While Sensei Yang had a chat with the villains that had been awakened from the Departed Realm, Cole and Morro were forced to sit on the rotten wood floor back to back. Yang's students were ever vigilant and watched them closely with creepy, undead eyes. It was fair to say that things had taken a turn for the worst.

So maybe this night hadn't gone exactly how Cole imagined it. He hadn't expected Sensei Yang to have such an elaborate plan, but this wouldn't be the first time Cole had walked himself right into a bad situation. He could still fix it. Somehow.

On the bright side, there was one thing he was almost certain about. At this point, he figured it was a safe bet that Morro probably wasn't working with Yang. So at least he'd cleared that up.

Cole looked at Yang's students, who stood ominously around them. "C'mon guys, can't we talk this out? You know, student to ninja?"

He got no response, just more blank stares.

"Somehow, I don't think they captured us just to chat," Morro said over his shoulder.

Cole sighed, trying to hold onto his patience. "It doesn't hurt to try."

"If you say so."

"Well what's your bright idea?" Cole snapped.

Morro was quiet for a moment, and Cole realized that he had taken the question seriously. Cole wondered what kind of plan he had in mind. Come to think of it, when the ninja fought Morro before, he had somehow always managed to be one step ahead of them. He was scary good at strategizing. Cole twisted halfway to try and see him, anticipating what he would say.

He felt Morro shift behind him. "I don't know. We could . . . think about our place in the universe?"

"What kind of answer is that?!"

"I thought that was something you'd want to hear!"

"Why would I want to hear that?"

"I don't know, you're the one that got us into this mess! I never should have agreed to this."

"Well I'm not gonna sit around here and feel sorry for myself."

"That's not what I –"

"We have to do something!"

"You can try all you like," said Sensei Yang as he approached. "But its useless. Those chains are enough to stop your ghostly and elemental abilities. And right now I'm holding the most powerful weapon in the room. So I wouldn't try anything if I were you."

"Ha! I've faced worse odds before!" Cole said boldly. "If you think that'll stop me, you've got another thing coming. But I'm making you a promise tonight that I'm gonna bust out of here and stop you from using that thing!"

There was brief pause before Morro asked, "Do you even know what 'that thing' does?"

"I . . . Well, no," Cole admitted. "But I bet you don't, either!"

"I wasn't the one throwing it around two minutes ago!"

Sensei Yang's maniacal laughter prevented them from getting into another argument.

"I almost hate to ask," Cole said, "But what's so funny, now?"

"Mostly I find the situation ironic. Here you held the antidote to your own affliction, and you didn't even know it."

Morro seemed to catch on first. He turned sharply behind Cole. "The blade . . .?"

"That's right, the Yin Blade, together with the eclipse, holds the power of life and death."

Cole wasn't quite able to put together what Yang was getting at, and the ghostly sensei appeared to recognize this.

Yang clasped his hands behind his back. "Allow me to elaborate, if you will. You see, I dedicated my life to the study of Martial Arts. I studied them all, and even created one of my own."

"That much I know," Cole said. "We wasted a lot of time trying to get that scroll from you."

"I wouldn't call it wasted time. You see, Airjitzu was my finest achievement, but it was nothing compared to what I would discover later." Yang held up the Yin Blade, tracing his translucent fingers along its black edges. "Years of research revealed to me the location of the Yin Blade, a weapon whose magic was so powerful, it was said to hold the key to eternal life. Control that magic, and I'd be forever remembered as Ninjago's greatest master! Immortality was so near . . . So I decided it was time for the ultimate test: myself. But something went . . . wrong."

Yang lowered the weapon, looking down on Cole with a hardened expression. Cole returned his gaze evenly, determined to hold on to his pride. "While I will live forever, it is only as a ghost, cursed to haunt this once-proud temple as Master of the House, never able to return . . . until tonight. Thanks to you, Cole."

"Thanks to me? How?"

"Oh, I don't know," Morro drawled. "Maybe by running in head-first and destroying everything in sight?"

"I did not –"

"But you did," Yang interrupted. He thrust the Yin Blade in Cole's face. "You see, on the Day of the Departed, when there's a Yin-Yang lunar eclipse, the Yin Blade can cut the Rift of Return, allowing me to join the living once again. So . . . thank you for this."

"You're not welcome!" Cole shot back.

Yang smirked. "Is that all you have to say for yourself?"

"You won't get away with this! I'm supposed to meet my friends soon. When they see I'm missing, they'll come for me."

Sensei Yang's grin only widened, making Cole's blood boil even more. "See you're missing? Ha! Look at you! You can barely see yourself."

Cole opened his mouth to retort, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Yang was right. Cole had been disappearing more and more all night, and his friends hadn't even noticed. What if they didn't notice when they met up again for the eclipse? What if they didn't notice until it was too late?

Ice seemed to grip his heart as another thought occurred to him: if they barely noticed his presence now, would it really bother them that much when he was gone?

Yang continued gloating, only to add salt to the wound. "You've already caused quite a few problems for your friends tonight. I'm afraid they may not miss you much, anyway."

As he spoke, Sensei Yang conjured up an ethereal, ghostly green vision of Cole's friends. To his horror, he saw that Kai and Nya were under attack from Master Chen. Zane had been confronted by Cryptor, while Jay and his parents were taken by surprise by the Stone Warriors. Pythor was after Lloyd and Misako, and Samukai had gotten the jump on Master Wu. A knot formed in Cole's stomach when he saw each of his friends in danger, knowing he had caused it.

Morro had turned again to see what was going on. Cole heard him whisper Master Wu's name. Cole tried to stand, but a ghost blocked him from Yang and kept him on his knees. "What have you done?"

"No, Cole, what have you done?"

Cole realized that must have been what all the green smoke was. This was Yang's plan all along, to release the spirits of Ninjago's greatest enemies to exact revenge on him and his friends. And Cole –

Cole had given him exactly what he needed to do it.

"How could I let this happen?" he asked himself as he was forced to sit back down. He clenched his fists, anger mounting in his chest. Anger at Yang, but mostly anger at himself.

"You were scared you were departing and that your friends had forgotten you," Yang replied helpfully. "So, I took advantage of your fragile mental state to trick you."

"I knew charging in was a bad idea," Morro said, as if that wasn't the last thing Cole needed to hear right then.

Yang stepped back. "Give up, Cole. You're by yourself. There's no one to help you."

In spite of his nagging, Morro was quick to counter Yang. "That's where you're wrong. I didn't come here just to sit on your filthy floor. You made a mistake when you made me your enemy!"

Laughing to himself, Sensei Yang only addressed Cole when he said, "Him? You brought another one of Ninjago's greatest enemies to fight me? You know, Cole, I'm really starting to think we're more alike than different."

He circled them, and Cole had to crane his neck to keep his eye on Yang. "I suppose I should thank you, too, Morro. I couldn't have done any of this without your intervention. After all, you're the real reason Cole is a ghost, aren't you?"

"Tch. That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?"

Yang shrugged. "I was hopping you would be more open to the idea of an alliance, but it seems you're dead set on trying to stop me, now. Not enough room in Ninjago for the two of us, I suppose? It's too bad. We could have finished this together if you weren't so stubborn. But you'll never change, will you?" He shook his head. "No, you'll always be what you've always been. A homeless orphan with nothing to his name, doomed to repeat the same mistakes in death as in life."

Yang drew back just before Morro could reach out and strangle him. Not that it would matter. Everyone there was already dead, and with their hands cuffed, Cole and Morro were virtually powerless.

"No matter." Yang said. "You'll both fade away soon, presuming you don't finish each other off, first." He drifted away while his students held Morro steady. Cole watched as Yang weighed the Yin Blade in his hand.

"Just think how devastated your friends will be, Cole, to find out that you've allied with someone who caused them so much pain. You're certainly racking up a lot of offenses tonight. You're already departing, perhaps they'll be happy to know you're gone." Yang looked over his shoulder. "No Cole, you are alone. You have been ever since you walked through that door with my scroll."

Cole's heart twisted. Ever since becoming a ghost, he had tried so hard to regain some semblance of his old life, but the creeping doubt and loneliness were impossible to ignore. As hard as he always tried to shove it away, the hopelessness came back now in full force, like an avalanche come to bury him.

His friends were in danger, and it was his doing. If he had been less selfish and disappeared quietly, none of this would have happened. His friends would be safe . . . and he would at least have had a chance to say goodbye to them.

"If you'll excuse me, I have a rift to open." Sensei Yang singled out two of his students. "Watch them, do not let them escape."

With that, he drifted away, up the grand staircase to perform who-knew-what kind of unholy ceremony to restore himself back to life. Cole thought of his friends, just as alone and helpless as he was, fighting for their lives because of his mistake.

I'm so sorry.