Chapter Text
From this high up in the sky, the air felt cleaner. Since human inventions and pollution could not reach this high, it was quite peaceful and still. The day was clear with minimal clouds dotting the area. The weather was warm and the sun was shining straight towards the ground.
Yes, the sky was a peaceful, clear area, a place where humans could not touch and possibly bring to ruin.
“KAIIII”
Most humans.
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“Nya, I swear if you think I took your towel again we are going to duke it out on the deck. Because we both know that the good for nothing motor mou- “. Throwing open the door, a tall male with brown hair stood fuming.
While the time was closer to midday than morning, the young man was dressed in red pajamas. His hair was flat and messy, and he was rubbing his eyes trying to appear more awake. Before he could finish his rant, he was very rudely cut off.
“No, you asshole. I’m trying to figure out where our little brother is.” Standing in front of him is a shorter female who is glaring up at him. Unlike him, she is dressed in baggy grey sweatpants and a light blue T-shirt and has the look of someone who has been awake for hours. “Now, get your ass up so you can help me look for him.” After saying her piece, she turns on her heels and stomps away from his room.
Barely registering what was just said to him, Kai closes the door slowly as he processes what was just said to him. Letting out a deep sigh, he makes his way to his bathroom.
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After taking a quick shower and spending an abysmal amount of time on his hair, Kai makes his way back into his room. Changing into more suitable clothes, he takes a look at the time.
‘Shit, it’s pretty late.’ The alarm clock sitting inconspicuously on his bedside table shown back with 11 am. It wasn’t even past noon, and Kai was already done with the day.
Slipping on some shoes, Kai moves towards the door of his room. He moves to turn off the light as he makes his way into the brightly light hallway.
Closing his door, he makes his way to the kitchen assuming that is where his sister would be. Not moving quickly, he meanders his way past the framed pictures and paintings adorning the wooden walls.
‘I wonder what Nya needs with Lloyd.’ Kai thought as he made his way around the corner to the entrance of the kitchen.
Walking through the entrance way, he could smell the scent of fresh baked bread with eggs cooking on the stove.
Taking in the scene, the counter is covered in a light dusting of flour with bags of ingredients covering half the surface. The burners are on high, while a pan of eggs cook quickly over the fire. Sitting on a stool near the counter, a man with dark wavy hair sits nursing a cup of milky coffee. Moving around the kitchen, a tall man with silver hair glides from the sink over to the pan, flipping the eggs to make sure they don’t burn.
Taking a seat next to the man with dark hair, Kai lets his head fall onto the counter still half asleep.
“How was your beauty sleep hair for brains?” Over his cup of coffee, Cole gives the shorter a smirk as Kai lets out a tired groan. Cole looks significantly more awake, although, he has a light dusting of flour over his shirt where it looks like he had tried to help with the baking.
Knowing that there was no way that the horrible cook could have possibly been a help to their friend, Kai just gives a playful sneer. “Hey, at least I haven’t been a nuisance to our dear nindroid, unlike you!” He laughs as he dodges the swipe from his brother as he moves to stand next to their aforementioned friend.
Looking over Zane’s shoulder, he takes a look at the perfectly cooked sunny side up eggs. Feeling his mouth start to water, his stomach loudly growls into the open.
Chuckling, Zane plates the eggs and hands them to Kai, “Your sister let us know that you would probably be starving when you get up so I started on your eggs when I heard the shower turn on.” Moving over to the cutlery drawer, Zane grabs out a fork and knife as Kai makes his way back to the counter. “Nya moved through here like a tornado, but she did not inform us of what it was that was worrying her. Hopefully, you will be more of a help to her than us.” Setting down the set, Zane moves back to the stove to grab the pan to wash it.
Digging into the eggs, Kai speaks through a mouthful of delicious breakfast, “Yeuh, shu sad sumfin abut Luyd.” He goes in for another bite when he hears Cole laugh from his left.
“Dude, we could not understand a word you just said. Even though you are Jay aren’t brother in laws yet, you are becoming more and more like him every day!” Cole cackles as he holds his stomach after looking at the affronted look that he was being given.
From the sink, Zane just solemnly shakes his head as he starts to scrub the pan. While it looks like he is disappointed, the other two could tell he was enjoying it from the small smile present on his face.
Taking a big gulp as he finished the eggs in his mouth, Kai stands up and moves to grab a cup from the cabinet. As he moves about the kitchen he repeats, “Nya said something about Lloyd, I didn’t really understand what it was that she was going on about, but I know she needed my help with something.”
Grabbing the glass, he misses the shared look shot behind his back. As he moves to the fridge, he hears Cole speak.
“Actually Kai, we haven’t seen Lloyd around a lot.” Stopping what he was doing, Kai slowly turned to look at his brother.
All traces of amusement sank out of the room as Kai thought more about what had just been said. As he stood recalling what he knew, he was interrupted once more.
“I, for one, have not seen Lloyd around the monastery for the past 2 weeks.” Kai’s head shot up as he heard Zane utter those damning words into the quiet room. The three of them stood in silence as they looked at each other after hearing that.
“Wha-“ Kai chocked on his words as reality seemed to hit him.
His brother.
His little brother.
The person he promised to look after. The one who he held through nightmares and illness. The one who laughed at all his dumb jokes and always put a smile on his face.
2 weeks.
It took 2 weeks.
Kai slammed down the empty cup onto the counter as he moved quickly around the counter to the hallway.
His ears were ringing, but he thinks he heard someone shout his name. But he didn’t care.
He didn’t care that he didn’t finish his eggs. Or that he never for the drink he needed. He didn’t care that he had eggs on his shirt or that his shoes were squeaking against the floorboards.
All he cared about was finding out where Nya was.
Because he finally realized what she had said to him that morning.
“No, you asshole. I’m trying to figure out where our little brother is.”
He made his way to the entrance way before taking a turn into the living room. The only things cycling through his head were surrounding his little brother.
“Took you long enough.” Feeling his conscienceless clinking back into place, Kai looked up to take in the agitated look his sister was sporting. She had changed her outfit since her saw her earlier.
Before, she was wearing loose and comfortable clothing, looking like she had just finished with stretches or a warm-up.
But now, she was wearing a black leather jacket with a pair of dark wash jeans. She was still wearing the light blue shirt she was previously wearing, but her vibe was completely changed.
Looking down at her heavy-duty boots, Kai’s eyes caught on the knife tucked into the side. He continued gazing at her outfit and saw a pair of sais tucked into her belt.
After seeing the weapons she had, Kai felt like his breath left his lungs.
“Ny-“
“Stop overthinking things already.” Standing up, Nya moves over to her brother. She lays her hard over his arm, giving him a comforting squeeze as she continues. “We don’t know if he has been hurt or anything, but I’d rather be overprepared than under.”
All Kai could do was nod as she pulled his arm to guide him to the small control room they had in the monastery.
While it was less equipped than the bounty, it still had quite a bit of equipment. With all of the shenanigans they have been getting into the past year, they have added more machines to the room.
Moving towards the big screen, Nya releases her brother’s arm before touching the control panel. She zooms it into a green dot that was focused on the middle of Ninjago.
“That, was the last place that our tracker picked up Lloyd.” Pointing to the dot, it starts to pulse as it displays the coordinates.
Kai stares at the small dot before asking, “And when was that?” He could immediately feel his chest sink as Nya continued to stare at the dot.
She doesn’t even look at him as she quietly mutters, “10 days ago.”
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Everyone gathers into the control room on the Bounty.
Nya had called them all to tell them about what they had learned from looking at the Lloyd’s tracker. While they usually would be able to run this meeting in the monastery, because of the lack of advanced technology, they needed more systems.
“Okay, so here is what we know based off his movemen-“
“Wait, hold up!” Jay cut off Nya as moved from his leaning position to be right in front of the monitors. “Since when have we had trackers?” Jay’s hands were flailing as his voice rose in pitch.
Not missing a beat, Cole pushed Jay’s arms away from hitting his face as he deadpanned at his best friend. “Jay, buddy, this is Lloyd we’re talking about. Why wouldn’t we have trackers on him after all the stunts he has pulled?”
Jay stopped moving and turned to stare at Cole, you could hear the gears slowly turning in his head as stood still as a statue.
Nya, ignoring what has happening between the two continues on, “The information that we were able to gather was based off of the triangulation of cellular towers off his tracker. Meaning that when his connection cut off in the middle of the city, the tracker must have come off here.” Pointing to the map, the trackers signal pulsed from the heart of the city. “We know for a fact that the tracker wasn’t destroyed because it continues to send off signals even now.”
“But wait, you said that the tracker last picked up his movements 10 days ago, but it’s still sending signals even now.” Kai stared at the map and the pulsing dot as he thought over the conversation he previously had with Zane and Nya. “Plus, Zane saw him 14 days ago, what happened in that 4-day time period?” He started pacing as he thought through all the things that could have happened in the past 2 weeks since someone had seen Lloyd. Most of them were not good.
“Well Kai, I’m glad you asked.” Snapping out of his thinking, Kai turns back to Nya as she starts typing something into the system. “The reason I said that the last time the tracker picked up his location 10 days ago is because the tracker hasn’t moved. And I don’t mean it barely moved, I mean it hasn’t moved at all.”
Silence engulfed the room as they thought about what Nya said. Knowing Lloyd, he is always up to something or the other. And, knowing him, he doesn’t like to stay around Ninjago City for days on end, especially for over 2 weeks.
“Okay, well that doesn’t tell us much. Do we have any idea where the tracker could be?” Cole moves to the monitor as he tries to enlarge the area where the tracker sits on the map. “I mean, Ninjago City is pretty big, any idea of where we should start?”
“We should start with Borg Tower.” Everyone looked at Zane who had been quiet the entire conversation so far. Not allowing anyone time to speak, Zane continues, “Lloyd has been working with Cyrus Borg and P.I.X.A.L more often so it would not be a stretch for him to have been there.”
As Zane finished, Nya quickly pulled up a map of Ninjago City with the Bord Towers location clearly highlighted. As she overlayed the locations, it was clear Lloyd had visited the famed inventor.
“Well, guess we’re going to Borg Tower.” Kai turned away from the monitor as he walked over to the control system. He had made a promise to Lloyd to always protect and find him, and he would not be breaking his promise anytime soon.
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Borg Tower had continued to change and evolve over the years from its creation. From the minimalistic modern look, it originally had to the more eclectic and nature tones it now sported. It continued to sit at the heart of Ninjago City, but its portrayal continued to grow and shift with the city it called home.
Kai was always nervous going up the elevator. While his fear of heights had lessened over the years, he still was cautious of the place where he had to willingly jump out of the window to stop the Overlord.
Not to mention that it didn’t even stop the Overlord. But that’s beside the point.
This place still brought up unpleasant memories all these years later.
Riding up to the top floor, the elevator moved in complete silence. The only sounds that could be heard were the rhythmic beeping as they passed by each floor and the sounds of the mechanisms working in perfect harmony.
‘Unlike us.’
The door slides open as Kai took in a deep breath. Right before he could exit, an arm grabbed his.
“Kai, we will find him.” Looking over his shoulder, he could see the fire burning in her eyes.
They were probably feeling the same thing, there was a disconnect between the team and their leader. Kai couldn’t pinpoint when it had first started, but now that he was faced with the chasm that had grown, he couldn’t not notice it now.
It had felt like ages since he had been able to sit down and have an honest conversation with his younger brother. They used to be thick as thieves when the other was little.
All the shared jokes and snacks, how there were no pauses or hesitancy between them, how everything was so easy.
Kai for most of his life only shared a connection like that with his sister Nya. He was used to taking care of someone else as that is what he had done growing up. But it wasn’t without its hardships. And while he wouldn’t have changed anything about how he had stepped in and raised his little sister, things with Lloyd were different.
When he was taking care of Nya, he was still so young. He didn’t get to enjoy all the special moments you have with a younger sibling as he was always worried about keeping them housed and fed.
But with Lloyd, there was none of that.
And in a way that made it so much harder.
With Nya, whenever he messed up, he would never have to worry about her leaving. They were intertwined and had been since the day she had been born. When her little hand grasped his finger, their lives became a whirlwind of movement as every moment after was a shared breath between the two of them.
But with Lloyd, there was none of that.
He and Lloyd had a very different first interaction compared to him and Nya. There first interaction was a cluster fuck to put it nicely.
Hanging up a small kid on the post of a roof and making fun of him as he dangled 36 feet off the ground. A boy who couldn’t be older than 7 was left in thin clothes as the temperature got colder as it got closer to night.
They never talked about that day. Whether that be because of embarrassment or remorse, the two of them never recounted on the topic.
And yet, they became brothers.
Lloyd opened up to him and became one of the most important people in his life. Even with their unfortunate beginning, Lloyd allowed Kai to see him grow up and see his firsts.
And then the Tomorrow Tea hit.
And things changed again.
Because this little boy that he saved from a volcano, who would climb into bed when he got nightmares, who would stand on his tiptoes when he watched Kai make hot chocolate. The boy who had such a love of learning and inhaled all kinds of books he found around the bounty. The boy, whose smile glowed when he showed Kai a new move he learned or had him try something he had made with Zane.
The little boy that he had a part in raising grew up to be a teenager in seconds.
It took a while for Kai to get used to the change.
While he was so similar to how he was, something fundamental had changed between them. Gone were the easy smiles and easy conversations, in its place was stilted conversations and continued pushes to advance.
But after years of a disconnect and a dead dad, things changed again.
And things went back to normal again and Kai was able to see the little kid whose smile resembled the sun once more.
But not, because of everything, he lost it again.
“Kai, we WILL find him? He’s not only your little brother.” Looking into his little sister’s eyes seeing his love and devotion reflected back, there was only one thing Kai could say back to that.
“We will.” Nya gave him a nod as she pulled them out of the elevator towards the large door leading to Borg’s office.
‘Yeah, we will find him.’
‘We have too.’