Legends of Ninjago Book 2: Rise of the Serpentine

Chapter 28: A Chance

Cole sat quietly in his head, waiting for his next orders. Was it really worth the effort to fight anymore? After all, despite how much he tried to resist, Scales had used him to hypnotise Ann, and they were on their way to Greta Junction right now to show her off like a prancing show pony. He was disgusted by Scales and, more importantly, by himself. He couldn't believe that Cole Becket had just rolled over and accepted his fate. But what else was there to do? Soon, Ninjago would fall, and his friends not long after. He hoped they were safe, wherever they were.
He turned around and saw Ann sitting in the passenger seat of the car behind them. The poor girl. She had been fighting so hard all this time, but even she wasn't strong enough, and now she'd be suffering a fate just as bad or maybe even worse than his. Now, she didn't even remember who he was. There was a part of him that didn't mind her not remembering his many, many blunders, but... he wanted her to remember him... and maybe those blunders were a part of who he was. Maybe it was better if she knew who he was and didn't like him rather than her not knowing him at all. But what did it matter in the end? They were both just pawns now.
They reached Greta Junction and stopped the cars. Scales got out first, rambling on and on and on with his speech while Cole patiently waited for his queue. It was scary how he was almost willingly going along with everything now, but he found it was easier to just comply rather than waste energy fighting. Fighting was so exhausting.
Scales signalled for him to come up now, and he verbally ordered Ann to do the same. Cole took a breath and stepped out into the cold so that he could stand up in front of the chief and all the other snakes and shout his allegiance to a tribe he wished was dead. Was it possible to literally die on the inside? Please let there be a way...

* * *

Kai stared down at the street, breathless. His stomach squirmed and he felt his throat grow tight as Cole and Ann began to shout, "Long live the Hypnobrai!" over and over again with the crowd of Serpentine. There had to be something he could do to save them—anything at all.
"Ann Jing!"
Kai's head snapped to the source of the scream and he saw Keaton leaping out from her hiding place and running up to her sister, the wind at her back. Keaton had her arms wrapped around Ann in a mere two seconds, but she was left with nowhere else to go. After dragging Ann off the hood of the car, they were left standing on the front steps of a bistro, while half of the Hypnobrai army started closing in.
Something started moving next to Kai, and he had to reach out and stop Jay from jumping down there. They locked eyes and Kai said, "We can't rush—"
"Keaton's in danger!" Jay blurted, and he shook off Kai's grip. With a single leap, Jay landed on the ground, his hands charged with blue electricity. "Get down!" he yelled at his young teammate. In a flash of light, a dozen snakes were writhing on the ground, electrocuted.
As Jay rushed in and scooped up the girls, Kai was left wondering what he should be doing.
"What's going on down there?" Wu cried over the com links.
"There's been a change in plan," Kai replied, bracing himself. "We're getting them back now." If Wu made a reply, Kai couldn't hear it over the wind in his ears as he created a fire blast that shot him straight to Cole. He ended up tackling his teammate and they fell to the asphalt in a painful heap.
"Attack!" a Serpentine shouted, and the whole street erupted into chaos. There were arrows being shot down from the rooftops, snakes and brainwashed soldiers running everywhere, with no discernible leader managing anything.
Kai got to his hands and knees just in time for Cole to hit him in the stomach with a piece of the road. There wasn't any time for coherent thought, and so as Kai tumbled, he did his best to land on his feet and swallowed back the bile rising in his throat, as Cole was coming right at him, carrying another rock. His fire had no chance against earth, so what should he do? His hand instinctively shot to his side and he grabbed the handle of his katana, unsheathing it smoothly and dashing forward as low as his legs would allow. After narrowly avoiding being squished under Cole's rock, he slid past him, cutting the skin on one of his legs. Cole gave out a nasty cry, and Kai looked down at his blade, dripping with blood.