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The night following defeat of the Oni, the ninja sleep in the same room. They don’t necessarily have to but they do it anyway. After almost losing both Cole and Lloyd that day, none of them want to sleep alone that night.
That night also happened to be the same night that a massive thunderstorm was predicted to hit. The clouds smothered the moon and made the already dark night darker.
The six of them had settled on watching movies until they all eventually fell asleep. Lloyd was the last one left awake so he carefully, without waking anyone (somehow), got up and turned the lights off before returning to his previous spot. Not without almost tripping over a stray beanbag.
Hours later, the storm was well and truly in full force over the monastery. The game room, where the ninja had all fallen asleep together, was in darkness save for the occasional flash of lightning.
A particularly loud crash of thunder shocked Cole awake again. It took a moment for his brain to register that he was currently awake. And another for the fact that he was surrounded by darkness to hit him.
The panic didn’t take much longer to set in. Suddenly, Cole was falling.
Down.
Down.
And down.
Into the freezing Oni cloud. The same cloud was getting into his throat and further into his lungs. Making it harder and harder to breathe.
Kai is woken by a kick to the ribs, which hurt. A Lot. He opens his eyes to a very dark game room with a storm raging overhead. The key point right now is that the room is dark.
Cole!
All he can think of right now is the Master of Earth. Cole was sitting next to him during the movie and now there’s just empty space there. Something is glowing faintly green from near the far wall, which he’s able to pick up on now that his eyes have adjusted to the dim.
Hold on, he knows that green!
Cole is sitting curled up with his back against the wall, his ghost scar shining through the darkness of the game room. The sight of his boyfriend like that kicks Kai up out of his spot and crosses the room to sit by him.
Now that he’s closer, the sound of gaspy breaths can be heard.
“Cole?” Kai asks, not quite whispering but loud enough that Cole can hear him, hopefully. No response. Not that he was really expecting one anyway.
“Cole?” he tries again. Only this time, Kai also reaches out and touches the Earth Master’s shoulder.
The reaction is instantaneous as soon as Kai’s hand makes contact with his shoulder. Cole’s entire body jerks abruptly, his back and head hit the wall with a dull thud that’s bound to have hurt.
The most important thing is that it got Cole to look at him. Even in the dark, his pure fear is obvious.
“Cole?” Third time’s the charm, Kai hoped.
“I-it’s too dark,” It’s a whisper, barely there, but Kai still catches it.
Instead of saying anything, he gets up and crosses the room to where the light switch is, all the while being careful to avoid the clump of sleeping ninjas.
Even from all the way over here, Cole’s relieved sigh from the lights being switched on is audible.
That isn’t the only thing that is audible. The lights succeed in waking the rest of the ninja, sans Lloyd who’s still out like a light (ha!).
He’s falling through the Oni Cloud until he…isn’t?
The change is as sudden as hitting the surface of some water. It’s all dark, everywhere he looks, the same darkness getting into his lungs and infecting them with freezing cold.
But then?
He’s blinking the Cloud out of his vision. It is slowly replaced by…a hedgehog? Hold up, no, it’s not a hedgehog: it’s Kai.
Kai’s blocking most of his view of the sofa area but what he can see is empty, save for Lloyd.
Where are the others?
The room behind the Fire Master is light, someone must have turned the lights on. It’s a huge change from what it had been when he had first woken up.
A shiver goes down his spine at the memory of the previously dark room.
“You back with us?” Kai asks, noticing his change in position. It takes him a moment to get his mouth working in time with his brain. “Yeah, sorry about t-that,” he apologises.
He must have woken him up, the others too. Kai smacks him, gently, in the arm.
“Don’t apologise,” A moment passes.
“Earlier…you mentioned that the room was ‘too dark’; what did you mean by that?” he asks.
Cole sighs, so they are going to do this now.
“Yesterday, when I was in the — the Cloud, it was so dark, I couldn’t see anything. It was just…darkness, everywhere,” The end of the sentence was so quiet, less than a whisper.
He doesn’t look at Kai, he doesn’t want to see the sympathy nor sadness that is sure to be there.
The game room is light, from the overhead lights, not sunlight when Zane awakens. The other ninja, sans Lloyd, Cole and Kai are also waking up. The latter two are over by the far wall.
A quick analysis of the situation over there has them shooing Nya, Jay and Pixal out of the game room as quickly and quietly as they can manage.
All three of them have most likely come to the same conclusion as they don’t put up a fight.
Kai’s eyes catch Zane’s own just as they is stepping out of the room. He nods his approval before turning his attention back to Cole.
They had all seen the Oni Cloud. From above. Safe on the Bounty. Even with the smoky black tendrils looming ever closer. But only Cole and Lloyd had actually been inside it.
Kai hadn’t realised that it had been that terrifying. Until he did.
He doesn’t mean to prod but then Cole is telling him exactly what being inside the Oni Cloud had been like.
The ravenet isn’t looking at him, his eyes are focused on his sock-covered feet. It’s at that exact moment that Kai gets the intense want to hug him. And for once, he actually gives into that desire and pulls Cole into a hug.
Cole is tracing the patterns on his socks with his eyes when Kai is pulling him into a hug. The surprising thing is that three, no, four more pairs of arms join in the hug.
Wasn’t he just sitting against the wall?