Chapter Text
Kai felt the five of them fell into a comfortable routine living in the monastery after collecting the weapons. He and Zane were early risers doing minor training, Kai forms and stances with his blade to soak up some power to get stronger while Zane did Yoga to stretch himself out and clear his mind from any dreams or regrets from the last day. Eventually Jay would come to hassle Kai about the water temperature not being hot enough for Any nice hot showers so could he fix it please? so Kai would while Zane moved to get started on breakfast which would wake up Cole and Nya thanks to the smell alone.
After breakfast with everyone they'd either do some sort of Training whether it be a simple spars or just working out to stay in shape, Or just goof off. Which is what they decided to do today though most goof off days were more 'introduce Kai to something new he never had growing up and watch his ass be amazed by it.' Today's contender was Video Games as jay had tossed kai a controller "come on. it'll be fun! and if Wu tries to argue we can claim were team building!" was all that the Blue clad teen had to say to convince Kai to plop his butt onto the ground
"you guys are going to have to teach me the buttons. you know that right? it's not going to slow you all down?" Kai brings up as he takes in the controller in his hand looking at it a bit confused until he figured a means of actually holding it comfortably
"don't worry about it, we're not really trying to see how far we can get. We have done that many times already." Zane spoke up looking at him "like jay said. this is just for fun."
"And at the very least helping us open up communication during battle in a more stress free environment should Wu try and get on us." Cole spoke up in his slight Leader voice "But mostly, for fun now," Kai couldn't be more glad he could prevent himself from doing things as Cole scooted up next to him and was touching shoulders with him as he went over the buttons explaining how to pick his character, obviously kai picked the Red one to play and the others followed suit picking their own colors.
It was honestly easy to get lost in the game and having fun with his friends. He barely noted the time passing as they kept going laughing as he assisted Zane in killing Jay for the fun of it when he jumped at hearing the doors open and the TV being unplugged by a clearly angry Wu. "What are you doing!? You should be training prepared at a moments notice!"
"We are," Kai answered glaring at Wu as jay whined about all the lost progress "Team collaboration, and one must train both their Mind and Soul alongside their body. We can only get used to working together in two v twos or a three v one but not all together on actual moving targets without an enemy." The tension building from the two alone could almost be felt by the heat rolling over them all.
"Sensei, we've been keeping ourselves combat ready incase Garmadon appears but it's been peaceful since we got the Golden weapons. We can put off physical combat training for one day." Cole spoke shifting to try and block the staredown happening hoping to cool things down
"You haven't even unlocked the full potential of them! You are not ready to face my brother in this state. Never put off tomorrow what can be done today." Wu was a bit more calm as he was addressing Cole but the rage was still clear.
"Well, if that's the case..." Jay spoke trying to lighten the mood as he moved to grab the slice of pizza he had set on the sword of Fire, much to Kai's open disgust who hadn't been aware of what Jay had been doing to his weapon "I was going to save this for tomorrow." Only for his hand to be whacked by Wu's staff
"No pizza for you!" He snapped getting another tiny groan of sorrow from Jay which finally made Kai stand up
"Your being harsh, you can't speed up one's journey of self improvement and mastery. It's only been a month and There have been no signs of Lord Garmadon returning to Ninjago. You picked us, was it because of whom you saw us being able to become, or we had the powers you need? Because you are acting as if it is the latter." Kai spat and all the others could almost imagine the warning Smoke coming from his mouth like his dragon mount when she was about to launch a ball of fire from her mouth. Wu didn't have a chance to answer the question Kai posed as his sister ran in looking panicked
"Lord garmadon was spotted in jamakai village!" She rushed to get out making the other three panic to jump up and prepare to set out with Kai at least not having to try and get up but still moving to get to his dragon and wipe his blade clean hissing at Jay for what he did getting a small laugh and apology from him. It was a chaotic mess trying to get onto their dragons while also opening the doors to their stables.
Kai was the fastest to get prepared only stopped by being unable to reach the reins which weren't set in their normal resting spot against the saddle horn he added to avoid it falling against the dragon's neck and being a pain to reach. He always hooked his against the horn after his flights and most of the other ninja did the same once they saw the benefits besides cole who due to Rocky's shorter neck didn't have such a problem. There were only two who didn't, and nya was solely because she rarely was the one leading flame. And kai knew with Nya being around the whole time meant it was Wu who did this on purpose to set Kai off as he never did it when borrowing one of the other's dragons when going out with them. "Sis, some help?" He asked looking at nya who was nearby clearly wanting to tag along.
"Yeah I got you... let me guess you want me to stay here?" Nya asked looking at him while she grabbed the fallen reins moving to pass them up the clear disappointment on her face as even though she wanted to ask, she also already knew the answer.
"If it wasn't garmadon Lil heron of course you could tag along, but it's too dangerous this time." Kai spoke squeezing her hand when the reins were in reach "I'd say take advantage of us being out to run the course. I'm sure you'll get even better if you do, even maybe beat it."
"I'm going to f*cking crush your speed record brother. Just you wait your never going to recover the title." She teased smiling as she felt at ease at the blank check to have fun and practice fighting.
"I'll make you a whole ass cake the day you do." Kai promised finally letting go of his baby sister, his only sibling, so she could go and stand beside wu and allowing him to fly off. A race soon breaking out between the ninja as they rushed to catch garmadon and put an end to any plans he might have. The laughter and joy was infectious while they were in the air and Kai was so glad he was amongst them even he could tell rhe dragons had gotten pulled into their race and were pushing to be the winner alongside their elemental ally.
Eventually they all Landed around the same time leading them bickering for a few seconds as Kai laughed and moved ahead following the screams of fear and evil laughter to find garmadon a hand on the hilt of his blade. Tense and ready to fight the lord properly. Reaching the area where the fountain rest he saw the looming shadow and heard a voice that was not the same speech pattern soon instead of the fearsome warlord he was faced with a child, no older than 7 moving to hop up onto the fountain as he cried out "It is I! Lloyd Garmadon! I demand all your candy in town or ELSE!" the black hood of the skeleton hoodie he was wearing was over his head but didn't do much to hide his blonde locks thanks to the existence of his bangs he gestured to the crowd of people who gathered "Gimme all your candy or i'll unleash the serpentine on you!" he gestured and kai let out a laugh as the others finally caught up to him likely hearing the booing people
"It's just Lord Garmadon's Son, he escaped his boarding school for bad boys again?" Cole groaned looking at the sight which had turned to people pelting rotten fruits or vegetables at the child much to their dismay, seems his can of snakes didn't help dissuade the tension forming between the crowd and himself.
"Again?" Kai asked looking over as whine came from jay
"and to think we could of been doing spinsjitzu by now! This isn't his first time come on let's round him back up." Jay, Zane, and Cole moved to go and collect the wayward child with kai moving after a few beats to take it all in jay being careful as they walked around looking at the rubber string snakes "and serpentine really? no one should joke about those things!"
"their mainly stories at this point to scare kids. i can see why he might try it." Kai spoke back as they finally made it closer to Lloyd
"just because they are still sealed away in their tombs does not mean they aren't real and shouldn't be used so lightly." Zane answered as the trio moved to grab lloyd risking being hit in the head by a rouge fist or can. Kai instead looked about. Clearly, the kid was just hungry and broke. and this bad boy school hadn't taught him the fine art of 'stealing food to survive' which kai was a master of.
"Nothing to see folks! move along, we'll handle this." Cole cried out getting the people to back away as the three were able to carry the squirming kid as Kai made his move over to one of the vendors who hadn't abandoned his stall selling skewer kebabs he could feel the small Gremlin's eyes on him as he pulled out a pouch of coins and paid for two sweet sauce Chicken sticks watching intently as he put it back in an easy and obvious spot. He could also tell Zane was watching in confusion at his actions.
"what should we do?" Jay asked as Kai finally came over still holding the hot food Cole looking like he was about to suggest some sort of punishment before kai interuppted
"Honestly let's just Feed him and get him back to school. he's probably hungry from being on the run." Kai spoke moving to gesture for the group to set the kid down which happened but firm grips were used to hold him in place as the red ninja moved to kneel to his level before speaking as he held the food out "Their probably not as sweet as Candy is but it'll be a lot more filling, all for you twerp if you agree to behave on the way back okay?"
"Okay!" the poor boy was practically drooling just looking at what was being offered which lead to the other ninja releasing him and kai getting a hug that he didn't expect to hit him so hard. "thank you so much!" Kai's smile was genuine as Lloyd took the two skewers biting right away showing off sharp fangs as kai took in the chance to see his red color eyes better before the kid let out an evil giggle "SMOKE BOMB!" was all the warning the four had before one that was pulled from somewhere was tossed down by him and the sound of hurried child footsteps reached their ears leaving the four to look around baffled when the smoke was cleared.
"you do know that he stole your wallet during that hug." Zane spoke up as kai finished coughing
"yeah yeah i was planning on it." Kai grumbled "didn't think he'd pull that to get away from us... maybe should of told him he'd get a chance to ride on a dragon if he stuck around..."
"you what?!" Jay cried out "what about all your money you work so hard for!?" he looked close to panicking which made sense, so far kai shown himself to be the most financially responsible. for him to allow a kid to steal his wallet was insane.
"it's not all in that little purse. whenever we go out a take a small amount that can cover at least four cheap decent meals so if were out too long we won't starve. Lloyd probably needs that money more than us right now." Kai explained "I doubt he had any before and now at least he can get himself something... even if it's just a bunch of candy." Kai was still a bit annoyed and puzzled he thought he had been close into getting Lloyd to come with them, once getting him to the monastery it'd be as easy as ''slipping'' up and letting Wu see his Nephew and then boom. Kid would be living with them now in reach where kai could keep him safe. Sure the others would possibly get annoyed about having what seemed like a troublesome kid around but kai would soothe the tension by offering to take over the care chores Wu would most certainly dump onto them for the first few weeks or even a month to make up for it since it was HIS fault they got into this supposed mess. Nya as well but getting her to understand would be as easy as explaining what was going on. his thoughts were too occupied by his screwup that he didn't notice the scroll falling out of the saddlebag. thankfully Zane did.
"It seems you accidentally grabbed Sensei's bag in the rush."
"No, he probably left it on the saddle seeing how he borrowed Flame most recently and didn't think to check he took everything out." Kai answered shifting down to take a look and join in trying to read it, which in the end it seemed only he and Zane could, though it seemed Zane's understanding of the ancient tongues was limited
"this symbol means prophecy..."
"Prophecy?" Jay asked confused
"it means it tells the future windbag." cole answered knocking Jay's shoulder lightly making him laugh
"I knew that." it was very clear to all of them that he hadn't but they moved on going back to the scroll
"It says, one ninja will rise above the others and become the green Ninja, the ninja destined to defeat the dark lord." Zane finally managed to translate for the others only for them to get distracted by the picture showing the elemental masters of creation with a Ninja in green in the middle of them all though Cole seemed to make the connection that Lord Garmadon could be this dark lord. but soon the topic was shifting to who would be the green ninja with Kai rolling his eyes not joining as he took the Scroll and rolled it back up
"honestly we probably weren't meant to see this. And if any of us were strong enough to be the green ninja I'd say it'd be me but I'd rather pass." Kai answered tucking the scroll back into the bag
"what?!" all of the other three cried out in shock Jay continuing "why Wouldn't you want to be the green ninja!?"
"I'm Happy as is; the Red Ninja and becoming a Stronger Master of Fire." Kai answered a bit confused about it as he shrugged "But if destiny picked me for it I wouldn't fight fate. I'd take the mantle up and defeat The dark lord to protect Ninjago, but why can't i do that as the Fire Ninja?" of course his answer didn't diffuse the fight all of them claiming they'd be the green ninja after all while kai just laughed as he heard about a tournament forming chipping in at the end "I don't fully care about winning and becoming the Green ninja, but i will join in both to even the numbers and it sounds like a great sparring match ahead of us. But come on we gotta get back first before we can start." that got the trio rushing to also mount and get into motion Kai watching them leave a fond smile on his face.
He may of failed to get Lloyd Garmadon as his little brother today. but he certainly felt like he had gained at least one Today in Jay... the other two? he had a feeling his heart wanted them elsewhere...
