Darkness. 

Wherever Lloyd was, light didn't seem to exist. It was an empty valley, void of all warmth and happiness. Every once in a while, he'd gain the strength to try to climb the endlessly-tall walls around him, but he always failed. There'd be a wave of grayish-green energy that coursed through the rock--if the walls were even made of rock--and hit him with unrivaled power, causing him to fall back down on the ground. 

That energy blast was the only time Lloyd could see anything, since his eyes didn't seem to adjust to this type of darkness, but gaining sight only led to dismay. As the colour split the shadows in half, it merely revealed a long, long passageway in front of Lloyd. It seemed more unending than the walls surrounding him.

Sometimes, voices would echo throughout the area, bouncing off walls until the sounds were too distorted for Lloyd to understand. However, there was one voice he seemed to recognize, though he couldn't quite place a name to it, since he could only hear the faintest whisper.

"A n y...s c a r...t h o u s a n d...o v e r," the voice murmured, sounding a bit like T.V. static.

It's a female voice, Lloyd realized. And she sounds upset. Is she talking to Morro? 

Lloyd wasn't quite sure who Morro was, other than being the ghost who possessed him. Occasionally, a string of words would race down the chamber he was stuck in. These words were different from the other voices because they seemed more...internal. The best theory Lloyd had for them was that they were some of Morro's thoughts, since he'd mentioned how people he possessed would be able to read his mind or something.

"Y o u   w i l l   n e v e r   b e   t h e   G r e e n   N i n j a,"  the girl said. "Y o u ' r e   j u s t   a   w a n n a b e.  L l o y d ' s   t h e   r e a l   t h i n g."

At those words, an epiphany hit Lloyd like a truck. Only one girl says my name with that tone. It's Lyra! But what's she doing near Morro? Shit, did he capture her?

Knowing he needed to do something about his discovery, Lloyd leapt back onto the rock wall and began climbing again. He scaled swiftly, reaching heights much farther than he'd previously achieved, since his adrenaline was pumping so much. The gray-green waves did nothing to deter him, even though they increased in power and frequency. His thoughts were all centred around his friend, and the thought of her being even just in the presence of Morro kept him going, even when his hands began to bleed from the rocks and his muscles started to ache from the strain

Just as he'd begun to see the top of the mountain-like wall he was climbing, Morro's voice resounded through the area.

"Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be." His voice was like nails on a chalkboard, cutting into the very soul of the one he controlled. "Just stop fighting, and she won't be harmed."

This made Lloyd freeze. What was he supposed to do? All he longed for was to be out of this prison; to be next to his friends again. To be next to Lyra again. He just wanted to hug her, to feel the warmth of her body around his. But if he tried to escape, would the very one he wanted to be with get hurt because of his actions?

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Lloyd challenged.

"Here. I'll allow you to see from my eyes," Morro said. 

Within a second, the empty 'sky' above Lloyd shimmered with the same gray-green as before. The colour streaked across the dark area, providing just enough light for Lloyd to see his hands in front of him. As blurry shapes began to form, more colours bled through the rip in the sky. While those shapes focused and became more clear, the rip split itself and transformed into the exact shape of two eyes. Through those eyes, he could see the figure of a tall, redheaded girl.

Lyra, he thought. 

Upon further inspection, Lloyd could tell that she was unhappy. Not just unhappy, but deeply troubled. Every time she glanced in the direction of the eyes, her sad, almost wistful expression would change to one of pure disgust. The look of hatred was so strong, Lloyd felt desperate to change it to one of happiness, almost as if she was directing it at him instead of Morro.

"Happy now?" Morro asked, annoyed. 

Instead of responding, Lloyd merely started his descent down from the mountain and back into the valley. Morro held up his end of the bargain, so he had to hold up his.

"Oh, no, it's not gonna be that easy for you." Morro's laughter rang throughout the mindspace. "You really thought you could just get away with almost escaping?"

All of a sudden, the walls began to shake. The slab of rock Lloyd was holding on to started to crumble, slowly fading into dust. Lloyd tried to grab the handhold above him, but it was facing the same issue.

"Have fun," Morro sneered as Lloyd's footholds disappeared, leaving him suspended in the air for a split second.

As gravity took hold of his body and he free-fell, Lloyd couldn't help but look at the girl through the eyes in the sky. I'll get back to you soon. I promise. 

Lloyd wasn't sure if he could fulfill that promise, especially when the walls caved in around him, leaving Lyra nowhere to be seen.

~I~

Lyra turned to face Morro. Her heart wrenched as she observed the deathlike pallor of Lloyd's face. His hair, once bright and golden, was the darkest shade of black she'd ever seen. She raised her chin. "Give Lloyd back right now."

"Star," Morro breathed. His gray-green eyes, a mere mockery of the glory Lloyd's used to be, were half-lidded. "My Star..."

"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, but I'll give you one last chance." Lyra drew her daggers and pointed them at the man, trying not to waver. It went against all her instincts to threaten Lloyd. She had to force herself to keep the Blades up. "Give him back, or I'll make you."

Morro chuckled darkly. "How? If you hurt me, it'll affect your precious Lloyd, too." He used a finger to lower her daggers, then twisted a lock of her hair with that same finger. "You look so much like her. She was protective, too."

"Like who?"

"Stella, of course," Morro said as if it were obvious. "Your eyes are the same dark blue hers got when she was mad, though this is the darkest I've ever seen them. Your hair is so similar, too..." He continued to play with Lyra's hair until she pushed his hand away. It was ice cold.

"Stella Soun?" Lyra stalled. She needed to keep the ghost distracted until she could figure out how to get him to stop possessing her friend. "Master of Performing?"

"I see you aren't dumb, either," he praised. "Just like Star."

"You know, she became an actual star," Lyra commented. "A movie star."

Her thoughts were racing. Any plans she came up with were immediately shot down. How do you fight an enemy you know nothing about? Do ghosts even have weaknesses?

"I always told her she'd make it," Morro reminisced. He leered at Lyra. "And what exactly will you be, once you're her age?"

His stare made Lyra shrink back. She almost squirmed. "I dunno. Probably be known as the ninja who took you down."

"Feisty," Morro purred. "Just like Stella. I like you."

Lyra shuddered. His grayish eyes held malice, an emotion that she'd never seen in the eyes of Lloyd before. The underlying kindness, the different shades, the unknown emotion, the comfort she'd grown used to seeing were gone. They were bloodshot and pale.

"Well...that's kinda awkward, right?" Lyra laughed. "I mean, how old even are you?"

"I was seventeen when I died, darling."

Darling? Lyra shrunk back at the pet name, not liking it in the slightest. Fuck, I was too busy trying to get to Lloyd that I never thought about how I'd save him. I swear, if I have to seduce this weird ghost full of teen angst, I'll throw up.

"I have a name." She crossed her arms and held her chin up. "Don't call me shit like that."

"Too bad, darling." Morro stepped toward her. "I hold all the cards here. Your poor friend is my puppet. You know, I could kill him if I wanted to. You have no right to be making demands like that."

Lyra's gaze narrowed as bits of her Element floated around her fingertips. "For any scar you give him, any pain you put him through, I will do the same thing to you a thousand times over."

"Darling, you should already know that won't work on me." He took his freezing hand and raised Lyra's chin with two fingers. "You're the girl in the prophecies, right? Well, I'm the Green Ninja now. Your Element won't do shit against me. So you may as well give up."

His eyes. Lyra gazed into the glassy, dead eyes in front of her. Lloyd, what'd he do to you?

"You know I'm right." The menacing chuckle that followed Morro's statement sent shivers up Lyra's spine. He leaned in, loosely wrapping both arms around her neck. "You know, I always dreamed of something like this with Stella."

Before he could do anything, Lyra kneed him in the groin and ducked as his reflexes brought his arms in, successfully escaping his hold.

I need backup. And research. Tons of research on ghosts. How do you fight someone who's possessed? Is there a way to get Morro out of Lloyd? Lyra's thoughts were racing. She backed away, making sure to avoid the area she knew Keres was lying down in, so as not to trip, until she realized the Master of Air wasn't there. Fuck.

"Looking for Keres, hm?" Morro smirked, his pain from earlier already almost gone. He strode toward Lyra, absolutely fearless in his approach. "Well, she escaped about...three minutes ago, I'd say. She's currently making her way toward your little ship. What's it called again? The Destiny's Bounty? What's its destiny? Death? I almost feel bad for all those ninja in there. They're gonna be dead in a few minutes. My cousin is a bit insane, if you haven't noticed yet."

Cousin? Oh, right, because he's the Master of Wind and she's the Master of Air. The ninja'll be able to beat her, right? We beat her earlier. Then again, it took Lloyd, Cole, Nya, and I to just knock her out, and that was only because she underestimated me. This time, Nya doesn't have her Samurai X suit, Lloyd and I are here, and the others are already weak from fighting earlier.

Morro brought Lyra out of her thoughts by tightly grabbing her right hand, causing her to drop her Jade Blade. "I have a...proposition for you. Join me. Be by my side as I conquer the world, just as the prophecy intended. The Green Ninja and the Master of Art."

Shit, he's one of those villains.

"You are not the Green Ninja," Lyra hissed. She wrenched her hand out of his grip and got into a fighting stance. "You will never be the Green Ninja. You're just a wannabe. Lloyd's the real thing. Y'know what, you're worse than a wannabe! You're basically just a creepy fan, idolizing him to the point where you want to become him."

"Join me," Morro repeated. "We can rule the world as the two strongest people in all of Ninjago."

"Either you're highly overestimating me or underestimating the rest of Ninjago," Lyra muttered.

"Oh, do you not know?" Morro arched an eyebrow. "Have you not heard the prophecies? What a shame."

Prophecies? He knows about them? That made Lyra perk up, but she knew she couldn't show Morro she was interested in what he knew. That'd mess everything up.

"Of course I have. I just didn't realize you knew them, too," she drawled.

In a split second, Morro grabbed a throwing knife from Lyra's belt and held it up against her throat. His eyes grew impossibly darker, almost turning fully black. "Liar. I can read Lloyd's thoughts, and he knows you've only heard one of the prophecies. But..." He lowered the knife and sent Lyra a blood-curdling grin. "If you come with me, I'll tell you them."

Lyra had no way of telling whether Morro was lying or not. However, it wasn't like she could just decline an offer like that. If the ghost really was telling the truth, she'd get to know everything about her supposed 'destiny'. Not to mention that she wanted to stay near Lloyd.

This is the stupidest decision I have ever made. It better be the dumbest I'm going to make, ever, she decided.Then again, a ninja never leaves another ninja behind, right? Can't believe I'm going to do this, though...

Taking a deep breath, Lyra steadied her gaze, reading deep into the cold, unfamiliar eyes of Morro. "Okay. I'll go with you."

~I~

"Wow, this place kinda sucks." Lyra frowned at the bar they'd just entered. "What are we doing here, again?"

It was a dingy place, the kind you'd see in some sort of cowboy movie. There were pool tables in the middle, and a bunch of old men that were giving Lyra looks she wished she could unsee were crowded around them. The entire building had a shabby, sketchy feel, which didn't help with Lyra's growing discomfort.

Morro grabbed a shot from the bartender and downed it in one gulp, which was a bit worrying because he was inhabiting a sixteen-year-old's body. "Ah, that's more like it. This is where we're meeting up with Keres."

An involuntary shudder ran through Lyra's spine at the mention of Keres. The only thing she'd been able to think about on the long flight from the monastery to the bar was that her team, her family, was probably currently fighting a losing battle against that woman. But she couldn't do anything about it, because she was here with Morro, trying to gather more information.

"Since we're surrounded by creepy old men who are definitely checking me out right now, d'you think you could untie me?" Lyra glanced down at her wrists, which were tied together with a thick piece of rope. 

"Aw, is someone scared?" Morro gave her a wicked smirk, which just looked wrong on Lloyd's face. "Don't worry, darling. You're safe in my hands."

No, I'd trust these old men more than you, Lyra refrained from saying. Then she took another look at the men eyeing her up. She'd had no idea that simple looks could make her so uncomfortable. Actually, maybe not. 

With a whirl of gray, a black-haired woman appeared in the middle of the bar. Smirking at the startled looks people gave her, she scanned the room, obviously looking for someone. Her smirk turned into a sneer when she made eye contact with Lyra, and she stalked toward them. 

Keres. Lyra's panic spiked as she looked her over, noting that she didn't have a single injury on her. Maybe she just didn't find the ninja? 

Her hopes were dashed when she spotted the obviously-stolen staff strapped to Keres's back.

"Here's the staff. It was easy work, stealing it, though those wretched ninja got away before I could stab them." Keres's spiteful tone would've worried Lyra in any other situation, but she was too relieved to hear about her friends' wellbeing to care. 

"We can deal with them later." Morro snatched the staff out of her hands and marched down to one of the pool tables, Keres and Lyra in tow. He rolled the staff out on the green surface, grinning when it revealed some sort of symbol. Three symbols, in fact, though Lyra couldn't make any sense of them. "Oh, of course."

"You're a bit too young for a place like this, aren't you?" a man asked from behind them, tapping Lyra on the shoulder.

"Wrong place to come if you ain't got strong enough friends to defend ya," another gruff voice added, "if ya know what I mean."

As she turned around, Lyra counted more than five men who were crowding around them, the number only growing by the second. Each of them had a cue stick in their hand, which she was willing to bet would make for a pretty effective weapon. 

"Oh, I have friends," Morro chuckled. His breastplate--which Lyra thought had no use and was just a strange fashion choice--began to glow a bright green, illuminating the entire room. Lyra blinked, unused to being the one blinded by bright lights, as opposed to being the one blinding others.

Above the chaos of panicking men, Morro's laughter could be heard. It was swiftly followed by other, unfamiliar laughter, the kind that chilled Lyra to her core. 

Keres grabbed Lyra by her makeshift handcuffs, dragging her out of the bar the second the light faded. Though Lyra looked over her shoulder to try to see what was happening, she was still too blinded to fully understand the situation. A few men were lying on the ground, clearly injured, but that's all she saw before exiting the building.

"Can't have you escaping in the midst of everything, can we?" Keres mused. Her gray eyes hardened. "It's all your fault I'm not in there, terrorizing those disgusting men."

"Sorry, that's my bad. Next time I just won't get kidnapped." Lyra rolled her eyes. "I think the fault's on you, not me."

Behind them, the door flung open. Morro stepped out, a green, transparent man beside him. Lyra assumed he was a ghost, which raised quite a few questions. Did Morro summon him? How did Morro summon him? Was Morro able to summon more ghosts with just that breastplate?

"So..." Lyra started as Morro summoned his dragon. "About those prophecies..."

"What prophecies?" Keres asked, her eyes narrowing.

"What? Prophecies?" The ghost turned to Morro. "Which ones?"

Morro waved a hand in dismissal. "Just the ones about the Master of Art. The unimportant ones."

This sparked Lyra's intrigue. There were more prophecies? Important ones?

"Anyways, knock her out," Morro said. "So we can get proper vengestone chains without her struggling."

Before Lyra could even react, Keres hit her on the neck, and everything went dark.

Word count: 3.1k (ik it's short but I just wanted to finally update)

I didn't edit this so I'm sorry abt any typos lol

I'm so sorry it's been like a month since I updated but I went on vacation and didn't have much time to write

QOTD: What are your thoughts on country music?

A: I feel like a lot of the songs are just the same thing but reworded. It's not for me and a lot of my friends like love it which I find strange

Please do comment and vote because, once again, it helps with motivation and motivation=writing often

Remember to drink water, eat food, and get an appropriate amount of sleep for your age please<3

~Aspen