ninjago imagines

fallin' | jay w., cole b.

TW: Mentions of death.

Jay catches Cole before he can plummet into the darkness. Although, he's not sure how long he can hold on.

• • •

Jay thinks it's almost ironically funny how close to the edge they come in missions. One last step, a lucky chance, that's what saves their lives most of the times. 

So even as they're dangling on the rope ladders, hundreds of feet above the ground, Jay thinks they're safe. Another escape by the skin of their hides, he thinks, and then the boat shoots off in the wrong direction, and he instinctively hugs the cords, steadying his feet on the thin stand.

Till there's a small snap and a panicked yell, and suddenly, Cole has disappeared from his view. 

Before Jay can think anything through, he lets go of the rope, and dives down toward the earth ninja. Screams follow him down, but he grabs Cole's hand. 

And he doesn't know how he does it, but somehow his fingers catch the last rung of the ladder, skin burning across the rope. They come to an abrupt stop, swinging dangerously over the drop. Jay tightens his fingers around the lines, and it feels like his wrist explodes in agony. There's silence for a few minutes, and the earth ninja exhales softly, the small movement alone testing his grasp.

"I'm not letting you drop." Jay says firmly, and his grip slips a little more, sending a stab of panic through him. "Kai?  Zane? Can you pull us up?" The rope starts to ascend upwards slowly after a few seconds, but even that much is enough to make his fingers burn, scraping against the tough material. 

Cole stares down at the writhing mass of darkness for a second, and looks up to meet his eyes. There's a deep sense of desperation in the deep hazel, and "You gotta let me go, Jay."

"No! Oh, shit." His voice goes high in panic, and he struggles to hang on, their combined weight dragging his hold down. A sharp pain stabs through his shoulder, and he gasps in pain. 

"Then I'm sorry." Cole says softly, and wrenches his hand out of his hold. For a split second, he's falling, falling, falling, and then the darkness swallows him up, leaving no sign he was ever there before.

The ship suddenly starts up again, flying away into the skies, and it's a few seconds before  The building is disappearing into the distance when Jay finally realizes what happened. 

He's left to hang onto the ladder numbly, faintly hearing the shouts from above. The others pull him up onto the deck, and his limbs turn to jelly the moment he hits solid deck. He isn't sure how he managed to stay on for so long. 

It was all his fault. 

He hadn't been fast enough, strong enough to hold on, he hadn't been enough.