Chapter Text
Garmadon understood the urgency almost immediately, and for that alone Nya felt like collapsing with relief. The moment she slipped back through the trees and into their hidden camp, he had looked up from the maps spread across the hood of the vehicle and read the answer straight from her face. He had always been frighteningly good at that.
Nya was grateful for it now, because if she had needed to explain everything she had seen inside the palace from the very beginning, she might have screamed from frustration before finishing the first sentence. Chen’s island felt less like a place and more like a fever dream.
It made her want to punch something.
Or rather… someone.
“And our boys?” Garmadon asks quietly as he gathers the supplies from the ground. His voice changed the moment she returned into a softer, more fatherly shade. “Did you see them?”
The question hits her harder than she expects.
She crouches beside one of the crates and hands him a stack of metal plates they had used the previous night.
“Yeah,” she answers after a second too long. “I saw them.”
Garmadon glances at her while stuffing rope and tools into a weathered bag.
“And?”
Nya swallows.
“They looked... good,” she lies weakly. “Maybe a little tired.”
The words tasted awful coming out of her mouth. Because they didn't look good. Not even close.
Lloyd looked like someone trying to survive on determination alone. His face had been pale beneath the throne room lights, shadows bruising the skin beneath his eyes. He looked thinner. Too tense and too alert, like rest itself had become dangerous.
And Kai...
Nya tightens her grip unconsciously around the edge of the crate.
Kai looked wrong in a way she couldn’t explain.
Tired? Certainly.
Exhausted? An understatement.
But there had been something else in his eyes she had never seen before. Something burning beneath the surface like fire trapped under glass. Something she can't quite put her finger on yet.
“Lies don’t look very good on you, Nya,” Garmadon says gently.
She blinks, pulled from her thoughts.
He smiles faintly at her now while tightening the straps on one of the bags, though the sadness behind it sits heavy as stone.
“But thank you for trying to ease my worries.”
Nya lets out a breath through her nose and rubs a hand over the back of her neck.
“Sorry.”
Garmadon lifts his gaze toward the forest ahead of them.
“We need to focus on Chen,” he says at last. “The sooner we bring him down, the sooner we bring our boys home.”
Home.
The word strikes somewhere deep in Nya’s chest.
Home meant the monastery kitchen covered in flour because Kai couldn’t keep the kitchen clean for one second, even if his life depended on it. Home meant Jay complaining dramatically from the couch while Cole stole his food. Home meant Lloyd trying too hard to act mature while Wu pretended not to notice. Home meant peace. Safety. Familiar chaos instead of this poisonous island where every place feels like a trap waiting to spring shut.
“We’ll get them back,” she says firmly, more to herself than to him.
Garmadon nods once.
“Then let’s get to work.”
Nya grabs the last pile of equipment from the ground and shoves it into the back of the vehicle.
“They should be here soon,” she murmurs, glancing toward the deeper forest paths.
Kai and Lloyd.
Kai.
The thought alone tightens something painful in her chest.
It has been far too long since she had seen him properly. Not through a screen. Not through rushed phone calls filled with half truths. But really seen him. Stood beside him. Heard Kai complain too loudly about something stupid while pretending he was not secretly worried sick about everyone around him. And what made it worse was the fact that their last real conversation was an argument.
Of course it had been an argument.
She could still picture him perfectly if she closed her eyes long enough. The sharp tension in his jaw. His hands opening and closing at his sides like he needed to fight something just to stay standing still. He looked furious at everything and nothing at the same time.
Furious at the world.
Furious at himself.
And underneath all that anger had been hurt. Kai always hid hurt.
Typical Kai.
But she hadn’t exactly made things easier for anyone that time either.
Typical her, too.
The forest stretches endlessly around them as she and Garmadon move into the trees, their footsteps muffled by damp earth and fallen leaves. Shadows cling between the trunks like ink spilled across the world.
Nya adjusts the communicator hidden beneath her sleeve and keeps walking.
Right now, secrecy was the only advantage they had left. And she prayed Lloyd knew something about where Jay and the others were being kept. Because if they were going to survive this island, if they were going to survive Chen, they needed all of them together again.
Every single one.
*****
Kai is now standing on the very thin, very fragile edge of tolerating that snakey lunatic Chen without finally snapping and setting half the island on fire.
Every single day the man finds a new way to crawl under his skin.
First, there are the competitions. Endless competitions. Kai is beginning to suspect Chen spins a wheel every morning labeled How Can I Exhaust the Fire Ninja Today? Because somehow, impossibly, he keeps ending up in the center of every single event. Not that Kai minds attention in general. Attention usually means glory, dramatic entrances, crowds cheering his name, and occasionally Skylor looking at him like he’s the only interesting thing in the room. Those parts are great. Amazing even.
The problem is the exhaustion.
Since stepping foot into Chen’s palace, Kai hasn’t had a single proper moment of rest. Every morning drags him into another challenge. Another trial. Another bizarre game twisted together by Chen’s overactive imagination.
And then there is the second thing. The thing clawing at the back of his mind harder than all the others combined.
Chen knows about his father.
Not just vaguely either. Not in the casual way people know Ray had once been a blacksmith. No, there was something else hidden behind Chen’s smile during the forge competition. The way he leaned close afterward, saying, You really are your father’s son, Kai, like the sentence carried a second meaning only Chen understood.
Kai replayed that moment in his head at least fifty times already.
The smirk. The look in Chen’s eyes. The confidence. It gnaws at him like a splinter buried too deep beneath skin to pull out. Maybe Chen knew his father years ago. Maybe he bought weapons from him. Maybe it is nothing.
But Kai’s instincts scream otherwise.
And Kai trusts his instincts. They've saved his ass more times than he can count. They've been his guardian angel since his parents left him alone with Nya in the blacksmith shop.
Then comes the third thing.
Chen favors him.
Openly enough for everyone else to notice it, and enough for Kai to feel it. Clouse tries interfering during Kai’s matches constantly, and somehow Chen always stops him. Every arena favors Kai in one way or another. Heat. Movement. Open space. Fire. Even the man’s attitude shifts around him. Chen acts almost delighted whenever Kai enters a room, like watching him is the highlight of his day.
There’s my favorite firecracker!
Kai physically cringes remembering it.
Who even says things like that? The whole thing smells rotten. Unless that’s exactly the point. Chen is manipulative enough to twist affection into a weapon. The man treats people like pieces on a board game he alone understands. Maybe making Kai feel singled out is intentional. Maybe he wants him unsettled. Distracted. Or curious. It’s working far too well.
And now this.
This insane excuse for a final competition.
Kai shoves another branch violently out of his way, leaves scraping across his arms and shoulders. Humidity clings to him like wet fabric. Every step sinks slightly into damp earth. Strange animal cries echo through the distance while insects buzz loudly enough to drive him insane.
“Stupid leaves,” he mutters under his breath for what is probably the hundredth time.
The challenge itself sounds like something invented during one of Chen’s sugar highs. Everyone gets flown into the middle of the island by helicopter, dumped into the jungle, and told to find a single hidden jade blade somewhere across the entire island.
Hidden somewhere.
That is all the information they get. Very helpful, Chen.
The blade could be buried beneath mountain cliffs. Hidden in caves. Tucked inside temple ruins. At the bottom of rivers. Hanging from a tree branch. Stuffed under Chen’s mattress for all Kai knows. The island itself feels endless from above. Dense forests melt into jagged mountains while rivers cut through everything like silver scars. And even after finding the blade, whoever finds it still has to locate Chen himself because the man apparently decides staying in one place is too boring.
Absolute madman.
Kai ducks beneath another low branch, brushing leaves from his face, when suddenly a sharp crack echoes behind him.
His body reacts instantly.
Kai spins around, flame igniting in his palm with a hot whoosh that paints the jungle orange for a brief second. Shadows jump wildly between the trees.
“Who’s there?” he calls sharply.
Nothing answers at first. Only the distant rush of water echoes somewhere deeper in the jungle.
But then he sees it.
A shadow shifts behind one of the trees ahead. Kai narrows his eyes, flame dancing brighter against his fingers.
“I know you’re there,” he warns. “Come out.”
The figure steps forward at last.
Red hair.
Amber eyes.
A grin already tugging at her lips.
“Who would’ve guessed you’d get so fired up over a little jade blade hunt?” Skylor teases.
The tension drains from Kai’s shoulders so quickly it almost embarrasses him. The fire disappears from his hand in a puff of heat.
“Skylor,” he exhales. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
She leans casually against the tree trunk beside her, clearly enjoying herself far too much.
“That dramatic already?”
Kai smirks despite himself and walks toward her through the tangled undergrowth.
“Next time you decide to stalk me through the jungle, try staying where I can actually see you.”
“Who says I’m stalking you?” she asks lightly.
Kai stops close enough now that their breaths almost touch. Sunlight filters weakly through the canopy above, scattering gold across her face in shifting patterns.
“Oh, really?” he asks. “So this has nothing to do with wanting to witness my glorious victory firsthand?”
Skylor’s smile widens slowly.
“I’m more interested in my own victory.”
“Huh.” Kai grins. “Bit awkward then, because this is a solo game. Which means eventually I’m gonna have to defeat you.”
She rolls her eyes, as if Kai’s words were the most out of sense she’s heard in her entire life.
“Can a man physically become more ridiculous?” she asks. “Kai, I don’t care about winning this tournament.”
“It’s all just a game to me,” her voice softens slightly, and after a brief pause she adds quietly, almost whispering. “If I’ve won anything here... I think it’s you.”
Kai’s brain stops functioning for approximately ten full seconds.
His head turns slightly away on instinct, cheeks warming immediately.
“Alright,” he mutters. “Where is all this romance suddenly coming from?”
Skylor walks past him, brushing his shoulder lightly as she does. She glances back over her shoulder, eyes glittering with amusement.
“I simply decided I’d rather spend time with you than chase a blade through the wilderness,” she says. “Even if helping you win means I lose.”
Kai quickly catches up beside her.
“I don’t need help,” he informs her proudly. “But I suppose I can generously allow you to accompany me.”
“How noble of you.”
“Just don’t change your mind when I do find the blade.”
Skylor takes a few seconds to answer, “I won’t.”
They continue forward together through the jungle, pushing between thick branches and tangled roots while the sounds of the island surround them from every direction. The river somewhere nearby roars louder now, deep and endless like the breathing of some sleeping beast. Birds burst occasionally from the trees overhead, startling Kai every single time no matter how much he pretends otherwise. But despite Skylor’s presence beside him, despite how easy it feels walking with her like this, another thought continues pressing against the back of his mind.
Nya.
She’s here somewhere. On this island. In this jungle, probably. Kai and Lloyd’s side mission doesn’t disappear just because Chen wraps everything in an outdoor competition. They need to find her. Need to warn her. Need to figure out how to stop Chen before the entire island explodes into chaos. Part of him considers telling Skylor about Nya. She has been more than an ally, or a friend to him since the start. Much more than that. She understands more than most people here. And with her copied powers, she could probably help locate Nya in less than two seconds.
But then Lloyd’s voice echoes somewhere in Kai’s memory.
“Don’t tell her,” Lloyd told him just before they left the palace grounds.
Kai grimaces slightly. For once, maybe he could listen to Lloyd.
Skylor glances toward him suddenly.
“Any brilliant theories about where the blade might be hidden?” she asks.
Kai snorts.
“Honestly? That lunatic could literally hide it inside his own pants and call it fair because technically it’s still somewhere on the island.”
Skylor bursts into laughter so suddenly she nearly stumbles over a root.
“You’re horrible,” she says between laughs.
Kai spreads his hands dramatically, trying to ignore the stupid warmth blooming in his chest because of her smile. “But you know I’m right.”
“That’s the terrifying part.” She points accusingly at him, though the grin stretching across her face ruins every attempt at seriousness. “The terrifying part is that I can absolutely imagine Chen hiding the blade somewhere disgusting just to make us suffer.”
Kai snorts loudly. “See? You get me.”
“I wish I didn’t.”
They continue through the forest together, their shoulders brushing every now and then as the jungle thickens around them like living walls. The island hums softly under the afternoon sun. Leaves sway lazily overhead, filtering gold light across the ground in fractured patterns that shift beneath their feet. The air smells of damp bark, rich soil, and distant rain. Somewhere deeper in the trees, insects sing their endless songs, sharp and rhythmic like hidden machinery buried beneath the roots of the world. Kai pushes aside another curtain of branches and nearly freezes on the spot.
His soul leaves his body.
THE RIVER.
Not a stream. Not a puddle. Not a harmless little trickle of water.
A RIVER.
A wide, deep, dangerous, terrifying, swallowing, wet watery river.
The surface gleams under the sunlight like liquid glass stretched across the jungle floor. The current moves slowly enough to seem calm, but Kai knows better. Water never looks dangerous until it decides to be. The sound of it crawls beneath his skin instantly.
And standing directly in front of it is Skylor.
First Master himself must have personally decided to ruin Kai’s life today.
Kai immediately points in the opposite direction with the urgency of a man spotting certain death.
“How about we go that way?”
Skylor blinks at him. “That way?”
“Yeah. That way looks great. Amazing, actually.”
“But…” she glances over her shoulder toward the path they just walked through, “we literally came from there.”
Kai nods quickly. Too quickly. “Exactly. Which means nobody else would search there again. That’s strategy.”
“Kai.”
“I’m just saying we might’ve missed something.”
She crosses her arms slowly, already suspicious. “You think we missed the jade blade hidden somewhere in a patch of dirt we already walked through?”
“Yes.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m improvising.”
Her eyes narrow further.
Kai immediately searches for another excuse and latches onto the nearest thing he can find. A mountain peak rises in the distance to their left, towering above the jungle canopy like a giant spear piercing the clouds.
“There.” He points at it with confidence born entirely from panic. “The mountain.”
“The mountain.”
“Exactly.”
“You want to climb an entire mountain.”
“Yes.”
“Instead of crossing the river.”
“Yes.”
Skylor stares at him for a long moment. The kind of stare that feels like someone peeling back layers straight to the bone. Kai suddenly becomes very interested in rubbing the back of his neck.
“We could also search Chen’s wardrobe to confirm your theory about him hiding the blade somewhere ridiculous,” she says slowly, stepping closer. “But I don’t think you actually want to do that either.”
Kai opens his mouth immediately. “I absolutely want to climb that mountain. It’s tall. Adventurous. Windy. Very heroic. Very ninja.”
“And very far away from water.”
“That too.”
A smile slowly curves across her lips as realization settles into place.
“Oh my,” she breathes. “You’re scared of water.”
Kai’s shoulders sag in defeat so fast it almost hurts physically.
“Yeah,” he mutters. “I know. Not exactly impressive.”
For a second he expects teasing. Expects laughter. Expects one of Jay’s old jokes thrown back at him through somebody else’s mouth.
Instead Skylor’s expression softens. Her hand lands gently against his shoulder, warm even through the fabric of his gi.
“Don’t worry, hotshot,” she says quietly but still with a thread of playfulness. “that can stay between us.”
Something in Kai’s chest twists strangely at the softness in her voice.
Before he can respond, her hand slips down into his, fingers threading carefully through his own. Then she walks toward the river, pulling him with her.
Kai’s panic returns immediately.
“Skylor.”
She keeps walking.
“Skylor.”
Still walking.
“Skylor, I’m serious.”
Without answering, she lifts her free hand.
Light bursts from her palm. Cold blue brilliance explodes across the river in a blinding wave, racing over the water faster than breath itself. Ice spreads instantly across the surface with a sharp cracking sound, crystal veins freezing the current solid beneath them. Frost blooms outward in delicate patterns like flowers made from winter itself.
Kai stops breathing.
Skylor steps onto the ice effortlessly and turns back toward him with a grin.
“There,” she says brightly. “Problem solved.”
Kai steps onto the frozen river with all the confidence of a man walking toward his execution.
The ice creaks faintly beneath his boots. His soul nearly ascends.
Meanwhile Skylor spins gracefully across the frozen surface like she belongs there. Like the ice welcomes her. She moves with impossible balance, every motion smooth and weightless. The wind catches strands of her hair as she twirls, and for a second she looks less like a fighter and more like something carved from the winter sky itself.
“Did I ever tell you I’m an amazing skater?” she asks teasingly.
Kai barely hears her.
His eyes are fixed on the ice forming beneath her feet. On the blades shaping themselves from frozen crystal.
On the power.
On the ice.
Ice…
His stomach drops so violently it feels like falling through the earth.
Skylor lands lightly before him, smiling. “It’s fairly simple if you give it a go. I could...” She notices his face. “Kai, what’s wrong?”
“How…” Kai’s voice comes out thin and hollow. “How did you do that?”
She tilts her head slightly. “Kai, I told you already. I can absorb elemental powers from oth…”
“You used ice,” he says quietly, interrupting her. Kai feels like every piece of warmth inside him has turned to stone.
Skylor’s expression shifts instantly.
“Kai…”
“Zane was never in the tournament.”
The jungle suddenly feels silent. Too silent. Even the river beneath the ice seems to stop breathing. Skylor goes perfectly still. Every trace of playfulness disappears from her face, leaving behind something fragile and exposed that Kai cannot bear to look at.
“You’re working for Chen.”
The words leave his mouth numb and lifeless. He should be furious. He should scream. He should demand answers. Instead, he just stands there feeling his heart splitting apart quietly inside his chest.
Sudden applause echoes through the trees.
“Well done! Well done! Finally somebody catches on!”
Kai spins instantly.
Chen emerges from the jungle grinning from ear to ear, his robes bright against the shadows like poison flowers blooming in darkness. His eyes glitter with delight as he steps onto the frozen river without hesitation.
“That’s right!” Chen exclaims dramatically. “Skylor is my daughter! My pride and joy! Of course she works with her dear old father.”
Kai stumbles backward instinctively, but Chen catches him by the arm before he can slam against the ice.
The touch feels disgusting.
Chen beams at him.
“So,” he purrs, “wouldn’t you like to join the family business?”
Kai jerks away from him.
“Never!”
Flames explode to life in his palm instantly, roaring bright orange against the cold blue ice.
“Kai, don’t!” Skylor shouts desperately from behind him. “You’ll break the ice!”
He spares her one shattered glance. One last glance full of betrayal and grief and something dangerously close to heartbreak.
Then he slams the fire downward.
The river explodes beneath them. Steam erupts upward in violent clouds as the ice fractures apart with deafening cracks. Water bursts through the frozen surface in furious black waves.
Chen leaps backward smoothly.
Kai launches himself into motion immediately, spinning into stance as fire coils around his body like living rage.
Energy blasts toward him from Chen’s staff. One clips his shoulder hard enough to send pain screaming through his nerves.
Kai growls through clenched teeth. Everything hurts. His chest. His head. His trust. His hope. But he forces himself upright anyway, flames burning brighter in his fists.
He will deal with Chen.
He will survive this island.
And somehow, somehow, he will find his family before this place destroys what is left of it.
*****
If footsteps could kill, Lloyd thinks bitterly, then the forest would have dropped dead around him hours ago.
The jungle has become an endless circle of green and shadow, swallowing him whole no matter which direction he chooses. Every path twists into another. Every opening between the trees eventually folds back into itself. He has been walking for so long that time itself has started slipping through his fingers. Minutes feel like hours. Hours feel like seconds. Sweat sticks his clothes to his skin. Leaves cling to his boots. His legs ache from climbing over roots and ducking beneath low branches that seem determined to claw his eyes out.
At some point he starts marking trees. It's a desperate attempt to prove to himself that he’s actually moving somewhere.
It doesn’t help.
Every single time, somehow, impossibly, he ends up back where he started. A crooked cluster of stones beside a fallen tree covered in pale fungus.
Middle of nowhere.
Middle of everything.
Lloyd exhales sharply through his nose, dragging a hand across his face. His thoughts feel tangled together so tightly they hurt. Every possibility crashes against another inside his head until he can’t tell fear from reason anymore.
He needs to find Kai and Nya.
He only has to find them.
Together they could figure something out. Together they could contact Master Wu. His mother. His father. Somebody. Anybody. They could stop Chen before whatever nightmare he is planning finally unfolds across the world. Maybe Nya already knows where the others are. Maybe she found Jay and Cole. Maybe she even found Zane somehow.
The thought keeps him breathing. But another thought follows immediately behind it, sharp as a knife.
How did Nya even find out about this place?
About the tournament. About them being here.
Lloyd presses the heel of his hand against his forehead. His head feels too full lately. Every day on this island piles another layer of pressure onto his shoulders until even thinking becomes exhausting.
A branch suddenly smacks him hard across the forehead.
“Ow!”
The sting jerks him violently out of his thoughts. Leaves scatter around him as he stumbles backward, glaring at the offending branch like it personally insulted him.
Then movement catches his eye.
A shadow slips between the trees ahead.
Lloyd’s entire body snaps alert instantly.
The figure moves quickly through the forest, tall and broad shouldered, disappearing behind trunks before he can properly make it out. But something about the silhouette strikes him straight through the chest with painful familiarity.
Without thinking, Lloyd bolts after it.
“Stop!” he shouts, shoving through branches that whip against his arms and face. “Hey! Stop right now!”
The figure halts.
Slowly, it turns.
And Lloyd forgets how to breathe.
For one impossible second, he feels like a little kid again.
“Father!”
The word tears out of him before he can stop it.
Sensei Garmadon barely has time to brace himself before Lloyd crashes into him, arms wrapping tightly around him. The smell of worn leather, smoke, and forest air hits Lloyd instantly, so achingly familiar that his chest twists painfully around it.
“Lloyd,” Garmadon says softly, and there is something raw in his voice Lloyd almost never hears. “I’m glad I found you.”
Lloyd squeezes tighter for another second before finally pulling away, though he keeps one hand clenched in Garmadon’s sleeve as if afraid he might disappear.
“I’m glad too,” he admits quickly. “But what are you doing here?”
Garmadon’s expression hardens slightly, though exhaustion lingers around his eyes like shadows carved into stone.
“The same thing you are,” he answers. “Stopping Chen and rescuing your friends.”
Relief crashes through Lloyd so hard his knees nearly buckle.
“And Nya came with you?”
“Yes.” Garmadon adjusts his sleeves carefully, though the movement feels more like buying himself a second to think. “We separated to cover more ground. She insisted it would be faster that way.”
“That sounds like Nya.”
A faint smile ghosts across Garmadon’s face before fading again.
“She also gave me this.” He reaches into his robe and awkwardly pulls out the communicator. “Unfortunately, I possess absolutely no understanding of how it functions.”
Lloyd blinks.
Then laughs. Laughs as if he forgot how to and just regained the ability to feel happy and safe again. The sound bursts out of him bright and sudden, startling birds from nearby branches.
“Come on,” he says between breaths, grinning despite everything. “You can’t seriously be that bad with technology.”
“Do not mock your father’s technological capabilities,” Garmadon replies with deep dignity completely ruined by the fact he’s holding the communicator upside down.
Lloyd laughs harder. For a moment, the fear suffocating him loosens.
Just a little.
Garmadon eventually sighs and hands the device over with all the seriousness of surrendering an ancient cursed relic.
“Help me.”
Lloyd presses the correct button almost instantly. Static crackles through the speaker before a familiar voice cuts sharply through the noise.
“Finally figured it out, Sensei Garmadon?”
Relief floods through Lloyd so suddenly it almost hurts.
“Nya,” he breathes.
There is a beat of stunned silence.
“LLOYD?!”
Her voice explodes through the communicator so loudly Lloyd winces, though he can’t stop smiling.
“I’m so glad we found you!”
“Technically,” Lloyd says sheepishly, “I found you two.”
“We can debate that later.” Her signal crackles unevenly, wind roaring faintly behind her words. “Is Kai with you?”
The question knocks the smile right off his face.
“No,” he answers quietly. “We got separated.”
Static hums heavily for a second.
Then Nya exhales sharply through the communicator.
“Then we need to find him immediately.”
Garmadon steps closer, his face grim. “There is another issue, Lloyd.”
Lloyd looks up instantly.
“Nya discovered that this competition was never truly about finding the jade blade. Chen intends to hunt all of you down one by one. He plans to end the tournament today.”
Lloyd’s stomach sinks.
Somehow hearing it spoken aloud makes everything feel worse.
“There’s only eight masters left,” he says slowly. “It… makes sense.”
Garmadon places a heavy hand against his shoulder.
“Which means we need to move quickly.”
Before Lloyd can answer, the world erupts. An explosion tears through the jungle with enough force to shake the ground beneath their feet. Birds explode from the trees in panicked swarms. A towering pillar of smoke and fire bursts upward somewhere deeper in the forest, bright orange flames cutting through the canopy like a wound splitting open across the sky.
Lloyd’s heart stops.
Because it's fire.
Because it's the kind of smoke that comes only from fire.
Only from Kai’s fire.
“What was that?!” Nya’s voice crackles through the communicator, sharper now.
Garmadon’s expression darkens immediately. He grabs Lloyd’s wrist before instinct can send him sprinting toward the explosion.
“Probably masters fighting Chen,” he says firmly. “Nya, move away from it immediately.”
“But what if Kai’s there?!”
“If that were Kai,” Garmadon replies dryly, already pulling Lloyd in the opposite direction, “half the forest would already be burning.”
Silence answers him for a few seconds.
Lloyd knows exactly what’s happening on the other end.
Nya is fighting herself. Fighting the instinct to run straight toward danger because that’s what she always does when the people she loves are involved. Because that's where she always finds Kai.
Truthfully, Lloyd wants to do the exact same thing. Every instinct in his body screams at him to break free and run toward the smoke until he finds Kai alive.
Finally Nya groans through the communicator.
“Ugh, fine,” she mutters bitterly. “But if I don’t find him anywhere else in this forest, I’m punching both of you to death for stopping me.”
*****
Kai kneels. Thick vines coil around his arms and chest, winding tighter and tighter each time he dares to breathe too deeply, their rough surfaces biting into his skin like hungry serpents. Stone slabs rest across his calves with merciless weight. The pressure grinds against bone and muscle until every swollen vein beneath his skin throbs like molten iron hammered on an anvil. His legs have long since gone numb, yet the pain still blooms inside them in violent pulses, alive and vicious.
He rasps for breath.
Each inhale drags through his throat like shards of broken glass. Blood gathers warm and metallic on his tongue, thick enough to choke on. Somewhere beneath the tangled crimson of his hair, a wound leaks steadily down his forehead. Thin streams creep over his skin and drip from his jaw onto the ground below him.
First Master knows he doesn’t care in the slightest.
Not about the blood.
Not about the bruises blooming black beneath his skin.
Not about the ache splitting through his body.
None of it compares to the hollow ruin clawing through his chest.
Because Chen has taken his power.
Chen has taken his fire.
Kai feels its absence the way a man feels the absence of his own heartbeat. Like waking one morning and finding his lungs ripped from his ribs. Fire had never simply been an ability living inside him. It had been warmth curling beneath his skin on cold nights. Rage crackling through his veins.
It had been the pulse of his soul itself, roaring and alive.
Now there’s only silence. A dead, freezing silence.
And what Chen didn’t steal, Skylor destroyed.
His stomach twists. He lifts his head slowly, every movement heavy as chains dragged through mud. Blood slips past his lips when he speaks.
“Just tell me one thing,” he rasps.
The words barely make it out. They scrape against his throat like sandpaper. A strand of blood spills from his mouth and lands bright red against the dirt.
“Was it his idea to make me fall for you...”
His eyes finally find hers.
One last time.
“...or yours?”
For a second, the world seems to stop breathing with them. Kai stares at her as though he wants to burn the image of her into what remains of himself. Her amber eyes. Her trembling lips. The faint flush rising beneath her cheeks like sunset bleeding into snow.
“Because it worked.”
The confession settles between them like a blade pushed slowly into flesh.
Skylor doesn’t look surprised. Her brows don’t rise. Her lips don’t part in shock. She doesn’t laugh at him. Because she already knows. She has known for longer than he realizes. And the cruelest part is that she understands him completely, because somewhere beneath all the lies and betrayal and blood staining the ground between them, she loves him too.
A faint pink spreads across her cheeks before she quickly turns her face away from him. She can’t survive looking at him right now. Her brows twist together so tightly they look painful. Her lashes tremble. Her breathing grows uneven despite every desperate attempt to steady it.
She refuses to cry.
Not here.
Not in front of her father.
Not in front of Kai.
But the tears gather anyway, burning hot behind her eyes like floodwater straining against a cracking dam.
“Ahh, how lovely. How truly, beautifully lovely.”
Chen’s laughter slithers through the air. He twirls the staff lazily between his fingers, the stolen powers trapped inside glowing faintly beneath the carved surface. The weapon almost seems alive now, bloated with the essence of others. Hungry for more.
“But it’s time we go,” he continues lightly. “There’s still so much left to do.”
His footsteps echo as he approaches Kai. He crouches before him and hooks his fingers beneath Kai’s chin. His grip is deceptively gentle, almost affectionate, yet it forces Kai’s head upward all the same. Like a puppeteer lifting a broken marionette by its strings.
Their eyes meet.
Chen smiles.
“I quite like you, Kai,” he says softly. “So I’ll make you an offer. Join me, and you will live a life most people could only dream of. Refuse me...”
His smile sharpens into something crueler.
“...and you die.”
Kai narrows his eyes. Even stripped of his power, bruised and bleeding in the dirt, there will always be something burning inside him that refuses to kneel completely.
“I’d rather die than serve you.”
His voice carries every ounce of hatred left in his body. It sounds like a promise carved into steel.
Chen’s expression twists with boredom.
“So be it.”
He releases Kai’s chin carelessly. Kai’s head snaps downward from the force, but even then, he doesn’t feel defeated. Not in the slightest.
“Wait, Father.”
Skylor steps forward quickly, the words leaving her mouth before fear can stop them.
“I looked into his head,” she says. “He can help us. Not only as a blacksmith.”
Chen turns toward her slowly. His eyes sharpen with suspicion.
“He’s angry now,” she continues carefully, “but he’ll come to terms with it eventually. Look at him. He’s already accepting his fate.”
Kai almost laughs at that. Accepting? No.
Drowning in it perhaps. Suffocating beneath it. But never accepting. Never living to it.
Chen folds his arms across his chest and studies Kai thoughtfully. His eyes flick back toward Skylor.
“You like the boy?”
Skylor’s breath catches. Despite herself, she smiles faintly.
Chen sighs dramatically before raising his hands into the air.
“So be it! Have a go at him. Try to turn him our way.”
One of his men steps forward with heavy iron restraints. Shackles. Chains. Cuffs thick enough to restrain a monster.
Chen must think Kai still has enough fight left in him to escape. Maybe he does.
Skylor approaches him slowly once the others step away. Her heartbeat pounds so loudly she swears everyone around her can hear it. She tries to meet his eyes again. Those beautiful eyes. Only minutes ago they had looked at her with warmth so fierce it made her chest ache. They had gleamed brighter than polished amber beneath sunlight. Brighter than dragon fire. Brighter than anything she has ever seen.
Now they are empty.
Just painfully empty.
And somehow that hurts her far more because she knows it's her fault.
Her throat tightens painfully. Carefully, she kneels before him. Her fingers tremble as she removes the vines from his wrists. Angry red marks bloom beneath them immediately. His skin feels burning hot under her touch despite the cold night surrounding them. She replaces the vines with iron cuffs as gently as she can, as though softness might somehow apologize for betrayal. The chains clink quietly between them. A terrible sound. Like the final nails sealing shut a coffin.
Kai never looks at her.
Not once.
Not when her hands brush against his skin.
Not when she fastens the cuffs around his wrists.
Not when her fingers linger for one weak, selfish second longer than they should.
He keeps his eyes fixed somewhere far away, beyond her, beyond the island, beyond this moment entirely.
And that hurts more than any hatred ever could.
*****
That night, Nya doesn’t return to the hideout camp.
She tears across forests drenched in moonlight and shadow, shoving through tangled vines that claw at her clothes and skin like desperate hands trying to hold her back. Pebbles slide beneath her boots as she climbs jagged cliffs. River water splashes against her legs, freezing cold and silver beneath the night sky. Wind whips through her hair hard enough to sting her face.
Still she keeps searching. Every cave, mountain path, abandoned ruin swallowed by jungle vines, and every stretch of shoreline where waves crash against rock like thunder.
“Kai!”
His name echoes endlessly into the dark. But no answer ever comes back. The island feels wrong tonight. Too quiet. Too empty. Like something terrible has sunk its teeth into its heart.
She finds broken trees first. Burn marks carved into the earth. Torn pieces of clothing soaked dark with blood. Signs of struggle scattered across the island like gravestones. Evidence that Kai was here. Her hands shake harder with every step. Lloyd notices it immediately when he catches up to her hours later. Nya has always been strong and sharp as a blade fresh from the forge.
But now she looks hollowed out. Her eyes seem distant, unfocused, as though part of her is trapped somewhere else entirely.
And Lloyd can’t understand why.
Kai has disappeared before. When Pythor kidnapped him and nearly fed him to rocket fire, she had stayed calm. Furious, yes. Determined. But controlled.
She hadn’t looked like this.
She hadn’t looked like someone slowly drowning.
Ever.
So why now?
Why does fear cling to her so violently tonight?
Why does her voice crack every time she says his name?
Why do her hands tremble as though her body already knows something her mind refuses to accept?
That night, they don't find any other elemental master in the forest aside from Lloyd.
Chen takes them all.
Kai alongside them.
And while the others search through the wreckage left behind, Nya finally breaks.
Tears slip down dirt stained cheeks while she stands alone beneath the moonlight, staring at the blood scattered across the ground like pieces of a nightmare she cannot wake from.
That night, Nya cries.