Specials, Specials, and more specials

Special #26

(A/N: Five chapters left......)

This is bad. Zane counted around fifty enemies in the subway station, and the numbers continued to climb. Kai's fire was the only thing which illuminated the room, and Zane sighed.

"This is your fault, isn't it." Kai whispered, his fire the only weapon in his hands. "You always find a way to bring Yulta into our lives. You betrayed us, and we have to pay for the consquences." The men closed the ninja in closer, and Adelman only smiled.

"So what will it be? The ice ninja for the girl, or I slaughter your friends?" Kai dug his gaze into Adelman.

"Why do you even want with us!" Kai shouted towards Adelman, enraged by their current ditustion. The bank teller exchanged looks with Adelman, and the two doused themselves into a fit of laughter.

Adelman wiped tears off his face, then his face became filled with an onslaught of rage. Zane stood next to guy, carefully observing his foe.

"You did this." Adelman flung a blade to the two ninja, but Zane blocked it using a shuriken. The dagger dropped to the ground, echoing in the subway station.

"Me? I've never done anything to you in my entire life! The only person I could think of doing something like that would be him." Kai shoved Zane backwards, causing Zane to topple over. The opponents swarming them laughed at their fragile relationship, closing the distance in between.

"You haven't. But he has." The bank teller indicated to the ice ninja, looking at him venomously. Zane tried to remember any encounters he had with the two, but his search became fruitless.

"It wasn't a physical meeting." Adelman answered the thoughts in the two ninja's mind. "It was from the time we captured you all."

"Our leader had first decided to destroy you." The bank teller approached the two in a fit of rage, jabbing at the two ninja using Kai's sword. Kai and Zane backed away from her attempts, yet maintaining distance from the men around them. "Get rid of the pesky ninja once and for all. But something changed. As soon as he captured you, he let you go free. It was absolutely insane. Why would we capture you just to let you free?"

"I spent weeks searching for answers." Adelman picked up on the bank teller's speech, anger fanning into his words. "Every time I asked why, my suggestion would be discarded and nullified. Over time, my demands caused me to be thrown out of Yulta. I've been surviving here for weeks, constantly searching for answers. Around that time, the appearence of Azne occured."

"It was like a slap in the face." The bank teller banged her fist against the pipeline of the subway station. "It didn't take long for one of us to realize it. Azne, Zane? You just unscramble the letters, and you get the name of one of the ninja."

"But we couldn't take action there." Adelman smirked, equipping himself with more daggers form his briefcase. "We were already on the run from Yulta, since we didn't take the security protocols for exiting. We had Juliet breathing down our necks for weeks. Luckily, we bumped into these two." Adelman indicated to the two injured people besides them, who looked at Zane with fury. "They were simple men trying to reclaim what Ronin had stole form them. Used Azne's name to stir up some fear. But when they met the ninja at the aquarium, or more specifically, that ninja." Adelman pointed to Zane. "They couldn't recall anything but the sweet note of fear and despair. By the time they came to, half their people were taken away by the police, and the injuries they had barely left them alive."

"Yeah, but what do you want with us?" Kai spat, making a wall of flames to push off his opponents. The people swarming them moved back briefly, afraid of the flames.

"At first, I wanted to finish a job that no one else would do." Adelman shrugged, leaning his hand on the bank teller. "Yulta was my only source of income for my daughter and I." Adelman indicated to the bank teller besides him, who curled up next to him. "I figured that if I pushed off of the pyramid, then they would praise me and welcome me back." Adelman's eyes darkened when he looked to Zane. "Yet when the realization occured to us, and the confirmation came from these two over here, we made a bit of a tweak in our plans."

"Here's the deal." The bank teller pointed Kai's sword at Zane. "We take the ice ninja with us, and you get your friend back."

"What do you want with me?" Zane asked. The bank teller chuckled.

"It's simple. We want you to join us." The bank teller dug the sword in the ground, moving away from Adelman in response. "We're powerless to do anything against the ninja or Yulta. But if we have such a powerful pawn by our side, well, the tides might turn in our favor."

"You want Zane to leave both us and Yulta to join you all?" Kai shouted.

"It's not like he has a choice." Adelman referred to Kai's unconscious sister in the background. "Failure to do so would result in the water ninja's death, which doesn't faze me."

"Kai." Zane grabbed his friend by the cloth. "I'll go with them."

Kai was ready to fire off another attack on Zane, but noticed Zane's expression. Zane was bathed in remorse, Zane attempting to find a solution.

"Zane, what are you doing?" Kai thundered.

"If we let them go here, they'll spill my secret." Zane started approaching Adelman. "If we try and fight, we would be killed. I don't want to see me friends like this."

"What friends? I thought all your friends were in Yulta?" Kai looked to Zane, but regret slandered his face. Kai could see Zane's sadness controlling him.

"I do have friends in Yulta. But I have even closer ones here." Zane replied, approaching Adelman. Adelman smirked in triumph, and the bank teller clapped.

"Release her." Zane said. Adelman nodded to the men who held Nya captive, and dropped her to the ground. Kai stood alone, watching these actions when the realization hit him.

"You're not doing this for Yulta." Kai took a step back. "You aren't joining them because you want to, you're doing it for us!" Kai shouted. Zane smiled, happy to see his friend finally recovering to his senses. For all this time, Kai had believed that Zane was nothing but a traitor. Yet to see his friend willingly go for the sake of him caused his anger to combust.

"If you truly are our friend, would you go just like that!" Kai yelled. Zane froze in his walk, looking back.

"I know that you're different." Kai shook his flames out of existence, the room growing cold. "I can hear it through the walls. You willingly hide your behavior out of concern for us, don't you. But what use does that do if you're giving up!" Kai stated. "You're about to go join the for the sake of us, and you'd rather not fight them!" Kai offered a hand to his friend.

"Tell me! Are you going to push yourself away because you're scared that I'll criticize you? I'll hate you even more if you give up like this!" Kai lit his hand ablaze, illuminating Zane looking back at his friend.

"Now tell me." Kai marched up to his friend, pushing Adelman back with his other hand. "Are we fighting them together, or are we going to submit?" Zane turned his head into the darkness, the bank teller standing beside her father. Zane looked back at his friend.

"Together."