Chapter 19: I'll be With You Till the End of the Line
I am so sorry it's been almost two weeks since my last update. Because of my absence, I have a long chapter ready for you to read. Thank you again for supporting me!
I couldn't breathe. Every time my heart beat, I felt like a boulder was pressing against my chest. I felt empty. I felt alone. I was paralyzed, but I could feel everything. Every nerve was firing, but I couldn't move. Where's Cole? I need Cole! Cole, help me, please! Oh, please...I'm scared, so scared.
Cole's POV:
I sat alone in the waiting room with my head rested in my hands. My fingers brushed through my hair, untangling any knots I had. I tried to hold it together. I tried so, so hard. Most people would say that I have no reason to weep because I've only known her for so little, but that's not the case at all. I've never felt more love for anyone this deep. I felt connected to Maya, if she felt pain I felt it. Not physical pain, but an emotional pain.
I looked at my watch. It had been a few hours now. They got her to breathe again on her own, but something happened. The doctors explained it to me: "Though it was very little, the amount of mercury Maya has inhaled, it has severely damaged her lungs. We are going to do our best to save as much of the tissue on her lungs that we can. We are confident she will get through this with her age and her elemental essence. Don't worry, Mr. Bucket." I want to believe she's going to be alright. I've got to. We are the only family she has now. I've got to stay strong for her.
I looked up to see that Wu and Misako were walking towards me. I wiped my tears and stood up, trying to hide my emotions. "Hey, Mrs. G. I see you're doing better."
"I'm fine. Just a couple cracked ribs is all. Really nothing rest can't help. Have you heard anything?" Misako asked.
"No. It's been an hour since they've last said anything." I shook my head.
"Do not lose hope, Cole. We must have faith." Sensei put his hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah," I nodded.
"I think what's best for you right now is to return to Ninjago, help your fellow ninja find Lloyd." Sensei said.
I immediately started shaking my head. "No. No, no I cant leave. Not right now. She needs me." I looked down as tears started to stream from my cheeks.
"Cole, sweetheart," Misako placed her hands on my dirty, tear-stained cheeks. "Maya has all the support she needs here now. Wu and I will stay. I need you to go find my son. Your brother. Maya's brother. You know she would never forgive us if we didn't all try." Misako said with a choked up voice.
"But I...I love her." I began to weep as I collapsed into Wu's arms.
"If you truly love her, you will go, child. Maya would want you to. Jay is coming back. He'll fly you over." Sensei Wu said.
"What if something happens to her...I can't just leave I-" My breath was shaky as I spoke.
"We will keep you updated on everything. Keep your radio on. Everything will be alright." Misako kissed me on the forehead then hugged me. I was right. Misako will always be a mother-figure to me. With my mom gone, she's all I have. I would have never been able to get through this without her.
With a breathy sigh, I nodded hugged her back. "I'll bring him home. I promise." If I was worthless here for Maya, I might as well be useful for Lloyd. I wiped my tears once more and ran outside the hospital doors. From a distance I could see Jay's dragon swoop down from the clouds. I stood there preparing myself for the flight back. I wasn't in the right mindset to fly Rocky. I would drift off and not be able to direct him.
Jay landed his dragon and immediately walked up to me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. I wrapped my arms around his while I burrowed my head in his collarbone. "I'm so sorry, bud." Jay whispered.
"Me too." I replied. "Jay, I am so scared." I squeezed my best friend even harder.
"I know. I know you are. She's in good hands."
"Yeah, I just want to be there with her." I broke apart from Jay and hung my head.
"I know you do. But right now what's best for you to do is to help us find Lloyd. I've lost signal with the others so they could have found him by now... or they couldn't have." Jay said.
"Okay, let's get there to help then. Before I change my mind." I let out a slight laugh.
"Alright, big guy. Let's get out of here." Jay patted me on the back and climbed back on his dragon.
"If anything happens while we're gone-"
"We're coming straight back. Don't worry." Jay said holding out his hand for me to grab.
I nodded and grabbed his hand. Jay pulled me up and over so that I was sitting behind him. We took off in a split second. Jay's dragon definitely had more energy than Rocky. I assumed it was because it was a lightening dragon, but I wouldn't bet it was faster than my dragon.
...
We made it back to the city in one piece. Ninjago City, however, was not in one piece. Borg had completely destroyed anything and everything. I still could not fathom that such a good man could do so much evil. When Maya is healed and Lloyd is found, I am getting to the bottom of this mess.
"The gas is cleared. Zane scanned the area. He thinks there shouldn't be anymore coming." Jay yelled.
"Understood!" I yelled back against the wind. I saw where the Bounty had blown in half. I feel like our ship has been destroyed countless times now. This time it was different. It wasn't just in half, the back half was completely gone. It sunk into the building. "Lloyd's gotta be in there, Jay."
"The teams been on it for a couple hours now. If they haven't found him in there, he's not there. Lloyd's smart. For all we know, he could be underground taking cover. Because he's not already out saving the world, as-per-usual, he's either stuck, hurt, or both. That's all we know." Jay said.
"Shit," I sat back and sighed to myself. After circling the building, we landed near an opening on the 35th floor, right below the wreck from the Bounty.
"Zane, do you copy?" Jay asked through the radio.
"I copy. Did you bring Cole?" Zane said.
"Right here, buddy." I said in my com.
"Cole! Thank god. Hold on, we're coming. We're right below you." Nya said.
"Good to hear you, Nya." I chuckled.
"Cole, we're gonna need your help. There's a pile of rubble that we can't get through. We can try to move it but-" Kai started.
"Don't. Chances are it's too unstable. Tell me where you are and I'm there." I said.
"You're on 35th, right?"
"Correct." Jay said.
"Okay, there should be a hallway to your right. Go through the lobby and you'll see parts of the Bounty. We're under it." Nya said.
"Fun!" I said sarcastically. "Don't worry I'll get you through." Jay and I found the spot they were talking about. The red wood, that was the side of the ship, lay between me, Jay, and the others. I gently grazed my fingers across the wood feeling for a weak spot. I closed my eyes and breathed in sharply. My eyes opened and shown bright orange. I smashed my fists together, causing my lava arm to appear. I stared angrily at the debris in front of me. All I could see was Maya, lying unconscious, helpless. I started to hyperventilate as her image drew clearer and clearer. Then she turned into my mother. I was taken aback by my mind. I took a couple steps backward, losing my balance in the process. Before I could fall, Jay caught me.
"Hey! Woah woah woah, Cole. Hey, you good?" Jay asked.
"Uh, yeah. I...I'm fine I..." I stood up and shook my head.
"Okay, cause you don't look-"
"I said I'm fine." I scolded Jay out of breath. I felt bad for yelling at him, but I couldn't waste time. I punched my fists together again and busted down the wall. Once the dust settled, three silhouettes appeared. After Jay and I coughed and waved the dust away, Kai, Nya, and Zane all appeared at once. "Hey guys." I laughed.
"Cole!" Nya yelled giving me a big bear hug. "How's Maya? Master Wu hasn't told us anything."
"She's in surgery." I said with a low voice.
"Wait, what? I thought she was just sick from her cut or something." Kai said.
"No. The cut on her leg is the least of her problems. She...she inhaled too much mercury and it basically was acid sitting on her lungs. They're trying to fix her now." I tried my best to hold it together, but it was obvious how upset I was.
"Hey, she'll get better, man. You'll see." Kai said softly.
"I know, she's strong. And stubborn." I laughed.
"You got that right." Nya joked.
"I don't mean to intrude, but I feel our priority right now should be Lloyd." Zane said in all seriousness.
"You're right, Zane. Let's just focus on Lloyd." I said. The team gave me a basis of what they had already covered in the area, and what they hadn't covered.
"There's a sewage system that runs under this building, isn't there?" I asked Zane.
"Affirmative. It's the DAFIV sewage system, it runs through here to the outskirts." Zane said.
"Great. I'll start there." I said confidently.
"We need to stay together. If another attack happens and we get separated even more, there's no telling if we'll get out of here." Kai said.
"Kai's right, we need to stay together. It's the only way." Zane replied.
"Then I guess we are all going into the sewers. Disgusting..." Jay sighed.
...
After what seemed like an eternity, we made it to the basement of the building. Lights were flickering, the place was trashed. The ceiling had collapsed from above and debris had fallen through. "We need to be careful. Everything feels unstable." I said touching the walls.
"All we need to do is find that damn man-hole. Where is it?" Kai huffed.
"Well this one in particular isn't your ordinary man-hole, because it's not on the street. According to my research, it should be silver and a latch is sticking out from the top." Zane said.
"You mean like that kind of latch?" Jay asked pointing to a big silver disk on the floor with a latch on top.
"This is it. Good eye, Jay." I reached down to open the latch, but it was locked shut. This was going to take more effort than I thought. I punched my fists together, revealing my lava arm. I grabbed the latched and ripped it open. "Grrh...RAA!" I yelled. The latch door flew across the room almost hitting Nya. She managed to dodge it. "Sorry, Nya. I guess I got carried away."
"I'll say. If I didn't dodge that, I don't think I would have a head anymore." Nya furrowed her eyebrows at me.
"I'm sorry, okay? God, I just..." I turned my head away from everyone and closed my eyes. I tried to calm myself down, but all I could think about was her. Wu hasn't said anything to me. I don't even know if she's going to be okay.
"Hey, it's not a big deal. Let's just go. Lloyd needs us." Nya walked up behind me, showing guilt in her voice. She didn't have to feel guilty. I did. I watched her as she dropped down the man-hole. I followed after and the rest of the gang jumped in after me.
As we got to the bottom, we landed in a bunch of slush. It smelled like a public restroom. "God, what is that awful smell?" Kai said plugging his nose. He lit his hand up like a torch with his fire.
"Sewage." Zane smirked while us knowing very well he turned his sense of smell off.
"Which way are we going? Lloyd could be anywhere." Nya said.
"This runs south, we should head south. If Lloyd was hurt he wouldn't be able to move upstream...or up-slush. Eww." When I picked up my feet, it was like gum was stuck on the bottom, but instead it was this green goo.
"Lloyd!" Jay called.
"Lloyd! It's Kai! Call out if you can hear me!" Kai said. There was a moment of silence. Kai looked back and forth. He looked very concentrated.
"Guys, I don't think-" Nya started.
"Shh! Listen." Kai said covering Nya's mouth.
We all kept our mouths shut and listened. There was a disturbing silence. Something had to be in here. Within moments, we heard a sound of creaking behind us. Like a door opening. Kai's reflexes caused him to chuck a fireball in the direction upstream. There was nothing there at first, but as it drew further away from us, it passed something. Something big. It wasn't Lloyd. "Kai, do that again." I whispered. Kai, again, threw a fireball. This time, it made us all gasp. It had come closer. A sewer spider. Great. It was the size of a car. It had eight legs, each covered in spikes that were used to grip the sewer walls if it slipped. Its face was the scariest of all; Not only did it have about 50 eyes, it had horns. Two devils horns sticking out of the side of its head, pointing upwards. Upon seeing this, Jay's natural reaction of course, being terrified of spiders ever since the tiger widow, screamed and began to run downstream.
"Well it's not worth being quiet anymore! RUN!" Kai yelled. All of us followed after Jay running as fast as we could. Kai shot another fireball as he ran behind all of us in hopes to hit the spider. He missed. The sewer spider was crawling faster and faster. Trying again, he hit it, but all it did was slow it down.
We got to a fork in the sewage. "Which way?!" Nya screamed.
"Go right!" Zane yelled.
We all took a sharp right turn. The spider, getting closer and closer, almost took Kai out. When it missed its chance, it let out a perilous scream that burned my ears. The ground was so slippery and wet, I was surprised none of us had slipped yet. All of a sudden, Jay stopped. Trying to slow down, I slipped on the goo and collided into Zane, who collided into Nya, who collided into Jay. Kai was still behind us running.
"What the hell?" I yelled.
"It's a dead end." Nya gasped. The end of this tunnel had come. There was bars that led to a waterfall outside. This is where the sewage was dumped.
"I don't want my end of my legacy to be spider-bait!" Jay cried.
"Relax! I've got this." I activated my earth punch with my firsts and ripped the bars right open. "That's a...that's a big drop." I looked down at the pool of sewage that I wasn't in the least excited to jump into.
"Wait...we have to jump...in there?" Nya's eyes grew wide.
"JUMP! NOW!" We all turned around suddenly and saw Kai running as fast as he could with the spider right behind him.
"Hold your breath Nya!" Jay grabbed Nya by the waist and both of them fell.
"Wait..no-JAY!" Nya screamed as she fell.
Zane and I looked down and saw that their heads popped out of the water. They were okay. "Guess it's my turn," I said with a hesitant sigh. "Ninja-GO!" I jumped out and fell with the water that was pouring out of the sewage like a waterfall. Before I could think to hold my breath, I hit the water. I swallowed some of it and that shit was nasty. I used my arms and legs to kick myself up to the surface. As soon as I made it, I starting coughing up water. I looked up as I was treading the water and saw Zane and Kai jump out together. The spider stopped at the exit, watching us all.
Zane and Kai popped up out of the water. Zane swam to grass where Nya and Jay were, but Kai was struggling. He had learned to finally swim, but he was so tired from running, he didn't have the strength in him to continue swimming. I got to him as fast as I could and helped him swim over to the side by the others. We all crawled out of the water and laid on the grass. Everyone was groaning.
"So let's not do that again." Nya said.
"Absolutely not." Kai sighed.
"Guys, wait," I stood up after catching my breath. "Look," I pointed to another sewage exit next to the one we jumped out of and it had an open exit. There were no bars.
"Do you think Lloyd could've-" Zane started. Lloyd must have fallen out of that exit.
"Lloyd!" Jay started to yell again.
Everyone began calling his name. We searched across the grass bank that led into a small forest. There was a stream that ran though the trees. I decided to follow it. Maybe he got washed down here somewhere. "Lloyd!" I yelled out. "Come on, man. Say something." I kicked the rocks as I continued to walk alongside the stream. What if he was gone? What if this whole search mission was for nothing?
My thoughts were interrupted when I spotted a log about fifty yards out. Next to it was something green. It wasn't green from grass or a bush. It was cloth. I didn't yell to the others, I wanted to check it out for myself. I jogged right up to it. As I lifted the log, my heart sunk into my stomach. It was Lloyd. He was covered in mud and full of cuts and bruises. I threw the log with one arm across the stream and knelt down next to Lloyd. "Lloyd?" I shook his shoulders. No response. "Guys! It's Lloyd! He's here!" My eyes peeled back at Lloyd. I brushed the mud off his face and pulled back his hair. He was motionless. "Come on, damnit. Wake up!" I shook him again. Nothing.
Along ran the others. I didn't notice that they had come around me, circling Lloyd.
"Zane?" Nya looked to Zane as tears filled her eyes.
"His vitals are stable. I don't understand why he doesn't wake." Zane frowned.
"Lloyd, it's us. You're okay now, brother." Kai placed his hand on Lloyd's head.
"Why isn't he waking up?" Jay asked in distress.
Before Zane could repeat his answer, Lloyd slowly started to move his head. His eyes tightened then he let out a cough.
"Lloyd!" We all yelled helping him sit up.
"Oh, god, my head." Lloyd said rubbing his head.
"Do you remember what happened?" Zane asked.
"I, uh, well there was an explosion. And I think...aghh!" Lloyd exclaimed in pain.
"What's wrong?" I asked holding him up.
"It's my head. I guess I smacked in pretty hard in the fall."
"Fall?" Kai asked.
"Well, falls. When the explosion happened, and the Bounty was cut in half, I fell a good 5 stories with it as it punched through the floors. After I got my bearings, I had to make a run for it. There was nowhere to take cover from the bombers, so I managed to make it out of the building and I climbed into a man-hole right before a second bomb hit. I walked in the sewer for a good while before slipping. I slid towards an exit, but it's foggy after that. I don't remember anything else." Lloyd said in frustration.
"It's alright," I squeezed his shoulder. "We know what happened. You fell out of the sewer that emptied into a wastewater plant. This stream is what dragged you here." I said pointing to the muggy water.
"Look's like you all had your fair share of sewer too." Lloyd laughed.
"And ruined hair to go with it." Nya huffed.
"How are the others? Zane, is my mom okay?" Lloyd asked.
"Misako is well. She has a couple fractured ribs from the explosion, but it's nothing she can't handle." Zane said.
"Oh, good," Lloyd sighed. He then looked at all of us in confusion then looked back at me. "W-where's Maya?"
I looked at the ground when he asked. How do I tell him?
"Zane? Did you see her after the first bomb on the Bounty?" Lloyd looked at Zane.
"I...yes. At the time she was fine, like she always acts. Feisty. Ready to do anything." Zane started.
"And...now? Where is she? Somebody say something!" Lloyd yelled.
"She's sick." I managed to say. The words slipped through my lips like sandpaper. It stung to say it and hear it.
"Sick? What do you mean, sick?"
"At first it was the blood-loss, but she inhaled too much mercury and it damaged her lungs. Severely. She's getting surgery at the hospital in Nom. We don't know anything else." Zane shook his head.
"This is all my fault," Lloyd whispered.
"What? No! Don't even say that. It's that god-forsaken, low-life, jack-ass Cyrus Borg. Don't you say it's your fault. If she dies, he will die. Mark my works." I said angrily. I stood up and ran off from the others. I couldn't take it anymore. My barrier was breaking. I was failing. I felt useless. I fell to my knees sobbed. I took my radio-watch and smashed it to pieces. I placed my fists in the dirt and pressed as hard as a could. I needed to take the pressure off myself somehow. Before I could destroy the earth, Zane came up to me.
"Cole, I've received contact from Master Wu. Its Maya. We need to leave immediately."