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Nya rested her thumbnail against her lips as she waited for the results to come in from the computer, her heart beating anxiously against her chest.
Jay trusted in the sealing power of his wish but she couldn't find it in her to do the same, no matter how much she wanted to.
Not when the yellowish-green scar on her chest still ached, not when she felt so cold at night that not even her brother's elemental fire could warm her, not when she was right back in that lighthouse every time she shut her eyes.
"No search terms for that object appear in the database." The Bounty's text displayed across the screen.
"Scan for the Teapot of Tyrahn below the surface of Ninjago." She commanded, watching as the text box disappeared only to be replaced with a thick, red line slowly making its way up through the tiny Ninjago on the screen.
She knew that the scans were excessive, that if she didn't stop then there was a slim chance that she could undo Jay's wish, that everything they had done would be ruined and that she didn't even know what she was going to do if she found it.
'Touching it will free him, destroying it will free him and locking it in a vault that gets broken into despite the high levels of security Cyrus Borg has installed will end up with him being freed.'
And yet, something in her needed to know where it was, even if it was just so she could ensure that it never ended up in anyone's hands ever again.
"No objects matching the description of "Teapot of Tyrahn" found." The text displayed.
'Then why can't I shake this?'
"Scan for the Teapot of-"
"Nya?"
Nya looked away from the screen despite the "error due to incomplete search term" display covering the screen to see Zane in the doorway of the bridge, only to be filled with relief when he was titanium rather than rusty.
"Hey, Zane," she greeted as she cleared the incomplete search request error and started to clear out her scans, "I was just doing some research on-"
"The Teapot of Tyrahn?" Zane supplied, looking up at the screen as she clicked the button to clear the scan history, making her blood go cold.
"How do you know what that is?"
"It's a historical artifact that hasn't been seen in two hundred years. It would be more strange if I was unaware of its existence," Zane explained before raising an eyebrow at her, "although, it would also be odd if I didn't ask what caused your sudden interest in finding it."
'So I can prevent it from ending up in the wrong hands, so I don't have to feel like my ribs are being crushed by the weight of poison seeping into my body ever again.'
"Just some research," she tried to shrug off his inquiry while walking away from the computer to make her escape, "we should probably go train-"
She was stopped by Zane's cold, titanium hand gently grasping her wrist.
"I am missing a period of time in my logs," he told her before she could pull away or protest at him holding her back from the doorway, "PIXAL thinks that it is a period of about a month and she is unable to restore it no matter how hard she tries."
'Because the timeline was erased to keep everyone, to keep me, from dying at Nadhakhan's hands.'
"I don't suppose you, as well as Jay, know what that is about," Zane continued, only stopping to release his grip on her wrist, "but I do not want to force you to confide in me."
"It's not that, it's…" she pulled in a shuddery breath that only made her realize just how terrified she was.
And not just of what would happen if Jay's wish was somehow undone, but the fear of losing her life had encompassed her in a tight chokehold that refused to release her.
Nya couldn't be sure why she made the following decision, whether it was because it was either to show Zane rather than tell him or just the impulse control that had skipped over her and Kai's entire bloodline.
"I'm…If you're okay with it, that is," she stopped to pull out the wire that was used for Zane's maintenance checks, "It's easier to upload the data, then to talk about it."
"I trust you."
"Okay, but if you could keep this between me and you-"
"Of course, but PIXAL will also have to know. She's in my head, after all."
Zane's smile and joking tone filled Nya with a humorous relief that made her giggle while she plugged the wire into the port on the side of Zane's head before walking over to the computer, this time manually accessing it.
Once she had access to his memory bank, she clicked "add new memory" which she and Zane had created after they returned from Chen's Island so she could fill in the gaps that his new memory bank had lost before she started typing.
She typed every detail she remembered; becoming public enemies, escaping prison, getting stranded, Jay getting taken hostage and hers and Jay's eventual escape; she debated internally for a moment about if she should add details about his father's lighthouse and about Echo, more importantly, if Echo even existed in the new timeline Jay had created.
But with how that event related to herself getting taken hostage and the new scar on her chest, she knew she had to, even if it hurt Zane or worse, hurt their friendship that she hadn't told him until now.
She hit the enter key and turned to see the scanning reflected in Zane's glowing blue eyes for a few moments before he finally met her gaze, the blank stare quickly morphing into deep sadness.
"I think you know why I didn't tell you now." Nya tried to smile while she removed the wire, even though she knew that it wasn't convincing.
She didn't realize just how unconvincing it was until she was pulled into a tight hug by the nindroid who only said one thing but that one thing still filled her with an immeasurable amount of relief.
"I do not blame you for keeping it from me."
…
Jay bit back a curse as he continued to fiddle with the long-abandoned ray gun in the dark, the object in question throwing sparks at his face.
"You stupid, piece of junk, just work." He muttered, waiting until the last ember fizzled out to stick his hands back into the mess of wires and machinery.
The lamp strapped to his forehead wasn't strong enough to illuminate the white scars on the back of his hands, let alone the inside of the weapon that he hadn't tinkered with since before Zane's sacrifice.
But even though his left eye refused to adjust to the darkness, he didn't dare turn the light on; the last thing he wanted was a lecture from anyone about why he was awake when he couldn't tell them why or worse, to wake up Nya, whose sleep schedule had become just as bad as his if not worse.
He would just wait until it was an acceptable hour to be awake and make himself an extra-strong espresso; being jittery throughout training was better than closing his eyes only to be shoved down deep into the nightmare that had been his reality just two weeks before.
Jay lifted the pliers away from the tangled mess and clamped his teeth around the bright red handles before grabbing the wire cutters and snipping right through the blue wire which protested in another round of quick sparks.
"Is that a gu-"
"Ahhh!" Jay screamed before the voice could finish its sentence, launching himself onto his feet and allowing his fists to fill with lightning that illuminated the room, only to light up his best friend's ghostly face.
"Sorry!" Cole shouted, covering his face in defense even though the lightning would easily pass right through him.
"Why are you sneaking up on people?!" Jay shouted as the blue fizzled out, "why aren't you asleep?!"
"I could ask you the same question since it's," Cole paused to look over at the clock on the wall, "three in the morning."
"Really?" Jay asked as he stood up, pulled the headlamp off and stretched his arms with what he hoped was a convincing yawn, "I must've lost track of time. I'll just head to bed-"
He was stopped by Cole's cold hand around his wrist, effectively stopping him in his attempt at a quick getaway.
"What is going on with you?" Jay tried to answer but was cut off by Cole adding onto his question, "What is going on with Nya? Everyone can see you two drifting away from us, and don't think you can lie to me, I know you too well."
"You saved up for this place? Bologna. Whenever money comes your way, you waste it on junk food and video games. What's really up, and don't think you can lie to me, I know you too well."
"Cole, I'm not…" Jay swallowed in order to try and find the words, to find the strength in him to tell him everything, but the only words that came out were, "I'm not ready."
"Jay-"
"The little canary can't find his voice."
"I can't tell you," Jay continued, wiping his arm over his eyes filling with tears while trying to block the mocking tone out of his mind, "I can't tell anyone."
"Why not?"
'Because I'm the reason all of you got hurt.' Jay wanted so desperately to just tell the truth, to let his best friend in, but his lips felt as if the sheet of metal that had been forced over his face in an effort to keep his last wish from being spoken was once again covering them.
"Fine, you don't have to tell me," Cole finally spoke up after pinching the bridge of his nose, his other hand still grasped around Jay's wrist, "but you do need to go to sleep, not just lay down, close your eyes and fake snore until you can keep fiddling with this gun thing."
'That might be the worst idea Cole has ever had, and this is the same guy who tried to make lava with Kai.'
"If you must know, it is a replica copy of Fritz Donnegan's ray gun, the one from Starfarer issue thirty-nine where he goes up against the Kryptamights-"
"Oh, First Master! Just go to bed!"
"Fine, fine!" Jay raised his hands in surrender which finally got Cole to let go of his wrist, "I'm going, I'm going," he let his hands drop only to put the prototype away in case it tried to spark in defiance again, "but you better do something outside of pummeling Kai's Sitar Legend high score into the ground."
"Goodnight, blue bell."
"Same to you, twinkle toes."
Even though he couldn't help himself from smiling when he heard Cole's echoey laugh, it quickly faded when he was hit with the realization that he actually had to go to sleep, in his bed, where the memories of losing everyone to the Djinn blade hovered over his head.
'It's just a couple of hours till sunrise exercise. You can last for a couple of hours.' Jay told himself as he climbed up the ladder and laid down on his pillow, allowing himself to take comfort in the sound of Kai's deep breathing, Zane's loud snoring and Lloyd's occasional shifting in his bed.
Sure, Cole was making rounds through The Bounty and Nya was sound asleep in her room, but this was as close to normal as Jay was going to get until the dreaded training in the morning so he grabbed Mr. Cuddleywhomp from the end of his bed and pulled himself onto his right side.
It wasn't long until his eyes fluttered closed and shut out the world around him, but the sleep he received was anything but the peace that he had hoped for.
"You only have one wish, Jay. What a dilemma," Nya was already growing cold in his grasp, too cold, cold only meant bad things, cold meant dea- "wish me mortal and she dies. Wish her well, and there is no stopping me!"
"You have to make your last wish. You're the only one who can stop him."
His heart was pounding by the time the alarm clock started ringing throughout the room.
Luckily for Jay, the topic remained untouched as he stood in front of all of them with the newly reconstructed battle bot standing behind him at the ready.
"This is the master remote, it controls every single aspect of the bot's infrastructure which means that this stays with me," he stopped to pull out the smaller yet just as advanced secondary remote, "this is the training remote, so you can change difficulty, weapons and speed. Who wants to test it first?"
Jay wasn't surprised to see Lloyd walk forward and slip the helmet over his head without even being asked; he had been assisting with the major improvements after he had been cautioned against diving headfirst back into his usual routine while recovering from Morro.
"Do you know what level-"
"Give me a challenge."
'Maybe I'm not the only one who couldn't sleep last night.' Jay thought to himself while taking in Lloyd's clenched jaw and strained voice.
But, he knew better than to press when that was the last thing he wanted for himself right now, so he grabbed the remote, hit the number seven and backed away to give Lloyd all the space he needed.
Jay knew he was supposed to be paying attention to both Lloyd's technique and the bot's adaptation but he was unable to focus when the ghostly palm pulled him away from the others.
"Cole, what-"
"Nya told me."
"She…" Jay swallowed back the bile that wanted to come out of his throat because 'she told Cole, she told Cole EVERYTHING'. He wasn't surprised when his fear came out in the form of a squeak, "she told you about-"
He couldn't finish his sentence before he was pulled into a bone-crushing hug which made the skin on his arms tingle in retaliation, but he ignored it and returned the hug as his tears made a light 'hiss' against the deepstone armor.
…
Nya hated how damp the storage building was.
She knew better to complain about it when it was keeping them hidden from Harumi, even if all of the clothes, first aid supplies and the perishables had been soaked through and the dampness only made the metal building colder than it was in the harsh fall wind.
It didn't help that it felt all too familiar to Misfortune's Keep.
It had been nearly two years since the timeline reversal and even though confiding in Cole and Zane had been beneficial for her to be able to begin to move on from those events, there were still things that would remind her on how tight that white dress had been despite the extra arms and how tight her throat had been as she tried to get her final words out.
Nya shook away the thoughts and bent down to pick up the drying first aid kit before making her way over to Lloyd.
Lloyd, who was sitting in the corner with his vision not fixated on any one thing as he rested his head against the wall and was more than likely thinking about the others.
Lloyd, who looked so much more like the nine year old in a black hoodie and less like the leader of the resistance.
She couldn't help but wonder if the ache in her chest was how Jay felt right after she had been taken, if he also knew the exact stab of pain from losing everyone he loved all too well.
"You're getting better at hand to hand." Nya tried to break through his silence as she gently pushed back a section of his hair to reveal the graze from the fight in Kryptarium Prison that still hadn't healed.
"My mom told you to tell me that?"
"No one told me to tell you that, and if you remember from my samurai days," she stopped to brush an alcohol wipe over the graze, swallowing back her guilt from the instant hiss of pain, "when it comes to talking to you, I am a shit liar."
Lloyd nodded but stayed quiet as she applied a new gauze pad over the graze and didn't fight back when she started to run her fingers over his collarbones, shoulders, and arms.
"How are your legs?" She asked after confirming that he had come out of the training with zero hairline fractures.
"Fine, you didn't snap any of my limbs," Lloyd insisted, still resting his head against the wall, "can I ask you a question?"
"I don't see why not," she insisted as she grabbed the fabric bandages before gesturing for him to take off his shirt so she could see if the broken ribs were still healing, "good distraction, right?"
"How'd you get that scar on your chest?"
Nya became rigid as her blood went cold.
"I don't wanna pry but I saw it earlier and I just…you don't have to answer if you don't want to."
"What, um…" She stopped to tear off the strip from the roll, making a mental note that she should tell Dareth to check the abandoned clinic again for supplies when he returned, "Is there a reason that you're asking?"
"Because you're all I have left of them and…" Lloyd stopped to swallow but Nya was unable to tell if that was from the pain of her taking off the old bandages that Jay had wrapped neatly around Lloyd's torso just a few days before or from what he said next, "I wanted to make sure it wasn't because of her."
Nya gently ran her hand over the purple and blue splotches that covered his left side, relief only hitting her when she saw that the least severe of the bruising was slowly but surely changing from blue to yellowish-green.
"No, it happened about two years ago, long before Harumi."
"Good," Lloyd nodded, his face visibly relaxing, "so, what fight did I miss then?"
"You didn't miss much. Sky pirates, Dijin wedding and a timeline reversal," she said quickly to avoid dwelling on it longer than she had to, "just another day in Ninjago."
"Would you believe me if I said that I was too tired to ask more questions?" Lloyd asked, wincing as she pulled the bandages firmly in order to make sure they were tight before securing them with a few strips of medical tape.
"Regardless, we should probably go again."
"But-" Lloyd started as he pulled his shirt back on, but Nya cut him off as she offered him her hand for support.
"Ninja never quit, right?"
"Unfortunately."
He put his hand in hers and let her pull him to his feet.
She tried not to remember the many times she had pulled Jay to his feet as they trained and he let her beat him, even if he insisted that he wasn't. It made the scar on her chest twinge with pain when she thought about him for too long.
So she pushed it down and held her fists up while speaking, "Then let's go again."
…
It was quiet in the monastery as Nya brushed the electric blue nail polish over Jay's fingernails.
It had taken quite a bit of filing for them to be the right shape after being in the First Realm, but sitting on her bedroom floor while the faint smell of nail polish hit his nose was comforting.
It meant he wasn't stuck in a foreign realm away and not knowing if she was okay and it also meant he wasn't trapped on Misfortune's Keep and fearing what would happen to her if he gave in to Nadhakhan's demands.
It made the Yin-Yang medallion weigh heavy in his pocket and his internal voice pressured him to "ask her now" but he ignored it; he knew that he could find a better time than while his nail polish was still wet.
"Did Master Wu tell you about the mural?" Nya spoke as she finished painting the nails on his right hand and gestured for him to put his left hand in hers.
He had missed dinner to pick up the medallion in the city and he wasn't that surprised that an announcement had been made in his absence. He shook his head "no".
"He said that he's hiring some monks to paint the "history of Ninjago" on the west side, individual murals of us stopping all those people over the years."
"Oh, that's cool." Jay nodded but he couldn't help but wonder if Nya had told Master Wu about the djinn.
"Lloyd's already calling it "the trauma wall", but Kai lectured him on it and now Cole's talking about finding him a therapist which I'm not totally against-"
"Did you tell Master Wu? About the…you know." Jay trailed off, knowing that part of him was still worried about saying the name aloud as if it would summon the dijin right to him.
"I don't think it's exactly an age appropriate story for a baby."
"Fair point."
"Do you…do you want him to know?"
"You told Lloyd, you told Zane and PIXAL and you had to tell Cole for me," Jay expressed as she let go of his left hand, "I just…if anyone should know, it should be Master Wu, just in case."
He didn't want to go into the "what ifs" right now, the two of them were both painfully aware of any bad possibility that could come from the events of the timeline reversal and this was their first date night inside the new monastery of spinjitzu. The last thing he wanted to do was taint it.
"He's probably still awake, if you want to tell him now," Nya sat back while putting away the dark blue nail polish and pulling out a dark red for herself, "it'll be easier if you don't wait until he's putting paint on the wall, but if you scuff your nails before I put the top coat on, Jay Walker, I swear to the first spinjitzu master himself-"
"I won't walk into the walls, promise."
"We both know you don't even believe that." she smiled before shooing him out the door with a wave of her hand.
It was only when he shut the sliding door, without denting the fresh polish, that he realized his mistake.
'Just tell Master Wu about everything that happened when you're too scared to even say names, like that isn't nearly impossible.'
"Baby steps, Jay. Baby steps," He whispered to himself as he started to walk through the dark halls of the monastery, "you can figure out what to say after you find him."
If anyone had heard him, they would know that he was trying to avoid thinking about his words as much as possible. Even he knew that he was avoiding thinking about it as he poked his head in the common areas that were completely dark for the night.
He grabbed his jacket that was hanging by the door and pushed his arms through the sleeves before walking into the courtyard that was only illuminated by the glow of the moon.
And sure enough, the figure of Master Wu that was shrouded in shadow due to the darkness was standing and staring at the west wall that would soon immortalize everything they had been through in the last few years.
"Master Wu?" Jay asked softly as to not startle him.
"Nya told you about the mural?"
"Yes, yes she did," Jay agreed as he moved forward to stand by Master Wu's side, "we were talking and…well, she said…I have something to tell you."
"Oh?"
"Do you remember when you sent us to investigate what Clouse was doing in Stixx? After he escaped the Cursed Realm?" Jay questioned, figuring that he should start with something he had no problems talking about, "but we missed him because we drew attention of the NInjago City news team and when we got back on The Bounty, Lloyd said that he was experiencing some really intense deja vu?"
"I seem to recall the news footage of you and Nya settling your differences and her using airjitzu, yes."
"I know why, Nya and I both do and we've told a few of the others, but we were talking and I told her that if anyone needed to know, it was you because if somehow it didn't work, you'd be able to help us figure it out. Wish magic is tricky and-"
"Jay," Master Wu's hand on his shoulder stopped his nervous ramble, "I know that you two reversed the timeline where Clouse released an evil djinn."
"Who told you?"
"I became very familiar with time travel long before Acronix hit me with the "time punch", and even before the four of you went back in time and destroyed my brother's megaweapon. When I saw that news footage, I felt the same feeling as Lloyd did, that I had seen this before."
"That doesn't explain how you know about…about him." Jay still couldn't say the name, it made his stomach turn and his tongue feel heavy.
"When my brother returned to help the elemental alliance, he told me very little about what he had seen and heard with Chen as his sensei. But he did tell me that Clouse had a very strong interest in dark magic which included the Teapot of Tyrahn, the same teapot that Captain Soto had famously trapped a djinn by the name of Nadhakhan inside of before marooning the rest of his crew in different realms."
Jay tried not to shudder at the name being said aloud, "so the First Spinjitzu Master used the realm crystal to help Soto?"
"Precisely. I was a teenager back then, so while my father didn't tell Garmadon or I much, I was very good at listening in on his private conversations," Wu's brief smile of fondness from the memory helped relax some of Jay's nervous energy, "would you and Nya like for the defeat of Nadakhan to be a part of the mural?"
"I don't know," Jay admitted, kicking at a loose pebble by his feet, "if no one remembers it, how is it as important as something like Zane's sacrifice, or the Iron Doom?"
"Regardless of whether or not the others remember it, it is still a part of our history. And given the nail polish on your hands, the fact you came out here to tell me at eleven at night and the yin-yang medallion in your pocket, I have a feeling that you and Nya are still finding significance in it."
The medallion weighed heavy in his pocket again, "how did you-"
"My nephew is very happy for you two, and terrible at keeping secrets from people who are not the subject of surprise."
Jay couldn't help but smile at the mental image of Lloyd excitedly telling Master Wu about what he had asked both Kai and Lloyd after returning from asking Nya' parents and telling his own, knowing that the green ninja was just as much Nya's brother as Kai was.
'If it wasn't for that stupid teapot, I wouldn't even be asking Nya to be my yang.'
"Yeah," Jay nodded in response to Wu's question, "It should be part of the mural."
"Very well. You should get back to your date night," Wu nodded, but when Jay started to make his way back inside, he added "and Jay?"
"Yes, Master Wu?"
"Congratulations."
…
Nya ran her fingers over the curves in the medallion, making notes of every little scratch in it; she had taken the gold half while the Oni were trying to break down the doors of the monastery and it had shined despite the lack of light in the sky.
Jay's words had been quick, but heartfelt and when Cole and Kai had yelled about his sense of timing, all he had responded with was "there may not be another time"; even though she had initially been confused, she knew that she was going to say yes as soon as he got down on one knee.
Just being pinned to her chest during the tornado of creation had scuffed it quite a bit, but Kai had taught her years ago how to get scratches out of metal with a scouring pad and once she made note of all of the marks, she was going to fix it.
'Two nights ago, I was telling Jay not to dent his nail polish,' Nya thought to herself when she caught sight of her chipped nails, 'now I'm working out the scratches in the medallion he bought for me.'
Nya knew it could have been way worse than a scratched-up medallion. Cole could have died, Lloyd did die even if it was only for a few seconds, her plan about the golden weapons and Lloyd's plan about the tornado of creation could have failed.
It was not lost on Nya that the biggest repercussions that she was feeling was having to smooth out the medallion and the monastery being slightly more drafty then usual.
It wasn't surprising to her that the others had all turned in early, leaving her alone in the dim lighting of the kitchen to repair her medallion; it was actually nice in a strange way, to be able to just focus on the repairs she was making.
She hadn't experienced that since she had been Samurai X.
She was brought out of her focus of running the scratches over the scouring pad to one of the bedroom doors opening and closing with a couple of creaks that indicated that the new hinges already needed oiling.
'That's tomorrow's project.' She told herself as she heard the footsteps approach her, looking up to see her brother heading towards the cups.
"How's Lloyd?" She asked, making sure she lined up the grooves correctly so she didn't scratch it more.
"He's not in too much pain, all things considered," Kai shrugged as he filled the cup with the filtered water in the fridge, "had to give him the "parents don't define us" talk again."
"So not great." Nya sighed as she put the medallion down to switch to a softer pad to finish polishing the sides.
Every single one of them with the exception of Jay, and she knew that he wouldn't be so lucky if Kai knew about his biological parents, had been on the receiving end of Kai's spiel about being separate from your parents.
Cole during their undercover work for the Ninjago Talent show, Zane when he questioned why his father hadn't removed his memory switch, Lloyd so many times whether it pertained to Misako or Garmadon and even her when she was so frustrated with her mom that it made her want to ignore every single text message and phone call that she received.
Kai had always been at the ready with his rare but wise words and a tight, comforting hug every single time.
"Yeah, but he's asleep now," Kai sat down beside her on the barstool with his glass of water, "can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"Were you ever going to tell me?"
"I'm not following." Nya raised her eyebrow as she reexamined the medallion to see that her work had been a success before pinning it back onto her gi, all while a small part of her brain hoped that her brother was referring to something that didn't involve sky pirates.
"About the mural."
"What about it?"
"Oh my-First Master. The one of you and Jay and that four armed genie thing with the lamp! Were you ever going to tell me, Nya?"
'No getting out of it now.'
"Fine, fine," Nya sighed as she rested her elbow on the counter so she was looking directly at her brother's amber colored eyes, the Smith family anger bubbling in her chest, "what do you want me to tell you? About the sky pirates? About being public enemies and being put in Kryptarium? About me dying in Jay's arms? Or just about the evil djinn who tried to kill Jay and tried to force me into being his wife?"
Kai went deathly silent as he looked down at the tiled floor but as soon as she finished speaking, she couldn't help but instantly regret the tone that she had used against her brother.
She hadn't gone into details since she had first typed everything out into Zane's database, she had never recounted the details out loud since they had happened. It made the scar on her chest ache when she found it in herself to look back at Kai's tear filled eyes.
"I-I'm sorry," tears started involuntarily running down her cheeks as well, "everyone else knows and-"
She was cut off by the tightest hug Kai had ever given her, one hand in her hair and the other resting on her upper back, she instantly returned the pressure with her hands wrapped tightly around his torso.
"I shouldn't have acted like that." Nya spoke after a few moments, still engulfed in the hug.
"I shouldn't have pushed. You went to the others in your own time, right?"
"Kind of," Nya nodded against Kai's shoulder, "Cole came to me, but that was because he was worried about Jay and Lloyd asked, but I was trying to distract him and we thought you guys were dead-omph." She was cut off again by Kai squeezing her tighter.
"I love you, Nya."
"I don't think you've told me that in a long time."
Kai finally let go and wiped his face on his sleeve, "me either, I didn't think I needed to say it. But after today I just…I feel like I should let everyone know that, especially you."
Nya nodded, her brother's shout of "we have to go back" as a reaction to Cole's fall and his desperate plea of "buddy, wake up" after they had pulled Lloyd out from under the rubble would forever live in her mind, just like the scarring memories of what she and Jay had experienced.
"I love you too, Kai."
"I know you do," Kai grinned with a hint of cockiness in his voice which made Nya roll her eyes, "I just wanted to make sure that if you wanted to talk to me about it, you knew that you could."
"I know."
"Good, also that if that fucker ever tries to mess with you or Jay again, I'll fist fight him."
Nya chuckled as she hugged him again, tucking her chin against his shoulder as she whispered in his ear, "get in line, Jay and I call first dibs."