Chapter Text
Kai groaned, where in the world was he? These woods didn’t seem to match anywhere in ninjago he had seen before, and he couldn’t get his phone or communicator to work. Given the communicators had a limited range, and there was only so much service you could get in the forest, but, well, the rest of the ninja were like a family to him, and Kai had found comfort in simply being able to talk to his friends, his family, whenever he could.
His fellow ninja weren’t the only thing weighing on Kai’s mind. Something about this forest was making his elemental powers well, more powerful. Similar to how Cole had described his powers were in the caves below Shintaro. Cole had said something about being surrounded by his element making his powers stronger. But surrounded by fire didn’t really describe the luscious forest that surrounded Kai.
Suddenly Kai heard a screech in the distance which was followed by a strange shockwave that painted the sky red, and Kai felt power surge up in him, escaping in a blast of fire, burning up what was left of the grass in Kai’s meager camp.
That was another thing that kept happening, and whatever was causing the shockwaves, must be what’s causing his powers to be much more potent. Whoever was screaming sounded like they were genuinely struggling with something with how loud it was, but it wasn’t safe for Kai to go investigate, less he cause a forest fire.
Kai sighed, “know what? Screw sitting around doing nothing, I’m gonna figure out what’s going on!” He yelled, to… no one, yeah isolation was getting to him. But that was a problem for later!
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Mei sat down with a yawn, she had been struggling to control the samadhi fire all day, leading to multiple outbursts.
“Well, that could’ve been… worse,” Red Son said, but it almost felt like he was trying to convince himself of that, rather than Mei. “You can’t keep having these outbursts, do you have any idea how many of my weapons you’ve melted?”
“You can just get more right?” Mei asked, before taking a bite out of a slice of watermelon.
“Not particularly since my supplier is currently in one of the many cities that the lady bone demon has, y’know DESTROYED!” Red Son spat, his hair bursting into flames for a second.
“How do you get your hair to do that?” Mei asked, her mouth full.
“I don’t know, dragon horse girl, not like I’m doing it on purpose.”
“Ok then, keep your secrets,” Mei replied with a smile.
“Why are you so annoying?”
“You know you love it!”
“Well I-“ Red Son stuttered, his face turning red, whether he was blushing, or just mad was a mystery, “Go take a walk or something, go clear your mind so you don't have another outburst or whatever.”
“Ok!” Mei said, getting to her feet.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
It was a beautiful day, and Mei, well, she was trying and failing to not worry about her friends, or the Lady Bone Demon. Mei had run off so she wouldn’t hurt anyone, but she was also, as Monkey King said, their only hope of defeating the Bone Demon. But at the same time, she was still mad at him for lying about there only being three rings, and that a piece of the fire was inside of her. Mei wanted to scream, and she could feel the temperature around her rising.
“No, no no no no no!” She yelled, as black and red smoke formed clouds around her, “the samadhi fire does not control me, the samadhi fire does not control me,” Mei repeated, in an attempt to not have another outburst.
“Take a deep breath,” An unfamiliar voice said from behind Mei, placing a hand on her shoulder, “in… and out, in… and out.”
Mei complied, taking a few deep breaths and she could feel the temperature around her dropping as she continued to calm down. After a few more deep breaths the red and black clouds of smoke had, mostly, dissipated.
Mei turned around to face the mysterious voice that had helped her calm her down, she was met by an unfamiliar face, he was wearing a red gi, which was, very, very burnt up, “Uh, hello?” The stranger said, “you’re staring.”
“Oh shoot, sorry about that, I don't think we’ve met before, I’m Mei!” Mei said with a smile, “What are you doing in the woods?”
“I’m Kai, and I could ask you the same thing.”
“Thank you for helping me calm down, I didn’t want to accidentally burn down the woods,” Mei said, expertly dodging the question, “that would’ve been not good.”
“Yeah,” Kai laughed, “you said something about something called the samadhi fire, what’s that?”
Mei frowned, “it’s a long story.”
“Well I’ve got time.”
“Dragon horse girl! Where are you?!” Red Son called out from somewhere in the distance.
“Who’s yelling?” Kai asked.
“That’s Red Son, c’mon!” Mei said, dragging her new friend, Kai, towards where she could hear Red Son calling out.
“W-Wait!” Kai yelped, in surprise at being quite literally dragged away.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
“Mei, who is that?” Red Son sighed.
“A friend!” Mei smiled.
“Mei we met not even an hour ago,” Kai sighed.
“And how do we know he’s not working with the Lady Bone Demon?” Red Son spat, shooting an accusatory glare at Kai.
“The… who?”
“The Lady Bone Demon!” Red Son said again, as though Kai would just magically know who this Red Son guy was talking about. Like, what kind of name is ‘Lady Bone Demon’? Hell, what kind of name was ‘Red Son’? People had weird names here, wherever here even was.
“Still isn’t ringing a bell,” Kai said.
Red Son sighed, “She destroyed multiple cities,” Red Son sighed, “this is one of the few places her powers have yet to reach.”