Archive of Our Own ^beta

Kai Smith doesn't remember his dreams. His life is exciting enough as is, so his dreams end up being just a tumble of craziness that vanishes from his mind the moment he wakes up.

But this one... This one he remembers.

The room he sees is in shades of white and grey. The bed he's laying in is soft and warm and the sheets feel real against his skin. There's a smell of antiseptic in the air and a periodic beeping that makes him restless. He hates heart monitors, they remind him of hospitals, and those either mean he's about to be forced through a lengthy check-up, or that someone is seriously hurt.

But what really marks the dream memorable is something else; A sound so quiet it's almost lost in the beeping, but still stabs straight into Kai's soul.

Sobbing.

Looking around is hard, and even as he does, he doesn't quite feel like he's moving his head. When he finally sees the source of the sound, his heart drops.

A boy, looking incredibly small and fragile, is collapsed against the side of his bed, face buried in the sheets as he cries. A mop of blond hair stands out starkly against the bright green of his clothes.

"Pl-please..." he chokes out between sobs, "please come back... I'm... I'm s-sorry... Please..."

Kai doesn't want the boy to cry. In fact, he hates seeing him cry. It makes his own throat tight and his eyes water. He goes to reach out to comfort him when a stabbing pain erupts in his head and he jolts awake.

He flails for a bit, quickly getting tangled in his sheets, as loud rock music bounces around his skull.

It takes him a few seconds longer than it should to realise that it's his alarm.

He finally manages to grab his phone from the nightstand and clumsily swipes the alarm away, breathing a sigh of relief at the regained silence. For a moment, he sits still, recounting his dream and trying to figure out why it left such a sour taste in his mouth.

His phone snaps him out of it when it chimes with an incoming message. Kai stares at the password screen for a good two minutes, perfectly confused, before finally remembering the correct pattern and unlocking it.

The message turns out to be from his coach, informing them that practice today is cancelled due to high risk of a Garmadon attack.

Wait, Garmadon attack?

...Right, yeah, those happen. Kai knows that. He's one of the people who stop them.

Speaking of, there's also some new messages in their group chat, the latest of which is from Lloyd. Kai feels a strange stab of panic at seeing his name, like he subconsciously expected him to be hurt.

It's probably just that weird dream he had. The boy by his bed was wearing green, after all, just like Lloyd likes to.

Brushing off his strange confusion, Kai vaults off the bed and searches around for his dresser for a bit. He feels strangely lost in his room, almost as if someone came in during the night and moved everything around. And why is he expecting to find his gi in the dresser? He can't wear that in public!

'Must've hit my head yesterday or something,' he thinks as he throws on his favourite red jacket and pants and heads for the door.

Nya emerges out of her room at the same moment as him, eyes half-closed and hair resembling a crow's nest. She looks just as disoriented as he's feeling.

They greet each other with identical grunts and head for the kitchen, but as soon as they enter, they both freeze.

A woman in a blue dress is standing by the stove, humming happily as she prepares strangely pale pancakes.

"Good morning, my loves!" Maya sing-songs when she notices them enter. "Sit, breakfast is almost ready!"

Kai isn't sure why he's so surprised to see her there. Why would his mother not be home? She never went to the blacksmith shop before she could see them off.

Nya seems similarly surprised as him, but she quickly rolls with it and just collapses into one of the chairs, hand raking through her hair in an effort to tame it a little. It's this that reminds Kai he hasn't done his own hair yet and he immediately dashes to the bathroom.

All thoughts about his strange morning are chased out of his head when he hears Maya add, "I'm sure you're going to love these, Nya. Seaweed pancakes have always been my favourite." and he runs a little faster.

When he returns almost thirty minutes later with perfectly gelled hair, Nya is looking several shades greener, a half-finished plate of pale pancakes sitting in front of her. A full plate is waiting for him in the other seat and Kai genuinely considers just jumping out the window.

"Come on, Kai, If you hurry up, you can still eat before you have to go," Maya says, still with the same happy smile.

Kai tilts his head, deliberately slowly approaching his chair.

"Go? Go where?"

Maya laughs, and the sound for whatever reason makes Kai feel nostalgic.

"To school, silly. The attack forecast might be high, but the school is sturdier than our apartment, so that's no excuse."

Kai pauses and then gasps when a score of information suddenly floods his brain. Yes, he goes to school. Yes, the bus will be in front of their house in five minutes. And yes, he hasn't done his homework.

"We have to go!" the siblings blurt out in unison and bolt towards the door.

"At least let me pack the pancakes for you," Maya calls after them.

"No time! See you after school, Mom. Love you!" Kai calls back while pulling on his shoes.

They really do have to go, he's not just trying to escape his mother's creative cooking, nuh-uh.

...

They miss the bus, though Kai swears the driver saw them running and yet still drove off. They stand at the bus stop for a moment, unsure what to do, when Nya suddenly lights up.

"We can just go on my bike!"

Kai raises an eyebrow.

"We are not cycling to school, Nya. We wouldn't even fit on a single bike."

"Not that kind of bike, dummy. On my motorcycle!"

"You have a motorcycle?" Kai asks in disbelief.

Nya hesitates, but only for a moment.

"Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure I do. Hold on, I'll go check."

Kai watches his sister vanish in the apartment building again and can't help but laugh. He's glad to see her so carefree again. For the longest time, he could see that she was still being haunted by her fight with... with...

Who was Nya fighting again? Some school bully? One of Garmadon's soldiers?

The thought slips away from him as Nya comes back out, victoriously waving a pair of keys.

...

The ride to school leaves Kai with a few new grey hairs (figuratively, he hopes). He's not used to riding as a passenger on smaller vehicles anymore... which is a strange thought, considering he doesn't have his driver's license and never drove one as the driver.

Nya, on the other hand, enjoys it so much she even takes the bike inside the school and then drives off through the hallways, saying she wants to try it out more. Kai is left alone to search for his locker, which he can't for the life of him remember the location of.

He doesn't feel right in this school. The hallways are too narrow and the students too loud and numerous, making it hard to keep an eye out for danger. The thought of mingling or preparing for class feels wrong to him. He'd much rather stand watch to make sure everyone is safe.

As he wanders, he ends up near the exit again, and that's where he overhears his first piece of the riveting student rumour mill.

"Ugh, did you hear? Today is Garmadork's birthday," one of a group of cheerleaders groans, and the others immediately roll their eyes.

"Yeah, I heard," a boy with brown hair says. Then an evil grin spreads across his face. "Hey, maybe he'll give us all a gift and leave the city. Would be the only good thing he'd do in his life."

The group laughs as they walk away, leaving Kai standing confused in the middle of the hallway.

Leave the city? Garmadork? Were... were they calling Lloyd that? But why? The boy had done nothing to-

No, wait, that's right! Lloyd's birthday! That must be why he was feeling so strange all day; He forgot his best friend's birthday!

...Right?

Before he can think about it too hard, the door opens and a hush falls over the hallway. Kai turns to see Lloyd and Zane entering, the former with his shoulders hiked up nearly all the way to his ears.

Kai immediately jumps over to greet them, crushing Lloyd in a hug. Zane quickly joins in and Kai can't help but think that his friend is acting strangely... robotic.

Once they finally release Lloyd from the embrace, he leads them to their lockers where they find Cole and Jay. Kai is caught off-guard by how quiet and reserved the two of them are, but he does his best to hide it.

It must have been a really long weekend if he's forgotten what his best friends are like.

Then Nya comes speeding around the corner, and once they're all standing together, he feels a little bit better than he had till then.

...

When the Garmalarm sounds, Kai's first instinct is to run straight outside, fire blazing. He doesn't do it only because Lloyd leads them all to the lockers and through them into the warehouse, and he remembers that, oh yeah, he fights with a giant robot. That's how he's always been fighting. He knows that, totally.

Garmadon's soldiers are weird and he makes a passing comment about expecting them to be snakes rather than fish. The comms go quiet for a second before Lloyd, his tone clipped, announces he's found Garmadon.

It gets a bit emotional from the green ninja's side, but they win.

They return to the warehouse just in time to see Master Wu return. The old man scolds them for 'not being ninja enough' and then tells them about their powers.

Kai, strangely enough, doesn't feel that excited or even surprised at the burst of fire. Really, he's fighting the urge to say some form of "Well, duh." because he's kind of just had that knowledge in the back of his mind the whole time.

Lloyd is revealed to be the element of green, and Kai's not sure if he wants to poke fun at his friend or call Wu out for bullshit. Because it certainly feels like that, even though he doesn't know why, but that seems to be the theme today.

After some more back and forth, Wu takes Lloyd aside for 'mentor talk' and the rest of them are left to practice Spinjitzu.

Kai's body feels stiff as he moves through the motions, like he's forcing it to do something that lacks an integral part of it. It's not that he doesn't want to do the training - well, not only that - the way he's doing it just feels decidedly wrong. Like someone saw Spinjitzu and this was how they imagined one should train for it.

After what feels like an eternity and is realistically only about ten minutes, he finally asks, "Hey, do you guys feel like there's something we're missing here?"

The other ninja pause in their movements, sharing uncertain looks.

"Actually... yeah, it does feel like that," Cole admits.

"Yeah, shouldn't there be some weights, or a-a training course or something?" Nya says, looking around as if one was supposed to just pop out when she mentioned it.

"My perfectly normal human teenager memory does not recall anything like that being mentioned in Master Wu's lesson," Zane chirps in that disturbingly cheerful tone that for some reason makes Kai's hairs stand up on ends.

But the ice ninja is right. Wu never mentioned a training course.

"Huh... maybe it's just something that he'll show us after we unlock our powers," Kai muses, even though just saying the words feels like he's telling a lie.

At the mention of their powers, Nya practically lights up.

"Just how cool is it that we have superpowers?! Imagine all the things we could do. I could stop Garmadon's goons before they even get to shore!" she raves, already moving her hands around in fluid motions.

"I swear I've had dreams about us with powers before..." Jay mumbles and then yelps and hides in his scarf when Kai turns to stare at him.

Before he can question the lightning ninja, Wu comes back, and since they don't want him to overhear their complains and increase their training time, conversation quickly drifts to that day's math class instead. Kai is almost glad for it, because thinking about the weirdness of that day is making his head hurt.

Besides, there's no actual reason for him to worry.

Everything is fine.

Within 24 hours, everything goes wrong.

Garmadon wins, the city gets taken over, and there is a giant cat demon destroying it now.

And it's almost entirely Lloyd's fault.

Kai isn't sure how to process that.

As they rush away from the docks, conversation about Meowthra winding down, the fire ninja, still quite upset with Lloyd, goes to remark that the boy is going back to his troublemaking younger years.

But then he stops himself because that isn't true.

Lloyd has been an angel his whole life. Koko made sure to raise him as such so that any rumours going around about him would have no solid foundation.

So why was Kai momentarily so convinced it was otherwise?

...

So, they're apparently stuck travelling with Garmadon now. Great. Awesome. No way that could end badly.

What Kai really want to know is why it gives him déjà vu.

Wait, did someone just say 'skeleton graveyard'?

...

Why are there half-burnt people in the skeleton graveyard?

...

They left Lloyd behind?!

That's... That's... Fucking no! That's wrong! Kai's the green ninja's protector, that's his destiny, for crying out loud! He would never willingly leave Lloyd behind!

So why did he?

...

It's not really the content of the movies Zane shows them at 500x speed that helps, it's the buzz of sped-up punches and shouts and the general sounds of battle that awaken something within Kai. It's like another case of his weird déjà vus, but with muscles. Somehow.

He welcomes it without questions, because all that matters at that moment is saving Lloyd.

And they do save him (and Garmadon), and there is so much happening that Kai forgets to return to being confused and weirded out.

...

Grabbing his piece from the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon, Kai feels something distinctly right about the heat that flares up his arm, through his body, and straight to his core. He vaguely registers the others reacting in the same way, excitement overshadowing the strange undertones of confusion in their eyes.

And then Lloyd pulls his piece out, revealing a single, unnaturally large leaf. His face becomes a mix of surprise, disappointment, and quickly suppressed anger, but he hurriedly pulls on a smile, congratulating all of them.

Kai pats him on the back, makes some joke about him being all green, and squashes the returning feeling of utter wrongness the word raises in his gut.

...

Garmadon betrays them, because of course he does. They do unlock their powers, though, thanks to the power of song and a collapsing building, which, like way too many things currently in Kai's life, feels wrong in a very fundamental way. But he has no time to dwell on it, because they have a city to save and a power-hungry warlord trying to beat them to it.

Wu comes back, which hits Kai with the umpteenth case of déjà vu that day, and thanks to the Bounty, they make it back in the nick of time and do indeed end up saving the day. Well, Lloyd does... with giant cat demon therapy... somehow.

Kai is so desensitised by then that he just doesn't care.

People are cheering for them, celebrating them, and it feels amazing. He sees his parents in the crowd, so he rushes towards them, tearing off his mask in the process without a second thought. There's more gasps, an angry shout from Nya, and the look of utter shock on his parents' faces, but Kai ignores all of it and crushes them both in a hug.

His efforts get rewarded with an immediate lecture from mainly his mother, which only worsens when Nya also reveals herself. Apparently, as the older brother - "By four minutes!" Nya screams indignantly - he was never supposed to allow her to do this.

He braves the lecture easily and with a smile, because despite their concern, he can see the growing approval in his father's expression, and the undertones of reluctant respect in his mother's.

He glimpses the other ninja also reveal their identities and reunite with their own families; Cole carefully hugging his mother with his father at his side, Jay surrounded by both sets of his parents, Zane trying to look sheepish as his father reprimands him for not sharing the truth with him earlier.

Kai smiles.

Screw these weird gut feelings, his brain is telling him one thing and it's simple.

Everything is perfect.

He has that dream again and he's fairly certain that's not supposed to be part of his happily-ever-after.

The boy in green isn't crying this time, instead, he's sitting at the side of his bed motionlessly, clutching a bright red ninja mask in his hands. He's looking down at Kai, and even though his face is blurry and unclear, Kai can feel the hollowness of his eyes, and the complete hopelessness emanating from him.

It makes him feel sick and agitated. He wants nothing more than to take away whatever is troubling the boy.

He tries talking to him, but his words make no sound. He tries reaching out to him, but can't move.

Before he can think of anything else, his alarm wakes him up again.

Despite the dream, Kai tries to go on with his life, which continues to be perfect in every other way. Sure, his parents worry about him being a ninja, but without Garmadon, all he and his team really do is bust bank robberies and other small crimes.

School gets a lot easier without everyone out to get 'the dork squad', as does just going about their lives in the city. People often come up to them for selfies and autographs, but the publicity never gets to the level where it would be uncomfortable.

That's for some reason the main thing that doesn't make sense to Kai. He just has this nagging feeling that fans are usually much wilder - like, chasing-people-to-the-roof-of-a-hospital wild.

More and more things feel strange to him, even as he ignores them. Eventually, he can't go an hour without feeling confused or just plain wrong about one thing or another.

And all the while, the boy in green keeps appearing in his dreams, and each time, Kai wakes up a little more unnerved.

He doesn't really know why he picks up the photo album, it just calls to him. Simply pulling it out of the shelf summons his mother in full sentimentality mode, and ten minutes later, the entire Smith family is huddled on the couch, going through photos old and new.

Kai is having fun. He enjoys teasing Nya about her baby pictures and shrieking indignantly when she does the same to him.

That is, until they reach a particular set of pictures that cause him to freeze.

"Oh, and that," Maya laughs, tracing one of the photos where eight-year-old Kai looks about ready to run into a bubbling pool of lava, "that's from our visit to the mainland. We went to the Golden Peaks just as one of the volcanoes there woke up. I'd never seen you so excited before that, Kai, do you remember?"

And Kai wants to remember, he really does, because it feels like he should remember this. It sounds like the perfect vacation for a Master of Fire and should have definitely left an impression no matter how much time passed.

And he finds that, if he would simply not think about it too hard, he could tack the experience onto the vague images of light and heat in the back of his mind and move on.

But he does think about it, and he knows that's wrong.

The only memories he has about a volcano are accented with fear and frustration, not happiness, and they're filled with the terrified voice of a child calling out to him for help.

The family moves on to other pictures, not noticing Kai's sudden mood shift. He tries to move past it, tries to keep laughing, but he starts noticing more and more photos that feel wrong.

He doesn't understand how Nya can have long hair in a ponytail in one of her elementary school photos when he knows she only ever tolerated bobs until they were much older. He doesn't understand how he could have his scar in the adjacent photo when he knows he only got it after becoming a ninja. He doesn't understand how his parents can be smiling happily with them in the photo from their middle school graduation when at that time they should still be-

There's a flaring pain behind his eyes now and he quickly excuses himself, nearly sprinting to his room and locking the door.

He sits on his bed, hands shaking, stomach lurching with the utter feeling of wrong. The stabbing pain in his head increases, but it can't turn him away from sorting through his memories.

They don't feel right.

How come he can't clearly remember anything beyond that first night he had a dream about the boy in green? Why is his life filled with vague, generic memories of school, sports, and video games that he instinctively knows are wrong despite the pain pushing him away from the thought?

He thinks about it long and hard, even tries to meditate, something that the pain in his head tells him he never had a reason to learn, yet he somehow knows perfectly how to do.

After twenty minutes, some things start feeling right again. Among the fog and pain, he recalls blurry images of snakes, golden weapons, creeping shadows, rising oceans, and ominously glowing crystals. There's sounds of crying and laughter, the din of fighting and the calm of peace. Long stairs that lead to the clouds. A cobbled courtyard and shoji walls that truly feel like home.

Kai feels as though answers are fluttering just out of reach when a knock sounds on the door alongside Maya's voice.

"Kai? It's time for dinner, come out of there."

The images slip out of Kai's grasp and he's left in the dark again. He slumps in his cross-legged position and rubs his eyes with a sigh.

He's not the right person for this.

Once again, he defaults to the thinking of a ninja, not a teenager, even as the pain pushes him to let it go. Rather than wondering whether he got stoned at a party or injured during practice, he wonders whether he fell into a trap of some sort and got captured. Could a villain be messing up his memories or trapping him somewhere that's actively trying to overwrite who he is?

But who would want to trap him? The ninjas' only enemy was Garmadon… wasn't he?

Kai is not the right person for this.

The pain is still pressing on him.

But he needs to know more.

"Hey, Nya?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you... do you remember what we were doing last summer? Lloyd was asking."

That's a lie, but it makes his words feel real.

Nya looks up from her phone and frowns slightly, eyebrows knitting together in that same way they do whenever she's thinking hard about something.

"Huh, I actually can't remember," she says after a moment. "Why don't you ask Mom or Dad? I'm sure they'll know."

"Yeah, good idea. I'll do that."

He won't.

He knows Nya's always had an immaculate memory, second only to Zane. The fact that she can't remember confirms it. There's something wrong and he can no longer ignore it, even if he has to constantly fight against the pain and pressure on his mind.

But there's not much he can do alone, and he has no idea what and, more importantly, who is and isn't part of whatever is happening to him.

Who can he really trust?

As he peeks at his sister, once again mechanically scrolling over her phone, Kai feels incredibly alone.

"Do you guys ever feel like things are... too perfect?"

It's a passing question, one that Jay doesn't really expect an actual answer to, judging by his tone, but it immediately grabs Kai's attention.

The team is in the warehouse, just lazing around, having done all their training and homework already. Meowthra is sprawled out in the space that would have once been taken up by their mechs, soaking up the sunlight coming through the skylight and purring slightly.

Lloyd, who's lounging against the cat's belly, tenses at Jay's question.

"What do you mean?" Kai asks when no one else speaks.

Jay chews on his bottom lip and fumbles nervously with the tattered end of his scarf, but still manages to squeeze out an impressive amount of words without his usual stutter.

"Well... you know. It feels strange that everything is so perfect. Our families, our classmates, everyone in the city, really, they all love us. There's no big villains, but just enough smaller crimes to keep us entertained. I never as much as get a bad grade on a test! It just feels kinda... artificial?"

As Jay speaks, Kai gradually sits up straighter, because his friend is articulating everything that's been bothering him for the past two weeks. Could this be a sign that this really was his Jay, or just a trap?

Before he can think up a question to test it, Lloyd speaks up in a strangely forceful way. "That's ridiculous. How can things be too perfect? Would you rather we go back to fighting Garmadon every day? To the city hating us? Hating me?"

"That's not what he meant, Lloyd," Kai interrupts, more harshly than he intended. He feels strangely defensive like never before during his friends' bickering. "Haven't you noticed feeling anything strange? A blurriness in your memories? A pain whenever you try to think too hard about things?"

"No, I haven't, because there's nothing to notice!" Lloyd says resolutely, eyes glued to Meowthra's fur. The giant cat stops purring and one of her eyes opens, looking straight at Kai.

"Is there nothing to notice, or are you just deluding yourself into ignoring it? Because what I've been noticing is pretty hard to write off as imagination," Kai grits out.

Lloyd shoots to his feet and Kai follows. He thinks he sees a strange light in his friend's eyes and has to stop himself from reaching for a weapon.

"Shut up! There's nothing wrong! You- you don't know anything, you're just deluding yourself into seeing problems where there are none!"

"You're the one who's-"

"Stop fighting!"

The shout is so loud and commanding that it takes them a moment to realise it was Jay's.

"Please stop," the boy continues, voice quickly falling back to the usual volume. "Th-thanks for defending me, Kai, but... Lloyd's p-probably right. Just... forget I said anything."

An awkward silence settles over them. Kai glares at Lloyd, who shrinks back under his gaze. The fire ninja searches for something else to say, anything to make his friends understand what he's going through.

He comes up short.

With a growl, he gathers himself up and marches towards the door. Nya seems like she wants to follow but he shakes his head at her. He needs to be alone right now.

As he leaves, Cole has a thoughtful look that's also hidden beneath Zane's ever-present cheer. Jay is burrowed into his scarf, eyes misty. Lloyd is clenching his fists and refuses to meet Kai's eyes.

Outside, there's storm clouds hanging overhead that weren't there before. Kai feels like he's being watched the whole way home.

The pain gets worse over the following days, more consistent, too. Voices start blaming him for tearing the team apart over nothing.

Kai still doesn't act or decide on anything until the night that his window is suddenly torn open. He jumps to his feet, groggy from having almost fallen asleep by then, and tries to get ready to fight off the intruder.

He relaxes when he sees it's Cole, then tenses again when he notices the blood practically flooding down the earth ninja's forehead.

"Cole, what the fu-!"

His friend cuts him off, grasping his shoulders and getting mere millimetres from his face, eyes wide.

"It's all wrong! Jay was right, Kai! You were right! It's all wrong!"

"What? What are you talking about? A-and why do you have a blood fountain in your head?!"

Cole pauses and reaches up to his forehead, blinking at his hand when it comes away bloody.

"Oh, that's bleeding a lot more than I thought. I went out patrolling to clear my head and fell off a roof. But now it all makes sense!"

"You what?!"

Kai steps away, eyes darting over Cole's face. He looks different, much more alert than before.

"You... Since when do you ever willingly patrol alone? And I've never seen you fall off anywhere, you're, like, the personification of balance! And where are your headphones? You take those everywhere!"

Cole snorts a little.

"Do I really?"

"Of course you-" Kai cuts himself off, because no, when he really thinks about it, those ever-present headphones feel weirdly new and wrong. He doesn't want to bring it up though, not after what happened at the warehouse.

The pain returns again, so sharp that it feels like his skull will split open. With a hiss, he sits back on his bed, cradling his head.

Cole kneels down in front of him, concern in his eyes.

"You were right," he repeats, quieter this time. "When that fall knocked me out, I saw this weird hospital room and I felt... I felt real. Something weird is happening to us, and we need to figure out what."

Kai makes a nondescript sound and squeezes his eyes shut. He wants Cole to keep talking, to reaffirm that he's not going crazy, but at the same time, his words are making the pain unbearable.

With a sigh, Cole lays a hand on his shoulder.

"Kai, do you trust me?"

Kai squints up at him.

Of course he trusts Cole.

But is this really Cole?

"...I do."

Cole smiles tightly.

"Good. Then trust me."

Before Kai can get confused, Cole drags him up and into a headlock. Kai gasps as his airway is all at once cut off. He instinctively starts fighting back, but Cole's arms are like solid rock.

The earth ninja is shaking, but his grip holds firm. When he speaks, his voice is strained.

"Trust me, Kai. I won't hurt you. I would never hurt any of my brothers."

Brothers.

The word cuts straight through the pain and panic in Kai's mind. The way Cole says it is warm and familiar, and brings a sense of safety and calm.

Almost automatically, Kai stops fighting. His fire, which was just about to spill from his hands, reluctantly retreats back to his core.

'I must really be going mad,' he thinks just before his vision goes dark.

...

He's back in the white and grey room again and he feels... different. Like he's more there. More real.

Like it's not a dream.

He tries to look around, to figure out where he is or maybe get control of his body which feels so weak. But something is fighting against him, practically dragging his mind away.

The ever-present beeping turns into a wail, multiplied by a dozen other alarms. People in white and light blue flood the room, their shouting mixing with the beeping as they crowd around his bed. Machines are handled and syringes are filled with various liquids and injected into him, but Kai's attention is elsewhere.

The boy in green isn't where he always sits. He's standing to the side, likely having been dragged there by the person in white who's currently hugging him, gently preventing him from running to Kai.

Kai can see his face clearer now, though still not enough to recognise him. All he knows is that the boy is crying and his mouth is moving with words that beg for him not to go.

But he can't stay. Whatever that force dragging him is, it won't allow him to, and before long, the room blurs together and vanishes.

...

When he opens his eyes again, he's back in his room, laying on his bed. His head feels much clearer than before and the pain is dulled to a persistent but distant throb.

Cole is hovering anxiously over him, blood dripping from his forehead onto Kai's face.

"Would you get that treated before you bleed out," Kai growls as he pushes himself upright.

Cole sags in relief and helps him up.

"First Master, that was terrifying. Are you okay? Did you see it?"

Kai harrumphs and stops his hand from ghosting over his sore neck. Cole looks guilty enough as is.

"You mean the weird hospital room that I've been dreaming about for like a month? Yeah, I saw it. And I'm okay - no thanks to you - just even more confused than before."

A wide smile splits Cole's face and he squeezes Kai's hand so much it hurts.

"Oh, thank the First Master! I knew I wasn't crazy! Wait, you've been dreaming about this for how long?"

Kai waves his hand dismissively, trying to put his thoughts in order.

"Doesn't matter. We need to figure out what's going on. Not being crazy is a good start, but do you have any idea where we are? What happened to us?"

Cole wilts slightly and his smile turns sheepish.

"Well, uh... no. I kind of just woke up after taking that fall and ran straight here. I was hoping you'd know something, because of all that stuff you said in the warehouse."

Kai shakes his head and goes to dig around his dresser for something that he can use to wrap Cole's wound.

"All I know is that if we want even a chance at figuring out what's going on, we need Zane and the others."

"Great, let's grab Nya and then we can go over to-"

"No! No, you saw how Lloyd reacted to just talking about something being wrong. There's no telling if the others are even real and not part of whatever this is, and even if they aren't, they're probably affected by the same confusion we were. No, we need to go about this carefully, try to figure them out without drawing attention to ourselves."

Cole looks less than enthusiastic about that approach, but with a sigh, he nods.

"If you say so. Then what do we do?"

Kai thinks about it for a bit until he finally finds a shirt that's clean and flexible enough to use for wrapping a wound.

"Leave Nya to me. You start figuring Zane and Jay out. Jay at least might actually listen."

"So you have a plan?"

"...I'll think of something."

He ends up pushing Nya down the stairs.

Not the whole way, of course! He doesn't want to kill or injure her! But he just can't think of any other way and this whole ordeal is sort of getting on his sanity by now. So he waits until she's on the last two steps, then pretends to trip and crashes into her.

They both tumble down and Nya hits her head pretty hard on the wall opposite the stairs. She might have a mild concussion from that and Kai feels terrible.

Once Nya rises from her brief bout of unconsciousness, she whirls on him, eyes unfocused, and is already opening her mouth to yell at him when she suddenly stops. Kai tries not to allow himself too much hope as his sister slowly looks around, hand going to the growing bump on her head.

She finally looks back at him and her eyes have a new look of alertness in them.

"Kai... what the hell is going on?"

Kai huffs out a laugh and helps her to her feet.

"Damn if I know, little sister."

She puffs out her cheeks at being called little but hugs back when he embraces her. With Nya back at his side, Kai feels like he can breathe a bit easier.

'One down, three to go.'

Zane is the first they meet in school the next day and therefore becomes their next victim potential ally. Approaching him is simpler in one way and far more complicated in all others.

They try carefully questioning him, enough to give hints but not raise suspicion, and fail magnificently.

After just two questions, Zane's eyes narrow and he suddenly points out something behind them. Kai turns around to look and is yet again knocked out. He later questions his trust in the other ninja when he wakes up tied to Nya and Cole in a locked janitor's closet, with Zane sitting cross-legged across from them, hands on his knees.

For the next hour, the ice ninja basically interrogates them, asking things that they can't really answer because of the fogginess in their memories.

It isn't until Kai loses what's left of his patience and blows up on him, calling him things that he himself isn't entirely sure the meaning or origin of - Tincan and Bolts-for-brains sure are some weird insults, but it makes sense when he finally remembers that Zane is a nindroid - that Zane's expression softens into relief.

"Apologies," he says as he cuts them loose, "I have only recently become aware that the world around us is not the real world. I was not sure whether you were real or simply more illusions sent to trick me."

"Well, neither were we, but we didn't hit you over the head," Nya grumbles as she rubs her sore wrists.

Kai and Cole look at each other and try not to laugh.

Zane proceeds to tell them that what's trapping them is likely some sort of an illusion, which he justifies with a jumble of science words that Nya is the only one of the three to sort of understand. With his suspicions confirmed, Kai asks whether Zane has any idea how to get them out. Unfortunately, he knows only about as much as they do on that front.

In the end, Zane agrees that they should first gather everyone before making a plan and together with Cole starts thinking up questions to ask Jay that won't get them tied up again.

Kai is relieved that the nindroid is acting like, well, a nindroid again, without all that animated cheer and insistence on normalcy.

Thanks in part to Zane, pulling Jay over turns out to be much easier.

Cole and Zane approach him Thursday after lunch, and after barely stopping the former from 'accidentally' thwacking the boy over the head with a lunch tray to get the job done, they find out that the lightning ninja is not only real but has held onto his suspicion that something is wrong.

He's not entirely sure what though, and the headaches that plagued Kai affect him too. They end up bringing him to the warehouse where the group shares their own suspicions with him before Cole gently knocks him out.

As they wait for him to wake up, Kai feels a different sort of doubt set in.

"Should we really be doing this?" he asks quietly, staring at his hands.

Zane shrugs. "It is a bit extreme, but loss of consciousness seems to be the only way to-"

"I don't mean that. Should we really be trying to break out of this illusion? We're all here together and our lives are basically perfect. What if we're here intentionally? What if we're trying to look for problems in a good thing?" he says, only then realising he's in fact repeating Lloyd's words from the warehouse.

Has what his little brother said been bothering him without him realising, or are these simply his inner doubts finally surfacing?

It's true that his 'real' memories are barely there, but putting those foggy images together with his gut feeling and the simple rule of you-will-get-screwed-over that the ninja seem to be cursed with, he can guess what their potential reality is.

Here, he and Nya have and always have had their parents. Cole's mother might be sick, but she and Lou both love their son and have a strong bond with him. Jay has not one, but two sets of parents who both look after him. Dr. Julien is as perfect of a father to Zane as one can be. And Lloyd, although his life was until recently not that great, also has a loving family now.

Kai's words make Cole and Nya pause, but not Zane. The nindroid turns to Kai, perfectly calm, his blue eyes shining with sympathy.

"So you would rather stay here?" he asks, but not in an unkind way. "This perfection is only illusory, Kai, and its strangeness is what alerted you to it being a trick. It might seem fulfilling now, but it will soon become just an empty shell. And I do not think the people waiting for us would be happy without you, especially the boy in green."

That finally makes Kai look up.

None of the others have dreams like his. Cole says food tastes strange to him and his knowledge of music feels like it's not really his, like someone is putting the information in his brain in real time. Nya confesses to having the same feeling whenever she co-leads the team or repaints her bike. Jay is always anxious, but says it feels like that feeling is forced onto him, like he'd rather blabber about all his ideas, but someone put a shell around him to prevent it.

All of them sleep badly, but none of the others have had the same dreams as Kai... or so he thought.

Within a few sentences, Zane reveals to have also seen the boy in green several times, though not nearly as often as Kai. There's others who visit; a man in white robes and a girl with silver hair who makes Zane's heart hurt, but he can never see their faces.

They don't get to discuss it much more before Jay suddenly shoots upright with a shout of, "Holy shit!" and then goes off on a rant that has apparently been building up for the past month.

They start answering his barrage of questions, and Kai doesn't mention his doubt again. With the pain and pressure around his mind mostly subdued, processing his thoughts is easier, and he quickly realises that Zane is right. He is more than willing to abandon this paper-thin illusion to stop the boy in green from crying.

He just needs to gather all of his siblings first.

As if to spite them, Lloyd leaves with Wu and Garmadon to the Temple of Fragile Foundation for the weekend, so they have to wait for him to return. In the meantime, Zane tells them to keep an eye out for anyone acting strange, since he suspects the six ninja aren't the only ones in the illusion. There's likely someone keeping an eye on them, perhaps even the originator of the illusion themselves, and getting to them is their best chance at breaking free.

Nya is sure that it's Garmadon because, "Evil is best hidden with way more ridiculous evil." Jay and Cole think that it's Wu, saying that the old master is already cryptic enough and his strange obsession with the flute cannot be otherwise explained. Zane is convinced that their enemy is hiding among the civilians, since that would be the most logical way to complicate their search for them.

Kai has his own theory that he doesn't say out loud.

With that, the ninja part for the weekend.

Kai spends most of the time in his parents' smithy shop, which is closed while his father repairs his tools. Kai knows he should probably enjoy this utopian life while he can, but being in the house with his parents just hurts too much.

He sometimes sees Nya drive past the shop on her motorcycle. She checks up on him, he checks up on her, and they separate again. The other ninja are also quiet, making peace with their own demons.

Kai feels comfortable in the forge. His memories from there are the only ones beside his ninja life that feel right. It gives him the peace and safety he needs to finally think through all his theories and consider all his options.

It's around noon on Sunday when the door opens and Ray walks in. He's no longer surprised to find Kai slumped against the hearth, having almost tripped over him several times in the past two days.

"Soaking in the heat?" he asks with a small smile.

"Hmm."

Kai avoids looking at his father as he walks around.

Yes, his memories of the forge feel right. His father being in them doesn't.

Ray's footsteps pause and Kai can feel him looking at him. Then, to the fire ninja's horror, he walks over and sits with him.

"What's gotten you down, son?"

Kai's fingers ball tighter around his pants and he doesn't answer. Ray sighs.

"Kai, you know can talk to me... Please talk to me?"

Kai peeks at Ray.

He knows he should be wary of him since he is almost definitely just part of the illusion... but does that have to make him an enemy?

"There's this... this bad guy me and the others are trying to find," he finally says, carefully choosing his words. "He's pretty elusive. We think he might be hiding somewhere close, but we don't know where. And if we do find him, it'll mean that things will change. A lot."

A flash of concern appears on Ray's face but he schools it into a playful smirk.

"You're still putting yourself in danger?"

"That's the duty of a ninja."

Ray laughs, the sound strained.

"Since when did you start speaking so nobly, huh?"

Kai can't even force a laugh and Ray's smile falls. They sit in silence until Kai forces himself to speak again.

"Dad... do you want me to stop being a ninja?"

Ray looks genuinely caught off-guard by that question. He blinks a couple times and seems to mull it over.

Watching the familiar furrow of his eyebrows, Kai wonders for a moment whether some parts of the illusion are reconstructed from the ninjas' own memories. It's an equal parts disturbing and calming thought for him.

Finally, voice soft, Ray says, "Kai, I'm your father. I worry about you and Nya when you stay out past dinner, let alone when I know you're out there facing off evil. I'd rather you had a million other hobbies than being a ninja... But this is the life you've chosen, and I know I've raised you to make it the best life you can. So no, I don't want you to stop being a ninja. I want you to remember that your mother and I love you no matter what, and that we only want you to do what makes you happy."

Kai swallows back tears and pulls on a smile, even though it hurts. He doesn't really do it intentionally, but he suddenly finds himself squeezing Ray in a hug.

"Thanks, Dad... That helps," he mumbles into the man's clothes. They smell of metal and smoke, just like he remembers.

"Good to know I haven't lost all my dad skills," Ray jokes lightly as he hugs back.

They sit like that until Kai is ready to let go. Ray then gets up and finishes gathering the tools he needs before heading for the door. Just before he walks out, he pauses and looks back.

"Kai, I don't know anything about being a ninja or this enemy you're facing, but I know that you'll find him. Just remember what Wu taught you, and maybe a bit of what you learned here. Who knows, maybe just like the smithing tools you can't find, you'll eventually find this guy right where you least expect him-"

"Below the forge," father and son finish in unison, and Ray beams at Kai's first genuine smile.

Once the door closes behind Ray, Kai leans back against the forge and sighs.

"Yeah... Unfortunately, I think you're right, Dad."

Monday comes a bit too fast for Kai's taste.

He goes numbly through the motions, not really paying attention to anything, which gets him scolded during class at least two times. Once classes are finished, he goes straight to the locker chutes to get to the warehouse, ignoring the many teenagers cheering or asking what kind of mission he was about to go on. He gets there first, though Zane and Nya follow less than two minutes later. Lloyd arrives together with Cole and Jay, already excitedly talking about his weekend with his father and uncle.

Kai can't help a small frown at seeing the boy, while Lloyd is very clearly avoiding his gaze. The two never really made up or even saw each other for long after their fight.

It takes a while for Lloyd to finish recounting his weekend to the ninja. None of them have the heart to stop him, but judging by his nervous fidgeting, the boy is starting to realise that something is wrong regardless.

"Well, anyways, that was my weekend," he finishes with a small shrug. "So, what have you guys been doing?"

The ninja share looks, silently prompting one another to speak first.

"We have been... talking," Zane says slowly. Lloyd tilts his head in confusion. "Lloyd... have you really not noticed anything strange? About your father, or Wu, or... us?"

The emotions that cross Lloyd's face are for the most part too complex and jumbled to discern, but annoyance is still prominent among them.

"This again? Come on, guys, we've talked about this."

"You're right, we have," Cole interrupts, "and we don't just think something's wrong anymore, we know."

Jay nods feverishly, no longer able to keep up the meek image he'd been putting up the whole day. His enthusiasm visibly startles Lloyd.

"Yeah, and we've seen it, too! There's this whole weird hospital room where you wake up, but you get dragged right back here. Zane says it's some kind of illusion or something, isn't that cool? We can show you, too! We'll just knock you out - safely, of course - and you'll see it. I, uh, I know it sounds like some weird cult thing, but I promise-"

"Stop! Just stop!" Lloyd shouts, hands flying up to cover his ears.

The other ninja look at each other worriedly. Lloyd is taking the news even worse than they expected. Could the illusion have a stronger hold on him than the others?

"Lloyd, we know this perfect life is alluring," Zane says, smiling sadly. "Kai was hesitating too, a few of us were, but in the end, we have agreed that we cannot let an illusion, no matter how perfect, take us away from our reality."

Lloyd doesn't answer and his eyes remain glued to the floor. Nya hesitantly reaches over to place a hand on his shoulder.

"We have to find a way back, Lloyd," she says softly.

Kai watches the exchange silently, arms crossed over his chest. He barely feels any need to go comfort the boy he considers a younger brother, even as he grows visibly pale and starts shaking.

Kai's suspicions grow stronger.

Lloyd finally looks up and Kai swears the same light from their last confrontation flashes in his eyes. It makes him twice as uneasy as back then.

"And what if I don't want to leave?" he says quietly.

The other ninja freeze and Nya flinches back as if she got burned. Lloyd stands still, fists clenched, head lowered.

"Say that this really is... an illusion," he squeezes out. "What if I don't want to go back to whatever life I might have in the 'real world'? Would you just leave me behind?"

There's another moment of stunned silence before Jay chuckles nervously. "C'mon, Lloyd, don't be ridiculous. You would willingly live out your life in an illusion when you don't even know what your real life is like?"

Lloyd looks the lightning ninja dead in the eyes. Kai, who's standing behind Jay, feels all his muscles tense. It's as though an enemy is sizing his brother up and he does not like it in the slightest.

"For an illusion as perfect as this? Yeah, I guess I would. There's no one waiting for me out there."

"You don't know that, Lloyd-"

"I really thought you guys would understand... But I guess you'll just leave me behind like everyone else, huh?" Lloyd says coldly.

The ninja stare at him, horrified.

"Lloyd... don't do this. Please, don't make us choose," Nya whispers, voice breaking.

Lloyd ignores her, instead turning his large green eyes to Kai.

In a small voice he asks, "Will you abandon me, Kai?"

Kai clenches his hands around his belt. His jaw is set and his eyes refuse to move from a spot somewhere over Lloyd's left shoulder.

"I would never abandon my little brother," he says.

Lloyd's face brightens while the other four share a concerned look. Kai couldn't be considering staying behind again, right?

Still looking a bit hesitant, Lloyd moves forward and pulls Kai into a hug. Kai's face twists with an unreadable emotion as he fights an inner war with himself. He has his theory, but there's only one way to confirm it, and he would rather do anything other than that for the horrifying chance that he's wrong.

His muscles tighten and he shifts his arms...

But he doesn't return the hug.

There's a quiet sound of ripping fabric. Something warm spills on Kai's stomach. Lloyd gasps and pushes him away, stumbling back. His eyes go down to where one of Kai's throwing knives is embedded in his abdomen.

For a moment, it feels like time has stopped.

Then there's an explosion of noise and movement as the other ninja all start shouting and rush to Lloyd. Cole and Jay are panicking, arguing over whether to take the knife out while Zane tries to take control. Nya is frozen in place, eyes flying between her older and younger brother, absolute shock on her face.

Someone probably demands Kai explain himself because now everyone is glaring at him.

Kai, his face emotionless, is looking only at the boy he just stabbed.

"I would never abandon Lloyd," he repeats, voice cold. "But you're not Lloyd."

He says it with a certainty that he's been lacking in everything he's done for the past month.

The blond boy's face twists into surprise and then immense hurt, but it does nothing to move Kai.

The thing is, he knows Lloyd. He's the one who can always tell from just the way he stands whether he's hiding an injury, he can spot how hungry he is in the way he wrings his hands, and he can tell even from his smallest grimace when he's afraid, or angry, or hurt.

And the face this teenager makes is not Lloyd's.

Kai's vision cracks, like a glass pane under intense sun, and then the warehouse, his friends' shocked faces, and the boy all shatter into a million small pieces.

Everything is gone.

Kai is sure now; it sucks to remember dreams. If he didn't remember what he just went through, he wouldn't be afraid of opening his eyes, unsure whether he was about to wake up in a psych ward for stabbing Lloyd or finally returned to whatever reality he had been torn away from.

Though, technically speaking, in neither of those cases would it have been a dream.

'No use delaying the inevitable,' he thinks before prying his eyelids open.

The room he sees is in shades of white and grey. The bed he's laying in is soft and warm and the sheets feel real against his skin. There's a smell of antiseptic in the air and a periodic beeping that makes him restless. He hates heart monitors, they remind him of hospitals, and those usually mean-

...Wow, he might actually become allergic to déjà vu after all this.

He feels weak and his body is numb. There's wires attached to his arms and more running beneath the hospital gown he's wearing to his chest. Machines beep evenly and the monitors they're attached to display his vital functions.

Moving his head is hard, but it's the only things that's important right now. He needs to see him.

The boy in green is in the same spot as always, head laid on his arms. An occasional lone sob shakes his shoulders.

Kai smiles, overwhelming relief stifling whatever uncertainty was left.

"Don't tell me Pixal let you sit there this whole time."

His voice is raspy from being unused for who knows how long, and talking almost makes him break into a coughing fit. The boy tenses and then his head shoots up.

His eyes are red and puffy and there are countless tear streaks on his cheeks, dried into dark lines. His skin is too pale, his hair is a tangled mess, and he looks like he hasn't eaten properly in days.

Kai still recognises him instantly.

"Kai?" Lloyd asks, voice small and cracked.

Kai smiles, ignoring the stinging in his eyes. "Hey there, Greenbean."

A harsh sob wrenches its way out of Lloyd's lips before he throws himself at Kai, hugging him with force that someone who looks so exhausted definitely shouldn't have. Kai can barely lift his arms - his muscles feel like jelly - but he still does his best to hug back.

"Y-you're awake... y-you ca-came back..." Lloyd sobs into his hospital gown.

"Yeah... took some effort, but I'm back, Lloyd. I'm back," Kai says, his own voice breaking.

He holds his little brother close, whispering soothing words and clumsily brushing through his hair as the boy cries into his shoulder. His fingers get stuck on many small knots and find dried spots of what is almost definitely blood. He'll have to ask... but not now.

Soon, there's more shuffling in the room, sleepy mumbling and moaning, and the other heart monitors that Kai hadn't even registered till then also start to beep faster. Kai only then notices five other beds lining the room, one of them empty and clearly unused.

The other ninja slowly pull themselves up in the rest of the beds. Four pairs of bleary, panicked eyes searching the room, and only calm down once they see Lloyd safe and sound.

Lloyd, for his part, seems perfectly torn between who to run to first, and eventually just ends up breaking down in Kai's arms all over again.

Kai knows the others must feel just as terrible as he does, but that doesn't stop them from shuffling out of their beds and hobbling over to them. They stumble and fall, try to help each other despite not really being able to stay on their feet for long, but they don't stop.

Alarms wail as wires are ripped out, causing the various machines monitoring their vitals to lose connection. Nurses flood the room, wide-eyed in shock when they seem them awake. They try to get the others back in their beds, but none of the ninja are willing to lay down while Lloyd is crying his eyes out.

They end up dogpiling in Kai's bed, with Lloyd snuggled up on the fire ninja's chest. Nya and Jay hug him close from either side while Cole serves as their collective pillow. Zane sits at the end of the bed, never taking his eyes off them like he's afraid they'd vanish if he does. The bed is surrounded by a small forest of machines that the nurses demand keep monitoring them.

"So... any chance we could get an explanation for why we were stuck in a mass hallucination about another Ninjago?" Jay asks sleepily when they're all just about to doze off.

His answer is a small snore. Lloyd's already asleep, hands balled around Kai's gown and a trail of drool running down the corner of his mouth, mixing with the drying tears.

The ninja share a quiet laugh before snuggling closer to each other. Zane reached over to his bed, mindful of his wires, to get them an additional blanket.

"Plenty of time for that later," Kai tells Jay quietly, gently shifting Lloyd so his chin won't dig into his collar bone.

Jay is already asleep as well. Kai's not sure when he follows, but it's soon.

As Lloyd later explains, it was a villain attack that took them down, though 'villain' is to be used loosely. The 'mad figure cloaked in shadows and accompanied by monsters' that they had been called to subdue turned out to be a child with some sort of hallucination-inducing power. The moment they'd arrived, that power was turned on them. Kai had only managed to push Lloyd out of the way before the beam of energy hit them. When Lloyd got back up, everyone including their attacker was comatose.

They stayed like that for a month and a half.

Kai has to consciously stop himself from grating his teeth as they listen to Lloyd recount the many days he spent waiting for them, and the crimes of various scales he had to stop, of the hostage situation where Kai himself was the hostage that he was left to negotiate, and the literal cult that he had to break up, all on his own.

Their youngest brother was left fighting for Ninjago with only Pixal and Wu at his back while not knowing whether the five of them would ever come back to him.

Kai decides to put off watching the police recordings indefinitely.

Then Lloyd lets it slip that the boy who trapped them is in the same hospital. A nurse that's checking their vitals adds that he had woken up shortly after them and was having mysterious stomach pains.

It doesn't take much for Kai to put two and two together.

His vision tints red and he's already halfway out of bed, with the others following, when Lloyd pushes him back down.

Kai curses himself for still being so weak his little brother can overpower him.

"Please don't," Lloyd says before Kai can speak, glancing pleadingly at the others, who stop their advance towards the door. "Can't we just... put this all behind us? You're all back and safe, aren't you? Maybe he didn't mean to cause harm. Maybe he just wanted to live the life of a ninja, with all of you as friends and a loving family; things that he doesn't have in reality. W-whatever the reason, why don't we just forget all this happened and move on?"

Kai squints at Lloyd's face, brows furrowing.

"...You've talked to him, haven't you?"

Lloyd scuffs his feet and his expression gains a distinctly guilty undertone.

Kai really, really hates the idea of Lloyd alone in the same room as the person who trapped all of them in an illusion. If anything, it makes him want to confront the kid more.

But there's a certain look in Lloyd's eyes, a look that Kai knows all too well. Despite all the pain and suffering he had to endure, his little brother feels nothing but sympathy for the boy. Kai gets the nagging feeling that Lloyd sees some of himself, or at least who he used to be, in their attacker.

Not that that's a comforting thought for him.

At Kai's silence, Lloyd gets increasingly nervous. He even starts putting on his puppy eyes, which Kai is famous for being unable to resist.

But then Kai surprises them all by just sighing and falling back against the pillows.

"You do realise I'm totally kicking your ass in training for this, right?" he grumbles as he settles back into his nest of blankets.

Lloyd laughs, and it makes something warm and bright swell in Kai's chest, because that's the first time he's heard Lloyd laugh since they woke up.

Zane was right. No illusion is better than seeing Lloyd laugh again.

...

That same day around noon, Wu visits with Pixal and Skylor in tow. While their sensei keeps at least some of his composure as he carefully embraces each of them with tears in his eyes, Pixal very nearly crushes Zane in a hug, while Skylor berates both Lloyd for not calling her the moment the ninja woke up, and Kai for ever getting trapped in the first place.

They share their story with the trio and as Wu listens, his forehead creases in a familiar way. He doesn't say much about it, but once he leaves, he takes the boy that trapped them with him, and that's the last the ninja hear of him.

Kai is pretty sure that Lloyd later pesters his uncle into letting him keep in touch with the kid. He personally can't find it within himself to care. He trusts Wu to find a safe place for the boy and teach him to use his power for good, and that's where his concern ends.

Spending so long in a coma doesn't go without consequences. The ninja are kept in the hospital for two more weeks for monitoring, and they end up having to go through a good amount of physical therapy because their muscles forgot how to work properly. Even Zane needs time to get his body under control again.

Lloyd is struggling. He refuses to leave the hospital and gets anxious whenever one of them leaves his sight for too long. Kai has lost count of the times his little brother woke up in a panic to search for them.

That makes it a bit difficult when they're finally discharged and all the ninja want to check up their families.

Cole goes to visit his father, eventually taking him on a trip to Shintaro to show him the Heart of the Mountain and Lily's sanctuary. He keeps a phone near so he can call Lloyd whenever he has time, and that seems to work well enough.

Zane, on the other hand, disappears in Birchwood Forest for a week with no heads-up, nearly setting Lloyd on a warpath to bring him back. The other ninja manage to placate him long enough for Pixal to find the ice ninja and get word back to them that he's okay. Lloyd still refuses to sleep until he gets back.

With the help of his parents, Jay tries yet again to figure out what happened to his biological mother. His efforts sadly lead nowhere, and the lightning ninja doesn't take it well. Nya and Kai decide to try and remedy this by taking him, Ed and Edna on a trip to Ignacia to spend the weekend with their parents there.

Ray and Maya flood Jay with so many questions about whether he and Nya ever plan to have an official marriage ceremony that they permanently turn the boy two shades redder. At least he's laughing again.

It feels strange for Kai to be back home. The bond he has with his real parents is different from the one in the illusion, lacking the teen years which they spent in captivity, but despite that, it feels far more genuine.

He's having fun, even as Ray tells the embarrassing story of his first attempt at forging, even as he catches Maya looking at her reunited family with tears in her eyes, and even as Lloyd comes crashing through the door and tries to use Kai's forgotten hairbrush as an excuse for why he flew in from the Monastery.

Kai laughs off the green ninja's shaky excuses and steers him to the table where everyone immediately starts piling the boy's plate with more food than any one person - maybe except Cole - would be able to consume. Despite Zane's efforts, Lloyd is still a bit thin, and everyone collectively decides to remedy that right then and there.

The atmosphere is warm, and friendly conversation and laughter echo well outside the house. Kai watches his little brother try and fail to refuse a massive slice of strawberry cake from Nya, and he finally feels right again.

Yes, things aren't perfect, but he's more than happy with how they are.