Thank you so so much to everyone who's taken the time to read, review, favorite, and alert!
Special thanks to LunaMoons, RandomDragon2.0, ABCSKW123-IX, Morro and More, StoriesAreMagic, xxXTheySayI'mEvilXxx, RobinLost, Peanut2196, rbrill345, Ebony umbreon, Star, TheYellowNinja, LifeNotPresent, SnowNinjaAJ, MagicWords22, and Nali Nali Nalina for reviewing!
Replies to guest reviews:
rbrill345: Haha, we'll see if Lloyd will ever forgive Morro but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We'll see if your opinion changes about Gem after this chapter XD Thank you so much for reviewing!
Star: We'll see more about Morro soon! Your thoughts on apologies and forgiveness were very profound! And, CRAZY theory about Gem! We'll see ;D Thank you so much for reviewing (three times! XD)
TheYellowNinja: Haha, Morro did indeed "apo-what-ize!" XD I like your thoughts about Gem! Lloyd's Five Times will be out on Monday! Thank you for reviewing! :D
LifeNotPresent: You have no idea how much your compliments mean to me! You are so so nice! :D I'm glad you like the depth I tried to give Gem! I completely agree that one dimensional bad guys are entertaining... but boring :P "An inspiration?!" Thank you SOOO much! You really made my day!
SnowNinjaAJ: Haha, if you wanted action, there's certainly a lot of if these next two chapters! :D Haha, I'm sorry about your fish XD Thanks for reviewing!
Nali Nali Nalina: Jay certainly needed some tough love! Morro certainly tried, but Lloyd's just not ready to forgive :'( I'm glad you liked the part with Kai and Nya! :3 And, Cole's mom :'( We'll see about Morro! Thank you so much for reviewing! :D
Finally, they found Gem's bedroom. It was pinker and frillier than anything they could have imagined, complete with white vanity table and costume make-up, huge window and pink window seat with approximately three million pillows on it, and a gigantic, four poster, pink canopy bed with three million more pillows and stuffed animals adorning it. The bed was just wide enough for five ninja to hide under it side by side, packed in like sardines. Morro was the only one who didn't hide under it, choosing instead to simply disappear.
The waiting was the hardest part. Several hours passed, and all they could do was watch the sun's light fade from what they could see of the room under the bed skirt, too terrified of Gem appearing suddenly to even whisper. The window made coming and going easier, at least, and in shifts, the ninja left to eat, drink, relieve themselves, and stretch to keep their muscles from getting sore. They were always sure to return as soon as possible though, afraid they'd miss Gem's arrival.
Finally, it was night, the moonlight barely illuminating the room. The darkness seemed to reach inside them and increase the anxiety weighing down on them, and they all became acutely aware of everyone else's breathing that was deafening in the small space.
The moonlight persisted for hours, and just as they were becoming certain Gem was a ghost who chose to never sleep, or had fallen asleep somewhere else, or knew they were here the whole time and was sneaking up right behind them-
She entered the room.
And, someone else entered the room.
"C'mon, Big Brother!" She chirped, any depression from earlier erased from her tone. The ninja shared panicked glances, though they couldn't see each other in the near pitch blackness. They had not counted on Cole's presence. "Let's go to bed! I'm pooped!"
Two pairs of shoes appeared approximately six inches from their faces. One they knew very, very well. The other were miniature dress shoes that did not appear as if they could belong to an evil mastermind.
"Lay down," Gem commanded.
The bed above them sagged as it accepted the weight of the muscular earth ninja, and they held their breaths.
Gem clambered up next, and she sighed contentedly, presumably snuggled up next to her newest toy. "I love you, big brother."
Silence.
"Tell me you love me."
"I love you, Gem."
They heard nothing but heavy breathing and the soft creaking of the bed as the two above them shifted their weights, but they did not emerge. Eventually, a new pair of feet appeared out of thin air- Morro, the only one of them that could see, giving the signal that the ghost pair was asleep.
As silently as cats, the ninja rolled out from under the bed and stood. They were met with the sight of Cole and Gem snoozing contentedly in the very pink bed, nearly getting swallowed by the crowd of stuffed animals joining them. Cole was stiff and unnatural, more like a mannequin than a ghost. Gem was wrapped in a little ball, one arm slung across Cole's massive chest, her head resting ever so daintily on his shoulder.
Lloyd nodded at Jay, and the blue ninja reached for the Vengestone cuffs inside his gi- when Morro waved his hands frantically. At Lloyd's raised eyebrow, the ghost pointed at his neck. Eyes widening, the Green Ninja turned to Gem.
She wasn't wearing the Soul Stone.
Her white party dress now had Soul Stones sewn into it ranging from blue to green instead of red, but the black ribbon with the ebony gem was not around her neck.
Lloyd turned on his heel to gesture for a retreat, because they couldn't risk waking Gem when she didn't even have the Soul Stone on her and they needed to change course, scour the castle for the Soul Stone if it was in fact in the castle at all- but the movement startled Zane, who backed into Jay, who bumped Kai, who stumbled into Nya's broken arm.
She gasped in pain.
Gem's eyes snapped open.
She screamed at the top of her lungs. "Guards! Big Brother, protect me!"
Cole sat up, and Jay lunged to snap the cuffs on her wrists-
Jay was suddenly snatched out of his forward motion and slammed into the floor, his head banging against the stone with a sickening thud. He gasped for breath and stared up in shock at Cole who planted a foot in the center of his chest, keeping him pinned to the floor like a butterfly to a corkboard. The black ninja's face was, as always, devoid of emotion.
Just as the bedroom door was kicked open, banging into the adjacent wall, Lloyd ordered, "Get her!"
The ninja moved to pounce-
And stopped.
"You don't really want to attack me."
They didn't really. Couldn't remember why they had wanted to in the first place.
"Guys, fight it!" Jay called, left out of the mass mind control spell, but it came out as a whisper, his lungs unable to accept air after that hit. "Guys!"
"In fact, you'll back up right now and let my very, very nice guards put those pretty handcuffs on you."
The five ninja took a step backward.
But, Jay, even from his supine position, could see Gem gritting her teeth with exertion. Finding his voice, he yelled, "Guys, it's hard for her to control all of you at once! Fight it!"
Lloyd and Kai blinked, the vacant expression disappearing from their faces as the other three continued retreating toward the guards, who were slowly approaching with Vengestone cuffs at the ready.
"You know it's really interesting what secrets you can trade the Bone Keeper for," Gem offered conversationally, though her voice was tight and thin as she tried to hold onto control.
Lloyd and Kai, ignoring the bait, moved in tandem and rushed Gem-
"What can you two do? You're just a little boy missing the mommy and daddy he never even appreciated. And, you're a good-for-nothing pain in the neck who nobody can bring themselves to love."
Jay watched in horror as Lloyd and Kai froze, reassuming their blank expressions. He could only assume that their secrets gave Gem's already invasive power of mind control a vulnerable place to penetrate and exploit in their minds, a backdoor to the brain she could so easily manipulate.
But, as her attention drifted to keeping Lloyd and Kai under control, the others were successfully fighting their own psychological chains.
"A little girl trying to pretend she's so much more than what she really is," Gem scoffed at Nya, who gasped softly as she met the bottomless eyes of the child ghost. "You're the one who woke me up, you know. Pathetic excuse for a ninja."
Jay yelled wordlessly as Nya succumbed to the spell once again, and the ghost guards slapped a pair of Vengestone cuffs on her wrists. Cole leaned into the foot on his lungs, cutting him off with a pained gasp.
"The metal man who's too much of a coward to even hold onto the memories he had worked so hard to regain."
Zane shut his eyes, trying desperately to shut out her words.
"Who's so selfish, he would rather forget, squander the gift of life and the opportunity to protect those who cannot protect themselves, than be inconvenienced."
The cuffs closed around Zane's wrists. Kai and Lloyd followed soon after.
Morro clutched his head, cursing quietly under his breath.
Gem pouted, looking more like her usual six year old self. "And, you hurt my feelings, Morro! How could you choose the stupid, selfish humans over your own kind?"
He blinked sleepily at her. "Gem, they're-"
"But, what can you expect from the abandoned orphan who would do anything to feel like he was finally part of a family?"
The guards slapped the handcuffs on Morro.
Jay felt the panic rising in his chest. He was alone. Alone fighting the monster who had single handedly defeated the Green Ninja and the most powerful ghost in the Departed Realm, along with all of his teammates. And, he was next.
Then, he looked up at Cole. Cole, who he had failed. Cole, who would be a slave forever because of him.
Cole, who needed him to be strong.
Jay with a quick jab at Cole's ankle caused the black ninja to lose his balance. With the weight momentarily off his chest, Jay took Cole's legs out from under him and flipped into a standing position, once again reaching for his own pair of Vengestone cuffs-
"And, you."
Jay froze, caught by Gem's icy blue glare.
"You caused all of this. You killed Cole in the first place, and you were glad you did it. You deserve to be my slave. You're right where you belong, so why fight it?"
Jay trembled with the effort of resisting her words- but why resist? She was right after all. Why did Jay deserve to be free after everything he had done? After he had killed his best friend out of insecurity, because of a girl-
"No…," he whispered, tears collecting on his eyelids. "I didn't…,"
"You did, Jay," Gem said regretfully, her voice now a low soothing hum despite the viciousness of her words. "It's all your fault. All of it."
Really he should just let it go. What was the point of fighting? Wasn't this a fitting punishment for the evil he had committed…?
Suddenly, Cole was in his field of vision, reaching for the thing he was holding in his hands- what had he been holding again...?
Jay's eyes widened, clutching the Vengestone cuffs protectively against his chest. "No!"
"It's your fault, Jay!" Gem yelled, her voice reassuming the sharp edge, and Jay whimpered at the intensity with which she was attacking his mind. "All. Your. Fault!"
It was his fault.
He saw Cole in front of him again.
It was his fault.
Cole was his brother, and he had killed him.
It was his fault.
Cole was his brother.
It was his fault.
And, he had forgiven him.
I don't want to "make you pay" for pushing me that day. I never did.
You are not the type of person to hurt your brother intentionally. It's just not who you are.
What needs repairment is not between you and Cole but inside yourself.
Get over it.
At some point, you have to forgive yourself.
"It is my fault," he looked up at Gem.
And, smiled.
"And, I forgive myself."
Gem's face drained of the little color it had. "What?!" She shrieked, scrambling backward across her huge bed, away from the blue ninja. "No one- no one can resist my mind control! It works on everyone! Everyone!"
Jay smirked, preparing to leap and-
Gem screamed, "Big Brother!"
-and once again he was met with a punch that had all of Cole's super strength behind it, throwing him across the room.
"Jay!"
Groaning, he raised himself up on his elbows to see Nya staring at him in concern. He realized that, in Gem's panic, she had released all of his teammates from their hypnotic spell. Kai moved to help him, and Gem, apparently not so distressed as to lose all her bearings, froze him with one sharp glare. Apparently, though Jay had found a way to resist her, the others weren't so lucky. He was on his own.
Gem, trying to hold onto her fraying composure, reached under her pillow, and pulled out a wicked green blade. The Dark Dagger.
"Here, Big Brother," she said, handing Cole the knife. He accepted it. She turned her hateful gaze on Jay but did not attempt to control him again.
"Take his soul."
Cole turned to Jay, who swallowed. To get to Gem, he was going to have to fight the brother he was trying to save.
He lowered himself into a fighting stance, attempting to project confidence. Inside, he thought, I'm sorry, Cole…
But, on the outside, he only smirked. "Bring it on, Cole."
:O Jay and Cole are going to fight! Who do you think will win?!
Once again, the first chapter of Lloyd's Five Times will be out on Monday!