Promises (Ninjago's Kai x Reader)

Episode 10 - Back to the Future

My eyes fly open and I gulp in a deep breath of air, sitting up abruptly.

"Tasha!" Kai shouts, wrapping his arms around my shoulders protectively.

I breathe heavily for a few moments in an attempt to regain my composure. My heart hammered in my chest, the new version of my memory still in the forefront of my mind. I swallowed hard, turning to look into Kai's worried eyes.

"What happened?" I finally ask.

"Well, what's the last thing you remember?"

I turn away from him, staring intently at the wall across from me. "I remember a bonfire. We were joking and having fun, having just set the timeline back on track. I remember my head hurting, like my skull was being torn apart."

"After that you passed out. Tasha, it was so scary," Kai hugs me tight to his chest again. "Your screams were so horrible, like you were being tortured, and there was nothing I could do to help you."

His voice wavers, and when I look back up at him, I see tears pooling in his eyes. My heart practically breaks at the sight. I press my lips against his, hoping that it will help to relieve his pain. He kisses me back desperately, and when we pull apart, he buries his face into my neck. I return the embrace, stroking the hair at the nape of his neck.

"I'm alright, Kai," I say after a few moments.

"But you weren't all right. You were out for three days! We didn't know what to do, or if you'd wake up--"

I shut him up with a kiss.

"Three days?" I ask trying and failing to hide my urgency. Kai simply nods. "That means today is..."

"Yeah. The day your father disappeared through the portal."

My heart sinks as my altered memory haunts my thoughts.

"Has my father done anything else to change the past?" I ask, climbing off his lap.

"No, I don't think so," Kai replies. He stands up, moving next to me. He takes my hand and stares deeply into my eyes. "Tash, what happened to you?"

I shake my head, looking down at our interlocked fingers. "My memory was being changed."

"What do you mean?"

My eyes meet his once again. "My father did do something, something that altered my memory. That's why my head was hurting so bad, that's why I passed out."

"What did he change? What's different?" Kai asks, searching my eyes.

"After I took Nya, my father and I had a conversation. To put it simply, he yelled at me for taking her. Except, he didn't. The memory was changed and he never yelled at me, he never got the chance. My father--the one from our present time--interrupted us. He came and told the Shadow version of my Dad about what our future will become. He explained to him how he traveled back in time to prevent Lloyd from becoming the Green Ninja. He told him of our attempt to thwart his plans. He asked him for help in stopping us." I shake my head, swallowing hard. "Kai, they're going to do something, something to permanently change the future. I don't know what, they kicked me out of the room and wouldn't tell me their plan."

Kai pulls me into a tight hug. "We'll stop them. We'll figure out what they're plotting and make sure it doesn't happen."

I nod pulling away from the hug. Taking a deep breath, I calm myself down and look around the room. It's familiar, very familiar, but at the same time, I've never been here before.

"Where are we?" I ask.

"The monastery," Kai replies. "My old bedroom."

"What about past you?"