{Location: The will-breaker room}(Morro's POV)

The tendical slams me back into a table. I want to gasp from the force but I nearly pass through it. The monster beat thing crawls in slows as her long arms lock me in.

I strain, I can't pass through? But if I'm a ghost...and how in the heck am I a ghost? My point is I should pass through. "What's going on?"

She says nothing shimmering slightly to look like a woman. If a 'woman' has deathly pale skin, sickly green hair and the kind of blackness that is deeper then my nighttimes.

"Assure me. W-w-why am I here?" Be strong. Showing fear gives her the advantage.

Nothing.

She just adjusts the table to an angle of her liking.

Be that way. My fists snap, a chilling wind in trying to get attention. I get a corner of a smirk.

She breaths, or emulated breathing. Like she's trying to appear human but just barely makes an effort to hide her acting, "Where'd my manners go? Welcome to the will breaker room." Her voice is slow and dragging. Like she's playing with an old favorite toy. Dusting it off before diving into her favorite playtime routine. "Meant for those whose souls don't come here naturally. The ones who are more ...moral then my usual lot."

"Morale? Wait, who do you normally get?"

"So many questions." She grabs my neck, squeezing while pulling down a pipe of some kind. "Some say there's peace in knowing. Other say it's better to be ignorant. But peace will never exist here. When chaos dies in the other world, chaos thrives here." She sneers, showing yellow fangs, sharpens and ready to pounce, "My dear, Morro, welcome...to the Cursed realm."

Where...where the worst of the worse go forever.

T-....tha- that's w-where I am.

The Cursed realm?

She hums happly as my face says it all, "Escape is inward." She lets go. "Be my puppet."

I open my mouth when a flood of water drenches my face.

I gasp for air only to be standing in a small space between garden hegias. What is going on? Am I still in the Cursed realm? I think so, I still see the green-grey misty sky. But this is lively?

"What did that lady say?" I venter forward, running my transparent hand thought the realistic leafs, "Escape is inward?" A small branch pokes my ribs. Ow. I rib a small part of my sleeve and tie it on. Moving forward I turn left.

How to get out? A maze is just another puzzle. And the exit is on the outside. Logic says that if I keep walking the exterior, I'll find it. Didn't torcher monster lady say, escape is inward?

Yeah, but...I can't trust her.

Something about her is evil.

I make another left, there are only paths that turn more inward but I will stick to my conclusion. The exit....has to be...I stumble. Finding the same small twig the I noted earlier.

I blink, I'm tied down again. Blink, back in the maze. Blink, I can feel the thick water pressure trying to kill me....again. Blink, I'm falling on my face.

One more blink before I gasp for air on the table.

"You will be my puppet." The lady folds her arms as I try to catch my breath.

I spit out water, my body...ghost, soul whatever, shaking as if my atoms are struggling to realine. "What? Was that crap?"

"be my puppet?"

I pull my head up, pulling on the chains, "No. Who are you?"

She frowns but seems pleased. Like this is nothing more than a game to her. She pulls a cord only for more water to come rushing down onto my face.

I snap up only to be back in the maze. "What in heck?" I reach out to touch the small branch. A part of my sleeve still tied to it. I'm back where I started. I start sprinting, mabey I missed something. An exit or clue. In the corner of my eyes, I see dozens of paths curling inward to hide in darkness. Left, left, and left. Same branch.

I need out.

I just want to go home.

I never asked for this.

Stopping at the sight, I lean against the hedge only to phase through it. Oh yeah, I don't have a body anymore. I DON'T HAVE A BODY ANYMORE! I snap up, starting to stumble before blinking. Flicking back and forth between the maze and the will breaker room.

"Help me."

I don't belong here.

I gasp for air on the table, slamming my head against the wet wood.

"Be my puppet?"

I roll my head to the side, trying to get exxsus water out of my mouth, "Who are you?"

"Be my puppet?"

"Why am I so important to you?" At most, mabey 20 minutes have passed and I'm already sick of this crap. I need to escape. "Why do you need me?"

"Because you're diffrent from a majority of my souls," she holds still as my fingers twitch out of my control, toying with the sick, disgusting and heavy wind stuck in here, "You're capable, proud, strong-willed." She smiles, "And they're the best to break." She reaches up to the pipe, "Ready for more of it, Morro?" She yanks down.

I snap to my feet back in the maze. "I gotta go." I reach out to the hedge, I could just pass through. Get to the 'escape' she keeps promising. I feel my hand pass through a leaf before pulling it back. What would Sensei say? That I'm cheating? That I'm not doing it the right way? I won't dishonor his teaching any more than I already have.

But I won't follow the lady's advice who torturing me.

I look up, so simple. I smirk as I curl the wind under me, lifting me higher and higher.

And higher.

And higher.

And higher?

I know I'm going up but I don't seem to be passing the top. There's no roof but the ground is further away from me. I break to grab onto the hedge, toward the sky seems to be a never-ending dizzying hight of garden hedge. Mabey just a little more. I carry myself up, "Come on, come on. Just a little more...Al...almost." I struggle to fouces. No. Not enough time. "But, I'm so..." I lose my control and fall, watching as the heage seems to shoot up over me, "Close."

I land and snap up screaming on the table.

"Will you-"

"How? How am I here and there?"

"You mean the maze?"

"Duh!" I'm getting frustrated. How much longer is this going to go on?

She's starting to repeat twisted, happy hums under sneers, "Simple. I'm killing you."

I'm confused.

What is what?

"Ghosts and I hate water. So changeable, never quite standing still. It's ringed to us, sharper than a knife." She tugs lightly on the cord, getting more of a drip from the pipe, "While your spirit fight to reform, your mind wonders. It's a small but a vital separation."

Drip.

Back in the maze. I can still get out thought despite how confused and lost I'm feeling. I sprint, jumping up befor-

Drip.

On the table.

She hums, "I get to kill."

Drip.
Time to run.

Drop. She's inches from my faces, her lifeless face scraping over mine, "And kill."

Drip.

In the maze. I need to-

Drop. "And kill you."

Drip. I shoot through the maze like a comment. The thick, heavy air pushing me forward.

Drop. She curls her slimy, wet fingers in my hair, "Over."

Drip.

Run.

Drop.

"And over."

Drip. Freeze. It's just endless back and forth. What's the point when she...whoever or whatever she is can call me back whenever she pleases? What the point-
I'm loyal to only one master. And that is-

Drop. She drags her talon-like nails into my cheek, "And over until I snap you like a twig."

I spit a little on her hand, "I'm no twig."

"Perhaps." She yanks the cord.

I sit up only to smack into a twig. I pass through it. I get up, ripping another part of my clothes to make a marker. I sprint around the same path, getting back to where I started.

I stop in front of a fork. The left one is covered in darkness despite even seeming light everywhere. I haven't tried that way.

But that'll take me inward, where I don't want to go.

"Escape is inward?" I could try it. What's the harm? I step forward, finding more of the same until I start struggling to walk.

Drip, drop, drip, drop. She sits next to me, some kind of throne as her finger curl under her chin, "Congrats, that's your longest time."

I gag, coughing up dirty water, "Mercy."

"Excuse me?"

"Show me mercy. I have no idea about anything, why I'm here, how I died? Heck, I don't even know who you are. I just know I don't belong. I won't be any good here."

"No." She stares on, some gear turning in her head, "I don't care about your feelings. I do know why you came to me instead of that 'perfect' and 'presious' departed realm." She stands up, slowly reaching down only for her finger to touch the center of my forehead, "I know millions of evil things. Evil act against the innocent. Evil against children. Evil against evil. I know what everyone man, woman and child's weakness is and how to cut out their light." She licks her lips, "I like dragging it out. But I'll admit, I'm in love with how your screams echo inside my caves."

Her hand switches to palming my nose. Flashes of morbid battles, crying children and endless sorrow fight whatever light I know in my mine. But they aren't random. There's a thread connecting all of them that she's making me see. She's the reason. She's all the pain and suffering balled up into monster starving for more things to break.

She's one thing.

The Preeminent.

It's over in an instant.

The Preeminent says something but I can't focus. All that pain...all that hate.....all that anger...she feeds on it. She's feeding on me.

Water crashes onto my face again.

In the maze, back to standing in front of that same stupid twig. In the same spot where the hedges spread on forever.

I can't run. I won't cheat by phaseing. I can't escape thought an exit.

My kneed meet the cold hard ground, "What's the point? I-I can't." I wrap my arms around my chest. Crying whatever tears a ghost can.

I'm dead.

I failed.

I did more than fail. I ruined myself.

If I had just stayed on the mountain. If I had just stayed with Sensei...If the golden weapons had just said I was the chosen one, none of this would be happening.

Drip.

I do nothing. I let the water stay in my nose, feeling more dead than alive.

"be my puppet?" The Preeminent looks down. I know what she is now. A queen of crushed souls. A tyrant with a crown of sad, sorrowful souls. And she wants me to be a part of it. She grips the cord, "Escape is inward." She tilts her head, "You really don't understand metaphors do you?"

CRASH!

Maze. Yay. Metaphors? What the flip does that mean? I don't move, staring at a leaf. Is this...real? Did she lie? If escape isn't up or out, was she right? Or is this a trap? I don't know, I don't know. I don't know!

"AHHHHHHAH!" I throw my fists down, my wind whiping the leafs. "I KNOW NOTHING!" I cry a little before a kinda crazy thought hits me.

I have everything to learn.

I chuckle distanctly. Feeling my mind splinter into fragments. Does anything even need to be real?

What the heck?

I get to my feet, following a rather simple path if lefts and straight a ways inward.

I can't fight, I can't win with the Preeminent. I can only hold out.

I turn left into a garden full of weeds and thorny vines. Nothing special is here. No latter, no tunnel, no magical staircase back home.

Just a mirror blacker than the shadows.

I circle around it.

A very tall, elaborate mirror of bones and skulls and swords. Only stranger still is that there isn't glass but something reflective and black. I stop circling only to look at me.

In the black mirror is a beautiful green gi draping over thick strong muscles, a green mask only showing off my eyebrows and strong grey eyes.

I look down torn traveler's clothes, bony ribs, and broken grey eyes.

Want that! I am not a pathetic soul worth pitting. I deserve to be a hero. I was told I was to save the world from the ultimate evil. I was the green ninja.

"You can be." The Preeminent's shrill voice is just as jarring as her gripping my collarbone. She stands behind me, "Screw fate. Screw destiny. Screw light and dark. You want it. You lie to yourself. You want...more of it."

"Yes." I moan, not wanting to look away from who I'm meant to be.

"Why be Ninjago's greatest hero when you can be the green ninja? You will be the green ninja. You can be the cursed realm's grates hero. You just have to be my puppet." She leans close to my ear, "Will. You. Surve. Me?"

And get all of that?

I'd be moral right to say no.

"Yes."