***Sorry for updating a few hours later than usual, all! I had intended to wake up early this morning and post for you, but that just didn't work ;)

This chapter has a lot of plot in it. I think you'll really like how it plays into the rest of this book ;)***

***(Cole's POV)***

I go jogging out of the monastery after Nya. She's fast, but I have the advantage of long legs. I'm sure I'll catch up with her in a moment.

"Nya," I call after her. "You know running from your problems doesn't make them any better, right?"

She swivels and turns to face me, anger written all over her features. "I face problems all day, Cole. Leave me alone to deal with them from afar, for once."

I finish running the distance to her. "Nya – "

"Don't use that tone with me." She crosses her arms. "I got mad back there, and this is how I work out my emotions without blowing up at people."

"What made you so mad?" I try to sound like a therapist here.

She scoffs. "Cole, do you really need to ask that? You march in with some girl – okay, not some girl, but an old friend of yours – and she thinks she can just train to become one of us, no problems. She purposefully pushes my buttons, and it turns out she's some stinkin' genius who doesn't have to work to be smart! Cole, I should be a junior in high school, or even a sophomore, given that my birthday's at the end of June. But I'm graduating this year, and it's because of a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Kai's forced me to – "

I place my hands on her shoulders. "Nya, Seliel has had to work for everything she has, believe me."

She shrugs me off. "Maybe so, but then you all treat her like she's automatically a great candidate for training. And soon enough, you all are going to let her on the team, and it took me two years and the sudden appearance of powers to make me good enough for that!"

I plant a hand on my hip. "Nya, is this about your constant struggle to be the best? Your worth isn't found in how you compare to other people, you know."

She huffs. "Leaving now, Cole." She turns to go.

"I'll send Jay after you," I threaten her. "I know he won't leave you alone until you talk this out."

Her shoulders sag. "Look, Cole...don't send Jay after me. He doesn't even care about me as a person anymore – only wants me because he feels romantically for me." She sighs heavily.

"And how do you figure that?" I frown.

"Because whenever I'm upset or hurting, he'll try to comfort me, and then it becomes...some ploy for us to get back together."

"Aww, Nya. I'm sure he doesn't mean it like that."

"Probably not, but..." She shakes her head, turning her face to look at me. "I'll be back in an hour or so, Cole. Let me go walk this off."

I release a long breath. "Only if you promise to talk with the team tonight about Seliel, okay?"

"Fine. Whatever. I'm sure I'll be more collected by then, anyway." She stalks off, traveling much slower than before.

I trudge inside. I really need to talk with Jay about his Nya obsession. It's not healthy for either one of them, and he doesn't even know it's hurting her. She wouldn't tell him something that could make his depression even worse, so I guess I have to be the bad guy here.

When I return to the monastery, I find Seliel is sitting on the couch, chatting with Zane and Skylor about tax rates in Ninjago City. Lloyd has disappeared, probably to get ready for practice. A shirtless Kai is eating from an old bag of chips he found, and Jay's just now out of the shower.

He looks at me as I walk in, his eyes still exhausted from his hangover. "Hey, Cole. Have you seen Nya?"

Kai speaks up, mouth full of chips. "She got mad and stormed out a couple of minutes ago. And she got my shirt all wet, which is why I have my abs out for the world to see." He rubs a hand over his stomach.

Jay's expression flashes distress. "She's upset? Where is she?"

"She's fine," I assure him. "I already talked to her, and she said she wants to be alone for an hour or so. Don't worry, she promised to be back soon."

"I don't want her to be alone if she's upset! Do you know which way she went? I – "

I grab his wrist. "Jay, you and I need to talk, buddy."

"But Nya – "

"She'll be fine. Give me a few minutes of your time, okay?"

He sighs. "Fine. Five minutes, and then I'm going after her."

"We'll see about that." I drag him into the kitchen, throwing a loaf of bread at him from the pantry. "Make yourself a sandwich. You'll feel much better."

"Okay. But start talking, because we don't have time for this. Nya might – "

"Jay..." I release an exasperated sigh. "You know you're hurting her, right?"

His eyes widen, and his tone comes out panicked. "I am? How? Oh, no. What have I done?"

"Calm down, Jay. She just hates to see you so depressed and...well, obsessed with her. She doesn't believe it's good for you." I don't think it's good for him, either, but it's probably not the best idea to bring myself into this conversation.

"But I love Nya," he replies. "I can't just stop loving her. And I can't just stop being depressed, either!"

"She knows that, but whenever she tries to get you help, you always refuse."

"That's because I know that the only thing that can make me better is her!" he sniffles, shoving the food I gave him away.

"Maybe, but..." I shake my head. "I'm botching this."

"Did she ask you to talk to me? I've always said she could tell me anything." He runs a hand through his hair. "I don't understand why she doesn't get – "

"Jay," I sigh.

"What?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but...why does every situation seem to come back to you two getting back together?"

"Because I experienced what one amazing day with her being mine was like, and now it's all I ever think about," he cries.

I bite my lip. He's always had such a huge crush on Nya – for two years, actually – and he finally got to be with her for two days of a fake relationship and one day of a real one. And after the thing with Lloyd...it just ended. That hurt him pretty bad.

"I forgot my shoes in here," Nya mumbles, walking inside. "Sorry to interrupt you guys. I'll just go ahead and leave on my walk once I have what I need."

Jay stops her, twining his fingers with hers. "Nya, do you feel like I don't care about you?"

***Music Cue***

Her mouth opens and closes before her gaze falls on me. "I – Cole, what the heck?"

I shrug. "I was trying to help!"

She sighs. "Jay...I don't...forget what he said, okay? It's unimportant."

"But is it true?" he asks anxiously.

"Is what true?" Kai asks, walking in. He goes straight to the pantry for a new bag of chips.

"It doesn't matter," Jay snaps. "Nya, tell me that you don't really believe I don't care about you!"

"Let it go, Jay," she says. "I said that it doesn't matter. The important thing is that I care for you, okay?"

"I love you, Nya," he swallows. "Why would you say that I felt any way otherwise?"

"I don't know! Ask Cole. He's the one who said I believed that in the first place!" She pulls her hands away from his and crosses her arms protectively.

He turns on me. "Cole?"

"I...I just..."

Skylor joins us. "Sis, I saw you were back kind of early, so I thought maybe you and I could hang out. It's been a while, you know? And I'm sure skipping practice one day wouldn't hurt you. I think you deserve a chance to relax."

Jay wraps his arms around Nya, still glaring at me. "Cole, why would you tell me that Nya thinks so poorly of me if it's not true?"

"It is true!" I exclaim. "Not the 'poorly' part, but she really doesn't feel like you care about her unless it comes to romance!"

Zane walks in. "I sense tensions are high in this room, friends. Is there anything I can do to be of assistance?"

"Nya," Jay whimpers, "I love you. You're all I have! I tell you that all the time! How could you think I'm a liar?!"

She squeezes her arms around his waist comfortingly. "Jay..."

"What?" he cries.

She shakes her head. "Can we talk about this later?"

"No, Nya! Tell me what Cole knows about you that I don't. I thought we knew everything about each other!"

I speak up, trying to calm the tensions in the room. "The only reason I know about some of Nya's feelings toward you, Jay, is because we had a heart-to-heart last night."

"About what?!" he yells, cradling Nya's head close to his chest. "Wait. Don't tell me you've been flirting with the love of my life!"

"Cole doesn't have a crush on Nya." Skylor rolls her eyes. "He likes that Seliel girl he brought with him."

I blanch.

Skylor hitches a shoulder. "What? I don't usually read minds, but his crush on her is kind of clear for the world to see."

"You know I'm standing right here, correct?" Sel asks from behind me.

"Oh." I blink, turning to her. "Oops. Well, um...what do you think?"

Jay pipes up. "I still want answers, Cole, as to why you know so much about Nya!"

She sighs. "Just leave it, Jay. It means nothing. You and I can go – "

I raise my voice. "Everyone, just calm down! Jay, Nya and I talked last night about some personal stuff. I checked on her when she stormed outside today to make sure she wasn't running away. Simple."

Kai chokes on a chip. "Run away?" he gasps. "Why would you even think that Nya would do that, Cole?"

Nya, Jay, and I all turn white.

I'm the first one to speak, and it's with a sigh. "Uh, Kai..." I look at Nya. "Sorry. It was bound to come out at some point."

"No," she growls, eyes begging with me. "What about our deal?"

"Wait – you're serious?" Kai rumbles. "What deal? What aren't you telling me?"

I place a hand on his shoulder. "Kai, I had intended to tell you later, but...Nya plans on running away."

"I said, 'what about our deal?'!" she bursts, pulling out of Jay's grasp.

"You want to run away?!" Kai fumes. "Nya Smith, when I get my hands on you – "

"You wouldn't understand!" she shouts. "None of you would!"

Skylor looks at the ground. "Actually, Sis, I..."

Nya's eyes light with realization. "You're a mind-reader. Why are you reading my mind?!"

"You knew about this?" Kai exclaims.

"Easy, Kai," his fiancée says. "I just now read her mind, okay? I try not to, but I was kind of shocked by what Cole said a moment ago, and I couldn't help myself." She steps toward Nya. "But that's not the point. The point is, I can feel your pain, and I understand what you're going through because – "

Nya cries out in anger. "I trusted you guys!" She marches right up to me. "I guess my trust means nothing to you."

Kai grabs her shoulders. "Nya, I am incomprehensibly mad at you. You and I are heading home right now, and as soon as we get to the blacksmith's shop – "

"I don't care, Kai! I just don't care!" She drenches his face in water.

He lets her go, sputtering and trying to get in a clean breath of air.

"You all are jerks!" She rushes up to Jay and wraps her arms around his neck, pressing her lips to his cheek. She whispers something in his ear before running out of the kitchen.

"Nya!" Kai cries, racing after her.

Jay looks lost. "B-but I won't s-see her as much."

"As much?" I demand. "Jay, where did she tell you she was going?"

He shakes his head. "I have to prove to her that I love her," he says absently. "I can't tell you."

"Come on!" I yell, chasing after Kai. By the time I make it to the door, she's already turning the key in the ignition of her motorcycle.

And before either of us can even think about driving after her, she's off at a speed that will get her arrested if she's caught.

***(Seliel's POV)***

I had no idea things got so dramatic around here. I knew it was hectic, but not this bad.

"Jay!" Cole yells from the hallway. "Jay, which direction is she headed?"

He swallows hard as Cole walks in. "I-I'm not telling you."

"I can read minds, Jay," Skylor rolls her eyes. She concentrates for a moment, then huffs.

Kai rushes into the kitchen, grabbing her wrists. "Skye, where is she headed?"

"I don't know. That conniving little – " She clenches her fists. "All she said was 'You know where I'll be', and I don't recognize whatever place Jay associates with that. Lots of bookcases, so maybe a library? But she can't stay at a library."

Kai marches up to Jay. "Which library is my sister at?"

"I can't help you!" Jay exclaims.

"Yes, you can! You're just such a simp for Nya that you think you have to go along with whatever she says!"

"You don't understand! She's the only person who makes me feel anything good anymore!"

Cole grabs my hand. "Well, while you two fight this out, we're going to go search for Nya. Seliel, you're smart – you have a photographic memory, right?"

I follow along with what he's saying. "Right. So if given a good enough description, and if I've been wherever she's going, I can theoretically find her."

Skylor nods, leaving a quarreling Kai and Jay in the kitchen. She leads us out to the living area.

"Okay," she says, thinking. "So, as I said, I see lots of bookshelves. What appears to be an office door next to a desk piled high with odds and ends. Actually, there's random junk all over the place."

"Is it Jays' parents' house?" Cole demands.

"It's not a junkyard, per say. It's inside a building."

I rack my brain, but come up dry. "I'm so lost."

"Sounds like a secondhand store," I muse. "Or a house?" I think of the elderly couple I always stay with when things get tough at home.

"Could be," Cole nods curtly. "Anything else you have for us, Skylor?"

"No. I can't believe she totally tricked us like that – with the whole 'I won't tell Jay directly where I'm going' thing. But then, she probably didn't want us overhearing anything, and that just bled into my ability to read minds." She sighs. "I'll get Kai, and the two of us can search together. And Lloyd and Zane can pair up, once Lloyd gets his butt inside." She scowls, marching out to the training area and yelling the name of her least favorite ninja.

Cole tugs on my hand. "Come on. Let's head out to the earth drill, and you and I can take that."

"Sure. I can think of a few abandoned secondhand stores she could theoretically be at. I can drive you to them – my best friend's dad used to give me lessons behind the wheel."

He nods. "Whatever it takes."

We head out to the earth drill, and I climb in the driver's side. Of course, it's been a few months since I've driven, and my left leg is messed up, but hopefully that won't affect my driving too badly. I mean, I use my right foot to reach the pedals, so we should be fine.

After adjusting the seat, I set the vehicle in motion and begin the drive to the nearest abandoned secondhand shop. I'm a little unsure of the SUV at first, but I get the hang of things. Eve's dad always drove a truck, so that's what I learned to drive in. This isn't too different.

Once we've been on the road a while, Cole sighs. "This is my fault, Sel. I shouldn't have let it slip that Nya's running away while everyone was so emotional. It only made things worse."

"It's okay, Cole. You didn't mean to." It's still what happened, but he didn't mean to make it happen.

"Yeah, but I'm the stupid one on the team. Nya trusted me, and because my mind just isn't up there with everyone else's, I made a huge mistake."

"Stop calling yourself stupid," I growl. "It's not true. Everyone speaks without thinking sometimes."

"But I blew it."

"No, everyone blew it. Well, except me." My smile doesn't last long. "Yes, including me. Jay was the reason you and Nya got into it, you were the one who said she was running away, Kai reacted with anger instead of sympathy, Skylor made her even more mad by confessing she read her mind, and Nya just overall acted really immaturely. And I'm the reason she stormed out of the monastery in the first place, since I insulted her." I sigh. "The only people who really aren't at fault are Lloyd and Zane."

"Lloyd is the whole reason she wants to run away, Seliel. He messed up bad and made her think she was a murderer. Now she's afraid she'll murder the whole team. Well, I mean, she was somewhat afraid. But she promised to go to counseling with me last night, and she said that all she needed to make her stay was a good enough reason." He shakes his head. "I can only hope we either find her, or she comes back to us soon."

"Don't worry, Cole. She hasn't been gone long, and I'm sure that once she cools down, she'll realize what a stupid decision she made."

"I hope you're right, Sel."

"What's wrong with you?" Cole yells. "Why did you try to go back to your father?"

I sniffle, lashing out in anger. "I didn't want to, Cole, but I had to know the details of my mother's funeral!"

"Yeah, well you could've asked a family friend or something! Look what he did to you!" He presses an icepack to the bruise on my cheek.

My bottom lip tremors. "Cole, my mom didn't have any friends, and my dad goes ballistic whenever he hears about her. That's why he punched me." I wince at the biting pain from the icepack.

"Sel, do not go back to him again, okay? At least not without me or an adult. He could've hurt you really bad."

"There's nothing we can do about that now," I sigh. "Maybe I should just run away from it all."

"Run away?" Cole exclaims. "You can't do that, Sel! You'd be all alone out there! What would I do without you?"

"You'd be fine, after a while." I steel my face.

"No, Seliel. No, I wouldn't. I'm never going to forget about you, and if I think you're even in the slightest danger...that's going to bother me for the rest of my life."

His protective words stir something inside me, and I feel butterflies flutter in my stomach. But it's useless. I've defended myself for so long. Why would I want the protection of someone else?

"Please, Seliel?" he pleads. "Don't run away. There are better ways of dealing with your dad."

I think for a moment.

"Okay," I finally say. "Next time, we'll have a game plan for defeating him."

"You bet, we will." Cole tweaks a curl that I couldn't tame after my shower tonight.

I blush slightly. "Do you wanna watch a movie or something?"

"Sure." He places his arm around my shoulders in a familiar move, guiding me to the living room.

And that's when something clicks in my head.

Cole is comfort.

***And that's all for tonight, folks ;) This story is nearing its climax soon. Do you guys think Nya shows up again any time soon? What effect do you think this will have on the rest of the team/Skylor/Seliel?***