Chapter Text
..
Garmadon had taken the Golden weapons after defeating the Great Devourer . . .
That was the reason why Kai was confused on how his Sword of Fire was in his hands. He could feel it looking at him. He'd woken up feeling a hot sensation radiating in his left hand; when he reluctantly groaned from awakening and opened his eyes, it was there. The sword in all its glory. The handle was laying in the palm of his hand.
"What-- … Guys LOOK!!"
Sitting up on his bed, still in his red pyjamas, Kai's Golden Sword glowed brightly, emitting golden light around it as if it wasn't already shiny enough on its own; he held the sword up in the direction of his friends.
"Kai? What are you trying to show us?" Zane confusingly asked.
"HA!" Jay said, playfully mocking, "Kai's gone crazy from not being able to use our elemental powers without our weaponssssss."
"HEY--! you little-- ... waht" Kai looked back down at his empty hand. No Sword of Fire.
Bringing his hand closer to his face, Kai looked closer at his hand as if it just shot his one and only sister! 'Where the fuck did it go??' It had vanished somehow, leaving a golden glow that could be spotted the bottom of his left hand where the veins were slightly visible. Kai didn't notice this, only stood up to defend himself from the playful mocking Jay had thrown his way.
"I SWEAR I was just holding it!"
"Your sword? As in the one that Garmadon disappeared with?"
"You're not helping Cole! Just-- I'M NOT LYING. When my sis and Sensei get home I'll .. I'll ask him about it. But I was actually holding it!"
"No, I'm sure that my father just disappeared with all four of the Golden Weapons???"
"Awwwwwww, you have attachment issues with your 'Little Swordy??'"
"JAY I SWEAR--" Kai closed his eyes, running his hands over his eyes in exasperation, and sat back down at the edge of the bottom bunk of his bunkbed. "And don't we all miss our Golden Weapons?!"
"Calm down you two," Zane interrupted, "When Nya and Sensei Wu come back we will sort this out."
"They'll see our AWESOME NEW LLOYD-TRAINING APPARTMENT IN... They're back in a few hours right?" Cole asked.
"Yes, Nya and Sensei Wu will be back in--"
"Kai?"
The ninjas turned to face kai, who looked like he was spacing out.
..
..
"KAI!"
Kai didn't answer.
The golden, glowing veins hidden under his skin started pulsing, sparking flames in his skin. 'GOD. EVERYTHING HURTS'. And, oh lord, it did. Golden sparks under his skin burst out. The sparks tore from the inside out from the skin where his hand and his arm joined and where the glowing had started, painfully ripping his hand off.
Kai's left hand hit the ground with a thump!
And as if his left hand flying off from a burst of golden energy wasn't bad enough, he could now feel his body burning from the inside out; his skin was shouting for the feeling of nothingness.
Kai's nerves were screaming at him as his ears filled with static.
Did his body absorb the Golden Weapon that mysteriously appeared in his hand? Yes, the simple answer if you couldn't understand what was implied.
His heart was practically pumping out of his chest as the pain spread to his organs. The pain was more concentrated at where his skin had been forcefully torn off and Kai felt the bloody nub of where his hand was being wrapped in a cloth. He couldn't make out what anyone was saying but he could tell by their tone that they were panicked.
He could not feel his left hand.
He could feel his organs melting, the blood bursting out of his blood vessels. He could also feel his heart ever so slowly liquifying then turning ash. God-- he could hear his heart beat stopping!
Wait … stopping? With that realisation, the pain halted. Everything went numb. He couldn't even feel the flesh melting against his almost dissolved muscles anymore (which is a good thing).
He couldn't make out how his friends reacted when Kai went limp in one of their arms. He couldn't tell who because his vision was blurry and his hearing was fuzzy. It doesn't even matter if the sword had not caused any physical damage to Kai because, soon enough, the pain alone would've eventually taken his life.
{ I don't like long intros so here sry }
⤷ ─ .✦ ⋆˚✿˖°ᯓ⋆˚꩜｡ ⊹ ࣪ ˖
Kai's brain had mustered up the courage to open his eyes because-
owies
Kai's frantic breaths could be heard throughout the alleyway that he had 'spawned' into. His right hand gripped his shirt as he looked left to right in a panicked state.
It was night although moments ago it was the morning. Strange.
Fortunately, the alleyway he was in was relatively clean for an unfamiliar alleyway. Only a few spots on rubbish lay on the ground. He looked up, the buildings surrounding him seemed to be residential with proof being the female voice from some cooking show being played in one of the houses, along with the loud chatter of what seemed to be from a movie in the neighbouring house on the other side. The entrance of the alleyway was faintly bright, suggesting that wherever in Ninjago he was has a lot of nightlife.
His pain from earlier had mostly disappeared, leaving only the hum of soreness all over his body, the pain was strongest at where his left hand and his arm met … His left hand!
Kai quickly looked down. There was a golden thread that went all around his wrist joint, it looked as if someone had neatly stitched the limb back onto his body. This thread slowly melted into his skin, no one would be able to tell it was there in the first place.
{ If you've seen A Tale Dark And Grim, it looked like when the parents stitched Hansel and Gretel's head back on }
He stared at it for a good minute. Tears of confusion formed in his eyes. He couldn't help it! Kai had just felt the pain of dying, he had the right to cry! The coldness of his tears ran down his red, puffy cheeks - the path of where Kai's tears would fall down his cheeks were altered because his hands reached up to aggressively rub his eyes.
It took a few minutes for him to calm down from his crisis; he sniffed, tears still flowing out of his eyes but beginning to slow, breath calming down as he hesitated to take a step forward, fearing that the soreness in his body would cause him to tumble over. It did.
His centre of mass shifted too much to the side, he lost his balance and Kai fell to the ground.
"Mmph!" A breath he didn't realised he was holding spilled out of his lungs as his chest hit the ground, adding to the soreness. Kai's arms wobbly pushed him off the ground and he unsteadily placed one foot in front of the other, limping out of the alleyway. As kai turned out, lights that poked out from the night hit his eyes, the neon lights and signs forced his eyes to close so that they could adjust before he opened them again.
He noticed that this city was built on a large mountain as well as that wherever he was seemed to have no care for the Burgess and Hoyt models because the area of city he appeared in had a mix off all types of buildings. The shops and restaurants were lit up brightly and homes were left to sleep, an arcade could be heard far in the distance, it sounded like the type that seems to always have at least ten people in it; to the far left, opposite him was a place named 'Pigsy's Noodles' (Which smelt amazing by the way) with a second floor. Most likely a living area.
Back when it was just him and Nya, a nice man would give them free food out of sympathy, and while chatting, he'd learnt that him and his family lived on the second floor. But that didn't really matter to him because he lived in the same place he used to work as well.
Kai's body re-educated itself on how to walk at a mostly normal pace when he started wandering around the large city.
His brain filled with the thoughts of:
'Did I just die?'
'What'll happen to Nya and the others!'
'I'm meant to be taking care of my sis!'
'I'm meant to be training Lloyd to help defeat his father..!'
'It's night, Sensei Wu and sis are probably back already..'
Kai looked up at the surprisingly futuristic architecture, neon signs labelling buildings, etcetera. He felt small here. And he hated feeling small. He noted the people using mobile 'devices' that were much thinner than the one he's used to. 'What happened to the flip phones?? Did some weird advancement happened to turn flip phones into rectangles while he was gone? Not cool.'
...
'Where in Ninjago am I?? It's obviously not Ninjago City...'
'Will the currency I have even work here?'
"...No, I must've just been teleported into a random distant city in Ninjago, I didn't die..." Kai murmured to himself, "And plus! Most cities use the same money that I do in Ninjago City.."
Kai raised his hand and crunched it up into a fist then hit it against his forehead. "Oh on the First Spinjitzu Master, thinking this isn't helping!" He angrily muttered to himself.
Kai halted on the pavement then rummaged through the pockets of his pyjamas, that now seemed way too oversized, to see if he even has any money on him. He shoved his hands in the pockets on his shorts, nothing, then in the chest pocket on his pyjama shirt.
'Why did I think there was gonna be any money in there!? Who keeps money on them while they're sleeping!' He fumbled with the strings of his shorts while trying to tie them tighter around his body. Kai tied the strings into a bow so that they wouldn't slip off, it took a few tries. His hands were less coordinated than before. He decided to worry about that later.
Looking back up, he started to walk again with two goals in mind: to find out where he is, then figure out a way to get home without any money on him.
⤷ ゛ ˎ˚ ༘ 𖦹⋆｡˚ ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 ✶⋆.˚
Kai had been wandering for about an hour now. He was cold, tired, hungry, wanted to go home, and the pain he felt earlier was still humming in his skin. The colour of the sky barely changed, suggesting that it was midnight when he arrived. Almost everyone that had passed him asked why he was out so late and where his parents were which was nice but made him a bit uneasy, knowing that the people here are friendly is always good but this situation was strange either way. Because he's sixteen. During one of these talks, he asked what city he was in, the answer being "Megapolis".
Now, Kai barely went to school because when he was younger he was working most of the time, he never really cared about the names of places unless they were significant in his everyday life, so Kai didn't associate not knowing where on the map he is as unusual. Nya was the one going to school anyway.
Not to mention that the people here were double the size of him!
Kai doesn't like being treated as a child. They treated him as if he was one, maybe they assumed he was because, maybe, what had happened to him earlier shrunk him down? Or the people in Megapolis are abnormally tall. He's more concentrated on Step Two to care as much as he probably should.
Step Two -- Find a way to get back to Ninjago City.
When he was talking to the people in this city, he'd gotten too nervous to ask them the distance between here and Ninjago City, which was odd for him. Kai was never nervous about asking strangers for things or talking to them but when they approached him, he felt a sense of anxiousness. He felt intimidated by their height alone, which yeah, made sense with how tall they are, but it just didn't feel natural to him after he realised his emotions.
One step in front of another, he reached an abandoned construction site at the far end of the city, at the opposite end of the construction site was just mountain.
'This'll be a good place to stay while I contemplate my decisions for a while.' It was only half built, Kai slid under the old, dusty construction tape and looked for an area to lay down so that he could get some rest.
He would've gone into the forest to sleep, grass and dirt are much more comfortable to lay on, but he REFUSES to sleep in a mountain he's never been in with his friends before, without a tent and alone. His mind was plagued with the thoughts of getting lost, large spiders or other creatures, like snakes. Kai thought about if the serpentine found him and took him, but then again, he hasn't seen then since the Great Devourer was killed. The ninjas all assumed they went into hiding, the most logical and obvious explanation.
Kai sat in the corner of the most intact room he could find, it was on the bottom floor close to the actual entrance of the building. He curled up with his knees against his chest, he was cold. And kai's not used to that. Normally, he could regulate his body temperature using his elemental power of fire . . But he's been having trouble with his fire ever since he woke up here. Whenever Kai tries to produce the element from his hands, there would either be a large burst of fire or a small spark, meaning that he lost the ability to control the range of his elemental power. 'It'll be safer to not use it for now. Justtt in case I accidentally burn this place down and start a forest fire or something.'
He forced his eyes closed, readying himself for sleep.
It took him about an hour to fully fall asleep.
ᯓ⋆˚꩜｡
He opened his eyes because of the sunlight that came through the hole in the ceiling. Hungry and sore. That's what he is.
When Kai awoke, he stretched with his arms above his head, sat up, and rubbed his eyes. As he yawned, he felt someone poke his forehead.
"m!" He practically squeaked as his head shot up to look at whoever had poked him. 'Some red haired guy??' The mans red hair was up in a ponytail, he was wearing a red overcoat along with purple trousers, weird metals slippers? shoes? That looked like it was inspired by the design of a bull, just without the horns. The red man also had a red dot on his forehead - a bindi - and small glasses.
"What's a tiny peasant like you sleeping in a place like this." Red hair guy said with what kai thought was judgement. He couldn't tell much. The guy was sitting cross-legged in front of him; after poking Kai's forehead, Red's hand came back to his chest where his arms were folded.
"Uh, em," Kai felt the same sense of nervousness that he'd felt when talking to the other tall people in this strange city, this guy showed up outta nowhere! what was he meant to say!?, "um.. sleeping ..?"
Red guy blinked at him.
"Sleeping, yes obviously you were sleeping! I did, in fact, just say that." The man raised one of his hands to gesture vaguely in Kai's direction before his hand fell into his lap. "What I mean, peasant, is why is a nine year old human like you sleeping in a young adults pyjama set while in a construction site?"
The man looked down at Kai while he stood up.
"... ?" ⟶ 'Nine? I didn't 'de-age'! I just shrunk .. right?' Kai's breath paused in a panic, but he was quickly snapped out of it when the stranger picked him up from under his armpits.
"Well? Speak up! And, sleeping? Here of all place you could've chosen? What in the world could you be doing here beside sleeping--"
"HEY PUT ME DOWN!" Kai flailed around in the Red guy's grip. In Kai's panic, he shot a fireball at the man's face, and it was a decent one, a bit smaller than he would've wanted but decent. The ball of fire hit Red guy in the face as Kai felt a sudden wave of anxiousness hit him, why? Why was he feeling anxious about hitting some guy that was probably trying to kidnap when he wouldn't of given a flying fuck normally???
Kai hesitantly looked up without turning his head to the side, so far up that he could see a bit behind him, so that he could see the mans face. Fortunately, Red guy wasn't injured. His eyebrows were raised in surprise before his face went back to default. The flames had washed over the man's face, disintegrating.
Red guy was still holding Kai at arms length; the man tightly closed his eyes.
"EXCUSE ME? YOU--- .... How dare you attack ME. The Red Son?! Future--" Red Son inhaled deeply then exhaled slowly then opened his eyes again. Kai was surprised to notice a tiny spark of fire from the man's hair, his frustration was the reason for the spark. Red Son was trying not to be mad at what he thought was a child all while trying to find what to say. Lately, Red Son had been reluctantly working on his emotions so that he could control his fire better. They stood ( as in Red stood and Kai dangled ) for a few seconds.
"Let me rephrase then." The man mumbled to himself.
⤷"Why is a fire demon in an abandoned construction site at the edge of Megapolis?" Red Son spoke.
"Kai." ... ⟶ '..Wait did he call me a fire demon? Doesn't this guy know about the ninja and elemental powers? And I thought that we were on the news everywhere after the Great Devourer situation.' Kai thought about the last part in a tone of sarcasm.
Red Son took another breath, a less frustrated breath. "Kai, answer."
Red Son's eyebrows narrowed, he'd been roaming around in boredom, eventually reaching the same construction site bellow of which MK was able to hold Monkey King's staff for the first time. while wandering, Red Son heard the faint sound of snores. The snores sounded like they belonged to a child and his thoughts were correct because then he entered the room, there was a child, Kai, at least eight or nine, curled in on himself in the corner of the room. Red Son's first thought was of the boy running away, then if he'd gotten lost, then if this was a case of child abandonment.
He then moved to sit in front of the boy with a plan of interrogation once the child had woken up; normally he'd be impatient and just wake the kid up but he decided against it, too tired from absentmindedly working in the Flaming Foundry, underneath Megapolis, all night. The day before he had many ideas of weapons to create! But.. he didn't write them down somewhere, he lost his notepad in one of his many drawers.
So, today when he arrived at the section of the foundry where he creates machines and weapons, he had no idea of what to do, just idly waited for any ideas to come back to him. They didn't, which frustrated him, only leaving him to tinker with his vehicle and create more demon bull robots.
Anyways, now that Red Son was aware of the boy, Kai, being a fire demon, Red Son made an educated guess that Kai was at most one hundred and sixty years old in normal, human years. But that didn't matter much as in demon years he'd still be eight or nine. He was a small bit surprised to see another fire demon that would be mistaken for a human based on appearance, though that stopped happening to Red Son after he started to make his appearance and abilities more known many years ago.
He blinked, Kai looked hungry.
⎚-⎚ 📢
{ I calculated it with Red Son as twenty-five in physical looks and/or demon yrs, since Kai looks eight or nine I divided twenty-five by eight which is 3.125.
Red Son is about five hundred, so, if I divide five hundred by 3.125, the answer would be what an eight year old would be in demon yrs.
500 ÷ 3.125 = 160. I was kind of surprised that it was a whole number lel. Please save me, my maths teacher phrases things strange/ in a way I don't understand and I think that's why I'm getting worse at maths when I'm in top set !!
eeeeeeee!!
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR, I LUV YA! }
⎚-⎚ 🔇
"Uh....." Kai thought that telling the truth, or half truth as Kai is not willing to share the knowledge of the pain he'd just experienced, would be best as the man in front of him looked much stronger than whatever state Kai's in right now, "Well... I took the wrong bus a few hours ago and .. em, ended up here in Me-- Megapolice--? ... or whatever .. So, I didn't have a place to stay so I just found this place and stayed here. Until I find a way to get back home .."
Kai wanted to scream right now. He doesn't have any money for a bus and he doesn't know how far away 'Megapolice' is from Ninjago city. He'll have to ask about that.
"It's Megapolis."
Kai nodded in response, sounded the same to him but he didn't retort back because his emotions and instinctual responses seemed to be changing for some unknown reason and the fact that Red Son is most likely stronger than him.
Red Son signed, he was more focused on how malnourished Kai looked, it wasn't often that he felt worried for people - except his mother or father but Red Son isn't likely to ever admit that. His pride and arrogance, luckily, did not get the better of him as much as it normally would've and so he adjusted Kai in his grip to be in an 'arms carry' position with Kai legs dangling.
Kai looked as if he hadn't eaten in five days, and in Red Son's mind, a human child-looking fire demon wouldn't be left alone for that long. Any authoritative figure, such as police, would've noticed a child alone and brought them back home by now if that was the case. And so, Red Son came to the conclusion that even if his story was true, whoever Kai's guardian was wasn't taking good care of him.
And Red Son is not so cruel as to let a child starve.
Red Son started to walk out of the room, heading to the exit.
"You.. can put me down, I can, uh, walk." Kai said, huffing, while looking up at Red Son's face. He was lying a bit because his entire body was still sore from his injury earlier. He liked Red Son's hair colour as red is, of course, Kai's favourite colour. He thought it was dyed, though the hair colour looked like it perfectly belonged on Red Son, and upon closer inspection, which only involved Kai squinting his eyes a bit, it all seemed natural. The reasoning was that the roots of his hair were the same colour as the rest of it, but that wouldn't account for if he dyed it again recently. But whatever.
Red Son scoffed, "tt" { idk how 2 type da sound help }
He tightened his grip slightly, trying to make it clear that what Kai asked wasn't an option.
"Walk? Don't be ridiculous. Your legs are like noodles! And your overall skinniness is," Red Son wanted to say concerning but his pride influenced him, "pathetic, frankly. You would wobble around like some.. fawn trying to walk for the first time!"
He proudly raised his chin slightly as he walked out of the construction site.
"Besides, I, Red Son, heir of the Demon Bull family, genius inventor, and producer of fire, will not just set you down and watch you fall face first into concrete."
'Producer of fire? As in MASTER of fire? Do we share the same elemental power??? What.'
Red Son continued to speak. "-That would be a waste of my time."
Red Son headed towards the Flaming Foundry.