morro tries to say, but gets interrupted by high high-pitched scream. They both whirl around and immediately duck as a bag of chips gets thrown their way.

“DEMONS!” The cashier screams and Kai bristles, brandishing his sword at the counter, as if about to charge.

“We are NOT demons!” He shouts back, and Morro groans as Kai prepares to launch himself at the screaming glimmering pink-purple goblin.

“No wait,” Morro grabs Kai’s shoulder and takes a step forward. “No killing, remember?”

“That was a rule for you, not me,” Kai mutters under his breath but crosses his arms. Morro rolls his eyes, “I’ve got this,” he says and takes a smooth step in front of Kai. 

The cashier takes a step backward in response and raises another bag of chips over their head. “Stay back, demon,” they warn with a shaky voice. Morro ignores this and walks around the counter.

“Actually I’m a zombie,” Morro clarifies, letting his eyes bleed green and as he steps closer and closer to the poor shaking cashier, he feels tar dripping down his cheeks. The cashier hits the wall and lets out a quiet squeak. Morro grins, and a louder squeak rings in the empty gas station. Oh, how he missed scaring people. 

If only he had his powers to knock down the shelves and cause the building to rumble with the power of his wind. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. Behind him, Morro can hear Kai sighing in impatience. Rude.  

“Wh-What do you want?” 

He has to strain to hear the question, and Morro shrugs. “Can I borrow your phone?” he asks, and that sentence is what makes the cashier pass out. Morro blinks and takes a step back in surprise.

“Oh great,” Kai grumbles, as he snags a yellow chip bag off the rack, and aggressively opens it. “This is your fault.”

“My fault?” Morro tosses his hands in the air, “You were about to kill them!”

“No, I wasn’t! And I didn’t loom over them like I was evil, either!” Kai points out, hands full of potato chips.

“I didn’t loom,” Morro crosses his arms indignantly, knowing full well that he was. “I was just asking to borrow their phone!” 

“Yeah. By looming,” Kai rolls his eyes and picks up the phone sitting on the counter, quickly pressing numbers as he munches on the chips. “Check on the goblin while I call the others, and hopefully we’ll be gone before they wake up. I refuse to get chased in the jungle this late at night.”

Morro spares a glance at the passed-out goblin that probably was going to wake up any moment now and shrugs. He’s pretty sure if he even looks at the cashier’s direction, then they’ll probably pass out again. “I’ll grab some snacks too,” he decides to stall and grabs a bag before stuffing it with chips and candy. 

“Don’t steal!” Kai hisses at him, his head tilted to keep hold of the phone as he finishes off the bag of chips that he most definitely did not pay for.

Before Morro can point out the blatant hypocrisy, the call goes through, and Kai’s face brightens. “Heyyy, Nya!”

Morro watches in bemusement when Kai’s face immediately falls as he winces and tugs the phone slightly away from his ear. “We’re at some gas station,” Kai explains in a rush. “Yeah! It was the goblins!”

Morro lets Kai deal with his angry sister and then the cashier stirs, and Morro opens one of the refrigerators in the wall, pulling out a bottle of water. Before he can hand them the bottle, he makes a mistake and locks eyes with the poor thing, and the cashier lets out another squeak before slumping back down. 

He just puts the bottle next to them and goes back to wandering the store, looking at the odd trinkets and postcards that decorate the wall. It’s all jungle-themed, and he wrinkles his nose just staring at the cartoon figures of animals.

“ETA is like, five minutes,” Kai says, putting down the phone. “Boy, she is not happy with me, as if it was my idea to get chased down by crazed goblins,” he mutters, and glares at the two bags of candy and chips Morro is holding. “No,” He says flatly. “We don’t have any money! And that’s way more than just a small bag of chips.”

Morro snorts, “It’s funny that you think that you have any control over me. And besides, they called us demons– I think it's fair we reward ourselves. It’s not like we’re robbing them of their money.”

“By stealing their merchandise? Like that makes any sense,” Kai raises a brow, and Morro shrugs, putting a keychain that has the letter M in the bag. 

“Better than you driving a sword through their chest.”

“I can hear you!” An indignant yelp rings through the building and the two of them turn around to face the dazed-looking goblin. “Demons! What have I done to deserve this punishment?” They wail loudly, and Morro gestures a hand at them, and looks at Kai to say, ‘see?’

“We’re really not,” Kai’s face shifts from anger to blankness, trying to go for patience and failing miserably, but Morro can applaud him for trying.

The cashier points at Morro, “His face is falling off! His eyes are bleeding black! I can see his inside of him,” the poor goblin shouts hysterically. They’re not wrong… and Morro can concede that he may indeed look like a demon. Still doesn’t explain why Kai was chased though. Maybe it’s the gelled-up hair?

“We’re working on it,” He shrugs, just as a large beam filters through the store, and the distinct outline of the Land Bounty becomes visible. Perfect, the Ninja are right on time.

“Fine,” He says, making something up. “You have survived this encounter. I won’t… ‘demon-ize’ you? But I’m taking these bags with me,” He heaves up the grocery bags, and Kai’s loud exasperation does nothing to cover the sigh of pure relief and the rushed nod the cashier gives him.

The two of them walk out of the gas station, Morro triumphantly holding out his spoils of war to the waiting Ninja. “We got snacks!”

Every other face stares back at him unimpressed, except Cole, who grins and says, “What did you get?”

+*+

There is a child sleeping on him.

Okay, well Lloyd’s not technically a child, since he’s as old as everyone else, but Morro has quite literally been in his mind, and to him, Lloyd is still and will always be an absolute child. 

Honestly, who eats five candy bars in two minutes? A child, that’s who, Morro grumbles in his mind, but doesn’t dare move an inch on the couch to escape his fate.

This is his fault– he sighs to himself, because had he not taken the bags of snacks from the gas station, Lloyd wouldn’t have been able to end up in a sugar coma, and therefore would not be using Morro as the world's most uncomfortable pillow.

He doesn’t even know how this happened, one moment they were all watching a movie that Jay had put on, and the next, the person he possessed was in his lap, snoring away. The worst part is that everyone else is asleep, wrappers and stray chips littering the ground, as Nya drives for a few more hours up in the front.

 This is uncomfortable, Morro decides. He would very much like to be out of this situation. “ Lloyd,” he says as loudly as he can in a whisper, poking a boney finger into the Green Ninja’s side. “ Wake up! ”

Lloyd moves slightly, mutters something incoherent, and snores again. 

Morro groans, feeling himself start to panic. He doesn’t want to move Lloyd, but he also doesn’t want to be stuck here.

“Lloyd, can you please wake up? Just for a second, and you can go back to sleep. All you have to do is roll over,” He begs, but it’s to no avail. Oh, why couldn’t Lloyd have fallen asleep on someone else– like Kai! He was right there and was no doubt a much better option than Morro!

A blinding light flashes in his face, blinding him, and when Morro can see again, he sees Nya grinning at him, holding out her phone. Did she just… Morro stares at her in dawning horror. 

“Delete it!” He demands with a scowl, but she just smothers her laughter as she takes another picture.

“Oh no, buddy. This is revenge for literally everything,” She says gleefully, and while Morro supposes that while he deserves the picture, he doesn’t deserve to be slept on.

“At least get him off of me!”

Nya shakes her head, “Suffer,” She looks a little manic when she says it, but Morro refuses to become deterred.

“I’m like the last person he should be doing this to,” He whispers loudly to her when Cole shifts in his sleep on the floor. “I have literally tried to kill him. Multiple times!”

Nya, who has killed Morro once, doesn’t seem to be too worried, which is actually so concerning. “Are you going to kill him now?” She asks, and Morro stares at her a little crazed.

Was she insane? “Are you insane?” He asks out loud. “No!”

She rolls her eyes and shrugs, “Then it’s fine.”

No, no, no, this was not fine. Maybe Nya was sleep-deprived and needed sleep to think properly. Because this was definitely not a good idea.

“Nya, you need to kill me right now before he wakes up and kills me himself,” He hisses at her, “Use a knife, water, poison, whatever,” He pleads, and she rolls her eyes.

“Stop being such a drama queen. He’ll wake in,” She glances at her wrist, one that doesn’t have a watch on it. “Oh, I don’t know, five hours from now?”

Then she freaking walks away, “Nya?” He whisper-shouts. “Nya! Come back!”

But she’s gone and Morro is stuck. This is not what he envisioned when they had planned this journey out. He glares at Lloyd’s sleeping form half-heartedly, “When you wake up, I’m going to kill you,” he threatens.

Lloyd just lets out another snore, leaving Morro in disgust and helplessness that he’s never known before. Ah, well perhaps he could put himself in a sugar comma, he thinks, reaching for a candy bar. Perhaps it’ll be less miserable that way.

Spoiler, it isn't.

+*+

But somehow, in some way, there are no other problems reaching the Temple of Life. Not that Morro’s complaining.

The temple itself is in complete disarray, with crumbling walls and columns smothered in ivy. It’s also super quiet, the only noise is their footstep pattering against the ancient stone. He wonders how long ago this temple was built and how long ago someone walked amongst these halls. In a sense, this place feels as much a ghost as he does. Teetering the edge of here and not, it feels… familiar. And isn’t that a scary thought?

Thankfully, it’s not as dark as Morro thought as they walk through the temple– a part of the roof has caved in, and streams of sunlight brighten their way. Not that they know where they’re going– Wu was unsurprisingly very vague on this part of their trip.

“Are we sure this is the place?” Jay asks, right before they find the central room. Then there’s no point in responding.

“Oh yeah,” Cole breathes, as they all stare in wonderment. “Definitely in the right place.”

Morro hums in agreement, as he takes in the room around him. He’s never known a place to be so full of green and brimming with… well, life.

Despite being in the center of a rocky barren land where there are only the harsh waves that crash over jagged rocks and frantic winds that whip across the mountains in a violent scream, nature runs wild here.

Lush plants and trees sprout from the grassy ground and curl around the walls as if creating an illusion of being back in the jungle. It definitely feels that way too, with wildlife walking through the room without care for predators, but something’s missing. Everything seems too still, too quiet.

“Hey, Look at this!” Lloyd points to some pedestal on the edge of the room. While it looks just as aged with time as the temple, it’s not decorated with vines or crumbling with disuse. It’s polished and glowing, and a few inches above the stone hovers a ball of flaming fire.

Morro hears Kai exhale sharply as they all gather around the pedestal. “It’s calling to me,” he murmurs, holding a hand over the ball of fire. His hand flexes and the ball turns into a large flame, sparks fluttering from out of his fingers and dancing across his palms. Kai breaks into a large smile, taking a step back to punch a large blast of fire into the air.

“We are back, baby!” He shouts gleefully, letting more bursts of fire out of his palms. “I’m not using lighter fluid ever again!”

Zane frowns, “But how?” he asks, and Kai shrugs. “I don’t know. It felt like a reminder, I guess. Of where my powers should be.”

“That makes absolutely no sense,” he declares, but before Kai can continue, Nya points at something behind Cole.

“Look, there’s more,” she says, and they all follow her finger to where another pedestal stands, this time holding a ball of rock.

A few feet farther from that, there’s a ball of water. Then a ball of electricity. A ball of ice. The more Morro looks for the pedestals, the more he sees. “These are all of the elements,” he realizes.

“All of them?” Lloyd asks skeptically and starts to walk around the room, and Morro follows him, searching for his own powers, but stops in front of a ball of golden energy. “Huh,” Lloyd says, staring at the ball, stupified. “How is this possible?” He asks, poking at the ball hesitantly. It flashes green momentarily before going back to a glowing gold.

“The First Spinjitzu Master,” an old voice says behind them. 

Everyone jolts out of their awe, and are quick to draw their weapons at… another goblin. A lot older than the ones they have already encountered with long white hair and a staff that could probably make Wu jealous, but still have the same shimmery pink-purple color and pointy ears. “Not this again,” Kai mutters under his breath, but thankfully there is no one screaming about demons. 

“Who are you?” Cole asks suspiciously, although it isn’t unkind. “And what do you mean the First Spinjitzu Master?” Jay jumps in.

The old goblin looks at them individually, before settling his sights on Morro. His eyes widen briefly, but he doesn’t say anything.  “I am Asferus, the keeper of this temple,” the old goblin introduces. “The First Spinjitzu Master tasked my family to protect this place, long before Ninjago was even considered to be a realm.”

“What do you mean?” Lloyd shifts uncomfortably, “I thought the First Spinjitzu Master created Ninjago.”

Asferus chuckles, “That’s what everyone is led to believe. No, he was not the maker of this realm, but he had a hand in creating it into what it is today. Before his arrival, a great serpent by the name of Wojira ruled the sees, and my ancestors along with the Merlopians helped him put her into a deep slumber.”

Huh. Well, that was interesting. Did Wu ever know this part, or had the First Spinjitzu Master hidden the truth to even his children?

“But what is this place?” Nya asks, pointing to the different pedestals. “Why are our powers here?”

Asferus looks sad when he says, “The First Spinjitzu Master had many enemies that tried their hardest to rid him from this realm and all the others. He worried that if his enemies managed to dispose of him and his allies, a remnant of their powers should be safe in a place that no one but their descendants or their chosen heirs would be able to locate and use.”

“So he created a vault of every Elemental power in existence, just in case something happened?” Cole clarifies, and Asferus tilts his head to the ground.

“Not all of them,” he says quietly. “Wojira had two elements under her control. One of them managed to make their way back to the First Spinjitzu Master’s allies– Nyad. She stole most of Wojira’s powers and it turned her into an ocean. Wojira fell into a deep slumber and in her wake, she left behind two amulets. My brethren on the islands protect one, the Merlopians, the other. But it has been many centuries since then, and you cannot hide something forever.”

“So someone found the amulets?” Nya asks, her eyes furrowed as she tries to make the connection. Morro is in the same place, this story doesn’t seem relevant to help him turn back into a human, so why was it being said?

“Two people, in two different eras. They gained some of Wojira’s powers, making them the Elemental masters of Water and Wind. The calmer versions of Wojira’s storm and waves.”

“Wait, are you saying me and Morro are the descendants of a snake?” Nya demands, and Morro winces. He’d once wondered where his powers came from, why the people who had abandoned him had given him this one gift that had made him think for over seventy years that he was special.

“Your powers are,” Asferus corrects, gesturing to the pedestal that holds the ball of water. “And not long after Raine discovered the Wave amulet, the First Spinjitzu Master found her and helped train her. He never discovered the Master of Wind.”

“Until now,” Morro says, crossing his arms.

“Until now,” Asferus agrees softly.

Morro doesn’t usually think back on his past for obvious reasons. He had been an orphan and homeless until Wu took pity on him and fed him with falsities. Had Wu known? Had he known that Morro was the first person he’d ever seen to use Wind, and thought Morro was special because of it? Had Wu thought he would be the Green Ninja, simply because no one else had known of an Elemental Master of Wind?

It’s so believably Wu, to do something like that, that Morro squashes down his anger and bitter resentment and hardens it into cold determination. So what if that’s what Wu thought? The past was the past, and there was nothing they could do to correct it. Unless he could somehow use the ball of time sitting on a pedestal next to him. 

Morro shakes his head, he wasn’t going to think of the what-ifs. “So this place holds the elemental powers– how does that turn me back into a human?”

“If all the elements are placed on each pedestal, then, in theory, it can reinvent whoever steps in its light. I believe that a few decades ago, a person tried to accomplish the feat of eternal life through a weapon, but failed to harness all the elements and cursed those that he used it on.”

“Yang,” Cole spits out in disgust and Asfernus shrugs.

“He had the right idea, the wrong ingredients. Perhaps you will succeed, or suffer a fate worse than him and your friend over here,” he nods in Morro’s direction, and Morro grimaces. 

No pressure or anything, huh? Good thing Morro is a pro at being under pressure– except there’s something that he can’t exactly control.

“In this state, I don’t have access to my powers,” Morro says, ignoring the way everyone, except for Kai, turns to look at him in surprise.

“What?” Jay demands, “We come all this way and you don’t even have your powers!”

“A few minutes ago, I didn’t even know that my powers were a requirement!” Morro snaps back. “Or that I got them from a freaking snake!”

“So what do we do? How do we get them back?” Lloyd asks, and Morro throws his hands in the air. 

“If I knew how to, don’t you think I would have done it already?” He asks frustrated. He had tried. He had tried so hard to cause something as small as a breeze. But his powers were gone. “I can’t do it when I'm both a ghost and a human. I don’t think it works like this.”

Zane gives him a calculated look, “Perhaps it’s not that. As a ghost, you shouldn’t have technically had your powers, and yet you did– not even in a weakened state but at full power. I highly doubt that now, partially human, you would be struggling to retain any of it.”

Morro scoffs, “So what? You’re saying this is all in my head?”

“Yes,” Zane agrees bluntly, and Morro refuses to look at Kai, who he is sure has an ‘I knew it,’ look on his face. 

“So how do we not make it in my head?” He asks, “Have a small therapy session?” It’s meant to be said mockingly, but the Ninja actually exchange a look and contemplate it, and Morro holds out his hands to stop it. “Nope, no way. No therapy, not from you at least.”

Kai coughs, “I don’t know about the others, but I was going to suggest something else.”

“Trust me, I am all ears,” Morro says a little too quickly.

“When you think of your powers, where do you feel that tugging sensation where your power resides? For me, it’s near my shoulders that goes down my arms and into the palm of my hands. I know the others feel it differently, but where do you feel it?” Kai asks, and Morro frowns with a small shrug.

His power was like another layer of skin. Armor that was invisible to everyone but him– the only thing he could call his own. He was the wind in a sense, the ease of being able to bend it around him came as naturally as breathing. 

Which is why it was so hard to adjust to just… not having it anymore. It was suffocating without it– it was like a piece of Morro was missing. Or was it the only piece of Morro? Was he anything without his powers? He’d like to think so, but he doesn’t know. His life has been so much change, so much chaos, that to have his one constant ripped away from him… He’s swept away with nothing to keep him tethered.

It makes him wonder, why had his power left him after escaping from the Doctor’s portal? If Zane is right, and it is all just mental, then why would he be blocking it out? His wind was a lifeline, a constant in his life and death and ghostly resurrection. What would make him subconsciously want to be away from that?

Maybe he deserved to be without his powers, a small thought creeps into his mind. How many people had he hurt with his powers? It hadn’t just been the Ninja who had suffered from his wrath, and maybe mentally, Morro hadn’t wanted to be with something that had been a cause of it. Maybe… Maybe.

Wind flutters through the remains of his hair, and Morro blinks his eyes open. He hadn’t realized he’d closed them. “Oh,” he breathes loudly as the wind flows through the room, singing to him like a lost friend. He hadn’t realized that’s why the room was so still and quiet. The wind was gone.

He breaks into a grin, letting a large gust blow through the chamber, and the Ninja cheer, sounding more relieved than Morro thinks they should. “Now what?” He asks Asfernus and the elder points to the farthest part of the room. There is an empty pedestal, and Morro has some idea of what he should do. 

“Place a piece of your power onto the last pedestal, and I shall start the ritual,” Asfernus explains, and Morro cups his hands together, and lets the familiar hum soothe his bones as he forms a ball of wind, swirling violently on itself, and places it in its spot.

Then Asfernus begins to chat, ancient, archaic tongues, and before his very eyes, the moon makes its way over the sun. An eclipse, Morro’s mind flashes back to the Day of the Departed. But this time, it is not a comet, and it is not Morro going back to the Cursed Realm.

No, this time– as a glowing gold portal is cast in the center of the room, the middle of every pedestal that contains an element– this time, Morro will get to live.

He takes one small tentative step toward the portal, making sure this is what he must do before his legs take a mind of their own, and he’s walking, running towards the portal. Unlike before, where he had gone from ghost to zombie, in complete and utter agony, begging for another death to come his way– this time, it’s like a warm embrace.

His first death had been inhaling the poisonous gasses in the Caves of Despair, and his resurrection has him breathing fresh air. Gold swirls around him, filling him, fixing him, making him whole.

And then it’s over, and Morro is breathing and alive, and so, so, thirsty.

He stares at his fingers, now covered in flesh and muscles in wonderment. Alive, he thinks, barely able to believe it. The Ninja crowd around him, all grinning at him in delight, and Morro can only mirror their faces.

“It worked,” He says, feeling dazed as Lloyd helps him up from the ground.

“You’re alive,” Lloyd confirms, squeezing his hand slightly before letting go. “We did it.”

“And no one was trying to kill us! New best quest ever!” Jay jumps in, laughing as Kai swats him. 

“Tell that to the crazy cultists!”

“Okay, fine. No one was trying to kill me, ” Jay amends, and Morro can’t help the smile bubbling out of him.

“This has been quite the easy trip,” Cole grins in agreement, “Can’t believe we’ve already finished it.” Zane shakes his head. “The journey is not over yet. We still have to get back to the monastery.”

“That’s right,” Morro nods his head, “I think we agreed to four roadside attractions, right?”

Everyone breaks into an argument about which they should go to first, but Morro slips away to see Asfernus. “Thank you,” he says quietly, and the old goblin smiles at him.

“The temple is complete, thanks to you,” he says, gesturing to the room around them. It’s true, the temple is back in pristine shape, with no more crumbling walls and caved-in roof. “A fair trade in my opinion.”

Morro ducks his head, “I guess, but still, thank you.”

“Try not to repeat it,” Asfernus tells him lightheartedly, and Morro snorts. Yeah, there was no way he was going to die again– not until he was Wu’s age– and thinking of Wu, Morro pauses, feeling unwanted panic consume his newly remade body. Was he prepared to deal with Wu?

No– well, maybe. He’ll see. Right now he was going to enjoy the fact that he was human, had his powers back, and had another week's worth of touring around Ninjago before dealing with Wu and all the battles that it came with.

This was a vacation, and Morro is definitely going to enjoy it as much as he can. He deserves it.

[m00nl1ght-sun25]

Heya! I'm the greenflower request sjxnks

I really don't have preference

But you can make something connecting with when they live in Darkley, like, Brad or Lloyd remember something similar happened in their children's

Maybe after the s8, or any season after s8 likee s10 or s15

Ok! :D also i realized like a sentence or two before I finished it that I didn’t really have lloyd sick- i was more focused of hurt/comfort and like darklys and all- im really sorry, if you want I can do a part 2 where it focuses more on lloyd being sick, again i’m really sorry. But i hope you enjoy and also if you do end up disliking this fanfic please tell me and and I can always remake it- so the fanfic will be under the cut and also if you do not know, I am dyslexic so to anyone reading, please don’t be rude or mean if I misspell anything wrong or phrase stuff wrong, you can always politely tell me and I will gladly fix it, please and thank you! :D

Heads up

This is after seabound/season 15

I hc that after nya left lloyd ran away to live with brad in a apartment so that’s where lloyd is :)

This takes place after the burning fate oneshot :P

Trigger warning

Suicidal thoughts

Cussing

Depression

Implied Self harm

Implied and mentioned Child abuse(different parts)

Mentioned Suicide attempt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You and I Drink The Poison From The Same Vile

The rain was falling around Lloyd as he blankly looked over the balcony and into the busy streets on the busy city. He often stood here, just wondering what would happen if he jumped off and ended it all… would anyone miss him? No. No one would. 

He was letting him tired mind wonder in this moment of sorrow. He thought about many things… Nya, The others, His parents, Master Wu… He was thinking about it. How this was all his fault. If he wasn’t the fucking green ninja none of this would’ve happened. Nya would still be here if he wasn’t a shitty leader or friend. 

He wonders how different life would be if he hadn’t gotten kicked out of Darklys… would Nya still be here? Yes. She would. Because then Lloyd likely wouldn’t have become the green ninja and so she wouldn’t of had the sacrifice herself for his stupidity. 

Hair falls in his face but he doesn’t have the strength to move it… he’s so tired and his wrists sting so badly and he’s so fucking tired form being unable to get sleep without having night terrors. But he deserves it, does he not? He doesn’t deserve to be content and happy in life. Not after he was the reason Nya, his (adopted) sister, is gone. 

Everyone probably hates him. Why hasn’t Brad broke up with him? He’s a monster. He killed his own sister. All he does is kill. His father, Harumi, Zane with the overlord, Morro, and… Nya. He could’ve saved all these people or taken their place and things would’ve been so much better. But no, their paying the price. The price he deserves, not them…. Okay maybe Morro does deserve to die… but… Even if he did hurt Lloyd so much, Lloyd still feels sick thinking like how Morro does. 

“You’re going to get sick like this, Lloyd…”

The sudden voice made Lloyd jump and he quickly looked back into the apartment balcony door to see Brad, his boyfriend, give him a worried look… Lloyd still can’t get that look out of his face from when Brad “saved him” from committing. The absolute terror and sadness Brad had in his eyes that day… it as only a couple of weeks ago. Lloyd feels like a absolute dick for making Brad so worried. He’s such a burden for Brad. He should just jump. Maybe this time nothing will be in his way and he would make Brad so much happier.

Lloyd flinches a bit when Brad took Lloyds hand in his. Gently intertwining their fingers and giving Lloyd a soft smile. He gently pulled Lloyd into the apartment and closed the balcony door behind him. Brad pulled Lloyd to the couch, which Lloyd followed him with hollow eyes that kept their gaze on the ground. 

Lloyd didn’t say or do anything as Brad sat him on the couch with a soft but worried expression. Ever since Lloyds last attempt Brad has been even more protective and watchful of Lloyd. 

His dull green eyes looked up to see Brad walk into their bedroom and walk out with a blanket a second later. When Brad walked up to Lloyd he draped it across his shoulders and Lloyd looked to the ground as Brads soft blue eyes tried to lock with his.

Brad gently sighed and plopped on the couch next to his blonde lover. The blue eyed boy wrapped his fingers around the green eyed boy’s. A look of love was on Brads face as he looked at the beautiful blonde. 

“Do you want to talk about it Lloyd…?”

Brad tried to tilt his head so he could be in Lloyd’s field of vision but Lloyd turned his head to the side so he couldn’t look at brad. Lloyds shoulders tensed and he shook his head.

Brad was upset but he knew it would only get better if Lloyd talked about it, he gently squeezed Lloyds hand in his and rubbed his thumb across the back of Lloyds hand as he said in a soft voice.

“Please, I just want to help.”

Lloyd knew that Brad wouldn’t stop until Lloyd told him what was bothering him so Lloyd just sighed and leaned onto Brads side and whispered with his voice filled with guilt.

“I was thinking about Nya… and how different things would’ve been if I was never kicked out of Darklys. Like… would I still be the green ninja? Would Nya still be here? Just so many questions….”

Brad flinched as Lloyd mentioned Darklys, the place was hard for them both. But especially Lloyd. The teachers knew how good Lloyd was so they thought that beating it into him would “fix” him. It didn’t. It just made him more traumatized. 

So, Brad thought for a moment of how to respond to Lloyd. He wrapped his arm around Lloyds shoulders and kissed his cheek, Lloyd glanced at Brad with that but then looked away. Brad understood how much pressure Lloyd put on himself… so he didn’t mind. He knew Lloyd loved him.

“Lloyd… I think, in full honesty, being kicked out of Darklys was honestly the best thing for you… I don’t think you would’ve… I don’t think you would’ve survived. They were so brutal, and to you the most. You… You were so skinny and always had cuts and bruises… And with Nya. That wasn’t your fault. It was no one’s. Nya choose to do that, and I don’t think she would want you to blame yourself for her decision.”

Lloyd sat quietly thinking about it, he laid his head on Brads shoulder as he looked up at Brad. He tensed when Brad mentioned how harsh Darklys was… he understood why Brad thought that, but maybe just give Lloyd a few years and he would’ve been just like his father in that hellhole. 

Then he thought about what Brad said about Nya, and how she wouldn’t want him to blame himself. Now, he can see that. But that doesn’t stop him. He feels like a failure, and that’s never going to go away. He’s the leader. It’s supposed to be his role to keep everyone safe, and he failed. He couldn’t save her. He quit when she needed him most…. ninja never quit? Well he must not be a ninja then. 

Brad carried his fingers through Lloyds soft blonde hair, and kissed his forehead. Lloyd felt like melting at the affection. But at the same time he felt like yelling at Brad and telling him to stop, Lloyd doesn’t deserve this. He doesn’t deserve Brad. Or anyone for a matter of fact. 

Instead of doing anything though Lloyd just laid in Brads arms. He was still a bit wet and shaking from standing in the rain… Brad was right, Lloyd would get sick… great. 

He wrapped the blanket from Brad more around himself and then sneezed. His noise started to leak and Brad playfully rolled his eyes and joked to Lloyd.

“Now, what was it I said about you getting sick by standing out there?”

Lloyd just whined in response and Brad playfully rolled his eyes. He stood up and handed his hand out to Lloyd as he smiled to him.

“Let’s go get you cleaned up.”

[goldenavenger02]

I gave my blood, sweat and tears for this

Lloyd processes the events of Crystallized. For @the-writing-trash-panda

'Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold. Think of it like a slow flowing stream instead of a rushing waterfall. And again, breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold. You've got it now.'

It wasn't hard for Lloyd to follow the advice that Nya had given to him on one of those stormy nights after everything happened with Morro; in fact, her advice was practically a constant in his head these days.

As soon as the monastery was reconstructed, many of the people who had stuck around to help repair it had left and while that had been expected, Lloyd would have been lying if he had said that he didn't want his dad to stay.

He knew that the others wouldn’t understand and he couldn’t even blame them with how much pain his father had caused all six of them since he had been brought back; at the same time, he was just now starting to see that the good in his father was returning with how much he had cared about the plant and how much he cared about…

‘Harumi.’

Lloyd pushed back any thoughts of her and tried to return his focus to the task at hand; working on how to control the Oni inside of him where no one could get hurt. 

But the lingering fact was still in the back of his mind about how she had saved his life that night and how he may never be able to forgive her for everything but he also couldn’t stop himself from caring about her wellbeing.

He forced his short fingernails into his palms and closed his eyes as he focused on Nya’s words.

'Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold.’

“Lloyd?”

He knew that wasn’t his internal voice and opened his eyes to see his uncle approaching him; even as the man was growing more weary, he still had that same youthful look in his eyes that Lloyd had seen when he had to face his father for the second time in his life.

“Hey, Master Wu.” Lloyd straightened his back and tried to seem as preoccupied as possible, hoping that he wouldn’t be questioned on why he was in there in the first place, but his uncle seemingly could always see right through him.

“Is there a reason you’re training at,” his uncle stopped to look up at the analog clock on the wall before returning his gaze back to him, “two forty-seven in the morning?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Lloyd shrugged off the obvious concern and walked forward to try and send him back upstairs, “that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t rest though. Don’t worry, I’ll be up bright and early for sunrise exercise.”

“I know you will, because I can’t remember the last time I saw you sleep at night,” his uncle offered a sad smile and Lloyd knew fully well that he had been caught, “you know that you can talk to me about it, Lloyd. After all, he is my brother.”

Lloyd’s stomach churned at the thought of telling his uncle everything, at the thought of telling anyone anything. His father, Harumi and the fact that he was petrified that he would hurt someone if he fought again, was his burden.

‘I can’t put that on anyone else. Not when they’ve already done so much for me when they didn’t have to.’

“I understand,” Lloyd nodded with a dry swallow, before forcing himself to look his uncle in the eyes before continuing, “Can you just leave me alone now, Master Wu?”

He knew that any of the others with the exception of his mom would have pressed him further, but to his surprise, his uncle just nodded with understanding etched on his face and started to walk out of the room.

But before Lloyd could get back to work, he heard the parting words that would nearly stop himself in his tracks for the night.

“Lloyd, the world rarely stops for any of us and I have a strong feeling that things are going to return to chaos very soon, so as soon as you feel ready to talk, please let one of us in.”

But before he could question him about what he was seeing in his visions, the doors closed behind him and he was forced to go back to the grounding technique Nya had taught him and use it in his attempts to have control when he awoke the Oni inside of him.

'Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold.’

[blursed-ninjago-ideas]

Whumptober 2

Decided to let myself have some Kairro. It's been ages since I touched that AU and every time I do it feels self indulgent. Don't know why, a lot of people seem to really like it.

Prompt: "They don't care about you."

Randomly Selected Whumpee: Kai

Selection method: Asked a student I passed in the halls to choose a number.

TW: Blood mention, manipulation

--

“How many times do I have to beat you over the head with it!? They. Don’t. Care. About. You.” Morro snarled.

Kai raised his bloodied face and debated what comeback to use.

“I don’t know. How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not going to let you use your paranoia against me?” Kai said, his lip dripping wine red drops onto the concrete.

“They’re your abandonment issues.” Morro countered.

He was calming down and changing tactics. Probably realized that Kai’s temper had gotten the best of him again.

Morro made an excellent mirror to show Kai how ugly his anger could get if he didn’t control it.

“As if you didn’t have any of those yourself.” Kai laughed, wincing from the pain it caused him.

He just had to buy enough time for the others to find him. Nya was going to turn the whole room into a water park as soon as she saw Morro.

The trick was holding the line against the emotional manipulation. Hard to do when the manipulator lived in you head so long he left some of his things in the guest room.

“I left Wu, remember?” Morro said.

His smirk had Kai convinced he was looking at a mirror for a moment. It was to be expected. It went both ways after all.

Kai knew why Nya looked at him like a stranger sometimes. She never said anything about it, but Kai saw her every time she did it.

It had an effect.

Kai had slowly stopped bragging after Lloyd was forced to admit that he sounded more like Morro when he did it. When all of your friends get noticeably uncomfortable every time you get excited that you won a video game, you stop commenting on it.

Kai wondered how he used to sound when he would brag. How was it different? Did Morro get that trait, or did it disappear? Which one of them had “stronger” bragging mannerisms? If Morro got his way and they fuse, who would they sound like?

Would they sound like Kai when they told jokes? Would they keep that smirk, or would it disappear?

“And I never trusted anyone else long enough to get left behind.” Morro finished, yanking Kai from his thoughts.

He couldn’t think of a good retort. It had only been half a second, but Kai’s mind had wandered miles away from the conversation. It must’ve shown on his face, because Morro snarled again.

“I see you don’t have my focus.” Morro said sarcastically.

It wasn’t Kai’s sarcasm. It was a difference they still had.

Morro grabbed Kai’s face and dragged him up.

“Listen to me. They are waiting for the chance to get rid of you. You serve them now, but what happens when you get annoying? Too angry?”

Morro leaned in so close, Kai could smell the strange ghostly scent his spirit had.

“They will leave you.” he whispered.

“Like my parents?” Kai said with an eye roll.

He saw where Morro was going with it and he was sick of the line of thought.

“If the people biologically programmed to love you couldn’t manage it, why do you think they can?” Morro said as he dropped Kai.

Kai scrapped himself off the ground.

“Because they’re good people.”

“And your parents weren’t?” Morro said with a predatory grin.

Kai shivered and looked away, but he had thoroughly been caught off guard and didn’t have a response.

Just when he thought he had control of the conversation; that he had everything guarded, Morro came at him from an angle he didn’t think of and crawled under his armor. It was how it work from the very beginning.

“So, we agree he doesn’t ‘deserve’ to be the Green Ninja?”

Kai shook his head clear.

“So you don’t think your parents were good people?” Morro asked in a mocking voice.

“I-” Kai could only make the one sound.

“Because you’ve always defended them to Nya. You wanted to be a blacksmith and continue their legacy. You honor them every year on the Day of The Departed.” Morro continued.

“I do.” Kai whispered.

“That doesn’t sound like you hate them.” Morro said.

He was leading Kai to something. Kai didn’t like it, but he didn’t know how to break out of it.

“I don’t.” he confessed.

“But you should.” Morro pointed out.

He sounded so much like Kai’s therapist when he said it. It make Kai’s breath shake. He didn’t like the conversation. He wanted Morro to go back to trying to convince him the other ninja didn’t care about him.

“You should, but you don’t. Is that right?”

Morro didn’t give Kai a chance to answer.

“Then wouldn’t it be a good thing if I could hate them for you? If I could be angry for you? Then you can hate them like you should!”

Kai covered his ears. He knew what he was feeling. It was the same thing as the first time.

“He didn’t ask to be the Green Ninja. We did! Destiny passed up not one, but two perfectly good options to force the responsibility onto a child. That doesn't seem fair. You’re right, he doesn’t ‘deserve’ that! We could not only take what we worked so hard for, but relieve Lloyd of all that pain. That’s a good thing, right? We could work together and fix it!”

That sinking feeling that Morro was making sense. Scrambling for an argument, but nothing making as much sense as Morro’s words. Desperate to not agree, but finding no other thought in his mind.

Kai could only bite his lip and hope his friends were just around the corner. He wasn’t holding out for much longer.

--

That was just pure fun to write. I'm glad I did this.

-Ivy

[y0urlittl3ang3l]

MY AU Garmadon Headcanons

As stated in my previous headcanon he and Wu are actually much younger looking than they are in the show, Garmadon doesn’t care for what others think him and doesn’t bother changing his appearance except for maybe making his tail and horns go away but other than that he doesn’t change anything

In my mind I like to think that Misako had gone after Garmadon after Wu introduced them to each other, and they got happily married, had children together and were happy. But after having Lloyd, Misako decided that she should cheat like the bitch that she is and then write about it for ‘history’ then the whole ‘burn/first burn’ thing happens and Garmadon gives her a huge rant before telling her to leave, then he got banished to the underworld(let’s save more of this for another post lmao)

His first name is actually Yakushi(I looked it up I actually named him by a last name lmao) and it means: 薬 meaning medicine, chemical, enamel, gunpowder, benefit./ 師 meaning expert, teacher, master, model, exemplar, army (incl. counter), war. In reality I just put Yaku and Shi together lol because well Yaku was the accumulated bad luck from everyday life and Shi was death so I was like ‘oH uNfOrTuNaTe dEaTh’

He is a very tall man at 6’6(213 cm)

When the other ninja tell him about Harumi, he’s torn between wanting to knock some sense into her or thanking her for bringing him back to his son after all this time

Garmadon takes Lloyd out on Father son bonding days, sometimes he takes the other ninja too

He’s actually Nya and Kai’s godfather, as decided by both Ray and Maya

Garmadon always tells Lloyd and the other ninja he loves them at least once a day to show them he cares 🫶

When the other elemental masters saw him during the tournament of elements they were surprised at how young he looked compared to Clouse and Chen though they were alive at the same time, then Garmadon had to explain his dna and how it worked and worked in jabs at Clouse and Chen

He didn’t steal no letter, Misako wrote letters to him and Wu

Garmadon has been singing lullabies to Lloyd for Lloyd’s whole life like when Lloyd was a baby, when Lloyd was a child at Darkley’s(showed up as a shadow and sang to him like that), when Lloyd was a teen, and even as basically an adult. He will never stop because he likes to sing to his son

He has a few scars on his body like the bite from the great devourer, when he got possessed by the overlord, has a scar on his side from fighting his brother with the golden weapons, has a scar across his chest from when he got into a with someone bullying Wu, has a large burn scar on his back that covers the majority of his upper back, and he also has random scars on his legs from when he was a child

He loves cuddling and will cuddle Lloyd, Wu and sometimes the other ninja(if they want to)

He likes to draw and has taken to drawing Lloyd, the other ninja, Wu, plants and animals in his free time

He hates puppets and he hates snakes even more

He’s an amazing cook and an even better baker, and he always drags the ninja into it along with Lloyd, lots of good memories for the Lloyd, ninja and him

A stress baker

His eyes glow purple when he angry

He’s Bisexual(spoiler for Lloyd’s hcs, Lloyd is bisexual as well)

He can speak almost all the languages of the world but his best languages are English, French, Japanese, Chinese, and Sign language.

Children love him, and they like to play on his tail and horns like a jungle gym

Because of his oni instincts he wrestles Lloyd all the time because well..it’s the fight that fuels them

He has piercings on his ears, his nose, tongue, eyebrow and snakebites because I said so

He has lots of tattoos

He likes to use his shapeshifting to transform into popular myths like Bigfoot just because of the reaction he gets is too priceless to not do it

He has Lloyd’s birthday tattooed onto his wrist, and he has his other children’s along his spine next to their initials

He’s so fucking smart, yet so fucking dumb like he’s a genius but also a Himbo

He drags Lloyd and the other Ninjago with him to go get boba tea, because he really enjoys it

He builds pillow forts with Lloyd

When the ninja found out his first name they started calling him nicknames that only derived from that name, so he in return came up with a bunch of nicknames for them too

For Kai it’s Firecracker, Hot head, Muffin(to tease him), Little Lion, Champ, Hotshot, Firefly and hedgehog

For Cole it’s buddy, Rock star, Beefcake(teasingly), Tiger, Hercules, and Tarzan(when Cole was up in the trees and shit)

For Jay it’s Blue Jay, Chatterbox, Sparky, Giggles, Pipsqueak, Small fry, Freckles, Energizer, Peanut, Turbo, Blueberry,

For Nya it’s Sweetheart, Nya dear, Queenie, little warrior, Shortcake(she hates it), Princess, Dove, Duckling, Rosebud, Pumpkin, Dot(shortened for mom of daughter), and Lotus

For Zane it’s Titan, Dear/Dearie, Sweets, Snowflake, Pinkie pie(he teases him with this a lot as he has heard endless chatter from Lloyd about it), Chef, Love bug and Zay

For Lloyd, oh he calls him a plethora of nicknames. Them being Son(original ik), Blossom, Angel, Teddy bear(in French sometimes as well), Kiddo, My light, Sweet boy, Bubs, Cuddlebug, Bright eyes, Sunshine, Bambi(his mother is dead to him), Dumpling, Stardust, Peaches, Munchkin, and my world(as he did say that Lloyd was the world of his image before getting banished lmao)

He loves the ninja a lot, and he always does his best to take care of them and spend time with them

Also more on Harumi for a second, he almost killed her, like it was on sight for him. And he was all like “Don’t ever come near my son ever. Again.” And then Lloyd stopped Garmadad from killing her because ✨second chances✨

He might’ve taken an oath of no violence, but he will break it if his son for the other ninja are threatened

He’s taken the MBTI test thing 5 times he got both ESFJ AND INTJ. Though he got ESFJ more than INTJ( he just wanted to be sure he knew what his was)

[nacho-business1]

Yu-Lin crystallized

I kinda just want to get this over with so that’s why I didn’t do Lin’s entire gi and some of the drawings were done with half effort. :/

Lin doesn’t really want to go back to being a ninja until Lloyd or Pixal convinces her to ( not sure which one yet, probably pixal)

Lin and Lloyd are still on rough terms

Lin likes to hang out with Jay and his glasses of water, she actually thinks it’s kinda comforting to have the glasses of water around

Lin mostly stays at the monastery while the rest of the ninja get aspheera and her staff do to the fact she’s having trouble with her shapeshifting ( she’s out of practice)

when Nya comes back she gets to stay with her because she ( as far as the new ninja or the police know) wasn’t apart of aspheera’s escape or the stealing of her staff

Lin does help the ninja escape and is on the run for that

Lin goes with Kai, Zane and Dareth when the ninja split up in the desert

She goes with the boys to find Lloyd after he disappears

she rides on the bounty when they get (steal) it back

when they get Lloyd from Primeval’s eye Lin senses something slightly different about him

when the bounty arrives at the village Lin goes and helps the other ninja fight the vengstone warriors while Lloyd and Wu investigate who’s been sending the newspaper clippings

Lin knows what The Oni Form before Wu tells the rest of the ninja what it is

Lin trains to achieve her Oni Form with Lloyd but doesn’t unlock it even though she knows how

to do it she has to use the power of hatred, which is similar to the power the mask of hatred had except more powerful and destructive.

When the ninja ask Lin if Garmadon knows what he’s doing she does admit he’s right about how to achieve it, in a way.

when Lloyd accidentally uses his oni power Lin senses the same thing as when they were in primeval’s eye

Lin was on the side of the bounty with Lloyd and Garmadon when it gets split in half

Lin doesn’t want to disagree with Lloyd but she also feels bad for Garmadon when Lloyd yells at him

she just feels like she’s in a very awkward position, and she is

When Lloyd tells Garmadon why he doesn’t want to embrace his oni side he kinda forgets Lin is there until it’s too late. (Which causes a whole thing.)

Lin decides to stay at the warehouse while with the others while Lloyd and Garmadon go to the crystal island

Lin finally uses her Oni powers ( not the Oni Form) when the ninja start to lose, because she didn’t want to lose the family she’s made

Lin physically can’t do the dragon form, if she did it would harm her

when Lin meets Harumi she’s not really sure about her but decided to give her a chance

Lloyd and Lin eventually make emends in the end

[benjimatorarts]

Finally made it to Sons Of Garmadon! While rewatching the series I do have some random notes that I took during the viewings. And don't take any of these serious because they're just random rambles and my own bias opinions that I thought I can share with the rest of the class. Notes on the seasons:

Posseccession:

I don’t have a lot of things to say about this season. It was interesting and makes sense that the ninjas wouldn’t be his first students. Morro is fun as an “edgy bad boy and also a salty ass bitch because he wasn’t the chosen one but let’s be honest Morro, you don't want to be the green ninja” and with his character design makes him pretty popular in the fandom despite being in one season and that one episode in Hands of Time.

Despite Morro being a pretty major part in Wu’s past and regrets he has made as a teacher, Wu wasn’t really in this season as much as he should be.

I didn’t really care about the subplot of the team struggling to find a “new leader” after Lloyd was possessed by Morro when they were fine when Cole was their leader before Lloyd was ever the green ninja. I give a lot of credit to Cole for always setting up and being the rock for the team, even if it cost him to be a ghost.

Spellbound: 

…. Oh god this season...

I did not like how they treated Nya and Jay in this season.

I’m glad the show addressed the issue of Nya being forced to be the water ninja, being the “girl” of the team with its own issues, and destiny issues that I actually felt for her. It makes it even more sad that she can’t be samurai X anymore, something she made for herself. 

This season felt like a really bad fanfiction and the Jaya fans deserve better than this. Especially after they broke the two up in Rebooted with a pointless love triangle that resulted in Cole and Nya getting together because a match making machine justified her in cheating on Jay. AND THEN AFTER ALL THAT DRAMA THE TWO BROKE UP OFF SCREEN. Makes you think what was the point of that love triangle plot if only to add more drama to fill up the episode. (looking at wu/garmadon/misako love triangle).

It’s also funny how this season tries to make you root for Jay and Nya to get back together while Jay and Cole have much more chemistry than Jay and Nya do. 

I can go on and on about this season but all that happens in this season doesn’t matter because it did and didn’t happen.

Definitely my least favorite season and I’m glad the show pretends the season never existed.

Hands of Time: 

MORE SECRETS WU IS KEEPING FROM THE NINJAS

I wish there was an arc for Wu to learn that while he is their master, he is their team member and he doesn’t have to keep these issues to himself. But maybe there is an arc and I haven’t caught up just yet. At least he has Misako as an emotional support pal and yes I said pal (I know at this point they do have feelings for each other but not really together together and I’m going to ignore that whole *gestures Wu and Misako* deal…

I will say I like the villains in this season better than the last season that never happened.

Skylar is in such a mood. Noodles are great comfort food.

(I only just started Sons of Garmadon at the time of typing this.)

While I’m kinda sad Nya isn’t Samurai X anymore, I am glad someone is taking the mantle and I’m hoping it’s Pixel! 

Also I kinda ship Ronan and Dareth??

Sons of Garmadon: 

Currently on the second episode. 

Not to disrespect the writers from the last couple of seasons, but from the start I can tell the writing is so much better and I can’t wait to watch the rest.

Also I like that it’s canon that Lloyd’s voice before SOG is just him not finishing puberty yet. While I miss the old voice actor, I do like the new one.

Thats my rant for the day. Back to Sons of Garmadon!

I just rewatched “Corridor of Elders” still hurts.

Also… all the BS around the fucking “letter” is still as frustrating as I remember.

This was the last episode of the series I watched before I stopped keeping up with the series. Not that I didn’t want to, I was really excited for haunted. But I think it was because they killed off my favorite character and the weird implications between Wu and Misako are just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

But I’m honestly going to give the rest of the series a second chance!

And will be making more Ninjago content!

[sins-and-wins-with-vix]

Everything Right/Wrong with Ninjago “Legacy of the Green Ninja” E12: Return of the Overlord

Disclaimers: Show owned by lego. This is not a professional review/critique - it’s mainly intended for comedy.

Reblog, comment, and/or like! And make sure to tell me your thoughts!

- In case anyone is wondering about my mental state, I’m writing this pretty much right after watching the Crystalized finale and now listening to the intro is making me cry ✅

- Yada yada, beginning of this episode is different than the ending of last episode ❌

- “Red doesn’t seem to be your color. I think it’s time we try on a darker shade…” a darker shade of red is still red. ❌

- “Who cares about Ninjago!?” Blasphemy. The fandom is coming for you, Jay

- “Nya was my… my…ya know…” show treats the word “girlfriend” as if it’s as scandalous as saying “woman I occasionally f*ck ❌

- “I can’t fight him…” This is a tough predicament for Lloyd to be in - I wonder what familial comfort, or wise advice Wu is going to give him in these trying ti- “You must!” Yeah I really don’t know what I was expecting ❌

- “You have my fire!” “And my earth!” “And my ice!” “And lightning!” I don’t even care if this is a Lord of the Rings ripoff - Ninjago did it better ✅

- Also, Lloyd doesn’t have Jay’s lightning apparently. He just has lightning in general, but it’s not Jay’s ❌

- “We’re all in this together, kid!” Kid ✅

- The army may not have been there but it was a 10/10 entrance ✅

- “And here I was all ready to release the thunder!” Cole forgets his element ❌ (I’m hilarious I know)

- ^Lloyd! Didn’t your mother teach you not to change costumes in the middle of dramatic moments!? Kids these days ❌

- “He always wanted to turn Ninjago into his own image. Now we know how it’ll be done.” “But if he starts turning things evil…” Wait, how did we get from “he’s gonna use the weapon on Ninjago” to “he’s turning people evil?” Wouldn’t it be more likely that he’s just gonna nuke everyone or something? ❌

- “You go on without me.” No joke, when I first watched this scene all those years ago, my gut instinct was that Julien was gonna die, like right after the ninja walked away. Like we’d see the ninja fight the Overlord, then later we’d hear about how during said fight he, somewhere offscreen, had just dropped dead. To this day it is still my first thought every time I watch this.

- “Has anyone else been thinking about how this might be our final fight together?” “It’s all I’ve been thinking about.” Oh no I’m gonna start crying again, aren’t I? ✅

- “Remember that time Kai thought he was the green ninja?” *all start laughing* “He was SO NOT.” RIP Kai, burned to death by his brothers’ roasts ✅

- And, really? “Time?” As in one, SINGULAR moment when Kai thought he was the green ninja? ONE? ❌

- “You just had to destroy my tree house!” Lloyd, salty since episode 2 ✅

- “I thought [Wu] was a goner!” *bonk* “Wrong again mr. Empty head!” D*mn okay 😭 ✅

- We just glossed right over Nya learning Spinjitzu, didn’t we? ❌

- *Nya trips Lloyd* “No one does that to the green Ninja!” It’s a good thing Lloyd doesn’t go to school because Kai would murder any and all who dare bully him ✅

- “He must’ve used the ultimate weapon to turn her into his own evil image!” “Ahgjgjghg!” oh nO she groWLs😱 ❌

- “But… you said you’d always be behind me!” And they already screwed that up - they’ve been running in front of you this entire scene ❌

- Fun fact: Nya was originally going to be the master of wind, not water, which could explain how she does this sonic-like thing and stops Cole in midair, but now that her element has been changed to water it doesn’t make much sense, does it? ❌

- “So the balance has sent my son, my brother and wife to try to stop me?” Remember a few episodes back when I said you could replace words like “destiny” and “balance” with “plot convenience” and it’d actually make more sense? This is what I was talking about ❌

- “It looks like my little surprises kept the ninja busy!” Surprises? You only sent Nya. Is there another innocent civilian forcibly turned into an evil zombie just chilling around the island that no one ever found? Are they still there currently? *gasp* Ninjago: United plot line revealed?!?!👀😱 ❌

- “I don’t wanna fight you but I will if I have to. This is about more than just us - this is about what is right!” Solid line! Wait… we’re about to have a Garmadon monologue, aren’t we? A Garma-logue, one might call it? H*ll yeah I love those! ✅

- “Don’t you see? I will never do what is right - the evil in my blood can never go away! It has corrupted every ounce of my fiber, every bone in my body!” Oh it’s about to get really good isn’t it… this is like waiting for a beat drop ✅

- “I AM LORD GARMADON! Destiny took my family from me, and the only way for us to be together is to turn everything in this world into my image! Then you’ll all see what I see, feel what I feel!” ✅✅✅✅

- “You could’ve warned me it had to warm up!” “How could I? You were monologuing.” The Overlord believes in the integrity of uninterrupted Garma-logues ✅

- What is Misako’s bag made out of that it shields her from blaster fire??? ❌

- Yes, it is small, but this is the first moment that they’ve ever physically fought with each other! The slow-mo, and the way Misako gets distracted and just stares at them - I can’t even express how powerful this is ✅

- This too! We’re seeing people scream in fear before getting turned into zombies, and the “We’re losing” followed by “I win!” ✅

- “It’s four against one and I think she’s winning!” You THINK? Cole, you’re literally hanging upside down! ❌

- “Maybe we can use our powers without hurting her!” It’s taken them this long to figure out non-violent ways to use their powers? No wonder this show is rated as “fantasy violence” ❌

- “You stole that from my playbook!” Which is probably why you should’ve seen this coming sooner, especially when your entire family was literally just warning you about this exact thing ❌

- “Ninjago is mine!” “No… it was never going to be yours… IT. IS. MINE!” ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅

- I also love that when you see everyone’s faces, you can see Wu and Misako are scared but Lloyd is ready for a fight ✅

- “The metamorphosis HAS BEGUN!” ⬇️

- “Metamorphosis? What does that mean?” Kai skipped sixth grade ❌

- Overlord’s mouth movements aren’t synced with his words at all ❌

- “All this time… everything has led to this…” Not me getting goosebumps ✅

- “I’ve been planning this for thousands of years-“ “EAT GREEN!” Remember how Overlord believed in allowing others to finish their monologues? Lloyd doesn’t ✅

- “You are all alone!” “No! I’m not! My father is still in you - he won’t fight with me!” ✅

- “He is the green ninja!” Yeah, no sh*t?? Kai, where have you been the last entire season????? ❌

- ^ Jay ✅

- “Your father is… GONE!” F*ck! I’m supposed to be giving commentary but I don’t even know what to say to this ✅

- “But… the prophecy!” “Easy, kid! You’ve been through a lot!” Kid ✅

- “Destiny showed us who was stronger today… but destiny also wanted us around to fight another day. We didn’t lose the battle. Today, we just lost the fight.” ✅✅✅✅

Sentence: Get Overlorded lol

[kittydemon9000]

SO MORE STONE KAI

Ichiro had been traveling across the land for weeks when he first spotted the house. It stood alone atop the hill, surrounded by rice fields and a single path that he assumed led to more houses.

And he kinda just. Watches the house from afar for a while. He doesn’t really know if he should talk to them or not since most of the time he does people either run away, scream, try throwing things at him, or all three

But then one night while he was watching the house, he noticed a group sneaking in. It didn’t seem right to him. The three human residents were already inside and he’d never seen other humans enter when the lights were off.

He decides to go investigate

It was actually a good call on his part. When he tries to sneak in, the group has the three cornered in one of the rooms, the biggest one trying to fend them off with a sword and fire and the smallest one has water leaking from her eyes.

He quickly takes care of them

He doesn’t kill them, but he does break some bones and sends them running for the hills. Who would’ve guessed getting punched by a being of indestructible stone would do that to a person.

Ray thanks him and Ichiro has no clue what to do, because this human isn’t afraid of him???? Even though he just saw him severely injure other humans????

Ichiro just kinda leaves, but still watches the shop. Only this time the Smith’s know he’s there. Maya even invites him inside a few times and they get to know each other.

Like how he has no idea who he is. 

And doesn’t really have a place to stay

Yeah, they adopt him pretty quickly into the family. Nya’s actually the one to gave him his name, since “Mom and dad said that if I ever get a brother, they were gonna name him Kai, and you’re like a big brother :DDDD” Nya also likes to paint and decorate his stone skin, and he always gets so sad when it chips or needs to get washed off, so Maya began to take pictures so he can remember them.

After a while, Ray actually gets back in touch with Wu so he can get Kai a sort of glamour to make him look more human, and it eventually arrives in the form of a simple platinum ring.

Kai cries a bit when he finds out he can go into town like a normal person. Ray and Maya had to keep a close eye on him because he kept almost wandering off. Ray also teaches Kai how to forge and he’s a pretty quick learner, which just makes both of them happier and closer together. He eventually passes his power onto Kai, but doesn’t have time to tell him before Krux kidnaps him and Maya.

And Kai…. Kai always got weird feelings from Dr.Saunders. He didn’t like him, but never brought these concerns to Ray and Maya, but he always made sure Nya wasn’t anywhere close when he visited. And once the parents disappear, Kai swore he would do his best to raise Nya just as well as they raised him, after all it’s the least he could do repay their kindness.

Kai also becomes very thankful he doesn’t need to sleep and spends many nights in the forge finishing orders and such. But he does try to not overwork himself, after all Nya worries.

After their disappearance, Kai stopped taking off the glamor ring, even when he “slept,” pretty much to the point that Nya kinda forgets about his real Stone body. She’s aware that Kai isn’t human, but she just doesn’t remember quite what he looked like without the ring and doesn’t want to ask since it seems rude and he looked just so. Happy being seen as a human. Even years later he practically glowed when people called him “young man” or “kid.”

Fast forward a few years to when the Skulkin show up. Kai is a little upset that Wu wasted time saving him since he would’ve been fine, but knows that A Normal Human Teen would’ve probably died so he brushes it off.

Speaking of Wu, he just. Stares at Kai for a few seconds, for two reasons

1) he doesn’t remember Ray and Maya mentioning they had another kid, but spots the glamour ring and assumes adoption, probably of the magic variety

And 2) he could swear he’s seen Kai before. He doesn’t know what it is, but he’s so familiar. He chalks the second thing up to the glamour because part of the way it works was making who it’s hiding unrecognizable to those who knew them. there’s also the fact it’s been well over 1000 years since he last saw Ichiro, so there’s that too

During the Get Golden Weapons, the dragons get very weird vibes from Kai. Like, he absolutely reeks of Creation, but also quite a lot of Destruction, plus something they can’t identify(magic from The Overlord). They don’t really know how to feel about him, but he’s pretty nice and the other humans trust him, so they mostly ignore it.

The situation with Nindroid Zane goes a little different with Kai being more respectful of Zane’s “weirdness,” mostly because he recognizes the behavior to be similar to his own when he washed up on Ninjago and first started living with the Smiths. He’s also super supportive after the truth is revealed, for obvious reasons, but is also more relaxed around the others and even starts planning to maybe possibly reveal to them the truth someday.

The volcano scene is where things start going a little more different.

Such as how parts of Kai’s gi start burning away from the lava, but he doesn’t seemed bothered by the heat. In fact, Lloyd would swear he saw his foot slip into the lava for a few moments, but he just chalked it up to the heat messing with his vision.

S2 has even more of these subtle differences.

1st off, Kai has a much easier time with the birthday kids since he can’t feel pain, but doesn’t quite tells the others what happening during the parties since that’ll make them suspicious and worry. He also tries to eat as scarcely as possible in order to save money since he also doesn’t need to eat.

The Time Rewind with the Grundle does Literally Nothing™ since Kai is a few million years old, 7 years ain’t gonna do shit.

But then we enter the last few episodes :D

When they go to the museum and see the Giant Stone Warrior, Kai is getting weird and bad feelings from it, like he’s torn between running away, trying to reason with it, and turning it to rubble. But at the same time, it’s also familiar, reminding him of some of the swords he kept that Ray made.

And then when I takes up, the Warrior is like “wait, that’s Master’s son what’s he doing here by himself” and is just trying to grab him to take back home, which the ninja just interpret it as the warrior wanting to kill him. After all, the Stone Warriors were enchanted to prioritize Ichiro/Kai’s safety above all else.

This starts him fearing his true form, especially after what Misako and Wu tell them about the Stone Warriors. He was created to bad, for evil, yet for some reason he is different from them and he’s terrified he’ll turn on his family.

Nya also has a vague feeling of familiarity seeing the Warrior, but doesn’t know exactly what it is.

And then of course. Things get worse :)

When Garmadon takes the helmet to control the Warriors and starts the Countdown Clock, Kai gets a weird chill. He doesn’t know what just happened, but he knows it was Very Very Bad. Then later when they land on the island, Kai immediately feels off.

The place is so familiar, like he’s been here before. Yet it’s also so forign in a “I swear that rock wasn't there last time” way.

Upon their landing, The Overlord also noticed a strange presence on the island, an old and familiar one, but he can’t place it, nor track it.

Anyway, the ninja go to infiltrate the Dark Camp, and all the Warriors get thrown off by Kai’s presence so they get chased out, but he’s able to accidentally remember the location of the temple but plays it off by saying he found a map.

But the main change happens on the beach, just as Garmadon and the Overlord are about to leave for Ninjago.

It goes mostly the same at first. Garmadon succeeds and hits Ninjago with the Dark Matter, The Overlord betrays him, Lloyd tries to fight them and looses, BUT this time The Overlord decides it would be best to finish Lloyd off.

But then Kai takes the shot for him.

For a second everyone thinks Kai’s about to die

But it only destroys his clothes and the glamor.

The Overlord is in shock

His son…..his son was alive

He was alive and standing before him, looking exactly the same as when he was taken away. The same charcoal skin, the same acid green eyes, the same red, carved clothing that was enchanted to behave like regular cloth.

And he was overjoyed.

His son was here and alive and okay.

Meanwhile Kai is freaking out because what the hell why is the Overlord calling him “Ichiro”

Kai finally snaps when the Overlord starts saying he’s his father, at which Kai yells at him that NO YOU’RE NOT, RAY SMITH IS!!!

This then get the Overlord angry.

He ends up correctly figuring out that the reason Kai doesn’t remember is because the barrier took out the Overlord’s magic, so he just. Dumps Dark Matter on him.

And Kai has a Very Bad Time.

In the span of seconds, millions of years of memories are being returned to him. His head hurts, it hurts so much, there’s too much, too many, stop it, please make it stop.

And then The Overlord just kinda. Picks up Kai like a kid and leaves through the portal along with the rest of the Stone Army.

Everyone is left freaking out

Kai’s a Stone Warrior?!? And his name is Ichiro?!? He’s The Overlord’s son??! What?!

Wu meanwhile is sitting in shock, mostly at the fact that Ichiro was alive. After all, the FSM told him and Garmadon that Ichiro had died in order to avoid their anger at him accidentally banishing him.

When the others start questioning Kai’s loyalty and motives when he steps in though and explains the story of Ichiro and his creation and the real reason for the war. They’re all left reeling, feel horrible for doubting Kai, and getting ready to murder both The Overlord and the FSM, because let’s be real, both messed up pretty bad.

When Lloyd finally gets to the top of the tower, he finds not only the Overlord, but also Kai. He’s incredibly out of it, still in a lot of pain, but he’s here. And his presence is enough to give Lloyd confidence, because he’t not alone his older brother is here with him.

So at the end of the fight, which now included some encouragement from Kai, on top of Garmadon being healed, Kai gets his memories back :DDDD

He also gets a lot of trauma too but that’s not important

In the space between S2 and 3 Kai opens up about his past, reconnects with Wu and Garmadon, and they try to get him to get therapy but he refuses/avoids going so they mostly just talk to him one on one.

Bit of course……season 3 is it’s own fun time :)

[firesofdainix]

October 22: Masters | "I wish you never told me about the prophecy."

When it’s MY prompt!!! WHOOO!!! (so is Day 20 but THIS is the one I’ve been waiting for). I’ve literally written half of this before this gets posted, and let me just say... I’m practically VIBRATING in my seat rn.

@morrotober

AO3 Version

*

An excerpt of my S5 rewrite in which Morro talks Wu into joining his expedition to destroy destiny instead of becoming the Green Ninja.

*

The Bounty was oddly silent without his ninjas' presence— whether it be loud whooping from each of them in the living room as they watch a game, or bickering about serious matters, it was always filled with life.

The ship rocks slowly as it passes through the ethereal blanket of the night, nearing a rather stormy region in the continent. There were the sounds of rickety old wood, the fire of the rocket boosters burning, and shuffling furniture as the Bounty swerves from left to right. But, it lacks the invigoration of the marks that the ninja have; Kai's fiery protection, Jay's electric energy, Nya's fluid hobbies, Zane's ice-cold calculative nature, Cole's sturdy dependency, and Lloyd's lively disposition. They were not here marking the Bounty in ways where they have made it clear this is now their home, but rather, leaving it cold to the touch.

Wu wanted to come with them— the ghosts have his own nephew, after all. Say what you will about Wu, but by his own father he wanted to be with his family to save Lloyd Garmadon.

You let Lloyd slip through your fingers once more, the teasing lilt of Garmadon's voice becomes angry, ravenous even. If he was still alive right now, he would have prevented this. What kind of sensei does that?

Wu cannot apologize. He has nothing to say sorry for.

Want to know why he stayed behind?

Because he knows his ninja could do it alone.

He's seen their determined gazes as they look at one another, devoted to saving Lloyd and stopping Morro's plan.

"Master Wu, you should stay and watch the Bounty," Nya tells him, donning her ninja gi as the others prepare. "They might target our own home."

He feebly tells yes because… who is he to deny their whims?

Once the door closes, and he has no staff to lean on as his aging body has to remain old, a shadow passes over his face.

A shadow of regret and anger.

Anger for himself, of course.

Because he has assigned the ninja to clean up the mess he’s inexplicably made.

Was he ever a good teacher to them?

Yes, the sound of a voice that is currently swimming around him tells him, but he doesn’t believe it one bit.

NO! A voice reminiscent of a howling wind threatens his ears, a ringing sound of a child crying following soon after.

He believes that voice over the former.

As the Bounty calmly rocks at a slow, sedated pace, thunder rumbling outside, Wu walks down the familiarized hallways, having to use the wooden walls as a pillar to substitute his missing staff, stolen by the boy who had it all, before the weapons took it all away like a tornado.

He still could not believe it— after years of searching for the clue to his father’s tomb, it had been right under his hands, and he just had not suspected, even when his own father sat him down on the porch of their monastery, handing him his beloved and prized staff, before bidding farewell and walking down the steps as Wu watches on with confusion and stupefaction.

(Perhaps he had not listened. Perhaps he just didn’t want to listen.)

A strong wind blows against the ship, and he staggers backward as the ship struggles against this torrential wind. His mind ponders if it was Morro, summoning the winds to torment him over his regrets and decisions, but he shakes his head. While Morro and Wu are currently at odds now, he is not quite focused on defeating him— rather, he was focused on outdoing Lloyd, taking the title of the Green Ninja.

Admittedly, he is thankful that Nya had pressed the autopilot button before she left; he doesn’t know the intricacies of working on a ship such as this.

Hobbling to the outside of the Bounty, his hat almost flies over his head once he fully walks outside, the winds a ghastly beast. He catches it in a reflexive manner, setting it on his head hard.

He stares at the wind with a slightly puzzled expression.

The wind is quite wild tonight. Ninjago City did not broadcast monsoons coming so soon; it was still in the middle of the dry season, after all.

The ship enters a rather cloudy and foggy section of the sky, the ground and the moon being covered by the deep blue-gray of the puffy clouds, perspiration flowing around him. Cold vapor touches his skin, like a cold child’s hand touching his warm face all those years ago.

How time flows past him, he cannot comprehend either.

Wu inclines his head upwards, somewhat disappointed that the clouds have blocked his view of the moon. One of his favorite things to do when he was alone was brew some calming tea, settle himself on the ship’s deck, and stare at the moonlight with a content expression.

Just like old times.

“Wow Master Wu! The night looks so pretty up in the mountains.”

Wu grits his teeth.

Just like old times.

Somehow, for some reason, the wind grows stronger than before, to the point he has to hone in his training to cling onto the ship before he is blown away.

“The wind is angry today,” he muses to himself, feeling slightly worried. “It is as if…”

Clouds start to gather in front of the hull.

Wu stares at it with wary eyes.

A green glow starts to emanate from it.

Wu gulps, his throat coarse; had a ghost followed him?

The cloud starts to settle on the main form, as it continues to move at an inhumane pace, floating over the ship’s hull as the color green starts to glow brighter contrasting the darkness surrounding them. Wu transitions into a fighting stance, narrowing his gaze as the cloud continues to shift back and forth, before the tails of a scarf emerge from the tails of the clouds first, bending over the hull whilst the winds blow wider, definitely trying to veer the ship off-course, now that Wu is completely deducing the situation.

And, seeing how only one Elemental Master of Wind exists at this point in time, and he has a certain fixation on scarves, Wu knows his guest by now.

It still does not make his heart settle down, however.

Because now, he is being confronted by Morro, alone and without any interference.

The wind starts to tame itself as if it has been pacified by the arrival of its master. Or rather, Morro just wants the dramatic flair every villain must have when they reveal themselves.

While he feels something akin to a dreadful excitement in his heart, his calloused and bony hands hold him together, regret pooling as Morro’s own form continues to be built up by the clouds, soft and hard edges uniting as one.

Then, green-gold eyes stare at him through the dark.

The cloud dissipates, and the ghost of his first student appears in front of him.

“Morro,” he says, brazen and brusque. First student or not, he is actively attacking both him and his students. He lets out a deep breath, “My ninja are seeking your headquarters. Should you be there to stop them rather than waste your time on me?”

Morro raises a hand; shaped like a claw, fingernails sharp enough to distract him. He has an idle expression on his face, but Wu knows it was simply fake. Morro has never been an idle boy. "Why can't we not talk to each other anymore?"

"Because," then Wu becomes speechless as he tries to remember what he has to say without sounding as if he was objecting, "You are now against us, are you not?"

Morro hums, like a whisper against a loud crack of thunder. He turns to face him once more, a sneer on his lips. “Perhaps I am. But I know you hesitate to fight me, your first student.” He leans closer, but they are still far apart, something sincere passing over his gaze before it flickers away. “Your son.”

Wu’s eyes grow wide. Morro’s lips curl into a smile.

His thoughts betray him; Morro has indirectly called him his father. He has recognized that, in the short time they’ve been together, they have envisioned each other as father and son.

Huh, this feels familiar; a father on one side, and a son on the other.

Green eyes stare towards the wasteland in which the red ones reside.

Ah, now he knows why.

“... Son?” He repeats, walking further into Morro’s trap. He knows it’s a trap. And yet, he doesn’t step backwards.

“I denied you the courteousness that you deserved to be given, master.” Morro turns to the side, as if he was hiding the laugh that threatens to fall from his mouth. “You are my father; not the bastard that smokes and hits me with a tray over my head.” Bitterness explodes from his speech. Wu was merely hypnotized with the way he has called him his father.

But, while he could feel the joy that is being called a father by the only student whom he had failed (You do not deserve being called a father, Garmadon’s spiteful voice returns with a vengeance), he immediately remembers what has transpired over the past few days.

His mind was at a large impasse.

Must he always choose?

If he chooses nurturing and to aid the ninja, casting Morro out of the newfound circle he has found himself in, Morro will fall, deep, deeper down to the abyss in which he has perished. (Was it now too late to save him?)

If he chooses Morro… What of the others?

Why must Destiny make him choose? Why could he not forge his own path? Why must he let one suffer so the others shall thrive?

“You cannot save me any longer, father,” Morro says, resentful. A tragedy embedded into the stone. “I have chosen to side with the people who are willing to let me obtain what I want.”

"I know you want to join me, deep down," Morro's voice was deep, a reverberating sound of his suffering because of the worst mistake Wu has possibly made that affected his own loved one, and his thinly disguised anger and resentment, stored in the years he's been out of Wu's life, a killer, a villain in the making.

A villain which Wu had created, all because he thought he was the hero that would save them all.

Did you want to kill me, brother? Is that it? Garmadon's voice, always harsh but blunt, comes back to haunt him on the fateful night in which Misako had an epiphany to get her and the object they were arguing over out of that accursed monastery, disappearing like the stars that had once lit Wu's life with happiness and content.

He didn't think that, in the very end, Wu will pay the price for the mistakes he'd caused.

Telling too much to a starry-eyed, ambitious child who wanted to seek validation from his own master. His words filled with the glory and excitement he's had over finding the one in the guide of the prodigious child that has too much, so much talent.

(And, in the very end, it wasn't him, and those eyes that shine like the sun give way to the dreading feeling of fucking up someone who has so much to live for.)

He already knows what he is after— the Realm Crystal, a priceless artifact coveted by many ambitious individuals; they kill themselves to find the Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master to purloin it.

And, once again, it is his own father’s fault that the world has come to such a conclusion.

Blaming someone else for your own wrongdoings is the most immature thing you have done, Garmadon's soft voice, never having left him alone, says, as if floating above his head in a wisp of eternity. You should know better. You should be better.

Indeed he must be.

But he seems to never have gotten better.

Now, he is faced with one of his worst mistakes and biggest regrets in his life: the ghost of his first student, tainted by the influences of the Preeminent that rendered him into… what he is now. It takes Wu a long while to adjust, having to look at Morro through a lens where he was now the villain after years of viewing him as the child he had lost both to destiny's whims and his own foolishness. Yet, no matter how much their fates are tied together, they will always be at different sides fighting for a different cause. He was perched on the Bounty's hull, as if he was a bird crying out a war that will befall on them all, his claw-like hands scratching his own ship with force (soft hands help him with chores, the embrace they have together). His scarf flows wildly in the wind; a wild element, unbound by both the master who it serves and the storms that it always accompanies, soaring through the skies as if it was some sort of hummingbird. (A wind that was once warm and filled with the sounds of passion, ambition, and pride, souring to become what it feels now: as cold as the storms that rack the entire world, anger, envy and resentment flowing like a whirlwind in the making.)

He was not the Morro he remembered.

And yet, in his heart, he knows it is the boy whom he had attempted to raise to become the savior of the world.

His idea of saving the world, however, was not in a way Wu had taught him.

"This is not who I wish for you to become, Morro," he continues to speak when he has no right to even converse with the young man whom he had failed. His voice was no match for the howling of the wind, beastly and ghastly, like the shrieking of a banshee. He did not know if his voice is carried by the wind towards its destination; now that its master is back, they are now inclined to follow his every order.

He hopes that the sadness dripping in his voice would carry well to him.

Morro sneers, poison and conflict evident in his expression. Even after all these years, he could still read him like a book. "You made me like this, Master. You told me that destiny has spoken the day the Golden Weapons refuse to react to my presence, how I was nothing more but the Elemental Master of Wind but the Green Ninja." His green eyes, filled with a chafing torrent of feelings, makes him pause. His scarves fly around the wind like claws racing to tear him apart. "But now, I realize it is not you, nor the pathetic son of Garmadon who denied me of my destiny." As if on cue, thunder rolls from the distance.

Wu remains standing against the impeccable storm, hoping to knock some sense into his first student. If he can do the same with his own younger pupils, what is the difference between them and a man he's wronged? His beard flies and his conical hat threatens to be blown away as the Bounty's autopilot hits a rather bumptious section of the skies. "Why have you returned then, Morro? If you no longer desire the title of the Green Ninja, what is your motivation?"

He smirks, his grip on the hull becoming loose as the wind attacks the wood of the Bounty, ripping apart its rough surface like paper. He stands in the midst of the ship, a shadow in the limelight cast in the night sky. He was thin like a twig, and yet, he was just as strong as his pupils, possessing a strength he had once seen in those who started training with their own elements early. His strength is, indubitably, one of the sole reasons Wu has deduced him to be the Green Ninja, only for that ever-living hope to be turned down. The green glow emanating from his skin differentiates him with the other darker surroundings, scarves tailing around him like snakes coiled and ready to attack.

"Destiny is a malady that must be destroyed," he replies in a settled, motivated manner. The wind then picks up thanks to the revelation of his motivation.

Wu frowns at this statement. He should not have expected any less of a person who was so adamant about refusing to listen to destiny. "And… how shall that be possible? Destiny is not a person or a place to destroy nor conquer.”

“Oh, but I know who are the harbingers of Destiny,” Morro replies dubiously, staring at the skies above, towards the clouds which the Bounty can never reach. “I am going to save them all. Saving them from having to become the pawns of destiny.” His eyes stare back at Wu. “A Green Ninja will save his people from the Dark Lord. Not… save them from D Rate villains that would return to bite them in the ass. A Green Ninja must solve the problem, nip it in the bud.”

“And you presume that Green Ninja to be you.”

“Precisely,” Morro sounds a little too proud about this.

“So, you are still attempting to prove Destiny wrong, that you are the destined Green savior.”

Something dark grows upon Morro's face. "I have no love for the title any longer. I have a new dream; a better dream than the measly prophecy you deceived me to believe was mine."

Wu winces. "I… you were a prodigy among prodigies. It is not an excuse, but it is an explanation as to why I chose you." He shakes his head. "I apologize for the consequences of letting you need a destiny that is not yours. It wasn't designated for you."

It was the wrong thing to say, towards a ghost who lost everything because he had wanted to appease that word.

"Was it all just a matter of destiny?" He repeats in a barely hushed tone, as gales of wind start to blow against the Bounty, almost haphazardly taking it out from the sky. Wu's entire body buckles, as he holds on to his staff to form some kind of boundary against the impending storm that Morro is currently creating himself. In front of him, his first student snarls with years' worth of anger, slowly storming over his already tumultuous face. Thunder passes the two of them, and Wu remembers what element lightning bows to. Morro takes a dangerous step forward. "Was it my destiny that I was not chosen to be the Green Ninja? Was it my destiny that I decided that to prove I am worthy, I must find the Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master? Was it my destiny that I be sent to the Cursed Realm after I use my last breath to curse my existence? Was it my destiny I must become the villain in your story so that you and I must be on different sides?! So my torment is nothing but the Writers of Destiny deciding to give me unfortunate happenstances in my life?!" His voice rises every question, every crime against him, and the wind continues to howl, like a thousand souls screaming at Wu about his wrongdoings.

"I did not mean it that way," Wu replies, holding his conical hat down so that the wild winds wouldn't fly it away. "Destiny simply cannot be fought against."

"So you're going to stand idly as I suffer because of your foolishness?!" He asks, walking towards him with a sweeping speed. "How can you be my loving father but also be a braindead sensei?! You are so ridiculous."

Wu sighs. "Even when old age offers wisdom, I still seem to have an impulsive side."

Morro stares. "You have to be joking."

"Why would I be?"

Morro opens his mouth, and he shakes his head, feeling annoyance grip his soul. "You may be old and senile, but you never change." Then, feeling as if he's getting quite off-topic, he scowls. "You are distracting me from the greater good I must commit."

Wu meets his eyes. "People forget that sometimes, the greater good will only be good to them, and not to others."

"I won't care," Morro replies harshly, tone sharp as a knife. "They'll be thanking me once they realize I've destroyed destiny. You will show gratitude to me as well." Morro's eyes turn back toward Wu. "Join me, father. Perhaps my Mistress will spare you when you show your loyalty to us prematurely."

Wu frowns. "What makes you think I will join you?"

Morro scoffs, raising his arms as if the answer was obvious. "How many times has Destiny screwed you and your family over? The Great Devourer biting Garmadon, his slow descent to evil which led to you forcing your hand, and your own nephew having to bear the brunt of the heavy title? Don't you feel… angry towards destiny? At yourself for listening to an ungrateful concept?"

Wu doesn't speak for a while. Morro was, as much as Wu hates to admit it, sounds so convincing he can feel himself swaying without any complaint towards his wind. It was noisy and hushed at the same time, whispering deceitful, deceptive promises into Wu's ear. Perhaps Morro learnt from the Preeminent, like a siren in the water that sings dreams until you are tired of listening from afar. And, like the novice sailor warned of their lovely voice, he makes the mistake of listening, feeling his senses go numb as the dreams he has gotten rid of return to haunt him.

Him and Morro being together again was his prime dream.

And this was an opportunity he could not fathom and believe would come by.

He feels as if he is currently in the temptation, taking the apple from the snake.

But once again, his mind returns to the ninja he has the opportunity to teach.

Lloyd, Nya, Kai, Zane, Cole, Jay.

Something heavy settles in his heart.

Morro is his student as well, but…

He feels his heart puncturing into tiny pieces.

Again, he has a new family now.

He did not know when Morro grew so close towards him; his face was leaning forward now, expecting his answer, hoping that his answer were words of affirmation. There was that hope in his eyes again— the hope that crackled and burned when it was clear to everyone else that Morro was not the destined Green Ninja. Wu almost chokes at the sight of it; by his father, this ghost was a child. A child he condemned to a life of misery and doom!

Wu swallows.

He was no good at this.

He cannot choose someone without consequence.

Wu lets out a deep breath.

Morro raises a brow, his face expectant. “Well?”

The old man lets the wind whoosh around them. It was so noisy he could not even hear his own thoughts.

“I am sorry Morro,” Wu says, gravelly and broken. The wind suddenly stops turning against the Bounty, as if it was just as shocked as their master, who was currently staring at him with a shell-shocked face. Even his scarves, alive like serpents, lay still on his feet. Golden eyes meet his green-gold ones, currently experiencing a rough inflammation. “I cannot join you. My ninja— they need me. To fight against you. I, as their master, cannot give up on them; the way I gave up on you.”

Morro stares at Wu in horror, completely in shock as if these turn of events were unprecedented. Well, if his own son did not expect this… were they even able to reform the bonds that strained them to the point of no return.

The ghost recovers immediately, however, like a whiplash of wind bending back to a wilder, more lightning-forged shape. How invisible, yet how formless, the wind is. There was still hurt and sadness in his eyes however, as if he was hoping that in some form and way, the two of them would not have to fight on different sides, never tearing apart into tiny little pieces. But, Morro cannot be saved by talking, as he’s already declared which side he is going to have to fight with; Wu cannot teach those who would not listen, after all.

Morro’s corporeal form shifts, liquid and random; to a helpless, young child almost in the brink of starving to death, a young man in nomadic clothes searching for an answer to all his problems, another young man that looked happier and lively, and, lastly, back to his ghostly form, his humanity whittling away ever so slowly when Wu tries to look at him coherently. It was as if he is going through all of the appearances that can warrant pity and the memories seeping through the cracks. Wu sees him hunching over, his face obscured by his unruly hair as he starts to laugh. It was a haunting laugh, too beautiful for a man that has seen it all, too terrifying for a young man, a harrowing take of regret.

"You're throwing me away!" He says between laughs. "You're throwing me away like I was just garbage!"

Wu watches on as his regrets, already being piled up into a mountain, become even higher.

Morro stops laughing, and the wind, for the first time, stops speaking; falling silent as they bow to their master. There was a burning sense of betrayal and hatred in his eyes, his own form of cyclone forming in his expression, wild and abandoned.

He grits his teeth out, shaking with intensity as a bitterness like never before explodes within his surroundings.

"I wish you never told me about the prophecy."

[nonbinarykai]

Head in hands

1st of all. I don’t even think jay and Nya were dating in s3? Considering the fact that you just mentioned that Nya wanted to be friends in s6. So I wouldn’t say that was cheating. Sure nya may have been pursuing jay romantically, but she’s allowed to change her mind and look for other options if there not in an official relationship?

Even then, your completely ignoring how jay and cole treated her like a complete object during this and just used her to argue with eachother over stupid stuff. Sure cole may not have actually been interested, but if that was the case then it was a shitty idea on his part to lead her on by taking her on dates if he just wanted to piss jay off. And jay doesn’t have “ownership” of nya, he was out of line to straight up attack cole over it if their not officially dating.

Nya friendzoning jay is something she can absolutely do. She is not a Bitch for that. She doesn’t owe jay a relationship if she feels like she herself isn’t comfortable with it. And by this point, jay was trying to force HER to love HIM by thinking he could wish her to love him. She is 100% in the right to friendzone him for that alone.

And of course she can’t make up her mind? She’s been hunted by a older dude to force her into a marriage, while another dude is using misogynistic books to try to wu her and gaslight her (yes that happened) all while she’s still trying to find her place on the team and not be labeled as the “girl” ninja

Do you think she’s just supposed to have it all figured out? Do you think that she’s supposed to think clearly when she’s dealing with all these issues? Especially after she confesses that she doesn’t know what choice she wants to make, just that she wants the independence to make it. And that she communicated that to jay?

Also how was she leading jay on? By existing? She didn’t make any romantic advances towards him. It was mostly just jay interpreting it as such or him just fawning over her in general. That’s not HER fault and she doesn’t owe him a relationship because of that.

Jay didn’t just lie about nadakhans wishes, he saw Nya being with him in the future and decided that she HAD to be in a relationship with him regardless of her feelings. He literally picks up a book that tells him to lie in order to make the women believe he’s still in control and took its advice AFTER nya friendzoned him. He didn’t learn to respect Nya as a person until she literally told him straight up that she wants to be able to choose for herself instead of having nadakhan and jay force her to choose one of them. The show ITSELF takes time to portray jay as being the one who’s WAY overstepping it’s boundaries by having cole and Lloyd also call out jay for his shitty behavior.

Honestly my opinion might be unpopular and I’m prepared to be attacked for this, but Jaya is pretty toxic.

Nya cheated on Jay. She never was honest with Jay and Cole about how she felt, she was constantly back and forth with them. She never chose who she wanted to be with, Cole became the bigger person and stepped back because he realized he had overstepped his boundaries regarding Jay and Nya’s relationship

Then in Skybound Nya started acting like a total bitch. Wanting to be independent is fine, but she was all like “we are just friends!” And then later in the season she tells him she “sees a future with him”, she can’t make up her mind. She constantly led Jay on, making him anxious and unsure about where they stood.

I’m not saying Jay is completely blameless in all of this, he made wishes with Nadakhan and then lied about it, and he was a bit pushy when it came to their relationship, with the whole Yin and Yang shit, but Nya is the one that’s caused more harm

[gas1le]

What if the place of Nya, the sea became Kai?

I decided to write a story about it , so enjoy reading it

CHAPTER 1. Fatal decision

-«Bento Can you tell me how Nyad defeated Wojira ?- Do you remember you told me»

This caught Kai 's attention . Near the window , Nya was talking to Bento . Not noticeably for the two, Kai began to listen to their conversation

-«She merged with the sea» . - without looking at her , Bento replied

- «But how exactly». -Nya persisted in asking

- «She absorbed all the power of the ocean. She merged with him.»

Nya looked towards the window where the fish were currently swimming

Although Kai couldn't see her face, he could understand what she was up to. And he doesn't like it.  Bento also noticed it

"Don't even think about it. Although Nyad defeated Wojira, she eventually died. It was a one - way ticket . She disappeared»

Nya turned away from him. She started replaying in her head what her Bento had said. If she wants to save everyone, she will have to do it.

«Nya.» - Kai's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

Looking at her brother, she saw that his eyes reflected concern. He stared at her intently, as if he already knew what she was up to.

«Nya.» - Kai's voice rang out again.- «I heard your conversation with Bento»

- «I have to do this.» - that 's all she could say

-"But you can't do that.- It's certain death2

- «And what do you suggest, not what not to do! Wait for Kalmaar to find us and kill us» .

- «Of course not! But there must be another way»

- «This is the only way out!» - covering her face with her hands, Nya spoke softly. "It's the only way to save him».

She knew that if she merged with the sea, she would not be the same. That she won't see the guys, her parents, Jay, Kai anymore...  Why fate is always so unfair. She just wants to....

Warmth, Something warm enveloped her. Nya didn't need to open her eyes to figure out who it was. When she was feeling bad or sad, Kai always hugged her (just like now.) .

- «We will definitely save Jay» - finally his brother's soft voice sounded.- «And not only him, but the whole city.»

Pulling away from the embrace, Kai put his hand on his sister's shoulder

- «And now let's rest. Tomorrow is going to be a hard day for us»

After these words, Nya only now realized how tired she was after the battle with Kalmaar. So, without any objections, she went to the sofa where Jay was lying. As she got closer to him , she heard his hoarse breathing . His fair skin has become paler, and a grimace of suffering is reflected on his usually cheerful face

This kind of beloved hurt Nya. Taking his hand, she said softly:

- «Don't worry, I'll fix it. Just be patient a little bit more»

¯¯¯

The sun began to rise over ninjago. And in one building, everyone was sleeping, except for the fire ninja. Kai looked out the window at the city where people used to walk, cars drove, but now it is flooded and from now on only marine life can live here.

The mere thought of water sent goosebumps through Kai's body. He was always afraid of water after an incident in childhood, but no matter how it scared him, the water also attracted Him.

Maybe because he was the son of a water master.

Standing up , Kai looked around the room

Cole was sleeping on the table as if there was nothing and he still wondered why Chen had provided him with a bed made of stone. Not far from him was Lloyd , who even in his sleep did not take the seriousness off his face .  Zane was lying on the floor, who refused to sleep anywhere else except the floor, citing the fact that he was not comfortable. There was a Pixel on the billiard table.

Wu took the lotus position, Kai always wondered how he could sleep in this position.

The furthest from that was Bento

Kai looked in the direction where Nya was lying.  She was fast asleep, holding Jay's hand as if afraid that he might disappear. Jay's face showed how he was experiencing incredible torment.

Kai won't let him die, won't let Nya sacrifice herself. They should all live.

Kai knew what he had to do, but Nya wouldn't like it, and neither would the rest.

¯¯¯

And now he was standing on the roof, and the waves were rippling below. They were so free, doing whatever they wanted.

Kai looked at the door for the last time, he wants to say so much to his family, but only one thought comes to mind.

- «I love you guys».

Turning away, Kai jumped into the water without hesitation

It was cold, but strangely enough, a sense of security came over him. It was so nice. Kai hadn't felt that for a long time.

He began to absorb the power of the water, and it was a completely different feeling when he himself allows the water to penetrate into himself, and not vice versa.

Meanwhile , in the building with Jay , water began to come out of the lungs .

- «Jay.»-Nya exclaimed in shock, waking everyone up with her scream.

- «What's going on with him?» - Lloyd looked at his comrade with concern.

-«The water is coming out of his lungs,»- Zane replied incredulously, as if he didn't believe what was happening right now.

-«Nya, you did it.»- Cole looked at his friend, puzzled.

- «It's not me», - Nya could not understand only she could control the water, only if...

- «Wait, is it Kai?» - - Lloyd pointed to the window where the vortex in which the fire ninja was located was visible

- «No.»-  Bento immediately shouted

Oh, no. She should have realized that Kai would do something. And now she's paying for it.

-«What is he doing?»-  Wu asked without taking his eyes off Kai

-«He is trying to merge with the sea, but only this is a one–way ticket» - Bento looked sadly at Nya. – «We will lose him forever.»

No, she won't let that happen.

-«We need to stop him as soon as possible before it's too late,»- after saying that, Wu quickly headed for the door, followed by the others, except for Nya and Jay

As soon as the door slammed shut, the whirlwind stopped, and Kai appeared, or rather, what was left of him. Nya gasped at what she saw. His physical body changed and became more like water. While Kai was looking at his new uniform, Nya managed to go to the window, putting her palm to the glass.

Noticing his sister, Kai swam up to her. He also placed his palm against the glass opposite her palm. Before Nya could say anything, the smile disappeared from her brother's face and was replaced by a serious expression. Turning away from her, Kai quickly swam away, which threw New back.

«Kai!» - she exclaimed desperately and, wasting no time, headed for the roof.

By the time Wu and the others got through, it was too late

-«Kai, Come back»- Wu desperately shouting to the departing student

- «It's too late. He has already merged with the sea,»- Bento said softly

«He went after Kalmaar.»- Everyone turned to Ny, who was standing near the door- «Kai intends to finish him off.»

-«And I'm going to help him,»- Jay's voice was heard behind her

- «Jay, how are you feeling?» - from all this situation, she forgot about him.

- «It couldn't be better.» - he tried to smile, but instead he was pierced by a sharp cough.

-«You 're barely standing on your feet» -,  Wu said worriedly

- «I don't care, I've already decided everything.» - Jay looked at everyone piercingly. His determination was written all over his face

-« Well, then what are we waiting for.» - Nya putting her hand on her boyfriend 's shoulder .- «It's not just Kayu who's having fun.»

- «OK.» - Wu smiled at them both –« Then we are with you.»

TO BE CONTINUED

The next chapter will not be released soon. But I will definitely finish it!

[spicyicymeloncat]

One thing I need the fandom to drop when it comes to Wu is them thinking he never talks about the ninja’s parents to them. It was never his information to disclose to Jay that he was adopted if he was even aware of that, it was up to Ed and Edna. If Jay’s mom had to make the tough decision of leaving her child behind and was never seen or heard from again despite being married to a movie star I don’t think she would’ve ran up the mountain to tell the Bros what just happened. I’m 75% sure he hardly even knew Dr. Julien or that Zane was a robot (poor guy probably couldn’t comprehend that robots could exist and be so human). Somewhere in the comics he holds a baby Cole and he was good friends with Lilly. Cole would’ve been surprised or confused when in S13 Wu says she never had a necklace like, “What do you mean? You knew my mother?” I feel at some point Cole either realizes he knows Wu from his childhood or Wu’s cryptically like “I remember you used to fight your parents on bedtimes constantly” and giggles

(Disclaimer: this is all my opinion, if anyone reading this doesn’t like Wu or disagrees with me ur valid to do so. Love u all really)

Yeah I’ve had a bit of time to think over the “Wu didn’t tell the ninja about their parents” and my blanket statement response would just be Wu couldn’t have told the ninja about their parents before their parents have even been conceptualised as characters.

The reason the ninja are continuously interesting for this many seasons is partially because their backstories weren’t told right at the beginning and they have room to develop and grow. Their parents characters are only introduced when it’s relevant to the plot, and are only canonically conceptualised right up to the season they get released. Which does make sense considering how many times the show was going to end. There’s no point planning seasons ahead of time if you aren’t sure those seasons will exist, otherwise you end up with unfinished and unsatisfying story arcs. The price of this is that the retcons contradict either Wu’s integrity or knowledge. Or do they?

Yeah I agree 100% with you on Jay’s mother. Wu probably doesn’t even know what happened to her, and considering what Nya said in s5, that elemental powers can skip generations, Wu may not have been sure Jay was her child. But even if he was, if Ed and Edna hadn’t told Jay, then it’s not really up to Wu, or at least he shouldn’t be held accountable more than Ed and Edna.

With Cole, I don’t think Wu really withheld any information about Lilly. I haven’t seen anyone debate this yet so maybe Cole doesn’t apply lol, but yeah I think Wu has been transparent about her probably. I mean considering how Wu and Cole were close, and Cole told Wu about her death as seen in s8/9 in his flashback. I haven’t seen the comics so idk how true this is (I don’t really consider the comics truly canon anyways) but I sometimes hc that Lilly kept her identity as master of earth from her family as sort of a way of dividing her work and home life, which is why Cole’s dad was originally against him being a ninja.

I also think that Wu knew Dr Julien (not very well) but didn’t know he died or got kidnapped afterwards and when he discovered Zane as a loner, and realised he didn’t remember, Wu told him that Zane had a family and that they’d look for him (which was a fruitless search bc dr Julien was at a lighthouse at sea) BECAUSE LOOK

EPISODE 2 of Ninjago and this is my favourite scene ever look look lok at this

…anyways. I think this argument is strongest with Kai and Nya’s parents. In my personal opinion I still think maybe they didn’t want Wu to tell them due to them feeling as if their parents abandoned them on purpose? Idk that’s just a theory based on how quick Kai was to turn on his dad and how much beef Nya had with her mum. Although I still think that Wu offscreen told the siblings what he knew if they asked, or that he’d make off hand comments about how cool their parents were (they were friends). Or maybe he didn’t out of fear of pressuring them. I’d feel like he’d relate considering his own father. Maybe that’s the whole reason why he didn’t tell Nya about her water powers. Because she was doing so well as a samurai and didn’t want her to live through that pressure.

Idk I think there are so many cool options when trying to make sense of Wu that I feel like it’s a shame no one sees that potential. On that note, thanks anon now I have generated more ideas about Wu and I really want to make something out of them now :P

[ghostylen]

How I imagine Kai and Nya behave..

|| My headcanons about the Ninjas are all a mix between the show and movie characters ||

Most people do not understand the Twins, Kai and Nya, when first meeting them. Something about their personalities in correlation to their Elements doesn’t feel right. This means that Kai doesn’t act like a “hot-headed Teenager”, and Nya does not always just “go with the flow”, some stuff the public assumes about the Twins based on their Elements.

They both are children of their parents, and if you compare the Twins to the former Elemental Masters of Fire and Water, you might even see that they are not as much like their parents as you would initially think! Most people think Kai is most like their dad, and Nya is most like their mum, but it’s actually the complete opposite.

When their parents were still there, Kai mostly spend his time with their mum, who is the person that taught him how to cook. Kai was genuinely interested in learning to cook, and his mum always made sure to make as much possible for the twins as she could. His mum also very often looked after animals living on the streets of the village. She wanted them to feel safe and know that they at least have some food and water, that they wouldn’t starve. Kai often tagged along with her, interested in looking after animals, but also feeling bad for these dogs and cats living on the streets. This resulted in him being good at handling animals, developing a sort of soft spot for them. He’s a total sweetheart when it comes to animals. (Which is also what helped him when trying to tame the dragons)

Now Nya spent a lot of time with their father, being really interested in his profession as a blacksmith. But not the whole process of making weapons and armour, no no, she was just incredibly amazed by how he made such things out of basically nothing. And this is how she got interested in making machines, robots, all that kind of stuff. She and her dad would be together in the forge, and while her dad was working on another sword, she would be working on a little robot.

Also, Kai only learned how to be a blacksmith, because they had to get money somehow when their parents disappeared, and Nya also really wasn’t the biggest fan of making weapons. So, while she was keeping up with school, while still trying to work on her robots and also help Kai with the Shop as much as she could, Kai was learning to be a blacksmith, disregarding school and his only goal was to try to get enough money so that maybe they both could eat dinner that evening. Only when Sensei Wu found them and started training them did Kai start going back to school. He tried to keep up with everything and genuinely tried to get good grades, but having missed a few years, it wasn’t as easy as he initially thought. With Nya’s and later Zane’s help, he did manage to catch up and understand the basic things. Turned out, Kai is actually pretty decent in biology-

And, if asked, the Team would say that Nya definitely has the higher temper out of the two, she gets dangerous when she’s angry, while Kai only gets annoyed. Nya also does more emotionally driven choices while she’s angry, which ends with her often having to apologize for saying something she didn’t actually mean or storming off and coming back a few hours later. Kai mostly just shuts off towards other people and doesn’t talk much if he genuinely gets angry at someone. You do not want to experience a fight between the Twins, let’s say that much. So, yea, Kai and Nya get a hard time from the public about their personalities. Many don’t even bother getting to know them better, but these two are extremely comfortable with the Team, so it doesn’t bother them as much anymore as it once did.

____________________________________________

Tell me if you guys like these, I still have more ideas about the Ninjago Team ^^

[hiddensneker]

1. Even so, laying a framework doesn’t imply that it’s what was intended in the original series. Especially since s2 script was already done by the time the comic came out so like. The comic would have no effect on the series. Even Tommy has admitted he hasn’t read the series

2. Honestly, the portraits just confuse me in general. Not only does it portray the great devourer fighting Lloyd (i assume that’s him?) which makes no sense because they never directly fought. My best guess is that it’s just a way to represent the series so far (kinda like the murals in s10) but I admit that’s a stretch. Or it could mean that the great devourer is connected to Lloyd finding out the green ninja or something I don’t… I don’t know. I guess that yes this could prove that the great devourer is somewhat related to the overlord but it doesn’t say what way or to what importance.

Also I don’t agree with the idea that dark matter is similar to great devourer venom. Dark matter essentially turned ninjago into zombies. Yes nya acted evil but to me it seemed more like her just being under the control of something that forced her to forget all her memories and attack the ninja. The same thing happened with Zane, jay and cole. They clearly act different then their normal personalities.

Great devourer venom on the other hand. Isn’t nearly as instant as dark matter and can be repressed or fought. Garmadon was able to do it for thousands of years. And even when he did give in to the venom, he did evil things that benefitted his own goal, not the overlords. His personality, while a bit different, mostly stayed the same. You can clearly tell the similarities between young garm, lord garm, and sensei garm. Also garm was able to temporarily put his differences with wu and the ninja aside in order to help Lloyd. Something he definitely wouldn’t do if it was dark matter. Also one small thing, when garm first got infected he was extremely sick and basically passed out after the fight. Nya and everyone else infected by dark matter didn’t have the same thing happen to them.

Also yes the purple eyes are entirely coincidental, people infected w great dev venom have their eyes turn red. This was explicitly showed in s4.

And like I said for legogeek, the great devourer was also able to bring the plastic toys in the shop to life to. It’s not just for the stone army. And regarding the “ how can her venom do that”. Well If we’re taking the comic by it’s word. The great devourer was a fangpyre before she got corrupted. Fangpyre venom turns things into snakes. That could easily be the reason why.

(Side tanget sorry I just realized this. If the fsm made the serpentine before the great devourer. And that serpentine babies are regular snakes. Could that mean that the great devourer is a giant baby? Or a serpentine that was turned into a wild snake? 😦)

To be clear I’m not against the idea that the overlord “corrupted” (I prefer just giving her the power to turn people evil and become big). I just don’t agree with the idea that he possessed the great devourer or that the great devourers actions during or after the bite on garm was him directly doing that. Nor do I agree with the idea that the great dev somehow made garm into an oni.

To me the great devourer is and will always be a giant snake. Not apart of any evil mastermind plan. I like having a villain who’s morally ambiguous not because they have a bad past or that they were manipulated, but because they’re a wild animal who has no sense of morals.

I like to image that Harumi’s goals, no matter how hard she tries, will always be futile. Because she could never get revenge on the great devourer. Because it’s a snake who doesn’t care.

I like that even when Garmadon kills the great devourer, he still doesn’t feel satisfied.

To me I’d rather just believe that the great Devourer is a result of the overlord just wanting to cause chaos as revenge or something. And everything just spiraled from there.

All y’all out here complaining about the “retcon” that the Devourer was corrupted by the Overlord, when I’ve been saying that’s what happened since day 1. That old s1 comic aside that mentioned the Devourer being corrupted, I’m pretty sure the Devourer is mentioned or referenced in the prophecy of the Overlord.