It's Complicated

Cameras

Zane POV

The footage was blank. It was blank like what I was feeling at the moment. I couldn't seem to focus or think of a logical thought. My brain didn't want to focus on the problems at hand. The problem that Jay was dealing with. As the smart one of the group, I should be able to find something and not get distracted. This was such an easy task, and I was making it difficult. 

I wasn't close to Jay like Nya or Cole. It didn't make sense for me to feel the way that I do in this present moment. Of course, I knew that I had every right to feel the way that I do. Jay was the first person who didn't take advantage of me. Even in that group, I was always treated differently. Jay was the only person who didn't. It probably had to do with his own life experiences and being a little bit different, not that I judged his actions at all. I don't even want to imagine what it was like being a walking science experiment. 

I shuddered at the thought before glancing at the cameras again. I was probably going to have to be the one that talked to the Commissioner. That would mean that I would still have to wear this stupid costume there. I didn't mind the uniform, but I also didn't like hiding an identity. It was super weird hiding something like this from the outside world. I cannot even imagine what Jay must have had going through his mind. Again, my thoughts drifted off to him.

Jay always put whatever he was going through aside for us, and that was very evident from the fact of bullying and being a Ninja in the first place. I was thankful that he was there to help me when my Elemental Powers were making themselves known, but to have to go through that yourself? He had to go through that himself for months. By the time we all started showing signs, he had already been used to doing it alone. He still was doing it alone quite frankly. 

Jay didn't deserve anything that happened in his life. He didn't deserve to be put up for adoption, and he didn't deserve his adoptive Dad trying to kill him. He didn't deserve his best friend turning cold and then going missing. He didn't deserve to be a walking experiment at all. He was just a normal kid with normal needs and normal feelings. Why did everyone need to put him on a pedestal? Didn't they ask before doing everything to him? Why did the First Spinjitzu Master think it was okay to do that to someone like him? To do that to someone like him who had done nothing wrong?

I have been trying so hard to understand his life. I couldn't understand his actions at all. I couldn't understand why he was trying so hard to stay in some place when he could have just been better off running. Of course, the minute that popped into my head, I knew the real answer. Jay didn't run from things. Jay fought through them to get to the other side. That was a trait that many people didn't possess. Of course Jay was a fighter. There is nothing else he could be with everything else that he had to go through. A fighter perfectly described him and everything that he did. 

"Zane? You there?" Cole asked from the intercom, probably panting from what it sounded like.

"What is it?" I asked, praying that he had found something.

"I haven't found anything yet, but I am still working on it. I am going to try and look over places again." I didn't continue to listen because then the camera picked up something.

It was a black van, which was something that Ninjago didn't have a lot of. Generally speaking, it was the Military and the Mayor who rode in vehicles like that. It seemed sort of familiar for some reason. There was no car in the driveway at the Vila, but something about it made me feel like I have seen it before. It didn't make any sense. I knew for a fact that I haven't seen a vehicle like this before.

"What happened? Do I need to come over there? Zane?" Cole asked, already starting to panic.

"I think I just found a lead. What do you know about black vehicles in Ninjago?" I asked, hoping that Cole had an answer.

"They aren't used unless there is something or someone important inside. They are generally used for Government events. They haven't been used by regular civilians since the Candy Stalker. Why?" Cole asked, and I swear that I could hear the smile in it and realized that he was being just as hopeful as I was.

"The cameras picked up a black van 50 miles south from here. I'll go check with the Commissioner, but I think we might have found something." I said, confidently.

"I'll meet you there. Don't start without me." Cole said as I heard him running once again.

For the first time all night, we might finally have a lead.

Authors Note

I know that this chapter is short, but there wasn't really anything to add to this that would have been useful. The Commissioner Talk is going to be long chapter. I also just needed to publish something for the week out here, so this was it. Next chapter will probably be Wu and the the chapter after that is going to be Lloyd. After Lloyd, we will get to the part 2 stuff and Jay. The book is almost done, and I think you guys are going to like it. That was really all I wanted to say. Oh, also I am thinking about making an Instagram for this account. It will hold things like chapter updates and story ideas and stuff like that, so if that is something that you guys would be interested in, let me know. Now, I think that is everything.

Peace out Dudes and Dudettes, and I will see you either next week, or for a Jaya One Shot during the weekend.