Legends of Ninjago: Book 3: The Four Fangs

Chapter 3: Rebuilding

In the days that followed the discovery of the pirate ship, Jay had been spearheading its restoration. The first step was, obviously, to clean the disgusting thing, which took far longer than anyone had anticipated or would have liked. Every time they cleaned up one pile of droppings or clump of waste, a new section of mould would be discovered, making the operation last another hour or sometimes a whole day longer. Ann in particular was determined to scrub out every last iota of bacteria from each individual floor board, and if Zane hadn't reasoned with her on the fifth day of her cleaning spree, she may never have relented.
Once that was finished, there was the matter of repairing the ship, starting with the missing boards and parts that they had to remove due to rot or mould. Cole and Zane were assigned to collect new wood from the nearby forest, while Jay, Nya and Kai figured out the details of how to put it all together again, with a little nautical consultation from Ann. Meanwhile, Keaton had been left with nothing much to do other than periodically search the cavern for signs of pirate treasure, which was looking less and less likely. So she had been placed on sentry duty and would stand watch outside the cave in case those police officers from a few days ago decided to show up again. So far, it would seem that they had searched their old campsite and the woods surrounding it, but nothing more. For now they could assume that they had successfully masked their trail.
That just left Wu.
While all of this had been going on, Wu found himself without any students to train, and so took to sitting alone, meditating for hours on end. Most of the kids assumed this was because he was growing increasingly stressed over the current state of things—what with his nephew still aligned with the Serpentine, bent on destroying all of Ninjago, and him mentoring seven teenagers in a cave. You know, normal stuff.
This change in atmosphere was perhaps an even bigger catalyst for the ship project than anyone realised. Having something relatively fun and engaging to work on instead of just repeating the same training routine day in and day out was a much better distraction from the looming question: what now? And how do we even begin to stop Lloyd when we don't so much as know where he is or what he's planning?
They had kept their portable radio from the campsite with them and listened to the news as often as they could, but day after day the only thing they heard were more reports on damage control and petty crimes happening in the local area. There weren't even any reported sightings of a single Serpentine tail.
As Ann observed the boys hammering away at the hull of the ship one day, she couldn't help but feel tense. Like they should be doing something more important than this right now. Something that needed their help right away. But there were no reports of any disasters, attacks, or other such calamities, so here she sat, twiddling her thumbs.
"Hey, Cole, can you bring that big board over here? No no, the BIG board. THAT one," Jay was saying as he pointed emphatically.
"What's wrong, Kai? Scared of a little water?" Said Nya nearby. She was standing on the thin shoreline and kicked some water in Kai's direction.
"Knock it off," he growled.
Ann's legs were getting sore, so she decided to get up and see how Keaton was doing.
The wind was blowing into the caves that day, making Ann shiver and cross her arms. She could never understand how anyone could like, or even stand the cold, especially Keaton. But then again, Ann supposed that it kind of made sense for her to not mind the wind.
She stepped out of the cave and had to brace herself against the blustery gale charging in from the sea. It was accompanied by a spattering of soggy snowflakes and angry ocean waves. Ann scanned the sky and felt its sleepy, grey mass slowly making its way inland to powder everything in a blanket of white. A part of her hoped that the Serpentine hibernated in the winter.
"Keaton?" She called out, swivelling around. The shoreline was nothing but rocks getting beaten by the salty water, so she looked up at the cliffs and forest. "Keaton? Are you out here?" When no one answered, she suddenly became worried. Were the police back? Was it the Serpentine? Were they already surrounded? What were their options? She could reasonably defend the cave with all this ocean at her disposal, but what if there was another way in that she didn't know about and all her friends were already getting ambushed and they were all about to die horrible deaths—
"Ann? What's wrong?"
Ann jolted and looked up at Keaton, squatting high above the cave entrance. Her hair and clothes seemed a little wet, but she was otherwise fine.
"Keaton, there you are—thank goodness," she said, taking a breath.
"Did something happen?" Keaton's brow was beginning to furrow.
"No, no," said Ann, "Everything's fine, I just wanted to check on you."
"Oh." Keaton stood up straight and cast her gaze out across the water.
"So.. are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Okay?" Ann clarified.
"I'm fine."
"Oh."
The two girls stood there for a little while longer, neither one entirely sure what to do or say. The snow was beginning to come down harder now, forcing Ann to blink through it.
"Keaton?" She asked hesitantly.
"What is it?"
She had to fight to find the right words, but they were still struggling against her. "I... can't help but notice... I guess... I wonder..."
"Look, Ann, I told you I'm fine," Keaton said firmly, "Now go back inside before you freeze." She turned and started walking away.
"What happened?" The words were out of Ann's mouth like a flock of birds and it made Keaton stop. "You've been avoiding me. Why? What did I do?" Keaton kept her back facing toward her. "Please, Keaton, I need to know. Was it... was it something that happened while I was kidnapped?"
Very slowly, and with a very neutral expression, Keaton turned around and said, "Everything's fine, Ann. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my patrol."
She disappeared beyond Ann's line of sight, and into the forest.
Part of Ann wanted to believe her sister and carry on as usual, but the other part of her stood there watching the place where Keaton had been standing, replaying what she had said in her mind. The way she had said it... somehow it didn't sound like Keaton.
Eventually Ann wandered back inside, unable to bear the cold any longer. She rubbed her nose as she came up to their makeshift camp and sat down on her sleeping bag.
This was what she had always wanted, wasn't it? A more responsible Keaton. So why did it feel like something was wrong?
She rested her head on her knees and closed her eyes, trying to think.
"Hey, have you seen Wu?" Jay asked, coming up beside her.
"He's—" Ann stopped when she opened her eyes because when she looked up to face him, there was no one there. She craned her neck around, but Jay simply wasn't in the room. "Jay?" She asked, feeling herself frown.
"Yes?"
She turned around and saw him coming down the tunnel from the pirate cove.
"Jay, there you are," she said, relieved.
"Oh, were you looking for me?" He asked.
"No, I thought you... never mind," she said quickly, and she shook her head. It must have been her imagination. Maybe she had started to drift off to sleep or something.
"Okay," said Jay casually. "Hey, have you seen Wu?"
Ann stared at him. It was word-for-word, tone-for-tone exactly what she had just heard a moment before. "Um... if he's not meditating, then he might be in the..."
"'Restroom?'" Jay finished.
"Yeah."
He turned around and started for another tunnel, meanwhile Ann frowned at the ground. That was so uncanny. It almost reminded her of another similar incident. The memory was blurry, but she was used to that by now, and in it she had been fighting with Cole. There had been a moment when she was positive that she had made a wrong move and was going to die, only to blink and suddenly have a second chance to course-correct. It had also been an uncanny moment, and certainly one that she hadn't thought of since its occurrence.
If Jay hadn't really spoken at first—and she was fairly sure that he hadn't—then did that mean she hadn't made an error in the fight with Cole? Had she imagined it like she had imagined Jay speaking? And yet her imaginations had come true, almost as if... almost as if they were glimpses of the future.