Forgiveness
A boat of twigs she builds for me
Running to the ocean fair
T'will sail to places we can't see
Running to the oceans fair
3rd stanza of Viola's First Composition
Kai held Nya's hand tightly. After all that he had been through in these few long weeks, he wasn't sure if he would ever let go. He looked at the Overlord's unconscious body and scowled. "Why don't you kill him, Zane?" he asked.
Zane, holding Cole's shuddering body in his arms, replied in a whispery voice. "Didn't you hear Cole? He clearly said that he was going to kill the Overlord again. Overlord retorted with a threat to possess one of us. He invited us to kill him, so we shouldn't try."
"So..." Kai's face softened. "Cole killed the Overlord's old body, but instead of being freed, he lost his father."
"Precisely."
Moons... What is Overlord? Kai wondered.
Two stone warriors tentatively approached the Overlord. They looked like they wanted to attack Zane, but the Nindroid turned and scowled at them, so they picked up their master and fled.
Besai followed behind the soldiers quietly. She looked back at Kai, eyes dead.
Kai almost called out to her. Regardless of what she had done, he wanted to help her. He knew that she had not been acting of her own free will.
...So why didn't he stop her?
"Kai," Nya whispered softly. "I don't like that look in your eyes. You want to call her back, so why don't you?"
"I...don't know," Kai held Besai's gaze for a few more moments before she finally turned and scurried away.
Nya let go of his hand and shoved him forward. "Kai, stop hesitating."
That was all it took. Nya's shove gave him the momentum he needed to chase Besai into the trees.
"Besai!" Kai called. "Hey, wait!"
Besai stopped and turned to face him. She looked like a frightened rabbit, prepared to dart away at the first sign of danger.
Kai stopped and held out a hand. "Come with us."
Besai stared at his hand, clearly thinking that this was a trick. If she came close, he would surely punish her. "I can't," she said, backing up a step. For some reason, the fleeing stone warriors ignored her.
"Why not?" Kai advanced a step.
Besai backed up, terrified. "I...hurt you."
"Yes, you did," Kai said, closed the distance between them again, praying that this method would work better on Besai than it did on Cole. "But I don't care. You need to come with."
Besai did not break his gaze. She took one step back.
"Please, Besai," Kai said. He hated himself for the tears that crawled down his cheeks. "You need to come with us."
"...Why?" Besai asked.
"Because...I need you, Besai. We need each other." He took another step forward, hand still out for her to take.
Besai began to tremble. "You...weel not hurt me?"
"No!" Kai shook his head. "Never, Besai. I would never hurt you."
Besai took a deep breath, then reached out and grabbed his hand. "Yes, Kai," she said. "I weel come weeth you."
Kai had not realized until now just how desperately he had longed for her to say those words. He weaved their fingers together- one set cold and trembling, the other warm and strong- and pulled her away from the retreating group of soldiers.
Cole was at the end of his rope. After being poisoned, his immune system had been compromised. It didn't matter if hardly any of the antidepressant still remained in his bloodstream; the damage had been done.
Zane had been too late. His heartbeat was slower than thirty beats per minute and dangerously irregular.
"I'm...I'm dying..." Cole breathed softly. He was too weak to keep his eyes open.
Zane held Cole's head on his lap. "No," he said, lying through his teeth. "No, you're going to be fine. We'll find a place to hide when the sun comes up, and then you can rest. You'll get better. And guess what? Hagar will be here soon. She'll want to see you."
Cole sighed shallowly. His lungs sounded like they were filled with fluid. "I...I'll try to stick around 'till she gets here."
"Yes," Zane said. "At least do that much. You're strong. Don't... Please don't leave without telling her goodbye."
Zane turned his head and saw Kai holding Besai by the hand. He looked at Nya, who stood behind Zane, and gave her a grateful- if not weak and utterly exhausted- smile. "How is Cole?" he asked.
Zane was tempted to lie again. "Not good," he said finally. "I doubt he'll last another thirty minutes. Not without some strong medicine."
Kai knelt next to Cole and examined his face. "Are you awake?" he asked.
Cole moaned in response.
"Good. Don't fall asleep. Can you open your eyes?"
Cole cracked an eyelid wearily.
Kai reluctantly released Besai's hand and used both his thumbs to pry Cole's left eye wide open. His sclera was a putrid yellow color. "It's gotten worse," he said. "You're right, Zane. He needs something strong to get his organs functioning properly again."
"So what do we do?" Zane asked.
"Find a way to teleport from here to Ninjago island?" Kai's voice was heavy with sarcasm.
"Ah, yes," Cole said wearily. "My portal is up there between those two peaks in that mountain. If you hurry, we can..." He coughed, cutting his sentence short.
"Easy, Cole," Kai said. "It's great that your sense of humor isn't dead yet, but don't stress yourself."
Cole did not answer. He had blacked out in the middle of his coughing fit.
Lloyd and Varasach followed the eagle through the dense forest until it led them to a large, maintained clearing. It landed on the gangplank of a large boat and chirped.
"It's the Black Bounty," Varasach said breathlessly. "Why does the eagle want us here?"
Lloyd scanned the clearing but found no signs of life on the ship or around it. "It wants us to board," he said. "Let's go."
As they ran up the plank to the deck of the ship, Lloyd became suspicious of the lack of people. Shouldn't there be a few stone warriors guarding the ship, or a couple of slaves stocking it with provisions?
"Look," Varasach whispered as they stepped onto the deck. "Candlelight. Up there, in the cabin."
Lloyd turned his gaze to the flickering orange light in the window above them. The eagle flew onto the quarterdeck's railing and stared at the duo as they alighted the second flight of steps and threw the cabin door open.
The eagle flew onto the bridge's keypad. It looked up at Lloyd and squawked.
Lloyd joined the bird at the controls and watched her work. First, the green button. Then a knob needed to be turned. Then a sequence of other buttons. Pixal was teaching him how to fly the ship?
The prince laughed as the engines whirred to life. "Thank you, Pixal," he said. "You just solved our problem."
The bird whistled congenially and flew over Lloyd's head, disappearing into the morning sky.
Twenty minutes later, the team was over the ocean. For the time being, the threat of the Overlord was gone.
But there was no sigh of relief, nor joyous laughter. Cole's fever was so high that Kai feared it had passed even medicine's ability to cure. He was dehydrated, too. They tried forcing water down his throat, but he had thrown it up immediately.
Zane cursed himself continually. His blade was out of power. All he could do was stand beside Nya and help her guide the ship. By his estimation, it would take just over six days to reach Ninjago if the engines were at full throttle.
But by Kai's estimation, Cole had minutes left to live.
"We can save him," Kai repeated dumbly. For some reason, he was unable to believe his own prognosis. After applying more of Besai's peppermint, lemon, and lavender oils to Cole's skin- the room now smelled like potpourri- he ran into the kitchen for more cold water to bathe him with. The way that he tried so hard to heal Cole was obsessive and irrational.
"Is there no way to heal him?" Jay asked Zane. "Your blade's powers are gone?"
Zane pulled Duskweaver from his boot and dropped the sheath on the table. "No more moonlight," he said. "Is there nothing your blade can give him?"
Jay's expressions frequently changed as he stared at his hands. He was probably having a conversation with his blade.
"I could try," he said out loud. He looked up at Zane. "Stormstrider says that I might be able to send Cole some energy. I just need to think and do."
"Just?" Zane crossed his arms. "Don't tell me that you understand what the blade is saying."
"Well, yeah. It makes sense." Jay unsheathed his blade and rubbed the sapphire in its pommel. "It's like drawing blueprints. You think, drawing instructions and plans on paper, and then you act on those plans and create something."
Zane sighed and shook his head. "I guess some people are better at abstract thinking than others," he said. "So can you do it?"
"Do what?" Kai asked as he rushed into the room with a handful of dripping rags. He pushed past Nya, who was fiddling with the bridge's controls, and placed one cloth on Cole's dry, red skin.
"Help Cole," Jay answered as he drew the power from his blade. The light swirled above Cole's head for a few seconds before absorbing into his skin.
Kai pressed his thumb to Cole's jugular and felt his pulse begin to quicken. "It's working," he said. His pulse continued to rise. Faster and faster until-
"Stop!" Kai exclaimed. "Jay, make it stop! Take the energy back; his body can't take it!"
Jay grabbed Cole's bandages and closed his eyes, straining to harness the power. Cole was convulsing in his sleep as if he had been hit by a thousand volts of electricity. He began to scream.
Finally, Zane shoved Jay aside and pressed Duskweaver's diamond pommel into Cole's chest. The gem absorbed the power, and he stopped screaming.
Breathless, Zane stepped back and looked at his blade. It vibrated softly in his hands.
So...he had taken Stormstrider's moonlight and used it to recharge his own blade?
Master? Duskweaver's voice thrummed sluggishly.
Zane would have rejoiced over hearing his friend's voice again if he weren't so concerned about Cole's energy overload. The unconscious man was barely breathing. "Do you have power again?"
Not very much. Just enough to be able to speak to you.
"Can you take away his fever?" Zane asked as he checked Cole's pulse. It took a few seconds to find it, hardly more than a soft tap beneath his cracked, hot skin. How much stress could his heart take before it stopped?
No, Duskweaver said. Breaking his fever would require me to cool his skin and blood. That is a job that would take a lot more-
"You have to try," Zane said. "A few degrees could mean the difference between life and death."
Without waiting for an answer, he drew out all the light and, using his blade's talent, tried to bring the fever down.
Foolish... Duskweaver voice was slurred and broken. The fever is not his problem...it's the fluid in his lungs...
"His lungs?" Zane looked down at his hands- both were on Cole's chest- and nodded. "So I'll make him cough up the fluid. Does he have an infection, too? If so, you could stop the inflammation."
Not...enough...power... Duskweaver whispered. The light dissipated. Once again, the blade was useless.
"Kai," Zane said. "You've been training as a doctor for years now under Channing, right? What can I do to make Cole cough?"
Kai thought for a moment. "Chili peppers. He might react to that."
"Do we have any?"
"Maybe. I'll go check." Kai ran from the bridge, not bothering to shut the door behind him.
Nya sat down in a chair next to Cole and used Kai's rag to cool his face. "I can't believe it," she said.
"You can't believe what?" Lloyd asked.
"That this is Cole," she said. "I mean, look at him. The angry man who stabbed me on the beach all those weeks ago couldn't possibly be this sickly, weak man that I see right now."
Zane grunted.
"He looks so calm," Nya continued. She was probably talking to herself. "Is it because he's sleeping?"
"Maybe," Jay said. "Although, I have to admire Cole's change of heart in these past couple days. He's been trying hard to fit in."
Kai flew through the door with a mug. "I found some," he said. "I crushed them, then poured their juices into this cup."
"That was fast," Jay remarked.
"I disagree," Kai said. "I don't think I was fast enough." He shoved the mug under Cole's nose.
Cole shuddered weakly.
"Good!" No one could deny that Kai was passionate about this. "Open his mouth."
Zane squeezed Cole's jaw. His mouth fell open. Kai carefully poured a few drops of liquid down his patient's throat, then pushed Zane's hand away.
"Come on..." Kai murmured.
There was no response.
He checked for a pulse, then looked at Zane with horrified eyes.
"What?" Zane grabbed Cole's other hand and pressed down on the vein.
"No!" Kai screamed. He beat his fist on the table. "No, not now! We were so close!" He turned to Jay and grabbed his shoulders. "Give him your power again! He can't-"
"Kai," Zane said. He was too stunned to cry. "It's no use. We can't do anything more."
"We can't give up," Kai said angrily. "He can't be dead. We...we can fix this."
Jay's mouth fell open. "Cole is..."
"No!" Kai leaned over Cole's body and, shocking everyone in the room- particularly Nya- he pressed his lips to Cole's.
...Was he kissing Cole? Zane could find no logic behind this sudden action.
Kai pulled away and leapt onto the table. He straddled Cole's corpse and did it again. This time, Zane noticed the way that Cole's chest rose and fell as Kai breathed into his mouth. Kai is trying to revive him, he realized.
Kai placed both hands on Cole's sternum and pushed. Hard. So hard, in fact, that Zane heard a rib snap. Kai pumped Cole's chest several times, then leaned down, pinched Cole's nose, and filled his lungs with air again.
"I need energy," Kai ordered as he pumped. "Jay, your power could be used like adrenaline. Focus it on his heart and get it going again."
Jay obeyed.
Zane sat down beside Nya, feeling absolutely useless. Cole wasn't dead. He couldn't be.
But with each passing minute, his hope diminished. Despite Kai's savage determination, Zane knew deep down in his heart that...
Hosts. Cole was dead.