An Ill Wind

Chapter 6

Cutthroat

*I own nothing and any similarities with any other works are purely coincidental.

Morro woke with a start as a shrill voice rang out throughout the temple, echoing through every hallway thanks to an incredibly extensive intercom system. "Fellow fighters, hidden around my island are Jadeblades." Chen announced, his voice high pitched and rather shoddy sounded due to poor mic quality. "Here, it represents life. Obtain it, move on. Allow your opponent to take it, loser! There are enough Jadeblades for every participant except for one. The one who returns to the palace arena empty-handed loses. The tournament begins… now!"

Morro rolled his eyes, propelling himself up out of bed with a gust of wind. I guess Lloyd is going to have to wait. Yawning slightly, he jogged back across the room and opened the door, gazing out into the decagonal hall. Directly across from him stood the Masters of Light and Sound, but, at least for the moment, no one else was in sight. Out of the corner of his eye, Morro spotted what appeared to be an ornate Samurai shoto sword holder resting between two of the hall's benches, and tucked neatly among the bronze swords was what he could only assume was a Jadeblade. His two opponents were also eyeing it, and, before Morro could make a move, they both took off towards the display.

Morro had to suppress the urge to laugh, as the Master of Gravity came bursting in from the next hall and collided with the pair. A smile grew on his face as the trio of fighters tripped over each other in their mad dash for the blade. Seeing their crumpled state, Morro started running towards the display himself, moving with haste but not reckless abandon. As he passed by one of the many columns that jutted out from the walls, he was caught somewhat off guard by the appearance of another competitor, who had evidently been waiting to strike just like he had.

A leg snapped out to trip him, and while Morro did lose his balance, he maintained enough spacial awareness to turn a potential free fall into a more contained roll. Leaping up, he spun around and unleashed a torrent of wind at… nothing.

"What?" Morro was floored, for the foe he had literally just seen had somehow vanished into thin air. Only tiny wisps of smoke were left in their place, but just as soon as he had spotted those remnants and realized what they meant, the Master of Smoke had reapparated, hitting him upside the head with a surprisingly vicious backfist. Morro stuttered backwards, and his resulting counter was slow, far too slow to hit a target that had already disappeared.

He was quite fortunate, however, that his aggressor reappeared much closer to the blade, and they popped back into view just in time to get caught up fighting a different Elemental Master. The Masters of Speed and Shadow had both arrived on the scene, and, now that the three other Elemental Masters were all up on their feet again, the skirmish playing out in front of the display was a large-scale exercise in futility. No one was gaining ground against anyone, so, when Morro crept up to launch another blast of wind at the group, they were all too physically tied up to do anything about it. Landing backwards in a heap, the Masters of Light, Sound, Gravity, Smoke, Speed, and Shadow were all helpless to stop Morro from extending his stay on Chen's Island, as he snatched the Jadeblade from the display and immediately bolted, propelling himself upward and out of sight.

"Morons." Morro shook his head, chuckling slightly as he looked down upon the dumbfounded field of competitors below him. Landing softly on the floor above, he let out a strained sigh. While he was glad that he had had little difficulty in securing the glittery blade, the surprisingly adept attack from the Master of Smoke still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Of course, sooner or later, the competition would thin down to the point where everyone left was that cunning, and that was a reality that both concerned and exhilarated him.

"Two Jadeblades remaining." Jay glanced nervously around the room, his eyes wide and muscles twitching as he waited anxiously for his friends to arrive. So far, fourteen of the sixteen competitors had returned with their Jadeblades in tow, but he was the only one of the ninja to show up so far, and, if Cole or Kai wasn't the next person to arrive, at least one of them would be guaranteed to lose.

"Wait! I got one!" Jay's eyes widened at the familiar voice, and he let out a sigh of relief as everyone turned their attention to the door. Sprinting down towards them, Cole was beaming with excitement, and, while they weren't on the greatest terms right now, Jay was nonetheless overjoyed by his return.

"Cole! Woo-hoo! you made it." Jay's jubilation was somewhat short-lived, however, as, almost immediately, Cole's expression seemed to waver and fall.

"Where's Kai?" Cole was now scanning the rotunda with just as much nervousness as Jay had had moments prior, and, before long, both Jay and Cole were turning their attention to one person. While none of the Elemental Masters around were greeting either of the ninja particularly kindly, they were still seen as outsiders and steep competition, after all, only one of them looked to be specifically reviling in Kai's absence.

"I assume you had something to do with this, didn't you?" Cole asked angrily, halfheartedly shoving past the Masters of Smoke and Mind in order to face the Master of Wind directly.

"Oh, you think I would have done anything to mess with Kai?!" he snapped, eyes narrowing and face heating with a genuine sense of irritation. "I want to embarrass him personally, in a head-to-head match in one of the next rounds, not trip him up when nobody's around to watch."

"Oh, of course, how silly of us." Jay muttered sarcastically. As infuriating as he found the response, he backed off, sensing nothing inherently suspicious about the Master of Wind in that moment. Cole slowly moved away as well, finally handing over his Jadeblade to a similarly smirking Clouse.

"Only one Jadeblade remaining." Chen announced, staring down at the competitors standing below him with almost child-like glee. It wasn't really the wait time itself that was getting to Jay now, but the complete information vacuum that this rotunda was insulating him and Cole from. Not only did he have no idea which person would walk through the door next, he had no idea how long it would be before someone walked through the door, and he had no idea how the battle for the final Jadeblade was going. He was entirely powerless.

"Get on with it!" Chen cried, screaming into the intercom as he grew increasingly impatient. As the waiting period grew and grew, its effects continued to affect more and more people. Even those competitors who had no personal stake either way were growing restless, as was the mildly manic Master of Wind. Finally, after what seemed like forever, they saw another competitor trudging towards the rotunda. And, judging from the metallic clanging, the ninja's worst fears had been realized. Damn it, Kai!

"Karloff wins!" he cried, holding his Jadeblade up for all to see with a wide smile upon his face. Master Chen started laughing, cheering almost, and the rotunda erupted with raucous clapping from the majority of the Elemental Masters. Only Jay, Cole, and for whatever reason, Morro, looked particularly downtrodden. But, the cheers suddenly died down, as, without warning, one of Karloff's metal hands came crashing down.

"Ah, looks like you've got a screw less." Jay's mouth was agape, as Kai had appeared out of nowhere, caught his opponent off guard, snatched up the fallen blade, and catapulted himself across the room with a burst of flames. Landing unsteadily, likely due to his nagging rib injury, he winced slightly before quickly inserting the blade into place. Flashing his friends a somewhat weary smile, Kai was now receiving an even greater outpour of admiration from his peers than Karloff had gotten just a moment prior. Jay was shocked, not just by the sudden turn of events, but also by the sheer grace and showmanship with which Kai had just won. It had been such a charismatic and relieving event that neither he nor Cole fully realized just how cutthroat that victory had been; they were too elated to even question the ethics of it all. Kai had done what he had to do, and no one was there to condemn him for the manner in which he won.

A faint rustling in the distance lifted Lloyd from his bitter, dejected state, as he could no longer focus upon how mind-numbingly bored he was. Now he was alert, wary but hopeful that the approaching target was indeed Morro. Not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to himself in case it was just one of Chen's sentries, he slowly crept up from his resting spot and narrowed his eyes, scanning the scattered trees that surrounded him for any sign of movement.

"Well, someone's lively on their feet." Lloyd yelped, whipping around defensively and nearly smacking Morro in the face. His eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly recoiled, taking a few steps back as he steadied his breathing a little.

"Good to know you ninja are just about as stealthy as purple bog frogs." Morro muttered, shaking his head in resignation. Lloyd rolled his eyes, fixing his enigmatic instructor with a curious gaze.

"Should I bother asking what took you so long?" he asked wearily. Morro paused, putting a hand to his chin as if he was in deep thought, before quickly shaking his head.

"Nah."

"Okay." Lloyd nodded, fixing his strange, captivating acquaintance with a curious gaze. Morro in turn met him with a completely serious stare, but after a few seconds, his expression softened and the pair of them both started laughing. It had been a long, infuriatingly uneventful day for Lloyd, so it was kind of nice to just cut loose and bask in the lunacy of it all, if only for a bit.

"Ah, come on, we should get moving in case Chen has any guards patrolling the island." Morro said quietly, quickly collecting himself and moving deeper into the forest. Lloyd stayed rooted to the spot, confused and slightly startled by the move. He craned his neck around, taking a long look back at the palace. Having to hide from his friends and not even being able to let them know he was here was crushing, especially since the team had only just gotten back together. But he hadn't been invited to fight in the tournament, and there was nothing he could do about that. Sighing wistfully, Lloyd turned back around and started running after his partner in crime.

"The first day of the competition went pretty well, thanks for asking." Morro muttered through gritted teeth, pushing aside some obtuse vegetation with a gust of wind. "I advanced, obviously, and none of your ninja friends got eliminated, which is fine, or whatever. But I'll definitely need more time to scope out the layout of Chen's palace before we can think about bringing you in to look for your robot friend, and I have a sneaking suspicion there might be more out here than meets the eye."

"Okay, sure." Lloyd answered quietly, slowing his walking pace as they approached a series of morbidly overgrown vines. "Uh, here, take my sword." Morro turned around, looking almost astonished at the offer, but he accepted the weapon and quickly put it to use.

"Heh, I'm almost impressed, Garmadon. How'd you manage to get a weapon past Chen's lapdog?"

"Since he wouldn't let me on the boat, he never bothered to check me for any weapons." Lloyd said cheekily, smiling slightly at the thought. Not that the vines would have likely posed an issue had he or Morro needed to use their powers, but knowing he had managed to sneak a genuine katana past Chen's security was still a small victory in his mind. It's not like I've had anything else to be excited about.

"So… how did you meet Sensei?" Lloyd asked nervously, finally turning the topic of conversation towards one of the many burning questions he had been waiting all day to ask. Morro seemed to pause in his movements, letting out a noise that almost sounded like an ominous chuckle, although Lloyd thought it might have just been some sort of gasp of exhaustion.

"I was trying to steal from him, if you can believe it." As if sensing Lloyd's suspicion, Morro quickly turned towards him with a strained smile upon his face. "Leftover food, I mean. Like I said before, I was poor, and he caught me trying to steal his table scraps."

"Oh." Lloyd looked down, nervous and slightly ashamed by what his initial thoughts had been. Of course he's not some petty thief, how could I even think such a thing?

"I've never really figured out why, but your uncle fed me and gave me a roof over my head after that." Morro muttered. He continued hacking away at vegetation, and Lloyd sensed a growing level of irritability in him now; suggesting that, for whatever reason, this line of questioning was particularly hard for him. Morro paused after taking a rather vicious hack, stopping to catch his breath before sighing quietly.

"You know, Wu was the first person who was ever kind to me." His breathing was evening out now, and with it, his tone grew more and more icy. "He believed in me, encouraged me like no one ever had, but… when his aspirations didn't reflect the will of destiny, he became so distant. He would never admit it, but from that point on he only saw me as a disappointment. So I left the Monastery, and I haven't seen him since. I wonder if any of my old things are still there."

"I wouldn't know." Lloyd shrugged sheepishly. "I never got to see the Monastery before it was burned down by the Hypnobrai." This statement seemed to trigger a larger, more obvious reaction than Morro had given to anything else thus far, as Lloyd sensed an immediate look of surprise and perhaps a sliver of regret in his eyes.

"Well, uh… I'm sorry to hear that the old place is gone." Morro muttered, looking away distantly with a strangely befuddled expression. The Monastery's destruction was old news to Lloyd and the rest of the ninja, but Morro clearly hadn't heard about it. He appeared more unsettled than truly distraught though, as if he wasn't sure what to think about his childhood home being no more. Lloyd thought he might have even seen a bit of a smile, before Morro shook his head and resumed his trek through the dense forest with a renewed sense of urgency.

"I mean, it's not technically gone." Lloyd called, beginning to chase after the confounding specter that was now crashing through trees. "The mountain and everything is still there, you know, it's just, the buildings aren't standing any-"

His voice trailed off, as he emerged into a clearing and nearly ran right into Morro. They were now standing on jagged, old cobblestone, and, as they followed the uneven path ahead of them, they quickly realized that this abandoned crop of land was a sort of settlement.

"See, I knew there had to be something else out here. How old do you reckon these buildings are?" Morro asked quietly, approaching one of the tattered houses with a quizzical gaze. Lloyd glanced over, thinking it over in his mind before quickly shaking his head in response.

"Uh, I'm not that good at appraising the historical time period of anything, but I think these have to be at least ten, maybe twenty years old." he mumbled, walking up to Morro and placing a hand on the building's exterior. It was rough and coarse to the tough, yet also quite firm and sturdy. Glancing through the shattered window, he could see that this house's interior was in just as much disarray as its exterior. Still, there was some very tattered furniture, and what looked to be a rather raggedy bed tucked in the far corner.

"This whole place looks to be some sort of abandoned village." Morro murmured, shifting his gaze away from the building they were expecting to take in the scenery as a whole. "Well, it looks more like a condemned neighborhood than a village, but still, what do you think, is this a solid enough spot to set up camp for the night?"

"Yeah, I think so." Lloyd nodded. "Not sure any of these homes would be particularly cushy spots to sleep, but at least they've got roofs. Or, some of them do, anyway."

Morro chuckled, peering towards some of the even more dilapidated houses, before nodding back at Lloyd. "I'm going to head back to the palace now, but best of luck, Garmadon. We'll meet back here when I'm done with my fight tomorrow, and you can fill me in on all the other things your uncle's destroyed since I left." Lloyd laughed, but his expression quickly softened and turned to one of concern as Morro moved to walk away.

"Oh, wait, before you go, can I have my sword back?" he asked quickly. "Because, you know, you could get in trouble if they find you with it and I might want to explore some more on my own tomorrow, so it'd help with all the overgrown plants and all." Morro seemed to pause for a rather long period of time, but he turned back and slowly nodded in agreement.

"Of course." Morro answered, handing over the katana with the slightest bit of annoyance in his voice. Before Lloyd could say anything further, Morro shot himself into the air, flying off to the top of the nearest tree before beginning to jump and fly from treetop to treetop. Lloyd stood there, a tad bit stunned by the sudden departure, before sighing wistfully.

"Thank you, Morro." he said softly.

Kai was standing solemn and tense at the sorry state of the team, glancing at the several vacant ottomans and benches next to his dresser with an empty feeling growing in his chest. Cole was still lounging on the fiery bed, feasting on chocolate-covered shell peas and evidently enjoying a reprieve from his stone cot, and Jay was nervously pacing around the room with a rather irritable gaze. After the tumultuous first round of the tournament, they had all agreed to begin searching for Zane tonight, but, now, seeing just how disjointed the team was without Lloyd's leadership, Kai was really starting to miss him.

"Okay, it was almost impossible to get here." Jay started, stopping in place and gazing off at the same wall Kai was eyeing. "This place is swarming with guards. Any ideas on how we search the island?"

"We travel by shadow." he answered quickly, trying to sound as confident as he could as he started walking closer to Jay. "Cover every square inch of this place until we find him."

"The island's big." Jay muttered, turning his head slightly. "We'll need to split up."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Kai said quietly, nodding in agreement. "We just-" He stopped short, turning around to find that his bed was unoccupied. Cole, who he could have sworn was laying there just a second ago, had vanished. Two of his pillows had fallen to the floor, and the bowl of shell peas was conspicuously missing, but otherwise, everything looked the same.

"Cole?" he called, glancing at his balcony doors with an extremely confused expression. They were still tightly shut, and there wasn't any sort of a crossbreeze to indicate that they might have been opened. Sure, Cole was a ninja just like the rest of them, but Kai found it difficult to fathom just how he could have gotten the slip on them so quickly, and to what end, he didn't know.

"I guess he must have agreed with me about splitting up to look for Zane." Jay murmured, stretching his head at the disappearing act. "Anyway, what do you say, I'll search the palace and you can check outside for other possible spots where they could be hiding Zane?"

"Right, sure, you get to peruse the swanky, air-conditioned building and you want me to check the entire rest of the island." Kai quipped sarcastically, crossing his arms in feigned annoyance.

"You know what I mean!" Jay snapped, spinning around in a huff and peering out into the hall. Kai laughed, shaking his head before quickly composing himself. Taking one final look around his room, now empty besides him, he sighed and turned towards the balcony. Sliding the double doors open and taking a step out outside, Kai slid the doors shut behind him before leaping down and engulfing himself once more in the bitter night.

Cole hadn't meant to wind up in a secret passageway underneath the palace, but, now dangling from the ceiling of what appeared to be a dingy basement, he could do nothing to change that. Before he could think to yell through the ceiling or try to do anything to return to Kai's room, the bed spun back again and he was tossed to the ground.

"Ah, great." Dusting himself off with a groan, he snatched up the bowl of chocolate-covered shell peas and continued his nervous snacking, now being far more conscientious of how loudly he was chewing, since, even though he had been thrust into these underground tunnels by complete accident, it definitely made sense to investigate them now that he was here.

Still, glancing back up at the spot where the ceiling turned into the floor of Kai's room, he couldn't help but feel a tad bit guilty for leaving them behind. His thoughts were quickly interrupted, however, by a loud grunting, clearly indicative of some form of physical exertion. It was coming from the other side of the hall, presumably from whoever's room was next to Kai's, and, as he moved closer, he could make out what sounded like a woman training. Shaking his head and choosing to ignore the noises, Cole started slowly walking down the rickety hallway, keeping a hand on the wall nearest to him to help keep his bearings.

"Kai's fire would be really great right now." he muttered, blinking rapidly to try to adjust his eyes to the dark. The passageways were growing increasingly dim and not incredibly intuitive to traverse, but eventually, he made his way to the end of the path and carefully descended into a set of torch-lit, stone pathways. Now blinking rapidly again in order to readjust his eyes to the light, he let out a slight sigh of relief before quickly stifling his breathing altogether. Cole heard a sort of low chanting in the distance, and, as it grew louder and louder, he ducked behind a nearby chunk of stone that was protruding from the wall. Indeed, the origin of the din was an eerily uniform procession of Chen's Anacondrai Cultists, the men with the snake tattoos and skull headdresses, and his eyes lit up at the thought. Maybe they're going to where Zane is!

Cole waited patiently for the last one in the line to walk across, then he jumped out from his hiding spot and knocked the grunt to the ground. Cole was able to cover his mouth and eyes before he could cry for help or get a solid look at him, and then, after a few seconds of tussling, Cole was able to knock him out. Snatching up some of the guard's clothing and smearing his face with some of the shell pea remains to imitate the tattoos, he started off down the path and fell in line with Chen's men, dying to discover just what their capricious host was hiding.

"Hm, good work, my pet." Clouse purred, fondly stroking the scales of his violet serpent with a sly grin. "Yes, yes, we do know who the impostor is, don't we?"

"No, we don't know." His eyes narrowed at the sudden rebuttal, and he turned his gaze towards the approaching figure. "That scrap of clothes tells us nothing!" While Clouse remained cool and collected, the crazed, albeit, possibly sarcastic, anxiety his superior now showed was more than a little unsettling. Yes, one of their guests had snuck into the Elemental Absorption ceremony, and they had escaped by the skin of their teeth. While that was an enormous security risk, he took a modicum of pride in the fact that the intruder had not made it past the teeth of his Anacondrai serpent unscathed.

Clouse looked down at the piece of fabric his pet had recovered, then back towards Chen with a renewed sense of surety. "While it is true, Master, that the color black is interspersed with most of the fighters' uniforms in one way or another, only two of them bear the shade in such a prominent way. Clearly, the intruder was either the Master of Earth or the Master of Shadow, and I believe-"

"Yes, yes, it was likely the ninja!" Chen interrupted, rolling his eyes and waving his hand impatiently. "The three of them have very clear motives to search this island, and we expected this sort of incursion at some point, but I have never known them to work alone! The Master of Shadow, on the other hand…"

"Is an unknown, yes." Clouse admitted. "He seems to possess just as much knavery as his predecessor, perhaps more. But rest assured, if he has any such intentions, I will know."

Chen eyed him curiously for a moment, brow furrowing with a hint of suspicion, before he quickly nodded in agreement. "Keep the ninja under close observation as well. And watch out for that half-dead lowlife too, oh, what's his name, uh… Mara, Morty-"

"Morro." Clouse muttered quietly, his tone growing noticeably stiff.

"Whatever!" Chen snapped, eyes narrowing and brow furrowing. "I'm sure I don't have to remind you, Clouse, that you are responsible for this vagabond for as long as he is our guest, and you still need to find some way to bring Lloyd back. I don't care how you do it, but I need his powers before the end of this tournament!"

Clouse bowed his head slightly, shielding his eyes and expression from view as he nodded curtly. "Of course." As Chen quickly turned away and sauntered off in a huff, Clouse slowly sighed and turned his attention back to his pet. Chen might have lost some faith in him, but his serpent never would. Moving again to caress their smooth, scaly skin, he let out a small sigh and grinned wearily.

"We have a lot of work to do, don't we?"

To be honest, I wasn't sure I would ever continue writing this story, but it was actually quite refreshing. I had spent more than a year and a half writing almost exclusively about the Sons of Garmadon and Harumi, so returning to an earlier point in the Ninjago series was a real treat. I don't know when or if I'll have the energy to pick this up again, as I'm still somewhat mired by mental health issues at the moment, but I will say, I feel like I have a much better idea of where I want this story to go from here. That's something, I guess.