He was gone, Zane was gone and there was nothing Kai could do about it. Kai hated feeling absolutely useless, so he left the others to try and keep his real self from exposing the truth. The ninja had broken up as a group once the overlord was defeated for a second time. Kai left the city, wandering in the night to make his way back to the outskirts of Ignacia.

It was, pleasant, to be back in that old town. Kai silently beat himself up for not bringing Nya with him, but was quick to make sure he stayed hidden in the outskirts. He chose one of the rocky outcroppings with the most leafage, lurking about in the tiny woodland in his real form.

A dragon of dusty grey scales and dark grey horns. He looked like a stone dragon when he'd be in one of his low moods, but when he's more 'fired up' he'd appear more like a beast made from lava and gold than just a hunk of rock. But the duller colors he held now were better suited to aid him in hiding.

For many days and nights Kai lied curled up at the center of the tree dotted rock outcropping, but daring not to move in the daylight for fear of being spotted. He would roll over or shift his body at night, only really eating a decent meal when the new moon finally let the stars shine their brightest.

But that was when he showed his face. Kai bore his fangs at the approaching figure, watching the human draw closer to the stream where Kai hunted fish. Lloyd Garmadon gazed down at the water before he stared back at Kai. Kai barked out and growled deeply as his scales began to brighten in color and glow.

"You know you don't have to be defensive about being a dragon with me," Lloyd sighed as his face became illuminated by Kai's glowing scales.

Kai shut his mouth as he thought for a moment, "What are you doing here? Trying to drag me back?"

"I won't drag you, but you shouldn't isolate yourself like this, and besides, we all need you Kai."

"Just like we need Zane right about now," Kai grumbled and snorted smoke from his nose, letting his fire inside die down so they both were encased in twilight.

"Kai i know it hurts but we have to move on-"

"YOU KNOW NOT THE PAIN I FEEL!" Kai roared out, his scales quickly bursting to life with his fire, but he quickly subdued it as he looked away from Lloyd, "I-I'm sorry, that was not-"

"Kai, if you change your mind you know where to find the rest of us," Lloyd stated as he turned and left Kai to stand silent in the night.

Kai left the brook and returned to his tree haven where he slept on the possibilities. He tossed and turned through the night before deciding to fly to Ninjago City. Once on the outskirts of the city Kai landed and shifted into his human form, grumbling to himself as he walked the city streets at night. There was an odd kind of solace Kai found in the neon lights that still illuminated the dark alleys and main roads.

He entered inside a back alley door that lead him down to the Slither Pit. There Kai met up and spoke with a few old Serpentine friends, catching up on missed out stories before morning broke. Kai drowsily walked the waking streets of Ninjago City, making his way to the park where Zane's statue was built. He sat on the base of the statue and leaned his back against it, watching as Zane's falcon friend scared pigeons off Zane's shoulder.

Kai sat there watching the world carry on about its day, and after some time Kai fell into a light sleep. Late afternoon Kai was shaken awake by Cole, who was with Jay and Lloyd.

"Huh? Oh hey guys," Kai smiled softly at his team mates and let out a yawn.

"So you got tugged back too?" Cole asked with a grumpy tinge to his voice.

"I mean i would have come back for Nya anyway, but yeah. So where we gonna meet up?" Kai inquired as he stood himself up, finding his left shoulder heavy. Upon checking his shoulder he found Zane's falcon perched there, "Hey buddy, you coming with?"

The falcon called happily while Cole shook his head, "To Chen's Noodle house, and pets aren't allowed you know."

"I'm sure nobody would complain if they're missing a tongue," Kai hissed as he nudged the falcon off his shoulder, "Find me later friend." The falcon flew off of Kai's shoulder with a cry before vanishing from sight.

"What has gotten into you lately?" Jay asked as he watched Kai with wary eyes.

"Hey, anger is a natural stage of grief, so i apologize now for any outbursts," Kai stated as he turned and began walking, "It'll probably help to have some others around to keep me in check."

The other three seemed to cast unsure glances between one another before joining Kai in his aimless walk, but they turned his aimless walk into a gathering with a destination in mind. Kai sighed to himself as he let his internal scales shudder and relax, he kept telling himself nothing would happen, but there was a nagging feeling in his gut. Lloyd took the lead, followed by Jay and Cole walking next to each other's side, and Kai took up the back. They kept this loose diamond form as they walked, entering inside Chen's Noodle house and finding a spot to sit down. Jay and Cole sat opposite each other on the seats closest to the food conveyor, Kai sat to Cole's right and Lloyd sat across from Kai to Jay's left.

"You want anything specific?" Cole inquired as he watched noodles and sushi come their way.

"Anything that's mostly fish," Kai replied as he shrugged, relaxing against the back of the booth seat.

"Wait, before we start eating, we should really talk," Lloyd stated, earning a grumble from Cole as he watched noodles trail away from him.

"Make it quick, i doubt the bottomless pit here can take much longer," Kai rolled his eyes as he wanted to snap a worse remark.

"Look, i know that losing Zane has been difficult, but we should move on- maybe find a new member for our team-" Lloyd stated.

"What? No!" Jay complained back, "Zane is irreplaceable!"

"Yeah! C'mon we can't just give up like that!" Cole grumbled, although it sounded more like stones being ground together next to Kai's ear.

"He's out there somewhere, we just, need a clue," Kai snapped back, hoping that his incisor teeth weren't growing along with his rising anger.

"But C'mon guys, we can't just sit around and do nothing, when he could in fact be out there," Lloyd insisted.

"Well, we're not exactly doing nothing by being here, right? I mean we're hanging out together, so i guess it's a start," Kai crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged.

Then, almost as if on cue, a group of three rough and tumble kinda guys, tattooed from their heads to their feet, came bursting through the door.

"Speaking of which, seems like we've got trouble," Jay whispered as he rolled his eyes.

Kai growled and sunk lower in the seat, rolling his eyes as well. Cole shook his head and looked back towards the conveyor.

"Oh COME ON!" Cole roared out, "I JUST WANT TO HAVE SOME FOOD!"

Kai perked up and turned around to find the thugs had stopped the flow of food by holding the cashier up onto the conveyor belt, "Welp i guess it's our problem now," Kai grumbled as he stood himself up and pocketed his hands as he approached the thugs.

"People should know better than to mess with another person's food," Cole ranted as he stood up and joined Kai. Shortly thereafter Jay and Lloyd joined the group and were prepared to take on the three muggers.

"You know," Kai lifted his voice as he gripped the leader's right shoulder, "There are better places to rob than just a food chain. Maybe try something bigger next time," Kai smirked darkly as the ringmaster turned around, only for Kai to wallop the man in the face.

That's when the real fight broke out, the two other men took up arms against Cole, Jay and Lloyd, while Kai fought with the leader.

"Be careful not to break anything!" One of Kai's friends called out, might have been Jay or Lloyd but in the midst of exchanging blows he couldn't really focus.

"Other than their noses?" Kai snarled back as he saw his opening and grabbed the leader's shirt, and using all the strength he had, flipped the man over onto the empty floor.

"Fall back!" The leader roared to his two friends, who were just as equally beat up as he was. Kai growled as he was quick to chase the trio out the back door of the Noodle House, shocked to find they had up and vanished.

"Kai!" Lloyd's voice called out from behind him.

"Uh guys?" Kai gasped softly when he saw what looked to be a shrine of some sort, but with Zane's likeness carefully inked onto the page with strange human characters next to it. Kai silently cursed to himself on still having not taken a class to try and understand the Ninjagian language.

"Wh-what is that!" Jay's voice exclaimed as he joined Kai's side, followed by Cole and Lloyd.

"What's it say?" Kai inquired as he tugged the papyrus from off the wall, showing it to the other three.

"It says Zane's alive," Lloyd spoke up, his eyes wide with awe as he took the age from Kai's grasp.

"SEE! I KNEW IT!" Kai stretched both his arms out towards the page, "I TRUSTED MY GUT AND IT WAS RIGHT!"

"Jesus Kai, calm down," Jay remarked as he gave a soft laugh. Kai felt his nerves ease a bit as he found it in his heart to laugh as well.

"Oh hey fortune cookies!" Cole grinned as he quickly grabbed a cookie and ate up the whole thing. The other three stared at him for a moment before he looked at them and shrugged, "What?"

"You know there's uh, a small bit of paper in those, right?" Kai inquired as he picked up a cookie and cracked it open, showing Cole the paper fortune inside.

"Huh, i wondered why they always tasted a bit like paper," Cole placed his hands on his hips as he shrugged again, "What do they say?"

"Master Chen has invited you to partake in the tournament of the elements," Lloyd stated.

Kai glanced down at his fortune and shivered, he could read it which meant it was written in the dragon's tongue, "Secrecy is top priority, tell nobody or suffer the consequences." A second shiver ran through Kai's back as he clenched his fist around the paper, his gut rolling too much for him to even want to think about eating. It felt like his web of lies was about to collapse.

"If you ever want to see Zane again, meet on the pier at midnight. Leave all your weapons behind," Jay read his fortune aloud and gazed at the others.

"The fortunes please," Kai held his free hand out to take Jay and Lloyd's papers, "If anyone asks we're going for a midnight walk together, with you guys mainly showing me around town since i can't read."

"Yeah, why can't you read again?" Jay asked as he handed kai his little slip of paper.

"Well why do something when no one's forcing you to? But seeing that reading is helpful i made Nya go to school so she wouldn't be stupid like me," Kai shrugged as he watched Lloyd add his fortune to the pile. Kai ignited the paper in his hands and watched them crumble to black ash, "Tell nobody anything if you can avoid it."

"But what if it's a trap?" Lloyd spoke up.

"Well it could be one, but a trap's only good if you know what you're hunting. Gotta have decent bait or else the prey won't take it," Kai rolled his shoulders, "C'mon, we meet up at midnight."

"So what do we do in the mean time?" Jay spoke up.

"Get ready to brawl," Kai replied as he turned away and gazed up at the waning light of the sun, "If i remember Master Chen correctly, 'Only one can remain' was his favorite mantra."

The others looked at Kai as if he'd grown two heads, to which he shrugged while internally kicking his side. He leaped up onto the roof tops and wandered off, away from the others to try and give himself space.

Kai spent the rest of the day moving between dark alleys and walking on rooftops, pacing back and forth almost the entire city as sleep continued to try dragging him down. He would have found some place nice to rest and relax, or gone back to where Nya, Lloyd, Wu, Misako, and Garmadon where staying, but Kai couldn't help but feel like they'd all just rile up the beast within that's seething around in the toxic waste of fire boiling in his gut. His mind just wouldn't rest, all the memories warning him of Chen's actions, thinking up all the scenarios in which Chen exposed kai in front of his friends. Kai swallowed down a lump in his throat as he thought back to the War, where Chen had tricked both sides into fighting longer.

He recalled those days clearly, when he went by a different name, when he was free to walk the earth in his scales and free to take the wind under his wings and escape the ground in which the humans walked. But the in the war he took the side of the Serpentine, and while he would eventually become a secret agent he didn't realize the trap Chen had made from the all. He should have thought better about it, he should have done something to prevent it all, but instead kai had fallen for it like everyone else.

And now here he was, standing in the darkness that overtook the city at night, stars barely visible overhead. Kai exhaled as he turned towards the shore, making his way to the pier as he tried to keep his scars from itching from his worry and anger over the whole situation. He would play Chen's game, but cut corners and bend the rules so that the group of ninja could have their cold chef back.

Kai made his way to the pier and found more than what he was hoping for. Ah but alas Chen did say a tournament of the elements, meaning all of them, not just the four that remained. But something else made kai's neck bristle where his hidden scars were, Garmadon was there standing next to Lloyd, Jay, and Cole. Kai lowered his head a slight bit as he joined the group, seeing as they both were relieved and stressed that he showed his head.

"I see that the Cat dragged himself in this time," Garmadon remarked as he watched Kai with scrutinizing eyes. Ah yes, Garmadon was one of the few in the group that knew of Kai's secret, and that alone made Kai always want to tear Garmadon's head off.

Kai merely showed his teeth as he rolled his eyes, "Sorry i got side tracked, mostly because i had lost everyone else in a crowd and tried finding my way through the alleys."

Someone in the gathering of people seemed to giggle at Kai's remark, he turned his head and was about to snap when Garmadon spoke again, "And i see that you still have no understanding of a city you've been in more times than i can count. Surely nothing changes that much in a day."

Kai felt his blood boil as fire crackled in his throat, He stomped his foot down and showed his teeth more, "Well I'm sorry you decided to drag your sorry butt here for no reason, now why don't you go back home and let us go on our little midnight adventure."

"I don't think you realize what your 'midnight adventure' truly entails," Garmadon stated with a slight edge to his voice.

Kai was about to make a sly comment back when he noticed the boat pulling up to the dock. Everyone turned their heads towards the boat, watching as two men set down a plank and let what looked to be a higher up walk onto the pier. Many of the elemental masters walked on board without much care, although the man turned towards the ninja and smiled softly.

"Master Chen will be please to see that the Masters of Spinjitzu have accepted his invitation, You shall fare well in the tournament," The voice was so calm and yet so sinister, making Kai's bones prickle with rage as he realized who the man was.

"Listen pal, we don't wanna fight, we're here to-" Jay spoke only for Kai to cut him off.

"We're here to win," Kai hissed out as he fixed his eyes on Clouse, wanting nothing more than to beat the grin off his pretty little face. Jay shivered slightly but nodded back, and before Clouse could say another word Kai lead the others onto the ship.

"I'm coming with you four," Garmadon announced as he made his way onto the plank, shoving past Clouse who made a gesture of an effort to keep Garmadon from boarding.

Clouse merely shrugged a shoulder as he walked back onto the ship, walking towards the front as he gave the command, "Let's Ship out!"

Kai shuddered as he anticipated this to be a long night. He began walking to the back of the ship, Jay and Cole following him at a slight distance. Kai felt a little guilty for the venom in his words lately and let his shoulders slump, trying to show that he'd calm down for his friends. No, no he should calm down for his family, they did all act like a bunch of brothers after all. The trio walked by many different elemental masters, seeing one for Metal, Sound, Nature, Light, and Speed. Kai was sure there were more elements but with the lack of sleep he's forgotten a few out of the roster.

Kai began pacing around the end of the boat where the steam wheel was set up. Jay and Cole leaned against the wall, watching kai pace like a frantic animal. Lloyd and Garmadon shortly joined them at the back of the ship. Lloyd sat himself down while Garmadon stood and watched Kai.

"The lack of sleep is getting to me, but i do believe that not all of the elements are present," Kai lifted his head up and spoke, "Most of them are but a few others seem to have missed a memo somewhere."

"What do you mean?" Jay asked, "And like, who are all these people, what are all the elements?"

"Why didn't you tell us there were more elements?" Lloyd inquired, pointing the question more towards his father.

"There are some things we don't want you to know," Garmadon replied.

"I mean we would have found out one way or another," Kai sated, trying to keep on his charade while simultaneously trying to get Garmadon to crack. Kai continued pacing, glancing over at a figure who leaned over the steamboat's starboard side railing. He didn't trust how close the lady was to the conversation, and was half tempted to ask her to move, but the need to pace kept him at bay, for now.

"Well you were all lead to believe you were special, but none of you questioned how you gained your powers," Garmadon continued, ignoring Kai which only made his temper flare, "Everyone on this ship has a power, and all descended from one of the first elemental masters."

"Then who are they all?" Kai asked jay's question again.

"Many of these people i have not seen, but the Pale man is the master of light, and Griffin Turner is the master of Speed," Garmadon stated as he held his hands behind his back.

"But wait, Speed isn't an element," Jay spoke up.

"Well Energy isn't really an element either," Kai stated as he gestured to Lloyd, "Nor is Darkness, Destruction, or Creation, Yet we've seen them before."

"He does have a point," Cole replied with a shrug.

Kai merely rolled his eyes and kept pacing, bumping into someone, his temper flared and he snapped, "OH FOR PETE'S SAKE COULD YOU NOT TOUCH ME RIGHT NOW!?" Kai snarled as he stepped away from the man, only to find he screwed up big time.

"Why you mad at Karlof?" The man spoke back, his voice thick with an accent Kai couldn't put his mind on, "Karlof just walking!"

Kai was about to bite his tongue, but the fire got the best of him, "Well i was walking too Pal," he snapped, quickly turning away to pace the other way.

What Kai didn't expect was to be almost thrown overboard when a hand grabbed onto his shoulder. Instincts kicked in and Kai dodged an attack by rolling away, he was quick to get on his feet and put some distance between himself and Karlof.

"Hey! Lea-" Jay spoke out, only for Garmadon to hold his hand up.

"No, Kai started this himself, he can get out of it." Garmadon grumbled as he watched the fight go on.

Kai clenched his hands as fire crackled in his mouth, escaping between his teeth to warm up his cheeks, "WELL MAYBE IF PEOPLE WOULD JUST LEAVE ME BE I WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN INTO THIS MESS!" He snapped, glaring at Garmadon with wide eyes before he let the fire escape his jaw.

Karlof encased his body in metal, growling as he protected himself against Kai's low temperature fire. Kai felt a bit thankful that the man had a way to protect himself, and even more thankful that Karlof knew when it was a good time to leave. Once Kai's fire petered out Karlof let his body return to normal before he held up his hands in a casual sign of 'i won't encroach any more' and turned to walk back to other way.

Kai shuddered as the cold midnight air seemed to finally reach him, he let out a sigh and gazed back at his friends, "Well i guess my temper burned itself out," he rubbed the back of his neck as he lazily looked around.

"That's a good thing," Jay nodded as he walked over to Kai, resting a hand on Kai's left shoulder, "Just try and not get that mad again, for like a long time, okay?"

Kai couldn't help but laugh, "I'll try to keep my cool," he let his hand lower from his neck before he gazed up at the sky, "Oh Jesus it's dawn already?"

"Welcome to Chen's Island!" Clouse announced, drawing the ninja's attention.

"We're already here?" Cole asked as he gazed over the side of the boat.

"Well if Zane's on that Island, we'll find him," Lloyd spoke up as he walked towards the railing and looked out towards the island.