(A/N): It's only been ... a million years! Whoops, sorry. And I meant to upload this earlier, but then FFN had to go and break. Perfect timing, right?
So yeah, it's been forever ... and I'm sorry. ^^; I really appreciate the patience. Honestly, I have a bunch of back-up chapters after this, all the way from NaNoWriMo, but I've been stalling super hard on revising. It's so hard ... and I keep picking and adding and removing specific elements of plot and this is hard, guys. :T
Also, I've gone and added more comprehensive content warnings to the A/N in chapter 1, if anyone's interested!
This chapter's a doozy, though. Whoo! I hope it makes up for the wait! Sorry if it doesn't, but without further ado ...
The sound of a door creaking shut echoed for a moment before dying away.
Zane sighed. They'd been here not even a day, and already this — searching for what should have already been with them, trying to keep the pieces together— was beginning to feel worrisomely familiar.
"He isn't over there, either," Cole called, hastily striding over to him. From his tense gait and the set of his jaw, it was clear that he was ill at ease being out in the open, unprotected expanse of hallways.
Zane understood.
They'd been in the open yesterday, too, after all.
And look what had happened.
"You wouldn't happen to have been any luckier, have you?" Cole asked hopefully. In the dim light their flashlights cast, Zane almost didn't catch the subtle way Cole's face fell when he shook his head.
"We'll just have to keep looking, then," Cole resolved, moving further down the hallway. Zane fell into step behind him. He would have been using the light beams from his eyes to illuminate the space in front of them, but PIXAL had already warned him that he had not charged nearly enough over the few hours they'd had and likely did not have the energy to expend on non-essential functions.
The flashlight would have to suffice.
"Huh. Where is Jay?" Cole waved the light in his hand around as he walked. "I figured he'd have met up with us by now; the only rooms we checked were the ones in this hallway."
"It definitely should not take so long. Perhaps he's on his way now."
"I hope you're right, for all our sakes. I … don't know what we'll do if he's missing, too." Despite Cole's attempt to keep his voice steady, Zane could hear the unsettled uncertainty behind it — uncertainty that he shared — and felt a quiet admiration for his brother.
He was afraid, Zane knew. Of this place, of their circumstances. Of what was unfolding in front of their eyes. And yet he was trying to be resolute and focus on the situation at hand for their sakes.
It was incredibly brave of him.
"I'm certain he's alright." Granted, he didn't entirely believe it himself. But he tried to maintain the conviction, for both of them.
A few more steps. Zane held his hand out in front of Cole, stopping him from moving. At the other's questioning look, he wordlessly pointed his light at a large, jaggedly torn section of the wooden floor, and waggled his finger in a semicircle. Move around it. Cole nodded, and they both carefully trod around the damaged floor, yet another reminder to the shoddiness of the building they were trapped in.
"So. We have the entire left half of this floor left to poke our heads into," Cole started at length. "And so far, no sign of Kai. What kind of abyss did he disappear into last night?"
"A ridiculously hard-to-find one," a familiar voice grumbled.
Both of them turned at once.
"Jay!"
"What took you so long?" Cole immediately started. "We were starting to think you'd gotten into trouble or something!"
"Psh." Jay waved a dismissive hand. "Me, trouble?"
Two unimpressed looks were shot his way. Jay looked like he wanted to protest, but after a moment he shut his mouth and grudgingly muttered, "That's fair."
"He has a point, though, Jay," Zane said. "Did something hold you up?"
"Nah, I was just looking around for Kai. I musta searched every other unlocked room on this floor," the blue ninja declared.
They froze for a moment.
… Jay had never been meant to go into all the rooms.
Zane voiced this. Cole followed up emphatically.
"Mind telling me exactly what you were thinking?"
"So I got a little too caught up looking," Jay said flippantly. "So what? That's less rooms to search."
Cole's eyes flashed.
"That's not how it works! There's a reason we stuck to this hallway first. Did yesterday teach you nothing?"
"Relaaax, would you?" Jay grumbled. Cole's frown deepened.
"Relax? We're in a creepy haunted mansion, and you're an idiot, apparently. " Cole elbowed him none too gently, and Jay toppled over with a theatrical cry. "Not you, Zane, you're good. You on the other hand — oh come off it, I didn't hit you that hard — are doing nothing to ease my concerns. What if something had happened to you?"
"Well, nothing happened," Jay huffed, pulling himself up and brushing his gi off. "I'm perfectly a-ok; you can quit worrying now."
"And you're so sure of that, aren't you?" Cole's tone had taken on an agitated edge, and Jay's face remained a stony glower. Zane nervously glanced between the both of them. "Because if you're gonna be so reckless, I wouldn't be."
"Reckless? I'm making this that much faster for us!" Jay bit back sharply. "We don't have to search nearly as many rooms this way! If you're going to talk about reckless, you really oughta spare a thought for —" Jay's voice wavered. "For Kai."
He would look neither of them in the eye as he whirled on his heel and hurried onward.
Zane blinked and stared after Jay's curled shoulders, taking a moment to process what he had just witnessed play out.
Kai? He had definitely been reckless yesterday, charging the spirit head-on. But somehow, that didn't seem to be what Jay was referring to.
Was Kai reckless to take over Jay's watch, or whatever it was that had led to him going missing? Was Jay upset that, as he himself had put it, Kai had coerced him into it? But Zane had not been present last night to see exactly how everything had gone down. And it felt like more than that. More like what he was upset about …
"Well?" Jay halted briefly and turned towards them, his voice low and deliberately flat. "Are you coming or not?"
… was that he'd let himself be coerced.
"When are you going to tell him?" PIXAL flickered into being on his screen.
The only room left to search on this floor was the large hall with several art pieces on display — the art gallery, as Jay had called it. So Jay and Cole had gone in to look, and Zane had volunteered to keep a watch for anything strange outside.
"Not yet," Zane sighed. "The issue of Kai having gone missing is obviously weighing very heavily on everyone's minds. Now is not a good time to bring it up."
PIXAL didn't respond at first. Then:
"Very well, Zane. I understand. But soon, please." Then the pixels giving her form on his monitor vanished.
Dust shifted on the floor, softly lit. Zane's eyes traveled to the nearest window — when they had begun searching, it had been completely dark, but now hints of soft blue were beginning to tinge the sky. Daybreak would be soon.
Then, quickly, his head shot up. He'd heard noises, and they hadn't been from the gallery. He wondered if it would be wise to leave the two to search. But he couldn't just ignore what he was hearing, could he? It could be important, perhaps even something relating to Kai, or a sign of trouble, or …
He felt slightly guilty wandering off in such a dangerous place. He would just have to be quick.
Following the noise led him to the interior balcony that overlooked the first floor. He looked down, and his eyes widened.
It hadn't been a difficult decision, really.
There was little time to stop and think when his little brother was in so big a predicament. So he'd tossed down two shuriken and his backpack to buy himself time, jumped, and spun right onto the spirit's head. Then he stabbed some of its eyes with a knife, jumped out of the way and grabbed onto the balustrade of the stairs before it could hit him back, and smoothly slid the rest of the way down on the railing before landing.
The spirit's attention was completely on him now.
"Zane!" A relieved voice cried.
He took in how worn Lloyd looked. The other ninja had been fighting alone for a while, and it showed, with the state of his gi and the sweat glistening on his skin. With some concern, he noticed Skylor holding her head next to him.
Then he looked back to the spirit, which was visibly near the end of its line.
He'd been so certain that he and Jay had finished it off yesterday. He'd spoken too soon, then.
Perhaps it could regenerate? Or maybe that was not the case, and there were just multiple such spirits roaming the area.
Neither option was particularly palatable.
"Lloyd! It's good to see you," he greeted the other ninja, with a twirl of his shuriken. "And I do believe you've done quite a number on this spirit. Allow me to finish it off for you."
"Gladly," Lloyd panted, letting his back hit the wall. "I'm not sure what you're doing here so soon, but … boy am I glad to see you right now."
"We can discuss that later! There's a lot to catch up on. But for now … !" He let himself trail off, aiming shuriken at the spirit's eyes and into its mouth. It cried out angrily as they exploded, and the sound was just as he remembered from yesterday. But it sounded so tortured … he winced, but reminded himself to be resolute, and kept attacking.
It had been very close to seriously hurting Lloyd, after all.
For just a few seconds, a carpet of eyes, shimmering with malice, all stared right into his own, and he felt keenly that it recognized him, somehow.
Was this the same spirit, then, capable of regeneration?
It was moving to claw at him with its legs now, and Zane twisted into Spinjitzu and spun out of its way, his sapped energy starting to make itself known. (While he would likely last the rest of the day with what was left of his stores, recharging so little couldn't become a habit.)
It was a close call — for a terrifying instant, he was far too close to its chest looming above him, long, foggy arms lashing out and hitting anything unlucky enough to be in their path. Maybe he could get in a damaging blow —
Blade-sharp claws shredded the arm of his gi.
Or maybe not.
Zane scrambled out of reach, striking out with shuriken at anything that tried to get to him and assuring a concerned Lloyd that he was alright.
More arms blew off with the next explosion, leaking dark ectoplasm onto the wooden floor. In lieu of a sword, he carefully summoned as much ice as he could, sharpening it to a deadly point. Jumping up with Airjitzu, he parried away all the attacks coming his way, then drove his makeshift sword straight into one of its eyes. Before it could hit back, he leapt out of the way and threw a few more shuriken, aiming for more eyes. If he was right about those being a weakness, then—
Having had enough of this harassment, the spirit screeched (and the sound was grossly distorted through his auditory processors), finally vanishing like it had yesterday.
— Yes, he had been right. Wasn't he always?
Now that that was finished, he turned to Lloyd and extended a hand. Lloyd took it gratefully, pulling himself up, before helping a shaky Skylor up too.
"That was incredible, Zane!"
"Yeah," Skylor chimed in quietly. "You really looked like you knew what you were doing."
"Thank you. As a matter of fact, I already fought it once yesterday," he replied.
"Really?" Lloyd asked. "We just ran into it — wait, yesterday?"
"Yes … what is it?"
"How could you have been here a whole day? We just got here. I just texted Kai, that's … there's a pretty long walk between the last village and here, how did you make it so quickly?"
Zane pondered it a moment. It was quite strange …
"We have a place where we can safely sit and discuss this. But first, you two require medical attention. Now."
Almost as if on cue, Jay came shooting down the stairs, Cole not far behind. "Zane! There you are! Are you okay, why did you just — whooa is that LLOYD—"
"Hey," Lloyd greeted, grinning tiredly.
"It seems we were wrong about not having to worry about any more trouble, Jay," Zane informed him. "He was being attacked when I showed up. I heard noise, so I looked and … I'm sorry for leaving with no warning, but I had to help him."
"It's … well, it's not okay," Cole sighed. "But all's well that ends well, right? And hey, now we don't have to worry about where these guys disappeared off to anymore!" he said, gently clapping Lloyd's shoulder and pulling him into a side hug. Zane noticed him making a face and trying not to buckle under the earth ninja's hand. "... Hey, wait, where's Karlof? Isn't he supposed to be with you?"
"Uh …" Lloyd hesitated for a moment. "We don't know."
There was a moment of quiet as they processed this.
Then Jay broke it, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Oh, this is too good. That's two people just gone into the night!" There was a hint of thinly-masked irritation peeking through. "Ohhh, this is just perfect."
Lloyd's eyebrows went up, and he looked around briefly, seeming to notice something.
Ohh. Right. They would have to explain that once they were in a safer area.
"Skylor, are you alright?" Zane asked, diverting everyone's attention. She responded with a low moan, still cradling her head.
"It tore me up pretty bad."
"I would suspect a concussion," Zane noted.
"This just keeps getting worse and worse, huh?" Cole sighed ruefully. "That was a really close call, you two — Lloyd, you're hurt!"
"Yeah, well, I'm fine," Lloyd muttered. "Don't be worrying about me."
"You're bleeding."
"She's hurt worse."
Cole frowned but said no more, instead opting to approach Skylor and help her up.
"Alright, we can go back to where we stayed the night and fix you guys up, then we can have a little chat about everything that's happened so far. Because from the looks on your faces, we need to have one." When no one protested, he turned and walked up the stairs carefully, Skylor in tow.
"Would you like some support as well?" Zane asked Lloyd. He was waved off.
"There's no need; I can walk." Lloyd stumbled the first few steps, but steadied himself quickly. Behind them, Jay grabbed the broken halves of a crossbow and arrows littering the floor. Zane picked his backpack up and checked it over.
And so they made their way back to the second floor.
The antiseptic that had been applied to his assorted injuries still stung as Lloyd processed everything he'd just heard.
The look on his face must've given away what he was thinking, because Jay took one look and gave him a sympathetic smile. "Yeaah, it's a lot."
Like the rest of them, he kept his voice low — Skylor had been adamant on getting explanations, concussion or not, so she sat quietly as Zane tended to her, doing her best to listen.
She did not mess around, that was for sure.
(The initial explanation he'd gotten was "You might have noticed there's a giant crazy ghost thing walking around. You might have noticed it's trying to kill us. You noticed correct." Reaaal enlightening, thanks, Jay.)
"Believe me," Cole spoke up, "we still haven't completely wrapped our heads around it, either."
"Alright, but there's still one thing that doesn't make sense. How come you've been here an entire day? We just got here," Lloyd asked, brow furrowed.
"Well, it wasn't quite an entire day …" Jay said.
"Either way. Search me," Cole said. "We set off after Kai got your text, so we thought you'd already be here."
Kai.
Kai who was missing since last night. Kai who'd apparently injured his arm.
It was exactly the sort of predicament his big brother would get himself into, wasn't it? But if he was lost somewhere, alone, while that thing was roaming the place…
That thought couldn't end pleasantly. He tried to banish it, reassure himself that Kai was fine.
It was ridiculous to think otherwise, right?
Kai was strong. He'd handled way worse than a haunted mansion.
Even if …
His mind went back to how he'd had to fight tooth-and-nail to keep the upper hand, even with his powers. How close he'd come to … actually, he didn't really want to consider it.
He suppressed a shudder.
"Uh, earth to Lloyd?"
"Huh?" He looked up.
"You alright? You look a little spaced-out."
"Oh. Uh, yeah."
"Hey." Jay's voice softened. "Kai's tough, he's probably okay. It's a huge place, maybe he's just a little lost."
"... Right." Lloyd tried to turn back to the topic at hand. "It was such a long trek, though. There's no way you made it here and spent the night in the time it took for us to walk inside, that's just impossible!"
"Both of us keep insisting that we did things according to plan, but if that was true, you should've been here before us," Cole mused.
"Either one of us isn't remembering something right, or there's another mystery that we need to solve."
"Another one. Like there wasn't enough to deal with before."
"Ya know, I'm starting to wonder if electricity isn't the only reason the watches broke," Jay muttered.
Lloyd opened his mouth, and then shut it, trying to make sense of what Jay was implying, before opening it again. "What if he has a point?"
"What are you suggesting, Lloyd? Time travel?" Cole snorted.
"No no, hear me out, that's not what I was saying," he said impatiently. "Everything looks like it went normally up until we got here, right? Because you only set off after I texted you guys."
"Yeah …?"
"But then once we stepped inside, everything went all out of whack. So it's got to be tied to something happening here."
"Just like everything else," Jay sighed. "Figures."
"And what's been messing with everything else here?"
"... Magic," Cole groaned. "You're suggesting that the very fabric of time is being messed with, and it's because of magic."
"Wait." They all turned to Skylor, who was trying to process what she was hearing. "Magic?"
"Yeah. Apparently there's a bunch of magic around here messing with … everything, basically. It's getting real old," Jay explained. Lamp light flickered on his face.
"Tell me about it."
"Hmm." A shadow crossed Skylor's face, but she said no more.
"That reminds me," Lloyd said. "It's messing with our powers too, right?"
"Yeah," Jay groaned. "Why do you remind us?"
Lloyd formed a green sphere of energy in his hands as the other two looked on questioningly. "I'm not having any problems."
"What!?" Jay exclaimed. "Oh, that is so unfair! How are you doing that?"
"I dunno," Lloyd said. "It was a little shaky at first, but it's pretty much normal otherwise."
"It's so much stronger than anything I can create," Cole grumbled.
"At least you still have powers," Skylor muttered wryly.
"... Heh. Yeah. Sorry. Well … this is a good thing! Just keep an eye out for anything changing, I guess. Oh, hey," Cole greeted Zane, who'd finished putting away the first-aid kit and was headed over now. "How are things looking?"
"Definitely a concussion," he confirmed, looking over at Skylor. "You should stay put and rest."
"I would love to do literally anything else, thanks," Skylor sighed, voice still strained with pain. "But I know I've got to, what other option do I have?"
"Is there anything else you could do, Zane?" Lloyd asked.
Zane shook his head. "Ideally, you should get your concussion properly looked at, but …"
Yeah, that probably wouldn't be happening anytime soon.
Not if they couldn't even leave.
"Well. Until then, we can look after you!" Jay said brightly.
"And keep watch," Cole added.
"That … won't be necessary," Skylor protested, still cradling her head in her hands and not doing a very convincing job of looking unbothered by it.
"You have a concussion?" he reminded her. "I've had a few of those before. They suck, so you're definitely not gonna wanna be moving at all."
"Yeah, no one's going anywhere right now," Jay confirmed.
Wait, what? Last Lloyd had checked, they'd been looking for Kai. He voiced this, and the fact that Karlof had gone missing, too, but Cole shook his head.
"I know, believe me. I wanna find them just as badly as you do, but we're no use to them if we just get ourselves hurt even more in the process. For now, we've gotta stay here. We can keep looking later."
"Also, if I remember correctly, you arrived here approximately in the evening," Zane mentioned. "After traveling all day and fighting as hard as you did, you need to rest. Especially you, Skylor."
Skylor looked ready to say something, but reconsidered it.
"And if someone stays behind to look after you two, there won't be enough people to look around. Safety in numbers, dude." Jay pointed out.
"I need to rest?" Lloyd protested. "What about you guys, weren't you here a whole day?"
"Weee spent a while sleeping. … But I mean, if I get to sleep more now, I'm not complaining."
"What, on the carpet? There's only two beds, you know," Cole asked him. He got an unconcerned shrug in way of reply.
"Our sleep schedules are gonna be all over the place by the time we're done here, aren't they?" Lloyd grumbled. Stuff like normal jet lag was bad enough. Adding a messed up timestream and sleeping at random hours of the day would be nightmarish; he could imagine it already.
"Yep." A wan grin from Jay.
It looked like that was it, then. Stifling a frustrated sigh, Lloyd took the free bed, absently mumbled "thanks" when Zane wished him good sleep, and tried to block out the quiet noise of the others talking amongst themselves.
Karlof had gone missing right under their noses. And it seemed the same had happened to Kai. And Skylor … he'd left her to fight with knives , of all the things. He might've known that the spirit would land a hit on her eventually.
He'd known something had struck him as suspicious about this place. Even before he'd entered it, and they'd still gone in. He should've listened to his instincts then. Told the others to call everything off.
But he hadn't, and now they were in serious danger. Even better, he'd made a bad decision and made things worse for everyone else.
This was all on him.
Lloyd spent a while more quietly berating himself before his aching limbs and exhaustion caught up to him. The hushed conversations happening around him dwindled to faint noise, then nothingness.
"Zane."
Zane sighed. By this point, he knew the drill.
"Excuse me for a moment. PIXAL wishes to speak to me about something."
"Oh, okay." He could feel the eyes of the other two curiously watching him get up.
"Yes, PIXAL?" Again, not spoken, but communicated internally.
"You heard Lloyd speaking, did you not? If his theory is correct, then that means—"
"That even time is being disrupted by magic," Zane finished, the implication finally hitting him. "I have to wonder how far its effects spread, if we are only being affected inside the mansion …"
"It is difficult to tell from inside. But if it is affecting even temporal energy, then it may very well be leaving nothing untouched."
"And how dangerous could that be?"
PIXAL wordlessly pulled up a line graph.
Zane's eyes widened — it was a graph tracking the levels of magic around Jay. With concern, he noted how the line fluctuated yet stayed medium-high throughout.
"And this pales in comparison to the magic concentrated in the air," PIXAL stated grimly. "How dangerous this will prove to be towards us, I do not know. But with this high a concentration of magic, with this abnormal a energy signature, anything could be possible. It would be wise to speak up."
Sobered by this fresh perspective, Zane finally approached Jay. He and Cole had been talking about something in quiet tones, but as he came closer they trailed off and looked up at him.
"Cole, if you could keep watch for a moment. Jay, may I speak to you alone?"
Cole glanced at him as if to say 'what did you do?' Jay shrugged, already beginning to look disquieted, and stood.
Zane stepped outside, closed the door behind both of them, and turned to Jay. Then he noticed the look on his face.
"I—Jay, is something wrong?"
"Nah." He fidgeted, and the lightness in his voice sounded forced. "So, what's up, Zane? Notice something you need fixed, or?"
"Nothing like that, thank you, I'm fine. I actually wanted to ask you if you were doing alright?"
Jay blinked, taken aback.
"Uh … yeah? There isn't a scratch on me. Totally a-ok! Why do you ask?"
Somehow, he just wasn't selling it. Zane tried to speak up, but almost at the drop of a hat, Jay's tone changed, carrying an edge that hadn't been there before.
"Say, why aren't you asking Cole any of this, huh? He's super out-of-it! So what're you singling me out for? It's because I'm supposed to be the wuss, isn't it?" Jay snapped. "Well, I'm fine, thanks for asking!" Regret flickered across Jay's face as soon as the words were out, but he didn't make any move to take them back, instead turning away and closing himself off.
… The words stung, even knowing that Jay was likely to get defensive.
He would tell him later, when he wasn't so wound-up. For now, though, it seemed unwise to reveal anything so unusual when Jay was already so agitated, not least because (he suspected) of his own feelings.
Zane waited a moment longer, trying to tell himself he shouldn't feel so hurt, then moved to open the door and go back inside. But before he could, Jay muttered something under his breath.
"What was that? I didn't quite catch it."
"... What are you being so nice for?" Jay said quietly. "You try to be a good friend and check up on me, and what do I do? Yell at you in the most uncalled-for way possible." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Zane."
"... We're all on-edge after what's been happening. It's understandable that you're upset," he said.
"On-edge, huh?" Jay laughed again, and just like before, there wasn't any mirth in it. "That obvious?"
"Jay —"
"Oh, no no no, you don't have to contradict me just to be nice, Zane, I know everyone's thinking it," Jay plowed on bitterly. "We run into something new and I immediately run away like the wimp I am! I can't get it together, I freak out instead of focusing on what's important; I mess up everything I'm supposed to be doing — I'm the weak link! I know already."
"Jay, none of us think that," Zane told him, alarmed.
He knew, of course, that Jay was more upset then he'd let on. He'd suspected it ever since his small outburst earlier that morning. But this … did he truly think they thought so lowly of him for one mistake?
"Oh yeah?" Jay's face dropped sullenly. "Why don't you ask Kai about that?"
And there it was.
"Jay …" The blue ninja wouldn't look at him. He continued anyway. "I hope you know that neither of us blame you for Kai's disappearance. Not Cole, and certainly not I."
Jay was quiet for a moment, staring at the floor. Zane observed him mutely, trying to think of what else he could say. He had never been the best one for handling emotions …
"... I hate this place."
He hadn't expected that.
Jay's voice was soft, but something in it was so unhappy that Zane immediately felt a wave of sympathy. He said nothing, however, only nodding when Jay's eyes flicked back up towards him.
Drawing a long, shaky breath, he continued.
"I know I already said that, but it's true. I hate how run-down and creepy it is, I hate what it's doing to Cole. I hate that there's weird magic messing with our powers, and our electronics, and us, and how scared I am all the time, and the fact that we're trapped, and that spirit. We thought it was gone, but it wasn't and now we have to run from it all the time! It almost got us, it almost got Skylor, it almost got Lloyd — … do you know how hard it was explaining to the kid that we let Kai get lost?" After a pause, Jay amended. "That I let Kai get lost—"
His voice cracked. Mortified, he wiped at his face with a sleeve, and Zane noticed that his eyes had started watering.
"Oh, I'm such a wimp."
Tentatively, Zane stepped forward. Forcing down a moment's trepidation, he pulled Jay into a hug. For a moment, he drew away. Then, he threw his arms around Zane, sniffling.
They just stood like that for a few moments, Jay's tears soaking through his gi.
"Cole was … t-trying to tell me that … this wasn't on me," Jay rasped quietly at length. Another hiccup. "B-but it was. It's my fault."
Zane tightened his hold, mechanical heart bleeding.
"Cole was right; this is not your fault. Kai chose to take your watch," he reminded Jay. "And if he does run into the spirit, he has enough sense not to fight it while injured. … Hopefully." He was rewarded with a weak laugh. "But we know he must be somewhere around here, and this many people can't possibly be in the same building without eventually running into each other. We'll find him."
A few moments passed with neither saying anything, until Jay spoke up again, voice thick.
"What if we never get out?"
Zane froze at the question, not answering immediately. Truthfully, he'd wondered and worried over the same idea. But that kind of thinking would only lead them to despair, so he'd tried to encourage himself. Now, carefully choosing his words, he attempted to do the same for Jay.
"A building this large must have more than one exit. We will find it, I'm confident."
He was decidedly not, but evidently he was doing a pretty good job faking it. It seemed to be working on Jay.
When a few minutes had passed, Zane noticed him squirming a little, and let go. Once free, Jay rubbed his eyes, looking a little embarrassed but not as nervous as he had before.
"I … thanks, Zane. I kinda needed that." A rueful grin briefly flashed across Jay's face, before it dropped back into a more somber expression.
It didn't suit him to look so miserable. But he looked to be feeling at least a little better, thankfully.
"Anytime. If you're ready to go back inside …"
"... Zane." PIXAL. "Come on. You can't just drop it."
"One moment, please," Zane said, ducking away to talk to PIXAL. He got a curious look from Jay, but no questions were asked. "PIXAL, perhaps we could bring this up another time?"
"I don't understand why you are attempting to put this off now. This is the entire reason you brought Jay out alone."
"I just managed to cheer him up …" And even then, it was a very dubious definition of "cheer".
"Please. It might not make him feel any better, but he needs to know."
"... Fine." Turning back to Jay, Zane said, "There is one more thing we need to talk about, actually."
"Ohh, no." The watery look he got was a mix of teasing and wariness. "What is it now?"
"Yesterday, PIXAL picked up high amounts of magic settled on this mansion."
"Yeahh, I remember," Jay said, face suggesting he was trying to piece together what this had to do with the heart-to-heart he'd been having not even a minute ago. "And?"
"Well … she also detected it surrounding you."
"You're kidding."
Well, that did it. With that reaction, any possibility of there being a simple relation between the two evaporated.
"I'm afraid not."
"The … the same magic, that's screwing with everything in this mansion. And keeping us trapped. And it's on me?" Jay asked nervously. "Heh. That … that sounds pretty bad."
A beat.
"That's bad, right? Ohmigosh ohmigosh how do we get it off—"
"I don't know if there is any way to 'get it off' …" Zane admitted regretfully. "But we can monitor this magic and see if it is having any negative effect," he added when he noticed the apprehensive expression on Jay's face.
"I guess," Jay said, fiddling with his hands. "I … wow, this is creepy. I don't know how I feel about it."
"Well, it doesn't seem to be having any effect now!" Zane reassured him (although he wondered, fleetingly, if it wasn't already unconsciously affecting him). "It would be counterproductive to spend too much time worrying about this. I simply wanted to make sure you knew."
"Thanks …" Jay drawled flatly.
"Perhaps I should let everyone else know about this development, as well," Zane mused. "Just so they are aware —"
"Uh, wait —" Jay burst out, loud enough to startle him. "Actually, w-would you mind keeping it between us for now?"
Zane blinked, taken aback by the request.
The blue ninja hastily clarified, as if sensing his confusion. "I mean, just until we have a better idea what's up! 'Cuz this is already kinda scary, and if the others freak out or make a huge fuss, I dunno if I can handle it …" He threw in a nervous chuckle at the end.
He made a good point.
"Very well; I understand. I do not know that it is a good idea to keep this secret indefinitely, but for the time being, this stays between us," he agreed. "But if you notice anything off, please let me know."
"Will do," Jay promised. "Thanks, Zane. Oh! Uh, you don't have to do this now, but … maybe you could check on Cole sometime? Kinda do this with him, too?" Jay snuck a glance through the door and lowered his voice even more. "I know he's trying to act all in-control, but I think he's still a little messed up from what a close call it was with Lloyd. And I don't blame him."
"Cole does seem quite anxious; I'll keep it in mind. Thank you, Jay."
Jay blinked. "What are you thanking me for? I should be thanking you! Man, you're making me feel lousy about myself here." He caught a look at Zane's face and huffed. "Not … I didn't mean that literally. I should be good for a while, now that I got that off my chest."
"That's good. Let's go back inside," Zane urged. "I might have just finished the spirit off again, but it's better to be safe than sorry right now. We aren't truly safe as long as it's roaming around."
"True …" Jay wiped at his face with his sleeve. When he noticed Zane looking, he said, "What? I'm not about to announce to all of Ninjago that I was crying."
Zane didn't say anything, instead opening the door and following Jay back inside.