Braced Myself For the Good-bye
Ninbigo 2022 Round 2 prompt: Grief.
I think I’ve now got a Bingo? I’m not that sure?
Title is from Mine by Taylor Swift.
xxx are line-breaks.
Kai sacrifices himself to save not only Lloyd, the rest of the Ninja and the Samurais but the entirety of Ninjago.
This time, they’re certain that he’s not going to come back. This time is different from how it was with Zane’s death, from how it was with Nya’s merging with the sea. This can’t be undone.
When the battle is over and done, they head out into the (once again) ruined streets of New Ninjago City to retrieve Kai’s body.
This time it’s different because they have his body. They have a body to bury.
All of them are exhausted from the battle but they can’t rest yet, not until they have dealt with Kai’s body.
xxx
What hurts the most for Nya is that she can’t even light a candle to commemorate her brother. Not yet, at least.
The small flicker of a flame from the candle reminds her too much of her brother.
The decorative candle that she would’ve lit in this kind of situation, had it been anyone else, remains in its box in the back of her closet.
The Samurai goes to get it out many times but never gets as far as actually lighting it. It goes back into the box not long after she’d taken it out.
Many months later, the annual Bonfire Night has rolled around again and the Mayor personally requests their presence at the event. Nya can’t avoid fire any longer.
However, that night she and Cole are the ones to light the main bonfire in the center of New Ninjago City.
xxx
A year later during training, Nya goes to launch water at Jay. It’s mostly muscle memory, forgetting that she lost her powers well over a year ago.
Instead of the familiar sight of water hurtling at her fiancé, a fireball launches itself from her outstretched palm.
What?
Jay just barely dodges out of the way in time. The Master of Lightning is just as confused and surprised as she is.
“Was — was that fire?” he questions.
“It shouldn’t be possible but yes,” Nya agrees.
There was only one way to be sure. The Samurai opens her hands, palms to the sky. Nya tries to call forth the power again.
It feels so different from how her Water felt; It is quicker to react to her call than her Water had been.
Flames burst to life on her open palms.
Her gray eyes meet Jay’s blue ones.
“We need to go ask Master Wu about this,” Nya says.
The couple leaves the courtyard to find the aging Master. They find the man in the library (of course).
“Master Wu, what happens to somebody’s Elemental Powers after they die?” The Samurai asks as the pair step into the library.
“The Element would either return to it’s previous Master or the closest Elemental Master of the same generation,” Wu says, not looking up from the scroll that he’s holding.
Nya crosses the room. When she gets closer to him, she opens her hand and ignites a flame.
The flicker catches Wu’s eye.
“I see that Fire has taken the latter alternative,” the Master says, decidedly.
“Why did I get the Fire when Dad is still alive?” The Samurai asks.
“I am not sure of that,”
“It could be because you don’t have your Water powers anymore?” Jay proposes the idea.
That’s…not actually that bad of an idea?
xxx
A year after Aspeera took her powers to reduce her back to human form, Nya has powers again. Only this time, it’s Fire instead of Water.
She had been presented with the choice: continue as Samurai X or take up the place of the Fire Ninja.
In the end, fate ended up making the choice for her.
“I haven’t worn red in a very long time, let alone a red Gi,” she said to Jay as they were changing into the Gi and armor before a mission.
Nya’s new Gi was purposefully nothing like Kai’s. Her brother’s was put away in storage with the rest of his stuff.
“You do look good in it, though,” Jay says, smiling at her.
“Thanks,” She too is smiling now.
Before either of them can say anymore, Lloyd sticks his head into the room.
“Come on you two, everyone else is ready to go,” he tells them before leaving.
This will be the first mission the Nya is going on that she will have Fire powers for. She’s not sure what to feel about that.
