Chapter Text
He didn't even have time to think before it happened.
All at once, his world was engulfed in an ear deafening rumble, a crack in reality itself, the sound of an implosion from within fracturing the realms as if they were mere glass. He wasn't sure if he was even alive.
All he knew was the blinding white that flooded his vision as his ears rang out in a cry of protest. It felt like centuries passed in the void. Numbness and shock slowly turned to agony and terror as the void took over all his senses like a raging fire, every atom of his body begging for release from the pain, the sensation crawled up his nerves and skin hungrily, as if it were mere fuel to the licking flames.
This is the end. Surely, this was what death felt like in it's truest form, the being thought to himself. He lay there in the white void, his auburn hair swept to his face and his blue gi tattered and broken, the normally bright, puppylike wonder and affection in his eyes having dulled into a nearly lifeless, uncharacteristic indifferent expression. The being twitched and spasmed, and yet seemed worlds away, barely conscious as his limp body was mercilessly cast out into the new world.
The very first thing he registered was that it was bright, and... warm? Like, a super duper comforting warm. Like the type of warm a cat's fur gets when it's sunbathing. It was nice! Until it was way too hot. But still nice!
Unfortunately, the second thing he registered was the grainy particles infiltrating his mouth and lungs.
The long forgotten yet familiar sense of sand grains scraping his tongue and teeth was enough to get Jay to lurch up with a hacking cough, frantically driving his fingers up his tongue to get all the stupid dust out, thank you very much. It wasn't until he got most of it that he stopped and blinked up at his surroundings in the scorching heat.
Dunes of orange and yellow sand stretched out as far as the eye could see, glittering under the sun that shone bright overhead - Midday, if he had to make a guess with basic knowledge - while cacti he'd never seen before blossomed out of the cracks in the scattered rock outcrops.
Great. Just great. A desert.
Not that he was inexperienced with or hated the desert - He grew up in one, of course! But did they have to be in a desert? Actually, wait, why was he in a desert? When did he get here? What was he doing here??
He raked his memory only to drop his train of thought and feel his breath hitch in his throat when a sand encased figure moved in the distance. His body protested against any attempt to move or breathe until he finally recognized the silhouette when Cole sat up and tried to brush the sand out of his black hair.
First master, could he really not tell his own best friend apart from a scorpion?
He let out a breathy sigh of relief as the grains of sand and dust fell onto the still dunes they both sat in. The noise prompted Cole to look up with a rather comedic noise somewhere between a yelp and a gasp, eyes wide and shoulders stiff before relaxing as he laid his eyes on Jay, giving him a groan
"A little warning next time?"
Welp, good to know it's not just me
Jay gave a nervous chuckle. "Uh, sorry."
Cole sagged his shoulders, bringing his hand up to cover his face. Heat, probably, if the scorching warmth enveloping him was anything to go by. "No, it's fine." He remained silent only a moment longer before asking the question Jay had been asking himself when he would ask. "Why are we in a..."
"Desert? Heat zone of death and destruction? A barren landscape of scorpions and snakes and a whole lotta nothing? Beats me, I just woke up!" He waved his arms up in a dramatic gesture, falling down on his back in the sand. Probably not the smartest decision when you're not aware of your surroundings, now that he thought about it, but it didn't really matter now that he was lying face down towards a very angry sun.
"Oh, well that makes me feel so much better." he said with a sarcastic, snarky tone that was so comfortingly Cole before he turned his attention back to the problem at hand. "Seriously, though, what was that?"
Jay grumbled as he sat himself back up in a fluid motion, sand filled curly hair drooping down his face irritatingly. Oh yeaaaah. The rift. The giant earth shattering hole in reality that was pulling the entire world apart and distorting space time. Huh. How'd he forgotten that? ...And how were they even in a desert if the world got ripped to shreds?
"Uhm.." He paused, trying to urge his brain to come up with something when it was needed, for once. "It.. It was some weirdo rifty crack thingy in reality, right...? So.. Maybe we're in like, another realm, or some sort of bubble universe? Or maybe I was dreaming, and you have no clue what I'm talking about, and we're actually still in Ninjago. I wouldn't know anything about that, though, so I guess it's like a bubble universe. Or something. Maybe."
Cole blinked from where he was trying to get sand off of his clothes - To little success. Unless Jay was already hallucinating, he's pretty sure the sand particles are straight up flying back onto him whenever he tries to get them off. Master of Earth and all, he supposed. It did explained why his entire feet were abnormally covered in the stuff as if someone had tried to bury him in a sand mound for fun and then given up halfway.
"Well, either we had the same dream and both woke up with short term amnesia, or it actually happened." He murmured, looking out across the desert before them with a sigh.
Jay followed his gaze, not that there was much to look at. The two had been unceremoniously dropped off on the ledge of a sand dune alongside a whole lotta debris - No bounty this time, though - in the middle of nowhere. The desert stretched on for literal miles, and he couldn't see a single building. The only thing there was sand, sand, more sand, and some rocks and cacti. Maybe a beetle somewhere. No people, though.
"I get the feeling the others didn't get dropped off here with us." Jay groaned. Great. They were stuck in the middle of a desert, alone, in the middle of the day, with no shelter, no clue where they were, and all alone. Amazing. 10/10 luck, would get sucked into an interdimensional rift again.
Cole started climbing - more like vertically slipping upwards - the sand dune in silence. It was almost painful to watch him try to get to the top. Unfortunately, his reason told him to grab his arm before he spent all his energy trying to scale what might as well be an eternal loop of sand.
The earth ninja looked to him, confused. "Hey, what gives?"
Jay rolled his eyes playfully with a huff. "Dude, we're in the middle of a desert, do you really think that's a good idea?"
Cole blinked "Yeah, if we're in the middle of a desert, shouldn't we get a better vantage point?"
The blue ninja began sliding down with such grace you'd think he'd done this a thousand times - actually, yeah, he had. Go figure - in the opposite direction his friend had been trying to head, coming to a standstill as he reached the bottom.
"Yeah, sure, but first we should probably, oh, i dunno, salvage some stuff? Plus, sand dunes are different from mountains, idiot." Jay said as he started grabbing some of scattered woods. Rations would probably be nice. Hey rifty gods, can we get some rations?
Cole stared at him dumbfoundedly. "Since when were you so rational?" A playful tone edged into his voice.
Actually... yeah, since when was he rational?
He'd never been the logical thinker. That was Zane, or Nya, or Lloyd, or even Cole. He was always sorta the heart. Or maybe like, the blood vessel of the team. He just kept them going.
Frankly, Jay himself never understood how he did it, but he did it. So.. that's a plus, right? At least he can do his job!
But now, they didn't have a Zane, or a Nya, or a Lloyd, and Cole was obviously helpless. Seriously, who tries to find handholds on a sand dune?
Aaand that's when he remembered.
The others don't know about sand dunes. Or the desert. That was a Jay thing.
Huh.
It really did seem like such a stupidly obvious thing to forget. Granted, he didn't get to be stranded in the desert often.
Except for Zane, none of the others would have a clue, of COURSE Cole has no clue how to climb a sand dune, or to conserve his energy and not waste it on stupid stuff, or that it's smart to look for resources.
That was something Jay knew.
A warm feeling of confidence and pride blossomed in his heart. He said nothing of it, though, just held his head up defiantly. "Hmph! I'll have you know you learn a bit growing up in a desert junkyard."
There was small "oh" sound, but that seemed to be enough for Cole to start helping him - Though Cole definitely did still look at him with some confusion when he stuffed wooden scraps in his pouches.
"So then, Mr. Desert Expert, where are we going with this stuff?"
Jay blinked, turning to his friend. The ninja stood up as he shoved a small bag of snacks into his pocket and looked across the remaining rubble - All of it was too big to carry, for the most part, they'd scraped what they could out of it like vultures.
It'd probably be better to have it, but ya know, they'd probably get sunburnt first, with their lack of sunscreen and what not.
"Now..." He turned to walk towards the sand dune again.
"I get to teach you how to properly climb a dune."