Shifting Sands (Ninjago AU)

Chapter 10- Painful and Pronounced Realizations

A hammer to the skull would have been kinder than the headache that greeted Kai as awareness trickled in. Groaning Kai let his head loll to the side. The pain increased exponentially and Kai stopped. 'Whaaa?' It hurt too much to think. And, now that he had some level of consciousness to notice, it hurt to breathe.

Content to lay where he was, Kai tried to pull together the garbled thoughts and images running through his mind, not at all helped by the vivid dream, well memory, playing in the corners of his brain. Why did he hurt so much? Kai took mental stock of what else hurt. Besides his head and ribs his face also throbbed in time with something in his back. Using what felt like a superhuman effort, Kai cracked his eyes open.

For a terrifying moment Kai wondered if he had gone blind. After a few frantic blinks Kai's eyes began to adjust to the darkness around him. Stone walls slowly came into view, and dim shadows along the floor of crisscrossing bars. Anxiety slammed into Kai. Ignoring his pounding head and torso, Kai struggled upward.

Cold metal bit into his ankles and wrists. The rattle of chains that accompanied the effort confirmed Kai's fears. He looked down to see dull gray shackles connected to each other by a short length of chain. On reflex he jerked his wrists, but the metal only dug further into his flesh. 'No! No, no, no, no!'

Memories from- how long ago had it been? Kai had no way of telling how long he'd been unconscious- assaulted his mind. The princess, Captain Pyth... his guards. Kai's already shallow breaths came in gasps.

He'd been arrested.

Though fuzzier than his other memories, Kai remembered being hauled to the palace. There he'd been led to the dungeon away from the princess. Then the guards... the numerous bruises scattered across his body all flared in agony. So much for the princess's order to leave him alone.

Kai slumped against the wall, the burst of adrenaline overwhelmed by sheer exhaustion and pain. Trailing the room with his eyes Kai could make out a barred door, more of a gate, across from him. A narrow window sat high on the wall above his head. The only light came from flickering torches down the hall.

A skittering sound came from the corner. Kai suppressed a shiver. Just because the guards called him a street rat did not mean he affiliated himself with the real ones. He tugged again at the chains, with no results.

Kai blinked back the sudden prickling in his eyes. 'Nya, Cade... are they okay? And if I'm gone-' Kai shuddered at that thought. He was their main provider. Not that they didn't have street smarts, but Kai did everything he could to keep them out of the guards' way... If Kai's head wasn't still pounding he would have slammed it against the wall in frustration.

'But it was inevitable. The guards were going to catch up at some point.' The thought did nothing to help the nausea churning in Kai's stomach. He took a couple deep breaths, wincing as his ribs cried out in protest, and tried to settle his thoughts. Easier said than done, especially since he still had no idea if Cade and Nya were okay.

"Kai!"

Oh great. Now he was hallucinating Cade's voice. The guards must have clocked him harder than he originally thought.

"Kai!" His name came again, louder and more insistent this time.

Kai huffed a sigh. Even in his head Cade was still obnoxious.

"I know you're awake now! Will you answer me already?"

Now that didn't sound like something a hallucination would say- not that Kai could admit to having auditory hallucinations before. Maybe this was how they worked.