The ninja rush into the commissioner's office.

"What's the emergency?" Lloyd asks frantically.

Cole walks in after all the others. He honestly doesn't care what the problem was. It was just another thing that kept them from finding Wu. He glares at the two young boys who stood by the commissioner looking guilty.

The commissioner sighs and shakes his head. "A young boy got attacked by a dragon. On the dark island."

Lloyd Jay and Kai all respond at the same time.
"The dark island?"
"Why would anyone go there!?"
"That place is nothing but bad news!"

Serpentine.

Cole quietly groanes in a pained way as he puts his head in his hand.

"Are you okay Cole?" Zane asks Cole softly as the commissioner explained the situation.

"I'm fine. Just a bit of a headache. It'll pass." Cole says with a fake smile.

Zane nods and turns back to the conversation.

In truth, Cole had had a splitting headache all morning. It hadn't gone away yet. Something in the back of his mind told him he'd find what he needed on the dark island. When they hopped on their dragons his keep looking toward the dark island although the element itself was being drawn there.

"It was as though the purple mist emanated from him. Then the ground cracked and he fell through. That's when we saw the dragon," The older of the two explains.

"Then let's get the boy back," Cole said failing to hide his frustration. "While we're standing here discussing this something could be happening to him out there. So are we going to go or what?"

The team knew Cole was only half talking about the boy. They knew the one he was talking about was Wu.

"We can take you to where he fell," the older of the two strangers responds.

"What!? Baraz are you crazy!? You want to go back there!?" The younger one shouts.

"If it means saving Jahan then yes! It's about time we start facing the consequences of our actions and do what it takes to save our brother!"Baraz shouts back in response his whole body shook with anger. But the anger was directed at himself.

Cole's instincts told him the boy's would just get in the way but something in the back of his mind told him they need to come with.

Lloyd started to answer the brothers. "I don't think-"

"You two can ride on my dragon. It'll be faster than sailing. Let's go." With that Cole left the two brothers close on his heals and his team utterly silent with confusion behind him.

Jay rushes up to Cole and whispers to him. "Are you sure about this Cole? They could get hurt."

"Without them we don't know where this dragon or their brother is. Would you prefer to search the entire island. Leaving a powerless guy to face a dragon for who knows how long?" Cole was spouting off nonsense. Somehow he knew the dragon wouldn't bring harm to the boy. He wanted to get to it as soon as possible, and he wanted to know why.

~-~

Jahan wakes his entire body feeling oddly numb and his left arm feeling... slimy? He opens his eyes to a chamber with it's walls covered in ancient text and illuminated with purple crystals. He looks down his is leg in a... splint made of the crystals. His left sleeve was gone and his arm was covered in slobber. Jahan noticed it looked like something big had bit him, but it looked like an old scar from forever ago. The thing is he didn't have that scar this morning.

He lifted his head when he heard a low growl. His eyes met the glowing purple ones of the black dragon. He knew he should be afraid. He could tell simply by looking into it's eyes that this was a dragon on destruction. But he felt as though he couldn't be safer.

He lifted a hand and held it out to the dragon. The dragon nuzzled it's head into the boys hand. The dragon let out what sounded like a purr. Jahan felt as though he stared at the creature for an eternity in mere moments. Suddenly the purple mist that surrounded him earlier returned. He was terrified until he noticed the power was flowing to the creature.

After all of the mist was absorbed by the dragon he had never felt better. As though every negative, hateful and destructive feeling had vanished. "Thank you," he said as he took his hand away and yawned. "I think I'm going to sleep now." With that Jahan lay down and slept.

The dragon backed itself into a corner of the temple. And shook sending a jingling sound through the structure. It lay down wrapped in the vengestone chains. Then the dragon too went to sleep.

~-~

Cole flew to the dark island the others a ways behind him. The two brothers sat behind him in silence. The youngest brother squirmed under the intensity of the atmosphere. Baraz broke himself down by thinking of all the times he ignored the consequences of his actions.

Cole wanted to know why all he could think about was seeing this dragon. Something told the Master of Earth the moment he saw her he'd know what to do. Within an hour they reached the shores of the dark island. Cole landed his dragon and let the brothers get off. Mian face-planted into the sand while Baraz stumbled to his feet.

Cole rolled his eyes as he leapt from the dragon and landed flawlessly. The other members of his team soon joined him and the brothers on the beach.

"It feels weird saying this to you Cole," Jay said as he approached the elemental master of earth, "but we're a team. We need to stick together."

Cole bit back a groan as a sharp pain was suddenly sent through his body. He stumbled slightly. "Sorry. I've just been out of it lately." When Cole's eyes met Zane's knowing eyes he looked back to Jay.

"It's okay just... don't push us away Cole," Kai set his hand on his friends shoulder. "We're all worried about him but he'd want us to stick together. So let's make Sensei Wu proud."

Cole nodded yeah lets.

Lloyd approached the three with the brothers Zane and Nya close behind. "Okay according to Mian and Baraz, Jahan should be a ways in this direction so lets go." Lloyd led the charge with the brothers quick at his heal. All the ninja followed but Zane and Cole.

"I sense it's more than a headache." Zane kept his eyes on the black ninja who was still avoiding his gaze. "Your vitals are all over the charts."

"Not now frosty," Cole said tiredly. "I just haven't been sleeping well that's all." He wasn't exactly lying. He hadn't slept well since he ran out of that special tea Wu gave him. It's just that there was so much more to it than that.

"After we get back. I expect the truth," Zane started to follow the others. "It's not like you can lie to a nindriod."

Cole huffed lightly. He hated when people called him out in those subtle ways. If only Wu were there. He'd know what to do to help him. But he's gone, a voice echoed in the back of his mind. And you're not even looking for him. Cole summoned a piece of earth and sent it hurdling into the ocean. Shut up! He screamed back at the voice. He took a deep breath then followed after the others.

Zane met up with the others after he saw Cole follow after them. Hi didn't even pay attention to what the others were talking about. He thought back to how since Wu disappeared Cole had been waking up in the middle of the night and going of who knows where.

Cole's vitals had been unusually high after Wu vanished, he thought it was due to stress. But sometime yesterday they spiked again. Then when they heard of this dragon they spiked again. Zane started thinking maybe this dragon was putting Cole off for some reason, and he was determined to find out why.