Chapter Text
Nothing was the same anymore.
The team is divided.
A family, separated and broken.
Two siblings, now alone and abandoned.
Nya was gone.
And her loss affected everyone. But everyone dealt with the loss of a team member and part of their family differently.
Ninjago mourned the loss of a hero but continued with their lives as normal. The ninja, however, lost a key team member and a significant part of their family.
Cole, Zane, Lloyd and Pixel lost a friend who was almost like a member of their family.
Wu lost a girl who was not only one of his closest family members, but also his goddaughter. He and Garmadon had promised Ray and Maya that they would take care of Kai and Nya should anything happen to their parents. The two brothers became godfathers, but in the end, they couldn't keep their promise.
Jay lost the love of his life. The woman of his life and love since the moment he first laid eyes on her. And even more importantly, he lost the yin to his yang.
And Kai?
He was hit the worst.
Kai didn't just lose a sister. No, he lost the most important person in his life. Since his and Nya's parents were kidnapped by Krux, the two siblings had only each other. Kai, the older brother, now had to take care of Nya. Because if he didn't, no one would. A six-year-old now had the responsibility not only of running a business, but also of looking after his sister, who was three years younger.
Years passed, and their bond grew stronger every day. Sure, they argued now and then, but these arguments never lasted long. They could never stay angry with each other for long. They were a family, and a family always sticks together.
And ultimately, it was Nya who made him a ninja. If his sister hadn't been kidnapped, he would never have followed Wu to the monastery, never begun his ninja training, and never become a fire ninja.
Nya was the one who held everything together. The reason for his existence and why he kept going.
But now she was gone, bound to the ocean.
She was not dead, but her memories were gone, blurred like water, and the Nya Kai had once known existed only in his thoughts.
For Kai, it was his biggest loss and the hardest pain he had felt since his parents' disappearance.
Accordingly, he did everything he could to avoid feeling this pain anymore.
Kai often drank at his favorite bars, but he wasn't desperate enough to succumb to alcoholism. No, he wouldn't fall that low. Alcohol would only destroy him further and have annoying consequences he didn't want.
Fights at the fight club were far more effective. The thrill of combat and the power of violence captivated Kai, just as they had back when Zane disappeared. The Red Shogun hadn't returned. No, Kai returned as Kai, living up to his old title. But unlike before, his visits to the fighting arena were quite rare. He only returned and fought when he needed that rush of violence. And on the side, he always earned a tidy sum for his victories.
However, he spent most of his time at home, away from Ninjago City and all the stuff that gave him headaches.
But no. He wasn't referring to the monastery. Kai meant his true home, the forge. A few months after Nya merged with the ocean, Kai left the monastery and returned to his old home.
He did spend time at the monastery occasionally, but the length of his stays decreased significantly each time. At least initially, because that was when it was worst. Everyone suffered from Nya's loss.
But it was Jay who got on Kai's nerves the most. And Kai's sympathy for Jay had its limits. The blue boy acted as if losing Nya was the hardest thing for him, and even the others seemed to agree. At least everyone except Wu.
Was it perhaps because Kai always tried to remain strong when others were in the room and didn't want to show any weakness? Certainly, but surely the others, his longtime brothers, should know by now how Kai operated.
Kai became increasingly annoyed by the way the team treated Jay, and the rest of his life in the monastery was just a shadow of its former glory, which led him to stay away from the monastery for longer and longer periods.
It was Skylor who had given him a place to stay when he didn't want to sleep at the monastery. She supported him in every way she could and was the only one Kai felt comfortable with anymore. She was the only one who truly understood him. And he couldn't be more grateful for his friend. His Girlfriend.
As much as he loved her and enjoyed her support, Kai didn't want to take up Skylor's time and energy indefinitely. Sure, he always had a place with her, as she had promised and made unmistakably clear, but it was Kai we were talking about here.
So his decision was made. He left the monastery and returned to his hometown, to the old forge "Four Weapons." Everything was exactly as he had left it, and even the feeling of home was still there. And now that he finally had all the time in the world and could do what he wanted, he returned to his old hobby, blacksmithing, and Kai had to admit, he was getting better and better. But the boy also improved his fighting skills, as he trained for several hours every day. Each session was different, more intense, and yet more instructive.
Countless months, perhaps even a year, had passed since then. A long but peaceful time at home. Kai only visited the monastery occasionally, and then only for a week at most.
When he first returned, he was surprised by how crazy Jay had become. The boy was behaving more than just strangely, treating every drop of water with the utmost respect and loyalty. Hell, the Lightning Ninja had tried many times to get the other ninja to talk to the water in his glass, but no one ever did.
And then Jay was gone too. He must have been living in the old lighthouse belonging to Zane's deceased father, which Kai didn't really care about. At least it was a bit quieter.
The next time, it was Zane who had switched off his emotions and now resembled the Zane of when they still had to fight the serpentines.
The surprise was Lloyd, some time later, who withdrew more from ninja life and took on some side jobs in Ninjago City in order to lead a "normal life".
Only Cole, Pixal, and Wu remained true to their old selves.
Kai couldn't help but grin to himself as he thought about how the team had once again fallen apart after losing a member. Only this time, there wouldn't be a tournament to reunite them and bring their old teammate back.
Although that would be desirable in some way.
But what the heck, in the end he'd only feel pain again anyway. Just like he felt betrayal back then, when Chen made those insinuations to his parents. Or back when Morro stole Lloyd and their powers. Or when the Time Twins showed up and Kai learned the truth about his parents. Oh, oh, or back when Aspheera stole his powers, or like now, when another villain took his sister from him.
Damn, how many damned villains had already harmed him?
And how many of them were old enemies of Wu? Enemies Wu had kept hidden from them all along. Morro, Aspheera, Chen, and Acronix would have been far less of a problem if Wu had told them everything about them beforehand.
They could have stopped Morro and perhaps even calmed him down.
Chen's plans could have been thwarted more easily, without Garmadon having to sacrifice himself.
Aspheera would never have been freed and would probably have been sealed even more tightly had Wu only enlightened her.
And Acronix could have been stopped before he even really got started. They could have gotten the first Time Blade and then stopped all the Time Twins' nonsense.
But no, they knew NOTHING.
And who was to blame?
WU!
Kai's body trembled with rage as he thought of all the times Wu's actions had caused them so much pain. He preached honesty to them, yet he himself was anything but. What else had Wu kept from them?
" Damn it ," Kai screamed in his thoughts, staring angrily at the sky.
As he did almost every evening, he spent his time in front of his house, gazing at the stars. The sight of the universe was somehow calming and always managed to clear Kai's mind. But this evening was different, even though he'd been in a bad mood all day.
Perhaps it was also because he had seen an advertisement on television for an exhibition at the museum. Countless relics from Ninjago's history were on display, and some of these relics were from the ninja's adventures, such as Aspheera's magical glaive, replicas of the Oni masks, various weapons of their diverse opponents, and replicas of the more powerful artifacts, such as the Realm Crystal, the Sword of Destiny, and the Blades of Time.
Thinking about all those weapons and artifacts, Kai couldn't help but ask himself a certain question. How easily could they have defeated some of their opponents if they had used powerful artifacts from past battles? So many of their enemies could have been defeated right at the start, before they even became a serious threat. Be it through the Reversal Time Blade, the Sword of Destiny, the Realm Crystal, the Techno Blades, or other artifacts they had found over time.
Everything could have been so much simpler.
The number of victims would have been lower, at least if there had been any victims at all.
Life in Ninjago would have been more peaceful.
And all that was needed were artifacts, which the ninja already knew to some extent anyway.
But no.
Why should they?
It was far preferable to keep all artifacts, whether still intact or unintentionally shattered into many pieces during battle, securely locked away beneath Cyrus Borg's tower, displayed in a museum, or something similar. Everything was secured in one place, and no one had the opportunity to access it. Because that's how Wu wanted it. The old man was too fearful and blinded by his own instincts, so he prevented and locked away anything that could have helped the ninja.
And Kai absolutely didn't understand it.
The other ninja hadn't even considered it and preferred to trust their master. But Kai was always more of a rebel, someone who saw things from a different perspective. He always had been.
Wu was over a thousand years old, yet Kai still had to criticize the man's intelligence. Wu was simply foolish for denying them these opportunities. Too fearful to teach his ninja something that, while extremely dangerous, could have been an enormous help if mastered. Too ignorant to admit his own mistakes.
Things could have turned out so differently.
But Wu didn't want it.
And Kai's hatred and rage only began to boil over even more. Nya would still be alive if different decisions had been made.
Had they been informed, they could have used these artifacts. Had everything turned out differently, they could have stopped their opponents early and seized the artifacts the villains wanted.
Because wasn't that usually what it was about?
That some group of villains is searching for an important and dangerous artifact, and once they find it, they intend to use it to bring pain and suffering to the world. And perhaps as a nice bonus, they might even be old acquaintances of Wu, seeking revenge on the old sensei once again.
It's always been like that.
The Fangblades, the Realm Crystal and the Sword of Destiny, the Time Blades, the Oni Masks, the Scrolls of Forbidden Spinjitzu and finally the Amulets of Wojira.
It was always the same.
An endless cycle of pain and suffering.
The same unnecessarily repetitive pattern.
And yet they did nothing about it.
The ninja remained trapped because they had no other options. Wu blocked their paths, and the rest were too loyal, too subservient, to question him.
But Kai wasn't like that.
Kai would no longer stand by and watch the eternal cycle repeat itself over and over again.
He would not allow any more people to suffer the effects of the cycle.
He would break out of this cycle and stop it once and for all.
It was time to go his own way. A way away from the ninja and away from everything he had been all these years.
Kai knew that if he wanted to break the cycle, he would have to do things he might not want to do, things for which others would despise, fear, and perhaps even hate him. He would have to become the person he should have been all along.
Kai would become a monster, something he never wanted to be. But to spare others the pain and ensure that no other evil power could rise and bring suffering to Ninjago, he himself had to become a monster.
A monster, bigger, more powerful and far more dangerous than the rest, but in the end it would be worth it.
He would make the world a better place.
He could finally fix Ninjago and be the true hero Ninjago needed.
However, this would require him to plunge into darkness and reach for that which they had fought against all these years.
But for Kai, it was worth it.