Chapter 18: Change of Plans

Agents of the Administration looked up in curiosity as running footsteps were heard and then in alarm as the lights started blaring so hard it was hard to see anything, let alone whoever was running.

It shouldn't have been possible for the lights to be so bright with how precarious their energy source was– they were always dim and no room was left with light if it was unoccupied. Some got into fighting positions despite being unable to see, some started fleeing, and some curled into a ball to protect themselves from whatever was happening.

Jay didn't know where he was running– the corridors he'd known like the back of his hand suddenly all seemed the same– only that he needed to run– just– away. Away from it all–

'It's true, he's the one that's lying–'

'That's not all I'm the master of, I do a little inventing–'

'–involve him in some of our on-ship entertainment?'

His vision blurred, a sort of phantom pain gripping his body, and he gasped at the force of it but kept running– or was he stumbling?

'More like Mouth of Lightning.'

'Does she like blue?'

'92,898 bottles of tea on the wall, 92,898 bottles of tea!'

Heat. So unfamiliar to the chill he'd gotten used to– it was stifling–

"–called me an airhead!"

'Ha! Tell me what?'

He could hear his heartbeat drumming in his ears– suddenly his last 'side-effect headache' didn't seem so bad, he'd prefer it– why was this relevant?!

'Why would you touch the scary picture, Jay!'

''Cause it's the color of your heart!'

'I didn't know it would do tha–'

'Black is not blue!'

Too much. Too much, too much–

'–black-hearted, rock-pounding–'

'Eat dirt, blue-bell!'

'That's your betrayal–'

Stop, just–

'–peace and quiet when you're out–'

'–pretending to be my friend–'

He couldn't breathe–

'Enough is enough!'

'You swore–'

Jay didn't feel it when he hit the floor.

When Jay's entire demeanor suddenly seemed to freeze and he bolted out of the room in a frenzy of pure panic, the world slowed to a stop.

There was a reason Jeremy was never appointed to lead any missions– sure, he could plan, but nothing ever seemed to go the way he'd expected or prepared for it to go. He could never be prepared for the unexpected and absolutely sucked at improvising; he would start panicking and his brain would forget how to function.

It had been those instances where everything he could have ever planned for or predicted blew to pieces in front of his very eyes so spectacularly that everything went to slow motion just long enough for him to think how he could have foreseen this.

Like now.

Whatever had happened to giving little hints every now and then, to do things the subtle way? No, now Jay was most likely running around hysterically, Cole stuck in the stupid chair yelling after him, the agents reporting to The Administrator that Jay was remembering, which would lead to him either killing Jay or brainwashing him again, and who knew how that would affect his already fragile brain, and everything would just start over and he'd have to get close to him again, earn his trust, then try to make him remember (could he even recover from that?) and that would take years–

Now, now he'd have to openly betray the Administration (oh, goodness, what if he got caught–) and he'd have to leave– not that he wanted to stay– but he didn't have anywhere else to go to–

And there he went again, thinking about himself and being selfish and a coward–

"JAY!"

Cole's predictable call after Jay broke him from his thoughts, and before he could think about just what he was doing, he reached for his stun gun and shot the two other agents in the room before they had the time to react or report to The Administrator.

There was a moment of silence as Cole and Jeremy stared at the still bodies.

Why, oh why, had he done that?!

He was done for. He was absolutely doomed, he could see it as clearly as watching a plane from afar slowly descend and crash in a spectacular burst of flames–

"Uh, thanks?"

He would free the earth ninja and run through endless corridors filled with infinite agents who could all communicate to each other in a matter of seconds who were all loyal to the– oh, who was kidding? The Master of Earth would just pummel him to the ground the second he opened the cuffs, and he would get caught, and then they'd recognize him as a traitor– he was a traitor– and then he'd be tortured and brainwashed– no, he wasn't valuable enough to go through such effort, so, straight to the killing block he would go–

"HEY!"

Jeremy startled and whipped around to face the ninja, who looked him over from top to bottom as if judging his very soul before commanding with a steel, hard look, "Get me out of these cuffs, now."

Just then, as he scrambled to free him from the chair while seeing his life flash before his eyes, the lights turned red and the alarms started wailing.