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Jay wasn't responding.
They each had way too many people to keep track of, whether that be the merlopians blasting lazers at them or their own teammates, or civilians still stuck in the flood, so it quickly got overwhelming.
But despite all the chaos, confusion and disorientation with each lazer causing more bubbles to cloud around their sub-cars, Cole still noticed the severe lack of his friend's voice in his comm link, whose voice he had just been hearing a minute ago.
"Guys!" He called into his own, still working, he had to keep trying while it did to contact his friends, make sure everyone was safe. When no one answered, he called again, "Everyone! Bentho?"
An answer, finally.
Lloyd and Kai both answered, at least he knew they were just busy, you know, with battling the Merlopians and Wojira to what looked like death with the state of Ninjago right now, and not without their comm links. One sounded inherently worse than the other, but Cole knew he could trust the guys to fight, it was the silence that scared him, knowing if one little thing went wrong, someone might not be able to call for help.
"Guys, Jay isn't responding, I don't— someone needs to find him."
Lloyd immediately rushed, "What? Isn't responding, what do you mean?" It looked like he was close, because the few merlopians still shooting at Cole were shot down by a mysterious source, then Lloyd appeared right after.
Despite the sudden save, he wasted no time explaining. "I don't know, I heard— I think some yelling, then static, it was all fuzzy." He recalled Jay's yells, how he called back into his comm link with no answer back. Just for good measure, he tried again, "It's radio silence now."
Lloyd pressed his comm link and listened, "Silence for me too."
Immediately, he knew something was wrong. On missions, no matter how simple, a communication form being lost left him paranoid. He trusted Pixal's technology greatly, and knew they didn't just malfunction like this.
Okay, no more thinking, more doing.
Find Jay.
The cherry on top of this was that his tracker was offline too, or perhaps, busted along with whatever got his comm link offline too.
All he had now was his last location before it all went silent. So while driving, swimming? around in his sub-car, he looked right at that beaming red dot on his screen and rushed for that area.
So he could reach his friend, who he had just heard shouting through his comm link a few minutes ago, he raced around the buildings, all flooded, he hoped the ninja, Benthomaar and emergency services had managed to save all the civilians they could, but right now, he selifhsly needed to not see any stranded civilians right now, he just had to find Jay.
Benthomaar appeared a minute later, Lloyd and Cole both making their way to his last location but taking different routes to tick off any corner Jay could have slid into. Cole quickly acknowledged him, then continued on his way.
With his thoughts racing, he hadn't had much time to really think. So, Jay was missing, he wasn't responding, his tracker offline, while the rest of the team, in their sub-cars battling countless merlopians shooting lazers at them, were still perfectly trackable. And, to make everything worse, Jay was in his car, so what could go so horribly wrong at the surface?
Exposed to the dangers above.
To the serpent blasting whatever deadly, powerful beams from its mouth.
He gripped the controls tighter and turned another corner. Each time he would momentarily close his eyes, just for a second, begging that when he opened them Jay would be right in front of him, maybe he'd hopped into someone else's sub-car, or was waving at them from the surface, or, the most likely solution, he was stranded at the ground, one hundred feet of water above him.
But He would escape,
he would be fine.
Benthomaar swam ahead of him, much faster than even his sub-car speeding around the blocks of the flooded Ninjago City. His spear was already un-sheathed, everything on high alert, Cole's mind already trying to recall any first aid training he could recall, any way of prying open a hatch of a car with a hundred feet of water crushing the thing down above them, or the right way to treck his unconscious body to the surface.
He needed to calm down; the team often lost communication, mostly in the old days when they never had Pixal's fancy communication devices, just "vintage" ones from Wu, Jay's earpieces made by his parents or himself, each a spectacle of invention by someone so young, but still obviously made from the scraps in the Junkyard.
Maybe he was trying to forget Jay's screams before he went offline.
"He's here!"
Cole shook his head and huffed everything out, before turning the final corner into a main street, several broken cars floating around the place, then…
Jay was completely submerged.
Immediately, he pushed closer, but underwater in this stupid sub-car that could protect him from the mess outside, he couldn't do anything. Though, Benthomaar was on it, and although the guy was strong, his sheath of royal origin ready to crank open the hood, he couldn't stop staring at Jay as if he would really die any second.
So far away, he couldn't get anywhere as close as he wanted to, like grabbing Jay himself and fighting whatever Merlopian or whatever had gotten him into this mess.
But there was nothing there, Jay was alone on this street, trapped beneath way too much water, and he was drowning.
Not being shot by those lazers of the royal family of Merlopia, not blasted by a beam from Wojira, he was just…drowning, and despite how far away he was, Jay's coughs sounded way too close.
He's drowning, inhaling water, and not just any old water, salt-water fresh from the sea, inhaling more each second Benthomaar tried prying the hatch open.
Lloyd arrived too, coming to a quick halt as soon as he spotted Jay submerged in the water, and finally, like he wasn't letting the younger one face that question of if they could get him out, he had freed him.
Everything relaxed, his shoulders fell, but until they got him to the surface, he wouldn't release his harsh grip on the controls. He called into his comm link, finally, the others should know they found him, but Jay was stumbling, suddenly, in the top of his vision was his head toppling over, and his eyes closing.
And Cole couldn't think much after that.
—
Benthomaar looked down at Jay cluelessly. He knew humans needed air to breathe, but checking if that breathing was still not there after being returned to land was not in his mind.
"Is he?" Cole rushed forward,
Benthomaar gritted his teeth, laying Jay's head down again while Cole scurried to the other side to get to Jay's face.
He froze when he saw it. Eyes closed, mouth hung limply, and Benthomaar took a second too long to check, so he yelled again, "Is he?" He nearly pushed forward to do it himself, and the last second since he jumped up to the building had felt like minutes just waiting for an answer.
Benthomaar pressed his head to his face, and immediately, looked back up, face downturned, lips shot down with his eyes wide open, still lifting Jay just a fraction off the ground.
When he said those words, it was clear Jay wasn't breathing, not moving an inch, and he had to get to work.
"He's not breathing."
Benthomaar said the words a second after he already processed the truth: Jay wasn't breathing, he was laying on the ground at his feet, and his chest wasn't rising, his eyes weren't open, he wasn't doing anything he would normally do, what he should do.
Immediately, he was in action. He fell to the ground, knelt beside the still chest of Jay, his fingers interlaced, then pressed that into his chest. There was no time to panic about what he wasn't doing - like laughing, screaming, complaining - he just had to get this done. They had first aid training, this should be a piece of cake.
First, rescue breaths. He put his mouth over his and breathed hard, praying that just this would pump him back to life.
But he wasn't dead, just not breathing; there's a very clear difference!
He needed for the next moment, when he pushed himself up to start compressions, Jay would already be awake, his eyes staring up to the sky instead of the cold, dangerous water from the view of his tight, broken sub-car. There should be no compressions, no more breaths, no more wondering if the next pump should get him breathing.
But when he finished, he still wasn't moving. There was no time to panic: he cleared his mind (as near as he can), but his body still persisted with the panic. Chest shuddering, his throat blocking any air from getting into his lungs while he pushed for all of that to get into Jay's.
So he pumped, pressing his weight into his friend's chest, trying to pump the life back into him.
Rhythm, just follow the rhythm.
But just seconds in, he was already wishing for Zane, because Jay should be awake right now. Yes, it had only been a few seconds, but… but he shouldn't be breathless on the ground, he'd been awake when Benthomaar got him out, looked up to the surface as he swam him up, just waiting for the sweet relief of air he knew he would get.
So why didn't he hold on?
Jay, why wouldn't you hold on?
Pushing harder, he tried to suppress any of his panic, because why panic when in just a few seconds, Jay would come back. He would be spewing all the water out, choking, in a lot of pain, but he would be gasping for air either way. It would all come flooding in, and he'd hug Jay, then maybe slap him for panicking him so much.
Lloyd was rushing to them now, and the other ninja joined quickly.
"What's happening?" Kai jumped up, flipping onto the building.
Zane arrived next, tired, but calm enough. "Hello, Cole, you pinged this location, are we—"
"Jay!" It looks like they realised, one of them still on the ground wasn't a hard thing to notice, and with Cole not responding to any of their questions, they immediately processed what it meant, much quicker than he did.
But he was there, he watched Jay go from awake, holding on as hard as he could, to suddenly, gone.
It was hard to process that he had slipped away in front of him while he couldn't do a thing. How could he let that happen?
"What happened—" Zane shouted, so maybe they hadn't realised what this meant yet. But he, and all the others, stopped speaking once they got right beside him. Suddenly, it was all too much, the voices were too loud and their worried eyes too close.
Eyes that showed just how scared they were.
Because their friend was on the ground, wet, still, not breathing.
Eyes that looked like they were already expecting the worst.
But he didn't have time to panic, he had to keep going. He just needs space, and the others realised so as they backed away, but just by a few steps, because they were waiting for Jay to make just the slightest movement to let their panic still as quickly as possible.
But the chest compressions continued, and he didn't wake up.
Nya, Wu and Pixal were there next, he didn't know how they got here, but he wouldn't let himself wonder.
"Jay, Jay-" she stuttered, her voice loud, shaking and higher than ever. She dropped to the ground, then Kai and Nya hesitantly followed with their eyes still focused on the constant CPR. She grabbed her head, digging her hands into her hair, "No- no, no, no, Jay come on, wake up."
The two of them had to grab her shoulders to stop her from getting too close. Their reactions were scary to watch when he had to stay so calm, concentrate all his energy onto bringing him back instead of the panic bubbling inside.
When he woke up, he's convinced that panic would explode out of him, either with a yell or uncontrollable tears.
Kai, Nya, and Pixal held onto each-other, Lloyd was on the ground, looking like he'd already given up.
Wu stood silently behind them. Benthomaar watched on confused, but gripping his trident harshly. Behind all of them were some civilians poking through the door, Gayle Gossip, more news reports hiding away in the building.
But he wouldn't give up, why would anyone give up? Jay was strong, he resisted through everything that ever happened to him, so why would something like this take him away?
Drowning.
Jay couldn't die in such a simple way. It should take way more than some water and the function of the human lungs to take him out.
Rescue breaths, his chest may be rising with air being forced into his lungs, but that didn't mean anything for the rest of him.
And if he didn't get through this (which he would), it would be his fault. He hadn't made it in time, hadn't noticed quick enough when Jay yelled for help into the comms, let him fight Wojira alone.
More pumps, another round, rescue breaths at the end. It felt like his own breaths would run out too, swear had accumulated on his forehead, and now, his compressions starting to weaken. He couldn't be weak, he has to be strong for Jay!
Zane gave him a look, and nodded - he was doing well with CPR. But would it be enough?
It had to be enough, or they would lose him.
Another round went, each second decreased his chances and lowered his energy, making those chances even more slim.
As Kai once said, this isn't about numbers, it's about family; so he would keep going with this until he too was lifeless on the ground. He'd take his own breath if it meant Jay could have this.
Right now, all he wanted was for Jay to know that he felt that way, that he really did love him. They were family, sticking together through everything, so many battles, conflicts, and joys, he honesty couldn't imagine a life without any of the ninja. He would be telling him when he wakes, and he wouldn't even introduce the idea of that not happening.
No time for emotions! He reminded himself, just push, and ignore the way his body thrashed harshly against the ground with every one. How his mouth hung just slightly, like he was trying to discreetly pull in air, but with no movement of his chest besides his own hands pushing it inwards. Don't think about how wet he is, or how cold he is, or how much more lifeless he looked every second.
Please!
"Cole." Zane said his name.
For a second, he thought his body froze, but it was just his mind halting all thoughts before it sent itself down a spiral.
'It's over.' He imagined he'd say.
But it wasn't over, he hadn't been doing CPR for that long. He continued pushing, he would do this for as long as Jay's wet GI dried, or until his own body gave up.
'He's not coming back.
Everything so horrifically bad like that ran through his mind immediately.
"I'll take over." He said instead, and put his hands near Jay. Everything in Cole relaxed for a second, because it meant that Zane believed it was possible too.
But now, he was realising Jay's survival had turned into a "possibility", and not a certain.
They both mentally counted, then the CPR transitoned to Zane.
His CPR was better, more rhythmic, and he wouldn't get tired, or stumble to grab the air that he needed, the air that Jay still didn't have.
Compressions continued, these ones with more force, they pushed his chest further into the rest of him, made his wet hair continue to soak the ground beneath him, make each of his limbs do small jolts with each push.
Tears couldn't come yet, that meant he was gone.
But… could he have done more? Pushed harder, went on for longer? Had he done something wrong, and now, was Zane taking over the final hope after he messed up so much?
Spiralling into what could have been different means he's gone too. He stopped himself from thinking, and thought to only watch.
He wiped his sweat, switching between Zane's concentrated, flat face, and Jay.
He was just Jay right now, he wouldn't panic himself with noticing the lifeless movement of his body, because that would end soon.
Then, as if Zane injected a life saving magic into his veins, Jay's mouth moved on its own, and his chest shuddered.
Immediately, Zane sucked in a harsh breath, despite having no need for oxygen, and fell back. That was when Cole realised that he expected that to only happen when there was no hope of him waking up, he truly hadn't expect it to work with how utterly still he had been, how dead he looked.
He wasn't dead, he's alive, taking gasping, choking breaths, until he jolted forward and spewed all that out.
Grabbing his chest, choking out everything in his lungs. So much pain, but gosh, it was life.
"Jay!" He shouted and fell to the ground, Zane was already grabbing him, flipping him onto his side, which immediately sent so much more water wretching from his throat. He thrashed, one arm limp on the ground, the other at his chest gripping the wet GI. Cole couldn't do much besides place a gentle hand on his shoulder, as the others wondered what to do.
So they just got close. Nya crawled closer, had her shaking hand out waiting for Jay to stop coughing and choking. More water came out but…mostly his breakfast that morning, and a whole lot of bile.
Definitely not as much water as he inhaled.
That would be a problem.
But he was alive, so he would be okay.
Zane soothed his back, while Cole made sure he would stay in that position, just until the last bits of water he gagged from his lungs spewed out onto the already soaking floor, wet with the shape of his body, now shivering.
Shaking from the pain, the cold, each cough that racked his body, Cole wanted to pull him into his chest and hug him so tight, feel his heartbeat, and even hear each shuddering, desperate breath.
With how dead he looked he truly thought…
Closing his eyes, he took another look at the others, then back to Jay, Nya had now taken his hand, their fingers intertwined.
"Jay," he tapped his shoulder, "you're okay, you're alright." His words were more than himself than for comforting his friend, as selfish as that is. But Jay didn't know how terrifyingly close to death he looked; his eyes closed, not half way there, not shutting right in pain, just closed, loose and unalive. They served only a reminder that his body wasn't doing anything to keep him alive, unlike the people around him stumbling and panicking to get him back.
The more water he spewed out, the clearer his voice was through the groans and coughs, and with that, he looked more alive. Still pale, but better, eyes half-lidded, but finally open.
Once they died down to the occasional cough, Nya slowly lifted him with Zane's cautious hands nearby. Finally, the others could get close, finally, their emotions could run.
She pulled the edges of her sleeve into her palm and wiped the sweat from his face, then the water and other stomach contents from around his morin as he tried to calm his blubbering breaths.
Cole told himself to only cry when Jay was alive, he was breathing now - they took a few seconds to come, but they were here, trickling at the corner of his eyes, fighting with the pit of anxiety in his stomach at who would come first; tears, or vomit?
Well, he could smile. He shook his head and launched forward, slamming into Jay, no matter how unrecommended it is to do to a person who was just resuscitated. Jay still held onto Nya's hand, the fingers barely able to lace back into hers; despite that, his arm fell around his back, and he felt the slightest tug at his GI.
"What- what happened?" He asked, voice scratchy, weak and unstable. "Where…" another deep and shaky breath, he held on tighter when he gasped for air, "Where am I?"
Zane was quick to scan him, now sat up with him and Nya supporting him. Lloyd was trying to barge in, Kai had held back to let his sister race for Jay, but of course he wanted to join too. "Vitals are stable." He observed, then scooted an inch closer, maybe to feel his warmth, feel his heartbeat like how Cole tried to feel too.
Pressing further into him, it ran fast; but it was beating, and right now, he wouldn't ask for any more.
"You're back, Jay." Cole gripped him tighter, and it sent a small jolting breath, so he pulled back a little.
When he could breathe better, he'd be hugging him so tight that their bodies would fuse, he was sure.
"But where am I?" He shuddered and pulled away from the hug, "Wojira? My car?"
"It's trashed, but we got you out." Lloyd explained, then turned into a breathy laugh, he grabbed his hair and fell to the ground beside them. "Jay, Jay, I thought- we thought we lost you." He jumped into a hug, to which Jay huffed at the surprise, still wet, still tired, still looking like he didn't have half an idea about what was going on since he just came back from… that.
"Oh…" he shuddered and hugged back, his teeth clattering.
Kai stepped closer seeing that, then ignited his fire by him. "We need to get you out of these clothes." He sighed, as Jay leaned closer, his half-open eyes staring into the flame as he continued weakly hugging Lloyd back. Cole wondered if he remembered everything - the drowning, the moment he slipped away.
Only he would have known what that was like.
How he probably begged into his comms for help, but no one answered. What did he do when the water started to rise? And how did he react when everything failed, and the water got closer and closer, to his chest, his neck, then all around him?
Cole looked on sadly, he didn't look okay, and he may not be okay for a while.
"Let's get you inside." He glided Lloyd away and, with Nya, got him standing. "You okay?"
He quietly hummed and nodded, and on the way back, Jay leaned on his shoulder, so he leaned back.
Cole couldn’t care for when and how things went wrong, and who was to blame, because all that mattered was that Jay was back.