All characters belong to the creators of "Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu." I just updated this chapter to hopefully create a more serious tone for the book as I now have a more clear idea of where I want to go with this. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 15

Tension

Kai grunted as his fist made contact with the wooden dummy in front of him. Dark thoughts taunted him with the possibilities, swaying his focus. The unknown sent a chill down his spine and fueled the fire in his fists. A loud crack resounded throughout the courtyard, Kai's rather undignified yelp accompanied by the slow trickle of blood now forming on his bruised knuckles. Kai glared at the dummy before him; it mocked him with its blank, splintered face. Giving an indignant hmph, Kai muttered as he made his way inside to bandage his new wounds.

"Okay, anyone else think that guy's a little... off?"

"Cut him some slack, Jay. He just found out that Garmadon kidnapped his sister; that'd be tough for anyone." Cole reminded him, blocking another blow from the ginger man.

"Oh, please. You didn't even know who Garmadon was until Master Wu told you."

"None of us did." Cole's tone slowed Jay's fists, if only for a moment. Shaking his head, as though to shake the thought away, Jay resumed his initial pace.

"Look, all I'm saying is that his muttering is weirding me out. Is that so wrong?"

"I do not understand. Is muttering abnormal when grieving a loved one?" Zane asked, pausing atop the wheel he was standing on. A wooden dummy smacked him from above, throwing Zane to the ground with an uncomfortable thud. Jay chuckled. Cole thought about Kai's recent behavior. Talking to Kai now was better than hearing Jay freak out about it later, he assumed. This didn't make him any more eager to have the conversation, though. Sighing, he went inside.

The floor creaked under him as he made his way down the old hall. Kai's door groaned in protest as Cole tentatively pushed it open a margin. "Kai? Are you in here?"

"Buzz off, Knuckles." Cole pushed the door wider, too used to the nickname to mind it anymore. Glaring at him from his old, creaky bed, Kai resumed bandaging his newly cleaned wounds.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," Cole began.

"Can't it wait?" Cole's brows furrowed.

"Not unless you want to hear Jay's whining." Kai looked up long enough to raise an eyebrow, but little else. He resumed his work in silence. Either he was intrigued, or he was simply too busy to be bothered by his roommates' shenanigans. Cole was banking on it being the first, though he highly doubted it. "Look, I know you're going through a lot right now, but you've gotta keep a cool head. Letting your anger consume you won't save your sister, and it won't make your time here move any faster than it already is. You've gotta be patient." The glare Kai gave him broke something inside of him, a wall he didn't know he'd built. The man, though younger than him by almost two years, was in more pain than he knew what to do with. He was living in a horror made of his own reality, Cole realized... a torture he knew all too well.

"Easy for you to say. Every day I spend here is another day Nya spends trapped in the Underworld. The more time I spend here, the more time Garamdon has to torture my sister. Last time Master Wu saw her, one of Garmadon's goons was slitting her leg with a dagger made of bone. If you think I'm going to sit here and train while my sister's being mutilated, you're sorely mistaken."

"Kai, I didn't mean-"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that you actually cared." Kai moved to stand before him, hot anger rising to a boil in his blood. Cole didn't miss the glint of anger in Kai's eyes. He watched Kai with a measured patience.

"Look, I know what it's like to lose someone close to you, but letting your anger consume you doesn't do you any favors. The best thing you can do for Nya is to continue to train until Master Wu gives us new instructions." He softened his gaze. "We'll find your sister. But, until then, you're one of us. We've got your back." He turned then, making to leave. Mere steps outside the door, his gaze held Kai's over his shoulder. "The only one you're hurting by pushing us away is yourself."

The tension around the dinner table weakened Zane's appetite. Their silence was torture, though, for the life of him, he couldn't figure out how to break it. The tension, he supposed, couldn't be helped. Kai's nerves were understandable given his... predicament and, according to Cole, he and Kai didn't exactly see eye to eye. Jay was the only one who seemed to have no logical reason to be upset, but a rather peeved look masked his face all the same.

It was Wu who broke the silence.

"Garmadon's forces are moving towards the mountains; it is imperative that we get there before he does." Kai cocked an eyebrow.

"And why is that?"

"My father left four weapons to me and my brother when he died. I hid them in order to protect them from Lord Garmadon and left the map with your father. Only... it was no longer there when I tried to retrieve it."

"But... why leave the map with my dad?"

"I knew that it would be the last place anyone would look." Jay crunched on his food, breaking the heavy atmosphere that had settled around them.

Speaking in between bites, he asked, "So... why do we need the weapons?"

"The Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu are highly dangerous. If a man were to try and wield all of them at once, he would meet an untimely death, and a hole would be cut into the fabric of space and time itself." Jay scoffed.

"What is this, a cartoon?" Kai rolled his eyes, assuming it was better not to respond. Cole shifted the focus.

"Master, why haven't we searched for the Golden Weapons before?"

"Because. We were waiting for him." He pointed to Kai then, who didn't appreciate being stared at by the rest of the group.

"You're saying you waited for Garmadon to capture my sister?" Suspicion fueled the anger that now accompanied him, as though the possibility meant that, somehow, this old man had something to do with Nya's abduction. Wu saw the fire in his eyes, disappointed by the distrust he saw behind the wall of anger inside.

"On the contrary; I tried to speak with you last year. I figured waiting for you to outgrow your temper would help my case. It would appear, however, that I was wrong." Cole and Jay snickered, earning them a look from Kai. "You four are each in tune with elemental properties, each equipped to harness the power of the Golden Weapons. It is imperative that we reach them first." Zane turned.

"You said there were four weapons. How does Garmadon intend to use them if he cannot wield them?" Wu hesitated.

"I... I don't know."

"You don't know?! Oh, well that's just great, isn't it? You're saying that, if Garmadon gets these weapons it could doom us all, but you don't know how he'll use them?" Kai yelled; his anger caused Cole's brows to furrow, frustrated at his perceived pride.

"What does it matter how he uses them if we know it won't be good?"

"Look, all I'm saying is that this seems like a whole bunch of baloney. My sister is danger, and all you can do is speculate about what may or may not happen!" Once again, the reality of Kai's situation added another chink to Cole's armor. He had no context for what the younger was going through. Yet, rather unexplicably, he found himself relating to his agony.

Ever the calm in the storm, Wu stopped things before they could escalate any further. "Kai, finding the Golden Weapons will not only help us keep them out of Garmadon's hands, but it will also allow us to defeat him, freeing Nya from the clutches of the Underworld. We will find your sister, but we must do so with caution. If Garmadon were to get ahold of all four weapons, it would eliminate any chance you have of seeing her again." He held his gaze. "What he plans to do with them may seem irrelevant to you,but if you want to get your sister back, then retrieving them is all too important." Kai narrowed his eyebrows. Thoughts flooded his mind in a jumbled mess as he took in the weight of the sensei's words. His anger shifted from those around him to the common enemy they had before them.

Hey, y'all! Thank you to everyone who's still reading! I hope you continue to be patient with me as I continue to learn how to navigate turning a kids' show into something a little more serious while staying true to the show. If you have any suggestions or things you would like to see, please let me know by leaving a review or a private message. If your idea is used, I will be sure to give you credit at the beginning or end of the chapter that it's used in. Thank you all again for your support. I love this show and hope to do it justice. God bless.