Huh, finally get around to chapter-titling with the same Christmas song used for the fic's title.
Cole, Jay, Kai, and Nya were still trying to clean up popcorn and get the power back on when a radio call came in.
"Come on down, everyone," said Zane. "Lloyd's calling you in to help with the search."
"Woah, you guys convinced him fast!" said Jay.
"Not really. We met Wu down here, and he did most of the convincing. Anyway, we're all waiting! Meet us in front of the community center."
"Well," said Jay, hanging up. "The outside is covered with dead lights, and the inside is covered with popcorn. I'd say we're totally ready for Christmas!"
The others groaned as they pulled on their masks, heading out the door.
They got down to the community center quickly, and found Wu, Lloyd, Zane, and PIXAL waiting. Lloyd looked a little down in the mouth.
"Hi guys," he called. "Uh, so . . . Zane probably told you we needed some help down here?"
"Yep," said Kai. "That must be some really heavy-duty shopping."
"Uhm." Lloyd reddened, looking at his feet. "See, uh, it's kinda . . . not actually . . . "
"It's more like looking for some Kryptarium escapee," said Cole flatly. Lloyd's head snapped up.
"You knew?!"
"Since this morning," said Nya.
"And you didn't say anything?" said Lloyd.
"Hey, you can't get mad about it," said Kai, shrugging. "You didn't say anything to us, either."
"Well . . . " Lloyd rubbed the back of his head. "I was going to, but . . . well . . . "
"Can we all just get back to only lying about elves and reindeer?" interrupted PIXAL, arms folded. Everyone looked at her, startled, then sighed.
"What she said," said Cole ruefully.
"All right." Lloyd pulled on his mask. "So, this is gonna sound nuts, but we have no clue who we're actually looking for. The guards didn't tell me the first day, and ever since then I haven't been able to reach Kryptarium by phone. I guess the next step would be to go down there in person, so . . . uh, I guess . . . " He faltered.
"I'll go," said Wu gently.
"Thanks." Lloyd avoided his eyes. The others gave each other pained glances. If that kid ever came within five miles of Kryptarium again, it would be a miracle.
"Meanwhile, I guess we should split up the city pizza-style," said Lloyd, pulling himself together. "PIXAL, Zane, and I already did the city center. Now we can fan out to the edges. Ask people if they've seen—"
A shadow suddenly fell over them all, and a muffled roar split the air. Everyone froze, then looked up just in time to see Firstbourne landing heavily at the edge of the city square.
"Uh-oh." Cole took in her body language. "I think it's something bad this time!"
They all hurried over to the dragon mother, who was still panting from her journey. She looked over them wearily, visibly relaxing a bit in relief.
"What is it?" asked Wu, reaching up to stroke her neck.
She rumbled urgently, rearranged herself to face the ninja, then lowered her nose to the cement. A muffled cough, then suddenly her jaws opened and something green and leggy and the size of a Labrador fell out.
Everyone had a mini heart attack.
"What the HECK?"
"Is she sick?"
"Is that how dragons give birth?!"
Firstbourne cocked her head, mildly offended by the uproar. Did they have a problem with her kid?
"Everyone calm down," called Zane. "Some animals carry their young in their mouths to protect them. I'm guessing dragons do as well."
"Ohh . . . Hey, lemme see!"
Everyone swarmed closer, forming a tight knot around the hatchling. Wu, gingerly brushing off strands of dragon saliva, lifted little Energy into his arms. She looked around woozily, then fixed her eyes on Lloyd, squeaked, and began to struggle towards him.
"She either likes you or she wants a piece of you," observed Cole. Lloyd backed away uneasily.
Meanwhile Energy was still wriggling, although her strength was already starting to give out. She finally stretched her neck towards Lloyd and spat a puff of frustrated sparkles.
"Green energy! Lloyd, she's got your element!"
Energy keened, flopping over Wu's arm in defeat. Meanwhile Lloyd was looking at the hatchling with almost-literal stars in his eyes. Wu smiled and held Energy out, and Lloyd accepted her reverently, stroking the soft crest behind her head.
"Hi there," he breathed. She squirmed happily and laid her head on his shoulder. Ignoring the others cooing and fishing for their phones, Lloyd looked to Wu.
"Are baby dragons supposed to be this sleepy?"
Wu spread his hands. They both looked up to Firstbourne. She growled urgently, trying to indicate by the angling of her head that this definitely wasn't normal.
"Firstbourne is too nervous for everything to be all right," said Wu grimly.
"She does feel kind of . . . off," said Lloyd, still stroking Energy. "I can't describe it, but . . . I can kinda feel something weird about her vibe. Like she's sick."
"She's sick?" The others grew sober now, gathering closer to examine the baby. Wu looked to Firstbourne.
"What can we do?"
Firstbourne blinked down at him despairingly. She had hoped he would know.
The harvest was finally finished. The throne room wasn't in use anymore, so it had been converted to a granary. Faith counted their blessings earnestly—it was already filled to the ceiling with grain, and more still coming in.
"Arkade, you're good with math, right?" Faith flinched as a cold breeze wormed through the holes in her shirt. "Could you figure out how much more space we'll need?"
"Sure thing, Chief. Where are you planning to put the extra?"
"Depends on how much there is," said Faith tactfully. She honestly didn't know yet; she had been thinking of just portioning out baskets of grain to each Hunter's house, but that seemed like a recipe for trouble. Not like she didn't trust her Hunters, but she wasn't sure if they trusted each other. There would be accusations of grain-hoarding, actual grain-hoarding, squabbles over who seemed to get two handfuls more than the others . . .
"For now, just estimate it in sacks," she said. "Keep piling them up in the center of the village."
"On it, Chief." Arkade tapped a hand jauntily to the top of his welding mask, saluting. "Marry Christmas."
Faith had already been turning away, but now she turned around again to stare after Arkade blankly. Oh great, now he was doing it too? Everyone was going stark mad about this Christmas business.
She walked through a village buzzing with activity. The chill of seeing Firstbourne had worn off by now, and everyone was bustling around talking at once. Some Hunters were bringing in the last of the grain, while others were starting to winter-proof their houses.
"Someone get me a tarp or something, my straw's blowing away!"
"Hey, tell you what, let's put some mud in the cracks too, to hold the straw in."
"Good idea! Chief, can we borrow some of the water supply?"
"Just don't use more than you need," Faith called over her shoulder.
"Fenko, get out of the straw!"
"I want that ladder when you're done with it!"
"Say, does this stuff burn? . . . OH HECK."
"Put it out, put it out!"
Faith eyed the commotion warily, but it was only a small fire and some Hunters were already beating it to death, so she headed onwards.
"Heyyy, look at this!" Chew Toy held aloft a large ring he'd woven from straw. "Ta-da!"
"It's like one of those plant circles!" squealed one of the kids.
"Only not green . . . " remarked another.
"They don't have to be green, do they?"
"Teach me how to make one!"
Faith didn't interfere there, either. They could spare the straw, they had a lot and it was no good for eating.
But she had to admit, it made her a little worried that everyone was so worked-up about Christmas. It wasn't like the Hunters to get this excited about anything that didn't involve bleeding, and she wasn't sure what to make of it all. What if they decided they wanted to go all the way and have the feast and everything? They didn't have that much extra grain, Faith would still have to say no. What if they got mutinous?
And then, there was just something about all this Christmas stuff that gave her an odd ache inside. Maybe it made her think about the ninja too much.
Especially Wu. Faith caught herself fighting a wistful smile. Wonder what the little wretch was doing right now . . . Although, if she understood right, there'd been some kind of magical mumbo-jumbo aging him up rapidly, and he was probably older than Redskull by now. (Those ninja had some weird stuff going on.) But still; somehow she could only think of him as the earnest, innocent, infinitely hopeful teenager who tagged along with her and the ninja, utterly clueless about . . . pretty much everything. Not how she would have pictured the son of the First Spinjitzu Master. Sure, his naivety had kinda driven her up the wall. And sure, he was a rotten little liar and she kind of regretted not punching him that one time. And sure, he was maybe a bit of a coward, or a fool, or a dreamer, or any number of other things . . . And yet. Somehow he dragged out of her a bunch of mushy protective impulses she hadn't known she had. (And definitely would not have admitted to.)
He'd probably have been delighted to see the Hunters falling for this sappy Christmas stuff. She wondered if the real world had managed to put any dents in that annoyingly pure little heart of his by now.
. . . Based on what she'd seen of him, probably not.
She was shaken from her cross-realm reverie by a spike in the noise nearby. She looked around and saw that Muzzle and another Hunter were railing at each other furiously. They were winding up to fight, some daggers were coming out, other Hunters were assembling to watch the show . . . Ugh. Better step in.
"All right, that's enough!" Faith strode over and forced herself in between the two Hunters, who continued flailing towards each other. "I said enough! Muzzle, put down that blade, I can cut you faster than you can cut me."
Muzzle waved his dagger around, gibbering in strident tones.
"I didn't touch his straw! He stole mine, and he's trying to cover it up!" snapped Yuko, the other Hunter. Muzzle sprang at him again, howling.
"Muzzle!" barked Faith, holding him back. Meanwhile some of the assembled Hunters whistled or applauded ironically at Muzzle's language. No-Legs was the only one who could really understand him, but his tone right now left little to the imagination.
"Stop encouraging them!" Faith glared wearily around at the audience. "Get out of here, all of you. Shoo. And the two of you, drop it. We're supposed to be a peaceful society now, remember? Which means we don't fight over stupid things like straw piles when there's plenty to go around!"
"You and Jet Jack fight all the time," said Yuko sulkily.
Faith blinked, thrown.
"That's . . . different."
Muzzle made a noise that was clearly a grumpy "How?"
Faith blinked again. Why did she suddenly feel like a mom dealing with two bratty children? And actually . . . now that they put it that way . . .
"Well, it just is," she said at last. "And besides. I thought you were all excited about Christmas. Aren't you doing that whole 'Christmas spirit' thing? Kindness and no fighting?"
Muzzle and Yuko both grumbled.
"Not much point doin' that if we can't do any of the good stuff," muttered Yuko. Faith's heart sank. Here it came. She was about to have a rebellion on her hands, over Christmas pudding.
Meanwhile Muzzle was turning away in disgust, gabbling something in a jeering tone. Yuko parroted him even more jeeringly, Muzzle whirled with an angry screech, and Faith found herself again keeping them separated.
"I said, stop it . . . " she growled, feeling the last of her patience starting to fray.
Just then there was a brisk whine and boom! of displaced air, and Jet Jack came shooting by. 95% of her landings were perfect, but the 5% she fumbled she fumbled good. Everyone ducked and shielded their heads as a mini-tornado whipped through the village, sending dust and straw flying. Jet Jack herself clipped a building, flipped over a couple of times, and crashed upside-down into a wall.
"Geez!" She kicked until she managed to tumble back upright, perfectly cheerful. "Did I miss the fight?"
Everyone else began to stand upright again and beat straw from their hair.
"Well." Faith tried to get her ponytail into order, majestically displeased. "There you go. Now neither of you has any straw. You can go get some more, but I don't want to see any more fighting!"
Muzzle and Yuko left meekly. So did the audience. Faith straightened her ragged shirt, grumbling, and gave Jet Jack a grudgingly approving look. At least her timing was good; it may have been an accident, but it sure settled the dispute.
She was startled when Jet Jack popped up her visor just long enough to wink. So that had been on purpose?
Dangit. Just when she was almost convinced she hated that kid.
"Last of the grain's been brought in," said Jet Jack, brushing off the topmost of her eight shirts. "There's so much! Are you sure we couldn't have just a little Christmas food?"
Oh geez, not this again.
"No, Jet Jack. We don't know how long the winter will be, we can't afford to gamble."
"What about gifts?" said Jet Jack. "Maybe we could make something out of scrap metal, or—"
"No!" said Faith, a little more sharply than she'd intended. Jet Jack backed up a little.
"All right," she said. "Well . . . anyway. Arkade's going to have the numbers ready for you soon."
She tipped a lazy salute and boosted off. Faith muffled a frustrated oath and headed off as well, plucking straw from her hair. Why'd she have to go and feel bad about snapping like that? She yelled at Jet Jack all the time, and she deserved it for being such a pain anyway.
. . . It was a little too much Iron Baron's style, and she knew it. But, just—she was tired, and achy, and freezing cold, she was sick of worrying about winter and mutinies, and honestly she was sick of hearing about Christmas. She'd said no. Why couldn't everyone shut up about it?
"Chief; a word, please?" called a familiar voice. Faith groaned. Old Redskull again. Now he was going to start nagging her about Christmas too?
"Yes?" she said, as levelly as she could manage. Already she was rehearsing how to refute his suggestions—
"I know you don't like the idea, but you really should dress more warmly."
Whoops. Hadn't prepared for that one.
"It's only going to get colder," continued Redskull gently. "If you don't stay warm, you can get sick, or you might even die. You won't be any use to your Hunters that way, will you?"
"I . . . " stammered Faith.
"I know, you think it looks foolish." Redskull gave an amused breath. "Nobody's in position to judge, when they're all dressed the same."
Faith balked.
"I said I wasn't going to."
She thought her crisp tone would be clear enough, but Redskull only shrugged.
"And now you can change your mind."
Faith looked at him incredulously for a moment, then shook her head, turning away. That was lousy advice. How could she expect her Hunters to trust in her if she didn't stick to her guns?
"Faith," said Redskull quietly. "Listen to me. I know you try your best, but there will always be times when you're wrong."
She stopped in spite of herself.
"Which is more foolish?" continued Redskull. "Changing once you see your mistake? Or plowing ahead, doing something you know is a bad idea, because you worry about looking stupid or weak?"
Faith clenched her jaw, grateful that Redskull couldn't see her face.
"Maybe Iron Baron needed to be right about everything." Redskull blandly jabbed below the belt. "But that was because he needed you all to fear him. You don't lead like that. You don't have to be afraid of admitting you're wrong once in a while. The Hunters will still respect you."
"Still?" thought Faith ironically. When had they started?
At last she shrugged and turned to walk away again.
"All right," she said over her shoulder. "Noted."
Redskull must have read the dismissal in her tone.
"There's principled, young one, and then there's just plain stubborn," he called after her. She wasn't sure if he was amused or exasperated, and she didn't wait around to find out.
The ninja had forgotten all about looking for the Kryptarium escapee. They were all huddled around little Energy. They had tried giving her chicken soup and beef jerky, both of which she'd nibbled half-heartedly. Lloyd had tried transferring some of his power to her, and Wu had tipped a little tea down her throat, but neither of those made a difference. They'd even talked to a vet, who had no idea what could be wrong.
Lloyd was holding the drowsy dragon in his arms now, stroking her head. The others sat around him soberly. The excitement of seeing Lloyd's element manifested in a baby dragon was giving way to a heavy dread that anything to do with Green Energy was destined to suffer.
Firstbourne was sitting on her haunches, growing more hopeless by the minute. She could do nothing herself. The wisest human she knew could do nothing. If the son of the First Spinjitzu Master couldn't cure her baby, who could?
"I'm so sorry," said Wu softly, not meeting her eyes. "I don't know what else to try."
"We have to do something," said Lloyd. "The—the healing ritual you guys did on me. Maybe it would work on her too?"
"The tea that we used to heal you is gone with Mystake," said Nya bitterly.
"What about . . . I don't know, what do they do for preemie babies?"
"That's humans, why would it work on dragons?"
"We have to try something!"
"How do you know we won't just make it worse?"
"Listen, right now I don't know if it can get worse—"
"Wait, wait, wait! I just thought of something!" cried Jay.
The others turned to him hopefully.
"I just remembered something in the First Realm," said Jay. "This special plant Faith told me about. When I was asking her about that . . . weird drug plant . . . " He faltered, realizing he might have said too much.
"Weird drug plant?" said Cole, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeeeeeeah . . . " Jay coughed uneasily. "Uh, the one I ate the day after we got there? . . . "
A moment of silence as the others put two and two together.
"You were high?!" exploded Cole.
"Off some weird plant?!" added Kai.
"Well, what did you think?" sputtered Jay, taking a few nervous steps back. "You all really thought I just randomly lost my marbles after crossing realms? Come on! I've been through way worse than that!"
"That explains so freaking much . . . " Kai dragged a hand down his face.
"But why would you eat an unfamiliar plant in a foreign realm, Jay?" said Zane. "I would have thought you knew better."
"I was starving!" protested Jay. "And it looked exactly like lettuce! I mean . . . except for being purple . . . And, uh . . . covered in spikes . . . " He trailed off, reddening. "I was hungry, let's just go with that."
"And you thought you'd found food, but you didn't tell the rest of us, huh?" said Cole.
"There was just one sprig," mumbled Jay, reddening further. "And I kind of figured you'd react like that, so—"
"—So you did know it was crazy to eat random purple spiky plants. And yet."
"Oh . . . just leave me alone." Jay plopped down on a park bench and covered his face.
"Excuse me, what's going on?" Nya finally got a word in edgewise. "Jay was on drugs?!"
"Believe me sis, it's better than the alternative." Kai blew out a tired breath and smiled wanly. He never thought he'd be saying this, but it was actually a relief to learn it had only been an accidental trip. Not thrilling, but still less worrisome than a mental break.
Meanwhile Cole sighed and sat down next to Jay, shaking his shoulder lightly.
"All right Zaptrap, all right. We're missing the original point here. What does a weird purple plant have to do with this little dragon here?"
"Gah." Jay reluctantly emerged from behind his mittens. "Well . . . you know, after I sobered up, I realized something had been weird about that. So when we were traveling with Faith, I asked her if she knew about any plants that made you act funny. And she said yeah, that was a plant they knew—it had a really stupid name, Purple Moonruffle or something sissy like that—and then she went on this whole long boring lecture about all their other plants. For a desert realm, they had way too many plants." Jay rolled his eyes, huffing. "But anyway. I did remember one of the other plants, because it was kinda cool. They have this rare flower or something, that if you eat its leaves, you pretty much can't die for a couple of days. That's how they survived all those crazy injuries, you know? When someone got their legs bit off or whatever, they'd give them a dose of that plant."
"And what you're saying is . . . maybe it'd work on the baby dragon too?" said Lloyd.
"I mean, it couldn't hurt to try," said Jay. "Could it?"
Wu looked up to Firstbourne.
"Do you know if you could ask the Hunters for some of that plant?"
Firstbourne drew her head back as far as it would go, horrified beyond measure. Go to the Hunters? Were they all crazy? The Hunters made a sport out of killing her children. They were used to her children killing them in return, they saw every dragon as a threat to be eliminated. Wu might as well have told her to give up and slit her baby's throat right now. Of all the—
"Shhhhh, shhhh, hear me out," said Wu. Firstbourne blinked through a haze of red and realized her jaws were dripping lava. The ninja were huddled together, looking terrified that their master was about to be char-broiled in front of them, while Wu was standing fearlessly in front of Firstbourne's face, reaching up to stroke her muzzle.
"Easy," he whispered. "I know. You have a . . . history. And I suppose Faith is still in charge, and I know you and she have a little . . . extra history. But I promise you; she might be gruff on the surface, but she would be the first to show your child compassion. She has a good heart."
Firstbourne rumbled menacingly, lava dribbling from her teeth and smoke spurting from her nostrils. Oh, she'd seen that one's heart all right. She loved Wu and all, but she was this close to eating him alive right now—
"I'll go with you," offered Wu. "I can explain everything. It can't hurt to try, can it?"
Firstbourne growled and shook her head violently. She was not giving her baby to the Hunters.
"Firstbourne . . . " said Wu, his tone gently pleading. She growled again. If all they could offer her was advice to hand her baby to the dragon-killers, she was done here. Arching her neck, she leaned right over Wu and snorted sternly at Lloyd, ordering him to surrender Energy. When he hastily complied, Firstbourne scooped the hatchling back into her mouth and turned to leave.
"I wish you wouldn't," said Wu, pained. "The Hunters promised to live peacefully. Don't you believe that?"
Firstbourne hesitated, but didn't look back. How was she supposed to make him understand how stupid that idea was? She had seen how much enjoyment they got out of using her children's bones as furniture. And she had seen how many of them had been mauled, disfigured, and even killed when her children fought back. There was a literal river of bad blood here; they were not about to heal her baby.
Then a sound of distant screams and police sirens rang out. Everyone's head snapped around. Firstbourne arced her head towards the noise too.
"Uh-oh . . . " said Zane, as the uproar continued.
"I think we just found our Kryptarium escapee," said Kai, wincing. "We'd . . . better get over there."
The ninja began to pull on their masks. Firstbourne looked back to the humans. Even as worked-up as she was, she still didn't want to leave them in the lurch if there was an emergency.
"We'll be all right," said Wu quietly. "Will you?"
Firstbourne huffed and looked away.
"Good luck, my friend," sighed Wu. "I hope you find someone who can help you. Come back if there's anything else we can do. All right?"
Casting the dragon a last worried look, he hurried after the ninja. She glowered after him for a moment, then spread her wings and took off for the First Realm.
Maybe she should have eaten him, she thought bitterly. He'd only made it worse—telling her there might be a cure, then setting it so impossibly out of her reach.
A/N: I'd be ready to believe that the writers' original plan was to have Jay eat something weird in the First Realm, but at the last moment they decided that was too edgy for a Y7 production. Would explain why it came out of nowhere and wore off at random. And seriously, if Skybound didn't break him, I don't think anything would.
Also, it dawns on me that Muzzle is basically Mindroid from Rebooted. Short, speaks gibberish, enough attitude to fill three of him. :P