Chapter Text
The waiting game. Zane has been playing it too much lately, he thinks. First when his element had gone out of control and surrounded him in pillars of ice and snow, and now here, in this room, waiting for his friends to wake up after they had fallen to a similar fate.
Wu had been there earlier, waiting with him, but now the old man was off somewhere else, looking into what had happened alongside Misako. It was an odd silence without his presence. Uncomfortable. Zane clutched the pink blanket around his shoulders tighter.
The blanket had been given to him to help combat his current inability to regulate his temperature. According to Wu, he felt colder than the ice he (thought he) controlled, and radiated the same chill. A consequence of his element going out of control, perhaps? Zane wondered, then, if similar results would happen to the others. He would have to keep an eye on them.
Not for the first time, Zane wished Pixal was here. Unfortunately, she had been gone for quite some time, visiting her father at Borg Industries. Had she heard of what happened? He knew Nya had been near the city. Was she worried?
He figured Pixal would have already broken down the doors of the monastery if she really thought he was in danger. That was a comfort, at least.
Zane sighed, watching the resulting cloud of cold air spiral up before fading away. He clutched his blanket even tighter, the pink fabric doing nothing to warm his freezing body. To distract himself, he looked over at the others again.
They looked peaceful in their rest, the tea Wu gave them doing its job well in that regard. Though there were still… concerns. Cole was far too still, Kai’s temperature refused to lower to what was normal for him, Jay kept twitching, Nya would shudder at oddly specific intervals… Only Lloyd seemed completely fine, though Zane doubted all was as it appeared.
Wu had said it would be natural for them all to feel some effects after their elements went out of control like they did, but as to what exactly caused it, what happened, the old master still wasn’t sure. Zane hadn’t seen him since he disappeared into the scroll room. Searching for answers, if he had to guess.
Zane hoped he found them. He wanted to know what caused this as well, what made him and his teammates lose control in the way they did, unable to think for themselves as the world around them fell to a chaos of their own making.
He tried not to think of the similarities between this and the Never Realm. He refused to. At least there wasn’t a staff involved this time.
Zane shook his head, dispelling his spiraling thoughts. No, it wasn’t good to focus on the negatives. What was important was they were all safe now, ready to heal, ready to recover. All he had to do was wait.
-
Zane almost didn’t notice when Cole woke up. He had been adjusting the small air conditioning unit next to Kai, making sure it was still blowing sufficiently cold air, when he glanced over and saw the Earth Ninja’s eyes were open.
“Cole,” Zane immediately abandoned the AC, moving to stand next to Cole instead, “How are you feeling?”
For nearly a minute, Cole’s only response was to stare at him. Then he twitched, inhaling sharply. “...Zane?”
Zane moved, placing an arm under Cole and helping him sit up, since it was clear he couldn’t move himself. Cole was oddly stiff and yet limp in his hold. “I will restate my question: How are you feeling?”
Cole blinked for a moment, as if unsure if he even could. “Tired,” he stated, voice quiet, “...Sore. Like I’ve been standing for way too long.”
“According to what Master Wu has told me, that very well may be true,” Zane told him, releasing his hold once he was sure Cole wouldn’t fall over.
Cole wobbled slightly, his usual sense of balance nowhere to be seen, but managed to catch himself. “What happened? All I remember is… is being in the mountains, and then…” he shuddered.
Zane placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, “According to Master Wu, something caused our elements to go out of control. As to what, we are still unaware, but he has endeavored to find out.” He watched Cole for a moment, taking in his still-weak appearance, “Can you stand? It would do you no good to remain here.”
“I- Yeah,” Cole furrowed his brow, “I think so.”
Regardless of what Cole thought of his abilities, Zane helped him stand up from the cot and make it out of the room. Concern clouded his expression at his slow, almost stilted movements, but he knew Cole wouldn’t want him to hover. Plus, he still had the others to worry about.
Looks like he still needed to wait.
-
Some time after the others had all woken and Zane had sent them on their way, Zane had not yet left the room they’d been held in. He was thinking. Worrying, to be more accurate.
While Zane knew his own troubles with his element, that being his inability to regulate his temperature, he still did not know what problems the others would encounter with theirs. It worried him. He couldn’t help them if he didn’t know what was wrong. Furthermore…
Kai had woken up coughing, gasping as if he couldn’t breathe. Jay’d had a panic attack only made worse by Zane’s touch. Lloyd didn’t seem to realize he was awake, at first. Only Nya seemed fine, with no signs of complications, but something still felt wrong.
Clearing his head of his thoughts, Zane shook out his hands, a rare show of stress. He refused to acknowledge the faint cold fog that seeped from his finger joints.
He needed to check on the others.
Zane exited the room, arriving in the hallway. His destination was the kitchen, being where Cole had gone, and where everyone else had ended up gathering as well.
Reaching the kitchen, he spotted the others immediately. Cole was half lying on the table, an unfinished plate of food next to him. Nya was face-down on the floor, unmoving. Kai was sitting with his back against the fridge, Lloyd next to him looking a little dazed. Jay, oddly, wasn’t near anyone, standing against the back wall and staring at his hands.
They hadn’t noticed him yet, so Zane settled against the entryway to watch them for a moment.
As the minutes ticked by, silent save for Kai’s raspy breathing, it seemed the aftermath of the event would last far longer than they had hoped, if the state of the others as well as the chill still running through Zane’s systems were anything to go by.
Recovery would take some time. But Zane was nothing if not patient.
He could wait.