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Mirror - We are born of love; love is our mother
Morro had always believed – or rather, he'd thought he'd known – that he'd been abandoned by his parents, but he'd pushed that aside in his need for survival. And then Sensei Wu had found him and things had changed for a short while. He'd had a home, where his belly was always full, a room that was all his own, and a closet of clothes just for him.
But he'd been abandoned – no, that wasn't right, he'd abandoned Wu, in his pursuit to be the Green Ninja, but he'd thought it an indisputible fact. His parents, or maybe just one, had abandoned him in the streets of Jamanakai Village. And now . . .
When Morro had first looked at that picture, it hadn't seemed all that special, but when he had looked closer to see the Master of Wind . . . She had looked nothing like he imagined, all things considered. When he'd imagined the previous Masters of Wind, they hadn't looked so . . . kind, or gentle. They'd always looked mean, or stone-faced, in his imagination.
Eteri – his mother, the one he'd thought had abandoned him – had looked so kind, more like Lloyd with his bleeding heart, rather than Morro. Rather, he looked more like Aryan, the Master of Smoke, with his downturned brow, and sharp, angular features.
He couldn't take it, so he fled, but he only found himself in a wing of the Monastery that had more drawings of the previous Elemental Alliance. Not all were of them in their GI's, and he found hinself staring at one in particular.
Eteri was sitting against a cherry blossom tree, cradling a baby in her arms, looking down with a smile and adoration in her eyes. The picture was done in watercolor, and he wondered what his mother would have looked like in real life.
Her hair was the same inky black as his, with pale green streaks the color of jade – which were darker than his own emerald streaks –, falling around her face in slight waves. Her eyes were grey – no, green or . . . They looked like river stones covered in dark green moss, so different from his green-black eyes of rotting undergrowth.
Her skin was a beautiful shade of light brown with a reddish undertone the near opposite of his own sickly white pallor. In all, he didn't think he looked anything like her and his heart burned as if he was being dragged beneath the waves of Stiix again.
Biting his lip in his efforts to keep himself from crying, he didn't notice the blood beading or Garmadon coming around the bend. Morro's entire body tensed when the man came to stand at his side, looking at the picture with an exhaustion and an ache.
"You look so much like her, I am surprised I did not realize who you were sooner," Garmadon admitted, seemingly not noticing how his words – those simple words – had Morro's lungs freezing.
"I think you've gone blind!" Morro snarled, forcing hinself to speak past the lump in his throat. "I don't look anything like her!"
Garmadon turned to look at him, dark brown eyes glinting with a dark red sheen that seemed more threatening than ever, "I fought alongside Eteri for nearly 23 years, spent more time than I can remember training with her or simply spending time in her company. You look very similar to Eteri."
Morro drew himself up . . . to what? Yell and scream? When had had that helped? When had it become so much harder to be angry?
"How? How do I look like her?"
"Your eyes are the same," Garmadon began, smiling slightly at the sneer he recieved. "I do not mean color. Eteri was the gentlest of us all, until she was pushed and then all bets were off. You could always see every emotion going through her mind in her eyes, just as I can with you."
Morro reeled back, confused, before he remembered all the times Lloyd would stare into his eyes and then, he would either push harder or back off, as if he knew which one he needed.
"You are taller than she was, but otherwise you could be siblings. I have no doubt in my mind that she's smacking Aryan around for making her son so tall," Garmadon laughed to himself.
"What happened?"
That took the mirth out of Garmadon.
"The Emporer sent an army, and we attacked to keep them away from the Monastery but we didn't realize it was a trap. He had some of his soldiers sneak into the Monastery in the hopes of taking away the two babies that lay within. You and Lily. They only succeeded in taking you, and for that they suffered."
"Never had I seen Eteri so angry. Jiang was as well. Together they summonded a storm so powerful that no soldier from his army survived that day. The rivers were dies red for days from the massacre but we succeeded in weakening the Emporer. Over half of his force had been apart of that army and we began to prevail."
"Aryan and Eteri worked tirelessly to find you . . . And that was their downfall. I do not know all the details, but I know they were outmatched and exhausted but they won. It came at the cost of their lives. When we found them, Aryan – Aryan was already gone, and Eteri begged Keahi to find you, for her."
"He died searching for you."
Morro frowned as the image of red, bloodstained and cracked armor flashed in his memories. "He– Did he wear a necklace with a jade amulet?"
"Yes. How did you–"
"He got me to Jamanakai but he died from his injuries," Morro said, giving a bitter laugh. "I thought he was just someone I'd dreamed of but . . ."
"Keahi was your godfather, and he loved you as his own."
"Yeah, lot of good that did him." Once again, Morro stalked off.
Instead of wandering in the Monastery, he left, unable to be in this place that had once hosted his parents, his family.
Still not sure if I'm going to make this a series but this kind of a sample of what it would be about.
The old Blackwood Monastery loomed ahead of them, a shell of its former glory with crumbling stone walls, rotting wood, and vines climbing along the sides.
"Why the heck have we never seen this place?!" Jay demanded, as Sensei Garmadon pushed through the rotting, rusty black wood and iron doors that led into the main courtyard. The man sighed at the moss that had overtaken the stones and the miature lake forming off to the side where the dirt had sunk over the 50 years since it had been abandoned.
"We abandoned it after the Emporers Army attacked us to get our main forces away from the Monastery so they could . . . So they could steal the children. Unfortantely they managed to succeed and took one of my closest friends son. Her and her husband died trying to rescue him," Garmadon admitted, closing his eyes as the image of Eteri and Aryan flashed in his vision.
"The Emporers Army?" Kai asked, wrinkling his nose. Sensei Garmadpn tool the distraction, turning to them.
"Wu has not–" He interrupted himself at the deadpan look he recieved. "25 Years or so before the Serpentine Wars the Emporer made a decree that all Elemental Masters were enemies of Ninjago and were to be imprisoned or killed."
"What?!"
"How was that allowed?!"
"They were killed!!"
Lloyd raised his voice above them all to be heard, "What happened?"
Garmadon sighed, leading them into the Monasteries halls as he spoke, "We believe a rogue Elemental Master attacked the capitol, killing the Emporer's wife though it was told to the masses that it was an accident. Seeking vengeance, he wanted every Elemental Master dead so there would no longer be those with the power we hold."
"But an Elemental Power passes on after death. Does it not?"
"It does, Zane. But he refused our talks of peace, even when Wu stubbornly clung to it and continued to try to find peace when war was inevitable." Sensei Garmadon could not help the old anger that seeped into his voice.
"Why did Sensei want peace so badly?" Cole asked.
"Our father taught us to keep the balance, and Wu took that to mean we had to keep the peace. Using our fathers old Monastery, he sheltered Elemental Masters who refused to fight or were simply to old or young too. Blackwood Monastery became a symbol of war. I took those who were angry, who had lost family to the massacre and began forming a group of my own."
Garmadon gestured to the wall of the library he'd led them too. Taking up an entire wall, surprisingly undamaged, was a painted picture of 9 people all holding weapons and posed with their weapons.
"Whoa," was the agreed upon sentiment. The picture itself was surprisingly detailed and they all gathered closely to get a better look.
"Who-whose that?" Nya asked, reaching out to lightly touch the figure of a woman holding a spear and very obviously controlling water.
"Jiang Daiyu, the Master of Water and known as the Tide-Bringer," Garmadon stated, a fond smile ticking up the corner of his lips.
"Jiang?" Kai asked. "Like Jiang Mei Lien?"
"Mei Lien was her daughter, and her children would be Daiyu's grandchildren."
Nya turned back to the picture in awe, "That . . . That's my-our grandmother?"
"Yes."
"You've known this entire time who our grandmother is! How could you not tell us?! You're just as bad as Wu!" Kai snarled, the air warming in his anger.
"I did not tell you because I had wrongfully assumed you would be aware. And by the time I realized I was wrong, you did not need to know about the previous holders," Garmadon stated, shaking his head.
"We want to know," Zane said. "So tell us everything."
They all nodded, so Garmadon did.
The picture of a man in armor holding a knocked bow with flames curling around his feet, "Keahi Kalama, the Master of Fire. Known as the Wildfire Archer, and was Ray Kalama's father."
The picture of a man in little armor with a war-hammer balanced on his shoulder with what looked like cracks beneath his feet, "Gerald D'Angelo, the Master of Earth. Known as the Unbreakable Shield, and was Lily D'Angelo's father."
The picture of a man in little armor and a kimono holding two long blades with spikes of ice by his feet, "Aspen, the Master of Ice. Known as the Bringer of Ice, and was the last known Master of Ice until Wu found you, Zane."
The picture of a young man in a kimono top, holding no weapons as lightning curled along his exposed hands, "Petir, the Master of Lightning. Known as the Blue Serpent, and was Libby's father, likely your grandfather Jay."
The next picture was a man in samurai armor with a rice hat covering most of his face, as smoke curled around the twin katana's in his hands, "Aryan, the Master of Smoke. Known as the Ghost of the Samurai, ironic considering his son."
All of the ninja frowned, trying to figure out what that meant as Garmadon tapped the last picture.
It was a woman, levitating in the air with a ninja GI on, long sleeves exposing the Tessens in her hands as her hair flew around her face, a vivid green streak the center piece, "Eteri, the Master of Wind. Known as Tempest, and was Aryan's wife. She and Aryan had a son that was taken from them. They named him Morro, after the way the wind curls around a mountain."
Morro had gone completely still, staring at the two pictures. The only movement any of them could see was the tremble in his fingers. "You- You knew my parents?"
"I did. I considered Eteri a sister, and had she lived it is likely she would have been Lloyd's Godmother as she was also close to Misako. Unfortunately I was not close to Aryan, but I believe the only one of us close to him was Eteri," Garmadon explained, smiling slightly at the pictures. "Aryan was a Samurai, one of the last, and he preffered to be alone but Eteri . . . She was stubborn. Eventually she managed to convince him to come to the Monastery and he became a part of our group, of . . . of the family we'd created."
The smile fell away as Garmadon remembered the tragedy that had befallen them. "Morro, your parents did not abandon you. You were kidnapped from the Monastery and they did everything they could to find you but it wasn't enough. They died, Morro, fighting to get to you and they were not the only ones. Keahi and Petir died trying to find you, leaving behind their own children because of their loyalty to Eteri." Reaching out, Garmadon set a hand on Morro's shoulder as the teen stared at him with trembling green eyes. "Your mother, and your father loved you with everything they had. Never doubt that."
Morro pulled away, stomping deeper into the Monastery as they all watched.
"So, my grandfather seriously died trying to save him?" Kai asked, jerking a thumb in Morro's direction.
"Keahi considered Eteri to be his younger sister, and was named Morro's Godfather. All things considered, had things gone differently, Morro likely would have been your uncle, and even your godfather because of their close relationship," Garmadon stated, amused by the way both Kai and Nya recoiled in shock.
"What?!"
"No way!!"
Jay cackled, loudly, so Garmadon turned his gaze on him, "Your mother likely would have named him as your Godfather as well, especially if Morro had been raised by Aryan and Eteri." That shut the ninja up real quick.
"Is the same true for Cole?" Zane asked, tilting his head.
"It is likely yes."
"Wait, my mother seriously would have . . ."
"Lily's parents were close to Eteri as well. We all were. As I said earlier, we became a family becaise of the war, a bond we forged in blood, death, and sacrifice."