Hey Look, Theres A Part Four :3

Hey look, there’s a part four :3

Tw/blood, panic

Sorry Red, it’ll hopefully get better soon? Also please don’t kidnap- oh. Well. That’s certainly not going to help the misunderstanding. 

And before you say Red’s stunt is impossible, may I remind you of the scene in the movie where he fully picks up and carries M!Cole for a good distance while sprinting. Thank you, canon, for making angst possible :D

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Cole was 95% sure arms weren't supposed to come off like that. 

The only reason it wasn't at 100 was because Zane's arm had detached once while he was following the different controls on the blueprints, and it had been somewhat similar, except there had still been wires, and connectors, and anything but just a smooth hole.

The guy wasn't a nindroid. Which meant Cole was holding an actual arm that he'd just pulled off.

Cole was holding an actual arm that he'd just pulled off.

He yelped and fumbled with it, shoving it into Zane's arms in a panic. Zane, in turn, just stared in utter shock. If this were a humorous situation, which it defiantly was not, he (or maybe Jay, he always tried for a joke, especially when he was nervous, which was always), might have attempted a 'wow Zane, I can almost see the error message behind your eyes.' He was pretty sure he had the same message in his head, because normal arms did not just come off like that.

The Fake Kai (or Red, as Cole had been calling him internally, for Real E'ffing Difficult) was still laughing, or maybe crying, or both. Cole wanted to help him breath, but he had no clue what to do, and he was still panicking himself, especially since Zane had just handed him the arm back.

"Did you guys get it to talk ye-"

Cole panicked, okay. He turned and accidentally threw the arm at the same time, which meant Nya caught it as she entered the room. She, in turn, took one look at it, looked at Fake Red Kai, looked back at the arm, screamed, and threw it back at Cole. He threw it at Zane, who threw it back at Jay, and now there were definitely more screaming. 

And now they were playing hot potato with an arm. The poor Fake Kai, possible evil clone or no. 

"What the HELL DID YOU GUYS DO?" Nya yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Cole yelled back. "I- We- it was just an interrogation, and then a bit of a struggle and suddenly it just came off in the fight!"

"Right, because that's such a normal thing to happen." Jay, on cue. "Because it's so normal for something like this to happen. For someone's ARM TO COME OFF, PEOPLE!"

The fight continued for several more minutes.

“Alright, alright, let's just... figure this out," Zane finally said. "We- we can handle this. It came off so easily. It should go back on easily too, right?"

Cole's face paled. "Guys-"

“Again, I think we’re forgetting that this isn’t some scrape or bruise but an ARM!” Jay shot back. His agitation came from his panic. 

“Guys-“ “An arm that Cole shouldn’t have been able to pull off that way, Master of Earth or not,” Zane countered, his hands trembling. “We might as well try to put it back on, because whatever magic the wish did-” “Guys, I think that might be real difficult right now.”

Everyone turned to see what Cole was pointing to. The chains lay in smoking heaps around the empty chair.

Red was gone.

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Red was genuinely not having a good time. 

Wow. Understatement of the century, considering he was missing a goddamn arm.

Right. Focus. Focus, focus, focus.

Please FSM just let him focus this once, let him be useful this once, because he could not afford to make everything worse again right now. Not when he needed to get out, get Lloyd out, and get back to the others.

Everything else could wait. The- the worries, the oc... the ocean, the a-r-m... it could wait. No matter how much worse it made later, he needed to make now a little more bearable.

He needed to get to Lloyd.

The chains had fallen away from his legs while all the Not-Friends were arguing about his arm and he'd slipped off the chair, biting into his other only hand for a moment to keep his breathing quiet before switching to using the fabric of the fake similar gi. He crawled across the floor- honestly, it was a miracle no one saw him, considering his previous stealth records, but it was probably because of the other flash of red being flung around the room at high speeds.

When he made it through the door, he bolted. His sneakers (his Zane would make a joke out of it, surely, and that made him miss his real friends so much more, missed the memes, missed the inside jokes, missed Zane’s in-zane moves and stunts and presence) muffled the sound as he stepped down the hallway. He didn't allow himself to take fearful glances over his right shoulder in case he tripped or fell or made too much noise or something that caught the Not-Friends attention because honestly they were so goddamn terrifying, especially Not-Cole and Not-Nya and he really had to stop thinking and just go back to impulse. Yes. Impulse. He was good at impulse.

He stumbled upon the open door by accident, in a way, though he was glad it was unlocked because his hand was shaking so bad he might not have been able to open it otherwise.

Lloyd. Lloyd, lying still and not moving, knocked out or worse-

Red was running on pure adrenaline right now, a burning worry that consumed all of his pain and worries and fear. The nauseating feeling of emptiness in his shoulder both subsided and pulsed, a lack of pain yet shocks that racked his nerves and spread throughout his upper body. 

He scooped up Lloyd- Lloyd, so still, was he okay? Had they hurt him? If they'd hurt him, he'd burn this f!cking Not-Ship to the ground- and carefully balanced him onto his back. The kid was mercifully light, enough that he was able to carry him with one arm in an odd mix of piggyback and fireman's carry. It took one terrifying long minute to secure the kid using the scarf- thank the First Master that he was ambidextrous and that the wall offered enough support- but he was ready to go.

The sounds of shouting down the hall were starting to lessen.

And the overwhelming flood of panic slammed into the edges of his mind. He was a high schooler. Lloyd was- normally- a high schooler. They weren't... this wasn't... he- breathing- sppiiiinnng- lig ht-   f    u̸  c̴̕

k̴̡͗͐́

Red slapped himself in the face with one hand. He had to keep it together for Lloyd for just a little while longer. He- he could do this. Right. He was determined. He was impulsive. He was- he was the Red Ninja. He got this!

He carried Lloyd out of the room, muttering “I got you, bro, I got you,” over and over again. Hopefully, it would reassure Lloyd. It reassured him, a mantra to keep going.

It was when he was standing on the deck that he realized two problems.

The sound of yelling had completely stopped, and not just because he was out of earshot.

How the hell was he going to use the ladder.

The answer to the second problem, apparently, was to say ‘screw it’ and parkour his way down. He may have sucked at the ‘stealth’ part of ninjaing, but he was surprisingly good at the ‘move around real cool’ part. Granted, he’d never tried with a child slung over his back and his centre of gravity thrown off, but it was amazing how much the sound of footsteps echoing toward him could propel him.

He was further than last time before the first shout of alarm raised behind him. The cry nearly had him stumble into the same hole in the dock but he leapt over it the ocean closing over his head, the horrible thought of sinking this time too deep for Not-Cole to pull him out as the space where his arm was filled with water- and kept running.

He’d gotten caught last time and lost an- an- f!ck, he felt nauseous, bile rising in the back of his throat-

He couldn’t get caught again. Not when they could hurt Lloyd instead. 

The horrible idea of Lloyd, young or normal, lying there with a missing arm. With that void-like hold in his side where his shoulder was.

He. Would. Not. Let. It. Happen.

Red had the added advantage of time and knowledge of the city. He burst off the docks, sprinting for the nearest alley so hard he slipped and banged into the side of it. The jarring motion sent shocks up and down his chest, so sudden his lungs almost, almost managed to constrict on him, but he forced air down his throat and kept running. Left, right, another right, left and straight, just away.

He had no idea that the void had started dripping blood, a spotted crimson trail starting at the wooden docks, splashed across the wall of the entrance of the alley, and sporadic in its placement along the concrete ground. 

Halfway into the city. He rushed past people as they whipped their heads around to stare after him, some random city-goers, others as if from another world. More people than usual- more strange people, so nobody tried to stop him. Those that even paid him enough attention only did so out of bewilderment, not able to see enough of what was going on to be concerned. 

He ducked into a side alley and climbed up the dumpster. His breath came in steamed puffs, lungs heaving and- 

Oh. His lungs weren’t the only thing heaving.

He climbed out of the alleyway onto a roof a minute later, wiping the taste of bile from his mouth with one sleeve before continuing. His head spun, spun and spun and spun like some kind of record, which made him think of Cole, and how much he missed him, and how much he needed a steady rock right now, a calming beat, something- 

Not-Cole pinning him, yanking his arm to the side, back, sharp, pulling, ripping, popping-

He kept running. 

His legs burned; not a good burn, a ‘you’re gonna collapse soon’ burn. His breath came in wheezed gasps at this point, each punctured by another drip of red soaking into the once-yellow scarf. The scarf (and Lloyd, draped across his back and still miraculously asleep) was the only thing keeping the, uh, ‘wound’ from view, thanks to the lack of sleeves of the baggy tank. The black fabric did well to hide the trails of red snaking down his side like water running down a cliffside. 

All this running sent a pang through his heart, yet another feverous stab of longing for his friends. This time he thought of Jay, and how he could keep running and going for miles as if he’d never run out of energy, the same way he could run his mouth in an endearing way for hours if given the space and support to. FSM, to have Jay’s endless energy right now.

Oh f!ck, were the edges of his vision going blurry? Nonono, he couldn’t- 

He slammed into a roof ventilation system and stumbled back, reeling. Lloyd slipped from his back and he had to awkwardly readjust as the scarf tightened around his chest and throat, ow, nope, not fun, not fun-

With a yank on the fabric, Lloyd was pushed back into a cartable position. Red rubbed at the skin of his neck- holy FSM, was that a burn? He never got those. How- right. The green energy thing. It felt more like a weird mixture of torn and rippled skin, like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be an icy ridge, a blackened bruise, lichtenburg-like scars, or a fiery burn. 

Great. Just great. Boy, he was so grateful for his string of luck. Totally grateful. 

Screw this week. Actually, screw this day in particular. There wasn’t any way he could jinx it worse at this point if he said it couldn’t get any wor-

A flash of blue and white somewhere behind him.

Red bolted from the roof, tumbling down the fire escape with blind panic as the only thing he could see before his eyes was a blaring red RUN outlined in bold marker. Metal collided with his skin, beams and rails and at one point the stairs themselves as he tried, but never Lloyd, no, he would take every hit before it Lloyd would get a scrape.

They were searching the city. For him. With a flying Not-Ship and a flying combat mech suit and dressed up like the-

Like the Ninja force. Even if nobody recognized Lloyd as the son of Garmadon, anyone Kai went to for help now would turn him over to them in an instant. And he was too far away from his home, from the Bounty, from any of his friend’s apartments and houses and trailer homes and- and-

Stupid broken comm. 

How had they found him? Sure, they were still fanning out and searching, but how had they narrowed down the area so quickly? They- they couldn’t be that good, or else he’d never- he’d- he’d never-

He looked up and froze. Oh. Maybe the kaleidoscope of red blood, like rust on the dark steel, painting the fire escape had something to do with it. He’d been leaving a scattered trail throughout the whole city. The only saving grace was that most spots weren’t that bad, with only major patches even visible, but it wouldn’t buy him enough time if he couldn’t find a safe spot for him and Lloyd.

The blare of engines in the sky got him back to his feet and moving again, ignoring how his upper body was ablaze with- to call it pain wasn’t accurate. It was like the false sense of pain, nerves firing confused signals of shocks and sharp tingling. Each step only irritated the feeling more, pounding at the edge of his vision. 

He was pretty sure he’d started hallucinating slightly because he started seeing his sister everywhere. On her bike, sitting on the ledge of the rooftop, standing by the bubble tea line- even with the city in chaos from whatever happened last week, stalls like that were still going strong. FSM, he missed his twin. He could really use her right now. He’d give anything- he’d make a joke about his arm, but it felt too soon- to see her right now. But she wasn’t here, and he shook off the hallucinations. 

Just one familiar, friendly face. Please. Someone to help him right now, because his legs were starting to fail, and his lungs didn’t want to take in any more air, and he just wanted to go home, please FSM, let him just go home-

He crashed into someone. 

For one terrifying second, as he scrambled to catch Lloyd as he fell off, he thought it was Not-Jay. All he saw was brown hair and blue. No, no, please, h-he couldn’t, h-he co-ul -dn’ t b re- a th e-

“-ai? KAI!”

He snapped back to focus, lungs still choking on air, every muscle screaming and shouting at him to stop, trying to centre his blurring vision. A- A familiar voice? Someone, anyone-

It wasn’t one of his friends. But it wasn’t one of the Not-Friends, either.

Standing in front of him, a disposable cup of bubble tea spilled on the ground from where it had been dropped, with a look of panic and worry, was-

…Chen?

A Tiny Spark Leads to a Roaring Flame (But Flames Can Always be Doused by Water)

Heeyyyyy so y’all know the Reverse Thanos Snap AU for SPBNR? Basically everyone but Smith/S!Kai gets sent to the M!verse. Everyone. The entire population of S!verse Ninjago City & a few surrounding areas. Except poor Smith. Essentially it happens because S!Garmadon tries to send Smith to a place where he can’t mess with his plans, and ends up sending everyone away from Smith to take him out of the equation. 

The second part to this AU is that the S!Ninja end up searching for Kai in the chaos and grab the Red Ninja before jetting out of there with the Bounty. Except… they didn’t grab Smith (who’s still home), but rather Red (M!Kai).

Red thinks the S!Ninja are babysitter clones created by Garmadon after he somehow turned Lloyd younger without his memories & is trying to raise him to be his new General #1. With this in mind, he pretends to be S!Kai, and waits for the moment he can rescue Lloyd.

What would happen in the S!Ninja discovered his deception/their mistake of grabbing a wrong Kai and mistake Red for a recreated Aki (aka Bizarro Evil Clone Kai) before he could enact his plan?

Well, this is that idea. (Title inspired by how a crack AU spiralled into a beautiful angst-fest)

Enjoy. :3

—–*—–

Red was going to get Lloyd out of here tonight. 

Away from these Not-Friends made by Garmadon to emulate the Ninjaforce. Away from this flying ship built to emulate Master Wu’s ship, so familiar and yet so off. Away from this false reality and back to the real everything where they could hopefully get his memories back and his age back and everything back to the way it was before the city descended into chaos.

He just had to… bide his time. Be patient. 

FSM, he was bad at being patient. 

His hands itched to grab Lloyd and run now, but he was horribly outnumbered and without his mech. No matter how badly he wanted to, he couldn’t rush this. If he did, he would make everything worse. Like he always did.

But fate- or rather, Lloyd- had other plans.

The little version of his younger brother- yes, they were roughly the same age normally, shut up, Lloyd was still his younger brother- had been… eying him weird all morning. Not like Not-Jay and Not-Cole and Not-Zane, but like Not-Nya. Like he actually knew instead of suspected. These babysitter clones seemed to think he was the Not-Kai, and if that was the opportunity the universe was going to give him, then by the flames of the departed world was he going to skip this chance to save Lloyd.

Currently he stood on the deck of the ship as they parked in the sky a few meters above the docks on the outskirts of the city. It wasn’t the docks with the Bounty warehouse, curse his luck, but it wasn’t the endless sky or the empty ocean (though it was still too close to that murky, haunting water for his liking. Water was his sister’s domain for a reason). At least he could sneak Lloyd off in the cover of night, maybe find someone in the city who wouldn’t recognize the Son of Garmadon this way and would be willing to help them hide until they could make it back to the real ninja.

“Kai,” Not-Zane spoke suddenly next to him. 

Red would never get used to the way his voice… lacked the same effect the real Zane’s had. The effect that Kai and the rest of his team had assured their friend over and over was unique, special, but in a good way. To embrace it. That it wasn’t noticeable, but when it was, that it was so Zane that his friends didn’t care that it was different. 

This ‘Zane’ sounded much too different than his own. He hadn’t recognized Kai’s tested line of ‘road work ahead’ when they passed one of the many construction signs littering the city (even more so since the chaos happened a week ago), and instead had responded with ‘a great deal of work to fix in the city’. 

Seriously, Garmadon, do better research on your clones.

Not-Zane was also much too… calm. Too 'wise’ compared to the wild teen that was Zane. And he walked without heelies or whatever Zane used to slide around like a boss, though he was still silent. And that meant, like now, he snuck up on Red fairly often- and Red was training to be a Ninja, so that took serious talent. 

“Kai,” Not-Zane said again, and Red finally broke his gaze from where he’d been staring over the railing, planning tonight’s escape route. “Lunch has been made for over an hour. Are you alright?”

Red forced his brightest smile. “Course I’m alright! Just trying to figure out what happened, as usual.”

Why Lloyd was suddenly like, 8, and without his memories. Why the Not-Friends were on this Not-Ship and had mistaken him for Not-Kai. Why the city was in a state of disarray and chaos. 

Not-Zane studied him, then turned to give the city a sad look. “I’m not sure myself. My scanners can’t seem to figure out what is happening. It is as if… blocked by some force.”

Red winced, then expertly disguised the move by leaning against the rail. Zane never would use 'my scanners’, despite how often Red and the others assured him it was okay. Yet another reason why this wasn’t his friend.

“You know Ninjago City,” Red said with a weak laugh. “Always one crisis or another. Always those annoying Garmadon Attacks”

This seemed to satisfy Not-Zane, who nodded thoughtfully. “This event definitely seems to have Garmadon’s hand in the mess.”

He patted Red on the back. “Well, don’t worry yourself ragged, Kai. Come in for lunch soon, alright? We have training for Lloyd later.”

Ah, right. Training. AKA what Red assumed was how Garmadon was planning to shape this impressionable version of his friend into his new General #1.  

“I’m ready for training now, Zane!”

Speaking of Lloyd- 

The little gremlin came up from the hull with the rest of the Not-Ninja. Red hated when the entire group was together; it was way more difficult to act as Not-Kai around them, especially around Not-Nya. 

For starters, Not-Jay had a notch in his eyebrow that the real Jay never had. He was missing the iconic freckles, and the scarf, and the fluffy hair, though you could always say it was just a wardrobe change. What you couldn’t change was the personality differences. This couldn’t be Jay. Jay was anxious and quiet, his jokes (while plentiful) said more timidly and his newest ideas shared with hesitance that only shrank after years of encouragement. He would never be this loud, ever. 

Not-Cole was the leader, probably because Lloyd was so young. But even then, in Red’s team, Nya would probably take second-command. Cole was their sturdy support, yes, but he was chill, laid-back. Ready to follow and support his friends to the ends of the earth with his tunes and occasional sarcastic wit, but not lead. Not like Not-Cole, who was more serious and commanding and didn’t. listen. to. music. Red hadn’t spotted a single record or boombox in the room in the hull. That was a tragic oversight on Garmadon’s part. The members of his research team should be Fired.

And then there was Not-Nya. Who wore a dress with confidence that his sister would love but never publicly wear. Who had short hair- Nya had tried that style once, and decided it itched around her neck too much- and jewelry, and a giant flying Samurai mech suit. His sister had the Water Strider Mech, and Not-Nya had a flying combat suit. Sure. Close enough. Personality-wise they were similar. 

Similar at first glance. Nya was fluid and adaptable to whatever role she needed filling. She was spunky, and as fiery as him when it came to tempers, though she knew how to keep hers in check (she had to, right? No one called her hot-headed and impulsive and reckless and blamed her temper for mistakes or damage or whatever the news comments liked to say about the Fire Mech). Not-Nya was also adaptable and independent-minded, but she seemed more rigid. More doing her own thing. 

Point was, everyone wasn’t actually his friends, despite how much they tried to prove they were. And they kept acting like he was this Not-Kai, who was just as hot-headed but apparently more mature and training-oriented and basically the better, cooler (or hotter, perhaps, for the fire theme of the red ninja) him, since his acting never seemed to fully convince them. Trying to impersonate a standard he couldn’t seem to reach, some legendary hero he wasn’t- er, wasn’t yet! Yeah! He just needed to prove himself, be better, and he’d be fine. Just… fine. Yeah.

Mini-Lloyd (Red was tempted to call him L'ilyod in his head, but that felt wrong somehow, like he was infringing on some kind of copyright law) stared at him like a goddamn falcon, and he wasn’t talking about the bird that circled the ship. He had this bowl-cut Red would tease him about endlessly after all this was over- seriously, how had Mr. Fabulous Hair started with this mess? Garmadon probably didn’t even have hair, so there was no way the guy knew how to style it, and it was very evident based on Mini-Lloyd’s hairdo. 

Red noticed that all of them were staring, actually. Despite his relaxed rest against the rails, his fingers behind his back clutched the cool bar with a dull shake. He didn’t notice how the metal seemed to glow red under his touch. 

“Training, right, we should get onto that,” Red tried. “What do you want to start with, Lloyd?“ 

“How about a little game?” Lloyd asked with complete innocence. “What we were playing last week before we got interrupted.”

Oh sh!t. 

“I-I don’t know, shouldn’t we start with stretches? Or how about some sparring, that’s always more fun than a game!”

“But I wanted to continue our game…” Mini Lloyd said, and FSM’s sake, he couldn’t deal with that pouting look.

Okay. Okay, don’t panic. Think logically. What kind of game would an 8-year-old Lloyd like to play with him? Something physical, so no board games- he liked to test his mettle against Zane on those, and sometimes he would almost not-lose. Logic puzzles also fell more on Jay’s area. Trivia, especially music trivia, was a bubble between the anxious motormouth and Cole. Video games fell on team building, and wouldn’t classify as a training warmup.

“Well,” Red said, taking a hopeful stab in the dark. “There’s not too much space on the deck for… tag…”

Lloyd nodded, looking satisfied. The Not-Ninja looked- well, their expressions were hard to read because of how different it was compared to his friends. But Red was a master of deception (well, fire, but eh, technicalities), and he had them fooled, and he just had to keep it up until nightfall so he could rescue Lloyd and explain in a safe location-

“HE’S NOT KAI!”

Orrrrr improvise. Okay, yep, he could improvise. 

Red lunged forward and grabbed Mini Lloyd’s wrist from where he had his hand extended in an accusatory point. He ducked under Not-Jay’s attempts to grab him- fast, but not as fast as his Jay, his Jay who could disappear from an awkward social interaction in the span of a flickering lightbulb- and dragged his younger brother with him as he vaulted over the railing. Not-Zane almost managed to yank him back onto the Not-ship, but his icy grip caught only empty air as Red pulled Lloyd into a tight hold and ducked.

He hit the dock below with a stumble, rolling back onto his feet and taking off with a very stubborn green ninja in tow. It took all his strength to drag Lloyd (kicking and screaming like he was being kidnapped or something when Red was just trying to rescue him, for FSM’s sake. Lloyd didn’t know that, but he could still try to be at least a little more considerate.)

The wooden docks creaked and shuddered underfoot and Red grimaced; whoever rebuilt them after the latest Garmadon attack had shredded them like newspaper clearly hadn’t wasted any unnecessary change. It certainly didn’t help that Lloyd packed quite the punch for someone so small. Red definitely would come out of this with bruised shins and arms from where Mini Lloyd tried to push him away, but it would be worth it to keep his teammate, his younger brother, safe.

Then green filled his vision and broke his hold on Lloyd’s wrist, sending him skidding across the dock planks as he was sent flying. When he finally rolled to a stop, neck and shoulder stinging from where the blast had caught him (no burns, just jitters like he’d been shocked), he had to take a few seconds to re-orient himself. Did the Not-Ship have cannons or something? What hit him from behind, so close it could have hit Lloyd?

Lloyd. Was Lloyd okay?

Red pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the bleeding scrapes on his hands and legs from where he’d gotten banged up by the splintered docks. His gaze, sharp and frantic, searched for signs of green. The warning of more blasts, the flash of the fabric of a gi, anything.

He spotted his brother in the arms of Not-Cole. No, no, no-

And suddenly Not-Nya was there, given a boost by Not-Jay. Her grip was as if she were wearing the robotic mech suit, harsh and powerful and near in-human. She threw Red back to the dock floor as her face twisted with the fury of a storming ocean. A resounding crack rang out over the harbour.

Red couldn’t tell if it came from the planks under him or his own shoulder.

She pinned him to the wood, barking accusations and threats in his face faster than Not-Jay could talk. Red blinked through a haze of pain, trying to focus on her face and words. She was missing the beauty mark on her face, he noticed. Yet another tell she wasn’t his sister.

“-scar on the wrong side-” And it was hard to hear again over the ringing in his ears. He tried to throw her off, get back to Lloyd, anything, but he was-

Useless. 

Her hands suddenly got in his face, slamming his left cheek to the wood. She was close- close to his face, close to his eye, close to his scar- pushing and prying as she tried to do something. Red picked up in his struggling, his attempts to free himself turning to desperate shoves and wild clawing like a trapped animal. He wouldn’t let this creation of Garmadon’s finish the job that teen had started all those years ago. 

“Or better yet, he needs to shut his damn mouth.”

The flash of a knife. His vision half-blurry. Blood- so much blood- and a lasting scar.

“-contacts-” “-red-” “-struggling-” “-we know what he- it- is already-” “-not the real Kai-” “-wish-” “-Garmadon-”

He had to get away. Get Lloyd away from them now.

In one surge of strength- and yep, his shoulder definitely wasn’t okay after that move, as if he’d ripped it not just from its socket but from its very attachment to his body- he knocked Not-Nya aside. If he could’ve seen through the red haze, he might have noticed red embers dancing around his fingertips as his desperation and fear tapped into something deep in his soul.

He tried to shoot to his feet, tried to run for Lloyd (held so tight in Not-Cole’s grip, surely they were hurting him, he couldn’t let that happen-). He roared, “LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!”, but before he could take another step through Not-Jay and Not-Zane in his path, the docks gave one last ominous shudder  before deciding it had finally had enough.

The planks crumbled underfoot like charred firewood in a crackling campfire, and Red was sent tumbling into the frigid ocean water below.

A Flipped Scar

You know, I’ve been wondering where Red (M!Kai) got his scar from. It’s on the opposite side compared to Smith (S!Kai), and because they mostly fight in mechs, logically it doesn’t have to be from a GarmAlarm fight. What if it happened when they were younger...?

Did I have fun with this concept? Yes. Did I throw in a couple m!counterpart references? You bet!

This is set in the movieverse. TW for blood.

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Kai knew it was going to happen eventually. Being the friend of the son of Lord Garmadon came with its own brand of dangers.

He should have just kept walking. He really should have.

But he’d heard the three older teens- were they even teens? They looked like college students, or college dropouts- badmouthing Lloyd.

On any other day, he would have kept walking. Barely. But he would have. Not because he wasn’t itching to butt into the conversation with every inch of anger he possessed, but because Lloyd didn’t like it when he did that. And it tended to backfire where it only seemed to encourage people to go directly after Lloyd, whether to say their words to his face or worse. 

But then one teen had brought up the newly formed ninjaforce, and now they were badmouthing Kai’s entire team.

Cole, for being quiet and having ‘bad taste in music’.

Jay, for his panicked screams and yelps during fights.

Zane, for his overly weird attitude and sayings.

Nya, his sister, for being a ‘girl ninja’. 

And Lloyd, the leader, for not being enough to stop Garmadon.

They were just kids, for FSM. Six kids against an army and evil warlord.

Ignoring the jabbing comments about the Red Ninja (he’d heard it enough on the news and on Reddit and in gossip, thank you very much), he stormed into the mostly empty playground (by himself, at night, what had he been thinking- oh wait, he wasn’t) and barked out a sharp “Hey!”

One of the teens, a fourth sitting quietly to the side, startled at his shout, but the others laughed. 

“Whatcha doing out so late, kid?” One hissed out, her voice shrill and thick with smoke.

Kai wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms, holding his ground. “I don’t like how you’re talking about m- the city ninja.” He almost slipped up and said ‘my friends’, but aside from their comments about Lloyd, it wouldn’t make any sense.

The teens laughed. Another leaned closer, a big thug with a skull tattoo painted over his face. He laughed stupidly and shoved Kai, sending the boy stumbling.

The youngest of the teens, the one that had startled at his shout and the only one who hadn’t participated in the vocal jeering, shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. His green-streaked hair ruffled lightly in the wind. “Leave him alone, guys. It’s not worth it.”

“Au contraire,” said a crisply-dressed teen, studying Kai with a calculating glint in his eyes. “I want to hear why he wanted in our conversation.”

The youngest shrugged with a scowl. “Then I’m out. I’m not wasting my time here.” He stood, shooting Kai a look before huffing, turning on his heel, and walking off with clenched hands in his pockets.

The brute teen shoved Kai again, and he turned with a growl to shove back. It was about as effective as shoving a brick wall. Shrill girl shoved him from another side, and suddenly Kai found himself surrounded by the three older teens. 

…he should have kept walking.

“I won’t let you talk bad about the ninja or my friend!” He snarled out, unable to keep his mouth shut. "They didn't do anything wrong!"

"Your friend..."

Kai froze. He didn’t like the tone of the calculating teen. 

“Your friend,” they repeated. “Lloyd Garmadon.”

Kai’s hands clenched at his sides. “Yeah? So what. I won’t let you badmouth him.”

The three teens laughed. Shrill-girl slapped Kai hard on the back. “Oh, this is rich! A friend of the Dark Lord’s son!”

“Ha, funny man!” the brute added. “Jokester!”

The calculating teen was still staring at him oddly. Kai felt a shiver wrack down his spine- and considering he rarely, if ever, got cold, he didn’t like it one bit. Still, he held his gaze with a glare of his own. “You bastards leave him alone, got it?”

“Would you look at that, kid needs to wash his mouth out with soap!” Shrill girl crowed. 

“Or better yet-“ The calculating teen said, reaching for something under his jacket. “He needs to learn to shut his mouth.”

Kai was about to retort with a fiery comment when a knife was suddenly held to his throat. He gaped, ninja instincts trying to kick in, but he hadn’t been the Red Ninja for very long yet, and he was facing three much older and bigger enemies without his mech or any weapons or backup. 

Shrill-girl cackled. “Nice one, Archer! That got him to shut up quick.” She leaned closer over Kai’s shoulder, keeping him from moving away from the knife. “Not so tough now, are you?”

“Not tough!” The brute grunted. “Not tough at all!”

Despite the fear of the blade so close to his neck, Kai bared his teeth at them. His voice only barely trembled when he spat out, “I’m tough!”

The three teens looked at each other before bursting into laughter. Kai kept still, the cold knife-edge pressing his skin without breaking it. He kept his external appearance calm and angry- shoulders hunched, a furious glare, and planted feet ready to spring into a fight. But internally he was panicking, gut twisting into a million knots, warnings yelling too late. 

“You hear this kid, Archer?” Shrill-girl had a laugh like a crazed banshee. “Priceless!”

“Priceless!” The brute echoed with a ghoulish smile. 

“I say we shut him up,” Archer said. “What do you two think?”

Kai tried to bolt but the other two teens grabbed his arms, locking him in place. He struggled as hard as he could without slicing himself on the knife.

“I say go for it,” Shrill-girl hissed in Kai’s ear, and he recoiled at the puff of smoke blow into his face. 

The brute squeezed Kai’s arm so hard he thought for sure there would be bruises the next day. “Fun!”

Archer pulled the knife back, but Kai didn’t feel any relief; not with that cold look in the teen’s eye, nor the ghost of a smirk peeling at his lips. No, he wasn’t pulling the knife back to let Kai go, he was pulling it back to-!

Kai twisted, tried to duck, or spin to the side, or just plan move, and-

“Drat, I was aiming for his mouth to shut him up. Whatever, that works too.”

Kai blinked for a moment with one eye, the other closed from reflex when he’d seen the flash of the blade in the light of the streetlamp close to his face. He wondered for one blissfully fleeting moment why he didn’t open his right eye again after the knife was gone.

Then his face exploded with pain, like a bee stinger had been dragged across his face and then lava- no, saltwater- poured on the wound. Something akin to static- like the dull background noise of a crackling campfire- filled his ears. The two teens let him go with twin hisses like they’d been burned and he dropped to his knees, one hand flying to his eye while the other caught himself before his face could hit the asphalt. Sticky liquid dripped between his fingers and rolled down the back of his hand.

The wind changed direction. A police siren sounded in the distance.

“And it was just getting good,” Shrill girl scoffed, her tone disappointed. “Let’s scram. You did a pretty good number on the kid, Archer. Hate for you to get in trouble because of this brat.”

Kai barely felt the hand cuffing the back of his head as the three teens shoved him as they hurried off, all his focus narrowed on the slick sensation of blood and the iron taste in his mouth. Hiccuping sobs, traitorous noises of pain and fear, clawed out of his throat. No, no, he couldn’t be weak, he couldn’t let something like this get to him-

He furiously wiped the red stream off his face. Leaving a splattered puddle on the playground floor, he stumbled to his feet. Immense relief swept through him when he blinked his eye open; other than the stinging pain and the blood trying to drip into his vision, he could still see. 

He didn’t remember getting home, each footstep fading with the others. When he snapped back to focus, he was standing in front of the bathroom mirror at home, having somehow snuck in before Nya realized he was home. When he glanced up at the glass he quickly dropped his gaze back to the swirling red in the sink. His hair was a mess, plastered to his forehead with blood. His eye- he couldn’t tell what the injury looked like under the smear. He could still see, that was good, but FSM did it hurt. 

Knocking on the door. He startled, slamming his hand into the sink faucet. Shaking it in pain, he stammered out an insisted collection of “I’m fine!” to his sister in the hall. No need to worry his older (by a handful of minutes) twin. Everything was fine. He wasn’t hurt. There were plenty of reasons why he only returned home now, it wasn’t that late. You don’t have to get mom and dad, they’re barely even here anyway.

His shaking hands spilt rubbing alcohol on his face as he tried to clean the blood off, and he yelped as the pain intensified to the point where he felt lightheaded. Suddenly Nya was at his side, the echo of the door banging open in his ears as she took one look at him and shrieked. He was in her arms a moment later, scooped in a hug that hurt his bruises but overall felt so needed. His bones melted and he went limp, the full tidal wave of fear crashing over him.

Nya was crying, saying something, but he couldn’t hear her. Nor did he hear when his parents entered, one of the rare moments where they were home, but he did feel them join the hug. The rest of the evening was a blur; sometime during it someone pressed him for details and he finally coughed out an explanation, and sometime someone must have cleaned the wound because he woke up the next morning with Nya pressed to his side and a gauze bandage wrapped around his eye.

Archer had been arrested the following afternoon as Kai was stuck in bed resting. It pissed him off that the teen would only be in custody for a couple hours maximum until they got the story out of him over attacking a friend of Lloyd Garmadon. Then Archer would probably be released with a slap on the wrist and a waggle of a finger, if even that much.

When he arrived at school the day after, scratching at the gauze mess obscuring half his vision with the sole intent of tearing the cheap knock-off eyepatch off, he was seething. He had to wear this stupid thing for a week, had to get stitches (he could feel them every time he blinked and he hated it), and to top it off, he signalled to the entire school just how weak he was. He wasn’t even through the front doors and he could already hear the rumours pouring out.

“Finally snapped-“

“-knew that kid was trouble, even before he hung out with Garmadon’s spawn-“

“-Just as corrupted as Lloyd-“

“-bet that freak as him doing all his dirty work-“

“-wouldn’t be surprised-“

“-hot-tempered and dangerous-“

“KAI!”

The whispering around them grew hushed as a green blur slammed into his side, sobbing. Kai sent a glare- hard to make it look intimidating with the cotton fluff on his face- at the students around them and carried Lloyd down the hall toward the quieter area of their lockers. When he got there he was pulled into a near-suffocating hug from behind. 

“Zane, buddy,” he managed through his squeezed lungs. “Need- air-“

Zane let him go, but he’d barely had a chance to catch his breath before Cole slung an arm around his shoulder, nearly knocking him over. Jay slammed into his other side, babbling a mile a minute, and Kai huffed, exasperated but also touched by their worry. “Guys, I’m okay, really-“

“You nearly lost an eye!” Lloyd wailed. “Because of me!”

“What- green bean, no-“ Kai hugged Lloyd tighter. “No, it wasn’t because of you.”

Lloyd sniffed and rubbed off his tears in his hoodie sleeve. “But that’s- that’s what everyone’s saying-“

“And you really believe anything those idiots say?” Nya said, coming to his rescue. “The only person at fault is that stupid teen with the knife and his friends.”

Kai nodded. “Yeah!”

Lloyd didn’t look entirely convinced, but he slowly let go and sucked in a breath. Jay too grabbed a lungful of air before continuing his panicked rant about ‘never walking home at night anymore by yourself’, which Kai agreed to when he had a chance ten minutes later to interject. Zane didn’t pull him into another hug but he did continuously bump into Kai’s side in support, listing off a barrage of references to cool characters with scars.

Because of course it scarred after he took the bandage off. It looked wicked, sure, a smooth cut from above his right eyebrow, through his eye, and down his cheek in a curve towards his ear or lower jaw, but it was incredibly annoying. Despite its ‘rough look’ factor, it showed people he was a target, and in a society where intimidation was the best method to keep people from bothering his squad… well, it was like adding blood to shark-infested waters.

Not to mention those stupid rumours. It was only his friends’ concern, energy, and protective natures (usually he was the protective one for them) that helped him get through the week. He was still reminded of his failure every time he looked in a mirror, and it took a while to stop viewing the scar as weakness.

It was a scar he was left to live with, and for Lloyd and his family, he’d gain a thousand more to see them safe and happy.

If I can add some more details from the discord chat! - Red is the only one who believes Smith when he says he just misplaced his body (the others think he’s in heavy denial because when Smith off-handedly mentions appearing in a ‘shower of golden sparks’, they think he died in a fire / his death is related to fire)

- The squad also Smith’s fear of water has to do with his death (so Nya is also in denial through guilty)

- Only the ninja force can see him. They think it’s because of him dying in an GarmAlarm attack on their watch and he just can’t remember it

- Smith possesses the mechs from time to time like he’s a driving school instructor to make sure they don’t crash/do stupid things (he also powers mechs up and appears on the screen)

- Garmadon fights become so chaotic for the Generals, it’ll be like the city itself if fighting them, but Smith’s just possessing a bunch of stuff

- Smith loves possessing blankets and wrapping around the ninja, and even sometimes with posses Jay’s scarf if he really wants to feel some physical affection

- Smith tends to offhandedly mention a lot more things in this AU because he’s stuck as a ghost that only the squad can see.

- “Yeah I once jumped into a volcano to save my little brother.” ~ doesn’t elaborate

Smith: Yeah, fire’s just comforting to me. I- [remembers he can’t spill the secret about having fire powers] uhhhh don’t know why it just does 

The Ninjaforce, thinking that his death is related for fire/the volcano: [share concerned glances]

Red, slamming his hands on the desk: I TOLD you guys fire is just calming and comforting, but you all just think I’m a pyromaniac!

- Garmadon’s base is a volcanic island. Surrounded by ocean. There is much panic

"He’s a ghost, how can he be kidnapped!?!" 

"I DON'T KNOW!!"

- Smith’s thalassophobia get’s levelled up to aquaphobia

- Smith gets increasingly frustrated over how the squad keeps telling him everything is fine when it’s clear they all feel guilty over something and are hurting but they just won’t tell him what

Smith: Okay, seriously guys, what's wrong? 

Nya: Nothing (sigh) don't worry- 

Smith, interrupting: -about it Smith. Yeah, okay, let's pretend we've already done the whole, "there's nothing wrong or HEY LOOK AT THIS INSTEAD" script that we keep doing and just get to the point already. What's going on with you guys? 

Lloyd: Smith, really, it's noth- 

Smith: If you try to lie to me and say nothing is wrong again, I will scream at you guys. You guys are TERRIBLE liars and it's genuinely insulting me that you think I haven't noticed. Now tell me, what is wrong? 

Zane: We can't tell you. 

Smith: Why?!  What is so bad that it's emotionally and mentally messing with all of you, that you can't tell me? WHY CAN'T YOU TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG? 

Jay: BECAUSE YOU'RE DEAD, SMITH. 

Smith: ...I'm sorry, what

[Cue Jay, with Cole and others but mostly Cole, trying to calm Jay down while he blurts out all the evidence and what it means for the group]

Smith: ...Uh...As solemn as this is, I think I have some clearing up to do

- Red’s conspiracy board/consumption of the forbidden pocky sticks comes in handy once again

Smith: You see, I'm not actually dead, I'm just- 

Red: From an alternative world/timeline/planet/possibly from the future or the past though multiverse theory seems the most logical and you're basically astral projecting either intentionally but most likely an accident caused by either technology or magic and you just want to find a way back to your home where your body still is

Smith: 

Red: 

The other ninja: 

Smith: How the f-

- Smith hangs out in the back of class & helps the ninja with homework

- History especially, he’s really freaking good at it [insert the theory that Smith is an ancestor to the Smith siblings here]

- Smith accidentally possesses one of the ninja after seeing them get knocked out in a battle and tries to catch them

Can I join the chaos? I want to know more about the Smith AU's and shenanigans!

Hmmmm how about Ghost Smith :D

Basically this time around, the Megaweapon just kinda yeets his spirit into the M!verse and he sticks around the Main Squad.

Things that happen include:

Smith insisting he isn’t dead, just misplaced his body

Squad not believing him, but not wanting to correct him

Guilt all around since they all think he died in a Garmadon attack, and they know they can save everyone but still

Smith now has another reason to fear water

Wu thinking that Smith is possibly Red’s ancestor since Fire

Smith also teaching the team how to fight

The Chap 20 thing is a lot scarier for everyone because Smith just. Disappears. He comes back dw, but it scares the crap out of them

That Time At Least Four Kais Met

So uhhh I was thinking about how cool a crossover between @sunnylighter ’s awesome fic series ‘The Grass is Always Greener’ and @kittydemon9000 ’s amazing fic ‘Same People But Not Really’ would be and then I realized that the Kaiverse AU exists so… uh…

I guess the moral of the story is ‘be the crossover you wanna see in the world’?

Smith: Show!Kai (SPBNR)

Red: Movie!Kai (SPBNR)

Spike: Show!Kai (GiAG)

Buddy: Movie!Kai (GiAG)

Aki: Show!BizarroEvilCloneKai

——————————————————

This day had officially gone weird, and there was one thing Buddy thought he was familiar with, it was weird.

Buddy knew the multiverse existed. The proof of it was walking next to him on Garmadon’s volcanic island after one of their shared body-guarding classes. If you would have told him he’d be taking security classes from Lord Garmadon with an alternative version a week before Lil’Loyd had crash-landed in their realm, he would have first laughed and then offered you a hug to see if you were alright. 

And yet, here he was.

Spike was just explaining to him that one move he hadn’t managed to figure out in class when a portal ripped into existence in front of them. Now, that wasn’t actually that uncommon; between the Ultra Dragon and Meowthra, travel between the two realms was remarkably smooth. The unusual part about this specific portal, however, was how much smaller it was compared to when one of the two giant creatures travelled. 

A figure flew out of the portal, stumbling in the sand before regaining his balance He slammed into Spike, shoving Buddy’s counterpart out of the way with a sharp growl and taking off in a sprint in a random direction Buddy recognized as the way to the underwater glass tunnel connecting the volcano and Ninjago City. 

Buddy stood there blinking as Spike yelled after the figure. For a moment he could have sworn the mysterious newcomer had looked a little like Spike, but with glowing red eyes and a paler, almost washed-out look to him. 

But before he could get far in his train of thought, the portal rippled with new shapes, and Buddy’s brain promptly stuttered to a halt.

The first thing he recognized was a dragon- a big, red, freaking dragon that was NOT Ultra, with multiple people riding on their head and back. The second was that there was some kind of knight, and some kid that looked like the Kai-version of Lil’Loyd, and someone that vaguely resembled an Oni from that one book Buddy had read, and a guy with a headband and staff that Buddy had the strangest feeling he should recognize, and some bewildered guy that looked vastly different from the rest of the group and had some kind of… slug slinger? , and-

The dragon skidded to a halt, promptly launching one of the people off their head. The person catapulted into the sand- or, well, he would have, had Buddy not been standing in the way.

When the sand and dust cleared from his eyes, Buddy found himself staring into the eyes of… himself? And not in the ‘this guy is like Spike’ way, but in the ‘genuinely looks like me with the scar on the same side and hair styled like a really cool flame (NOT A BUNCH OF BANANAS, SERIOUSLY, NICK JAY?). The doppelgänger sat up with a groan, then looked down at Buddy. His face split with a wide smile.

“No way! Finally a Kai that looks like me and not Smith! You- are a Kai, right?”

Buddy nodded, too stunned to speak as he noticed that the rest of the entourage looked much too similar to him and Spike (mostly Spike, honestly) to be coincidence.

The doppel Buddy whooped and pumped one fist in the air. “Yes! I’m not the only one who knew this hairstyle was fire! Smith, hey Smith!” He craned his neck to look at another Spike-like Kai climbing off the dragon and hurrying over. “This realm’s Kai is like me!”

Smith- oh, like Kai Smith, clever- stared at Spike, who stared back. “Red? I think there might be two Kais in this realm.”

Red- for the red ninja, also clever- looked over at Spike and deflated in excitement slightly before shaking it off. “Still cool! They’re like us!” He turned back to Buddy. “Hi, I’m Kai Smith, so are most of them behind me, call me Red!”

Buddy sat up, starting to grin. He couldn’t help it, honestly. When it came to multiverse shenanigans, he’d learned to roll with it. “Kai Smith, but you can call me Buddy. That’s also Kai, but you can call him Spike.”

Red snorted. “The hair, right? Smith’s is the same.”

“It’s not that bad!” Spike protested. Smith just looked resigned. 

Red helped Buddy up. “Sorry about crashing into you. It’s a little hard holding onto Drake’s - he’s another Kai, by the way- horns when he hits the breaks. Mer and MK have gotten flung off once or twice. Elias got flung on when we crashed through his dimension for a few seconds and accidentally dragged him along- he’s not exactly a Kai, but we had him fill out the checklist and it lines up.”

“The checklist?” Buddy asked, only really registering the last part of that sentence.

Smith was the one to speak up this time. “Some kind of connection to fire, spiky-ish hair, a found family, pushing aside your trauma and insecurities for the sake of protecting the people you care about- don’t scowl, Spike, we compartmentalize and you know it, it’s not healthy-“

“He’s a hypocrite,” Red whispered to Buddy. “He gives Smith Advice™️ to everyone but himself, which is ironic, considering he technically has by giving it to me. Trust me: you got a problem, Smith can fix it.”

Spike interrupted Smith’s lecture. “Moving on, other than the obvious, who are you all and why are you here?”

Smith shot him a brief glare- they would be returning to the Smith Talk™️ later- before explaining. 

Buddy and Spike listened to a shortened story of how Smith had been wished into Red’s realm by his world’s Garmadon. The conniving lord had thought ahead about his attempts to escape and return home and had sent along an evil clone of Smith as a glorified babysitter, an arrangement neither Smith nor ‘Aki’ were happy with. When they got to that part of the story, Spike winced. “Yeah, I remember the clones. Ouch. Not a fun day of fights.”

Buddy looked at him with curiosity- he’d never had to deal with evil clones, and with the exception of Aki, neither had Red- and listened to the rest of the story. Apparently Aki had stolen Red’s world’s realm crystal and it had shattered during a fight, dragging Aki, Smith, and Red into another realm and allowing them to hop between dimensions. Smith and Red had been chasing Aki across the multiverse and gathering other Kais along the way, hence the small army.

Aki’s latest escapade had apparently led the group here, with Aki having run off after bumping into Spike. 

“He’s headed toward the tunnels.” Buddy realized at the same time Spike said, “If he makes it to Ninjago City-“

A four-letter word that Buddy would not be repeating in front of Lil’oyd rolled over the beach. All heads turned toward where the glass tunnel entrance was.

Red and Smith both took a step back in sync. “What is that??”

Buddy smiled in relief and waved to the giant demon cat that padded out of the tunnel. “That’s Meowthra! She’s friendly as long as you don’t threaten either Lloyd or point the Ultimate Weapon at the city.”

Squirming in the hold of the big cat like some disgruntled kitten was the very angry original figure who had burst out of the portal. Aki, right, that’s what Smith had called him. 

One of the other Kais (the normal looking one, like he had no elemental powers and instead had a- WAS THAT A GUN?- strapped to his belt) let out a long-suffering sigh. “I hate alternative dimensions.”

Meowthra plopped down on the beach next to the group, eyeing the dragon Kai (Drake, Buddy would later learn the name of) like she would Ultra. This squad (group? Gaggle? Flock?) of Kais better be ready to be kittened by her. It was easier once you got it through your skull that it was inevitable. 

“Well, we don’t have to worry about him getting away for now,” Spike said. “Once Meowthra grabs you, there is no escape.”

The evil clone hanging above them continued to swear and kick up a hissyfit. 

Red put one hand on his forehead to shade out the sun as he looked up. “What should we do with him?”

“How about you buttheads explain first?”

The entire group whirled around. Drake started growling, the normal-looking Kai flinched but ultimately looked tired and used to it, and the other Kais made various noises of anger and defence.

Lord Garmadon took a sip of his ‘World’s Worst Recently Remarried Dad’ mug and crossed two of his arms, unfazed. “One of you nerds better start fessing up before the press finds out and throws more fuel into the cloning theory fire.”

So yeah, all in all, a very weird day, if Buddy had to say so himself.

A little snippet that would lead into the rest of the Monty + Sharkpup SBPNR

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All Lloyd could see was gold. Bright golden sparkles, first around his eyes, then wrapping around his arms, legs, chest, brighter and brighter-

When he came to, he wasn't in his dad's lair anymore. No, the cavern walls were gone, and it was loud, and neon, and- and-

His head whipped back and forth, tears quickly pricking his eyes. He wiped them away immediately with his sleeve, but more came when he realized he was alone. Where- where was his family? The five ninja had been there- right there- rescuing him before his dad had made a wish. Where- where were they? What had his dad done?

Where was he? It kinda looked like Ninjago City, but he didn't recognize it. It was... too big. Tall. Different. He was sitting on asphalt, in the middle of an empty road. A streetlamp flickered, its twin on the opposite side of the street shattered; Lloyd must have popped the lightbulb in his panic.

O-okay, he could do this. He was a ninja now. He was strong! He could... he could figure this out! Yeah. Yeah, he just... um... had to contact the Bounty and his Uncle. A-and hope the ninja had been sent there. Yeah! O-Or find Dareth. Find the dojo. Yeah, he could do that! Find the dojo. Find the dojo. Find the- 

Whhaaaatttt are those.

A few meters away from his feet lay a pile of tiny... sharks? With legs? It was hard to tell in the lighting and with how they were tangled together, but there looked to be able five of them based on the colours Lloyd could see: red, blue, silvery white, blackish grey, and turquoise. 

Lloyd scooted back a little as the pile began to move, tiny legs and tails and fins flailing alongside high-pitched yips, barks, and growls that were mixes of pup-like and shark-like. Some kind of... pupshark. 

The red pupshark- no, wait, sharkpup sounded better- untangled first, popping out of the pile and rolling across the ground to land at Lloyd's feet. They shook themselves off rather indigently, a cloud of smoke puffing from their mouth, before they looked up.

Amberish red eyes blinked at Lloyd. Lloyd stared back. 

The red sharkpup stumbled to their feet, standing for a moment on their hindlegs before toppling over and correcting itself on four paws. They made a series of panicked, almost concerned sounding barks, then stopped. Stared at Lloyd.

What, were they asking for a response? Lloyd just stared at them back, then gave a little shrug. This was apparently the wrong- or maybe right, who knows- thing to do, because the sharkpup started yipping at him again. 

Before they could get far, a very high-pitched yelp sounded out. Lloyd rubbed at his ringing ears and looked over at the piles to see that one of the pups- the greyish black one, probably- had stepped on the tail of the blue one as they'd tried to shove each other off and untangle. The blue sharkpup was making a series of yips and barks so fast Lloyd could barely keep up.

Then there was a pause. A stretch of silence. One slow bark from the greyish black pup, almost like a question. And then the blue pup started yelping and yipping like someone had set their tail on fire or something. Something about it was strangely familiar. 

The red pup started to bark and growl, turning their head. They cut themselves off with a higher yelp, staring at the pile as if, like Lloyd,  they'd never seen a sharkpup before. The blue pup snapped their gaze to the red pup, paused, then continued to bark their head off. 

The turquoise and silvery white pups had untangled themselves now. The former looked down at their paws, holding one out and flipping it back and forth. The latter looked- well, almost mechanical in the light, and had the strangest expression of pure bafflement on their face. The greyish black pup let out a couple of sharp barks, the fin on their head flicking, and the blue pup began to quiet down. The red pup barked something out. 

Then, like something out of a horror film, all five pups turned to look at Lloyd. Lloyd leaned back instinctively. "Uh..."

All four pups from the pile made a single bark as one, a noise Lloyd could have sworn sounded like his name but not quite, and scrambled toward him. Lloyd flailed back and the red pup stopped the others, though a couple of them tripped and tumbled and didn’t stop right away, as if they weren’t used to their own paws. Who knows, maybe they weren’t. Lloyd didn’t know sharkpup biology. 

Great, now all the pups were looking at him expectingly. Lloyd swallowed and wiped his face with the sleeve of his black hoodie. “Uhhh…”

The red pup took a hesitant step forward, then another. When Lloyd didn’t move or make any motion of running off (he was tempted to- this was too weird- but they weren’t doing anything to harm him, and they were extremely adorable), the pup placed one warm paw on Lloyd’s leg and looked at him.

Something about the look in their eyes seemed… familiar. Lloyd squinted at them, leaning forward. He could see now a bit of fur in front of the fin on their head, spiked and ruffled like-

“…Kai?”

The pup let out an excited yet relieved bark, and- oh. Oh, he was right then. This tiny red sharkpup was- 

Lloyd started to grin. He couldn’t help it, honestly. Then he started to laugh, giggling and snorting and only falling into harder laughter at the pup- no, Kai’s deadpan look. “You’re… you’re tiny!”

Kai made a sound like ‘gee thanks Lloyd, I hadn’t noticed.’

Wait, if that was Kai, then-

Lloyd looked at the other four pups. Oh. It was rather obvious. Blue, greyish black, turquoise, silvery white (even mechanical, how had he missed that). “It’s you guys, right?”

The rest of his family surged forward to tackle him and Lloyd laughed again, less out of a joke and more in comfort. He hugged all of them tight as they fought to pile onto his chest and knock him over- he had been kidnapped by his dad before all this, after all, and they were rescuing him when the wish had been made. “Guys, stop it, I’m ticklish, get off!”

Zane complied, giving Lloyd a look that just screamed ‘I apologize for this gaggle of idiots’ when the others refused to follow Lloyd’s demands. Whatever. Lloyd was just happy he wasn’t alone here, even if his family had been turned into, uh… shark pups. Tiny adorable sharkpups, and holy FSM was he going to tease all of them about this. 

He was about to make one of those teasing jokes when a voice down the street cut him off; “H-heh, c’mon. L-let’s talk this out.”

Lloyd instantly quieted and turned his head, five pairs of eyes looking around him to follow suit. That sounded like it came from an alleyway. 

It sounded like it came from someone in trouble. 

Lloyd stood, the others hopping off his chest instantly. He wobbled for a moment, a little woozy from the wish sending him to wherever this place was, then corrected his balance and pulled up his hood.

“We gotta go help them!”

SHARK PUP PILE :DDDD

(I did not create Sharkpup, that honor goes to @vress-shark, I highly recommend checking out their stuff, they make amazing art)

All projects immediately got derailed the second I found out, very fortunate I had just put the glass of water down

Seriously, I can’t believe it. And yes you have permission to use the mug! <3 I would be honoured

That Time At Least Four Kais Met

So uhhh I was thinking about how cool a crossover between @sunnylighter ’s awesome fic series ‘The Grass is Always Greener’ and @kittydemon9000 ’s amazing fic ‘Same People But Not Really’ would be and then I realized that the Kaiverse AU exists so… uh…

I guess the moral of the story is ‘be the crossover you wanna see in the world’?

Smith: Show!Kai (SPBNR)

Red: Movie!Kai (SPBNR)

Spike: Show!Kai (GiAG)

Buddy: Movie!Kai (GiAG)

Aki: Show!BizarroEvilCloneKai

——————————————————

This day had officially gone weird, and there was one thing Buddy thought he was familiar with, it was weird.

Buddy knew the multiverse existed. The proof of it was walking next to him on Garmadon’s volcanic island after one of their shared body-guarding classes. If you would have told him he’d be taking security classes from Lord Garmadon with an alternative version a week before Lil’Loyd had crash-landed in their realm, he would have first laughed and then offered you a hug to see if you were alright. 

And yet, here he was.

Spike was just explaining to him that one move he hadn’t managed to figure out in class when a portal ripped into existence in front of them. Now, that wasn’t actually that uncommon; between the Ultra Dragon and Meowthra, travel between the two realms was remarkably smooth. The unusual part about this specific portal, however, was how much smaller it was compared to when one of the two giant creatures travelled. 

A figure flew out of the portal, stumbling in the sand before regaining his balance He slammed into Spike, shoving Buddy’s counterpart out of the way with a sharp growl and taking off in a sprint in a random direction Buddy recognized as the way to the underwater glass tunnel connecting the volcano and Ninjago City. 

Buddy stood there blinking as Spike yelled after the figure. For a moment he could have sworn the mysterious newcomer had looked a little like Spike, but with glowing red eyes and a paler, almost washed-out look to him. 

But before he could get far in his train of thought, the portal rippled with new shapes, and Buddy’s brain promptly stuttered to a halt.

The first thing he recognized was a dragon- a big, red, freaking dragon that was NOT Ultra, with multiple people riding on their head and back. The second was that there was some kind of knight, and some kid that looked like the Kai-version of Lil’Loyd, and someone that vaguely resembled an Oni from that one book Buddy had read, and a guy with a headband and staff that Buddy had the strangest feeling he should recognize, and some bewildered guy that looked vastly different from the rest of the group and had some kind of… slug slinger? , and-

The dragon skidded to a halt, promptly launching one of the people off their head. The person catapulted into the sand- or, well, he would have, had Buddy not been standing in the way.

When the sand and dust cleared from his eyes, Buddy found himself staring into the eyes of… himself? And not in the ‘this guy is like Spike’ way, but in the ‘genuinely looks like me with the scar on the same side and hair styled like a really cool flame (NOT A BUNCH OF BANANAS, SERIOUSLY, NICK JAY?). The doppelgänger sat up with a groan, then looked down at Buddy. His face split with a wide smile.

“No way! Finally a Kai that looks like me and not Smith! You- are a Kai, right?”

Buddy nodded, too stunned to speak as he noticed that the rest of the entourage looked much too similar to him and Spike (mostly Spike, honestly) to be coincidence.

The doppel Buddy whooped and pumped one fist in the air. “Yes! I’m not the only one who knew this hairstyle was fire! Smith, hey Smith!” He craned his neck to look at another Spike-like Kai climbing off the dragon and hurrying over. “This realm’s Kai is like me!”

Smith- oh, like Kai Smith, clever- stared at Spike, who stared back. “Red? I think there might be two Kais in this realm.”

Red- for the red ninja, also clever- looked over at Spike and deflated in excitement slightly before shaking it off. “Still cool! They’re like us!” He turned back to Buddy. “Hi, I’m Kai Smith, so are most of them behind me, call me Red!”

Buddy sat up, starting to grin. He couldn’t help it, honestly. When it came to multiverse shenanigans, he’d learned to roll with it. “Kai Smith, but you can call me Buddy. That’s also Kai, but you can call him Spike.”

Red snorted. “The hair, right? Smith’s is the same.”

“It’s not that bad!” Spike protested. Smith just looked resigned. 

Red helped Buddy up. “Sorry about crashing into you. It’s a little hard holding onto Drake’s - he’s another Kai, by the way- horns when he hits the breaks. Mer and MK have gotten flung off once or twice. Elias got flung on when we crashed through his dimension for a few seconds and accidentally dragged him along- he’s not exactly a Kai, but we had him fill out the checklist and it lines up.”

“The checklist?” Buddy asked, only really registering the last part of that sentence.

Smith was the one to speak up this time. “Some kind of connection to fire, spiky-ish hair, a found family, pushing aside your trauma and insecurities for the sake of protecting the people you care about- don’t scowl, Spike, we compartmentalize and you know it, it’s not healthy-“

“He’s a hypocrite,” Red whispered to Buddy. “He gives Smith Advice™️ to everyone but himself, which is ironic, considering he technically has by giving it to me. Trust me: you got a problem, Smith can fix it.”

Spike interrupted Smith’s lecture. “Moving on, other than the obvious, who are you all and why are you here?”

Smith shot him a brief glare- they would be returning to the Smith Talk™️ later- before explaining. 

Buddy and Spike listened to a shortened story of how Smith had been wished into Red’s realm by his world’s Garmadon. The conniving lord had thought ahead about his attempts to escape and return home and had sent along an evil clone of Smith as a glorified babysitter, an arrangement neither Smith nor ‘Aki’ were happy with. When they got to that part of the story, Spike winced. “Yeah, I remember the clones. Ouch. Not a fun day of fights.”

Buddy looked at him with curiosity- he’d never had to deal with evil clones, and with the exception of Aki, neither had Red- and listened to the rest of the story. Apparently Aki had stolen Red’s world’s realm crystal and it had shattered during a fight, dragging Aki, Smith, and Red into another realm and allowing them to hop between dimensions. Smith and Red had been chasing Aki across the multiverse and gathering other Kais along the way, hence the small army.

Aki’s latest escapade had apparently led the group here, with Aki having run off after bumping into Spike. 

“He’s headed toward the tunnels.” Buddy realized at the same time Spike said, “If he makes it to Ninjago City-“

A four-letter word that Buddy would not be repeating in front of Lil’oyd rolled over the beach. All heads turned toward where the glass tunnel entrance was.

Red and Smith both took a step back in sync. “What is that??”

Buddy smiled in relief and waved to the giant demon cat that padded out of the tunnel. “That’s Meowthra! She’s friendly as long as you don’t threaten either Lloyd or point the Ultimate Weapon at the city.”

Squirming in the hold of the big cat like some disgruntled kitten was the very angry original figure who had burst out of the portal. Aki, right, that’s what Smith had called him. 

One of the other Kais (the normal looking one, like he had no elemental powers and instead had a- WAS THAT A GUN?- strapped to his belt) let out a long-suffering sigh. “I hate alternative dimensions.”

Meowthra plopped down on the beach next to the group, eyeing the dragon Kai (Drake, Buddy would later learn the name of) like she would Ultra. This squad (group? Gaggle? Flock?) of Kais better be ready to be kittened by her. It was easier once you got it through your skull that it was inevitable. 

“Well, we don’t have to worry about him getting away for now,” Spike said. “Once Meowthra grabs you, there is no escape.”

The evil clone hanging above them continued to swear and kick up a hissyfit. 

Red put one hand on his forehead to shade out the sun as he looked up. “What should we do with him?”

“How about you buttheads explain first?”

The entire group whirled around. Drake started growling, the normal-looking Kai flinched but ultimately looked tired and used to it, and the other Kais made various noises of anger and defence.

Lord Garmadon took a sip of his ‘World’s Worst Recently Remarried Dad’ mug and crossed two of his arms, unfazed. “One of you nerds better start fessing up before the press finds out and throws more fuel into the cloning theory fire.”

So yeah, all in all, a very weird day, if Buddy had to say so himself.