Jay simply broke eye contact in response to Kai's question.
"Jay…you're seriously scaring me. What's wrong?" Kai asked.
"Kai! Jay!" Cole's voice called through the darkness before Jay could respond.
"Good news. We stopped them digging the underworld!" Cole smiled as he and Zane came into sight.
"Good," Said Kai, "We were successful too. We got the nun chucks back…but I think Jay got hurt. He isn't talking."
"Jay? What's wrong?" Cole asked.
Jay shook his head. He didn't want to talk to Cole or Zane either. He never wanted to say another word. Right now he just wanted to be away from everyone asking him if he was okay.
Zane must have picked up on this, because he said, "I sense he wants to be alone. We cannot help him now."
"Let's head back home then," said Cole.
Jay followed the others out of the cave and to the dragons. He mounted his and rode back towards the mountain.
On the way back, Kai told Cole and Zane what happened. He didn't seem to take a side this time. He just stated the facts. Still Jay didn't want to relive today.
Jay's heart leapt with fear at what he saw. Sensei Wu was waiting for them. His eyes narrowed when he saw Jay with the golden nun chucks.
"You are not ready to fight with those," he said darkly when the ninjas landed, "Why are they so far from their place here?"
Jay looked away from Sensei Wu. This really wasn't his day.
But then he heard Kai get off his dragon and say, "Sensei, Jay used the nun chucks to power up his invention, but hear me out before you say anything. Jay was willing to fight to the death to make up for his irresponsibility. And he almost did so. Today in itself was punishment enough."
Jay stared at Kai. Was this the same ninja who would not get off his case just a few hours ago? What had changed his mind?
Sensei Wu turned to Zane and Cole.
"Do you all feel this way about this?" he asked.
"We do," Zane said dismounting as well.
"Without a doubt," Cole added following in suit.
"Very well. I'll leave you to do what you feel is right with Jay," said Sensei Wu.
He retreated inside leaving the four ninjas to talk.
Jay got off his dragon and joined the others. He opened his mouth to tell them they didn't need to get him out of trouble, but quickly closed it remembering that talking had just upset Kai before. Right now the last thing he needed was more anger from the others.
Luckily for him, Zane said, "I know what you were about to say. That we did not need to get you out of trouble with Sensei Wu."
Jay nodded.
"The fact is what Kai said was true. You've had a really bad day. I think what you went through was punishment enough." said Cole.
"Jay," said Kai, "I'm sorry about being so hard on you earlier."
Jay looked at Kai. He obviously wasn't mad anymore. That helped Jay find his voice again.
"I'm sorry too…I shouldn't have yelled at you back there…" he said quietly.
"You had every right to yell. I was being a jerk. I shouldn't have made fixing all this harder for you," said Kai.
"Glad to have good old, chatter box Jay back," Cole smiled.
"Well I don't know about chatter box. I mean, I still could have hurt Kai's feelings really badly in there. Maybe I should start talking less. I mean, if I actually had hurt Kai in there we may have never gotten the nun chucks back. And then it would be chaos when Lord Garmadon returned! I mean really! How are we supposed to defeat Lord Garmadon without the four golden weapons? And that includes the golden nun chucks as well as the golden sword, the golden shurikans, and the golden scythe. I wonder if…" Jay babbled.
"I sense," Zane said, cutting Jay off, "That this is something that no matter what will never change."
The four ninjas laughed.
Footnote to starrkiwi: Thank you for your request. By the way it helped me break my record for longest Jay babble (5 and 1/2 lines on microsoft word!) Hope you enjoyed this story. :)