Chapter 3: What happened to you?
A/N: Hey guys, I fixed up the chapter really quick! I wasn't completely happy with the ending the first time, so I rewrote it. It's somewhat similar to what I had before, but It's not as forced and rushed! (At least, I hope it isn't lmao) Anyway, enjoy!
The next morning, Ryka woke at the crack of dawn, which seemed early enough that no one else was awake. Since today was, yet again, another day of training, she wanted to get a jump start on it. She got dressed quickly and quietly headed to the kitchen to get something light to eat. Ryka silently opened the fridge, scavenging to see what was left. She found some leftovers (which she had a gut feeling to avoid no matter what), empty containers, a half empty gallon of milk, and a cling wrapped sandwich labeled with a name. Ryka stared at it with a blank expression, and then moaned disappointingly as her stomach growled.
Gently closing the fridge, she went into the cabinets and found a fresh, clean grocery bag with...breakfast sandwiches! Ryka's eyes widened, her mouth drooling. (Think anime, my dudes lol) She lept into the cabinet and grabbed the sandwiches. Once she got out and closed the door, she grinned, satisfied with her hunt.
In the boys' room, they were all snoring and sleeping peacefully. All was quiet, until Jay shot open his eyes. He slowly sat up, his eyes narrowed slightly.
"I feel...a disturbance…" Jay whispered ominously.
"Jay...the disturbance is you interrupting our sleep. It's too early for this." Kai groaned and fell back asleep. Cole and Zane we're still asleep, Jay was the only one awake. Slowly, he laid back down. He started staring into the ceiling ominously before he went out like a light, snoring once again.
Back to Ryka, she devoured her breakfast from her 'hunt.' She then went outside onto the upper deck to stretch, and get some air. Ryka looked at the sunrise and smiled, she had felt her worries flush away as a gentle breeze blew by. She desperately felt the need to fly, but she knew that if she did, there would be trouble.
I can wait for tonight, a nice evening flight will be great!
Ryka walked back to the bounty and went to her room, then walked to the closet. Inside her closet weren't many things, but she remembered that she had a mirror in here behind all of the hanging shirts. After clearing a way to see the mirror, she took off her shirt to have a look at her back, ever since she woke up from her coma and felt that burn on her back, she felt intrigued. What she found, after walking over to her mirror, was an incredibly familiar symbol in a dark grayish purple color. Almost like a tattoo.
The symbol was of a dragon, although, for some reason she just couldn't put her finger on the name. Then she remembered that there should be a book about this. Instantly, she had a flashback. Ryka saw herself walking toward a library, no, the library near where she grew up. Her mother and father were holding her hands walking up the steps, then the memory jumped to a section of the library they always went to. Jumping again, her father was picking out a book.
That's it! That's the book! Now I just have to figure out if I can find one like it he-
Both her memory and thoughts were cut off when an obnoxious knock was made at her door. Ryka jumped, then she quickly threw her shirt back on.
"Wake up, sleeping beauty!"
"Time to train!" By the sound of the voices, it was Kai and Cole. Following her conclusion, Jay burst out laughing, following the laugh, she heard them running off. Ryka giggled a bit then sighed. She then switched to her ninja outfit, and walked out of the room.
On the training deck, the boys were already up there. The only equipment set up were a few dummies. The ninja were gathered around Lloyd, Ryka then walked up onto the deck. Jay motioned to her to come over, she did quickly and managed to find a suitable spot. Clearing his throat, Kai then spoke.
"Alright Lloyd, today's lesson is Spinjitzu." Lloyd's face lit up as soon as he finished the sentence, although Ryka's face went from 'early morning cluelessness' to 'wait, what did he just say?' She had completely forgot about Spinjitzu, literally, she couldn't remember how to do it. This started to make her panic, she then silently prayed that she wouldn't have to do a demonstration.
"To demonstrate, Jay will spar with you." Kai instructed, Jay then groaned. "Why meeeee?" Jay whined as he got into position in front of Lloyd. After he took a distressed breath, he then sparked the fight by charging at Lloyd, and threw a punch. Lloyd countered by dodging, then attempted to throw a punch to Jay's side. Expecting it, Jay caught his fist and flung him into one of the dummies. Lloyd yelped as he collided with the dummy, but quickly got up. Jay then got into position to perform his spinjitzu, and he spun. An electrical blue tornado formed around him as he moved closer to Lloyd, who proceeded to do the same thing, although his was smaller and green. They collided, and Lloyd was the one to fall. After the spar, Jay had stopped spinning and help Lloyd back up.
"Not bad, but predictable. You'll have to work more on being unpredictable while using spinjitzu, or you'll be read like an open book." Jay commented, patting Lloyd on the back. "Other than that, you're improving."
"Jay's right. You always have to be a step ahead of your opponent, knowing is half the battle." Cole added, folding his arms. "If you ask me, I'd say we let Ryka demonstrate being 'unpredictable.'" He smirked, looking in the direction of a dumbstruck Ryka. She shook her head, then looked left and right, as if she was looking for someone else.
"Uh...you're talking to me, right?" She questioned, pointing to herself. She was genuinely confused. The boys then started laughing. Ryka was still confused.
"Man, that was a knee slapper." Kai wiped his eye, sighing. "Anyway, you've never really done a demonstration for Lloyd, and you haven't been out of the bounty very much either. Think of it as...as if you're relearning how to interact with people again." Kai snickered, then grunted as he got punched in the arm by Cole.
"Give her a break, she's been through a lot, man." Cole muttered. Then cleared his throat. "So, how about you spar with hot head right here?" He suggested, shoving Kai in front of Ryka.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I never agreed to this?" Kai protested.
"Come on, Kai. We have to do whatever we can to train Lloyd." Zane added. Kai sighed, muttering as he got into his stance. Ryka took a quick, reassuring breath, then got into her stance as well. She could feel the observing gazes of Jay, Cole, Zane and Lloyd. Ryka shut her eyes, calming herself down. Her eyes shot open when she heard Kai rush toward her. He threw a punch toward her side, and she moved over, repeating instinctively once Kai swung his other fist. Ryka then backflipped, missing Kai's jaw. She landed into a frog-like position as he scoffed, she clenched her fists, which triggered her bracelets to unsheathe the gauntlet claws. She then leapt at Kai's chest, hands outstretched. As she collided into him, he grunted as he landed onto the floor, rolling forward with Ryka.
Shifting her position, as soon as her back hit the ground, she flug Kai into the wall with her back legs, causing him to scream in shock. As soon as he hit the wall, Ryka leapt yet again and pinned him against the wall, her gauntlets pointed at his neck. Kai had a fearful expression on his face, both of them breathed heavily as he looked into Ryka's aggressive, aqua blue eyes. Holding her gaze, she didn't realize it yet, but her instincts had taken over entirely.
"Ryka, calm down!" Jay called, rushing over to pull her away. Ryka flinched as she heard his voice, and she blinked a couple times, finally coming back to reality. She backed away, retracting her claws into her gauntlets. She held her hands over her mouth, realizing that she went overboard.
"When I meant 'unpredictable', I didn't mean hold him at gunpoint. What's your deal, Ryka?" Cole asked, incredibly concerned for Kai's life and Ryka's sudden outburst. Ryka shook her head, still covering her mouth. "I...I didn't realize I was...I gotta go." She stuttered, then hopped over the railing, panic pulsed through her body as she landed on the ground, running to her 'safe' place.
Ryka swiftly jumped over rocks that crowded the path to her safe place. Her throat clenched as she held back her tears. She genuinely didn't mean to do that. What came over her? Is she losing control? Going crazy? So many questions flooded her mind. She tripped over one last rock, yelping as she tumbled into the clearing of her isolated camp. She started sobbing softly, crawling into a small crevice within the shadows. Ryka hugged her knees, and buried her head into her arms, quietly crying.
'What's your deal, Ryka?' Cole's words kept ringing in her head, images of Kai's fear flashes in her head. She could still feel their shocked expressions, piercing into her body like arrows. She looked outside, tears drenching her face. There were multiple burn marks, scratches, and broken stones littered all around the clearing. She looked at each and every mark she had made, it was all made from her own anger. She felt like a monster. Suddenly, she heard pebbles falling down the slope she had fell from, and voices. Quietly gasping, she scooted deeper into the crevice, her aqua green eyes narrowed in fear.
"Did we take a wrong turn?"
"No, I could have sworn she went this way. I heard her cry coming from over here."
"I heard it too, and from the sound of it, she probably fell down somewhere. This is the only logical place she could fall into."
"Oh my god, what the heck happened here."
Ryka kept herself quiet. They followed her too far, and now they discovered her safe place. She watched them look around the place in shock, she did sense their fear building up, but not a whole lot. She was scared, she didn't want them to know anything about this place, and she hoped they wouldn't assume things. Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a bit tingly. Holding her breath, she felt her hands. They changed into hand-like paws. She let out a grumble of annoyance, then quickly covered her mouth.
"What was that?" Ryka heard Jay squeak.
"What?" He others questioned in unison
"I heard something." Jay squeaked again
"I didn't hear anything. Are you trying to scare us, Jay? Because that's not funny." Cole responded, somewhat angrily.
"He's telling the truth, I sense that we aren't alone here." Zane reassured. "I believe it came from over here."
Ffff...crap, I gotta get out of here. Now.
Ryka quickly turned to the back of the crevice, and she tried shoving away a large rock that was blocking the exit. She could hear the footsteps get closer, which made her panic. She finally moved the rock, although it made a loud noise. A few smaller rocks and pebbles fell from above, and they tumbled down by the entrance.
"There's something in there. Cole, try and move whatever rocks are in the way. I'm going to see if I can get a signature of what's in there." Zane instructed.
Ryka panicked even more, she started crawling out of the exit, when she slipped and cut her arm on one of the sharper stones.
"F-agh!" She growled.
"Hey! Come back here!" Cole shouted, proceeding to move rocks and moving closer to the exit. He reached out and managed to touch Ryka's tail, yanking it.
"Agh, is this a snake?" Cole shouted aloud, surprised.
Ryka snarled, and she launched herself out of the exit, whipping her tail into the wall to get Cole to let go. He let out a surprised scream as his hand collided into the stone, and he tumbled back. Ryka pushed the large rock back into place, and she dashed back to the bounty on all fours.
Back in the crevice, Cole quickly crawled out of there, his hand had a couple black scales and a couple dots of blood, but it wasn't his.
"Okay. Not a snake." He breathed, still in shock. Kai helped him up, and Zane looked at Cole's hand.
"Whatever it was, it still has scales. Maybe it was a dragon?" Kai suggested.
"Then that has to be the smallest dragon I've ever-" Cole was about to make a smartalec comment, when the sound of rocks colliding occurred, then the sound of tapping followed, quickly fading.
"It's gone now, we'll have to look for it another day. Let's keep looking for Ryka." Zane spoke up, going back up the slope. Jay and Kai followed, Cole shook his head and followed as well.
"Wait, are those the same scales?" Jay asked, staring at a small trail leading out of the maze of stones.
Zane looked at them briefly, taking a quick scan of the scales. He glanced over to the rest of the ninja, and nodded.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Cole exclaimed, running down the path. The others followed close behind.
Ryka leapt over the railing, clutching her wound as it slowly bled. She rushed inside the bounty, running to her room. She closed it, and ran to find bandages. She managed to find something to clean the wound and some wrap. She sat down, and cleaned it. She gritted her teeth as the cleaner stung, though it didn't sting for very long. After it was cleaned, she quickly wrapped it up. Ryka sighed, then she felt a small plasma ring form around her, her hands now Human, and no tail to be seen. Looking into her mirror, there were no scales to be seen, and no tail. She took off her suit, seeing the small tear in the sleeve. She switched into jeans and a t-shirt. Ryka folded her suit, since she needed to wash it and sew it. She walked over to her door, and opened it. She walked out, and walked down the hall.
"Oh hey, Ryka." A voice peeped up from right next to her. She jumped, backing away slightly as she saw who it was. Cole was leaning against the wall, looking at her questionably.
"So, where did you run off to? We were wondering where you were." He asked, still staring at her.
"Well..I-I uh…" She stuttered, subconsciously putting her suit over her wrapped up arm to hide it. "I...went on a...little-"
"A little walk? To blow off some steam? Needed some air?" Cole guessed. He stopped leaning against the wall and walked toward her, getting somewhat close to her. "Cut the crap, Ryka. What's really going on?" Cole snapped, backing Ryka toward the end of the Hall.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Cole. I'm perfectly f-" Ryka tried speaking, her voice quivering slightly as she tried to think of what to say.
"Perfectly fine, huh? That's the thing, after what happened today, we all can tell that you're not 'perfectly fine.'" Cole pressed on, looking hard into Ryka's eyes, cornering her.
Ryka tried to keep herself calm, she was getting more and more anxious. Her heart sank, she felt terrified deep down. She was dreading the moment when they would have to confront her, was this that dreaded moment? Quickly glancing around, she tried her best to find a way out. The only way, however, was through Cole. Biting her lip, she started thinking about what to do.
Okay, Ryka. Calm down...just think, maybe he doesn't know if I'm hiding something? Maybe he's just genuinely worried about my health?
Cole noticed her biting her lip, as well as her quick, panicked glances. This made his gaze soften, though his expression had changed into a look of disbelief. "You're not hiding anything from us, are you?" He questioned, his tone becoming less inquisitive and more direct. This question suddenly clicked with Ryka. Her gaze hardened a little, she tensed up. Cole noticed this, and immediately got his answer. His expression went to his normal, focused state. "You are hiding something." He murmured, beginning to clench his fists. Ryka could sense the raw emotion radiating from him, it made her feel...different.
"No, I'm not." She replied aggressively, her tone changed completely. She was more direct, no longer tripping over her own words, no more stutter. Cole noted the change in her mood, and it was incredibly strange. He stepped back defensively, he wouldn't give up. He continued pressing on, he wanted to get her to break, to give in and tell him.
"Yeah, you're hiding something. There's no use in playing dumb anymore, Ryka. What are you hiding?" He continued.
Ryka opened her mouth to say something, before she put her hand onto her head. She felt her head aching. Gritting her teeth a bit, she shut her eyes, they stung. She growled a bit, indicating her pain. This brought Cole's guard down, he hesitantly put his hands on her shoulders, concerned. "A-are you okay?" He asked, somewhat regretting this idea of interrogation.
Ryka tensed up at his touch and make a small gasp. Suddenly, she grasped his arms with her hands, gripping hard. "I told you already," She murmured, beginning to tighten her grip. The familiar, static sound of her plasma grew louder as her blood boiled. She whipped her head up, her eyes shot open. "I said, I'm fine!" She growled. Streaks of plasma crackled from her hands, shocking Cole. He cried out in pain, falling onto the floor. Ryka shook her head, the pain in her eyes had gone away, although they still didn't feel right. She looked down to see Cole in pain, and she covered her mouth.
Oh my god, what did I do?
"Oh no. Cole, I'm so sorry.." She sniffed, then ran out of the hall. She ran to the bathroom and looked into the mirror, the face that she was greeted with was her own, but her eyes had changed. Instead of her usual aqua green, they were a piercing, amethyst purple. They seemed reptilian like, except instead of a black pupil, it was white.
This is bad, really bad. Did they change when I shocked Cole? Oh my god, I just screwed myself. What happened to me? There really is something wrong with me…
Ryka needed to get out of here, she needed to get away now. She shook her head and ran to the deck, she barged past the other three boys, and ran to find Nya.
Ryka quickly found Nya's room, and knocked. She kept looking back behind her then back at the door. Her anxiety was through the roof, and she knocked again. "Nya, please, it's me! I need help!" Ryka pleaded, her voice on the verge of breaking. Nya rushed over and opened the door, letting her in. Ryka rushed in, and fell to the floor. She scrambled onto her rear and scooted toward Nya's bed. Her pupils narrowed in fear.
"Ryka, are you okay? What happened?" Nya asked, worried. She came over and sat next to her, listening. Ryka sniffed, and took a shaky breath.
"I...I.." She murmured, then cleared her throat. She explained what happened, staring at the floor in front of her. Nya listened, gently rubbing her back in an attempt to soothe Ryka.
"I'm in deep trouble right now...they're going to confront me again, I know it." Ryka whispered. Nya pulled her closer and made Ryka face her.
"Ryka, no they won't. I won't let them. You've got to calm down, I'm sure they'll understand!" She spoke calmly and slowly, her soft eyes staring into Ryka's. Ryka put her hands onto Nya's shoulders, trembling.
"You don't understand...they have dragon scales, they know what dragon has been lingering around here. Now that Cole saw my eyes change, they're going to piece everything together, and who knows what they see in me." Ryka uttered. "What they will see, is a monster. What if they think I am just like...like..." She trailed off, then buried her head into Nya, hugging her. Her head spun with so much anxiety, she couldn't deal with this anymore. She was afraid.
"I'm going crazy...I just want to remember, I'm sick of acting like I know everything, acting like everything is fine. Nothing is fine…" Ryka murmured. Nya didn't say anything, she continued hugging her friend. She thought for a moment, then stopped hugging.
"Remember when Sensei said that there might be a book somewhere in town? Why not head out and look there?" She offered. Ryka thought for a moment, then remembered her flashback. A smile grew on her face. "Maybe...maybe I'll remember everything finally! Oh my god, Nya, let's go!" Ryka's emotions completely flipped like a light switch, she was now hopeful yet again. She held Nya's hands and jumped up and down, almost like an excited child. Nya laughed, and they quickly headed out and went to Sensei Wu's quarters. Knocking on his door, he opened the door. "Hmm? What brings you two here?" He asked. Nya explained everything briefly, Sensei Wu showed great concern, then nodded in understanding.
"I believe it's time we did go, this could be crucial to finding your missing memories." He concluded. "Nya, you stay here and make sure they do not follow us. If they ask, you mustn't tell them where we're going." Wu instructed. Nya nodded, and went the opposite direction. Wu led Ryka out of the bounty, and they traveled to the Library just outside of town.
"Agh- Hey! Watch it!" Cole yelled in pain.
"Hold still! It'll keep hurting if you move around, Rockhead!" Jay snapped back as he was tending to Cole's burns. They weren't severe, but they were pretty scuffed up.
"So run this by me again, Ryka's eyes changed?" Kai asked, confused. Cole groaned, and he turned to him.
"Yes, Kai. For the fifth time, they changed. They were aqua green, then they changed to purple. I remember seeing those eyes somewhere, but I can't remember where." Cole recalled, annoyed.
"That is strange, perhaps it's something to do with her elemental powers?" Zane suggested. Cole shook his head, staring out the window.
"I have the feeling that it isn't. It's something more than just that. Those eyes...they weren't human," He paused, thinking. In his hands, he was feeling the rough texture of the black scale he had found earlier. He thought back to where he had seen that scale before, glancing down at the scale. Cole dug deep into his memories, he eventually came to a realization. The scales, the eyes, Ryka's overall personality...how had he not seen it before?
He found himself at the time when that black dragon was battling the Great Devourer, which led him to the times when Ryka had disappeared at night, the times she was being more than just herself, almost like a different being. It all lead up to that one night when Garmadon had showed up one last time with the four golden weapons, that dragon was right behind him. Everything happened in a flash, but the only thing that he could vividly remember, was that the dragon's eyes went from a shade of green, to purple.
"Ryka...what happened to you?"
A/N: Ok, so I fixed up the ending, since I didn't like how it ended before. It felt too forced, I didn't give it my all, y'know? Anyway, I had a different idea of how I wanted this to pan out, so I'm fixing it up now before I continue writing the next chapter. More questions will be answered...and Ryka will finally be freed from her 'prison.' So, I hope you all enjoyed, and stay tuned for the next chapter!
