Chapter Text
Lloyd woke up with a start, scrambling in his sheets and soaked in cold sweat. he calmed himself down with grounding breaths until he was no longer panicking
nightmares were very common for all the ninjas, giving what they all went though, but for once Lloyd wished he could have a normal night of sleep without seeing his father kill his friends or hear Harumi`s taunting voice
deciding it was pointless to try to fall asleep again, the green ninja made his way to the training grounds to meditate a bit.
Lloyd sat at master wu's old carpet, cradling his warm cup of tea, and just enjoyed the cool breeze for a moment
The wind made him kind of sad; it reminded him of Morro. He was sure the ghost wasn`t all bad. He had helped them during the day of the departed. but all the horrible things he had done were hard to forget.
A shiver went through his body. Those were not pleasant memories to bring up at such an hour. The Possession still left deep scars in his mind and body. It had been a couple of months since the day of The Departed, and they just got Cole back as well.
Morro was gone anyway there was no use in dwelling in the past
He closed his eyes. focusing only on his breathing and the warmth from the cup seeping into his fingers. The creaking of the wood, the rustling of the leaves and the chirping of the crickets all died down as Lloyd narrowed his focus.
only to be immediately replaced by whispers
Wait, what?
Lloyd opened his eyes, only to discover he was no longer at the monastery. Instead, he found himself in a strange ghostly blue forest. Transparent figures drifted everywhere. Bile rose to his throat when he realized where he was.
The departed realm.
Unlike the cursed realm, the departed realm was a place for peaceful souls. It was made to be a final resting place, where souls can rest in peace until they decide to reincarnate.
But what the hell was he doing here?
Lloyd lifted his hand to rub his eyes only to realize he was also transparent. Huh? Did he die or something? But he was in the monastery a second ago.
His attention drifted to the souls around him. Some looked more faded than the others, but they all had the same peaceful dazed expression. Well, almost all of them.
The stronger, more defined ones looked conflicted. Lloyd started startled when one started approaching him. The soul looked strangely familiar, actually, almost like-
“Morro?” Lloyd exclaimed.
The spirit didn't respond, only looked at him wide-eyed.
“ What are you doing here?” The ghost hissed, then smirked “Who do I own the pleasure of killing you?”
“Har har har, very funny” Lloyd deadpaned, breathing deeply and pushing the panic down. Morro was good now he reminded himself “ I'm not dead, yet, or at least I hope”
“You are in the middle of the departed realm, you know”
“Yeah, I noticed” he hummed, “but unless you can die from the overdose. I don't see the reason I should be dead.”
“If that were true, Wu would be dead long before you” Morro agreed. “How is he by the way?”
The ghost was obviously trying to act uninterested, but Lloyd saw right through him (literally).
“ Wu is fine” he replied, relaxing a bit “ He's pretty active for someone his age”
“ Good to know”
“ Well, he did go back in time recently, so there's that” Lloyd hummed casually “Baby, Wu was not fun to take care of, though Cole did most of the work”
“ What?”
“Oh, yeah, you missed a lot.” Loyd chuckled at the spirit's confusion. “At this point I don't even know half the ninjas ages”
They chatted for a long time, partly because Morro was bored from drifting about in the departed realm, and partly because Lloyd had no idea how he was going to get back to the monastery.
“You're fading,” Morro remarked after some time. Lloyd realized that, in fact, the forest was starting to get more and more faded and harder to see.
“ah, at least we know, I'm not dead then” Lloyd sighed. “ It was nice to get to know you a bit more. We are cousins after all.”
“ Wu is not my father.” Morro huffed “and you know nothing about me”
“Still” The green ninja shrugged. The talk helped him get his mind off the nightmare. It kind of made him want to talk more and you get to know the ghost better.
He had a crazy idea
“Wait, let me try something” the green ninja grabbed the spirit's wrist. To his and Morro's surprise, the hand didn't face through the elemental windmaster as expected. He felt his own energy being passed to the ghost, who looked a bit more solid now
“Wait, w-what are you doing?” Morro yelled, trying to pry the hand from his wrist with no avail.
Lloyd kept a firm solid grip as the world around him dissolved, he felt a strong pull in his gut and the hand he grabbed Morro with felt hot and numb.
He heard the wind elemental scream at his side, but didn’t have time to react before all his senses were dulled and the world faded to tones of black
Lloyd pried his eyes open and looked around. He was back at the monastery again.
His arms and legs were shaking from exhaustion, despite having just woken up. Black spots danced around his vision when he tried standing up, so he decided to settle on the floor for now.
Something shifted beside him, he looked up to see what it was. Lloyd Could barely believe his eyes
Morro. In flesh and blood, right in front of him, very clearly alive.
Oops?
The wind elemental groaned and rubbed his head
“Ugh, What the hell?”
The commotion must have awoken the other ninja, who bursted outside with weapons drawn and everything. The sight of Morro there only worsened the situation.
Lloyd tried to stand up and say something. But apparently, the exertion of bringing someone back to life was too much for him. He collapsed and passed out on the spot.