Hello... ...remember this is the edited version...credits to loki god of evil :D I dont own ninjago
Jay's POV
"Wake up buddy!" I heard someone shout. It woke me from my sleep and my disturbing dreams.
A male voice, it was vaguely familiar and quite close by. I opened my eyes, and slowly edged up onto my elbows, seeing my room-mate in all his fighting gear. "What t-time is it Rex?"
He looked at me and smiled excitedly. "Time to get up, 4am remember."
I rubbed my eyes again and sat up. Rex was all ready to go, he had his assassin robes on, including a hefty amount of leather cuffing, pauldrons, straps and tabi boots, as well as a long and very well made over coat with attached hood.
My clothes were pretty much what I was wearing yesterday, quick and easy. Sadly not as cool as his were though.
"Ugh," I said while I slipped on my tabi boots, tightening the straps on each before I stood and followed him out.
The first thing I noticed was how dark it was, the stars were still out. The sun hadn't even breached the horizon and it was still bitterly cold.
We walked past other huts, but barely anyone was up. The lamps were off and I couldn't hear any noises indicating otherwise.
We eventually stopped at one hut, and Rex walked in front of me, motioning me to wait. He knocked on the door. "Rose!" He called.
A shuffling could be heard on the other side of the wooden door and a few seconds later it creaked open.
"What do…" She paused and yawned, rubbing her hand through her hair. "…You want?" She said.
Jay looked up, seemingly more alert as he took in her overall dishevelled bed head appearance. She had long brown hair, that was now in dire need of a brush and purple-ish eyes which were astonishing to look at.
Rex still had a huge grin on his face. "This is Jay!" He said with too much excitement for the ungodly hour that it was.
"Hello Jay," She said while rubbing her eyes, she didn't seem all that enthusiastic, but I guessed she was still tired. I mean we did just wake her up.
"Hi," I responded quietly and stepped into the dimly lit doorway of her cabin.
"He needs a suit, and his color seems to be blue. Well, he favours blue" Rex winked at her.
'A suit, why did he say it like that, is it some special suit?' I thought but didn't say anything.
"Alright I'll start on it,yYou'll have to come in so I can take measurements and so on" She said with another yawn and opened the door wide.
Luckily she knew what she was doing and she was very thorough. Measurements here and there, different stances I had to pull, and again she took the measurements. It felt a little silly but I realised that this suit was going to need to be extremely versatile. Movement and flexibility would be a must as would a strong fabric meant to withstand tears and thrusts.
Rex just sat patiently and waited, he didn't sit on her bed, just stared at the things in her room, her pictures and newer clothing ideas for the assassins.
Finally she had all she needed and she bid us both farewell. All of the measurements had been written down and before we had even left her hut she had began grabbing all of her supplies and cutting the cloth.
"Come by later for training if you want," Rex said quietly as he walked away from her hut.
I followed him closely, training was gonna be horrible.
I couldn't fight, well I mean I don't remember being able to fight, what if I can't, will they train me?
We came to an open space, an area where there were already several people training, to the side of the small arena was an obstacle course.
"Well here we are," Rex said excitedly. He tossed me a stop watch which I raised an eyebrow at.
He went to the start of the obstacle course and got ready. He bent down on his knees like he was about to participate in a relay race or sprint. Well, it wasn't far from the truth.
"Time me," He said with a smile.
I shrugged, now that... I can do. "GO!" I yelled and pressed the button.
He took off in a flash, I kept my eye on him to watch how he moved around the obstacles. He went over the impossibly high net, under another net, climbed the eight foot wall with ease. Then dodged and dived some of the mannequins whilst getting in some good shots. He made it look easy….no pressure then!
"Done!" He yelled as he came to a fast stop at the finish line. I looked down at the watch and my jaw dropped.
"Uh three minutes, seventeen seconds," I replied somewhat shocked.
Rex on the other hand was bent over and trying to catch his breath, he had obviously overdone it.
"Woo, man that...is my best!" He said still panting. His hands were now at his knees. "Just give me a….second ha, woo!"
"Not as good as mine," Another man said as he approached Rex, obviously bragging.
Rex stood up and the man placed his hand on his shoulder. "Yeah yeah, so what if you hold the record of two minutes and thirty five." He responded with a smirk.
"What? Is that even possible?" I asked dumbfounded.
"Yes it is!" He replied, boasting again. "Let me guess, you must be Jay?" The man said with his eyebrows raised.
I nodded politely, well as politely as someone nods.
"I'm Alpha, or you can call me Jack, your choice." His voice seemed warm and genuine, like he was welcoming me into the fold.
"Nice to meet you Jack," I said as I shook his hand.
I noted that Jack seemed like a strong looking man, he was taller than Rex and likely used that to his advantage when climbing and scurrying under the nets or out on missions.
He was also a sight to look at, he had silvery eyes and short brown hair. He wore a white robed suit which had a grey stripe down the middle. Gotta say though, the whole look suited him well, it matched his eyes.
"You too Jay, now it's your turn," Jack said as he passed Rex the stop watch.
"Um, o-okay!" I said with a little fear verging on nervousness and a possibility of making myself feel and look useless.
I walked to the start line and got ready. I stared at the course ahead of me and my nerves made it look bigger than it was. It was looming and stretching far head of me.
'Two minutes thirty five, are you kidding me? That simply can't be done, it's not possible.' I thought to myself but I guess I didn't have enough time to think anymore on it.
"GO!" Rex yelled.
I took off in a flash, climbed the high net easily and then scurried under the next. After the eight foot wall was a small line of battle mannequins, I dodged everything thing that was thrown at me. And then took on the offensive as I picked up a throwing star from the table. I threw it rapidly at the moving targets, getting one just off centre and then I ran to the finish line, not expecting anything great.
"DONE!" I yelled as I got to the finish line. I nearly collapsed, but I caught myself.
"How...d-did...I...do?" I asked in between pants.
My hands were on my knees and my chest felt like it was on fire, Like I'd just run an obstacle course without warming up. I looked up to see Rex's and Jack's face full of shock.
I rubbed my forehead and stood up. "What?" I asked as I finally caught my breath.
"Two minutes and twenty seven!" Rex said excitedly. "I HAVE THE BEST PARTNER EVER!" He pat me on the back and knocked the breath right out of me again.
"Wow, just wow, you certainly have some speed!" Jack said as he put the stop watch up to show me my time, in case I didn't believe it.
He pocketed the watch, "Come, I think we have the perfect unused tattoo imprint for you!" He motioned me to follow him and I did. Rex walked by my side with the same look of giddy excitement.
We had walked a short distance and ended up outside a hut that looked like a blacksmith shop. There was a huge amount of heat coming from it, upon closer inspection, the heat was coming from the side.
'It would be pretty stupid to have fire inside a hut right, kindling and all that!'
I walked around the side of the hut with Rex and Jack and I saw a man stoking a very hot looking open fronted forge. There was an anvil at the side of that and a huge wooden barrel of what I assumed to be water, when I turned to my side and stood behind Rex I noticed a cooling rack displaying some rather impressive weaponry that he had no doubt just cooled, or maybe they had been repaired.
"Mat, where are the unused imprints?" Jack asked. The person he had just referred to as 'Mat' was in the process of forging daggers. He was specifically making them into Damascus steel. Well, that was what Rex whispered anyway.
"In the back," Mat said loudly. He continued concentrating on the daggers, hitting them with force and occasionally the odd gentle focused tap, he was pattern welding with his hammer and chisel, the whole thing looked amazingly intricate but I was fast becoming bored.
We followed Jack into the back of the blacksmith hut, where there were several tubs of unused tattoo things. I wasn't entirely sure what they were, from what I could remember tattoos were only skin deep, coloured or patterned and made by repeatedly sticking needles in the skin or Japanese tattoos where they were engraved into the skin.
Jack bent down and started to look through a metal bin. It took him a few minutes to find the one he was looking for. He finally found it and scooped it up before standing and walking across to me. He smiled when he stood in front of me and then he handed the imprint over, placing it firmly in my hand.
"This one is perfect for you." He said with a smile.
I looked back down at it, the imprint was shaped like a wolf head, but towards the neck it zigzagged down to a point. It sort of looked like a lightning bolt, kind of looked cool.
I frowned at it, mostly in confusion. "Thanks, but what do we do with it?" I asked.
Jack walked to the front of the hut and opened the door, we both followed him out.
"Take your shirt off," Jack ordered. He walked outside to use the same forge that Mat had just re stoked to heat it back up.
I watched as he put the imprint over the fire and I hesitated. Rex was there in an instant and seemed to feel my apprehension. His hand on my shoulder calming me down, it helped in a way, because even though I didn't know what was about to happen I was feeling a sense of dread at being branded.
I did as Jack ordered and removed my shirt. Rex brought me a wooden chair to sit on. "Sit on it backwards, we need to see your back." I did as I was ordered again and suddenly began to tense.
I felt a cold wet cloth against my back, that was quite a shock, but it was rubbed over one particular area, at a guess to maybe clean it…I don't know, but the longer it stayed there the colder I felt, it was numbing me!
"Your back needs to be clean before we use the imprint!" Rex said as he took the rag off.
I looked over at Jack with wide eyes. He was walking towards me with the imprint being red hot and glowing. My heart was pounding so fast.
'This is it….' I bit my bottom lip and saw as the red hot imprint made its way over to me from the forge.
"Okay, no point in beating around the bush. This will hurt a lot!" Jack said.
Ya know at least he was being honest, unlike those doctors that said it would be painless, or those nurses that said 'it's just a little scratch'.
I felt the heat come to my back and then I felt the intense burning pain that followed. As soon as the imprint made contact and as soon it was pressed onto me. Rex had to hold me still, Jack kept his knee on my back to stop me from wriggling so much. The last thing they wanted was more than one imprint on my back because I was thrashing around so much.
"AHHH" I gripped the back of the chair as hard as I could. The pain was so bad, unlike anything I had ever known. And the smell, the smell was horrific, the smell of my burning flesh, forever seared into my mind.
Eventually Jack took it off and Rex put a soothing ointment on my back before helping me with my top. My back was tingling in pain, stinging and throbbing in one large area, and although I couldn't see it yet, I knew where it was, it was just covering one part of my upper back, right over my right flank.
"Agh! T-That hurt," I managed to say once I had unclenched my jaw. I felt instant relief of pressure from my teeth….I swear they were this close to breaking.
At least I knew I could trust these guys, Jack hadn't been wrong in the slightest. It really had hurt and it still was, I couldn't even move my now injured side for the pain.
Jack seemed to know what I was thinking. "Sorry, but there is no way of treating the pain, it's a brand, an imprint, a burn. On the plus side, you'll get used to it, pain makes us all stronger in the end!" He replied. "If it doesn't kill you, that is!"
'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' I thought to myself.
I got off of the chair, and then followed Rex and Jack as we all left the confines of the blacksmith forge. We said goodbye to Mat as he carried on working as the bladesmith and blacksmith he was. When I looked back at him, I did wonder if he was a master assassin too like Rex and Jack were!
hope you all enjoyed...Much Love