Legends of Ninjago Book 2: Rise of the Serpentine

Chapter 13: ...And Into the Fire

"This way," said Cole, urging Kai to follow him to the right, where there was another street. He charged into what he soon discovered was a roundabout and used his earth powers to raise a wall out of the pavement, cutting the Serpentine off. He took a second to make sure Kai was safe but when he turned around, there was a distinct lack of red ninja. That idiot! He had gone and run off again, hadn't he?
Whatever. He could worry about that later. Right now, he needed to get as far away from the Serpentine as possible and then meet up with Kai again if he could. So he picked a direction and started running.
A part of him wished that he had brought this whole mess to the attention of his teacher, but as he had been pacing, alone in the confinement room, he came to one very simple conclusion: without immediate help, Kai would definitely die. Then, after a few minutes of sitting around doing nothing but imagining how much nicer life at the monastery would be without him, Cole finally caved in to his better judgment. No matter how much he tried to convince himself he hated Kai (and it's true that he did loath him quite a bit) the truth was that he was his teammate and brother, and what kind of heartless monster would he be if he let his little brother die? But Kai was going to be in enough trouble already from all of his previous punishments. If Wu found out about this latest bone-headed scheme, Kai might never come out of solitary confinement ever again. So Cole did the only thing he could think of: he snuck out too, in the hopes that he could have Kai back before anyone missed him. Now he was slightly wishing that he hadn't given in to his better judgment after all.
The snake-men seemed to be everywhere now, slithering in between the houses and up the streets in every direction. After ducking behind an abandoned garbage truck, Cole seemed to lose the Serpentine who had been chasing him, and he breathed a quick sigh.
"You there!" That sounded like one of the snakes. "Where has-s-s the black ninja gone?"
"P-please! We don't know! Please leave us alone!"
Cole peeked around the truck and saw three civilians being backed into a corner by one of the larger Serpentine. If he didn't do something soon, they could end up hypnotised like everyone else.
"Ugly says 'what?'" Cole yelled, running out from his hiding place.
"What?!" cried the snake-man.
With surprise on his side, he whacked the creature on the head with the blunt end of his scythe and rushed to the aid of the three strangers.
"Get out of here!" Cole yelled, and he shooed them away with his hand. "I'll handle this skank." He gripped his scythe tighter and tried to get control over his shaky breathing as he stared straight at the disturbing creature. Attacking that first Serpentine who had been holding Kai was unsettling enough. The last thing he wanted was to have to "take care of" anyone else, even if he was a terrifying creature pulled straight from mythology. The thing was glaring at him now, and rubbing its aching head.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" the snake asked. "I'm trembling with antic-c-cipation!"
The Serpentine's eyes were by far his most unsettling feature—bulbously large, red sclera with a beady, black pupil surrounded by black rings. It was hard for Cole to focus properly at first, but he had to stay vigilant. He ran at full speed and swung his weapon wildly, only for the snake to dodge with lightning speed and slither to Cole's right side. Feeling panicked, Cole threw up a stone wall to knock the creature back, but again, it slithered to safety just moments before getting hit. He conjured another stone, designed to impale, and shot it at the snake's chest, then he shot another, and another, but every time he failed. The snake-man just kept dodging, and every time he did, he got closer and closer.
"What's-s-s the matter, boy?" he sneered, lunging at Cole who raised his scythe just in time to hold off his claw-like hands which grabbed the weapon and wrestled with him as he peered down at Cole. "Does-s-s the young S-s-stone Warrior have a s-s-spine of clay?" His scaly face got far too close for comfort, especially his big eyes, which seemed to be getting larger every minute.
They were now in some sort of park, and after pushing the Serpentine back toward a play ground, it was Cole's turn to attack. He tried to use his weapon again and charged with all the ferocity he could muster, but the snake caught his scythe by the blade and pulled him closer until there was scarcely two inches between them. Cole could smell his rancid breath and see his freakish fangs.
"You fight like a hatchling!" he cackled. Again, through everything that was happening, Cole's vision kept being drawn to those awful, red eyes, which now seemed to be pulsing.
Cole wanted nothing more than to look away, and struggled to break free of his very strong captor. Before he got the chance, however, he swung Cole around by the handle of his scythe and threw him at the fountain in the middle of the park where he hit the concrete edge hard and lost his grip on his weapon. His spine screamed in pain, his lungs felt shredded, and his eyes began to water, blinding him temporarily.
"Don't tell me you're done already," said the snake as he slithered up to him and pinned Cole where he was attempting to stand. He grabbed him by the collar of his shozoku to keep him in place and continued to stare at him harshly. Cole was so terrified that the only thing he could do was look at the alarming red eyes in front of him, but after a moment his head began to throb, and then it began to feel like it was splitting in two from the swelling pain. Cole screamed and shut his eyes as tight as he could, but with its clawed, green hand, the creature grabbed Cole by the face and forced him to look into his eyes again. He could feel warm tears slipping town his cheeks, but there was nothing Cole could do, especially as the swirling red eyes seemed to grow bigger and bigger, and then something very strange happened. It felt like he had suddenly been pushed out of his own body and could now see the entire scene from an outside perspective. He saw the pain in his own eyes and the malice in the snake's, but out of nowhere the whole world starting spinning. Faster and faster it went until everything around him was a complete blur, then he felt the most nauseating feeling of being sucked back into his own head as if he were being flushed down a drain.
Everything went dark very suddenly and there wasn't a single sound to be heard, not even when Cole tried his hardest to listen. After a while, he realised why everything was so dark and opened his eyes to find himself in a very different place. The ceiling looked like it was made out of many, intricate glass panels, creating a sort of atrium with warm light shining down on him, but there didn't seem to be any walls nearby, just warm, white nothingness. Even the ceiling went on for an eternity before disappearing.
He stood up and found that he was no longer wearing his shozoku. When he looked down at his body, he saw an old t-shirt that he used to wear, a pair of worn jeans, and sneakers on his feet.
"My, my, my, this-s-s c-c-certainly is-s-s interes-s-sting."
Cole spun around frantically and saw the same snake from the village looking around the strange, white space. He didn't seem particularly interested in Cole anymore, and kept on muttering to himself. Cole immediately reached out his hands to summon a stone wall, but nothing happened. He tried again, but still his call was left unanswered.
"What the...?" he muttered.
"You do have a s-s-strong mind, I admit. Why, I'm s-s-surpris-s-sed I managed to get in at all." He slithered around a bit more and eyed Cole suspiciously.
"You mean, we're in my head right now?" Cole asked frantically, and he could hear his heart pounding in his ears again.
"Oh, you're a quick one, aren't you?" the snake teased.
All sorts of thoughts and memories sprang to Cole's inner eye—thoughts and memories that he definitely did not want anyone to see, let alone a psycho freak like this.
"GET OUT!" Cole yelled, and he tackled the creature with such intensity that they both fell to the floor and tumbled a few feet. They were knocked apart from each other, and when Cole stopped rolling on the floor, he looked up and saw the snake trying to slither away.
"DON'T YOU DARE GO ANY DEEPER!" He bellowed, rising to chase after him. He managed to catch up fairly quickly--much to his surprise--but when he tried to tackle a second time, the whole world seemed to hiccup and suddenly Cole was falling on his face, empty handed, while the creature was slithering in the opposite direction. He got to his feet a second time and chased after him again, yelling, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" and once again, there seemed to be another hiccup. He fell on his hands and knees and suddenly his environment changed. The glass ceiling was still overhead, but there were bookshelves on either side of him, filled to the brim. He leaned closer to a shelf and read the title of a thick, red book: 1st Day of Grade School.
"What?" Cole breathed.
He looked up at another book: Peeing My Pants, Volumes 1, 2, & 3. Then another: Junior Prom - The Rise of Dadzilla. And another: Action Figures - The Complete Catalog.
'These are all my memories,' he thought to himself.
"Yes-s-s, and they're quite melodramatic, if you as-s-sk me."
Again, Cole turned around and found the snake-man behind him, but this time he was sitting in an armchair in a small reading area, skimming through one of the books. He could just make out the title of it from where he was standing: High School Crushes. Panic was the natural response.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he shrieked, and he snatched the book away as fast as he could. "I told you to get out!"
"Tsk, tsk," said the snake, and he folded his arms. "S-s-such a horrible temper. But then again, I can't s-s-say I'm s-s-surpris-s-sed, given everything you've had to go through." Cole's chest tightened and he swallowed hard. How much had he read? "S-s-such low s-s-self-es-s-steem."
Cole rushed toward him. "That's enough!" But he zoomed out of the armchair faster than lightning and slithered down the book-lined hallway, daring Cole to follow.
"S-s-so many mis-s-stakes-s-s."
They rounded a corner and the hallway they walked into was darker than the last, filled with larger books covered in cobwebs and large, metal buckles. Each one had a worse title than the last: The Chronicles of High School Embarrassment, Dad's Disappointed in You Parts 1 and 2, Fifty Reasons You'll be Single Forever, and Secrets, Lies, and Half-truths. The snake reached out one of his hands and knocked a whole shelf of books to the floor. When the pages opened, lights and images bulged off the paper and fluttered all around Cole. He screeched to a halt in an attempt to not run into the flying pictures, but ended up falling on his backside. The images spun around him like a small whirlwind and became so bright that he had to close his eyes.
The ground disappeared and there was a sickening moment of falling, but Cole hit a hard surface after only a few seconds and looked up to see where he was now. The sunbeams from before were gone, replaced by stage lights. He was backstage, looking out at a small boy with shaggy, black hair slicked back, wearing black pants, a vest, and a white collared shirt, dancing in front of a large school auditorium. He looked absolutely terrified as he performed each movement, and there was someone in the audience, close to the stage, whisper-yelling, "Smile! Cole, smile!" But the little boy didn't hear. He kept going on with the dance looking like he was about to vomit, and then the moment of truth came.
"Oh no..." Cole whispered and he felt that horrible feeling of dread explode in the pit of his stomach. "Place your weight on your left foot!" He cried, crawling forward slightly in an attempt to warn the boy, but it was no use. He spun around two times, then bent down, about to go into a jump, but his weight was on the wrong foot, and he ended up launching himself forward, instead of upward, and he slammed down onto the hard, wood floor in a painful summersault. His nose began to bleed, the music stopped, and people in the audience were getting out of their seats, calling for a nurse.
"Cole Clemence Becket, we went through this a hundred times!" The same man from before yelled. "Get back up and go through it again!"
The boy on stage, however, began to silently cry in a small heap while desperately trying not to get blood on his costume. Eventually a staff member came and led him away to a bathroom to get washed up and a voice boomed over the speakers,
"We will take a brief intermission."
Cole stood and watched the little boy walking away with the staff member and could feel tears brimming his eyes. He tried so hard not to think about this moment in time, but it kept creeping up on him time and time again.
Suddenly, trees and grass sprouted from the floor and the roof vanished, leaving a cloudy sky behind it. There was a playground nearby, filled with an entire class of kids running, screaming, and eating snacks. Cole walked over to the swing set where he saw the same boy, a few years older, talking to a group of other boys.
"Stop it!" the boy cried.
"Twinkle toes! Twinkles toes! Twinkle toes!" the others chanted.
"I'm not girly!"
"Ballet is for babies!" another boy countered.
"Do you have a tutu? Do you tie your hair up in a cute little bun?" they went on.
"I'm not a baby!" the boy shouted.
"Prove it," one boy sneered. "Go and take Lilly's lunch box."
The boy's eyes widened in fear. "What?" he asked. "No, that's..."
"Oh, I didn't know chickens could dance!" said the boy from earlier.
"What a wuss," said another.
"Okay, fine!" said the boy angrily. "I'll do it, just stop teasing me!"
"We will, just as soon you take her lunch box."
The boy turned and looked up sadly toward a tree on a small hill beside the playground where three girls were having a pretend tea party with their lunchboxes open and a few dolls sitting here and there. He reluctantly walked over to them and, not knowing what else to do, he ran and snatched the box as quickly as he could, spilling on open juice box as he did.
"Hey! Give it back!" the girl, Lilly, cried. She and the other two girls got up and started chasing the boy around the playground.
"I'm telling!" one girl warned.
"Give it back or I swear, I'll pummel you!" said the other.
Eventually the boy made it back to the group of other kids and shoved the lunchbox into the first pair of hands he saw.
"Take it!" he cried.
"You're the one who stole it," the other replied and he tried to shove the lunchbox back.
"You made me!"
Back and forth they went, shoving the lunchbox at each other, and eventually it became a wrestling match. Lilly reached them and pried her possession away from them, but the two boys were getting vicious. They were clawing and punching and biting any chance they got, while wood chips from the playground floor got swept up in their hair and gave them splinters on their faces.
"What is going on out here!?" cried an older women with curly brown hair.
"Cole stole my lunchbox!" Lilly exclaimed, pointing a finger at the boy with shaggy black hair.
"And then he started hitting Joji!" Someone else added.
The woman, a teacher, stepped forward and grabbed the two boys by the collars of their shirts and pulled them apart. "Both of you, to the principal's office! Now! You're in big trouble!"
The two of them started to follow the teacher back inside, but as the boy passed Lilly, she said, "You're such a jerk, Cole."
Those five words stung deeper than anyone else knew. He wasn't a bad person, he didn't want to do it, but... he still had, and from that day on, everyone in his class steered a little further away from Cole.
In a flash of lightning, the world grew darker, and a forest appeared out of thin air. Rain was pouring down hard and there were a hundred kids running down a muddy path in their bathing suits. From somewhere up ahead there were people calling, "Do not run! Calmly walk back to your cabins in an orderly fashion!"
Some of the girls were shrieking, some of the guys were just walking slowly, not caring how wet they were, but amidst the crowd, Cole spotted the boy again. He had shorter hair now, and he was much taller than he had been before, with a few red zits forming on his chin and forehead. He was trying not to run too fast, or too slow, but no matter what speed he was going, there was still someone shoving themselves past him.
Suddenly, the boy was pushed so hard that he slipped in the mud and began to fall over, landing on top of a girl who was running next to him. They both went SPLAT in the mud and the boy frantically tried to get up off of her, then helped her up. She was screaming and looking down at her swimsuit, brown and wet.
"This suit was brand new!" she shrieked. "Thanks a lot, Cole!" She stormed off with her friends, following the flow of the crowd.
Cole watched the boy stand there for a few moments before he began to slowly walk forward, once again being shoved around by the other kids running past. His chest squeezed even tighter as his feelings began to swell again.
Then, a terrible scene cropped up from not too long ago. He was home again, in his kitchen, and he was yelling at his dad.
"So I guess this family doesn't mean anything to you!?"
"I have poured my sweat and tears to provide for you and your mother!" Mr. Becket replied, matching Cole's tone.
"You only provide for yourself! You never even bothered to show up for my basketball team's award ceremony because you can't stand the fact that I'm not you!"
"You know darn well that I was away on business! Where do you get the gall to lie and make me the enemy!? Huh?!"
"YOU NEVER CARED ABOUT ME!!! ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS YOUR STUPID REPUTATION!!"
"DON'T YOU RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME!!!"
"I'LL SHOUT IF I WANNA SHOUT!!!"
"COLE BECKET, I'M WARNING YOU—"
"WHY DON'T YOU GO ALREADY, BEFORE YOU MISS YOUR STUPID TRAIN!?"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!!!"
On and on and on it went, the shouting and starring each other down and breaking things. It was hard to stomach, honestly.
More and more moments like this played for what felt like an eternity. Stupid things Cole had said, friends he had hurt, dance competitions he had blown, arguments with his parents, the time he had run away from preforming school, and so many more. Then he was falling in pitch blackness and he began to panic. Wait, no, he wasn't falling, he was flying through the air in a large cave, and there was a glowing Scythe just a few feet away. This was his chance to do something completely epic. He was about to save the day! SMACK! He landed quite suddenly, and very hard, on the tail of an Earth Dragon. The wind got knocked out of him and he fell pathetically to the floor—in front of Ann and Jay, no less.
The argument with Sensei Wu came next, outside of the caves. Then the time when he was leading Ann, Wu and Keaton through the fog in the Frozen Wastelands. They had been looking for a hiding place while the Ice Dragon was flying around, but like an idiot he slipped on the ice and got separated from everyone else for a little while. Then he was being captured by Skulkens in the Underworld. He was forced to relive his torture, screaming as the flaming torches were shoved into his skin, burning him alive, then after that the Skulkens would slap or punch him in the face and stomach. He thought the memory would never end, but then the next thing Cole saw was the training grounds at the monastery, going through every little thing he had blundered, from his night spent outside, to sleeping in once or twice, culminating in their recent kidnapping, explosion in the river, and his arguments with Kai.
"Please stop," he said weakly. He couldn't take this any more. What little energy he had was used in trying to claw his way out of his own memories. Thankfully, he didn't have to go far before the landscape began to melt away and he was left on the floor of the study in the strange atrium again. The warm light from earlier was gone, and now it was as if the sky above was covered with thick storm clouds.
"No one s-s-should have to go through s-s-something like that," said the snake-man from his armchair. "But you s-s-seem to be bound to your mis-s-stakes-s-s. You can't go one day without regretting s-s-something. It's-s-s completely unfair to you. You're jus-s-st a child, s-s-still trying to find your plac-c-ce in the world. Why s-s-should you have s-s-such a burden?"
Cole thought about the snake's words for a while and felt his heart readily agreeing with them, but his head was still saying not to trust so easily. The big question he needed to focus on was: why was he doing this to him?
"Please, leave me alone," Cole begged.
"I couldn't pos-s-sibly leave now," he replied. "Not with your s-s-soc-c-ical life hanging by a thread."
"What are you talking about?" said Cole, and he turned toward the scaly creature with a frown on his face. He could see that he was reading another book, so he sat up as fast as he could and read the title: Ann Jing Haruto ☆.
"This-s-s Ann girl is-s-s very pretty. I can s-s-see why you like her s-s-so much."
Cole was paralyzed. He wanted to do something--slap the book out of his hands, scream, run--but he was still so tired and in too much shock that he felt helpless.
"All you want is-s-s s-s-someone who unders-s-stands you; a girl unlike all the others-s-s; one you haven't wronged. You had a fres-s-sh s-s-start with this-s-s one, and your letting her s-s-slip through your fingers-s-s."
Cole began to panic. Was that true? He couldn't have messed things up that badly, right? Things were still fine between them.
Suddenly, the snake took another picture from the book and tossed it at Cole. It grew until it surrounded him and he found himself standing outside the red gate of the monastery five months ago. Ann was there, staring at him, expecting his reply.
"Ann, it's so good to see a familiar face!" He cried. He moved forward to hug her, but she stopped him with one sentence.
"A pleasure to meet you," she said, and she beckoned him forward. "Please, come in."
"S-s-she does-s-sn't s-s-see you, s-s-she only s-s-sees-s-s an as-s-set. Mus-s-scles-s-s and powers-s-s s-s-she can us-s-se to her advantage."
Cole's breath caught and he looked to Ann for any sign that she was thinking of him in an affectionate way, but she seemed even more unreadable here in his memories than she did when he had actually lived this moment.
The floor disappeared again and he was falling, but instead of hard ground, he landed in icy water. He drifted down, down, down until he hit the sandy bottom and he squinted up at the light of the surface. He could see Ann standing there, her back facing him, and he tried to swim up to her but once he reached the shimmering wall between the wet and dry worlds, he found it to be solid and unmovable. He couldn't get out of the water, and Ann was beginning to walk away, completely oblivious of him. He wanted to scream out to her, but the water wouldn't let him, so he tried pounding his fists against the glassy wall until it shattered violently and sucked him away into another place.
More moments came and went.
"...Master Wu has yet to return from his journey; but I assure you that you will see him when the time is right. No sooner, no later..."
"...Well all of you shouldn't be here..."
"...I'm going to bed, and I suggest you all do the same..."
"S-s-she does-s-n't even s-s-see you."
"No... no, that's not true!" Cole retaliated, closing his eyes and blocking out the memories.
"Hmm, I s-s-supos-s-se you're right. S-s-she does-s-s s-s-see you."
Cole opened his eyes again and saw Ann standing in front of him.
"So where were you going?" she asked him. He remembered this day. Another failed attempt to talk to her.
"I-I-I... um... what?" he stuttered. This was practically worse than the real memory.
Then he was in the courtyard with her.
"If you're worried about the test, I suggest you get a good night's sleep." She walked away after that and didn't even hear him say goodnight; a clear cold-shoulder move.
Suddenly she was tripping over him in the dark, and then he was running late to class, and then he let himself get taken down by one of the assassins, and then their conversation in the hospital—the snake was right! How could she not have noticed how lame he was? He had messed up so many times and in so many ways. He wasn't suave or cool, he was a screw up, and there was no way Ann couldn't have noticed. Kai certainly seemed to.
Oh no, why did he have to think of Kai just then? As if the TV remote in his brain had changed the channel, his memories flipped over to Kai and their history together. Their awkward first encounter had been painful enough, but it had only seemed to go downhill from there. Cole had managed to form solid friendships with Jay and Zane and even Keaton, but Kai always seemed like he wanted nothing to do with him.
Was Cole not leading by example? Was he not trying his hardest to befriend Kai? Had he done something to offend him? Or did Kai just simply hate him? It was the final thought which he dreaded the most, and which was ultimately the most likely to be true. In fact, Kai was the only person in the group who routinely pushed Cole's most sensitive buttons, and made him question his own maturity.
"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CONSEQUENCES!!!" No, not this argument! It was still too fresh!
"Stop it already! STOP!" Cole yelled as loud as he could, clutching his head and closing his eyes. His headache had come back again, in the same place it had been earlier; the place of his head injury.
He listened again, and there was silence. No more flipping pages, no more memories playing, just quietness. His eyes opened slowly and saw the large, open atrium room again, but this time everything was grey and without colour. He was grateful, though, to not have any noise or bright lights overwhelming him. The stillness was so very relaxing... and then that stillness was interrupted.
"You don't have to do this-s-s alone."
The snake was standing in front of him, a few feet away, and he looked genuinely concerned about Cole.
"You know that you'll keep making mis-s-stakes-s-s, s-s-so why don't you let me help you?"
"Help me?" Cole asked, looking up at him with a frown.
"I've lived for hundreds-s-s of years-s-s, my boy. I know the ins-s-s and outs-s-s of life and companionship," the snake continued, and he slithered closer. "Cole, you're not alone. I can guide you through this-s-s mess-s-s. I can tell you what you need to do, and you can jus-s-st relax-x-x for a change, enjoying your life ins-s-stead of dreading it. Please, let me in." He reached out his hand for Cole to take and he stared down at it miserably. "What do you s-s-say?"
Cole thought about it long and hard. He needed help, there was no denying that. He was already on the verge of losing his chance with Ann and he was definitely going to blow his friendship with Kai weather he liked it or not. Besides, hundreds of years? He would definitely know a thing or two. A chance to be cool and be with his crush for real... the thought of it was so tempting, and he began to reach out his hand to meet the snake's but then stopped suddenly. There was no way to guarantee this guy's success either, right? It could still end miserably, and what if he made decisions that Cole didn't like? He had only just met this creature... on a battle field... no, no, no, this wasn't right. He pulled his hand away and glared up at the intruder.
"No. Go away. Leave me alone," he said defiantly, and his voice echoed off the non-existent walls. The snake's eyes fell with disappointment and he dropped his hand to his side.
"Very well. Have it your way," he said. His body began to dissolve like sand being blown away into an invisible wind. "But know this-s-s, Cole: I will always-s-s be there for you. All you need to do is-s-s call out to me if you change your mind..."
With that, he vanished completely and Cole was all alone. The little light that shown from above began to disappear and the world turned black.

* * *

The evening sunlight burned Cole's eyes when he first tried to open them, and he slowly began to feel the hard stone street sticking its bumpy self into his back.
He was laying on the ground of Jamanakai village by the fountain, exactly where he had been before, except the snake was gone. His eyes felt so, so, so tired and he had a nightmarish headache that burned into his scalp when he tried to sit up. What on earth had just happened? It was like a sort of dream... no, nightmare, definitely a nightmare.
"Cole! There you are!" Kai yelled, running toward him. "Where have you been?"
Cole wanted to say something, but his brain seemed to be on the fritz because nothing was happening. He just sat there, mouth gaping, while Kai stood, frantically trying to talk to him.
"Come on, get up, we gotta get out of here!" Kai dragged him to his feet and they started running through one of the older districts of the town which fit the description of "village" a decent bit better than the rest of the town did.
Conveniently, they didn't meet any more opposition as they made their escape, and were able to sneak into the nearby woods without running into a single Serpentine. Cole was still extremely rattled long after that, and he couldn't help but feel as though there was someone nearby, watching him.