Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything was blurry. The buildings towering above him seemed to sway with each step, causing him to lose his already poor balance. He stumbled into something hard, the rough stone grating against his hand as he tried to catch himself. It didn’t quite work as he landed painfully on his knees, but everything was buzzy and numb anyway so he didn’t really feel it. 

His head spun, stars and lightning bolts dancing in his vision. Oh, that was pretty. He reached a hand out to grab one but his hand swiped at empty air. Heh, oh yeah that wasn’t real, was it? He must’ve been pretty bad off. He racked his brain to try to remember what happened, but a spike of pain shot through his temple. His hand pressed against his head, trying to will the pain away, his face twisted in a grimace. 

He remembered being on patrol. It was dark, the only light coming from the moon as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop. For some reason, he’d been alone that night. Jay was supposed to go with him, but had gotten sick after dinner and since things had been slow recently, Sensei had decided it was alright for Kai to go alone. The fire ninja took a mental note (or tried to) to remind Sensei they had a buddy system for a reason. 

The night had been cool, the brisk air refreshing and sending excited shivers through his body. Even when he’d heard the cries for help from the alley, he’d remained optimistic, assuming it was just a couple low-level thugs. Kai slid down the fire escape, landing in the shadows as he took in the scene. A few large men stood around a young woman. One of the men held her wrist tightly as she stared at him wide-eyed and pleading. Another held what must’ve been her purse in their hand. 

Kai’s blood boiled. What kind of men thought it was cool to gang up and pick on someone weaker than them? It was why he loved being a ninja. Standing up for justice. Some people just needed to get kicked back into the hole they came from. These guys were no exception. With a sigh, he emerged from the shadows, looking at his nails in a bored kind of way. 

“Do I really need to ask you all to pick on someone your own size?” he said. 

Four heads turned his way. Two of the men were bald and twice Kai’s size, but their beer bellies were telling of their fighting abilities. The other man was scrawnier, but had some sort of weapon strapped to his side. The woman’s face flooded in relief as she spotted the ninja and all the men’s attention turnd away from her.

“A ninja,” Baldy #1 sneered. “Didn’t think we’d be having this much fun tonight.” 

Kai’s eyes locked with the woman’s, completely ignoring the man. He jutted his chin towards the entrance to the alley. “Get out of here,” he told her. She didn’t need to be told twice and neither did the scrawny guy holding the purse apparently. He handed it to her without question as she scurried away. 

The fire ninja turned back to the pathetic group of men. “Now, do you all want to wait nicely for the police or have a little fun?” 

“How about option number three?” Baldy #2 said. His gaze travelled up in time to give Kai a warning. 

The fire ninja dove out of the way as several men leapt from the rooftops above. He heard the whisk of a blade slashing down right where his head at been. Things just got interesting. Distantly, he figured this must’ve been kind of set up. These guys must’ve assumed the ninja would be out patrolling and set up some kind of trap. Several more men had entered the alley, and Kai lost himself in the fight, unfazed. He didn’t even bother to alert the others. He could handle this easy. Until he couldn’t. 

He’d taken out several men, twisting and turning, using his momentum to leap off the brick walls and kick people in the face. Kai’s katana stayed strapped in place on his back, and he relished in the feeling of his taped fists meeting flesh, knowing his hands would be sore tomorrow but not caring one bit. Battle scars were exciting - telling of one’s great adventures. Not that this was exactly deserving of that title, but still. He would sleep well after this. 

Except he hadn’t realized just how many men were in the alleyway until it was too late. Clearly, the men were so pathetic in their attempts to take him out that they had called for backup and soon Kai’s chest was heaving with effort as he continued to dodge their meaty, greedy claws. But his focus faltered for a brief moment and it cost him dearly. 

A hand snatched the collar of his gi, and Kai yelped as he found himself lifted off his feet. He dangled for a moment in the grasp of a man as large as Killow, twisting around and trying to release the guy’s grip. The man simply laughed at his efforts as if Kai were a silly little bug that just needed to be squashed. And squashed Kai would be.

“Let me go!”  He flailed, fists sparking as he pried at the man’s fingers (even one of them was almost the size of Kai’s whole hand). 

“Oh, alright,” The man growled, but his eyes glinted with something dangerous. “Like this?” 

Then he slammed Kai into the ground. The sound of something cracking reached Kai’s ears, he wasn’t sure if it was the asphalt or his back, but his head was jerked back and then pain. His world whited out, he might’ve cursed, but there was no rational thought as his ears runged and his oxygen was whisked away both from the force of the impact but also the large hand that still clung to him, pressing him further into the ground. Like a wild animal, the Master of Fire lashed out, hands lighting in a blaze because who the heck did this guy think he was? Kai wasn’t about to let this guy get the best of him. He had a family to get back to. 

With a distant roar, Kai’s leg swept up and caught the guy in the no-no square. The man crumpled down with an enraged cry, but Kai wasted no time in leaping to his feet. The world swayed dangerously around him, and he knew he needed to get away fast because there were still a few more men and he wasn’t going to be able to manage them in this state. 

Somehow, he’d managed to make it out of the alley, maybe it had something to do with the fiery fists he’d used to knock out the remaining few guys. His foot landed in something wet, splashing up his pant leg. But he kept going. If he stopped, he wasn’t sure he would continue. That’s when he’d lost his balance and found himself collapsing to the ground. 

His ears were still ringing, the only sound he could decipher being his own harsh breathing but even that sounded distant to him. Kai squeezed his eyes shut against a wave of nausea, his arms trembling as they continued to hold him up. He was in a bit of trouble, wasn’t he? His hands fumbled with something on his wrist. He needed to call someone. After a bit of effort, he managed to tap his comm link on. His vision blurred further at the harsh bluelight, and he squinted to try to make out the time. 2:23am. Great. Who would possibly be awake at this hour? Thinking back on it, that was a stupid question. Any one of the ninja could be awake for a variety of different reasons, not excluding insomnia, nightmares, etc. 

But who should Kai call? He couldn’t think straight and his head screamed at him to just collapse and sleep right here. But his small bit of first aid training was drilled into his head and he could just hear Zane and Nya screaming at him to stay awake, you idiot! (Well, Zane wouldn’t yell like that…) He managed to tap on his contact list and scrolled through the tiny list of numbers. Wu was most likely asleep, so that was a no. Nya and Lloyd were out of the question - he wasn’t going to worry his little siblings like this. Jay was also a no, he would just panic and talk to much and add to Kai’s growing headache. Zane was the logical choice, but his name was too far down on the list and Kai’s head hurt so he tapped on the first logical name he thought of and the call began to buzz. 

It rang and rang and rang until the call dropped off and spurred into Cole’s voicemail. Kai would deny to anyone that asked the pitiful whimper that escaped his lips. He could hear some shouts from behind him and knew he had to keep moving, the men were behind him and would find him soon. Somehow, he got to his feet, leaning against the building for support as he stumbled along, his head feeling airy like a balloon. In fact, when the pain wasn’t there, this was kind of fun, and Kai felt like jumping on top of a table and singing his favorite karaoke song, but wait, he was supposed to be doing something. Oh yeah, Cole. He tapped the commlink again, going cross-eyed as he tried to read the screen. It rang and rang and rang some more, and FSM Cole, I never ask for help and the one time I really need it…

“Kai?” Finally. The voice was husky from sleep, but it was Cole’s voice alright. “What’s up, man?” He seemed to stifle a yawn in between his words. 

Kai wasn’t sure he could even speak. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth. “Um…hi,” he tried. There must’ve been an awful amount of silence in between him trying to get his brain to work to explain further, and Cole working to comprehend everything with his sleep-addled brain. Kai might’ve even blacked out, because he was leaning against a building at one point then tripping on a lamp post in another. 

“Hi?” Cole finally said, as Kai huffed and tried to get his stupid legs under him again. Stupid stupid useless legs. “You called me at 3am to say hi?” Realization seemed to dawn on him in that moment. “Wait a minute, you’re on patrol, aren’t you? Where are you?” There was a rustling on the other line, like someone getting out of bed. The Master of Earth seemed more awake now, though Kai was still just trying to stand up. 

His tongue was stuck out in concentration, and he silently cheered for himself when he finally stood up. Except the wave of dizziness struck him like a tsunami wave threatening to drown him. 

“Kai, hold on, I’m coming.” Oh, Kai must’ve cheered out loud. No wait that was a whimper of pain. Because Cole knew something was wrong now, and he was running around throwing on his clothes and there was the sound of a car door slamming and okay, yay Cole was coming to get him. 

Kai was back on his knees again, when did that happen? The ground was so cold, the puddle of water he was staring at warped his face funny. He laughed at it, but didn’t dare touch the water. 

“Kai, you still there?” He could make out the hint of worry in Cole’s voice. What had his brother so upset? The piercing pain in his head made itself apparent again, and Kai groaned. Oh, right. He needed to tell Cole…

“My head.” Kai thought he said something along those lines. “Big guy, this tall. Totally beat him.” He was using his arms to gesture, not realizing his friend couldn’t see him.

“Yeah, I bet you did, buddy,” Cole said, with both growing concern and upbeat sarcasm dripping in his voice that Kai was oblivious to. But he could hear the revving of the engine as the earth master whipped down the desert road like a madman. “Keep talking, okay? I’m almost there. He got you pretty good, didn’t he?” He tried to keep his tone light for his patient’s sake. 

“Good?” Kai giggled. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m soo good,” he drawled. He pushed to his feet, stumbling in the puddle as more water splashed up his legs. Ew, he hated water. 

“Water?” Cole asked. Oh, Kai said that out loud too. “Kai, are you near water?” 

“No…it’s jssst on my legs,” the fire ninja said. He could hear footsteps and shouting behind him again. “They’re coming,” he whined, survival instincts pushing him forward. There was a shiny, bright light up ahead, it was pretty but it was hurting his head, ow stop, don’t come any closer…

“I’m right here, Kai, I got you.” 

The light went away, and someone jumped out of the shadows. Kai tried to track the figure with his eyes, but it was hard, everything was so far away. He could hear the sound of fists hitting flesh for a few minutes than everything was silent. The fireflies were so pretty. 

“Kai?”

He blinked, someone’s face coming in and out of focus in front of him. He was lying on his back, the dark sky sprinkled with stars like a giant donut. Kai didn’t really like donuts, but Cole and Lloyd did. He should get some donuts for them on the way home. 

“Kai, buddy, look at me.” Someone snapped fingers in front of his face, the sharp noise drawing his attention. His eyes lazily found the source of the noise, then finally focused in on the worried expression of the person leaning above him. Cole wilted in relief as some flicker of recognition flashed through Kai. “Hey, good, that’s it. Seems like you’ve got a gnarly concussion. Are you hurt anywhere else?”

Hmm, was Kai hurt anywhere else? He wasn’t sure. His head hurt. Everything else was just kind of numb. He thinks he tried to shake his head, but the motion caused a ripple of pain to go down his spine and he whimpered. Cole’s face pinched in concern again and sorry I didn’t mean to make you worry…

“What are you sorry for?” 

Kai would’ve face-palmed if it wouldn’t hurt his head. He really needed to get this whole thinking out loud thing under control. “Sorry for-” His hand waved in a vague circle in front of him. “You. Sleeping,” he mumbled, unable to string any other words together. 

Cole sighed. “It’s all good, buddy. Let’s just get you home, okay? Zane will be ready in the medbay. I’m gonna help you up, okay?” 

Help him up? Where was he? Did he fall down in a hole? He looked around as his body was lifted off the ground. This didn’t look like a hole. Then again, he couldn’t see much of anything anyway. 

“You’re not in a hole, Kai,” Cole assured him. 

Kai’s feet were under him, and he tried to walk, taking a step forward towards the shadowy thing with the bright lights. His knees didn’t cooperate, sending him crumpling towards the ground like hello. An unmanly shriek escaped him as he saw the ground about to make a pancake out of his face.

“Woah, woah!” But he was saved by an unknown stranger at the last second. “That’s it, I’m carrying you.” Said stranger picked him up like he was a sack of potatoes, and Kai watched the ground move dizzyingly beneath him. His stomach felt kinda funny actually…

“I’m gonna throw up…” 

“Kai, don’t you dar-”

It was too late. A sickening spew of puke rocketed down the earth ninja’s backside. Thankfully, most of it hit the ground but some of it splashed his pant leg and he froze, eyes closed as he sucked in a steadying breath. It was much too late (or early?) for this. 

Kai just snorted some sort of laugh that turned into another whimper of pain. “Sorry,” he said, sniffling as though genuinely sad about his actions. The ground continued to move beneath him, he was flying!, until the sound of a door opening reached his ears and he was placed down on a cool leather seat. 

Someone sat in the seat in front of him, turning around to secure his seatbelt around him while he sat in his perfect little lala land. Kai’s hands reached out and pet Cole’s hair like a puppy. 

“You have soft hair,” he said, eyes as wide as saucers. Then he swayed dizzily, blinking rapidly and resting his head back against the seat.

Cole just huffed, turning to reach for something from the glove compartment and holding it out to Kai. With his other hand, he reached out to tap Kai’s cheek.

“Hey. You gotta stay awake, fire dork.” He hoped the nickname would knock some sort of sense into him. It didn’t seem to work as Kai’s eyes remained unfocused, still staring at the pretty stars around Cole’ sface. “Here.” The earth master pressed something into Kai’s hands, who looked down after taking much too long to register the weight in his palm. 

Immediately, he started playing with the item, which just so happened to be a toy fidget knife that Jay had once left in Cole’s car. It was nice to see it coming in handy now. The engine revved as his car came to life again, the black ninja immediately reaching to turn the radio down to a low volume for his patient’s sensitive head. He left it on so he didn’t have to focus on the incessant clicking noise of the fidget knife being flicked open and close, open, close, open…

Kai was hanging by a thread by the time they reached the Bounty. He was pretty sure he blacked out again, completely disassociating with whatever happened between being in Cole’s car and floating through the air. He came to again to the mechanical sound of the anchor chain lulling him to sleep as he slumped in Cole’s grip. They landed on the deck, Cole’s feet echoing across the wood, soon joined by a second pair and hushed voices going over his head. 

The fire ninja rolled his head to get a look at the newcomer, because maybe they wanted donuts too. Oh, wait, he forgot to get the donuts. Tears welled in his eyes. How could he be so selfish! 

“It’s alright, Kai,” Someone new was saying. Their voice had an amused tone, like they were laughing at him. “I can make donuts in the morning. How does that sound?” Kai squinted at the blond man, who stood in front of him where he now sat on something soft. 

Zane? When did Zane come to fight the bad men? This time, the nindroid did laugh, joined by the earth ninja, who Kai realized was sitting on a bed nearby. He looked like he wanted to sleep again, but Kai didn’t think that was his real bed. In fact, he didn’t think he was in his own bed either and he wanted to be. 

“Not tonight, Kai,” Zane tutted at him, maneuvering a silky shirt over Kai’s head. He hadn’t realized his gi had even come off. “I have to keep you in the med bay to monitor you until the morning.” 

“Did you tell Nya?” Cole’s voice spoke again, this time visibly yawning. 

“Nya…” Kai whined for his sister.

He tried really hard to look between the two and listen to Zane’s response, but his vision crossed again and caused him to sway. He tilted forward, his body felt fuzzy and warm and he just wanted a hug, and Zane was a good hugger, right so…He slumped forward, his head landing against something soft and cool. He sighed in relief, the feeling welcome against his throbbing head. At first, the nindroid appeared shocked and a bit worried, but a quick flash of his eyes reassured him that nothing had drastically changed, so his nimble hands reached out and found the base of Kai’s head, massaging very very gently. 

“It’s alright, Kai,” the nindroid’s voice was soft and soothing. Kai wanted to sleep just like this. But the gentle hands became firm, easing him down on the bed and tucking the covers over him. He whimpered as the cool hands left. “Nya will come see you in the morning. You can sleep now, I’ll watch over you.” 

A few more words were exchanged by the earth and ice pair, but Kai was long gone. It wasn’t a bad feeling, though. He had the distinct, fuzzy feeling that he was safe and protected. He watched as the earth ninja patted his foot comfortingly before leaving the room to head back to bed, and Zane pulled a chair over to sit next to Kai’s bed. A smile tried to make his way onto his face, as he found Zane’s hand and tucked it under his chin. And with that, his eyes slid closed. 

Chapter Text

It was one of those times where Jay seriously questioned Sensei’s judgement. Why the old man thought it would be smart to send him into a cornfield in the middle of FSM knows where, in the middle of the night and with Kai of all people, was beyond him. Everyone knew the elemental masters of chaos going anywhere alone together was a disaster waiting to happen. Throw in a creepy field and a full moon and Ninjago would surely fall to its knees in peril.

But here they were. Kai was ahead of him, cloaked in violet moonlight, slashing through the nearly-ripe corn like they were in the jungle of a deserted island. Jay felt bad for the farmers whose crops (and yearly wages) were unknowingly being destroyed by the very ninja who had sworn to protect them. But he wasn’t about to say anything to his brother now. The fire ninja was already in a mood as much as it was. And Jay was not in the mood to fall prey to Kai’s makeshift machete nor cause a ruckus that would lead to being eaten by whatever odd creature they were supposedly hunting - something Sensei had called the weresabres. Apparently there had been reports of mysterious creatures preying on cattle and even threatening the livestock guardian dogs many farmers had nowadays. The description of the creatures must’ve been weird enough for the police to call upon the ninja.

Up ahead, Kai froze, shoulders tense and head tilted to the side as if listening for something. But Jay kept moving, his eyes too focused on looking for any flash of movement or glowing eyes around them.

“Hey, Kai, what do you- ah!” Jay yelped as he nearly ran smack into his friend’s back.

Kai jerked his head around to glare at him. “Shhhh. Do you want to become weresable or whatever they’re called food?”

Jay swallowed nervously, fingers twitching to reach for his nunchucks. “Weresabres,” he corrected, earning a sharper glare from his brother. “And come on, don’t be paranoid, we haven’t heard or seen anything yet. Maybe it was a false alarm.” (It was hypocritical of him, as paranoid as he was himself but it was rare to see his arrogant brother like this too so he had to mess with him.)

“If it were a false alarm, why would 13 different farmers report livestock missing and hearing strange noises in the middle of the night?” The red ninja started moving again as he talked, his golden blade slashing away.

“Isn’t that just describing coyotes?” Jay said, scrambling to catch up with Kai’s longer strides.

“Could be, but the glowing red eyes and slash marks left on the fences and the sides of barns tell otherwise.” Kai paused again, looking over the corn to the tree line in the distance. “Wait, Jay, did you hear that?” The sudden apprehension in his tone made the blue ninja’s gut churn.

“Hear what exactly?” He asked, following Kai’s gaze.

“I-I don’t know,” the red ninja breathed. “Stay here. I’m gonna get a little closer this way.” He turned to the right and began to wade through the corn off the little path, his wild crop of hair the only thing Jay could see of him in the moonlight.

“Kai, wait-“ Jay hissed, panic pricking his heart. “This is how people die in horror movies!” But his stupid reckless brother didn’t stop. That is until he let out a scream and appeared to be yanked to the ground, his head disappearing.

“Kai?!” Jay gasped, eyes bugging out of his head. Without thinking, he sprinted in the direction his friend had gone, nunchucks pulled off his back and ready to fly. He trampled through the itchy cornstalks, eyes trained at the ground and looking for any sign of his friend. His heart thudded painfully against his chest and oh FSM the weresabres had taken Kai and…

Something grabbed Jay’s foot, and he screamed, birds flying up into the air at the high pitched noise. The blue ninja jumped higher than the cornstalks, the hand falling away from his ankle as a cackling laugh followed the echoing scream. Jay’s eyes blazed as he looked down to see Kai pushing himself out of the dirt howling in laughter. His amber eyes flickered mischievously as he brushed off the front of his gi.

“Don’t do that!” Jay growled, punching his friend in the shoulder. “Weren’t you the one afraid to make too much noise?”

Kai’s smirk was even more annoying with the glint of the moonlight in his eyes. “I only said all that to make you nervous. You know I don’t believe in fairytales until I see it for myself.” He walked back towards the path.

Jay blinked at his back as he followed. “Every single “fairytale” we’ve ever heard of has come true. You’re really going to tell me you don’t believe these things are real?”

Kai turned around to give him a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t you say you thought it could just be coyotes?”

“Well, yeah that’s just what I’m hoping for! Best case scenario, you know? Positive thinking! You should try it sometime.” It was Jay’s turn to smirk though Kai couldn’t see it.

Kai said nothing. They traipsed through the mud in silence for a few minutes until Jay got tired of it and began to whistle quietly. Thinking back on it, it was probably what caused him to miss the very distinct growling that began shortly before disaster struck.

“Jay, be quiet,” Kai barked at him.

“Pshtt, I’m not falling for that again.” Said ninja rolled his eyes and continued his whistling.

Even when Kai yelped and was “dragged” to the ground again, Jay continued, simply wading through the last few feet of corn before getting to the spot where Kai had supposedly been snatched.
When he didn’t see him, Jay sighed heavily. He hated the way his heart skipped a beat even though Kai was just messing with him again…right?

“Alright, Kai, very funny, you can come out now.” Jay continued walking, frowning when he passed the spot he’d last seen Kai. His hands fiddled with his pant leg, itching to grab his weapon and sock his friend in the face when he showed himself. “Kai, please,” he resorted to begging. My heart really can’t take more of this, dude, just come out!”

But Kai still didn’t come out and now Jay’s heart was pounding because he could hear some scuffling in the grass and now while he wasn’t whistling, he could hear the faint but distinct sound of growling.

“Kai?” Jay called, now actually worried. He ran through the stalks, not caring now if this was some kind of intricate prank. If it was, it was not funny and he was sure he could get everyone on his side later when rehashing the story.

But after hearing his brother’s cry of pain, Jay wished it was a prank after all. Kai rarely let anyone knew when he was in pain so anytime he did so happen to let out a cry, it was bound to be serious.

“Kai!” Jay ripped through the corn now, the sharp stalks shredding at his hands but he didn’t care. The growling increased as he got closer and just as he was sure he was about to stumble upon some horrible gruesome scene of Kai’s body torn to shreds, blood and flesh and guts everywhere (why Jay why do you do this to yourself), the fire ninja ripped through the field, nearly crashing into Jay. But he didn’t stop, pulling the blue ninja along with him. Jay shrieked in panic and in pain at the iron grip Kai had on his arm. He tried to look over his shoulder to where he could hear snarling and animalistic yelping and something like the snapping of sharp teeth. Looking back seemed to slow him down though and whatever Kai had seen had put him in a frenzy and he yanked Jay forward so hard the blue ninja almost landed face first in the dirt. Only Kai’s bruising grip kept him upright.

“Kai, what is it?! Is it the weresabres?” Jay tried. He knew it was a stupid question. But he didn’t even get a glare in response which concerned him even more. The edge of the field was drawing near and Jay suddenly noticed his brother’s ragged breathing and the way his unoccupied hand pressed against his side. That, along with the scream he’d heard, made him automatically suspicious.

“They got you, didn’t they?” No response. “Kai - Woah!” Jay was yanked ahead of the red ninja and this time he couldn’t keep his balance as the hold on his arm disappeared, and he went flying forward, tumbling into the dirt on the outskirts of the field. He pushed himself up and looked back where Kai was facing the corn, katana raised.

Jay scrambled to his feet as the first hideous creature leapt from the crops, howling and gnashing its teeth. It looked like a cross between a wolf and a saber tooth tiger, its canines sticking out of its mouth and its face scrunched like a pig about. It leapt straight at Kai despite the glinting sword held menacingly towards it. The blue ninja was frozen in terror as the creature caught his brother off guard, taking them both to the ground. He wasn’t sure who was growling now, sure it was a mixture of both Kai and the weresabre.

The red ninja recovered quickly, his blade held in two hands the only thing keeping the creature’s snapping jaws at bay until he swung a leg up and kicked it in the side. It whimpered in pain but came right back for more until Kai swung the sword down and chopped its head clean off. A dark liquid spurted up from the now headless body. Jay shut his eyes and heard Kai’s noise of disgust as it spurted up at him.

After a minute, Jay winked an eye open and looked at the scene cautiously. Kai was using his sleeve to wipe blood off his face. Then he was turning back to the field, the katana still clutched tightly in case anything else jumped from the shadow. His chest heaved in effort and Jay hoped it was just from adrenaline, but Kai’s little stumble backwards was his telltale.

“Kai?” He needed to tread lightly here. Talking to a wounded Kai was like trying to free a wounded animal. Jay needed to divert his attention elsewhere until he could survey the damage himself. “You think there’s any more out there?”

Kai didn’t look at him, which left enough time for Jay to creep slowly up behind him. He stopped just behind him, waiting for his response. It took a little longer than Jay would’ve liked for his friend to form words.

“I don’t know, it sounded like there were but…” (But I’m hurting.)

“Should we go back to the Bounty and report our findings?” Jay suggested, taking another tentative step forward. One or two more and he’d be able to see what Kai was clearly trying to hide from him with the way he titled his body away. “We can bring the whole team back tomorrow and take care of things a lot faster.”

Kai finally swiveled his head to look at him. With how bright the moon was, Jay could see the sheen of sweat building on his friend’s brow. The scary thing was…Kai didn’t sweat. At least not usually. The amber of his eyes was nearly hidden by enlarged pupils, and Jay didn’t think it was just because of the darkness. Jay’s eyes flickered down subtly, noting how one of Kai’s hands still clutched his sword and the other hung at his side, fingers twitching like he wanted to reach for something. (For his wound…) Jay was quite observant when he wanted to be.

“No, we can do this,” Kai was saying, his free hand rifling through his hair as he looked back out at the field. There were some howls in the distance and the screeching sound of a dying animal. Jay shuddered, and watched Kai mirror his action. And then continue swaying. “Yeah, we can totally do this.” He was nodding his head rapidly as if trying to convince himself. The red ninja took a step forward towards the field…and his knees buckled beneath him.

Jay yelped, lunging forward to catch his friend by the shoulders. He was prepared for something like this to happen since Kai had a bad habit of being stupidly stubborn and hiding things until he physically couldn’t anymore, but still he grunted, stumbling under Kai’s weight as he hauled him upright.

Kai was already trying to wave him off. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said, trying to shove Jay’s hands away but the fact that he wasn’t strong enough to pry his fingers off his shoulders was even more concerning. “We’ve gotta finish the mission, let go of me.”

“You’re not fine,” Jay said, turning Kai around so he could get an actual look at the weekly grievous wound he was sporting. He winced at the three slash marks visible in Kai’s suit, blood visibly soaking through the red gi. “Yeah, you’re not arguing your way out of this one, buddy. Let’s get you home.”

He dragged Kai around until his arm was over Jay’s shoulder and began to walk back towards their vehicles. He’d have to have Lloyd and Cole come back for Kai’s bike since there was no way Jay was letting his friend drive in this state. He was reckless enough as it is while he wasn’t bleeding out, and Nya was already going to kill him for not preventing her reckless brother from getting himself hurt again, so he needed all the brownie points he could get.

“Jay, stop,” Now Kai was whining, which was definitely not a good sign. He jerked away again and Jay let him, if only to make him see how dumb he was being. Sure enough, the red ninja stumbled away, tripped on nothing and crumpled to the ground.

Jay raised his eyes to the sky and huffed at the curly strand of hair hanging down over his forehead before kneeling down next to his friend who was now making a poor attempt to stand back up. If this hadn’t happened about eight times in the last month, Jay might’ve been more concerned but at this point, he was convinced Kai came built in with 9 extra lives as if the FSM knew he would need them. So now it was like talking to a stubborn child who didn’t want to go to timeout.

“Kai, come on.” Jay tugged at his arm, but he groaned in response and pulled back, dropping onto his butt. Jay stood and put his hands on his hips. Time to call in the big guns. “Kai, if you don’t let me take you home right now, I’m going to call Nya and tell her you’re being a big stupid dum dum again.”

That did it. Kai’s eyebrows shot up, looking up at Jay as if he’d just told him he was calling in a nuclear bomb. He then pushed himself onto his knees, trying to get his feet under him but failing, leaning towards Jay and grasping at his blue gi to haul himself up. Kai’s fingers stayed entertwined in the fabric at Jay’s chest, his legs hanging limply down.

“Please don’t call Nya,” Kai begged, shaking his head from side to side. “I don’t wanna die.” His lip jutted out in a pout and then his grip failed, and Jay decided not to let him fall again and grabbed him under the arms before he could faceplant. He found it ironic that Kai was more scared of his sister’s wrath than the fact that his precious life force was leaking out along the dirt road as Jay dragged him to the car.

“You’re so stupid,” Jay huffed, but he rolled his eyes fondly because they all had their stupid traits right, and this was Kai’s. As infuriating as his brothers could be, their stubborn traits were what made them…them.

They made it to Jay’s vehicle, a sleek new sports car that was sleek and smooth to be aerodynamic and quick as lightning. He went to pop the hood, letting Kai rest against the side. He dug around in the storage pocket at the front of the car and pulled out a dirt cloth. There was probably some sort of infection risk but Jay was never the resident doctor and he figured it was better than nothing. He came back around to give Kai the cloth, but…Kai wasn’t there.

“Kai?” Jay’s head swiveled around as he peered through the darkness looking for his friend. “Kai, come on man, where’d you go? I swear you’re the worst patient…” How could he have possibly gone far with a wound like that?

Grunts of effort came from his right, back towards the field so cloth still in hand, Jay jogged that way, easily catching up with the struggling shadow of his friend who was half-walking, half-crawling back to the field.

“Hey, get back here! I’m not a cowboy wrangling a horse!” Jay ran around and cut his friend off, hands in his hips and feet spread wide.

Kai looked up at him from all fours. Then proceeded to headbutt Jay’s shins.

“Ow!” Jay doubled over, grabbing at his sensitive shin bones as Kai scrambled away, zig-zagging his way to the field like he wanted to die. There was no time for Jay to grovel in his pain. He took off after Kai, his natural speed and Kai’s injury making it easy once again for him to catch up. This time, Jay used his montenum to fling himself at Kai’s back and full on tackle him to the ground. The red ninja yelped in pain, but rolled around to grapple with him. The two wrestle back and forth in the dirt, elbows and hands flying as Jay struggled to pin his brother down. He really wished he had Cole’s super strength right about now so he could just wrap Kai up and he could do nothing about it. But finally, Kai’s arms trembled with weakness and Jay caught his wrists, screwing his eyebrows together to pin the fire ninja with an overly serious look.

“I’m calling Nya,” he said through gritted teeth. “Right now.”

Again Kai shook his head frantically. “No, no no no, I’m coming, I’m coming!”

So back to the car they went. Jay all but shoved him into the backseat and slapped the cloth down on Kai’s still bleeding wound. Kai made no move to put pressure on himself, in fact he didn’t even look at Jay. His eyes were glazed over, the only light in them being the stars that reflected off them as he stared blankly into the distance. His skin was getting paler by the second and if Jay didn’t see his chest rising and falling, he would’ve thought Kai was dying…but no, that couldn’t be right because Kai had at least two more lives left right…

“Kai,” Jay said, prodding his shoulder with a poking finger. “Come on, man snap out of it.”

“The stars are so pretty…” Kai slurred, but he was no longer looking at the stars. Jay followed his gaze to where a cluster of fireflies flickered around some weeds by the nearby fence.

“I know, but that’s not the stars, Kai,” Jay said, before forcefully pressing the cloth down on Kai’s wound. The fire ninja grunted, legs kicking up at the sudden pain. But at least it seemed to snap him out of whatever funk he was in. Jay knew it was probably from the blood loss, but chose not to think about that because this was no time for Kai to choose to die. “It means things are not good, and we really need to get you home now so Zane can help you. Hold this here.”

Kai whined, but seemed to gain at least some lucidity as his hands came up to cover his wound and put some pressure on. Satisfied, Jay sank into his own seat and tapped his comm to send a quick message to Zane so he could be prepped. He almost laughed to himself at the nindroid’s response.

Zane: Again?

It had only been a few weeks since Cole had gotten the call at 3am after Kai’s patrol incident.

Jay: Lol. Yeah. I had to threaten to sic Nya on him to get him to come home.

Zane: Oh don’t worry. Nya will be made aware.

Jay: I knew I could count on you, Zane. Tell her to lay it on thick.

Kai wobbled on his feet, his head swimming as if the ocean was all around him, as Jay all but carried him inside. He wasn’t sure what happened at the stairs, he thinks someone else came to help because he floated down them and didn’t tumble to his death which he’s sure would’ve happened if he had tried to walk on his own. Then he was in the med bay and a hint of mental clarity returned as he heard the familiar sound of angry, stomping feet coming down the hallway. He turned just in time to see his little sister barreling towards him, storm clouds rolling across her face.

“Kai Mitsuo Tanaka Smith!” She yelled, jabbing a finger at him as she stopped several feet away. Jay looked just as scared as he felt, which was saying something as he all but shook at the vindictive look on Nya’s face. He would’ve pulled away from Jay if he thought he could stand on his own. Falling backwards to the floor probably wouldn’t help his case right now. “What were you thinking?!” Nya continued. “You’re supposed to call someone as soon as you get hurt, that’s the rule now since apparently you get hurt every dang time we let you out on patrol and I know how you like to hide things but not anymore, mister!”

Kai smiled nervously, sweat trickling down his face, his skin feeling clammy and cold. “I’m sorry, sis,” he said, turning on the puppy dog eyes. “It's just a little cut, I didn’t it was that important-“

“Important?!” Nya raged, face turning red. “You got slashed by a strange new creature with 8 inch long claws and didn’t think it was important?” Her fingernails dug into her palms, little drops of blood about to spill from them.

“Um, yeah?” Kai scratched the back of his and took a step back which was a mistake, because his heel hit the doorframe and he careened backwards, only kept upright by Jay grabbing his shirt and Zane appearing out of nowhere to catch him from behind.

Thankfully, Zane saved him from having to speak again. The ice ninja leveled a neutral gaze at Nya.

“While I completely share your sentiment,” He drawled coolly, his eyes boring into Kai’s skull for a moment. “Perhaps the lecture should wait until after Kai is stable and has some time to rest. As soon as he wakes up again, I will be happy to join you in boring safety into your brother’s thick skull.” Dang, Zane was laying it on very thick. He must’ve been really pissed off. For once, Kai considered thinking through his actions before doing them. He quickly decided nah, that’s no fun. He shrugged his shoulders despite them not being able to hear his thought process. He squinted between Zane and Nya as they spoke around him. Suddenly, his sister’s neck grew a second head and Kai gasped in surprise.

“Nya?” Four eyes looked at him. “Why do you have two heads?”

He wasn’t sure what happened after that. He was too busy passing out as Nya screamed and the others scrambled to catch him. He thinks his eyes rolled back into his head and then everything went black.

Kai barely had his eyes open before he felt another pair on him. That was the only warning he got before Nya was leaping out her chair and whipping out words at him in perfect Spanish. He tried to listen, but his eyes glazed over about halfway through until he saw Jay’s head pop in the doorway. Kai’s eyes pleaded with him, and he mouthed, “Help me.” The blue ninja just smirked, shaking his head as he mouthed back, “You deserve this.” And slipped back through the door, leaving Kai at the mercy of his sister’s wrath.

Chapter Text

Kai was not sick. Sure, he’d woken up with a pounding head and aching limbs, but that was probably just due to the poor sleep he’d gotten last night. He was also ignoring the fact that his reason for poor sleep was because his body had been swinging between boiling alive in Torchfire Mountain and freezing to death in the Glacier Barrens. He woke up the next morning with a groan, wishing he could bury his head under his pillow and sleep for the rest of eternity. But if he slept too long, the others would come looking for him and that would prove that something was wrong with him. And Kai was fine. Perfectly healthy, fine. He needed to get out to breakfast. He  just hoped Zane wouldn’t read right through his mask.

The red ninja made his way to the kitchen, following the sound of obnoxiously loud laughter. He couldn’t smell anything, so either he was way late for breakfast, or his nose was a bit dysfunctional at the moment. Neither option boded particularly well for him. He ran into the door jamb on the way in, causing the others to look up curiously from their various attentions. Well, minus Jay and Lloyd who were too busy monkeying around. With Kai’s blurring vision, he couldn’t be too sure but he was pretty sure one of them had the other in a headlock. 

Kai slumped down in the empty chair next to Cole, head immediately coming to rest on the table with a dull thunk.

“Morning, hotshot, you’re up late. The fire monster chase you all night?” Cole smirked, bumping Kai’s shoulder with his own. The black ninja’s other hand was preoccupied scooping protein packed oatmeal into his mouth. 

Kai grunted in response, turning his head to look at his brother with bleary eyes. He knew he was doing a very poor job of hiding his…not sickness with the wat Zane and Nya’s eyes peered at him not so inconspicuously. Nya was trying to be sly, sneaking glances at him over her newspaper (since when did they get newspapers?), and Zane was eating his fruit bowl casually while still very clearly listening in on the earth and fire ninjas’ conversation. Kai could practically feel their suspicion palpably in the air, suffocating him. So he propped himself up on an elbow and threw on a smirk, before reaching across to tug at Cole’s bowl.

“Give me some of that.” Kai absolutely knew better than trying to take food from Cole, but he had to play up the fact that he was feeling just fine thank you very much, well enough to grapple with certain death via the Master of Earth. He shoved a bite of peanut butter oats into his mouth before the earth master could blink, probably caught off guard that anyone had dared to take his food. 

“Hey!” Cole growled, ripping the bowl back easily. “Since when did you find the audacity to steal food from me?”

“Since you accused me of dreaming about fire monsters,” Kai spit back, trying hard to swallow the nausea rising up his throat. He was secretly grateful he hadn’t had to take another bite of oats, his stomach twisting in protest at the one bite he had managed. “I assume you dream about rock monsters then?” 

“Touche.” Cole went back to his oatmeal without another word. 

Across the table, Nya must’ve decided it was her turn to pry. “What did you dream about then?” She asked, taking a sip of coffee. Kai sat up straighter, slinging an arm over the back of his chair casually, ignoring the wave of dizziness that overtook him with the action. 

“Oh, the usual.” Kai hoped his voice managed to sound nonchalant.

Nya quirked an eyebrow at him. Seeing she wasn’t convinced by his show, he knew he had to do more. 

“You know elves and gingerbread people. Maybe Santa Claus.” Kai waggled his fingers in the air. He was really laying it on thick, but it took every ounce of Kai’s horrible acting skills to convince his sister and the annoyingly perceptive nindroid to stay off his back. Nya just huffed, unamused as she returned to her paper, but not before shooting him an i’m watching you glare. Kai had practically been on lockdown since his last two injuries, the others having lectured him for days about self-awareness as well as caring about one’s own safety. Because apparently they believed Kai to have zero of that. He thought he was fine, but maybe that was their whole point. He shrugged the thought away, trying to get comfortable in his chair. 

“Would you like some breakfast, Kai?” Zane asked, picking up his empty bowl and moving to the kitchen sink. He looked over waiting for Kai’s response expectantly as he rinsed out his dish.

Kai was not hungry at all. But could he say that without giving himself away? Thankfully, he didn’t have to respond because Sensei Wu came from the opposite hallway sipping tea, catching all of their attention.

“Ah, good morning, my students.” Even Jay and Lloyd paused in their childish antics, joining the others in their chorused “good mornings.” Sensei smiled brightly, a twinkle in his eyes that told Kai their training was about to be brutal today. He wanted to groan, but bit the inside of his cheek to force it down. “I trust you will all be ready for training in the a quarter of an hour?” 

“Yes Sensei,” they all replied obediently. Cole, Lloyd and Jay were already on their feet, pushing and shoving down the hallway to be first in the bathroom. Kai would normally be among them, but he knew he wouldn’t stand a chance today. Still, he pushed himself to his feet to avoid further suspicion from Nya and turned back towards his room to change. 

“Kai, I trust you can grab a banana or a granola bar on your way out?” Zane called after him.

“Yeah, yeah.” Kai waved a hand over his shoulder. “I’ll grab something, thanks Z.” He shut the door behind him, his back pressed against it momentarily to steady himself. His vision was swimming, and it felt like thousands of fire ants were crawling around his body. How in Ninjago was he going to make it through training? Clenching his jaw tightly, Kai already knew the answer. By doing what he does best - faking it til he made it. And pure willpower. No one would suspect a thing. And everything would be fine. 

—

Everything was not fine. Sensei made them go through some of the most grueling movements, starting with basic balancing forms (which usually were quite easy, but not while your head felt like it was splitting apart), and moving into compound leaps and attacking movements. Kai’s head spun with each dizzying movement, but he squeezed his pristine six-pack and kept trucking on. 

He sparred with Cole, which was no easy feat, but at least Kai could hide his weakness a bit better than if he were sparring Jay. Jay would move far too quick for Kai in his current state, but Kai was still faster than the Master of Earth even with a raging fever (that wasn’t a fever, because he was NOT sick.) 

The sun bore down on Kai’s now bare back. (He and Cole had stripped off the top of half of their gis an hour ago due to the sweat sticking to every inch of them). A cool wind might’ve brought some relief, but for Kai, it only added to the conflicting temperatures flushing through his body. One moment, he was burning, the next he was shuddering with cold, goosebumps running up and down his skin. Thankfully, Cole seemed to miss all of that as Kai twisted and dodged his hits with practiced ease. 

After a while, the two tired of playing tag with each other and skidded to a halt, the cheers and jabs of the others ringing happily in the air. Kai bent over to catch his breath, seeing Cole doing the same. Both brunettes’ hair stuck to their foreheads, Cole using a hand to push his back while Kai flicked his head to the left in attempt to move his. He instantly regretted it as his vision blurred and he barely hid the stumble in his step as he worked to maintain his balance. 

“Nice work,” Cole said, reaching a hand out. Kai clasped the outstretched hand and shook once, pretending he was still too out of breath to give a response. He just jabbed a thumb towards the doorway, and Cole nodded in acknolwedement as Kai ducked inside. 

He made his way to the kitchen, his stomach now grumbling angrily as he’d skipped Zane’s advice at a quick breakfast earlier. The fire ninja grabbed a glass from the cupboard and made to fill it, when a particularly sharp wave of dizziness nearly had him bowling over. He stepped back, breath hitching as one hand steadied himself on the countertop. The glass was still in the other hand as he froze just in front of the fridge. His eyes blinked rapidly trying to rid themselves of the black spots dancing around in his vision. He was fine, he was fine, he was fine. 

“Kai?” A questioning voice from the doorway had him looking up. Lloyd stood there, green eyes concerned and searching. “You good?” He began to cross the floor towards him, and Kai straightened up, forcing a comforting smile onto his face. 

“Yeah, I’m fine, kid,” he managed, reaching out to ruffle the sticky blond hair as Lloyd approached him. He turned to fill his glass to avoid that searching gaze on his face. “Just had a tough spar with Cole.” Again, it wasn’t really a lie…the spar had been more difficult with his dulled senses. 

“Alright,” Lloyd said hesitantly, but he knew better than to question his big brother. “You wanna-” Whatever he was going to say got cut off with the familiar but blaring alarm that rang through the Monastery. 

This time Kai allowed himself to groan. No one could hear him after all. All he wanted to do right was shower off the sweat sticking to every inch of his body and crawl in bed to hide forever. But now those dreams were dashed. He heard the pounding feet as the others raced down from the deck, heading for the Hangar Bay. Kai allowed himself a few sips of water before slowly following behind.

Once down below, Kai remained behind everyone, silently observing. The only recognition he heard was Cole turning and around and tossing the shirt of his gi at his face. Kai caught it in his hands with a pfft as the sweaty fabric tossed his mouth. He muttered a thank you before trying to focus in on what the others were saying. He didn’t quite catch it all, something about a potential Vengestone operation they needed to check out. He only really tuned back in when someone called his name. 

“Kai. Kai!” He shook himself as his vision focused in on the person standing in front of him. Jay stood there, head tilted in confusion, his hand trailing down like he’d been waving it in Kai’s face. 

“Uh, what?” Kai tried to make it sound annoyed, like Jay had interrupted his daydreaming. 

“I said, am I good to ride with you on your bike? Nya and I are still working on my new jet in the shop.” 

Looking around, Kai saw that the other’s had already moved away from the screen, heading for their various vehicles. When had that happened? He looked back at Jay, working hard to focus his brain. 

“Um, yeah, I guess you can Zaptrap. Just don’t expect me to let you put your arms around me,” Kai hoped the quip would be enough to wipe the concern from Jay’s face. Thankfully, the lightning ninja was much more gullible than the others. 

“What?!” The blue ninja squawked as they headed towards Kai’s bike. “What am I supposed to hold onto?”

“I don’t know,” Kai said, climbing on his bike that he prayed to the FSM he’d be able to drive. “Maybe you should’ve thought about that before asking to ride with me.”

Jay huffed in an annoyance and hopped on the bike behind him. Lucky for Jay, Kai was hardly aware of anything so when the blue ninja stubbornly latched onto him like a little bug, he didn’t protest. 

—

Somehow, they made it to the rendezvous point in the City in one piece. Kai thanked his instincts and the fact he’d driven this route dozens of times because he’d 100% blacked out the entire drive over. But Jay never said anything so he must’ve been trying just fine. The two boys hopped off, jogging towards the alleyway and leaping up onto the rooftops where the others were already waiting. 

“So what’s the plan?” Cole was asking, seeing Jay and Kai finally arriving. 

“The apparent Vengestone operation activity the Comissioner called about is of course in the underground tunnels near the Serpentine tombs,” Zane explained. “Which means it may be best to split into groups to lessen the risk of being spotted as we search for said activity. If anyone sees suspicious activity, call the others before going in alone.”

“We should go in teams,” Nya said. “FSM knows how many times going off alone has gotten us into trouble.”

“Good thinking.” Zane nodded firmly, but Kai was too busy staring at the mini golden dragons spinning around his head. “In that case, Nya, Jay and I will enter the tunnels where the subway stops in the West District. Kai, Cole and Lloyd will enter from the East so we’re covering opposite directions.”

“Report back here after an hour,” Lloyd added. “If one team is not back or hasn’t said anything over the comms, we’ll know they’re in trouble.”

“Affirmative,” Zane agreed.

“Aye, aye, Cap’n.” Jay saluted. 

“Ready to kick some drug-dealer butt?” Cole said, clapping Lloyd and Kai on the shoulder. Kai stumbled under the weight, legs trembling beneath him. His hands were clammy and cold, his face feeling flushed. Thankfully, his mask was up now so one else could see if it was. 

They parted ways, Lloyd and Cole bounding across the rooftops to the right. Kai followed lazily, his stomach hollow from lack of food, nearly missing the first jump but the other two were far enough ahead not to notice. He missed Nya staring at him from behind, watching him stumble with a narrowing of her eyes. 

“You better not do anything stupid.” Her voice was suddenly in Kai’s head and he jolted. Was that real life or had he just heard her say that enough times that it echoed in his mind now? He didn’t have time to sort it out. The green and black blobs ahead of him had stopped and were looking back at him.

“You alright, firestarter?” Cole called out, and if Kai squinted his eyes, he could tell both ninja were now suspicious and concerned. “You really are a bit slower today.” 

“I’m fine,” Kai breathed, making the last jump expertly to prove his point.

“If you say so.” Cole narrowed his eyes as he tried to read him just by his amber eyes. Lloyd’s wide green eyes were just as prying. “But you can always go back to the Monsatery if you’re not.” It was almost like some sort of challenge. 

“Let’s just go.” Kai said, moving ahead more quickly before either of them could protest further. He was fine. 

—

They entered the darkness of the tunnel, and Kai instantly felt better. Sure, it was a bit chilly and eerie down here, but surprisingly, the darkness helped his vision not to be so spotty. He was also better able to disguise any potential stumbles or sickly mishaps (not that he was sick). 

“So where are we looking first?” Lloyd’s voice echoed far too loudly. 

“Shh,” Cole hissed. “I honestly have no idea,” he whispered. “I think we’re just walking until we see something suspicious.” 

Great. Kai loved walking aimlessly through the stinky Ninjago City tunnels while his head felt like it was being stabbed over and over again. Then on the bright side, he really couldn’t smell anything this time around. 

The three walked for what seemed like miles, none of them as chatty as Kai was sure their resident Motormouth was right now, and he was secretly glad for that. It made it seem less odd how quiet he was being. He checked the time on his watch that was also connected to their comms earpieces. It was just about time to check in with the others, and they hadn’t found anything other than a couple of sewer rats. He was about to suggest turning around when a faint sound came from up ahead. Cole and Lloyd had heard it too and slowed to a stop. The three ninja quickly pressed themselves against the wall as the noise was suddenly accompanied by a harsh yellow light pointing down in their direction. There was a concrete beam partially hiding them from whoever was down there, but Kai managed to make a quick peek to see what they were dealing with. There seemed to be some kind of metal cart full of glowing rocks that Kai recognized to be Vengestone. So the Police Chief was right. 

“Vengestone,” he whispered to the others. Their eyes glinted in the darkness as they nodded back at him. “They’re coming this way.”

“What do we do?” Lloyd hissed. “We were supposed to wait for the others.” 

Kai peeked around the beam again. “It doesn’t look too many guys,” he said. “We should be able to take them.” 

A large hand suddenly wrapped around Kai’s wrist making him jump. But it was just Cole, who was pressed shoulder to shoulder with him. The knowing brown eyes seemed to be seeing right through Kai. He just then realized how violently his body was trembling as he fought to hold himself upright. His stomach was in knots, but he met Cole’s gaze steadily, willing the fire to spark in his eyes.

“I’m fine,” he gritted. 

“Not fine enough to fight,” Cole bit back.

“There’s no other choice,” Kai argued. The creaking of the wheels was growing closer. “I’m rolling to the other side. We’ll jump them at once. Just don’t touch the stones.”

Kai left no time for further argument. He did as he said, diving across the tunnel in a quick roll he hoped the thugs hadn’t seen. His regret was instant as he nearly slammed into the wall, his hand just stopping his face from colliding with the stone. 

“Kai,” Lloyd seethed.

“Who’s there?” A gruff man’s voice called. 

Kai turned slightly, pressing himself against the wall opposite Lloyd and Cole. His mind went fuzzy from dizziness, and the darkness was no longer helping his vision. It was all purple and green lights glowing in front of him. His nails dug into his palms to ground himself. Focus. He couldn’t get his brothers hurt for a stupid mistake. 

“Show yourself!” Another voice called, a flashlight swinging up and down the walls behind them. 

“We’ve got weapons,” the first voice said. When the ninja didn’t say anything, the creaking of the cart continued. 

If Kai was in his right mind, he would’ve jumped out at the right time. He really would’ve. Instead, the pretty light had him mezmerized and the creaking of the wheels was like a horrifying lullaby that kept him entranced. Kai was a fly glued to a trap as the small gang of thugs crossed the threshold into prime jumping zone. He heard war cries from his brothers as they dove at the men closest to them, getting right into combat. But the man with the flashlight swung it around, shining it right in Kai’s face like a deer caught in the headlights. 

Kai held a hand up, wincing at the beam of light in his eyes. His body tingled, a shiver running up and down his spine. He should grab his sword, shouldn’t he? Yeah. The clanging of metal was distant in his ears. He reached behind him, fumbling to grab the hilt of the sword strapped to his back. His fingers had just found purchase on the cool metal when two large men threw themselves at him. Somehow, the fire ninja managed to dodge. But it was quite ungraceful as he rolled painfully across the ground. He pushed to his feet, swaying like he was on the Bounty in the ocean. During a thunderstorm. His sword was in front of him swinging blindly even though no one was there. 

“Kai, lookout!” He didn’t know what he was looking out for, but Kai knew he needed to move, so he dodged to the left. It didn’t stop him from feeling a thin stinging slice across his right leg. Oh. That wasn’t good. He blinked the stars from his vision and tried to catch himself from falling, but someone else beat him to it and he was suddenly thrown into the wall, a meaty hand grasping his neck and squeezing it tightly. Kai felt the breath leave his body, feet struggling uselessly in the air as he was pinned into the wall. 

This was it. He was going to die. Going to die because he was too stupid and stubborn to tell his family he was sick. Because he was. Kai was sick. There. He admitted it. And as much as he knew his family had suspected it, they had said nothing because they knew he was too stupidly stubborn to take care of himself for once. Something wet stung his eyes as the air was choked from him.  I’m sorry, Nya…I’m sorry, guys…

Then he was falling as his attacker was suddenly tackled from the side, taken to the ground with a loud thud and an oof as the man’s air left his lungs. Ha, take that. See how you like it, Kai thought as he dropped to the ground. His feet were nonexistent as he failed to even try to catch himself. He was swimming, flying, his stomach was fuzzy in a ticklish, flip-flopping kind of way and was he on drugs? Kai wasn’t sure anymore, but he collapsed into something warm that smelled kind of familiar, like freshly mowed grass and starburst candies. 

“Kai?” A voice called from far away. “Kai, stay with me, come on, snap out of it.” It was the kid. His little brother. Lloyd’s arms were the only thing holding him as the fever waged full war on his body. He burned so hot he was afraid he would burn the kid, and he tried to pull away but the arms held him tight and he let out some pitiful sort of whimper. “H-hold on, Kai, you’re not okay, you…you’re burning up. Cole?” 

He called out towards the sounds on Kai’s right. Lloyd adjusted his grip, grunting as he pulled Kai to his side so he could lean on him. But Kai’s legs weren’t even holding him. They were jell-o. Kai giggled. Jay liked jell-o. But he couldn’t eat Kai’s legs. That was weird. 

Kai was lifted up again as someone joined his side on the right, pulling at his limp arm to tuck it around the person’s shoulders. Woah, it must’ve been a bear holding him, cuz the shoulders were huge and their hair was kind of fluffy too-A hand suddenly grabbed his, pulling it away from the soft bear’s fur. Kai whimpered in protest, cuz he just wanted to pet the bear!

“He’s not a bear, Kai,” Little brother’s voice sounded so sad. Kai swung his gaze from the bear to his little brother, head lolling against his shoulder as he reached out to touch Lloyd’s face. 

“Sad,” Kai mumbled.

“What?” Lloyd said. 

“You’re sad,” he said to Lloyd, distantly hearing the bear saying something into his paw (“Zane? Yeah, we’ve got a sick fire ninja on our hands.” A sigh from the other line. “I figured as much.”) The bear sounded oddly human. 

“Yeah, cuz my big brother doesn’t know how to take care of himself,” Little brother said, flicking his ear lightly. 

“Oh.” Big brother. Wasn’t he Lloyd’s big brother? Kai jabbed his finger into his chest, looking at Lloyd with wide eyes but unable to form the question.

“Yes, you.” Lloyd glared at him. 

The bear sighed, and Kai swung his head over to look at him. He blinked and suddenly Cole was in front of him, speaking over his head to Lloyd. 

“I got a hold of Zane and told him the situation. He said to get him back to the Monastery and he and Nya will meet us there. You and Jay can stay and contact the police about what we found.” 

The words were mostly static to Kai. He poked Cole’s cheek and frowned. “You’re not soft enough to be a bear.” 

Cole sighed. Deeply. As if he had been through this exact situation a thousand times before and was absolutely done. Because he had and he was. 

“I supposed I’ll carry him. Again,” the earth master said dejectedly. Lloyd kept a hold of Kai as Cole let go momentarily in preparation to adjust his grip. Kai sunk down and down and down, eyes fluttering and body limp as Lloyd struggled to keep him up. Then he was being yanked up roughly into warm, not furry arms. 

He must’ve blacked out because the next thing he knew he was staring into the light. Oh, wait maybe he died. Was this heaven? Was he dead?! Kai let out a scream, flailing about as he struggled to get his bearings. 

“Oof-Ack!” Someone made strange noises as Kai’s hand smacked into their face. Oh. Maybe he wasn’t dead. Or maybe he’d hit an angel, whoops- “Kai! You’re fine, dude, just calm down.” The someone gripped his shoulders, holding him upright in front of them. Cole’s blurry face slowly came into focus. Okay, he wasn’t dead. Unless Cole was dead too. Could there be piggy back rides in heaven? Maybe that was a good test. 

“Piggy back,” Kai said, poking Cole’s cheek again. The earth master slapped his hand away, glaring at him in annoyance.

“What are you on about now?” Cole looked absolutely bewildered.

“Piggy back ride.” Kai gave his best pouty lip and puppy dog eyes like he’d Lloyd and Nya do to him all the time. His head felt funny, and his body was probably melting. 

Cole sighed, huffing the hair from his forehead. “You know you’re going to regret this tomorrow. But okay.”

He turned and helped Kai climb onto his back. Kai wilted in relief, face burying into his brother’s shirt as sleepiness lingered. 

“Please don’t burn me,” was the last thing Kai heard before he fell asleep. And he’d never tell but he did dream about fire monsters.

Chapter Text

Skylor stared down at her empty drink for a moment before looking back at the boisterous crowd around her. She swirled the glass in her hand, ice clinking against the sides as she scanned the groups of people laughing, drinking, and playing pool. With a sigh, she set her drink down and pulled out her phone, rereading the several texts she had already sent. 

I’m here :) 

Where are you? 

She’d tried calling twice, one more time and she’d hit her limit. The limit where Kai had better be dead, dying or kidnapped or she would very upset. The redhead tapped Hotstuff one more time and held her phone to her ear. It rang, and rang, and rang before the line went dead. She dropped the phone on top of the bar with a clatter, hands templing together in front of her. Breathe in…breathe out…I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. 

Picking the phone back up, Skylor tried a new number that never seemed to fail her. After no more than a few rings, someone picked up on the other line.

“Hello?” 

“Hey, Nya,” Skylor greeted, trying for a smile even though the other girl couldn’t see her.

“Oh hey, Sky. What’s up? Looking for my brother again?”

The amber ninja managed a laugh. “How’d you know?”

A sigh on the other line. “Typical. Has he texted you at all?” 

“Nope.”

“I’ll check his location.” Silence except for the sound of footsteps followed by the clicking of keys. “Hmm, that’s funny.” 

Skylor’s stomach did a little flip-flop. That was never good. “What?”

“I…I’m getting an error message. Like his commlink is offline…or…” Her tone fell flat at the end, and Skylor knew they’d reached the same conclusion. Her mouth twisted into a grim line, and she knew Nya was probably doing the same. “I’ll check his history. See if I can figured out where he was when it went offline.” 

“He would take his commlink with him right? It’s not lying dead at the Monastery somewhere?”

“He better have,” Nya growled. “It’s required any time someone goes out now, no matter where we’re going. But I’ll double check. Can you retrace the route you think he’d take to get to you?”

“Of course.” Skylor fumbled in her pocket for some cash and made eye contact with the female bartender with colorful hair who nodded at her from where she was wiping glasses. She didn’t bother to ask if she’d seen her boyfriend. After all, Kai had never been on time to anything in his life before. 

--

Kai had finally been on time. In fact, he was two minutes early when he pulled up to the bar he and Sky had agreed to meet at. He knew how much it bothered her when he was late, and he was really trying to make a change, so he’d made it a point ot leave the Monstaery much earlier than needed to ensure he would make it. Of course, life had a funny way of messing with someone trying to improve themselves. 

As the red ninja perched at the bar, sipping his drink, he eyed a particularly rowdy group of men on the outskirts of the dance floor. He kept one eye on them as he waved a hand at the bartender. The man graciously made him his fireball style Jack & Coke, sliding it across the bar to his outstretched hand.

“Any new baddies at large I should know about?” The bartender, Kai believed was named Jameson, asked, a fond twinkle in his eye.

Kai snorted. “Not that I know of. Besides, the villians around here don’t seem to be fond of being discreet.” 

Jameson cackled, wiping the bar with a soiled cloth. “Well, you’re right about that. What’s it been, three months since Garmadon’s return?”

The fire ninja felt his own gaze draw distant. Nowadays, his mind liked to be in two places at once. Well, really three at the moment. The past, the present conversation, and still half a mind to be watching the scraggly looking men off to his right. They were laughing and jostling each other, drinks sloshing as they stumbled into tables and each other and people trying to dance. Most of them stood around a table which Kai could not see but they seemed to be focused pretty intently at whatever was going on there. It was one of those times Kai’s metaphorical hackles raised, the sharp instincts that had kept him and his team alive many times though they’d never admit it.

Jameson seemed to notice where his attention lie and paused his cleaning to look over at the group. He grunted uneasily.

“Yeah, I’m not a fan of those guys either. But if you avoid eye contact, you should avoid any trouble.”

Kai’s biggest flaw was when somebody told him he shouldn’t do something, his body functioned with a mind of its own and did it anyway. He flicked both eyes over to look at the group and managed to lock eyes with the one sober looking dude of the group. He was a thin, older man with a graying beard dangling in uneven tufts off his chin. Kai didn’t recognize him, deciding to call him Salt n Pepper. But the glint in the man’s beady black eyes told Kai the man knew exactly who he was. Salt n Pepper took a long sip of some brown liquid from a tall glass, but never lost eye contact with Kai. Well, Kai wasn’t going to be the one to lose their staring contest, but another bartender suddenly made an appearance and slid another small glass over to Kai, breaking the little game. 

“What’s this?” He looked up under his chestnut bangs to see a woman with maroon-colored hair with a black streak wiping her hands on a towel. She gave him a half smile and nodded her towards the other end of a bar where a young woman sat sipping at something pink. 

“The little lady down there said it’s on the house.”

Kai blushed, because despite what everyone thought, he could be a little shy, looking towards the dark blonde to his left. She flashed a smile, waving sweetly in a way that felt off in such a dingy place. Sure, he and Sky didn’t mind a place like this becuase they could handle themselves if something went wrong, but a young single girl like that? It didn’t sit right. But he didn’t want to hurt the girl’s feelings just yet, even though Sky would be showing up any minute to break her heart, and a free drink was a free drink so he took it. He took a sniff, and it seemed like some kind of old-fashion which Kai could handle so he took a sip. And threw the rest of it back quickly because damn it was good. That girl knew how to make a drink at least. 

So why did Kai feel all tingly? Must just be the fact he hadn’t drank in a while and it was hitting him harder than usual. But if he appeared even the slightest bit tipsy around Sky, she was gonna kill him.

“H-hey, Jameson?” He called out, but his tongue felt heavy in his mouth. The buff man walked back his direction.

“What’s up, man?”

“If my girl shows up, can you tell her I went to the bathroom? She hates it when I’m late.”

Jameson laughed, wiping the inside of a glass. “You got it, buddy. The red-haired bombshell right?”

Kai managed a wobbly smirk. “That’s the one.” He pushed away from the bar as quickly as he could without tripping over his own feet. 

His mind was buzzing, stars dancing in his vision, and he had been drunk before but he’d never felt like this. His shoulders sagged weakly and he barely managed to shove open the bathroom door, stumbling as he crashed into the wall. Kai threw one arm out to hold himself up, the door creaking closed behind him.

Okayyy, there was absolutely no way Kai was drunk off two drinks and he definitely shouldn’t be feeling like he’d lost every single muscle and bone in his body. So that left only one option. He’d been drugged. He knew he shouldn’t have trusted a blonde that looked 12 hanging out in a bar alone at this hour. His hands fumbled for the comm on his watch to call someone. Who should it be this time? He distantly thought he called Cole way too much so maybe he should try somebody else, but he wasn’t letting Nya or Lloyd anywhere near this place and…

The bathroom door slammed open, nearly cracking Kai in the shoulder but he managed to stumble back into the sink area. Right before his eyes was the swimming image of Salt n Pepper, the gray-haired man who’d locked eyes with him earlier. Behind the man was a several more bulky blobs blocking Kai from the only exit.

“Um, hey guys. L-looking for something?” Kai’s tongue felt heavy in his mouth, as he clumsily felt for kunai he always kept strapped to his thigh. 

Salt n Pepper fixed him with a smirk and two twinkling eyes. “Just you.”

Kai couldn’t seem to find his blade and it was too late anyway, he couldn’t even try to dodge as the bald man behind Salt n Pepper stepped forward and squeezed Kai’s wrists so tightly he was sure they were broken. Some sort of pitiful squeak slipped from his lists, vision whiting out. 

The last thing he thought before blacking out was, Skylor’s gonna kill me. 

--

Skylor’s trembling fingers just managed to pull her phone from her pocket before it went to voicemail. 

“Hey, Nya,” the redhead breathed, a puffy white cloud dissipating into the winter night. She shivered in just her leather jacket, not having anticipated going on a long trek to find her heart-attack-giving boyfriend. 

“Hey Sky, did you find anything?” 

Skylor bit the inside of her cheek, shuffling from side to side trying to stay warm. “Nothing. I retraced the sidewalks he would’ve taken, even the alleyways and a few of the rooftops. I’ve got nothing.” 

A heavy sigh on the other end of the line. “Okay, well I have some kind of news.”

Skylor’s heart leapt. 

“Kai’s comm was last shown online at Spanky Shenanigan’s Pub at 7:52pm” 

And immediately plummeted to the ground. Kai had been on time, in fact he was early. So what on earth could’ve happened in the eight minutes before she arrived?

Skylor took in a shaky breath, eyes falling close as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “That’s where we were meeting up. I’ll go back and check things out and ask the bartenders if they saw anything.”

“Understood. I’m sending the boys your way while I stay here and keep searching.” Despite her formality, Skylor heard the pinch of underlying worry in Nya’s tone. 

“I’ll find him, Nya,” she assured. “I promise.”

--

Kai woke up to the entire world around him shaking. The sound of metal creaking and groaning reached his ears along with a rushing sound that he couldn’t determine was real or just in his hallucinating mind. His eyes blinked open sluggishly, holding back a groan as his instinctual training habits came back to him. Assess the situation before alerting the enemy to your awareness. 

But nothing made since. Kai’s mind and body were spinning, but he was pretty sure he wasn’t moving. Green and purple lights danced in his vision. He wanted to puke, stomach swirling with each bump beneath him. It seemed he was in some sort of vehicle. But why? What had happened before? He wasn’t sure, but it couldn’t be good. He needed to find a way out before whoever had taken him got to their destination. 

Standing was going to be difficult. But Kai had done a lot of difficult things before. He sucked in a deep breath through his nose, then let it out through his mouth. His head was still pounding and spinning but he now had an ounce of clarity, a straw to grasp at. He reached out, fingers brushing against what might’ve been the wall of a large van. His palm splayed out against the metal, using the coolness beneath his fingers to ground him. 

Another deep breath. His other hand came up with help him balance as he got to his feet in a crouched position. It was then he realized he body was shaking, violent trembles that didn’t help his chances of balancing. His heart pounded painfully against his chest, breathing picking up despite himself. Focus, Kai…it’s just like the venomari venom…Breathe in…breathe out…Stand to your feet. He swayed, stumbling back with a wave of dizziness and the apparent feeling of the van turning. He caught himself on the wall, fingers digging into the bit of fuzzy fabric he’d found. 

There were no chains on his wrists which was odd. Whoever had captured must’ve ont had much of a plan or knew exactly what he was capable of. Clumsily, Kai shuffled along, feeling along the wall until he grasped what he assumed was the latch to the backdoor. 

He closed his eyes to will away the wave of dizziness, head falling forward against the cool metal for a moment. Then he lifted the latch. The double doors swung open, smacking against the sides of the truck as the wind took them. Kai looked down, immediately regretting it as the paved road whizzed rapidly beneath him. Sure, he’d jumped off dozens of moving vehicles before, but he hadn’t exactly done it while drugged up. He knew this was about to hurt something awful, but it couldn’t be worse than whatever these guys had planned for him.

Here goes nothing. 

Kai leapt out of the truck, doing his best to tuck and roll but he was sure it was much less graceful than usual which was supported by the fact that he hit the road face first. Thankfully, it was the side of his face, because he did not need his beautiful nose broken, but damn it hurt. The skin on his cheek burned like someone had taken a meat cleaver and sliced a piece off his face. He felt bones crunch somewhere in his midsection and knew he only had about five minutes of adrenaline before he collapsed. 

He staggered to his feet, vision blurring as he looked back at the vehicle he’d jumped from. It chugged along, golden headlights illuminating the road ahead of it, back doors banging against the sides. Kai needed to get away before they noticed. He swiveled around, tripping over himself and jogged the opposite way over the bridge they appeared to be on. Distantly, Kai could hear the sound of lapping water below, and he tried to think of rivers he knew of near the city but his addled mind thought of nothing. 

Kai’s breathing was ragged, chest tight as the air struggled to reach his rattling lungs. He didn’t where he was. He had no idea what he was doing except trying to get off his bridge, away from the water, awayfromthewater. He needed help. He-he should call someone. Yeah. 

He slowed down, feeling his body moving in a zig-zagging pattern, looking down at his wrist where his commlink usually was. Except it wasn’t exactly there, not wholly intact at least. Kai went cross-eyed trying to understand what he was seeing. The black strap of his commlink was still around his wrist, but the plastic and glass of the screen had been shattered, shards of which were piercing the skin in his wrist, hand and forearm. He could see the rivulets of blood rolling down his hand. Ignoring the icy pain he now felt at this revelation, all Kai could think was Nya’s going to kill me. 

About halfway across the bridge, the sound of screeching tires made Kai wince. He looked back and the white van had skidded to a halt in the middle of the road. There were curses and shouts and the slamming of doors and several bulky men leaping out of the vehicle. Kai needed to move. 

He moved in what he thought was a run but might’ve looked more like a donkey with broken hind legs. He was clearly not as fast as usual because very quickly someone was behind him, snagging his collar and jerking him backwards. Kai had no time to fight back before two other men were on either sides of him, pulling his arms back far enough to hurt (even with his ninja flexibility) while the person behind him jabbed something cold and sharp into his side. Instantly, Kai felt the effects of whatever drug rolling through him, making his already fuzzy mind grow even moreso. The dull light of the street lamps along the road grew dim in his vision, black spots increasing in number. Kai felt warm and clammy all at once, and absolutely limp and helpless in the grasp of these gang members. FSM…help me now…

--

Skylor tapped her foot impatiently as the maroon-haired bartender searched for the manager somewhere in the back. Her nails clacked against the cracked tiles of the old bartop as she looked around her, anxiety swirling in her gut and making her chest tight.

She really shouldn’t have been so nervous. Kai had been to freaking hell and back with his team, from getting stuck in the Never Realm without his powers, to getting sent to the First Realm of oni and dragon, kidnapped by Pythor, going to space…it went without saying that Kai could take care of himself. Most of the time. Skylor might’ve once thought her boyfriend was invincible, but with age and maturity comes the realization that no one truly is. Everyone has a weak spot. Everyone falls at some point or another and needs help getting back up. And Skylor had a sickening feeling that Kai needed her. Now. 

The female bartender walked up with a average looking middle age man behind her. He was wiping his hands with a towel, “Hey, can I help you-Oh.” Recognition lit his face as he slung the towel over his shoulder. “Hey, honey, you looking for your boyfriend?”

Skylor quirked an eyebrow, glancing at the nametag on his chest. “Yes actually, how’d you know?” Protective suspicion had her clenching her jaw tightly.

Jameson smiled easily. “He was in here awhile ago waiting for you, told me to tell the red bombshell he was going to the restroom. But, uh-” His smile dropped as he glanced at the wallclock. “I will admit I think that was a good 20 minutes ago.”

Skylor paled, straightening up from the bar. Kai had been here. He’d been on time. For what reason would he have just up and left? 

Jameson must’ve noticed the look on her face and leaned forward comfortingly. “I didn’t see him leave, but I was in the back for a bit so might’ve missed him. Want me to go check the stalls?”

“Yes, please,” Skylor nodded firmly. “In fact if I can go in with you that would be great. Call it ninja business.”

Jameson nodded back, smiling again. “You got it.”

Skylor followed the man to the restroom, clenching her fists open and closed. She held her breath as he opened the door. To an empty restroom. Skylor felt the tense, quiet air immediately, as if this room had seen things it didn’t dare to share. The trash can in the corner behind the door was tipped over on its sides, contents spilling out, mostly paper towels but mixed with cigarette packages and empty syringes. She hadn’t realized how trashy this place was and made a mental note to ask Kai why he bothered to come here in the first place. 

“Looks like there was a scuffle here,” Jameson said, turning around to look at her where she was still intently studying the contents of the trashcan. Skylor nodded absentmindedly.

“Definitely.” She pointed to one of the syringes. “Did you know people were doing these kinds of things here?”

Jameson followed her finger and winced, rubbing the back of his head. “I had my suspicions, but I had chosen to ignore them hoping I wasn’t right. I never wanted this place to stoop that low. That’s on me.”

Skylor nodded in acknowledgement, mind spinning with every possibility. She decided to go with the feeling tugging in her gut and finally looked up at Jameson. 

“Could we take a look at the security cameras?” 

“Of course, hun. Follow me.”

--

Kai’s head fell limply against his chest as he was dragged back towards the van. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to move, to do something but his bones were like noodles and his muscles like mush. They wouldn’t listen, not even to the stubborn willpower that had got him through so many things before.

He couldn’t hear much except the pulsing in his ears and the sound of his boots scraping against the asphalt.

“Hey!”  

Kai’s heart skipped a beat. That voice sounded awfully familiar. The men carrying him suddenly froze, turning around to look at the person that voice belonged to. Kai wanted to look too, but he couldn’t move. 

“You boys might want to put him down.” Another awfully familiar voice. Kai’s heart squeezed in his chest, something about the voice was so comforting, and yet…he couldn’t place it…

Cackling laughter all around him made his already spinning head spin more. He was tugged around as the men turned to face the two people who had spoken. Kai couldn’t even lift his head to look at them. Everything burned. Which made it even more shocking when something cold jabbed into the back of his head.

“We would.” Salt n Pepper’s voice came from somewhere in between Kai and the two clearly female voices he had heard. “But we’d really like to get something out of this. As protectors of the city, surely you have access to something that would benefit us.” 

“What do you want?” That voice sparked something in Kai again. It sounded so fierce and brave, but the fire ninja managed to catch the hint of fear in her tone. 

“Money. Freedom. You give us a sum of money and allow our gang to run free, you can have your weak little brother back.”

“It look to me like you weren’t strong enough to fight him fairly. If you were, I guarantee you’d be in a dumpster right about now.” That voice…that voice was protective, full of a love that warmed Kai to his toes. 

“Funny,” the gang leader said. “But either way, we have him here now. So I’d suggest you cough up before my team here puts lead through his pretty little head.” 

Kai inwardly bristled at the way this man was speaking about him. His fire flared within him, trying to get out, trying to make his body come to life. 

“And I suggest you put him down, before we make a sorry mess of your gang.”

“Is that right? Well, let’s see what you two little girls can do against my men.”

Kai heard the slamming of the doors to the van as more men filed out. How had they even all fit in there? He wasn’t sure, but soon the sound of a scuffle reached his ears and everything in his addled brain screamed for him to do something, anything. But then of course, Nya screamed in pain. Nya. His sister. Right. In that moment, his fire consumed him, and he was alive. 

Later, the following events would be fuzzy in his mind. But one moment, Kai was hanging limping on his knees, only held up by the two men on either side, one of which had a gun pressed against the base of his skull. The next, the two men were on the ground, gun skidding across the pavement away from them. His feet pounded the ground, the outline of various limp bodies lying ahead of him, but he was zeroed in on the fuscia and cyan colors of his sister’s suit. She was leaning against the railing, one hand pressed against her upper thigh, sharp red blood trickling through her fingers. Her apparent attacker was had an arm pressed against her chest, a blade raised up and glinting in the streetlights. Nope.

Kai tackled the man, ignoring Nya’s scream of horror as the force of the hit catapulted both Kai and the man over the railing. Over the railing and falling towards the dark waters below. As the wind streaked through his hair and across his face, tears whipped out of his eyes. The man flailed and yelled even as Kai grappled with him in the air. There was no time to think about anything, but a brief thought of “i’m probably going to die” flashed through Kai’s mind. If this is the way he went out, he didn’t mind so much. 

He hit the water. 

——

Skylor had just subdued the last gang member when she heard Nya screaming a second time. But her heart plunged into cold waters when it wasn’t a scream of pain.

“No, Kai, no!” 

The redhead turned her head just in time to watch her boyfriend’s body plunge over the side of the bridge. Adrenaline took hold, time moving slowly as she sprinted forward. She thought she yelled something at Nya to stay here, she could see the way her friend gripped her leg, blood seeping through her fingers. Even with her water powers, she wouldn’t be able to save like that. But Skylor would. She barely registered brushing against Nya as she dove over the side. 

She’d heard once that if you were falling into water from a high point, you could break the fall by breaking the surface of the water first. She put her hands out, hoping it would be enough to save her head and shoulders. She hit the water. She was plunged into the depths, disoriented, but determined. She squinted her eyes, but the water was too dark and she could see nothing. Her lungs were screaming for air so she began to swim towards the surface when she stopped. She realized all of a sudden that her lungs began to adjust, they began to fill with air. And suddenly, she felt a tugging in her gut, could feel the weight of something sinking and somehow she knew it was just a few yards away. 

Skylor began to swim towards it. She didn’t understand what was happening, but the water was helping her find her way to Kai so she was following it. And through the murky water, she spotted him. His red gi seemed to glow in the darkness. His face was slack, body limp as he sunk down. Skylor made it to him just in time, wrapping her arms around his middle and using all her strength to get to the surface. The water helped with this too. It was like a current suddenly lifted them up, heads breaking the surface and Skylor breathed in the fresh air. Kai’s head fell limply on her chest, she could hear Nya yell something from up above. 

Skylor’s muscles burned as she struggled to keep both her and Kai afloat, but once again the water was assisting. The shore was still yards away, and Kai’s limp body kept wanting to slip from her grasp. She wasn’t even sure if he was breathing, but she couldn’t think about that yet. She was going to save him. She was going to get him to shore. 

Finally, Skylor’s feet hit rocky soil. She was able to stand, legs and arms shaking as she dragged her boyfriend up onto the shore. 

“Hey! Hey, I’m here, I’m coming,” Nya’s voice came from the hill at the end of the bridge which led to the river below. 

Skylor didn’t look back. Kai was still limp, lying in the sand, pale faced in the light of the moon, hair sticking to his forehead like a lifeline. Skylor fell down on her knees beside him, about to start chest compressions, when she saw his chest rising and falling shakily. But he was still unconscious and now that they were out of the water, she could hear the wheezing breaths. She quickly turned him on his side, patting his back firmly.

Nya fell down at her side. With trembling fingers, she reached forward to touch Kai’s back.

“I can draw the water out,” she said. Oh. Sudden realization hit Skylor. That was why the water had helped her. She’d managed to take Nya’s powers. 

She sat back and watched Nya as she closed her eyes, concentrating on drawing the water out. She felt warm wetness dripping down her cheeks which wasn’t from the river. After a few long agonizing moments, Kai gasped for air, chest seizing as he coughed up all the liquid from his lungs. The girls supported him, Nya rubbing his back with one hand, but Skylor could only grip his arm like a lifeline. To think, she had been all ready to scream at her boyfriend and even consider ending things with him for being late. And now he had gone and been the stupid sacrificial boy that he was. 

Skylor watched the strength drain from Kai as he slumped back, his head falling into Nya’s lap. She stroked his wet out of his eyes, whispering soothing words to him that Skylor couldn’t quite make out. She sat there numbly, distantly realizing that they needed to get Kai and Nya both more help but her body wouldn’t move. She realized she was shivering violently, whether from shock or the freezing water she wasn’t sure. That meant that Kai was even worse off as the Master of Fire, not to mention he probably hadn’t had time to break his fall. Who knows what injuries he was hiding under there? And it was all Skylor’s fault, wasn’t it? If only she had gotten to the bar at the right time or had immediately suspected something was wrong, rather than assuming Kai was just late again…or…or…

“Skylor. Skylor, breathe…” Nya’s voice broke her out of her trance. “The boys are on their way to us, but I need your help to keep Kai warm.” The water ninja had one arm pulling Kai close to her and the other pressing down on her own wound. Guilt continued to swirl in Skylor’s gut, because these two siblings were the strongest people in the world and here she was having a panic attack over her own self-pity…and…She swallowed. Kai and Nya were strong, but they both needed her right now. 

Skylor nodded to herself and to Nya, scooting closer to see what she could do to help. Kai’s eyes were fluttering as if he were trying to hold them open but couldn’t quite find the strength. 

“Here, take him,” Nya instructed, sliding to the side so Skylor could take her place. Skylor wrapped her arms around Kai’s shoulders, pressing their bodies closer together so Kai’s head rested against her chest. He was shuddering violently, worse than Skylor herself, so she began to rub her hands up and down his arms hoping to provide some semblance of warmth.

She watched as Nya used a strip of her gi to wrap around her wound. Nya was one of the strongest people Skylor knew. But that had to come from somewhere. And that somewhere, she now realized, was Kai. For all the times she’d given him a hard time for being late or for being too reckless and getting hurt all the time, Skylor now realized that Kai was just trying to be everything for everyone all the time. 

She rested her cheek against the top of his head and hugged him tighter, listening to the concerning labored breaths. 

“It’s okay,” Skylor said soothingly. “You’re gonna be okay, Kai, I…I’m sorry this happened to you. You…you’re gonna be okay.” 

She startled when she felt a hand touch her face, one Kai had managed to slowly lift, despite the weakness from the drugs still in his system. Her green eyes blinked at him in shock, locking eyes with his amber ones which were mildly lucid just for the moment. 

“S-sorry,” Kai croaked. 

Skylor felt her heart clench. “Kai, honey,” She said as soft as you could. “What could you possibly be sorry for?” 

She watched as he fought to keep his eyes open, struggling to form even one word. “L-late.” 

Thanks, I didn’t need my heart anyway. Skylor thought. She just hugged him closer and cried.

Chapter Text

It had been about a week since Kai had been released from his most recent hospital stay following the random attack at the bar. The cuts on his wrist were nearly healed, his ribs were still sore but no longer creaked with pain when he so much as coughed, and the drugs from one night had long been wiped from his system.

He couldn’t say his ego wasn’t a bit wounded that he about lost his life to some no-name gang, but physically, he was nearly healed. That just made it all the more aggravating as days went by, and the team still refused to let him go on any missions. He wasn’t even allowed on simple reconnaissance anymore. And Kai was so bored.

Like lying in his bed rotting away because he’d already beat multiple training dummies into dust and ate everything in the pantry so that maybe he’d get to fight a particular earth ninja when he got home and he’d actually get to do something kind of bored. 

As of late, the ninja were helping the Ninjago City Police Department take down the remaining operations of the very gang that had put Kai in the hospital to begin with. Which made it all worse that he wasn’t able to take out his vengeance against them and show them what he was truly capable of.

Sensei was somewhere in the Bounty, probably meditating or drinking tea, both of which he’d invited Kai to do but after days of trying, Kai was now trying to avoid his Master like the plague. Nya had told him he should find a hobby, maybe learn to tinker like her and Jay would do, but she should know better than anyone that Kai and technology did not go well together.

And he would sneak out, but after the thorough tongue lashing from Nya and Zane combined, a small semblance of compliance locked onto his stubborn brain. It may not last for forever, but Kai needed them to trust him to go out again, so the deal was if he could prove that he’d lay low for awhile, he’d be allowed back out in a few weeks. A few weeks. That was a long time to do absolutely nothing. 

“So essentially house arrest,” Kai had argued. “Like the kind that is illegal unless you actually have an order.” 

“We don’t need an order, Kai,” Nya had bit back. “We’re the ninja. And I’m your sister who doesn’t want to see you nearly die over your own stupidity, so yeah…that has to hold some weight.”

Kai blew at the limp strands of his hair over his eyes. He was pretty sure this “house arrest” was making him depressed now. He couldn’t even be bothered to fix his hair. But maybe this was just his way of getting the others to pity him and let him out early. 

He supposed he could go see Skylor. That was the one activity he was allowed to go out for alone, and even then, he was required to let Sensei know before he left, give Nya or Zane a heads up, and let Skylor know he was on his way and exactly where he was, keeping her updated basically every step he took, every breath he took, every paper cut he got, blah blah blah…it made Kai not want to go, but that wasn’t fair to Skylor. 

So he got up. A shower sounded nice. He had been lying in his own sweat since demolishing the last of the training dummies early this morning when he was woken up by the others bustling around. (“Maybe you should try repairing the ones you broke instead of just destroying them all the time.” “Nah. Boring.”) 

Kai pulled himself out of bed, slipped down the ladder and made his way to the bathroom. Observing himself in the mirror, he had to admit that other than his floppy hair, the time off had actually done him well. His various cuts and bruises and the dark circles under his eyes actually had time to heal without the stress of constantly fighting or volunteering to take the night shifts.  He’d still been able to keep his strength and fitness up with training so he was doing very well for himself. 

After a quick shower, Kai decided to stop in the Bridge and check on his siblings’ progress. Make sure none of them had decided to pull a “him” and were actively dying. He pressed a button to call up Nya. It took her a minute to answer, but when she did, he could tell she was mid-tussle. There was shouting and clanging in the background, meaning weapons were also involved. Kai’s protective heart leaped, but Nya’s voice mildly reassured him.

“Hey, Kai, what’s up? Sorry, I’m a little- busy right now, but everything’s under control. Just taking down the last few guys out here.”

Kai willed his heart to settle. He had longed accepted that Nya didn’t need his protecting anymore. (Not what the last incident showed, but that was a rare occurrence.) Didn’t mean he wasn’t going to worry.

“Um, I was just calling to let you know I was gonna go see Skylor. I didn’t mean to distract you.”

“You didn’t distract me. You know I can-” a kick. “multitask. But sounds good. You let Sensei know?” 

Kai was nodding before remembering she couldn’t see him. “Yeah.” Though that was a lie. 

“Skylor?”

“Going to.”

“Commlink?”

“Strapped on.” It wasn’t on yet, but he’d get it before he left. An uneasy feeling washed over him when Nya didn’t answer as fast this time. Not to mention, whatever scuffle was happening seemed to go on for longer than it should. “Everything okay there, Nee? Sure you don’t want me to-”

“No!” Nya snapped, suddenly alive again. “We’re good here, Kai. Don’t need your self-sacrificial butt getting you hurt again. Go see Skylor.”

Kai bit his lip to keep from retorting. “Okay, be safe.”

“Uh huh, trying.” 

The line went dead, and Kai grabbed his flannel jacket and his commlink before leaving the Bounty without telling Sensei. He just didn’t want to get wrapped into anymore meditation and tea drinking. He texted Skylor after he’d strapped his kunai on his ankle, another precaution he was forced to take whenever he left the house.

Her noodle shop was busy today, so Kai basically just ate, flirted with her a bit before she gave him that look that told him she was overstimulated and stressed and his presence was only adding to that. He kissed her cheek and left, shoving his hands in his pockets as he shuffled back out into the cold, huffing about being dismissed and bored again. The restless ninja wandered the streets of the city aimlessly, not ready to go back to four walls again. Maybe he’d stop at the park. He was even considering calling up Darreth. 

Then he got the call. Kai wasn’t sure how much time had passed while he wandered, but suddenly Jay was ringing him. This should’ve already set off alarm bells in Kai’s brain if he wasn’t so preoccupied with being annoyed at his boredom. The lightning master would never be calling Kai casually, especially after a mission like this. If things went well, he’d wait til Kai got home to gloat, but crash in front of the TV until that point. But if things hadn’t gone well…

“Kai…” The lightning ninja’s breathless tone snapped Kai into reality. “You need to get back to the Bounty. Now.” 

“What?” Kai snapped. “What happened?”

“I-it’s bad. Just get here.”

Then Kai was sprinting. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but for Jay to call him sounding like that was worse than anything Kai had ever heard before. His heart hammered against his chest, feeling like it was going to explode. His mind raced trying to think of what could’ve happened. It couldn’t be Nya, he’d just been talking to her, she had things under control and and…Jay wouldn’t have been the one to call him if it was her. Could it be Cole, Zane? Why hadn’t one of them called him? Why hadn’t Nya called, why hadn’t-

Kai didn’t wait for the anchor to bring him up. He scaled it faster than he’d ever scaled it before. He landed on the deck and it seemed he wasn’t far behind the others. Cole and Zane were ducking through the doorway holding someone between them and Jay and Nya were about to follow behind, which meant…

Kai’s vision tunneled. No, no, no nonono it couldn’t be Lloyd please no- Jay looked up at him as he paused in the doorway, face white and eyes haunted.

Kai stopped in front of him breathless, and his hand was already reaching out to stop him from going down-oh FSM it had to be bad-

“Jay, Jay, what’s happening, is Lloyd hurt, what happened?” Kai couldn’t think. His muscles and bones and mind and instincts were screaming like they knew, they already knew what was happening and they wanted to prepare his heart for what was to come.

“Kai, listen,” the blue ninja was saying, and he tried to listen but his eyes followed the movements of his brothers and sister disappearing down the stairs. “The mission went sideways. Lloyd got hurt, badly. But we’re going to try to save-”

Kai was already gone. He heard Jay yelling after him (“Kai, wait!) but he didn’t care. His mind went blank, and all he could think was get to Lloyd, get to Lloyd, get to Lloyd. That’s my little brother, get to Lloyd. 

When he got to the medbay, Cole was in the doorway, blocking his view of what was happening in the room. Through his panicked haze, Kai could hear Nya and Zane’s unusually frantic voices nearly yelling at each other. If the usually level-headed ninja sounded like that then…

“Let me through!” Cole turned as he heard Kai’s shout, instantly filling his role as he stopped Kai from entering. 

“Kai, wait,” Cole’s voice was deadly calm, but the fire ninja could hear the worried bite in it. His large hands were held out in front of him. 

Kai tried to dodge around him, but the earth ninja moved with him, causing him to grunt in frustration. 

“Just let me in, I need to see him!” He reached out to try to push Cole to the side, but knew it was useless as the stronger of the two caught Kai’s wrists and wrestled him back against the wall across from the room. Kai’s eyes were blazing as he met Cole’s eyes, but he hoped his desperation to see his little brother was somehow portrayed. 

“Kai. Trust me, you don’t want to see.” Cole spoke slowly, like talking to a child. The distant sound of Jay’s footsteps came from around the corner, and Kai caught a hint of blue out of the corner of his eye. Kai’s chest was heaving, trying to process the words Cole had just said as he continued to talk. “Zane and Nya have him, and we’re on the way to the hospital now. We don’t need to crowd them, and you don’t need to see.” 

Something red and hot built up in Kai’s chest. It was clear he wasn’t going to be allowed to see Lloyd, and it was clear that something very bad had happened to him. Kai couldn’t pretend to be a tame version of himself any longer. He couldn’t just sit here and do nothing why his little brother was injured so badly he wasn’t even allowed to see him.

“What. Happened.” He ground out, his eyes challenging Cole, his fiery anger having nowhere else to go. Jay was watching wide-eyed like a deer from the side. 

Cole continued to speak calmly, but knew he couldn’t keep everything from Kai. “We were wrapping the mission up. Lloyd was next to me one minute, the next he was on the ground. One of the men, they…they got him while he was distracted.”

Kai’s vision went red, and he failed to hear anything else Cole said. The larger ninja must’ve seen the switch flip because his voice was rising and he continued to press Kai against the wall. But the strength of a vengeful fire ninja knows no bounds. Kai doesn’t remember how but he got away from Cole, racing down the hall towards the Bridge so fast the even Jay couldn’t keep up with him. He searched the most recent location of his team, grabbed his katanas from the wall but didn’t even bother to go for his gi. He was doing this flannel and jeans and all.

He was on the deck preparing to jump, when the strong arms caught up with him, ripping him from the ledge. Kai screamed in outrage as Cole wrestled him to the deck.  He bucked and wrestled back with all his might, ignoring the earth ninja’s demand that he calm down, that going after these men alone wasn’t going to help Lloyd, but that was just it, that was just it! If Kai had been allowed to go with them in the first place, then this wouldn’t have happened. Because Kai wouldn’t have let this happen. Because Kai would’ve taken the hit himself. Why couldn’t they see that? Why wouldn’t they let him take the hits? Better it was him than their baby brother!

Somehow Kai rolled away from Cole to get to the ledge. He’d almost made it there when another figure leapt in his path. Jay was there, less intimidating than the earth ninja, but somehow between the deer-in-the-headlight eyes, the placating hands, his innocent earnest, Kai gave pause. Hands curled into fists, drawing blood in his palms, Kai listened, beginning to actually hear what the blue ninja was saying. 

“Lloyd was protecting us, Kai. Just like you want to protect. It’s not your fault for not being there. And it’s not something you can fix now by going off on your own. Lloyd needs you here. Right now.” Kai’s heaving chest began to slow, his fists began to unfurl. In all the chaos, he thinks he must’ve yelled some of his thoughts out loud. That he should’ve been there. He should’ve been allowed to go. Maybe that’s why Jay’s words hit so perfectly close to home. Kai could sense Cole behind him, not quite touching him, but hovering just in case he tried to run again.

Something wet stung Kai’s eyes that he blinked away, setting his jaw. 

“But I should’ve been there,” he muttered quietly, a mixture of fear and anxiety and anger still ruminating in his chest. “This is why I have to be there.”

“Why, so you can sacrifice yourself and be in the same condition Lloyd is?” Cole spoke from behind him. Seeing Kai was somewhat calm, the earth ninja moved around to stay next to Jay. 

Kai looked at him sharply. “No,” he bit quickly. At his two brothers’ knowing looks, he flushed and looked at his feet. “Yes. Better me than him.”

“Better it be neither of you,” Jay said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m just as worried about Lloyd as you are.” (That earned him a glare because no, no he wasn’t. No one could possibly be more worried than Kai.) “But I’d be equally as worried if it was you.” 

Not true, Kai wanted to say. Because he was expendable wasn’t he? He took on missions and recon alone because if something went wrong at least it would on him. He jumped into any harm that might be inflicted upon his family because at least it would be him getting hurt and not them. He was the first one in and the last one out of any mission so he could make sure he took any of the first hits and any of the last that it took to get everyone out safely. Because that’s what Kai was made for. He was made to be expendable. Why couldn’t everyone see that? (“…it was…to protect him…”)

The Bounty slowed as they hovered over Ninjago City Hospital. Kai had been silent, burning a hole in the ground with his eyes as he fumed. Cole and Jay just watched him carefully not knowing what else to say. They all turned at the footsteps from the steps, seeing Sensei walk up sipping his tea. The sight would’ve made Kai angry - how could his Sensei be so calm at a time like this? But then he saw the worried, furrowed brow and realized that maybe his Sensei’s meditation and tea drinking was just his way of coping with life, the same way Kai’s protective box of anger and physical action was his.

“Lloyd is stable for now,” Sensei spoke, hands cupping his glass in front of him. “But we must pray that it remains that way and that there is no permanent damage due to blood loss.”

Kai’s face went white. It should’ve been me.

——

Kai never left the hospital until Lloyd woke up. The others tried to get him to leave, or at least get up to get food, take a shower or a nap in the cot. But he refused. The guilt of not having been there was eating him alive, even though he knew logically it was not his fault.

His hair was once again floppy and greasy as he lounged in the scratchy hospital chair with solid wooden arms. Any sleep he’d gotten the past three days was in the chair and it was very poor to say the least. The others would probably be by soon to force feed him, and he’d oblige only to not see that disappointed and worried look on Nya’s face.

He just needed Lloyd to wake up so he could tell him he’s sorry. He’s sorry he wasn’t there. He’s sorry he didn’t protect him like he always promised. He's sorry he didn’t defy Zane and Nya’s orders and go anyway. He’s sorry-

“K-Kai?” His head jolted up as the raspy use of his name.

Lloyd’s eyes were open, blinking lazily as they tried to process his surroundings.

Kai shot to his feet, heart pounding this time excitedly and full of relief. “Lloyd,” he breathed, reaching out to grab his friend’s hand. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Lloyd looked away so he could look around the room, then back at Kai. “Hospital again?” he asked.

Kai’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “Yes. You were injured in that gang fight a few days ago. I wish I could’ve been there. I’m so sor-“

“Kai.” Lloyd’s glower was so intense to his usual innocence that Kai stopped cold. “I just woke up, and the first thing you’re gonna do is apologize for something that was in no way your fault. You were on house arrest because the others…and I…wanted to teach you that you are not expendable. You are not the one that always has to take the hits. I, for one, am glad you weren’t there.”

Kai clenched his jaw and looked away, still holding Lloyd’s hand. He still didn’t believe it. Jay had said. Lloyd was not saying it. Gosh, Nya had been saying it for years, so…why couldn’t Kai believe it? Why couldn’t he just accept that he was as important to them and they were to him?

Because you doubt your value. You find sole purpose in your ability to protect.

It was a small voice deep inside that startled Kai to his core. Where had that come from? And was it really truly that he only felt he was valuable when he was able to protect someone?

Maybe. Maybe it was. 

People always think Kai is reckless because he’s stupid or because he doesn’t think, but really Kai is very intentional. When he jumps into the fray, he does it with the sole  purpose of protecting. And when he so-called “fails,” he doubts himself and everything he stands for. Without fail every time, he questions his worth. 

So maybe…just maybe…Kai needed to work on that. He wouldn’t admit it to the others, but…work on it, he would.