Jay thought Kryptarium would be his lowest point, but he discovered, boy, it sure could get lower. To his great relief, it turned out his dad had not died. On the other hand, his parents had neglected to tell him that he was adopted.
He had already felt pretty off-kilter before, but this sent his entire world spinning. There was an entire other set of other parents that had rejected him, abandoned him, dumped him in a junkyard for Ed and Edna to eventually find. He didn't just grow up in a junkyard. He was found in a junkyard. A literal junkyard boy.
Rationally, he knew he was lucky to have Ed and Edna as parents (he just had to turn to his fellow Ninja to prove that point). He also would never consider anyone else his true parents. But emotions were fickle, and he couldn't help but also feel like he just lost a vital part of his identity. Insecurities from long ago – thought to have been dealt with – had viciously clawed their way back to the surface and were swamping him once again, stifling him.
Ed and Edna had given him a key and address. Apparently, they had found him with it. He had headed to the address and found his birth father's home several miles away from Ninjago City. It was private. Luxurious.
Clearly, his birth parents had not given him up for financial reasons. (They simply must have not wanted him.)
He explored the villa. He came to the realization that his father was none other than the famous actor, Cliff Gordon. Jay had only recently got into Starfarer, so he had a moment of delight… before realizing that one of his "heroes" had abandoned him in a junkyard. Suddenly, he didn't like Starfarer so much anymore.
But Cliff Gordon had known about him. And he had been proud of him.
He had a little Jay shrine, a collection of newspaper articles and various photos from magazines, advertisements and who knew what other forms of media. He even had one of Jay's old gis. Cliff Gordon had collected these like any proud parent would – Ed and Edna had a little newspaper collection dedicated to the Ninja's adventures too.
But that didn't make sense. Why would Gordon have a corner of his home dedicated to Jay, when he had abandoned the blue ninja as a baby? How could he take pride in someone he had willfully rejected?
It was into this mess of confusion and complex feelings that Nadakhan had once again appeared and needled him for more wishes.
"What did you do?" Jay demanded. "I wished for emotional maturity, not emotional trauma! Did you change the past?"
Nadakhan let out a bark of laughter. "I wish. But I cannot change the past without changing the present. No, I merely revealed a truth about your life that you were previously unaware of. Introspection can lead to maturity, can it not? And no doubt, you have been doing much introspection since discovering your true heritage."
Jay's heart was thundering in his ears. Yeah, he was pretty sure he was in love with Nya and that he would do anything to be with her, but this… This definitely crossed a line. And what was he even doing, trying to meet Nya's expectations? Trying to be someone else? Didn't she once literally tell him she liked him as he was? And here he was, years later, still trying to change everything about himself so she would like him again.
Worse, he had done so by seeking help from a megalomanic pirate bent on… something that simply could not be good for Ninjago. He didn't actually know what Nadakhan's end goals were.
"I don't wanna make another wish," Jay stated firmly. Nadakhan actually looked surprised.
"Everyone wants a second wish. A second chance to make things right," he argued, looking at Jay as if seeing him in a new light.
"Not this ninja," Jay answered, turning his back to Nadakhan. Jay did his best to appear calm but was deeply unnerved inside. The djinn growled.
"Do not resist me," he warned darkly. Then his tone took on a more charming lilt. "Tell me what you want. More power? More prestige? Perhaps a raygun that works?" he lastly mocked, holding up the gun Jay had tried to shoot him with. Jay stubbornly ignored him. So Nadakhan continued needling him. "You could wish for any number of things. Your friends, Cole and Morro, they are ghosts? Would it not be kind to make them human again? Or Kai and Nya. They lost their parents, did they not? Shouldn't they be reunited? Or perhaps you would like to know who your birth mother is… Why you were abandoned? Or would that be a truth too harsh for your immature, little mind to handle?"
"No, you won't trick me! I don't want anything! I don't want anything from you! If anything, I wish I wasn't alone with you!"
Nadakhan grinned slyly. The doorbell rang. Jay grimaced.
"Dang it…" he muttered. He hadn't realized just how often he said I wish until now. And it was starting to cost him direly.
"Don't forget your third wish," Nadakhan told him, leaning in too close for comfort, before disappearing in a puff of orange smoke. The doorbell rang again, with much more persistence. Agitated, Jay rushed to open the door, fully expecting the postman. However, he couldn't help but feel a wave of relief when he instead came face to face with his team.
"Guys! How did you find me?" Jay asked, visibly delighted.
"Idiot," Morro snapped, smacking Jay upside the head. "We were worried about you! Why in the cursed realm did you take off like that?! Without telling us where you were even going?"
"Morro, you can't just hit Jay!" Cole reprimanded him, although he had looked tempted to do the very same thing.
"Sorry, I can explain," Jay interjected, rubbing the back of his head. "Why don't you guys come in? Seriously, how did you find me?"
"Well, long story short, we eventually called your parents. They said you were here," Zane answered. "Where… is this?" he asked, observing the villa's interior. It was lavishly decorated.
"It's… it's not actually that long a story but… Look, let's just sit down," Jay tiredly responded. The last twelve hours were starting to wear on him.
"Uh, Jay… Where's Kai?" Nya asked. Jay's head snapped to her.
"Isn't he with you?" he asked.
"The last time I saw him, he was going after you," Morro answered, suspiciously.
"I… I haven't seen Kai."
A heavy silence fell over them.
"Try calling him," Cole suggested. Nya took out her phone. She dialed his number. It went to voicemail. She tried texting him. No response.
"Oh no…" she whispered and fell down onto the sofa. Her brother. He was gone. Zane was suddenly sitting next to her, an arm wrapped around her shoulder. She continued staring blankly at her phone, at Kai's lack of response. She sent another message. No response. And another. And another. Zane placed his hand over her phone and she stopped.
I'm alone now.
"We'll get them back," Zane promised. She numbly nodded, only half-believing him.
"This isn't anyone's fault," Cole said after a few moments of shocked silence.
"Not anyone's fault?" Morro snapped. "I think I see someone guilty here and he's wearing blue."
"I didn't ask Kai to chase after me!" Jay defended himself. "And I never even saw him! How was I supposed to know?!"
"Why did you run off?" Cole asked, standing between Jay and Morro. Thankfully, Morro took the hint and backed off.
"I… While we were at the repo yard, the postman found me. He delivered a letter…" Jay fell down onto the sofa "… that told me my father had died. So I… Yeah, I was impulsive. I went straight to Ma and Pa, because… I couldn't believe it was true. Not with all this going on as well."
Cole's expression softened. Nya and Zane were watching him with understanding.
"Your dad…?" Nya asked.
"That's… Heh… That's what makes this kinda funny, I guess. My dad is fine. He's great even! So… If I had just called home instead of panicking… Kai would still be here…"
"Do not blame yourself," Zane gently told him. "You could not have foreseen the consequences."
"If… If anything happened to my dad, I don't think I would be thinking so clearly either," Cole added.
"Hey, wait," Morro spoke up. "If your father is fine, then what was the letter about?"
"Oh. I'm adopted," Jay answered. "This place belongs- belonged to my birth father. He's the one that's dead."
"You're adopted?" Nya asked, surprised. Jay nodded miserably.
"Ma and Pa will always be my parents and I know they love me, but… It kind of sucks, finding out that there are people that were supposed to love you forever and they didn't. Instead, first chance they got they dumped you in a junkyard like you're unwanted trash." Noticing pitying looks, even from Morro, Jay quickly amended "But it's not a big deal! I mean, we just lost Kai! We've got to stop the djinn and save him and Pixal! This whole adoption-thing, I can figure it out later!"
"Jay…" Nya said softly, like she wanted to continue the discussion. But instead, she fell silent.
"Look, Jay," Cole spoke up. "This is a big deal," he stated, motioning to the whole building. "It's a big deal, because it's you. But you're also right. We've got to focus on stopping that djinn. Do you think you can?" he asked. Jay looked at his feet.
He wasn't sure if he could. He wanted to find out more, find out why he was abandoned, who his birth mother was, why no one told him… But he only knew he was adopted because of Nadakhan. And Nadakhan not only had Pixal, he also had Kai. He had probably been counting on having Jay by now. Their team was quickly losing members. His team needed him. Nadakhan had to be stopped.
"Yeah. I can," Jay said firmly. Cole nodded affirmatively. In the corner of his eye, Jay noticed Zane looking at him with concern. Nya likewise looked concerned, but also… intrigued? He couldn't quite figure out why she would look like that…
Morro went back to ignoring him. (For whatever reason, at some point, Morro had decided that he liked Jay the least and had since been giving him a hard time. It was probably Kai's fault; It was usually Kai's fault.)
The Ninja settled around the lantern. The lights were turned off and the path to Tiger Widow Island was revealed.
It was good that Kai had managed to free the Bounty before he had disappeared. It allowed them to travel faster than if they'd had to depend on boats or cars. The flight over was pretty uneventful, giving Jay plenty of time to process the fact that he was adopted. Zane was particularly helpful, sharing details of his own identity crisis caused by his memory recovery four years ago. Sure, Jay had been there, witnessed Zane's revelatoin, but he had never known the events from Zane's point of view.
The talk helped Jay find steady footing again. He was still pretty riled up over being adopted (why would Ma and Pa never tell him?!) but he was able to focus better now. Nya, trying to forget that Kai might well be gone forever, busied herself with ship maintenance, navigation, and research. Jay tried to talk to her, maybe lend her an ear the way Zane had done for him, but in the end, he decided she just needed to work through it by herself. Instead of crowding her, he decided to give her some space.
Soon though, ominous, dark clouds appeared on the horizon. Thunder rumbled in the distance.
"Can we go around it?" Jay asked.
"No. Our path leads straight through the storm," Zane answered. "It seems to be originating from the island, so we cannot avoid it."
"Morro, can you maybe… Blow it away?" Cole asked.
"I'm the master of wind, not the master of storms!" Morro immediately snapped. He corrected himself when he received withering stares. "I can help steer us through it, but I can't clear it. That's like asking Zane to stop an avalanche or you a rockslide."
"No need to be so touchy," Nya muttered under her breath. She didn't point out that she had singlehandedly stopped a tidal wave. That would just make Morro feel even more inadequate.
"Maybe the ghosts should go below deck?" Jay suggested. "If it's gonna rain and all."
"My readings suggest the storm will be too severe for us to sacrifice two working pairs of hands," Zane replied. "Nya?"
"I can probably hold off the rain, but it will take up all my focus."
"Better to lose one pair than two," Cole decided. "Ok… How about this. Nya, you make sure no water lands on the Bounty. Morro, you try and control the winds; get us through the storm as fast as possible. Zane, you help me steer the ship and Jay, you keep the lightning away. Does that sound like a plan?"
There was a general murmur of agreement.
It was a great plan and would have worked. Unfortunately, Zane's initial storm readings were proven incorrect. It was far worse and severe once they were inside it. Morro was solely focused on preventing winds from blowing them off-course. Redirecting them to help push them through the storm wasn't possible. Nya ended up struggling to keep the rain off the Bounty, limiting her focus to keeping only the areas dry that Morro and Cole occupied. And Jay, poor Jay, there was so much lightning around, he ended up clinging to the top of the mast like a glorified lightning rod, all to prevent others from being struck down.
As they sailed deeper into the storm, it seemed to get worse. Even with Jay clinging for his life at the top of the mast, streaks of lightning were still striking dangerously close to the deck. Cole observed the lightning patterns. They happened the most around Jay and Zane…
Zane, who was made of metal. Zane, the nindroid. It was easy to forget that Zane was a robot, what with his synthetic skin, his human needs and just generally being a person. But that human appearance hid away a metal shell. A metal shell that was attracting lightning.
"Zane! You have to get below deck!" he yelled over the bellowing winds and rain.
Zane gave him a sharp, questioning look. Slightly annoyed that Zane didn't simply do as told, Cole clarified "You're attracting the lightning!" In the distance, Cole heard Jay yelp and yell something. The rain and winds obscured the words, muffling the voice. Taking it for support, Cole looked at Zane expectantly, hoping that he would do as told. Zane gave him a stiff nod, then disappeared below deck.
He wasn't even gone for five minutes, for the lightning strikes to finally center in on Jay alone. Cole and Jay made eye contact for a moment. The blue ninja tried to shout something to him, but once again, the words were lost to the winds.
Zane, unlike Cole, heard Jay perfectly. After all, his hearing surpassed that of the rest of the ninja. And unlike what Cole had assumed, Jay's yelling was not agreement with the Ninja's sort-of-kinda leader. It was a warning.
Zane shouldn't be alone! We need to stick together!
It was all the confirmation that Zane had needed. He had found it suspect that just as they came across a wish-granting enemy, Jay would happen to discover he was actually adopted. Jay had also become unusually jumpy whenever wishes were mentioned. And now, Jay had proven exceptional awareness to the dangers of being alone. Not that Jay wasn't sharp, but he had his moments of ditziness.
Zane settled in the cabins, taking out his chess set. He began placing the pieces, setting up a chess puzzle as if he was going to practice. He couldn't help but jump a little, when one of the opponent's pieces moved by itself. His ears were filled with laughter and soon, opposite him appeared the djinn.
"Your move," the djinn said. The accent was thick, but the words smooth. Zane was not intimidated. Keeping his face carefully neutral, he reached for a piece.
"My move?" he asked.
"Yes. Surprised to see me?" Nadakhan replied. He sounded amused. Smug. Self-assured. Like he was certain he would be victorious in whatever he did. Zane allowed himself a smirk. Overconfident fool. He moved a piece.
"On the contrary," he said. "After analyzing Jay's reluctance for me to be alone, the only logical explanation would be his fear of your arrival. Confirming to me what I have already suspected: You have visited him before. Since Jay is still here, it's understandable that he has not yet completed all of his wishes, and I sense it is the last wish that has trapped Kai and… Pixal… into your sword."
Nadakhan leaned over the chessboard, a predatory smile on his face. He made his move. The piece clicked against the table.
"So, you are the smart one. Then I take it you do not want to make a wish?" There was an unspoken challenge in his voice.
"On the contrary," Zane answered, picking up his queen. "I do want my three wishes. But on my third wish, it will not be I who will disappear, but you." He could defeat the djinn before this went any further. He placed the piece across from the king. "Check."
Nadakhan laughed.
"How presumptuous! Well, what are you waiting for? Make your first wish," he gleefully replied, moving away his king discreetly. If Zane were anyone else, he may have become nervous or at least a little rattled by Nadakhan's blasé attitude. But he was the master of ice and with it came a cool, collected composure, harder than rock and stronger than steel.
"For my first wish, I wish that you'll not twist my words, nor find a loophole, but understand the true intentions of the words that I speak and carry out your will as I've thoroughly instructed."
Pieces shuffled around the board.
"Very well, I understand you perfectly and shall take you at your word. Your second wish?"
"It is imperative that from here on out, whatever harm may befall me, will be done unto you tenfold."
"I have not heard that one before. Very good," Nadakhan actually praised. Zane pushed on.
"Check. Now, for my third wish-"
"But for clarification," Nadakhan interrupted, carefully moving his rook in the way. "You said whatever harm may befall you."
Zane hesitated.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you never clarified what you mean by harm."
"I do not need to. You understand the true intentions of my words."
"Oh, yes. I understand what you mean by no harm… But I believe you were only thinking of physical or… psychological harm."
"Now you're looking for a loophole."
"No. That would imply that your wish had a logical flaw. It did not. You see… By your definition of harm, I could simply delete bits of information from your hard drive."
Zane had a moment of confusion. Then it sunk in. Suddenly, all he could see was Nadakhan's predatory smile. Nadakhan continued.
"Your father certainly saw no harm in deleting your memories. So memory loss… As per your definition and your father's, is not harmful."
Zane was frozen. His memories were disappearing. He was forgetting names. Places. People he had met. His memory of how they lost Wu- gone. The tournament of elements, his forced fight against Kai, it was all slipping away. Even who Kai was, that was fading and didn't the Ninja- no- no, he couldn't forget again, he couldn't suffer through this again, all those years lost and alone, he couldn't go back to that-
"My third wish. My-my third wish," Zane stuttered. Pixal. He was losing his memory of Pixal now. Not her. No, there had to be a way to stop this… To fix this…
"Yes," Nadakhan purred, "your all-important third wish. Make it count! But no matter what happens to me, all those memories will be gone for good. Back to being a lonely boy in an empty treehouse. Checkmate."
The black queen, backed by two rooks, landed squarely in front of the white king, blocking him and preventing him from any escape.
Pixal would know how to fix this. Pixal knew everything. If only…
"I wish I was with Pixal!" Zane called out, just as the name started fading from his memory. Nadakhan let out a roar of laughter.
"Your wish is yours to keep!"
As soon as the storm subsided, Jay scrambled down the mast, ignoring the protests of his fellow ninja, running to the cabins. He was hoping against all hope that Zane would still be there.
He threw the door open.
All he saw was a chessboard with a poorly played game.
Zane was nowhere in sight.
Sorry about the late update. Monday was unusually busy. Next week is the last prewritten chapter, from then on, updates may become irregular. Just so you know.