Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lloyd stared at the criminals with a deadpan look. “Drop the goddamn rocks before I blast your face off.”

Normally, the ninja would tone it down with the violent threats, especially Lloyd, but no one blamed Lloyd for using such a threat this time. This week in Ninjago City had been busy for the ninja. Vengestone has been on the market for criminals for a while now, but the number of vengestone thefts jumped seemingly out of nowhere. The kicker is, not only has vengestone thefts increased, uranium is being stolen too. Last week, there was not a single soul that uttered the word “uranium” in the streets, but now, it’s all anyone is talking about in the criminal underworld, much to the ninja’s dismay. They do not want to deal with a radioactive group of criminals that also have vengestone that could cancel out their powers.

As of now, the ninja have busted another vengestone seeking criminal, thankfully, without blasting anyone’s face off.

“UGHHHHH”

“Me too Jay, me too.” Kai groaned out beside Jay.

Cole walked up to the two exhausted ninja standing next to the ramp of the Destiny’s bounty. “This whole week isn’t funny.”

“Maybe Cole is onto something, this is all probably just a bad joke, EH HEH” Jay gasped out.

Kai smirked. “Yeah! And Jay’s probably right because Jay knows all about bad jokes!”

Jay jumped onto Kai’s back, taking both of them down, and they decided to just stay on the floor. After Jay and Kai refused to move, Cole dragged them both by their legs to the bounty.

On the bounty, Wu called a group meeting. “Ninja! Meet up in the hangar in 2 minutes!”

A simultaneous groan echoed through the bounty from all the ninja as they all begrudgingly made their way to the hangar.

“Ninja, I see that you have been tasked with many duties in the past week, so I have decided to cancel our evening training session to give you a well deserved night off.”

The ninja all cheered. “YES!”

“THANK YOU SENSEI WU!”

“FINALLY!”

The ninja all ran to the gaming room to make a plan for their time off.

———————————

Jay felt his anxiety rise as the team sped through the city in their car. They were on their way to the bar, much to Jay’s protests. Jay has never been one to party while drunk, but Cole and Kai were too excited to get wasted and dance away. If he told them that he didn’t want to do this, what would they say? They’d probably think he was a loser, that’s what. And how can Jay ever say no to Cole?

They finally arrived, and the closer they walked to the bar, the more Jay felt his anxiety rising. What if a criminal finds them here and catches them off guard? The ninja would be too delirious to fight and they will all get kidnapped and tortured and no one will save them because the ninja are who usually do the saving and the criminals will take over Ninjago City and then move onto ALL THE REALMS AND TAKE OVER THOSE AND THEN-

Jay’s anxiety tangent was cut off by an hand grabbing his arm. Just as Jay was about to kick into his anxiety driven instinct and floor this unknown person touching him, he heard Cole’s voice come from the direction of the arm. “You doing okay bluebell?”

Jay immediately felt calmer. “Yes”

“Don’t worry, I will stay next to you the entire night, so just relax! This is the first time in weeks we had time off and after this past week, we definitely deserve it!”

Jay with his newfound confidence (Cole next to him) was actually able to have fun for once. That is until Jay’s worst nightmare came true.

“Bitch get off of me!” A man in all black shouted at Nya, who was tackling him to the ground.

“Only after you tell me why the hell you were following us all night with a gun in your pocket.” Nya hissed at him with a death stare.

So, maybe it wasn’t his worst nightmare, but it still wasn’t a favorable event.

Nya’s death stare must have broken something in the man on the floor because he instantly looked pale and begun rapping his entire plan to the ninja.

“I was sent to capture one of you guys by someone who was going to pay me money to bring you guys in! I was going to shoot one of you in the arm and cuff vengestone around that person’s wrist and bring them to the warehouse before the rest of you idiots realized. I was just about to-”

Kai had kicked the guy and the guy quieted as his eyes closed. “Kai! Why would you do that!”

“Oh come on, it’s not like you guys weren’t thinking of doing that too, that guy was getting on my nerves~” Kai staggered towards Nya.

“Whatever, let’s just get back to the bounty and interrogate this guy in the morning. Let’s gooOooo~” Zane swayed.

“Zane, you can get drunk?”

“Yes.”

“Then who’s gonna drive us home…?”

Lloyd looked at the drunk team and then at himself and sighed. “Who here is the least drunk? Whoever it is, they are driving.”

That driver ended up being Jay and the other ninja piled into the back of the vehicle with Lloyd sitting in the passenger seat. They tied up the guy in all black and stuffed him into the trunk. The ninja team, except for Jay, fell asleep as soon as they sat down. Jay only drank one shot, so he was the most sober. They are all very well aware that none of them should be driving and that this is illegal. The ninja may be the protectors of the city, but they aren’t protectors of the law. If Jay had a dollar for every time the ninja broke the law, lets just say they wouldn’t be living on a flying ship that is holding on for dear life and their ninja uniforms would actually have pockets.

Jay was getting bored with no one to talk with, so he tried to count the number of times he stopped at a red light, but he lost count pretty quick with the sound of snoring in the backseat interrupting his train of thought. Just as Jay was about to wake up Lloyd who was in the passenger for some conversation, a car swerved in front of the ninja’s car a bit too close for comfort. Luckily, Jay managed to turn to the other lane, but not without going up the curb and into a street lamp. Somehow, the other ninja continued to snore through this crash. Jay groaned and then decided he could come back to fix the street lamp when it wasn’t 2am and there weren’t crazy drivers in the street. However, the car made a terrible hissing noise and shrieking noise before coming to a complete stop. He went to get his phone out of his pocket to call the bounty’s line when he saw his phone is dead. Just my luck, right!

Jay got out of the car and walked around it to find out what was wrong while cursing with such conviction that it would impress even Kai, the team’s most frequent swearer.

“…those lunatic shitstains covered in bitchshit horse’s ass shit looking idiot drivers-” Just as Jay was about to near the end of his “shitty monologue”, he looked down to see a flat tire. Jay knew there is definitely more that was wrong with the vehicle since only a flat tire wouldn’t make the whole thing stop, but he told himself to fix the tire first. A flat tire might seem normal, but this one is different, the place where the tire was punctured seemed to be blinking red, weird. Jay was too tired to question it. BEEP…He got the spare tire from the trunk by taking out the guy they were going to interrogate later and put him back in after getting the tire. He used a carjack to pick up the car and take off the tire. BEEP... What is that beeping? Whatever, he’ll deal with it later. Man, Sensei Wu would be disappointed, he thought. BEEP... “Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today…” Jay giggled to himself and continued despite the beeping.

He sat next to the wheel and put on the new tire. BEEP BEEP... He was about to tighten the lug nuts of the tire when he noticed that the beeping he had been hearing picked up the pace. BEEP BEEP... He was about to shrug it off again and continue working when he saw out of the corner of his eye a countdown timer that was in sync with the beeping hidden in the tire. 10… A beeping countdown. Inside of the punctured tire. With a blinking red light. 9… His eyes grew with realization and that woke up Jay in an instant. 8… 7… Jay stood up so fast that he felt like he was going to faint, but he ignored the lightheaded feeling. I could zap it! No, that might make it explode right here. 6… He kicked the tire, but probably not far enough, he couldn’t see the timer anymore, but he knew he was running out of time. Goddamn it, this tire is big and heavy. It was probably too close to the other ninja and Jay didn’t know how big the explosion would be. BEEP BEEP… BEEP BEEP… BEEP BEEP…Shit, I don’t know how much time is left. Jay ran as fast as he can to the tire and kicked it again. BEEP BEEP… The tire flew through the air and landed a few feet away. BEEP BEEP…Jay looked back at the car. Hopefully the car is far enough-

Jay felt the painful, burning impact hit him as he flew, in which way, he did not know. He saw a mix of blue, orange, and yellow, then nothing.

Chapter Text

Cole sat with his head on the palms of his hands and his elbows on his knees. I should’ve been better.

Jay would have looked almost peaceful on his bed if it wasn’t for the bandages and cream all over him that were covering harsh burn marks and injured body parts. I should’ve been better.

Cole doesn’t even remember what happened. Nothing at all. Nothing from the night before. He only can recall what happened when he woke up this morning. Not only can he recall it, it is the only memory that has been playing in his mind for hours. I should’ve been better.

Cole heard a loud, ear deafening explosion that startled him awake. He felt clear after that nap and he knew he had gotten more drunk than he had planned to. He saw the explosion of blue, yellow, and orange. Must be a powerful explosion if there is blue fire. Is this a dream, why is he and the other ninja on the curb in the car? The other ninja were also awake and looking at the explosion, clearly just as confused as he is. In the explosion, he saw a flash of blue falling at high speed.

Kai saw it too and was thinking the same. “What is that? Why is it so blue? Is this a dream?”

Cole squinted at it as it was getting closer to the ground. “Heh, kind of looks like Jay.” Cole looked at the others in the car, trying to single out Jay’s exasperated face. Confusion filled his mind when he couldn’t find it.

Cole looked back at the falling object and back at the car and back at the falling object. Then, it finally clicked.

“JAY?!”

Everyone finally realized what was plummeting from the sky as the blue ninja met the road with a sickening CRACK.

What happened after that was a blur of running, screaming, and panicking.

Everyone is trying to rack their brains to figure out what gotten Jay into this situation, but all they can find is guilt for being so drunk that they can’t even remember what happened. Cole wanted nothing more than to remember. I should’ve been better.

Cole finally looked up from his hands at everyone else in Jay’s room. “Let’s try to piece together what happened yesterday.”

Lloyd nodded. “We should work backwards because we know more about this morning than the night before.”

“We got Jay into the hospital at around 2:30am.” Nya begun.

“That happened because Jay fell out of the sky…” Kai said, not even believing what was leaving his own mouth.

Cole thought about it and said “Probably because of the explosion, it seemed to be a strong one too and I guess Jay couldn’t get out of the way. And I think that’s all we know about the explosion so far.”

Zane hummed softly. “There was also our vehicle, it was on the curb and one of the tires was quite loose and next to a carjack. I think we can conclude that the tire was being changed. I was also able to analyze the markings and patterns in the road that seem the most recent and I have reason to believe Jay had to dodge some sort of obstacle and ended with him hitting the street lamp on the sidewalk while doing so.”

Everyone paused and then turned slowly to stare at Zane. Kai ran his hand through his hair and said “Damn…we managed to sleep through that? I guess we were more burnt out than we thought.”

Kai continued “We also know that we were coming back from the bar…so maybe Jay was a little too drunk to be our driver.”

Lloyd straightened up in his chair. “No, I remember Jay only took one shot, he was about to take his second shot when Nya-“

Nya’s eyes widened, “OH, I remember now! I put this suspicious guy in his place because he was following us with a gun!”

Lloyd rolled his eyes. “Yeah,” Nya crossed her arms at Lloyd’s attitude “and then Kai knocked him out.”

“And then we agreed to interrogate-” Cole cut himself off.

“Why’d you stop?” Nya asked.

“Didn’t that guy had to have come with us in the car if we were going to interrogate him?”

Zane looked uncharacteristically worried. “I checked the car and there wasn’t anyone in the car.”

“So…maybe the car accident wasn’t an accident! The guy’s gang probably came to pick him up from us by giving us a distraction.”

“Alright, but then how was Jay blown up if the car accident was all they needed to distract us? How does the car accident connect to Jay literally getting blown up?”

After many moments of silent thinking, everyone felt a stop in their thought processes and they were stumped about what else could have happened.

Right as they were about to go back to wallowing in their guilt like earlier, Jay started stirring around in his bed and kicking his blanket off. The ninja gathered around Jay in a flash. Jay’s eyes opened to reveal his heterochromatic eyes and lifted his hand to wave. “Oh heys guys, what’s going on- OW”

———————————————

Jay felt a rush of pain shoot through his arm and with the pain came back the memories from a few hours ago. He looked up at his teammates and smiled. “You guys didn’t get blown up!”

The team just stared at him with expressions of disbelief. Kai’s jaw dropped. “You literally just got blown up, shot through the sky, and dropped onto the ground to become a pancake. And then you had to get patched up in the hospital and dragged back here. You finally wake up after all that hell and you say ‘you guys didn’t get blown up!’”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Jay looked at them again, this time frowning, “…anywho, give it straight to me, how bad is it?”

Nya looked at him with so much pity that it almost hurt Jay more than his injuries. “We actually aren’t sure how long you will need to rest in bed. It can be from a few days to a few months. You already know that because of our powers, we heal weirdly and are immune to certain elements, so it’s hard to tell right now. As for your actual injuries, you broke your left arm in multiple places, sprained or fractured all your other limbs, have a concussion, and you have multiple serious burns all across your body.”

“Oh…” Jay sunk into his mattress when she finally finished. That’s…not good. With all his injuries, will he even be useful anymore? Maybe this is the perfect excuse the ninja needed to get rid of Jay. He really hopes his powers will pull him through and heal him quickly before the ninja realize what he already knows.

After a long period of awkward silence that Jay didn’t notice, Lloyd cleared his throat and spoke up. “So Jay, as you probably remember, we were all quite wasted, so can you clear up what happened? We know that you crashed into a street lamp while trying to dodge something, but that’s pretty much the one thing we can confirm. And the guy we had caught is nowhere to be found.”

“When we left the bar, everything was fine, I was pretty sober and it was all fine until this car swerved right in front of me, and I think the car touched the front wheel, so I turned quickly to not get into a serious crash, but I went onto the curb and hit the street lamp. I tried to just keep going to the bounty, so we can deal with the street lamp later, but the car wouldn’t go, so I checked the car and saw a flat tire, so I went to change it. I even put the guy back in the trunk and everything, but he’s gone now I guess. The punctured tire had a red blinking light and beeping coming from it, but I was being too dumb to realize that it might be important and just ignored it because I was getting tired. I continued to change the tire, but the punctured tire started beeping faster and I saw a countdown timer on the tire. There was 10 seconds left and I didn’t think I could get you guys up and going in time, so I tried to just move the tire, but it was heavy so I kicked it away, but I didn’t get away fast enough, so I just hoped I got it far enough away from you guys. Now, I’m here.”

The ninja all stood there for a few seconds trying to process all of that. Jay looked over to Cole who had a guilty expression on his face. Jay knew that without a doubt, Cole was blaming himself. He made a mental note to talk to Cole later. Jay looked over to the other ninja nervously. What if they get mad at him for not looking at what the blinking red beeping thing was? Now their car is gone and the guy that tried to kill them is also gone and probably going to plot revenge against the ninja-

“You idiot!” Nya was the one who broke the silence.

Jay’s heart dropped. This was it, they see how terrible and useless Jay is and they are going to kick him out of their lives. “I-I know, I-I should’ve just looked at why the tire was blinking and beepin-” Jay stammered out.

“No, not that! You could have been far worse than this! Don’t you ever do this again.” Nya finished as she went to hug Jay. The other soon joined. Jay looked at them in complete shock, but also with gratitude. Maybe they like him. Maybe they aren’t just keeping him around for his powers.

Jay was basking in the love when he realized Cole wasn’t here. Jay was about to run out to hunt down Cole when he realized he physically couldn’t run for some time. He mentally sighed and told himself that he could talk with Cole later.

Chapter Text

Cole walked onto the deck of the bounty where the ninja sometimes gathered up to train or talk strategy and today was a day for strategy.

Cole joined the ninja that were sitting on the floor with papers scattered on the ground etched with plans, theories, maps, and a lot of other ineligible things. Cole instinctively looked for Jay, so he can go sit next to him because it makes him feel powerful. Then he remembered that Jay was still bedridden. Maybe I should go talk to him later, he’s been stuck in bed for a week at this point. An avalanche of guilt hit him again. I should’ve been better.

Just as Cole was about to ask what the plan is, but Lloyd beat him to it. “So, what’s our plan for today?”

“From our investigation so far, we still have no idea why that random guy wanted to capture us, but since he had vengestone cuffs at his disposal, we can conclude that he is associated with the recent thefts of vengestone. I also ran a scan on the trunk of the car and figured out that our mystery guy has high amounts uranium traces running through his DNA, which means it is very likely that our vengestone and uranium cases are linked. There is a 97% chance that this is the case, so we can build our plan around that.” Zane said.

Kai looked at Zane with a raised eyebrow. “Ok, so we have more proof that the people stealing vengestone are the same as the people stealing the uranium, but can we backtrack…the fuck do you mean uranium IN his DNA…?”

The ninja all looked back to Zane for an explanation. “…I’m not really sure as to why or how it is in his system, it is quite peculiar. In theory, the uranium should have been essentially decaying him and left him bedridden and weak. However, we know that some people with special conditions may have a built up immunity, so it could possibly be related to a built in resistance…”

The ninja all thought back to the moment they figured that out.

———————————————

“Guys, I’m on the top of a truck of vengestone according to our intel.” Lloyd’s voice rang out through the comm links.

Nya’s voice came through next. “Good job Lloyd! Now you need to stay out of the sight of the drivers and find out where it is going.”

“Ummmm…”

“What is it, Lloyd?”

“It’s a little too late to not be seen…”

“LLOYD, what did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“How did you get seen without doing anything!”

“They saw me in their mirrors…if it makes you feel better, they are knocked out.”

“Ok, look for clues about where that truck was headed. Zane is on the way to help you out.” Lloyd almost heard Nya rolling her eyes through the comm link.

“Eh heh, sorry.”

Lloyd found nothing on these guys or in the truck, just bags of rocks that made the air feel weird. They are dressed in black and carried only weapons and nothing else. Not even communication devices. Their outfits were interesting though…they were heavily fortified with almost no room for anything to get through their “armor”. They also had very futuristic looking masks. Seemed a bit much just for smuggling vengestone Lloyd thought.

“Lloyd get away from that truck!” Lloyd jumped as he heard Zane’s voice. He slammed close the truck doors and began sprinting to get away from the “danger”. Lloyd assumed that he was at a safe distance and looked back,  but there was nothing.

“Zane, what’s going on?”

“That truck is filled with uranium, my sensors detected uranium radiation at high levels around that truck.”

Lloyd’s eyes went wide. Ok, not good not good not good. I’m gonna die. I wanted to go out in a cool way, maybe saving Ninjago City from a giant volcano single handedly. Not from some random rock that sounds like it was named after urine.

A few moments later, Lloyd found himself in an isolated room and yellow suit as Zane tested him. Zane looked confused but happy.

“So…by your smile I’m gonna assume that I have an extra couple months left to live than a normal person that was exposed to uranium?”

“No, this is spectacular! You have no traces of damage caused by uranium and it was almost as if you didn’t get exposed to it at all!”

———————————————

Cole zoned out for a bit since he got bored without Jay and then snapped back to the conversation. “…Nya and Jay also installed some uranium detectors throughout the city, and we found a spike of uranium in some places, so I think we should check those places today.” Cole hoped he didn’t miss anything too important.

Kai snapped up and looked at Nya. “Wait, Jay? How?”

“Jay didn’t install the detectors, but he did help build them, since his arms are healing pretty quickly. I went around the city and placed them.” 

Cole felt his heart twist. His arms might be healing quickly, but what about the rest of him. He still can’t walk. I should’ve been better.

Chapter Text

Kai drove through the streets of Ninjago alongside Cole and ended up at a mysteriously quiet and secluded building. The duo scaled up to the roof of the building.

Kai brought his hand up to his earpiece to update the other ninja, but he was met with an annoying, high-pitched static. “Communication isn’t working for me.”

Cole tried his earpiece as well. “Same.”

“That’s fine, let’s get this done quickly. This is one of the buildings Zane said had a high concentration of uranium radiating off of it. What should we do now?”

“Alright, let’s-” before Kai could respond to Cole, they were ambushed by people dressed in clunky black armor on all sides and Kai and Cole jumped into their ready positions back to back.

Kai felt something familiar about them. “Hey Cole, don’t they look like the guys that Lloyd found in the truck with uranium?”

“Yep. Looks like we found the right place.”

Kai and Cole jumped into action. As Kai was fighting, he realized that this was going to be an easy fight and was already celebrating on the inside. That’s until he heard Cole yell out in pain, which is never a good sign since Cole is the strongest due to his elemental powers.

Kai knocked out the guy he was fighting and ran toward Cole who was on the other side of the roof, fighting for his life. Kai spotted a bruise forming on Cole’s face, he probably got punched, but he can take that any day of the week no problem. Kai then saw black vengestone cuffs around Cole’s hands. Ah, that must be why it hurt Cole more than usual. Kai almost reached Cole to help fight off these weirdos when Cole looked at Kai with wide eyes and yelled, “Watch out!” Then, Kai’s world went dark.

———————————————

Cole saw Kai slump onto the ground after he got hit on the back of the head with a pipe. Shit. I’m outnumbered, and fighting all these people without my hands or powers is probably not a good idea. Cole pushed the SOS button on his watch since his earpiece isn’t working. Right as he pushed the SOS button on his watch, he noticed one of the guys swinging a pipe at his head, but he noticed too late.

———————————————

Nya was sitting across from the control panel, waiting for Kai and Cole to update or return since there was nothing at the other locations that the ninja could find. As Nya was tinkering with the uranium detectors since they might be faulty, she saw the SOS symbol light up on the screen above the control panel and ran to get the other ninja.

In the living room, all the ninja sat on the couch while Nya paced across the room.

“Alright, so what’s the plan!” Jay said excitedly, since this was the first mission he is allowed to go on since he got injured.

“We should get our gear and vehicles ready and head out to the place Kai and Cole were investigating.” Lloyd said calmly.

Nya did not agree. “But getting our vehicles equipped and ready will take forever! What if they need us right now?” She began pacing more aggressively.

“Well, we can’t just go in with nothing! How do we save them if we are the ones that need to be saved?” Now Lloyd was standing up as well.

“We don’t have time for this, let’s just go.” Nya grabbed a weapon belt and was about to go to the bounty when she saw that no one else was jumping into action. Lloyd looked furious and Jay and Zane just sat in confusion about what they should be doing. “Guys, come on! Let’s go, you don’t need to always follow Lloyd around like he is some sort of saint that knows everything. He’s just a kid pretending to be a leader!” Nya shouted angrily. However, her anger died down a bit when she saw Lloyd’s hurt expression, but Nya was still angry, so she didn’t apologize and marched away. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lloyd walking toward the vehicles while wiping his eyes as Jay followed after him. I messed up…but Cole and Kai need us now!

Nya took her bike without checking if it was good to go first. Maybe I should slow down a bit and wait for the others…no, they need us! 

Nya pulled up to the location Kai and Cole were supposed to investigate, and immediately felt the static in her ears. She then heard a branch snap in the bush behind her and already had water in her hands to blast whoever or whatever it was. Then, Zane appeared from behind the bush. Oh, it’s just Zane…WAIT, Zane?!

“Zane, what are you doing here?” Nya whispered sharply.

“I can ask you the same thing. You decided to go without the rest of the team and by the looks of your bike, you brought minimal gear and you have insufficient fuel.”

“Well…what if Kai and Cole need us right at this very moment! I can’t lose them! Cole and Kai are my brothers!” Nya’s eyes began watering.

“They are my brothers too, Nya. But rushing in won’t help them. Don’t worry, we’ll save them.” Zane brought her into a hug and suddenly, everything didn’t seem so bad.

“Thanks Zane, you’re a good brother.”

Zane smiled. “Glad to help, my sister.”

Right as Zane said that, he began sparking and slumped to the ground. “Zane!” Nya reached to her weapons belt and panicked when she felt nothing in the pocket. Uh oh, I definitely should’ve prepared better. Nya felt the impact on the back of her head as she fell down.

———————————————

Jay followed Lloyd as he walked as quick as he can, probably to get away from Jay, so he isn’t seen crying. “Lloyd! Wait up! I can’t walk fast without my leg brace.”

Lloyd must have felt bad about making Jay follow after him and stopped once he reached the vehicles. Jay saw Lloyd wipe the tears off his face. “Yeah, Jay?”

“Hey greenie, it’s okay to be sad, Nya shouldn’t have said that, but she was angry and worried about Cole and Kai, and I know she didn’t mean it and I know that you know it too.”

“I know, but…what if she’s right, what if I’m not a good leader, I am the youngest, so maybe someone else should be the leader.”

“No way, you’re a great leader Lloyd! Sure you make mistakes, but that’s normal! And you know it’s not all on you to be perfect and lead us all. We are here to help you!” Jay gave Lloyd a side hug as best as he could without his arm or leg braces.

Lloyd hugged him back, but must have noticed Jay’s discomfort. “Let’s get you those arm and leg braces.” 

Jay finished prepping the vehicles and was about to grab his weapons belt when Lloyd sprinted in with Jay’s braces. Before Jay could question Lloyd, Lloyd had snapped the braces onto Jay and jumped into his vehicle.

“What’s going on Lloyd?”

“Nya and Zane aren’t here! I think they left already, and it looks like they both didn’t take proper gear.”

Jay didn’t even say a word and hopped into his vehicle. “Let’s go then!”

Lloyd and Jay sped through the city till they reached the building Kai and Cole had been investigating. The building was so boring and mundane that Jay swore he could have fell asleep right there looking at it. Jay realized that the earpieces got all staticky, which explains the SOS message from Cole’s watch. I hope they are all okay…

“Jay, is your earpiece not working too?”

“Yup, let’s stay low and leave our vehicles behind, looks like Nya and Zane were spotted since their bikes are over there along with Nya’s weapons belt, which looks empty.”

Lloyd and Jay became worried when they saw some blood in the grass. “Alright, so let’s sneak into the building and run this place right to the ground.” Lloyd said while quietly smacking a fist into the palm of his other hand.

“We can sneak in through the vents over there, since we are both pretty small.”

Lloyd and Jay climbed up the wall with their equipment and swung right into the vent with ease. “Good thing we brought some equipment, or this would definitely be more difficult.”

Jay nodded and they continued crawling until they reached a vent cover to a room that seemed to be empty, but Jay wasn’t sure. Jay gave hand signals to Lloyd telling him to wait and dropped through the vent onto the floor and looked around. It was empty. “Lloyd, the place is clear.”

Lloyd also dropped down to the floor. “Looks like a lab of some sort, maybe they are experimenting with uranium.”

Jay followed along the table, looking at all the lab equipment scattered across it until a beautiful looking stone caught his eye. It was black and had blue streaks along the outside, it didn’t look like uranium or vengestone, so Jay assumed it’s probably safe. Coool, Cole would love this, I’ll give it to him later! Jay shoved the stone into the pocket of his weapons belt happily. Man, we should really start adding pockets to our ninja suits. “Hey Lloyd, found anything-”

A loud alarm cut off Jay. “Back into the vent!” Lloyd and Jay ran back toward the vent, but they were too late. A big flash of light and smoke accompanied with a loud boom appeared in the room and Jay shielded Lloyd by wrapping his arms around him from behind. Then, it all went black.

———————————————

Jay woke up and it felt like all his injuries from the explosion the other day were on fire. Goddamn it, blown up again…

Jay spotted Lloyd. He’s okay, no injuries, phew, he’s just resting in Kai’s lap on the floor of the cage.

Wait a minute…KAI? A CAGE? Jay sat up quickly, ignoring all the pain that shot through him and the others calling his name. Jay grabbed his head as it began pounding like his brain was trying to jump out of his skull. Then he noticed Lloyd clinging onto his body. “Jay, calm down, it’s okay, we’re all here.”

Jay looked around and saw all of his teammates standing around him. “Lloyd, are you okay!”

Lloyd then looked at Jay with…anger? “Yeah! Thanks to you.” Lloyd then crossed his arms.

“Did I do something wrong…?” Jay said with confusion.

“Yeah! You shielded me from the explosion when it should have been the other way around! You’re too injured to be taking on another explosion. It doesn’t look too bad, but are you hurting anywhere?” Lloyd’s angry face turned into one of compassion.

“Nah, I’m fine, it hurt when I sat up, but I’m okay now. What about everyone else, are you all okay?”

“Yeah, most of us got hit in the head and knocked out, but Zane scanned us and he said we are all fine.” Kai answered. Jay let out a sigh of relief, all of his friends are okay.

Then, Lloyd’s angry face returned and Cole’s face also matched Lloyd’s. Then Cole stepped up to Jay. “But don’t you ever do that again Zaptrap! You can only get blown up so many times.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, got it mom!” Cole was about to argue, but got interrupted by Zane.

“This cage looks weird, I’ve never seen this material before, maybe it’s vengestone, but it has blue streaks instead of orange ones.”

Wait, that sounds like the rock I picked up earlier. Jay was about to stand up and tell Zane when he felt really tired all of a sudden, like all the lightning powers that were healing him were gone. Jay fell back onto the floor and felt sick. His head was spinning and he couldn’t think straight.

The others saw this and wasted no time surrounding Jay once again. “Jay, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t feel so good…I think I just need a minute, don’t worry.”

“If you say so buddy…” Kai said with an eyebrow raised.

Lloyd began thinking about who could have captured the ninja. “While Jay and I were sneaking in, we came across a lab and it looks like they were experimenting with uranium and vengestone because I found a few boxes of those in the corner.”

“Hmm, that doesn’t sound like any villain we faced before. Maybe this is a new guy.” Cole said. “And what can vengestone and uranium together do, did you and Jay find anything about what they are making?”

“Nope, there was just a bunch of equipment laying around.” Jay answered despite feeling like he was being taken down by something he couldn’t quite out his finger on. It felt familiar though.

Just as the ninja were about to continue discussing what could be going on, a mysterious figure dressed in all black walked into the room. “Hello there ninja, nice to meet you.”

Chapter Text

Kai ran up to the bars of the cage and slammed into them aggressively, making the mysterious figure in black flinch back a bit. “WHO ARE YOU?”

The figure in black removed their hood and mask revealing a face that was unfamiliar to the ninja. As he walked toward the ninja, Jay noticed that he had a prosthetic foot. “Now now, calm down, fire ninja. I was just getting to that part.”

Jay sighed. Here we go, another villain monologue.

“My name is Cain, but you can call me the Monarch.”

Cole walked up to the bars of the cage next to Kai and gave Cain a smug look. “Nah, I think we’ll stick with Cain.”

Jay knew what Cole was doing. He was trying to piss him off, so they can find out his weaknesses or figure out what his plan is. Cain looked a bit peeved off, but didn’t take the bait to argue with Cole. “Don’t worry, you won’t be joking around soon enough.”

Lloyd joined Kai and Cole at the edge of the cage. “Oh yeah? And why is that?”

“Because I am going to take your powers!” Cain began laughing maniacally. However, this is a normal Tuesday in Ninjago for Jay and the ninja. Their powers had been taken or had gone missing more times than Jay can count.

“Buddy, you can take our powers, but they will return eventually, so I don’t think you should be too excited.” Cole said, still smiling.

“I was well aware of that, dear master of earth, but don’t worry, I can assure you that they won’t come back this time.”

Now the ninja began to get worried. Then, a person with a lab coat walked into the room with a large trident that had many wires poking out of the sides. Jay couldn’t help but stare at the trident in awe, it looked absolutely beautifully crafted.

“Everyone, meet my scientist, Lily! She will be taking your powers with this trident! That cage you are standing in right now, consists of a special material made from uranium and vengestone, it cancels out your powers, but thanks to the uranium interacting with the vengestone, we can use it take your powers permanently. And the trident is made from chronosteel that is also mixed with uranium, making sure your powers will never return and they can’t be taken out of the trident either! It will absorb your powers and hold onto them for me.”

Zane looked intrigued. “But how are you and Lily unaffected by the uranium?”

“Lily has created a compound that one can take to be immune to uranium radiation. But enough with the talking! Let’s get on with the show.”

Lily began connecting the wires from the trident into a control panel attached to the cage.

“But why do you want our powers?” Nya asked.

“Ah, there’s the million dollar question, but it should be asked a bit differently. Not why do I want your powers, why do I need your powers? And it’s quite simple. The one who holds your powers also holds power over the people of Ninjago! And these people need to learn to have discipline and respect. Ever since I was little, I’ve been screwed over by people, just because I was a little different.” Jay assumed he was referring to his leg. “I used to be in a wheelchair and people took advantage of me, I even got robbed once and couldn’t do anything about it. The police didn’t do shit. Ninjago City also doesn’t do shit for disabled people, no ramps for wheelchairs or anything. I was struggling to get by everyday, and I was done with trying to get people to listen to me. That was until I met Lily. She built me a new leg, and helped make a plan with me to get my revenge. And what better way to teach people respect than to give them something to fear if they don’t respect me!”

Jay felt bad for the guy, but Jay also knew that revenge never worked for any villain that they have ever faced. “You can’t scare people into respecting you! It may seem like respect if they follow you, but they will just be scared of you the entire time and they will probably just hate you.” Lloyd said bluntly.

“Don’t worry green ninja, that is for me to worry about. Good talk, but it’s time for the fun to begin. Now, brace yourselves ninja.” Everyone looked over at Lily and saw that she was done connecting the wires. The other ninja began to hiss and move around in pain, but Jay was confused as he did not feel any pain, only the pain from his earlier injuries. Jay decided to just play along and wrap his arms around himself and screech in “pain”. Eventually, it looked like the other ninja were not in pain, so Jay stopped his act. They looked over to the trident and it was sparking with elemental powers. Cain grabbed the trident and walked out of the room, laughing like a maniac once again.

“Do you guys think our powers won’t actually return his time?” Kai asked while holding hand out as if fire would start bursting out of it any second now.

“I don’t know, maybe the uranium has special properties that allows that.” Zane said, still sparking from when their powers got taken.

Jay looked over and saw Lloyd and Nya talking quietly to each other. They must be talking about what happened earlier. By the looks of it, looks like they made up as they ended up hugging each other.

Jay then spotted Cole sitting in the corner, looking frustrated while trying to pry open the cage. Jay walked over to him and sat down next to him. “Hey Cole, are you doing okay?”

Cole looked next to him to look at Jay. “Yeah, Jay, I’m okay, I just want to be out of this cage.”

“Do you want to see something I found in the lab?”

This peaked Cole’s interest. “…What is it?”

Jay took the rock out of his weapons belt, and put it in Cole’s hand. For some reason, Jay felt much better after taking it out of his pocket. “This! I found it just laying on the table, I think it’s the same material as the cage. I thought it looked cool and I was going to give it to you for your rock collection, but I don’t know if you’d want venganium.”

“Venganium?”

“Yeah! Vengestone and uranium, venganium!” Jay said excitedly

Cole sighed dramatically while trying to hide his laughter. “You and your weird ass names for things. How are you so chipper after just getting a big part of you ripped out of your body painfully?”

“It didn’t hurt for me.”

Cole paused and then looked at Jay with wide eyes. “What do you mean it didn’t hurt for you? It hurt like hell, even for me.”

“Hey, I’m stronger than you think. But I guess it is a bit weird that it didn’t even hurt one bit. I was just playing along so that Cain guy didn’t get suspicious.”

The other ninja were listening to Cole and Jay’s conversation, since the concept of privacy didn’t exist in the tiny cage. Zane’s face looked like pieces in his head were falling into place.

“Well, I did notice that Jay being in pain looked off and I had the thought that he was faking.”

“Hey, my acting skills are great, thank you very much!” Jay crossed his arms.

“And there is the possibility that since Jay had vengestone and uranium on him, it clashed with the vengestone and uranium of the cage, so it wasn’t able to take his powers.”

Jay began thinking. Zane’s theory made sense. “It’s venganium! But maybe Zane is onto something. I did feel better after I took the stone out of my pocket.” Jay stuck his arm out of the cage as far as he could through the bars and saw a spark of lightning leave his hand

“Jay, you still have your powers!” Lloyd said happily.

Kai looked a bit jealous. “Great, but how will that help us get out of here? We have to get out soon to stop Cain from taking over the city.”

Everyone tried coming up with a plan, but nothing worked. Eventually, they all started taking breaks and just laying down, in hopes of Pixal or Master Wu finding them, which is unlikely since the ninja didn’t think to tell either of them before going and this place cancelled out any communication. Jay was exhausted since most of the plans involved him shooting lightning outside the cage. What do we do? We’ve got to get out of here soon to stop Cain. Jay started focusing hard on the lightning coursing through his veins, but nothing came out of his hands, since he was in the venganium cage and not sticking his hand outside of it. Jay groaned. This is impossible, but I can’t give up. 

Cain walked into the room once again and saw the ninja laying on the cage of the floor, but Jay looked completely frozen on his back while staring at his hand in front of his face. “Hm, the lightning ninja misses his powers that much?”

All of the ninja, except Jay, glare at Cain. Cain was wearing a new all black outfit, it was a black tank top with cargo pants and a black cropped jacket. Cain was also still holding the trident. “I just wanted to come and thank you ninja for these amazing powers. I will make sure to put them to good use, unlike all of you.” There was something different about Cain, he seemed crueler and held onto the trident too tightly. Cain then walked out and closed the door.

The ninja looked at Jay worried as he was still on the floor and looking at his hand, but decided to leave him alone for a few minutes.

Jay tried again. And again. And he eventually dropped his hand on the ground. No, keep trying. Jay then tried once again. But this time, Jay saw a spark of lightning leave his hands for a second. Wait a minute…am I hallucinating or did I just make lightning in a cage of vengestone. Jay focused as best as he could and once again, a spark. Jay sat up quickly and the other ninja looked at Jay.

Lloyd saw the determined expression on Jay’s face. “Did you think of anything else we can try Jay?”

The other ninja watched Jay, but were confused as he ignored Lloyd and walked to the edge of the cage. “Jay?”

Jay continued to focus on building up the electricity inside of him. He heard muffled sounds around him, maybe someone was talking, but he couldn’t break his focus now. Jay looked around the room and saw that the walls and floor were all made of metal. Can venganium conduct electricity? Everyone looked at Jay in confusion as he grabbed the venganium rock he had shown Cole earlier and stuck his hand out the cage with the venganium. Nothing happened, even though Jay was staring at the rock like it held all the secrets to the universe.

Cole walked up behind Jay and was about to put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey Jay, are you oka- OW!” Cole felt a shock run through his arm as he flew backward. “Damn, that was a strong shock, but how? The vengestone should be blocking off Jay’s powers…”

No one had an answer, and they just continued to watch Jay stare at the rock. “Is he trying to overpower the vengestone?” Lloyd said.

After a few moments, the rock had lightning jumping around and through it. The other ninja stared at Jay, still in absolute bewilderment. “It works!” Jay shouted with a smile on his face. Maybe my lightning is strong enough to undo the lock on the cage.

“What works?” Nya said, a little startled as Jay finally spoke after staring at the rock for so long.

“I have an idea. When I say jump, everyone jump off the floor of the cage, and make sure you aren’t touching ANYTHING.”

The ninja still looked confused, but agreed.

Jay then went back to staring, but this time at the metal floor as he placed his hand on it. Electricity began pouring out of his hand and into the floor and walls, but his lightning was staying away from the venganium cage, as expected. However, the longer Jay glared at his hand, the closer the lightning was inching toward the cage. Cole looked worried as they could all tell that Jay was getting exhausted from using a continuous stream of lightning and trying to overpower the vengestone, but Jay kept going with determination and sweat all over his face. Eventually, the lightning reached the cage and Jay snapped out of his trance and yelled, “JUMP!”

The ninja jumped, and watched electricity flow through the floor below them and the bars of the cage for a second and then it all stopped. All of the ninja landed back onto their feet and rushed over to Jay as he swayed back and forth with a dazed look on his face. Kai grabbed Jay’s hand, but dropped it immediately. “Holy shit!”

“What is it Kai?”

“Jay’s hand is burning hot, like it’s literally smoking. He was using so much lightning that it beginning to shock even him!” The ninja watched Jay’s hand steam, but eventually the temperature went down. And Jay returned back down to earth.

“Did it work?” Jay said, still breathing heavily, and then he staggered over to the cage door. To the ninja’s surprise, the cage door opened as soon as Jay put his weight onto it.

“Jay you did it!” Cole and Kai got to either side of Jay to help him walk to the metal door that had a pin code. Jay immediately shot a bolt of lightning at it and the door swung wide open. The ninja all began to run through the halls to find the exit to the building. After some time, Jay got some strength back and was able to keep up with the others on his own. The ninja finally made it to the exit of the building after running though countless hallways.

As soon as they left the building, their attention was drawn to the sky above Borg Tower. They saw Cain at the top, laughing even more maniacally than he had been earlier while shooting all of the ninja’s powers onto the city.

Chapter Text

Cain stood at the top of the building, but Jay almost didn’t recognize him. “Um guys, why is Cain lit up like a sleep deprived Christmas tree on drugs?”

Lloyd turned to Jay, probably to argue or yell at Jay for making jokes, but Lloyd wasn’t able to. The description was spot on. All of the colors of the elemental powers were poking through parts of Cain’s skin. His black outfit was all torn up and burned. His hair stuck up so straight and vertical, even Kai’s hair couldn’t rival it. And finally, his face. Eyes wide open and Jay could see his wisdom teeth from how big he was smiling.

Zane must have been doing some analysis as the ninja stared at Cain. “I believe that having all of those powers has corrupted him and even he is unaware of what he is doing and that the powers are slowly destroying him.”

“How do we stop this then?” Nya said, trying to seem brave, but the tremble in her voice said otherwise.

“Perhaps if we destroy the trident, the powers will be released from it.” Zane responded simply, but there was an issue with that.

“How can we destroy it! We don’t even have our powers…”

“That, I do not know, but I do know that the longer we wait, the more damage the city will take.”

“Well, we can’t waste anymore time then.” Kai said as he began sprinting toward Borg Tower.

Jay was mortified beyond belief. I’m the only one with powers, so I have to protect my friends. Do they trust me to protect them? No, they do! It’s fine, it’s fine… Jay felt a strong hand grab his hand.

“Hey bluebell, don’t worry, I’ll be right there by your side. If Cain is going to get to you, he will have to say hello to ‘righty’ and ‘lefty’.” Cole said  while holding up a fist.

“Thanks Cole.” Jay squeezed Cole’s hand and Cole squeezed it back before they both began sprinting towards Borg Tower as well.

The ninja soon arrived at the base of Borg Tower, and…Jay began praying to the First Spinjitzu Master. The entire first floor of the tower was flooded with waves of water thrashing through the room. They opened the door, but for some reason, the water didn’t pour out like it should.

“So, how do we…”

Jay looked around and spotted the key to most of his problems. “A vent!” Jay’s eyes followed it and it lead to the stairs where the water didn’t reach. “Lloyd, let’s go and see if we can find a way to clear the water.”

Lloyd and Jay crawled through the vent to the stairs. They had to work fast because the water was rising.

“Jay, can you try making the opening a little bigger for the water to escape?”

“Got it.” Jay blasted lightning at the wall and the wall crumbled to pieces as the water flowed out.

The other ninja joined Lloyd and Jay and climbed up the stairs. “Next floor.”

The next floor was the complete opposite. This one was engulfed in flames. “Ok, so I’m assuming each floor has obstacles that relates to each of the elements Cain had stolen.”

“Alright everyone, our suits should be flame resistant enough, but do not breath in any smoke,” Lloyd instructed. Running through fire, this day is just getting better! Jay wanted to say that out loud, but it was definitely not the time.

The ninja sprinted through the room while staying low to avoid the smoke and ran to the steps, but they all immediately slipped and fell. 

“Ow…”

“My back…”

“How do we get up ice covered stairs?”

“Look the railings aren’t covered in ice let’s just go up those.” Lloyd said.

The ninja swung through the staircase and made it to the floor dedicated to Cole’s element. But thankfully there weren’t any obstacles, just remnants of earth scattered everywhere. Well, that’s what the ninja thought until rocks started falling from the ceiling, trying to crush them. They all began weaving and dodging through the falling rocks and they made it to the other side. Except for one ninja.

“AHHHHHH, FUCKING MOTHERFUCKERR!!!” The ninja ran to the rock where Kai was screaming and cursing and they all were able to work together to lift the rock and reveal Kai’s mangled and bloody leg.

“Just leave me here, I don’t think it will work out if you take me.”

“Let’s bring him to the stairs.” Zane said before carrying Kai over to the stairs. “If you feel the stairs shake, try your best to find shelter or a solid piece of floor.”

“Got it, keep going guys!”

Damn it, I couldn’t protect Kai.

The ninja kept running and eventually made it to the top of the tower and found a hiding spot on the roof where Cain couldn’t see them. “Thank goodness there wasn’t a floor for Lloyd’s power, that would have been a pain in the ass.” Cole said while stretching his back.

“So what’s the plan, stealth, force, or flee?” Nya said 

Lloyd was peering out the corner, but then he screamed. “FLEE!”

The ninja all ran away from their hiding spot as it was brutally obliterated by a mix of all the ninja’s powers.

“Welcome ninja!” Cain said, but it didn’t sound like Cain, his voice was layered with distorted versions of his own and pure evil. “I didn’t think you were this stupid, but here we are! You are essentially asking me to destroy you by being here!” Cain said as he blasted a beam from the trident toward Nya. She jumped out of the way, but not quick enough to avoid being clipped by the beam on her shoulder. She limped to a new hiding spot on the roof. Come on Jay, you’ve got to protect the rest of your team.

Jay and Cole ran to Nya’s hiding spot. She had no noticeable injuries, but she was drifting in and out of consciousness. “Hang in there Nya.”

Lloyd and Zane were making a move onto Cain. Zane had distracted Cain for a few moments as Lloyd was sneaking up from behind Cain, but Cain simply just spun around with his powered up trident out, smacking Zane and Lloyd to opposite ends of the roof. Zane and Lloyd both didn’t get up.

“Alright Jay, let’s do this, let’s save Ninjago.”

Jay nodded and the duo jumped out and began fighting Cain on either side. Cain did not seem to be an experienced fighter as Jay and Cole landed plenty of hits on him, but his trident was giving him an extra boost. It was almost as if he was invincible against any kicks or punches Jay and Cole gave him. Cole was able to grab the part of the trident’s handle, but Jay could see Cole’s hands burning at the impact, but Cole didn’t let go.

“Cole, let it go!”

Cole continued to hold it as Jay punched him until it slipped out of Cain’s hand. Jay saw Cole’s hands and winced. Those were definitely some severe burns. The trident was on the floor now and Jay shot lightning at it, much to Cain’s surprise. 

“How? I took your powers! This can’t be! Stop!”

Jay continued to shoot lightning at the trident. The longer he kept lightning connected to it, the weaker Jay felt, but he couldn’t stop, not when his friends needed him. “Cain, I hate to thunder on your parade, but I just-”

Before Jay could deliver his corny punchline, the trident exploded into millions of fragments and Jay felt each one slice through a part of his skin. Then, he saw a flash of colors fly around the roof of the building as his body felt like it was being crushed by the weight of the universe. He felt himself fly backwards as the colors, the elemental powers, rushed around the roof and around Jay. Jay’s body met the concrete of the roof and then, he saw nothing.

Chapter Text

Jay sat up in pain for what felt like the hundredth time this week in the medbay of the bounty. What…happened? Jay remembered the events of what happened until the trident exploded, but what happened after that? It felt like a million trucks hit me when the powers were released from the trident. Jay felt as if his body was carrying the weight of his whole team 100 times over. Jay lugged himself out of the bed and took off all the wires attached to him. Is everyone else okay?

Jay dragged himself through the halls of the bounty in immense soreness and pain. Where is everyone? And why do I feel like this, I don’t see any new injuries, just some bandages for small cuts. Jay continued his search and ended up finding all the ninja and Master Wu in the living room. Why are they all just staring at me like idiots (they’re not idiots). I guess I’ll need to start the conversation like usual.

“Is everyone okay?”

As soon as Jay spoke, it was like he switched a flip and everyone got up to hug Jay as if they loved him (wait, they do love me, they always have). No one seemed to have too much damage. Cole had bandages around his hands and Kai had a brace on his leg.

“What happened…? Where did Cain go? What happened to your powers?”

“Well, Cain was very weak once he dropped his trident and was taken to Kryptarium prison. And sadly no one was there and conscious enough to see what happened when you destroyed the trident, and we still don’t have our powers.” Lloyd said while frowning at Jay.

What is he frowning at me for, it’s not like I could do anything else at that time? And I saw the powers get released from the trident, they should be back. At least I was able to stop Cain, essentially all by myself. Jay immediately felt guilty for thinking that and the more he tried to take the reins of his thoughts, the worse the soreness and aching pain was getting.

Lloyd continued speaking. “Master Wu just called us here for a group meeting. And don’t worry, you weren’t out for long, just a day and a half.”

Master Wu cleared his throat. “I’m glad to see all of you are doing alright after facing Cain. However, it is time to face the reality, your powers are gone and this time, they may not return, so you must be prepared to protect the city without them, so we will resume training today.”

Did he call everyone here just to tell us that?! News flash old man, we already knew that, and I still have my powers, unlike the others, so what about me? And we just fought a psychopath after being kidnapped and working our butts off, and you want us to train? We saved the city while you probably sat on your ass and sipped your tea in the monastery. Are you stupid?

Jay sighed to calm down his stray thoughts and then looked around the room and saw a mixture of furious and surprised faces. Master Wu’s face looked the angriest of all. “Jay, that was extremely inappropriate and disrespectful. I did not expect this from you, and I will not tolerate this behavior, you will be doing extra training today.” Master Wu finished harshly before leaving.

Shit, did I say that out loud? Why did I even say that?

“Yeah, you did say that out loud.” Kai said, his voice laced with venom. “How are we supposed to know why you said that? And just because you have powers and we don’t, doesn’t mean you should get special treatment.”

Jay was confused now about how his thoughts are getting leaked from his brain. I didn’t mean it. And Kai, you’re just jealous, you all probably are.

Now all the confusion from everyone’s faces vanished, there was only anger. Goddamn it, did I say that out loud too?

“Yeah! You did!” Nya said with rage. Jay now focused hard on controlling his thoughts.

Cole then stepped up to Jay. “You know, we were all proud of you when you took down Cain, but I didn’t think it would get to your head. I love you Jay, but what’s going on with you?”

You love me? Maybe I don’t love you. Maybe I don’t love any of you. As soon as the thought entered Jay’s head, he tried to push it away, but it was too late.

Everyone was still angry, but Jay felt the sorrow wash over the room as well and he felt his body getting even more sore, the pain was almost unbearable. Wait, I didn’t mean that.

“The fuck you mean ‘you didn’t mean that’. You can’t just say stuff like that!” Kai yelled at Jay. 

Everyone, except Zane, began to yell at Jay as well.

“What’s the matter with you Jay?” Cole said as he pushed Jay’s shoulder.

Jay then felt a burning pain across the right side of his face. That slap had also made one of his cuts reopen as the blood leaked to the floor.

Nya had slapped him and Zane got up to calm her down. Jay had felt the tears bubbling up earlier, but he felt them running down his face now. Before Jay can think another thought or open his mouth without his knowledge, he slapped a hand over his mouth and ran right to his room and locked the door.

“Jay, wait…” Jay heard Nya call for him, but he just stayed in his room. She probably called me back just to give me another slap, and I deserve it. Why did I say all that? They are my family…And Cole…I love him so much, but I said I don’t love him. All this time I was scared that they will abandon me, but they stayed. I don’t deserve them, but they stayed with me. And this is how I repay them. What’s wrong with me? Jay grabbed his hair in frustration and began sobbing.

After Jay finished his meltdown, Jay got up to go and take a shower since it has been a few days since he has taken one and he still felt heavy, like he was dragging something along with him. Jay undressed and then stared at his face in the mirror. If only I didn’t have my powers either, now they will treat me differently. But Kai will be on his jealous streak either way.

As soon as Jay unwillingly thought that about Kai he saw his own mouth moving in the mirror, repeating his thoughts. WHAT THE HELL…Why am I speaking some of my thoughts out loud without my knowledge? I should talk to Wu, but maybe after the extra training since I pissed him off. Jay took his shower, which did nothing to soothe the aches across his body, and was about to go to train when he stopped at the door. Maybe I should figure out a way not to speak. Jay spotted duct tape on his desk and stuck a piece right over his mouth.

Let’s see who gets the last laugh now! Not you, because your mouth is taped closed. Jay thought to himself. Am I arguing with myself now? Oh boy.

Jay threw his mask over his face so no one can see the tape. If I tell them my mouth is talking without my knowledge, they’ll think I’m crazy, I mean, look at what happened earlier when I was about to explain, that stupid bitch slapped me. Jay made his way to the deck of the bounty to train.

———————————————

Kai was taking a break from training when he saw Jay walk into the training course, silently. That’s not like Jay, but then again, what happened earlier wasn’t like Jay either. What’s going on with him? He looks like he’s been awake for days and looks tensed up in pain. Everyone agreed to let him cool down after they heard him sobbing in his room. Kai felt absolutely terrible. Why did I say all that? Why did I let Nya slap him? However, Kai almost got whiplash seeing how different Jay was acting compared to the meltdown they heard a few moments ago. He was walking around like he didn’t give a shit about anything that happened. Maybe he feels better now?

“Look who finally decided to show up!” Kai said, trying to lift the mood. Jay just looked at Kai for a few seconds as if he was going to say something, but then just turned back to practicing with his nunchucks.

Later, the ninja all had a break together and Kai saw Nya go up to Jay.

“Jay, I’m really sorry for slapping you earlier, I really shouldn’t have done that.”

Jay looked like he was about to give Nya a hug and say something, but he just nodded at Nya before taking a sip of water and walking away. Nya scoffed at Jay’s lack of apologies because he was also in the wrong. “Whatever…”

The ninja all finished training, except for Jay, who needed to complete his extra round of training. Wu had instructed him to practice with his lightning. Kai couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous. Jay got to keep his powers because of a fluke, but Kai knew he should be better than that and be happy for his little brother and support him. “Good job Jay!”

Kai expected a thanks or at least a thumbs up or anything…but Jay just continued training like he heard nothing. Ok…this isn’t right, Jay should be talking so much that the ninja wanted to rip their ears off. Maybe I can get him to talk.

“Hey lightning boy! You can be doing much better with those powers. Like what was that punch, are you actually fighting the person or just asking for a fist bump?”

To Kai’s relief, that seemed to bring some emotion out of Jay, but instead of a witty comeback like Kai had expected, Jay began winding up to shoot lightning at Kai. Before Kai can move or Jay can shoot, Jay’s chest was brutally hit by Wu’s staff. This knocked all the lighting off of Jay’s hand and all the air out of his lungs as he fell onto the deck with a thump. Ok, something is definitely wrong, Jay is usually not impatient or violent like that. Kai expected Jay to get back up, but Jay continued to clutch his chest and struggle to breathe while lying on his back and shifting around in pain. Kai looked at Jay’s chest rise and fall, but his mask wasn’t giving the indication that any air was coming out of his mouth. Why isn’t he breathing out? Jay continued to struggle to breathe, so the ninja ran over to him.

“Jay, breathe out of your mouth buddy!” Jay got up slowly while groaning in pain and turned away from the ninja before lifting off his mask, but he was still clutching his chest. As Jay was trying to breathe and was still turned away from the ninja, Kai spotted something shiny and gray at the edge of Jay’s face.

Kai grabbed Jay’s wrist to turn him around. “Jay, what’s on your face-” Kai and the other ninja froze as they took in the sight of Jay’s face. He had a piece of duct tape on his mouth, sealing it shut. Kai ripped it off of Jay’s face and thankfully, Jay began breathing normally again.

“Jay, why would you train with duct tape on your mouth?”

“Fuck you Kai, I hope you fall off the bounty.” Jay immediately slapped a hand over his mouth with wide eyes like a deer caught in the headlights, but Cole pried it off and held both of Jay’s hands in front of him.

“What is with you Sparky? Why have you been so rude all day?”

“I-I don’t know…but I do know that if you don’t let go of my hands, I will zap the shit out of you.” Jay’s face immediately turned into a guilty and regretful face after that, confusing all the ninja. If Kai didn’t know any better, Jay’s voice was getting deeper and deeper the more he yelled rude things. Before they could inquire Jay, Wu stepped up.

“Cole, release his hands.” Cole complied. “Jay, you need to get your anger in check! You will be doing another round of training.”

Jay’s guilty face turned into one of pure anger. “You are fucking joking, right?” Jay laughed, but there was no humor in it. “I feel like absolute shit and I don’t even know what’s wrong with my mouth or mind, and you think training all day will fix it? Master Wu, I knew you had trouble prioritizing things when telling us about ancient evils, but this is a whole new level of stupidity.” Jay said pressing a finger into Master Wu’s chest. Jay, once again, returned to the guilty and shocked expression, this time accompanied with fear. To Kai, it looked like Jay was saying these rude things involuntarily. Kai could also tell that Jay was about to explain, but before he could say anything else, Master Wu kicked Jay in the chest.

“Master, what are you doing?” Zane said in horror.

“His extra training is starting right now.” Jay took advantage of Wu being distracted and struck him with a bolt of lightning. Master Wu staggered backwards, but composed himself in a split second. Jay began shooting more bolts of lightning in fear and Kai could tell this won’t end well if the other ninja don’t jump in. By the look on everyone else’s faces, Kai could tell they thought the same.

“Wait, Jay! Calm down!”

“Master Wu, stop!”

The ninja ran up to Jay, but before any of them can reach him, Wu landed another kick to Jay’s chest. Jay scowled out in anger and stomped on the floor, and sent out a shockwave through the floor and made the whole bounty shudder in the air. That earthquake knocked everyone around him onto the floor. Wait a minute, that’s one of Cole’s moves…

Everyone looked back to Jay, and they all froze, including Jay. Jay had fire in one hand and water in the other. Beneath his feet, there was a patch of ice forming on one foot and pieces of rocks floating around his other foot. Jay’s entire body was doused with blue and yellow lightning jumping across it. He was looking at his body in confusion now with scared eyes that were radiating with green light. 

Everyone remained silent for a few moments before Jay, Cole, and Kai all said in unison, “What the fuck-”