AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey, readers! Thanks for having taken the time to check out this fire witch tale!

A big shoutout to FirstFandomFangirl, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, Kai Lover911, lovesgod12, and StoryMaker7 for commenting on the previous chapter. You made me smile!

Now that this tale is complete, my plan is to continue working on my AU story, The Fire Within a Ninjago Soldier. I have already written the chapters in which Kai is captured by the enemy army, as well as the chapters in which Kai crosses paths with Skylor, but those chapters take place five and six months after Chapter 19, and there's a lot of action that will take place before then. So it's time to tackle the next situations of our favorite cowboys and their ladies! Not sure exactly when I'll post Chapter 20 - hopefully by mid-June!

And, of course, the final chapter of the story below will be followed up in the future by a tale of Kai and Sam's honeymoon adventure! Oops, did I just spoil the ending of this story by revealing that Sam is going to recover from her comatose state? Then again, was there any doubt that she'd end up being OK? XD

Enjoy the conclusion of The Fire Within: The Fire Witch Incident. Take care, everyone!

- MNC 5/27/2016

Chapter 15 - Hope is Rekindled

The next thing Kai knew, he was standing outdoors in a lushly wooded area, still holding the unconscious Sam in his arms. They were now in the company of the other ninja brothers, who looked bewildered. All of them were being drenched by a pouring rain.

"Kai! Sam! There you guys are!" Jay exclaimed, shielding his eyes from the raindrops. "When we got back control of our minds outside the metal door, we wondered where you two were, and then Zane thought that the reason we got control of our minds again was because Sam defeated Fiora, and then suddenly everything went black, and -"

Then he noticed the stricken look on the red ninja's face and the unresponsive state of the girl in his arms. "What happened to Sam?"

Kai swallowed. "I-I hurt her while I was still brainwashed. So we need to get her some help right away!" He adjusted her body in his arms to minimize the splash of precipitation on her face.

"Definitely!" Cole agreed, brushing his wet sideswept bangs out of his eyes. "Zane, can you tell us where we are right now, and if the Bounty is nearby?"

Lloyd spoke up. "Hey, that looks like Three Boulders way over there! The trees look a lot more leafy than they did yesterday, but I'm guessing we've ended up basically in the same place where we first got sucked into the mountain."

Zane quickly conducted an analysis of their location. "Lloyd is correct. We are indeed on the east side of Oracle Mountain. The Bounty appears to be moored at the wildfire combat staging area."

"OK, then let's follow the trail back to the clearing where there's room to activate our dragons," Cole suggested, raising his voice so as to be heard over the rush of water. "Then we can fly back to the Bounty. The weather conditions aren't ideal for the dragons, so we'll have to be extra careful."

Following the trail back to the clearing was proving to be a messy affair, as the rain was turning the path into a sea of mud. The brothers took turns helping Kai maneuver the slippery route while transporting his beloved fiancee. As they traveled, the fire ninja relayed to them what had happened in the cave area, starting from that awful moment when he regained control of his mind and discovered his hands were wrapped around Sam's neck.

The other ninja brothers sympathized with Kai's distress. They assured him that he had done the right thing by refusing Fiora's offer to heal Sam. They reminded him that by vanquishing the villainess, he caused her evil spells on the land of Ninjago to be reversed and her spells' effects to vanish - all except for the one still existing in his arms. The warriors increased their resolve to get their brother's betrothed one to safety as soon as possible, in spite of the inclement weather conditions.

"Wow, I can't remember a past rainstorm as heavy as this one," Jay commented, twisting the front of his uniform to wring out excess rainwater as they all moved along. "I wish that all the rain Fiora prevented from reaching the earth these past several weeks didn't have to come down all at once!"

Fortunately Cole soon made a helpful discovery that was lying along their path.

"The stretcher! I dropped it when that wall of fire was trying to get us all. We can use it to carry Sam!"

The earth ninja spread out the the two wooden poles, and the fire ninja gently set down his bride-to-be on the canvas fabric.

"Hey, Kai, the cuts on your arms from the beating by the tumbleweeds are all gone now," Lloyd observed when the red ninja had emptied his arms. Indeed, the rain-soaked bandages were sliding off, revealing that the fire master's forearms were uninjured.

With Kai and Cole carrying each end of the stretcher, the group passed Three Boulders and negotiated the steep trail by the rock wall dropoff. At that point, the most arduous part of their journey was behind them, and they soon reached the clearing. Once Kai had summoned and mounted his dragon, his brothers lifted Sam from the stretcher and placed her in a sitting position onto the beast in front of Kai. Then they summoned and mounted their own creatures.

With one arm around his unconscious fiancee, and the other arm steering his dragon, Kai flew with his brothers in the rain back to the wildfire combat staging area.

The young men were relieved to once again see the Bounty, which was still parked where it had landed yesterday morning. Lloyd made his way ahead of the group in order to board the vessel first and alert Sensei Wu and Nya to set up one of the ship's extra cots in the girls' bedroom for Sam. The teacher and the samurai were elated to learn that the missing team members were no longer in the clutches of the fire witch, but they delayed their questions in order to focus on the needs of the injured college student. Cole and Kai worked together in the pouring rain to get the unresponsive girl into the living quarters on the ship and place her on the cot next to her bed.

The ninja brothers were not able to rest just yet. Not more than ten minutes before they had arrived back at the Bounty, Sensei Wu had returned from a brief news conference held by Chief Vincent. The wildfire combat chief informed the assembled reporters that the sudden heavy rains were beginning to produce mudslides on the mountains affected by fires, and he was receiving reports of trapped firefighters who needed to be rescued.

Four of the ninja quickly left the Bounty, hurrying over to the headquarters building to find out from Chief Vincent where the trapped firefighters were located. Using the elemental dragons, the warriors planned to fly the emergency personnel out of danger.

Kai stayed behind long enough to wait with Sensei in the living room while Nya replaced Sam's soaked apparel with dry bedclothes in the girls' room. When that task was complete, the red ninja entered the girls' room and took his fiancee in his strong arms, gently transferring her from the cot to her bed.

Nya pointed to Sam's necklace on the nightstand, where she had put it after Sam had thrown it on the ground yesterday.

"The ring crystal is still glowing," she observed.

"Until I can talk to Sam again," he said quietly, "I'll still be in distress."

Kai gave the unconscious blond girl a sorrowful look, then turned to leave to answer the call of duty.

Hours later, with all the forest fires doused by the rainstorm and all the victims rescued from the mudslides, the Bounty was making its way back to Ninjago City. The ninjas' mission was finished.

However, Sam remained unconscious on her bed. Zane examined her and concurred with the physician on duty at the wildfire headquarters that her neck injuries would heal naturally on their own within the next few weeks. Zane refrained from specifically mentioning that her injuries would heal before the wedding day, for there existed the possibility of postponing - or canceling - the ceremony due to the bride's unresponsiveness, and Zane did not wish to upset the betrothed master of fire.

Sensei Wu brewed a special medicinal tea and held the cup under her nose so that she could inhale the fragrant, healing aroma, but that did not awaken her.

There was nothing left to do but wait and see what would happen in the next few hours while they headed back to their home city. The Bounty's occupants found various duties to keep them busy until they reached their destination.

Kai chose to remain seated at Sam's bedside and continue to keep watch over her. Sensei allowed him to do so for a while but advised him that before the Bounty landed, the teacher and his pupil would need to discuss how they would break the news to Sam's parents regarding their daughter's condition. The news cameras at the wildfire combat staging area had recorded the return of the ninja brothers and the incapacitated female, and the video footage had already been broadcast over the television networks. No doubt Sam's parents would have seen these reports and been relieved to see their future son-in-law unharmed, but they would have felt horrified to witness the helpless state of their first-born child.

As Sensei left the bedroom, Kai's guilt over harming Sam weighed heavily on his mind. He turned to look at Sam and gently stroked her golden blonde tresses.

"Oh, Sam," he whispered. "Please wake up. Your family needs you. I need you. You need to get better for our wedding."

He sighed heavily. "You were so clever to figure out a way to follow us to Fiora's lair by thinking up that pregnancy story," he continued, "and you were so brave to be willing to defeat that powerful witch all by yourself with just your fire jacket, knowing we couldn't help you," he told her.

His throat tightened with emotion.

"And this is how you got repaid. I did this to you. I gave you those ugly bruises on your neck. And now you're in a coma."

His tears began to fall.

"I'm so sorry, Sam! Please forgive me!"

He took her hand and brought it against his tear-stained cheek.

"I love you, Sam!"

How he wished his tears could make her normal again, just as her tears had made him normal. But soulmate tears could only reverse a spell; they could not counteract an effect of a spell. Her condition had occurred due to the brainwashing spell cast upon him. And no one knew how to negate a spell's effect.

Kai decided he'd better leave the room for a while before he totally broke down. Still clutching Sam's hand, he stood up from the bedside chair.

"I-I need to talk to Sensei now. But I'll ask one of the others to sit with you till I come back," he told her. He leaned down and kissed her lips, then smiled at her through his tears, preparing to let go of her hand and leave her side for a short period of time.

However, to his astonishment, he watched as her eyelids fluttered open, revealing drowsy blue eyes which looked back at him.

"Sam! You're awake!" he gasped as he quickly sat down in the bedside chair once again, clutching her hand tighter.

"What happened?" she asked in a groggy, hoarse voice.

"Fiora's dead. The drought is over. Ninjago is safe," he smiled through his tears, which were now falling due to happiness. "You're safe on the Bounty now," he added, lightly tracing her cheek with his free hand.

The power of a soulmate kiss broke the last effect of Fiora's spells! he realized as he wiped his eyes.

"I wasn't sure if I'd ever get to talk to you again," he admitted, now clutching her hand with both of his.

"Well, I couldn't sleep through the wedding. If I did, all that time spent addressing wedding invitations would be wasted," she croaked, using the same joke he had made when she first saw him in Fiora's cave yesterday. Kai grinned, recognizing the joke. His spirits soared, observing that she must be starting to feel better.

The effort of speaking the words taxed Sam's vocal cords, however, and she coughed several times. "It's hard for me to talk," she apologized with a croak still in her voice after the coughing subsided.

He winced at her comment, for he felt guilty at being the cause of her discomfort. "Then don't talk. Just rest," he admonished her.

In spite of her weakened state, her beautiful blue eyes seemed to dance as she gave him a small smile. "Or how about we kiss some more?" she whispered.

Kai's heart leaped. Sam appeared to have forgiven him for what he had done to her. But he had to be sure.

"Sam...I'm so sorry for what I did to you back there at Oracle Mountain. I -"

"Stop it, Kai! You couldn't avoid obeying Fiora's command!" she whisper-yelled at him. "Now obey MY command...and kiss me!" she smiled.

He leaned forward to seek her sweet lips, ever so glad to comply with her order.

Unbeknownst to them at that moment, the ring crystal stopped glowing. The distress that had plagued the master of fire for 48 hours had finally disappeared.

The dangerous forest fires of northwestern Ninjago had been doused, but one hot fire remained burning...

...the fire of love within the hearts of a red ninja and his woman.

****** THE END ******