(Hey y'all. As most of you have undoubtedly noticed, we've had a bit of a hiatus thing going on recently. Sorry about that 😅 It was most definitely NOT planned. So, I recently had some sickness/health problem stuff come up, and I had to pop by the hospital and all that jazz, (it's nothing life-threatening or anything, so don't worry) and I'm doing much better now, but all that time spent in bed, on meds, I lost a lot of time for my animation commission work that I've been doing recently. So the past few weeks, I've basically just been trying to catch up on work while also juggling life stuff, cause, SPOILER, one of my bros just got engaged! 💍 So now there's a lot of wedding planning stuff happening around here, and I'm just trying to keep up. Mentally and physically. Lol. So, that's all from me. Hopefully, going forward, I'll be able to keep up my weekly schedule—I really want to, cause I have so many ideas for this story and future stories, and you guys really seem to like them so far, and I don't wanna leave you guys hanging like this again if I can help it. Hope you guys are having an awesome day! Love you all! ❤️)
Nya paced the length of the ship for the seventieth time, still waiting for the boys to return. She was holding out hope that her suspicions about Jay simply going out on a walk were correct, but if they didn't come back soon, there were no stories she could imagine that ended well for any of them.
"What's going on?" Ann asked, coughing up the stairs. Her nose was noticeably stuffy this morning.
"Ann! You're supposed to be in bed," said Nya, coming over and glaring down at her. Ann glared back.
"Where are the boys?"
"They went looking for Jay, but they'll be back soon. Seriously, you need to lay down." Nya moved to gently grab her arm, but Ann backed away, taking a step down the stairs.
"I'm fine. The boys might not be. I need to go check on them."
Nya gaped. "Like this? While you're sick?"
"I said, I'm fi—ah—ah—ACHOO!" The force of that sneeze was more than enough to disrupt her unstable footing. She slipped and would have fallen down the stairs, were in not for one outstretched hand.
"ANN!" Nya shrieked, worried out of her mind for a brief second that Ann just might hit her head or break her back or worse. Thankfully, Nya had done the right thing by reaching out. Ann grabbed a hold of her wrist, pulling her down a step, but only until Nya latched on to the railing with her free hand. Nya felt her chest rise and fall with a small kick of adrenaline as she watched Ann dangle there, halfway down the stairs.
"Maybe you're right," Ann said with a cough.
"What?"
Ann pulled herself together, letting go of Nya and leaning against the nearest wall. "I said... you're right."
"I'm right?" Nya repeated, her eyebrows shooting up. "How do those words taste coming out of your mouth?"
"Don't make me hurt you," said Ann as she slowly glared in her direction. Nya made a face but kept the rest of her thoughts to herself. "I'll go back to bed... but that means you've got to keep lookout. You stay silent, you stay vigilant. You don't leave this boat, and you tell me the second you see anything—and I mean anything. Understood?"
Nya sighed, hating the way she felt like a soldier. "Understood," she answered.
Right about now would usually be when Ann would start to head back to the barracks, but for a little while, she didn't move. Instead, she studied her hand. The one that had reached out for Nya's.
"You're stronger than you look," she said quietly. Then she walked away, until the sound of her coughing was muffled by the wooden walls.
What had she meant by that? Like, physically stronger? Or was she just trying to be motivational? Either way, any compliment from Ann was definitely something to take note of.
Just then she remembered what she was meant to be doing and resumed her pacing on the deck, scanning the shoreline and dreading what she might find out there.
* * *
"Everything alright?" Keaton asked as Ann came back and collapsed into her hammock.
"The boys are out there looking for Jay. Probably ran off again," she groaned, rubbing her temples.
"Do you think they're okay? You don't think they need backup?"
"What good would we be?" Ann said, coughing a few more times.
Keaton pulled her blanket closer to her shoulders as she thought about the last time all the boys had disappeared out of the blue. They'd been badly injured, and had nearly exposed their secret identities.
"Hey," said Ann, rolling over to face her. "I'm sure they'll be fine."
"But you always say that without backup—"
"I know... I know. But these are the guys we're talking about. The fact that they haven't already gotten themselves killed proves just how insanely lucky they are."
Keaton smiled. "I thought you didn't believe in luck."
"Well, these idiots changed my mind," Ann half-smiled back.
The two of them laid there, listening to the sound of water lapping up against the ship outside, with the occasional splash from a jumping fish. Still no sound of footsteps or voices though.
"Hey," said Ann gently. "You remember that old song we used to sing? Whenever one of us was feeling down?"
Keaton scrunched up her face and thought for a moment. "How did it start again?"
Ann cleared her throat. "Daisy, daisy, blooming in the meadow..."
"Why do you droop so low?" Keaton smiled. "Bumblebee, bumblebee, buzzing in the honey comb—"
"Why are you all alone? There's a daisy for you—"
"—and a bee for me—"
"—waiting in the big meadow."
* * *
Jay groaned as he propped himself up, feeling a massive bruise forming on his whole left side. He grabbed hold of the nearest tree branch, but it snapped the second he tried to put any weight on it. Stupid dead tree. Why did it have to fall over in the first place?
"Don't move!"
Jay looked up. His eyes had to adjust for a moment, but they eventually focused on the tip of an automatic crossbow pointed at his nose.
"Put your hands over your head!" The police officer barked. There were others joining him now, at least a dozen, completely surrounding the fallen tree, and more importantly, the boys.
"Not this again," Kai grumbled nearby, adjusting his mask.
"I said put your hands over your heads, Wasabi Brothers!"
The boys all glanced at each other as they slowly complied with the officers' orders. They were all thinking the same thing, but none of them dared to say it out loud.
"Move!" Said one of the cops, and the group started marching out of the meadow. Jay would give anything to be telepathic right about now, but the best he could do was play along.
The cops took them to an old dirt road where several cars had been parked. One in particular was some sort of armoured transport van. The boys were stuffed inside, chained to the metal seats, and the door was locked behind them. A little while later, the engine turned on and they were moving.
"Well... that was unexpected," said Jay, glancing at the slivers of light coming through the tiny windows.
Kai bristled next to him. "Oh, give it a rest, would you? This is all your fault. If you hadn't wandered off, none of this would've happened."
"Again, how was I supposed to know that the police would be out here!?" Jay cried.
"You could have at least stayed on the ship!" Said Cole, looking almost as angry as Kai. "What were you even doing?"
Jay felt his jaw hang as he breathed in icy air, then he swallowed and looked away. He couldn't tell them. It barely made sense to him. There was no way to explain it, not even if he tried.
"Fine. Go ahead and sulk. Meanwhile, we've gotta figure out how to get out of here," Cole went on, looking around and testing the strength of the chains around his wrists.
"Might I suggest simply using our powers?" Zane offered.
"Yeah, and then what? Run back to the ship on foot? Worst case scenario, they catch us before we make it a mile. Worst-worst case scenario, they track us back to the ship and we all get caught." Cole silently cursed as the reality of the situation started to sink in. "We just need to play along for now and wait for a good time to slip away."
"And what if that time never comes and we end up behind bars?" Kai asked, tugging at his cuffs.
"I'm sure an appropriate opportunity will present itself. We just need to adhere to our training," said Zane.
"Seriously, what are you, a thesaurus?" Kai quipped, looking the ice ninja up and down. "Who talks like that?"
There might have been one or two other things said after that, but Jay wasn't really listening. Why would he be? Why should he be part of the conversation after, apparently, making the biggest blunder of the century. Again. He was always doing stuff like this, it felt like. Causing trouble for the team.
Somewhere deep inside, he felt something twitch. Something primal. It made his skin itch and his body restless. He didn't want to be here anymore.
'No,' he said to himself. 'These are my friends. This is where I'm supposed to be.' He knew it was true, he really did, but... there was this little, tiny, nagging feeling in the back of his head. Like that was all about to change.
The van stopped and he shook his head.
The cops popped open the back and held the boys at gun point as they crossed the parking lot of the Ninjago City police department. All around them, the iconic skyscrapers loomed, and the all-too-familiar sounds of sirens and screeching tires and car horns filled the air.
"Oh no," Jay breathed.
"Can I do it now?" Kai asked impatiently.
"Shut up!" Cole hissed.
The police department was very different from the IBI's headquarters, but it was no less inhospitable. Albeit in its own unique, slightly dilapidated way.
They took the boys to the back, where all hardcore criminals were being processed. There gang members, lunatics, guys that looked like they wanted to stab something, and just an overall air of sunshine and daisies in this section of the building.
On the way to their holding cell, Jay spotted a wall full of wanted posters, and dead smack in the center were his, Kai's, Keaton's, Zane's, and Nya's faces. Just off to the side, however, was a group mug shot of four criminals wearing black masks, just similar enough to the boys'. Written underneath the picture, in bold ink, was,
WASABI BROTHERS
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS
WANTED FOR ARMED ROBBERY, PUBLIC INDECENCY, LOITERING, AND ASSAULTING POLICE WITH ASSORTED VEGETABLES
Jay didn't really know what to make of it.
The holding cell was nice enough. It was clean, it wasn't too small, and they only had to share it with one other person; some old guy in a trench coat that looked like it probably hadn't been washed in a hundred years.
The officers locked the door and then left to start filling out the paperwork.
"How about now? Can I use my fire now?" Kai asked again.
"No! What are you, nuts?" Cole rolled his eyes and walked over to one of the corners of the cell. "I want you to repeat after me. Low. Profile. Got it?"
Kai was not amused.
Cole then turned around and started inspecting the wall. It only took Jay a second to figure out what he was doing. It was the same trick he'd tried to use back at the Caves of Despair, when he'd attempted to map out the cave tunnels below them. Only, he was still so untrained that it hadn't really worked. Now, though, he seemed to be getting the hang of it.
"Come on," he said, turning back toward them. "Before the guards come back." With one solid motion, he kicked a hole in the wall big enough for all of them to fit through. It led down into the foundation of the building, and Cole was quick to seal it up behind them.
"Alright, fire time—"
"Kai! Stop!" Cole yelled, reaching out Kai in the dark. "Use your head! We're in a small space with limited oxygen!" After a few seconds of silence, he added, "Fire eats oxygen! Just wait until I get us into the sewers, alright?"
Cole expanded the tunnel further, breaking through layer after layer of concrete and soil, until they reached the damp, odorous sewer system. This time, Kai didn't even bother announcing his intentions. The tunnel was suddenly just lit with warm fire light.
"Alright, Mole, which way," Kai said in a distinct, icy way.
With his arm tracing the wall and his body having to practically double over in the small space, Cole led them forward. Occasionally he would stop and place both hands on the wall, right before he had them change direction again.
Meanwhile, Jay was feeling that all-too-familiar swell of pain in his arm. Only this time, it didn't stop at just his arm. As though the pain had latched onto his tendons, he felt it shooting up into his torso and down into his fingers. Almost as if the wound was attacking him from the inside. It made his breath feel shaky and his feet clumsy as he ran. And then there was that twitch deep within his stomach. It liked the dark and the damp and the tunnels. Not so much the cold, but definitely everything else.
Then he bumped into Kai in front of him. They'd stopped.
"What's wrong?" He asked, peaking over Kai's shoulder.
Cole had both hands on the wall, looking deep in thought. "Guys," he said, "We're right underneath the Ninjago City Museum."
"No way," Kai said, looking up.
"I don't think that's such a good idea," Zane piped up from the back of the group. "Stealing a display item during the middle of the day?"
Cole nodded slightly. "You're right. But... I can still check out the area, like I said I was going to last night. You guys wait here." He opened up another tunnel disappeared through it, leaving the others behind before they could so much groan.
"Great. Now we gotta spend even more time down here in all this garbage," said Kai, kicking up some of the water at their feet which Jay was fine not knowing where it had been.
"Cole's plan is logical," Zane told him. "As long as we're here, we might as well take advantage of the situation."
Jay wasn't really listening again. He could've sworn he heard something moving further down the tunnel. Something small, with scurrying feet. He got this sudden feeling that he needed to get low and carefully creep toward it. What was it? It couldn't be a person, so maybe a mouse? A rat? Why did he feel so hungry all of a sudden?
"Jay."
A hand was on his shoulder and he looked up, confused.
"What are you doing?" Zane asked.
This time, he only let his mouth hang for a second before he straightened up and said, "Nothing. Thought I heard something."
"Like what?" Kai asked, already tensing up.
"Nothing, like I said. Probably just some sewer rats." Jay turned away from them and stared off into the dark. It was nothing, it really was. He really had heard something, but it was probably nothing. It didn't matter. He was fine. Completely normal.
* * *
Nya paced back and forth on the ship, still watching the lifeless shoreline like a hawk. It was midday now, and still no sign of the boys, or anyone else for that matter. Honestly, she'd be bored out of her mind right now if the dread of what might have happened to the others wasn't constantly on her mind. Not to mention what might happen to her. The mere thought of being ambushed by the Serpentine right now, while she was virtually all alone and her only defence was below deck, sick, was eating away at her as though it was a coyote and she was a chocolate cake.
She did her best to walk quietly, the way Wu had taught the others, and she did her best to have her eyes and ears open, but she knew that she lacked finesse. Ann made it look so easy. Too easy.
That night outside Greta Junction popped into her head for just a moment and she flinched. She stopped her pacing and took a long, slow breath. How did they others do it? Let alone Ann and Keaton. How did they have the stomach to go out there, into a world full of monsters, and fight, knowing what they might see? What they might do. She had been glad to find out that the others had been having nightmares as well, because for a long time she thought she was the only one. Some of the first things to ever really haunt her had been her time at the concentration camp while she had been captured by the Skulkens, and the second had been witnessing her brother get stabbed by Lord Garmadon.
She still remembered the feel of the chains they had clamped over her wrists—the smell of over a hundred dirty people, crammed into one small space where they weren't aloud to bath or even have an open window—the food substitute they passed around that looked like an attempt at clam chowder—and of course, the sting of the whips the Skulkens loved to crack. It made her shudder just to think about.
As she turned on her heel to resume her pacing, she saw a shadow out of the corner of her eye, and for a heart stopping second, she thought she wasn't alone—maybe about to be attacked by a Skulken or a Serpentine—but she put her hand to her chest and breathed out hard when she realised that it was just the shadow being cast by the mast. She tried to chuckle about how silly it was, but for brief second, she really had genuinely believed that somebody was there.
The time they had spent in Brookeside was probably the nicest, most relaxing—well, mostly relaxing—point in her entire life. Why couldn't they have stayed longer? Well, she knew why, and she wasn't about to push for niceties while there was clearly family drama going on, but still, why couldn't things have played out differently? Why couldn't nice things last just a little bit longer? Nice things like barbecues, and school recitals, and picnics, and spa days, and going out to restaurants, and... spending time with family.
She hadn't really been thinking about it... she'd been trying not to... but the more time they spent separated... the more she found herself missing her parents. It had been traumatic, of course, the day they'd been taken... and she and Kai had lived in fear that things would continue to get worse... but Kai was the only reason she'd been able to get through it back then. He had been so sure that he could work off their debt, and so sure that he could make things right, that it helped tremendously to put her at ease. Looking back, she wondered how confident he'd really been and how much of it had been an act to help reassure her, but nonetheless, she got through it. Then when they'd joined Wu, they were in a stable place again, and Kai kept promising that they'd find their parents soon, and it was that hope, thin as it seemed at times, that was pulling her through now. But... the more time wore on... the longer they went... with still no word or sign of their parents... a dark fear had begun to creep in around her, and more and more she found herself unable to not miss them any longer.
What would they even say about all this "ninja" stuff anyway? She imagined her mom would have more than a few opinions about it. Her dad... well, it was tougher to say, but she guessed he'd have similar thoughts.
Would they go home as soon as they were reunited? Would Kai stay behind to train more? He'd made that stupid vow of the ninja, and now things were complicated. Okay, more complicated than they already were. At the end of the day, the simplest thought on her mind was just, "I wish none of this had ever happened in the first place."
Her eyes scanned the forest all around her again, beyond the inlet waters, and she sighed.
* * *
The sewer grate jiggled and clanked about as it made way for Cole.
"How'd it go?" Kai asked immediately, stepping forward and crossing his arms.
"Well, I wasn't arrested, so that's a good sign," Cole replied. "Of course, it also helps that I'm not walking around with a ski mask on."
"Or a ninja mask," Zane added.
"But I assume you meant the museum," said Cole, dusting his hands.
"No, I meant your date with Lord Garmadon," Kai replied, in an oh-so-sarcastic way.
Cole rolled his eyes. "The Blade Cup is up there, in the East Wing. They've got security cameras covering basically every inch of the place, as expected, and security guards at every entrance and exit. They've also got security gates in just as many places. Then there's the laser tripwires, but I think I found all of them, so avoiding 'em shouldn't be a problem."
"And what about the Cup specifically?" Zane asked.
"In a glass case. And I've got a feeling that tampering with it will probably set off the alarms." Cole leaned against a wall as his thoughts plunged deeper. "I can't think of any way around it. Short of pulling a Kai and ramming straight through it."
"Hey!"
"Surely there's a way to disarm the security system?" Zane put in, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"How about we ram Kai through it?" Cole suggested.
"I'm noticing a lot hostility in this conversation," said Kai, eyeing Cole.
"Hey, I'm just spitballing here. Alternatively, we could also throw Jay at the security system. Hey... where is he, anyway?"
Everyone swivelled in place, but even after Kai strengthened his fire, the lightning ninja was nowhere to be seen.
"Jay?" Kai called. "So help me, if he ran off again, I'm gonna—"
"What?" Jay said from behind him, causing Kai to jump ever so slightly. "What is it?"
"Jay, there you are," said Cole. "Are... you okay? You seem a little..."
"I feel fine," Jay assured them, ignoring the way he was swaying slightly and sweating. As a matter of fact, he was not feeling fine. His wounded arm was throbbing with pain—pain that had snaked its way up his shoulder, into his chest, and had started down his legs and other arm. The itchiness he'd been feeling had also begun to spread, and it was taking every ounce of strength he had to keep from rubbing himself against the wall like some sort of animal trying to chase away fleas. What's more, he was feeling unusually hot and a bit dizzy, and he was sure that his skin probably looked clammy. But he wasn't about to complain or slow down the other guys. He was tough enough to fight the Serpentine, he was tough enough to fight this. He'd be fine so long as he could weather it. It couldn't be long now before things got better, he was sure of it.
"Are you sure?" Kai asked, looking him up and down.
"Yeah. It's just a bit stuffy in here," Jay lied. "I could take a crack at the security system, though. It shouldn't be impossible for me to find a way to turn it off."
"Without tripping the alarm?" Cole added, emphasising the word "without."
"Give me a little credit here. Am I, or am I not the guy who invented jetpacks-s-s—" Jay covered his mouth and turned away suddenly, feeling the inside of his mouth with his tongue. He hadn't noticed until that moment when the tip of his forked tongue had made something of a hissing sound.
"Jay?" Cole asked, coming a bit closer.
Jay coughed loudly and said, "I'm fine, I'm fine, just, uhh... playing around, that's all. Come on. We've got a Blade Cup to s-steal, don't we?"
"Well, that's another thing," Cole went on, still eyeing Jay. "We should wait until night so that we're not carrying off a giant trophy in broad daylight."
"So what? Just walk back to the ship and wait?" Kai asked, sounding unenthused.
"But we don't even know the way back, do we?" Zane pointed out.
"Come on, there are worse things than sitting in a sewer for a few hours," said Cole.
Jay felt like his sweating was getting worse by the minute. His tongue was still moving around, feeling how the tip had split into two ends, and his throat was growing tight at the mere thought of it. He had no idea what was happening, or what was going to happen next, but he had a feeling that whatever it was, he wouldn't want it to happen in front of all the guys in this little sewer space.
"I mean, we might be able to find our way back," said Jay, still just barely holding back his hand from scratching all up and down his arm.
"Yeah, and then what? Wait there for a few hours, then walk all the way back? The only thing we'd really be doing is letting the girls know that we're fine, and that can wait until after we get the trophy." Cole folded his arms and leaned back against the wall.
"We're seriously just gonna sit here all day?" Kai asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Tic tac toe, anyone?" Said Zane.
* * *
Nya put the last spoonful of cold beans into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. It was afternoon now—she wasn't entirely sure of the hour, but it had to be at least two o'clock, maybe even later. The boys still had not returned.
She bounced her leg once or twice as she set her can down and looked around at the forest again. She hadn't seen anything moving out there all day, not even a wild animal. There were a few times she thought that maybe there was something moving in the water, but it was never anything more than a fish or her own reflection.
She looked back down at the can and puckered her lips as she thought about how Ann probably wouldn't want her to leave her trash laying around like that. Begrudgingly, she scooped it up and went below deck to dispose of it in their designated trash bag. As she was tossing the can away, though, she heard a rather loud cough from the barracks.
"Ann? Keaton? You okay?" She asked, walking in. Ann groaned and rolled over. Keaton was asleep. Nya moved over to them and with every step they seemed to look worse. They were sweaty, pale, and huddled under their blankets. When she went feel their temperature, they were positively boiling. And sweaty. Very sweaty. "You guys need medicine," she groaned, wishing they'd thought to get something while they were in Brookeside. All of their first aid supplies were made up of useless things like disinfectant and gauze.
She pushed a hand through her short hair and started pacing. She couldn't leave, Ann told her to keep watch, but she also couldn't just let them sit there. If their fevers got any worse, they'd need to be taken to a hospital, and she didn't have a clue how she would manage to do that. On the other hand, what if the boys came back soon? If she could just wait, and maybe they could arrive, then they could handle the situation. But what if they didn't come back soon? What if she did nothing and they got worse?
"N-ya," Ann croaked, looking up at her between strands of greasy, sweaty hair. "Medicine."
"Bu-but what about guarding the ship? What if the—"
"Please," said Ann, reaching out and grabbing her wrist. "Just do it. Before—" she coughed a few times, "—before the sun goes down."
Nya looked out the window at the ominous forest, then back down at Ann. She was trusting her with this. If she didn't at least try, then... then what was the point of her even being here? She may not be a ninja... but she could still make herself useful.
"Okay," she nodded, clenching her jaw. "I'll head into town and be back as soon as I can! Just hang in there!"
She grabbed her jacket, Ann's money pouch (or what was left of it), placed Kai's beanie firmly over her head, and was about to head out the door when Ann called out to her,
"Take a weapon with you."
Nya looked down at Zane's collection of throwing knives and hesitantly walked over to them. Perhaps one knife wouldn't be a bad idea? However, as her fingers curled around its handle, she felt a sickening feeling rise in her stomach, and her mind instantly thought back to Greta Junction. The knife fell back to the floor with a quiet THUNK.
She had to steady her breathing, but as she stared down at the small thing, laying lifeless in front of her, she reminded herself of what might be lurking out there in the world. Without a weapon, she was nothing to them. Easy prey. She needed to bring something with her. It was non-negotiable.
Slowly, she reached back down and firmly grasped the knife. Placing it along her belt, her jaw still clenched, she felt its weight pulling on her. But this was what was necessary.
Finally, she crossed the threshold of ship to land, and started running down the path the boys would have taken into the forest. Her legs took a moment to readjust, feeling like they were made of water for a time, but the constant thumping of her feet against the soil quickly reminded them that they were no longer afloat on a boat.
Cole had said that there was a town nearby, so that was where she was headed, until, however, she heard the sound of footsteps and voices and gradually slowed to a stop. She felt the dagger at her hip and tip toed closer to where she thought it was coming from, trying to keep her heart rate from spiking. She then peered over a bush to see police officers looking over a taped off area. Great.
'Please let this have nothing to do with the boys,' she thought.
Well, there was nothing she could do about this, so she immediately started backtracking until she felt that she was at a safe enough distance, then began the long, nuisance of a journey around the taped off site.
After what felt like an eternity of running through bushes with spiders webs and other insects in them, clambering over logs, scraping her hands along the rough bark, and trying not to trip over stones, she all of a sudden found herself standing on an old road that cut straight through the forest. She looked it up and down, unable to see where it led, but then took off in the direction that the town should be, careful to stay within the shelter of the trees and out of sight.
Glancing up at the sun, she estimated that she had roughly four, maybe five hours of sunlight left, and she had no idea how far she still had left to go, but she never let up her running, even when her lungs started to ache. Ann and Keaton were counting on her. And she really did not want to be out here alone once it was dark.
A lot of time seemed to be passing while she was out running by the side of the road. Too much time. She was sure that the town had be closer than this, but soon, she realised she might never come across it. Off in the distance, just above the trees, she was starting to make out the harsh silhouette of skyscrapers, which could only mean one thing: this whole time, she'd been running toward Ninjago City. She wanted to curse, but she was too out of breath. All this time and she was probably nowhere near the small town! Taking a break and letting her body rest, she contemplated what to do.
She could turn around and try to find the town. Maybe it was down one of those turnoffs she ignored. But then again, what if she never found it? What if she just got lost? Ninjago City was right there and the road back to her friends was a straight line... as much as she knew it would be risky, it seemed like she had little choice. If she was lucky, perhaps she'd find a small shop on the outskirts of the city.
With another deep breath, she started running again, toward the unknown. And hopefully, a drugstore.
* * *
Jay and the others sat, cold and uncomfortable, on the concrete floor of the Ninjago City sewer system, doing their best to pass the time.
"But how would we even know?" Kai was saying. "Is it like, a birthmark? Some sort of sign? What?"
"Well—and this is just a theory, but—the prophecy did say that he will rise above the other ninja and have great power, right?"
"It meant power-power, not muscle-power," Kai retorted.
"How do you know?" Said Cole. "It could."
"Yeah, but the dream Zane had doesn't quite fit that description, now does it?"
"If I may interject here," said Zane. "If the prophecy truly was speaking of power, then I believe that—"
"That it means you?" Kai interjected.
"No offence intended, but my powers have always been stronger than the rest of yours."
"Ah, come on!"
They bickered about it some more, never really coming to a solid conclusion in the end. Sometimes, Jay wished they'd never found that old prophecy in the first place. It was hard to feel competitive when your whole body felt like paper-mâché being crumpled and straightened over and over again.
Over the course of the day, he still had not let on to the others the pain he was in. It wasn't as though it was entirely awful. There were moments when the pain died down... but then there were other moments when it swelled. Those were the hardest to keep under wraps. Still, if the other guys did know that something was wrong with him, they made no sign of showing it.
"What time is it?" Jay asked, trying not to feel the fork in his tongue.
Cole looked up at the manhole cover and squinted at the little holes in it. "Getting late. The museum should be closed soon."
Well that was a relief. The faster they got out of here, the better. He wasn't sure for how much longer he could hold himself together. Not that he wasn't strong enough to hold himself together, of course he was, he just... umm...
"You've been pretty quiet," Cole mentioned casually.
"Oh, uh, just tired," Jay mumbled.
The earth ninja sighed as he looked at him again. "I'm sorry for being so harsh with you earlier."
"...It's alright," said Jay. Though, in truth, it still didn't feel alright. The words he and Kai had so recklessly let loose still stung every time Jay thought about them. Even with the apology, there was no getting around the feeling that he was dead weight to the team. Or, at the very least, he got in the way and made mistakes.
The pain started to swell again and he gritted his teeth.
Jay tried to turn back to the conversation—tried to just shake off the burning sensation in his veins—but he was doing a poor job of it. The itchiness had spread to just about every inch of his skin, his tongue was becoming thinner, and the fork more pronounced. When he felt his teeth, he could have sworn that his canines felt longer and sharper, and sitting down had become weirdly painful for his tailbone.
Finally, it was just too much to handle, and he quickly excused himself from the group. Without making a sound, for he knew that the others would hear him through the echoey tunnels, he went into a nearby dark place where he could be in pain in peace. As it would turn out, this was a very fortuitous moment to be alone. All of that itchiness in his skin had suddenly begun to give way to what at first felt like bumpiness. Then, when he felt his face, it was cool and covered in small, hard... things. Without light and a mirror, he'd never be able to identity what they were, but they were defiantly not normal.
What was happening to him?
Keeping his jaw clamped shut, another wave of pain hit, causing his whole body to tense. When would it be over? Why couldn't the cut in his arm have been normal? Why did—
The cut in his arm... how had he gotten it? It was back at Greta Junction, during the fight. He'd been attacked by a group of Serpentine—they were grabbing at him and pulling him down—he'd tried to escape and yanked his arm away from one of them, thinking that he'd simply slip out of their grasp, and that's when the pain hit. As thought something sharp had been dragged through his forearm. Sharp like... like a fang. Like a Serpentine fang.
He lifted his head in horror as everything started to connect.
It was a Fangpyre fang.
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