Taking Control. (a Ninjago fanfic)

Chapter 66- Shock damage

N Y A

I kept my hand on Jay's chest, just above where his heart should've been beating stronger than this.

It was still there. Faint. Unsteady. But there.

His skin was hot with fever and raw in places where the burns had peeled deeper than we'd originally thought. Zane was crouched beside me, his fingers moving with a strange kind of gentleness for someone so broken. His internal lights were flickering again, casting a soft, uneven blue across Jay's ruined skin as he worked.

He was using a medic pack from his arm compartment, the tools clicking softly as he worked around the tendrils curling from the mirror's surface.

They were still dark—inky, writhing shadows that clung to Jay's chest, his shoulders, the sides of his face. Zane was careful to avoid them, flinching back each time they twitched toward his hands like they had minds of their own.

I kept my gaze fixed on Jay's face, even though it hurt to look. The way his eyes were just open and staring—blank and distant—really didn't look right. Didn't feel right.

"What is he going through right now?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. "Where is he?"

Wu stepped closer, crouching down to watch Jay as well, his expression unreadable. "It's almost like a nightmare," he said, voice low, "But Jay is not asleep. Nor is he dreaming."

I glanced at him, heart pounding harder.

"He is facing his fears," Wu reminded me. "His deepest ones. His worst regrets, his guilt, his pain—all brought to life around him. Every moment of failure, every loss he believes was his fault. The mirror draws them out... and makes them real."

I looked back at Jay. "Real?"

"Real enough that he feels it. The pain. The fear. The helplessness. In that world, it is real."

Zane's hand paused for just a second.

Lloyd's voice was rough behind me. "So he's in there... reliving every awful thing he's ever blamed himself for?"

Wu nodded once. "Yes. And the only way this will work is if he overcomes it. The soul exchange requires more than just presence—it requires will."

I felt sick.

"He has to choose to overcome," Wu said. "To fight it. To believe he's more than what the mirror is showing him. If he can't... it will fail."

"And we'll know," He murmured, not looking up, "When the tendrils turn lighter."

"Lighter?" Lloyd questioned.

Wu stepped closer to the mirror, watching the way the wisps shifted and pulsed with every shallow rise of Jay's chest.

"They will shift," he continued, "from shadow to light. When gold replaces the dark, it means he is winning. That he is breaking the illusion. That his soul is choosing life."

I pressed my hand harder against Jay's chest, swallowing thickly. "Come on," I whispered. "You've survived worse than this. Come back to us."

Beside me, Zane adjusted a wrap across Jay's ribs. "I have stabilized the bleeding," he said quietly, "but his body won't last much longer. The exchange must complete soon."

I didn't answer.

I just kept holding on.

~~~

His skin was burning.

Not with fire, not—but with the lingering heat of something that had nearly destroyed him from the inside out. His own elemental power. The electrical burns across his chest had blackened the edges of the fabric still clinging to him. His breathing was shallow, like every inhale was a decision his body had to make. And every time I blinked, I swore it got fainter.

Zane moved carefully, methodically. His hands were steady, but his body trembled. Steam curled off his wrist where the cooling system had failed, and ice had begun creeping up his arm again, jagged and sharp at the edges. He didn't mention it. He didn't even look up. Just kept working.

I wanted to help. I was helping, I guess. But it didn't feel like enough.

My palm stayed pressed just over Jay's heart, as if I could will it to beat stronger. As if I could whisper life into him.

But no words came.

Only memories.

I remembered the first time we ever fought side by side. How he laughed even when we were outnumbered, how he'd shouted something stupid like "I got this!" and immediately didn't. How we all teased him later, and how I'd smiled at him a little too long when I thought no one noticed.

I remembered him in the desert, when we were up against that Beetle— dust in his hair, blood in his mouth, hands sparking with raw power, and still smiling because we were alive.

I remembered his cry when I died.

The helpless, broken sound that cracked through the area like thunder. The way he fought Nadakhan. Fought for me. Fought the idea of letting me go.

I remembered all of it.

And now—this. This quiet, broken moment where I couldn't do anything but stay.

Where the boy who never stopped talking had fallen completely silent.

I moved my thumb, brushing a bit of ash off his cheekbone, careful not to touch the places where the strands curled like snakes. They pulsed faintly under his skin, wrapping around his jaw and sinking into his collarbone.

The worst part was how still he looked.

Jay was never still. He was motion. Noise. Light.

But now he just... lay there. Caught between life and something colder.

I could feel the others behind me—Lloyd pacing with a limp, Zane's low mechanical whirring, Wu's silence as he meditated. But none of it felt real.

Only Jay did.

Even like this. Especially like this.

A quiet breath left me. "You said you'd never leave me," I whispered, my voice cracking.

He didn't respond.

Zane adjusted one of the gauze wraps again, his hands gentle. "The burns across his abdomen are worsening. I believe the damage reached internal organs. There was... more electricity than even his body could withstand."

I bit down on the noise in my throat. I couldn't break. Not now. Not when he still had a chance.

And then—Wu's words from earlier echoed again.

The only way this will work is if he overcomes it.

I shut my eyes, trying to imagine what that meant. What he was seeing.

I pictured him walking through every moment he blamed himself for. Every time one of us had been hurt. Every loss he thought he could've prevented. And then—

"I know you think it's your fault," I murmured, brushing my fingers through his hair. "But it's not. It never was."

He didn't move.

The tendrils stayed dark.

"This isn't the end." I smiled sadly down at him. "But it isn't the beginning. You're nearly there, Jay, I promise. Just hold on."

I stayed with him. Because I had nothing else left to give.

And because Jay had never left me.

Not when Wojira awoke.
Not when I vanished into the ocean.
Not even when I forgot myself.

So I wouldn't leave him either.

Not now.
Not ever.

"Fight it," I whispered. "Please, Jay. Come back."

And somewhere, deep inside the storm of shadows, I hoped he could hear me.