Reconciled hearts: a season9(Lloyrumi story)

Chapter 186: Tha Bars Between Us

Slowly but surely, little Rumi's eyes opened, a painful adjustment to the darkness around her. Her back ached on the cold hard floor beneath her, and she was suddenly aware it was rough, rusted metal. Fear started to consume Rumi as her young, sharp eyes picked up identical bars in a circular pattern around her, still unaware of a moving shadow.
She quickly jumped up towards the bars of the cage, trying to pry them open, even sticking her small arm through the bar to get them open from the other side. Strangely, as she moved, the floor below her did too. She slowly steadied herself, and looked down through the bars, and saw a dirty gray floor some twenty feet below. She looked up, and saw a long silver chain suspending her cage halfway between the ceiling and the floor. Then, the corner of her eye caught a sliver of motion to her bottom right: before she could pinpoint what it was, the door slammed loudly, and she jumped, still holding the bars.
Zephyr sauntered towards her, and she started shaking them more frantically, but he easily sent a shock wave towards her; as it caught on to the metal and electrocuted her, Rumi fell weakly backwards.
"What do you want with me?" she asked in a small voice, not even sure if he could hear her from this far up.
Zephyr laughed, levitating to match the cage height.
"My friends are gonna come for you," she snarled as best as she could. "And when they do, it'll be over!"
"Oh yeah? And when is that?" he laughed again, pointing his staff yet again towards her, enjoying the sight of her curling into a ball on the floor of the cage. "Where are they now?"
She shut her eyes tight, trying to escape the moment, not seeing the ghostly blue orb floating around her body, the little hills of hope crumbling.

Garmadon was running on the rooftops, looking for the girl he considered a daughter. He was alone, split from the others, who were searching other parts of the city. As he neared an old warehouse, he was suddenly aware of familiar voices below him. He stopped abruptly, jumping onto the side wall, by a window. As he looked at the goons below him, he thought he finally had a lead.
Smashing through the window, he landed smoothly on the floor, knowing he didn't have much time. The shouts of the guards instantly began coming closer, though as he had landed on the second floor, it should buy him some time.
He looked up to see little Rumi in a hanging cage many feet above him. Harumi looked down at him, as she had heard the glass shatter, but she made no move towards him. Garmadon sent a burst of purple flame towards the chain, and it snapped cleanly. The cage went falling down, and Harumi screamed, but he slowed the fall, creating a purple bubble beneath.
Running towards her, he broke the cage door off its hinges, and held out his arms. Rumi didn't move.
"Oh, come ON! We don't have time for this!" he sighed despairingly, hearing more voices coming towards them. He was starting to get worried now.
Finally, after a few solid seconds of no response, he grabbed Harumi's arm, and she whimpered at the cold, hard grasp. Garmadon relaxed his grip a little, and ran, taking her with him.
As they burst through the back exit, Garmadon looked behind him, measuring the distance between them and the goons; he knew they wouldn't make it back to the Bounty in time.
So he took Harumi to the one place he knew Zephyr would never look: Borg Tower.

Garmadon locked the door securely behind him, stuffing a wooden plank between the handles. He knew he wouldn't have to worry about visitors --- it had been abandoned since Zephyr's invasion. He instinctively went to his old room, remembering the days he had looked out of the single window, as the (temporary) ruler of Ninjago.
He set little Rumi down on the dusty mattress, looking out of that very window, at the dark night sky, half-looking to see if he could spot the others below.
Slowly he turned to the child.
"Um...do you...would you prefer to sleep alone?" he asked awkwardly. "Or your...old room?"
There was no response from the small, pale face before him.
"Okay...then, I'll just...take you back there..."
He guided Harumi to her old room, and dropped her off, turning to face her at the door.
"I'm right down the hall if you need me."
He closed the door gently behind him, and the vertical crack of silver moonlight on Rumi's left eye disappeared.

Rumi fell into a fitful sleep; she was in the middle of a terrible nightmare. All around her, in the pitch blackness of her mind, Zephyr, a familiar Oni, and multiple villains swirled around her. As she tried to move, her feet were chained to the ground, the ends disappearing into the earth like roots of a poisonous tree.
Suddenly, they came free, but before she could run, Zackery grabbed her leg, pulling her down, and her body sank into the cracked floor.
Harumi woke up sweating. At that moment, she didn't care if there were scratches on her arms and legs, side effects of how much she had tossed and turned during the nightmare. She immediately climbed out of bed and ran into the hallway, sobbing.
Eventually, the darkness misled her. She ended up in an unfamiliar place in the tower, and she jumped when she heard whispers around her.
She whimpered as she heard the spooky voice, seeming as though it were right next to her ear, echoing through the black halls.
She starts to hyperventilate, on the verge of tears, and goes into a ball, her only defense mechanism, like a possum or a mouse. As she heard footsteps she curled farther into a ball...

In her panic, Harumi didn't realize she was being picked up and was now in the air.
Rumi sobbed quietly.
She heard someone shushing and rocking her, moving her back to safety. Harumi was shaking and crying as she felt someone sit her down on a soft surface and start to bandage the injuries she caused herself. Although she was still shaking, Harumi managed to calm herself down a little bit, and she felt herself get placed under some covers, and then slowly after a while, drift off to sleep. Her last realization before falling away to dreamland: it was Garmadon standing over her, softly stroking her head.

{A/N: HIIII GUYSSS I'm finally back after like a month, sorry about that. I have been REALLY busy and haven't had the chance to write so Jade has been covering for me (thanks so much for that, btw). I've recently found out about the last Crystallized episodes and I can't believe what happened! O-O (won't spoil since I know some people haven't watched it). I wish Ninjago could go on forever because we all love it so much, but I guess all good things come to an end eventually. Take care y'all. ~Ash}