Wellspring Chapter 4: Three Strikes (And You're Out), a ninjago fanfic

A/N: Hey ya'll, my outline is done for the first arc, A Dance of Dragons and Snakes. I'm so sorry that this chapter took months to write... It had a lot of moving parts and I was super busy. I set up some milestones for myself for you in response. I will be posting a chapter every three weeks or so. I usually work faster when I know I have a deadline, so if it comes and I don't post, yell at me. I'm a tough girl. I can take it.

I created a playlist of songs that inspire me when I write this fic on Spotify. The link: playlist/6dKTP0T9FEXQZA2NbsthoU?si=EKSkZb9IQ12jZwr6-HsT1w

Stay safe everyone! (Those new season leaks. OMG. Hopefully they don't ruin the ending I have planned for this story, but there will be canon divergences I will tell you about, so don't worry.)

Everything that has happened: All canon installments until Season 1: Episode 2: Home

This chapter is split into four parts. They are correlated to the following Season 1 episodes: Snakebit for Strike One, Never Trust A Snake and Can of Worms for Strike Two, and finally The Snake King for Strike Three.

Strike One:

Nya

On any map of the island of Ninjago, you can find the land that rested beneath the Primeval's Eye, in which lay the late Captain DeSoto's marooned "Destiny's Bounty": The Sea of Sand.

The sun, when high in the sky, would make this great Sea of Sand as hot and as humid, if not more, than the nearby Desert of Doom. As if the great pyramids of Serpentine Kings and Queens and Queen Aspheera's tomb would be a lot closer than they appeared. Many legends of the great deserts of Ninjago tell of the great mountain steppes that bordered the east of The Desert of Doom, blocking the great storms that would occur during the winds of winter. Most of the storms to this day would be called Aspheera's Vengeance. It was named for the entombed Serpentine Queen who would vow that Ninjago would feel the fire of her revenge of a conflict that has since been lost to time.

The errant sand that would spill into the lush green grass, south of the great jungle The Primeval's Eye, through the openings of the great mountain range would pile up and move like a great ocean, tides and all. A perfect place for pillaging pirates to plunder. During the night, whatever the weather, the sand would blow and move in waves as unpredictable as the tide, and the fire of Aspheera's Vengeance would rest and assume the temperament of the climate and the seasons of Ninjago would prosper. Nya Smith was prepared for the trek west past the Echo Canyons to her cave, built to hide her identity as the soon to be remembered Samurai X.

Deep in the night in the Sea of Sand during the late winter would be a problem she had prepared for, wearing her long sleeves and gloves for the cold night ahead of her. She only had to complete the finishing touches and she really thought that it was lucky that when they were in search for a new home in the Sea of Sand they weren't but a few miles to the cave where she worked tirelessly to finally finish her project. She was so close, Nya could already feel the Gs from her flight patterns already, an insatiable hunger to fly again and feel the freedom of being herself in something that she created.

It would be more useful now since the dragons had gone southeast to the Spirit Coves to molt. What Cole discovered about Rocky being incredibly tired after meals and what he had found from Sensei Wu later, his heavy fever, were problems that could only be fixed by Rocky's migration with the other dragons towards the South. The look on Cole's face broke her heart in two. She chose not to think about it, only instead of his face when they would eventually return.

She had plenty of distractions today that made this a distant memory and that was Jay and his family. They had visited the ship that day and they all learned more about Jay and his childhood that she didn't know already from talking with him. More than she had even asked for. Cole and Kai were right, they were wonderful people and she could see that Jay's talkative nature was truly a trait that ran in the family. She had only known Ed and Edna Walker for a day and a half and she already loved them with all her heart.

Nya, now more than ever, wanted to take the plunge and open her heart. But what to do first? What would be her first move, and when should she do it? She had no clue. Nya thought that maybe the best course of action was the suit. She will impress him with her inventions. After the day's events of fighting snakes and saving Jay's parents from said snakes, she felt lucky enough that everyone would be so tired that no one would be up to know that she was leaving for the night. Another reason to leave to work on the Samurai X suit, you know, as a surprise.

She hadn't visited the cave for a few days, and she was becoming increasingly frustrated, with Lloyd being on the loose and being aware of the Serpentine's weaknesses, two of the five tribes of Serpentine being released, and the constant fear of other Serpentine tombs opening releasing more. Finishing it as soon as possible became the only goal that occupied her mind. The desperation to help in the situations that were the most dire nearly consumed her to the point of no return, and she refused to feel powerless or helpless. Garmadons or no Garmadons. Not any more and never again.

Nya traveled around the front of the boat. When Jay steered the ship to drop off his parents they were still in the Sea of Sand, to hide from the Serpentine. They parked near a rock formation known as the Echo Caverns that blocked the way to the Western Sea of Sand which meant that they were still close to the cave, the door under a stray skull less than a mile to the west. As she traversed the deck of the ship, a parcel again on her shoulder filled with supplies she took from Ed and Edna's junkyard before they left, she found the moon and walked the path away from it. She vaulted over the port side of the ship and started walking.

Walking through the rocks that were spaced out in stalactite formations around the ship before reaching Echo Caverns, she let the light of the moon behind her guide her way. She weaved through the rocks with a great ease, hearing the whippoorwills of birds in the distance where the sands of the desert would cease to be. Before she could make the steps to the end of the path she could hear humming.

It was a song of prolonged sadness, a tune of turmoil. She was nervous to see if the source of the sound was from someone, or something unfamiliar and Nya slowly pressed along making sure she was careful not to disturb them. The voice that performed the song was not perfect, it cracked in its low tone and felt like gravel in her ears, but was exceedingly and unmistakably deep and male. The song would have moments in which the highness of the notes would die and his voice would crack trying to reach them. His efforts still were not enough as he continued.

Curiosity of the source of the sound got the better of her. She came closer to its destination, in order to correctly walk through unspotted. She headed towards the sounds direction to the right of the formations heading north. She came upon the edge of the rocks far behind the ship and could see the base of the mountain that led to the closest end of the Echo Caverns and found the source of the voice. It was Cole, sitting on a rock hugged against the mountain, looking up at the moon in the eastern sky. Traveling forward she knew that she only had one option to get to the Samurai X cave. Nya had to walk around Cole.

There were no good places to hide behind in front of him, so that was not an option. Nya motioned to go straight and climb the ridge nearby in secret and as quiet as possible. She hugged the parcel close to her shoulder and resumed her work. Cole kept humming absentmindedly, the glint of the moon in his deep-set eyes as his head leaned against the rock behind him.

She came closer and closer to her intended target, focusing on each of her steps she made. As she approached the ridge, the rocks that were clipped off from the mountain tops became more and more large next to her feet. She carefully trudged through the ground's empty spaces that encompassed the hardened clumps of earth. One errant step and she would be spotted no doubt. She kept an eye on Cole and another on the ground clutching the strap of her satchel over her shoulder.

When Cole started singing words it caught her off guard:

I gave you your voice, gave you your song,

Put music in your heart,

Now my heart has gone to pieces…

Dead in her tracks she stared on to her right as she stepped forward without thinking of her next move. He tried to take a high note too far, making his voice break apart again. Nya flinched in shock from it, and it threw her forward over the rocks. She flipped into the night and caught herself, but it didn't stop the sack she was carrying with her metal supplies to finish her mech flying forward into the nearest rock making a horrific noise.

Nya's shoulders raised up in alarm as she gritted her teeth looking at the satchel lying on the ground. She hoped that Cole wasn't listening. Maybe he was too occupied with what he was doing. You know, like Zane. That's it. She thought in an attempt to not panic. But all the fear came back when she heard the unmistakable clatter of his golden weapon, Cole wielding it in the dark to fight off predators and intruders. Nya could see the golden glint of the scythe made by the moonlight behind the rock that she hid behind.

"HEY! WHO'S THERE?!" Cole shouted into the cold night air. "I'm armed and I know how to use it!"

No way to get out of not getting spotted this time. She thought as her plan for her mission fell through her hands. Nya gathered the parcel in her arms as quickly as she could, and placed it against the rock closest to her. No noise was made, but the sound of Cole's footsteps were coming closer and Nya pressed the bag to the ground up against the front of the rock with her foot.

"Come out! Hands where I can see 'em! Or you'll be dealing with the business end of my scythe and the cuts from this thing are never pretty."

She stepped out of the darkness of the forest of boulders and into the moonlight, hands above her head to signal him to stop. "Wait, Cole. It's me. Just me."

He immediately held his weapon down and out of a fighting stance. "Nya? Hey. Wait. What are you doing out here?"

"I was just uh… taking a walk. Yeah. Um. I…" she sighed. "I couldn't sleep."

"Oh, you too?" Cole asked.

"Yeah. Me too." She felt a shiver up her spine of instant regret. She wanted to get her work done, but she found that this could be the perfect way to do so. The sooner that I can talk to him and tire him out, the more likely there will be no one to follow me later. She thought to herself. "Hey, do you mind if I join you?"

"Sure, I don't mind at all. Come on." he said, motioning for her to follow him to the cliffside of the Echo Caverns.

Nya followed him to the rocks where he was sitting. When he climbed them up to his previous position, Cole held out a hand to her to pull her up and she took it. She came up and went to sit, letting go of his hand and scooting up against the rock and easing into the stone, a small distance away from him. He put away his weapon, propping it up against the rock next to him. They settled down for a bit as the night kept passing over the sky above them. After a while she decided to speak up, to appease any new boredom.

"So, what is it you usually do out here?" Nya asked him, genuinely curious.

"I like to look at the stars, and uh I sing a little." Cole said.

"Huh, how nice. I'll bite." she answered.

They remained silent as she looked up and picked apart the sky, constellation by constellation. You could cut the tension with a knife. She came to sit with him and had not come up with a thing to talk to him about, so she just stayed the way she was. A moment of staring at the stars later, he cleared his throat and said, "By the way, how much of me did you hear?"

"Most, if not all of it."

"Great." he said, sounding to Nya that he was a little frustrated.

"Hey, you really weren't that bad. I just think you are more of a baritone or a bass, rather than a tenor." Nya said, giving him the advice she thought he would like to hear. Nya wasn't lying. She really did feel that way. Cole immediately turned to her with a questioning look, which made her want to press into him harder. "So… you can sing…" Nya nudged him on the shoulder, chuckling. "Holding anything else out on me?"

"No." he said sternly.

"Really?" she shook her head in disagreement. "I don't buy it, Cole, you are too full of surprises."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but that's it. I never said I couldn't sing. I just said that I didn't." he replied, continuing to stare at the sky, placing his head against the rock wall behind him.

"Alright, whatever you say." Nya nonchalantly said to him looking to the sky again. Then she struck back at him for a chance at a future discovery. "But if you do lie to me again, you owe me." She turned to him and bit her lip.

"Good luck." Cole said with a scoff.

"You will do it though. All I have to do is wait."

"We'll see."

"Okay, then I'll test that theory. Have you told any of them about your dad yet?"

"Nope. I haven't."

"Well you should soon, I mean how can they ever know how much you have in common from your parents. Just look at Jay and his family."

"I guess your brother was right about him, the cherry doesn't fall too far from its blossom."

"Yeah. They sure do like to talk, don't they?"

"I kinda got to feel sorry for him though."

"You mean all of the embarrassing stories that they told about him?"

"Yeah. Hey Nya, which one is your favorite? That "potty time" story was something I will be holding over his head for a long time. Or was it the pillow kissing thing?" he asked.

She knew he was probing her for answers like it was a game of 21 questions, but she had to stop him somewhere. "You guys have got to stop with that. He was just a kid when those things happened. It's not like he still does those things anymore."

"Huh. So you do like him." he said, completely dropping the subject of conversation as if it didn't matter.

"What?" she asked, surprised by the change, but tried to hide it in her voice. It squeaked. That wasn't good. He had her right in his hands, and she hated that. She felt the redness of her cheeks and raised a hand to her mouth to catch the squeak that came out, but it was too late.

"You do! You like him back don't you?" He scoffed to himself looking at her with a smirk, his eyebrows lowered and pinched over the bridge of his nose. He pondered his discovery through the expressions on his face as he looked away and into the sky. "It makes perfect sense." He sighed.

"Now, wait a minute." Nya said, trying to take back her agency in the secrets that she intended to keep. "Hold on. You don't know that for sure, just because someone spends a lot of time with someone else doesn't mean that they like them. I'm not even sure he really likes me that way anyway. He hasn't done hardly anything to ask me really. Who knows if what his parents say is true and that he likes me enough to do it."

It seemed to Nya that he was puzzled by this confession. He started another conversation "Well answer me this, what do you think of their story about Jay kissing his pillow?" ?

She started to sweat, but she told the truth as best as she could without sounding like a weak, lovesick fool. "Well, I think it's kinda… cute."

Cole then gave her a look that borderline made Nya think that she was crazy. "Really? Cute? You think Jay macking on his pillow is cute?"

She was busted wide open like a leaky water pipe. "I mean in a way…. I guess… he knows what he wants?"

"Wow. You really are down bad for him." He was silent for a moment. After a bit, she thought: He's coming up with another quip to make fun of us, no doubt. She was right. "Do you think you're the reason he keeps whimpering and talking while holding on to his pillow so late at night?"

She scoffed, annoyed with him. "Hey, I don't know anything about that, Cole and-"

"-But I do. Me and the guys are the ones who have to hear it every night."

"I don't know, Cole. But, it's like Ed and Edna said, I am his type." she said.

He scratched his chin in thought. "That's what I mean! I bet if he was louder he would sound a lot like this:" he grabbed the scythe from his right side that was placed up against the rocks, pointing it away from him. "Oh, oh Nya." he said in a high-pitched voice, mimicking Jay. He pursed his lips and started making kissing noises peppering it with them, ghosting them up and down the long hilt.

"Okay. I get it!" she said, a little annoyed. He continued against her wishes, using his hand to push imaginary hair out of the face of the scythe he was pretending to be her.

"Oh, you are so nice, and sooo pretty, and soooo my type. Come over here and give me a kiss, my darling. I have literally been waiting for this my entire life." he said in Jay's voice. She gasped and punched him, and in response he made more obnoxious and wet kissing noises, and went on, barely containing his laughter, hugging his scythe even closer.

"Alright, that's enough." she said, even louder, pushing on his shoulder in an attempt to stop him from further mocking his best friend and her crush. He swatted her arm away from him and still continued with his onslaught. To save herself from this heinous display, she covered her eyes, realizing that he was far from over.

"I can't wait to bring you home to my parents every day and…" He started making even more horrifying noises she never wanted to hear again and attempted to cover her poor ears. "Oh, you are so much better than the queen-sized pillow I have on the ship." he said, starting to move his hands lower and lower.

"I get the point! Stop!" Nya started shaking him back and forth to make him stop once and for all. Nya said a final, "You big jerk." getting her share of mocking in.

"Fine. Fine." he said, wincing from her actions while laughing hysterically. "I'll stop." He set down the scythe in his lap in an act of a truce.

"Cole, does he really do that or are you just messing with me?" she said.

"He doesn't, and I really am just messing with you." Then he whispered to her. "But he does hold on to stuff while he sleeps though. And Nya, you never really know how he feels until you ask him. Maybe you need to take your own advice and just tell him."

"Touché." A moment passed in silence, but she couldn't keep her thoughts to herself. "Is it always his pillow?"

"No, sometimes it's his nunchucks. We are all surprised that he hasn't had his weapon's vehicle come out while he was dreaming."

"How do vehicles come from those things anyway?" Nya asked.

Cole examined his weapon, turning it in his hands and sliding his hands around the long hilt, as if he was searching for a magical button or something new he hadn't seen before. Cole had a questioning look at the golden scythe. "I have no clue. By all accounts, it just doesn't make any sense." Cole said back.

"It's pretty impressive, I wish I had one. If only The First Spinjitzu Master had more magical gold to work with."

"Heh. Too bad he's dead and we can't ask him." He laughed to himself as he put it away, sitting it next to the rock he was sitting on. "Let's be honest, I'd ask why he couldn't make one for you anyway, the way you fight. I bet he'd do it no questions asked."

Ignoring the morbid nature of the joke to himself, Nya was more intrigued by his genuine compliment. "You really think so? Those snakes possessing the mech and those machines were quite the load to handle."

"Yeah, but you made fighting that thing look so easy. I'm even kind of jealous. Jay's mom and dad did a bang up job with that thing." Cole said. "No kidding. You didn't need any help either, they didn't even know what hit 'em."

"Thank you, Cole." She said back to him, incredibly moved. "I would never let myself become the damsel in distress, or anyone else for that matter. Coming from one of the best fighters on the team, that's very nice of you to say."

"Thank you and you're welcome. Don't mention it. I mean it." He then looked towards the sky again for more stargazing, his head lightly hitting the rock behind him.

They sat there in silence for what seemed like a long time. Impatient, Nya wondered if he was getting tired. In order to keep the conversation going, she projected her thoughts to Cole out loud about her mech that she was working on, carrying on her charade even further. "You know, it would really be nice to have one of those vehicles for me to ride. Especially since all of the dragons left. Hey, maybe I can ask Jay or Ed and Edna for one of my own. Maybe for one that can fly like Jay's jet. Hey If they can make a mech that great, I'm sure that they would have no problem."

She was expecting something from him about making fun of the way Jay took so much from his parents, but was met with nothing but the sounds of silence being in a desolate desert could bring. "Cole? You okay? You alright?"

Nya noticed that Cole was staring up at the stars wistfully, like she wasn't even there. She imagined that he was gone, contemplating the location of the Spirit Coves; in the southeastern point of all Ninjago. A place where he would be happy with his friend he spent so much time with amongst the rocks and waterfalls, like they were never truly gone. "Do you think… that the dragons will come back?"

She thought of the ride she had on Cole's dragon and the amazing feats that inspired her to move forward on her work, to fly and be free. She wanted to say something good, something to calm him and bring him ease. Some kind of comfort to help fill the hole in his heart that could be seen through his eyes.

"Cole, with the way you treated them," Nya laid her hand atop the hand that was resting upon his leg. "I'm sure coming back to you is the only thing they're thinking about."

Cole's response to her gesture was so unexpected, it made Nya's heart stop. He had a look of surprise and jolted a little at what had just occurred, and it morphed into a soft lopsided smile as he gazed longingly at her hand. Cole didn't say a single word, but sighed as he slowly intertwined his hand with hers and gently stroked it. "Thank you." he finally said, never looking at her face and just stared upward, and gave her hand a small squeeze.

She held it for a moment. The memories of Cole's words at the opening of a door in the middle of the night flooded her emotions as the wind of the chilly air, caused by Aspheera's Vengeance, whispered through the hollow of her ear.

"It seems that you have been saving me a lot lately."

"Are you ashamed?"

"Me? Never."

"Hey, no problem." Nya said, as she felt the heat of his warm hand through the thick fabric of her gloves, and she slowly extracted her hand from his. Nya gulped and felt a little sweat start to pool on her brow and swiped it away from her forehead. She asked all of Ninjago in her head how she could be so warm so fast in such chilly weather.

Cole put his hands in his lap after she was done and she mimicked him. They both were twiddling with their hands finding something, anything, to do with them. She caught him yawning, raising his arms, and she couldn't help but notice how fake it was, and took it to her advantage.

"Are you tired?" Nya asked him.

"Yeah. I've been out here a while." Cole said. He slowly rose from his seat, carrying the Scythe of Quakes. Cole turned around to meet her halfway, holding out a hand for her to place in his again. "You coming?"

"Yeah. I'm coming." She climbed out of the rocks being careful not to stumble, since she didn't take his hand.

—

In the dead of the night from the western edge of the Sea of Sand a ninja and the future Samurai X walked back to their home against the chilly breeze from the east. They continued their walk mostly in silence, but they did talk about ideas for ways to hide the ship from Lloyd and the Serpentine. As they came back aboard the ship, he helped her climb up the rigging and they coasted through the hallways discussing their makeshift plans.

"We will probably need to hide somewhere the snakes don't want to go. I was thinking about being in the ocean. I'm sure we could find a place along the Endless Sea and free from Aspheera's Vengeance." Cole said as they approached the boys' bedroom.

"Thanks for the suggestion. It's a really great idea. Although, I hope you or anyone else doesn't get seasick too easily."

"Nah. Why would I make the suggestion if I couldn't handle it? Don't worry about me, Nya. I've got a strong stomach."

"Never doubted that for a second, but all that cake's got to go somewhere…"

"Heh, funny." he laughed in a low sarcastic tone, then continued with fondness. "Goodnight, Nya."

"Goodnight, Cole." she said, waving goodbye, and smiled at him as he went inside.

After closing the door to Cole's room for him, Nya walked down the hall to her own. She let out a quiet breath of relief that he was gone, already imagining what running through the blistering cold wind of Aspheera's Vengeance to her destiny must feel like. As she came to the door of her room, a loose floorboard clipped the front of her foot and her hands landed against the wall. Regaining her balance she opened and shut her door, never entering, eagerly running towards the chance to find her satchel and start on her own personal golden weapon: a mech made by her own hands.

Strike Two:

Cole

Per suggestion by him, Nya steered the ship to a place a snake wouldn't dare search for the team. It was anchored on The Endless Sea, near the shore of the Boiling Sea, that rested between Ninjago and its equivalent The Dark Island. Like most nights in the middle of the darkness, Cole was hungry, but he made sure that he wouldn't eat a lot on the rocking ocean. He tended to get seasick very easily. He didn't mean to lie to Nya the other night and take a risk to reveal more than he wanted to, but he just wanted to keep his friends and family safe. His hunger was in the background on this night. What was really on his mind was what Nya was doing the previous night after they ended their conversation.

Peaking his curiosity, he heard a mysterious thump after he had closed the door. Upon hearing the pitter patter of feet, he opened the door back up and peeked through the sliver that remained between the frame and the wood of the door. He saw a figure running away. Whoever they were, they were in a hurry, and he determined that it could only have been Nya. He creaked the door open further and took the steps necessary to see if Nya was still in her room. He traveled down the hall to her room and Cole tapped the door with a few knocks of his knuckles, and no one answered. He grabbed the door handle, his hand jittering with a little worry, and her room was open to him. Empty.

He assumed it was nothing since Nya was back the next day, but in the afternoon. Cole wondered all day where she went, but was distracted by early morning training set up by Wu. Zane had announced to the rest of the team he had a dream about the legendary Green Ninja and Lloyd opening the Anacondrai tomb and trying to take over Darkley's School for Bad Boys didn't help matters for the rest of them either. At this rate, finding his true potential might take forever if it wasn't for all of these distractions. Wu agreed to an extent, noticing his and the ninja's lack of focus.

Wu's answer to this was a punishment, train until you could solve this simple riddle: "What is the best way to defeat an enemy?" Cole thought of this as he passed the door to the room that led to its new occupant, the son of the Dark Lord, Lloyd Garmadon. He wouldn't admit it out loud now, but his first thought when he found out the answer was "To make them your friend." was that the little gremlin should at least be grounded or put into a time out. Even with releasing the Serpentine into the world and Pythor, the last remaining of the dangerous and powerful Anacondrai tribe, still at large.

His roaring stomach and the thought of that day's events distracted him, and as he came towards Lloyd's door he started to slow. The heavy weight of the decisions Lloyd must have made to make those mistakes washed over him and Cole stopped walking. If only we hadn't left him behind like at Jamanakai Village the first time. Wu is right, and I know what it's like to feel like no one is around to be your friend. Or to be your family. He shook himself out of his intrusive thoughts and kept walking.

As Cole closed the distance between him and the kitchen he heard another bump. It was similar to the one he heard after Nya left the other night. But tonight, it was a thump followed by the clinks and clatters of metal against a wooden floor. It came from further down the hall to the control room, which had a newly installed security system created by the two tech wiz's on the ship; Jay and of course, Nya.

He speeded through the hallway, worried. Who knows who could be on the ship so late, and he didn't count out the possibilities of stowaways. When Cole breached the door of the surveillance wing of the ship that held the wheel and Jay's systems of operation, he was face to face with the back of Nya, who had her back turned to him, bending down to pick up the many tools she had carried in her bag.

"Nya? Are you alright?"

Startled, she sat down to gather her things, looking up to Cole, who towered over her. "Oh! Cole! I was just. Um. Fixing to make more repairs on the ship's alarm system. Yeah. Couldn't sleep again tonight so I thought I could keep myself busy. What are you doing up?"

"Getting something to eat. I kinda got hungry again. Need some help?" He, on instinct of his helpful nature, traveled around in front of her and stooped down to gather her things, and put them in her bag.

"Uh, sure." Nya said as she finished picking up her tools. "Thank you."

"No problem. What are you doing? With all these tools that you have packed, I bet you are just getting some more work done on the ship?"

"Yeah. I am. I wanted to do a few more diagnostic tests before we got into the sky again tomorrow." Nya said.

She got up from the floor, and went to the console that was below the big screen that was above. Set her tools down next to her and opened the door to the console to get a good look. She started in the console box, with a wrench which was in a size that Cole couldn't really remember, and went at it.

"How many hours did you and Jay work on that?" Cole said, following close behind her.

"Oh, uh. Well…" Nya said nervously, stopping whatever twisting she was doing in the innards of the GPS's console. "We weren't counting, but we were done in just two days." Once she was done, the twisting continued.

"That's impressive."

"Ah, it's no big deal." Nya said, poking her head out to see Cole and continue the conversation. "It was surprisingly easy after Jay made all of the blueprints and electrical modifications." She grabbed another wrench from the bag to replace the one in her hand, and continued her work.

"Yeah. He's pretty handy at all of that stuff." He sat down and leaned against the console, wishing he could see her face, so he leaned forward and opened the console door and put it behind his back. Once it was done he continued, "I wish I knew how to do that so well, I never really was good with my hands."

"Nah, it's all about knowing what stuff is and where to put it." She said, reaching into the console box underneath Jay's big red button with both arms. "But it is a lot, you might have a little trouble with all the math for the design," Nya came out of the box to look him in the eyes, with a cocky stare, "you musical types probably don't know any numbers higher than sixteen I bet." She then started giggling at her joke and resumed.

"Hilarious. Thank you." he said, laughing sarcastically, but he really thought it was funny, being surrounded by people like that all the time at the Marty Oppenheimer the semester he was there.

Cole heard the jangle of metal underneath the button, in the hollow of the console. Nya was grunting, putting more and more of her body inside it and using both arms to pull herself in further. He took a look inside, curious, and saw her trying to tighten a tall cylindrical device he didn't know the name of. She was struggling to twist the bottom of the canister, with an increasing amount of difficulty. Her growls against the stubborn machinery became louder.

"You okay?" he asked earnestly.

"Yeah. I'm just- OW!" She let the wrench fall down into the console and she sucked at the side of her hand, salvaging the pain she had just felt. "Ugh! Dang it!"

"Nya?! What happened? Are you fine?"

"Yeah, sorry. The rod cap on two of the pistons on the motor bit the inside of my hand. Ow." She shook her hand to throw away the pain and then soothed the injury with a gentle suck with her mouth.

"Do you need me to help you?" Cole said, turning himself so that he could get closer to see the damage.

"Can you?" Nya said, eyes determined and glowing.

"I don't know if I can, the door may be wide, but it is pretty small. I don't know if I will fit."

"Don't worry. It's a lot bigger on the inside. I need you to come in here with me and hold something down so I can twist it in. You got it?"

He slid down into a fetal position on the floor, and shifted closer to the console to stick himself further into the wide door to the console. He could only get his head, a shoulder and an arm. He had plenty of room to move those parts of him around, but not too far above or he would hit his head on a pipe above him but Cole lifted his head farther up into the console, afraid of being too close and interrupting her. He was shocked to find that he could do this with no problem. He was still close. Almost too close.

"Wow, it definitely looks bigger on the inside."

"See, I told you." She scooted herself up into the console more, holding the bottom of the piston and then pointing where Cole needed to go. "All you have to do is hold this top piece of the piston, it's called the crown, and hold it down when I screw the bottom in. Okay?"

"Sounds easy enough." And then he held the top of the canister of the piston and she started working again. Nya came a little closer, scooting over to get a better grip of the socket wrench that she was using, Cole was starting to feel the warmth of her breath below him against the hollow of his throat and he gulped and adjusted his position, mindful of the ceiling inside the console.

"So, what are you doing up so late? Ya know, besides satisfying that growling stomach." She said as she continued twisting the piston. Cole was holding it still, even with the heat of the inside of the finite space starting to make his palm sweat.

"I don't want to lie, now that if I do I will owe you something, but I was thinking about Lloyd."

Nya stopped dead and looked up at him in interest. "Lloyd? Why?"

"I guess I still can't believe Wu decided to not punish Lloyd."

"I know he did all that damage, but Wu is kinda right, he is just a lonely frightened kid looking for someone to connect to in a positive way." She started making the last adjustment with the piston before moving on to the next one. "Well, what can you do, we are all teenagers. It can happen to the best of us. Now he is here safe and ready to fight the Serpentine with us. I just wish we knew more about them."

"Maybe we all could do more research? You know more about those snakes and where they were today, and if we ever lose that flute, we may need a backup strategy."

"That sounds great. I'll start work on it tomorrow." She stopped twisting the bottom of the canister and said, "There. Done.", then moved on to the next one. "Can you get this one next? Last one and I'm done. I'll do the proper tests on it tomorrow."

"Okay, boss." Cole said teasingly.

She scoffed and scooted closer to the next and final piston and even closer to Cole. He adjusted to the new sense of space that she had created for the both of them. The heat of the resting engine in the console and the heat of another person made the problem of his sweaty palms even worse. His size wasn't a good problem to have either, her head severely close to the piping precariously placed above her head.

"This good?" he asked, the bottom of the opening of the console digging into his left side and up his back, but Cole didn't mind the pressure.

"Yeah, perfect." she replied. Then she was tinkering away and he smiled back at her. He gripped the crown of the piston tighter.

"Has there been a lot of hiccups in the design? It seems weird that it would stop working like this, you having to come in the middle of the night to fix everything? Jay would be a little disappointed it stopped working so fast."

She froze a minute after the question, and he could notice the sweat pooling above her brow as well. At least he knew he wasn't alone.

"He'll know in the morning. I usually ask if there are any problems with Jay anyway. It's good to check every day, especially with another body on the ship. Too much weight and we fall out of the sky. Lloyd may be small, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I'm glad I did, it was a few screws loose."

"That makes sense, I guess." Cole said, keeping the grip on the crown. He looked down at her work for a small second. She was going the other direction. Why? She spoke before he could ask.

"It was nice of you guys to make that extra room for him. It was as good a job as all of you cleaning the ship when Zane first discovered it."

"Thanks. It was Wu's idea, but we did the best we could. We cleared out the room just for him when we did it. He took a liking to it real well."

Nya looked up at him as she tested the tightness of the canister to the motor, she winced in disgust when her gaze went back to her work. Her mouth changed into a gentle smile as she started to twist the wrench again to the right. "Lloyd is lucky that he has good people around him that care about him so much."

"I wish none of this would have happened." Cole said to Nya, dejected. He loosened his grip on the piston, but he caught himself before she could notice the change. "It was all our fault."

"How?"

"You see… we sorta… hung him up on a store sign in Jamanakai Village and left him there."

"You guys strung him up to a post in the middle of Jamanakai Village?" She stopped turning the socket wrench, lost in thought. "That's crazy you guys would do that. No wonder he hated you so much." She resumed tightening the bolt of the piston.

"And immature. I wish we would have taken the advice Wu gave us that day: 'Don't put off until tomorrow what can be done today.'" Cole always took pride in his impersonations and thought it was right on the money, but she ignored it. He continued. "Master Wu said the most amazing thing I think I ever heard him say: 'The best way to defeat an enemy is to make them your friend.'"

"Huh. He really is wise then. It kind of reminds me of us."

"We were enemies once? Since when?"

"No, but learning about you from the horse's mouth was almost like a fight. I did have to defeat you to connect with you and tell me your daddy issues."

"Ugh." He came closer to Nya under the console, with a hand over his heart, wincing in pain, to make sure that his fake wounds would be noticed. "Nya, you wound me. How will I ever go on?"

She raised up against this fake bruise to his ego and tried to raise up to make what Cole knew would be the final spins of the wrench to the final piston. Cole thought she was adjusting but after she said with a laugh and a cocky grin, "Oh, Cole. Quit being so dramatic." Nya failed to test the waters with the space above her.

Before he could respond or even catch another breath, she slammed her head on the piping on the ceiling. "OW!" Nya erupted in the console. It made a heavy echo and it carried it outwards into the hangar, even when she started to growl in frustration. Cole was surprised that it woke no one up. It was around the crown of her head where her two arms went to stay the pain, her wrench had already crashed and fell into the metal below. Cole, in shock of how quickly this had all happened, tried to come to her side, but his sweaty palm on the crown of the piston betrayed him. This led him to fall forward, and he landed face first into her neck, his body completely covering hers in the cramped console.

He wanted to get out of this predicament as quickly as humanly possible but as he braced himself to get himself up. Eyes closed, he couldn't help but notice the smell of the sweat, her heavy breathing, and their position making him lose his focus entirely. Her arms were where they were before he landed, around her head. They were now above his and against his shoulders, hands breadths away from his hair. Nya spit out his long black hair that had landed in her face and in her anger at the pain and being suffocated she shook with an impatient fury.

She was flailing her arms around his head. "Get off of me!" It came as a shock to him and his body reacted with a jump. She had never gotten this angry at him like this before. He felt that even as he quickly picked himself up with his arms and faced her, it would be too late to salvage this. The closeness. But he did as she asked and crawled out of the hole, staying mindful of the walls of the opening.

"I'm sorry, Nya. Oh gosh, I'm so sorry." When he got out he was on his hands and knees, and looked on into the darkness in the hole, underneath Jay's big red button.

She was still laying in the console, holding her head. "Okay, I'm gonna quit for the night. Just need to see if it is tight enough."

Cole saw her insert her hand below the engine and go back to the piston that they were working on. She jiggled on it and it didn't budge and he threw a silent sigh of relief. He looked away, shaking his head and calming his nerves, trying to process the last thirty seconds. "Are you sure you're okay? You hit your head pretty hard. And on metal, that might not look too good after a while."

"You don't have to do that, Cole. I'll be fine. Go back to bed." She was grunting again and fumbling with the wrench.

"Please, it is partially my fault for goading you. It would certainly help me sleep tonight if you were okay."

Nya stopped what she was doing and did what Cole did moments ago and dragged herself out of the console and she sat down. Her hair was a little wild, her cheeks flushed and red and subtly shaking from the anger, pain, and the shock. Putting her socket wrench down beside her next to her bag of tools, she never let her eyes leave his face. "Really? You mean that?"

Cole shrugged, not knowing what else to do to respond to his own emotional outburst. "Yeah. I mean it."

The silence hung in the hangar for a moment while Nya questioned him with a look. He couldn't tell what kind of emotions lay in her face as he knew that she was weighing her choices. That silence was deafening and as if she felt it too, she sighed and said aloud to him, "Well, if you insist."

"Okay, come here."

Walking on their knees, they both came closer together. Cole took his hands and cradled her head. As soon as his hands glided along the frame of her face, she didn't struggle, she didn't shake from anger anymore, and he felt the cool air of the hangar. It was much better and less stuffy than the cramped box they were trapped in. The memories of the pain she had felt a few moments ago as he carded his hands through her hair, he thought it the color of glimmering onyx, melted away and were replaced with the memories of a time not so long ago…

Nya's sighs were the same. The ease and calm from her were the same. Did she feel that too?

He caught himself and looked over her scalp. Cole moved her hair, parting it, looking for a bump or discoloration. Nya winced a little when he swiped his hand over the crown of her head and he could see the welt growing. It was small, but it would grow to be a pain he feared. He stopped and sat back down.

"So, Doc. What's the damage?" she asked him, opening her eyes slowly again and preparing for his inevitable diagnosis.

"You might have a big bruise tomorrow morning, but other than that I think you will be fine." He slowly let his hands fall back into his lap as he sat back down. Neither Cole or Nya moved from their spots on the floor.

"I'm so sorry, Cole." she said, sighing. "That wasn't supposed to happen."

"There's no need to apologize. What do you have to be sorry for?"

"Yelling at you. I think I still have a lot to learn from you." Nya said, rubbing the side of her head. "Sometimes I feel like I'm just a clumsy hot-headed jerk when I'm upset."

"No, Nya, I'm glad we have someone like you to help us in that way, always being great at everything you pick up." Cole said.

"Thank you, Cole. You're not bad at everything you do either." Nya said. "You're cooking could still use some more work though." she jabbed. Nya pushed playfully against his shoulder, biting her lip, but then her eyes looked like they were almost far away. Cole blamed the injury from moments ago.

Cole took the challenge and moved himself closer to her face. "Well, I had been thinking about making something for everyone for a while now." Cole said. Nya twisted her head, eyes moving over to the console and back to his face. "You know, like a gift from the heart or something. It's called 'violetberry soup'. It is an old family recipe. What do you think?"

She was smiling from ear to ear. "That sounds like a great idea. I love violetberries, but doesn't violetberry soup take a couple of days to get done? I mean, you are kinda new in the culinary arts, and it isn't the same thing as artistically performing to an empty desert." Nya said, and Cole couldn't help but notice her dreamy eyes once again.

He just couldn't help but meet her eyes in the same way and replied. "Well, perfect practice makes perfect, and I'll make it as perfect as I can. Perfect for you." Cole really didn't mean to add that last part, but it slipped from his mouth so easily and so fast. It rolled off his lips like an avalanche, and couldn't return the rocks that were carried away by the current of the river he found in her eyes.

Her eyes widened at how personal the statement seemed. Her gaze went from his eyes, moving her head towards the console, and sat back onto the floor, a hand placed on her sack of tools. "So, um, speaking of food." Nya's voice trembled a little after she cleared her throat. "Cole, are you getting that food anytime soon?"

Cole thought about what she said for a moment and he told her the honest truth. "You know, I don't feel that hungry anymore." Cole mimicked her movements, sitting on his legs. Whatever tension that was created was gone in almost an instant. "I'm gonna go to bed."

She nodded to his response, grabbing her socket wrench and putting it in her bag, hurriedly. "Goodnight, Cole. Looking forward to that soup you promised." She stood up and waited for him to do the same before she went towards the direction of the hall to return to her room.

"Goodnight, Nya. Me too."

He walked away. When he left, it felt like he was speed-walking down the hall to his room when he was out of her line of sight, hearing the clink and clank of Nya putting her tools away in her room. Cole didn't know what came over them both, the growling of his stomach was now a problem that he forced it to quiet. He used the preparations for the soup as a distraction and he counted the ways he could ask Zane and Wu for supplies like counting sheep. Money probably would be an issue but Cole would sweat out the details in the morning. I just need some sleep, he thought. That's it.

Cole, in his room and staring at the bunk that held Jay, his best friend and even worse to him, Nya's crush, weighed his emotions in his head before sleep pulled him under once again. He didn't hear anything else for the rest of the night, not even the sound of Nya escaping the ship once again.

Nya

The new suit and mech Nya had built was now finished and with its help she had a Fangpyre skeleton by the end of the week. It was easy. What was hard was keeping this secret for so long. Cole had already caught her twice and she was stuck on the deck of the ship assigned with babysitting duty by Wu. Keeping an eye on Lloyd wasn't too much to handle, but she had to stop handing him off onto Wu so much.

Having Lloyd on the ship was a blessing and a curse. A blessing in which it was nice to have a kid, now wide eyed and hopeful instead of a ball of nothing but annoying sinister cackling, and a curse in that the boys and herself on the boat had more on their plate to deal with. It made her still tender scalp throb. Kai's coveted high scores were beaten, Zane was doomed to wear a hot pink gi due to faulty laundry, Jay had to repair the training robots that he made himself after being destroyed, and worst of all, a three day gift from the heart made by Cole was completely ruined. Well, maybe next time…

She was too focused on the smells of the Toxic Bogs, the home of one of the last tombs Pythor had to open; the Venomari. A sick and twisted sector of the tribes that resided in a large section of land south of the Desert of Doom, and east of Serpentine Valley, the location of the tombs of the five tribes. It was a disgusting place that could only be described as a wasteland. The Venomari, she learned from Master Wu, were blessed with the gift to poison the sight of their prey in a hallucinogenic paralysis. A trance. Being afraid she was of any one of the ninja getting sprayed with this terrifying venom, she used that fear to propel her to the confines of her new suit.

In the mech she could track the location of the snakes and the ninja through their heat signatures. Her grand debut was here and she was going to take it as it came. This was her destiny, to be a true hero, free of judgment. She had sent the coordinates to Wu, and as she knew he was headed into the direction of the ninja to offer some assistance, and if Pythor and the other tribes were free and on their way to end her family's lives, then they needed all the help that they could get. And as she came upon the heart of the Toxic Bogs, her worst fears were realized.

They were all backed into a corner, sinking into the bogs on a dead carcass of a tree, as the newly united tribes of the Serpentine all hissed and cackled in unison. She used the suit to hover over the trees in the Toxic Bogs and tied a rope to the top and tossed it down to the sinking boys. They grabbed the rope and climbed quickly as it was handed down to them. Once it was done, Nya struck.

She threw everything at the snakes that she had. Nets that she tossed had captured a few of the Constrictai, who ran the moment the weights of the net hit the ground. The Hypnobrai retreated with the Fangpyres, and the Venomari into the poisonous liquid of the Bogs. As the crowd of Serpentine dispersed in fear at the sheer size of her mech, she found Pythor's location. It was too easy, he didn't blend into the surroundings like the other Serpentine, being a bright purple instead of the earthy tones of the others.

In her altered voice she incorporated to the front of her helmet, she made her target known to him. "Pythor target confirmed. Time to bag and tag." She shot a dart into the Anacondrai and he yelped out a painful sound and ran off, taking his anger and his revenge elsewhere. When it was all done and Nya was in the middle of plotting her next move, the ninja had come closer to examine her, their savior.

Cole was the first to speak. His eyes were wide and open. Bewildered and entranced. "Who are you?" Memories of the night she tried to escape to finish her mech, but was interrupted by talking of friends and the now ruined violetberry soup came to her mind in flashes. There was a hint of a smile in the way he said those words and she was drawn to it, but she dared not answer back, no matter how much she wanted too.

"How about the coolest thing I've ever seen!" Jay exclaimed. She felt a blush creep into her cheeks. I knew that he would like this mech. That was enough to mean that this idea wasn't a complete waste of time, or an inconvenience to the team. Mission accomplished.

"Santa?" Kai said. She didn't know who this "Santa" was, but another of her fears did come true. The green tint to Kai's eyes was a dead giveaway. He had been poisoned by the Venomari. All she wanted to do was to go in and go out. She wanted to fly away and back to the ship to prepare something, anything that could cure him. Nya ejected herself out of the mech to get a closer look, and to make her next move.

"Thank you, mysterious warrior. I owe you my life for saving-" Nya didn't let Zane finish the sentence. She pressed a button inside the mech and sprayed him with a knockout gas to keep him there until they could be picked up by the ship.

"Now that wasn't nice." Jay said to her, with anger. Behind her mask, she bit her lip and closed her eyes behind the goggles and winced. She didn't want to have to do this, but Nya could hear the roars of the approaching ship, which pushed her to make her choice, and to hopefully shorten Kai's suffering. She sprayed again, hitting every one of the team, and one by one they slowly dropped. She could hear Cole's snoring, and that was her cue that she was free to leave.

She pressed a button on her wrist and the mech pulled her into its cockpit, closed its hatch, and Nya hovered away. She climbed into the sky and steered the mech far behind As Wu and the ship came into view, she catapulted herself out of the mech from a crouch, flipping out of the hatch to land on the deck near the rear of the boat. After getting up from her landing she pressed the red button on her wrist, and the mech found its way back to the cave.

She prayed that she wasn't gone too long for Wu and Lloyd to notice, or the ninja to wake up too soon and she would be caught in the act. I guess only time will tell.

—

Returning to the ship unspotted was the least of Nya's problems, at least it was easier than the news she was given by the team. The team were separated into two groups, one to the Constrictai and the other to the Venomari, but had failed to capture either tomb. In the process of the mission, the sacred flute that had saved Cole's life was stolen, and Pythor had beat the ninja at their own game; being stealthy and waiting for the ninja to come to him.

Conversations over the table that night during the meeting were all about her or, to the rest of the team, a Samurai. All of them were impressed, but a little emasculated. She knew that she shouldn't have rendered them all unconscious and left, but if she were truly free, the team knowing would be a hindrance to her plans.

She knew how it would all go down based on what she knew about them. Kai would be so overprotective that a reveal would be close to impossible, and he would want her to quit immediately. Jay was the most upset about it, and it upset her in return. But Nya only wanted to calm his anxious tendencies, hoping to get a joke or two out of him for levity, but she thought she would ultimately fail. Zane would tell the rest of them immediately due to his instinctual honesty.

Her best plan now was Cole, spending a few hours at night with him brought out a measurable amount of trust. He wouldn't speak about his family unless he was forced to, but she was still unsure if he could keep a secret like this for so long about another person. But she knew what would ultimately happen. The person who would find out who they were, they took the prize of being the ever coveted title of 'The Legendary Green Ninja'.

The briefings were normal otherwise, but Kai's venom provided a sheer amount of annoyance. To try to get some more relief she looked to Cole, who was always more solid and steady, but this time she found nothing to calm herself. Cole looked worried. Too worried. Stone-faced. Nothing like the past few nights when they were alone. Oh, how she longed for a time machine when he spoke to the room.

"Okay, don't let this mysterious Samurai cloud what's really important. All the Serpentine are out, and if Pythor can unite them, the legend states some Great Devourer is gonna consume the land and—"

She had to know from him if this was a threat that could just be solved by only a girl in a giant mech. "The Great Devour-er?"

"Whatever that is, it's a can of worms I don't want to see open."

Strike Three:

Cole

"Who is that Samurai?" Jay asked, yelling at the ceiling.

Cole was really starting to hate all of these dang snakes. If the Samurai hadn't come and rescued them from the clutches of Pythor the Anacondrai and the Serpentine at the City of Ouroborus, he and his team wouldn't have made it out alive with their golden weapons still intact. They weren't too far from Ouroborus, being in The Western Sea of Sand beyond Echo Caverns. Cole was grateful, even with Jay yelling in the team's ear about how much he hated the Samurai. But Cole never hated the mysterious person in the giant mech, especially now since he believed he knew who it was.

It had been a big day in which many casualties had been made against their favor. Pythor had captured Lloyd, stolen the sacred flute, and the mystery behind what The Great Devourer was and where to find the mystical artifacts, the Fangblades, was farther from them than ever. Lloyd running off was already a loss, each member of the team being obsessed with competition again over more glory: finding the Samurai and beating him at his own game, or what Cole believed, her own game. Each one had gotten close, but not close enough.

Except for Kai.

Suspiciously to Cole, Kai had met the Samurai and given him back their four golden weapons of Spinjitzu and when they had their meeting with Wu on what to do next. Before this present conversation, he tripped over his words, saying 'she' instead of 'he'. That had never happened before, and he caught a glimpse of Nya behind Sensei violently shaking her head, as if to say 'no'. If it wasn't her, who else could it be? Strike one.

"I don't know, Jay, but whoever they are, I gotta say. I'm impressed." Cole mused, trying to lighten his mood.

"That man in that bulky armor suit has beat us to the punch every single time! Who do they even think they are? That big bucket of bolts has been stealing our thunder, and can I say, leaving the master of lightning in the dust!" Jay exclaimed.

"Well, uh… whoever it may be, they did save us, and for that we should all be grateful. Especially since Lloyd and the sacred flute are gone." Kai said, stumbling over his words again. Cole put a firm grip on his shoulder to steady him.

"Not to mention we now have to find these four silver Fangblades that keep The Great Devourer at bay. We've lost so much. Kai is right, we need to be on our toes and focus on the fact that we live to fight another day." Cole said to the team.

"Agreed. We all tried to take down the Samurai, but all of us had fallen short. We need to focus on finding our true potential, like Wu said. Not beating each other in a silly game of cat and mouse." Zane said in stout agreement.

"I know, I know. That is the most important thing. But we were so close! Kai, are you sure that he didn't say anything to you when he returned our golden weapons to you?" Jay asked him.

"You know as much as I know. That was it." Kai answered as he shrugged his shoulders.

"If only I had a tracking device made, that would do the trick. Just wait up for him to show up

"Hey Jay, maybe you need to modify the alarms to when the Samurai shows up? I'm sure that Nya could help you with them again." Cole said.

"What do you mean?"

"Nya's helped you with the alarm systems that you made, hasn't she?"

"Not really, maybe for a few hours at a time, but I haven't seen Nya but a few times in the past few weeks. She said she had been looking after Lloyd, and we've had him for a while. Poor Nya. Isn't she just amazing? She must be working so hard, finding out where those snake's tombs were and keeping up with him this whole time before we lost him. I could probably talk to her and get on that. Thanks, man."

"Oh sure… Heh. No problem. And you're right. She has done a lot for us lately." Cole rubbed his face with his hand in deep thought. She hasn't been around Jay the past few days? Only for a few hours? Everything that had happened the past few weeks rolled around together in his brain. He would hardly ever see Nya unless it was at a briefing, and anytime he would it was so late into the night. And after a loud metal noise… Strike two.

"What I'm surprised by is that none of us had any encounters close enough with the Samurai to encapsulate their identity." Zane mused to the group.

Cole moved on the conversation to probe further into the others' curiosity, and to brag a little. "I know. I mean I was so close. I could almost see their eyes. They had some pretty thin eyebrows."

"Impressive! So, you were that close? How? What did they say to you?" Zane asked.

"Yeah, Cole. Spill." Jay said.

Cole shrugged and told them the truth as much as he could recall. "Nothing. I hid in the stone walls and waited until the Samurai were done fighting the Serpentine to catch them off guard. When they were done, I started to brag to him that he didn't get the better of me. I jumped on their metal arm and then they shot me against a wall."

"That's impressive. I saw the Samurai going north into the Wailing Alps. He already had the Serpentine tied up and ready for me to capture them before my motorcycle had stopped idling." Zane said. "I almost landed a snowball at him. Did you get any closer, Kai?"

"No good on me either, other than leaving the golden weapons in my care. They even put me in a net next to the snakes they fought and then just flew off. I had some fire power at my disposal, so the ropes were no trouble, but they still left me there. I was pretty furious." Kai said.

Jay inserted himself into the conversation with gusto, anger, and a tinge of overconfidence. "Kai, That's nothing. You see, I decided to take a different approach. I didn't wait to take on the Samurai wailing on the bad guys, but let the danger come to him. So, to appeal to his inner thunder-stealing hero, I dressed up like a damsel in distress and I laid on some train tracks, you know like those old movies and cartoons used to do, and called out to him for help."

"That's so dumb Jay, what did you expect them to do other than just save you and leave?" Kai asked Jay, poking him in the shoulder with his fist playfully.

"They took the bait, and I was expecting them to pick me up and I would take off my disguise and make my move, but they just built train tracks around me."

"So they left you there?" Cole asked.

"Yeah, that jerk left me there! What kind of hero does he think he is? And what kind of hero doesn't carry off the beautiful damsel in distress on the train tracks and into the sunset like my cartoons and the suave Fritz Donagan?"

Kai chimed in with his answer: "Maybe because you weren't a damsel in distress anymore. You were just a damsel, and a pretty ugly one I'm guessing." He laughed and then Jay jabbed him in the shoulder, but Cole wasn't laughing. A realization hit Cole like a ton of bricks, or a fist to the face, and felt like he was again being thrown against a cold stone wall.

Nya. It was her. This whole time. Jay just solidified his conclusion, and Kai's confidence in his words earlier failed him, and Cole had his epiphany. She had been doing this for weeks, and this was the final nail in the coffin. Strike Three…and you're out.

—

Cole rearranged his pajamas when he got out of bed after waiting for the team to be completely asleep. It had only been an hour or two, but if anyone were actually awake, he believed he wouldn't be worried. Most of them would complain in the middle of the night when he would get up, especially when Wu would surprise them with sunrise exercises. But seeing Nya and asking her point blank, face to face, if she was the Samurai was too much of an itch that he just had to scratch, right here, right now.

He gently opened the door as he watched the bunk beds behind him, careful not to make a noise. Cole heard the gentle noise of Jay's whimpering and breaths coming from Zane and Kai from the far end of the room and he left. Cole made sure that the door closing made a small and insignificant sounding click, when he stepped over the threshold and into the hall and succeeded. All he needed was to walk the hall. Cole came to the door of her room and knocked on her door, tapping softly, hoping not to wake her if she had been asleep. After a few seconds Cole heard the sound of her feet coming closer. She opened the door and he noticed that she wasn't dressed for bed like he was.

"Hey Nya." he greeted her, nervously scratching an imaginary pest in his hair. "I'm sorry that I'm here so late, but are you free to talk?"

She greeted him back with a small smile. "Hi. Yeah, you're fine. I was just getting ready for bed. Come in." Nya led him into the room and resumed to do whatever she was doing before he came in. "So, whatcha need?"

"I just wanted to ask you a question." Cole shut the door behind him.

"Okay. Shoot." She turned on her heels, on her way to her bed to fold her quilts over and fluffed her pillows as he brought the courage to again say his thoughts to her out loud.

"So, are you going anywhere else tonight?" he asked. He caught her jolting a little after he said it.

She turned to him to speak an answer that seemed, to him, to be quite defensive. "No. What are you talking about?"

He let the question hang in the air a little bit. He was extremely nervous now, but stuck out his chest and asked her: "Are you the Samurai?"

"No. What? How could I be the Samurai? That's ridiculous." She was holding onto her chest with folded arms, closing herself off from the conversation that he knew that they were about to have. "Why would you ask that?"

He sighed and came out with it, the sentence coming faster and faster out of his mouth. "I saw you behind Sensei Wu when Kai explained what happened to us. He said "she" first and you shook your head behind him."

"Pfft. Tuh. That doesn't mean anything!" Nya scoffed in defiance of his assumption, looking away at him the entire time, eyes toward the ceiling.

"You come out in the middle of the night 'taking a walk', gloves, long sleeves and all, and then leave again as soon as the coast is clear. Being gone for more than a few hours at a time and lying about helping Jay with the alarm systems for two days, but Jay has only seen you maybe once or twice by himself the past few." As he listed the inconsistencies of her words that told of her many mistakes the past few days under the cover of night, Nya turned away from him. But he continued, stepping forward and crowding her space.

"You were the only person who knew where all of the Serpentine attacks were gonna be before we even got there, and defeated us one by one. And if today Kai was in on it, which I know he is because he is a terrible liar that stutters and you hardly ever flinch, you are the only one that it could be."

Nya turned her head around to speak to him again. "That's just a coincidence. I was taking care of Lloyd at that time."

"Really? 'Cause I don't buy it. No lie, you are one of the smartest and the best of us. And what was coincidental of leaving a girl still tied to the railroad tracks unless you knew that she wasn't a damsel in distress anymore? Am I wrong?"

An exasperated sigh, then Nya gave up, turned and came closer and looked at him eye to eye. "Fine. You caught me. I guess the cat's out of the bag." Nya said as she let her hands down to her sides, turning them out to him as if to say he had caught her red-handed.

"Ha! I knew it!" Cole exclaimed loudly, jumping up in excitement.

"Hey, not so loud! You're gonna wake everyone up!" She yelled in a loud whisper, grabbing his shoulder. "And by the way, I knew it was Jay in that costume and doing all that. I knew he could handle it all on his own."

"Does anyone else know? Besides Kai? Zane did say the bet is off, you know. I won't rat you out if you don't want me to."

"Promise?"

"Swear." Cole said, crossing his heart with his hand.

Nya nodded her head, trusting him. "Okay, it's just you, Kai, and Wu."

"Why haven't you told anyone else?"

"I just didn't want to bruise any egos and I just wanted to help all I could. I don't need to be a part of your boy's club to get the job done."

"You're right, you're right. Nya, you've proved that plenty. You really had all of them questioning their ability for a while. We were all fighting about who got the closest to beating you and knowing your identity."

"By the way, if it means anything, out of all of them, you came the closest."

"They did tell me that. But, really?"

"Yeah. Great work. The only reason Kai found out was because my helmet was broken and I couldn't hide my face from him anymore. I'll fix it up tomorrow for another day of being better than you all. And who knows, maybe you'll actually catch me next time." This time her voice was borderline flirtatious. There it was again.

"Okay." A little nervous laugh from deep in his chest came out. "You're on. Hey, it's just like Wu said, as iron sharpens iron…" Cole said as an unwelcome smile spread on his face. He started to leave her room, hand on the doorknob, slowly opening the door.

"-brother sharpens brother." She sounded almost affected by this statement.

He stopped as what she said quaked his being. Nya calling him "brother" in response to him, imitating Wu, gave him a shiver down his spine that stopped his body cold. A bad aftertaste. His heart sped up. In order to change the conversation to something more palatable, Cole decided then and there to help Jay and Nya both. The decision came to him with an addition of a thought that said: I can't believe I'm doing this.

"Speaking of brothers. I've got something to say about one of them." Cole said, staring at the floor, holding himself up on the doorframe. "My brother, Jay? He does really, really, like you."

A beat and then she said, "I know." It was towards the floor, her leg gingerly swinging back and forth against it, hands behind her back. She raised her head to meet his next words.

"But… he really, really hates that Samurai person. Whoever they are…." Cole said with a wink, his line of sight latching to her worried eyes. "I think you might have to make a move." He turned toward her, face to face, letting go of the doorframe. "And soon."

She stepped forward towards him and held his gaze. "But, Cole, what if he doesn't like what I have to tell him? He hates the Samurai, and I've never done anything like this before, and you know what they say about how they feel about girls fighting and staying back. Staying safe…" she started pacing back and forth as she was quickly listing off the many reasons in her head why he would be wrong about Jay and his feelings.

"Well, you don't need to worry about that. I don't feel that way, so I'll be in your corner. Even with a steaming pot of violetberry soup when you're weak. Always." He came closer as he closed the door behind him to speak with her some more.

"You would?"

"I would. And besides you have saved so many people, including me, plenty enough, so why can't a true hero be a woman? Believe me, I would know. I knew one most of my life. Before me, my mother was the Master of Earth." Cole said to comfort her.

"Really? She was? I didn't know that." she asked him, bewildered.

Cole stopped himself for a few seconds that felt like a few hours, thinking about what he had just done. Wait. Was I just talking about my mother? He thought. Cole hadn't talked about Lilly in such a long time, to anyone really, since he was whisked away by the words of a man on a mountain who gave him a new purpose. To do what was right. To fight. It cut him in two, saying this to someone he knew he trusted with his sordid history. In fact, she was the only one, and it unnerved him. But the look in her eyes, pleading with him about what to do next pushed him forward. He released his tension with a sigh and placed both his gentle hands on her tense shoulders. Here goes nothing.

"She was strong and tough, like you, and she said to stand up to those that are cruel and unjust. Always. You are taking her advice pretty well, and unlike me, she never had to be here to tell you. You did it on your own, did what was right, no matter what you thought you would lose. That is what makes a true hero. You got it?"

"I got it." Nya said softly, a mixture of being hopeful and grateful.

"Good." Cole let go and started to walk out her door again, but then caught himself against the doorframe again. Hey, if I'm gonna help them out with this I might as well tell her something to help her prepare. "Hey, Nya."

"Yeah?"

"Also, just a head's up. Jay tends to make stuff up about himself when he is nervous. He might exaggerate a few things to impress you. He has done it before."

"Okay. I will be sure to keep an eye on that." she said, a large smile on her face. "Thank you. For everything."

"You're welcome. Well… Goodnight, Nya. Gotta get up early if I can, morning exercises, after all. Gotta get closer to my true potential."

"Okay, then. Goodnight, Cole. And good luck." Nya said as she waved him out the door as she went to her dresser, pulling out the PJ's that she would be wearing to bed.

But truthfully for Cole, after everything, he just didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay, to talk to someone besides himself, to feel. The pull he, at this moment, felt to be rooted to her room's floorboards was almost too much. It felt like what it would be to be blown away and frostbitten by Aspheera's Revenge, seasickness coming from his stomach in a rocking boat on The Endless Sea, and confused by a poisonous hallucination from a singular Venomari all at once. The pull, the longing to turn around unfamiliar and unbearable, but almost beautiful. But he opened the door anyway, and with a heavy heart finally gained the strength to walk away.