"Cole…?"

It was a ghost of a whisper, barely audible over the screaming chaos of the battle.

Yet Cole still heard it. Somehow, he heard that shocked whisper of pain and spun around just in time to watch Jay's legs buckle beneath him.

"Jay!" The sight of his friend—his brother—doubled over like that filled him with renewed vigor.

A renewed vigor to fight, and to fight hard, sending a swift trail of spiked rocks barreling into Jay's assailant.

This battle's already lasted long enough, anyway.

Whipping around once more, Cole spotted his other teammate on the other side of the small forest clearing. "Kai! We need to wrap this up, now!"

"That's what I've been trying to do!" the Master of Fire shouted back, his tone laced with a classic mixture of arrogance and annoyance. "Just give me another minute, okay?"

"No, now!"

It was then that Cole realized maybe he'd sounded more desperate than he'd intended to because Kai's face hardened and he knocked out the last three bandits with one well-aimed swirl of spinjitzu.

Kai didn't even bother to sheathe his sword as he sprinted over to Cole, who was trying his best to keep his chest from seizing with insurmountable dread.

It's not as bad as it looked. It's not as bad as it—

"What happened?" Kai's voice floated past his ears like a fleeting whisper on the wind. Because Cole had one only one goal, one thought: get to Jay before…

Before what, exactly?

Pursing his lips, Cole moved faster, Kai hot on his heels.

"Jay!" Sliding down beside his friend was akin to sliding into homebase at a ballgame, only there were no cheering crowds to celebrate their victory over Ninjago's latest terrorizers. And the second Jay lifted his head, Cole felt sure they were all about to be on the losing team.

He heard Kai bite out a curse behind him as they both took in the sight before them.

Oh, no…

Jay's face was twisted pain—the same intense agony that pooled in his dark brown eyes—and his hands were clenched tightly around his stomach.

Around the dagger embedded in his skin.

Cole opened his mouth, but no words came out, just a disbelieving gasp.

Even in absolute agony, Jay still filled the dead space, his words riding out on strangled breaths. "I was too… distracted. I couldn't… I didn't…" As he shook his head, his pained expression twisted again. "I wasn't… fast enough—ah!"

"Hey, hey!" Cole said, unable to get his voice to rise above a hoarse whisper. "Calm down, Jay. It's fine. It's all gonna be fine, just… Here, let me take a look…"

As Cole gently pried Jay's blood-stained hands away, he forced himself to breathe. Just breathe… But it was bad. Really bad.

The dagger had been driven in as far as it could possibly go, stopping only when it'd met the resistance of the hilt.

"Okay," Cole began, hoping his voice sounded as steady to the others as it did in his head. "Don't panic. Just—"

"Don't panic?" Kai cried, falling to his knees beside Cole. "What do you mean, don't panic? How are we not supposed to—"

"Kai! Knock it off! We're not that far from the village. I'll just contact the others and we'll get an evac in a matter of minutes, okay?"

"If we hadn't chased those bandits out here in the first place, none of this would've happened!"

Kai turned back to Jay then, most likely because he realized Cole was no longer listening. We don't have time for hotheads, right now.

Sucking in a deep breath, Cole forced himself to stand and wander the glade until he had a good enough signal to contact Zane. Out of all of them, he would be the most level-headed about all this.

"Zane? Are you there? Zane?"

A sharp crackle, then: "Cole. Have the remainder of the bandits been overpowered?"

Of course, that would be his first question. "Yeah, they're knocked out and ready for some jail time, but that's not important right now."

"How is the only objective of the mission no longer important—?"

"Zane, listen to me!" By now, it was a fight just to keep his heart from leaping clean out of his chest. "We need help! Jay's hurt and he needs more medical attention than I can give him. We're not that far from you guys. I'm sending you our location now."

The beat that followed was quite possibly the longest in Cole's life, but Zane's staticky reply sounded over the line at last.

"If you consider a journey of approximately fifteen minutes 'not that far,' then yes, you are not that far from the village."

"What? But, how'd we get that far away from—? Look, nevermind. Just get here as soon as you can, okay?"

"Affirmative. We're on our—"

A strangled cry pulled Cole's attention away from Zane in an instant and he closed the channel. No…

His race back to Jay started with a stumble, but Cole quickly found his footing. Just not quickly enough, I guess… When he reached them after what felt like ages of running, Jay was doubled over on himself and breathing even heavier than before.

Gripped tightly between Kai's bloody white knuckles was the dagger.

"Kai…" Cole shook his head, trying to chase away the lightheadedness before it had a chance to settle in. "What did you do…?"