Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Shit
Chapter Text
They had almost made it. Kai nearly collapsed from relief as Zane's hand touched the handle of the temple door, and with nearly three strikes till dawn.
He was safe. They were all safe. He fell to his knees outside the temple door and stared as the translucent tips of his fingers slowly regained corporeality.
Jay had begun to laugh just ahead of him, the slight tremors of his bubbling alleviation pulling at the rope tying the four of them together. It was tugged even harder as he bent forward, leaning down to kiss the ground where they had landed. It scooted Kai forward as well and the rope behind him flopped flaccidly in suit with a notable brushing sound against the dirt. It moved as though disconnected. As though...
Kai's head whipped around. Behind him, where Cole should've been, sat a twisted, untethered rope and a scroll rolling down the temple steps after it.
He scrambled towards the temple, stumbling, tripping and nearly kicking Jay as the rope held him back. "COLE!!" he shouted, one hand struggling with the rope at his waist while the other reached out for where he hoped Cole would magically appear.
A cool, metallic hand grabbed Kai's wrist just as the rope had begun to slip loose. It was calm, yet firm, as if warning him to stop. "Kai... " Zane breathed, a waver to his voice. "I don't think he's..."
Kai refused to hear another word. He jerked his arm back and continued trying to run back to the temple, but he couldn't shake Zane's grip. "NO!!" Kai couldn't breathe. His eyes begun to well up with tears. "HE'S- HE'S NOT GONE!".
Zane adjusted his hold, all but fighting Kai to get an arm around his chest. "We don't know how the curse works. It's too dangerous to go back inside."
"LET ME GO!" Kai roared, tears streaming down his face. His heart beat in his head faster than his lungs could keep up with. His throat stung with each rapid and ragged breath. The very air around him seemed hot and almost sharp on his skin.
Another hand, warmer and slightly grounding in a way, wrapped around his ankle. "Kai... you can't help him right now... You have to stop."
A jolt sparked from Kai's ankle to the rest of his body, frying each nerve with energy before leaving an empty disconnection in it's place. "No..." Kai wheezed, barely above a whisper, as his body shut down and the whole world went dark around him.
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Lloyd awoke to the splash of cold wet droplets on his skin and the pitter patter of rain resonating on the bars of his cage. It was pitch dark, only lit by the ethereal and otherworldly glow of the ghosts resting in the corner.
The cage was flush against the very rim of the cave Morro and his ghouls had chosen for shelter. It's bars were a rusted brown, peeling in small fragments that splintered into Lloyd's skin at awkward angles. Nevertheless, they were thick, too thick to break in any feasible way before his captors would notice.
His neck ached as he craned his head to get a better look at the outside waiting for him. He tried to remember where he was. He clutched his head as he thought, brain foggy and head heavy as he attempted to sift through whatever memories might've remained from when Morro possessed him.
He saw unhelpful flashes of leaves and trees alongside even less helpful flashes of attacking his friends, sending them flying and falling this way and that. He'd tried to hurt them. No- not him, Morro. He needed to remember that.
Suddenly, like the strike of a match, a memory sizzled into his mind, sharp and stinging. It was a hill. It was the hill they had climbed to get here.
He focused his eyes and, sure enough, just past the first few rows of trees, the ground dropped off. He couldn't quite see to where, but he was sure it was the direction from which they came. He hoped it would lead back to the city.
He gripped the bars closest to the cave wall and jerked his whole body in the opposite direction, lifting the edge of the cage. It teetered on its edge for a moment before falling back with a bang, this time precariously leaning against the wall at a diagonal.
The lights in the cave pulsed and flickered as the ghosts stirred at the noise. There wasn't even time to think. Lloyd jerked the cage back one more time, the effort straining his shoulder as his muscles nearly locked up. The cage crashed onto its side, much louder than the first time.
Morro jolted upright, eyes wide. He lunged after him as Lloyd began to roll out into the forest, fingers nearly brushing the edge of the cage before flying back as he screeched in pain as the water sizzled on his arm.
"No, no, no, no, NOOOOOO! I'M THE-"
And as the rolling cage sped up through the forest and down the hill, Lloyd could faintly hear Morro's voice carrying through the trees, calling after him. He wondered if it was the last thing he'd ever hear.
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Cole couldn't quite hear his feet hit the ground as he stepped out of Yang's temple. He couldn't quite hear much at all at first. Everything sounded muffled and wrong.
The one thing he could hear was Kai. He was screaming. Cole couldn't tell what he was saying, but he looked devastated. His face was scrunched up as tears poured down his face and he fought the rope at his waist. He was reaching out at him, calling to him, Cole realized.
He rushed over to him and kneeled beside a sobbing Kai.
"Kai, I'm okay," he tried to console him. "I untied the rope to make sure we got the scroll, but it will never- never happen again." He leaned in for a hug, but Kai didn't seem receptive, still hysterically crying and reaching out for who knows what behind him.
"We have to go back," Kai muttered.
Cole stood up, taking a step back only to see Zane standing behind Kai with a firm hold on his hand. Kai was still trying to shake him loose, but it didn't appear to have much effect.
"Zane, what's going on? What happened?" Cole asked, brows slightly furrowing at his hold on Kai's wrist.
"Kai... " Zane breathed, a waver to his voice. "I don't think he's..."
"Don't think he's what?" Cole interjected. "What's happening?!" He looked Kai over just to be sure he wasn't injured somehow. He looked fine, and yet they were all acting so strange. Even Jay, who would normally be more talkative than ever in an instance like this, sat still as a statue, not even looking at them.
"NO!! HE'S- HE'S NOT GONE!" Kai screamed, fighting Zane more forcefully now. Zane adjusted his hold from Kai's wrist to his chest, seeming more or less about to cry himself.
"Who? Yang?" Cole puzzled. Nothing made sense. Was something happening happening to Kai? Did something happen to Kai? Was this part of the curse?
"We don't know how the curse works. It's too dangerous to go back inside."
"For what?!", it took all of Cole's effort not to shout.
"LET ME GO!" Kai roared. He started to hyperventilate. He looked almost sick from crying, his eyes reddening and his voice growing hoarse.
"Kai!" Cole insisted, lightly resting a hand on his shoulder, "You're going to be okay. You just-"
"Kai... you can't help him right now... You have to stop." Jay interrupted ominously.
Cole turned back just in time to see Jay's hand spark with electricity on Kai's ankle. Kai fell into Zane's hold on him, muscles twitching slightly.
"What the hell, man?!" Cole seethed. "You see your friend having a hard time and you just what? TAZE HIM?"
Before Cole could finish, Jay began to break down as well. He crumpled into a ball on the floor while Zane shifted Kai into the proper approximation of a piggy back.
"We have to go, Jay," Zane sighed, turning to pick up the scroll before helping Jay to his feet.
"I- I don't know what we're going to do," Jay sniffled as they began to walk back towards the monastery.
"If you could just tell me what-" Cole started.
"He was good." Zane choked, the cracks in his calm facade becoming evermore apparent. "He won't go to the Cursed Realm like Morro. I'm sure- ", his breath hitched. "I'm sure that wherever he is, Cole's in a better place."
That was the last thing Cole heard before Kai, his friends, his entire life, and quite possibly his entire perception of reality, walked away. And it felt like it might be forever before he got them, any of them, back.
Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Fan
Summary:
Everyone, and everything falls apart
Notes:
Updating as a birthday gift to both myself and the other September babies reading this!
Thank you for reading!
I hope you enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Lloyd stumbled out of the forest, into the cold, crisp air below a thoughtless moon. The air would have been pleasantly chill were he not soaked from the rain. It was the kind of cold that carried sounds further and more wholly than normal. Like the honking of car horns or the sound of the broken pieces of metal that clung to his jacket, clanging together like wind chimes.
A headache throbbed at his temples as he struggled to keep the world in focus. Street lights blurred and swirled in his vision despite his best efforts. He pulled up his hood to gain some semblance of focus and ease the coming migraine as he staggered through the Ninjago City streets.
His whole body ached with fatigue. Every step seemed to strain him. He bumbled about like a drunk, legs fighting him as he tripped on what seemed to be thin air. The motion only aggravated his headache further. He began to wonder why he even kept going.
The thought startled him at first. Where was he going? And why?, he thought to himself.
The memories were fuzzy, but something in him insisted there was somewhere he had to go. He felt it calling to him from somewhere in the city, pushing him forward determinedly but without direction. He glanced around the nearest intersection to decide where this force wanted him to go.
A small, off-white piece of paper glided off a nearby wall and fluttered to a stop at his feet. A logo of a blue teapot with a white dragon insignia decorated the front of it. It was familiar. Familiar in a friendly, comforting way that almost made him giggle at the sight of it.
He reached down to pick it up before darting off, running, despite the searing ache in his muscles and the nauseating copper taste in his mouth, to the nearest stranger.
"Excuse me, but can you point me in the direction of Steep Wisdom?"
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All Kai was aware of was the air. The feeling of it pouring through the vents and drying the tear tracks on his face. The light whirring of the fan was a static that matched the static he felt in his brain; he felt almost like an old TV.
All he was aware of was the air, and yet, every so often, his body would decide there simply wasn't enough of it.
He'd all but convulse as his lungs chased a breath that wasn't there. His hands would start to shake, tears would swell in his eyes, and his heart would race. Nya would try to help, but all she could really do was sit him down and wait for it to stop.
He wished someone could help him. He wished someone could hug him, tell him everything would be okay. He wished Cole could tell him everything would be okay.
He had managed to autopilot his way through preparing dinner, only hyperventilating once at the notion of setting out one less plate than usual.
He sat down at the large rectangular table and looked down at his plate. It was a hastily made curry with a side vegetables over-steamed to the point of smushing together when he touched them with his fork.
He didn't really care much for the food, he just picked at it and waited for the others to sit down so he could eat and go to bed. All he really wanted to do was sleep. He was just so tired, and there was an odd sort of excitement that formed in his chest at the idea of being able to turn his brain off. He almost didn't even want to bother with dinner. He was only still sitting there so that Nya would stop worrying about him.
It was the scrape of a chair next to him that broke him from the thought.
He turned his head to see Zane sit down next to him, unblinking. He moved rather stiffly, in an ironically robotic fashion, as he began to set his portion of the table.
Only it wasn't his portion of the table-
It was Cole's.
"What the hell are you doing?" Kai snapped indignantly.
"Sitting... Preparing to eat... And talking to you now," Zane deadpanned, eerily monotone.
Kai clenched his fist as he glared into Zane's ice-blue eyes. They looked cold, almost dead, the way his half-lidded stare seemed to pay no mind to Kai's vexation.
"That's not your seat" Kai nearly growled through gritted teeth.
"According to my research, connection is very important to dealing with feelings of grief. Even minor moments of isolation can delay the process of getting over it." Zane blurted, almost exactly in the manner one would expect of AI. "I did not want you to be alone in your side of the table."
Kai felt his face grow hot. Ever since he'd woken up, muscles sore and tingly from the shock Jay had given him, he'd felt strangely empty, like not only had someone important departed from him, but something deep internally had as well.
Whatever filled that spot now, was scalding and agitated, and yet still hollow. He felt his breath catch like he might hyperventilate again, but instead he shouted.
"I'm not fucking 'getting over' anything! Now GET OUT OF HIS SEAT!" Kai emphasized the last words so hard he could see a spit particle fly out of his mouth and land on Zane's cheek.
The air around them cooled slightly as something sparked in Zane's eyes. It looked as though whatever Zane was present now was wrestling with a past Zane that would've preferred to shout back or fight or do something, anything, that might allude to the fact that he was even alive. It gave Kai a strange sense of satisfaction to see it. A satisfaction that quickly died as Zane closed his eyes, inhaling deeply.
"It was intended for your benefit. Would you prefer I sit in Lloyd's seat instead?" he sighed, almost tired, looking at him the way a kindergarten teacher eyes what's sure to be the fourth tantrum of the day.
Kai nearly exploded. He stood up with a force that sent his chair clattering to the floor. He could feel flames licking the sides of his fists before he had a chance to even think.
"FUCK! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! COLE FUCKING DIES AND ALL YOU CAN THINK OF IS HOW TO 'GET OVER' HIM?!" Kai roared. "YOU REALLY ARE NO BETTER THAN A FUCKING MACHINE, ARE YOU?!"
A plate smashed on the floor as Misako and Sensei Wu walked in.
"Cole what?" Misako gasped.
"You- you didn't tell them?" Kai's eyes snapped around the room. Neither Nya nor Jay looked him in the eye. "AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN ACT LIKE A FUCKING PERSON AROUND HERE?" he shouted as he stomped away from the table towards the door.
Zane reached out, grabbing his wrist, cold hands snuffing out the fire in Kai's, two tears crystalized to his face.
"I'm going for a fucking run," he muttered through his teeth.
After a second or two of tense silence, something in Zane gave, and he let go.
Deep in the dark night that surrounded Steep Wisdom, a spark of something green danced and reflected in the distance. It jumped and twirled in the shadows, growing bigger as Kai approached it, or perhaps as it approached him.
Eventually, as it moved closer, Kai could just barely make out two bright green eyes reflecting the nearby lanterns and street lights. Just above them sat a familiar crop of platinum blonde hair. They must have seen him as well because, once they got within distance, even in the dark it was clear that their staggered walk became a stumbling run.
They finally got close enough for Kai to see their face, and in a flash of recognition, it was almost as though he saw the devil.
Kai planted his feet and ignited his fists, slightly singeing the hem of his jacket.
"Kai!" a hoarse, breathless voice called out in the darkness.
"Shut up!" Kai shouted. "You take my brother, you take my sensei's staff, you take my- you take Cole, and now you think you can just come here and take some more?! Just to fuck with us?!"
"Huh?"
"Then try it, I dare you," Kai huffed, cocking a flamed fist back to launch a fireball at the perceived intruder. "You're not gonna trick me this time."
No sooner did the fire leave his hand than the figure slumped over lifelessly, hitting the pavement with the painful sounding slap of flesh against cement. The fire soared just over their head before crashing and exploding a few feet away, illuminating a very bruised, battered, and filthy looking Lloyd. He looked awful, much worse for wear than he should've been from just coming out of hiding, Kai thought. He looked like he'd seen some things, been through some things.
Perhaps even an escape.
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Lloyd was startled awake by a burning in his shoulder. He flinched away, but felt a hand grab him.
"Relax, I'm cauterizing it," a familiar voice grumbled, just to the side of him. "I don't know how you made it this far without bleeding the fuck out". And he didn't know either. He simply looked away and indeed let himself relax, closing his eyes and losing a bit of tension in his muscles.
A few moments of silence went by before the voice spoke again.
"Prove you're Lloyd."
"Kai... I-"
"Prove you're Lloyd," he said again, angrier this time.
Lloyd really racked his brain for something, but it felt too fuzzy to grasp onto any single thought.
"Um... well we're brothers... I still sound fucking twelve, Morro sounds like he eats forgotten realms... and... you got your true potential saving me... because you had to value a human life over being the green ninja..." he slurred. "Which is kinda fucking crazy..." he began to giggle. "You're kinda fucking crazy..."
"Alright! I- I get it," Kai interrupted, his free hand scratching the back of his neck while the other finished searing the last of Lloyd's wounds.
"And why's it smell like burning plastic?"
Kai just looked at him for a moment before turning towards the door to the hall. "Zane! You were right, he's concussed!"
A while later, Zane rushed out of the doorway with some medications and a bottle of water. He looked Lloyd over for what felt like hours. It was to the point that he'd nearly fallen asleep. His eyes grew heavy, and had just begun to shut when Zane seemed to have finished his assessment. He backed up and began speaking to Kai like Lloyd wasn't even there.
"It's mild, but he should still sleep on the couch so that Pixal or I can monitor him," he deadpanned, not really sounding like Zane. Lloyd wondered if he actually sounded different or if Kai was right and he was just too concussed to remember how Zane talked normally. "And I would advise saving the news about Cole for a later date."
"You can't be serious," Kai hissed. "He deserves to know."
"It would only put further stress on him to know-"
"Know what?" Lloyd interjected, irritated that this whole conversation seemed inclined to pass him by.
"Noth-"
"Cole's dead"
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A guilt twinged in Cole's stomach as he floated through his h- his former home. The house looked about as alive as he did. The entire atmosphere was different, they didn't talk to each other like family or even friends anymore. Infact, they didn't really seem to talk at all.
Other than the fighting at dinner and what little exchange they had when caring for Lloyd, the whole house had been eerily silent.
He stalked the halls, empty, almost bored, until he heard music echoing faintly from one of the rooms. He followed the sound to his own room.
Floating through the door, he could just make out the deep, slow, rhythmic pulse of the bass in his favorite record.
In the middle of the floor, sat Kai, cross-legged in front of Cole's old record player, letting the song scratch by for only a few moments before picking up the tone-arm to replay the same section again. It had been Cole's favorite part, the part where he'd always ask Kai to dance. Kai would always call him corny, but they'd always dance anyway.
The memory tasted almost bitter in his mouth now. He wished he could reach out to him, say something, or at least prove his existence somehow. Instead, all he found himself able to do was watch as Kai began to cry silently on the floor, and stay stuck in a limbo that almost made him wish he'd died for real.
"Kai..." he whispered. "I'm sorry."
Kai's head snapped around to face him, for an instant looking him directly in the eyes before seemingly losing them. He held a hand to either side of his head like he was trying to hold it together as he muttered to himself.
"It's not real. It's not real. He's dead. You saw him die. It's not real." His breathing picked up and he began to shake, trembling like a leaf in the wind as he cried harder. He looked as though he might vomit as he choked on thin air.
"Wait! Kai! Can you hear me?!" Cole gasped. Kai gave no response. He only continued to cry and hyperventilate, staring at the floor.
Cole reached out, pressing a palm to Kai's chest, the tips of his translucent fingers passing through ever so slightly. Not a moment sooner than they did, everything seemed to stop. The crying, the shaking, and the gasping for air; it all stopped. Instead, he breathed lightly, staring off into a distance that couldn't possibly exist in the small room.
"Can... can you hear me now?"
Still no response.
He let go. Kai's breath shook a little as he did so, but he didn't return to whatever had happened before. Now he looked more tired than anything. He slowly stood up and silently stepped over to the bed, collapsing into the pillows and blankets.
Cole laid down next to him, gazing into his coppery eyes, listening to his soft breathing as he settled into sleep.
Just then, the tone-arm of the record player fell once more. One single, final tear trekked down Kai's cheek as they both fell asleep to their favorite part of their favorite record, together, and yet never quite more alone.
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As his eyes closed on Kai, a strange new set opened somewhere else. In front of his face glowed hollow, furious eyes sat over a long, thick, oily-looking, black beard. It was the unmistakable face of Sensei Yang.
He nearly jumped back in surprise, and likely would have if it weren't for the two sets of ghostly arms gripping him at either side.
"I'm surprised it took you so long. Most of my students only require half as long to resign to their fates," his raspy voice echoed.
"I'm not your student! Tell them to let me go! I need to go home!" Cole shouted, struggling against the ghosts restraining him, ghosts who he now realized were faceless. They were like pale blank slates awaiting instruction from their master.
"The home you are trying to return to no longer exists. It only exists 24 hours ago," Yang smirked darkly. "Before you died. You sacrifice the truth to justify your pitiful hopes, but I need no such excuses." He gestured to his so-called students, who turned him around and began walking him to some other room in the temple. "Now get comfortable," he cackled. "I've got some big plans for you..."
Notes:
This chapter is based on a song by itself, but the whole concept is based on a different song
Here's a hint for both
Concept: You might know this one if you're familiar with animation memes
Chapter: Initials of the artist are SJ
I really appreciate you reading to the end!
It means a lot to me
I love writing about traumatized little guys
Tysm!
Mori~