Kai's temper had always been short.

Whenever something would not go his way, his usual next step would always be to either yell at someone or punch something (he was not allowed to punch anyone anymore, so he'd often go for inanimate objects), or both depending on who was currently getting on his nerves.

There were a few exceptions to this, however. His parents, of course, and Nya, whose temper was even worse than his, he was convinced. He would never say it out loud, though, too afraid of being targeted by her inevitable wrath.

But other than his family, there was only one person he could never dare be angry at.

Skylor Chen, daughter of Master Chen, Master of Amber, bearer of Kai's heart.

Though he would never actually tell anyone.

Kai was a flirt, a charming young man who could get anyone he wanted with only a nod of his head and a blink of his eye. But when it came to Skylor, he managed to do all the wrong things. He didn't know how to stop. He didn't know how to act.

Skylor had him wrapped around her finger, even if she didn't know it, even when they hadn't had any contact for a while. A long while.

Kai cringed when he realized how long it had actually been since he'd last talked to her, asked her how she was and how things were going. He'd been too caught up being a dutiful ninja. Whenever one intense mission would come to an end, another one would begin, meaning he would barely have any time for himself and his personal life.

The downside of that was that he was not able to establish a healthy romantic relationship. With anyone for that matter.

But the upside was that Skylor was not constantly endangering herself, so she was safe in her noodle shop in Ninjago, away from the danger Kai would throw himself into. Well, only if the current threat would not try to conquer Ninjago, which was not a rare occurrence, really.

So Skylor was still in danger...ninety percent of the time.

In his head, Kai sometimes compared his nonexistent relationship with Skylor to his sister's relationship with Jay.

Nya and Jay had been together for as long as Kai could remember being a ninja. At first, it had looked like Jay would be a ninja and Nya would stay behind in the Bounty, safe and sound, but then, when it had been revealed Nya was Samurai X, everything had changed for the two. And after that, Nya had become an official ninja, so the couple went on many missions together to fight side by side.

Kai knew Nya and Jay's relationship had to be tough because they would constantly worry about each other. When one was physically injured during an altercation, the other was mentally injured. Because the other half of them was injured and all that jazz.

And as much as Kai liked Skylor, he didn't want her to fight by his side if it meant he would have to worry about her twenty-four seven.

But he couldn't help but envy his sister's relationship. She had her significant other by her side almost always. They trained together, fought side by side, spent so much time together in their free time (if they ever had any), even shared a goddamn bed when they were not out on a mission and could actually go back home.

Kai did not have that. Hell, he didn't even know how to properly talk to Skylor without making a fool of himself.

Pathetic, Kai called himself. So. Freaking. Pathetic.

— — — —

"You look rough, man."

Kai's tired but fierce eyes darted over to Cole, who was sitting on a bench and holding a bottle of Gatorade. The Earth Elemental's tank top—the one he had been gifted by Hailmar himself, since their body types somewhat looked similar—was covered in sweat.

"You look worse," Kai retorted, and it was true. Kai just finished his last set of push ups, whereas Cole was taking a short break from lifting heavy weights.

The two were the only ones occupying the Royal Palace's gym. It was reserved for the ninja for the time being; a rule set by Vania to express her gratitude for the bunch.

Kai stood up and lifted the hem of his shirt up to his face to wipe away the sweat, revealing his well defined abs in the process. "I still think we're wasting our time here, Cole," he said, letting go of the fabric and letting it flop back down.

Cole hummed, taking in what Kai said and thinking about a good way to answer. He himself had those thoughts as well, but he also understood the larger problem they were facing.

"I know. I agree with you." He placed the energy drink back down on the floor—a sure sign indicating he would start his next round of lifting weights soon. "But I also agree with your sister. The enemy has probably taken over Ninjago by now, and us going back down without any sort of help, training, or preparation is basically us saying, 'Hey, look at us! We are suicidal!'"

Kai sighed. "True, but I just feel so...useless when I'm not, you know, kicking evil-butt and threatening their firstborn. I need some action."

"Yeah, well, that action you're seeking can very well kill you, your friends, and your family, so..."

"Okay, okay, I get it." Kai held his hands in the air in mock defeat. "Good talk."

He grabbed his own energy drink and headed out of the gym, his mind set on finding the others and voicing his opinion to them instead. Lloyd, Misako, and Wu were with Vania, he assumed, talking about strategies and whatnot. The rest of the team was working on creating new mechs and vehicles, something Kai should probably participate in as well, seeing as any helping hand was needed. He was no engineer, but he knew a thing or two about bikes.

So he took a quick, ten-minute shower to get the sweat off of his body, changed into his recently washed, lavender-scented gi, and walked over to the underground area of the palace.

His brown eyes locked with his sister's, who was wiping her forehead with the back of her hand when he entered the shared space. She saw the look on his face, silently understanding he wanted to help, and nodded her head over to the far left, where she was currently working on an unfinished bike. He stepped closer to it and inspected what was already done.

"Looks nice." He nodded his head in approval before his eyes caught the integrated dashboard that was probably not plugged in yet. There was a small symbol carved into the bike right beneath the dashboard. A flame, almost the size of a walnut. "This is mine?"

"It's supposed to be. Yeah."

Kai knew his sister liked to label everything, including the team's mechs and bikes. Usually, whenever she would build something new in the monastery, she would have preprepared materials that were already carved with each ninja's logo, but now that she was in a different location, she apparently still felt the need to label Kai's bike as his and just took matters into her own hands.

It was refreshing to know some things stayed the same, even if the circumstances changed drastically.

"What can I do?" he asked her.

Nya handed him a silver toolbox and directed him over to the front wheel. "You can make sure it's attached correctly and secured. I didn't really pay much attention to that since I had a lot on my plate with the body of the bike. When you're done, you can do the same to the back wheel as well."

With only a nod, Kai went to work.

"This is getting tiring," Jay complained on the other side of the room. He was working on his own vehicle, a lightning bike. He would have wanted to build his own jet, like the many ones he'd owned before (and managed to destroy during missions), but that would require more time, more energy, and more recourses, all of which he did not have.

"I agree," Kai responded, which earned him a slap over the head from his sister. "Ow!" He rubbed over the not-so-sore spot, just to make it look like his sister hurt him a lot.

"You shut up, Kai," Nya retorted. "You just started working. You've got no right to complain here."

"Yeah!" Jay grabbed a water bottle and doused his face with some cold, refreshing water. "Nya and I have been working for, like, six hours."

"And I've been working out for, like, six hours." Kai stood up and turned to Jay. "And I'm sure you and Nya made out more than work!" It was an empty accusation, one that Kai threw around from time to time just to get on his sister's nerves.

"No!"

"Only once!"

Jay and Nya looked at each other. Kai looked at the both of them. Nya looked like she wanted to skin her Yin alive for giving away that very personal information. To her brother.

She turned to Kai for clarification. "Okay, we may have kissed, yeah, but only one time, and that, before we even began to work. So no, we didn't get distracted throughout."

"I don't want to hear anything about your kissing schedule, my God." Kai pulled a face. "You're my sister, I love and so far and so forth, but I do not need to know anything about your love life." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Great, now I have some images in my head I can't get rid of."

"You better get rid of them quickly before she gets rid of you," Jay joked, but then cowered when Nya directed her gaze to him.

"You're not off the hook, mister," she warned.

"I know, ma'am," Jay assured.

"And you." Nya turned to Kai, her finger pointing at him accusingly. "Either work like a normal person or get out of here."

"I'll get out."

Kai handed her the screwdriver he'd picked out of the toolbox and scurried away, leaving her stunned figure holding the tool like a tool herself behind. Jay's laughter followed him out.

To be completely honest, Kai never really had any real intentions of working on a bike; he just wanted to seem helpful. He was feeling bad about barely doing anything, yes, but did he want to change that by helping his sister build a bike? No.

Maybe Lloyd and Wu need some assisting.

With that idea in mind, Kai walked up to the highest point of the palace, the Queen's quarters. Kai knew her bedroom and personal office were located there, as well as the room where their most priced possessions were highly protected. He could remember Cole bringing the Storm Amulet there for its protection, only to find out it was a fake all along.

Kai smiled fondly.

Good times.

"Is there any way we can send someone down to gauge the state of Ninjago?" Lloyd's voice lured Kai further into the depths of the palace until he came across ten flying guards standing in front of a set of double doors.

He nodded at them all, a cheeky smile on his face, and felt an immense sense of pride when they all stepped aside and let him inside. Being one of the Queen's good friends from the good ol' times had lots of benefits that only managed to grow Kai's ego exponentially.

"Hello, fam. What are we planning?"

Lloyd, Misako, Wu, Vania, and Hailmar, who were all slouched over a table and discussing their next moves animatedly, stopped talking and all lifted their eyes to look at Kai at the same time.

"Kai," Wu greeted, then stepped to the side to give him some space to look at all the documents lying on the table. "Come. Have a look."

"What's the first thing we gotta do?"

"We have to get the civilians out," Lloyd answered, his tone strict, set.

"So Ninjago's entire population?" Kai raised his eyebrows. "How do you plan on doing that?"

Misako sighed. "Not the entire population, only the people who are in acute danger."

"So the entire population." When Wu opened his mouth, Kai shook his head. "I mean it. The big majority of Ninjago's population lives and works in Ninjago City. There's a reason why it's many villains' favorite conquering spot."

Lloyd closed his eyes shut, knowing Kai was right. For once. "The underground tunnels the Serpentine created should be empty since they all moved back to their own place, wherever that is. Maybe we can evacuate the city and bring them there."

Vania looked skeptical. "I don't think you'll be able to evacuate an entire city without drawing attention to yourselves. The enemy will use that against you."

"And what about recourses? Where can we safely get food for thousands of people? And water? And sleeping quarters? How long would this last for?" Kai threw out the obvious concerns. "Your idea is smart, Lloyd, but basically impossible to accomplish properly."

"Kai's right," Wu said after a long pause. "If we cannot evacuate the civilians, we will need to tackle this problem head on."

"We are not going to tackle six—I repeat, six—villains at the same time, uncle. One, maybe. Two, barely but still manageable. But anything past three is an instant no." Lloyd shook his head.

"I'm with Lloyd on this one," Kai said. "There's no way we can win against Aspheera, Vangelis, Mr. E, the Mechanic, the Overlord, and flippin' Harumi."

"And they have the Golden Weapons," Lloyd added.

"And truckloads of vengestone."

"All right, all right," Wu gave in, his hand back on his beard to stroke it. It didn't calm him down like it usually did. "We will not tackle them head on. But then what else is there for us to do? We are outnumbered."

Lloyd gasped. "The Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu!"

Wu's eyes expanded in size. "Yes!"

"What?" Hailmar asked.

"The Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu," Lloyd repeated. "We had to use it to drain Nya's powers, and Aspheera used it against us later on. Now that she has the Sword of Fire..." He locked eyes with Kai, who smiled just as brightly.

"...She no longer uses the scroll, meaning she stashed it somewhere and we could get it!" Kai grinned at Lloyd.

"That could be our ticket out of this mess," Misako noted, nodding. "How do we get it?"

"We don't know where it is," Wu said.

"We'll figure it out," Lloyd promised. "Once we get the scroll, we can banish them all and save our home."

Kai frowned. "Banish? But...what if they try to do something to the people we met in the Never Realm? We can't endanger them."

"I didn't think of that..."

Kai glanced down at the papers on the table, at the many ideas that were marked as undoable and crossed out in red streaks. He looked at the world map of Ninjago and let his eyes wander over every known piece of land he'd already stepped foot on.

Ninjago City, the heart of his home realm and the place where lots of people found themselves. They lived there, worked there, created and uplifted the environment, made a difference for the better. That place was built on pure innovation and love.

Jamanakai, a small village located in the south. Kai had been there a few times before, and he would not actually want to voice it out loud, but the very first time he'd met Lloyd was when he'd wanted to "conquer the world" there, and that memory held a lot of weight on his shoulders.

Ignacia. Kai and Nya's home town. He had grown up there and raised his sister there, known every person in his neighborhood. And not to mention—his parents now lived there and continued their own lives working in their blacksmith's shop Four Weapons.

There was a lot at stake. On a personal level and an objective one.

There were too many people in danger, and what the ninja were to do next mattered a lot, more than it had in the past.

Their end goal mattered.

Their lives mattered.

"This may sound radical," Kai began, almost carefully, "but I think it's best to keep Ninjago safe by getting rid of the enemy once and for all. Once we win, we should take care of them well enough to ensure they won't ever come back."

A/N: Yeah, this story will take darker turns later on. This is your official warning for darker scenes later on in the book. And hold on to your boots, because the next chapter is an intense one.