Chapter Text
"Who wants a snoot boop?" Cole asks, waving a finger in front of Jay's nose.
"Pleassse don't," Jay rasps. His voice is full of gravel, much like Garmadon and Skylor had when they became (fake) andacondrai. He also previously had enough control to avoid long, drawn-out 's' sounds, only letting them slip if he was tired and not paying attention, but now it seems like his mouth won't let him make the sound any other way.
Cole takes notice of the discomfort on his best friend's face and pats him on the back. "Hey, Wu's making the tea right now. And there's two different teas! In case one doesn't work! You'll be back to normal in no time."
Jay sighs. "Okay, if thisss isss going away sssoon. Fine. You can boop the sssnoot. Only onccce though."
Cole does just that and eagerly pokes the scales right between Jay's nostrils, practically mouthing the word "boop."
Jay flicks his tongue out.
Cole's eyes seem to sparkle.
They're both sitting on Jay's bed.
Jay took his shirt off the assess all the damage that this little outburst caused.
It wasn't too bad- well, aside from the obvious. Although even that was mild compared to what he originally imagined. His nose and mouth do come into a snout shape, but it isn't wholly inhuman, more somewhere in between the face of a human and a snake, not quite looking more like one or the other.
The only other thing to happen was the patterns on his body becoming clearer, with his scales being a neat little mix of green, light green, black, and the smallest bit of red.
He's pretty sure that what remains of his humanity is just the FSM trying to be kind to him. Serpentine have three fingers, but he got to keep his five. Serpentine don't have hair, but he got to keep his. Serpentine ears are constructed differently, but he got to keep a fairly human shape, albeit with a small point. Serpentine eyes are slits against a solid color, he got to keep his irises, even if at the cost of many other little gradual changes to his eyes.
The rest of the team is helping Wu out and telling him about the last few weeks.
"What if it doesssn't work," Jay mumbles.
"It'll work," Cole reassures.
"What if I'm too far gone?"
"That's exactly what the tea is for."
"Mkay."
------------------
Jay can feel Wu's stare.
"Y-yeah I know....yeah I know I look different," Jay says quietly.
Wu's gaze softens.
The master hugs the student.
"What happened to you?" Wu asks.
Jay wants to answer. To vent. To explain. But that requires telling Wu to his face that he was scared of him. So instead, he forces a chuckle. "Ssstressssss."
'Well, you're about to be just fine," Wu says softly.
Jay forces a small smile, looking around the kitchen, unable to shake the thought that as cool as this is, and as much as it's what he wanted, Wu's doing it in his own favor and that it affecting Jay, the currently afflicted, is only a bonus.
Can't complain though. He does want this on his own accord.
Lloyd shows Kai and Cole a newly acquired scar, telling them all about the Dark Island.
Zane pours the tea into a mug nestled in Pixal's hands.
She hands it to Jay.
"Ssso what'sss thisss one sssuposssed to do?" Jay asks before blowing some of the steam away.
"It's a transformation tea," Lloyd answers. "We found just the right steps that could turn something, like a serpentine, human."
Jay nods. "Ssso I just drink it? Don't need to take anything with it or dump it on myssself or anything?"
"Yes," Wu answers. "Drink the whole cup if you can."
Jay grips the mug tightly. He practically dumps the beverage in his mouth, as if disposing of it down the drain.
He stands there for a moment. The mug is empty. Everyone is staring at him, expecting results.
He frowns. "That didn't do ssshhhi-"
The snake's heart rate picks up tremendously.
His surroundings become a blur.
The last thing he can truly make out is Zane's cold hands holding onto him, trying to keep him standing.
-------------------
"It wasn't that hard to find food, we had the lightning chicken with us, so we had eggs we could eat," Lloyd explains. His voice is sorta muffled as if he's eating something.
Are there wrappers crinkling?
"Still, that's gotta be hard, wandering around, trying to not eat stuff that'll turn you evil," Kai replies.
"...why would you be eating random stuff on the Dark Island ?" Cole asks.
Jay slowly cracks his eyes open.
"Oh hey look, he's coming to," Lloyd announces. More wrapper crinkling.
"I feel like I got hit by a bus," Jay groans, sitting up, rubbing his eyes. "Did it work?"
"No, you're even worse than before," Cole gasps. There's kind of a playful tone in his voice.
Jay squints. His hands are fine. Aside from the long, slightly green scar on one of his palms...these are human hands! No scales, no claws!
He feels his face. That's normal too! No more snoot boops!
No tail, no tiny horns, no more sharp teeth...well, the fangs are still there but the rest of his teeth dulled back down.
He leans against the wall, letting out a sigh of relief.
He takes a good look around. He's in his room. On his bed.
The crinkling sound was Lloyd with the bag of candy that Pixal and Zane bought for him.
Everyone is in his room, smiling at him.
"Welcome back, little buddy," Cole says gently.
"I never went away though?"
"I mean, you were kinda sad and anxious the whole time..." Kai remarks.
"I'm always anxious? And I've been sad?"
"Okay, let me clarify, you were sad and quietly anxious. We're used to you screaming all your negative thoughts."
Jay shrugs. "Alright, fair enough."
Zane offers him a hug for the first time in almost two months.
He takes the offer.
Zane is still more uncomfortably cold than soothingly cold, but it's good to hug him again.
---------------
Sleep is good. Sleep is calming.
Passing out after drinking magic tea isn't the same as sleeping in your bed after a long day.
He didn't even need the heating pad anymore, but it still felt comforting.
Guess some traits are gonna stay. Nevertheless, at least he looks and feels human enough.
----------------
Breakfast is nice.
It's the first time in a while that Jay could have cereal with nice, cold, refrigerated milk.
Meanwhile, Lloyd went to town on some pancakes, pouring almost the whole bottle of syrup on them.
Kai heats up waffles with his hands. Again.
Usually, Lloyd would be disgusted by that action, but it's exciting to be back home to even see that. Lloyd can't help but clap.
--------------
Sometime after lunch, the team went out for ice cream, mostly for Lloyd and Jay.
Five ninja and a samurai sit at a table outside of the ice cream store.
"I missed this so much," Lloyd sobs happily.
"Watch out, you could go over the average daily sugar intake that a human can handle," Zane remarks.
Lloyd rolls his eyes. "Shut up, I'll be fine, I have oni and dragon blood." Then he rethinks what he said. "Sorry, don't shut up, actually..."
"My face is numb but I don't feel like dying, it's great," Jay laughs.
Cole reaches for the cup of ice cream. "Maybe you shouldn't..."
Jay pulls it away. "I'll be okay. I want my ice cream."
Cole frowns. "Alright."
Jay licks the ice scream, revealing to the rest of the team that his tongue is still slightly forked.
"Can we go to the comic book shop or the toy store orrrr..." Lloyd rambles, practically bouncing around.
Kai raises an eyebrow. "You haven't asked to do something like that since before you ummm...grew up."
"Yeah, I think I was going stir-crazy on the island. I think I need something like that," Lloyd mumbles.
Cole nods. "I think there's a new Fritz Donnegan movie out. Wanna see that?"
Jay lets out a nervous chuckle. "There's a new one? Didn't the uh- the guyyy who played him- didn't he pass away a few years ago?"
"Yes. Instead of an actor, there is a CGI model in his image playing the character," Pixal answers.
"I thought you would've known about this movie. I thought you loved the franchise," Zane remarks.
Jay looks down. "Yeah, I dunno, guess I grew out of it. Don't care for it as much now."
"Well, I still wanna go," Lloyd says, a slight sparkle in his eye in contrast to the composure he tries to keep together.
-----------------
"Fear? Fear isn't a word where I came from."
Jay slouches in his theater seat.
That CGI model does look just like his biological father.
This is uncomfortable.
He can't be mad that he's adopted. His parents- his only real parents, as far as he's concerned- do love him as if they were his own. He is their own. But he can be mad for being given up. And for what? What was so important that he had to be ditched like that? He knew Cliff Gordon was known for getting around a lot...is that what it was? Was he disregarded as the result of just another affair?
The back of his hand itches.
A chill runs through his body. Theaters are cold. It's fine.
He can feel his eyesight sharpening.
The itchy patch of skin spreads.
He rushes out of his seat, quickly saying, "I'll be right back."
---------------
Is the tea wearing off? What's going on?
Jay locks himself in a bathroom stall, looking at himself with his phone camera.
More patches pop up, an itchy green tinge coming to his cheeks.
What can he even do in the bathroom? Why even try to hide what's going on?
Slowly, he comes out of the stall.
He washes his hands since he still had to touch the stall door.
He splashes some water on his face.
Water. That's nice.
He lets out a calming sigh.
The itchy patches are going away, fading back to his normal skin color.
He blinks.
This is new.
He texts Kai to let everyone know that he's heading home early.
-------------------
Jay peaks into Wu's room. "Wu?"
Wu looks up at his student, sitting on the floor. "You're home early."
"Yeahhh, yeah. Umm. I don't think the tea worked?"
"What do you mean? You look fine."
Jay rubs his arm. "We went to see a movie and I don't know, my scales started growing back but then when I went to calm myself down they went away."
Wu's brows furrow. "We were worried that it wouldn't work since you were originally human. You weren't born a snake, it was the mutation of the venom still in your blood. A born serpentine doesn't have venom in their blood like that."
"But it's like, it did work? And then it didn't. And then it worked again."
"Was it an emotional reaction? Like what caused you to initially...be altered?"
"Maybe? I don't know!" Jay can feel the itchy patches slowly return.
Wu frowns. He reaches for his teapot. "Green tea?
Within a moment, Jay finds himself on the floor of Wu's room, drinking non-magical tea out of a small cup.
It's warm. Warm is nice.
The itchy green spots fade once more.
"It's an emotional reaction," Wu remarks, watching Jay settle down.
Jay takes a deep breath. "You said there were two teas, in case one failed. What about the other one?"
"It could cure any serpentine affliction. Fangpyre bites. Anything impacted by venomari acid. Severe hypnobrai trances."
"What, does it undo death from being strangled by constrictai?" Jay snickers.
Wu shrugs. "I can make it if you would like. It should work about the same as anti-venom-"
"Yeah, I tried anti-venom already and it did not help."
"It would still be worth trying."
"Alright, can it wait until the rest of the team comes home? I think Cole might need some for a wound..."
------------------
Tea attempt number two.
It seems like it did nothing.
Dunno, it's hard to tell considering that Jay was already in a pretty calm state.
It did wonders for Cole's bite wound though. The wound is still there, but it seemed to help the burn.
"What was it about Fritz Donnegan that set him off?" Lloyd whispers to Wu.
Wu sighs. "I have no clue who or what you're talking about."
Jay and Cole help clean up the kitchen.
-----------------
It's the first night in a while that Cole fell asleep with his arm feeling normal. No stinging or burning.
Just him, his pillow, and a wound that's finally starting to heal.
And then scaley hands shake him.
He hugs his pillow tighter.
Someone tries to tug his pillow away from him.
He swats the person away.
The person picks up Cole's arm and starts pulling the pillow out.
Cole slaps harder.
"Ssshhhit."
Cole snaps one eye open. "What do you waaannn- fuck!"
Jay's standing over him, having reverted to the form he took before drinking the first cup of tea.
Cole sits up. He groans so hard and so angrily that he practically growls as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "What happened?"
Jay sits on Cole's black comforter. "It'sss an emotional reaction. The firssst tea worked jussst not how we exxxpected becaussse I'm a 'ssspecccial' cassse and the sssecond one I don't think did anything."
"Okay. What were you freaking out about now?"
"I don't know, I wasss lossst in thought and then thisss happened and now I'm here becaussse I need help calming down."
Cole sighs. He opens his arms.
Jay eagerly hugs him.
Cole wraps his arms around Jay. "If this happens again tomorrow night, you're dealing with it on your own."
"Mkay."
"You know I have to sleep too, right?"
"Yeah."
"You know I have my own issues to sleep off, right?"
"I know."
"Okay. So you're leaving me alone tomorrow night. Understood?"
"Mhhhmmm."
Cole sighs. He pats Jay on the head. "If you're gonna be here, can I boop the snoot?"
"No."
"Screw you too, then."
Jay flicks his tongue out. He tries to look as cute and innocent as possible to mask the shit-eating grin that he's so close to making.
"You're a terrible friend," Cole says playfully stern, a slight laugh in his voice.
"I'm okay with that." Jay's grin shines through.
They fall asleep together, hugging, Cole's back against the wall, Jay's head against his chest.
Jay returns to normal by morning.
It was still a pain for Cole to get him out of bed.
Cole got up, brushed his teeth, got out of his pajamas, and cleaned his wound (which was healing great! Finally!) before returning to Jay, who was, despite a 99% human appearance, still basking in the warmth of sunlight and blankets.
Whatever ends up happening next, they can deal with it. All of them.
For now though, it seems like everyone could use some rest.