Cage The Elephant
••• Cold Cold Cold •••
doctor, look into my eyes
i've been breathing air, but there's no sign of life
doctor, the problem's in my chest
my heart feels cold as ice, but it's anybody's guess
•••••
TW: blood
The ache in my chest wasn't subsiding. It was as steady as the dread; a constant throbbing emptiness that felt both like nothing and too much of everything.
"Explain one more time," Garmadon patiently requested. While his cadence was gentle and calm, his green eyes held an urgency that sparked my panic and sent my composure into spirals. Misako paced behind him, gnawing on her fingernails. Wu stood beside his brother and listened.
I rattled off my story a second time while my knee bounced; how I had a dream that felt important but couldn't recall it, how one morning I was suddenly overcome with fear, and how it had stagnated until just ten minutes prior; when it catastrophised into something that felt far, far worse.
"It's like an emptiness," I said as my voice shook horribly. My hand rubbed my chest as if it would soothe the pain and I stared at them in helpless desperation. "We have to get to the museum. We need to make sure Lloyd's okay."
"The ninja are already in the city," Misako said, and pulled out her phone. "We'll send them to check."
"What if he's hurt?" I could never forgive myself if he was hurt. This was my fault - I should've sucked it up and told Lloyd's parents about what I was feeling as soon as we got back from that trip. "Why would I feel like this unless he's hurt?"
"Calm, kiddo." Garmadon rested his hand on my hair. "Lloyd's tougher than you think."
But it didn't feel like that. It felt like he'd been gotten the best of. It felt like he was in sincere trouble, in proper danger. My knee bounced quicker until I launched myself to my feet and joined Misako in her pacing. Pacing was a good idea. Pacing would make me feel better.
I paced right out of the tea shop.
Dusk had come quickly - I couldn't believe how fast night had fallen. How long had it been since I saw Lloyd? Since I left home? The wind screamed through the valley of the Alps and I shivered out back by the waterfall, holding my arms. How did it get so cold so fast? The loud crashing of the water wasn't enough to quieten my shrieking thoughts.
Fumbling, I pulled out my phone from my pocket and called Lloyd. Optimism careened in my chest when it rang, and then crashed horrifically when it went to voice mail. I tried his number again. I tried it again. And I kept trying until my despair grew so uncontrollable that I pulled my arm back and hurled it onto the ground with a scream of frustration.
It shattered, landing face-up with a splintered selfie of Lloyd that I'd made my lock screen only a week and half prior. Fury gone, I choked on a hopeless sob and sunk to the ground, and his broken visage blurred with tears. I cradled his glitching image until the screen locked.
Wasn't I supposed to be smart? If I had just listened- if I had thought about it for even a moment, if I wasn't too frightened to talk to his parents, if I had the fucking confidence I so severely lacked and needed...
Everything could've turned out differently.
It was all my fault.
I hung my head with a cry. The pain in my chest still ached, and that on top of my emotional torrent made for an agony unlike anything I'd experienced before. It was all my fault. Would everyone hate me for this? If he came home okay, would Lloyd hate me, too? Would I lose what I had just so scarcely gained?
More importantly, was he okay? Was he even alive? I should've gone with him to the museum. I should've made him stay, somehow. I should've at least tried to listen to my gut instinct. I should've told Misako sooner.
So many things I should've done. So many mistakes I'd made. How was I even worth keeping around? Mess after mess. I was a walking disaster, a living bad luck charm. All I knew was misery, and now I was infecting it into the people I loved. And now Lloyd might be...
The roar of a dragon made my head snap up with hope, only for it to be squashed when I saw the grey colour of it approaching. Still, I stumbled to my feet and made my way to the courtyard when it landed.
All five ninja had been crammed onto the back of Nya's dragon and jumped off with a volley of complaints to Wu as soon as it had landed. I didn't have time to marvel at the soft-eyed beast. I was racing forward with a one-tracked mind.
"-you used your powers?" Wu asked as I got within earshot. His gi was flapping in the breeze like a flag. Garmadon and Misako were hurrying over to join.
"Yeah, I know, we're terrible students but what happened to our powers?!" Jay exclaimed with great distress. His eyes jumped to me when I reached the group and he flinched at the state I was in. "Whoa! Are you okay?"
"Have you seen Lloyd?" I asked between gasps for breath. "Did you go to the museum?"
"He wasn't there," Nya said. Her crossed arms unfolded when my expression crumpled with despair. She glanced between Wu and I. "What happened?"
I pushed my hands into my face with a cry. "No, no, no. Lloyd..."
"Did something happen to him?" Kai asked worriedly. "Is that why we can't use our powers? Sensei, what's going on?"
Zane caught me just as I staggered beneath my grief. The wind picked up, a vicious, howling tempest that snaked through the base of the mountains. I could barely hear my own sobs over the sound of it. All my fault, all my fault.
The yank on my chest made me look up.
Standing beneath the torii gate was Lloyd.
My gasp caught the attention of the others, and then they were following my startled gaze to where he stood. I stepped out of Zane's hold with a relieved whimper.
"Lloyd," I whispered, but stopped myself before I could break into a run.
Just as sharp as my elation hit me, an eerie sense of wrongness overtook me, too. I knew Lloyd. My powers, as convoluted and aggravating as they were, knew Lloyd. My body knew him. But none reacted towards him like how they usually did.
He was too stiff. Too cold. Too calculating. His glassy eyes scanned us with no familiar easy-going smile nor wave of the hand. He just stood there and glared, smirk smug and sharp, as he wore unfamiliar armour as if prepared for a battle we weren't privvy to. He was nothing like Lloyd.
Before us was a stranger.
While the rest of the team careened past me to greet him, confused and relieved, I hung back. Misako's hand on my arm and the way that Wu and Garmadon stayed behind told me that I wasn't alone in my suspicions. We each stared at the man wearing Lloyd's face with dashed hope.
"That's not Lloyd," I murmured. I turned to Misako with a horrified expression. "That's not Lloyd."
Her hand tightened around my arm. "I know."
Zane glanced back at me. "What do you-?"
"Step aside."
The voice that came from Lloyd sounded nothing like him. It was deeper, thicker, and twisted in a way that made me shiver with terror. It carried across the wind easier than it should have. The churning of my stomach fell into a cavern.
"Lloyd!" cried Jay against the growing storm. "What's wrong with you?"
"You should leave," Misako whispered to me. She pushed me further behind her at the growing darkness that turned Lloyd's face into something evil. "Find someplace to hide."
"I want a word with your master," he drawled. His dangerous gaze turned from the ninja and to me and Misako with a tilt of his head, before landing on Wu.
"What's gotten into him?" Cole asked, baffled. They'd begun to draw their weapons, movements slow and hesitant.
"I can help," I insisted, though the weakness to my voice betrayed my self-doubt.
"Listen to me," Misako insisted. Her eyes watched her son with the intensity of someone prepared to fight and who was good at it. "You are not ready. Not yet. Get out of sight and hide."
I wanted to argue but knew I had no foot to stand on. I'd barely begun learning their version of self-defence, let alone proper training. And I'd just get in the way - I couldn't afford to make any more mistakes than I already had.
"You're taking too long!" the unfamiliar voice from Lloyd roared, and then suddenly the wind turned alive and swept the battle-ready ninja into the back of the courtyard. They crumpled into boxes and against the walls like a groaning heap of ragdolls. My startle was intense. How could he subdue them like that so quickly?
As the ninja regained their bearings, Wu and Garmadon leapt forward to attack. Despite their experience they, two, were flung right back into the tea shop, where they collided with the just-stocked shelves. There wasn't enough time for me to comprehend any of what was happening.
"Now, Y/n!" Misako turned and pushed me a little too hard toward one of the the courtyard's exits. My shoes stumbled out from beneath me, and as I fell all I could do was watch in horror as Misako was thrown to the side by an invisible force of immense power. She skidded across the ground with a cry.
"Misako!" I screamed, and before I could even think to race to her aid, Lloyd was in front of me. I careened backwards in horror, fleeing with my heart in my throat, until my back hit the corner between the side shed and the stone wall.
He approached slowly, the cruellness of a fox who's already caught his rabbit. I scrambled in my corner as if I could sink into it and slip away. Tears pricked at my eyes when he stopped before me and crouched until we were eye level. He'd cornered me completely. There was nowhere for me to go.
"Hey, sunshine," he purred. My gaze darted as his hair began to lose its golden, gleaming shine from the roots. It faded into a deathly black as I watched, all the way to their soft tips. His gaze narrowed poisonously. "Nice to finally meet you."
His eyes were the wrong shade of green. Murky, like a swamp. Dark like a graveyard. His skin had gone pallor with a sickly shade, and he emitted a cold that reminded me of the dead. I leant back when he plucked a flying lock of my hair and smoothed the strands between his fingers, eyeing the way they fluttered in the breeze.
"It feels so good to be back," the man murmured. His gaze lifted to me, half shrouded by Lloyd's long lashes. "What say you?"
I swallowed thickly, struggling to keep my whimpers of terror silent. He dropped my hair and dug his thumb into my cheek to gather my tears instead. My wince was pronounced. I prayed this was just a nightmare, that it'd be over soon. Alas, I went unheard.
"Poor little pet," he sighed. "You've been crying."
A sob broke past my teeth before I could stop it. My heart beat so quickly, so loudly, that I was sure it would come to a stop.
He titled his head, as if listening to something.
"Do you want to hear what he's saying?" He grabbed my chin so I couldn't look away and slipped his voice into an timbre eerily like Lloyd's. "'Stop! Please, don't hurt her!' Pathetic." He chuckled bitterly. "He's the legendary Green Ninja? He's nothing more than a mangy mutt begging for its bone back."
My eyes shot to behind him, where the ninja had finally gotten to their feet and were racing towards us with terrible intensity. I dug my shoulders deeper into the stone wall; they were beginning to ache in protest.
"Who..." My voice broke and failed on me. I had to ball my shaking hands into fists to force the words out. "Who are you?"
The stranger smirked, and Lloyd's fangs no longer looked cute and charming. He was terrifying, and I'd never felt so mortally fragile before in my life. I was suddenly and deeply aware of death.
His hand shackled against my jaw to keep me in place. Still, I struggled against him as he dropped his head to mine and brushed his lips against the shell of my ear;
"You can call me Morro."
My eyes closed tight and felt more tears join the tracks down my face. I couldn't bear to see Lloyd like this. Maybe my death would be less scary if I didn't see it coming?
"Y/n!" I heard Nya shout.
I felt Morro shift and, unwillingly, my eyes peeked open just in time to see Morro swing his arm back towards the approaching ninja. Another tidal wave of invisibility knocked them back across the courtyard. Any bit of hope I had crashed through the concrete beneath me.
Morro tsk'd. "So pesky." He rose to his feet and stared down at me with a tilted head. The katana strapped to his hip was unsheathed, and the glint of sharp metal that caught the rosy gold of dusk made my throat run dry. "Where were-?"
I startled when he reeled backwards as if struck and made a sound of pain. The sword fell to the ground with a clatter and I didn't even think about it, but I grabbed the handle and lifted the heavy weapon's tip to his chest. Morro braced an arm above my head with a grunt, and when he peeked at me through the drapery of his black hair, all I saw was fear.
"Lloyd?" I breathed. The sweet pea green of his terrified gaze was unmistakable. Swift as the wind that batted us, I dropped the sword and rose to my feet. I held his clammy face and cried. "Lloyd! What's going on?"
He panted for breath and leant against the wall beside us while his body trembled. His face was still ashen pale. His cold sweat stuck to my palms.
"... dangerous," Lloyd managed to whisper, though it looked like he was trying to speak through molasses; each syllable took herculean effort. One weak hand clasped at my shoulder, crawled up my neck. "You need to go home, get- get away from here."
I shook my head. "No." Just the mere thought of going home to my mundane comforts and not even trying to help fix my mistake made me feel awful.
His hand tightened along my jaw. "Please," he whimpered.
"I can't leave you like this!"
"You have to!" Lloyd argued, before almost buckling against me. His body felt unnaturally cool beneath the armoured chest plate, cold as a corpse. His breath was raspy and weak, and terror sung shrill through me. "I ca- I can't hold him back much longer."
My hair swept across my face, tangling in the storm. I held him. I held him tightly so that nothing could take him away. My forehead pressed to his.
"Tell me what I need to do," I begged. "How do I fix this?"
The ninja stumbled to their feet again. Wu and Garmadon had yet to emerge from the shop, and Misako staggered to her feet, unbalanced from her tumble and wavering in the wind.
Another shiver jolted through Lloyd's body. His eyelids pinched with effort, and when they opened, his foggy gaze found mine.
"Remember-" he began, breathless, as he slipped from my hold and backtracked on shaky feet. He lifted the katana and pressed the handle into my loose grip. "Remember what I said about fighting people you thought you could trust."
My mind raced. The night on the Bounty, the training, the stars we slept under. The glimpse I got beneath his shell.
"I can't," I cried. "Not you."
Lloyd looked like he was about to collapse at any moment. He clasped my hands around the sword's handle and when he let go, I continued to hold it. He weaved on the spot like a drunkard, head bobbing as if trying to stave off sleep.
At least this had given the ninja time to recuperate. Maybe I was good for something. Maybe I was good for playing bait while they thought of a plan.
"Promise me," Lloyd said, raspy. The weak smile he sent my way would haunt me for years to come. "It'll be okay."
I couldn't move. I watched in horror as Lloyd's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he succumbed. They closed with a blink. When they reopened, he was no longer himself. My arms shook. The katana weighed like the moon.
'It'll be okay.' I lifted the blade. 'It'll be okay. It'll be okay.'
"Huh," Morro hummed. He turned his hands over and stared at them. "He's stronger than I gave him credit for."
His dark gaze lifted back to me just as I swiped the tip. It was a weak and clumsy attempt, but sharp iron was still sharp, and it drew a line of red along the arm he'd raised to deflect the blow. I didn't let myself think of my temporary victory; I bolted. Jay snatched me before I could go careening past them. Miraculously, the sword remianed firmly in my clasp.
We regrouped in the tea shop, where Garmadon was tending to Misako's injured elbow and Wu was peeking out at the courtyard through the shoji window. Zane slid the doors shut behind us with a definite 'slam.' The small tea shop shuddered and groaned under the force of the wind.
"He's still in there!" I exclaimed. "Lloyd's still in there!"
My shoulders were taken by Kai. There was a severe look in his eyes, like barely restrained wildfire. I'd realised I'd never seen him in a fight before.
"Whatever it is that's going on with Lloyd, you need to get out of here," he demanded. "It's too dangerous."
I shrugged out of his hold. "I'm not going home to twiddle my fingers while he's out there like this!"
"Y/n-"
Kai's exasperated reply was cut off by Nya, who had join Cole in peeking out the window. "Kai, quit it. You talked to him, Y/n. Did he tell you anything?"
"Just that his name is Morro."
A clatter from the counter made us whip around with a startle. Wu stared at me with a wide-eyed look.
"What did you just say?" he hissed in terror.
I took a step back, frightened by his sudden intensity. "His- his name is Morro."
Garmadon slowly turned his head to his brother. A look of understanding passed between them, tinged with the faintness of uneasiness. I didn't like that look.
"What is it?" Jay asked.
"Possession," Wu answered grimly. "Lloyd has been possessed."
The tea shop trembled violently. The containers on the shelves began to slip and clatter to the floor.
"Like... by a ghost?" Nya asked, baffled. "I thought ghosts didn't exist."
"They can," Misako said in a voice that drooped with solemnity. "They do."
"God..." I slumped back against the wall and pressed my palms over my face. This is all my fault. I should've done something sooner.
"How do we get the ghost out?" Zane asked. "There has been no recorded history of possessions of any capacity."
"We cannot," Wu said. My hands dragged down my face. "Only Lloyd can dispel himself of the ghost. All we can do is keep Morro stalled until he gets his energy back. It... will be difficult."
There was something about the way Wu spoke, something about the curves of his expressions that made me take pause. A singular pair of dots connected. My hands dropped to my sides.
"... you know him, don't you?" I asked.
Garmadon, Wu and Misako all stilled, and it was very quiet for a short moment. My disbelief rose. They didn't get a chance to respond, because the doors suddenly flung off their rails and hurtled towards us. I had to duck with a yelp.
Standing in the doorway with the railings splintering off the frame, stood Morro. The ninja recovered far swifter than I did combined and attacked, but their lack of powers only made their enemy seem all the more formidable. The unmoved smirk of his looked wrong on Lloyd's face.
"Come, Y/n." Garmadon ushered me from the makeshift battlefield and pulled Misako and I into a darkened corner of the shop. I glanced over my shoulder and found the ninja knocked aside once again. Had they ever been defeated like this before? Never on the news. Never from what I knew of.
Wu stood guard with his staff ready. Morro sauntered through the chaos and kicked aside the ceramic remains of what was once a beautiful tea set.
"Give me your father's staff, old man," Morro snarled from the centre of the shop. "And I won't make it hurt."
"I see you've found the allied armour," Wu said. "Yet you haven't summoned your friends."
"Your pathetic students haven't given me a reason to."
"Heyheyhey!" Jay said furiously as he got to his feet. "Nobody calls me pathetic!"
I was tugged behind a corner before I could watch the new round of fighting. Garmadon pushed me into Misako's space and out the back door. He hesitated when he saw Lloyd's sword in my hands.
"Prepare the Bounty for flight," he said. "I will round up the others." He left before he even spoke his last word.
Misako took off at a pace that had me struggling to keep up. We rounded the fence and the jagged face of a spear-shaped cliff edge that hid the Bounty. Its sails rustled unhappily in the wind.
"We're leaving?" I asked as I followed Misako through to the bridge. She expertly flicked the ship on and straight into flight, lifting up so fast that my knees felt as though they'd fallen to my ankles. I had to grab the edge of the console just to stay upright.
"We don't have a choice," Misako said.
The wind batted the Bounty around as if it were a toy boat. My stomach turned with motion sickness, and it grew worse at the sight of the destroyed courtyard, the flattened tea shrubs. The monks staggered in the wind towards the landing Bounty.
"Help them onboard," Misako said as she struggled to fight the wind. I did as asked, racing down to the lower deck to assist the limping, battle-injured monks onto the ship.
A familiar-looking man stood guard beside me with a staff ready in defence as I helped the injured monks onboard. Dimitri, I believed his name was, the head monk of the monastery. His maroon robes were ripped and dirtied from the result of a hard fight, but his expression remained determined. He'd be able to use Lloyd's sword better than me. I couldn't bring myself to give it up.
My eyes kept darting to the tea shop as the monks lumbered into the Bounty. Only Nya's occasional spout of water that swept out the broken windows and back through doorways assured me that they hadn't met their doom just yet.
"This isn't normal for ninja stuff, right?" I nervously asked Dimitri. All he could offer was a hesitant shrug.
The ninja and the elder brothers finally broke free from the half-demolished tea shop and bolted towards the Bounty. Jay was half-carrying Zane, whose leg was limp and sparking. Cole had a fresh gash on his arm. Nya's nose looked to be slightly too crooked and bruised.
"Up, up." Garmadon hurriedly ushered me on board. We passed by monks nursing their wounds against the walls and rendezvoused with Misako on the bridge. The Bounty shook and groaned as it lifted into the furious drafts.
"We must get out of here," Wu said.
"I'm trying my best!" snapped Misako.
Nya shoved her way to one of the console screens and scanned the plane that showed the tea shop. The grainy image of Morro stumbling after the ship sent my heart into the stratosphere.
"Where's my brother?!" she exclaimed.
"He's right..." Cole turned behind himself and deflated with a moan. "He was right behind me."
"Look!" I pointed at the screen, where another figure emerged from the shop and stepped between us and Morro. "It's Kai."
"He's fighting Morro alone?!" Jay spluttered. His eyes widened as they leapt into battle. "Is he insane?! He's insane!"
"He's going to get himself killed!" Nya shrilled. She turned to Misako with a frantic look. "We need to turn back!"
"The Bounty can barely handle the stress of fleeing as is," Misako gravely replied. "Turning around would destroy the engines. You need to find another way."
Nya made a sound of frustration and sprinted towards the deck with Jay hot on her heels. I followed, stepping out from the bridge and gasping from almost being thrown down the ship from the force of the wind. Had it gotten even stronger? Was this Morro getting stronger? My grip tightened on the katana.
I joined Nya in peering over the edge of the ship's railing. The gale made it difficult to keep my eyes open, my lashes bowing into my eyes in the breeze, but when I spotted the two men fighting I didn't dare look away.
My chest throbbed. The pain had faded into a dull, uncomfortable ache, and I was terrified to think of the implications of what that might mean for Lloyd. My gut no longer tugged me towards him. That frightened me even further.
"Dammit!" Nya seethed. She shot her arm out and a blast of water materialised, weaving statically through the breeze and shoving against Morro with enough force that he careened backwards and disappeared into the shop. The roof half-caved in. My heart stopped.
Kai whipped his head up to the ship. "What are you doing?!"
"What are you doing?!" Nya accused. She planted one foot on the railing and leapt over the side, before landing on the back of her dragon. Its roar shook the mountains.
Beside me, Jay deflated with a groan. "Having no powers is the worst." He eyed me with hope while the siblings argued. "Do yours still work? Nya's does."
I shook my head and felt another wave of uselessness crash through me. "Lloyd's my conduit. I need him to use them."
Jay sunk even further. Nya's dragon carefully snatched an outraged, shouting Kai in its jaw before taking off towards the Bounty once more. Morro stumbled from the shop and leant against the crooked doorframe, glaring after the arguing siblings with a look of death.
"Put me down!" Kai demanded as he squirmed in the dragon's teeth. "Let me go! He's back there!"
The dragon spat him onto the deck before disappearing with a burst of blue. Kai leapt to his feet and shoved at his sister's shoulder in rage. Jay flinched.
"Why the hell did you do that?!" Kai shouted. "We have to go back!"
"Are you insane?!" Nya argued. "That's what we need to avoid!" She cut herself off from saying anything further by stumbling when the Bounty lurched to a sudden halt mid-air.
"What was that?" I fearfully asked.
Nya peered over the side of the ship. Her puzzled expression darkened with dread. "We're not moving."
The heavy clouds rumbled and bellowed overhead. Thunder rolled low and voluminous, rattling the very marrow from my bones. The noisy struggling of the ship's motors didn't make me feel any better.
"How is that possible?" Jay asked.
"It must be his power," Kai said darkly. He stormed into the bridge and, hesitantly, the rest of us followed.
"We must regroup," Zane said when we entered the bridge. Misako stood at the helm, tackling the invisible grip Morro had around the Bounty. Garmadon stood beside her, co-captaining. "It is imperative that we come up with a plan."
"'Regroup' is a funny word for running with our tails between our legs," Kai spat.
"Kai-" Wu began, but was cut off by the Master of Fire's verbal flames.
"He's in there!" Kai continued. His amber eyes jumped to me, and in the shadows of the dark bridge, they almost looked black. I winced when he pounced forward and clasped my shoulders. "You saw him too, didn't you?"
Beneath Kai's frantic intensity, I felt what was left of my fickle courage shatter. Warm tears fell from my eyes. "Yeah."
Cole stepped forward, focus sharp. "What did he say?"
"He said that it was going to be okay," I answered, and my throat tightened wickedly beyond compare. The katana felt wrong in my hand. "He told me to... to hurt him if I needed to."
Quiet fell. Misako's efforts paused. The mountain valley grew smaller as we fled further away, hid more into the storm. Where were we even going? I needed to call my mother. I wanted my mom. I staggered forward when the ship broke free of whatever it was holding it back.
"That was close," Misako said.
"Too close," Garmadon murmured. He looked at the team before lingering his gaze on me. "Are you all okay?"
I didn't want to be coddled just because I was the untrained newbie. But at the same time I wanted to curl into a ball and cry my heart out. I wanted to be held. I wanted to be held by Lloyd. All I could do was nod along with the others.
A far-away scream penetrated from beneath the clouds, sending my heart into a horserace and making my blood chill. The hair at the back of my neck prickled at the raging howl of Morro's. It was haunting. We all winced.
The tension was making my anxiety turn from a ship tumbling across an angry ocean to a feather caught in the spiels of a typhoon - tight and fierce and completely at its mercy. My fingers instinctively found the sleeve of Jay's gi. He placed his hand over mine and squeezed.
"Spill it, Sensei Wu," he said sharply, and I was taken aback both by Jay's tone and his glossy eyes. He was seconds away from crying. "What was that? What's happened to Lloyd?"
"Y/n was right," Cole added. He crossed his arms and frowned. "You know who this guy is, don't you?"
Wu sighed. He leant against his staff and suddenly looked a millenium older. "I do," he confessed.
"Well?" Nya asked. "Who is he?"
The Bounty rocked. My stomach turned with nausea. Wu slid the rice hat from his head and rubbed at his temple. He was exhausted. He was also terrified.
"You four were not my first elemental ninja," Wu croaked. He finally lifted his gaze, landing it on each of the the team. "There was one before you."
"What?" Cole asked. Kai and Nya exchanged a startled look.
"Morro," Wu wearily said. "The master of wind."
The low, droning howls from the storm outside suddenly felt a lot more ominous, and we all silenced once more at the way it echoed through the bridge. A swan song of disproportionate atrocity. Was being in the air while escaping the elemental master of wind really a grand idea?
The console burst to life with a serious of sharp beeps. A blinking red light appeared on the sonar map - on the edge, but closing in fast. Nya pressed her palms against the console and stared at the dot with apprehension.
"Okay," she breathed. "Now, that light scares me." She looked over her shoulder at us, and all that her grey eyes held was dread. "He's on our six."
Zane recovered from the bombshell first. "We should prepare."
While the ninja dutifully descended levels to wrap their wounds and gear up, I stayed behind and watched the blinking dot make its approach. My palms grew clammy. My neck had gone hot with sweat. It was unnerving - I wanted Lloyd here, but I wanted him as far away from myself, too. The yearning and terror made for an ugly mix.
Garmadon placed a hand on my shoulder. I was too drained, too empty to feel anything.
"The biggest fight you have ever faced is upon us," he said dolefully. "I fear that you are ill-prepared. We did not have enough time to train you."
I knew I was a liability. But did they know it was my fault? I was too much of a coward to admit it - I couldn't even control my powers, and then I ignored a warning? My eyes were unblinking on the dot. Drying. Stinging. The necklace was so heavy, it dragged my neck down to the ghost below us to slice.
I was useless. Useless.
"I'm sorry, Y/n," Garmadom continued, woefully oblivious of my torrential assessments. "I wish we had more time."
I stared at Lloyd's sword in my hand. Its handle was wrapped in green and gold and the blade engraved with the old kanji for hope. Something I had scarcely little of. The weapon looked wrong in my grasp.
I wished I had more time, too.