Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

“You sure you’re going to be ok?” Nya asked for the quadruple thousand time “Yes! I’m sure now gooooooo!” Kai pushed his little sister out the door, “Just saying , last time we left you and Cole alone the kitchen burnt down.” “Hey!” Nya giggled. “Nya! Are you coming or not?” Jay rushed to his fiancé and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. Kai gagged. “I’m coming, I just want to make sure everything is alright first.” “Don’t worry my love! If anyone can keep the monastery in one piece it’s my 2 best friends!” He gave Kai a teasing look, “And if not, at least we have an excuse to ignore Cole’s cooking!” Kai rolled his eyes but reluctantly found himself agreeing. “Yeah yeah yeah just go have fun it’s a wedding!” He slammed the door shut. “It’s not our wedding!” He heard Jay call through the door. “It’s Lloyd’s cousin’s! And I don’t get why you don’t have to go!” “Someone has to watch over Ninjago!” He yelled back

Kai found himself wandering the halls of the monastery, needless to say he was bored, ‘maybe I could annoy Cole’ he smiled and turned towards the gaming room. He wasn’t surprised to find the raven drawing, a hobby he picked up since he was a kid, the team always wondered how Cole was able to create such art even with his red and green colorblindness. “What ya drawing.” “A dragon.” He flipped his sketchbook around to show what was indeed a dragon. Kai nodded “That’s actually pretty good, how did you learn to draw like that?” “My mom taught me.” He pulled his dragon closer. “She used to be a painter, she even got the chance to go to Paris and paint the Eiffel Tower.” Kai frowned “Judging by your tone I’m guessing she didn’t get round to doing that?” Cole shook his head slowly staring down at his page, tears threatening to fall. ‘Teasing will have to wait.’ “I bet she’ll be proud of you.” Cole’s gaze shifted so that now he was staring directly at his brother. “You think so?” “Definitely” Kai walked over and sat next to Cole very much engaged in his dragon. “You know it’s kinda ironic how the guy who was afraid of dragons spends his time drawing them.” Cole chuckled at Kai’s statement. “I’m not anymore, airhead, I got over that fear when I met Rocky.” “No you didn’t! You lier! It took you 3 months to even step foot in the dragon coop!” Cole let out an exaggerated gasp. “It was only 2!” Kai shrugged. “Close enough.” Cole felt his eyes roll, “I’m hungry.” He decided, he placed his sketchbooks on the table before getting up and bolted to the kitchen, “you want anything?” “Not if you’re making it!” “Hey!” Kai smirked, Cole was a good drawer, but honestly a terrible chef. “Relax dirtclod, I’ll help you.” Cole waved his hands in protest. “Phtttt I don’t need babysitting.” Kai got up from his spot on the couch, “you do if you're cooking.” He gave his companion a playful nudge, “Or do you need me to remind you about what happened last time?” Cole snorted, “yeah whatever Kai.” Kai chuckled then followed his adoptive brother to the doom sentence, I uh mean the kitchen.

“Mmmmmmmm” Cole stood in front of the cabinets, “what should we make?” Kai leaned on the counter, “I don’t know, you're the one that wanted to cook!” “How about a cake.” Cole reached for the flour and brought it to where Kai was. “Do I really get a choice?” “Nope! We’re baking!” He looked smirked “or do I need to remind you what happened last time, when we tried to cook?” “Touché.” Kai grabbed the sugar. While Cole got the rest of the ingredients. “Ok we first need to separate the wet ingredients from the dry ones, then we crack 2 eggs into a bowl, 3 cups of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.” Kai did as he was told, “Great, now let’s mix it until it’s smooth.” Kai skeptically began to stir. “How do you know all this? I thought you sucked at cooking.” Kai looked over at Cole who dumped a truckload of flour into a different bowl. “It’s cake Kai, anything is possible.” He hummed in response, “Now get the chocolate.” “Chocolate? I thought we were making vanilla?” Cole rolled his eyes. “It’s not for the cake dummy, it’s for ME!” Kai laughed and handed it to Cole, “gimme!” About half an hour later (and a flour fight that they agreed on never mentioning again.) The cake was finished. As soon as it was out of the oven Cole wasted no time in cutting himself a generous slice. Kai upon watching this looked at his brother like someone just told him he had 5 minutes left to live. “Shouldn’t we let it cool first?” “Nom wey mmmm” He replied. “What about icing?” “Teks, boo, wrong.” He swallowed, “Besides, why would you make something so beautiful on its own only to cover it up with nothing more than a sugary liquid?” Kai shrugged before opting for his own slice. “Mmmmmmmm day es good!” The two boys finished off the rest of the cake not bothering to save any for the others.

Kai checked the clock. “11:55, we should go to bed, got training tomorrow.” Cole groaned “Really? Sensi is gone for a week and you want to train?” “Hey, the whole reason we got to stay behind is because we promised to protect Ninjago! How can we if we’re sloppy?” The younger crosses his arms. “Since when did you become the responsible one?” “Since now. Now let’s go.” Kai gestured to the door, “Not tired.” He stopped to take a look at his brother who had a nasty look on his face. “Cooooollllleee! It’s bedtime!” “Kaaaaaaiiiiiii it’s play time!” “Coleman Wyatt Brookstone! Go to bed this instant!” The latter chuckled “yes mom!” He dashed to his room “And don’t forget training tomorrow!” Kai called after him. “I won’t” Kai shook his head but couldn’t stop the smile from creeping onto his lips. “What an idiot.” He whispered to himself. Cole’s voice was heard from across the hall. “I heard that!”
The red head’s smile only grew. “Doesn’t make it any less true!” He called back, before hurriedly dashing to his quarters. ‘Man this is going to be fun’ he thought before jumping into bed and letting the sweet sensation of sleep overtake him.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2
Cole woke up with a headache. Tiredly he sat up. ‘Did it always take this much energy?’ He thought as he rubbed his temples with his left hand, whilst his right held him up. Shaking, he stood up. Although he wanted nothing more than to go back to bed, he promised Kai that he’d train with him, and if there’s one thing everyone knows about Cole, is that he takes promises very seriously. It had something to do with his childhood, in fact his final words to his mother before she died was a promise that he would ought to stand up to those who are cruel and unjust, in the name of protecting the innocent of course. The boy was quite grateful for his black gi, especially on cold days such as today. He would’ve liked it to be orange as that is his favorite color after all, but black wasn’t too bad he supposed. It confused his fans upon hearing the news, since all of the other ninja’s favorite colors are their dedicated ones. Cole took one look into the mirror, like how he did every morning. He hated the look of his mismatching eyes. One black one purple. Colorblindness had always been a shameful thing to Cole. Even if it was only in his left eye. The kids at his school would often call him names because of them. Such as, freak or weirdo.(he would often get his revenge later but it still hurt.) It’s why it took so long to come out to the other ninja about it.

Cole clutched his stomach in pain, and he suddenly felt dizzy. He leaned onto the wall for support, while he steadied his breathing. In and out. In and out. Eventually his vision grew normal again and he didn’t hurt as much. Standing up (when did he sit down?) He began the walk outside. Kai was already going at a dummy. Showing no mercy. “Take that!” He aimed a kick at the side. “And that.” Another one to the opposite side. “And this” He backflipped before spraying fire at the poor punching bag. “You just got Kaied!” Cole chuckled at his brother’s antics. “ That isn’t a word moron! You should stick to your other catch phrases.” Said moron quickly whipped around so that he could face his companion. “Says you sleeping beauty, I didn’t see you throwing any fists?” Said sleeping beauty yawned in reply. Cole was surprised by how much that hurt his throat. “So? I was tired, leave me alone.” “I can see that.” Kai upon studying Cole’s appearance, face softened. “Are you sure you still want to train? You look a little green. ‘Green’ Cole thought. ‘Wonder what that looks like’ He shook his head. “Nah, I'm fine, wanna spar?” Kai immediately lit up. “Oh you are so on!”

The two ninjas took their positions on either side of the training area. “Good luck Cole, I’ve been told I can be pretty mean when I wanna be.” Kai’s hands burst into flames and he was wearing a smirk on his lips. Cole grumbled in reply, something about talking made him feel sick. Kai dashed at him and he swiftly dodged the attack immediately taking the defensive. Being the master of lightning Jay was naturally the fastest out of all of them, but surprisingly Kai was second, and it was getting harder for Cole to keep up. One lucky blow to his midsection swept the air out of the boy, another knocked him into the wall. Kai stopped his attacks as seeing his brother gasp for air. “Are you sure you're ok? We could stop if you want?” “No no” Cole panted. “I’m ok, I just need a-” Black dots painted his vision. “Cole? COLE!” He heard
someone yell, finally giving way to the darkness and falling into the relief of unconsciousness.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3
Kai sat legs crossed in the med room, he took Cole inside after he passed out and laid him on the bed saved specifically for emergencies, next, he fetched the first aid kit before forcing some painkillers down the raven’s throat granted he was no ninjroid but when it came to the protection of his family he could’ve done brain surgery on them.
Probably not very well but that’s besides the point.
That was 2 and a half hours ago and yet Cole showed no signs of waking anytime soon. Kai played with his fingers ‘did I do this?’ He thought, ‘did I knock him out?’ The fire master mentally slapped himself ‘no Kai! Don’t think like that. Cole’s probably just tired, he did say that right?’ ‘Even so I thought something was wrong, I shouldn’t have let him train!’ A brief look at his brother confirmed he was still sleeping. Kai growled in frustration! “Oh you idiot!” He knew Cole couldn’t hear him but he needed to get his anger out somehow. “Why didn't you tell me you were sick? You know you shouldn’t have done that! You're such a dummy!”
Cole snored in response
Kai sighed
“Why Cole? Why don’t you ever think about yourself?” Kai sank back into his chair. The floor looked particularly interesting right now. If there was one thing everyone knew about Kai is that he hates seeing his family hurt. It’s why he took on the responsibility of raising Nya. He’s the big brother of the team, (apart from Zane, but he’s a ninjroid so it doesn’t count.) (at least that’s what Kai thought) and he has brought it upon himself yet again to ensure his loved ones are safe. Needless to say he felt completely useless.

‘Maybe I should make Cole some soup.’ The redhead stood up and made his way to the kitchen. Kai had to admit, it wasn’t in best shape. Flour covered the walls and ground, splattered egg painted the counters and the sugar was pouring out of the bag. Kai made a mental note to clean this up before the others got home. If Jay saw it then they would be in for at least 3 weeks of teasing,
Kai skillfully avoided the mess as best as he could. It wasn’t long before he reached the fridge. Upon spotting the soup he quickly snatched it, he best down to open the lower cabinet and chose the biggest dinner bowl there. Wadding over to the microwave he shoved the food into it. He then proceeded to set the timer for 3 minutes and 24.9875322 seconds. (He was never really so fond of whole numbers) Time flew and the soup was ready. Kai held the scorching hot bowl and began the journey back. He saw a teaspoon on the counter, he took it. By the time he got to med room, the raven had sat up looking very confused.

“Kai? What happened? Where am I? Is that soup?” Cole stared at the bowl. Kai chuckled at his question.“You passed out in training, you're in the med room and no this is an elephant.” He held up the bowl to his face. Cole raised his eyebrow. “Yeah right, only one of us can carry an elephant and it’s sure as heck not you!” Kai walked over to the bed Cole was resting on. And proudly presented the soup to him. Cole being Cole took it swiftly, he’d it up to his lips and drank one big gulp. “Hey, I brought a spoon for a reason.” The earth elemental took one good look at the spoon. “It still has oil on it Kai! You just got it off the *cough *cough *cough” Kai’s smile dropped. He patted Cole’s back as he continued coughing. “Buddy? You ok?” Kai said “Yeah, sorry.” Cole shamefully looked down. “Hey it’s ok, how about you drink your soup slowly this time. I’ll get you a new spoon.” “Alright, thanks Kai.” Kai rushed back to the kitchen not even bothering to dodge the flour on the floor. He quickly grabbed a spoon. (A clean one) And dashed back.

Despite only being gone for a few minutes Cole wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The room was completely empty. Kai began to panic. He searched everywhere for him. The rooms, the gym, the kitchen again. The only place left was the bathroom. Opening the door he found Cole crouching over the toilet, vomiting. Kai ran to him and grabbed his hair holding it back.’There goes the soup.’ Tears were piling out of Cole’s eyes as he threw up another set of chunks. Kai felt like he was going to cry too. ‘Poor Cole’ he thought. About 5 minutes later Cole stopped. He grabbed some toilet paper to wipe the remaining vomit off his mouth before tossing it down the toilet and flushing it. The redhead rubbed soothing circles on his brother’s back. “I’m sorry Cole.” Kai said. “It’s ok Kai. Sorry the soup didn’t stay down.” “Don’t worry about it. Come on, let's get you in bed.” Kai helped Cole stand up, they slowly started walking back, but every few seconds Cole would drop, which then resulted in Kai just carrying him there. Had it been any other time the raven would’ve refused or at least be a little embarrassed. Instead, Kai watched as he simply closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep. When they got to the med room. Kai gently placed his sleeping brother on the bed. Getting up to leave he took one last glance at his sick teammate. “Goodnight Cole, get better soon.” And with that he switched off the light and went to clean the kitchen.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4
Cole groaned when he realized where he was, ‘what happened?’ ‘Oh right’ earth sat up already regretting his decision and lay back down. ‘Am I sick? No! I don’t get sick, I can’t! Not after-’ “Ah it seems the princess has awoken. Enjoy your nap, your highness?” A high pitched squeak came from the doorway. A very familiar squeak. Cole shifted to face, “Jay! What are you doing here?” Cole internally cringed at the way his voice cracked. “Kai told me you were sick, so being the amazing best friend I am, I rushed here as soon as I could to make sure you're ok. The others are still at the party though, they said they would come after the ceremony.” “Wait, sick? I’m not-” he was cut short by another coughing fit. Jay looked at him skeptically and opened his mouth to argue but he was interrupted by the fire ninja himself. “Jay I told you not to, oh Cole you're awake.” Cole coughed. “Guilty.” Kai’s smile dropped but he lit up again when he presented something in his hand. “I got you cake. Chocolate! It’s your favorite right?” Cole slowly nodded. Truth be told he wasn’t really up for cake, just the thought of food made his stomach flip. “Thanks Kai, but I don’t feel like it, right now.” Jay fake gasped. “What! Cole doesn’t want cake! You really are sick!” “I'M NOT SICK!” The raven then let out a sneeze that was strong enough to shake the mountain. Lightning was taken aback by the sudden outburst. He clung onto a chair for dear life, when finally the earthquake stopped. “I was only joking, and hate to break it to you bud, but mountains don’t just shake by sneezing, besides, you don’t look too good either.” Red nodded along “Your sick Cole why wont you just admit it?” Cole sat up, “because I’m not.” He said, his voice soft and quiet. Kai and Jay looked at each other. “Yesterday, you fainted during training, last night you were throwing up, I even had to carry you back here because you were too weak to walk.”

‘Weak, weak, weak…’ The word Cole hated most, ‘am I weak? Yes!of course I am! I can’t even sit up without feeling nauseous.’ As if Jay could read his mind he said. “That doesn’t mean you are weak, it just means you’re weaker. It’s normal for people when they. Are. Sick!” He spat the last words out like poison. Cole looked down at his lap. “I don’t wanna be though. I’m the strong one. I’m not supposed to get sick.” Fire and lightning moved closer to their brother. “Ok I think that’s the furthest thing from the truth I have ever heard.” Jay sat on Cole’s bed making the whole thing bounce. Kai sat down too. Cole felt like he was going to throw up all over again. “You don’t believe that do you? Getting sick isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a part of life.” “And death.” Cole spat. Kai looked at his friend deadpanly “What do you mean?” Cole paused for a minute debating whether or not to tell his friends. “Nevermind it doesn’t, Ahh choo.” The ground shook again. This time knocking over a lamp. Jay fell off the bed. “Ow, oh boy, maybe we should go somewhere that’s not on a mountain.” He said standing up. “But where? As far as I’m concerned there’s earth every ah choo!” The ground trembled a 3rd time that day. The poor bluebird fell over yet again. Red snapped his fingers. “What about the bounty? We could take it high into the sky then Cole can’t destroy the monastery.” Cole reached for a tissue to blow his nose. “Whatever, better than being stuck in here all day.” Kai and Jay helped Cole stand (despite his protests) and slowly walk to the game room. “Ah choo!” The mountain vibrated and this time the tv switched on. “And now coming in live from Gale Gossip, currently investigating a potential crime scene.” The 3 boys stopped walking to pay full attention to the news. “Hi I’m Gale Gossip, coming in live from, The forest of tranquility, where countless trees have been supposedly killed.” The screen showed many lifeless trees, the bark forgotten on the ground, the ground itself had almost no grass and was covered in cracks. “Locals say a mysterious person has come and poised this area with deadly toxins. Authorities still do not know who this mystery criminal is or why the ninja have not yet jumped to the rescue. That’s Gale Gossip tuning out.”

“There! That’s what’s making Cole sick!” Jay declared pointing at the tv, but quickly returned his arm to help steady Cole, Cole mentally groaned, ‘how many times do I have to tell them, I’m not sick.’ He thought. Kai adjusted his position on his brothers hold. “Are you sure Jay? Don’t you think that’s a little far stretched? Even if Cole is connected to the earth he’s never been like this before.” “I’m sure Kai! Cole almost never gets.” A glare from his brother shut him up. “Uhhhhh like this, you know. It has to be the poison. And we all know he is linked to the earth, remember he did that awesome light tornado thingy-” “Burst.” “Yeah that! Cole felt his face heat up. “Yeah well, maybe I guess.” It was a big maybe, sure Cole was rarely ever unwell, (and when he was, he wouldn’t show it) It could be a possibility. In fact, the more he thought about it the more likely it got. “Jays right. If the earth is dying, then that means.” He gulped. “NO!” Cole risked a look at Kai, fury in his eyes. “That’s not true. We’re gonna figure this out.” Another sneeze sent the ground shaking. “But for now, let’s get onto the bounty. Jay and Kai led Cole outside and sat him down by a wall so they could get the legendary flying ship. It was a hustle getting Cole aboard but once he was he was led straight into the sleeping quarters. “Get some sleep Cole, Jay and I will try to figure this out.” Kai instructed. “Oh come on I can help *cough *cough *cough” “Relaxe dirt for brains, we’ll wake you up when we find something.” Cole looked longing at his bed. ‘Surely a little nap wouldn’t hurt.’ “Ok” He carefully lay down. “But only for 5 minutes.” As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out cold. The remaining ninja sneaked out as quietly and as quickly as possible. That night Cole was plagued with a nightmare. The same nightmare he had been getting for the past year. The nightmare he hated more than anything else he had ever seen.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5
Jay sat at the edge of the deck, watching his feet dangle off the side, he and Kai stayed up all night researching for any possible way they could save Cole, and after hours of searching, hardwork and dedication they came up with.
Nothing
Jay had decided a break was in order, but his stubborn hothead of a brother had other plans. So while Jay was thinking outside, Kai was continuing their original task. Lightning’s mind wandered on to many topics, it was always hard for him to stay focused. Cole was the only one who knew about Jay’s ADHD, and when Cole told the team about his colorblindness, Jay was the first to know. Needless to say, they were (and still are) best friends. When Kai phoned Jay, about their little brother's condition, Jay didn’t believe him. Not because he didn’t care, but truthfully because Cole never got sick.
Like never
He was always the one tending to others' needs when they were sick. But even after living with them for 7 years, Cole was always in perfect health condition. Jay wondered how that was even possible which is why he had to see for himself.

Flashback

It was the night before the wedding, Jay and Nya were in their hotel room, just about to turn in for the night, when Jay’s phone rang, tiredly he checked the contact.
Hot head
“Who is it?” Nya asked, “Kai.” The water ninja rolled her eyes, “he’s probably just prank calling you, you should just ignore it.” Jay looked at his fiancé with an open heart, pondering on what he should do, but, “it’s 1am Nya. Kai goes to bed at 11, 12 if he isn’t going anywhere, but never later, what if something’s wrong?” Nya’s eyes went big. “Well don’t just stand there, answer the call.” So Jay did. “Jay? Jay! Thank goodness you picked up!” Kai’s voice was rushed and filled with worry. “Yeah sorry about that, is everything ok?” “No! Cole’s sick, he passed out in training, couldn’t stop coughing and just finished throwing up. I had to carry him to bed because he couldn’t stand on his own.” Jay and Nya shared a look of confusion. “But Cole never gets sick, are you sure?” “Yes Jay! I’m sure! And I need you to come here! I can’t tell if he has a fever.” Nya gave her boyfriend a nod of approval. “Ok I’m coming, but why didn’t you call Zane?” “I tried but he didn’t pick up, besides I don’t know if he’ll be able to tell if it’s a fever or not, you know metal skin and all… now hurry up and get your butt here!”
So Jay left quickly, it took him 6 hours to get to the monastery. When he finally got there he swiftly opened the door into the game room, “Kai? Kai? KAAAAIIIIIIIII!!!!!” Kai poked his head out from the doorway, he put his finger to his lips telling Jay to be quiet.
You know the opposite of talking
Greeeeeaaaaaattttttt
The master of fire signaled to the training yard. Jay nodded, they slowly walked out
The opposite of quickly
Greeeeaaaaaaattttttt
Jay was the first to speak
Obviously
“So what’s up with Cole?”
“He's sick, dummy, that’s why I called you.”
“I know that hairgel! I was just wondering how sick?”
“Well I don’t know I can’t tell, but he’s been throwing up a lot, he can barely stay conscious, his eyes are puffy and his nose is more red than my shirt!” Kai tugged the bottom of his gi, “That’s weird, Cole doesn’t normally get sick.” Jay put his hand to his chin. Kai rolled his eyes. “I know ZapTrap! Why do you think I’m freaking out?” The fire ninja started pacing rapidly. “I don’t know what to do! I can’t tell if he has a fever, because for me everything is hot!” Jay nodded. “Don’t worry Kai, I’ll go check.” Jay turned around to leave but was tackled to the ground by his brother. “No not yet! He’s sleeping! He needs his sleep!” The bluebird shifted into a more comfortable position, which was harder than intended considering a 19 year old ninja was on top of him. “Cool it Kai, I’m the lightning ninja, I’m really fast, I’ll just be in and out.” “You're also really loud! And Cole’s a ninja too remember! We’re trained to be light sleepers.” Jay tried to get up, but Kai kept him down. “But you said he’s barely conscious! Look, you called me to check Cole’s temperature, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do!” Then in one quick swoop, Jay rolled over reversing the previous positions, he playfully flicked Kai’s forehead before getting up and storming into the monastery. Kai grumbled something but followed Jay nonetheless. As they passed the kitchen. Fire tugged lightning’s arm, his other hand pointed to something on the table.
Cake
Kai picked it up and whispered something into Jay’s ear. “Just in case, he’ll be less angry if we bring him food, just let me get a fork.” There were none left, so Kai had to wash one. But Jay was never good at standing still, so he headed to the med room. ‘Not like I’m going to need cake, I’ll be fast.’ Not more than 2 seconds after he entered the room did Cole stir. ‘Darn it, ok play it cool Jay.’ “Ah it seems the princess has awoken. Enjoy your nap, your highness?” The freckled ninja studied his brother, his face was colorless, like he was holding his breath for too long, his nose was all puffy and he had dark bangs under his eyes. He really didn’t look to good. Cole said something to him, but he barely registered it, he might’ve said something back, but he couldn’t remember. “Jay I told you not too, oh Cole you're awake!”

End of flashback

Jay sat there and thought, he thought about how he could save his little brother (Cole wasn’t that much younger than him, only about 7 months, but when Jay found out, he wouldn’t let it go) from this weird and potentially deadly sickness. ‘Deadly… No! It won’t come to that! We have to do something, I won’t let my best friend die, not like this.’ His head snapped up, determined. Jay decided that his break was over, he quickly got up and hurried back to Kai, but when he passed the sleeping quarters the blue boy could’ve sworn he heard the slight muffle of tears. “Cole?” He knocked on the door. The crying immediately stopped. “Cole?” He called again, this time opening the door where the man in black was fast asleep in bed. ‘Weird.’ He thought, but closed the door anyway, running back to help Kai.
Leaving Cole
all alone
In darkness.
Dundundun

Chapter Text

Chapter 6
Kai hadn’t got even a wink of sleep. He’d been up all night researching ways to help Cole, usually whenever anyone on the team got sick, a day off filled with rest, sleep and plenty of Zane’s awesome chicken soup would cure whatever it was their body was fighting and they’d be ready the next day to continue their causal ninja duties of saving the world.
But not this time
Because this wasn’t just any sickness, this was a completely new one, one that might kill one of Kai’s little brothers depending on certain circumstances.
And he hated it
No he didn’t
He despised it!
He couldn’t stand the thought of Cole dying, sure he’d been dead before when he became a ghost, as well as many other times the team thought he died, but that was different, he came back all those times everything turned out to be ok it always did. So they was nothing to really worry about
Right?
Right!
They will find a cure to save Cole, have a heartfelt reunion then the raven would shout at them because he “doesn’t do hugs” but will then crush them all in another one anyway insisting that he was “just fine”

‘But what if he’s not this time?’

With that lovely thought stuck in the fire master’s head, he continued his task of flipping through Ninjago history books such as “How to get better for dummies” “ill ill go away come back never,” and everyone’s favorite “Get Well Soon #2” when a certain bluebell walked in, “hey Kai!” Jay chirped as he grabbed “I’m sick of this sickness” off the shelf. “Find anything yet?” The hot head sighed. “No not yet, I’ve read every book there is! But I still can’t find anything!” He could feel the anger rising up in his chest. “And I don’t even know what I’m looking for! Every flipping sentence just seems to have the same bundled up words as the last!” He threw the historical book across the room. “Hey hey it’ll be okay,” “How Jay? how? Our brother is in bed with a very dangerous illness! We can’t just pretend everything will be fine and walk away like it’s nothing!” “I know Kai, I’ve been thinking about it too, but in times like these it’s important to think positive.” Kai stared at Jay not saying a word for a solid 30 seconds before letting out a sigh shaking his bent down head. He could hear the shuffling sound of his brother making his way towards him. Jay placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I know it’s hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and even if it was, we've defined destiny multiple times over, one of the many perks of being a ninja! Cole’s strong, you know master of earth and all, solid as rock? If anyone can beat this sickness it’s him.” Kai found himself looking up at Jay’s determined face, “Yeah your right, I just worry for him, you know I hate when anyone on our team gets sick and-”
“I’m not sick.” ‘Wait that sounds like,’ a quick glance to the door confirmed Kai’s suspicions, “Cole! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be sleeping!” The black ninja had dark circles under his eyes, his hair was a mess and he had to lean against the doorframe for support, he casually shrugged off the question. “Couldn’t sleep, thought I’d check up on you guys, *cough *cough *cough” Kai winced at his friend's scratchy voice, Cole’s voice was naturally cracked which made conversations… interesting and it was always fun to see how upset he’d get when he had to repeat his words, but sometimes it was a downfall, like whenever he was crying (which is almost never) it almost impossible to understand what he was trying to say, and even if Cole hadn’t been crying in this case (at least to Kai’s full extent) it was no secret that his throat was sore. Blue and red shared a look. “Ok,” Jay said, “we’re just researching ways to help you get better” Cole tilted his head in curiosity. “How long *cough *cough have you been up?” ‘Don’t say anything Jay please don’t say-’ the bluebird hesitated, “umm all night?” ‘Darn it Jay’ Kai mentally cursed
Cole had a look of guilt wash over his face. “Sorry” he stared at his feet. “No buddy it’s ok we don’t mind.” Kai fake smiled, Jay did too, nodding. As long as they looked happy, maybe Cole would for real, they just had to keep up this charade until he left.
A low cough canceled those plans.

Sirens echoed through the bounty red lights flashing a computer shouting “emergency” “emergency” ‘uh oh.’ Kai thought. Jay already Spinjutzued into his gi and was pulling out his nunchucks, Kai did the same but with his sword. When he looked over at his earth brother, he was rapidly spinning around before crashing into the wall, doubling over and spilling the contents of lunch onto the floor. Kai calmly walked over to him. “Cole buddy, why don’t you go back to bed? Jay and I got this one!” Jay held up an encouraging thumbs up. Both helping their little brother onto a nearby, conveniently placed couch (that was always there and totally not just added cuz I was too lazy to edit) “We’d be back before you know it.” “M’kay.” Fire and lightning shared one last worrisome glance before dashing off to stop whatever tried to mess with ninjago this time.

“Let’s make this quick.” Jay said, hopping into his jet, parked on the upper deck. “I don’t think I trust Cole enough to be sure he doesn’t just go off and train.” “Me too,” Kai climbed into his car, “he’s strong like you said, but he’s also stubborn, he’d walk on broken legs just to prove he was “fine” if he had too.” They each started up their respective vehicles racing off to Ninjago city. Jay’s sigh could be heard over the intercom. “At least he gets to stay on the bounty, and to think I could’ve been dancing with Nya right now.” “Touch my sister and I’d kill you!” Kai could only imagine bluebell’s eye roll. “I’m marrying her Kai! The wedding is in 4 months!!” “And until then you leave her alone.” Jay chuckled. “Whatever, hey I think we’re here!” Kai skidded into a hunt in front of the bank. Jay’s jet landed smoothly next to it.

Without a word the red ninja hopped out his car and dashed inside the building, turning a corner he attacked 3 robbers knocking them all to the ground in a matter of seconds. Continuing his path, giving another 4 a taste of sweet sweet fire. He smiled as his fireballs proved to be effective. “Gosh hhh Kai” Jay stopped next to him hands on knees panting. “I thought hhhh the days of hhhhh you racing off hhh on your own hhh were gone.” “Sorry not sorry.” He shrugged before dashing off again, he heard a distant sound of a frustrated “ugh” before entering the main vault. One crook stood over a mountain of cash., she was wearing all black with a mask pulled down covering her face, her form was skinny but fit. Her left hand held a standard money bag, strapped to her back was a silver katana with brown and gold stripes for the handle. She stopped shoving cash in her bag upon the ninja’s arrival. Kai raised his sword. “This could either go one of two ways. One. You turn yourself in and we make this easy, or two. I’ll have to get a ninja pun ya!” The thief looked at him confused, but shrugged and opted for pulling her own sword out. Taking this as the second answer Kai lunged at the mysterious woman. She skillfully blocked him with her weapon causing the red ninja to trip over, she then back flipped over him landing a perfect front kick to his back. Kai crashed onto his side, his sword somehow landed on the other end of the vault. ‘Darn must’ve dropped it.’ The criminal held her katana above her head preparing to slice the poor ninja in half. “My master sends his regards.” ‘Huh?’ “He said not to kill any of you, his quarrel with the earth elementals has clearly gotten the better of him.” ‘Quarrel? What quarrel? And did she say earth elementals?’ “That's why he poisoned the ground, to hopefully make the remaining one suffer.” “Suffer? HE WANTS TO KILL COLE!?!!!?!!?!” “Hush.” She raised her sword to Kai’s neck, surrendering him useless. “I said suffer, not kill. At least not by sickness, he’s already done that once, no, he wants to do it by hand!” She pulled the weapon back, and lunged towards the redhead. Kai closed his eyes waiting for the blow to come, but it never did, risking a glance up he saw his teammate blocking the sword inching away from Kai’s face with his nunchucks. Jay landed a blow to the stranger's leg causing her to fall over. Not giving her even a second to make her move, the lightning ninja skidded across the floor before hitting the back of the woman’s head with the back of his nunchucks, Kai watched the criminal’s body go limp. “Ho Ho ho, looks like the famous fire master needed help after all. Should’ve waited for me hothead! We could’ve got it done much faster!” Kai allowed Jay to help him to his feet. “Yeah well if we got it done faster, I wouldn’t have found out a thing or two about Cole’s problem.” Jay snapped his head back faster than a tennis racket, “Well why didn’t you say so! Come on spill!” So that he did, Kai told Jay everything the woman had said. “Wow, so Cole has an arch nemesis? How come he didn’t tell us! That's so cool!” Fire rolled his eyes “no Jay! It’s not cool! He wants Cole to suffer, remember? Then when he’s weakened this guy will finish him off!” “Oh boy, we are so hooped.” “No we’re not, Cole is and if we don’t do something soon who knows what could happen!” Kai marched his way over to the door, “Come on let’s get outta here.” “What about her?” Jay pointed at the girl. “The police will take care of that, we will take care of Cole.” With that, he rushed back through the bank and out into the parking lot, where his car was. He hopped in and started the engine. A quick look through the rearview mirror showed his blue brother climbing into his jet. “We seriously need to talk about leaving people in the dust Kai!” Jay’s high pitch squeak came through the intercom. “No time now, let’s get back to the bounty!”

It took no more than 3 minutes to arrive. Without wasting any time they both eagerly rushed to their brother, who was still asleep on the couch, where they left him. “Good he’s alright.” Kai said. “Yeah, but what now?” Jay was staring into Cole’s blank face. “Now, we call for backup. If this guy, whoever he is, wants Cole dead. He’d have to go through us first!” Kai whipped out his phone and dialed a number, immediately it started ringing before the caller picked up. “Greetings Kai, how are you on this fine evening? Is Cole alright?” ‘Evening? We were really gone for that long?’ “Not great Zane, Cole’s still sick and we just found out that he could be in really big trouble. And-” “AND SOME GUY WHO WE DONT KNOW WANTS TO KILL COLE BECAUSE HES HIS ARCH NEMESIS THAT PROBABLY HAS SPIKY WHITE HAIR AND A SUSPICIOUS LAP COAT!!!” Jay shouted into the phone. “Shhhh you’ll wake him!” The boys looked back at their brother who was still (and luckily for Jay) asleep. Jay made a “my bad” look and focused back on the call. “Oh dear, do not worry brothers I am on my way, would you like me to alert the others?” Zane asked. “Yes please, we’re going to see if we can find anything else out.” Kai ended the call. Just as Kai was putting his phone away, he heard Jay crying. “Hey hey don’t cry Cole will be ok. We will figure this out we have too.” Jay looked at his friend confused. “I’m not crying, I thought you were.” “I’m not crying.” “Well if I’m not and you're not then who’s.” They turned towards Cole. The raven was sleeping still, but that didn’t stop the endless amount of tears escaping from his eyes. ‘Cole’s crying.’ Kai thought, ‘wait Cole’s crying? COLES CRYING COLES CRYING COLES CRYING!!!’ Sirens were going off in Kai’s head. He dashed over to his little brother, rapidly shaking him to wake up. Instantly the earth ninja shot up letting out a very high, very ear piercing scream. ‘What’s going on?’ Kai thought.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7
Cole woke up with a jump. His heart was racing. “Noooooo!!” He cried, tears blurred his vision, he could hear voices calling his name, he had to get aways from it all. He shakily got up and bolted ahead. Although he wasn’t quite sure which way ahead was and he ended up running around the room, which led to falling on an unsuspecting chair which led to him crashing into a wall. Cole let out a painful groan. When finally his vision started to get better. The first thing he noticed was that he was upside down, his back lying on the floor while his legs rested on the wall above his head. The next thing he noticed was that the mysterious voices belonged to the two hooligans he called his brothers. Kai was staring at him wide mouthed in shock whilst Jay looked a little more concerned. “Cole?” Jay spoke. “Are you okay?” Cole grunted in response. He must’ve looked pretty silly at the moment so he attempted to roll back around. It took a couple of tries but he managed to swing his legs over his shoulder and back roll over.
Big mistake
Going for the world record on how many times a person could puke in one day the black ninja emptied out his stomach. ‘Man I must look pretty pathetic right now’ he thought. Cole sat on his knees, hands pressed down on the floor. His vision blurred again and he felt like Kai set his middle on fire. After about 3 minutes of letting nature run its course it finally stopped. Cole could feel arms lifting him up. He wasn't quite sure what was going on but the next thing he knew he was hoist onto someone’s shoulder. Rubbing his eyes to clear away the tears he realized that Kai was yet again carrying him to bed. A brief look to the left and Jay could be seen cleaning up the mess Cole made. ‘Poor Jay.’ Entering the sleeping quarters Kai wasted no time in gently putting Cole in bed. “Thanks” The raven choked. “Don’t mention it, but Cole buddy…”
‘Uh oh the only time Kai ever calls me that is either one out of three things’
He’s disappointed
He’s worried
He knows you're hiding something.
‘Is he disappointed in me? Of course he is! I’m pathetic!’
“… what happened back there?” Kai’s tone was gentle yet pleading. Cole knew he couldn’t keep it a secret for much longer, but he’s also a very private person. Luckily over the years of knowing the red ninja, the raven had come up with a few strategies to sort of side step the topics.
No.1: play dumb
“Ummmm what do you mean? *cough” Kai narrowed his eyebrows to show how unimpressed he was. “You know when you screamed like a girl, ran around the room, tripped over a chair and crashed into a wall, remember that?” He asked sarcastically.
No.2 changing the topic.
“Yeah, kinda reminds you of the time Jay tried to beat my high score in dance dance revolution, *cough remember when he tripped and fell into the table?” Kai crossed his arms. “Come on Cole, you know that won’t work, I know something’s up.”
No.3 the silent treatment
“…”
“Cooooole!”
“…”
“Please, I'm worried about you.”
Cole turned onto his side.
“Fine ignore me then, but I’m not leaving until you tell me why you freaked out!”
Oh well he tried
Earth sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Just then Jay walked in. “Hey Kai, is Cole asleep?” The hothead rolled his eyes “Nope he’s just being stubborn he won’t talk to me about the incident.” Jay slowly walked over to the bunk bed. He had to duck under the top bit to sit on the bottom. Cole felt the bed dip as his brother sat down, Jay tried nudging Cole to talk but he still sat there as quiet as a mouse. Kai rested his hand on the raven’s back. “Look, I know you said that you feel like you have to be the strong one, but that shouldn’t mean you can’t have feelings. We’re your brothers Cole, we were there for you since the beginning and we’re still here for you now. Whatever caused you to have that reaction, we’ll figure it out, together!” Cole had to admit, it was a pretty good speech. And the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to tell them. Careful not to throw up on Jay, he slowly sat up. “I had a nightmare.” Came the softest voice he had ever used. It was so soft he thought the others couldn’t hear him. “You had a nightmare?” Of course he had to be wrong about that too. “Yeah” “Do you wanna talk about it?” Jay asked. Slowly, Cole nodded.

“It started out ok, I was in a field of dandelions. They were all singing, but I can’t remember the song. I only remember loving it and singing with them, but then the sky grew dark, and black clouds came out of nowhere. The next thing I knew I was in some sort of building, the same one when I fell into the oni cloud. But instead of Oni trying to kill me…It was” He was interrupted by another coughing fit. “It was some kids from my old school, they were surrounding me calling me names. And pushing me around, like when they did back at Marty Oppenheimer. Suddenly the floor collapsed and I was in a graveyard, I saw my mom’s grave, it read. Lily Brookstone, murdered by her son Cole Brookstone.” He was on the verge of tears, but he kept going “My dad was there, he told me what a disappointment I am, and that it’s my fault she died, he said that I could never be an artist and that I’m no longer his son, because I’m a monster. *cough Then I looked down at my hands and I could see through them. I was a ghost again and I could hear Yang laughing. Everything faded to black and then I woke up.”

Cole tried to read his brother's faces, Jay looked sorry for him, and Kai looked like he couldn’t decide to either be angry or upset. Cole burst into tears. Jay gave him a hug. Kai joined in. Slowly the crying became sobs “I I I’ve been g getting it for a w while now” he admitted, “each time it keeps getting worse.” “I’m sorry Cole.” Kai said. “That sucks, it really does…” Jay didn’t say anything, he just held Cole tighter. “… but that’s just your mind playing tricks on you, you fell into the cloud, but you survived, those kids picked on you, but it didn’t change who you are now, I don’t know how your mom passed, but I know it wasn’t your fault, you dad loves you more than anything in the world, Yang tried to pull you down but it only made you stronger, and aren’t you guys friends now? If creepy clouds, childhood bullies, and an evil ghost sensi can’t kill you, then what can?” Cole nodded his head, it made sense, he was strong, he had traumatizing moments but he got through all that.
“Yeah!” Jay said “ And you don’t have to be the big strong tough guy all the time. Even rocks can crack, you know.” The raven let out a happy sigh. ‘What did I do to deserve such good friends?’ He thought. “Thanks guys. *cough. I needed that. *cough *cough” “Anytime baby bro.” Jay said, getting up. “But for now you need your rest.” Cole rolled his eyes. “For the last time Jay, the transformation between ghost to human does not reset my age! *cough” Kai chuckled, “that’s not what Yang says.” He sang. “And even if it didn't, we're still older than you anyway.” Cole fake gasped. “I’m not that much younger than you! *cough” Jay ruffled his hair “meh young enough.” Cole couldn’t help but laugh. “You guys suck!” “Aww love you too baby bro.” Kai said, “but seriously go to sleep. You still look a bit green.” Cole looked at this lap. Honestly he was a bit scared to fall back asleep, what if he had that nightmare again? A quick look at his brother's tired faces made his option very easy. “Fine, but only if you guys do too. And it doesn’t mean I’m *cough sick” Kai and Jay shared a look. “Deal” red and blue scurried off into their bunks. Jay above Cole and Kai under Zane’s. “Goodnight everyone!” Jay chirped. Cole mumbled something back but was quick to fall asleep, knowing that his brothers will always be there for him.
Even if he was back at that dreaded dandelion field.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8
“And we just jump up kick back whip around and spin and then we jump back do it again-” Jay groaned as his phone continued to sing, a couple weeks ago the blue bird thought it would be a good idea to make his ringtone their theme song, whilst it was funny and super creative it might not be ideal when your sharing a room with 4 other boys. Letting out an over exaggerated sigh, he (un)willingly got out of bed, just as he was climbing down the ladder he got hit by a flying pillow. Of course it wasn't actually a flying pillow, (you only get those in Africa) but rather a very angry looking Kai, Jay couldn't help but laugh, he now understood why the burnett was usually awake before the rest, his hair was a mess. It was puffy and curling around and around Kai’s head, with bits sticking out in all different directions, Jay hadn't really noticed how long his friend's hair actually was, probably longer than Nya’s even. The bluebird had to put a hand over his mouth to cover his laughs, or he could risk waking Cole, the last thing he wanted was 2 grumpy hotheads, one with the ability to set his butt of fire and the other who could no doubt crush him with a boulder. Now he knew his friends wouldn't actually do that (well except maybe for Kai) but he didn't want to find out. Kai gave a frustrated pout before allowing his head to drop to his pillow. Still chuckling, Jay snatched his phone off the desk.
Frosty
The redhead tilted his head in curiosity, why was Zane calling him at 6am? But nevertheless he answered the call.

“Greetings Jay.” Zane’s voice was quite loud so Jay took a quick visit to the deck. “Hey Zane! What's up?” “I have unfortunate news, you see we were getting ready to come home, when Lloyd suggested we take the land bounty because it could drive on difficult terrain so we could get to your location faster, however it seems the last person to use it forgot to fill up the gas tank.” Jay cringed, the day before the wedding he went for a quick joyride, not once did it come to mind that he should refuel it. ‘Oh well what he doesnt know won't hurt him’ he thought. Zane continued to talk, so Jay turned his attention back to the call, but a butterfly flew past and performed a dance that distracted the poor redhead. ‘Darn ADHD’ “Sorry Zane, can you repeat that please.” The silence was deafening, when finally the ninjroid spoke “Certainly, I was just saying that we are stuck on Mount Terror, with minimal supplies, hardly any food and only enough water to last another week. We required assistance immediately.” Jay began to panic. “Oh gosh ok hang tight buddy we’re on our way.”

Hastily, he ended the call before running back inside the sleeping quarters. “Kai, Kai, Kai!!” The bluebird yelled, shaking the poor burnett. In return for so kindly waking him up, Kai whacked his brother with his pillow for the second time that day. “What Jay! I'm trying to sleep!” Jay rubbed his cheek where the pillow had hit. “Ow ok why so grumpy? WAIT don't answer that, look i just got a call from Zane, and the team needs our help! They're stuck on Mount Terror! And could run out of supplies at any moment! Plus all the deadly wolves and snakes and monsters up there that could kill them and don't forget-” “Jay!” Jay looked up at his brother who during the bluebirds ramble had thrown himself across the room and was already doing his hair. “Would you calm down? We’re gonna save them ok, we just have to go get them. How hard can it be?” “No, don't say that!” Jay said, “Everytime someone says," How hard can this be?” it always gets harder!” Kai put a finger to his lips, and using his other hand to point at Cole “Not so loud, you'll wake him, and stop complaining all we gotta do is fly over there pick them up and save Cole, everything is gonna work out, ok?” Jay didn't even realize he started hyperventilating, until Kai led him to a nice peaceful spot on the floor.

“Breathe Jay you have to remember to breathe, like this.” The burnett puffed up his chest, “inhale” He relaxed “exhale” He continued the process until sure enough, Jay was doing the same. Once Jay was sure he wasn't going to die, Kai helped him stand up. “Thanks Kai, I don't know what I would've done without you.” “That's what I'm here for, are you sure you're ok?” Jay let out one last shaky breath. “Yup big brother Kai to the rescue haha.” Kai smirked at his brother “I always am and always will be until you lot stop getting yourselves into stupid situations!” Jay fake pouted, “How rude, and need i remind you, that you're the only one to ever survive an erupting volcano because somebody couldn't stand the thought of not becoming the legendary green ninja.” Kai pretended to be offended “I was like 14!! And if i didn't i might’ve never unlocked my true potential. Mr smarty pants” Jay laughed at the hothead’s rebound. Technically Cole was his best friend, but honestly Kai makes a pretty good close second. “Gosh you guys are loud, and to think i could’ve had a nice peaceful morning, but no some idiots had to start yelling at *cough *cough *cough”

Jay turned around just in time to see Cole enter yet another coughing fit. The redhead reached a hand behind his head to rub his neck. “Yeah sorry Cole, but in all fairness i was attacked by a vicious pillow sooo” Kai smacked the back of Jay’s head “you deserved it, you woke me up, twice!” Cole cringed “Oh bad move Jay, *cough you know how much Kai likes his beauty sleep.” Kai rolled his eyes, while the lightning master broke into a numberless amount of laughs. “Yeah he needs it too, his hair looked like Michal Jackson’s this morning!” Cole started laughing too. Kai shook his head desperately trying and failing to keep the smile off his lips. “Yeah whatever, How ya feeling buddy?” The raven shrugged “Same as i always do *cough im not *cough *cough you know.” Jay sighed, this was getting exhausting. Why couldn't Cole just admit he was sick? “Right, well I'm glad you're awake, because we’re going mountain climbing.” Kai said, exiting the room. “I'll go set course, make sure you guys are ready by the time I get back.” Jay watched his brother leave, while his other one still lay in bed. “Cole? You ok?” Cole waved him off. “Yeah yeah just chilling here.” Jay’s smile vanished. “You can't get up can you?” “no no i can just-”

Suddenly he bolted up and ran straight out the dorm. Confused, Jay followed him into the bathroom, where Cole just barely made it before throwing up into the toilet. The bluebird rubbed soothing circles onto the younger’s back. Finally Cole stopped. “Hey buddy” Jay said “Can I ask you something?” Cole slowly nodded. “Why can't you just admit you're sick? You clearly are!” Cole looked at Jay with the face of a kicked puppy. “I'm not.” Jay shook his head, “No, it's not that, there's something else, and your strategies with avoiding Kai’s questions aren't gonna work on me, besides I know you'll feel better if you talk about it.” The black ninja entered a staring contest with the floor, “It's not that simple Jay.” “Sure it is whatever it is, we'll figure it out, brother sharpens brother.” “NO WE CANT.” The sudden outburst shocked Jay for a bit. Cole’s face softened. “Sorry, I didn't mean to yell.” Jay gave a comforting but obviously fake smile. “It's ok, but seriously, what's up? If you don't want to tell me then tell Kai, I'll go get him.”The redhead stood up “No!” Jay looked down at Cole who was clinging onto Jay's leg for dear life. “I do want to talk to you. It's just” Earth let out a sad sigh. Jay sat back down.

“I didn’t tell you guys how my mom died did I?” He paused “She got sick, I was 7, the doctors kept saying they could save her, and that everything would be alright. My dad promised she would be ok. But when I found out it was an unidentified sickness, I panicked. I wanted to see her, I had to see her. By the time I got there she was barely breathing. We talked for a bit. But she ended up dying in my arms.” Cole felt tears prick at the ends of his eyes. “I promised myself to carry on her legacy, and never get sick, because i didn't, i was, ugg”
“You were scared?” Jay guessed. Cole nodded, allowing a stray tear to roll down his cheek. Jay pulled his brother in for a hug. “Cole, I'm so sorry, that must've been awful.” “It was” Jay pushed Cole away so he could look at his face. “But you know it's perfectly fine to be scared especially after something like that, it's normal, but living in denial and ignoring it could lead to making it worse.” Jay paused to catch his breath. “We told you from the beginning, you are our brother if there's something wrong we’ve got your back, that also includes if there is something wrong with your health, we’ll do everything we can to get you better.” Cole nodded. “Brother sharpens brother.” He whispered. The duo smiled. “Jay” Cole said “Please don't tell anyone, especially Kai, you know how protective he can get and I don't really want to deal with that right now.” Jay had to think about that. “Yeah on one condition, you stop pretending you're ok and start being more open to us.” The raven looked a little lost, and he didn't say anything. Jay wondered if he fell asleep, just as he was about to shake him. Cole spoke. “That seems fair, thanks .”
“Pftttt don't worry about it, your secret is safe with me.” “And yours is with me too.” Cole said. “Speaking of which, *cough are you alright?” The redhead looked like he swallowed a lemon, “huh? Oh you mean that.” Jay took interest in the wall. “It's ok normally, sometimes it gets a bit hard, like when I talk nonstop, and during conversations when I get distracted by little things, like-” Jay gasped. “ZANE!” It was Cole’s turn to look confused. “What about him?” Jay waved his arms around. “The team they're in trouble, trapped on Mount Terror. We have to go save them!” Without waiting for a response Jay jumped up and skidded across the hall to the control room, then he stopped, ran back to the bathroom helped Cole up and slowly walked there.

“Gee thanks Jay, whatever happened to “we got your back?”” Jay rolled his eyes. One thing he learned over the past years of living with the ninja was that everyone had a different type of humor. Jay was notoriously known for his (awful) amazing dad jokes, Lloyd preferred one liners, Zane acted silly, whilst Nya, Kai, and Cole all liked sarcasm. “Yeah right, just be grateful I came back for ya”. Jay liked to think he mastered all of them.

“There you 2 are! I've been waiting forever!” Kai said as the duo walked in. “Sorry *cough” Cole replied. Kai looked at Jay curiously but decided the fate of their friends was more important. “Whatever, see that dot.” He pointed to the screen, where sure enough a giant beeping red dot sat. “That's the land bounty.” “Wait,that's land bounty! All the way at the top? Ha of course it is!” Jay waved his free arm in the air. Cole rolled his eyes, “Hold on *cough isn't that the wailing alps?” The earth master asked. Jay looked at the screen again, “it is, but why did Zane say it was Mount Terror?” The 3 exchanged looks. Kai spoke first. “I don't know but it definitely means danger, let's go.”

The fire master pushed a button, which sent the bounty flying into a numberless amount of twists and turns, it flew higher into the air to freefall at a 90 degree angle, screams could be heard as they came closer and closer to the ground. Jay seeing this was doing his best to climb up the now vertical ship to the controls, without wasting another minute he flipped a switch, immediately the bounty straightened up. “Kai!” The redhead yelled. “What did you press?” The fire master had a look of horror on his face, “The big red button the one that says “do press while in motion.”” Jay glanced at the button. “No it says do NOT press while in motion!” Kai shrugged “oops my bad.” Jay put a hand to his forehead. “Some people will never understand.” He muttered to himself. He then turned towards the black ninja who was bent over the railing throwing up. Jay couldn't blame him; he did also feel a bit nauseous, but instead he chose to direct the ship towards the wailing alps. ‘Don't worry Zane, we’re coming.’ He thought

Chapter Text

Chapter 9
Cole sat on the edge of the bounty, staring down at snow and ice. He had a lot to think about, like who this mystery person is, why he wants him, how to save their friends and most important of all, how to go the entire day without crying.
Don't get him wrong, Cole almost never cries, and if he does it's definitely something WORTH crying over. Cole wasn't even sure if this counted as one of those. Today was September 14th, the worst day to ever exist. At least for Cole that is. 2 years ago to the day, the raven fell into the dark oni cloud surrounded by monsters who wanted to kill him, while his friends just left. 4 years ago he was transformed into a ghost by sensei yang, and 9 years ago, was the worst tragic time the boy had ever had.
His mother, Lily passed.
It was a great ordeal that he never wanted to go through again, but some small part of him said he shouldn't mourn anymore, it had been almost a decade after all, and yet Cole still felt like he hadn't completely moved on yet. Lily’s passing affected the whole family though, Lou, Cole’s dad, grieved for his dead wife by drinking. He was never home, always out partying, singing and dancing with his group, leaving all the chores and responsibilities for Cole, who later discovered he had PTSD because of it. Of course the raven never told his father out of fear he would disappoint him. He never told his friends either, not even Jay. The only one that even came close to finding out was Zane, after the oni invasion, but Cole was quick to dismiss that idea. Looking back on it, it probably would have been a good idea to tell them he did have Post traumatic stress disorder, but only because the dark cloud was so very frightening.
But he didn't
He couldn't afford the pitiful looks he was bound to get, or the judgy eyes smeared across people’s faces, he already had color blindness, he didn't want another disorder too.

“Hey!” Cole looked up at Burnett approaching him with a sinister smile.
“Hi Kai” Cole choked out. Kai’s smile dimmed as he saw the look on his brother’s face. “Dude are you ok? You seem a bit” He waved his hand in the general direction Cole was, “lost.” Cole shook his head. “No, I'm ok.”
“Are you sure?”
Cole nodded before letting out a very snotty sneeze that sprayed all over Kai’s shoes. Cole panicked. “Uh oh Kai im so sorry i didn't mean to ruin your shoes I-” “Hey Cole buddy its ok, they aren't mine anyway, i’m borrowing Lloyd’s.” Cole felt his heart shatter. ‘Darn it Cole, how could you be so stupid!’ He didn't even realize he voiced his thoughts until Kai squatted down next to him. “Don't say that buddy, c’mon you're not stupid, you just have a bit of trouble recognizing certain shades, no shame.” Oh but there was, and there always will be, Cole knew that. He was different, a screw up, an outcast, he risked a look into Kai’s eyes. The brownish, greenish (Redish) pitiful eyes.
That's exactly what he did not want

“Hey you guys! We’re here!” Jay said through the bounty speakers. Thankful for the distraction Cole quickly sat up, and started walking over to the control room. Well more like swaying he did still feel nauseous. “Cole?” Kai lightly tugged his friend’s hand, “maybe you should stay here, you know just in case.” Cole shook his head rapidly, trying his best to not show the amount of dizziness he felt. “No no Kai, it's ok, i,m-” He was going to say i'm fine but the earlier conversation he had with Jay flashed through his mind. ‘You stop pretending you're ok and start being more open to us’ Cole sighed, “I’m going.” Kai looked reluctant but knew that if Cole made up his mind on something, there was no changing it. “Just be careful.”

20 minutes later, the 3 ninja stood in the hull, while Jay was fixing up his mech and Kai was collecting supplies, Cole sat down to think. He was quite excited to be able to go with his friends, after being cooped up inside the bounty for so long, he was finally going to help. The only problem was that he wasn't really sure if this was a smart move, what if something happened down there? Scratch that, when something happens down there. Since it was the 14th day of the 11th month, the raven was worried, granted it wasn't every year something bad occurred, last year he was completely fine, but still a mountain covered in ice and snow with powerful winds that were strong enough to blow someone clean off it was not an ideal place to be. Especially since he was still sick, in fact he was pretty sure his condition only worsened.
But hey what's the worst that can happen?
Wait, don't answer that.

“Clunk clonk clip.” Cole looked up to see Jay’s pliers rolling towards him. Without thinking too much about it, the black ninja bent down to pick them up. “Thanks Cole, could you bring it here please?” Jay called from the top of his mech where he was sitting. The raven rolled his eyes but made his way over to his brother anyway. “Here *cough” He said standing on his toes to reach his brother. Jay snatched it with a grateful smile. “Thanks Dirt clog.” Cole tried his best to smile back, but it ended up looking really sloppy. “Yeah” Jay looked down at his friend, “Are you ok? Do you wanna talk?” Honestly, he didn't want to, it was really heavy stuff, and some of it personal.
But they had a deal didn't they?
“Today’s the *cough *cough *cough anniversary *cough *cough *cough.” Jay lay on his stomach, his hands resting on his cheeks. “What anniversary?” He asked, smiling. “Is there a girl involved? A certain queen perhaps?” Cole blushed immensely. “No Jay listen *cough *cough 14th *cough” Jay started kicking his legs. “14th? Like the date? Isn't that today? Ooohhhhh you asked her out and now you want me to help you win her heart on a DATE!” Cole shook his head so fast all that could be seen was a blur. “No I didn't, there's no date! *cough what i'm trying to say is.” “You like her alot and you want advice on how to ask her out?” Jay interrupted, “weird i always thought you would’ve been good with girls, are you not? Oh my gosh you stutter don't you?” By the way things were going Cole thought he would die of embarrassment before he even got to the Wailing Alps. “Cole cant talk to girls, Cole cant talk to girls.” Jay sang. Cole gritted his teeth. “JAY PLEASE MY MOM DIED TODAY!!” Jay stopped immediately. “Oh, Oh Cole, I'm so sorry.” As fast as lightning the redhead climbed down his mech, and embraced his little brother in a hug. “I'm so sorry.” He repeated. Cole cried onto Jay’s shoulder. “It's stupid, it's almost been 10 years and I'm still crying over it. You must think I'm such a baby.” Jay shook his head. “No I don't, I think you're a kid who just misses their mom, and it's not stupid Cole, It's normal to mourn over someone you love, and I can tell you love her, you guys had such a special relationship right?” Jay pulled the crying Cole closer. “Losing someone is hard, but it gets better, if she was still here, she would tell you how proud she was. You've done so much, protecting ninjago, protecting Shintaro, and protecting us. Just think about how much you’ve grown too. When we first met you were really closed off, and now you feel at ease enough to talk about your problems, and that's true heroism.” Jay pushed the raven back a little just enough to see his face. “And she’s not completely gone, she still lives on in you, in your dad, all the geckles and monks. You’re a good kid Cole, and your mother loves you so much.” Jay used his hand to wipe a tear off Cole’s face, the other one firmly holding on to his shoulders. “And so do we.” Cole smiled, like an actual general smile. “Thanks Jay, I do feel better.” The blue ninja beamed. “Of course, and for the record, if you ever do need help talking to Vania, I'm your guy.” Cole lightly punched his friend’s shoulder, “Shut up!” He laughed.

“Ok I got snacks, bandages, hair gel, you guys ready to go?” Kai said, walking over to the duo. Jay rolled his eyes. “Really Kai, you're bringing hair gel on a rescue mission?” The Burnett put his hands up in mock surrender. “Hey I gotta look good while down there, last time the wind blew my hair all over, completely messing it up!” He pouted. Both Jay and Cole laughed at that one. Well Jay did, Cole half laughed half coughed. Kai looked at his brother skeptically. “You sure you wanna come? You can stay if you want?” “NO, trust me im *cough coming.” “If you say so.”

Somewhere else in an unknown place

“Boss, I have great news, Cole and his friends found the tracker we planted on the Wailing Alps, they’re going there now.” A dark shadow said to a man sitting in a chair facing the window. “Excellent we strike tonight, find the boy and bring him here, make sure he is unharmed, that's my job.” “But boss, what about his friends? They seemed reluctant to leave him alone.” The man lifted up his hand showing a very rude gesture. “They won't be a problem Dread, if things go to plan they will have… other things to worry about.” The shadow nodded. “Then it shall be done, boss, I’ll ready the army.” The shadow figure left the room. The man got up, his black trench coat dragging across the floor with every heavy step, he stopped in front of a cage. “You will have a friend soon, or not. I doubt he’ll even recognize you anymore. It has been years.” He grabbed the person's chin roughly. “Maybe this could turn out to be a bonding experience for the both of you.” The prisoner let out a painful grunt as its captor pulled away. The man sat back down in his chair. “Oh Cole, sweet sweet innocent Cole, just you wait and see what I have planned for you.”

Back on the bounty

“I don’t know about these mechs Jay, they seem pretty scruffy.” Kai complained as he climbed onto his mech. The blue bird scoffed. “Well I'm sorry, it's not to your liking oh prince of hair products! Do you have any idea how long it takes me to build these kinds of stuff?” He crossed his arms, gazing up at the fire master’s mech, Cole was leaning on him asleep. Kai rolled his eyes. “Pixel can build better ones in only 24 hours.” He looked down at the controls. “How do I drive this thing?” “Press the red button to go, and the green one to brake, the orange switch is for acceleration, and the white one is for communication. The handle in front is to help steer and finally, the blue lever actervates weapons, and you can use the touch screen to choose which one you want.” The redhead presented proudly. Kai stared at his brother. “Ok good to know, but hold on, why did you make red go and green stop? Won't that get confusing?” Jay shrugged, “thought I’ll mix it up a little bit. To make things more interesting y’know?” He peered down at his sleeping brother. “Cole, buddy c’mon time to go sleepyhead.” “five more minutes.” Cole replied tiredly. Jay raised one eyebrow. “Cole! You need to wake up.” Cole grunted. Jay sighed. “Ok you asked for it.” In one swift move Jay twisted to the side, causing the tired raven to fall. “Ow, *cough what was that for?” He stared at his brother with a murderous look in his eyes. Jay smirked down at him. “I had to wake you up somehow, besides we gotta get going, ninjaing waits for no one!” He offered a hand to Cole, Cole took it. “Yeah *cough whatever motor mouth.” Kai walked over to the coat rack where he picked up his red jacket “Before we go, we need to get our winter clothes, it's really cold down there.” Jay nodded and went to get his, Cole just stood there awkwardly. “Um *cough what if you don't have any?” His brothers looked at him like he just said “Um I can speak fluent dolphin.” “You don't have any winter clothes? How?” Jay asked, dazed. “I never really needed it *cough i’d rather just train my body to deal with the cold *cough than rely on something to keep me warm.” Kai zipped up his fury coat. “So you don't have anything?” Cole shook his head.
“Boots?”
“Nope”
“Coat?”
“Nada”
“Gloves?”
“No”
“Scarf?”
“Kai I don't have any of that stuff! *cough”
Kai looked at the black ninja in shock. “Then how did you survive last time we were here?” Cole’s face went blank. “Well, I was a ghost Kai, didn't really feel anything.” Suddenly Cole remembered all the hard times and crap he went through because of Yang. He’s not just their master, he’s their captor… Why is it that I can see through my hand… ahhhhhhhhhhh… you didn't make it out in time Cole… I'm a ghost! The scene flashed through his mind, the running, the screaming, Yang’s evil laugh, it was all too much, he couldn't feel his legs, he couldn't feel anything! ‘dontpanicdontpanicdontpanicdontpanic’ “...ole..ole…Cole…COLE!” The raven blinked and he was back. His friends were surrounding him with worry written all over their faces. “Huh?”
“You spaced out, is everything ok?” Jay asked. Cole nodded. “Sorry *cough just remembering, agh what were you saying?” Kai gave him a look, before handing him a white fluffy coat. “It's Zane's. I don't think he’ll mind if you borrow it. Are you sure you're ok? I know what today is.” Cole sighed. “I’m fine *cough really just zoned out, that's all.” Kai took one last glance then walked over to the hanger doors. “I’m opening up, get into your mechs.”

Cole coughed once more but did as he was told, he had to give Jay credit his mech looked awesome. It was all black with orange rocks painted onto it, it even had a light gray earth symbol imprinted on the back. Smiling to himself Cole climbed into the metal machine. Jay did the same, but with his blue one. It looked similar to Cole’s except it had a giant yellow lightning strike across the front, with mini light blue ones surrounding it. Cole gave Kai a thumbs up and the burnett switched the toggle that opened the trapdoors. He then jumped into his own fiery red mech. “Ok boys, let's go save our friends.” The black ninja watched as both his brothers landed safely on the ground. He looked down at his controls. “Aw man, why did Jay have to use red and green?” He said to himself, “calm down Cole, you got this, you know that green means go and red means stop, and if those two colors are switched… well at least for you, then that one.” He pointed to the green button, “is green, and that one.” He moved his finger to the red button, “is red.” With a deep breath he pushed the green button.
Nothing happened.
“What? Oh come on!” “Cole is everything alright buddy?” Jay’s voice came through the coms. “Yeah, *cough real quick is the green button on the right?” Cole waited patiently for his brother’s reply. “Yup it is, oh but i should probably mention i switched the meanings, if you want to move you gotta press the red one hehe.” Cole could only imagine Jay’s nervous smile. With a quick eye roll he pressed the red button, the mech moved so fast forward it flung him down the hole. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!” He landed with a thump in the snow.

“Ooh that's gotta hurt.” Jay said unhelpfully. Kai helped Cole up. “Thanks Kai *cough *cough just like old times, right?” The raven joked. Kai rolled his eyes. “Yeah except this time it was just your own clumsiness, at least back then you had a good excuse.” For the sake of his dignity Cole decided to change the subject. “Remind me again why you switched red and green?” Jay smiled. “I thought it could be fun, you know to mix it up for once?” The black ninja started maneuvering up the mountain. “Yeah ok *cough it's not like one of us is colorblind or anything.” Jay was suddenly filled with guilt. “Oh man sorry I forgot.” Cole noted how wavy his voice was, very unusual for the normally chirpy blue bird. “Its ok lets just-” The black ninja saw something move out of the corner of his eye. “Cole? you alright?” Kai asked walking up to his little brother. “Shh, somethings in the bushes.” “It's probably just a yak.” “Or a goat” Jay added, Kai rolled his eyes. “Yak Jay Yak!” “No it's a goat, I'm calling it!” While those two entered a very manly and totally not childish debate on what animal was in the bushes. Cole went to see for himself.

He heard some strange noises then a loud snap! As if something or rather someone stepped on a twig. Suddenly a figure jumped out of its hiding place, it wore an all black outfit with a dark gray jacket, and its boots were as high as its knees. “Commence operation Earth Snatcher!” He yelled. As he said that many other people jumped out of their hiding places, some guys even had their own mechs. The ninjas stood in a fighting position. One of the new mechs launched an attack at Cole who swiftly dodged it, but then he felt a force hit from behind that knocked him off his feet. He tried to jump out of his mech before it hit the ground but ended up wedged in between. His face was pressed against the dirt but he managed to wiggle to his side to see his brothers surrounded by many other strange figures. ‘uh oh’ The guy Cole saw earlier was now flying in a black jet shooting harpoon-like hooks that ultimately took the blue and red mechs down gray smoke escaping all around them. “Noooooo *cough *cough” Cole coughed. The jet landed on the snow, and its pilot hopped out before slowly making its way over to the trapped ninja. “Hello Cole.” He spoke with a deep husky voice. “I’ve been expecting you!” He raised a fist to the back of the raven’s head. “Boss wants to see you later, we’ve got big plans for you boy.” The figure smiled, “but for now it's nighty night time.” Cole felt his body go limp, the last thing he thought before darkness took over was…
Worst. Day.Ever

Chapter Text

Chapter 10
When Kai woke up, it was cold, and he felt like his face was freezing, deciding he hated the cold and was more of a volcano survivalist kind of guy the burnett used his hands to push himself up, the first thing he noticed was snow, lots and lots of snow, turning to the left Kai saw the mountain his brothers were about to climb. ‘So I'm still on the Wailing Alps, but why was I unconscious?’ He thought. Automatically Kai began scanning the area for his brothers, it didn't take long before he spotted a pair of blue legs kicking in the air, a clear sign that the owner was stuck. “Jay!” Kai cried as he jumped up and ran to his little brother. Helping the bluebird out of the snow was a difficult task, since he was heavy and Kai was strangely exhausted. “Are you ok?” Kai asked. Jay nodded, “doing dandy sunshine! Yippee dee doo!” Kai internally groaned “Aw not this again, Jay come on snap out of it!” the red ninja slapped Jay on the cheek, concerned. Jay however looked unfazed. “Kai baby, you gotta take a chill pill, I'm doing great, the sun is shining, the stars are beautiful and I don't have any homework to do!” He pumped his fist in the air, “we need to relax, take it eaaaaassssyyyy oh there's nothing that we can’t doooo!” He sang. Kai shook his head, whatever was wrong with Jay he hoped he would come to his senses on his own, just like he did last time. Kai turned around and started searching for Cole. Unfortunately he came up short. “Cole! Cole!” He called. Jay stopped singing long enough to register this. “Where’s my little Coley?” Kai shrugged now fearing he was buried in all this snow, which could worsen his illness.

“Looking for this?” A voice called. Kai turned around and spotted a man wearing a jetpack holding an unconscious Cole by his feet. Kai became hot with anger. “Hey! Leave him alone you monster!” He tried lighting his hands on fire, but all that could come out was a tiny flame. “You're weak and pathetic! Can’t even use your own powers to save your friend!” The stranger taunted. “Interesting choice of words coming from someone whose greatest accomplishment is being a nuisance!” He shot back. Kai couldn't see the man’s face, but he had a sickening feeling that he was smiling. “You know nothing about me, fire ninja, not even my name, but I know everything about you! Or at the very least him!” He gestured towards his captive. “Coleman Wyatt Brookstone, born on April 22, 2007, which makes him 17, lost his mother to an unknown sickness 10 years ago, and was forced to dance by his father.” He paused for dramatic effect, “he has one older brother who he doesn't know about because he abandoned him when he was 3 out of jealousy that Cole inherited their mother’s power and not him.” Kai’s jaw dropped, but the stranger kept going. “When his father sent him to Marty Oppenheimer school of performing arts, he lasted 6 months there before being fed up by the classes, bullying and pressure to live up to Lou’s expectations, so he ran away to one of Ninjago’s highest mountains where Wu found him, and I’m sure you know the rest.”

Now more than ever Kai was positive that this man could not be trusted. “I don’t know who you are or what you want with our brother, but you better give him back right now or else!” The man tilted his head in question, “or else what? You're tired Kai, you can’t stop me, you have friends to save and well that.” He pointed to Jay who was currently telling his life story to a rock.” Kai stared down the stranger. “You will regret ever messing with my family, I swear I will hunt you down and teach you a lesson!” Kai said through gritted teeth. The man raised his free hand to his mouth, “I’m yawning, see me yawning, and as much as I love our little chat I have to bring this little guy to my boss.” He said, as he flew away.

Kai felt powerless, right now Cole needed him, but so did Jay, heck even the other ninja relied on him to save them, it was too much, waaaaaaaaayyyy too much. Without thinking, the burnett sat down on the snow, head buried in knees, sobbing uncontrollably. It wasn't until he felt a hand on his shoulder did he look up. Jay was on his knees too, looking genuinely concerned. For a moment Kai thought he was back. “Wasssss uppppppp my man? Why ya so down in the dumps?”
Well scratch that idea. Despite always urging Cole to talk about his feelings, the boy liked to keep things hidden himself he hated it when he depended on people a habit he picked up after his parents left him to care for his sister, but maybe just this once it would be ok to tell someone, especially since there was a chance Jay wouldn't even remember it.
“It's just, i feel so useless, I couldn’t save Cole, our friends still need help and you… well you're kinda…” “Kucoo cray cray?” Jay offered? Kai nodded, “it just feels like everyone needs me, all at once.” Jay stared at his normally so confident brother, he’d never seen him so broken. Suddenly Jay smiled, “hey! I know what’ll cheer you up, a song!” Kai shook his head, “No no Jay please don’t-” “Baby shark doo doo do de doo baby shark doo doo do de doo baby shark.” He sang whilst cupping his hands to make jaws. “Jay stop we don’t have time for-” “Mommy shark doo doo do de doo mommy shark doo doo do de doo mommy shark.” “JAY would you cut that out?” Kai pleaded. Jay shook his head, “not until you sing with me, doo doo do de doo.” Kai stared at his little brother bewildered, as the redhead continued to sing a song meant for toddlers. “Daddy shark doo doo do de doo daddy shark doo doo do de doo daddy shark.” Just wanting this to be over Kai joined in on the next line. “Grandma shark doo doo do de doo grandma shark doo doo do de doo grandma shark.” After singing the last few lines they wasted no time jumping into twinkle twinkle little star with row row row your boat as the following. Pretty soon both boys were rolling around laughing.

“Thanks Jay, that was actually really fun.” The burnett admitted. Jay smiled, “Nao problemo amigo! Nice to repay it for once, and you can thank Jerry for the idea!” Kai sat up quickly, “Jerry? Who’s that?” Jay pointed to the rock he was talking to earlier. “He’s a very chappy fellow, a bit crazy though, keeps talking about how his kids got into pebble university for the gifted.” Kai started to really consider taking Jay to a doctor, but decided that it could wait. “Right, so what now?” He asked. Jay stood up, “we climb the tall white thingy ma bob.” He pointed at the mountain. “Shouldn't we try to save Cole? Considering those guys want to kill him?” Kai asked. Jay turned around to look his brother in the eye. “But what about Frosty, Waterlily, Green bean, Pix, and sensei Wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”
“They’re not in the hands of a potential murder! They can wait.” Kai said angrily. Jay crossed his arms, “but what if the creepy creep isn't alone? What if he has an army of jelly doughnuts!” Jay’s face could be described as a mix between horror and agitated. Kai thought about it, the stranger did say he was taking Cole to his boss, but could there be more? Suddenly his mind remembered the past events, they were surrounded, and in battle, of course! It all makes sense now! That means that there is an army, and a skilled one at that it would be ideal to go in with a full team. “Your right Jay, well kinda I doubt this guy has evil pastries but we should rescue our friends first then go after Cole.”

Kai started walking towards the mountain, but stopped after a couple of steps. “Wait, something about this doesn't seem right, those guys were here when we arrived, almost like they were expecting us?” “What ya mean fire bear?” Jay said, walking towards the burnett. “I’m saying maybe it was a trap, maybe our friends aren't on the Wailing Alps at all!” Kai half yelled. Jay giggled “Ooooo this story just got good!” Kai didn’t know what Jay was talking about, but he did have a plan. “Jay this is very important, where did Zane say he was when he called you?” Jay put his hand to his chin pretending to stroke his non-existent beard. “Ummmmm I don’t know, but knowing our luck, probably somewhere with killer animals, or killer monsters or giant killer marshmallow people!” Kai smacked himself. “Oh brother… wait, maybe you’re right, I think it started with a M?” Jay snapped his fingers, “Mount chalk? Mount baddy? Mount terror? Mount booger? Mount-” “MOUNT TERROR! JAY IT WAS MOUNT TERROR” Kai shouted alarmed. “We have to go there, NOW!” And he ran off towards the bounty, the redhead close behind.

Somewhere in an unknown place.

“I’ve got him boss.” Dread said, dragging the unconscious Cole into the room. “Excellent, put him with the prisoner!” Dread, looked at the boy doubtfully, “are you sure boss? Putting them together could end in a dispute or fight.” “DO NOT QUESTION ME. You shall do as you are told, understood?” The man shouted. Dread nodded. “Of course sorry boss.” He then hauled the black ninja into a nearby cell. “We have a new captor, go easy on him.” Dread said before walking away. The prisoner looked down at his roommate, and gasped, “Cole!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 11
“Cole! Cole! Cole wake up, you're having a nightmare!” Cole’s eyes fluttered open, there was someone kneeling over him, but his vision was so blurry, he couldn’t tell who it was. “Kai?”
“Nope.”
“Jay?”
“Try again.”
“Santa????”
“Oh dear, you hit your head pretty hard huh?”
Cole didn’t know how, but somehow that voice sounded familiar, but it wasn’t any of his friends, surely. It was someone else but who? “Who are you?”
“You don’t remember? Ok lets play 20 questions, I’m a girl, we’re friends, you saved my life and my kingdom, and I lo- um who am I?” The stranger asked, helping the raven stand. It didn't take Cole long to guess who it was.
“Vania?”
“Ringadingding congratulations sir, you just won, one giant hug!” Vania tackled Cole to the ground giving the earth master a giant hug, Cole wasted no time in returning the gesture. “Vania! Good to see you! *cough, but what are you doing here?” Vania helped Cole stand up for the second time that day. “Right funny story actually, you see I was planning on visiting Ninjago, to get away from all the queen stuff, when suddenly these men came out of nowhere and kidnapped me!” Cole felt anger rise up inside of him, “what about Hailmar? Wouldn’t he have protected you?” The queen sadly shook her head, “I told him not to come, I know it sounds strange, but my whole life I've been forced into royalty living, I just wanted to be me, you know?” She looked away as if embarrassed. “I get it.” Vania faced her companion, who was wearing a sympathetic smile, "How?” “I’ll tell you, just don’t laugh ok?” Vania nodded, Cole took a deep breath “My dad, he didn’t always accept me as a ninja, he actually wanted me to be a dancer-” “YOU a dancer? Really?” Vania gasped, followed by a giggle, “You said you wouldn’t laugh!” Cole teased, “and yes he did, *cough he even sent me to a dance school… But I ran away, 6 months later, after Wu found me, we had to enter a talent show, to save ninjago *cough. The others thought it would be a good idea to get my dad to teach us how to dance, *cough so we visited him… undercover that is. I spent the whole day hiding who I was because I was afraid of what my dad would think, *cough I didn’t want to disappoint him.” He looked at the floor shamefully. Vania’s smile disappeared, “guess we’re both misunderstood huh?” Upon studying the earth elemental’s face, the queen became more concerned. “Oh dear, you look terribly ill, are you sick?” Cole opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it. ‘What should I say? Jay wanted me to be more open but, I don’t want Vania to worry about me’ He thought, but a brief look at Vania’s perfect face, made his brain fry. ‘Who am I kidding I can’t lie to Vania! My cru- no Cole, don’t think like that.’
“Cole? Are you alright?” Cole shook off all other feelings, “No, i’m not, I don’t understand whats happening, I never get sick, *cough I think it has something to do with… some guy poisoning the earth *cough.” Vania looked horror struck. “Oh dear oh dear oh dear I was afraid of that.” “What do you mean?” Cole asked, concerned. Vania looked at Cole panicked, “there's no time! We have to get out of here!” She started kicking the cage bars with so much force Cole feared she might injure herself. “Whoa Vania *cough, calm down i’m ok, why are you in such a rush?” Anyone who ever said princesses aren’t strong were proven utterly wrong at that moment, because instead of answering the earth ninja, Vania had managed to break down the METAL bars! “Woah and I thought I had super strength *cough” Vania smiled at Cole but it quickly turned back into panic, “thanks, but come on! We have to leave NOW!” She grabbed Cole’s arm and practically dragged him out the cage.

And that's when Cole got his first real look at the room. It was dark, really dark, but he managed to make out jagged pillars encased in purple cloth, the floor was cold marble, and the walls looked like they could collapse at any given moment. Cole took a pause to breathe, well more like coughing his lunch up. He threw up all over the floor, changing its color from blackish gray, to green. “Oh my gosh! Cole! You're coughing up blood!” Vania kneeled beside the boy worried. ‘Blood? No I couldn't be blood isn't gree- oh.’ he mentally slapped himself for forgetting one of his biggest life changing secrets. “Blood!” He coughed alarmed, “no no no that’s bad! That's really really really bad!” Cole’s eyes began to water, his world began to spin, he suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. It wasn't debatable, Cole knew a panic attack when he saw one, and he had a feeling this one was going to be a doozy. ‘Nonononononononononononononono, blood almost like-’ His mind raced back to the oni invasion, to the fall, surrounded by darkness, all alone, with oozing blood sliding down his forehead,
“Cole!”
No way of being able to get help in time, more blood escaped his sides, Cole fell to his knees, ‘this is it!’ He thought ‘I’m going to die!’
“Cole!”
Black dots painted his vision and he was out cold.

“COOOOOLLLLLEEEE!!!”
Cole looked up, there standing in front of him was a very concerned and worried princess. “Cole, I need you to listen to me, follow my voice, nothing else matters except my voice.” She said calmly, “Now I'm going to ask you some questions, not complicated ones, just normal ones, can you answer them for me?” Cole slowly nodded, unable to speak. Vania smiled sympathetically. “Can you tell me your age?” ‘age age what's my age? Oh yeah 18’
“ei ei eighteen” He replied shakily.
“What about your favorite color?”
Cole thought for a moment,
“um o o orange? I think, I don’t really know”
Vania nodded, “Are you single?”
Cole thought it was a weird question, but he answered none the less.
“Yes”
Vania seemed to light up at that, but it was too dark to know for sure.
“What's your phone number?”
“064438761” (A/n not a real number, don’t call it!)
“Ok good, have you ever wanted a girlfriend?”
“I guess, but I don't think anyone would go out with me.”
“How do you know until you try?”
Cole didn’t get time to answer, before Vania pulled him in for a kiss. They stayed like that for while, when Vania leaned back. A smug smile on her lips
“Did you like that?”
Cole nodded, “yeah I did.” And he leaned in for another, in fact the only reason they separated was because they heard voices. “The prisoners have escaped!” Someone yelled, “We have to find them, before the boss finds out!”
“Quickly this way!” Vania whisper-shouted and dashed to the other side of the room, she briefly looked back to see Cole swaying towards her. Biting back a curse she ran back to her crush and lifted him up bridal style. Cole couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as his princess carried him round a corner leading into a skinny hallway, on the left side was a door. Having her hands full with a very flustered looking ninja, Vania decided to kick the lock, once it was broken, she slipped inside, careful to not bang Cole’s head on the frame. She carefully sat Cole down then quietly closed the door. Cole studied the room, it looked very much like a janitor’s closet, similar to the ones they had at Marty Oppenheimer, many cleaning supplies sat on shelves while the bigger brooms leaned against the walls, and of course we can’t forget the signature mop and bucket in the corner.
“Where did they go?”
“Its like they just disappeared”
“Oh man, the boss is gonna kill us!”
“Not if we find them first, ready your men tell them we’re doing a competition, the first to find the prisoners, wins a cash prize.”
“Ooo I love money, can I play?”
A loud noise could be heard, like when one slaps someone's cheek.
“No you idiot! There is no prize! It's just so we can hunt the prisoners down without getting in trouble for losing them!”
“Ohh that makes more sense”
The voices were getting quieter, a clear sign that they were leaving. The duo sighed in relief. “I suppose this means we’re stuck here for a while huh?” Vania asked, Cole nodded, but if he was being completely honest.
There was no one else he would rather be stuck with.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12
When Jay woke up, he was in pain, well not his entire body more like his head. Sitting up he noticed that he was back on the bounty, laying in his bed. “What happened?” He asked himself. “What happened was Cole was captured, you went cuckoo crazy on me, and our team needs our help on Mount Terror, which is where we’re going now.” Jay turned towards the entrance where he spotted a certain hothead leaning against the door. “Huh? Cole’s captured?” Jay asked, although it wasn’t really a question, “by who? Was it those creeps that ambushed us?” Kai rolled his eyes. “Oh no Jay, it was the friendly neighborhood squirrels who decided to take matters into their own tiny paws. They’ve been plotting it for ages, you know, secret meetings in the park and all?” Kai replied sarcastically. Jay scoffed “Well ok mr helpful, I get the point, but if Cole’s in the hands of a villain that wants nothing more than to make his life horrible, why are we going to save our friends first?” Kai’s mouth hung wide open, “that's what I said to you! And you said something about them having an army of evil doughnuts which we wouldn’t stand a chance against by ourselves.” He put his hands on his hips in a mocking way. Jay blushed, “Please tell me I didn’t say that.” “Are you kidding? Not only did you say that! But you also burst into song, it took me ages to stop you from singing baby shark!” He teased, of course, Kai did leave out the fact that he was also singing. Jay laughed nervously “Well actually I remember that part Kai, you didn't do much better than me? Did you?” Kai’s face matched his shirt “Oh um right you uh remember anything else?”

Jay knew Kai was talking about the mini panic attack the burnet went through, but judging by the look on Kai’s face, and the way he shuffled his feet nervously, Jay could tell he didn’t want to talk about it. “I don’t have to, but I'm always here if you need to talk.”
“Oh” Kai looked at the floor ashamed, and miserable ‘somebody needs a laugh’ Jay thought, “Hey Kai, why don’t skeletons fight each other? They don’t have the guts!” Kai cringed at the joke, but Jay carried on, “you know what's funny? I used to be addicted to soap, but I’m clean now! By the way, do you know I have the smartest dog? I asked what 2 minus 2 is and he said nothing!” With each joke Jay told Kai’s shoulders began to relax more and more, pretty soon the room was filled with laughter! Jay beamed with pride knowing he’d just made his brother laugh. “Hehe, those sucked!” Kai said, Jay fake pouted “Well I got you to laugh didn’t I? You should really be more grateful Mr. IMGOINGTOLIKEJAY'SJOKEANDPRETENDIDIDN'T… Smith!” Kai giggled a bit more.

“How do you do that? Cheer people up I mean, even on the mountain when you weren't even trying, you made me laugh… How?” The redhead was shocked, it wasn’t often when Kai would comment on how good his talents were, since he was already a pretty big “attention hogger” as the team called it at least. Jay thought he might’ve been joking but one look at the burnet proved he was still waiting desperately for an answer. “Uh Gee Kai, I don’t know, I guess I've just always loved making people smile, when they’re sad, it makes me sad, y’know?” Kai smiled sadly “You have a big heart Jay, and thanks for making me feel better, both here and on the Wailing Alps.”
“You don’t have to thank me Kai, it's nice to pay it back for a change.” Jay placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. Kai shook him off, “Pay it back? How? I’m the worst big brother ever, I’m supposed to protect you guys! Not the other way round!” Memories of Jay’s own panic attack cowered in the back of his mind, and how Kai had calmed him down. “We’re a team Kai, we’re supposed to look out for each other! Besides, you did help me when I panicked, remember? That’s a great example of what a big brother does! And in case you forgot, I'm also a big brother. I failed Cole too, so if you're the worst, then I can’t even imagine what I am.” Kai looked torn between defending himself or comforting his brother, Jay had caught him in a trap. If he defended, he would be confirming what the redhead said about himself, but if Kai comforted, it would confirm what Jay said about him. Eventually he came to his senses and decided to just help Jay. “You are a good big bro Jay, you cheered Cole up multiple times, but me-” “And you cheered me up multiple times too!” Jay blurted out, “let's just agree that we’re both awesome older siblings who look after EACH OTHER ok? No matter what happens, we’ve always got your back, just like you have ours… Because we’re a family… a crazy one that saves the world from monsters, nindroids, ghosts and whatnot.” Kai laughed, “yeah… yeah your right, thanks Jay.” Jay smiled back.

“No problem, now when do we get to Mount Terror?” Kai looked down at his watch, “If we keep going east and watch out for storms, we should be there by… 4am tomorrow.” Jay gazed down at his own watch, ‘did it always look that nice? With the gold textures and silver linings and, agh no Jay you need to focus’ He thought, he checked the time “10pm that’s 6 hours from now,so we better get ready, the sooner we save our friends, the sooner we can save Cole.” Kai sighed, “Lets just hope he’s ok”
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“Are you sure we’re *cough going the right way?” Asked Cole as he followed Vania down the dark and creepy halls. “For the millionth time, yes I'm sure! I know this place like the back of my hand!” Cole rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah *cough I'm just making sure, I don't know about you, but being in the hands of a villain who *cough wants to kill me does not sound like an ideal Tuesday event.” Vania was about to defend herself when suddenly they heard a loud scream.
“I told ya pillocks! I haven't seen that freak in years!” Somebody shouted with a thick British accent. Vania grabbed Cole’s hand. “Quick they're coming, up there!” She said pointing at the ceiling, where there were 2 support beams reaching from either side, it hung quite high, not enough space to fit 2 teenagers, or at least comfortably, but as the shouts became louder the duo didn't really have much of a choice. With much difficulty, Cole and Vania climbed up the pillars making it to the top just as the strangers rounded the corner. Had Vania not been holding Cole, he would’ve fallen off at the sight of one of the strangers. He was being pulled by the arms of what looked like a pair of guards, he had blond hair and baby blue eyes, his clothes consisted of a white buttoned up shirt, black leather pants, and a brown and black tie, his shoes were also black but very shiny almost like it was trying to enter a “who can shine brighter” contest with the sun. Cole knew who he was, although with all his might inside he wished he didn't. Vania must have caught on because she looked at the raven a bit confused. “Do you know who that is?” She whispered. Cole nodded, unable to speak, partly because he was too scared he would be spotted and partly because he didn’t want it to be true, but deep down he knew it was, and he knew exactly who that was. “Dillian foster” He whispered to himself so softly not even his newly beloved queen heard it. Cole gritted his teeth, as he watched Dillian foster struggled in the holds of his captors.
The same Dillian foster who took his lunch money
And his homework
And his dignity for that matter.
The same Dillian foster who shoved him into lockers
Dumpsters
Storage closets
And basically anything he could find.
Cole didn't know a lot, but he knew that he HATED Dillian foster.
So many times had he tortured the poor raven, but looking at the baby blue eyes once filled with bitterness and spite were now looking rather… scared?
‘That can’t be right’ Cole thought, but gazing down at the blond, it was quite obvious how scared he really was, he looked terrified even, desperately trying and failing to get away from the guards who (Cole assumed) kidnapped him. Maybe it was all those years of training under Sensi's roof, but the raven couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for the boy. He turned to look at Vania. She looked back at him, they both knew what they had to do. Cole sighed ‘I'm gonna regret this’ he thought.

Chapter Text

Cole looked down at the guards who were slowly making their way towards him. Cole looked at Vania who smiled politely at him, so he smiled back. The plan was simple, or as simple as it could get for someone whose literal job is kicking villain’s butt. Turning his attention back to his childhood bully and his current captors, Cole noticed that they were now directly underneath the duo. Cole gave Vania the thumbs up and the two jumped down from their hiding spot ambushing the guards. Vania took the one on the right knocking him unconscious with her insane strength, and Cole took the one on the left knocking him unconscious with his spinjitzu, although it resulted in the poor raven throwing up all over again, at least they could now work on escaping. But first there was something else to take care of. “Hey Dillian *cough remember me?” Cole asked with a hint of regret in his voice. Dillian looked too shaken up to respond, granted Cole did have his mask on so he didn’t expect him to know immediately. And that was fine by him. The last thing he needed was MORE insults on top of his current problem. “So what now?” Vania asked. “We get out of here” Cole replied, “we have to leave now, *cough we can’t stay here its *cough too dangerous.” He turned to look at Dillian. “Dillian, you were brought into the lair recently right?” Dillian nodded slowly. “So do you know the way you came in?” Dillian nodded again, and stood up reluctantly. “Yes indeed I do you nitwits! And I am getting out of here, so pip pip cheerio!” He said walking in the direction in which he came. Cole rolled his eyes. “We just saved you! Couldn't you be at least a bit more grateful?” Vania asked, annoyed. “Blimy no, I am far too great for such tomfoolery, if you clowns need me i’ll be dancing on broadway!”
‘So that’s why he’s in America.” Cole wondered. Vania ran up to the posh boy and pressed him up against the wall. “Listen Dillian is it? We were all captured which means we all need to escape! Together ok? Unless you want me to wake up these guards and they can take you to who knows where doing who knows what with you. Now I can’t guarantee you’ll get out before your Broadway errand, but hey! You live and learn right?” Dillian rapidly shook his head, so Vania put him down, with a sigh and low grumble the blond motioned for the two to follow him. Cole flashed Vania a grateful smile, before hurrying along towards Dillian.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kai and Jay stood with their best ninja poses on the bounty’s deck, they were approximately 4 minutes away from Mount Terror, and they had wanted to look cool in front of their friends, considering that Cole was kidnapped, the two thought that everyone would be pretty on edge…

Of course they’d have to tell them first, which could. No would definitely make them look bad. So they wanted to look GOOD for as long as possible. Kind of like eating the desert first before the vegetables if you will. Kai used this time to think about what kind of possible torture Cole would be in now. Actually, he didn’t want to use the word “torture” maybe distress? He didn’t want to dwell on it, but it was no secret that he was indeed worried for one of his best friends and littlest brother. (As they liked to tease him, you know the whole “Transformation from ghost to human resets your age thing”) Come to think of it, Kai doesn't know how or when they started babying him, but since Yang told them on day of the departed that Cole was officially considered a newborn, everyone became more… protective? (Much to the earth elemental’s dismay)
Kai chuckled upon the memory of seeing his brother’s face once the ghost sensei stated his new age.
A part of him worried he might never see that face again
A really stupid and definitely crazy part
But also, maybe right?
No no! He couldn't think like that!
Kai shook his head and just decided to enjoy the silence.
Unfortunately “silent” was never a word used to describe Jay.
“What do you think our friends will say when they see us? Will they be like all “Thank you for coming to save us! You guys are the most bestest ninja of all time!” Or do you think they’ll be like “finally what took you guys so long? We’ve been waiting forever!” Maybe a bit of both? Considering Nya’s my yang and-”
Kai stopped listening after a while, and instead focused on the gentle breeze against his face and the welcoming sound of the birds songs
“-ai-”
“-k-”
“KAI!”

Kai groaned not even bothering to hide his disappointment. “Yes Jay?” Jay rolled his eyes. “Were you even listening to me?” “No but that's ok I never listen to you.” Kai smirked. The redhead pouted. “Now would be a good time to start fireboy!” He said annoyed, “I was just asking how you think Cole’s holding up?” Kai frowned so much Jay thought he could pass as a professional frowner for depressive birthday parties. “I don’t know Jay, I’m worried about him. Not only is he stuck in the hands of an evil villain who wants to kill him, but he’s also so sick that he won’t be able to fight back” Jay matched Kai’s expression. “Your right Kai, but don’t worry, we’re almost at the cords Zane sent me the sooner we rescue the team the-” “The sooner we can rescue Cole, yeah your right” Kai sighed. They’d had this conversation a bunch of times before, on how Cole was FINE and everything would turn out FINE and that there was nothing to worry about because it was, you guessed it FINE! And Kai was sick of it. Don’t get him wrong, he wants his brother to be safe, but just like Jay never liked to be quiet, Kai never liked to just hope everything would alright, he was the kind of guy that would hijack a helicopter, fly into a volcano and battle a horde of lava monsters single handedly if it meant protecting anyone he cared about. And nobody on the team doubted even for a second that he very well will if circumstances led to it. He had been called “impulsive” before, and not only by his friends. Even his old math teacher said he was a “hothead” and frankly Kai agreed. The truth is the brunette actually had a secret disorder of his own. IED (intermittent Explosive Disorder) and had taken anger management therapy to help treat it when he was younger. He never told ANYBODY, not even his sister. The sad truth is Kai was embarrassed. He always hated the word “disorder” and he didn't like the thought of being the only ninja with one. (Unless you count Cole’s colorblindness, but that wasn’t really a disorder.. More like an unfortunate condition… At least that's what everyone always told the younger anyway, whether he believed it or not was a mystery to the brunette.) The good news is his IED had gotten better over the years, and Kai never had to worry about being caught. Sure in the beginning he was a bit snappy, but he’s come a long way. The only thing that could possibly activate it again was if someone hurt his family.

But what are the odds of that?

“Hey look! There they are!” Jay said, pointing at the land bounty that just came into view. Kai flinched, it wasn't in good shape. The windows were shattered, the door was nowhere to be seen and the whole thing was flipped upside down, leaning against the bottom of a tall cliff. Kai hoped that it didn’t mean what he thought it did. Jay let out an extremely high whistle, “Wonder what happened here.” Kai nodded, “I really hope the team’s ok.” hope… hope was the only thing he could do.

As they got closer (and much to the 2 ninja’s relief) they saw the rest of their family right there, standing at a safe distance away from the cliff. Kai mentally sighed in relief. The bounty moved to hover just over the rest of the team. Then Kai and Jay continued their plan to amaze their friends by doing a couple flips off the deck.
In which they landed in a face flop for perfection.
Choosing to ignore the rough landing Kai stood up with as much dignity as possible.Instead of greeting the fire and lightning ninjas, everyone just kinda blankly stared. Kai thought that was a bit weird, considering all he’s been through to save them. Scanning his friends Kai noticed they looked a bit shaken up.
“What's wrong guys?”
Zane spoke first. “We were attacked.” Jay gasped but Kai shushed him. “Attacked by what?” He asked. Zan looked down and shook his head. “A Woving bear.”
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zane was concerned, he and his friends had been stuck on Mount Terror for 12 days now, surely his brothers would have been here by now? Maybe it was his fault, after all Zane was the one who wanted to see if Cole was alright, he was a nindroid, he would know what to do, the more he thought about it the more questions he came up with, why didn't Kai call him? Was it because he was only a robot? Did he not think he could provide guidance? Should he even be a part of the team at all? ‘Stop it Zane’ He told himself, ‘This is not about you, it's about Cole.’ The ice ninja looked out the window. Once they ran out of gas, the team thought it would be a good idea to stay inside the land bounty in case any dangerous creatures were out there. Now as the wind blew harshly shaking the vehicle, Zane was rather… afraid, although he would never admit it to anybody especially in Cole’s time of need, Zane’s insecurities would have to wait.

“Greetings Zane, I sense that something is troubling you?” Pixel walked over to her boyfriend with a concerned face, the former forced a smile, “Hello my love, no I am fine, just worried about Cole, I called Jay almost 2 weeks ago and they are still not here, I am beginning to wonder if they require assistance, or are in grave danger.” Pixel sat down next to the silver (what's Zane’s hair color?) she looked up at him knowingly, “I see, but Zane if you are unsure about something I am always here, you gave me half your heart remember?” Zane nodded, agreeing with what his girlfriend said, Cole and the others would find them, and when they did the nindroid would not waste any time before giving his little brother a sturdy check up. “Thank you Pixel, you are correct, we just have to wait. But we should be prepared in case they do not come soon enough.” He said, “Why wouldn't they come? Surely they would, since you have given them our location and I do believe the team sees each other as family, am I incorrect in this knowledge?” She asked, Zane looked at the floor as if he swallowed his shurikens, because Zane was a ninjroid he did not require air, but that didn't stop the feeling of suffocation to pass through his body. “My apologies Pixel.” Zane started, “I merely meant it in a way as if we were to run out of supplies, although you and I do not need food or water the others do.” He pointed over to his friends, Nya was rubbing her hands in an attempt at keeping warm, whilst Lloyd could be found meditating with Wu. “It would be unwise to not take that into account.” If Zane could blush he would've, ‘did i just call pixel unwise?’ Pixel smiled, “Of course, that does provide more clarity, but Zane?” Zane looked at his girlfriend, “You do know I love you, I believe we are compatible, you can tell me anything, I am here and will always be here for you.” Zane smiled “yes I know Pixel, I love you too, but I must insist that I am fine.” Pixel smiled back and got up to go talk to Nya. Zane sighed and focused on the wall, ‘I do hope he’s alright.’ He thought.

“Hello Zane are you alright?” Zane looked up to see his master standing over him, “My greetings master Wu and yes i am, thanks to Pixel.” Master Wu smiled, but before he could say anything a loud roar shook the ship. “What was that?” asked Lloyd as he got up from his spot on the floor, “I dont know”, replied Nya, “but it sounds big.” Just then a face appeared in front of the ship, then lightning struck and it was gone, “Did anybody else see that!” Lloyd pointed at where the creature was a minute ago. Immediately everybody grabbed their weapons, they stood back to back forming a small circle, everyone was on alert in case of an attack.
But none came.
A minute passed, then 5.

“Maybe it went home?” Nya guessed. Pixel shook her head. “I do not think that is likely, why would it come here and not do anything?” Lloyd shrugged, “We can't risk it what if-”

Unfortunately he was cut off by yet another roar right before the creature smashed the door down, giving the ninja a better look at what it looked like, it was 6 feet tall, its brown fur covered his eyes, his nose was purple with the biggest booger ever stuck under it. Its teeth were yellow with the slightest bit of black craving at the edges. Zane studied the creature’s back, it was covered in leaves but he did notice a few orange spikes. The creature charged at the ninja at lightning speed, giving them almost no time to react, luckily they all jumped out of the was before its giant claws could grab them, they surrounded the mysterious beast holding their weapons in a defensive position, one other thing Zane noticed was that the monster did not have a tail, or at least had a very short one. “It's a Woving bear! One of the most dangerous animals on the planet.” The ice elemental yelled. The Woving bear confirmed this by letting out a very angry roar, ‘not angry.’ Zane realized, ‘hungry’ the beast looked at Pixel like she owed him 5 bucks, before charging over to the android tackling her to the ground.

Zane rushed forward and slashed the Woving bear with his katana, usually he was better with a bow but Wu thought it would be a good idea to practice with a more common weapon in case there was an unexpected attack. The creature let Pixel go in favor of screaming in agony, as fast a lightning he charged at the ice elemental, Zane blocked his oncoming attack by lifting his weapon eye level, but Woving bears are not stupid, using its giant claws to scrape Zane’s metal skin he threw the poor nindroid across the Land Bounty right into Lloyd. Nya upon seeing this launched into her own attack, she swung her sword towards the woving bear’s midsection, but she came off just short, and ended up only grazing the beast. It then dashed towards the girl, grabbing her and pulling her towards his mouth, spit was thrown onto the water ninja as the woving bear roared yet again.

Just when Nya thought it was all over for her, the creature dropped her onto the floor and ran out the Land Bounty, like he just saw a ghost. Zane was curious by the wild animals' strange behavior, but had no time to register it before the entire vehicle shook.

“What's happening?!!?!??!” yelled Lloyd. “I believe earlier Zane forgot to mention that woving bears can manipulate the wind.” Pixel clang onto a chair. ‘Of course I did’ Zane thought. Nya, who was closest to the window, looked out in trepidation. “Guys we have to leave now.” She called as she rushed over to the door. The others followed shortly. Once Zane looked out the exit, it was suddenly clear why Nya had wanted to leave, the destiny’s bounty was on a cliff! And just about to fall off the edge! In fact Zane was in so much shock that he didn’t even notice the others calling his name from outside, Zane shook all remaining fear out of him and took a desperate leap for the ground just as the land bounty fell off.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Wow” Jay said with worry in his eyes. “Are you guys ok?” Zane nodded. “Yes just a bit shaken up. We’ve been out here in the snow since yesterday. What took you guys so long?” Kai rubbed his arm anxiously. “Well we kind of, maybe, possibly… Lost Cole.” That got everyone’s undivided attention. “What do you mean you lost him?” Nya charged angrily at her brother and boyfriend. “We didn’t lose him!” Jay rushed, fearing his fiancee’s wrath, “we know exactly where he is.” Kai saw the team physically relax. He just stared at Jay confused. “We do?” Jay nodded. “Yes! He’s with the evil villian guy who wants to kill him!” He laughed nervously.

Everyone started yelling at the two. Much like how they expected. “My students,” Master Wu said looking at Kai, "please tell us what happened?”
So he did
He told them EVERYTHING!
Well not everything. He left out the part about his mini panic attack that Jay politely chose to ignore.
When he was finished everyone looked flabbergasted. But Sensei Wu looked mournful. “I am afraid, my pupils. That Cole is in more danger than we thought.” The team became silent. Then Jay being Jay broke it by asking. “MORE danger? How could he be any MORE if he’s already in the hands of a psycho killer?!?!” Master Wu met Jay’s eyes, giving him the “there’s more, if you would just shut up, i’ll tell you” stare. Then he switched gaze to the ground. “Because Jay, he’s not just any psycho killer… he’s also Cole’s biological older brother.”

Chapter Text

Cole and Vania had been following Dillian for almost a full hour and there was still no exit in sight. “Are you sure you *cough know where the exit is? *cough” Cole asked with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. “Oh, for goodness' sake I'm absolutely certain. Really, must you Americans always be in such a frightful hurry?" Dillian said. Cole rolled his eyes, honestly it was taking everything in him to not just knock Dillian out the second he saw him, but he decided against it for two reasons, 1. They needed Dillian to help them escape, and 2 Cole wasn’t well enough to fight anyway. Still the raven had at least hoped a little that after 10 years the blonde would’ve changed… But alas it wasn't meant to be, and while Dillian hadn’t mentioned any pointed jabs at anyone yet (well other than Americans in general) he was proving to be rather…insolent.
However despite all that Cole has never been more grateful to not be recognized, the last thing he needed was his old childhood bully making a rebound, not that Cole would go cry in the bathroom if he did (something he totally didn’t do in school) but because, with juggling a strange sickness as well as being captured by someone who wants his head, adding verbal bullying to the list seems a bit much. And while Dillian wasn’t as bad as about half of Cole’s childhood tormentors, he wasn’t exactly a ball of sunshine either, now don’t get me wrong, he still picked on Cole in school in more ways than one, but if it had been Derek or Tony trapped with the raven down (or up?) There, he would have a lot more to worry about than VERBAL bullying.
But luckily it was only Dillian. All Cole had to do was keep a low profile, escape, get better and never see Dillian’s ugly little smile ever again.

“Don’t talk to him like that! We have no idea if you're tricking us? Do you even know in the slightest where the exit is?” Vania said in a rather offensive tone. Dillian rolled his eyes. “You're not the only ones who want to scarper! I’ve got a concert to get to, and my quartet is probably in a right old state wondering where on earth I’ve disappeared to!”

Of course, Vania doesn't know who Dillian actually is, despite her annoyance in the boy, if she knew what he had done to Cole it would quickly turn to fury.
Either that or disappointment
Cole always hated disappointing people… Which is why he COULDN’T tell her! Things were finally going somewhere, and Cole had just barely upgraded to “more than friends.” He didn't want to blow it on something so insignificant.
So what did he do?
He kept his mouth shut
H-, he-.... Kept his m-
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(10 years ago. Age7)
“Well, well, well look who it is” Cole groaned before slamming his locker shut, “what do you want Dillian?” Dillian smiled down at the boy, “what something? Oh goodness no, what on earth could I possibly want?”
Cole could think of a million different things Dillian could want, but he decided that now wasn’t the time to mention them. “Look, I just want to go to my class, ok? Do you think maybe we could prosbone the teasing until later?” He asked sarcastically. Dillian just laughed. “Oh I'm terribly sorry Monotone! I’ve been given a job to do by a good friend of mine… unfortunately for you he is NOT one of your friends though…” Cole didn’t have much time to process what that meant before he was forcefully shoved INSIDE his locker! “What can I say?” Dillian said while closing the door, “survival of the fittest mate” Dillian laughed at Cole’s failed attempts of escaping, “Dillian! You won’t get away with this!” the raven yelled, his voice muffled from lack of room. “Oh yeah!” Dillian laughed back, “I think I shall do just that laddy!” He pressed himself closer to the locker in which Cole was now trapped in, “and you better keep your bloody mouth shut about this Monotone! Or things shall worsen. Cheerio old chap!”
And he left
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why was it always Cole that got picked on?
Probably because of his colour-blindness, hence the nickname “Mono-tone” (Even though it technically isn't the right word since Cole still saw SOME colors) (But I don’t think bullies would care about the logistics, and neither did Cole)

“Hey you ok?” Cole looked up to see a small welcoming smile greeting him. “Yeah *cough I’m ok, *Cough thanks Vania” Vania nodded, but had a curious look on her face, “is it because of Dillian? Oh don’t let anything he says get the better of you Cole, he’s just a posh know-it-all who only cares about himself.” Cole gazed down at his feet. if only you knew.
“Oi, you bloody tossers! We’ve arrived, I suppose..” Dillian called while opening a large door with an exit sign above it. Cole and Vania walked through only to realize that this was the same room they escaped from hours ago. “What *cough no Dillian this” Cole turned around to face the blonde, only to be met with the sight of Dillian slamming the door closed from the outside. With nothing said other than the little click of the door locking.
“Well won’t you look at that…That idiot made some use after all…” Said a particularly harsh voice, a voice that somehow sounded vaguely familiar, but at the same time so foreign. “Who’s there?” Vania called, “show yourself!”
“Very well” The voice replied, just as a shadowy figure emerged from the… well shadows. It was a man, no doubt, he was wearing a dirty black suit with an even dirtier hood covering his face, the stranger was also wearing a dark brown belt with the symbol of earth on it. “Well… If it isn't my pathetic baby brother.”

Chapter Text

“What do you mean he’s Cole’s biological brother? Cole doesn't have any brothers except us!” Jay yelled, his voice filled with confusion and a hint of jealousy. The ninja were now back on the bounty flying towards some random direction Wu told them to go. Wu sighed “There is much to tell” He motioned for Kai to light a fire, Kai nodded, set his hands ablaze and tossed the flame into the indoor fireplace, Master Wu cleared his throat then said, “Many moons ago, Word got to be that my former pupil Lily, Cole’s mother, had a son. So I visited the brookstone’s house in London, which is Cole’s native country.” The team nodded, everyone remembered the stories Cole told about his country and how his dad once performed in front of the queen. Although it was a shock at first, (mainly because no one ever pictured Cole with a British accent, which led to some pretty funny imitations on what he would’ve sounded like) It was common knowledge now. “When I arrived” Continued Wu, “Cole wasn't there, no he wasn't born until some time later, who was there was Leonardo.” The way he said Leonardo made it sound like it was some kind of cuss word, and it sent shivers up everyone's spines. Wu sighed and shook his head, “Nardo had great potential, always helping others and protecting animals. At first Lily and I thought that he would be the elemental master of earth…”
“That's impossible!” Jay interrupted, “Cole’s the elemental master of earth, there can’t be two!”
“Yes Jay, you are quite right” Wu said, “And there's more, so hush!” That made Kai snicker until Wu smacked him on the head with his bo. “Listen! After meeting Nardo, I left and returned to the monastery where I continued to teach those who we’re willing to learn. Six years later, Lily gave birth to Cole.”
“Six years! That's a massive age gap!” Jay yelled, everyone just stared at him, Kai facepalmed, “Shush Jay let master Wu tell the story.” Jay smiled sheepishly but turned his attention back to his sensei. “Eager to meet Lily’s second son, I went to visit them again.” Wu said, ignoring the interruption, “By this time Cole was four years old, Lily met me from the gate as usual and we began walking through the garden towards the front door. The reason I am mentioning this is because halfway there, we spotted Cole laying on the ground playing with the dirt. At this, Lily looked shocked. Then I realized that he wasn't really playing with the dirt, but rather manipulating the ground.”
Sensei Wu sighed happily, “he made these wonderful statues, small ones, but they were beautiful. At that moment I knew I had found the true master of earth.” Everyone smiled when he said this,, but when Wu’s face darkened they knew that- “There’s more, isn't there master?” Lloyd asked. The old man sighed, but this time it was a sad one. “Yes, Nardo didn't take the news very well. Lily made the same mistake that I made with Morro. She told Nardo that he will inherit her powers, and just like with Morro’s jealousy towards the green ninja… He had some towards the black one.” The ninja all gasped, they thought that was coming but they really didn't want to believe it. “And then what happened?”
“Nardo hated the ground Cole walked on after that day.” Wu said miserably, “Being severely older than Cole, Nardo had advantages in fights, and he always won, he did unbearable things to him, embarrassing him whenever he got the chance.”
This time Zane spoke up, “So it was not only physical bullying, but emotional as well?”
“Yes Zane” Wu said solemnly, “I do not know how long he mistreated his brother, but whenever I saw Cole he was always covered in bruises and had a frown on his face.” At this point Kai had heard enough,
“That's not fair!” He yelled, stomping his foot, “Nardo used his age and strength against him!” Nya grabbed Kai’s shoulder gently, “You’re right Kai! It's not fair, but there’s nothing we can do about it now, I mean this happened 14 years ago!” Kai looked at his sister with fire in his eyes, “Don’t you get it Nya? It's horrible and it's gonna happen again! Nardo has Cole captive, And with Cole being sick, he can’t fight back, it’ll be just like it was when they were kids, but worse!” Anger flowed within the red ninja as he continued to yell relentlessly. “NARDO’LL HURT HIM! HE”LL KNOCK HIM DOWN AND HE WON’T GET BACK UP BECAUSE HE WON’T BE ABLE TO-”
“Enough!” Kai turned towards the voice, it belonged to his master. “Kai, I understand the urgency of this, but shouting at one another will only bring more problems.” Kai gritted his teeth, but obliged himself to calm down a little. “Sorry.. I’m just ugh! worried… for him.” Jay walked over to his brother and gave him a hug ignoring the fire master’s protests, “Me too kai, which is why we’re going to get him back, before Nardo can do anything.” Kai nodded and they parted from Jay’s embrace, turning to Sensei Wu he asked. “How much longer until we get there?” Wu checked the clock hanging on the wall. “2 hours and 23 minutes” Kai nodded, “Then let's suit up!” He yelled to his team, “We have one brother to save and another to pulverize!”
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“Well… If it isn't my pathetic baby brother.” The man said, eyeing Cole with hatred. Vania eyed the man back, “who are you calling pathetic?” “And *cough brother” Cole butted in. The cruel man laughed “What’s the matter Cole? A little under the weather I see? Ha! Of course you are! You’re just THAT pathetic.” Cole felt a surge of anger rush through him, but he kept his cool, he knew talking back wouldn’t help and most likely make things worse. “What?” The stranger smirked, “No response? Figures you were never the talking type anyway.” Cole remained silent, although he did wonder how this man knew that. The man laughed “Aww still nothing? Well it's no fun if you don’t say anything back!” Cole smirked in reply, Vania stifled a laugh. “Fine!” The man snapped, “Be like that! I’ll just continue my villain speech anyway, I've spent weeks preparing it!”

“Long before you were born! I was promised power of great abundance! I was to inherit the very essence of the earth!” Cole raised an eyebrow, “uh *cough hate to break it to you, but *cough *cough” The man sighed, “Yes yes I am well aware that YOU are the elemental master of earth, a very lame one at that, I would make a much better candidate!” Vania gasped, “You want to steal Cole’s power?” “NO YOU FOOL! Cole stole my power! I merely want to steal it back” He turned to face the raven, “My mother was Lily Hence Brookstone! And my father was Lou Brookstone, I was born on June 5 2001, and you, Cole, are my, as I said before, PATHETIC little brother.” Cole started at the man murderously, before doubling over in heps of laughter, “*Cough *cough sorry dude, but *cough I don’t have a brother, unless *cough you count my *cough friends of course *cough” He said in between giggles. “It is the truth!” The man snapped, “I’m Nardo Kim Brookstone, and your Cole Whatt Brookstone! I was born 6 years before you.” He sighed as if he was disappointed. “We could’ve been great, brother! We could've had everything, if you didn’t steal my power” He smirked evilly, “But alas, You made your choice, and now you will suffer from this sickness until I feel like ending you! And do you want to know what the best part is?” Yet again Cole remained silent, but Nardo was too much into his villain speech, he didn't seem to care. “Once you're gone! I will inherit your power!” He laughed eviliy
“I’ll *cough never let you! I’ll *cough *cough *cough.” Nardo smirked at his brother/nemesis.

TW (Threats and mentions of death/murder up ahead)

“Oh but you will, Cole, I’m the one who made you sick, by poisoning the earth, just like I did for say, someone else in our family? Someone who was quite close to you maybe?” Nardo smirked as Cole grinded his teeth. “You killed *cough mom! *cough” Nardo rolled his eyes. “Not necessarily, she killed herself! Or rather let herself die.” Cole looked back at him confused and somehow even more angry. Nardo laughed, “Oh you're such an idiot Cole! Can’t you see where I’m going with this? I poisoned the earth! The world itself should’ve died, but mother did instead, she sacrificed herself for you! So that YOU COULD STILL USE MY POWER! She wanted you to become a ninja!” Nardo said spitefully, but smirked when Cole looked down guiltily. “Yes Cole! You are the reason for mother’s-”

“Now you listen here you big oof! Cole is a wonderful person, he saved my kingdom before and ninjago plenty of times, I didn’t know his mother passed, but it seems like YOU’RE the one to blame for her death, not Cole!” Vania said, practically vibrating with unseized anger. Nardo chuckled, “Sorry” He said in a very not sorry way, “I didn’t realize Cole needed his girlfriend to stick up for him, nonetheless.” He slowly walked towards Cole, getting all up in his face, “You will perish soon, the question is, are you going to take the earth down with you? Or go quietly?” He pushed the raven on to the ground, “You have a few days until this sickness kills you, but don’t worry, you’ll meet your demise long before then. Guards! Take them back to the cell! And this time make it so they don’t escape!”

Chapter Text

This story is up for adoption across Ao3 and Wattpad.
If you want to adopt it, you want to finish it. Just give me credit for the first 15 parts
HOLY QUACAMOLE 15!
I spent waaayyy too much time on this lmao

Chapter Text

Writer's block has definitely beaten me regarding this story, but I don't want all my hard work to go to waste. 
So, this book is OFFICALLY up for adoption for anyone one of you. 
That means you can continue it, and do whatever you like, but I do request a few things.

1. No LGBTQ+ (No disrespect to anyone, I love you all the same. it's just a part of my beliefs) 

2. NO romance between the Brookstones! That's just gross!

3. I would like some kind of credit for the first half, nothing big, even just a mention is fine. 

More than one person CAN adopt this! As well as put, it up for adoption if they get writers block like me. Just comment down below with a "Can I adopt this?" And I'll say something like "Sure dude go for it. XD" 
That's all! Have a lovely day!