Chapter Ten; A Cole's Point of View

Maya ran off in a hurry. Something was wrong. She looked...very distraught. "I'll go see if she's okay." I started to walk out the door, but I felt a hand stop me. I turned around to see Lloyd looking at me.

"Wait, let me go. I'm her brother after all." He whispered and walked passed me. I didn't argue, maybe she did need Lloyd more than me. But if we're thinking logically, she hasn't needed anyone for a long time. I can't imagine she would need help now, especially from me. I sighed and looked at the rest of the team. All of their eyebrows were raised. Including Dareth's.

"Something you all want to say?" I asked with a growl.

"Nope."

"Nothing."

"Nada."

"I'm good."

"That's what I thought." I huffed and sat down on one of the dusty bar stools. I got lost in my thoughts. All I could think about was Maya. How difficult she is to read. I can't tell if she likes me or not. She's hard to reach, that's for sure. That moment we had, in the cave, I seemed to have looked straight into her soul or something. Her breathtaking green eyes looked like sap, and her soft, pale skin reminded me of snow. But what I saw in her eyes...was different. There was something almost dark. Or a darkness. Not exactly evil, just dark. That's why she seems difficult to read sometimes. She's definitely not as straightforward as Nya. Jay's lucky to have her, they deserve eachother.

"So," Speak of the devil, Jay sat down next to me. "What's a...what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" I started to whisper.

"What I mean is that I have no clue what is going on in my best friend's brain. For once in my life, I don't. Why are you so on edge? Is it Maya?" Jay whispered, trying to avoid reeling in the rest of the group.

"Why would I be thinking about Maya?" I hissed. Jay knows when I lie, especially when I lie with anger on my tongue.

"Cole, buddy," Jay put his hand on my back and patted it a couple times. "You and I both know you're lying." Jay smirked.

"Fine, have it your way. I literally can't stop. It's like a disease. I can't even tell if it's good or bad, I just can't stop." I put my hands on my head.

"Can't tell if what is good or bad?" Jay asked.

"My thoughts about her. Like I can't even process it in words...it's like...like..." I couldn't even think how to speak about her.

"Like you don't have control? You don't clearly see what she thinks, especially about you?" Jay asked with a smile on his face.

I hate it when he's right. And that's RARE by the way. "I mean that's one way to put it," I groaned. "But it's more complicated than that. There's more to her than what my brain can even process. It's like she has all these secrets that have been locked up for years and years. It's why she acts the way she does is my guess. That talk about the Slithraa torturing her like that? That's not just something you blurt out so easily, y'know? It's like she forgot about the whole thing until Lloyd mentioned it."

"I did notice that, but, Cole, it's up to her if she wants to spill her secrets or not. Besides, we all have secrets." Jay let out a giggle.

"I thought you said you never keep anything from me?" I raise one eyebrow.

"I said I would tell you everything you needed to know as my best friend." Jay sat up and started to walk away.

"Jay! What aren't you telling me?" I turned around and flung my arms in the air. "Jay!"

Jay just let out a big snicker. He walked back over to me and whispered close to my ear. "I'm sure you have absolutely no interest whatsoever about what Nya and I do together. Alone."

"JAY!" I shoved him away from me and I started to laugh. He was right. I was definitely not interested.

All of a sudden, the shop doors flung open. In came Lloyd with Maya slowly walking behind him. Her head hung low. I think she may have been crying. I don't think she wanted anyone to see her face, that's why she hid behind Lloyd.

"Alright everyone, we think we have a solid plan." Lloyd said.

"We?" I saw Nya glare. "What about us? I thought the whole point of us coming here is so we all could make one together." She crossed her arms.

"I'll tell you first, and if you have a better one, you can say it." Lloyd said looking directly at Nya. "There's only one place in Ninjago that has gotta be free of snakes- Borg Tower. If we could get there, quickly, we could perhaps ask Cyrus for assistance. We all know he wouldn't leave that tower till the day he dies."

"Wait, you want us to go to the center of downtown? Are you nuts? It'll be a madhouse and crawling with snakes!" Kai said.

"That's why we leave our mechs here and use our elemental dragons. That way we can get to the 100th floor easily without having to face any Slithraa." Lloyd confirmed.

"I am in favor of this idea, but I can see that Kai is obviously not," Zane looked at Kai who was still shaking his head. "We're ninja. What ever happened to do the right thing at all costs?"

"Zane's right. If anything, we should vote." I said. "All in favor, raise your hand." I raised my hand, then Lloyd, then Maya, Zane, then Jay. "All opposed?" I ask. Dareth, Kai and Nya raised their hands. "Then it's settled. we're going with Lloyd and Maya's plan." I looked at Maya and smiled. Her head still hung low, but she managed to look at me with a smile on her face.

"Fantastic." I heard Nya mumble.

"Lighten up, Nya! When have you ever been afraid of a little adventure?" Jay squealed.

"I'm not afraid. I'm pissed. The whole point of coming to this dump was to make a plan together! But no, the siblings went ahead and did that on their own." Nya scoffed and stormed out of the building. Almost immediately, she burst out her elemental dragon and flew off towards Borg Tower.

"Nya WAIIT!" Jay screamed and ran after her, forming his dragon. Lloyd formed his dragon and Maya hopped on the back of it. Zane then formed his ice dragon, dragging Dareth along, and left as well.

Before Kai had the chance to do the same, I grabbed his shoulder and spun him towards me. "What the hell is going on with Lloyd and Nya? Am I missing something?" I asked.

"It's not Lloyd, it's Maya. They aren't getting along very well. But she was right about the whole thing with the both of them planning like that behind our backs. It wasn't cool." Kai said.

"Wasn't cool?" I asked. "It was literally one plan. Lloyd said if anyone had ideas they could say. Did you have a better one?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then you need to stop. I don't know what drama is going on between Nya and Maya, but it shouldn't get between you either. You know how important teamwork is here."

"Actually Nya has a valid reason for being upset. She thinks Maya will end up hurting you." Kai said.

"Hurt me? How?" I jolted my head in shock.

"We can all see it. There's something- a spark- between the both of you. We just don't want you getting hurt, that's all." Kai said and flew off with his dragon.

"It's not like I've been brutally hurt emotionally by another female before! Like everyone else here!" I yelled. "I haven't even had a girlfriend in my life," I sighed, lowering my voice to where I could only hear me. I did think Vania liked me once, but it was definitely a friend thing. "Why should I be the fragile one?" I formed my earth dragon and followed the others, still pondering in my thoughts.

Once I got close enough, I could see each ninja, one at a time, jumping off their dragons onto the Borg landing pad as the dragons vanished into thin air. First Nya, then Jay, then Lloyd and Maya, Zane and Dareth, then Kai. I was the last one. Before my dragon could even land, I jumped off. My dragon vanished almost immediately, I made a 12 foot jump that made my ankles sting once I landed. I didn't show it though, I was still kind of pissed. I didn't need anyone worrying about me. I've been fine all this time, why would I need "protection" now?

"So...the doors shut. It's never shut." Kai said starring up at the closed modern garage door thingy.

"Well I would shut it too since these snakes are around." Lloyd said trying to find a button on the door.

"He didn't close it during the Oni." Nya said.

"That was different," Lloyd shook his head. "Aha! It's a code. Zane, can you scan this?"

"Hmm," Zane said as he looked at the code lock. "I think I've got it." All of a sudden, his fingers flew at the speed of light entering what seemed like hundreds of different codes at a time. It was kind of humorous. "There we go." He said with a slight smile of satisfaction as the garage door flung open.

"Nice one, Zane!" Jay yelled.

We all walked In the building. We're here, again. Floor 100. As usual. I find it hilarious how often we come here. I looked around, it was empty. No employees, no snakes, no Cyrus Borg. It was dark, the power was out. I looked over at Kai who made a torch with his fist out of fire. Lloyd did the same with his energy. Maya didn't do anything though.

"Maya?" I whispered.

"What?" She whispered back.

"I can't see this..over uh...over here." I pointed to a wall.

"There's nothing there..." She looked at me confused.

"You don't know that...it's too dark." I smirked hoping to get her to use her powers again.

"If you're trying to get me to use my powers again, don't bother. Lloyd and I agreed it was too dangerous." Maya said.

"It's only dangerous if you're scared." I said.

"I'm not scared? And besides I'm still worn out from the last time I used them." Maya replied.

I sighed and she walked away. I was hoping to get her to try it again, but she's agreed to not use them until she figured them out. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

"I think, everyone must have evacuated. Or they may still be in hiding. I'm surprised we haven't even seen a single snake yet." I said out loud for the group to hear.

"Me too, somethings fishy about this. It doesn't seem...right." Kai agreed.

"Wait, Lloyd can you use your energy to power up the security cams?" I said pointing to the powered off computers connected to the cameras.

"Yeah, I'll try. That way we might be able to see what the hell happened here." Lloyd said walking up to the computers. He placed his hands over the wires and squeezed them. As he did that, green bursts of energy shot from his fingertips, creating sparks. Within a matter of seconds, the screens turned back on.

"Good going, Lloyd!" I said patting him on the back.

"Do you mind if I-" Zane started.

"It's all yours." Lloyd said standing up and moving away from the screens.

Zane pressed random buttons on the keyboard for about ten seconds before being able to pull up past security.

"Woah woah woah, wait right...there. Stop." Lloyd said as he examined the screens.

Zane stopped scanning and played the recording. At first, we saw Cyrus in his lab. Eventually, he moved back into his office. Then his TV turned on. He looked frightened. Immediately, some of his employees came up and wheeled him out of the facility. He got into a vehicle outside then drove away. Next, multiple Slithraa started to crawl up the staircase, right towards the 100th floor.

"Why did they come up here? Cyrus left and the power was out." Jay asked.

"Wait a second- this...this is real time." Zane gasped.

"What do you mean 'real time'?" I said getting closer to the cams.

"This is happening. Right here. Right now!" Zane shouted as he stood up.

None of us said anything. We all had a look of terror on our faces as we looked at the screens. Hundreds upon hundreds of snakes were crawling up the stairs. Dareth hid in a corner.

"Wait shh shh shh," I held my finger up to my lips and looked towards the stairway entry. "Do you hear that?" Sounds of marching, or hardcore slithering, was getting closer and closer. It sounded like drums.

"That...doesn't sound good," Jay said with a look of horror on his face.

"Guys...RUN!" Lloyd screamed. We all ran for the garage door that lead back to the launch pad. The door slammed shut before we could exit.

"No!" Nya said as she pounded on the door.

I tried earth-punching the door, but it was so strong, it knocked me back. I was pushed into a wall. "Umph!" I said as I hit the wall.

"Cole!" Maya ran up to me. "Oh shit, are you okay?" She looked at me again with her pretty green eyes.

"I...I'll be fine." I smiled.

"We need to figure out how to get the HELL. OUT. OF. HERE!" Jay screamed as his arms flung around in the air.

"Guys, they're coming." Kai said looking at the door.

"What do we do?" Nya asked.

I punched my fists together, creating my 'lava arms' as I liked to call them. All of us together, lined up in our front stance awaiting our fates. "We fight."