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It was quiet. Too quiet. Arin was sick of it. He lost his parents, lost his freedom, and doesn’t even have an elemental power to help them out of these cages.
He’d been working for Ras for a while when the ninja had run in to “save” him from Ras and his plan. They stopped the plan, of course, he might hate the ninja for not helping find his parents but he didn’t want them dead. All the good that did him. Ras saw his betrayal as treason and once he got ahold of Kai he had locked the two away as pawns to be held for ransom. Ras had left them locked up in a dungeon, cuffed inside some weird cage covered in glowing cracks. Kai told him it was called Vengestone and it kept his powers from being used.
Now they were both stuck. No thanks to him.
“Kid, you okay?” Arin glanced over to him at the other end of the cage. Kai sounded bad. Tired. Cold. Whatever you called half dying. Cinder was fighting him when he tried to stab him with a blade. Kai took the hit for him and got stuck with a wound that was pretty deep into his side. That combined with the fact that he couldn’t burn the wound closed with his powers left him bleeding all over the place. It made the cage smell metallic. Well… more metallic than it already was. “Kid?”
Arin curled tighter into his side of the cage. “I’m fine. You should go back to sleep or uh.. don’t? I don’t know how blood loss works.”
“Don’t. Brings up shock risk.”
“Ah, got it.”
It was so quiet. Too quiet. If only he didn’t- no it was too late for that either. He screwed up. He so massively screwed up.
He glanced up at Kai. “Why’d you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Take the blow? Stop Cinder? I betrayed you guys, you should’ve let him finish the job. Maybe I could’ve found my parents in the afterlife.” Kai was quiet for a while before he started laughing. Arin must’ve looked like a joke because when he turned to answer him Kai started laughing harder. “What’s so funny!? I’m serious! You shouldn’t have saved me!”
Kai smiled at him. A genuine one full of pain and some kind of fondness. “You’re part of the family. Wouldn’t want another ghost on the team.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t he tell you?” He wheezed, hard. “Cole died one time. Came back as a spirit. S-why he’s got that scar on his head and those orange powers in his hands.”
“Cole… died?”
“Yep. Wu told us about this thing called Airjitzu. Can still use it but it’s not that great for flying long distances. We found the scroll but lost Cole in the process. He came back after we defeated the bad guy.”
“Of course it was Wu. What isn’t his fault..”
“I know right?” Arin really must’ve looked like a joke because Kai started laughing again. “What? He’s nuts! Was super old, always cryptic, and hid everything he thought was unnecessary until the evil thing he hid was knocking at our door.”
“You… Don’t like Wu?” Kai was coughing again.
“Me?” It was all his fault. “Nah, guy really was crazy. If he wasn’t so strong I wouldn’a followed him in the first place. Just wanted my sister back.”
Arin gave Kai another glare. “I don’t get it. If you don’t like Wu why are you on his side?”
“M-not. Can’t stand the guy most days. I’m not on his side, I’m on Lloyds.”
“What’s the difference?” Arin relaxed against the bars. Kai was smiling and was staring blankly at the cage walls.
“Are you kidding? I lost my parents too, you know.” Arin went wide eyed. “Yep. Two twins of time went and took them when me and Nya were young. I basically raised her after that. I hated them for years. Thought they abandoned us for no reason. Left us and never looked back.”
“Did you find them?”
“Ha! I fought em! They helped make a giant snake army and almost destroyed Ninjago. Saw them for the first time in years and I almost burnt off my dad's head.” Arin could tell he wanted to laugh again but every time his stomach twitched his face scrunched up in pain. “Turns out they traded their lives for ours. Worked as slaves for the time twins so we wouldn’t be hurt. Wu knew the whole time.”
“That jerk!” Arin pulled against the bars and felt the pain shoot up his wrist. “Why didn’t he say anything if he knew the whole time?!”
“Truthfully? He thought they were dead. But more importantly I probably would’ve gone there to save them the moment I could.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“I would’ve died. I was young, probably younger than you. If he told me any earlier I would’ve been running into an early grave.”
Kai looked over to Arin. “So yeah, never told me a word. Found out myself and nearly died anyways. But that was a much better encounter than if I had tried that years earlier.”
“Do you still hate them?”
“No. Nya still doesn't know how to feel about them but I love them like I’m still a child. Wu? Kinda. But that’s only because he never told me why they left.”
“I still don’t see why you’re on his side.”
“I told you, I’m not on his side. There’s been more than one occasion where he’s been the biggest cause of some great evil trying to take over the world. Ever hear about Aspheera? I’m only telling you why I relate to the struggle of you wanting your parents so badly. Wu is my master, yes, but I'm not on his side. I would’ve never made it this far without Lloyd.”
“Why’s that?”
“When Zane died, I basically lost it. When Cole died and Lloyd was possessed, I was too useless to do anything for either of them. When Jay was left as the last one standing all those times in battle, I always found myself doing something stupid and regretting it later. When Nya died… she was merged with the sea.” He lifted up his hand and did the motions to summon his fire like he usually did. “The guy with fire powers doesn’t work well with the sea.” His flames didn’t appear. “But Lloyd… our Lloyd, I’ve never given up faith in him. I would lay down my life if it meant I could take even half the burden off his shoulders.” Kai was crying, Arin could feel the tears in his own eyes. “He never gives up. He fought for Ninjago, fought for his father, fought for us. And all of that only to prevent an evil that never stops coming for him. He’s like a brother to me Arin. And he believes in the good of people, even Wu.”
“Even me?”
“Even you? Oh please, what other green ninja do you think organized our attack in the first place?” Kai leaned back against the bars behind him and looked up towards the unseen sky. “So yeah, Wu is nuts. But he trained Lloyd, Lloyd loves him, and I love Lloyd like I love my sister and my team. I would follow him to the ends of the earth. The ends of the earth just always happen to be where Wu is.” He laughed again. One with warmth, longing, hope. “Hate on Wu as much as you’d like. I promise I’m not the only one who won’t judge.”
Arin wiped one of the stray tears on his suit. “You really believe Lloyd will save us?”
“No. I know he will. And once he finds the clue to where your family is, he’s gonna find them too.”
“Then… maybe being on your side isn’t that bad.”
It was quiet. But a good quiet.
“Did I ever tell you about the time Jay and Cole fought over who got to date Nya?”
“…no?”
“You wouldn’t believe it! These two seriously had a rocky relationship all because she took one of those phoney tests over ‘what ninja would you be a good match to!’ Games and got Cole instead of Jay!”
“Seriously!? That’s why they were so distant in the early days?”
“Seriously! Listen to this you wouldn’t believe it!” The cage wasn’t so quiet anymore and Arin still hated Wu for starting the merge.
But suddenly, Lloyd didn’t seem so bad anymore.