Tormented Rescue (Ninjago Fanfiction)

Prologue

TW: Arguing

"Kai! What the hell were you thinking!?" Cole half laughed as he accused Kai.

"I was trying--"
"Kai, we told you the mission wasn't for you, we KNEW you would get into trouble, that's exactly WHY we told you to stay at home!" Nya interrupted him, she didn't want some excuse out of Kai. He put himself in danger, trying to be a hero, and almost jeopardized the entire mission. Kai shook his head, obviously holding back his anger.

"No! Just listen--"

"We'll listen to you when YOU start to listen first, Kai," Jay crossed his arms.

"Yeah, Kai, you tell us to listen when you completely ignored us telling you to stay at home, you have no excuse," Zane added, stepping up beside Cole and Nya.

"UGH!! Ok! I get it! But come ON, as if you guys wouldn't have done the same thing! You practically called me weak and expected me to just take that!?" Kai finally got his word in. Nya flared up, about to retaliate.

"We did not call you weak, Kai. In fact, quite the opposite, we knew your impulsive behaviour would cause trouble, so we thought it'd be best for you to stay out of the way, that is all." Wu spoke sternly, giving a cold look of disapproval to Kai.

It hurt Kai, his chest tightened, but he shoved his sadness down and let it make him angrier instead.

"That IS calling me weak! You thought I wouldn't be able to control my anger! That's weak!"

"You're not listening, Kai! Again!! And besides, we were right! You weren't able to control your anger, and now we have to redo the mission!" Nya shouted, gesturing with her arms. Jay placed his hand on her shoulder, and she cooled down but threw his hand off.

"Well, maybe I wouldn't have been so ANGRY if you hadn't called me weak!!" He didn't want to listen. He only heard their condescending voices and wanted to shrink into a ball and cry, but by this point, he couldn't back down.

"For the last time, Kai, WE DIDN'T CALL YOU WEAK!!" Wu glared at Kai. He had thought he had trained him better than this. Kai felt a lump of sadness and fear grow in his throat. He attempted to speak but--

"This is stupid, Kai. All that happened was we had a mission, one that we knew would get your anger going, so we told you to stay home for YOUR safety AND ours. No one called you weak. Stop making such a great big deal out of all this and just recognise your mistake!" Lloyd finally spoke up. If Kai wasn't going to listen to even Master Wu, surely he'd listen to him, right?

Kai clenched his fists, and felt himself start to shake.

They don't get it, they don't get it, THEY DON'T GET IT!! It's not about any of this! Why couldn't they just--

"The fact that you can't own up to your mistake, Kai, is what makes you weak." Cole said with finality. A look of hurt flashed across Kai's face, and all of them saw it. Kai's breath caught on the lump in his throat.

Lloyd walked up to him.

"We're sorry, Kai, we shouldn't team up against you like that--"

"SCREW ALL OF YOU!!" Kai shouted, pushing Lloyd away. But his hands unintentionally flamed up. Lloyd yelped as he fell to the floor, holding his shoulder.

"Lloyd!" The others all ran up to him, inspecting him. As he took away his hand from his shoulder, everyone saw the burn mark. They all gasped.

Kai slowly backed away in disbelief at what he'd just done. Lloyd looked up at Kai, but he wasn't mad or scared. He was worried. Kai's anger issues had never gotten in the way this badly. Why was this time different?

"Kai..." Jay whispered in shock. Everyone turned to look at Kai with shameful looks--

But he was gone.