Chapter 13: Of Course She is

The Bone Keeper applauded as his seven customers were thrust back into reality and out of the illusions of their deepest darkest secrets. Now, the true show began. Jay glanced back and forth guiltily, like he was afraid to get caught doing something bad. Nya crossed her arms, a downright defiant expression on her face. Kai was jittery, shifting his weight, frantically searching for something yet looking past anything of substance. Cole stared into space, unmoving, like he were still trapped in the illusion. Zane's expression was, forcibly, neutral.

"I must say, your secrets were highly entertaining, even more than I expected they would be. And, I'm rarely wrong," he announced, still leaning against the desk. The illusions had only lasted about a minute, but he knew they felt much longer to his victim- er, customer. "Especially yours Morro. It really adds a whole new level of depth to your character."

Said ghost was glaring a hole in him, fists trembling with barely contained rage. "You had no right."

"You gave me that right when you stirred up trouble in my casino," he argued matter of factly, though his smile didn't drop.

"Give us what we came here for," Lloyd said, his voice a low growl.

"I am a ghost of my word," the Bone Keeper sighed, walking over to the bookcase on the left wall. He bumped Jay's shoulder as he moved, and the blue ninja shrieked.

"Jumpy, aren't we?" The Bone Keeper remarked. Over his shoulder, he said, "Don't worry. I won't tell them what you did."

He didn't have to turn around to know Jay had gone as pale as a sheet.

Searching for only a moment before finding the right enormous book, he pulled the volume out of the bookcase and brought it back to his desk. Sitting in his desk chair, he flipped directly to the correct page.

Then, he laughed.

"What?" Kai demanded harshly. "What is it?"

"You just paid for something you'll never get." The Bone Keeper shook his head regretfully. "It was the same with our last deal, Morro. I am sorry about that, by the way. I know how badly you wanted to find your parents."

The six ninja turned to look at Morro in shock. The ghost's eyes were wide, and the Bone Keeper was sure that if ghosts could blush, he would be as red as a tomato right about now.

The Bone Keeper mock-gasped. "Oh, shoot. Look at me being hypocritical. Saying a secret aloud."

"Just tell us where it is," Nya barked, arms still crossed.

"Now, that's not very ladylike of you, sweetheart," the Bone Keeper fixed her with a disapproving look. She narrowed her eyes, refusing to take the bait. "But, it is my end of the deal. Cole's Soul Stone has been claimed by Gem."

"Gem?" Morro repeated in disbelief.

The Bone Keeper nodded. "And, I hear she's quite fond of it. So, you see, you will never get it back. If I were you, I would cut my losses, return home, and forget this thing ever happened. Wouldn't you agree, Zane?"

The nindroid's wince was barely noticeable, but it was there.

"C'mon, let's go, guys," Kai said, turning toward the door. "We have what we need from this jerk."

"That's not very nice, Kai." The Bone Keeper continued smiling though his tone was hurt. "You shouldn't say mean things. You may never get the chance to apologize."

The red ninja stormed out of the room. The others filed out after, some hurriedly, some subdued.

"Better hurry, Lloyd. Wouldn't want to get left behind!" The Bone Keeper called. Lloyd didn't respond but quickened his pace to get as far away from this cruel ghost as possible.

The Bone Keeper grabbed Cole's shoulder, stopping him while the others continued on, as he was the last to drift toward the doorway.

"Did you ever think that losing half your Soul Stone was punishment for killing your mother?"

Cole shut his eyes and yanked out of the Bone Keeper's grip before following his family down the stairs.

The Bone Keeper, never dropping his smile, shut his office door.

The bouncers showed them out.

"Okay, who is this Gem and why can't we get Cole's Soul Stone from her?" Kai urged Morro as they gathered in a loose group by the school bus.

"Where is Cole?" Jay asked before Morro could respond, voice nervously high-pitched. "He was right behind us! He was-"

The door to the casino opened once again, and Cole shuffled toward them.

When he arrived, he wouldn't meet their eyes. "I think we should go home, guys."

"Are you worried we can't do it or something?" Nya challenged. "We can definitely do it. I'll make sure we do."

"No, I just…," he shrugged helplessly. "It doesn't seem that important anymore."

"Of course it's important!" Jay protested, but his tone edged on hysteria. "You're important! You're- I- We could never hurt you, Cole!"

"If this is about your secret, Cole," Zane's voice was the most robotic they had ever heard it, and his gaze was steady. "It is cowardly to want to forget to spare yourself pain."

Cole shook his head. "I don't deserve all this."

Kai grabbed the front of his gi, jerking Cole back and forth. "Didn't I tell you to stop that?" The black ninja was little more than a doll in Kai's hands, and Kai shook him harder as if that would breathe life back into him. "We are going to get your Soul Stone, and we are going now, because if we don't we'll never get another opportunity to save you, to say…," The red ninja trailed off but didn't release his brother.

Until Lloyd was there, pushing him back gently. "Okay, guys, I think we're all a little on edge tonight. The best thing we can do right now is sleep. We'll plan in the morning." He turned to Cole and grabbed his shoulders. "But, we are getting the Soul Stone. No ninja left behind, right?"

Lloyd's face crumpled slightly as he said it, and impulsively he transitioned from holding Cole's shoulders to hugging him, trembling ever so slightly.

Cole, as if realizing the Green Ninja needed the hug more than he did, came back to himself a little and put his arms around Lloyd. "Right," he said quietly.

"Wait, where's Morro?" Kai shouted, searching all about for the missing ghost.

"He is already on the bus," Zane stated, his voice strictly devoid of emotion. "He left fairly early in the conversation."

Lloyd pulled away from Cole. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but let's follow his example." He ascended the steps of the bus, and the others followed suit, except for Nya.

"Sis? You coming?" Kai asked, noticing Nya standing firmly in place as his brothers clambered up the steps.

"Ladies first is a stupid principle," is all she said.

"Um… okay," Kai responded but obediently climbed onto the bus. Only when she was the last one left did Nya join him.

They saw Morro lying on one of the bus benches, his back to them, and for once they decided not to antagonize him. Instead they all chose their own benches and laid down as well, using their cloaks as blankets and bent arms as pillows.

Except for Kai, who, in silent protest of this stupid plan to do nothing instead of take action, sat up and looked at his BorgPhone. He couldn't sleep even if he wanted to, and constantly refreshing his Chirper feed to see if there had been any updates at least helped him feel like he was actually doing something.

"Do you mind?"

Kai looked up to see Morro glaring at him from over the back of his seat. The red ninja was too impatient now to even walk toward the back of the bus, so he had chosen the next available seat, which was right behind Morro.

He questioned the wisdom of this decision as he met Morro's glare with one of his own. "What? What am I doing that could possibly be bothering you?"

"The light." Morro pointed at Kai's phone. "You're making it hard to sleep."

Okay, so maybe the ghost had a point, but Kai wasn't about to admit that. If Morro wanted to fight, he'd fight. "You glow constantly. You don't see me complaining."

"I can't help it," Morro responded. "You can. You don't have to use your… your… glowing, box thing."

Kai blinked, glancing back and forth between his phone and the ghost. "You seriously don't know what a cell phone is?"

"Cell… phone…?"

"It's a little device that lets you call or text people. On good ones you can get on the Internet, look at your Chirper account, play games…,"

Morro's face was utterly blank.

Kai didn't know what made him do it. Maybe it was the desire to move around. Maybe it was the secret and the fact that he was now acutely aware of fighting with people and not wanting to do something he might regret. Maybe it was Morro who had looked for parents that abandoned him. Like Kai's did.

"Here," the red ninja stood, shuffled out of his row and into Morro's, sitting on the bench beside the ghost who watched him suspiciously but didn't protest. "I'll show you."

He handed Morro the phone. Maybe for the same reasons Kai gave it to him, Morro accepted it, staring at it in awe.

"So, you use your finger to touch the thing you want to do, and it happens. Let's start simple with a game," he pointed at the app called Sweet Smash.

Morro glanced at Kai, as if trying to determine whether this was a trap or not, then touched the icon. He yelped when the introductory jingle played quietly and dropped the phone so it landed in his lap.

Kai raised an eyebrow, trying not to laugh. "You're a ghost with wind powers and that's what freaks you out?"

"You're a fire ninja that's afraid of water."

Kai pressed his mouth into a line. "Touché."

Hesitantly, Morro took up the phone again and held it up about a foot away from his face. "Now what?"

"Now you play the game. You try to match three or more of the same pieces in a row by swapping them with those around them. If you get enough points within the maximum amount of moves, you win the level." Kai explained.

Morro experimentally swiped his fingers along the screen then seemed intrigued when the two sweets switched places. He tried it again. And again. And again.

He gasped when he matched three sweets that subsequently disappeared and showed Kai the screen. "Ha! I did it."

The red ninja was unimpressed. "You have a few more matches to go before you win the level."

Once again, Kai struggled to contain his laughter as Morro slowly brought the phone closer and closer until it was an inch away from his face, completely engrossed in the game.

"Fine, you can play, but I'm going to want my phone back eventually."

Morro grunted without tearing his eyes away from the screen.

Meanwhile, Jay peeked over the edge of Cole's seat for the tenth time, having purposely picked the bench directly behind him. The ghost had his eyes closed - was he breathing? Oh wait, ghosts didn't breathe- then how would they know if he was alive?

"Cole?" He whispered. "Are you awake?"

Cole turned on his side to face away from Jay. "No."

"Are you okay?"

"Sleeping people can't talk."

"Cole."

"Yes, I'm fine. Why?" Cole finally relented and sat up, leaning against the side of the bus. "Are you okay?"

"Me?" Jay laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck and half hiding his face behind the bus seat. "Of course I am! Why do you ask…?"

Cole blinked. "Because you asked."

"Oh, right, haha…,"

"Is it about what you saw?"

"What?!" Jay screeched, eliciting several complaints from the other occupants that were attempting to sleep. Lowering his voice, Jay repeated, "What? Why would I be asking if you were okay because of what I saw? That would mean that what I saw had something to do with you, which it totally did not. Gosh, Cole, not everything's about you. Who are you? Kai?"

Cole was rubbing the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Look, Jay, I'm really tired, so…,"

"Ha, right, me too." As an afterthought, he added, "Sorry."

"No, it's fine, just… a lot on my mind, you know?"

Jay hesitated. "About your secret?"

Cole dropped his gaze to his hands and nodded. "I, um…," he clasped his hands together in his lap. "I saw my mom."

Jay's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He didn't know much about the earth ninja's mother; only that she was gone and that Cole didn't like to talk about her.

"Oh man, Cole…," he sighed sympathetically. "That must have been really hard."

Cole nodded again then turned to look up at Jay. "What did you see?"

"Um… mimes."

"Mimes."

"Yeah, I'm secretly afraid of them." He shrugged. "Who would have thought, right?"

Cole stared back at him, disbelief written clearly all over his face. "Yeah, Jay. Whatever." He moved so he was lying horizontally on the bench once again. "I'm sleeping now."

Jay cursed his stupidity. Mimes? He went and hurt Cole again, because he made it seem like he didn't trust his best friend. He did- he really did- but what could he say? "I killed you and I am so so terrified that I subconsciously did it on purpose?"

He had to talk to someone.

Quietly getting up out of his seat, he hurried toward the back of the bus where Nya had chosen to set up camp. "Nya! I need your help-"

The water ninja sat up as he arrived at her bench, and she did not look happy. "Oh, because you assume women are better at dealing with emotional problems than men?"

Jay stopped in his tracks, scratching his head. "No. I mean, yes? I mean- isn't that a good thing?"

He knew that was the wrong answer when Nya sniffed and turned her head to look out the window. "It's the stereotype that hurts."

Before he could screw up any further tonight, he started backing away. "I'll just ask Lloyd."

He approached the Green Ninja's "bed" … and saw Lloyd lying on his stomach with his face pressed into his rolled up cloak to hide the fact that he was crying.

"Oh, Lloyd," he said, immediately forgetting his own problems. Zane, poking his head out from the seat in front of Lloyd, stood to join Jay in the aisle. Without a word passing between the two, they both squeezed into the seat and bodily readjusted Lloyd so he was sitting up, squished between them and looking miserable.

They didn't say anything.

Finally, Lloyd whispered, "You guys won't abandon me, right?"

"I once thought that would be easier." Zane looped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. "I now know that family is about staying together no matter what pain befalls us. So, no, Lloyd," he tightened his grip. "We could never abandon you."

Jay leaned on Lloyd to show his support, but he couldn't help but think about the time they had abandoned each other, after they thought Zane had died. When he thought he hated Cole… he could remember the feeling like it was a physical thing. Maybe he had been remembering it when he pushed Cole that day. Had part of him been glad that Cole was gone?

He truly didn't know anymore, and that scared him more than a million mimes put together.

"Hey. Kai."

The red ninja started awake and had to immediately cross his eyes to focus on the phone Morro was holding approximately a quarter inch away from his face.

"Fix your fell sone. It's broken."

"It's called a cell phone," Kai corrected irritably, snatching the device out of the ghost's hand. Realizing it was now morning, he jabbed at the buttons on his phone… and confirmed it was dead. "Wait, are you telling me you played it all night?"

Morro sighed, looking at the phone like he was watching a doctor examine his sick infant. "I was this close to beating it too."

"It was ninety percent charged when I gave it to you! You ran down the whole battery!"

Morro looked back at Kai uncomprehendingly. "Can you fix it or not?"

"I can 'fix' it," Kai grumbled. "You're welcome, by the way."

The ghost stiffened so suddenly and so completely that Kai actually looked at him in concern. Morro turned his face toward the window and muttered something.

"What?"

"I said, thank you," Morro repeated shortly, crossing his arms. "Thanks for letting me play your stupid self loan, okay?"

"Cell phone," Kai corrected automatically, before realizing what actually happened.

Morro. Just. Thanked. Him.

"Um, it's no big deal," Kai continued, now staring at the ghost, who was determinedly not meeting his eyes, in wonder. "You can… play it again once it's charged- 'fixed.'"

Morro's eyes lit up like a kid's in a candy store before he coughed to cover it up. "Sure. I mean, if I have time. Or even want to. Which I probably won't."

Kai couldn't help it; he laughed. Because suddenly Morro didn't seem like Morro, Master of Wind, possessor of Lloyd, unleasher of the Preeminent, but like Morro, socially awkward teenager who was now addicted to Sweet Smash.

"What?" The ghost demanded crossly. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing," Kai reassured, shaking his head though a smile remained on his face. "Let's wake the others."

After everyone had woken up and relocated to the front of the bus, Zane began driving in the direction Morro directed him- on a narrow road through a series of sprawling canyons- while the ghost began to explain the ordeal.

"Gem is… a ghost…," he said, leaning off his seat and into the aisle so all the ninja besides Zane could see him.

"No, she's a mermaid," Jay shot back. "Of course she's a ghost! We're in the Realm of the Departed!"

Morro made a face. "You're hilarious."

"It's one of my best qualities."

"Well, you won't be laughing when we get to Gem. She is… She's freaky, okay? Out of everyone in the Departed Realm, she owns the most souls."

"The most?" Lloyd repeated incredulously.

"She has thousands of souls. Some she uses as slaves. Others she just… looks at. She collects Soul Stones and wears them like jewelry, the prettier the better. That's why we call her Gem," he grimaced. "I mean, even I know that's a pretty messed up thing to do with a person."

"Okay, she sounds like a weirdo, but what about this makes her so unbeatable?" Kai asked flippantly, crossing his arms.

"She can be just as unbeatable as all the other male enemies we've fought!"

Everyone turned simultaneously to look at Nya, who was defending the bad guy. She ducked her head and crossed her arms sullenly.

"Well, it's true."

Morro continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "I hope you've noticed that some ghosts gain abilities after they die: Bansha had her shriek, the Soul Archer his bow, the Bone Keeper his… mind reading." Morro cleared his throat, and the others shifted uncomfortably at the reminder. "Gem is a master of mind control."

"Mind control?!" Cole repeated, echoing the shock and panic of everyone present.

Lloyd sighed, placing a hand on his head. "Of course she is."

"You go to make a deal with her, and you end up selling your soul. Or, if you can somehow resist her, you leave paying much more than you thought or buying much less than you wanted." Morro sat back, raising an eyebrow challengingly. "So, I hope you have a really good plan, Green Ninja."

"Well, not yet," Lloyd huffed. "But, there's one in the works, so… yeah."

"At least we know you have a pretty soul, Cole," Jay joked, patting the ghost's shoulder.

Cole rolled his eyes and replied sarcastically, "You're making me blush."

Nya spoke up, "Wait, I have a-"

Something slammed into the bus.

Everyone screamed as they were thrown to the right, the entire bus swerving- and nearly falling into the canyon- before it righted itself.

"Zane!" Lloyd yelled, half in chastisement, half in concern.

"Something hit us!" The nindroid replied, struggling to maintain control of the now severely damaged bus. "I-I didn't see- there wasn't anything there!"

"Oh no, no, no, no…," Morro whispered in disbelief, trying to hold himself upright with two hands clamped on adjacent bus benches. "She's supposed to be asleep."

Lloyd grabbed Morro's shirt. "Who's supposed to be asleep?!"

The bus was hit again. Time seemed to move in slow motion as it tipped… and crashed onto its side, simultaneously smashing every window. The air was filled with the noise of breaking glass and screaming, and something very, very heavy attempting to climb onto the bus, causing the metal exoskeleton to buckle under the weight.

"Zane?!" Kai yelled, noticing the driver's seat empty and the windshield shattered.

Before anyone could respond, the bus was shoved again and it started to lean precariously over the edge of the gorge. Through the windows now above them, they caught glimpses of legs, claws, a stinger…

The bus flew through the air- metal screeched as it was torn apart and crushed and they were falling, falling, falling-

Everything went black.