Ayeee, so this might get a little intense. I'm sorry.

I wrote it a while back but I figure you would like it and I needed an update anyway, so yay! XD

HOPE YOU LIKE


Earth and fire. Fire and earth. Fire depends on earth. Fire feeds off the earth. Without the earth, fire cannot find fuel, therefore it cannot burn. If the earth crumbles, fire can be no more.

But, does earth ever depend on fire? No one has ever thought about that matter before. What would happen if fire was extinguished and disappeared into the depths of darkness but earth was still there? Earth could function. Earth would stand firm. Earth would have no need to crumble.

But, it would be without light. There would be no warmth, no flickering shine. No hearth. No soft glow to bring cheerfulness into a gloomy room. There would be nothing but darkness. The earth would be sad, desolate, and frightening. Gloom and despair would capture everything. Fear would rule where light was no more.

So, technically speaking, earth didn't need fire for support. But, without fire, earth would be engulfed in darkness.

FIREFIREFIREFIRE

"Hold on, Kai!"

"We're coming!"

"Just hold on!"

"We're going to save you!"

The cries of his friends echoed in his otherwise blank mind. His body ached everywhere, and he was pretty sure several bones were crushed. Of course he couldn't really feel it. He couldn't feel anything, or see, or hear. All he was aware of was wetness, cold, and pain.

EARTHEARTHEARTHEARTH

Cole grabbed loosely onto the anchor chain of the Bounty. Their flying ship was a little ways up in the sky. He looked up, almost unfeeling, and saw his friend's sister peering over the edge of the rail, waiting eagerly for their return.

What would he tell her? How could he, the leader of the ninja, walk right up to the sister of his best friend, and tell her...Kai wasn't coming home? He couldn't do it. He physically wasn't capable of doing this excruciatingly painful task.

The other two ninja, Jay and Zane, were climbing slowly up the chain. Cole knew they too were grieving deeply, but at the moment he could only think of himself.

The image of his friend, hanging onto life by just strings, literally. The other three called out to him. "Hold on, we're coming. Just hold on. We...will save you." But they couldn't. They didn't. They failed Kai when he needed it most. And now. He was gone.

Cole swung himself over the rail onto the Bounty deck. His eyes were hollow, like a dark tunnel but you couldn't see the light at the end. His normally bright, brown eyes were filled with gray sorrow.

And Nya noticed that before anything. Something was wrong, very wrong. She watched as the three ninjas: Cole, Jay, and Zane, circled around her, silently, limply, as if their minds no longer worked the way they were supposed to.

"What is it?" Nya asked, desperate. "What happened? Where's Kai? Where's my brother?" She looked around with wild eyes at the gloomy group. Though all their expressions were agonizingly sorrowful, they were different.

Jay, the ninja of lighting, was staring at his feet, eyes red and rimmed with tears. He was typically more emotional and sensitive than the others, but the most lighthearted and the clown of the group. It terrified Nya that he would be crying, when all he ever did was laugh.

She glanced at Zane, the ninja of ice. He was looking intently at her, with sympathetic eyes, but mouth in a grim line. The smart, cool ice ninja was busy contemplating whatever terrible thing had happened. Nya could tell, and that was almost as scary as Jay's expression.

But the worst, most petrifying expression was of the leader, the master of earth. Cole. Nya tried to catch his gaze, which traveled across the skies staring into nothingness. The brown eyes were hollow, and rather than rimmed with red and tears from crying, they were overtaken my shadows. Shadows and hollowness, that only hinted of a shattered heart. The master of earth, their steady, strong leader, was fallen. What had happened so terrible for Cole to fall apart? For earth to crumble.

"What...happened..." Nya's voice trembled, as she already knew the answer she would be given. This couldn't be happening. She had to hear it with her own ears, what had truly happened, and that he...her brother was truly gone, and even then she wouldn't believe it.

"Nya, I am so sorry," Zane stepped forward. "We tried to save him, but our efforts were in vain. He is gone."

"No..." Nya sank to her knees, devastation evident in her eyes. She put her face in her hands and sobbed.

Jay moved towards her, kneeling down, and wrapping his girlfriend in a tight embrace. He knew this should be harder for her than any of them.

While the rest still had at least one parent, Kai and Nya's parents had died when they were very young. They were each other's only real family. Until now.

Cole didn't dare look at Kai's sister. He could hear her sobs, as Jay tried to comfort her. But, he could hardly care what anyone else felt, when he felt so terrible himself. No, terrible wasn't the right word. Try, agonized. Devastated. Shattered.

How could he ever forgive himself?

FIREFIREFIREFIRE

A shudder ran through Kai's broken body. His fingers twitched on his left hand, and he felt the hard, cold sand between them. He had laid there for what seemed like forever. Cold? No. He was freezing. Numb, but still agonized with aching pain. He could hardly form thoughts of time, of place, of anything. But, he did have one, single striking thought:

They would come. His friends would come. He didn't know when, but he knew they would come. They always came.


Don't worry! Stay tuned and there'll be more!