Original - The 17th Realm (The Maniac Trilogy - Book 1)

7 - Reinvasion of Darkness

JAY'S POV

It's been three days now. It felt like weeks though. I might just be overreacting, but I can't lose anyone ever again, not again, I don't want to lose anyone else. Not after a year without Nya. Not after losing my child who I didn't even get to see with my own eyes or hold her in my arms. I'm going crazy again, I'm panicking again - seeing Nya in cups of water again. I can't do this, I don't want to go through loss. Not again.

Sky and Kai's news about the babies didn't cheer us up enough. I went to Kai's room. I wanted to talk. I peaked through the door. He was... crying. I could tell. Head down, knees tucked in. He was angry, he was... I could almost read through him. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. He turned around, saw me and wiped his tears. He plastered a fake smile over his face.

"What's up?" He asked.

"I wanted to talk. I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"I was being selfish. I never realise what other people feel when I'm worried."

"It's not even... It's okay, Jay. I'm not angry with you. Stress makes people act in different ways," he sighed. "I'm terrified of becoming a father. Of two for that matter. Especially at this time."

"What?" I laughed. "Scared of becoming a father? That's ridiculous! You were the one giving me all these tips for parenting when Nya was pregnant."

"I know but I'm scared I'll fail my kids. I need to stop making promises about protecting others. The last time I did that, Nya turned into the fucking ocean and Lloyd was kidnapped by Harumi. I'm scared of the responsibility."

"Kai, you are one of the bravest people I know! You didn't fail anyone. You protected Nya all her life and you saved Lloyd when you found your true potential. Maybe they don't need your protection anymore. You will have a new responsibility. I don't think you have to worry about Nya AND Lloyd AND your kids. Nya and Lloyd are adults now. They will find their own path one day. You need to focus on your own path."

"Wow. Thanks Jay. Since when can you give good advice?" he laughed.

I scoffed jokingly and nudged his arm, "Rude!" We laughed and sighed. "I'm gonna go to Master Wu and see what he's up to."

"Okay. I'll hang around here for a bit. Thanks again." I went to Master Wu who was in the base with Zane.

"Hey-" Master Wu sharply turned to me. 

"Why aren't you with PIXAL?" He snapped. "Go!" Confused, I went to the lift and ran outside. There was no-one there. I noticed a crowd of people at the bottom of the mountain. I took the lift down and saw PIXAL in her Samurai X helmet on and Sky.

"What's going on?"

"EVERYONE, FOLLOW SAMURAI X!" Sky shouted. PIXAL lead everyone to the Bounty. She turned to me, "The darkness. It took over some of the city." She looked around. "Where's Kai?"

"He's inside. In his room." Once the crowd of people died down, I took Sky to Kai's room. She hugged him tightly. "The darkness is back!"

Kai hugged her back and then pulled away again. "Shit. That can't be good. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, we have to go to the bounty and make sure everyone is safe." We went to the bounty. Zane changed his voice projection settings to high. "IS THIS EVERYONE?" He shouted. Many people looked distressed, many parents reunited with their children. No-one seemed to be hurt but half of the city was wiped out already...

SKYLOR'S POV

I was frightened. This hasn't happened in years. It's been so long. I don't want to go through it again. Especially not while pregnant and some of us in the 17th Realm. 

Luckily, the bounty was big enough to fit everyone who survived. Not the entire city, though, of course. There were a few evacuation points set in place. Around the city, there are assembly points with buses and trains and other transport that would take the citizens to distant places. We were taking handfuls at a time to some distant safehouses and camps where they'd be provided with food and water. While PIXAL took the people to the evacuation point, the rest of us had a look at the city from the monastery.

"It's quite far away for now. It's spreading quite slowly. Hopefully the others will be back soon," I analysed.

"Do you think they're okay?" Jay asked.

"Knowing them, they're probably halfway through the journey." Kai estimated. I nodded. I wasn't sure if that was true but let's think optimistically, right? PIXAL came back with the bounty. We all went inside and explained our predictions to Wu who was with Zane in the meditation room.

"I managed to reach it," Wu said. "The 17th realm. Look." He poured some blue fairy dust of some sort (I know that it's not fairy dust but it looks like it) and this blue smokey hologram thingy appeared of the others at the 17th Realm. There was Nya, Cole and Lloyd and two others walking.

"Who are they?" Zane asked.

"I don't know but... hang on..." He sprinkled a bit more dust, zooming onto the unknown girl's face. "She reminds me of someone," Wu hesitated. "She looks similar to Maya's sister. I don't know much about her though..."

Maya peeked through the doors. "Who's similar to my sister?"

"Mum!" Kai exclaimed. 

"Nya's not here?"

Kai frowned and shook his head.

"Her, Cole and Lloyd are in the 17th realm," Zane explained.

Maya looked up at the blue dust thing. She gasped and covered her mouth when she looked at the unknown girl. "She's alive!" She laughed.

"Who, Nya?" I asked. She shook her head.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad that Nya's alive but I'm not talking about her. That is Emily."

"Who's Emily?" Pix asked. 

"She's your cousin, Kai..." 

Kai raised an eyebrow. "I don't remember her... I only remember Lily."

"We only visited her twice before the accident," she sniffed. "When my sister died in the house fire..." Maya burst into tears. Kai comforted her with a realisation in his face.

"I remember the accident. We were visiting auntie Nadia, weren't we?" Maya nodded in response when we suddenly heard a sudden ear-piercing sound. It was like a scream, a screech and a bang mixed together. On the hologram, a huge, cloud-like thing formed in front of them. We ran outside to find the source of the sound where the air was filled with darkness. We ran back inside before anything could happen.

This was an interesting one. The convo between Jay and Kai was actually never supposed to happen, funnily enough. I have to copy this entire fanfic off my phone and while I was copying it I was like "Imma change that". Basically instead of that conversation, it was just supposed to be Kai turning to Jay with firey red eyes. Jay was gonna run off all scared. Another change was how the citizens were supposed to be evacuated into the monastery base but then I thought that that is not realistic. At all. Ninjago is like a megacity or something I don't think 10million people would fit there xd. This chapter is so much shorter than the previous two wtf lmao