Ninjago: Ripped World

14: The Storm

'AAAAAAARGH!' Nya screamed into the abyss. Closely followed by 'Crap, crap crap' to which she stamped and jumped in time. 'What the hell have I done?' she demanded of the Great Chasm.

She knew what she had done.

'I've just ripped Jays heart out and let it disintegrate with this effing world'... She kicked the dry earth and remembered the kiss.

'With Cole' she groaned.

'His best friend'

She put her face in her hands. 'I hate myself. I am a hateful, hateful person'...

'Hey, hold on... That rat kissed me back! What the hell was he doing? With his best friends girl?' She liked this theory better.

She turned and started an angry run back to their camp.

Cole was in the middle of manipulating the earth, creating a deep hole with a winding path around the edge as an entry point.

'Hey, dung beetle!' Nya shouted down from the edge.

Cole stopped what he was doing. He had felt her determined run towards him and earlier in the far distance, the vibrations of her urgent jumps and stamps.

He turned and sat back against a boulder. 'Everything ok Nya?' He asked calmly as she descended the path.

'No, not really!' She replied sharply.

He raised his eyebrows as if to say 'well then spit it out'.

'You... You...' Not quite having formulated her argument, Nya continued with 'How could you do this to Jay?'

'May I remind you that you asked me to kiss you?'

'Yeah, well, you still kissed me which means you wanted to and that's treason... to Jay'.

'What are you on Nya? Just the fact that you asked me to kiss you means you wanted me to kiss you.'

'I was having a nervous breakdown, I was delirious'.

'And I took advantage?' He asked softly.

She looked at him with her large, angry eyes, her lips a thin tight line. She so wanted to say 'yes' and make all of it his fault. Absolving her from doing anything wrong. He'd probably let her too. It was his way. Kind, strong, quiet, generous Cole. Whatever she felt, she couldn't blame this on him.

She broke the silent stalemate. Issuing a frustrated growl she turned on her heal, swiped her fists at the air and stomped up the winding path, a black storm cloud forming above her head.

Cole watched her go and supressed the smile that grew on his face. Nya really was very funny when she was angry... Then he remembered Jay and felt a wave of guilt wash over him. He turned and power-punched a large rock to dust, folded his arms and meditated on this through furrowed brows.

While Nya was now out of sight, her storm cloud was not. It had been growing and spreading across the sky. It was now eerily low and looked as if you could reach up to touch it. He had never seen Nya create a cloud like this and walked forward from the shattered boulder to look up at the cloud in wonder. His skin started to tingle and strands of his long thick hair lightly defied gravity.

'Uh oh' he thought as he dived for cover, flattening himself to the ground as close to the boulder remains as he could get.

A pulse of light flashed through the cloud, followed almost immediately by a deafening crack of thunder that rolled and echoed around the excavation. Cole threw his hands over his ears and watched as the cloud dissipated.