There were pieces of steel still in his hair.
As he gently pressed his hand against Lloyd's body to help maneuver him onto the awaiting stretcher and blood seeped from his skin into his glove, all he could focus on were the stage lights catching on the flecks of shards tucked into his blonde hair.
Cole knew that it was because focusing on how ruthless and bold Zeatrix had been with her blow or the shallow breathing coming from the still bleeding chest of his teammate would result in tears that he didn't want anyone to see.
When the security bots lifted the stretcher and he heard a sharp inhale coming from Lloyd, he couldn't stop himself from reaching over and pulling one of the shards out of his loose, green headband, holding it tightly in his palm.
He couldn't bring himself to move until a familiar titanium hand rested on his shoulder, forcing him to look up into bright, artificial blue eyes that were full of the same worry he could feel wrapping around his chest.
"We should return to our quarters," Zane's suggestion was gentle as he prodded Cole's shoulder gently to move him away from the bloodied ground under their feet, "I am confident that the medical bots will alert us when they have an update on Lloyd's condition."
He wordlessly led the way to their sleeping quarters, unable to stop himself from walking over to the shrine Nya had made before she had left and looking up at the pictures of Kai and Jay as he knelt down, setting the shard on the table.
He knew that if Kai had been here, he would be the nervous wreck; he would be the one nearly ripping his hair out with worry, even if it was after he had gone to Zeatrix and delivered her a piece of his mind; with all of the trouble that they had gone to in order to stop Wyldfyre from fighting Cinder, Kai would have been unstoppable against Zeatrix.
But if Jay had been there, he would have lightened the air of dread with some sort of really bad joke or teasing at anyone's expense; it wouldn't even have to be that funny, but it would be something to break the tension.
The last thing he wanted was to put Lloyd's picture in between Kai's and Jay's, but that fear didn't stop him from pulling his lighter out of his pocket and gently pressing the flame to one of the sticks of incense until it caught, the warm smell of smoke slowly starting to fill the corner he was kneeling in.
"Cole?"
Cole turned his head, feeling his guard drop when Geo knelt down beside him and pressed a water bottle into his palm before letting his hand rest on his shoulder.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Geo offered and as much as Cole wanted to, the angle of his turned head allowed him to see Wyldfyre, Sora, Arin and even Zane with the same looks of worry on their faces that told him that he wouldn't be able to break right now.
"I can't," he admitted as he took a sip of the water before looking away from the others and back into Geo's eyes, "I gotta take care of these kids."
With that, he started to pull himself to his feet, only to be stopped briefly by a gentle hand on his wrist, "take care of yourself too."
"I will." Cole insisted before fully standing up and walking towards Sora, keeping his voice low as he approached, "hey, Sora."
Her loud sniffle, followed by her wiping her face on her arm, before she made eye contact with him pulled at his heart painfully, "hey, I just…I'm trying to figure out tomorrow."
"Your next fight?"
"There aren't a lot of people left in the competition. Frack's powers are all correlated to his abilities and Nokt is incredibly powerful, not to mention the fact that they are both helping Ras; if Lloyd is able to continue competing and they put me against him…" Sora sighed as she looked down at her feet, "I don't even know how I got this far in the tournament."
"Besides the fact that you're a badass?" Cole offered, waiting until she looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, "you doubt yourself a lot, Sora, but you have gotten further than all of us except Lloyd, which is saying something since we've been in a tournament like this before."
"Really?"
"Yeah, except this one has rules that the host actually follows," Cole elaborated, "my point is that if anyone is going to win this thing, it's you. If you have to go against Frack, I know how the workarounds to earth based powers and if it's Nokt, we'll come up with a strategy with Zane."
"And Lloyd?"
"I already had to watch two of my best friends fight on opposite sides, I really hope Roby doesn't pit you two against each other."
"I've been thinking about that since we returned to our quarters," Cole nearly jumped out of his skin by the sudden intrusion of Zane's voice as he sat between the two of them, "and I have run the possible scenarios through my database. There is a sixty seven point nine percent chance that Lloyd and Nokt will be pitted against each other, due to their very powerful skill sets at their base level that has only been amplified by the addition of elemental powers which will result in a twenty percent increase in audience entertainment levels."
"But what if they pit me against Lloyd?"
"The likelihood is much lower, it's a thirty two point one percent chance, but including the fact that Lloyd is your master and the engagement from the fight between Nya and Jay, the audience entertainment levels could increase up to eighty percent."
"So it could really go either way." Cole sighed in defeat that was only added to by Zane's nod followed by one word.
"Precisely."
"I hate this," Sora shuddered, tears falling down her cheeks faster than she could wipe them away, "Nya and Riyu are gone, Arin won't talk to me, and now Lloyd is really, really hurt. I just want all of this to be over."
"Yeah, me too, kiddo."
"I know everyone says that ninja never quit…" she trailed off in order to pull a sniffly inhale, "but I really feel like quitting right now."
"I know that you feel hopeless but forfeiting the tournament now, especially if Lloyd is unable to fight tomorrow, would be catastrophic to our reasoning for coming here."
"Zane's right," Cole agreed, reaching over to gently squeeze Sora's shoulder, "we have to find out who is killing the matriarchs and what they are using their horns for."
"This isn't helping me feel bet-" Sora mumbled, but was effectively cut off by the sound of the door opening followed by two of the security bots making their way into the room.
"Can we be of assistance?" Zane offered as he stood with Cole and Sora doing the same and Cole's feeling of unease returned just as quickly as it had been momentarily forgotten.
"We have been given orders to ensure that Zane and Cole follow us to the medical wing in order to receive information about the injured member of their team."
"What about the rest of us?" Arin's question was the first time Cole had heard the teen speak in hours, briefly making him wonder if Sora wasn't the only one on the receiving end of his silent treatment.
"I apologize, but the only ones allowed inside of the medical wing are adult team members. You will have to wait here for the information to be relayed to you."
Cole waited for a protest from the three teens, but was instantly relieved when Geo spoke up instead, "let's get you three some dinner ordered. I don't know if you've had it yet, but the Merlopian spring rolls are to die for."
As the two security bots led Cole and Zane outside, he couldn't stop himself from looking back at his boyfriend and the three distracted teenagers, but the wink that Geo gave was enough for Cole to allow himself to focus on the task at hand.
Making sure Lloyd was okay.
…
In a way, he was thankful that Arin had pulled him away from the arena after Sora's fight.
Cole would be more than happy to go the rest of his life without seeing another person he loved deep within a coma and even though he was quickly swept up into yet another fight, it prevented him from going back to the room filled with tense silence and suffering.
In fact, it was that adrenaline that he found himself engulfed in, that kept him realizing that Lloyd was 'awake and alive and standing' until after he had pulled Bonzle into a very tight hug, unable to stop himself from muttering "thank the master you're okay" just loud enough that she could hear it.
Which made the calm he settled into after failing to find Arin all the more unsettling; in any other circumstance, he would have gladly taken the chance to just relax on the couch with Geo's head on one shoulder while he firmly wrapped the other one around Bonzle as Fritz and Spitz recounted everything they had been up to while they had been staying at the monastery with Frohickey.
He so desperately wanted to keep his focus on the elaborate but more than likely exaggerated story he was being told, but his mind kept going back to Lloyd.
The sword shattering on impact, knocking him off of the high platform from several feet onto the ground with a thud. The harsh coughing and his eyes fluttering open with a squint before they closed with a groan. Geo's hand resting softly on his shoulder as he watched over Lloyd and gently wiped away the blood and sweat with a sponge, his stomach twisting painfully as he listened to the sharp, painful breathing escaping from Lloyd's battered chest.
Standing over his teammate, the teammate he had known since they were sixteen and nine, and once again unable to do anything to help, feeling as though he was thirteen again and slowly watching his mom deteriorate until she too fell into a coma.
'Lloyd woke up,' he tried to reassure himself when he felt a squeeze on his left hand from Geo that brought him back to the two yawning storytellers, 'Lloyd's going to be okay.'
But when Bonzle got up with an "alright, you can talk our ears off tomorrow," as she ushered Fritz and Spitz to their room, Cole wasn't able to shake the unsettled feeling in his gut.
"When was the last time you checked on him?" Geo prodded, using the opportunity to sit up and brush some of the raven-black hair behind Cole's ear.
"Before Sora's fight. After that, everything got really chaotic; now Arin's gone," Cole stopped to rub a hand over his face before turning to Geo with a sigh, "and I don't know how I'm going to even approach that."
"In my personal experience, starting with a hug tends to work."
"Yeah, yeah, you're right," Cole muttered as he stood, only stopping to turn around to hug Geo quickly along with a quick kiss on his cheek, "I'll be back, okay?"
"Just make sure he's okay."
And with Geo's insistence, he walked out of the living room and into the hallway of the monastery to start looking for Lloyd.
He should have known it wouldn't take long to find him; even in the short period since he had returned to the monastery, it wasn't lost on him just how much time Lloyd spent outside deep in meditation.
But when he got closer and noticed what Lloyd was holding, he couldn't help but swallow nervously: he knew when he went to check on him that his worry and regret for how that final battle went being at the forefront of his mind was a strong possibility, but being face-to-face with it still made him aware that how he approached the green ninja would have to be very careful.
"Hey, buddy," Cole settled on, trying his hardest to keep his demeanor calm and collected in order not to further set him off despite the instant jump and turn that his voice caused, "you doing okay?"
At first, he didn't get an answer as he looked down at the stone floor; but the look on Lloyd's face, which was twisted tightly with guilt and worry, spoke for itself.
And when he finally managed to speak, the crack in his voice made it very clear to Cole that he was using all of his remaining energy to stay composed, "he's gone. I don't know why he believed Ras, but he did. Now he's gone, all because I failed him."
"Lloyd-"
"And I don't know what to do. Sora, Riyu and Wyldfyre, they're all looking to me for answers that I don't even have. I don't even know where to begin looking for him or if I want to bring everyone into that or just go-"
"Lloyd, take a deep breath," Cole cut off his rambling, "it has been a really long couple of weeks and I know you want to find Arin so you can make things right, but all of us need a couple of days to breathe and to rest."
"Y-you're right," Lloyd stuttered as he looked down at the photo frame clutched tightly in his palm, "I know that, but at the same time…I want to find him before Ras has a chance to further manipulate him. We saw what he did to Jay."
Cole swallowed down the memory of Jay's glowing red eyes after he used Shatterspin, not wanting it to cloud his judgment, "you have to finish healing, Lloyd. That hit and the fall, it was a lot."
Sure enough, Lloyd's hand drifted upwards to his shoulder over the bandages that had been wrapped tightly around him in the aftermath of his fight against Zeatrix.
"Come on," Cole offered, holding his hand out for Lloyd to take, "let's get you checked over and in bed. It's been a long day."
"I thought I was the master of the monastery." Lloyd said with a light chuckle as he put down the picture frame before taking Cole's hand so he could get down the step before he gently wrapped his arm around him.
"You are, but even masters need someone to look after them," and for a brief moment, Cole was reminded of watching with worry at every unexpected movement that Wu would make after he had been found, "now let's get those bandages changed."
