EdgeChronicles01: I'll answer your questions in the order you gave them: 1) That will be revealed. 2) That will be revealed. 3) Maya did answer this in the chapter. Seiko is Maya's shadow is the doppelganger to the Original Vampire. You see, Katherine is the Original Witch, the strongest witch ever. Witches' power is run by nature. And all nature must have a balance. (I.E: Ninjago the continent being half good, the half the Ninja live on, and then the Dark Island, the bad side.) Without it, there would not be existence. Because Katherine created Maya as the Original Vampire and therefore Maya cannot be killed by anything except for a certain spell done by a certain witch, she had to create a version of Maya that could die. A balance. A "shadow self." A doppelganger. (A doppelganger is someone who looks exactly like another living person.) Katherine created Seiko as the doppelganger to the Original Vampire to create that balance, so that if she created something that could not die it also had a part of it that could die. 4) Maya DOES hate Kai. She hates him for a reason you did state: He's always there for the people he loves and she never had someone there to do that for her. Don't worry, I love questions. Especially when my readers ask them. Those were some good questions!

A/N:

I know I keep promising B or C...and you will get them! Promise! But the choice I decided to write is kind of hard, and it's coming, just…later. Okay? Thanks for your patience!

Since this is really more of a Kai thought-process chapter, I didn't go into great detail describing things, because when you're just thinking stuff you're not really paying attention to adjectives and word choice and sentence fragments and stuff. :3 I hope you like it!

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX:
The Fly and the Darkness

Kai ran his hands over the steering wheel. Man, this car…The leather was smooth to the touch, hardly ever used by anyone before, but extremely sticky. The stereo in here was kind of nice. Not very surround-sound-y, so you had to put in your hearing aids to pick out the lyrics. Plus, the whole freakin' car smelled like Lysol and air-freshener. Lilacs were used to dampen the smell of new leather, but it wasn't working out so well. He and Lloyd were trying hopelessly not to gag and wake up the kid in the backseat, but it was hard not to. They made themselves more entertained by naming what they'd rather be smelling at the moment. Ultimately, they'd chose Cole's chili over this rank smell, and that was saying a helluva lot when it came to that chili.

Cue the shudders.

It made Kai feel great to be able to talk to Lloyd in an actual conversation. The kid was calm, low-key, meaning the Other Guy didn't have the potential to be unleashed. It was just two friends, discussing something completely random. Something it seemed like Lloyd needed. Something normal. A normal activity. No strings attached. And to be honest, Kai kind of needed it, too. This was him, and this was Lloyd, and it was just talking. Not discussing impending doom or evil villains or Humanity Switches or venom or any of that bullshit. Just a smelly car. And chili. And a bunch of other random topics.

Kai noticed that Seiko was being unconventionally quiet in the backseat. At first, he believed she was asleep, but then realized that Lloyd was talking to her and turning around to look at her; she just wasn't responding often. If anything, her answers were short, and soft, and unnaturally silent. Her mind seemed somewhere else. Whichever place that was, Kai didn't quite know, but it was a place where he figured Lloyd wasn't welcome. He kept glancing in the rearview mirror at her to see if she was still alive.

And more acceptable of Bokuyo's existence, it seemed. The little boy rested his face on her shoulder and not once did Kai see her try to push him off like she had down by the van. What had changed so quickly? Why was she suddenly so accepting of him? It just might be one of those mysteries, like how many licks it took to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. He wanted to know, but didn't think it was right to ask. She probably wouldn't like it if he did. It seemed like the only person she ever really answered to was Lloyd.

The nightmare. It reoccurred and reoccurred and reoccurred until Kai could point out every obvious detail in it, but not once had he understood why he was having that dream. Now, it turned out to be completely prophetic and foreshadowing of the future. But why did Kai have it? Of all people, he'd least expect himself to have it; he'd sooner have guessed it would be a "Zane" dream—and at the time, Zane was a robot, and robots don't dream—than a "Kai" dream. So far, everything had been proven to be true. Cole was a vamp. Jay was actually really good at kicking ass when he got mad at someone about his girlfriend. Zane had struck himself strange. Lloyd was freaking himself out because of the stress of everything. And that proverbial "Light switch" that Lloyd had shut down, that had turned off all the power inside of the building, that was actually a subconscious reference to the Humanity Switch. Somehow, Kai had predicted it all—but not once had he been able to tell who the hell that mysterious girl was. He could picture her now, placing her hand on Lloyd's shoulder, calming him down the second she touched him, and feel that overwhelming sense of need that came over Kai when he'd seen her. Wrapped in his dream, of course, he'd wanted to run to her, scoop her up, and steal her away from Lloyd—and for what reason? Why? Kai had always looked at the strong, thought-consuming emotion as wanting to be with her. He had looked at this girl from his dreams and wanted to be with her even when he didn't know who the hell she was. And why? Why would Kai want to? Was he really that desperate or something?

No. Not at all. Kai Smith was no sucker for love. He liked attention, especially when it came to fan girls, but he wasn't necessarily out there sniffing the ground for a single woman. He'd said it before: he wasn't looking for a relationship right now. In all honesty, having a girlfriend would just weigh him down. He couldn't imagine dividing his time up for her when he already had so many other things to clock in. He was impressed with Jay and Nya before their brains had been wiped of every memory they had and the issue of a second boyfriend came into play. They managed to divvy up their time for each other and make it work. Probably because Nya was the most organized person in the world, and Jay just went along with whatever when it came to her. That was love. Real, pure, uncharted love. Why Nya had decided that being with Jay wasn't good enough just actually made Kai really…angry. He didn't want her to ruin Jay's heart like that. He may have been quite the authority figure when it came to barring their relationship, but he actually had loved that Nya was dating his friend. It just worked. They worked. Jay and Nya had been—in his opinion—perfect together. He'd seen their breakup as a ghost, watched the two after Zane's robot form gave out and the real father of her baby was revealed. Or, well, one of the babies. The surviving baby. It had blown his mind. Cole? Really? Not that Cole was a bad guy, but he'd never imagined that Nya would go for him. The dark…the attractive…the dangerous…the leader. Of anyone, he would've sooner expected her to pair up with Zane.

Zane. God. That poor guy. Being kicked and kicked and kicked and kicked after he was already down…How he was still alive, Kai would never know. He was one of those people that fate decides to beat up as collateral all the time. Especially with the whole Caroline thing. They had trusted her, put their empathy into her, and she'd turned out to be on the other team the whole time. And Kai had seen the way Zane looked at her. It didn't matter if he was a robot. He'd loved Caroline. And then…she was Caroline, but Zane just couldn't seem to tell the difference between Caroline and Carolyne because Caroline stole the face of the girl he did love. Unrightfully, too. He had to be confused. If he looked at her heart, he would've known the separation between the two. But not their faces. Kai admired Zane for his strength. His ability to stay strong when everything around him was crumbling like croissants.

And though Cole wouldn't admit it, Kai completely knew that Cole was in love with Nya. He wouldn't ever say that out loud, though. It made Kai feel really crappy but really relieved that he wouldn't be the person who had to battle it out with another guy to get the girl he loved. He could just be able to see it on his friend's face when she walked in the room. His face would light up. His eyes would melt. He was better at keeping it concealed than Jay was, but Kai was blown away that he hadn't noticed it before that. Cole loved her. A lot.

It was that time in their lives when they were all becoming drawn to the female population. When everyone was finally letting themselves open up to relationships. Before, they had been full-time Ninjas and doing training constantly, whether it be on themselves or others, and no one had the time to think about love. Except Jay. But he had an excuse. When the Overlord was gone, they had nothing to do but sit around and mess around and relax. But maybe the idea of everyone getting involved with girls wasn't such a great idea. So far, it had screwed every one of his brothers over.

Except Lloyd.

But Lloyd probably still believed that girls had Cooties. That, or he hadn't ever thought about it. It was probably a little of both. Kai smirked into the desolate road. (The GPS with the monastery's coordinates in it led them out of town.) Picturing Lloyd with a girlfriend was basically the most impossible thing that Kai had ever done.

He held in a groan when the stoplight in front of him halted them. Kai hated those sons of bitches, thinking they had the right to always stop him but not that messed up white car in front of him. He leaned back and rested his elbow on the car door. This would take a while. It normally did.

In any situation, girls were always screwing them up. For example: Maya. Maya was screwing this whole thing up. She was here, and Kai knew that she would do something to Cole at some point in time. Having her around was extremely dangerous. Another example: Danielle. Not that she wasn't fun to be around, with her emotionless brains and all, but she was Lloyd's mom, and Kai knew that freaked his best friend out. Another: Caroline. There were so many ways to list that Caroline had screwed them over, it would be impossible to cover them all in one sitting. But it's obvious what Caroline's done. (I wouldn't suspect any of you to be unaware of what she's done.) Kai didn't know much about Seiko yet. But with the way Lloyd was around her, he had a feeling she'd be sticking around to play for a little while longer.

Well, fuck.

Not fuck that she was staying. Fuck, she was staying and Kai would be further exposed to looking at her and every time being reminded of that inner pull that was telling him he needed to be with her.

Which brought him back to the initial of this whole thing.

Why the hell did he want to?

He just knew he wanted to. Badly.

Why? WHY THOUGH?

That question was being asked so many times in any situation that Kai was just starting to believe it had no more meaning in the world. Like he said before, Kai wasn't in the mood to make the commitment of being a boyfriend. To of all people Seiko, who was Cole's younger sister, for absolutely no reason. What was the point of desiring to be with her if he couldn't even handle watching all of his friends and making sure they were safe? Where would time come in to find time to watch her, and make sure she was safe? It would be worthless, yet there were so many things drawing him to her. What drew him to her? Kai was pretty sure it had something to do with her aura. What would he get out of being with her? Probably nothing. Would he for some reason take sacrifices for her anyway? Hell...yeah, he would. Did he want to be the one to comfort her when she cried? Kind of, yeah. Did he want to be the one who stepped into a fight and caught the bullet for her? Strangely so. Did he want to be the one to show her what the meaning of living was all about? Pretty much. Did he want to smile with her, share special moments with her? Unfortunately, against his will, he did. Did he want to be the one who held out her umbrella when the sky poured rain? Did he want to be the one to, after a long day, walk up to her and just let go of everything and focus on being with her? Did he want to kiss her goodnight? Did he want to wake up every morning and know he'd get to see her and take that as the only reason he had to wake?

Fuck, yes, he did.

Did he hate that he'd do all those things for a girl he didn't know?

Fuck. Freaking. Yes.

There just wasn't a point.

The stoplight was still being stupid. Kai drummed his fingers on the wheel. He really, really hated stoplights. They were helpful, but they irritated the hell out of him. Out the corner of his eye, he saw Lloyd turn in his seat to look back at her, the girl Kai had been furiously thinking about for the past two minutes. (For no reason, mind you.) They probably should've been including her in their conversations, but Kai felt uncomfortable at the thought. She was still the girl he… "wanted aimlessly." Since he had nothing better to do, he turned his head to watch. Stoplights were stupid. And he kind of observed something he wasn't expecting to see.

In what seemed like a normal action that would mean nothing, Lloyd's face and body underwent a small transformation. Kai witnessed the sudden relaxation of the kid's shoulder line. Lloyd's eyes gelled over a little, and his lips parted slightly when his eyes rested upon her face, softly beaming at her sights. Kai reeled. Wait, what, he redid the motions in his head, but it was still incomprehendable the second time around. It was that look. The look he saw on Cole's and Jay's faces when they looked at Nya. That slight conversion.

"Hey, Seiko," Lloyd said quietly. She went from peering tiredly out the window to staring into his eyes, and Kai looked back just in time to see Lloyd's body melt again. "I have a question. Do you think a fly without wings would be called a 'walk?'"

She thought about it for a moment. Her head tilted to the side and her visible eye narrowed. The other was hidden underneath her bangs. There it was, the classic expression of ultimate pondering. Kai found himself riveted to the bird-like way she tilted her head. Listening. Thinking. Softly living. After a moment, Seiko retrieved her answer, and rubbed the bare skin on her leg. "No," she decided finally. "Mean flies would just call it a 'cripple.'"

Lloyd laughed. Kai found himself chuckling, too, at the innocence of it. But he looked at his best friend and saw something underneath his skin, underneath his laughter, that you had to be the best friend to see. And it flipping blew Kai away.

Lloyd was happy.

Maybe just for a brief, fleeting, ephemeral moment, but he saw it. A glimmer of hope shined through the darkness that once eclipsed the choices of Lloyd's bitter reality. There was potential, even inside of real darkness, to be happy. A shine, a small twinkle, a something. Small, almost nonexistent particles of joy that brought actuality to a halt, that made Kai grin like the idiot he was, that made him watch Seiko and Lloyd just look at each other, that smacked him in the gut, that made him know that the Lloyd he loved was still in there somewhere. Not all hope was lost. There was still the potential to keep Lloyd grounded among that venom. Kai's fists clenched around the steering wheel as the light turned green. He'd cling to that hope for the life of him.

Always.

So expect B/C soon? :) Thanks guys for reading and being patient. Life is tough. It's beating the crap out of me.

I want you to go have the BEST day/night ever and dream the most BEAUTIFUL dream you have ever dreamed tonight.

(P-S: The last of the snow in town just melted! YAAAYYYY!)

Burning Fan Question: What is the COOLEST thing you've ever done? (So far in life!)

~Kairi