It had been a big day. Well, a big few days. Chasing around snake warriors, trying to figure out what they were up to. It all started when Wu had fought an old time travelling enemy at the burnt down monastery. Then there had been snake warriors at the Borg store, Cyrus was kidnapped and Zane left damaged. Cole had gone with Nya and Jay to try and fix Zane, not that he had been much help.
After learning Dr. Saunders was responsible for the kidnapping, they had then rushed to the museum to give Kai backup. Jay and Cole had jumped off early to take on some snake warriors in the street. Not that Cole had been much help with that either, new lava arms completely out of control. He caused a lot of damage, but not to their enemies, and poor Jay had ended up in a dumpster.
They had regrouped back at the Samurai X cave. Zane was still offline. Nya and Jay bickering about how to fix him, their voices aggravating the pain that had been slowly building inside Cole's skull. Kai was sitting to the side, on the only chair, spinning around aimlessly, completely lost in thought.
Cole wanted to help the team, wanted to help Zane, but he wasn't a tech guy, there wasn't really anything he could do. So he may as well go home and get some rest. It had only been a few days since his seizure, so the growing headache was starting to worry him. At least his sensory overload had mostly subsided. He didn't need the sunglasses anymore, people no longer sounded like they were yelling all the time. Sweet things still tasted too sweet, but everything else tasted fine. The only real concern left was this near constant thumping in his head.
Cole walks over to Kai. "Hey, um, do you think we could head back?" he asks timidly, afraid Kai will call him out for being lazy.
Kai stops his spinning, and looks up at Cole with a frown. A frown that deepens as his eyes flicker to Cole's forehead. "Your head's hurting?"
Cole sighs, he hadn't wanted to worry them, disappointed that it was so obvious. It must be glowing. It often did that when the pain got bad. "Yeah." he admits.
Kai nods, standing up. "Sis? We're heading back."
"Good, you can take Jay with you!" snaps Nya.
"But we aren't finished here!" objects Jay. "Zane's still…" Jay gestures towards Zane, giving up on finding the right word.
"Yes, and I'll work better on fixing that without your reckless ideas."
"Reckless? You're calling me reckless?" Jay's voice pitches up, losing its normal control.
Cole is tempted to put his hands over his ears, but doesn't want to upset them further. Actual yelling while his head was hurting, was still a bit much. Kai groans, running a hand down his face before grabbing the back of Jay's collar. "Come on. Even if you're right, this isn't helping."
Jay wiggles out of Kai's grip. "Fine, get offa me." he huffs, before stomping out of the cave.
Kai rolls his eyes and follows Jay.
"You'll be alright on your own?" asks Cole to Nya, with slight concern.
"I'm not alone." says Nya, gesturing to Zane.
"Right… but,"
"She'll be fine!" declares Kai without turning around. "Hurry up."
When the three reach the vehicle, Cole slips into the back seat. Jay raises an eyebrow. "You always want to drive."
"Not today." says Cole, as he watches Jay's eyes dart up to his forehead.
"Your head's hurting?"
Damn it all. Cole gives up trying to look fine and scrunches his eyes shut. "Yeah…"
"Why didn't you say something?"
"I just did?"
"Just get in already, I'll drive." grumbles Kai.
After they get back to the temple Cole finds the nearest futon and collapses on it face down. Not caring if it was his own.
Cole is running through a dark forest. Running from, well he isn't sure exactly what, but it's something bad. Fear courses through his veins.
There is a light dusting of snow in between the trees. He darts and weaves, moving as quickly as he can to get away.
Suddenly his head is yanked backwards and he collapses onto the ground, almost like he had run into a tree branch, but the path was clear. His head pounds, probably because it just collided with the ground, but he needs to get up, he needs to keep moving. I'm not safe here.
Cole pushes himself up onto his hands and spots a chain lying in the snow, trailing out behind him back the way he had come. Did someone lasso me with a chain? He claws at his neck but doesn't find anything. He then grabs onto the chain and traces it back, directly into his scar, embedded deep into his head.
His fingers tremble feeling where it connects. His mind panics trying to figure out where it came from, what's it doing there, how can I get it out?
The chain rattles on the ground as it starts to become taught, pulling him back the way he came. "No, no no…" mutters Cole, quickly getting back onto his feet, and grabbing the chain to stop it pulling on his head. He activates his lava arms and starts to have a tug of war with whoever is reeling him in, but it is futile. His feet slip and slide, losing more ground every second.
Time to try something else. Cole takes a couple steps towards the chain, giving himself some slack so he can drop the chain and use his elemental powers. He drives his fists into the ground, making rocks erupt from the ground and trap the chain. He was trying to break it, but will settle for trapped. No movement was progress over being pulled backwards.
The chain strains on the far side of the rock, there is a cracking sound, and then a small hole breaks away where the chain is trapped, allowing it to slide through.
"Crap." Cole picks up the chain once more before it gets tight, putting his feet against the rocks, giving him better leverage than when he was simply digging into the ground. Whoever is on the other end is strong, his hands slowly inch closer to the hole, straining to maintain their grip on the chain, right up until they slip.
Cole's head slams into the rock, the hole from before not big enough for him to fit through. The chain continues to pull, directly onto his head as pain consumes him.
Cole cries out in alarm as he wakes up. Right, it was just a dream… at least there was no Yang this time…
"Was that Cole?" He hears the muffled voice of Jay coming from the other room, then footsteps, then the sound of the sliding door. "Cole? Are you ok?"
Cole sits up and runs a hand through his hair. "Yeah, it was just a bad dream."
Jay cocks his head to the side, examining his friend. "How's your head doing?"
Cole blinks, now he was properly waking up, he could notice the pain from before was significantly reduced. "Much better. How long was I out?"
"Barely an hour, you sure you're ok? Did you take something?"
Cole shakes his head. "Nothing beats the power of sleep!" Jay is still looking at him quizzically. "I'm fine! Just still getting used to having a real body back. I'm not used to needing rest, nothing to worry about."
Cole gets up, and heads out the door, keen to show Jay just how fine he is. "Come on. Let's do some training or something."
The next day they had gone to confront the vermilion warriors in the city, then followed them to the power station. It might have just been all the electricity, but Cole's head had started to ache again, a low dull throb that slowly crept in. Cole had the foresight to pack some meds this time, and downs a couple of painkillers before they head on over to Mega Monster Amusement Park. It was getting late, but evil doesn't sleep, so neither would they.
After clearing out the park, Cole's head was really starting to throb, the meds not helping nearly as much as he was hoping. Kai gives him a look, and he realises the scar must be glowing again. He ignores it, moving on to the next enemy. I don't have time for this right now! Just gotta push through.
By the time they get to the time blade in the desert, the sun is already starting to come up. "Ugh, we've been up all night!" Cole moans into the comms.
"Yeah, how you holding up?" asks Kai with concern.
Cole sighs, there was not much that could be done about his headache right now, apart from him abandoning the team to go home, which wasn't going to happen. "Let's just get the time blade quickly so we can all go home and rest."
Kai nods, getting the message.
Jay's flashy appearance saves the day and Cole finds himself piloting the supersonic radar Jet with Zane doing his best to stabilise the wing. Once they were a safe distance away, Cole realises he is in no condition to be piloting a flying vehicle right now. Much less a damaged one full of his friends.
"Um, Nya, can you switch with me?" She was closest, the jet wasn't made to fit so many, so it was tightly packed. Cole shifts over to the edge of his seat.
"Um, sure." Nya wiggles in next to him, placing her hands over his on the controls, once she has it, Cole carefully extracts himself. The glider wobbles and Cole finds himself landing in Kai's lap.
"Hold it steady Zane!" calls out Nya, while recovering nicely.
"You alright?" asks Kai, holding onto Cole in case the plane lurches again.
Cole closes his eyes and leans onto Kai. He doesn't want them to worry. He would rather come up with something witty to distract them all, but the pain is getting worse, and he can barely think straight. "Head hurts." he admits.
He feels Kai's chest move as he gives a frustrated exhale. "Rest up, and, just don't have another seizure ok?"
"Is that why I'm driving?" asks Nya.
"Yeah…" admits Cole wearily, not bothering to open his eyes.
The jerk from landing pulls Cole out of his slumber, he hadn't realised he had fallen asleep. "Huh?"
"Time to wake up sleepy head. We just got back." says Kai while the others vacate the vehicle.
Cole looks around, squinting as his eyes adjust to the light. "I didn't… um, have another one?" he asks fearfully.
Kai shakes his head. "No, but seriously, you need to mention something before you get to the point where you're ready to pass out."
Cole gives a guilty half smile. "It comes on pretty quick." he says as he climbs out of the vehicle.
Kai rolls his eyes. "You were already feeling it at the amusement park."
Cole flinches. "Yeah, ok, I was. It was hurting pretty bad by the time we left the amusement park, but what was I supposed to do? Abandon you all to go and take a nap?"
Kai sighs. "You could have let us know. You're part of a team, and sometimes that means letting the rest of the team handle it. What are we meant to do if you have a seizure in the middle of a fight?"
Cole clenches his fists. "That was one time, just one! Probably an after effect of changing back. Look, I'm not intentionally pushing myself too hard, we're just in the middle of a crisis right now, and I'm not going to step away just because of a little headache!"
Kai frowns at him. "Maybe we should talk about this after you've rested." He says, not wanting to get in a big argument with Cole right now. He had other things on his mind too. Like the helmet. Like what Crux had told him about his parents. "Just, look after yourself. That's all I'm saying."
Cole walks off in a huff. "I'm doing my best!" He wasn't actually angry at Kai, he was angry at his stupid head, at his stupid body that couldn't keep up. For a fleeting moment he thought, this wouldn't be a problem if I was still a ghost. As a ghost he had endurance, he didn't need to worry about pain, unless water was involved. He didn't have to worry about rest, he could keep fighting for as long as the team needed him to. Would he be more help in this situation as a ghost? Cole shakes his head. There was no point thinking about that, because even if he wanted to (and he definitely didn't) he couldn't change back. The curse of the temple was lifted, they had all stayed through till morning, and no one had turned into a ghost.
Cole makes his way to his bed, he lies down to rest his aching head, to fall back into the sleep that had overcome him in the jet, but he's too worked up. He growls into his pillow, lying face down on the floor. After a few minutes he manages to calm down, and realises that actually his head wasn't hurting so bad after all.
"I'm fine. It's fine, I'm ok…" he mutters to himself. It should be a relief, knowing that he could bounce back so quickly, but it was off-putting, because he didn't know exactly what had caused it.
He rolls over onto his back, staring at the ceiling. They had worked through an entire night, it was probably just a matter of pushing himself too hard while his body was still adjusting. Probably. And even a brief nap seemed to be enough to reset things. He pulls out his phone, putting it into selfie mode. His scar wasn't glowing any more than normal. He really needed to talk to Wu, but Wu wasn't doing too great right now, and had more pressing matters on his mind. There was always something more pressing than whatever predicament Cole managed to get himself into.