Kai knew as soon as he stood up that his shoulder was dislocated with the way it hung limply and painfully at his side, but that little girl was right. Ninja never quit, especially not if their friend is possessed by…something.

It didn't help that every single time that he regained his bearings, he would be once again flung to the ground by the elemental wind, resulting in the jostling of his shoulder and a new bruise being quickly added to the plethora that he already obtained.

But he couldn't let whoever or whatever was controlling Lloyd hurt him and he really couldn't let it hurt Nya, so he carefully and painfully pulled himself to his feet once more, gritting his teeth as he did.

Only to hear the gravelly voice call him and the others "pathetic students" before the ground shook violently and the wind grew to a roaring volume around his ears, forcing him and the others to stay on the ground if they wanted to stay in the vicinity of the teashop.

When the ground finally stopped shaking, it was mere moments before Nya slammed the door open with Wu behind her and shouted, "to the barn!"

Kai knew that The Bounty was in the barn, he knew fully well what Nya meant when she said that, but she was unharmed as far as Kai could tell, so he focused on his other priority and stood his ground, "I am not running away from Lloyd!"

Even when Sensei turned around and said, "we will not win this fight today" and Jay, Cole and Zane ran toward The Bounty, to safety, Kai stood his ground and approached the teashop, bracing himself as the wind grew harsher and harsher against his firm stance.

The last thing he expected was for the entity inside of Lloyd to rush towards him and pin him to the ground by the shoulders, his fingernails digging into his skin before lifting him up onto his toes.

"Foolish ninja. Why would you try and take me on all by yourself?" The entity demanded, its breath reeking of decay.

"Because I promised to look after Lloyd," Kai glared at the entity before trying his hardest to look past it and get to the true owner of the body that was holding him in the air, "I know you're in there, Lloyd. Fight him!" He shouted, before managing to get his feet on the ground in order to hold the entity in a chokehold.

"The staff is getting away! Let go of me!"

"Only when you let go of Lloyd!" Kai demanded, pressing his arm harder and harder against his neck.

"Kai…" and Kai nearly froze, that voice wasn't the entity, that was Lloyd. He had gotten through, he had done it, "help me."

"Lloyd? Is that you?"

But before he could get an answer, the anchor of The Bounty grabbed onto his suit and yanked him out of the air, away from Lloyd, away from what could be his only chance of getting him back.

"Wait! Let me go!" He shouted, and even though Cole responded with something that he couldn't hear over the roaring wind, he knew that it wasn't an agreement, "I saw Lloyd! Put me down! Let me go!"

As soon as Jay and Cole helped him onto the deck, the throbbing in his shoulder was renewed with a brand new fire to accompany his aching head from hitting it against the stone tiles, but he ignored it as he ran right to where Nya was steering, "we have to go back."

"Sorry, brother, but that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid."

And the pure fear in her voice, not to mention the two of them sliding as the entity pulled the ship back, redirected his priorities back to keeping her safe.

"Give me your hand!" He demanded, gripping onto her tightly before pushing her to the lever and their escape.

…

When Kai managed to pull himself out of reliving that night, he took a moment to shudder in the still dark room before pulling himself to his feet and making his way to the kitchen.

It was still dark outside and within The Bounty, so he made sure that he took slow, soft steps in order to let the others sleep; after all, it had only been a few weeks since they had saved Stiix and rest hadn't come easy to any of them.

With the events of the last month and the exhaustion creeping in, he couldn't stop himself from flinching back into the wall when he saw the shadowy figure sitting at the kitchen island, his right shoulder slamming into the wood and sending a shock of pain into his neck.

"Kai, I am so sorry, are you okay?"

When Kai managed to breathe around the pain and open his eyes, he winced when he realized who had been sitting at the island and tried to keep up a facade around the throbbing that steadily radiated from his shoulder and into his arm and neck.

"Yeah, yeah," he tried his best to keep his voice steady around gritted teeth as he pulled himself to his feet by gripping the doorframe with his left hand, "'m okay."

"You should sit down, I'll get you some tea. I'm still trying to work out measurements but it doesn't taste horrible if you add enough sugar-"

"Really, Lloyd," Kai let out a breath as the pain slowly dissipated, "it's fine," as soon as he said that, however, he looked over at the teacup sitting on the island and the discarded blanket and turned back to Lloyd who looked like he was one step away from crying or falling asleep, "but I'll sit down, okay?"

The nod allowed Kai to slowly step forward and sit down on the barstool next to the one where the lone teacup was sitting, but he waited until Lloyd reached down and pulled the blanket tightly around his shoulders before asking, "are you okay? Cause I can turn up the thermostat-"

"No, it's not…ever since he let me go, I can't get warm."

"Okay, and you didn't tell anyone this because…?"

"I can manage it," Lloyd shrugged as he brought the teacup to his lips and sipped at it with a grimace, "I already caused enough problems."

Even without the guilty glance towards his right shoulder, Kai knew fully well that he wasn't the only one who had that night eating at them still; he reached forward and rested his left hand on Lloyd's way too cold shoulder, letting a small amount of elemental heat radiate against his skin.

Kai only felt worse when he felt his shoulders instantly untense from the warmth, "I'm not mad at you, Lloyd."

"I know." Lloyd mumbled unconvincingly as his eyelids started to flutter shut.

Kai decided to leave it at that for the night with the way sleep was tugging at him as well and instead resorted to gently tapping his face, "come on, you're not sleeping on the barstool."

Lloyd did manage to open his eyes enough to stand and sluggishly walk back to their room, even though Kai did stay reasonably close behind him to make sure he didn't fall despite the fact that catching him would only renew the throbbing in his arm.

When he finally did lay down, Kai walked over and laid down in his own bed before turning his attention to the softly ticking clock on the dresser to try and distract his mind and waited to succumb to his own exhaustion.