One mission changes everything. When a mysterious portal tears open during a battle, Lloyd, Nya, Zane, Cole and Jay are pulled into another world. Kai is the only one left behind. In the strange new world, the ninja discover a peaceful civilization with no way home. Their only hope is to wait for the portal to reopen... even if it takes three long years. Back in Ninjago, the world falls apart. A deadly corruption spreads across the land, turning thousands into terrifying zombies. Cities collapse, families disappear, and the few survivors form groups to protect one another. Believing the ninja died on their final mission, hope fades from the world. Kai survives. But surviving isn't living. Three years of loneliness, grief, and endless bloodshed slowly destroy the Master of Fire. The brave, hot-headed hero everyone once knew vanishes, replaced by a silent figure hidden behind a black mask. He no longer fights to save lives-he fights because it's all he has left. Zombies... raiders... murderers... it doesn't matter. Anyone who stands in his way dies. To the survivors, he's become nothing more than a legend. A monster. A ghost. A killer. When the portal finally opens three years later, the ninja return expecting to save Ninjago. Instead, they find a world overrun by the undead... and haunted by a masked killer feared by everyone. They have no idea that the man they're hunting is their own brother. Can the ninja stop the mysterious killer before it's too late... or will they discover that the greatest threat to Ninjago isn't the zombies- It's Kai.

For three peaceful years, the ninja finally believed they had earned the life they fought so hard to protect. Lloyd, Nya, Jay, Cole, Zane, Kai, Master Wu, and Skylor spent their days laughing, training, and living as a family. Until one mission changed everything. When an unknown enemy attacked, Kai Smith made the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life to save the people he loved. The ninja defeated the threat, but Kai's killer vanished without a trace. Three years passed, and despite countless investigations, no one ever discovered who was responsible. Heartbroken, the ninja laid Kai to rest beneath a lone blossom tree in a quiet field far from Ninjago City, where they could visit the brother, friend, and hero they lost. But death was never the end. In the afterlife, Kai is found by the mysterious green corruption-a force that twists everything it touches. Instead of destroying him, it changes him. It resurrects him, filling his body with terrifying new power. His fire no longer burns bright orange; it burns with an unnatural, haunting flame unlike anything the world has ever seen. Along with his new strength comes an impossible gift... Kai can see the souls of the dead wandering beside the living, and he can speak with them. Alone in a world that believes he is dead, Kai befriends the spirit of a brave fifteen-year-old girl who has no memory of how she died. Together, they journey across Ninjago, searching for the only people Kai ever called family. But after three years, the ninja have learned to live without him. Will they recognize the hero they buried beneath the blossom tree... or will they only see the monster death brought back?

The World He Deserved After a battle that should have been his last, Kai is torn from everything he knows and thrown into a world that's already lost. There are no ninja. No team. No one coming to save the day. In this broken dimension, villains rule without resistance, cities lie in ruins, and hope is nothing more than a distant memory. For the first time, Kai is truly alone-and the only one strong enough to fight back. At first, he burns brighter than ever, determined to fix a world that isn't his. But war without end changes people. With no one to ground him, no one to remind him who he used to be, Kai begins to shift. His fire grows harsher. His choices become darker. Mercy turns into weakness-and weakness doesn't survive here. He becomes what the world needs... but not who he was. So when a portal finally opens-a way home, a chance to return to the people who still believe in him-Kai hesitates. Because part of him isn't sure he deserves to leave. And part of him isn't sure he wants to.

It was supposed to be just another mission. In, out, save the day-like always. But this time, something goes wrong. Really wrong. And when the dust settles, Kai is the one left carrying the blame. At first, it's small changes. The jokes stop. The smirks fade. He starts training longer, harder-pushing himself past exhaustion like he's trying to punish something out of his system. The others try to reach him, but Kai keeps building walls, brick by brick, until no one can get through. To the team, he's still there-but not really there. Then comes the moment everything breaks. In the middle of a fight, Kai loses control. His anger, his guilt, his pain-it all explodes at once. And this time, he doesn't stop when he should. That's when the ninja realise the truth. This isn't about saving the world anymore. It's about saving Kai... before there's nothing left of him to bring back.

The battle is over. The world has been saved. Life is finally returning to normal. But for Kai Smith, the nightmare never ended. Ever since returning from the terrifying Monster Realm, sleep has become his greatest enemy. Every night drags him back into the darkness he fought so hard to escape. Every shadow makes his heart race. Every loud noise reminds him of creatures that should never have existed. Kai refuses to tell anyone. He throws himself into training, laughs with his friends, and insists he's fine. Until the cracks begin to show. His temper grows shorter. His reflexes become dangerous. He starts avoiding sleep altogether, haunted by memories he can't outrun. The other ninja know something is wrong-but Kai is determined to face it alone, even as the nightmares begin to follow him into the daylight. Some monsters can be defeated with fire. Others never truly leave. Nightmares is a post-Ninjago: Dragons Rising story exploring Kai's struggle with trauma, fear, and the painful journey of learning that even the strongest ninja sometimes need help. This story is mainly Kai trauma and stuff like that but I had some ideas and just thought I would write it into a book. sorry if you're getting sick of these types of books but I find it a great comfort for me. so if you do read I hope you enjoy

Kai disappeared in the middle of a battle-one second he was there, fighting beside his team, and the next... gone. No trace. No signal. Nothing. The ninja search for weeks. Hope slowly turns into grief, and grief into quiet acceptance. They tell themselves he's still out there-but deep down, they begin to fear the truth. Then one day... he comes back. No warning. No explanation. At first, it feels like a miracle. But it doesn't take long for the cracks to show. Kai doesn't laugh anymore. He doesn't argue or tease. He barely even looks at them. And his fire-once bright and blazing with warmth-is different now. Darker. Colder. Almost alive in a way that makes the others uneasy. The ninja want to believe it's just trauma... that whatever he went through changed him. But strange things start happening. Shadows move when they shouldn't. Kai speaks like he's not always alone in his own mind. And sometimes, when his eyes flicker in the firelight... they don't look like his at all. Because whatever happened to Kai out there- He didn't come back alone.

When a dangerous mission goes wrong, the ninja make a split-second decision-open a portal, stop the threat, and get out. But not everyone makes it back. Kai is left behind. On the other side, time doesn't work the same. What feels like hours to the team becomes years for him. Years of surviving alone. Years of fighting. Years of becoming someone harder... colder... and far more dangerous than they remember. So when the portal finally reopens and Kai returns, he isn't the same person who was lost. His body is marked with scars, his instincts sharper, his silence heavier. He fights like he has nothing left to lose-because, in his mind, he already lost everything. And worst of all... he doesn't trust them anymore. Because when it mattered most- they left him behind. Now the ninja face a new mission: not saving the world... but saving Kai from the version of himself that the other world created.

Kai has always been the fire-strong, fearless, unstoppable. But when his powers suddenly vanish, he's left with something far worse than weakness: doubt. At first, he laughs it off. He's still Kai, right? He doesn't need fire to be a ninja. But missions start to fall apart. The team struggles without their strongest fighter. And slowly, painfully, Kai begins to realise the truth he refuses to say out loud... Without his fire, who is he? As frustration turns into anger, and anger into something darker, Kai feels himself slipping. Then, just when he's at his lowest, the fire returns. Only... it's not the same. It burns hotter. Wilder. It doesn't listen. And the more Kai uses it, the stronger it gets-but so does the rage inside him. Now the ninja face a new threat they never expected: one of their own. Because this time, Kai isn't just losing control of his powers... He's losing control of himself.

When Kai finally returns from the Land of Monsters, everyone expects him to come back the same fiery, fearless ninja they remember. But they're wrong. Something in him shattered out there, and now he's fighting battles no one else can see-depression that drags him down, BPD-like emotions that swing too fast to control, and PTSD that turns every shadow into a threat. He tries to hide it behind jokes, behind training, behind that trademark smirk... but cracks are starting to show. Nightmares. Anger that sparks too easily. Moments where he feels like he's slipping away from himself. And when his friends realise the truth, everything changes Lloyd won't stop worrying, Cole becomes his quiet anchor, Jay tries to bring back the light he's lost, and Nya refuses to let her brother fall apart alone. But healing isn't easy. Trust isn't simple. And telling the story of what really happened in the Land of Monsters might break him before it saves him. Because sometimes even the strongest fire burns out-unless someone is there to help reignite it. Warning ⚠️ very emotional and depressing The cover is not mine but the book is inspired from aly jxa "I'm fine,don't worry." Great book btw

Kai had always been jealous of Lloyd. After all that kid had become the green ninja. Deep down in his heart,Kai had always kept a secret hatred for Lloyd; he should've been the green ninja, not Lloyd. Now that he had the Staff of Elements he could feel those forbidden emotions bubble back up to the surface.....