4. Dark Sides: Rise of the Anacondrai

Chapter 26 - One Last Hope

Nya trudged beside a dirt road, tired and worn out. She had run as far as she could before her legs started to ache and her lungs burned. She ran until she literally could not anymore, and then she finally slowed to a walk so she could catch her breath and rest her muscles before she started running again.

Getting back to her team was the only thing on her mind right now. If they didn't already know about Wu's plot, then she would need to warn them, and even if they had overheard like she did, they would certainly need her help.

Where it had taken Nya and Jay under an hour to travel so far in his jet, it was going to take her the rest of the day to get back to the city, maybe part of the night as well.

Jerk couldn't even leave me a truck to get back with, she fumed. And to think I was starting to believe he was a decent guy.

But as she marched through the long grass, Nya couldn't help but remember what Jay had said about his parents. He had sounded so genuine, and for a moment Nya had really believed he was fighting for something more than his own ambitions. But could it have simply been a lie?

She also couldn't forget the fight in the desert just that morning, when they tried and failed to get the Serpentine away from Clouse. It seemed like so long ago when Jay had narrowly saved her life from the jaws of the Anacondrai. She had a much harder time believing that had been an act when he had risked his own well-being to spare her.

How could someone so good be so twisted?

Nya shook her head. The same way my brother could become corrupted, she thought.

It had been hard for Nya to believe that Kai went so far into darkness after disappearing from her life for so long. It seemed like a big leap, to know him as a troubled teen one day and then again years later as servant to an evil underlord. But Misako had once explained to her that Wu had been manipulating these boys for much longer than that, telling them lies and twisting their hearts until they believed whatever he wanted. And after Kai had betrayed Nya in the Temple of Fire, she thought that really meant her brother was too far gone to be saved.

However, these past few days had shown Nya something different. Kai was . . . the same, in a lot of ways. He still liked to tease her and knew exactly how to push her buttons. He was still stubborn and a major goof and, as much as she tried to pretend otherwise, he still knew how to make her laugh. In some ways, it felt like he had never left. With the distraction of trying to hunt down Chen, the only thing coming between them was the fact that Nya couldn't forget what he had done. And yet, he didn't always behave like the same person who had betrayed her. 

The same thing could be said for Jay. Even though Nya had never known him in the past, sometimes she almost couldn't believe that he was the same person they had fought over the golden weapons. Which made her wonder, just how much of an influence did Wu really have on these guys?

A low rumbling made Nya turn around. Far off in the distance, a noodle truck was approaching from the horizon.

It must be another one of Chen's followers, she thought. But of course it would only be one soldier, and Nya could really use a ride right now.

Nya stepped into the middle of the road and faced the oncoming truck. She wouldn't put it past the driver to run her over, but she intended to stop the truck before then. She raised her hands, preparing to summon a stream of water that would be strong enough to push it off course. Only then did she remember that her powers were still returning, and might not be strong enough to stop it.

But to her surprise, the driver suddenly hit the breaks, screeching to a sudden stop at the same time that a voice rang in her head: Don't shoot!