Chapter Sixteen: Stay
A drawn out sigh escaped the boy's thin lips as he just continued to stare out towards the ocean. The secluded area of the shore was not the most ideal place to just sit around and wait. Lloyd felt as if the Serpentine could sneak up on them at any moment. Rubbing the back of his neck anxiously, Lloyd noticed that the skin was slick with sweat and exhaled sharply once more. He was growing a bit impatient, hoping that the others would return quickly. Sitting on the sand, doing absolutely nothing was one of the worst feelings in the world. If they had just let him come, he could have finished off the Fangyre leader in the blink of an eye.
Darkness blanketed his environment and Lloyd looked up to see Jay standing over him. "Um...can I help you?" the green clad boy asked, unable to mask the biting annoyance in his voice.
Jay raised his hands, stepping back a little. "Hey, I'm in the same boat as you. I'd rather be with them. Yeah, they said nice things about how taking care of you is important and blah, blah, blah, but I know they just wanted to get rid of me."
Lloyd relaxed, shaking away the defensive coat that had begun to linger around him more and more often. "Sorry, I just...I can't believe they'd leave me. I mean, I'm supposed to be this great hero, but they don't even give me a chance to prove myself to them..."
"Yeah, but you're important. You've gotta be protected. Me?" Jay shrugged, his usual smile fading away into oblivion. "I'm just...annoying and useless, I guess. It's fine though. It's who I am. I'm not about to change. I can try to save the world and crack jokes at the same time."
The young boy nodded. "It sounds nice when you say it like that, but I just...I just don't feel like I'm really part of the team. I haven't done anything useful."
The puppeteer looked around, studying the ship, biting his lips, and frowning. Then a smile returned, his face lighting up with a sudden burst of renewed energy. "Hey, I know how we can be useful! We can build something to help us get from kingdom to kingdom. Carts are a hassle, because horses get tired and they have to be fed and then they stink...but maybe..."
"Maybe, what?" Lloyd asked tentatively. The look plastered on Jay's face was almost unreadable, a mixture of joy and deep concentration. Jay was definitely thinking about something. However, he too allowed his gaze to linger on the ship that was still beached on the gritty sand. The slightly weathered, red paint along the hull stared back at him sadly. "You're not thinking of just pushing the ship across Ninjago, are you?" Lloyd continued, amused. Just the mental visual of him and the others putting all of their time and effort into dragging a sea-faring vessel across Ninjago was almost hysterical. Lloyd chuckled slightly, despite himself.
"No, no," Jay replied, only hearing bits and pieces of Lloyd's words. His mind was too focused on the idea he had originally proposed: a cart. "We can probably make another form of transportation from this though, one that's a bit less noticeable." The Serpentine would be looking for that particular ship and it would not be long before the horde that had overtaken the Temple of Light eventually caught up to them. Time was of the essence. Hurrying across the sand, Jay stood next to the hull, glancing up at the ornate dragon head that stared straight across the beach, lifeless eyes fixated on the horizon. "We can make a cart, a type of cart that moves faster than normal carts, no horses or other animals required."
Lloyd couldn't help it. He laughed. "That's impossible. You can't move a cart with magic, Jay."
"No, not magic," Jay smirked, creating a small spark in the palm of his hands. "Lightning! I mean...it's raw energy. It could power anything. Zane's a robot...made of metal...my power helped make him work again..."
"Zane's a what?" Lloyd's eyebrows shot upwards.
"Hush, hush," Jay waved him away. "So, metal has to be the key...somehow..."
The puppeteer continued to mutter things to himself while pacing back and forth along the side of the ship. At one point, he knelt upon the sand, drawing strange symbols that could have been letter or numbers for all Lloyd knew. Time drifted past and Jay was still babbling to himself. Lloyd's eyes had begun to shudder, his mind ready to shut down with a wave of exhaustion, when suddenly Jay's shout brought him back to himself.
"Ah-ha! This will work!" Jay pointed at the sand, where Lloyd saw nothing more than scribbles. "I'll just need some scrap metal and some copper to create a circuit for my lightning to run through...and we'll need to take apart the ship, so we can actually build the outside of the...not cart...it'll be...the Jaymobile!"
Lloyd nodded, pretending to understand. "Right...well, where are we supposed to get copper from? I'm sure we can find random bits of metal around the ship, but...copper?"
"Copper, copper, copper..." Jay muttered, his blue eyes feverishly scanning the boat, back and forth. The right corner of his lips pulled into a smile when he finally figured it out. The bottom of the ship was coated in copper, or so it appeared to be. "This would be perfect! Now, I I just have to figure out how to get some of it loose."
The puppeteer rubbed his hands together and placed his fingertips in the small gap between a loose area of the sheathing and the wooden hull underneath of it. Gritting his teeth together, Jay pulled backwards on the metal, feeling sweat break out across his forehead. Some sparks erupted from the metal, but Jay ignored it, concentrating everything he could on separating just one area of the copper from the hull, though it seemed absolutely fruitless.
Then, without warning, the metal began to give way, just slightly. Jay noticed the extra set of hands aiding him in his efforts. "I'll try to help in any way that I can," Lloyd announced, his voice strained as he tugged back on the copper. If the combination of both of their strength was not enough to break it, maybe Cole's strength could. Lloyd inhaled sharply, wishing Cole had taken some time out to show him how to do something to enhance his strength. That power has to be somewhere inside of me though, the Golden Master thought, squeezing his eyes shut. It just has to be.
"Gaaah," Jay shouted as his grip slipped from the copper and he tumbled backwards into the sand. "Darn it, we could have had it too if we ju-" but his voice trailed off as he saw a portion of the hull's metal sheathing in Lloyd's hands. "Y-You did it," the puppeteer breathed, scrambling to his feet. "You got the copper! Woo-hoo, the Jaymobile is going to be up and running in no time!"
Lloyd smiled triumphantly. Sure, helping Jay build his little invention wasn't nearly as amazing as what the others were doing, but it was satisfying. Seeing the amazement and gratitude in Jay's face made Lloyd's chest flutter with pride, an emotion he had never experienced before. "Well...let's do this then!"
Kai's legs were shaking now, the effort of carrying Cole wearing his strength down faster than anticipated. Zane carried the golden staff, using it to keep away any Fangpyre that tried to get in their way. When the Fangpyre saw the staff they knew their leader had been defeated, so when Zane and Kai walked through the castle doors, the Serpentine slithered back, respecting the power that the staff represented.
It sure had made things a whole lot easier, but at that moment Kai wasn't really able to focus on the bright side of the situation. All the blacksmith knew was that his back was aching like hell. When the ship's silhouette finally appeared against the horizon, waves of relief spread throughout him.
"Oh no," Kai panted, once he was close enough to spot the random holes in the body of the ship. "What did those two do to our ship?!"
Labored breathing sounded on the slight, sea breeze as Jay used a mallet he had scavenged from the interior of the ship's cabin to finish forming the copper Lloyd had procured into a wire. It was lucky for him that the metal itself was very malleable. The puppeteer faltered slightly behind the contraption he had managed to create in a surprising amount of time. "They're back," he smiled to himself, glancing behind to see Lloyd staring in the direction of the castle, his emerald eyes wide.
Feeling an unexpected pang of fear claw at his guts, Jay stood, dropping the mallet to the ground as he watched Kai struggle to cross the sand, Cole hanging lifelessly in his arms. Zane followed the two closely, an intricately crafted piece of gold held tightly in his hands. They got the staff, Jay internally cheered, trying to push away any negative thoughts regarding the condition of his friend. Maybe Cole had just fainted from fighting the Fangpyre leader, passed out from utter fatigue. "W-What's going on?" was all Jay managed to say as he felt his heart rate skyrocket.
"He was stabbed," Kai growled, hobbling over towards whatever Jay was trying to make. As much as he was upset with the condition of their only transportation, Cole was more important right now. The blacksmith knelt on the sand, finally relinquishing his hold on Cole's body. His arms and hands quivered from both strain and adrenaline. Kai swallowed hard as his brown eyes rested solely upon the bleeding wound of Cole's abdomen. Zane was standing next to the blacksmith now, the staff still in his possession. Lloyd and Jay had quickly made their way over, flanking their injured friend from the other side and blocking some of the fading sunlight, darkening Cole's now pale features. "I-I don't know if he's breathing," Kai panicked, leaning down closer the merchant and looking for any sign of his chest rising and falling.
The breathing was there, but it was ragged and weak. Jay crumpled down to a sitting position beside his friend. "Come on, Cole, stay with us."
Come on, Cole, stay with us.
Cole. That was his name. At least he thought it was. He wasn't very sure, not anymore. The darkness surrounding him was never-ending and the few fragments of memories still clinging to his mind were beginning to give way. There was a sense of discomfort filling every inch of him, though he couldn't recall why. Something had happened. He hadn't always been in the darkness, right?
Come on, Cole, stay with us.
That voice. That voice was familiar. He knew it. He didn't know how or why he knew it, but he did. Which meant that sometime, somewhere, he had been something more than a faint presence in this dark world. He had to be this "Cole" the voice mentioned. Cole. Cole. Cole. Cole the merchant. Cole the friend. Cole the leader.
Cole, the master of Earth.
Yes, that was him. It had to be. He had something important to do. He had to return, return to the place the voice was coming from. The place that held an important destiny for him to fulfill.
But, why?
Why? Why? Why? There was pain back there. He remembered that much. The pain was the only memory that still pulsed with a stubborn strength. Pain wasn't good. This calm, blank existence was good. If he stayed here, he could drift away. Drift away, away, away. There would be no pain, no destiny. Only pleasurable emptiness.
A small and strangled exhalation of breath escaped the merchant's lips before nothing but the ambient sounds of the waves rolling onto the dry sand was audible.
Jay felt his own breath catch painfully in his throat as his vision wavered slightly. No, no, no, he thought, staring intently at his friend's chest, looking for the smallest hint of movement now. Cole was the strongest of them all. He could not be beaten bu something like a stab wound, could he? He is only human though. The puppeteer cringed at the negative thought and shifted to be on his knees. "Come on, Cole..."
Zane dropped the Fangpyre staff on the sand and reached out for Cole's right wrist, pressing his fingers deep into the skin beneath the merchant's palm. Seconds ticked by, stretching into the nightmarish eternity as the android let his friend's arm fall limp. "He is gone," Zane stated, feeling an uneasy sensation building up inside of him. Sadness. "There is nothing we can do now except give him a proper burial and carry the memories we will have of him proudly. Cole gave his life to help save the people of Ninjago and we will not let that be forgotten."
His heart sank. Kai ran his hands through his spiked hair in frustration before getting to his feet and turning away from the group. If he had just carried Cole faster, maybe they would have figured out something, anything, that could have helped him. Kai's thoughts weighed down on him like lead and he fell to his knees once more, pounding the sand with a clenched fist.
"No,"Jay whispered, watching as his friends accepted Cole to be dead. The puppeteer glanced over at Lloyd who seemed too stunned to even say anything, some of his golden locks plastered to his forehead with perspiration. "No," Jay continued, his voice becoming louder and more forceful. Cole was not dead. He could not bed dead. Then, the puppeteer started acting on nothing but hope and a whim. Still kneeling, Jay positioned himself over top of Cole's body and pressed his hands firmly against his friend's chest. "You're not leaving that easily, buddy. We have to do this thing together." Closing his eyes, the puppeteer concentrated every single ounce of energy in his body and mind towards Cole, towards his hands. The tingling sensation of electricity was practically numbing, but Jay spoke confidently as he instructed Lloyd and Zane to step back.
Light.
It was everywhere now, annoying him. Disrupting the emptiness. It tickled his body, sending waves of feelings throughout him. The light pulled him back. As he moved faster, memories began to return. He was Cole. He had friends, friend he couldn't leave behind. Yes. He had to fight for them, had to stay away from the dark. Although it was soothing, he had to resist the temptation. Doing what was right wasn't easy, no, not at all, but it was worth it.
He could take the pain of ten thousand poisoned blades. He could take anything, as long as he was with the others. He was Cole, and Cole never gave up.
The light began to fade away, but Cole didn't need it anymore. He knew where he was and, most importantly, he knew who he was. He was a hero. He was not going to slip away from life that easily.
With a loud gasp for air, Cole jumped up into a sitting position.
Jay scurried backwards a short distance, disoriented by Cole's sudden revival. His breathing quickened, but he could not help giving a smile. He had actually done it! He had used his powers to bring Cole back from the grip of death. "You're alive," the puppeteer managed to say, becoming aware of how weak was now feeling. Not to self: try to never actually do that again, Jay thought. It had been very taxing on him, both physically and mentally. "Oh, I can't believe you're alive. I-I can't believe that actually worked."
Blinking slowly, Zane stared down at the raven-haired merchant with wide eyes. He was breathing, moving, but he had been without a pulse just a few minutes prior. Cole had been deceased, he had felt it. "Jay, that was truly incredible," the android settled on, feeling that no other words could adequately be used to describe the amazement he was experiencing right now.
Lloyd turned to look at the exhausted puppeteer, his auburn hair slightly disheveled. "You're not as useless as you thought then, huh?" Lloyd smiled.