Chapter Text
60 A.E.
Sixty Years After Imperial Takeover.
The remains of the battlefield smelled of brimstone and gore. Black smoke filled the sky, the natural ashes of flame swirling around the unnatural darkness of oni power. The inner courtyard had been entirely leveled, the damage extending to closer portions of the castle and even the mountainous walls around them. Those mountains plunged the castle into the valley, defending it from the heavens with menacing teeth of rock, too large to comprehend. Their scale was even more intimidating from one’s knees.
He was too distracted by the thick, red puddle that soaked through fabric to appreciate the valley’s might. The blood had gone through his torn trousers, staining his skin beneath. He’d already had enough blood making his skin itch before. Cuts along his body slowly oozed further, the fingers of his right hand bent the wrong way, skin cracked, white showing. His heart still pounded with the adrenaline coursing through his veins, but it was useless, now. He could barely feel his limbs, let alone stand on them—and if he could, what then? He wouldn’t care to. There would be no point, no purpose.
Because he was the last one left alive on that wrecked battlefield. His companions were all dead, buried under the rubble of destruction. The soldiers he’d grown up alongside, trained alongside, his baby sister. His team, his family.
He was alive. But there was no hope left. They had been defeated and death would be coming for him, too, in mere moments.
Gravel crunched under the heavy step of boots. A billowing cloak, little more than stained, even after the battle, flowed in the breeze of the valley. A sword gleamed in the light of crackling fires. A second, a third, and a forth blade followed, all of their hilts clutched in skin blacker than night. It was as if a void walked rather than a person, the features of the face and the suit of skeletal armor the only thing preventing the being from looking like a walking shadow.
A scoff emanated from the form of shifting darkness, loud in the otherwise silent courtyard.
Kai’s head rung. His hand still clutched his sword, the heavy weapon made entirely of tempered gold. He had kept ahold of it, even when he’d been briefly unconscious. A warrior’s instinct. But at the approach of death, the hilt of the sword slipped from Kai’s fingers. The thud it made sounded like that of any other sword, not befitting the legendary weapon it was.
He didn’t look up. Couldn’t find the will to. Why should he look his final moments in the face when his companions had been wiped away so instantly? He deserved to die shamefully. At the same time, he didn’t care enough to remember honor. Why should honor matter now? Why had it ever mattered? Honor had not given him the power to save the people he loved.
“Children. Wu sent children to defeat me in my own home.”
Metal hissed as the shadow returned the four massive katana back into their sheaths, each one snapping back in with finality. Kai flinched at the sound. Their greatest enemy, putting away his weapons right in front of Kai. It was no wonder—after all, Kai’s sword was in the dirt. What threat was he? He could not even be ashamed of unarming himself. He just wanted it to be over. A life of nothing but struggling and training and fighting, all coming to this—this was where it was supposed to end, for better or worse. Kai was not coming out of this alive.
“Pathetic. Naïve.” The armored boots stopped right in front of Kai. Kai’s entire being quivered, the weight of such an evil presence bearing down like a mountain on his shoulders. “Blinded by the illusion of righteousness. The world doesn’t bend to the will of the so-called virtuous, boy. It bows to power, to strength. Wu knows this. He collected children with such potential…and the fool threw it all away.”
Children with potential…they had been so much more than that. But it hadn’t been enough. It had never been enough—they’d fooled themselves into believing they were special. Special enough to topple an empire that had spanned fifty years, special enough to defeat the greatest evil the world had ever known. Naïve was kind. Moronic was more fitting.
No amount of training could have prepared him, prepared any of them, for the amount of overwhelming power this being had. The ultimate embodiment of the darkness in the world. The Tyrant of Torment. The Butcher of Ninjago. His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor Garmadon. The man-demon who had turned into a god, and not a benevolent one, taking over Ninjago with a bloody fist and who intended to continue his reign forever on.
Kai found himself empty of feeling when faced with the monster that had haunted his life since his birth. A moment ago, when he’d awoken to find his baby sister in an early grave, rage had coursed through his body, a rage familiar and dependable. A rage that had always been there, feeding the fire within. Now, the small flame was dashed. He couldn’t imagine caring for anything in the world again. Not while he knelt in that ruined courtyard, blood slipping down his face, horror turning his senses numb.
Just end it, he thought instead, his own desperation for release weak. Just make it all stop. I don’t want to fight anymore. All I’ve ever done is fight and this was supposed to be the end of it, so end it already.
Kai waited for it. A slash through his throat, the beating fists of malice, the corroding power to dissolve his skin, then his muscle, then his bone. But no blow came. The dark lord did not kill him. The armored boots remained in front of him, patient.
Kai looked up. What could the monster be waiting for? Did he simply want to see the pain in Kai’s eyes before he died? He would find none. Kai doubted he would feel much of anything, drifting as he was.
Those eyes on him made Kai want to melt into nothing. Blood red and glowing with strength, it was as if all the blood the being had ever spilled was reflecting back at Kai. Those eyes were not full of hate or rage. They were…empty. There was as much a void in the being’s gaze, uncaring for the deaths of Kai’s companions, uninterested in the brutal ends he had brought to shining lives. Kai was nothing to him. His family had been nothing to him. Insects. Barely worth his grand, horrible time.
Those unbothered eyes were also calculating. Studying Kai. Seizing him up. Like he was waiting for something. If he thought Kai was going to attempt to kill him, he would be sorely mistaken. Kai knew he didn’t stand a chance. He wasn’t going to give himself the honor of dying with a blade in hand. He didn’t care.
“Just do it,” Kai murmured.
Still, Emperor Garmadon did not move. He crossed his four massive arms over his chest instead. His armor glinted in the light of the purple fires in the vicinity.
“Speak louder, Master of Flame. Or would you shame your comrades in their deaths?”
Speak louder. Like a parent scolding their child. Like he wasn’t talking about Kai’s friends that he’d just brutally murdered. Kai’s baby sister. There was a spark of his old companion, his rage, deep inside.
“Just kill me,” Kai spat.
“No.”
“Wh—What?”
“Unlike my brother, I am no fool. With the other elemental masters dead, you are no threat to me. But the power you possess…it is singular. And you fought with skill. It is because of this that I have decided to gift you with my mercy.”
Kai’s world froze. The adrenaline was beginning to fade, pulsating, aching pain just behind a curtain of chemicals in his bloodstream. Doubt held his heart. Mercy? Mercy from the Emperor was unheard of. Ridiculous. The being did not ever grant mercy. Kai might be young, he might be naïve, but that idea was a fundamental in the world they lived in. Mercy did not exist in the Empire of the Darkest Night.
Whatever this gift was—it was the farthest thing from mercy that could be imagined.
“No,” Kai whispered. “No, no, no. Just fucking kill me, you coward!”
The man-demon looked amused. As if Kai were the punch-line of a joke. As if his pathetic panic in his useless state were the funniest thing he had seen all day.
“Oh, you shall die today, Master of Flame, but I will not kill you. You shall not be the heroic martyr that your companions were. You do not deserve a fate such as that, nor did they. No…I can see a greater purpose in you.”
Kai’s mouth felt bone dry. What do you mean? he didn’t ask. If this monster saw any sort of purpose in Kai, it could only be a threat to his sensei after the assassination’s failure. He would not become another tool in Emperor Garmadon’s reign of darkness and terror. And he would not be kept separate from his comrades, his sister, when they had given everything. He had to match their sacrifice.
He reached for all the strength left in him. It wasn’t enough to touch the inhuman beast before him, but it was enough to lift his sword one final time.
He was quick as lightening, pouring all he had into it, using both hands outstretched from him to thrust the blade inwards—
He cried out as the blade barely pierced a half inch below his sternum, but the momentum was halted. Two void hands grabbed both of Kai’s arms at the wrists, and a third hand was wrapped around his fingers on the hilt. There was no contest of strength between the oni lord and the shaking boy. But Garmadon let him suffer there, wincing as the blade tip shifted.
A black void hand reached forward and brushed Kai’s hair from his face, then grabbed him roughly by the jaw. Kai tried to growl and jerk away, but the four arms he was faced with held him completely immobile.
Fingers, cold as shards of ice, dug into his cheeks. It was like the heat was being leached out of him where the Emperor touched his skin.
“I have no intention of letting you find solace in oblivion, boy, though I respect the attempt. It seems there is will left in you after all. No matter—that will not last long. From now on, your mind and body belong to me. Your every move, every thought, every breath will be under my command.”
Kai couldn’t move, couldn’t react how he’d like to in the face of such a statement. So he did what he could. He spat on the Emperor’s hand.
The man-demon tsked. His grip on Kai’s arms, his fingers, and on his jaw tightened and tightened until Kai felt like his arms were going to be ripped through.
The grip around his ruined fingers suddenly broke right through the numbness and the adrenaline, squeezed against his golden hilt, and Kai screamed.
“Shush,” the Emperor commanded, briefly squeezing again, drawing a breathless wheeze from Kai. “Get used to that feeling quietly. Even I only enjoy screaming for so long before it gets annoying. And I thank you for this offering you’ve given me in return for my generosity.”
The Emperor let go of Kai’s arms at the same time as he kicked him in the gut. Kai flew back, the air leaving him as he hit the ground, all of his wounds abruptly beginning to burn in agony.
The Emperor had already turned away from him, caressing Kai’s legendary blade in his hands. With a briefly barked order, soldiers of the Emperor appeared in the courtyard and surrounded Kai.
Hands grabbed at him. He screamed and burst into flames, but the sparks were weak. The heat was quickly wrested away from him, his heaving chest pressed into the cracked stone, and tears wet the settling dust.
-
The dungeons were dark and damp and the air was thick with the stink of bodies. It wasn’t very unlike the surface of the fortress’ valley, which was trapped in perpetual darkness. Any barrier created by a force of such evil could only cast as much darkness as it did protection. Above, the air was fresh, at least. Below, Kai might as well be choking on his own stench. He didn’t know how long it had been, had no way to tell time—and his torturers were not the giving type. The guards were even less talkative. Kai could only tell by the fact that he was aware of his own smell that a very long while must have passed without him being allowed a shower. The cruelty was doubled with every session of pain. Kai would be left bloodied, bruised, covered in sweat, and left with nothing but a bucket and drain for a laughable show of dignity. Kai might as well be shitting on the stone with how much dignity he retained.
His clothes, his gi, had been stripped, all of his items taken. His hair had been sheered with blades meant for sheep, as short as the unprofessional work of the guards could be. He’d been left with nothing but his own skin and the wounds left over. He was not even graced with a loin cloth. He was only treated enough so that he would not bleed out or die of infection. Often, they’d let it fester until he was throwing up whatever meager food they’d provided him with. He was constantly nauseous, if not from the fever, if not from the blood loss, if not from the beatings to his skull, then from the constant crippling pain.
When he learned that he could bite through his tongue to stop his own screaming, he was given more water. That was their mercy. So like their master’s.
In quite a paradox, they were dissapointed when he learned to breathe through the pain of blades and needles and broken bones and bruised skin. But there was one torture that he could never breathe through, never get used to, never ignore, and they knew it.
A cloth would be pressed against his mouth and nose, his arms and legs strapped down with vengestone. The vengestone made the chill of the dungeon seep into his bones and raise goosebumps on his arms, but that was constant.
The ice water would come down. Kai would thrash and flail, his body reacting without his command as he choked and coughed, only to swallow more water. His body would desperately heave everything from his body in an attempt to clear his lungs, which only served to cut off more air. The burning of his lung was unlike the physical pain of other tortures, it wasn’t something he could tell himself he’d live through, it was an instinctual pain so intense it always brought him to sobbing tears. Those were the moments during which Kai wished the most that his torturers would make a terrible mistake and Kai could finally die.
Oh, and did Kai try. Tens of times, in every way he could imagine, some more successful than others. It never seemed to stick. Kai wasn’t sure if Garmadon’s men were just that observant or if the First Spinjitsu Master was punishing him for leaving his comrades in death behind. Perhaps he deserved it, if it was the latter. But that didn’t stop him from aching to be released from this hellish misery.
The Emperor had been right. Kai must have died that day, because this was not living. Kai was not a human being, not an intelligent person, something he soon embraced. If all there was to do was stare at the cracked, black walls and await the next torture, that was what he had to do. No one would speak to him, nor make a sympathetic move towards him. The only voices Kai heard were of his torturers, laughing with glee while his endless punishment was carried out. Garmadon knew well how to chose the men in his service, it seemed.
He let himself get lost in the meager hours he was isolated in his cell, the only illusion of safety in his desolate life. He let himself imagine being with his sister, being with his friends, taking the kind elderly hand that had once lifted him out of the mud he’d been dug into by other hands. Had that elderly man foreseen this? He had always seemed to be aware of all, with a foresight that Kai could only imagine was great. But if he had such wisdom, why had the ending come to this? Why lead Kai’s family to their deaths and him to this non-life? Perhaps he really had been using them all for their inherit abilities. Perhaps he’d never cared at all.
Time blurred. Minutes and hours felt the same. It was as if Kai had been stuck down in that dungeon for years, and his body reflected his assumption. Where once had been a well-oiled, trained machine that he had sharpened to perfection for years of training, there was skin and bone. Light brown skin had turned ashen, strained over his ribs, his hips, his joints. He was sure his face was as lively as a skeleton, not that he had access to any mirrors in the crypt. Badly-healed scars littered his body. His hair had grown out from when it had been shaven down, now tickling his ears once more. At some point, some other tortured soul had given him the pity of tossing in a potato-sack-like shirt, which was moth-eaten and stained.
By that point, Kai had forgotten any words that the Emperor had said to him so long ago. He’d forgotten a lot, in fact. He’d forgotten exactly how Garmadon had killed his friends. He’d forgotten what it felt like to yearn for life.
When the door to his cell creaked open, he could only suspect that it was time for another session.
He didn’t bother planning an ambush as the bars creaked open in the torchlight. He also did not bother trying to hold onto the door to prevent the inevitable, or curl up in the corner as if they wouldn’t notice him. This song and dance was unpreventable. Kai had grown weary of pretending otherwise a long while ago.
He had been left alone for quite a while this time, though. It had been long enough for him to feel almost rested, or as close as he got while in the depths of hell. When he looked up, he managed something like a glare on his face. Even that action he rarely had the will to put effort into.
“Ugh, it reeks down here,” a guard complained.
“Yeah, let’s not do anything to get posted in this shithole,” another agreed.
Hearing human voices coming from the guards is the first thing that threw Kai for a loop. During all of his time down there, he had never heard a guard speak. These weren’t dungeon guards.
They were dressed the same, but they were right about one thing—and the dungeon smell wasn’t on them.
“On your feet, prisoner. His Imperial Highness has called you to your duties.”
Kai’s brain processed everything but the direct order slowly. He struggled to clamber to his feet, having to use the wall to help him, his knees shaky beneath him. But he didn’t have to think too much about walking—the two guards swooped to his side and grabbed his arms, heaving him upright. The manacles that linked his wrists together jingled, the vengestone almost musical.
He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the great Emperor since he’d been left to rot at his mercy. The idea of him now was almost as horrifying as the fate Kai had come to terms with.
“Wha—” Kai’s voice cracked over the word. His throat was bone dry.
What did they want with him? What other horrors did they have to show him? What more could he suffer through?
He slumped between the guards, letting them drag him where they would. Perhaps if his feet dragged enough, they’d decide he was too much of a burden, and throw him back into his dark cell. At least there, Kai knew exactly what to expect.
Against all odds, or all of Kai’s expectations at the very least, he was not dragged deeper into the dungeon. No, instead he was manhandled between the winding corridors, the other prisoners groaning, screaming echoing within the back stone, and finally brought to a stairway that went up. Up, into the castle, away from the dampness, the torturers, the rats. Away from the smell of shit and bile and the puddles of unknown substances, and the isolation that lasted centuries too long.
The dark castle of Shadowspire was far from inspiring and beautiful, but no one could say that it was not regal in all of it’s greatness. The castle and grounds were the largest of any monarch in Ninjago history, which was unsurprising considering who had it built for himself. It was the perfect representation of Emperor Garmadon’s rule since far before Kai was born.
Banners of violet and grey fluttered outside, among the sharp parapets that numbered far too many. Deadly spikes protected the outside of the walls, preventing fools from trying to sneak in or out. The inner-valley of Shadowspire was sprawling, with the lower grounds large enough to hold the training of the Empire’s best and brightest. The upper grounds was large enough to be equivalent to a small town of it’s own.
Most of Shadowspire was surrounded by the legendary tall peaked mountains, the Veils. All but the single pass between Shadowspire that lead directly into Ninjago City, which consisted of any traffic in or out of the valley. Of course, Kai only knew all of this because he had entered that way when they’d breached the valley for their assassination attempt. The outside of the castle on a day that it wasn’t being besieged was something still alien to Kai. The inside of the castle reflected the outside in most ways. The decorations along the large, royal halls were themed with the Empire’s purple and greys, weapons used as common placements along walls. There were beautiful tapestries as well, and windows, through which Kai saw his first hint of sunlight.
He tried to dig his heels in, to stop the guards at the bare slit in the wall.
Through it was a direct view through the Pass in the Veil towards Ninjago City. The sunshine, only blotted out from above by the dark curse that Garmadon had put over his home, had managed to sneak through at the day’s sunset.
Like a withered flower finally given a fresh breeze, Kai felt the flame deep inside him stir at the sunlight. Even his element, kept locked away for so long by the properties of vengestone, had missed it’s kin.
“Come on!” Kai was shoved forward. “No man as pungent as you can be presented to His Imperial Majesty. We can’t keep the Emperor waiting for long while your foul stench washes away.”
Kai stumbled along, dread rising along with his lack of understanding.
The dawning of realization didn’t come to him until he was shoved into a new room. Despite the dreary color theme, it was as if he was stepping into a room in heaven. It smelled like fresh fruit and the side of the sea. It was damp, but unlike the dungeon, the damp feeling was light and clean.
A bathing room. There was already a bath drawn, the water steaming lazily. A warm bath. Kai hadn’t felt true warmth since the vengestone cuffs had been secured to his wrists…
The crushing relief was a bit soiled by the three woman that awaited him in the room. They were not shy in stripping him of his potato bag and manhandling him into the heated tub. The manacles remained on his wrists, though the guards released the chain between them so that he had free movement. With the two of them remaining in the room to make sure he didn’t try anything, he was less than a threat. More like an annoyance.
The three woman certainly treated him that way. They scrubbed at his skin like he’d personally murdered their entire families. He had no idea sponges could hold so much hatred before then.
It wasn’t anything to the torture he had endured, fortunately, so he hardly suffered. Up until they began to scrub in places that he did not want touched, but there was no saying no to them when the guards stepped forward with their swords at their sides. Kai didn’t try to struggle. The message was quite clear, if all of the horrendous thing he’d endured below hadn’t been enough.
Then again, Kai’s body hadn’t belonged to himself since that day. What right did he have to fight against this?
He had only one wound on his chest still raw enough to be bandaged after being freed of the bath. It had begun to bleed at the women’s aggression. They acted as if he had made it so in order to personally spite them. His hair was combed and trimmed. He was aided in getting dressed.
As was common in the Empire of the Darkest Night, all servants of the Empire wore traditional Ninjagoan dress. Emperor Garmadon had always seemed to have an attachment to generations passed. Ninjago City and much of the North had progressed into more practical and adapted wear—Kai had grown up wearing cargo pants and skinny jeans outside of his gi. The villages outside of Ninjago City were a bit more behind, including his childhood village of Ignacia, and traditional dress hadn’t been rare there.
The clothes he was presented with were much more fine and expensive, far too expensive for anyone from Ignacia to be familiar with. He stood still after pulling on fresh undergarments—holy shit, he had underwear on, Kai would have killed for this alone—and the women wrapped a white under-robe around him, followed by an ornately embroidered hanfu. It was tied at his waist with black rope, the rope smooth and far too silky to be used as a weapon. His sleeves were tied close to his arms to keep the fabric out of the way.
They were the clothes of a servant, yes, but the golden designs spoke of a servant of status. Kai would have been purely confused at this—why would he be given status, when he had tried to assassinate the Emperor?—if not for the color of the robes.
Red. Deep, blood red.
Red and gold were the colors of the their rebellion’s monikers, at odds with the Empire’s purple and greys. And, more importantly, it was the color associated with the Master of Flame, a title and power passed from generation to generation, since the very land rose from the sea. The color that Kai had worn on the sleeve of his gi when he’d fought to slay the Emperor, to honor his own ancestors.
Kai may look as if he had status because of the hanfu’s beauty, but it’s color, a darker symbol than the bright red he wore before, would mark Kai as a traitor, a warning, to anyone who saw him. He would undoubtably stand out in the crowd of a palace full of cold colors and muted fabrics. Another gift that was no blessing. But Kai would take the stupid hanfu over the dungeon.
After all, he only needed to be free enough to end his own life. It wouldn’t take much—a moment alone, a small mistake on his captor’s parts. He would not be used to commit horrors like a rabid dog on a leash. But he would also not go back down below the castle. Perhaps it was always doomed to be a lose-lose situation, but Kai didn’t care as long as Garmadon was losing, too. And what value did he have for his life regardless? There was nothing to go back to. All he’d fought for was smoke and ash of a flame long put out. I’ll join you soon, Nya. I hope you’ve met mother and father where you are. Wait for me. Please, wait for me.
His manacles were re-chained behind him. He got a brief glimpse of himself in some reflective glass in the bathing room, but it was only enough for him to see that he looked reedy and totally unimpressive. Fine. What did he care? His mind was occupied with contemplating how attached to their katana the guards were.
He was lead through the castle once more. To the credit of the women that had cleaned him, he did feel like a brand new man. His eyes were no longer crusted over with grit, his mouth didn’t taste like mold, and dried blood did not make his joints itch. His hair had even been done, reminding of how he’d used to ritualistically take care of it during his training. Nya had always teased him. The raw feeling of his skin did remind him of just how weak he was when the cleanliness threatened to spark something rebellious in his heart.
The castle was…populated. Logically, Kai knew that many people made up Shadowspire, with the training grounds just below, and the amount of people that were needed to run a castle of this size. In addition to the large staff, Garmadon’s chosen lords may just be around. The propaganda spread across the Realm about the Empire was rampart, and these supposed “lords” were like celebrities whose lives were followed by the every day folk back in the city. That meant the upkeep of the castle had to remain both impressive and intimidating to keep any visitors and loyalists in line.
Still, it shocked Kai to see so many servants passing them by, going about their normal duties, with normal lives. Sure, Garmadon threw the occasional fit and unlucky servants had lost their lives in the past, but it seemed like these were…normal people. Some of the Emperor’s servants were evil and sadistic, like the torturers that Kai had heard the voices of for so many days, but perhaps there were others like Kai around, here against their will. Kai wouldn’t put it passed Garmadon.
He passed by the first open doorway to the outside. It was a view of the courtyard he’d been dragged from. From the quick glance he got of it, the whole thing seemed to have been expertly restored, pristine, as if it had never been damaged in the first place.
Kai absently wondered if any servants had died in the same battle that Kai’s companions had been slaughtered in.
He winced as the grips on his arms tightened. He hadn’t realized his steps had faltered.
The doors to the throne room were unmistakable. The sunshine was long gone, any natural breeze from the courtyard dashed in the main portion of the palace. The doors were three men tall, made of black metal, twisted designs holding little beauty. It took four guards to push the hefty doors open before them.
Inside was a throne room of nightmares. A cold sensation swept over him when the doors were split a mere crack. He took a step back instinctually, but his guards held him fast. He glanced at them, an unnatural fear beginning to curl around his chest and constrict his heart. Did none of them feel that? The oppressive force, the prey-like instinct begging Kai to run? Were they all so blind to the energies of the world?
Clearly they must have been because there was no hesitation in dragging Kai in.
It was as dark as a cave, the throne the only lit space in the cavernous room. Twin purple flames in large pits on either side of the throne cast the room in a ghastly light, throwing shadows from the pillars and the tapestries of the dark phoenix that hung.
The throne itself was on a raised platform and it was entirely made out of bones. It was no small amount of bones, no. The throne was large and imposing. A skull of a great beast sat at the precipice of it, two human skulls at it’s sides.
Before the throne, two royal guards stood. These were the first non-humans Kai had seen in Shadowspire.
To call them non-human, though, was not quite right. They had once been human, and now were reanimated skeletons of tall and imposing men, armored in extravagant plate mail and armed with spears even larger than them. They must have been the best of the best from the Bone Army. It was expected for Garmadon to only have beings that were literally bound to his will guarding his person. They could never betray him.
Kai felt a bout of unease, regardless. He’d only seen bonemen from a distance before, most of their army amassed in the South, fighting the Empire’s war.
And, of course, the Emperor himself sat on his throne of death, looking no less shadowed and monstrous as he had the last time Kai had seen him.
The door closed behind them, sealing them away. The guards dropped to their knees and bowed low, shoving Kai to the ground in the process. Hands behind his back as they were, Kai pitched forward and his face slammed into the ground. He gritted his teeth to not make a sound, but was successfully groveling.
“Unshackle him and leave us,” the Emperor said.
The guards didn’t need to be told twice. Kai’s arms were jerked around, but mercifully freed. The guards then slipped into the shadows, escaping into some sort of side exit that Kai couldn’t see.
Kai was left with his forehead pressed against the ground, the flickering purple flame the only sound. He slowly brought his hands down, fingers trembling with sensation as he touched the rug on the stone. The fire within him slowly stretched out, as if doubting that it was free as well, filling his limbs with weak bouts of warmth. With his ability returned to him, he could sense the purple flame nearby—and the flames felt sick. Kai had to pull back his awareness to keep from throwing up at the Emperor’s feet.
Kai was so weak a threat, Garmadon hadn’t hesitated to return one of the most powerful abilities in Ninjago to him. If only Kai wasn’t immune to his own fire. If-fucking-only.
“Rise, boy. Prove to me that you still burn if you’d like to live for another moment.”
Kai had the option to ignore him and just let Garmadon kill him off instantly. He would, Kai could tell. He could sense his murderous intent from where he stood.
But he had been without his flame for so long. It was like a limb that had been cut off all this time. Given the chance to feel it again without threat of repercussions, Kai rose his hand and lit a small blaze in his palm.
The flames licked up his fingers, a healthy orange and red. The heat gave Kai the feeling of home. It was smaller than he’d meant—his fire had suffered with his physical state. But it was there. Kai was transfixed by his own power for a moment, breathing in the smoke like an addict getting a hit.
“Good,” Garmadon rumbled.
The flame abruptly blew out. Kai flinched at the brief wave of power that blew back his skirts.
His hands shook as he blinked from his hypnosis. Forget dying here—a word from the Emperor and Kai would return to the dungeon. Kai didn’t want that. He couldn’t do that again.
“Did they cut out your tongue down there? I seem to recall ordering them to leave your face unmarred…Well?”
“No,” Kai croaked. “No, Your…Your Majesty.”
Kai bowed his head. Just get passed this encounter and find the sharpest weapon on the wall. It will all be over soon. You’ve no pride left, so it won’t be hard.
“Hm. Satisfactory. I do not need an ugly, scarred face who cannot speak fulfilling the duty I have assigned to you. I need someone young with some kind of skill. One would assume that I would have many such suitors with the training yard just below us, but alas, humans are all so weak. Even the best of them fail to meet my expectations so…spectacularly. And this is a bar that I will not lower for your species to struggle to reach. But you are not just any human. You…are an elemental master, and one who has been taught spinjitzu, no less.”
Garmadon stood from his throne. Kai squeezed his fists at his sides, trying to keep his nerves as those red eyes fell on him and pierced just as violently as they had the first time. But Kai still didn’t understand. Yes, the Emperor wanted him because his ancestry granted him talents that few had. But what did he want him for?
Kai was too terrified to speak out of turn. The smell of the throne room was beginning to smell too similar to the dungeon.
“A bit old to teach anew.” Garmadon walked down the dias, dark cape billowing behind him. Kai kept his eyes frozen forward. “But that will not be a problem, I trust. I know the foolish ideals that Wu would put into your head. And one of those is to protect, is it not?”
Kai couldn’t tell if that was a rhetorical question. It was, of course. The way of the ninja was the way of the protector, the defender, the heroes of all. Kai and his companions, young and niave, had once boasted about being the greatest ninja the Realm had ever seen, the protectors of all, following the toppling of the Dark Empire. And this is where it had gotten him.
“Did they teach you nothing down there?” Garmadon snarled, suddenly directly in front of Kai. “Answer me, boy.”
“Yes!” Kai stuttered. “He taught us—me to protect people. You–Your Majesty.”
The Emperor leaned back. He already towered over Kai, but the massive crown upon his head doubled the vertigo. It, too, was made of bones, but these had not been bleached. They were yellowed at the roots, massive teeth of some great beast, slain by presumably the man-demon before Kai. Sharpened steel sat between the teeth.
“Then it is by his teachings that you must fulfill your role in my palace. You will protect someone with all of your flesh and blood, with all of the power you wield, with the weight of your oaths past and your loyalty to me. Every moment of your pitiful life will be spent giving your unending service to keeping them safe—an innocent soul.”
There is no innocence in this razed land, Kai thought. You have poisoned it out of the people around you.
“You will not leave their side unless I command it. And should you fail to fulfill your duties to my intention, then you shall be sent back down to the dungeons to contemplate your short comings…and otherwise punished as I see fit. Should any harm come to them, then I can assure you, your life will never be forfeit. As long as I live, I will make sure that you also live, suffering the greatest pains and horrors that there can be in this Realm and beyond. Do you understand this charge?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Kai quickly said.
He was lying. He didn’t understand in the slightest. Protect someone? Kai felt rattled to his core. Who in the world would the dreaded, emotionless, monster, Emperor Garmadon seek to protect? Who would make him so desperate that he would employ the services of his own would-be assassin? A political ally? A military leader? But Garmadon had never shown such care for even valuable allies. In fact, he had been known to kill them off on a whim in the past. From what Kai knew in preparation for their palace assault, anyway.
Garmadon hummed, walking around Kai. Kai hated the feeling of those red eyes on him, seizing him up even now.
“You will work day and night to build your strength tenfold what it was before. My personal guard will see to it and I will ensure it is done right. You should be down on your knees thanking me even now. I am going to give you unimaginable power, boy. Second to only one.”
Kai took the suggestion with complete seriousness and dropped back down onto his knees. He folded himself forward, low, murmuring, “Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty, for your mercy and kindness.”
Kai wanted to fucking die. His words sounded hollow and fake to himself, but the Emperor seemed to accept them. And how could he do that? Knowing the blood of Kai’s friends, his family, was on his hands? Kai’s baby sister had been thirteen. She’d been thirteen, born with a power that had turned her into a soldier too fast. And this monster had killed her for it.
Perhaps if there was someone Garmadon cared about so much, he would feel the same pain at their demise as Kai did. No, Ninjago’s Butcher could not feel something as human as grief. But Kai might be able to make him feel something similar to it.
Kai didn’t even know who they were, yet.
“Get off your knees,” Garmadon snapped. “Do not grovel before me. If I see any further pathetic displays, I will take it as a weakness that the dungeons can see to. Groveling is for those irritating aristocrats that keep the peasants in line. You will be a warrior of my making.”
Kai had never stood up so fast. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Hmph. Ask me.”
Kai hesitated. Garmadon walked back into Kai’s vision, his four arms crossing in front of him. Kai felt very small. “A-Ask what?”
“Ask me the question that I can see burning in your eyes. I am giving you my permission.”
“…Who is it that you want me to protect?”
The Emperor did not smile, did not shift. With a borderline uninterested air, he answered.
Kai could do nothing but stare dumbly. He was shocked that Garmadon didn’t smite him out of his misery right then for giving him whatever fool expression was on his face.
Kai and his team had done extensive research on the Emperor and everything that went on within Shadowspire before their mission. They’d sacrificed more than Kai had ever wanted to just to learn all that they had, called in every favor their sensei had, even traded information for lives unknowingly. All to find the weakness of a being seemingly without weakness. But in all of that time, they had not heard a hint of what seemed to be the closest kept secret in all of Ninjago. Something that Kai was now hearing from the mouth of the man-demon himself.
The prince.
Emperor Garmadon had chosen an heir.
-
The next day, Kai waited in the room with his arms crossed tightly against his chest. Though every moment was anxiety-inducing, it felt too good to be true. He had firmly believed he would die an incredibly painful death below the castle and to not be facing that fate was difficult for him to grasp. He was not unhappy to be rid of that place, but he was unhappy that he’d escaped with his heart beating.
He glanced towards the two guards that had been stationed just inside of the room with him. This one was free of weapons on the walls, with only two barren benches and two plush chairs on the opposite side. Some sort of receiving room. The architecture was quite lovely, with arching ceilings, and the walls painted with a massive mural for visitors to view the Emperor’s grandness before meeting him. The mural was not one that inspired awe in Kai, however.
It was a depiction of how Emperor Garmadon had first come to power. He did not shy away from portraying himself as a dark entity, but the being he fought against was equally as dark, another oni. No one knew who his opponent had been all of those years ago, only that they were just as powerful, and likely just as evil. Their battle had allegedly razed every costal town to the ground along the West shore of Ninjago, magic unlike anyone had seen before dominating any mere humans. Garmadon had come out on top, of course, and had subsequently conquered the lands of man. The mural was bloodied and violent, the sharp reds quite the contrast to the muted tones of the palace interior.
Kai turned to study the final wall of the mural that wrapped the room. This one was Garmadon being crowned by his skeletal general, Samuki. He was the most infamous bone man, known for leading the slaughter of many before Ninjago’s previous Emperor had surrendered his lands. Kai knew he lived even now, charged with winning the war down South, as he had been since before Kai had been born.
The wooden doors at the entryway were silent as they swung open, but the shrill voice behind them was not.
His robes were of blue and violet silks, free of wrinkles or imperfections, and embroidered with swirling silver from top to bottom. While Kai may look like a person of note, these robes spoke of the most important person in the room. The left fold was pinned just below the right shoulder, the collar of the robes just as silver-laden. Unlike Kai’s tied down sleeves, his were allowed to flow at his sides. Weaved rope with tassels at the end hung from the front, pendants of obsidian decorating them.
The different version of a hanfu looked far too regal and expensive to be worn by what looked to be an seven-year-old boy.
Said boy had his blonde hair in a hideous bowl cut, red eyes flashing from behind it. They seemed…unimpressed as they studied Kai.
“So you’re my new evil henchman?” The boy said. He fearlessly stopped in front of Kai, within arm’s reach, and glared up at him. He was very short. “You look pretty weak.”
Something in Kai stirred, offended, but he easily ignored it. He moved his hands behind his back and bowed shallowly. “…Hello, Your…You’re the Prince?”
“Of course I am! I am Prince Lloyd, the future evil-est Emperor in the world!” The boy put his hands on his hips. “Are you sure my dad picked you?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” Unfortunately for us both.
“Your Highness,” Lloyd corrected.
Kai held in his scowl. “Your Highness.”
Any of Kai’s plans were effectively stunted at the appearance of the small boy. Kai had assumed that Garmadon had chosen a worthy human, or perhaps a skeleton, to serve as his heir as some sort of political play. Kai hadn’t even considered it would be someone young, much less someone who looked like he could genuinely be the Emperor’s son.
But looking into those eyes, Kai couldn’t doubt it. He had his father’s eyes. They even held a mischievousness that would no doubt turn to outright malice as he grew older.
“Well…at least you’re not an old lady again,” Lloyd frowned. “They are so annoying.”
“…How old are you, Your Highness?”
“Guess!” The prince said.
“Uh.” Was Kai going to get executed if this kid threw a tantrum? “Seven?”
“What?! No, I’m eight! How old are you?”
Kai shifted uncomfortably. “…Fifteen.” I think.
“Whoa, we’re basically the same age!”
“No, no we are not.”
One of the escorts that had come into the room with the prince stepped forward. He was a reedy man, but taller than Kai, and in servant’s clothing that was of a higher caliber than Kai’s. This was likely one of the highest ranking civilians in Shadowspire, with a tall hat and all.
“Excuse me, Prince Lloyd, may I speak with your…henchman for a moment?” the man asked.
The prince, looking annoyed, nodded. He allowed the servant to push Kai to a farther place into the room. The servant was an older man, perhaps even old enough to have seen the world before the Empire. And his grip on Kai’s elbow was unforgiving. Kai clamped up his mouth, knowing better than to speak flippantly with this man as he just had to the prince.
The old man scowled over Kai, not releasing his elbow. He smelled of old books and oils.
“Listen good, boy. You are here by the will of the Emperor and his merciful hand. But you are not trusted. You shall not get close to the prince without escort, or you will be sent to the cells. You shall follow my orders around him, as the prince’s advisor, or you will be sent to the cells. You shall do everything in your power to keep the boy happy, or you will be—”
“I understand,” Kai said. Or I’ll be sent to the cells, I fucking got it, asshole.
The man looked miffed, but didn’t chastise him. “…Your first role at his side will be getting him to follow his schedule. He’s been quite…combative with his previous nannies, especially with his classes and his bed time.”
“And, uh…what happened to his other nannies?”
“The prince requested that his father fire them. Few survived.”
Oh…great.
Kai took a deep breath. He just needed to survive long enough. Long enough for the grips to loosen, for them to trust him a little more, until he could be alone in a room with a sharp object. Or maybe…just maybe…escape.
He had thought about it a lot for the first while down below. Escaping and taking his revenge, building up a rebellion, finding his sensei, rekindling his old allies…he hadn’t considered it since the beginning. But now, knowing about an heir, feeling the fire in his veins once more…maybe it was still an option. Maybe, against all odds, he could make the sacrifices of his friends mean something.
“Okay. Follow the schedule,” Kai reiterated.
The old man nodded and handed him a slip of printed paper. It looked woefully out of place within the walls of a traditional palace, where all the servants wore traditional dress, and torches lined the walls. Kai could see the emergency electrical lights shut off across the ceilings, and he’d certainly seen a few guards sneaking glances at their phones. Garmadon had a strange desire for this historical farce.
Kai looked over the paper.
The first thing on the list was Gently wake the prince. Kai almost rolled his eyes. He had a feeling this kid was going to be a spoiled brat. And why did it say that Kai had to help the kid get dressed? He seemed fit enough to be able to dress himself.
“Are you done, chamberlain?” The prince demanded from the other side of the room. “I don’t like waiting a long time!”
“Yes, Your Highness. Our friend here is going to accompany you to your morning classes, now. Is there a special request you’d like to make for lunch today?”
The prince looked betrayed. “But I don’t want to go to class! I order you to cancel it!”
“I cannot do that, Your Highness, it was your father’s decision, and you know this. But you may chose anything you’d like for the kitchens to make as a reward for being attentive with Tutor Tudabone.”
“Ugh! Fine!” The prince crossed his arms and pouted. “Then I want dinosaur chicken nuggets.”
Dinosaur chicken nuggets. The ask rubbed at Kai the wrong way. It was so…childish.
The advisor smiled and bowed his upper body. “It shall be done. Thank you, Your Highness. If you have any problems today, tell your guards to send for me right away.”
The advisor leveled Kai with a dangerous look as he emphasized the word. Clearly, he expected Kai to try to pull something. Kai didn’t blame him. Kai wasn’t even confident that he wouldn’t. It was almost too easy. He was an assassin being sent off with the monarch’s child. It smelled more like a trap than anything. Perhaps the prince was secretly unkillable, inheriting oni power as he had.
Why else would this job be given to Kai? Did the Emperor think he’d been so broken that Kai was now completely loyal to him? Not a chance. This was a test of Kai’s awareness. He wanted to see if Kai could see such an obvious trap.
Fine. Kai would play his game long enough to find a way out, one way or another.
Even if that started with babysitting a snot-nosed kid.
-
The prince was a terrible actor. When Kai had shuffled over and asked the prince to lead to way to his morning class, the kid had given him a wide-eyed look and told him he had no idea where it was, actually. Kai had been unimpressed. The prince had given him a frankly mean smirk. The four guards with them had mutely pointed in a direction. The prince had groaned as Kai urged him onwards, but he’d at least gotten his dragging feet moving.
Kai couldn’t help but eye the guards that walked with them. He felt nervous with them at his back, like they’d draw their swords and stab him at any moment. He had no idea if they were the normal protection force for the prince or if they were there specifically to kill Kai should he present any danger to the kid. He had a feeling it was the latter. He could feel all of their eyes burning into his back, even as he walked a healthy distance beside the prince.
The kid had forgotten trying to act like he didn’t know where he was going, grumbling to himself as he marched down the hall, his outer-robe and skirt billowing behind him, not unlike his father’s cape. Kai was getting out of breath keeping up, despite his much longer legs. He’d gotten extremely out of shape while in the dungeon, barely using his legs to stand, much less walk a marathon.
That got him thinking about his chances were the four guards to strike out at him. He could still beat them, he suspected. He had the skill necessary, even without the strength to back it up. Despite what Garmadon seemed to think, his training routine for years had been far from kind. His sensei was a brutal teacher because the world was brutal. They had never been afforded the luxury of rest or ease. Not like this prince seemed to enjoy. No, Kai’s body had been molded into a weapon years before Garmadon had spared him.
So, yes, Kai could probably beat these four guards, especially with the use of his fire. But if more were to come? His stamina was practically nothing and skill could only make up for so much. And if, First Master forbid, the Emperor crawled out of his cave-like throne room, Kai would be splattered over the walls before he could smash a window out. No, he had to find a better time to act if he was going to try to escape.
But he doubted these guards’ first priority was ensuring he stay in the castle. No, they were here to protect Prince Lloyd.
The paper in Kai’s hands crinkled minutely as he stared at the boy’s back. He was half Kai’s height, his face rounded with youth, his stride far too light for the cruel world they lived in. Kai could steal a sword from a guard, run the boy through, and turn the blade on himself before anyone could do anything. He was sure of this.
He wouldn’t need to carry the secret to any resistance or to his sensei at that point. The job would already be done.
The prince had apparently caused the deaths of past nannies already. And Kai couldn’t forget his eyes and their resemblance to his father. They were burned into his memory, even with the kid’s back to him as it was. The prince would grow into a nightmare. He could be even worse than his father, as foolish and narcissistic as a bubble-wrapped child could turn out to be. If Kai could confidently say that he would go back in time and kill Garmadon’s child-self to prevent all of this horror, should he not also be able to kill this future tyrant?
Something made him hesitate. Kai would let this facade play out a while longer to gather some more information. Then, he would decide.
His fingers itched to do it, even as he told himself to be patient. He wanted to hurt Garmadon. He wanted to hurt him so fucking bad, Kai didn’t know what he’d be willing to do. That monster deserved to feel the pain that Kai had felt since he was five, the despair that every person suffering under the Dark Empire felt. If Kai did end up killing himself, he was going to take something that Garmadon seemed to care about with him.
After he got through this damn history lesson.
The prince was falling asleep on the desk he had been sat at within seconds of sitting down. Kai couldn’t blame the kid. If he hadn’t been leaning on the door, two guards hovering next to him, Kai would have fallen asleep, too. He was at least entertained in a morbid way by the lies being fed to the spoiled brat.
“And when the serpentine were politely asked to move from your father’s land or else join his great Empire, they refused and became very violent. Unfortunately, any attempts to reach out for peace have gone ignored, and to this day, the war rages on in the Dune Sea. Luckily, your father’s army does not require food nor rest, so they are very good at defending the Empire against the poison of the snakes.”
Asked to politely move. Yeah, sure. That seemed like something Garmadon would do.
“Are you writing this down, Your Highness?” The tutor asked, far too condescending for someone talking to a prince.
Prince Lloyd wilted in his seat, scribbling furiously. His mumble was small. “Yes, Mr. Tudabone. Snakes, snakes, blah, blah, blah.”
“Do not think you can nap in here.” The tutor slapped the prince’s desk a few times with his ruler. “We are going over the different tribes, next. This is very important for you to know about, as the future ruler of our great Empire.”
It was only a half hour later that Kai’s legs begun to shake. The mundaneness of the situation had successfully bored him enough to un-stiffen. This was not a good thing, however, seeing as his stiffness was the only thing keeping him upright for so long. His weakened legs couldn’t even manage to stand upright for this long.
He leaned against a bookshelf with a wince, not missing the twitch of the guards posted on his either sides. He was going to need a chair if he was going to be doing this all day. The wound on his chest was starting to ache, too, with all of the excitement dying down.
Unfortunately, the day passed with him in similar discomfort. While the prince ate his midday meal with his advisor, Kai was also made to stand behind him. During the boy’s walk about the palace grounds, Kai was forced to keep up even when his calves were burning with strain. The boy even had an etiquette lesson that Kai doubted Garmadon had strictly ordered him to attend, but the advisor insisted.
By the time the boy’s free time rolled around, Kai’s body was about ready to go back to his manacles on the torture table if it meant he got to lie down. He stubbornly fought his own exhaustion. He certainly didn’t complain when he got to slump to the ground a few feet from the prince when the boy settled down with a sketchbook.
“Thank the Master,” Kai muttered to himself, his shaking legs finally getting a break.
They were in the palace garden. Kai had no idea that the palace even had a garden until about ten minutes ago. It was tucked away behind the largest of the palace’s sharp spires, just in line with the Pass in the Veil. Had it been sunset once more, sunlight would be spilling right through it. Kai could tell that it was getting to be that time, the colors of the sky visible through the pass beginning to change. He couldn’t wait to see the sunshine again.
The garden was not full of beautiful colors and plush vegetation. All of the plants looked completely alien, and half-dead by Ninjago’s standards. Sharp, pale trees lacked leaves, and the flowers were as dark as the black stone of the palace. But there was a certain elegance to it, Kai supposed.
There was, at least, grass under them. Sure, a pale blue grass, but it felt like grass all the same.
“Are you sick or something?” The prince asked.
Kai tore his gaze from the slow approach of the sunset. The boy was tapping his pencil—mechanical—on his little sketchbook while staring at Kai evenly.
“No, Your Highness,” Kai said. “What makes you say that?”
“You can’t even walk, like, down a hallway without taking a break,” the kid said bluntly. “What’s wrong with you?”
Oh, your father tortured me in a deep, black room for who-knew-how-long. “I’m just tired. I’m sorry for holding you back…I’ll get stronger soon.”
“Good to know,” the kid nodded. “I’ll make sure your outfit still fits you when you’re not so shrivel-y anymore.”
“My…outfit, Your Highness?”
The kid flipped around his pad. The lines on the page were dark with the enthusiastic force the boy had scribbled with. Honestly, for a eight-year-old, it wasn’t too bad of a drawing. Kai could at least tell where the head and arms were supposed to be. Nya had always shown Kai her scribbles and it had been like translating ancient Ninjargon.
The blocky figure of a person was covered in triangle spikes and strange blocks with a large sword out in front of it. The figure wore a helmet with spikes even bigger than it’s sword. The prince had scribbled red at the ends of the spikes, like blood. Next to the figure, was one in just as elaborate of an outfit, but with a very tall spikey crown on, and a grinning face with sharp teeth beneath a scribble of yellow that resembled the prince’s blonde bowl cut.
“Yeah, you’re my first evil henchmen that my dad’s given me!” The prince proclaimed. “So that means you’re my right hand man! So you need a big sword and big armor, like my dad has. I don’t wear armor, so that’s why yours is gonna be so big.”
“Oh…got it.”
“And you have to wear it,” the prince glared. “Because I’m the boss of you.”
“Okay, sure,” Kai put his hands up with a shrug. “I mean…it looks cool enough.”
The prince’s glare lost it’s bite. The kid instead stared at Kai doubtfully. “…You like it?”
“Yeah, seems like it’d get the job done.”
Prince Lloyd suddenly grinned, leaning forward while clutching the book tightly. “Yeah, and if anyone you don’t like tries to hug you, BAM! Dead on the spikes! Or you could tackle people and they’d go—Pleugh!”
The prince mimed stabbing his hand with one of his fingers, then cackled like a madman, his pencil going down lightening fast to scribble more dark details into the page.
“Heh…yeah.”
Kai glanced towards the guards. He glanced towards the garden walls. Tall, spiked at the top, but not too tall. Kai had run up taller walls. But would he make it in his state? Doubtful. He’d have to climb one of the sickly trees, and he didn’t trust he could do that in time, either.
He sighed, leaning on one of his hands, elbow against his knee. “So what if I’m not there? You wouldn’t have any armor on to protect you. You didn’t give yourself a sword, either.”
The prince paused in his mad drawing and glanced up dismissively. “Well I don’t really care because you’ll just be right there. Or if I fire you, I’ll just get a different henchman.”
“Right, of course,” Kai said dryly.
He looked over the book enough to see the prince writing words. They were shaky and uneven, befitting a eight-year-old, but they were readable. He labeled his own picture Awsome emperer of Darknes 2 (me) and he paused on the other one.
The prince looked up. “Do you have a name or something? I’ll only write it if it’s cool.”
The ninja hesitated. “My name is Kai.”
The prince looked quite pleased at that. He wrote Kay next to the scary figure covered in blood. Kai felt dread curl in his stomach.
Not much later, the two guards abruptly opened the doors that lead back into the castle hallway. Kai flinched, but their meaning was clear. It was time to go. Kai didn’t have a watch, but it seemed to be time for the next thing on the prince’s schedule.
Dinner with his father.
The prince sat down at the end of a very long dining table. The nightmarish form of his father, so much bigger than him, sat in the seat directly next to the prince. The Emperor asked the kid questions about his day. His tone when talking to the prince was so different, so much…gentler, if that word could ever be used to describe the Emperor. Prince Lloyd showed him the picture he’d drawn, but complained about Tutor Tudabone again. It seemed to be a common complaint. The Emperor asked about Kai, too, but the prince just shrugged.
The way that the Emperor interacted with his small son confirmed it for Kai.
Garmadon loved Lloyd.
He did not keep the kid around as some sort of assurance of his line, or a power move, or anything political. He just…loved his son.
And it fucking hurt to see. It reopened the wound of his family’s deaths like a fresh knife right through scar tissue. Like it was the day after he’d lost everything and he was kneeling in a dark room, scared and alone and begging for the First Spinjitsu Master to allow him to be with his family—and getting no response.
Emperor Garmadon loved Prince Lloyd. He was capable of loving someone who was so human in all the big ways. Emperor Garmadon had perhaps even loved a human woman enough to sire the kid. And if Garmadon was capable of that love, that meant he was capable of empathy. He was not just a husk full of nothing but evil, an idea personified. He was a rounded, living being, who felt emotions.
And he’d still chosen to slay Kai’s thirteen year old sister and his three best friends. He’d still chosen to enslave countless lives in labor camps, to control every job market, to walk the streets with his Imperial Guard, beating people, stealing from them, murdering anyone who spoke out against them.
This was not a force unable to understand it’s actions, so absorbed in itself as it was.
Garmadon just didn’t care. He didn’t give a single fuck about the people in the world he controlled. He had humanity inside of him and decided to instead take glee in every horrible crime that could be committed. He was worse than a monster, worse than the oni of lore.
Kai was able to stand through dinner, smelling the deliciously cooked meal, his legs trembling under him, because his vision had gone straight red throughout the rest of it. The barely contained rage threatened to be the thing that finally broke him.
And oh, that rage sweeping through him like a tidal wave felt even stronger than the rush of flame beneath his skin.
The Emperor did not notice Kai’s feelings, in the darkness of the dining room as he was. Kai knew this. Because if the Emperor had seen him in that moment, Kai would have been dead on the spot, never to be let near his vulnerable son again.
But the Emperor did not see. So Kai accompanied the Prince to his final destination. On his schedule, it was labeled Bedtime.
Kai stood aside as the boy brushed his teeth. The two guards watched him from their posts beside the door. Kai barely moved. He hadn’t spoken a word since they’d left the dining room. Kai wouldn’t breathe, either, if he could help it.
Kill him, kill him, kill him. It was on loop in his head. It was so obvious it was what he should do. There were now only two guards in the room. The prince’s room was deep within the palace, there were no windows for him to escape out of. Kai had been, dare he say, rested.
It would be so easy. The guards wouldn’t be able to react before they went up in flames. They’d only be able to scream. Kai would steal a sword to make it painless for the brat. Because it wasn’t really his fault, he’d just been born to the wrong man-demon. He would still have to answer for it.
Prince Lloyd spat into his sink, wiped his face, and bounded back into his bedroom. He jumped onto his overly-plush bed, so unlike the unforgiving stone ground that Kai had been chained to for so long. So unlike the all encompassing earth that surrounded the rotting corpse of his thirteen-year-old baby sister. If her body hadn’t been burned to ash. If her limbs hadn’t been sawed off for parts. If her head hadn’t exploded against the rocks that had crushed her. If her dead body hadn’t been used by one of the many sick people Kai had met in Shadowspire to bring themselves some sort of disgusting, perverted pleasure.
Kai’s hand shook to grasp the hilt of one of the guards’ swords and decorate the child’s bedroom in blood.
“Henchman, give me my Clawey.”
Kai blinked, curling his hands into fists to curb his thoughts. “…What?”
“Clawey! My jaglion!” Prince Lloyd, now snug in his many blankets and pillows, pointed insistently across the room. Kai followed the finger with his gaze.
On the shelf, a stuffed animal sat. It had clearly been very loved, the fake fur matted down, and the stuffing having migrated to the head a bottom as a result of it being held around the middle often.
Kai felt numb as he approached it and plucked it off the shelf. He walked over and handed it to the kid.
On Prince Lloyd’s nightstand was his pencil from earlier. It was not a knife. But soft flesh didn’t take the sharpest blade in the world to split.
Kai’s shaking hand touched the nightstand’s surface. The pencil mere inches from his fingers. He stared at it.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” the kid exclaimed.
A small hand took a hold of his, twisting it from the desk so that Kai’s palm was upright. The prince placed a paper into Kai’s hand and he mechanically took it.
It was another drawing. Kai wasn’t sure when the prince had found the time to draw it. Perhaps in the garden, when Kai had begun to get lost in his plans of escape.
The drawing had two diagrams. One showcased Prince Lloyd’s earlier comment. It was another drawing of the spiked figure, this time with a full person impaled on the front, as if they had indeed tried to hug it. There was red pencil denoting the spraying blood.
The drawing next to it was another of the spiked figure, but this one had no blood. This one showed arrows pointing at the spikes being higher up on the armor, so one would only be stabbed if they were as tall as the figure was. It was proven by the smaller drawn figure of Prince Lloyd, in his Emperor robes and crown, hugging the figure safely, short as he was.
“Don’t worry, we can measure it good when we build your outfit,” the prince assured him, pointing to the second picture.
Kai looked up to see unwavering confidence in the eyes of the child. In fact, Prince Lloyd smiled at him, and it wasn’t his mischievous, cackling smile. He looked like any other excited child. Happy, even, as he hugged his stuffed animal with a force to be reckoned with.
Horror crashed down through Kai. Horrified at what he had almost just done.
This was a child, an innocent child. How could he even consider it? All he’d ever stood for was the freedom, the happiness of those suffering. How dare he decide which lives deserved that freedom and which did not?
He was not an assassin, he’d never been an assassin. He’d been a ninja. And this? This was not what he’d ever wanted. This was not who he’d ever wanted to be.
“Thank you,” Kai said, holding the paper to his chest. “I’ll—I’ll keep this safe until we need it as a reference, how’s that sound?”
“Yeah!” Lloyd giggled. How had that ever sounded menacing?
“Okay,” Kai forced a fake smile. “Awesome. Goodnight, Your Highness.”
“Goodnight, Henchman! Turn my light off on your way out!”
There was a switch for the torch in the room. An electric torch, how theatrical of Garmadon. Kai flicked it off and left the boy to sleep.
The guards led him to the room he’d been placed in the night before. It was humble compared to Lloyd’s playroom of a sleeping space, but it was one hundred times what his dungeon cell had been. Kai could hardly enjoy it. He sat on his bed, the picture on his lap, and his hands pressed against his face.
His sobs were already silent, but his tears dripped passed his palms despite himself. How could he ask Nya and his parents to wait for him now? Not with the shame he’d brought upon them.
Even now, he was sure they were looking down in disgust at a boy who had almost murdered a child in his hatred.
-
The naivete of the kid the next day made Kai feel sick. Prince Lloyd prattled on about just about anything on his mind, not a clue how close Kai had been to ending his life just the night before. Kai paid extra attention to the kid’s words. As if that would make up for where his actions had almost taken him. Prince Lloyd, at the very least, seemed to enjoy the attention. He complained less about Kai’s ability to keep up with him while they carried out the new schedule that the advisor had given Kai that morning.
During the kid’s morning classes with the asshole tutor, Kai subtly helped him cheat on a history sheet that the tutor had given him. When Tutor Tudabone had looked over it, he’d given Kai a stinkeye, as if he knew, but announced that Prince Lloyd had gotten every question right and therefore they could be finished early that day. Prince Lloyd just about fell over himself in his excitement. He demanded Kai accompany him to something called the park.
It turned out to be a small playground inside that had been built for Prince Lloyd. It was a bit cramped for Kai to believe that a playground had been the room’s original intent, but it worked. There were buckets of toys and the like for a much younger child than Prince Lloyd—it seemed this had been his playroom for quite a while. He demanded Kai play with him on the climbing gym in the center of the room.
Kai was curious himself about how much his body could handle only two days out of hell. Turned out, not much at all—Prince Lloyd laughed rambunctiously at him when he fell flat on his back, missing a rung with his foot. The air was very nearly knocked out of his lungs.
Oh, First Master, how embarrassing his abilities had become. He was going to have to start his training from scratch. And after so may years of building it up…now a mere child could place his feet steadier than Kai.
That night, they were scheduled again to have dinner with the kid’s father.
Emperor Garmadon never showed up, his set spot remaining empty. Kai longed to swoop down and steal it for himself, indulging in the wonderful meal prepared for Prince Lloyd alone.
Kai glanced at one of the guards, mumbling, “Is the Emperor coming, or…?”
The guard only glared at him, but Kai caught him sharing a look with his fellow guard when Kai looked away.
Prince Lloyd seemed to have overheard as he called from his chair, the back to Kai and the guards. “Dad doesn’t eat with me a lot. It was kind of weird when he did yesterday. He’s real busy, y’know.”
“…That makes sense,” Kai lied.
Four days later, Kai attempted his escape.
He didn’t even make it beyond the courtyard before a boney hand was cutting off the circulation to his arm. He’d screamed, charred a few ribs, but had ultimately failed. He wasn’t sure where the boneguard had come from, or if it had always been watching him from the shadows, but the consequences proved exactly to be what the Emperor had promised.
-
He spent three weeks below. This time, he was told the date and time every time he was taken for torture. He was not allowed to know how long it would last while he was in the midst of it, but he was not lost to time again. His flesh was peeled anew. His head was shaved down to nothing. His lungs were pushed to their limits. But he barely screamed.
The bathing room was a familiar experience when it was all over, but he felt even more hollow than he had before. Somehow, the three weeks had felt longer than his first visit—which he knew had been months. It was the taste of freedom so swiftly taken that had made it far more inhumane than before.
After, he was dressed in the red hanfu and placed by the prince’s side as if nothing had happened at all. The prince seemed none the wiser.
When he returned, Prince Lloyd only asked, “My dad said you visited the training grounds. The food was bad, huh?”
Kai, with his head torn from the careless use of the shears, trembled as he responded, “Ye-Yeah, it was…it was bad.”
“Then stay here with me, dumb-dumb! The training grounds are for my dad’s fighters. You’re my henchman, remember?”
“Ri…Right, Your Highness.”
“And your hair looks funny, now.”
Thanks a lot, you little prick.
Despite the simplicity of the prince’s words, they did get Kai thinking. What would happen if Kai did stay?
Of course, he could always kill himself if Garmadon tried to force him to do something he couldn’t do. Nothing but the man-demon himself or one of his boneguard could do anything to stop Kai from doing that much. Escape seemed like a slim option. Months away, if security measures around him stayed the same, but he had a feeling Garmadon would beef it up as Kai got stronger.
Besides, if he did escape, what then? His friends were dead. They had been the only hope to defeat Garmadon. Now, without children (seeing as they had all only been children themselves…) their elements were gone, given to newly born infants somewhere in Ninjago, and years away from being unlocked. Without them, nothing could be done against the Emperor with all of his power. They’d been overconfident fools and gone in too early. It might have been his sensei’s fault, or theirs for believing him, but the fact remained the same: it would be another twenty-odd years before the new masters grew strong enough to face Garmadon again.
Until then, Ninjago would suffer. And perhaps even after that, if those new champions failed like Kai and his family had.
No. Escape held nothing for Kai but the promise of misery for the rest of his life, just as it would be where he was.
But here…here, he was close to the Emperor. He was within the heart of the evil in the world. Where better to try and affect things? To hear all, to know all there was to know about the machine?
And who better than to have direct access to than the future ruler of that Empire? Kai was assigned to be at Prince Lloyd’s side at all times, for as long as he remained useful. That could be a very long time. Kai could help the kid. Kai could make it so that, if this horrible Empire were to endure, perhaps it’s future ruler would not be so bloodthirsty, so war mongering. Perhaps they could instead have an Emperor who sought peace and valued justice, an Emperor who was kind and generous.
Lloyd was innocent. And where there was innocence, there was the capacity for good. Kai believed that. Kai had to believe that because what else did he have?
-
When he didn’t try to escape again, Emperor Garmadon saw to it that his training began.
It was bloody, degrading work at first. He would only see Prince Lloyd half the day before he was sent off to improve his body. The boneguard spoke in gravelly voices that matched their missing vocal cords. There was never an extra word said—it was always the bare minimum. Sometimes, the only thing said to Kai during a training session would be “bad” and “good.” They judged his push-up form with their glowing eye sockets.
They didn’t wait for his strength or his stamina to build before throwing him into training bouts with them. He would go from running and carrying heavy stones to and fro to getting his ass kicked by these bonemen almost twice his height. They didn’t seem to understand that human bodies had limits at all, in fact. It wasn’t unusual for Garmadon to return to his heaving, but otherwise immobile body laying on the carpet of his throne room, seeping blood. He’d call the human guards to drag him out, and the maid to clean up the messes he left behind.
It was exhausting being around Prince Lloyd once the sessions had begun. He’d barely get a few hours of sleep before he would be entertaining a wild eight-year-old who enjoyed playing pranks on his tutors and hiding from his advisor in dangerous spots.
Once, he’d climbed his way to the ledge above the doors to the throne room. Kai had been forced to climb up after him when he’d gotten stuck, like a cat up a tree. Kai’s body would instantly shut down at the mere mention of sleeping time.
Kai was sent back to the dungeon months into this routine. Prince Lloyd had tripped in the courtyard and blood had bloomed on his knee, the scratches small. Still, he’d let out a bloodcurdling scream at the sight of red and promptly fainted. Kai had scrambled to figure out if he’d hit his head, but the boy was just nauseous at the sight of blood. The son of Emperor Garmadon was squeamish. Kai couldn’t believe it.
He also couldn’t fucking believe that they sent him down to the dungeon for a fucking week because of his scream. Kai emerged from the dungeon after that short trip more irritated than anything else. Fortunately little of his progress had been lost this time around. Perhaps Garmadon didn’t want to have to start all over, either.
Unfortunately, they cut his hair down again. And it had just been growing in enough to cover the last shearing scars.
Lloyd’s nineth birthday came around. Seeing as he was kept a secret from everywhere outside of the upper level of Shadowspire, the celebration had to be kept to the palace, but the palace spared no expense in celebrating for him. The walls were decorated, fireworks were lit, a feast was made. Lloyd was even allowed to meet a few of the servants’ children his age who were confined to the palace along with him.
One was the son of Tutor Tudabone. Kai felt tired just looking at the two boys whispering together. It seemed Tudabone’s son was no more of a fan of his than Prince Lloyd was. They were planning some truly sinister things at Prince Lloyd’s small party, and Kai was sure to have to deal with those plans later.
There was also the daughter of the Emperor’s favorite aristocrats—two members of Ninjago’s original Imperial family that had betrayed their country to side with Garmadon in the past generation. Their daughter was not one of those confined to the palace, but Garmadon apparently trusted her family enough for her to keep his secret. Kai did not like the little girl. Her eyes never matched her words. A politician already. Thankfully, Lloyd seemed to prefer the Tudabone kid’s company.
Kai, allowed off his training that day at the request of a certain prince, accompanied the kid for a full day for the first time in a while. Prince Lloyd was far too excited about it.
At the end of the day, Kai saw the kid to bed. A whole nine years old now. Lloyd seemed to barely grown an inch over the past few months.
“Alright, alright, brush your teeth, Your Highness.”
Kai mussed up the kid’s hair before the prince shot off towards his bathroom. The teeth brushing sounded like an intense duel from this room. Kai rolled his eyes a bit.
Behind Kai, the two guards still remained. They were quietly speaking between each other, now, something bout a big sporting event that had happened in Ninjago City that they’d bet on. One of them had lost their money.
“Done!” Lloyd leapt back into the room, his red eyes wide and passionate. “Now my birthday request!”
“As long as you don’t ask to stay up past your bedtime,” Kai reminded him.
Lloyd jumped into his bed, clutching Clawknife to himself. As he settled, he leveled Kai with an expectant expression. Kai raised an eyebrow at the kid’s antics.
“I want you to tell me a story.”
“Oh? I don’t think I’m great at that,” Kai said. “But I guess I can try. What kind of story do you want?”
Kai sat at the edge of the bed. Lloyd looked dead serious, all of a sudden. “I want a story about you! You fight so good and you didn’t even tell me why your dad let you live with me.”
Kai’s mouth went dry. He glanced at the guards, but they were distracted between each other. He…didn’t want to tell Lloyd any stories about himself. They were all sad, and…every one of them ended in tragedy—even the so-called story he was leading right now.
“It’s my birthday!” Lloyd stubbornly reminded him when he hesitated.
“Okay, yeah, okay,” Kai sighed. “I’m just thinking. Um…I…I had a little sister. She–She was a lot like you.”
Lloyd’s eyes blew wide, but he remained quiet. Almost like he believed Kai would stop if he inturrupted. Smart kid.
“She was real stubborn,” Kai smiled, rubbing his knuckle into Lloyd’s hair. The kid yelped, and jumped back, but there was a grin on his face. “…She would always get into fights when she saw someone being mean. I’d get into fights with her, of course, to make sure she was okay. She was really smart, too. Really smart. She started building these mechanical crafts when she was your age. One time, she built a little robot, and it scared me so much I couldn’t sleep for weeks!”
Lloyd laughed, kicking his feet. Still, he didn’t interrupt. His eyes begged for more.
“She taught me how to read,” Kai continued. “Because I didn’t get to go to school and I didn’t have any tutors. It was just me and her growing up in a small village. She would always get cold feet at night.”
Lloyd gasped. “I get cold feet, too!”
Kai smiled sadly. “Oh, yeah? Wear socks, then, Green Bean, what’ve you been doing? Freezing to death in your bed?”
“No, that’s weird, Kai, no one wears socks to bed.”
“Well, that’s why you’re cold!”
Lloyd fidgeted with his stuffed animal. “Um. What happened to her?”
Kai quickly looked down at his lap. Lloyd was just a kid—it wasn’t like he was going to see the truth in his eyes. But Kai didn’t want him to see by accident. He pushed down the swell of anger he felt rising, leaving only the grief to take a hold of his heart. It made him feel very tired.
“She…She died,” Kai said softly. “Before I came to live with you.”
“Oh.” Lloyd sounded disappointed. “I’m sorry.”
“…It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”
Lloyd put his stuffed animal into Kai’s lap. Kai instinctually grabbed it, looking up at the kid. Lloyd was smiling hesitantly. “She sounds really cool.”
Kai smiled, blinking through his burning eyes and the stuck feeling in his throat. “She was. I think you guys would have been good friends.”
“What about your dad?”
Kai pursed his lips, then shrugged. “I don’t know. I never really knew my parents.”
“Then who took care of you?” Lloyd demanded, confused.
“Just me, I guess. Me and my sister grew up all by ourselves.”
“That’s crazy!”
The image of a kindly old man flashed through his mind, but Kai banished the thought of him. As much as he shared with Lloyd, he would likely take any information he had about that man to his grave.
“What about your mom, kid?” Kai changed the subject. “Did you ever know her?”
He’d been desperately curious to know about the mystery woman since he’d figured out Garmadon had done the deed with someone. No one in their right mind that four-armed monster and think yeah, I want that, so Lloyd’s mom was definitely insane. That or she hadn’t wanted it at all, of course.
Lloyd frowned. “No. My dad said she left us behind when I was just a baby, so I don’t think she’s very nice, anyway. Did your parents do that, too?”
Kai sighed. “Yeah. They did. My parents probably aren’t that nice either, then, huh?”
This made Lloyd look far too sad for Kai’s liking. He hadn’t meant for it to end on such a depressing note for the kid.
“Well, I don’t think we need them,” Kai abruptly declared, placing his hands on his hips and shifting on the bed to face Lloyd more. “Because you’ve got me and I’m not going anywhere.”
Lloyd looked like he was just about to cry. He sniffled, throwing his Clawknife away and jumping out from his blankets.
Lloyd hugged him tight. Kai didn’t know why he was so surprised. When he processed the little arms around his neck, he hugged Lloyd back.
“I think you’re my best friend,” Lloyd mumbled into the the hanfu at Kai’s shoulder.
Kai found it hard to smile, but he forced it, even when he wanted to cry. He patted the kid’s back. “You’re my best friend, too, buddy.”
-
A year had passed since Kai had met the prince and fit into his duty the prince’s aid. Bodyguard, sure, but the palace guard that still trailed Kai around told him he still hadn’t graduated to that level of trust. He didn’t expect to, either, considering he’d stab the Emperor in the back if he saw a free target. What they didn’t have to worry about was him laying a finger on Lloyd’s head. Kai would sooner kill himself than hurt the kid.
His training had finally been paying off. Though painful and rigorous, and downright inhuman a majority of the time, the results were clearer than day when Kai began to defeat the boneguards in their little spars. When you could beat a skeleton with superhuman strength, no man could stand against you. All the while, his flame grew stronger with him.
The day that Lloyd saw him turn off the torch lights with a wave of his hands, the boy had nearly burst with excitement. It had taken a while to convince the kid that, no, Kai was not an oni, followed by a long conversation about what elemental masters were.
Kai had graduated from the hanfu of a servant to the leather armor of a warrior. It was far from the efficient and sturdy plate mail that the Imperial Guard wore, but it denoted Kai as something other than a simple laundry-folder. He felt better with the light armor on, so similar to the kind he had worn atop his gi in happier times.
There was nothing significant about that day. Lloyd had been asking Kai to teach him his martial arts and Kai had told him he’d think about it. Lloyd had accepted the answer and was now doodling in one of his books while sitting in a waiting chair.
The chamberlain, Lloyd’s advisor, was late to a meeting he had called of the prince.
Kai frowned at his watch. The chamberlain was rarely late. He was a quite strict man, in fact, and he’d had the courage to punish even the prince for tardiness in the past. Kai shared a look with the guard. The guard also seemed unnerved and shrugged at Kai.
“Your Highness, maybe we should go hunt down the chamberlain, eh?” Kai offered. “Give him a good talking-to about being on time?”
Lloyd perked up mischievously at the idea. “It’s about time he got a talking-to instead of me!”
Kai smiled. Lloyd jumped up, stashing his book in his robes, and took a step towards the door.
The window burst.
Lloyd screamed, glass blew into the hall, the guard lunged forward.
Kai had less than a second to process everything. A figure was leaping through the window, in slow motion to Kai’s adrenaline-affected senses. Right towards Lloyd. There was a long blade pointed directly for the cringing prince.
Kai didn’t have time to think beyond that. If he hesitated, Lloyd would die. This person trying to kill the prince could in no way be more important to Kai than Lloyd was.
The only weapon Kai had been given the last few months—a long dagger—was ripped from his belt and flying through the air almost the moment that the window shattered.
It hit the figure with a wet thunk, right at the base of the throat. Blood spurted everywhere, spraying over Lloyd’s face, and Kai’s front, as Kai had leaped forward. The dagger had knocked the figure off course and the deadly placement had them crumpling to the ground, sword clattering to the tile floor.
The guard jumped forward and pulled Lloyd back, brandishing his sword, though the threat had been delt with.
Kai, anger coursing through him, rage, even, Who the fuck would try to hurt this little kid? He grabbed the figure’s shoulder and pulled them onto their back. Hooking a finger under their facemask, he jerked it up to reveal Lloyd’s attempted killer.
Kai didn’t recognize the middle aged woman. But, by the light in her eyes, he could tell she recognized him in her dying moments.
She coughed and blood came from her lips. Her chest shuddered around the dagger sunk through her collarbone.
“Who sent you?” He snarled.
“You–You’re—” Blood stained her chin. Her voice was wet with it. Her eyes were getting father and farther away. “—sup-pposed to be one–one of th–the g-good guys.”
He grabbed her black gi. “Who sent you?”
The light in her eyes faded. It then disappeared and her eyes went still. Her chest stopped moving, her limbs stopped twitching. The dagger stood out of her chest like an early grave marking.
Dull shock went through Kai’s body. What…? She was…She was dead. Kai had killed her.
He had known what he was doing—he hadn’t thrown that dagger wildly. No, he’d reacted quickly and knowingly. It had landed where he had meant it to. It had landed where it had stopped her from reaching Lloyd, from harming him. It had been her or Lloyd.
Yes, Kai had known what he was doing. He’d chosen Lloyd’s life over this woman’s. This woman who had been willing to murder a nine-year-old boy. She was a monster. She had been a monster, if she was willing to do that. It hadn’t been a competition, who had deserved to live. And she had thought she was one of the “good guys”?
Kai had thought that, too. That night that he’d considered it. He’d rationalized it all in his head, knowing it was wrong, but thinking about some greater good. And he had been no less of a monster for that.
Even so, it was not a shadowy beast that lay still under Kai’s hands. It was a woman, who had tears brimming in her eyes as she’d choked to death on her own blood. He’d…killed her. He’d been in so many fights before, he’d beat so many people, but he’d never…
He felt a familiar numbness fill his limbs and slow his mind.
He stood up and stepped over the body of the woman. He left his dagger, his only weapon, there.
The prince stood, the guard’s arm still wrapped around him. His face was speckled with blood, not unlike Kai’s. Lloyd stared at the body on the ground, his face white with a silent horror, lips pressed in a firm line below wide, unblinking eyes.
Kai, knowing Lloyd’s sickness at the mere sight of blood, stepped between the kid and the corpse. He didn’t offer any words of assurance—couldn’t—but he did that much.
It took five extra seconds for Lloyd to seemed to realize he was there. He looked up at Kai.
There was something disturbed in the kid’s eyes that Kai had never seen in Lloyd, but he had seen in others. He’d seen it in his sister, when they’d watched the dead of the labor camp near Ignacia be piled outside before their bodies were mass burned. He’d seen it in his best friends as they’d described the horrifying stories that the Empire had wrought on them before the old man had found them and picked them up from their gutters. And Kai had seen it in the mirror.
The shock catching up to him, Lloyd’s breaths quickened and he began to cry, fear in his face. He ripped himself free of the guard and threw his arms around Kai’s middle, pressing his face into Kai’s leather armor. Sobs choked against his chest.
Kai hesitated after raising his hands. They were smeared with blood from the woman’s gi. It was probably pooling on the tile behind him.
Kai wrapped an arm around the kid’s shoulders and ran a hand through his hair. The bathing room could always wash the blood away later.
The guard shared a firm look with Kai, then ran to get help with the situation. And if any other would-be assassins showed their faces in the mean time, the guard trusted that Kai would deal with it. He’d do whatever he had to—whatever it took to keep Lloyd safe and to ensure a bright future for Ninjago.
-
Kai was waterboarded for three hours for letting the woman die before getting any information out of her. The questions raised—who was she, how did she get in, who sent her, was her entire goal Lloyd, and if so, how did word of him get out to the Emperor’s enemies?—haunted the palace and it showed with the Emperor’s tantrums that ended with three servants dead by the end of the weak. He wanted answers and he wanted them now—spies were sent out to find those answers as soon as the woman was identified.
No Imperial guard accompanied Kai and Lloyd during their days after that.
Their lack of escort wasn’t the only change that followed. Lloyd had grown quiet, he’d lost much of his pride, and he never spoke of his desires to be the next evil Emperor again. He drew more and climbed less. He occasionally clung to Kai’s armor with a hand as they walked, something Kai hoped the Emperor would not see. He would no doubt see it as an unacceptable weakness, even in his own son.
Kai couldn’t blame the kid, nor could he wonder what had changed. He knew that death changed a person. Hell, he knew that he was a different person after that day, too. He would never be the same Kai whose hands had been clean, the same Kai that his sensei had trained to love and protect all life, the same Kai who had been Nya’s older brother. And Lloyd would never be the bright-eyed boy who had given Kai hug-repellent spikes on his armor.
Still, Kai felt he had to do something. He could be partially to blame, even if his lack of action would have resulted in Lloyd dying. He’d still killed a woman right in front of him, let her blood spray over him. He had to do something to help Lloyd through it. And if he didn’t have that to focus on, Kai would go crazy with the burden of his conscience telling him that he, too, deserved to die for what he’d done.
Months ago, Kai had asked around after finding it strange that Lloyd was not being taught to fight. After all, the prime age to start martial arts training was around six years, and he had assumed that any monarch would want their child to be trained for both respectable reasons and to give the kid some self-defense if the worst came to worst. He had found out in hushed tones that Emperor Garmadon intended to never allow Lloyd to learn how to fight.
Kai couldn’t understand why this was. It wasn’t like he could simply ask the Emperor. Even the mention of something he’d firmly outlawed may set him off and Kai wasn’t looking to visit the dungeon again. So he could only assume it was because he didn’t want his precious son to be hurt in any fights.
Well, Kai knew Lloyd better than that. The kid was tough as nails and giving him an outlet to release his emotions into would provide the kid a much-needed coping mechanism. It had helped Kai, after all, who had once been drowning in anger problems far worse than he had now.
One night, Kai told the kid he wanted to show him something before he went to sleep. The drowsy nine-year-old agreed to stand opposite of him and follow his movements as Kai led him through four basic forms.
Lloyd, smart as he was, seemed to catch on quickly. His eyes got a little brighter, but he seemed nervous. “Is this martial arts?”
“One style, yeah,” Kai confirmed. “Fingers pinched, like this, and bring your arms up.”
Kai took a deep inhale and released the exhale as he moved. Lloyd naturally copied his controlled breathing as they returned to the horse stance.
“My dad said I’m not supposed to learn martial arts.”
“Flatten your hands. These are called knife hands. Slowly bring them up and snap out.” Kai demonstrated, then addressed the kid’s statement. “Forms never hurt anyone. Do you want to learn martial arts?”
“…My dad said I shouldn’t.”
“But do you want to?” Kai exhaled, returning to horse stance.
Lloyd was quiet for a long time. Then, “Yes. I want to be like you.”
Kai walked him through all twelve forms. Lloyd caught on like a string of yarn lit fire. Kai told him to memorize these and to practice them every night. If he forgot, he could ask for a refresher. When he could do them all perfectly, he could show Kai, and Kai could then teach him some more.
Forms turned into kicks, which turned into boxing, which turned into combinations. All the while, they kept this learning a secret from the Emperor. It wasn’t hard. The Emperor was a busy man and only came around when Kai needed punishment. And, eventually, when the Emperor found other uses for Kai. Kai carried out these few and far between orders if it meant that he would find his way back to Lloyd, even when said orders became less few and less far between.
No matter what he was asked to do, he was always returned to his primary duty: To protect the prince with all of his flesh and blood, with all of the power he wielded, and with the weight oaths he’d taken so long ago.