Chapter 36-All the King's horses, and all the King's men
The moment the word hit Jay's ears, the world around the blue ninja began to spin wildly. He reached back, trying to hold onto something, anything, but it was as if all of the world had faded from his reality.
Blurs of spinning colors began to fade, giving way for a deep darkness to sweep into the Blue ninja's vision. Jay stood absolutely still, not wanting to walk into something he couldn't see. Eventually, the darkness faded, showing him the very center of an island. Five pedestals stood in a circle, surrounding the jungle's empty clearing. Each pedestal glowed with a different color, awaiting for the ninja to step upon their surface.
Seconds after, the vision faded once again, and once again Jay was stranded in the darkness. He could hear faint voices all around him, although he couldn't be sure of what they were saying. It seemed to him that they were repeating his name, over and over.
Jay tried to answer, but he found that he had no voice to give. He tried to shout again and again, but it was useless. The thick silence swarmed around him, while the darkness revealed nothing of his surroundings.
"Come on, Kai." Dillon laughed, shooting another wave of his shadows to attack the red ninja. "You've gotta figure this out. If you don't, you'll end up dead sooner or later. You wouldn't want that would you?"
"Bet you would enjoy it though," Kai growled, slashing away at the darkness. His arms had begun to ache, and his movements were becoming rather slow. It was obvious that Dillon would only stop if Kai guessed the answer to the stupid little riddle imprinted on his wrist. But the ninja of fire was far too angered to think straight.
"What? Your death? Oh trust me Kai, I don't want you dead. Not yet at least. It'd be equally painful for us both if I ended up with your corpse before me." Dillon smiled, flicking his wrist towards Kai, forcing one of his shadows to wrap around the man's wrist. "Okay well, maybe not as painful, since you'd be the one doing the actual dying, but still. You need to figure this out buddy."
"I do my best thinking when I'm not, you know, fighting for my life." Another shadow shot forward, tightening its grip upon Kai's other wrist. The red ninja pulled and tugged, but it was useless. His fingers tried to hold onto the hilt of his sword, but inevitably, it escaped from his grasp. Dillon shook his head, clicking his tongue against the top of his mouth. "You have a funny way of showing you don't want me dead."
"Since when does a villain make it easier for the hero to succeed?" Dillon shook his head in disappointment. One of Dillon's thicker shadows crawled forward, reaching for Kai's neck. "If I handed you the victory you desire so much, you wouldn't learn anything. So now, think Kai. Use that small brain of yours. Time's almost up."
A cold feeling spread around Kai's neck as the shadows began to entwine around his skin. He gasped for air, the oxygen within his lungs slipping away into nothing.
"Tick, tock, tick, tock. . ."
"How about, Humility?"
Naomi couldn't help it. She smiled. Turning, her eyes fell upon Lloyd's as he landed upon the island's surface. The leaves and sticks beneath him crunched under his weight. The boy smiled. The girl shook her head, too startled to do or say anything else.
"I didn't-"
Lloyd's words were cut short with a loud slam! As Jay's unconscious body hit the ground. Naomi turned back to face the others, flinching at the sound. Lloyd flew closer to get a better look, studying the two ninja before him with utter curiosity.
"Jay!" Cole shouted, shaking the blue ninja's shoulders.
"I guess that was the right word?" Lloyd chuckled, shrugging his shoulders in a sort of apology. Cole rolled his eyes, shaking his head and continuing to mutter Jay's name in an attempt to bring him back. The green eyed boy tilted his head, trying to grasp at the few memories he could still call his own. "Are they. . . are they someone I should know?"
Cole turned towards his sister, giving her a frown after shooting Lloyd a questioning look. This time it was the girl's turn to shrug apologetically. "Dillon stole his shadow. He can't remember much."
"Ah ha, so I should know who they are." Lloyd nodded to himself, feeling satisfied. "I'm too clever. I knew I had to know them."
"He's worse than when he was a kid. . ." Cole shook his head, then turned back towards the blue ninja. "Jay, come on now, we don't have time for this. Wake up."
"Yeah I don't think he's willingly unconscious." Naomi said, causing Cole to mutter something under his breath. "I suppose you two will just have to catch up."
"Wait. . . what?" Cole and Lloyd asked in unison.
"Well we have to get Lloyd's shadow, otherwise he'll be a little brat who can't get over himself."
"Oh I can get-"
Naomi pressed the palm of her hand against Lloyd's mouth, preventing anymore words from escaping. "And the sooner we do it, the better it'll be. So me and Lloyd will head for Dillon's ship, and you can wait for Jay to wake up."
"First of all I'm the leader," Cole shook his head. "And second of all, you can't just run around in an island full of lord knows what, chasing a psychopath who tortures people for entertainment."
"Oh don't worry about it uh,um, Coal!" Lloyd said, "She'll be with me. Finest hero in all of Neverland."
"It's Cole," The black ninja shook his head. "And that's exactly what I'm worried about."
The world was beginning to fade. Kai couldn't fight the darkness swarming around the edge of his vision any longer. He couldn't think. He couldn't even speak. He would be dead within seconds, and all because Dillon wanted to play a little game.
Kai closed his eyes, wishing he hadn't left Laurie behind. With her by his side, he would have most definitely had more of a chance. But now here he was, fighting a lost battle, while she was somewhere in the maze, lost in the darkness.
A flash of light forced the red ninja to jump back into reality. Fire and light swarmed protectively around him, and Dillon's shadows jumped, scurrying back to their master. Kai gasped for air, falling to his knees in a fit of coughs.
"Oh brother," Dillon sighed. "Always ruining the show for me. Don't you have a castle to run?"
"Funny as it may seem, there are better things to do than laze around a castle all day and night." As Kai struggled to fall back into a comfortable rhythm for his breathing, his eyes widened at the sound of Nadya's voice. "Such as stopping you from murdering the characters within the story."
"Come on now, we were just playing," Dillon bent down, making eye contact with Kai's eyes. "A little guessing game. But I guess the little hero will lose this round."
Kai grimaced as he fought to get to his feet. A chuckled escaped Dillon as he took notice of the ninja's obvious pain. "Was that too much for you? I'll try to put it down a notch or two next time we play,"
"Just get out of the way Dillon," Nadya stepped past Kai, standing face to face with the grey eyed man. "We need to get to Neverland."
"No way!" Dillon laughed, swiveling around, leaving his back to face the others. He continued to march forward into the darkness of the maze. "That's exactly where I'm heading to. I've still got a couple of problems to take care of. We're lucky it's not too far."
Kai bent down to grab ahold of his sword, keeping the glow of the fire alive in order to fight away most of the darkness.
"Couldn't you have used that earlier?"
Laurie's voice startled the ninja, and he almost dropped his sword yet again. Kai looked at Laurie, guilt and regret overflowing most of his body. "I'm. . . I didn't think of it. I'm sorry. I really am."
"Could've used a bit of my help with Dillon huh?"
"Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in." Kai began to follow Nadya's light, as she in turn followed Dillon's shadow. Laurie stayed close by the ninja of fire, refusing to return to the embrace of darkness. "We all make mistakes."
As the strange group of people continued to walk forward, Kai's mind began to wonder. He thought back at Dillon's words, and looked down at the words upon his wrist, feeling the answer to the riddle sit at the tip of his tongue. But no matter how many words he ran through his mind, the words on his wrist remained as strong as ever, and there was no vision flashing through his eyes.
After one last dark turn of the maze, the ground beneath Kai's feet changed. His surroundings began to grow into stone, as the ninja followed Nadya into a strange cave. He could hear the splashing of waves hit the side of the cave's walls, and the echo of his footsteps as they traveled further and further.
"Oh. . . Ohh!" Dillon's voice rang through their surroundings. Kai and Laurie stopped walking, searching for whatever Dillon had spotted. "This is. . . This is pretty funny actually. I mean, I knew I wanted the little robot out of the way but. . . wow. The mermaids are vicious."
A sick feeling drowned Kai's every thought. He pushed past Nadya, frantically looking at the scenery before him.
"You know this. . . This actually reminds me of something," Dillon said. "A little nursery rhyme."
Kai stopped in his tracks, looking past Dillon, as the black haired man recited something that was familiar to the ninja. But something was different this time. The little rhyme didn't feel silly. It didn't make Kai want to chuckle, or shake his head at the idiocy of it all. This time, there was something sinister peeking from behind the seemingly innocent words.
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall." Dillon's words pulsed against Kai's ears. "Humpty Dumpty had a great fall."
Kai shut his eyes.
"All the king's horses, and all the king's men." Dillon tilted his head, "Couldn't put Humpty together again."