Archive of Our Own

His limbs felt like fire. Or maybe that was an overstatement, though waking up on the hard-wood flooring beside his bed and not actually on his mattress wasn’t the best way for Cole’s day to have begun. Covers bunding around his legs and draping loosely over his chest and shoulders as if it had fallen off with him, whenever that had happened, tied almost tight and taut as he shifted in the throes of almost-wakefulness. 

Until Cole just laid still. Staying on the floor seemed like a good idea. He could stare up at the still dim light of his room; even with the sunlight trying its best to creep its way through the gaps in his blinds, the monastery wasn’t exactly the most robust when it came to keeping the rays of a natural alarm clock from reaching their glowing fingers inside. Dragging him to full awareness. 

Away from whatever last night had brought him. 

A headache, it seemed. 

Or what was close to it, his brain felt heavy. Cole winces, vision blurring in the peripherals as his hand lifts into his vision, brushing the tangled mess of his fringe away from his forehead. He could feel each individual hair, shifting and scratching against his skin, feel his nails against his scalp, watch as his fingers trembled just barely as his muscles pulled and ached as if he’d spent the entire day beforehand exercising and training to no end.

He hadn’t, but…

Staring at maps and helping train the newest-not-so-new ninja that Lloyd had taken in-

Well, a half of the newest ninja. The search for Arin and Ras was getting entirely nowhere. Finding Jay, only for him to slip through their collective fingers in a wave of corrupted Spinjitzu and glares absent of memories and familiarity. It hurt… 

Maybe that’s why his head was full of cotton. His chest was tight, aching.

It was probably the sheer lack of sleep the last few weeks had given him, too. Given everyone. That explained his disconnection to his body.

Pushing himself up came a little harder than normal, his fingers were heavy lead, prickly and buzzing. His head felt like it could tip forwards on his neck if Cole wasn’t putting all of his brain power into keeping it square on his shoulders. The blanket, something that eventually fell away from his pajamas and pooled on the floor, had felt like a colossal task to pick free from his limbs.

He felt off. Horrible.

Sideways.

Cole got his feet beneath himself. Up - Steady enough... 

Eyes traced their way over the wall’s wood grain as if it held all the answers, the fuzzy throbbing feeling of his head was pushed forcefully to the side in an effort to get his mind to properly wake up, to focus on the day ahead. He couldn’t just stay on the floor, holed up in his room. He had a job to do. Ninja never sleep, the world made that clear enough.

“This is what I get for sleeping on the floor.” Cole mumbled, quietly, yet still his voice echoed its way through his skull like scraping nails.

The room’s chill still clung to his body, blinking owlishly down to the bed only revealed the mess that it had become, pulled up corners, pillows absent, lost off the other edge of the frame. 

It looks like he felt. 

His heart, ratcheting from what must have been a forgotten nightmare, was at least slowing itself down as he brushed down the front of his sleep-shirt, though the creases sprang back just as fast. He’d tried. 

His fingers looped their way through his trousers draw-string to tighten them. The string dropped through his grip. Once.

Twice.

Cole’s brow furrowed. 

“What..?” He tried again. The same result. Hs brain was telling his body what to do, he could feel the thoughts in his mind, the guiding force to move his hands, tie a knot, easy.

His hands felt  absent, even though he could see them. Numb to existence as his fingers twitched, dropping the string again.

Cole’s answer to the problem is simple. He’ll try again later. In a few minutes. He moves to the doorway on sleeping feet, at least his hands were listening enough to wipe the sleep still lingering in his eyes. Small victories.

What wasn’t a small victory was the loud controlled chaos that existed out beyond the doorway to his bedroom. The monastery had never truly been hectic, or even full for that matter. There were many extra rooms, most of them collecting dust and left abandoned in the recesses of one or two dark hallways. There were always a few people walking about.

The busyness was a form of normal, especially after spending the past few who-knows-how-many days experiencing a tournament again. The Tournament of the Sources. Of Elemental Masters, busy rooms, hectic nights, fighting for victory-

If he had a nickel for every time-

Cole walked into something solid and bounced back, though rapid hands were quickly wrapping their way around his shoulders to steady his interrupted stride. 

Sharp green eyes, tired, bags beneath them, stared back into his own.

“Dude, you still asleep or something?” Lloyd hums, a smirk gracing over his lips easily. Quickly.

The hold on Cole’s arms remains, at least for a second. It took him a little more than that for the words to crawl into his brain and actually make sense. 

Cole brushes the hold free with a roll of his eyes, his mind snapping back into gear to a kitchen that hadn’t exactly fallen silent, but eyes were trained in his direction. Catching Kai’s gaze with his own had the fire ninja looking away and back down to his breakfast. The entire room felt like it was on edge.

Until it wasn’t, and Cole’s stomach detangled itself from the unknown knot it had tied itself into. At least something could be knotted. 

“Still waking up, apparently. Didn’t see you there.”

There was a light sigh, “Sure, you had the entire kitchen to walk through and yet you went right into me.”

The smell of coffee struck Cole’s nose as he gave Lloyd a light push. It seemed his hands were coordinated again. Good. “Could have stepped around me, kiddo.”

“Okay,” Zane appeared from one side, stepping his way into the conversation with ease. The pink apron and oven gloves over metal, heat resistant hands almost pulled a laugh from the earth ninja; even after seeing the same scene before. 

Not for a while though, they’d all been on the move constantly in recent times. It only felt like now, after the Tournament had concluded, could they actually take a breath.

So much had happened, so much time had slipped away.

“We’re all tired. Why don’t you all sit down, get something to eat? Take the time to wake up.”

Except it wasn’t a real breath, because there were now so many issues and angles that needed to be dealt with that Cole could feel his sanity dissolving with each day that passed by with no leads. 

Therefore, some forced and extremely tentative downtime. 

Lloyd raises a brow, “You were up before everyone today, Zane.”

“I don’t sleep.” Zane answers fluidly, simply.

“You can.”

“It’s not as if it was easy last night, though.” Nya added, dropping her now empty plate and cutlery into the sink, the tap firing steaming water onto the dirty crockery. “I couldn’t get back to sleep, my mirror almost broke. I had to take it off the wall, lay it flat.”

Cole frowned, attention piqued, “What happened last night?”

Nya tilted her head to one side, “Earthquake. Didn’t it wake you up?”

“Earth for brains? No chance.” Kai snorts, Cole rolls his eyes in response and gains a couple hands held up in surrender from the morning’s self-appointed jokester. 

Then his attention turned back to Nya, drying her hands, stepping towards the doorway.

Just in time to join the newest ninja as they passed by the frame, having heard the conversation at hand, “It was a pretty strong one,” Sora added, poking her head into the room. Wyldfyre was at her back. Both dressed and ready, both with towels thrown over their shoulders. Eyes tracing further down the hallway to where Cole knew the courtyard and all the training equipment was. 

Listening for long enough, he could hear the clatter of wood. 

And with a room full of humans, that left Riyu outside. 

A glance at the clock on the wall told him it was mid morning, just before the sun got too high and too warm to do any effective drills without exhaustion. Cole really had a lay-in that morning, on any other day he would have already been up, finished his training. 

He glances down at his clothes, he’d at least already be dressed. 

“Cole didn’t even feel it, so I wouldn’t worry about it.” Kai held a fork out, scrambled eggs almost falling from the prongs. Cole could practically feel Zane’s wince at his side. “Earth master slept right on through.”

“I woke up on the floor, Kai, that didn’t even knock me awake.” Cole adds.

Kai gave an expression and a flare of spread hands as if to say see? 

Lloyd sighed, “Easy for you to say,” a hand moving through his hair. It was like everyone else was ready for the day except Cole. A band shirt, grey sweatpants. Not the best example of a ninja. “I’ve had to reshelve all my Starfarer, do you know how organised I had it? Now the first half of the series is mixed with the second, and it’s still on the floor-”

I didn’t even feel anything…

I didn’t even wake up.

The constant tinnitus of the screeching earth around him, something that had grown only worse over the past couple weeks - following the tournament, the stress of what had taken place, the near end of the world again.

Of Arin deciding to take his own path. Of Jay and his loss of memories, of his manipulation by the enemy… Of his battle against Nya, his use of Shatterspin-

That had thrown everyone for a loop, even if they were trying their best to even attempt to continue on as normal with each pressing task at hand. 

Find their friends, bring them home, help them. 

Cole’s mind had been full of stress, since whilst Lloyd was the leader of the team, Cole still put it upon himself to be the one to keep things together. Shoulder the load. It was what he did best. Quiet effective help.

Not that anyone was getting anywhere with anything.

Kai smirks from his seat, “Better go clean up, Greenie.”

“Shove it, Kai,” 

“That’s my cue,” Nya moves to the door, a smile on her face. One Cole hadn’t seen for a few days. It was nice, relaxed. And for once, this time it stayed as she’s grabbing onto Sora and Wyldfyre, pulling them further down the hall to the main doors, “You boys clean up, I’ll be outside.”

Lloyd didn’t seem to notice the wave Nya provided, “Do you have any idea how annoying it is?” His words were ranting, but his face was one closer to a slight grin. Kai had one too. Lloyd made his way over to where Kai sat, reached his way out, and removed the pillow from the fire ninja’s back without much preamble. 

Then there was a small poof as Lloyd was pressing the pillow down into spiked hair, the air escaping through the fabrics stitching. 

Kai didn’t move to react. 

Brother annoying brother. He couldn’t even have a quiet morning, apparently. 

Lloyd’s attention swivels its way over to Cole in an instant, pillow still pressing its way further into Kai’s face, “Want to help me tidy?”

Cole scoffs before thinking. He still stands by his reaction, “I don’t cause all earthquakes, Lloyd. Sometimes they just happen-”

The pillow struck the side of his face, and it knocked him more than Cole was going to admit. It rattled his brain, skewed his vision just barely, before a squinting gaze settled back on where Lloyd was standing, deer in headlights, eyes wide. “I thought you’d block it.” Was all that was said from the young blond. 

Kai was watching too, head poking around the side from where Lloyd was blocking his view. But not for long, at least, as the kid walked his way back over to Cole with a creased forehead and searching eyes, “You okay?”

It was Cole’s turn to frown now, “What? Yeah, I’m fine.”

Lloyd didn’t seem convinced, rocking his head from one side to the other. Attention fixed and looking for something.

Cole followed the movement with his eyes.

“You seem a bit out of it.” Was all that was said in response. 

Now, that didn’t didn’t make sense. Sure, he was tired. But he couldn’t have looked that bad. Sleep didn’t come easy, but it was coming. And it wasn’t like the entire load of solving Ninjago’s problems was solely for him to solve. Even though, sometimes, it felt like it was only something he could fix. 

Which made no sense.

“I’m good. I’m fine,” Cole answers, the ringing in his ears and the itch of the earth energy running its way up his bare feet through the floorboards notwithstanding, “Still coming around.”

Lloyd didn’t seem convinced. 

Cole took this as his cue to make like Nya, and take his leave. He turned on one heel, and only for the briefest second did he feel like he was going to lose his balance, before he caught himself without giving anything away, and made quick work heading back to his bedroom with a brief, “I’m going to get ready.” In response. 

Lloyd’s eyes followed him all the way out of the kitchen.

Cole was sure he should be training, but after getting himself under a shower that made his brain swim with the heat until he turned it down, let the lukewarm water wash over aching shoulders as he took the time to catch his breath-

After looking into the bathroom mirror and finding greyed brown-purple blemishes of bruises running over his shoulders and down onto his back, each one aching as he pushed a finger into them to check if they were really there, and not just some trick of the light. He pulled his gi over the top of them, muscles straining, the showered mist in the bathroom air still hanging and soddening his lungs with what felt like thinner air; Cole decided that he needed some form of rest. 

He’d probably pushed himself too far the day beforehand. 

Facing off against Lloyd, getting struck with a few well aimed punches, having his legs swept out from beneath him. That probably explained his bruises. 

A hand wanders up his arm, uncovered against the warmth of the sun shining its way down onto the uncovered courtyard. Sometimes, being above the cloud line had its benefits, one which did not include having to take the steps up to the monastery. It meant being above most of the rain showers, having clear skies often. It also meant, in the warmer months, unhindered heat when the temperature was already creeping its way up into high digits.  

His gi was pulled down to sit at his elbows, a thin shirt gave a little reprieve to the heat. His orange mask still sat around his neck, though, more of a way to catch sweat and dab at his forehead. 

Not that he was the one exerting himself. 

Cole watches as Lloyd was clearly being far more forgiving than usual when fighting against one of his kids, but Sora was still holding her ground, fluid around the battle-field, wooden sword in her hand as she went against her sensei. 

She looks intent, almost matching the way Nya herself stares at a challenge. Cole could laugh at the matching, at least internally, he knew when not to interrupt the focus of his friends.

Sora hadn’t managed to beat Lloyd since the tournament, but that definitely didn’t dull her spirit or stop her attempts to land a hard blow. Lloyd was enjoying it too, a wide grin on his face that came few and far between recently, sweat over his brow, eyes focusing directly on his opponent as if he was reluctant to even give an inch of ground in battle.

Then Riyu came bounding around the side of the monastery, tongue out and panting, then threw himself into battle with all the grace the grey dragon could muster when not actually trying to fight properly.  

Cole laughs as the fight grinds itself to a halt as Lloyd is buried under the weight of a helpful dragon, warmed air moves down his throat as he watches the scene, though part of him wishes he’d at least brought a bottle of water out with him.

“Riyu, get off! Ha-!” Lloyd’s laugh from underneath was only slightly muffled, and Cole could have made a move to help. Maybe he should have, with the way Lloyd’s legs were kicking and Sora just stood off to the side to observe, gripping her sword hilt tightly in one hand.

Riyu pauses, sits down on Lloyd’s legs.

And Cole didn’t miss how Sora was sneaking that bit closer, wooden blade lifting just slightly. 

A planned attack? Strategy? Cole could appreciate entertainment when it was happening.

“Cole, help!” Lloyd shouted, grinning. 

“Don’t get distracted.” Cole called back, the moment Sora brought the sword down to poke at Lloyd’s side with a smirk.

“I win.” She said with clear approval and victory in her own voice, and Lloyd scoffs from the floor, scratching Riyu under the chin for a second before he carefully tipped the unaware dragon sideways, freeing himself in the process. 

Riyu jumps up at the trick, bounding around the scene like an excitable dog Cole had once had to babysit when he’d been younger. That had been a labrador then, endless energy, running about and exhausting even himself and his childhood levels of energy as the dog would bound from one side of the field to another, and again, and again, for hours it seems until both the pup and Cole himself were thoroughly worn out. His dad probably liked that it made him sleep faster at night, as opposed to playing music into the small hours of the morning. 

Cole was exhausted now, just by watching all the exercise in front of him. Lloyd crouching down to reclaim his weapon, levelling it at Sora who threw her head back with a groan, “I hit you, I win.”

“We aren’t playing to win.” Lloyd brushes his gi flat.

“That’s what losers say,” Cole called out, smirking at the look Lloyd levels in his direction before he raises his sword in challenge again.

He should get up, get some drinks for everyone before they pass out from heat exhaustion. It didn’t seem like they were going to slow down their fight any time soon, and the sun so high in the sky meant hydration was important. Years of Zane drilling that into his head had him moving. Cole collects his hands beneath himself, fingers warmed on the stone below him as he pushes himself up into a low crouch, his own gi bundling itself onto the ground behind him as he tries to maintain his balance. 

The wooden swords clash, the clattering sound echoes through the courtyard, bouncing itself off the walls and floor with each connecting hit. 

Cole winces, eyes moving to a squint at the buzzing jar that moved through his brain.

Another connection, wood scraping against itself. 

Cole’s hands tensed against the ground. 

The singing, shouting earth as it resonated back up through his fingers. Flowing through his arms, shaking in his chest, worming and weaseling its way into his brain with the start of light pain between his eyes, over his nose, making his skull ache beneath his skin and his brain rattle in his head. 

The warmth of the ground fell to static beneath his hands. His crouch fell back down to a seat with a quiet oof and a huff of air. 

One hand rose, unsteady and disjointed as Cole threaded it into his hair, as if that would stave off the coming headache and stop the earth from ravaging its way through his brain. Normally it wasn’t this bad, sure the pain could be a constant presence but since the merge-quakes had stopped, things had been lighter. Easier to manage.

Less sharp, less chronic and suddenly debilitating. 

His fringe felt like pins and needles running between his fingers, as if the tugging pressure of hair would relieve the pain. 

The sharp sound of footsteps flowed through the ground, and Cole could still see the fight in front of him.

Blurred, each moving figure rife with a white glare which must have been from the sun, distorting the forms of Lloyd and Sora with haloes of misted out greys and pinks like a solar halo brought to the surface.

There was a huff of warm air at his side, and if Cole had the awareness to jump, he might have had he not come face to face with Riyu with his snout levelled at the side of his head and large, clawed feet pawing at the stone masonry with unreleased energy.

Cole sighs, trying to open his eyes wider in at least an attempt to look like he was okay. 

The earth was screaming in his ears. 

His eyes screw shut against the light, and Riyu seemed to notice the pain that Cole was in, much to his own chagrin. There was a light thud, and the next time Cole opened a sliver of his eyes, the dragon was seated on his hind legs beside him, nose sniffling at the warm air, nudging lightly at Cole’s shoulder, his arm, leg-

“I’m just tired, kiddo.” It’s all Cole can come up with at the moment to dissuade the dragon from further tampering, though that didn’t sway the creature away from his poking ministrations. It was just a headache, yet dragons were always far more aware than humans, and sometimes Cole didn’t enjoy being read so easily. 

He glances over at the fight just as Sora took a measured, but still hard blow to her side as Lloyd landed a kick. Still, Riyu remained at his side, claws scratching and padding lightly at the closest leg. Cole knew he just needed a minute, his thoughts would kick back into gear and his eyes would stop with the glare, his brain would stop trying to escape from his skull.

He gave a quick glance down at his hands, pooled into the lap of his outstretched legs. His fingers felt floaty and absent. Twitching just slightly and tensed against his palms, his nails digging small crescents into his skin. 

Cole blew out a heavy breath. This would pass. The pain, the earth screaming, it always lessened in time. Always faded away to the back of his mind like an annoying buzz.

He lifted one hand, petting over Riyu’s head with the back of it as if to dissuade the pestering, “Why don’t you go and help Sora again?” It was clear, this time at least, Lloyd would be coming out on top. 

The blur of green a little in front of him only piled on more speed, more attacks. 

A near constant rhythm of wood against wood and feet against the ground and the earth…

Thudding and pulsing and screeching in his ears-

The hand resting on Riyu’s head fell still, even as the dragon bowed his head for ease of reach, Cole found himself staring at his fingers with a slight fuzzed absence. His furrowing brow doing nothing to help the headache, his hand sitting in a buzzing void of absence against the dragon’s scales.

The only thing the earth master could feel was the hum of energy beneath the dragon’s greyed and golden scales, the way it was warm, how it flowed and ebbed and hummed against his skin. Sure, he’d never been given an elemental boost like Sora or Nya had experienced, but he was sure he had to be feeling that. A leftover bit of power, diluted, but still just as present. 

The hum found its way through his fingers, vibrating across his bones and into his palm. He could feel it in both hands, a tickle moving its way up his skin, into the back of his mind, where it remained and continued to flare and sway as if it lived there. 

Cole glances over at Riyu, at the ever growing aura of light around him, lens flares spiking in his vision. This was going to be one hell of a migraine, it already was. The curl of nausea in his stomach, the ache in his muscles, mainly centering on his fingers that tensed and twitched just barely in his peripheral vision. 

How his brain felt like it was moving through fog, like it was drowning in molasses and trying but failing to surface against it. It was dragging him down, making his body feel heavy,  thoughts moving slowly, vision fuzzy, his mind catching onto brief words and scenes before being nipped away by the growing pained confusion. 

The earthen scream grew to a sharp crescendo in his ears. His body felt like it was floating, his vision staring out into nothingness as if there was a layer of glass between himself and the waking world. 

Something’s wrong… 

Riyu at least seemingly sensed that too.  The dragon pawed at his side with a bit more force, as if trying to topple him over. At least, an attempt that Cole fought against. He felt off, sure, his ears were screaming with the echoes of the earth emanating from right below him, but the last thing he wanted was to worry anyone. 

Whatever was going on, he could handle it. He didn’t need to add to his family’s already entirely too large pile of stress.

He places a hand, tremouring and loose, against Riyu’s nose to gain a bit of purchase whilst also keeping the dragon at bay. He should get up, go to his room, lay down in the dark until the pain passes by, until he can get his mind to focus again. 

His arms couldn’t find the strength to push himself up from his seated position.

And Riyu wasn’t stopping. He was whining, each scratch of his scales against Cole’s bare skin left electricity in its wake, it made his vision blur further, his mind dim.

“Hey, I’m fine, I…” Cole tried, his head lolled, the sensation of heaviness tipping it forwards just slightly, eyes screwed shut, “I’m fine-” He just had to stand, get back inside, away from people, away from the earth, away from the ever-present and non-moving dragon. “Sora, come get… Get…” He falters as his tongue dries to cement in his mouth. Riyu whined in his ear, nudging directly in his face as Cole worked around the words in his brain. He knew what he wanted to say, he could see the words in his mind as they surfaced. 

It’s just that his mouth wasn’t working around them. His jaw felt stuck, his eyes felt as though they were drifting to one side, unfocused even as he caught sight of Riyu directly beside him, “Your… Dragon..?”

His attention swiveled as the dull sound of footsteps came over to his direction, though his eyes didn’t seem to move as fast as his head - his vision hollowed out, greying and tunneling, rolling loosely and uncoordinated into the direction he wanted them to be looking. 

At a blur of green. Of someone crouching down in front of him, pushing away an increasingly stressed and vocal dragon in favour of two hands coming up to hold Cole’s head steady. Even then, it was like his skull was rocking loosely on his spine.

His brain grinding to a halt. 

Until all he could see was the back of his own eyelids until the screaming in his mind and hands holding his head up faded into nothing.

Lloyd wasn’t sure what had happened. Or, what was happening. Being stuck in the throes the fight, eyes tracking each and every movement Sora made in front of him until he fell into the far too familiar rhythm of the small battle they’d created, he’d barely even noticed when Riyu had slipped away, that the dragon had bounded his way over to Cole and had left Sora without the backup; not that Lloyd needed that lack of one opponent to give him the upper-hand. 

Then Cole was calling for Sora, though it was barely noticeable at first, above the clashing of practice swords and the heaving of Lloyd’s own breath in his ears, the feeling of his power, his own flowing energy rushing beneath his skin.

Until there was a disruption to his senses. It was there, a clear nudge to his own elemental power like a sharp shove to the side of his mind, the ebb of his energy and the knock to his power nearly had him stumbling in the midst of the fight, his footing close to leading him to a trip, his brain spiking to sharp attention at the sudden shifting intrusion. 

It felt like… Like there was something creeping closer. Proverbially speaking. Like a slight sense of unease and dread that came with the unknown of a mission, or the wariness that arose when he was sure he could feel the source dragons poking at his energy and tempting the universe to drive him into another vision.

Lloyd shudders despite himself. He was ready for a break, that was clear. His muscles were aching, his clothes damp against his chest with sweat, the knocks that Sora had gained against his skin humming with incoming bruises. 

He lifts his sword, intent to draw the fight to an easy pause. Though with a glance in front of himself, it showed that Sora had ground to a halt too. 

She couldn’t have felt the same thing- Lloyd's thoughts came in quick, but the notion was quickly whisked away as he followed her eyes to one side, off to where she was staring. 

Lloyd swivels his head to follow her, vision settling on-

“... Cole, you okay?” Sora began, voice full of a frown, resting her weight onto the sword at her side, the wooden point shoved down between the cobbles of the courtyard. Riyu seemingly was intent to keep poking at Cole’s side, something that drew a slight smile from the newest ninja. At least until Riyu let out a pitched whine through his nose, sniffing and huffing taking over the now present silence of the training ground.

The dragon batted his paw at Cole’s side, claws catching lightly on his shirt and pulling on it in a repeating motion. Cole was sitting there, hand moving up to gently nudge the dragon’s ministrations away. Eyes hooded, head dipping just a little forwards. Legs splayed out in front of him, hair damp and sweated onto his forehead in an uncomfortable and unforeseen mess despite him not having started training. 

He wasn’t watching the fight.

Lloyd looks closer, eyes squinting, forehead creasing. Cole wasn’t watching anything.

Even Riyu at his side, or the halted fight in front of him. Or reacting to Sora’s call-

“Hey, Riyu, stop annoying him and help me beat Lloyd-” Sora steps closer, bending towards a slight crouch to tempt the dragon away from what he was doing. 

Lloyd just stared for longer, trying to catch Cole’s gaze. 

The ninja’s amber eyes were rocking, flicking like loose marbles in the general direction of where Riyu was now sat on his haunches, belly to the ground, head pillowed resolutely onto Cole’s lap, nostrils huffing and scales glimmering in the sun and-

“Sora,” Lloyd began, voice a bit more sharp than he intended, but it did the trick. Her attention immediately moved over to where he was standing, gaze focused in an instant, shoulders tensing under the sudden notion of seriousness. Yet, the green ninja didn’t take his eyes away from Cole, in fact he only stepped closer to make sure the gap between them was getting shorter and shorter and- “Go inside and get Zane, or Nya.”

Sora was faltering, confusion settling over her features. Lloyd could see it, even as her feet gradually turned and began their movement towards the monastery doors, which was good because even unsure she was following his directions, she was heading inside, “What’s going on?”

“Head inside and tell them there’s something wrong with-”

Cole listed to one side, and this time he didn’t move to catch himself. Gravity took hold, his hands remaining in his lap, unmoving, curling just barely towards his chest as he began tipping towards the stone ground. 

Lloyd didn’t have the time to think before his body began moving, quick footfalls forwards closing the gap between the two ninja in less than a second. His own eyes blown wide as his gloved hands reached out to catch Cole by his shoulders, one supporting his lolling head. It was obvious the earth ninja’s eyes weren’t focusing. They were hooded, gazing off into nothing even as Lloyd situated himself directly in front of his brother. 

A couple careful taps to the side of Cole’s head, a second of adjusting his hold to keep Cole sat up still didn’t rouse any response. If anything, it frustrated a present Riyu who went back to batting at his target's side.

Lloyd brushed the dragon’s ministrations away, “Hey, don’t- Riyu,” He took a glance around, noticing the now absence of Sora who was hopefully inside, but not here to get her friend under better control.

His whining and grunting, huffs of warm air from his nose, the direct focus on Cole who was still loosely sat up by Lloyd’s own personal power and not his own.

“Cole, can you hear me?” Lloyd didn’t think it would work, and he was right. Was he unconscious? Was it heat-stroke? Cole’s brow was beaded with sweat. The sun was definitely high and warm today, Lloyd squinted up at the sky as if to check on the state of the heat and light, but Cole was careful about that type of thing, Lloyd knew that. 

So what was..?

Lloyd watches, stomach dropping with sudden worry and slight horror as Cole’s eyes shifted from absently staring forwards into a void, to slowly, gradually, rolling up and back into his skull. Only a sliver of the amber still visible, poking out from his upper eyelids. 

Then his head started to turn, shifting left and cushioning itself uncomfortably against his own shoulder. Arms moving up closer to his chest, jaw clenching.

Riyu let out a sharp whine.

Lloyd’s heart stuttered. “Nya!” He shouts, carefully lowering Cole down to the ground. As soon as his shoulder was laid against the cobbles, head still sharply tensed against one shoulder-

Cole began convulsing. 

Lloyd felt his mind falter at the sight, a lump immediately catching in his throat as he found himself watching, unmoving, as Cole’s body bowed out, legs tensing and stretching, hands clawed and tremouring against his chest.

The slight grunts freeing themselves from Cole’s clenched jaw had Lloyd’s heart twisting.

He knew to keep his head from hitting the ground.

Should he hold it still? No. Lloyd’s hands loosened their grip. It could hurt his muscles. He’d watched a video about this before, morbid curiosity driving his interest and focus. He needed to pillow his head, move any dangerous objects out the way. 

A quick look around surfaced Cole’s own removed gi. That would work. Lloyd bundled the material quickly beneath his brother’s head.

Maybe he should get him inside, to a softer surface.

Lloyd didn’t miss Cole’s orange mask around his neck, loose but knotted at the back. His hands moved to untie it before his brain caught up. Tugging at the knot, struggling around the shaking ninja before him with the tie being pulled from his grip a couple times before he managed to get it untangled, pulling it free. 

Nothing around his neck.

Recovery position.

He was staring down at the earth ninja, watching as the tensed muscles and shaking tremor of his limbs 

It wasn’t overly violent, thank the First. He’d heard of worse ones, harsh shaking, striking against the floor, uncontrollable limbs and bruises and injuries and… and-

Cole would be bruised at the end of this, because it would end. Eventually. At some point.

His arms shaking, hands curled, hitting slightly between the stone ground and his shirted chest. Head bowed, chin closer to his sternum now, teeth trapped together in a clenching grind.

Noises breaking free from his seizing throat. 

He should let it run its course.

Lloyd swallows hard, around the tightness in his throat, through the burn in his eyes. He never thought he’d actually have to put any of what he barely remembered into practice. 

He couldn’t do anything.

He couldn’t stop it.

He’d felt it coming-

Where was everyone..?

“Zane! Kai!”

“Lloyd, what-? Shit,” Kai’s shout comes from the monastery doors like a balm to Lloyd’s own soul. There’s rushing footsteps. A sharp breath and a slight stutter to the motion before Kai eventually appears at his side, crouching down to the floor, resting on his knees with his hands floating but not touching over Cole’s form. “What happened?”

“I don’t know-” Lloyd breathed, words falling out quickly. It seems that all he needed was someone else next to him for his mind to catch up to what he was actually seeing. “I sent Sora inside to find the others and she’s not back yet and-”

And Cole was having a seizure. A sudden, random seizure. Anything could have been the cause. And it could be getting worse or whatever problem could be becoming dangerous and all he was doing was staring.

“You’re doing great, kid. All the right things.” Kai said, though it was with a wince. And a thick swallow that Lloyd tracked. He was worried. They both were. Just trying to keep up a facade. “How long has it been so far?”

Lloyd pauses, thinking, “It feels like too long but… Probably half a minute. Less? More?”

“Okay.” Kai pulled his phone out of his pocket, set a timer on it, and laid it on the ground as he went back to Cole. Still shaking. Just as much, if not more than before. 

Was it getting worse?”

The moment Lloyd watched as Zane and Nya emerged from the monastery, tailed further behind by a wary Sora and Wyldfyre, the entire mountain tremoured. Lloyd caught himself against the ground, bits of stone digging into his palms as he was shoved unceremoniously off balance by the shake. 

It rocked Zane and Nya too, Nya moving with a grace that kept her feet on the ground as Zane stops, settling into a wider stance to maintain his footing as he edges his way closer. 

It was just like early that morning. At three, early, early; when he’d woken up and watched as his book shelf had collapsed and his trinkets were shaking and the floor was moving- “Again?!” It’s shouted into the void, or at least in the general direction of his friends. Of all the things. Of all the times. Sure, it was common to have multiple earthquakes close together. But now? “Why now?”

Dust shook itself free from the monastery rafters, some leaves from the trees at the edge of the courtyard fell before their time. The water in the central fountain sloshed free from its basin. 

Lloyd shifted, catching himself this time from tumbling to the ground, then lifting his eyes to the two newcomers, Nya’s wide eyes, Zane’s immediate and expected analysis of the situation leading to a focus and intelligence that was so dearly needed and made an unknown knot in Lloyd’s chest loosen.

“How long?” Zane began with careful footwork traversing over the trembling ground. 

“Forty seconds.” Kai glanced down at his phone, before looking around, as if trying to figure out what was happening, he caught Nya’s elbow as she came closer, halting her from falling backwards as the ground shook again. “Forty-three.”

Lloyd stared down at Cole, eyes still hidden back in his skull. 

His arms were jerking harder, his legs kicking out. Zane looks over it all with his eyes flaring a bright blue, the Nindroid clearly looking further than what Lloyd could see himself. But even to his own regular eyes, it looked like Cole was getting worse.

Zane looks up at Lloyd, expression shifting just barely as the ground continued to tremor. It was nothing bad, nothing too dangerous. Just an unusual occurrence. An unusual coincidence. Cole was seizing and the earth was shaking and… “Lloyd, did something cause this? Did he hit his head during training?”

“No, no. He didn’t train. He sat down.” Lloyd pauses, brain catching up slowly, “He didn’t seem so good earlier. He wouldn’t admit it, but I thought he was getting a cold or something.”

“He wasn’t focusing.” Kai adds, “Took a pillow to the face. Looked tired.”

“I doubt a pillow would cause this.” Zane states plainly as he’s tugging off his own gi to add to the small bundle under Cole’s head for more cushioning, taking a moment to catch himself against the ground just as Lloyd has as the world continues to shift beneath everyone. “These can happen sometimes. Tiredness, stress. Overworking.”

All of those boxes were ticked in seconds.

The rocking is harder, much more harsher than before. And it continued shaking. Shifting from side to side as if the world’s form was closer to water than it was to solid earth. Cobbles chipping and breaking, the cement between them pulling apart and cracking together as the world shifted beneath their feet.

Cole’s head moved, pressing against the material mound pillowing his temple, shuddering and shunting breaths being pulled in and pressed out by jerking misfiring muscles. He was getting enough air, Lloyd could see that. His face was pink enough, his lips weren’t blue. Lloyd falls forwards, his hands shooting out to stop himself from falling directly into where Cole was situated, his face so close to meeting the earth ninja’s side that he was more than prepared to hurt his nose and add another bruise to what would probably be Cole’s many already.

There was blood dripping down from the corner of his mouth, and Lloyd’s stomach dropped, “Zane, he’s bleeding!” 

“He probably bit his tongue.” Zane crouches down further to look, at least, as much as he could without losing his own balance. It was good they were all outside, even if it was for a horrible reason. If they were all inside whilst Cole was seizing, they’d have to figure out a way to get him outside without injuring him, or him accidentally injuring someone else in his flailing. 

“Is everyone outside the Monastery?”

“Mr. Frohicky went to the Crossroads this morning!” Wyldfyre calls over, stepping further away from the shaking walls and the roofed hallways with Sora in a quick tow, “Something about shopping.”

Okay, good. No one was inside. 

But who knew how far this earthquake stretched? How big was its area of effect? 

Was it just the mountain? Did it go further? Through the rice fields, down the busy roads? People would be working right now in the city, others would be outside and doing their daily routines, they would all be out and at risk with no time to prepare-

Lloyd glances at the shaking world around everyone, watching as a webbed crack of stone and plaster pulls its way away from one of the walls that surrounds and protects the monastery. Everything was falling apart, or at least, it was getting close to that. He’d experienced worse earthquakes when the world had been contending with the aftershocks of the merge and the merge-quakes that were forced onto the world in their presence.

But this… Something felt wrong. Off. Even Ninjago had some good predictors for incoming earthquakes, sensors underground set up in the era of Cyrus Borg, early warning systems. Lloyd took a glance down to Kai’s phone on the ground and picked it up, unwilling to lose it in the current mess of the shaking mountain.

No emergency alerts.

Kai stumbles to one side, catching himself on Zane’s arm and very nearly dragging them both down with the harshness of it. Zane tries his best to hold on to his brother, and in any other context Lloyd would have laughed at the sight. The yelp at the fall, the flailing arms, the inability to right himself and the grip on the ice ninja’s arm being a death grip paired with Zane’s own hold on Kai’s gi- 

One minute, nine seconds.

“He’s been off for a few days.” Sora spoke up amidst the chaos, using the trunk of a nearby tree to right herself. “I put it down to the whole… you know,” Arin’s absence went unsaid, but immediately known, “We’ve all been stressed.”

“It’s something else.” Lloyd said after a second, words coming out rushed but sure. He could feel something wrong. There was something weird, off, something so much more. Lloyd could sense the curl in his chest, the shift in his power.

Cole’s power…

Lloyd looks over at Kai, who was staring back with a raised eyebrow and finally back up on his feet, but that could easily be a tentative and temporary scenario. The fire ninja’s eyes were flicking between his younger brother and Cole, laid out on the ground. Still convulsing, the line of blood fresh from the corner of his mouth. Pulling the slightly stretched out sleeve of his gi, Kai wipes away the red, staining his own gi a spreading black colour. It didn’t make Lloyd feel better. Only worse. 

Nauseous. “This isn’t stress.”

“The likelihood is that stress is the cause, Lloyd.” Zane noted, but that wasn’t something he was going to take. He clenches his hands, now no longer supporting Kai, it seemed the Nindroid was looking for something to do. Not that anyone could do anything until the seizure abated on its own.

“It feels like something more.” Lloyd explains. That a loose explanation would be enough. He couldn't explain what was wrong, he just knew there was something different. He could feel it. “Does anyone know anything else? Small. Big, whichever. Something different.” 

Another shock of a shake permeated through the still trembling ground. Like a wave after wave, flowing, hitting with a force that came unseen and unpredictable. Even the earth felt wrong.

Zane tilted his head, eyes glancing around cautiously, “Lloyd, we’ll figure this out.”

“He’s not been sleeping good!” Wyldfyre shouts over the gradually deafening rumble, seating herself on the ground, or having toppled. Lloyd couldn’t tell, but Zane clearly wanted to ask her to get up, that they needed to be ready to move if need be. But this time, for once, he let it slide. Taking what she said into account. “He tries to hide it, but he’s bad at it.”

Kai nods slowly, “Painkillers with breakfast sometimes. Yesterday. A couple days before that. Said he had a headache,” He pauses, pinching the bridge of his nose as something dawns on his thoughts, “I told him to relax.”

The shaking slows, at least for the ground. Cole is still tense. Has it been too long already? At what point does this become an issue they need help dealing with? Lloyd takes a leaf out of Wyldfyre’s book, crouching down to brush some of Cole’s hair away from his forehead. It’s sweaty and disheveled.

He can see the tensed muscles in his neck, the gritted harshness of his teeth. They couldn’t break, that was a stray worrying thought- Right? His arms were bent, bowed and held against his chest. His legs were twitching slightly. His head knocking against the padded cushion that had been made of clothes, slight noises and grunting and shuddering huffs of breath made their way free into the brief respite of quiet. 

Until Nya seemingly swallows around her words, Lloyd watches as it happens. Nya catches his eye, looking back. Moves her feet against the ground with one hand against the cobbles for support. She’s thinking, her face falling in a look of worry, “He said… Back in the Land of the Lost, he said he could hear the earth screaming after the merge.” She admitted into the already heavy air around the small group, the jarring ground nearly grabbing her words away.

“Screaming?” Zane reiterated, slight shock permeating his usually calmer tone as he turned to Nya, “You didn’t mention this.”

“But we dealt with the merge-quakes!” Nya added, in a loud and placating manner even though she knew it wasn’t her Zane was annoyed about. It seemed sometimes he was unable to actively get annoyed at his family, but she still felt bad. She should have mentioned it. Cole should have mentioned it. Though it was no surprise he didn’t, with everything that followed getting parts of the team back together and sorting out a whole new probable world-ending issue. “So I don’t know why this one is causing him to-”

“Things were pretty hectic at the time,” Lloyd tries, hoping to lift the sudden tenseness of the situation, “We haven’t exactly stopped until now. And even then…” His eyes drift downwards, to his felled brother.

There was a new trail of blood. He must have been biting hard; he’d feel it the next day. Cole would probably feel it all for days afterwards. The bruises, the bitten skin, muscle pain. And his eyes… Lloyd falters for a second, crouching closer, even as Kai reaches over to pull him back. Away. Further from flailing body parts. 

Lloyd still leans in closer, staring. The sliver of Cole’s eyes, almost entirely hidden under the back of his skull and orbitals taken over by veined white of a seizing body, is glowing a harsh bright orange. In the same way his arms light up when channeling his powers. Though they weren’t doing that this time, it was just his eyes. A flared, burning amber hidden away, only a smallest bit visible, “Guys…”

Kai took his turn now to look closer, his eyes widening at the same moment a fresh shock of a quake broke its way through the earth. Stronger this time, more forceful. Stone cobbles splintered, lifted up. The dirt around a planted tree, the one Wyldfyre was standing beside, began to bunch up, crack and fissure. Tree roots lifting out of the ground, bending and slitting, wood chips flying into the air and skittering across the ground. 

The tree topples just as Wyldfyre steps away with a shout, arm caught and tugged by Nya so she’s much more clear. It falls into the wall, denting into the already seemingly weakened top, causing the slates to slip and break down against the shaking ground. Sharp noises, creaking ground. Lloyd flings his hand up, as does those around him in preparation and protection against the flying bits of wall and other shrapnel that was flung free from the collapse. 

It stung at his hands, his cheek, grazed his skin and cut small- nearly imperceptible scraped into it, like papercuts stinging against the cloyed air as dust clouded out from the collapse. 

The monastery was holding strong, thankfully, but Lloyd could see them bowing, just barely. Lines of breaks through the paint on the surface, wobbling the building in a way that should have seemed impossible. 

Yet, he’d experienced quakes. Powerful ones. Deadly ones. Where buildings moved like reeds in the wind and came down as fast as rain on a dull day. 

The group can barely keep their balance. The quakes were getting stronger, harsher, dangerous-

“Is the quake-?” Kai began, then stopped quickly, catching himself before he fell directly onto a prone Cole. Was it making everything worse? “We should get him off the ground!”

“We can’t move him, not like this,” Zane said, words reluctant even as they came free. Voice unwavering despite the stress of everything being shaken apart, “We have to wait it out.”

Kai grits his teeth, hands clenching tight, “But if he’s in danger, we should move him!”

“Taking him all the way down to the hanger underground, to put him on the Bounty, will put everyone at risk. We need to stay outside.”

That halted Kai in his brief and burning outburst.

They had to wait. And watch. And hold their ground. But they didn’t have to do nothing.

Lloyd swallows, “After we fixed the merge-quakes, has he mentioned..-”

“He’s been complaining that the earth isn’t listening!” Sora calls out, her arm linked with Wyldfyre to keep her steady, both of them steady- even as the red-head seemed one more unforeseen shift of the ground away from meeting it with her body. There were sounds of surprise, grunts of shock as everyone was trying to stay on their feet. Shouts as the ground cracks in places, knocking people’s footing. They weren’t panicking, they’d all been through so much more than to panic. But there was worry as the earth seemed to be getting harsher with each second ticking past.

It was on everyone’s face- the focus to not get knocked over themselves and ensuring everyone else surrounding them was safe too. The shifted glances around to check for falling debris, Lloyd watches as a crack splinters up a wall of the monastery, jarring the wooden supports and shaking chips of mahogany free. 

Lloyd could feel the droning shake through his chest, the griminess of dust and dirt against his skin and gritting under his nails and between his neck and the hem of his gi. It was maddening, nearly. Everything happening, so much to take in at once; the sky was still gorgeous, warm and the sun was gazing down in what should have been comforting rays that served to make the stone-dust cling to sweating skin-

Get in his eyes- Stinging them, making him blink more and more against the intrusion, against the warmth and wetness as tears collected, blurring his sight, cloying his throat-

He was fine- he would be fine, everything would be fine-

The monastery had withstood so much already, it wouldn’t fall now. It wouldn’t.

They’d get through this mess like they always did.

Sora, out of breath and rushing, continues with one arm shielding her mouth in an impromptu mask,  “The merge smashed so many worlds together and the… The screaming?” The look she passes over to Nya is of questioning concern deeply set into her brows. It seemed even Sora hadn’t been told of what had occurred in the Land of the Lost as they’d been traversing it, “Was because of the realms being pushed into each other like some janky puzzle!”

Zane let out a breath, a heavy one, “If there’s any element that has been disrupted due to the merge… it would be the earth.”

How could he be so calm? The mountain was shaking itself apart and Zane was ever calm and composed, somehow even paired with unsteady steps there was a grace to his unsteady chaos. 

Slates slipped free from the monastery’s roof, smashing against the ground and causing Lloyd’s heart to race, shoulders to jump. Attention to rapidly flick behind himself to check for other dangers. Everything was getting worse. Stronger. More powerful. Jarring his chest, clanking his teeth, thrumming through every part of his body like an attack coming from all ends that couldn’t truly be fought against.

The walls were close to rocking like flowing water.

Another tile slipped free, followed by another, shattering against the floor. Lloyd flinches at every smash. 

Zane finally fell in his peripheral, a sharp thump of a clang ricocheting as he struck the ground with a grunt. Nya moved to help him, then only serving to fall herself and landing against Zane’s side in what would not have been a cushioned fall. 

Cole’s eyes were still glowing. Light leaked through hooded eyelids, glowing a near white-hot amber where the little bit of his cornea was visible. Flicking uncontrolled from one side to the other, hidden away so nearly out of sight that it could have easily gone amiss.

If at all possible, Cole’s eyes flared brighter. Harsher. His body rocked, head knocking that bit harder into the cushioning. Lloyd moves before he even begins to think, one hand going under Cole’s head to catch the harder knocks; yet it only serves to trap his fingers between an uncontrolled skull and the hardness of some waylaid cobbles. He drags his hand back, body bowing with his hand at his chest.

And gained a sudden elbow of one earth ninja to the bridge of his nose. Hard. There’s no cracking noise, but still he flinches back with a shout of pain.

Iron stinging the back of his throat before he even senses the warmth dripping down to his lips and falling to the floor in small pellets of red.

Lloyd shuffles back quickly, sharp puffs of air escaping through gritted teeth against the pain that was blossoming over his face, hurt hand shooting up sharply in an effort to stop the bleeding that started, cupping his nose and in turn, the flowing blood even though it wasn’t going to save anything from the red stains and only really pooled the crimson up against his face with nowhere else to go.

“Lloyd, shit-” Kai started.

Lloyd pulls his hand away, internally wincing at the feeling of collected blood finally meeting the ground, his red stained hand was wiped shakily down his front, “I’m fine! My fault.” He sucks in a breath, chooses to ignore the pain for the time being, “What’s the time?”

“Three-twelve!”

An echo of a near-thunderstrike shot through the world like the sky screaming. Though it didn’t come from above. Lloyd’s, everyone’s attention shot down to the ground beneath them. Silence settled, at least over the ninja- The ground was groaning like metal girders, shouting in cracks and fractures and fissures going unseen. Roaring, near deafening that Lloyd’s hands shot up on their own, covering his ears against the wave of noise. 

Kai mirrored his movement with a shout of shock, eyes winced and teeth gritted, “The hell was-!” The grinding sound of goliath amounts of stone, what must have been house-sized heaps of rock breaking free, grinding and splintering as it shaved its way down the mountainside just beyond the monastery walls. The dust that shoots up from beyond the tentative shelter of their home was indicative enough that something massive had happened, a grey and brown cloud of rock shards ballooning up into the sky. 

Had the mountain-?

The ground fissured into a crevice at Lloyd’s feet. A gap, so suddenly appearing that it had him stumbling backwards and landing hard on his behind, a grunt of pain breaking free, his tailbone would feel that soon, but that notion was quickly pushed out of his mind as he stared at the crack before him. Yawning wide, deep, stretching down into the darkening depths of the rocky peak and further. 

Cleaving a line between himself, Zane; Cole seizing against the floor on the other side of the crack with Kai knelt at his side with eyes wide himself, a hand resting against the earth ninja’s shoulder as if that would steady him-

The fractured crack that had webbed its way through the centre of the courtyard was small, no wider than half-a-foot, but shaking with the rest of the world. Grinding, shifting and breaking itself further. Swallowing cobbles and cement, growing inch by inch with each slow second until it was nearing a foot in width. Further. Further-

The earth was tearing itself apart!

Nya seemed to drag herself out of her stupor first, “Lloyd, hold the mountain together-!”

“ What! ” He shrieked in return, brain grinding to a halt at what he heard… What he was sure he’d heard- Had Nya-?

“Now!” shouting, Nya looks over with eyes blown wide, expression unreadable. 

Lloyd didn’t ask a second time, he just listened. Hands shoved flat against the waning ground with the sensation of his power dipping down into his palms and further into the earth before his mind had truly caught up with what he’d been asked to do.

All that came, the immediate feedback alongside the straining roar of the earth, the mountain, as it was dragging itself into pieces; was a near-deafening shock of a scream-

Lloyd flinches immediately, hands dragged up away from the ground to cover his ears in response. Only, the instant his hands were away from the cobbles, the noise stopped, and all that met his ears were the slight shouts from his friends as they were knocked off balance, and the external roar of the mountain as it went back to tear at itself piece by piece.

Did Cole experience that constantly? Was the world-

Kai had his hand on Cole’s shoulder in an attempt to hold him as steady as the quake would allow, though it was hard to keep balance. He was on one knee, and it seemed more as though the steadying hand was used to keep himself as stable as possible, amidst Cole’s own jarring limbs. 

Lloyd pushed his hands against the earth again, forcing the energy that he could muster down into the heart of the mountain, or at least as far as he could reach, green and webs of thin golden threads tried their best, working like a plaster over a gushing wound that was the scar reaching down into the world to try and knit it back together. Though it was if the world itself was fighting against his ministrations. With every inch of his power he forced into the earth, with every second of screaming that passed him by, it was grinding, scratching and clawing against his mind in a way he could barely describe. 

Like the element itself was fighting back. Though he couldn’t back away a second time. He couldn’t just let go and let… whatever was going on from spiraling further out of control. 

He knew he could tamp it down, it wouldn’t have been the first time he’d tapped into one of his family’s own elements; they flowed through him just as much as his own element of energy did, dancing at the edge of his fingertips with a warm and welcoming light. 

Yes, something was definitely wrong. Around the screaming piercing his ears, around the strain of muscles and power flowing into a never-ending hole of the earthquake, something in his own chest shouted back.

Screaming around everything that something didn’t feel right. 

Has Cole experienced this since the merge had happened? Did it screech and scratch and drag at Cole’s brain in the same way it was pulling at Lloyd’s own? As he pushed further, drew more power from his own reserves, dove his awareness and his focus deeper into the ground beneath his hands, all the earth did was fight back.

Roar. Battle. Struggle. Attack and retaliate as Lloyd tried all he could to weave the breaking mountain back together into a single whole. It dragged at his mind like a creature, almost between a dragon and something worse, beyond, like a creaking golem of earth battling against Lloyd’s own energy in an effort to keep the tearing of the world going with each new shock of a shake and creak of the ground, like in Shintaro, like with the Great Devourer-

The earth was drinking his power down; that was expected. But that was it. The world was shaking, in the corner of his vision he finally watched as Nya lost her footing and went tumbling directly into Kai’s side. Forehead knocking against his shoulder with a slight groan that got quickly forgotten in favour of regaining her stance. 

It wasn’t stopping.

The world was shaking itself apart.

It was dragging at his energy, pulling at his awareness, biting at every inch of his power until his muscles were singing in pain and yet Lloyd pushed on. Held his ground-

But the screaming-

It wouldn’t stop. It echoed. Left his ears ringing, his brain shaken, his body aching, threatening to give in, begging for some form of reprieve-

It wouldn’t stop-

“Lloyd!” Kai’s voice rang out from beyond the earth-

There’s a hard knock to the side of his head, though it didn’t come from the fire ninja. Lloyd blinks the greyed pain from his vision to come face-to-face with a panting Riyu, sniffing at his hair with rushed puffs of air.

Lloyd’s own throat felt raw. Painful. A cough that came free only made it all feel worse. A glance at Kai revealed a stern yet worried expression, paired with misted eyes. Sora, just near Kai’s back, was staring back at Lloyd with wide eyes and one hand covering her ear, the other side sandwiched against her shoulder. 

The earthen screams, it had all seemed so much closer. Vibrating through his own lungs. Hurting his own throat. 

Had he been screaming too..?

“I’m okay.” He tries, an attempt to dissuade the situation, though he felt better now. Less overwhelmed. More focused. Riyu’s nudge had snapped him back to reality, and for that he was grateful. Everyone seemed relieved that the air wasn’t awash with noise. Lloyd hadn’t even realised… “The earth, it’s… this-” He slowly settles his focus on the ground again, though this time he’s prepared for the onslaught to come. He breathes his way through it, keeps his focus on the task, attention grounded. Present. 

Cole is in front of him. He can feel Kai’s hand holding tight onto one shoulder. He can feel the warmth of blood still trickling from his nose. Both nostrils. 

Lloyd coughed again against the dirt in the air, squinted his eyes against the pain in his head. Only once he began to feel the earth moving to his own control, the fissure slowing in its creep, the edges weaving and pulling back together in the deepest recesses of the cleaved ravine with a painful slowness, did his words finally come to him, “This isn’t a merge-quake! There’s… There’s so much power behind it, but,” But that was it. It was rife with energy, fighting back like a cornered animal-

But it was normal.

“But at the base, it’s… It’s a regular quake, it shouldn’t be affecting Cole this bad-” Lloyd brows furrow, partly from his own focus, mainly through confusion as he tries to parse through what was going on, to make sense of it.

Until Zane’s barely steady footsteps came over to one side, the cold metal of his palm grasping at Lloyd’s other free shoulder, own eyes glowing blue again, attention flicking between the thankfully lessening crack splitting the ground, “I don’t think this earthquake is affecting Cole, Lloyd.” Zane said, voice raised above the tremors of the environment, and the calmness of his tone was only dissuaded by the concern that was on his face. His eyes had settled on Cole, like the entire team’s had, the way his expression was pulled into a forced grimace. The Nindroid was careful as he crouched down to gently pull up one of Cole’s eyelids, looking for something unknown. “I believe it may be the exact opposite.”

He didn’t get far before the convulsions had Zane taking his hand away before he ended up getting hit accidentally like Lloyd had already experienced, but the clearer view of his eyes gave enough of a picture. Pupils were dilated, but the haloed orange glow around them remained obvious, nearly akin to when Cole had performed the Spinjitzu-burst in the Shintaran depths, the flare of sheer power, the billowing energy that had come from the earthen tornado; it was all like that. 

All exactly like that. 

“... Cole’s powers…” Lloyd mumbled, attention moving between Cole, and Zane’s ministrations. A slight flare of energy emanated from his palms, flowing its way into the stone below, holding the peak together around the still raging earthquake. The one that had been raging since after Cole had dropped, not before. That had grown stronger and more unpredictable the more time that had passed-

“He’s seizing, he has no control.” Zane says slowly, “His powers are acting whilst his mind is misfiring, because it’s misfiring.” Lloyd didn’t miss the way Zane glanced over in his direction, at the soft green glow sinking away from his palms, threading its way through the cracks and crevices and trying to weave it all back together by sheer force of will. 

It felt like it was working, Lloyd could at least hear better around the screeching in his ears.

Zane swallows hard, around an invisible lump that feels stuck in his throat, “The seizure is causing the quake.”

Lloyd falters, not only at the fact that he felt as though the mountain would withstand the force the world had piled against it, but at the words that caught in his throat. One’s he didn’t want to say aloud, but the realisation of how everything fell together hit like a freight train. Still, the words came anyway, voiced out into the creaking and shaking and cracking, breaking, fracturing world surrounding the small group, “Last night… There was an earthquake last night and Cole said he woke up on the floor…”

Zane let out a measured breath, air frosting into a puff of condensation before his face, “So we work under the assumption that this is not his first seizure today.”

If the courtyard was in a tentative silence before, aside from the shuddering of the earth, Lloyd felt it fall into a stark silence the moment that realisation hit everyone else’s awareness.

“I think it’s slowing down.” Nya said after a second, breaking into the silence with clear words. The words hit like a balm to Lloyd’s soul.

And it seemed she was right. Lloyd’s attention first moves down to the earth below him, the slightly there shake and shudder of the quake waning in its power. He’d barely even noticed, not amongst the stressful awareness of the past few seconds.

This wasn’t Cole’s first seizure. It was likely his second of the day. Was today even the first time overall? Had he had seizures before and didn’t mention them?

Would he even have been aware if he’d had one?

Lloyd let out a shaking breath, and this time it wasn’t due to the gradually quieting earth around him. His stomach felt tight, slight nausea crawling up his throat and burning just beside his lungs where the feeling stuck itself and festered. Cole wouldn’t hide something like this, it was big, massive- and he knew he could go to anyone for help with anything, so maybe he didn’t know.

Then if he didn’t know, he could have had more before. 

Multiple, all without him being aware. All without an earthquake accompanying them. People weren’t always aware a seizure had happened.

Waking up on the floor in the morning, a bit of extra confusion, bruises-

“Lloyd,” Zane’s face dipped into his eyeline, a look of concern passing through his eyes.

Lloyd shook his hands, giving a quick and thankfully dry cursory wipe over his eyes, then patted his cheeks to get himself back into focus, “Sorry, sorry. Thinking.”

There was a slight noise of understanding in response from the Nindroid, before a quick look around revealed that the earth had finally, actually stopped moving. Though Lloyd’s own priorities weren’t over just yet. Whilst he was sure enough that the mountain would hold its shape and not totally collapse under everyone’s feet, he had to at least be sure.

It didn’t take too much to cast his focus down into the depths of the mountain, working slowly with his awareness rising from the base of the megastructure all the way to its plateaued peak. Reinforcement wasn’t exactly needed, not with all the threading and securement he’d already put in place, but knitting the fissure back together from the lowest point came easily. Pulling stone together, melding the ends until they were in a secured embrace- though there wasn’t exactly much he could do about the parts that the mountain had lost.

They really should canvas the whole area as soon as possible. Maybe send someone down to central Ninjago City, ensure that the whole area was safe and unaffected, hopefully having escaped the throes of the past… However long.

Zane seemed at least to be thinking the same thing. Now that things were calming down, and there was less of a threat to people’s stances and body-parts, no worry of falling into or onto anyone, his attention floated over the wreck that was the courtyard. Lloyd hadn’t even noticed the fact that the fountain had cracked through the basin, a trickle of water freed from the stone and collecting in a loose puddle on the floor.

Cobbles were bunched up in areas where the earth had been pushing itself together, webbing cracks worked their way through the plaster and bricks of the monastery walls. From where Lloyd was, he could see fractures in the wooden rafters, red dust from brickwork littered and coating nearby surfaces.

Zane cleared his throat, a habitual action to fill the quiet, “How long did it last?”

There was… A lot that needed checking. 

A shoot of pain and the sudden taste of copper and iron from his previously bleeding nose was paramount against his falling adrenaline. He lifts one hand, tentative, careful in case the injury was worse than what it felt, though it didn’t exactly feel good. Lloyd felt over the bridge of his nose and down its curve with gentle fingers, working over the cartilage and skin. Nothing stuck out wrong, just painful probable-bruising, broken skin, a bleeding nose. 

Kai winced in sympathy just off to one side. He looks at his phone screen, wincing against the grit in his eyes, “Three minutes-forty.”

Cole had fallen into a now stark and still silence against the ground. He was more akin to sleeping now, if Lloyd looks at him through squinting eyes and tries his best to clock out from everything he’d just seen. His body was relaxed, resting on his side in a tentative recovery position that had barely held up. 

“That’s… An okay time.” The Nindroid at least seemed confident in that statement. Lloyd let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. 

“Let’s get him inside.” Zane said as he moved forwards, crouching down to slowly maneuver Cole’s legs and arms into a better position to pick him up. Everyone reacted at that, hands moving forwards in a careful support at the movement, as if Zane wasn’t capable of lifting basically all those who were present with ease. Though no one objected to the move, attention focused with concern down onto the still unconscious Cole. 

“It’s-” Sora looked a little wary. Riyu did too, especially as Zane cautiously lifted Cole from the ground, and with a little bit of shifting and a small hand from Kai, the ice ninja had one arm under Cole’s legs and the other supporting his back, earth ninja’s head resting against the metal shoulder. The dragon was nipping at his dangling feet, Sora carefully tugs him away with a few pats to the head, “It’s safe, right? To move him?”

“I’ll go and check through the rooms,” Kai said in passing, dipping past the group and ducking back into the monastery, Wyldfyre on his tail with quick steps. Whether Kai wanted some time to clear his head, or was actually clearing each room for safety, Lloyd wasn’t going to question it. 

Zane looks over at Sora with a measured and calm expression, “If my conclusion is correct, and if Cole seizes again, we’ll be able to get him outside if another earthquake starts.” He follows Kai's steps back towards the doorway. Well, if Zane could see things were safe- “He’ll be comfier on the couch, too.”

Cole woke up staring at the ceiling. There’s nothing much to it, really. Other than the fact that his eyes felt like they were dry enough to shrivel their way out of his skull at a moment's notice, or that staring up at the wooden rafters and maroon wooded planking above it. His vision was blurry at its edges, the drooping lightbulb above encapsulated by a simple shade with the bulb turned off. 

His body felt like it had run a marathon, it was just like that morning all over again. Tense joints, aching muscles. Though this time, at least, he was laid on something soft that didn’t include the spread of tatami mats that made up the floor.

A quiet groan escaped him before he could do much else, never mind sit up. His fingers felt around against the squint he had towards the room’s lighting, brushing over a pillow to his side, propping up his shoulders. Another one resting beneath the crook of his legs. 

Cole frowns slightly. 

Until his brain eventually clocks that he wasn’t laid in his bed, in his room, away from prying eyes and trying his best to sleep after… After a hectic day of treating already sore muscles, watching Lloyd and Sora train and-

His frown deepened. Eye’s flicked about from his position in the room. The TV room. 

Nothing over the floor. No discarded consoles, wires poking out from who knows where. No abandoned mugs with half drank teas and coffees.

Normally the floor is more cluttered..?

Why was he sleeping here?

He paused for a second, a thought clicking itself into place in his brain before he had actually realised what his mind had concluded. There was sunlight before, he was watching as Lloyd fought Sora, tossing and trading the upper hand and…

When did I come inside?

“You’re awake.” The voice came, a chipper noise shrouding by what almost seems to be relief.

Cole’s attention swiveled over towards the door, suppressing a wince at the twinge of pain that came from his apparently stiff neck. The sound of shifting cushions and the hush of the crinkling couch was what followed him as he moved to look over the back of the couch. 

Lloyd was standing beneath the room’s threshold. Glass of water in hand, straw swaying in the liquid, expressing a picture of what could only be described as a deep breath. Cole squints beyond the blurriness of his sight, blinking once, then twice, to the unshifting barrier. He sighs, watches as the tenseness seeps out of the green ninja’s shoulders, his jaw unclenching; a slight smile edged on the kid’s face the longer Cole looked back in his direction.

“You-” Cole chokes on his words almost instantly. It’s like he’s been trekking out in the Desert of Doom with no water and no common sense for half the day. His throat clicks against the words he’s trying to get out, then coughs over the rest. There’s an acrid tang in his mouth. A mix of sour and iron. One that isn’t shifting quick enough, that doesn’t help with the gritted dryness coating his entire tongue, teeth. Throat. Even his coughing sounds parched.

There’s the sound of footsteps as Lloyd walks around the couch, hand offering out the glass of water to a still coughing ninja. Cole watches the movement carefully, though it’s as if his eyes aren’t tracking properly. Things seem blurry, everything seems hard to focus on, like there was a blurred fog settled between his brain and existence.

Cole raises a brow, then shakes his head.

There’s a sigh from above him, though there’s no animosity behind it, “I got it for you, nerd. Drink it, you’ll feel better.” He continues to press the cool glass into Cole’s now open hand. Condensation drips lightly against his fingers. 

Lloyd’s hand shakes, just slightly, as it withdraws. Until the glass slips further down in Cole’s hold and the young ninja lunges quickly to catch the bottom of the glass before it can tumble down to the floor. 

“My fingers won’t grip.” Cole mumbles, attention focusing down on his hands. Still wrapped around the glass, but not exactly holding it.  He could move them, but apparently the tightness needed to keep the glass in place was a bit too much. It was… Weird. Unnerving. “I’m probably still tired or something…”

Lloyd gives a light hum at that, carefully moving the glass up closer and maneuvering the straw closer so he could access it. Cole would have been embarrassed, if this wasn’t something he’d helped Lloyd with multiple times beforehand. Injuries, illness, help was given and taken easily. 

The cold tang of water straight from the fridge spawns a new and unexpected pain as he swallows it down, probably a little too fast that his impression of an accidentally drowning man might have been fairly accurate. He’s not glamorous about it, he hadn’t even realised how much he needed a drink until he got one. He runs out of steam before the glass is empty, though he eyes it still as Lloyd settles it onto the nearby coffee table, absently slipping a coaster beneath it.

His hand comes up to his face, rubbing at his cheek. His neck. His chin. Searching. Poking. There’s a wince. 

“You bit your tongue.” Lloyd supplies after a moment. 

Cole’s frown lifts his attention from his glass and his exploration of his face up to where Lloyd had seated himself, a chair pulled in from the kitchen. A little introspection and he finds the injury Lloyd had prompted him on. His tongue is swollen across the right side, and it feels deep , nothing dangerous but he’s sure he can find divots in his skin. From his teeth? Cole frowns, though he doesn’t go further and searches with his hand in his mouth. Though it feels more than an accidental bite whilst eating a meal.

It feels tender, bruised. He’s never bruised his tongue with a bite. He sticks his tongue out, as if he’d be able to see the cut without a mirror, though that’s when his attention settles on Lloyd’s shirt.

The sharp lines of a band name over black material is staring back at him. The material is baggy, wider around Lloyd’s neck and bunching up near his waist. Cole tilts his head, “What happened to your shirt?” He questions, then pauses with a quiet laugh, “Is that mine ?”

There’s the telltale sound of Lloyd trying to work through a response, though Cole’s attention drops down to his brother’s hand settled in his lap. 

At the bandage wrapping their way around his first couple fingers and part of his palm, a dripping and nearly defrosted ice pack held onto it and seeped its gradual way into the boy’s trousers. There’s a wet patch. The towel wrapping the pack is soaked in itself. “What..?” Cole freezes in place as his attention moves up, settling on Lloyd’s face. 

The bruise blossomed around his left eye. Over the bridge of his nose, coloured in purples and deep blues, shadowing as if Lloyd hadn’t slept for over a month, but only on one side. How had he missed that..? He’d been staring at Lloyd for the past minute, why had it taken his brain so long to..?

“What happened?” Cole asks sharply, and the sudden sternness clearly takes Lloyd aback. It seemed, at least, the kid was hoping for a bit more time. Or hoping the injury had gone amiss. 

It nearly had. Cole internally scolded himself. Was he losing his touch that bad? Had his lack of sleep caught up to him. His hands clenched in his lap, looser than he would have liked. 

“Well, uh,” Lloyd looks like he’s looking for the words in the air around them. Eyes looking everywhere else other than in Cole’s direction, and probably for good reason. Cole can feel the frown on his face, in the pressure and ache its placing on his already humming headache. He’s glaring, waiting for an answer.

Had there been an attack? Cole could already feel his mind moving through the possible scenarios. He hadn’t seen Sora land a hit that hard, so it must have been something else. Whatever it was, had he slept through it? He glanced down at the couch he must have dozed off on. He didn’t even remember coming inside. He didn’t remember any noise, nothing had woken him up, and he slept light. Or, he liked to think that after years of dangerous situations and routine ends-of-the-world, he would get woken up easily enough. 

And yet, here Lloyd was. Beaten, bruised, injured, and Cole hadn’t noticed anything. Not during training. Not anything. It wasn’t during training, so it happened after. Something had happened, attacked, something-

Attacked their home? Was it Ras? The Five?

Cole pulled in a deep breath. It stuttered in his chest. It didn’t feel like enough. He takes in another one. And another. It feels a little fast, is he breathing a little fast?

After everything, everything that was on their plates, everything that had happened and that they were trying to sort out without falling apart and here Lloyd was with a possibly broken nose and-

A small earthquake rocks its way through the room. It’s barely anything, just continual. Light, but jingling the trinkets in the room together. 

Cole sucks in a heavy breath through his teeth. The screaming, it echoes at the back of his mind. He’s used to it, but it doesn’t help with the spawning panic that’s wrapping around his chest, constricting his lungs. Swallowing up his heartbeat as it ratchets through his chest. 

The light above his head sways cautiously, the water cup shakes with ripples on its surface. Lloyd stands up, face falling into something close to cautious worry, “I’m fine. Things are… fine. This,” He gestures a hand up to his face, the one not covered in bandages, before holding it out placatingly in front of himself, “Wasn’t anything bad, Cole. It was…” There’s hesitation, eyes flicking around the room as if to pick out the words from the now, suddenly overly clean living room. 

“Answer. Were you attacked, where’s-?” Cole faltered, moving to stand up even with the slight shake beneath his feet. The quake was getting lighter, and it wasn’t anything he hadn’t felt before. He had the steadiest stance of the team, “Where’s everyone else?”

Lloyd moved quickly to his side, hands out as if to steady. 

Cole swallowed hard, ignoring the sting in his mouth. In his jaw. Everything felt tender and painful. 

There was nothing between him watching training at midday, and now. 

It was all a block of blankness seated securely in his memory. Lurking there like a shadow, shrouding his thoughts. He swallowed hard. Lloyd was still standing beside him, a careful hold on one forearm as if to keep him steady, which was silly because Cole was fine. Stressed, but fine. Confused, but fine. 

Nauseous, but…

He felt unsteady on his feet. His chest was strangled in a Gregorian knot, tightening sharply. Lloyd’s grip wasn’t tight, but it was secure. As if keeping him on the same level of reality as the rest of existence. Like an anchor against the fog in his head. Weathering whatever storm he’d found himself in. What had he missed? What had happened?

Why couldn’t he remember..?

Cole’s hands moved up to tangle in his hair. It hurt, tugging on the strands. As if his skin was tender. Head aching. Nothing was coming to him, no matter how hard he thought on it.

“Cole, you should let go, you’ll hurt yourself.” Lloyd said, hands moving to carefully tug on Cole’s wrist, ice pack laying forgotten on the table. Cole’s own hands followed the guiding grip without much fight in it. 

The earth ninja swallowed hard, throat clicking, “What happened?” 

“You caught my nose. Okay?” Lloyd let out with a soft sigh, lightly shaking Cole’s wrists as if to get the information to sink in, “You probably don’t remember it, but it wasn’t purposeful. I promise. If anything, it was me.” There’s a nervous chuckle, though Lloyd’s attention is on the lightly trembling room. Flicking around, from the walls, to Cole. The shaking glass on the table, to Cole. “I got too close. Like an idiot. But I’m fine, everyone is fine.” There’s a second where Lloyd gains a form of winced doubt over his own face. At what he’d just said?

“But… What?” Cole frowns, this doesn’t make sense. Lloyd was right, he didn’t remember doing it. But why would the kid lie about it? He wouldn’t. 

Slowly, surely, the shaking dies down. Around the same time Cole settles himself back onto the couch; more with confusion weighing him back onto the seat. Lloyd still stands there, sentinel. Concern written all over his face.

“You okay?” Lloyd questions quietly, as the earth finally stops. 

Cole hums in assent, “It’s fine. I’m fine. It was just a quake, not even a strong one. I could feel it coming a mile off.” 

“And the screaming?” 

Cole’s attention whipped up to Lloyd in a second, enough for dots to dance in his vision at the quick movement, though that didn't dissuade him. Or the shock. “ What? ” He hadn’t mentioned that to anyone other than Nya. Even then, it had been brief. In the midst of a bigger issue, so how did Lloyd-?

There’s a new noise at the door, the sound of running steps, and like a domino of appearance, Nya shows up at the threshold with a worried expression, head poking her way around the door with a sharp “ Lloyd, oh- Cole, you’re up. That’s,” Her attention moves over to Lloyd, and there’s a quick silent conversation that passes between the two of them, Cole watches as it happens, deprived of the context. At least, Nya’s worry settles. 

Zane and Sora come next, much to the same preamble. Expressions settling to some form of unexplainable relief when their eyes settle on where Cole is situated. Staring back just as easily, though his eyes moved over to Lloyd’s intermittently. The kid had some explaining to do. A lot of it. 

Nothing was getting any clearer, but Lloyd now knew about his issues with the earth- That could be solved quickly enough.

“Where did you hear about the-”

Kai and Wyldfire turn up now, both of them out of breath as if they’d run. The light to the room gets turned on, and Cole winces instantly, the sudden bright flare in his eyes, glancing off his vision more akin to a burning flare. He moves his forearm up to shroud his sight, air sucked in at the sudden ache. 

There’s movement then, voices overlapping over each other, muffled as there’s rushing. Somewhere in between, the light gets turned off. And there are hands, a couple pairs, carefully securing him in place as if the brightness was an attack and a defense needed to be rallied. It’s confusing, though Cole is taking the time to blink the grey-blurred brightness from his line of sight. He focused down on the couch he was on, to his socked feet onto the floorboards.

Everyone was worried. Over something. Over the quake? Over him ?

“Cole, can you look at me? The lights are off now.” There’s a clear voice, though it’s thankfully measured. Quiet. He opens his eyes to find Zane crouched down before him. The room is, thankfully, in darkness. Even the hallway light is now turned off. 

The hands on his shoulders are Nya’s, light and careful. Lloyd’s hold had grown a little more secure around his wrists. Kai had a hand at his elbow, steadying. Calming. 

There’s a bounding thud and Riyu comes charging in, through peoples legs, knocking against the couch, then settling himself next to Zane in the room the dragon had forcibly fashioned for himself between everyone else. 

“It was just an earthquake.” Is all Cole manages to say, as Zane’s eyes flicker to life with a soft blue glow. Dimmer than usual. For him? He didn’t know the Nindroid could do that. “You all look like you’re ready for a disaster?” He manages a chuckle, though it’s more based on nervousness. Especially as the reaction he gets isn’t dissuading placations and more shifting eyes and tense shoulders. 

No one says anything in response, they’re all just looking.

Riyu at least nudges at his hand pillowed in his lap. Cole lets out a heavy sigh. They’re hiding something, he knows more than enough to tell that, even with the absence of some of his recent memories, “What’s going on?” He directs the question over at Kai, and as expected the fire ninja lets out a forced laugh and rubs at the back of his neck. 

Uncomfortable.

“What? Nothing. Things are fine-” There’s a straining huff of air as Nya elbows Kai’s side. Hard. 

That was an unusual reaction. Cole changes his focus, moves in his seat. “Lloyd. Explain.” 

The green ninja shifts under what Cole knows is a solid glare, crafted over years of dealing with situations like this where no one is saying anything at all. Usually more useful on bad-guys and such, but he’s not below using it on his family.

“Why don’t you sit back down, Cole? And I’ll explain things.” Zane prompted. 

Cole didn’t realise he was standing. There’s still steadying hands on his arms, they’d tightened as he’d stood up. He didn’t remember doing it, though. His head feels like it’s blanketed with cotton. Vertigo spins his brain like water clogging up his ear canal. 

He sits back down on the couch, a little harder than he intended. He bounces, a pillow topples to the ground. Lies there. 

Zane lets out a breath, though his gaze is focused. He seems sure of his words, no hesitation. Only careful clearness, “Earlier today, whilst Lloyd and Sora were training, you had a seizure.”

Cole’s brain screeches to a halt. 

“It was… A-” Now, Zane falters, but the train of thought reignites fast enough, “It was a bad one. But monitored. Lloyd noticed from the beginning. You weren’t in any danger from it,” There’s a cleared throat from somewhere in the room, Zane ignores it, “Right now, you’re stable. You talking and interacting is a really good sign.”

Somehow, even after the water, Cole’s mouth is dry again. And hurting. He’d bitten his tongue.

During the seizure. 

He wanted to reach for the water, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to grip it properly without help. And he can feel his hands shaking against his chest, he’s crossed his arms, a quiet slight self-hug to his sides. He doesn’t want anyone to see his unsteadiness.

To see him panicking. 

He’s panicking. 

A nervous laugh comes out, Cole can feel his eyes burning. But they’re not wet, thank the First. He doesn’t know what else to do with the information. He doesn’t even truly want to laugh, but his mind doesn’t exactly know how to react to the news either.

It’s just there. Floating in his head, a mix of cotton and fog and absence. He’s looking at Zane, at his calm expression, but he’s not really looking.

Maybe it’s his exhaustion, his experience of the world’s most impossible events, but his mind jumps straight over denial and anger. He hasn’t got the energy for those. Not with however-many pairs of eyes staring at him with an expectation for something. He doesn’t even know how he himself wants to react. How does anyone react to this type of thing?

It’s like he’s sat beside his mother again, on her bed, Lilly quietly talking to his childhood self through everything that was happening. Cole had understood, but he hadn’t got it. Not until things gradually got worse. Until the doctors that visited spoke more than Lilly did. Was this how people felt when they’d been given bad, life-changing news? Did they just stop..?

What did he know about them, he’d seen articles, had training in aid but what did he know about them? That they were… Scary to see. That the person was just laid there, that they flailed, that they had no control, that they could last, be caused, be permanent fixtures in a person’s life-

Bargaining usually comes next with these things. Cole thinks, anyway.

“I mean, everyone gets one, right?” He’s read that before, at least. One isn’t too bad, its stress, too much caffeine, a whole manner of causes- “It’s probably exhaustion, we’ve all been running ourselves ragged over the past few weeks.” Cole can hear his voice. It sounds… stable. Neutral. His brain, that’s what’s going wild. He doesn’t even know what he’s thinking about, but it’s something. Something else. Anything else. When he swallows, it feels tight. When he moves his hands, his fingers shake. When he breathes, it feels strangled. 

And Zane just looks so calm. All he’s doing is kneeling there, seated on his heels, waiting. Even as the Nindroid’s attention moves, he catches eyes with Nya, sharing a look between them that Cole can’t parse out. 

He looked calm…

Yet everyone was having silent conversation and not including him. He couldn’t read it. Sure, they were likely about him. Normally, his focus was better but…

But he’d had a seizure.

It sounded so… Stupid. Even thinking about the idea of it. It was off. Wrong. He couldn’t have. 

The short, bordering on telepathic conversation between Zane and Nya ends, and neither are quickly forthcoming about their hidden talk. Cole frowns, leans forwards even though he can barely feel his body moving, mentally prepares, “What?”

“We can’t be entirely sure,” Zane starts slowly, easily. No, not easily. Composed. Cole could see it in his eyes, just as long as he stared a bit longer. There was worry, masked under circuits, hidden behind wires. The ice ninja had one hand rested against Cole’s knee, and it wasn’t to keep his balance. “But we think that today was your second. Or at least, not your first. Have you experienced anything like this before, such as in the Land of the Lost? Confusion, memory lapses?”

Cole doesn’t get a chance to reply, but he’s thankful he doesn’t since he has no idea what to say. Has he noticed anything before? Would he even notice anything if he had experienced a seizure before? What, did he chalk up every groggy morning to a seizure?

… Did he?

Kai’s interruption, at least, gives Cole an out, “I’ll go call Geo and ask.”

Cole doesn’t take it. “Hey, wait, no. I mean, sure, the earth hadn’t been the happiest since the merge took place and I did spend a lot of it with Geo, but-”

“You said the earth was screaming, Cole.” Nya whispers. Though it’s a little loud. And not news to anyone, since there’s no shock. Only wincing amongst the group.

Riyu whines softly. 

Cole let out a heavy sigh. So Nya had told him. Told them. She had been the only one who knew, after all. He rubs his forehead against the small headache humming there, this was all being blown out of proportions. He probably hadn’t even had a seizure. Yeah, everyone must have been mistaken because he would know. 

He would know. 

His brain felt like it was plugged up with cotton, “This is all probably just a one off, it’s nothing to worry about. I would have told you if I’d had a- a seizure before-”

Nya tries, a quiet, easy, “Cole-” 

“You almost tore the mountain in half.” Kai supplies at the same time. 

If there’s a glaring match between the siblings, Cole misses it. His attention immediately goes elsewhere because that can’t have happened! His control was precise, it had to be. He had the strength to flip a car, bench press walls, he had the power to wield the earth that resided under everyone’s footstep and bend and twist it like pouring grains of sand from his hands. Controlled. He was always controlled. 

The crack moving up the far wall, the one the TV usually sat in front of, said something else. It had moved like a vain, cracking and splintering through the paint and into the stonework behind it. It disappeared beyond the ceiling, though Cole had no doubt it went further than that. Chips of wall, paint, brick, dusted the floor below it. The room was in no way close to collapse, but if Cole had been standing he was sure he would be, himself. 

The shelving, usually packed with trinkets and books, was bare. Some of the shelves were slightly opened, cupboard doors hanging loose on a broken hinge. One door was laid on the floor, splintered wood being what remained, useful for only some kindling now. 

Keepsakes were laid on their sides on the floor, some picture frames placed on their backs with fractured shards of glass distorting the images. A couple trophies, silly game ones the ninja had bought for each other, had been placed down beside them with purposeful hands. Books, piled up in neat rows. Nothing was up high, nothing was under threat of falling and breaking. 

No further than they clearly already had. 

Cole glances down at his hands, clasping far too tightly in his hands he can see the small moons of his nails on his skin, though there were bruises there too. On the back of his hands, dotted and small. Purple and light. 

Then moving down his arms, more bruises and grazes led the way. Nothing was too bad, but there was a lot of them. Especially circling his elbow, smudges of darkness against his skin and hurting as he floated careful fingers over the marks. He had a couple plasters dotted about, they probably covered some more substantial nicks. His shoulders ached, his biceps strained. Cole was sure, if he had a mirror, he’d find many, many more marks.

He even had one on his left thumb, stark against his knuckle. 

Where was the TV..?

When he looked back up from exploring his arms, up to where his sleeve began, he found the team staring at him. A mix of worry, tiredness, and slight expectation. Sora and Wyldfyre were hanging back, Cole hoped he hadn’t scared them. 

Nya was whispering in low tones to Kai, who had the decency to look sheepish. At least Cole could tell that conversation wasn’t about him. 

Zane and Lloyd are just watching him quietly. Cole pauses, swallows hard, looks back to the Nindroid with a quiet realisation, “You’ve told me all this already, haven’t you?” He wipes a hand down his face, his forehead aches in return. Another bruise?

Riyu seemed to be standing sentinel in front of him, on his haunches, having made more than enough space for himself in the games room. Not that there was really anything close by. Some of the smaller chairs, a couple bean-bags, and a small side-table had been moved over to the far side of the room. Closer to the crack.

Away from where Cole was situated. 

“It’s to be expected. Confusion usually follows a seizure.” Zane moves closer, crouches down to get into Cole’s eyeline, carefully nudging Riyu to the side a little in tandem. He holds out a hand in a silent question and Cole gives a slow nod in return. Whatever Zane needed to do, Cole was fine with that. He trusted his family with his life, after all. It felt like his neck was both loose, and achingly stiff though, but he didn’t say anything as Zane carefully took his chin in hand and tilted his head from left to right, checking for what, Cole wasn’t sure, but Zane eventually, thankfully, nodded. “Your eyes are reacting okay,” the earth ninja let out a breath he hadn’t noticed he’d been holding, “You seem more aware than last time, do you feel nauseous?”

Cole shook his head slowly in a quiet ‘no’, Zane’s hand gliding along with the movement. Zane simply kept looking, a careful smile on his mouth. It was relieving, and daunting, all at the same time.

Zane was being cautious and aware of his expression. Forcing it into something closer to passive calmness, Cole forced out a shaking breath, “You’re being really calm about this. Too calm.”

“Is that worrying you?” Zane questioned, tilting his head lightly. 

“You’re sounding like a doctor, Zane. And I’ve met a lot of them.”

“Ah, yes, well,” there was a metallic note of a cleared throat, before Cole watched as Zane’s shoulders drooped. It was a relief of a drop of facade, Cole was more than thankful to see it, even though as soon as he caught a look at Zane’s expression, it made his heart ache, “I just… I’m not fond of feeling-”

“Lost?” Cole questions, raising an eyebrow.

“I want to be able to do more.” The Nindroid whispers, seemingly to himself. But Cole takes the openness as an opportunity, grips Zane’s wrist. It’s not as tight as he normally would, his fingers still feel a little absent from his mind, but it does its job. 

“I’ll be fine.” Cole says. It’s for himself. It’s for his family. Does he believe it? At that moment, there’s so much more to think about, to take in. His chest still feels tight, his eyes still ache with worry and his throat feels as though it’s straining to force the words he wants out. “We’ll figure this out, right?”

There’s a huff, closer to a fond sigh. And an eyeroll, Cole doesn’t miss that from Kai as he turns to look at the fire ninja, “Even when you’re being looked after, you somehow still focus on others. How?”

“It comes with the territory of being me. Earth master, solid as stone.”

Some form of levity finally hit the room.

Cole wasn’t sure he could believe his words much anymore though. But he kept that to himself.

So, he’d had a seizure. He could work with that. Maybe. Possibly. He pulled in a breath, it felt heavy. It sat in his lungs like a weight, held them down. The next breath came a little harder, though Cole elected to ignore it as best he could.  

He needed to focus on something else and not the deep seated panic he could feel tumbling around in his chest. 

Bruises. He could check them over. Count them, catalogue them. Something.

Conversations around him drifted into a welcomed and muffled silence as he went over his arms again. Bruises weren’t unique for his choice of career, but there was something so… Disorientating about all of this. Not remembering where he’d gotten them exactly, though objectively he knew the cause, it was… Scary. Off putting. He’d just lost a chunk of his memory with bits of the blanks filled in by his family and even then.

Even then, he didn’t know everything. 

But the marks and proof were painted on his body. There was a dark smudge over the side of his left hand, from the knuckle of his pinkie stretching down to the boney nub on the side of his wrist. It was red, and not shifting. Cole had enough context to tell it would fade to a purple over the next day or so. Then a washed out blue, a yellow.

Nya’s voice rose over the blurred focus of his mind, though the question wasn’t directed at him, but at Kai, “You think it’s worth trying Geo? The Finders would worry.”

Kai hums noncommittally in response, “He would have mentioned something like this, wouldn’t he?”

Cole only glanced at the marks that moved further up, the scrapes, the sight of nail marks in his hands where his fists had obviously been clenching, tight. He could feel the strain in his fingers, aches in his joints. He ran a finger slowly over the lunar cuts, the redness surrounding them. 

The bruising travelling a line to his shoulders, his left more than his right. Running to hide beneath his shirt, but obviously going further. 

All from where he’d hit the ground… Convulsed. Cole swallows hard. Treat it like a post-battle briefing of injuries, what needed to be treated, what could be left to heal- He just needed to deal with it like that. Like the injuries were on someone else. Anyone that wasn’t him at that moment.

They had all clearly been sorted out, since who knew how long it had been where his brain had been too out of it to retain the information that had been given to him. The bruises and cuts were clean, save for the odd piece of gravel Cole picks off, tosses absently to the floor.  Zane had said the seizure had started during training that day, so midday? After? 

Cole looked up at the clock hung on one wall, at the fuzzy numbers. A little past two. Huh. 

The absence of a few hours was… Disconcerting. 

Moving one hand further up the back of his arm, checking for other points of minor pain, only brought Cole to something he’d forgotten about. The bruising that had already been there that morning. He remembers seeing it in the reflection of the bathroom mirror, catching it quickly as he stepped out of the shower. The dark colours clouding over his shoulder blades, Cole could see it if he dragged a bit on the collar of his shirt, trying to turn his aching neck to get a glimpse of the markings over his shoulder. Though it wasn’t easy, his muscles ached and pulled, so he went back to looking over his front, his gaze dipping down to his own chest to gradually check it over. His sides hummed lightly, his ribs pulled with each breath. 

He couldn’t exactly pull his shirt off to check. In all honesty, Cole was sure he’d get it caught on his head or tangled in some random way with the way his mind was working in that moment. 

He pauses. This wasn’t the shirt he’d put on that morning. 

It was his, sure, stretched out, faded. A favourite shirt that had been retired to pajamas a few years back, soft, just as comfortable. The hems were threadbare after one too many washes, but he refused to chuck it out. Even with Zane’s consistent prompting. It was… A comfort, in a way. 

“It’s loose.” Lloyd answers an unheard question that Cole couldn’t exactly parse out.

Cole tilts his head in response, “What?”

“It’s, you know, loose. Zane found it in the wash-pile.” Lloyd said again, as if it explained things. “In case-”

After a moment, the question settled. 

Cole felt some air rush from his nose. It wasn’t a sigh, just a more quiet realisation, “I have another one.” He finishes the sentence slowly. 

On the one hand, it made sense. Even he could understand that. It mitigated risk, made sure things were safer. Nothing tight around his neck, no objects too close by in case he knocked into any of them. It’s exactly what Cole would do himself, scenarios he would be ready for if this situation was for any of his family, any yet…

“I had a seizure..?” He knows it sounds like a question. He watches as Lloyd’s face falls with a brief thought that Cole had already forgotten. According to them, it wouldn’t have been the first time that day. This wasn’t that. Cole threads his fingers together in his lap, fiddles with them. Anything to look elsewhere in the room, really. 

He’d actually had a…

Cole froze, eyes settling back on the crack on the wall, the disorganised room.

“Cole, are you-?” Lloyd began.

His next exhale came out shaky, his heart somehow ratcheted up even faster. His hands became clammy, though the rest of his body felt like it had been drenched in a cold sweat, “I tore the mountain in half-?!”

Lloyd stood up from his chair quickly, frozen pack tumbling to the tatami floor with a wet and slightly clattering thump of the unmelted ice that still remained. It seems, at least, he didn’t know what to do from there, other than stand, hands out, just in front of where Cole was. 

Cole could see the worry on his face, and with a sweeping look he could see the expression mirrored. Looking at him as if he’d fall apart, as if he was falling apart.

How had that slipped past him? They’d told him, and- And it had gone into his mind and done nothing. Him, and his powers. They were dangerous. They needed discipline, control. 

Earlier, he’d had none of that. No awareness to maintain control. No focus or anything to keep his powers in check and people safe. 

His eyes grew wide, his lungs constricted. “Is everyone okay? Did it- what about-” He stood up quickly. He didn’t know what else he wanted his body to do, he didn’t even know what his brain was getting him to do, to feel; all other than the tightening knot of his stomach and the swelling pressure in his head, behind his eyes. Though the standing was short-lived, his legs quickly felt like he was standing on unset jelly, and the spur of energy, of something, quickly fizzles away as he toppled back onto the couch with a quiet oof and gaining enough reaching hands and Kai’s own quick reflexes catching the fabric of his shoulder to try, and slightly fail, to slow his topple. 

And there’s still people reaching for him, there’s a buzz of movement, of voices around him and there’s a hand right in his face, getting closer, fingers reaching out. Grabbing. 

He couldn’t control his powers. People were probably hurt. He’d hurt Lloyd, worried his team, probably caused extensive damage to their home and further, and further. Had his powers hit a more populated area? There were villages between the monastery and Ninjago City, had it reached that far?

He could barely even think properly, breathe properly.

He couldn’t even stand-

Zane shifts a little closer, “Cole, everything’s fine-”

He slapped the hand in front of him away before he’d even had a moment to actually think about it. The sharp noise was enough to bring him back to reality enough for his eyes to widen, his stomach to drop as Lloyd withdrew his hand with a sharp wince.

“Sorry, I- I don’t know why I-” 

“It’s okay.” Lloyd said quickly, hand cradled against his chest. His injured hand.

Now Cole felt even worse.

“I wasn’t even thinking, I-”

“Panicked. It’s okay.” Zane reached over to the discarded pack on the floor, and with the sound of creaking ice and a chill of puthering air and a newly solid pack was held back to Lloyd’s hand, his assessing glowing blue eyes slowly moved away from the now, refreshed injury. “It’s not broken. It was just a slap.”

Cole wipes a shaking hand down his face, past his chin, pulls on his collar. Everything felt like too much. The crowd, the noise. The worry. The feeling of fabric on his skin, hair on his neck, multiple eyes boring down on what was his exposed soul because he just didn’t have the energy to hide anything anymore. 

“Your powers didn’t go further than the mountain.” Zane said after a second, his hand floating for a brief second before settling against Cole’s knee again, “There’s some fallen trees at the base, but it was contained.”

Lloyd crouched down too, staring at him as if willing him to understand.

Cole took the words in with a sharp focus. 

“The city isn’t damaged. Borg Tower picked up on some aftershocks, but they were tiny. No one was hurt. No one actually felt anything.” The green ninja continued. 

“Try to breathe, Cole. Everything is under control.” And didn’t Zane’s voice exude a believable calm.

Cole nods, forces himself to pull in a deep and steady breath. Zane follows it, the practices action a needed guide for the earth ninja as he continued, in and out, through his mouth, out his nose. 

Slowly, his racing heart rate abated, his breathing calmed. At least a little bit. Cole’s eyes settled on Lloyd’s face, his brow furrowing as his mind took on a new distraction. People were safe, no one was affected or hurt.

Except for- “Your nose looks broken, though.” He couldn’t continue to keep talking about himself, focusing on himself. He needed a distraction.

Like a small wave of relief, Lloyd’s following eye-roll and sigh surfaced a bare smile from Cole with a quiet ease. 

“It’s a bruise,” Lloyd winced, though it didn’t stop him from lifting a hand to poke at the injury. Zane reached over just as gradually to grasp at the kid’s wrist and pull it away before he decided to start messing with the bruise. “I got a bit too close to you when you were seizing.” Nevermind on the distraction.

Cole’s mouth is already moving with an apology on his lips. 

Intercepted just as quickly by a faster Lloyd, “It wasn’t your fault. You weren’t aware. It was my fault.”

“Lloyd-” Cole sighs.

“ My fault. You don’t even need to think about it. It was me.” Lloyd reached forwards, flicking Cole’s forehead lightly. All too carefully. Noticeably so. Then he went back to holding the again-dripping ice pack to his hand, nose, face, “You’re worse off, anyway. Do you want an ice pack?”

“Or five,” Kai huffs lightly from the back of the couch. His hand is still resting lightly against Cole’s shoulder. Securely. Calming.

The joke falls flat in the silence of the room that follows it. Though Cole can appreciate the try, at least a little. His hands float absently over his arms, where he knows some bruises are. 

It seems, he won’t be able to just sit and ignore what happened. As much as he wanted to. “You said… It wasn’t my first?” He turns to look at Nya, something tells him that she’d offer the most direct answer, “I don’t remember them,” Cole pauses, forehead creasing with thought, though there was just a gap in his mind, “ Either of them.”

“You may struggle with memories for an hour or-” Zane began.

Kai decided to provide information at the same time with an attempt at a casual shrug, though Cole could see the bravado hiding the worry behind it, “There was that quake this morning.”

“You’ll notice the aftermath.” Sora adds, faltering as she listens to her own words, “The bruising, not the- you know,” she waves a loose hand around the wrecked room.

Cole winces at the noise. How were these guys ever as quiet as they were then on missions when no one could keep their mouths shut for one passing second-

“Sora, Wyldfyre, you guys want to help Kai give the mech-hanger a once-over?” Nya questions, voice raised lightly over the hum.

Kai turns to look at her, confusion on his face, hand releasing from Cole shoulder, “Hey, why me?”

Wyldfyre groaned, head tilting back, “But we’ve already done that!” She gets a subtle elbow to her chest. Nya’s second victim. Wyldfyre mellows as understanding dawns, “ Oh- Oh, yeah, sure. Sure.”

The pantomime of lost faces and Nya shuttling the small group back out the door surfaces a slight huff of a laugh from Cole, “Check my mech is okay, too, please?”

Nya snorts as she watches Kai retreat out the room, down the hall, younger ninjas in tow and a quick middle finger thrown up in response as he disappears beyond the doorway. At least Nya seems in okay spirits. Or, she was just hiding her worry better than everyone else. Nya always managed to have a good, measured face.

She steps into the room now, circling around the arm of the couch and sitting herself beside where he was. Zane still remained crouched, now more knelt securely against the floor before the couch, back settled cautiously against the coffee table just behind him.

A table that was now missing a leg. The floating side now balancing precariously on the three surviving legs and a stack of haphazard books that fell just a little short from keeping the table overall level. Cole glances at his glass of water standing on its surface, on a coaster. It was all settled at a slant. 

Riyu’s head was slanted too. Tilting to one side, observing quietly, at least until the dragon moved forwards and lightly pawed at the side of his leg, then decided to rest, stomach down against the floor. Huffs of warm air fluttering against the hem of Cole’s trousers. 

He hadn’t run after Sora then. 

“Is the environment bothering you? The light? Sound?” Zane prompted after a second. At least now, the room felt a little less stifling. The questions, more-so. “Are you seeing anything? They’re like, auras? Lights around lights. A halo of sorts.”

“His eyes aren’t glowing.” Nya mumbles, more to herself. 

Cole doesn’t miss it, “You think it’s my powers?”

Lloyd winces, clears his throat, “We can’t be sure. Whether your powers reacted to your… Seizure. Or if the seizure was caused by…”

He can feel the harsh lump of dryness in his throat as he swallows hard. He looks at his hands, but he’s not exactly seeing them. He glances at Nya, then past her at the dimmed light of the room’s bulb. There’s nothing around it like Zane’s describing. No… Halos?

Had he seen those earlier? Before his first- second seizure. Whatever number it was.

What would even happen from this? He’d never truly been close to something like this. Sure, he wasn’t blind, he’s seen videos, read articles about people dealing with chronic issues. Illness. It had felt so separate from him and yet, now…

Now he had no clue what to do next. 

Cole wanted to get up, but he could feel that his legs still felt loose. He wanted to get up and walk out and go somewhere, go climb something. Find a sheer cliff face and pull himself up until his muscles burned and his fingers were raw and he could sit at the top and stare off into the sunset and just be away from everything. Just for a little. To take it all in. 

But his fingers were still off. 

His keys for his mech were in his room, two hallways away and already so far.

Could he even safely drive now? They couldn’t risk it, that would be stupid. 

So was everything now a waiting game? A tense wait until Cole would inevitably have another seizure. A third one? A fourth. Everyone had seemed prepared for it.

Like earlier, that small quake that had spawned with Cole’s own worry. Everyone had come rushing in to check, to make sure it was normal. Sure, normally he had more control over everything but now…

Now everything was slipping through his fingers. How could he control himself, control his powers if he’s not even aware of what’s going on around him. Could he even go on missions? Help the team, trust himself to support them and fight for them and have their back when… When-

They’d expected a seizure to come along with the shaking of the earth earlier.

His eyes burn. His throat clicks. 

They were lucky, so, so, lucky that this seizure had happened somewhere where it could be controlled. Where it was objectively safe. 

But next time?

Cole could feel that there would be a next time. One seizure, that was okay in the grand scheme of things.

But two? In one day?

“We should find some Vengestone.” Cole says, in lieu of answering Zane’s question. He looks over the smaller group, his voice at least comes out measured, clearer than he’d ever have anticipated. 

“What? Why?” Lloyd understandably looks surprised. But Cole knows him enough to know he’s already picked up on the reasoning. 

Cole spread his hands slowly, his fingers trembling just barely. “If this keeps happening, I’ll hurt someone.” Lloyd moves to intercept, answer, give platitudes, Cole shakes his head and continues. “I know I won’t mean it, but it will happen. We need to prevent that.”

“You’re being an idiot.” Lloyd settles on eventually.

Nya’s focus moves quickly over to the offending ninja, “Lloyd, you can’t just say that!”

Cole would have scoffed in reaction, if he wasn’t taken aback by the bluntness of the words. 

“What?” Lloyd frowns, doesn’t stop, “I know, things are scary, they’re all up in the air and everything but we don’t even know what happened, what’s causing this. We can figure it out, sort it out. Vengestone will mask the problem.” 

Cole can tell enough that this is the stress talking, the situation taking over. Everyone already has so much to deal with, and this… Problem, it’s another thing entirely. A new unknown thing that Cole doesn’t even know where to begin with, so why would Lloyd? Why would anyone, really?

Zane shakes his head, “This isn’t some end-of-Ninjago situation, Lloyd. Some things are just-”

“We’ve dealt with other things. We can fix this.” The kid says, tries, though the wariness and doubt is washing around in his eyes. 

Cole swallows hard. 

Now, Zane at least seemed to set his shoulders, turn his attention to the younger leader, “Lloyd, this isn’t a ninja situation. This is a… A person situation.”

“We can deal with this without Vengestone. Cole doesn’t have to lock down his powers, we don’t even know if it’s related to his powers!”

Riyu whined softly, Cole let out a shaking breath, rested his hand against the dragon’s head and traced visual lines over his scales. Breathe. Breathe. 

Zane stood slowly, the slight noise of metal joints creaking lightly permeated the room as he righted himself and made his way to Lloyds side. No one was annoyed. Sometimes, it seems that no one had the propensity to be annoyed at anything that was out of their control and yet…

“It might be, it might not. We just need to think, make a plan. Like everything else.” Zane said, at least someone sounds confident.

Cole couldn’t keep the swirling twist to his gut down though. He wasn’t going to be sick, it wasn’t that kind of nausea, but it was something. Everyone was stressed, everyone was trying to solve the situation and yet… His own ideas should be taken into account. It was him , his problem, his peace of mind. 

He wasn’t angry at Lloyd. At anyone. 

He was scared.

For all they knew, Vengestone could help. Hopefully. 

Was he grasping at straws? Was he looking for something in the midst of nothing? What else could he honestly do, he’d just found out he’d had a…

And he’d hurt Lloyd. 

Cole grit his teeth. His jaw ached. His power could have gotten so much more out of control, the earth was everywhere, every inch of the world and he was sure his family understood that, this was all just worry. Stress. They weren’t ignoring him. 

Just, with the less captive audience of two ninjas-in-training, there was now the chance to have a quiet freak out.

Or a visible one.

Zane and Lloyd were still talking, mouths moving. The words were blurring in his brain.

“You’re all talking about me like I’m not here!” Cole shouts. He watches as everyone’s attention, once again, moves rapidly over in his direction. Wide eyes, worried expressions. They’re already constantly worried, Cole’s added to it.

He didn’t want to add to anything. 

“I should have the final say in what’s done about this.” He adds, quickly, as if he needs to get the words out before something else gets said. It’s like a drive in his chest, in his brain, he wants to stand and pace or mess with his hands or throw his phone or something- something expected, normal. Something to make everything go back to how things were that morning. Or a few weeks before. 

Where the world wasn’t in peril again. 

"Cole-" Nya starts-

"I had a seizure! Okay! That's terrifying and I have powers that are dangerous , we can't ignore that!" He stands up anyway, and thank the First that his feet have decided to work. He feels unsteady though, and a couple steps leads him to bumping, bouncing off the arm of the couch he’d been situated on before, he doesn’t lose his balance. Nya catches his arm anyway, hand looping through the crook of his elbow as if trying to pull him to a stop, but there’s no strength there. 

Cole still slows, pulls in a heavy breath. And another. 

And another.

Nya’s face falls, though it’s different now. Comforting. Softer. Lloyd is at her shoulder, expression pensive. Thoughtful. Slightly guilty. 

Her next movements, the dip to her knees and the hold on his arm pull them both into a sitting position on the floor. Right beside Riyu, Cole at least then gets to use the dragon as something to lean on, and he doesn’t seem to mind, head resting back down onto the mats after all the sudden rush of activity. 

Aware eyes tracing over Cole’s own face. His fingers feel tingly and numb, his vision is hollowing, he can see the grey fuzz of static at the edges. 

“Where were you going?” Nya asks simply. 

Cole swallows down choking thoughts, “I don’t know-” He provides first, gesturing with shaky hands towards the doorway. “ Out - something- I just-” He lifted a hand to his chest and gripped hard. It made no difference, his lungs didn’t loosen.

Lloyd settles in a crouch beside the pair. 

“I don’t know what to do.” Cole eventually mumbles, to whom he isn’t entirely sure. To himself. It’s likely. And it’s terrifying. It’s all out of his control.

Everything is out of his control.

Was Vengestone actually a viable option? If they used it, for all he knew it wouldn’t stop the seizures, it would just negate their effects, prevent the surge of power that seemingly accompanied them; but it probably wouldn’t stop the actual seizing. 

Unless the powers were causing the seizure, in which case, whilst they tried whatever they did to undo what the issue was, he’d be powerless. He’d have his strength, but only partially. Cole had crafted that skill with his own hands and not his powers, but against everything they’re preparing to face? Ras? The Five? Every single problem in the world was apparently coming at them without break and to have one of the team out of action for the most part would be…

It’d turn any tentative plan to mush. Throw a spanner into the works, they were a team, Cole could fight. But it wouldn’t be the same. 

And the alternative, that this… issue, and his powers were not related but a cruel twist of whatever fate had fallen over the team-

Cole could feel his thoughts coming a mile a minute. Piling up, one on top of the other as a new one came in to not replace, but shove aside the old racing worry with new, building stress and fear. He could see Zane slowly step around to the back of him, sliding into a seat on the couch, seated sentinel.

How could they actually deal with something like this?

A chilled hand rests itself against the back of Cole’s neck, and an undignified and sudden, unsuppressed yelp is drawn free, something that at least shakes the earth ninja’s brain for a second. “Dude!” He swivels around in his seated position on the floor, knocking just lightly against Riyu’s head as Cole serves to shoot soft daggers in Zane’s direction, “Why-?”

“Follow Nya’s breathing. This is just to help keep you grounded.” Zane says, in lieu of an actual answer. Cole follows the gestured hand back towards Nya, and he finds her smiling slightly, her own breathing much steadier than his own. “Tell me if it’s too cold.”

Cole hums softly, at least glad he now had a task at hand he could focus on, the careful in and out of air, the coldness against his neck and the chilled frosted condensation settling into the soft hairs at his nape.

The room drifted, finally, into a settled silence. 

There’s a few minutes where nothing much else happens, save for Cole’s own breathing meeting in ears in a way that sounded far too loud, likely because his ears were still buzzing, still aware. He could hear his heart in his head, feel his pulse in his neck. 

Cole wipes his eyes. His hand comes away wet, his nose is blocked in a cloyed sniffle. It sounds gross, feels gross. 

But he feels. Beyond the closing numbness of stress and anxiety. 

Lloyd clears his throat, finally choosing to break the settled silence, “I’m sorry, Cole, I wasn’t-”

“I know,” Cole said easily. He reached up a hand, fingers ruffling into Lloyd’s hair before he could actually pull away and escape. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” Cole let out a heavy breath. It flowed a little easier. It’s shaky, but for once, since the start of the conversation, it feels like the oxygen actually reaches his lungs. His fingertips still feel a little lost, tingling with pins-and-needles, but nowhere close to the earlier absence. “We’ll figure this out, it’s what we do, right?”

At least, that pulls a smile from the green ninja. Something that’s been few and far between for the past few days. 

Cole sees it as a win. A small, needed win. 

Lloyd clears his throat, shuffles closer, rests his head carefully against Cole’s shoulder. His arms wrapping around the other one. 

In turn, Cole uses Lloyds own head as a supporting pillow. It doesn’t help all the thoughts and everything go away, but the hug is nice. Warm, comforting, definitely needed. 

“I’m sure Sensei Wu would have had some Vengestone hidden away-” Lloyd started, voice nasally from his face being pressed into Cole’s shoulder. That couldn’t have been comfortable with his injuries. 

Cole shook his head slowly in response. His head still feels loose, but at least now his brain feels less like liquid sloshing around his skull, his thoughts are coming in clearer and less frantic. They feel less like terrified hands grasping for a solution, though anxiety is still blooming somewhere in his mind, he can at least attempt some form of logic. 

The cold on his neck is helping a lot too. 

It’s good. Baby steps. “We’ll play it by ear,” Cole hums softly, he met eyes with Nya, felt Zane’s hand shift against his skin, “But you guys have to promise me-”

“We’ll keep things under control.” Zane finishes, “And if your powers become more than can be handled, we’ll step in. It’s what we’re here for.” A glance over Cole’s shoulder shows the Nindroid offering a small smile back. Gone are the lines of worry and stress. The same probably goes for everyone. The world is feeling calmer. “Brother helps brother.”

Calmer, aside from the organised mess over the floor. The broken wall. Who even knew what else.

Cole swallowed. It felt dry. He smiles back at Zane anyway, “That’s not the phrase.” Cole chuckles softly. A bit easier. 

Lloyd shifts his head against his shoulder, not moving it. Not dropping his arms away from the hug. Just… Securing his place a bit more. 

Nya loosely holds one hand, fingers careful but no less secure. She shakes the grip, pulling Cole’s attention over. “We’ll figure this out, okay?” She repeats his own words, and from her they feel that bit more believable. “Powers are weird. And… Life is weird.” Nya’s brow furrows, though it relaxes just as fast, “But we’ll manage things. You’re not on your own with this.”

“Powers are weird . ” Lloyd agrees easily. “They can cause a whole load of things. I mean, I’m getting visions from the Source Dragons, and if that’s not wild then I don’t know what is.”

“And, well, I became the ocean that one time.” Nya shrugged. Like it was passive, as simple as. Cole gave her hand a slight squeeze anyway. 

Zane cleared his throat softly, his hand still as cold and present against the back of Cole’s neck. Quiet, listening, a small smile curved his mouth as Cole looked over, “We always come out the other side, at least. Elemental issues or not, we’ll be here.”

“Yeah, I suppose we do.” Cole said, agreed really. What else could he really do? This support, aid, it was infectious. Settling. It loosened the knot of his stomach. Made the echo of the earth back off a little, to a far off shout from beyond the veil of a rainy day. Distant, shrouded. Warded.

Cole didn’t feel like he could stand just yet, but that was fine. The floor was comfortable, and beside the warmth of the passing day outside, having his personal space invaded was thankfully reliving. Calming in the best way. He lent back barely, shoulders meeting the metal of Zane’s legs. Riyu breathing deeply shifted the slight pile they’d become, green eyes and wings drifting lower and lower as a slow nap took hold. A whole lot calmer than earlier on in the day.

“It’ll be fine.” Cole breathed, it was to himself, but he could feel Lloyd nod against his shoulder. They would sort it out. He knew they would. He glances down, to the hand Nya has clasped, to the other free one he has now bunching up the material of Lloyd’s sleeve to return the hug.

The tips of his fingers still feel absent, and if he looks close enough, it looks like they’re glowing from within. Softly, like amber, like his lava hands have been quenched but are still blazing beneath skin and muscle. 

The earth was still screaming its soft, faded echo somewhere in the distance of his mind. Cole let his eyes fall shut, letting himself settle into the comfort of the room, and his family, “We’ll figure it out.”

Cole stared down at his hands, his fingertips glowing a faint orange, the earth still screaming a faded echo at the back of his mind. “We'll figure this out. Together.”