Darker Places (Ninjago)

10. Cole

⚠️ TW: Mentions of suicide ⚠️

After running off away from Zane and Lloyd, Kai and I locked ourselves in my bedroom.

Jay was talking to us through the earbud I had hidden in my ear. I had tried to cover it with my hair.

"Woah, woah, slow down!" I said. Jay was talking fast as lightning.

"What's he saying?!" Kai asked.

I took out the earbud and turned the volume up enough so we could both hear without having to wearing it.

"They're going to attack Ninjago city!" Jay was exclaiming. "I really messed up and said some things they didn't like, and they're going to attack the city if I don't give up my powers, and I don't know what to do because if they attack the city, people are gonna die, but if I give up my powers, then they'll have all of that and that's not good at all because we don't need them to be any stronger than they already are and we're totally screwed! What should I do?!"

That was a lot of information. "Jay, calm down. Don't give up your powers."

"They'll attack the city!"

"We can handle that, Jay." Kai said.

"No! No you guys don't understand! They have thousands of those orange guys. Thousands! You can't fight them! There's way too many!"

"We've won against odds like that before."

"Yeah, but these guys are all highly trained warrior dudes." He paused, taking a deep breath. "I think... I think it would be better if I really was dead."

"What are you saying?" I asked, suddenly alarmed.

"Listen. They want me to give them my powers. Since I won't, they're gonna attack Ninjago city. If I was dead, my powers wouldn't be an option. Then they wouldn't attack the city and there wouldn't be a way for them to get my powers.
It wouldn't be hard. I could easily produce enough voltage to-"

"Jay!" Kai stopped him. "Don't you dare kill yourself! There's other ways out of this."

"Yeah," I said, speaking urgently. "We'll break you out of there. Just wait. We'll come today and get you out."

"No... you can't. They'll kill you."

"So, what? If I had to pick between your death or mine, it wouldn't even be a question, Jay. I'm not letting you die."

Jay went silent for a moment.

He sighed. "I wish you wouldn't think like that."

Kai was staring at me. I could tell by his expression that he didn't know what to say.

Of course I would rather die than let Jay die. I wouldn't let anything happen to any of my fellow ninja. I'd do the same for any of them. And I don't doubt they'd do the same for me.

Which is a problem, and makes it extremely difficult for whoever is trying to be the hero. But in a way, is good, because we don't tend to sacrifice ourselves as much as one might think we would.

It's not like we have a death wish or anything. We're the protectors of Ninjago city. It's our job.

"Okay." Kai said after a moment. "Jay, I know you want to do this plan of yours, but if you haven't made any progress this far in, I don't think you should keep trying. Why don't you let us come get you?"

"Hey, who said I haven't made any progress?" Jay said.

"Well, have you?"

"Well... no, not really." He paused. "But, I think I know where he is now."