If it had felt like his heart was ripped in half the first time he watched his younger sibling start to grow up, it felt like it had been pulled out of his chest and stomped on the second time.

On one hand, he was so proud of Lloyd. It was the kind of proud that made his eyes fill with happy tears if he thought about it for too long. But on the other hand, he couldn't help but see Lloyd as that little boy with a bowl cut and the sleeves of his gi cuffed.

With Nya, even as she grew out her hair and changed her wardrobe from reds and yellows to blues and grays, he still couldn't help but see her as the little girl with cropped raven-black hair that he had cut himself and wearing his old hand-me-downs.

But Nya had always been independent, insistent on not needing to be protected even to the point of becoming a Samurai when she was barely a teenager; in hindsight, maybe that was why it had been easier for Kai to let her go.

He was still her older brother, he had practically raised her in the aftermath of their parents getting taken hostage by Acronix and Krux, so there would always be a part of him that was worried about her safety.

But he also knew that if she needed him for anything, she would come to him with zero hesitation.

Kai didn't have that certainty with Lloyd.

He had been so angry when they first took him in, refusing to go to anyone for any reason until he got caught but back then, it was small stuff like a bad dream or the same small cuts that all of the others had gotten from training.

Lloyd had gotten better at not hiding things as he got older but every time Kai had to shake him awake from nightmares or stitch up wounds that were hidden for hours, all he could see was the little boy with cuffed sleeves and reddish brown eyes that were slowly turning bright green.

All of that had been before.

Before the merge had separated everyone, before he had taken on the responsibility of training Arin, Sora and Wyldfyre and before he had taken up his role as the Master of the Monastery of Spinjitzu.

Now it seemed like Lloyd had put up a large wall between himself and the others, just like Master Wu had done so many years ago.

Kai knew that it would take awhile to break through that wall, that it had been built up as a result of The Merge, of Lloyd being so lonely without anyone else around for years. But he could be there for him and help him with the new trainees.

Even if he had been apprehensive about Wyldfyre at first, he soon found himself teaching her the same way he had taught Lloyd and pulling her into the same tight hugs that he had given Nya in the past.

Which is probably why after training had wrapped for the day, he hadn't hesitated to hand Wyldfyre the spare controller as he booted up the remastered edition of Lava Zombies that Arin had bought the last time they were in The Crossroads.

"Wyldfyre, you have to go above the zombies!" Kai insisted as he used the controller to guide his avatar above the fire-spitting zombies.

"But they need to be blasted!"

"This is the stealth round, you have to go undetected. Otherwise, they'll alert all of the zombies and back you into the corner," Kai explained as he vaulted his avatar onto a platform, "I've played through this whole game twice, you can't outsmart the computer."

"I'm smarter than some dumb computer." Wyldfyre sneered as she continued to blast the zombies on screen, but Kai was learning to pick his battles.

'If she wants to get stuck, that's her decision.' Kai decided as he heard the sliding door open behind him while he reached the end of the level.

"Ooo, Lava Zombies, haven't seen this game in a long time," Lloyd commented from behind the couch, "Wyldfyre, isn't this the stealth lev-"

"I already tried to explain it, don't bother," Kai sighed while turning his head, only to get a good look at Lloyd's outfit which was not his usual green gi or even his more casual clothes but a bright white robe with green and gold detailing, "oh, aren't you looking fancy!"

He had been counting on a bright red flush to cover Lloyd's cheeks while he scratched the back of his head nervously with a smile, a habit that had stuck since becoming the golden ninja all those years ago.

"Thanks."

"Where'd you get it?" Wyldfyre asked, turning away from the game to hang over the side of the couch, the gold on the robe flickering in her dark red eyes so clearly that Kai could see it, "it's so shiny."

"I repurposed an old one, figured it needed an upgrade," Lloyd shrugged before making eye contact with Kai, "can I have a turn or do you need to beat the final boss for a third time?"

He knew exactly what robe had been repurposed ,the circumstances in which he had worn it meant that Kai would never be able to forget what robe it was.

"Kai?"

"Sorry, zoned out for a sec, just not used to seeing you with brushed hair," Kai lied through his teeth and expertly dodged the smack that Lloyd tried to deliver to the back of his head, "you can have my controller, but you're not gonna be able to progress until someone," he pointed his thumb directly at Wyldfyre who had turned back to the game and was still making the mistake of blasting the zombies, "understands the concept of stealth."

"I'm sure I can teach her." Lloyd insisted, snatching the controller from where Kai had abandoned it on the coffee table and waiting until Kai shifted to the middle of the couch to sit down on his left side.

"Good luck, "Master Lloyd"," Kai said while resting his feet on the coffee table and folding his arms behind his head, "we all know I'm her favorite teacher and if I can't do it, no one can."

"Why are you saying his name so weird? You are a master, right?"

"That's complicated," Lloyd answered as he led his avatar back down the ledge in order to guide Wyldfyre's, "But Kai and the others used to call me "temporary Master Lloyd, in training" so it's an improvement."

"So you're allowed to bully people?" Wyldfyre raised a confused eyebrow toward Kai.

"Hey, there is a big difference between teasing your little brother who is being a prick and disrespecting an entire species," Kai retorted, "besides, I'm sure Lloyd will be a great master now that he's not…you were seventeen, right?"

"Sixteen."

"First Master."

"Don't I know it," Lloyd's laugh sounded hollow but Kai knew better to question it when he would only get denial in return, "just follow me, Wyldfyre, so we can get to the next level and you actually can blast the zombies."

"Fine, but I can outsmart the computer."

Kai didn't comment on how she had lost three of her four lives just by continuously blasting zombies that would never stop coming, he did not want his hair to get seared off today; instead, he watched as Lloyd guided her avatar throughout the maze of platforms, stopping to show her how to double jump onto a particularly high ledge.

Wyldfyre and Lloyd made it to the portal that took them to the next level when the sliding door opened again, this time with much more urgency.

"We've got a problem, a big problem." Arin's voice was full of panic, which resulted in Lloyd handing the controller to Kai while he stood up, "Nya picked up an attack just outside of The Crossroads on the sensors, some weird wolf people or something."

"Wolves don't attack cities." Wyldfyre insisted as she stood up, the game long abandoned.

"Ras is with them."

Kai watched as Lloyd's face went from questioning to anger; he didn't know a lot about the disgraced leader of the Claws of Imperium, but he knew about the dragon hunting and that was enough. As they boarded The Bounty and got a full rundown from Nya, however, that was when a horrifying thought hit Kai out of nowhere.

'Lloyd is part dragon.'

"Lloyd? Are you sure about this?" Kai asked as he stood in the doorway of their quarters.

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked as he adjusted his armor around his green gi, no longer wearing the white robes, "it's just Ras. Sora, Arin and I have beat this guy multiple times before."

"Well, you benched Riyu-"

"I don't know what those wolf people want, but after the Source Dragon said he was special, I'm airing on the side of caution. I'm sure it'll just be a quick in and out."

"Lloyd, you're part dragon," Kai finally got to the point, "maybe you should also sit this one out."

"You can't bench me anymore."

"I'm not saying it to be a jerk, or because of some stupid destiny crap," Kai insisted, the anger in Lloyd's voice making him cringe, "I'm saying it because I want you to be safe."

"I am not a little kid anymore," Lloyd huffed as he stood up straighter, "I'm the keeper of the Monastery of Spinjitzu as well as Sora's, Arin's and Wyldfyre's master. I have a duty to protect them."

He tried to walk out of the room, but Kai held his hand out so Lloyd stopped in his tracks. He couldn't just let Lloyd leave without full understanding.

"I have my own duty, as a protector of the green ninja."

Lloyd shrugged out of Kai's grasp and walked away.

Kai knew that he had to get down to the ground, to stop the fight before it escalated out of control but at the same time, he couldn't get his feet to move; despite the insistent voice in his brain telling him to go, all he could focus on was the fact that Lloyd hadn't looked back.

Every time he had stormed out before, he would yell as he left, flip him off or even just glare at him for a brief moment but now, he refused to even acknowledge him.

'He's an adult now, he doesn't need you to protect him anymore.' Kai tried to assure himself as he started to make his way to the deck while pulling his hood over his head, but that terrifying realization he had made earlier still lingered in the back of his mind.

'Lloyd is part dragon.' Repeated over and over in his head as he launched himself onto the ground and started to fight against the wolf warriors.

He hit his sword against one of the wolf's claws, knocking the steel covered glove off of their hand before using spinjitzu to knock them to the ground; he would be lying if he said it didn't remind him of fighting the Serpentine due to the ease of it.

At least until another wolf man nearly ripped out his hair, only giving him a split second to react by launching a fireball right at him.

'Arin was right about these guys being a threat.'

He didn't have eyes on anyone aside from Sora's large mech and when his heart panged with worry about Nya and Lloyd, he shook it off while knocking yet another wolf to the ground.

'These guys are no sweat, those two can handle themselves.' He told himself, even though he knew it was a lie and that his internal words were doing nothing to calm his nerves.

He continued to land fireballs against the wolves, occasionally catching a second set of fireballs or blasts of water out of the corner of his eye but he couldn't bring himself to say anything clever as he fought.

Not when the thought of 'Lloyd's part dragon' continued to loom in his mind like a storm cloud.

He could see the wolves start to dwindle, the fear in their eyes that they had bitten off more than they could chew as they faced off against multiple skiller fighters; the worry in their eyes made Kai's heart stop beating quite as fast.

Until everything went shockingly numb and his ears started to ring.

All he could focus on was four things.

A voice saying "Lord Ras says to get what we came for". A weapon being unsheathed. The blade sliding right through armor, fabric and flesh with zero effort. Lloyd's cry of pain.

Kai only managed to turn to see one of the wolves with their dagger buried deep inside of Lloyd's right side before his vision went red and his hands went alight.

He made sure that every single punch, every single fireball and every single burst of spinjitzu went directly against the wolf who had hurt Lloyd; the one who had hurt his baby brother.

His chest heaved and sweat poured off of his forehead until the wolves finally retreated, his hands still alight until he could confirm that they had left with pure terror in their eyes, afraid of his wrath.

'They should be.' Kai couldn't help but think as he looked directly at the blood, Lloyd's blood, staining the ground, but at least Lloyd had been evacuated before bearing witness to his wrath.

He wiped some of the blood off of his face and onto his sleeve as he boarded The Bounty before making his way down towards the small medbay against his better judgment.

In hindsight, he should have knocked before he opened the door. Kai never wanted to see Nya having to hold Lloyd's arms to the point of him trying to break out of her grip ever again.

"Why is he still awake?!"

"Zane's looking for something to sedate him with," Nya explained before turning to Lloyd after a particularly loud noise that sounded like a mix of a sob and a groan, "Lloyd, you have to stop moving."

"S-sorry," Lloyd apologized with a tremble in his voice, "i-it hurts."

"I know, I know it hurts. But if you keep moving, it'll get worse."

As much as Kai wanted to take over for Nya and try and calm Lloyd down, his sister had him handled and it made his stomach churn to see the two of them in that state.

"How can I help?" Kai asked, pulling off his shirt so the battle stained sleeves didn't get in the way, leaving him in his undershirt as he started to wash his hands thoroughly.

"Are you sure?" Zane asked, pulling Kai's vision away from the sink to look into his icy blue eyes, "you're pale."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure." Kai insisted, drying his hands off with the paper towels and using them to turn off the sink before grabbing two of the nitrile gloves out of the box.

He had to be sure, he couldn't be anything else right now. Not with Lloyd choking on his attempts at deep breathing while Nya held him down.

Zane handed him the syringe that had already been filled with the sedative they had on board, as well as the pack of alcohol wipes and a band-aid, "I don't want him to panic when I go over there, but once he's asleep, we can get that blade out."

"Got it," Kai whispered, taking the syringe and sealed wipes with him to the small, metal table that sat opposite of Lloyd's head, making sure to only look at his face and not at the blue handle sticking out of him, "Green machine."

"A-are they okay?" Lloyd nearly pulled his right arm out of Nya's grasp as he squinted past tears, "Arin, Sora and W-Wyldfyre?"

"Only one who's hurt is you," Kai assured him as he gently pulled Lloyd's arm out of Nya's grasp before opening the sealed alcohol wipe, "but you are gonna take a nap and get patched up, okay?"

"But-"

"This is gonna be cold," Kai cut off Lloyd's protest as he wiped down his bicep, "I know you're in a lot of pain, but we've got you," he stopped speaking to pick up the syringe, "take a deep breath, bud."

Hei felt sick to his stomach as he waited for the shaky inhale before pressing the needle into Lloyd's arm, quickly tossing the empty syringe in the small basket of medical waste before covering up the small pinprick of blood.

As soon as Lloyd went limp, however, Kai stood up and proceeded to book it to the half bath, his stomach churning violently. He didn't even get the gloves off before he emptied the contents of his stomach into the toilet.

Nya was the one who came after him, who shut the toilet lid and flushed it before helping Kai to his feet, handing him a clean cloth to wipe his lips on and a paper cup with water to rinse his mouth out.

"Are you okay?" Nya finally asked after a few beats of silence.

"No. Are you?"

"No." She slid down to the floor, resting her head in her hands.

"Lloyd and I got into a disagreement earlier," Kai admitted while peeling off the gloves, "I wanted to bench him."

"He's a bit old for that, don't you think?"

"Not because of that. That Ras guy was in charge of hunting dragons, Lloyd is part dragon, he benched Riyu because he is a dragon."

"Kai, what are you saying?"

Kai looked down at his hands for a few moments before finally making eye contact with his little sister, "I think the attack today was a trap for Ras to capture Lloyd. I think they know that he's part dragon."