I don't know where to start with Cloud Kingdom.

Well, I guess I know where to start. One thing that you all have probably heard about but never seen is that Ninjago is one of Sixteen Realms. I, don't exactly know whether or not the First Spinjitzu Master created all of the realms after he left the First Realm, or if he just created Ninjago and all the other realms were already there. It's not really something we can exactly go looking into. The Cursed Realm is obviously one of them. The Underworld is one too. Those are probably the two that most of you would be familiar with.

Cloud Kingdom is one of them too. Normally, you can only access another realm from Ninjago through a few special ways. Dragons are able to go between realms, but there aren't anymore dragons in Ninjago that can do that. The easiest way is to use the Realm Crystal, which I'll talk more about later. The last way is to have some sort of special place in Ninjago that's linked to another realm. It's sort of like if you cut a hole in a wall between two buildings, and if you knew where the hole was you could go between them. Only instead of a hole, it's a giant swirling vortex in the sky.

The Blind Man's Eye is a big storm that passes around the Wailing Alps. If you get to the top of the tallest peak, you'd be close enough to the Eye in order to use something like Airjitzu to get into it. That's actually the reason that the first 'clue' to the tomb was Airjitzu. (If I hadn't made clear, Morro had stolen Wu's staff and shown there were three symbols on it that were 'clues' to the tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master. I didn't exactly get that myself since Morro only talked about the clues individually for a long time.) If you jumped into the Eye, you'd be able to enter the gates of Cloud Kingdom.

I think the reason why my thoughts on Cloud Kingdom are so complicated, is because unlike all of the other realms I've been to, Cloud Kingdom actually directly affects Ninjago. The other realms are all separate from our realm, but Cloud Kingdom isn't. That's because Cloud Kingdom is full of people that do one thing: they write destiny.

...I'd always thought that destiny was some sort of cosmic force that worked independent of everyone. And, to be fair, that's still somewhat true. What I've come to understand is that the writers of Cloud Kingdom aren't entirely how destiny works. They write down what they think destiny should do, and then destiny will take that and roll with it. Remember how I said that I see destiny like the key points that you have to hit in someone's story? Those guys would write those down in a scroll, and then destiny would take care of the rest.

Now, they don't do that anymore. After we caused a bunch of chaos while we were inside Cloud Kingdom, the writers decided that they wouldn't interfere in destiny anymore. I learned this when we went to try to return the Sword of Sanctuary to them, which is what the second clue was and from now on I'll be called it to the SoS (we actually ended up keeping the sword in a vault instead). To me, that says that destiny isn't just them. It's something that works through them, but isn't them exactly. They could get it going, but without them destiny would just do something naturally. Sort of like, if you diverted a river by digging a canal. You've changed where the water goes, but the water is still flowing either way.

The thing is, I never thought that it was people that actually decided to write down that I was going to be the one to become the Green Ninja. Whatever was written in the scrolls, it happened. They were the ones that put me through everything that happened to me. They were the ones that basically turned my life into what it was. Every single painful thing I had to do leading up to the final battle was because of them.

In some way, Cloud Kingdom is responsible for every horrible thing that's ever happened to me. The weird thing is, I'm not mad at them.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm actually okay with Cloud Kingdom. Knowing that destiny was being written by people is sort of messed up. Basically, Cloud Kingdom was able to control the lives of people in Ninjago. Whatever they wrote down happened. They could write down that it was your destiny to get thrown off a cliff, and somehow you'd one day find yourself going off a cliff. I think the ninja said they even witnessed something happen to Dareth's scroll that actually happened to him here in Ninjago. That's… messed up, in a lot of ways.

I want to be angry at Cloud Kingdom. I really want to be angry at them. I want to try to muster up some anger so I can say more about them. They're messed up, and everything they were doing is just so… so wrong. But, I can't. I think I can't because of what I saw in Cloud Kingdom… nobody there was evil. Outside of the one guy that tried to kill the ninja.

Okay, okay, let me back up here. I think I need to preface how exactly we even got to Cloud Kingdom before I actually talk more about them, otherwise you'll be even more confused. I think the last thing that I was talking about last chapter was about Morro getting the scroll and leaving me trying to play catch up with him. Okay. I was trapped underneath Morro's control for a long time, and I didn't manage to get a lot of what he was doing.

So. Morro needed to get up the Wailing Alps to reach the Blind Man's Eye. So, he went to the Samurai X Cave. I'm still not saying where it is, since he got it from reading my memories. When he arrived, he ran into Nya. The biggest reason that I mention this is that Nya, somehow, destroyed the Allied Armor Morro was wearing, meaning now Morro was stuck with three ghosts that he'd summoned. Morro must have been hit with something, since there was a moment of pain I remember that gave me a chance to push back on him. That was how I managed to figure out that we were in the Samurai X Cave.

There were three ghosts: Bansha, Ghoultar, and Soul Archer. I don't really have much to say on them, since I didn't actually spend any time with them. I only learned their names by pouring over every single thought Morro had. I learned Soul Archer's name and got an idea of what he looked like, but I didn't even know what Ghoultar and Bansha were liked until a lot later. The reason that we went to the cave in the first place was so one of them could take Nya's Samurai X mech to help scale the Wailing Alps.

It was also during this time that I learned something about Morro I didn't realize: ghosts were weak to water. I was still pushing on Morro's control when I felt a panic from Morro I hadn't felt before. It had started to rain, and Morro was afraid that his control was about to be taken away. Ghosts, apparently, will get sent back to the Cursed Realm if they touch water. Only water, though. For some reason, they can walk through ice and steam easily, but just not water.

I tried to break out of Morro's control again when he started panicking, but that ended with him appearing to me again and telling me that I was still a failure, then shoving me back down hard enough that I couldn't try again for a long time. Each time Morro was appearing to me, he was looking more and more angry. He'd long since stopped using that human form to talk to me, and was showing up as a ghost. He assured me that soon enough, he'd have everything he needed to keep me from ever rising up against him again.

It was at this point that Morro and the ghosts began their trek in the mech over to the Wailing Alps. I wasn't really in it for most of that. Morro had a very one track mind, and at this point I had learned that he wanted something called the SoS. I didn't know what the sword did, since he was careful not to tell me. He had to get to somewhere called Cloud Kingdom.

During this time, the ninja also got in mechs and started chasing him, after they had gotten a scroll of Airjitzu from Sensei Yang's temple. During this time, Cole got turned into a ghost. I can't say anything else about it, since I wasn't there, and I didn't even get to be around Cole much while he was a ghost. Now, I'm going to talk about Cole being a ghost later, since it's actually something right after all this happened that involved it a lot more. But I don't have that much to say about Cole being a ghost during all of this. I promise I'll talk about it in a later chapter.

Anyways. So, Morro climbed up the Wailing Alps. I wasn't really in it for most of them. Morro tried to stop the ninja, and he made it towards the top first. I know I'm jumping around here, but… I can't really say much when I was just sitting around in my head. I only realized where we were when I started feeling Morro getting upset. I could feel Morro getting angry enough he wasn't guarding his thoughts.

Morro was at the top of the Alps, and the wind was getting ready to throw him off. I felt an anger from Morro that felt like what I felt when I said I was the Green Ninja. He demanded that the wind obey him, because he controls the wind. He reached out with his power and, somehow, actually managed to stop the wind. When I felt that, I realized I had a chance to slow Morro down, and to learn something about him.

As Morro started to climb his way up again, I started to realize that Morro wanted to control things. He wanted to control his own destiny by defying what was already laid out to him. He controlled the wind, just like he was controlling me. Morro was controlling the situation. I know that sounds weird to point out… but it was just another example of how determined Morro was. Morro felt that what he was doing was exactly what needed to be done. He was controlling an entire mountain, just to make sure that he got what he wanted. He was so driven to his goal, he was doing things I didn't think I could do.

That, however, made it really easy for me to start to push against him again. Morro had exhausted himself stopping the wind, and so while he was clinging to an icicle, I was able to start to push out of his control again. I wasn't able to break free all the way, but I was able to take hold of Morro's hands and force him to hang on. Morro wanted to try to fly up and get inside the Blind Man's Eye that was passing overhead, but I knew that I needed to stop him. I got from Morro's thoughts he was upset that the ninja were chasing him. I had to slow him down, just so my friends could get to wherever he was going first.

It worked. Morro was quick to get rid of me again, but I managed to slow him down. I think it was the first time during everything all that time I was being possessed that I actually felt happy. I had actually stopped him from doing what he wanted. Morro was furious and rattled. I managed to get the ninja into this Cloud Kingdom place before Morro! Morro's thoughts were going crazy, and I knew that he was now behind the ninja.

And then… Bansha opened up a backdoor into Cloud Kingdom.

Okay. This is something that I'm actually mad about. It's not the fact that I had managed to slow Morro down, or the fact that Bansha just so happened to know some random way into Cloud Kingdom. What really makes me upset, is that Morro just didn't use that in the first place.

I know it sounds weird to say that I was upset the villain didn't get ahead of the heroes from the start, but to me, it made everything that Morro had done in my body worthless. If Bansha could have done that from the start, why did we even need the mech? Why did Morro need to keep possessing me? The ninja finally managed to get a leap ahead of Morro, and somehow he just happened to have a convenient way into Cloud Kingdom?!

If Morro had done that from the start, I could have actually slowed him down more. I would have been able to fight Morro more! I mean, I just! I don't know! I'm angry about it! How is it fair that the ninja were just, upstaged like that?! I wish Morro had just used it from the beginning so it didn't feel like everything that I'd done up to that point was worthless! I don't know if I'm making sense but, that's just how I feel!

...So, Morro managed to get into Cloud Kingdom with the help of the Head Writer, Fennwick. Fennwick is the only guy in Cloud Kingdom I think I actually say that I hate. He made a deal with Morro saying that he'd make sure his destiny was 'ensured' in exchange for giving Morro this SoS he wanted so badly. Fennwick was willing to curse all of Ninjago and probably a lot more, just to make sure he was safe.

Now, the other ninja said something to me, that I don't agree with. They said they think that Morro made a deal with Fennwick, which was how he managed to get out of the Cursed Realm. The reason they say that is because Fennwick opened up a way for Morro and the others to get into Cloud Kingdom, which means he had to have some way of contacting them in the first place. Basically, they think that Morro tricked his way out of the Cursed Realm.

No. The Morro I knew inside my head would never have done that. Morro hated destiny. He hated everything to do with it, and wanted to defy it. I tried to ask him what he thought about Cloud Kingdom, but he never answered me. He was normally so quick to tell me what he thought about everything in an attempt to tear me down. For some reason, though, he never wanted to mention Cloud Kingdom. To me, that says that Morro hated them more than anything.

Here's the thing: if Morro got out of the Cursed Realm that way, that wouldn't be him 'defying destiny' like he said he would. That would be him just manipulating destiny. Morro wanted to prove to me that my destiny to be the Green Ninja wasn't supposed to happen. He wanted to show me that even if everything was telling him he couldn't be the Green Ninja, or that he couldn't do the impossible, he'd be able to do it. The Morro that I knew would never have been okay with the idea that he was using destiny to get out. If he had gotten Fenwick to change destiny… that still meant that he was being guided by destiny.

I never was able to feel anything from Morro when he was talking to Fennwick. That, to me, was odd. Morro was always thinkingsomething when he was talking to someone. I don't understand why he was deciding to clam up for that. It just, didn't make any sense to me. I wasn't able to push on him at all, either. He was completely immovable while he was taking the SoS. I think that Morro was so angry at Fenwick that he didn't want to give anything away to me. He didn't want me to see him upset for some reason. I don't know why, but that was what I felt.

I guess maybe that's part of why I don't hate Cloud Kingdom. To them, they're just doing a job. I didn't get to see it, but I got a bit of it from what the ninja told me. The people had to write the destiny that was best for everyone. They had to figure out a path for someone's life that was the best for them. I don't know how they did that, but, I guess it's sort of like… I mean, it's sort of like how a general gives orders for what's good for the entire army, not each person? That's the only way I can think to even describe it.

Maybe I just wasn't there enough to understand, and I never want to go there. I don't get Cloud Kingdom. To me, it's confusing and strange. I never want to think about how there were people that decided I was going to be the Green Ninja. I had assumed it was just the universe that did it. It wasn't. And, that's just something I don't want to think about. So, I'm not going to.

Anyways. Morro got the sword, and the ninja chased him out of Cloud Kingdom for it. I was starting to get back up from slowing Morro down the first time, and part of that was because Morro was taking up so much energy to escape. Whenever Morro started doing anything that put his concentration on something else, he wasn't able to focus as much on me. That meant that I was actively fighting him while his thoughts told me that he had the sword.

The last time that I managed to actively break out of Morro's control was when Kai finally got close enough to take the sword. Morro's thoughts were telling me that Kai was in trouble. I was trying as hard as I could to get out, and that was when I felt Morro's thoughts imagining how he was about to kill Kai. Somehow, he'd cornered Kai. Kai was there for me again. The ninja had come for me again, and Kai was about to get hurt because of it.

That was when I managed to break free again. I was standing on some weird black and green boat that Morro stole from Cloud Kingdom and sliding down the Wailing Alps on it. Kai was in front of me on the ground ready to take a blow. Morro clawed at me to try to stop me, but I was free again. As soon as I saw Kai, I told him he needed to take the sword.

I didn't hear much of what Kai said. Right then, all I knew was that Morro had the sword, and the ninja needed it inside. Morro threw my body down onto the deck to try to knock me loose, and that was when Kai took the sword. Kai told me to keep fighting, and I remember him saying some other things. Knowing that Kai had the sword, that was all I needed. I smiled, because I knew that I'd finally managed to do some good.

That was the longest time that I managed to get out of Morro's grasp, and it only felt like it was a few seconds. As soon as Morro reasserted his control, he pushed me down harder than he had ever before. He screamed at me for giving the sword to Kai, demanding to know what I'd just done. I told him that I was going to fight him until the end. Morro said he wouldn't let me interfere again, even if I had just cost him the sword. That was the last thing that he said to me before I felt fear from him. I think we had just gone off a cliff, because when we hit the bottom, I was knocked out.

I really wish I could say more about all of this, but I can't. Morro wasn't letting me see what he was doing enough to give you a full picture. When I was trapped under Morro, I wasn't getting what I wanted. I had to piece it together from stray thoughts I was able to get from him. In truth, all that I actually during all of that was that Morro was climbing a mountain, the moment where I stopped him from going inside, hearing about a 'backdoor' from Bansha, and then when I broke free when I felt that Morro was about to hurt Kai. I don't know what happened in Cloud Kingdom during that, so I'll give a quick summary just to be sure I have it down here:

Morro got the scroll, then stole the Samurai X mech to climb the Wailing Alps and get into Cloud Kingdom. I stopped him getting inside, and the ninja did. Bansha made all of that pointless by opening a backdoor for Morro to get inside Cloud Kingdom and make a deal with Fennwick (who, now that I think about, I don't know what happened to) and get the SoS. Morro did, and the ninja chased him back down the Wailing Alps. I broke free at the last minute to give Kai the sword, and then Morro went over a cliff and I was knocked out.

With all of that said, Morro now had lost the second clue, and I'd officially given the ninja their leg up in the battle. When I started waking up, Morro was already moving again. He was furious. I don't think Morro had thought I'd give him a setback like that, and he was panicking trying to figure out how he was going to actually get the sword back. I actually was feeling pretty good. Morro wasn't happy that I was happy, but I couldn't help it. I'd managed to stop Morro's plans, right after I thought that he was going to win no matter what I did. I was going to actually manage to help my friends, even if they couldn't rescue me like this.

I had no idea how quickly everything was about to go wrong. I never thought that I'd go grave robbing, but Morro had one more trick up his sleeve that even he didn't think to use at that point. Things were about to go from bad to worse, and it was all about to be thanks to a deal I'd never even heard about.

"There," Lloyd sighed as he finished the chapter, "...Okay, that had to be even more confusing than the last chapter, right?"

"Was fine to me," Kai shrugged, "You know if you keep asking that at the end of every one of these, I'm just eventually gonna start saying they were fine either way, right?"

"...Yeah, I guess it's probably silly to worry about it," Lloyd admitted, "So, uh… what are we gonna do now?"

"I got a few ideas," Kai stood up, "But first of all, I'm hungry. Let's go get dinner."

"Again?" Lloyd sighed as he stood up, "I don't really think it's good to eat out like that again."

"What?" Kai shook his head, "Nah, Zane is busy tonight, so I said that I'd cook."

"You… what?" Lloyd asked. He continued to hold that question long after he soon found himself standing in the kitchen alongside Kai, who was quickly fastening an apron around his shoulders.

"Alright, I'm thinking we can probably do a simple meal since everyone's probably hungry," Kai looked around, "I'm thinking that we just get some glazed chicken going, then we make some flavored rice to go with it. Can't go wrong with that. I'll make some egg rolls too if people want that."

"Wait a minute!" Lloyd finally snapped himself out enough to ask, "Where did you learn how to cook?!"

"What do you mean?" Kai held up a few cooking utensils, "I used to cook everyday for me and Nya. When I got done running the shop, I'd make us dinner while I still had the chance to. Oh, well usually I had to make sure Nya got her bath first, then I'd start dinner so she could eat when she got out."

"...I see…" Lloyd soon was looking at a pile of ingredients in front of him, and a massive wave of confusion began to roll over him, "Uh… so… what do you want me to do?"

"Do you know how to make any sorts of glazes?" Kai asked, "I know a few recipes I can find if you need help."

"...I never really learned how to cook…" Lloyd mumbled, "...I mean, I know the basic stuff but, uh… I've never done something like this before."

"Really?" Kai cocked his head, "I thought Zane taught you!"

"I was usually busy when Zane was cooking, so I kinda just...stopped asking him to teach me," Lloyd chuckled awkwardly, "Uh… yeah."

"Hrmm…" Kai rubbed his head, "Well then. That settles it. Starting tonight, I'm gonna teach you how to cook!"

"Wait, what?" Lloyd turned to Kai. The smile on Kai's face showed he was either dead serious, or completely committed to the joke. With the way Kai moved to turn on the stove, Lloyd was starting to think it was the former.

"Yep, and there's no time to waste," Kai pointed to the ingredients, "Get ready. By the end of the week, I'll have you cooking circles around Zane!" Kai lit the stove, using his hand to actually increase the heat of the burner, "Oh yeah, let's get this fire going!"

"S-Sure…" Lloyd, thoroughly confused as to what he'd just gotten himself into, slowly picked up a wooden spoon, "Let's get… cooking…."

Author's Note:

Cloud Kingdom sure was weird, wasn't it?

I know a lot of people were looking for more drama and angst, but I decided to go a different route with this. CK in show is such a strange place tha brings up so many questions I'm not surprised the show doesn't like to mention it. I don't think that's a bad thing, but something to consider when analyzing the wider context. Given that Lloyd was only there as himself for a few seconds when fighting Morro, I decided to go this route with it. I hope that it is still satisfying!