To clear up any misconceptions of Cole's return from the dark side: When Lloyd electrocuted him (it was Lloyd, right?) it kind of shocked him out of his daze, but when he saw Zane murdered by Kai, it propelled him COMPLETELY out of the darkness. I forgot to add a little snippet of that in there, so some of you may be just a tad confuzzled. Sorry about that! :)

I tried to put as much emotion as I can without breaking my heart any more in this chapter—I want to portray all the feelings of the characters, maybe a little minus Misako because, well, what's she gonna do? :/ I feel like she didn't know Zane too well, so she's not going to have much of a reaction to his death. I really wanted to have this chapter show more of what everyone was feeling—in the beginning, it kind of describes what everyone's doing, but more towards the end, I'm going to put a little more depth into what everyone's thinking. Or, well, what they CAN think. I previously lost my best friend Caroline to a drunk driver two years ago, and I just remember not being able to think at all for a long, long time. I wanted to make her be remembered in a way that I think she would smile at if she was still here. That's partially why I'm giving Caroline a bigger part in the story rather than having her be a background, nothing-to-do-with-anything OC like Sakura and Ellecia and their brothers, who you probably won't hear anything from because they bored me to death. :/ Which is probably a tragedy on seven different levels in the writing world when your own characters bore you, but they were there because they had to be, not that I wanted them to be!

But. Anyway. That's a little briefy on who Care is and the others, and what you can expect from this chapter. Those of you who were hoping to have clarification on the Jay, Nya, and Cole situation might have to wait a second! Apologies by the dozen, but I needed to end things with Zane first. :( Which, by the way, SHATTERED MY INSIDES HAVING TO DO! But there's a reason for it which you guys will figure out a little later on in the story. I love Zane dearly, and having to kill him was awful—even making Kai murder him was killing me! But again, you'll FIND OUT WHY! I actually cried writing this chapter, so I hope it's as emotional as I could manage to make it. So.

Thank you guys for reading my super long intro, and thank you for sticking with me throughout the whole NIGHTMARES FOR A NINJA career so far—you guys are amazing and I don't know what I'd be doing half the time if not writing for you all. May a higher entity watching over us all bless your souls!

IN LOVING MEMORY OF CAROLINE R. LEONE

1997-2011

Ask yourself: Is it worth it? ©

Don't drive under the influence. By taking that one

small step in the wrong direction, you're also taking the last of hers.

She'll never walk again because you got behind that wheel.

THE AUTUMN OF TWILIGHT

6. The End

"Hurry, hurry, get him aboard, quickly now!" Julien waved his arms through the dark of the storm, a thick wall of rain blocking his sight. He squinted to see through the thickness, only able to visualize the rough outlines of the Ninja reboarding the ship. His old eyes focused harder, a strain to see his only family through the rain. He held his hand over his brow line like a visor. "Come now! Hurry!"

Caroline scrambled over the railing, catching her boot on the wooden planks just barely before collapsing into the puddles, becoming little lakes scattered along the surface, condemning the wood to fend for itself. She could barely feel herself fall, feel the way the water splashed her face as she laid numbly on her side, trying to figure out how in the world she was supposed to push herself back up.

Jay shoved Lloyd over the railing. The green ninja barely caught his balance. He looked around at the familiar surroundings—the mast, the stairs leading below the Bounty 2's main deck, the windows showing the machinery/mechanism room—yet he wasn't able to make sense of them. As they'd held meaning to him before, they seemed like numb retreats now, faltered by the way his heart was beating slowly beneath his chest when really it felt like a black hole had sucked his insides dry.

Jay worked as hard as he could to work with reborn Cole to heave Zane's heavy, limp body over the railing. Angus reached down over the railing, his quick small body allowing him to have scampered up the anchor's rope to warn Julien of...Jay swallowed the lump in his throat. Watching Zane's head fall back limply as if there was no life in him in the first place was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do.

Cole pushed with his shoulders, trying to somehow catapult Zane over the side, using every last ounce of strength his unpossessed body could force. The rain fell hard against his bare chest, working welts the size of his fist into his skin. He finally, with the holy release of Zane onto the Bounty's deck, was able to move aside for Jay to haul himself up over before helping himself up with a divided feeling of loss contorting his insides.

Angus and Lloyd carefully carried Zane's limp form into the mechanical room, moving quickly as they tried to somehow make this easier. On the examination table, they laid him gently. Lloyd's heart wrenched at the sight of Zane's open eyes staring into the ceiling, the life drained from the icy blue irises. With the awful task of powering down, there was no illuminating light behind them, nothing but dim, cold, false irises in the coldest, most dead stare Lloyd had ever seen.

Nya ran up the steps into the pouring rain, her blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She squinted to see through the heavy water pouring down on the deck of the Bounty, the crack of thunder loud in the distance. She licked the water drizzling between her lips, a refreshment to her clenched throat. Behind her, Misako rested a comforting hand in the curve of her shoulder. Their talk had been long and tedious, but it had also driven Nya to a conclusion, as heartbreaking as it had to be to make it. She glanced around the deck and saw two familiar forms hustling across the deck—she could make out that black hair anywhere. She gasped. "Cole!" She yelled. The figure turned, startled, as she plowed Into him, almost completely knocking him off his feet. He was soaking wet, clinging rain to her nightclothes, but she didn't care. She only felt the greatest of happiness she'd ever encountered, a feeling of immense, intense flying, a force her heartbeat quickened to feel. She'd been without him too long. Nya would've clung to him forever, except his gaze rested fearfully in the direction of the mechanism room. She frowned. "Zane..." He murmured softly. Nya's heart stopped.

Jay ran into the mechanism room, flinging open the door, ignoring the reunion on the deck. Zane lay limply on the table, his clothes soaked raw, clinging to his skin. The Tinkerer had forced him to shear his shirt, tossing the wet cloth aside onto the exile of the floor. The panel, rusted, was being attacked by Julien's crowbar, a seemingly cruel punishment for Zane. His heart screamed as the Tinkerer angrily, forcibly, quickly tore at the panel, to no avail. He howled with anger. Desperation bled from his face so painfully Jay felt his heart tear. He hustled toward him. "Careful! You'll break him..."

Never in his life had Jay thought he would say those words.

Caroline pulled out a small, screwdriver-like tool from the drawer placed in the corner of the workshop, tears pouring down her face. She hoped, prayed with every fiber of her being that they could save Zane. As she rushed back to her father, she worked the point of the tool into the fine edge between the panel's side and Zane's skin, trying to pull a chink in the dooming rust. Caroline didn't understand why, but she felt like she had been torn into two, her whole everything ripped in half by this dooming thing that she'd been taught, created, not to feel. She'd been programmed not to react to death. This agony she felt was forbidden—so why was she feeling it?

Cole plowed into the room. Running to Zane's bedside, he grabbed the nindroid's hand, giving it the most comforting squeeze he figured he could manage. Beside him, Caroline sobbed audibly as she worked at his panel. Nya ran to Jay's side and, horrified, stared at what once was Zane but now was the mechanical corpse of the nindroid they'd known and loved. Cole felt the freezing cold of death loom over him, the aura surrounding the body lying before him shattering his heart into fragments, fragments so small, he'd never be able to fit the pieces back together.

This was what it felt like.

As Caroline wrenched open the panel, Julien pounced on it, using his wrenches and screwdrivers quickly, a skill devised from years of speed-repairing his robots. He was so desperate, he felt like a crazed, cave-driven man. He didnt know what he would do if he lost Zane. He didn't think he'd be able to live without him. No, he didn't think; he KNEW he couldn't. When he was forced to the island with the monster, he constantly thought about his son, constantly wondering if he was okay, if he was getting enough rest, if he had a place to stay. All these ifs you considered as a parent, because you wanted what was best for your child, wanted what was right for them. You didn't think twice when it came to them. Everything in you was just for them, and emotion was always there, always a factor in your life because you loved them so, so much. And whenever you looked at them, you felt it. It was real emotion. You'd look at them and see just how much they've grown, think about how you've helped them in their journey through life. Thinking about what strengths they've gained, what weaknesses they've overcome. When a smile came to their face, you'd see the truth behind it: Your child was happy. And so were you. You thought about the days when they were younger, just taking their first steps; the lessons you taught them; the way they grinned when they accomplished their first real, true goal. For Zane, it had always been perfecting his cooking. He'd been so determined to wield that spoon like a weapon. Every time he mastered a dish, Julien had watched triumph pour over his face. He knew just how Zane felt: accomplished. Why? Because he'd done it himself. He'd been a wonderful parent. He'd been all Zane ever needed him to be.

And every parent dreaded that phone call, every parent dreaded that knock on the door when they'd fling it open to find the police officer standing grimly on their steps. Julien had feared that instinctively, although he'd always known Zane was built to forge through, not collapse at the seams. But what he feared more was the day he Expired—the day his mechanical technologies and inner functions ceased the proper work. When one gear clogged, all the others would clog, too; a fatal chain reaction in which ended in Zane faltering a stance in the middle of an action he hadn't anticipated would kill him. Julien had never hoped to see his Expiration. Never, not in a million years. He'd programmed Zane to last longer.

But it appeared the slightest of things could go wicked. He pulled, tugging at the gears, but even as they limply complied on their rotational axis, Julien had a false hope somewhere in his heart. They still steamed from the electrical charge Angus had informed him had caused Zane's faltering clockworks. Each panel, every chip, every switch had been affected by the blow; not to help the matter, this freak downpour had only proverbially squashed the chicken running uselessly without his head. He refused to see the fault in the stars, though, while running across the room in search of a new memory chip plate to restore inside of Zane's chest. While he was there, he figured he'd search for more efficient gears. He sifted through the boxes for correctly matching sizes.

Normal parents feared seeing the white or black body bags lying on the metal stretcher aback the hospital while the coroner zipped the last of the zipper to the top, sealing their children's fate. But Julien feared the gruesome day when his child would lie atop the metal table smoking out his insides, a goodbye forgotten in the clutches of time.

Caroline collapsed. Lloyd sidestepped as she fell to her knees, unable to hold her own weight anymore; the sobs shaking her body made the whole table shake. He watched down on her with no clue what to do, until finally, with a fleeting thought, he knelt on the floor beside her and cried, too.

Cole clung to Zane's hand, pulling the cool fingers to his lips, blinking so hard the tears rolled down his cheeks in a race to the finish line of his chin. "It's gonna be okay, Frosty," he whispered against Zane's skin, even though the lie didn't help none. "It's gonna be okay..."

Misako reached down to help Lloyd and Caroline up. The sweet, heart faced queen of adventure had become a broken, shattered soul, her heart broken beneath the surface, unredeemable for refunds. As a parent, Misako couldn't imagine what Julien was feeling; then again, she didn't want to know. She placed a hand to Lloyd's shoulder as he pulled Caroline's slight body against his, pressing his cheek to her hair as they both sobbed uncontrollably.

Jay stared into Zane's cold, bottomless black eyes. The life in them was gone.

"Maybe if I can just find a piece that is the same size as his old one," Julien rushed towards where Zane's corpse lay, holding six different gears in his hands. "I can replace them, and fix him!" He began twisting at a bolt, his old, slow arm jerking in quick unnatural movements. Across the table from Jay, he saw the dread in Cole's naturally gray eyes deepen, for he was thinking a similar subject as Jay was: It wasn't going to be possible.

Jay felt his insides raw with the wool steel of life scratching at him. His mind seemed seven steps behind reality. His body was out of tune with the truth lying in front of him as obvious as a freaking body bag. Zane could've been lying in his coffin and Jay never would've been able to understand any of it. He felt like a little kid after his grandparents had died; he'd attended the funeral silently, quietly, without quite being "in the know," so to speak, of the everlasting events confining his old grandfather and mother into the ground beneath his feet. It didn't seem humanly possible that Zane, of all people, had been the first to go down so valiantly, so bravely. And at Kai's hand. It was the evil that had corrupted Kai, that incessant color green that seemed to be sitting atop everyone's shoulder like the evil parrot. He didn't understand what significance it held to anything, but there was something; it was this green shade that had killed his brother, his best friend, his nindroid. A nindroid who now collapsed under the weight of the world. Who'd never hurt anyone (who wasn't evil) ever.

Zane had been trying to undo a wrong, correct his fault as he froze Caroline instead of Pythor. Jay had watched in impatience. The ongoing debate of deciding whether or not he should jump from the anchor and help him had been struggling in his mind when he saw Kai hold up that Taser a beat too late. Instantly after he'd seen that happen, there had been a debate no longer. Jay hadn't wasted any time crossing the thick sands, ignoring the noises of Cole's gasps behind him, a startle from his electrified daze. He could never describe to great intentions what awful feelings had completely torn through his mind and heart at that exact moment, even as the branches of blue lightning curled around Zane's form, jostling him from his nindroid behavior. After Caroline had shattered her binds of ice, Jay joined her kneeling in the sand, soon accompanied by Lloyd's his nail-torn face and Cole's admittedly still very dazed but half normal expression.

Watching the emotion slowly drain from Zane's face had been the hardest. Yeah, Zane had this dumb blank expression on all the time, but it was emotion, Jay had decided, that was portrayed differently than others'. But when Zane had been electrified, all that had slowly disappeared. The blankness was gone, leaving his eyes empty as their iridescent lights dimmed to a gloom. Zane's convulsions in the sand had made the real, true feeling of a shattered soul wash over Jay. It made him reach so many conclusions he'd never actually considered before in his lifetime, but here they were, blatant and obvious as the death in front of him.

You didn't realize how much you could love someone, how dependent you were on just their very presence in the room, until they couldn't inhabit your world anymore. Until they no longer stood by your side, you didn't understand how much you needed them. Jay needed that sense of security from Zane. He needed the little comments that the nindroid made that ended up in laughter because no one could help it. If there was no Zane in the world, who would walk around in his cheesy pink apron with a pie in his hands? If there was no Zane in the world, who would give direct numbers and positions to you even if you didn't ask him to? If there was no Zane in the world, who would walk in on you when you were getting dressed because he had no sense of personal space? Who would play peacekeeper? Who would sing like an idiot when his funny switch turned on? Who would be obsessed with a mechanical bird who he always referred to as 'friend'? Who would see strange snakes in the doorway? Who would see invisible birds soaring through the sky? Who would do all these quirky little things that made Zane be Zane because he could breathe and because he could breathe, however much he didn't mean to, he would do these things that made you love him so much; he'd do these things because he was Zane and because he just could and because because because BECAUSE—

And because of Zane…there were no more because's to describe, because of the one because left: Because there was no Zane. And that very thought alone made it so hard to breathe that Jay couldn't see anything in front of his face for lack of oxygen. He couldn't imagine a world where Zane didn't exist. He'd never lived in one. What would he do without the nindroid? How would he survive?

Cole closed his eyes, forcing himself to take deep breaths, the breaths he usually would if he were exercising in the morning. Deep, long breaths designed solely for calming and stimulating the lungs' activity every minute. He was reminded of this by Jay subconsciously as the other ninja practically hyperventilated in the other corner.

Cole felt terrible. To think he'd spent the majority of Zane's last moments with the forced intent to kill was sickening. He hadn't tried too hard to battle the ever-rising smoke Samokai had blown upon him when the doorbell had rung that morning at Sakura's after Cole's miraculous recovery. His memories of this time in life were dim, barely audible, but their cries to remain remembered were the only thing tying him down to their hellish qualities. After trying out his legs from their consistent misuse, Sakura had turned him with a gasp, where he'd found the skeleton hovering in the doorway. From what Cole could gather using the memories he had and the lack of memories he'd wielded when faced with Samokai, the old foe he didn't recognize, it appeared that Samokai led the village. He'd been hot on the notion that Cole—remembering himself to embarrassingly enough think his name was Kai—was interested in putting on a samurai helmet and stepping forth to battle. It had taken Samokai six persuasive techniques and one pinch of green powder to turn Cole into the mega weapon they could use against the nearing ninja. That had turned out poorly, except the fact that in the process of victory, they'd lost Zane.

His heart wrenched. He couldn't help this falling feeling in his stomach, the way anger ignited inside him. How could Kai do this, to his own brother? HOW? It was absurd. Cole hadn't even seen the smallest of flickers of pain or regret in Kai's eyes as he shocked the life right out of Zane—he'd only seen that sick determination to prove a point. Kai had always been a haughty bastard, but with the way he hovered over Zane's body laughing had been the turning point. Cole realized, with a start, that this was the end. This wasn't the band of brothers, as ninjas, fighting evil anymore. No, it was worse. Kai had sunk to the dark side; Zane was nothing but a piece of rotting junk lying on the table in front of him; Sensei Wu was lying in the ground in the cemetery off Ninjago City; and he'd allowed himself to become so possessed, he had the intent to kill Lloyd by ripping his damn face off.

And the thought of it made it so difficult to breathe, he couldn't move.

Cole watched Zane's face for a moment longer. Zane. Gone. Those two words lingered in his mind, a ghost looming over his shoulder, a little demon poking at his back. The Tinkerer ran back, crying something about replacing the gears. And Cole could tell, deep inside his black heart, that Julien was struggling to accept this, just as they all were. Cole didn't want to believe it. He decided he didn't have to. Zane wasn't dead. He was just…sleeping.

Oh, who am I kidding? He thought, and dropped Zane's hand. Don't lie to yourself, Cole. You know it. You do. He stared hard down at the body, mangled, torn by the rain. Little raindrops of water plopped down the side off of the table, creating a pool on the floor beside Lloyd's feet. Everyone stood there, dripping water onto the floor, soaking wet in the middle of a room full of mechanics, staring at someone who wasn't coming back, who never was coming back. Who was gone. Forever. What was the point, then? Staring at him wasn't going to save anyone's life.

Where Cole's heart should've been, there was nothing but a giant, black hole that someone had punched right out of him.

Suddenly very angry, he slammed his fist on the table, jostling Julien. He clenched his fists, pressing them against the table, trying to control the rage blooming from his insides, threatening to be let out. Screw this. He growled profanities right and left by the dozens, all aiming them at Kai, who wasn't near but should hear them anyway.

Jay rounded the table, grabbing Cole's shoulder. Cole flicked soggy hair out of his eyes, watching Jay stare at him with this dead, cold look. It was as lifeless as the body spread out before them. And all Jay did… was stare.

"Aha! Got it!" Lloyd peered over Caroline's head at Julien as he tossed aside an old gear. Caroline clung to him for whatever reason she did, but Lloyd didn't turn her away, instead embracing her, knowing that if it was him he would've needed the comfort, too. Really, he had no clue who she was. She was one of the robots who worked aboard the Bounty 2 and that was just about it on the background details, other than the fact that she had been the one to steal Lloyd from the hospital, bringing him back to the ship. He was still a little choppy on story details, but from what he'd known as he woke up, Caroline had been aware of a cure to save Lloyd. Then, as he'd woken…He'd been cured.

Suddenly, trying to think of anything but Zane in a refusal to believe it was the end, he turned to Misako, breathing in the tears and frown on her old face. "Mom?" She glanced at him. "Where's Dad?" He realized he hadn't seen his father since he'd told his parents that he wanted to kill Garmadon, a fate in which had been driven by Lloyd's anger and rage at his father's evil wrongdoings.

Misako's face darkened. "Your father left long ago," she said flatly.

"What?" Lloyd gasped. Everyone turned their heads towards them, except the Tinkerer, working determinedly on Zane's panel. Lloyd winced. No Zane. "Why?" Jay asked at the same time Nya said, "What for?"

"He didn't want to deal with you any longer, Lloyd." Misako spoke only to her son, a flat monotone that caused him to shake his head in disbelief. Though he'd never blame his parents for their sudden hatred, he couldn't believe there was no goodbye in there, at all, for some reason. Did he deserve a goodbye? Not really. Why did it shock him so much, then?

"Wait, so Papa G just up and left?" Jay asked. "Seriously. Whoa."

Misako barely glanced at him, instead crossing her arms over her chest. Her gaze was cold, flat, and unconcerned. It was a disappointment Lloyd had never been bestowed before. He'd really screwed up, he knew. "I, too, was just preparing to leave when Nya asked for some assistance," she continued. "If not for her man problems, I'd have been long gone by now."

Under the dim, rocky light, everyone glanced at Nya. Since there was only one light, swinging from the ceiling in the turmoil of the ride, no one could see the blush rise deeply above her cheeks, turning her to mush. Lloyd wiped a drizzle of blood from his cheek. The rain had washed off most of it, leaving the five long scrapes down his face and the bloody slice at his throat bare for all to see; however, blood still trickled across the wet surface of his skin.

Lloyd looked at Misako again. The lack of lighting left a shadow over her pleasant face. "Mom…"

"I mean, I would've been halfway through Ninjago by now if you hadn't stopped me," she continued, turning to Nya, now. Nya gave her a disproving glare, but Misako continued, a steamboat plowing through the slush in the river. "Why turn to me? Do you think I care about your problems?"

Ouch. Misako was being a little too vicious. Was she really that upset with Lloyd?

A second later, he decided: Yes. Yes she is.

Misako provided a well enough distraction to take everyone's eyes off Zane, something that they were thankful yet not-so-grateful for. Lloyd glanced at his mother again, watching her ears practically blow steam in Nya's direction, who frowned and cowered against her steely gaze. "I-I thought you could help me," Nya stammered.

"Help you? Why would I want to do that? You're the most pathetic creature I've ever seen!"

"MOM!"

"Hey!" Jay stared at her. "Watch it! That's my girlfriend you're talking to!"

Misako rolled her eyes. "You won't be saying that much longer," Misako threatened as Nya shook her head vigorously. Lloyd caught Jay watching both of them with a frown.

"Why not?" He asked.

"Jay, no!" Nya waved her hands at him. "Don't listen to her. She's just angry—"

Misako rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, you were drabbling about it to me for the entire hour they were gone!" She turned to Jay, drinking in his frown, his shifty gaze flickering back and forth from the protesting Nya and Misako. Lloyd's mother gave a small smile, but not one offering a peace. It warned that Misako had something important to say, and she was going to say it. Lloyd had seen it many times on her face. Many times too much.

"Did you really think you were the only one who mattered to her, Jay?" Misako asked. It forced a deeper look of consternation to his face. Nya shook her head vigorously. "Ignore her, Jay!"

Jay looked at both of them, unsure of what to do.

"Did you?" Misako continued. "Answer me!"

Jay's face reddened—that much Lloyd could see under the swinging of the light above. "Well, I-I kind of always couldn't believe it, but that's…normal, because I'm, you know, I'm Jay, and—and she's Nya, and so it was a shock to me that she'd ever, like, you know, go for me, but—why is this important?"

"Jay!" gasped Nya. "Don't listen to her, she's just trying to—"

"Because," Misako went on as though Nya had never spoken, "it's just a shock to me that you'd believe that she'd only ever be with you."

"No! Jay!'

Now Jay was ignoring Nya. Cole's head had lifted, watching the scene unfold around him. Zane was not forgotten, but he was postponed, the flicker of a thought in the back of their minds but also the biggest thing they were seeing. "What, uh, what are you talking about?" Jay cleared his throat, hands on his hips. His brows furrowed.

"Well the baby, of course," Misako said like it was obvious.

"Baby?" Cole stared, startled, at Nya, who watched him back with a pleading look across her pretty face, a begging for forgiveness—but to who Lloyd couldn't tell. He stared at her, too, a shock. Like, gross, he thought.

"Why, a baby!" Julien barely turned to Nya, a smile on his old face. It clashed with Nya's terrified look. "Congratulations!" He cried before turning back to Zane's panel.

"What about my baby?" Jay stared hard at Misako. There was also something in his eyes—a begging from himself for there to be a "not what I'm thinking" underneath Misako's words.

"Well, did you ever think that maybe…Maybe that baby belongs to someone else?"

"Like who?" Jay's tone had fallen menacingly. The air around them had gone cold, and Nya begged for him to close his ears, to block the lies from himself, but he waved her off. "Be quiet, will you?" He snapped. She drew away with the drizzle of tears trickling down her cheeks in a cascade of waterfall. She began to sob. Lloyd watched his mother.

"Ask him." Misako nodded to what looked like Jay, but when Lloyd followed her line of vision, it landed directly on Cole.

Cole froze. His heart pounded in his ears, the echo of the briefest kiss of memory now tearing this whole reunion apart like paper. He stared hard at Nya, trying to get her to say it wasn't true again, just so he could hear it, but she reached for Jay over Zane's dead body, begging him through her tears. But it was as though Jay had blocked her out. Cole raised his eyes to Jay's, watching so many emotions play songs in his eyes, watching horror and anger and betrayal and hurt crash the little melody you usually saw in the deep green of his irises. Jay was like a book: You could usually read the story in his eyes instantly after he wrote it, a feat in which Cole wasn't digging too much now. But his own stupor dug into his black, empty chest. He didn't think he'd heard correctly. Baby? Okay, he'd heard that. But…Cole's baby?

Impossible.

"What…" Jay inhaled, staring at Cole. "Please, please tell me it's not true," he begged, beseeching Cole with the shaking of his head, the restiveness in his eyes probably mimicked by Cole's own. "Please tell me you didn't sleep with her."

"I…" Cole rubbed his forehead. Crap. "Uh, didn't?"

"Oh you LIAR!" Jay exploded, leaping backward. Chagrin obscured beneath the heavy damper of his bangs, Jay took a moment to rub his hands through his hair, trying hard to believe what was happening. God, so many things were happening. Cole tried his best to fix the wrong he'd done—but then again, glancing down at Zane, look where it had gotten the nindroid.

Either way, Jay was going to kick his ass.

"Jay, please," Nya rounded the table, reaching towards him, but Jay swatted away her hands as though they were infected. Cole was finally able to observe, now, the way her pajamas clung to her body, forcing the small, round bump of her stomach to become visible. It was like someone punched him in the gut. My fault, he thought. That's my fault.

Oh, Lord, was he going to be sick.

He'd just broken his best friend's heart; he'd just torn it from his chest and stepped all over it. What the hell was he doing? What had he been thinking? It was one stupid little night, when he'd been hanging out over the upper deck of the Bounty, catching the brief gusto of wind in the air to calm his nerves. He'd had that stupid nightmare again. The one where his past came back to haunt him. The Monster, as it had climbed through his window, reaching for him, giving a menacing laugh as it laid a hand on his shoulder, just as it had all those years ago. He could actually feel the contoured outline of the indents on its hands as it touched him, jostling him awake. "Cole," it had whispered, tapping its pretty little pink nails on his arm. "Cole…I've come back for you!"

Cole had shivered in the darkness. The stars overhead had been bright, powerful rays of acceptance gliding down on him. The Monster wasn't here, he'd reminded himself. It isn't, and you'll live for another day. You'll be fine.

Then Nya had walked up the deck, startled to see him. A fine blush had puckered her cheeks. "Oh, hi," she'd murmured quietly.

"Uh. Hi?"

Cole couldn't remember how it had happened there, but he remembered the way she threw herself into his arms, after the complaining about her fight with Jay, and pressing her mouth against his. He remembered thinking he didn't want to. Thinking about Jay and how wrong it was for him to even consider doing it. How the tiny little feelings he'd felt for Nya were nothing, how he shouldn't feed them because she felt so completely alone, torn by Jay and Kai's arguments, sick of having to fight with them both. Cole had sympathized. He could never imagine how awful it had to be in the midst of it—he knew how awful it was just watching. He remembered thinking he didn't want to see her in that kind of pain, and let her lead.

But now…what had he? A baby he hadn't asked for and a brokenhearted Jay? How could he? How could she, when she knew, in her heart, that she loved Jay? Or…she was supposed to.

Jay was shrieking when Cole came back to focus. "…Don't BELIEVE YOU!" He screamed. "I can't believe you'd DO THIS TO ME!"

Nya sobbed. "Jay!" She cried. "Jay, please, if you'd just hear me out, it isn't what you think it is!"

"'Isn't what I think it is'?" He repeated incredulously, whirling on her. He gave a loud laugh, bending over into a crouch, fisting his hands to his lips. The ghost of a bitter smile sewed itself to his face. When he stood, he stared at her. "How can it not be what I think it is? It's you being a…It's you cheating on me with him." He jerked his thumb in Cole's direction. The condescending finger shot a miniscule of lightning in his direction, a zap catching his arm, which actually really hurt, but Cole bowed his head knowing he deserved it. "One of my own best friends, Nya! What were you th—no, you know what, I don't want to know." Jay dismissed her with a wave of his hand. Tears surged his eyelids. "I loved you with all my heart. Loved you. And now…you've just…you've broken it." He turned again, facing them, with his face crestfallen, his eyes empty. Cole reached out a hand without thinking, but Jay stared at it like it was offering him a bowl of petrified mouse brains. "First Sensei, then Kai, and then Zane"—his voice cracked—"and now you. What have I done to deserve this?" Jay reached into his pocket, removing a small, circular, gleaming object. Tears drizzled down his cheeks. "Here's your stupid ring." He threw it at Nya.

Recoiling, Nya flinched as it bounced off her arm. "Jay, please—"

Jay ignored her, storming out the mechanical room, letting in the brief sound of pouring rain before the door slammed shut with a bouncing bang, a sound that ricocheted off the walls, the final jagged, cracked note foretelling exactly what a broken heart sounded like.