It all made sense.
How had he not seen it before?
Kai sprinted across the forest, panting and sobbing. His feet hurt so much that that he has begun limping, and with no destination, but he didn't care if it was at the bottom of the Ninjago Canyon.
He could still hear the rustling of leaves and branches in the treetops, far away, which must be where the Tura are. But Kai didn't care at all; he just had to get away, before he hurt someone else.
Kai looked down at his talons, which were swishing and swinging in the air from his knuckles.
Then Kai looked up, and stopped just in time, or else his destination would be at the bottom of the Ninjago Canyon.
Kai fell down to his bottom, sitting at the edge of the cliff, and he cried freely. Tears flowed out into his hands and slipped off his talons.
Immediately, Kai took off his boots, and tossed them aside. He wouldn't need them anymore.
And then he saw why his feet hurt so much.
Thorns and even more talons stretched out almost everywhere, one from his ankle, and five from each of his toenails. Blood swirled and flowed down form the areas, which had wet his boots.
And then Kai noticed that fur had spawned and grown all over his body.
He was becoming a Turan.
Kai laid on his back, looking at the Stars.
How had he not seen it before? The inhuman strength he had used to defend himself against the Turan in the room, the night vision he had used to read the note in the mansion, to see Nya in the fog, and to sprint through the woods without looking down because he could see the roots.
And the dreams. That was what had caused the dreams of the mysterious woman, and the Rushes he got when a voice spoke to him.
Kai put his hands to his face, wondering how he could be so dumb. It was so obvious.
Why hadn't he seen it before?
A rustle behind him breaks him from his distressful thoughts.
"I told you to not be in the woods during Night, Kai."
And then everything went black.
Cole's injured ear rang loudly, and he felt dizzy. He tried to sit up, but regretted it once the rush in his head came. He couldn't move.
"Cole! You're awake!" Jay's voice said, and relief filled the little boy. There was somebody who had saved him after all.
Jay sat the boy up, careful of his injured ear that was in a bloody bandage. Nya and Zane were there also, and all three seemed to be sharing the same relief Cole felt.
"Cole, how are you feeling?" Zane asked, concerned. Cole nodded.
"I'm fine, just shocked." he replied. "What happened?"
"We thought that you knew." Nya said, and suddenly everything came rushing back to him. The Turan, the woods.
Kai, turning into a monster, and cutting his ear with...with his talon.
"I-I" Cole stuttered, unsure of how to put his story. It was too much for anybody, especially him, to take. Nya's brother, if that was what he even was at all, was a monster. A Turan, destined to kill them all.
"Cole, I know you, and I know that look." Jay told him sternly. "You're hiding something. What is it?"
"We're just trying to find Kai. When we found you, he wasn't there, and we're worried about him." Nya added, and her eyes showed just that. She wanted to know where her brother was.
And she deserved to know.
"Y-you shouldn't feel worried about him."
It slipped out before he could stop it. But it was true. Cole wasn't worried at all for Kai. He hurt him. He's a monster now, no longer any of their friends. As hard as it'll be to accept this, it was the truth and a fact.
Kai can no longer be accepted.
Cole watched his friend's and his brother's faces as he tells them exactly what happened, and what Kai had done.
And exactly what Cole thought of it.
Nya had her hands over her mouth, and looked as if she was about to break down right there, but Cole doubted it severely. He knew Nya, and it didn't sound like her at all.
Jay had his eyebrows raised, and anger blatantly showing in his eyes, and Cole could tell he was more mad than anything else, that his best friend hurt his brother.
And Zane looked stoic, as always, but underneath, anger, sadness, and disbelief that he couldn't have known before. All the signs had been there, but he was too dim and unfocused to notice.
"Do you know where he is?" Nya asked in a shaky voice, and Zane clasped his hand around hers, and Jay did the same, and tenderly.
"No. Sorry." Cole said sincerely. "But I don't want to know. Like I said, he isn't on our side anymore, and he shouldn't be. He's not even our same species."
"Cole, he's my brother and I love him." Nya bursts. "And I will go look for him and find him, if it's the last thing I do."
"And it probably will be." Cole responds. "He's going to kill you, you know. A single scratch from his talon caused this." Cole points to his bloody ear that was soaking the bandage.
"Fine." Nya said bravely. "I'll deal with him. I'll figure something out. But I am not just going to sit here and do nothing while Kai is out there alone and has no idea what he's doing."