Chapter 6

The moment Nya turned off her communication device, without warning, she broke down into tears, sinking down to her knees. Zane and Cole weren't expecting her to drop to her knees and start crying. They stood there a moment, staring at their sister, wondering if she'll pull herself together some and tell them what the matter is, but after a few minutes, Zane took in a breath and approach the water ninja, lowering down next to her.

"Are you alright, Nya?" Zane asked.

Nya wiped her eyes, tears staining her sleeve. She didn't say anything for a moment, still sniffling and making soft, sobbing noises. Taking a deep breath, she looked at Zane. "Yeah, everything's just fine. Peachy keen."

Zane shook his head. "Nya, I have studied a person's tone of voice to know what sarcasm sounds like. Now tell me what's really going on."

Wiping her eyes again, Nya sighed. "I should've seen this coming sooner. I shouldn't have pushed it away thinking it was all a dream when it clearly wasn't. I should've seen it from the start. I should've known. Now both my brother and my boyfriend are in a terrible situation and now I'm worried-no, scratch that- I'm scared we won't be able to save them in time. And it's all my fault." She started crying again.

Zane placed his titanium hands on her shoulders. "Nya, listen to me. Everything will be all right."

"Stop trying to reassure me things will be okay when we don't even know if we can save them!"

"But we can. We're ninja and ninja never quit. We will find a way to save Kai and Jay. I know they've done things they're not proud of and have no memory of them, but regardless of that, they're still our brothers. Brothers and sisters help one another no matter what, whether we've done right or wrong. Because wrongs can be fixed and we can make them right. You also need to understand none of this is your fault. Just like Kai and Jay, you were also tricked. Mordela has tricked us all, but we'll find a way to stop her. We'll make her pay and ensure she saves our brothers' lives. We haven't failed before and we won't now. Sensei Wu always says we must have faith. You must have faith that we can help Kai and Jay."

Nya smiled, wiping her eyes. "Thanks, Zane. I really needed that."

Cole walked over to Zane once Nya walked outside the cave a moment to compose herself. "Where did you learn to comfort someone like that?"

Zane smiled. "I'll admit that I take meditation sessions with Wu as an excuse to study through books and websites about various topics. One of those happened to be step by step instructions on what to do when someone has an emotional breakdown and how to handle and help reassure them things will get better during difficult times."

"Oh, so that's why you stay in meditation longer than the rest of us. I always figured you were just in a different world for much longer than you need to be. Say, have you ever had to calm Pixal down during an emotional breakdown?"

Zane nodded. "A few times." He spotted Nya returning. "Are you ready to proceed searching, Nya?"

"You bet," Nya said, "Let's keep at it, boys."

After another few minutes of searching around in the cave, Nya busied herself with trying to remove a rock from the wall when she accidentally kicked a round stone, banging the backside of her ankle. "Ow!" She turned to scold it, but then noticed a strange symbol.

"Everything alright, Nya?" Cole asked.

"Uh, you guys should come over here," Nya said, "I found some strange symbol."

Cole and Zane rushed over, the Nindroid being the first to scan the symbol.

"According to my scanning, this symbol means sorceress," Zane said.

"And it wouldn't just be here for no reason," Cole said, kneeling on the ground. Feeling it, he found it was soft. "Soft stone. It's rare to find that anywhere nowadays." Lifting his fist, he drew upon the strength of his powers to punch the symbol, creating a hole where it used to be.

Looking inside, they discovered a place filled to the brim with books and scrolls. It looked more like a place Misako wouldn't mind living in, but the three ninja knew this place was important.

"Guys, I think we just found the secret room," Nya said.

"You mean the deep room," Zane corrected her, "We must be cautious. This is the room we cannot enter during the dark hours of night."

"Relax, Zane," Cole said, "It won't be dark for another couple of hours. This'll give us a chance to gather what we need. Will you do the honors?"

"Will you not assist me?" Zane asked.

"I'm not sure I wanna go down there. Who knows what's been gathering under there all these years. There could be spiders."

"Do you have arachnophobia, Cole?"

"No, I just worry about such things. Nothing more, nothing less."

"It would be better for two to go down rather than one."

"I'm just a little-"

"Both of you go down there with those spiders and start cleaning out the hole!" Nya growled at them both.

Yelping in fear, the two quickly tossed book after scroll after book after scroll up faster than they've ever done so before. By the time Lloyd and Misako arrived, they had the entire deep room cleaned out, stacks of dusty books and piles of dirty scrolls surrounding Nya.

"Well, it looks like we've got our work cut out for us," Misako said, collecting some scrolls and carrying them out of the cave. Each ninja gathered some books and scrolls and followed behind, wishing they had brought something along to carry everything in.

They returned home to the monastery, information gathered on the table, ninja seated in chairs, pizza, snacks and soda lying near everyone as they scribbled notes and looked through everything.

It may sound crazy, but Day of the Departed was only a week away. Time was of the essence. A normal full moon only comes around on that night once in a lifetime, but one hundred years will mark the night where the moon's phases will change every hour.

And when the clock strikes midnight, the moon will be full.

So the ninja have no choice but to pull an all-nighter as they studied through the books and scrolls to save their brothers.

WE'VE GOT EMOTION, FAITH, HOPE AND TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE. LET'S HOPE THEY'LL FIND SOMETHING IN ALL THOSE BOOKS AND SCROLLS.

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