Chapter Text
“Nya, you and Jay, how are you guys?” Kai asked, raising his eyebrows, after pulling Nya into a room after the dinner.
“We’re good?” Nya looked down, as she knew what Kai was insinuating. The water and electricity ninja were often looked at as ‘the couple,’ even though they aren’t even talking like that, let alone have it official!
“Are you too, you know… well, this is difficult…. Together?” Kai stammered out, the awkwardness apparent between the siblings.
Nya laughed, much to the surprise of the elder. “No… look I know we hang out a ton but we are purely friends.” She matter-of-factly said.
“Ah good, just making sure, goodnight sis.” Kai answered, cringely calling her sis as always, but he couldn't see it.
“Goodnight.”
-
Through the dimly lit corridors, Nya strolled down the path to her room, whistling quietly to herself. It was all quiet beside her self-made music and a quiet tv coming from a certain gaming-fanatic ninja in the room opposite Nya’s. Nya went up to his room, and peered in curiously, seeing the boy with his head tilted back, eyes closed, looking peacefully. Nya looked for a few seconds until
An alarm suddenly sounded, and red blaring lights began pounding into her vision. Almost immediately, Jay had jumped up, gotten ready and sprinted through his door, straight into the poor, unsuspecting water ninja, who fell to her side.
“Oh the First Spinjitzu Master, sorry Nya! I really didn’t mean to do that, are you okay, I’m so sorry…” Jay spurted out, rambling as one might expect a true Walker would. “I didn’t know you were there, I didn’t even see you! Here, take my hand, please.” Jay held out his hand, and Nya, without hesitation, took it and they both stood up, without letting go. The lights around them were still beating, they looked at eachother. Before being interrupted by another wave of noise.
“We need to go!” Nya started running to the meeting room, letting go of Jay’s hand.
The two ninja caught up with the rest, while Sensei Wu was briefing the others. The screen was displaying a map of ninjago, with red spots showing where land was being “pulled from the core of the earth with unimaginable force.” Wu explained, each ninja looking confusedly at the map.
“Each piece of land possesses something important like the temple of Master Yang’s, or the serpentine tombs, something important to Ninjago-as-a-whole’s history.” The wise sensei stated, he was too confused at the information.
“The reason you are here now is that the next piece of land suspected to be risen, due to the new earthquakes occurring in the area, is unfortunately Ed and Edna's Scrap-” Misako explained, before being interrupted by-
“What?!?” Jay shouted, “My parent’s place? Absolutely not, I need to go help them!” Jay bolted out of the room, before anyone could even disagree with the blue ninja’s plan.Zane followed almost instantly, concern drawn onto his face, followed by Kai. Cole, Nya and Lloyd looked at the elders for an accumulated plan.
“Cole and Lloyd, go after them and save Jay’s parents, get them away from the land.” Wu decided, “Nya you stay here, you have only just started training to be a ninja, and have low skill with your powers, you can use your skills to help us predict the next area of land loss.”
“But I am helpful as Samurai X! You can’t expect me to just let Jay, my brother and my friends go off without my help!?” Nya argued.
The new-ninja was visibly upset, eyebrows furrowed and eyes furious, her fingers in a fist like she was going to run. She started to turn, she was going to bolt, until Pixal lent her arm on the other's shoulder, which relaxed the feisty girl.
“Nya, I am here for you, I know how it feels.” Pixal’s soothing, robotic voice made Nya almost melt, as they sat down and began working on the next stage of the plan.
Meanwhile, Jay had reached his parents' place, where scraps of junk were more displaced than ever before, and it was utterly quiet, except for the scattering of the earth beneath them.
“It’s quiet ,it should never be quiet.” Jay almost whispered, making Zane look at him worriedly. Zane, being the nindroid he was, held his hand, as he thought it was the only way to exude comfort. Jay looked at him funny and let go, instead pulling the nindroid into a short hug. “Oh FSM, I really hope they are okay.”
“They will be, Jay.”
-
Back in Destiny's Bounty, Nya was trying to move the water beneath them while they were sailing, and was having no luck, Sensei Wu behind her, explaining what she should be doing, and what she shouldn’t. Getting more and more frustrated, the ninja gave up on the water, and she walked away hurriedly to her room. The sensei looked at her disappointedly, before calling after her.
“Nya you can’t quit! What about the others, what if they need you. Your worst fear is not being worth it, so be worth it!”
Nya turned to look at the sensei. What he said was right, and made a brainwave in her brain. She walked back to it, tightening her belt, before standing at the edge of the bounty, and diving in. The sensei nodded, this is what she was meant to do.
The ocean was a remarkable aquamarine, glistening waves of refracted light bearing down the ocean floor, where fish lay, shells swam, and Nya walked. She gazed upon the sights, as the water barely felt like a weight against, almost like…air. Nya gasped, as she looked around her, she had made a bubble circa herself. She had harnessed her powers without even looking. She brought the air back in, and swam up, a smile blasted on her face like she was enchanted. Back on the ship, thanks to Wu, she decided to test herself further. Concentration screwed up her face, and sounds of exertion escaped her, she moved the water beneath her, and moved the bounty a few places forward! Arms flew up as she cheered.
“I’m ready, please let me go and help, I finally harnessed it!” Nya exclaimed.
-
Jay ran into the junkyard he grew up at, with the memories of pink bedrooms, regular therapist appointments, warm hugs with mum and dad, and fighting snakes occasionally popping up in his head, but there was no time to reminisce. The electrically charged ninja could feel the ground shaking beneath his feet, it wasn’t long before the place would be thrust up into the air. Shaking, Jay ran through the yard, dodging many different projects his dad would start,and the many plates left out for when Edna would lovingly give her husband when he worked out late. He stumbled into the caravan he once lived in, where he saw his parents quickly gathering up supplies with makeshift jetpacks fitted on, and they quickly turned around upon their son’s entrance.
“Aw Jay son! What are you doing here darling, we were just about to hop away after the earthquakes!” Ed explained, putting a hand on Jay’s shoulder. “We heard about land being pulled up, so we were prepared!”
“Aw dad, that's brilliant, I was so worried!” Jay shivered.
“Aw Ed, he said he was worried about us.” Edna beamed.
The family looked at one another. Jay didn’t visit them often as it was hard to get to and he was still a tad embarrassed about living at a junkyard, even when he thought it was the best thing when he was younger. The moment, although lovely, was suddenly broken up by another, more powerful movement of the ground that lay below them. Jay jumped into action, grabbing his mothers hand as the three ran out to see four other ninja infront of them. The group had a talk about where to go, and all of them decided to head to the nearest boundary of the big captive area of the ground. They weren’t out of the woods till they made sure they were on still, solid ground. The group ran through the area, out of the junkyard and through many sands that surrounded Jay’s home.
-
On the edge of the plains, the group of six stood, watching as the earth beneath them began to slowly rise up. Edna, after building that house for her own, raising her child in there, lent onto her husband’s shoulder, crying softly. Ed, sobbing softly, as he built many projects and spent many hours teaching his son to invent, put an arm around his wife. Jay stood there, looking up, not listening to the commotion around him and just thought. It was a sad sight, and the rest of the ninja stood back, as they let the family of three mourn their life away. Zane turned to Kai, a sorrowful expression sprawled across the nindroids silver face.
“I feel so dreadful for Jay, more than I thought I would.” Zane admitted to Kai, his eyes looking down. Kai had never seen the ninja opposite him look that desolate since he found out about his father, Zane was utterly dejected over the premise of Jay being also despairing. “Jay’s place is almost a second home to me, beaten by just the monastery. We used to get together and create mechs and cool gadgets to use on missions. Do you remember the jumping boots you used when we needed to get up the mountain to beat Morro, Kai?” The mentioned nodded slowly. “That was us, we figured that out, together, here…” The icy ninja trailed off faintly, and strolled up beside Jay, offering comfort to the other. Jay shrugged, but allowed Zane to put an arm around him, bringing him in for a side hug. Jay was internally grateful for his frosty friend.
-
Nya was held behind longer from Master Wu, as Kai had buzzed in that they were sorted, and were coming back to the Destiny’s Bounty as fast as they could to discuss what they knew about the ongoings of Ninjago and why it was falling, or should they say, flying. She was annoyed, first her newfound powers were randomly revealed to her, and now she could hardly control them and couldn’t go on missions? Unfair, she thought. Luckily, the water lily had a great friend in Pixal. Yes the other ninja were her friends, she could confide in Jay, laugh with Cole, invent with Zane and play with her brothers Kai and Lloyd, but Pixal was different, they understood one-another, not just because they were the only girls, but because they were one-anothers other parts. Nya thought of Pixal as her greatest friend. As Nya was thinking, Pixel was opposite her, moulding some parts together of some mech thing, Nya wasn’t sure. They both were in a comfortable silence, before a blue boy ran straight into the room.
“Oh I’m sorry, I thought this room would be free, I will leave.” Jay said. The group had returned from the Sea of Sands, and had made a room for Jay’s parents, Zane bunking with Jay indefinitely.
“No Jay, don’t worry, I was just finishing up.” The metallic voice of the purple-accented droid stood up, and began to leave, not before looking at Nya, wondering if she would leave too.
“Would you like me to stay, Jay? I don’t mind, just wondering if you would like some company.” Nya offered, her eyes wandering from Pixal over to Jay, who shrugged and sat with a sigh on the opposite side of the room. “I will take that as a yes, I don’t want to leave you in that state. See you later Pixal.” Nya waved at the girl as Pixal left, before moving over to a beanbag that lay opposite the seat Jay had taken.
The room they were situated in was the ‘gadget room’, as the occupiers liked to call it. The room was a large hall-like space, with power plugs, desktops and metal scraps all around, and a little corner used for when one may need a rest for a while. This is where the pair were sitting, Jay looking down woefully, and Nya looking at him carefully, planning on what to say next.