A/N) Sorry about this late update but my computer is stupid and so is my sister... long story. I hope this chapter makes up for the wait! Thanks for all of your views, follows, and reviews! You guys know how to make a smile appear on my grouchy face!
Pulse this doesn't have to much action, it's more of a plot weaver, a look into what they are all up too.;-)
Have fun!
"I outta kill him for it," Kai seethed as he washed the remaining breakfast dishes.
Zane gave him a short half smile, "Don't worry about it Kai, Jay may be... impulsive at times but he means well, besides Nya forgave him and that should be good enough for you." He spoke while reaching up and placing a jar of honey as high as he could behind most of thes spices.
Kai watched him, wringing out the dish cloth, "Hiding that from Cole?" He raised an eye brow, amused.
Zane cast him a quick glance of affirmation, just as the very munch monster whistled in.
"Hey guys, did you catch Jay out there, for a second I thought he was totally doomed." He chuckled to himself walking towards the fridge, he stuck his head in and began rummaging through its contents.
Kai shook his head, "My little sister can be scary when she's mad."
Zane nodded in slight agreement, then straightening from his position over the counter he headed out the door, "Well, finish up Kai, I'll start dinner later, right now I have to go check on our... guest."
A loud thud, a jingle of glass clinking against each other sounded, a loud 'ow' followed.
Kai turned to see Cole growling and rubbing his obviously aching head with a carton of milk in his other hand.
"You ok?" Kai raised a questioning brow at the black ninja.
Cole nodded quickly, "Yah I was just..." His eyes shifted from Kai's questioning face, "Um, we got anythin' sweet to take with this?" He asked turning towards the cabinets.
Before Kai could answer loud thumping footsteps were heard, ragged breathing became apparent right before Jay burst into the room, wide eyed and breathless.
"Guys! You won't believe this but that vampire girl, she's gone!"
Both ninja's looked at each other, not sure which emotion should show on their faces, shock or confusion.
"I don't understand it. Her wounds weren't fully healed and it would take a lot of effort to go anywhere far." Nya stared at her computer screen, her brown eyes scanning the data, her nose scrunched up in thought.
Zane leaned over the side staring with less confusion ,"Hum... that is a valid point, she couldn't have gone far at all by human standards. unless-"
"Unless she ISN'T a human!" Jay blurted out getting all eyes on him, some confused others annoyed and a couple amused, that would have been the elderly people. The blue eyed ninja deflated for a minute before gathering his thoughts again, "I'm telling you all, she is not human. This proves it, Zane just said so." He crossed his arms defiantly, so sure he was right.
Nya reached over and patted him gently on the shoulder, "No more coffee for you." She said sympathetically.
Jay face palmed himself and groaned.
The others snapped out of their quiet stares.
"Well, whatever, the point is she's not here, so where could she have gone and the real question is do we even need her?" Kai said, absently flicking some lint off his shirt sleeves.
"I think we just might Kai." Wu spoke up gently, tapping his cane on the ground lightly, his sky blue eyes seemed to be staring straight at Cole who seemed extremely interested in the floor boards at the moment, "We should look just in case, better to be safe then sorry."
The others nodded and decided to split up their members.
"All right guys some look around the monastery others spread out in town, she's probably across the street or something," Cole divided their team and each set headed out.
I hope she didn't get far... that could be bad. He thought to himself realizing Jay was following him.
"What are you doing? I thought you would follow your girlfriend."
Jay shrugged, "She said she needed space, whatever, I'll make it up to her soon. Besides, I wanna know why you've been acting so weird lately."
Cole bit his lip, masking his surprise, "What are you talking about? Last I checked, you, were the weird one."
Jay smirked and threw his arm around his muscled friend, "Bud, I can tell, call it insightfulness." He grinned proudly.
"Hah, call it nosy. No, nothings wrong, I'm perfectly fine, normal, the same, whatever." He shrugged Jay's arm off, irritated now.
Jay laughed, "Oh! I get it... you believe that she's a vampire and you don't want anyone else to know, don't worry my friend I'm with ya all the way. "He laughed again dodging Cole's oncoming fist that wasn't really aiming to hurt him but it was fun to see Cole frown when he did miss.
"Cut it out Jay, your being ridic-" A shuffle behind them caught his attention. He realized then that they had turned down Ninjago ally, he turned around just in time to see legs disappear up a roof.
"Hey? You think that's her?"
Cole didn't answer as he jumped up and caught himself onto the fire escape lifting his body up and disappearing up the same roof. Jay shrugged and decided to take the easier rout. The stairs.
I know I saw something climb up here, Cole's silvery eyes surveyed the shingled roof, the sun glared down from above, making him squint. He shifted his weight to his left leg as he pushed himself higher on the roof, suddenly his feet slipped out from under him causing him to fall and get the wind knocked out. He wheezed for a second, immobile, a sharp kick in the side didn't help his recovery, if anything it made him cough harder and nearly fall off the roof. Hands grasping his collar saved him from the painful fall. Two seconds later he found him pressed down agains the roof underneath a very strong foot.
He couldn't open his eyes from the suns constant glare directly in his face.
"What are you doing here?" A voice hissed from above, "leave me alone, I am not going to stay your prisoner for-" A sharp cry broke off the threatening sentence, the weight on his gut ceased and he found he was able to sit up. He blinked the sun spots out of his eyes just as Jay walked up from the side of the roof. Then he noticed the crouching figure in front of him. The shadow girl was groaning through clentched teeth, her eyes squeezed shut as she held onto her side tightly. Jay stared wide eyed, "What did you do to her?"
Cole glared at him, "Really? Come on Jay you can't be serious."
Jay nodded, "I... no I just heard a scream and... never mind, maybe we should get her back to the lab."
Cole shrugged and gingerly stepped closer the the groaning girl.
"Um... we don't want to hurt you, but if you fight like this in your condition you'll make things worse and-"
"NO!" The word exploded from her lips as she attempeted to jump up and kick them, Jay gapsed as she yelped in mid move falling on the roof, immobile by her pain. His eyes widened even more when he saw she was rolling off the shingles. Quick as his element, he caught her and flipped off the roof, taking the drop with grace and landing lightly on the ground with her secured in his arms.
Cole followed after, rubbing his chest subconsciously where she had pinned him down with her foot.
"Nice catch Jay, now lets get back before she wakes up." The black ninja turned towards home then noticed his team mate wasn't following, "Um... Jay? What are you doing?" He looked at his friend who was currently staring at the limp figure in his arms intently. Too intently then Cole thought necessary.
"Jay, what the heck?" He came closer to see what he was staring at. Cautiously he peered over and saw what Jay saw. His eyes widened, it was a mark, a deep purple mark on the side of her neck. It looked like a star surrounded by multiple rings that crossed over each other and the star.
"What is that?" He asked the blue ninja.
Jay shrugged, "But I don't like the vibes that thing is sending out. It's... weird." He gulped, snapping out of his thoughts and started to walk down the road. Cole followed slowly, for some reason his mind felt like it was on fire.
"Fresh mangos, turnips, apples, any kind of fruit you want for sale!" an elderly woman with dark hair that was greying at the temples called out in a raspy voice. She sighed as people passed her stand without so much as looking at it.
Might as well close for the day, she reached for the closed sign, wiping a hand on her faded green apron. Business just wasn't the same after 30 years.
A shadow crossed over her Banana stand. She turned and looked up, slight surprise flickering in her withering brown eyes, "Um... oh, hello sir, would you like something?" She smiled a kind smile and waited to see what this potential customer would like.
"Hello Madam, yes, I would take an apple and an answer to a question. " The man had a deep, accented voice.
The elderly women looked slightly confused as she handed him one apple, "All right... then, here you are."
"Where do the hero's of this city live?" He asked simple, reaching for his apple.
She looked at him, her confusion turning into suspicion, "You mean our ninja? Well, I don't rightfully know but try south Ninjago."
He nodded and before she could say anything else he mixed in with the crowd and disappeared.
"WAIT! You didn't pay." She shouted into the churning crowd. "Humph, thief." She turned back to her business less then happy.
"Get away, leave me alone. Stop it!" The shadow girl struggled and shouted against Nya who was trying to redo her bandages.
"Calm down, sheesh, I'm trying to help you." Nya snapped irritated as she snapped the band closed, "There now, rest up will you. You act as if we're torturing you or something."
This caused the strange girl to stop thrashing and stare. Her almond shaped eyes widening as she saw that Nya was seriouse.
Nya shrugged, confused, "What? We aren't, are we?"
The girl shook her head.
"Ok then so what's wrong with you?"
The girl shrugged, "I just don't trust you people."
Nya raised her eyes brows in surprise, "Why not? What have we done to make you distrust us? Except take care of you, patch you up and give you food, and a place to sleep... seriously why?"
She looked like she was about to answer, just then Lloyd came in with some rock music blaring as loud as the radio would let it. The girl jumped and glared daggers at him. Nya groaned, stomping towards him, she slapped the back of his head and snapped the offending volume off.
"Ow! Hey Nya, what gives I was listening to-"
"Ahem, this is a recovery zone Lloyd, your loud music? NOT RECOVERY MATERIAL!"
Lloyd gulped, blanching under the older girls glare, "Sorry, my bad." with that he zipped out of the room, making Nya laugh.
She turned towards her patient who was staring with a slightly surprised look, "What? We're family. This is normal."
She wasn't sure, but Nya could have sworn a glimmer of amusement crossed her distrusting patients eyes.
Hum... maybe this girl could be warmed up after all.
"Sensei?"
Wu looked up from his mediation session, cracking a wrinkled lid open at his black clad student, "Cole? What is the matter? You look troubled my student."
Cole rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, Sensei always could see through all of them, on some occasions that was a good thing, on others... not so much.
But thankfully this time it was ok, Cole needed the extra push to talk.
"I... wanted to ask you something." He sat cross legged, mimicking his masters seating position, in front of him on the straw mat.
Wu nodded, his white beard wagging with each movement, "Go on my student, what is on your mind?"
He took a deep breath, "Well it's about our... I mean the strange girl we're housing." He paused, suddenly not sure how to speak. Sensei nodded, his eyes had a small twinkle in them, encouraging Cole to go on.
"She... you know how nobody knows who she is or where she comes from."
Sensei nodded again.
"Well, I kinda know, and I didn't tell anyone and I think I shouldn't, not yet anyway, but then my conscience is gnawing at me to say something, but at the same time my brain is saying no and I just don't know what to say, or do, you know?"
Silence.
Cole bit his bottom lip, waiting, watching the elderly man as he closed his eyes and hummed to himself in thought.
"She's the shadow girl?"
Cole's heart skipped a beat, "Y-yes..."
"But you rescued her from death anyway."
"Yes."
"And you don't wish to tell the others for fear they won't understand?"
"Yes."
"Hummm... interesting, perhaps you are right, Garmadon and I realized there was something special about this young girl, what it is we can't pin point it yet, but I think it would be best if you kept it silent for now. Perhaps it would be easier to raise her trust if the others aren't suspicious of her." Wu smiled at his fumbling ninja, "Yes... good idea." He mumbled more to himself then to Cole.
"So, it's ok?"
"Yes, just don't act so strange around the others, and do not worry when the time comes, you will tell them, mind they won't understand but in time... they will."
Cole stood up slowly, processing this information, "Ok then... thanks Sensei."
With that he walked out slowly, processing the information and advice his Sensei just gave him.
I hope he's right, I still got a funny feeling in my gut... but, Sensei knows best... I guess.