The Jade City

Chapter 36: His Absence

Morro's POV

"You said you wouldn't hurt them," I roared, banging my fist against the wall. Stumbling a bit, I quickly steadied myself by throwing my weight against the footboard of my bed. My legs were still shaking and felt like jelly. I breathed heavily with my mouth open, praying that I wasn't going to have a heart attack.

Ruby leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe, not even flinching. "No, Morro. I said I wouldn't harm your friends. They're not your friends. Friends don't betray each other. Didn't I say that only earlier? Come, you should join us for dinner."

I sunk into my knees on the cold, stone floor, shivering even inside the thick black cloak. Hadn't she said something along those lines earlier? How had I been so stupid to not realize the loophole in my request? I wanted to throw something at her, claw at her stupid face, and scream at her for having the audacity to ask me to join her for dinner.

But hadn't I chosen this path for myself? I'd dug a hole far too deep to crawl out of now, and having been thinking about returning to Ninjago all this time, my desire to go only increased. Despicable thoughts like "if Cole and Kai had to be sacrificed in order for me to go to Ninjago, I shouldn't let the opportunity go to waste" had even entered my head, and I hated myself for it. The logic didn't even make sense but I was incapable of rational thought.

I hated that she could make me go insane like this.

I tried to rasp something out, but my throat failed me.

"I guess I should explain now," Ruby said with a shrug, unprovoked, "Now that you've calmed down. So basically Aportus needs energy to open portals. And the best source of energy is elemental energy. More specifically, the elements of creation."

I stared at her blankly, waiting for her to continue. Maybe old me would've figured out what was going on, but I couldn't think straight. Not in this state.

"Kai's fire went to Lloyd," she continued, raising an eyebrow to see how I would react.

At first I didn't, then I understood. "You're... going to kill all of them," I sputtered, finding my voice again, "To transfer their powers to Lloyd so that you could drain them all at once..."

"Ooh, smart Morro," she cooed, as if she was a mother congratulating her baby for learning how to speak for the first time, "Yes, that's exactly what I intend to do. Actually, no. Maybe I'll spare Nya if you want me to. Her power isn't really helpful here. It would be pretty entertaining to watch her completely lose it again..."

I felt a surge of hatred boil up inside me as I thought back to how Nya reacted to her brother's death. "Why can't you just―"

"Powers that Aportus absorbs only last for so long before they're unusable. And if I have to drain all of them separately in a short amount of time, difficulties could arise. And we wouldn't want that."

"So you knew that Kai's power would go to Lloyd and killed him on purpose," I breathed, grabbing folds of the cloak as if holding onto them would help me in any shape or form, "Why―how did you know?"

A part of me had been hoping his death was an accident despite all the indicators that pointed to it being planned. Well, here was the confirmation.

"Simple. Imagine what would happen if one of the five elements of Creation died out. The world would be catastrophic. Unlike secondary elements, they have to exist, so if the current wielder dies without passing it onto someone else, the element is automatically transferred to someone else who also wields a main element. If there are none left, then it would go to a secondary element holder. So Lloyd should theoretically be the Master of Earth now, too."