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The weather was intense. The crashing waves even more so, threatening to turn the ship over at any moment if any more force was added.
They had to keep things steady.
“COLE, A LITTLE HELP??” Lloyd yelled, trying to outcompete the wind and thunder.
“I’M TRYING."
They were all stressed beyond words. Jay was being used as a damn lightning rod and Zane had to go below deck so that he wouldn’t be a target of the lightning, which meant they were down a man, and because of their current situation with a certain Djinn, any of them being alone was a guaranteed recipe for disaster.
“COLE, I KNOW HOW STRONG YOU ARE, YOU’RE NOT TRYING.”
“HE’LL BE FINE, COLE, JUST FOCUS!” Nya chimed in, figuring Lloyd could do a better job at being motivational right now. Additionally, she knew how much Zane meant to him. The more time she spent with Cole, the more apparent it was with how highly he spoke of Zane that he must have been terrified of losing him.
The master of earth struggled with the rope. Knowing the full potential of his own strength, he could've blamed it on the horrendous weather or the rocking ship, but really, the thought of Nadakhan outsmarting Zane of all people and tricking him into wishing it all away.. It sent chills up his spine.
Nadakhan had to be down there with him. He wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this.
Zane was the smartest person he knew, as well as the kindest.
The thought of losing him made him want to drop to his knees and sob.
But that wouldn’t do anyone any good.
But would he be better helping them out here or… could he really save Zane?
If he didn’t do anything and the nindroid was missing after this was all over, he’d never be able to live with himself.
Never.
Cole dropped the rope and rushed over to get below deck.
“Cole?” Nya’s head whipped around and her eyes went wide when she saw him. “COLE?”
Going down, Cole prayed that he was wrong about what he expected to find.
Opening the door to the room, he regretted jinxing it by even thinking about it.
Neither Zane nor Nadakhan seemed to notice that someone else had entered.
Moving a chess piece across the board in front of them, the nindroid started with a smile. “Now, for my third wish.”
Cole didn’t let him finish.
“Zane?!”
Now they noticed him.
How was he already on his third wish? Had he really been down here that long? Why in the world was he making wishes anyway? He knew how dangerous it was.
“What are you doing?” He was aware that Zane could be a little overconfident at times, but this was insane.
After the initial shock of Cole coming down in the first place, Zane found his bearings and addressed him matter-of-factly.
“Cole. I have things under control here. I am sure the others need your help as of now.”
“You think they need me? You’re making wishes with a Djinn! You can’t think—” Whatever it was he thought, Nadakhan didn’t seem to care, cutting him off with a deep chuckle over a joke that clearly neither of the ninja there had gotten.
Zane looked terrified, immediately trying to decode some mistake he could have made with his two prior wishes.
Settling down from his own laughter, Nadakhan spoke with a remaining air of humor. “Just for clarification… You said whatever harm may befall you.. will be done unto me tenfold.”
“No, wait—”
“So theoretically speaking.. If I—”
“NO, I also said you were not to twist my words!”
Before the ice ninja could get another word in, Nadakhan had vanished, then appeared behind Cole in a flash, unsheathing a blade and holding it to his throat. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem due to Cole’s current circumstances as a ghost, but..
Zane stood up swiftly. Fighting the urge to tackle Nadakhan, he stayed put in fear of the worst.
“I wouldn’t come any closer if I were you, nindroid.” Every word the Djinn spoke was slow and drawling, like he was savoring every second of agony that it left them in, waiting for what he had to say next. “Because this dagger is forged from deepstone.”
Cole swallowed hard.
“I am not twisting your words. No harm is befalling you!” He tightened his grip on his weapon and brought it dangerously close enough for both of the ninja to be in full panic mode. And they were usually the calm ones.
“The same,” he mocked an expression of pity towards the man at his mercy, “does not go for your little friend here.”
Zane’s mind spiraled while Pixal algorithmically ran hundreds of possible scenarios for this situation, but her silence during the process told him that none of the outcomes were in their favor, so he just stood there, horrified.
“Zane.” The ghost tried not to sound as worried as he really was, but it was no use. “Don't do it.” Staring at him from across the room, terrified of watching him vanish before his eyes, he saw just how scared the nindroid was. It was a look he'd never seen from him before, and he almost wished he hadn't. If Zane didn't think there was a way out of this, they were hopeless.
Cole felt Nadakhan shift his grip slightly, which he assumed meant he was about to say something, most likely about hurrying up, but then the look in Zane's eyes changed.
He'd made up his mind.
“Okay.”
Cole didn’t have to see him to know Nadakhan was grinning.
“Now for your all-important third wish.… Make it count.”
“Please.. Don’t.”
As the ghost shook his head in disbelief, Zane’s expression softened, finally meeting the gaze of the other.
He knew what he had to do. Even if it seemed unfair.
Zane took a deep breath.
“Cole.. I love you.”
He had absolutely no idea what to say.
This time, Nadakhan didn’t have anything to say either, as long as he was getting what he wanted.
When the nindroid smiled, he was forced to remember what he was about to do. And he couldn’t let him leave without him knowing how he felt.
“..I love you too.”
Now would be a great time to cry, but that wasn’t possible if you were a ghost. Because of course it wasn’t.
So then, he made the wish.
Zane disappeared, along with the Djinn responsible for everything.
After that, it wasn’t long before the boat crashed, washing the remaining ninja ashore the island they were headed to in the first place. But it didn’t mean anything to Cole.
When they came to, he was pissed at Jay. If he was just man enough to admit that he had already talked to Nadakhan, then maybe Zane would’ve known to leave it alone. Maybe if he had stopped being such a coward, Nya would already know how much he truly loved her, then none of this would’ve happened.
In reality, though, Zane had already figured out what Jay had done and he couldn’t have cared less, because he just wanted his friends safe, even at his own risk.
All of the what if’s were pointless.
Cole told them what he had said, since they weren’t understanding why he was so distraught.
Still, he kept thinking of everything that could’ve gone differently. If he had told Zane sooner, rather than in what were possibly the last moments they had together. Or maybe if he'd just pieced together that he felt the same way all this time..
Despite his spiraling, they managed to carry on. All four of them were struggling in their own ways, but they held each other up.
And in the end, Jay and Nya were lucky that Cole had confided in them, otherwise the memory would’ve been forever lost to time. They may have never told either of them about it, wanting things to naturally run their course after Jay made the true all-important wish, reversing everything so that Nadakhan never even made it out of his lamp, but it was still meaningful all the same, even if it wasn’t exactly how they told each other the second time around.