Review Replies:

TheAmberShadow: Yeah, Cole Bucket is quite funny. I don't know Dr Julian's real first name, but I've taken the tendency of calling him David, just because it was in one of my friend's fics. It's better than no name at all, I suppose. And actually, we don't know Garmadon's first name either. Odd, isn't it? Even Wu calls him Garmadon. And there is something wrong with Lloyd (obviously), but you'll have to wait to find out what, unless you piece it together. Don't worry, no one else thought of Stiix either. Also, no, I won't be giving you Kaze's age. But it is either Garmadon or Morro! Those are the two everyone's narrowed it down to. And yes, he was talking about Wu.

Ebony umbreon: You know, that is really weird. One of my friends couldn't see the previous update for some reason. *shrugs* Must just be another FFN glitch.

Anonymous7: Haha, yeah, sorry. And also double sorry, 'cause this ends on a bit of a cliffhanger too.

Isabella camovic: D'aw, thanks. And yeah, Echo trying ice cream is a great idea! As for the questions, I could very easily tell you, but have decided against it. You'll just have to wait, my friend.

Loki the God of Evil: Yeeeeees, fluuuuuuuuuuff.

Chapter Eighteen:

Indeep

Kai wasn't entirely sure how, but Wu and Misako were able to convince the doctors to let him return to the Bounty. At this point, he wasn't sure he really cared. Anything to get out of the damn hospital bed was good enough for him.

Misako returned with his clothes- a red shirt, a pair of jeans, and trainers- shortly after he'd been cleared. He needed Wu's help to get them on.

After a warning from one of the doctors- not Dr Roberts, Kai had not idea where he'd gone off to- and a promise that he wouldn't strain himself, Kai was put in a wheelchair and taken back to the Bounty. All the reporters had gone out to report the events of the Blackout, although there were still quite a few in front of the hospital, since it was where people's lives had been in jeopardy the most. They took the back exit.

What with his pain meds, Kai wasn't certain if the trip to the Bounty was long, short or even difficult. All he could remember was being put into the back of a car, maybe falling asleep, and then he was being wheeled into the Bounty's living room, laid down on the couch and suddenly had his favourite red blanket tucked around him.

For the next few hours (he assumed it was hours, at least. It could have been minutes for all he knew), Kai drifted in and out of sleep. Sometimes, Wu or Misako or both of them would be in the living room with him, other times he'd be alone. The TV was turned on at some point, and he'd watch it without really understanding what was happening, much like one would do when they were very young, before slipping back into sleep.

When Kai awoke again, he was aware enough to realise that, outside the window, the sky was a mix of pink and orange. Sunset. How long had he been asleep?

"Oh, good, you're awake."

He turned his head, spotting Misako making her way over with a steaming bowl in hand. She sat down next to him, helping him sit up properly before handing him the bowl. Chicken noodle soup. Kai didn't really like soup, but he was hungry, so whatever.

"How long have I been asleep?" he asked, carefully sipping at the soup on his spoon. Misako glanced at her watch.

"Most of the day," she said, "We left the hospital at two in the afternoon. It's six now, so you've been in and out for around five hours."

Kai nodded, swallowing his soup and quickly refilling his spoon, "Anything from the others?"

"Wu got a message from Cole saying they'd found some kind of underground base," Misako explained, "In a demolished pub or something. That was fifteen minutes ago."

The ninja nodded silently, mouth twisting downwards. He should be out there with them, helping, not sitting on his butt eating soup. The sensation of being useless was not one Kai often found himself experiencing, but when he did he was far from fond of it.

His thoughts must have shown on his face, for Misako sent him a look, "You helped by pointing out they were in Stiix," she said, "None of us realised that until now."

Kai shook his head, "I should be out there with them."

"Kai, you're hurt," Misako pointed out, "You can hardly stand. Anything you would have done would have probably only slowed them down."

He scowled at the soup in his lap, jaw clenching. The painkillers must have been starting to dull, because the burning sensation across his skin was returning, like a thousand little termites with lava for legs crawling over his skin.

"It's not your fault, Kai," said Misako. She nudged his hand towards the spoon. "Now eat up before I start force feeding you."

He sent her a small smile, which felt slightly awkward and stiff with his burnt skin, and returned to his soup. But the feeling didn't pass, staying with him long after the bowl had been emptied and taken back into the kitchen.

Misako returned with a syringe and a bottle of meds, filling it with the medical liquid. The feeling, the sensation, the aurora of uselessness with just a dash of self-pity stayed with Kai as Misako injected him with the pain killers, and didn't go away until he began to dose again.

He lay there, silently watching the cartoon that had come on the TV. Misako sat next to him, a book open in her lap, but even in his half-conscious state Kai could see the way her eyes were unseeing, glazed, trapped deep in her own thoughts.

He wondered what she was thinking.

He wondered if someone was going to die.

He wondered if they were already dead.

Breathing. Panting. He couldn't breathe. He wanted to collapse. Stop and rest. Just fall over and die. Again. Again. Why couldn't he have just stayed dead?

His legs shook. His hands, dirt and slippy from sweat and grime and having not been washed in who knows how long, slipped and slid across Echo's metallic side as he struggled to keep a hold of the bot. Sweat beaded his forehead, falling into his eyes, his greasy hair sticking to his face.

They turned another corner. A door. A door, hidden in the shadows, hardly noticeable. How come they hadn't noticed it before? Had it always been there? Had they even been down this corridor?

A whimper. Beside him. Scared, in pain. As though he were about to cry.

He would have said something comforting, but everything was going too fast. The footsteps behind them were closing in. Shouting, shouting, so loud in the echoes of the corridor. There were no torches in this hall.

He lunged for the door, dragging Echo with him. Slammed against it, sending startling pain up his side. Blind, confused, he fiddled for the handle, his fingers closing around its ice cold surface. He twisted it. It didn't budge. Stuck. Jammed.

Locked.

He swore- wasn't even sure which word he used, he just knew he did- and rammed his shoulder against the wood. Maybe it would cave in, maybe the lock would jiggle out of place. Dread curled in his stomach. Desperation.

"K-Kaze!"

A rough hand wrapped around his upper arm. He spun around, blind, not thinking, raising the arm that wasn't holding up Echo. His fist rammed right into the guard's face, sending them falling to the ground in a spray of blood and teeth. A wind blew his hair out of his face, then vanished just as suddenly as it appeared.

A click. The door opened.

He pushed them through forcefully, slamming the door behind them before the guards could even register that it had been opened. He shoved the lock back into place and turned around.

It was a tiny room, leading off into the darkest tunnel he'd ever seen. There was a crate next to the tunnel entrance, and a lit lantern on the floor next to it. In front of him, staring with startled eyes, was a boy. Young, early twenties perhaps. Skin decorated with purple tattoos.

They stared at each other, Echo and himself struggling the catch their breath. The guards on the other side of the door pounded and slammed against it, shouting things he couldn't decipher. Echo inched closer to him.

Then, to his surprise, the boy's eyes filled with tears. He turned to look at Echo, then to the door, before stepping aside and sitting down on the crate.

"The tunnel's an emergency exit," he said, no longer looking at them, his voice cracking and hoarse, "It'll take you out."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" he asked, glaring at the boy in immediate suspicion. Behind him, the door buckled.

"You don't," the boy said simply, turning to them with eyes that suddenly seemed dead. He'd seen that look before. Had worn it himself. "But you don't have much of a choice, now do you?"

Echo let out a small sob, as the guards rammed themselves into the door. The boy was right. He wasn't sure what he should say. Why wasn't he stopping them from escaping?

He decided not to say anything. Pulled Echo tighter against him. His legs shook beneath him. He wanted to desperately to sit down. To sleep.

They limped into the tunnel.

Chope watched them go.

The staircase was steep, long, dark and narrow. If it weren't for the green light swirling between Lloyd's fingers, they wouldn't have been able to see a thing. Jay felt a pang in his chest. If only Kai were with them.

But even with the light, Jay found himself tripping on the uneven steps and almost tumbling down into the others. The staircase was so narrow that they had to go down one at a time, Cole in the front, Seamus behind him, then Lloyd, Jay, Zane and finally Nya taking up the rear.

Jay slipped on a wet patch, accidentally kicking Lloyd in the shin, his hand latching onto a random, cold, wet groove in the wall, heart leaping into his throat in surprise. Lloyd gasped, knees buckling, and would have sent Cole and Seamus tumbling down the rest of the stairs with him if the ex-slave hadn't spun around and grabbed him around the waist with surprising speed, almost hoisting him over his shoulder.

"What happened?" Nya called, peeking around Zane, "Is everything okay?"

"My bad!" Jay yelped, his voice bouncing off the walls, scrambling to his feet as Seamus sat Lloyd back down, "Crap, are you okay, Lloyd?"

Lloyd grimaced, as though he'd just screamed in his ear, but nodded, "Yeah, I'm alright."

"Be careful, Jay," said Cole, "I'd rather not fall down these stairs."

Jay sent him a sheepish smile, "Yeah, sorry."

They kept walking, Jay keeping his hand on the wall in an attempt to help stop himself from falling. The walls were wet and rough, which either meant this entire place was natural (to an extent, considering the staircase) or it had just been very badly made. The latter was plausible, seeing as how they wore rags.

They walked on in silence. Jay wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it felt like forever by the time they reached the bottom. There were two torches, one on the left wall and one on the right, directly next to the staircase. Lloyd extinguished his green ball.

They weren't in a room like Jay had expected them to enter. They were at some kind of crossroad, three corridors branching off from where they stood. There were no signs. The corridors led way into darkness.

"Three halls," muttered Nya, "Any idea which one we should take?"

Zane's eyes began to glow slightly, then dulled back to their usual brightness.

"I cannot tell where the corridors lead," said PIXAL, "But it's a labyrinth."

"A labyrinth?" repeated Cole. Seamus nodded, a small frown on his brow.

"Yes," he muttered, voice loud in the silence, "This... This is it."

Jay shot him a concerned look, beginning to wonder if it had really been a good idea to bring him along. Now that he thought about it, he probably had some form of PTSD. For all they knew, being here could send him into a panic attack- make him forget what was happening, who they were, take him back to the desperate escape that had only led to the death of his family. He decided to keep an eye on him.

"Okay," said Zane, a tad impatiently, "Where can we find Echo?"

Seamus took a moment to think, stroking his chin as he looked from one corridor to the next, "He should be in the conjoining cells," he said finally, "That's also most probably where all those people who were kidnapped were taken to."

"Conjoining cells," repeated Jay, nodding. He looked left, right, forwards and then to Seamus, "Where is that, exactly?"

Seamus rubbed the back of his dark hair, "This is a labyrinth," he said, "One I didn't escape from."

"So you don't know?" asked Nya. Grimly, Seamus shook his head.

"Sorry."

Zane sighed, "We'll just have to improvise."

"I say we go left," Jay announced, "In mazes, you always stick to the left."

"What?" Nya frowned at him, "No, it's always forwards."

"No," Cole butted in, "It's always right. You know, 'cause right is right?"

"That makes no sense!" argued Jay, voice rising. It bounced off the walls in the most deafening echo they'd ever heard, assaulting their ears and piercing their skulls. Jay gasped, clapping his hands over his ears and clenching his eyes shut.

Slowly, it died down, and he hesitantly peeked open an eye. Breathing a quiet sigh of relief, he removed his hands, sending his friends a sheepish grin when they glared at him.

"Lloyd?"

Jay's smile fell, eyes widening as he spotted their younger brother on his knees, clutching at his ears with trembling hands. His teeth were gritted in pain, and even with his eyes clenched shut they could tell they were watering.

Zane, the one who had spoken, knelt down beside the green ninja, placing a shiny hand on his back. "Lloyd?" he repeated, "Lloyd, are you alright?"

Lloyd took in a shaky breath, nodding only slightly. Zane shared a concerned look with Cole.

"Maybe you should lie down," Cole suggested.

"N-No," Lloyd stuttered, eyes still shut, "No, I-I'm fine."

Jay wasn't sure what to do. His legs were frozen in place. A long moment passed, and then, finally, Lloyd's hands fell to his side. Eyes still shut, he pushed himself to his feet, and would have fallen over had Zane not grabbed his arm.

Once he was steadied, Lloyd placed a hand on his head, opening his eyes and blinking slowly, wincing as though he was being assaulted by a harsh light. Zane let go hesitantly, hands still hovering in front of him as though Lloyd were about to go toppling over.

Thankfully, that didn't happen. Still rubbing his head, Lloyd looked from Zane to Cole, Nya, Seamus and then finally Jay, who remained frozen. Giving a small sigh, appearing almost angry, Lloyd turned and marched down a random hall- right.

Jay licked his lips, his mouth abruptly dry. He looked at Cole, who was looking at Lloyd's retreating form with a worried look on his face. Sensing his gaze, he turned to face Jay, his mouth twisting downwards and eyes shining with what could only be the same concern Jay himself felt, although, for the blue ninja at least, guilt was being mixed in as well.

Silently, he began to follow after Lloyd. The others did the same.

And so, with the constant updates, the chapters are starting to mostly only reach just under 3000 words. Which isn't bad, I suppose. You are getting a lot of updates anyway.

So, Chope made a brief appearance in this chapter. Never thought you'd see him again, did you? Do you think he lied to Kaze and Echo? Or are they actually going to be able to escape? Hmmm... and Lloyd. He's getting worse. Not resting. Do you think he should have stayed behind?

The Ninja and Seamus are entering the labyrinth. Unlike Echo and Kaze, who are closer to the main base, they'll have to go through the defences. And what of Kai? He's worrying. I think you would too. I certainly would.

Do you think his thoughts will come true? Do you think someone will die?

Probably not.

But... maybe.

It's not my choice.

It's up to Echo.