Chapter 9
A Deep Sleep
"What are we going to do?" Lloyd asks, frantically glancing back and forth between the top of the fourth flight and the flight below, where two black clouds in the forms of humans are running, quite rapidly.
"Can you use Spinjitzu on narrow spaces?" Zane questions the boy, his sweaty hand slipping against the railing as he strains to push up.
"I think so."
"Good, because you need to keep moving, no matter what," Zane says and lifts Lloyd off his back; then sets the green ninja on the railing. The ice ninja jumps on it as well and both whip into their tornados, reaching the tenth floor in mere seconds. "Back to the room!" Zane shouts.
"I forgot the number!" Lloyd exclaims as they stop the Spinjizt and Zane opens the door to exit.
"1017," the ice ninja responds, letting the chosen one through first; then shutting the door behind him. Both ninja race down the hallway as a blast goes throughout the stairs, and a green light flashes.
"They're coming! Help us! Open the door!" Lloyd screams, running as fast as his little legs can go as Zane suddenly stops. He turns around, realizing something is wrong with these shadows. The wisps of black cloud only appear on certain places, around…air vents.
"Zane, why aren't you following?" Lloyd calls from the front of the room, while banging on the door.
"It's not a curse…it's not a curse…" Zane says aloud.
"Catch!" Kai shouts, throwing Zane's shurikens to the ice ninja. Zane catches them, and puts both together, forming a frosty mist that covers his body, while the black ones stop about ten feet away from him, covering their bodies with black mist.
"Nobody come closer!" Zane tells the others, pulling his shurikens apart; a blast of ice shooting from his chest as his body slowly rises in the air.
The evil twosome match him, doing the same thing with silver shurikens, covering themselves in darkness, and shooting black matter at the Nindroid. "What's going on?" Kai demands.
"How about the coolest thing I've ever seen!" Jay exclaims, jumping up and down like a little kid.
All three other ninja slap his head in unison as Zane's eyes glow icy blue with a sort of chill that penetrates all warmth, making the other ninja and people poking their sleepy heads out of their doors shiver. The two evil ones likewise throw their power in at the same moment, darkening the room until only the two cloud's and Zane's eyes are visible. By now the civilians are trying to escape, and the other ninja are attempting to keep them under control.
"You will not defeat us!" Elaine screams, her body lighting up purple, and Gehenna's red.
Zane's matches theirs equally in blue, emitting a rather comforting light, but…the darkness is too strong. It penetrates the light, and Zane's glow starts to diminish. "Zane needs our help!" Kai shouts over the clamor, and his sword starts to burn red and orange, looking exactly like the ice ninja's, yet a different element and vibe, of course.
The other three glow their elements as well, and shoot their powers at Zane, to give him power. The Nindroid absorbs it all and his body becomes multicolored, pulsing with vibrant shades, showing life in various forms. "You've fallen straight into your demise, robot!" Gehenna laughs as both he and Elaine vanish, and Zane drops to the ground. The colors fade away, and the other ninja rush up to his prostrate form.
"Zane!" they scream in unison as the light returns and the black wisps dissapate.
Kai and Cole roll their brother over, and tears stream down Lloyd's face, as he asks, "He will be okay, won't he? He'll be fine right?"
"This is odd…" Jay points at Zane's chest, which is glowing blue, his energy source.
"Open it," Cole says.
Jay slowly opens up Zane's chest, and surveys it quickly, seeing nothing out of place, at all. "It's…normal."
"That can't be," Kai shoves the lightning ninja out of the way.
"Zane…please wake up," Lloyd tugs at the ice ninja's sleeve, crying a river.
"Now…what?" Kai gasps, staring at Jay and Cole.
Ten Years Later
Cold. Everything is cold, and quiet. Not a soul can be sensed, not a small insect is near. No one is here, and no will come…ever, to find the body of a loved one, nor to join them. Nothing. The only things to be seen and sensed are bodies, dead bodies, rotting bodies, remains of the dear ones long forgotten, abandoned, left to turn into bones, and someday…dust.
In front of the desolate place, lying face upwards, in a deep sleep lay a white form, old, rusted, neglected for years, but on it is a wonderful face, a soft face, a calm face, a face filled with love…as well as sorrow.
A little boy in green stumbles over a pile of bones, he himself only being skin on top of his skeletal structure. He stares at the sleeping figure, seeing someone he had not seen for so long…that the tears have gone dry. He no longer feels the love he once knew so well, his older brother being so warm that he now knows no reason to live. The boy gets on both knees in front of the body and whispers in his ear, "It's me Zane. I miss you, and I'll see you soon." He runs his small, left hand through the ratty, fake hair, that used to be blond, that is now covered in dirt that it looks more ashen, more death-like.
