Chapter 15: Shut Up, Morro
"It's not going to work."
"Shut up, Morro."
"What if they're unconscious? Or dead?"
"Shut up, Morro."
Lloyd finished building up the ball of concentrated energy in his hands and sent it into the sky, hoping beyond hope that his brothers and sister would see it, could see it…
"And, you can't even summon your dragon," Morro jabbed from where he was lounging on a particularly large and flat rock, shielding his eyes from the sun.
"Neither can you," Lloyd defended self-consciously. It was true; the encounter with the titanic scorpion had shaken him too much to be able to summon his elemental dragon, and he could only assume the same held true for the others.
If they were even alive.
"Well, I'm not the Green Ninja, now am I?" Morro retorted, but the tone was mocking instead of bitter and Lloyd honestly couldn't decide which one he preferred.
Lloyd groaned, stalking toward the relaxing ghost. "Out of all the people on that bus, I could have been stuck with anyone, anyone, and of course it had to be you. Just my luck."
"You don't see me doing any backflips to be stuck with you."
The Green Ninja narrowed his eyes, pointing accusingly at the ghost, "Have you forgotten that it's your fault we're in this mess? That my family could be hurt because you led us through a desert that was inhabited by a giant scorpion?"
Morro huffed in frustration, "I told you, scorpions are nocturnal. That means they sleep during the day," the ghost clarified condescendingly. Lloyd rolled his eyes but didn't give Morro the satisfaction of interrupting. "It's completely safe to drive in these canyons as long as it's light outside- unless someone woke her up on purpose."
"A trap?" Lloyd checked with hands on his hips.
"I bet it was Gem. She probably struck a deal with the Bone Keeper to let her know if and when we were coming. We walked right into it."
"You mean, you walked us right into it."
Morro narrowed his eyes, sitting up. "You know, I did get us this far. A thank you wouldn't kill you."
"Thank you?" Lloyd repeated incredulously.
"You're welcome." Morro replied cheekily.
Lloyd shook his head, gritting his teeth. "Enough, Morro. Cut the crap."
The ghost crossed his arms, smirking. "Oh, yeah? And what, pray tell, crap am I supposed to be cutting?"
"That. That whole flippant, 'I don't care about anything or anyone' attitude."
Morro shrugged in response. "It's not crap. I don't care."
Lloyd shook his head, adopting a smirk of his own now that he was gaining steam. "I think you do. I think you care so much, it hurts."
Morro pushed himself to his feet so he and Lloyd were standing face to face. "You-"
"You think you can read me like a book, but I see right through you," Lloyd continued. "Now that you've lost your precious Preeminent, your allies, your purpose, you're just a scared, lost little kid again. You looked for your parents and couldn't find them, so now you want to think of us as some surrogate family."
Morro had gone pale. He was trembling with rage as he glared at Lloyd. "I don't want to be a part of your stupid family. All I asked for was a thank you. You would've been dead in the water the minute you got here if it wasn't for me. I've helped-"
Lloyd scoffed, "For a price."
The ghost couldn't contain himself any longer and shoved Lloyd hard in the chest. "And you want to know what that price is?
"Your forgiveness."
He revelled in Lloyd's shock even as he was mortified that he'd finally admitted it out loud. Knowing the Green Ninja's gentle nature, Lloyd would soften and tell him that of course he-
The slap was as loud as a gunshot. Morro hadn't even had time to turn himself intangible, and Lloyd's hand left his cheek stinging.
"You don't buy forgiveness. You earn it."
The ghost was shaking, his face still turned in the direction Lloyd had forced it. "I'm trying."
"You don't get it, do you?" Lloyd backed up a step in disbelief, and Morro met his eyes, finally looking for all the world like a scared, lost little kid. "You possessed me and made me fight the people I love, you almost destroyed my home, you forced me to kill my own father!" Morro cringed in shame at the wetness in Lloyd's eyes.
"I will never forgive you."
Lloyd held his gaze for a tense moment. Morro looked away first.
The Green Ninja turned away in disgust and started walking. "C'mon. Let's find higher ground."
Morro swallowed before wordlessly following Lloyd, keeping his eyes trained on his feet.
It was absolutely silent as they climbed a rock hill that was about twenty feet off the ground, and Lloyd sent two more balls of energy into the sky.
The absolute silence was probably the only reason they heard the rumbling.
Morro gasped and grabbed Lloyd's arm. "You idiot! You're leading her right to us!"
Lloyd looked all about for the monster that was seemingly absent, even as he was almost thrown off his feet by the massive vibrations of something's approach. "Where?! I don't see anything!"
"Scorpions can burrow! Read a book once in a while!"
Just as Lloyd was about to retort with some scathing remark about the uselessness of arachnid trivia, the colossal scorpion monster burst out of the ground with a roar.
The elemental masters were immediately on the defense as the scorpion circled, naturally moving to stand back to back without a thought to the harbored hatred. Now that Lloyd could get a clear view of her, he saw that, unlike the Morro and the other ghosts here, she appeared to be solid. She was at least the length of one and a half school buses and thirty feet tall, her claws snapping at eye level. He cringed at the sight of the stinger, knowing venom pulsed through its bulbous body.
When she lunged, Lloyd blasted her with his energy. The arachnid recoiled but shook it off, like it were only a bug bite.
"Her armor's too thick," Morro threw over his shoulder just as she moved to lunge at the ghost. He summoned winds equivalent to that of a tornado to blow her away. The scorpion stumbled and screeched, but the same aerodynamic exoskeleton that had protected her from Lloyd's blast also deflected most of Morro's wind. "Aim for the legs."
"Why are you even helping?" Lloyd snapped. "She can't hurt you."
"Actually, monsters that are native to the Departed Realm can hurt me, smart guy. Of course it's only temporary, but-"
They dove out of the way of the claws lunging toward them, then resumed their positions when she backed up to regroup.
Listening to Morro's advice, Lloyd aimed a blast of energy at one of the eight legs supporting her weight. She moved so her impervious body absorbed the hit instead.
"Oh, c'mon!" Lloyd shouted.
Morro directed his wind so it blew up from beneath her, hoping to toss her completely off her feet. The scorpion squealed once again but dug her legs into the ground and hunkered down until she was completely still, rendering Morro's wind useless.
"I can't believe I'm saying this,". Lloyd sighed as he flipped in the air to avoid another swing of her claw. "But, we're going to have to work together."
"Oh, now you want my help," Morro grumbled with only half the bite of his usual snarky comments. "I'm listening."
"Make like you're going to attack her, but just knock her off balance so she can't defend her legs. Then I'll blast them."
"Yoo hoo! Over here, Scorpy!" Morro called, waving enthusiastically. The arachnid, immediately drawn to the movement, jabbed a claw in the ghost's direction, only to be blown from the left by all of the wind power at Morro's disposal. The scorpion screeched as she was forced to shift all of her weight to her four right legs, leaving her left flank exposed.
Lloyd's energy exploded the two front legs on her left, severing them from her body. She screamed in pain as toxic green mucus surged forth from her two amputated limbs and thrashed about blindly.
"Ew…," Morro muttered.
"Again!" Lloyd ordered, and the ghost complied, this time aiming the wind at her right side. She tried to balance her weight on her two remaining left legs- but crashed to the ground when Lloyd destroyed her two front right legs.
The scorpion's ectoplasm coated the sand, and she could do nothing but bleat weakly as she died. Lloyd pitied the creature, but turned his back to her to face Morro.
"I hate to admit it, but we actually make a pretty good team," the Green Ninja conceded.
And Morro was positive he was about to go on to retract his last statement before the scorpion had reappeared about never forgiving him and make some inspirational speech about how no one is ever too far gone- at least, that's what he hoped was about to happen.
But, then in slow motion he saw the stinger of the giant scorpion descending toward them, the monster's last ditch effort to wreak vengeance upon her prey. Lloyd's back was to it. It would pierce him, run him through, before he even realized what had happened.
Morro didn't think.
He threw himself on top of Lloyd, tackling him to the ground- and screamed when the stinger tore into his back.
For a split second after Morro landed on top of him, Lloyd was terrified that the ghost was trying to possess him again, that all of that "I just want forgiveness" stuff really had been just a distraction- and then he screamed in pain. Lloyd watched, upside down, as the scorpion's stinger retracted before falling limp to the ground beside its deceased owner.
Morro… saved… him?
He scrambled out from underneath Morro and lifted his shirt so he could see the extent of the damage that was done, causing the ghost to cry out in pain. "Goddamnit, I'm screwed, I'm screwed…,"
The Green Ninja almost laughed- whether in mockery or relief, he couldn't be sure. "It's just a flesh wound, Morro. She barely scratched you!" A thin slash stretched diagonally across Morro's back, sickly green ectoplasm leaking out of it, but it wasn't deep at all and certainly not deserving of such a reaction.
"Not the wound, you numbskull!" Morro insulted before clenching his fists and gasping in pain, his whole body going tense. He barely managed to force out, "Venom."
Lloyd's hands hovered uselessly over Morro's back, completely at a loss. He wasn't sure he would know what to do if this had happened in Ninjago, but he was clueless when it came to ghost first aid. "Wait, ghosts can't die! We're already in the Realm of the Departed!"
"Not dead…," Morro mumbled, resting his cheek against the ground as if a bout of sleepiness had suddenly overtaken him. "Vulnerable." He laughed a bitter, nearly hysterical laugh before returning to a peaceful, half-asleep state. "And I'm just a scared, lost little kid with no one to… sitting duck… take advantage…," he trailed off.
Lloyd watched Morro uncertainly for a little while after that, half-worried that this was a prank and Morro was going to grab him and scare the living daylights out of him. When the ghost didn't move at all except for incoherent mumbling to himself, proving he was still somewhat conscious, Lloyd decided he must have been telling the truth: the venom didn't kill ghosts but apparently left them too weak to defend themselves.
And, Lloyd found himself with a choice.
He could leave Morro here. No one was around to know what he had done. He could find the others, tell them he hadn't seen Morro after the bus crash, and all of them could conclude that he must have bailed on them or that leaving them victim to the giant scorpion had been his plan all along. Morro would be easy pickings for whatever ghost stumbled upon him and he could be tricked into owing someone a thousand favors or selling his soul, which is what Lloyd assumed Morro was afraid of if not death. That seemed sufficient payment for all the chaos Morro had caused, for all of the torture he'd forced Lloyd to endure, for his father…
But, Morro had saved him. Sacrificed himself to save Lloyd from a similar fate, or a more deadly one if the venom killed humans. And, even if he could never bring himself to give it to him, Morro had asked for forgiveness.
Lloyd sighed.
"I'm such a sucker."