Book 2: Rift Wars

Chapter 10: Fish

Rest Stop

Chapter 10

Fish

An explosion sent Zareth and Danny flying and rolling to a stop in the mud. The rift closed right behind them. Zareth pulled his arms from around Danny. Zareths white jacket was all kinds of muddy. It still swallowed Danny hole. Zareth let his arms drop from around Danny. She slowly rolled off of him and groaned. Her head hurt like someone rang a bell right next to it, actually it sounded like that too.

"Hey babe you okay?" Zareth touched Dannys cheek, she looked up at him and nodded her head.

"I'll be alright. Just..." She took a deep breath and slowly sat up with Zareths help. "Can someone answer that phone?" She mumbled resting her head on Zareths shoulder.

"Yeah my ears are ringing too." Zareth said, standing up. He looked down at Danny, then back up at the surrounding hills. "Dannygirl...I still don't think we're in Ninjago." He said Danny appeared at his side. She looked around at a huge castle off in the distance.

"Nope...its not." She said.

"Well wherever we are...its got a waterfall." He said walking toward the direction he could hear falling water.

Their was a wooded area not to far from where they had landed. Danny looked up at the waterfall. It wasn't very big, well compared to her height everything was big, but according to her sensors the water was clean. Zareth walked over and cupped his hands together putting his hands in and looked at it.

"Its clean." He said and looked up at Danny with a smile. He saw the far away look on Dannys face. He walked over to her taking her shoulders in his hands. "Babe?"

"Are we ever going to get home?" She asked. Zareth had no answer for her. So he pulled her in to hug her.

"We just gotta find a good portal." He said and pointed to the water. "In the meantime lets get a bath huh?" He pointed to the water pulling off his army green jacket, and black thermal under it. Danny next to him pulled off the jacket he had put on her to keep her warm.

"At least here isn't winter. This is nice." she said. Her shorts stayed on as she jumped into the water. Zareth jumped in next to her. The mud they had just got on them from rolling into this realm already began to wash off. Danny wasn't to good with swimming. So she doggy paddled over to the side and held on. Her hair sucking in as much energy as it could from the sun. The overcast weather from realm 17 seemed to really take a lot from her. She closed her eyes and sighed contently. She looked around seeing no one. Not even Zareth. She blinked and looked around.

"Zareth...?" she looked around again. She began to panic. "Zareth!"

With a large splash Zareth came up from the deep. A small goldfish in his palm. He made fishy lips at it and laughed before putting it back in the water.

"Danny...you okay. Look like you seen a ghost." He swam over to her.

"You weren't there and the..." She grabbed her head and gasped. Although when she gasped it was nothing but water.

'You are to go to the 2 blue hotel, and kill this man.' The man in the picture had dark hair and dark eyes, and wore a suit. 'I want his briefcase.'

Danny looked at the picture and nodded her head.

'Affirmative sir.' She quietly said.

"Danny!" who was that voice? Who did it belong to? She felt heavy and she kept sinking into the clear blue water.

"Hang on!" That was someone she didn't know either...

She was in a hotel lobby. She wore a black dress. She walked into a bar and sat down.

'Scotch.' She told the man. She sat down and waited. The man next to her was talking to the bartender Who put a scotch in front of her. The man turned and looked at her. He smiled.

"Hey there baby." He had a robust sort of German accent. "Nice night yes?" He asked.

"Are you Bryce Fynn?" Danny asked and the man smiled.

"You know of me!" He looked at the man behind the counter. "I tell you I am famous." He said. Danny pointed at him and her finger shot a laser. It connected with his forehead. A small line of blood fell down his face. The look of shock and confusion were all that was left.

"What the hell lady!" He reached for something under the counter. Danny shot him too. She stood up to leave.

Danny opened her eyes to see Zareth and a guy with brown hair. She jolted and rolled onto her side spitting up water.

"There ya go." That must have been the guy with brown hair talking, cause that didn't sound like Zareth. She felt someone rubbing her back. She felt someone pull her back panel off and she could feel the water rush out.

"Wh...What happened?" She whispered in between coughing fits.

"You tell me babe. You and I were trying to wash the mud off, and you just went under. I thought someone pulled you. Danny...Dannygirl?" Zareth called for her and shook her shoulder.

"That dress...it was the same one I was wearing when...you and I met." She shuddered and put her head back down on the ground.

"Here why don't you two come on in. We have a place where you two can rest. I'm Clay." Zareth reached down and picked up Danny.

"Zareth, this is my sister Danny."

"Sister...really? You two don't look a thing alike."

"Yeah get that a lot."

Inky woke up that morning entangled in the middle of Mindroid and Cryptor. It felt kind of nice and warm since the air their was kind of cold in the morning. She still felt a little weak from the days before. She suddenly wished she had left some leftovers instead of scarfing everything in sight last night. She put her head back down on Cryptors arm. She turned over and closing her eyes again. She suddenly felt weird. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. It took a second for Cryptor to feel a change in Inkys heart rate. She didn't want to move. Her eyes roamed back and forth within the kitchen. But she couldn't see anything. Their was a soft clatter near the stove. Like someone brushing up against something. She felt Cryptor sit up and look around as well. She felt Mindroids arms around her pull her back down.

"Who i..." Mindroid put her finger to his face plate. Once again...no lips. It was almost laughable.

"Whose there!?" Cryptor looked around and jumped back looking at the spot. Their was short nindroid standing in the place just beside where the sound had rang out.

"Cygnus!"

"You know him Uncle Cryptor?" Inky whispered. Cryptor looked a little amazed that she was standing there.

"He was part of my old team." Cryptor looked up at the nindroid. The nindroid looked around at Inky then at Cryptor.

"Names Cygnus youn' lady." He had a southern accent.

"Cygnus! What have I told you about that accent!" Cryptor barked. Cygnus laughed and turned around at look of mindroid.

"Hey thare!" He held his hand out to Inky. Mindroid pulled her behind him and took his hand instead. "Oh you d'ain't gotta be like that. I wad'ent gonna hurt her none."

"Cy..gnuts..." Inky had to cross her eyes to try to say the name. Her shoulders slumped and she shrugged. "Cy. I'm Inky." She smiled. She reached around Mindroid and took his hand. He smiled and shook her hand with both.

"Pleasure Ms. Inky."