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Kai opened his eyes.
There in front of him was Lloyd, his baby brother. The one who he promised to protect in that volcano all those years ago.
And he’s sitting there, red and green eyes shining (but they haven’t had a speck of red since—).
He’s clutching his shoulder, crimson red bleeding into the bright green gi. Cuts, burns, and bruises littered the boy’s body. (A boy… he looks like the child who was forced into a teenager’s body. Not the young adult who has seen the many perils of this world).
As Lloyd sits there, blood begins to pool beneath him. Dull red slowly gets smeared as Lloyd shifts back a little, body posture tense and ready to spring into action.
Why is he in that younger body again? How did he get all those injuries? What is he afraid of?
Kai tore his eyes away from the green, meeting the orange circling them. A bright orange. So bright it’s almost blinding. The heat emanating from it creates waves and distorts the surroundings.
Fire.
If Kai squinted, he could barely make out the outline of a destroyed room… a very familiar room. One that he hasn’t seen in years.
A soft, scratchy voice brought him out of the panicked fog, “Well Kai… Are you happy now?”
What?
It was Lloyd. Leaning against the rubble, the fire inching ever closer. His eyes look so tired and dull. His smile looks bitter with defeat. He looked like he was barely hanging on by a thread.
Hair caked in blood, blonde looking like brown. Gi drenched in blood and sweat, more red than green. Skin covered in wounds, revealing the pink inside. Body deteriorating, burning from the fire that glows brighter and grows higher.
What was he doing? Why is he just standing there while Lloyd is hurt?
Lloyd’s eyebrows furrow, “Answer me! Are you happy now?”
No, he wanted to answer, how could I ever be happy when you’re hurt?
Kai opened his mouth to say just that, “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be when I have every element at the palm of my hand.”
Huh? That isn’t what he wanted to say. Why did he say that?
There was a foreboding feeling lingering over Kai’s head. No… no no not again. I can’t hurt him like this again.
He held up his hand, and in it, a very familiar staff lay. With grey metal in the shape of a serpentine head. At the end was an orb, glowing with the colors of the elements. Red, black, white, blue, green, orange, and many more. A culmination of the rainbow to boast its power. And it was in his hands once more.
The Staff of Elements. The staff that was destroyed years ago. The staff that was pointing right at Lloyd.
Lloyd, whose eyes were spewing with more fear and anger than Kai had ever seen before, stared right at him. At the big brother who is about to kill him. Who was supposed to protect him.
And Kai stared right back. Inside, he’s screaming to be let out. To let go of this stupid staff and treat Lloyd’s wounds. But on the outside, he wears a viscous, self-satisfied grin at the boy who took the prophecy that was his.
He raises the staff, the strange and powerful orb absorbing the surrounding fire, and he shoots. A blast of pure elemental energy heads straight towards Lloyd. And when the two collide, a bright white light blinds him.
His vision clears up, and Kai could see the consequences of his actions.
There Lloyd lay, body glued to the surrounding rubble. Limbs strewn out like a limp rag. In his torso was a gaping hole, displaying the stone behind him. The sides of it were seared black. The smell of his burnt body is overpowering.
And his face. Lifeless eyes were staring right at him. There was no hope, no anger, no sadness, no light in those eyes. Just a dull green and red. Scorning him, taunting him, mocking him.
Kai felt like throwing up.
When he looked away from the gruesome sight, Kai was met with pitch black.
He was leaning against a bright red railing, staring down at the deep, deep black. Kai squinted his eyes. He could faintly see a shape of another color. A shape that looks suspiciously familiar. A sense of panic washes over him.
Cole. The dependable foundation of the ninja. The strongest one in terms of physical strength.
And he’s flailing. Body falling into the unknown, into the black smoky clouds below. The usually calm and composed figure looked so small and fragile from up above.
He’s falling down, down, down again.
An inaudible scream escaped his throat. Kai wanted to save him. Jump off and catch him. Reach out and grab him.
But Cole was too far away.
Kai looks around him, seeing if there was any way to save him from landing in the dark fog. Clear blue skies, off-white sails, a rainbow of people happy to be saved. A worried and despondent look on Zane’s titanium face, the determined actions of Nya in her crimson gi. The brown of the steering wheel reaches his eyes.
Kai ran toward the wheel, hoping to turn the ship around (it’s useless and you know it).
When Nya boosted the ship’s engines, the sudden momentum caused Kai to slide back and trip him. He got up as quickly as he could, but he kept falling and falling and failing. He sprinted towards the wheel but slid and tripped again. And again. And again.
It was like there was some sort of force dragging him back (you were useless last time, why would things work in your favor this time?).
The setting sun created a blast of beautiful colors in the sky. Reds, purples, oranges, yellows — all coming together in serene harmony. It looked even better being so high and not down in the dark.
The sky looked too beautiful for Cole not to witness.
So he tried again. The steering wheel looked so far away, like it was an unreachable item on the top shelf (that Cole could have easily reached).
No one else bothered to look back. Not at him and definitely not at Cole. They have already lost faith in saving him.
So Kai looks back at Cole one last time and sees nothing but white.
What hit him first were the blinding whites and blues. Then, it was the sharp coldness that sent shivers throughout his body.
Snow.
While Kai wasn’t fond of the coldness snow brings, he will admit it can be beautiful. And right now, the scene in front of him was gorgeous.
Village children running around, chasing each other in a game of tag, with onlookers working to keep everyone happy. The light snowfall glitters in the sky. Who knew brown and blue could work so well?
Kai notices his family returning from their scouting with no luck in their search. (Why are they here so early?). He waves at them with a smile on his face, hoping to cheer them up. A group of children run up to him, holding out a fish for him to roast.
(“Hey, hey big brother Kai! Can you cook another fish? Can you buy these parts for me? Can I sleep with you tonight? Can you read that story again? Can you help me with—”
“Of course”).
This was a good way to practice his powers — his flames were still too weak to protect anyone. Besides, how could he say no to their little faces? (It doesn’t help that they remind him of Lloyd and Nya).
So, he casts a bit of fire, just enough to cook the fish to perfection. Grey slowly becomes golden brown, and he stops before it becomes black. The children gave him toothy grins and thanked him before running off.
This village is so peaceful. Its serenity is closed off from the harsh outside, as if they were in a snow globe. Kai can almost imagine that this was not a different realm and that Zane never went missing.
But of course, all good things must come to an end, and this end came from a thundering roar.
The dragon, the beast covered in the same serene colors surrounding them. Its sharp features clash with the soft pillows of snow. From its mouth shoots sharp ice. Bright, transparent, icy blue shows its purity. A stunning sight, were it not for the villagers running in terror.
Kai quickly jumps up to help however he can. He guides villagers into their shelters. He runs around, looking for the dull blue of their clothes. Around him, blue, grey, and black run around doing the same.
It was becoming too much.
Every time the dragon shoots its ice, one of the others try to counter it with their power. Every time, the clash ends with the icy blue reaching its target. Every time he blinks, a new part of the village gets covered in ice.
Every time he finds someone, their colors get covered by the blue.
The village around him quiets down. Where it was once filled with color and life, now filled with silence and ice.
Kai doesn’t know what to do with himself. He tries to summon his fire, but it’s not responding. Not even a little yellow spark comes out of him.
Why now? It was working fine earlier. Why do I fail when I’m needed the most—
“WATCH OUT—”
A shove pulls him out of his thoughts, and Kai gets a face full of snow. He gets up to spit out some of the ice when the voice registers in his head. Jay.
Quickly turning around, Kai is face-to-face with his brother. Jay’s eyes were opened wide, worry seeping out of them. They were usually a bright brown, with flecks of gold. But now, they were glazed over with blue, just a shade lighter than his gi. His arms were outstretched, clearly from when he pushed Kai out of the way.
A cold pit forms in Kai.
It felt like his feet were frozen in place. He could do nothing but stare at the frozen figure of his brother. (How could this happen? This didn’t happen last time… did something like this ever happen?).
With nothing else he could do, Kai quickly turned his torso, just to see how the others were faring.
But the same thing was happening to the others.
“Get behind me—” Cole.
“Hold on! Let me—” Nya.
No no no no nononononono. This can’t be happening.
As the last person was frozen by the dragon, Kai could see nothing but white and blue and blue and blue—
The dragon let out one last piercing screech before it flew off. It didn’t even bother freezing Kai. Not even sparing him a glance. Like he wasn’t worth the effort. Like it knew he could do nothing to it. The beating of wings gradually faded away.
And Kai was suffocated by silence.
The only thing left in this village was him and the white puffs of hot air coming out of his mouth. He fell to his knees, not caring for the biting cold permeating his bones.
It’s not like there was anyone nearby to care for his health. To ask for his warmth. His fire.
Which failed him. Again.
He failed. Again.
It was as if time sped up, days and nights coming and going like the wind. But his mind was still, taking in the frozen figures of his family. Of the villagers who placed their faith in him. Of the ones he failed to protect.
He could feel the ice crawling up his skin. The cold freezes him from the inside out. Not even his usual high body heat (which disappeared with his powers) could fend off its bite.
Kai no longer fought off the cold. Maybe if he froze, he could join his family… wherever their minds are.
So he let the blue swallow him whole, only for the world to suddenly burn gold.
Golden hour. A time just before sunset, where everything is cast by a golden hue. The sky, the clouds, the ocean, the windows of the flooded buildings. The soft gold rippled, climbing the buildings and creating an ethereal glow that Kai couldn’t help but be mesmerized by.
It’s as blinding as it is beautiful.
It was as beautiful as it is wrong.
Kai blinked against the brightness, and that was when he saw her.
Nya. Standing on the edge of the rooftop, outlined by the shimmering gold. And yet, she wasn’t glowing. Instead, it was like the light was bending—
The reflections looked beautiful on his sister. The reflections looked wrong on his sister.
It took a while for his mind to reorient itself. But when it did, Kai realized why the light looked so wrong:
The light wasn’t shining on Nya, it was shining through her.
Her and her translucent body. Her and her hair floating like she was underwater. Her and… her ocean.
“No…” Kai whispered, or tried to. His throat didn’t move. His legs didn’t move. His body felt like it had been turned into concrete.
He could see Jay reach out towards his yang, his voice cracking as he begged Nya to stay. The exact words were blurry to Kai, as if his ears were clogged by water. He thought he saw Wu join Jay in the pleading, but his mind had drifted too far to properly understand what was going on.
Kai wanted to join them. He wanted to scream. To grab her wrist. To do anything, say anything. To make her look at him.
But he couldn’t move.
He couldn’t speak.
He couldn’t even breathe right.
He hated this. Hated how the others could find words when he was speechless. Hated how he had to rely on them when he was is her brother. Hated how he could never find the right thing to say. (He should’ve said something. Anything was better than relying on the others for this—).
Nya turned towards them, her face soft, almost peaceful. The golden light refracted through her body, creating shimmering patterns all around them — bringing the ocean to them. She looked ethereal. Untouchable. Already halfway gone.
“Tell my mother I understand now,” she said. Her voice echoed like it was coming from the depths of the ocean. The sound of whales singing could be heard, “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”
Kai hated the way her voice echoed. There was something distinctly off about it, like this figure really wasn’t his sister (and at this point, how much of her was Nya and how much was the ocean?).
Kai hated the stupid whales singing in the distance. Like they were mocking him for losing another family member.
Kai hated how the light made her look beautiful while she was leaving him.
Jay reached out for her one last time, fingers passing through her wrist. Nya She ignores him, not even looking back as she steps off the building to join the slowly sinking water. The light of her figure shimmers and speeds off to the sunset (It’s only sunset? It feels like a lifetime has passed. It feels like no time has passed at all.).
One by one, the others slowly left the rooftop. Off to help the city recover. Off to grieve in their own way.
Before long, it was just Kai left on the roof. Knowing it was just him there, no one to judge him, he fell to his knees. His hands were trembling, breath stuttering.
Hot tears leak out, but never falling down his face, turning into steam the moment they make contact with his skin.
He didn’t bother wiping them.
The sky emptied of color, the sun finally breathing its last breath for the day.
Kai lifted his head, and the world had dried into dust.
His hands were buried in the grey sand. It stretched endlessly in every direction, shifting like ash with every breath he took.
The sky was a flat white. No sun, no clouds. Just emptiness. Just him.
And the monsters.
They crawled out of the sand like shadows peeling themselves off the ground. Their shapes flickered, never staying the same for more than a heartbeat. One moment, they had claws. The next, they had too many eyes. The next, they were just a smear of darkness with teeth.
Kai didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know how he got here. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do.
So he fought.
His body moved before his mind could catch up — fists swinging, fire sparking weakly from his fingertips. Every hit landed with a dull thud. It was like punching fog. Every monster he burned dissolved into smoke, just for two more to rise from the sand.
A claw scraped across his arm. Another slammed into his ribs. He swayed, breath knocked out of him, but his body kept moving on its own. His muscles remembered the motions even when his mind couldn’t keep up.
Kai didn’t think. He didn’t feel.
He just fought.
Swing. Block. Burn.
Swing. Block. Burn.
There was a nice monotony to it. The feeling of punching his feelings out. Bright red fire glows in the grey desert.
Swing. Block. Burn.
Swing. Block. Burn.
The monsters pressed in from every direction. They lunged at him in jerking, unnatural movements. Their bodies glitching like broken reflections. Kai ducked under a swipe, slammed his fist into another, and watched as they burst into smoke. But this time, the smoke didn’t drift away. This time, it crawled back. It reformed into something new.
Something worse.
The fragments of the monsters began to change.
Not fully. Not clearly. Just enough for his stomach to twist.
One monster rose with cracks of glowing orange running through its chest. Like fire had once burst out of it.
One monster staggered forward with a heavy, dragging limp. Its silhouette made of black fog that kept falling and falling and falling even as it stood.
One monster had jagged shards of clear, blue ice jutting from its limbs. Frost spreads across the sand wherever it stepped.
One monster rippled like liquid gold poured into water. Its outline collapsing and reforming with every movement, always flowing.
Kai swung harder.
Because what else was he supposed to do?
He didn’t want to see. He didn’t want to recognize anything. He didn’t want to remember.
But the monsters kept showing him anyway.
They circled him in dozens, maybe hundreds. Droning around as their flickering forms went between shapes he knew and shapes he didn’t. The sand shifted beneath him like it was breathing. The sky pulsed white. Too bright, too empty. The world hummed like a broken light.
Kai’s throat tightened.
He didn’t know where to run. Where to look. How to breathe.
He only knew how to do one thing.
Kai charged into the swarm. The light from his fire illuminated the monsters’ shifting forms, and Kai’s heart lurched for reasons he cannot will not name.
They reminded him too much of his failures.
Claws raked his back. Teeth snapped at his shoulder. Something cold wrapped around his ankle. Kai tore himself free, stumbling, sand slipping under his feet.
He didn't know how long he had been fighting — minutes, hours, days — until suddenly, the monsters around him hesitated. They shrank back, melting into the sand like they were afraid of something.
He forced himself to look up, really look, and the world tilted.
There, half-buried in the grey dust, were flashes of color.
Real. Recognizable. Familiar.
A smear of green. A streak of cyan. A patch of black. A splash of blue. A glint of silver.
Kai froze.
“No…” His breath hitched, sharp and painful, like the air itself was cutting him from the inside. He took a step forward, then another, sand swallowing his feet with every movement.
The shapes became clearer.
A torn green gi. A maroon sash. An orange headband. A shredded blue hood. A titanium arm.
They weren’t moving.
Kai’s knees buckled. His hands shook violently as he reached out — but he stopped short. Fingers hovering inches above their still bodies. He was afraid they’d crumble like ashes if he touched them. Afraid they’d disappear. Afraid they wouldn’t.
The world went silent.
Then the monsters rose again.
They surrounded him in a tightening ring. Their shapes were shifting faster now — orange cracks, black fog, blue ice, gold light — each one flashing with something he refused to name.
Part of him wanted to drop his hands and let them take him.
Let them drag him under.
Let everything finally stop.
It’s not like he had anything left.
His fists clenched. His stance shifted. His fire flickered weakly to life.
He didn’t want to fight. He didn’t want to keep going. He didn’t want to feel in a world without them.
But his body didn’t know how to stop.
He screamed. His voice raw, unfiltered, broken. And then he charged into the swarm. Fire burst from his hands. Wild, desperate, no longer dancing. It lights up the grey world in violent flashes. Monsters dissolved around him, but more kept coming. They clawed at him, tore at him, dragged him down.
Kai hit the ground hard. Sand filled his mouth, his nose, his lungs. Something sharp dug into his shoulders as he was pinned down. His fire sputtered out.
He was tired.
He was so, so tired.
Maybe—
A monster lunged.
Kai closed his eyes.