Chapter Text
They were being followed. Nya was sure of it.
She didn’t have any definitive evidence that someone was following them all the way out here in the Sea of Sand, but something in her gut was making her hair stand on end. And Kai, even though he was getting better at trusting her intuition, would want proof if she made the claim.
She told herself she was being paranoid. This search for Jay was making her emotional and jumpy, a bit like Jay himself. Well…like the Jay she had known…
She didn’t know who that man at the Tournament of Sources was. He had Jay’s face, but everything else about him was so different from the man she loved, the man she had promised to marry, and the man she should know better than anyone else. Jay had been skinny to begin with, but now he was thin; haggard in a way that only Ras’ training would have made him. He’d clearly built muscle, but it was in all the wrong places. But what had been the worst part, and the part that kept her up at night, was his eyes…
Jay had eyes like the sky, blue and bright and full of hope and promise.
“And I will always hate you.”
Those eyes had been filled with nothing but hatred and more anger than she had ever seen Jay exhibit. Sky blue turned red like the blood moon itself, and while Jay shattered his goodness…he had shattered her heart as well.
But Nya was nothing if not a stubborn woman, and she knew the man she loved was still in there…somewhere. Jay had done so much to fight for her over the years. She needed to return the favor now. She needed to save him from the man he was becoming.
Pop.
She let out an annoyed groan and stopped where she was walking, the sand soft under her feet. They were in a canyon of some kind, and her voice echoed off of the walls of rock. “I knew I should have brought Cole with me.”
“Whaaaat?!” Her brother blinked at her, clearly confused. “What did I do?”
“You’re making the noise again!” She gestured at him. “I’m trying to think!”
“Oh! Was I? Sorry, it’s just kind of boring while you’re thinking.” Kai stretched, looking around the canyon. “Has this always been here…?”
“No. The merge dropped it here and, hey wait! You could be helping! We need to come up with a plan once we find Jay!”
“If we find him…” Kai muttered.
“Don’t.” Nya snapped. The heat was starting to get to her. She’d never done well in deserts… The lack of water made her feel weak and dizzy. “Do not start that again.”
“Nya,” Kai said, his voice soft and placating. She hated that tone…he was treating her like a child. “If what you told me is right, he may not want to be found. He doesn’t remember anything about any of us, he shattered his goodness, and then he just disappeared off the face of the earth? I’m not saying we give up but…maybe we need to make him come to us.”
“And what if he’s hurt?!” She whirled on him. “What if he’s out there right now thinking nobody loves him and he’d be better off dead, huh?!” Her voice broke a little bit. “We couldn’t find Ed and Edna after the Merge so we…we’re all he has."
She stood straighter. “I’ve abandoned him too many times, Kai. I’m not going to do it again! So either we’re going to keep going until we find him together, or you turn back and return to the monastery, but I’m not stopping. I can’t just…I can’t just sit there and do nothing while the love of my life is who knows where doing who knows what!” She turned, starting to walk away, but her brother caught her arm.
“Nya-”
“Oh shut it, Kai!” Her anger bubbled over as she jerked her arm away. “You’ve never really cared about him! You’re always ragging on him and tearing him down! He’s just as much a ninja as the rest of us, but all you do is pick on him! Just because he’s gonna be your brother in law doesn’t mean you get privilege to shit all over him! Why did you even come, anyway?! To babysit me?!”
Kai looked like he’d been slapped as betrayal flitted across his face. “Nya…you’re not the only one who lost him…”
“Shit…” She groaned, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes until she saw spots. “I know. I know. I’m just…” A sob ripped its way out of her throat without her permission. “What if he’s dead, Kai?”
It was a fear that had hung around her neck like an albatross for the entire five years since the Merge happened. Kai and Jay. She was worried about everyone else but…she had gone three years not knowing what happened to her brother and her fiancé. And now…
“What if his last memory of me is hating me…?!”
“It’s getting late…we should set up camp for the night…” Kai said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. He reached over to gently rub his hand down her spine. “It’ll be okay, Nya…I’m sorry for bringing it up. We’ll find him. I promise. I can take the first watch. It’s a full moon tonight anyway so I’ll be able to see any threats before they get too close. You should sleep.”
“Okay…” She sniffed and wiped at her face angrily. “Thanks.”
She had been dreaming about Jay kissing her when Kai jostled her awake, so she was a little crabby. She’d never been great at waking up on time.
“Mngh…what?” She groaned, rolling over to face Kai. “Time for my watch alread-”
“Shh.” Kai hissed quietly, clamping a hand over Nya’s mouth. In his other hand, he already had a fireball lit and waiting like a cocked gun. “Shh…Nya it’s me. We’re being watched.”
That woke her up pretty quickly. As Kai pulled his hand back, trusting that she wouldn’t scream, she nodded to show she understood. She sat up as calmly as she could, pushing down her sleeping bag.
“You can feel it too…?” She whispered, looking into the night around them, hoping for a glimpse of whatever was following them. “Whatever it is, it’s been following us for days.”
“You didn’t say anything?” Kai frowned.
“It didn’t attack us…and, I dunno, it didn’t feel malicious. What if it was one of the kids?” Nya offered, a little indignant. “And besides, you wouldn’t have believed me even if I had told you.”
Kai immediately tensed and Nya was ready to argue with him again about the finer points of him trusting her intuition, but he didn't fight her on it. In fact, the words he said next chilled her to the bone.
“I see it...”
It. Not a person. A mech maybe? Or an animal?
Nya looked where Kai had pointed his flame, trying to see whatever he had caught sight of, but her eyes had never been as good in the dark as his. “What is it,” she asked in a whisper. She wasn’t scared, but she was cautious.
“...I don’t know.” Kai murmured back. “But whatever it is…it’s huge.”
Kai was silent for a moment, just watching. It was so quiet in the canyon that Nya could hear the soft whoosh of his flame.
“It’s not moving…It’s just sitting there,” he murmured.
Nya shivered and it had nothing to do with the cold of the nighttime desert. “I can feel its eyes…”
“I’m going to go try to scare it away,” Kai said in a hushed tone as he stood slowly. “When I give the signal, you run in the opposite direction…”
“No,” Nya shook her head, fully sliding out of her sleeping bag. “I’m not risking losing you again. We do this together or not at all.”
“Nya…” Kai’s soft voice held a warning which she quickly ignored.
But as she stood, in the low light of Kai’s flame, she could finally see what he was looking at.
It was a large mass at the mouth of the canyon, about the size of Cole’s earth golem form. She couldn’t tell what it was from this distance, but she saw a pair of eyes glinting in the firelight. They were distinctly inhuman but appeared intelligent, and the longer she looked, she slowly realized they were staring directly at her.
Whatever it was knew that it had been spotted, but it still wasn’t attacking. It was just silently watching them.
“Do you think it’s a dragon?” Nya asked. It wasn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility nowadays for dragons to find them only to espouse some kind of secret mystical knowledge and then fly away, leaving them more confused than when they had started. But the dragons mostly talked to Lloyd and he wasn’t here..
“No…it’s not a dragon.” Kai murmured.
“Hey,” He called, a little louder, his voice echoing in the canyon. “Unless you’ve got some kind of answers for us, you can go ahead and fuck off! I’ve got fire powers and I’m not afraid to use 'em!”
The shape seemed to consider his words…but its gaze slid back to Nya, almost curious?
And then it started to move.
Its silhouette also became more defined as it stood: a long snout, two pointy ears, and a fuzzy tail held low. The light of the full moon shone off of its fur, but it was too far away to make out much more than that. It looked at them, considering its next move, and then it started to slowly move towards them.
“I’m warning you! Stay back!” Kai lifted his hand, about to torch the poor thing, but Nya grabbed his arm.
“No! Wait…don’t hurt it!” It sounded absolutely insane, but the animal seemed familiar to Nya somehow. It was almost as if she had seen it in a dream…
At the sight of Kai’s pending attack, however, the large animal froze and bristled. A low growl filled the air of the canyon, bouncing off the walls in a disconcerting way that made it sound like there was more than one creature.
Nya blinked, not scared, but coming to the realization of what the animal was. A wolf?
They hadn’t had the best luck with wolf imagery in the past few months, what with the entire shattering business and the forbidden five. But…for that same reason, Nya also saw the animal for what it could be: a chance. Their only chance.
“Do you know where Jay is…?” She asked the wolf, feeling a little stupid that she was talking to something that couldn’t respond in proper Ninjargon. But it was the only question she could think of. It was a wolf. A big, mystical wolf that looked like it had answers. It had to know something, right?
The wolf stopped growling, its attention turning back to her. It huffed in a way that almost sounded disgruntled. As if it was saying “Jay? What’s a Jay? Why are you asking me questions, you foolish woman?”
She wilted, frustration welling up in her eyes again.
“Uh…is that a no?” Kai asked, leaning over to Nya.
“I don’t know, Kai. Why don’t you try talking to the big bad wolf and see if that gets us anywhere?” She snapped. But before Kai could retort, the wolf was moving again, slow and methodical. Its paws made no noise in the soft sand and as it got closer, coming into the light from Kai’s flame and out of the moonlight, Nya was struck with just how beautiful the massive animal was.
It was a red wolf, coat silky and fuzzy even in the desert. Its mouth was huge, with barely contained teeth that could rip her and Kai to shreds. Its paws were the size of her face, carrying the weight of an animal much larger than it should be.
But it was its eyes that captivated Nya.
They were a deep violet; almost a perfect mix between blue and red, with wide, curious pupils. It definitely wasn’t a normal wolf then, as if its size didn’t immediately give that away.
“Woah,” Kai breathed, looking at the wolf in front of them. “Hey…what are you doing all the way out here? Did you want some of our rations? Is that why you’re following us?” Kai turned to Nya. “He looks hungry, right? And I don’t want us to be his next meal.”
She considered the wolf. He did look thin…
“We should probably-” Nya started, but she didn’t get to finish her sentence before the wolf leant forward to sniff her fingers. “I don’t have any food on me bud…” She murmured, turning her hand so he could sniff her empty palm.
The wolf huffed again, offended at her words, and went back to sniffing.
“He doesn’t look like a normal wolf…” Nya mused, letting the wolf sniff her with a soft smile. “And he seems pretty docile. Maybe we should take him with us?”
“Hey buddy,” Kai reached out, hand attempting to pet the wolf on the head, but before he could even make contact, the wolf snapped at him with a growl, its hackles raised.
“Woah, woah, okay! Sorry! No touchie!”
The wolf didn’t back down, pushing its way in between Nya and her brother. His eyes didn’t leave Kai as he bared his teeth in a low growl, suspicious and angry. Others might mistake the act for the aggression inherent to a wild animal. But the way it gently pushed Nya behind it, completely focused on Kai, spoke of something else entirely.
Nya reached out and gently petted the fur between the wolf’s ears, scratching at the skin. “It’s ok…he’s with me. He’s not an enemy. He’s just an idiot.”
“Hey!” Kai protested, but the wolf seemed to accept Nya’s explanation. It huffed and looked back at her curiously before backing down with a whine. It continued walking between them and sat, seemingly awaiting some kind of order.
“Since when could you talk to animals?” Kai asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, I can actually talk to fish and most sea creatures,” Nya crossed her arms, considering the beast in front of her. “But that has to do with the whole becoming the sea thing. Wolves are new.”
“I’m getting so tired of the lore changing on us,” Kai grumbled, wiping a hand down his face. “First the Merge, then all this shit with the forbidden five, and Ras, and source dragons…Where’s Garmadon? Why can’t we just fight him like the good old days?”
The wolf tilted its head at Nya and whined softly.
“Wh-...”
The wolf looked pointedly at her hand.
“Oh!” She reached out again and pet his head some more. “Well, you’re just a big softy, aren’t you? Yes you are!” She cooed, scratching behind his ear as his massive tail started to thump against the sand. How was his fur so soft and shiny? Did he belong to someone? She looked over at her brother with a pout and big pleading eyes.
“...No.” Kai said firmly. “Nya I know what you’re thinking and we are not bringing him with us.”
“But Kai! He’s a good boy!” Nya whined, and the wolf’s tail wagged faster.
“No!” Kai was stubborn. “Nya this isn’t like the time you brought home a scorpion and wanted to name it Dave. This is a huge ass wolf who doesn’t like me very much! And we’re on a mission to find Jay!”
“He could probably sniff out where Jay is! Couldn’t you?” Nya said, ignoring her brother. The wolf huffed and nuzzled into Nya’s hand, another whine building in his throat. “See?”
“That’s not how that works,” Kai sighed. “But…if he makes you feel better…I guess we can keep him while we get through the desert.”
The wolf seemed to pause at that. He pulled back from Nya’s hand and considered Kai for a moment, curiously… He then proceeded to lick the side of Kai’s head with his massive tongue, coating the side of his face with drool. “Aw c’moooon gross!” Kai wiped at his face. “My hair is totally ruined now and I didn’t bring any gel!”
Nya just rolled her eyes. “I told you that you don’t need it! It’s just you and me and I’ve seen your bedhead more times than I can count! And besides you-” She cut herself off as she noticed something shiny hanging from the wolf’s neck.
“Hey…what have you got there…” She leant down to look at whatever it was as the wolf kept licking a sputtering Kai. It was small and metal, and as Nya pulled it closer to see what it was in the moonlight, she felt her blood turn to ice.
“Kai…” her voice shook. “What exactly did the gong of shattering do…?”
“Pbbth. Oh there’s fur in my mouth. Gross. Pbbt.”
“Kai!”
“Oh!” Kai finally noticed she was talking to him. “Uh…it shatters your goodness so you can use shatterspin, right? You have to wear a stupid wolf mask and be an elemental master though. Why?”
“Because I think…”
Laying in her hand and wrapped around the Wolf’s neck was the ‘yin’ part of an engagement yin yang. Engraved in the gold were waves rolling in the sea with a dragon flying overhead as lightning cracked the sky.
She would have known it anywhere…
Nya looked up at the massive wolf as he shook, static electricity sparking off of his fur.
“Jay…?”
The wolf looked back down at her, violet eyes confused but oh so familiar…and he huffed. He rested his head on top of her own with a soft, sad whine, almost like a hug.
“What do you…” Kai asked, before he finally caught sight of what was in her hands. “Oh…oh my god…”
“I think it does more than shatterspin,” Nya murmured.