Legends of Ninjago Book 2: Rise of the Serpentine

Chapter 7: Medical Mysteries

    Wu never raised his voice above his regular tone, but every word he spoke carried such weight that every syllable came crashing down on Jay like a stack of elephants.
    "Would you mind explaining where you've been?" Wu asked them expectantly.
    Oh boy, where to start? There was so much that happened and very little that Jay could rationalise as competent behaviour. At least they could get some brownie points by saying that they had been trying to stop Kai in the beginning, right?
    Cole was the first to open his mouth, probably about to reveal exactly what happened in a very straight forward kind of way--
    "It was my fault, Sensei," said Kai. Everyone turned to look at him, especially Cole, who seemed genuinely surprised. "I... I snuck into your study the other night and... well, it's kinda hard to explain..."
    "Uh, Master Wu, perhaps you could come back in the morning when they've had some rest and treatment?" Dr. Lee suggested, filling up the uncomfortable silence.
    Wu closed his eyes solemnly and breathed in. "Very well," he said. "But mark my words... don't you ever do anything like this ever again, do you understand me?! I was worried sick!" He rushed forward and smothered Zane, Cole and Jay in an enormous hug that felt so very wrong in so many ways, but it was kinda touching to know that he cared about them. All of a sudden, the old Wu seemed to come back. He pulled away and straightened himself before saying, "Ahem, that will be all. Rest well. I will see you in the morning." With that he walked out of the room and closed the doors behind him.
    Jay felt his whole body begin to melt as all the stress he had been building up was finally released. They could, at last, sleep safely tonight. Before he collapsed on the floor, though, he stumbled over to one of the beds next to Kai and plopped his body down on the soft mattress.
    "Fiiiiiinallyyyyyyyy...." he sighed. "I thought he was gonna kill us for sure!"
    Cole gave a soft chuckle. "Yeah," he said. He seemed a little off-balance in his composure as he sat down on the mattress opposite to Kai and Jay.
    "Well, one thing's for sure," said the doctor as he came back over to Kai with a special, mint paste. "You're all very lucky that you didn't die out there. Judging from Kai, you four must have gotten into some serious trouble."
    Dr. Lee continued to strip away Kai's dirty pyjamas and smear the mint paste over as much of his body as he could while the other four boys washed up and changed.
    Jay felt so relieved to be in a pair of fresh pjs as he walked back into the medical room. They were fresh out of the dryer, too, so he was all warm and toasty and ready for bed. As he walked, he peered over at Kai who was on his stomach, having the last of the cream applied to his back.
    "Ha ha," Jay laughed. "Now who's getting the mud mask?"
    "Soooo not the time, Jay," Kai grumbled, half of his face smushed by his pillow.
    He sat down on the bed he had claimed earlier and watched Dr. Lee finish up with the paste before he moved on to inspecting Jay instead, just as Cole and Zane came into the room. He prodded Jay with thermometers, checked his heart rate, tested all of his reflexes, injected a shot of some kind of gold-looking liquid into his arm, then gave his skin and muscle tissue a once-over. He had, in fact, sustained no major injuries except a black eye, quite a few cuts and bruises, and a fractured wrist. Jay hadn't even noticed.
    "And you said that you were thrown through the windshield of a car? And then fell down into a river?" Dr. Lee asked as he wrapped up Jay's wrist.
    "Yeah. But Cole caught me and Zane before we hit the bottom... he didn't have enough time to get Kai," Jay explained.
    "Incredible," Dr. Lee mused.
    "Speaking of that," Cole piped up. "Exactly how is Kai's injury not--"
    "Ah, ah, check up first," said Lee as he walked over and shoved a wooden stick into Cole's mouth to check the back of his throat. "Did you use your powers much?"
    The moment he took it out, Cole began again, "Yeah, but how does--"
    Dr. Lee then shoved a thermometer into his mouth and brought out one of those little flashlights to check his eyes. The thermometer beeped twice and Dr. Lee removed it, walked back over to his counter, and returned with his stethoscope and a needle filled with more of that gold, liquid stuff Jay had been injected with before.
    "Woah, wait a minute," Cole said as the doctor pulled his muscular arm forward and pushed the slender needle into his skin without warning.
    "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt," he said, trying to calm him down a little. After the needle was out, he slapped a small bandage over the hole it had left and moved on to checking Cole's heart rate.
    "But--" Cole started.
    "Pull up your shirt and breathe in slowly," the doctor interrupted.
    "But--"
    "No talking!" Dr. Lee told him. Cole was looking more and more frustrated by the minute, but at least the slow breathing seemed to help a little.
    Jay wasn't entirely sure what to do, and clearly no one else was either. They didn't really want to interrupt the doctor while he was trying to focus, but the way he was dodging Cole's questions was getting kind of annoying.
    Dr. Lee's 'shushing' continued while he was checking Cole's reflexes and then some--he was absolutely determined not give Cole an answer--then, after giving a similar diagnoses to Cole and a quick look at Zane, he told them to go straight to sleep and disappeared behind his bedroom doors.
    "Well that... happened..." said Jay.
    "Yeah, no kidding," said Cole as he stared after the doctor. "What was with him? And what was that stuff he injected?"
    "Injected stuff?" Kai repeated. "Like, with a needle?"
    "Yeah, I think I saw a bandaid on your arm," Jay said, leaning over to see if he could spot it. "I have no idea what it was, though." He reached up and began to feel his own bandaid as an unsettling feeling came over him.
    "But I've never had a shot before!" Kai exclaimed, still laying on his stomach.
    "Not even when you were born?" Jay asked.
    Kai seemed to think about it for a minute. "I don't know, but my parents said I was born at home, no doctors."
    Huh. That was interesting. Come to think of it,
    "I don't think I had shots either," said Jay. "In fact, I can't even remember the last time I went to the doctor's office. Besides, you know, here."
    Suddenly, the attention seemed to shift to Cole and Zane.
    "Yeah, me neither," Zane conquered.
    "Woah, woah, woah, you mean to tell me that none of us have ever seen a doctor before Dr. Lee?" Cole asked, looking incredibly shaken.
    "Don't look at me! My parents hated doctors, they never told me why," said Kai.
    "My parents, too," Cole added.
    "I don't think it ever came up for me," Jay replied, feeling more and more unsettled by this revelation. "We just kinda ignored it."
    "The people of my village treated me when I first arrived, but I don't remember it," Zane joined in. "And there was no need to see a physician until recently."
    There were a few moments of utter silence as each of the boys stared at one another in disbelief.
    "This has got to be some sort of crazy coincidence, right?" said Cole, trying to understand all that he was hearing. "Right?"
    "Could be," said Jay, not finding any other explanation. Honestly, what other answer was there?
    "But why, though?" Kai asked. "Why would none of us have ever gotten shots? Aren't they kind of important?"
    "Do you think it's, like, an elemental thing?" Cole wondered, reclining back on his bed.
    Kai suddenly stirred next to Jay.
    "Lloyd Garmadon said something interesting back at the Citadel," he started. "He wanted to know how I got my powers, and he made it sound like I should have gotten them from my parents."
    Again, there was silence. Jay's first reaction was to search his memories for any time when his mom or dad had shown signs of using lightning, but there was nothing. Maybe those times when his dad was welding? No, probably not, and besides, those memories were far too fuzzy to make any confirmations.
    "I guess that makes sense," said Cole. "I mean, the little punk did seem to have the same powers as his dad."
    "Yeah, but I don't remember my mom or dad having fire powers," Kai told them.
    "But logically, where else would they have come from?" Zane pointed out, beginning to look very tired. He yawned and leaned back onto his bed as well.
    "The man makes a fine point," said Jay, suddenly feeling drowsy. Just then, another memory popped into his head and he straightened up. "But what about the Green Ninja?"
    That grabbed everyone's attention. If Kai could move, he probably would've sat bolt upright.
    "I completely forgot about that," said Cole.
    "Who do you think it'll be?" Jay asked, rubbing one eye, then he realised it was his black eye and flinched.
    "It'll probably be me," said Kai, confidently. "Obviously a powerful warrior requires a powerful element."
    "Mmm, nothing says 'powerful' like minty fresh skin," Cole teased, looking over at Kai's green back.
    "Oh, like you'd make a good leader, Rocks-for-Brains?" Kai retorted.
    "Hey, out of the four of us, who here has a consistent track record of actually leading the group and getting stuff done?" Cole asked as he looked around at his companions expectantly.
    "Zane?" said Kai.
    "Yeah, Zane," Jay agreed. He couldn't contain his childish grin, though, because he knew what Cole's reaction would be. His scowl came right on queue, and Jay let out a small chuckle. Zane himself only shrugged. "Well, who knows. Maybe it'll be me?" Jay leaned back onto his pillow and put his arms behind his head as he thought about what being the Green Ninja might be like.
    "But is there even a way to tell right now?" Cole asked, relaxing again.
    "I'd need to read the scroll aga—" said Zane, but stopped mid-sentence and sat up, looking very panicked. "The scroll," he said again. Everyone turned to him. "We lost the scroll."
    "It's still in the woods, right?" Kai asked.
    "It could be, but... Lloyd also could have found it." Zane's stern tone sent shivers down Jay's spine.
    "How long do you think we can keep this secret from Sensei Wu?" Jay asked, not feeling quite as peaceful.
    "He probably already knows," said Cole, flopping back and slamming his pillow into his face. "Well, that's it. We're doomed. It was nice knowing you guys." Then he gave a particularly long yawn and reached for his covers.
    Jay felt pretty drowsy, too, and said, "Well, I guess we can figure it out tomorrow." The others absentmindedly agreed with him as he got up and turned out the light.
    "Uh, hey, mind turning me over first?" Kai asked. "I think the paste is dry now."
    So after a little while of turning Kai's body over, which wasn't difficult in the slightest, (I'm using my sarcastic voice there) the boys finally got comfortable in their beds.
    It only took about a minute after Jay's head hit the pillow for him to fall asleep, and for a long while he felt very relaxed and at peace. A real bed, real sleep, but then, real dreams.
    It began with Jay walking down some sort of dark hallway that felt vaguely, kinda, sorta familiar, but whatever, it was a dream, things can feel familiar all the time. Then, all of a sudden, somewhere down the hall behind him, came the cry of a baby. He turned to look, but it was all shadows. Not a single person could be seen in the dark, but he could hear their voices.
    "Urghein un gugoonch lie... ierrung jerll key... Jay..."
    "Jay... such a sweet little thing..."
    "...seems healthy..."
    "He's got his daddy's eyes..."
    The voices weren't familiar at all to Jay, but they made a strong impact nonetheless. This felt like a memory. It felt like he should know this.
    "Hello?" He called out into the echoey dream void. "Hello? Who's there?" He got no reply. It sounded like there were a bunch of people all gathered to see... him, but when he was a baby. "Who are you?" he called out. When the voices kept ignoring him, he started running forward into the dark, hoping to find answers, but instead ran straight into a mirror. It sounded like the voices were coming from behind it, so he placed his hands on the glass, hoping to move it. Instead, gravity shifted, and he fell onto his stomach. Suddenly, he began to sink into the glass as if it were liquid and a sickening feeling of dread crept up inside of him.
    On the other side of the glass, there was sunlight and heat. There was a constant clanking noise that pounded Jay's ears like a drum.
    CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
    Each time he heard the noise, it became hotter and hotter until he was literally sweating beads.
    "I don't understand..." came Kai's voice.
    Jay began to feel like a ghost without a body as his consciousness started floating through the next scene.
    There was Kai, maybe about seven years old, sitting in some kind of forge with who he presumed to be Mr. Rayson.
    "I don't understand," Kai said again. His father didn't reply. "Why didn't you tell me?"
    A fire sprang up around them and devoured the little forge. Kai screamed, but he seemed to be untouched by the flames, even as they began to chase him this way and that.
    Then, the fire disappeared, everything quieted, and Jay felt such a strong urge to start crying. Wherever they were now, it was filled with unimaginable sadness.
    The face of a woman suddenly appeared--a beautiful woman with long, dark hair--who looked incredibly sick and pale. He felt like he should reach out to her, hold her tightly, but he had no idea why. This was unlike anything he'd ever dreamed before.
    She appeared to him again, this time she was trying to tell him something, but was being pulled back by a curtain of death.
    "Cole!" she cried. "Eerum gru grtchid! Ferggrr! Ogree dreg korumtikee!"
    In a flash, she was gone, and in her place were a million terrifying faces all staring at him. The immediate response was: RUN! Run as fast and as far as possible! But the ground turned to tar under his feet.
    "Help!" he yelled.
    Three voices came crashing down around him.   
    "Where are you?"
    "Hello?"
    "What's going on?!"
    Then, a white out. There was a freezing blizzard that blew in out of nowhere, and soldiers came marching through the snow. Their swords were drawn and their bows were loaded, so the only option was to fight. Fight for his life amidst the snow and ice and wind. Then, a blow to the head from a mace sent him tumbling backwards down a hill, until he crashed onto a stone ledge above a furious ocean.
    The world disappeared again, and from the pitch blackness came one voice:
    "Wake up! You mustn't stay here any longer!"