me: doesn't post for one (1) day

me myself: you lazy heck get to work

Review replies:

Jayden: *finger guns*

Ebony: Canon is so screwed.

Star: TBH

Spottedfrost: Gosh I wish?

Marble: mood

Candaru: Okay I'm kinda surprised because I didn't really think that was an emotional chapter at all. Just. Lots of highkey flirting.

NinjagoMLP: Or she could just... dump the bottle of water he gave her onto him. It would be easy to kill him. He would never see an attack coming.

KitKat: He's... he's working on it

RandomDragon: Yeah smh. Plus neither of my crushes would ever see me again and would probably turn on each other and both die.

The Mayor of Ninjago City: That would do it :P

"Oh come on!" Morro snapped, staring at the empty air where Lydia had been. "Where are you going?" he muttered, though he knew she couldn't hear him. Was she trying to escape? Where had she gone? Three seconds later, the portal reappeared, and she stumbled through, falling over.

"Yep. It works." She reported, lying face-down on the wooden roof. Morro blew out a frustrated breath.

"Don't just run off like that. You scared me."

"You? Scared?" She lifted her head. "Why?"

"Oh, nevermind. Why do I let you handle magical artifacts anymore?" Morro rolled his eyes, grabbing her under her arms and hauling her upright.

"What? All I was doing was confirming that Earth is indeed one of the Sixteen Realms." The ghost blinked.

"Meaning…?"

"I went home. Then I came back."

"I see." Morro took the crystal from her. "We could get back inside. I need to set up the portal."

"Wait." Lydia grabbed his arm to keep her balance. "Why?" He frowned.

"You of all people should know the answer to that."

"Humor me. Why do you want to curse every Realm? Do you really want every Realm to be like the Cursed Realm?"

"That's different. And stop trying to change my mind, it won't work."

"So you don't want to curse everything?"

"Didn't say that."

"So what do you want?"

"Lydia, I know you're trying to subtly convince me to abandon the Preeminent and become a good guy-"

"I didn't think it was that subtle."

"-but it won't work. I made an oath, Lydia. Nothing you can say will stop me from going through with this."

"Then I'll kill you. Because I can't let you do this." Morro opened his mouth to reply, but she kept going. "You know what it means that Earth is one of the Realms? It means that if the Preeminent takes over, she'll curse it as well. I refuse to let that happen." Morro frowned. He hadn't really thought about what would happen to Lydia after he won. Would the Preeminent curse her Realm as well?

"Are you even going to let me go home afterwards? If you win? Does it even matter? Earth has no defense against the Cursed Realm. Even if I try to warn them, I'll be branded as crazy and locked up. If the Preeminent takes Ninjago, that's it. Ninjago is, as far as I know, the last line of defense against you." She jabbed him in the chest with her finger.

"Do you have any idea of what will happen if you release the Preeminent? Even if you lose, thousands, if not millions, will die. Every ghost, and thousands in the Cursed Realm's sister Realm, will die at their Realm's collapse. And if you win- well, I don't know what will happen, to be honest. I've never seen it. But I know that the Preeminent will rule everything, and nothing good will come out of that." She stopped. "What do you plan to do with me, anyway? Lock me up? Let me be cursed?"

"No!" He exclaimed, finally managing to get a word in. "I haven't… haven't really thought about it."

"Do you think about any of this, or are you just following the Preeminent's commands blindly?"

"Lydia, you don't get it!" He snapped. "The Preeminent helped me! I owe it to her!"

"If I don't get it, then explain! Tell me!" She grabbed onto his arm with both hands. "I don't actually know everything. You have to explain." Morro sighed, staring at the roof.

"Fine." He sat down on the wooden roof, and she sank down next to him. "When you die and become a ghost, your body doesn't regenerate. Not really. I got these scars," He touched the dark markings around his eyes, "From my fight with Garmadon, just before I died. He blinded me, burned my eyes." Lydia's eyes widened. "You wanted to know why I hate Garmadon so much?" He muttered. "That's why."

"Oh."

"My eyes healed after a few days, but until then, I was completely lost. I don't know anyone, or where I was, even. The Preeminent sent Bansha to help me. She looked out for me until my vision returned. When I could see again, the Preeminent not only gave me a position in her army, but she put me in charge. She took me in. I owe it to her. And besides, I swore an oath."

"Hypothetically, if you broke your oath, what would happen?"

"Eventually I would die, and I would probably be imprisoned for eternity for defying the Preeminent."

"So… you're loyal to her out of fear?"

"No! I made a promise!"

"You keep saying that! If you hadn't made a promise, would you leave the Preeminent?" He hesitated.

"…I don't know."

"Morro, you don't have to be afraid of her. The ninja could keep you safe."

"Why would the ninja protect me? They hate me!"

"You could make peace with them! That happens more than you'd think!"

"How? They'd just as soon kill me! And if I surrendered, I'd get locked up again!"

"You could give them back Lloyd! I'm pretty sure that would go pretty far towards peace between you!"

"Pretty far, maybe, but they'd never trust me around him!" Oh First Spinjitzu Master, why was he even considering this?

"I would vouch for you! They trust me, mostly." 'Mostly'. Less so after she ran off with him at the tomb, probably. "They would accept you eventually, I can promise that!"

"I believe you. But I can't, Lydia. I just… I can't. I can't renounce everything I've worked for for the last forty years." Lydia pursed her lips, looking away.

"Fine." She said after a moment. "Let's just… go back inside." She started to stand, but Morro grabbed her arm, causing her to look back at him.

"Look, I'm not going to try to keep the Preeminent from taking Ninjago, alright? But I'll try to get her to be satisfied with it. I'll try to keep her from taking Earth." Lydia frowned a bit, but her eyes softened.

"I guess that's better than nothing. Thanks?" He didn't answer, standing up and pulling her with them. Walking to the edge of the roof, Morro wrapped an arm around her, stepping off the edge and carrying them down to the ground. Once they were both on solid ground – or, as solid as it got in Stiix, anyway – he let go of her, and the two went back inside in silence

…to find the guards gone, and the ninja gathered around Lloyd on the grounmd, all of them looking up the moment the two stepped through the doorway.

"Get him!" Kai yelled, and Morro immediately scooped up Lydia, shooting up through a hole in the ceiling and up to the second floor of Ronin's shop. As the ninja ran for the stairs, Morro set Lydia in a corner, ordering sternly,

"Stay." She nodded wordlessly, and he phased back through the floor. The ninja had apparently already gone upstairs after him, so Lloyd was left defenseless on the ground. As the rest of the ninja were nowhere in sight, Morro sprinted towards the boy on the ground. If he was going to win this, he needed a hostage. As he got close, though, the blond lifted his head and cried out, charging a ball of energy in his hand and hurling it at the wind master. Caught off guard by Lloyd's strength, Morro dodged too late and was thrown backwards, hitting the wall hard. That… hurt a surprising amount. He had never actually been attacked by Lloyd before.

As he blinked the spots out of his eyes, he registered the ninja running back down the stairs – minus Cole. He must have stayed with Lydia.

"Surrender now," Nya yelled across the shop, stopping at the bottom of the stairs. "And we won't hurt you."

"Fat chance." Morro snapped, struggling to his feet and clutching the Realm Crystal tighter. Could he fight them all off? He had the Realm Crystal, but… they had a water master.

"I'm serious, Morro." Nya edged closer. "For Lydia's sake, I don't want to kill you, but I will if I have to."

"You can't beat me!" He snapped. "You can try, but you won't win!"

"Alright." Nya sighed. "If you insist on doing this the hard way. Get him!" Immediately, Kai hurled a fireball at him, which Morro sidestepped easily. Not that it would have hurt him anyway. Ignoring the beam that had caught fire, Morro dashed forward, blowing Nya's spray of water aside and phasing through them, then becoming solid and kicking the nindroid's feet out from under him so he crashed to the ground. Ice was, second to water, his biggest threat.

The blue ninja shot a lightning bolt at him, but it was attracted to some metal object on Ronin's shelves and missed him, giving him an opening to send them flying across the room. While switching their positions hadn't done much, it had done one very important thing: it left Lloyd vulnerable. And this time, Morro would not be caught off guard. Snatching a knife from a shelf, the ghost somersaulted towards the boy on the ground, coming out of it in a crouch and grabbing Lloyd by the collar, yanking him up and pressing the edge of the knife against his throat.

"Now you surrender," Morro hissed. "And I won't have to hurt him." The ninja froze. In his grasp, Lloyd let out a quiet groan, then went limp, slumping back against him. Unconscious.

Before any of the ninja could say a word, a loud crack echoed through the building, and all eyes turned to the support beam that Kai had lit aflame. Then it collapsed, and the rest of the building began to go with it. Dropping the knife, Morro wrapped both arms around Lloyd's chest, standing up and dragging him backwards as the building began to cave in on himself.

He heard the ninja yelling and saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye, but paid it no heed until he heard a high-pitched scream. That didn't come from any of the ninja. That was Lydia. Clenching his teeth, Morro dragged Lloyd out of the building to safety, laying him down on the wooden bridge, then turned back to the building, just in time to see the last support give and the entire building collapse in a heap.

The yells had stopped. Now there was only silence.

I am waaaaaaay too tired to proofread this

~FFF