Nya's POV

I'm drawn from my slumber by an acute pounding in my skull, drawing my mind awake before anything else. The entire world is kind of fuzzy as the only thing I feel is the dryness in my throat. However, as I start to experience my environment with the rest of my body, it becomes the least of my focus.

I'm lying on my side, only a thin, long t-shirt that falls down to my mid thigh on my body. A comforter lies atop me, protecting me from any breeze. However, the most important things are the hard, sculpted plane of a torso pressed up against my back and the arm that is tightly wrapped around my waist.

All of yesterday suddenly sweeps me up like a wave and slams into me. We finally arrived in town and hurried to go get clothes for everyone. PIXAL and Zane went off by themselves as I helped Kai and Jay pick out new outfits, specifically ones for when we went to the bar later that night, and every time Jay came out in a new outfit, he was absolutely jaw dropping.

My need to go to him had already been building up to an unbearable level, and from how good he looked to the way he was easily joking around with my brother to the sheer thought of other girls all over him that the two of them accidentally implanted in my mind earlier in the day, I was about ready to explode, so as soon as we were done, I decided that we should split up, so I could give my mind a reset. I thought that the break would make it so that I could hold myself back, that a few hours could somehow uncoil every desire in me.

When I showed up to the bar over an hour and half late since I was trying to give myself even more time to recover, I was instantly entranced by him. He was playing with the ice in his glass as he laughed at something my brother said, and something about the way his shirt was pulled taut over his muscles and the way the light hit his eyes and the way his auburn hair was messily styled instantly took a hold of my heart, making it beat in a wild rhythm. While I had went into the night telling myself that I wouldn't even consider drinking, I instantly took a long swig of Jay's beverage, knowing damn well that I wouldn't be able to endure my self imposed torture without it.

After a couple of hours, I was at my breaking point, so wound up that even one look my way could easily lead to my collapse, so I made the executive decision to head to the bathroom to cool down. My skin was burning everywhere for him, and the only thing that I thought could cool it was distance and time. I sat in there for about 20 to 30 minutes, and when I finally thought I was ready, I went back out.

However, as soon as I saw my soulmate talking to the girl that was clearly eye fucking him the whole night, the flood gates opened, a wave of unadulterated jealousy crashing over me. Everything that I worked so hard to drown floated right up to the surface.

I instantly made my way over to my brother, asking him about it. When he told me that Jay went over there to prove just how funny he is, I watched as the girl looked up at him with sultry eyes and ran her finger up his arm. The rage I felt towards her at that moment was unimaginable, and I decided that even if Jay and Kai were just playing a game, I wouldn't stand to see some chick flirting with him.

I went over there expecting to harmlessly pull him away without escalating anything, but boy was I wrong. I just wanted to break up their conversation and scoop him away. However, as soon as she snapped back at me, acting as if she was entitled to any of him, I lost my mind, immediately staking claim to him with the title that we technically never renounced. Then, I escalated it even further, and as I let words whip out of my mouth, I imagined every bit of them and felt my resolve of resisting sizzle away in front of my eyes.

The second he let his powers onto me, I lost all restraint. The buzz he sent through me was intoxicating, the prickle making goosebumps rise on my skin before I curled my toes. It was like getting a taste of heaven that only I had access to.

That girl made one more comment about me not being enough for him, and as the rage I felt towards her mixed with the desire for the man next to me, I couldn't help but claim him right then and there.

It was the most intense kiss of my entire life. Everything else faded away as I finally caved in, a rush of pleasure overtaking everything else as our bodies pressed together. As he brought his hand to my back and sent gentle currents across my skin and deep down into me that caressed my being, my body nearly overheated with need for him. There was nothing more I wanted in that moment than to claim him as mine in every single way imaginable.

I quickly dragged him out of that place and away from that girl before we came back here. As soon as I locked that door behind us, it was the most mind blowing time of my entire life. We rode out high after high, gentle conversations that evolved into us atop each other again taking place in between. We satisfied each other in every possible sense of the word, and as I closed my eyes in his arms, it was the first night that I could remember that I went to sleep without worrying.

As I lie in Jay's arms now, I can't help but bask in the light current that coats his skin and warms my flesh even through the material of his shirt that I'm wearing. I keep my eyes closed as I feel the rise and fall of his bare chest against my back, as I listen to the gentle snores that spill from his lips.

However, the longer I lie here, the more my guilt surrounds me, starting to gnaw at my heart. I went all of the way out here to save my friends, not to reconnect with my past lover, and while I was having the time of my life last night, they were wasting away in the lair of the unnatural elementals, praying that they could somehow get out of there.

My heart stops when I envision Shade in his cell, the wear, tear, and utter hopelessness on his face, but it's nothing compared to the look on his face if he were to find out what happened within the past 24 hours. It's as if I can see his features fall. His eyes would cloud over, replaced with shadowy husks as a frown would set itself on his lips.

Behind my eyelids, images of him flash before me. I see him finding me for the first time, treating me with care as he offered me a spot in the army and promised me that he and the others will help me work through my grief. I see the sparkle in his eyes right before he kissed me for the first time, the hesitation in his gaze buried by the excitement. I see the subtle admiration as I explain one of my inventions, his eyes closely investigating the machine.

Shade is by no means perfect. He's easily jealous and very stubborn, but he cares about me, and he has for hundreds of years. He's picked me up when I was at my lowest and helped me find joy in life again. He's been a fairly constant, stable support who wants what's best for me. He's been so thoroughly interwoven into my life that lying in this bed right now feels like I'm stabbing him in the back with a rusty sword.

But how I feel for Jay is undeniable. He's one of a kind. He's funny and handsome and witty and intelligent and caring. His spark feels like it completes me, like it's the missing piece for me to feel truly alive. He's open to my decisions and reasoning, trying to aid me in my plans instead of fighting to change them. However, he did take what was most likely the most important choice of my life away from me.

My past and my present have collided at the speed of light, and I'm still trying to catch up.

"Good morning, beautiful," Jay hums in my ear with a slightly raspy voice, pulling me closer to him and placing a kiss on my cheek.

My entire brain fogs over again, a gentle smile taking over my lips as my eyes remain shut. "How could you tell I was awake?"

"I could feel your brain firing like crazy. It's what woke me up, actually." He lets out a small yawn.

My eyes snap open. "Can you tell what I'm thinking about?"

"If I tried hard enough, probably, but I feel like it's an invasion of privacy, so I've never tried it on anyone," he admits, and I let out a sigh of relief.

Last night, we talked about the extent of his powers, and my mind was blown. While my powers can just manipulate water molecules to move at my will (which Jay adamantly told me is quite lethal considering how much of the body is made up of water), Jay's powers are absolutely insane. Since the brain is controlled by electrical signals, Jay can essentially manipulate a person in whatever way he wants. He can make them hallucinate or access their memories or move their bodies on top of possessing the sheer power of a lightning bolt.

I roll over in his arms so that I'm facing him. His hair is a wreck from last night, a jumbled mess on his head. Trailing down, I see his sleepy yet lively eyes, the deep blue the most raw and authentic color I have ever seen. Below that, my eyes settle on the freckles spattering his cheeks that makes my heart warm. His lips capture my attention next, practically begging me to press my own against them. Even lower, a plethora of dark bruises that I left line his neck, traveling down to his collarbone and chest and to beneath where the comforter covers, and I can't fight the urge to run my pointer finger across one of them.

"You understand why I've been holding back, right?" I ask him, not taking my attention off of my work.

"Yeah, I do." His voice is slightly strained. "Are you asking that because you regret last night?"

My eyes snap up to meet his. "No, not at all. I feel guilty, but I don't regret it by any means." I reach up to cup his face as he sighs.

"I know you said you wanted to give Shade a fair chance, but you shouldn't feel guilty for giving me one, too. I know the situation is somewhat different, but your last memory of us prior to you finding me again was one of the saddest goodbyes I've ever been a part of, and the times after it in which you thought I was dead were no better. Holding back on experiencing anything with us because you want a different view of Shade would be denying us the exact same thing you're waiting for with him," he reasons, talking lightly even though conviction shines through his tone.

I process his words, and while my body initially ignites, ready to defend my behavior, my eyebrows drawing together as my mouth opens, I realize that he hit the nail on the head. I've been trying to give Shade a chance by holding back on Jay and in turn, I haven't given Jay a chance.

"You're right," I sigh as I gaze into his eyes. "I haven't given you a chance, not in the slightest. I've just pushed you away."

He presses a kiss against my forehead, and I feel a bit of pressure chip away. "What do you want moving forward? Do you want me to hold back, or to treat you like my girlfriend, or to kind of hold back, or to..."

I press a kiss to his lips, feeling my previous determination to resist walking away from me for good with his words. Only he would be so willing to do this. "I want you, Jay. No BS, no holding back, no forcing, just you in whatever way you want."

The way my words illuminate his eyes is breathtaking, all of his features lifting into an expression of joy. "I've been waiting for those words ever since you walked back into my life."

---

*several days later*

For two whole days, we've searched this mountain for any traces of Cole, and yet we've come up empty. The only sign of life we've even found are a few wolf tracks, but even those are far and few between. I know this area is supposed to be uninhabitable, but I never thought it would be this bad.

With each hour that passes, the boys' demeanors deflate dramatically. Their shoulders have started to slump, their little hypothetical scenarios of when they run into Cole again coming up less and less. The first day it was all "when we get Cole, I'm gonna..." or "I'm gonna tell Cole that you..." but now, they've stopped mentioning it. These mountains are huge though. He's definitely in here somewhere.

We all woke up about thirty minutes ago and quickly packed up our camp. Zane is carrying one tent in a bag on his back as Jay carries the other while Kai, PIXAL, and I carry the food and other resources.

"We still have so much ground to cover, and we don't have enough time. These mountains are huge!" Kai groans, tugging at his hair. "I haven't slept well in days, and if I have to spend another night here, I might explode."

"What if he's not here? Ten years is a long time to stay in one place all alone," Jay questions, a frown on his face, and I can't help but feel my heart splinter. He was so excited for me to meet Cole. He was telling me all of these stories about him and how he thought he'd react to meeting me, and it's sad to see his full 180 now that we haven't found him. "I'm sure he'll come to us if he hears that we're reassembling, right? He'll rush to us and..."

"If Cole is residing in this mountain range like we hypothesized, it will be impossible for the information to reach him," Zane bursts his bubble, making Jay's frown deepen.

I look around, trying to think of something to do. We need to sweep through this area quickly if we want any hopes of finding him, but so far, it's taken an eternity.

"We need to keep pushing forward. If we don't find him in two days, we can head back and try to find out where the rest of the elemental army is," I set a firm deadline. "His help is worth the time, but not worth jeopardizing the mission over. Once we've defeated the unnatural elementals, we can come back and find him if we don't. Any objections?" I pause, but I can only hear small creatures scampering in the bushes. "Let's get going."

---

"But Zane! The tiny bugs around here have been chewing up my tattoo! It hurts so bad. You have to extract the venom!" Kai groans dramatically from the back of the pack. "It feels like it's prickling and stinging and itchy, and it's soooo annoying."

"I have already examined your tattoo, and there were no abnormalities," Zane states with a straight face.

"But there is! Come on. There has to be something you can do..." Kai starts begging Zane, and I pick up my pace a little more to create some distance, tugging Jay along as well to give us some room.

I wait several seconds before bringing my head closer to Jay's. "You're not playing a prank on him, right?" I whisper with an even, firm tone.

He shakes his head, "Even though it would be funny, no, I wouldn't screw with him like this. Anything tattoo related is unofficially off limits," he pauses, and an expectant silence falls over us, waiting for one of us to say what's hanging in the air.

"You're thinking what I'm thinking, right?" I ask lowly while still trying to look unsuspicious so as to not raise any red flags. "What's the chance of her still being..."

"Zero. His pain sounds pretty similar to how I was feeling before you showed up at my house, but it's impossible, absolutely and utterly impossible..."

"You thought it was impossible for me to show up at your doorstep, but I did. Maybe I'm just being hopeful, but I feel like this is linked to her," I reason with him, grabbing onto his hand and tugging him closer to me so our quiet talking looks less suspicious even though the buzz I get from it is a nice bonus.

"There's no way she was an elementa..."

"What are you two talking about?" My brother falls into stride with us, an eyebrow raised. "I can tell you're trying to keep it a secret because Jay never talks quietly."

Both of us jump slightly at the unexpected visitor. "I was just um...saying how I really wanted to go with Nya into that cave to look for Cole," Jay points up ahead at an opening in the edge of the mountain, and it takes every single bit of control in me to not facepalm at his statement, but if I've learned anything about my brother since I've met him, it's that his situational awareness is at an all time low. "Wasn't I, Nya?"

"Yeah, he really wants to go into that cave with me and...search for Cole," I try to sound believable, but my conviction drops off part way through.

Kai scrunches up his entire face. "You two are disgusting."

"...ly perfect together,"Jay slings an arm around my shoulder. "Now, let's go look inside that cave, Nya. I can't wait to search for Cole in there."

As Jay pulls me away, I can't help but sigh. "Was that supposed to be suggestive?"

"Huh?" he raises an eyebrow, and I can't help but let out a little laugh. We quickly walk over to the cave, the dry, dark interior anything but welcoming. "Anyways, as I was saying, it's impossible for her to have been an elemental. There was nothing in their bloodline, and I'm sure of it this time, so unless the person who is creating elemental masters now was somehow around back then..."

"What if that's it?" my eyes go wide, my jaw dropping at the realization as the two of us walk into the cave. "The person who killed PIXAL gave themselves your powers somehow, and they gave Skylor powers too, so that's why she's still alive, but why not just keep going back then? Why wait until now to put everything into motion though? Is there something here now that wasn't there back then? Maybe they wanted to wait until you all were fragmented, but you were just as fragmented 100 years ago as 1 month ago..." my head spins in circles, trying to brainstorm anything and everything significant that has happened recently that would prompt this, but nothing is coming to mind.

"If it's the same person, then they're about to face a reckoning of insane proportions." Jay shifts his neck from side to side, and as he does so, I can feel the anger crackling off of him in the form of his power.

"Killing two birds with one stone. I'd be more than happy to help take down the person who has single handedly hurt every single person I've ever cared about." I crack my knuckles, and I watch Jay's angry demeanor falter, a small smile appearing in its place.

"You've always been a fighter, never wanting anyone else to fight your battles for you. It's..."

I raise my eyebrows. "...hot?" I smirk, trying to frazzle him up, and as no words leave his mouth and a pink tint rises to his cheeks, I can tell that I achieved my job.

"Y-yeah..." He chews on the inside of his lip, and I can't help but want to play into this a little more. I walk towards him, staring straight into his eyes until I'm close enough so that I can touch him. Starting at his hand, I take one finger and run it up his arm, drawing it up his shoulder and up the curvature of his neck, admiring his racing pulse, before trailing my finger down his jawline. To seal the deal, I stand on my tip toes, hovering my lips directly over his before shifting on just leaving a chaste kiss on the corner of his lips. Then, I turn and walk further down into the cave since we might as well check it thoroughly if we're here, swaying my hips as I go.

"That was criminal, like completely illegal," he groans, and I can't contain the laughter that spills from my lips as I hear him coming after me.

"Well maybe if..." My words are cut short when a loud crash sounds from behind us. I immediately whip around, spotting the master of magnetism's broad, dark build, his hands up in the air as he continuously rams something against the edge of the mountain beside the cave.

I immediately pivot to make my dash to the cave entrance. The dusty ground flies up behind me, creating a cloud behind me as I race to tackle him. With a quick glance to my side, I see Jay running next to me, his fingers already crackling with his element as he prepares to immobilize our opponent.

Clarity hits me as I get closer, the realization that the sound is metal colliding with the rocks, and I can only imagine how painful this is for Zane and PIXAL. The metal clanging into the cave wall fuels my drive, my strides quicker and longer. The yells of the battlefield are nearly drowned out by the deafening sound, but the master of luck's smug remarks can still be heard from within the cave.

As another jarring clank hits the side of the mountain, it lets out a loud groan, the structure above us beginning to shake and in turn making the ground rumble, and as my chest tightens, I fight to stop this.

A few pebbles start to tumble down in front of our path, shooting puffs of dust in our way. My chest heaves as I start to dodge the larger rocks, doing anything in my power to avoid being hit. I draw any potential moisture from the air around me and focus it on the shower of ores in an attempt to blast them away, but they quickly start to pile up in front of the only exit, the light from outside quickly lessening.

As I'm a few feet from a gap in the entrance, I leap forward, soaring through the air to make it through the open space. When my fingers can nearly reach the rocks, I'm knocked off course, instantly pulled into Jay's body before we hit the floor of the cave hard and roll several times, our bodies accumulating a deep layer of dust as a loud crash comes from where I was about to jump through. A huge boulder bigger than three of me fills the space, and my eyes widen as I realize that I was nearly the meat of a very deadly sandwich.

Our chests heave in sync as all light is blocked from us, and as the reality of the situation hits me, I bolt up, rushing to the wall. I fight to pull a rock out, the rough surface scratching my fingers. When I finally do, a brigade of more comes tumbling down, blocking our path even more.

Jay joins me, and the two of us pull out rock after rock, but more and more keep replacing the ones we discard. As the sounds of battle die outside, the war cries falling silent, my hands start to shake. I frantically try to claw my way out, but as the challenge just becomes more and more difficult the more we dig, my hands start to shake.

My brother and newfound friends are out there, and unless Kai took them all down by himself, he's in the grasp of the unnatural elementals right now as Zane and PIXAL are treated like nothing but scrap metal. We need to get out and save them. No one else can.

My chest closes in on itself as I dig, my eyes watering as I try to force out a large boulder. My hands tremble, and as they rub against the rock's rough exterior, the jagged edges leave deep cuts into my hands that sting and throb. Soon, the pile of rocks is slick from my own blood.

I try and I try and I try to free us, but it only makes the situation worse. After at least ten minutes of digging with counterproductive results, I fall to my knees and let the tears slip from my eyes.

We're stuck, and the rest of Ninjago's saviors are captured. We're screwed.

A/N: There's some action! Finally, am I right? Too bad Nya and Jay are stuck in a cave with no way out though...

Also next chapter... you all better watch out because I think we ALL know what's going to go down

Predictions?

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