A/N: I try to use as much of the actual dialogue and character actions from the episodes as I can. I'm sorry if I get anything wrong, it is purely unintentional. Also, I do not own Ninjago and credit for all show dialogue and characters goes to their owners.
A/N: This episode was suggested by NinjafanLL007 on Wattpad
A/N: I also have a Wattpad account under the name GreenFlameDrag0n. I sometimes cross-post my stories between Fanfiction . net and Wattpad, so you should go check out my other account for stories that you won't find here.
Crystallized Episode 1, Farewell the Sea
Cole storms off to the elevator that leads to the Monastery, ticked off about what Zane just told him.
"It's not fair." He mutters as he steps inside the elevator, "He can just turn off his emotions whenever he feels like it, and boom! It's like nothing is wrong. Like we didn't lose one of our best friends."
He sighs as he remembers the events that occurred… actually exactly a year ago today he realizes. When Nya sacrificed herself to save Ninjago. The elevator dings as it arrives in the living room of the Monastery. For once as Cole walks out of the secret entrance there is no yelling or complaining about ruining a game or interrupting a show.
The Monastery used to never be this quiet.
Cole thinks as he walks down the halls towards the library. And indeed, the Monastery is very quiet without the chatter of four other ninja bouncing off the walls, so much so that it's almost suffocating.
Cole passes the kitchen where piles of empty pizza boxes and dirty dishes are. He pauses to gently straighten the picture that hangs on the wall at the end of the hall. The one of Jay and Nya. It seems like it was taken a lifetime ago, when really it's only been a couple years since then.
A soft sigh escapes his lips as he thinks of Jay. A few days after Nya's funeral he disappeared, leaving only a note in his room saying that he couldn't stay there anymore and had gone to the old lighthouse where Zane's father once lived.
Then a week after Jay left, Kai and Lloyd had gotten into a huge fight. Over what, Cole never learned. But it was something big enough that the sprinklers had gone off and everyone rushed into the two's bedroom where they found the red and green duo up in eachother's faces, not even noticing the water that soaked their clothes. The reason the sprinklers even got activated in the first place was because Kai had smoke billowing off him. He was seconds away from bursting into literal flames before everyone else barged in. Cole had taken one look at the enraged couple and immediately stepped forwards, ready to intervene and try to calm them down.
But before he had even gotten the chance to say anything, Lloyd yelled, "Maybe we should just take a break then!" to which Kai yelled back, "Maybe we should!" before turning and storming out of the room, the others hurriedly getting out of his way so as to not accidentally touch the *ahem* hot fire master.
The next day Kai left, he didn't say anything to anyone other than telling them that he was going to go and start a dojo somewhere. Lloyd didn't even come out to say goodbye.
Cole doesn't even know exactly when Lloyd left. He had been holed up in his room for days before Zane went to check on him after noticing that the green ninja had stopped going out and eating. But when Zane later came to tell Cole that Lloyd's room was empty, Cole couldn't say he was all that surprised. The three people that were closest to Nya all left. Her Yin, her brother, and her best friend.
Opening the doors of the library, Cole steps in and looks around. Crates of scrolls fill the room to the ceiling, barely leaving enough room for the earth elemental to walk around as he searches for his master.
"Uh, Master Wu?" He calls out, then coughs as he inhales a cloud of incense. Waving away the smoke he rounds a crate, and then immediately has to duck down as a scroll goes flying over his head, crashing into something behind him.
"Darn it! I thought perhaps there would be some clue to bringing Nya back in the Scrolls of Quanish the Elder, but Quanish was a fool!"
Cole turns his head and finds Master Wu kneeling on the floor, opening a new scroll while holding a magnifying glass in one hand.
"If there was an answer here, you would've found it already. You've read these scrolls a dozen times." Cole says, gesturing around him.
But Master Wu either doesn't hear him or just ignores him since he continues on as if Cole hasn't said anything, "I should have gone with Misako to the Library of Domu. They have a larger collection." He lifts up the edge of the scroll and examines the tiny writing through his magnifying glass.
"Master Wu, I think we need to get the team together. I've got a bad feeling about this Vengestone stuff." Cole says, approaching his master and resting a hand on his shoulder.
"Vengestone?" Master Wu asks, turning to face Cole, a confused look on his face, "What Vengestone?"
"Last night, they busted another Vengestone shipment." Cole answers, "And we still don't know who's behind it."
"Hmm. That is worrisome. Vengestone's only practical purpose is to negate Elemental Power." Master Wu says, turning back to his scroll with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Exactly." Cole agrees, "Anyone who's collecting Vengestone has to be up to no good!"
"You have a point." Master Wu says, standing up and grabbing his staff. He twirls it around and slams it onto the ground, a cloud of dust rising up from it as he does so. "Perhaps we should get the team together."
Cole slides down the anchor chain of the Bounty, landing outside a one level, older looking building with a red sloped roof and classic paper sliding doors.
Walking up the short set of steps to the door, he slides it open and steps inside. He finds himself in a dojo, but he already knew that. His eyes are immediately drawn towards the back of the room where a red figure is crouched over a piece of cardboard. Actually, now that he's looking more, he can see that all across the floor are pieces of shredded cardboard.
Sidestepping the mess, Cole makes his way over to the person in the back.
"Jeez, what happened here." He remarks, catching the attention of the man in front of him.
In one fluid motion, Cole goes from standing to lying face first on the floor with his left arm twisted painfully behind his back. The man above him has one foot planted firmly on the middle of Cole's back as he stares down at him.
Cole grunts in surprise and twists his head to look behind him. A flash of recognition appears in the man's eyes as he sees Cole's face.
Cole relaxes as he sees the other man recognize him.
"Nice to see your ninja skills are as sharp as ever, Kai."
Kai releases Cole's arm and takes his foot off of his back, reaching down to give his friend a hand up.
"Sorry man, you surprised me." Kai says, pulling Cole to his feet.
"Eh, to be fair you probably weren't expecting me to drop by." Cole says, giving Kai a friendly slap on the back.
"So, how've you been?"
The smile that Kai previously had on his face slowly fades as he considers Cole's question. His eyes flick over to the piece of cardboard that he had been looking at when Cole came in.
"Kai?" Cole asks, stepping forward, hand outstretched towards his friend.
Kai twists his head away from Cole and turns sharply, avoiding the hand that tries to rest on his shoulder.
"I'm fine." He says coldly.
He lets out an emotionless laugh that sends a shiver down Cole's back. "Heh, yeah, I'm fine."
"I mean, it's not like exactly a year ago today my younger sister sacrificed herself or anything. And no one seems to give a damn about her!" Kai's voice starts out nonchalantly but quickly turns to sad and then bitter.
The brunette starts to pace in a line back and forth in front of the earth elemental. Hands gripping his own shoulders as he paces.
"And to top it all off," he growls, eyes seeming to spark in anger, "I get in a fight with the love of my life and he basically breaks up with me!"
Kai essentially collapses in on himself after he finishes. Slumping down against a wall with his head in his hands.
"Kai…" Cole starts, but Kai interrupts him, asking, "How is he?"
Cole blinks in confusion. "Who?" He asks.
"Lloyd, how is he?" Kai clarifies, raising his head to look up at Cole.
"Oh, I guess I forgot you don't know." Cole says.
Immediately Kai's eyes fill with worry.
"Cole…" He starts.
"I mean it's not like we've even tried to reach out to you. So obviously you wouldn't have heard." Cole rambles on as if Kai hasn't said anything.
"Cole." Kai says, louder this time.
But again, Cole pretends Kai hasn't spoken, "I guess I've also been kinda busy working on my rock cycle too so-"
"COLE!" Kai yells, standing up and glaring at the dark haired male.
"What happened to my bo- best friend!?"
"Nothing happened!" Cole hurriedly shouts back. Then he internally winces and corrects himself, "Well we don't know if anything happened."
"What do you mean?" Kai demands.
"A few days after you left, Zane went to check on him because he noticed that he hadn't eaten anything in a while. When he went into Lloyd's room he found that he was gone." Cole explains, "He didn't leave a note or anything, and we haven't heard from him since."
"And what? You didn't think to look for him!? What if he's been kidnapped!? Or worse!" Kai shouts, pacing again.
"We did look for him." Cole reassures him, "Zane spent months scouring the security cameras all across Ninjago. He almost got the police involved!"
"Why didn't he?" Kai asks, now standing in front of Cole.
Cole hesitates for a moment before quickly saying, "Master Wu told him not to, he said that if Lloyd wanted to be an idiot and not tell anyone where he went then he could deal with the consequences." Cole closes his eyes and waits for the yelling to commence. But instead of yelling, he hears something strange. Laughter? Was Kai… laughing? He cracks open an eye to glance at Kai, and indeed, he is laughing.
"Now I get it." Kai says in between laughs, "This is why you're here isn't it? To get me to help you find Lloyd to look into this Vengestone stuff that's been happening. Am I right?"
Cole just blinks in surprise. "Uh, yeah, basically. But wait, how do you know about the Vengestone?" he asks.
Kai has a slightly guilty look on his face as he pulls his phone out of his back pocket. "I couldn't just abandon my followers on Ninj-Book or Ninjstagram. They've got needs too you know."
Cole groans and mutters, "Why am I not surprised." before asking, "So does this mean you'll help us find Lloyd? We, uh, heh, kinda need his leadership for this, especially if we're dealing with big time criminals."
Kai slips his phone back into his pocket and says, "Yeah sure, I've been getting kinda bored of this teaching thing anyways. This kindergarten class I have in a half hour is like a pack of ravenous wolves." He shudders as if remembering a not so fond memory, "Lemme just grab my stuff and then we can go."
He walks over to a door, most likely leading to his private living space, opens it and grabs a duffle bag that was on the floor right behind it. He then goes back over to Cole and drops the bag in front of him.
"Jeez, were you planning on leaving or something?" Cole asks, looking down at the bag.
"Well I figured you guys were going to come ask me to help out and thought it would be easier if I was already packed." Kai explains.
"What about your students?" Cole asks.
Kai just shrugs and says, "Eh, I'll leave a note saying that lessons are canceled for the rest of the week. I don't really feel like dealing with the wolf pack today anyway."
As the two walk out of the dojo, Cole turns and asks Kai, "How are you going to find Lloyd? I mean, no offence but if a highly skilled and incredibly smart Nindroid can't find him… How will you do any better?"
Kai laughs before answering, "I know Lloyd, if he doesn't want to be found then you'll never find him. No matter how skilled or smart you are. But I also know that he loves me, even if we are taking a break."
"Okay? But how does that help us find him?" Cole asks.
Kai stops and turns to face Cole, he has one of his signature cocky grins plastered on his face. "Lloyd loves me, so if I were to go somewhere in Ninjago City, he wouldn't be able to resist coming out of hiding to meet me. And I know exactly where to go."
The door of Cinnamon Swirl Cafe opens, jingling the little bell that alerts workers of a new customer. A man wearing a black hoodie and ripped jeans walks in, hands in his pockets and hood up, covering his hair. He looks around for a moment at the other people in the Cafe before walking over and sitting down at a small table. The table is located in the corner of the cafe, right by a window. Another man is already sitting there, absorbed in his phone, two cups of coffee sit in front of him. He looks up from his phone, and upon seeing the first man, a smirk breaks out across his face.
"I knew you couldn't resist meeting me." He says, but gets no response from the man sitting across from him. His smirk fades and he gently nudges one of the cups of coffee closer to the man in the black hoodie.
"I got your favorite, a mocha with extra sugar and chocolate shaving on top."
The other man slides the cup over to himself with a soft hmm. But still no real response. He hasn't even looked up from the table yet.
"How are you? What've you been up to? It's been a while since I last sa–"
"What are you doing here, Kai?" The man in the black hoodie finally speaks, cutting off Kai's questions.
Kai inhales quietly at the sound of a voice he hasn't heard in a long time. Not since that day. Not since their fight.
"What, can't a guy just visit his boyfriend once and a while?" Kai doesn't miss the way Lloyd flinches when he says, 'boyfriend'.
"Not when the last time they saw each other they had a huge fight." Lloyd says, eyes still not meeting Kai's.
Kai sighs and traces the rim of his coffee cup with one finger, "Listen, I know I said some stuff back then that I shouldn't have. And I know I hurt you a lot. I don't expect you to forgive me or anything, but… I still wanted to say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry Lloyd. I'm sorry that I said you wouldn't understand. I'm sorry that I said you never cared about her. I wasn't in a good place emotionally, honestly I'm still not, but that doesn't excuse my behavior towards you. I shouldn't have said those things, and I'm sorry."
He looks over at Lloyd, trying to gauge his reaction. After a moment Lloyd finally looks up, emerald eyes meet amber ones. Lloyd flicks back his hood, running a hand through his silky blond locks as he does so.
"I guess I'm also partly at fault for it too." He says, "I shouldn't have tried to make you return to ninja duty when you obviously weren't ready. I shouldn't have claimed to have been more affected than you. You're her brother for crying out loud! Of course losing her would affect you more than me. I guess I also wasn't in the right place emotionally then either." Lloyd lets out a soft laugh at the end.
"I miss you, Lloyd. And I have every day since I left." Kai says. He can feel his eyes start to tear up and quickly blinks away the tears.
"Do you think maybe we could try again?" He asks, looking at Lloyd hopefully.
Lloyd sighs and picks up his coffee, finally taking a sip. A small smile dances across his face and he whispers, "You really did remember."
He takes another sip before placing it back down on the table. He starts to lightly drum his fingers on the surface of the table, humming softly to himself.
Kai is about to give up when Lloyd suddenly says, "Yes."
"Yes?" Kai repeats, hope glimmering in his eyes.
"Yes, I want to try again. I miss you too." Lloyd says, looking at Kai with a smile.
Kai bounces slightly in his seat, barely restraining himself from squealing like a schoolgirl. He reaches out for Lloyd's hand but then stops, looking at Lloyd as if to ask for permission. Lloyd answers him by gently taking Kai's hand with his own. After a moment he lets go and rests his elbows on the table, giving Kai a look.
"What?" Kai says.
"Why else are you here?" Lloyd asks.
"What do you mean?" Kai asks, tilting his head to the side.
"I mean, no offence Kai. But you're not really the kind of person to just randomly go and visit someone without a reason." Kai opens his mouth to argue, but Lloyd quickly raises his hands and says, "Not that making up with me isn't a reason. But the fact that Cole's also here is quite suspicious." He points towards a man sitting alone over at the other side of the Cafe. The man is wearing a dark leather jacket and a white T-shirt underneath it. He also has a broom-like moustache and a pair of dark sunglasses on.
Kai's face starts turning a light shade of red and Lloyd raises an eyebrow at him questioningly.
"You didn't really think that I wouldn't notice him?" The look on Kai's face is all Lloyd needs to see to know exactly what he thought. "Kai… he's wearing basically the same disguise he wore when infiltrating the Sons of Garmadon. And it didn't even work well then! Of course I'm going to notice him." Lloyd groans, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.
"Well I… Ok, you got us. I did want to talk to you about something else too." Kai admits, slumping down in his seat in defeat.
"What do you know about the Vengestone smuggling operation that got busted last night?" He asks.
"A lot actually." Lloyd says, taking another sip of his coffee. "I've been keeping tabs on the criminal activities around the city, I even visited the docks after the New Ninja busted the smugglers."
"New Ninja?" Kai says, blinking in surprise.
"Are you serious? I know you've been on Ninj-Book and Ninjstagram, Kai. How do you not know about them?" Lloyd asks, once again questioning his choice of lover.
"Oh, those guys." Kai says, eyes widening in remembrance. "Yeah, I saw some stuff about them a few days ago. We really need to get our act together, the city's trying to replace us man."
"Anyway, about this Vengestone stuff." Kai says, finally getting back on topic, "Cole, Zane, and I were hoping that you would maybe come back to the Monastery and maybe help us with figuring it out and shutting them down?" He asks, giving Lloyd a look that's a mix between hopefulness and begging.
"Let me guess," Lloyd starts, "Cole said, 'we can't do it without his leadership' or something like that?"
"That's… actually not too far from the truth." Kai admits.
Lloyd hums and says, "When I originally left the Monastery I thought about just giving up being a ninja. So that what happened to Nya… under my leadership, wouldn't happen again."
He lets out a small laugh as he says, "I almost decided to be like a window cleaner or something." Kai chuckles as he tries to imagine his boyfriend on one of those little window washing platforms, diligently making sure every window is clean.
"But then I started thinking about what Nya would say. What she would think of what I'd become. And I know that if she was still here, she'd kick my but and tell me to get back to work."
"So I did." Lloyd sits back in his seat, "I got back into it, I became a solo ninja."
"Damn." Kai whistles low, impressed with how much Lloyd has grown since they last saw each other, "You've been having basically an enlightening moment. And I've just been hanging around in a dojo teaching kids to 'obliterate their enemies before they see them coming'."
"Wha–" Lloyd starts, confusion spreading across his face.
But Kai abruptly cuts him off, waving a hand and saying, "Not important, what is important is if you'll help us or not."
Lloyd thinks for a moment, taking the opportunity to have another sip of his coffee - yes, he loves coffee -. "I think it would definitely be in our best interests to all come together again." He says, "But that also means we need to go get Jay back. I have a feeling his unique perspective on things will really come in handy."
Kai winces and says, "Yeah, Zane already tried doing that. He was met with a… less than pleasant response."
Lloyd hums to himself before saying, "Well then I guess we'll all just have to go and convince him together."
"Come on Kai! Let's go get Jay back!" Lloyd eagerly shouts, standing up, he grabs Kai's arm and pulls him out of his seat, making a beeline for the Cafe door.
"Hi Cole!" He says, rushing past the earth master, causing him to look up, surprised that Lloyd recognized him that easily. He curses lightly under his breath, he really needs to get better at making disguises.
"Nice seeing you! Now come on! We've got a mission!" Lloyd continues as he runs out the door, dragging Kai along with him.
Kai sends Cole a look that says, Help Me! And Cole just chuckles as he gets up and follows the couple out, glad that they made up. Now all they need to do is get Jay back on the team and put a stop to these Vengestone smugglers. How hard could it be?
A/N: If you have any ideas for alterations to a scene from an episode that I haven't altered yet, and you think it would make for a good short I would be happy to hear about it.
A/N: Thank you to NinjafanLL007 for giving me the idea for this story!
A/N: Again, I also have a Wattpad account under the name GreenFlameDrag0n. I sometimes cross-post my stories between Fanfiction . net and Wattpad, so you should go check out my other account for stories that you won't find here.