Many of you likely remember that I started this book by saying that sometimes I thought Morro had a point. That wasn't me just saying something shocking to get your attention. I needed to make clear what sort of book this was. Zane said that you have to establish tone in the first chapter. I know at the start of this, that was probably crazy to read. Now that you've read this far, I think that you all can understand a little more of why I would think that.
I've talked a lot about destiny in these chapters. It's something that's been a big part of my life ever since I was born. It was destiny that my father left to train under Chen and had me as a result. It was destiny that I would one day have to become the Green Ninja and defeat the Overlord. It was destiny that my father was betrayed by the Serpentine and then sent out into the Endless Sea to discover the Dark Island. In a way, it felt like destiny that I'd one day have to go and fight Morro like I did.
The thing is, I haven't really said what I thought destiny is yet. Wu has defined it a lot of different ways. The others can't really give me a simple description of it. Every time I've gone to see what other people say about it, everyone just likes to philosophize about what it means. I've spent a lot of time thinking about destiny, probably more than I really should have. After all this time this is what I think it means:
Destiny is what you're meant to do. It's a sort of like a force that guides you to places that you have to get to. I don't mean physical places that you have to go. I mean things that have to happen. My father had to find the Dark Island. I had to be shown to be the Green Ninja. I had to be born to my mother and father. If you can say that you had to do something, that's destiny at work.
The thing is, I don't think destiny is in the little things. If you have to show up to work, that's not destiny. It's not destiny that I unleashed the Serpentine. It was destiny for me to be taken in by the ninja. I know that sounds weird to say. It's like, the way that you get to the things you have to do isn't destiny. My dad could have gone to the Dark Island a lot of different ways. He could have put more pressure on the Serpentine so they didn't betray them and instead found the island with them. Or, he could have gotten us to find it for him. I don't know how that would have happened, but that's the point! Destiny are these things that we just have to have happen.
There is one other way that I've really thought of describing it, and it's something that I actually overheard from Jay. When someone goes to remake a movie or game, they have to have a few things happen. You can change and redo a lot, but for it to still be the original game, you have to keep certain things the same. If you strip a game to a few things that have to happen, those points are what developers have to work around. Or, that's what I've heard. What I'm getting at here, is that if you strip away someone's life to the bare things that make them who they are, destiny is what makes sure that you get there.
Like, with me. I was born as Lord Garmadon's son. I was led to making way to bring my father back into Ninjago, and was taken in by the ninja. I was found to be the Green Ninja, prophesied to defeat the Overlord. My father found the Dark Island, and was possessed by the Overlord. That led me to having to defeat my father and the Overlord at the same time. These things, those exact things, are my destiny. It didn't have to be the Serpentine that I awakened. I didn't have to be put in danger to get my father to come back to Ninjago. I know that, some of what I've said so far is a little off compared to that, but it's true. If you were trying to make a game out of my life, as long as you hit those beats, you could change anything else between them and still have it be about me in the end. I know the video game analogy isn't the best, but I wanted to use it after hearing Jay talk to me about remakes and remasters and rereleases… which I still don't entirely get the difference between them all but, I don't play video games enough to get that. But, the reason that I wanted to get all of this down about destiny, was because it was something that Morro and I argued about until the very end of what happened.
After Morro pushed me back down from taking control, I didn't know what was going on with my body for a long time. Morro was able to read my thoughts and, while I was able to read Morro's thoughts, it was like watching a movie with the screen turned off. Just hearing what everyone was saying didn't give me enough of a picture to know what was going on. I got the feeling that we'd gone to some sort of bar, because I felt Morro's thoughts saying that he was going to summon one of his friends to help him out.
Each time that Morro summoned one of the ghosts from the Cursed Realm using the Allied Armor, I felt his control shake. Morro was using my body, meaning that he was drawing upon my physical strength and his mind in order to sustain the possession. Looking back on it, I think it says a lot about Morro that he was able to both keep me possessed, summon several ghosts that physically weakened him to do multiple times, and still fight and defeat the ninja at every turn. Morro was stronger than even I was. Even when Morro was weak, he still keet me suppressed.
After Morro had summoned some friend of his, he appeared to me again. When I saw him the second time, I realized he wasn't wearing exactly the green gi that I used to wear. Instead, it was a training shirt he'd styled to look like it. He had black hair with a single green strip I hadn't noticed at first. His pants were tan and scuffed up, torn in a few places too. The shirt he had on, too, was torn up when I saw it closer. I realized later that this wasn't just some random form that Morro was projecting to me. That was what Morro liked when he died.
Taking so much time trapped inside my head gave me a chance to start to figure out how to read Morro's thoughts. I realized that if I stopped and listened, I'd be able to hear what he was thinking. It wasn't always clear, sort of like listening to music through one of those really old radios. I was able to hear what he was thinking, though. I wondered if I was able to see into his memories, just like he'd seen into mine. It was the second that I tried to imagine those memories that he appeared in front of me again.
When Morro talked to me at first, I remember that he didn't look like a villain. In fact, he looked like one of my friends. He hardly ever looked angry. He didn't tense up or yell at me when I talked to him. When I demanded to know what someone like him wanted, he told me that he wanted to tell me a story. He said that the last time he talked to me like this, he'd been in the middle of something and been upset. Granted, I figured out he had been in the middle of fighting my friends, which meant even if he didn't seem like he was going to hurt me, I didn't trust him.
That was when Morro told me everything. I didn't know what to think. While he spoke, I saw that I looked like myself again. The area I was in transitioned from a black void to us standing on top of the stairs to the burned down Monastery of Spinjitzu. I remember Morro looking at the structure and looking upset. He asked me how it happened, and when I told him I didn't have to tell him, he didn't ask for me to clarify. Instead, he just told me that there were a lot more important things in that place then I knew, and I shouldn't have let it all go to waste. Knowing now how much that place meant to him, I wonder what it was like to see in my memories that I'd been the one to order the Serpentine to go and raid the place. He never did comment on that.
The Monastery rebuilt itself. I realized Morro was using his memories in order to show me what the Monastery used to look like. I'd never been there, since I'd sent Skales to go and carry out the operation. I got to see what the Monastery looked like before all of that. When I did, I was shocked. I'd always imagined it was far bigger than it was. Morro must have seen how shocked I was, since he told me that the Monastery wasn't all that it seemed. That was when I got to see exactly what happened to Morro… directly from his memories.
...I don't know what exactly I was supposed to think of all of that. I had never even thought of Wu having another pupil before me. The ninja got to learn about Morro's past from Wu, but I got to hear about his past from him directly. Morro told me absolutely everything. He told me about how his family orphaned him from a young age, and he ran away from his relatives after having a harsh life with them. He struck out with several other orphans, and they made a habit of roaming to remote places in Ninjago to steal food to survive. I learned the names, the faces, everything that Morro knew and felt about the boys that he ran away with. It wasn't that Morro was telling me everything, it was that he was letting me feel everything too. Since I could read his thoughts and vice versa, he was able to show me whatever he wanted.
I got to see Morro when Wu first found him. Wu said that he felt it was destiny that the two of them met, and I got to feel the confusion Morro felt when Wu said that to him. Morro had never had a home like this before. Just seeing a room prepared for him without any questions asked, without having to pay for it to sneak in just to sleep, I felt the sheer overwhelming heartache that Morro felt seeing that. When Morro realized that Wu was serious about taking them in, I saw Morro, crying in the corner, trying not to let anyone see just how happy he really was at it for fear of looking weak.
I got to see the day that Morro made a kite fly using his own power of wind. He'd never seen a kite before. He didn't know what to think. Wu had just told him to let the wind carry it and hold on to it. Morro didn't know what he was doing. He let the kite go, and when it started to blow away, he'd gotten scared Wu would be mad at him for losing it. So he reached out to try to grab it. That was when his powers awoke. He managed to hold onto the kite using wind. That answered a few questions for me. Morro was the Master of Wind. That was the day that Wu asked Morro if he wanted to train to become a ninja.
Each day of training, I felt it. Each learned lesson, each victory, each defeat, I was able to see all of it. I don't know how long it actually took for Morro to show me, but it felt like I was living his entire life in front of him. I didn't know why Morro was showing me all of it. I didn't need to see how he felt when he finally mastered Wu's sword technique, or when he managed to defeat both of the boys he had traveled with in one swing. I didn't have to see the nights that Wu spent teaching him how to read, write and all of the lessons he would teach me. I didn't have to see it. I didn't want to see it. But the more that I saw, the more I realized what was happening.
Then… the day. Wu came to Morro one day and told him that he thought Morro could have a destiny. For some reason, I felt sick when I saw the memory. I felt sick watching Wu taking him to show him the very scroll that the ninja would find later. I felt sick when Wu let him see the Golden Weapons hanging on the wall. Something felt wrong. I could feel Morro's happiness and joy when Wu said he could be the Green Ninja that would one day save Ninjago. I should have felt Morro's joy and happiness.
But, I was the Green Ninja. I knew something was wrong. That was when Morro stopped showing me memories, and asked me if I understood. When I couldn't figure out what to say, Morro showed me even more. I asked him to stop. I didn't want to see anymore of this. I realized what was going on. Morro was showing me exactly how he felt. He was showing me how Wu built up his hope, gave him a new life, and let him become someone new. Morro wanted me to feel how he felt. I already knew the day was going to come that Morro found out he couldn't be the Green Ninja. I felt that it was coming. Maybe it was because I was feeling everything Morro felt leading up to it, but knowing that these happy memories would soon come to an end… it was like watching a movie where you know someone is going to die, and you don't want them to.
I watched Morro grow strong. I watched… I watched him fight harder and harder for Wu. Now that he could be the Green Ninja, he had to train more. He pushed the other students to fight harder. He had to live up to the prophecy. When Wu reprimanded him for being rough, I almost caught myself telling Wu that I had to be ready to face any task. Morro wanted me to see it. He wanted me to get it. Wu was telling him that he was pushing too hard. He was getting too aggressive. But, he had to get aggressive. He had to be that strong. Wu told him he needed to look more at himself before he was able to become something new. That didn't make sense. He had a new destiny. Wu had told him that he could become something new. What sense did it make for him to tell him to slow down?
I knew the day was coming. I didn't even have to have Morro preface the memory by telling me that the day was today. I knew from the moment Morro was walking down to the room he'd seen the Golden Weapons had been in, that was it. I had to watch this. I felt like crying. I was begging Morro not to show me this. Morro just told me I had to understand. He made him watch as the weapons refused to respond to him, like they had for me. Wu was there, holding up the green gi. He was holding the suit that I would put on. And for some reason, I couldn't think of that when I was watching it all happen. All I could think about was that I was watching Wu tearing down Morro's dreams.
Morro was in shock. Wu had told him for years that he could be the Green Ninja. He told him that he was growing stronger, saying one day Ninjago would rely on him to save it. He'd reprimanded Morro for training harder and seeing him as the Green Ninja. But, how couldn't he see himself that way? Wu had been the one to take him in, to give him a home. If someone like that told you that you could become the Green Ninja, why wouldn't you believe him? After all… I did.
And then… then I felt a spiral. I saw Morro racing out into the woods to fight dangerous creatures to try to prove he was strong enough to be the Green Ninja. Whenever Wu would save him, that had to be destiny. After all, why else would Wu always be there to save him? Wu had to be training him to be the Green Ninja. He had to be. He had to be. He…
That was when I finally stopped. I told Morro I couldn't take it anymore. Morro stopped showing me the memories, asking me if I understood. I couldn't even answer him at first. I had to just sit there and try to get these feelings out of my head. I'd experienced a lifetime of memories all at once like that. Morro had shown me everything that I needed to see. Morro had been promised the title of the Green Ninja, and Wu had been the one to also rip it away. I was everything that Morro wanted to be… and that was the reason he possessed me.
I think the reason that story still rattles me, is because I know that could have been me. It isn't just the fact that we were both set up to be the Green Ninja. When I was a kid like Morro, I struck out on my own. I wanted to prove to everybody that I was strong enough to be like my father. Morro fighting harder and harder to be like the Green Ninja reminded me too much of my attempts to look evil and bad to become Ninjago's next villain. I was trying to be like an image of my dad I didn't know. Morro was trying to be like an image of the Green Ninja that Wu had told him he could be. We'd both strived to be something bigger than ourselves. The only difference was the one of us actually succeeded.
I told Morro that I was sorry for what happened to him, but all of that didn't mean that he was allowed to go and take over Ninjago. That was when Morro told me that he wasn't planning on ruling Ninjago. He told me that he wasn't doing any of this because he had anything against Ninjago. He didn't care what happened to Ninjago. He said he'd been given a chance to finally get to strike back at destiny. I tried to ask what that meant, but he instead asked me a question that would haunt me for a long time:
"Why did you deserve to be the Green Ninja instead of me?"
Having just seen all of that with Morro, I wasn't able to answer him. Morro said that he'd read all of my memories, and that he wasn't impressed. I'd been a spoiled kid that was told that he was about to become the Green Ninja. I hadn't trained as long as Morro had. I hadn't been born into as bad of circumstances as Morro had. I'd been abandoned by my mother, but at least I was given a place to live. I hadn't even treated Wu with respect for a long time. In terms of the way that the two of us started out… Morro was the one more worthy to become the Green Ninja.
That was what started getting me to think about destiny. For some reason, destiny had chosen me over Morro. I wasn't sure why. After seeing all of that, after feeling all of that… I felt like Morro deserved it too. Morro told me that was what he wanted me to think about. And once he saw that I was thinking, he just told me that he had to get back to doing everything that he needed to.
I was alone again after that. Morro had left me to think about everything he'd just showed me. I'd learned everything about Morro that I had to. He left me alone, to think about everything that he'd told me. He left me alone again, and I had no idea what was going on.
I think that at that time, Morro was stealing the Scroll of Airjitzu from Ronin. I don't have that much to really say about Ronin, so I don't want to talk about him right now. I almost think the reason he showed me everything, was to keep me down so I wouldn't interfere when he and the new ghosts that he was summoning were attacking the ninja, I couldn't stop him. If that was what he wanted, he got it. I wasn't able to fight his possession while I was left with all of those memories inside my head. I was left completely alone and confused. All I could really think about was what I'd seen. I had to think about if I was really meant to become the Green Ninja.
I'd never really thought about that question before. I'd asked myself why I had to do the things that I did after I became the Green Ninja. I've talked a lot about that in the previous chapters. But, I'd never actually gotten to thinking about why destiny chose me to be the Green Ninja. I'd always assumed that was something that was just set in stone. I'd asked it before when I was upset and asked why I had to go and fight my father, but I'd never even considered the fact that there were others before me that could have been the Green Ninja.
I didn't know what to even make of what Morro showed me. I keep saying that, I know, but it was just that hard for me to process. What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to think? I didn't know. This was all at the same time that I was a prisoner inside my own head. Morro was running around in my body to go and complete some evil plan. I hadn't figured out what that was, and at that point I didn't even know about the symbols. I'd only just barely learned I could share thoughts with Morro.
This hadn't been like anything else. When Chen messed with me, it was just him manipulating me into his own goals. When I faced the Overlord and Golden Master, I was having to fight myself. Nobody had ever challenged me like this before. Morro was showing me something I'd never thought of before: maybe I wasn't meant to be special.
Until then, I'd always told myself that since I was the son of Lord Garmadon, I was the only one that could actually face him. Thus, I had to be the Green Ninja. I was the only one that could face him down and actually fight him. If someone else did it, they wouldn't have been able to unlock their true potential like I had. That was an easy answer that I'd come to after becoming the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master. That was me just explaining destiny, though. I hadn't ever thought of why destiny had picked me to begin with. Was it because I was just the logical option? Was there something else? Was I just better than Morro? If I was, then why was Morro so much stronger than me? Why was he able to possess me like this? I didn't get it. I just didn't get it.
I'd gotten a taste of who it was that was inside my head. Morro had shown me something and made me question who I was. While I was down for the count, Morro was free to put his own plans into motion. It was becoming time for him to confront destiny itself.
"Here," Skylor placed two bowls of noodles down in front of Kai and Lloyd, "On the house."
Lloyd looked around. It'd turned out that the 'special restaurant' that Kai had been talking about was none other than Chen's Noodle House. This being a place that had imagery of a man that had tried to kill him before, this hadn't exactly been what Lloyd had in mind when Kai had put all of that talk into his head.
"Hey, babe," Kai reached out and placed his hand over Skylor's own, "How you feeling?"
"Greasy, sweaty, and probably about to drop Kenny down a trapdoor if he messes up another bowl," Skylor sighed, "You probably don't wanna touch me right now."
"I haven't seen you for awhile, though," Kai pointed out, "Can't I at least give you some fire to get you through the rest of the day?"
"I think you just did," Skylor raised her other hand to let flames flicker from them, "Not sure what I'll use it for, but I'll think of something."
Kai tugged a bit on Skylor's hand, and in turn Skylor gave a small roll of the eyes before leaning down to give him a small kiss on the cheek. As she pulled back, Kai grinned at her and leaned back in the booth he sat in.
"I knew you couldn't resist me," Kai winked at her.
"Keep making silly comments like those and I might just start doing that." Skylor rolled her eyes, turning over to Lloyd as she did, "Everything tastes good?"
"Yeah, thanks, Skylor," Lloyd smiled at her, "It's really good."
"Good, that's what I want to hear," Skylor turned around, "Well, if you all need anything let me know! And only those bowls are on the house, everything else you two have to get yourselves!"
Kai rolled his eyes to Skylor, who in turn just chuckled and left to disappear behind the double doors that lead back to the kitchen. Lloyd looked up to Kai, who was already diving hard into the noodles. It took Lloyd a few minutes to finally get it in him to speak up.
"So… why did you bring us here, Kai?" Lloyd started into his own bowl, "Did you miss Skylor that much?"
"What?" Kai blinked, "Nah, I just figured that after those chapters you wrote, you'd probably wanna get out of that place. I know whenever things get heavy for me, I don't like hanging around. Cole said you could talk about some heavy stuff and, well, Morro was pretty intense."
Hearing that made Lloyd a little confused. For some reason, he'd thought Kai just wanted an excuse to go and meet up with his girlfriend. Maybe that was true, but his reasoning was actually… pretty sound. He went out to other places with Zane and Cole. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but if this was actually Kai being considerate…
"I wanted to ask," Kai asked as he finished off his bowl, "Why'd you want me to be the one that did these chapters with you? I mean, you know, why not just keep doing it with Zane?"
"Cause… you were the one that was there for me," Lloyd stated simply, "When everyone else was running away, you were the one that stayed behind. You stayed behind a lot, just to try to save me. And… well. You're probably the one that it's easiest to talk about because of it."
Kai was silent for a few moments. He looked Lloyd up and down, which made Lloyd suddenly feel as though he'd said something wrong. After that, however, Kai shrugged and went back to eating, an action which made Lloyd somewhat suspicious.
"I was just doing what I had to for you," Kai stated simply, "You're the Green Ninja. We're supposed to be your protectors. After you'd just lost your father… I figured you needed someone to help watch over you. Once I realized that you were still in there, I couldn't just leave you behind. Maybe it wasn't the smartest idea, but I'm not really the one for smart things. I thought if I could help you even in a small way, it was worth trying."
"Thanks, Kai…" Lloyd was a bit taken aback by the answer, "Really… thank you. I know that I haven't touched on it yet but… knowing that you were there fighting for me, really helped with Morro all up inside my head."
"I'm sure I'll be hearing plenty about it," Kai smirked, then reached over the table to thump Lloyd's shoulder, "Chin up, little guy. Eat up, then I wanna swing over by the arcade."
"The arcade?" Lloyd blinked, "Uh… why there?"
"Cause I haven't gone in a long time and this is the perfect excuse to go!" Kai grinned, "I hope you're ready for it!"