Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a quiet night at the Destiny’s Bounty. Too quiet. It was WAYYY too quiet and Kai was getting a bit restless. To kill his boredom, he took to pacing through the halls while performing some Neat Sword Tricks. Flipping it around, spinning around with it, setting it on fire, the usuals.

Eventually, he paced right into the living room, where everyone else was gathered. Cole floated on the couch near Jay, who was bouncing his leg and fiddling with his gi. Zane was probably asleep already, as was Nya, but Lloyd still wasn’t. The green ninja sat on the floor near the couch, reading a Fritz Donovan comic, which Jay was looking at somewhat wistfully.

Kai’s preparations for starting up a conversation from the doorway were thwarted when Cole took that job from him. “Ugh, I hate not being able to sit on a couch anymore,” he complained. “I just gotta float above it now, instead of actually making contact…”

Jay pat the ghost’s shoulder as best as he could and laughed. “You don’t like being a ghost? I would’ve died to become a ghost!” A round of chuckles came from the room’s occupants.

“I mean, becoming the Green Ninja and growing up was an experience too,” Lloyd spoke up. “Would it be any better than, uh dying?”

Cole gave an uncomfortable chuckle. “Well I’m mostly fine! I don’t get hungry anymore so there’s that…”

Jay put a finger up to his face, scratching at it slightly. “Wow, you two have really gone through some rough shit over the time we’ve been ninjas. It leads me to wonder,” he continued, crossing his legs, “has something exciting and life-changing happened to all of us?”

“I’d say so, yea!” “Yea probably.”

“Ok ok so,” Jay started, “we have you,” he pointed at Cole, “who died and became a ghost, you,” this time at Lloyd, “grew up and got ‘chosen by destiny’ as the Green Ninja-”

“And got possessed by my weird emo cousin and then forced to watch my dad die… twice in a row,” Lloyd added. The others got a good laugh at that traumatizing memory. “What about you, Jay?”

“Well, I was bitten by the Serpentine at one point and almost turned into one. Plus, I kinda found out something pretty big recently..” He panicked slightly when Cole and Lloyd stated expectedly. “It-its private personal stuff!! Nothing you two should worry about, nope totally not haha!” He waved them off quickly.

“Well, uh, Nya became the water ninja,” Lloyd continued, shrugging it off, “and Zane turned out to be a robot.”

“That and the only one with a functional relationship right now,” Cole quipped.

Kai, still semi-eavesdropping, now realized he was the only one not talked about. Either he had some SUPER life-changing event, or…

“What about Kai?” “Kai? Has he had a cool thing happen to him?” “Not that I remember… Oh! He had Chen’s staff for a bit!” “Yea, like for a length of not even a minute.” “His sister got kidnapped?” “That adds onto more of a Nya thing though…” “He got addicted to twitter! That counts, right?” “Jay, no.”

They continued debating but Kai didn’t want to hear any more. He heard the truth right then and there- he had an absolutely boring life. There was nothing to be talked about. He was worthless. So he left. He walked out of the doorway and onto the patio, sword strapped on his back. Looking into the forest they were currently parked over, he took a deep breath and jumped, activating his Airjitzu on the way down. He needed to release some steam.

The forest was awash with beautiful greens and blues, basking in the light of a full moon. Light crunching noises of twigs sounded underneath Kai’s feet as he trudged through. Eventually, he made it to a clearing. A few tall bits of grass lined the trees, and a stump sat in the center.

He went over and flopped himself down onto the stump. Crossing his arms, he began to grumble. “Stupid everyone, thinking they’re better than me, being special. Nya and Zane have cool lives, Jay has some big secret, Cole DIED, and Lloyd is the goddamn green ninja! They all think they’re so special, they don’t care about how I also have a cool and special life too! I’m interesting! They’re all just some.. insensitive jerks!”

“Couldn’t agree with you more.”

“Yea, I know ri-” Kai stopped in his tracks when he heard a voice in the clearing. It was… somehow familiar. He stood up and looked around, scanning the area. “Who’s there? Who are you?”

He heard a snort. “That doesn’t matter too much. Just think of me as… someone who wants to help.”

“Help? Help who, me? I don’t need help. I’m just here to blow off some steam,” Kai continued searching, rooting around his memories for who’s voice that was.  

“Yea, but I get what you’re saying,” the voice continued. This got Kai interested. “You do?”

“Well yea, I do. You feel jealous, envious of your teammates and friends. They’re all special, they have exciting lives, and you’re not, and you hate that. I know what you’re thinking, dude.”

“…where are you going with this?”

“I can give you a deal. I can make you… special, like the others. You can finally brag to them about having a cool thing happen and they’d be put in their place. After all, they don’t really like you. They’re special…”

“…and I’m not,” Kai finished. “You can do that? Make me cooler?”

“Would I lie?” “I literally just met you, dude, you might as well.” “Fair enough.”

A soft breeze blew through the night. The moon glowed, full and pale overhead, casting shadows all over. Kai narrowed his eyes, continuing to scan the forest for the voice’s origin, despite noticing it resounding all around him. “What do I need to do?”

A chuckle. “It’s simple. I’m gonna need you to say something, just a phrase or two.”

He raised a skeptical eyebrow, hoping the voice saw it. “Just… saying something? And I’ll be cooler?”

He could almost feel the voice nod. “Just repeat after me. Omnis ignis ab umbra..” The voice took on a darker feel, deeper and more threatening. This went unnoticed by Kai, who mulled it over in his head some before taking a deep breath.

“Omnis ignis ab umbra.” No sooner had the words left his mouth when the wind picked up around him and the moon seemed to get even brighter.

“Tenebrae praete eum,” came the voice from directly behind him. He turned around briskly to see nothing there but his own shadow. A shadow that had two red orbs staring straight at him and slowly glowing brighter. A section where the mouth should be parted.

“…et novam vitam accipere.” It finished, and Kai saw nothing but black.

When Kai opened up his eyes, he immediately felt something was off. His feet felt glued in place, and a sense of vertigo and weightlessness overcame him. Somehow he figured out he was on the floor, yet when he looked up he saw…

Himself. His own body standing there, motionless, staring out at the trees. Suddenly, his body began to shake. Seconds later, it was shuddering with peals of laughter escaping, from his own mouth. His head turned to where he was and snapped open his eyes.

They were horrifying.

Where his irises were once a dark brown, they were bright red, almost glowing red, staring daggers at his own. The whites were pitch black, dark as the shadows around him. They stared at Kai with an air of madness.

“Hey thanks, dude!” The voice said. His voice. “Thanks for letting me borrow your body for a bit! Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it for you while you’re afk.” He cracked his neck casually, not breaking eye contact.

“Wh-what? Who the hell are you?!” Kai yelled. He tightened his hands into fists but it didn’t seem to do much. It didn’t even feel like he did it or not.

“…Yea I have no idea either,” the body-snatcher confessed. “I mean, we’re both exceptionally stupid, ain’t we?” He stretched his arm out. “But from what I gathered over how long we’ve been alive, I’m your shadow. I am every negative thought and bad action fused into one formless being, forced to follow you around and eat your thoughts you banish from your mind. They aren’t that tasty, not advertising them.”

“So… you’re my shadow? And, and you.. possessed me?” Kai tried to wrap his head around the situation. “And if you’re me then… then how did you know that spell, or wh-whatever that was that did this?”

His “shadow” clicked his tongue. “I just kinda knew the words for some reason! As for what it did, we most likely switched places!” He sneered with Kai’s mouth, an expression that shouldn’t look so at home on his scarred face, scars that looked paler than ever.

“But yea,” he continued, “clearly those guys need to be put into their places, since they think they’re all so special. Self-centered, all of them. I’m gonna borrow your body to get our vengeance, since I know you won’t.”

Kai did not like this one bit. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. Why was this happening?! He didn’t want to be here.

Seems like his brain listened, and he found his feet no longer glued to the ground, and the weightless feeling vanished. Opening his eyes, Kai found himself looking at his possessed body from a different angle, from the shades of the trees. His body looked around, and his gaze settled on him. Smirking, he closed his eyes.

“Look who figured something smart out," he chuckled. "Well, at this point, I’m so filled with burning hatred I can’t be called Kai anymore, now can I?”

Kai grasped his arm. It didn’t feel all that solid. “What are you proposing?”

His body's eyes opened, normal and brown once more. “How’s about you call me… uhh…” His eyes filled with confusion. Kai swore he heard him mutter “shit I didn’t think this far ahead uhh what’s a word for really hot- got it.” He cleared his throat. Pretending he didn’t mutter anything, he looked at Kai once more. “Call me Arid.”

“Arid…” Kai rolled it around on his tongue. It fit such a dry, blazing shadow such as the one in his body. “Now that you have a name, I can call you out on shit you do. Just give my body back, Arid! I just felt a bit salty, you don’t have to do anything bad to them!”

“You don’t understand, Kai,” Arid stalked over to him. “Every bad thought you had belongs to me now. You felt salty, bitter, even, at your ‘friends’ for making fun of you, and wanted them to shut up.” He shrugged. “I’m just fulfilling your wishes, or I guess, my wishes now.”

He began to walk off. “H-hey wait! Where are you going?!” Kai called after him, running in his direction. The second his fingers left the shadows of the tree, they began to burn. He let out a yelp of pain and recoiled into the dark.

“Can’t go into the light now, can you?” Arid sneered. “You’re a shadow now, Kai. You don’t exist like I do anymore. Light will hurt you.”

“Duly noted…” Kai hissed back, cradling his hand. “Where are you going,” he restated.

Arid shrugged. “Back to the Bounty; where else am I supposed to go? I am Kai right now, after all.” He found the edge of the clearing and looked back at Kai. “Cya~!” He stuck out his tongue at him and spun into a flawless Airjitzu as he flew back to the Bounty, leaving Kai to stare up at the blinding moon.

Chapter Text

The living room was still alive with the sounds of discussion, though mostly from Jay and Cole’s playful banter. Lloyd had seemingly just finished his comic book, and with a quick goodbye to the boys on the couch, he left for bed. It was late, anyways, probably around 10 or 11 at night. Perfect for bedtime.

Footsteps echoed near the living room, drawing their attention. Cole glanced over to investigate only to see Kai making his way through the living room to the bedrooms. He seemed to stare at them all oddly, yet when he met Cole’s gaze, it melted back normal.

“Oh, hey Kai!” Jay leaned back towards him, “where were you all day?”

The red ninja shrugged. “Just doing some late night training,” he replied. “Can’t get out of shape, y’know?” He looked around the room. “Where’s Llo- I mean, everyone else? Are they all asleep?”

“Yea, they’re all actually getting sleep,” Jay chuckled, “unlike us.” Telltale shadows showed under his eyes, but they were to be expected since he, well, never sleeps. He can stay up all night without issue and be fine all day. How Arid boiled with envy.

“And I, uh, can’t really sleep all that well anymore?” Cole said. “Since, uh, I’m kinda dead?” Lucky.

“Well, you two night owls stay up as looooong as you want, but I’m gonna hit the hay,” ‘Kai’ began to leave to the bedrooms. “Crashed myself completely during training, gotta relax a tad.” He easily sauntered out of the room. “Night, losers.”

“Night!” “Nighto, Kai!” As he left the living room, he heard the farewells of his friends. They’re only saying that to pretend they don’t hate me, Arid’s internal monologue interjected, but I know they do. They’re just trying to not show it. He scoffed to himself. In the room they all shared on the Bounty was darkness. The lights were off and Nya, Zane, and now Lloyd were asleep in their beds.

Lloyd. The Green Ninja. The Golden Ninja. Everyone loved him. He saved the world many times and everyone praised him for it. I should’ve been the green ninja. I trained for it so much and got nothing out of it when he, a child, got to save the world and be rewarded for it. If anyone in the room was still awake, they’d probably be terrified of the cold, vengeful glare on Kai’s face, marred by red eyes glowing black from the shadows surrounding them.

What no one had noticed was that ‘Kai’ no longer had a shadow.

Kai’s shadow, or more appropriately, the real Kai, was still down in the forest, stewing in the shades of the trees. How DARE Arid just… walk off with his body like that!? That was so wrong of him to do, and Kai was going to get it back.

“But how?” he wondered aloud. He clearly couldn’t leave the shadows, since the light would hurt him. Kai plopped down into a criss-cross position, although it wasn’t entirely visible to even himself. His legs were almost gone, just a slight shade darker than the forest floor.

Suddenly, a thought crossed Kai’s mind. He had escaped from Arid once. How did he do that? One moment he was affixed to his body’s legs, the next he was in the trees. All he did was want to leave the proximity…

Maybe that was it. Standing back up, he stared at the opposite side of the clearing. The trees there gave as much shadowy coverage as anything else here, so if Kai just… thought… himself to the other side, maybe it would work? He closed his eyes, imagined the shade, and thought ‘I want to go there.’

A strange sensation overtook his body, or whatever his form was right now. A rushing feeling, almost as if the particles of his body were rearranging to another location without him walking there. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at the side of the clearing he had just been, marked by a few mushrooms at the trees’ base.

“YEA BABY!!” Kai pumped his fist excitedly into the air. He thought of something… and for once, it actually worked! Well would you look at that! With this newfound knowledge, Kai closed his eyes again and imagined the storage closet of the Bounty, knowing that it would more than likely be closed and dark. After a few minutes, it was clear he wasn’t going anywhere.

Opening his eyes, he found himself nowhere near the closet, or the Bounty, for that matter. He was still in the forest, and still alone. Glaring up at the floating ship he now calls home, he tried to reason with himself as to what went wrong. Was he too far away? Could he not… teleport like that, and he could only do it to nearby places, or was it…

Kai looked back up the the Bounty. It floated like any other flying ship, with a long anchor tying it to the ground. Onboard, however, he saw something that might help. A barrel holding lots of spare swords for training that was usually uncovered. He focused really hard on that barrel, feeling his particles again flutter. Everything went dark for a split second, and the next thing he knew, he was in the barrel with about five swords slicing cleanly through his form. He yelped, then shut his mouth immediately. What if someone heard? Oh, who was he kidding, of course someone heard that.

Strangely enough, the swords didn’t hurt. His limbs seemed to warp around them, not allowing them to attach themselves to his arms. Kai waved his arm through a sword curiously, which simply ghosted through it, leaving wisps of slightly darker shadow in its wake.

Enough with swords and barrels; Kai needed to get out. Once again he tried to poof to the closet, only for it to not work again. The hypothesis proved true: he can only teleport to what he can see directly, or move around freely in darkness. Thankfully, the barrel seemed to be in a shaded part of the training deck, so he carefully poked his head out to check for moonlight, before the rest of his body followed. All the lights inside were out aside from the living room light, where Jay, Cole, and Lloyd probably still were.

Picking the closest dark room he saw through the windows, Kai found himself in the kitchen. Here he walked around freely, staying clear of the windows showing light in. The burning really hurt and he wasn’t stupid enough to try it again. He followed his route from earlier, where he was practicing his sword tricks, until he came across the storage closet. Kai sent it a murderous glance, or at least what he thought was one. Did he even have a face anymore?

Past the storage closet he saw light. The living room. Kai walked up closer to it, as close as he dared to go, to investigate. There he saw Cole floating lazily in the air, all alone. Perfect.

“Hey! Hey Cole!! Look over here!!!” Kai yelled at him. “Cole!!! I’m! Over! Here!” With each word he moved his arms and jumped around, tried to make noise so that the ghost would look over and see him. Tried to being the key word. Cole didn’t notice him in the slightest and instead of making noise when his feet met the floor, he was as silent as a feather. Pounding the wall did nothing; it made the same sound as hitting a mattress.

Now Kai was getting frustrated. “COLE!!! OVER HERE!!!!!!! LOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!” He yelled as loud as he could, because what if Arid was here and could hear? Still, he was impatient, and impatience waits not for caution. He poofed to random shadowy points of the room to try and grab his attention, but nothing worked. Back in the doorway, he tried a last ditch resort. He stuck his hand into the artificial light.

The searing pain that danced across his fingers was horrible, Kai could almost hear them hiss and fizzle. He drew them back gingerly, already regretting his decision as he hissed himself.

Somehow, this worked. Cole’s head abruptly snapped up, and he was on his feet and levitating a pillow in his hands as best as he could. “Who’s there?!” Cole yelled out. As he scanned the room, his eyes met Kai’s. Yet as relief filled the red ninja’s eyes, the black ninja wasn’t satiated. “Who- what the- what the fuck is that?!?” He tossed the pillow at Kai with surprising force, who ducked out of the way.

“AHH- COLE STOP!” At this, Cole froze. He walked over to Kai, who straightened back up and stared at the ghost.

“How do you know my name?” He asked in an even tone. Kai gave a nervous chuckle.

“Do you not recognize me? Dude, I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past, like, 5 minutes maybe? Do your ears need to be cleaned?”

Cole just looked even more confused. “How should I recognize uh… whatever you are? WHOever you are?”

Kai frowned. “Dude it’s me, Kai.” Doubt seeped into Cole’s face, to which Kai quickly raised his hands in confusion. “Do I not look like myself or something? I mean, I KNOW I’m like, a shadow right now or something like that, but don’t you recognize me at all?”

The black ninja squinted at him. “You’re literally a slightly darker silhouette with two glowing red dots on your face. I don’t think Kai looks, or ever looked, like that. Plus,” he jerked his thumb over to the corridor to the bedrooms, “I just saw Kai go bed. Seemed pretty tired from training on his own.”

“That wasn’t me,” the real Kai protested, “That was NOT me, Cole.”

“Then explain who that was, if you’re the real Kai.”

“That’s my shadow possessing me.” A raised eyebrow. “Look, I don’t know how else to tell you that you guys are probably in danger, because that. Was. Not. Me.” His voice took on a dangerous note at the end, and Cole seemed visually disturbed.

After a bit, Cole glared up at Kai. “Ok then, if you’re the real Kai, then tell me.” He leaned in closer. “What is… my favorite ice cream flavor.”

“Usually whatever Jay picks-” Kai muttered under his breath, “-I mean, uh, you usually go for, uh…” Was this a trick question? Cole either picked rocky road or whatever Jay had whenever they went out for ice cream, but as for what his actual favorite was…

“You never chose one, I don’t think, so you went with the, insert sarcasm here, oh so amazing choice of ice cream cake. Even though ice cream cake is like, many different flavors-”

“But I chose it because it was cake and I love cake more than ice cream! Well, loved…” Cole’s gaze turned melancholy before he looked back at Kai. “But that was the right answer, so I guess I’ll take your word for it. Now Cole looked at him more, bewildered than anything. “What the hell happened to you, Kai?”

“It’s uh,” the shadow laughed nervously, “a long story. You’re gonna have to turn off the lights for this.”

Chapter Text

The Commissioner yawned. It had been a long day for him yesterday, and he was exhausted. He took a long, heavy slurp from his coffee mug, trying to stay awake. 

Suddenly, he heard an odd noise. The Commissioner looked up at the door, yet no one was there. Yet in the shadows behind the door, two red eyes(?) peered out. He jolted up in his chair at the sight of them. 

"Excuse me, sir?" A voice came through. 

"Who's there?" he asked, eyes not leaving the dots.

"That's not important now," the voice said, a hint of panic lacing it. "I need you to do something for me."

The policeman scoffed. "If I don't even know who or what you are, why do you assume I'll agree to do it?"

"The fate of Ninjago might be at stake," the voice urged. "It isn't anything difficult."

"The fate of Ninjago is always at stake. What is it?"

"Kai. The red ninja. @hotboiii on twitter."

"Yes I know who Kai is."

"Call him up. Have him do something menial for you. Like… cleaning garbage, or doing chores. Something simple."

"...why?"

"I don't have time to explain- well technically I do but I don't want to." The voice stumbled over his words. "You just have to do this one thing. And don't act suspicious. Act like this was something you meant for him to do in the first place."

"Again," the Commissioner sipped his coffee, "why should I do this?"

"Like I said," the voice grew exasperated (he could almost see an eyeroll from the shadow), "Ninjago hangs in the balance. Please, at least consider it."

"...perhaps I will. Consider it, I mean." The Commissioner frowned at the figure. "Why do you care, shadow?"

"It’s my business to," the figure seemed to shrug. "And, also? If something bad happens, don't be afraid to knock him out. Call the ninja if you do." And with that, the eyes vanished. The Commissioner blinked slowly, processing the information. 

"It’s too early for this shit," he muttered as he sank into his chair. 

---

Back at the Bounty, Cole twiddled his thumbs. It was almost noon, and while all the ninja had already gotten breakfast and were relaxing in the game room, he couldn't help but stare at Kai warily. Or, at least, the body of the Kai he knew. The shadow version of Kai was currently sitting in the corner where only Cole would be able to see him, glaring daggers at 'Kai'. 

While Arid seemed nonchalant and like the Kai he knew and loved, something about him was off. Perhaps it was because of how oddly he was staring at Lloyd. Maybe it was his lack of a shadow (it was only really noticeable when he paid attention to it).

Currently, Arid and Jay were aggressively beating each other up in Smash Bros. Jay's thumbs mashed his controller and a slew of curses flowed from his mouth. Arid, confident and haughty, was doing sneaky punches and probably using broken game mechanics and cheats to win. 

"WHAT!?" Jay screamed as his character got yeeted off the edge. Arid, still with no lives lost, cackled and whooped in his victory. "HOW the FUCK did you DO that???"

"Skills, man, pure fucking skills!" He laughed. "I've just been holding back all those other times!"

"What? No the fuck you haven't!" Jay retorted. "You cheated!"

"You're just a sore loser~" Arid taunted. At Jay's growl he laughed harder.

"Jay, Kai wouldn't cheat," Zane piped up from next to Arid. "Don't accuse him of doing so. And Kai," he added, "don't be a sore winner."

A pout and a stuck out tongue were his responses. While Zane and Lloyd laughed it off, Cole felt a bit uneasy with his Arid was acting. He was already acting up… One look at Kai confirmed he wasn't happy either.

Footsteps sounded from the back and when Cole turned around to see who it was, he saw Nya jogging into the room. “Hey Kai, phone call for you.” She held up the Bounty’s phone. 

Arid sighed. “Coming.” He hopped up and snatched the phone from “his” sister’s hands. Holding it up to his ear, he retreated into the corridor to talk. 

A few minutes later, he returned looking kind of bored and disengaged, though it was hidden easily when he felt eyes on him. “Commissioner called me up. Wants me to do some community service, or something like that.” He waved his hand in a circle. 

“Then you should probably go now,” Cole suggested carefully, not wanting to arouse suspicion. “Don’t wanna make the Commissioner wait.”

Arid studied him for a moment before smirking. “Yea, yea, I’m going. I’m taking my motorbike, cya losers later~” Waving the ninja off, the red ninja pretender sauntered off. A chorus of “bye”s followed him.

Suspicious, Cole glanced over at Kai, who’s red eyes were alit with pride and joy. Noticing the earth ninja’s gaze, Kai’s “face” split into a “grin.” “It worked!”

Cole raised an eyebrow. He couldn’t talk to Kai here, so he jerked his head to the corridor inconspicuously. “Hey, I’ll be right back guys, ok?” 

“You’re playing vs whoever wins when you return,” Jay said, handing Arid’s controller to Lloyd. 

“Haha, alright,” Cole chuckled. Walking over to the corridor and making it a safe distance away from the living room, he looked around for Kai. When he spotted the telltale red eyes, he could almost see fire inside them.

“It fuckin worked!” Kai exclaimed. It didn’t matter how loud Kai could be, no one else could hear him. He only seemed to be heard when someone was looking into his eyes, or anywhere else on his form. 

“What worked?” Cole said much quieter. “What did you do?”

“So,” Kai began, “this morning I managed to go into the city and into the police station. You won’t believe how easy it is to do so as a shadow. Anyway, I made it into the Commissioner’s office. I stood there for like half an hour before he noticed me, but when he did, I managed to convince him to do a little favor for me.”

“And what would that be?”

“I asked him to call up ‘Kai’ and get him to do something simple, like chores or community service. Something to keep Arid busy until we figure out how to beat him.”

“And… the Commissioner trusted you? A shadow?”

“Apparently.” Kai appeared to shrug. “He made the call, after all.”

Cole bit his lip. “So now what?”

“Now, we tell the others,” Kai said decisively. 

A hiss escaped Cole. “Are you sure?”

“We need all the help we can get,” the shadow reasoned. “I can’t beat him on my own, and neither can just you.”

“...you’ve got a point,” the ghost conceded. “I’ll gather everyone in the kitchen. Meet me there.”

Kai gave a barely-visible thumbs up and vanished, leaving Cole alone to gather the others.

---

About 5 minutes later, all the ninja were in the kitchen. They looked at each other confused as Cole went around to make sure all the windows and other light sources were closed. Kai sat in a cupboard, grateful.

“Hey Cole?” piped up Jay. “Mind telling us what this is?”

“You’ll see in a second,” Cole answered, covering the last window. “Zane, can you turn the lights off?”

The robot blinked. “Sure, what for?”

“Like I said,” Cole began as Zane flicked the lightswitch, “you’ll see in a second.”

The room flooded in darkness. It wasn’t nearly dark enough to be hard to see, but it sufficed for Kai’s survival. He climbed out of the cabinet, feeling more like he swam out, and teleported behind the group, Cole locking eyes with him for a moment.

“So,” Cole clapped his hands, “you’re all probably wondering why I gathered you all here in a dark room.”

“Yea,” Lloyd nodded. “What is it?”

“It’s, well, something to do with the phone call Kai just got,” Cole explained. Nya’s eyes narrowed from the back. “The Kai that got the call, and the Kai we’ve seen all day, uh,” he wrung his hands nervously, “...isn’t the real Kai.”

Looking over at the group, he saw four faces of disbelief. “He acted like Kai,” Zane reasoned. “Do you have any concrete evidence as to why you believe he isn’t who he says he is?”

“Uh, yea, I heard it from Kai himself,” Cole said. 

“I thought you said that Kai wasn’t himself?” Nya raised an eyebrow.

“Yea, the person in Kai’s body isn’t Kai, but Kai is still around,” the ghost tried to explain. He saw Kai facepalm in the back.

“I got this, Cole, move over,” Kai yelled before Cole could look away. He appeared next to him and purposefully glared out at the other ninja.

“Wh-what is THAT?” Jay jumped back into the wall as he spotted the eyes. As the other three took notice of the glowing red dots, they all got into defensive poses. 

Kai chuckled nervously. “Great! I got your attention! Now please don’t kill me, because I’m not sure if you can at this current moment.”

Nya blinked. “..Kai?” she asked the very familiar voice. She was met with a “grin” and a weak peace sign. Loosening her stance, she scrutinized the shadow. “What the fuck happened to you?”

“Wait, are you saying that’s the real Kai?” Lloyd looked over at his sister, then at Kai.

“I’d know that sarcastic tone anywhere,” Nya reasoned, running a hand through her hair.

As the others relaxed, Cole sighed. “Yea, it’s the real Kai. Unfortunately.” Kai’s exclaim of “rude” was left unheard.

“So, how did this happen?” Zane looked back to the shadow. 

“Well- can you get the others to look at me?” Zane frowned at Kai’s odd request, but turned the others to him nonetheless. “Thanks. I can apparently only be heard if I’m looked at. Don’t ask why, I don’t know,” he added when he noticed Jay opening his mouth.

“So, I left for a nighttime walk,” Kai went on, “and I made it to a clearing. Apparently my shadow - which I didn’t know was my shadow at the time - managed to convince me to switch places with him. I contacted the Commissioner to pull him away so I could safely get the message across to you.”

“And he believed you? In this state you’re in?”

“I… kind of told him Ninjago hung in the balance,” came the answer to Nya’s question. “Which isn’t a complete lie, mind you.”

“Wait, why?” Even Cole was confused, voicing it for the group. He didn’t get this version of the explanation. 

“My shadow is where every negative thought and bottled up emotion goes,” Kai tentatively explained. He rubbed his hands nervously. “There’s a LOT of shit that’s packed within one being, and now that being is capable of carrying out every dark desire I ever had.”

Nya hissed, already knowing and guessing most of what they were. Zane, Jay, and Cole exchanged a worried glance before looking back at the shadow, and Lloyd bit his lip, coming to the worst conclusions. 

“So,” Jay tapped his fingers together, “how do we deal with this, uh, shadow situation?”

“Well-”

Kai was interrupted by the phone ringing. Zane rushed to get it. “Hello? Ah, Commissioner- yes? Yes. Yes- what?” He jolted in place. “I- alright, we’ll come right away. Keep him secure, please. We’ll be right over.”

As Zane hung up the phone, Cole asked a very important question. “Yo what was that?”

“The Commissioner called,” Zane explained. “The police force have knocked out Kai and he is now tied up and unconscious.”

“So he listened,” Kai muttered. No one heard.

“Kai…” Cole looked the shadow dead in his eyes. “Is this your doing?”

“...perhaps,” Kai gave the cattiest grin he could. Upon seeing five sets of judging eyes, he sighed. “Ok, fine, it is. I told the Commissioner to knock Arid out if he started anything.”

“Arid?” Jay lowered an eyebrow in confusion.

“It’s what his shadow is named,” Cole explained. “We should probably go check on him.”

“Then that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Nya decided. “Come on, guys. Let’s go find the troublemaker.”

Chapter Text

Kai was very, very cramped. Nya knew this. They all realized that Kai can actually fit in any shadowed space, so he was shoved into an empty backpack that she had slung over her back. Currently, they were all making their way to the station to confront Arid, who was, according to the Commissioner, unconscious. Fantastic.

After quick conversation and being led into the interrogation room, Nya saw her brother’s body tied up on the floor. She bit her lip. It looked just like him: the same spiky hair, the same scarred face, the same red clothes. Yet with the knowledge that this wasn’t her brother, it deeply unsettled her to know that someone was piloting Kai’s body without his permission.

Eventually, Kai’s body - Arid - fluttered his eyes open. Blearily groaning and squinting at the ninja, he blinked and offered a weak smile. “Hey guys,” he said easily.

“Hello,” Nya crossed her arms. Arid blinked at her cold tone. EVentually he looked down at himself and saw the ropes tied around his body. He offered Nya a sheepish grin.

“Listen, Nya,” he began, “I totally have a good explanation for this. Can- can you let me out?”

“Absolutely not!” Jay spoke up, hands up and ready to generate lightning. “You stay where you are, shadow!”

“Shadow?” ‘Kai’ said, scrunching up his face. It was such a familiar motion, yet something was off about it. Maybe it was the dangerous glint in his eyes, or maybe it was the flicker of fear in his voice. “I’m not a shadow. See? I’m solid.” He nodded to himself, having moved to sit up against the wall.

“We know who you are, Arid,” Cole growled, floating slightly off the ground. “Don’t play games.”

“Arid?” He looked a bit panicked. “Guys, it’s me, Kai! You know, the ninja of fire? The red ninja? @hotboiii on twitter???”

“Give it up,” Lloyd said, crossing his arms. “And kill the lights, Zane.”

Before Zane clicked off the lights, Nya tapped the backpack to signal Kai to come out. As she did, she took notice of Arid’s lack of a shadow underneath the bright lamp above them. The lights shut off in the room and Nya turned to see the dark silhouette standing next to her, bright red eyes glaring daggers at his body.

Arid’s eyes flickered from Nya and Kai, before he sighed and smirked. A soft chuckle escaped him. “Aww, that’s cute. You figured out how to contact the others.” Arid looked back up and everyone gasped. His eyes were pitch black where they were once white, and red irises almost glowed in the darkness. 

Nya felt a cold feeling on her hand and turned to see Kai grasping the space around it. Kai was always so warm due to the fire in his veins, so feeling him cold and ghostly was so strange and alien. 

“Give me back my body!” She caught Kai saying. A snort from Arid was the only response.

“If I wanted to give you back our body,” Arid rolled his eyes, “I’d do that already. But as it stands I actually like being here, so I think I’ll stay for a little longer!”

“It’s not your body to inhabit!” Nya snapped. “Give it back to him!”

“In fact, it is my body to inhabit,” Arid continued. “I’m still Kai, just a little different. I’m still the same Kai you knew your whole life, so why shouldn’t I be in the body I should’ve been in from the beginning?”

Arid turned to where Kai was, so Nya followed his gaze. It was annoying to have to see him to hear him, but hey, what can you do. She instead caught a slew of curses coming from the shadow Kai. “GIVE IT BACK! IT WAS MY BODY FIRST !”

“Cute, but we were created at the same time,” Arid purred, not at all perturbed. “So theoretically it could’ve been either of us here. But this conversation is getting boring, so why don’t y'all just let me go, huh?”

“Considering you were about to attack a civilian before the cops knocked you out,” Zane frowned, “I’d say you’re in no place to be released.”

“He was being a dick to me!” Arid snarled. “He insulted my hair, and you know how I get when people insult my hair!”

“Well it’s definitely Kai’s shadow,” Jay muttered. “They have the same short fuse.”

“Short fuse? Me?” The fake ninja laughed. “That’s rich, coming from you!” Jay frowned in confusion as Arid continued. “I mean, you blow up at every minor inconvenience and expect us to take you seriously? You’re just a wayward kid who’s too scared to actually deal with his issues like an adult, so you cry yourself to sleep with that stuffed animal you can’t let go of yet. And you say I have a bad temperament?”

Jay drew in a shallow gasp, hurt dancing in his eyes. “I- don’t you- I…” He trailed off, tears gathering. Zane placed a hand on his shoulders. 

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it,” Zane comforted before Arid groaned.

“Didn’t mean it? Of course I meant it, you hollow hunk of aluminum. With how often you take things seriously, I’m shocked you don’t see the authenticity in my words. And see that?” He gave a feral grin. “I know big words too! You’re not the only one who can use them, you walking dictionary!”

Zane’s face and body tightened, glaring at Arid. Cole frowned and walked over to the fake ninja. “Ok, that’s it, no more insulting our friends.”

“Why should I stop?” Arid cocked his head, smile never leaving. “I’m just speaking my mind. Is that so wrong~?”

“Because you’re hurting them!” Lloyd snapped. Arid fixed his crimson gaze on the green ninja, who withered under the look. 

“Oh, and I should totally listen to the amazing and incredible green ninja, huh?” Arid’s gaze was venomous as he glared at Lloyd. “You’re just a child who got handed too much power when it should’ve been given to someone who actually deserved it and not just inherited through your weird fucked up godly bloodline. The title was never meant to be yours, I should’ve been the green ninja all along.”

“Stop talking,” Nya said silently. Her hands were clenched into fists, shaking by her side. “Just stop already.” Arid looked at her, impartial. “You’re saying things Kai would never say, because the Kai I know would never hurt his friends like this.”

Arid tsked dismissively. “Well this Kai doesn’t mind if he hurts his friends or not. If you all want to be so special and cool, you can keep him,” he nodded towards Kai. “But I’m not afraid to speak my mind and share all the things we’ve been bottling up for years now. You may hate me, but I’m Kai too!” He smirked. “Hate me and you end up hating the Kai that’s stuck as a shade right now.”

“Well we’re getting that Kai back into his body like how it used to be, so that you can be shut up for good,” Nya growled, leaning in close to Arid. Unintimidated, he smiled back. 

“Then you better do it fast,” he shrugged. “You only have until midnight to get Kai back in here, or else I’m gonna be here forever!”

“And how exactly do you know that?” Cole narrowed his eyes. Arid looked at him boredly. 

“Fuck if I know,” he eventually admitted. “Just like I didn’t know I got here in the first place; I just know , ya know?”

“I really don’t,” Cole grimaced. 

“Course you don’t,” Arid huffed. “If I don’t then how should anyone else?”

“Well, at least your ego’s intact,” Jay glared daggers at him. “But how do you know we don’t know?”

“You’d be trying to actually kick me out, instead of… whatever this is.” Kai was running around and through Arid, trying his hardest to force him out. Arid gave an amused chuckle at that. “You’re making great progress there Kai~!”

“I’ll show you progress-” Nya heard Kai mutter before he stopped and grumpily sat down on the table pushed to the side of the room. 

“All I’m saying is that you guys need to try to take me out better,” Arid pulled himself up the wall into a standing position. “I can just as easily kill you guys as you can kill me. Oh, that’s right!” A wide, horrifying grin split his face. “You don’t have the guts to actually kill me!”

With that, he took a deep breath and lit himself on fire. The ropes burnt away into cinders and as he brushed the flames off, he smirked at the ninja, who had pulled out weapons and powers to defend themselves. Kai, afraid of the flames’ light, vanished, presumably back into Nya’s backpack. 

“I’ll just take my leave then,” Arid brushed his gi off and made his way to the door. Zane and Lloyd blocked the way, which caused the false ninja to frown. “I said,” he lit his hand aflame, “I’ll be leaving now.”

Zane, recognizing the inherent danger, stepped back, keeping his hands still alight with ice. Lloyd, who was much less willing to step down, glared at Arid, who smirked. In a lightning-fast movement, his hand, still on fire, landed on Lloyd’s arm, burning the gi. He gasped in pain and stumbled back, grasping his arm. Everyone else gasped and Arid found multiple weapons pointed at his face. 

“Cute. You’re all still afraid of hurting me. Too bad~” Ignoring the weapons he sauntered out the door. He stopped in the doorway, looking back haughtily. “Y’know, I’ve been meaning to pay Ninjago City a visit. I think they deserve some minor punishment for making us save it every month or so. Ciao!” With that he left, leaving the room in silence.

“Cole, Jay,” Zane spoke up as soon as Arid left. “Go after him. Make sure he doesn’t get to any innocent civilians. He might really hurt them.”

“What about you?” Cole asked, watching as Nya rushed over to Lloyd to treat his arm.

“I’ll do some research on how to defeat Arid,” Zane explained, kneeling by Nya and Lloyd. “That, and I need to help out Lloyd. He is injured.”

“C’mon Cole,” Jay jerked his head to the door. “We should hurry.” Cole nodded and the two of them hurried out. 

As Nya and Zane tended to Lloyd’s wound, Kai popped out of the backpack and bit his non-existent lip. He noticed Lloyd looking up at him. “You ok?” He asked softly.

“Yea, I’m fine,” Lloyd winced as Nya wrapped his arm in bandages. “It’s not a bad wound.”

“You find anything yet, Zane?” Nya asked. The nindroid in question frowned, his eyes glowing as he accessed his internal internet. 

“Arid mentioned something called a ‘shade,’ so I tried to find anything related to both that and the circumstances that led to him and Kai swapping places,” he explained. “After some quick research, I found out that today is a rare phenomenon known as a shadow moon. It’s a rare type of full moon that has unexplained supernatural properties.”

“It’s Ninjago, there’s gotta be some sort of supernatural whatever going on every so often,” Kai scoffed but remained unheard.

“This shadow moon occurs once every few thousand years,” Zane continued. “In the happenstance of an overabundance of negative emotions, one’s shadow could gain sentience and take over the body. They’re called shades, and are highly dangerous because of their lack of a filter for negative emotions. If we don’t reverse the switch before midnight tonight, we’ll have to wait for the next shadow moon, which will be in a few thousand years.”

“Fantastic,” Nya grumbled, packing medical supplies away. “But how do we get Arid and Kai to switch places?”

“According to the single individual who managed to reverse it, you have to get the shade to say a certain phrase in a long-dead language. Kai,” said shadow blinked at Zane’s call, “did Arid say something before the switch occurred that might have triggered it?”

“Yea, something about omnis ignis ab whatever,” Kai muttered. “Something Latin, I think.”

“Do you remember all of it?” Zane frowned. “Any little bit helps.”

Kai thought back to last night. Strangely enough, he felt as if he could remember the whole phrase without much issue. “Yea, I remember all of it. No idea how, but I do.”

“Then all we need to do is get Arid to say it?” Lloyd asked hopefully.

“Not all of it,” Kai put a hand on his chin. “I think I only need him to say the first part. I only said that, and he just finished it off with the other two phrases.”

“What time is it now?” Nya asked Zane. 

“It’s nearing 6,” the nindroid frowned. “We should hurry and catch up with Cole and Jay. If Arid is out there, we need to stop him before midnight strikes. Lloyd, can you fight?” 

Lloyd nodded and he and Zane left. Lloyd lingered in the doorway. “You two coming?”

“Give me a minute, we’ll catch up,” Nya stood up, brushing off her gi. Lloyd nodded and ran after Zane. Nya sighed and turned to Kai, who was about ready to go back into the backpack. “Can I ask you something, Kai?”

Kai hesitated, looking to the side nervously. “What’s up?”

“Zane said that shades are manifestations of all your negative thoughts and desires. All those things that Arid said back then-” she bit her lip “-were they all your thoughts?”

A heavy pause lingered between them. Nya kept her gaze on Kai in case he answered, but he was silent, the lights acting as his eyes flickering. “...They were,” he admitted.

“Do you really keep all that pent up inside you?” Nya breathed.

“I don’t want to hurt you guys with what my fleeting thoughts say,” Kai scrunched his eyes tight, not wanting to see his sister. “I had them before but I know they’re bad, but now… now they’re all out in the open, and I don’t know what to do.” He fell silent again before sighing. “I’m sorry.” With that he went behind Nya and hid inside her backpack. He felt her stiffen slightly as he curled up into himself and grieved.