This is one of the quickest updates I think I've ever had . . . might as well update because I'm losing my computer in like a week or two.
Anna swears some more in this chappie . . . bad girl.
Anna: ;)
But Kai does too, so . . . I shouldn't be putting all the blame on her.
Kai: ;)
I hope you like this chappie. You get to learn everyone's fears! Well, almost everyone's fears.
Christy: She doesn't own the canon stuffs, but she owns me, the other OCs, and the plot . . . . :D
Chapter Twelve: The Chasm of Fears
(No POV)
A great big dragon appeared among the treetops of the Forest of Tranquility. Beside it was a red metallic mech and a shining golden dragon.
"How close are we, Zane?" came Nya's voice through the walkie-talkie.
"Still have precisely 6.24 miles to go," Zane replies.
"If we stay up to speed, that is," Cole adds.
"You guys?" Jay's voice filters through the speaker this time. "Are you nervous?"
"Nah," Lloyd says into his walkie-talkie from atop his dragon. "We'll be fine, Jay. We've dealt with waay worse things than this."
"I dunno, Lloyd, this thing can change our futures," replies Cole. "That's a bit frightening."
"One of us could just drop dead on the spot!" yelps Abigail.
"No so loud, please," Nya sighs. "I've got it turned up so Jay can hear too and that really hurt my ears."
"Sorry, sis," Kai says. "We'll try to keep it down."
"5.78 miles left!" Zane announces.
"WOOHOO!" screams Jay. "I've got a headache from all this mech noise! I can't wait to land!"
"You're screaming, yet you say you have a headache," Anna says.
"He's probably giving himself a headache," Kai remarks.
"Hey!" Jay shouts. Everyone on the Ultra Dragon laughs.
Miles slowly go by as the dragons and mech fly through the trees.
"Are we there yet?" Jay complains.
"Jay, shut up, that's not helping," Cole groans. "We're all bored too."
"What's that?!" Lloyd's voice blares from the walkie-talkie loudly, startling everyone. The group of teens all look ahead.
"Oh my Overlord that's a big temple!" exclaims Jay, pointing a temple not too far in the distance.
"We should walk the rest of the way on foot," Zane says. The dragons land on the grassy ground to their riders dismount. Nya pilots her mech downwards after them. She joins the group, Jay following close behind.
"Well then, Temple of Futures, here we come!" exclaims Abigail, and she takes off in the direction of the temple.
"Abi! Wait!" Lloyd yelps, rushing after her. Cole shakes his head.
"Those two . . ."
"You guys, get back here!" yells Kai. "IT'S DANGEROUS, REMEMBER!? LLOYD! ABIGAIL!"
"They're not gonna listen," groans Anna. "ABIGAIL! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!"
"Oh, heck with it, let's just go," Kai says, and runs off after them. The others quickly break into a run, following Kai towards the temple. Soon, they're all about 10 yards away from the temple's entrance. Christy grins.
"What are we waiting for let's- AHHHHHHH!" She jumps back suddenly, shaking from head to toe. Tears are suddenly dripping down her face. "THERE'S TOO MANY! GET THEM AWAY FROM ME!" Cole comes up behind his girlfriend and puts a hand on her shoulder. She screams again, and whirls around to face him.
"Sorry I scared you," Cole says softly. "What's going on, Christy?"
"S-SPIDERS!" Cole frowns and looks towards the temple.
"There's nothing there."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THERE'S NOTHING THERE!?" Christy screams, turning back around and taking a few steps forward. "LOOK AT THEM! THEY'RE HUGE AND HAIRY AND AHHHHHHHHH-!" Cole's frown deepens and he takes a few steps forward. His eyes suddenly widen.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" he yelps, frozen in place.
"What's going on?" asks Lindsey, looking around.
"I believe we've reached the Chasm of Fears," Zane says softly.
"Why's he freaking out?" Kai squints as he tries to see who Cole's talking too.
"Cole has atychiphobia," Zane tells him. "He told me himself."
"What's atychiphobia?" Abigail asks.
"Fear of failure," Zane informs her.
"NO! NOT AGAIN!" The group whirls around to face the sound. Lloyd was trembling on the spot, silent tears dripping down his face. "DAD! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME AGAIN! YOU'RE GOOD NOW!" His voice began to rise in pitch. "YOU'RE GOOD NOW!" Abigail starts to make her way towards her crush, her eyes full of worry. However, she suddenly screams and jumps back.
"F-FIRE!"
"Fire? Where?" Jay shouts, looking around frantically.
"Pyrophobia," whispers Zane. "The fear of fire."
"But . . . how's she gonna fight near me then?!" says Kai angrily.
"Everyone has their fears, Kai," Zane says gently.
"Like your fear of gingerbread men!" laughs Jay.
"I've gotten over that, thanks," says Kai flatly. Anna snorts.
"Gingerbread men?"
"Shut up!" Kai turns red from embarrassment. "It's better than fearing all food!"
"Kai, I do not fear food," says Zane, "I fear food poisoning."
"But how could you get food poisoning?" Nya asks the Nindroid.
"I understand that my fear is irrational, but no matter how hard I try to get over it, I cannot seem to get rid of it," Zane replies truthfully.
"So that's why you like cooking!" Jay grins. "If you make the food yourself, you know it's fine!" Zane smiles.
"Exactly." Another scream breaks through the conversation.
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, I SWEAR!" Frowning, the remaining teens look for which of their friends has been caught by their nightmares now. "PLEASE STOP!" They spot Lindsey standing near Abigail, who's paralyzed in place. Lindsey moves as if she was dodging something. Tears drip down her cheeks. "Please!"
"Oh my gosh, is she getting beaten up?" whispers Nya, her eyes wide. Zane shuts his eyes, unable to look at the one-sided battle.
"This is getting ridiculous," Kai groans, and rushes over to the other group. He suddenly realizes that his feet are soaking wet. He looks down and finds himself standing on the bank of a huge, deep river. The water is roaring and crashing down various rocks. "AHH!"
"Kai!" Nya shouts. "What is it?"
"I'M GOING TO DROWN!" Kai begins to panic.
"I am not surprised that Kai has hydrophobia," remarks Zane, opening his eyes. "His element is indeed fire."
"There's no water there, you scaredy cat!" Anna yells in Kai's direction. Kai looks over at her, his eyes wide with fear.
"I'M GOING TO DROWN!" Cole, who was standing closest to Kai, was still pleading an imaginary figure. Kai grabs Cole's sleeve. Sweat is dripping down the Fire Ninja's face. "You have to help me, Cole! I'M GOING TO DROWN!" Cole looks straight into Kai's eyes. Now that his teammate's asked for help, Cole knows he has to follow through with it. He cannot fail.
"C'mon, Kai!" Cole shouts, putting an arm around his brother's shoulders. "It's not as deep as it looks! C'mon!" Cole can still hear his father and Sensei shouting at him . . .
"COLE! HOW DARE YOU TRY TO STEAL THE BLADE CUP!?"
"COLE, YOU'VE LET THE TEAM DOWN! JAY AND KAI ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Cole presses forward, and watches as Kai drags his legs as if he's really in water. The Chasm was really powerful.
"Almost there, Kai! We're almost there!"
"COLE, IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU THAT THIS MISSON FAILED!"
"I WON'T FAIL THIS TIME! I PROMISE!" Cole screams. Suddenly, the shouting stops, and Kai collapses on the ground, panting.
"We . . . we made it . . . I didn't drown . . ."
"I didn't fail . . ." Cole whispers. Kai then realizes he's not even wet. He looks over at the 'river'.
"Oh, shit, are you kidding me? It was all a hallucination?"
"Look!" Nya shouts from the other side, pointing at Cole and Kai. "They're through!"
"Maybe that is the key!" Zane suddenly says. "Maybe you need to cross together instead of alone!" With that, the Nindroid rushes towards Lindsey. Nya watches as her friend's determined expression changes to one of fear. He suddenly freezes up in place.
"Oh no . . ." she whispers.
"Don't you go in there too!" Jay shouts. But Nya has already taken off. Jay quickly pursues her, leaving Anna alone.
"NYA?!" Jay screams. "NYA NO!" Nya frowns and turns around.
"Jay, I can't see!" she says, her voice panicky. "It's too dark! IT'S TOO DARK!"
"NOOO!" Jay screams again. Anna watches from the side as Jay falls to his knees and starts sobbing. "WHY?!"
"That's so sappy," Anna says to herself. "His worst fear is losing Nya." Jay suddenly feels a hand on his arm.
"J-Jay . . . we need to get out of here." Jay looks up at Lloyd. The Golden Ninja's violet eyes are slightly bloodshot from crying, and he looks extremely pale. In that moment, Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon looked like a kid again.
"B-but Nya . . ."
"C'mon Jay, we've both lost who we love, so now it's time to get out." Jay looks Lloyd straight in the eyes.
"Okay." The two Ninja slowly make their way to the other side.
"S-SPIDERS!" Christy screams, nearly backing into them. Abigail hears her friend's voice and turns towards her.
"F-fire can b-burn spiders . . ." she stammers softly. Christy looks at her friend.
"You're right," she whispers, stepping closer to Abigail. Together they begin their short journey to other end.
Anna sighs to herself, "To hell with this, I'm going." She walks forward, filled with determination. That determination soon fades into complete and total fear. In front of her is a long, wide pit. It's so deep that Anna can't see the bottom, just black. Stretched over the pit is a thin wire, almost like a tightrope. Anna's heart beats quicken when she realizes that she going to have to cross it.
"C'mon, Anna!" shouts Kai from the other side. Anna shakes a bit.
"I-I can't," she whispers to herself.
"Anna?! What is it? What do you see?" Kai yells. "What's scaring you?"
"Nothing! Shut the hell up!" Anna screams. Kai knew it wasn't nothing, but he also knew that Anna would never tell him. She was the kind of girl who hated showing her weaknesses.
Anna takes a shaky breath and puts her left foot on the thin wire. She wobbles a little bit, biting her lip in terror. "F**k, why do I have to be scared of heights?" she hisses.
From across the way, Kai watched Anna's every move. She was shaking from head to toe, and one foot was placed gingerly on the ground in front of her. Her hazel eyes kept flicking downwards. She still made no effort to move any farther.
Meanwhile, Lindsey was still screaming bloody murder, ducking away from something that wasn't truly there.
"Please stop!" she wails. "STOP! I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG!"
Zane's in his own world, surrounded by rotting, undercooked, and just plain nasty food. His whole body trembles as he imagines eating it, and somehow artificial bile rising in his throat as his stomach clenches-
His terrifying thoughts are instantly interrupted by a tugging feeling on his sleeve.
"Please," begs Lindsey. "Please help me." The look in her eyes is so full of pain and sorrow, and Zane begins to think that her fear is darker than any of them thought . . .
"Of course I'll help." The Nindroid's voice cracks with emotion. He'd never seen someone looking so scared and helpless. He slowly begins to walk forward, Lindsey's hand still grasping his sleeve. Around him the poisonous food just seems to multiply, but he keeps himself going. He knows that his childish fear is no match for whatever Lindsey is suffering through.
When they finally reach the other side, Lindsey collapses in the grass, shaking from head to toe. She wipes the tears from her face.
"Thanks, Zane. I would've never made it out of there by myself, even if it was a hallucination. You're a great friend."
"You are most definitely welcome," Zane replies, his own voice still a bit uneven.
"Anna! We're waiting on you!" shouts Cole.
"It's not real!" Kai yells, trying to be encouraging.
"What do you mean, it's not real!?" Anna screams back. She lowers her voice. "This is f**king freaky."
"Anna!?" calls another voice. Anna looks around. To her, it looks Nya's standing on a tiny isolated ledge in the middle of the chasm.
"Nya! How in Ninjago did you get there?"
"I don't know!" Nya yelps. "I can't see anything! It's pitch black!"
"Nya!" Jay calls from the other side. "Just turn to your right and walk forward!"
"It's so dark!" she screams back. She's trembling all over.
"She's afraid of the dark," Kai says to Jay. "She has been since she was really little, and she never really grew out of it." He raises his voice so his sister can hear. "You can do this, Nya!"
Nya took a deep breath. To her, everything seemed pitch black, with nothing to be seen. She felt so alone in the darkness, yet the encouraging voices of her brother, boyfriend, and friends echoed in her ears. She slowly began to follow Jay's instructions.
'Turn to the right,' she thinks, 'and then go straight.' Kai and Jay watch as Nya slowly makes her way forward. Jay walks over to the very edge of the threshold, waiting for Nya to finally get there.
"Almost there, sis!" Nya takes a deep breath and takes one final step. Suddenly, the world around her explodes in light and color. She falls forward into Jay's arms, a single tear falling down her cheek.
"You're okay," Jay whispers in her ear. "I've got you." She rests her head on his shoulder, facing the temple. The young samurai sniffs and wipes the tear away.
"Jay?"
"Yes?"
"Is Anna still in there?" Jay looks towards the Chasm worriedly.
"Yes, she is."
"ANNA!" Kai shouts. "C'MON! WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" Kai looks down at Cole, who's lying on the ground, exhausted. "Jeez, look at us, we're already tired out and we haven't even gotten inside yet!"
"Anna!" Abigail screams. "Please hurry!" Anna looks down at the 'pit' in front of her.
"Shit, might as well just go," Anna hisses to herself, biting down hard on her lip. She tastes thick, salty blood in her mouth. Very slowly she places her right foot in front of her left. She wobbles a little bit. A cool breeze ruffles through her extremely short hair, blowing red-orange strands into her face. "C'mon, Anna, don't f**k this up."
"You've got this, Anna!" Christy shouts. "Remember, it's not real!"
"Why do they keep saying that?" Anna exclaims to herself as she slowly puts her left foot in front of her right. "This feels real." Very slowly she puts one foot in front of the other, shaking and wobbling. Everyone watches with bated breath, wondering what would happen if she fell. Since there wasn't an actual pit there, would she just fall to ground? Maybe it'd just feel like she was falling?
There was only about five steps left for her to go, but to Anna, it seemed like a mile. Kai moves so he's standing on the edge of the threshold, just like Jay was.
"Almost there!" he shouts as Anna takes another step with her right foot.
"Move out of my way!" Anna screeches. "I can do this myself!" Kai starts, slightly taken aback, and he almost falls forward into the mist again. Lloyd grabs his friend's arms from behind, steadying him.
"Be careful, you almost fell in. That's not something any of us want to experience again." Anna has two more steps left.
She suddenly lurches on the wire, and almost falls. Everyone gasps.
"Shut up!" Anna screams. "That's not helping!" One more step. She looks down so she knows exactly where to put her foot. Bad idea. Anna feels a wave of nausea flood over her. She grits her teeth together in determination.
The others watch her nervously. It's strange to them to see Anna like this. Brave, strong, invincible Anna. Yet now, she stands a feet in front of them, her eyes wide with fear, blood in her mouth, shaking from head to toe. Scared, weak, vulnerable Anna.
And she takes the last step. In her eyes, the image vanishes, the ground turns into grass underneath her feet. She lets out a huge sigh of relief.
"Give me a minute," she pants. She wipes sweat from her forehead, and quickly catches her breath. Everyone looks at each other with a look of anticipation.
"Well . . . should we go in?" Cole asks. No one answers, but they all rise to their feet. They all look to the temple's large, looming entrance.
"Here goes nothing," Kai says.
A few things about the Chasm:
1. In case you're confused, the Chasm isn't a pit at all. It's just a wall of hallucinatory mist. The person who originally discovered the Chasm had a fear of heights, just like Anna. And so, the name "The Chasm of Fears" was born.
2. When I said that Lloyd looked like a kid, I meant that the expression on his face and look on his eyes gave Jay that impression. It wasn't the Chasm doing that.
Also, Lindsey's fear, as Zane put it, "is darker than any of them thought" . . . I just wanted to say that it's not sexual/dirty, okay? Just putting that out there.
Something I wanted to add that I haven't mentioned earlier, Anna isn't pronounced like they do in Frozen. That's more like Aw-na. Anna's name is pronounced Anne-a.
Please review~!
ForeverDreamer12, signing out!