Review Replies:
Anonymous7: Thanks for the concern, but you don't have to worry. I haven't got any major problems at the moment. Honestly, that wasn't even the darkest content I've ever written, and I could certainly write darker ::D And yes, it's spelt Seamus.
Isabella camovic: I never said the flashback's were finished. I said I wasn't taken any more flashback requests. If I don't decide to add or split anything, there should be about two or three more flashbacks. And never fear! No one's drowned, he'd just thought he had.
TheAmberShadow: I'm going to take that last part as a compliment ::D Seriously, I honestly hadn't thought it was that good, but it's great to hear you guys enjoyed it! And you're actually right about the trap thing. How observant of you. And don't worry, neither of them drowned. One of them- I won't say who- had just thought they had.
Chapter Twenty:
Almost
The cold pierced him like a million needles. Stabbed and prickled along his skin, stealing away his breath like a frozen kiss, his body shaking and shivering in a desperate attempt to keep him warm.
Forever seemed to pass. His eyes were beginning to slide shut, and he was vaguely annoyed when someone began shaking him. It was quite weak, but it was still shaking.
He squinted up at the person above him, the exhaustion heavy in his bones. He blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision, and realised that it was a semi-familiar nindroid. For a moment, he thought it was the White-Titanium Ninja (or whatever it was he went by), but then he became aware of the terror on his face and realised it was Echo.
"A-Are you o-o-okay?" the nindroid stuttered, shivering almost as violently as he himself. Wincing, he pushed himself up on weak limbs, coming dangerously close to falling over.
"I'm fine," he gasped, "I-I'm fine."
He looked up- and his mouth fell open. He was looking at the sky. Blue, pale, partly obscured by clouds. They sat on the shore of a mostly frozen lake, the village of Stiix all the way on the other side, snow and frost and ice on almost every exposed area. Goosebumps raced up his arms. He wasn't dressed for this weather.
But despite this thought, a weak grin spread across his lips, a small laugh bubbling in his chest. Then it grew, bigger and bigger until it felt as though there was a balloon in his chest, and he was laughing and laughing even though he was freezing and his clothes were damp from the snow.
"We're out," he breathed, not caring about the wetness in his eyes nor the numbness of his limbs. He gave a breathless laugh. "We're out!"
Echo sent him a smile that looked more like a grimace, although that was mostly because of how his face was a horrific mess of twisted metal. His grin fell slightly, but then returned and he forced himself up onto trembling, numb legs, struggling to help Echo rise as well.
"Now where?" the droid asked, hugging himself and sending the town a little ways away a curious yet hesitant look. He thought for a moment, rubbing his arms to try and keep warm.
"I suppose we head for Ninjago City," he mused, a bit hesitantly, "You know... find your brother."
Echo's lips spread in a wide smile, although he winced at the action. He returned the smile, but it was not as wide, and offered an arm.
Immediately, the droid slung his arm around his shoulders, putting some of his weight on him and relieving his broken leg. He pulled him slightly closer, a hand on Echo's up and his other wrapped around the wrist next to his neck.
Silently, they began to limp away from the water, despite the exhaustion, despite the pain. They were getting somewhere. Slowly. Agonisingly.
Keep going.
Keep going.
They were getting somewhere.
Zane had stood, staring, for a long moment. It was only when Jay called for him to hurry up that he snapped out of it and jogged to join his siblings, mind still whirling and spinning as he attempted to answer PIXAL's question.
"He must have heard you," he thought, so that only PIXAL could hear, "When you were scanning the labyrinth, perhaps."
"I'm not sure, Zane," said PIXAL, her brow furrowed, "He's an ex-slave. Surely he's not that observant?"
"You never know," he thought, "We only met him a little while ago."
PIXAL fell silent, a contemplating frown on her face. Zane decided to stay silent as well.
The group continued walking, their only permanent source of light immitting from Zane's glowing skin. The torches bolted on the walls were few and far between, and wouldn't budge when Nya had attempted to take one down.
They came to a crossroad, four corridors branching off from the centre, including the one they'd come through. They split up a little, peering into the darkness of each corridor in hopes of finding something that will tell them where to go.
"Hey," called Seamus, pointing to the floor, "It's another riddle."
Blinking, Zane followed his finger, and was startled to discover there were indeed words engraved on the uneven floor. He brightened his glow as he approached.
"What belongs to you," he read, "But is used by others more?"
Jay groaned, "Oh, come on! Can't we just choose a random corridor?"
"But this might open another way," Nya pointed out, "For all we know, it could take us straight to Echo."
"But what's the answer?" asked Cole.
"Uh..." Lloyd winced, once more rubbing at his temples, "Video games?"
There was the sound of something snapping, and then Lloyd was scrabbling away with a surprised yell as a metal wall shot up from the floor, quickly followed by another, their tops vanishing into the darkness. The wall that stood before him now was bent, meeting together, like the inside of an X.
"Lloyd!" Cole's voice was muffled, hardly audible through the thick metal, "Zane!"
"I'm okay!" Zane yelled.
"Crap," Seamus sighed, causing Lloyd to jump, having not realised he was there.
"What happened?" asked Lloyd.
"Looks like we only had one guess," came Nya's voice, "Now we're separated."
"Who're you with?" Jay asked.
"Seamus is with me," answered Lloyd.
"It's just PIXAL and I over here," Zane said, "Are you three together?"
"Yeah, we're together," said Nya, "What do we do now?"
"Just... keep your phones out," Lloyd suggested, quite hesitantly, "We can keep in touch through texting. We'll find another way through."
CLANG!
Lloyd jumped backwards, a fist sized dent appearing in the metal wall. He heard Cole give a pained yell.
"Deepstone!" the ghost exclaimed, "It's made of deepstone!"
"We must hurry," said Zane, "We'll meet up at the prison."
He heard Jay sigh, "Why do we always get split up? Nothing good ever comes from splitting up."
"We don't have much choice," said Seamus, "We'll stay in contact," he nodded down the hall, "Lead the way, Lloyd."
Lloyd nodded, then quickly stopped himself when pain shot through his skull. Gritting his teeth, he turned and began walking down the corridor, Seamus following.
"Good luck, guys!" Nya yelled, as she, Jay and Cole began going down their own corridor. Zane stared at the deepstone wall for a long moment, before dimming his glow so that the only light came from his electric blue eyes.
He turned to face the darkness of his own corridor. The silence was a high-pitched ringing in his ears.
He began to walk.
The tree's stretched towards the sky with long, thin arms covered in frost laced leaves. Snow crunched beneath their feet, but the further they walked the thinner it seemed to become. Echo decided to take this as a good sign.
The exhaustion had settled deep into his exoskeleton now. His feet dragged across the snow, leaving behind long trails that his muddled mind didn't even consider trying to cover. The arm that wasn't wrapped around Kaze's shoulder dangled at his side, and any feeling that had remained in his disfigured face was lost.
He wanted so badly to collapse. Just fall over and not get back up. But he didn't. Because they were out and he was almost home. He was almost back with his brother and the Ninja and Gizmo and Wu and Misako and the Bounty and the sound of his family playing video games in the living room while Gizmo once more defeated him at a game of chess.
His chest squeezed.
Almost home.
Kaze came to a sudden stop, and Echo almost tripped over. He sent him a concerned look, but Kaze's gaze wasn't on him. He followed his eyes and gave a delighted gasp.
It was some kind of big, fluffy animal with horns. It's nose pushed away the snow as grazed at the grass beneath, forcing them out of the dirt and chewing. It's tail swung back and forth as flies attempted to land on it's behind, and it's hoved feet left curious prints in the snow.
"What is that?" asked Echo, not tearing his eyes from the creature, ignoring the pain flaring up his cheeks from his smile. Kaze glanced at him with raised eyebrows.
"It's a yack."
A giggle rose in his throat, "It's fluffy."
Kaze was silent for a moment, as though debating whether or not he should comment. Then he shook his head, taking a hesitant step towards the yack, "We could... we could ride it."
Echo gasped, "We can?"
Kaze nodded, not looking at him, "Yes, but we've got to be very careful. Otherwise we'll scare him off."
Silently, Echo nodded in understanding. He didn't want to scare the fluffy creature.
Depositing Echo on a dry patch of grass beneath a tree, Kaze slowly limped towards the yack, hands held out in front of him in an attempt to he meant no harm. The yack snorted, hardly glancing at him, and returned to it's grazing.
Now standing only a few inches in front of the creature, Kaze glanced over his shoulder at Echo to make sure he was okay. The droid was smiling widely, watching in wonder and excitement. A smile tugged at his own lips, and he turned back around before Echo could see.
Licking his lips, he inched closer to the animal, his hand hovering just over it's back. Then it's head rammed into his stomach, sending him flying into the snow, the air forced from his lungs.
"Kaze!"
He groaned, gasping for breath, grimacing as he clutched at his stomach. He lay there for a long moment, struggling to regain his breathing. Finally, with another grimace, he pushed himself up, clothes soaked and skin tingling from the cold.
"Okay," he gasped, "Perhaps that wasn't a good-" He froze, mouth opening and eyes widening. Echo stood in front of the creature, putting most of his weight against the tree behind him, joyfully feeding it grass.
Sensing his gaze, Echo looked at him, his smile so wide Kaze was almost certain his faceplate was going to fall off. Again.
"Look!" the droid giggled, "He likes me!"
Kaze, becoming aware that he was gaping like a moron, forced his mouth closed. He approached hesitantly, hand on his still rather painful stomach, sending the yack a weary look. Echo, however, seemed unconcerned, making little cooing noises as he fed the animal another handful of grass.
"How... How did you do that?" Kaze asked, stopping just out of reach of the yack. Echo gave a little shrug, still grinning.
"He was eating grass, so I decided to give him some," he gave another giggle, "His tongue feels funny!"
Kaze shook his head, watching the scene before him play out in astonishment. Hesitantly, he took another step forward. The yack didn't react when he placed his hand on it's back, too focused on eating the grass in Echo's hand.
Taking a steady breath, Kaze leapt onto the yack's back, very nearly falling off. The yack shifted, snorted, but then quickly turned it's attention back to Echo when he presented it with more grass. Kaze let out a relieved breath.
Bending slowly, Echo sat the grass on a patch of snow, the yack following his hand and continuing to munch on the greenery, not noticing the droid's absence. Echo stumbled over to the side of the creature, Kaze reaching down to help him up. It took a few tries, but eventually, the nindroid was behind him, arms wrapped around his waist.
"Let's see if I remember how to do this," Kaze muttered. He untied something around his waist- a long rope that he'd been using as a belt- and reached forwards, hooking it around the yack's snout.
It snorted, wined, shook it's head, before settling down. Kaze pulled on the makeshift reins, and the yack obediently began going left. A grin lifted his lips.
"Will this help us find my brother quicker?" asked Echo. Absentmindedly, Kaze nodded.
"Yeah."
Smiling, Echo buried his face into Kaze's shoulder, letting out a happy sigh, despite the pain in his body. His eyes slid shut. "Good."
He fell asleep.
Let's end on that cute little scene there. Sorry that this chapter is, what, a thousand words shorter than usual? I'm already working on the next one, though, so that should be posted sometime next week (I seriously hope I didn't just jinx myself).
Okay, so no one drowned. But- as I have said in two review replies- one of them had thought they'd drowned. Can't blame them really. They've drowned before, after all. Water is like fire to those in the Cursed Realm.
Aaaaand the Ninja are separated. Jay with Cole and Nya, Lloyd with Seamus and Zane by himself (well, unless you include PIXAL). There will, of course, be more riddles and puzzles and such. If you want to give suggestions, feel free! I could use them. Preferably puzzles, since I've already got a bunch of riddles.