This was not part of the plan. When I agreed to giving Morro control of my power, I did not think he'd use it to drain Lloyd of the little energy he had left and then prevent him from regaining any more. And if I tried to stop it, Morro would leave me and go back to Lloyd, which defeats the purpose of me handing myself over in the first place. I'd sigh, if I could, because this this is fricking annoying.
Currently, Lloyd is floating in a void of dark energy behind me while Morro uses the Sword of Sanctuary to get past the tomb's test. The first one was pretty simple and I could probably have figured it out. We went through the same door we appeared from, the door that had a circle with a squiggle above it because that's what the reflection in the sword told us to do. Judging by the way each mini-man on the doors were holding the little crystal, you probably had to do a super speedy spin to reveal the correct mark or something. That's just my guess. I hope the boys can figure that much out.
The second test I have no idea how your supposed to do. It appears like your supposed to get the glowing staff from the ledge, making sure to dodge all the booby traps. But the sword told us to drop through the hole once it opened up, so that's what we did. I just hope the boys can manage to do it too . . .
The third task is an ice maze and the sword hasn't really been much help thus far. Morro keeps getting the reflections in the ice confused with the sword. For being an evil master mind, he's not very street smart.
After a while, I hear a familiar voice . . .
"Hey, guys, guess what! I get an awesome eyepatch!" That's Jay's voice. That means they figured out the first two tasks. Good. "And there's something else . . ." Then he gasps. I wonder what he saw?
"What, Jay? What's so great that you see that I clearly cannot," Cole shouts. His voice is louder than Jays; he must be closer.
Jay doesn't respond for a moment, then--
"N-nothing! Just an eyepatch." Liar.
"Found you," Morro whispers and if I controlled my own body I would shiver.
"Wait a minute, I think I see me," says Cole, excitement lacing his tone. But he's not seeing himself, he's seeing me, possessed by Morro, approaching the wall that he's on the other side of. "It's Morro! He's in the maze too!"
Morro swings the Sword of Sanctuary, shattering the ice wall and sending Cole flying in the other direction.
"He's possessed Tasha!" Jay exclaims, sprinting towards us.
"All you Ninja do is talk. Blah, blah, blah," Morro snaps, turning towards Jay and pointing the sword at his chest. "I'll stop you from talking"
Jay squeals as Morro swings, jumping out of the way and sprinting in the other direction. "He's attacking an unarmed man!"
"We're coming from you!" Kai exclaims from somewhere.
We chase Jay to a dead ended wall and swing at him. Jay ducks out of the way and we hit icicles instead, chopping them clean in half. More grow in their place. Zane jumps on my back, dragging us backwards away from Jay. Jay breaks away an icicle and attacks. Morro deflects each of his blows, but is struggling with Zane on my back.
"Zane's here, but Cole, where are you!" Jay shouts.
"I don't really know, but I'm coming!" Cole shouts from somewhere close by. Suddenly, he slides though a wall and barrels into my legs, knocking me over. "Huh, why didn't I do that sooner?"
I can feel Morro's anger rushing through my veins. It hurts in the way that your stomach does when somebody's ticking you too hard and you're laughing too long. He swings at Cole, who ducks out of the way just in time. Again, we break icicles and more grow in it's place.
Wait a minute . . . more grow in it's place! I hope one of the boys is smart enough to notice this.
Cole attacks with an icicle and Morro parries his every move. After we disarm him, I get a peek at the sword, which means so does Morro. The refection shows a future Jay hurling an icicle at us. Morro turns out of the way just as in time and it goes flying past my ear.
With a shout of defiance, Jay charges and Morro jumps out of the way. But we both slip on the ice and slide a little past our targets. Once our balance is regained, Morro swings at Jay, who blocks his attacks. Jay slides to the ground and Morro takes a stab at him. Jay is able to roll away just in time and jump back to his feet. Then Morro chops the icicles he was using as weapons in half.
Zane appears to save the day, attacking me with his own icicle. Morro knocks him away, forcing him against a clump of ice, but Zane is smart and parries those attacks with tactful blows of his own. He knocks me back and gets back up, then we go blow for blow until Morro knocks him down again.
Cole comes to the rescue, blocking Morro's stab at Zane. Then all three are attacking at once. Honestly, Morro's movements are making me tired.
No.
I have to stay strong. If my plan is going to work, I need to remain strong enough to regain control at will. I just gotta hold on a little longer.
Morro uses his wind to blow the three boys away from us, almost knocking them into Kai, who has just arrived to the scene wearing a smirk.
"C'mon! Catch me if you can," he taunts, walking up between two clumps of icicles. Morro charges forward and swings at Kai, who jumps out of the way last second, causing us to break the icicles. More grow in their place, surrounding me.
Good job, Kai!
"No! You can't trap me!" Morro screams, breaking more icicles, trapping us further. "I'll find you, Ninja! Just wait, you'll see."
"Quick, how do we get out of here?" Jay says as they walk further away. But not far enough. We can still hear and see them.
"'To move forward, don't look ahead,'" Cole says as if he's reciting some sort of text.
Jay drops to his knees, rubbing a hand across the ice. "Don't look ahead, look below!"
"There's light," exclaims Kai. "Everyone, dig!"
And then they dig until the hole is big enough for them to fall through.
"Thanks, Ninja," Morro mumbles. His smirk feels unnatural stretching across my lips.
Shit.
Morro lifts my hands in the air, summoning Lloyd's still-floating body from it's hiding place over to us. He guides him right over the gap in the non-existent ceiling of our little cage, then drops him. Lloyd's barely beginning to regain consciousness when Morro starts to dig. We drop through the hole just in time to see Zane pick up the Realm Crystal.
"How does it work," Kai wonders aloud.
"How it works is you'll hand over the Crystal or say goodbye to your friend."
All four of them whip around to face us. Morro is holding Lloyd by his neck and forcing him to the edge of the cliff. If he lets go, my brother will drop to the river below where he will likely drown.
"I'm sorry," Lloyd pants. "I couldn't stop him."
"So what'll it be?"
The boys turn towards each other, whispering urgently to try and figure it out. Then Kai takes the Crystal from Zane and glances up at me.
It's almost time.
"Looks like the decision is up to you, Kai," Morro says. "So choose."
He stay's silent for a while and Morro is growing impatient. Just a little bit longer . . .
"Stop stalling! Give me the Realm Crystal or else!"
"We're not stalling, we're thinking!" Kai shouts back before turning to the other three. They start to mutter and mumble again, and I think I see a small bolt of lightning dance in Jay's hand for just a second.
Good. That mean's Lloyd's gaining strength. My plan is working. It'll happen soon.
But wait . . . oh, hell no!
"Time's up! You leave me no choice!" Morro growls. He hasn't noticed it yet: The sudden heaviness of my limbs.
"Wait!" Kai shouts. "We'll give you the Realm Crystal!"
He notices it now: how droopy my eyes feel, the pounding in the back of my head behind my eyes. He laughs anyway, but it's sort of slurred. When Kai throws the Crystal, he's slow to catch it. It burns my fingers and Morro lets out a shriek of pain, letting go immediately. The Realm Crystal falls into the river.
Fuck, it's hard to stay awake. Black is crawling around the edges of my vision. Morro has to feel this too because suddenly I'm free from his possession. That wasn't part of the plan. But there's nothing I can do but succumb to the pull of sleep.
When I open my eyes again I'm not in the cave anymore. Just as expected, purple and silver tendrils of energy crawl along the edges of my vision. It appears that I am in Stiix. It's night time, but instead of near pitch darkness, everything has an eerie green glow to it.
A loud, rumbling roar shakes my whole body and I clamp my hands over my ears. When I turn around I gasp. Something big and ugly with tentacles protruding from it's body stomps towards me. It's this ugly bluish green color and it's got one nasty eyeball that doubles as a mouth from which it pumps out ghosts. It's kinda gross, actually, like watching something give birth over and over again. This must be the Preeminent.
That means Morro succeeds . . .
Shit.
I watch for a few minutes as it stomps through the village, destroying everything in it's path. It grows bigger and bigger with everything it consumes. More ghosts escape from it's mouth/eye, joining it. Then the vision starts to turn blurry and the tendrils start to recede before it all goes black.
I open my eyes and take a deep breath that echoes throughout the cavern. I place a hand on my chest to try and calm my rapidly beating heart and sit up; God, I hate when that happens.
"Tasha!"
I blink a few times to focus my eyes on the person waving at me from the other end of the river. It's Kai and in his arms is--
I let out a rasping cough-like laugh of relief. It's Lloyd, safe and sound in Kai's arms.
Ignoring the burn in my legs, I stand up and race over to them, collapsing against my baby brother and pulling him into the tightest hug ever. I don't realize I'm crying until the tears pool at the edges of my mouth, leaving their salty tang on my lips.
"Tasha-- cant breathe!"
I let go of Lloyd with a laugh. I take his face in my hands, tracing his cheekbones with my thumbs. His green eyes look tired, but they shine nonetheless. He looks grateful to be back, and God am I so grateful to have him back. I lean forward and place a kiss on his forehead before wrapping my arms round his neck again, hugging him less tightly this time.
"Morro took the Realm Crystal," Cole says morosely.
Shit. Not part of the plan. But--
"That doesn't matter," I find myself saying in a hoarse voice, pulling away from Lloyd. "What matters is that we have Lloyd back."
"Tasha's right," says Kai with a firm nod. "Everything's going to be okay. For now, we just gotta get out of here, get back to the bounty, back to Sensei. Then we can come up with a new plan."
I nod and soon so do the others. Then we all make our way out of the cave in a tired silence. Mom, Uncle Wu, and Nya are waiting on the bounty for us. They wave and cheer and I can't help but smile.
"You all sacrificed so much to save me," Lloyd mumbles.
"I promised I'd look after you, didn't I?" Kai says with a small laugh, nudging Lloyd playfully.
"But now Ninjago's gonna be cursed!"
"Yes, but now we have you," Zane replies soothingly.
"And now our powers are back," Jay adds.
Cole reaches forward to ruffle Lloyd's hair. "As you get stronger, so will we. And they haven't seen us at full strength."
Cole shoots a clump of dirt into the air. Kai follows it with a wave of fire and Zane with a spray of ice. Jay shoots a lightning bolt after them and the four elements explode as the collide.
"We're coming for you, Morro."
~
Y'all, be proud of me, I wrote a whole chapter and a half this past weekend! Season 5 is finally coming to a close and I promise it'll be worth your while. Then it's on to season 6, which should be ready around mid March. Thank you all for sticking with me this long! With the end of the season, this book will be officially halfway complete! Love you all, until next week (hopefully), Wacky AWAY!
Word Count: 2241