Whaaat? The Lost Soul sequel is finally here?! Yes, it's true! I was hit with crazy inspiration and have been writing nonstop because it is Spring Break! Writing will probably come to a screeching halt once school starts again (and I have stuff I should be working on right now anyway, but oh well XD) but I've got *maybe* a little less than half written, and I hope that will be enough to update regularly until the end of the semester when I can start writing a lot again! :D

So, in short, updates will be once a week on Saturday or Sunday. I know today is Wednesday, but I wanted to go ahead and post this to kind of test the waters with this prologue-ish first chapter (and I'm not sure I'll have time to post later in the week.)

As I stated in the summary, this takes place after Skybound and is VERY loosely based on Day of the Departed. I have taken elements from Day of the Departed and changed them drastically, so any "inaccuracies" you see are in fact intentional. :D

I hope you like it! I've been having a blast writing it! :D

"It was an accident!"

Morro crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at the middle-aged ghost standing in front of him- Victor, he remembered- and the object he had in his hands. "You accidentally stole an entire tray of muffins?"

Victor peered down sheepishly at said prize in hand. "Well, you see- they… fell and when I went to pick them up, that old hag accused me of stealing and I got spooked and ran away…?"

Morro sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "What are the three rules, Victor?"

"Morro-"

"What are the three rules?"

When Victor hesitated, biting his lip, Morro cupped a hand around his ear and leaned forward, indicating that he was not going to back down.

"One, special abilities are used only with permission and never on other Lost Souls," Victor recited with the air of someone who had repeated this a hundred times before. "Two, commit three crimes, and you're out. Three… you're in charge," he finished quietly, bowing his head.

"Good. So, you can't feign ignorance," Morro placed his hands on his hips and shook his head at Victor with the expression of a disappointed father, even though the ghost in front of him was much older. "This is your second crime, Victor."

"I know…"

"Look, if you want something, you work for it. If the old hag won't give you a fair deal, talk to me and I'll handle it. But, no more stealing." Morro shook his head. "Don't let there be a third crime, alright?"

Victor sighed. "There won't be."

Nodding in satisfaction, Morro turned away and began picking his way through the many, many tents of the Lost Soul encampment. They had been camping here in this forest clearing, just outside a small village- with the bakery from which the muffins had been pilfered- but Morro thought it was approaching the time to move on.

"Morro!"

The ghost stopped when he heard his name called, watching the old woman approach. Everyone called her Nana, even though she was relatively spry for her age.

"I finished the survey like you asked, and we don't have enough blankets for everyone that's requested one," she explained.

Morro tapped his chin. "When does your shift end?"

"I'm doing a double today. Taking over for Molly for a favor."

Morro balked. "Again? Does she ever work?"

"Well, ever since she struck up a relationship with Clem, she's been pretty… distracted if you know-"

Morro held up both hands. "I don't need details. Fine, as long as she's following through on her favors." He tapped his chin, returning to the problem at hand. "Hm… Go into town and find the shop called 'Wyvern Weavers.' They gave us a good deal before."

Nana saluted him. "Will do, boss."

She marched off, and Morro continued on his way, waving and smiling at people who called out to him, though in truth he just wanted to lie down and close his eyes and not have to think for a little while. He'd embarked on this journey with the Lost Souls to find homes for wayward ghosts, but it seemed that with every ghost they placed, two more joined their caravan. Morro cared for all of them, he did, but sometimes-

"Morro!"

He barely bit back a groan.

He looked down to see two of his younger charges, eight or nine year old boys, run up to him.

"What's up, little man?" He asked.

"We're playing Ninja and Mikey said I have to be Lloyd 'cuz I'm younger, but I always have to be Lloyd and I want to be…," he stopped, suddenly bashful. "Well, I want to be you."

"I told you, I get to be Morro because I'm older," Mikey declared, crossing his arms righteously.

Old Morro probably would have snapped at the kids to get lost for wasting his time with this not problem, but new Morro was… touched, honestly, that they were fighting over who got to be him.

"Look, Mikey, to make it fair, you've got to switch every time you play," Morro explained. "But, you guys do know that Lloyd and I are on the same side now, right?"

"Well, yeah, but it's awesomer this way," the other boy- Steven? Yeah, that was it- Steven replied, since Mikey seemed too disappointed in Morro's answer to respond.

Morro smirked and shrugged. "Fair enough. Carry on. And, make me look good, yeah?"

"Yeah!" The two boys answered in unison before running off, chasing each other.

Finally, Morro made it to his tent, sighing in relief when he wasn't trapped by anyone else in desperate need of his assistance. Passing through the flap, he saw Gem coloring on a piece of paper with her multitudinous crayons and Corrine reading a book.

"Ugh," he groaned, collapsing onto his sleeping bag and closing his eyes.

"Rough day?" Corrine asked, looking up from her novel with a smirk. No one could say Morro didn't try hard. In fact, he reminded her of Cole in that way. She remembered bursting into tears during one of her drunken episodes, and instead of running away or crying with her, Cole had only hugged her. "What's wrong, Mommy? I'll make it better. I'll make it better and then you won't cry anymore, right, Mommy?"

"It's days like these that make me wish I was on my own again," Morro answered, eyes still shut as if he was trying to catch a few Zs in between questions.

Gem looked up sharply. "You don't mean that."

Morro opened one eye and grinned at her. "You're right. I don't." Rolling onto his stomach, he grabbed a blank piece of paper and a random crayon and started work on his own masterpiece.

Peaceable silence returned- until Gem looked over at Morro's paper. "What is that supposed to be?"

Morro paused in his coloring, staring down at his creation. "Are you blind? It's a horse!"

Gem laughed. "Horses don't usually have flippers."

"They're not- Oh, like yours is so much better…," he trailed off when he looked over at Gem's paper and saw a… really good drawing of himself, Gem, and Corrine. Grumbling, he flipped his paper over to the blank side. "I'm starting over."

Gem laughed again as she put the finishing touches on her own work.

And, Morro was just starting to relax, just starting to set down the load he carried with him all day… when a ghost hesitantly poked her head into the tent.

"Um, Mr. Morro, sir?"

Morro sighed, sitting up. "It's just Morro, Daisy."

The ghost was a little older than Corrine but extremely shy, and it seemed no matter how much Morro did to put her at ease, she couldn't help but be nervous around him.

"Oh, uh, sorry, Mister- I mean, sorry… Morro."

"It's okay." He smiled to try to put her at ease, but she only tensed up more. "What is it?"

She held out an envelope. "A letter came for you."

Morro, now mildly intrigued, stood up and took the letter from her. "Thanks."

Seemingly grateful to have completed her task, she quickly retreated from the tent without another word.

"Talkative, isn't she?" Corrine chuckled as Morro tore open the envelope that was blank other than his name scribbled across the front of it and grunted his agreement.

"What's it say? What's it say?" Gem asked excitedly, bounding to her feet and standing on her tiptoes to try to read the letter.

Morro purposely held it out of her reach, eyes scanning the contents thoroughly. When he finished, he only said, "Hm."

"Hm?" Corrine repeated, raising an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

"What does it say?" Gem demanded again, stomping her foot in frustration.

Morro stared down at the letter as he spoke, as if not quite believing the contents of it. "Well, it seems I have been invited to the First Annual Gathering of the Baddies."

"Huh?" Gem asked, cocking her head.

"All of the ninja's worst enemies that are here in the Departed Realm under one roof. Chen, Cryptor, Kozu, Samukai. It's almost heartwarming," he joked, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye. "Man, I hope I win Prom King."

Gem balked. "Wait, you're not going, are you?"

"Of course I'm going."

"But, you're not bad anymore," Corrine pointed out.

"True. But, they don't know that." Morro pointed at a particular line in the letter, even though neither Gem nor Corrine could see it. "It says here 'Revenge is a dish best served cold, so pack a sweater.' Aside from being incredibly stupid, it sounds to me like we're going to be planning something."

"How?" Corrine asked. "I mean, if you're all trapped here in the Departed Realm, how could you possibly get revenge on the ninja?"

"That's what I intend to find out."

"But, you can't go!" Gem protested, tugging on his sleeve. "What will we do here without you?"

"You two can handle things well enough while I'm gone."

Gem hesitated, still holding onto his sleeve. "I don't want you to go."

Morro smiled, crouching down to Gem's eye level. "I'm going to miss you too, Gem. Look, it's probably just going to be a bunch of old guys sitting around, arguing over who got closest to world domination and voting on their least favorite ninja. But, if it's not… someone's got to be there to find out what their plan is. If it seems legitimate, I've got to warn the ninja."

Gem pouted, crossing her arms.

"A day there, a day for the meeting, a day back. Three days tops."

Gem raised her eyebrows. "Three days?"

"Three days," Morro promised, then traced an x on his chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die… again."

Gem finally relented and giggled. "Fiiiiine."

Morro grinned then grabbed her suddenly, swinging her into the air. "'Fiiiiine,'" he mimicked, easily tossing her onto his shoulders while she gasped for air through her laughter. "Just be glad you're not the one stuck going to a boring conference with a rock, a tin can, a pile of bones, and a weird old guy. If we start signing each other's yearbooks, I'm going to freak…"

"Ugh, there's nothing to eat…," Kai moaned, opening the nearly empty cupboards of the Destiny's Bounty's kitchen and seeing only a half full box of cereal that may or may not have been stale. "Who's turn is it to go to the store?"

Zane peered at the chore schedule taped to the fridge. "Yours, Kai."

"Oh. Riiiight…"

"There's plenty of fruit," Lloyd pointed out, halfway through peeling his own breakfast orange.

"Fruit's dumb," Kai replied steadfastly, crossing his arms.

"Fruit's dumb?" Nya laughed, reaching for an apple on the counter. "What does that even mean?"

"Simple. It means-"

He was cut off by Jay's shriek as the blue ninja leapt out of his chair and ran out of the kitchen, stopping just outside the doorway and peering into the room with a terrified expression.

The other four ninja were on their feet. "What is it, Jay?!"

Jay, trembling, pointed at the table. "Sp-sp-spider!"

They immediately relaxed with exasperated groans.

"Don't scare us like that!" Lloyd reprimanded as Zane, unafraid of bug bites, held his hand out and let the spider crawl into his palm.

Kai ogled the arachnid in the nindroid's hand. "Jay, that thing is tiny! With the way you screamed bloody murder, I was expecting it to be at least three inches wide!"

Jay, blushing, shuffled back into the room only when Zane passed him on his way to the deck. Bending down, the nindroid let the spider crawl out of his hand. "There you go, little one."

"Well, can you blame me?" He protested, hesitantly approaching the table as he searched thoroughly for any of the spider's brothers or sisters. "Ever since you guys forced me to-"

He cut himself off when he saw Nya's eyes widen, and she subtly shook her head.

Forced me to get the Tiger Widow venom, was the end of his sentence. But, that never happened. Because Jay's last wish had erased that entire timeline, leaving only him and Nya with any memory of Nadakhan and his sky pirates.

Lloyd and Kai shared a look when Jay went suddenly mute. "Forced you to what?" Lloyd asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jay sputtered as he tried to think on the fly, which was certainly not one of his best skills. "When you guys… forced me to… to… go outside where I was… bit. By a spider." He coughed, looking away. "It really hurt."

Lloyd and Kai shared another confused look as Zane reentered the room. Jay smiled sheepishly at Nya, who sighed and rolled her eyes affectionately.

Zane suddenly spoke up, and Jay was grateful for the distraction from his poor cover up. "Is Cole awake yet? I haven't seen him this morning."

"Hey, you're right," Nya confirmed, furrowing her brow. "It's awfully late to still be sleeping. Should one of us check on him?"

Just at that moment, Cole entered the room, eyes still half-lidded with drowsiness.

"Good morning, Cole!" Zane greeted cheerfully as the black ninja passed him and headed directly for one of the unoccupied chairs at the kitchen table. "We were just talking about you."

Cole sat down heavily in the chair, resting his chin in his hand. "Morning."

"Are you okay, Cole?" Lloyd asked conversationally with a small frown. "You've been sleeping late a lot these past few days."

Cole straightened a little out of surprise. "I have been? Wait, what time is it?"

"Five to ten," Zane replied automatically.

"Oh," Cole said, scratching the back of his head. "I guess I didn't even realize. Sorry."

Jay was staring at Cole in open concern from the seat next to him. "It's okay as long as you're okay. Do you feel sick?"

Cole rolled his eyes. "I can't get sick. I'm a ghost, remember?"

Before Jay could retort or anybody could address the biting tone of Cole's last statement, the lights flickered. The six ninja looked up then shivered when a chilly breeze suddenly swept through the room.

"What's going on?" Kai demanded, though his voice was nearly drowned out by the droning howl of the spontaneous gale.

"Wait, isn't this… familiar?" Nya asked as the lights flickered on and off with increasing rapidity.

Cole peered down at his hands in horror, feeling something tugging at him, feeling something in his core… shift. "Guys-"

The lights stopped flickering. The wind instantly died.

And, Cole was gone.

Cole's eyes snapped open, and he gasped deep breath after deep breath. He was suddenly standing where he had been sitting before, and vertigo made his head pound as he tried to keep his footing.

He squinted at his dim surroundings. Some tent. There were candles, but it was clearly night outside the canvas. He tried to take a step forward, but it was as if there was some invisible wall, some force that was blocking his path.

His eyes dropped to the chalk circle on the ground that was holding him in place.

"Cole?"

He whipped around, looking down at-

"Gem?" He shouted incredulously, peering down at the six year old ghost that had once enslaved him. But, she was in the Departed Realm- there was no way- how could she- unless…

He glanced at the chalk circle on the ground again. "You… you summoned me?"

Gem was still wearing the white party dress that Cole could only assume she had died in, though it was now lacking any Soul Stones whatsoever. She still bore the blond curls, the blue eyes… but something was off about her. Her glow was so dim it was almost nonexistent. The blue eyes were dull- and they suddenly filled with tears.

"Morro's in danger."

Bum bum BUM! XD So, what did you guys think? Is this what you were expecting from the Lost Soul sequel? Please let me know! :D

Also, I'm all caught up on Season 8 and can I just say: :O :O :O :O :O! No spoilers here, but I think it's great so far! :D