So I started this way back in like January, but I just found it in my drafts and figured it would be fun to post. Enjoy a little meta character study!
They're looking for the scroll in the Explorer's Club when Lloyd stumbles upon a mirror. It's nothing special, not at first glance, but something catches his eyes and he has to do a double take.
It's him, but it's not him. Lloyd feels like he's looking into a snapshot of the past. His younger face looks back at him, shadowed by the dark hoodie he wears. Lloyd makes a face and his double returns it.
The backdrop of the mirror has been murky, but now it clears. The ninja are standing around him, with his mother, father, and uncle. They're all smiling and laughing and talking with each other but their expressions fall when they see Lloyd. Kai sneers and Nya laughs behind her hand. Cole rolls his eyes. Zane stares over his head like he's not there. Jay starts into a silent rant.
His mother glares at him. His uncle gives him a look of disapproval.
And his father? His father looks so disappointed that Lloyd's breath catches in his throat.
One by one, they all turn their backs. The little Lloyd starts crying. His tears reflect Lloyd's own.
Nya has to be special, but Kai has to be powerful. It's something that just is, a fact, not a boast, something that's as true as the sun rising each morning or thunder after lightning or Nya and Lloyd being his- his to protect, his to defend. He's clawed his way from being a nobody to being one of the six protectors of his country. He's cut down cults, travelled to different realms, and jumped back in time. Every time he's alongside his family, through the ups and downs, the misfortunes and the tragedies, standing at their sides proudly because no matter what, they got through things together. They were equals. They could rely on each other.
Except now none of this is true. Kai has no power. He's dragging the group down, and instead of relying on him, they have to work around him. He's not sure what he's most afraid of: that they'll fail because of him, or that they'll decide he's not even worth the effort and leave him behind. Like this, he can't do the one thing he knows he's good at. Instead of protecting, he's the one being protected.
So he looks in the mirror and his own reflection stares back.
When Jay looks in the mirror, everything seems the same at first. He tilts his head this way and that, trying to figure out what's so special about it.
But one by one, his flaws jump out at him. The acne pockmarks on his forehead and cheeks. The tattered state of his clothes. His gapped teeth. His too-dark freckles. His left eye that closes more than the right when he smiles his lopsided smile.
Without thinking about it, his hands come up to block the sight of his face in the mirror. His fingers are crooked, his hands are scarred. He looks away and catches sight of his unsightly arms.
Jay doesn't leave the mirror for a long time.
Cole does a double take as he passes by the mirror. He could have sworn he saw a flash of something moving behind him, something definitely not him, but when he checks again all he sees is his own reflection.
That's not entirely true. Something seems off about it, and it only takes Cole a split second before his eyes zero in on the bright pink stretchy headband that's suddenly pushing his hands off his head. His hand flies up, both in real life and his reflection, but his fingers only brush skin.
That's not what his reflection does, though. His fingers skim along the headband and Cole realizes with sudden clarity that that's not the only thing that's different about him. His frame is... skinnier, for lack of a better word, lean muscle where there should be biceps, oversized tee shirt hanging loosely off his shoulders. He looks like a dancer, he realizes with a start, and as soon as his brain makes that connection his reflection is looking at something beyond him.
Cole glances over his shoulder and sees nothing. When he returns his attention to the mirror, however, the reflection of a tv screen is playing out across the surface. 'DEVOURER WRECKS THE CITY' proclaims the headline, and his reflection self clenches his fists before following his father, who's just appeared in the background, into their basement.
Cole has never been good at sitting around and doing nothing. It's why, during the gap when the other ninja became television stars, or security testers, or whatever it was that Kai was doing, Cole was out among the common people, chopping down trees and filling trucks. It's why he never can sleep, why his head is full of so many possibilities that he stays up night after night, making up solutions to hypotheticals that may never occur. It's why Lloyd replacing him as leader hurt so much and left him floundering for months. He has to be useful, has to feel useful, because if he's not benefitting the team why is he even here?
Cole stares into the mirror, long after the images have faded from it.