Since the deal I talked about at the end of the last chapter concerns him, I think that this is a good as time as any to actually talk about Ronin.

Ronin is probably one of the most mysterious people that I've ever met in Ninjago. It's not because I don't know what he does all the time, since I've gotten a pretty good idea from hearing about the crimes the Police Commissioner wants him for. Ronin is a bounty hunter, and he'll do whatever it takes to get the job done. He's also a treasure hunter, thief and con artist. I'm pretty sure that if there is anything valuable, Ronin has or has tried to steal it. Even after we've tried to put a stop to it, he's never shown any signs of slowing down on all of his shady deals.

I know what to expect when I meet up with Ronin. Ronin either helps us so he can get on our good side and make us look the other way the next time we catch up to him, or he's fighting against us. There have been many times we've gone chasing after him, only for him to end up empty-handed. He has a really good habit of leaving no evidence to convict him, even if you catch him at the scene of the crime.

The thing is, Ronin isn't evil. Sure, we've fought against Ronin a lot, but that doesn't mean that I think of him as an enemy. He's more like… an annoyance when he's against us, and a pleasant surprise when he's with us? It's really a matter of what's going on. Ronin will switch sides depending on what benefits him the most. In that way, he's probably one of the most selfish guys that I've ever met in all of Ninjago.

Even if he does that, though, Ronin doesn't exactly strike me as someone that'll just let people do evil things. When it came down to it, Ronin was willing to come back and help us. He was willing to risk going to the Cursed Realm if it meant saving Ninjago. Now, he said afterwards he did that since he couldn't exactly do business in Ninjago if it was cursed, but I don't know if that was really the case. I don't even know if Ronin knows that he cares about other people. I mean, maybe I'm reading too far into it, since I'm not the best at reading people. But, I think that Ronin just justifies doing things that don't exactly help him directly by finding a way that they do. Like, he does selfless things, but he convinces himself it was for selfish reasons?

I mean like, okay. When Ronin met the ninja when they went to get the scroll, he refused to give it to them and sold it to them instead. Then, when Kai was caught trying to get the scroll from Morro, he forced Kai into giving up all of our shares in Steep Wisdom to save him. He got involved with Nya's training only after she paid him to go and help. Everything that he did while I was possessed speaks to him being just a very selfish person only in it for the money.

The thing is… later on, Ronin saved Ninjago by giving the ninja the location of the tomb. He also gave them REX just so they could get to the tomb in the first place. I got to see the message that he left them after everything happened and… I don't know. When I saw that, and something else I'll mention later, I got the feeling that Ronin isn't a bad person, he just does bad things sometimes. But, then again I don't exactly spend enough time around him to really comment on it that much.

The reason that Ronin is important to this story is because long ago he made a deal with Soul Archer, one of the ghosts that Morro had summoned. I don't know the details, but Ronin had to pay Soul Archer a certain amount of money or else his soul would go to the Cursed Realm. Apparently, what he was paying with wasn't exactly important, since Soul Archer realized he could use that deal to force Ronin into betraying the ninja to give them the SoS.

Now, while Morro was formulating this plan of his, I was starting to get much better at fighting Morro's possession. While nothing I could do would rattle Morro, I think I was making it harder for him to have complete control of me. At that point, I knew Morro was behind the ninja, so I wanted to slow him down. It annoyed him to no end, and he even appeared to me to demand that I stop my incessant whining to him.

Whenever Morro tried to stop me from then on, all I told him was that I was a ninja, and ninja never quit. Morro seemed to get tired of hearing that after awhile, since if I said it he would just go back to what he was doing. Thankfully, he was running such a tight plan that I was able to actually put together what happened at this point.

It was actually pretty simple: Soul Archer used Bansha to contact Ronin and get him to give the SoS over to them in exchange for lifting the curse on his soul. When I heard that plan, it was like all of my hopes sank right out of me. I didn't even know who Ronin was, much less what was going on. But what I did know was that somehow Morro was getting the sword back from the ninja. I didn't see it happen, but I felt Morro telling me that if I thought I'd given him a loss, he was about to show me what was really going to happen now.

The entire time that Ronin was making his way back to Morro, I was left completely terrified. I didn't know what was going on. I had to hope that somehow what I was hearing wasn't right. I tried to get Morro to tell me he was bluffing, but he just laughed at me. It wasn't like Morro had even realized this was possible from the start, but it was the perfect backup plan. When I got to learn who Ronin really was, it was almost like a perfectly placed spy just waiting to be given orders. It was the perfect way to get what Morro wanted.

For some reason, Morro decided to make his home base in Stiix. I think the reason why was because it was a power move of sorts. Like, ghosts will vanish back to the Cursed Realm if they touch water, and any amount of water would make Morro's possession on me vanish. So living directly above water was like us constructing our base right over a volcano. It was pretty smart, honestly. I didn't know what Stiix was, though, and I only got to see it for a few minutes.

When Ronin arrived, Morro actually decided that I needed to see him. I was just sitting inside my own head when everything started to rush back to me. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew that Morro was doing something. It actually was the same feeling as when I broke free from Morro's grasp, but a lot harder and worse. Having your bodily control rush right back to you after spending a long time without it was a horrible feeling. And as soon as I had my body back, I was laying face down on the middle of some grimy floorboards and surrounded by Morro's ghosts and a man I'd never seen before.

That was when I officially met Ronin. I saw the SoS was on the table inside the scroll Morro had stolen. Ronin was held back by a strange ghost in blue robes that I guessed was Soul Archer, and another ghost in red robes came over to grab me and pull me upright. She told me that I was about to get some much needed alone time, and that was when I got to see Morro's ghost form in front of me again. He looked exactly like he did when he came to me in my head, which made me realize that he wasn't just making things up when he did that.

Bansha took me and locked me in a cage hanging from a tower Morro had built his base in. I tried to call out to the people of Stiix, but they couldn't hear me. They also likely wouldn't have tried to rescue me. Stiix was a city where people went to get away from the law, and seeing someone being strung up in a cage would be something everyone would just keep their heads down to.

For the first hour that I was up there, I was sleeping. Morro was working my body nonstop. He was still eating and drinking (oddly enough if a drink isn't water based ghosts can drink it no problem) in my body to keep me going, but he'd pushed me to my absolute limits. I don't think Morro would feel the exertion he was putting on me, and he was just using my body like it was some sort of tool. He was doing enough to keep me going, but not enough to let me rest. Both times that Morro left my body, I was too exhausted to do anything.

It took me an hour just to stand up. It was almost embarrassing how much it took to do, but it was the first that I had done it in a long time. Breaking out of Morro's control was like using my body like Morro did, but this was me having feeling back in it again. Soul Archer trained an arrow on me and warned me that if I tried anything, he'd make sure that I wouldn't get far. It wasn't like I could get anywhere if I wanted to in the first place, though.

The thing was, that was the first time that I'd been free of Morro's control completely. Morro was using Ronin to send a message to the ninja and lead them into a trap. I wasn't in Morro's head, so I didn't get to hear the details. I wasn't paying attention. I was free. I was actually, finally, free. I'd never felt so free before. Morro had taken away something from me that I never even thought could be, my body, and now I had it back.

I don't know why, but I started crying. In fact, I was crying for a long time. I think I was just so happy and relieved that I'd finally, completely, gotten away from Morro that I just couldn't help it. I was feeling every emotion all in me at once. I was happy to be free, I was angry that Morro had done that to me, confused at what Morro was doing, upset knowing that Morro could possess me again in a cage like this… just, whatever you could think of, I was feeling. Maybe my body just was trying to catch up on my emotions after I hadn't been able to have any related to it for such a long time. I don't know if that's a thing, but it felt like it.

Being free, I had a long time to think without Morro in my head. I was mainly trying to piece together everything I'd learned. It didn't work. I had gaps that couldn't explain things. I could only briefly remember what happened whenever I was free from Morro. After awhile, I just stopped. Instead, I wanted to relish being free again. I wanted to be happy that I was breathing the sea air, that I felt the wind on me again, that I could feel the bars in my hand… really, I just wanted to feel again. Being trapped in my head, being unable to do anything… it makes just the act of feeling things something you start to crave again.

After I heard Morro finishing up his plan with Morro, I had enough strength back to try to fight back. It'd only been a few hours, but it felt like minutes. Now that I was on the outside, I felt like I had to keep up the fight. Maybe it was just habit. But, as Morro got ready for his next plan, I told him that he'd never be the Green Ninja. I wanted to make Morro angry, just like he'd been when we were inside each other's heads. I wanted to make him upset with the other ghosts.

Instead… he just brushed it off. It threw me off a lot. I didn't understand why Morro wasn't upset with it. He'd acted so angry inside my head, him just casually saying I wouldn't be the Green Ninja anymore for long didn't feel right. It wasn't angry. And that got me thinking: why was Morro acting like this on the outside, rather than the inside?

Honestly, I think it was just that Morro was closer to winning. Now that he was that much closer to getting to the tomb, he didn't need to act so worried. He was firmly two steps ahead of the ninja with both the scroll and sword, and he had sent the ninja on a wild chase to distract them even more. Morro felt like he had to win.

That was when he possessed me again. They lowered the cage and Morro told me that he needed me for one final task. I tried to tell Morro he couldn't know that I knew what it was like to be possessed, but that didn't matter. Morro just grabbed me and I felt that drowning feeling again. I saw Ronin curled up in the corner, twitching like I had when Morro left my body. The other ghosts were laughing at me. I really wish I could say I lasted longer against him but… it was actually faster the second time since I was so exhausted Morro didn't have to pull any memory tricks on me to get inside.

With how exhausted I was already, along with being possessed again, Morro was able to keep me calm for a long time. I didn't have any power to fight him, namely since I was so upset to be back in that strange place again. I hated wherever Morro had me trapped. I wasn't able to feel again, and having just had it again, I felt hopeless. I didn't want to cry and show Morro how beaten down I was getting, but he didn't need to. The fact I wasn't able to fight him for the entire time he was going to the tomb told him everything that he needed to know. He almost seemed smug about it, but I wasn't paying attention.

Now, here's the thing. I really wanted to talk about the tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master. I mean… it's the tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master. I sat down for hours to try to figure out what I could about it. Morro was using my body to go to it, which actually turned out to be in the ocean. I tried everything to remember something, anything about it. I wanted to figure out whatever I could. But… I couldn't. I was so exhausted by that point that I wasn't reading Morro's thoughts.

So… I'm instead going to skip right here towards the end that I do remember and just give a summary of what happened. The tomb was underwater and Morro had to go through three tests to get by. With the SoS, he was able to see the traps beforehand and get a clue as to how to solve them. Morro got by the first one in less than a minute and then went right on to the next one. While he was doing that, I think the ninja arrived. Morro sent one of his ghosts to kill the ninja in the trap he set for them, but Ronin saved them with his airship and then flew the ninja here. Morro had a head start on the ninja, and by the time he was in the third test, the ninja had started catching up to him. Morro fought them in a big maze of icicles that grew back when you cut them, and the ninja trapped him there using them. And then the ninja made it to the tomb.

Okay, okay. I know that until now, these chapters have been really confusing. I've been jumping between talking a lot about certain things and then not a lot and having to just summarize the rest. I didn't want to lie and make up what I felt, since so much of what happened was blocked off by Morro. I also didn't want to summarize everything and just make that. I promise that from now on, I was fully aware of what was happening. That's because when the ninja made it to what was inside the tomb, Morro finally unpossessed me for the last time.

Morro's goal this entire time had been something called the Realm Crystal. The ninja said that Morro needed it to unleash something called the Preeminent into Ninjago and curse it all, which was what that whole 'the world will be cursed!' thing the guard was talking about. Since the ninja had gotten to the tomb first, Morro decided that he wasn't going to do anything to screw this up. The first thing I remember happening was that feeling of having the world come rushing back to me, and then Morro was grabbing my and dragging me onto my feet. When I managed to open my eyes again, I was standing on top of a cliff beside a river inside of a massive cave. The ninja were below us and standing in front of the remains of the First Spinjitzu Master.

Now, one thing that I always found odd was that the FSM wasn't inside of any sort of casket. He was laying on a stone slab in the middle of weird blue symbols, holding the Realm Crystal in his hands. The ninja had taken the crystal. Morro dragged me forward and demanded that they give over the Realm Crystal to him, or else he'd throw me into the river. The river eventually went down to a massive waterfall that dropped into a massive cave so deep I don't know if I would have survived the fall.

I wanted to tell the ninja to let me fall and run off with the crystal. I was still hazy and didn't fully know what was going on, but I knew that I couldn't let Morro have his way. I had to stop Morro, somehow. The only thing was, I couldn't move. I felt helpless, just like I was in my head. I was exactly like I was there, actually: unable to move and unable to do anything but just weakly push on him. The ninja were seeing me exactly as I'd been this entire time: helpless.

Everything that happened after that was a blur. Kai did something to the Realm Crystal to make Morro drop it into the water when he caught it, and that was when Morro pushed me into the water. Or, maybe I pushed him first and then he pushed me in. I didn't have the energy to swim at all. I couldn't do anything but just flounder in the water. I kept going in and out, and in my state, I actually thought I was being possessed again. It felt exactly like it. I wasn't able to breathe, I was bobbing in and out of being able to think, and I was getting slowly closer to feeling my body giving up. I was being swept along and had no ability to do anything.

I was getting ready to give up. I couldn't do anything. Nothing. I was just, a dead weight in the water. I don't know when, but the crystal floated past me, I think. I wasn't paying attention. All I really cared about was that I felt about ready to drown, and I didn't know what to do. I just started feeling my body going numb again. I was so used to that I didn't even think that I was about to die. It was just like Morro. It was just like everything I'd felt.

Then… Kai jumped in. Kai can't swim, and he jumped in to save me. Throughout this entire time, Kai had been the one that came to save me. He held me up above the water long enough for me to start breathing again. I just remember seeing Kai's blurry face in my eyes. He was struggling to stay up, and couldn't stop us… but even then, he jumped in to save me without caring. Kai was there for me.. Again.

Right before we went over, Cole pulled us out. Since he was a ghost, he had to wait for the last minute so he didn't get wet. The Realm Crystal fell over the side, and I saw it happening and thought maybe we'd won. That was when I heard the wind start to make a strange noise. Morro used his power to retrieve the crystal and bring it back to him. I tried to drag myself towards him, but I couldn't do anything. The ninja had to stay behind to protect me. All I could do was hold back tears as I told them I was sorry.

The entire time they were dragging me out of the tomb, I was just saying that I was sorry over and over again. I'd failed them. I'd failed to stop Morro. I'd been fighting him that entire time and I had nothing to show for it. Morro had managed to stop us at every turn, even when we had the upper hand. I started crying at some point, and that was when Cole tried to hug me and I first saw that Cole was a ghost. It just didn't register a lot in my head at the time. (I'm saving talking about Cole for a few chapters still.)

Then… sunlight. I was dragged out into the sunlight. Mom and Wu were on the Bounty. The ninja had saved me. I still couldn't move, but I was finally back home. After everything that happened, I was home. And I was still upset. I kept telling the ninja that they lost because of me, but they refused to believe that. To them, they would win now that they had me. I didn't know if I could believe that, But the ninja were gaining their elemental powers back.

...Did I mention the ninja lost their elemental powers because I was possessed? I don't think I did, actually. Uhm. Yeah. So, remember how I said that my power was basically holding open the gateway that let the ninja use their powers? Well, when I was possessed I think that my power was sealed in me, so that meant that the ninja weren't connected to me anymore. That's the reason it was so important that I mentioned that earlier. Maybe I should go back and add that to the earlier chapters.

Anyways. The ninja dragged me onboard the bounty. I didn't even think of the rebuilt ship as home yet, and I was too happy to be there. I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't stop feeling things and holding the pillow, just happy that I could actually be me again. It was just… it was just something I'd missed. Now that I felt what it was like to have no control, I wanted all of it back. I vowed I would never get possessed again. I couldn't get possessed again.

Of course, I was still barely able to move, and as soon as they laid me down I wasn't able to stay away for long. Mom came in and told me how happy and relieved she was to have me back. I don't remember anything else she said. The main thing I do remember, is that it was the first time that my mom tucked me in. She put a blanket around me and tucked me in, and told me to rest until I felt better. The last thing I remember before I passed out was her hugging me and telling me she would make sure nothing bad happened to me again.

Morro now had everything he needed to enact his plan. He had the Realm Crystal, the SoS and the scroll. We'd failed to stop him, and now he was going forward with his plan. The last hope we had was to make our play to put a stop to him once and for all. We had to stop him before he managed to use the grave setback he put on us to start cursing Ninjago.

I just really wish that those guys in Cloud Kingdom had decided to cut us a break for once.

"Uh…" Lloyd looked down at the meal in front of him, "Are… you sure I did it right?"

"You followed the recipe, right?" Kai asked. Lloyd nodded, prompting Kai to shrug, "Then there shouldn't be a problem."

Lloyd looked down at the food he'd made. It was meant to be a simple meal of chicken and dumplings, but for some reason it didn't look like it. It looked far too lumpy, the color of the sauce was off, and the chicken was a bit more pink than he thought it should be. Kai, however, was giving him an encouraging smile, and so Lloyd nervously picked up his fork.

"Well… let's try it," Lloyd gulped, then reached down to take a bite. As soon as he had it swallowed, he blinked in confusion, "It's… good."

"See! I told you!" Kai put his arm around Lloyd, "Cooking isn't that hard. You're not making your own new dishes, so all you have to do is follow the recipes. It's like I told Nya when she started learning: as long as you follow the directions, it'll turn out great."

"Yeah… I guess that you're right," Lloyd smiled gently, "So… you taught Nya how to cook too?"

"Kinda," Kai admitted, "I think she saw how tired I was after some rush orders from clients, so she wanted to cook to try to take some of the burden off me. I showed her how to work everything in the kitchen, and after just a few tries she was able to get the hang of it on her own. It was kinda nice not having to worry about it."

"And, you were taking care of Nya, while you were also running that shop too?" Lloyd asked, "I… never realized just how much you did, Kai."

"Well, I didn't have a choice," Kai sat back, "Both mom and dad were gone. One day they were there and then the next day they weren't there. We ran out of the money they left us really quickly, and the babysitters wouldn't come and help us without getting paid. After I heard that we had to either start making money or close the shop, I did what I had to do."

"Just like that?" Lloyd asked in shock, "You just, got up one day and started doing all of the blacksmithing and housework?"

"Nya was too young to help me back then," Kai admitted, "I'd picked up a bit from my dad, so I studied up on how to do all the rest and figured it out from there. It only took me a few days to start doing orders good enough for all those guys to stop asking about it. Plus, managing money isn't that hard when you just have to pay for food and some new equipment every once in awhile. We got scammed pretty badly once, and after that I figured out how much I was worth and figured out how to take the best jobs for the most money."

"...But, the others said you were a terrible negotiator," Lloyd pointed out.

"I was really stressed then!" Kai protested, "And that was really Zane's fault, since he was the leader at that point!"

"Heh… yeah," Lloyd chuckled a bit, finding his thoughts soon dragged down by a thought, "You're, a lot more responsible than I thought you were, Kai."

"Wait, what did you think I was?" Kai asked pointedly.

"Uh…" Lloyd suddenly felt nervous, "I mean, it's just, you don't always act like you know exactly what you're doing and, uh, I just never saw you as someone that, cooked and stuff."

"That's because all of you guys started doing that," Kai pointed out with a frown, "If I try to clean then I usually get in someone's way, and Zane basically does all the cooking now. Nya's all grown up too, so it isn't like she needs me to take care of her. I just put all my focus on training now."

"Right…" Lloyd nodded his head, "Thanks, Kai."

"Thanks?" Kai cocked his head, "Thanks for what?"

"For… you know, just being there for me," Lloyd smiled, "Even if sometimes you don't always seem like it."

"Hey, what are you trying to say?" Kai asked with a protesting tone. Lloyd gave Kai a small smile in response, pouring out some of his food into a bowl to slide over to Kai.

"Maybe you should cook more often," Lloyd smiled, "If you could teach me, you can surely cook for all of us."

"Well... " Kai shrugged, "Only if Zane doesn't want to. I don't want to take over the kitchen."

"Trust me," Lloyd smiled warmly, "The last thing you'd be doing is taking over."