Katabasis: Lost Soul
Between the events of season 5 (Possession) and season 6, an average day of training turns into a tragedy. When Cole comes into contact with water, his soul extinguished, the ninja are convinced their brother in arms is gone for good. When signs of paranormal activity related to Cole's absence surface at the Bounty, however, the remaining ninja will do anything to become whole again, even go against the world's natural order. Heroes shouldn't mingle with villains and the living shouldn't mix with the dead, but familial bonds traverse all.
Disclaimer:
This fanfic is an edited version of Lost Soul by DietCokeIsLife with minor grammatical changes and some added elaboration. I, by no means, take any ownership of this work as I do not own this fanfic nor do I own Ninjago. I found this story a couple years back and it is honestly the best work of fanfiction I have ever come across, so I decided to edit it as a tribute to the author and as a personal writing exercise. I did not reach out to the author to get permission to do this, so If you are against reading this version, I totally understand. I highly encourage you to check out the OG version! It's a 3- part series, and if you're a big fan of season 5, you'll love this!
s/12729322/1/Lost-Soul
Chapter 1: Accident
It was an accident.
But, that only made Jay feel worse.
Because, how could he have been so careless? He knew it was dangerous, it was supposed to be dangerous, and still…
The ninja had been completing a stamina exercise at Master Wu's behest. They were to walk the entire nine mile trail in the appropriately named Treacherous Wood. The ground was uneven and unstable, overgrown with various shrubs and protruding roots. The six of them had started with gusto, but now, halfway through, all of them were boasting bruises and scrapes and complaints. While the path sloped upward, morale was steadily declining. Only Lloyd was still upbeat, determined to preserve the enthusiasm of his team as he led them through the endless forest. Jay and Cole brought up the rear, trudging through dead leaves and over pebbles that were just loose enough to make one lose their footing.
"Are we there yet…?" Cole whined, kicking a perfectly innocent rock off the steep ledge they were skirting. "I'm starving…,"
"What are you complaining about?" Jay snapped, wiping sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. "You're a ghost. You can't even, like, feel anything."
"I still move, I still get tired, I still get hungry," Cole argued, then waved a hand in Jay's direction. "I just don't get all flushed and sweaty and gross like you do."
"I'm not gross…," Jay muttered, shouldering past the ghost.
"Have you ever looked in a mirror?" Cole laughed, punching Jay's arm in retaliation.
He knew they were all in a bad mood from the heat and exertion. He knew that Cole probably didn't mean to punch him as hard as he did; the black ninja didn't always know his own strength. But, for a second, one singular moment, Jay was overcome with anger. He wanted more than anything to wipe that smirk off the ghost's face, and so he shoved Cole as hard as he could- reflected that pent up frustration into a powerful retaliatory shove.
If only Cole had been expecting it. If only Jay's hands had phased through him. If only Cole hadn't tripped over a tree root. If only he hadn't tumbled over the ledge.
If only there hadn't been a pond of water at the bottom.
Too late, Jay realized his mistake. He lunged att Cole's hand to pull him up and hug him and tell him he was sorry and then laugh because man, that was a close call.
He could've sworn he felt Cole's fingertips, but the black ninja had already fallen too far to reach. Cole, at the same time, seemed to realize his fate and the inevitability of what was about to happen. And, that was the worst part: his face as he looked back at Jay one last time.
He was so, so scared.
A splash of water sounded from far below. And then, silence.
"Guys, what's going on back there?" He distantly heard Lloyd call. The others had left them behind a long time ago but had apparently backtracked when they noticed their absence. "Will you two quit goofing off? I swear-" Lloyd stopped when he saw Jay's face. "Jay? Where's Cole?"
Jay couldn't even see the four- five, shouldn't there be five? Nya and four brothers so where- where- where- the four ninja gathered around him in a loose, increasingly concerned circle. All he could see was Cole's face- he was so scared…
"Jay?" Nya repeated, touching his shoulder. "You're scaring us." Cole, Cole was scared, Cole was scared because of what he did. "Did something happen? Where did Cole go?"
"Cole?" Kai called, cupping his hands around his mouth to increase the volume. "Cole, reappear now. If this is a prank, it's not funny."
Zane cocked his head, peering at Jay in curiosity. The blue ninja seemed to be staring into space, but maybe… The nindroid carefully bent over to look over the side of the ledge. Cole, Cole, should be there, Cole's down there waiting to make fun of him for thinking...
Zane grabbed the front of Jay's gi in both fists, eliciting protests from Lloyd and Nya. "Jay, answer me." Each word was punctuated with an intensity that made Jay want to curl up and hide forever. "Did he fall?"
Only then did tears begin to pour down his cheeks. "No," he choked out, shaking his head frantically.
"I pushed him."
Zane and Lloyd were immediately skidding down the face of the slope, sloshing knee deep into the pond and searching- searching for what? There was nothing to find- and calling Cole's name desperately as if that would be enough to bring him back…
Kai took Zane's place directly in front of Jay, grabbing his shoulders so hard Jay was sure he broke skin- it was less than he deserved. "Jay. Jay, please tell me this is a prank." Kai's eyes glistened with unshed tears, but Jay couldn't look away. "No one's going to be mad if this is a prank."
"Kai...," Nya said in a reproachful tone of voice, wiping her face with her sleeve.
Jay whispered, another sob escaping with the word. "I killed him."
Kai went deathly still for an instant.
Then, he punched Jay in the face. There was no resistance.
"How could you be so stupid?!" The red ninja roared. Jay hit the ground on his back, all the wind knocked out of him. He couldn't bring himself to care.
"Kai!" Nya shrieked. "Stop!"
But, it was too late. The red ninja was on top of Jay, his both knuckles pounding at the soft flesh of Jay's face over and over. The blue ninja was numb, disembodied. He felt as if he were watching from afar, a bystander experiencing justice. He decided he liked the throbbing pain in his cheek.
"How could you, Jay?" Kai was sobbing too now as he jerked Jay up and down off the ground by the collar of his gi. "He was our brother. You shouldn't have- You should've done something- You should've saved-"
The words meant nothing to Jay. He'd already thought them.
"Kai, stop! It was an accident!" Nya begged, shoving her brother off Jay, then kneeling by the blue ninja's side.
The Kai was back on his feet in an instant and made to lunge at the murderer again- until Zane and Lloyd reappeared to restrain him.
Nya looked up hopefully. "Did you…?"
"No." Zane replied, his expression completely blank and his tone empty. "We did not."
"We have to go tell Master Wu," Lloyd input, readjusting his grip on the struggling Kai. "He'll know what to do. He can fix-"
"Cole is dead, Lloyd!" Kai yelled, finally yanking free of their hold but not attacking the blue ninja. Not that Jay would have cared if he had. "There's nothing to fix!"
Lloyd bit his lip and blinked, his eyes wet. "There has to be a way. There's always a way."
"Just like there was a way for your dad?"
Zane held up an arm, stopping Lloyd's advance toward Kai. "Do not," the Green Ninja growled, "bring my father into this."
"We need to go home," Nya interrupted before the argument could escalate any further. "We need to tell Master Wu. We need to… There are a lot of things to do." She finished quietly.
Zane began walking back the way they had come.
Kai and Lloyd glared at each other a moment longer before the fire ninja looked away with a grunt of disgust and followed Zane.
Lloyd and Nya helped Jay to his feet. He followed them. He moved his feet. He watched the ground, but all he could see was Cole's face.
He was so scared.
Master Wu listened, stoic, as Lloyd recounted the story back on the Destiny's Bounty. He did not move to comfort the boy when he broke down in tears halfway through but waited silently as Misako calmed him down. Nya took up the yarn instead, barely managing to finish it herself.
They were gathered in a group on the deck. Kai was turned slightly away, arms crossed over his chest and staring out into the distance, a poisonous glare on his face. Zane seemed absent, staring at everyone and everything with this oddly perplexed look on his face, like he had never seen any of them before. Jay, who had returned to himself a bit more a couple miles back, stared at the deck in shame as tears leaked out of his hollow, frozen eyes. He wanted to tend to his aching cheek but quickly decided he didn't deserve to.
When Nya stopped, Lloyd stepped forward. "But, there's a way to fix it, right? I mean, there is a way to bring Cole back, right? He's a ghost. He can't die." Then, as if no one had heard him the first time, he repeated, "He can't die."
Wu took a deep breath before answering. "I… do not know the answer to that question."
Everyone looked up with hope in their eyes. Because if it wasn't a no, then it was a maybe, and the ninja had succeeded on a lot less than maybe in the past.
Everyone except for Kai, who spit, "Water kills ghosts. That's how it is."
"Coming into contact with water forces ghosts to return to the realm from which they came," Wu corrected, stroking his beard. "This was true when there was a Cursed Realm for the ghosts to return to; the same would hold true for the Realm of the Departed. But, this is where the uncertainty lies. Cole was never sent to the Realm of the Departed in the first place. His soul is likely not tethered there."
"So… he's still here then?" Lloyd asked, face brightening.
"As I said, I do not know," Wu shook his head sadly, and suddenly he appeared much, much older than he actually was. "Coming into contact with water may have sent Cole's soul to the Realm of the Departed anyway. He may reappear right here in the Destiny's Bounty. Or, his soul may have simply... faded from existence altogether." Wu turned away, shuffling toward his quarters.
"But, Sensei," Nya called after him. "What do we do?"
"We wait," Master Wu answered, coming to a stop. "We hope Cole returns on his own. If he does not… you have no one to blame but yourselves." Only then was the pain present in the old man's voice, and he quickly left to mourn in private.
Lloyd let Misako lead him below deck even as he insisted to her that Cole would be back in no time.
Jay gasped when Kai shoved him hard in the chest. "Master Wu's right. You have no one to blame but yourself," he snarled and stomped toward his own bedroom. Nya glanced back and forth between her brother and Jay before sighing and choosing the former, rushing after him.
Jay started when he felt a hand grasp his wrist. Zane was looking back at him with that same eerily neutral expression, never looking more like a nindroid in Jay's mind. Without saying a word, he dragged the blue ninja toward the kitchen, and Jay followed like a dog on a leash.
Zane sat Jay down in a chair at the kitchen table and prepared a bag of ice for him. He wrapped it in a cloth and then sat beside him, holding the ice to his bruised and swollen cheek.
"Zane," was all Jay could manage before he broke down in tears again. Through his sobs, he asked, "Do you hate me?"
The pressure on his cheek increased to an almost painful level before relaxing once again. After an eternity, the nindroid sighed. "No."
"Why not?" Jay said, pushing the ice away from his face. He didn't want to treat the bruise. He would wear it as a reminder of what he'd done. "Kai does. You should."
"While it was highly irresponsible and idiotic, it was still an accident," Zane answered, placing the bag of ice carefully on the table and staring at it a moment before raising his eyes to meet Jay's.
"He would not want us to hate you."
Then, Jay was bawling in Zane's arms, gasping for air as he cried, "I'm sorry, Cole. I'm so so sorry. Can you ever forgive me? Can you ever forgive me for killing you…?"