To Defeat Your Enemy

Interlude

They didn't tell Aki where they hid the Megaweapon- which, to be fair, Aki didn't want to know anyway- but it wasn't like he was going to steal it. One near-death experience with that thing was enough for him.

He stared over the edge of the ship at the moon's reflection, broken by the waves in the shimmering water far below him. The sounds of the ocean crashing against the rocks filled the silence, a constant quiet ambience to the darkness of the night.

But it wasn't the only sound.

Aki stepped away from the wooden parapet, turning his attention to the muffled sounds of quiet sobs. His eyes illuminated the way just enough for him to see as he cautiously made his way to the room at the end of the hallway.

...Nya's room?

He stepped closer to the door, listening intently.

"It's just- I-" he heard Nya break off into sobs again- it was his fault she was crying, he realised. His fault Kai was dead.

...who was she talking to?

"I know."

Jay. She was talking to Jay.

There was a moment's silence as Aki stood outside the door, eavesdropping as Nya's sobs grew quieter.

"It's just... every time I see him, and his stupid-" Nya took a loud, shaky breath, "I think- for a second I think he's Kai."

Oh.

Aki stepped back from the door.

He tried to ignore the guilt.

(It didn't work.)

Was he really so similar to the real Kai? He was a clone, sure, but he- for some reason he thought he was...

He thought he could be someone, maybe. Someone different from his original.

Whatever. It didn't matter.

Aki turned silently away from the room, tracing the smooth, wooden walls of the ship with trembling hands. The glint of moonlight on the edge of a mirror caught his attention from the sliver of an opening of a door that was not quite closed. He winced at the sound of wood creaking as he pried it open the rest of the way, stepping into the empty bathroom.

Cool air blew against his face from an open window to his left- the source of the light on the mirror. Aki stood in front of it, staring at his reflection in the darkness. The dim glow of his fiery red eyes in the shadows created the illusion of blood, staining his face and his hair and his hands with crimson. He really did look evil like this- the mirror image of a dead hero.

Was that who he wanted to be?

Garmadon created him for evil- but Garmadon betrayed him.

He stared at his reflection for a moment longer. The last time he was face to face with himself like this was the day Garmadon created him- the day Kai died. The day he killed Kai, he reminded himself.

This wasn't who Aki wanted to be.

He stepped back from the mirror. His hand collided with an empty tube of hair gel, knocking it off the edge of the sink before he caught it smoothly in his other hand.

Kai used a ton of hair gel, Aki knew- he was guilty of doing just the same. He raised a hand to his hair, sticking up in neat, artificial spikes.

That was something he could change, at least.

-X-

Cole rubbed his eyes and stepped into the sunlight with a yawn. The deck of the Bounty creaked comfortingly under his feet as he stepped out onto the deck of the Destiny's Bounty. He opened his eyes, studying the subtle details in the light on the wood planks and- wait, was that Aki?