Hello Old Friends!
Happy Valentine's Day and here is my Valentine to you amazing readers!
Enjoy!
Disclaimers: I don't own Ninjago (If I did I would probably not be able to air this chapter in some countries. Unless i can get by like Steven Universe!)
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Chapter 11: What it Meant to You?
Jay POV
"How dare you not tell me this sooner?!" The fireness yells at the guard with the beginning of a beard. She sounded extremely bratty by the way, like a little child and even smacked him a couple of times. Not in the face or of anger but like when you smack someone playfully when they do or say something for fun.
I guess when he did wink at her yesterday he knew and waited until morning to tell her. Or he just wanted to make sure we were the right elements. I mean look at how we are dressed! You know for sure we are the ninja just not the elements... but the red does give away fire... unless orange or yellow or something. I could be water for blue but maybe they know that water is a girl. And I am no Elemental Master of Water or a girl! Or they just don't care. I don't know!
With these distractions in my mind, I didn't freak out as much, and I mean why would I? They look pretty harmless and not dangerous. What could they have that could possibly kill us? The spears and swords were nothing compared to elements and our fighting. Just like Chen's cult but unfortunately, he did have the staff that sucked up elements. But these guys have some flame we need, a flame we need to get back all our friends. I'm not sure what the flame does however so that's scaring me.
The stubble guy spoke, "I'm sorry Sundance but I had to make sure it was them. Doc Ash said it was 'Him' when they did the check up on him." He pointed the end of his spear at a very confused but annoyed Kai.
Poor guy doesn't even know what's going on or how on Ninjago we got here. And I knew I should've been there for his check up! I knew it! I caught his gaze when his eyes shift to me. He shifted his gaze back and forth to the girl and then the man. I smile nervously back at him and whisper, "I'll explain later."
Sundance's heels click as she slowly walks towards Kai and I. She lifts her sunglasses, throwing them to a guard behind her. Have I mentioned that four guards were holding us down, making us kneel, with a knife against our back? Just another day in Ninjago!
Oh, I saw that dirty look she gave me! When she passed me to approach the fire ninja. She bends down slightly to come face-to-face with him. She lifts her hand and trails her red press-ons against Kai's cheek. My eyes narrowed as she lifted Kai's chin, to make him look up at her, her amber eyes meeting his red.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, /Fire/ ninja." She chuckles as she pronounced fire with such enthusiasm, her eyes looking at him with desire, firing up this little lightning ninja.
Excuse me —! Are my thoughts as this happens next to me. To them older readers I'm sure you know what I'm saying ;)
YetIdontthinkihaveyoungerreadershere
"Wish I could say the same." Kai shot back irritated, glaring at her.
She chuckles with amusement at the comment and says, "That's hot. I expected you to be feisty."
Oh, hold me back! Oh, she's lucky they already ARE! And I thought I couldn't hate her more when she shifted her gaze to me and gave me a smug smirk. My face was already red from j- whatever you may call it but now from pure anger. Oh my Sposh! Did she know? Wait how can she know?! She better not say anything or...!
Kai glances at me- oh golly oh my- and I quickly look away, pretending that the floor somehow got my attention. Although I did notice that stubble guy there did seem a little irate, staring at Sundance and Kai's interactions. Someone's jealous.
Sundance giggles, a high and mischievous one, "Cute!" She turns her head, her fiery red hair hitting Kai's face, and stands back up, slowly. I hate her so much!
"Firen. Heator." She yells at the two guards in front of the doorway.
The guard with stubble quickly snaps back and answers, "Yes Flamedame? Your orders?" He bows his head lightly and the other soldier -the one without front teeth- gets his spear ready. Oh, I'm gonna faint. I glance at Kai and see him also show a hint of worry.
"I want Fire boy here," She pokes his side causing Kai to flinch, "-to be brought to my chamber. And," She walks to me and ruffles my hair, "Sparks to be taken to the dungeon."
My eyes widen and I can tell Kai's did as well. Chamber? Chamber!? Like a bedroom?! No, she can't! She can't just separate us.
The two guards holding Kai, lift him up, Kai resisting constantly, yelling at them to let him go. The one with stubble, frowns and follows the two out of the door, Sundance watching them.
When I can no longer hear Kai, my attention turns to the fireness in red. Her eyes are narrowed and she grins down at me and gives a signal to the two guards to lift me up. They roughly do that and she draws her face close to me then goes to whisper in my ear, "He's mine." When she draws back she stops to give me a kiss on the cheek, I can feel the red lipstick stain she left behind.
When I meet her gaze again, my eyes shining with anger, I speak up with defiance in my tone, "Never."
She smiles and irritatingly says, "Good luck getting out."
And before I knew it, the guard behind me hits me with something hard and heavy, making my vision go all black.
...
Nothing like a hard hit to the head to start off your morning. Am I right?
Ugh, whatever. I've gotta get out of here. I need to know who does she think she is, where she took him, what she's doing to him, why does she want him and not me and when will she come to check to me or at least send her guards!
Okay, you're probably thinking that she wants Kai cause obviously he's the fire ninja and she's the *air quotes* 'Queen of Fire' but I don't need your sass. Mistaké clearly said that they worship fire and those who create it. Uhm *coughs* lightning!
Why is she- they- leaving Lightning here to rot in this dirty, stinky, disgusting cell! There has to be someone up there that worships me a bit and that's who I need to come here and get me out.
I can't get out of here alone. I can't get to him. I can't-
"Aghhhh!" I scream, frustrated and pulling on my chains for the thousandth time since I came back into consciousness. I kick at the open air, hoping but knowing that nothing will happen. I tired myself out and fall onto the stone floor with a sigh. I lie my head back on the wall, gazing upward at the wooden ceiling and then closing my eyes.
What am I going to do? I thought to myself. This whole journey I swear has separated us so many times. First with Sensei Wu being taken away, the team breaking up into two, and then Lloyd. I hope the others are alright and doing better than me and... Kai.
What is she even doing to him? What is he doing? Where is he?
I open my eyes and pretend I could see through the ceiling, seeing all of the guards, Sundance, and Kai. Maybe they're worshipping him, bowing down to him and giving him all the power he wants. But then Kai would have the power to release me... He mentioned to us once that when he had Chen's staff, he felt an immense amount of power and it took over him. It made him forget about the people he loved and who he is. It corrupted him. With Varian's flame could that be the case? OMSM what about the candle!?
I'm an absolute idiot! This is a disaster! Can't be any worse!
If I could facepalm myself or smack myself I would be doing that right about now. I would gladly allow any of the ninja or any ghost here or invisible being to smack me! I've messed up everything. I couldn't keep Lloyd safe. I couldn't keep the candle safe. I couldn't keep HIM safe! Twice!
I could sense the tears that wanted to fall out of my eyes but like I said before I'm no water ninja. I'm not going to cry. I-I have to have hope that everything's gonna be alright. That I'm going to get out of here. That I'm going to save all of them. I'm going to save him.
Unless of course, he saves me then I'm totally fine with waiting here and thinking negatively and giving up.
"No! Power of positive thinking." I say aloud to myself. I continued on, "My thoughts are negative but outside of them, I can be positive or at least fake it. With a smile." Cue the smile. "I can get out of here." I start to pull at my shackles again, "I can," I say with a strained voice but I stop abruptly, hearing a door break open.
Finally, someone has come! Kai! Is it him? I hear the footsteps coming quickly towards me and my eyes widen when I spot his face.
"You're going nuts already? You haven't even been here for that long." Ronin chuckled looking at my shocked face. He's dressed in a weird robe and has gotten some strands of his hair dyed dark red. He walks over to my cell and unlocks it. "Bet you weren't expecting to see me."
He walks over to my shackles, unlocking one. As I rub my wrist I say, "You're a sight for sour eyes. Nice new look you got." He released the other one and helped me up.
"Your lucky I was here." He responds with a smirk on his face, "Now let's get outta here before any of these crazies find out."
"Wait but we got to go get Kai." I declare urgently, my determination to save him growing with each second. Free from those shackles, my element surged through me.
"No dice. She's with him." He exits the cell and starts to head out, I follow behind him. My blood boiling again.
"So what? Even more, a reason to save him." I stop when he does, Ronin turning his head around the corner. "What are you even doing here?"
"What no thank you?" He says annoyed then gets out his aeroblade from inside his robe, throwing it. I turn and notice the blade knocking out two guards, the spears hitting the floor with a clang. He starts to speed walk, bending down quickly to get his aeroblade. I continued to follow and heard his explanation, "Mistaké told me you'd be here after she caught me 'robbing' her store. She thought you'll need help, she was right."
"Hey! I couldn't do anything! Seeing as Kai was under some trance. And I..." I trailed off. My attempt to defend myself just ended up making me feel bad. Man Mistaké didn't have faith in me at all.
Ronin looked ahead, his eyes darting around cautiously. "Trance? So the candle did get ahold of that hothead."
"Well yeah. Some powerful candle, he couldn't control it. Ugh and now she has it and him." I looked down at the floor while we ran but felt Ronin pull me onto the wall.
"Here wear this." He shoves his robe into my hands. As I put it on he says, "Well if Sundance has him, she took him to her chamber—"
Oh, Spinjitzu Master! Of course!
"—with the Varian's flame." He finishes, taking his shirt off to reveal the second one underneath and shoves them into a nearby pot.
I thought of a plan. Well more like a list of what we need to do. "If the candle is there then we just need to go there for all three: get past Sundance, get the stuff, get Kai and we are out of here."
Ronin points his finger back and forth between me and him. "We? No there's no we. I watch out only for myself. With that robe, they won't recognize you. So you can easily get him and the stuff while I head on out of here."
"What you can't just leave-"
"Yes, I can." He points behind him at the big doors that we entered from ahead.
"Not the point. You can't just leave me here. Or leave Kai as her prisoner. We don't know what that candle can do, it could destroy Ninjago! With everyone in it that involves you." I poke him in the chest to emphasize you.
He rolls his eyes, "What makes you think a stupid candle can do that?"
"That stupid candle can be powerful with Varian's flame and Kai. Some guy, Velescure wants it, and he has Lloyd and Sensei Wu captive." I explain to him the situation we've been in, "We need to give him the flame and candle and get Lloyd and Wu back."
"To let that guy destroy Ninjago instead? Sounds like it doesn't matter who has it." Ronin doesn't seem to convince to help me, which creates a huge problem since I need it. He seems to know this place pretty good. "Sorry, Jay but I am outta here."
He turns to leave but I grab him by the wrist and plead (pretty pathetic, I know), "Please Ronin. You seem like you know your stuff here and I'll get capture the second she or the guards see me."
He seems like he was about to pull away from my hold and leave but he rolls his eyes in annoyance and huffs, "You Ninja can't do anything. Come on," he nods his head towards the direction we need to go.
I follow, saying a quick, "Thank you."
I kept my face down low and ruffled my hair to make it messy and probably make me look a little different. I follow pretty close to Ronin, seeing as the thief knew how to make people forget he was even there and gone in a flash.
He stops suddenly making me bump into him. I look at him as he lifts his finger to his lips, motioning me to stay quiet. He jumps suddenly, catching hold of the wall's opening on the top. He climbs up and motions me to continue.
I honestly tried, I really did, but worn out my body and splitting headache didn't help as I jumped up and almost fell down backwards until Ronin caught me pulling me up. "I thought Ninja were supposed to be good at this."
"Give me a break," I fall onto the floor, "I'm exhausted from being an errand boy and my brain's not too happy about being knocked out a couple of times."
He comments, "You're whiny. Let's go we are almost there." He runs ahead and I reluctantly get up and follow. Even if my body hurts, I need to get Kai out of here.
We continue ahead for a few minutes until we are directly overhead of Sundance's chambers. Ronin stares inside, I shove him over to see and I spot her. Sundance was sitting on a chair, facing a mirror and combing her red locks. I notice that she had changed her dress from before and her crown was sitting on top of the table. She hums a tune that I recognize from an old commercial.
"I don't want to set the world on fireeeeee." She sings, combing another lock then places the comb down. She picks up her lipstick placing it against her lips, getting the bright red lips she had when I first saw her.
She stands up from her chair, turns around with a mischievous smile she always seems to have and starts to walk. Her new dress is red sequins and that's all I can explain since I don't really know dress terminology. Okay just imagine Jessica Rabbit but Sundance of course is ugly like Judge Doom. She continues to walk, her heels clinking loudly with the floor.
"Agh she's out of view," I said in an annoyed whisper and turned around to follow a path that leads me to the other side where I spotted her and him.
Kai was blindfolded and gagged, his arms tied up in vengestone shackles hanged on a hook on the wall. He was struggling against his restraints and muffled speech escaped his gagged mouth. Beside him was a table that had the Vela de Deseos on top, along with a glass case that trapped a flame within. This blue, black, and purple flame began to dance like crazy when Sundance scooted it closer to the candle.
She unwrapped a starburst, red one- funny- and threw it inside her mouth. She chewed and ( I'm sorry but that's nasty! Finish it first! She didn't of course) said, "Sorry I took so long Hottie." She giggled, one of her fingers poking Kai on one of his sides. "I know how awful it is for Fire to have to wait but I needed to get ready." She pokes Kai in the side again as he continues to fight with his restraints.
She continues to sing, "I just want to start," She pulls Kai's shirt, pulling him close to her. She removes the gag, Kai about to retort but she places her hand onto his mouth.
I can feel my face heat up and my hands close into a fist, sparkles of lighting engulfing them. A distant voice telling me to calm down. A shadowy figure standing beside me. My head thumps with pain as I can feel the that-that feeling I felt when Cole stole her.
"...a flame in your heart." She leans in for a kiss. But guess what? Yeah I interfered and yes I did stop her but— well—
My lips met his.
So your probably thinking how did it come to this? I hope you are or else why are you reading this?
Anyways, I just want to clarify that the kiss I gave him was completely unintentional and I would not kiss him without his consent or without the right moment, but I had to stop her.
Out of pure you know what— you know what! Yes, I admit it! Out of pure jealousy and rage, I jumped. I jumped down exactly between the small space I had, my back facing her and my face facing him. She pushed me and well that's all I needed to kiss Kai. Sundance falling backwards.
I couldn't believe it and I'm guessing neither could he. Though I'm pretty sure he thought it was her. But then again he wasn't tense, he wasn't fighting back, he wasn't pushing these lips away. Did he think it was her? I could feel my eyes close as I got enveloped into the kiss. And somehow I knew he did too, he knew he wasn't kissing her. It was a quick kiss but boy it felt long and it was an amazing one. His lips tasted like cinnamon and they were so soft.
And before I knew it, I was pulled off of him. Strong hands grabbed my hair and slammed me to the floor. That headache got a lot worse. I open my eyes to see Sundance above of me and her eyes full of rage. She placed a knee on my chest, pinning me down and holding my arms to my sides. She yelled, "You are very persistent Lightning! It's annoying."
"Jay?" I heard Kai call softly, a confused tone in his voice.
OH NO! HE KNEW IT WAS ME!
Sundance repositions herself that her knees pinned down my arms as hers wrapped around my neck. I reached up to try and pry her hands off but to no avail. I was to weak to conjure a spark, my thoughts scrambling as my lungs wished for air.
"Jay!" I could hear Kai wrestle with his shackles. He tried to kick, hoping that he could hit Sundance, anything to help me. "JAY!"
"Kai!" I heave out hearing his shackles pound against the wall.
Ronin I know you are watching and what are you waiting for! My mind yelled as I tried to gasp for air, my eyes beginning to water up. "Ronin!" I gagged out only to hear Sundance laugh, choking me harder and Kai screaming my name.
What's with me and getting choked?! I thought. I know great last thought right? Well, at least I kissed him. I kissed Kai.
My vision started to blur and my arms could no longer fight back—
"Told you he's-"
BAM
I gasp in sweet, sweet air as Sundance fell unconscious beside me. I cough violently and man did that hurt. My neck has been through so much. I felt so weak but I had to get up, free Kai, and head out of this crazy place. Ronin put his aeroblade back and outstretched his hand to help me up.
"Thanks," I said hoarsely, placing my hand to my neck and then I turn to look at Kai, feeling Ronin's gaze at me. I blush embarrassingly and don't turn to look at him as I walk over to Kai. I spot the keys near the Varian's flame and reach for it but unfortunately, that was what the flame needed as lightning strikes.
I have no clue how this flame works but I fueled it somehow. Not as strong as I think Kai would've done if he got near it or touched it. But enough to make lightning strike inside Sundance's chamber. Like crazy and creating fire to her bed, chair, and almost Ronin but he managed to duck.
"Jay what did you do?!" Ronin shouted at me, walking over to the flame and candle and placing them inside some sort of weird bag.
"I did nothing!" I shouted back then switched my focus on Kai. I remove his blindfold and his red eyes met my yellow ones. We stared into each other eyes but not in an easy or awkward way but a comforting one. I know I'm blushing and it seemed like he was too.
He lifted his hand to his lips, rubbing it slightly and I looked away quickly.
He knows! I know he knows! Oh, my Spinjitzu Master!
Kai hugged me suddenly and I can truthfully say that I was taken aback. But I accepted it gleefully, hugging him back warmly and noticing how much I missed his warmth. He then separated the hug and placed his hand on the back of his neck. "Thanks." He said with a small smile and I think he was trying to comfort me, telling me it was okay.
"Don't mention it." I don't catch his gaze, my blush growing deeper, and I grabbed my arm with my hand. "Kai I—"
"Look out!" The Fire ninja lunges at me, landing on top of me as I spot the lighting flash above us, hitting the spot Kai was chained up too.
OMSM! The heat of my cheeks got hotter as I caught his gaze again. He smiled awkwardly at me and I squeaked out, "Hi uh I-I think you can- get off of me. I-if ya want— I mean!" I nervously pushed him off, his body tumbling to the floor beside me.
Ronin whistles getting both of our attention. I get up, Kai mimicking me. "Come on lovebirds, we gotta get out of here before we're toasted." He points to the growing flames.
Lovebirds. Eeeeeeeee. We slam the door open and hear the footsteps of guards coming our way. Greeeeeeeeeat.
"This way." Ronin motions us to follow. Kai and I following closely behind. I turn around to see the guards coming from around the corner and the fire plus lightning following us. I tried to control it, to absorb it, but to no avail. This lightning was different than mine. So was the fire with Kai.
"Stop!" I can hear one of the guards yell at us. "Stop there!" By his speech, I could tell that it was the one with missing front teeth.
"Follow them!" Another one ordered, maybe stubble dude since he seemed to be the main guard. But hey I don't know and didn't dare to look back.
We continued to run and before we knew we were at the entrance/exit. Everyone was scattering out the building. In a dark way it was funny, seeing as how these people who saw fire as a god and worshipped it, now ran from it and tried to survive its fury.
Kai, Ronin, and I jumped down the flight of stairs and continued running, people from the cult besides us running as well. I made the mistake of looking back and saw the destruction and chaos the fire caused. The fire ignited by /my/ lightning.
These elements and with that candle or flame could do a lot of damage.
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Song: I don't want to set this world on Fire by the Ink Spots
Jessica Rabbit is from Who Framed Roger Rabbit and I don't own her or that movie.
Thanks for reading and peace ^^