Chapter Text
“This was a bad idea!”
“You have any good ideas?”
“No.”
”Then keep going!”
“I could use a bit of back-up!” Nya’s voice crackled in their ears, Kai wincing as he dodged a swordfish to the side.
“Sorry sis! A bit preoccupied!” Kai regretfully shouted back, his sword sparking as he strained against grunt after grunt.
Things had looked good for them at first. They’d snuck in as planned, laid low in the echoing cave used as an underwater dock despite being so close to bubbling lava, and last long enough for the other Jay - Motormouth, rather - to hotwire one of the manta-jets.
And Kai hated it. Nevermind that it was not only underground but technically under the ocean, the mish-mashed space of stone, concrete, and metal threatening to echo every step and breath the three ninja took, Kai hated how static it was.
He shouldn’t have thought so. It was probably what jinxed their good luck in the first place - but it was so damn quiet and Kai’s skin was itching like nothing before. He felt like fire ants were biting and crawling under his skin, travelling through his limbs and forcing him to push away the urge to bite at his fingers until they cracked.
He needed to move. To do something that wasn’t just standing and watching while Motormouth yanked at coloured wires, uncaring of the blue sparks.
Of course, Kai knew this was important. They needed another way out if they wanted to get Rocky off the volcano, and Nya’s mech barely managed to squeeze two teams of ninja. And it was perfect timing on their end, moving in when most of Garmadon's goons were out for dinner, because of course they had a dinner time in between building weapons of mass destruction.
Logically, he knew they were all doing good. The plan was going well, and Kai couldn’t be any more proud of Lloyd for coming up with it.
But by the fucking First Master was Kai desperate to act. His anger was still burning in his chest, melding with the guilt and disgust that threatened to burn him alive when he and his friends got the message of Rocky getting kidnapped. Of their mentor, someone they were starting to consider as a friend, getting taken away before they had the chance to talk. Before Kai had the chance to apologise because he knew he was in the wrong.
He knew better than to run his mouth as much as he did, for letting his anger get the best of him. He was usually better at it. He had to be.
Growing up with Nya and taking on the role of taking care of the both of them - even if she didn’t realise it - made sure he had a hold of his temper. It was an ugly thing that did more harm than good, so he got good at avoiding it. At reading the signs of it sparking so he could step away. Noticing when an acrid smoke would fill his lungs before it escaped with whatever ugly words he had to say. Stamping down the start of an angry fire before he lost it because he couldn’t afford it.
They lived well. Better than most, he knew. But it didn’t change the fact that Kai took on the work needed to make sure his twin wouldn’t have to worry. Sure, they shared the burden and she was always better than him at handling the big stuff. Second in command of the team, succeeding in every subject and club she was a part of, a prodigy who learned and succeeded at everything from sheer stubbornness alone.
But Kai took care of the little things. He made sure they ate more than just take out and ice-cream. He kept in contact with their parents to at least pretend they were still a family even if their parents were spending more time working out of town than at the dinner table. He handled the kind of stuff he knew his sister didn’t have the patience for - like dealing with the annoying lady next door who never trained her dog, hiding bills when they came in before his sister could see, and checking emails that would normally go to their parents.
He got real good at being in control. Working backstage to support the rest of his team. Comfort, distractions, jokes, charm - he had it handled.
Not once did he ever let his anger out on anyone. He hadn’t let himself in years. Not when the city was against his friend for existing, and the other mountain of issues everyone else had. His stuff couldn’t compare in the slightest, so he focused on them.
Made sure to act fine because it was. He was fine to be the jokester of the group. He wouldn’t be a liability.
Then Rocky came along and things shifted.
He was butting heads with his sister more often.
He was following behind his friends as they all trained under the stranger-turned-teacher.
He was fighting - actually fighting - with Nya for the first time in months when they got the news that their parents were flying back in a few weeks.
He was stamping down the burning urge to say something that wasn’t his to say more often than usual.
He wasn’t being turned to or relied on as much because there was someone else there to handle things - to take on the hard conversations that usually fell to him.
Kai was starting to think he could trust Rocky.
Trust him not to lie. Not to promise to come by next month only to push it to sometime next winter instead. Not to hide secrets that they ought to know but didn’t because they weren’t ‘serious’ or ‘mature’ enough.
Trust him enough to accept the changes happening and maybe, maybe, Kai could let go a bit. Let himself feel angry and honest for once without everything falling apart.
Then he did. And things didn’t fall apart. They burned.
He knew it wasn’t his fault. He knew that the reason for everything that happened was Garma-fuck and whatever otherworldly bullshit got Rocky displaced and their luck going down the drain.
That didn’t stop Kai though. That didn’t even come to mind until long after when Kai was simmering in his seat, still sweaty from the battle and trying to ignore the group chat until Pixal was alerting everyone of what she saw.
The fire he felt so vindicated to turn against Rocky was now turning onto him, threatening to cook him alive if he didn’t get it out somehow.
Except they were on a stealth mission.
A very important mission that required them being quiet and still and remembering every ounce of training Rocky and Master Wu drilled into them for training. Hell, he was even pulling from Morro’s terrible teachings to keep quiet and try to distract himself enough with keeping watch to not punch something.
Keeping a steady breath. Moving on the balls of his feet. Keeping track of every exit in case they needed a plan B. Pushing everything aside for later.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.
His skin was burning, he was flushed with a shame he’d have to address later despite feeling it at full capacity. He felt it back at the warehouse where they were suddenly faced with the other counterparts that they recognised from Rocky’s phone. He felt it back when they were getting geared up and ready, when his friends were giving him looks and whispering to each other as if he didn’t notice. He felt it in the tight, claustrophobic space of Nya’s mech where he was squeezed between friends in a tense and somehow awkward silence he desperately wanted out of.
But no. Now, he was forced to stay quiet and hidden and not punch Motormouth into hurrying up so they could at least get into the jets sooner. A part of him wished that him finishing would somehow make the mission go faster.
Or maybe he’d mess up something and Kai could fight something.
Of course, Jay - no matter the universe - was a tech wiz and was happily humming a quiet tune under his mask as he touched wires together and reached in up to his elbow to rummage around without a worry about getting electrocuted somehow.
Unfortunately, Kai’s quiet and selfish thinking was granted when across the cavern, the oversized metal doors slid open with a hiss to let a small group of aquatic-themed grunts through.
They didn’t get a chance to duck behind cover before the grunts were staring at the three ninja crowded around a manta-jet with wide eyes.
Kai stared back, and he knew that Zane was too beside him. Other-Jay was either being purposefully obtuse or actually not noticing as he continued to mess with the jet.
“Uhm… Motormouth,” Zane began slowly, unmoving as he remained in the unblinking staring match with the grunts.
“Okay, I know that you guys chose that for me, but could we, I don’t know, not keep using that as my code name. I mean, there are tons of other things to use. Something more thematic, y’know? Like, maybe lightning? Or Blue? But I guess that was already taken by the little guy here… oh! What about Wisp? I mean, if that rock head can call himself after his dragon, so can I right? It’s definitely better than Motormouth--”
Interrupting his rambling, Zane just put a glove hand atop the elders hand and turned it just enough to make Other-Jay follow. And when he did, twisting around to actually look behind him and see the group of enemies standing across the cave with a very clear view of them, he finally paused to at least blink in surprise.
“....Hi.”
Were it not for the sudden blaring of alarms overhead, Kai definitely would’ve at least smacked the back of the older blue ninja’s head. Hard.
Instead, the red light washing the cave in flashes of red accompanied by a loud, blaring siren that echoed throughout the chamber with a robotic voice speaking beside it had snapped everyone in the cave out of the awkward moment to unsheath weapons and glare.
“ATTENTION. ATTENTION. NINJA SPOTTED IN GARMADON TERRITORY. CODE GREEN. CODE GREEN. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THE NINJA ARE HERE. ATTENTION. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
Kai didn’t stand around to wait for the enemy soldiers to rush at them, sword unsheathed and adrenaline more than ready to burn through his veins. He charged forward, determined to keep them back just as much as he was selfishly grateful to finally do something with all of his energy.
Half of his mind was focused on making sure he was actually keeping people back as they bought Motormouth time, more fish and shark headed grunts flowing in through the open door by the minute. The other half was revelling in every clash and screech of metal.
“We need to buy Motormouth time!” Zane shouted, seeming to almost glide as he avoided sharp edges and fired shots of red light.
“Way ahead of you!” Kai responded, smiling with too many teeth despite the hood as he dove forward, shoving and pushing people back.
He felt his body sing as he ran and kicked and swung himself around through the growing crowd. Like he was finally breathing as he sweated through punches and jumps, leaning just far enough to feel blades swipe the air by his head before spinning to kick them back.
He didn’t think to look for anything else aside from his next closest target. For any more of the people who got them in this situation in the first place. The same people who helped terrorise a city again and again, making people lose homes and struggle to make ends meet with businesses destroyed and homes abandoned in piles of rubble.
The same people who made life so much harder than it had to be for Kai. For his friends.
They were the ones who made his parents have to leave so much.
They were the ones who made the world paint targets on his and his friends backs.
They were the ones who got to hurt people and destroy whatever they wanted just to leave a group of kids with the consequences. The hate, the beatings, the whispers and disgusted looks.
They were the ones who were always putting people in danger, Kai and the team especially.
“Oh, I really needed this!” He huffed, landing heavily on top of a fishbowl-grunts chest before moving to the next.
He didn’t really care if he swung his sword a little too wide. Didn’t care if he cut a little too deep into another’s leg or heard a muffled crunch as he used another as a launch pad.
He had a job, and he was far too happy to oblige.
Maybe he’ll regret it.
Actually, he knows he will.
He’ll regret not having the kind of control he always had that no one thought he could. Come tomorrow, he’ll lay awake in bed wondering if he was worthy of the uniform he wore and the trust he had. He’ll be too ashamed of his own recklessness and stupidity to look anyone in the eye until he could bury it all down and forget it and hope they can all move on.
That would all be tomorrow-Kai's problem, though.
Right now, the only problems he had was the itching persisting under his skin as the group only grew bigger and bigger.
He didn't know how much time had passed, only that when he knocked one guy down, two to four more took their place and Kai was running double time on fumes and anger.
“Motormouth, White, Red, how are things on your end?” He heard Lloyd shout in his ear, crackled from being so far underground.
He didn't pay attention to what was said next, trying to keep from getting his head lobbed off by a sharpened swordfish of all things.
It wasn’t until he was able to spin around that he realised just how far he’d gone, almost surrounded now from his tunnel-vision fighting.
And how far away he was from Zane and Other-Jay at the manta-jets.
Meanwhile Zane had managed to keep hold of a clear area, shurikens sparkling under the flashing white and red lights overhead.
For a second - barely a breath of time - Kai was frozen watching his friend. The way they deflected shots and swings with an inhuman, dare he say angelic ease. He looked right in his element as they threw shurikens and launched crates and cracked helmets to knock people back into each other. Not a single smudge of dirt or sweat on their white gi.
It made some of that itching pause for a split second - before he was forced back into reality by a sharp slash into his arm.
“Fucking shit fuck!” Kai shouted, that burning coming back with a vengeance as he spun around, glaring at the offending bastard harsh enough to make her nervously stumble back.
Her hesitation was all he needed to dart forward, body low as he spun to kick her into a crab-headed man coming from behind.
"Take that asshole!” He spat, hissing from the sting.
A glance down told him everything he needed to know, the red cloth of his sleeve darkening as his arm bled from the rough gash. The salty and stale air of the cave-garage certainly wasn’t helping.
“Red, on your left!” Zane called out, that blunt tone dialed up with worry.
Kai acted more on instinct than not, jumping away to avoid a hit to the side as one of Zane’s shurikens sped forward to knock the enemy aside.
It wasn’t long before Zane was standing beside him now, covering his back as Kai continued to fight, face flushed in embarrassment and anger as he did. Zane was slowly guiding the two of them back a bit closer to Motormouth, Kai only realising when Zane practically dragged him away from a laser blast to the leg.
“Sorry,” He grunted, switching his sword to his other hand. His arm was getting tired.
“Do not apologise,” Zane responded cooly, blue eyes focused forward, “Just try to avoid getting maimed while we’re here, please.”
The words were clipped and cold, and it hit Kai harder than Garmadon’s goons that Zane was upset at him.
Kai did nothing but nod. “Noted.”
He needed to cool it.
He knew better than what the others thought when it came to acting in the heat of the moment. Sometimes it helped, like with sports or when he’s in his mech, but he wasn’t angry or reckless -not enough to be enough of a liability that he had to be dragged back into place.
He had to focus. He will focus.
He’ll get all his anger out and whatever when he’s alone after this - like he usually did.
For now, he would focus on keeping people away from Zane and Other-Jay instead of jumping into the growing crowd.
Seriously, how were there so many people?! What kind of campaign did Garmadon run to convince people to join his side?
“Okay. Here’s the plan.” Lloyd was suddenly saying in his ear.
Meaning Kai checked out again and missed his team talking. Again.
He didn’t need to look to know Zane was eyeing him in disappointment. He could already imagine those perfectly thick eyebrows furrowing at him through the gap of their hood.
What the fuck was he doing? Now was not the fucking time!
“Motormouth, you get to the gate and shut it down. There must be a control panel or something you can short circuit! Red, White, cover him as much as you can!”
“Got it!”
Okay.
That he can do.
Nevermind the growing crowd and that the heat that was once pushing him forward was now fading away to give space for Kai’s mind to pick apart every bad outcome that could happen. They couldn’t go too far to the left because then they could get boxed in and cut off from their getaway vehicles, but they couldn't go too far right because that was where the water was and Kai didn’t fancy a swim.
So that just meant forward. Which meant fighting against the literal tide of enemies with a hope and a prayer that his bad arm wasn’t going to be any more of a pain than it literally was.
Suddenly, there was a heavy buzz of ozone flooding his senses, hair standing up on the back of his neck and a rush of energy rushing through him Kai didn’t know what to do with.
It was all the warning he had before a flash of blue was rushing past between him and Zane, a jolt of electricity making him jump with the solid pat to his shoulder as he watched Other-Jay run.
“Keep up!”
Kai’s brain was trying as he watched arcs of electricity surround Other-Jay’s body before shooting out to multiple grunts at a time in a crackling web. Just like that, a whole section of the crowd was down and Other-Jay was still moving, darting side to side with whirling nunchucks.
Kai never imagined he’d see Jay - any Jay - jumping into a fight with a spring in his step and an ease he didn’t think possible. It was like watching a fish in water, darting around with an unpredictability it was hard to track, but always coming back.
He was knocking people away with swinging nunchucks and bolts of electricity - how Other-Jay was able to shoot fucking lightning at people, Kai didn’t know how to even begin to think about it. The closest guess he had was the fact that he came from the same world Rocky did, which probably meant that the swirls of steam he saw on his supposed counterpart wasn’t a trick of the light--
“Are you coming or what?”
Other-Jay’s voice shouting over the angry mob and still blaring alarm was enough to make Kai, and surprisingly Zane, snap back to the present.
Right.
Mission.
He was on a mission.
And he had to help Other-Jay get to the otherside.
Though, by the way the man was somehow able to carve a path of his own towards the door, Kai wanted to think that the man had handled it. Clearly, he was doing a lot better than what Kai or Zane were.
Still, Kai couldn’t help but feel hopeful. Confident in their chances.
They could do this. They were ninja!
Of course, that was when Kai jinxed it. Again.
Kai and Zane had just joined back into the fray, a single nod to each other and forcing a sharp focus to drive away the dizziness and angry pain in his arm as they rushed forward, Kai on the left on account of his arm and Zane to the right.
They were making headway. People were getting knocked down, a couple even running out from the sight of three ninja - one suspiciously bigger than the regular Blue ninja was - and they were getting closer.
Kai was slashing his sword to strike metal and block barbed wire. Zane was throwing and catching spinning shurikens again and again, occasionally swapping positions with Kai to cover each other’s bases.
They were starting to get it. Starting to work a lot better together than they did at the start.
Lloyds plan was working as, slow going as it was, they slowly crawled closer to the damned gate - Other-Jay getting ready to jump forward to the small rectangle screen on the side.
Then another, broader woman with a sharkhead and dented old armour was stomping forward with a swinging chain.
A black, heavy chain with familiar cracks of a slowly pulsating gold. It skivved and shirked off the solid ground before it was launched forward with a heavy swing, the links clicking together as they suddenly slammed into Other-Jay’s body, launching him back.
“MOTORMOUTH!”
“Argh!” Other-Jay grunted, quickly rolling back onto his feet, “What the-- they have more?!”
“Apparently.” Kai huffed, glaring at the smirking woman.
As if they could relax, the crowd had taken a step back to give her room, grinning with too many teeth and jeering at the three across her.
“Oh these motherfuckers,” Kai growled, hand tightening around the hilt of his sword as he glared at the metal chain held aloft.
Vengestone.
Fucking Vengestone.
The same shit that was used against Rocky.
He saw what it did to Rocky - it drained him, made him slower and weaker in a way Kai never thought possible. It terrified him.
And if it really was, and considering the ominous feeling that made his body suddenly feel like moving through molasses, he was worried what it would do to Other-Jay.
He was already standing, but the blue ninja was watching with an almost confused brow. One hand didn’t stop spinning his nunchuck, fast enough it was just a blur, while his other hand put the other weapon away to move, flexing in and out of a fist experimentally as small arcs of electricity continued to crackle around knuckles and fingers.
“Weird,” Kai heard him mutter, voice a lot clearer through the earpieces. Watching the elder, Kai could see the cogs turning.
It was the same look his Jay had when encountered with a hard problem. One he knew was solvable, but difficult enough he needed to actually think through it. It was the same look he had whenever he was helping to upgrade their mechs if he wasn’t working on his own. A furrow of the brow, a wrinkle of the nose and pursing of soft lips as he chewed a pencil or hangnail.
Like a puzzle he was slowly putting together.
Suddenly, Jay-- Other-Jay was straightening up and speaking loud enough to carry across, “That’s vengestone, right?”
The grunt just smirked, a (definitely fake) gold tooth gleaming as she did, letting the heavy chain hit the ground with a loud and resounding clank.
“Sure is, ninja,” She sneered, “More than 150 pounds of ninja-breaking metal.”
“Uh huh, and it’s just vengestone? Not plated or anything?” Other-Jay asked next, head tilting as he eyed the metal.
Kai and Zane were looking at the man in confusion, and in Kai’s case at least, incredulousness.
“What are you doing?” Kai whisper-shouted, to which Other-Jay shrugged off to turn his attention to the woman.
In fairness, the woman shrugged, cocky and grating to Kai’s mind, “A bit extra to make it heavier. Better to beat you ninja with.”
While the crowd of enemies chuckled with her, Other-Jay just nodded, hand still flexing with warning flashes of blue and yellow lightning.
“So, it’s a mixed alloy then. With, say, iron? Maybe some copper?”
“What’s your point?” The woman grunted, irritation now clear with the stalling, “Scared of something breaking? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it hurts.”
Other-Jay, shockingly, didn’t react. The man just shrugged and took a casual step forward, hand raised enough to signal for Kai and Zane to wait. They did, crouching into a position easiest to move, Kai holding his sword ready despite the confusion.
What was this guy doing?
A glance to his white-clothed friend told him they didn’t know where this was going either.
Then Other-Jay was taking another step forward, the electricity running down and around his arm crackling bright enough to light him up in a violent blue glow.
“From what I heard, the vengestone here doesn’t work the same that I’m used to. It drains elemental power instead of just cancelling it out. And I’m guessing that its potency is probably altered because of the mixed metals.” Other-Jay began, taking another step forward.
Kai’s face furrowed in confusion from under his mask. Elemental power? What was he talking about?
He’d have to ask later with how violently that electricity was growing around Other-Jay, big enough for sparks to hit the ground in staggered lines, trying to reach the multiple sources of metal nearby. Seriously, how was this guy controlling that?
Beside him, Zane had taken a small step back and gently pulled Kai to do the same, much to the brunette's confusion.
“That means,” Other-Jay continued,sounding almost feral to Kai as he watched the man crouch low, “I still have time to fry you before it does its job.”