They didn't let him near Lloyd, but Morro still saw him. His room in the monastery had a view of the courtyard, and Lloyd spent most of his time training. Morro didn't try to pay attention, it was just that the walls were paper-thin, and he could hear every thud of attacks landing on the equipment, every grunt of effort, every burst of laughter as Lloyd trained with his teammates. His friends.

Someone knocked on his door. "Hey, ghostie. You coming out anytime soon?"

Morro sighed. "Go away, Water Ninja," he said.

"Not to be annoying," Nya said, "but you haven't come out of your room in two days. You forget you need to eat or something?"

It hadn't been that long, but Morro supposed none of the others knew he had stockpiled food in his room. "I'm fine. Leave me alone."

She opened the door instead. Morro couldn't bring himself to care. He continued sitting on his bed, staring at the curtains and watching the moving shadows through them, and didn't look away even as Nya sat next to him.

"What's going on this time?" she asked.

"Their training's too loud," Morro said. "I can't get any sleep."

"Gonna be hard to sleep in broad daylight, too." Nya tapped his shoulder once. "Got you some food."

She handed him a packet of seaweed chips. Morro took it without opening. He'd add it to the rest later.

Nya didn't leave. "So you're watching Lloyd train, huh?"

"It's hard to ignore."

"Do you still think it should've been you?"

Morro bristled. "I'm *over* that," he snapped. "I could never be Master Wu's perfect student, no matter how hard I tried. Destiny had other plans, and even at my strongest, I could never change fate."

"Damn," Nya said. "That's too bad. You would have been the better choice."

"Excuse me?!"

The laughter outside stopped. Nya didn't flinch. "Think about it," she said while Morro stared at her in disbelief. "You trained to be the Green Ninja. You were better prepared. Yeah, destiny chose Lloyd, but when you look at everything he went through…" She sighed. "It wasn't fair to him, and it still isn't. You actually wanted it, but Lloyd never had a choice."

Morro looked down at his knees.

"I was relieved when it wasn't me," Nya said.

"I didn't know you were considered."

"It was before I knew my element. Wu had me see if the weapons would react, just in case." She shrugged. "They didn't, obviously, and I was glad. I thought the title would go to someone better suited for it."

"And it didn't, huh?" Morro said.

"No one wants to say it, but yeah." Nya shook her head. "After we found out? I wished it had been me so that Lloyd wouldn't lose his childhood."

The voices outside have started up again. Morro can't look Nya in the eye. "So why did destiny choose him?" he said, his voice shaking. "Were we all fated to suffer?"

There was no answer for him, just as there were none for the children with broken dreams. Nya shifted closer on the bed as Morro started to cry.

He covered his eyes with one hand. "I was better," he choked out. "It should have been me."

"I know," said Nya.

In the courtyard, the shadows grew longer. Nya didn't leave until they both heard her brother calling her name.

Once she left, Morro opened the seaweed snacks and forced himself to eat some. He didn't feel any better. He knew Nya didn't, either. At least he wasn't miserable alone.