Objective: Fire

Chapter 29

Skylor slowly looks up from her communicator and over at Kai who was quietly sitting at the edge of the cliff, looking out through the night sky. The moon was shining bright tonight...
Damon was with him as well... they both just sat there quietly as they sat there watch the stars together...
She truly felt bad for them... loosing a friend wasn't easy... and it probably shouldn't be either..
" have they replied...?" Ronin's voice appears out of nowhere. Skylor shakes her head in return. She had tried to contact the other ninjas through Kai's old communicator... but nothing had happened... neither did she know what to tell the others... Kai had returned? Armen was dead..? She was no longer an enemy? She was going to help them stop the dark lord from returning...? No, this wasn't the right time... they should get to know about Armen...
" I've sent them a message... but .. I haven't told them about the kid..." she mumbles and hands Ronin the communicator. Maybe she had done something wrong.
" yeah... how do one explain that through a text..." Ronin mumbles.
He didn't know Armen that well, but they had met occasionally through the past few years as he and the ninja had tried to track him down after he stole some valuable treasures from the museum last winter.
" I don't think you've done anything wrong.. I think their communicators are offline or something.." Ronin tells her and skylor only nods in return. If that was the problem, then there was nothing she could do...
" where did you take the body...?" Skylor mumbels as she puts away the communicator.
" he's laying in the living room... I've covered him up with a blanket..." Ronin replies and slowly peeks over Skylors shoulder to look over at Kai, hoping he wasn't listening to their conversation.
" I know I'm not supposed to feel anything towards this, I didn't even know the kid... but for some reason... I kinda feel like I should be the one under that blanket and not the kid..." Skylor mumbles. He was a child... not older than 16 and she's like a grown up... and she's a criminal... he was a hero...
" Don't treat yourself this way... none of you should be laying under that blanket." Ronin replies.
" yeah... but life doesn't care.."
just as she was about to turn and leave, the communicator suddenly turns itself on and the screen lights turns on!
Skylor hurries and pulls out the communicator.
And there they were... the incoming call was coming from Cole, it at least that was what the communicator suggested.
" Kai! They're calling!" Skylor calls out to kai and as he realizes what she's talking about, he quickly gets up to his feet and runs over to her to answer the incoming call.
" COLE!" Kai calls out as his face pops up on the screen.
" K...Kai!? You're not Armen!? Dude! You're alive!" Cole bursts out from the other side of the screen. Just as he had said those words, someone else grabbed the communicator and Nya's face pops up on the screen instead of Cole.
" Kai!? Is that really you!???" She gasps as she had recognized his voice.
" it's me Nya! And I'm alright... but you should hurry back here..." Kai's tone got more serious at the end.
" is everything alright? Are you hurt?!" Nya was starting to get worried now. Her brother was never the serious type... so this couldn't be good.
" just... get home please..." Kai replies.
Nya quietly nods and hands the communicator to Garmadon, who until now had been listening patiently. As he received the communicator, he knew something terrible had happened.
" Kai... it's me.. Garmadon... we're not to far away from home..." he gently speaks as he slowly walks a bit away from the others. Kai was troubled.
" s...sensei... I'm.... im so sorry.." Kai whispers as tears starts to roll down his cheeks. He couldn't hold them back anymore... the pain in his chest was to great for him to fight...
Garmadon knew he was in no position to talk, there wasn't much he could do or say.. but they were close...
" I... I ... couldn't... protect him..." Kai sobs from the other end of the call. Garmadon could feel his heart stop as he heard those words... this communicator belongs to Armen... why was kai the one to reply to the call and not Armen...?
" Kai...? W..what happened...?" Garmadon calmly spoke. The others who wasn't standing to far away noticed the serious tone in his voice and began to worry.
" pl...please just get home... I .. I can't bring myself to tell you.." Kai now whispers and loses the grip on the communicator. It falls to the ground. Kai leans in against the wall behind him and slides down, covering his face with both his hands as more tears comes and his breathing starts to go faster.
Ronin takes a deep breath and gently picks up the communicator and now he's the one who's talking.
" hi Sensei Garmadon..." Ronin grins awkwardly as he wasn't exactly a friend of his. The ninja had been after him multiple times and now he's at their home, holding Armen's communicator.
Garmadon's eyes narrows at him as he didn't expect to see a criminal appear on the screen.
" Ronin... why are you on this screen if I may ask?" Garmadon speaks, sounding more dangerous that he usually does.
Jay's eyes goes wide at the mention of Ronin. He looks over at Cole who just shrugs confused.
" I know my face isn't a beautiful sight to you, but right now... it doesn't matter... you see... we just arrived... and.. there has been an attack... they took the dagger of earth... and... one of your students died protecting it..."
The air around him suddenly turns cold and his heart stopped beating. Chills of cold ran down his back at the mention of one of his students died protecting it... someone died tonight... and it was one of his students... one of the ninja... this explains Kai's struggles to tell him... why he was acting the way he did...
Zane who had been the closest to Garmadon had heard everything. Even though he wasn't human... he still could feel emotion.. and this painful feeling was something he had only experienced once before... when his father died...
without warning anyone of what he was doing next, he sprints towards the edge of the bounty and jumps over the edge.
« ZANE!!!" Nya yells in terror as she watched him jump over the edge and fall down into nothingness.
" what the!? Zane!" Cole runs towards the edge to look after him, but just as he did, Zane himself flew up past him! Right past him and high into the air!
" huh!?" Jay couldn't believe his eyes. Was Zane actually flying!? And why was he flying away from them!? What was going on!?

Zane has heard everything... and he couldn't just stand back and not do anything... he had to make sure this was true.., this couldn't be true... he didn't want it to be...
one of his little brothers were dead... only Armen and Damon has stayed behind...
The mountain wasn't to far away, he could see it now, but his metallic heart kept beating faster and faster as he keept repeating his words over and over again.
" please don't be dead.... please don't be dead.."
when he had upgraded himself at Cyrus Borg and build in new features, he had hoped to use it to save lives, to do amazing things... not to fly towards home in hope for his brothers to be alright...

The moment he landed, two strangers stood before him. His first instinct would be to fight them as one of them was wearing a X squadron uniform, but since she was there alone, and Ronin was obviously not a part of her group, he just ran past them and into the training grounds. The sun was slowly waking up and some of her straws of light was lightening up the ground as he walked in.
It was obvious that there had been a fight... pieces of glass and wood was everywhere... the wood swords that they used in combat training was scattered all over the place... but the worst part was the blood.... trails of blood...
" w...where is he..." zane almost gasps as feelings were overwhelming him.
It was then he saw Kai... and Damon... but not Armen...
" Kai... w...where..." he couldn't bring himself to say anything more as it was to painful to him. Tears were forming in his metallic eyes as he knew who was gone...
A gentle hand carefully takes his arm and Zane turns around to see the same girl from earlier... the girl with red hair..
" he's inside... if you want... then please follow me..." her voice was gentle.. but the pain in her voice was loud. She cared... whoever she was.. she wasn't there to hurt them...
Quietly, she lead the way inside. The door to the living room slowly glides open... and there he was... in the middle of the room, onto the floor, he laid quietly. A white blanket was covered his whole body... it was almost like he was just laying there.. sleeping... but Zane knew he wasn't... there was no life form under that blanket... he knew that Armen was gone...

Forever...