"Morro?"

Lloyd shields his eyes from the sun with his right hand. He's not wearing his hoodie.

Crossing his arms, Morro kicks his leg and leans against the training dummy. The padding tied around it shifts, almost dumping him on the ground. "'S-sup, mh, what's up?" he says, hopping away from it.

Lloyd glances around, 'observing' the gusty wind, his squinted eyes narrowing further. Then he shoots back to Morro, yelling, "Mom and I looked everywhere for you! You've been living here this whole time?" He casts his uncle a withering glare but seems to care more about Morro right now.

He almost leans against the dummy again. "Yeah, sure, definitely."

Lloyd throws his arm down, demanding, "Are you gonna be sarcastic, or are you gonna tell me the truth?"

Ah, truth. There's a funny subject. "I don't know, Green Ninja. You tell me."

"Oh, look at that," Sensei Wu lilts. "My tea's gone cold." He grabs his cup and retreats inside, his peek as the door shuts being his silent, 'You two catch up.'

Morro growls in his throat. A warning beforehand would've been so nice.

He beckons Lloyd to follow him with a harsh nod. There's a gate leading to the woods behind Wu's property where they can chill under a nice tree on a private hill. Lloyd sits with his knees drawn to his chest while Morro stretches out, propped up on his elbows, watching the leaves sway in wild tandem with his thoughts.

Long seconds go by without a word between them.

Morro has nothing to say to him. Lloyd's probably just a coward, but eventually he clears his throat, starting, "It's you, right? You're controlling the wind."

"Yep."

Running his left hand through his hair, he sighs, "I never did give you that explanation, huh?"

"Nope," Morro clips, as outwardly calm as the wind isn't.

"He didn't tell you?"

"Didn't ask."

"H'okay, well," he taps the dirt with his right hand, "remember when the big world domination thing was happening on the mainland and that, uh, construction worker saved us all?"

Morro nods. Ninjago's been dealing with Garmadon since before Lloyd was born, but when one business mogul from the mainland gets an overlord complex, everybody loses their damn minds. That was four years ago now.

"My first mission," Lloyd says, wistful.

Morro rolls his eyes so far into his skull that they hurt then flicks them to his cousin. "You're seriously telling me you were thirteen?"

"Yeaaah. Uncle Wu had been training me for a while already, but I sucked...so bad. Kinda got myself captured and everything, really embarrassing, so he benched me until we assembled a team."

"Right. Your friends. How convenient."

"It wasn't, actually. I mean, they weren't my, uh, I didn't know them yet." He waves his right hand through his memories, saying, "Zane approached me first. He'd used, like, voice recognition to figure out it was me," he laughs, scratching his chin, "I thought the jig was up," and keeps talking with his hand, "but Uncle Wu took one look at him and said, 'Oh, I see,' or something and gave him his suit."

"Sensed his element," Morro supplies.

"Yep," he confirms, tapping his nose. "So, Zane knew Cole, and Cole knew Jay," he continues, counting them out on his fingers. "They were the harder ones to convince, but then we had Kai and Nya. They talked them into it somehow." Smiling, he stares at the ground, reminiscing on what must be some super great little memories. He snaps out of it, glancing to Morro and finally noticing the attention his arm's getting. With a nervous chuckle, he says, "Right, the elephant." He holds it under the tree's shadow so the stripes of glowing green show up. The bulk is silver, but it has gold trim on the fingers, the wrist, and scant points along the energy lines. "I was using a prosthetic for a while, but it just...it wasn't working out, and I still wanted to be a ninja, so Dad had his engineers work with Zane's parents, and they whipped this up for me like four months ago."

About the same amount of time Morro's had his powers.

Whatever dumb significance about that he can reflect on gets drowned out by Lloyd continuing with his rant. "While they were programming it, they recorded all my brainwaves for the other arm, turned that into code and figured out the hemisphere stuff so they could flip it for my left side. Man, like, it was just so cool. Almost worth losing the original just to see everything that went into building the new one."

Morro allows a tiny smirk while Lloyd nerds out, settling back to listen.

He shows off the thing's range of movement, rambling about its power source and all kinds of techy junk Morro has trouble keeping up with. At the end, he points his fist towards the sky, left hand on his metal upper arm, delivering, "And check this out," with a smirk. A panel on his forearm pops open, then a laser no bigger than a thin flashlight extends clear of its compartment. "Awesome, right? I'm like Cyborg now."

"More like Buzz Lightyear."

"No!" The laser retreats as Lloyd covers it with his hand, pure horror on his face. "You make everything lame," he shouts, only half-serious. After a moment, he sighs, explaining, "It was Mom's idea since...green is stupidly incapable of any offensive power. It just stuns people, though."

"Hm," Morro grunts. "How's she doing anyway?"

Lloyd grins. "She's good. Real good. We're in a better part of town now. She got promoted. S-she thinks it's because of me, but she really earned it."

Nodding as he raises his eyebrows for a second to himself, Morro reaches into the fold of his gi, grasping his pack of cigarettes. He bends his knee to tap the pack on it then removes the stick poking out with his teeth.

Tracking the movement, Lloyd frowns. "You probably shouldn't smoke anymore, especially if you wanna be a ninja. It weakens your respiratory strength, and you really need that for—"

"Relax, Nurse Twerp. It's my last pack." He stuffs it back in his shirt, fishing in his pocket for his lighter. "That's the deal between me and the old man," he sighs as he lights the cigarette.

"Really? I'd figure he'd put his foot down."

"Oh, he did," when the training sessions began, "but he's not my boss, so how I quit is my business."

Lloyd keeps staring at him while he takes the first drag, his nose crinkling at the smoke. "So you're actually gonna quit? Cold turkey?"

"You don't 'cold turkey' cigarettes, Lloyd. That's asinine." He puffs again, a long drag, then summons a breeze to carry the smoke away from them, pointing at his cousin with the two fingers holding the cigarette. "And I'm not addicted, so shut up."

Lloyd puts his hands up, surrendering. He crosses them over his knees and spins what might be a huge bolt through his metal elbow, fidgety.

It's probably rude to ask, but damn it, Morro wants to know. "You didn't say how that happened."

The fidgeting abruptly stops for a moment before starting up again, a little faster and less precise. His eyes closed, Lloyd tries, "It, um, we..." A huff, and, "So, one of my dad's, like, fired generals pushed me off a roof about a month after you— Um, yeah, and I guess it dislocated my shoulder. I dunno. It just hurt a lot. I think she could tell, and she, she had a sword." A pause. "Not a katana. This thing was more like a scimitar, had a deeper curve to it," he continues, arching his arm to represent the weapon, "and she said, 'I'll take care of that for you.' So...so she- did."

Morro knocks ash off his cigarette. "Jesus," he breathes, bringing it back to his lips.

"Yeah. I mean, I barely remember it. They took me up to Dad's old house on this mountain, and like, I'm just lucky. The green element and all. I was more or less fine the next day. More, uh, more on the less side, but yeah." He stares at the forest, squeezing his arm. "I remember that he stayed up with me all night. He felt like hell about it."

Morro tosses away his suddenly spent cigarette and grinds it into the dirt. "'Hell,' huh? Guess it's a start."

Lloyd nods with a small, wry laugh, taking a moment before he says, "He's been grabbing every chance he has to show that he's changed, and of course I appreciate it. Honestly, I'm freaking thrilled, but..."

"But you still don't know what to think?"

"Yeah, in a way. I didn't think at all really. About what things were gonna be like," he waves his hands in the theatrics of it all, "after I 'stopped Garmadon.' It's so crazy, you know? I had no idea that someone can actually come back from all the bad they've done and want to make up for it."

Morro fights the urge to light up another cigarette. "Well, I'm pretty sure you don't need me to tell you this, but don't take it for granted."

"That's the last thing I'm doing."

"Good." It occurs to him then that he hasn't really heard any news on the man, not for six months at least. There's no way he could be keeping quiet even with the change of heart. "What's he up to these days?"

"He— Um, yeah, he went to jail," Lloyd intones as casually as he can, leaning away as he finds some totally interesting cloud to stare at.

Morro bursts into laughter.

"What?"

"That," he coughs, reigning it it. "That's just so normal, dude."

"No...it isn't."

"Like a third of the kids in this country have a dad in prison. Yes, it is."

Lloyd looks at him with a hint of horror and a whole lot of sad. "Do you ever...hear yourself?"

They fall silent. Now it's not just tense but awkward, too.

Lloyd gets annoyed with it, saying, "I think he wants me to help you with your element."

Morro rips up grass, really itching for another smoke. "So that's what you are on the team? Mr. Guru extraordinaire come to teach me the elemental ways?"

"Yeah, kinda."

Sighing, Morro swings his arm in another gesture to get a move on.

Letting Lloyd head back first, he picks up the cigarette butt and stuffs it in his pocket to throw away later.

In the training yard, Lloyd faces him. He's thoughtful and carries an air of something Morro's not been able to see on him before except on TV. Experience. Actual, dare-he-say knowledge on a subject. "I guess, um, let's start with gauging your current skill level. Let me see how you incorporate wind into your fighting."

Hmm, that's an obnoxious wave of déjà vu.

Morro lazes into his stance, commanding the wind to trail the ground.

He's actually surprised when Lloyd attacks him first. He won't be forced onto the defensive that fast, though, so he somersaults, using his power to keep out of reach, and whacks the back of Lloyd's head with it. He stumbles but recovers without falling, turning around to find Morro waiting for him on the roof.

"You think I'm gonna make this easy?" Morro taunts, dropping back down. "Let's see how good you are!"

Laughing as he runs in, Lloyd sends swift jabs, mixing it up with a low kick, all dodged. His metal arm's faster, and he seems to favor it. There's no reason to engage it physically. Morro punches a high-powered cone of wind at his elbow, throwing off his aim, then sends another into his torso. He could block an attack like that from anyone else having to use their bare fists, but not this.

"Nice!" he praises from the ground, wheezing a little.

Glad somebody's having fun.

"One sec," Lloyd says, working his arm. Standing, he shakes it out and rolls his shoulder. "Okay—"

"I told that idiot friend of yours to not let anything else happen, but lo and behold," Morro says out of the blue, even to himself. He shoots a weak wind at Lloyd's right shoulder for emphasis.

Glancing to it, Lloyd's joy fades instantly. "Kai had no control over that. Leave him alone. He doesn't have anything to do with this."

Well, in for a penny. "You're right, because it's just you." He rears back, yelling, "It's always only about you, isn't it?" as he summons a new gale.

"H-hey—" Lloyd gets out before it crashes against him. Arms over his face, he's scooted backwards a little before it picks him up, blowing him back. He grabs the training dummy, using it to swing to his feet after the wind dies. "Tell me what's wrong," he pleads.

Oh, he wants to know! The perfect defender wants to know. Throwing a blast on each stressed word, Morro voices the pain he's stewed in for almost a year. "It was your secret, but it became my problem. Then it became my pointless burden when you told everyone in the whole freaking world!"

Lloyd doesn't seem to get it, shaking his head. Hands spread, he says, "I had to, Morro. I couldn't— Nothing was gonna change if we kept doing things the same way."

"I don't care!"

He escalates their fight, putting Lloyd completely on the defensive. All he can do is run and try to avoid a power he can't see.

"I'm stronger, Lloyd! I still have to be."

From the distance he's catching his breath at, Lloyd just, well, he isn't glaring really. The expression's too soft for that, but he grimaces, squinting from something other than the sun. He holds his arm close to his body, his shoulders trembling hard enough that it's visible. And what the hell is that? Pity?

"Don't look at me like that!" Morro shouts, swinging a downward slice of wind.

Lloyd takes the hit, falling, but he leaps up as Morro charges, hungry to feel flesh on his fists. He jumps left and right from the first few punches, ducking the last one. Morro whips around, the next hit flying. Lloyd catches his fist with his metal one and squeezes. It's not tight enough to hurt, but his little stun gun aims right at his face.

Hands behind his back, Wu steps onto the veranda behind Lloyd to be in Morro's line of sight.

He knows a warning when he's shown one.

And that's fucking fine.

Ripping his hand back, he turns for the gate, storming to it. "Don't follow me."

He catches his family's exchange as he leaves.

"What happened to him, Uncle Wu?"

"Something that should have been dealt with many years ago."

Morro slams open the door he was fine with never seeing again.

"Oh wooow, the prodigal asshole returns!" Bansha trumpets from the couch.

"What's with the getup?" Wrayth asks, eyeing Morro's gi.

"You okay?" Ghoultar peeps.

Soul only grunts, nodding.

Without hesitation, Morro glares them all down and says, "I'll do it."

"What'd he say? I'm deaf, you know," Bansha quips, putting her hand to her ear.

"I said," Morro grinds, "that I'll do Yang's god damn request."

Wrayth's bumbled into his personal space before he even gets the words out, squeezing him in the worst hug he's ever got. "You're really brave," he says. "History will remem—"

"Stop touching me," Morro snarls, shoving him away. "I'm not doing this for you."

"Then why?"

He glowers at the nosy moron, giving the others the same treatment in turn for good measure. They shouldn't ask because the reason doesn't matter.

"Okay then," Wrayth announces with a single clap. "We've got work to do."

First order of business is getting rid of the ninja costume.

The others provide him something they deem more appropriate for their 'team' — regular black street clothes, except for a dragon head broach. Yang's symbol, apparently. They also have a...makeup kit? White, gray, and faded green face paint. They plan to wrap bandanas around their freak-skull faces. Morro's is green and includes his cloak, if he wants it. He left it behind before.

"Kept it nice for you," Wrayth says with a smile.

"Okay, but why," Morro asks.

"Because we're friends, man, I—"

"No, why the disguises?"

Wrayth looks at him, his smile sharpening. "Because we're gonna commit a robbery."

Second order is getting that straightened out.

Soul has a special contact that he calls on some darkweb video chat. The person on the other end is a grizzled man with a robotic, red eye.

"The name's also Brian," he introduces for Morro's sake, casting an amused glance to Soul, "but henceforth, all references to me will be by the code name Ronin. Ya' got that?"

Every one of them is a crazy LARPer. Yep. "Got it."

"Did you confirm the target's location?" Soul asks. Mr. Professionalism.

"Yeah, it's right where we expected. Sending you the schematics now. Lucky the big man's not in, but watch out for his security systems. He is one paranoid piece of shit."

Morro takes a look when Soul gets everything printed out.

It's a volcano fortress. They're stealing from Uncle Freaking Garmadon.

"This is what we're going after," Soul says, laying down a photo of a ceremonial knife. It seems heavy for its length with its curled pommel, wide guard, and elegant, curving blade.

"The Yin Blade. The master needs it for his work," Wrayth 'explains.'

"You're not gonna stab me with it, are you?" Morro can't help inquiring.

"No. Under no circumstances is Master Yang's host to be injured by this weapon," Soul warns.

"Ah."

Apparently, they don't have time to dick around, because after spending the rest of the day learning the schematics and forming a plan, the Day of the Departed is two days and a night from now. Yang's supposed to start his precious work then. He can't miss it, or he'll have to wait until next year. That's fine by Morro anyway; he doesn't want to wait either.

Third order is getting transportation to the volcano.

Wrayth corrects himself, saying, "We're committing two robberies," as he steers a little, stolen speedboat to the rest of them waiting on the dock.

Morro notes the anchored Destiny's Bounty and an abandoned warehouse close by. This marina is less than a mile from the school. Guess he knows where the Ninja Force's real base of operations is. There's probably some very helpful mechs inside, but he keeps the knowledge to himself. Lloyd needs to stay minding his business for now.

It takes about an hour to reach their destination. In that lull, Morro stares out over the waves, gripping the rim of the boat to keep his hands from shaking.

Soul and Bansha are fighting over the steering wheel while Ghoultar toils with deciding who to root for, so Wrayth leaves them to it, making it his mission to bother Morro instead. "Getting seasick?"

Morro scoffs, laying his head down on his folded arms.

There's a hand on his back for a second before snapping away. After a minute, Wrayth says, "History will remember you."

"I swear I'll haunt your ass if it doesn't."

"Please do," he jokes.

Morro chuckles with him. He still hates these people, the one beside him in particular, and he knows in an objective way that they're nothing but bad news for him. Manipulators. Sadists. Freaks who preyed on him to satisfy their own goals, but... It doesn't feel like that anymore. He has this weird sense of being above the anger, suspending it for a calm something-else instead, because this is his story now. It's bigger than anything he's ever done. The last thing, too, and his hands won't stop shaking.

Wrayth's only said what he had to. Been kind to him to keep him on track. Morro doesn't care right now. He turns, leaning into the other's shoulder.

Wrayth stiffens. Then he presses his hand on Morro's hair. "Sorry we didn't just ask you," he mumbles. "The master said this was the only way."

"Try thinking for yourself sometime, huh?"

Wrayth laughs like, 'Sure. I'll get right on that,' and gives Morro a far more welcome hug.

Once they reach their destination, they hide the boat among some rocks and ready their disguises. Morro ripped off the cloak, leaving just the hood and some material around his neck, so it wouldn't get in the way. Bansha, Soul, and Wrayth brought their red, white, and purple jackets, but Ghoultar forwent such a full veiling. He only wanted to wear a dumb rice hat with his bandana.

Looking like absolute nutcases, they sneak in through the nearest access tunnel.

As they head down a long cavern corridor, Soul kindly reminds everyone of the security systems ahead: sensors for motion, heat, and light; fingerprint and retina scanners; voice command recognition; timed checkpoints; and of course, good old fashioned cameras and guards on rotation. They shouldn't have to worry about any of it. The number of people on location cut down by ninety percent last year, plus Soul owns nifty gadgets that make most of the tech obsolete. Wrayth has the biggest role — subduing the rest and extracting the target. He could do it all by himself, in fact, but Soul thought it'd be wise to have everyone go in case something went wrong. It is Garmadon's home turf after all.

He has good instincts.

Lloyd's phone buzzes off its precarious placement on the bookshelf, landing on his nose. He almost declines the call, but the ID's directly from Dad's volcano. Well, this can't be good.

"I'm sooo sorry about the late hour, General Number One—"

He'd glare at the engineer if he weren't still half asleep. "Please stop calling me that," he moans.

"Right, of course...Lloyd, sir, we seem to have a security breach here." The camera flips to one of her monitors showing a large, pulsing dot sitting offshore, five smaller ones exiting it. "It appears to be intruders, so, um, help?"

It can't just be a coincidence, can it?

Springing out of bed, he activates the team's emergency signal.

Alarms and obnoxious, "Intruders? In my sanctum? Get ready to die!" recordings blare overhead.

"What the hell did we trip?" Wrayth screeches over it.

"The boat's engine," Soul guesses. "He must have a wake detector and banned all water travel to the island since no one should be coming here anyway. I will kill Ronin!"

"Damn it!" Bansha shrieks at the nearest red light, bursting it, but Garmadon's voice continues shaming them for their 'profound foolishness.'

"We have to get outta here," Wrayth shouts.

"Home! Home!" Ghoultar whines, metallic hands covering his ears.

"No, we don't leave without the Blade," Morro yells. Everything of value including the stupid knife might be gone by morning. They can't afford to go on the big damn safari for it then. "Wrayth, run ahead of us and disable this shit. We'll keep going to the vault. Make sure it's open."

He waffles between obeying and running away.

"Wrayth!"

"Yeah, you got it," he hollers, vanishing into his shadow. He takes off through one of the million crevices in the place.

"Let's go," Morro says, leading the way.

The vault rests in the back of a foyer with a high ceiling, its massive door locked tight. There's a control room with a windowed view of it above them where Wrayth should be. One security guard stares down at the them, blathering into a mic, not even knowing what hits him when Wrayth takes him out. Soon, the door clacks, whirring, then swings open.

Morro directs the others to file through the rows of advanced storage protecting a myriad of strange and doubtlessly powerful things. He's positive his uncle's keeping literal baby toys in at least two shelves, though.

In the back, they spot a glass case housing the Yin Blade. It's prominent there, a blacklight shining on it as it points its business end at the sky.

"Allow me," Bansha says, approaching it.

Soul halts her. "Clearstone," he informs, rubbing the case's edges. "Tougher than diamond." Because of course something with a creative name like that is. He kneels to inspect the keypad then attaches his hacker device to it, cycling through eight-digit codes in seconds. It catches on Lloyd's birth date.

Lloyd's.

Freaking.

Birth date!

Morro stops reeling as the glass door pops aside. Taking the honors for himself, he reaches for the knife, plucking it from its stand, and holds it up for the others to see. It's weird. The thing almost feels charged, an aura of something arcane that makes the hair on the back of his neck prickle. That figures, since it's—

A ball of ice hits his wrist, pinning him to the wall as it spreads down his arm. The knife skitters across the floor.

"Stealing," a robotic voice chimes. "The act of taking another person's property without permission or legal right to it."

"Sounds exactly like what they're doing," a bored one responds.

Of course. Of course Lloyd and his trademarked Squad is the freaking cavalry.

Just the masters of Earth and Ice block the doorway, the first leaning against the frame with his arms crossed, the second tilting his head. Neither wears a mask because they don't need to anymore. And oh man, if that doesn't chase away the last of Morro's doubts.

Ghoultar crushes the ice as Bansha takes her battle stance. Soul, to no surprise, is nowhere in sight, having slipped behind the shelves. Unlike the other two, his fighting style requires a kind of finesse, and things just got more stupidly complicated.

"Jar Jar's mine," Bansha snarls.

Giggling, Ghoultar punches his fist into his palm and faces Cole. "The tough one. Yay."

Side-eyeing the knife, Morro's not sure about letting them handle the ninja, but he also doesn't trust either one to extract the target. Better standby and gauge the situation before he makes his next move. "It was C-3PO," he says to Bansha. "You're thinking of the meesa freak."

"Same," she starts, sucking in a deep breath. "Difference!" Her banshee scream races for Zane.

"Detecting enhanced sound w—" The walking P.I.X.A.L. doesn't dodge in time, detecting that wave right in the face. He goes flying back into the foyer.

His buddy shouts, "Hey!" and charges at Bansha.

She sidesteps only to get out of Ghoultar's way. He's there in the blink of an eye, taking Cole's punch on his chest.

Reverberating bass rings off of metal, followed by the ninja's outcry of pain.

Completely silver, Ghoultar laughs, his heels buried in the stone floor. Unmoved.

Grinning like a maniac under his mask, Morro relishes in the ease washing over him. Yeah, he'll go retrieve that Blade now.

With it secured in his belt, he runs for the exit, but Zane's back, intercepting him with a wall of ice. It doesn't hold up against Bansha's sound. He has to wait a moment while she makes herself a problem the ninja can't ignore, but that's too long for Wrayth.

"This place is going into full lockdown," he says, materializing beside Morro in the corner he's taking cover in. "Give me the Blade."

"Why?"

"I can get it out of here without any trouble." He shakes his open hand, ushering Morro to hurry.

Yeah, that's probably a good idea. He's about to pass it along when his hair really does stand on end, electricity crackling. Sensing it too, Wrayth poofs as Morro leaps upwards with a burst of wind, both dodging the lightning bolt aimed for them. He lands on top of a shelf.

On the ground, two more of the ninja join the fight. Jay and Nya? Pretty sure that's their names. The girl's staring at him in surprise, slapping the dude's shoulder, and hisses, "Did you see that? He flew!"

Shit. He can't use his element right now if he wants to conceal his identity.

Jay gears up for zap-attempt-number-two, but Wrayth saves him the trouble of dealing with it, jumping out of his shadow to attack Nya. "Go, Sky!" he shouts, fending off Jay's reprisal.

Nodding once, Morro hops from one shelf to the next. That's four pests now, so where's the last two?

"Listen, I know the DOTD's about to be here..."

In the foyer. Yep.

Kai points and laughs, continuing, "but come on."

God, he'd freaking love to airblast that jackass into the middle of next week. But as it happens, Lloyd's right beside him, his metal arm glinting in the light since his sleeve's been cut off. Makes room for the laser he shoots at Morro.

It becomes a mad chase, Morro dashing around the room, rolling under Lloyd's lasers, but Kai's fire herds him away from the corridor back to the boat, the two slowly closing in on him.

"You plannin' on going in circles forever, bud?"

Despite Kai's constant, annoying taunts, Morro keeps his recognizable voice out of the equation.

"Aw, the spindly, silent type? How am I supposed to work with that?"

So far, Lloyd hasn't joined the one-sided banter. He just has a calculating look on his face.

Morro worries that it's the cloak giving away despite it being torn. That's not his actual problem, though, because they've got him cornered now, long funnels of fire on either side of him.

"Too much heat for ya'?"

Kai isn't trying to cook him — that'd be too barbaric for the oh so righteous ninja — it's the heat. He can't breathe. He's gonna suffocate and black out, making this whole excursion completely pointless. To hell with identities!

He shoves his wind at the fire, scattering it into wispy flames. Kai's too surprised to reignite it.

"No...Morro?" Lloyd breathes.

Morro sighs. Throwing off his hood and pulling down the mask, he says, "Guess the jig's up, huh."

"What? W-why? What are you doing?"

"What I have to."

He's not sure how he thinks Lloyd will react. It's probably safe to assume that the years of frustration built up by fighting his own father has something to do with his immediate decision to snap. "Stealing from my dad? For what? Why? You—? Just, agh!" he shouts between punches. Morro refuses to give him anything but retaliating hits.

Kai lets them duke it out for a minute before he collects his wits, throwing support fireballs. Lloyd pushes him back to point, a subtle tell that he's so angry right now, he doesn't care if Morro gets burned.

That's fine. He'll just break bones in return.

He buffers Kai's fire with wind like a body shield, and the moment he gets an opening, he swings his arms from his knees to the ceiling, blasting the idiot clear across the foyer.

Kai rolls to a stop and groans, dazed.

Morro can't bask in the satisfaction just yet, not with Lloyd's ruthless barrage of lasers. Damn, doesn't that thing run out of juice?

He might actually lose if he doesn't end this now, and that's appearing less possible by the second, but then Nya suddenly cries, "Wait, Jay, don't!"

Evidently, she's been dousing Wrayth's untouchable shadow with water, and her genius little friend makes the connection too late when Wrayth baits him to the puddle. The two fall as his lightning electrocutes them both. Inside the vault, Ghoultar punches Cole in the nose, and Bansha's flattened Zane, screaming almost point blank on his head, likely frying his circuits.

Conflicted, Lloyd abandons Morro to save his friends. Running into the vault, he shoots Bansha and Ghoultar. She goes down, but it's just a mosquito bite to him.

Not done in yet, Cole screams as he slams his clasped fists on the ground. The volcano reacts to his seismic wave in an instant, rumbling in indignation. His goal may be to drop boulders on Ghoultar because fragments of stone break off from the ceiling on either side of the vault, clearly controlled in how they do, but some of it's covering the door.

Ghoultar assesses the situation faster than Morro thought possible for him, grabbing Bansha and racing to the foyer so they don't get trapped. The chunks bouncing off him would probably kill him if it weren't for his metal body. Still, their velocity must be his limit because he collapses the second he makes it out.

That just leaves Morro and a recovered Kai to finish the fight.

And Soul.

That's his silhouette in the dust creeping up behind Kai.

Morro distracts him, calling, "Hey, remember what I said you'd need to do the next time you failed to watch Lloyd's back?"

"Uh?" Kai gapes, but his eyes widen with sudden realization.

"Watch yours!" he shouts, sending a whirlwind just as Kai turns away from him. It throws him forward against Soul's chest. Too slow, he tries to kick free of the arms cinched around him at the same time Soul exhales a toxic cloud in his face. The green miasma envelopes them, causing Kai to choke on a gag.

Soul gives a short, dark chuckle, dropping him. Crouching on one knee by the convulsing ninja, he declares, "Now you will know why they call me the Soul Archer."

"H-hey, buddy, c'mere, c'mere, nah, closer, I wanna— wanna tell ya' something," Kai's rasping with a stupid grin as Morro crosses the distance. Soul kneels again to hear him, unafraid of any possible trick. "Nobody...asked," he wheezes. He laughs himself into a coughing fit and rolls one way, then the next, banging his head on the floor. He's arching his back as Soul leaves for the corridor, reaching blindly while Morro lingers.

He doesn't know what to do with the weird pit of anxiety in his stomach, so he stoops, muttering, "Don't say I didn't warn you," childish as it is.

Wrayth's got Ghoultar up, and with Bansha and the Blade in tow, they all hurry back to the boat.

"That was a perfect opportunity to apprehend the Green Ninja," Soul says thirty minutes out.

And as if whatever this feeling about Kai is wasn't enough, that makes it exponentially worse. "Excuse me? Fucking what?"

"Shut up, everyone shut up and hold your breath!" Wrayth bellows.

A searchlight from a black shape in the stars is heading straight for them, Morro recognizing it as the Bounty a second before everything goes dark.

Lloyd runs to Kai, shouting for him.

He'd been moving when Lloyd first saw him, but it took Cole with his sprained wrist another five minutes to clear a space they both could fit through. Now he's just lying there, murmuring gibberish. A green film coats his eyes, so murky that it hides his irises. Lloyd hates the sick dread he gets looking at it.

Across the room, Jay rolls over. He crawls to Nya and shakes her, babbling apologies.

"Is she okay?" Lloyd asks, anxious to run to her, too.

"I-I dunno, she, she, she, Nya? Oh gosh, please, I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking," he chatters, sitting her up.

"M'okay..." she finally mumbles. They both have burns on their faces, probably everywhere, but hers look ten times worse.

Cole kicks his way to their side of the rubble. Zane hangs off his shoulder, unresponsive but thankfully not powered down. "Repair state," is all he says, wincing. His nose might be broken with how much it's bleeding, and all his bruises...

Trying to stay calm, Lloyd turns back to his brother sweating and drawing in rapid breaths. They've taken bad hits before but never at the same time in all of fifteen minutes. Who were those people?

That's the second thing out of Lloyd's mouth when Uncle Wu picks them up, right after he screeches that Morro was with them.

"If you had read my book," he bites back, "you would understand. What did they steal?"

Brushing off Uncle Wu's attitude with his own, Lloyd answers, "A knife. I don't know why. Dad wouldn't tell me what it was."

His uncle halts in his tea preparation then gives a long sigh, fingertips skirting his forehead. "Lloyd, those people serve a dark master, and now it appears your cousin has become mixed up in their plans."

"Looked way more than just 'mixed up' to me," Cole grumbles.

Lloyd starts to respond to that, but Kai screams at the top of his lungs like he's auditioning for a horror movie. Jay covers his ears as he runs away, and it even reaches Zane who twitches into appalled awareness, staring down at him on the cot.

"W-what did they do to him?" Nya yells, on the verge of crying. She reaches out to smooth his messy hair as a comfort for him, but he flinches away, terrified of her hand.

"It's a neurotoxin which is forcing him to see his worst fears," Uncle Wu explains, somber. "The serpent that produced it was hunted to extinction forty years ago, but..." Sighing again, he shakes his head. "Masters of poison are a frighteningly powerful sort."

"But you have a cure, right? That's what you made?" Cole demands.

"No, this will only let him rest and order his visions," he says, pouring the tea. Ushering Nya out of his way, he continues, "The full treatment will take a few hours to prepare. Lloyd, help me."

Lloyd rushes to join his uncle on the other side of Kai's cot. He feels awful for it, but he has to clamp his titanium fist around Kai's wrists, supporting him with the other, while Uncle Wu keeps a grip on the back of his neck.

"N-n— no, n- sss-" Shaking, he hacks the tea, sending a spray of it all over his face, but they get enough in his belly that he slowly relaxes. Lloyd lets him hold of the cup when he reaches for it and rubs his shoulders until he's drank the last of his sedative, then Uncle Wu guides him to lie down. Within seconds, he drifts off to sleep.

"I've made a foolish mistake, nephew," Uncle Wu says, the most defeated Lloyd's ever heard him. He's not talking about Kai. "We should not have let him go. I...I thought he needed time with his friends, to journey with them as you did, but I underestimated the aims of that group."

"You know what they want?" Lloyd states more than asks.

"What every elemental breaker wants. If you do not put a stop to their plan, the apocalypse will be upon us."

And that's exactly why Lloyd kept his gi. The battles for the world didn't end with Garmadon.

He's not a hundred percent positive where Morro and his gang will go; however, there's no way he wasn't gonna follow his cousin the other day, so he's got at least one idea.

Everyone's probably gonna kill him for this, but with their lives and safety on the line because of yet another rogue family member, it's his responsibility. He calls his dragon to meet him at the Bounty. When he spots it flying in, he leaps unseen off the deck.

"If you don't explain what the hell you're talking about," Morro shouts the second he can breathe again, "I'm gone!"

"It's okay," Wrayth says, panting. He's weak from shrouding the entire boat, unable to dodge the punch he gets in the mouth. Yelping, Ghoultar dumps Bansha's comatose body to catch him.

Morro whips around to Soul. "'Kidnap' Lloyd?" he interrogates, stalking two steps closer.

"His element is required for the spell to revive Master Yang," Soul responds as if it's just a simple matter of fact, his eyes dark, daring Morro to try that on him.

Morro slaps him with a sharp blast of wind and sea foam, almost knocking him overboard. "I thought that's what I'm for!"

"A beacon," Wrayth spits before Soul can retaliate. "Like how that Ultimate Weapon thing was a big fat signal to call down the cat god." Ghoultar stands him upright. "Totems aren't strong enough," he adds, working his jaw.

Taking deep breaths, Morro glares first at him, then the deck, then on out to the ocean.

He has two options now: he can either capsize the boat and drown them all, or he can suspend his instinctive fury and think for a minute.

Lloyd's green hippie bullshit is beyond useless, not like wind or shadow, but it makes sense to use it the way they claim. Though he doesn't trust them, he can believe it.

The next question then is why would he ferry his own cousin into the hands of these psychopaths? And if he does, what will Yang do? Release him? Kill him?

Morro's betting on the latter because knows evil. He's so intimately familiar with the face of it that it's written in his DNA, so he never once believed Yang was up to anything good. And when he left the dojo, he decided he's fine with it.

Wu seemed to think he could be a hero, but whatever brain-dead ideal Lloyd has to fight for a world that hated him just doesn't exist in Morro. He tried. He really did try to find it like Sensei asked, but he's felt like an empty shell of a person for as long as he can remember.

It's a lot of room for a ghost to fill. A dead man with Morro's face and power he'll use to punish the world. Poetic.

Maybe Lloyd will die, or maybe he'll get free and fight and stop Yang, but Morro won't know a thing about it either way. He'll be gone. Besides, his selfish cousin was right. Nothing changes if he's always doing everything the same way.

He can't keep protecting Lloyd.

"Fine," he says, not looking to the others.

"Really, you're—?" Wrayth starts.

An engine some distance overhead makes them all duck. A twirling dragon. Lloyd's damn dragon mech.

"Where's he going?" Ghoultar wonders, waving as it flies towards Sensei Wu's ship.

Morro has a sneaking suspicion that he knows exactly where.

A minute later and back to her senses, Bansha rages, "You led him to our house?!"

"You think I have any control over what he does? That little shit hasn't done what he's told since he started walking!"

Wrayth attempts to silence them, saying, "Hey, someone might hear you."

"Sound doesn't carry over the ocean!"

"I'm pretty sure it does..."

"Who's the master of sound here?"

"Listen to me," Soul interrupts, "this here is another opportunity. With the state we left his team in, he is most certainly going alone, hoping to catch us unawares."

"Then we better be ready," Wrayth says.

Back on the island, they drive straight to the apartment. As they get close, they keep a look out for places Lloyd might have landed his mech, but if he's around, he's good at concealing it. The whole ride, Soul's been filling vials with his saliva and attaching capped dart needles to them.

"Here," he says, passing one to each of them. "We don't know who will be in the best position to disable him."

Morro holds his up to eye level, remembering how it had left Bansha paralyzed for hours. He's no expert, but she almost asphyxiated when her exposure had just been a literal taste compared to the amount here. "This will kill him."

"No, not if Wrayth's intel is sound," Soul responds. "Trust me, Skytoucher, we have no intention of harming him."

Funny. They were all too eager to harm the other ninja, but it's not Morro's problem.

He fists the vial, pocketing it.

Nothing appears out of place at the apartment, though that's not a surprise. They wrap the Yin Blade in a cloth, allowing the hilt to be a bit exposed, and set it on the desk in Morro's room. He opens the window, having a perfectly casual smoke, and once he's done, they pretend to go to bed.

Part of Morro hopes Lloyd doesn't turn up, but a bigger part — or at least stronger — can't help feeling giddy at the thought of setting a story into motion. It leaps for joy when the windowsill creaks. The first part fights him, telling him to just stay in bed and let Lloyd have the knife, but stupidly enough, it's Lloyd who makes it lose.

His metal hand smacks down on Morro's shoulder, the other one at his lips, shushing. "Come on," he whispers. "We're getting out of here."

Elbowing him, Morro whispers back, "You need to leave right the hell now," pushing onto his feet. Well, maybe it's not defeated yet.

"Not without you," Lloyd insists.

"I belong here."

"How can you say that? Morro—"

"Just take the stupid knife and go," he almost yells.

Shaking his head, Lloyd turns his back on him and picks up the Blade with his left hand.

That easily, it's his chance. He touches the vial in his pocket, but he can't get his stupid nerves to let him go.

Oblivious, Lloyd faces him again, glaring at the knife then up at Morro. "Man, just let me help you."

He might as well have slashed Morro. He snaps inside, forgetting to keep his voice low. Gesturing in fury, an emphasis on his words, he erupts, "You have to stop caring, Lloyd. Stop sticking up for people who don't give a shit."

"What is it with you?" Lloyd challenges, beyond exasperated now. "Why do you always have to be such a jerk?"

"God, where do I fucking start? Oh! Maybe if people didn't throw me out with nothing for protecting your sorry ass—"

"No one asked you to protect me! You don't have any idea how bad she feels about that. If you'd just— ah!"

They both look down at the disembodied hand poking out of the shadows on the floor, stabbing a dart into Lloyd's ankle.

"What...?" Kicking at Wrayth, he staggers away and rushes to escape out the window, his leg dragging. He's gonna break his damn neck and die if he does that, so grabbing him, Morro whips him over onto the bed where he can't possibly hurt himself. Still fighting, he tries hard to stand. The poison works fast, though, so deadly effective that he's toppling forward instead, the Blade slipping onto the floor.

On impulse, Morro catches him, holding him upright.

Lloyd gasps as if he's trying to say something and fixes Morro with a look of wide-eyed betrayal. It scrunches up into terror, his breaths shortening with each draw. Then his expression melts as his body goes slack. His eyes don't even close.

Struck by how horrified that makes him, Morro shoves Lloyd away as he backs up against the desk.

Wrayth rises from his shadow. His wary stare echoes Lloyd's, but it's different enough. Distrusting. As if that's fair.

"I-I was gonna do it," Morro hurries to say.

Bursting into the room, Bansha exclaims, "Did we get him?"

Behind her, Soul goes to Lloyd, splaying his fingers on his chest. After a moment assessing the reach of his poison, he says, "Well done, Wrayth."

"It was all Morro. He made a great distraction."

Hearing that, Morro backs away further, stopping at the wall.

"Alright, let's—" Bansha starts before she yelps, dropping to the floor as Lloyd's laser about hits her again.

His robot arm. He can still get a brain signal to it.

Soul dives to pin it, pressing down with his full weight, but there's the sound of mechanical strain as it lifts. It's stronger than him. He punches Lloyd in the head with the back of his fist, stopping him for a second at most. The laser fires again, almost grazing Soul's temple. Ghoultar rushes in, his hands turning the same shade of silver as the arm. He yanks it flat on the bed and twists, starting to wrench it off.

"Stop!" Wrayth shouts. Muscling between them, he shadows through the port at Lloyd's shoulder, unlocking the arm from the inside. With a hiss of air, it detaches.

And that's it. That's all the fight he can put up. They...the others stuff him into the back of Wrayth's jeep. Morro wants shotgun, but Ghoultar's so god damn big that it's his assigned seat.

Nope, Morro gets to sit between Soul and Bansha and somehow not just hear but feel Lloyd struggling to breathe.

At some point, he finally shut his damn eyes. He might've passed out, but he's giving barely vocal groans as Ghoultar carries him into the restaurant now. Bansha moves one of the stray chairs to the center of Yang's circle. Soul's ready with a rope. The last inside, Wrayth sets Lloyd's arm on a table.

Morro has no idea why they even brought it.

"You okay?" Wrayth asks, watching him watch them.

Morro smirks, nodding.

"Bet he's getting cold feet," Bansha comments, scowling.

"I'm not," he bites.

Neither seem convinced.

Soul crouches behind Lloyd's chair, tying off the rope. "Master," he says like a prayer, laying down the Yin Blade. "Everything is ready." He exits the circle as that bright light from before overwhelms the room, dimming soon enough.

Floating there, Yang observes Lloyd up and down with a cruel smile.

Morro takes slow, casual steps towards the bathroom, stomps down the tiled hallway before the turn, then dashes to the nearest trash can because a toilet isn't close enough.

If only he could throw his nerves out the same way.

He stumbles to the line of sinks and rinses his mouth, panting. He's been over this already. What happens to Lloyd isn't his problem. He got into this all by himself. He didn't have to show up and fight them. He should've just stayed at home if he didn't want to be ripped apart.

Morro coughs, staring at his reflection. The ghost painted on his face. He smudged the green into his eyes, amplifying the way they're already ugly and sunken.

This is what he's gonna be if he goes through with it.

He can't. Not yet.

Ducking his head, he scrubs away the paint. The green's still there, so he ducks again, scraping and pressing in his knuckles to the point of pain.

Lloyd deserves everything coming to him, but not like this.

How's he supposed bail out his idiot cousin this time? He'll think of something. Put the plan on hold for another year if he has to. Somehow. But first, this stupid paint. He wets his hands some more, glancing to the mirror just in time to see Bansha behind him, winding back a pipe.

No time to even curse, he dodges her swing, the glass shattering instead of his skull.

"We've worked too hard for you to—"

She doesn't get the rest of her shriek out because he slams her with wind as he runs to the hallway. Expecting one of them to be waiting for him, he uncaps the dart he still has, going low around the corner and jabbing it into someone's — Soul's — thigh. Being that it's his own poison, probably slow to affect him if at all, Soul chases him to the dining area. In a place like this, though, Morro has the advantage. He generates gales that pick up the chairs and tables, turning them into bludgeons that bury Soul.

Ghoultar. He has to watch out for—

He twists away from the flash of metal flying at him. Leaping, he slides over a countertop, keeping Ghoultar at a distance, and hurtles wind back at him.

Damn, he's heavy.

Screaming with power, Morro multiplies the strength of his wind until Ghoultar's blown through a window, tipping Lloyd over in the process.

And finally, Wrayth comes out into the open. He's not fighting, automatically trying to reason with Morro as he leaves his defensive position. "I don't want to hurt you—" he says, stepping close.

That's his mistake.

Morro headbutts him, driving his knee into Wrayth's gut a moment after and punching him to the floor before he has the chance to shadow off. He still moves, so Morro scoops him with wind, throwing him across the room. He hits the salad bar and doesn't get up.

Yang's disappeared, but he's a ghost anyway. Nothing he can do to stop Morro from getting Lloyd out of here.

Doing his part, Lloyd squirms to get free. It's no use, even if he wasn't still mostly paralyzed, because this knot is damn insane. Morro's failing spectacularly at getting it untied, cursing the fact that they took Lloyd's sharp things and left them in the apartment.

Wait, sharp things, there's a freaking knife here. Where? "Shit!" he barks, not seeing it anywhere. Screw this. He's about to drag Lloyd out, chair and all, when total darkness once again blankets him.

Wrayth's voice echoes through the shroud, but it doesn't sound like him because he says, "Just where do you think you're going with my vessel?"

Kai yells out, darting to sit up. That dream. That dream—

"Kai? Hey, you're okay. You're gonna be fine."

Nya. She's nearby, sitting off somewhere he can't see. It's just green over everything, nothing but green and fear and the fragments of that violent nightmare.

Turning to her as best he can, he says, "Something...really bad is gonna happen to him."

"Who?"

Morro radiates pure bloodlust from the pole he's been cuffed to.

"I have to say that this is a shock," Yang's remarking with Wrayth's mouth. He walks in his circle around Lloyd who's listing in a gradual regain of movement. "I'm so impressed you actually went through with it."

Morro's the stupidest person on this earth. He truly the hell is. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!

Turning, Yang says, "Yes, yes, you're quite powerful, Morro, deeply tied to life as your element is, but why would I want second best when you've brought me the perfect vessel?" as if Morro doesn't get it.

Still, he scrabbles for any angle, grinding, "He's not, he—"

"You do not understand half the things you believe you do." Yang steps out of his temporary housing then, letting Wrayth collapse. As he crawls to Bansha holding Soul, Yang flits over him to Lloyd's side. He's fully tangible now, drawing on the green element, and lays his hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "This boy here is far greater than a totem. More than simply being inextricably entwined with life, he has been made its master into whose hand," he makes a fist with the other, meeting Morro's eyes, "all the pieces fit."

Morro fights against his restraints, calling on the wind, but every time he does, the cuffs pulse with something that blocks his command.

Chuckling at his futile effort, Yang hovers in front of Lloyd. "I would've had him a year ago," he says, and through his transparent form, Morro can see him lift Lloyd's head, caressing his cheek with a thumb — stop touching him! — "but the fire was on his side that night. Almost like how it was on yours," he looks back, "wasn't it, son?"

"You—" Morro freezes for a moment then renews his struggle. The fire. The convenient fucking fire that left him with nowhere else to go. He should die just for how much of a blind imbecile he is. "You killed them! Bastard!"

"Oh, don't be such a dramatic child. I freed you from your burden."

"It was mine to deal with!"

"Because you thought things could one day be different?" Yang answers, leaving Lloyd to stand as near to the line as he can. "I understand that you've been thinking about change quite a lot. You should know that you're forgetting that such a thing requires a catalyst; what was once unknown must become known." Getting up in Morro's face, he asserts, "And Morro, your parents knew exactly who you are."

Looking through him to Lloyd, Morro feels the dual edge of Yang's words.

Lloyd, who fought and bled to find everything he ever wanted. Lloyd, Green Ninja, beloved son and teammate, moronic damn savior who left all of it behind to save him.

And now Morro's trapped here with people glaring at him from afar, silent as the grave. They were never his friends. He knew it all along but didn't care. He refused to see the truth right in front of his eyes because he was so damn determined to have things his way, but they took his parents.

His evil, pieces of—

They really weren't gonna change. He's not worthy of it.

"Leave..." Lloyd's tired voice orders, "him alone." He's opened his eyes, narrow and fearless.

"Ah, got your voice back then? Good," Yang says. He moves back to Lloyd, greeting, "Hello, young Garmadon. It's such an honor to meet you." Hands spreading at his sides, he asks, "Are you going to let me in without any trouble?"

"W-what?"

"Come now, I can possess you with ease," Yang expounds, "but I won't have access to your incredible element without your permission."

Lloyd sputters, as close to really cursing as Morro's ever heard him. "You're crazy! I'm not helping you."

Yang nods, saying, "Understandable." Without turning around, he gestures to Morro and says, "Ghoultar, my dear, he needs a little motivation."

Ghoultar's heavy mitts slam down on his shoulders. He leans close to Morro's ear, mumbling, "Sorry."

"G-get your—" Choking, he's cut off by those hands locking around his neck. They squeeze, relentlessly tightening, arresting his desperate gasp. He jumps and thrashes, fighting to get out of Ghoultar's literal iron grip, but he's already seeing spots. His skin tearing as he yanks on the cuffs, he begs any wind at all to help him. To blow the whole roof off or just fill his lungs, anything. He gags on a shout- another gasp— Nothing's getting through.

Muffled by the deafening blood rush in his head, Lloyd's screaming, "Stop! Stop it! Please! I get it, okay? You can have me!"

His fading vision blacks out completely for a few seconds after Ghoultar releases him. Crashing to his knees, he sucks down air and coughs it back up so hard, he's practically heaving spit on the carpet.

"Please...don't hurt him. I'll do whatever you want."

Morro tries to tell Lloyd to shut his stupid mouth, but his burning larynx won't cooperate.

"Thank you," Yang chimes with a sarcastic bow. He glides up and over Lloyd, settling behind him, his own hands resting on Lloyd's shoulders. "Say it."

Lloyd looks Morro in the eye. His expression hardens, but it's sharp with determination, not anger. Determination and trust, like, like he—

Why? How can he expect that?

Morro wheezes, fighting the cuffs and the agony in his throat. "I can't," he coughs, "s-save you—"

Fear bleeding through his trust, Lloyd blinks away the shimmer in his eyes and smiles, suddenly humming the tune to an old rock song. Finishing the chorus, he straightens, closes his eyes, then says, "Okay."

Yang takes a step forward, vanishing into Lloyd's body.

Nothing happens for a split second, but then he throws his head back towards the ceiling, yelling and writhing. Soul has to run up to steady the chair. Outside, the wind rages. Morro can feel it swirling in a tornado around the building, responding to the primal wrongness happening right in front of him.

"No! Yang!" Everything's supposed to be over and done with now!

Lloyd goes quiet, slumping on the rope. Then he's laughing in a way he's never been able to before.

Morro stops struggling, too, only staring.

Howling wind blasts against the windows, beating without mercy on his brain.

What has he done?