idk if I've mentioned this before but bansha is my wife

just thought y'all should know that

Review replies:

Ebony: Yep. It was confusing the actual numbers of the chapters with the number of chapters I've posted, if that makes sense. Anyway, they'll be fine. :)

Kyrie: Same. I would kill him off now, but... that would greatly decrease the suffering, and we can't have that, now can we?

Nicktastic: Like screaming in a good way or a bad way?

*looks at the number of reviews I got last chapter*

*looks at the number of reviews I got this chapter*

hmm

Chapter 10

Splinting his fingers was definitely not going to work.

Morro had tried to tear some strips of cloth off of his shirt to bandage his fingers, but he couldn't tear it without use of his fingers, which hurt far too much for him to do anything of use with them. So, instead, he just pressed his hands against the floor, the cold stone numbing the pain slightly. After a few hours of counting the guards' steps, he heard a door swing open, followed by an angry, high-pitched voice.

"…change his mind no matter what you do. There's no point." Indigo?

"Oh be quiet." Morro 2's voice. "Aren't you glad to see him again?"

"Not if you're using me as bait again!" Definitely Indigo. Morro heard a grunt of pain from the other him.

"Do I need to break your fingers too?!" He snapped. Indigo was silent. "Good." Their footsteps were coming closer. Finally, they stopped in front of his cell, which was unlocked and the door pulled open, revealing Indigo and his double standing outside.

"It occurred to me that you might doubt my holding of your girlfriend after the stunt I played in the torture room," he announced, "So I brought her down for a visit. Have fun!" He shoved Indigo into the tiny room, causing her to stumble, then slammed the door and locked it. Indigo glanced back at the door, then turned to him, her eyes widening as she took in his bruised face and swollen fingers.

"You look terrible." She remarked after a few seconds.

"I really do, don't I?" He shifted, lifting his hands from the floor and setting them in his lap. "You are real, then?"

"Unfortunately." She sat down in front of him, reaching out and touching his hands but stopping when he flinched back. "Sorry."

"It's alright. They just hurt… a lot. Has he hurt you?"

"Knocked me down once when I punched him in the face, but otherwise no."

"You punched him in the face?" Morro gaped at her and she grinned.

"He started kissing me. He regretted it." Morro's amused chuckled quickly turned into a frown.

"Why would he kiss you?"

"I think he was trying to convince me to tell him where the base was, though I'm not sure if it was intended to charm me or punish me. Either way, it didn't work."

"Apparently not."

"His vision lady was messing with me, making me see things, but she didn't hurt me." Morro frowned.

"Vision lady?"

"Yeah. Her name's Reena, I think. She made the illusion of Lloyd you saw, I think she's an elemental master." The ghost boy blinked.

"Oh."

"I think she had something to do with the fact that he didn't die when Nya splashed him, too. She said she 'could make a convincing double of him', and said that it was the only reason he was alive." She made quotation marks with her fingers. "I think you were fighting a fake." He frowned.

"But… he controlled the wind, I felt it."

"Well… maybe he was nearby, invisible and manipulating the fight." She shook her head. "The real him was definitely around, because he knocked you down at the end."

"Yeah…" There was silence for a moment before he said, "Could you… bandage my fingers together? They'll hurt less if they're wrapped, but I can't wrap them without any hands." Indigo frowned.

"With what?"

"Just tear some strips off my shirt. It's already ripped enough." The ghost girl hesitated, then reached for the hem of his shirt and tore off a long strip off the bottom, taking one of his hands and straightening out his fingers – making him bite his tongue to keep from crying out – before beginning to wrap the cloth around them. She bound his fingers tightly before tying it on the end and tearing off another strip of cloth, starting on the other hand.

"Feel any better?" She asked. He moved the fingers on his bound hand slightly. Still hurt, but it didn't feel so… wrong. It felt better to have them held in place.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Still hurts, but it feels better."

"Good." Abruptly, the door flew open, and they looked up to see the other him in the doorway.

"Time's up!" He announced. "Convinced she's real yet?" Morro glanced at Indigo.

"Nope." He lied after a moment. "A convincing fake, but a fake nonetheless."

"I'm not a fake." Indigo frowned.

"See?" Morro winked at her and put a finger to his lips when Morro 2's attention turned to her. "Exactly what a fake would say." If the other him thought he thought she was a fake, he, he wouldn't use her to try to get the location of the base from him, would he? Indigo blinked, nodding slightly. Morro 2 let out a frustrated sigh, folding his arms.

"Well I know he's real, moron."

"Was that a pun on my name?" Morro raised an eyebrow, a smile playing around his lips.

"No." The ghost king rolled his eyes. "Whatever. If you haven't told me where the base is by tomorrow, I'll break her legs. Got it?" He grabbed Indigo by the arm, yanking her to her feet as Morro froze, stunned by his threat. As Indigo stumbled backwards, the evil him caught a glimpse of his bandaged hands. "Did you two actually go to the trouble of wrapping your hands? Hmm." He smirked. "Too bad that won't last long." With that, he pulled Indigo out into the hallway, slamming the door and locking it up again before walking away. Morro closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, reflexively clenching his hands into fists before hissing and pain and letting go. Apparently the other him wasn't fooled by his insistence that Indigo was a fake, and planned to hurt her anyway. He couldn't let that happen. But… he couldn't give up the others either. He, literally, had to choose between her and the world.

TheDarknessReturn

Lloyd paced back and forth in a hallway in the back of the base, a dozen plans racing through his head before he dismissed them one by one. Too risky, too unpredictable, too risky, too plain stupid. This was never going to work. He needed help.

It was now two days that Morro had been in captivity, with who knows what being done to him and Indigo. Dyana was still in bad shape, but the sensei had apparently gotten a lead with the poison and should be able to make an antidote soon. The other Lloyd brushed him off whenever he mentioned trying to rescue them, insisting that Dyana came first. She did, but they should be planning for a rescue mission instead of just moping around all day. Lloyd was at the end of his rope. If they didn't come up with a plan to get them back soon, he was going after them himself.

"Lloyd?" The blond boy jumped at the feminine voice, turning around to see Bansha hovering in the hallway behind him with her head tilted slightly. She was virtually silent when she floated, he hadn't heard her coming. "What are you doing all the way back here?" Lloyd let his arms drop from his chest, staring at the ground.

"Worrying about Morro." He said with a sigh.

"Ah." She nodded. "I know how you feel." That's right, she was close with Morro too.

"I can't- I hate that he's locked up and we're not doing anything about it." Lloyd began to pace back and forth again. "The bad Morro cut off this version of me's legs, who knows what he'll do to a good version of himself? I… don't think you can do that to a ghost." He stopped and looked at Bansha. "Can you?"

"Not that I know of."

"Good. But still, he has them both…" Lloyd pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. "No one will help me help them, but I just… feel like they're really in trouble." The sorceress was quiet for a moment before saying,

"I'll help you."

"You will?" Lloyd's head snapped up as he stared at her in surprise. "Really?" She nodded.

"Morro's capture upsets me almost as much as you, and it infuriates me that the other will do nothing to help him or Indigo. If we must rescue him alone, so be it."

"Do you think we can do it alone, though?"

"Perhaps."

"Do you have a plan?"

"The start of one."

"Then let's find an empty room and start planning. The sooner we get out of here, the better."

microsoft word why do you have such an issue with the word "definitely" like wyd

~FFF