Chapter Text
He couldn’t move. Everything was still. His body, his… no, not his mind. He could still think, but the thoughts were slow, struggling to form. The only thing that broke the never-ending stillness was the mountain around him, crashing, breaking, and towering up all over again.
He was afraid, distantly, that the rocks would fall on him. But no matter how high they towered, how far they fell, nothing ever came close to him. It was like there was a sphere around him, protecting him, keeping the raging mountain away. He didn’t understand.
How long had he been here? He couldn’t remember. Couldn’t remember anything but the roaring and crashing mountain around him. The harder he tried, the more fuzzy things became, as if there was something blocking him.
Eventually, he stopped trying. What was the point? What was there, beyond the mountain? Beyond the Earth that called beneath his feet?
Nothing. There was nothing.
…
He almost didn’t hear the footsteps.
-
It had only been a few days since Cole and the others lost control of their elements. Since then, they’d been taking it easy, recovering both physically and mentally from the experience. Mostly hanging out together in the game room, playing games or collapsing in a pile in front of the couch. Well, almost everyone did the latter. Notably, Jay had been avoiding getting too close to the others. Cole was concerned about him, but he didn’t know what he could say to help.
Wu, before he had vanished into the library, had told them all what he had seen, how their elements had manifested as they spiralled out of control. Considering Jay’s weakness to his own element, it was probably safe to say he had it the worst out of everyone. Yet still, Cole had no idea exactly what could be bothering him that he would go so far as to avoid contact completely. Jay was a touchy person. Him suddenly being the exact opposite was cause for immediate concern.
Speaking of… Cole had a lot of thoughts of the incident itself. They had no idea what had caused it, no answers as to why their elements spiralled so suddenly, so violently out of control. All they could do was comfort each other and hope that whatever happened wouldn’t happen again.
The experience itself… Cole had no idea how it affected the others, exactly, but from how they acted, he apparently got off lucky. Whatever had affected their powers seemed to get worse over time, and since Cole was the first found… He was glad he’d decided to stick to the mountains surrounding the monastery for his patrol, before everything started.
Thinking back to the time he was lost to his element was hard, the memories wrapped in a confused haze. The most he could really remember was the sound of the mountain crumbling and breaking around him and a strange, steady hum coming from below. He could remember being scared of it, at first, but now, remembering it, he felt… oddly comforted.
The other thing he could remember was how he couldn’t move, no matter how hard he tried.
Which brought him back to the present.
Cole stared at the hallway in front of him, it being the only thing he could do. He had wanted to go to the courtyard for a while and get some fresh air, as he hadn’t left the monastery in days. His body, however, had other ideas.
In a mockery of his original predicament, his body had entirely frozen up, unresponsive to anything he tried. Not even his fingers twitched. He couldn’t even move his eyes, burning from having gone quite some time without blinking.
He wished he could glare at the hallway, honestly. Current bane of his existence.
This wasn’t the first time Cole got stuck like this, but it was the first time it had gotten this bad. It was also the first time the others weren’t around when it happened, so he was completely and utterly alone. Just like before. At least this time there was no mountain screaming at him.
It didn’t make it better, the cold silence of the monastery’s halls were honestly worse, but Cole wasn’t going to think about it anymore. He didn’t have much else to think about, but he was sure he could find something. Hopefully.
…No, didn’t seem to be working. He kept picturing the mountain, and that wasn’t good at all. Not even cake was saving him, and what a tragedy that was.
Cole’s struggles came to an end as soon as he heard footsteps, and he had to wonder about the similarities of then and now as Lloyd appeared from the other end of the hallway. He pointed at Cole and then jogged over, stopping in front of him and staring up at his face consideringly.
“Dude,” Lloyd said, “You went to get ‘fresh air’ like, an hour ago. I went to check on you but you weren’t in the courtyard.” He squinted at Cole, “Have you been here the entire time?”
Cole couldn’t exactly talk, but he managed to exhale in the perfect way to make it just slightly audible. He’d lost his concept of time somewhere along the way, but an hour sounded about right.
Lloyd squinted harder, then sighed. “Rough, huh? I gotcha, man.” He stepped closer and grabbed his arm, carefully holding it out in front of him. Cole was pretty sure he felt his bones creak, which probably wasn’t a good sign. The way Lloyd stared at his arm for a moment meant it was most likely audible, too.
“...Well anyway,” Lloyd continued, deciding to ignore it, “You’re gonna have to work with me here, but just try to… uh… you’ll figure it out.”
Cole tried to grunt in affirmation, but could only exhale with intent. Lloyd patted his arm, then stretched out his hand so his fingers were splayed out. Cole was briefly amused by how tiny Lloyd’s hands looked compared to his.
He continued to watch as Lloyd took his fingers and one by one curled them into a fist, stretching them back out again once he was done. This went on for about a minute, Cole confused the entire time, until he realized that he was starting to regain feeling in his hand. He tried to move it, testing his theory, but his fingers barely twitched.
Lloyd beamed up at him anyway, “That’s it, you’re getting it! Just keep trying to focus on moving, but start small.” He let go of Cole’s fingers, instead supporting his hand with his own. “Focus on just one of your fingers, try to get it to move. Don’t worry about the others just yet.”
Cole was grateful for Lloyd’s patience as he struggled to follow instructions. It felt like forever before he could move his hand, and an eternity longer before he regained full control of his body. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. He was free. Finally.
Cole stretched, feeling like he was moving at a snail’s pace. Staying in the same spot for over an hour was not good for his back. Ouch.
Lloyd looked concerned, but he seemed to accept that Cole was fine for now. “Do you wanna go bully Kai into laying down for a bit?” he asked.
“How did you know bullying Kai was my favorite pastime?” Cole snorted, somewhat weakly. He frowned, “Breathing still bad?”
“Yeah, hasn’t improved at all,” Lloyd sighed, “I know he’s like, my unofficial big brother and all, but I swear he’s making me want to become an only child again.”
“I’m surprised Nya hasn’t personally destroyed him yet.”
“Oh, she’s certainly trying. When she’s awake.”
Cole chuckled softly, putting a hand on Lloyd’s head. “Let’s go make sure they’re both taking care of themselves, then.”
Lloyd grinned, shaking his hand off and bolting down the hallway, Cole following at a much slower pace.
They would be alright, eventually.