Legends of Ninjago: Book 3: The Four Fangs

Chapter 2: A Meeting with Destiny

Jay's arm twitched and suddenly he was awake.
The cave was still dark and he drew his blanket closer to his body, like a caterpillar wrapping itself in a cocoon. As he rolled over, he could feel something moving across his face and at first he was worried that it might be a bug or some other sort of undesirable pest, but when he swiped at it, he found water falling from his fingertips. Then he felt his hair and his blanket and, sure enough, there were dew drops everywhere. He groaned and started using the dry side of the blanket to clean off his face.
"Ahh!" He whisper-cried, and clutched his arm. While everyone else was still asleep, he pulled back his sleeve to look at it again, and traced the long scar there. It was a pinky-purple,  lumpy line straight up and down his forearm, and there were little, dark-green veins shooting off from it, like some sort of poison. It hurt, too. A lot. Every so often it would flare up—get so bad that he would tremble—but most of the time he could manage. Eventually it would go away, so it was fine. He just needed to grin and bear it.
He laid down and his thoughts wandered back to the events of last night. The ceremony, the evacuation, the tripping over his own feet and stumbling into Nya. Yup. A magical night indeed. (This is sarcasm.)
He was falling behind in his training and he hadn't made any progress with Nya. They were still just friends, if even that. The only times they ever talked were as part of the whole group around the campfire, so it felt difficult to really get to know her. But worse than that was the conversation he had accidentally overheard last night between Nya and her brother. She didn't want to be here. In retrospect, it was obvious, but... up until now, Jay had been quietly hoping that sooner or later she'd get used to the whole ninja thing. Apparently not.
He sighed. What even was this whole 'ninja thing' these days anyway? Everything had gotten so messed up. Sometimes he would think back to their escape from Ninjago City, and it would just be a big blur of panic-stricken running. The one thing that had stuck with him was seeing his parents again for the first time in months. In particular, he had been thinking about his conversation with his dad a lot over the past month, trying to figure it out.
"I owe you an explanation, and you'll get one some day..."
That's what he had said.
An explanation... for what? For why he wasn't shocked when Jay told him he had an elemental power? Did that mean... had he known about it all this time? Had he met Wu before, too? How far back did all of this go exactly? And where had his powers even come from? Neither of his parents seemed like a believable candidate. Then there was the fact that Jay didn't even have a connection to his element until he used the Nunchucks of Lightning, and he didn't know where to begin with that fun little factoid. What did it all mean? He could feel that there was something much bigger going on underneath the surface of all of this, but it was like trying to reach for a door knob in the dark, only to realise you're about three feet too far away and then stubbing your tow on something.
It was actually kind of funny. To think that once upon a time he had been a scrawny, awkward kid reading comics and watching movies about heroes going on adventures... and now he was a lightning ninja, laying on a dirty cave floor, and he hadn't bathed in days. It was a charmed life. (There's that sarcasm again.)
Well now that he was awake, it was virtually impossible to get back to sleep. Wu had been working them nonstop and now he was practically wired to wake up early and start his training. It was better to do it now, especially, while everyone else was still asleep and no one could see him slowly lose his strength.
He shook off as much water as he could from his blankets and walked over to the corner where pale sunlight was starting to shine. The waves were much louder here, which was probably why he didn't hear Nya's footsteps.
"Oh, Jay! You're awake," she said as he nearly walked straight into her.
"Nya! You're on watch?" He blurted, jumping back. "Right, of course you're on watch, that's... right..." He rubbed the back of his head, desperately trying to think of something to say that wasn't completely stupid.
"Couldn't sleep?"
Jay blinked. "Well, uhh, you know how us ninja get when we haven't had a chance to save the day in a while, ha ha. You know?"
She breathed through her nose and watched the waves beat against the cave walls nearby. "No. Not really."
He studied her, taking in her beautiful features, marred by faint lines of frustration and worry. Her cute, black hair was damp and stuck behind her ears and her blanket was firmly wrapped around her shoulders.
"So... you don't want to be a ninja?" He asked.
"I don't know. I mean—no, I do know—and no."
Jay blinked again. "Umm, should I take that as a 'no?'"
She gave an awkward smile as she rubbed some sleep out of her eyes. "Yes," she laughed.
"Well, which is it, yes or no?" Now Jay was smiling too.
"Look," she sighed, recentering herself and leaning against a wall of jagged stone. "As much as everyone thinks me becoming a ninja will be a significant good... I'm not comfortable with taking those oaths. And beyond that, I don't think I'm the only one who feels like the past year has been more than a little..."
"Stressful?" Jay offered.
"Insane. I mean, one minute I'm sharing pocket pals with my friends during lunch, the next, I'm riding dragons and trying very hard not to die every five seconds. Is it so much to just want things to go back to normal? To not have to sleep in caves and... have nightmares all the time?"
They stood and listened to the waves. Some seagulls 'cawed' outside. The wind cut through their clothes like a frozen knife.
"Well..." Jay started, looking at her. "I for one am glad that all of this happened. Cause if it didn't, then I wouldn't have met..." she was watching him carefully with those big, hazel eyes of hers and he felt his heart skip a few beats. "...all of you guys," he finished with a pathetic chuckle.
She smiled and stared at the ground. "Thanks. You're really sweet."
And all of a sudden, that wind didn't feel so cold anymore.
"But at the end of the day, I think the best thing for me to do is stay as far away from the action as possible."
"Eh, well, you don't really need to," he said casually. Instantly she turned to him, confused. "Not when you got such handsome ninjas to protect you," and he combed his fingers through is hair in a very dramatic fashion.
She burst out laughing, but it took Jay a second to make sure it was the good sort of laughter.
"Yeah, well... I don't have any doubts about Kai. No one could ask for a more protective big brother." She turned to him. "Do you have any siblings?"
He shook his head. "Nah. I'm an only child."
"That's too bad. You never got to experience the joy of siblings rivalries," she said with mock enthusiasm.
"What? Sibling rivalry? You mean with ol' sizzle fingers? No way, he's definitely not the confrontational type, not at all."
Nya busted up again, this time almost doubling over. They way the light from the cave entrance was framing her face just then... Jay desperately wished he had a camera.
"You better not let him hear you say that," she wheezed. "Or those 'sizzle fingers' will go right up your nose!"
Now they were both laughing, so loud that Jay was worried Kai himself might wake up and pound his face in. Of course, he might do so anyway if he saw the two of them talking together by themselves. Or just if he was in a bad mood. Or any reason, really. Kai was just very moody in general.
"Why is he like that, by the way?" He asked without thinking. "So... angry and moody, I mean."
Nya's smile faded and her eyes seemed to cloud over.
"The war, mostly. You've gotta understand... the pressure put on him when... when are parents were taken... and then when I was taken... I think he blames himself for a lot of what happened. Maybe this is just his way of coping with it. He's not the only one."
Jay looked up. "And how about you? How are you coping?"
She seemed to really think about it for a while. "I'm not sure. I just feel... scared, I guess."
"About what?"
"Well, about... what's gonna happen to us."