A/N: Hello! Uh…what do you know; this is the chapter when the ninja finally discover that Kai doesn't have amnesia. Fun times. No, really. This is gonna be fun cause they'll be guessing why he wouldn't tell them about his past.

Also, I changed my mind about the small change slowly taking over Kai…I wasn't really liking it at all, then RandomDragon commented how I was originally going to do it sounded more natural…so sorry, change will happen at the end of the book!

P.S. This would mean that a bit of this chapter is a rewrite. The first paragraph is original though!

Disclaimer: I own Nothing! Except for any OC name drops that might happen…and Koko!

Chapter Three: Two Friends Fight Each Other, and the lie comes out into the light…

I found myself walking down the street with Nya again. She was peering into the shopping sack she carried, a content smile on her face as she rambled on about the day we just spent together in Ninjago City. Shaking my head at her, I continued walking along…when quite suddenly, she was gone. I was on the road again, bright lights bearing down on me. Frantic, I tried escaping, but couldn't see a way. A scream tore out of my lungs, unwanted. "Zane! Help me!" I glanced back to see that the lights were getting so much closer. "Zane! Help! Please!" I tripped over something, the lights bore themselves down on top of me, I cried out one last time. "Zane!"

"Kai! Wake up! It's just a dream!" I felt strong arms shaking me awake, worry flooding the voice calling out to me. Pushing myself up into a sitting position, I blinked my eyes open. The voice spoke again, still sounding worried. "Are you alright Kai?"

I knitted my eyebrows together trying to figure out who it was that was talking to me. The voice sounded familiar…but I couldn't quite place it. "Umm, who are you again?"

"I'm Garmadon. You know; Lloyd's old man. You were screaming for Zane back there." Garmadon responded, the soft creaking of my bed telling me that he was sitting down next to me.

"Sorry. I guess when I'm half asleep, I'm only used to Nya being with me…minus Roadkill but she's easy to tell apart from Nya." I pulled my knees up to my chest, resting my chin on them.

A hand rubbed my back. "I see. Do you want to talk about it?"

I thought it over carefully. The accident was soo long ago it seemed, and yet Nya and I both had nightmares about it frequently. "I'm not entirely sure if I'm comfortable with that. I know through our connection Nya still gets nightmares about what happened. I think her nightmares about Zane's death are still bugging her, though I haven't had one of those in a few weeks. And even when I had them, the Accident was more common."

Garmadon squeezed me into a quick hug. "It's fine Kai. Morning is still a few hours away. Do you want to try and get some more sleep? Or are you up for the day?"

I closed my eyes, the tournament and what it entailed swirling through my mind. "I probably should try and get some more sleep. Not entirely sure if I can go back to sleep though."

"I'm right here if you need anything." Garmadon whispered softly as he gave me one last hug.

I laid back down, my eyes closing shut to welcome the different darkness of sleep.

….

The next morning at breakfast, I decided that Cole wanted to get on my nerves. First he insisted on getting my food for me. Then he tried cutting it into bite size pieces. Finally, he kept asking if I needed anything.

"Cole…for the hundredth time, no I do not need anything!" I snapped; my voice close to growling.

Cole didn't say anything, which made me worried that I had hurt his feelings. He was just trying to help me…just more so than Nya, and she was just on the verge of overbearing. I was about to ask if he was ok, when Chen announced it was time to reveal who all was competing today. "Bolobo, Neuro, Griffin Turner, Gravis, and…" He paused right then, which just made my stomach drop to the ground. He was going to mention one of us. I just knew it.

"It looks like we're in the clear." Jay commented from where he was sitting next to me.

I quickly shook my head at him…same time Chen finally finished listing the competitors. "Kai Smith of the Ninja!"

I flinched, clapping a hand over my ears as my friends exploded in fury over this information. Lloyd was the first one to notice that they were hurting my ears, and quickly told the others to calm down. I picked at my breakfast, realizing that I was going to need my full strength if I was going to avoid being eliminated.

…..

Neuro and Griffin both won their matches, leaving Gravis and Bolobo eliminated. Now it was my turn to face Ash. From what I could figure from what Lloyd was asking Garmadon, the Jade Blade I was supposed to try and get was right in front of me. I tucked that information into the back of my head, as well as the fact by the feel of things; we were standing on a wooden bridge. A wooden bridge that was swinging precariously over a river of lava. Yay me. I tensed as I waited for Chen to declare the start of our match. "Begin!"

I launched forward, and immediately felt the bridge shift under my feet. A jolt rippled through me as I realized that Ash was trying to throw me off by tilting the bridge. My ninja training kicked in as I quickly leapt forward, adjusting my weight so that I wouldn't fall off. Hearing the deep breaths of Ash, I kicked wildly in his direction. Immediately, the smell of smoke intensified, as well as a small popping noise could be heard. My foot connected with air, Ash gone. Bewildered, I continued trying to fight him, but nothing seemed to work. Suddenly I was hanging upside down, clutching the bridge.

Flipping myself upright, I climbed back onto the bridge. Just then, Lloyd called out to me. "Kai! Use your powers!"

Frowning, I light my hand on fire then quickly threw the fireball at Ash. I missed. I threw three more balls, all of which missed Ash and weakened the bridge. I bit my bottom lip, wondering what I can do to try and not get eliminated. Wait. Soft popping noise…and no Ash afterwards…he can teleport to protect himself from my blows! With this in mind, a new plan quickly formed. Throwing yet another fireball, I acted as if I were throwing it at him, making him teleport out of the way. Only, I wasn't aiming for him. I was aiming the part of the bridge behind him, that once destroyed would send us and the Jade Blade tumbling through the air, to what I hope are rocks down below. Freefalling now, I listened to Ash and once I was sure he was close to the Jade Blade, I threw one last fireball at him. The second I heard the popping noise that signaled that he had left, I seized the Jade Blade, feeling the cool metal in my hands.

….

It wasn't until dinner that we realized that we weren't going to be able to avoid fighting each other any time soon. I was walking next to Lloyd while Jay and Cole took the rear; Garmadon was right in front of us, when Jay noticed that there was a large gathering of people around the bulletin that showed us who was fighting who at what time. Moving in a group, we walked over to see what was going on. I knew something was wrong the minute I heard Lloyd's sharp intake of breath.

"Lloyd? What's wrong? What's going on here?" I questioned him, worried about what it was.

"Jay and Cole are set up to fight tonight." Lloyd sounded disheartened, as if he wanted to fight or something.

"So?" I shrugged, not really seeing the big deal.

"Kai…we have to fight each other!" Jay sounded extremely worried. Not that I blame him, Cole was a tough opponent…though Jay typically could hold his own against him for a good long while. But that wasn't the only troubling thing about this development.

"It should be alright. You train together all the time." Garmadon spoke up, though I could pick up worry underlying his voice.

"Well, yeah. But one of us has to lose!" Jay was getting hysterical, a clear sign that he thought a situation hopeless.

I ran my fingers through my hair thinking things through. The only thing I could think of was that Father was about Chen…we can't trust him. A small lightbulb, maybe the side of me that shared the family's brains, sent an idea into my mind as clear as day. "Neuro. We can ask Neuro for help. He can read minds, get close enough to Chen to find a way for us to cancel the fight, before it happens."

….

I could tell by his calming breaths that, like Zane, Neuro liked to meditate and was in the middle of doing so. Lloyd walked over and told him what we witnessed last night. A hum sound escaped the master of the mind as he shifted his position. I hope he can't see into my mind and knows I've been lying about my amnesia this entire time.

"Hmm, that is troubling. And I can see into your minds the truth behind your words…and the lie behind Kai's amnesia. Really helpful thinking about how you never had amnesia while I'm in your head by the way." Neuro sounded amused about my predicament.

I glared at towards his voice, while at the same time slapping myself on the face. Jay slowly spoke up. "Ok then…we'll discuss this later. Right now, we need you to find a way to cancel our fight."

"I will do that." Neuro was clearly thinking about how Chen could steal his powers as well.

"While you're at it, do you want to join our team?" Lloyd asked suddenly, startling everyone.

"I'll think about it."

….

Jay and Cole were practicing by destroying punching bags when I heard Neuro's footsteps approaching. "Well. What did you find out?"

"How did you know I was even here?" Neuro sounded surprised, while the thudding of my brothers punching the punching bags seized in anticipation of news.

"I'm blind. I heard your footsteps. Now. What did you find out for us?" I brushed his surprise off, desperate to hear of a way to stop the fight from happening.

"Uh…I found out that Clouse as a spell book that he has marked page one hundred and forty-nine in. From what I can tell, it is a complicated spell that requires all of our elements. Including fire. That is why we are really here. He needs our powers for something much bigger." Neuro now sounded disturbed that one of the famous ninja is blind. "Unfortunately, I could not get close enough to Chen to read his mind to find a way to stop this fight."

Jay and Cole both sighed, before going back to fighting the punching bags. I bit my lip as I walked over to see if there was something that I could help with. But with Lloyd helping Cole, and Garmadon helping Jay, I highly doubt that I would be much help.

"When you first joined us, Sensei taught us that the best way to defeat an enemy is to befriend them. But how do we defeat a friend?" Cole's voice reached my ears, sadness flooding it.

Turning, I walked over to the black ninja and quickly placed my hand on his chest, over his heart. I shivered as I realized that I could feel it beating. "Talk. Keeping your emotions about something is not good for you, or those the feelings are directed at. Talking, especially to the person that caused these feelings, is the best thing for you to do. I bet if you talk to Jay, he would want to listen and talk as well." I wasn't sure what made me tell Cole that. I only knew that Father was right when he basically ordered me to do it when Nya and I weren't talking to each other.

"Kai…since when did you have such deep advice? And where did you even hear that?" Garmadon spoke up, signaling that he had joined us. Oh, wait that means that Jay has joined us too.

I quickly turned away, tears threatening to escape. "Father knows a thing or two about life." I swiftly walked away to a small part of the training area that I had noticed earlier that had a bench. Sitting down, I stared down at the floor, wishing this wave of homesickness to go away.

Footsteps walked over to where I was sitting. I ignored them, thinking that whoever it was would just walk past me. Instead, surprise flashed through me as the bench creaked, signaling that whoever it was just sat down next to me. "I want to be alone right now. Go see if one of the elemental masters would like to visit."

"Kai…I thought you would like talking about your father." Garmadon's voice spoke up from right next to me, his voice tender as if he knew that this was a sensitive topic for me.

"What's there to say? He's a brilliant man that didn't deserve me as a son. We fought so much…and now I'll never see him again. Our last conversation was an argument over whether or not I was old enough to run deliveries for him by myself. He's always right but I was too stubborn to see that." Tears slid down my cheek, regret filling me. I should have listened to him instead of convincing him to let me go alone.

An arm wrapped itself around me tightly. "I guess since you now know and acknowledge that he was right, that you do pay attention to him a bit."

"He loved me, us. He was always checking on us while we were off playing with our friends. Always worried something was going to happen to us if he couldn't see what we were doing." I whispered softly. A sigh escaped me as I hugged my chest. "He was right. I convinced him I was old enough and next thing I knew… I was lost and the delivery was mostly stolen, one small piece of it was still with me. Sensei finding me right then was a welcome surprise." I could feel Garmadon shifting around to look at me, clearly startled to hear how I had apparently gotten on that road so long ago.

"We best get going if we're going to get good seats to keep an eye on them." Garmadon stood up, squeezing my shoulder as he did so.

I merely nodded, before standing up and following him. I just hope I didn't reveal too much information back there. But as I told Cole, talking about it helps.

….

The fight began, and instantly the frustrating feud between them erupted out into the open. I flinched at the name calling, wishing that at least one of them had listened to my advice. After listening to the fighting for several minutes, I turned to leave. That was when something suddenly changed. The yelling between my friends just stopped, and then Chen suddenly ordered for something called Condrai Crushers into the arena. Alarmed, I reached out and touched what I presumed was Lloyd's shoulder. "What just happened?"

"They listened to your advice. They're working together now and are trying to tie. Chen is trying to stop them. Oh no!" Lloyd suddenly cried out, horror filling his voice.

"What happened?!" Now I was really regretting losing my eyesight.

"Cole just got eliminated. He had the Jade Blade but he threw it to Jay. We're down a ninja." Lloyd sounded dejected, and I could imagine him hanging his head in shame.

I sank back into my seat, horror filling me. We just lost our strongest member. How are we going to win now?

A/N: Done! Hope you all enjoyed it! See ya next time!

Review!

SkyTalon