Reconciled hearts: a season9(Lloyrumi story)

Chapter 175: Earthquake

Jade yelled. It was a high, raging, primal sound that could shake Harumi to the core, and it did.
And as she opened her eyes underwater, no matter how much they burned and stung and made her want to close them and never open them again, Harumi saw that she and the Clone were actually sinking quite slowly. Nonetheless, the cold sank into her bones.

Trying to wiggle around, to face the Clone, she started moving. A lot.

"Oi! Quit it, will you?" the Clone whispered. "The more you move, the more we sink."
Harumi opened her mouth to ask how they weren't sunk already, but the Clone was faster.
"It's because I'm hollow, okay?"
Her dejected voice made Harumi drop the subject.
"Just because you're not human doesn't mean you can't learn to be," Harumi said quietly. "And we trust you."

Above them, Jade wrestled away from Ava and Matias, pushing them roughly aside. Deftly removing a ready lasso from her satchel, she threw it towards Harumi and Clone Harumi. To everyone's surprise, it looped tightly around the pair.
With a new sense of rising hope, they let themselves be pulled one heave at a time, away from the piranhas, into the arms of a frightened Resistance.
Harumi was thankful for her life. The warmth of normal air was a sharp contrast to the freezing water, though, and she shivered violently, along with the Clone, lying on the hard stone by the edge.
"Oh, come ON!" Zephyr screamed. "How hard can it be to get rid of a couple brats?!"

Jade glared fiercely, a scathing look that sent fire his way. It disappeared when she turned to see Lilla coming toward them, holding a bruised and bloody nose, while Kaitlynn went to the other cages.
Jade stared. "Ah...I hit you with Greta, didn't I?"
Lilla nodded, wincing. "That's one strong baseball bat you've got there."

Harumi looked back and forth between Zephyr and the Resistance. Of course he was preoccupied with them, too much to notice that the others were being freed.

Let's keep it that way and buy her some time, Harumi thought silently.

"Jade, get the blankets," Lilla whispered. "These two are frozen to the bone."

"Guess we'll have another murder attempt on our hands," Zephyr mumbled, groaning at the sky. "Just too busy these days..."

"You won't lay a hand on her, as long as we're here," Lilla hissed, and Harumi gazed at her in surprise, not knowing her to be an angry person. "She will always have someone looking out for her."
"Right, of course," he mused with a derogatory tone. "And she was supported during her nightmares? Or when all the ninja were turned to zombies?"
"She was fine before you came along," Jade growled, running at him.

Stunned and unsure what to do, Zephyr froze. Jade made a grab for his long, billowing cape, ripping it firmly off.

"H-Hey! Get back here! You!" he yelled after her, as she sprinted away. "After her!" he said to Ava and Matias, as they followed him behind Jade.
Taking advantage of their momentary abandonment, Kaitlynn finished freeing the rest of the Resistance. She had even found the key to the vengestone cuffs lying hidden behind a pillar, and Lloyd, Garmadon, Opal, Mirage, and Mystaké rubbed their wrists as they came off.

Meanwhile, the two were still shivering.
"Okay, that's enough, you guys need to head back to the Bounty to warm up," Lilla told Harumi.
"Uhm, no way, I need to be here," Harumi told her flatly.

"Harumi, it's time you accept the help we've been trying to give you," Kaitlynn said gently, for once.
"I don't need your help and I'll prove it!" Harumi shouted instinctively, and Kaitlynn recoiled from the sting of her words.

They heard panting nearby, slowly drawing closer. Jade's face appeared at the top of the stairs, and she just barely made it to them, sinking down to her knees.

"They're...coming...back..." she gasped. "I couldn't hold them off much longer. I'm sorry."
The girls heard yelling from down the stairs, getting louder. The villains were back.

"Harumi, you need to go," Lloyd pleaded, but even those emerald eyes couldn't shake her this time.
"Young Harumi, you will fall ill if you stay in those clothes," Mystaké tried to reason, to no avail.
"It doesn't matter if I'm sick as long as you all aren't," Harumi said weakly, her head drooping.
"Harumi, that's enough, we need to go," the Clone turned to her. "You're a human, and I'm not, so you got the worse part of it."

They continued to argue, unaware of the spellcasters' heads emerging. As the rest of the Resistance drew their weapons, Kaitlynn, Jade, and Lilla tried to get the attention of both Harumis. And finally, they noticed.

Slowly turning to face Zephyr, Harumi forced herself off the ground. She wobbled a bit, then dragged the Clone up to her feet, and the others steadied them. They all faced the ones they hated the most.
It hurt them all to look into the empty, void faces of the ninja, turned to the dark side, but it was their ultimate goal to restore the balance and bring them back to the Resistance.

As the warriors charged, and the spellcasters' books flew open, the ground shook beneath them, and so did their hearts, heavy with the fear and the fight.

(A/N: HELOOO peeps :) It's Ash here again and we're almost to Chapter 200! Jade's probably doing great with the stop motion, and summer is coming to an end for me. Are you guys ready to get off break?)