Nix regretted not going with them more than anything. It left him to wonder how dangerous the tournament really is. The dog spent his days on the bounty, mostly napping and making sure no threats were looking for them in Ninjago city.
He remembered that day vividly, when they all gathered and held their letters out to each other, Nix was present when they all made the decision to leave for spellcaster Zephyr's island. He remembered just how low he frowned when he heard Cloud would be going without him.
Ah, maybe he was thinking too much, he was asleep after all, back in Lloyd's bed as he always was for the past couple of days. No, had it been days or weeks till they were away? He cannot remember at a time like this because his routine had gotten so repetitive at this point.
Nix spent his days, bored. Mistaké and Misako didn't need much of his assistance as the women were occupied in their own interests. The ex-generals went off biking around the city, the one time Nix was invited, he found it pretty fun. Most importantly, he had gotten his hopes up when Skylor and Jay returned back early, he was anxious to hear about the stories.
However, was faced with disappointment when they weren't in the mood to talk about it and would much rather return there.
That's when he knew that his family wasn't having a fun time over by that island, hence the origin of his undying regret for not going.
He couldn't sleep anymore, he had tried to brush whatever was bugging him away as he growled and tossed and turned. It wasn't working, it wasn't going away.
His ears perked up at the nuisance and quickly made out to be loud footsteps going down below deck to where the sleeping chambers are. Nix gave an annoyed growl, still focusing on napping.
The footsteps annoyed him much rather than intimidate him, he'd wish that whoever made such noise would be quieter or at least not come straight for the room he was in. Ah but his wishes were crushed when the door to Lloyd's bedroom slid open and Nix abruptly woke up from his ruined nap.
"Seriously?" The husky readied his canines to growl at the lot.
He immediately refrained from doing so. His sulked expression quickly changed into one of surprise and understanding when he acknowledged who came inside of the room.
"Lloyd?" The puppy called at his owner in confusion.
It wasn't just him in the room alone. Whilst the green ninja leaned on the wall of his room, Nix saw that Mirage, Garmadon and Cloud, whom he smiled at when he saw her come in, accompanied him down here.
He takes a moment to sigh, letting steam go loose and mainly calming himself down from his flustered annoyance. He then speaks to the newly arrived family members of his.
"You all just came back?" He asked.
The former oni princess nodded at his question and she too, had let out a sigh.
"Yes, we have. The boat ride was excruciatingly tiring. The island was presented well but the events were a mess."
She began to explain as if Nix would understand what she was visualizing. But the puppy did try to understand.
There was something else he noticed though, as they were the last of the competitors to have made it back and he had already seen the other ninjas on deck earlier, that left him with one concern. He shot a worried glance over to Cloud, who he knew might know about the incoming topic not only that but it concerned her.
"Where's Harumi, is she not with you?"
The puppy was met with dead silence, as he had expected. He watched from the corner of his eyes as Cloud, one of the readable puppies he knew, flinched and turned away.
His suspicions rose as theories on Harumi's possible whereabouts formed in his mind.
He glanced over to Lloyd for confirmation, and he too, had given Nix the same unsettling expression.
He sighed when Garmadon raised one of his four-arms to gesture at the ceiling. "I best we take this upstairs, shall we?" He proposed the people whom he was with.
Everyone had agreed without any further remark as well and the four of them all left the room to go upstairs. The path on way to above deck was quiet, it made Nix wonder whether the news they were going to speak about was this bad.
He dreaded the minute he saw the wafting sails and a circle of resistance members all awaiting them.
Master Wu, the ex-generals, Skylor and the rest of the ninjas, they were just as curious as he was with where Harumi had gone to.
Ultra Violet sneered at the green ninja and his father, dangling one of her mini scythes loose. "So let's cut to the chase, yeah? Where in FSM's name is Harumi?" Aggravated and obnoxious as Ultra Violet always is, she immediately interrogated the father and son duo as she knew the white-haired quiet one was fond of them.
Just like Nix, Ultra Violet received silence. It caused an uproar among the resistance members as it led even more people to prompt him like the purple-dressed ex-general had done so.
"Seriously, what's going on? You can tell us." Kai said, a little alarmed, as he had recognized the conflict in his friend's eyes. He noticed how much Lloyd didn't want to keep eye contact with anyone in this circle.
Again, no one among the three answered the fire ninja's concerns. They couldn't.
"Is Harumi, okay? Lloyd..."
They didn't answer Misako's concerns either.
They didn't want to answer anybody in that case, wanting time for themselves. Lloyd had originally wanted to talk things through with the people that were there during the tournament, Garmadon and Mirage, but he did not anticipate Nix being there already.
Now here they, suddenly everybody turning into the Commissioner and interrogating them like they were wanted all over Ninjago city.
Then, one of them spoke up again. It scared Lloyd a little, knowing how much authority this one particular person had not to mention how deeply the green ninja respected him.
"Lloyd," Master Wu kept him in an eye contact that the green ninja couldn't possibly ignore. "Where is Harumi?" He asked again, this time severity in his tone. He had narrowed his eyebrows and didn't try to look away, showing him that he demanded an answer this time around.
The guilt showing in Lloyd's eyes didn't make the master back down any less, it only prompted him to insist even more as the green ninja finally put his resistance to a halt and gave in like clashing tidies at the beach. Lowering his head in defeat, he admitted to the group:
"We don't know where Harumi is."
That was,, a rather anticlimactic response given from the blonde if his teammates had to admit.
Misako was the one to confront him about this. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Son, what do you mean you don't know where she is?" She asked, unlike Master Wu, she asked a little softer.
The blonde was ashamed to look at his own mother, knowing that he failed his entire group already by not bringing Harumi back home safely.
He took a deep breath and continued on with his explanations. "She disappeared not too long after the last event, we quickly noticed she wasn't on the boat with us when the tournament ended." He said sadly. He wished he could've noticed sooner, now he knew his lover was in danger because of his lack of attention.
His fault, he blamed it on himself for not paying attention to her absence. How could he, as well? He always made sure she was around and well, so why now? What made him not look around for her when they were back on Zephyr's island?
The master of amber spoke up, earning Lloyd to feel even more unmotivated to continue on. Knowing they were back home and safe compared to Harumi who was alone and among enemies didn't sit right with him, it drained him as he wanted to leave the bounty and return to Zephyr's island to retrieve his girlfriend from those villainous spellcasters.
"Could it be that Zephyr kept her because she was the winner? Maybe he's just handing her prize and she'll be back in no time." Skylor added, still thinking about her idea as it didn't make much sense in that way to her friends.
Zephyr wouldn't do that, he didn't seem like the type to keep her stalling.
"It shouldn't take him this long to do so," Mirage replied, not seeing much sense in the master of Amber's suggestion.
He seemed honest....they think.
They knew Harumi didn't think so. In fact...
No, it was a perfect suggestion from Skykor. Not in the sense of that scenario actually happening but rather, it gave Lloyd a reminder of something he knew between Harumi and Zephyr. He didn't realize he was speaking, hence the fact that he seemed to be talking to himself, until she had said that.
"Harumi was suspicious of Zephyr but we didn't believe her, we thought she was making things up because she constantly rambled about her nightmares that Zephyr caused and....and... ignored her." He addressed to no one in particular, mainly gathering his thoughts together and trying to tie knots to a theory then sticking with it.
The water ninja had something to say after hearing his small ramble just now.
"So the stuff she said back at her aunt Josephine's house wasn't a lie, she was really having those nightmares?" Nya contributed to the conversation.
The blonde shrugged, "I don't know, I never experienced any of Harumi's dreams in person before." He replied dryly and logically.
It left the rest of the resistances on a whim here. Master Wu stroked his beard as he began to think about ways to possibly return back to Zephyr's island. They couldn't directly command a boat back there, they might need to sneak in as Zephyr might not appreciate them being back.
"Do you have any evidence that Harumi is in fact wary of Zephyr?" The white-bearded master grew skeptical of such accusations, of course, he was all ready to believe them but he didn't want to target an innocent civilian now, despite Lloyd, Mirage, Garmadon and Cloud making a huge party out of it. They needed to be clever about this.
Now, Garmadon didn't like the way his younger brother was taking this claim into consideration. "Brother, can't you just believe us? We are telling the truth!" He growled, telling forward, ready to grab Wu by the collar before he was stopped with the green ninja's arm grabbing onto his father's shoulder.
Lloyd thought for a second before replying, "No no, I'll bite. The last time I saw Harumi, she looked really uneasy in the hallway, notice how Zephyr was around by the time. Harumi said she just tripped, but we don't believe her that easily."
"We think there's a bigger picture here, Master Wu." Mirage turned to face the master of the monastery. If what Lloyd said didn't convince him completely, she didn't know what else to say.
Luckily for them, Wu seemed to understood exactly what kind of enemy Zephyr was to them at those words. 'This is bad, very bad.' He would've voiced out his fears for the situation but chose to stay on the calm route and respond to them with the start of a plan.
Dividing the resistance members up, most of the team began to leave at Wu's sole command: "We must prioritize finding Harumi first then take care of the potential threat."
Everyone had nodded and prepared for their upcoming mission as to return to that cursed island and find their missing family member. On deck however, Nix had called Cloud over, telling her that he had a couple of questions for her — when in reality it was him only disguising what he really wanted to tell her.
"I hope you're not blaming yourself for Harumi's disappearance," he told her calmly and albeit strictly, he meant no harm as he actually make her believe this was her fault. "I'm telling you, I don't know what happened on that island but things sound intense and dangerous. This is not your fault, Cloud."
Even if she nodded, "No it is my fault, I should've listened to her, she needed my help back then. Nix, it's okay though, we'll find her." She remained resilient and handled it in a mature manner, not over-lashing with the mindset of becoming Zephyr's scapegoat.
The husky thought for a second before remembering something crucial, and something that was worth finding as a clue for them to find Harumi.
"Hey, didn't Harumi keep a diary at some point. She always brings it, right? Maybe if we find it and read through the latest entries, we can find her!" Nix hyped up the idea, too afraid now that it turns out to be false hope and he and Cloud need to return to square 1 of their thinking process.
However, it had seemed to work as Cloud too remembered that her owner in fact kept one around. She wagged her tail and fixed her frown to turn into a hopeful smile. "Yes, you're right! She did have one! The only problem is though, it's back on the island, but if we can find it, we'll find Harumi for sure!" She exclaimed.
That was a plan, they were going to go on a little adventure to retrieve Harumi's diary and read through the pages. They were going to find her and bring her back to Ninjago safe and sound.
Before leaving the deck to go below and gather up some materials and potentially find more hints in her room, maybe, Nix glanced over to Cloud and gave her a teasing smirk: "Hey, don't tell Harumi that we know about her diary though, point of it is to be secret."
Cloud nodded at that as well. Yeah, it would be pretty bad if Harumi did find out that Nix and Cloud knew, they wouldn't be able to use the book anymore to locate her if she ever went missing again since she'll surely transfer her entries to another one.
~~~~~~~~~~
It was a bright sunny day in Ninjago city. Many citizens were out in the streets, taking strolls, promoting their neat little shops of ice cream and smoothies, business man tied their suits while the pretty news-reporter women with bright red lipstick toured the city in heels. It was a great day for this busy city.
This particular day, little Harumi was playing in the playground. She loved coming to the park with her parents. She played on the seesaw and climbed up the ladder to slide down the elephant-shaped tunnel. She found herself smiling and having fun like every child should when they're at the park.
Her parents watched from the benches, pride and soft smiles on their faces as they watched their little girl go down the slide again. She raised her hands in the air, her sandals almost coming off at the momentum of the slide. She did not acknowledge a figure standing at the very bottom of the ramp, Harumi bumped straight into him, knocking them both down in the sand.
"Ow..."
Her pigtails were full of sand, the girl gave a disgusted groan as she knew she had to brush the sand away from her prim little dress. She stood up from the ground and rubbed her elbow, where she believes may have had a bruise from it when she collided with the stranger.
Speaking of stranger, she noticed the boy was still below her and she gave a quiet whimper. She knew she needed to apologize to him, even when it was partially her fault.
"Umm, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you. I'm not mad but....don't you know that you shouldn't stand directly in front of the slide? You can get really hurt, my mommy told me that."
The boy shook his head, beginning to get off the ground as she had done and rubbed the back of his head, sand falling out and sliding into his finger-nails. "I'm sorry, I did not know you were there. I'm sorry you got hurt too." He apologized sincerely to the young Harumi.
She smiled at the boy, happy of his quick address to this little incident just now. She held her hand out to him and she chimed:
"It's fine, I know it was an accident! Okay, let's introduce ourselves and say one thing we like! Hmm, I'll start first! I'm Harumi and I like to draw!"
She introduced herself, practically this becoming an invitation for them to be friends.
A little confused and shocked as to why she was being so open and cheery right away, Lloyd took a few seconds to process what she instructed him to do. Then, he introduced himself too, no idea coming to mind about his preferences.
"Huh, okay! I'm Lloyd then, and I like honey chicken." He went with a simple answer and possibly boring one as to how Harumi perceived her meals.
But surprisingly to Lloyd, the white-haired girl showed interest in his favourite food.
"Wow, honey chicken! Is it good?" Flabbergasted at the sound of such a sweet meal, she questioned him, the boy completely catching her attention now.
He began to smile a little when she had showed such enthusiasm.
"Yeah, it is! If you ever come over to my house, we can eat some together!" He didn't even begin to slow down one bit, his aloof and perplexed impression that he gave off going away when they delved deeper into his interests.
He found motivation to keep the conversation going and didn't even think of any danger for inviting Harumi, a complete stranger, over for some honey chicken.
The girl felt the exact same way. They were just kids, careless ones who prioritized their fun over their own caution to get to know a person first.
"I'm gonna ask my mommy and papa if that's okay because that sounds like fun, Lloyd!" She replied, already excited for a play date.
He was as well, she saw it with her very own eyes. It made her happy to see her new friend so eager on an idea she had came up with on her very own.
He then grabbed her by the wrist, Harumi hadn't even noticed it before she heard him calmly speaking to her — then, he proceeded to run along with her, it surprised her but she didn't try and run away from his hold despite potentially being snatched by a kid her age.
They hid in an alleyway, the black-hooded boy peered through the walls and kept his friend behind him, watching over her in case any danger presented itself. But Harumi didn't understand, she didn't see anything scary nor threatening come for them, so why did Lloyd suddenly urge her to run?
"Lloyd?" She showed confusion and tried to walk out of the alleyway, seeing the coast was majorly clear.
However, she didn't get very far, Harumi was pulled back and by force, her back slammed against the brick wall.
She gasped out in pain as Lloyd whispered something to her side:
"Shhh, they're close."
The reminder of pain spread across her body disappeared when she saw four hooded men jump from the rooftops of each building.
She recognized them, her all time favourite heroes.
"It's just the ninja, I wanna say hi-" she immediately began walking off again
Now that angered Lloyd even more, frustrated him, even more so. He grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the brick wall again, this time, his body pressing her against it so she can't run away anymore.
"Don't!" He yelled, anger in his eyes as he subconsciously tightened his grip around her wrists. He realized his mistake, she was just an innocent fan of the ninja, he couldn't possibly spread his hatred for his caretakers towards her, right?
He sighed, "I mean...don't..." he calmed down a little.
More than a little shaken up, Harumi tried to relax. Lloyd wasn't dangerous, right?
"Okay.."
The two went silent for a couple of seconds, waiting for the four ninja to disappear from their surroundings. It didn't take very long in all honesty, but when they were about to walk back out into the city, they heard voices.
Three individuals walked out, they were adults, baggy pants and long black waist-coats.
"Two children all alone by our meetup place? That's peculiar. Hey, boy, girl, do you know that this is our spot? Back off."
One of the men, assumingely the leader of such a secret organization, grabbed Lloyd by the collar and threw him to the stone concrete floor. The blonde haired boy gasped out in shock and pain, his frail hands struggling to get the older man's hands off his neck.
They were muggers, Harumi and Lloyd knew that much.
The young girl worried for her friend, again, she tried to run to his aid.
"Lloyd!" She called out, desperate to help him.
Despite being restrained and degraded by these muggers, Lloyd growled and tried to stand. He turned his head to Harumi and shook his head.
"Don't come!" He ordered her.
As the adults toppled over her newly made friend, Harumi stood there paralyzed in shock, she felt useless, utterly scared, she wanted to help, but she didn't want to die.
All she could do was watch, like Lloyd wanted her to.
~~~~~~~~~~
The caves were dark and water dripped from the ceiling, leaving an uncomfortable wake-up place for the missing empress of Ninjago.
Harumi didn't realize she had been dreaming again, everything she experienced in that world was amazing, she got to meet Lloyd again when they were still children and she was this close to having him over her apartment.
Her eyes fluttered open and she quickly recognized that she wasn't on land or on a bed to be more precise, she doesn't recall her passing out in the first place. 'Zephyr.' His name rolled off her tongue dripped in bitterness, she knew he was behind this, he always was.
Now, her main concern...was to get out of this minecart she was in.
Even being asleep, it was a bumpy ride, she didn't know what the spellcasters built the island with or what territory they were secretly on, they could've very well hidden with their spells that they were actually in a volcano. But the mineshaft in the caves that they were currently in, seemed pretty genuine and man-made to her.
Harumi turned her head, noticing how she was speeding up ever so slightly, it had gotten to a point where she was going too fast for her own comfort. She held onto the sides of the cart and propelled her back to the end of the cart,
"I'm gonna crash!" She couldn't help but gasp out when realizing she was charging straight into a wall.
.
.
.
She found herself standing up from a knocked over minecart, her head was slightly spinning but she could manage otherwise.
"Dammit.."
She felt a resonating pain from the back of her head, she hissed and placed a hand over the spot where it hurt for her. Nonetheless, she walked along, examining her surroundings.
These cave walls all looked the same to her nor did they give her any idea where she currently was.
There was a tunnel up ahead, it instantly caught her attention and as her curiosity dreads, she makes her way over to it, hoping to see what lies all the way through.
There was someone that was blocking the entrance of the tunnel, she knew who it was judging by those blonde locks and familiar light blue bandana.
"Oh so you're finally here.."the blonde boy, who was leaning against the wall, made his way forward to push the minecart back on the rails.
Though, she didn't need him getting any closer to her specifically, she moved away from the cart, even kicking the thing out of spite and made her way to him as a guide to all of this.
She knew exactly who he was and what authority he had on this island. "Matias Helix! What are you doing here, why are you so calm?!" She yelled at one of the enforcers of the tournament of elements.
Matias grinned and started walking inside of the tunnel. "It's my job, haha. Come on, I need to bring you to Zephyr."
It still appalled Harumi how casual he was being about all of this.
She raised a brow and crossed her arms, she still had some questions to ask about all of this.
"No, I want to know! Why are you three after me, why do you want my blood specifically?!" She wasn't letting him go for this one, it was already scary enough that Zephyr was planning to take a sample of her blood and she didn't know the reason.
Matias kept walking, Harumi audibly hearing a quiet sigh escape his lips. She didn't appreciate him dodging the topic like this.
"You wouldn't understand, now come on."
He dismissed her quietly, then instructing her to walk a little faster.
Harumi pouted and continued walking along, not even noticing that she had walked a little faster as if to match his pace.
"Hey, of course I can! Now, tell me!" She demanded, still not letting go of the topic despite Matias' clear discomfort in revealing anything to her.
She knew at this point her attempts at asking him were futile as he couldn't possibly bite — to her surprise, he did.
Albeit hesitant, Matias gave a nervous glance at the white haired girl behind him and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not allowed to say anything, Zephyr will get mad." He explained politely.
Ah fair enough, the spellcasters were all friends and she understood that Matias didn't want to break Zephyr's trust. It was incredible how she respected their friendship yet despised Zephyr and the others completely —
Well, Matias wasn't so bad, very relaxed actually while Ava was just borderline obnoxious.
The tunnel was way shorter than Harumi anticipated and soon, she was exposed to a large but well-lit up cavern. There were minions that swarmed the area, three throne rooms in the centre of the hideout, weapons that could hurt — Harumi flinched away as she saw them and a machine in the process of being built.
She didn't stick around longer to find that weapons manifested into thin air, she assumes that it's only magic. She takes a deep breath and turns her head towards the thrones and finds a certain cyan-haired woman sitting on one of the three thrones, of course, it was Ava, she was maintaining their workers while the machine was being built.
"Come on, come on, now! Crows could build faster than you lot!" Ava yelled from atop her throne, lowering her hand to equally impale down the weapons that she controlled using her magic. The metallic blades, earning weight, toppled down onto the bare workers' shoulders and manage to make one — or several more cuts on them.
Ava was relentless, she didn't even apologize for her actions, again, why would she? She's the one who inflicted pain on these guys in the first place, so of course Harumi wasn't surprised to find that one out.
She gulped, the machine concerned her. She wanted to keep her discomfort of it a secret but the fact that her eyes couldn't stop staring at it and the workers hard at work building it, kind of gave her concerns away.
"I'm sure you're wondering what that machine does, hm?" A brown-haired man approached the two of them, hands extended out as if expressing his grandiosity.
Harumi knew him, hated him even.
"Zephyr.." she growled out his name, her eyebrows immediately lowering to form a glare on her face.
Zephyr waved at her, paying no mind that she was currently in an unhappy state, having been left behind by her family.
"Yes hello. Though unfortunately for you, I'm not telling you what it's for." He gives a sickeningly sweet smile, Harumi detested that.
Zephyr chuckled then turned his attention the boy standing in front of his prisoner.
"Anyways, Matias, bring her to her cell now, if you please."
With a simple order like that, Matias was sent away. He nodded at his friend's request, not bothering to even reply and he grabbed onto Harumi's wrists, pulling her away from the important spellcaster.
Struggling to break free from the hold of someone she didn't exactly want to hurt, Harumi let out a growl in defeat, eying down Zephyr until he was no longer seen from her sight.
The cells weren't far at all, nor were they refined. It was an underground lair after all, what did anyone expect? Matias opened the rusty barred door and nudged Harumi inside, surprising her as he wasn't rough nor strict with her.
"Sorry it had to be this way, but we really need that blood." The blonde boy told her, beginning to shut the prison door.
Harumi, who placed her hands on the bars, gave him a child-like look of innocence, she was scared.
"Why do you need my blood so much?"
A question that never received a reply; Matias simply walked away, after shaking his head at her, he never intended to tell her more in her the first place.
The white-haired empress sighed and sat down on the sole piece of furniture in the jail cell: a bed. She cupped her hands on her face, covering her sight from the cruel world all around her, she wanted to go home, not be involved in some ritual of some sorts by the looks of it.
She needed to stay determined...and wait for her friends to come and save her.
~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Helloooooo, Lilla here! and thank you everyone for reading chapter 135, hope you all liked it and gives you any hints with what Zephyr could possibly want with Harumi! Of course, leave your theories and reactions/feedbacks below, we'd love to read them!! (Man, it's almost wrapping up, isn't it?) Cya all next week! <3