Chapter Text
Zane was outside, sitting by the fountain in the center of the Monastery’s courtyard.
The breeze was gentle, Zane looked on as some Koi fish swam around the water at the bottom, the golden dragon statue on top being illuminated by the sun. The spring blossoms falling from the nearby tree and into the fountain. A peaceful scene.
But, like almost everything else in Zane’s life, the calmness didn’t last long.
The air became scorching, too hot for a simple spring day. The sky glowing orange with flames. Banging at the monastery gate, loud and threatening.
Soon a fireball blasted through, narrowly avoiding Zane’s head. A snake, her figure silhouetted by the smoke and flames surrounding the area stared at Zane, her eyes pulsing and glowing an eerie, fiery orange.
”Who are you?” Zane asked immediately, he reached for his weapon, only to realize he didn’t have one.
The snake laughed, Zane noticed the spear she seemed to hold, at least it looked like a spear, but she held it like a staff. Wrapped around it was a scroll, he couldn’t make out any words through the smoke.
Before he could even try to fight back, a beam of light from the Snake’s weapon came hurling towards him, striking him straight in the head.
Suddenly the air became chilled, he was inside some palace, covered and coated in snow and ice. He wandered through the halls and heard fighting coming from somewhere, he followed the noise, which lead him to a throne room.
Zane’s eyes widened at what he saw, something made of flames and ash attacking with a similar weapon to the snake, the blaze’s opponent was dressed as a samurai and attacking with ice, holding a scepter that was frozen to his hand, horns protruding from his head.
A destructive battle of opposites.
Zane continued to look around, the fire and ice seemed to ignore his presence, as if he was a ghost. Next to throne were chunks of ice, he went to get a closer look, something was inside.
He wanted to scream.
His friends were trapped, encased in the crystalline chunks of ice. He heard a voice telling him to wake up.
The world seemed to spin.
faster
and faster
and faster
he caught glimpses of Fire burning the city, of people frozen in ice, of a storm facing a dragon, of the earth glowing and lava erupting, to the ocean itself, glowing in sadness. Finally a glow of purple, and two green eyes opening, before shifting into purple corruption.
Shouts of pain and distress and longing flooded his sensors.
Then it all faded to black. The voice still yelling at him to wake up.
“Zane! ZANE. WAKE UP! COLE’S ABOUT TO BEAT YOUR HIGH SCORE! YOU GOTTA WAKE UP!” The voice of Zane’s friend Jay was probably what woke him up.
”Jay! I had an awful dream!”
”Zane, it wasn’t a dream…”
Zane panicked, it wasn’t a dream? What could’ve happened?-
“Cole is about to beat your high score!” Jay announced before Zane could start spiraling “What did you think I was talking about?”
Zane felt a tsunami of relief wash over him. Still, his dreams had a tendency to be prophetic, this wasn’t something he could just ignore.
”Jay I had a vision! There was fire, and a snake, and ice and-“
”Zane, chill, I’m sure it was nothing, not every dream you have ends up being some ominous warning.”
”But Jay, we should still-“
“Come on! Let’s focus on something other than that right now!” Jay dragged Zane by the arm, his goggles reflecting the fairy lights in Zane’s room
Zane looked at the photos in the hallway as Jay dragged him to the living room, there was the picture they had took when Lloyd was still little, the one of him and Pixal, there was the one of Jay and Nya dancing, Cole dancing solo in the background, unintentionally photobombing the romantic scene, there was also one of Lloyd with his father, still in it’s cracked frame.
It was a beautiful spring morning, the season when the trees turned a pastel shade of pink and the flowers bloomed and the animals started to wake up.
Jay had finally dragged Zane into the living room just in time to witness Cole beating his high score, Cole’s hair was tied back into a pony tail as he wore a hat with two energy drink cans on the sides, two straws that combined into one in front of his mouth, Zane didn’t need anything else to know that Jay had definitely given him it as a present.
Cole gave a whoop and punched the air, he turned to look at Zane “No hard feelings bud?”
Zane shook his head “None at all, for as they say, revenge is best served cold”
Cole chuckled nervously and Kai facepalmed, his earring shaking with his head “You need to stop hanging out with Nya and Jay”
Nya proceeded to smack Kai across the back of the head. “Says the one who keeps leaving Skylor on read because he doesn’t know what to say to her.”
“WHO TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT?!”
Lloyd chuckled, his green eyes glittering at the banter. “Anyone down for chilling in the hot tub?”
The group made various sounds of agreement.
The Ninja were relaxing in the hot tub, Kai had used his fire powers to warm up the water.
It was nice, Zane could spend his days living a somewhat normal life like this forever if he could.
Then Wu had decided to call them out on their laziness
”What are you doing?!”
”We’re chilling in the hot tub.” Kai said calmly, resting his arms behind his head.
“It’s not a hot tub, it’s a bell of divinity.” Wu pinched his nose as he informed them, his disappointment visible on his face.
”That explains the weird shape, heh” Jay chuckled.
”Every time… every single time…”
“Every time… what?” Lloyd asked
”After every major victory, you get lazy.” Wu started to get mad, his grip on his bamboo staff tightening.
”But Sensei, we’re just recovering from the Oni attack-“
”That was 5 months ago, Cole” Wu glared daggers at them
That statement shocked the group into silence, had it really been 5 whole months since then?
”Out, all of you!” Wu walked away.
”Something tells me we’re in for it.” Jay says solemnly.
The ninja put on their gis and went to the courtyard, where Sensei Wu was waiting.
“You’ve all gone soft, lazy, flabby”
Cole felt personally attacked “Okay, a bit personal.”
”Sensei, none of us have gone soft-“ Lloyd tried to convince his uncle but was quickly interrupted
”Then prove it to me.” Wu left the room and returned with a pet carrier.
Zane tried to scan the carrier, he detected… lightning? Zane looked over at Jay.
”What are you looking at me for?”
Wu cleared his throat “I’d like for you all to meet a little friend of mine,” Wu unlocked the carrier and threw the lock over the Ninja’s heads, where it promptly flew out the window.
”If you can secure them back into the carrier, then maybe i’ll consider letting you all off the hook.” Wu turned and left the room.
The ninja looked at each other and then at the carrier.
”We need to prepare ourselves for whatever is in there.” Zane warned the others.
The creature started to leave the carrier, the creature the ninja need to secure back into it’s carrier…
It…
Was a chicken?
Their guards dropped immediately.
”I was expecting something more… threatening?” Nya muttered, kinda ticked off that they were fighting a chicken.
”Didn’t know Sensei had a sense of humor!” Lloyd laughed as they crouched to pet the chicken.
Said chicken that began to glow blue with electricity surrounding it.
”What the-“ Lloyd was caught off guard.
Wu listened to the screams of his students before the shoji finally slid, the Ninja tumbling through the door with the carrier, the chicken locked and secured, the Ninja had various burns scratches
”One chicken… done and dusted…” Kai said, sounding exhausted.
“I had my brand stolen by a chicken… and it almost won.” Jay sounded more ticked off than Nya was.
”So, we good now?” Cole asked, he has a black eye. Now how on earth did Cole get a black eye from a chicken?!
Wu sighed, a long weary sigh, “No, no you’re not” he shook his head softly as he left the room.
”Well, I guess we need to start training again soon if we want Sensei off our backs” Kai sounded irritated, but also anxious, Zane could see Kai twirling his finger around his ponytail (it was astounding how much Kai’s hair grew in the months after the Oni Invasion)
”Well, let’s hope he doesn’t do anything too crazy”
The following week was a living nightmare.
Somehow, Wu had boobytrapped the entire house, it was all survivable stuff at first.
Until Nya woke up on the roof.
“WHAT THE-“
That morning had been filled with some very… very… colorful language…
Kai walked into the courtyard, his hair, which he usually took excellent care of, hadn’t been brushed yet, he looked like he hadn’t slept for a week, and that’s probably because he hasn’t.
He groaned as he sat on the edge of the fountain.
”You know it’s bad when I’m the first one up…”
Back when Kai and Nya had lived in the blacksmith shop, Kai had always been an early bird, but that was because he had to make sure Nya still went to school, Kai never had that luxury, he had to run the blacksmith shop so he and Nya would have a place to live, a heavy burden for a 7 year old, but eh, things happen when your parents get abducted for most of your life, sometimes you end up growing up too fast…
Lloyd was the second one outside, rubbing his eyes, his blonde hair in his face.
Speaking of growing up too fast… Kai thought sourly.
”Morning Kai” Lloyd yawned and sat next to him.
”Morning Lloyd, did you happen to get any sleep last night?”
”What do you think?”
Kai sighed and pat Lloyd’s head.
”Hey!” Lloyd shoved Kai’s hand away playfully, “For the last time, I’m not a kid anymore!”
”But you’re still my honorary little bro.” Kai grabbed Lloyd in a chokehold and ruffled his already messy hair.
Nya came into the courtyard without either one of them noticing, she saw the scene before her and used her powers to spray water at both Lloyd and Kai.
”WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!” Both of them shouted in unison.
”Just wanted to join in.” She said like she was proud of what she has done, she was even smirking.
Lloyd and Kai went to get changed, both putting on a clean gi. By the time the two went back outside, everyone was already outside, Zane had made tea for everyone.
”Ah, Kai, Lloyd, it’s great to see you two actually woke up on time for once!”
”Backhanded much?” Lloyd chuckled.
Then Sensei Wu stepped outside. The banter died down immediately.
”I see everyone is up early today.”
They all nodded.
”Sensei, we’d like you to stop booby trapping us every 5 minutes-“
”YOU PUT ME ON THE ROOF!” Nya interrupted Lloyd, clearly holding back from strangling Lloyd’s uncle with her bare hands.
”Well, can you prove to me that you’ve not gone soft?” Wu waited intently for the answer.
”Anything, I don’t wanna stay awake outta fear, my insomnia is bad enough!” Jay shouted.
”Then fight me.” Wu said straightforwardly.
Silence. The tension was so thick Kai could’ve cut it with a wooden katana. A dull one at that. He could hear the gears in Zane’s head turning.
”I’m sorry, WHAT.” Lloyd shattered the deafening silence.
“you heard me.”
”Sensei, no offense, but we don’t exactly-“
Sensei Wu’s look of seriousness shut up Cole’s attempt at a counter argument.
Cole sighed “Welp. Guess we don’t have a choice.”
Then Wu attacked.
None of them were ready
He knocked Lloyd off his feet with staff, his head hitting the ground with a hard “oof”
”Fail”
“Lloyd!” Jay looked over in concern, distracted and accidentally launching his lightning at the brick wall. “Oops-“
Wu used Jay’s moment of distraction and hit him like a baseball, launching him into said wall. “Fail.”
Cole got thrown OVER the wall.
”fail”
Nya fell into the fountain
”Fail.”
Then only Kai and Zane were left.
Kai looked at Zane, Zane nodded. The two readied their powers, combining them to throw a massive spray of water at Wu.
”Good job bud!”
”Thank you Kai, you as well!”
Wu was stunned, Kai and Zane went in for the attack, fists ready to hit-
Wu dodged and the two hit the ground.
”And…. Fail.”
Kai and Zane helped each other up, both looked disappointed at themselves.
Wu sighed “You can try again once you’ve actually made progress.”
Lloyd walked over, wiping the blood away from his nose, “What do we do now?”
Kai smiled “We figure it out, we’ll get Wu off our case soon…”
ARC 1: The Flames of The Snake