I've had a lot of trouble writing this chapter and I'm really not super duper happy with it but I'm glad it's over with XD thanks for all your visits it means the world to me! :D
Special thanks to my friend Rowan who has helped me with this story a lot :D
Kai's arms and legs were a relentless flurry of knives to his opponent's body, donning a mind of their own at any available vacancy, more precise than a machine. With a swooping low kick, he tripped them up, then sending a kick straight to their stomach, winding the air from their lungs as they tumbled across the floor, twitching in defeat. Another easy victory for the red ninja.
"That was awesome!" came a young Lloyd's voice from the deck. Kai perked up at its sound, spinning to face him, only to be met with him crashing into his lower body in an admiration-filled embrace. Laughing, the red ninja lifted him into his arms, lovingly reciprocating the gesture with greater force in response.
The red ninja would open his eyes to gaze upon the young boy's head, anticipating its glowing blonde in the sunlight, but it wasn't there. Lloyd's small body churned within itself, crumbling into a thick dust, before promptly blowing away in the wind's hush- its speed lapping around him within an instant. As the world began to spin, the wind whipped whatever Kai deemed his world into a blur, as the walls of a tornado encompassed his body entirely. Around and around… the wind came to a still.
He was staring down at a flimsy kite in his hands.
The world seemed to be larger, a soft wall brushing at his ears indicated that his hair had grown several inches.
"Now, do you want to show me that trick you did before?" a warm fatherly voice sprouted from above. He looked up, his gaze met with those of a young blond man, his eyes bright and full of love.
Kai's body moved with its own will, his arms relaxing in preparation.
Kai could feel the silence as his body mustered its concentration, followed by his palms generating a gentle gale of wind-and the kite lifted into a hover.
Kai's head turned for a response, the blonde man lingering above him beamed with pride, applauding. He placed a hand upon Kai's head, ruffling his hair.
"Well done, Morro. You'll make an amazing Green Ninja one day." The man would say, his tone smothered in certainty.
Kai… he wasn't Kai. He was Morro.
And that was Master Wu.
Kai could feel his body tense in excitement at the compliment, as Morro's voice sounded from his mouth with a childish voice rich in hope.
"When will I become the green ninja, Sensei?"The young Wu let out a chuckle, putting his hand to Morro's shoulders, Kai could feel the warmth from his touch.
"Very soon, Morro. Very soon."
Kai felt his body bask in the certainty, yet it was soon devoured by an acidic sickliness. Kai wasn't sure whether it was his own: yet his body keeled forward regardless-his heartbeat growing more painful with every pulse, engulfing his senses to the point where all sound fell dead.
And then he was drawn out of this feeling. There it was – that threatening wind had returned in all its rage push, as if only an instant had passed. Its force rocked Kai from whatever memory he had been living, stirring his limbs in its endless spirals. Everything had been engulfed by its power, as the centre of the vortex grew in its pressure- ravaged the ninja.
It was a death of all his senses, his skin growing numb, and his eardrums pounded to a shrill ring, as it blew with a vigour like no other: until it didn't.
This time he was… he didn't know who he was. It wasn't something he remembered, so the red ninja swiftly deemed that he wasn't himself. Maybe he was Morro again.
His body felt overwhelmingly weak, and as meagre hands captured in time sat still within ice- he knew. He was Lloyd.Similarly, Kai knew where where he was.
The crystalline walls of the icy maze within the tomb of the First Spinjitsu Master had captured his body.
Before Kai could get used to the state, he felt his body slip out of the frozen chunk. He was still Morro, yet he was different now. A ghost. The freezing cold of being within Lloyd's body declined into a softer chill, as his spirit rose out of the icicle prison that Kai – past Kai – had entrapped him in.
Beneath him, Morro could hear the an array of victorious cheers from the ninja – a sure sign that they'd found the coveted Realm Crystal. Morro dragged Lloyd upwards with a huff, prying him from the cage of ice. "We need to catch up to the ninja, come on," he hissed, struggling with the weight of his barely conscious body.He tossed Lloyd to the ground without care, earning a thud and a muffled groan from the weakened green ninja. Morro forcefully grabbed Lloyd's wrist with a vice grip that was comparable to the snap of handcuffs, and began to drag his weight towards the darkness of the hole that the ninja had made in the floor. With a large effort, the two would descend, creeping to a vantage point high above the crowd of ninja where they could see landscape entirely.
Lloyd didn't even have the consciousness to fathom escape, yet desperation seeped through his lips.
"Morro, we… you don't have to do this."
The voice was barely Lloyd's.
This earned a merciless slap across the face from Morro leaving a reddened imprint upon the ninja's face, the ghost burning with an incommunicable rage after not only being too late to get to the Realm Crystal but also the fuel that was Lloyd's defiant and oh-so 'heroic' nature.
Morro loathed it, he loathed Lloyd's deluded goodness, he loathed his hope, he loathed that regardless of how far-gone everything was: Lloyd still hoped.
"You think that you can mend me," Morro billowed, keeping the tip of his sword at Lloyd's chin, the blood oozing from a tiny break of his skin serving as a reminder that Morro could end his life at any given moment. "You think that you can – somehow – convince me to your side. It might work for some others, but not me. I know what I want. I want you to suffer, and nothing's going to get in my way," – he now pointed his sword towards the ninja on the lower ground, who had not yet noticed them – "including those pathetic ninja. It's hard to believe the ever beloved and prophesized green ninja is so hopeless when someone puts a little effort into their plan..."he smirked, evoking an air of confidence – it was evident he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
Lloyd's face was stricken with fear. He was helpless.
That wind again. It thrashed through Morro's ghostly form, passing through him like he wasn't even there, reminding him of his torturous immortality, mother nature's wicked tantrum growing louder, louder, everything was spinning. Again, it came to a slow halt, but the spinning of his head did not.
Now he was the red ninja again, staring at his wobbling, hazy reflection above the bathroom sink. This time, he felt he had control of his body, but his heart was thudding so fast, carrying adrenaline to every inch of his body, head thumping as he leaned over the basin – tears welled up in his eyes; he didn't even know what he was feeling, he just felt so, so ill, and though he'd never admit that it was possible for him to feel this, he was afraid. He looked up again, his reflection painting a warped study of the orchestra that was fear, grief, anger crashing their symbols up against him all at once, growing louder and louder – he swore his eardrums would burst.
Rubbing his eyes, he blinked and saw… Morro. That vicious, smug expression, still plastered on his face like a watermark was staring back at him. But it shifted, and there was something different about it…
Lloyd's voice – Lloyd, he was alright, he wasn't the helpless, half-dead Lloyd from his dream – from outside his bedroom door faded in from muffled sound effects to comprehensible dialogue. "-ai! Kai wake up! Come eat!"
It was only a dream. It was only a dream. He had to constantly keep reminding himself. But what wasn't a dream, despite his wishes, was the situation of elemental chaos they were still in.
It had been two days now since all their powers had swapped over; Cole swapped with Zane and took on the role of Master of Ice, Nya swapped with Jay to become the Master of Lightning, and, most curiously, Kai became the Master of Wind by swapping with… Morro.
He didn't want to think about how it was possible, but if his dream was a sign, he had a long journey ahead of him. That dream…
The worst thing to come of this situation was how Kai shut himself away from the others during this time; he barely even spoke to Lloyd. Lloyd, his baby brother, the only one isolated from the situation as his power stayed the same… things seemed to constantly happen that would raise the question of 'is being the green ninja a blessing or a curse?'.
They'd figured out this was because his energy power was his life force – if that had been given to someone else without a trace left over for Lloyd, he'd be… gone.
Although Lloyd wanted to see Kai, Kai was… terrified. The dream he'd had was not the first about Morro – in fact, he'd had a similar one the night before. It was certainly a cause for concern, and Kai didn't like the overwhelming dread he felt when both dreams ended the same way. Was this a sign? Was he going to hurt Lloyd just like Morro did?
He threw these thoughts into a box carelessly and locked them away in the deepest, darkest places of his mind. Nothing can make him think about it right now.
Despite the way their powers swapped being one of the better ways they could've rotated, it still caused a lot of problems, besides the fact that they were completely out of their element. For example, Nya caused a power outage when she sneezed already, something it took Jay a long time to gain control over when he first became the Master of Lightning.
Initially, when they'd visited Mystake over the situation, she'd given a hasty 'never heard of it' regarding elemental powers being swapped, unsurprising considering her nature. After a bit of digging in Master Wu's extensive collection of scrolls and books on elemental powers, their search came up dry. So, they had no leads, no hope of getting their powers back, and no one had any idea why they'd even swapped in the first place. 'No one', excluding Nya and Jay.
Jay had spent an immensely long shower dreading how he would even begin to explain Nadakhan, and the teapot of Tyrahn, and Djinnjago… he wanted to avoid the topic as much as possible. But keeping Nadakhan a secret would prove immensely difficult, and Jay wasn't exactly famous for being good at keeping secrets. He had imagined in his head how each of the ninja would react to him explaining.
Zane would say something like "I find this quite unbelievable, Jay." Simple, yet still something that would sting.
He knew Kai wouldn't believe him, maybe ever. "I'm tired of you making shit up all the time, it's not even funny. Plus, Nya never keeps secrets from me! Quit it." he would say. Even if he did believe him, he'd definitely blow up at him. "Are you kidding me? You kept this whole week of my life a secret? It's my business, I have the right to know!"
Lloyd would insist it was just a dream. "Man, you've been watching too much Fritz Donnegan, even compared to me!"
"Ha, ha very funny Jay," Cole would say cynically. "You're very creative. Maybe go channel that into writing some love poem for Nya or something, I'm busy playing Fist to Face 2."
All these scenarios were too much for Jay to bear. He'd been distancing himself from the rest of the group to avoid having to pretend everything was fine, when it really wasn't.
Kai rubbed his eyes quickly in case Lloyd burst in. He'd been crying in his sleep? He hadn't done that in a long while, not since he was much younger and having lots of nightmares about his parents when they first left. He pushed himself up and out of bed, hovering over to the doorway. He carefully opened the door, relieved to see that Lloyd, was in fact, alright. Of course, he knew that already, but just… wanted to double check.
"Kai," Lloyd offered a small smile, though it was obvious he was worried for Kai. "Zane made breakfast. Please come eat with us, we haven't seen you properly in a few days and…"
Kai stopped him. "It's okay. I can eat in my own time, don't worry about me."
Lloyd frowned. Although Kai could be obnoxious sometimes, he longed to see that cocky smile again. Kai felt both of Lloyd's hands on his shoulders. "Kai… you're my brother. I know that you're feeling down and I know how you get when you lose your power. But it's not the first time you've been without it, and you've managed to bounce back every time!" he used his best 'leader voice' to attempt to encourage him.
Kai just sighed. "I'm… Lloyd, I don't know. I don't want to remind you of… him…" His eyes started to water.
Lloyd winced, to Kai's dismay. He brought his eyes back to meet Kai's, which seemed a lot less… fiery than usual. This only saddened him more. "It's okay. No matter what, you're still my brother. And no matter what you do, you're not Morro. You never will be."
Suddenly, Kai's arms were wrapped around his waist, crushing him in a hug. The green ninja could feel his shoulders shaking slightly, and he could feel tears soaking his shirt. Usually, Kai would cry when he was angry – or, at least, when his negative emotions manifested in the form of anger – but Lloyd could tell he was feeling dejected, and he really needed to be comforted. Lloyd reciprocated the hug tightly, carefully soothing his brother by rubbing his hand on his back.
They stayed like that for a minute or so, before, wiping his tears with his sleeve, – he clearly didn't want Lloyd to see him crying, even if he knew he already had – Kai looked up with a ghost of a smile on his face. "What's Zane made for breakfast then, little bro?"
So… Kai's having visions of Morro! This chapter was so hard to write but I'm happy with how it turned out :D Tysm to Rowan for editing :D
This was originally gonna be longer but I could not for the life of me figure out how to write the next bit properly XD
Oh and don't expect daily updates LOL I just wanted to get this posted because it's where it gets interesting XD I hope you guys enjoyed :D As always any ideas are appreciated! I have most of the story planned out but I'm also open to suggestions!