61Cole crept across the wooden planks of the Misfortune's Keep with little difficulty, reveling in his newfound ability to turn invisible. In fact, he was enjoying himself so much, that he nearly gave himself away when he decided to trip an unsuspecting crew member. The disoriented pirate fell backwards onto the deck, a bewildered expression on his face. A snicker nearly escaped Cole's mouth, but he bit it back.
Alright, Cole, focus, he told himself, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. Find Jay, and get out of here.
After taking several more cautious steps forward, Cole stumbled upon his destination. Nadakhan's personal quarters loomed directly before him, the wooden door sealed tightly shut. A grin of satisfaction graced Cole's features as he tried the knob. It was locked. The smile slipped off the earth ninja's face as he tried again.
After several unsuccessful attempts at opening the door, Cole leaned against it, sagging with defeat. In an instant, he was through the door. Startled, the earth ninja lost his balance and landed squarely on his backside. Face-palming himself, Cole stood up and shook himself off.
Idiot, he inwardly spat. You can walk through walls, remember?
Satiated with the fact that no one had seen his little mishap, Cole allowed himself to be seen, and placed his hands on his hips, surveying the room. A dinner table lay sprawled at the far end of the room, and several chests of drawers littered the opposite wall. A single bed lay tucked away in a corner, and a closet brandishing a brightly colored door lay adjacent to the door that Cole had entered from.
"Cole?"
The earth ninja snapped his head up at the weak voice. A ragged cough followed the call of his name, and Cole felt his shoulders tense up of their own accord.
"Jay?" he whispered, feeling his heart begin to beat faster.
"Cole!" the voice repeated.
By turning his head, Cole could see his best friend crawling out from the space between two crates, dragging himself forward by his hands. His right eye was covered by what appeared to be a black eyepatch, and one of his ankles was chained tightly to a ball of venge stone. His normally well-kept auburn locks were in apparent disarray, and his uncovered eye looked sunken and hollow.
"Jay?" Cole repeated, fighting to keep a glimmer of worry from his even tone, "are you alright?"
"What do you think?" Jay retorted. His voice was tired and half-hearted, lacking its usual sarcasm.
Shaking himself out of his transfixed state, Cole rushed over to his friend, kneeling down so that the two were at eye-level with each other. "Hey," he murmured softly, wrapping Jay in a hug. The blue ninja sighed with contentment and relaxed against Cole's chest.
"Cole," he muttered, repeating the name like a broken mantra. Too weak to return his friend's embrace, he sat listlessly on the floor, held up solely by Cole's strong arms.
Fearing that the blue ninja was about to pass out, Cole got back to his feet, dragging a reluctant Jay up with him. "Let's get out of here," he announced, a sense of superiority edging its way back into his voice.
Jay merely nodded his agreement, eyes half-lidded with exhaustion. "Good idea," he muttered sluggishly.
Rubbing his hands together, Cole eyed the offensive piece of venge stone attached to his friend's leg. With a burst of elemental energy, he cut the chain in two. The ball rolled away toward the bed in the corner, and Jay noticeably relaxed as it disappeared from view. A faint glimmer of electricity wound its way freely through his hands, reveling in its release from captivity.
"Er, what exactly happened to your eye?" Cole asked, feeling the need to start a conversation. He let go of Jay, taking a step back. Jay stumbled once, but shakily regained his footing.
"Scrap n' Tap," Jay answered cryptically, self-consciously holding a hand to his patched eye.
With a jolt of horror, Cole noticed three distinct slash marks running across the back of Jay's left hand. Dried blood was caked onto the wound, and the sight made Cole's stomach churn. An unfamiliar feeling of worry, and something else, something undefinable, burned in Cole's heart.
"Your hand!" he gasped out, feeling like he was going to lose his lunch.
Grimacing, Jay pulled his hand away and observed the cuts with an indifferent stare. "Scrap n' Tap," he intoned flatly.
"What?" Cole cried out, desperation seeping into his voice.
"Nadakhan wants me to make my last wish," Jay told Cole, beginning to sway on his feet. "He wants me to wish it all away. He thought that by pitting me against his crew members I would give up, and make my final wish." At this, Jay fixed the earth ninja with a small smile. "But a ninja never quits!"
Cole returned the smile with a little more effort, mind racing. Exactly how badly was his friend hurt? Hastily banishing the image of Jay closing his eyes for the last time from his brain, Cole straightened his back and shook a strand of hair out of his eyes.
"Come on," he bit out tersely, heading for the door.
Jay followed closely behind, squinting as his eyes began to lose their focus. Cole's backside swam in and out of view.
In a sudden moment, voices drifted into the room. Cole's eyes widened in terror, and he whirled around to face Jay. "Hide!" he commanded sharply, shoving the blue ninja towards the closet, forgetting about Jay's injuries for a brief second.
Jay staggered forward and fell to the ground, gasping with discomfort as he heard the closet door shut quietly behind him.
Cole looked around wildly before diving behind the bed, casting a glance at the venge stone ball, to make sure that it was out of sight.
The two ninja hid none too soon, as the door to Nadakhan's quarters burst open, and the djinn himself floated into the room. His piercing gaze swept once around the room before he relaxed his grip on the Djinn Blade. Flintlocke pattered in behind his captain, looking down at his two treasured pistols.
"Today, I will finally win my bride," Nadakhan announced grandly, hovering next to the dinner table as he raked his eyes over a map on the wall.
"You bet, Captain," Flintlocke added in, removing the magazine from one of his guns.
"She will be mine," Nadakhan continued, clasping his four hands behind his back.
"Certainly," Flintlocke tossed out. By this point, he was leisurely loading the magazine with several bullets, watching as the ammunition slid neatly into their places.
Nadakhan spun around, the orange, flame-like substance below his torso fluttering in the still air. "I will need Dogshank on this task," he instructed, fixing his second-in-command with a look. "You as well, Flintlocke."
With a loud click, Flintlocke slammed the magazine back into place with a less-than delicate gesture. "Of course, Captain," he responded dutifully.
"I must look appropriate for my new bride, no?" Nadakhan asked to no one in particular, gliding over to his closet door. Flintlocke followed his captain's movements with a nonchalant gaze. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall.
Cole stuffed back a scream, helplessly observing Nadakhan inch closer to Jay's hiding place from his position behind the bed. Thoughts galloped through his brain at one million miles per hour, each one a different scenario of the two of them getting caught and killed.
Just before the djinn could open the door to find his almost-escaped prisoner, a gust of wind rocked the Misfortune's Keep. Momentarily distracted, Nadakhan let go of the door handle. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the severed venge stone ball rolling around gleefully near the wall.
"GAH!" the djinn screamed, clenching all four hands into fists. Whipping around to face Flintlocke, Nadakhan drew his Djinn Blade. "Sound alarms, gather the crew! We have a prisoner on the loose, and I want him found!" With that, Nadakhan disappeared in a brilliant burst of glittering dust, no doubt starting his own search for his escaped prisoner.
Flintlocke uncrossed his arms, looking around the quarters with interest. Snapping himself out of his reverie, he dashed out of the room, his reloaded pistols swinging at his sides.
Cole let out a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding in. In seconds, he had vaulted over the bed and was throwing open the closet door. The sight that met his eyes made his heart drop. Jay lay unmoving on the wooden floor, his face ashen.
"Jay?" Cole whispered, refusing to let his voice shake, and give away his fear. He bent down and caressed his friend's face with gentle strokes. "We have to leave," he reminded the blue ninja softly.
Jay cracked open his good eye, meeting Cole's anguished gaze. "Worried for me?" he murmured groggily, as if he'd just awoken from a nap. Nevertheless, there was humor underlying his tone, clear as day in Cole's ears.
"Shut up," Cole growled, which he secretly hoped translated as 'of course, you idiot' in Jay's mind.
Jay smirked, struggling valiantly as he attempted to sit up.
"How badly are you hurt?" Cole demanded, slipping back into his familiar role of leadership.
"Not bad, just tired," Jay assured him, unconsciously leaning towards his friend.
Cole took hold of Jay's shoulder and gave it a firm shake. "Wake up then," he commanded, rising to his feet.
Jay's eyes shot open, having drifted shut mere seconds ago. Groaning in protest, he stood, his entire body complaining along with him.
"I can't get out of here without being spotted," Jay told Cole sadly, hanging his head in defeat. "You shouldn't have come. Get out of here, while you still can."
Disbelief surged through Cole's expression. Shaking his head vehemently, he took hold of Jay's chin and tugged it, so that the blue ninja was forced to make eye contact with Cole's glimmering brown eyes.
"Never," Cole told him firmly. "You're my best friend, and I am never leaving you behind ever again."
A look of relief flitted across Jay's face. He smiled gratefully up at Cole, his own blue eye shimmering with unshed tears.
"We're wasting time," Cole reminded him gruffly, throwing open the door to Nadakhan's quarters and slipping through it, Jay following close behind.
The lightning ninja's breathing was coming in ragged pants as the two stowaways high-tailed it across the open deck and behind several crates that were stacked near the railing.
"Can you use your Airjitzu?" Cole asked him desperately, watching as Jay doubled over. In pain or exhaustion, the earth ninja couldn't tell.
"No," Jay answered truthfully, agony rippling across his face.
Cole spared one glance at the rocky piece of land that lay directly below the Misfortune's Keep before turning back to Jay. "If we jump, I can catch you," he promised.
Jay shook his head, eyes widening. "No," he repeated.
"It'll be fine," Cole insisted, frustrated by Jay's stubbornness.
"No, no!" Jay shouted, pointing behind Cole's head. Cole whipped and around and dodged sharply to the left, just barely avoiding a slash across the backside from a thick venge chain. The brute Dogshank had the deadly weapon clenched in her grip, orange eyes narrowed from behind her sky-blue helmet.
"Nice try," Cole taunted, launching a volley of rocks toward the towering figure. Dogshank growled in annoyance as the earthen onslaught slammed into her armor, but shrugged it off as though it had been nothing more than a gathering of gnats.
Cole gritted his teeth. This was most definitely not his day. He was preparing another swift attack when a choked cry coming from behind him caused him to freeze in his tracks.
Spinning around, he saw Jay held tightly in Nadakhan's unrelenting grasp. The djinn held his treasured Blade at the lightning ninja's neck, fixing Cole with a smug gaze as the earth ninja glanced up at him.
"Let him go," Cole snarled, black rage pouring off him in waves.
"I think not," Nadakhan mocked, not at all affected by Cole's obvious fury. "Step down, or he dies. Simple as that." As if to prove his point, the djinn brought the blade closer to Jay's neck, drawing a thin trickle of blood from Jay's heaving throat.
"Don't listen to him Cole," Jay choked out in desperation, wincing as the blade cut into his neck. "He won't kill me; he needs me to make my final wish!"
Although there was truth to Jay's words, all Cole could process was that his best friend was currently under the threat of death. Incoherent thoughts screamed at him for attention, begging for him to do something, anything.
"I grow tired of your indecision," Nadakhan mocked, and threw Jay to the ground. Not without a parting gift, however. In an almost bored, sweeping motion, Nadakhan nicked Jay's arm with the Djinn Blade, smirking in satisfaction as the lightning ninja shrieked in pain.
"Jay!" Cole bellowed, shooting an intense glare at Nadakhan. "You will pay for this," he seethed, gathering his strength to attack the djinn.
Before Cole could so much as move, Nadakhan was gone, vanished into nothingness. Dogshank stood behind the earth ninja, laughing at his rage.
"Fool," she spat, preparing to lob her venge chain weapon at the furious ninja. "You are a fool to think you could ever defeat Nadakhan."
"You are the fool, for joining his crew," Cole shot back, crouching into a defensive position. "You think that he will need any of you, once he has us all captured in his little Blade? He'll want to cut you down next."
"Lies!" Dogshank roared, swinging her weapon toward the earth ninja.
"No!" Jay screeched.
Cole barely had time to comprehend the situation before a blast of lightning illuminated Dogshank's figure. She howled in agony as blue bolts of energy seared across her skin, dropping to the deck and clutching at her crackling armor. Cole turned his head to see Jay, poised with his hands outstretched. Raw power flickered on his fingers, ready to do his bidding.
Cole smiled despite himself. Perhaps Jay would be okay after all.
Jay hobbled over to the earth ninja, an earsplitting grin gracing his face. "My power is helping," he admitted, flexing his fingers and stretching their joints. "I am no longer tired."
Cole bobbed his head in a brief show of gladness. "Good," he agreed, moving to stand by the railing. "Want to try Airjitzu?"
Uncertainty flickered in Jay's expression. "Um," he stuttered, backing up slightly. He held his hands in front of him in a defensive gesture, and Cole watched as the lightning he held in his palms sputtered and died. In the next moment, Jay was falling, arcing toward the floor. Time seemed to slow down as the blue ninja collapsed against the wooden planks, his head making a sickening thud as it connected with the deck.
I love this pairing (romantically or platonically) so much. Anyway, I've always wanted to make a bit of an AU to "Wishmasters", because when Jay came crawling toward Cole during his rescue, I grew really concerned that he was seriously injured. However, he seemed to be completely fine. I know it's supposed to be a show geared more towards kids, so I understood why they made Jay appear uninjured. However, the wheels in my diabolical head started turning, so I thought to myself: "Let's do this." So, I made an AU where Jay was actually injured from Scrap n' Tap. Hey, it means there will be more Jay and Cole moments!