Ninjago: Reforged Fate

The early morning light filtered softly through the thin paper walls of the Monastery of Spinjitzu. A cool breeze carried the faint scent of jasmine and the crisp bite of mountain air. On the center stone of the training courtyard, Kale was wobbling precariously on the tip of a pebble barely larger than a coin. Across his shoulders rested a pole, with two iron buckets of water dangling from each end. His arms were stiff. His ankles screamed. His back ached in a language only the stubborn understood.

And Master Wu sat beneath the archway of the hall's entrance, sipping tea and reading from a timeworn scroll. His beard swayed gently with the wind, and his eyes, though cast downward, glinted with quiet awareness. "It seems," Wu said, voice calm and measured, "that our meeting… was destiny at work."

Kale, sweat beading down his brow, took the opening with the grace of a falling rock. "If it's destiny we're talking about, then maybe destiny can explain that I had nothing to do with the training dummies exploding. I mean—technically—"

"You disobeyed," Wu cut in, gently folding the scroll and resting it on his lap. "You acted without caution. You explored something powerful without waiting for guidance." Kale grimaced as he teetered sideways but just barely corrected his balance. "The punishment," Wu continued, stroking his beard thoughtfully, "is not for breaking equipment… but for breaking patience."

The old master stood, pacing slowly. "Patience, young one, is not idleness. It is the art of trusting the right moment. The storm moves not because it must, but because the wind knows when to push."

At that moment, footsteps echoed from the hallway. Kale peeked around the corner of his bucket. A boy with wild fire-colored hair, a red gi, and the most confused expression on the continent stepped into the courtyard. Kai. He looked from Wu to Kale, to the buckets, to the pebble, then back to Kale. "Uh… did I walk into the right place? This doesn't look like a spa."

Kale, still wobbling, smiled. "Welcome to the Monastery. I'm Kale. I'd shake your hand, but I'm busy defying gravity."

Kai blinked. "I'm Kai."

Wu turned toward the fire ninja. "You're just in time. Follow me. You'll begin your training immediately."

"But I just got—" Kai started.

"Now," Wu said, and the tone in his voice was final. Kai gave Kale one last baffled look before following Wu. Kale chuckled under his breath. At least I'm not the only one thrown into the deep end anymore. As their footsteps faded, Kale lowered his buckets and stepped down from the pebble. His legs were jelly, but his mind was swirling, not just with Wu's words, but with the memory of how he'd fixed the broken equipment.

"Might as well give it a try," Kale thought as He bent over the broken gears, tubes, and fractured framework, and something inside him had just clicked. His hands moved on their own. He knew the torque angles. He understood the gear alignments. Every bolt he turned felt right. He remembered engineering, but he wasn't supposed to.

The multiversal being had told him that his memories would be wiped clean. All knowledge, gone. Only his personality and knowledge of Ninjago would remain. That had been the deal. So, where had this come from? Was it an error? Did they lie to me? Or is something waking up in me something I wasn't meant to remember?

He looked down at his hands. "Who… am I really?" he said more speculatively and emotionally than intended.

{Nightfall}

Kale stood in the courtyard under a blanket of stars, the fixed training dummies silently turning in the moonlight. He spotted Master Wu sitting nearby, sipping tea. Without a word, Kale approached and reached for the teapot.

Smack!

Wu's staff struck his hand with a startling crack. "Pouring tea," Wu said serenely, "is an art."

Kale stepped back, rubbing his hand, as Wu demonstrated. Steam curled from the spout in smooth spirals. The tea flowed like a waterfall into the cups, perfect, not a drop wasted.

Kale watched in silence. Wu handed him a cup. They both sat. The only sound was the wind and the soft clinking of ceramic. "You're quiet tonight," Wu said after a long pause.

"I feel weird," Kale admitted. "Like… like I was handed a question with no answer."

He sipped his tea. "Who am I, Master Wu? Why do I know things I shouldn't? It's like I don't exist in the past, and now I'm not even sure if I belong in the present."

He didn't expect an answer. And Wu didn't offer one immediately. But then, softly: "You are who you choose to be, Kale," Wu said, his voice like steady water in a storm. "Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today."

Kale looked down into his cup, the reflection of the stars shimmering on the tea's surface. Wu stood, his robe rustling like dry leaves. "Drink. Rest. The answers will come when the time is right."

He walked away into the shadows. Kale sat a while longer, the tea warming his hands. "Who I choose to be, huh…" He sighed, finished the drink, and stood. "Then I choose to be useful."

{The next morning}

Splash.

"AGH! WHAT THE—" Kai sat bolt upright, soaked to the bone. Water dripped from his hair as he stared at Kale, who stood over him with a metal bucket and a calm expression. Kale gave him a polite nod.

"Get up. You have ten minutes to dress. You're training with me today."

Kai looked around, bewildered. "But Wu said—"

"Wu told me I'm training you," Kale interrupted, setting the bucket down. "He's watching. From a distance. So I'm teaching you my way."

Kai narrowed his eyes. "What if I don't?"

Kale smiled faintly. "Then I make you run up and down this mountain a hundred times."

Kai's jaw dropped. "You're joking."

"One second late, and we both find out if I am."

Kale turned and walked out. Kai groaned, flopped back down for half a second, but the cold bed sheet hit him with another wave of cold. He then jumped up in a panic to get dressed. As he was hurrying to get ready, his mind was busied with a thought, 'What the hell did I sign up for?'