Kai had to support Lloyd as they walked out of the tomb. He was practically dead on his feet with Zane lending a hand to get him safely aboard the bounty.
"Water…" croaks Lloyd.
Nya scurries away, as they help Lloyd to sit down on the steps. She returns quickly with a canteen and a couple of power bars. Lloyd drinks eagerly, the team watching with concern.
"Easy now, not so fast." coaxes Kai, rubbing his back.
"Dude, are you ok?" Asks Jay, worry causing his voice to pitch up.
Lloyd pauses his drink. "I guess ghosts don't like to keep much water around." He says with feigned cheer. Nya offers one of the power bars, and he eagerly takes a bite, alternating between eating and drinking more water. When he is almost done with the power bar he pauses, looking up, freezing as he meets Cole's eyes.
"What's wrong?" asks Cole.
Lloyd looks away guiltily. "I feel sick." He says quietly.
"I told you not to rush it." Grumbles Kai.
"Maybe you should lie down for a bit." Offers Zane.
Lloyd nods, it was getting harder to keep his eyes open.
"Is that blood?" Asks Jay, reaching out to a spot in his hair which hadn't quite returned to blonde.
"Probably." Says Lloyd, wincing away from the touch.
"Shit." Says Kai, "Was it one of us?" They had been forced to fight Morro, even though he was using Lloyd's body.
Lloyd shakes his head, then regrets it as a wave of vertigo passes through. "Morro punished me, after I helped you get the sword."
Barely contained rage bubbles on Kai's face. "I'm sorry, I should've just let you keep it. Didn't do us much good."
"No, you did the right thing." Says Lloyd weakly.
Jay pushes himself between Kai and Lloyd. "Ok, we can all feel bad later, but you need to come with me to the med bay so I can get that cleaned up."
"I'll do it." Says Kai gruffly.
Jay laughs, an awkward chuckle. "Oh no you won't, you're far too angry to be gentle right now." Kai crosses his arms, but lets them go, recognising that Jay was probably right.
Jay helps Lloyd to his feet and supports him on the way to the med bay. Lloyd looks like he might topple over, so Jay gets him to lie on the cot while he cleans up the head wound. "Sheesh, Morro really did a number on you huh?" Lloyd merely grunts in response. "Any other injuries I should be aware of? Apart from the obvious sleep deprivation and dehydration?"
Lloyd lays there, wondering what to say. Sure, he had some minor bumps and bruises from the fighting, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. His head hadn't stopped pounding since the punishment.
"Lloyd? You still with me?"
Lloyd blinks, and takes a sudden deep breath, trying not to remember.
"Lloyd?" Jay pauses his work.
"He um, choked me I guess." Whispers Lloyd. Jay frowns, moving his hands down to Lloyd's neck, inspecting it for bruising. "Not with his hands, like, with his powers?"
Jay stops looking at his neck. "Fucking hell…" he mutters. "How bad?"
"I passed out. Twice."
Jay bites his lip, going back to cleaning up Lloyd's head. There is a decent lump, but it has closed nicely, and doesn't look infected. "Any after effects?"
"Headache. Bad. Vertigo, and nausea. But that comes and goes."
Jay sighs. "Well, some of that could simply be cause you're exhausted, and dehydrated, and I don't really know what effect prolonged possession is likely to have, and then there's this head wound… which isn't too bad actually, I think we can get away without giving you a bald patch." Jay chuckles nervously, finishing his work. "Let's just get you some rest, and take it from there ok?" He goes to get some pills from a drawer. "Here, for the headache."
Lloyd pushes himself to a seated position, pausing as the room spins. When it stops he takes the pills along with some more water before lying back down.
"Go to sleep Lloyd." Says Jay warmly.
The words snag on a memory and Lloyd startles, pushing himself back up, glancing hurriedly around the room.
"Lloyd, what's wrong?"
"Can't sleep, what if he comes back?"
Jay puts an arm on his shoulder reassuringly, then taps his own uniform. "Deepstone armour, wear one of these and no ghost can possess you, not even Cole." He takes off the deepstone vest and helps Lloyd into it.
Lloyd frowns at the mention of Cole. "What happened to Cole?"
"Oh, right, I guess you missed a few things huh? Morro got his hands on the only scroll of airjitzu, and we needed to learn it, so we took a trip to Yang's haunted temple. Cole didn't get out in time. It turned him into a ghost."
"Oh." Says Lloyd glumly. "I thought he must have got hit by Soul Archer or something, but it was part of the plan, to save me?"
"Well we didn't plan on anyone becoming a ghost. It was an accident."
"Is he ok?"
Jay sighs. "It's been hard, but I think he's ok, or, he will be. Now enough talking, you need to rest already!"
Lloyd wakes up with a groan, trying to figure out where he is, his head is still pounding, the room is dark, he's lying down. Morro never lets me lie down… He lets out a sigh, remembering he was back on the bounty, remembering his body was now his own; but his heart continued to flutter in fear, like something wasn't right, like he was still in danger.
"Lloyd?" Someone speaks, the voice isn't right, echoey and distorted. Like a ghost.
Lloyd glances around the room and sees a ghost standing in the corner. "Ghost, Ghost!" He stammers in fear, body springing into motion, trying to get away. He falls out of the cot, a wave of vertigo overcoming him due to the sudden movement. Something heavy clings to his chest, weighing him down, adding to the feeling of being trapped. He pushes himself into the corner of the room, trying to get away from the ghost, searching his spinning vision for anything that could be used as a weapon. He finds a pair of scissors, and holds it threateningly in the direction of the ghost. "Get back! Get away from me!"
The ghost takes a step back, raising its hands submissively. "Easy there Lloyd, it's just me. Cole. You're ok, take your time."
Lloyd blinks, hands trembling as the room stops spinning and he has a chance to examine the ghost in more detail. "Cole?" he croaks, embarrassed as he lowers the scissors. "What are you… When did…" he sinks his head onto his knees, taking some deep breaths.
Cole doesn't try to close the gap, respectfully keeping his distance. "Jay was worried about you, wanted someone to keep watch. It's the middle of the night, most of the others are sleeping." He explains calmly. "How's the head?"
Lloyd lifts his head once more, leaning it on the wall behind him. "Bad."
Cole checks the clock on the wall. "It's been long enough that you can have more pain meds. Is it ok if I bring them to you?"
Lloyd nods an affirmative. Cole approaches Lloyd slowly, handing him the blister pack, trying to ignore how his body tenses, how he carefully grabs onto the edge of the packet so he wouldn't need to touch Cole, how he firmly grasps the deepstone vest with his other hand.
"There's some water on the bench." Adds Cole. "You'll have to get that yourself, I don't much like handling water."
"Right." Says Lloyd, as he starts pushing himself up, clutching the bench for support as the room spins briefly once more. He uses the water to take the pills, then drinks more, hoping the hydration will aid his seemingly never ending headache. He sits back on the cot, facing Cole. "Sorry. About freaking out, I just…"
"It's ok." Says Cole calmly. "I get it. You've been through a lot."
"So have you." Says Lloyd. This time he isn't looking at Cole with fear, he looks at him with pity. "Are you ok?"
Cole gives a small chuckle as he leans on the wall. "Of course I'm not ok. It still feels like a bad dream, but I'm starting to get used to it, and it isn't all bad. I can phase through things, dodging attacks is like a thousand times easier now, and I possessed a few things to help out on missions."
Lloyd swallows, nausea coiling in his stomach. "People?" He asks nervously.
Cole looks at him with alarm. "No, no, of course not, we're fighting ghosts. I possessed Zane's mech, some snow, and a lock so far. That last one felt really weird."
"Right," says Lloyd with relief.
Cole stares at him, holding eye contact. "You know I'll never possess you right?"
Lloyd nods. "I know. I do, really. I know you're my friend, my brother, and you'd never do anything to hurt me. But right now, well, it's hard to feel it, you know?"
Cole nods, looking away. "Yeah, feeling stuff is hard." That was something he could definitely relate to.
They sit in silence for a moment, Lloyd's eyes starting to droop. Cole frowns, looking at him with concern. "Hey, did, um, did Morro let you sleep at all?"
Lloyd opens his eyes back up, fighting off the sleep. He shrugs, glaring at the floor. "I guess I slept a little, but it's hard to do that when your body is moving around. Also I tried not to, I didn't like leaving him unsupervised."
"He stayed in you the whole time?" Cole lets out a frustrated sigh. "I was hoping he was giving you breaks or something, no wonder you're so exhausted, it was almost 2 weeks!"
Lloyd fiddles with his hands. "He came out of me twice. Once to send the message with Ronin, and well," he pauses, voice starting to crack, "the other time wasn't exactly restful."
Cole looks pissed, crossing his arms, brow furrowed. "The choking?"
Lloyd nods, so Jay had told them, or at least Cole.
"I would totally be giving you a hug right now, except I'm still working on being able to do that." Says Cole with frustration while crossing his arms. That and the fact that being hugged by a ghost is probably the last thing Lloyd wants right now. "What a creep. Can't wait to give him a piece of my mind, or rather a piece of my fist." Cole clenches his fist a couple of times, tapping it nervously against his leg.
The meds were starting to kick in, Lloyd gets up off the cot, relieved when he isn't instantly overcome by vertigo. "I might go get something to eat." He says blandly.
"Right. Do you want company?" Asks Cole. Lloyd pauses, clutching nervously at his arm, unsure how to phrase: every time I look at you I get nauseous, without hurting Cole's feelings. Cole seems to realise his mistake. "Ah, well, I'm not really hungry right now," he says with a small chuckle, cause he hadn't been hungry since he was ghosted, "so how about, I'll be up on deck if you need me?"
Lloyd nods. "Thanks." he says earnestly. "For looking out for me."
"Always." Says Cole before squatting down, and jumping up and through the ceiling. Lloyd hears a faint "Ha! I can't believe that worked!"
Lloyd feels a slight tension vanish now that Cole was gone, his eerie green glow, his echoey voice, his silent movement. The energy was all wrong. But Cole was a friend. He needed to get used to it, just maybe when he was feeling a bit better.
Lloyd makes his way to the galley, trailing a hand along the wall in case he needs the support. His stomach growls, having been woken up by the ¾ of a power bar from earlier. He raids the fridge selecting a tupperware container with some sort of pasta dish. Not having the energy to bother heating it up he pulls out a fork and starts eating it cold. He gets through about half before the nausea comes back.
"Ugh. I hope this isn't like a week old or something…" he mutters before slowly sipping on some water, trying to settle the feeling. It subsides a little, but not enough to make him want to keep eating, so he shoves the food back in the fridge before drearily heading back down the hall. His eyes are heavy, and the headache still drones in the background, meds only dampening it slightly.
He passes the med bay, heading for his own bed. He didn't want to be alone anymore. He wanted to be home, he wanted to be with his friends.
He opens the door to the shared sleeping chambers, and is comforted by the sounds of his friends' quiet breathing. He stumbles his way to his bed in the dark, not wanting to wake them, but manages to bump into the bedframe.
"Ow." He mutters softly, before sitting down on the bed.
A head sticks over the edge of the top bunk. "Lloyd, is that you?" Whispers a sleepy Kai.
"Mmhm." Lloyd mumbles in acknowledgement, while wriggling in under the covers.
There is a hand on his shoulder, he flinches slightly before realising it is just Kai, sitting on the edge of his bed.
"Hey, you ok? What are you doing up at this hour?"
"Midnight snack." Mumbles Lloyd. "Meds ran out." He adds, eyes flickering shut, unable to hold onto consciousness much longer.
"Get some rest Lloyd, we'll keep you safe."
Lloyd is thankful for the change in wording, feeling more like a suggestion than an order. Kai draws calming circles on his back, as he drifts into sweet oblivion.
Lloyd wakes, groggy, head still pounding. Surely it's going to stop doing that eventually? Light streams into the empty bedroom, the other ninja having long since risen. He sighs, pushing himself up, pausing as the room spins.
Eventually he manages to stand. He looks over at the dresser, then realises he is still in the dirty gi he has been wearing for the last two weeks, he sighs, fishing out some clean clothes and heading for the bathroom. He takes a couple more painkillers before getting in the shower.
He stands under the stream hoping to wash away the grime of the last two weeks. The dirt of the mountain, the smell of the booze, all of this water would surely scare away any lingering ghosts.
When his stomach growls he finally turns the water off, quickly drying himself and getting dressed in the new deepstone gi. He looked at himself in the mirror, checking his hair was still blonde, checking there was no green aura hovering about him. Being disgusted by the giant bags under his dead looking eyes, their usual green hue a bit duller than normal.
There is a knock at the door. "Lloyd, you in there?" comes Jay's voice.
"Yeah, just finishing up." He opens the door to see Jay.
"Hey, looking good!" Lloyd frowns, Jay must see something other than what he had seen in the mirror, or he was just trying to be nice. "Um, how's the head?"
Lloyd sighs, "Not great, meds barely take the edge off."
Jay gives a lopsided frown, scratching at his head. "Hmm, you might have a concussion after all… Just take it easy for a few days ok? We might have something stronger, leftover from Cole's dislocated shoulder…"
"It's fine, the sleep did help some." His stomach growls again.
"Maybe some food will help? Right! I came to get you cause lunch is ready." Jay starts tugging him down the hall.
They get to the dining room and everyone is there sitting around the low table. There are two empty spots, one between Zane and Cole, the other between Kai and Nya. Lloyd glances at Cole with unease, seeing the eerie glow, he knows which spot he would prefer… Thankfully Kai pulls him into the spot next to him. "Good to see you up and dressed." He says warmly while loading up Lloyd's plate.
Like that was an achievement.
"Actually I was going to sit next to… oh never mind." Jay begrudgingly goes to sit in the last empty spot. Lloyd lets out a puff of air, before turning his attention to the food. It smells heavenly. He takes a chicken drumstick and digs in, much better than the cold pasta he was eating last night.
"Easy, don't rush it, remember what happened last time." Warns Kai.
Lloyd forces himself to slow down and chew, before reaching out to a glass and taking a few gulps of water before realising it was probably Kai's glass.
He looks around the room noticing that everyone was staring at him, or at least glancing up at him between picking at their own food. Waiting for him to do something, or say something? He frowns slightly as he continues to eat. Of course. I'm meant to be the leader. They're waiting for me to lead. He clears his throat. "Well, catch me up. Where are we at? What are we planning to do about Morro?"
Their reaction is not what he expected, seven puzzled faces stare back at him.
"Oh forget Morro for a moment!" says Nya. "Are you ok? How are you feeling? Jay said your head was hurting?"
Oh, that was why they were staring. Just waiting for him to pass out or something.
"Yeah, my head is still hurting a bit, but I'll be ok." He puts on a forced smile, looking around the room until he locks eyes with Cole. A wave of nausea overcomes him as his smile falters. He quickly glances away.
"Nephew?" Asks Wu with concern.
"Sorry, I just felt a bit nauseous all of a sudden."
"I told you not to rush it!" Whines Kai, rubbing circles on Lloyd's back.
"I might catch you guys later." Says Cole. "I'm not really hungry." He gives a lopsided grin. He hadn't eaten much since being ghosted, he was never hungry anymore, didn't need food. Ghosts could eat, but the taste wasn't right, food had been his comfort, but right now it was just another reminder of what he was missing. In a way he was glad Lloyd had given him an excuse to not stay and watch everyone eat.
Jay and Kai exchange a puzzled look as Cole leaves. Lloyd sighs, letting out a bit of tension he didn't realise he was holding. "He shouldn't have to do that…" he mumbles, before starting to pick at his food again, the nausea having passed.