Hi I just want to say that yeah Zane not having any blood would've been a conversation starter but I wanted Katara to have a moment since I do focus on the ninja quite often.
Next morning after getting their stuff and heading to the top of the mountain
Kai's sitting next to Nya comforting her as Katara healed his minor injuries. "I still don't understand how she took you down." Cole said and Kai grumbles. "She bended my blood and made it look like I was actually walking on my own accord. I couldn't do anything! She used me like a living puppet. All because I control fire like all my brethren as she put it." Kai said with a angery glare and a small shiver at the memory. "And now I can do that." Nya whispers softly tearing up and clutching Kai's shirt as he pulls her in for a hug. "It's your choice on whether or not to use that power I don't care if you grow a extra toe. I will always be on your side and love you till the end." Kai whispers to her. "But aren't you scared of me?" Nya asks. "I'm only scared of you after I do something stupid and almost get killed doing it." Kai said with a small chuckle. "So all the time then?" Nya said as she laughed a little to with Kai following it.
"That reminds me Aang time to practice those stances." Kai said and Aang groans. "Don't you need more time to heal?" Aang asks. "I'm fine with or without water healing." Kai states giving Nya one last hug before getting up and showing Aang some basic poses. He does his best to copy him but still falls over on a few. "I need more than basics if I'm going to face the fire lord Azula at the least." Aang grumbles. "Who's Azula?" Cole asks. "The fire lords daughter one of the most skilled benders in history." Sokka said. "And liars even I can't tell when she's lying." Toph said. "Can you at least teach me how to summon fire?" Aang asks. "Fine but if you complain I'm making you walk in lava." Kai said and from the tone in his voice it was clear he would go through with it.
The others watch as Kai summons a column of fire into the air. "You need to use a strong emotion to summon it using anger helps but it distracts you from your goal. You need to use a emotion that won't distract you from your goals." Kai explains. "Oh yeah like anger isn't the only way to make fire." Sokka said with a eye roll. "Who's the teacher here?" Kai asks. "All I know is that fire is used with anger." Sokka said. "Who told you that?" Kai asks crossing his arms. "Umm how about we go back to the poses?" Aang asks trying to keep a fight from breaking out. He's ignored. "Oh about every fire bender I've met is a complete jerk so why should you be a exception?" Sokka asks. "He's only a jerk at first he gets better." Jay said also trying to stop a fight from breaking out. "See? Even your own friend said your a jerk." Sokka said with a gesture at Jay. "Sokka." Katara said in a warning tone. "Oh well your being a jerk right now to. Your lucky I didn't burn you at the first sentence." Kai said in a threatening tone. "Kai." Nya said getting ignored as well. "Oh how original just like a fire bender they hurt and don't care who. I bet you've had it easy in your life being the master of fire. I'm willing to bet you haven't worked a day in your life." Sokka said getting up. "Oh yeah? How are you any better? From what I've heard you never did anything more than build snow forts in the tribe while your sister did all the work." Kai said pointing to Katara. "Who told you that?" Sokka asks sending a glare and Aang looks away guiltily whistling. "I had to I was the oldest guy I had to make sure the fire nation didn't attack us while our father and the other men were off fighting." Sokka said. "Then why didn't you go with them?" Kai asks. "I wasn't old enough yet." Sokka grumbles. "It doesn't steer away from the fact you never did more than play soldier." Kai said with air quotes at the soldier part. "I had to! I couldn't risk them taking Katara! Like they took my mother." Sokka said with his fists clenched. "You still had your tribe to help you. You still had your father." Kai said his fists smoking. "I had a duty to them. I never had any special magic to help me. Unlike you, I bet it got you and your parents lots of money." Sokka said. Kai sucks in a deep breath and the ninja get up about to hold their friend back. "You have no idea what it's like to feel grief! You have no idea what it's like to be responsible!" Kai yells at Sokka. "At least I actually make a battle plan and don't go in blazing. I actually plan ahead and stick to the plan making no risks. You just go in blazing annihilating everyone in your way. You're even hailed as a hero in your world bet that makes mom and dad proud." Sokka said with a sneer.
Sokka had been having a grudge against this guy since he met him. He was quiet about it but he could never deny the fact he thought this kid had been having it too easy in his life compared to the rest of them. He was to quick and confident he blindly took on thirty fire benders by himself. Without a plan that was stupid and incompetent. That last sentence seemed to break Kai and he opens his mouth blazing hot fire comes out. Sokka dodges it and it sets the tree that was behind him on fire. He looks up at Kai who seemed shocked at what he did like he didn't even know he could do that. "That's enough for today." Kai said showing no regret in his tone or face. He gives Sokka one last glare before running off into the woods. He finds it really quiet and turns around to see the ninja all glaring at him. "What? You said it yourself he's a jerk." Sokka said defensively. "You have no idea what he's been through." Zane said. "Oh yeah a master of fire has had it so tough? What is it? Did his parents send him to bed without desert?" Sokka asks.
"You had your tribe to look after you. You had your father. My parents disappeared when I turned three and we had no one. Our "guardian" used him as a punching bag and spent all the money Kai made working every job you could name on his precious drinks. Our guardian never even fed us. Kai had to go to the local grocery store and take all the free samples so I could eat. He actually stepped up and protected me from all the hardships he went through. I didn't even know what he did for me until I made him tell me how he got that scar on his eye. He got it by keeping that drunk man out of my room so he wouldn't hurt me. When Kai turned thirteen he took me and moved out working as a blacksmith like our father every waking hour just to pay for food. The reason he acts the way he does is because he bottles up all his anger till it pops. He may be a master of fire but he has gone through hell for us and just because he bends fire you feel the right to assume he's never felt pain. Well your wrong he's felt more pain than any of us." Nya said with a glare at Sokka before getting up and walking away she just didn't want to be near Sokka. Sokka was staring at Nya as she walked away feeling like a complete jerk. "I'm gonna go apologize." Sokka said. "It's better to give him time to cool off." Lloyd suggests. "Trust us we've learned the hard way." Cole adds touching his hair with a shiver clearly Kai did not want to be disturbed to soon.
Sokka sighs and sits down in a area away from the rest of the group who busied themselves with camping tasks to ignore the awkward silence. Lloyd goes over and sits down next to Sokka on a rock and he sighs instead looking out over the cliff side. "You here to chew me out for being rude to Kai?" Sokka asks. "Sorta I'm here to ask you have a grudge against someone a fire bender I'm willing to bet. Your taking out your anger on him for it." Lloyd said. "Fine you caught me! I hate fire benders because the fire benders killed my mother. Kai's parents may have only disappeared. But he didn't have to go into his own home to find his mother charred to a crisp her whole body black from the fire. Every time I think of my mother I see her black charred body the only thing that wasn't ash was the necklace Katara's wearing right now. Just can't imagine why anyone would do that to a living being." Sokka said not making eye contact. "There haven't always been good elemental masters. There have been those who use their power and hurt people badly. It's not the power itself it's the person who uses that power and how." Lloyd said. Sokka takes a moment before answering he never thought it that way. The fire nation has been causing destruction for over a century but in a sense that was just how they had been raised. Raised to fight and kill its hard wired into their brains. "That makes sense I guess never really thought of it that way." Sokka said. "Take Hama for example she used her power to make harm but she wasn't a fire bender. Even if it looks like you don't have a choice you always have a choice. You just need to make the right one." Lloyd said. After a awkward pause Sokka works up the question he wants to ask.
"Did you know?" Sokka asked and Lloyd didn't need to ask what he meant. "Kai doesn't want people's pity he never told anyone. But we still found out." Lloyd said. "How?" Sokka asks. "After a fight with a local gang Kai got over confident and broke his arm. We knew how to fix it and all we had done it a million times with the others including myself. But Kai had never needed it before so it was a first for him. Zane X-rayed Kai and we got the bandage on it but later he pulled us aside. He said that Kai had multiple injuries from long ago that suggested he was never treated right. At first we didn't believe him so he scanned Nya only to find nothing. We looked through the options and everything and eventually we worked up enough courage and asked him about it." Lloyd said. "What did he say?" Sokka asks finally looking at Lloyd. "He denied it at first but we showed him the X-rays we printed. Some of the injuries were bad like muscle over use, multiple head trauma, broken arms and wrists using what looked like a baseball bat, and among them were several that looked like they needed medical attention but just miraculously healed by itself. Even after all that he still denied any of it making one excuse after another. Until Nya came in after all the yelling and we told her what was happening. He could never lie to her he practically raised her. After two hours of us yelling at him to admit it all it took was one question from her and he admitted everything. Even something he thought we knew but didn't." Lloyd said with a sigh. "What was that?" Sokka asked as Lloyd sighed and closed his eyes.
That night they questioned him on the bounty
"Kai, Zane X-rayed you remember?" Jay started. They had all gathered in thier shared bunk room and were all gathered around Kai on his red bed who had just looked up from a game he was playing. "And my armed healed up just fine. What's the problem?" Kai asks. "Well I found some more injuries that were odd." Zane said sheepishly. "We train or fight like twenty-four seven of course I got some other injuries." Kai said not really catching on to the purpose. "Yeah but he said he found some other older injuries." Lloyd said sheepishly. Kai's face flashes for a moment but the ninja can't read its expression before it morphed back to a annoyed look. "I worked a lot as a kid I got the occasional scrape from working odd jobs." Kai said rolling his eyes and going back to his game on his phone before Cole snatched it out of his hand. "Kai! You know what we mean. Look at these X-rays Zane managed to use a new program that deaged them to when they originally were made." Cole said shoving one of the X-rays in the fire ninja's face. He takes it and burns it up in his hands. "You are all over reacting from a few minor injuries when I was a kid." Kai said in a cold tone. "Minor injuries!? My scans say that it is a miracle you are still breathing properly. You got strangled often enough when you were six." Zane said. "No I didn't." Kai said harshly getting up to be at eye level with them all. "What about the other times you broke your arms? You told us this was your first but the X-rays clearly show that you had broken them before with a baseball bat." Jay said getting out another print that Kai grabbed and burned up again. "I played baseball when I was a kid got hit with the bat playing that catcher person behind the home base." Kai said defensively not making much eye contact. "You wear helmets in baseball and you have had multiple concussions from eight to thirteen without much treatment. Also we already asked Nya you never played any sports." Lloyd said crossing his arms and giving Kai a glare that Kai returned much more ferociously. "I had a okay childhood with Nya nothing out of the ordinary. And this just proves to me that you guys have nothing better to do in your free time than check out a guys medical records." Kai said with a raised eyebrow.
The ninja look at each other knowing he was technically right but they weren't going to let Kai's stubbornness derail them. They had to get it out of him, so they could bring it to the police and get the person who did it in jail.
"We also went through a couple of news papers from the village you and Nya grew up in." Jay adds. "So you also like reading old crosswords?" Kai asked dryly. "They were enjoyable." Zane muses. "Not that. It says here that you were found by the nearby river after a storm. You had nearly drowned and once you got to the hospital you had hypothermia and nearly had you fingers cut off." Cole said pointing to the picture of a nine year old Kai being pulled out of a river with rushing water and very sharp rocks. "I have never thought things through that often." Kai said defensively. "Your missing the point! You have always been afraid of large amounts of water. Why did you go in the river in the first place? Who pushed you in?" Jay asks. "No one!" Kai screams at them. "Who abused you? Who hurt you? Why didn't you tell anyone? In the paper it said here that your guardian was with Nya when you snuck out and jumped in the river. But why did you jump in the river? Who had been hurting you? And if so why doesn't Nya have anything similar?" Lloyd asks. "Let it go I was stupid that's all." Kai said attempting to leave but Cole blocks the door out. "What do you want from me!" Kai yells at them anger clear on his face. "What's going on in here?" Nya asks pushing Cole aside and coming in with her hands on her hips accusingly. Before Kai could stop them the ninja all shout at her what they had learned and Nya looks skeptic. She turns to Kai who was taking deep breaths like Wu had taught him to do when he was angry. "Kai did you get abused after mum and dad left?" Nya asks. Kai looks down and stays silent he could lie all he liked to the guys but not Nya, never his sister. The fact he wasn't responding got Nya worried and she grabbed his shoulder. "Kai did you get abused when you were little?" Nya asks again making her big brother face her. He's silent for a moment before answering. "It was me or you." Kai answers in a whisper that they barely heard him. They're all silent for a moment before Nya asks. "Who?". "Adam our guardian." Kai answers. "But he only got drunk a couple of times and it never hurt anyone." Nya said remembering that Adam wasn't the nicest but okay enough. "Those were the times I couldn't hide it from you. He was drunk every night even when he wasn't drunk he would hurt me. He said that if I ever told anyone he would hurt you much worse. You were barely older than a toddler I couldn't risk it." Kai said not making eye contact with any of them. "Why did you never tell us?" Lloyd asks. "I don't want your pity I had a rough childhood I got over it." Kai said with a harsh glare. "The river?" Cole asks. "Nya had broken the window playing with a ball. I took the blame he wasn't even drunk when it happened. He just grabbed me by the hair and threw me in during the storm I barely got out alive." Kai said with a shiver at the memory. "So all the injuries?" Jay asks. "The strangling, the concussions, the baseball bat, the needle injections all done by him." Kai said snatching his phone back from Cole and began walking out.
He didn't want people's pity he just wanted to leave it all behind him and what Adam had used him as to make money. Before he put his hand on the knob Zane speaks something that made his blood run cold. "What injections? What do you mean by that?" Zane asked and Kai pauses. "They didn't know!" He thinks to himself panicked though he had learned not to show that emotion often. He gives Nya a small glance before walking out the door and going to the kitchen. After a moment of drinking some water from a glass the others came in. "Kai what injections?" Nya asked placing a hand on her brothers shoulder. He stiffens not looking at any of them as the memories flooded his mind memories he suppressed for a reason. "Kai this might be still happening to another kid that this Adam is looking after. We need to know what you mean by injections?" Lloyd said. "I don't want to tell you my sob story. I don't want your looks of pity. I learnt that letting people see your emotions are weak. I never show my emotions for a reason. Because if they see a weakness they use it and kill you from the inside." Kai states crossing his arms and turning to look at them all with the harshest glare he can muster. "Hey buddy we know your strong but maybe telling someone would be good for you." Jay said in a soothing voice.
Kai's face softened but he still didn't want to relive those memories. "You don't have to tell us but if you let me have a more thorough scan of your body I can relay the information so you don't have to say anything." Zane said. Kai is still hesitant but gives a small nod as a pale blue light covers him before disappearing. After a few minutes that felt like a eternity Zane speaks in his automatic voice that showed no emotion in his words. "You have excessive faded scarring on your wrists and ankles to suggest you were often tied down with rope as a child. Along with small faded scarring that is often found on drug addicts after several drug injections or doses." Zane relays and Kai just falls to the floor as the memories full on flood him as if they were happening all over again. "I was his test subject. He made the drugs I tested them whether I was willing or not. They would hurt every time he grabbed me at any time of day and pull me into his lab tie me down and gag me so I wouldn't scream and start injecting. I would hallucinate, I would feel burning, I would laugh for hours upon hours from the drugs. I would go limp and be unable to move my body but still be conscious." Kai said tears stinging his eyes. Nya gets down next to him and gives him a strong hug, she never knew what he hid from her to keep her happy. "Why didn't you ever tell? Or at the least how did no one suspect anything?" Cole asks. "Adam was a respected police officer he had enough connections to get someone to turn a blind eye." Nya said. "I did tell once. It didn't turn out well and things got worse for me." Kai said hiding his face from the others.
"Is that why my scans say among other things happened? During when you were under the drug that made you body go limp?" Zane asks fiddling with his ninja sleeve. "I was nothing more than a moneymaker for him. It was me or Nya I couldn't risk it. He used me to make money in every sick way you can name." Kai said venom in his words. "Including-?" Lloyd asks. "Yes including rape to whichever sicko paid the dough." Kai said as tears fell from his eyes not even Nya had ever seen him cry before. The others went to give him a hug but he got up and pushed past them and locked himself in the bathroom.
"Give him time to settle down we can discuss this more later." Lloyd said. "Nya did you have any suspicion of this at all?" Jay asks. "No I had no clue." Nya said barely more than a whisper as she leans against her boyfriend for comfort.
Present
"Aww Jesus he went through that as a kid?" Sokka said and Lloyd nods. Sokka wasn't entirely familiar with the scanning and technology thing but he understood the worse of it. "He never let it show though." Lloyd said. "So this Adam guy who was meant to protect and keep him safe made him go through worse than hell? For money?" Sokka asks and Lloyd nods again. "After that it was weeks before he talked to any of us including Nya. He doesn't want pity he wants respect." Lloyd said. "I'm going to apologize now." Sokka said getting up and leaving Lloyd to think on things.
When he finds Kai he's in a opening that from the looks of it he made himself if the scorch marks were anything to go by. He didn't realize that Sokka had showed up until he almost decapitated Sokka using his katana. Though he didn't look sorry about it and just continued to chop down the trees. "What do you want?" Kai asked. "I'm here to say I'm sorry your friend Lloyd and sister told me about what you went through as a kid. I never imagined someone like you could go through that." Sokka said rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't want your pity. I just want to take my anger out." Kai said as he set a tree on fire. "Put that out! We could get spotted!" Sokka said and Kai rolls his eyes and puts it out. "Oh another fire bender mistake?" Kai asks sarcastically with a glare before putting his sword away and sitting down on a stump. "Look I was a jerk for saying that it's just." Sokka starts. "Just what?" Kai asked with a sharp edge in his tone. "A fire bender killed my mother by burning her alive. I'm not making excuses but still it's hard to find your own mother at seven years old, in your own home, burned to ash that you didn't even recognize her. I don't even remember what she looked like because that's all I see when I try to remember her." Sokka said looking at his feet. Kai's silent but he does give Sokka a side ways glance. "But I understand that it's what a person chooses to do with the power not everyone is to blame for one." Sokka said. "Are you looking for pity?" Kai asked. "No I'm asking you to forgive me and maybe show me a few of those sword moves?" Sokka said. "I won't go easy but I won't use my power." Kai said the tiniest hint of amusement on his face. Sokka smiles as Kai gets up and into a fighting stance and Sokka does the same. "Let's go water boy." Kai said as he charged and Sokka did the same metal clashing.