Chapter Text
The dark hallways seemed to hold so many secrets, untold stories, and truths.
Y/n wrapped her arms around herself for warmth, her footsteps silent as the breeze as she shuffled down the red-carpeted hall, gazing into the shadows. They didn’t hurt her like everyone else. Maybe they’d have the answers to all her problems.
She wanted to curl up in the darkness and forget everything.
How she hadn’t eaten at all that day. How her father gave the order to torture her. How Skylor got all the fancy treatment while she was left in the mud.
Y/n knew she was treated this way because of her age. She was ten — an easy target for the otherwise-oppressed servants. She was their punching bag when they were angry, and she was too young to do anything about it.
Y/n slumped in a particularly dark corner, burying her head in her arms and trying to calm herself. It was the middle of the night — who would be awake now to hurt her?
She stiffened as the wall behind her moved.
Trying not to cry out, Y/n scrambled away and looked back with horror-filled eyes.
Clouse stepped out of the shadows, and they seemed to move with him. No wonder it was so dark.
“Y/n. What are you doing?” He snarled, his fist alit with black and purple flames.
“I-I-I was j-j-just talking a w-w-walk,” Y/n managed despite her violent trembling. Clouse was the worst when it came to her punishments, due to his use of the dark magics. He didn’t just hurt her physically, but wormed his way into her head to play with her mind. She would be out of it for days following his attacks.
She backed into the opposite wall. No where to run. Clouse slowed slightly, knowing he’d won, and let the flames dance in his hand.
“You’re out past curfew,” he mused. “You know that’s not allowed.”
“I’m sorry,” Y/n whimpered, pressing herself into the wall as if she could melt into it and hide.
Then from behind Clouse, her father appeared. Where had he come from?
“Y/n, you can’t be out past curfew,” he scolded. “Bad girl.”
Something cold and very strong wrapped around Y/n body, pinning her arms to her sides and lifting her off the ground. A white and purple snake, previously invisible, suddenly materialized, hissing at her with disapproving red eyes.
“Wait—” Y/n tried, but the snake’s tail wrapped around her mouth.
“Such a disappointment,” Chen clicked his tongue in disproval.
“Waste of time and resources,” Clouse agreed.
“Unable to stand up for yourself,” Pythor added with a shake of his head. Mock sympathy flashed across all three faces before being replaced with wicked grins.
Then, simultaneously, all three villains started laughing evilly, and it only grew louder. Y/n screamed into her gag, feeling the tail squeeze the life out of her. The laughter grew louder. Y/n screwed her eyes shut and felt something leak from them, unable to do anything.
Y/n jolted awake, shooting upright.
Without thinking, she stumbled out of her soft bed and down the hall, barely able to keep her balance as she went, crashing into the walls. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt like she was choking, before finally getting outside and falling to her knees on the tiled courtyard.
Breathe, breathe, breathe, she scolded herself, still taking gulps of air like she’d never have the chance again. She shivered in a cold sweat as a breeze picked up, only making her more miserable. Her hands went to her throat, reassuring herself that there was nothing choking her.
But her panic didn’t die down. How did she know that Pythor wasn’t right in front of her, waiting to strike until she was vulnerable like this? He’d simply vanished after their last fight. Who’s to say he wouldn’t return at any point?
“Y/n?”
The elemental yelped aloud and whirled around so fast she lost her balance, scrambling backwards in a blind attempt to escape. She couldn’t see, couldn’t run, couldn’t breathe—
Warm arms wrapped around Y/n from behind. She’d been so blind, she hadn’t noticed the person moving around her until she crashed into them. She gasped in alarm before finally gaining some sense, realizing it was one of the Ninja. Reassured at the thought, she went limp but continued to tremble, head drooping in defeat.
“Hey, it’s okay,” a soothing voice said quietly, but Y/n was too panicked to identify who spoke. “You’re okay. You’re safe.” The person gave her a gentle squeeze, but it didn’t feel like how Pythor had strangled her. It was a protective embrace, like whoever held her was a shield.
There was only one person who had this effect.
“Cole,” Y/n managed, her throat tight. She twisted slightly to face him, just managing to observe his concerned expression before burying her face in his shoulder with a whimper. He didn’t change his position, for which Y/n was grateful. Don’t let go, don’t let go, don’t let go, she wanted to say, but couldn’t find the words.
She needed to feel this protectiveness after that nightmare.
It had been several weeks since Y/n officially joined the Ninja team. As soon as they’d arrived, she’d used some of Wu’s healing tea for her throat due to Pythor strangling her, but no tea was strong enough to cure her nightmares.
Every night, she relived her time on the island. The days getting tortured by Chen’s servants. Clouse’s dark magic. And even though Pythor had only attacked once, he was in her nightmares too.
And every night, someone was there for her.
It became clear very quickly that Jay, Zane, and Kai had no idea what to do when she was in her panicked state, all three awkwardly trying to comfort her while at the same time not really helping. Nya was a bit better, but even as she and Y/n grew closer during their training and “girls’ day outings”, she had difficulty connecting on a deeper level. Lloyd was pretty good at it — having nightmares of his own, he knew what to say to calm her racing heart.
But for some reason, Cole had the easiest time calming her down. He was always there, rarely saying anything — just there. No words had to be said; he simply found her and supported her. His presence put Y/n at ease, and she could feel his protectiveness.
Y/n wanted to be stronger than this. She never cried, which was a start, but she couldn’t keep relying on the Ninja like this. She was supposed to be able to stand up for herself, to push past the memories, and move on. She shouldn’t need anyone for a dream.
After her second nightmare, she’d mentioned this to Lloyd, and he immediately shot down the idea, telling her how dangerous it was to bottle everything up and never speak of it. “Y/n, don’t,” he’d interrupted her mid sentence. “I’m your brother. Don’t hide anything from me, okay?” He’d looked her dead in the eye until she reluctantly agreed, and though she did tell him about her nightmares, she didn’t say everything. He didn’t need that burden.
He even stayed awake some nights just to chase after her when the nightmares forced her from her sleep, once following her out into a storm just to be there.
Cole, of course, heard of her troubles despite her hardest to hide it. Continuous nights of disrupted sleep, when the best of days she caught four hours, made the Ninja suspicious that something was wrong. When Lloyd told them about her nightmares, much to their horror, all of them did their best to help her.
And yet, Y/n knew she shouldn’t need to rely on them. They had nightmares, too — she often heard Lloyd cry out from one. But they never had a full-on panic attack from them. What was wrong with her? Why were her nightmares so much worse than theirs?
As if reading her thoughts, Cole slowly ran his hand in circles on her back. “It’s okay,” he repeated, and Y/n’s heart rate finally slowed.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she muttered into his gi. “No one else has this problem.”
Cole scoffed. “Yeah, right. You shoulda seen Lloyd after the battle against the Overlord. He was a mess.”
Y/n stilled, still taking shuddering breaths. “But I should be stronger than this,” she protested.
To her surprise, Cole pulled back slightly with his hands on her shoulders. “No, Y/n. It’s okay to be afraid. Chen and Clouse hurt you for a long time — it’s normal to have this reaction.”
Y/n’s shoulders slumped and her gaze fell to the ground. “It’s been weeks, Cole. Why haven’t I gotten over it?”
He pulled her back into an embrace, and she felt like melting, though prayed no one saw her so helpless. “You were on that island for years, Y/n. It’s all catching up to you know that you’re out.”
“I feel useless,” Y/n confessed weakly. “I can’t even stand up to my own nightmares.”
Cole fell silent for a moment before replying. “You’re not useless. I’d be surprised if you could recover so fast. You’re powerful, Y/n, but you’re also human. You’re bound to feel something — if you didn’t, I’d think you were a ghost or something.”
Y/n managed a dry chuckle at that. “No ghost here,” she affirmed, little tremor left in her voice. And as the panic faded, fatigue sucker-punched her hard. Her eyes wanted to force themselves shut, but she wouldn’t let them. Sleep meant nightmares, and she didn’t need more than one each day.
Cole stood, pulling Y/n to her feet with him and supporting her as she almost fell. “Maybe a mission will take your mind off things.”
“We have a mission?”
“According to Master Wu, there’s a mutant fangfish terrorizing a local coastal village, and he wants us to get rid of it,” Cole replied nonchalantly. “Seems like a good excuse to get your mind off things.”
Y/n nodded but her eyes remained unfocused. “Sure. Sounds good.”
“Hey,” Cole insisted gently, turning her face to meet his. She felt her heart flutter at his sincere brown gaze, and she knew it wasn’t from the nightmare. “Don’t worry about the nightmares. They will go away. Let me know if you need to talk about them, ‘kay?”
Y/n nodded with a small smile. “Thanks, Cole,” she whispered, and he gave her one last hug before guiding her inside.
Unfortunately it was only four in the morning, so definitely wasn’t worth falling back asleep and risking another nightmare, even though normally she wouldn’t wake up until six. Sighing heavily, she began to sort out the little tea shop the Ninja called their home. Might as well be useful if she was awake.
After a few moments, she noticed Cole still hadn’t left the storage room. He wasn’t in her way and didn’t say anything, just sat next to the wall and read a comic.
“You should get some more sleep,” she told him without much emotion in her voice. “We still have a couple hours before we leave.”
Cole shrugged. “Don’t think I’ll be able to fall back asleep,” he replied without looking up from his comic.
Y/n didn’t reply, instead turning a distracted gaze to the shelf of tea jars. Some of the jars looked a little empty — she’d have to tell Wu and Misako and look into buying more.
Y/n felt herself scowl when she thought of her mother. Lloyd had told her how Misako left him at the Boarding School for Bad Boys when he was a little kid, and they’d only found each other by accident. Misako hadn’t looked for her son, and taking up her role as the overprotective big sister, their mother’s actions rubbed off on Y/n the wrong way.
To her credit, Misako was trying. She spent time with Y/n in the shop or training, telling her the history of Ninjago, which Chen had previously deprived her of. But Y/n still didn’t see Misako as her mother, not yet.
And as much as he tried to hide it, she knew Lloyd felt the same.
“Uh, Y/n?”
The elemental flinched, caught off guard. She blinked at the jar of tea in her hands, then looked back to the owner of the voice.
“Yeah?”
Cole had put his comic away and stood behind her. “That’s...not Sereni-tea. It’s Hones-tea.” He gently pried the jar out of Y/n’s hands and put it in the correct spot, unlike where she’d tried to store it.
Y/n sighed heavily and crashed onto the chair, burying her head in her hands. “Like I said,” she grumbled. “Useless.”
“Y/n, get that out of your head.”
Her eyes widened and she looked up at Cole, surprised by his tone. Anger flashed in his eyes and he crossed his arms. “You’re not useless. You can’t believe that you are.”
With a grumble under her breath, Y/n gave in, running a hand through her messy blonde hair. “Can’t even sort tea,” she muttered.
Cole pulled up another chair, sitting next to Y/n. “C’mon, Y/n. Out with it.” When she gave him a confused look, he clarified, “Your nightmare.”
She groaned, once more resting her head in her hands. “Fine,” she huffed. “It was Chen and Clouse and Pythor. They backed me into a corner and Pythor almost squeezed me to death. Happy?”
Cole sighed. “That snake,” he hissed lowly, probably not meant for Y/n to hear. Louder, though, he told her, “We’re not letting him hurt you again. Count on it.”
“You can’t keep that promise.”
“Maybe, but you can bet on the First Spinjitzu Master I’ll try,” Cole returned. “You can take it out on that fish later.”
Y/n felt the corners of her mouth twitch upwards. “Yeah,” she agreed softly, rising to find a tea with caffeine. “I think I will.”