Written by: miamidnightt

Knocking on the bedroom door to Mia and Scarlett's shared room, Kai waited for the Scarlet Ninja to open the door, unfortunately, she never did. Frowning, the messy-haired teen pushed open the door, that was surprisingly unlocked and found Scarlett curled up in a ball on her bed.

"Scarlett?" He called out to her, watching as her head poked out from the covers and he sat down on the end of her bed, "Is it alright if I bandage up the wound on your arm from earlier? I almost forgot about it..."

She nodded slowly, keeping the blankets wrapped around herself, pushing herself to sit up and next to the Fire Ninja, "Sorry... I'm just really upset, knowing we're in a bad situation right now."

"Hey, it's gonna be alright," Placing a hand on her shoulder, pulling out the first-aid kit and rubbing the burning cream on her arm. He heard a hiss of pain from the dark-haired girl and stopped, rubbing her arm in reassurance, "Sorry, but... We're gonna get Mia back and protect you from getting captured. I swear, I'll do anything to protect you."

"What is... everyone else doing?" Scarlett hesitantly asked, Kai going back and continuing to fix up her burned arm.

Kai hummed, not taking his eyes eyes off her arm, "Last I was there, Nya and Zane were trying to pinpoint the shadows' location, but Lloyd isn't doing too well. He's worried about Mia, I guess I never realized it, but he cares for her a lot."

"Yeah..." She mumbled, feeling Kai finish fixing up her arm, wrapping it in bandages. But once he was done, the Scarlet Ninja felt his arms wrap around her in a tight embrace, "K-Kai...?"

"Scarlett, I want you to know that I don't think you're weak. None of us started off professional at the start, even I was horrible at my own training when I first came to become a Ninja." He furrowed his eyebrows, like he was remembering some painful memories back then, "But you know what kept me going? My sister. I knew that if I was ever gonna save my sister, that I had to keep trying until I was able to become a Ninja myself. She was the only family I had left, I couldn't lose her!"

Scarlett returned the hug, covering her face in his red garments, hoping to soothe him down, "Hey, you saved her in the end, didn't you? If you didn't, then she wouldn't be here right now."

"Thanks, but..." Kai kept holding her in his arms, afraid to let her go, "My point is, you're strong in your own way, Scarlett. Right now, you might not seem to be as strong as some of the others, but that's okay. It's just gonna take more time for you to get better, because I know you'll get there in the end."

"You sure?" She asked him, dipping her head to the side.

"Positive," He pulled away and held his hand out to her, which she easily took and their fingers intertwined with one another, like the pieces of a puzzle, "Do you trust me?"

She nodded twice, giving into his words and grinning wide, until they both jumped at the sound of a knock at the door, hearing Jay's voice on the other end, "Guys, come quick! Zane's located where the shadows' are!"

"Let's go." Kai said, squeezing her hand in reassurance and rushing out of the room with her.

They found the others in the Bridge, talking amongst themselves and Nya held the wheel, guiding the Bounty in the direction Zane had located the shadows in. Lloyd was the complete opposite of everyone else, he was playing with his fingers and trying to calm down, but nothing he did seemed to work.

He needed to know she was okay. That they weren't too late to save her. God, he didn't know what he'd do if they did anything to hurt her, he just wanted her to be okay—

"Hey," Scarlett walked up to the Green Ninja, placing a hand on his shoulder and breaking him out of his train of thought. She knew it was hard on all of them, but it must be even harder for Lloyd, losing the one person he cared for to the enemy, "We'll get Mia back, I promise. We'll save her before the shadows get to her and take her powers. No, that's not more important... before they do anything life-threatening to her."

Lloyd loured, lowering his head and exhaling deeply, "I know, but I can't help but think that I'm mostly to blame here because I wasn't able to save her. If I hadn't been so stupid and ran without thinking, maybe she—!"

"Lloyd, we were all at fault. None of us are in the blame here." The dark-haired girl gripped his shoulders tightly, making him look her dead in the eye and he winced when her fingers dug into his skin, "She's strong, perhaps stronger than most of us, I know they won't get her powers. And they won't get through to her, either."

"Hmm, maybe you're right." The blond shook his head to clear his mind, don't think like that, Lloyd! You can't be all down when she's counting on you and everyone else to save her, "I'm sorry I'm acting like this, but I'm just worried about her. I don't want to see her hurt."

Scarlett gave him a small smile, knowing that she was able to get through to him, "Don't worry, we all get like that from time-to-time. But instead, how about you go save the girl you love and make sure to see her alive and well, yeah?"

"Guys, we're here!" Nya called out, knocking the two Ninja out of their deep conversation with each other. Those shadows are gonna pay if they hurt her! That one thought roamed in the Green Ninja's mind.

It was a complete disaster after that, everyone was rushing around the ship, trying to get ready for infiltrating the cave the shadows' resided in, but it took mostly everyone about fifteen minutes before they were done. They raced out onto the deck and finding themselves in front of the large cave. Everyone but Nya flipped on their Ninja hood-masks, sliding down the anchor briskly and reaching ground level.

Jay bit his bottom lip at the sight of seeing the emptiness cave to who-knows where, "You guys aren't scared, are you? Heh, because I'm certainly not!" But Cole easily picked up on this, giving the Blue Ninja a small smack in the back of the head. Jay jumped out of his skin, cowering and hiding behind the Sister of Fire.

"Cole!" Nya scolded him in a serious tone, pointing an accusing finger at him.

The dark-haired teen shrugged his shoulders, "What? Oh, come on, Nya, you can't expect me not to do that to him."

"Guys, this is serious. If we're gonna save one of our teammates, we have to go through this together," Kai instructed the others, holding Scarlett by the hand and everyone was quiet when walking into the dark cave, "We just need to figure where they are keeping Mia, no doubt it's gonna be guarded by shadows, we break her out and escape with her! Piece of cake, am I right?"

"But it's not gonna be that simple, Kai..." Nya sighed, gripping her weapon tightly in her hands, eventually turning her knuckles white, "We've learned that these shadows aren't messing around, they mean serious business. What they are doing to get Mia and Scarlett's powers, it isn't right..."

Lloyd seemed to agree, "Nya, we'll get her back. I'll make sure we get there before they plan to kill her, I won't let them touch her again."

Stepping into the all-too dark cave, Scarlett found herself moving closer and tightly holding onto Kai's hand. The place was a deathtrap, shadows could jump out and attack them at any given moment, and she knew the Fire Ninja would protect her. He promised he would. Vines hung from random corners of the cave ceiling, little spiders crawling on the floor by their feet.

Disgusting! That was all Scarlett could think, until they heard a sinister laugh down the hall, a shadow plunging towards the group but more towards Scarlett. She yelped, but Kai was quick and disintegrated him with his fire, watching him turn to smoke.

"Kai...!" Nya slapped him hard on the arm, earning a groan from the Red Ninja, turning his head to face his sister, who obviously had a scowl written across her face, "That shadow could have told us where Mia is! Now how are we—?"

But her words were cut short, a long scream echoing down the halls and reaching their ears. Lloyd was the first to widen his eyes, knowing exactly who it belonged, he had heard it once before. He couldn't bare to see Mia hurt, but if that's what these shadows were doing to her, he had to save her.

"Mia...!!" He called out, rushing off and striding down the long, moss-covered hall, his only sense of direction was to follow the screams he heard. Don't you dare hurt her! Don't you dare!

The others ran in a haste after the blond, following his quick lead and hearing the screaming growing closer, longer and louder this time, "Lloyd, wait...! Oh, shit, what are they doing to her?" Cole asked, panicking as they reached two, large wooden doors and thrusted them open.

* * *

Struggling was all she could think to do, all she had left to do, but Mia couldn't shake off the feeling that this was what the shadows wanted—to steal her powers. Growling under her breath, she thrusted her good ankle at the shadow at her right, hearing a groan escape him and he fell with a loud groan.

A smile of confidence crawled onto Mia's freckled face, freeing her arm and elbowing the second shadow, leading her to race away from the two and out of their reach. She didn't know where they had taken her, because they had disappeared here with her. Recalling the way her friends looked when she last saw them, the way Lloyd looked when he was knocked unconscious in front of her, with her unable to do anything but stand there and struggle. She felt awful, almost weak at that moment.

But she warded off the negative thoughts, sprinting quickly down the stone halls of the cave-like hideout of the shadows. She was so focused on getting out, that she didn't see the shadow that had grabbed her from behind, pulling at the edge of her ponytail, causing her to let out a gasp and fall out in front of her.

"Ah, ah, Brooklyn," Mia heard the hiss of the shadow, making her shiver in fear but despite that, she tried pulling herself up. Wrong move. He pulled out his knife and stabbed it right into her injured ankle, a crack erupted immediately and the redhead cried out in pain. Shit, I think he broke my ankle! "Remember, there will be consequences for how you... act, Brooklyn. You'll suffer more pain if you continue to fight back."

Mia growled and gritted his teeth, ignoring his warning and beginning to struggle again, "I... I don't care what you do to me! I'll fight back no matter what, because I'm not gonna give up just like that!" She then whispered under her breath, the shadow unable to hear her, "My friends will come for me, I know they will, and that's why I'll keep fighting."

"Hmm, now I see why you're so hard to break, because you're just as equally annoying." The redhead was about to snap something back at her adversary, but was effortlessly thrown over the shadow's shoulder like a ragdoll, "But you'll eventually break and realize you're friends won't come around to save you. I look forward to hearing you're screams of pain, Brooklyn."

Mia bit the inside of her cheek, each of his words only making her anger grow intensely, "You shadows are sick and twisted...! My friends will save me before you can take my powers!"

But the redhead only received a low cackle in response, the shadow stepping into an empty cell down one of the stony halls, being greeted by the same two shadows that Mia had fiercely attacked and escaped. Roughly dropping her on the hard ground, Mia winced when her body hit the floor, it felt like dozens of needles were stabbing into her skin.

Don't you dare cry, Mia! You can get through this, just wait a bit longer, yeah? She tried to reassure herself, but the affliction felt like all too much for her to handle.

Breaking out of her thoughts, she heard the sound of metal and the feeling of something clasping around her wrists. Turning, she found chains holding her wrists, no doubt they were made of Vengestone, the same material as the handcuffs from earlier. The shadow moved and placed chains on her ankles, taking her daggers off her and turning to leave with the other two shadows behind him.

"I'll leave you to your thoughts for now, Brooklyn." He held venom in his words, but the redhead seemed unfazed by his words, hissing under her breath in anger, "But I'll be back later, when I'm ready to take those powers you hold of yours." He then turned to the two shadows, "Guard this cell. Make sure she doesn't escape and keep a lookout for those Ninja."

One of the two shadows took this chance to speak, "Do you think they'll come to save her?"

"I'm sure they will," He wore a devilish smirk on his shadowy face, putting a finger to his chin in thought, "And when they do, we'll have already taken Brooklyn's powers and I'm positive Dragonfire we'll be with them, which will give us the opportunity to capture and take her powers too."

"You stay away from my friends!" Mia shouted, the chains rattling when she moved, "I won't let you hurt any of them, I swear on that!"

Growling, the first shadow drew out a dagger and stepped towards her, crouching down to be eye level with her, lifting her chin up with one of his fingers, "You should be worrying about yourself more than your friends, Brooklyn. Don't you think, hmm?"

"Get the hell away from me, you monster!"

Not receiving an answer, the shadow in front of her took it upon himself to draw a cut down her right arm, blood oozing down like a river and the teenage girl let out a small whimper, "You belong to us now, Brooklyn. You'll never see your friends again... I'll be back later."

Leaving her cell and locking the iron-barred door behind him, Mia was left alone to herself with the two shadows guarding her cell outside. Despite that, she felt hot tears slide down her freckled cheeks and onto the dirt-covered ground. She just wanted to wake up from this horrible nightmare, see her friends again and know that the shadows hadn't gotten to her get.

Rocking back and forth, Mia didn't know how much time had went be. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, maybe even years? Okay, that last one didn't seem possible but it wasn't completely not within reach. The cell door opened and the only thing she was able to process was the shadow, who rushed and unchained her, throwing her over his shoulder like earlier.

Knowing what was to happen, the redhead couldn't stop the fear from taking over her. She found herself thrown on a stone table, chains back on her wrists and ankles, which she desperately fought against. Hell, she wasn't gonna let them take her powers like this!

"Stay still, Brooklyn," Hearing him draw out his dagger again, the Purple Ninja felt something crawling across her skin and a hand pressed against her chest, pinning her down, "It's only gonna make the pain more unbearable that way."

"Don't... Don't do this, please!" Mia pleaded, it was all she had left in her.

But nothing she did helped and his dagger stabbed right into the pit of her stomach, a scream escaping the girl underneath the shadow, which only made him more eager to hurt her. The pain never subsided, only kept growing, moving across her arms and legs, everywhere. She was in more pain than the last time she was attacked and let's be honest, it was anything but pleasant.

"Stop... I don't want this anymore." Mia's voice was barely a whisper, she could feel her body going limp and fading, but she fought off the will to go unconscious. Stay awake! You need to stay awake, Mia! Through teary eyes, she saw the shadow pull out something from his pocket and her eyes widened, seeing the large syringe in his hand, "What... What are you doing?"

The shadow hummed in response, slipping off her Ninja shoes and gloves, positioning the syringe over the wound on her stomach, lifting up her Gi top first and stabbing it into the skin. Screaming as loud as she possibly could, she could see a gold substance flowing into the syringe until she realized, that's my powers!

Chuckling, the shadow didn't care if he killed the shaking girl under him, only caring for the power she possessed, "Hold still, Brooklyn, because you'll soon—!"

"Leave her alone...!" His voice was strong and firm, but her eyes were closed so she didn't know if he was really here, or if she was imagining things.

Her question was answered when the syringe was pulled out, her powers seeping back into her and a cool hand rested against her head tenderly, like she could break at the slightest touch. She heard her friends' voices, warding off the shadow until she assumed he disappeared and her body relaxed.

"Mia...? Can you hear me?" But she was too far into unconsciousness to hear him. Safe, it was the only word she could hear. She was safe!