A new sound rose above the wind that whipped around the three ghosts on the rooftop. Morro looked up at the wispy clouds and spotted a ship coming through – the Bounty.

Voices drifted through the air, carried by the wild winds: "Cole!"

Beside Morro, Cole grinned. "My friends! They came!"

Yang gave an angry shout and lashed out with the Yin Blade. He swung blindly at both of them. Morro dodged the blade as it lashed about on its chain. Cole ducked and then popped back up and struck Yang with a solid punch that sent him flying across the roof.

Morro shot a surprised look at Cole. Where had that strength been earlier?

Cole was looking at his hands. "Whoa. I feel . . . different." His hands began to glow with a strange orange light that crept up his forearms. "Like – like I can punch through . . ."

Yang was back on his feet. He brought the Yin Blade down on Cole again.

Cole clenched his hand into a fist. "Anything!"

He punched the Yin Blade with his bare fist, and it shattered, as if it was no more than a plastic plaything. At the same time, the deep-vengestone cuffs broke from his wrists and hit the roof with a clatter. Yang stumbled and fell over the topmost part of the roof onto the second level below.

Morro ran to the edge, looking down on Yang as he propped himself up on his hands and knees. To Morro's ever-growing annoyance, Sensei Yang's students appeared as well. That was the problem with fighting other ghosts, it could easily end up going on forever.

"Lookout," Morro warned Cole. "They're coming back for more!"

Cole came beside him, but as they watched, Yang's students began to act strangely. A couple took off their hoods and looked around. They seemed confused, glancing between Yang and the two ghosts above them.

Cole shook his head. "No, it's Yang's spell, it's finally broken!" Cole leapt down in front of Yang's students. "Hurry, the Rift!" He pointed above. "If you go through, you can be free of this place forever!"

The ghosts exchanged uncertain glances before one of them took to the skies with Airjitzu. The others followed suit, and they rose up toward the Rift together. With a flash of light, they vanished. Morro jumped down after Cole. Over the edge of the temple, he could see Yang's students reappear on the ground below, but they weren't ghosts anymore, they were human once again.

"What have you done?" Yang bowed his head and for a moment he looked the part of a defeated man. "It's all gone. My students left me, the Yin Blade failed me . . . I failed."

"Yeah, you did," Cole said haughtily.

Morro glanced up at the sky. "The Rift will be gone soon. You need to go now, or you'll lose your chance."

Cole nodded and raised his hands to perform Airjitzu. But he froze when Yang's voice drifted toward them.

"I always fail," he lamented pitifully. "I'll always be alone."

Cole looked toward him, and Morro could see the hesitation mounting in his expression as a seed of pity wormed its way into his weak-willed heart.

"Forget him!" Morro hissed. "He'll say anything to save himself."

But Cole wasn't listening to Morro, he was listening to Yang.

"I dedicated my life to studying the martial arts. Alone. I got arrogant, I wanted to live forever. . ."

"Wait –" Morro reached after Cole, but Cole brushed him off. "You're playing right into his hands again!"

"Just hang on," Cole said.

"There's no time!"

"There's always time." Cole turned to face him. "Go on, Master Wu is waiting for you. You've waited long enough for this."

Morro grit his teeth as Cole returned his attention to Yang, but he stayed put. Cole was the one who dragged him this far in the first place. Morro looked up at the Rift which was already beginning to shrink and suppressed a shudder. To become human again . . .

To Morro's growing horror, Cole held out a hand and helped Yang up. "No one lives forever. Why try?"

"Because," Yang answered, looking more like the old soul he was than he had all night. "I knew the day I was gone, no one would remember me."

"All of this was so you wouldn't be forgotten?" Cole asked in disbelief.

Morro folded his arms and scowled at Yang as he nodded. "I could feel myself disappearing," he began. "Not as a ghost, but as a man who was steadily growing older, with no companions to speak of besides my students, and little to leave behind besides my martial arts. I had no one, and such little time to change that. So, I tried to do something that no one had done before, I tried to give myself more time. Enough time to have a second chance, enough time that no one could forget me." He bowed his head, the brim of his hat obscuring his face. "You must think I'm a fool for having such a petty desire," he growled.

"No, I get it," Cole said. "Believe me, I get it. I know what it's like to feel forgotten. Alone. It . . . it hurts." He cast a glance at Morro as if he thought he would understand. But Morro didn't want any part of this, it had nothing to do with him.

It didn't matter that Morro had spent the better part of his life chasing something that could make him important enough to be recognized, valued, remembered – only to end up dying all alone. It didn't matter that he had spent the last six months struggling to come to terms with the revelation that he wasn't important, that he wasn't the Green Ninja, that when his soul really did disappear from this realm forever, he would be lucky just to be remembered once in a while by the one person who had ever thought fondly of him . . .

"But being remembered isn't the same as not being alone," Cole said. "Your life doesn't have more meaning just because a bunch of people knew who you were. What's more important is how people remember you. However many people might think of me after I'm gone, I want them to remember the good I did, and all the ways I helped them. Do you really want to be remembered for the harm you caused others? Just so more people know your name?"

"It's easy for you to say," Yang snarled. His head jerked back up, his eyes sharp with bitterness. "The people of Ninjago remember you as a hero. They adore you."

Cole crossed his arms. "Yeah, they do. And you know why? Because I've dedicated my life to helping them. And not just by lifting buildings or punching out Serpentine, but by doing good. All those people that cheer me on? They don't even know me. And even they'll forget about me a few years after I'm gone. But my friends are here now, and I know in my heart that they'll always remember me. They're not the only ones, either. The people who I really had an impact on – the ones whose lives I saved or who I talked to on a bad day and answered a cry for help – those are the people who will truly remember me."

"And you—" Morro's brow twitched when Cole put a hand on his shoulder. He had half a mind to let his hand phase right through him. "I know things were rough for you before. But you did impact Sensei Wu, and dare I say you impacted me tonight. That's the kind of memory that endures, the spirit of who we are in the people whose lives we've changed, even for a day."

Morro just huffed and looked away. He hadn't asked to be a part of this. Cole could just keep his preachy thoughts to himself because Morro hadn't asked for any of it.

"Still," Cole continued. "If we have a chance to return tonight, I don't want to miss it. Come on, there's still time to go through the Rift, all of us."

Morro finally let Cole's hand slip off his shoulder. "You go on. I'm not going back."

Cole gaped at him. "What? You gotta be kidding! After we fought so hard to get here?"

"I only came tonight so I could say goodbye to Sensei Wu. And you had better keep your promise."

"Sensei Wu's probably on the Bounty right now," Cole said, pointing to the sky. "You can talk to him all you want after we go through the Rift!"

"I'm not going!" Morro snapped. "There's nothing here for me."

"But –"

"Sensei doesn't want me here. He'll be happier when I'm gone. This whole stinking world doesn't want me here, and I've already overstayed my welcome. I'm tired of trying to force my way into it."

Cole gave him a strange, searching look that Morro didn't like. "Do you want a place in this world?" 

Morro didn't answer.

"This is your chance, Morro. You can start over, you can find a place in the world. No Green Ninja title this time, no jealousy or vengeance. You can live your own life."

Morro sneered at him. "As if you all would forget what happened and let me go free."

"We wouldn't forget," Cole said. "But we would still be willing to give you another chance. If that's what you wanted." 

Searching his gaze, Morro expected to find some sort of tell, something to betray that Cole was lying and most definitely wanted Morro to come back just so he could lock him up for the rest of his life. But Cole's expression was steady as a rock, with no hint of anything hiding below the surface.

"The Morro I know would never go so quietly," Cole said. "Are you gonna let fate win by giving up your last chance to live your own life?"

Now he was just baiting Morro. He knew what to say to challenge Morro's resolve, and Morro didn't like that. 

"What makes you think I won't return and come for you and every one of your friends?" he snarled. "You think I was bluffing earlier? But I'm not bluffing this time."

Cole frowned. Morro held his gaze, but he still didn't like how probing it was.

"I guess I don't know for sure," Cole said. "But I'm willing to take a chance on you."

Morro thought back to Sensei Wu desperately reaching out to him. Why didn't they ever stop? Why couldn't they accept that he was a lost cause and let him go?

Cole stepped back. "It's your choice." With that, he grabbed hold of Sensei Yang and jumped into a cyclone of Airjitzu.

Morro looked up at the Rift. Could he even remember a time when he was human? He had spent more time as a ghost than he ever had alive. He remembered the pain, because it was all he was allowed to bring with him to the Cursed Realm. There might have been some good memories from before, but he had suppressed those beneath the jealousy and anger for years. Even the wind had been nonexistent in the Cursed Realm. He'd held the power, but the stiff, dead air within the Preeminent had held no connection to him. 

The winds churned around him now, anxious and full of tension. It was the one thing that had ever been consistent in his life. The emptiness he had felt when he awoke in the Cursed Realm had been just as unbearable as realizing he had died. 

Maybe the Departed Realm would be different, but he didn't know. The one thing he did know was that he wouldn't be able to come back. 

The air currents wrapped around him now, and though he knew it was only linked to his soul, he always swore he could feel something there, something alive. Something that  spoke to him, even now. 

Morro's gaze flitted between the isle below and the Bounty above. Finally, he leapt from the roof and took to the air.

The Rift was getting smaller still, and Morro had to push himself to catch up with Cole and Yang. If he didn't make it, thenso be it. He would take it as the final sign to not fight anymore.

At least they had stopped Yang from crossing over to do evil, and they had rescued his students. If Cole was right about what he said, then that might have been the most important thing Morro had ever done.

As the three ghosts rose up in the light of the lunar eclipse, the Rift drifted ever closer, and ever smaller. Morro was just behind Cole now. They were getting so close . . . just a little farther . . ."

"I'm sorry, Cole."

Morro looked to Yang.

"I'm afraid it's impossible."

What?

"The curse of the temple requires that at least one ghost remain behind as Master of the House," Sensei Yang explained.

"One of us has to stay here?" Cole asked. Morro looked down at the temple.

Just one . . .

"It must be this way."

Morro's eyes were glued to the temple. His cyclone was slowing, falling behind. They won't remember who we are, but what we did . . . That's the memory that endures.

"I'll –"

"Hey! What are you doing?" Morro's head snapped up. Sensei Yang had grabbed Cole by the front of his gi.

Morro used a burst of wind to shoot himself up.

"Settling my debts." With a shout, Yang tossed Cole up and toward the portal as he himself fell back down toward the earth.

"No!" Cole looked like he was about to try and go back for Yang, but Morro snatched his arm and pulled them both up into the Rift just as it shrunk into the slightest sliver.

The Rift clamped shut and a burst of green light illuminated the sky, as bright as the sun. It echoed over the land with a loud boom that could be heard for miles. When the light faded, the wind soon started to die down and the skies began to clear. The moon shone above, clear and round and emanating a soft, blue light.

Nearby, the Destiny's Bounty finally evened out in flight and turned itself toward the temple.