Only a day late! :D I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, because this one was super fun to write ;D
AND, I've caught up (a tiny bit) on reviews! BUT, the week after next is Thanksgiving break, meaning I'll *hopefully* have plenty of time to catch up on everything! :D
Special thanks to: TheKittenQueen, Fires of Darkness, FullMetalPon-3, Drawkill Vear and Lycaran, whycan'tIfindanamethatfits, Katla1, GalaticD0nuts, ColeLoverGirl, TheYellowNinja, SpiritDragon, GameCubeGirl1, MightyShipper, thefiresensei, WindNinja333, RandomDragon2.0, Guest, Inimidesert, Plumcicle, Rick Riordan1, Fxreflies, and KyraPlays for reviewing! I love you all so much! :D
Replies to guest reviews:
ColeLoverGirl: SAME! XD Haha! Yep, my first instinct is ALWAYS Ninjago, even if some other fandom is waaay more obvious XD Ooh, we will see about Lloyd ;D And Jay! ;D I'm definitely going to be starting some riots if Cole dies in the show XD Thank you so much for always leaving such lovely reviews! :D
TheYellowNinja: Heartbreaking was what I was going for XD Yep, I really wanted to tie it back to Lost Soul to really cement the series as a trilogy :D Poor Zane and Morro D': Hm... funny you say "trial" ;D Thank you so much for being so understanding! I AM super busy, but thankfully Thansgiving break is coming, so hopefully that will be SOMEWHAT of a reprieve! Ooh, I have heard that Voltron's a pretty popular show... Maybe I should check it out too... (When I have more time, obviously) I love your reviews so much; they just really mean the world to me! Thank you so much, and you don't go crazy with all your work either! XD
SpiritDragon: Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Wrayth! ;D Aaaww, baby snoring during a coma?! That would definitely make it that much sadder! XD Yep, I live for writing sad memories XD Yeah, unfortunately, there are some people who love being mean just for the sake of being mean :/ I'm glad you agree about the song! XD Thank you so much for reviewing! :D
MightyShipper: Yay! If I'm making people cry, then I'm doing my job! :D Thank you sooo much! :D
Guest: You actually cried?! Yay! XD Zane is DEFINITELY way too pure to go through such horrible things D': "Amazing?!" Oh my goodness, thank you SO SO SO much! :D
Plumcicle: Haha, no problem! Trust me, it fits XD Thank you so much! :D
Rick Riordan1: Oh my gosh, thank you so much for all your lovely words! Your reviews are just soooo nice! They really mean the world to me! Three years?! Aw, thank you so much! (And, I'm glad I'm not the only one that compares everything to Ninjago XD)
JBomb217: Oh my gosh, thank you so so so much! That means the world to me that you think I'm a talented writer! Ooh, and that's a good idea too! Thank you so much for the review and the suggestion! :D (Also, fanfiction is being dumb and for some reason I can't get your review to show up, so I'm sorry about that! Hopefully it sorts itself out -_-;)
Moving to the door, Nya pulled it open.
And, it revealed… a hallway. Something that anybody would expect to be behind a door.
Cautiously, the six ninja sidled into the corridor, keeping their eyes peeled for traps or enemies. But, it looked like a perfectly nice hallway that could belong in any big house or mansion. The only remarkable thing at all were the sheer number of doors on either side. Zane informed them that if the mindscape didn't alter itself once again (which was a very real possibility), then he calculated that there were seventy two doors between here and where the hallway ended at another pitch black door, which itself was hard to see at this distance.
"Should we… open one of these?" Jay asked, reaching for the nearest doorknob.
"No," Zane said, grabbing Jay's wrist before he could even touch the knob. "The Bone Keeper said he would guide us. I think the door at the end of the hallway is the most logical next step rather than choosing one of these at random."
"So, the rest of these are… what? More memories?" Cole asked, studying all the doors as they passed as if trying to find a difference between them.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Nya replied, also glancing at the doors as they passed. "But, I'm with Zane. I think we should stay on the path. Who knows- we open one of these doors and end up traveling through each of our memories for another sixteen years."
The thought was scary to say the least, and each of the ninja unconsciously moved closer to the center of the hallway.
"Hey, Morro," Kai said quietly to the former ghost near the back of the group so the others wouldn't hear. "Can I… ask you something? About your memory?"
Morro looked at Kai sharply. "What about it?"
"No judgment," the red ninja prefaced, holding up both hands in a sign of innocence. "But… I don't get it. That girl was a total jerk, so why did you take the name she gave you?"
Morro, looking at Kai out of the corner of his eye, shrugged. "It stuck. By the next week, everyone was calling me Morro."
Kai studied the wind master for a moment before shaking his head. "Nope, don't buy it. You and me are a lot alike, and if I got a name that just 'stuck,' I would have purposely picked a different name for myself. So, why did you really take the name?"
Morro turned to Kai, an amused smirk on his face. "You know, you're a lot smarter than you look."
"Thanks- wait a second…"
"It's to remind me," Morro explained, turning to face the front again.
"Remind you?"
"Where I started," Morro elaborated, however vaguely. Kai noticed his jaw tighten. "And, where I was going to finish."
And, though Kai might have been frustrated by such an unclear answer, he thought he understood. That girl had treated him like he was nothing. And, Morro was going to become… more no matter what, a conviction that turned into an obsession and eventually led to self-destruction.
Kai patted his shoulder. "Yeah. I get it."
Morro glanced at Kai once again, as if trying to figure out if he was being patronizing or not, but, finding nothing insincere in his expression, offered a nod in response.
Finally, the ninja reached the black door at the end of the hallway. It was a little disorienting, considering it felt as if they were back in front of the black door they had exited from, but they focused on moving forward and not being confused by this mixed up, backwards, upside down place.
"Ready?" Kai asked, laying his hand on the doorknob.
The rest of his teammates nodded. He opened the door.
It was freezing, but, luckily, a quick headcount of the group showed that all six of them were still present and not separated into their individual memories as before. They rubbed their arms vigorously, Morro reminded a little too vividly of the memory he had just relived in which he'd been in a very similar environment. Looking around, they realized they were in a place they recognized.
"The Birchwood Forest," Zane all but whispered. No doubt the familiar place only rubbed salt in the wound rewatching his father's death had opened up. His eyes immediately fixed on one tree in particular, one that he would have recognized anywhere. "The tree house. But… why…?"
"We can't let ourselves get distracted," Kai asserted, creating a little flame in his hand to try to keep himself warm. "Everyone, look for a door. There's got to be a way out of here. We've got to find Lloyd."
Before anybody could start searching in earnest, though, they heard someone crunching through the snow.
It was, well, Zane, albeit his original model with the synthetic human skin and hair. He seemed to be wandering aimlessly, a forlorn expression on his face. It was night time, the stars crisp and clear against the backdrop of the black sky, and the only sound was Zane's heavy footsteps sinking into the blanket of snow.
"What… what is this?" Jay asked, glancing uncertainly between Zane- their Zane- and what was clearly a Zane from the past.
"I…" the titanium nindroid trailed off as he watched his past self amble past the loose group of ninja without acknowledging them. He stopped at the tree house but didn't go inside. Instead, he turned around and leaned his back against it, slowly sinking to the ground.
The present Zane stiffened. "This is a memory."
"Okay… but… why?" Cole asked haltingly, echoing everyone's confusion.
Zane suddenly shook his head vigorously, turning his back on his past self. "It is a secret memory! It is mine to keep and do with as I wish, so it is not right that-"
He stopped when the other ninja gasped, and Zane turned back around to see it was too late. The memory Zane had opened his chest plate, revealing his internal wiring.
His hand drifted to his memory switch. Rested there. Hesitated.
"Zane, you were going to flip your memory switch?!" Nya exclaimed incredulously, rounding on the nindroid in shock.
"No!" Zane protested, waving his arms as if to will the accusations away. "I mean, yes, I was going to, but I clearly did not-"
"How could you even consider that for a second?" Kai demanded, furrowing his brow.
"I was in grieving," Zane explained breathlessly, hating the way his siblings were looking at him and wishing he could stuff the memory back into obscurity where it belonged. "I was... irrational, but I did not do it."
"That's… that's not the point, Zane," Cole asserted, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "I mean, you lose your dad and then your first instinct is to flip your memory switch? Why couldn't you have just talked to one of us? We were there for you!"
Feeling attacked, Zane couldn't help the edge in his tone as he snapped back, "It wasn't your concern-"
"Not our concern?!" Jay repeated. "Zane, we're your brothers! I mean, you're supposed to talk to us, but it's like all you do is push us away!"
Morro, who didn't exactly understand what was happening as he had no idea what a "memory switch" was, suddenly looked around in bewilderment. "Woah, did you guys- everything just… changed."
The other ninja looked up- and suddenly they weren't in the Birchwood Forest anymore. The transition had been seamless, as if they had always been in this new location. They hadn't even noticed the temperature rising.
Now, the six of them were standing on an… island? But, that was the sky-
The first thing that caught their attention was a tan… person? Or, rather, humanoid creature with four arms and… no legs. In fact, he seemed to be floating, dragging a heavy sword behind him, as he staggered toward-
Jay.
And, Nya.
She was pale, limp…
Dead.
Jay and Nya felt cold horror course through their veins as they watched their siblings study the scene before them in utter confusion.
"What… what is this?" Cole asked, brown eyes jumping from person to person to person as he desperately tried to recall this memory. "I don't… I don't remember this. But, I'm… I'm standing right there…"
"Nya!" Kai called, moving forward toward the memory of his sister's dead body. He knew that wasn't the real Nya- his sister was right here beside him after all- but… but Nya was… Nya was… and he was supposed to protect her…
Before he could reach her, though, the memory Jay whispered, "I wish you had taken my hand on that billboard that day, Nya, and that nobody ever found that stupid teapot."
Nadakhan, shocked, dropped the Sword of Souls.
"Your wish… is yours to keep."
And, then, in a brilliant, dizzying smear of color, both sets of ninja found themselves back on the rooftop on the day that Kai, Cole, and Zane only remembered as the day Jay and Nya had mysteriously and spontaneously made up and rekindled their relationship.
Jay and Nya remembered it as the day they made the pact to never tell anyone what had happened.
"I remember!" Nya declared in the memory as she and Jay passionately embraced. "I remember it all!"
"I do too!" Jay echoed. "But… how?"
"Who cares?"
As Jay and Nya kissed in the memory, Zane grabbed his head, starting. "Wait-wait, I'm starting to remember! Nadakhan, Djinnjago, the Sky Pirates- I remember it all!"
"Me too!" Cole shouted, mostly out of surprise. "It's- it's all coming back to me! The Tiger Widow, getting stranded on that island, getting trapped in the sword…"
Suddenly, Cole rounded on Jay, who was already about one sixteenth of his usual size and shrunk even more at the betrayal in Cole's eyes.
"And, you… lied about it."
Jay immediately shook his head. "No, Cole, listen-"
But, Cole was backing away, his eyes still wide as he tried to process the new flood of information. "You lied about Cliff Gordon's house, you lied about making the wishes, you lied again about how you found out you were adopted, you lied about why you're afraid of spiders…"
"Cole-"
The earth ninja used both hands to give Jay a solid shove in the chest, forcing him to stumble backward several steps.
He pointed an accusatory finger at Jay. "You lied about everything! Days of our lives were missing, just like that, and you lied about it!"
"You guys didn't remember anyway," Jay defended weakly, rubbing his slightly aching chest. "How could I explain all that, huh? Would you guys even believe me?"
"You don't get to make that decision!" Cole retorted. "This wasn't some little fib, Jay. This was part of our lives! You had no right to keep that from us!"
"Lay off him, Cole," Nya jumped in, grabbing Jay's arm in a show of support. "It was both of our decisions to keep it a secret."
"Nya, I- I-" Kai sputtered, as if still in too much shock to even properly articulate his thoughts. "I- I… I thought we told each other everything."
Nya, now taking on Jay's role, immediately tried to placate him. "Kai, I promise I was going to tell you. After we got out of here and saved Lloyd, I was going to-"
Kai scoffed, "Yeah, right. Like I'm supposed to believe that. How am I supposed to believe anything you say?"
Nya recoiled at the bitter tone in her brother's words. "Look, Kai, it's not- it didn't even really happen! I mean, it's no big deal-"
"No big deal? No big deal?!" Kai repeated, throwing his arms up in the air. "You died. Died. That's not a big deal? That's not something you think I need to know?"
Nya, once again smarting at the condescending, venomous tone Kai was using, snapped, "You don't need to know everything about-"
"How could you be so stupid that you'd think I didn't need to know?! We know everything about each other-"
"No, we don't! You have no idea that I hate talking about our parents so much. I hate that you miss them so much, and I cannot wait for the day that you get over it already."
Kai recoiled like he'd been slapped.
Remorse instantly hit Nya like a truck and she placed a hand over her mouth, wanting desperately to pluck the words out of the air and stuff them back down her throat into a deep, dark place where they would never see the light. She hadn't even been thinking. All she'd heard was the word "stupid" and then she'd just wanted to hurt Kai in the worst way she knew how.
She reached a hand toward her brother. "Kai-"
The red ninja moved backward, out of her reach. She would have preferred him to react with anger, yell at her, hit her even, but Kai was just… silent.
"Um, it's… it's changed again," Morro said quietly. Once again, having not been present for the Nadakhan fiasco, he was more confused than betrayed by the revelation.
Now, they were gathered at the foot of a mountain. A man was above them, breathing heavily as he searched for handholds.
"Wait, I know that guy," Morro suddenly announced, eyes widening ever so slightly as he apparently recognized the memory. "No, I…"
The wind started blowing where there had been none before, cutting Morro off. The man cried out, struggling to maintain his grip on the rocks, but the gale became too strong. He was ripped off the mountainside, clipping rocks and boulders as he tumbled to the ground.
At the foot of the mountain, the man laid groaning.
The ninja winced when they saw a huge gash had been ripped in the man's midsection, blood soaking his light blue shirt.
And then, Morro appeared.
Instead of helping the man, Morro flipped him roughly onto his injured stomach and then grabbed his arm, wrenching it behind his back so the man screamed in pain.
That was when they realized that Morro had used his elemental power to knock the man off the mountain in the first place.
Morro stepped directly on the man's face, shoving it into the ground to give him more leverage to yank on the arm.
"You really think I'd let you get away with betraying me?" Morro demanded, jerking the man's arm back to make him shout in pain again.
"I'm sorry, Morro!" The man sobbed. "I-I needed the money! My family-"
Morro cut him off by making him scream again. "You listen to me. Whatever is in the First Spinjitzu Master's Tomb is mine and mine alone. The payment you get for helping me is me not slaughtering your precious little family. Is that clear?"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" The man cried out. "I'm sorry, Morro! I'm sorry! Please don't kill me! Please!"
Morro smirked, shrugging. "Okay."
The man sighed in relief- until Morro snapped his arm as easily as he would break a pencil. The man screamed, but Morro wasn't moved by his sobs in the slightest.
"If you start crawling now, you might be able to make it back to town before you bleed out," Morro threw over his shoulder as he released the man and started climbing the mountain.
The other ninja turned to their Morro who was wincing as he watched only one of the cruel deeds he had committed.
"Morro, how… how could you?" Jay demanded. Sure, he had known that Morro had done some bad things in his life- he'd said so himself only minutes beforehand- but… but knowing it and seeing it were two very different things. "You left that guy for dead!"
"That was a long time ago," Morro insisted, but his tone came across as desperate, as if he wanted nothing more than to make them believe him. "I'm different now."
"And, we know that," Cole added, turning to Jay with an angry expression. "Morro's changed, Jay, so back off."
"Of course you take his side," Jay snapped before he could stop himself. He hadn't even meant to say it really, but Cole was already mad at him and now he was siding against him with Morro and it just brought all those feelings of loneliness rushing back to the surface again-
Cole shoved Jay a second time, harder than he did before. "What is your problem?"
"My problem?" Jay repeated, clenching his fists- because Cole was pushing him around like Neil did… "My problem is that- you- you act like I don't even exist anymore! I didn't know that the minute someone better came along you were going to drop me just like that!"
Cole balked. "What are you talking about?" Glancing back at the wind master, who appeared to be very uncomfortable to be caught in the middle of this dispute if relieved for the attention to be drawn away from the last memory they had just watched, Cole rounded on Jay once again. "What, you're jealous of Morro?"
Cole shook his head, running his hand through his hair. "I don't… I don't get it Jay! I do everything for you! I gave up Nya for you, I gave up my powers for you, I never even blamed you for killing me, and yet the second I spend a little less time with you, you can't deal with it."
Jay, shocked and betrayed that Cole would throw those things back into his face, retorted. "Well, don't act like you're not doing the same thing with Morro! Everyone knows you only hang out with him because you feel bad for him! You want to take care of him just like you took care of your alcoholic mother-"
Cole's fist was like a sledgehammer slamming into Jay's jaw, knocking the blue ninja clear off his feet.
"Jay!" Nya gasped, kneeling beside her boyfriend.
"I cannot believe you," Cole growled, glowering at Jay who was cradling his jaw and staring up at Cole in fear. "You lie about an entire week of our lives, and yet you can't even keep the only secret I ever asked you to keep for half an hour!" Cole shook his head. "I try so hard, and it's never enough for you! So, I'm done. You're the bad friend, Jay. Not me."
There was a slight pause before Zane said quietly, "The room. It's changed again."
Oh nooooooooooooooo! Shout out to Echo15 who pointed out a couple of chapters ago that it was going to be hard to keep Skybound under wraps XD
Anyway, now the ninja are fighting, and what's this next secret that's going to be revealed?! Shout out to anyone who guesses correctly ;D
Thank you all for bearing with me! I love you all so much! :D
