Mehhh. I'm not a big fan of "darkening" Ninjago by adding civilian casualties and all that nitty-gritty real-world stuff, but in this case it just seemed inevitable. Something they swept under the rug, as it were.
Say, by the way, anyone got any ideas for post-season-4 stuff they'd like to see? I've got about two more ideas, but other than that I'm kinda drawing blanks. Any changes you'd like to see explored? Characters you think deserve a study? Unresolved loose ends that need tying? I'd love to hear 'em!
Anyways, so. Disclaimer and all! I don't own Ninjago, but I do occasionally sully their good reputation.
The eastern seaboard was a nightmare. The Bounty traveled from village to village, town to town, and found only more burned, gutted buildings, more homeless families, more misery. It was enough to wring blood from a heart of stone.
"Two casualties," said Nya thinly, returning after a reconnaissance through Jamanukai. "One was an elderly man who suffered heart failure when the Anacondrai burst in on him. The other was a young man who threw himself at the warriors with a homemade spear. They—" She bit her lip hard, shaking her head. Jay started to say something, but Nya turned away and began working the controls of the nearest computer, typing something.
"We are fortunate the Anacondrai were moving so quickly," said Wu, looking out over the blackened remains of the buildings flanking the central street. "They were more interested in going rapidly from village to village, pillaging them as they went."
"Fortunate?" Nya's voice was like bending steel. "Fortunate? With what we've been seeing? Every village in the entire eastern half of Ninjago, burned and destroyed. People killed if they resisted, killed when burning buildings fell in on them, families homeless, families with no more livelihood because their farms and shops have burned to the ground." She was breathing hard by now, clutching the edge of the table and staring down at the keyboard. "And you call this fortunate."
"It is a tragedy, yes," said Wu softly. "But it could have been much worse. If Chen's Anacondrai had not been so eager to burn each village and move on to the next one, they would have stayed long enough to slaughter every inhabitant instead. As it is, we have lost much less than we might have."
"You're going to count it like that?" Nya's voice was steadily failing. The others watched with wide eyes. "You didn't see that kid! You didn't see what they—" She broke off, shaking her head violently.
Jay's hand was already rising to rest on her shoulder, but Kai stepped up and pushed him back silently, fixing him with a glare. Like a lighthouse beam his grim look swept to Cole as well, warning them both off.
You both remind her of more trouble right now. If either one of you dares to get near her when she's stretched this thin . . .
They took the hint. Leaving Kai to comfort his sibling as best he could, the others slipped outside and off the Bounty. For a while they wandered through Jamanukai, taking in the charred mess with heavy hearts. The occasional villager hurried through the rubble, but nobody seemed to want to speak to them.
"Can we help out?" Cole asked a shopkeeper struggling to hoist aside the blackened ceiling beams of his shop. The earth ninja started slightly at the poisonous glare he got in return.
"Get lost," growled the shopkeeper, and turned back to his work. Cole blinked at him, confused.
"Guys?" said Jay under his breath. "Is it just me, or are we getting the evil eye here?"
The others looked around. It was true; whatever villagers they could see were either going about their business with their heads down, pointedly ignoring them, or were standing and openly glaring.
"Are they looking at us?" whispered Lloyd. Unconsciously they all edged a little closer together.
The shopkeeper stumbled under the weight of a beam, and Cole lunged to catch it before it drove him to the ground.
"Mind your own business!" barked the shopkeeper to a startled Cole. "Just as you minded it before. We don't want your pity now."
Cole stood rooted, the beam still teetering on his shoulder. Zane nodded subtly towards the Bounty; Cole set down the beam, and they all headed back. For a while they leaned against the ship's railing and said nothing. The villagers passing by underneath gave them icy looks occasionally.
"So," murmured Jay. "They hate us."
"I guess they have a right to," said Cole softly. "We left their village to burn."
Silence. Silence and downcast eyes. They had seen plenty of destruction before, of course; Ninjago City had been laid waste more than once. But all those other times, they had always been there. They had always been in the thick of the action, working furiously to stop the menace as fast as they could.
This time was different. They had allowed the entire eastern seaboard of Ninjago to fall. Allowed it. There was nothing they could have done, really—their only hope had been to wait and hold the Corridor of Elders—but it was still painful to think about. They hadn't done anything to save these villagers' homes, livelihoods, lives. They had treated them as a mere tactical tool.
"So this is the art of war," said Zane heavily. Jay gave a bitter snort.
"Art? Art is supposed to be pretty."
"Hey. Maybe we can do something." Cole leaned his elbows on the railing, squinting over the village into the setting sun. "I know we've lost their trust, but—but maybe there's some way we can at least try to make up for this. At least for the ones who don't have anyplace to stay right now—the Bounty can hold seventy-five people. We could probably make it a hundred, if we squeezed. We could give them a roof over their heads until the villages are rebuilt. And the . . . " he glanced hesitantly at Lloyd, wondering if he should bring up his father's monastery. Lloyd waved a hand, smiling slightly.
"Over two hundred."
Many people weren't interested. Some were outright angry at the offer. Others, though, willingly accepted the prospect of somewhere to stay, even if only for a little while and in crowded quarters.
"Some of us will have to sleep on the clothesline tonight," said Kai, wearily amused.
At one particular village, Jay stumbled across a little youngster, probably about four or five years old. The kid was perched behind a stack of lumber, crying his eyes out.
"Hey, tiger," said Jay gently, crouching down in front of him. "You okay?"
"I'm lost," said the boy, wiping his eyes hastily. He had a little wooden sword strapped around his waist, battered and chipped from countless mock battles.
"Do you live around here?" asked Jay, fishing in his pocket for a candy bar. He offered it to the kid, who backed away slightly.
"No thanks."
Jay looked puzzled—what kind of kid refused candy?—but then he remembered that parents went to enough trouble teaching their children not to accept sweets from strangers. Whoops.
"So, are your parents around here?" he asked again, hastily putting the candy bar away. The boy shook his head.
"Were you visiting this village?"
The boy shook his head again. Jay tilted his head.
"Well if you don't live here, but you're not visiting here, then . . . " He glanced around and caught sight of a nearby mountain, which the village was built at the foot of. Far up the mountainside, he caught the glint of a thatched cottage roof.
"Do you live up there?" he asked, pointing. The boy nodded eagerly.
"I think so! Can you come with me to find my mommy and daddy?"
Jay looked up the mountainside. It certainly wasn't the kind of climb you would trust a kid this age to make alone. Then he glanced over his shoulder at the others, who were scattered around the village asking who needed shelter for the night. For a moment he considered telling someone where he was headed, but the kid was already tugging insistently at his sleeve.
"Come on, hurry! You have to meet my parents."
Jay shook his head, chuckling, and allowed the boy to drag him off. He'd be back soon enough, the others wouldn't even get a chance to worry about him.
"So what's your name, Mister?" asked the little boy, trotting at Jay's side as they started up the mountain path.
"Jay. How 'bout you, tiger?"
"I'm Yama. After my dad." Yama puffed up his chest proudly. Jay eyed the little wooden sword.
"Is your dad a warrior?"
"He was," said Yama matter-of-factly. "He's not anymore."
"Huh." Jay looked up the mountainside again. Did the former warrior status have something to do with why he was living in an isolated cottage way up there? Now he was starting to get curious about meeting this family.
"D'ya like snakes?" asked Yama, skipping ahead. "There were lotsa them around here a while ago!"
"Yeah, I heard about 'em," said Jay, glancing away guiltily. "They weren't good snakes, though, huh?"
"Uh-uh!" Yama looked back, frowning. "They were mean. But I wasn't scared!"
"Good for you," said Jay weakly.
"I was a brave warrior, like my dad!" declared Yama, pointing his sword at the sky. "I charged those snakes and made 'em all run away! Wham! Whack!"
Jay had to smile. Thank goodness this little hooligan was still alive and well to imagine wild deeds of grandeur.
The path soon gave way to a rugged, nearly vertical ascent, but Yama was a nimble climber. Although it annoyed him to admit it, Jay had to admit he had a hard time keeping up with the energetic youngster.
"Easy there! Hold up," he called, pulling himself up onto a ledge. Yama paused, balanced atop a boulder, and watched patiently as Jay caught his breath. "Say. Are you sure your parents are even home?" panted the lightning ninja. "What if they got worried and went down the mountain to look for you?"
"No." Yama shook his head solemnly. "They'll be waiting."
"Waiting?" Jay blinked, puzzled. "But I thought . . . "
"Come on!" laughed Yama, hopping down from the boulder and scampering off across the shoulder of the mountain.
"Hey!" yelped Jay. "Come back! That's dangerous!"
He took off after the youngster, confident that he could catch up to him within a few strides. Suddenly he heard a shout from behind him—there was something so urgent about it that he reflexively glanced back, just for a second. When he turned back, he suddenly found himself teetering at the very brink of a gigantic chasm, yawning hungry and black beneath his feet. With a yelp he tried to throw himself back, arms windmilling furiously, but the rock was already crumbling beneath him—he already felt gravity taking over—
—And then suddenly Kai was snatching at the back of his shirt and his fall stopped.
A breathless silence. The swishswishswish of Jay's feet treading air as he stared down into the canyon, wide-eyed. Then, after a very, very long time, the distant clatter of the detached rocks finally hitting the bottom of the chasm. Finally Kai drew a deep breath, hauled Jay back onto solid ground, and regarded the lightning ninja exhaustedly.
"Don't do that," he said at last, deadpan.
"Aww, but I enjoy it so much!" Jay managed a shaky grin. Kai ran a hand down his face, sighing.
"What the heck were you doing?" he demanded.
"I was helping Yama get—" Jay bolted to his feet. "The kid! Oh my gosh! What happened to him?!"
"What kid?"
"Yama! He was running right in front of me right . . . " Jay trailed off, staring at the chasm. He could have sworn Yama had been running on solid rock, but . . . but how . . .
"He was right in front of me," he said at last, dazed. "A little kid."
Kai gave him an odd and somewhat unsettled look.
"Jay, I saw you. You were alone."
Jay, still a little shell-shocked, eventually made up some excuses as to why Kai had had to save him from loping right off the edge of an abyss. It was a good thing the fire ninja had seen him leaving the village and followed him up curiously; otherwise Jay would've probably been too startled and scared to summon his elemental dragon by the time he realized he was falling.
He didn't mention Yama again till they got back to the village. Then he asked Nya. As he'd started to suspect—Yama and his parents had tried to fight and had been among that town's casualties when the Anacondrai came through. "Meet his parents. They'll be waiting" took on a whole new meaning.
Speak of holding grudges.
Although it was unsettling, Jay didn't mention it to anyone. He was pretty sure most or all of his teammates didn't believe in ghosts, and he didn't figure anything was likely to change their minds about that anytime soon.
