A/N: How was your Christmas or any other holiday celebration? Mine was great! I got two new swords to add to my sword colection, lots of arrows with changeable tips (yes, I am a girl), and lots of Lego sets (only Lord of the Rings and Ninjago sets)! What did you get?
Anyway, I realized that I have been only doing review idea and not any one the PMed ones, opps *cheeky grin* sorry. So I did xXxNightshadexXx's idea. xXxNightshadexXx asked me to put some of her favorite songs in this, so I did. She said she liked what the words meant but forgot some of it (because they are in Elvish), so I had to buy the CD of Thomas Bergersen to get the translation (now he is my favorite composer). xXxNightshadexXx even wanted me to put in a song from Lord of the Rings (not that I mind) in it.
I got a couple of PM's that asked me why I made Garamdon so evil in the last story, I did it because I think he would be a bit more evil if it wasn't for some of the young viewers.
Title: Victory Comes at a Price
Summery: We all know that to have victory something always has to be given in return. So why does it hurt so much when it comes to pass?
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Charaters: Kai, Cole, Zane, Jay, Nya, Lloyd, Sensei Wu, Garmadon, Dr. Julien, Misako and the Serpentine.
Rating: T, for vilonce.
Anwering Reviews!
VIPHMD: Sure! I think those stories are sweet.
IDEAS D: Okay!
ninjago1019: It is a great movie! You would not be disapointed. Thanks! I love twists in the end.
Guest: I hate Ciffhangers too! They are so annoying! It is like the people who make cliffhangers love to watch people suffer!
ninja girl777: Thank you!
Princess Sillia: Good, I was hopping readers would love it!
Guest: I have just changed it.
Skip Dip 514: I shall post it!
Guest: I know I did!
Guest: Sorry for not writting your Amber fanfic yet, but I will try to do those some.
Disclaimer- This is not my idea, all credit goes to xXxNightShadexXx. I do not own Ninjago, the songs I used from Thomas Bergersen or Billy Boyd's song.
The songs I used from Thomas Bergersen are: Merchant Prince, Ocean Princess and A Place in Heaven. The song I used from Lord of the rings is Edge of Night. If you haven't already listened to them I highly recomend you do, for they are great songs and they will blow your mind!
Victory Comes at a Price
Kai ducked as a Serpentine blade was about to decapitate him, "hasn't anyone ever told you that you aim stinks? It almost stinks more than you, and that is saying something," Kai said mordantly.
The snake hissed and redoubled its effort, but it was all for not. Kai did spinjitzu and knocked out the Serpentine.
This was a really fun time for Kai because, he had been injured and his brothers would not let him fight or get out of bed for a week! They kept on babying him. Kai hated being babied; ever since his parents died he had always looked after Nya first then himself, pushing himself to the limits to get enough money for them, and when he didn't get enough for both of them he would give all the food and money to her. Even when he was sick or injured, Kai always hid it from Nya, putting on a brave face, not letting her see how much pain he was in, as to not worry her, and soon it became a habit. But before he could hide that he had been sliced by a blade, Cole noticed his ripped ninja suit and dragged him to Nya and she scolded him and made him bed-ridden for a week.
Now he was finally out and fighting again, hitting Serpentine left and right. Kai looked to his brothers, they were all doing great not letting any snake get a single hit. Jay's back was turned to him he was fighting four Serpentine at once. Kai heard a soft sinister chuckle, he looked to where the noise had come it was a Serpentine archer and his shaft was aimed at Jay's back. Kai jumped in front of Jay's unprotected back, as the Serpentine released the arrow, getting the arrow lodged deep in his side, he hissed in pain. Kai threw his sword at the archer, hitting it square in the face.
Kai stood there gasping for breath; he calmed himself down contemplating on what he should do next: should he tell his brothers and be babied for more weeks or should he do what he normally does, putting on a brave face living with the pain and not being babied.
He decided. The arrow was almost through to the other side, Kai's clean-cut and fine features scrunched up in pain, barely able to hold back a scream of agony as he pushed the rest of it all the way through. Once it pierced through the skin on his back he broke off the arrow's tip before ripping the barbless arrow out. Kai dropped the tip-less shaft on the ground and held his wound, trying not to show any pain.
The battle was over and the ninja had won, "I think the Serpentine are getting easier every time we fight them," Cole boasted.
"We were so awesome! I didn't even get one scratch," Jay bragged, not knowing that if Kai had not jumped in front of him he would be dead.
"Your being quiet Kai," Zane observed, "You are usually the first to celebrate."
Kai calmed himself and made his voice sound not pained in the slightest, "I am just thinking, and I have to let other people gloat first don't I?"
The ninja laughed, "I want to go back to the bounty, play some video games and eat Zane's cooking," Jay said.
Everybody but Kai agreed, he knew he wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to make or ride his vehicle now, as to not get babied he lied, "you guys go ahead, I saw a stream over that ridge-"
Kai didn't get to finish his sentence because his brothers had already raced off eager to eat and play video games. He put pressure on his wound and limped over to the stream.
Once Kai got there he took off the top of his ninja suit and rolled up his red undershirt. He ripped off some pieces of his undershirt and dipped one piece in the cool stream water. Kai cleaned out his arrow wound to make sure it wouldn't get infected; he took the other strip of cloth and wrapped it around his middle. He cleaned off the blood on his tunic and invisibly sewed the holes up. Once he was done he realized that he had been at it an hour, 'they will probably wonder where I am,' Kai thought.
He put back on his tunic right before the Destiny's Bounty came into viewing range.
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Once Jay won the video game the ninja stopped playing and ate food that Zane had cooked. It had been an hour and the ninja had gotten worried about him.
"Where is he? Do you think he was captured?" Cole asked.
"Maybe he is taking a bath, he did say he wanted to go to the stream," Zane said.
"How about I go to the place where you guys battled the serpentine and see if he is still there?" Nya suggested.
"Works okay for me," Cole agreed.
They ran quickly to the bridge and Nya flew over to the ninjas' last location. They looked on the screen and saw Kai putting on his shirt, "so he did take a bath," exclaimed Cole.
"Why would he take a bath in the stream?" Nya inquired, "why not in here?"
Jay stifled a laugh, "maybe because he sings really loud and horribly."
"My brother has a beautiful singing voice," Nya said defending her brother.
"Kai can sing?" Cole inquired surprised.
"Of course he can, Kai sang me to sleep every nig-" Nya's hazel went wide and she put a hand over her mouth as she realized what she was saying.
Cole smirked, "I will have to make him sing sometime."
The ninja and samurai walked out on the deck to meet Kai, "how was your bath?" Jay asked with a cheeky grin.
Kai looked a little confused for a second then realization hit him, "it was great. I'm famished; did you eat all of the lunch Zane cooked?"
They nodded, "it was so good! We just couldn't stop eating it," Jay said while rubbing his stomach.
Kai rolled his eyes, "I'll make my own food then."
He walked into the kitchen and quickly closed the door and locked it; he went to the herb cupboard and pulled out all the herbs he would need to properly clean out his wound. Kai boiled some of them and squeezed out the water until he was left with the herbs as a mush, he put it in his wound and cleaned it out with cold water, then he put calendula, arnica and comfrey around the wound so it would not inflate or get infected and so it would heal the burse that had started to form.
He washed the off the strip of cloth and rewrapped it around his middle. Kai hated to admit it but the arrow wound, even though it was small, hurt way than one would think, it felt like a raging fire. It hurt to walk with his left leg, for the pain was almost unbearable on that side.
Kai walked out of the kitchen and into his shared room, he painfully got onto his to bunk bed and laid on his right side, he went to sleep almost instantly.
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"Where is Kai?" Sensei Wu asked, "This is an important lesson and I don't want him to miss it."
"We'll go look for him sensei," the three ninja said as one.
Zane was the one to find him. He was on his bed in a tight ball with sweat dripping off his forehead, "Kai wake up!"
Kai didn't get up, 'okay,' Zane thought, 'desperate times calls for desperate measures.'
Kai woke up when somebody started playing the annoying mariachi music; this sacrilegious music always had him jumping out of bed in an instant, this time was no different. He shot out of bed, hissing in pain when he jostled his gash, but still looked over to the person playing the profane music. It was Zane. Not only was he playing the horrendous music, but he was dancing like a deranged disco dancer.
'That is it,' Kai thought grumpily, 'why did Nya tell them that I hate that wretched mariachi music?'
He hopped off his bed went over to him and punched him in the face, "Ow! What was that for?" Zane squeaked feigning hurt.
"You know the rules: play mariachi music and get punched in the face," Kai said his ears still ringing from the blasphemies music.
Zane laughed, "come on, Sensei is going to train us."
"Kai you need to put your all into this move or you will be on the bottom," Sensei scolded.
"And you don't know how much it hurts," Cole grunted from the bottom of the stack.
"You deserved it," Jay said in the middle of the stack, "you smart mouthed Sensei."
Sensei had made Cole do a handstand and made Zane and Jay do a handstand with one hand on each of Cole's foot, then they locked there left and right hand together, he made Kai put one hand on one of Jay's foot and the other hand on one of Zane's to do a handstand, and then Sensei Wu sat on Kai's feet and started drinking tea. Sensei then made them do push-ups and they had to stay perfectly straight or else they would fail.
Kai could barely stay conscious; the pain was like little explosions going off around the wound.
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For a whole week Kai lived with the pain because the gash would not close, 'I think I better see a doctor, I have done almost all I can, the last arrow wound that I had did not hurt this much or last this long,' he thought to himself.
Kai walked into the hospital wearing a red shirt with a flame on it, he wore a sweater over it, zipping the zipper halfway and he wore black pants. Kai was afraid of hospitals and doctors, and he was glad when his mother had taught him all the herbs and their uses.
"Next in line please," said a fat cantankerous lady.
Kai walked up to the desk.
Her deep scratchy voice said, "What's your name?"
"Shakai," he answered, he looked at her tag for her name it said: Janice.
"Why do you need to see the doctor? Wait let me guess, you are constipated," Kai made a disgusted face and shook his head no, "no? Okay you feel a bit ill and you want to get a pill to feel better," the cranky lady continued this for more than 10 minutes not letting Kai say anything.
Finally Kai lost his temper, "Stop!" he yelled.
Janice looked startled then stopped, "okay then what is your problem?" She said clearly irritated.
"I got shot by an arrow and I want a doctor to check it to see if the wound is infected or something," Kai said agitated.
"Well why didn't you say that in the first place!" Janice said, Kai rolled his eyes, "you will go to the 9th floor and the room number is 1978, you will be with doctor Taran, he specializes in that sort of stuff. Here is your note."
Kai finally made it to the room after getting lost a couple of times, he knocked on the door, "come in."
Kai walked in the door, "are you Shakai?" Taran asked.
"Yes."
"Let me see it the wound," he ordered.
Kai slowly lifted his shirt and unwrapped his bandages, "it looks like you already did all the grunt work," Taran said, "When did you sustain your injury?"
"Last week," Kai answered.
"And it still hasn't closed? Strange. On a scale of 1 to 10 what would you label the pain as?"
"An 8," he replied truthfully.
An hour later Kai walked out of the hospital, the doctor had taken some tests to see why his wound was so bad. Taran said to come back in a week when the results were in.
He came back to the ship and started a new daily routine, one that would make his injury have the most possibly of it healing.
A week later he returned to the doctor's office, he barely felt pain anymore and the hole had closed up; he did not know what possessed him to go there that day.
Dr. Taran stood there with a plastid face, "Shakai, I am sorry to be the one who has to break this news to you," he paused.
"Come on spit it out!" Kai exclaimed.
He looked at him sadly, "the arrow had a poisoned tip," Kai's dark green eyes went wide, the doctor continued, "and we found out that the poison on the tip is a slowly moving poison," he paused again, "you only have a year to live."
"Really?" Kai asked in disbelief.
"I am sorry but it is the truth," Taran answered.
"Is there a cure?" Kai inquired.
"The poison is so rare and is barely used. I am sorry but there is no antidote," the doctor said apologetically.
"Oh." Kai said still in shock, "only a year?"
"Yes, the poison never kills earlier or any later than a year, in all the known cases it is always precise."
Kai nodded slowly and trudged back to the Destiny's Bounty.
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"What is wrong with Kai lately? He has been very depressed this week," Nya inquired to Cole.
"Maybe he is sad that he is not the Green Ninja," Cole teased.
"That is not it that was 2 weeks before. He was depressed when he came back from grocery shopping."
Cole became serious, "we have noticed that too, he is drawn into himself, he doesn't joke around anymore."
"I think we need to confront him," Zane said as he and Jay joined the conversation.
They all agreed. They found Kai sitting on the dragons head at prow of the Destiny's Bounty. As they drew nearer they heard Kai talking, it sounded like a one-sided conversation.
"-it is not fair! Why do I have to be the one who suffers?" He paused like someone was replying to him, "you're right: we cannot choose how much time we have, only what we can do with the time that is given to us. I guess I haven't been doing that very much lately, my situation doesn't define who I am, does it?" He paused again, "I will do that…I should make the most out of the time that is given to me. Never do tomorrow what you can do today, for you never know how long you got, right?" He chuckled, "you are right again, mom, this time I do know how long I have," there was a moment of silence, "I love those songs, would you mind if I joined you?"
Soon a sweet tenor voice filled the air with a minor almost Celtic sounding song:
"Home is behind,
The world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread,
Through shadow,
To the edge of night,
Until the stars are all aligned,
Mist and shadow,
Cloud and shade,
All shall fade,
All shall fade."
After that song was over he sang another minor song:
"I know it is time,
My angel to guide me,
My demon to fight,
May God give me the strength to trust in his Light,
I am prince. I am warrior
And my time to stand is here."
Kai's eyes went wide, "hey! You made me sing that on purpose didn't you?" He gave the air next to him a hairy eyeball, there was a silence and then he laughed again, "you know what mom, I think I am going insane! You are not supposed to be here, you-you died," the last part he said very quietly, he put a hand to his heart, "I know, mom, I know."
Kai took his hand off his heart and hugged the air, "I love you," there was a last pause before he cried, "don't go, please don't go," he brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around himself and let out a frustrated cry. Kai hid his head in his knees and his body started to tremble. Just as Nya was about to go to her brother, he raised his tear streaked face and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and whispered, "The circumstances do not define who I am, I will not let this get me down."
Kai jumped down and walked across the deck while singing quietly to himself:
"I am myst
I am dawn
I kissed the truth
And fought the dark
But you will not know me.
Only two may see me…
The first, you deny."
Cole, Jay, Zane and Nya stood there in shock, "was he talking to himself?" Jay spluttered, "And I thought I was losing it."
"You were right, Kai can sing. He is way better than my father!" Cole said surprised.
"I did not sense anyone in the area, but he did say 'mom' so that means he was probably talking to her like she was there," Zane said.
"What did he mean by 'why do I have to be the one to suffer?' and 'I will not let this get me down'," Nya inquired, hoping that one of the ninja would know.
"We don't know, though we would love to," the ninjas said.
"I think that this needs to stay between us."
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Kai had indeed seen his mother; she said that he needed to get over it and live life to its fullest before the year's end. Kattari had given him the comfort Kai desperately needed, he did try to heed her wise words, but it was hard.
Later that week Lloyd got out of bed when he heard a soft padding of feet, he got up silently, opened the door and saw a distraught Kai leave the under deck. Lloyd silently followed.
Kai was on the starboard side of the ship, looking at the lake. Nya had landed them in a huge lake, for there had been no wind to keep the Bounty up. Kai bent down and grabbed a broken piece of one of Jay's inventions and through it as far away as he could, it made a splash. He bent down and through 11 more in rapid succession. He yelled in anger and pounded the railing with his fist. Kai's back stiffened as Lloyd accidentally sniffed, "who is that?"
'There's no point in hiding now,' he thought. Lloyd straitened and walked over to him, "it's me," he said when he reached Kai.
"I am sorry if I woke you," Kai apologized.
"No you didn't wake me; I was already awake, thinking."
"What about?" Kai said then added quickly, "that is if you want to tell me."
"No it's fine. You have been one of the kindest person to me lately." Lloyd looked down, "I was thinking about being the Green Ninja, and having to defeat my father one day."
Lloyd reached over and hugged Kai and started crying into his pajamas, "I don't want to fight my father, he-he is my-my da-dad! I read a dictionary that defeat usually means killing the person so they don't come back! I don't want to kill my dad, Kai!" By this time Kai hugged Lloyd back and started rubbing his back, Lloyd continued his voice stammering through his sobbing, "I know he hasn't been very good to me, but he said he put me in the Boarding School so I could have a chose what to do with my life, a choice he never had. Kai, I am very confused! I wish I was never the Green Ninja."
Kai remembered some of his mothers comforting words him and said them to Lloyd with a bit of his own twist, "so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. You were meant to become the Green Ninja. In which case, we were also meant find you and protect you. And that is an encouraging thought."
Lloyd stopped crying, he looked into Kai's dark green eyes that had gold flecks in them, and he sniffed and said, "thank you Kai, I will do that."
Lloyd detached himself from Kai, Kai patted him on his head, "you're welcome Lloyd."
They turned around when they heard a yawn, "I heard noises, and came to check," said a very sleepy Cole who was still rubbing his eyes, "why are you two still up?"
"We came out because tonight is a beautiful night for stargazing," Kai lied.
"Good for you," Cole said, "hey Kai, why is your shirt wet?"
"I dried them from the lake water," he made the motions of drying his hands on his shirt.
"Okay, good night, you guys better go to bed because sensei always loves his early morning training," with that he walked down to the shared room.
"Thank you for that," Lloyd said after a short silence.
"No problem," came Kai's short reply.
"What were you doing up here?" Lloyd asked.
Kai forced a smirk, "I was letting off some steam."
'I don't think that's the whole truth,' Lloyd thought.
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Over the next 4 months Sensei Wu noticed something different with Kai. When he did something he always gave it his all, he never slacked off. Kai always did his work before he did anything fun. It was weird. Kai even didn't complain when he had to train extra.
Another thing he noticed was that every month he ate less, and his face was gradually getting paler. Today Sensei was going to talk to him.
Wu got Kai alone in his mediating room, he looked nervous his eyes shifting around the room, finally settling on the door.
"I have been noticing something wrong and different with you over the past months, I want to know why," Sensei ordered.
"How 'bout we have this conversation latter, I need to train," Kai said trying to avoid answering as he walked to the door.
Faster than he could blink Sensei ran over to the door, blocking the exit, "do not evade the question I asked, you will not leave this room until you do," Sensei commanded.
Kai shoulders slumped and he sighed deeply, resigning to the fact that he had to tell, "8 months."
"8 months to what? 8 months to the day when something bad happened to you in the past that you can't let go?" Sensei questioned.
Kai breathed deeply and slowly said, "8 months 'til I die."
Sensei jaw dropped, "What?! Why?"
Kai bit his lip before saying, "I got poisoned by a Serpentine arrow, by jumping in front of the shaft saving Jay, I didn't know it was poisoned at first and I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to be bed ridden. After a week it started hurting so bad that I went to the doctor, he took some tests and said that it was slow moving poison that would kill me in a year. There is no cure."
Sensei Wu stood there stunned for a moment, "That is why you have been giving everything your all. But why not tell anyone?"
"I just don't want then worrying over me," Kai explained, "I want them to only concentrate on fighting the Serpentine, not worrying about me. I will tell them after we win the ultimate battle."
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During the next 7 months the ninja had defeated the Great Devourer, fought their evil replicas, made Darklys School for Bad Boys good, won 50,000 dollars to keep the Mojo Dojo, got turned into kids, battled the Gundle, Lloyd grew older, saved the past from Garmadon's melding and destroyed the Mega Weapon, found Lloyd's mother, made a giant stone warrior fall into an endless pit, evacuated Ninjago city when the Devourer's toxic venom made the stone army come back to life, found Zane's dad, freed the leviathan, sailed to the dark island and they were now waiting for Zane to retrieve his Falcon while Jay was playing I Spy.
"I spy with my little eye something that starts with the letter… 'N'," Jay said while looking through the medallion with three holes.
"A net?" Cole asked.
"Nope," Jay replied.
"Cole I think the word we are looking for is 'nincompoop' for there is one laying right in front of us," Kai said his voice filled with humor.
Cole joined Kai in laughing and said in between laughs, "To true!"
"Hey," Jay said indignantly, but soon he laughed with them. "If you wanted to know it was gnat."
"Jay gnat starts with a 'G' not an 'N'," Kai corrected.
"I don't care," Jay said as he put the medallion back on his eye.
Kai had lost so much weight that everybody in the started to Bounty notice, he barely ate anything. The poison made it so that the more he got to the year mark the less he could eat, for every time he ate he vomited. The more he ate the worse it was.
Cole glanced at Kai, he was worried for him and so was everyone else. He had a fair face, but now days his face was really pale and thin, but at least he was still the same Kai.
"I found it!" Jay cried.
"You did? Where is it?" Kai asked.
Jay pointed at one of the mountains and passed him the medallion, "It is!"
Kai handed the object to Cole to let him look, the three mountains matched perfectly with the three holes, "This is great and all but how long does it take for Zane to get one falcon?"
His question was answered when they heard fighting down below, "Finally, some action!"
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5 days later had everybody but Dr. Julien running after the Garma-Tron, "Does anybody else think that this might be our last fight together?" Jay asked suddenly.
"Yes, it is all I have been thinking about," Cole responded.
"Defiantly," Zane said.
"I think it might be," Kai whispered.
"What?" Cole said.
"I said that we should focus more on the happy things that happened to us rather than our future demise, like when Jay got that ridiculously stupid hairstyle to impress Nya."
Every ninja laughed, "It was pretty appalling."
Jay retorted, "How about the time when Kai got poisoned by the Venomari and we learned that he was afraid of Christmas themed things, especially Santa! Santa of all things!"
They all laughed, "Hey he is pretty scary!"
This time Cole spoke up, "How about the time when Zane first turned on his funny switch? That dance and song were so dumb!"
Kai looked to Sensei Wu who had a confused look, "This one," he proceeded to copy Zane exact movements and sang in the exact tone, "hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my rag-time gal, send me a kiss by wire," he ended it on one leg and a hilariously stupid smile.
This time they all laughed, "I think I am going to have nightmares now," Sensei said.
"How about the time when Sensei came out of the Devourer guts drinking tea, that was so gross," Jay shivered, "I thought he was a goner for sure!"
"Wrong again, knucklehead," said sensei as he whacked Jay on the head with his fighting staff.
What looked like shadow with a humanoid figure ran across the road, "What was that?" asked Lloyd.
His question was answered when an evil Nya barred their way, "Lloyd go! We will fight her," Cole said.
"But you said you would always have my back!" Lloyd complained.
"And we will! You need to stop Garmadon!" Kai said.
"We will go with you Lloyd," Misako said.
Lloyd nodded and raced off with Sensei and Misako following.
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"How are we supposed to get to Ninjago to stop the Overlord? Our ship is broken and our dragons our in Ninjago," Jay whined.
"We could swim," Kai said, trying not to except defeat.
"Across the ocean?" Jay said.
The ninja were at the beach stranded on the Dark Island after a grueling defeat. Dr. Julien walked up holding a platter of fruit, "I brought food so we can regain our strength."
Everybody but Kai got up and dug-in, "Why aren't you eating? You look as is the wind can blow you away," Dr. Julien observed.
"I am not hungry," Kai answered, though in truth he was starving.
"Come on Kai, you have been barely eating anything lately," Cole said, "at least eat one piece of fruit, pretty please?"
"Fine," Kai grumbled, he walked up to the plate and grabbed a wild strawberry.
"You have to eat something bigger than that," Cole ordered, "like an apple or something."
Kai glared, he didn't feel like throwing-up today, he grabbed the mango and pealed the skin of with his knife, as slow as he could, boring everybody.
Cole was still watching him like a hawk, making sure that Kai would eat.
Kai finally ate the whole mango and he felt really nauseous, he looked at Cole, keeping his face straight, "happy now?"
"Very," Cole said and turned away.
As quick as he could Kai ran into the forest and went behind a bush. He went on hands and knees and vomited everything he ate. He didn't mean to but he looked at it, and to his horror he saw blood in it. Kai walked over to an oak and sat down in its roots his back against the tree and started to cry silently. It was hard knowing that there was poison flowing through his blood stream and he would die in less than a month, leaving everybody that he cared for behind.
Lloyd saw Kai run off to the forest, 'why is he going to the forest?' he thought. He looked at the rest of the gang, they did not noticed, he made a quick lie, "I have to go to the bathroom."
"Do you need help walking there?" Misako asked
"I can manage," Lloyd limped over to the edge of the forest, following Kai's tracks. He hobbled over to an oak where Kai was sitting in a perfect seat made of roots. Lloyd saw Kai lift his head off his hands when he heard someone coming. To say Lloyd was surprised was an understatement; Kai's face was tear streaked and red. Kai had been crying. In all the time Lloyd knew him he had never cried - Lloyd wanted to know why.
Kai looked away, "what do you want?"
"I just wanted to know why you ran into the forest so fast," Lloyd said, "and now I know. But why?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Kai mumbled.
"You helped me when I was little, know it is time for me to return the favor," Lloyd said defiantly.
Kai smirked, he sobered and said, "I am afraid, Lloyd."
Lloyd thinking he was talking about the final battle said, "I know we will get through this alive."
"What if I don't? What if I die? What would you do then?" Kai asked his deep green eyes boring into Lloyd's.
Lloyd was startled, "I would be sad, because I would not be with you anymore, but I would also be happy for you because you would be in a better place."
Kai smiled, "Thank you I needed that, it makes me feel better."
"I have returned a favor," Lloyd said.
"Let me see your leg, I think I might know something that will help it," Kai said and held out his hands. Lloyd did what he was asked. Kai unwrapped his bandages and took out two poultices from some hidden pockets in his suit.
"What are those?" Lloyd asked.
"This one is comfrey, it helps the swelling go down and this one is arnica, it helps with bruises, swelling, bone injuries etcetera, I found them and I knew that they would come in handy."
When he was done Kai rewrapped the bandages around his leg. He helped Lloyd back to their makeshift camp.
"Where did you go?" Cole asked while tapping his foot on the sand.
"I was looking for herbs for Lloyd when he went walking by me saying that his leg hurt so I gave him the herbs," Kai said, "did you figure out a way to get off this island?"
"You said we can swim and we were going to do that when Zane said he could freeze the water in front of us to make a path," Jay explained very fast, "and then we take turns carrying Lloyd."
"Why do I have to be carried?" Lloyd said indignantly.
"Because, son, you are wounded and can't walk very far," Misako explained.
"Oh," he laughed nervously, "I forgot."
"Well let's go," Zane said joyfully.
Zane was just about to freeze a path when the Falcon came swopping down, he started squawking, "he wants us to follow him!"
They ran after the Falcon, "he is heading towards the temple of light!"
~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~
The ninja were running up the giant staircase to reach the Overlord, Cole was helping Lloyd up the stairs. The evil dragon was firing concentrated evil at the ninja that had properties in it that turned everything with a heart evil. The elemental ninja tried their best to dodge the projectiles but soon Cole got hit, he pushed Lloyd to Jay, "Go!"
"We can't leave you!" Lloyd said.
"I can't hold on anymore, go!" commanded Cole.
They continued to walk up the stairs; Lloyd chanced a look back and saw Cole change into an evil version of himself he had grey skin and purple eyes.
Soon Jay got hit, he pushed Lloyd to Zane, they walked continued to walk, "they're catching up! I hold them off as long as I can," Zane said.
Kai grabbed Lloyd and ran up the stairs. Someone started to fire missiles at them- it was the evil Nya, "go up the rest of the stairs I will deal with her."
"But I can't go alone!" Lloyd protested.
"This is your fight; I was not the one chosen to defeat Garmadon or the Overlord, but I was chosen to help you reach your goal and that is what I plan on doing," Kai said.
Lloyd nodded and hobbled up the last 2 flights of stairs.
Kai turned and faced his sister and started to fight her, soon there was a blinding gold light, and everything went black. When he woke he was lying on the ground, he got up and saw everyone in a circle, "Nya," he called.
She turned around, ran toward him and jumped into his arms, "I missed you, Kai."
"Me too," Kai responded.
They broke apart and went to the group; Sensei Wu saw him and pulled him to the side, "are you going to tell them?"
"Ye- no not right now, it would ruin the happy moment of our hard earned victory," Kai said.
"I have a theory, eat this," Sensei passed him a small cracker.
Kai stared at it, "I'm sorry but I have to decline-"
"I know all about what happens every time you eat, my theory is that Lloyd's light took out the poison."
"I hope," he took the cracker and ate slowly, but he couldn't hold it down he ran behind a chunk of rock and heaved, the deadly poison was still inside of him.
Kai walked back to Sensei Wu, "I am sorry that I made you feel hope only for it to be squashed," Sensei apologized.
"It's okay, I have already accepted it," Kai said.
Garmadon came over the ridge, except this time he wasn't the Lord of Darkness, he was Wu's brother, Misako's husband and Lloyd's dad, they ran up and hugged him.
"Should we dog-pile them?" Jay asked.
"Nah, let's let them have their moment," Kai said them smirked, "then we can dog-pile them."
"Sounds okay for me," Cole agreed.
The ninja lined up as Sensei came over, "You have done well, but victory came at a hard price, I wish I could have done something to stop it," Sensei looked sadly at Kai.
The three ninja and samurai followed his gaze and looked confusedly at him, he just gave a sad smile, "What are you going to do now?"
"Well I was thinking I would invent some stuff, do a little cooking and other stuff," Jay answered.
Sensei looked at Kai as he spoke, "Well even though the ultimate battle for good and evil is over, there is still evil in Ninjago and while I still draw breath I will fight it. A ninja never gives up."
"I will too," Cole said.
"Me too," Zane declared
"You know what? I'll save my inventions for when I can't fight any more," Jay pronounced.
"What will you do sensei?" Zane inquired.
"Right now I will make up for lost time with my family by going on a scenic drive for starters, I love scenic drives," Sensei said gleefully. He raced off towards his family.
"What did he mean by 'victory came at a hard price'?" Cole asked looking at Kai.
Kai became nervous as everyone looked at him expectantly, "Now is not the time, I will tell you later, now is the time to celebrate!"
"It is, but you still have to tell us," Nya said.
~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~
The celebration was fun, full us dumb dancing, retarded singing, Mad Libs, Catch Phrase, Super Smash Bros Brawl, How Very Clumsy of Me, hog-tie someone and see how long it took them to escape, charades, and anything else they could think of. Zane even flipped on his humor switch. All in all the afternoon to very late at night was filled with laughter and merriment. Although, Zane noticed that Kai didn't eat a single bit, even though he helped cook it.
"Then there was a time when I woke up and Kai had rolled of his bed and he didn't even notice it!" Zane said jovially, making everyone in the room laugh.
"Why me?!" Kai whined, everybody was talking about how they found Kai in the morning, for he was a wiggle worm, and somehow got into the craziest of positions.
"There was this one time when Kai had somehow, in the middle of the night, had gone into the turtle yoga position and was using his foot as a pillow!" Jay said through his chortling, "and he wouldn't get up because as he put it, 'I am comfortable this is the most comfy I've been in a long time'. Even now I see him fall asleep in that position."
"You were sleep like that? That yoga position is so uncomfortable!" Cole said.
"That is because you are not flexible, unlike me," Kai retorted.
"That is it! I will tell of that one time," Cole threatened.
"You promised you would never speak of it!" Kai said horrified.
"Apologize and I might reconsider."
Kai looked down and when he looked up he made his already big eyes even bigger making even better puppy eyes then a puppy, "I am sorry will you ever forgive me?"
Cole put a hand over his eye, "Cut that out!"
"Will you?" Kai begged making his green eyes even bigger and his pupils dilate so they were big.
"I forgive you! Now cut that out now!"
Kai stopped making the perfect puppy eyes, and smiled a big grin, "Oh thank you! You are one of the best brothers a person can ask for!"
"Come on Cole; tell us what that one time was!" Jay pleaded.
"No don't tell them! It is to embarrassing!" Kai implored, a smirk grew on his face, "if you tell them that then I will tell them of that one time," he blackmailed.
"Okay I won't tell!"
"If you tell us we will give you this piece of Napoleon cake," Nya persuaded.
Cole started drooling, Kai knowing he lost covered his ears, "He rolled off his bed and onto mine, he then rolled into a ball at the foot of my bed and started cuddling my foot."
Everybody guffawed; Kai's face was even redder than his ninja suit, "That is hilarious!"
Nya gave Cole the piece of cake.
Kai got a malicious smile, "You asked for it Cole," Cole's coffee brown eyes went wide, "I got up early in the morning because I heard something, I got down from by bunk and saw that Cole was eating his pillow, I tried to take it away from him because he was starting to eat feathers, he snarled and said, 'don't you dare take my cake away from me Ganondorf, or else you will die a horribly painful death,' so I reached over and grabbed his pillow and you know what he did? He tried to bite me! Then he took his pillow and ate the other half of it. For the rest of the day he was coughing out feathers."
"You ate your pillow? That's hysterical! I bet all the feathers you ate replaced your brain!" Jay joked.
"I agree with that statement 100 percent," Zane said.
It was now Cole's turn to turn bright red. Nya suddenly sobered, "Kai will you tell us now?"
Everybody else turned serious as they looked at him with interested, "you did say later and it is now later," Zane confirmed.
"I will tell as long as you promise that you won't be mad or sad," Kai said, "kings aren't allowed."
"Mad or sad, eh? Well I promise, no kings," Jay said as he held out his hands.
Kai waited until everybody promised before he began to tell the tale, "Do you remember the day were you thought I took a bath in that freezing cold stream?"
They nodded.
"Wait, 'thought you took a bath in the stream'?" Zane asked puzzled.
"I'll get there," Kai said, "well earlier in the day I jumped in front of an arrow meant for Jay-"
"What?! You saved my life and never told me?" Jay said, "Why?"
"Remember you can't get angry," Kai scolded, Jay calmed down, "I didn't want to worry you or have to stay in bed for more weeks, that one week was enough."
"But you were injured! You should have come to me," Nya complained.
"Nya, mom taught me too, I know how to heal. Now do you want me to finish? If there is one more interruption I won't finish."
"Fine," they grumbled.
"I cleaned the wound out every day for a week because it wouldn't close, so I went to the doctor, he took some tests and told me to come back in a week, I did just that. When I came back the doctor said that," Kai paused thinking of the right words once he found them he took a deep breath," he said that the arrow was poisoned," Kai heard a gasp from his brothers and sister, "the arrow had a slow moving poison that would kill me in a year."
"The arrow poisoned you and you are going to die in a year? Why didn't you tell us?" Cole said starting to get angry.
Kai held up his hand gesturing for silence, "I didn't want you worrying for me while we had bigger problems at hand."
"Didn't want us worrying for you? You are not eating and you are as thin as a twig! Of course we are concerned for you!"
"I would've dropped everything for you!" Nya practically yelled.
"See? If I told you, the snakes and Garmadon would have taken over and destroyed Ninjago."
A thoughtful silence settled in the room.
"Well at least you got an antidote for it, right?" Jay asked hesitantly.
"That's the problem though, there is no antidote," Kai said sadly
A hush of disbelief fell upon them, it was broken by Zane, "That means you only have three weeks left!" he cried.
"Three weeks?" Nya howled, she then sobbed, "You're going to break your promise!"
Kai looked shame faced, "I'm sorry," he whispered. He walked up to his sister and hugged her. The voice of his 10 year old self repeating the promise he made years ago:
"Will you leave me too?" the 9 year old girl asked.
"I will never ever leave you, we will be together forever, this I promise," the 10 Kai said determinedly.
Nya broke away from Kai's brotherly embrace and ran to her bedroom, Jay and Zane followed.
Cole tentatively put a hand on Kai's shoulder, expecting him to swish it off; but to his surprise Kai turned around and hugged him and started crying silently into his shoulder, "I wish I would just die now, instead of dying slowly. It gives you so way too much time to think, I wish I would have used my fire to burn the arrow, but I didn't think."
Cole not used to this type of emotion from Kai hugged him back and tried to soothe him, "You never think, Kai, but guess what?"
"What?" he asked trying to calm himself down.
"Everything happens for a reason, even though we sometimes don't like it. You are the brother I never had, will I miss you? Terribly. Will I fall into depression? Most likely. Will I ever get out of it? Probably not," Kai chuckled, "Look, what I want to say is that before you…uh…you know…we should make a bucket list and have the most funest time we can possibly imagine and not think of what the future will bring."
Kai let go of Cole and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "Sorry."
Cole smirked, "We all need someone to lean on when we are having emotional breakdowns."
"Haha," Kai said dryly.
Just then Zane, Nya and Jay came into the bridge, "I am sorry I was acting so foolish," she said.
"But it is me who is breaking a promise," Kai said.
"Enough of this talk," Cole said, "Kai and I were talking and we thought that we can make a bucket list for him-"
"And," Kai broke in, "anything that goes on the list make everybody has to do it, no exceptions. Agreed?"
Everybody in question nodded.
~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~
"Come on Jay, you can do it," persuade Cole.
"No I will not, I refuse," Jay said defiantly.
"Jay it is just 60ft high! I even did it," Cole tried to convince him.
"'It's just 60ft high'," Jay mocked, "I will not jump off this cliff into that pool of water."
"Jay, Kai and Zane did flips off of it, even though I hesitated before I jumped I still did it, and you won't even attempt it!"
"I would actually like to not be sore for days!" Jay shouted, "You chose doing this on purpose, didn't you Zane?"
Zane paused his water fight with Kai to answer back innocently, ""you really think I would do that to you? I'm hurt-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence for Kai had sprung on top of him and pulled him under, continuing the fight.
Nya laughed from the sidelines, she had already jumped from the cliff and she was waiting for Jay to jump.
The Falcon had been looking for a place like this for a couple of days for this was next on the bucket list, and the Falcon had found it.
The Falcon discovered secluded lake, surrounded by pine trees that backed up to a 60ft rock wall.
Kai had climbed up first and handspringed then flipped off the edge and continued doing acrobatics all the way down and ended with his feet first, Zane did the same except he ended his with a dive, Nya went next and back flipped of, Cole went and only jumped, doing nothing fancy and Jay was still at the top not jumping off.
"You used to jump off the Bounty all the time," Cole said as he floated on his back, "we even fell off a higher one at the Dark Island."
"Those were different," Jay declared.
"How?"
"They just are," he said not finding a good excuse.
Nya tired of how long it was taking dove into the water and pretended to drown, "Jay help!"
"Okay! I'll jump," he walked to the edge, looked down. He quickly looked up, he walked back and ran to the edge and leaped off, Jay started flailing.
"Don't flail! Keep strait and point your toes!" Cole yelled.
Jay obeyed but didn't point his toes, he made a sickening splash. Jay came up spluttering, blowing out of his nose and holding onto his feet.
"Water up my nose and my feet are killing me!"
The laughter from Zane and Kai ceased as they swam over, "he finally did it?" Kai asked.
"I did and it was even more painful than eating Cole's chili!" Jay whined.
"Humph, nobody appreciates my culinary art," Cole grumbled.
"We don't appreciate it because you don't have it," Kai teased.
"That was uncalled for," Cole pouted.
"Much like your face," Kai joked.
"That was even more uncalled for," Cole sulked.
They all laughed, Kai and Zane gave each other a mischievous glance and splashed a huge wave on Jay.
"This means war!" Jay shouted.
It soon became a gigantic water fight, with friendly banter. The ninja and samurai were laughing so hard that they were choking on the water.
~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~
Two in a half weeks past as they did more things on the bucket list, one of the most embarrassing ones was having to dance stupidly on a table top in a fancy restraint, thanks to Jay. They were all having so much fun that they all forgot about the poison, all except for Kai.
As the weeks wore on Kai had been feeling more tired, light headed, nauseated, weak and groggy, although; he never disclosed this to anyone.
Soon there was one more day 'til Kai's year end. Kai was feeling like he had to drag himself everywhere, his sister and brothers noticed this and they soon realized that the day were drawing nearer the dreaded date, they couldn't help but feel depressed, but they didn't show it, they continued having an uppity attitude.
The day was ending and they decided that they would stay up as long as they could, telling secrets and funny stories of their past.
They were all sitting on Kai's top bunk bed in the now fixed Bounty, because Dr. Julien felt sorry for almost destroying the Destiny's Bounty and fixed it.
"I can't believe you actually did that!" Cole exclaimed.
"I was 4, okay?! Four!" Jay defended himself.
"It still doesn't alter the fact that you already did it," Kai teased, keeping up a perfect façade of happiness when his wound was giving him a lot of pain and agony.
"Come on, you have to tell me that you accidentally went into a ladies changing room following your mom," Jay said, hoping to lessen his humiliation.
Everybody looked at each other and shook their heads in a negative, "no I can't say that I have," Cole said.
"Poop," Jay groaned.
"It's your turn Zane," Nya stated.
"I really don't have any, I spent most of my time with my dad, although there was this one time that I had been meditating so long at the bottom of a pond that the top froze."
"Oh no! Did you die?" Jay asked.
Kai replied for Zane in a much more sarcastic way than he would have used, "yes Jay, he did die, that is why he is here with us today, right now, at this moment."
Jay slapped himself on the forehead, "it is late and I am not thinking clearly, comprende?"
Kai was about to open his mouth to say something when Nya slapped the back of his head, "don't," she hissed menacing.
"Fine."
"I don't know about you but I am pooped!" Cole yawned, exhausted from the day's excursion, "who's brilliant idea was it to stay awake again?"
"I believe it was yours," Zane said.
"Hehe, oops?" said a self-conscious Cole.
"Your right Cole, I am worn out," agreed Kai.
Everybody hopped off Kai's bed and went to their beds, and got ready for the night's sleep.
As Kai laid down to rest he got a weird feeling in his heart, something told him that this was probably his last day in Ninjago, "good night Cole, Jay, Zane and Nya," he said, he got a chorus of replies.
"I love you guys, you are they best brothers and sister anyone could ever wish for, I can't even imagine a world without you with me, I had the best time in my life with you guys," Kai whispered.
Only confused Cole heard it, for he was on the bunk under him, 'I wonder what that is about,' he thought.
A sweet tenor voice filled the air with a sad melody:
"Please don't sing sad songs for me,
Forget your grief and fears,
For I am in a in a perfect place
Away from pain and tears
It's far away from hunger
And hurt and want and pride,
I have a place in Heaven
With the Master at my side."
As soon as the song had started Zane had reordered it, sensing that it would come in handy later on.
~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~~o0o~
Cole woke up to the sound of annoying mariachi music, yes he did think that music sucked but he didn't think it was as bad as Kai thought it was. 'Kai,' Cole thought, 'that is the only reason that his brothers would be playing it.'
Cole jumped out of bed and looked at Jay who was standing by the record player, looking expectantly toward Kai. Cole looked to Kai also; he was lying still on his bed looking with a very peaceful expression on his face, 'strange, he usually has a look of annoyance plastered on his face,' Cole thought.
He poked Kai's arm, Cole gasped, his skin was cold to the touch. That was also unusual; Kai was always had a higher temperature than a normal person. Cole reached out and felt his pulse, there was none.
Cole's breath caught, it couldn't be! Jay ran over and looked quizzically at Cole, "what is it? Why isn't he waking up?"
Cole gave a look so full of sadness and anguish that Jay took a step back, he choked back a sob, "he's gone."
Jay started to cry, "He can't be!"
They sat there weeping for their lost brother.
Zane had woken up early to cook breakfast for everybody, but when Jay, Cole and Kai had not shown up he had gone back to their room. He saw two of his brothers sitting on the floor crying, "What's wrong? Did you both sprain your ankles?"
Jay's tear streaked face lifted from his hands, he managed to sob, "Kai's dead!"
Nya, who had followed Zane, heard what Jay said and ran into the bedroom. She gave one look at her brother and gave a loud cry of grief. Nya dashed to Jay and jumped him his arms, buried her face in his shoulder and cried.
Months Later
Nothing in the ninja group was ever the same, when they had all been together everybody did something that made their group work, Cole was the very lenient leader, Zane was the brains, Jay was the one that kept everyone together and Kai was like the heart, never giving up without a fight and very determined to get it done.
When he left it all changed, it was harder for them to do missions. They always took for granted that Kai had been very ingenious in tight situations, and had always been reckless enough to carry his insane plans. So when they had been captured they waited for Kai to think up a quick and crazy plan to get out, only to reopen the barely closing wound of Kai's death.
Once Sensei Wu and Lloyd had come back from their trip the ninja had to break the news to them, Wu didn't think it would be so soon and Lloyd was heartbroken.
One day Zane was going through his sound recordings and came across the song that Kai had sung the night before he died. He played it, 'Kai's right,' Zane thought, 'I should be happy for him, I should play this for the rest of the ninja.'
He found his two brothers playing video games with not much sprit, "Guys, look what I found," he called.
The two ninja paused the game and walked to Zane, Jay had been very serious lately, which did not suit him, "what?" Cole asked.
"This," he flipped on a switch on his arm and a minor song played:
"Please don't sing sad songs for me,
Forget your grief and fears,
For I am in a in a perfect place
Away from pain and tears
It's far away from hunger
And hurt and want and pride,
I have a place in Heaven
With the Master at my side."
They stood there shocked for a moment before Jay spoke, "I haven't been doing that."
"Me nether," Cole said.
A thought struck Zane, "I don't think Kai would've like for us to be depressed, why do you think he made us have so much fun before he passed away? I bet he wanted us to remember all the fun we had when we were together, not mourn for the loss of him."
They thought about that for awhile, "your right Zane. Do you remember the one-sided conversation he was having? 'Your circumstances do not define who you are.' We should miss him but I don't think we should be acting the way we are," Cole stated.
Jay and Zane nodded, "okay something has been seriously bothering me," Jay said.
"What is it?" Zane asked.
"Is anyone going to tell me what 'bequeath' means?"
For the first time in months the ninjas laughed, a pure and sweet laugh, melting away all their sorrows.
Yeah, yeah I know, I didn't put Tragety in the Genre but if I did it would have spoiled it! Please don't hate me, hate xXxNightshadexXx she made me do it! She said she would give me pie if I did, and pie for me is like cake for Cole. Sorry xXxNightshadexXx, I hope you don't mind that angry people will be hunting you.
Anyway, xXxNightshadexXx said that you can take and use this idea if you want to.
Please review and PM, and give me more ideas!
I shall give you a spoiler for the next story I am working on, it is a 'what if' on Cole, if I tell you more or give you a preview it would ruin everything.