So I didn't know it, but apparently, today was ninjago-writers-day on tumblr! I didn't have anything ready to go, but I was planning on transferring this one-shot to here anyway and this seems like the perfect time to do it. Enjoy!
Son of the blacksmith. Son of the father. The protector, the provider, the fighter.
But names and titles mean nothing if Kai still can't produce a single sword.
He hammers the steel; plunges it into water. It comes out warped and twisted.
"You cooled it too quickly."
He tosses it into the pile. "I'll do better next time."
Kai has always been last to everything.
He's the last to be recruited to the ninja team. He's the last to get his golden weapon. And now? Now he's the last again, the only one unable to change his weapon into its vehicle.
He's standing in the desert, completely useless as Jay, Zane, and Cole chase after the Fangpyre for the antidote to cure Jay's parents. Because no matter how hard Kai tries, his sword refuses to respond to him the way the others do. And Kai has tried everything.
Sensei Wu looks at him with a disappointed gleam in his eye. He makes a comment on how the sword of fire only transforms for a true master of fire. Kai grits his teeth and doesn't respond.
Master of fire. The fire burns bright in you. He climbs into the beat-down car and stares straight ahead and wills the critique to bounce off him, like a ball, like the sun rays beating down from overhead. He wants to scream and hit something. If it burns so bright in him, then why can't he find it?
It's not his fault. He's tried so hard. He drills with his sword- the sword that still feels too hot in his hand, too heavy, that either produces no flames or too many. There's nothing wrong with him just because the others all got it, it's hard to do, Kai, there's nothing wrong with you-
They get the antidote for Mr. and Mrs. Walker. And Kai gulps down water and pushes the thoughts to the back of his mind and tells himself he's forgotten them.
(Plot twist: he hasn't.)
They come to Sensei's room. The old man gazes out the window; his eyes see far away.
"Master, what if we've reached our true potential?"
He fixes them with a studying look. "You might have reached peak physical condition, but you're yet to reach your inner potential."
Months pass. Zane, Jay, and Cole all unlock their true potentials. They can use their elements now, even without the help of their weapons. Kai hears them whooping on the deck, playing with their powers like it's some game and not something serious.
Because Kai? Kai still can't produce even one flame. No matter how hard he tries, his powers won't come.
So what does he do? The only thing he knows how to do. He throws his everything into it.
He trains. He pushes himself harder. He forgets sleep and food in his pursuit. And late at night, when there's no one else around, when he grits his teeth and ignores the salt in his eyes, he stands on too-tired limbs and repeats the motions again and again. There has to be something wrong with him because the others have it, it isn't this hard, Kai, the fire burns bright in you, if you just push yourself a little farther-
They laugh when they find him in the green ninja robes. How can he tell them that in that moment, he feels more at home in green than he ever did in red?
He doesn't wear them again. They don't bring it up.
Lloyd Garmadon releases the serpentine. Lloyd Garmadon beats his high score in Fist to Face II. Lloyd Garmadon gets himself captured by the same Serpentine he released. It's karma, really.
But now Lord Garmadon is their roommate. What did Kai ever do to deserve this?
He peeks through the window; sees Nya over the golden weapons. Some emotion rises, catches in his throat.
"What are you doing out here?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
Kai's never liked the Garmadon brat. He's loud. He's annoying. He's a pain in the butt.
But it's in the Fire Temple that something clicks- he looks at Lloyd and sees a scared kid; he sees himself, he sees Nya, kids lost and alone and missing their parents. And something rises up in him, so hot, so forceful, and it's like a wave comes crashing down over him.
He pulls Lloyd close; puts out his hand. They rise out of the volcano.
Kai has never liked the heat. It suffocates him, traps him in, makes him feel like life is flying past and he's running out of time. Because fire is short and flames burn themselves out all too quickly.
In fact… he's always preferred the eternality of the sea.
Back in the beginning, back before any of this ever happened, Kai was a blacksmith. He worked with fire and created swords. But the swords were never right and they never became the weapons they were supposed to be. He threw the sword into the water too early and it came out as a warped version of its true form.
So maybe, just maybe- Maybe Kai is like that sword. Except that instead of being thrust into water, he's been hammered into fire.
His whole life people have compared him to his father. But that's just it. He's not just his father's son.
He's also his mother's.