"Hiding your fear isn't the same as overcoming it, Morro."

"Shut up!" he shouted over the roaring storm. "You don't know anything!"

Wu was unaffected. "You were my son. If nothing else, Morro, I know you."

Morro would have screamed more at him if he wasn't busy clinging to the mast for dear life.

The wind whipped around him, his element outside his control. The Bounty's engines strained to keep it aloft as it rocked in the sky. Most of the ninja were safely on the ground, but Wu had thought Morro needed to be around his element to figure out why it was going haywire, and Nya had volunteered to fly the Bounty, since she was having the same trouble with her own powers.

"We're going to fucking crash!" Morro shouted.

"The Bounty has survived worse," said Wu.

"I'm going to kill you both!"

"Nya and I can take care of ourselves."

"I can't do this!"

"You've done more than this before."

Morro screamed wordlessly and pressed his forehead against the mast.

"Morro," Wu said, "we just need to find out the source of this problem. You don't have to master it. All you need to do is listen."

"I can't hear shit!" Morro shouted. "I can't control this! I don't know what to do!"

"You are the Master of Wind. If you aren't controlling it, who is?"

Nya's voice came through on the speakers. "Uh, Master Wu? I have bad news."

Morro let out a stream of curses. Wu glanced at the control room. "Nya?" he said, even though there was no way she could hear him.

"We went off course," Nya said, her voice pitched in panic. "We're over the ocean, and I'm losing control of my powers, too!"

"Can you go back?" Wu shouted.

"What?"

Morro grit his teeth and thought back to the lessons Wu gave him when he was a boy, before he died and was brought back from the Cursed Realm. Clear your mind, Wu told him. Face your fears. Only then can you unlock your true potential.

The Bounty spun. The wind pulled his fingers off the mast and threw him off the ship.

He barely heard Wu's shout over the storm and his own screams. Morro flailed uselessly as he tumbled through the air, trying desperately to regain control and failing each time. He couldn't tell the ocean from the sky; all he knew was that he was going to drown, swallowed by the ocean once more.

Someone crashed into him. Morro gasped and clung to Nya, too panicked to question why she was there.

"Focus!" Nya grabbed his face and glared at him. "You have an elemental dragon, right? Just don't be afraid!"

Morro was too scared to think, let alone summon his dragon. He saw the ocean now, rolling beneath far beneath them but coming closer and closer–

"I know," Nya said. "I know it feels impossible–but I'm right here with you! We can do it together!"

He closed his eyes. The storm made it hard to breathe. Be calm, Morro. You're okay. You're alive now, and the Preeminent can never touch you again.

His fear broke. Something waited for him on the other side.

The combined dragon of water and wind was not much like a dragon at all–it was long and slim, with fins instead of wings and a frill around its head. Morro felt its skin ripple beneath him, like there was another storm inside trying to get out.

The serpent landed in the water with Morro and Nya on its back and dove beneath the waves–yet they could still breathe, unaffected by the water. Morro took deep breaths, holding tight to Nya as they watched the serpent dive deeper.

"Where are you taking us?" he asked.

"It's not me," said Nya, her tone carefully neutral.

Wu's words echoed in his mind. If Nya wasn't controlling it…

Morro couldn't think about that. If they lost control of their fear and the creature they summoned was dispelled, surely the power that kept them breathing would be gone with it. All they could do was hold on as the serpent swam to depths unknown.