Hozier
••• Eat Your Young •••

get some
pull up the ladder when the flood comes
throw enough rope until the legs have swung
seven new ways that you can eat your young

•••••

TW: thalassophobia, acrophobia, mentions of vomit

mumma:
Update?
Sent 7.08am

Me:
safe and sound! :D
Delivered

mumma:
Perfect! Thanks for telling me sweetie xxx
Sent 7.09am

  As safe and sound as someone can be twenty-thousand feet underwater. It was a wonder I even managed to get a signal. I tucked my phone into my pocket and returned to watching out the window as we descended the deep blue.

  It'd been seven hours since we were caught by Ronin's airship before we could meet our fiery doom, and I'd only recently stopped shaking. The ninja around me snored and slumbered deeply. Sleep evaded me still.

  I hoped that encountering some sharks or even a whale would distract me, but nothing swum past to interrupt the endless blue abyss. I stared out into the desolate water. Lloyd's thin and swallow face stared back, branded into my eyes.  

  This was the endgame. This was the last stretch, one last push for victory. Either we get the Realm Crystal before Morro does or Ninjago falls into ruin. Either we get Lloyd back or we never do. Neither option was negotiable - we had to win.

  I was growing antsy. We'd been stuck in the airship for hours, but I was the only one watching the minutes sluggishly drift by. I wish sleep would take me, if only to pass the time. I was jealous of the team's ability to pass out at will.

  Jay mumbled in his sleep and patted around the floor beside him before landing his palm on his girlfriend's face. Nya awoke, slapped his hand away, and slipped right back asleep. I smiled.

  I wished Lloyd was here. I was certain I'd be able to sleep if his comforting presence was laid beside me in this cramped space, and that this entire thing was an exciting adventure instead of a dreadful quest.

  Curled in my corner, I pulled out my phone again and scrolled through our photos. I gazed at my photos of him and daydreamed about what we'd do when all this was over; I'd take him to a spa to get a massage or have a sauna. Maybe we'd go to that lake he showed me and we could nap beneath the afternoon sun - anything to make him feel safe and relaxed and at peace. Anything to help him get past this hell.

  Grief-stricken and heartbroken, all I could do in this small airship prison was hope that Lloyd was right about seeing us again soon.

🍃🍂🍁🍂🍃

  The world changed when I was fourteen.

  Jamanakai was a village that sat halfway up a mountain, and was stuck somewhere in the past with some crutches of the present. The village homes in the centre of town had been standing for centuries. The homes near the outskirts were newer.

  It was small. There were two stiff-backed schools that were established generations ago - one for boys and the other for girls - and somewhere along the way Uchū's story turned into legend and a different religion was practised there instead. I was a child from the big city that was brought up on history, fact and science, so I didn't believe in either of them.

  And for a kid that grew up with those things, Jamanakai soon proved to be tiny. The library was in the back of someone's house, so I'd read all of the books three times over. The blockbuster had a single set of the Indiana Jones series except for the Temple of Doom. The book store only sold five books at a time, and three of them were bibles. I had to beg my mum to let me order some from online.

  It was a small village, where small things happened and small lives lived. I was an outsider in my class because my mother was an outsider amongst the parents. You had to be born into the village three generations before you could become part of the tight-knit community, and we only moved from Ninjago City when I was seven.

  My reliefs were found in the summers I spent at my dad's base, where the rules bent a little askew for the daughter of the sergeant major. I spent hot days playing on the obstacle course and starry nights laughing confusedly at the brash jokes the soldiers made. I learnt to shoot a gun and over the years, I even got good at it. Their library was three times as big as the one back home. I'd read their books twice over.

  The world changed when the Serpentine first attacked Jamanakai.

  It felt strange to recall this memory - like I was watching through the eyes of someone else. This memory wasn't familiar, it wasn't something I thought back to. It was as if it happened and then it didn't, locked away and hidden.

  Little me was reading one of the new books that'd arrived earlier that day, and I'd stolen away to my usual spot to hide from the boys that would sometimes snatch my novels and throw them into the town centre fountain. A tree behind the kind baker's shop had an old swing fastened from half a broken floorboard and rope. It was my little slice of peace.

  I was only two chapters into my new book when the screaming started - and it wasn't just one person, it was everyone who was out in the streets on a sunny Sunday. The sound of multiple cries unnerved me enough to put down my book and peer around the corner into the street. That was the first time I saw a Hypnobri.

  Tall, stocky snakes the size of humans and ripped straight from a book of fables. Their scales were as blue as a velvety deep afternoon sky, and their red eyes pricked at my soul even when they weren't looking at me. They stomped around, some with legs, some without, and held villagers still as they stared into their eyes and took them under their control.

  I'd read about the Serpentine but, like everyone else, I'd always thought they were nothing but a myth. It was frightening to see people stumble about like zombies, faces blank and mouths ajar. Their eyes had gone pale like a film had been draped across them, and they snatched fleeing people so the snakes could hypnotise more and continue their domination.

  I had never been so aware of each sound I made before in my life. It was like I'd woken up and found myself inside a horror movie.

  Where's mum? I had to find my mum.

  Holding my book to my chest, I darted behind the old village houses and through the empty backstreets. A hiss to my left made me look over, and when I turned the next corner I collided with a scaled back.

  The Hypnobri screeched at the impact and I stumbled back with a yelp. When it turned to face me, I averted my frightened gaze to the cobblestones. They're like Medusa, my spinning mind supplied. Don't look them in the eye.

  "What was that?!" a young voice snapped from the street over.

  I stiffened at his approaching footsteps. The sound of something heavy sliding across the stones accompanied him; another snake - this one much larger than the rest. A pair of tattered black sneakers stopped before me, and the Hypnobri I bumped into stepped aside.

  "Ugh," the boy said in disgust. "It's a girl."

  "A ssmart one, Ssire," the larger snake said thoughtfully. He lifted my chin and when I forced my eyes shut, he hummed. "A very ssmart one."

  "Girls aren't smart, General, they're stupid," the boy scoffed. "And gross," he added.

  The General chuckled and released my chin. I ducked my head again, growing woozy from how long I'd held my breath. My heart was fluttering as fast as a hummingbird. Gross? How rude!

  "What do you have there?" The boy grabbed my book, but I held fast. "Hey, give it!" I yanked it from his grip and smacked him with it. "Ow!" I hit him again, and this time I saw him. "Ow- General!" He wore dark, ratty clothing and had eyes the colour of blood. "Stop that!"

  The book was yanked from my grip and I made the mistake of looking up. Reptilian red eyes pinned me in place. Beside the General, the small, blond boy rubbed his shoulder with a scowl.

  "Now, now, ssmart one," the General said, and I felt my resolve loosen. "Look into my eyess..."

  I hadn't realised I'd fallen asleep until I woke to the sound of Misako's voice. I blinked groggily, still with half a mind in the memory I'd recovered while I dozed. How peculiar that I only remembered it now.

  The ninja were already up, swift to wake just as they were to sleep. They stood around R.E.X's screen and stretched out their stiff limbs. Nya kept getting distracted from the conversation by staring out into the water with a wondrous grin.

  "Where are you?" Misako asked. The Senseis watched from behind her. "What happened? Why are you in Ronin's airship?"

  "Oh, man." Jay shook his head in disbelief. "You are not going to believe this..."

  Jay took Misako and the Senseis through a play-by-play of the events at the Caves of Despair, interrupted only when one of the others added a part that Jay skimped over or offered their own perspective.

  "And Y/n?" Wu asked. "Is she there?"

  I poked my head into the frame with a small grin. "Still alive." Barely.

  The adults smiled in relief. "Happy to hear that," Garmadon said.

  "We're almost to the Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master," Zane informed, making me inaudibly sigh with relief. The small airship was quickly becoming stifling.

  "Yeah," Cole said with a grin. "I can't believe we're almost there after all we've been through."

  Kai shivered as he stared out the window. If Nya was amazed, then he was downright terrified. I could relate to him - all this water and not even a slither of light from above was starting to get to me, too.

  "I can't believe I'm underwater," Kai mumbled uncomfortably.

  "You? What about me?" Cole asked. He knocked his knuckles against the window curiously. "Just how thick is this glass?"

  "We don't need to make this a competition," Kai snarked. "And, please, don't tap on the glass."

  "We're heading to your location now," said Wu from the screen. The three elders were in the Bounty, en route to meet us at the Tomb. "With Morro already ahead of you and able to foresee the traps protecting the Tomb with the Sword of Sanctuary, it's going to be up to you to find the Realm Crystal before he does."

  Jay nervously laughed. "Cole's a ghost, Kai's afraid of the ocean and we have no magical sword or powers apart from Nya." He grinned weakly. "What could go wrong?"

  Kai whined.

  "I may not know the three tests you're about to face," Misako said as she held up an old parchment scroll before unravelling it. "But I discovered a riddle that makes reference to it that may help;
'A Spinjitzu Master can
a Spinjitzu Master cannot
to move forward, don't look ahead
to find his resting spot.'"

  "Ooh, riddles," I said. "I like riddles."

  "Huh," Cole hummed from the pilot seat. "That's food for thought. Got any ideas then, riddle girl?"

  "If-"

  A deep, resonant rumble from the water vibrated through the ship and made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. We all silenced.

  "Uh..." Kai turned his terrified expression to us. "What was that?"

  I forced my eyes to look out into the murky darkness, but nothing could be seen. We weren't even at the ocean floor, yet.

  "Something big," Nya said nervously. She pointed out of the window she stood beside, but still  nothing could be seen. At least, we couldn't see it. "And I think we just disturbed it."

  I peered through the gloom. The chill of horror stifled me further when the faint outline of something big and advancing became visible.

  Jay laughed nervously. "Sensei, if we get eaten by a big underwater monster, Dimitri can have Mr. Cuddles."

  "Go, Cole," Zane insisted. "Go now."

  "Alright, R.E.X, let's see how you can move," Cole said. He disengaged autopilot and stomped on the gas, and the entire airship shot forward so suddenly that those of us who weren't seated were flung back.

  The headlights on the airship suddenly caught on the ocean floor, and Cole had to weave between tall, stone columns to save us from becoming reverse sushi. I made the mistake of looking out the back window.

  A very large, very angry octopus was giving chase - and it was catching up.

  "Oh, god, don't let us die down here," I begged. 

  "We have to go faster!" cried Kai. "Much faster!"

  "It must be some kind of guardian of the Tomb!" Zane exclaimed, before quickly snatching onto the back of Cole's chair. "Brace yourself!"

  A long tentacle swung around and smashed into the side window, shattering the glass and sending the airship spinning through the water. It was like a very unwanted carnival ride.

  The glass had spiderwebbed completely, and the water would've caved in and crushed us all if it wasn't for Nya swiftly jumping in and holding it back. She grunted at the effort.

 "Hurry!" she pled. "The weight of the ocean is kinda heavy!"

  "I'm going as fast as I can!" Cole said. 

  "Why did the Tomb have to be underwater?" Kai bemoaned. He held onto Zane with a grip that would cut off a normal person's circulation.

  "Hold on!" Cole ordered as he made the airship tightly turn. He pressed against the accelerator even harder, but the octopus kept pace. "Ugh! I can't shake him!"

  Jay began frantically searching around the interior of the ship, peeking back fearfully at the predator as his fingers brushed over the unlabelled buttons and levers.

  "What the- WHY ISN'T ANYTHING IN THIS SHIP LABELLED?!" His screech barely deafened a roar from the octopus. Zane caught Jay's wrist and shook his head.

  "We do not need weapons," he said before nodding at a large reef formation. "Cole, aim for that rock."

  "On it," said Cole as he swiftly changed course and zipped the ship through a tight archway.

  I anxiously watched as the octopus followed our path before jolting to a stop in the rock's gap. It squirmed and roared in frustration, but didn't move anymore forward. I held my breath.

  "Is it over?" I dared to ask.

  "I think so," Kai sighed, and collapsed against the back of the ship. "Zane, have I ever told you how much I love you? Because I love you."

  Nya grunted in exertion, still holding back the water. "Are we almost at the tomb?" She'd begun to sweat buckets. Her entire body was shaking.

  "There," Zane pointed to a second rock formation, this one much larger than the first. "That is the tomb's entrance."

  Cole nodded as the ship glided through a large hole in the rock and ascended along an underwater cliff face. To everyone's relief, the water broke over R.E.X's roof. If the entire tomb had been underwater, we would've been more than screwed.

  Nya wobbled with a gasp as she released her powers. She would've fallen had it not been for Jay, ready to catch her.

  "You alright?" he asked worriedly, fussing over the hair stuck to her clammy forehead. "You're amazing."

  "Yeah, just... gimme a sec." Nya struggled to catch her breath. "Phew."

  I had to look away from their affection.

  R.E.X's door opened, sliding out and up and releasing us to the bliss of solid ground - even if we were still technically underwater. My legs trembled from the remains of shock. I'd become weak with how much adrenaline I'd gone through in the past twenty-four hours.

  Cole made a sound of thoughtfulness as he assessed our destination. "If you wanna hide a Tomb, this looks like a good place. We're here."

  Jay groaned and picked up a piece of ripped green fabric that had been snagged against the rock. "And there goes any hope Morro couldn't find this place."

  "Hey, stay positive," said Kai as we began down the track into the tomb. "We're about to risk our lives going through traps we know nothing about and all we have to rely on is each other. At least feel lucky we got this far."

  "Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. What was I thinking?" Jay threw his arms into the air and raised his voice with forced cheerfulness. "Hey, there goes any hope Morro couldn't find the Tomb! We're not alone, yay! Now we're gonna have to fight him again - sure we got our tails handed to us last time - but you never know in the future 'cause ninja never quit!"

  I winced as his shout echoed about the short path we were walking down. He dropped his arms and sent Kai a deadpanned frown.

  "Better?"

  Kai shrugged. "Eh. I'll take it."

  We turned a corner to the end of the path, and found ourselves coming to a sudden halt at the large carving of a man in the content pose of meditation. Before him sat four candles. Four - the number of Golden Weapons. The number of balance and harmony.

  We all immediately knew who he was. Even in just a statue, Uchū exuded great power, and this place was bursting with magic. I could feel it sizzling along my veins like live wire. It made the hair on my arms stand as if disturbed by static.

  "The First Spinjitsu Master," Cole breathed in awe. "Creator of all Ninjago."

  The Creator of everything; a God. I guess I hadn't really come to terms with the fact that Lloyd's grandfather was the First Spinjitsu Master, because I went numb with the shock of it. There was something a little more solid about it now that we were standing outside his tomb. I'd never been particularly spiritual, but now I was wondering if I maybe should've been.

  The stern face of Uchū made me shiver. We were about to desecrate a God's resting place, and I didn't even think to bring an offering as an apology. Would he want one? Even if he didn't, I still felt like I should pray or pay my respects or sacrifice Jay or something.

  We were trespassing on the most sacred ground I could think of. It almost felt like a sin, so I bowed my head in apology and respect. Sorry, Lloyd's granddad. Please don't smite us.

  "Okay, this is definitely the spot," Nya said. "We should head back and grab our-"

  "Destination: reached," came the robotic voice of R.E.X from down the rocky corridor. "Auto-return: initiated."

  "'Auto-return'?" Jay echoed in confusion as we all spun back just in time to watch R.E.X sink under the waves. Jay leapt forward with a squeal of dismay. "No! Bad, R.E.X, bad!"

  "Our aeroblade weapons were in there!" Zane said worriedly.

  "And my sword," I whined.

  Cole buried his face into his hands with a groan. "We're so doomed."

  "Not to mention that was our only way back," Kai pointed out.

  "Hey, stay positive!" Jay chirped sarcastically, and pointed at a small doorway past the statue. "Who needs a way back when we gotta go a-that a-way!"

  Kai sent him a shitty glare.

  "No Sword, no powers, no problem," I said determinedly. "We can do this as long as we got each other, right?"

  It might've been false hope, and I might've been pushing my naivety in hopes of gaslighting myself into believing my words, but it was the only thing keeping me going. If I let myself get too caught up in the lowering possibility of getting Lloyd back, I'd grow so dreary that I'd stop functioning altogether.

  Cole took my self-blinded positivity in stride with a nod as he passed. "Ninja sharpens ninja," he agreed. I smiled softly and followed.

  It could've been worse, truly. We could've died back at the Caves of Despair, we could've died back when the octopus attacked us, and we could've been wandering through complete darkness. The lichen that dotted between the cracks of rock illuminated our way with a gentle, serene green glow.

  The dim hallway came to a stop when we filed into a circular room with sixteen different doors, each with a small statue of a humanoid figure holding a glowing cube. Above each doorway was a different symbol.  

  We jumped as the entrance we came through slammed shut.

  "Great," Nya said wearily. "We're trapped."

  "Positivity," Jay sang.

  "I'm positive I'll shove my mask into your mouth if you don't shut up," Cole grumbled, before looking around the doorways with a contemplative frown. "You think this is the first test?"

  "Why did it have to be tests?" Jay whined as his gaze slid over the symbols. He held a look of completed dumbfoundness that was shared amongst the team. "Why couldn't it be protected by dragons? We're good with dragons! Y/n's great with dragons!"

  "Not real ones, though," I said, and forced myself to brighten. "Besides, we can make this fun! Tests can be fun."

  Everyone except Zane sent me a disgusted look. My smile fell. Wow, okay. Now I was fully aware of their stances on tests.

  "I think we're supposed to pick a door," Kai said. "But which one?"

  "And what happens if we pick the wrong one?" Nya asked. We all glanced at Zane, who blinked in confusion at the sudden attention he was receiving. His expression dropped.

  "I may be a nindroid, but that does not mean I know all the answers."

  "What?" Jay exclaimed in genuine shock. He shook his head. "Ugh - anyway, what was it Misako said?"

  "'A Spinjitsu Master can
a Spinjitsu Master cannot
to move forward, don't look ahead
to find his resting spot," Zane answered.

  Jay sent an accusing finger in the nindroid's direction. "You liar! You do know all the answers!"

  Zane glared at Jay in exasperation but had the mind not to argue.

  "A Spinjitsu Master can..." Kai repeated slowly. He shook his head in bafflement. "Can what?"

  "Sixteen doors," I noted. "For sixteen realms?"

  "Could be," replied Cole unsurely as we all glanced around at the various different doors. "But let me guess, pick the wrong door and we'll be in a realm of hurt."

  "Then we have to be right," Nya said determinedly, before deflating. "But... we don't know."

  At this rate, Morro was going to snatch the Crystal and flee with it before we could even come to a decision. Hell, he might've already grabbed it.

  Jay groaned. "I wish we had the Sword. It would be so much easier!" 

  "We can figure this out," Kai insisted. "A Spinjitzu Master can... can..."

  His wandering gaze set on a particular door. We followed his eyes.

  "The symbol above this door," Jay said as he approached it. "It's a tornado. This could be the one, right?"

  Kai hummed in thought. "You could be right."

  Just as Jay reached for the statue, a sudden, nauseating feeling made me teeter on my feet. My brain blared its danger signals.

  "Wait!" I cried. Jay stopped and whipped his head around to me. The unsettledness disappeared just as fast. "Get away from that door."

  Jay immediately flinched back from it. "What is it?"

  "I don't think that's the right one."

  Cole tilted his head. "How do you know?"

  "I got a bad feeling," I said, and flushed at how unsure that still sounded. "I mean, last time I got a bad feeling, something bad happened."

  "Y/n is correct," Zane said, much to the relief of my mounting self-doubt. "Look around us. We are inside a zoetrope."

  Oh? I dragged my gaze across each symbol above the door, and upon finding no similarities, turned my attention to the statues with the glowing cubes instead. I beamed.

  "You're right!" I said.

  "A zoe-what?" asked Kai incredulously. "What's that?"

  "A zoetrope is one of the first animation techniques people used before computers were invented," I explained, and pointed at the cubes. "See how each statue is similar to the last pose but not completely the same? That's because if you spin the drawings really fast, it makes a moving image." I puffed proudly. "I did an essay about it two years ago. I love it when useless information stops becoming useless."

  Cole shook his head. "I still don't get it. This isn't a drawing."

  "A Spinjitsu Master can..." Kai mumbled in thought before his eyes lit up in realisation. "Do Spinjitsu! Why spin the images when you can spin yourself?"

  "Precisely." Zane took a step back from us and twisted on a leg, suddenly engulfed in the bright, white light of spinjitsu. "He's creating some sort of shape!"

  The bright white tornado suddenly disappeared, and his shoes scuffed on the stone flooring as he came to a sudden halt. He pointed at a door with a symbol of an empty yin-and-yang. It was the one we'd just come through.

  "That one," he announced. "That is the door out."

  Cole wasn't convinced. "I don't know, Zane. Isn't that the door we came in? Are you sure?"

  Zane sent Cole a pointed look. "Are you sure you want to doubt a nindroid?"

  Cole raised his palms in surrender.

  "Open the door," said Nya as she approached it. "Let's find out."

  Zane grabbed the handle and yanked it open. The stone, despite being, well, stone, glided open with ease. It revealed an entirely different cavern than the hallway we'd walked through before.  

  We were all dumbfounded for a second.

  "But that wasn't here before!" Cole exclaimed. "How can it be the way if that's the way we came in?"

  "Welcome to the tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master," I said.

  The next room was a large cavern. The walls were made of pentagon-shaped pillars of rock that stretched high to the ceiling above and made the uneven floor beneath our feet. At the other end of the cavern and presented on a stand was a magnificent golden staff.

  "The staff of the First Spinjitzu Master," Kai said in awe. On instinct, he stepped toward it.

  "Wait!" Cole called, making Kai glance back in question. "This is the second test, remember? Zane, what do you think?"

  Zane stared thoughtfully around the cavern for a long, few moments. He turned back to us with a confused frown. "I can see no pattern. For this riddle room, I am at a loss."

  "Well, think about it," Nya said. "The first test was a Spinjitzu Master can. So this one's a Spinjitzu Master cannot."

  "I don't like the sound of that," Jay complained.

  "What's something you guys can't do?" I asked, and surveyed the room for a clue. Before anybody could answer, there was a sudden, deafening creak.

  "Uh-oh," said Kai.  

  We turned to his sheepish grin. One of his feet was on a pentagon-shaped rock. It had lowered beneath his weight.

  I didn't see the stone spikes being shot at us until they had already impaled themselves into the wall. I made a sound of terror as one landed right beside my head.

  "Kai, what the hell!" cried Nya.

  "As if I knew the floor was booby-trapped!" Kai snapped back.

  "Everyone okay?" asked Cole.

  "That was a close one," commented Zane as he grabbed a spike and inspected the tip. He grimaced.

  "Every step, a trap." Jay held my sleeve with a whimper.

  "How does one reach the staff if it becomes more difficult with every step to get there?" asked Zane in frustration. "If I am correct, this riddle room poses quite the conundrum." 

  We all stared at the cavern's floor in confusion. If each step was another trap, then we could kiss the Realm Crystal and Lloyd good-bye. We'd be dead before we could reach halfway, let alone the staff. Just the single one Kai activated almost had us crossing to the other side.

  There must've been a route that Morro could see in the Sword that kept him from harm. We didn't have such luck on our side.

  "I don't get it," Nya complained. "There's no system to it!"

  "If a Spinjitsu Master can't do it, how are we supposed to reach the staff?" Cole asked.

  They turned their gazes to me. I froze.

  Nya shook her head. "No, that's not it."

  "Oh, thank god," I whispered beneath my breath.

  "Then how?" repeated Cole. "We're running out of time!"

  Kai smirked. "Watch and learn."

  Before anyone could stop him, Kai used Airjitsu to fly across the cavern. He fell short of the staff, latching onto a rock which lowered beneath him. Kai's face paled. Spikes on the walls unsheathed and launched, narrowly missing his body. He leapt to the floor to avoid them and triggered another attack. A large mace was flung towards him.

  Out of reflex, Kai leapt to another stone which launched another trap and then another, until finally the floor started to crumble and give way to a gaping abyss below. Jay had to yank me aside to avoid becoming a pincushion to the arrows that had landed where I'd just been standing. We grimaced when the stone beneath us lowered.

  Everything we did just made the cavern turn even more chaotic. A fissure appeared in the wall, making a stream of water come sprouting out and almost hitting Cole.

  "I can make it!" Kai insisted.

  Stalactites fell from the ceiling and I was yanked aside again to avoid being split down the middle. I was too frightened to even make a sound. Jay pushed me behind him and yelled in frustration.

  "Can everybody just STOP MOVING!" he screamed.

  Everyone obediently went still. Jay blinked in surprise.

  "Oh," he said. "That actually worked."  

  We took the opportunity to catch our breaths. I ran a hand down my face and gritted my teeth. This would've been so much easier if I knew how to use that same power that protected us from the explosion. My powers weren't giving me anything, not even a tug.

  "I can make it!" Kai repeated breathlessly. His rock was surrounded by empty space. "It's a hop, skip and a jump!"

  He launched off of his pillar and tried to fly over the abyss. His Airjitsu faltered, making him land on more traps and forcing him to scramble back to his pillar as the stones crumpled.

  "But what else comes with a hop, skip and a jump?" Cole asked. "You trigger one more trap, I don't know how much more we can take!"

  "The clue clearly said this is a test a Spinjitzu Master cannot do," Jay said calmly, before shouting; "SO WHY ARE WE NOT LISTENING TO THE CLUE?!"

  I patted his back and stared down into the seemingly bottomless pit. One misstep and we'd be toast. I stifled a shiver of fear.

  "There's got to be something we're missing," I said. "Something that's staring us right in the face."

  "Yeah, that staff!" insisted Kai. "Trust me, I can make it!"

  "Wait-!" Cole said, before staring down into the darkness with a thoughtful expression. "What if it's a trick? What if the reason we can't do it is because we were never meant to reach the staff?" He looked up at his team. "What is the first rule of being a ninja?"

  "A ninja never quits," Zane answered.

  "Exactly!" replied Cole. "And that's why we can't do it, because a ninja would never give up!"

  My brows furrowed as I tried to make sense of what Cole was saying. He seemed to have an idea about what to do, but we were all struggling to follow.

  "What are you trying to say?" Kai barked. "We just quit? Are you insane?!"

  Cole ignored Kai's jab and stepped up to the edge of his pillar. He glanced down at it with a reluctant frown.

  "This time, trust me," he said.

  Cole stepped off of the pillar and fell into the darkness.

  I gasped in fright and covered my mouth with a hand. The others shared my shock, peering over the edge.

  "Cole!" Nya cried.

  "He just jumped!" Kai said in distress. "Why would he do that?!"

  A sudden whoop and laugh from below made our worries falter.

  "C'mon down and enjoy the ride!" Cole's voice echoed up.

  Zane brightened. "He is alive!" he said, before jumping after him.

  "He's a ghost," I stressed as Kai jumped, too. I watched him fall with high-strung horror. "Kai! He's a ghost!"

  Nya sent me a reassuring look from her pillar. "You can do it, Y/n!" she cheered, and then leapt with a laugh.

  They're all insane and now they're dead. The bottomless darkness made my legs wobble, taunting me with their depths. My eyes stung. I couldn't breathe. I felt like throwing up.

  I backed away from the edge. Jay was the only one left, sharing my small pillar of doom.

  "Come on, Y/n," he said with a squeeze of my shoulder. "You can do it."

  I shook my head feverishly. "I can't do heights."

  "What do you mean you 'can't do heights?'" he asked incredulously. "You jumped off the side of a flying ship!"

  "That's different, Lloyd was down there!"

  Jay nodded to the hole. "And Lloyd's down there."

  I faltered, but when I peered back down into the abyss, my chest seized and I felt too light, as if I were going to faint then and there. If we died, then who would save Lloyd? But if I couldn't do this, then was I forsaking him, anyway?

  I shuddered. This was why I wasn't a hero. This was why I read books. This was why I knew the prophecy picked the wrong person, and that my ancestor waited for the wrong descendant. This was why-

  "Hey." Jay interrupted my panicked thoughts. He picked up my hand and held it firmly, and smiled encouragingly when my tear-wet face turned to him. "We'll jump together."

  I glanced back down at the swallowing darkness. Lloyd would jump for me. Why couldn't I do the same? I had to do the same. I needed to.

  I closed my eyes and nodded.

  "Ready?"

  I'm an idiot. We stepped closer to the edge. Jay's grip was unwavering in mine. My stomach twisted, and a tug urged me forward. I nodded again. A stupid, lovesick idiot.

  "Let's go save Lloyd," Jay said, and we stepped off of the pillar and into the darkness.

and they all died, the end