Other Lives
••• For 12 •••

oh, nudging the ghost from the skull
and a night without sleep
vibration comes
first to the head and last to the feet

•••••

TW: assault/asphyxiation, dead body(?), horror elements

The Bounty was almost finished being rebuilt, which was astounding, because only that morning it'd been in a state of having been practically gutted. The sound of hammers and screwdrivers echoed in the valley from where it sat behind the half-destroyed tea shop, and each sound pinched my ringing ears. I had stunned myself.

"What do you mean you know who summoned Morro?" Wu asked in alarm.

"Who cares about how she knows?" Nya grabbed my arms with urgency. "Who is it?"

I blinked slowly, in shock at my own realisation. I wasn't one hundred percent sure of my conclusion but I was sure enough to hazard a guess.

  "His name is Simon Gessei," I answered. "He's my cousin. He... gave me a really bad feeling the other day." Was it really only yesterday? It felt like it'd been years since I saw him. It'd felt like just these past twenty-four hours were an eternity.

Misako sent her husband a concerned look. He nodded at her, and then to me.

"I will contact Skylor and Pixal to look into him," he said, and turned away from us to call them.

"Wait, what if I'm wrong?" I said nervously, but he didn't stop to hear my concerns. I turned to the others with a worried frown. "Looking into him could waste time we don't have."

"Considering that you had a gut feeling about Lloyd getting possessed, I bet that it's right this time, too," Misako said gravely. "We need to look at any possible suspect. We have to get that spell book and destroy it."

Wu sent me an encouraging look. "Trust your intuition, Y/n. It is invaluable, especially on our side of the world. Now-" he handed Nya and I brooms. "-let's finish clearing away this courtyard."

Nya groaned and stomped off to do as asked. I dutifully obeyed, but my mind raced the entire time I cleaned. Could I be right? Could it really have been Simon to cause all this mess? But why? And how on earth did he learn about black magic?

And what about the ninja, facing off trials in a haunted temple where they could die? What if we lost more than Lloyd?

My head was spinning. I didn't realise I'd been brushing the same spot of the courtyard until Ronin snapped his fingers in front of my face.

"I'm not paying you for this, right?" he asked. "You haven't signed some sort of contract?"

I looked up at him in confusion. It took a minute for his question to sink in, and another for me to answer. "No?"

"Huh." Ronin tilted his head with an intrigued look. "Then why are you hanging about fabled elemental masters?"

I stared up at him blankly. "I'm dating Lloyd."

His expression lightened with understanding, and he nodded. "Ahhh. Free labour it is."

I resisted the urge to jab the middle-aged man in the gut with the end of my broom until he cried surrender. Instead, I rolled my eyes and pushed the bristles against a splintered beam of wood and collected the pieces into a pile. Ronin leant back against the wall and tucked one ankle over the other, content to do nothing but watch the rest of us work.

"That bruise on your neck looks nasty," Ronin said, though without the care that one would usually say it with. "I'm guessing that come from Morro, too."

He didn't say it as a question, so I deigned not to answer. I stopped my cleaning and turned to him with a frown.

"You're not going to give us any trouble, right?" I asked.

"What kinda trouble are you referring to?" Ronin asked as he cleaned his nails with the tip of a dagger he'd pulled from his belt. "'Cause my answer depends on yours."

I pursed my lips. What an irritating man. No wonder the ninja didn't like him.

"Lloyd," I answered, voice cold and stern. I channelled my father's 'work persona' and glowered as seriously as I could. "You're not going to tell anyone about his secret identity."

Ronin's brown eyes jumped to me. "Is that a threat?"

I met Ronin's challenging stare. He glared at me for a long moment before relaxing back against the wall with a chuckle. He continued cleaning his nails in a look of total ease. It didn't really match the chaos around us, the situation we were in, or the feeling of protectiveness that was broiling in my stomach.

"Nah," Ronin said languidly. "I'd be smarter to dangle that over their heads every once in a while so I can cash in some favours." He chuckled again and sighed. "Lloyd Garmadon's the Green Ninja, huh? That's some irony..."

Disgruntled and ignoring him, I continued cleaning with a frown.

When the rest of the team didn't yet return by nightfall, I was beginning to grow truly anxious, and Nya was getting restless. Since the Bounty had been mostly rebuilt, and all that it needed was the touch of Jay and Nya's mechanical expertise, we ate dinner in the bridge with half of its contents still strewn about the place. Just in time, too - Steep Wisdom wasn't exactly equipped for living out of.

I stirred my noodles as I gnawed at the inside of my cheek. Silence stretched across the table, only occasionally broken by Ronin muttering complaints about the shop beneath his breath. The rest of us were downcast and wrought with tension. Each gust of wind had us pausing, listening for Morro.

I couldn't stop thinking about Simon. Was it really him who stole away a spell book and summoned Morro? Was it really him who caused all of this suffering? Why would he ever do such a thing? How on earth was he connected to the secret ninja force? I felt a fool just to be related to him.

Having a shower was a blessing, and I almost cried in relief when Wu told me that the Bounty's plumbing was fully operational. I scrubbed away the grime from the previous night's sleep on the forest floor, the fights against Morro and his poisonous touch, the anxiousness and the stench of terror. I scrubbed and scrubbed, but that didn't clean away the crawling of my skin.

When I wiped away the condensation from the bathroom's mirror, I went still with shock. I'd never actually seen the bruising of my neck, and the dark, red-purple blotch that stretched along my throat rendered me stunned. Thin lines of finger embeds curled toward my jaw. His thumb had left a dark spot beneath my ear.

My stomach turned violently, and I dropped my gaze from the mirror. It hurt like hell, an ache that drummed along with my chest in pulses that I couldn't quite ignore, but hadn't realised it looked that bad. I wished I never caught sight of it in the first place.

Avoiding the mirror, I washed my face, changed into pyjamas that Nya had lent me, and hunted for an unused spare toothbrush that she'd told me was under the sink. I stared at the dripping tap as I brushed.

I felt cleaner but not any better, and though exhaustion dragged at me as though the Bounty's anchor had attached itself to my shoulders, I found myself unable to sleep. The creaks of the ship were too loud. The wind outside, though gentle, left me uneasy. I was used to the silence of ninja, but knowing the lack of them made the quiet that much more unnerving.

I rolled beneath the covers and pulled them tight around me. Last time I was in this ship, unable to sleep, Lloyd and I had spent the night on the deck until I'd finally passed out. He wasn't here to do that this time. Would he ever help me pass a sleepless night again? Would we ever get to see the stars like how we'd seen them that night again?

I found myself at the door of Lloyd's room. The screeching hinges accused me of trespassing as I nudged the door open.

I'd been inside Lloyd's room once, back during the trip. We'd hidden away from the others when my social battery had been depleted twice over and tangled our limbs together as we napped on his bed. I was so tired that I hadn't taken much notice of his room back then.

Unlike the rest of the team's rooms which had been decorated in accordance with their tastes, Lloyd's was devoid of personality. The walls were empty of posters or photos, the wooden floor rugless, the bed pushed into the corner a blank slate of green. His bedside table had a uniform black lamp and a single dog-eared Starfarer comic. The room's light flickered and dimmed at random, still not quite fixed.

I picked up the comic and flicked through the pages without actually seeing the panels. How many times had Lloyd read this comic? Would it make me feel closer to him if I read it? Could I even bring myself to read a single word?

Something caught the edge of my vision. A lone stroke of green crayon on the dark wood wall, peeking out from behind the bedside table. Intrigued, I placed the lamp and comic on the bed and pushed the table aside.

Drawings - a bunch of them, a mini-mural of ham-fisted doodles - stretched across the wall and behind the bed. Coloured shapes of ninja and dragons and serpentine caught in clumsy battles. A family portrait with a four-armed dad. A crude rendition of the Bounty flying through cauliflower-looking clouds. A little green ninja with biceps taller than his head.

I smiled. The darkness in my chest eased at the endearing pictures. How young was he when he drew these? Why did he hide them away?

My phone's torch switched on when I craned my head beneath the bed to search for more of Lloyd's little masterpieces. They offered a brief respite, a soothing balm to the pain in my chest. I wondered what he'd say if he found out that his past art had soothed me in the future.

I dragged my torch along the row of doodles; more of the ninja, more snakes and parents and golden weapons. Mountains and temples and comic characters. And then my smile fell when I found myself.

Framed by the halo of my torch, the green ninja held the hand of a faceless figure coloured in peach.

I stared at it for a moment before pulling myself out from under the bed. I felt numb. Lloyd was gone. All I had of him in this bare room were the doodles he'd hid away.

His pillow smelt of spring.

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

The sun was golden-bright in the middle of dusk. It was spring around us, the grass sweet and lush with new growth, flowers just beginning to bud and peek their colours to the sky. The leaves of the tree above us were so green.

Lloyd sat across from me, dazzling as he always does, as he's always unaware of doing. The sunlight dappled across him, catching his hair with gold, touching his skin ochre. When he turned his eyes to me, their colours seemed to swim between shades of ivy and jade. When he smiled, my heart skipped.

Stretched beneath us was a picnic blanket. Before us, the secret lake he'd found and shown only me. Sensei Yang's book sat at my feet. Lloyd was reclining on one arm, the other slung across his waist, his ankles crossed. Something hurt in my chest at seeing him so content, but I couldn't recall as to why.

Lloyd tilted his head. His lashes caught the sun. His freckles became visible within a dash of light on his cheek.

"What's got you so worried, sunshine?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I can't remember." Did I look worried? Why would I be worried when everything was so peaceful?

The branches above us wavered in the wind. The leaves rustled. Lloyd leant toward me and pressed his palm to my cheek, and his skin was warm, calloused palms a familiar comfort. I sunk into his hold with a soft smile. Why would I ever be worried?

"Did you go home?"

My brows scrunched with confusion. "What?"

"I told you to go home," he said, and brushed his thumb below my eye with a look of concern. "Don't you remember? Remember why you need to go home?"

I let his touch pull me closer. "But you're here. Why would I go home?"

The breeze was growing stronger. Lloyd's gold-wheat hair stirred, flickering across his face. His lips ghosted over mine. A gentle brush of a kiss, a collision of soft breath. My eyes slid shut of their own accord. My arms leant me into him, chasing his kiss. I'd happily stay here forever.

Lloyd parted from the kiss to catch his breath, foreheads touching. My hand found the one he wasn't using to cup my cheek and intwined my fingers through his.

"Hero, I-"

"What a miserable waste of power," Lloyd whispered.

My eyes shot open. I leant away from him with a hurt frown. Lloyd's face had turned sharp with a scowl, his eyes piercing with hate. My chest felt as though it'd been stabbed through.

"This is all your fault," he hissed, and his touch turned to shackles when I tried to move away. The golden strands of his hair leaked into black. "Why did you ignore the warning?"

"I didn't mean to." I shook my head in panic. I tugged at my hand but Lloyd held it fast and painful. "I'm so sorry!"

The hand on my cheek slipped around my neck, and my back hit the ground with immeasurable force. I gasped for the air that had been knocked from my lungs, but his grip wouldn't let me. The tree bowed in the wind.

"Is this what you wanted?" Lloyd snarled. His skin grew pale and green, his eyes sunk into his skull. "You're killing me."

No! But I couldn't speak over the constriction around my neck. The only sound I made was choking cries, gurgles of desperation. Lloyd's eyes grew dark and murky and then it was Morro who was grinning down at me.

"You should've been mine," Morro hissed, and his voice distorted shrill and demonic, bleeding into my ears. Lloyd's skin began to crumple into his body. "You'll be mine when he's dead."

I couldn't close my eyes against the sight, forcing me to watch as Lloyd withered into a corpse before me. Morro laughed at my horror, my pitiful struggles to escape, my screams for him to stop. Lloyd's eyes went dull with death. His skin withered away into bone. His skeletal hand picked mine up to kiss.

I woke with a startled shout and my heart racing in terror. The creak of the door opening made me shriek again and flinch backwards as I feared the worst. The corner of the room boxed me in. The duvet tangled around my feet kept me from bolting, though, not that I had anywhere to bolt to.

Wu held an outstretched hand in a placating manner as he entered Lloyd's room. I felt my panic drop - it wasn't Morro. My head fell against the wall with relief.

"My apologies," Wu said. He planted his new bamboo staff on the floor and rested his hands upon it. "It was not my intention to frighten you further."

  I took a moment to regain my bearings and my breath, and then I felt guilty. "Did I wake you?"

"I came to help you out of your night terror," Wu said, which basically meant 'yes.' "But it seems it did not last for long." He tilted his head when I picked up Lloyd's pillow and hugged it tight, half-hiding behind it. "I do not need to guess what it was about."

My smile was humourless. "Nope."

My tired eyes closed, but then the darkness of my eyelids gave opportunity for my betraying mind to replay the scene of Lloyd's decaying corpse and reignite my discomfort. I forced them open again with a weary exhale. Sleep didn't entice me.

Wu picked up on it immediately. "Would you like to join me for some tea?" he asked. "I have created a new blend I have yet to share. You can be the first tester."

That didn't sound too bad, actually, and I'd give anything for an excuse to keep me awake and away from my nightmares. I nodded my head with a small smile.

It was a little strange to be in the quiet kitchen with only Wu. I'd never spent time alone with Lloyd's uncle before, and I couldn't help but be awkward. He felt like a third parent I needed to impress and had been failing at doing so. Surely, he'd expected the girl from the prophecy to be a little bit more prophecy-like than I. Surely he blamed me for what happened to his nephew.

"When I first brought Lloyd into my care, we used to make blends together," Wu mused aloud as he measured the leaves with a scientist's precision. He chuckled. "Lloyd's attempts were unpalatable, but Cole would always drink the entire thing so he would not be upset."

I took a seat at the kitchen bench as the ceramic kettle bubbled over the stove. It was interesting to watch the old ways be still preserved in this family, even in little ways such as making tea. I was so used to electric jugs. Though a stovetop wasn't exactly a fire.

"Lloyd was a handful," Wu continued. "I could see my brother in him as clear as day. They were both mischievous spirits, you see, always playing pranks and causing a ruckus. But Lloyd had his mother's integrity. I'd never seen a young boy so strong and confident." He sent me a soft smile. "That is how I know we will get him back."

How could he be so sure? This entire thing felt so impossible, like we were stuck in a maze and kept running into dead ends with every new turn. Lloyd felt so far away. Unattainable.

The kettle began to whistle.

  "Did you always know that he was going to be the green ninja?" I asked.

Wu pulled the kettle from the stove top and poured two cups. He was silent for a moment, drawn quiet by a sadness that had overcome him.

"Shortly after Garmadon disappeared, Misako did, too. She had Lloyd by herself and raised him through babyhood alone." Wu shook his head forlornly. "I did not know of Lloyd's existence until he was five, when Misako put him into boarding school and asked me to keep an eye on him. I did not know why at the time. I thought perhaps the resemblance to her husband that had disappeared hurt her too greatly."

He placed a cup before me and I admired the designs of dragons that flew along the rim. They almost seemed to move, drifting across the ceramic as if it were the sky. The cup looked old. It probably was.

"They had been together for millennia before Garmadon succumbed to the evil poisoning him and went his separate way," Wu explained. "Misako did... not take it well. I now know that she only asked this of me because it was she who had figured out the prophecy first and strove to change it. She knew I would not approve. Prophecies cannot be tampered with, but she tried, anyway. The attempt only managed to steal her away from Lloyd's youth."

Wu took a doleful sip of his tea. I'd almost forgotten about the warm cup in my hands, engrossed in this sad family history. No-one could ever have guessed that they'd all been so estranged.

I took a sip. It was delicious, but I was too focused on Wu's tale to pay attention. It didn't taste nice enough to distract me from the sadness.

"I did not know anything about raising children, nor was I ever made to, and in that respect I, too, failed Lloyd," Wu resigned to admit. "We have all failed him. And when Kai realised that Lloyd, who was only a child at the time, was the green ninja, I knew we had failed him yet again."

This distraction wasn't making me feel any better. In all actuality, it was making me feel far worse, and the ache in my heart doubled. My arms itched to bring Lloyd into a hug and hold him until fate sorted its shit out, but I couldn't, and it never would. We were all just puppets walking pre-destined paths. I was just another face who'd failed Lloyd.

"I know what I must seem like," Wu said as he took a seat across from me. "A foolish old man whose past failures have caught up to him. But can you see how you are not alone at fault?"

I stared down at the swirling tea in my cup. It was a light green, like the colour of Lloyd's eyes when they were illuminated by the sun. My heart sunk further.

"I can't," I murmured. How could it be anyone's fault but I?

"If I had not been so eager to think that Morro was the Green Ninja, we would not be in this mess," Wu said. "If Lloyd had not looked at that prophecy, you might have had the knowledge by now to interpret the warning. If Morro was not so hungry for power, he would not have become a restless soul. If the person who summoned him wasn't filled with such hatred, we wouldn't be dealing with a ghost." Wu leant forward to catch my eye with a gentle look. "Do you see now how you cannot carry the burden alone? It was never only yours to begin with."

I guess that did make me feel a little better; that I wasn't alone in my guilt, that lots of tiny mistakes led us to this road. It felt like a little bit of weight had been lifted from my shoulders, but it wasn't enough. It wouldn't be enough until Lloyd was home.

"I just still feel like such a failure," I mumbled.

"Would you like to be let in on a secret?"

I lifted my gaze questioningly.

"So do I," Wu confessed. "And so does Misako and Garmadon. So does the team. So does Lloyd. Unless we succeed, we assume that we have failed. Nobody ever exists to be content with what they have, or with how they are progressing."

What a miserable life we all lead. I took a sip of my tea with a weary countenance.

"You are not a failure, Y/n," Wu said. "The only way you can ever fail is if you give up, and I do not believe that you have."

I paused as his words sunk in. Oh. That was an angle that I had never looked from before, and it was slightly life-altering. I hadn't given up, have I? I wasn't one to give up. If answers eluded me, I'd search them out, if friendships became difficult, I'd try harder. If my not-quite-boyfriend became possessed, I'd refuse to go home.

I wasn't a failure, or useless, or hopeless. I just hadn't succeeded yet.

Tears welled in my eyes. Unlike the last few times it wasn't out of grief or despair, but out of gratefulness. My shoulders weren't so heavy. For the first time, I didn't feel so alone.

Wu reached across the table and held the back of my hand. I sniffled and wiped away my tears, and set him with a determined look.

"I'm not going to give up," I said.

Wu's smile softened. "I know."

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

I ended up going back to Lloyd's bed after Wu and I finished our tea. Hugging Lloyd's pillow seemed to trick my sleeping brain into thinking it was really him, and kept the nightmares at bay.

When I woke up, groggy and still fatigued, it was early morning. Voices floating from down the hall told me that the ninja had returned while I slept, so I shoved off the covers and paced down to the bridge, relieved that they seemed to have made it back in one piece.

It looked like I was the last one to wake, which didn't quite surprise me. Garmadon overlooked his wife, who was sat at one of the console stations and pouring over a line of multiple open books. She looked like she hadn't slept even a wink. Wu sat at the table on the other side of the bridge and talked with Kai, Jay, Nya and Zane. They all looked up when I entered.

"Y/n!" Jay cried. He rushed into me for a hug and I grunted at the impact. "It was so scary!"

I hugged him back in sympathy. I was glad for a hug, I needed one, too.

"Jace picked up your overnight bag from your mother," Garmadon said, and gestured to where a familiar duffle bag sat beside a console. I smiled in thanks. "Misako talked her through what's going on. We've been ordered not to let you get into danger."

His gaze flickered down to the bruise on my neck. 'Any more danger than I'd already faced' was more appropriate. I'd worry about how she'd react to it later; there was something more pressing on my mind.

Patting Jay's curly hair, I glanced at Kai. He was strangely quiet.

"Did you get the scroll?" I asked. At the drop of his gaze to the floor, I hesitated, and then realised that one of them was missing. "Where's Cole?"

The silence held a catacomb's worth of terror. My hand stilled in Jay's hair. My blood became a network of frozen rivers.

"Is he-?" My panicked question was cut off.

"No," Nya said, but she didn't look reassuring in any sense of the word. My fear doubled. "He's just..."

She couldn't seem to finish her sentence. Her grey eyes went glossy with grief and she dropped her head, a hand over her mouth. Distressed, I looked to someone else for an answer. Zane patted her shoulder. Jay's grip tightened around me forlornly.

"A ghost," Kai finally answered. He sat blankly at the table and spun a ninja star made of rock with his fingertip. "He got turned into a ghost."

My shocked inhale was sharp with disbelief. No, no, no. This was what I'd feared - the loss of another, the dwindling numbers. This entire situation was pulling the team apart, ninja by ninja.

"He didn't make it out of the temple in time," Jay mumbled. He stared at his jika-tabis with a disquiet frown.

"Where is he?" I asked. Was he gone? Would he have to be summoned? What if we never got to see him again?

"In his room," Nya said quickly. She noted my worry with a empathetic, watery smile. "He's still with us, he just... wants to be alone."

I released a sigh. "Okay."

Ronin had been leaning against the wall since I entered and was so silent I hadn't even realised he was there. He picked himself up and approached with crossed arms. Jay glared at him from where his head rested upon my shoulder.

"Why don'cha tell us more about this 'Simon' fella?" he dryly suggested. "Considering that he might be the reason we're all in this mess in the first place."

My body tensed at the reminder. Now that I'd slept and my mind had rested (as much as it could), I was certain of yesterday's realisation. It was him. He was the one who summoned Morro. I just still didn't know why. What was his reason? Why did he want to cause Lloyd harm? Lloyd, who'd sacrificed again and again to keep the world safe. Good, pure Lloyd. My Lloyd.

The why didn't really matter, actually. Next time I saw Simon, I was going to rip his head off.

"Whoa," Kai murmured. The spinning ninja star fell to the table. "If looks could kill."

  Zane spoke, except it wasn't words and sounded more like backwards pig Latin. I stared at him in shock.

  "Ah, his voice box got damaged during the fight," Jay helpfully supplied. "I think he asked you who's Simon?"

"My cousin." There was venom to my voice that I didn't except but fully felt. "Ghosts have to be summoned by a spell book. I think he's the one who did it."

"Your cousin?" Kai perked up with intrigue. "You think your cousin is behind all this?"

"Why do you think it's your cousin?" Jay asked.

"Because he's a terrible person," I coldly answered. "He's awful and spiteful and- and the other day he looked at Lloyd like he wanted to kill him."

"We already have Skylor and Pixal looking into Simon," Garmadon added. He glanced down at his frazzled-eyed wife and sighed. "Please, dear, get some rest."

Misako was in no such state to respond. The hyperfocus was almost frightening.

"Lot's of people look at Lloyd like that," Kai said doubtfully, drawing my attention back to the conversation. "He's not the most popular guy."

"This was different," I insisted. "It gave me a really bad feeling."

Jay stepped out of our hug and tilted his head. "You're accusing your cousin because of bad vibes?" he asked.

"No- yes-" I cut myself off with a groan. I didn't know how to translate the feeling of utter dread that overcame me into words, because nothing in my vocabulary could possibly come close to comparing. It was inexplicable. "Look, I got a bad feeling when I saw Simon, and I had a bad feeling when Lloyd got possessed." I glanced at the boys with a huff of desperation. "They have to be connected."  

They had to be connected, because if we lost this one lead that we had, if we got yanked back into square one, I'd be devastated.

I needed this to work out. I needed to be one step closer into getting Lloyd back. I wasn't sure if it was the prophecy or my powers or just my own feelings towards him, but each hour that passed without him back and safe was more excruciating than the last. Lloyd wasn't just a boy I'd met, he wasn't just a guy I was fatefully entwined with; he was the sun I revolved around. He'd melted my eternal winter and shown me more about myself in a month than the past seventeen years without him combined. I needed him back.

My gut feeling was right. I knew it was right.

"Y/n may be correct," Garmadon piped up when the hesitant silence dragged a beat too long. "It's as she said; she had a bad feeling. Is that not what we centre most missions upon? She might be more spiritually inclined than expected."

Kai sighed. "Could be."

"Y/n." Nya pulled out a chair and patted for me to sit. "Tell us everything you know about him."

I took a seat and spoke of every memory I had of Simon; of birthdays and Christmases, festivals and family holidays. I had nothing incriminating on him, he'd never given me reason to suspect him of black magic in the past, but his ill-will was enough to convince me. It was as though he'd wanted to watch the world burn and then throw another bottle of gasoline onto the blaze. 

"It's not as if he'd announce that he's practising black magic to his family," Ronin muttered when I'd ran out of things to say. "You tend to keep that crap on the down low."

"Hopefully Skylor and Pixal will find something," Kai said, words slow with consideration. His amber gaze jumped to mine. "What about your aunt?"

I shook my head. "No way. Aunt Rose is an angel. Simon must've gotten his pissy attitude from his dad."

"And where is he?" Wu asked.

"Out of the picture." I shrugged. "He left before Simon was born, I think. I don't even know his name."

"Which parent did he get Gessei from?" Garmadon asked. "We might be able to look into that."

I smiled apologetically. "My aunt. It's our maternal name."

He hummed in disappointment. Wu stood and picked up his staff with a sigh.

"If this lead proves to be right, then our next step is to get that book away from Simon and send the ghosts back to the Departed Realm," Wu said, before turning weary. "Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. Nya, you said that water sends them back?"

She nodded. "That's what the book in Domu said."

"Then it is in our luck that you continue to have access to your powers." Wu looked around our little circle of tired faces. "Between the deepstone aeroblades and Nya, I think we may begin to pose a threat."

"Aeroblades?" I glanced at the ninja star that Kai had begun to fidget with again. "Is that one? It's made of stone?"

Kai tapped the flat of a spoke against my wrist. "Deepstone's mined from the ocean. It works the same way as water."

My interest grew. "Handy."

"And not cheap," Ronin grumbled, making Jay roll his eyes.

A loud thump from behind made us look back at the console, where Misako had finally caved and passed out. Her head laid upon a wearied Garmadon's hand. He sighed slowly, both in concern and endearment. He swept her from the seat and into his arms.

"I think I will take her to get some rest," Garmadon said. He glanced at the three boys with a pointed look. "You should, too. You had a long night, and you will need to master Airjitsu by sundown." He scrunched his nose. "And have a shower."

Jay sniffed under his arm and grimaced. "Good idea."

  Zane made a sound of protest - or, at least, what I assumed it was. Jay nodded placatingly.

  "Yes, Zane, I'll fix your voice box, too!"

Jay, Zane and Kai dutifully got to their feet and left the bridge in search of a shower and a sleep. Nya mentioned something about repairing the Bounty's propulsar jets and followed the boys out. Wu left to make a new pot of tea. When Garmadon went to put Misako to bed, it was just Ronin and I.

The bounty hunter pulled out a seat and plonked himself down, before crossing his ankles on the table. He laid his hands over his stomach and stared me down with a calculating look.

"What?" I asked.

"That's rude," Ronin scoffed. "Do people your age not even wish someone a good morning before interrogating them?"

I glanced at his steel-capped boots, which were covered with filth from the Steep Wisdom's destruction site and dropping soil onto the wooden surface. "I think we have two very different definitions of 'rude.'"

He followed my gaze and grumbled. "Both can be mutually exclusive." But, still, he dragged his shoes off of the table and let them drop to the floor with a scatter of dirt. "Who are you? I've never seen you on the media before. Ya new or somethin'?"

"I'm not part of the team." I didn't think I could ever be part of the team if this was the kind of shit they had to deal with on a daily basis. My cortisol levels were already off the charts just from this stint alone.

Ronin eyed me closer for a moment before relaxing back with a huff, seemingly content with his deduction. It was good to know that he didn't recognise me from that one photo of me on the back of the green ninja's bike. I began nervously spinning a loose thread from Nya's pyjamas around my finger and hoped that his obliviousness was shared with the rest of the world.

Ronin stared at me. "You're just Lloyd's girlfriend?"

My cheeks heated. "Uh... yeah." I was too tired to argue the specifics of our relationship. I also didn't want to tell him about my powers - the guy practically screamed 'untrustworthy.'

"Some boy to choose to like," Ronin grunted. He leant forward and rested his arms on his knees with a frown. "You want a word of wisdom, sweetheart? Get the hell outta dodge. These ninja ain't nothin' but trouble."

He'd get along with my dad. "Thanks for the advice," I said dryly. I stood, grabbed my overnight bag, and sent him one last frown. "I think I know what I'm doing, though."

Ronin's brows raised. "Do you? The bruise on that neck of yours says otherwise."

My frown morphed into a scowl. I hoisted my bag strap over my shoulder and started toward Lloyd's room.

"Is some boy really worth this much trouble?"

I let the door shut behind me.

Is some boy really worth this much trouble? I stormed down the hallway and entered Lloyd's room which I supposed was now temporarily and unofficially mine. I dropped the bag on the bed and fumed. Is some boy really worth this much trouble?

But he wasn't just some boy, he was Lloyd. Lloyd Garmadon; a boy who'd gotten hit by a skateboard and a car by the same girl on the same day and still didn't hold a grudge about it. Lloyd Garmadon; the boy who'd managed to pull me out of my shell like no-one had done before. Lloyd Garmadon; the boy who showed me an entirely new world, a place I felt more a part of than any moment in my life before.

I unzipped my bag and faltered upon seeing the neatly folded green material. My fingers sunk into the soft cotton of Lloyd's hoodie, squeezing the sleeves, before dragging it from the bag and bringing it to my chest. It still smelt of him. My knees felt weak.

Everything led me to Lloyd. This mysterious power in my bloodlines had already paved my course thousands of years prior, and our collision was predestined and prophesied. We were intricately intwined. Even without the golden string of fate tied around our wrists, I'd still feel the same way.

No, Lloyd wasn't just some boy. He's my future. He's someone I'm madly in love with. He was my storyline, my inciting event, my hero's journey. He made my life into a novel worth reading.

I picked up a small, sculpted dragon mum had slipped into the bag and placed it on the window sill. It was only piece of decor this private room had. I stroked its scales with a fingertip.

He was worth every bit of trouble and more.

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

Not for the first time in his life, Lloyd considered giving up.

It was easier to give up. It was easier to stop fighting, to let the waves crest over your head and drag you under. Drowning was more comfortable than fighting the waves.

Lloyd wasn't sure when he last closed his eyes. He wasn't even sure when he last ate, and the weakness of having neither left his will drained and limp. Morro didn't care about the consequences of being alive, had forgotten how fragile and needy the living body could be; to him, Lloyd was no more than a face to wear, revenge for the powers that he wanted for himself.

Morro's possession made Lloyd feel as though his consciousness had been squeezed right into a corner of his brain and pushed through a lemon squeezer. It was like he was perpetually sleepy, foggy to the going-ons outside of his little prison within his own body. He'd beat at the black shadows that confined him, but he'd get only a glimpse before Morro pushed him back again. He was too strong. Lloyd was getting tired.

He wondered what it'd be like if he did give up. Would Morro get access to Lloyd's powers, or would they wither away along with his will? Would it be a weight off his shoulders? A sense of relief? He wouldn't have all this green ninja responsibility if he was dead.

But his family would suffer; and they'd live to suffer only more. What would this world be like without a green ninja? Who would lead the team? Who would fight the battles of prophecy? Lloyd was a soldier of fate by lineage, not chance. It wasn't as if somebody could come along and decide to take up the mantle he'd leave behind.

And what of Y/n? How devastated would she be? If she could be strong, if she could be brave enough to stand before Morro and demand Lloyd back, then he would be strong enough to keep fighting.

'I don't care about powers or prophecies. I just want my boyfriend back.'

Boyfriend. She'd called him her boyfriend, and the gloominess of being possessed by a vengeful ghost suddenly wasn't quite as oppressive and hopeless as it had been.

Y/n didn't care about the powers or the prophecies that bound them together. She didn't care about being strong. She didn't care about him being the green ninja or the grandson of a god. She just wanted Lloyd, and she wanted him back.

Lloyd clawed at the speck of light again, and Morro's groan was muffled beneath his breath. Fighting Morro was like lifting an insurmountable force, and keeping Lloyd down was like swatting back a fly that didn't give up. They were both stubborn.

"Quit it," Morro hissed, and his words surrounded Lloyd like an echo chamber, chanting and chanting and beating him down deeper into the darkness. Lloyd fought harder.

"Is the boy giving you trouble again?" the Soul Archer asked from across the fire that flickered between them. Morro sent him a withering glare.

Three ghosts surrounded the fire, awaiting their next command. They'd been summoned by the Allied Armour Morro had stolen from the museum shortly after stealing Lloyd, but sometimes, he wished he'd remained alone. Morro had never liked working with others. He'd never liked the way they'd pry into his life.

They'd found a cave to call their temporary base, and the green glow of the fire Morro had managed to create sent long, ominous shadows along the walls. The eyes of Bansha, Ghoultar and the Soul Archer stared at him across from the fire. They didn't give a shadow at all.

"It's that descendant," Morro sneered, and brought the end of Wu's staff down on the rock hard enough for the edge of the wood to splinter. "Every time Lloyd comes close to breaking, he thinks of her and fights me again. It's like she powers him."

"Then we should kill her," Bansha said.

Morro's brows twitched with thinly-veiled rage. "We're not killing the girl."

"Why not?" the Soul Archer asked. "Why should should we let the green ninja continue to have something to fight for?"

"Kill!" Ghoultar gleefully cheered. "Kill her! Kill, kill!"

Morro's rage snapped as high as the fire suddenly did, reaching the ceiling with a furious blaze. Ghoultar shrunk back with a whimper. Bansha and the Soul Archer stared at Morro's scowl through the flames.

"Nobody touches Y/n," Morro seethed. His glare pierced the opaque eyes of his entourage, and he huffed when they didn't reply. "Let's get back to work."

He turned from the others and spun his hand. A gentle breeze carried dust into a pile beside the fire, on which he rolled the staff along. Three symbols had imprinted themself into the dust.

"The second symbol," Morro grumpily said. "Can any of you decipher it? There was a reason why I brought you three out."

Bansha drifted her way around the fire, unshakable gaze set on Morro. Her ghostly visage settled beside him and peered at the symbols with haunting grace. When she looked at him, her eyes flashed with the unsatisfied hunger for death. She'd been a sorceress in her past life, and lavished herself in the suffering of others.

When Morro had first summoned her, she'd been a great choice. Bansha was adept at many things, a toolkit of useful skills. But now, seeing that dark glint in her undead eyes, Morro thought that he might have made a mistake in bringing her back. At least Soul Archer was half-occupied with his innumerable contracts. At least Ghoultar was a brainless buffoon. Bansha was ambitious; Bansha was smart.

"I can," she said, "but you'll need more than Airjitsu to get there."

"Are you suggesting that we will need to possess a few more vessels?" Soul Archer asked.

"Me likes! Me likes to take. Take now!" Ghoultar said, giddiness returned.

"Settle down, Ghoultar. Master would want us to be patient," Morro grumbled. He reached into Lloyd's memories despite the sharp pricks of his defence and stumbled across something of interest. "I think Lloyd knows where to pick up a few more... toys. There's a cave."

"Cave?" Ghoultar looked up at the stalactites on the ceiling. "We are already in cave?"

Morro stifled a groan. "A secret cave, you dim-witted fool. It's where the girl ninja stores her old mechs." He sent Bansha a hard-eyed look. "Would that suffice?"

She bowed her head in agreement. Morro began to stamp out the fire, dimming the green glow until it was nothing but smouldering embers in a destroyed pit.

"Then we leave," he ordered. "Lloyd will show us the way, whether he wants to or not."

The Soul Archer and Ghoultar glided from the pit and out the entrance. Bansha grabbed Morro's shoulder before he could follow.

"The boy's emotions are becoming your own," she whispered. "Do not let it hinder our mission, Morro."

His eyes narrowed. "Nobody is hindering our mission, Bansha." He dislodged her hand with a sharp shrug. "And if she were to, then I'd be the first to cut her down."

He exited the cave, and felt Bansha's doubtful, disapproving glower with each step.