I had to 'improvise' a bit for this chapter because it was never shown in the show how Pythor captured Nya (and in this story, the Ninja were caught before the Samurai).

A huge Thank You ! to daniaanlyn who's had a look over this chapter and who is going to help me with some parts of upcoming chapters.

--

Chapter 18: Stunned

"I detect increased anxiety levels." PIXAL's voice came over the communicator.  "And you haven't spoken a word since we have left the autobody shop. Which is rather unusual for you, especially since you have started spending time with Jay."

"In my defence, I was asleep for most of the time." Nya retorted before giving a little sigh. "But you're right, I'm very worried about our guys."

For the past few hours, the two friends had been travelling through the night. They were on their way to Orobourus, where they were to meet with the other three Samurai before entering the abandoned (or possibly not anymore) settlement. "And Misako's probably going to fire me when we get back."

"I do not think so." PIXAL replied. "She has realised that she might have been wrong about the Ninja. And we would not have this lead on Lloyd, had it not been for Jay's message."

"But by keeping critical information from her and the other girls I've broken an important rule." Nya stated. "And I've dragged you into it as well."

"I am rather grateful that you have 'dragged me into it'." PIXAL answered, and Nya could hear a little smile in the droid's voice. "Also, you did it to protect your brother and boyfriend."

"Which, in Sky and Sel's opinion, I shouldn't have at all." Nya said back. She chuckled weakly. "The boyfriend, I mean. They can't do much about the brother."

"But there is no official rule against being in a romantic relationship." PIXAL reassured her teammate. "I have checked that."

"You have?" Nya smirked under her mask. "I wonder why you did that..."

"We are on the right way." PIXAL ignored her friend's teasing remark. "The tracks in the sand right below us match the Ninja's Tread Assault, Blade Cycle and the Snowmobile."

This confirms the meaning behind Jay's text message... Nya realised. But I still don't know why he sent it, and neither option is a good one: Either my boyfriend has found out about my secret, or he's so worried about this mission going wrong that he just wanted me to know where to find him and Kai – or... their bodies.

"We're here." PIXAL's voice once more snapped Nya out of her thoughts. "This is the closest we can get to Orobourus without being spotted. The others should meet us here in about 3.4 minutes."

The sun was already starting to rise over the desert, when the two girls landed their mechs on the sand, separated from the formerly lost city by a large rock formation.

"Orobourus is close enough now for my scanners." PIXAL stated. "When we get back, we should start working on a long-distance scanning device. I believe the Ninja have something like that."

And it's my fault that we don't. I should have gotten those files from Jay's laptop, there was a folder with blueprints on his harddrive...

"Detecting life signs." PIXAL informed Nya. "Four hundred and thirty-six Serpentine and five humans."

Five. That means...

"He's here." Nya gasped.

"Who's here?" Seliel asked as the smoke grey, orange and green mechs landed next to the other two.

"Lloyd." Nya aswered. "As well as the Ninja and four hundred something Serpentine."

"Four hundred and thirty-six. And they are all gathered inside what appears some kind of amphitheatre."

"Good job." Skylor remarked. "How did you find out they'd be here?"

"Uhm..." Nya blushed behind her mask. "Long story..."

"We can discuss that later." PIXAL came to her aide. "We need to act now."

"Good point." Harumi agreed. "What are the chances of success?"

"Below 3%." The android told her leader.

"This isn't about numbers, this is about family." The orange Samurai Y stated firmly. "Remember, this is Misako's son we're here to rescue, so failure is not an option."

Nya silently agreed. She always hated hearing the odds, but on the other hand, this was too good an opportunity to miss...

"But what would the chances be if we teamed up with the Ninja rather than working against them?" She enquired.

"Significantly higher." PIXAL replied. "It would..."

"You aren't seriously considering fighting alongside these macho jerks." Seliel interrupted her harshly.

"Why not?" Nya asked back. "I've done it before, and he's probably saved my life." The red Samurai X reminded her friend of the incident at Mega Monster Amusement Park just over a week ago.

"And ever since that day, you've been acting strange." Seliel retorted. "What has that blue Ninja done to you?"

"Maybe she has a crush on him." Skylor giggled. "How do you think Jay would feel about that?"

Nya could feel her face heat up. If only you knew... She thought.

"Ladies. As much as I am enjoying this conversation, we have to go now." Harumi reminded her teammates.

"There is no chance to hide with our mechs." PIXAL had finished her analysis of the lost city. "We either have to leave them here, or..."

"We just fly in and surprise attack them." Seliel claimed excitedly. "I vote for this option."

"Me too." The hot-headed orange Samurai agreed.

"We aren't very good at stealth." Nya remarked. "We probably have a better chance this way, so I'm in as well."

"Then, let's go." Harumi said. "Good luck, team."

"We really need a proper catchphrase, like the Ninja and their stupid Ninja-Go." Seliel muttered as the five Samurai took off.

Flying around the rock formation, they spotted a few bright green coloured busses, now partly covered by sand.

"Lloyd took one of these from the arcade." Nya noted, feeling her stomach tighten even further. This is it.

The guards on the city walls were no problem for them at all, Nya and PIXAL quickly took care of them, using their mechs' stun guns.

"Three down. Only four hundred and thirty-three to go." Skylor cheered, as they headed towards the arena.

"Remember, we only need to find Lloyd and get out of here." Harumi, who was flying in front, informed the others. "No unnecessary fights with the Serpentine or the Ninja."

"I don't think the Ninja will be an issue at all." Seliel pointed down. Nya's gaze followed her, to see the four boys trapped in a cage on the ground, right in the middle of the arena.

"Look, there's someone in that cage over there, hanging from the giant stone snake's mouth." Skylor shouted. "That must be Lloyd."

"It is him." PIXAL confirmed. "His biometric analysis matches the child on the photo in Misako's office."

"Y, Z. Deploy your smoke bombs." Harumi instructed the orange and grey Samurais. In battle, they would always address each other only using only their code letters. "X, V. You stay right behind me, give me cover. I'm getting Lloyd."

As they were flying after their leader through the artificial fog, Nya and PIXAL exchanged glances. Sure, Lloyd was their first priority, but they weren't leaving the four other boys behind in the Serpentine's claws.

"Looks like the cast for our main event is complete." Pythor announced at that moment, gloating.

"What does he mean?" Nya wondered. "There isn't much to see..."

"We've all been waiting for you." She heard him call, just before a surge of energy hit her. It only lasted for a brief moment and to her relief, it didn't seem to have caused any injury to her body.

"What was that?" She tried to ask her teammates, only to find that her communication device had failed.

As had the rest of her suit.

"Aaaaahhhhh." Nya screamed as she started to fall down. And when she dropped below the smoke level, she could see the same was happening to the other girls.

She frantically kept pushing the 'Emergency Eject' Button, which of course wasn't working either. Hopefully, the strong suit and the soft sand would break the impact.

And Nya also hoped that nothing else would...

A surge of panic overtook the girl as she glanced around, trying to figure out where each of the mechs was going to land. Those sharp spikes separating the arena from the spectators' area didn't look too inviting. And if one of the mechs would land on the Ninja...

Luckily, it looked like they were all going to hit unoccupied spots inside the arena.

Using all her strength, Nya managed to manually pull her armour into a safer position, slighty bending the suit's arms and legs as she turned mid-air so she wouldn't fall onto her (or the mech's) head first.

As the ground came closer, she took a deep breath and, upon impact, she moved all her weight to one side, to drop onto the armour's shoulder plate and roll out of the impact.

Lying on the ground, still strapped into her mech, she managed to turn her head, and her gaze fell on the cage holding her brother, boyfriend and their two teammates.

A pair of deeply worried blue eyes on her was the last thing Nya saw before everything turned black.