Avatar/Ninjago: The Legend of Lloyd

Chapter 3: Never Fight Alone

"Kai?" The guard asks, making sure the young man is following the conversation. Kai raises his head to meet the man's eyes. They're full of pity, as they have been for a while now.

"Kai, I know it is difficult to receive so much bad news at once, but you know the Fire Lord. Someone's got to take your father's place in the war, and who better than his own son?" the guard smiles, in an attempt to raise Kai's spirits.

After hearing that your father died in a war, the last thing you want to hear is that you have just been drafted to fight in that same war, where, probably, you will also die.

"Come on, son, cheer up! Maybe the Avatar will show up and save us all!" the guard laughs. It figures he'd start cracking bad jokes as soon as he realized being comforting wasn't getting him anywhere. Although Kai would prefer the Avatar returning to the war dragging out any longer, the Avatar is the last thing he wants to discuss right now.

The guard gives Kai a pat on the shoulder, and straightens.

"Just know that you have my support. Your father was a great man and a very good friend of mine."

Was.

That word again. Kai supposes he should get used to hearing it, every time he thinks about his dad. The young man barely registers the guard's departure. All he can think about is the one person in the world who will be more devastated by this news than himself: Nya.

Returning to the house, Kai opens the door to his sister's room and finds her sitting on the edge of her bed, a box in her lap. He approaches her and realizes that the box contains a beautiful gold bracelet encrusted with a huge ruby​. Beside it now rests a falcon feather that had once adorned their father's helmet.

Looking at the objects, Kai is stupefied by the memories they hold- the only things that tell them anything about their parents- until he notices his sister's sobs. He sits down next to her and pulls her into a hug. Nya curls up and rests her face on her older brother's chest. Kai thinks about how much she means to him, and is struck by the realization that she is all he has left.

"We'll get through this." He tells her gently. Nya sobs and clings to him tighter. Kai cups her face in his hands.

"Stop lying to me, Kai." She says.

"What do you-"

"I heard you talking to the guard." Kai's eye go wide as saucers, "You're going away, too!"

"Nya, you know that I wouldn't be going if it weren't mandatory."

"I know there's nothing you can do about it, but you could have told me. I'm tired of everyone hiding things from me for 'my own good'."

"I was going to tell you-" Kai replies. The truth is that he had planned to avoid the issue until about three days before he was scheduled to leave with the fleets.

Nya frowns. Kai can't believe he's not going to see her anymore. Who will he argue with now?

"Nya," He says. She fixes her burgundy eyes on him. Kai pauses for a beat, until he is sure there is only one thing he can say now.

"I love you."

Nya smiles with tears in her eyes. She sets the box on her comforter and embraces him.

"I love you too," She murmurs near his ear, her breath tickling him a little. Kai thinks that there is no other person on the face of the Earth capable of dragging a smile out of him, only his sister. He looks over at the abandoned box and the objects inside it. Kai makes himself a promise.

Whatever it takes, I'll come back to her. Even if I have to win this war myself to do it.

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