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Nya traced over the white and red, jagged marks with her thumb as the monitors beeped in her ear telling her “he’s alive”.
Being a ninja was dangerous, all of them knew that. She had taken part in the lessons about field medicine when Master Wu was giving them to the other four ninja, even though it was on her insistence after telling him that she was Samurai X.
And it wasn’t like none of them had ever been in the hospital because of it; she had been in a similar situation with Lloyd less than six months ago, after unlocking her true potential.
But this was different. When Lloyd had been in the hospital, she felt safe and she felt relieved. Morro couldn’t hurt her little brother ever again, Ninjago was safe, and she had found out what was holding her back from unlocking her powers.
The clinic attached to the police precinct was for less extensive injuries then this, but Ninjago City General was apart of Nadakhan’s twisted copy of Dijinjago, so when they arrived on the shore and Jay started coughing up blood before passing out in her arms, this was their only option.
She hadn’t escaped unscathed, but the bruising on her arms from the pirates holding her back from the others and the cut on her forehead from hitting it on the deck as a result of Cole’s wish was nothing compared to everything they had found on Jay’s unconscious body.
There were the injuries Nya could see, like the cut on his left eyelid that had forced the eye to swell shut, the lichtenberg figures on his hands from the powers being too strong within the confines of Vengestone, the bright red circle that encased his ankle thanks to the ball and chain and the split lips from the altitude although she suspected that the swelling had come from the same place as his injured eye.
But she also knew that his ribs were broken to the point that one of them had punctured his left lung, that he had a concussion, that he was so weak that he could hardly walk when Cole had found him and that there was very few spots on his pale skin that were not adorned in some sort of gash or bruise.
It made her wonder just how much enjoyment the crew of Misfortune’s Keep had gotten out of watching someone so light-hearted get beat down over and over again in an attempt to make him break.
Thinking about it nearly made her vomit.
“I know you can’t hear me, but I promise you,” she stopped to bring her hand to his freckled cheek, “we are going to get out of this alive.”
…
They had been at sea for hours.
All they had to their name was a duffle bag of necessities that Jay had grabbed, a duffle bag of medical supplies that the exhausted registered nurse had handed her, the row boat they were traveling in and Jay’s mix of both chivalry and stubbornness as he continue to pull them toward where they would be staying until they could figure out how Jay was meant to word his last wish.
And Nya was sick of it.
She was sick of losing, she was sick of being “the girl ninja”, she was sick of not being able to make her own choices and above all, she was sick of Jay.
It wasn’t that she hated him, the opposite was the truth; their shared love for bad TV dramas, the fact that he was the only one who could make her laugh, how they were so different that their personalities gelled well and worked off of each other.
And how with each passing day, she couldn’t stop herself from falling more and more in love with him.
But she couldn’t tell him all of that.
Not when they had a lovestruck diijn chasing them, not when they were in the middle of the endless sea and especially not while Jay still had the idea in his head that they were meant to be together all because of a reflection he had seen in the tomb of The First Spinjitzu Master.
As much as she wanted what he had seen to be true, as much as she loved so much about Jay, she wanted to have a say in it as well; she hadn’t been given a choice with her destiny as the water ninja but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a say in her relationship.
“Please let me take a turn.” She begged after Jay brought his arms around again and his breathing grew heavy while he pulled in a shrill gasp of air, “if this our way of traveling with a low profile, the least I could do is help row.”
It was bad enough he was being stubborn but just an hour before the bombs had dropped, he had still been receiving care for his various injuries he had obtained aboard Misfortune’s Keep at the small clinic.
Most of the gashes had scabbed over, his concussion was mild, the coloring of the bruising had faded from purple to yellowish-green, he had pushed his auburn curls back down, covered up his freckles again and he was able to open his left eye now, but he could go downhill if he continued to push himself like he was doing at this very moment.
“No, no. I won’t hear it. You saved me last time, this time let me take care of you,” he insisted, pulling in gasping breaths that made her heart twist in worry that one too many rows and his broken ribs would puncture his lung again, “besides, a gentleman would never let a lady row.”
‘There’s that damn chivalry again.’
“Oh, look!” He shouted with a shaky breath, “we’re almost there!”
Sure enough, the gap between their small boat and the very large and very tall lighthouse where Zane’s father had been held captive by the skeletons was closing in on them.
But if she was being completely honest with herself, she was more so excited to get inside and get settled in so she could finally get Jay to rest and keep him from injuring himself more.
‘I would never forgive myself if he hurt himself trying to uphold his bizarre standards about me.’
She was so lost in thought that she only zoned in on the second half of what Jay was saying about how Nadakhan could search all of Ninjago but never find them before reaching her hand towards the water and propelling them forward at a much faster speed then even an uninjured person could row.
In fact, the movement caught Jay so off guard that he fell onto her legs and she waited for a sound of pain, but when he looked up at her with a sheepish grin, she couldn’t help but smile as she spoke, “you said I couldn’t row. I’m not rowing.”
The time between the boat washing up on the shore and the two of them ascending the stairs of the abandoned lighthouse was quick, but not quick enough for her to notice that Jay had offered his hand to help her out of the boat for a brief second before pulling it away and for her to hear his labored breathing as the two of them made their way inside.
Sure enough, everything was empty; they had brought all of the food that had been stored by Julien with them on their way to The Dark Island along with most of the personal belongings but at least they had the reassurance that they weren’t in Ninjago as well as working utilities.
“Actually, it’s a nice little resort,” Jay joked with a chuckle as he set his duffle bag on the table, “vacant for years, yet not a sign of dust.”
It was the same chuckle that came about when he didn’t really find what he was saying funny, more so that he was using his joking demeanor to hide his anxiety about the current situation, a chuckle Nya knew all too well.
Just dumping the contents of the duffle bag out set off an alarm only for the little robot who had served them tea the last time they were there to roll out with a few beeps, jump up onto the table and start putting everything back in the bag.
She couldn’t stop herself from chuckling, feeling the adrenaline that had quickly built up inside of her chest dissipate. “Oh,” she let out a sigh of relief, watching as the robot zipped up the bag, “I forgot Zane’s father liked his toys,” she stopped to turn to Jay, “what did you bring?”
“Oh, uh…” Jay stuttered, unzipping the bag and starting to go through the list, pulling each item out only for the robot to put them back. It would have been amusing if Nya hadn’t noticed how much he was blinking with squinted eyes.
“Enough food for a week, change of clothes, the vial of poison Nadakhan doesn’t know we have and finally, one teapot of Traveler’s Tea, but only just in case all else fails.”
“Great,” Nya nodded, putting her much heavier duffle bag on the table, making sure to keep it neat so the robot wouldn’t mess with it, “do you wanna go over the plan again?”
“Nya, what’s in there?” Jay answered her question with a question, forcing her to avoid his prying eyes to hopefully get him to drop it, but he was persistent, “and why is it in a Ninjago City EMS bag?”
She sighed, and unzipped the zipper before reading out the post-it note that the nurse who had patched Nya up and saved Jay’s life had inventoried everything in the bag.
“Antibiotic ointment, bandages, band-aids, gauze strips, rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, nitrile gloves, oral pain killers, ointment for joint pain, a penlight, a thermometer, a spare eyepatch and an oxygen concentrator.”
Jay was silent for a moment, pressing his teeth into his chapped bottom lip; she didn’t know if he would deny the help, or act innocent in pretending that he had no idea what they were for, but he just stood up a bit straighter, cleared his throat and started to go over the plan again.
“Okay, if Nadakhan shows up, we shoot him with the poison. Then when he can’t use his magic, I say my last wish and save Ninjago,” his nervous chuckle returned as he finished speaking, “a wish Lloyd told me is said from my heart, a heart that has no clue what it could be but if said incorrectly could likely make everything ten times worse!”
“You’ll think of it,” Nya insisted, trying to make her voice sound soothing to quell Jay’s anxiety, “you always do. Now, let’s get settled in,” she insisted, taking the two duffle bags with her towards the twin bed in the corner in order to keep the robot from continuing to mess with them, “we could use the peace and quiet to think.”
The air was silent for the next twenty minutes as Nya took off her gloves and started cooking some soup on the small stove; using so little ingredients to try and ration out food as well as fill two stomachs for more than an hour was all too reminiscent of Four Weapons , of her childhood and of Kai.
‘Oh, Kai,’ she realized as she continued to chop the carrots and onions.
There had been so much going on between the disappearances, Jay getting captured and Nadakhan’s twisted plan for her that she hadn’t been able to take time to fully process that her big brother had been the first of the ninja to be taken.
Kai, who had protected her since day one. Kai, who only became a ninja to save her from Garmadon. Kai, who had stepped back when she became Samurai X because he knew she could protect herself, but also let her know that he would be the first one to take down anyone who hurt her if she needed him too.
She knew she could protect herself, she had done it so many times before…but the assurance that he would be the first to come after her had instilled the same cockiness that he threw around until he found himself in too deep.
Her tears ran down her cheeks and onto the flames of the stovetop which hissed in retaliation to the point where Jay asked if she was okay from the other side of the room.
“Y-yeah,” she wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her gi and continued cutting the vegetables, “just cutting onions!”
‘I will save you, Kai,’ she thought to herself, wondering briefly if her thoughts could penetrate the sword he was currently trapped in, ‘Jay and I will save all of you.’
But after tossing in the carrots, onion and celery, the soup had to simmer and she had to busy herself with her next task on her mental checklist she was keeping, which just so happened to be checking over Jay’s injuries.
“Dinner smells good.” He told her from where he sat on the floor as she walked over, seemingly testing the robot’s functions and patience with the reaction time of setting something on the floor and how fast it would put it away, “I’m calling him Gizmo, by the way. “Robot” seems offensive.”
“Gizmo it is,” she agreed, crossing her arms across her chest as she leaned against the wall and found the courage to ask, “how are you doing?”
“Oh, just fine,” his anxiety made itself known through his sentences instantly, “sure, all of our friends are trapped inside of a magic sword and Nadakhan is probably hunting us down at this very moment but at least we’re all alone in this lighthouse in the middle of nowhere,” his laugh sounded hollow as he put a bag of chips on the ground to watch Gizmo pick it up, “right?”
“Jay, I really think you should let me check you over,” she cut straight to the chase, watching as his shoulder muscles tensed in response, “to make sure nothing is getting worse.”
“Nya, I’m fine-”
“Just let me help you, please.” She cut him off which instantly caused his mouth to shut in stunned silence.
She tried not to cut him off unless she had to these days, wanting to make sure everyone else got words in even if she wasn’t able to find her own, but after having zero control over anything for days, she couldn’t do it any more.
But to her surprise, Jay sighed in surrender and sat down on the bed so that he was facing her, his right brown eye shimmering in the light of the setting sun before speaking again with a much softer voice, “be careful.”
Nya nodded before opening the duffle bag; she rubbed the hand sanitizer over her palms and the back of her hands, wincing when the alcohol seeped into one of the many small cuts on her hands.
‘At least I know my hands are clean.’ She tried to look on the bright side as she put on two of the bright purple gloves before turning to Jay and asking, “where do you want me to start?”
Nya knew the logical answer was his chest or his left eye, but she could see just how tense Jay was, how scared he was of her touch.
She had no idea what those pirates had done to him regarding the care of his wounds, or if they had done anything at all, but just seeing Jay so worried about what she was gonna do…
‘If I ever see Nadakhan again, I’m going to kill him.’
She knew that being a ninja, she was honor-bound to protect, to only hurt when necessary and that Master Wu would be disappointed with her thoughts of brutal violence.
But she was Samurai X first, and the Samurai had no master. Just a code of conduct based on her own set of morals.
‘And no one gets away with hurting my friends. Not like this.’
“My hands,” he said at last, peeling off his dirty, black gloves, revealing the white bandages that covered up jagged scars of lightning.
So Nya did what she was asked to do.
She removed the old bandages, checked for signs of infection, wiped down the wound and reapplied new bandages, moving from Jay’s hands, to his battered ankle, to a particularly bad gash that covered the length of his collarbone and to his broken ribs.
His breathing had evened out quite a bit since the ascent up the steps, which was a big relief to her and she knew that he would still have to rest for awhile even after they got the others back, but it meant that for now, he was safe.
“Jay?” She asked softly, gently putting a palm on his forehead while grabbing the penlight, “this is gonna be bright.”
He nodded silently and she flicked it on, watching as his right pupil slowly grew smaller, but not nearly as slow as the video of a patient’s eye the nurse had shown her after learning she’d be handling most of his care, which filled her with relief about the severity of his concussion.
But, as she looked over at his left eye, his light blue eye, and watched he squinted yet again, she found herself asking a question before she could even think it through while putting the penlight back in the bag.
“Jay? Can you see me?”
Nya wasn’t being specific and if she was being completely honest with herself, as soon as the words left her mouth, she expected Jay to crack a joke or even just be outright confused.
But the words made his face grow slightly dark as he balled his left hand into a tight fist while stuttering, “I-I can see shapes, I can see light but I can’t-” she could have sworn she heard his breath hitch on tears that made her own eyes water, “I can’t see your face.”
Nya didn’t expect those five words to affect her as much as they did when they hit her directly in the chest and made tears spring out of her eyes, tears just as hard as the ones that had fallen as she had mourned Kai.
“B-but it’s okay,” Jay’s voice insisted as he put his bandage-covered hands around hers, making her look up, “I mean, I couldn’t see anything out of it two days ago, so I’m sure it’s just temporary.”
And she wanted to believe him, she wanted to believe him so damn badly, but his voice was tinged with his laughter of anxiety which only made it clear to her that he didn’t even believe himself.
“This is my fault. I sent you after the venom all because I was mad at you for-”
“You were in the right, Nya,” Jay cut her off, gently rubbing his thumb over her worn knuckles, “I should have never lied to you guys about Nadakhan. I never should have made those stupid wishes in the first place.”
“But you can’t see, Jay!” Nya couldn’t stop herself from shouting as she stood up and ran her glove-covered hand through her hair, “so you lied. That doesn’t mean that you deserve to lose your sight! That you deserved any of what those pirates did to you!”
“I’m still standing because of you,” Jay insisted, getting off of the edge of the bed to seemingly prove his point, “I made it because of you.”
Nya nodded, the guilt still building in her chest as she wiped the tears off of her cheeks, “I want to kill him.”
“That makes two of us,” Jay’s voice was just above a whisper as he sat back down on the bed, “do you want to sleep first?”
“No, you take it,” she insisted as she pulled her gloves off so she could go back toward the soup that she could hear starting to boil, before remembering the oxygen concentrator that had been pushed into the EMS bag, “do you want me to set up the oxygen machine first?”
“No, I’m okay. But, you’ll wake me up, right?”
‘Right. Jay’s prone to nightmares.’
“Of course,” she nodded, watching as his eyes fluttered shut and left her alone with Gizmo as company, who was turning off the stove so the soup didn’t scorch.
She found the dishes, which had zero signs of dust or dirt on them and ladled a serving into her bowl before finding a reusable container in another cabinet and putting the leftovers in the fridge; she didn’t want to wake Jay up if she didn’t have to.
As she ate, Nya couldn’t stop herself from watching his chest rise and fall under the two blankets that were already on the bed when they had arrived.
‘Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.’
Every full breath reassured her that he was alive, every breath that sounded like a struggle made her wonder if she needed to turn on the oxygen concentrator and hold the mask to his face to get his breathing back into its normal rhythm.
On top of it all, she was tired.
Exhaustion was a better way to put it, with the way she nearly face-planted into her soup and her bones felt too heavy for her to continue holding herself upright.
Even when Gizmo rolled over with a spare blanket clutched in his tiny palm, she shook her head; she had told Jay that he would wake him up if he needed her to and she refused to be useless by falling asleep.
It didn’t help that thoughts of Nadakhan coming in and killing Jay before kidnapping her if she didn’t stay alert swirled in her mind.
That thought alone was enough to keep her eyes from fluttering shut.
…
‘Come on, Nya,’ slow, bandaged hands wrapped around her arms and pulled her to her feet before gently urging her to walk across the wooden floor, ‘it’s your turn to sleep.’
…
She woke up to the smell of burning food and her teeth chattering.
The wound on her head stung horribly, the bruising made her arms feel like they weighed more than Cole’s weights but at least she was laying down.
‘When did I lay down?’
She started to sit up, only for a rust-tinted hand to lay on her chest; the last thing she had been expecting was to come face to face with…Zane?
But this wasn’t Zane, even if he looked like him. He was not the shiny titanium she had grown used to, and his exposed chest revealed moving gears and what looked like an alarm clock rather than Zane’s closed-off power source.
“Who are you?” She couldn’t hide the shake in her words or the rush of her heart rate as the nindroid took his hand off of her chest to put it against his in an introductory manner.
“I am Zane, built to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”
‘What the hell is happening?’
But before she could ask, or even fully process, that this was some version of one of her best friends, he turned away from her toward the other side of the room and said, “she’s awake, and unless my sensor fell out again, she’s still running a fever.”
“I don’t see your sensor anywhere in here, but I think there’s a thermometer in that EMS bag so we can be sure,” Jay’s voice cut in and when “Zane” moved away, he replaced his spot, “I met him last night, he was living in Julien’s old lab.”
“Okay..” she trailed off, feeling her fear ebb away and renewing the stinging of her forehead, which she started to reach a hand up to only for Jay to hold it instead, “what happened?”
“When I woke up, you were asleep at the table and running a fever. I think the wound on your forehead is infected,” Jay said while scratching the back of his neck nervously, but the fact that her brain felt sluggish at least made sense now, “so I figured that you should be laying down, but after I got you in bed, I heard something downstairs and I thought that someone had found us, but turns out, Zane’s dad had a lab in the basement.”
“And you found a replica of Zane down there?” Nya questioned
“I think “Echo” sounds cooler, but yeah,” Jay’s smile made her feel at least a little better, “and he kept me from burning down the lighthouse with breakfast this morning! And there’s another thing..”
“Oh?” She could tell by his tonal shift that it was not a good thing at all.
“While I was downstairs, there was a mirror where Nadakhan’s face had appeared,” her heart sunk and nausea hit her like a brick as Echo handed Jay the thermometer before walking over toward a small chess table, Gizmo on the other side, “Echo broke it, but I think Clancee wished for him to know where we are, probably not of his own choice, but that doesn’t change the fact that Nadakhan is on his way.”
Nya’s stomach turned painfully as she remembered her anxieties from the night before, of Nadakhan forcing Jay to wish it all away or even just straight up killing him to save himself the trouble of him trying to protect her.
Of taking her away, of forcing her into a marriage that she could never agree to, of gaining infinite wishes and destroying Ninjago in the process.
“Anyway, I was waiting on you to wake up, but you should use it,” he stopped to show her the teapot, “you should use it and get out of here. I can fight him off with Echo while you hide. Disguise yourself, change your name, anything.”
“You want me to run?” Nya swallowed harshly, “you want me to leave you here? You still have that wish, Jay. You can still stop him.”
“But what if it doesn’t work?” He asked, his hand letting go of hers and going to his hair, “what if I say it wrong, or what if I don’t say it in time?” He pulled in a deep, wheezing breath and ran his hand across his face, “you have to get out of here, Nya. All of this was my fault, all because I saw a glimpse of my future and wanted it to be real.”
She sat up, wincing at the pain radiating in her skull before laying her hand on his bandaged one only to look up and see both of his eyes filled with the shine of tears.
“I ruined your life, Nya.”
For a second, she couldn’t help but wonder if she agreed with his statement. Nadakhan was coming for them, her brother and their friends were trapped in a sword, they were running out of time; but, something about Echo and Gizmo playing chess, the seagulls outside and the sound of waves crashing onto the shore filled her with a sense of hope.
A sense that maybe, just maybe, they would make it out alive.
“But you saw us old together,” Nya insisted, trying to instill any hopefulness that she could muster into him, “so that must mean something. That must mean that we make it out of this together.”
“That’s why you should take the tea, and get as far away from me as possible!” Jay shouted, “I can hold him off, I can keep him focused on the fact he still has to get one wish out of me! He’ll be around me constantly, trying to get me to, um…say the thing,” Nya knew he was avoiding saying the phrase as if it would bring the dijin to them faster, “so that gives you enough time to change how you look enough that he won’t care anymore! He only wants you because you look like Delara-”
“Jay, I am not running away,” Nya cut him off while squeezing his hand to stop his tangent, “I am not letting you get captured, again. I am not letting you become their slave, again. I will never forgive myself for even letting it happen the first time.”
“But I can’t lose you too.”
‘He said there’s a lab. A lab we can build our defenses. A lab that’ll let us hold our own until he makes his wish.’
“And you won’t, because I have a plan,” Nya insisted as she stood on shaking legs and biting back a particularly painful throb in her head, “after all, ninja never quit and Samurai X, well…”she stopped to put her hand to the back of her head, nerves filling her up based on how Jay would respond, “Samurai X is ready to kick some ass. Because between you and me, I’m sick of running.”
But this was Jay, and even if they hadn’t always seen eye to eye, he at least tried to understand her side, so she wasn’t all that surprised when he stood up while saying, “that makes two of us.”
“Now, let’s see this lab,” she told him, taking his hand so her legs would stop shaking, “I want to know exactly how we’ll show Nadakhan that he never should have messed with us.”