*Author's note: Hey all! Scorch here. I'm so sorry it's been such a long time since I've updated. Trust me, this is not being abandoned. I've just been having a huge creative block as of late :p Thank you for all of the reviewers out there, and thank you especially to the recent guest reviewers, who have sparked something inside me to keep writing this for you all, even if I feel like everything I'm writing is coming out crap :p I hope you really enjoy this chapter! Things are starting to progress :p Also, I'm looking for a beta reader to help me out, so if anyone is interested in helping me out, PM me! Enjoy!*
Previously on Recalibrate:
Zane is now off of the power source, after Jay switched on his "love" switch. Cole and Zane just had an emotional talk, that ended with them falling asleep in a hot mess :p Garmadon just got a call from Sensei, with reports to the dead coming back to life. Morro just visited the grave of the first spinjitzu master, in order to learn where the rest of the Overlord's power is. The ghost warned him of how it would be his undoing, it would bring about a testy army of dead people, and so on. Cliffhanger of said testy army on the horizon. Hopefully the summary helps!
Zane couldn't remember at what time he had woken up that evening, awakening to the tangled nap that he and Cole had created. He could not recall how long he had been awake, staring at the other man's face, tracing every curve and edge in the dark. It felt almost forbidden, the way the nindroid was gazing so intently and hungrily at Cole. He felt like he was breaking some rule, some code, by memorizing those lips like he was, looking upon them as if he was kissing them with his stare.
He felt dirty, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't help looking at Cole in such a longing manner. He couldn't help wondering what that face would feel like under his cold fingertips, what those lips would feel like upon his own.
He couldn't help wanting something that was so unattainable.
Zane had never really understood love before, in the romantic sense. He had never comprehended the need to place one's lips upon another's, and he had certainly never understood physical feelings that went beyond those of mutual friendship. Now, however, he could sense other foreign forces pulling on his wires, sending him down different paths of "love" that confused him and excited him.
Here, in the dark, sleeping next to someone he yearned for, he knew how painful love was. Here, where he was left to only memorization, where lips were inches apart and arms were touching and legs were tangled; and yet Cole was too far to touch. Too far to kiss. Forbidden fruit to pull at the robot, marionette strings of love to dance his limbs around in a tangle of defeat.
It made sense now to him. The jealousy that he had felt when Cole dreamt of someone else in their bed, the fact that Zane saw it as "their" bed, the occurrence that Zane could not sleep without Cole being present with him; he had been loving Cole for a while now, without even realizing the symptoms.
Not for the first time, Zane cursed his existence as a robot. If only he had been human, would he have realized what was happening. If only he had been aware enough to be able to stop such an occurrence from intensifying. If only he had been smart enough to avoid falling in love with his friend.
A sudden shift in the bed startled Zane, bringing him back from his dazed dreaming. His eyes focused on Cole once more, as the teen flopped around, coming closer to Zane with a lazy speed.
Zane's heart burst into a gallop as Cole snuggled closer, noses bumping for a couple of seconds before temptingly parting connection. He cursed Jay for ever turning on such a mind-altering emotion. All his mind could focus on was the hot puffs of air that left Cole's warm brown lips and landed Zane's pale ones, the dark long eyelashes that softly graced shadows on the teen's cheeks, the ears that appeared from beneath long, soft black hair… Hair asking to be caressed and touched and gripped onto...
"Are you boys awake yet?" Misako called from the living room, her voice bounding gallantly up the stairs, through the crack of the bedroom door, and shattering all peace that the boys were experiencing.
Cole awoke with a spasm, slamming his forehead into Zane's with a force only the elemental master of earth could achieve, triggering curse words to flow out of the nindroid's mouth.
"Oh crap Zane, you alright?" Cole mumbled in a husky, sleep-induced voice, that brought Zane images that did not help his current state of mind. All he could muster was a weak grunt of forgiveness in response, holding his head as if it hurt to give him an excuse not to look into Cole's eyes. If he did, he knew he would get hopelessly lost in them.
Cole sat up, running his hands through his hair as he eyed the clock. They had slept through the morning, and it was now 3 o'clock. Cole groaned as his head hit the pillow once more.
"Gods, we have to stop going into beds together. We keep falling asleep," Cole mumbled, chuckling slightly and rubbing his eyes as he did so. Zane stilled, his eyes widening in horror at his body's reaction, reacting to the thought of falling into bed without going to sleep.
Suddenly, without warning, Zane violently began flailing, scrambling madly to get out of bed, throwing covers off of them with a speed only the inhuman could posses. Limbs smacked as the teen crawled over Cole with a wild fear, kneeing him in the stomach in the process.
"Ow, Zane! What the heck?" Cole exclaimed as he clenched his abdomen, Zane's only response being wild gasps as he tumbled out of the bed, feet landing on the wooden floor as he quickly stood up.
Zane's intention was to run to his dresser, grab a change of clothes, and rush himself into the bathroom for a freezing cold shower. However, he forgot about Cyrus Borg's words of caution concerning his weakened limbs. And so, when Zane took the first leap towards a change of clothes, his legs collapsed beneath him, giving up on him quickly without even attempting to support him.
Cole watched as Zane crumpled to the ground like a sad, uncoordinated baby animal. Cole would have been laughing at the scene, if Zane had not been having so much trouble with his body as of late.
"Zane!" Cole exclaimed, trying to hurtle out off the bed to help Zane up. He, of course, forgot about the blankets wrapped tightly around his legs, and Cole too fell hard onto the floor, joining the other teen.
Cole groaned in pain at the impact of his body to the hard floor, marking the moment as one of the most un-ninja things he had ever done. If Sensei could see him now, Cole was certain the old man would revoke his title as leader of the elite ninja team.
"We are such a mess," the nindroid mumbled to the ground. Cole spit out a laugh that he hadn't known he'd been holding back, and before either of them could help it, they were laughing uncontrollably into the hardwood floor. They lay unmoving from their positions on the floor, the strong laughter that was holding them with a tight grip refusing to let them move.
This is what Misako opened the bedroom door to, alarmed by the loud thumps she had heard from downstairs. Two teenage boys, strewn across the floor, laughing loudly into the hardwood. A completely different scene than the one downstairs; hectic, afraid, and glum.
"Zane? Cole? Are you two alright?" Misako asked, breaking their bubble once more.
Cole tried to get up, his arms weak and trembling as he gasped for air, waves of laughter threatening to topple him over. His face was red from the effort of holding back his rampant happiness.
"Sorry Misako, I guess Cole and I just needed a laugh," Zane explained, still unmoving, yet smiling all the same. Misako did not smile back, however. She had a grim shadow about her, as if there was some unspeakable taboo that she was holding inside her, wanting to escape her mouth in words.
"Misako?" Cole asked, now sitting upright on the floor, smiles erased and humor lost. Her gaze turned to his, and she gave him a sad smile.
"You both should get downstairs. You need to hear this," Misako said, before turning away, and heading down the hallway, before disappearing down the staircase. The boys sat silent and in shock where she had left them. The only time she had ever looked so grim was back when she had to fight her deranged husband. And even then, she hadn't looked that afraid.
Cole got up and walked silently over to Zane, helping the ninja's unresponsive body up. In any other situation, Zane would have been short circuiting from the way Cole was holding him. One rough hand gripped Zane's hip tightly, and the other held his arm over Cole's shoulder. But by the way Misako had looked, there was no time to become flustered over the close proximity. Something bad was happening, and they both knew the peace they had fought for against the Overlord would not last for much longer.
"The dead coming back to life? Are you serious?" Cole barked, in what seemed to be frustration, "Didn't we just defeat an evil entity a couple of weeks ago?" Sensei Garmadon grimaced as he looked down at his clasped hands. They were sitting around the dining table, excluding Misako, who was in her room, calling each and every one of her scientist friends, trying to come up with some sort of answer. Cole glanced at Zane, trying to find any reaction from the man. However, Zane was still slumped in his chair, his head lolling sleepily to the side. It had taken a great deal of energy to move from the bedroom, down the hallway, down the stairs, and to the dining table. Even though Cole had carried him most of the way there, it seemed as though Zane was out cold from the physical exertion.
"I am quite serious, Cole. I haven't the faintest clue as to what's going on," the newly appointed Sensei mumbled, "There has never once, in the history of Ninjago, been a ghostly uprising such as this. Misako is stumped, there is no prophecy of any sort, and this certainly goes beyond anything I've ever encountered."
Cole groaned in frustration, and massaged his temples. After being part of a famous group of heroes for so many years, it became exhausting when the peace they fought for time and time again didn't last very long.
"There must be some logical explanation," Zane whispered in his chair, his eyes still closed and his body still looking very much out of his control, "Creatures do not appear without something, or someone, making them do so."
Sensei Garmadon nodded in agreement, but still looked down at his hands, as if speaking to them made thinking easier, "The only place they could have come from is the Cursed Realm, but that hasn't opened since-"
"A realm?" Cole sputtered, surprise and anger playing on his face, "Since when were there other realms?"
"You didn't know?" Garmadon responded in surprise, looking at the two boys in confusion. Zane's eyes fluttered open, and glanced at Cole with the same look of annoyance.
"Why does it always feel like Misako and Wu never tell us anything until we're in the middle of it?" Zane mumbled, sighing before closing his eyes again and sitting back in his chair once more.
"I can't imagine why they didn't tell you," Garmadon mumbled to himself, before looking back up at the boys, "There are sixteen realms, and we may go over them all, if we ever find the time to. One of these realms is called the Cursed Realm. This is where all the cursed and banished souls go to, taking form as a ghost during their stay."
Cole looked at the sensei with wide eyes. Never before had he imagined there would be places other than Ninjago. He glanced over to Zane, who was now hunched over in his chair, looking down at the table in confusion.
"But Sensei Garmadon, how can the dead be turning back the clock?" Zane asked, concern written in his furrowed eyebrows, "There are reports of seeing loved ones, are there not? Why are the dead arising, if all that we are supposed to be seeing are cursed souls?"
Cole's head snapped to Garmadon, and for a few moments, they both exchanged a look of realization. It was not only the cursed souls that were being reported. Ghosts of family members were rising out of their graves to join the masses. Ghosts of people who were missed and who were loved. Such as mothers, daughters, uncles. Even recently lost fathers, who were loved very dearly by their robotic sons.
If Zane were to run across his father during battle… Or, god forbid, have to fight Doctor Julien...
Zane watched their silent conversation with a watchful eye, his icy blues glinting in curiosity, "What-"
"It's nothing," Sensei Garmadon quickly said, hoping to rid Zane of his curiosity before his cogs turned the correct way, "For now, all we can do is sit and wait. Cyrus and Jay left this morning to be back with the team. We'll have to wait for another call, in order to understand the situation completely."
Both boys sighed. It was not like them to be away from the team. Especially not during the phase of figuring out what the hell was going on. Never once had Cole, or even Zane, been gone while a threat was descending upon Ninjago. It was an unpleasant existence of anxiety they were living in. And now, with Jay and Cyrus gone, they were sitting ducks, without a clue as to which way they wanted to go.
And that's how they existed. For three whole days, they lived in anxiety. Sleep did not come easy, and each howl of the wind sounded like a ghost coming to haunt them. Most of their hours were spent sitting around Garmadon's flip phone, waiting for a call. Waiting for something.
Neither one of them had ever liked waiting around when a threatening evil was creeping slowly toward their beloved home. Hours upon hours of waiting was sure to make the two teens mad. Their bodies were meant for moving, their hearts were built (in Zane's case, quite literally) to protect others. They were not built to sit and wait and keep still. Even Zane, in his weak state, could not stop the constant jittering movement of his leg, bouncing rapidly underneath the table they sat at now.
It was the horrible silence that got to Zane the most. Even when he had been unable to speak, and everything felt doomed, there had been noise to keep in company. Now, all there was was silence, the ticking of the hours echoing in their ears, the sight of the unresponsive grey phone sitting in the middle of the table, seared into their memories from staring at it for so long.
Zane hated that grey phone. It felt as though it was laughing at them. Not a single notification in the past three days had been offered to them, and it felt like it was the phone's fault. The same phone that had been used to call Cole at the construction site. The same phone that had whispered those horrible, horrible words. The devastating news about his father.
The nindroid's head jerked slightly at the painful reminder of why he was at the monastery in the first place, and he looked away from the phone, as if it had called him a derogatory name. His eyes instead landed on Cole, whose darker skin looked flushed with impatience. His dark, thick eyebrows were pulled angrily over his emerald eyes, and he seemed to be trying to burn holes in the wood table with his glare. The tendons on his smooth arms were tensed, and his hands were wrapped in fists. His jaw was littered with unshaven black stubble, forgotten in the last few days in the frustrating haze.
Zane could almost touch the anger that was rolling off of the elemental master of earth. Cole, contrary to his belief, could not easily hide his feelings. They ran rampant around the room, full of meaning and effect on the people in the room. Zane could feel the emotions trying to seep into his skin, to poke and prod at the small amount of patience he had left.
He wanted to comfort Cole somehow. Give him some words of encouragement, promising they would hear from the others soon. But Cole didn't need words. He needed a phone call from his team.
Zane attempted to raise his hand from his arm rest, his pale body trembling with the effort to use all of his strength to simply reach out and touch Cole. Just a touch to his shoulder, to give him some reminder that not all was lost. But Zane's elastic bands in his back tensed, and his hand became heavy, and his gears groaned in disagreement until the robot gave up, letting his hand fall back down to it's original resting place.
That is how Misako found the two teens that afternoon, three days after the call from Wu. There was Cole, angry and brooding, staring at the wood table as if it had killed his father. And there was Zane, whose body was limp, eyes were closed, and his face was turned to Cole, as if he had been observing him before his eyelids had become too heavy to hold up. They both looked tired, exhausted, and anxious, and Zane's condition had gotten no better.
They looked defeated by a war that hadn't even started.
"UP!" Misako barked, loud and commanding. Her voice pierced the silence, shattering the barrier that had been present for days.
Zane's eyes snapped open, his body flinching in shock at Misako's sudden voice. The chair he was sitting in threatened to tip over from the sudden movement, but it did no such thing. Cole looked up at Misako, frustration gone from his features, instead having been replaced now by surprise. Cole's heart leapt into his throat at Misako's hard expression, which radiated annoyance and determination.
"I don't know where your logic has gone," Misako shot, hands set determined on her hips, anger seeping into her tone, "But it will do no good to sit around and do nothing. The least you could do is prepare for bad news, rather than mope around as if you were seven!"
Cole and Zane flicked glances at each other, both pairs of eyes wide and alarmed at the sudden outburst from the woman.
"Zane!" Misako barked, causing Zane's head to whip around and face her, his afraid icy blues suddenly trapped in place by the woman's brown ones, "Your condition has not gotten the least bit better, and I know for a fact sitting around won't help your body regain its strength. What if you're in a battle situation, and you can't move? What if you can't protect yourself? What are you going to do, play dead?!" Misako shouted in exasperation, a fire in her eyes. Zane broke the eye contact quickly, cowering, as much as his broken body could let him, in shame.
Her sharp gaze then changed to Cole, who was looking from Lloyd's mother to Zane in shock, "And Cole! You are the leader, and you know that sitting around is the least logical thing you could be doing right now. You should be training, helping Zane, trying to research anything you can; Do something! The phone isn't going to ring any faster with you staring at it like that," Misako ridiculed, looking at the leader of the ninja with an expectant glare. Cole gnawed on his bottom lip and glanced at Zane, whose eyes flickered to Cole's in a quick moment of shared emotion. Neither of them knew what to say. They knew they weren't doing the best they could to help the situation, but they didn't know how to respond to being yelled at like so. Instead, they didn't say anything to each other, and only sat in shame as Misako turned into their unwanted mother figure.
"Well?" Misako barked, standing still for a couple of moments, before leaving the boys alone in the dining room, walking out the double doors to the world outside for some fresh air. They both watched her leave, the doors closing behind her until they were the only ones left in their monastery home. Cole shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the odd silence she had left behind. He looked to Zane, who looked back at Cole, and then nodded, as if he was resolving to something.
"She is right," Zane said, grunting as he tried to lift himself out of the chair. Cole was immediately at his side, giving the teen a shoulder to grab onto for balance, "We need to be doing things, not sitting around. If there is at all a chance that we can help our brothers, we have to keep up with our training."
Cole gave the nindroid a silent nod in agreement, and stood still as he patiently waited for Zane to grab onto whatever he needed to, in order to achieve a somewhat stable balance. Over the past few days, Cole had become Zane's means of transportation, the nindroid using him as something to lean on as his body slowly began to function again.
This is how they traveled to the town's dojo, the broken nindroid using Cole as his crutch. The outside was harder to traverse on, uneven ground and loose rocks threatening Zane's balance. People started, wondering what disease had gotten to the teen, and Cole received sympathetic smiles each time he caught Zane from falling forward. It was almost amusing, watching the townspeople come to conclusions about the situation without any context knowledge.
Zane didn't notice the looks he was receiving. It was something Cole admired, the teen's indifference to what other people thought of him. It had never affected Zane, never caused him to think twice about a decision. The only person that doubted Zane, the only person that criticized him and caused him to feel insecure, was the nindroid himself.
The dojo they finally arrived at was empty. Silent and serene, with a promise that no one would interrupt their training. Bamboo mats covered the floor, and white stucco walls surrounded perimeter. Only one window was present, ensuring that no distractions would catch their eyes from the world outside.
"Where do you want to start?" Cole asked Zane, who was scanning the equipment while still gripping onto Cole's body. The elemental master of earth was trying desperately to ignore the electric feeling that was permeating his skin. The chilling cold from Zane's fingers felt heavenly against his warm skin, and the excited fluttering inside him was trying desperately to crawl it's way up to his chest.
"The leg weights may be best for my condition," Zane responded softly, bringing Cole out of his internal struggle. Now was not the time to pine after his friend, especially while his job was to help said nindroid.
As Zane situated himself in the leg training chair, Cole perusing the weight selection, trying to pick out a good starting weight to begin rehabilitation with.
"Does 50 sound good to you?" Cole questioned, running his fingers along the weights before meeting Zane's striking blue eyes. He nodded, and Cole brought said weights over, placing them on the machine. He stepped back a few paces, and waited for Zane to begin, standing by in case the nindroid needed help.
After a moment or two, Cole looked up at Zane, wondering why the teen had not started lifting. Instead, Zane was straining, his eyes shut tight in concentration. The reason Zane had not started lifting the weights yet was because he couldn't.
Zane suddenly relaxed with a huff, and opened his eyes to look angrily up at Cole, "Are you going to stare at me the whole time I attempt to heal?"
Cole tried desperately to hide his wide grin at Zane's frustration, and instead turned to a punching bag, pulling his eyes off the teen to allow him concentration.
But Zane could not concentrate. With Cole's back turned to Zane, the teen could clearly see Cole's highly attractive and enticing curves. A flex of a back muscle here, a tensing of a leg muscle there, and Zane forgot why he was there to begin with.
"You aren't distracted, are you?" Cole said in the silence, never once looking over at the awestruck teen, and yet a knowing smirk was gracing his lips.
Zane cleared his throat and shook his head, looking down at his legs as he tried to flew them once more.
"Shut up," Zane grunted, and Cole chuckled as he threw a particularly deadly punch at the bag hanging from the ceiling.
It was almost dark before they left the dojo, having spent hours upon hours training. By the end of it all, Zane has successfully lifted the 50 pound weight, pride obviously written across his smile, something Cole had not seen before. Thanks to Jay, the leader could now enjoy seeing Zane happy and proud of his accomplishments.
The walk back to the monastery was less trivial, and yet Zane kept a light touch of a hand to Cole's now sore bicep. The electricity that ran through them both was not acknowledged, yet Cole had the hopeful suspicion that Zane's feather-like touch to his skin had nothing to do with keeping his balance.
Cole and Garmadon couldn't help but laugh at the scene of Misako and Zane cooking together. It was amusing to watch Zane drunkenly stumble about the kitchen in a vegetable-themed apron, and yet pull out a mouthwatering lasagna from the oven. Misako, on the other had, was trying her best to avoid colliding with Zane, moving constantly around Zane's somewhat uncontrollable body. She had flour in her hair, as well did everyone else, when it was unspokenly decided that throwing flour at each other would lighten the mood and make them all forget about the impending doom.
Needless to say, it had worked. Zane was smiling more than he had since his father had died, despite his sub-par physical condition. His white hair was sticking out at odd angles. His forehead, neck, and fingers were haphazardly, yet beautifully, sprinkled with flour. His hearty laugh filled the room, and Cole could not take his eyes off the teen, no matter how hard he tried.
It was electric. That was the only word to describe the atmosphere. It was buzzing with something unreachable, and Zane's eyes continuously locked onto Cole's with an unrecognizable fever.
The adults were not oblivious to the electricity flowing between them, like some rampant alcoholic connection. Their smiles were blinding, their burning glances were knowing, and the flinches both boys exhibited when they accidentally brushed shoulders left no secrets. The married couple kept their smirks to themselves, and shared amused glances as they remembered their teenage days. Such dark times were those, full to the brim with love triangles and hormones. After all the ninja had been through, after all that time that had been used for being heroes, the boys deserved to have some time to experience the burning hormones that came with growing older.
That night, they carried their dinners outdoors, eating in the grass with a blanket spread beneath them. They ate in an energized silence, observing the world around them. The fireflies light up their excited faces in a magical, inviting way, and the air between the the teens was as electrical as ever.
And then there was a buzz. An undeniable, electronic buzz, sounding from the depths of Sensei Garmadon's left pocket. The magic disappeared, the smiles were wiped off faces, and the calm turned to anxiety once more, as Garmadon fumbled for his phone.
They all watched as he answered it, watching in fright as the sensei's expression when from anxiety to horror.
"It's… Static," Garmadon whispered, his throat closing in on his words, as fear overtook him.
Cole grabbed for the phone, ripping it out of Garmadon's grasp, and pressed his ear to the speakers, "Hello? Sensei?! Kai?"
"Bzzzzzzzzzzz….. Buzz…. Shfttt…."
Now it was Zane who grabbed the phone. Cole looked to the other in anger, no longer taking pleasure in the brush of hand against had. But Zane's eyes had a desperate way about them, and so Cole let him take it.
"Bzzzzzzzzzzz….. Buzz…. Shfttt…."
"Morse code," Zane mumbled, eyes widening as he retrieved Sensei's message.
Jam Village gone. Gs control calls. Hide.
Jamanakai Village was overrun. Ghosts had invaded the radio waves, restricting Sensei's calls from going through for the past three days. They were coming. They needed to hide.
They're coming.
They're coming.
"They're coming," Zane repeated, gasping as he dropped the phone, staring at what was once a comfortable picnic, and what was now a vulnerable position out in the open.
"Who? Who is coming! " Garmadon barked, quickly standing up with the rest of them, bringing them all closer to him, as if he was going to protect them.
"The undead," Zane gasped in fear, his legs wobbly and weak once more, "They took over Jamanakai Village. They've been controlling the radio waves. They're com-"
And then they all froze. The whole of Ninjago froze, as the sirens that they hoped would never sound again rang out, carrying it's evil call from the dark island that the Overlord once lived on.
The horns of destruction bellowed, and Cole's heart stood still, and then all hell broke lose.
They're here.
*Sorry for any mistakes I may have left behind, I'm in desperate need of a Beta :p Wow, such a freaky ending! Prepare for next chapter to mostly be about Morro, and why the heck the horns of destruction are going off again :p*