Hey everybody, I am SO sorry for the long wait, I had a whole bunch of testing this month, so I wasn't able to post this chapter. But don't worry, i'm back now and I should be able to update like I normally do. So without further ado, here is the next chapter. You might want to listen to the song, "Bad blood" by creature feature while reading this chapter, the best time to start the song is when you see this ( ) You stop the song when you see it again. Edited by 17blanceri :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Ninjago because well, you know why ;)

Warning: If you are under the age of 13 or have a weak stomach, do not read this chapter! You have been warned.

Chapter 8

When will it end?

It's been nearly a week since Zuko escaped. Nya had been using the ultra sonic radar to scope the entire city, but so far there had been no sign of him. No more people had gone missing and there were also no more reports of any attacks.

"Urgh! This is getting frustrating!", shouted Kai, who was still pretty ticked after the whole ordeal.

"Where could this guy possibly be!? We've looked everywhere!"

"Maybe he's still hiding in the bounty.", said Jay, who was still pretty freaked out.

"I don't think so, if he was we'd be dead by now." Despite what I said, I knew there was a chance that Zuko was just hiding in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to kill one of us. Luckily, Zane was able to snap me out of my thoughts.

"That may be true, but I do not think Zuko left. The last thing he said was, "You haven't seen the last of me", that means he must be planning an attack." We basically kept on debating our options and motives until I eventually got hungry and went to the kitchen to make a sandwich. I opened up the fridge when I heard an all too familiar voice behind me.

"Hello Cole, have you missed me?" I quickly turned around and saw Zuko standing right there! "What do want from me!?" "The one thing I've always wanted ever since I came into existence, to watch you suffer!", he said before lunging at me. I tried to move out of the way, but Zuko was just too fast. I felt my head hit the floor as he knocked me down and everything went black.

When I woke up, I found myself in a black room with Zuko standing in front of me. I quickly got up and tried to run away, but instead I ran into a wall. "There's no need for any of that Cole, this time I just want to show you something." I knew whatever he wanted to show me couldn't be good, but before I could object an image appeared right in front of me.

( ) The area looked like some kind of asylum. I saw a pretty little blonde girl struggle with all the might contained in her tiny frame. She was trying to scream "PLEASE!", but the duct tape over her mouth kept the word muffled. I knew her! Her name was Laura! She lived down the street from me before I let Zuko out! Dad was always complaining about how loud her parties got! Tears were streaming down her face as saw watched a claw come closer to her face.

"Let's get this off." Zuko said as he ripped the duct tape off "I like hearing you scream."

"Please! Dear god, PLEASE! Don't kill me!" She sobbed

"That's it!" He said vindictively as he slowly pulled his claw across her check.

A clean line of blood followed his claw as he took his sweet time ripping the fibers of skin on her face. She was screaming the whole claw finally reached her lips after an excruciating amount of screams turned to quieter slashed the other side of her face, sending blood splattering across the cold and unforgiving stone floor.
His laugh was haunting as he pulled her shirt off. He began to mercilessly slash through her back repeatedly with his claws. Blood was flying everywhere. On the walls, on him, on the floor, everywhere! The sight was sick enough. But he still had to top it! He leaned down and licked the glimmering red liquid of her bloody and severed back with his long, slimy, disgusting tongue.

Tastes like fear." He grinned, exposing a horrific set of fanged teeth, now spattered with dark, sticking blood. The blonde girl started coughing up bile and blood. Her pretty hair was ratted and stained red. It was hard to think that this was the same girl that threw those loud parties Dad always complained about.

As soon as the image was over, another one appeared. I saw an old man on the ground in pain. It took me a second to recognized him, but I knew him too! Mr. Simen! He used to give me and some of the other kids in the neighborhood candy. He always gave to best handfuls on Halloween!

He had obviously been here for days without food. He was in sorry shape. Zuko then slithered his way out of the shadows holding a thick iron chain. He whipped the poor man with the metal links. He did it again! And Again! And Again! Until I saw blood partially pouring out of him. I felt sick enough at the scene, but the pathetic whimpers of pain that came out of the man was too much for me to bare.

This was an innocent man that was being killed because I wanted my stupid ball back! The man wheezed and coughed and begged for death, but That's when Zuko stopped. The vile little rat wasn't going to kill him to save him from any misery, only to add to it! Zuko left Mr. Simen in the fetal position crying out for his son.

Next I saw a teen that used to deliver our news papers. I never knew his name. He was hanging from the ceiling by harsh chains. I knew what Zuko had been doing the second I saw him. Pus covered burns oozed all over the poor boy's body. He was still brave though. Calling Zuko's name and daring him to a fair fight. Cursing Zuko's very existence with fowl names. He even worked in a few things about his mother!

I wanted this boy to live! he was showing so much courage. He deserved to live! Zuko came in to sight, looking furious. "I told you to shut-up a long time ago!" He screamed as he slashed across the boy's face, leaving more infected wounds. The boy spat in his face and grinned. Zuko looked like he would rip the kid in half. Then an unsettling smile crept across his face.

"Sometimes, we need to keep things classic." He said in a coy voice.
He then pulled out lemon juice, salt, and an acid I didn't reconised. The boy struggled. "DO YOUR WORST!" He yelled, but his body language told a different story. His courage was faltering, I could tell. "I intend to." Zuko grinned sickly. The lemon juice first. The boy screamed louder than Laura did. But he made the screams into curses and insults to Zuko. I didn't really know the kid, but I was proud.

After the juice was gone, Zuko pouted. The boy grinned in an exhausted way. Zuko pulled the bucket of salt close and dripped his finger in. He then crudely ran the salt covered finger across his chest.
I was startled and sick at the screams of pain he let out. Zuko kept running salt through every last inch of bloody, infected, disgusting, messy, wound. I was forced to watch as the courage I saw before was drained from the boy. Zuko continued that grueling process until the entire bucket of salt had been rubbed into the boy's severed flesh. Thick red drops rolled off of him.

Zuko waited there. I have no idea how long he waited. But he waited until the boy started weeping and begging for mercy. I felt sick and scared. That's when Zuko grabbed the acid. Slowly at first, he poured it over the boy. It hissed in a way that will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life. I could hear and see the living flesh rot away from the bone. I could hear him scream his regrets. I don't know what he lied about, but he yelled that he was sorry for lying to his mom. I wanted to just throw up already.

Then I saw a woman with chocolate brown hair, who appeared to be in her late twenties. Zuko was holding her by the head to be sure she didn't escape. Mason's mom! That was Mason's mom! My best friend Mason! THAT. WAS. HIS. MOM! I was grinding my teeth. The jerk was getting more personal each time!
This was by fair the most direct and simple. Maybe the most sadistic! Zuko was just smashing her face against a stone floor and telling her all the things he was going to do to Mason when he caught him. I don't think Zuko ever caught Mason, but his mom didn't know that when she was being beaten.
The stone was turning the most disturbing shade of red I had ever seen! "STOP!" I tried to scream, but my voice wasn't heard over her screams. She wasn't even screaming words, just pain! The worst part of the whole thing by far, was when I heard a very distinct CRACK, and saw the red liquid was now topped with a thick pink ooze. Her screams stopped that moment.

Next, the scene switched to a pretty redheaded girl. Mayline. My babysitter. She was one of my first friends. She used to mean the world to me! The jerk knew it! I was in tears. The girl that used to make me custom coloring pages was being ripped apart, piece by piece! Her screams were shrill and ear splitting. Nothing at all like the joyful ones I had once known.
Zuko looked straight in my eyes as he took a bite out of her arm. He was eating her! Zuko was the most vile, horrible, sadistic, evil, terrible, THING I had ever known! Mayline was screaming for her grandmother, who I knew she used to live with. this was agonizing, and I wasn't even being tortured. Of course, on some level I was. Otherwise Zuko wouldn't be doing this!
This was the worst it could get! I was convinced of it! There was nothing worse he could do than eat my babysitter in front of me, one limb at a time! I was so wrong!

I just wanted it to be over, but then the scene changed once again. Chained to the wall, there was a women in about her twenties. Her hair was long and soft. It was also pitch black. Her eyes were violent. Her eyes were the prettiest part about her. Zuko hadn't touched her yet. Her hair was still done up from where she was before Zuko snatched her. Her dress was still a pretty, untattered, white and red clothe, fitted to her figure, cutting off at her knees. She still had on shiny red high heels. Her perfect eyes darted back and forth rapidly, desperately looking for an escape.
THE #######! THE BLOODY #######! This was sick! Even by his standards! He crossed the line! Zuko came into my sight before I could even finish wrapping my head around how much evil it would take to do this! He took his sweet time swinging his claw in front of her, threatening to start slashing, but not actually doing it.

I started sobbing. My mother! He was showing me my mother's death by his hands! When I finally said the words in my head, as if by a physic cue, he started. He slashed across her chest, the white on her dress slowly turning red. As if that wasn't terrible enough, then I heard him start to snap every bone in her body. One at a time, he left none untouched. Fingers, legs, ribs, all of it! I could only imagine the pain!
Next he violently yanked her body across the room, throwing her into a tub of water that quickly turned red and brown from the blood. Her cough was terrible! I wasn't sure what he was doing at first, but then I saw the bubbles start to ooze on the surface. He was boiling her alive! It wasn't enough for him to drown and boil her. He used his claws to Mutilate her face first, then ripped two of her toes clean off.
My throat was so swollen with emotion. Fear, sadness, horror, anger. He ripped her other foot of and ate it. Slower than he did Mayline. he made sure the CRUNCH of her bones was loud and clear. To me, it was deafening! I wanted this to stop! I wanted to curl up on the ground and cry. I wanted my dad. I wanted my brothers. I wanted Sensie. I wanted Mayline. I wanted Mason's mom. I wanted my mom! But I'd never get her back! Zuko had made sure of it! And he made sure it hurt!

I looked right into her eyes when she said her last words. "I'm sorry Cole." And she was dead. She was dead, and it was my fault! Zuko had just ripped my heart up more than he did his victims. "This is what I love to do when I have time to play." Zuko laughed joyfully.( )

I turned to see that Zuko was standing right next to me, grinning evilly. I hated him, I hated him more than anything else id ever known in my life. But I couldn't bring myself to do anything about it, Zuko had finally broken me. Zuko must have noticed the hopeless look I had on my face, because he started chuckle, indicating that he won. I was just about to admit defeat, when a thought occurred to me.

"It's not real.", I muttered.

"What?", Zuko asked, as if he didn't hear me correctly.

"It's not real!", I shouted so he could hear me.

"That last image you showed me was fake! My father told me my mother died after I was born."

Zuko just smirked and said, "How do you know your father wasn't lying to you?"

"My dad would never lie to me!", I returned angrily.

"Oh really? Think back Cole, and try to remember very carefully." I was about to make another hasty retort, when I suddenly remembered something from when I was little. (Flashback is in italics)

It was a month before I let Zuko out. I was fast asleep in my room, when I woke up to hear my dad talking to someone. "Honey, you have to come back home! Cole doesn't even know about you." I got curious, so I walked down the hall and looked into the living room to see what was happening. I saw my dad talking on the phone. "Yes, I know it was for his own good that you left, but I can't spend the rest of my life lying to him." My dad sounded anxious while he was talking on the phone. "Alright, when the time comes we'll both tell him, goodbye."

After that my dad hung up the phone. He turned around and looked surprised to see me standing right there. "Daddy?", I asked. "Who was that?" "It was just something from work son, go back to bed.", he said while trying to reassure me. "But daddy-", I tried to protest, but before I could argue my dad picked me up and put me back in bed.

I couldn't believe it. That explains who dad was talking to on the phone, it was my mother. My dad lied to me, he lied to me after all these years! After some time I finally worked up the nerve to speak.

"But your the one who killed her! You hunted my mother down and held her in that awful place against her will!"

Zuko just grinned and said, "Actually Cole, she gave herself to me willingly."

"N-no, she'd never do that! Your lying!" Zuko grabbed my head and turned it towards the wall. "Take a look at this, and tell me if you think i'm lying."

An image appeared in front of me, I saw my mom walking down the street at night. From the looks of it, she had just gotten off of work. Just then, Zuko stepped out of the shadows. It took a second for my mom to notice him, but when she did it looked like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"What are you!?", My mom asked with a threatening tone of voice.

"What I am should not matter, but you my dear, can call me Zuko.", He responded in a sly tone of voice.

"What do you want from me!?", She asked, while still keeping that threatening composure.

"I suggest you come with me so we can have a little fun.",Zuko answered venomously

"I'll never go anywhere with you!", My mom said angrily while turning away.

Before she could walk off Zuko then said, "I think you should, or else you'll never see your son alive again."

My mom quickly turned around and said, "What did you do to my son!?"

"I haven't done anything to him yet, but if you come with me no harm will come to your son.", He said while pulling out a picture of me. (Don't ask where he got that, because I don't know)

My mom just stood there staring at the photo in shock. "If you follow me, I will show him to you." My mom obediently started following Zuko, not knowing the whole thing was a trap.

The scene ended after that. No, no no no no no! My mother died because she was trying to protect me! It's my fault she was dead, if I hadn't gone into that stupid tomb she would still be alive! "So how does it feel to know that she died because of you Cole?", Zuko asked with a laugh. "Knowing that it's all your fault?"

I was so ashamed, I put my hands on my head and curled up on the floor in despair. I could hear Zuko's laughter ringing in my ears. Why doesn't he just kill me and get it over with!? It's a lot better than having to go through all this pain! I just laid there until I heard someone calling my name. "Cole. Cole. Cole! Are you okay?" I opened my eyes and looked up to see Jay, Kai, and Zane looking down at me. I saw that I was still in the kitchen, no black room, and no Zuko.

"Hey Cole, are you okay?", Kai asked. "Uh, yeah", I said while getting up. "I just hit my head on something." "Then why were you on the floor?", Jay asked, sounding wierded out. "I hit my head pretty hard." They each raised one of their eyebrows. "...Okay." "Are you sure your alright? You were gone for an awfully long time, so we came to make sure everything was alright.", Zane asked sounding concerned. "I'm telling you guys, i'm fine.", I reassured them. "It's just a little bump."

"Alright, but if something is wrong you can tell us." I knew what Zane said was true, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell them. As they walked out of the kitchen I just couldn't help wondering, was what I saw all just an illusion? Before I walked out of the kitchen I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned and saw that it was Zuko, he only smiled evilly while sinking back into the shadows. I quickly ran out of the kitchen in fear, because I knew he wasn't finished with me yet.

And it is finally done. Okay, so most of you are probably shocked that I typed those grisly scenes in this chapter. But the truth is, I didn't write them grunge did (or grungekitty). To tell you guys the truth, those messy scenes traumatized me. So until I write my next chapter, R and R. Now if you guys will excuse me, i'm gonna go board up my windows.