JMJ

Chapter Fifteen

Monkey got your Tongue

It was earlier than Cole woke, when Nya stirred to life. She let out a little moan. She could not help it. Her ankle hurt with a deep dull pain, and, the more her consciousness roused, the more acute it felt until she felt tears in her eyes. She sat up with a cry and fell back against the rock behind her for support.

She had been leaning on it funny, apparently, because now that it was straightened it felt more like it had before, but it was too late to take back the shout as it woke both Jay and Zane up.

"What!" cried Jay. "What's wrong!? What happened?!"

"Monsters over the bed!?" cried Zane.

"No," whimpered Nya. "Just my stupid ankle again."

"Are you okay?" Jay asked crouching near her.

Zane crept up on the other side trying to ignore the sudden sizzle in his brain. Sleep mode had done nothing to relieve his condition, and as they had surmised last night, that the canyon they had come out into had the same magnetic interference as the cavern tunnels had. Neither Nya nor Zane were in a condition to climb (much less ninja-leap) out of the canyon either. Neither Zane nor Jay had felt it a good idea to carry Nya out with risking further damage to her ankle. As it had been evening, they had decided to rest before they made another attempt in the morning to figure out what to do.

It was probably near morning now; though it was still very dark out.

Nya was far more worried about Zane than her ankle now as she turned to his blue eyes blinking in the darkness.

"Someone should get help, Nya," said Jay.

As the ankle throbbing subsided, Nya felt a more pressing matter than her wound and possibly Zane's condition.

"We should find something to eat first. It was harder to go to sleep hungry than it was to sleep on the ground."

"Oh, yeah…" Jay sighed. "Me too. I mean, the same. I mean…" Jay winced. "I understand."

"Yeah," moaned Nya.

Zane looked up at Jay with a very mechanical jerk. "The early bird tzt makes the coffee."

Jay winced. "Zane, I can't make breakfast with nothing… nothing to make breakfast with. I—I'm sorry."

"Are you sure you don't have anything left, Zane?" asked Nya.

"The bad neighbors knocked the table," said Zane sadly.

He had said something of the like yesterday too.

"Then…" Nya said with a wince as she turned back to Jay. "Then unfortunately, it's up to Jay."

Oh! That sounded bad. She did not mean to have such lack of faith in him, but even as she spoke Jay seemed to stiffen with sheer terror at the idea. She tried not to look irritated, but she knew that she did, so that on top of that Jay looked miserable too. She sighed and pretended it was about her ankle.

Jay did not seem to fall for it.

"But how am I gunna catch anything, and I don't know plants like Za—," Jay protested.

A sudden beautiful bow and quiver was thrust into his face in a very jerky manner. It had almost hit Jay in the face, and he fell over temporarily.

Nya rolled her eyes and moaned.

Quickly, Jay scrambled upright, though, and he smiled nervously at Zane.

"Thanks," he said; it was painful.

"Jay…" said Nya. "Are you gunna—"

"Yeah?"

"Are you gunna be okay?"

"Yeah," squeaked Jay wincing again.

"Are you sure? Cuz maybe we should just continue along the canyon like we been doing."

"But—"

"I mean, it's gotta end sometime. I don't remember this big trench in the middle of the jungle, so it can't be—"

"Road trips with empty tanks…" Zane offered.

Jay was cringing from non-existent ear to non-existent ear, and neither he nor Nya stopped to look at Zane as they stared at each other.

"Zane's right, Nya!" Jay choked.

Now Nya cringed. He was just gunna kill himself. She knew he was. She did not know what had happened to him in his high school years. Well, maybe they all had gotten a little weird and lazy and went a little backwards in their training, but high school had just about killed the little courage Jay had earned before— that little courage that had made him braver than the rest in a way, and one of the things that had charmed Nya about him once long ago, but now…

"You're looking at me like you think I'm gunna puke," said Jay, "and honestly… I'm probably gunna. Besides, I never hunted before."

Nya shook her head.

"You can do this, Jay!" she said changing her tone.

"Ravens are birds," Zane said with a nod and tzzzt.

Trying to stand up, she had almost forgotten that she could not easily, and she winced. Jay put his hand on her shoulder.

His eyes were wide as he stared so sincerely scared into hers, but not scared about himself. He was scared for her.

He was trying to stop her from pushing herself. If it had been anyone else, this would have annoyed her, except maybe her brother, but if it had been her brother it also would not have frustrated her instead. She was beside herself. She wanted to say something about the old days that would make him feel braver, but all she did was swallow on her dry throat.

"Are you gunna be okay alone, though?" asked Jay.

Without warning, she did something she had not done since she was a very silly girl. She kissed Jay. It was no more than a little peck on the cheek, but she meant it, and she meant it to give him extra courage; though, when she pulled away she saw that all she had done was frozen him worse than a computer on overload.

He seemed to turn bright pink in the cheeks as he blinked stupidly back at her.

"I'm gunna be fine!" Nya said with full seriousness. "Besides, I'm not alone. Zane's with me."

"I'm still a picture even if slightly smoky," said Zane.

"What he said," said Nya. "And you're gunna be fine too. Show me your ninja, and I'll show you mine!"

"Right," said Jay half-heartedly.

"Tch! That's not showing me your ninja."

"I'll show you my ninja!" snapped Jay with all the force he had.

"Yeah, that's the spirit, Jay! You got the skill. It won't take you long to find something to eat, and Zane's bows are the best! We'll try to find something to make a fire down here."

"Okay…" said Jay looking with uncertainty at Zane jerking awkwardly again, but he shook his head. "I mean! That sounds like a great plan!"

Nya punched the air. "You bet it does, so let's get to it!"

"So ninja!" said Jay after Nya and her brother's favorite catch-phrase.

Nya smiled as Jay spun around and marched for the cliffs. He looked as brave as a lion hunter on the hunt. He looked as determined as an eagle. He…wasn't looking where he was going and tripped over a rock.

"Ouch!" he cried, but jumped up instantly even if less confidently.

He only sped up because he did not want to look back.

"I'm okay!" he called back.

Zane slowly turned to Nya, and fortunately Jay was already too far away and climbing up out of the canyon to hear Nya mutter despite herself, "This was a bad idea." Zane's blank stare softened with a touch of stubborn disagreement.

"Birz tzzt of a feath-tzzt-er tzzt…" he started.

"Should trust their friends?" offered Nya.

"Flop together," sighed Zane.

Nya blinked. "Oh."

Then she frowned for a few moments of silence. "You can say that again."

And he did.

Nya moaned.

#

"Look," Lloyd said pointing, "Kai's waking up."

Cole looked, and Lloyd rushed to Kai's side. "Kai! Are you okay?"

Kai moaned and looked up at Lloyd groggily. "Huh? What's that weird smell kinda like blood?"

"Uh…" Lloyd started rolling his eyes behind him.

"We're trying to skin a couple hares," Cole muttered in response.

"Wha…?" asked Kai groggily. "You're skinning your hair?"

"You're okay, though, right, Kai?" asked Lloyd.

"Are you guys?" demanded Kai.

He had difficulty sitting up, but Lloyd helped him.

"Rabbits," said Cole, lifting one up.

"Oh," said Kai, and he slowly spread a smile over his face. Weak though it was, his eyes twinkled. "So you need a fire then, huh?"

He held up a hand and fire slowly emerged. It was weird how it was almost in slow motion.

"Yeah, but first we gotta skin, 'em," said Lloyd.

Cole nodded.

It was a nauseating task, and they were not very good at it. Though, once they had finished and cleaned up the area a little, Kai was quick to cook the meat. Then they ate.

Cole did not even realize how famished he was until he took his first bite. A rabbit each would hardly be enough! As Kai began to eat, it was the fastest thing he had done since he had been attacked by Kinkomi's Pow-Dur. But Lloyd, after taking his first bite, chewed very slowly and as he swallowed he began to choke.

"Lloyd?" Kai demanded.

Lloyd coughed and gagged until what he had chewed came right back out again like a hairball, and both Kai and Cole jumped back a little. Lloyd tried to take another bite, smaller this time, but he still could not swallow it. He spat it back up again miserably.

"I can't," gasped Lloyd. "I just can't do it."

"I cooked it," said Kai rather sleepily.

Cole frowned. "You mean it literally, don't you?"

Lloyd stiffened, and Kai gaped at Cole as he slowly registered what Cole was saying.

"Wha… you mean he doesn't have a stomach anymore?" Kai demanded.

The green of Lloyd's face turned pale. Then suddenly without warning, Lloyd stood up. He was still breathing even if he was not digesting, as his shoulders and back were rising and falling violently with his heavy breaths. Then he punched the wall of the cavern.

"We have to get that cure-all!" said Kai.

"In our condition?" snapped Lloyd. "We should have fought him more prepared and with caution without jumping into things in the first place and falling for his stupid monkey façade. I attacked him head-on like an idiot!"

"We don't have a choice now," said Cole in answer to Lloyd's question.

Lloyd thought a moment. His shoulders eased, his breath became even.

"Then I'll just go," he said. "I can run faster than normal when the sun's out."

"No," said Cole. "You can't go alone. Remember, Master Wu said we had to work as a team."

"Yeah," said Kai. "We're a team."

"And some team we are," said Lloyd. "Master Wu was right, isn't he?!"

"Yeah…" said Kai. "I think we went over that yesterday…"

"Yes," said Cole lowering his head. "He is. Even though your dad still could've…"

Lloyd closed his eyes seething as he said, "Leave my dad out of this. It's my fault. I should've trusted my dad. My uncle was willing to trust him. I wanted my dad back so bad all this time! Now that have him back I didn't even let him be my dad and make up for his mistake and deal with the problem like a dad should to save his son instead of me going out in a condition that I knew wasn't a good idea to do even without Master Wu telling us not to! I—"

"We suck," Cole interrupted. "Even though this particular situation could have been stopped before it started if your dad hadn't jumped into things, we were no different! We're impatient and even though we seem to work well as a team when things are normal, with something like this, we all fell apart. We weren't organized. We all did our own thing. We forgot everything we learned fighting Snakes and Nindroids when we were nothing but kids, and now we paid the price for it when we should have been acting like adults now, and… it's all my fault."

Lloyd raised a brow at Cole and even gave a bit of a scowl and a pout.

"How is it your fault?" Kai demanded after a moment.

Cole winced.

He was not sure why he had said that really. He just felt guilty, but he could feel his mind searching for the answer almost mechanically after Kai asked. He could not stop himself. His mind began to race through past thoughts, past events, and all very quickly. It almost hurt, but the guilt he felt was still strong and growing stronger, especially when his mind rested on a particular event after he had fought with Lloyd not long after he knew Lloyd was the green ninja. And what it had led to was the very flashback that began this tale and had never left a spot in Cole's heart even if he had forgotten it in his mind.

"I…" started Cole, his forehead completely wrinkled, and his teeth cringing.

Kai's eyes grew wide with anticipation despite how groggy he still looked.

"Cole…" said Lloyd.

"No!" snapped Cole. "It's because I failed in the duty Master Wu gave to me. I failed. He said— he said that I was the oldest brother as the first student he had ever had, and it was my responsibility. That's why I could never be the leader and why it was destined to be given over to someone else."

"What are you talking about?" demanded Lloyd.

"I'm jealous!"

Lloyd winced. "Jealous?"

"Jealous of you," answered Cole.

Lloyd blinked stupidly.

Silence filled the cave as Lloyd slowly mulled this over in his mind. Then his brows arched dangerously over his green eyes flashing with disgust like he was looking at a giant writhing grub on Cole's face instead of Cole. Cole felt sick as he realized what Lloyd thought before he said it.

"You're still jealous of the Green Ninja!?" demanded Lloyd. "Cole! Come on!"

"Yeah, even I've been over that for years," Kai said.

"No!" growled Cole, grabbing the sides of his head with frustration as his mind raced for his answers. "No, I'm not jealous of that! I don't want my dad to be Garmadon! I don't want to have every monster after me!"

"Ouch," said Kai.

"And having to deal with this team like Lloyd has to when we're always giving him a hard time," Cole went on as though he had not heard. "I wouldn't want to have to deal with me!"

"What are you talking about, Cole?" snapped Lloyd. "You're the most level-headed out of all of us lately until this moment, and this isn't your fault!"

"Am I?" demanded Cole. "I thought I had everything under control, but I don't! I thought I was okay with everything, but I'm not! I acted cool, I soaked up high school better than the rest of you while still acting like I followed my own drummer. I'm a broken limb on this team that's gunna keep limping with me on it! I'm jealous of you, because you're better than me! Better than I could ever be! I tried to accept that. I wanted to accept that. You even surpassed me at fighting, and I used to be the best fighter, but it's more than that!"

"Wasn't Zane better than you?" Kai asked with yawn that he could not help.

"Only until I figured out how to outsmart him," said Cole.

"How am I better than you?" cried Lloyd. "I'm the one who was a big baby and betrayed my own reformed dad!"

"I thought… I thought that it was just me and Master Wu… at the time. I even wanted him to adopt me, cuz I didn't forgive my dad yet back then. I just barely forgave him when you became important, but you… when you found out how important you were… I just wanted to be a ninja to be strong. I just wanted to be the Green Ninja to be cool and go down in ninja legend, to have a purpose that was worth living, but you… when you found out who you were, you didn't even want it, but you changed. You went from being the worst, most annoying, most creepy little punk kid on the planet, to being a real hero. You became better than all of us! Even Master Wu knows this, and it's not because you're his nephew…"

Cole closed his eyes; he lowered his head.

"But I suck… I pulled you down. I was stubborn! I dragged everyone else with me. Everyone else was more than willing to have you as their leader. I thought I was, but I…" he choked on a sob.

Hot tears stung his eyes, and he quickly buried them. Just because he had to tell the truth did not mean he had to show everyone how distraught he was about it enough to cry.

He felt a pair of knees suddenly beside him.

"Cole."

Cole looked up at Lloyd kneeling at his right.

"You gotta get control of yourself," Lloyd said.

"I can't," said Cole; at least he had fought the tears away. "You're turning into a freak, and it's all my fault. Before we know it, you won't be able to talk or think anymore!"

Lloyd fidgeted very uncomfortably, but he could not allow himself to dwell on the future.

"Yes, you can," said Lloyd.

"I'm sorry!" Cole snapped.

"Okay, okay, I forgive you, but you can calm down. The thing that Kinkomi did to you just made you have to answer everyone's questions. It didn't make you an emotional wreck, okay?"

"No, it's not okay!" Cole answered.

Lloyd smacked his forehead. "Cole!"

Cole stopped.

He closed his eyes.

He knew Lloyd was right. Even if the pain of his racing brain trying to answer every personal question was quite exhausting, he was in control of his emotions at least. As he calmed down, he knew that now that this had started, he had better finish even if no one had asked him to.

"I was supposed to be your brother, Lloyd," said Cole quietly now. "I promised Master Wu that I would, I promised myself that I would, and I promised you."

Lloyd looked steadily at Cole a moment. Deep thought wreathed his expression— a distant sort of look that surprisingly reminded Cole of Master Wu himself, but then it did not surprise him that because of this, what Lloyd said sounded like something Master Wu had said before.

"Don't regret the past, change the present," said Lloyd. "If this is how you feel about it then… well, do something. I mean, I guess I always did think of you as my brother, and maybe you could've been a better one. I don't know. We all've done things we regret, and like you said, we all chose to forget all that we learned before Master Wu's journey. I guess we weren't ready to be a team alone. Maybe even Master Wu regrets that, but we had to learn sometime, I guess… uh, okay now I'm rambling."

Cole shrugged. "Better than ranting, but… I won't let you down now." He put his hands on Lloyd's shoulders. "I promise you. I won't shirk my duty as the foundation."

Lloyd's eyes widened in surprise, but Cole was still too on a roll to notice or allow him to speak yet.

"I'll be the supporting brother you need behind the Green Ninja all the way, and I really won't let you turn into a banana tree."

Lloyd smiled strangely despite himself, "That sounds so weird."

"Yeah, it does," Cole admitted taking his hands off again.

"Thanks," said Lloyd then rather sheepishly.

Cole nodded with a smile that was gentle— the type that was usually hidden inside him these days. It was a deep caring that Cole had the potential for that Wu had always said that he had. Though, he quickly turned grave again as he said, "But that's why we gotta stop that monkey."

"We're gunna have to be extra careful," said Lloyd. "I bet he's just waiting for us to come out again and stupidly attack like before."

"Well, that's why we won't stupidly attack. This'll have to be a stealth mission with a lot of thought put into it."

"Then push me," said Kai suddenly.

Cole jumped. He had almost forgotten about Kai, but he had been conscious and intently watching this emotional and brotherly display between him and Lloyd the whole time. At first it made Cole incredibly embarrassed, but in the end he was glad that it was not a secret between him and Lloyd. This was about all of them, after all. If only the others were here too, really. Then no one would have to talk about it later.

Both he and Lloyd turned to their brother-in-arms, and, sleepy though he looked, he had a determined grit in his eyes and his clenched teeth.

"Push you?" asked Lloyd.

"Into the water, there. I need to get as conscious as I can to take on Monkey Butt," said Kai.

Lloyd and Cole agreed and promptly pushed Kai into the water.