On a String

Chapter 13

Take this soul,
Stranded in some skin and bones.
Take this soul,
And make it sing."
'Yahweh' by U2

So... what happens now?" Jay asked as he entered the games room with Nya and Lloyd- Zane and Sensei Wu having gone outside to dispose of the Puppeteer's corpse.

Nya shook her head tiredly; her black hair moving in a resigned manner which reflected her weary demeanour. "I don't know," she murmured, collapsing into a nearby couch.

Lloyd- uncharacteristically silent- flopped into a lime green bean bag and began to trace patterns on the wooden floor with an expression almost as unreadable as Kai's.

It didn't take the observation skills of a Ninja to see how deeply Kai's actions had affected them all.

"I guess we wait," Jay mused quietly, sitting down next to Nya. "There's no way I'm going back to bed,"

"Yeah," Nya nodded, and somehow even the simple movement showed how hopeless she felt. "I don't think I could sleep, anyway," she sighed, rubbing one eye with a shaky hand.

As her hand fell away from her face, Jay reached out and caught it in his. "We have to believe that Kai will come back," he said, gently squeezing her hand in support.

Even as she returned the gesture, Nya looked defeated. "But... I just can't believe that... Kai would do... I mean, he'd never..." she broke off and swallowed dryly.

Her older brother would never kill a prisoner.

Except he had.

"I know," Jay nodded, understanding what she couldn't bring herself to say. "But we have to hope,"

"Jay, he killed the prisoner!" Nay exclaimed, her bright brown eyes filling with tears, which she bravely struggled not to let fall. "We never kill our prisoners! Sure, he's been affected by the gang... but, but I never thought he'd changed this much!"

Jay wrapped one arm around her shoulders in a reassuring, yet tender, embrace. "That doesn't mean he can't change again though," he replied, the optimism in his tone sounding out of place in the melancholy setting, even to his own ears. "Kai's resilient. I believe in him. With a lot of support, I'm sure he'll come back to us,"

Nya turned away. "My brother is a killer," she replied in a haunted whisper. "A cold blooded killer. Kai. How could anything bring him back?"

How could you do this, Kai? To me? To all of us?

Jay reached out a hand and gently turning her head back to face him. "Cole isn't our leader for nothing. He'll know what to do," he said, hope shining in his eyes like a warm fire on a cold winter night.

"Sensei doesn't know what to do," Nya pointed out.

"That doesn't mean Cole can't help Kai. We just need to be patient; let them work through this. I know it's hard for you when Cole's the only person Kai shows any amount of trust in. But we have to wait. Kai's trust in Cole will grow and then it will spread to the rest of us," Jay's sincere blue eyes searched his girlfriend's face. "Nya, we can't give up hope."

"Jay is correct, Nya," Sensei Wu bowed his head as he entered the room with Zane following him. "We can't lose hope,"

Zane looked at his teacher. "But, Sensei, for Kai to do something as brutal as kill a prisoner in cold blood, he must have been significantly affected by The Puppeteers." he said, moving into a meditative position on the wooden floor. "There is a chance that the 'old' Kai will not return to us. I do not like to be so gloomy and look on the darker side of things, but it is an aspect we must consider,"