TW: we have some violence and blood!

I am so excited for this chapter, I've waited a long time for this!

I made a playlist for this chapter (it's nothing special but I thought it would be cool to try):
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/49XTWVBGTydcjbowFxSVAD?si=FmEYaWB_QMmiHSKq2ugnrw
(I put the link in the comments)

---- Recap: ----

Like Neuro said, Wu was actually very understanding. And she had a date with Neuro for that evening, to go around town.

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

Even after her misadventure blowing up at Wu, Kylie thought this was the first time she had felt this happy in a long time.

Uncle and niece had just gone ice skating, and were now going to go stargazing. They drove to the outskirts of the city, where it was dark and quiet, so many stars were visible.

They got out and sat on the car.

"I love stars," Kylie said wistfully.

"They're beautiful." Neuro said. "Oh, I need to get something, actually." He winked at her. "Be right back."

Kylie layed back on the car and let out a deep sigh, and breathed in the fresh, cool night air.

She had been soaking in the majesty of the stars, and unfortunately hadn't realized how long her uncle had been gone.

"Hey, dwarf," she heard from next to her, and then smelled something funny as everything went black...

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

"Thanks for meeting with me," Nya told Skylor as they sat at a booth in her noodle house.

"No problem." Skylor took a sip of her tea. "You start, I'm all ears."

"Ok. So this isn't really my business but it kind of is because Kai is my brother–"

"Your older brother who can make his own choices," Skylor interjected.

"Yeah, I know. I was wondering, what exactly caused you to break up? Because he has told me literally nothing so I figured that you probably wouldn't mind telling me your side. Plus, I don't want things getting tense between us, frankly you are a great ally. And don't get me wrong, a great friend too."

"Huh. Well, thanks I guess." She took another gulp of her tea. "You won't hate me if I say something bad about him?"

"Eh, probably not. I really just want to hear your side of the story."

"Alright. So I don't even think I could straight-up tell Kai this, but honestly I felt like he is not mature enough for dating, at least by my standards, and it was for all the wrong reasons. Basically."

"Yeah, I admit, Kai is probably not quite ready for a serious relationship yet."

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

"Lloyd needs you right now. You're not thinking about anyone except yourself–"

"–You're not my sensei!--"

"–You're always moping around, you're disconnected from the team–"

"–There is no team!"

"We're recovering, Kai."

"Has anyone ever broken up with you before? Like for real."

That stung a little. "It's not an excuse for acting like this."

"Since when do you care about how I act? What's gotten into you?" Kai stormed off.

Cole sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He knew he would rarely criticize his team members like that, but something about this week just felt so off, and it must've been messing with him.

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

Kylie slowly came to, head throbbing, blinking as she adjusted to the light.

Where was she??

Her hands were tied behind her back and her calves were also tied together. She struggled to sit up. She was on a cold, hard cement floor in the middle of an... empty inground lot of storage space...? Her head hurt but besides that, she was unharmed. Who the heck did this to her?

"Look, she's finally awake!" She heard from a very familiar voice behind her, and footsteps. She whipped around. It was Kai!

"Kai!" She expected him to walk over and untie her but he just walked around her in a circle, smirking. "Where are we? Untie me!"

"Don't worry, this is nothing." He laughed. Laughed.

"What?!"

He started to walk away.

"Kai?" Her mind was too hazy to make sense of anything.

Kai was now out of sight.

"Kai!" she called after him, then struggled in her bonds but they were tied tightly and wouldn't budge.

Then Zane appeared.

"Zane!" she exclaimed. "What's going on?" Can you cut this rope?"

He tilted his head to one side and stood in front of her. He looked confused. "Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm tied up? Are you seeing oka–"

"I can see that you are tied up. But that does not mean I should untie you."

"Well why wouldn't you untie me then?"

"I will not allow the rest of the team to be put in danger."

"Danger? What-"

But he was walking away.

She must be going insane.

Then Jay was there.

"Jay?"

"What." He sounded annoyed and sad.

"What happened? Please tell me!"

"What do you even mean?" he screeched at her. "I don't really want to talk about it!"

"But I don't know what happened!"

He gave her the most hate-filled glare as he turned to walk away. "Yeah, right," he scoffed.

She wanted to cry. She wanted to cry. She wanted to–

"Idiot." It was Cole.

She didn't look up, she couldn't.

"You're a disgrace. You're the worst person I've ever met!"

She hid her face and sobbed. Cole never yelled at anyone like that.

"I never want to see you ever again."

She could hear her sobs echoing in the empty lot.

"How could you betray us?" Nya. "Lloyd can't even look at you. I can't. We– he hates you."

Kylie couldn't breathe. She actually couldn't...

She didn't want to. She wanted it all to go away. She wanted to go away.

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

"Hello," Kai answered his phone.

"Hey, um, this is Neuro." Even from the other end of the phone, his voice sounded shaky.

Kai's brow furrowed. "What is it?"

"They have Kylie. And me."

"Who?" Kai stood up and gripped the back of his chair.

"They say you sh-should come to the empty warehouse on the east side of the city, if you want to see her unharmed... alone and with no weapons."

Kai was gripping his chair so hard his knuckles turned white.

There was some inaudible mumbling, and then Neuro said, "Just you. Don't tell anyone. Or else."

The line went dead. Kai cursed to himself.

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

"Good job."

Neuro scoffed.

"You aren't worried, are you?" she raised an eyebrow.

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

Obviously, Kai wasn't going to just not tell anyone.

"Cole!"

"What?" the earth ninja groaned as he looked up warily to see Kai standing in his doorway... a very tense Kai. "...What's wrong?"

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

"Sorry, let me grab this call real quick," Nya said.

"No problem." Skylor picked up their dishes and took them to the kitchen.

"Ok, see you there."

"Yup."

Skylor came back from the kitchen just as Nya hung up.

"Hey Skylor, I have to go, it's kind of an emergency, I'm really sorry–"

"What happened?"

"Kylie was kidnapped!"

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

She had been there for a long while. It felt like forever. In her own thoughts, trapped in the cage of her own mind, the fact that she was abandoned by her family torturing her. The fact that she had hurt her own family.

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

"Here's the plan," Cole explained. "Kai will go in by himself, like they think he is. Jay put a camera on him so we can see what's going on and know when we can do the thing."

"What thing exactly?" Nya asked.

"Pretty much wing it. We don't know who we're dealing with, but as long as we work together, we should all come out of this alive."

Should? everyone thought, but not even Jay said it out loud.

Kai drove, alone, to the outskirts of Ninjago city. It was dark and quiet, and many stars could be seen. The air was fresh and cool, but Kai didn't notice.

He went into the empty warehouse. There was an open side door and he went in.

He hated it; the feeling of surrender. Having no choice but to do it their way.

Their king was in check, but the chess game wasn't over... yet.

The ninja always won, right? Came out on the top?

It depended on two words.

Check mate.

⚄ ⚄ ⚄

The first thing Kai saw was Kylie, who was in a heap on the floor, shaking. Shade was standing over her darkly.

"I'm here," Kai said, holding up his arms. "What do you want?"

"I want you to know this: I'm not messing around." He sliced the blade across her arm. Blood dripped down her arm and onto her shirt. "I will hurt her worse if I have to."

Kylie felt the cut and started crying again, hugging herself tighter.

She could hear voices, but she didn't realize they were there. Sometimes when someone is so focused on one thing, they can miss what someone else said, as if they couldn't hear them at all. Kylie was like that: her mind so warped in darkness that she couldn't hear her friends at all.

She thought she had to be the worst, ugliest, dirtiest, lowest person in the world. Hurt her more for all she cared. She deserved this pain.

"Ok..." Kai took a step back and drew in a shaky breath. "What do you want?"

"What can you give me?" The blade was slowly making its way toward Kylie again.

"Don't-" Kai grimaced. "Money?"

"How much?" The blade made its contact.

There were continued muffled sobs. Kai's breaths came shorter now.

"W-whatever you want–"

"How much?" Shade shouted.

That was a stab, not a cut.

Kylie screamed.

Kai snapped. "STOP!" he screamed. Anger could keep him from crying. He gasped for breath. "You can have all our money, just stop!"

"Great." The enemy smiled. "And may I ask how much that is exactly?"

"All of it! Stop means get away from her!"

"I need numbers, idiot!"

"I said get away from her!"

"I can't do that. I know you brought reinforcements, so that's what...this is for. And...this is for you to go tell them that you'd better bring me all your money in cash, or she might not be breathing when the sun rises tomorrow."

Kai froze. He could almost feel his blood boiling. His hands were shaking, and that was a good sign.

He rushed at Shade and, sending the blade skidding across the floor, knocked him over. Shade disappeared into their shadow momentarily before kicking Kai square in the face out of absolutely nowhere.

Kai barely felt it. All he felt was red hot anger. Red hot. Red hot...

He grabbed Shade as he tried to give him another punch, and burned him. He yelped before disappearing again, but his shadow was still there. Kai shot fire at him but it didn't do any damage. They began to circle each other.

Guyyys just one more chapter and then we start season 5!!!!!!!!!