A fire's shadow

A worried brother

The next day, Shadow was once again out on the deck training. Kai was standing by the window, watching him, a worried expression plastered on his face.

He was too lost in his worried thoughts to notice the blond male walking up behind him. It wasn't until Lloyd spoke up that Kai realized he was there and jumped at the suddenly broken silence. "Kai, are you okay?"

Lloyd flinched as Kai spun around and almost punched him in the face as a reflex. Luckily, the brunette stopped himself and instead started to look slightly panicked. "Omg, Lloyd I'm so sorry, you scared me and I just reacted," Kai mumbled quickly, proving he was in a slight panic.

"It's okay, Kai. I should probably not have spoken up so suddenly. But I'll ask again, are you okay?"

When the question left the blond's mouth, Kai's face fell, and his gaze traveled back to the window and his training brother on the other side. "Yeah, I am okay. But I doubt Shadow is. He's been training all day, for the last five days and doesn't even stop when he's exhausted. And then there's what he told me yesterday....."

"What did he tell you?"

Kai flinched when he remembered that Shadow didn't want the others to know about this. With a sigh, he decided that it was best, to be honest with Lloyd since this could be pretty serious. "He didn't want me to tell you or the others, but I don't think it's right to keep this from any of you." After receiving a questioning gaze by his boyfriend, Kai said it right out, "One of Shadow's friends copied his powers and Shadow haven't been able to use his powers since then."

Lloyd stood frozen in place after the words had reached his ears, "What?...."

Scratching the back of his head, Kai nodded, proving that what he had said was the truth. The green ninja felt his legs almost giving out beneath him and he stumbled when trying not to fall. Kai grabbed him, preventing him from falling to the floor, "Are you okay?"

Lloyd shook his head, "No, I'm not. This should not be possible. How is this possible!?"

"Chronosteel." Kai began. "I don't know exactly how, but somehow Chronosteel was involved."

"That makes a bit more sense." Lloyd sighed and turned his gaze towards Shadow who was still punching the training dummy as if it was all that mattered in the world. "But there's something else going on with him, isn't there?"

Nodding slowly, the red ninja closed his eyes for a moment and let out a sigh, "Yeah, I don't know what it is. But something is obviously bothering him. I don't understand what made him change like this. He used to talk to me about almost everything, but now.....now it feels like every word that leaves his mouth is a lie and that he keeps more secrets than a person would be able to prosses."

"You know, his behavior is not too different from how another person acted not too long ago." The blond smirked sadly.

Kai chuckled, "I guess you're right. But this is a lot worse than how I acted."

"You're not wrong about that."

But suddenly the two males' thoughts were pushed aside faster than a race car driving at full speed when they saw what happened outside the window.

Shadow was covered in flames, landing punch after punch at the dummy, everyone more ruthless and rage-filled than the last. Then the flames faded, and the black-haired male was unmoving except for the rising and sinking of his body as he panted. For a moment, it looked like the whole thing had gone without any big amount of energy had been drained. But then that moment passed and the exhausted ninja collapsed on the floor.

"SHADOW!" Kai bolted towards the door and practically jumped over the steps of the stairs, landing on the floorboards below and then sprinting to his unconscious brother.

He sat down next to Shadow and rolled him onto his back getting a good look at his brother's face, and that's when he saw the bags under his eyes. The brunette also noticed how his brother's breathing was dry and quick, he was also paler than usual.

Soon Lloyd came out with Zane and the others. The nindroid walked over to the two fire masters and kneeled down to Shadow and scanned him. "He's exhausted and dehydrated, we need to get him inside." Kai nodded and with the help of Cole, they picked up the unconscious ninja and carried him to his room, placing him on his bed.

Shadow remained unmoving for an hour before he showed any signs of being alive other than his chest rising and falling, which unfortunately only was to turn and lay on his right side, which most likely showed that he went from unconsciousness to deep slumber instead. The ninjas decided not to wake him though, they figured he would need the rest.

They all gathered in the living room and not long after everyone sat down, Nya spoke up as she turned to her brother, "What happened?"

Sighing, Kai lowered his head, "He was training and then something happened which made his whole body burst in flames and when it faded away it had drained all his energy."

"Why is he training so hard? What is it that made him get so......" Jay began but COle finished for him, "Uptight." The blue ninja turned to the earth master and then back towards the others, "Yeah, uptight."

Sighing once more, Kai glanced towards the doorway that lead towards their rooms, "I...I don't know."

Giving the brunette a sad and concerned look, Lloyd knew he was lying, and even if his boyfriend wouldn't have told him earlier, he would still have known because he could hear it in Kai's voice. But despite knowing it, Lloyd didn't call out his lie, instead, he remained quiet.

Zane shook his head, "Kai. I know you care for him, and that he probably doesn't want you to tell us. But I know you're lying when you say you don't know, at least to a small extent."

Knowing he was revealed, the red ninja sighed in defeat, "Nothing gets past you, does it, Zane? Yeah, I know one of the reasons to why he's like this now, but I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone, a promise I've already broken since I've told Lloyd."

"Then, can you tell us?" The ginger-haired ninja asked.

"I guess..." Kai began before explaining what he knew, but he left out some minor details which he didn't think would be important at the moment. When he was done explaining, the others were stunned. 

"He had his powers copied but not stolen?" Jay sounded utterly confused at this point.

"That's what he said, and seeing as both Lloyd and I saw his powers being activated, I'd say he was right when he said still has them, but he also said he can't really control them anymore."

The conversation was cut after that sentence thanks to the alarm ringing throughout the ship. The ninjas got to their feet and hurried to the control bridge where Nya quickly looked up what the alarm was about. "It's someone causing a scene downtown, he's settig fire to buildings and threatening citizens."

Putting their masks on, the other ninjas nodded. Nya quickly wrote and note to Shadow and placed it in his room together with a glass of water while the guys got their stuff ready. THen they all set off towards the city.

In their heads, they were all confident this would work out good even though Shadow was not with them, after all, he wasn't in shape to take care of this anyway so it was better to let him rest. So they thought it'd be best to leave Shadow to sleep, since he obviously needed it. But that was going be a big mistake, one they would find themselves regretting for a long time.