Hey! I know it's been awhile, but I've been hit with a bad case of writer's block. I know how I want the general plot to go, but the little details are getting harder too. But enough excuses. I made this chapter especially long to make up for the hiatus...though I doubt hardly anyone's reading this fanfic.
I've also decided that after this chapter, the writing style will change a little bit. First person's too hard to do without butchering the Canons. I'll also try to make each chapter more exciting and more similar to an actual episode.
Big thank you to halz1320 for being the only person to review!
(Wow, I kinda felt sad when I said that)
Warning: Cannon characters may be slightly (aka, majorly) OOC.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago, or it'd come back sooner than 2014.
Cole
Girls were nothing but trouble. Especially ones who act all nice but hide secrets. And I am completely sure that Lani is one of those girls. Nobody in the world could be that sweet and perfect. Not without pretending.
"Why are they even outside in the first place?!" Jay practically screams, as we push ourselves against the strong wind currents and try not to get blown away.
"Beats me," Kai grunted. He's been extremely irritable lately. Granted, he's always been a hot head, but I've never seen Fire Dork so angry all the time. Kaia seemed to bring out that side in him.
Which brings me back to my earlier statement about girls. They cause nothing but trouble, and we guys have to clean it up all the time.
Kai squints against the wind, and his expression becomes worried. "I only see one of them."
"Where?" Jay asks, trying to see too.
"Kai!" Kaia's figure starts running towards us, and once she comes into view, I can see a panicked expression on her face.
"One of you-" Kaia throws her hands up in the air. "do your ninja stuff and get Lani! She fell overboard."
I send Kai a look. Seriously? How could Kaia still not understand that we couldn't just suddenly conjure up the power to do something supernatural? She didn't believe in the spiritual world (frankly, I don't either), but when she finally let go of her stubborn sense of logic, she also let go of her reasoning.
"Lani WHAT?!" Jay freaks out.
Oh, right. The secretive, ditzy girl fell off the Bounty. Well, she was certainly the most likely person to plummet off the ship.
Kaia's frantically moving around, and I amusedly watch as she picks up a life vessel. What is she going to do, throw it overboard and hope the ditz will grab onto it?
Kai works on calming her down. He puts his hands reassuringly on her shoulders, and Kaia physically slumps a little. She buries her face in her hands for a few moments before lifting it back out again. When she does, Kaia glares at me.
"What?" I raise an eyebrow.
"How. Can. You. Be. So. Freakin'. Calm?" Kaia grits out from her teeth. "Lani could be dead right now!"
"There's nothing we can really do about it now." I point out logically.
At that moment, winds start to push us again as what looked to be a tornado begins to land directly on the center of the deck.
"What the-" Jay begins to exclaim in surprise.
We all take a hesitant step back, unsure of how to respond to this weird phenomenon.
Eventually the winds dissipate, revealing Lani with outstretched arms.
"She's alive!" Kaia smiles as she pushes past us, not even caring that it was entirely impossible.
When Kaia reaches her, Lani is clutching her head in her hands, groaning. Evidently, Lani hit her head pretty hard.
"How did you manage to survive falling off?" Kai asks Lani incredulously. He looks her up and down, as if he's searching for some secret to be stamped somewhere on her.
"Yeah," Jay agrees, "It's impossible!"
"I-" Lani starts.
My eyes widen, and my body practically predicts what's next. Then she sways and wobbles over. Kaia, Jay, and Kai all lunge forward to help her, and I surprise myself by moving towards her too.
"Easy now," I find myself saying to her gruffly once I caught her.
"T-Thank you," Lani stammers, righting herself and pulling away. Her cheeks are flushed, but I dismiss it as a result of the cold wind whipping at us.
"I have a confession to make," Lani's voice comes out softly, as if she's afraid that we might hurt her.
Inwardly, I smirk.
I knew it!
"Okay?" Kaia nods, urging her on.
"I'm," she stops, biting her lip. Then she takes a deep breath and lets it all out. "I'm not completely human."
"WHAT?!" Jay's jaw drops in shock. Kaia blinks rapidly. Kai raises his eyebrows, and I merely frown. Her secret couldn't have possibly been just that.
"Yes," Lani all of a sudden looks like a porcelain china doll. She's about to break. "I have these strange…..powers and abilities."
"But I'm not evil or anything," she rushes to assure us. "I was going to tell you eventually, but I didn't know if you'd respond negatively."
My mind races. I struggle to put the puzzle pieces together, but then it quickly clicks.
"Oh." Is all Kai says at first. Then he risks a small smile at her, "Nobody on this ship is normal, trust me."
Kai's comment must have been partially directed to Kaia or something, because a slightly angry and indignant look flashes across her face.
"Wait," Jay says, eyes widening in realization. "Lani flew in the air…..That means-"
"We've found a descendant." I interrupt, sharing what I had discovered a few moments ago. If that was true, then there would be no getting rid of Lani. She'd be part of the team.
Oh joy.
Kai
A week later, we find ourselves beginning to fall into the same routine over and over again. Wake up early in the morning to train. Eat some breakfast and go back out to train some more. Eat lunch, then train a bit more. After all of that, we'd have free time until dinner. But we'd be so tired after dinner that we'd just go to bed after an hour or so. (Well except for Kaia. She was always trying to get us to spar with her, but only Nya did)
I spent my free time trying to beat all of our video games, while Zane meditated and Cole tried to hone his cooking skills.
Lani, still awkward in modern society, was taking lessons from Jay (in exchange for desserts). Kaia, Cole, and I all questioned whether Jay would exactly be the right one to do it, but, ultimately, he was the only who could make the time and had the patience to do it. Jay was supposed to be teaching her how to interact with people, but, of course, being the nerd ball he is, he's teaching her about technology.
Kaia was the only one still focusing on our mission, going through Lani's scrolls and about anything she could get her hands on. Kaia's never been one to just sit around idly; she always has to have something to do. I guess, though, that she just wanted to get this whole mission against the Serpentines over with. The sooner we wrapped up the whole Serpentine situation, the sooner she could go back home and marry Drew.
"So, after I type out the message on my phone, I tap the 'send' button, and whoever I want to send it to can read it." Jay explains to an enthusiastically curious Lani.
"Intriguing!" Lani claps her hands together, clearly fascinated. "It's like the much faster version of carrier pigeons!"
"Carrier what?" Jay raises his eyebrow.
"My town's way of communicating," Lani explains nonchalantly. "May I try this 'texturing'?"
"Texting," Jay automatically corrects. "And sure," he hands the phone over to Lani. "It'll be a good chance for you to practice modern communication."
"But what if I say something wrong?" Lani looks worried for a moment.
"Nah," Jay waves her off, a small and amused smile on his face. "I promise I'll take full responsibility for it."
Lani beams at him and enthusiastically texts out her message, her tongue slightly sticking out in concentration. She hits the 'send' button with a loud, satisfactory tap.
I shake my head as I watch them. I had other things that needed my attention. Like the very difficult level I was in the middle of before they distracted me. My character had to have died ten times before I snapped out of it.
"Can you guys try to keep it down?" I grumble, as I begin to press harder on the controller.
Lani immediately apologizes, a bright smile still pasted on her face, but Jay gives me a look.
"Dude," Jay says, "Why are you acting so crabby?" He pops one of Lani's chocolate chip cookies into his mouth.
"I'm not!" I protest, leaning my head to the side as I jumped over a gigantic pit in the game.
"Kai's always that way around his video games," Kaia laughs, briefly looking up from the scroll she is reading. "Isn't that right, Kai?"
She is unintentionally breaking our one week silence, and I turn to look at her at her in surprise.
A smile flickers across her face, but she quickly dives back into the contents of the scroll as soon as I catch her eyes. Kaia tightly presses her lips together, clearly remembering our argument.
I pause my game and turn to just silently stare at her.
"Well," Jay chuckles nervously, twiddling with his thumbs at the sheer discomfort of it all. "This is awkward."
The room falls into further silence.
"I still think you're being ridiculous, Kai," Kaia finally says, unrolling the scroll further so that she could continue to read.
"If it's so ridiculous, then you'll tell me why you lied to me," I argue, strangely calm.
"Please," Kaia rolls her eyes, "I don't have to tell you everything."
"Yeah," I fold my arms, "But you're kind of expected to not lie to me."
"You wouldn't understand." Is all Kaia says, still immersing herself in the scrolls.
"Try me."
Kaia hesitates for a few moments, before shaking her head. "You wouldn't understand." She repeats.
I'm about to insist some more, and probably get into another full-blown argument with Kaia when Cole bursts into the room angrily.
"Okay," He holds up his phone. "What's the meaning of this?"
Lani suppresses a giggle and Jay weakly chuckles in nervousness. Apparently whatever Lani sent him was offensive.
Kaia, out of sheer curiosity, heads over to read Cole's phone.
"Cole is so cold, he is always uptight, and his cooking is sickening?" Kaia reads out loud in confusion. Then she doubles over, laughing. "What is this, Jay, your death wish?"
Lani bites her lip and looks down, her shoulders drooping slightly. She must've not realized that she texted Cole insults.
"Me?" Jay squeaks out, seeing Cole's enraged expression. Insulting Cole and his cooking? Big no-no.
Kaia's blue eyes light up with merriment as she nods. I catch on.
"Yeah," I shrug nonchalantly, "Full responsibility, remember?"
All Jay can do in response is yelp as Cole looms menacingly over Jay.
Kaia
"You guys ready?" Nya calls out, clipboard in hand to jot down whatever interesting happens..
"Ready as I ever will be!" Lani chirps from across from me.
"Kaia?" Nya asks, turning towards me questioningly.
I take a deep breath, and shift into low stance. "Ready."
"Okay," Nya smiles, then begins to take a few cautionary steps back from where she is. "Go!"
I summon all of my will to get the water out of the bucket beside me. I had been practicing in my room, and I think I've finally gotten the general feel for it.
"Well," I hear someone say as shadows start to fall overhead from the upper decks, "This ought to be interesting."
Despite my instincts screaming at me to stay focused, I glance over my shoulder, only to see the amused and smirking faces of the boys.
Cole was the one who spoke. Kai went back onto non-speaking terms with me, and Jay was too busy making googly eyes at Nya. I swear, the boy was almost too painstakingly obvious. I'm still surprised that Nya's able to wave it off as nothing. 'Oh he's just trying to be funny' my butt.
"Kaia!"
The shouts come too late, and I barely register the pain in my stomach as the winds practically bowl me over.
"Sorry, Kaia!" Lani exclaims apologetically, heavy guilt seeping into her voice. "I thought you were ready."
"Ugh," I groan, as I straighten up. "That one really packed a punch, Lani."
But it didn't hurt as much as when Kai accused me of being a gold-digging, traitorous wench.
He didn't exactly say that, but he might as well have.
"You should try focusing, Kaia." Nya gives me a concerned look.
"Try to concentrate on becoming one with the water," Lani calls out to me helpfully.
Cole snickers at this piece of advice. I didn't know why he was having a problem with Lani, but Lani didn't seem to notice.
It was kinda sad really. Both Jay and Lani were pining for two oblivious people. But at least Nya is nice. I can't really say the same thing about Cole. He has to be one of the most sexist guys I've ever met. He doesn't come right out with it; but his actions heavily imply it, and that's what extremely annoys me.
"Become one with the water," I focus on the thought as hard as I can, shutting my eyes and just concentrating on the push and pull of the water. My hands move of their own accord, pushing forwards.
All I heard was silence for a few moments, then the sound of Nya's clipboard dropping hard onto the deck.
I hesitantly open one eye. I had managed to manipulate the water in the bucket into becoming a snake. It hissed and slither like a real snake, but it was entirely made of water.
I watch, enchanted, as it glides around me. I reach out in curiosity to touch it, and, to my surprise, my hand doesn't go straight through. It was as if the snake was solid too.
'One shall live, and one shall die.'
"What?" my eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Who? Who dies?"
The snake's eyes glow a weird reddish-purple color, and it puts its watery head against mine to stare straight into my own blue eyes.
Bright flashes flicker through my mind, too fast for me to comprehend. But dread runs through my body. Somebody I know will die.
The snake, as if depending on the calmness of my emotions, suddenly turns back into regular water that splashes all over the deck.
"Kaia!" a hand is on my shoulder. I didn't even notice the person come up to me.
The person shakes me several times, and I finally look up at the person.
"Kai?" I breathe out in confusion. Wasn't he on the upper deck a few seconds ago?
He looks at me in concern. "You spaced out for about ten minutes, and all you did was hiss to that weird snake you conjured up."
"Hiss?" I'm pretty sure I spoke, not hissed. I'm not a snake, after all.
"What did it say to you, anyway?" Nya has retrieved her clipboard, and stands next to her older brother.
"Nothing." I answer immediately. I didn't want them to freak out and think that one of us was going to die. After all, I could have just been hallucinating, right?
"Liar." Kai frowns, his voice taking on an accusatory tone.
"It was nothing of importance," I insist.
"Kaia," Kai practically growls. "Your mouth twitched twice."
"What does that mean?" Jay asks. At this point, everyone is surrounding me, while Sensei Wu and Lloyd watch from the upper decks.
"Don't you dare tell them." I point a finger at Kai menacingly. I didn't want him to give the others any sort of leverage over me.
"It means that what Kaia just said is a lie." Nya answers dryly. "It's a bad habit of hers to twitch her lips before she lies."
"I do not!" I protest. I forgot about Nya. It never crossed my mind that she'd sell me out.
Cole raises an eyebrow, looking amused. "Your mouth twitched twice. Again."
I want to throw my hands up in the air in indignation, but it'd probably make me look immature.
"Her eyebrows are twitching," Jay jokingly points out. "Does that mean anything?"
Kai puts on a mock serious face. "That means that you better run like Agni."
"Quit it!" I smack Kai in the chest with the back of my hand. He only grins tauntingly in response.
A part of me is glad that the others are being taken with this distraction. If I play along with it, they'll completely forget about pestering me.
Zane looks lost at the boys' attempt to poke fun at me. "I'm afraid that I do not understand."
"I don't either," Lani's eyes narrow in confusion. "Is this sort of banter allowed between unmarried males and females?"
"They're just messing around with Kaia," Nya explains, as she tugs Lani's arms to go back inside.
I move to follow them. Lani was probably showing Nya some of her scrolls. They certainly were interesting, that's for sure.
Everyone else heads back in, but Kai holds out his arm to block me. "Not so fast."
"What now?!" I snap when everyone's out of earshot. If he was going to rehash last week's fight…
"I…just-" Kai's arm drops and his hand moves to rub the back of his neck sheepishly.
"If you're going to apologize for being a jerk, then just forget it."
For some reason, the possibility of him apologizing irks me. Maybe it was because lately we've been on this constant cycle of fighting and forgiving each other.
"I'm not!" Kai frowns angrily and his arm drops back to his side. "If anything, you owe me!"
I start to retort back, but then I stop. Because if I responded, Kai would win.
Lloyd and Sensei Wu silently observe from the upper decks. It felt weird being watched by other people.
"I'm tired of this, Kai," I shake my head and allow myself to drop the rigid stance my body usually takes in an argument with Kai. I didn't want to act immature in front of Sensei Wu or fight Kai anymore.
For a moment, I think I catch hurt flickering in his eyes, but I dismiss it as I walk away from the argument and Kai. I've been going insane lately, after all.
Zane
During my shift on the bridge, I use the computer's search engine to tap into the population database of Ninjago.
Red hair. Female. About the age of fifteen to seventeen.
I quickly type the details I remember. I reflect on the memory some more before the color of her eyes comes back to me.
Green eyes.
I hit 'enter' and almost fifteen results show up. I scroll through the options, searching for ones that I could rule out. The majority of the results have pictures, and I'm able to narrow my choices down to five.
Three of the girls are from the Ninjago countryside, one is from Ninjago City, and the last one is from Ignacia. I was tempted to rule out Ninjago City and Ignacia, but decided that while an Earth descendant was most likely from Ninjago countryside, it was not safe to assume so.
At this moment, Jay decides to casually stroll into the control room.
"Hey buddy," Jay walks in a weird manner towards me. I suspect, though, that it is supposed to display his jauntiness. "Watcha up to?"
I do not get a chance to properly answer my comrade before Jay strolls up behind me and reads the big screen.
He whistles, "Man, are you looking for a girlfriend or something?"
I am thoroughly confused. How has my actions led him to that conclusion?
"But there is already Nya, Lani, and Kaia," I respond. "Don't I already have enough friends who are girls?"
Jay bursts out laughing, and I am further stumped. What had I said incorrectly earlier?
Eventually, his fit of laughter subsides.
"Hmmm," Jay muses as he clicks on the girl from Ninjago City. "Terra? Interesting."
The data tells us of her record and though it is clean permanent wise, she is noted for "behavioral issues".
"Why are you looking girls up, anyway?" Jay turns to me. "There's easier ways of finding a girlfriend, you know."
Before I could give any sort of reply, the sensor alarm went off.
Nya
My older brother and best friend are the two most stubborn and temperamental people that I've ever met. They used to argue a lot, but they weren't serious and the two always forgave each other in the same day. But ever since Kai's become a ninja, it's like the two are on separate planes.
"Kaia," I plead with her, attempting to do damage control on my brother's part. "Can't you patch things up with Kai?"
Kaia puts down the scroll she was reading. "I won't talk to him until he drops the ridiculous notion that I'm marrying Drew for his money."
"But you aren't, right?" I question. Most of the time, Kai was in the wrong, but it struck me as odd that Kaia was suddenly interested in Drew. I had always thought…
"Of course not!" Kaia sends me a hurt look. "Or are you seriously siding with Kai?"
"Sorry," I apologize. "But….I'm not really siding with anyone."
We fall into silence, and Lani shifts uncomfortably on the bed.
We were hanging out in Lani's designated room, reading through the scrolls. Actually, Kaia and Lani were. They were in some weird language that I couldn't read, but obviously the two could. I guess it was something about being a descendant. I doubt they realized it, or they wouldn't have included me. After all, Kaia knew how it stung when I was left out of the loop. She always tried to leave me out of things I couldn't be involved in just so that I wouldn't feel awkward or like an outcast, which I was grateful for.
"You and Kai wouldn't understand," Kaia says lowly.
"Besides," she adds, "Kai's the one who did something wrong. It's not right to read through someone else's mail."
Lani gasps at this, sitting up suddenly.
"Oh gods and goddesses!" Lani slaps her hands onto her cheeks. "I was the one who gave the letter to Kai!"
"What?!" Kaia's eyes widen.
"I didn't know." Lani wrings her hands nervously. "I asked him if he recognized it, and it seemed he did because he took it."
Kaia sighs, "It's okay, I understand."
"No," Lani bites her lip. "I still feel bad. I'm really really sorry. What happened between you and Kai is basically my fault."
"Kai and I were just destined to drift apart," Kaia says in monotone, but her blue eyes express sadness. "You don't have anything to do with it."
I reach out to pat her hand comfortingly, and Kaia sends me a small smile of gratitude.
"So," Kaia starts, a slightly teasing twinkle in her eyes. "What's happening between you and Jay?"
Almost immediately my cheeks heat up. Kaia kept heavily insisting that it was mutual on both parts, but there were times where I felt like Jay was just mocking me for the fun of it.
"You two would make such a happy couple!" Lani chimes in, her hands clapping together gleefully.
The girl probably didn't really get out much prior to now, so she had an unexplainable enthusiasm for every activity. Especially girl talk.
"There's nothing between us," I flush. I give Kaia the look to get her to stop her teasing.
"Nonsense!" Lani says cheerily. "Jay likes you and you him!"
"What about you and Cole?" I point out. Sometimes offense was the best defense.
Lani's face turns an adorable shade of pink at my comment.
I envy Lani for that. Whenever I blush, it looks like my allergic reaction to perfume.
"Cole?" Lani shrugs nonchalantly. "He is-"
"Cute?" Kaia cuts in, and she covers her mouth with her hands to hold back the laughter.
"…a very capable leader with many admirable traits…" Lani flushes, ignoring Kaia's comment.
"Uh huh," Kaia says disbelievingly. "And I bet you 'admire' his bushy eyebrows too."
Lani gets even redder, if possible.
"Why not?!" she squeaks in embarrassment. "They are completely adorable!"
Now that Kaia's grilling Lani, it comes to me that my assumption was true. Lani had a puppy-dog crush on Cole. I almost felt really bad for her. It was clear to everyone but Lani that Cole wanted nothing to do with her.
Lani sighs, clearly daydreaming about Cole.
Kaia turns to stare out the window, thinking about something else. A frown forms at her lips, and it runs through my mind that she might be thinking of Kai.
Now that the other two are lost in thought, I allow myself to ponder what Kaia and Lani said earlier. I did like Jay; that much was true. But I constantly felt like he was just talking to me as a joke for the guys. But still…. I imagined what it'd be like if he and I were to actually go out.
And then the Bounty's alarm began to ring.
Jay
For the millionth time in a row, I remind myself to try to stay cool.
"Jay," Cole grumbles, "Quit it."
"Sorry," I mumble, as I stop fidgeting around. The tree branch stops swaying. "Some people can't help it."
"I don't get it," Kaia frowns from below me. "Why did we leave Nya at the Bounty again?"
"Because she'd only get herself hurt," I explain.
I wanted to say the same about Kaia and Lani, but Kaia would punch me, and Lani would give me look that made me feel like I kicked some puppies or something. I'm not sure which one's worse.
"Nya can hold her own!" Kaia protests.
"Stop talking!" Cole hisses as he leans down to hear more.
The sensors on the Bounty had picked up Serpentine numbers gathering in the forests near a small village. Of course, the programming for it was done by yours truly….with some (okay, a lot) of help from Nya.
"Huh," Lani suddenly whispers from next to Zane. "I could've sworn that the Serpentines used to have their own language. I wonder why they speak English now."
Cole sends her a look but says nothing.
"I never really thought of it that way," Kaia says to Lani in a soft undertone.
"You are very observant," Zane complimented Lani. "And you think quite logically."
Lani's eyes take on a slightly panicked expression.
"I like rainbows, unicorns, and butterflies!" She suddenly blurts out.
We all give her a weird look, and I'm pretty sure we're all thinking the same thing about Lani: it's moments like these where she's a ditz.
Kai's the only one to not say anything. Which is totally odd. I notice him looking up at Kaia a few times though. The two must have gotten into another fight. Man, they argue like cats and dogs!
"What are going to do?" Kaia asks Cole.
I look down the tree at the fire that the Serpentine have gathered around. Thankfully, not all of the Serpentine were free from the tombs. If they were, we'd have a major crisis on our hands.
"They appear to have finished their meeting," Zane observes.
A big purple spot that I assume to be Pythor picks up a huge boulder and the few Serpentine with him slither into the hole underneath it.
"They're escaping," Kai finally says. "We have to get them."
"No we don't." Kaia's voice takes on a defensive tone. "They don't even know we're here."
"And let's keep it that way," I input. Serpentines were ugly and dangerous. Period.
Cole sighs, "Kaia and Jay are right. We should go while we still have the advantage."
"We could take them out right now!" Kai protests.
"Actually," Lani speaks up timidly for the first time after her outburst. "the Serpentine are known to have countless tunnels underground. It's practically like a labyrinth down there."
"Lani makes a good point," Cole gruffly states. Lani beams in response.
"Whatever," Kai growls as he yanks his hood back over his face.
"Kai-" Kaia starts.
She doesn't get to finish. As soon as Kai hits the ground, he is running at full speed back to the Bounty that's about a mile away.
Lani drops down from the tree next. In no time, she's practically jetting off, already ahead of Kai.
"Impressive," Zane states as the rest of us follow. "She is almost as fast as Jay."
"No one's as fast as me!" I proclaim, picking up the pace. I'm going to leave them in the dust. There's a possibility that I'll be the green ninja after all.
Next time on Ninjago:
Tired of being treated like a damsel-in-distress, Kaia enlists Nya and Lani to join her on a totally awesome adventure without the guys to prove they're just as capable. But when they end up in the abandoned tunnels with no way out, will Kaia be able to swallow her pride and admit defeat? Or will she show everyone that girls do have the capability of handling themselves at the least?
Meanwhile, the guys search for the girls when they don't come back to the Bounty on time. Kai runs into familiar acquiantances and must deal with the repercussions of 'kidnapping' Kaia, and Zane is one step closer to finding the possible Earth descendant.
Yeah, I STILL need to work on my endings. I realized that this chapter was kinda long, but on the other hand, if I continued it, it'd be even LONGER.
I apologize if this chapter is horrible. And if your brain screamed of boredom and you practically beat up the 'x' on your internet trying to leave.
I also know that my author notes can take up two pages on their own normally, so I'll just quit trying to explain the story to you guys. I probably confused you in the process anyway.
Please give me your comments, opinions, and suggestions!
