Chapter Text
Cold, rainy streets where the only light ever given came from the lamps of local shops and clubs that may or may not be illegal. Since some certainly upset events of about a month ago, the once group of wholeheartedly loyal heroes were finally hit with reality with the so-called death of Nya Smith. It was heartbreaking for everyone. Wu, Lloyd, Zane, Cole, but most reasonably, Kai and Jay.
Kai Smith, as his last name shows, was Nya’s brother. Older brother, to be exact. He had been there for his sister since day one, being extremely overprotective with her to keep her safe because well, who’d want to see their only family harmed let alone dead?...yeah, that didn’t age well.
Jay Walker, even while not being Nya’s direct family, he was still very close to her. He was her boyfriend. He even made the ying yang promise to her as she was his yang, but not for too long. All that pining, all those nervous and wishful thoughts had become true at one point, but oh did he wish they had lasted for longer.
Because of those...unfortunate events, to say the least, the ninja finally realized that being mainstream heroes was more dangerous than what they ever thought. Sure, they had had their dangerous missions where they were barely hanging on from a thread, and they were obviously aware of this. The Great Devourer, the Overlord, Chen, Morro and his army of ghosts, Nadakhan, you get my point. They’ve been close to dying, but never fully died.
Zane was thought dead, but came back with a whole new appearance and more advanced mechanism. Cole was almost dead, but came back to be human once again with no major injury but a scar. Nya died...and wouldn’t come back. There wasn’t a way for her to come back. She was a new person, or creature at least. It’s difficult to explain.
So now, after reality hit them as if they owed it millions of money, they finally decided to get off the stage and take the spotlight off of them for only god will know how long. They were now afraid. Afraid of falling apart one by one and afraid that death will knock on their door.
The news spread quickly just as it was expected. With most newspapers and broadcasted shows saying stuff along the lines of “the ninja are no longer our city’s heroes”, it was obvious that the crime rate would skyrocket, whether they’d be small petty crimes or organized murders, they were now happening all over Ninjago. This ended up leading to the ninja becoming vigilantes of sorts, and so, here they were.
“Be sure to stay online everyone, you never know when you need someone else’s help” Lloyd was, once again, making sure everybody would be in constant contact with each other in any way possible. Even while not being as affected as his companions for losing Nya, he knew it was something that most of them were still grieving about. They had all gone on 3 separate missions to investigate a series of crimes going around that all seemed to be intertwined. Lloyd had gone to anywhere outside Ninjago City, Cole and Jay to the not so safe parts of Ninjago City, Zane and Kai to the center of the city. Ninjago city was a pretty big place, and so the root of multiple of these crimes.
About two years ago, a mission like this where Cole and Jay were sent as a duo they would both talk at least a bit while on their way to get there or even while they were fighting. But now it was silent. They were ninja, of course they were meant to be silent and sly, but it was normal for Jay to talk at least a bit. Now it’s just pure silence, and it didn’t feel right. Especially for Cole, who had been oh so used to listening to Jay’s voice just rambling on a daily basis that without it it felt like he was alone. Alone with nothing but the sounds of the environment he was in, and that was exactly what he was now feeling.
The silence between the two friends was becoming excruciatingly and torturously awkward, so why not take a pick and break the ice? “It sure’s been raining a lot lately huh?” That, accompanied by a small chuckle, only managed to get a small “Hm” and a shrug as the blue ninja’s response, making the already hard to break ice even worse.
A sigh from Cole’s could be heard. He was concerned, and it did show with that worried look he clearly had on his face. “Jay...I know you’re going through rough times after the events with Wojira '' The sound of constant steps clashing against the wet ground right next to him began slowing down until they stopped, making Cole turn around to see a saddened Jay looking slightly away. Jay was clearly trying to hold back from crying. “We can always tell the others you have to sit this one out” A gentle hand found its place resting on Jay’s shoulder as Cole stepped closer towards the master of lightning and gave him a warm smile.
Even while having this conversation with Cole, with the master of earth, with his best friend that felt like it was a scene coming from the big screen of Hollywood, Jay only managed to give him a smile before hugging him close, some tears escaping his eyes as he just mumbled against Cole’s chest a very small and weak “I’m glad you’re here for me”. Not an exact answer for the question, that’s for sure, but it was an answer good enough to make black feel a small bit of the pain that blue was going through just with those words, his scarred, big arms hugging back to comfort Jay as much as he could. And this, surprisingly, felt bittersweet.
Cole knew he was in love with Jay, he was self-aware of this for as long as he could remember. So the fact that Jay was huggin and showing his vulnerability to him out of all people was the sweet in bittersweet. It made the earth ninja feel appreciated.
But there’s always a bitter side when talking about bittersweetness. The bitter side was that he knew his love wasn’t mutual. While he was giving Jay heart eyes every time Jay was just himself, Jay was giving those same heart eyes to Nya since the first day of meeting her.
That was what made that hug so bittersweet, because even while Nya wasn’t here anymore, it was painfully obvious Jay still loved her.
Their hug lasted just a tad too long before Jay finally pulled away, smiling a bit as he wiped the tears from his face and noticed that he had slightly stained Cole’s gi with two small patches of tears “I’m…sorry, for that” . “That’s okay. It’ll come off easily” Cole made sure to hide the obvious feelings he had, as well as the bitterness that was still in his chest from knowing Jay's actual feelings towards him. They were platonic, of course.
Before any of them were able to continue on their part of the mission, the communicator keeping them all online beeped a bit. “Me and Kai have found some of the guys we’ve been looking for. Everybody, reunite at the bounty” Seems like Zane and Kai had already gotten the job done. Cole answered an affirmative “We’re on our way” as he sprinted off to the bounty’s location along with Jay, who seemed to feel at least a bit better than before. It made Cole smile. At least he knew he was a good friend.
The two ninja weren’t able to notice, though, how a particularly hidden figure was watching them in the darkness all along. Whoever they were, they only came to the light upon seeing the two vigilantes leave the zone, taking out a quite old phone and calling someone with it. “Who did you say you wanted again, boss?”
Someone answered through the phone. The second voice wasn’t feminine or masculine. It didn’t even seem androgynous, it just seemed to…be a voice. “Haven’t I stressed this enough? I need the master of lighting. He’s the only one that’ll work for the mission”. The figure just hummed in affirmation, hanging up afterwards.
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The early morning, or the late night, were soon to arrive. The ninja would have to wake up at 7 AM as always the next day for training and patrolling around the city, so getting at least 6 hours of sleep was good enough for most of them. I say most because that night, just like many others, Jay was sleepless.
Guilt. Guilt and grief had been eating him alive slowly and painfully. After the events with Wojira, the Endless Sea, and with Nya’s sacrifice, Jay couldn’t help himself but feel horribly guilty for having caused Nya to fuse with the ocean. If only he had held his breath just a bit earlier. If only he hadn’t gotten any water in his lungs. If only he had done everything as it was meant to be, Nya would still be here with them.
Laying down, facing the ceiling was all that Jay was doing. He hadn’t slept in god knows how long, so two clearly black eye bags were laying right below his heterochromic eyes. Jay had managed to keep them hidden with makeup, just to not worry anyone.
“Here we go again”
He mumbled to himself right before the memories of that event came back. The screams, the water clashing against itself, the grunting and fighting, and Nya. Standing right there, not as human any longer, but as the ocean. He closed his eyes and covered his ears, a desperate attempt to muffle all of the memories that were haunting him.
Soon enough, they would go away. That wasn’t normal, but it was refreshing at least, as Jay could finally stop closing his eyes so harshly to block away the images of what was haunting him so much.
Yet when he opened them, and his senses adjusted to his environment, something felt…different.
The ocean. It was clashing right against the bounty, almost pulling it into the water if it wasn’t because of the anchor they had buried down on the earth to be extra sure they wouldn’t end up missing in the ocean while they were keeping the bounty at a hidden port.
Jay sat up, silently getting off the bunk bed and going over to the window that was opened but still had the curtains closed to let the air in. Lucky him for being a specially agile ninja at staying and being silent. No one would realize he was still up so late.
Approaching the window, he was hesitant at first. Something was telling him to get out of the ship through the window, but he wasn’t sure what. He didn’t have much else to do, though, so he obeyed. He made his way through the window and out of the bedroom, keeping to follow the strange will that was slowly luring him to the end of the old, wooden bridge not so far away from the bounty. It had been there a long time before the ninja even decided to settle down that port, so it wasn’t in it’s best of conditions.
A tired, sleepless Jay wearing oversized pajamas sat down at the end of the bridge, his feet slightly submerging underwater. Has the sea risen more than before? He wasn’t sure, but maybe it had to do with Nya and the moon.
The ocean kept on moving, as if it was still trying to drag him into the water, and that would’ve happened if it wasn’t for, well, Jay himself. Being the master of lighting meant that he was very susceptible to causing lightning in nature itself to happen just because of his presence, and exactly that happened, as the art began to rumble and some lightning to be seen from afar of where Jay was. He wasn’t in the mood of getting struck by lightning, so he finally decided to head back to the bounty, but there was still something pulling him into the ocean.
Oh well.