Ninjago- Abandoned AU

"Never Safe"

Ronin’s secret base: 3 weeks after the apocalypse started-


Jay, covered in bandages and braces, lay irritated on the bed Ronin had placed him in weeks earlier. He stared up at the ceiling he had been stuck staring at for what felt like ages now. Jay turned his head to look at Ronin walking back and forth in the hallway; only visible when he walked by the open door. The blue ninja wondered why any of this was even happening. Why had Ronin saved him? Why couldn’t he remember what happened after he fell off the tower and saw him? Was he truly trapped in a pitch black void this whole time? Was Doom’s assault a coincidence, or was there something more to this attack on the world than he thought? He racked his brain, desperately trying to remember what happened before the nightmare beast fell from the sky and essentially murdered everything. Then something terrible struck his memory. The creature that did this… what him and the ninja started calling “Doom”…. He had seen it before.
An image depicting it at least. It was on a tapestry hanging on the wall of a room that made his back ache just thinking about.

It was on the tapestry depicting the realm of Djinjago on the wall of Nadakhan’s cabin room. But what terrified him most was the fact that there were several in the image.

THERE WERE MULTIPLE OF DOOM.

And if one could do so much damage that continents could break apart and crash into each other, the unimaginable horror that would be more… Jay felt like he was about to throw up just considering the image. He hadn’t seen all that Doom had done up close or in person yet, considering he’s currently bedridden, but Ronin had. Jay’s raspy voice broke through the silence of the room as he called out for Ronin. The thief peaked into the room.

“What’s up kid? You doing alright?”

“Ronin? Out there… Outside this base, I mean…. How bad is it?”

The master thief paused for a moment, considering carefully what to reply with. He started trying to avoid the question by asking if Jay needed something to drink, but the ninja repeated the question more firmly.

“Not good, ok kid? Everything’s destroyed. EveryONE is destroyed. I went out to collect resources the other day and I found 4 dead bodies. All of them were people just trying to evaluate the city. Just every day, average people were minding their own business one minute, and then being a wyverns snack the next. It’s hell on earth out there right now, alright? Consider yourself lucky to be just relaxing in bed all day. Cause out there……” Ronin trailed off as he seemed to realize something. “Never mind.” He closed his eyes tightly, like whatever was going through his head was painful to think about, as he turned and walked away.

Ok… well based on what just happened, Jay gathered one thing. Doom had started the apocalypse. With that being said, Jay also concluded the reason for it happening. It was his fault. HE made the wish to reset time. Meaning that what ever happened when that was done must have altered the time-line in a more drastic way than anyone could have ever imagined.

“And it’s all my fault…” His eyes filled with tears as he stared up at a specific spot on the ceiling again.

*******************************
Present day-

Cole and Miles loomed over Jay as he slept. Miles commented on how much the blue ninja seemed to sleep.
Cole sighed. “Yeah, well, he’s been through a lot.”

Miles nodded. “Yeah. I saw how many scars he had on his arms and legs. That must have hurt real bad.”

The earth ninja fell silent for a moment before looking back at Miles with a smile. “So! We waking him up or what?”

“With pleasure!” Miles jumped closer to him and spread out his arms like wings, again revealing the non- functional flying squirrel style ones on his shirt. He energetically jumped in the air and posed, balancing one leg.

“MY HEROIC CRY FILLS THE NIGHT!!” He then proceeded to make an unreasonably loud dove call, which appeared to scare Jay awake. Cole burst out laughing as he fell backwards onto the floor. Jay almost looked offended as he stared at both of the boys laughing at him. He was drenched in a cold sweat. Before either could stop laughing, a jolt of lightning shot out of an angered Jay and shocked them. The sudden attack was accompanied by the blue ninja yelling at Miles to get out of the room. In a panic, he rushed out and closed the door behind him like he was instructed. Cole looked at his friend in shock. “What was that about?!”

“Cole… There’s something I need to tell you.” Jay said it like it was urgent, so Cole’s expression turned serious as he questioned what was wrong.
“I don’t know how to tell you… but….”

The two brothers eyes locked. “I did this.”

“What? Did what?”

“EVERYTHING!!! Doom, the thousands of deaths, the whole reason we’re in this mess in the first place!! It was me! OK?! I CAN’T HIDE IT ANYMORE!!! I CAUSED THE APOCALYPSE!.... But I swear it was on accident!! The alternative was you all dying and me being forced to play Scrap n Tap till I DIED- AND….” He said it in typical Jay freak out fashion, which he hadn’t really done recently. Cole looked arguably confused and a bit disturbed by what he just said, but Jay having a good old-fashioned freak out made him crack a slight smile. It was still funny how high his voice seemed to go; even now that he was grown up. The lightning ninja sat there crying and essentially hyperventilating after not taking any breaths in between the rant. Cole smiled and did what he had always done when Jay panicked this hard. He sat closer to him and called his name softly to get his frantic friend to look at him.