Chapter 1: Starting New
Summary:
this chapter was originally posted as a teaser for this fic before i decided to continue it, so it’s pretty short but shrug
Chapter Text
“Jay, c’mon please. The time we fought each other in the tournament? When we saved Shintaro? Prime Empire?”
“Oh! Prime Empire? I love that game! I can beat the whole thing in under an-”
“Jay.. we saved Prime Empire. You helped Unagami work through his abandonment problems?” Cole stared as Jay fiddled with the chain around his hand. “You really don’t remember do you?”
“What’d you say your name was again?”
Cole stormed out, slamming the door behind him a little too hard. The world was crashing down, nothing felt real anymore. He couldn’t even begin to process it, he didn’t want to. There’s no way his best friend doesn’t remember everything they’ve been through. Decades of memories and love and trauma and-
Cole stopped in his tracks as a hand grabbed his arm. The person said something but he couldn’t hear it over the headache. It seemed whenever Cole was screaming internally the Earth always screamed back, causing a very overwhelming time in his brain. Everything went quiet as a hand cupped his face, swiping underneath the bags in his eyes. He doesn’t remember when he started crying, he doesn’t even remember what time it is.
“We’ll get him back, Cole.” Cole turned away from the hand. Looking at Jay through the one-way mirror on the other side of the room. Just drawing pictures on the table with not a care in the world. No idea he’s tearing apart everyone who cares about him, everyone who loves him.
“Zane and Nya are working on ideas for how we can jog his memory. We’re going to get him back.” It’s Kai.
Kai’s hands slipped into Cole’s, he could feel Cole relax slightly at the gesture but he was still staring at Jay. Well, it was in Jay’s general direction but there seemed to be more distance in his eyes.
“Cole, buddy? Everything okay up there?” Kai ducked in front of him, breaking the line of sight between him and Jay with a sad smile.
“Sorry .. I’m just ..” Cole spoke under his breathe. Now looking at his and Kai’s hands intertwined together with a deep inhale.
“I just, wish he remembered us at least? It’d be different if it was missions or certain time periods but, he’s just got nothing? About his family? About his lovers? About us?” Another tear trailed down his face. “I’m so mad and sad and confused and I don’t know what to do, Kai. What are we supposed to do? Why did any of this have to happen? Why is it always us?”
Cole looked up into Kai’s eyes. He hadn’t realized how tired Kai looked. His eyes deeply sunken in, slightly puffy, and his face looking almost grey. Cole figures he probably looks like a wreck, too. Surprised neither of them have white hair by now. They can never catch a break.
Neither of them said anything. The hand against Cole’s lower back pressed him into Kai and immediately Cole doubled, pressing his eyes into the other’s shoulder. Tears poured after that but being in Kai’s hold made it somewhat easier to handle. His heart may be broken but at least his mind was quiet.
After a while, Kai broke the silence, “It’s gonna be okay, Cole. I promise.”
Chapter 2: In a Bind
Summary:
sorry for typos… wrote this in the shower
Chapter Text
Kai turned to look at Jay through the one way glass. He was still doodling pictures on the table while swaying his head a bit, probably humming to himself.
“I’m gonna go talk to him, are you gonna be alright?” Kai asked Cole gently.
“Yeah, I’m just gonna go lay down, can you tell the others about allll…”Cole gestures in the air, “that stuff.”
“I’ll let them know ASAP, try to take a shower too if you’re up for it… been a while.” Kai made him smile a bit (SCORE!!). They gave each other one last hug before Kai watched him walk back towards the monestary.
Kai was super nervous. He didn’t exactly know why, but knowing that Jay isn’t gonna know who he is when he walks through that door is nerve wracking. Having to start all over with the person who is supposed to be one of the people who know you the best is.. really fucking hard.
His hand trembled as he reached the doorknob, but he swallowed the fear and opened the door anyway.
“Whats up Jay or should I say Agent Walker?” Kai joked, holding up air quotes.
“Just Jay’s fine, not a huge fan of the formalities.” He’s drawing stars on a napkin in front of him.
“Really? I would’ve though you liked the title, sounds important.”
Jay didn’t respond. He didn’t really seem like he was all there, well Kai didn’t know what is even there to begin with. Maybe this is just who he is now?
He doesn’t like it.
“You doing alright? You don’t seem like the motormouth I’m used to today.”
“Motormouth? I don’t even know who you are.”
That stung in Kai’s chest more than he’d like to admit.
“Right, sorry, too soon for nicknames.” No reaction from Agent Walker, again. Kai was starting to get a little irritated. Not at Jay, it’s not his fault this happened, but the whole situation was just, well fucked.
“Can I ask you something? It might be, a little personal but Nya and Zane want to know.” There was a pause when Jay heard Nya’s name. Kai could feel it in the air. Jay stop scribbling stars for maybe half a second, but Kai saw it. There’s a chance.
“Yeah sure go ahead.” Jay had moved onto drawing.. a more complex scribble? It looks weird upside down.
Kai watched Jay closely, turning the chair in front of him around and sitting with his legs on either side of the backrest. “Have you felt anything uhm… like building up in you recently?”
“Building up?”
“Yeah like… I don’t know electricity for example.” He’s trying to be subtle about it, but Kai is really not good at acting.
“Hm.” Jay leans back in his chair, almost like he’s hesitating but doesn’t exactly know why. “I don’t think so?”
“Okay, what about feeling like something’s missing? Like an energy inside you or something.”
“I already told the last guy I don’t remember whatever happened with your-“
“Nono this is different, entire new topic.” Kai cut him off, wanting to ignore the whole missing memories thing. “Have you ever shocked anything?”
Jay made a very confused face, “Shock?? Like static or something?”
“Exactly! Like static or.. lightning.”
“I love lightning.” Jay’s face lit up at that. “I love storms. I don’t really get to see them in Reassignment, but there’s something about them that draws me to it.” Kai was smiling
“Sorry that sounds dumb.” Jay started to shut down again, picking up the pen to draw more.
“No it’s not! I wasn’t laughing, I was just smiling cause that makes me really happy to hear.” Kai needed Jay to stay with him if they were going to get anywhere.
Jay looked back up at him, not really making eye contact, but he never did before. “Why are you asking me this?”
Kai didn’t really know what to say, so he just went out with it. “Jay what I’m going to say might sound a little weird-“
“It can’t be any weirder than getting dragged out my office by a bunch of brightly colored elemental masters so hit me.”
“Well that’s actually what I was going to talk about. Jay you’re the elemental master of lightning.” The pen hit the table again.
“What?? No I’m not that’s ridiculous.”
“It’s true! You can manipulate the charges in the air, controlling lightning and electricity. I’ve seen you do it, Jay.”
Jay sighed loudly, “Is this another ‘you don’t remember yourself’ moment because I’m really getting sick of this.”
Kai frowned a bit but tried to keep composure. “Can you at least try for me?” Kai cannot believe he is begging Jay of all people right now, “Try to see what I’m talking about, please. You said you felt connected to the storms right?”
“That doesn’t mean anything, besides even if I was who you say I was, that’s not who I am now. I’ve never done anything like that in my life.” The scribbling is getting more disorganized, his grip on the pen a little harder. His shoulders are hunched over too, like there’s pressure in his chest.
“We don’t have to deal with it all right now, but will you agree to let us help you? We can show you how to control your power.”
“I don’t have a pow-“
“Jay, you do. Please. I just need you to trust me.” The look Kai gave him pulled on a string in Jay’s heart. Why was it doing that..
“Okay okay whatever, I’ll let the color coded stranger who kidnapped me ‘help me control my power’, can we be done now?” Jay said with that influx of tone he always carries. No matter how much he doesn’t want to admit it, Kai missed that snarky voice.
“Yes we can be done, thank you, Jay.” Kai smiled at him. He wanted to hug him so bad, cry, beg, plead for him to remember. “My name is Kai, by the way.”
Jay held out a chained hand, “Hi Kai.” He pretended to shake his hand with a big fake cheesy grin.
Kai rolled his eyes, then looked down at Jay’s napkin. “What have you been drawing?”
“It’s nothing really, just stuff that comes to me. It’s easier to process by looking at it rather than thinking about it. Too much thinking hurts my brain.” He slid the napkin to Kai nonchalantly.
On the napkin was a shorter man, he had a hat that looked like a snake head and was holding a big staff. “Who is this?” Kai asked lowly, knowing very well who it was.
“I don’t know just some dude I guess.”
“Does he have a name?” Jay cocked his head a bit.
“Uhmmmm let’s call him, Chen?”
Kai gawked. Not knowing what to say.
“What? Is there something wrong with that name?” Jay asked, a bit thrown off by Kai’s reaction.
“No no just.. can I take this? He looks silly I think Cole would like him.”
“Sure whatever I don’t want it. Can I ask for a change of clothes though? This suit is getting really uncomfortable.” Kai nodded his head, walking out the room for a second and grabbing Jay’s old pajamas off the table that Zane had ready for him to wear.
“I can take the cuff off while you change, but I have to watch you. Safety precautions you know.” Kai unlocked the cuff around Jay’s right wrist so he could change.
Jay took off his pants first, facing the wall because this man he just met 30 minutes ago did not need to see all that. He slid on the pajama pants, they seemed well worn but super soft. The legs flow enough to not be restrictive but not enough to feel like there’s nothing there either. He loved them a lot more than his ones he’d been wearing.
He took off his jacket and went to unbutton the white dress shirt. He always struggled with this part, his hands were really shaky most of the time, he also had some weird scars on them he doesn’t remember ever getting.
After fumbling with the buttons for 4 minutes Kai chimed in, “Do you need some help? I know your hands shake.”
Jay accepted despite being weirded out by Kai knowing everything about him. He never told him his hands shake… at least he doesn’t remember telling him? His memory isn’t all that great, started a few years ago after he banged his head at work apparently. He doesn’t remember that either.
Jay looked off to the side, avoiding eye contact while Kai helped with his buttons. He got about halfway down the shirt before realizing Jay was wearing a binder.
“You still wear this? I thought you were done with it after your surgery.” Jay had no idea what he was talking about so he just shrugged as he took his white button up off his shoulders.
“Wait, Jay, turn around.” Kai noticed the ‘binder’ had a lock on the back. This was not just a binder. “Jay what are you wearing?”
“My vest? Uhm from what Admin told me it’s sort of like an ID badge. It’s how I get into work.” Jay said that like it was nothing. As if having to show up to work in an armored ID vest was normal.
“Can you take it off?” Kai said, staring hard at the lock. The material looked familiar, it was hard, heavy, and dense with orange-y cracks.
“I’ve never really figured out how, or been bothered enough by it too. It used to feel pretty heavy but I’ve gotten used to it, and it’s water proof so I just wash it with myself in the shower.”
Kai put his hand on Jay’s back, feeling the vest to try and see what it was made of, but it made his hand feel weird. It felt draining.
It was vengestone.
Chapter 3: Mourning What’s Not Dead
Summary:
This started out as post-canon, but now evil jay is canon (and so is a bruise fight WHO CHEERED!!) anyways , this is now an AU / different ending , but it won’t be deviating that far off from the show..
Notes:
Mostly Kai centric , also a pretty quick update but next chapters will probably not be as quick
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
In shock, Kai started turning Jay around rapidly, looking for a way to get it off him.
“Is something wrong?” Jay was already weirded out enough and now this guy was looking at him like a dick was coming out his forehead.
Kai’s mouth was dry, there were so many questions he wanted to ask but he knew Jay wouldn’t have an answer. He thinks it’s just an ID badge, “Uhm no just, making sure you aren’t hurt or anything.”
“Not physically, but you guys hurt my feelings by TRAPPING ME IN HERE!” Jay threw his hands up comically, gesturing to all the walls before putting on the new shirt. If he’s being held prisoner why are the clothes so comfortable, these must be the nicest captors ever.
“Look Jay, it’s only until we can see how to get you back to being yourself. It’s all precautionary, we really just want to help.”
“Yeah cause this is super helpful” Jay mumbled under his breath, sitting back down in the chair he was chained to.
Kai frowned. He hated doing this to him but what other option was there. It was either they take Jay or he stays in reassignment and rots away. He knows this is what Jay would want them to do.
Kai put the cuff back on Jay’s hand, “Is there anything else you need?”
Jay shrugged him off and stared at the floor while Kai left the room. He had to go tell the others.
Taking one last look at Jay, Kai shut the door and let out a big sigh. He started to head toward the monastery, but noticed that Nya was there beside him. Standing silently while looking at Jay through the one way glass.
Kai made a sad smile, turning to stand beside her. Putting his arm around her waist in a half-hug stance, “How you doing, sis?”
Nya didn’t say anything. The two stood in comfortable silence as they watched Jay lay his head down on the table.
After a moment, Nya looked down at her hands. She was holding half of a black and gold yin yang medallion.
Leaning her head on Kai’s shoulder, she whispered, “He doesn’t remember does he?”
Kai hugged her tighter, laying his head on top of hers. “He will.”
“How do you know?” Nya’s voice was flat, tired.
Kai didn’t know, but he’d never admit it. It pissed him off. “Do you want to go in and talk to him?”
“Not yet. I don’t think I’m ready.”
They stood there silently until Jay seemed to have fallen asleep.
“Let’s go talk to the others” Kai said, rubbing Nya’s arm. But he didn’t let her go until she started to turn around on her own, following her out the holding chamber to the monastery.
+
Once they entered the building, Lloyd ran up to Kai immediately and hugged him hard. It was tight like he thought Kai had been gone for ages. He chuckled a bit and hugged Lloyd back, not as hard but affectionately.
Once Lloyd let go, Kai was immediately hit with question after question from Arin. “How is he? Did you figure out what’s going on? Why was he acting so weird when we found him?” He tripped over his words, speaking too fast for his brain.
Kai put his hand on Arin’s shoulder, “He’s alright, just missing pieces.”
“Did you ask about his powers?” Zane asked lowly.
“I did. They’re uhm..” Kai was kind of scared to say it, “He hasn’t been using them. He doesn’t even think he has any. I told him about his element and he didn’t believe me.”
“Once he trusts us enough, we can show him how to channel it again. That is unless we can jog his memory before then.” Lloyd spoke confidently, not knowing what Kai was about to say next.
“It’s going to be really hard for him to go back to it.”
“It shouldn’t be difficult,” Zane said, raising his eyebrow at Kai’s weird wording. “We’ve all lost them before and been able to retrain efficiently. Jay was also very quick to learn when we were children, so it should not be too difficult for him.”
“About that..” Kai trailed off, his voice wavering slightly, “Apparently, the entire time he’s been at Administration, he has been wearing this ID Badge vest looking thing?”
“What does it do?” Lloyd asked lowly, not really getting where Kai was going with this.
“Well Jay thinks it’s how he gets in and out of Administration… but there is a lock on the back and it’s made out of-“ Kai’s voice was really shaking now, “the vest is made out of Vengestone.”
“Vengestone??” Nya spoke for the first time, “He’s been wearing vengestone for 5 years?” her voice got quieter after that. Everyone was struck with worry.
“What’s vengestone? What does that mean?”
“Vengestone, Arin, is a type of stone that suppresses our elemental powers. We aren’t able to use them while wearing or touching it.” Lloyd spoke with his brows furrowed, “but none of us have ever had to wear it for that long before…”
“Zane what would wearing Vengestone for that long do?” Nya looked worried. Kai moved to rest his hand on her shoulder. “How badly would it drain him?”
“I’m… not sure. Maybe if I go down there I can run a diagnostic,” Zane had already started to walk towards the holding room deep in thought.
“He’s asleep right now, and we should be too. He’s not going anywhere tonight and it’s been a long day. I say we tackle this in the morning,” Kai was practically begging to go to sleep. He wanted to ignore all of this and just be able to sleep, maybe even wake up to it all being a dream.
“I’m a nindroid. You guys can go sleep, I’m going to observe Jay through the night.” Zane continued his path to Jay’s room.
“I’m coming with you!” Nya turned to run with Zane but Kai held her arm in place.
“No, you’re going to sleep too.”
“Kai, he needs me-“
“Nya” Lloyd chimed in, “we all want Jay to come back, but it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s best for us to get some sleep and come at this with a fresh mind in the morning.”
Nya looked back one more time, watching as Zane shut the door in the hall before giving up and slowly walking towards her room.
Lloyd and Arin followed after her, but Kai stayed behind in the main room. He desperately wanted to go to sleep, but dreaded it at the same time. This was all too much for him.
+
A few hours later, Cole walks into the living room to find Kai staring at the blank TV screen.
He opened his mouth to say something, but instead opted for sitting next to Kai. Sometimes words don’t do what we need them to.
They were sitting relatively close, Cole looked straight ahead just as Kai was. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Cole finally found what to say.
“It’s okay if you need help too, Kai. We’re all in the same boat here, you don’t need to carry all the weight.”
Kai’s head dropped a bit and Cole thought he heard a sniffle. Less than a second later, they turned to sobs. He was so tired. Cole was right, bad things always happen to them.
Kai rested his head on Cole’s shoulder and listened to his breathing. Trying to pay attention to the thumb rubbing his shoulder instead of his worries.
It wasn’t long before Cole was carrying him to his room. Hopefully Zane will figure something out tonight, but for now Kai was just tired of it all.
Notes:
These first few chapter have been short but the Next chapter will be longer and Jay centered!!!
Chapter 4: Flashbacks
Notes:
More Jay Centered today :33
TW panic attack / meltdown
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Jay woke up slowly, well kind of. He didn’t really sleep it was more of a light doze. The position he was in was uncomfortable and his arm had fallen asleep from his head cutting off the circulation in it. He sat up a bit, listening to the buzzing of the light above him. He hated that noise, it crawled into his ear in a way where he could feel it in his neck; this is why he usually had soundproof headphones at all times, but in this position, he didn’t exactly have the luxury.
His arm started to tingle more, the blood coming back to it slowly. He liked the way that felt. It felt.. right? Like his nerves were itching to shock, or the feeling you get when your static-charged after rubbing your hair on the couch. He tried to focus on the pins and needles to ignore the lights irritating hum.
What time is it? He thought, they could’ve at least given him a clock. The room he was in was grey and bleak, a lot like administration honestly. All that was in there was a table, his chair, and him. There was also the paper and pen he had so he could draw.
Jay jumped when he saw the door open, awaking him from his zoned-out state. “Good morning, Jay.” The person was… not a person?
“Are you a nindroid?” Jay asked, quite astonished by the nindroid’s personal look and personality. Quite possibly the most animated nindroid he’d ever seen. He didn’t even stand robotically, instead he seemed very humanistic.
“I am, my name is Zane.”
“Who was your maker? You’re astonishingly well made.” Zane looked at him blankly, maybe not all parts of the robot were humanly.
“I was created by Dr. Julien to protect those who cannot protect themselves.” He was holding a key in his hand, too.
“That’s remarkable, I have never seen a nindroid as advanced as you are. He must have cared a lot about you.”
“He did. I have some questions for you, Jay.” Zane tried to move onto his actual purpose of coming in here.
“Anything is better than sitting here by myself so shoot.” Jay picked the pen up and started to scribble on the paper that the fire elemental left him. He pays attention better when he’s multi-tasking.
“I understand that Kai has told you about your elemental power,” Zane stated factually.
“He did,” Jay replied in the same blank manner.
“And you do not believe him?”
“No.. I mean it would be cool and all, but I think I would know if I was able to shoot lightning out of my hands like Pikachu.” Jay laughed to himself a bit, amused by the ridiculousness of this whole ordeal.
“Would you like me to show you around the monastery?” Zane offered.
“What?” Jay’s head perked up quickly at that. “Why would you do that? How do you know I won’t try to escape the second I get a chance.”
“You said you are bored in here.”
“Well, yes I am but why would you let me go?” Jay was still shocked by the quickness in their trust of him. He wouldn’t trust himself.
“I am not letting you go; I am simply showing you where you are. You will remain cuffed at the wrists, and I will be supervising you at all times.” Zane said confidently.
“I mean, if you’re offering then, sure.” Jay set the pen down hesitantly.
Zane smiled at him, pleased with the outcome of this greeting. He put a new pair of cuffs around both of Jay’s wrist. They weren’t too tight but okay to where Jay wouldn’t be able to use his hands very effectively.
After securing him, Zane unlocked the chain attached to the chair and helped him stand up. His legs ached from not being moved in a while, but standing was nice. He hoped they were going to go outside so he could get some air. He was really excited actually. Not so much about the monastery, but more that he doesn’t have to rot in that room all day.
Zane opened the door to the other side of the holding cell. Jay noticed the one-way mirror immediately, “So what you’ve been peeping me the whole night?”
“…peeping? You?”
“Spying, Zane.” Jay rolled his eyes a bit.
“I did keep watch of you throughout the night yes.” Zane closed the door behind them, placing the key on the hook beside the door.
“Creepy,” Jay whispered to himself. He really didn’t understand the fatuation these ninja had over him. They haven’t even asked once about administration. That’s what he assumed they captured him for, to get information. Well, that is until the one with long black hair started talking about ‘remembering who he was before’… whatever that meant.
Zane led Jay up the stairs into a hallway. It was a lot brighter than where Jay was being kept the last two days. Turning to the right, Zane led him to what seemed to be a living room area. It felt.. oddly familiar? Maybe it was something in the air that reminded him of home. Jay looked around at the couch and the TV, which had a console plugged into it.
“What kind of games do you guys play?” Jay asked, he had the same console in his office at Reassignment.
“That’s a better question for Cole or Kai, they are the ones that use it the most.” Well, they used to. It’s been a while since anyone actually had a break long enough to use it.
Zane was pretty quiet. Jay expected him to put on some kind of tour-guide voice and tell him about all the hotspots, but instead he just waited for Jay to finish looking around the room before asking, “are you ready to move on?”
Zane took him through the kitchen, the courtyard outside, and showed a room that was very plainly decorated. Just a simple cushion and incense pot in the center.
Zane waited outside of the incense room for Jay, “What is this place?”
“It was the meditation room of our Master Wu.” Zane had a look of solemn on his face.
“Where is he? His room seems a little boring.” Jay teased a bit, trying to get rid of the depressing vibe this room had.
“We are unsure of his exact whereabouts right now, but we are in the process of looking for his location after the Merge.” Zane turned and started walking away, which Jay took as a cue that they were moving on now.
Going down another hallway, Jay started to feel warm. He was looking at all the walls, out the windows, and then right before he turned down the next leg of the hallway he froze.
There was a picture. A decently sized one, hanging on the wall, that showed himself and a girl. A beautiful girl.
His heart started rapidly beating, his breathing picking up as his eyes felt like they were going to explode.
He saw himself standing in the same hallway next to a woman. Kai and the man with black hair came up beside them. The latter putting his hand on Jay’s shoulder.
They turned around to walk down the hall, “I wonder if Skylar and Darreth got the news.” Jay said, “You think they’ll come?”
“I think so,” the black ninja still had his hand on Jay’s back.
“I hope so. I hope everyone knows what Nya did for them. The least they could do is show up and pay—“, Jay lifted his head up and saw a huge crowd of people, going all the way down the monastery’s steps. He started to tear up.
Jay felt two strong hands come down on his shoulders. He shot his head up in fear, realizing he was also on the floor, shaking.
“Jay, I need you to talk to me. Is everything alright?” Zane said seriously.
“Nya,” Jay half-yelled “That’s Nya.” He pointed at the picturing hanging behind Zane.
“You remember.” Zane smiled a bit, gripping Jay’s shoulders harder.
“She— She went to” his head was pounding, “the water. She become one with—“ He started hyperventilating again. “What’s happening to me, Zane what’s going on.” He grabbed onto Zane’s wrist tightly, terrified.
“I need you to focus on your breathing Jay. You are okay, stay with me.” Jay didn’t notice the tears going down his face until Zane pulled out a tissue for him.
They sat cross-legged on the floor, Zane helping him regain control of his breathing slowly. Once Jay had recovered, the two sat in silence.
“So, they were right.”
“Who was right?” Zane asked, trying to silently run a diagnostic on Jay’s current condition.
“Kai and the other guy,” Jay said lowly, “I really am a part of your team… an elemental master?”
“Cole. And yes, they were telling you the truth.” Zane replied, trying to be as calm as possible to help Jay comprehend it all.
“Cole…” Jay whispered, that name sat comfortably on his tongue. “Why don’t I remember?” Jay looked at the photo of him and Nya with a frown. He wanted to know her.
“We are not sure why you do not remember who you were before, but we are sure that we can get you back to being yourself. That is, if you let us help you.”
“Is this why you brought me in here? To see if anything would jog my memory?”
“It is proven that revisiting places of great significance will trigger those with amnesia to remember what they have forgotten.” Zane talked so plainly, as if it was like nothing. It was somehow comforting to Jay despite having no emotion in his tone. “The picture, in all honesty, was not a part of the plan. I did not think you were ready to actually see yourself in this building, but I took you down this hallway anyway because it is the only way to our next place of interest.”
“Amnesia...” Jay whispered again, balling up his fist and pressing his fingernails into his skin. He felt so weird, the sinking feeling in his chest growing bigger. “Can you really help me remember?”
“I believe we can, yes.” Zane smiled softly, there was a touch of confidence in his voice, “Now that you understand the gravity of this situation, and have agreed to allow us to help you, can I trust you enough to let you roam without handcuffs?”
Jay nodded his head, whispering lowly, “I don’t know what Administration did to me… but it wasn’t good, and I have no intention on ever going back there.” He picked his head up and looked Zane in the eyes. Jay making eye-contact was a sure sign of his seriousness.
Zane took the handcuffs off of Jay’s wrists and stood up while Jay was rubbing the ring around his arm where the metal sat.
“Where are the others?” Jay asked as Zane helped him stand back up.
“Asleep, it is still early in the morning, but they should be up soon. We usually get a head start on the days around here.”
Jay nodded his head, looking one more time at the picture before following Zane down another staircase. This one lead to a large room underground, full of different parts of cars and planes and other large vehicles. “Wow, this is all really impressive.”
“Thank you! This is mostly where me and Pixal would spend our time, although you and Nya would join us often.” Jay loved the sound of her name; he couldn’t wait to meet her.
“Who is Pixal?” Jay asked Zane as he traced his hand along the big communication board at the end of the room, looking at the detail in each wiring panel on the floor.
Zane pointed to a printout photo of another nindroid. The picture was stuck onto the handle of a broom, “This is Pixal!” he exclaimed excitedly, picking up the broom stick and bringing her closer to Jay.
“A… broom?” This guys crazy, Jay thought to himself.
“The broom is simply a prop to hold her picture.” Zane stated, proudly, staring at the photo of the other nindroid. “Pixal is half my heart, she worked with us to help defend Ninjago city. She is also the one who built almost all the machinery you see in here.”
Jay realized then what he meant, “You’ve lost her?” Jay asked, sadly.
“We are unaware of her current location, yes.” Zane said, once again with low emotion. “This broom has done well to take her place, though.” He set the broom back against the wall before turning back to Jay. “It is now 6am, the others should be awake. Would you like to speak with everyone?”
Jay was nervous to see them all. “How do you know they are going to want to see me?”
Zane cocked his head in confusion. “Jay, you are family. We are your people and your home. They will want to see you.”
Jay rubbed his hands together, picking at the skin on his fingernails, and followed Zane back up the stairs to the main room of the monastery. Maybe seeing everyone together will help his memory.
The two walked up the stairs back towards the hallway. Jay’s hands started shaking, why am I so nervous all of a sudden? Three hours ago, I was still mad they kidnapped me.
Entering into the kitchen, Jay saw Kai on the far end of the room at the table. His eyes were half closed and he was leaning his head on the black-haired ninja’s shoulder. Cole. Cole immediately made eye contact and Jay’s heart skipped a beat.
He stood in the doorway, watching as Zane moved to get an apron off the wall and start making breakfast.
“Zane” Cole started,” Uhm what is he doing here… and why is he not cuffed?” he gestured towards Jay, not really angrily just more confused.
“I will explain the whole situation once every is in here,” Zane stood with his back towards the three of them while turning on the stove.
Cole gave a quick nod and went back to resting his head on Kai’s hair. They both looked tired, must have not slept well last night.
Jay wondered how everyone was so comfortable around him, how they still trusted him even though he barely knows who they are. Yes, they had all apparently grown up together, but to Jay they were all essentially strangers.
“You can have a seat if you want Jay,” Zane whispered, pointing at the chair closest to the door. “You used the sit in that one.”
The silence in the room was deafening, he expected the other ninja to be loud and annoyed he was in there. Aggravated that Zane had left him unchained, but the trust these ninja had in each other was insane. Cole didn’t even further question his logic, he just trusted that the reasoning to be good enough. Maybe he was just too tired to care? Kai and he were essentially falling asleep at the table.
Jay sat down in the chair Zane pointed to and took in the surroundings. The smell of bacon, the sunlight streaming through the window, and the warmth of the bodies in the room. It felt right, like he was supposed to be doing this everyday, but it also felt distant, like he hasn’t been doing this since he was a child. Even the chair he was sitting in had a feel to it, the positioning in the room was perfect. This was where he is supposed to be.
Slowly other ninja came into the room. First, one with a green suit, he whispered to Zane more about the status of Jay sitting in the chair right in front of him, but again Zane waved him off and said he would explain shortly. He did the same with the orange one that walked in after, and the one with cat ears. Then, finally, Nya walked into the room.
Jay had his head down, staring at his shaking hands and trying to avoid eye contact with everyone as much as possible. He felt another body walk in behind his chair, and for some reason he felt inclined to turn around. That’s when he saw her.
She was wearing a blue gi with her hair back just like the picture. “Nya” Jay said out loud, it was the first thing he had said since walking in the room.
Nya’s jaw dropped, “Jay? How did… What’s going on?” It took everything in her not to jump into his arms, but she knew that Jay would not recognize her hold the same way he used to. She’s looked around the room “Anyone going to tell me what’s going on here?”
Jay curled up to himself again, picking at his finger nails. He liked being the center of attention, but this was a little different, he was scared.
“Now that we are all here, I will explain Jay’s appearance this morning,” Zane started, taking off the apron and placing it back on it’s hook. “When Jay woke up earlier today, I cuffed him and took him around the main areas of the monastery. I know that visiting places you used to spend a lot of time in can trigger memories to resurface. Then, Jay saw the picture of him and Nya on the wall and had, what I believe to be, a flashback. He stated that he wants to remember everything and that he now believes what Kai and Cole were telling him yesterday. So, it is no longer a threat to leave him unchained.” Zane summed that up really well actually, Jay thought to himself.
“Wait you remember? Like you remember us?” Kai said, he was now sat straight up, no longer leaning on Cole half asleep, with a hint of hope in his voice.
“Uhm, not exactly…” Jay glanced over at Zane, who gave him a reassuring nod. “I know Nya because I saw her picture.” He turned to look at her, hesitating a bit. His mouth was dry, why was it so dry. “And uhm... you, Cole, and Zane I know too. I don’t know anyone else, though, or anything other than surface information. It’s all either really hazy or missing completely” Jay said. The hope dwindled from everyone’s posture while he was explaining. “I’m sorry, I can feel that you guys mean a lot to me, and I really want to remember, but I’m going to need some help to do that.”
“You don’t need to apologize, Jay.” The green one was talking now, “It’s not your fault this happened to you, and we are going to do everything we can to help you come back to us.” He put his hand on Jay’s shoulder, “I’m Lloyd, this is Arin and Sora” he pointed at the orange boy and the one with cat ears. Jay gave them both a small wave. Lloyd had a familiar presence, the other two not so much.
“Have you told him about the uh…,” Kai gestured at his chest, talking to Zane.
“I have not, I felt like that was a conversation more people should be here for.”
“Told me about what?” Jay was scared of what was going to come next. This has been such an emotional rollercoaster of a morning for him, anything else might break him completely.
“You’re uhh..” Kai dragged it out, he seemed nervous, looking over at Cole before wanting to say anything else. Jay saw Cole place his hand over Kai’s before smiling softly, nodding in Jay’s direction as a cue to keep going. “We wanted to talk to you about your vest.”
Jay cocked his head, “Like my ID pass? What about it?” Jay put his hand over the pajama shirt he was still wearing, feeling the hard surface underneath.
“We do not believe that is the reasoning for you wearing the vest.” Zane was sitting down in front of Jay now. “The vest you are wearing is made out of Vengestone.”
“Okay… what’s vengestone?” Jay felt another hand go onto his shoulder but he shrugged it off. He was overwhelmed, the touch almost hurt.
“Remember when Kai told you about your element?” Jay nodded but kept his eyes planted on the ground, he felt his breathing start to pick up. “The reason you have not been able to use it is because when an elemental master wears vengestone, it suppresses their elemental powers.”
Jay was hyperventilating at this point, “I was lied to.” His eyes darted around the room, everything was hot, there were too many people looking at him and the refrigerator was buzzing and someone was touching him and there were too many food smells and too much light and—
Jay stood up quickly from the chair half running out of the room, he heard voices yelling behind them but couldn’t make out exactly what they said. There was too much happening at once.
A few minutes later, Cole found him sitting criss-cross in Wu’s meditation room, rocking back and forth while staring at the ground. He opened the door gently, trying not to startle Jay too much, and quietly sat down in front of him.
Jay didn’t address him at all and continued to rock back and forth, his breathing was still quick and short and he had his hands over his ears. Cole sat patiently and waited, tapping on the floor gently in front of Jay.
The tapping was grounding, something that he could focus on rather than the overwhelming stimulation going on around him. Cole tapped consistently and steadily, not changing the rhythm or beat, so Jay could expect when the next tap would be.
Jay’s hands slowly lowered from his ears to his lap, still rocking back and forth, his eyes looking off into the distance slightly. “Do you feel like talking?” Jay shook his head slightly, still listening to the taps of Cole’s fingers on the floor. He looked at Cole, like actually looked. Studied him up and down, paying attention to all the divots in his gi, reading the lettering, and slowly making his way all the way up to his neck. He wanted to bury his face in it and cry, it didn’t make any sense. He wanted this man he just met yesterday to coddle him until he felt better. Cole ducked his head a bit to catch Jay’s gaze, “You want to hug me, don’t you?” That did it.
Jay launched himself into the stronger arms, burying his face into his chest. Cole immediately reciprocated, not rubbing his hand on his back but just placing it there, as if he knew that the rubbing would be too stimulating.
Jay felt so comfortable in his arms, he felt safe. The inside of him knew that he was safe with this man, it made him start to tear up.
“We’ve done this a lot, you know,” Cole spoke softly. “You don’t remember, of course, but it’s okay to let me help you. We’re gonna get through this.” Jay didn’t respond, but Cole wasn’t expecting him too. He exaggerated his breathing a bit to make it easy for Jay to match. “Zane said he can take it off, if you’d like him to. You don’t need to answer right now, but I just wanted to tell you there’s a way. It feels pretty heavy, especially to be wearing all the time.” Jay lifted his head off Cole for a second, teary-eyed, mustering up the ability to speak.
“Get this thing off of me.”
Notes:
WHOOP he’s back and here to stay, he’s also gonna start training again soon, but kai forgot to mention his drawing abilities to the rest of the team…
Chapter 5: In-vest-igate
Summary:
What happens when they take off the vest?
Notes:
earlyyyy update, sorry for any typos.. it’s like 2am
Chapter Text
On the way back to the kitchen, Cole and Jay could hear the loud chatter of the other ninja. The closer they got, the clearer the yelling became. “WHY WOULDN’T YOU TELL US THIS SOONER?”
“I’m sorry!! It just slipped my mind I don’t know.” Kai was standing up with his arms in a defensive pose.
“What’s going on in here??” Cole questioned immediately. The room immediately went silent once Jay stepped in behind him. “Why were you guys yelling?”
“Here,” Lloyd spoke first, handing Cole a napkin with scribbles on it.
“What is this?” Cole looked at it, trying to decipher the lazy drawing. Kai sat back down, crossing his arms and laying his head on the table with a sigh. “Wait… is this, Chen?”
Jay glanced over his shoulder to look at the drawing, “Oh, I drew that yesterday!” He pointed a finger over Cole’s hand, “He’s just some guy I thought of. Did Kai show it to you guys? He said he was going to give it to Cole yesterday.”
Cole gave Kai a glare, “No. He didn’t show me yesterday.” It sounded like he was speaking through gritted teeth. Kai threw up his hands again to defend himself, but Nya popped the back of his head before he could speak.
“Wait, so how did you know I named him Chen?” Jay backed up off a Cole a bit to look at him.
“Uhm...” Cole looked around the room wide-eyed. “Lucky guess?” Jay opened his mouth to say something, but Cole interrupted him before he could, “Zane, Jay said he wanted you to take the vest off.” He tried to move on quickly from the topic, there was too much going on for Jay to be aware of this right now.
“Ah yes, I was able to think of a way we can remove the vengestone vest. I need to warn you though that it may be an overwhelming experience… You do not even remember what it was like to have elemental powers, and I have no idea what the outcome of this removal will be.” Zane’s eyes flickered as he was analyzing Jay’s reactions. “I have two predictions: either you will need to work to regain the power of your element, or you will experience a build up of your elemental powers.”
“What does that mean?” Lloyd had a worried look on his face.
“Well, the vengestone has been suppressing his powers for so long that he may have a build up of power and not be able to control when or where shocks will occur.”
“Just like how the further you pull back a rubber band, the harder it snaps.” Nya chimed in.
“Precisely.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Jay asked cautiously, “I don’t want to become a walking taser…”
“It could be dangerous, but I will have you put on chainmail gloves for the removal process.’’ Zane really thinks of everything, “The gloves should be able to keep the shocks grounded to you and away from the rest of us, almost like a lightning rod.”
“Are you okay with that, Jay?” Cole rested his hand on Jay’s arm, “We don’t have to go through with this if you’re not comfortable.”
Jay looked down at the floor and thought really hard. Administration had lied to him. They lied about who he was, about where he came from, and forced him to wear a vengestone vest, without him knowing, just to make sure they could keep him under their control. “I want it off.” Everyone was smiling.
“I’m glad you said that,” Zane started walking towards Jay with his hands together, “I do not think it would be healthy for you to wear the vest any longer than you have. It is better for us to remove it as soon as possible.” Zane walked past Jay and turned around, “If you are ready, we can go downstairs and get started.”
“I’m ready.”
+
All of the ninja were gathered in a medical corner of the hangar bay that Zane had shown to Jay earlier that morning. Jay was sitting on the table with his shirt off, Cole sitting next to him on the right, and Zane to his left typing something into the giant computer system in the wall.
“So how are you going to take it off Zane?” Kai spoke up first.
“First, I am going to do a scan of the entire vest, and then I will scan the lock in the back of it. After scanning the lock, I should be able to map out a key that will fit and have it generated with the computer.” Zane was very focused on the programming he was doing on the machine.
Jay didn’t know what to expect and that wasn’t helping his nerves. He kind of wanted to be able to use his powers right away, to see what it feels like, but he also doesn’t want to be a giant supercharged battery ready to shock everything in its wake. His hands started shaking a bit again, Nya could see it. “It’s going to be alright, Jay.” Nya reached out and grabbed his hands to steady them. “I know this is all really weird, and you don’t know what’s going to happen, neither do we…” she looked around the room at the other ninja, “but no matter what, we’re going to help you get through it.”
Jay couldn’t help the blush on his face. He tried to look away from the girl, but he couldn’t. She was so perfect. “Thank you, Nya.” Nya gave him a weak smile, gliding her thumbs across the backs of his hands before letting go. The words I love you were sitting on her tongue, but it was too soon. She was angry on the inside, not at Jay, but starting completely over with the person you’ve loved for years is difficult.
“Okay, Jay, I am ready to begin the scan.” Zane plugged a cord into the back of his head, “I need to you be very still during this, it shouldn’t feel like anything, but movement might mess up the measurements.”
Jay grabbed for Cole’s hand and squeezed tight, Cole immediately reciprocated the touch, not squeezing back hard but enough to subtly tell Jay he was there.
It was quiet while Zane stood perfectly still in front of him, blue lasers coming out from his eyes and projecting onto Jay’s chest. He was right, it didn’t feel like anything, but it didn’t change how scared Jay was of the outcome. He did not move a muscle, trying to stay as still as possible for Zane.
After about 30 seconds of scanning, Zane moved to Jay’s back. “Does it hurt?” Cole asked softly, Jay was still holding onto Cole’s hand tightly. “No, I’m just nervous, sorry.” He let go of Cole’s hand, he felt awkward now that Cole had brought it up.
Cole smiled softly at him, “Don’t apologize, it’s weird I get it. I’m nervous, too.” He leaned back to look at the vest. “They really armored you up huh?”
“Yeah, I’ve never really thought about it that deeply, but now that I am paying more attention to it I’ve noticed how heavy it is. I used to not be able to sleep well because of it.” Jay spoke softly, still trying not to move too much for Zane, but he enjoyed the conversation.
After a few more seconds, Zane started speaking “Jay, have you been feeling any pain in your chest, besides the weight of the vest?” He unplugged the cord from the back of his vest and moved back towards the big computer.
“Uhm, not that I can think of?” Jay’s eyebrows raised in confusion, “What kind of pain would you be talking about?”
“I was able to scan both the vest and underneath the vest, on your skin,” Zane had moved to feeling the under side of the vest close to Jay’s stomach. “It looked like you have some bruising around your ribs. I am worried that you may have broken them and they were not treated properly.”
“Oh…” Jay looked down, watching Zane trace the bottom of the vest, “I can’t remember any pain, but again my memory is really bad so I don’t really know.”
“Any trouble breathing?”
Jay took a deep breath in and out while Zane moved around his around, now looking closer at the lock gear on the back.
“I don’t think so?”
“Alright, I will further examine your ribs once the vest is removed. I should have a key processed in….” Zane looked back at the computer, “10 seconds.”
“Well, that was quick,” Kai elbowed Lloyd and laughed.
“It was,” Lloyd responded, shoving Kai a bit. “But it also means we’re about to find out what it did to Jay’s powers.” The two put serious faces back on.
“Jay, here are the chainmail gloves,” Zane handed him two long metal sleeves. They were super cold when he put them on, but the weight helped his hands to stop shaking a bit. “Again, I am not entirely sure what the outcome of this will be, but the gloves should help isolate anything coming out of your hands.” Cole hopped off the table to give Jay some room (and to avoid being shocked) which only made Jay even more anxious. The warmth and physical presence of people always helped him, he was very physically affectionate, but he didn’t want to hurt anyone either.
He looked around at all the people in the room, trying to remind himself that they were all there for him. Nya could see from the look on his face how scared he was, but this needed to be done. She was just grateful they were taking the first step to getting her Jay back.
Zane put on his own pair of gloves and reached his hands into a large box beside the table. When he pulled them out, he was holding an oddly shaped key. The ends were all going out in different directions, with a spiral screw in the center. “Are you ready, Jay?”
Jay’s mouth was so dry, he was scared out of his mind, “As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” He shut his eyes tight and bawled his hands into fists, bracing for whatever what about to happen.
He felt Zane’s presence behind him, lining the key up and screwing it into the vest. It felt weird, like there was a spider crawling up his back. He twitched his neck a bit trying to shake the feeling but it wouldn’t go.
Once the key was fully in, Zane twisted it once more and Jay felt the sides under his arms pop open. It was tingly, just like how his arm felt earlier that morning when he woke up, but instead all over his body. His head was hurting too, but that could be from how tightly his eyes were shut.
Zane unscrewed the key slowly, setting it on the table beside Jay. “Alright, I’m going to lift the vest off,” Jay felt his hands on his shoulders before a huge release of pressure. The weight coming off his shoulder was heavenly. He had never felt lighter in his life.
Once Zane had the vest over his head, he opened one eye to see if anything changed. Everyone was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to explode or do anything. His whole body felt weird, the mix of the pressure release and the air in the room almost made him dizzy. His hands felt hot, like static, but other than what was going on inside of his body, it was no different than before the vest was off.
“Well that was anti-climatic,” Kai stared at him with his head tilted, “Do you feel any different?”
Jay unclenched his fists, looking down at his chain-mailed hands. They were tingling. The feeling came in waves over his body, each time feeling stronger than before.
“Jay?” He couldn’t make out who said that over the ringing in his ears. He shut his eyes again, putting his hands over them. Everything was so hot, the air around him churning, he felt like he could feel every particle moving around him in a coil.
Across the room, a lightbulb exploded, then another, closer to the group of ninja. The metal on Jay’s hands started glowing, “Uhhh… Jay?” A flicker of static shot out of his elbow and connected to the table. “Guys, I don’t know if those gloves are working.”
Jay’s hands still covered his eyes, he felt like exploding, like he was holding back something. There was a force in the air screaming at him, his whole body shaking aggressively. “Zane— I’m, I can’t” His hands came off his eyes, to grip the metal table beneath him. A shock went through the gloves into the metal. He felt it in his whole body, it waved from his hair to his feet, over and over, building up more and more.
Another lightbulb exploded above them, “Jay, can you hear me?” He felt the hair on his body standing up, opening his eyes to see who was talking. “Holy shit, guys, his eyes.” Jay’s eyes, which were originally brown, now glowed a bright blue. He shut them again, twisting his head at the pain shooting through his neck to his arms.
“Jay, I need you to focus. You’re feeling a lot right now but I need you to try to send it all into the table.”
“Send— What? How do I do that” He growled, gritting his teeth.
“Just think about where you want it to go and send it there.”
“You need to focus really hard.”
Focus Jay, focus focus focus. He squeezed his eyes shut hard, thinking about his hands on the table. They were getting hotter, the tingling feeling moving from the rest of his body and focusing into his hands.
“Just like that, Jay, now let it go.”
“HOW. How do I let it,” He grunted in pain, “it hurts, everything hurts.” His head was pounding harder, the air around him getting sharper.
“Just think about your hands and the table and relax.”
Jay sat for a few more seconds, making sure he was focusing on his hands has much as possible. “Ok— okay I’m” He screamed, releasing something into the table. Immediately everything around him felt sharp. His skin prickled, feeling the shock release from his hands down below him. He thought he heard a few more lightbulbs burst above him but didn’t even try to listen. It was so much, there was so much energy inside him.
After what felt like eternity, Jay opened his eyes, looking around at the people who got him here in the first place. The room was dimmer now, he could see the glass of the lightbulbs on the floor, not only that but he could see the terrified look on the ninja’s faces. They looked scared. Not just of what happened, scared of him.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Jay felt the tears start coming down his cheeks. He would normally try to wipe them himself, but he was too scared to move.
Cole reached out his hand, “Jay—“
“DON’T TOUCH ME” Jay exclaimed, backing away from Cole’s hand as soon as it lifted, “don’t. I don’t know what’s happening, what just happened.” He felt another static shock pop off his shoulder.
“It seems that, of the two outcomes I gave you, the latter is occurring.” Zane said calmly, “You are experiencing a surge of your elemental power coming from built up energy you were not able to let out due to the vest.”
“How do I stop it,” His shook his head, blinking hard, “It still feels like its there, how do I get rid of it.”
“You need to learn how to control it,” the green ninja was standing in front of Jay now. “When I feel like I need to let out my green energy, I try to focus on my breathing. Do you feel the air around you moving?”
“Yes, its like” Jay ticked again, jerking his head to the side, “The air feels…”
“Like needles?” Nya piped up.
“Yes…” Jay whispered. He lifted his hand up and watched a string of electricity connect between it and the table. “How did you know that?”
“You’ve told me before.” Nya moved closer to the table, “Whenever you didn’t use your powers for a while, you said it was like your whole body is about to sneeze.”
“Did I ever tell you how I used to control it?” Jay smiled at Nya, trying to make a half-serious joke. His eye twitched a bit, at least they were back to their usual brown color.
She shook her head lightly, apologetically.
“Why don’t you try just… shocking the table until you feel better.” Everyone looked back at Kai like he was the dumbest in the room, “What?! Do any of YOU have a better idea??” It was silent for a few seconds before everyone turned to look back at Jay.
He looked down again, trying to focus on his hands before he felt a release come from his neck. It was quicker this time, less forced, but still a weird feeling. The electricity bounced from his to the table for a few seconds before it stopped.
There was silence until Jay said something, “actually, that did make me feel better.”
“See guys! I have good ideas, too.” Kai had his hands on his hips, clearly proud of his moment of genius.
Jay’s eyes had no more glowing behind them, and his whole body felt a lot more relaxed. A lot better than it was a few minutes ago. “Okay, I think I’m good now.” He took a breath, finally being able to feel the lightness he felt before. That vest really was heavy on him.
“I still need to examine the area the vest was sitting on,” Zane took the gloves off Jay’s hands and walked around to his back, “There does seem to be a lot of bruising in the area around you ribs. Are you sure its not causing you any pain?”
“Well now that you say it without the vest on… it does hurt… a lot.” Jay was slightly hunched over, the vest really messed with his posture. He tried to sit up slightly, straightening out his back, but immediately pain shot through his chest.
He groaned, clutching his side under his arm, a static shock coming off his open hand when the pain hit.
“Try not to move too much, I think your ribs might still be broken. How is your breathing now that the vest is off?” Zane felt along the side where Jay was holding, trying not to push too hard but still trying to feel the ribs around the area.
Jay took another deep breath in and out, “Oh wow, it’s a lot easier to breathe…” Jay was shocked by his own ability. “I feel like I haven’t been able to breathe until just now, actually.”
“I will need to do an x-ray on you to be sure, but the vest you were wearing was too tight on you and may have caused damage to you internally.” Zane continued to feel around before pulling back really quickly with a yelp. Lloyd rushed to his side to keep him standing, his eyes pulsed slightly before standing back up. “It seems I… should not have taken off my rubber gloves, as you are still electrically charged.” Zane half groaned.
“Wait. I shocked you??” Jay was surprised, “I didn’t even feel that one come out.”
“It’s alright. It will take a while for you to be able to fully control your powers. However, I do need to reboot my system after that. Nya, could you please put on my gloves and examine Jay’s ribs.”
“On it.” Nya slipped the gloves on and started to feel around Jay’s chest. He had a hard time not blushing but blamed it on his electric charge and definitely not how quickly he can get flustered. “Oh yeah, they’re broken. This one feels like it’s completely in half. Lloyd, can you get the bandages?”
Jay groaned at that. He just got back the ability to feel his chest and now he’s going to have to cover back up again. “How long do ribs take to heal?”
“Just a few weeks. That gives us time to just focus on your power control, too. Then we can worry about relearning Spinjitsu and your ninja training and...” Jay started to tune her out, the ringing in his ears was back.
“Nya, I need to—“ his head ticked to the side, clenched fist hitting the table.
Nya backed up quickly, allowing Jay to send his energy into the table again. He took a deep breath before nodding back at her so she could continue.
“Once I bandage these up, you’ll need to go rest for the day. You’ve been through a lot, we don’t need to add anymore stress to that.”
“Okay,” Jay was excited about that. He was still exhausted from yesterday due to his lack of sleep the night before. “Where am I supposed to rest at?”
“Oh yeah you haven’t seen your room! I can show it to you.” Cole had a big grin on his face.
“I have a room?” Jay winced as Nya started to wrap a blue bandage around his chest. About half way through the roll, she added an ice-pack over the rib that was snapped.
‘Well, yeah, you live here.” Kai said with a smirk, until he saw Jay’s frown. “Oh, sorry, I forgot.”
Jay shrugged; he didn’t really even have a reason to be upset. The only people who have a right to be upset are the ninja, he’s the one who doesn’t remember.
“It’s okay, I should be apologizing actually. I’m the one who doesn’t remember.”
“What?” Cole looked at him gently. “Jay we aren’t mad at you for it, you know that right?”
“Yeah, I know.” He swung his feet back and forth on the ledge of the table, “That doesn’t mean its not my fault though.”
“How would it be your fault?” Jay tried to shrug again but the bandaging was a little too tight for it now.
“It’s not your fault, Jay, and besides, you’re going to remember everything soon enough.” Lloyd was holding a glass of water for Jay to drink out of. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t eaten or drank since he got here.
Jay chugged the water down and set the empty glass on the table beside him. “Thank you for helping me.” Nya held out her hands to help him off the table, but Jay was still scared of shocking her and opted to jump off on his own. When his feet landed on the ground, he swayed slightly. He wasn’t used to carrying so little weight, but it felt great, like he was walking on air. “Can I go see my room now?” Cole nodded his head, gesturing in front of him for Jay to walk first.
+
Walking down the hallway, Cole motioned to the first door on the right, “This one’s yours.” Jay looked at the closed door. It felt familiar, like everything else in this building, but it also gave him a feeling of relaxation.
He reached for the doorknob, a bolt of electricity stringing between it and his hand. When he opened the door, it was dim. He walked in anyway, using the light from the window to see where he was going. He saw Cole walk over to one side of the room and turn on a lamp. “Turn the one over there on, too, Jay.” He looked over at where Cole was pointing, there was floor lamp in the corner by a closet.
The warm lighting made the room a lot more cozy, very different from the holding cell he had spent yesterday in. “You never used the overhead light.” Cole explained, “you said the noise it made gave you headaches.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and watched as Jay explored his own living space.
There were nunchucks mounted on the wall, as well as a cork board full of pictures. One was of all the ninja at the kitchen table, eating breakfast. The next was a photo of him and Cole together, they both looked really young. Then the last two were of him and Nya, dancing and holding hands. “Are Nya and I…”
“Yes.” Cole said quickly, “I was waiting to you to ask about her.”
“We’re together?” Jay turned around in shock.
“Mhm,” Cole stood up and walked over to the nightstand by jay’s bed. He picked up a small gold and black medallion. “You two made a yin-yang promise a few years ago.” He handed the medallion to Jay to hold. Jay examined it carefully, tracing his hand over the dragon design in the medal.
“I can’t believe it.” Jay looked back up at the pictures. “I felt, drawn to her, when I first saw her picture, but I didn’t know why.”
“She really loves you.” Cole sat back down on the edge of the bed, “and you really love her, too.”
“Why hasn’t she mentioned it?” he placed the medallion carefully back on the nightstand.
“I think she’s just nervous. It’s hard for her to see you like this.” Jay frowned. He wanted to remember so badly, and he felt like he almost could. He was grasping at the straws, but just couldn’t reach them fully.
He turned to look at the other side of the room. It wasn’t as decorated as the first wall, but the closet was open. When he glanced inside he saw different types of blue gi, a teddy bear, various weapons, and an eye patch.
He stood still for a second, staring at the eyepatch. The air around him got hot, a spark shot out of his hand onto the floor.
“Jay what’s wrong”
Jay felt his knees buckle, the sounds around him fading out. He closed his eyes hard and felt his body trembling.
There was a ball and chain wrapped around his ankle. He was crawling on the floor in the hull of a wooden boat when glanced up and saw a ghostly man with a pirate hat on.
“Cole? Is that you?” His eye hurt bad, but really his whole body was pulsing with pain.
“JAY!” Cole rushed over to him, dropping the glass bottle he was holding, “You’re okay!” Jay groaned softly. “What happened to your eye?”
“Why are you dressed like a pirate?” Jay might only have one eye, but he can still see how ridiculous Pirate Cole looked.
“Don’t worry about that, our friends are nearby. We’re going to get you out of here.” Cole pushed jay up, getting his arm underneath him to help him stand.
“Boy am I glad to see you. Cole, I’m sorry about keeping stuff from you, I should’ve told you that—“
“and I should have been a better friend, don’t worry about it. Save your strength. We can laugh about this when its all behind us.” Jay started to hug Cole, but there was a loud thud against the door of the hull.
“Behind you!”
“—hey I need you to breathe. Jay! Hello?” Cole had Jay’s face in his hands, “Are you with me?”
Jay was on the ground hyperventilating, “Where. Cole? Where am I?”
“You’re here. I’m here, Jay, I’m Cole.” Jay launched himself into Cole’s arms sobbing. Wrapping his arms tightly around him, still not breathing regularly. Cole was getting small shocks from off Jay, but he didn’t mind. It was the least of his worries right now. “Woah, hey what’s going on?”
Jay didn’t speak, he couldn’t. His whole body hurt; he felt his rib throbbing under the bandages and his head pounding along with it. “It’s alright you’re here, I’m right here.” If Jay could’ve squeezed Cole any tighter he would’ve.
After a few minutes of sobbing, Jay had successfully fallen asleep in Cole’s arms. Despite the confusion over what happened with Jay and the closet, he lifted him up and brought him over to the bed so he could sleep properly.
Cole turned off both the lamps and was about to leave when Jay woke up slightly, slurring his words, “I don’t want to be alone.”
That was all it took for Cole to find himself in Jay’s bed for the next few hours.
Chapter 6: Calm Before the Storm
Summary:
meant to post this chapter two days ago but i shit my pants at the library and have been emotionally recovering
Chapter Text
“So, are we going to talk about it or…?” it was time for lunch at the monastery. Today was more of a relaxed day, it’s been pretty quiet since they rescued Jay, which is why they were trying to take their time with him. However, all of them knew it wouldn’t last long, there was a lot of work to be done still.
“Talk about what, Lloyd?” Kai replied with his mouth half full of a ham sandwich.
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe that Jay is drawing his own memories without even realizing it?”
Kai coughed on his food. “Oh yeah…” he grimaced, looking away from the other ninja. “Sorry again, it seriously just slipped my mind.”
Lloyd rolled his eyes. He wasn’t eating anything today; he doesn’t really eat much when he’s stressed. “Should we tell him or just try to let him remember on his own?”
“I have been thinking and doing research on that,” Zane had his apron back on, cleaning up the food he had prepared for his friends. “I think it is best for us to let him rediscover himself fully. The drawings I cannot explain, yet, but I think we should encourage him to draw. It might help him process things. I definitely believe there is hope for him, especially since he is willing to participate.”
“Where is he at?” Kai had moved onto a bag of chips now. “Are him and Cole still asleep?”
“Jay is yeah.” Cole responded, walking into the kitchen nonchalantly. “Out like a light, I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t sleep through the night honestly.” He picked up a sandwich off the tray Zane had prepared.
“Out like a… light?”
“It’s a saying, Zane. You know like, when someone’s sleeping really hard.” Zane still had his head tilted like a puppy, trying to understand what it meant.
“He’s not laying on his stomach, is he? That rib did not look good. I was almost scared to touch it while wrapping him up.” Nya hadn’t touched her food much either.
“I made sure he wasn’t. Might want to go in there soon and check though because he moves in his sleep a lot.” Cole sat down beside Kai with a huff. He didn’t mind helping out his friends, but it took a lot out of him sometimes. Jay has put them all in a lot of pain, it’s difficult for everyone to see him like this.
“I will go check on him in a bit,” Zane had hung his apron back up on the hook. “I still need to run a scan on his physical condition to make sure nothing else is damaged.”
“Well, I need to get out of the house,” Kai stood up and clapped his hands together. “I need air or something. Sora? Arin? You two want to join me?”
“If Lloyd doesn’t have anything planned for us…?” Arin looked to his side, silently begging Lloyd to let them go.
“I was going to have you do some training,” Arin frowned at Sora, “but, I think we have our hands full here, so yes you can go.”
Arin and Sora cheered in unison and followed Kai out the door, berating him with questions of what they were going to do today.
“I am going to go do Jay’s scans now. You guys can join me in the hangar bay afterwards, if you’d like.” Zane started to head out the kitchen.
“We’ll be there,” Cole looked at Nya worryingly, “Not hungry?”
“Not really. Do you want it?” Nya slid the plate over, stood up, and walked out after Zane without saying anything else.
Cole sighed heavily, picking up the sandwich so it wouldn’t go to waste. “Lloyd? How are you holding up?”
“I was going to ask you the same.” Cole looked down at the table, he really didn’t want to talk about it. His silence apparently spoke for itself when Lloyd said, “Yeah, me neither,” sitting down at the chair on the end of the table.
They sat in comfortable silence until Cole finished eating and walked down to the hangar together.
+
Jay was standing with the other ninja inside of a temple. There was a pattern traced onto the floor, each ninja standing in their own section.
“You guys ready for this?” Lloyd shouted.
“Bring it.”
Lloyd jumped up, kicking a bell that was hanging above him. The loud ring hurt Jay’s ear, but he was more focused on the bright ray of light that came from it.
The light shone down on Lloyd, reflecting off of his face and towards a crystal on the other side of the room. The reflection carried until it hit a pillar beside Kai, illuminating him. It also looked like Kai was now holding something gold.
The light continued past Kai into Cole’s pillar, giving him the same golden handle. Then it was his turn.
When the light hit his pillar, he felt warmth go over his body, the floor glowing beneath him. A golden handle appeared in his hand as well. It was dense and heavy, but it felt fitting. He could feel the particles around him spinning with it. When he turned back around, Zane had one too.
There was a loud whirring in his ears as he watched Lloyd lift off the floor into the air. “Since when can he fly???” he thought to himself, before noticing that the handle he was holding now had a bright blue blade sticking out the top. There were zaps of electricity circuiting around it. It buzzed in his hand.
“Guys! Send him your powers!” Kai shouted, as he pointed his sword towards Lloyd. Jay did the same, pointing the end of his sword at Lloyd. Listening the the whirring all around him and the buzzing in his hands when—
Jay woke up. The buzzing wasn’t from his dream, it was in his room. His breathing picked up slightly as he peaked open one eye. The moment of panic was small, but it was there. He had forgotten that he was at a monastery and not his usual bed.
He was about to close his eyes again when he saw a blue laser appear above him. “WHAT THE” he sat up quickly, knocking his head against the bed frame, which only disoriented him more. This also made his powers act up, shooting a spark of electricity from the top of his head to the lamp nearby. The light flickered on, stimulated by the shock.
He didn’t know what he expected to see when he looked at the foot of the bed, but it definitely wasn’t Zane. “DUDE, you have got to stop watching me while I’m sleeping.” He tried to sit up more, but a sharp pain came from the side of his chest.
“I am sorry to have woken you up,” Zane had stopped the scan halfway through because of Jay’s movement. “My intention was to examine your scans while you were sleeping, but it seems like I disturbed you before I was able to finish them.”
“I don’t know if that makes you more or less creepy.” Jay laid back down, now his head AND his chest were hurting, “you could’ve just woken me up if it was important. How long did I even sleep for?”
“You were ‘out like a light’ for approximately 6 hours.” Jay groaned. He would’ve been more than happy to roll-over and go back to sleep, but the panic was more than enough to keep him up for the rest of the day.
“Alright, let’s go do your scans.” Jay attempted to sit-up again, wincing slightly, “help me up, would you?”
“I do not think it is good for you to be active in your condition.” Zane lifted the blanket on top of Jay to help him readjust, watching as a shock of static connected between it and Jay, “It is best for you to stay resting for a while.”
“Well, I’m not tired anymore. Why can’t I just walk around some? That’s what I was doing before.” Jay crossed his arms in defiance, now successfully sitting upright in the bed.
“Before I knew your rib was broken.” He groaned again, watching as Zane walked over to a desk in the corner of Jay’s room, grabbing a pencil, some paper, and a clipboard. “Here.”
“What’s this for?”
“Boredom!” Zane had a huge smile on his face, he was incapable of sarcasm, but sometimes it sure didn’t feel like it.
“Don’t you still need to do my scans?” Jay smirked, “I need to get up for those, right?”
“Incorrect. I can easily scan through the blankets, just as I would through clothing.”
“YOU CAN SEE UNDER MY CLOTHES?” Zane ignored Jay’s flabbergasted look and returned to the foot of the bed.
“Please sit still so I can get an accurate depiction of your health status.” Great now I’m not tired, bored, AND violated. Maybe I am still a prisoner. Jay thought to himself, still making sure not to move.
The blue lines came back, along with the whirring. It wasn’t dark in the room anymore at least, since his powers managed to turned the lamp back on. That’s so cool, he thought to himself, I wonder what else I can do. He wished Cole hadn’t left. He wondered how long he stayed.
“Excellent, thank you. Please rest in here while I am gone. Preferably no walking long distances, especially no running, jumping, swimming…” Jay drowned him out after that, picking up the pencil and paper while nodding along with whatever Zane was saying. But by the time he looked up again, Zane was gone, and he was alone again.
+
Lloyd, Nya, and Cole were all waiting in the hangar to discuss Jay’s condition with Zane when he returned. Nya and Lloyd were using the computer to look for any distress calls around them, and Cole was watching them with his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Anything?”
“Oddly… No, and it’s starting to worry me.” Lloyd bit his nails, mindlessly, still moving the map around on the screen. “I’m starting to wonder if this is a calm before the storm situation.”
“I’d call it a blessing. Maybe the universe is giving us a break to deal with Jay before we need to go out again.” Cole looked at Nya, she was very focused on the screen in front of her.
She’s been off recently. When she had found him in the Land of Lost Things, she seemed herself, like she had come to terms with all she had lost. Sure, she asked about Jay, and Cole could tell she was upset about him, but now that he’s back she’s sadder than ever. It was probably the one time his presence didn’t cheer her up, the only time him walking into the room would make her frown instead of smile. He hated it. He wanted them back, both of them.
That first day, when Cole begged Jay to remember, was rough. After Kai calmed him down, he went back to his room and cried. Bawled. His hopes were so high, he was so excited, and it was shot down so quickly. Part of him felt like it was his fault, like if he had tried harder to defend his team during the merge, none of this would’ve happened in the first place. Obviously, his brain knows there was nothing he could do, but his heart hurt. Mourning his family, mourning the earth beneath him as it screamed, mourning himself… it was just a lot for him. He can only imagine how Nya felt. The ninja aren’t even technically related to him, but Nya? She lost her brother and her yang, on the same day.
He had to remind himself that everyone was feeling what he felt. It’s not his fault and he’s not the only one, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.
Cole’s thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the nindroid. “I have completed Jay’s scans if you guys would like to look at them.”
“Is it bad?” Lloyd asked, handing Zane the cable that helped him input/output.
“His ribs are indeed broken. Three of them, all on top of each other on his right side. His cortisol levels are high, but that was expected. Otherwise, everything seems to be of order.” Zane typed into the computer, pulling Jay’s rib x-rays up. “Two clean breaks and a fracture. I could not determine at what time or day they occurred, but it seems like they may have healed poorly and been re-broken a few times over.”
“So how long til he’ll be able to start training again?” Nya was more focused on the conversation now than she was previously.
“He should be good to do mild movements in about a week, but more aggressive motions or fighting will not be possible for about 4 weeks. His healing process is already started, so if we make sure it heals properly, he might be okay—“
The conversation was cut short when Arin came bolting down the stairs, soaking wet. The four ninja all turned to him with faces of confusion.
“Hey Arin… how was your trip with Kai?” Lloyd asked, drawing out his words awkwardly.
“There’s a storm.”
“Ahuh…” Lloyd nodded his head, trying to figure out what the urgency was over some rain.
“A lightning storm.”
+
The ninja bolted up the stairs to Jay’s room, Cole ahead of the rest of them. Glancing out the windows as they zoomed past, they noticed how aggressive the storm truly was. It was barely visible outside due to the dark clouds swirling the monastery, flickers of lightning illuminating the dark hallway. Most of the lights in the hallway were blown out, there was glass everywhere on the floor. There was also a bright blue glow coming from under the door to Jay’s room.
When they reached the door, they saw that Kai was already there, pulling on the doorknob. “Cole its locked he’s not letting me in!”
“Back up.” Cole clapped his hands together, watching an orange glow creep up to his elbows. He punched the doorknob down, breaking it off the door entirely, allowing it to swing open. “JAY”
The room was completely dark and there was more glass on the floor from the lightbulbs. Jay was sitting on his bed with his head between his legs, rocking back and forth. There were bolts of static popping off of him, his hands glowing blue with energy.
Cole took two big steps over towards the bed as the others filed in after him. “Jay, talk to me what’s going on.” He noticed that Jay’s bandages were discard on the floor, along with all his blankets, a broken pencil, a clipboard, ripped up drawings, and the ice pack that was with him. He was sitting at the head of the empty bed.
Cole sat in front of Jay on the bed, he couldn’t touch him without being shocked but made sure to get as close as possible. “Jay, can you hear me? You’ve got to block out whatever it is you’re thinking about right now.”
Jay shook his head aggressively, still rocking. Tears were streaming down his face, but he didn’t look like he was crying, he looked overwhelmed.
“Kai, look in the closet for his headphones, will you?” Cole repositioned himself in an attempted to brace for what he was about to do.
When Kai handed him the headphones, he tried talking to Jay one more time, “Jay I have your headphones do you need them?” No response. He set the headphones beside Jay and moved to put his hands on the distressed lightning elemental. There was a small hesitation before doing so, but he powered through it, dropping a heavy weighted hand on Jay’s left shoulder.
A shock went through his whole body, it felt like his hand was on fire, but immediately Jay’s head shot up. His blue eyes looked straight into Cole’s, he looked terrified. As if his whole world had fallen apart in the 30 minutes between now and when Zane left him.
Cole kept his hand on Jay’s shoulder, determined to push through the shocking to help him. Something about being an earth elemental made it easier to handle shocks, as if he was able to ground it in himself. His own version of a lightning rod.
“Jay, you need to focus. You’re causing a storm; you have to release the energy and talk to me.” Jay looked down at the palms of his hands, they were shaking hard, sparks shooting up out of them and connecting to different parts of his body like a coil. He whispered something under his breath. “What? What did you say, Jay?”
“You fell.” Jay’s eyes moved and Cole’s followed them, looking at a drawing that was on the floor. He went to take his hand off of Jay’s shoulder, but Jay snatched it before he could move. “Don’t. don’t leave me, Cole, you— Cole you’re gone.”
“I’m not gone, Jay, I’m right here.” Cole gripped Jay’s hand tight, still trying to ignore his nerves jumping at every small shock coming from the boy. He nodded towards Nya to pick up the picture for him. It was a scribbled drawing of Cole falling from Destiny’s Bounty.
Nya picked up another one, which was a picture of Wojira and Nya’s water dragon battling. Then the last picture (that wasn’t torn up), which showed a scene of Lloyd floating underneath a bell.
“Jay, I’m okay. I’m still here, I’m okay.”
“You fell. You fell and I couldn’t save you, I watched you fall to your death. I didn’t help you, why didn’t I help you—“ Jay was talking in circles, the ninja could hear more lightning clap in the sky around them.
“Zane, what do I do??” Usually, Cole knew how to help Jay handle his emotions, but this was more intense than anything he’d done before.
“It seems he was drawing his memories again and began to experience a flashback from them.”
“Jay, you need to breathe, stop holding your breath.” Nya walked closer to him, “That was in the past, Cole is alive. He did not die from the fall.” She sat down on the edge of the bed next to him.
Jay turned to look at her, his eyes flickering lowly between blue and brown. His grip on Cole’s hand lightened up a bit. Nya’s voice had an effect on him, a calming one. When she talked, he could hear her. Everyone else was muffled, but her voice was crystal clear. “Breathe with me, Jay.” Nya used to her hands to guide Jay through breathing as the others watched the clouds slowly turn back to white.
After a few minutes of breathing, Jay rammed his head into Nya’s chest, hugging her hard. A few static shocks popped off his shoulders onto hers, but they weren’t strong anymore and she didn’t mind. The ninja knew he had officially calmed down when the storm was fully cleared.
It was silent in the room for a while until Nya spoke up, “Do you want to talk about it?” Jay shook his head silently, burying his face into her more. “Can you at least tell me why you undid my amazing bandaging work?” She smirked slightly, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
“I didn’t like the feeling.” Jay mumbled, his face still covered, “and the ice pack was warm.”
“I’ll try to find a softer bandage, but I need you to wear something to brace the ribs. Zane’s scan showed they really are broken.” Jay nodded his head slightly, he was tired again. The surges of power and the flashbacks really took a toll on him physically.
The other ninja slowly filed out the room until it was just Cole and Nya left, sitting in the same spots they had before Jay had calmed down. The blue ninja had fallen asleep in Nya’s hold, so Cole helped her lean him off back onto a pillow.
Standing up, Cole grabbed all the drawings off the floor to take back to the other ninja. Nya grabbed the blanket off the floor and draped it over Jay so he wouldn’t get cold.
She stood over him, watching him sleep peacefully after just trying to destroy the monastery with a giant lightning storm.
“You alright?” Cole rested his hand on her lower back, affectionately.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” This was the first time Cole had seen her smile all week. She rested her head on his shoulder, still watching Jay. “He’s remembering.”
“Slowly but surely,” Cole smiled, too. “Help me clean up in here?” She nodded, letting Cole run to get a broom for the glass while she picked up scrap paper off the floor.
Once the room was clean again, the two took another look at the deep sleep Jay was in. But before Cole could turn around to leave, Nya launched herself in for a hug.
“Thank you.” Nya can grip a lot harder than he thought.
“For what?” Cole chuckled slightly, returning the embrace.
“For believing in him. I need to believe in him too.” Cole didn’t say anything to that, because truthfully, he had his doubt, especially after that first day. But Nya was right, they all needed to believe in him.
Notes:
bit of a filler chapter, the story will prolly pick up speed after this point though!! Jay needs to start training after all…
Chapter 7: Sunrise
Summary:
Shorter Update, but this felt like it needed to be its own chapter rather than just half of one. I promise the next one will be way longer
Chapter Text
The next time Jay opened his eyes it was dark outside. There was no light in his room other than the shine of the moon coming through the window. Did I sleep all day? Jay sat up slowly, careful not to mess with his ribs again. The pain wasn’t sharp anymore, it felt sore more than anything, with a subtle throbbing.
He looked around his room, it was clean again, just like it was when Zane had woken him up that afternoon. Rubbing his eye, he heard his stomach growling and realized he hadn’t ate since… well he can’t remember.
He slowly positioned himself to be sitting on the edge of the bed, his hands on either side of him, before pushing himself up slowly. His whole body ached, he wanted to stretch out like he usually did but was afraid that it would irritate his chest. His knees did pop a bit once he was finally standing up fully, so he settled with that and made his way over to the door.
Reaching out his hand to grab the doorknob, he noticed it was gone. There was just a hole in the door, looking out into the hallway, where the knob was supposed to be. “Where did…?” Jay mumbled to himself, looking around the room as if the doorknob grew legs and walked away.
He had no explanation for that and opted to just stick his finger through the hole and open the door that way. He did it slowly so it wouldn’t make any noise, it seemed to be really late at night, meaning all of the ninja were most likely asleep.
He maneuvered down the hallway in the dark, trying to remember where the turns were and how to get to the kitchen. He passed the hangar bay entrance, but got stuck at the picture of him and Nya. He looked around, trying to decipher where to go from there, but ultimately decided to just wander and he’d end up there eventually.
He kept walking down the hall and ended up outside somehow, in the courtyard. He didn’t remember there being an entrance that way but what did he know, he’s been here 3 days.
The air was cool, it felt nice. He could feel it going under his pajama pants slightly as he took a deep breath in, feeling the stretch of his muscle underneath the fresh bandages around his torso someone wrapped while he was asleep.
He looked up at the stars, at the moon. It was big, maybe it was because of how high the mountain they're on was, but it seemed so close. He wanted to reach out and touch it. He always loved space, it was so vast, endless. Knowing about the other realms being here made him wonder how different their skies looked, and which one they preferred. He never got to see the stars at administration, unless it was through his tv screen, but that isn’t comparable.
He started to glance around the courtyard when he noticed someone sitting on the stairs across the way from him. His eyesight wasn’t very good in the dark, but they had long hair which means… actually that didn’t narrow it down at all.
He was going to say something, but the muscles in his mouth were relaxed and he didn’t feel like opening them just yet. Instead, he walked over silently.
The person was holding a big book. Maybe a portfolio? Jay got all the way to standing behind the person before they noticed he was there.
They turned their head, feeling his presence, “Oh. Hi Jay.” It was Nya, her voice a little rough. She quickly closed the big book in her hands, as if she was hiding the contents. “I didn’t think you’d wake up til the morning.” She scooted over a bit, a silent invitation for Jay to sit next to her.
He took it, sitting down to the left of her on the same step she was on, hands resting on his knees, “What were you looking at?” Jay’s voice was soft, unintentionally.
“It’s nothing,” Nya softly smiled, setting the book down on the other side of her. “Just some pictures.” She stretched her legs out to rest them on the stair below her.
“Can I see?” Jay turned his knees to angle towards her slightly more, also unintentional.
Nya turned her head, her eyes slightly wider as her eyebrows went up a bit. “Uhm, I don’t know. You don’t think it would cause anything to…” she gestured her finger around her forehead, referring to Jay’s flashback problem.
“I just want to see,” Jay softly smiled at her, he was nervous about the flashbacks too, but part of him felt kind of drawn to see what was in there. The leather covering looked familiar to him.
Nya picked up the book slowly, scooting slightly closer to Jay so he could see better, “This is a photo album.” She slowly opened the leather front, on the inside were two big letters. ‘N’ and ‘J’.
Jay noticed himself leaning closer to her, and placed his hand on the ground behind her back, their shoulders almost touching. He took his other hand and felt the lettering, it was slightly dented into the page, like a monogram. There was a sentence written underneath it as well. We Change Together. “Show me?” He caught her eyes, usually he would hate the contact, but her eyes looked comforting rather than off putting.
Nya turned to the first page, there were four photos of him and Nya together. They looked really young. Nya’s hair was short, like really short. “Your hair” Jay smiled as he pointed at it.
“I know right! Your hair too,” she breathed out a light chuckle, pointing at Jay’s head. “We were so young.”
Jay tilted his head slightly, “When did it happen?” he looked intently at the pictures below it, they were taken from a third perspective.
“What? The picture?”
“No no when did we…” His voice trailed off, trying to silently refer to their relationship, not knowing if he should even mention it.
“Oh,” Nya sighed, resting her hand on the page loosely, “How it happened is a long story, hopefully you’ll remember it fully one day, so I won’t have to re-explain it to you.” She was softly smiling, but there was something in her face that was pained too. “But we were kids, it’s probably been about 9 years now?” Her voice had a questionable influx, “There are some iffy things there because of how time has changed over the years, which is also a long story.” She was not going to be able to explain how time for the ninja works a little differently, considering all the weird adventures they’ve been on.
She turned to the next page, they looked slightly older. The scar Jay noticed around his eye was a little less obvious. Nya’s hair was longer, and his was darker.
They flipped through a couple more pages until they reached one that was closer to how they both look now. There was a picture of Nya laying her head on Jay’s shoulder while they sat on the couch. Her eyes were shut, but Jay’s weren’t. His eyes were looking at her. “This is my favorite page I think.” She was smiling again; Jay could almost see the memories flickering in her eyes. He wanted to know.
“Tell me.” Jay asked lowly, taking the hand that was previously pointing and setting it back on the concrete behind him, leaning back on it.
Nya sighed again, not in annoyance or anything, it was just a heavy breath. “This was a few days after you asked me to be your yang.” That beautiful giggle came back as she spoke, “It happened right there actually.” She looked up, pointing ahead of them towards to center of the courtyard they were facing. “We were seconds away from having a huge battle, and you just got on your knees right there.”
“What did I say?” Jay was looking at the spot Nya pointed to. He felt like he could see it in his mind.
Nya hesitated for a second, a little worried at Jay’s spaced out look. “Well, you said I made you so happy and when we weren’t together you missed me.” Her voiced wavered a bit, but she was trying to keep it together. “You said that you missed me so much it felt like a part of you was missing.”
Jay heard that. He heard it in his voice, inside of his head. It was true. As long as Jay can remember, he’s always felt like something was missing. A hole in his heart. “What else?”
“That was it.” Nya watched as Jay was still daydreaming the scenario. “You said ‘Will you be my yang?’, and I said yes.”
Jay shut his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath before opening them again and looking up towards the moon. “I’m sorry I don’t remember.”
“You don’t need to apologize, Jay.”
It was silent for a second, both of them looking up at the moon. “But I don’t forgive you.”
That caught Jay off guard, slowly tilting his head in her direction, “What do you mean?”
“I’ll never forgive you for loving me.” Nya kept her gaze on the moon, her eyes facing the sky helped the tears not to fall with gravity. Her voice was a little more hoarse. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and I will never forgive you for changing my life so drastically.”
Jay didn’t quite understand what she meant by that, but he stayed quiet. Nya felt his stare on her face and turned to look at him. Jay hesitated, opening his mouth and shutting it again before speaking.
“Love is malleable.” Jay felt his body leaning closer to hers, “Just how it shapes us, we can shape it too.” He took his left hand again and went to lightly grab Nya’s, which was sitting on top of the now closed photo album. “I may not remember everything, but I can feel it. It’s right there.” He shook his head slightly, taking Nya’s hand and placing it on his chest, “I want to know it so bad.” Dropping his gaze to the ground, he let go of her hand.
“Did you ever wonder?” Jay tilted his head again, silently asking for elaboration. “Wonder why you couldn’t remember?”
“Not really, no.” Jay’s gaze went back up towards the skies, studying the stars now. “They lied to me there. A lot. I just thought I had some kind of memory condition and that was that. I did feel the missing pieces, the ones you guys were talking about when I didn’t believe you, but I didn’t question any further.” He felt Nya move her arm a bit, “I didn’t want to.” Her hand was now on the ground behind Jay’s back, crossing over with his own arm that was still behind hers.
“I’m sorry they did that to you.”
Jay shook his head, “It’s not your fault.”
“I know what its like, you know?” Jay glanced at her again, how long had she been staring at him? “When I merged with the water, I didn’t remember you either… or anyone for that matter.”
“I feel like I remember that…” Jay looked at the ground, his head hurt slightly thinking so hard. “I was at.. one of those towers with the lights for like boats and stuff?”
“Dr. Julien’s lighthouse.” Nya lit up, smiling wide. “You remember that?”
“I wouldn’t say the whole thing,” Jay was a little captivated by her smile. “I had a lot of.. visions? With it? I’ve drawn a lot of pictures of lighthouses, but they never seemed to match the exact one I was thinking of in my brain.”
“Maybe we can go there soon,” she sighed heavily again, “if it’s even still there. I haven’t been near there since the merge.”
“I’d like to do that,” he gave a soft half smile at her again. “Can I—“
Nya reacted before he could even finish asking the question, grabbing him quickly and shoving her head into the crook of his neck.
Jay’s arms hung out for a second before wrapping around her, too. He leaned his face into her hair, feeling her shoulders bounce slightly.
Sitting in silence, Jay held Nya, rubbing circles into the small of her back as she sobbed. She couldn’t even remember the last time she cried, like actually cried. She tends to bottle up everything, and usually anger is what comes out before her sadness, but she can’t be angry at Jay… not like this.
Normally, she would’ve given a tight squeeze, but she was wary of the bandage that she had rewrapped him in a few hours ago. After everyone had gone to bed, she couldn’t sleep and instead went to go check on Jay, which is when she remembered he had torn off the bandages during his episode earlier.
By the time Nya was done crying, Jay had zoned out a bit. The moon wasn’t in the sky anymore, and it was turning to a dark pink rather than the indigo color it had previously.
Nya sat up, her hands coming down into Jay’s lap while she picked at her fingernails. “Thank you.” Both of them avoided eye contact with each other.
Jay’s hands were on her shoulders now, he could feel blush creeping into his cheeks. He never really knew what to say back when people thanked him, so he stayed silent, hesitantly looking down at her hands and back up to look at her face. His hand went closer to her neck, leading her face up to look at him again.
They made heavy eye contact for about 5 seconds before Jay’s stomach growled loud, and Nya burst out laughing. She laughed with her whole body, bringing her head and shoulders back, “Someone’s hungry, huh?” She wiped underneath her eyes.
Jay was smiling, too, but not in a laughing way. He just liked to hear Nya’s laugh.
“Let’s go get some breakfast.” Nya stood up, holding out her hands for Jay to grab onto. She shifted her body weight, helping the lightning elemental back on his feet, before turning to head towards the kitchen.
Jay stood there for a second, watching her walk away. He already missed the touch, the feeling of her laying on him.
He turned to look back out at the courtyard, watching the sun come up over the walls of the monastery.
“You coming or what?” He heard Nya shout from inside.
“I’m coming” he whispered, not at a level she could hear, more like he was talking to himself. “I’ll go with you.”
Notes:
This hurt to write. I’m hurting emotionally… I hope season 2 of DR will bring him back to her.
Chapter 8: Work in Progress
Summary:
wanted to add more to this chapter but i am very very sick and was not able to get to it, so i will probably be adding another chapter to the overall fic 🙏
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Once Jay makes it back to the kitchen, he sees Nya starting to make breakfast for the rest of the crew. “I thought Zane was the one that cooked?”
“We like to take turns, today is going to be quick though because we are going to start practicing again.”
“Practicing” Jay runs his hand along the island in the center of the kitchen, before leaning against his arm, watching Nya, “Practicing for what?”
“Well, Sora and Arin need to do more training, to help them become ninja,” Nya pulls a whole bunch of bananas down from the cabinet, “and you need to practice controlling those shocks of yours.” She pointed down at Jay’s hand, which was apparently glowing a bit.
He lifted off the island quickly, shaking his hands like he had just touched something hot, “Heh, sorry about that…”
“You sure do apologize a lot, huh?” Jay didn’t respond, he instead walked over to the chair he sat in the day prior. Nya frowned slightly, her back was turned so Jay couldn’t see it.
The silence hung around while Jay watched Nya finish pulling stuff out for the ninja to eat. He noticed how his face felt, it was textured weird, so was the rest of his body. His hair was aggravating him too, like he could feel every piece on his head. He felt disgusting.
“Do you think I could take a shower?” His hands moved back up, flapping back and forth in the same motion as before.
“Of course! Do you remember where the bathroom is?” Nya placed the last item on the counter, rubbing her hands on a towel in front of her.
Jay shook his head slightly, telling her no in a nervous way… everything he did around her was nervous.
Nya walked around, gesturing for Jay to follow her to the bathroom. It wasn’t too far, just down the hall that everything else seemed to be on. She opened the door for him quickly, but then kept walking towards his bedroom. Seconds later, coming back out of his room with a folded outfit, “Here you might want to take these to change into.” She handed him a blue robe of sorts, with lots of wrapping around it. He lifted it up, letting it unravel to its full length…This is going to take me forever to put on.
“How do I…?” He side-eyed Nya with another nervous smile.
“It’s a gi, like what I’m wearing.” She gestured too her own outfit, similar to the ones the other ninja were always wearing. “I know it looks confusing, but you’ll figure it out.” She started to walk away before Jay could say anything else, so he muttered a thank you under his breath, went into the bathroom, and locked the door behind him.
Jay set the confusing article of clothing on the counter, bundled up in a ball so it would fit, and turned the water on to the shower. Looking around a bit, he saw multicolored bottles, all seeming to correspond with the color of the other ninja. Wow they really take the color coding seriously…
Standing in front of the mirror, he took off his shirt slowly, minding the ribs, and looked at himself. He had never seen his own chest before. He couldn’t see it yet, because of the bandage wrapped around his chest, but something about it made him… scared? A little bit?
Slowly, he unwrapped the blue bandage, taking out the now lukewarm ice pack from under the first wrap, and closing his eyes while unraveling the rest. He took a deep breath once all the bandages were off, letting them fall to the floor beneath him.
Holding the breath he took in his mouth like a bubble, he squinted one eye open, looking at his own (now bare) chest. Woah... Both his eyes shot open milliseconds later, his hands coming up to his chest where there were two lines.
He traced the lines across his chest, following them close to his sides but not all the way. He kind of liked them, they were symmetrical and everything… wasn’t bad. His hands continued up to his neck however, where there were lots of streaking, white scar lines jutting off in several directions. He noticed the ones going up his neck before, but seeing how far they stretched down his body was interesting. He also noticed the large, blue, purple, and yellow bruising on his sides.
He finally let go of his breath, nearly forgetting he had started holding it in the first place, when he noticed the bathroom starting to fog up more. It was from the steam in the shower, but it made something in the back of his mind feather a bit.
Your wish is yours to keep. A deep voice rattled in his head, he felt like he could hear it coming from behind. He quickly turned around to nothing but fog.
He shook his head a bit, trying to get some of his senses back, and turned back around towards the mirror. He was about to take the rest of his clothes off, but when he looked up, he saw himself with an eyepatch.
No. No no no no no. He started grabbing at his hair, leaning closer to the mirror. It was so foggy in the bathroom now; he was starting to sweat. He looked deep into the fog behind him through the mirror but saw nothing, even though he could feel some kind of presence.
He turned the sink on quickly, splashing cold water onto his face and scrubbing, as if he was trying to wash off the feeling. When he looked back up everything was normal again, he looked like himself with no eyepatch.
Taking a huge sigh of relief, he took off the rest of his clothes and went towards the shower, turning the temperature down first to get some of the fog out of there.
He could hear the other ninja stirring down the hall, some footsteps heading towards the kitchen. Knowing other people were awake around him made him feel better about the presence in the fog.
Jay tried to make out some of the conversations going on outside the door while he was showering, but the water was too loud to get anything clear. He thought he heard his name a couple times, but that was about it.
When he was finished, he grabbed the towel hanging closest to him on the wall, running it through his hair first before wrapping it around his body. The steam seemed to clear some now that the water wasn’t so hot, and it was turned off.
When he got out the shower, he avoided the mirror, not wanting to see anything weird in the reflection again. It was super foggy so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, but better safe than sorry.
He picked up the blue gi and stared at it again, Where am I even supposed to start with this?? Balling up what looked like a leg sleeve, he stuck his foot through it, hoping to not get stuck somewhere.
Once he got both the leg parts on, he tied it around his waist. Someone will probably help him with the rest, plus he needs to get his ribs re-wrapped.
He grabbed all the clothes he was previously wearing, opened the door, and went back to his room to put them somewhere.
The hallway was empty, everyone was at breakfast now. So, he dropped the clothes on the floor and ruffled his hands through his hair while walking back to the kitchen.
“Woaahh, hello!” Kai spotted him first from outside the kitchen doorway, “Agent Walker is missing a shirt today.” He elbowed Cole in the arm and started giggling a bit. Cole rolled his eyes, standing up quickly to help Jay out.
“It’s confusing on the first try, I know.” Cole gave him a soft smile, grabbing his arm to lead him to the couch in the living area. He grabbed some bandages off a stool and pointed at the cushion for Jay, “I’ll help you wrap the top, but first let’s bandage this rib back up.”
Jay hated how quickly he got flustered and cursed under his breath while Cole started to feel around his ribs. “They’re looking alright, how have your powers been?”
“I don’t think I’ve shocked anyone since yesterday, if that’s what you mean.” A small smile creeped across his face, still avoiding eye contact with the other ninja.
“Well, that’s good in some respects, but we don’t want them to go away fully.” He grabbed a different looking bandage from the ones Jay has been using for the last few days. “These are compression bandages, so we can train today without these guys causing you a problem. It’s going to feel a little different though, okay?” Jay nodded his head, looking towards the tv set up in front of the couch he was sitting on while Cole started wrapping the tan bandage around his chest.
“What games do you play?” Jay mumbled a bit, and Cole didn’t hear it too well.
“What’d you say?” he smiled up at Jay, noticing he was looking over him, before leaning his head down back towards his chest.
“I asked Zane the other day what games you play, and he said to ask you because you and Kai play the most.” Jay arms were angled out slightly, so Cole could wrap all the way around his chest, but it looked uncomfortable for him.
Before answering the question, Cole finished the last wrap around quick, lightly touching Jay’s arms to signal him to relax them. “I haven’t really played it recently, but you and I used to play Prime Empire a lot, and Kai likes to play the games that are made about us.”
“There are video games about us??” Jay’s jaw dropped in excitement, staring at Cole intently.
“Yeah!” Cole smiled wide, noticing that Jay used the word ‘us’ when referring to the ninja, “There was a period of time when we were just starting to become super popular around Ninjago, and people made plushies, video games, costumes for people to wear…” Cole stood up and reached his hands out to help Jay stand up.
“Wait so like, we’re famous?” Jay watched as Cole untied the gi from around his waist to help him get the sleeves and shirt wrapped.
“I guess you could say so, yeah.” Cole smiled up at him softly, thinking it was silly that Jay was so excited about it.
Once the gi was finished being tied, the two walked back into the kitchen to meet up with the others.
Jay leaned in the doorway and looked around the room while Cole returned to his seat beside Kai that he was in previously. All the ninja were there except for Nya.
Just when he was going to turn around to look for her, she came up behind him, placing her hand on his upper back. “It’s nice to see you back in those clothes.” She gave him a, some-what, side-hug and walked back into the kitchen.
“Why are we both blue? Shouldn’t I have a different color?”
“HA!” Kai pointed at him, knocking Cole in the shoulder again, “He’s on fire today.” Jay raised an eyebrow at him, confused as to why he was laughing so much.
“Actually Jay,” Zane started, “You were the blue ninja before Nya was. She became a ninja last out of all of us, and has alternated between wearing red, blue, and black previously.”
Jay looked at Nya, slightly amused, and she shrugged back in his direction.
“It’s aright, she’s not the only one matching colors with people.” Kai pointed toward Arin, who scoffed at him, mouth open in shock.
“Listen, he hadn’t even worn orange that often! I thought he was just the black ninja!” Arin gestured big, he talked with his hands a lot.
Kai didn’t reply, instead just shrugging his shoulder dramatically like he never said anything in the first place.
“Can we just start training now?” Arin turned back towards Lloyd, ignoring Kai’s bantering mood this morning.
“Yes, we should, morning is almost over already.” Lloyd set his plate down, it didn’t seem like he touched any of the food though.
“It’s 7am??”
“Yes, like I said, time moves quickly.” Lloyd responded to Sora, clapping his hands together readily. “How about Nya, Zane, and I work with Sora and Arin?” He pointed at the people as he said their names, “Andd Kai and Cole work with Jay?” Jay sighed out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He was going to be so nervous if he had gotten paired with Nya.
“Sounds great, Master Lloyd.” Kai stood up with a smirk and bowed. He pushed past the other chairs, walking over to Jay. “Let’s go shock some shit, lightning bolt!”
Jay followed him out the door, Cole close behind him. Kai led the whole crew out to the courtyard Jay and Nya were in just a few hours ago. The three boys moving to the left side, and everyone else going towards the right.
“First things first, are you able to summon your powers at all?” Kai looked him up and down.
“Summon? My powers?” Jay looked down at his hands as if he was expecting something to happen to them.
“He means like, center them to your hands, on command.” Cole explained further, “Which he obviously can’t do, because he can’t control his powers?!” Kai grimaced at Cole’s tone influx.
“Why don’t you try focusing on the particles around you, like how it felt when your powers hit you initially? And then we can work that to staying in your hands.”
“Uhm… Okay.” Jay closed his eyes really hard, trying to over analyze the air around him, feeling it moving. “Like this?” a spark popped off his shoulder.
“Yes! That’s working! Does it hurt at all?” Cole voice was soothing, Jay could tell he was trying not to make him freak out.
“No, it doesn’t hurt. Feels kinda… hot? I think?” The lightning elemental still had his eyes shut tight, feeling another spark come off his elbow.
“Alright, so now try to take it from being all around you to just being in your hands. Focus it into your palms.”
Jay clenched his fists, trying to do what Cole was telling him to but not really feeling anything happening, “Is it working?”
“Maybe open your eyes…” Kai spoke up again.
Looking down at his hands, Jay noticed they were glowing blue, Woah…
“Okay well that went a lot easier than I thought it would,” Cole looked over at Kai amused, “Well can you try to… shoot it? Like force it out of your hands into this dummy?” Cole stepped on a panel in the ground and a mannequin popped up.
“Uhhh…” Jay lifted his hand up, looking between it and the dummy repeatedly. “How do I do that?”
“Well, when I’m using my fire, I spark it up in my hand and just..” Kai threw his hand out in a motion and shot a fireball at the dummy Jay was supposed to be hitting. It lit up into flames and burned to ash just as quick.
Cole tapped another panel in the floor and another dummy shot up beside the previous one.
“I’m not sure if that was helpful at all, since Kai didn’t explain anything,” he shot Kai a loving glare, “but give it a shot.
Jay’s hands were still glowing blue. He raised them up, trying to focus on the dummy in front of him, and pushed forwards like how he saw Kai do.
The dummy was still the same as before. “Okay, maybe try again, but this time focus on the energy going out of you. Like how you sent it into the table yesterday.”
Jay was just about to try again when he saw a bright green tornado out of the corner of his eye. His head shot to the right, as a shock pushed out of his hand into the dummy.
“WOOHOO!” Kai threw his hands up and yelled.
“What was that??” Jay pointed towards the other side of the courtyard, ignoring Kai’s cheering.
“Oh, what Lloyd just did? That’s spinjitsu.” Cole turned to look at the other like Jay was.
“So first you all have elemental powers, then you tell me your ninja, AND you guys can make tornadoes whenever you want?” Jay was in disbelief, watching as Arin tried to mimic what Lloyd was showing him.
“Well, you can too, we just have to reteach you.” Cole chuckled a bit at Jay’s exasperation. “But yes, we can make tornadoes.”
“Who taught you how to do all this?” Jay noticed his hands were still glowing blue, he tried to shake it off again but it wasn’t working out like before.
“Our Master Wu, he raised all of us. He brought each of us in and taught us how to do everything we know.” Cole’s smile dropped a bit while saying that.
“Zane mentioned him before, he said you guys didn’t know where he was?”
“We’re going to find him.” Kai chimed in, finally re-engaging in the conversation Cole and Jay were having.
Jay looked at Cole, seeing if he agreed with Kai. There was grief in his face, Jay could tell the topic resurfacing was making him upset. “So, how did I do that?” Jay pointed back at the (now disintegrated) dummy he had shocked moments before.
After a brief moment of silence, Cole turned back towards him, “Let’s run through it again.”
+
A few hours passed and Jay had actually made a lot of progress. Controlling his powers was a lot easier than he thought but keeping them under control 24/7 was still going to be a challenge.
“Okay, you’ve had your powers ready for a while now, can you try turning them off?” Cole gestured with his hands at Jay’s, they hadn’t stopped glowing blue the entire time they were out here.
“Uhm…” Jay flapped his hands a bit, “How do I do that again?” His hands pulsed a bright blue, it was tiring keeping his powers up like this but he legitimately didn’t know how to stop.
Cole looked over at Kai for him to explain more when the ground started shaking beneath them.
“Oh no, guys!” Cole called back towards Lloyd, stumbling a bit but trying to stay upright.
“What’s going on?!” Jay shouted, the rumbling underneath them growing louder.
“Merge quake!” Someone shouted to his right and the whole sky turned bright pink. There was a patch that looked like it had been ripped open, the inside looking almost like space or a portal of sorts.
He saw Lloyd react the quickest, shooting a green line of energy into the rip in the sky. It wasn’t long til this was followed by Nya, Cole, Zane, and lastly Kai.
“It’s not closing!?” Kai shouted, tilted his head back a bit at the brightness radiating above them.
“Jay! We need you to come help!” Lloyd shouted at the blue ninja, who was just staring at the others in awe.
“Me?? I don’t even know what I’m doing?!”
“Just do exactly what we’ve been practicing but shoot your energy towards the rip!” Cole had a mark on his forehead that was glowing. Jay had never noticed that before.
Jay took his hands, still glowing, and made the motion again, this time towards the sky. He shut his eyes tight, feeling the particles around him moving with the energy he was focusing so hard on.
After a few seconds, the rip closed, and all the ninja were able to stop. “Whew, those are getting harder to close…” Lloyd had his hands on his knees, feeling drained from stopping the quake.
Kai opened his eyes again, looking around at the sky for anymore quakes, before noticing there was still a blue streak of energy shooting across it, “JAY!” He whipped around quick, seeing the lightning ninja on his knees, hands still up at the sky.
“Jay, you need to let go!” Kai yelled, running towards the kneeling boy.
“I- I can’t. I’m.” Jay could feel his hands shaking, his head was pounding.
He felt weak, he couldn’t control what was happening in his body, but everything hurt.
Kai and the other moved closer to him, still keeping their distance to avoid getting shocked, “You can do it, Jay. Just pull back on it, focus.” He watched as Jay’s eyes shot open, flickering between a bright blue and a brown color. “Just like that, Jay, focus” he whispered under his breath, bawling up a fist.
There were only a few seconds between the lightning streak stopping, and Jay’s head hitting the ground.
Notes:
hope it made sense i’m so delirious
Chapter 9: May History Repeat Itself
Summary:
feeling a lot better, so here’s the rest of last chapter plus more jaya (sorry they’re disgustingly sweet)
Notes:
TW
- light emetophobia (words like gag, choke, being dizzy, talk of swallowing difficulty, etc.)
- pills + drug use (medical not recreational)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Jay had his eyes closed, he felt like he was floating. There was a dull throb in the back of his head while he was stirring back to reality.
“Jay, can you hear me??” The voice was low and somewhat distant, he couldn’t really recognize who it was. He felt himself being moved, rolled over maybe, it was very disorienting. He brought a hand up to his face to rub his eyes, but the person stopped him and held his hand beside him, “you’re alright, Jay, you’re okay.”
He tried to open his eyes slowly, but the light was blinding, making him squeeze them back shut tightly. “Get him inside!” Suddenly he was lifted, he hadn’t even noticed that anyone was holding him in the first place. The person was trying to get him to walk, but he was way too tired for all that work. “Jay, I need you to stay awake, okay? You hit your head pretty hard.”
‘Hard’ was one way to say it, you could’ve heard his head hitting the ground from miles away. The sound was teeth grinding, everyone was surprised he wasn’t bleeding from it.
He dropped most of his weight onto the shoulder he was leaning on, trying to move his feet slowly with them, and soon enough, Jay was back on the couch in the monastery. He tried to lay down, but whoever set him down prevented him from doing so, sitting down next to him just to make sure he had to stay upright. At least he was able to open his eyes now, but they were still squinted because of the light coming through the windows. “Zane? Diagnostic?”
Jay felt out of it, to put it simply, he didn’t even feel real. Everything around him was cloudy… and kind of spinning? Well, he couldn’t see it spinning, but it felt like it was spinning. Plus there was water in his ears.
He tilted his head to the side, trying to shake the ‘water’ out, but didn’t get far. The person sitting next to him picked up his head to keep him from doing that, “Nope, no no just wait a sec.”
Someone snapped in front of his nose, he didn’t jump or anything, but it was definitely off-putting. Then he heard them say ‘follow my finger’, so he looked up and followed the motions, or tried to. “Okay, don’t move your head while you do it and try again.” Yeahhh not happening.
“Alright, do you know where you are, Jay?” the voice questioned him with a serious tone.
“Uhhh” Jay looked around for identifying objects, but the room was still disorienting him. “Yes?”
“Okay, where are you?”
Jay looked behind the man in front of him and noticed the gaming console, “Oh, the uhhh, place with the TV and stuff.”
“Okay, what’s this room called?”
“The… TV… room?” Jay companies that response with a small shrug and a bit of a laugh too, before leaning on the person next to him, “Can I go to sleep?” His eyes shut again.
“Nooo no no, let’s stay awake for a little longer.” A hand pushed his head gently off the person’s shoulder.
“Jay, what’s my name? Do you know my name?” Jay looked back up, squinting his eyes again trying to make out the man in front of him.
“Uhm…” Jay leaned forward, trying to get closer, but ended up leaning too far forward and almost fell off the couch. The person to his right steadied him again. “My ribs hurt.”
“I know they must hurt. What is my name?”
Jay looked at him as hard as he could, his skin was… not skin. His hair wasn’t hair either, but his eyes were blue. “Zane?”
“Excellent, you can lean back now.” Zane nodded at Cole, signaling to continue to keep him stable while he went to retrieve headache medicine and other supplies from the hangar bay.
“Wait, what’s wrong with him?” Lloyd stepped in from outside, along with Sora and Arin.
“He has a mild concussion from the fall.” Zane stated, before continuing his mission.
“Right as we start getting him back to normal, great.” Kai said sarcastically.
“Do you think this will set back anything we’ve done? Like his memories and everything?” Cole looked over at the other ninja since Zane was out of the room.
“When I had my concussion and almost died, it didn’t affect my memories or anything? But also, Jay already has memory problems so, I’m not sure if it’s going to be the same for him.”
“You almost died??” Sora and Arin looked at him shocked.
“Well, yeah, after the whole fight with my father and Harumi, but then I met the First Spinjitsu Master and he sent me back here.” Arin and Sora’s faces did not change, especially not with Lloyd’s nonchalant explanation. “What?”
“You never mentioned that before?!”
“It wasn’t really important enough to,” Lloyd shrugged and turned his back on the two of them, who were still shell-shocked.
“I share the same information as Lloyd,” Zane walked back in with pills and icepacks, “most concussions do not cause significant memory loss, but Jay might have pre-existing brain damage, so I cannot know the true outcome.”
“Great, more mysteries,” Nya rolled her eyes irritably.
“Jay, can you sit back up?” Zane had a handful of pills and a bottle of water, “I know you struggle with pills, so it may be easier for you to take these one at a time.”
Jay groaned, lolling his head back up by using Cole to stabilize himself, “I don’t have trouble with pills?” His words slurred a little bit while he spoke.
“You do, you just don’t remember. Here take this one.” Zane handed him one of the pills, which he quickly popped into his mouth. However, taking the water bottle was not so easy.
“I’ll hold it, you just drink, your hand will not be steady enough.” Jay put his hand on the top of the bottle, guiding it to his mouth while Zane held the bottom. He was doing fine, but then noticed the pill floating around in his mouth.
The feeling made him choke a bit, but if he gagged, he would get water in his lungs. He shook his head in Zane’s direction, eyes wide with fear.
“You can do it, Jay, don’t even think about it just swallow.” Cole rested his hand on Jay’s thigh, leaning down to try and get Jay to focus on him, “Do you want me to take one with you?”
Jay nodded his head, but the motion made him dizzy again, reaching out his arm to hang on Zane’s shoulder so he wouldn’t fall forward.
Cole nodded at Zane to give him one of the pills, “Look we’ll do it together, okay?” Cole needed to hurry up, Jay could feel the pill dissolving in his mouth and it did not taste good.
He watched Cole pop the pill in his mouth, drink out the same water bottle, and count down from three using his fingers. When he got to one, Jay strengthened his grip on Zane’s shoulder and swallowed hard, gagging a bit immediately after. “Look, see! Not so bad, right?”
Jay looked back down at Zane’s hand, seeing he was still holding 5 pills, “Do I have to take all of those…”
“They are pain relievers; your head will hurt very badly otherwise.” Jay groaned again, leaning back on Cole’s shoulder.
“We got this, bluebell, come on.” Cole walked him through all 5 of the last pills, not taking them himself (because he doesn’t need that many) but helping him count it down and breathe.
“Alright, Jay, you have a concussion, which means you need to stay in the dark and rest a lot. This is very important so as to not worsen the situation.” Zane put a ice pack in Jay’s hand, but all he did was looked down at it in confusion.
Cole picked up the bottom of Jay’s hand and led it, with the ice pack, to his forehead, “Thanks, Zane.”
“Can you walk him to his room? The windows need to be shut before he gets there.” He looked at Nya while saying the second sentence, who nodded back at him and immediately headed to the hallway.
“Alright, bud, lets get you to bed.” Cole put his arm around Jay’s torso, helping him stand all the way up, but that didn’t last long. Lloyd came bolting to his side, making sure he didn’t topple over the other way either.
“Can you just carry me?” There was a smirk with those words, but all the humor was lost at how slurred together it was.
“You need to try and walk; come on, you can do it.” Cole and Lloyd were definitely doing most of the work, but Jay was taking steps, a very good sign.
“How long do cushions take to heal?” Jay tilted his head in Lloyd’s direction, mumbling.
“Concussion not cushion, and it’s different for everyone.” Lloyd was trying hard not to laugh at Jay’s speech. “Mine took like a week, I think, before I was back to training.”
“Ugh, but I was having funnnn.” Jay lifted the hand around Lloyd’s shoulder up, “I can shock things!” He flung it out a bit, zapping the wall next to Lloyd.
“Oookay, maybe not so close to my head next time,” Lloyd grabbed Jay’s wrist and shook it, trying to get the glowing to stop. “And yeah, concussions might be the least fun injury to have… not that any of them are fun, but— you know nevermind I’ll stop talking.”
They turned the final corner into Jay’s room, where Nya was already standing. She had all the blinds down and the room dark for Jay. Usually, Jay didn’t like the dark, but now he loved it. The light everywhere hurt so badly, he could finally have his eyes all the way open.
Lloyd and Cole helped him sit down on the bed, moving around all the blankets so he didn’t have to rearrange it himself as much. Cole set another bottle of water on the nightstand with a note, ‘Shake ice pack to make it cold again’.
On the way out the room, Lloyd gave Nya a huge hug. It felt a little random, but Nya reciprocated quickly. Her little brother was always allowed a hug. Once they let go, Lloyd whispered something in her ear and walked out, Cole leaving behind him.
Nya watched as they left the room before looking over at Jay again, who already looked half asleep. “You alright, Jay?”
“Mhm.” Jay mumbled, his face in the pillow.
“Okay, let me know if you need anything.” Nya spoke softly, taking a step towards the door before being interrupted by rustling.
“Wait,” Jay’s voice was clearer now, rolling over slightly towards Nya. “Stay? Please?” He stretched his arm out, hand hanging over the edge of the bed.
Nya heart broke a little, his voice sounding the way it did not help at all. There was no hesitation when she shut the door, pulled the chair from the desk, and sat it next to the bed on Jay’s side.
She leaned her head on her arm, elbow resting on the mattress, and looked at him. His eyes were half shut, but there was a small smile on his face.
“Okay,” She grabbed the hand hanging off the bed, “I’ll stay with you.”
+
When Jay woke up, he didn’t move much. Not when he saw who was in the room with him.
He felt a weight in his hand immediately before anything, and when he opened his eyes to see what was in it, he saw Nya. Her head was laying down on the mattress beside his leg, eyes shut, with her hand in his. His heart was beating out of his chest.
There wasn’t much he could do, sure he was scared to wake her up, but he was also scared in general. You know… Pretty girl… Holding his hand.
So instead, he just watched her. Which might’ve been creepy sure, but what else was he going to do? What else would he even want to be doing?
He didn’t know how long he had been asleep, but he could see a purplish light streaming through one of the blinds against the wall. There were also two plates of food sitting on the floor beside Nya, so it was safe to assume he slept through the whole day. He didn’t know how long he had been awake for either, it felt like hours.
He didn’t mind any of it though, because Nya was here. How do you explain that? He’s falling in love with a girl that he is already betrothed to (but doesn’t remember proposing). He’s known her forever, but he doesn’t know her at all, and she knows everything about him. Was he allowed to love her? Is it okay that he’s starting all over again? Does she even want to start all over again?
It made his head hurt thinking about it, literally his head hurt (he has a concussion), but it didn’t change the fact it’s happening. Is it even considered making a move if you’re already together?
Apparently, Nya could hear the cogs turning in Jay’s head because the first question she yawned out after waking up was, “What are you thinking so hard about?”
“Nothing, I can’t even think right I have a concussion.” Jay pointed at his head using his free hand, “Do you know what time it is?”
“Time for you to eat, that’s what.” She let go of Jay’s hand to pick up the plates off floor. He frowned at the loss, “Come on, you haven’t eaten all day.”
“I’m not hungry.” Jay’s words were still slurred a bit, reminding him that he was still concussed.
“Don’t care, come on get up.” Nya moved the blankets off him, grabbing his hands to help him sit up again.
“Aren’t I supposed to stay in the darkness, I can’t go to the kitchen.” Jay said in that smart-aleck voice of his.
“It’s nighttime, there’s no light anywhere, you’re not getting out of this.” Jay groaned, but Nya was holding his hands again, so he complied.
He went from sitting to standing slowly, so he wouldn’t get too dizzy, and Nya helped steady him. The feeling of her holding his hands was still lingering on them while they were walking down the hallway.
Nya was right, all the lights were off everywhere, meaning either the ninja were asleep, or everyone was being extra-cautious of Jay’s concussion. “Is everyone asleep again already?”
“Well, not everyone, I think Zane and Lloyd are downstairs.” When they made it into the kitchen, Nya set the two plates in the sink.
“You never told me what time it was.” Jay sat down at the chair in front of the island, getting a little deja-vu from the night (morning?) prior that they had also spent together.
“And you never told me what you were thinking about.” Nya was holding two apples, one for herself and one in front of Jay.
“Alright, I was thinking about you,” Jay lost the eye contact with her, grabbing the apple from her hand and staring at it.
“What about me?” Jay started spinning the apple around the stem, counting in his head how many times it took.
“Six” Jay muttered, before biting into the apple.
“Mine was eight, beat ya” Nya smiled at him, biting into her apple, too.
They both set the stems down on the table together and took a beat, Jay watching her motions intently.
“So?”
“So?” Jay repeated.
“What about me?” Nya took another bite of her apple, she had swayed slightly closer to Jay but it was unnoticeable.
“I guess it was less about you and more about us.” Jay started to pick at his fingernails now, getting nervous saying anything out-loud.
“You’re still avoiding it.” Jay glared at her, to which she threw her hands up defensively. “Look, you don’t have to say anything I was just curious.”
Jay hesitated again, taking a breath while trying to find the right words to say. “It’s just so confusing, you know? The whole thing.” Jay gestured his hand out in an attempt to get Nya to understand him. “Like, I know we were dating and made the ying-yang promise and all but I can’t figure out if it’s weird to still make moves? Like I can feel this strong attachment I have towards you and I can feel my soul gravitating towards yours, but I don’t remember everything, and I don’t know if that makes it weird to-“
Jay was cut off by a pair of lips pressing against his. His eyes shot open but shut quickly milliseconds later as he started kissing back. It was just a few seconds, long enough to get a point across. “What was that for?”
“That was to get you to stop rambling.” Nya said with a finger jutted out at the brunette, “but this one is because I love you.” She leaned in again, a little harder.
Jay could feel his heart beating in his ears, but he kissed back just as hard, focusing on the love of his life wrapping her arms around his neck. In the back of his mind hazy memories started to play through his head, during the kiss. Jay was hugging a box of Nya’s pixels I love you, Jay was dangling over a pit of lava I love you, Jay was falling into Nya’s arms I love you, they were dancing in a pixelated competition I love you, she was made completely out of water and walking away from him I love you, they were running up to each other, hugging, spinning around, holding hands, battling, watching movies, at the arcade, I love you I love you I love you I love you.
They pulled back from each other, Jay resting his forehead on hers, out of breathe, his arms around her waist now, “I love you, too.”
Nya smiled hard, pecking him twice again on the lips, “You do?? You actually do?” She leaned back a bit to look at him better, “I was worried I said that too soon, to be honest I didn’t know if I should have made a move either I just—“
“Nya, I love you.” Jay emphasized it by squeezing her waist harder, “I really love you.”
He didn’t know if those words held everything she meant to him. If they could truly encompass the feelings he had, the feelings he could never understand. But it felt great to say them.
“Oh, thank the master” Nya wrapped her arms around his head, pulling him close to her neck and burying her face in his hair. “I’ve wanted you back for so long.” She was whispering that to herself, but Jay could hear it. It pulled on a string inside him, he never wanted to leave her again.
She pulled back again, her eyes wet. They both smiled at each other, wide, so wide it hurt. Nya hadn’t been this happy in a long time, and Jay had never been this happy in his whole life.
“So what time is it?” Jay asked quietly, trying not to laugh at his own question, but Nya didn’t try at all.
“How are you still thinking about that??” He loved her laugh.
“You never told me!” Jay might’ve been joking a bit, but he was genuinely curious.
Nya lifted her head up to look at the clock on the wall behind Jay, “It’s like 12:30 in the morning.” She smiled again looking down at him, he can’t wait to fall in love with her again.
“Does that mean I can take more medicine? My head is killing me,” Jay’s voice dropped to a more serious note.
“Yeah, it’s been long enough, lets go see what Zane’s up to.” Nya picked up Jay’s apple off the counter, handing it back to him so he could eat it on the way. He was actually a lot hungrier than he thought he was, but he would eat more after getting medicine.
When they were about to make their way down the stairs, Nya turned around stopping Jay in his tracks, “Wait.” She pulled out a pair of sunglasses from her pocket, “You might want to put these on.”
Jay took them from her, curiously, “Why?” He thought they looked cool and all but indoors?
“It’s bright down in the bay, and your head is not going to like it.” Jay shook is head, understanding the point she was getting across, and put them on before following her down the steps. It was weird wearing sunglasses inside but he felt kind of special, too.
Once they made it down to the bottom, they immediately saw Zane and Lloyd standing in front of the computer screen. “Hey guys!”
“Hi, Nya” Lloyd responded tightly, it sounded like he was chewing on his lip while speaking. Neither of the ninja turned around at all, though.
Jay and Nya exchanged glances before she spoke up again, “Uhm, Jay needs more medicine? If you could give him any?”
“Jay’s awake?” Lloyd turned around that time, wide eyed at the sight of Jay in front of him. “Oh! Hi Jay, uhm, nice shades.” There was a nervous look on his face.
Jay raised his hand in a wave and gave a half-smile, “Zane, can I get more meds, I swear I’ll swallow them better than last time.”
“Uhhhmm” Lloyd turned back around, typing into the computer quickly.
“Lloyd? Why isn’t Zane responding?” Lloyd was typing even quicker now.
“Well, you see, we were trying to track down where Ras is and Zane said he would get into the computer to do some stuff,” He scratched the back of his neck anxiously.
“Uhuh…” Nya crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow up at the boy.
“He said it would only take 15 minutes.”
“And how long has he been in there?” Nya moved up the stairs closer to the computer.
“Uhm..” Lloyd turned around to face her, grimacing “… 2 hours.”
“TWO HOURS?” Jay swears he saw Nya’s face turn red. She raced up to the computer, “And you didn’t think to call for anyone?!”
“I thought I could handle it! I don’t know,” Lloyd stepped back, letting Nya take his spot at the computer, placing both his hands on his head in exasperation. “He said to just click on the button after 15 minutes, and I did but nothing happened.”
“Okay we need to reset the system and see if we can get Zane back online that way.” Nya was the one typing fast on the computer now. Lloyd standing behind her nodding his head.
Jay’s head was still pounding, so he found the closest chair and sat down. He shut his eyes before taking off the sunglasses, setting them in his lap along with the half eaten apple he had, and resting his hands over them, bending over with his elbows on his knees. He really wanted medication, but the situation at hand was definitely more important than his comfort.
“Okay, I triggered a reboot, after this turns back on, we should be able to just unplug Zane from the adapter.” Nya let out a huge sigh, “That wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but if he had been doing anything other than tracking, it would have.” She was quieter, but you could still hear the sharp, irritated tone in her voice, “You need to call someone down here when stuff like this happens, Lloyd.”
Lloyd looked down at the floor, he felt like a kid again. It wasn’t Nya’s fault, it was his own, but he always hated getting treated like a kid. “Sorry.”
Nya walked back over to Jay, resting her hand on the top of his head, “Let’s get you some medicine, I think I remember where Zane keeps it all.”
Jay lifted his head slowly, trying to not to make himself any dizzier than he already was. He shut his eyes tight until he had the sunglasses back on, not to risk anymore light hurting him than it already was.
Nya had to help him walk a bit over to where the medicine storage was. While they were walking, the reboot had finished, and Lloyd pulled the adapter out of Zane’s head. Zane was very still for a few seconds, which frightened Lloyd, but then his eyes started to light up again and his usually whirring undertone came back.
Nya and Jay were listening into what was happening from across the room, and right when Nya was about to help Jay swallow his pills, he shouted.
“All of the ninja need to get here, now!”
“Why?! What’d you find?” Lloyd jumped in front of him.
“They are coming.”
Notes:
sorry i always leave you guys on cliffhangers i literally don’t know how to write
also are we feeling a happy ending to this story or a sad one… because i know what i’m feeling…
Chapter 10: Agent Walker
Summary:
long chapter today 🫠 mostly bruise centered
Chapter Text
“What?” Jay shouted, looking at Zane wide-eyed from across the room. Nya and Lloyd had already bolted to the stairs to wake up the others. “What do you mean they’re coming? Who’s coming?”
“I will explain once everyone is in here. How is your head?” Zane started to walk over towards the lightning elemental.
“No! Don’t ask about my head, who is coming?” Jay could feel his heart pounding in rhythm with the throbbing in his head, all this light was really not good for him. He was stressed. He didn’t even know why, he can’t remember anyone, and he’s never even heard of the Ras guy they were talking about, so why would he care? “I’m sick of being the last person to find out things, you guys always talk around me like I’m a toddler and can’t handle adult conversations. I’m not stupid.”
“I never said you were stupid, Jay. None of us think that. None of us have ever—“
“See there you go again,” Jay jutted his hand out in Zane’s direction, who had stopped his journey to the blue ninja halfway. “The tone you’re using, the vague speech, everything you guys do feels like you’re babying me.” Jay stopped talking suddenly, taking a deep breath in. “Look, can you just be honest with me today, and tell me everything going on just like the rest of the team.”
“I can do that yes.” Zane hesitated a bit while talking, like Jay was a ticking time bomb. “It will still be easier to explain once everyone is in the room, though.”
Jay threw his hands up dramatically, not even bothering to continue talking, and sat back down on the bed by the medicine cabinet Nya had him at.
“I am still curious about your head…” Zane took another step towards Jay, slowly, testing the waters.
“It’s fine, Zane.” Jay turned to lay down on the bed, covering his eyes with the crook of his elbow. He started feeling bad about blowing up at the nindroid. To be fair, maybe they had always treated him like this? Maybe he just didn’t remember what his old personality was like? He didn’t really mean to be rude; he knows Zane and the others just care a lot, but everything he said was true. Although, what sparked it was kind of unnecessary, he could’ve been better about just talking it out.
Zane looked at him from across the room with a frown, opting to just turn back around towards the computer. He knew Jay was just stressed, and probably in pain. He started to register the rapid footsteps coming from the stairwell.
“What’s going on? What happened?” Kai was first down, basically running towards Zane, the other ninja quick behind him.
Jay shot his head up quick at the sound of the other ninja, too quick actually, he had to put it back down for a second before he was able to stand up slowly without the room spinning violently.
“Zane and I were trying to track down Ras’ location and there was a whole thing with Zane getting stuck in there for a bit and then Nya and Jay came and we had to reset it and that was a whole thing and then when Zane—“ Cole placed his hand on Lloyd’s shoulder from behind, a signal for the boy to stop rambling.
“Tell us what’s going on, Zane.” Cole spoke lowly, nodding at Lloyd and Kai while doing so. Jay was now standing next to Cole, trying to blend in with the rest of the ninja. He still hadn’t achieved that true sense of belonging yet, another reason why he just wants to be treated like another one of the team.
Zane was turned around at the computer again, bringing up some sort of locator device that was pinging across the map. “It seems that Ras has teamed up with the administrator and are heading in our direction— “
Jay’s heart started up in his ears again. He felt lightheaded almost, tuning out what Zane was saying a bit. The room felt like it was closing in on him… why was it doing that?
“—not aware of the reasons for their approach, but considering the administrator recently lost one of their agents… it does not seem good.”
Jay’s breathing picked up speed, he could hear talking but he couldn’t make out who it was. Keeping his head down and staring at the floor, he kept trying to listen.
“…think they’re coming to get Jay?”
“Could be possible, but it also could be that they want…” Jay’s hands grabbed at his hair, the heartbeat in his ears had turned to ringing now. Me? Coming to get me, what do you mean coming to get me?? A hand landed on his shoulder and he shot a look up quickly. Terrified.
“Jay, you alright?” The voice sounded distant; it made him dizzy. He couldn’t breathe anymore.
Kai was standing in front of the brunette, watching him breakdown in back of the crowd while the rest of the team was still talking. “Jay? Dude you’re freaking me out, you need to breathe.” Kai grabbed at Jay’s wrists, trying to bring his hands down in front of him, but failing. Jay turned around quickly, away from Kai, crouching down to the floor.
“Jay, hey woah woah come back.” Kai ran around him, sitting on the ground in front of him again. He wasn’t very good at this, he barely knew what to do when Cole had episodes. He looked around the room, trying to see if anyone else was paying attention, but they were all still facing away from the two of them.
He looked back down at Jay, still grabbing at his hair, hyperventilating. “Cole?” Kai whisper shouted, not wanting to draw the attention of everyone, because that might freak him out more. “Cole!!”
Cole turned his head curiously, not seeing anyone behind him until he looked down. “Woah, Kai what’s going on?” Cole dropped in front of Jay immediately, forcing Kai to scootch out of the way.
“I don’t know, I turned around and he was freaking out. I don’t know what to do, I need you.” Kai was stressing now, putting his own hands in his hair as he watched Cole grabbed Jay’s wrists tightly.
“Jay, let go, you’re okay but you need to let go of your hair.” Jay rocked while feeling someone trying to loosen his grip. Everything hurt, his ribs were throbbing, his head was throbbing, he couldn’t breathe, the air was hot, everything was too much.
“Jay, let go.” Cole shook his wrists, looking up at the backs of the other ninja, who still hadn’t noticed the commotion and were staring at the computer screen Zane was messing with. “We need to go somewhere quieter, let’s go upstairs, huh?”
Cole was starting to panic a bit now too; Jay has never shut down this badly before. He looked over at Kai, who was chewing on his fingernails nervously, “Help me pick him up, we can’t deal with this here.”
Jay felt someone wrap their arms around his torso, someone was grabbing him. He shot his head up quick, feeling the air around him sizzle when he dug his hands into the arms around him, trying to get them off him. He heard a yelp, from behind him, so he shot around quickly, backing up and half crawling on the floor.
Someone was waving their arms in front of him, their mouth was moving but he couldn’t hear. All he could see was someone in red clutching their forearm and the person in black moving close to him. He stood up quick, scrambling a bit before catching his stance, the adrenaline making him forget how much pain he was in previously.
“JAY. STOP, I need you to listen to me.” Jay covered his ears, hunching over again. Everything was so hot, the lights were ringing, the clothes he was wearing felt weird, there was water in the air, water on his face, it was too much. He needed to get out of the room.
Looking around quickly, he saw a door and bolted. Heading up the staircase back to the main monastery.
Cole and the other ninja watched him in awe, everyone had turned around hearing Kai’s scream while being electrocuted.
“What was that?!” Kai was still on the ground, clutching his chest now. Everyone was silent, trying to process what just happened.
Cole was the first to make a move, clicking back into reality after the confusion, and rushed towards the door.
“Where are you going?” Someone shouted, but he ignored them, bolting after Jay to see if he was okay.
Going up the stairs, two at a time, he was going through every scenario that just happened, trying to figure out what exactly triggered this. He honestly hadn’t even seen Jay was with them until he turned around and heard Kai. It must’ve been something they were talking about…
He looked down both ends of the hallway, trying to decide which way the blue ninja would have gone. He didn’t have to wonder for long before he heard the loud thud of a bedroom door.
He started quickly but quietly, trying to get to Jay fast but not trying to spook him before he even got to the room. When he made it to the door, he could hear the sobbing. It broke his heart to listen to, taking a moment to compose himself before opening the door. It’s hard always being the one to help the others, but he will always put everyone above himself. Which isn’t healthy at all, but that’s a problem for another day.
He knocked on the door lightly, swinging it open easily (there’s still no doorknob). It was dark in the room, but he could see clearly the outline of Jay rocking back and forth in his bed. He was whispering something to himself, but it was low, and Cole couldn’t make it out entirely.
“Hey, Jay, everything alright?” Jay’s head shot up, the terrified look he had after shocking Kai was still there, “Woah woah hey, its me, its Cole.”
Jay stared at him silently, shaking his head a bit, before a sob wracked through his body. Cole moved over towards the bed, sitting on the edge of it, “You’re alright, it’s okay, Jay.”
“It’s not!” Jay grabbed at his hair again, “It’s not okay, he’s coming, Cole he’s coming.” Jay voice was shaking violently, along with his hands.
Cole was still confused, he grabbed Jay’s hands, forcefully taking them out of his hair. “Who? Who’s coming?” He tried to rub the back of Jay’s palms, but Jay was squeezing his hands too hard.
“He— he. Zane said that-“ Jay couldn’t get through a sentence without his voice cracking or a sob erupting from his throat. “Him and Ras they’re.. he’s gonna—“
That’s when it clicked.
“The administrator?” Cole said it softly, worried about Jay’s reaction to the word, but all he did was nod and erupt into another fit of sobbing.
He launched himself into Cole’s arms, how did he always find himself in this position. “They’re gonna take me, Cole, they’re coming for me. They’re gonna— I don’t want to.”
Cole shushed him, sliding his fingers through Jay’s hair. He didn’t know Jay ever met the administrator, although now that he thinks about it, no one ever asked him what happened there… other than surface level information. What had they done to him?
“They aren’t going to take you, Jay. They won’t even have a chance.” Jay was still hyperventilating, so Cole tried to exaggerate his own breathing slowly, knowing Jay would subconsciously follow.
“How do- how do y’ know?” Jay’s voice was muffled, his face buried in Cole’s chest. He could feel his head pounding, every time his shoulders heaved in sadness his ribs ached. “Zane said— he said.”
“He said he didn’t know. He doesn’t know why they’re coming, but even if they are coming for you. They are not going to get you. Me, Nya, Kai, Lloyd, and everyone else are going to make sure of that.” Jay sat up slightly, feeling Cole’s hands drag down to his upper arms.
“What if you can’t stop it?” Jay started to tear up, “I don’t want to lose you again.”
It took everything in Cole’s body to not breakdown with Jay right there. He couldn’t lose him again either, but he couldn’t cry right now. He’s got to hold it together for Jay. “You will not lose us again, Jay. We just got you back and we are going to everything in our power to keep you here.”
“Why?”
Cole cocked his head to the side, “What do you mean why?”
“Why do you guys fight for me so hard if I can’t even remember…?” The look on Jay’s face was heart-breaking, he was genuinely confused as to why Cole would care.
“Jay,” Cole shook his head, still trying to keep himself together, “Nothing you could do would ever make me stop fighting for you.”
Jay looked up at Cole, his eyes watering again. There was a moment shared there, one that neither of them could exactly explain, but Jay knew he had felt it before. Flashes of memories played behind his eyes while looking at Cole. They were fighting each other in a giant arena, he was sitting in the lap of a ghostly looking Cole, they were stuck in an elevator, singing into a karaoke microphone, they were in space, so many moments where Jay had felt exactly what he was feeling now.
Instead of saying anything, Jay shoved his face right back into Cole’s chest, squeezing him tightly. Cole reciprocated, shoving his face into Jay’s hair, feeling himself tear up.
“They’re not going to get you, Jay.” Cole’s voice cracked a second, and Jay squeezed harder, not caring about how his ribs screamed at him from under his gi.
They sat like that for a while, Cole listening to Jay’s breathing slow down to a better pace. Once he felt more stable, Jay sat up again.
“Sorry,” Jay muttered a bit, “I didn’t mean to react like that I just, heard the name and started… well you know.” Jay had his head down, fiddling with the wrapping around his legs.
“Don’t apologize.” Cole matched the volume Jay was at, “We should probably go back down though, this situation is pretty serious…” Cole was trying to get Jay back to reality as quickly as possible, because truthfully, they didn’t have a lot of time before this nightmare became a reality.
Jay nodded his head, scooting back from Cole so they could both get up. Cole got up first, helping Jay after, who immediately got dizzy again. He was never going to get used to that feeling.
Walking back down the stairs to the hangar, Jay’s adrenaline was rubbing off a bit and the pain was coming back.
“Close your eyes, I’ll get the sunglasses,” Cole whispered before opening the door at the bottom of the stairs. Jay covered his eyes with both his hands, following Cole blindly into the room.
“Cole! Is he alright?” Kai left the others, running over to him.
“I should be asking you that?” Cole grabbed the sunglasses off the floor, where Jay had dropped them. He ran them back to Jay quickly, so he could continue the conversation with Kai.
“I’m good, it was just a shock. Surprised me is all.” Kai said, watching Jay wince and put the glasses on. “You want a pill, Jay?”
“Please.” Jay had an arm around his chest, walking over toward the bed in the makeshift medical corner.
“Nya!” Kai shouted behind him. Nya, Lloyd, Zane, Arin, and Sora were all still around the computer, looking at plans for what to do. Nya whipped around quick at Kai’s call. “Your guy is back.” Kai shouted again, pointing his thumb at the lightning elemental, who was laying down again.
Kai turned back towards Cole, letting Nya take care of Jay, when he noticed a tear coming down from Cole’s eye. “Woah hey, let’s talk okay?”
He reached out towards Cole’s hand, pulling him over to the other corner of the hanger. There was a couch, a mini-fridge, and a table, basically a makeshift living area, over there. Cole barely made it over to the couch before the tears started flowing rapidly. He was quiet though, was he always quiet when he cried?
“What’s going on what happened?” Kai sat down beside Cole, still holding his hand and thumbing the back of it.
“I don’t know, he just…” Cole looked over at Jay, watching Nya rewrap his ribs slowly. “He’s worried about being taken and the look on his face just…” Cole put his free hand over his mouth, half-yawning.
“We aren’t going to let them take him, Cole.” Kai had a very serious look on his face. “He is not going anywhere.”
“I know, I know, and I told him that and he said he—“ Cole took a deep breath in, trying to compose himself. First Jay breaks down, and now he’s doing this, they needed to get moving.
“He said what?” The infliction in Kai’s voice just made Cole want to cry more, to shove his face into Kai’s shoulder the same way Jay was doing it to him.
“He said he couldn’t lose us again and I’m just,” Cole shook his head, “it was just a lot for me to hear that.”
Kai nodded in understanding, he knew how Cole was. “We’re going to protect him, Cole. You know we are.” Cole nodded along with him. “And you know it was never your fault he was gone in the first place.” Kai knew how Cole would take the blame, hell Kai did it himself. There were hundreds of nights where Kai thought the same, thought about everything he could have done differently in order to keep his family together.
“I know, it’s just hard seeing him like…” Cole looked over at Jay again, him and Nya were talking lowly about something. Nya seemed happier again recently, happier and a lot less anxious around Jay. Maybe they had been talking more.
Kai tugged his hand again, dragging his attention back. They exchanged a glance before hugging hard, Cole burying his face into the crook of Kai’s neck. He felt the red ninja caressing his back, he felt weak, breaking down in front fo everyone else, but at least Kai was here.
“We’ve gone through a lot, just in general, but we’ve also gone through a lot with him.” Kai was talking quietly, close to Cole’s head, “and we are making a lot of progress, he’s not as far away as we think.”
“You really think so?” Cole mumbled into Kai’s neck.
To be honest, he didn’t. He had no idea how close Jay was, how much Jay remembered of them, he was trying hard not to think about it too often, himself. “He’s doing great, and he’s going to keep doing great, because he’s not going anywhere.”
Cole tried to nod in Kai’s shoulder, but he couldn’t move much. Kai got the point though, keeping his hand going in circles on the black ninja’s back.
The room went quiet, which felt symbolic, but was actually weird considering there were eight people in the same place.
Cole sat up looking around, Jay and Nya were back over by the computer, but all of them were silently looking at something. Nodding over towards Kai, they let go of each other. He stood up taking one last breathe of composure to go see what was going on.
When the two made their way over, they noticed the pinging was a lot closer than before. Ras and the others were actively moving towards them.
“What’re we going to do?” Cole was the first one to talk, still weirded out by the silence.
“Well,” Lloyd sighed out heavily, “we don’t have long.” He pointed to the map, at the pinging.
“How close are they?’ Kai chimed in.
Lloyd pointed a few degrees to the left, “this is the monastery.” Kai and Cole now realized why everyone went silent.
They were still ‘preparing’ in the hanger, and Ras was right outside.
+
Jay was getting sick of the constant thumping in his head, it never stopped. He was trying to listen to the plan, but all he could hear was the thumping in his head.
“We got to go out there! Now!”
“Kai it’s an ambush, we don’t have a plan.” Lloyd spoke irritably. “Zane? Sora? We have any mechs or ANYTHING that can help us?”
“Kai, Cole, and I have our mechs.” Sora nodded her head, tossing the metal circles to the other two ninja.
“You have your mech too, Lloyd.” Zane replied.
“Okay, we go out there, see what they want and—“
“And fight.” Kai interrupted Lloyd, “We need to fight to keep Jay here.”
Everyone nodded at each other in unison, Jay felt the words inn his chest. They wanted him here, and he wanted to stay.
+
They were all standing in the courtyard of the monastery, Ras and his crew should be approaching any minute now.
“Alright, guys, remember the plan.” Lloyd said.
“We don’t have a plan, Lloyd.” Kai was inside of his mech, readied in a battle stance.
“Right… well, be ready anyway.” Lloyd’s hands and eyes were glowing green, staring at the big gate in front of them.
The scene felt familiar to Jay, he looked over at Nya beside him. He could see himself getting down on one knee in front of her. Right, Jay thought to himself, this is how I proposed. He smiled to himself, shaking his head a bit, but was interrupted in his thoughts by a booming voice.
“Oh the ninja!” A man in a navy-blue suit came up the steps, “I was just looking for you guys.”
“And who are you?” Nya shouted at him, she was also in a readied stance, eyeing the fountain in the corner of the courtyard.
A giant black and purple cat appeared behind the man, along with a larger person. There was black smoke coming from his hands.
“I go by many names,” The man started, walking slowly into the courtyard, “my most popular being The Administrator.” Jay’s heart sunk, he hadn’t seen the administrator in a long time, but that was definitely the man that ruined his mind.
“What are you here for, Administrator?” Nya shouted again, moving her body in front of Jay’s slightly.
“Oh I think you know what I’m here for,” the man smiled wide, glancing around the room before landing his eyes on Jay. “You have something of mine.”
Jay stared him down silently, no one said a word. Everyone was waiting for something to happen, someone to move.
“Back with the ninja are you?” The administrator checked his nails, rubbing them against the outside of his suit.
“I never left.” Jay snarled back at the man, the hand behind his back began to glow a bright blue.
“Oh, you left,” he was smiling again, almost laughing as he spoke. “I had you good and gone, Agent Walker.” Hearing the title come out of his mouth made Jay’s ears sting.
“Shut up.” Jay could feel his body start to tremble.
“Oh right!” The Administrator raised his hand, face palming dramatically. “You don’t remember, do you? A shame…”
“I said SHUT UP!” Jay launched a blast of lightning towards the man, but it missed by a few feet. The administrator didn’t move a muscle. He didn’t even flinch.
“I see you’ve got your powers back. Interesting.” The Administrator raised his hands up, looking around at all the ninja in front of him. “Look I didn’t come here to fight.”
“Then what do you want.” Kai shouted, all the ninja had their powers readied up, waiting for the cue to fight.
“I have an offer.” He put his hands back behind his back, stepping to the side a bit. “As you can see, me and my buddies here have teamed up.” He nodded his head towards the smoke elemental, “I’m sure you guys remember your old friend, Cinder… well, most of you.” He glanced back at Jay, making aggressive eye contact.
Jay wanted nothing more than to smite him in the face right there, “Where are you going with this?”
“Well, Agent Walker, you were supposed to be on our side for this.” He explained, “You were supposed to train with us, lead our army, fight our battles… until these ninja kidnapped you from me.”
“They didn’t kidnap me—“
“Oh, so you went willingly? You wanted to come back with these total strangers?” Jay stayed silent at that, he hadn’t come willingly, but he would’ve if he knew what was going on.
“That’s what I thought.” He took a step closer, all of the ninja jumped a bit at it, still ready to fight. “Mr. Walker—“
“It’s Jay.”
“Jay…” The Administrator smiled at him, “I did so much for you. I gave you everything. A home, a job, food, I was the one who gave you your whole life.”
“You took my life. You took everything from me and then made me forget it ever happened.” Jay’s head was throbbing,
“Oh Jay, no no no, it wasn’t like that.” He looked at Jay with a frown. “You came to me like this, I simply helped the needy.”
“What do you want? Can you just get to the point?” Jay stood up straighter, the glowing flickering a bit in his hands.
“Right! The point…” The Administrator clapped his hands together, “I think it’s only fair that you fight for me, like how you were supposed to in the first place. Come home to me, and I will give you everything you already had and more.”
“I have everything I need here.” Jay was immediately flabbergasted by the request. Who did this guy think he was? Just requesting him to turn his back on his friends… in front of them?
“You do?” The Administrator cocked his head, “What have these imbeciles done that I haven’t done for you?”
Jay stayed silent, his hands weren’t glowing anymore, he was too deep in thought. “Don’t let him get in your head, Jay.” Cole shouted from behind him..
Jay shook his head a bit, looking down at the floor, “You destroyed my life.”
The Administrator clicked his tongue in disappointment, “Agent Walker, I’m really not liking your tone.” The smoke elemental behind him started to walk forward, stopping when an arm moved in front of him.
“Hold on, Cinder, I’m going to give ‘Jay’ one last chance here.” He pointed his other hand at the ninja. “You are going to come with me, whether you do it willingly or not, however, is your decision.”
“Even if you took me by force, you couldn’t get me to fight with you.” Jay growled back, “I’d never turn my back on my family.”
“Your family? Jay, I’m your family. I gave you everything, you were at your lowest point and I provided for you.” The Administrator sighed loudly, “besides, who said you would still know who these ninja are after I’m through with you?”
Jay’s hands started shaking again at the threat. He tried to speak but nothing would come out.
“You’re not taking Jay.” Nya moved her entire body in front of him, pushing him behind her back while doing it just to make sure.
“I’m afraid that’s not up to you, waterlily.” The Administrator dropped the hand in front of Cinder, releasing the restriction he previously had on the elemental. “So, what’s it going to be Agent Walker?”
Jay’s teeth chattered like he was cold, heading pounding, mouth dry, he clapped his hands together, a giant spark of electricity coming out of his hands. His eyes glowed blue, he could feel the air around him vibrating as he cursed out, “I will NEVER go back to you.”
The administrator sighed one last time, “I was worried you’d say that.”
Notes:
barely been a week and admin already figured out where jay was 🤯 i love making them all suffer so sorry… maybe one of these chapters will be happy one day.
Chapter 11: Better Together
Summary:
Sorry for a late update, writing action scenes was a lot harder than I thought it’d be…
Chapter Text
The man behind the Administrator disappeared in front of everyone’s eyes as the ninja started forward. There were roughly 50 people between Ras, the Administrator, Cinder, and the small army they had brought behind them; all of which began to scatter quickly into the monastery.
Jay watched nervously, still charged up and glowing blue, as all the ninja moved in what looked like muscle memory to him. Sure, he was pissed, he had his powers back, but he had no idea what to do. He’s never fought like this before.
He saw his yang in front of him, drawing up a huge water bubble from what looked like thin air, shooting it towards the various foot soldiers heading to the pair, “Keep yourself positioned with someone, Jay!” she shouted at him, “You can’t do this on your own.”
The two of them were surrounded quickly, Jay turning his back towards Nya to make sure everyone is visible from all angles, “What do I do?!” he yelled at her, static shocks flickered from his body.
“Don’t let them get close, and if they do, use your power.” Jay’s heart was beating, it felt like the world was in slow motion as he watched the masked soldiers slowly creep in on him. He could hear Nya’s breathing behind him, see the other ninja trying to get the stragglers scattered around the monastery. Suddenly, everyone rushed in to the two at once.
From across the courtyard, Kai and Sora were handling the rogue elemental. “First Master, I HATE SMOKE,” Kai twisted his mech around quickly, struggling to look around for the smoke cloud effectively. “Fighting smoke with fire makes me feel so useless.” He stomped his mechs foot on the ground, emphasizing the last word, not knowing he had actually knocked Cinder’s cloud beneath him.
“Kai, he’s right there!” Sora yelled, pointing her finger down at the foot of Kai’s mech.
“What?! Where?” Kai threw his fist down, smacking the ground in front of him hoping he’d hit something.
Sora saw Cinder show up again behind the big red mech, “Not there, over there!”
Kai whipped around again, trying to look where the electrical elemental was pointing, “Sora! You’re really confusing me, right now!!” Kai voiced inflected irritation as the hands of his mech reached up to its (nonexistent) hair.
He looked around the courtyard at the others, seeing Jay and Nya surrounded by wolf masks. Nya was guarding herself efficiently, while Jay was firing shocks at random around him.
There wasn’t much thought to Kai’s actions when he went storming across, “Kai! What about the—“ Sora stopped yelling abruptly when she saw Cinder appear right in front of Nya, knocking her off her feet.
“Jay!” The lightning elemental heard someone shout from his side, as he felt a hand smack down on his wrist. When he turned around, he was met with grey and white hair, instead of the black he was expecting.
“NO!” Jay shouted, unknowingly shooting a bolt of energy between himself and the smokey figure, which disappeared almost instantaneously and reappeared behind him again, grabbing the other wrist, instead.
He was pinned this time, trying to shake Cinder off while electricity zapped off his opposing hand, swinging a fist around his body. However, when his eyes lined with the trajectory of his fist, the figure was gone again. “What is HAPPENING!” Jay shouted, grabbing at his hair.
“He’s a smoke element!” Nya was standing up again, drawing up more water while positioning her body in front of Jay’s.
“So, he can just disappear??” Jay shocked a wolf mask approaching him off to the side, barely hitting him. He still didn’t have good aim yet.
“Basically!” Nya responded quickly, trying to have a shout conversation was making her lose focus a bit and she completely missed a strike on another soldier.
Jay heard her shout something about ninja’s when he saw a giant tornado of water appear behind him, spinning around him in a circle and knocking down a bunch of soldiers in its path.
Jay was a little awestruck at that, pausing for half a second to watch his admirer, before getting swooped up into the air by something.
Instinctually, he slammed his hands down shocking whatever was grabbing him, but stopped when he heard a familiar scream.
“Oh, COME ON!” He opened his eyes to see Kai, slamming his fists down on the control panel inside the mech, before both of them fell over.
The breath got knocked out of Jay as he tried to stand back up, but the adrenaline was not doing anything to his rib pain. He was panting and grabbing at his right side, trying to catch up with everything that was happening.
The break didn’t last long though, “Thanks for short-circuiting my only mech,” Kai reached a hand down at Jay, who took it gratefully.
“How was I supposed to know who was grabbing me?!” Jay replied defensively, allowing himself to be pulled up to his feet by the red ninja.
“It’s fine, I don’t need a dumb mech anyway.” Jay watched as Kai’s hands sparked up into flames, “Stay with me, yeah?” Kai was turned away from Jay now, looking at the big cat coming their way.
Jay still had a hand around his chest, his ribcage felt like it was disintegrating inside of him, “Yeah alright.” His response was through strained teeth, trying to get himself to spark up again, but failing.
Zane was the one handling Cinder now, shooting ice around him in an attempt to freeze the smoke right where it was. Cole wasn’t far from the ice ninja, trying to keep more wolf masks off his back, “Can you get him?”
“He is moving too quickly; I cannot keep up with the typhoportation!” Zane had his back against one of the walls of the monastery now, trying to limit the angles Cinder could appear from.
“Typhopor-what?!” Cole was at his side again, also deciding to lose the mech because of the inconveniences it was causing. There were no more wolf masks in their vicinity, so he chose to help Zane directly.
“Typhoportation allows the user to turn into their element and teleport around their—“ Zane was cut off as Cinder appeared right in between the two of them, swiping beneath both and knocking them down on the ground.
Cole used the fall to his advantage, catching himself with his hands and spinning into spinjitsu, immediately swiping Cinder up into his rocky swirl.
His tornado moved away from Zane, who jumped up and ran into the monastery, away from the fighting. No one noticing due to how busy all of them were with the battle.
Cole spun, unknowingly, into Lloyd’s area, where he and Arin were fighting more soldiers. He stopped his tornado, watching as Cinder continued to spin around in disorientation. His arms and forehead were glowing a bright orange while he signaled over to Lloyd to help him out.
Lloyd caught the drift immediately, his own hands and eyes glowing green as he shot a ball of energy towards Cinder. Shooting the older fellow into the walls across the courtyard.
Jay was startled when he saw the smoke elemental shoot across his field of vision, into the wall right beside him. Kai wasn’t caught as off guard however, doing his own spinjistu and knocking Ras into the same wall, where he landed right on top of Cinder.
There was a still moment between all the ninja, all the wolf warriors were down and now the two toughest were down too, but this wasn’t going to last long.
They all turned their heads when they heard the Administrator shout, “Get back up you idiots!” He was still standing in the gate of the monastery, watching the whole fight go down in front of him. “I knew I should’ve brought more soldiers.”
He started stepping into the courtyard now, moving towards the ninja, “Guess I’ll have to do some of my own work now.” His eyes shut tightly and he brought his hands up a bit, but nothing seemed to be happening.
“What is he doing?” Jay whisper-shouted at Kai.
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling it’s not gonna be good…” All of the ninja watched in silence as the Administrator stood still, in a mediation like state. His eyes shot open, they were dark, way darker than before.
Suddenly, black figures came over the walls of the courtyard, they were smooth with the walls, they looked 2D. “Uhm guys, what is that?” Arin pointed at the figures, which were gradually picking up speed.
The ninja moved towards the center of the courtyard as the black figures closed in on them, now reaching the floor. Jay could feel his energy coming back to him, focusing on centering the blue sparks to his hands.
He saw Kai shoot a ball of fire at the floor, followed by Nya doing the same with water, and Cole trying to make a small wall from the ground, none of it was stopping the figures. Jay started stressing more, reaching his hands up to his hair and shutting his eyes, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. None of their elements were working, he doubted his would work, and they were being surrounded by these weird black shadows.
The sky started to turn darker as Jay could feel energy churning around himself. The other ninja could see it, a blue almost force field looking orb surrounding everyone as Jay moved closer to the ground.
Cole looked up at the sky, seeing the dark clouds light up randomly as heat lighting shot across the sky, “Jay?” He turned his head, to the side, watching as Jay placed his hands on the ground.
The lightning element felt like he was floating, nothing hurt, his head was silent, even the throbbing in his chest that seemed to be there all the time was gone. All he could see behind his shut eyes was darkness, following what the air was moving him to do and listening to the particles of energy spark around him.
The black was getting uncomfortably close the the ninja now, they could see it swallowing the bodies of wolf masks on the ground, the whole courtyard turning black as figures seemed to appear out of the shadows. “Guys, what’re we doing?” Kai had a singsong affect in his voice.
Cole looked up at the sky again as a tube-like center of the clouds appeared directly over the courtyard. “I think Jay is doing something…” His voiced dragged off, pointing up at the sky for the other ninja to see the vigorous swirling.
“Can he do it faster?” Kai looked back over towards Ras and Cinder, who were now slowly coming back to consciousness. Kai was the only one talking now, the other ninja watching Jay silently. “Is this some sort of meditation contest? What is happening?!”
Jay felt an energy building in him, he shut his eyes tighter, blocking out the chatter of his team around him. Suddenly, a giant spark came down from the sky, striking the ground directly in front of the Administrator. The whole courtyard lit up, everyone gasping at the loud bang that came from the blast. After the split second of light, the ninja could see the Administrator now on his hands and knees, the shadows around them retracting quickly.
“NO!” The Administrator scrambled back up, his hand looked burnt, and closed his eyes again, trying to focus on the shadows coming back. They continued retracting.
Another object appeared over the walls of the monastery, a giant red airship, which was being piloted by no other than Zane.
“The Bounty!” Lloyd shouted, pointing his finger for the other ninja to look at Zane who was lowering a ladder into the courtyard. It unraveled directly into Lloyd’s hands, “Everyone go! Now!” He held the base, ordering the other ninja to start climbing.
Arin and Sora were up first, followed by Nya and Kai, “Cole, come on we got to get out of here!” Cole was still looking down at Jay, who hadn’t moved from his position since the lightning strike.
“Jay! Jay, you did it, we got to go come on!” Cole reached down to his shoulder but was shocked by static before even touching the man. The spark hurt. It hurt a lot more than it usually would, knocking him back a bit, a look of confusion on his face while he looked back at Lloyd.
“Jay?” Lloyd started to walk towards him now but heard Kai shout down at the three of them.
“Guys! Zane said you have 30 seconds, the ships on autopilot!” Lloyd and Cole looked at each other with an equal look of terror.
“Come on, Jay, please, we got to go now!” Cole moved in front of Jay, crouching down on the ground with him as Lloyd started up the ladder.
“I’ll tell them what’s going on and turn off the autopilot but hurry, we don’t have long before those three are back up.” Cole nodded at the young master before looking back down at his main focus.
The dark clouds were still swirling above them, heat lightning and all. Cole snapped his fingers in front of Jay’s face, “You got to snap out of this, Jay come on!” He reached out again to shake him awake, but was only met with more electricity, stronger this time.
Cole wiped his hands over his face, he was stressed. He couldn’t even touch him. In a panic, he slammed his fist on the ground, avoiding the ladder completely, and shooting both of them up towards the ship on the giant stone pillar he was forming underneath them.
The higher they got, the more Jay could feel the particles moving. Cole was actively bringing him closer to his element, and he could feel the affects of it all around him. The particles were colliding into him sharply like needles as he felt his hands start shaking.
Cole noticed the glowing, the sparking around his whole body. Then he remembered when Jay first got his powers back, it was a build up. “JAY!” he shouted in one last attempt, the bounty actively moving away from the pillar he had created, all of the ninja watching the two from the deck.
“Jay, let it go! Just like before, shoot it into the ground!!” Cole was speaking as loud as possible, trying to break through to Jay.
In the midst of all the buzzing around him, Jay heard it. Not all of it, but the words let it go were the only ones spinning around in his head as he released all the tension in his body. A giant lighting strike passing only a few feet away from the pillar as his eyes shot open, the blue flickering from them quickly.
“Thank the master, Jay, come on are you with me?” Cole grabbed his hands quickly, forcing him to stand up despite the obvious disarray he was in after the energy surge.
“We have to jump do you hear me?” He was shaking Jay’s shoulders now, the blue ninja’s eyes were wide as he nodded animatedly. The clouds in the sky and in his head were clearing quickly. He was grounding slowly, but couldn’t think straight at all; he could barely hear Cole’s voice.
“On the count of three you’re going to jump with me, okay?” Cole shouted again, spinning Jay around and grabbing his hand, pointing at the quickly moving Bounty in front of them. This was their last chance.
“One…” Cole made sure his grab on Jay’s hand was tight, not knowing if he was going to make it out of practice, “Two…” He crouched down, prepping himself to get a running start, watching Jay do the same. “THREE!”
He ran full force, dragging Jay behind him and jumping off the pillar. Time felt like it stopped in Jay’s eyes. He looked down at the ground while they were jumping, seeing the Administrator pointing up them, yelling at Cinder and Ras.
It felt less like a jump to him and more like a fall, his eyes playing tricks on him as the ground seemed to grow further away. It felt good, he felt like he was flying. His brain was silent again and he felt relaxed, now having no power surging in his body.
What would it be like to just fall? Feel the wind in his hair, having no worries at all? Once he touched the ground it’d all be over. There’d be no pain, no forgetting… nothing. Just him and the air. He felt the grasp in his hand tighten, and thought about letting go, just for a second. What would happen if he just let go?
His thoughts were interrupted by a thud, his body hitting the outside wall of the airship. He was dangling now, the grip in his hand tighter than ever as he continued to stare down at the ground.
“Hold on, Jay!” Cole had his orange hand hanging onto the ledge of the Bounty. Kai was there before he could even shout for help, pulling the earth ninja up into the boat.
Jay’s mind was silent still has he felt himself being pulled up by the hand and shirt into the airship. He sat on the wooden floor, back against the wall next to Cole, who was hyperventilating.
“Holy shit.” Everyone was silent for a few seconds, each of them catching their breaths and trying to calm down from all the events that occurred only within the last 45 minutes. Cole still had his hand in Jay’s, leaning his head back against the wall, “I can’t believe we just did that.” He was panting when he turned his head over to Jay’s, smiling wide at him, “Can you believe we just did that?!” Cole started laughing now, taking his free hand and patting it on Jay’s leg.
Jay looked at him wide-eyed, his brain felt fried. No words were processing, he couldn’t even process his own thoughts, everyone’s mouths were moving but he wasn’t hearing anything.
“Are you okay?” Having caught his breath, Cole was now looking at Jay with genuine concern, but Jay couldn’t talk back. He couldn’t do anything. He wasn’t sad or mad or excited, he almost felt like he had no emotion.
“Dude, Jay what did you do back there? That was awesome!” Kai was handing Jay a water bottle, which he took automatically and started to chug.
“Woah, slow down there, bluebell.” Cole tilted the bottle down from Jay’s mouth, looking at him with concern again. “Everything alright? That was a lot that just happened.” Jay stared at him blankly again, not really knowing what to say. He didn’t know what to feel yet.
Their conversation was cut a little short by Lloyd and Zane coming out onto the deck again, “Zane, you genius!” Kai wrapped him up in a hug, lifting the nindroid’s feet off the ground.
“We were not going to win that fight with how unprepared we were, the Bounty was our only option.” Zane smiled a bit, chuckling as he was set back on the ground.
“It was a great move,” Lloyd chimed in, “We need to keep moving, right now we have a head start so it will take them a while to catch up. Not to mention, they can’t know where we are if we’re always somewhere different.” Lloyd had his own water bottle now, handing another one off to Nya who had been silent most of the time.
She took it, sitting down on the other side of Jay, who was still very disoriented. “What was the Administrator doing back there?” She took a swig of water, glancing over at Jay worryingly while doing so.
“I have never seen elemental power like that before,” Zane had his hands behind his back while explaining, “It seemed like he was creating shadows and attempting to make his own warriors out of the darkness.”
“I’m getting real sick of all these new elements showing up everywhere.” Kai went to cross his arms when he saw Sora glaring at him, they shot back out defensively, “Except for you, of course… and Wyldfyre.” Kai looked over at Cole again, “…and Geo, obviously.” He chuckled with an apologetic look on his face.
“It definitely keeps catching us off guard.” Lloyd was looking over the railing of the Bounty now, watching as the monastery quickly disappeared into the clouds.
Jay shot up to his feet quick, turning around to face Nya, who was still sitting down on the floor. “Where are the beds?” He had asked her directly, looking into her eyes.
Nya looked over at Cole, who shrugged back at her. This was the first thing Jay had said since shutting down. “I’ll show you, help me up.” She reached her arms out to Jay, but all he did was stare at them blankly.
“Or… don’t…” Nya helped herself up, using the wall to support her. She made eye contact with her yang again, before watching him step to the side and look at the ground, gesturing to the side for Nya to walk in front of him.
She looked at Cole one more time, shooting him a sharp glance that conveyed at least five different emotions, before walking away to show Jay the room under the ship.
The other ninja watched the two walk away, everyone in silence.
“What was that about?” Kai was the first to speak up, naturally. He reached down shifting his body weight to help Cole off the floor now.
Cole furrowed his brown, staring at the door to the downstairs that Nya and Jay had walked into, “I… don’t know…” He kept his gaze on the door and headed towards it silently.
Kai, Lloyd, and Zane all exchanged glances, shrugging at each other. They waited until Cole was gone before continuing the conversation about where their journey was going to now.
+
Jay sat down on a bed with blue sheets, Nya had taken him straight to the boarding area without a word. He felt more grounded now, but still felt off.
The bed sunk down slightly as Nya sat beside him, placing her hands under her thighs and staring at the other side of the room, just as Jay was. She waited a beat before speaking, “Want to talk about it?”
Jay didn’t move a muscle, keeping his gaze in the same spot. “Talk about what?” His voice was flat.
“I don’t know, the attempted kidnapping, the fight, the giant lightning cloud, the sparking, how you and Cole almost missed the jump?” Jay sighed deeply.
“I don’t really know what to say.” His posture shrunk a bit, the pain in his chest was coming back slowly. “I just feel weird, I guess.”
Nya was looking at him now, watching every move he made. “Drained? Tired? Scared?” She was throwing out emotion ideas for Jay to catch onto, but all he did was shrug.
“Why don’t we just lay down? Maybe you need a reset before you can process everything.” She placed her hand on his thigh, rubbing it lightly.
Jay looked at her, finally, a look of solemn in his eyes. They were puffy, the bags under them deeper than usual. He brought a hand up and rubbed his eye while nodding his head.
Nya stood up, helping him reposition to lie down and covering him back up once he was settled. She went back across the room to shut the curtains and grab a new water bottle, which she set on the cubby in the wall beside the bed.
She was about to walk away when she heard Jay speak up again, “We?”
She cocked her head slightly, looking at the brunette. “What?”
“You said we. ‘Why don’t we lay down?’” Jay had a fist full of blanket balled up under his chin. His eyelids were drooping already.
“You want me to lay down with you?” Nya pointed at herself; her stomach fluttered a bit at the request. She almost didn’t believe it.
Jay didn’t say anything else, but he scooted over in the bed, lifting his arm under the blanket to reveal the empty spot beside him.
Nya’s face went red, morphing into the most loving look Jay’s ever seen in his life. Usually, he would freak out about being in the bed dirty, or not wearing outside clothes in the bed, but he didn’t care. He just wanted Nya.
Nya silently climbed into the bed, sliding underneath the covers that Jay had lifted for her. She was rolled over on her side, facing Jay’s direction, when he slid closer to her. Shoving his head into her chest, she closed her eyes and smiled, kissing the hair beneath her. She felt Jay sigh deeply again, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her to him tightly
When Cole walked in to check on what was happening, they were both out cold. Together.
Notes:
New Chapter is opening for the ninja now :] Jay needs to learn how to fight again if they’re gonna keep this up…
Chapter 12: Processing
Summary:
Bit of a filler chapter sorry… the next one will be more story driven again
Chapter Text
Cole bounced on the soles of his feet and shook his head, trying to get rid of the cloudiness in his brain. “Alright, fireball,” he lowered his head a bit, making eye contact with the red ninja a few feet in front of him.
He swung at him first, Kai dodging it by a millimeter, “Hey! That wasn’t fair!” Kai went for Cole’s face in retaliation, causing the two to swap sides of the match.
Cole was going to respond but he was too focused, a big change up from what felt like days before. Ever since Jay and him made the jump a few days ago, his head’s been foggy. He’s always had a bit of a disassociation problem, but it was constant up here. Air was too thin.
Kai was fitted in his red gi, like usual, with training weights wrapped around his hands loosely. Cole was also in his usual attire, but rather than having the gi fully on, the top/arms were tied around his waist, leaving a sleeveless compression shirt on his top half.
They continued to spar, both of them slowly getting more aggressive as they got comfortable with the practice. “You know if I could use my powers right now, I’d have you smoked!” Kai said guiding another fist towards Cole.
“Really?” Cole ducked under the hand Kai jutted at him and turned quickly, grabbing it from underneath and throwing Kai over his shoulder. “For some reason I don’t believe that.” Cole stood up quickly, hearing the thud of Kai’s back on the ground.
Kai was up again in seconds, going for Cole’s legs now, which he dodged easily. Him and Kai were fairly evenly matched, naturally, but Kai insisted on wearing weights, which don’t affect Cole’s moves as much as it does Kai’s.
Cole’s eyes caught Jay’s for a second, but faltered soon after because of Kai rushing him again. The lightning ninja was sitting on a wooden crate, crossed-legged, sketching on a clipboard. He was dressed similarly to Cole, with his gi wrapped around his waist, but instead of a compression shirt he just had his blue bandages around his chest.
Jay’s ribs haven’t been healing. They all thought he’d be good to continue on as usual with them, but they seemed to only be getting worse. No one wanted to admit it, but he was way out of practice; he was not able to power through injuries like the others could. If he was thrown on his back like Cole just did to Kai, he might not get back up for a while.
Jay was dividing his attention between drawing and watching Kai and Cole’s spar. It was interesting to see them fight in a setting where he’s able to watch, unlike a few days ago. After making eye contact with Cole for a split second, he looked back down at his paper. He’s been drawing different versions of the bounty recently; yesterday it was all wooden, with different sails, today it looked like a submarine.
He flipped through the other papers stuck under his current one, there were a few of Nya, some of hypnobrai, and a few sheets full of doodles. It was so strange how his memory was working, it didn’t seem to follow any order, just random bits popping out of nowhere.
His episodes have slowed down since they’ve been in the air, no flashbacks at all. Which he was glad for, but it also felt like backwards progress. Sure, he hated the flashbacks, he hated the feelings they brought him, but part of him knew that it was good for the process.
He looked up again, Cole and Kai had been silent for a while, other than the sound of grunting and movement. The two seemed locked in on each other, focused.
Cole could feel himself moving through motions, usually training like this would help his mind from drifting, but the more he ran through routine steps the more zoned out he got. Kai didn’t notice, he was playing a different game. Kai had a habit of using off-guard methods, trying to get his opponent to a state of confusion so he could get them down from shock.
When Kai trained, even if it was just against a punching bag and not the other ninja, he had a habit of blending all the fights he’s ever had together. Which was good in theory, because he can combine techniques, but it also made his opponent not seem like a real person to him. He forgets he’s fighting his friend after a bit.
Cole ducked again, in his half-zoned out state, and bounced back up instinctually. He didn’t notice that Kai had used the momentum to get behind him again and felt a jab in his back, knocking him face first onto the floor of the bounty.
When he rolled over, he saw Kai strike a fist down towards Cole’s chest, his arm glowed orange as he grabbed it, stopping the blow entirely. “Woah, dude, okay. You got me down.”
The sudden stop snapped Kai out of his head quick, actually seeing Cole now, “Sorry, got carried away there.” He grimaced to himself, changing his fists shape to wrap around Cole’s orange hand, helping him back up.
“s’alright.” Cole bounced again, prepping himself to start back up.
“You guys are just always going, huh?” Jay spoke up, watching as the two were right back at it, like nothing ever happened.
“Ninja never quit, Jay.” Kai sighed, letting all the air in his lungs go out as his forearm collided with Cole’s own. “You’ll learn soon enough.”
Jay was sketching the two of them now, he got bored of his own thoughts, so now he was studying the way the two of them moved. It was fascinating how in sync the whole team was with each other, it was like all of them shared one brain, exchanging thoughts to each other without even realizing it. It still made Jay feel a little left out.
Jay’s internal ramble was stopped when he saw Kai slammed Cole into the ground again, this time he didn’t continue though. Cole rolled over to his front, using his arms to push himself back up again. However, instead of bouncing like he always does, he kept walking forward, not turning back to Kai at all.
“You done?” Kai stood up straight again, reaching to untie the weights around his hands. He watched Cole run a hand through his hair, “You seem off today, everything alright?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” Cole took a deep breath in, turning back around to Kai. “In my head a bit is all.” He started to untie his own weights, reaching his hand out to take Kai’s so he could put them back.
Kai’s eyebrow was up suspiciously, but he obliged, watching Cole turn back around to walk up towards the steering wheel. “Do you want to talk about it?” Kai said, a little louder now that Cole was farther away, but all he got was a hand waving him off in return. He turned towards Jay, who shrugged back, just as clueless about Cole.
Kai squinted back over his shoulder at Cole, who disappeared over the stairs of the bounty, “He’ll be alright.” Kai walked over to stand beside Jay’s crate. “Sometimes he just need to be by himself.” Jay nodded, picking his pencil back up to draw again.
Kai glanced down at Jay’s clipboard, his eyes widening at the detail, “Woah! That’s so cool, is that the hydro-bounty?” Kai reached out a hand, silently asking to hold the clipboard.
“Hydro-what?” Jay questioned, agreeing to allow Kai to flip through his work. When his face drooped a bit, he knew he saw the sketches of Nya, but Kai didn’t say anything. He flipped back to the pages of bounty designs.
“You know, this reminds me of the blueprints you used to draw for us back in the day. You always had a crazy eye for detail.” Kai traced a finger along the image, looking at every window and matching it to his memory of what the hydro-bounty looked like. “Are you remembering all of this detail or is it just…?” Kai gestured in the air.
“I wouldn’t say I remember it; I just draw what looks right I guess?” Jay adjusted the sunglasses he was wearing slightly, “It’s a little hard to explain. I never know exactly what I’m drawing it’s just what I think of and then happens to come out to be… my memories, I guess.”
Kai smiled down at him, handing the clipboard back, “Well, your talents certainly didn’t get knocked out of you. Better than anything I could do.” His mind flicked back to Cole for a second, worrying again about the earth elemental seeming so off. “I’m going to go check on Cole.” He patted a hand on Jay’s shoulder before leaving him alone.
Cole was sitting on the back ledge of the Bounty, legs dangling off the edge of the ship. He was deep thought, staring down at the cloud’s moving below him. The constant morphing of them making it easy for him to zone out.
He thought about the years he had spent away from being a ninja, how his only job in the Land of Lost Things was to protect his family there. As much as he missed this family and he was glad to be back, he has to admit he missed Geo and the finders, too. Life was so much more simple in those years with them, he loved them, he loved Geo. He never really thought about how it wasn’t going to last forever while he was there. They helped him mourn the loss of this, of what he was doing now, and once he had processed that it was gone, it was weird to get thrown back into it.
Nya finding him might have been one of the happiest moments of his life, next to finding Jay again, but he was also happy with Geo and the family they had there. His heart tore in a few different ways. It’s all so complicated, why does everything in his life have to be so complicated?
Cole felt Kai’s presence sit next to him, not as close to the ledge as he was, but close enough to be in Cole’s field of vision. Neither of them said anything, but he could tell Kai wanted to. He knew this man a little too well sometimes.
“Sorry I made you stop training,” Cole kept his gaze on the clouds below, fogginess coming back to his brain again.
“You didn’t make me do anything, I would’ve continued on my own if I wanted to.” Kai scooted a little closer to Cole, “I’m more worried about you, though.”
“I’m fine, I swear, I think the air up here just messes with my head a bit. I always feel strange when we’re in this thing.” Cole tapped a hand on the floor, referencing the bounty while saying the last thing. He was being honest with Kai, but he had never gone into specifics with any of the others about disassociating; he didn’t think they would understand it completely.
“I get it,” Cole knew he didn’t but the effort was there. He swayed his feet a bit, still watching the clouds. “I heard that Zane made lunch, if you’re interested?” Kai said with a tempting tone, trying to get Cole away from this position a bit.
Cole’s posture straightened a bit at the mention of food, none of the ninja ate breakfast that morning, so it was definitely a good temptation. He looked back at Kai with an amused face, knowing what he was trying to do.
Kai looked up to the left, “I think he also said he made cake? But I don’t know if you’re still into that…” He was teasing Cole, knowing damn well he was still into that.
“I haven’t had Zane’s cake in years…” Cole thought out loud to himself a bit, flashing back to times before the merge.
“Maybe we should go remind you of what it tastes like?” Kai threw his hands up in fake-realization, “Unless, of course, you just want to stay out here, I’ll eat it for you.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” Cole had the whole top of his body facing Kai now. They shared a beat of silence, exchanging glances, before Kai stood up quickly, bolting to the other side of the ship.
Cole got the memo quick, standing up just as fast and racing to catch up to the fire ninja, “KAI!”
“Sorry, can't hear you! There’s too much of my dust in your mouth!” Kai turned quickly, throwing both his hands in the air confidently, then turning back around to beat Cole to the kitchen.
+
Jay started a new page after Kai left him to see Cole, drawing the outline of Nya’s head like he had so many other times that morning.
He was fresh on medication, so neither his head nor his ribs were bothering him all that much. The sunglasses he was wearing was keeping the sun from bothering his head too much, too, so he was feeling pretty great right now. The sun on his back felt nice along with the wind from the ship’s movement.
The last few days have been alright for him. He spent the day after fighting the Administrator mostly in fear. He didn’t talk much that whole day and spent most of it in bed anxious. The fight took a lot out of him, he had almost no time to recover between his concussion, that, and changing locations entirely after leaving the monastery; he needed the day to just sit and adjust himself.
The ninja took turns checking in on him, bringing him food and water and medicine, but otherwise it was just him. The ninja had spent everyday trying to find another place to settle at, but until then, they were still up in the air.
Today was the first day Jay felt like himself again, after just being able to rest. That’s one thing Zane and Nya were right about, he really needed to just sleep it all off. He slept so much within the last three days that he doesn’t think he could sleep anymore if he tried. Which is how he found himself on the deck, drawing.
Jay was onto a different sketch of Nya now, this time an image of her with short hair. He thought about what it had looked like in the photo album, trying to make it look right on paper.
Nya walked out onto the deck, noticing it was empty except for Jay. She leaned in the doorway where she was standing, watching him a bit. Whenever he was focused he would chew on the inside of his lip, furrowing his eyebrows slightly, she loved it.
He would make the same face while tinkering with machines back in the day, or while building model train sets, he used to have in his room. It was always something Nya found endearing.
As she watched him, she thought about the emotions he made her feel. She felt happy, depressed, excited, hopeful, and dreadful all at the same time. He wasn’t that much different from how she knew him to be, but here and there he had been catching her off guard. She didn’t want to say she didn’t know him anymore, but there was a lot that happened over the years they spent apart. A lot he doesn’t remember.
Shaking herself out of the thought, she started to walk over towards Jay. He clocked it immediately, trying to move the paper of Nya sketches underneath some of the other ones without making it too obvious he was hiding it.
Once Nya made her way over, she looked down at the clipboard, seeing the same image of the hydro-bounty Kai had seen previously. She didn’t compliment it the same way though, instead she put her hand in Jay’s hair, guiding him to rest the side of his head on her waist.
The two of them stayed silent, Nya gently running her fingers through his brown hair, scratching at his scalp with her nails every now and then.
She felts Jay take a deep breath in, relaxing more into Nya’s side and shutting his eyes, maybe he could sleep more actually.
It was at this moment the two of them saw Kai and Cole bolting down the stairs of the bounty, heading towards the kitchen. Nya chuckled to herself, letting up on Jay’s hair and pulling another crate next to his.
“How are you feeling?” Nya lifted the hair off his forehead slightly, placing a gentle kiss there, before siting down, watching Jay immediately turn red from it.
“I’m uh, I’m good,” Jay tripped over his words a bit, nervously. “How are you doing Nya?” He looked away from her, eyes wide. Nya chuckled a bit to herself.
“I’m good, too. Zane should be done making lunch now, if you want to go eat?” She placed her hand on top of his, feeling Jay immediately intertwine his own fingers with hers. He nodded his head, looking back up at her.
After they spent the night in bed together, Jay has felt more attached than ever. He didn’t want to come off as clingy, but he definitely was. He had asked Nya if it was weird that they were laying together the day after, but all she did was laugh and kiss him again. It wasn’t weird to her, she had been waiting for this to happen again for more than 5 years, but Jay was more cautious. He had literally never even flirted before, being in a whole relationship was brand new waters.
“What have you been drawing?” Nya’s posture got taller, trying to eye the paper without making Jay give it to her.
“Oh, you know,” Jay laughed nervously, “The usual stuff, memories and all that.” His face was not selling the lie at all, even though it was technically true.
“Memories, huh?” Nya’s eyebrow went up.
“Yep! Just memories, lets go eat.” Jay stood up quickly, dragging Nya by the hand behind him and leaving the clipboard on the floor.
When they entered the makeshift dining room in the hull of the ship, everyone except Lloyd was already in the room eating. “Where’s Lloyd?” Nya asked, passing Jay a sandwich off the table.
“Steering the boat, something about a Master needs to keep his eye out or something.” Kai had a mouth full of food while he spoke, which Nya passed a light-hearted judging glance at him for.
Jay noticed the cake on the counter immediately, two pieces already gone from it. “How did you even make a cake up here? There’s like a teapot and a cooler.”
“A chef never reveals his secrets!” Zane was whistling enthusiastically. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood actually, which is funny considering they’re floating around the merged lands sharing the same bedroom.
“You guys come up with a plan or anything?” Cole gestured at Nya and Zane, who exchanged a small glance.
“Lloyd said he feels drawn to go a certain way, that maybe Master Wu is there, but he isn’t sure.” Nya took a swig of water, looking at Zane. “I am assuming that’s where he’s steering us to, but Zane is also working on tracking Ras and the Administrator from the computer on board.”
Zane nodded his head, “I have been able to map out where exactly we are in the Merged Lands, but I am not able to get anything on Ras due to our limited computer system.”
“I can fix that!” Sora’s eyes widen a bit, “I’m sure I can do something with my powers to change it up a little.”
“That will be our next item on the agenda then,” Zane smiled at her. Sora and Zane had an interesting bond, she reminded him of Pixal in a way. Not romantically, but in a sense that they shared similarities in intelligence. He needed to print out a new picture of her. “Jay, would you like to join us?”
Jay perked up, eyes wide, with a mouth full of food. He held a finger up while chewing awkwardly fast so he could answer, “I can, but what makes you think I will be able to help at all?” Jay didn’t know the slightest about computers, his knowledge stopped at fixing game controllers in his office at Administration.
“You have a natural ability in technology, in a different way than Sora. I think it would be good to revisit that a little.” Jay looked over at Nya, eyes still wide with something akin to fear.
“He’s right, like I was telling you earlier, you used to build all kinds of stuff.” Kai butted in from across the room.
“I guess I can try?” Jay shrugged to emphasize his confusion. Everyone moved onto their food again after that, so he looked back over in Cole’s direction. He’d been fairly silent this whole time and Kai was right, the more Jay thought about it, the more he realized that Cole was acting weird.
He wondered for a second if it was something he did. Cole hadn’t really spoken to him much since they left the monastery, and the rogue eye contact was getting awkward. He knows he was being weird that first night, maybe he was rude to Cole on accident?
As if on cue, Cole stood up and silently walked out of the dining area. Jay noticed Kai frowning at him, and so did Nya. “Is he alright?” Nya spoke low, moving closer to Kai.
“I really don’t know.” The waver in Kai’s voice hit Jay a little hard.
“Zane, I’ll meet you guys by the computer in a bit, I’m going to go talk to Cole.” Jay figured he’d be going down to the bedroom, and didn’t waste time following behind him.
Cole had been doing so much for Jay, for what felt like no reason. They had a pull towards each other that Jay could feel from their first conversation, even if it was Cole yelling at him about his memories. Every single time Jay had something happen, Cole was right there immediately. Now it was his turn.
Jay opened the door to the bedroom, checking the bed with black sheets first before noticing the desk at the end of the room was occupied. Jay walked slowly, trying not to make too much noise. He noticed the cork boards around the room, decorated with tons of pictures of the ninja all at different ages. “Hey, Cole.” Jay spoke softly.
Cole turned around, he seemed surprised Jay was in there, like he hadn’t expected anyone. “Oh, hey Jay.” He turned his head back around, resting it on his hand.
“Is everything alright?” Jay was closer to him now, looking at the nick-knacks on the desk he was sitting at.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” Cole smiled a bit, it was fake. Jay could tell it was fake.
“You don’t… seem, okay?” Jay was playing with his own fingers while talking, “I don’t mean to press on you or anything but, it seems like since we’ve gotten on here you’ve been a little absent-minded.” Cole head raised a bit, a little surprised by Jay being that honest.
“You can talk about it with me you know, I know I’ve technically only known you for a few days but I’ve also technically known you forever so I think I could be able to—“ Jay paused his rambling when he noticed Cole now standing in front of him. The black ninja moved forward slightly, hesitating before hugging the shorter.
Jay was caught off guard slightly, but he welcomed the hug, resting his arms on the others back. “What’s going on?” Jay’s voice was laced with worry, he had never had to comfort someone like this, but there’s a first time for everything.
Cole let go, sitting back down in the chair, which was now facing towards Jay, “I don’t know I’ve just felt weird. My head is like foggy, I’ve never liked the air up here, not to mention the jump we had to take just really made me…” Cole moved his hands in a way that looked like he was trying to grip onto something.
“You guys seemed so used to living on here, though?” Jay questioned resistantly, not really knowing how to respond to that.
“We’ve had to live here a lot before, it’s nothing new, but ever since I, uhm,” Cole looked up at Jay, knowing what he was about to say had pulled an intense reaction from him before. “Ever since I fell,” he whispered to word like it was evil, “I’ve always tended to zone out after that, I guess, at least while we’re flying. And having to make that jump just really brought back memories of the whole ordeal.”
Cole didn’t really know what to expect from this conversation, but he needed to get it off his chest at this point. Usually, the others never noticed when he was off, but now it seemed like everyone was asking what’s wrong. When he looked up at Jay, the first thing he noticed was the empathy in his face.
“It was weird for me, too.” Jay started slowly, “The jump, at least. It made me think about like… I don’t know it was just weird.” He wasn’t going to go into everything he felt after the fight, this was about Cole right now. He tried to think of what Cole would say to him in this scenario. “We made it though, we’re still here.”
“Yeah, we are.” Cole smiled up at him. “I guess I’ve, always had a bit of an issue with being completely aware all the time. The zoning out can get really intense and I just,” He sighed a bit, looking at the floor a little embarrassed that he was being so vulnerable. “I stop feeling real? If that makes sense.”
Jay nodded his head, he totally understood it. He reached a hand out to Cole for him to hold, “You can always talk about that with me if you need to. I get it, seriously.” He smiled at him, trying to convey everything he wanted to say without saying it at all.
“Thanks, Jay.” Cole returned the same look. “You want to know something?” The lightning elemental cocked his head to the left in curiosity.
“It’s really hard to take you seriously with those sunglasses on.”
Notes:
the new season is SO GOOD not gonna spoil anything but it might be my new favorite season like .. in the whole show. Anyways, in light of the season many things in this fic have (obviously) become inaccurate or misleading… So this is now just an AU i decided, guess i picked a weird time to start writing it
still going to try and stay as in character as possible (because i hate when i see ooc fics) but obviously the storyline is going to Part Ways with what is happening with DR so!! hopefully this doesn’t ruin the fic for any of you…
Chapter 13: Unlocking
Summary:
Guys i genuinely don’t know anything about fixing computers or tinkering or robotics please don’t come for me…
TW: graphic depictions of bones breaking + pills (medicine not recreation)
Notes:
Hiiii, had terrible writers block while doing this chapter so hopefully it’s okay. I also added 2 more chapters to the fic’s length because the way I write kinda extends the plot.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sora’s hands and eyes were glowing pink as she touched the keyboard of the computer. “I don’t have that much to work with here, but if we can move some stuff around I think we can definitely make it work better.” She kneeled down to the floor opening a panel in the side wall.
“Can’t you just do that with your thingy?” Jay threw his hand around at the last word, he didn’t really know what to call… whatever it was that she did.
“Yeah, I could, but sometimes seeing the specific pieces and placing them around where I need them to be is easier to do first… if that makes any sense.” Jay shrugged as he watched her pick around at the wiring and electronic things in the compartment.
She pulled out a large chunk, coated in plugs, wires, and copper plating, “This must be the main junction.” She looked up at Zane, who’s eyes were flickering.
“That is correct!” His eyes dimmed back down, smiling at Sora through the sentence.
“Alright, perfect, lets just start here then.” Jay really had no idea what they were talking about. The different computer parts confused him and all the wires just looked nonsensical.
“… are you guys sure I can even help you with this?” Jay kneeled down, getting a closer look at the ‘main junction’.
“Sure, you can! Here hold this,” Jay gasped as she grabbed a handful of wires, ripping them completely out of the computer. “We’re gonna have to redo all those.” She looked focused, not even glancing at Jay while shoving the bundle into his hands.
Jay looked up at Zane wide-eyed, trying to convey his confusion to the nindroid, but all he got in return was his signature eyebrow raise.
Jay sat there silently, holding all of the things Sora told him to hold and sometimes clicking a button or two on the computer to see if a switch was active while her and Zane tinkered with the underside.
“Would you like to try, Jay?” Zane backed away, pointing into the small cubby of room that was able to be occupied while working on the device. Jay’s eyes were hurting form being held open wide for so long.
“Uhmm… you’re going to have to tell me what to do.” Zane nodded in response, gesturing for Jay to come closer.
Turning away from the cabinet, Jay carefully leaned back, ducking his head so he could lay down in the small opening. Looking up he saw more switches and plugs, along with a ton of dangling wires. Sora was sitting to his right, messing with the wiring on her side, too. “Alright now what?”
“We are trying to rework the tracking system implanted in the computer, meaning that we need to add devices to extend the range, to make the computer run smoother, and were going to add a few smaller features, too.” Sora explained to him briefly, pointing at the different panels that needed to be re-placed into the junction Jay was looking at up at.
“Which one do you want to do first, Jay?” Sora and Zane both stared at him blankly.
“Uhm… let’s do the range extender thingy, I guess.” Jay stuck his tongue out a bit, grabbing the first panel that Sora had pointed too. He was actually a little excited to do this himself, something inside him sparked looking at the computer from this angle. It also made him feel a little more important to the team than he has recently. All his injuries make him feel more like a job rather than a member.
“Perfect, that’s the one we need to do first anyway.” Sora’s eyes started glowing again, they seemed to do that whenever she was focused in on her tinkering. It was super impressive what she could do for her age. Jay wondered where she had learned it all from.
Jay studied the panel he was holding in awe, tracing his eyes across all the divots and gold plating. “Okay, do you see a small square piece? It looks bronze and as little silver pieces in it.” Jay flipped the panel over to the over side, noticing the piece immediately.
“Yeah, I see it.” He traced over it with his finger, there were four smaller silver chords coming out the side and curving around to the previous side of the panel.
“Perfect, that needs to be facing towards you while you put this in. Along the top edge there should be a bunch of different colored wires that aren’t connected to anything. Those need to go into the top of the plate that’s above you right now.” Sora had her eyes closed the whole time she was saying this, as if she could feel the location of all the parts through her hands, without even having to move them at all.
Jay chewed on his bottom lip as he looked for the wires to connect. There were about 7 of them total, which made it fairly easy to spot the 7 matching ones. “I found them!” Jay grabbed the first wire, connecting it to its corresponding one using what looked like a plastic connecter.
This pattern continued until Jay had completed both the range extender and the plate that held newer features for the computer that Sora had made off to the side out of spare parts. Jay was really enjoying this; in fact, he didn’t even realize why he was nervous about it before.
Before placing the last panel, the computer needed to be turned back on, meaning there was a fairly high risk of getting electrocuted while Jay was working on it. Obviously, this wouldn’t really be a problem for him though, electrical shocks already run through his body naturally.
“Okay, Jay, last part and then we should be good to go!” Sora held up a hand to Zane, but he just stared back, eyebrow up like usual. “High five?”
“Oh!” Jay heard the sound of their hands clapping together as he was clipping in the buttons to a black cover over part of the system.
“Okay, all you need to do for this one is slide it into the that slot beside you, it’s a little closer to the floor.” Jay’s head was tilted at an awkward angle, looking for the slot Sora was talking about. “On the right side, sorry.”
Jay had to tilt his head at another uncomfortable angle, but spotted it right away this time. “Does the gold part go down?” Sora nodded her head, smiling at how quickly Jay had picked up on the work.
Jay put the piece in his left hand, trying to get it into the slot without moving, but it was too low to the floor for him to reach. Reaching across his torso with his head bent this way was a nightmare, so he started to roll on his side just a bit.
He was a little closer, but not close enough, “Everything good?”
“Yeah, just a sec.” Jay spoke a little strained, rolling more on his side to where he could get just the edge of the card in. He groaned loudly, forcing himself all the way over, not remembering that his ribs were in the middle of healing still.
Jay screamed in pain, somehow rolling his ribs in just the right way where he felt a pop in his chest. The pain sending sparks flying out from his fingers in shock, one of which streamed directly from his left hand into the slot he was reaching for.
Zane and Sora jumped at Jay’s yelp, the entire computer shutting down completely soon after, a warning symbol showing up on the screen. “What happened?!” Sora’s eyes shot open; she could feel the computer lock down through her hands.
Jay was in so much pain he couldn’t move, clutching his rib cage tightly and trying to steady his breathing. “Jay, are you alright?” Zane bent down, trying to see what was happening with the lightning ninja inside.
“My— Zane, my chest.” Jay had his head rested on one of the walls of the compartment, leaning on his elbow. He still wasn’t moving but there were tears pushing out of his eyes. “My ribs, I can’t. Zane, my ribs.”
He managed to reach a handout to Zane, who grabbed it quickly, slowly pulling Jay backwards out from under the machine and sitting him upright. “Move your hand please, Jay. What happened?” Zane forced Jay’s hand away from his right side and started to untie the sleeve of Jay’s gi while running a diagnostic on him.
“I rolled to try and put the thing in— holy shit,” Jay’s fist slammed the wooden floor next to him, another spark coming out of it. He could barely get a sentence out he was in so much pain. “It popped; I swear I heard it pop.”
+
Jay and Zane approached Lloyd, Nya, and Kai, who were talking on the lower deck of the bounty. Kai and Lloyd fell silent once they heard Nya’s loud gasp, looking past the two of them at Jay leaning against Zane while walking, teary eyed.
“What happened? I thought you guys were fixing the computer?” Nya ran over quick to the other side of Jay, grabbing his arm to help support.
“We were, however, during the process Jay moved incorrectly and it seems that he re-fractured one of his ribs.” Jay’s breathing was still jagged as Zane and Nya set him down on a crate, immediately bringing a hand up to his right side again.
“First Master, Jay, you have to be more careful!” Nya scolded him, pulling up her own crate to work on getting the pre-existing bandages off his chest that Zane hadn’t undone yet.
“I forgot, okay, I’m sorry.” He sucked in a breath as Nya pushed his hand away, moving both his hands to grip the wood he was sitting on. “It hurts so bad, Nya, I can’t.” He lolled his head back, leaning against a barrel that was behind him.
He made sure to shut his eyes quickly after sitting down, he figured everyone would assume because of the pain or because of his concussion, but it was really because he didn’t want to be pitied.
Everyone he is surrounded with goes through constant battling and injuries and aren’t fazed by it at all. Yet here he was crying because he rolled on the floor the wrong way. He felt pathetic.
“How far did you guys get on the computer?” Kai asked. He was trying to distract Jay from the pain a bit, but Jay couldn’t speak yet.
Luckily, Zane had returned with medical supplies by the time the question came out, “We had completed the whole computer before Jay’s accident, but it seems that the shocks he emits while he is in pain shorted the whole system.” Great, Jay thought, I’m pathetic AND I ruined the entire project.
“Sora can fix it though, right?” Nya nudged Jay’s arms apart, started on a tighter wrapping than before around his chest.
“Yes, she can. It shouldn’t be difficult for her. After that, I should be able to track down the Administrator again.” Part of Jay was grateful for Sora’s ability, but the rest of him was really bummed. He did all that work for her and ruined it last second, and they didn’t even need him to do it in the first place. Sora could’ve done the whole thing on her own but gave Jay a chance and he blew it.
Jay could feel more warmth coming from his eyes, the build of up his tears threatening to trickle down his face. He really did not want to cry in front of the others right now, so he moved his hands to cup his eyes. However, Kai grabbed them both quickly before he could do it. “You can’t raise your arms up like that, it’ll make the pain worse. Trust me. I’ve been there.”
It probably didn’t make you cry though. Jay shut his eyes harder, feeling pinned down by everyone while his chest was tightening. It was starting to become overwhelming.
“Jay, can you breathe for me, I’m almost done.” Nya’s calming voice broke through his ears, and he let out a deep breath he didn’t even know he was holding. “There you go, I have an ice pack too, okay?”
The sudden cold made Jay jump a bit, but once the shock subsided it immediately made the hot overwhelming air around him cool down, too. Once Kai let go of his arms, he took another deep breath, relaxing a bit now.
“I’m sorry.” Jay mumbled lowly, looking down at Zane’s feet in front of him, feeling one of the tears threatening his eyes finally falling.
“Oh, Jay, look at me.” He felt Nya’s hand intertwine with his, but he didn’t feel like looking at her. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, things happen.”
“Yeah, Sora is gonna fix it, you’re fine!” Kai chimed in, but that sentenced stung in Jay’s heart more than it helped. She wouldn’t be having to fix the whole thing herself right now if it wasn’t for him.
“Hey,” Nya pushed her forehead against Jay’s, closing her eyes and nudging him up a bit, “It’s alright. I promise.” She kept her head there for another second, lifting her free hand up and running it through the curls on the back of his head.
Jay heard her take a deep breath, which he simulated right after, feeling the stretch in his ribs. “Do you want your sunglasses?” She had pulled back fully now, looking at his wincing face again.
Jay’s nod was small, but she noticed it, grabbing the sunglasses from Zane’s hand along with a mix of pills she knew Jay was going to struggle with. “Lloyd, why don’t you tell the rest of the team what you were telling us?”
“Oh yeah! Kai can you run and get Cole and Arin from downstairs?” Jay was so thankful for Nya, he could tell that she had purposefully moved the conversation on to draw attention away from him.
He had never felt someone understand him in such a way, and obviously its because of how long they had spent together but it’s hard for Jay to fully grasp that concept. He wanted to be able to read her the way she could read him, to feel fully connected to her like he knows he’s supposed to.
“I love you,” he whispered, looking up into her eyes. The words just kind of fell out of his mouth but he meant it whole-heartedly.
She smiled fondly at him, placing one of the pills in his hand. “What’s going on, Lloyd?” Cole was here now, along with all the other ninja. They were all stood in a somewhat circle, Nya and Jay more off to the side.
“We are only a few minutes away from the spot. I can sense it.” Lloyd’s eyes squinted slightly as he looked out into the fog over the bounty, which was flying slightly lower to the ground now.
“What’s it look like?” Kai looked over in the direction Lloyd was, trying to see what he was staring at.
“I don’t really know? It’s hard to explain. I’ll know it when I see it, but I think it’s going to be a good spot for us to set up camp and stay at for a while. Plus there is something Jay and I need to do here.” Lloyd looked over at the lightning element, who had just finished his last pill.
“What, why me?” All he got was a shrug from Lloyd before the fog around the ninja cleared up entirely, like magic.
All the ninja turned in circles, looking at the new, visible, surroundings. Lloyd moved closer to the edge of the ship, and pointed at a giant roaring waterfall. It stretched across the entire wall of the mountain, the water rushing so harshly it would kill you just to step into its flow. “That’s it.” His voice was shallow, monotone, almost menacing.
“The… waterfall?“ Arin shoved his thumbed toward it, looking over at Kai with a raised eyebrow.
“No no, not the waterfall. Behind it.” Lloyd’s eyes were closed while he spoke, but glowed bright green once he opened them again. Just like how Sora’s did when she was seeing inside the computer.
“How are we supposed to get behind the waterfall? It’s bigger than our whole ship?!” Kai arms went up in the air, emphasizing his words.
“There’s a cave behind it we need to get into. It’s big enough to park the bounty in, trust me.” His eyes dimmed down again, turning back around towards the ninja. “Nya, do you think you can part the falls?”
All eyes were on Nya now as silence fell over them. “I can try, but that’s a really big waterfall. It might take me a bit.” She stood up and walked away from Jay towards the other side of the ship, standing next to Lloyd. Closing her eyes, she brought her hands up over the edge of the railing, pointing towards the waterfall. They were glowing the same shade of blue as the water surrounding them.
“Do you think it’ll work?” Cole spoke up, placing himself behind Nya slightly. He tended to naturally guard the people he cared about while they were vulnerable. It wasn’t intentional at all, he never actually thought about it, but his body just made it happen.
“She has a lot of water.” Nya’s head tilted down a bit, her eyes shutting tighter. Her arms started to tremble a bit, but she steadied them quickly, refocusing on her goal. “I’m not going to be able to hold it for long, so be ready to pull the bounty through quick.”
“She?” Kai questioned, “Who’s she?”
“The waterfall, Kai.” The fire ninja made a confused look at Cole, who immediately waved him off, not even bothering to explain further.
“You can do it, Nya.” Jay was standing up now, watching her intently. He had never gotten to actually see her use her powers like this before. “You got this.”
A smile creeped up Nya’s face again hearing her yang’s words from behind her. “Start moving, Lloyd!”
The bounty started slowly towards the raging falls, but the waterfall wasn’t budging. As the ninja were getting dangerously closer, they could all feel droplets of water flicking off onto them. “Any time now!” Nya’s eyes shut even harder, tilting her head all the way to the ground as she let out a grunt.
Come on, Nya, come on Jay hyped her up inside his head, not wanting to disturb the focus she had. The falls were loud in his ears. He could barely hear the voices of the other ninja.
Lloyd had turned the ship slightly, angling it in the way he felt was right for it to enter the cave quickly, Nya turning with it. She could feel herself connecting with the movement, with the aggression of the water, feeling it flow through the water content in her own body.
Less than a foot between the front of the bounty and the waterfall was left when Nya’s hands drew away from each other, the water following with her. Everyone fell silent as the flow was completely stopped just enough for the bounty to squeeze through, “Hurry, Lloyd, I’m—“ Nya started to falter, struggling to hold back the strength of the falls.
Jay looked up at the sky, watching as the bounty passed perfectly under a bubble of water floating above them, clearing the path. He could feel the mist clinging to his skin as they entered into the dark cave.
The second the end of the bounty made it under the bubble, Nya let go, swaying a bit as she opened her eyes. It was pitch dark except for the lights decorating the bounty, allowing them to see each other, but not their surroundings.
“WOOHOO! THAT’S MY GIRL!” Kai cheered, running over to pick up Nya into a tight hug. Her head felt like it was spinning, but she laughed at her brother’s excitement. The rest of the ninja following suit.
“That was awesome, Nya! I haven’t seen you do something that crazy since Wojira.” Cole raised two hands in her direction, grabbing her hands after the double high-five and letting them swing down together.
Nya’s smile was so wide now, high-fiving all of the raised hands going in her direction. “Thanks guys.” She looked over at Jay, who literally ran towards her. “Woah, Jay!”
“THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING IVE EVER SEEN!” Jay crashed into her, hugging her tight, “How did you do that?” The hug was quick, he didn’t want to mess up his ribs again, but he kept his hands on her shoulders as she shrugged in reply.
“That was perfect, Nya, great job!” Lloyd was back down with the other ninja now, holding 4 portable lanterns. “Now we should be safe in here, at least for a while.”
“Yeah, I don’t know how anyone could get through that thing.” Arin was looking up at the water wall behind them. It was also dark and still violently rushing, but it gave them a sense of security.
“Sora, did you end up getting the computer fixed yet?” Jay’s heart tugged a bit again hearing Lloyd’s question.
“Yep! It’s up and running!” Sora leaned an arm on Zane, “We can go work on tracking those guys again.”
“Computers do not have legs. They cannot run.” Zane stated factually.
“I beg to differ, Zane. I mean look at yourself.” Sora leaned off of him and turned around to head back towards the computer, “You’re basically a walking computer are you not?”
Zane turned to follow her, continuing the conversation while walking, “I am a nindroid, we are not nearly the same as computers…”
“Okay, while they’re off doing that, we should split up and explore the place.” Lloyd started handing out the lanterns he was holding to one ninja in each pair. “Cole and Arin, you two pair off. Then Kai and Nya, and I’ll take Jay.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, and started to jump off the bounty one at a time, landing on the stone floor below. Jay couldn’t do that so easily with his ribs, though, so Lloyd pulled out a ladder and set it down the side of the Bounty.
“At least you don’t have to wear sunglasses in here, right?” Lloyd joked, helping Jay down the last step of the ladder.
Jay laughed as he finished tying the sleeve of his gi, which was still somewhat unraveled from the rib fiasco just moments ago. “So, what is the mission you need to take me on?”
“Honestly, Jay, I’m not really sure.” Lloyd spoke with true honesty, “I just know that you and me need to do something here.” Lloyd shot Jay a confused look when he breathed out a small laugh.
“It’s just funny because I can’t remember anything and you’re like predicting future stuff.” Jay focused his gaze back ahead of them, noticing that all the other ninja were already out of sight.
“Now that I think about it, that is a little funny,” Lloyd smiled through his words. “You know, me and you have always had sort of an elemental connection.” Jay perked up at that.
“What do you mean? Like our powers are the same?” Jay let out a small gasp, “Do you control green lightning?!”
“Not quite,” Lloyd was definitely holding back a laugh. “My element is more just… well I’m not completely sure what it is but its close to energy. A life force, kinda.” Jay nodded his head despite not understanding at all. “Our powers are connected somewhat though because they both have to do with creating energy. The feelings you describe when you feel your lightning is exactly what it feels like for me, too.”
“Yours is a lot cooler than mine is, though.” Jay started kicking a rock on the ground while he walked, making sure to be gentle so he wouldn’t lose it in the dark.
“I wouldn’t say that.” Lloyd’s tone turned more sad, like he was upset Jay would say that.
“It is, though. All of the other elements are cooler. I can’t even control mine completely.” Jay sparked up a small bolt in his hand but it fizzled away quickly, proving his point.
“Jay, your element is just as cool, if not cooler, than everyone else’s. You just haven’t found your true potential yet.” Those words rang in his head, looping around his mind like a chorus.
“True potential?” The rhythm of the rock rolling on the ground was soothing him.
“Well, I guess I should say you have found it, back before all this happened, but I have a feeling that you are not going to be able to regain your full abilities until you unlock it again.” Lloyd raised his lantern towards one of the walls of the cave, ancient writing was decorating it.
“Well, how do I unlock my true potential?” He wanted to be like the others. He didn’t want to be pathetic anymore. He wanted to be back in the life that was stolen from him.
“That is for you to figure out yourself. There is no specific way.” Lloyd’s hand reached up to trace the writing, it was in a language he had never seen before.
Jay huffed at the response, he wanted to do it right now, “Can you at least tell me how I unlocked it before?”
Lloyd was silent for a second, still staring at the writing, “I actually wasn’t there when you found it, so I wouldn’t know all the details to tell you, but I don’t think I should tell you either way.” Jay’s fist tightened in frustration.
“Who was there then? Do you know?” Jay picked up the rock he had been kicking, putting it in his pocket as Lloyd took a step back and raised his lantern higher up the wall.
“I think it was just you and Nya, but I’m not totally sure. That was a long time ago.” The writing on the walls continued down into the deeper of the cave they haven’t gone to yet. “We should go back and get Zane to read into this, I can’t read any of this old tongue.”
“Yeah, let’s go!” Jay pumped a fist, cheering internally, as he whipped around to start heading back.
“Jay,” Lloyd’s tone dropped suddenly, “Nya is not going to tell you how you unlocked it, you have to go on this journey yourself.” Jay’s heart thumped, how did he know??
“On my own, yeah got it. Let’s go!” Jay started walking back before Lloyd could get another sentence in. He could definitely get Nya to tell him.
Notes:
Next chapter is going to be very long, I have to push this story along if i’m gonna finish it any time soon.
Chapter 14: Water Holds Memory
Summary:
TW: panic attack , asthma attack , and ED related content.
Notes:
Guys i Genuinely don’t know how to end this Story now so i just keep adding chapters until i think i can find a way to close it… i’ve only planned to chapter 15 and it’s not even an ending or anywhere close to an ending. im stuck in a loop HOW DO I STOP THIS WITHOUT MAKING A 20 CHAPTER LONG FIC
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“I’m not telling you how you unlocked your true potential, Jay.” Nya repeated herself for the third time in the last ten minutes as she was hanging up lanterns in the cave. Kai and she had taken on the task of moving some barrels, crates, and lanterns out to create a mini courtyard for training while they were here.
“Why won’t you tell me?” Jay threw his head back, dragging out his words in a toddler like whine. “I just want to be a ninja like you guys!” Nya shook her head, holding her hand out for Jay to hand her another nail. He was standing behind the ladder she was standing on, spotting in case she was to fall.
“You have to figure it out on your own, Jay.” She paused while she hit the nail into the side of the bounty, resting a lantern on it.
“Can you at least give me a hint? Like just a tiny little clue!!” Jay took a step back so she could climb back down the ladder, back to the floor.
She turned around, grabbing for Jay’s wrist, “I didn’t get a hint, neither did Kai or Cole or Zane or Lloyd.” She placed her hammer in Jay’s out-turned hand, letting go of his wrist again.
Jay groaned in irritation again, then felt Nya’s hands cup his face and looked up at her. “And you are a ninja. Just because some things have changed doesn’t mean you don’t fit in or don’t belong here.” She leaned in to give him a small peck on the cheek.
“It doesn’t feel like I do…” Jay mumbled under his breath after she let go, walking away to go put the hammer up. He didn’t think Nya would hear it, but she did. However, she kept her mouth shut, twisting her hands together and frowning when he turned around the leave.
“You alright, sis?” Kai passed by behind her, rolling a barrel towards the center of the area they had made.
“Yeah,” She sighed, turning around to look at Kai while she spoke, “It’s just Jay, he doesn’t feel like he belongs here with us.” Kai frowned, feeling the same pain in his chest that Nya had felt after hearing the mumble herself.
“He’ll come around,” Kai had both his hands on her shoulders now, bending his head down slightly to make better eye-contact. “He’s just not used to us yet… which is pretty weird to say since we’ve been family since we were 14.” Kai looked up a bit, seeing the back of Jay’s head flash over the railing of the bounty. “He’ll come around.”
Nya nodded her head a bit, trying to shake out the feeling, “Do you think we’re not doing enough? …What if he leaves us again?”
Kai shook his head aggressively, “Not gonna happen, don’t even think that way, Nya.” His grip on her shoulders tightened a bit, “We are doing everything we can, okay? It just takes time.”
Nya’s head dropped as she went in for a hug, grabbing her brother as tight as she possibly could. “How about you help me move these crates, huh?”
+
When Jay got back on the bounty, he set the hammer Nya gave him in one of the crates. He noticed a group of heads around the computer on the other side of the ship, so he decided to make his way over himself.
“You did? How close is he?” He heard the young master’s voice quietly from the staircase a few feet away.
“I approximate six days, but we will have eyes on him the entire time.” The first thing Jay saw was Cole’s back in front of him, looking towards the center of attention, Zane.
“Who’s six days away?” Jay moved to the other side of Cole so everyone could see him. It seemed to be the whole crew aside from Kai and Nya.
He immediately noticed the grimace on everyone’s faces, feeling Cole’s shoulder brush against his. “Zane and I managed to track down Ras and it seems that—“
“The administrator is going to be here in six days?!” Jay shouted, interrupting her. “That’s nothing, that’s basically tomorrow!” He looked over at Cole in disbelief, seeing the worry flooding the black ninja’s eyes.
“Jay is right, that’s not a lot of time. I’m not sure if we can get everything done before then.” Lloyd spoke again, you could hear the gears churning in his head through his words.
“Everything? What’s everything?” Cole’s eyebrow was raised.
“Well, Zane and I still need to figure out what’s going on with the writing in the caves.” Lloyd tapped on his index finger with the opposing hand, “Me and Jay still have something to do here,” a second finger went up, “and all three of these guys still need to learn spinjitsu, preferably before we have to face the administrator again.” Lloyd pointed at Arin, Sora, and Jay with the last finger he raised from his list.
“Well, we better start now!” Jay turned around, fixing to march down to the tiny obstacle course in the cave.
“Jay, you cannot train today.” Zane spoke up, taking a step into the circle that had been formed during the conversation. “You just messed up your ribs again this morning, it is too soon for you to begin spinjitsu training.”
Jay flashed another look at Cole, who looked like he was sharing agreement with Zane on the matter. “What am I supposed to do then? I need to be a ninja and find my true potential in six days!”
“I’ll work with you Jay, there are many things we still need to do before you can begin to learn spinjitsu anyway.” Lloyd pointed over at Arin and Sora, “You two, though, need to go down with Kai and Nya and work on your motions. Remember you just have to follow through the steps we learned at the monastery, you already know how to do it.”
Those words felt weird in Jay’s ears, he repeated them back to himself, you already know spinjitsu. They felt familiar, but distant at the same time. Like a blurry memory from childhood.
The older ninjas watched the younger ones run down to meet Kai and Nya, “Cole, you can come with Jay and I, I think you will useful there. Zane you good?” Lloyd looked back at the nindroid, who said a quick affirmative and went back to typing on the computer.
Following Lloyd down the ladder of the bounty, he watched Arin and Sora make their tiny tornadoes, getting pointers from Kai. He could feel Nya’s eyes on him immediately, so he gave a wave before turning back towards Lloyd. “How is anything besides training going to help right now? Can’t I just take some advil and power through.”
“Jay, if you don’t start taking the injuries seriously, they’re never going to heal.” Cole was walking behind the green and blue ninjas. “We don’t even know how long your ribs have been broken and they’re still not healed, we seriously have to be wary of them right now. Especially since we’re this close to a big fight again.”
Jay kept his mouth shut while he kept walking with Lloyd, he knew Cole was right but he’d never admit it. It was just irritating not being able to do anything, he wanted to be able to fend for himself against the administrator.
Lloyd led Cole and Jay to the back end of the bounty, where the edge of the cave they were staying in dropped off into the water. Jay could feel specks of liquid flying off the giant wall of water in front of them, it was so close he could touch it.
The green ninja sat himself cross-legged on a rock, facing the water wall, and Cole did the same, slightly further away. “What’re we doing here?” Jay sat on the floor, also crossing his legs, in between the two.
“A bit part of finding your true potential and spinjitsu is being in-tune with yourself and your surroundings,” Lloyd had his eyes shut, not looking at Jay at all. “So, we are going to sit here and meditate.”
Jay cocked his head slightly, turning his head to look at Cole with his eyebrow raised, but Cole’s eyes were shut, too. “Meditate? How is this going to help anything? Isn’t training better?”
“This is training, Jay.” Lloyd raised a hand, tapping his finger on his temple, “It’s training of the mind.”
This is insane, Jay thought to himself, placing his hands in between his legs and keeping his eyes locked on the water wall. It was really quiet, except for the faint nosies of the spinjitsu training a bit away from them. Even if Jay did want to do this, he didn’t know what to do.
“Alright, I’ll bite. How do I meditate?” Jay closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in and immediately noticing how heavy his eyelids had been.
“You just close your eyes and listen,” Lloyd spoke softly, “Listen to your surroundings, feel how they connect with you, and try to unlock the part of your mind that focuses. Try to listen to what your mind has to say to you, while also listening to the world around you, too.”
Again.. stupid… Jay thought to himself silently but tried to follow Lloyd’s directions. He kept his eyes shut, trying to focus on everything and also nothing like Lloyd said, but all he could hear was his internal monologue. How is he supposed to focus on focusing when he can’t even focus on anything in his normal day-to-day.
He made a sound of annoyance, squeezing his eyes shut tighter and clenching his fists, “I don’t get it!” There were so many more productive things he could be doing right now.
“What do you hear, Jay?” Cole was talking to him now; it was coming from his right side a little behind him.
“What do you mean?” Jay kept his eyes shut, rocking back and forth a bit in aggravation.
“What can you hear around here? What are you picking up on?” Cole’s voice was furiously calming, it made Jay want to shake him in rage but also fall asleep.
“Uhm, I don’t know,” Jay shook his head a bit, trying to pick out sounds around him. The loudest was coming from only a few feet ahead. “I can hear the water?”
“Okay, what else?” Jay’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Does my breathing count?” He focused on the sound of his own lungs inside his chest, feeling the stretching in his ribs, which seemed to constantly throb at this point.
“If you can hear it.” Cole’s vague answer might have made Jay explode if he hadn’t had actually calmed down a bit, listening to the roaring water ahead of them. The noise was constant and low, almost like white noise. It helped drown out the noise Jay’s brain felt the need to make when it was quiet. “Anything you can feel?”
Jay’s rocking had stopped completely, now focusing on the air around him. “The air is heavy.” He heard Cole make a small noise in agreement, “It’s humid, but not hot. There’s a little breeze coming from the movement of the water. The ground is smooth, too.”
“Good,” Jay felt like he could hear Cole’s smile. “Exist with it, bluebell. Let it move you.”
Jay rested his tongue in between his teeth, letting gravity allow his teeth to press down on it slightly. It was a bit of a grounding/self-soothing technique he did, but it also helped him focus. He took a series of deep breaths, relaxing a different part of his body with each one, while listening to the water.
After a while, he wasn’t even thinking about being bored anymore, he was too involved with himself. He felt like he could see everything around him through the backs of his eyelids, focusing on all the senses around him to create the picture of the situation in his mind. He could also feel his element, moving the charge through his body like magnets pulling each other.
It was a little difficult at first, to move his energy around his body, but once he got the hang of it it felt so natural. He could feel the shaking of the air around him move, too, as he tracked the tingling feeling of lightning around his body.
He pushed the feeling into his chest, holding it there for a bit while he listened to the white noise of the water again. The scene felt familiar. He could see himself sitting in a building, a wall of water in front of him again, but it was behind glass rather than just a waterfall.
He felt the energy in his chest get heavier, a dripping feeling entering his lungs. As he looked through this imaginary window of water, he saw a figure. It moved closer to him, showing itself fully to the blue ninja. He looked down at his own outfit, seeing some pins hooked onto a grey harness he was wearing over a similar blue gi. When he looked back up, the figure was touching the glass, it looked like Nya.
Jay took a deep breath in, it felt like he was choking, like someone had shoved a hose down his throat, forcing him to breathe water into his lungs. He could feel his chest heave, a wet cough coming up as he lifted his head again. Now he was standing on top of a building, surrounded by different colored blurry figures.
Nya was in front of him again, translucent, and he reached a hand to her. She stared at him blankly as his hand passed right through her chest. The water rushed back into Jay’s lungs as the scene switched up again, now seeing himself flying on an air ship. He looked over the edge, seeing a group of figures below him.
He saw a big orange hand grab his wrist, feeling the water in his lungs bubble up again through another scene change. Now he seemed to be on a boat, still tied up like before, in the middle of a body of water, He tried to look around him, but all he saw was fog. Someone was yelling his name from behind, but when he looked up there was the silhouette of a dragon coming down to him.
The dragon in front of him blended into another one, entirely made out of water. It felt familiar, there was a strong presence to the beast. Reaching out his hand one more time, watching it go straight through the dragon’s snout, just like before. He heard a loud crack of lightning, seeing it flash across the sky above him as the dragon swam away. Energy surged into his hands this time, feeling water fill up his lungs one last time, before he opened his eyes. Snapping out of the state he was in and whipping his head around.
Everything was blurry, he couldn’t breathe, coughing and choking on water in his lungs while feeling the energy shoot aggressively out of his hands. The ringing in his ears made his eyes shake, feeling his hands surge with energy again, completely unable to breathe.
—
Cole snapped out of his meditation when he realized the noises he was hearing were abnormal. When he opened his eyes, he immediately looked over at Jay, who’s electricity was flickering around him in a coil.
He watched silently, trying to judge the situation without immediately disturbing Jay, maybe he knew what he was doing. However, the longer he waited, the more he heard the noise that awoke him in the first place. The choking.
It was a loud wet cough; he could see Jay’s eyes flinch as it came out. It didn’t take long before Cole realized the blue ninja wasn’t breathing at all, the energy coiling quicker the longer he sat there.
“Jay, you have to breathe.” He pointed it out a little quietly, thinking Jay could be functional enough to register it and then go back to meditating, but the only response he got was another gut-wrenching wheeze.
He spoke a little louder, “Jay. Breathe.” He could see the flicking of Jay’s eyes below his eyelids, he was completely clocked out. Whatever he was seeing was intense, and it was keeping him from functioning.
Cole stood up quick, moving in front of Jay and speaking louder. “Jay, you need to wake up, you aren’t breathing.” The situation had awoken Lloyd at this point, too, who was studying the coiling of Jay’s energy.
“Is he alright?” Lloyd stood up, swapping between looking at him and Cole. The latter shook his head.
“He’s not responding, its like he’s stuck.” Cole clapped his hands together in front of Jay’s face, which seemed to trigger something, because the coil of energy moved straight to his hands.
The blue ninja’s eyes shot open, gagging and clutching his chest with his glowing hand. “Jay! Breathe, Jay. Breathe in.”
He was hyperventilating, the look in his eyes striking a string in Cole’s heart, he looked terrified. Cole tried to set a hand on Jay’s knee, but he was pushed to the side as Jay bounced up a bit, thrusting his hand towards the waterfall in front of them.
Bright blue and yellow lightning shot out; the biggest strike Cole’s ever seen come directly from his hands before. He looked over at Lloyd, who was in just as much awe of the scene, watching the lightning coil in the water, charging the whole wall like an electric fence.
When Jay was done, his hand went down on Cole’s knee, still clutching his chest and gagging with the other. It was getting to the point where Jay’s eyes were hazing over, and Cole put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, grabbing it tightly, “Breathe, Jay, you can breathe.”
Every breath he took sounded like gargling, a wheeze of needing air and not being able to take it in. “Lloyd, do you have an inhaler on you?” Cole reached out a free hand to the green ninja, who pulled out his personal one from a pouch in his gi.
None of the ninja were necessarily diagnosed with asthma, but all of them tended to have attacks like this. It kind of comes with a rescue job, they all had episodes at some point in their lives. Because of this, all of them could tell the difference between a hyperventilating panic attack or a wheeze of actually not breathing.
Cole pulled the cap, pushing the inhaler into Jay’s mouth and waited a second, “C’mon, Jay.” He rubbed his back quickly, the friction making his back warm. When Jay tried to breath in another wheeze, Cole pushed the button down, forcing the medicine into his lungs naturally.
He heard Jay breathe in it, and held his mouth shut while shaking the inhaler, shoving it back in his mouth after for a second puff. Finally, after a minute or two he was back to breathing relatively normal, his eyes flickering around when he finally felt clear air work back into his lungs.
Cole forced him to sit up more, bringing his lungs in a clearer position to breathe, “What was that? What happened?!”
Jay took a second to process, what Cole said, “I saw— there was Nya and a dragon and” he took a big breath in again, “I was in a boat. The water it was…” Jay took a fist and pounded his chest, having another coughing fit. The water still felt like it was there.
“Is that what’s supposed to happen when you meditate?” Jay looked over at Lloyd, chuckling through another cough.
“You were really deep into it, but I don’t think that was part of the meditation… especially not that.” Lloyd pointed up at the waterfall, which was still sparking with electricity. Jay somehow managed to turn their, already super deadly, defense into a now even more deadly one.
Looking down at his hands in disbelief, Jay spoke quietly, “That was... so weird.” He looked up at Cole again, who still had a wary face thinking Jay could fall out on them at any moment. “I got to say though, I like the meditation.”
“You do?!” Cole was even more shocked now, moving back a bit, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say the words like and meditation in the same sentence before.”
Jay giggled a bit, watching his left-hand glow as he brought energy back into it, “Before the whole vision thing, I figured out how to…” The black and green ninja watched as the blue light moved through Jay’s arm around his body, going through his eyes and then into his right-hand.
Lloyd scratched his head in surprise, “I wasn’t sure if you were actually going to get anything out of that… but your control is phenomenal.” Jay continued to flicker the energy between his hands like a ball.
“JAY! IM SO PROUD OF YOU!” The yell from the earth element caught him off guard, but he laughed into the strong hug he was pulled into. “That is so much progress, last week you couldn’t control anything.”
The high-five Lloyd gave him turned into a grab, helping Jay stand up and steady himself. “Breathing alright now?”
Jay nodded his head lightly, turning around to help Cole stand up. “In the vision there was water in my lungs and I couldn’t breathe… I guess it carried out to the real world, too.”
Cole and Lloyd gave each other a knowing look, and Jay noticed straight away. “What? Why are you doing that?”
Cole grimaced as he spoke, “You didn’t happen to see Nya as like uhm,” he made a gesture to his body, “water? Did you?”
Jay’s eyebrows furrowed and he closed his eyes, trying to remember the vision in its entirety. “I was on top of a building, and I tried to touch her but my hand just,” He could see it happen in his mind. “It went right through her.”
He made the same motion he had made in the vision, almost feeling his hand flow through imaginary water. It reminded him of the night he told Nya he loved her, what he saw while they were kissing. Even before then, when he had seen the picture of them together, that was when he realized… “It was when she became one with it, wasn’t it.”
Cole grabbed his hand, a sad look on his face. “That was a hard time for all of us, but you and Kai were the ones that got it the worst.” He spoke softly, he didn’t want to reminisce on this, but Jay was starting to remember it now.
“We were in this big battle, and Ninjago was flooded. All of us were trying our best to save the people, but you took in a lot of water that day. We couldn’t save you.” Jay could see the sadness dripping from Cole’s eyes, as if he was having flashbacks, too. “You didn’t have long left and Nya couldn’t draw the water out with her normal powers, so she merged with the water to save all of Ninjago.” He squeezed Jay’s hand tighter. “And to save you.”
Jay could see it all play out in his mind while Cole was describing it to him. It was a sore memory, the same way a bruise feels when you touch it. He felt Cole’s hand wipe a tear from his cheek while he relived it quietly in his head.
“I think that’s enough meditating for today,” Lloyd had a sad smile on his face too, placing his arm on Jay’s shoulder. “How about we go eat and then we can teach you some of the movements in spinjitsu?”
+
Cole, Lloyd, and Jay were the first ones in the makeshift dining room today, Cole grabbing some supplies to make sandwiches. “What meat do you two want?”
“What do you have?” Jay stood on his tiptoes a bit, trying to see what Cole was working with better.
“Uhm… “ Cole picked up a small bag of sandwich meat, trying to determine what it was through the bag. “Mystery… meat?”
“Well, lucky for you that’s my favorite kind!” Jay swiped an apple off the counter, sitting down in the chair beside Lloyd.
He had gotten to his third spin around the apple stem before Lloyd stood up, “I’m good, Cole, I’m going to go talk to Zane about something.” Jay continued counting as the green ninja walked out.
Seven. “He doesn’t eat much, does he?” He looked up at Cole, who now had an un-countable amount of bread slices on the counter.
“He will today,” Cole eyebrows were furrowed, he almost looked mad, “I’ll just take this food to him.” He started to place the meat on all the sandwiches, glancing up at Jay who had wide eyes.
“Sorry, he just,” Cole sighed, “He doesn’t eat a lot when he’s stressed out. Sometimes he says it’s just a waste of time altogether and it’s aggravating. He needs to be eating more.” Cole set two completed sandwiches on a plate and grabbed a water bottle, “I’m going to take these to him, do you wanna do a few while I’m gone?” He pointed down at the bread on the table.
“Oh! Uh sure,” Jay shrugged, taking another bite of his apple before he stood up and moved over to where Cole was originally standing. It wasn’t long before he had the realization he had never even made a sandwich before.
Administration had provided everything he needed for his entire life, he had never needed to make a sandwich for himself before, let alone 7 other people. He looked down at all the bread, meat, and individually packaged condiments. It can’t be that hard.
By the time he had gotten one sandwich done, Cole was back looking a little more satisfied now that he knew Lloyd had an option of eating in front of him, “Whaaaat are you doing??”
There were 4 half-made sandwiches on the counter, along with one complete one that looked like it got stepped on, and Jay was currently fighting with a mayonnaise packet. He stopped all motion immediately when Cole entered the room. “Uhm… making sandwiches?”
Cole’s face-palm sounded like it hurt, and his laugh was loud, “You’ve never done this before have you?”
Notes:
got asked recently about fanart which made me so nervous but YES TO ALL FANART!! I am totally okay with fanart always always always And if you want to tag it with #cbtu [come back to us] thatd be.. so cool
Chapter 15: The Shell of Man
Summary:
shorter chapter today sorry guys.. it’s finals week and school has been kicking my ass. promise next one will be longer <3
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Alright, Jay, we’re going to go over the basic motions of spinjitsu, but we can’t do anything actually movement related because of your ribs.” Jay rolled his head back in annoyance. Him, Cole, Nya, and Zane were standing in a rough circle in the cave, the view of Destiny’s Bounty in front of Jay.
“Yeah, yeah, no rough movement, got it.” Jay was annoyed in general, his ribs didn’t hurt right now, and he had just taken more meds, why couldn’t they just get on with it? Zane had even followed them out here just to make sure Jay doesn’t do anything to mess up his ribs more. He could feel the invisible scanning Zane was running on him every 5 minutes.
Lloyd stuck his hands out to the side, “Spinjitsu is based on balance,” he lifted a leg, “Inner balance. Connecting yourself with the motion.” Jay copied his motions, he felt a little awkward having so many eyes on him, but knowing all of them had to go through this lessened the embarrassment slightly.
“It’s an art form. Mastering rotation allows you to add force to your blows and disorient enemies.” Lloyd moved to a harder pose, sticking the same leg backwards behind him and leaning down.
Jay’s tongue stuck out slightly, trying to mock the pose, but as soon as he got his leg fully back, he started tilting, losing his balance. Immediately Cole was at his side, pushing him back upright. It kind of made Jay angry, he wanted to do it by himself, but it was Cole so he couldn’t really stay mad.
“There are different levels to spinjitsu,” Lloyd had his eyes closed, not even paying attention to whether Jay could keep up with him or not. “There’s the burst,” Lloyd bounced down, balancing on his hand, “and there is also the Tornado of Creation.” Suddenly, the green ninja spun on his hand, immediately bouncing into a tornado.
Jay’s mouth dropped open, putting his legs back down and shoving a hand in Lloyd’s direction, “How do you expect me to be able to do that?” He was looking at Cole when he spoke, who giggled a bit in response.
“That’s not funny! I can’t do this ballet stuff, he just jumped and landed on his hand?? I’m not a gymnast!!” Jay’s complaining turned to yelling super quick, the tone all of the ninja missed hearing in the years he was away.
“It’s just silly because you were actually the first one out of all of us to learn spinjitsu.” Cole started doing different positions than Lloyd, landing into a sweeping kick and also going into his tornado upside down.
“Do I have to do it upside down, too?” Jay was talking to Nya now, spinning around the circle to look at her.
“Everyone has their own way of doing it.” She was using new positions now, “there are basic positions to start out in, but after a while you find the way that works for you!” She spun into her tornado on her right foot, it was tilted slightly more than Cole and Lloyd’s.
Lloyd and Cole were back to normal, appearing at his side while he watched Nya’s glow in front of him, “Well, I need to do hers because I can’t go upside down and flip or whatever…”
Lloyd put his hand on Jay’s shoulder, “That’s Nya’s way, you have to find your own way. It’s balance inside yourself.” Jay groaned again; this was sounding a lot like the true potential conversation.
“Why is everything a puzzle here? You’re almost making me miss all the rules we had in administration.” Nya ended her tornado with a ball of water over her head, which she dissipated quickly after.
Lloyd chuckled through his sentences, “All of us went through the same thing, and so are Arin and Sora right now. It takes a while to be able to get it all down, but you’ll get back into it.” Jay felt Zane’s eyes on him again, hearing the light buzzing coming from his system.
“I predict that you might still be able to do it, without having to completely relearn.” The nindroid moved back from the circle, starting to slowly do his own positions. “Muscle memory is different from normal memory; I believe your body will still remember what to do once you have a general sense of it.”
Zane’s movement was slower, easier for Jay to process. His was also simpler, more familiar to him. He started out standing with his hands touching, rotating his body slowly, and spinning on his left foot, forming a very straight and tall tornado.
“The first time we learned, we learned on an obstacle course,” Cole jumped back in, “but we don’t really have the luxury of that right now…” Cole turned around, bringing his fist up to his mouth. Jay could see the thoughts turning behind his eyes as he looked at all the supplies surrounding them.
“I think we can make do, if you help me move some stuff around at least,” Nya elbowed him in the side a bit. The two of them had some sort of silent communication, sharing a single look and immediately knowing what to move without even discussing the plan first.
“Obviously, you won’t be able to do anything on the course yet, but maybe in a few days—“
“We don’t HAVE a few days,” Jay cut him off, snapping his body back around towards Zane, “please Zane is there any way I can start tonight.”
Zane sighed, scanning Jay silently once more. “If you agree to spend tonight resting, and ONLY resting… I think it might be okay to do some light work tomorrow after—“
Zane was cut off by Jay’s cheering. He pumped an excited fist in the air, feeling a pull in his ribs but refusing to fold into grabbing them because he knew Zane would immediately take back what he said, “Thankyouthankyouthankyou, I will go rest RIGHT NOW!”
Jay turned and started marching up to the bounty to go lay in bed, the rest of the ninja watching him walk away giddily. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so excited to be bored…”
+
Jay immediately regretted agreeing to Zane’s offer. After he was all ready for bed, it was still early, none of the other ninja were even in the bedroom yet, which left him all by himself, staring at the ceiling in the dark.
His mind raced with everything he could be doing right now, all the stuff the ninja are probably doing without him. Placing his hands over his eyes, he let out a big sigh. He was tired, admittedly, but not tired in a way where he could sleep. It didn’t help that he was supposed to be sleeping, which REALLY made him not want to.
Trying to distract himself, he forced himself to think of different topics. His mind bounced around, thinking about video games he missed playing and his past life compared to this one. He wondered what past him would think of his current situation, how different they might be. The other ninja hadn’t really said much about what kind of person he used to be, which is honestly a big hole in Jay’s sole.
He didn’t feel like he had a personality, like he wasn’t his own person. The administration decided who he was, they told him what his job was, everything he had to do, who he was supposed to be, they even told him the proper way to brush his teeth.
How is he supposed to figure out his own way of doing spinjitsu when he isn’t even his own person? It’s worse that it isn’t even just a feeling anymore. It’s true. All of the ninja have said it. ‘You’re not like you were before. You used to do this, you used to like that.’ There was this whole other person that he is supposed to be and he’s just... not.
No wonder he doesn’t fit in with the rest of the ninja, he doesn’t fit in anywhere. There isn’t even a anyONE for him to be, you can’t finish a puzzle if there’s no last piece.
The question “Who am I?” echoed in his mind. He doesn’t know who he is, he’s never had the chance to just be.
He started to hear movement around the ship, he didn’t know what time it was, but he assumed around the time everyone was getting ready for bed. Which was proven correct as dark figures walked in sporadically and the sound of covers shuffling was around him.
He fiddled with his blue sheets, squinting around the room to try and see who all was in there by now, but it was too dark. He had counted 6 come through the door, though.
After a while, the silence was too much. The bodies in the room were comforting but he could hear someone’s deep breathing, which wouldn’t be bothering him if he would just SLEEP but he still can’t.
He covered his ears trying to block out the noise, and it worked for about five minutes, but then he heard something else.
It was a distant voice, it had to be inside his head because his ears were covered, but it sounded far away. The tone was familiar, not comforting but impelling. It wasn’t necessarily saying anything coherent either, sounded like muffled whispering, but somehow it planted a thought in Jay’s mind. The cave.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a yellow bulb of light, quickly exiting the room. The voice seemed to get farther when it did, so he uncovered his ears, trying to see if he could hear it better that way. All that was left was the rhythmic breathing again.
The blue ninja looked around the room once before shuffling to the edge of the bed, planting his feet on the ground. The bed he was in creaked slightly, so he had to stand up slowly so nobody would notice.
Walking slowly towards the door, the whispering was louder again. He could see the glowing stream under the door, so he turned his head around once more before pushing the wood forward.
As it swung wide, Jay immediately noticed it was dark in the hallway. No yellow light whatsoever. He sparked up a small voltage in his hand, allowing it to glow blue as a smaller source of light so he could see around him.
His head flipped quickly to the side when he heard it again, coming from outside the bounty now. He pushed the door back shut and started up the stairs to the main deck, the only sound being the buzzing from his hand.
When he made it up to the dock, the voice was louder, booming almost. It echoed through the cave, and got farther away again. He moved to the railing of the boat, watching the yellow light fade into the darkness of the cave.
“What’s going on, Jay?” The lightning ninja jumped, the bolt of lightning sitting in his hand shooting up towards a nearby lantern quickly. He immediately recognized Nya’s voice.
“Oh haha, hey Nya,” Jay turned around, waving his hand before moving to scratch the base of his hair at his neck. “I thought you’d be asleep.”
“And I thought you would be asleep. Zane told you to rest.” Nya had an irritated look on her face, making the brunette wince into a guilty smile.
“Well, I was resting,” Jay sat down on the floor, putting his back against the same place he sat when him and Cole were recovering from their jump. “But I don’t know… couldn’t?” He sighed loudly, dragging a hand over is face and placing his elbows on his knees.
Nya slumped down next to him, shoulder to shoulder. The touch made the hair on Jay’s arms stand up. “What’s going on?”
He looked over at her, making quick eye contact before feeling weird about it and dropping his head back to the floor, “Nothing’s wrong, I guess. I’m just not tired.” The yellow voice sounded in the back of his head again.
“That’s it? You’re just not tired?” He hated that Nya could read him so well, “Nothing else going on up there?” Jay glanced back at her eyes, seeing her soft look of care before ultimately giving in.
“I don’t know, Nya, I just got in my head.” He let the backs of his knees hit the ground, now sitting with is legs straight out and picking at his hands.
“What’s in your head?” Jay took another sigh, the back of hid head knocking against the wood behind him. “You can tell me.”
“I just… don’t feel like I belong anywhere.” He felt a head of black hair lean against his shoulder, which made him instinctively drop his head too, laying it on top of his yang’s. “Like I’m not… anything?”
Nya grabbed his hand, forcing him to stop destroying the cuticles of his fingers, “I told you that you do though, do you need more reassurance on that?”
“It’s not just the team, it’s like… everywhere.” Jay picked his head back up, the angle hurt his neck a bit, “I don’t have a personality.”
Nya shot up at that, “Jay, what?!” She looked shocked, “You have so much personality!” Her grip on his hands tightened, giving him a look of sincere confusion.
“I’m sure I did, when you knew me, but now I just feel like I don’t fit. I had this whole other life I know nothing about. I’m basically an empty shell.” His eyes shot open as Nya grabbed his face, then flipping them closed the second her lips planted on his.
He leaned into it, placing his free hand on her leg, the other stuck between them in a weird pose, but neither of them cared. He allowed Nya’s distraction to let his mind float for a second, but it didn’t last as long as he’d like.
“I’m sorry you feel that way, but it’s just not true.” Nya placed her hand on his chest, “You are everything you used to be and more, Jay.”
The blue ninja sighed again, leaning back from the new position he was in after the kiss, “Thanks but… it’s not really true. I don’t know who I am, or who I am supposed to be, and it feels like there’s this expectation that I will end up the same or be able to do all this stuff again and I just…” He locked eyes with Nya again, noting that his vision was blurring a bit. “I don’t know if I can do it.”
Nya’s hands cupped his face again, wiping a stray tear from his cheek, “Jay, it is true.” The sincerity is her voice made even more tears well up, but Jay refused to cry tonight. “No one has an expectation of you, we love you for who you are, Jay. I love you for who you are. Even if it’s changed from how I knew you were.”
“You’re right, you are not the same person, but that doesn’t mean you’re no one and it definitely doesn’t mean you can’t do what you could. You are everything, Jay. To me, you’re everything. If your shell is empty, we can fill it, it’s its broken, we can tape it together, and if it doesn’t fit anymore, we will get you a new one.” Okay maybe Jay was going to cry tonight. “It’s okay to feel empty, it just means we have some work to do.”
Jay nodded in her hands, leaning more into her palm, “I don’t deserve you.”
“You do.” Nya dropped her hands. Lacing her finger between Jay’s and taking a deep breath. “We were made for each other.”
The corner of Jay’s lip turned up ever so slightly, “I’ll never forgive you for loving me.” Nya smiled back ten times wider than he had.
“I’ve only just started.” She leaned in to kiss him again, a huge rush of red flushing up to his cheeks in the process. First Master, he loved this girl.
He studied her features when she pulled back the second time, avoiding her eyes but flickering them everywhere else. “You’re beautiful, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.” Nya took her hands back, folding her arms cockily and leaning back on the wall again.
“Okay, Kai.” Jay rolled his eyes, mocking Nya’s pose and leaning back himself.
“HEY! I am nothing like my brother.” Jay stared at her dumbly, an eyebrow raised so high the birds could touch it. “I’M NOT!”
“Whatever you say!” Jay threw up his hands defensively, chuckling for a second. There was a minute of silence as the two stared at the wall in front of them.
“Can I tell you something? You’re going to think I’m crazy.” Jay’s finger made its way to his mouth, nervously.
“I already think you’re crazy.” Nya was smiling, but she quickly noticed that Jay was in a serious mood again and switched up, “but yeah you can tell me anything.”
Jay took a deep breath, not exactly knowing how to word this, “I think I am.. hearing voices.” His gaze shifted to the left, trying to avoid any possible look towards Nya.
Nya studied his movements warily, “What kind of voices? What are they saying?” She put her hand on his thigh as a ground or comfort but Jay didn’t react.
“It’s like…” Jay threw a hand out in an awkward gesture, “whispering almost? But I can understand it. It also sounds familiar, but I can’t place who’s voice it is.”
“What is it saying Jay?” Nya’s voice dropped to a very serious tone, a scary one.
“I think it wants me to go in the cave.” The blue ninja turned to look at her again, unable to read her reaction. “It knows my name.”
Nya was running her own hand through her hair now, “Is it like… an older voice? A man’s?”
Jay’s eyes shot open in surprise, “You hear it too?”
Nya nodded her head in understanding now, she knew exactly what was going on. “All of us have heard it.” She made a noise, pulling herself up to stand and helping Jay up immediately after.
“Kai and I both heard it, and it led us to finding Zane after the merge. Then Cole heard it, and Lloyd hears it, too.”
“Who is it?” Jay’s gaze was set back on the cave, where the yellow light had disappeared just a while ago.
“It’s our old Master Wu.” Nya followed his eyes, trying to gauge where he was looking at. “He calls us places, sometimes, its usually important.”
Jay was quiet for a moment, getting his brain to link the voice back to Master Wu. A man he had heard little about but felt like he knew a lot about. “He taught us spinjitsu.”
Nya nodded, smiling at Jay’s small memory flash, “He taught us everything we know.”
Jay’s slight nod led him to looking back at the ground, “So what should I do?” He watched Nya place her hands on the wooden wall of the ship, swinging a leg up onto it.
“I guess we’re going.” She jumped down off the ship, the blue ninja heard a faint thud on the floor before running over to the ladder.
Once he had joined her on the floor of the cave, she had already started walking away, “Wait where are we going?” He had to jog a second to catch up with her.
“You said Wu was telling you to go into the cave?” She turned to face Jay, still walking, just backwards now, “So we’re going into the cave.”
“You’re coming with me?” Jay jogged up more to walk beside her so she wouldn’t have to talk and walk in reverse.
“Well, we can’t ignore Wu…” She sighed out a deep breath through that half of the sentence, “and I will not let you go by yourself. So yes. I’m coming with.”
“Shouldn’t we tell the others?” Jay jutted his thumb over his shoulder, “We can’t just leave, I’m supposed to be learning Spinjitsu tomorrow.”
“Trust me, this will be more important than spinjitsu. Besides, you didn’t hold up your promise to Zane either way.” Nya flipped the hood of her gi quickly, placing her finger near her ear. “Speaking of Zane, Hey Jay’s got a call form Wu, I’m going with him. Let the others know?” She spoke into the air.
“There, now the others know.” Nya smiled confidently and Jay quickly put on his own hood, wanting to listen in on the conversation.
“A call from Wu? Does he know what its about?” Jay looked at Nya and shook his head, pointing to the earpiece cluelessly. She picked up his finger and pressed it to his ear.
He heard a small click from inside the hood and watched Nya mouth the word ‘talk’. “Uhmmm, I don’t know what it’s for, but we’re going into the cave.” He lifted his finger off the button, smiling at the thumbs up Nya gave him.
“Alright, keep in touch. Your connection to us might drop the further in the cave you get, I have a tracker in your suits, though. Even if you can’t speak to us we know where you are.”
“Well, that’s scary.” Nya walked faster than Jay naturally did, but instead of forcing Jay to keep up he could tell she was slowing down her gait. “You guys sure do trust each other.”
“What do you mean?” Nya grabbed two lanterns off the wall before they finally reached the entrance to the darkness.
Jay grabbed one from her, lifting it up closer to his face. “You guys just, go off and trust what the others say. It’s like you can read each others minds. It was one of the first things I noticed, when Zane un-cuffed me. You guys just trusted his judgement immediately. Even when you guys fight it’s like you know what everyone is going to do.”
“Well, we grew up together.” Nya shrugged casually, “the trust has been built for so long we just, kind of flow now. It’s a synchronization that took a lot of work to make, but once it’s formed, it’s really hard to shake. Even after years of not seeing each other it was like nothing changed.”
Grabbing Jay’s hand tight and squeezing it once, Nya looked him dead in the eyes, “Are you sure you want to do this? You’re sure this is what Wu wants you to do?”
Jay closed his eyes for a second, hearing the murmuring appear in his brain once more. When he opened his eyes again, he stared deeply into the darkness ahead of them. “Let’s go.”
Notes:
this fic is definitely going to hit 20 chapters by the way… sorry in advance I know it’s so long 😭
Chapter 16: Flow
Summary:
This chapter took a lot out of me, it’s not the longest but it finally pushes the narrative along. Hopefully you like it, it’s my finals week so my mind is Swamped
Notes:
TW: HEAVY in-depth talk of Lloyd’s Eating Disorder
more of Cole + Lloyd’s dynamic for yah :]]
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“They’re doing what?” Cole coughed through his words, half-choking on his first glass of water for the day. Everyone left at the bounty were gathered in the faux kitchen for a makeshift breakfast.
“Jay and Nya left around one in the morning last night because Jay believes he heard Wu calling him into the cave.” Zane spoke rather factually, placing some food on a plate for Lloyd.
“And no one thought to wake us up? They just left by themselves into the cave?!” Kai was on Cole’s side here, just as baffled as he was when he woke up to his sister and the blue ninja completely gone. “Why would you just let them go??”
“All of us have heard Wu and followed his call… how is this any different?” Zane was silently scanning the green ninja sitting in front of him, he was rather quiet this morning.
“Oh, I don’t know maybe because Jay can barely fight, we know nothing about the cave, it’s dark, there are people coming for us as we speak,” Kai lifted his fingers up, annunciating each point he was making, “did I mention JAY CAN’T FIGHT?”
“Nya is talented and trained enough to defend them both, I have trackers on them, and Jay has full control of his powers back. We also explored most of the cave on our first—“
“You should have at least woken me up, Zane.” Cole interrupted, he had ditched the water glass entirely, stress filling his stomach instead. “I’m in my element here, anything going on down there I could help them handle.”
“You? We all should have gone. Jay is barely back with us at this point. What if the lanterns die out? What if the administration come early? What if Jay…” Kai dragged the end of the sentence on, all of the ninja knowing what he was referring to.
“I can assure you; they will be okay. I have my eyes on them at all times and there is no history of any threats in—“
“You don’t even care about him, do you? About my sister? You just let them go off into fuck knows and you don’t even care. What’d you turn off your emotion sensors again? What is wrong with you?” Cole was shocked at the words, seeing the fire burning behind Kai’s eyes.
Zane stopped everything he was doing abruptly and set down the knife and bread he was holding onto the counter. He was silent, keeping his eyes down and away from the fire element. Without saying a word, he turned and walked out of the kitchen.
Kai immediately regretted the outburst, turning around to go after him, “Wait Zane, I- I didn’t mean to, Zane, wait please” Cole and the others watched as a red gi turned around the corner after the ice ninja.
Arin let out a loud sigh through his inflated cheeks, making a small explosion symbol towards Sora. “Uhm, so, me and Sora are just gonna…” He pointed at the doorway, giving himself and his cat-eared friend an out from the awkward air in the room.
Cole nodded at him, a weak smile on his face, and watched the two inch out the room. The room was quiet again, before he realized Lloyd was still beside him. Cole sat down in the chair beside him, resting his elbows on the island, not looking at the younger master.
He hadn’t spoken all morning, and definitely hadn’t touched the food that Zane had set in front of him before… all that went down.
Cole always had a knack for noticing when the others were off, when anyone was off really. Out of everyone, him and Nya were probably the most empathetic ones out of the team, which can be hard sometimes. Carrying the weight of everyone else is difficult for him, but he knows they would do the same for him if he’d let them.
He took a small glance over at Lloyd, and then down at the plate in front of him. It reminded him of when they were younger, when Lloyd was a kid. He always had a bad habit around food, especially when it came to missions.
It started around the time his dad was gone. Cole had just assumed it was a grief-based thing, but after a while he could tell it was more of a coping mechanism for him. The stress of missions, of having a strong title to live up to, of carrying the weight of your team on your back at such a young age, all of it hit Lloyd hard sometimes (especially when he was younger).
Cole could somewhat relate, he was leader for a while, but he tried to disperse it more, not to mention he had time to grow up, unlike the blonde.
The eating problem seemed to be more frequent recently, after the merge it seemed to have gotten a lot worse. Lloyd had all kinds of excuses, “I’m used to portioning from the merge. I’m not hungry right now. There are more important things to do. I already ate.” All of them were lies. Cole knew it, and Lloyd knew that Cole knew it.
You can’t hide anything from Cole.
“Lloyd, I really think you should eat something.” The low and comforting voice of the black ninja rang through Lloyd’s ears, making him open his exhausted eyes. He had barely been awake the whole morning. “You’re losing energy, we both know it.”
Lloyd took a deep breath, sitting up a little straighter and staring at the (now soggy) cereal, “I just don’t feel like it, Cole.”
“Can we talk about that?” Cole kept his voice lower, matching the tone of the conversation perfectly, like always. “It seems like you… never feel like eating. I had to chase you down to even give you dinner yesterday. It’s not good for you, you know.”
Lloyd’s head was clouded, last night had been a train wreck for him, admittedly. The visions in his dreams were horrific, the images still flashing through his head, along with the pain that thumped with his heartbeat behind his eyes.
“I know.” Lloyd kept his voice flatter, monotone. “I just feel sick right now.”
“Lloyd.” Cole grabbed his hand, trying to make Lloyd look at him, but the blonde kept his head down. “I need you to try. You probably don’t feel good because you haven’t eaten at all the last week. I don’t think I’ve seen you take one bite of food, unless you’re sneaking it in the middle of the night.”
Cole studied his face, noticing the glare off his cheek coming down from his eye, “Lloyd, talk to me.”
Curse his voice for being so compelling, “I don’t know, Cole, I just” the green ninja took his hand back and rubbed it across his face, keeping his head down and his eyes from Cole’s, “It’s hard to explain.”
Cole didn’t say anything, rather he waited for Lloyd to start again on his own, thanking the FSM for finally breaking through to him.
“I guess it’s just, the one thing I feel in control of.” Lloyd rested his head back, “I’m not lying when I say the stress lowers my appetite but, whenever things just feel like they’re falling apart or I cant control them… I know that I can at least control this.”
“What is falling apart?” Cole’s voice kept pulling tears from Lloyd’s eyes. At least he was self aware of the eating problem, and why he was doing it.
“Nothing is ‘falling apart’ I guess its just that like…” he finally faced Cole, frowning at the kind smile he was given. “I don’t feel like I’m a good enough master for Arin and Sora, I don’t know what’s going to happen with Jay, I can’t understand any of the visions I’m getting or why they’re happening, everything is just... chaotic!” He threw his hands out in a wild gesture, trying to get his point across.
“Lloyd, doing this, keeping yourself from this,” Cole picked up the spoon from the cereal bowl, showing it to him, “this isn’t the way to gain control. There are better ways to do that, we can find better ways to make you feel in control of things.”
Lloyd nodded slightly and took the spoon form him, staring at it, “This is just what I’ve always done… I don’t really know how to stop.” His voice was the low one now, it was almost embarrassing to talk about this.
“I’ll help you okay, we’ll find something better to get hooked on.” Cole took the banana he was going to eat off of his own plate, “but not eating is not helping. This is making you sick, and we need to be in shape, right? You always say we need to be ready for anything.” Lloyd nodded again.
Cole grabbed his hand, resting the banana in it, and close his fingers around it again. He turned one more time and grabbed his slice of toast off the counter, looking at Lloyd in the eyes, “Eat with me.”
+
It was dark, really dark. The only thing Jay could see was his lantern, Nya’s face, and about two feet of the wall he was walking beside. “What time is it?”
“I don’t know, honestly…” Nya always had a confident tone in her voice, even when she was clueless she sounded knowledgeable. “Are you feeling anything?”
Jay shook his head and made a face, “What would I be feeling??”
“I don’t know! You’re the one that led us down here!” Nya and Jay had to have been walking for hours now, nonstop. They hadn’t really thought about food or water before leaving, not to mention they were running on no sleep, so they were trying to just get through this as quick as possible.
The whispering in Jay’s mind had stopped a while ago, the yellow light not showing itself since before they even entered the cave. He wasn’t entirely sure any of that was even real, maybe he was just hallucinating.
“My chest is starting to hurt.” Jay’s face tightened a bit, he hadn’t taken any medication since before dinner.
“Do you need to take a break?” Nya’s face got darker. As she raised her lantern away from herself, pushing it more towards the walls. They decided they might as well look around for the writing him and Lloyd had seen before, but had no luck.
“No, I just felt like complaining.” Jay’s raised his own lantern up the wall he was following, but he was met with the same blank slate.
Nya chuckled slightly, “Not even surprised.” She moved back towards her yang, preferring the closeness in the vast tunnel they were traversing.
“What does that mean?!” Jay shouted offensively, wincing a bit at his own echo making his ears ring.
“You just always complain. Whenever I think there’s nothing to complain about, I can always count on you to bring me to my senses.” Nya’s free hand swung beside her waist as she walked.
Jay feigned a shocked look, “I never complain! I am the most optimistic person ever. I embody the power of—“
“Positive thinking, yeah yeah, I know.” Nya rolled her eyes with an affectionate smile, but Jay was actually shocked now.
“How’d you know I was going to say that??” Jay’s eyes were huge, he says the repeated the phrase all the time whenever he was in a bad mood at work, especially after a few books he read, but never out-loud.
“You used to say it all the time, even though it never lasted long. You had a phase of positive thinking and not cursing or being optimistic, even though you would scream about all of us dying seconds later.” Nya looked over at her yang, admiring his eyes silently. “Maybe you aren’t as different as you think you are.”
Jay wracked his brain, trying to use this as an opportunity to jog some memory, but it was no use. He avoided Nya’s eyes and looked back ahead of them, noticing the tunnel had widened out, and was also somewhat brighter.
The two glanced around, now having the dim lighting of a glowing moss-ish plant from the ceiling. The rock-room they were now in was circular, with several paths around the outside going in different directions.
Nya and Jay exchanged a glance, before separating a bit, both of them tracing the walls of the room and glancing quickly down each path. They met back in the middle of the room, barely remembering which tunnel they had walked in through.
“Well, what now?” Jay lifted his lantern towards the ceiling, trying to eye the glowing moss/mushroom/mold deal going on above them.
“I don’t know, this is your call, Jay. Wu sent you here, not me.” Well that wasn’t helpful.
Jay turned in a circle one more time, taking a second to really think about each path. About half-way through his circle, he stopped and squinted his eyes. It was, and had been, dark for a long time, so his eyes could be playing tricks, but he swears he saw a dim light coming from that tunnel.
He counted the holes from the tunnel they came through to the one he was looking at, seven. The same number of twists his apple took at dinner. He raised his arm up, pointing confidently, “That one.”
Nya walked closer to it, peaking her head through the opening, “You sure?” By the time she turned back around, Jay had already passed her, heading into the tunnel silently.
The farther they went down the tunnel, the more condensed it became. The walls closing in more and more each time, “You sure this isn’t a dead end, maybe we should go back?”
The whispering in the back of his mind was loud, louder than ever, clearer than ever. “Keep walking.” The tone of his voice sent a small chill down Nya’s spine, but she kept quiet, trusting the blue ninja ahead of her.
The tunnel was only big enough for them to walk single file now, the walls almost touching their shoulders as they squeezed through. The air felt familiar to Jay, the dense cave smell filling the air. Flashes of purple and green creatures flicked through his mind as he walked, still focusing on the chatter in his parietal.
As soon as the cave seemed too small to walk through, Jay stepped into a large room. The biggest area they’d been in since entering the darkness. There was a think layer of the same glowing moss decorating the ceiling, clear crystals littering the walls and ground.
His head was worryingly quiet again, but he felt more awake now, feeling the neurons in his head sparking around. The air in here was thicker, negative particles bouncing off his skin.
“This is it.” Jay turned around to see his partner, looking around the room in awe.
“This place is beautiful,” she walked over to touch one of the crystals in the wall. “It reminds me of the caves in Shintaro.”
Shintaro. “The uhhh, place with the purple guys?” Jay’s eyebrow showed the question on his face.
“Yeah, the Geckles,” there was a certain infliction in her voice, “we helped Cole save the Munce and the Geckles from King Vengellis.” Nya started laughing again.
“What’s funny?” Jay was smiling too, but seeing Nya smile always brought that reaction from him.
“Oh, just thinking about you and the Munce queen when I…” she dragged her sentence off laughing harder now, “don’t worry about it. Just know I’d defend you with my life.”
Jay cocked his head a bit, flushed slightly by that last sentence but he chose to ignore it, “I don’t know what to do now, I feel weird.”
“What feels weird?” Jay looked down at his hands, studying the scars he always had, they seemed brighter. When he looked up this time, he noticed a bigger crystal sticking out of the floor.
The air around him swirled, static waiting to pop, he could feel the charges in the air bouncing jaggedly. They need to be straightened out.
Reaching out his hand, he bent down to the crystal, his hand glowing blue almost naturally. Touching his tingling finger to the sharp tip of the crystal, he watched the clear turn to a bright blue. The light bouncing around inside and emitting out into the crystal beside it, then the one beside that one, and the next, spreading across the entire cave.
In a matter of seconds, the whole room was eliminated with blue light, small squares and twinkles dancing around the room like someone turned on a million disco balls. It felt right, like the air had finally settled, finally had something to do rather than stir around itself underground.
Remembering his partner, he looked over at her, studying her features as she stared in amazement around the cavern. “Jay, this is remarkable.” She couldn’t pull her eyes away from the sight, the magnificent light made her completely visible for the first time.
“You’re remarkable.” Jay whispered under his breath, it wasn’t loud enough for her to hear, but the words were spoken with his whole heart. Looking at her side profile reminded him why he asked her to be his yang in the first place, in fact he remembered the whole event vividly.
“Nya.” Jay spoke louder this time, purposefully trying to get her attention. She shifted her beautiful gaze back towards him. “I remember you.”
“What do you mean?” She started to walk over to where Jay was standing, he thought he could hear her heartbeat, feel the tide pulling him towards her.
“You, Nya.” He reached out and grabbed her both her hands in his, guiding her to stand him front of him. The light bouncing off her face made every feature perfectly visible to him, “This is the reason.”
“The reason for what?” Nya had a small smile on her face, but the beat of silence scared her, “The reason for what, Jay?” please say it.
Jay looked like he was far away while staring into her eyes, “The reason you’re the only one I’ve ever let into my heart.”
“Oh, Jay.” She launched herself into him, her arms wrapping around his neck and his around her waist. She leaned her head back slightly, moving her hands into the hair at the base of Jay’s neck, pulling his face in to meet hers.
The kiss was hard, full of love. It felt like it lasted for minutes, Jay’s hands pressing just as hard into her lower back, but they pulled back after a few seconds, leaning into each other again.
“How much?” Nya whispered softly with her head in his shoulder, like it was a secret.
“Not everything,” Jay pressed the side of his face against her black hair, taking a deep breath in. Everything felt right in this moment. “Not everything, but a lot more than I did. It’s still somewhat fuzzy and I honestly can’t even tell if it’s accurate or not but—“
He stopped talking when Nya started moving slowly, causing Jay’s foot to follow in motion with hers. The movement was comforting, he assumed it would be a sway but it got slightly complicated, they were spinning more in a circle than swaying back and forth.
Nya’s head lifted back up again slightly, “Come on, Jay, dance with me!” She glided one of her hands down Jay’s arm, picking his hand up off her waist and twining her fingers through his.
Jay laughed a bit and let Nya lead him slightly, “I don’t know how to dance?!”
“Oh, you know how to dance. Just feel it.” Nya guided him through the motions, it came pretty naturally to him actually. It didn’t take long for him to pick up on it more, spinning Nya out a bit and taking more of a lead now.
“We’re dancing and there’s not even music.” Jay giggled a bit, Nya coming closer to him again. He didn’t even mind the twinge in his ribs, the moment was a little too perfect to be bothered by it.
Nya laughed back, stopping the dancing and pulling him in for another hug. “This can’t be all you got called down here for, is there anything else you’re feeling?”
They pulled back from each other, Jay immediately missing her warmth in front of him, but started to walk around the room anyway. He payed more attention to the walls this time.
There were etchings in it, not words like what him and Lloyd had seen, but pictures. A lot of jagged lines and streaks in different places. Lightning symbols.
There were more familiar shapes, too. A sketched image of nunchucks were illuminated by a very strong piece of crystal light. “It’s all, about lightning.” He placed his hand on the wall, feeling the static bounce between his palm and the rock. “It’s about me.”
“What is?” Nya came over to the wall Jay was looking at, not seeing anything. “Jay, there’s nothing there…”
Jay raised an eyebrow up at her and looked back, the images were all moving now, morphing into other shapes. “You don’t see that?” Nya shook her head no.
The etchings shifted in the walls, it messed with Jay’s eyes, but he kept his hand on the wall and watched. Slowly they all moved under his hand, he could feel the stone divot with each mark.
When he lifted his hand, they scattered more, turning into pictures of his life. There was an image of him on top of a building, wearing makeshift wings. The doodle jumped off and glided around the room, which Jay followed with his eyes.
“What are you seeing, Jay?” he heard Nya, but didn’t even know how to respond. Instead, he just pointed while he ran towards the opposite wall, where the glider had landed.
The glider flew straight into an orb, and morphed into a new shape, two older looking people. The couple reached up towards the ceiling, a bunny appearing above them. “Mister Cuddlywomp...” Jay whispered; it was just loud enough for Nya to hear.
Another etching appeared to the left, it looked like Jay’s but with different features, a woman. She struck a blast of lighting towards the older couple, which was now a large dragon, which blasted lightning back at the woman.
When the two bolts connected, both figures disappeared and a spider popped out, a big one. It crawled up towards the ceiling, the symbol of a lamp stamped on its back, the kind you would rub to get a genie out of.
“Jay? Everything alright?” Nya checked in again, watching her yang stare silently at the wall in awe. “What’re you seeing?”
“It’s me.” Jay pointed at what was now a serpentine looking creature. “This is my story.” He looked back at her. “This is who I am.”
He felt the air around him fizzing, like someone shook a coke and popped him in like a mint. His arms brought themselves to press towards a crystal in the wall. He watched as the glow from his hands reach farther and farther up. His whole body starting to glow.
“Oh my god…” Nya had her hand over her mouth when he turned back around. “Jay, your true potential.”
Jay looked down at himself, he was so bright it almost blinded him, his body looked kind of see through. This is hard for him to understand entirely. He felt purposeful, like he had finally had a reason to be here. He didn’t necessarily remember his story, he couldn’t magically remember the life he forgot, though he desperately wanted to. However, that hole he had was filled.
He finally feels like himself again.
Notes:
Alright I know this may seem a little complicated. The next chapter will explain a bit more what happened exactly, but I will clarify now JAY DOES NOT MAGICALLY REMEMBER EVERYTHING and he will still permanently have memory problems Slash amnesia. The stuff he does remember now isn’t even fully there, I will not do his arc dirty I Promise I just have to move this story along…
also chapter 19 WILL be the last chapter, I have finally planned this out fully so, we will be over soon
Chapter 17: Old not New
Summary:
On the shorter side today.. sorry, half filler half important stuff. we are approaching the last two chapters though which are going to be Super Long so!!
Notes:
Jay is a lot more like himself now <33
Also more Cole and Jay today! Heart them
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Nya and Jay have been gone for hours, leaving the other ninja sitting anxiously at the computer, watching the trackers on their suits ping every few seconds. At least the trackers were moving again, not staying in place like they had for a while about an hour before.
“I got to do something, I can’t sit here and watch them it’s freaking me out.” Kai was way more anxious than he would usually be. Nya went out on missions by herself all the time, so that couldn’t be the problem, but something about this made him extra nervous.
Cole watched as Kai stormed off to the main deck of the Bounty. All of them had been pretty quiet, the air was clearly tense after the talk him and Zane had. Maybe that was adding to the visible stress popping out from his veins.
Silently, Cole turned to follow the red ninja, walking down the steps after him. Kai had already made it to the stone floor of the cave by now, though. “Hey, Kai! Wait up!”
Cole jumped off the ship, slightly jogging towards him, “Everything alright? You and Zane seem a little tense still…”
Kai took in a deep sigh, “I didn’t mean to blow up at him, it just stresses me out that those two went off by themselves.” He picked up a crate of supplies, mindlessly, moving it towards the big pile they had beside the ship. “I know Nya is perfectly capable, she’s amazing, but the thought of it just worries me. I always worry about her.”
“I know you do,” Cole had that god-forsaken deep tone in his voice again. The smoothness drove Kai insane, “We all do, but they’re doing okay. We haven’t gotten any kind of distress signal.”
Kai ran his hands over his face, facing away from Cole, “Yeah, I know I know. You’re right, I just need to do something to get my mind off it until they get back.”
Cole started to help Kai move the barrels around, changing up the makeshift obstacle course they had a bit. “So, you and Zane?”
“He’s still mad, which I get, it was an asshole thing to say. I shouldn’t have done that..” Kai sat down on top of the barrel he finished rolling, resting his hands on his thighs, “I don’t know. When I get stressed, I just get carried away and then things spill out of my mouth and by the time I’m done it’s too late to take them back.”
Cole placed his hand over Kai’s, rubbing his thumb over it lightly, “He knows that, and I’m sure he’s already forgiven you. Zane doesn’t hold grudges like that, but it doesn’t mean he’s not upset. Plus we know you Kai, we know how you are.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to be this way, Cole, and every time I try to find a different way to work the anger out it doesn’t stick, and I just end up even more pissed.” Kai moved his gaze away from the black hair, staring towards the entrance of the cave.
“Maybe I can help you find alternatives?” Cole turned around, glancing at the cave entrance quickly before turning back, “You don’t have to do this alone.”
“Cole, you already do so much. You don’t need to fix everyone, you know.” Oh, he hadn’t thought of that before.
Kai jumped off the barrel like he didn’t just say a phrase that broke Cole’s brain. He had always done this? He’s the rock of the team, the strong foundation, it’s just something that came naturally to him. Then again, he helped everyone else process their emotions so much that he never learned how to process his own.
That’s why he would bottle up everything until he’d break down crying randomly, get in his head, disassociate, maybe he was focusing too much on everyone else, but that’s what he has always done. When his mom died it was the same way, she would always tell him its okay to cry, but it wasn’t was it? That’s just something mom’s say. Strong people don’t cry.
He didn’t know what to do after his mom died, so he didn’t really do anything. It stuck with him forever sure, but processing wasn’t really an option. Instead, he’d opted for climbing mountains, climbing so high the air would go thin and his brain would feel dizzy. Everything he did was a distraction.
The first time he had actually sat down and processed his mom and what she meant to him was in Shintaro. It all clicked once he had the time to think about her, about who’s legacy he was stepping into, facing the flashbacks from the days before her death. He grew a lot that day, maybe he should keep trying to grow like that.
He didn’t realize him and Kai had been hugging until he felt Kai pull away, making eye contact with his brown eyes, “Hey, you okay?”
Before Cole could answer, they heard footsteps coming from the cave entrance, with two smiling faces attached to them.
“KAI! COLE!” the two turned towards the voice and watched as a blue gi was running towards them, but not with black hair like they were expecting. This was Jay, the most energetic he’s been since they rescued him.
Jay ran up to Cole first, clinging to him tightly, which Cole gratefully returned. Kai made eye contact with his sister, pointing at Jay with a smile, but all she did was chuckle and give him a side hug.
Immediately after letting go, Jay was on Kai, hugging him just as tight. “Wow, Jay you’re in a good mood,” Kai laughed through his words, patting his back a bit.
“Great mood, Kai.” Jay pulled back, running his hands down Kai’s arms, “the greatest. How have you been? How are my best friends? Where’s Lloyd? I need to talk to Lloyd and Zane.”
“Woah, slow down there, Motormouth.” He felt Jay squeeze him arms.
“Motormouth!!” He smiled wide, shaking Kai slightly and pulling him into another hug before running off towards the Bounty. All Kai could do was laugh again, he was so relieved they were back so quickly.
“What was that about?!” Cole questioned while giving Nya a hug, “I haven’t seen him like that since…” He trailed off, not even remember the last time he saw Jay happy. Which was actually really sad.
Nya crossed her arms, preparing to explain what had happened just a few hours before, “So, we got in this cave, and he saw like… a story of his life or something? He’s been acting different since then, I think he remembers a lot more now, or at least feels like he remembers more.”
“Is that what Wu was calling him to find, you think?” Kai spoke up, leading the three to walk towards the Bounty and meet up with the others.
“I think so, he also found his true potential again while we were in there.” Kai and Cole both whipped around again to look at her wide eyed and mouths open.
“AND YOU DIDN’T LEAD WITH THAT?!” Nya continued walking in between the two, ignoring their surprised nonchalantly.
“You should really just ask him what happened, I can’t tell you what he all he was seeing, but as soon as it was done, he wanted to come back here.” She started up the ladder, already hearing her lover’s loud voice echo a bit from the main deck.
Cole held the bottom of the ladder while she climbed and did the same for Kai as well, before following them up. Everyone was already in a circle, as usual, with Jay’s emphatic voice following the motions of his hands.
“—and the walls were moving, I could feel it, the air was shaking and it made my head hurt but in a good way.” He was deep in a ramble, the kind he hasn’t done in a long time, “I touched this crystal, and it made me feel complete, like I can finally recognize what’s been missing from my life. You guys have been missing from me this whole time.”
“I didn’t have you for so long, then I got you back but I was still empty, and now here I am and seeing all of you is making me want to cry. I feel like I can finally breathe.” Jay leaned on Zane, who’s eyes were flickering, obviously scanning Jay’s condition.
“Well, you actually can breathe a lot better.” Zane wrapped his arms around the brunette’s waist, “It seems your ribs have healed significantly since you’ve been away.”
“Jay, did you…?” Lloyd’s squinted at him. The green ninja was smiling wide, it was always nice to see someone become themselves again. “Did you start glowing, by chance?”
“I did!” Jay moved quick, scooping Lloyd into a hug now, “I did, Lloyd! My true potential, Nya said it was my true potential!”
Lloyd giggled a bit, looking over at Nya in amusement, “So, you did it!” Jay set Lloyd back on the ground and nodded quickly.
“I’m so proud of you, Jay!” Cole chimed in, which was acknowledged by a wide smiled from the lightning ninja.
“Cole, you have done more for me than I even know.” Jay grabbed his hand a squeezed it a bit. “This didn’t really change my memories much… I still really don’t remember everything.”
“But you remember yourself, right?” Jay nodded at the green ninja, letting go of Cole’s hand. “Then that’s what matters. That’s what we came here for.”
“That’s what Jay came here for.” Zane pitched in again, he had his body turned slightly away from Kai. It wasn’t really noticeable by the other ninja, but the red one noticed, it made him frown.
“What do you mean?” Lloyd raised an eyebrow at the nindroid.
“You said that Jay and you had something to do here.” Zane’s hands made their way behind his back, something he always did when he was being smart. “Only Jay has done something, you have not.”
“I… guess you have a point.” Lloyd looked down at the floor, but clapped his hands together before he succumbed to zoning out again. “Well, I guess I will have to dwell on that later, are Jay’s ribs healed enough to try out spinjitsu?”
A smile appeared on Zane’s face before he spoke, “It seems that when Jay found his true potential it exhibited the same healing effect on his ribs that it did his mind. They aren’t perfectly healed, of course, but I believe they’re stable. The optimism he’s experiencing is also very helpful to his overall condition.”
“So that meaaanss...?” Oh yeah, Jay was definitely back.
“It means you can train, Jay.” Nya giggled through her words.
“WOOHOO!” The lightning ninja threw his arms up, not a sign of discomfort on his face like there had been just the day before, “Come on, lets kick the Administrator‘s butt!”
+
Jay felt great, like really great. There was energy coursing though his veins. Literally. His lightning felt stronger than ever.
He was trying to focus on all these motions they were showing him, but there was so much stuff bouncing around in his brain he couldn’t focus at all. It was even worse than when Lloyd made him meditate, his head wouldn’t shut up.
His foot dropped to the ground again, landing poorly off of one of the barrels. “Jay, you’re not focusing.”
“I’m trying to!” He grabbed at his hair, annoyed at the green ninja’s voice berating him again. “There’s too much going on, I feel overwhelmed.”
“Like I-need-to-take-a-break overwhelmed?” Cole helped Jay stand back up to his feet off the ground, “You can stop for a bit if you need to, none of us ever got it on our first try.”
“It’s not that, I just feel like I have too much energy, it’s making me jittery.” Jay flapped his hands up and down, rocking on the backs of his heels.
Cole laughed a bit, “Yeah that sounds like you.” He could already feel Jay’s eyebrow go up without looking at him, so immediately started to explain, “You have like three moods, jittery, tired/sore, and super focused.”
“Well, Mr. I Know You Best, how do I usually stop being jittery?” Jay had titled with his hands on his hips, he may have been mocking Cole but other than Nya… he really did know him the best.
“We can spar? Although you’re not like… a trained ninja anymore. Maybe I can teach you some things. It also might help considering we have a big fight coming.” Jay’s face had mixed emotions; he was nervous, excited, but also slightly offended.
“I am a trained ninja, I’m just…” Cole could see the way he searched for a word in his eyes, “a fixer-upper!”
“Ahuh, doesn’t mean I’m able to not hold back with you.” Cole grabbed four weighted wrappings out of a crate, handing two blue one’s to Jay.
“What’re these?” Jay held it up, letting the wrapping unravel all the way and watching the weight dangling, it had to be around 7 lbs.
“These are weights, they slow you down, make it harder to hit so that when you aren’t wearing them it’s easier to use force.” He grabbed the pad dangling in front of Jay’s face and helped him wrap it around his knuckles.
Jay studied the way his hands touched his so gently, feeling his hand want to drop from the added pounds. “I don’t even know how to throw a real punch yet, why would I start out with these so soon?”
Cole was holding his own weights in his mouth. After he wrapped Jay’s second one around his left hand, he took them out and started wrapping his own, “Because then, it’ll be even easier for you.”
“You hit so hard, though, I saw how you and Kai fight.” Jay chewed on the pad of his thumb slightly, watching Cole take a few steps back from him.
“I won’t do it so hard with you, promise. Me and Kai spar like that because we’re so used to each other’s movements.” Cole bounced on his heels; he was excited for this. “No powers though, okay? I don’t need you to electrocute the rocks outta me.”
“Rocks? Really?” Jay tried to think about all the fighting stances he’d seen in video games and chose the most common one to stand in while he waited for Cole to move.
“At least I’m not Fist-to-Facing right now,” Cole laughed, moving back over to Jay.
“WELL, I DON’T KNOW HOW TO STAND!!” He felt Cole grab at his different limbs, moving his feet wider and angling his arms differently.
“Look, just relax, you need to feel light so you can constantly be moving. Always be ready. You don’t always have to stand like that, but that’s a good pose to start out with.” Cole got into a similar position, bouncing slightly, keeping his head angled down a bit. “Alright, do something.”
Jay glanced around Cole’s body, again trying to think of video game moves, he had played enough fighting games to at least recreate one of them, right? He noticed Cole’s left side was open slightly more than the rest of his body, so he went for a kick first, rounding his waist and bringing hiss foot around with it.
Cole caught it immediately, twisting it so Jay flipped over, falling flat on his front, groaning. “How did you even know I was going to do that?!”
Cole helped him back up, “Well, I would say I’m really good at acting on instinct, but really you just always start with kicking someone during sparring.”
Jay was the one bouncing this time, getting back into the stance Cole had initially put him in, “Do I really?”
Cole laughed, getting into his own position, “Yeah you do, I started noticing it way back when—“ Cole got cut off and let out a huge puff of air, barely catching Jay’s wrapped fist aiming at his stomach. “Woah, that came outta nowhere.”
“You said to always be ready,” Jay winked at him, sweeping his leg under Cole’s and bringing him down, unable to catch his fall cause his hands were still around Jay’s own.
He laughed out a hard breath after hitting the ground with a thud, “Alright, maybe I should go harder on you than I thought.” He tugged Jay’s arms down with him, rolling over to pin the blue ninja down after he fell, too.
“Well, what do I do now?” Jay struggled against his arms, but stayed relaxed, like Cole had told him to do before.
“You gotta get me off you,” the earth ninja’s shoulder’s did a small shrug as he nonchalantly kept Jay’s arms pinned to his chest. “If you were in a fight, and it wasn’t me, what would you do?”
“Probably scream for help, or just electrocute you.” Jay studied his options to get out of this silently, it really wasn’t all that different from a game when he thought about it.
“It’s better to save your powers for when you actually need them,” Cole shifted a bit, the position they were in wasn’t necessarily a comfortable one, which Jay immediately clocked.
The second Cole’s knee touched the ground, Jay launched himself up, knocking Cole off him completely. The black ninja rolled to the side, popping back up quick since his blue opponent was already bouncing on his toes again, “Nice one, bluebell.”
“Thanks, least-valuable-ninja.” Wait, what?
Jay launched himself at Cole again, he was going through motions he didn’t even really comprehend, it’s like his body was doing it on its own without even thinking, and Cole doing the same.
“Wait, you remember that?” Cole’s words were broken up by blocked punches, they moved in unison, like they had done this so many times before.
“Remember what?” Jay flipped his body around to bring his leg up by Cole’s head. Since when can he just casually do a flip??? He’s never even touched a treadmill.
“The fight we had? That’s the same name you called me in Chen’s Arena.” Cole was a little distracted by Jay’s random tease, they hadn’t even really talked about the fight since it kinda worked itself out overtime.
Jay and Cole switched sides, Cole throwing more hits for Jay to dodge now, “Uhhh Chen’s the short guy? He had like… a daughter. Sky or something?” Jay grabbed Cole’s hand and guided it away from him, redirecting the blow completely. How did he know to do that?
“Skylar, and yeah that’s right. Since when you remember that?” Cole was impressed by how quickly Jay’s movements had smoothened out. The rhythm they had felt right.
“Uhm, since just now I guess…” Jay tried to ignore the random flashback, his eyes teased him a bit. His vision flickering whenever he looked at Cole, seeing a younger version of him fighting rather than the man he was today.
The sight threw him off a little too much, not noticing Cole sweeping his leg underneath him until he had already hit the ground. He flopped back and stayed laying down for a second, his hands on his chest rising up and down with the heavy breaths he was taking.
“You alright?” Cole reached out a hand, which Jay clapped his own into, letting the taller pull him back up to his feet.
”Heh, sorry. Brain stuff.” Jay shook his head a bit, trying to get back into the right mindset. “Sorry, I ruined the rhythm.”
“Don’t apologize, this is your first time… kinda.” Cole laughed a bit, “You’re doing really good by the way, do you secretly know how to fight?”
“I seriously don’t know anything other than what I watch you guys do and what I see in video games.” Jay looked down at his hands and flexed them slightly, he had adjusted to the extra weight by now, not even noticing it until he looked at them.
“Must be muscle memory, all of us have our favorite moves basically hardwired into our brains,” Cole gestured in the air, “Maybe yours is still up there and you just don’t know it.”
Jay shrugged, he wanted to get back to fighting now. He really liked it, the multi-tasking and problem-solving aspect of it really allowed his brain to stay occupied rather than bounce around constantly like it had been doing.
“Are you able to control the strength of your powers now?” Cole gestured at his weights while taking his own off. “I want to try without the weights and maybe with some powers, but again I don’t want you shocking the lights out of my eyes.”
Jay looked around his wrist for the end of the tie and unraveled it quickly, “I think I can? If I understand what you’re saying right…” He gave it a try, sparking up a tiny voltage in his hand and slowly making it stronger. The strike growing from in between his fingers to a larger shape above him.
He played around with it a little more and started making shapes out of the higher voltage. Starting with a circle, then a heart, then a big star.
“Alright, I get it show off, you can control it way better now.” They both chuckled a bit, Jay stopping the zapping and feeling the air around him tense up again. “Just keep it on the lower side and we should be good. I can handle your shocks better than the others can.”
Jay nodded his head and readied himself up again. Cole was right, he did feel a lot lighter without the weights.
Notes:
I feel bad about shoving Arin and Sora to the side a bit but I genuinely don’t know them as well as the other ninja so I’d rather avoid them then mischaracterize
Chapter 18: The Last Day
Summary:
Last 24 hours before the big fight..
TW:
talk of death, kidnapping, little bit of suicidal ideation
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The pinging chimes through Jay’s head like a death tone. As if the First Master himself were flicking him in the temple every 3 seconds, reminding him his time is coming.
“How long we got?” Jay hadn’t spoken much this morning; he wasn’t really feeling like it. Sure, the weird cave thing had sparked some kid of plug in his head, but it also kept strumming his high-strung harp that he hadn’t seemed to get rid of, despite the head injury.
“Approximately 23 hours.” Zane responded to Kai from Jay’s right; he had been watching the computer all night prior. Jay joined him some time after PM turned to AM, he couldn’t sleep well, especially knowing his time with his family was going to be cut short soon.
It’s not like Jay to be so pessimistic, he knows that. He knows his mantra, all the stupid life lessons he would spew out to the others and even to himself while sorting through paperwork at Administration but does any of that even matter when you’re about to meet your maker. Literally, he’s facing the person that made him this way in 23 hours, and only the FSM knows what will happen to him then.
The others have tried to help, these last four days have been great, he loves sparring with Lloyd and Cole, and training makes him feel like he has a purpose again, but he hasn’t made any progress on spinjitsu. Even Arin and Sora can do it, or at least somewhat do it, Jay has nothing. His big fight is tomorrow, and he has nothing; he can barely get by with his powers and he knows the others have been going easy on him.
Twenty-three hours.
Jay felt a warm weight on the small of his back; he didn’t look over at all, but he knew it was Cole, he could tell by the hesitation. “I’m okay, Cole.”
“You sure? You’ve been off these last few days.” It’s too early for this. Too early for the sappy conversation and the emotion-based worry. It doesn’t matter how Jay feels right now, he needs to get ready.
“I’m fine. Can we go train?” Jay avoids all eye-contact, heading towards the stairs of the bounty as quick as he can, the pinging of the tracker warping behind his head like an ambulance singing.
Cole sighed, his hand left hovering in the air after Jay walked away from him. That is, until a cold one grabbed it from the air, pulling it down and leading Cole’s head down with it. His ear was met with the monotone robotic voice of his icy partner, “He did not sleep last night. He stayed watching the monitor with me and did not say a word. I even tried using my conversation starter data base. He was not responsive…”
Cole frowned, running his thumb over the back of Zane’s hand nervously while Kai spoke, “All he’s been doing is training and training. I get he’s stressed about the fight, but we handled it well the first time.”
“Kai, we barely made it out of there.” The red ninja was leaning his hand against the the panel of the computer, “This time we’re trapped in a cave, heck I’m stressed! I can only imagine what’s running through his head.”
Zane let go of Cole’s hand and returned to the computer, bringing up a different tracking screen. “Lloyd and Arin are still in the caves.”
“They’ve been in there for almost a day now. What could they possibly be doing in there?” Kai backed up, allowing Zane to reach over to where he was originally standing.
“I don’t know, but I hope it’ll be helpful for us, or at least that they’ll be back before the Administrator shows up.” Nya spoke up from Cole’s other side. She was nervous too, they all were, there was no denying it.
“Maybe we should just leave, why don’t we get Nya to part the waterfall again and haul tail outta here?” Kai waved his hands around, trying to draw everyone’s attention to him.
“Our best bet is to stay here. We are fortified by the waterfall and know the caves better than they do. There is only one way in and out, and leaving would only drag out the fight longer.” Sora was tinkering with Kai’s elemental mech, trying to upgrade all of them as well as make a new one for another ninja to use.
“Sora is right, besides, worst case scenario we retreat into the caves. We need to end this now.” Cole leaned to the side a bit, peering over the edge of the Bounty to check on Jay, who was currently using a barrel as a punching bag.
The only time Jay’s head was quiet was when there was electricity shooting out of him in one way or another. Any other time, the energy would just build and build, it would make him all jittery, and was probably the reason he could never settle down fully.
It seeped into his sleep schedule in a lot of ways, he never had a great one. Last night was a very familiar scenario to him, he rolls around a lot, feels too hyper to sleep but too mentally exhausted to do anything meaningful, so he ends up messing with something useless all night. This was never a problem at Administration, honestly the last time he probably slept through a whole night was in his bed there, but now that he’s fully loaded up again, he needs to flash every few beats like a firefly.
Nya and Cole had mentioned it to him a few times since returning here, but now that he can remember some things for himself, he knows this has always been a problem for him. Must be why he picked up so many hobbies over the years.
Either way, to be a ninja means he needs to be able to do all the things without using his powers, too. Your powers are a tool not a crutch says that weird old man in the back of his head. Doesn’t change the fact he wants to explode this barrel in front of him to pieces.
“You know you should really rest some, especially before a big fight like this.” Cole’s here, finally, took him long enough. “Especially since we have all this information early and have the time to prepare ourselves for it.”
“No time, I need to learn spinjitsu now. Let’s train.” Jay was a bit taken aback by his own voice, but he ignored it. Cole couldn’t though. That deep tone he used when he was focused was always super noticeable, especially when you’re used to hearing his high tone most of the time.
“Jay, seriously, I think we should take a break and maybe do—“ Cole stopped mid sentence due to a strong grip around his bicep.
“Please, Cole. Just…” Jay let out a deep breath, shutting his eyes for a brief moment. “I just want to train, okay?” He pulled away from the black ninja, grabbing the hand weights from atop a crate and tossing two to the earth ninja.
+
Twenty hours.
Jay rested his hands on his knees. He was bent over himself coughing up his own lungs, he couldn’t breathe. His ribs haven’t really been bothering him since he found his true potential, but they were throbbing currently.
“Jay, are you alright? We can take a break.” The hand on his shoulder was too much, the air was too thick for the contact right now.
Jay coughed a few more times before bouncing back up, wiping his hand under his mouth where some drool had pooled. “I’m fine, let’s keep going.”
“Jay, seriously, pushing yourself like this isn’t going to help you become better at—“
“Fight me, Cole.” Jay launched himself back towards the man, hard. He slammed his whole head into the broad chest, which was only met with black hands wrapping through his hair, holding him there.
“No, Jay. No, I’m not doing this.” The ground shifted beneath both of them, energy moving through Cole’s feet and into his hands, launching Jay backwards away from him. “I am not going to let you destroy yourself less than a day before we have a huge battle.”
Jay’s head pounded at the force, he had slid back and landed on his bottom, but both his hands immediately pushed him back up. He launched himself towards Cole again, in a slightly different angle.
This strike was met again with Cole’s arms wrapped around him, swallowing the blow like Jay hadn’t even moved in the first place, “Jay. Stop.”
“NO” Jay grabbed Cole’s hand from his shoulder and sent a small voltage through it, hearing the earth ninja’s small groan and grip strengthen around him. “I have to do better.”
“Jay,” Cole spoke through gritted teeth, Jay’s voltage was getting increasingly stronger until he was forced to let go, as to not get actually hurt by it. He watched Jay jumped back again, dropping his shoulder to thud into Cole once more. “Jay, don’t make me stop you.”
“DO IT, Cole. Do it, don’t hold back.” Jay struggled under Cole’s grasp this time, shocking him again just to force him to let go. “Give it to me.”
“No, Jay.” Cole absorbed his blow again and again, slowly being pushed back as Jay gained more forced every time. “You’re hurting yourself.”
The infliction in the black ninja’s voice filled Jay with an emotion he couldn’t comprehend right now, all he could run through his head was fighting moves. He went through every motion he could think of, threw every kick, every punch, everything he had, and Cole absorbed every single one.
“Please, just,” Jay was losing his energy, his moves getting weaker as he tried to keep up his momentum. His throat burned as he swallowed a sob and, instead of letting it out, he pushed up his lightning. His eyes flickering blue as sparks of electricity coiled around his fists, “I have to, Cole, I have to.”
“Jay. Stop.” That time was different, this tone was mad. Cole was mad at him. “You are not strong enough right now. We have been at this for 3 hours. What is going on with you?”
The blue flickered out as quickly as it had flickered in, the sob finally bubbling up out of the blue ninja’s burning throat as he crumbled to his knees. Cole immediately at his side, like he always has been.
“Cole, I can’t. I’m.” Jay had his hands in his hair again, he felt so weak, so doomed. The lingering call of death clanging over his head, he thought he was over these breakdowns.
He couldn’t think straight, the air was thick, the ringing in his ears was loud as Cole knelt down in front of him, “Talk to me, blue.”
The fingers running through his hair went towards his own, loosening the grip and dragging his whole hand down towards his lap. Jay rushed something low under his breath, but Cole couldn’t make it out through the hyperventilating. “Say it slower.”
“I’m going to die.” Jay looked up at him, trying to pull his hand up to his hair again, but the grip laced through his fingers was too strong. “I’m going to die, Cole. I’m not a ninja, I can’t fight, I can’t do spinjitsu. They’re going to take me and if they don’t, I’m going to die fighting, I can’t do this— I can’t.”
He couldn’t make out anything from the water flooding his vision, but he could feel the strong arms pull him into Cole’s chest. How did he always end up here? Right back in Cole’s lap crying just like the first time they met less than three weeks ago.
There were no words exchanged, just the sound of Jay’s sobs against Cole’s exaggerated breathing, along with the rhythmic tapping of his nails on the floor of the cave in an attempt to ground him.
-
Seventeen hours.
Jay stood perfectly still, staring at the rushing falls ahead of him. The water was a deep blue, with the occasional streak of light peaking through the thinner areas. He could feel droplets fleck off onto his face every now and then.
A ninja dressed in red was beside him now, sitting criss cross on a rock that Lloyd had occupied only a few days before. Out the corner of Jay’s eye he could see a small flame in Kai’s hand, moving around his palm and in between his fingers as he played with it. “What’cha thinking about, sparky?”
“I love you, Kai.” The words just kind of fell out of Jay’s mouth, but they were genuine. He could see the flame fizzle out and spiky brown hair tilt to the side slightly.
“Love you too, man.” Kai’s voice had just a small hint of worry, along with confusion. He wasn’t sure if him and Jay had ever said that to each other before. Not that he didn’t love Jay, he loves everyone on the team, it just hadn’t really come out all that often.
“I’m sorry about how I acted.” Jay continued to study the water, watching flicks of his memories play in the stream. It was such a weird experience, remembering things he’s done, it’s like watching a movie about your doppelgänger. It didn’t actually feel like stuff he genuinely remembered doing.
“Which time?” Kai said it with a smirk, intending to poke fun at the blue ninja, but it wasn’t really reciprocated. Jay was being genuine. “I mean, we always butt heads, you know.”
He did see Jay smile slightly at that, “Yeah, I know.” He watched as a faint spark glitched across the falls, remnant of his electric release after having another flashback. “I was referring to after Nya’s merge,” he shivered a bit thinking about it, “but maybe I’m sorry for all those other times, too.”
Kai laughed through his words, “I’ll never let you forget this. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the phrase ‘I’m sorry’ cross your lips.” Then it clicked. “Wait, why are you saying all this?”
The blue ninja shrugged and let out a sigh. If he was going to go down, he might as well tie all his knots, even the ones he doesn’t necessarily remember all that well. Then he had an idea.
“Step back for a sec?” Jay turned and eyed Kai, who nodded and immediately got up to move back.
“What’re you doing?” Kai made sure he was a few feet away as he watched Jay’s hand glow. The hair on Jay’s head stood up and the light from his eyes reflected off the roaring water rushing in front of him.
The lightning element tilted his head down slightly and squeezed his eyes shut, conjuring up all the power he could possibly muster. There were distant flashes in his head of him charging batteries underwater, catching lightning from the mast of a ship, and redirecting the surge from a storm.
He used this to his advantage, the ball of energy in his hand growing twice the size. When he felt ready, he took a big breath and cracked his eyes open slightly, staring deep into the water.
Kai watched as the giant blue light shot out of Jay’s hand into the waterfall with a loud crack. It echoed throughout the cave, along with the several slightly quieter crackles of energy now circuiting through the water.
Jay’s chest and shoulders heaved up and down, trying to catch his breath as the last of the energy left his hand. He could feel the voltage come back down as his ribs throbbed, the air finally feeling at ease after allowing its negative particles to collide with Jay’s own.
That was the best part about the lightning, Jay chased the snap of the air like a high, the heat that surrounded him after and the new crisp that carried was addicting. Another reason why bottling up the energy was so difficult, after a while, the air was basically begging for him to crack it.
“How did you do that?” Kai’s voice was in awe, entranced by the refreshed coiling of electricity that Jay had created, re-fortifying the water wall three times as much as before.
“I’m not going down without a fight.”
-
Fifteen hours.
Jay kept his gaze averted while Zane scanned his ribs. He couldn’t ask for pain meds without the nindroid forcing him to get another x-ray, so he went ahead and got it over with. He’d rather Zane pick him apart than suffer.
“The tissues are inflamed, but the ribs themselves are still doing fine.” Zane handed him a chewable tablet while he went to find an ice pack. The chewable ones were new, something the ice ninja had come up with during his free time that he had intended on making long ago for Jay but never got around to.
“Just keep the ice on for a bit and you should be alright once the pain subsides.” A cold pack was pressed against his chest, quickly being held down by a blue wrap. The coolness made Jay jump at first, but he settled into it. It felt nice compared to the humidity in the cave.
“Thank you, Zane.” The blue ninja looked him in the eyes, which Zane immediately picked up on the nonverbal cue.
“You’re going to be alright, Jay, and there is no need to thank me.” He looked away from Jay’s eyes, knowing it would make the brunette uncomfortable in a short second.
“Hey, uhm, I’ve been meaning to say I’m sorry for how I talked to you on that first night.” Jay took a swig from the lukewarm bottle of water Cole gave him. “When I was talking about you only in reference to your code and all. I know you to be a lot more than that now. You mean a lot to me.”
“Why are you talking like that?” Zane cut right to the chase. Jay wasn’t one to compliment like this, unless it was with Nya of course. Usually, his affection came out through physical contact, but this wording was off even for Amnesia-ridden Jay.
“Like what?” He could tell by the pulsing in Zane’s eyes that he was scanning him again, but he didn’t know what for.
Reading the others emotion-scan, the white ninja immediately knew what was up. “You are going to be alright, Jay. We are not going to let them take you. You are aware of this, correct?”
Jay gave a weak half smile, reaching to rest his hand on Zane’s arm, “I know.”
“Then why are you speaking like this?”
Jay stayed silent.
-
Twelve hours.
Jay was going through crates of weapons with Sora, who was showing him all the new things she had made.
“I’m super proud of these ones!” She lifted up what looked like just a handle, but the second she made a swinging motion, the holographic blade attached to a chain appeared and disappeared quickly. You couldn’t even tell where it was before it had already swung.
Jay’s eyes went wide at it, “That is SO COOL!” His voice shivered slightly as he jumped up, reaching out to grab it from her and immediately swinging it around to play with.
“It took me a while to do with the few parts I have, but it wasn’t all the difficult.” Sora pulled out a blue circular piece of metal, “This is for you also.”
“Wait, I can keep the spike flail?!” Jay shook his hands violently in excitement as he cheered.
“Yep! That’s all yours, and so is this.” Sora backed up slightly, throwing the disk into the air like a frisbee. They both watched as it morphed into a small dragon, flying around the cave, and swooping back down at Sora’s whistle, landing in front of Jay.
The dragon was blue and neon green, it looked a little familiar, maybe he’d had a dragon similar to him in the past. “This is SWEET!” He knelt down and studied its armor, silently thanking the master that he had something other than himself to fight with. “You’re awesome, Sora.”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Sora waved him off, chuckling a bit at the aggressively affectionate side-hug. “Just what I do.”
“Far better than anything I could’ve made.” Jay clicked a button he saw sticking out of the dragon’s head and watched as it folded in on itself, back into the small hand-sized disk.
“Are you kidding? You’re Jay Walker. You used to be the inventor, especially on this team.” Jay would’ve assumed Sora was just saying that to be nice, but there was a genuine tone to her voice. She was actually surprised Jay would say that.
“Well, even if I was, I’ll prolly never get that back.” Jay sighed, lowering his head to the ground a bit and setting the handle of his spike flail back on the table.
“Oh, you’ll get it back.” Sora was always so confident in her words, “You can do anything, Jay.”
-
Eight hours.
That’s all that’s left. Eight hours. Usually, everyone would be asleep right now, but no one can sleep knowing that their opponents could be showing up anytime now. The tracker isn’t always 100% accurate you know.
Everyone was doing their own thing. Cole and Zane were working on getting the Bounty ready to move (just in case), Kai and Sora were working out kinks in her spinjitsu, and Lloyd and Arin have yet to return from their cave trip.
They were all starting to worry about those two, but there was so much on the plate right now it was hard to focus on just one thing. They all trusted those two to use the distress call if needed, and Zane kept his monitor on always waiting for them to check in.
Who else is left? Nya and Jay, who were in the sleeping quarters. Jay was supposed to be resting, since he didn’t sleep a wink the night prior, but obviously it wasn’t working out. So instead, the two decide to chat and reminisce. Sometimes ‘rest’ doesn’t always mean sleep.
“Yeah! And then you took the attention of the whole class, even though you were acting like you couldn’t dance!” Nya was laughing through her words as she told the story of Jay and her taking their first dance class.
“I didn’t know I could dance like that!” Jay laughed along with her, what can he say, her laugh is contagious. Whenever she’s smiling, he’s smiling too.
“It was pretty impressive, even if it did annoy me a little.” The water ninja looked back over at her yang, who was smiling, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. She could tell the stress was getting to him.
“Kai told me what you said.” Nya’s voice was flatter now, a lot more serious in comparison to the laughter that had only stopped a. few second prior. “I’m not going down without a fight, what did you mean by that, Jay.”
The brunette swears his heart stopped for a brief second; he didn’t really know how to respond to that, so he moved his gaze back down on the floor, feeling the bed shift under him from Nya’s weight being added to it.
“Listen, we are not going to let anything happen to you. We didn’t before, and we won’t now.” Nya grabbed his hand tight, forcing him to listen to her. “They aren’t going to take you and you are definitely not ‘going down’.”
Jay sighed deep; he knows. He had heard it a million times before, Cole said it a million times just that morning, it doesn’t change the feeling of impending doom looming in his head. “I just don’t know, Nya.”
“Well, I do, Jay.” How was she so confident all the time? How did he land himself with such a strong personality? They were almost opposites, he’s a little shy and high strung, she’s independent and ready for everything. Opposites attract, sure, but wow did he score.
“How are you always so sure? What if they do get me and I get wiped again and then they force me to fight you guys? What then? What are you going to do? I will be useless.” Jay stood up, pulling his hand back from her, “I would rather die than go through this again.”
“Don’t you ever say that.” Woah. There was force behind those words, angry force. “You will not leave me like that. IF it all goes to shit and IF they take you back, I WILL FIND YOU, but you do not get to act like this.”
She was standing up now, her face inches away from Jay’s. Her tone might of scared them, but the level of love spilling out at the same time pulled his heart in a painful way, “I’d never leave you, Nya.”
“Then why are you talking like that.” There it is again; they question of the day for Jay. “Why are you acting like everything is over, Jay. We have been training, preparing, you found your true potential, why are you being so…” Nya slammed her eyes shut. She never cries.
Jay whispered in his lower tone, “I’m scared, Nya.”
“Yeah well, I am too!” She threw herself into Jay, gripping him in a tight hug. The lightning element felt his legs give out a bit. Her voice dropped down, quivering with the tears building up in her throat, “I’m scared too, but we just have to do this scared. Okay? I will not lose you again.”
Jay was too tired to cry, tired of all these emotions he has. Was he this emotional before the realms merged, too? Everything was so new to him. Either way, he returned Nya’s strong grip, albeit not as strong as hers, but as tight as he could, “Okay.”
-
Three hours.
“Lloyd, Arin, everything alright. You two have been gone a while.” Cole had been pressing his in-ear call over and over the last few hours, waiting to hear back from the young master and his pupil.
“Why aren’t they responding? Are their trackers still working?” Kai had his arms crossed, leaning against the wall of the Bounty as he watched Zane and Sora type away on the computer.
“They have remained in the same location for most of the day, I can only assume they were alright because Lloyd has not triggered his emergency button.”
“OR he did, and it’s not working, and they are in trouble. They could be kidnapped! Or stuck in a tight place and dying of starvation.” Kai started to rush around, grabbing different items from around the room. “I’m going down there.”
“You can’t go down there, hothead, the Administrator is going to be here any minute!” Cole raised his arm, gesturing to the giant electrified water wall.
“And my little brother could be down there dead! What else am I supposed to do?!” Kai voice echoed through the walls; he was always quick to raise it when he was stressed. Some things don’t change with maturation. “We have three hours left; I can be back before then.”
“Arin and Lloyd have been down there for almost two days, and you expect to be there and back with them within the hour?! That’s impossible!”
“Then what do you suggest we do, Cole!” Kai was just about to rush down the stairs when he stopped and turned around. “Please, tell me what to do, rocks for brains!”
Cole’s eye twitched at Kai’s tone, it was taking everything in him not to blow up at Kai. The red ninja had been like this the whole time they’ve been at the cave. He’s stressed. Cole knows he’s stressed. However, the insults still get under his skin a bit.
He made sure to keep his composure calm before speaking, “We can deal with this fight first, and if those two still aren’t back, we can go after them.”
“What if we need to make an escape like last time?” The exhaustion in Kai’s face was vivid, “What then? Leave them here?”
Cole actually didn’t know what to say to that. He had no idea what the outcome of this fight could be. So he stood there, mouth open like he was going to say something, but nothing came out.
Kai scoffed, “Exactly. I’m going.” He pulled a bag over his shoulder and started down the stairs.
Cole moved his body to go after him, but Zane pulled his shoulder back and tilted his head toward the deck at Nya, who was already on her way to talk down her brother.
The earth ninja let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, bringing his hand up to Zane’s so he could ground himself with it. “I don’t know what to do, Zane.”
The white ninja cocked his head at the black one, “What do you mean?”
“I’m just nervous is all.” He gave him a small smile, watching Nya finally reach Kai. “We’ve all grown so much yet are still the same in so many ways.”
“We have. Personalities change in a lot of aspects, but your core will always be consistent. Especially when you are placed back where you grew up, you tend to fall back into old habits.” Zane smiled up at him, “but I quite like our old habits.”
Cole let out a breathy laugh, “Me too, snowflake.” Kai and Nya were still talking and walking, those two are so alike sometimes, but out of the corner of Cole’s eye he saw Jay on the deck. Mouth open.
It immediately caught his attention, shifting his gaze to the younger and bolting down to him quickly, “What’s going on?”
All Jay could do was point up, Cole tracking his eyes along with it. The line of sight trailed towards the top of the water wall, which was slowly turning black. Shadows crawling across the ceiling with it.
The chimes in Jay’s head were louder than ever, ringing like a gong above him.
“We’re out of time.”
Notes:
Next chapter will be a doozy. I am still bad at writing fight scenes, so I am going to give myself a week to post it! It will be up by May 12. Thanks for reading my story this far :)) I have enjoyed writing it
Chapter 19: An End or A New Beginning
Summary:
this one’s not the longest, but it was hard for me to write. sorry im a little late posting it. I hope everyone is okay with this ending :) I didn’t want to make it open ended
Chapter Text
Dread creeped up Jay’s spine as he watched the black shadows gradually grow across the ceiling, taking over the waterfall and turning the whole room darker. The electricity Jay had made circuit through the falls slowly flickered out, symbolic of how Jay felt right now.
Doomed.
“Well, guess we have to be ready now,” Cole looked towards his blue eyes, still fixated on the overcasting shadows. “You okay, Jay?”
Honestly, no, but he can’t say that right now. Instead, he picked up his brand-new spike flail from the side of the Bounty and nodded silently.
Nya and Kai were still talking, Jay waved his arms trying to get their attention. Luckily, Nya was facing towards the Bounty and noticed Jay shushing them while pointing up at the ceiling. The black was spreading quicker, it was only a matter of minutes before the waterfall was covered.
Nya grabbed Kai’s shoulders and whipped him around, “Stop talking.” Kai noticed the change in lighting immediately, slamming his mouth shut mid sentence.
Jay and Cole had made their ways off the Bounty, Zane and Sora taking their place on the main deck to catch up on what everyone was eyeballing.
They stayed quiet, each of the ninja flipping their hoods up, naturally shifting into a serious mode. It also made it easier to stay quiet by whispering into the earpieces rather than talk out-loud.
“Remember the plan.” Jay heard his speak in his ear, just barely audible over the thumping of his heart.
“And if it doesn’t work?” Jay’s voice was in a deeper pitch again, he couldn’t tell if the room was getting darker or if his vision was tunneling.
“Run, into the cave as far as you can. We can meet Lloyd there and figure it out after. The Bounty is fine here, won’t be the first time she’s had to be replaced.” The red ninja’s voice wavered slightly, the usual confidence lost. Realistically, they don’t know anything about the caves, how far they go, or if there is another entrance somewhere else. It might just push them deeper into being surrounded.
The thought of it sent flashes into Jay’s, being stuck in the closed off caves of Shintaro. Obviously, he doesn’t remember it with clarity, but the same feeling of dread was there. He’s mentally already accepted defeat, but that won’t stop him from putting up a fight. Fake it til you make it, however it goes.
Sora and Zane made their way to the floor, using the little time they had left to make final preparations. The cat-eared ninja threw a small disk towards the lightning elemental, “Almost forgot your friend!”
Jay caught it carefully, cupping the little thing in his hands as he chuckled a bit, “How could I?!”
“New friend? What is that? Did I get one?” Kai was listening in through the earpiece as he wielded his own Sora-made weapon from his back.
Jay laughed again at him, no one responded though. He pocketed the cyber dragon for now, deciding it’d be better to bring out the little guy later, when he needed him.
Drawing in a deep breath, he took another look around at all his friends, new, old, and both new and old. This last month had been the greatest in his life, even if he spent half of it in constant pain. Glancing around made another wave of feelings wash over him, just like in the cavern with Nya. He struggled not to tear up at it, at the people standing around him who never gave up on him. Still haven’t given up on him.
Then he finally understood what Nya was trying to say this whole time. What all of them were saying. He did belong here, with these people, this was his family. He’d never forgive them for this, for everything.
It was his turn to not give up.
Jay lifted his head, studying what used to be a waterfall, and was now a giant wall of black. It crept through the walls of the massive cave entrance, it almost looked like a hallucination. It radiated, giving everyone a sense of claustrophobia.
From the middle of the falls, a blob of black dripped down slowly, bubbling once it reached the floor. The ninja were tense, everyone staring at the puddle on the floor roughly 30 feet in front of them.
It started to rise off the floor, forming into the image of a person, before materializing completely. A sigh morphed into a laugh as the man as his head tilted back, stretching his hand out. “So scared you had to run and hide from me, Agent Walker?”
What was once dread in Jay’s mind had been completely replaced by rage. He felt the hair on his arms and neck stand up as charges circulated his system.
“You know I’d take good care of you? I always have. It’s a shame these ninjas have brainwashed you.” The Administrator took a small step forward, stopping when he saw the earth ninja tempt at a lunge in warning. “I’m just trying to help you know? How about you call off your dogs and let’s just talk?”
Jay’s eyes glowed a vibrant blue, “We’re way past talking, sir.” The end of his spike flail spun around on the ground behind him, the twirling motion feeling almost instinctual as sparks sent another warning.
“New tricks you’ve got? More control, that’s useful.” The older man spoke like he was making a business deal, nothing mattered to him. He had no emotional ties to anything, and you could tell from his posture alone he wasn’t here to bargain. He gets his way. The Realm of Madness being his home made a lot of sense. “It’d be a shame for those sparks of yours to just sit around, I’d love to see them put to good use.”
“Then why don’t you come take a look?” Jay scoffed, taking a step up behind Cole.
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t like getting my hands dirty.” The Admin raised his hand nonchalantly, looking at his nails. “This is your last chance, Walker. I will not leave this place without you, so I’d prefer we’d arrange something peacefully.”
Jay stopped his flail from swinging for a moment, genuinely considering the offer. Maybe he was better off with the sacrifice, but his thoughts were cut short by Kai stepping in to the confrontation. “There is no deal, Administrator.”
“I believe that’s not up to you, fireball. Is it?” The flames in Kai’s palms ignited in anger, but the older man just laughed.
“Never.” Electricity zapped off him, connecting to the invisible blade swirling behind him once more. “I’d rather die.”
The administrator clapped his hands together, “Very well then. I hope you don’t mind I’ve brought my companions along.” Purple eyes glowed from across the cavern as light started to shine through the black falls. He was parting the flow effortlessly, way easier than Nya had, and cocked his head, “We’ve all grown a bit stronger, haven’t we?”
Jay’s head whipped around as he heard a shout from behind. A figure had come from a shadow in the wall, grabbing Kai by the neck and pulling him down. The fire ninja struggled to get the grip off him, trying to burn into the arms of the shadow, but there wasn’t actually someone there to burn.
Jay heard a thud come from where the administrator stood, the stone was cracked from a large hammer hitting it, a big black cat right behind it. Stood behind them were more wolf warriors and elemental masters, a whole army of people coming through the falls.
These were all just measures to keep the other ninja busy, though. The admin wanted to deal with Jay himself.
There were sounds of water and flames behind him as Jay ran towards the shadow manipulator, sending his invisible spike flail flying at him. A sense of shock hitting him as he dissipated, going into the floor and traveling elsewhere.
Jay tried to look around for him, but took a gut punch from Cinder. He was able to wrap his blue hands around the smoke element, but the voltage did no good as he poofed into a cloud, heading back towards Kai.
A large hammer came down in front of Jay, a familiar one. Cole shoved him the side as the large cat started heading their direction, keeping the motion and swinging his body around the handle, launching into Ras’ chest.
A heave came from him, but the recovery was quicker than Cole could think, grabbing the black ninja’s foot and slamming him over onto his back. Cole’s arms glowed a bright orange as they stopped the large black and gold hammer hit his chest. “JAY BEHIND YOU!”
Jay didn’t even look or think, he acted completely on instinct, hands and eyes still pulsing with light as he landed a punch on the Administrator. Striking him in the eye, he launched himself up with his right foot, but was stopped by a hand. “Not so fast, Walker.”
A hand struck Jay in the nose, releasing his foot to rather take a knee to his chest, sending the blue ninja back into a wall, hard. “Come on, you can do better than that!” The Administrator’s cold smile sent a cold chill through Jay’s veins.
Luckily, the adrenaline pushed him off the wall quick, lunging right back into fighting. He started to rehearse the patterns he had learned over the past weeks. Kick, punch, swipe, drop. It wasn’t working, not like it should.
The Administrator managed to back Jay up to the wall again, pinning him with his arms. “You don’t think I know your tricks, who do you think trained all these warriors-“ He’s right, Jay’s being too predictable.
Suddenly, the faint voice of that old master wu sounded in his head. Spontaneity. Your spontaneous moves are what make you a Master, Jay. Embrace it. Be spontaneous.
Jay didn’t even listen to the rest of the Administrators threats and rambles, instead Jay took his (still recently concussed) forehead, the old man’s shoulders, and rammed right into him. Head-butting like a bull while simultaneously sending a dangerously high voltage from his hands.
The yelp he heard was satisfying, despite the tingles he could feel from the shock he just emitted. He kept pushing forwards as his opponent moved back, pulling an upper hand on him. He made sure to keep all his movements unpredictable, using the knowledge he had of fighting techniques to rather avoid using them.
Oddly enough, the spontaneous movements were actually more comfortable to him than anything he had learned recently. The motions to him weren’t even unpredictable, they were fluid, like he had been doing this his whole life.
Jay sent a series of similar moves, jumping, kicking, and spinning, before he realized there was an aura forming around him. You already know how to do spinjitsu. The familiar feeling finally added up in his brain as he launched off his right foot one more time, spinning into a huge tornado of electricity.
He could faintly hear shouts from his companions form inside the whirlwind, cheers of joy as he pulled the Administrator into his storm. Spinning him around and throwing him on the ground, the aura fading away to show Jay pinning him down on the stone floor. One fist bawling his shirt, the other raised above his face.
The lightning ninja was panting, staring down at the face of the man he hated with every bone in his body. He’d kill him if he didn’t have a conscious telling him not to, though it look likes he’s already destroyed him. His face was yellow and purple, inflamed, mouth hanging open not from breathing, but because he couldn’t shut it. Crooked nose showed where Jay had broken it, too.
The Master of Shadows was calm though, too calm. His breathing stayed steady, looking Jay cold and dead in the eyes. Jay was stepping on his right hand, but the left came up, pointing towards the back of the cave.
Jay kept his grip firm as he followed the weak hand to his lover. While all the other ninja were busy fighting everyone else, she was being dragged to the entrance of the deeper cave by several shadowy figures. She wasn’t even fighting it, she had passed out after a strangulation struggle.
Jay began to glow again as he realized what was happening, he couldn’t even see as he began to slam the head of gray hair onto the ground repeatedly. “LET HER GO!”
“Oh you—“ The admin spoke in between pounds, acting as if it barely affected him, “You like this one, don’t you?” Nya was slowly getting further away, threatening to pull her down to the depths of the cavern. Jay took his fisted hand and grabbed the disk in his pocket. Throwing it towards the water ninja in an attempt to help her from afar.
“Don’t do this. DON’T HURT HER.” Cole overheard Jay’s scream, glancing over towards Nya and running towards her before his brain even registered what was happening. The cyber dragon swooping down over him to help out.
Jay took his glowing hands and wrapped them around the Administrator’s neck. “I will not go through this again. LET HER GO.” He felt the man’s hand wrap around his wrists, struggling to get free of Jay again.
“You know what you have to do, Agent Walker.” His voiced was strained, but clear. Jay’s head pounded, looking back over at what was now Cole and Kai, struggling to fight and try to pull her out of the shadow’s grasp at the same time.
A blast of ice shot over his head, sealing Jay’s hands to the Administrators, “Do not agree to anything, Jay.” He spoke in between punches, still trying to fight off the wolf warriors around him.
“Why are you doing this?” Jay stomped down his foot harder on the only free hand either of them had, making sure they were pinned together. “This should be between you and me, why involve them?!”
There was a bubbling in the Administrator throat when he spoke, blood starting to flow down from his nose along with it. “You know why, Agent Walker.”
Cole and Kai weren’t making any progress, but Nya seemed to be stirring. It was clear she was still struggling, Jay’s heart shattered for the hundredth time. “It’s you, or her.”
“And what’s stopping me from killing you right here. You won’t have anymore control if you’re dead.” Jay spat in his face. His vision tunneling as the black suit in front of him laughed, audibly laughed.
“I believe you’re asking… the wrong person that question.” He looked towards the sky, erupting into a coughing fit halfway through the remark. He was right. Jay knew he was. But his morals flew clear out the window when it came to his yang.
He heard Nya scream from his left, Cole’s yelling coming up right behind it. Jay broke. “I’ll do it.”
The administrators' eyes widen with pride, “What? Sorry, my ears bleeding, I couldn’t hear you.”
Jay sparked his hands up a bit, melting the ice around them and letting up his stance on the hand under his foot. “I said I’ll do it!” He shouted it louder this time, for everyone to hear.
“WHAT?” He shot his head to the left again, seeing the shadows let go of Nya and Kai helping her stand. “JAY, NO!” Cole was shouting, running back towards the lightning element.
The pained laugh of the Administrator hurt Jay’s ears as he helped the older man stand up. He called off all his warriors, the room falling into silence when he stuck a hand out to Jay for him to shake on it.
“Jay, what are you doing?!” Kai was yelling now form across the room, his sister leaning heavily on his shoulder. Jay couldn’t bear to look at them, so he slammed his eyes shut and grabbed the man’s hand.
Their hands stayed firmly grasped to each other as the administrator clapped his hand onto Jay’s shoulder, “Finally you’ve come around! See that wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
“You have to let them go.” Jay’s voice was still pitched low, like it had been the whole time. He needed to be convincing.
“Of course. That was the deal, wasn’t it?” Jay didn’t like that infliction on the word was. Although, neither of them were being entirely truthful right now.
“JAY, PLEASE. DON’T.” His partner was finally conscious enough to register what was going on. “YOU CAN’T DO THIS.”
Jay hung his head towards the ground, ending the handshake. “I’m afraid he’s already made his decision, waterlily.”
“Don’t call me that, you crook.” Nya sneered, finding her own footing again and drawing up water from the surrounding stalagmites.
“Feisty one you got there, Walker. Surprised you’re able to handle it.” Jay kept his look of disgust to himself, simply keeping his head down, trying to feign submission. The shadow master made a grand gesture, “Well, time to wrap up. I got what I came for, ready to go?”
Jay nodded his head, side-eyeing his fellow ninja to see their faces of disbelief. “Yes, sir.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” A relieved sigh came from beside him. The Admin bringing his shadows back up towards the waterfall.
Jay took the moment his head was turned around to look his lover in the eye one more time, smiling a bit and winking before dropping his face quickly to help the Administrator take a step. “Well, I guess this is it then.” Jay had to hold in his smile, hearing Nya play along.
Kai gave her a look of pure disgust and confusion, but also realized what was happening by the nudge Nya put in his side. “You aren’t even going to give us a goodbye? Can I at least give my brother one more hug?”
“Lloyd, are you on the way back up?” Jay overheard the whisper in his earpiece, Zane had caught on to the plan, too. Jay was never going to actually leave them, he’s trying to hold off for Lloyd.
“We’re almost there, only a few minutes.” Jay knew his acting skills were already fantastic, but he was impressed by his current ability to keep his face composed.
“I suppose I can allow a few last words, even though it’s useless. He’s not going to remember it.” Jay’s lip snapped up for a quick second in anger, even pretending to join sides with the man who ruined his life was disgusting, but he also knew this man somewhat. He knew his levels of confidence were actually his weak point. It was too simple to simply make him think he’s won, especially since he doesn’t actually want to fight. He said it himself.
There was a similar airship to the Bounty on the other side of the waterfall. The thought of having to get on it made Jay’s stomach churn, he didn’t have time to process the flashback he got in that moment.
Ras and Cinder stayed on either side of the Administrator, facing the ninja as Jay ran back. He immediately went towards Nya, who returned his grasp, wrapping her hands around his head and pulling him in aggressively. “You’re a genius,” she kept her voice in a whisper.
“Are you alright?” he pulled back from her tight grasp, looking over her body for any exposed injuries. He couldn’t spot any open ones, so he affectionately rested his forehead on hers for a moment.
“I will be.” She squeezed his shoulders knowingly, “Lloyd’s seconds away. What are we doing when he gets here?”
Cole came up the stand behind Jay, semi-hiding him from Ras and Cinder’s gaze, “He’s loading his whole crew back on the ship, I say we get his guard down and have Lloyd sneak up behind him.” He talked quietly enough where only the ninja would hear.
“What kind of idiot is this guy? Seriously!” Kai laughed through his whispers, ogling at the confidence of this man.
“Let’s use it to our advantage. Lloyd and Arin are here, I will explain quickly.” Zane ran behind the wall the ninja had formed, blocking the view to the deeper part’s entrance.
“I think you’ve had enough time, Agent Walker!” He sang through his words, Nya could see the rage build in her lover’s face.
He turned around, walking slowly back towards the three power-drunk allies, dragging his feet best he could to take as long as possible. That didn’t last long though, as Cinder appeared behind him quickly, shoving him forward and forcing him to walk faster.
It all happened really quick after than, the falls were still parted when a green suited ninja came over the top of the Administrator. He was immediately wrapped into the spinjtsu tornado of the light energy elemental.
It caught him so off guard in fact, that the blackness over the waterfall dropped completely. All of the Ninja lunging quick, now only having to deal with three (already injured) opponents.
+
Jay sat down in front of the gnarly, beat up face of the man who started this whole journey for him in the first place. Resting his elbows on his knees, he gazed across the metal table he himself was sat at only a month ago.
It was satisfying, seeing the Administrator like this. Wearing the same vengestone vest that he forced Jay to wear for 5 years prior. “Still don’t want to talk, huh?”
The Administrator hadn’t said a single word since they captured him. Neither had Ras or Cinder, but they were sent of to the Max Security Prison. The ninja had kept the Administration solely for information, or else he’d be in there too right now.
Jay stood up, accepting the silence as his answer and walked out, watching him stew in his anger from the one way glass on the other side of the holding cell.
His head didn’t hurt anymore, neither did his ribs. Oddly enough, everything felt right. The pain the Administrator cause him will always linger, he will never be the same, he will never have the same fully-functioning brain as before, but he’s alright with that.
The hole in his heart is filled by his family. His life finally has purpose to it, and he will definitely remember this moment, even if nothing else really stick around.
He felt a presence standing next to him after a while, snapping him out of his zoned out state. An arm snaked its way around his waist, followed by the black hair resting on his shoulder.
“You did it, Jay. You’re okay, now.” The sense of relief Jay finally had made the pain of everything start to catch up with him. Not physically, but the pang in his heart. A few tears might’ve fallen. “You’re finally back.”
Notes:
I really enjoyed writing this fic, I hope you guys enjoyed it, too! This was my first time writing anything so I hope it didn’t suck that bad. There are some things I wish I did differently but I’m overall okay with how this turned out! I have a lot more ideas for future fics to write (not chapter fics) but maybe you will see me around again :3
Willing to do an aftermath chapter if anyone wants it! But no garuntee
Thank you again for all the support <33 it means a lot
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Last Edited Sun 19 May 2024 04:45AM UTC
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