#dont tempt me with s5 content

[lloydskywalkers]

I've been wanting to ask you this for a while, how do you think Kai and Nya handled that they couldn't just go and rescue Lloyd in s5? Also I'm in love with your writing! You write these three beautifully! Have a nice day!

Oh, thank you so much!! :D and aHA you have hit on my weakness, I have two answers for you:

Short answer: I think they handled it terribly, we actually get to see Kai having a nightmare and for Ninjago that’s a lot! Very Concerned Siblings.

Long answer: I rewatched this scene and realized something about Nya so. Fic, aha. 

Kai doesn’t even think of running.

He knows he’s out of his depth, he knows he hardly stands a chance without his powers, he knows he doesn’t know who he’s even up against—

But it doesn’t occur to him to flee. Not as Sensei calls the retreat, not as his brothers break for the ship and leave him alone, not as Nya screams for him to run. He doesn’t listen to her, because he can’t. Kai can’t run, because if he runs, he’s leaving Lloyd.

I failed you once, Kai thinks as he grapples with his brother, Lloyd’s skin unnaturally cold under Kai’s hands, his golden hair dyed black, his eyes cold and empty. Lloyd’s body writhes against his hold, clawing at his arms, but Kai’s grip doesn’t loosen. I won’t fail you again.

A screech of fury tears from Lloyd’s mouth, harsh and grating and wrong, and he lashes out at Kai so viciously he almost loses his grip. Instead, Kai grits his teeth and pulls his own leg up, before sending his heel into the back of Lloyd’s ankle, the one he knows is weak. Lloyd’s leg buckles as his ankle rolls, and Kai tightens an arm around him in what could be an embrace, if whatever had Lloyd in its grasp wasn’t forcing cold words from his lips.

“I know you’re in there, Lloyd,” Kai says hotly, refusing to budge. “Fight him, I know you can, c’mon Lloyd—“

Lloyd’s body spasms in his hold, bucking against him as a horrible choking sound tears itself from his lips. For a terrifying second, Kai thinks whatever’s invaded his mind is killing him — but then Lloyd goes still, slumping bonelessly in his hold.

“Kai?”

The words are mangled, terribly strained and off-tone, as if forced through two voices at once, but they’re so obviously Lloyd’s that Kai falters.

“Lloyd!”

“Kai, help me—“

Kai’s stomach drops. He’s heard Lloyd scared before, plenty of times. He’s heard him despairing, broken down in tears. But he’s never heard this level of gut-wrenching terror—

I won’t leave you, is on Kai’s lips, a reassurance, a promise. I’m going to save you, I won’t abandon you, I won’t—

Something snags him from the back before he can open his mouth, and Kai’s words strangle into a cry as he’s torn from Lloyd, the ground fading away as he’s lifted higher and higher. Below him he can see Lloyd’s body collapsing, fists bracing in the dirt as he grows smaller and smaller the further Kai’s taken.

“No!” he cries, pulling at the anchor he’s caught on, as if it’ll obey him. “No, go back! Go back, I saw Lloyd!”

Cole calls out to him, but all Kai hears is the no in his words. His vision blurs into red, and he roars at him, desperation leaking into his voice even as fury threatens to choke him.

“Go back!”

They don’t listen to him. Not his brothers, not his Sensei, Lloyd’s uncle — they’re all set to flee, faces drawn and white as they leave Lloyd behind. Kai wants to scream at them, even as they haul him onto the ship deck. How could they, how can they leave, they made the same promise as him, is it not tearing them apart like it is him—

Nya’s voice echoes in panic from the control room, and Kai’s head whips around. He shoves past the others, racing for her before anyone can call at him to stop.

Nya, he thinks, in dizzying relief. Nya understands, Nya will get it, Nya will listen to him.

“Nya,” he gasps, as he stumbles into the control room. “Nya, Lloyd’s still down there, we have to go back for him.”

Nya doesn’t look at him. Something in Kai’s stomach twists, and he suddenly feels cold.

“Nya?”

She shakes her head. “Kai, we—“

The ship lurches, and they’re both thrown from their feet, tumbling against each other and screaming as the ship tilts backwards, dragged by some unseen force. Kai’s hand seizes Nya’s before she can fall any further, his other hand catching the edge of a panel and jerking them to a painful halt. The abused muscles in Kai’s arm scream in pain, but it barely registers among the blaring panic in his head, the desperate need to get to Lloyd.

He shifts his grasp on Nya’s hand, their knuckles both bone-white as they cling to each other. Biting his lip, Kai strains, his shoulder burning as he hauls Nya’s deadweight up, throwing her forward with the last of his strength, until she stumbles far enough to grasp the ship’s wheel, grabbing hold of it as the ship jerks wildly. Kai breathes a sigh of relief. Nya’s in control now — Nya can bring the ship around, Nya can save Lloyd—

Her fingers shake as they hover over the controls, and Kai’s stomach turns. The wind outside howls violently as it rages against them, matching the tempo of Kai’s pulse. She shouldn’t be hesitating, not now, not with Lloyd on the line, why could she possibly—

She throws the lever forward. The ship roars, wood shrieking and engines screaming as they blast forward, tearing free of the wind and rocketing into the night sky, leaving the monastery far behind.

Kai stares at his sister, his chest hollow even as his mind screams Lloyd’s name over and over at him.

“How could you,” is all he can whisper at her, his hands cold.

Nya’s lip trembles. Her eyes, bright in the flashing lights of the cabin, don’t meet his.  

******************

Nya is the first to run for the ship, back at the monastery when everything went to pieces, and that knowledge is going to burn right through her skull and out her head.

But it can’t, because they’re already down one of their family, and if they’re going to get him back, Nya needs her head.

If she can just convince her hands of that.

Her hands shake even after they’ve left the wrecked ship for solid ground, leftover adrenaline refusing to leave her system. She focuses on that, on the steady tremble that runs through her, on the even voice of Sensei Wu. She focuses on the ground beneath her feet, on each pacing step. She’s calm, she’s rational, she’s in control, just like a ninja.

Kai is not.

Kai won’t even look at her.

“They decided. We’re not going after him,” Kai bites out, fury barely simmering beneath the surface as he stalks away from the others. Nya hadn’t joined them, unable to face them knowing the gaping absence—

“What?” Nya rasps, his words sinking in. “What, no, we have to — we have to move now, we have to get him back!”

Kai’s eyes turn on her sharply, then flick away. Nya’s breath falters.

“We could’ve.” The words sizzle from his mouth like burning coals. “We could’ve turned around. Back there, we could’ve.”

Nya looks down, and her eyes sting. “I know,” she bites out, but her voice wavers. “I know I failed him, Kai, you don’t have to—“

“Then why did you leave him?” Kai snaps, whirling on her. His eyes are hot, burning and bloodshot, and Nya’s heart stutters.

“I had to,” she gets out. “I had to, Kai, we weren’t — we weren’t going to win that, you know we weren’t, Lloyd would’ve—“

“Lloyd would never have left you behind!” Kai hisses at her.

Nya recoils, flinching back. He may as well have slapped her in the face, though she knows that’s not his intent.

“I know,” she whispers, her eyes welling up. “I know, Kai.”

She knows, she knows too well Lloyd would never leave her. Lloyd, her best friend, her baby brother with his big heart and his honest sincerity — Lloyd, twisted and warped and mangled, everything she loves about him drowned out in those cold eyes—

Nya drops, sitting hard on the ground as she plasters her hands over her eyes. You failed him, you failed him, you failed him, beats through her chest like a drum, loud and painful where it rings all the way up to her ears.

You lost him, hovers at the edge of her mind, along with a sense of nausea so strong, Nya fears it will make her sick if she lets it in.

Kai gives a sharp, broken breath, and Nya hears the thud as he sits next to her, as if his limbs have failed him. He exhales, long and tired.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs, his voice hollow. “I just. I made a promise.”

Nya’s eyes burn. So did she. Lloyd is hers, her brother, hers to protect, and she left him. Just like his mother, just like his father, just like her own parents—

“I’m so sorry, Kai,” she whispers, her voice trembling.

Kai’s breath hitches, and his hand snakes out to hold hers tightly. She clutches back at the offering, the words unspoken.

“We’ll get him back,” he finally says, and his words are smoldering, burning white-hot from his throat. “We’ll get him back, and we’ll make him pay.”

Nya doesn’t doubt him. Elemental power or not, Kai is fire itself.

He’ll burn half the world down to get his brother back, one way or another.