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~You seem to replace your brain with your heart
You take things so hard and then you fall apart
You try to explain but before you can
start
Those crybaby tears come out of the
dark~

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Morro fussed in his sleep, annoyed at the loud rumbling noise that pierced through his ears. It sounded like a dozen heavy blades were slicing through the air quickly with a thick swishing modulation. The wind was tickling his face which twitched under the sensation. His nap was completely ruined when the rumbling finally faded away and an all too familiar, very annoying voice began chanting his name.

"Morro? Morro? Wakey-wakey!"

"Go away," he grumbled, not wanting to open his eyes.

"Wow, you've been out for a long while. I have no idea how strong they make that stuff."

"Shut up," Morro mumbled groggily, turning on his side and not caring in the least what the idiot was babbling about. He frowned when he realized he couldn't feel the softness of the mattress. Either his bed had grown prickly stuff overnight or he had been thrown into the garden. Speaking of which, he couldn't remember going to bed either.

Morro lazily popped open an eyelid and immediately groaned. His whole view was blocked by eyes bright enough to blind someone and a smile too wide to be true for this world. Morro closed his eyes again and sighed.

"Great, my morning is spoiled," he muttered.

"What morning?" Lloyd spoke. "It's two in the afternoon."

Even with his eyes closed, Morro could tell the blonde weasel was smirking. His voice sounded aggravatingly prankish and that was never a good sign. Morro let light invade his vision again and frowned deeply. He was positive his room ceiling wasn't painted like the sky.

There was the possibility that Lloyd had entirely blown off the roof somehow when he illegally entered his private quarters but that would only be so if Lloyd was the shrimpy version of Dragon Ball Z characters. Which he wasn't.

"Last time I checked, I had led lights in my room, not the sun," Morro scowled, squinting at the glare.

"For the last time, LED is an abbreviation," threw in Lloyd, seemingly annoyed with Morro's limited (almost close to none) knowledge of technology.

It took Morro a while to become oriented with his surroundings. Apart from Lloyd, everything around him was a freakish level of unfamiliar. It was enough to strike a few seconds of confusion in the wind master's half-awake conscience. He glanced about like a panic-stricken chicken, hair disheveled and ridden with grass.

He was sitting in the middle of a meadow decorated with clumps of dandelions, some with yellow petals, others with white puffballs for heads. The scheme of white, yellow, and green stretched as far as the eye could see. The sunlight spread generously, slightly strained by the fleecy clouds. The land was cut in half by a road to the left where, for some reason, a porcelain green vintage car was parked. A gentle breeze teased the grass out of Morro's dark hair and set the plants dancing.

The whole scenery would've been aesthetically pleasing to anyone- if that person actually knew what they were doing there.

"What in Boreas's name!" Morro yelled, getting up as if the ground had shocked him. He circled to make sure he really was in a dandelion field and not lost in a creepily pretty nightmare. He pinned the blonde with an indignant look.

"Who's Boreas?" was all Lloyd said before Morro seized him from the front of his shirt and lifted him half an inch above the ground.

"Where the heck am I?" he demanded.

Lloyd seemed unfazed by the sudden attack and easily scrambled out of Morro's hold. "In the middle of nowhere," he announced, spreading his arms in a welcoming manner.

Morro felt a sudden bout of dizziness and stumbled a little. He massaged his eyelids aggressively and tried to stay on his feet as the adrenaline rush settled. He covered his face with his hands and mumbled into his palms.

"I feel like I want to throw up."

"That's just the sleeping pills wearing off," Lloyd stated casually, stuffing his fists in his jeans pockets.

Morro peeked through a crack in his fingers. "What sleeping pills?"

Lloyd shrugged. "You know, the ones I put in your morning coffee to knock you out. I could've just struck your vagus nerve but I didn't want to risk killing you. Not that I can actually kill people with a knife-hand to the neck but you can't always-"

"You put sleeping pills in my coffee?!" Morro screamed, cutting off the blonde's ramble.

"It was only a small dose."

Morro's right eye twitched. "Why in Ninjago would you do that?!"

"Hear me out-"

Morro immediately placed two fingers at the base of his neck to check for a pulse. "Oh, First Spinjitzu Master, am I in a coma?" he wondered, indecisively looking around at the meadow. He spotted the car once more. "Why is there a Morris Minor in my coma dream?"

"Will you listen to me?" Lloyd snapped.

"Unsurprisingly, when you talk I don't wanna listen."

Lloyd ignored the remark. "I drugged you and escorted you out here via helicopter. Well, I didn't escort you, Ronin did."

Morro made a face and arched an eyebrow. "Ronin? Where did he get a helicopter from?"

"Probably stole it from the NGTV news department," Lloyd replied nonchalantly.

"Aren't you supposed to stop that kind of thing?" Morro asked, a sliver of sarcasm slipping under his tone.

Lloyd flapped a hand. "It's not that big of an issue."

Morro directed an "Oh, really?" look at the Green Ninja but refrained from arguing on the topic. After spending a good amount of days running around as a villain and despite being redeemed, the whole hero thing seemed meaningless and bitter to Morro. He cared only to live a normal life away from the clash of good and evil.

Unfortunately, his mastery of wind couldn't grant him that luxury, and he would find himself aiding the Ninja on missions more often than not. He preferred to keep his distance from them especially after discovering his underlying jealousy for Wu's new students. Morro would never admit it aloud but it made him sick that he still yearned for Master Wu's favoritism towards him.

And being in the presence of the master's most favored person (his one and only nephew) compelled Morro to demand from the heavens why anybody thought this was a good idea.

"Can you please tell me why I have the misfortune of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with you of all people?" he asked Lloyd bitterly.

The blonde smirked. "Because our destiny has decided that it's time we put aside our differences and make amends."

Morro regarded him with a monotonous look. "No. Even destiny doesn't hate me that much. It's your idea, whatever it is."

"You know me so well," Lloyd acted out, placing a hand over his heart.

"Ugh," replied Morro, rolling his eyes. "You still haven't answered my question."

"I'll put it simply," Lloyd said, raising his hands. "You and I are going to get into ol' Morris over there left here by Ronin and drive back home. It's kind of like a road trip but the reverse."

Morro scrunched up his nose as if those words were rats that had just crawled out of the sewer. "That is literally the dumbest idea I've ever heard."

"When all good ideas fail, the dumb ideas are sure to come in handy," Lloyd stated proudly. "Copyright, Lloyd Garmadon."

Morro's scowl deepened. "You sound like Kai. Or more specifically, Jay. And this idea sucks."

Lloyd grabbed him by his arm and dragged him towards the car. "Come on, this is the perfect way for us to bond and become friends. Just you, me and the road. Doesn't that sound great, oh adopted cousin of mine?"

Morro yanked his arm away and clenched his teeth. "Don't ever call me that," he hissed, eyes flaming. "We are not friends and we're certainly not cousins. We are nothing to one another."

He had hoped Lloyd would get the hint and stop bothering him but the Green Ninja was overflowing with optimism. Something Morro found unusual after hearing from the others how Lloyd was moody most of the time. He felt a little guilty about that because it seemed this change of disposition came upon Lloyd ever since Morro had possessed him and forced him to fight his own family.

"Well, technically, we are cousins," Lloyd argued, not giving up. "Uncle Wu thinks of you as his honorary son which makes you my cousin of some sort."

"No," Morro snapped. "We are not, were not, and will not ever be cousins. Not technically, literally, figuratively, imaginatively or any other way possible."

"Aw, not even definitely?" the blonde teased.

"NO!"

Lloyd whistled. "Wow, you really hate me."

"And I will definitely increase that level of hatred if you don't take me home right now."

Lloyd perked up and grinned at the wind master. "That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Quick, get in the car. We're going to have a great time. We can listen to music, make snack stops-"

"No snack stops," Morro cut in. "We are driving straight home. I don't want to be stuck out here for more than twenty-four hours, got it?"

Lloyd pressed his lips into a thin line. "That is going to be difficult considering I don't know the way back."

Silence prevailed for a few seconds before Morro blurted, "What?"

"Yep," Lloyd answered, making a popping sound as he emphasized on the 'p'.

"What in the . . . What do you mean you don't- You brought me here," Morro raged, struggling with words in his fury.

"Actually, I asked Ronin to blindfold me while he flew us out here so that I couldn't see where we were going. That way, none of us will have any idea where to go and we can work together to find a way back home," Lloyd evaluated casually as if he were explaining a picnic arrangement.

Of all the times Morro was at a loss for words, this was now at the top of his list. Even higher than when he realized he wasn't going to be the Green Ninja.

Morro found his voice and took a while to control his urge to hit the boy in front of him. "You drugged me, kidnapped me, smuggled me out here in a stolen helicopter and deliberately blinded yourself to get us lost with nothing but an ugly old car as our only transport?" he asked, listing off his fingers.

Lloyd's energetic nod to such a concerning string of events was making Morro question his sanity.

"I think I made the biggest mistake of my life by possessing you," the Master of Wind said ruefully. "You're making me pay, aren't you?"

The blonde gave a grin so sinister, Morro was confused whether Lloyd had been destined to vanquish evil or become its next advocate.

"Only one way to find out," Lloyd muttered, keeping up the smile and gesturing at the Morris Minor.

Morro took a hesitant step forward- before backing away. He suddenly began digging through his pockets. "No way I'm trusting you. I'll just play smart and contact Cole or Zane or maybe even Nya. Hopefully, they'll take pity on me and come pick me up. Meanwhile, you can do the reverse road trip on your own."

"You think I didn't plan for this?" Lloyd asked smugly, the look on his face causing Morro to growl internally.

"Lloyd, where's my phone?" he said quietly when his pockets turned out empty.

"At home. Along with mine. They can't contact us and we can't contact them."

Morro scowled at Lloyd who only smiled back innocently. All they needed were wild western-style buildings on either side, a dry, barren land and a dramatic tumbleweed rolling by to set the mood.

"Checkmate," Lloyd spoke first. "Do you yield?"

"I'm being assaulted upon," Morro replied, not breaking the intense eye contact. "I want to set conditions."

"Name your price."

"No excessive talking," the former ghost began. "No dead man jokes. No old man jokes. No road games and definitely no karaoke."

"Deal," Lloyd agreed, folding his arms. His body language was still stirring distrust in Morro's heart but he didn't have another choice but to give in.

"And I'm driving."

Lloyd immediately shook his head at that. "Nope. Sorry, I can't allow that."

"Why not?" Morro demanded.

"You're underage," Lloyd answered, pinching the wind master's cheek.

Morro swatted his hand away. "I'm older than you. I'm basically forty!"

"Being dead doesn't count."

"But still."

"From what Zane calculated, you died at fifteen years of age. Which means your body is still stuck at fifteen," Lloyd announced, eliciting a surprised noise from Morro.

"That is so not true," he spat as if being fifteen was a serious offense.

Lloyd continued nonetheless. "And since I'm nineteen, that makes me way older."

"The Tomorrow's Tea doesn't count," Morro retaliated, grateful at having a good fact to throw back. "So mentally, you're fifteen too."

"My body says otherwise."

Morro was certain steam was shooting out of his ears. "My body says otherwise too! I'm a freakin' tall giant in front of you. Just look at yourself!"

He stomped closer to the Green Ninja and proved he was a good few inches taller than him. Morro had the chance of finally directing a triumphant smirk at the blonde. But Lloyd wasn't giving up that easily.

"I wish I had a dollar for every time I've seen younger kids grow taller than me," he stated, walking towards the car and jingling the keys. "You can't define age from heights, kiddo."

Morro was practically trembling with rage at this point. "You calling me 'kiddo' sounds dysfunctional on so many levels."

Lloyd pressed a button and the vehicle chirped to life. The doors unlocked with a click and he opened up the entrance to the driver's side. He glanced back at Morro and nodded at the passenger seat.

"Get in the car," he said. "The sooner we start, the better."

"I should still get to drive," Morro grumbled, approaching the Morris Minor and yanking out the door on his side.

Lloyd settled in the leather. "This isn't the Departed Realm, wind boy. Ninjago is my turf."

Morro got in as well, huffing as he shut the door after himself. "Ninjago is my turf too, smart guy. I was born here. I'm not an alien."

"The olden Ninjago must've been your turf. But the technological revolution has changed everything." Lloyd twisted the key and the engine roared, a superior countenance on his face. "This one is mine."

"Whatever," Morro mumbled, feeling exhausted and drained already.

"All this fighting is making me thirsty," Lloyd admitted, kicking the car into drive. "We should make a stop at the next town. What do you say?"

"Uggghhh," was all Morro could suggest as he braced himself for what would be the worst hours of his life.

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