YALL BELIEVE ME I WORKED MY TAIL OFF GETTING THIS CHAPTER OUT TODAY
I HOPE YOU APPRECIATE THIS
Review replies:
Loki God of Evil: Which Lloyd... isn't. He has issues. And those issues are gonna hit him pretty hard pretty soon xd
Monile: LOL yeah. I love him too.
Draconis: THAT WOULD BE SO WILD- just... copy/paste the entire first 2 books in. The whole series. Wow. Yep yep yep poor Misako. I don't like her much in canon, but I like my version of her so xd
Ebony: Garmadon's not... calm. He's hiding his emotions until after Lloyd fell asleep. I'll let you interpret that however you like.
Nicktastic: xd
Windy: Nicole will now proceed to use her powers to further her own gain. xd
Emobilcipher: Nahhhh. She's just gonna use her powers to influence certain people's opinions of each other. also YEAH HYPE
"87 bottles of tea on the wall! 87 bottles of tea!" Half the group sang. "You take one down and pass it around, there's 86 bottles of tea on the wall! 86 bottles of tea on the wall! 86 bottles of tea!" The group had woken up about mid-morning, and had started off again in high spirits. Since the dragons were flying a ways away from each other, so they wouldn't collide, all the singers had to yell the lyrics of the song in order to be heard, which only added to the hilarity of it all.
Lloyd had wanted to sing along, but Morro 2, sitting behind him, looked uncomfortable, so he settled for humming along instead. After a while, he noticed the ghost being quiet. He was always quiet, of course, but he was being even quieter than normal. Ceasing to hum, Lloyd dropped to the back of the pack, looking over his shoulder to ask,
"Are you okay?" Morro looked up, and there was guilt on his face as he met his eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He nodded a bit, looking down.
"Are you sure?" The blond pressed. "You looked guilty." A flicker of alarm crossed the ghost's face, and he hunched his shoulders a bit.
"I-I'm fine, really."
"Your tone and body language say otherwise." Morro's grip on him loosened a bit.
"I… you're right, I'm sorry." He hesitated, then said, "I… had a bad dream."
"Oh. What was it about?"
"I'd rather not say."
"That bad?"
"Y-yeah."
"All the more reason to tell me."
"No!" Morro exclaimed in alarm. Lloyd's frown deepened. That was a strong reaction.
"Are you hiding something from me?"
"I- n-no, I-I'm not…"
"You sound panicked."
"I'm not!"
"Morro, you're a terrible liar." The ghost hunched up a bit more.
"I can't tell you."
"Why not?"
"Y-you'll hate me."
"Why would I hate you because of a dream?"
"It… it was a memory. Of something I did."
"Morro, you've tried to kill me and possess me, and tortured my dad and my best friend. How bad could this be that I would hate you, after I've forgiven you for all that?" Morro removed his arms from around his waist, covering his face.
"I killed her." He whispered.
"Who?"
"I killed your mother." Lloyd's eyes widened. He- really? It… it made sense. He had noticed that there wasn't a Misako in this world, but he had always assumed she was somewhere else, safe. "It… it was at the beginning of my reign." The ghost mumbled. "I needed an example. To show the world I was ruthless and I took no prisoners. I… I kidnapped her and killed her, I'm sorry…" Lloyd was silent for a moment, and Morro whispered, "I told you you would hate me."
"I don't hate you." Lloyd reached back and grabbed his arm, tugging it away from his face. "You need to hold onto me." He said as the ghost resisted. After a moment, the former tyrant relented, wrapping his arms around his waist again. "I'm not mad. Sad, but not angry. You're clearly upset and ashamed of yourself, so I forgive you." Morro sniffled, and Lloyd realized he was crying.
"R-really?"
"Really." Lloyd lifted one hand from the reins and laid it on the ghost's clasped hands. "It's okay." The wind master sniffled again, then leaned forward to rest his forehead on the blond's shoulder.
"O-okay." They flew in silence for a while, listening to the others sing. Abruptly, Morro shot upright, yelling,
"LOOK OUT!" Lloyd looked up just in time to see an arrow flying towards his head, and jerked his dragon down just in time for it to whiz over him. "It's coming back!" Morro yelped. "You have to get rid of it!" Hearing it approach once more, Lloyd charged a ball of energy and threw it, knocking the possessed arrow out of the sky.
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" He yelled, flying faster to catch up with the others. He heard shouts of alarm as another arrow streaked towards them, and Nya 2 took this one out.
"We can't just fly away!" Morro 2 shouted as Lloyd flew into the middle of the group. "The arrows will home in on us! We have to fight!"
"Any advice from you isn't to be trusted!" Lloyd 2 snapped back.
"No, he's right." Lloyd yelled. "We have to get rid of them!" The blond leaned over to try and catch a glimpse of their attackers, and spotted a group of ghosts with bows chasing them from below. "Nyas, come with me!" The blond yelled, then, in a lower voice, said, "Morro, don't fall off." The ghost tightened his grip on Lloyd's waist as the green dragon dove towards their attackers.
Lloyd lifted one hand, charging a ball of energy and using it to deflect oncoming arrows. The pair of water masters followed him down, and the ghosts, seeing this, began to flee. Lloyd grinned as they closed in on them. There was no way they could outrun a dragon. Suddenly, the group of archers all turned around and fired, directly at him. Letting out a yelp of alarm, Lloyd banked hard to the right, but the arrows turned around and followed. He banked back to the left, but this time he slipped in the saddle and fell, his dragon vanishing. Oh no. He and Morro were still high up…
Frantically, he tried to recreate his dragon, but he was too panicked. Oh no. Abruptly, an arm wrapped around his waist and his fall slowed. He looked over his shoulder in surprise to see Morro 2 holding onto him, landing them both gently on the ground a few feet away from him a few feet away from the archers. Oh yeah. Wind powers.
"Thanks," The blond said breathlessly as the ghost let go of him. Morro nodded in reply, then spun around and sent the still-chasing arrows flying with a gust of wind. The archers immediately took aim again. Recovering from the fall, Lloyd attacked them, creating a pair of orbs of light and throwing them both into the group, knocking most of them down. The rest followed a moment later as Morro flung their arrows back at them, and the Nyas swooped down to finish them off. Soon, there was nothing left of them but a puddle of murky water.
"Well, that makes this trip a bit more interesting." Lloyd remarked, taking a moment to take a deep breath before summoning his dragon again.
"Are you okay?" Morro asked as he climbed up behind him.
"Yeah, thanks to you." Lloyd smiled as he took off. "I forgot you could fly there for a moment."
"Heh." Morro cracked a faint smile as they flew back up to rejoin the rest.
"Let's pick up the pace." The blond yelled as he neared the rest of the group. "Hopefully we can be out of here by nightfall." The others shouted back in agreement, and the whole group sped up a bit.
Then Zane 2 began to plummet.
There were shouts of alarm as the nindroid's dragon took a nosedive, and Lloyd quickly flew after it. As he got closer, he spotted Clouse, who was seated behind him, had his chains around the nindroid's neck. That shouldn't hurt a nindroid, but Zane looked like he was powered down. Wouldn't his dragon disappear then? What even was Clouse's plan? If they hit the ground at that speed, he would die!
Lloyd pulled alongside Zane's dragon, so they were almost wing to wing. What was he gonna do? He couldn't get close enough to get them off! Unless… Spinning upside-down, Lloyd flew over Zane and grabbed him off the dragon, Clouse coming with him. He was heavy. Shakily, Lloyd came out of the dive as Zane's dragon vanished, still holding the nindroid's wrist as he managed to land fairly smoothly.
Clouse untangled himself from Zane once they were on solid ground, then began to run.
"What are you doing?" Lloyd yelled after him. "What good will it do to be free in the Cursed Realm? You'll just be caught!" Clouse ignored him, then stopped short as another band of archers emerged from the woods. To Lloyd's shock, instead of attacking Clouse, they came up to him and broke his chains. Then, to his even greater shock, his pale skin flickered and turned green, his body becoming transparent. He was a ghost.
"Wh- how?" Morro demanded.
"A mere illusion spell." Clouse smirked. "Unlike you, I am loyal to the Cursed Realm."
"Well, that's your mistake." Morro threw a gust of wind at him, trying to knock him down, but the older ghost held his ground. The sorcerer began to chant, moving his hands as he made to cast a spell. Lloyd charged a ball of energy to interrupt him, but one of the Coles got to him first, swooping towards him and leaping off of his dragon, hitting the ground fist-first and creating a tremor that knocked the magician clean off his feet.
Unfortunately, the spell he had been building flew out of his hands towards Lloyd, and the blond ducked, the red smoke flying over his head. It wasn't until he heard a cry from Morro that he realized who its next target would be. He turned to look over his shoulder with wide eyes, just in time to see the ghost go limp and slide off his dragon, falling a couple feet to the ground below.
"Morro!" The blond exclaimed, dematerializing his dragon and landing next to him as the ghost was consumed by the red smoke. He reached out to grab him, but the smoke burned his hand, and he pulled away with a gasp. After a few moments, the smoke cleared, revealing the unconscious ghost on the ground.
Except he wasn't a ghost.
He was a human.
47 BOTTLES OF TEA ON THE WALL, 47 BOTTLES OF T- why are you all looking at me like that
(for clarification, turning morro human was a complete accident. Clouse did not intend that at all.)
~FFF