*If you think hard about the words in the song, you'll see that it actually (kinda) matches this chapter...*

"Vania?" Cole shook the queen, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. "Vania! Vania, a-are y-you, are you still with me?" He grasped her hand, squeezing it, trying to be strong.

"Vania, wake up! You're okay. Please! Please. You can't leave me." Several drops of water fell on Vania's face, and Cole looked up. Nya was crying, her tears raining down on the ledge Cole had created. One droplet slipped between Vania's soft lips and Cole swore that she smiled as it did. 

Cole shook his head and tried to pull away from his crush, trying hard not to think of what he had just lost. He collapsed before he could stand up, his legs crumpling under the weight of the pain. He barely noticed that Nya had slid down a "Zane path" and was hugging him, sobbing into his shoulder. She was whispering one phrase over and over, but Cole couldn't hear it. He couldn't hear anything anymore.

The master of earth was flooded with memories of his mother's death; the silence, the agony, the cuts it had slashed in his soft heart. With time, the gashes had faded into scars, but now he was losing more blood, and it was pouring out of him faster than before. It was all his fault. And Vania had told him so. He should've stayed away from her, or, better yet, he shouldn't have let her come. He should've loved her harder, or maybe, he shouldn't have loved her at all. 

"Vania..."

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"I hear that you are known as the 'brown ninja'," Gaia said, looking up from her grass green nails. 

"That's right," Dareth said proudly. It had taken quite a few hours for Gaia to lug him to her secret lair, and the entire time, Dareth had to be absolutely silent. He was eager to get talking again, though he had enough sense to know that one wrong word could change his situation for the worse. 

Dareth's gag had been removed by Badar moments before, as Gaia didn't want to hear one more word than she needed to. He looked around, and was surprised to find that the room was entirely brown. The walls were painted the color of fresh mud and floor had been polished till it gleamed. Oak bookcases towered over Dareth, and he had half a mind to kick them, just to impress Gaia. 

Almost as if she could read Dareth's mind, Gaia nodded. She gestured to the bookcase, a challenging look in her eyes. The brown ninja grinned and gave the nearest bookshelf a kick. He turned to Gaia and saw that she was not impressed. He kicked the bookcase again, harder this time. 

"My, if the ninja fought like that, who knows where we would be now," Gaia said, sarcasm creeping into her voice. Dareth furrowed his eyebrows and gave the bookcase a solid kick. The ground shook, and Gaia fell over, not so much in surprise, but because the rumbling had knocked her off her feet. 

The goddess of the earth stared up at Dareth from the floor in shock. She had found the one. The one who could restore her back to her original power. 

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"What was that?" Jay asked as the rock beneath his feet shook violently. 

"I don't know," Kai said worriedly. 

"Then what- whoa!" Lloyd cried. A rumbling noise replaced the silence that had come with Vania's death. Everyone, including Cole and Nya, looked up and saw a pile of rocks come crashing down from the top of the mountain.

"Jump!" Kai yelled. Everybody stared at him, unsure of what his plan was. As the rocks came tumbling down, Kai leapt onto Zane's ice path and slid down to Cole, Nya, and Vania. He put his arms around them and shut his eyes. His elemental power formed a ball of fire around him and he blasted him into the air. 

"Hold on!" Kai yelled to Cole and Nya, who were holding Vania's hands. The four of them rocketed past a quite few mountains before Kai felt his powers begin to diminish. 

"We're going down!" Nya cried, holding on tight to her brother. Cole closed his eyes, trying not to remember the pain of landing on the rock-hard ground. He focused his elemental energy on the patch of grass that was coming towards them, trying to soften the dirt beneath it. He was overcome with memories of Vania, and for a moment, Cole felt himself getting closer to paradise. His heart melted as he remembered the kiss he and the queen had shared, and all of a sudden, he felt Vania's hands on his chest. He looked down, and found himself in a pile of earth. It felt exactly like Vania's hands, soft and warm, and Cole smiled. 

"Thank you for saving me, sweetheart," he whispered. 

*A/N Is it just me or does Cole fall a lot? Anyway, I'm gonna start my blog thing pretty soon! Big thanks to Eliza_Cameron and nanimaus5 for voting and commenting on so many chapters! I'm glad you guys enjoy this book :) Please leave any feedback you might have in the comments!*