He banged on the metal door as he tried his best to get it to open. He stepped away before throwing his entire body weight against it, hoping for it to open, with no success whatsoever.

He cursed loudly after what felt like the thousandth time of him repeating the same process over and over again without getting the door to even budge a bit.

He frantically looked around for a second door, an opening he could widen, a trapdoor in the ground, anything. But there was nothing.

Wiping the sweat droplets off of his forehead, he kicked the door before putting his shaking hand against the cold metal.

"Just hang on a little longer," he pleaded, on the verge of tears. "Please."

Flashback.

"Several attacks on different parts of Ninjago," Lloyd spoke through the intercoms. "Cole, Zane, get to Crypterium and help them stop a riot. Kai, you go to Stixx. Apparently some citizens have spotted Ronin... doing whatever Ronin does. Jay, Nya, you'll go to the Caves of Despair. Snakes were seen going in there but not coming out, I need you to investigate. Pix and I will go to Laughy's and catch some people who claim to be a part of the Sons of Garmadon, still. Good luck, and don't get killed yet."

"Wow, thanks, I appreciate your warning," Jay responded sarcastically.

"That wasn't a warning, it was a threat," Lloyd said after a short pause.

Jay quickly put on his gi before he rushed over to Nya's room. Before he had the chance to knock, the door flew open, revealing his girlfriend who was already dressed in her own gi.

"Come on," she exclaimed, taking his hand as she hastily dragged him into the elevator to the base.

They quickly entered the secret base and ran up to their vehicle bay. After giving each other only one look, they silently agreed on taking the Land Bounty, based on the fact that the Destiny's Bounty was already gone, and Cole had taken the Earth Drill, whereas Zane had taken his Ice Jet.

As they were on the road towards the Caves of Despair, they started a conversation. Well, Jay started complaining.

"I just don't get it," he began. "Why do they have to be in those caves? It's not like it isn't on the verge of collapsing any second!"

"They're probably just looking for something," Nya assumed as her eyes were glued onto the road ahead of them.

Jay groaned, leaning back into his seat. "Yeah, for the First Spinjitzu Master's bones, probably. Believe me, I've seen him, and it wasn't really a great sight." He felt his skin forming goosebumps because of the memories.

Nya hummed. "I don't know what they'd wanna do with skeletal remains."

"He's the First Spinjitzu Master!" Jay exclaimed, startling her slightly. "He's probably worth millions."

"Maybe," she thought out loud. "Do we know how many snakes are in there?"

"No."

"Great," Nya said sarcastically.

"We can't lose each other in there. If one of us gets lost, there's no way of safe return," Jay warned, gulping.

The Master of Water nodded before taking a sharp turn to the left, making Jay fall down from his seat.

She sighed, taking a look at her boyfriend who was now sitting on the ground while rubbing his head. "You really need to learn how to wear a seatbelt."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, defeated, before getting back up and sitting down on his seat once again. This time, he put on his seatbelt, making Nya giggle as he was now in a grumpy state for probably the rest of the ride.

Yeah, he was like that for the rest of the ride. Anyways, once the Land Bounty came to a halt down below the cave, the two lovers got out with their weapons ready in their hands. The humidity of the air slapped them across their faces as they sprinted towards the opening of the cave. They stopped and looked inside. It was not very dark inside, yet the two were sure the inside was pitch black.

"Did you bring the flashlights?" Nya asked.

Jay flashed her a smile before pulling two black flashlights out of seemingly nowhere. "Why of course." He handed her one.

"How did you..." Nya started slowly before giving up. "Whatever. Let's go!"

The two turned their flashlights on and headed inside. They walked next to each other while looking for any clues in their surroundings. It was pretty dark inside, and their flashlights gave them the chance to see nothing but unexplored areas. Once they were at the end of the path they were walking on, their way parted into two individual paths. They looked at each other.

"So, which way?" Jay asked, flashing his flashlight back and forth between the two options.

Nya hummed. "I don't know."

"Heads or tails?"

"What?" She asked, looking at her boyfriend who was holding a silver coin in his hand. "Uh, tails. Wait, what stands for what?"

"Left for heads and right for tails," Jay told her. "So tails?"

Nya then nodded.

Jay nodded back before placing the coin on the base of his thumb. Then he flipped it up in the air. The coin spun around for a few times in the air before Jay managed to catch it in his open palm. He then smashed it on the back of his other hand and lifted his hand, revealing the coin showing heads.

"So left it is," he said, putting the coin back into his pocket.

The two then walked down the left path until they came across a pickaxe which was left on the dirty gound. They looked at it suspiciously.

"They might be mining for something down here," he suggested, looking down at the tool.
"But why? I didn't know there were minerals they could find down here. When me and the others were here the last time, Zane didn't detect anything of that sort."

"Let's just keep going," Nya said before she walked ahead.

Jay quickly caught up to her and looked at her to see that her mood became grumpy pretty quickly. Did he upset her?

Once they arrived at the end of their path, they stopped.

"What the-"

"What is a door doing in the middle of an unexplored cave?" Jay asked, more than confused.

Indeed, they came across a closed metal door at the end of their path. It was very uncommon to see anything like that, considering the fact that the entire cave was rather unstable. Neither of the two could tell when the door was built in there, but it looked like the metal wasn't rusty, so it had to have been at least a couple of years ago, for sure.

"You wanna go in first?" Jay asked his girlfriend who chuckled.

"Is someone scared?"

"What? No, of course not!" He insisted on.

"Sure," Nya teased. She then became serious again and walked up to the door. There was nothing indicating on what could be inside, so she was extra careful as she pushed against the door. To their luck, or dismay, maybe, the door was unlocked, so she pushed it open slowly.

Jay was close behind her as they looked at the new area. It was a big room, all covered in metal from the ceiling to the floor, and there was something in the middle of the room. With it being the only thing in the entire room, Jay and Nya looked at each other before heading over to the middle.

"Be careful," he warned.

"You know me," she told him as she was moving closer to see what it was.

Once the two were right in front of it, they looked at it more closely. There was a metal pedestal which was holding something up that was covered by a white piece of cloth. The anticipation rose as Nya slowly reached for the cloth. She grabbed a hold of it and took a deep breath before lifting it off in one swift movement.

They gasped when they realized what was hidden underneath, immediately regretting the fact that their curiosity got the best of them.

It was a round item which had a rather crippling surface. It was probably the size of a grown man's head, and there was a small display. The display, however, showed a set of red, digital numbers. It was then that they realized that the numbers were counting down from ten. Their eyes widened.

"A bomb-"

"We've gotta get out of here!" Jay yelled, taking Nya's hand before sprinting back towards the door.

Once they saw that the door was slowly closing by itself, they realized that they had to hurry up. So they sprinted faster, if that was even humanly possible, and reached the door just in time to slip past the small gap. When Nya realized that the gap was way too small for both of them to fit through, she made a quick thought and decided to save her lover. Just as they were in front of the door, she let go of his hand and pushed him through the gap, making him yelp before he plummeted to the ground. And then, the door closed shut.

Nya pushed against the door, but it didn't move one bit, so she turned around to look at the bomb as it reached number one.

Her eyes widened, her heart rate rose, her feet felt weak. She was ready for the worst.

Jay quickly scrambled back up to his feet and turned around, only to see the closed door, and not his girlfriend. His eyes widened. "NYA!" He yelled as he threw himself against the door, yet nothing moved.

And in that moment, the bomb set off.

However, it wasn't as loud or massive as they had expected it. In fact, Jay barely heard it.
After the small explosion occured, a fine gaseous substance was set free inside the closed room. Nya looked at it suspiciously, and she backed away from it as it was slowly coming towards her. It was a very dark gas, almost like smoke from a fire, but it didn't have a smell. It didn't smell like anything at all.

"Nya? Nya, are you okay?" Jay's voice came through the door, making her snap back into reality.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she answered, her gaze locked onto the magnitude of the smoke.

"What's happening in there?" He asked.

"Some kind of gas is filling the room," Nya stated casually, making Jay go on high alert.

"Gas?! Nya, get out of there, now!"

The Water Ninja turned around and reached out for the door handle, only to realize that there wasn't one. She frowned. "How do I get out?"

"Just open it!" Her boyfriend said in a panicked voice. He was beyond scared about the fact that she was locked inside the room with a gas leaking out, yet her calmness was what was freaking him out the most. "Do you know what gas it is?!"

"No-" She immediately started to cough hysterically, scaring Jay even more.

"Nya!" He screamed, throwing himself against the door.

Between coughs, she managed to let out a few words. "Jay, I don't... think... I'll..."

"What? Nya, can you hear me?" He panicked.

"Yes." Her voice sounded very hoarse, her eyes started watering, and her legs felt wobbly.

Whether they knew what that gas was or not, it didn't make her feel well at all.

Jay's breathing started to quicken. He quickly managed to contact the others and briefly explained them what happened, making all of them head for the caves now. Then he took a deep breath. "Nya, step away from the door!"

End of flashback.

He took a shaky breath before looking at the clock on his phone. It had been around five minutes since he had contacted the others, they had to have been there by now.

"Nya? I'll get out of there soon, okay?" He said in a voice that indicated that he was on the verge of breaking down.

Yet when he didn't get an answer from the other side, all of his nerves stiffened. "Nya?" He banged on the door. "Nya, can you hear me?! Answer me! Nya!"

Once there was silence on the other side again, he assumed the worst. He didn't want to think of the worst, but he couldn't help his overly sensitive side. He tried to kick open the door again for a few times before he could hear faint footsteps and some familiar voices in the distance calling out for him. He quickly picked up his flashlight and pointed it in the direction him and Nya had come from. Then he used the morse code for 'SOS', while also calling out for them.

"Guys, I'm here!"

After a few seconds, he could see something green in the distance, thinking it was Lloyd.

"Lloyd, here!"

"Jay?"

"Yes, hurry!"

Then, finally, he saw the other four boys running up to him.

"What's wrong?"

"Where's Nya?"

"Why are you crying?"

Jay brought a hand up to his cheeks to feel them covered in tears. He hadn't even realized that he had been crying until Cole mentioned it.

He pointed at the door behind him. He quickly explained to them what exactly had happened, and that Nya wasn't answering. Zane rushed up to the door and scanned the inside of the room.
After a few seconds, he gasped, turning back to the others. "We have to get her out of there ASAP!"

Jay squeaked. If Zane was that panicked, the situation had to be even worse than he had thought. Or maybe not, he tended to think of the absolute worst at literally anything bad happening to any of his friends. Especially when it came to his Yang.

"Zane, how bad is it?" Kai asked, worry plastered across his face.

"The room is filled with vengium monoxide, also known as gaseous vengestone," the nindroid explained.

"That's a thing?" Cole asked.

Zane nodded. "It is very uncommon, though. It does not affect normal people, but it is very poisonous for elemental masters. If it gets inhaled for a long period of time, which can be around three minutes, it can get deadly very quickly!"

"What?!" Jay exclaimed, panicking. "She's been in there for like ten minutes!" He cried out.
Kai's eyes widened. He looked at Zane. "Zane, activate your battering ram!"

The Ice Ninja nodded and opened the latch in his arm before pressing a certain button which made his entire body go stiff. The other four boys immediately grabbed him and aimed his head at the door before ramming it into it. They did that for a few more times before they heard a crack coming from the door.

"It's working!" Jay exclaimed as they continued to use their friend as a battering ram.

After a few more seconds, the door flew open, and the poisonous gas immediately streamed out of the room and into the guys' direction. They quickly covered their faces with their masks, though they knew that wouldn't help at all, yet at least it was something. Jay grabbed his flashlight and headed inside the room again, only to see his Yang lying on the floor close to the door, unconscious. Ignoring the stinging feeling inside, he grabbed a hold of her and ran back outside. The others followed him, and only after less than a minute, they were back outside the Caves of Despair.

Jay put her down softly and sat down, putting her head on his lap. "Nya, wake up," he choked out, caughing. Once he felt a hand being placed on his shoulder, he looked up to see Kai looking down at both of them, obviously trying to hold back his own tears.

The Red Ninja blinked a few times, swallowing a lump down his throat. "Hospital." He was only able to bring out one word, because he was scared that opening his mouth for any time longer would cause him to sob uncontrollably.

Jay nodded before he got up and lifted his girlfriend again, rushing over to the Land Bounty. The others also got on the same vehicle. Lloyd decided to drive, and Cole sat down on the passenger seat to help him with the navigation. Jay laid the unconscious Water Ninja down on the couch-like seat at the back and knelt down in front of her face, grabbing her hand. Kai was sitting on the spot right next to his sister's head and stroked her head slowly. Zane was constantly checking on her vitals. Her situation was critical, yet he wasn't emotionally ready to say it out loud.

It didn't take long for the Land Bounty to come back onto solid ground again, and once they were back in the city, Lloyd activated the sirens to indicate to the other drivers on the road that they had to get past as quickly as possible, which, luckily to them, all of the vehicles in front of them did.

They managed to get to the hospital rather quickly. Once they gave Nya up to the professionals, the five were told to wait in the waiting room. Unfortunately for them, they had to wait for a long time. Minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into two days.
Jay was the only one inside the waiting room. The others had left around twelve hours ago. Lloyd, Cole, and Zane were the only ones who were able to go back to the monastery and come back and repeat that over and over again. Kai and Jay, however, were both always on the verge of breaking down. But Kai needed to be brought home so that he would neither attack any holspital staffs nor stay up all day and night, worrying about his sister.

The nurses had only come in once to tell them about Nya's situation, and all they got was that she needed to be hospitalized for an undefined amount of time. That was it. And the ninja were not happy.

Jay hadn't slept ever since he had stepped into the hospital, in fear that something important might happen while he was asleep. He had dark bags under his eyes and dried tearstains on his cheeks. He was resilient when both his friends and the nurses had told him to go home and come back when they had new information. He was scared, really scared. He regretted having gone into that stupid cave. No snake-fighting in the world would ever be worth losing his love for. Now that he was alone with his thoughts, he came to the conclusion that it was all a trap. It had to have been!

He sighed, feeling new tears welling up in his eyes. Why did it have to be his girlfriend?

"Mr Walker?"

Jay jumped up from his seat in a heartbeat. He looked over to the source of the voice to see an older man in a white gown.

"That's me," Jay answered.

"Follow me," the doctor said.

The Blue Ninja nodded and walked up to him. They were walking down an empty corridor towards an elevator.

"How is she?" Jay broke the silence.

The doctor stayed silent for a moment longer before pushing the elevator's button, making it go from gray to a glowing blue. Once they entered the elevator, the man in white sighed. "You might already know that vengestone isn't really... healthy for elemental masters."

The Master of Lightning nodded.

"She has inhaled a large dose of vengium monoxide. Her state is critical, which is why she needs to stay here for a while until we can clear her chances of survival."

"But... she'll make it, right?"

Once the doors of the elevator opened, the doctor walked out without answering Jay's question, making his worries shoot up to the roof. When the doctor opened a door and walked in, the Blue Ninja became very anxious.

He slowly walked over to the door and peeked inside, his eyes immediately widening. He let out a squeak as he stepped inside the room. There he saw his Yang tucked under a plain blue duvet, her arms limb next to her body. Her face was emotionless, and Jay's heart ached when he saw the many machines attached to her body.

Jay walked up to her frame and carefully brought his hand over to hers. Once their skins touched, he couldn't feel anything but coldness.

He didn't even realize that the doctor and the entirety of the nurses had left the room, leaving the two alone. Jay sat down on the chair right next to her face, his hand never leaving hers.

"Oh Nya," he began. "It should've been me," he cried out quietly, his tears flowing down his cheeks.

He rubbed her knuckles in circles with his thumb. "It's... It's time to wake up now, Nya," he pleaded.

When she didn't move a muscle, he sighed. He then decided to talk to her unconscious form to pass some time without really focusing on her not being able to give him any answers.

"You know, we should definitely go out on a date after you wake up again. Mhm, oh yeah, we should do that! Maybe go to the beach? Or to a nice opening in a forest and have a picnic? Meh, we'll see when the time comes and we can... go... to..."

Jay stopped his rambling once he brought his attention over to the machine that was attached to his girlfriend. It suddenly started beeping faster than it had a few moments ago.

His eyes widened at what it could mean. "No," he muttered to himself before looking back and forth between Nya and the machine. "No!"

As the machine kept beeping faster and faster, Jay let go of Nya's hand and sprinted over to the door before ripping it open and stepping into the hallway. "Help, something's wrong! I NEED A DOCTOR, NOW!"

He then quickly went back to Nya's side, leaving the door open, and held her hand again. "Nya, you better not go now, not after everything we've been through," he whispered, closing his eyes shut. "You're a strong fighter, Nya, fight this, too," he pleaded.

His heart stopped and his eyes shot open when the machine suddenly started letting out a long and loud beep. He looked at it to see a white flatline across the center of the screen.

"NO!"

Just then, a doctor stormed into the room, accompanied by three female nurses. Before Jay could realize what was happening, he was pushed out of the room with the door shutting into his face.

His breathing quickened, and he felt his throat going dry as he leaned against the wall for some type of help to control his balance. He kept choking on his own spit and his tears kept spilling down his face, some getting into his mouth, making him taste his misery. His head started feeling lighter.

"Sir, please sit down."

Jay faintly looked up to see a nurse looking at him. She brought one of her hands to his underarm and the other to his shoulder and tried to lead him over to the closest chair in the hallway. Once that was done, she handed him a bottle of water.

Water. Water. Water. Nya.

"Save her," he whispered out, not sure whether or not she heard him.

"We are working on it currently. Please try to calm down and take deep breaths. We do not want to hospitalize you as well," she told him with pleading eyes. To see the relatives of people who were close to dying was never a good look. Something she sadly had to see more often than wanted.

Jay nodded as he stared down at the bottle of water in his hands, though his tears were mainly blurring his vision, making it difficult to even read what was written on the bottle.

He shakily opened the bottle and brought it close to his dry lips. As the water slowly ran down his throat, he had to refrain himself from not spitting it out or coughing it back up.

A few minutes passed before the door to Nya's room opened slowly and the male doctor walked out.

Jay jumped up and ran up to him. "You saved her, right? I can see her now, right? She's awake now... right?"

The doctor opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying his best to not look into the ninja's eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered. He looked down.

Jay's eyes widened. "No," he whispered in disbelief and looked inside the room to see the machine still showing the flatline as one of the nurses put the defibrillator away and another nurse slowly covered Nya's entire body with a white piece of cloth.

"That's some bullsh*t," he cursed before he pushed the doctor out of the way, making him yelp, and storming inside the room. The nurses looked at him with wide eyes. He could see the hurt and tears in their faces, yet he didn't give a damn.

"Everyone, out!" He yelled, walking over to Nya's left side of the bed.

"Mr Walker, I know it's tough at the moment. You're in denial, but please don't-" a nurse tried to push him back out, but he just pushed her off of him.

"I said, out!" He yelled louder.

The nurses looked at each other before trying to reason with him again. "We need you to leave the room, please," a nurse with blonde hair pleaded.

Once he was about to pull away the white cloth covering Nya's face, a nurse grabbed his hand, trying to stop him. "Do not touch the dead body, sir!"

"She's not DEAD!" He yelled as he pushed the nurse away from him roughly, making her almost hit the ground if it weren't for another nurse catching her.

"GET THE HELL OUT!" He ordered. After a few silent seconds, the nurses retreated out of the room, leaving Jay alone with the dead... body.

Once the coast was clear, Jay slowly lifted the the cloth off of her face and saw her beautiful face again. He smiled for a second before fear settled in again.

"Nya, I want to apologize for what I'm about to do next, but it's my only choice," he said, taking her hand in his and shakily bringing it up to his chest.

At the same time, he brought his other hand to her own chest, just above her heart. He swallowed down his saliva before clearing his throat.

Then he sent a low amount of electricity into his hand that was on her chest. He watched as nothing happened, so he doubled the amount, before tripling it right after.

He could feel his own energy drain, yet he wasn't ready to give up. So he gave his all as he saw her entire body crackling with his powers.

"Can you feel that?" He asked, squeezing her hand, holding it just above his own heart. "Can you feel my heartbeat? It's only beating for you, Nya," his voice cracked. "Let me restart yours. Please."

"LET HER GO!" The doctor from earlier yelled, yet Jay didn't care.

He couldn't care.

"I WILL NOT REPEAT MYSELF FOR A THIRD TIME, MR WALKER! LET. HER. GO!"

Jay only ignored his words as he was focusing on trying to kick start Nya's heart again. He wasn't ready to give up on her yet.

He hissed when he was being yanked back, both of his hands losing contact with his lover. He fell backwards, but he caught himself quickly.

He had flames in his eyes as the doctor was towering over Nya's body and trying to cover her face back up with the cloth.

Jay charged at him, not thinking at all, and pulled him down to the floor where he straddled him and brought his hand up in a fist, ready to bring it back down on the doctor's scared face.

Just as his fist almost came into contact with the doctor's flesh, his entire body froze. Thinking he was just hearing things, he brought his hands up once again. Yet he froze again when he heard something like a quiet groan.

He slowly stood up, giving the doctor the chance to compose himself, and turned around to his girlfriend. His eyes started watering again when he saw her slowly moving her head from side to side.

He raced back to her side and grabbed her hand. "Nya?"

She groaned and moaned a little more before her eyes slowly opened. Her eyes took a while before adjusting to the room's lighting and focusing on her surroundings. She slowly looked over to who was holding her hand.

"Jay?"

Jay quickly nodded, smiling. "Yeah, it's me, Love," he said quietly, only for her to hear.

She groaned again, bringing her other hand up to her head. "What... happened?" She asked slowly.

Jay's smile then twisted back into a frown before he let out his tears again. He practically threw himself onto her and hugged her tightly while crying into the crook between her neck and shoulder. The sounds of his sobs filled the room.

At first, Nya's eyes were wide from the initial shock of his fast moves, but then she softened and slowly brought her arms up to wrap around his body. She squeezed back with as much force as she could to reciprocate the feeling.

She felt him sniff and take a deep breath before he loosened his grip on her and leaned a bit back to look into her eyes. "I lost you for like three minutes, Nya," he choked out.

Her eyes widened. "What?" She breathed out.

Jay nodded sadly before bringing his body back on top of hers and hugging her tightly again. "How am I..." he heard her wonder.

He sniffed before looking back at her. "I kinda used my powers to bring you back," he let out a low pitched chuckle.

She then chuckled as well. "That's why my body feels on fire."

He laughed as he nodded hysterically. Then he sighed, placing his head back close to her body. "Don't you ever think about doing that to me again," he mumbled.

That hospital part was... intense to write.

And don't ask me why it's always Nya who's landing in the hospital, because I don't know either.

Anyways, I know I had said that I'd upload this the day after the last oneshot, but oh well, I accidentally deleted this oneshot when it was at around 2000 words (I'd written that on my iPad)🥲🥲🥲. And I had some important school stuff to do, so I sadly had to set my priorities straight, sorry. While I was rewriting this, I kinda thought that my thoughts and ideas were better in my head than what I actually wrote down, so sorry if this isn't as "powerful" as my usual writing. Whatever. I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading!