HAPPY NEW YEARS! XP

Sorry this one came super late, guys, but I've been working on it since 12. :O REALLY TEDIOUS! Anyways, firstly, ANNOUNCEMENTS! Don't you love them? (there's kind of a lot.) XD

I did change the title of the chapter, yeah, because the title didn't quite fit the chapter as it went along, so "While You Were Sleeping" will be saved for not the next chapter, but the chapter after that one, which will entail COLE'S POV! Yay. :D Finally coming, right?

Secondly, my deviant art page is UP! You can find me at KairiVenomus, as you'd find me here, but I haven't uploaded any pictures quite yet b.c I have to do it on my laptop since my main computer doesn't quite support deviant art for some stupid reason. It's having hissy fits. . So if you check back in, like, maybe an hr & a half, there should be a couple pictures on their concerning the NotN series. :D

WHICH IS TO SAY, sorry for the quality of the pictures, especially if the pencil coloring looks REALLY crappy, because my scanner uses a light when it scans that illuminates the whole picture and shows all the little, bad details like that on there. UGH. I'm working with my camera & its charger. It's a little moody.

Foremost and finally, the series, "NIGHTMARE OF THE NINJA" is actually going to be changed. I don't like that title much. I'm still trying to figure out what else to call it- - -if you have any suggestions, I'm open… DX Maybe it'll just change so it's called "Nightmare FOR the Ninja"? Would that be better?

Okay. I'll shut up now. Chapter's kinda long, sorry, but it's a HAPPY CHAPTER! Hooray!

SHADOW DANCER

13. Never Alone

The sun cast heavy shadows on the well-intricate spikes of Kai's hair, overshadowing against the uneven, grainy sand behind him, his shadow elongated and wide from the rising dawn. He looked at the boards in his hands, once a part of a whole; in a way, he felt just like that cardboard. He'd once been the part of a close-knit, familiar group of people he loved, a part of a family, similar to everyone but different in his own way. But now, there was a huge gap between Kai and his brothers- -even Nya. There was a divot in the love of a family: Kai wasn't actually part of a family at all.

And Jay, a stuttering news beside him, trying to make it easier for the pained fire ninja but unintentionally worsening the situation. "Well maybe he didn't PURPOSEFULLY poison you," he was countering, coming at the wrong angle; maybe not saying anything about his theories was probably the best way to go. He'd already opened his fat mouth now anyway. He couldn't take back what he'd done, so now he had to forge through it, forcing his way on through the crap he'd just put out.

There were the various cracks and snaps of the board Kai broke. A bitter smile crossed his face. "So, what. You're saying whatever I have, Lloyd had first?"

"Uh, maybe." Jay didn't like how Kai said it; he made it sound all bitter and angry. It made Jay realize how REALLY bad this was, how really deep they were in darkness. He didn't think they'd ever been in so much trouble.

It was one of those moments when he really missed Sensei Wu. Wu would've been the one to know just how the ninja could handle this, the path they could take; but now, they didn't even have COLE to come up with a plan. Jay knew today, they had to get moving; finding the city wouldn't be easy, but they had to start somewhere. He figured it may be best to start moving now, but first he needed to provide some kind of consolace for Kai, which now he didn't think he'd helped at all.

Kai shook his head. "How is that any better, Jay?" he asked. "As you can probably assume, this isn't very easy for me to handle all at once."

"Of course not," Jay said. "I don't expect you to immediately accept it. I just need you to know that..." He swallowed. He wasn't usually one for talking about how he felt. "You just need to know that you are no different than you were yesterday, or last Monday, or even four weeks ago. You're still the same Kai. You're just more unique now, all the same. You're still our best friend. And you're still Nya's brother, if not by the same bloodline. She still loves you. It hurts her that you're hurting, Kai. It's just like when we learned that Zane was a nindroid." Jay motioned to him, now speaking softly to Nya in comfort, unaware they were talking about him. "There is no difference to you. You're just becoming a better you. It's not like we're going to hate you because suddenly we know you're the son of hell's King."

Kai shook his head. Jay raised his eyes to the sudden forms standing above them, their arrival silent in the art of stealth. Zane knelt slowly beside Kai, placing a gentle hand on his brother's shoulder. He watched Kai until the fire ninja met his eyes. "You are still our brother," said Zane. "You have become only a truer ninja now, my fiery friend. There is no exodus from the normal that will guide you from us. There is only peace. We will help you fight through your sickness. We will aide you through your shock. You are not in this alone, my brother."

"Never," added Jay.

"We still love you," added Nya in a shaky voice, collapsing on the ground behind Kai. "I still love you, no matter who you are." He turned his head to give her an apprehensive glance, his eyes rolling over her without much emotion. At first, Jay was ready to pound his face into the ground at the tears Nya fought, but then Kai started to stand, kicking up sand with him. It fluttered into the air in a flurry, like a flock of birds flapping their wings to reach airborne altitudes. As everyone stared up at him, Kai reached down towards Nya, pulling her up with a strength Jay was surprised to see rise in him. He held her a arms length, searching her eyes, searching for something. The moment seemed to extend into a line forever. Until a smile crossed his face and he crushed her to him, burying his face in her hair. Nya have a relieved smile and hugged him back, squeezing him around the waist.

Jay smiled at Zane, who gave a REAL smile, not his creepy nindroid faker. For now, at this second, however short it could've been or however blissfully long it could've extended, everyone was happy.

It was a long moment before anyone broke the silence.

"Although you've already reached your true potential," Zane inquired thoughtfully, "why is it that this was not the key to your becoming?"

Jay frowned. Good question. "Maybe because it wasn't holding him back," Jay offered. "I mean, what you don't know can't hold you back, right?"

Kai tucked Nya's face into his throat, pressing his cheek against her hair as he glanced at Jay. "I don't know about that. I mean, although I am brilliant, and when I discovered my true potential I DID figure out who the green ninja was, I just think mine was kind of lame. I didn't figure anything out about myself other than the fact that I wasn't the green ninja."

"True," argued Jay, "but your obsession with BECOMING the green ninja may have been. It may have stopped you from becoming the best you rather than the best NINJA."

"I suppose so," agreed Zane, wiping off his jeans. "Your ego was pretty inflated at that time."

Ignoring the jive, Kai loosened his grip on Nya just enough so he could see both Jay and Zane. "Yeah, but don't you think this would've made me stronger? It made Zane stronger."

Jay raised an eyebrow. This was a completely confusing argumental discussion he didn't feel like having; the sun was getting higher in the sky. "Look, what does it matter? This is just the way the cookie crumbles."

Kai winced. "Did you HAVE to say that?"

"Why not?" Jay stood, reaching for Zane's hand to tug him up.

"It is a phrase Cole has repeated on various levels," Zane explained with a grateful nod after he'd risen. Jay's face reddened. He hadn't meant to offend anyone.

"Sorry," he patted Kai's shoulder. Then he turned to everyone, meeting their gazes directly. His declaration of intention was loud, clear, in a confident voice he forced up his throat, prepared after a whole lot of thinking. "We need to move," he said. "That freak's coming back in four days and when he does, we can't have him seeing us still sitting here. We have to make progress. I think we'd better get going now, guys. Any, uh, clues on what direction to go?"

Zane was the first to answer, abiding the clueless expressions of Nya and Kai. "I know which way!" he cried, pointing towards the sun. "The falcon has been flying that way."

Jay frowned. He was getting ready to once again try and be the pep-talker, but thankfully Nya spoke up, her honey-sweet voice gentle. "Zane, I don't think he's right," she humored. "If we head into the sun, then it might get a little ugly for you."

"Ugly?" repeated Zane, confused.

"Well with your machinery overheating..." she said gently, "it could, you know, make you see stuff. Or seriously damage you."

Zane shook his head. "That's nonsense. I was built to withstand outrageous temperatures of negative thirty degrees Celsius and one-hundred degrees Celsius."

"Ah," Jay rubbed the back of his neck, "you know...its like...one hundred and seven degrees on a normal day in the desert?"

Zane stared at him.

"Dont you have an internal thermometer? Better yet, a compass?" Kai Peered at Zane. "I could've sworn you did before."

Zane, without warning, lifted his shirt and opened his panel. Jay examined the intricacy of the Tinkerer's technology, a collaboration between years of inventing and just regular old college smarts. It was something Jay had been looking to learn from him- -actually, Jay, Nya, and Zane had been planning on taking a trip over there just before the Bounty had crashed. They'd been planning on letting off Lloyd, Kai, and Cole in the city so they could to visit the Garmadon family, plus Darreth, and Cole's father. Then they were going to all meet up a few days later and discuss...Everything. Their plans.

Their plans that now seeped through their fingers like the sand they stood in now.

Jay didn't see anything that looked like either pieces of equipment that Kai had asked for. If anywhere, it had to be some kind of sixth-sense mental thing that just wasn't able to be seen. With a sigh, Zane shut his panel, his shirt falling back over his stomach. "I suppose I do not come with a compass or a thermometer," he said disappointedly.

Then Jay got an idea. It was a weak one, but it just might work. After all, what other choice did they have? "Hey, Zane," he said cheerily, glancing at the forbearing sun. He didn't have much time. "It's getting kinda warm out here. You wouldn't happen to know the temperature, would you?"

Zane smiled warmly, like he didn't see what Jay was getting at. But out the corner of his eye, Jay saw Nya and Kai straighten, his logic starting to make the sense he'd aimed for. "My database tells met the temperature is increasing steadily. Currently it is one-hundred-one degrees Celsius."

Jay grinned. "You don't say."

"And gee," Kai coat-tailed, glancing around, "I wish I knew what direction was north..."

"Perhaps I can assist," Zane said. He pointed to his left. "My internal senses tell me north is that way."

"What about civilization?" asked Jay hopefully, but it was quite obvious that there was no way he knew that, since he shook his head sadly and claimed he couldn't help with that. Apparently, Zane didn't come with GPS.

"Alright," Jay rubbed the back of his neck, "now we just need to decide which way to go. I mean, we have four choices; this shouldn't be hard, right, guys? Guys?"

Jay's hopeful question into the silence turned into pity and a little disgust- -though it was minor- -while Kai turned away to puke into the sand. Jay wanted to offer comfort, just as everyone else did, but he had to recoil at the sight, the sound, the smell. Metallic, flying through his nostrils, it's scent so strong Jay could taste the blood on his lips, cooking in the rising heat. He held down what of nothing in his stomach he had.

Come to think of it, he was starving.

There had to be something out here, something worth killing so everyone could be properly fed. He frowned. He didn't know if he was so hungry after hearing the way the, er, vomit landed in the sand.

Zane sighed. "There must be an antidote," he said quietly to Jay, who pulled Nya close so she wouldn't have to look. She trembled in his arms. "There is a loophole to everything."

"Not everything," counteracted Jay. "We know that much."

"It seems like the Shadow Dancer knows just what it is, too," Nya murmured.

"We don't need him," said Jay defiantly, turning back to Kai as he stood, wiping his chin. His face had gone pale, his lips a faded shade of pink to their usual faint red. His lower lip trembled, his hand shaking, arms bobbing because he was afraid, afraid of what had happened, afraid that his heart was just producing blood so he could throw it up, afraid that he couldn't get anyone out of here in time, afraid that he was going to die, afraid for Lloyd, for Cole, and for themselves. Afraid that their future was gone. Afraid hat this nightmare for the ninja would never end. Afraid, fearful, scared. Jay watched him closely, met his eyes. Watched the turmoil rise inside of them. So much was happening to them right now, evading the good, focusing the bad. The Overlord had been killed and Jay thought that was it. But this...this Greater Evil made up of Shadow Stalkers and family secrets, of disgusting diseases and betrayals- -Jay knew well enough that their journey as ninja was long but not yet over. He clenched his fists.

"Okay, guys," he said, watching them gather round. "We are strong. We can beat this. We've fought things just as bad, maybe worse, and kicked butt like no other ninja– or samurai— before. We've defeated overlords, giant snakes, pirates, stone armies, evil dads"—he glanced pointedly at Kai—"ourselves, and even each other. We've stood up time and time again against these evil suckers—and have we given up ONCE? No, we haven't. And I don't see this being the day to start. We can get past this you guys. We're strong enough. Tough enough. Smart enough." He looked into Nya's deep blue eyes. "Technologically equipped enough." Zane smiled at him. "And we're unique enough." Kai looked away. "We can DO this, guys," Jay clapped a hand on Zane's shoulder. "We can do it."

"I think I still have a little fight left in me," said Zane. Jay grinned at him. He glanced at the ninja and the samurai. Confidence showed in their faces. "We can do this," he repeated again.

They nodded. Kai stepped away, giving his devious, sly grin. "I'd say were ready for anything. Well, maybe except you, Jay. You're looking kinda tired."

Jay narrowed his eyes at him. "Oh, yeah, fireball? I bet I could beat you to that sand dune." he pointed to the nearest one, thirty feet away.

Kai grinned. "Is that a challenge?"

"Please, brothers," Zane stepped between them, holding out his arms, the balancing act of the equation. "I think we all know neither of you are even geared up enough for such a race. After all," he added, "we all know it is I who would win."

"Ha!" Nya cried. "Puh-LEEZE. I could beat you guys just by walking on my HANDS."

"Oooh," Kai waggled his fingers in the air in front of his face, pointing them at the others. "I think there's a smack-talker in our midst!"

Jay grinned. They were starting to sound back to normal. He grabbed Nya's hand, And impulsively pulled her towards him, pressing his lips against hers briefly. Heat courses through him, his heart rate rising. "Nya, I love you and all, but you'd never win."

"Oh, yeah?" she challenged, letting go of him. She backed away. "Then first one to the sand dune is the best samurai!"

She took off running, her small form a petite figure darting into the distance. Jay was surprised at how fast she moved. He never would've expected it.

Despite the circumstances, Kai laughed, his pale face brightening as he turned away, his cry shouting into the warming desert, "NinjaaaaGOOOOOO!" The red tornado of fire whirled after Nya, kicking up dirt as it went. Zane smiled. "I'll wait for you at the Finish line!" he called.

"Hey!" Jay shouted. "No fair! You guys got a head start!"

He took off after them, a laughing mess and whirligig of an electric tornado, chasing after the others as the sun rose in the horizon, an unspoken omen of the doom yet to come.

See, wasn't that nice? :D For a moment, anyways, the ninja had a stress-free moment where they didn't have to worry about ANYTHING! :D I like that. They need more of those moments. .

Well, anyway, I'm sure the next chapter is going to be about Lloyd. Just, the chapter might come later in the day (We're talking, six or seven-ish) because I have to go to school. . EWWWW. Well, school, class, whatever you want to call it. And then afterwards, I get to go to karate. Yay! :D Oh, well. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. It's not like I can't not go to school…

That sentence really makes sense if you don't think about it. :D Go have an awesome rest of the day! Review! And don't forget to check in on Deviant Art to see the ninja!