Airis

Wyldfyre wakes up for no reason. 

Heatwave is still healing. His breathing is less strained than before, and his wound is looking much better after Kai’s stupid, begrudgingly-cool rock trick. 

Speaking of Kai, he’s awake, sitting, watching the dragon core glow. It illuminates his face in the dark like a fire, but without the cool flickering. It’s steady and uncomfortable, artificial, not a natural living, breathing thing like fire is. 

“Kai?” She rubs her eyes with her wrist until she sees sparks and colours behind her eyes and then squints when he doesn’t respond. It’s weird that he’s awake. Weirder still that he didn’t respond to her. Maybe she missed it. 

”Kai?” she tries again.

When he doesn’t respond the second time either. She feels a bit grouchy. Offended. Annoyed. She knows he’s awake, she can see the light from the dragon cores reflecting off the eye, almost white. She stands, giving him the courtesy of grunting and grumbling so he knows she’s awake and annoyed. She gives heatwave a pat and he responds with a low grumbling of acknowledgement back. At least someone isn’t ignoring her. 

“Kai.” She says. Nothing still. So she speaks louder and with more growl. “Hey. Kai—“ 

It happens so fast she doesn’t see it.

One second he’s looking at the dragon core and the next his head has snapped to look at her, but it’s not Kai; His eyes are white. 

His name catches in her throat. They’re empty. They’re too-wide. There’s no hint of pupils or anything else. There was no hint of feeling or a dragon—person. The hairs on the back of her arms, her back, her neck all stand on end. 

Then he blinks, and it’s gone. 

“Sorry,” says just Kai.” Were you saying something?” 

Wyldfyre doesn’t know when her arms came up, posed, ready to fight. 

Wylfyre was very awake now. 

“Wyldfyre?” 

“You were just…” She hears herself. Unsure, feeble. Very not-dragon. Kai’s looking at her. He looks like Kai. His eyes are brown with that warmth she’s gotten so used to seeing coming from them. He looks stupid. His hair is fluffy and soft. He looks soft. There’s no sign of what she had been so sure had been staring at her a moment before. It was so brief she couldn’t even be sure she had seen it. 

“Nevermind.” Wyldfyre forces her hands down and clenches them at her side. “I’m probably just sleepy,” is what she tells him, to make sure he knows she’s still more dragon-ish than him. “Why are you awake like a weirdo?” 

“Oh, hah,” Kai says. “Just thinking.” 

She’s squinting at him. “You do that?”

When Kai smiles. And it’s annoying, warm and soft. “Sometimes.” 

“Gross,” she says, crossing her arms. 

“It’s quiet here,” Kai says. It’s out-of-pocket. It’s not really relevant. When he says it, he sounds different.

”Whatever,” Wyldfyre says, turning away. “I’m going back to sleep.” 

“Okay,” Kai says to her back as she goes. “G’night.” 

Heatwave rumbles as Wyldfyre crawls under his arm. She pretends to get comfy and risks a glance back. 

Kai from Monstrosity ends up in the past! Like, waaaay in the past. As in before Lloyd ever even meets the other ninja (but after he leaves the school). Kai accidentally ends up taking him in.

He spends most of the time unintentionally building himself a cryptid status, with a bit of vigilantism and eliminating old issues before they become problems (ie. Nadakhan, Harumi, the Great Devourer, etc.). He wants to keep his younger self and family safe and innocent.

In this AU, Lloyd doesn't grow up too fast and Kai teaches him to control his powers.

Cosmetic differences: Kai is literally in black and white, because I think it's cool as hell. The land of monsters holds on to him even decades in the past. Most people don't notice he's devoid of colour unless he removes his hat and mask. His eyes are completely white (like the ninja turtles), but sometimes he can make them more human looking, with a pupil and whatnot, except his iris remains white (with a dark ring)!

Lloyd's eyes stay red (rather than becoming green like they do in most headcanon's I've seen), and his oni/dragon traits show more gradually, naturally, and earlier than they do in canon (probably because subconsciously he feels safer to be himself around Kai).

Kai is the ultimate big brother/dad, even when he's going through some things. Because, believe me, he is NOT okay.