Chapter Text
Cyrus gets the call late at night, around ten PM. He doesn't think anything much of it; he's awake around that time, anyway. "Good evening, Wu!" he says brightly. "What's going on? Do you need me to build new weapons for the ninja?"
"No," says Wu. "But… I do have a rather big favor to ask you."
"Oh, it's no problem, whatever it is. What is it?"
Wu is quiet on the phone for a long moment, and Cyrus realizes this must be more serious than he thought. "Not a what," Wu says, "but a who. There's… someone who doesn't have a place to stay, and we were wondering if you could take him in."
Cyrus has to think about it for a moment. "That shouldn't be a problem. There's plenty of room in my home. Might need someone to help me out around here, anyway! What's his name?" He pauses. "And… what's his situation, exactly?"
Morro's situation is that he died, became a ghost in the Cursed Realm, tried to summon an eldritch horror to curse all the other realms, and nearly killed Lloyd, the other ninja, and many other people several times over. Cyrus can tell Wu is skipping most of the details. "Lloyd resurrected him," Wu says, "but… he can't stay here. He can't heal while he's here, and neither can anyone else."
"I understand," Cyrus says. "I have to tell you, though… I don't know if I'll be able to help him."
"What will help him the most is being away from all these memories of the past. If you can give him that, you'll help him more than we can."
"Well, Borg Industries is the home of the future! Always best to be looking forward, eh, Wu?"
Cyrus laughs awkwardly. Wu doesn't seem to be amused. "He'll be ready to go in the morning, if you're willing to come here," he says. "Thank you."
Lloyd doesn't know what he's doing. He remembers the glimpses of what he saw in the Sword of Sanctuary, remembers Wu grabbing Morro's hand, remembers the Preeminent pulling Morro down into the water – when he hears about the Temple of Resurrection, the idea creeps into his head, and he can't get it out.
Morro's possessions consist of a half-stuffed backpack, the clothes on his back, and nothing else. He scowls and looks away while Wu greets Cyrus. They exchange a few generic pleasantries, then Cyrus claps his hands together before rolling his wheelchair over to Morro. "Well!" he says. "We should get going!"
Morro says nothing. He doesn't even look at him. Cyrus figures he shouldn't be offended. "Once we get there, there's plenty of different rooms available," he says. "We can probably arrange for you to be on any of the floors, so… what floor do you want?"
"One hundred," says Morro.
"Alright!"
That seems to catch him by surprise. Morro looks at him with bewilderment written all over his face. "You… actually have that many floors?"
Cyrus chuckles. "Oh, it's higher, actually. We're at a hundred and ten, the tallest building in Ninjago!"
"How do you get up there?"
"Surely you know what an elevator is, Morro," Wu says. The scowl instantly reappears on Morro's face and he looks back down.
"Let's just go," he says.
As he gets in the car, Wu waves to him. Morro pointedly looks in the opposite direction.
Cyrus attempts to make smalltalk during while the car drives itself to Ninjago City. "Wu didn't tell me much about you," he said. "What do you like to do?"
"I'm sure Wu told you plenty," Morro says.
"He did tell me about your history, if that's what you're getting at. Doesn't really give me an insight into what your hobbies are."
Morro snorts. "I don't have hobbies."
"Really? Nothing you like doing?"
"No."
"How do you spend your time, then?"
Morro doesn't answer and stares out the window.
Cyrus changes the subject. "Have you ever been to Ninjago City before?"
"Of course I've been to Ninjago City." Morro pauses. "It's… bigger than it used to be."
It's the second time Morro's said something that sounds genuine. Cyrus chases the thread of conversation. "It's definitely grown a lot in the past few years," he says. "We could go to the places you remember, see what's new!"
"It's been fifty years. Every place I knew is probably gone."
"Ah," says Cyrus, trying not to betray how unnerved the statement makes him, coming from the person who looks to be in his late teens at most. Morro seems to notice anyway, and he smirks.
The towers of Ninjago City are visible in the distance. Cyrus gestures at them. "Fifty years, huh? I bet those are new!"
"I've seen them before. It's not like I haven't been there at all in fifty years."
"Have you ever been inside one of them?"
"No."
"That'll be new, then!"
"Whatever."
Morro says nothing more for the remainder of the drive.
The instructions for how to use the temple are cryptic riddles at best and unreadable at worst. Lloyd brute-forces it, clinging to the idea in his mind and flooding the temple with his power. The light grows, and grows, and Lloyd squeezes his eyes shut and keeps it up past the point where it's unbearable, until he can't keep it up any longer.
The light fades, and there's a body on the temple floor.
Eventually, they reach the city itself. Cyrus notices Morro start to perk up, really looking at what's going on outside the car instead of just staring blankly out the window. Cyrus cracks a smile, but just as he's about to say something, Morro stiffens, as if he's realized he's being watched, and slumps back down in his seat, staring at his lap. So Cyrus stays quiet.
The car pulls into the parking garage, and they both get out. "The elevators are that way," Cyrus says, wheeling himself up the ramp. Morro follows a few feet behind. "Your room won't be ready for, hmm, I'd say two hours? So we'll need a way to pass the time until then. Have you had lunch?"
"I'm not hungry," says Morro.
"Well, I am. If you don't want to sit around and watch me eat, I can get something quick." Cyrus presses the up button. "I'll show you around afterwards."
The elevator dings and the doors open. Inside, Morro stumbles when they begin their rapid ascent, and he grabs onto Cyrus' wheelchair for balance; Cyrus is grateful the wheels are locked. "Careful there!" he says. "You alright?"
"I'm fine," Morro snaps, and he regains his footing and stuffs his hands in his pockets. Cyrus decides not to press.
There's a public cafeteria for visitors, in the basement, and a smaller, private cafeteria on the twentieth floor. Most of the employees use the public cafeteria, but Cyrus has found that being in the basement gives him anxiety. So he only uses the private one.
He doesn't tell Morro about the anxiety. Seems like too much information to share with someone he's just met. Instead, he says, "It's fairly quiet here. The public cafeteria is much… busier. Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes you just need a calm environment, you know?"
Morro grunts noncommittally and looks around. Cyrus catches his gaze lingering on some of the food.
"You sure you're not hungry?" Cyrus asks. "There's plenty here if you want anything."
"Does it cost anything?"
"Of course not, you're my guest!"
Cyrus can't help but chuckle when Morro moves towards the food. "Help yourself to anything you want," he says. "The kitchen always makes more than we need."
Morro's mouth twitches, but he puts a small portion of macaroni and cheese on a plate. He's awfully skinny, Cyrus notes. Either he has a fast metabolism, he doesn't eat enough, or both. Either way, Cyrus will have to make sure make sure Morro gets enough food in him.
They find a table to sit at. "Morro, could you move that chair for me?" Cyrus asks.
Morro blinks. "Why?"
"So I can fit my wheelchair there."
"Oh."
Once they're both sitting, Cyrus keeps an eye on Morro as he eats. Morro is done with his food before Cyrus is – which isn't surprising, considering how little he took, but Morro eats it like he would never get to eat anything again, wolfing it down in what felt like seconds. Cyrus turns his attention to his own food.
When a few minutes have passed, and Morro is tapping his fingers on the table, Cyrus speaks up. "You can have more, if you want."
"I don't," Morro says. "Want more, I mean."
"That's fine, too. You seemed pretty hungry, is all."
Morro scowls and goes to put his plate away.
Cyrus meets him at the exit. "I'll be notified when your room is ready," he says. "How about a tour?"
Morro glances at the window. The twentieth floor is already fairly high, but not high enough to surpass the height of the neighboring buildings.
"Can we go to the roof?" he asks.
The first words out of Morro's mouth are, "Why did you do this to me?"
There's an observation deck on the roof, which is what Cyrus thinks Morro wanted to see. Morro goes right to the railing, his hair blowing in the breeze. It's not very windy today, otherwise Cyrus would have never brought him here. He can't help but feel a prickle of anxiety, though, and he wheels cautiously to where Morro stands. "You can see for miles," he says. "This is the tallest building in Ninjago, after all."
"I know," says Morro, and he climbs over the railing.
The prickle of anxiety turns into a spike. "Morro!" Cyrus shouts, and he reaches for him – uselessly, of course, because Morro is already at the edge of the building itself, out of reach, looking down at the street far, far below. The wind is picking up, and Cyrus can only think, Wu is going to kill me. "Morro, come back!"
Morro turns around, smiles – the first time Cyrus has seen him smile, a real smile – and falls backwards over the edge.
Cyrus can feel his heart drop with Morro's fall, and he can't even scream, gripping the railing so hard his knuckles are white. The wind is blowing harder now, whistling in his ears. Dimly, Cyrus things he should lock his wheels, but he can't move, can barely breathe –
Out from beneath the ledge, Morro spins back up and alights just in front of Cyrus. His hair is tousled by the wind, and his cheeks are flushed, a grin spread across his face. He's breathing hard. Cyrus finds he can breathe again.
"Wasn't sure I could do that," Morro says.
"Well," says Cyrus, "now you know to never do that again."
Neither of them have any weapons. They fight anyway, bare fists connecting with skin, knees scraped and bloody on the rough stone floor. Morro screams wordlessly, digging his nails into Lloyd's flesh, ripping out his blonde hair. He told no one where he was going, Lloyd thinks. He went alone, in the dead of night. He doesn't want to use his powers. He doesn't want to kill him – but Morro won't quit. Lloyd has a black eye, Morro has a split lip, and still they struggle.
Tears are streaming down Morro's face. Lloyd can feel tears in his own eyes, too.
He doesn't know how long it's been before the others find them. Cole grabs Morro and pulls him off Lloyd, holding him back while Morro sobs and reaches, his fingers raw and bleeding. Lloyd knows Kai is holding him, can hear him asking what happened – his friends aren't stupid. Lloyd can't speak, but Kai figures it out.
He thought it would work. He thought it would be okay. Morro was still a teenager when he died. He deserved a second chance, didn't he?
But now, while his mother treats his wounds, listening to Morro’s wails in the other room, Lloyd only feels like he's made a mistake.