ninjago imagines

tick, tock | jay w.

[Time ticks down dangerously low for the lighting ninja.]

A/N: holy fuck, i'm three days behind summer of whump, send help– also this sucks kinda but im not rewriting it again cause i did that four times

• • •

Being a ninja was dangerous, and everyone knew that.

Missions were usually life threatening, fighting was literally tiptoeing the line between life and death, heck, even using their own powers could cause injury to anyone a little too near.

Any wrong move promised a world of pain or more, and everyone was ready to accept that their life wouldn't ever quite be like anyone else's.

Jay just never thought it would've come to this.

Hot blood spilled over the dark ground, fingers slick against the wound. He stumbles on the concrete, grasping the cold ledge for support.

It had been patrol. A small, mostly unarmed thief breaking into a store. The lighting ninja remembers a small struggle, a small blade falling from the man's pocket and scattering to the floor.

He'd thought it was the only one.

A slip against the wet floor, electricity buzzing against metal, footsteps thudding against the ground, and Jay's head is suddenly a little lighter, chest ringing with pain.

"Oh." He gasps, hands flying to the wound, and he lifts a hand silently, staring at the deep red stained across his skin. Blood. A lot of it.

"Hidden knife trick, huh?" He bites his lip, pushing his arm across the table, plastic boxes and coins falling to the ground in a clatter of metal. The cashier is gone from sight, glass door swinging in the breeze, and Jay sighs loudly.

"Just my luck." He says to nobody in particular, and fumbles into his pocket for his phone, an arm still clutching across his chest. The screen flashes bright, and he scrolls across to his contacts, clicking on Cole's name. He glances across the lockscreen, reading a red energy bar in alarm.

Low energy.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up," he whispers anxiously, and watches it ring emptily on the counter, sound echoing through the store. Cole always picks up. Always. And some god must be listening to his prayers from the heavens, because the phone beeps again, and the earth ninja's tinny voice leaks into the room.

"Jay?" The lighting ninja lets out an audible sigh of relief, wincing in pain as the gash twinges. He looks down at the crimson puddle spreading slowly at his feet, and then back up at the beeping phone.

"I...I got stabbed, I think." Jay says, slowly, and rubs unsteadily at the black creeping into the edges of his vision.

"What—Where are you?" Cole shouts into the call, voice rising with panic, and Jay's face crumples in pain at the sound.

"I'm—I'm at the corner store. Wallington street." There's a pause as Cole digests the information, and the line jumps into static. "Cole?"

"Yeah, we're coming. Zane and I are on the way with the bike, Lloyd's coming with his dragon— what? Stay awak— Jay, stay on the line, okay? Don't close your eyes." Cole says, words tumbling together in his rush.

"Stay awake," Jay echoes, voice blurring in drowsiness, and she rubs a hand across his face. "Sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Cole questions, if rather to fill the silence than anything, and the phone shuffles from his hand to another.

"Jay?" Zane's familiar voice filters into the microphone, and Jay slides to the ground, back against the cold wall. The floor is slick with red, and he draws a finger through it absentmindedly, thoughts automatically racing to try and figure out how much blood he's lost.

"Yeah?" Jay whispers back, careful not to jostle his chest speaking. Every breath he draws rattles uselessly, and it feels like every wheeze captures less and less oxygen.

"Can you see any towels or rags around you?" Jay leans his head against the stone, squeezing his eyes shut. He should've taken a nap before he left. It's so much harder to keep his eyes open, now.

"I don't— I don't know." He whimpers, fingers curling around the phone. "It hurts."

"I know. I need you to keep pressure on the wound." The nindroid replies, worry hid under a mask of steadiness. He can't waver on his thoughts, not now.

The lighting ninja lifts his head wearily, prodding at the patch of soaked uniform cautiously. Another flash of fiery pain stabs through his chest, and he can't bite back a cry at the touch. His eyes fall shut, and he grits his teeth, desperately trying to ride out the wave of pain.

"Jay!" Zane calls, tone tinged with anxiety, and he forces his eyes open, patches of darkness glitching in his vision.

"Zane," he breathes quietly, another whine tearing from his chest. The phone falls from his grip, clattering to the ground quietly.

"We—"

The battery cuts off uselessly, screen fading to black in a second.