No one processed the shattering of glass in this moment. But when they did, they were quick to check things out.
Storming out of the rooms they were all staying in the meantime, they all headed over to the living room, where an agonizing sight was bestowed upon them.
There laid a girl with silky white hair on the top of a half-shattered coffee table, not to mention, it wasn't just some girl, it was Harumi, their family member.
"How did you-?! FSM, Harumi, are you okay?!" The fire ninja ran over to the semi-conscious girl, he inspected her closer and noticed a couple of glass shards sticking from her back.
He winced and quickly pushed the broken shards away from her, being careful not to step on the glass himself.
"She was thrown out of the window." Nya tells the group, walking over to her brother and sadly glancing over to an injured Harumi.
It was all sudden too, from the large living room window, anyone could spot her being thrown in here at full force.
What they had hoped though, however, is being in the room where she would have landed — if one of them just stood here, they could have caught her! and she wouldn't be injured like this...
In this moment, having an injured teammate would be bad for them.
Therefore, Lloyd, calmly approaching the table, had sadly held Harumi from the back and lifted her off the table.
He immediately noticed that blood dripped from his hands and his eyes couldn't help but widen.
There was one thing he wanted to make sure though, her body wasn't cold.
He brought a finger to her neck and sighed, his eyelashes batting over to the rest of the group in a single blink.
"She's still breathing, don't worry.." he looked at the group directly, no smile on his lips whatsoever.
However, he could see from the corner of his eyes how everyone in the room with him had sighed in relief.
Moving closer to the door-frame of the living room with a now massive hole in the window, the fire ninja tapped on their leader's shoulder, asking him for the next command.
"So, what's the move?" Kai had wondered.
Skylor was the one to step up, standing next to Kai, she turned over to Lloyd and Harumi then took a glance at the girl's wounds.
"We need to get her help immediately, maybe we can find meds somewhere?" The master of amber suggested to the team.
That didn't seem half bad.
Sure, it was incredibly risky with the fact that they needed to transport Harumi.
But she needed this, didn't she?
Taking a deep breath, as he figured out their next course of action, "Let's move in that case." Lloyd tells them, beginning to head out of the living room, expecting the whole team to follow his move and leave with him.
They had all stopped at the knock of the door.
No one contemplated answering it.
It could be anyone, the cops, enemies...
The green ninja turned to everyone, he was in front, carrying Harumi, he was looking for advice on what to do.
The wisest choice would be to step back if they'll ever need to kick down the doors, right?
Then, their breaths were held when a scream from the other side of the wall was heard:
"Ninja, I know you're in there, come out here, quickly!"
That voice was familiar, it belonged to the brown ninja, Dareth!
Jay and Kai had turned to each other, they definitely knew it was Dareth.
They'd be in good hands. Even if that man wasn't an elemental master, he has gotten them out of even the toughest situations before.
They can trust him again for this one.
Opening the door with one hand, Lloyd tilted his head in confusion when he saw the brown ninja standing there, distressed.
The expression on the man's face deeply concerned the others.
"Dareth?" The team questioned, surprised by his sudden appearance. Here of all places too.
Before they can even ask him another question, the man ran away from the now opened doorframe and the others caught a glimpse of him rushing down the stairs, holding onto the railings tight,
"This way!" The brown ninja wasted no time, he seemed to have a plan.
The team had followed him out of the small room, all facing down the stairs and making sound in the third floor hallway.
There was still some things left unclear, like where they were going for example. Here they thought, staying in this apartment would be the safest option.
But after what had happened to Harumi, none of the resistance believes in that anymore.
"Dareth, where are you taking us?" The blue ninja called from far behind, as he dashed through the stairs of the apartment.
Before the brown ninja could even reply, he was pushed back by a terrifying enemy — but it was no stranger to the resistance.
Dareth was thrown to the wall and he crawled away from view, allowing the ninja to take this one down.
Taking their weapons out, "Stone guards! They're in the way." Kai was the one to make the remark. He held his katana tightly and narrowed his eyebrows.
They had just invaded inside of the apartment, crashing through the windows and some even running up the staircase. They couldn't get out of here if they were in the way.
"What do we do?" Nya, taking her mini scythes out as well to join her brother — was instantly stopped when he placed a hand up. It was a sign that he had an idea for this.
Stepping over to the stone guards, the fire ninja dares to put up a charming smile towards the enemies. "Don't worry, sis. I've got this, see?" He was hoping to impress his team with this plan of his.
Carefully bringing his hands and spreading one of his legs to the front, he quickly turned on one foot.
"Ninjaaaaaaa-goooooo!"
He activated his bursting spinjitzu and spun around the building, knocking each guard down like bowling pins.
It was spectacular, how the stone guards never stood a chance in the first place against the blazing fire ninja.
They were sent in all directions, crashing through the walls and thus causing large holes in them or were they were sent directly out of the windows, no in-betweens.
That secured their escape route though, right?
Well, that was wrong.
The minute that Kai recovered, he gestured his team to follow him. In which they did, they went down the stairs however, they had heard a familiar voice from the very bottom of the staircase to the third floor.
"I don't think so.." the enemy had grey hair and a mischievous smile. He was walking back up the stairs, as calmly as possible.
He sure was taking his time but sure posed a threat to a band of warriors.
Jay and Kai gasped, realizing who it was.
That face-paint and those clothes, they did recognize him. They also recalled the tough battle they had to fight because of the elemental powers this person possessed.
"Crux?!"
They were astonished that even he had returned, without his brother as well, it seemed. But they knew that Acronix was generally a good guy and Harumi's uncle.
But what they didn't expect was for time to slow down so suddenly — of course, this was Crux's doing.
Because of his resurrection, he had his powers restored, he didn't need no such thing as the time blades. The ninja don't even recall if they still have possession of the time-blades.
But that was the least of their concerns right at the moment. What was though, was the fact that they were stuck through time.
They couldn't move, couldn't shout, couldn't get away as the elemental master of time approached them with a curious smile and using his fist, had all sent them back inside of their room.
So there they were, returned inside of the messy living room and the shattered windows.
But the ninja wouldn't call it a disadvantage. On the other hand, it left them with plenty of props to help them with taking the enemy down.
Just as they thought that things wouldn't get worse for them, the ninja were greeted by yet again another uninvited guest.
The ceiling began to crack and in came a semi-large but definitely deadly creature that popped in to say a little hello.
"Overlord!" Zane was the one who had to refrain from growling at his worst enemy.
Ah no, what will they do? They were stuck here with Crux, the master of time, as well as the Overlord. It was a fearsome duo to be around with.
The black ninja, looking around the living room, landed his eyes on a valuable piece of furniture. If everything goes just right, they could win this fight.
So, walking over to the couch, "Kai, help me out here." Cole asked for his friend's help.
Kai, noticing what Cole needed help with, quickly ran over to him and placing a hand to the bottom of the couch, the both of them began to lift it up.
"Okay!"
Kai chimed, toppling the couch over then when it was completely off the ground, the two ninjas used their strength to knock them out of the way.
Crux and the overlord, struggling to push even a mere couch off of them, growled in slight-defeat as they watched the black and red ninja chime all together.
"Yeah, let's go!"
"Wooo, we did it!"
Cole and Kai were proud of their work, they both raised a palm then hit it against the other, it was a high-five to demonstrate great teamwork.
But, even after they had celebrated their little victory, one of the ninjas felt a wave of spite wash over him for a second.
"That's what you get for injuring Harumi!" Cole yelled at the two out of sprite. Well, someone needed to take revenge for the poor girl anyways, he wouldn't mind doing it anytime soon.
"Ninja, no time, this way!"
Sighing from the corner, the master of the monastery beckoned for Kai and Cole to come closer to where he stood. It was still in the living room but it was very far from the exit of the overall room.
The rest of the team had ran over to where he stood, but looking down below them. The black ninja gave their master a confused look as to what he had planned.
"What, but that's the window!" Cole pointed out. If they intended to escape from there, it could possibly work but it was risky as there weren't many buildings to jump onto next.
"We have no choice." Wu sighed, continuing to look out the window. It was an eight-story high apartment after all, that would be quite the steep drop.
The resistance remained silent, unsure on how to really get out of the apartment without running into even more villains down the stairs.
And who knows where Dareth had gone? He was supposed to help them out yet he had fled like a coward he was.
Then, out of the silence that the many had agreed upon to continue, the green ninja came up with a solution.
His finger pointed at the completely shattered window and then turned to the rest of his team, looking for any feedback.
"Okay look look...how about, we summon our vehicles and drive off?" It was an absurd plan, that was for sure.
But really, did they have another choice?
If they tried to leave by the staircase again, they'll get surrounded by enemies once again and another "big threat" might appear to support the villainous army.
Then again, Crux and the overlord can break free at any minute given, so it was best to just get out of here in a way that they would never suspect.
That was by crashing out of the apartment windows.
"It could work..? But still, you're totally crazy for this!" The blue ninja shouted, a little nervous about all of this. Yelling at others about how insane their ideas are seemed to be a pattern by him already.
Listening to Lloyd, the resistance had all summoned their vehicles. The main six had their own and Harumi was free to ride with her lover on his motorcycle.
Skylor had hopped behind Kai and held tightly. As for the others, Master Wu was more than happy to accompany Misako and Pixel on his dragon.
The ex-generals all tagged along with the other ninjas, for example, Killow had ridden behind Jay and Ultra-Violet behind Cole.
They were ready to do this.
"One way to try out." Determined and courageous, the green ninja turned to his team one last time before focusing on the large crack in the window.
Lloyd applied pressure to his bike's handles and drove straight out of the window, crashing out of it.
The others followed behind him.
For a minute, it felt like they were flying, when really, they were falling out of an eight story high apartment, with vehicles, mind you.
~~~~~~~~~~
The drive through Ninjago city, trying not to get crushed by some of the Titan-sized villains proved to be a challenge.
But eventually, they had all made it back to their beloved bounty, who was currently in hiding from all of this monstrosity.
"Where does this leave us though? We can't stay here for much longer, Zephyr's army took over completely!" The black ninja exclaimed his concerns to his team, as they had all gathered around the deck minus Harumi, who was put to her respective room.
Even staying here in the skies, they weren't safe. Zephyr knew that they'd be here on here and he would always go looking for them.
Wu, who had scratched his beard, stared off into the distance for a little while before the silence that his dear ninja had kept going, started to bother him.
Even if Lloyd was now their proper leader, the ninja always seemed to look up to him for advice, hm?
Turning around in that case, "We must leave at once. Ninja, start packing your things." Wu advised them to all start packing their valuables, their weapons, and anything else they may need since they won't be returning here for a short while.
No one particularly objected to the idea. Everyone was used to moving bases, even if that place meant so much to them — the resistance were used to not always being on the bounty but even so, it was still hard to say goodbye and start packing.
Though, the one who raised his tone in question was the blonde-haired boy, Lloyd Garmadon. He stepped up towards Wu and made a valid point:
"We can't leave now though, Rumi's still unconscious." He spoke calmly, his tongue had been reeled in.
It would be a little bit of a burden to carry around an injured teammate of theirs, it'll sure to slow them down — as much as they hated to admit it.
But even so, they couldn't wait for her to make a full-recovery. They needed to leave at once. But, Lloyd, pitying the injured girl too much, proposed that they leave when she's finally conscious again.
Now Wu, had agreed with his reasoning as well. He nodded at the blonde boy and told him something in agreement.
"Hmm, that is a fair point. Okay, then, we will leave the city when she's awake."
Nodding at their master's order, the team all separated from the bounty's deck. They had all agreed that they'd start leaving when Harumi was awake.
The green ninja had entered his sleeping chambers, he was quick to inhale the air, the last scent of home he'll ever be feeling. He made his way to the side of his bed and pulled open a closet.
He then began putting inside of a backpack; some extra green ninja gi's in case his others got torn apart in battle, some weapons and....his hand slowly grabbed onto a piece of paper that he had found at the bottom of the closest.
He took it out of the closest and couldn't bring himself to flip the page over just yet. The green ninja had to look away and take a deep breath before he semi-willingly, flipped the page.
The contents of the paper was what shocked him the most, it wasn't the whole build-up or the wait of seeing what's on the other side.
It was a picture, of him and Harumi, they looked...happy.
Lloyd recalls that time, it was during one of those many celebration parties they threw on the bounty one evening. There was honey chicken on the side of the frame and everyone was surrounding them.
But what captured the lenses' attention was the smiling couple, sitting by the railings of the ship.
He narrowed his eyes, feeling the very going of sadness wash over him.
No, they couldn't go back to such times anymore; not with all of these battles happening all around them and their precious city.
Putting the picture in his backpack, Lloyd continued to pack, not saying a word. He was hard-working, he knew how much he needed to leave good memories behind in order to make new ones.
So hard at work, stuffing in many more armour and weapons, the boy didn't notice the door to his room opening from his side.
The noise had startled him out of his thoughts, how the door creaked and was left wide open.
Sighing, Lloyd had turned around and let go of his backpack when he saw the one who had just come in.
"Is Harumi awake?" He spoke to Nix, the one who decided to visit him in this moment.
The black-furred puppy stopped in place, he had seen that his owner was looking at a picture earlier, but he couldn't tell who the picture was.
Judging by his facial expressions though, Nix believes that it could've been him and Harumi, his still unconscious lover.
"Not yet. But don't worry, Lloyd, it'll be alright." He reassured his owner quietly.
~~~~~~~~~
Their last supper was once again, one that wasn't quite lively. Harumi still wasn't awake and was obligated to miss this meal. It was noted though that
Laying profoundly on her bed and having Cloud watch over her from time to time, Harumi didn't realize that she would be having something else tonight.
She was dreaming.
It often resulted in bad dreams; nightmares.
Entering the dream realm unwillingly, the white-haired girl found herself in dungeon once more. She would've started complaining — however, lucky for her, she was accompanied by someone.
It was the green ninja and she had just noticed that there was a massive blush on his cheeks. Harumi grew red as well as one realization hit her: they had just kissed.
The two simply giggled to one another and
Ah, she remembered such a time. This was when Lloyd ended up in the dungeon with her....that was so very long ago.
Why was she only dreaming about it now?
Was this Zephyr's doing, again?
Couldn't be, right? If Lloyd and her had just kissed, this was quite literally the opposite of a nightmare.
Wrong.
It was a nightmare.
Not even another minute to spend time with her loved one, the dungeon doors have opened and in came this fearsome boss of the Borg tower; Lord Garmadon, the emperor she was following at the time.
Harumi gulped as she instantly flew away from Lloyd at the sight of him.
"Garmadon! I.." she tried to form an excuse as to why the green ninja was even beside her in the first place.
But the emperor wasn't interested, it seems.
"Move out of the way, girl." The kin shut the door of the dungeon, his giant fist shoving her small body
She whimpered, struggling to stand for just a moment. Her first instinct was to place her hand to the side of her head, she whimpered, feeling her head ache when she placed her hand there.
But she couldn't just sit around here, or else Lloyd will get hurt because of her.
"Harumi!" Lloyd shouted, beginning to get up despite the shackles and tried to rush over to her.
His concerns were blended in with a FSM-awful scream coming from his direction.
Harumi didn't wanna hear it, but only could she prevented her sight from witnessing such a thing.
When she reopened her eyes, she couldn't believe what had just occurred.
Garmadon held two shadow-daggers of his in hand....toppled over Lloyd's dead body. It was dismembered very quickly.
Harumi felt sick.
He was killed...right before her very eyes.
She swore that she'll protect him but now..
"NOOOOO, LLOYD!! YOU MONSTER...what have you.." she tried to crawl over to the boy, despite knowing his state already.
She was too late, she couldn't save him.
Looking down her, "Harumi, you have greatly disappointed me. You will be returning to work tomorrow." Garmadon tells her, incredibly strictly.
He intends to lock her here for the remainder of the day.
Therefore, as his talons clicked away back at the entrance,
the last thing she heard was the heavy dungeon doors shutting.
~~~~~~~
Once again, it was another nightmare. She shot out of bed, taking a deep breath to regain to her senses till she turned to her side and saw her bedroom door shut.
That's how she knew that she was back in the real world, back in a world where her nightmares weren't real and how someone else had created the illusions.
For Harumi, that very powerful spellcaster was Zephyr.
Ah, Zephyr. She recalls his name and that's the fuel that managed to get her out of bed despite the many injuries running all over her body. She slid the oni mask of hatred off its hook and the daggers she kept on her lamp-side table as well.
With that, and with a short growl escaping her lips, she exited her bedroom and entered the hallways. She was meant to stop Zephyr, she needed to.
Now, moving around the bounty wasn't so very easy. There were elemental masters here such as herself, sure. However, there were the ones that did not require any rest.
As she snuck into the kitchen, she had encountered one of the people she really didn't wanna run in with, she knew very well that this person could stop her in her track anytime.
Shifting from his seat, "Harumi, it's late, what are you doing still up? Are you hungry?" He placed his hands together and only turned his head towards her.
Garmadon was sitting on the kitchen table with the lights dimmed out, alone. There wasn't anything else on the table hat he could have consumed in the meantime.
So Harumi figured, he just wanted to sit there and ponder.
But that won't do it.
"I'm sorry, Garmadon. But you are in my way." The white-haired girl warned him, having stopped leaning from the wall and instead faced him.
Raising a brow and turning his body completely to face her, "What do you—" he was interrupted by an ignition of a new form of energy.
It didn't belong to anybody that had received the green ninja though.
This was something else.
The girl, pushing away her guilt, brought a hand forward then sighed. She truly would need to apologize to him later for this one, but in the meantime, a beam of purple mist was fired over to Garmadon.
The impact of the attack was incredibly strong, he didn't have a quick reaction time nor could he cancel out the attack. So, he was striked back and sent flying inside of a closet.
"Harumi! Let me out of here, Harumi!" He banged on the doors, watching from the corner of his eyes as to how she stood up from the ground without any problem and hummed.
"I'm sorry. But I need to leave and stop Zephyr for good.." she firmly gripped her daggers before she began to walk off in the opposite direction.
This was bad. Really really bad.
She was going to leave without telling anybody, she was going after Zephyr alone, does she realize how dangerous that was?
Nonetheless, the oni lord continued to hit on the closest door, hoping someone in this resistance would hear him.
"You can't, it's too dangerous. Let me out, Harumi!" Desperate, he continued to yell for the white-haired girl who wasn't even here anymore.
Aside from burning his lungs up with all of the shouting and will-power to continue banging on the door, the man was eventually loud enough to summon the entire resistance into the kitchen.
Lloyd, the green ninja, was the one who had recognized his voice. He caught a glimpse of the closet shaking as well when he first came in and inspected the room for why inconsistency.
That's when he rushed over to the closet and opened it, shocked to see who was inside of there.
"Garm—" the green ninja stops himself, moving out of the way allowing the four-armed oni to get out of the closet. "Dad, why are you—?"
The Oni didn't respond to him, didn't even react to him being called "Dad" after a span of months.
Lloyd would even begin to question whether his father even noticed the whole route of forgiveness and trust all over again. It seems not.
Clearly on his mind, was whatever the outside world had, it interested him, as he headed straight out of the kitchen and onto deck.
Lloyd didn't know why he wanted to go outside that badly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
They had ended up wandering the city the very next day, Garmadon's plans to go after Harumi that night didn't prove very successful. Though, not everything was lost, Lloyd was now aware of why his father had wanted to go out that night.
When he found out, he immediately prompted this search, so here they were, calling out a girl'a name in the streets at 7AM on a Wednesday.
They had all split into teams of seven, the teams not very picky at all as everyone was familiar with working with one another. What was important though, was the results of their search. So therefore, the green ninja had all asked they meet by the fountain by a park an hour from now.
Reuniting with his team from there, Lloyd took a second to pant, he practically had to run back here since he was on the verge of running late. He, Nya, Skylor, Cole, Killow and Zane were investigating a certain coffee shop, asked people around if they saw her.
They were close to losing track of time.
"Any sign of her?" Lloyd turned to the rest of the resistance members. He frowned slightly upon seeing all of their heads shift to make a shaking of head gesture.
Sighing and close to sending everyone back to go looking for her again, he hears a small interruption from his side.
"I thought I sensed her earlier." Garmadon was the one to speak up about this matter, he was brief. But his eyes looked genuine, as if he wanted to actually contribute to this search.
Sure, he was an oni and he had enhanced senses but Lloyd and quite a few half of the resistance were on the fence about that claim.
Was he just saying that to make them feel better?
His claim was further supported though when the blue ninja came running towards them, as he was accompanied by Misako, Ultra Violet and Mr. E.
He was panting and he seemed to have wanted to alert everyone about something he had seen right by the corner of the city.
He raised a hand to grab everyone's attentions then he stopped in place, taking the time to breathe.
"Wait you're right! We saw her..." he stands right back up to bring his raised hand to the side. "There she is." He pointed at a sewer gate a few metres away from them.
Now that caused curiosity among the resistance members. The first one to react was of course, the four-armed oni. He raised a brow and turned to Lloyd, looking over for him for a conclusion.
"What's she doing in a sewer though?" He asked the boy. Such a place of her to be in, it didn't make sense to him. There wasn't anything particularly interesting about sewers, so why?
However, narrowing his eyebrows, "No time, she's fighting Zephyr down there. We need to help her." He instructs the rest of his team to follow him over to the sewers.
Without wasting even more time, the rest of the team had followed Lloyd as he lead them on to the sewers that Jay was taking about.
As half was particularly in the ground, they had to crouch in order to really see through what was happening in there — but most importantly, Jay did not lie.
Clashing weapons against the other inside of such a small tunnel, there was Harumi and Zephyr in there. They were fighting one another and one seemed to be on the struggling end of things.
Lloyd shifts in place, his gloved-fingers holding onto the bar tightly. Just by watching this scene, he felt...particularly awful. She was injured, and she was risking her life once again to keep them all safe.
~~~~~~~~~~
Slashing to her sides, Zephyr snickered as she had just barely dodged that. He twirled his staff and moved to the left, to avoid a punch from the girl.
He did notice her falter in between her attacks though. The spellcaster couldn't hell but slide in a quick mention:
"Tired already, your skills have become weak. Yet I am stronger than ever despite being thrown in a lava lake." He pointed out, confidence dripping his tongue.
His boots had gotten wet as he was submitted to the small flow of water below them by the girl. He hissed slightly and turned his head to look at her, the enemy who now had the higher ground.
Harumi narrowed her eyes at him, holding her dagger tightly then jumped off the platform, intending to kick him by the bridge of the nose.
"Arrogance is a fuel that burns as quick as wood." She tells him, swinging her leg to land her kick.
It was like the scene before him was played in slow-motion. That or his reflexes could very well kick in quickly.
Zephyr smirked, watching her jump over him. He clenched his staff tightly and brings it forward his face, in order to shield him.
"I wouldn't think, haha."
He hooks the wood of his staff against her skirt and uses that to toss her aside against the wall.
Groaning quietly from the pain, Harumi manages to stand back up but she did notice her hand shaking against the wall she held to support her. She growled at the spellcaster, watching him chuckle from the side of her eyes.
He got out of the water and placed one of his hands on his hips while the other held his staff a little tighter.
"Now I'd say, you're the one who's getting a little too arrogant now." He tells her simply before he raised his staff once again to jab at her — still being stunned from the last attack, she couldn't move out of the way in time.
The thing is, the so called "spectators" have never left, they had watched her fight against Zephyr behind bars, they couldn't come to her rescue.
Grasping onto the metallic bars, Lloyd lowered his head, "Harumi!" He yelled out to her, watching her get hurt for the second time ever since they all came here to rescue her.
She didn't consider herself too hurt, she had enough consciousness to hear his voice and when she did, she gasped and turned her head upwards and that's when she saw him and the rest of her family looking deeply concerned for her.
"Lloyd?!" She yelled out, "No! Leave this place, you need to leave!" She stood up from the ground and proceeded to try and approach them, albeit wobbly.
Zephyr, didn't try and strike her down again. He had no idea that they'd encounter that petty resistance once again and although it counted as an interruption, he wasn't particularly angry
about it.
Instead, he simply watched, that amused smile never leaving his lips for even a second.
"You called your little friends over?" He make a a stunning remark over to the wobbly Harumi and the spectators. "Fitting, they'll be here to watch you fall for real this time."
She stopped mid-way. Walking over to her friends was simply a farce on her part, she turns to him and runs her fingers alongside a bruise on her bottom lip.
She was looking at him, looking at those eyes of him deeply, so full of hatred and hurt.
"I won't fall today, Zephyr." There was fire in her eyes now.
She turned her heel to run towards him, bringing her dagger forward to once again attack him.
Now, the spellcaster was quick to avoid that, however, such a frantic attack had left him to kind of wince at his sudden turn. No, wrong move, he just stretched a muscle there.
Harumi knew however, that she couldn't take him down despite trying her best to catch him off-guard. She stood there for a second, thinking about any possible advantages she might have against him.
She didn't think she had any at first, but slipping her hand back for a second, she felt the edge of a hard surface. Her eyes immediately widened as she remembered what she had brought along.
A now confident smile on her lips, she turned to her enemy, pulling the item she had along with her out of its sash.
Not understanding what the point of a demonic-looking mask being pulled out, Zephyr stayed silent, ready for an explanation.
"Zephyr, you've looked through my memories and you don't know what this is?"
Seriously, he's tormented her enough in her dreams, but he didn't know about the Oni mask of hatred?
Was that why it had never made an appearance as part of a hallucination?
Putting the mask on, the white-haired girl forced out a laugh, as she feels her entire structure turn into stone once more, a rather uncomfortable processus she'll have to admit, but after wearing the mask for so long, she's gotten used to it.
Oh and it feels oh so powerful to wear. She usually didn't feel quite a rush whenever she's fighting alone without why weapons, but it must've been the mask's influence on her.
Her body reduced to stone now, she leaps up in the air slams her fist down onto the ground, terrifying the spellcaster as he had no idea what new powers his enemy had gained.
"What in the name of FSM..."
Zephyr had obviously backed away on this one, he held his staff a little tighter and backed away to the wall, not wanting to get close to whatever that thing was.
But Harumi, no longer feeling sorry to break any bones here, allowed her fingers to run through her mask for a second then snickered.
"This is your end..."
She shut her eyes and spun, a mist of silver swirling around her stone form.
"Ninjago..."
The master of destruction had just activated in a small cramped spot like this one.
But that made it easier for her to locate her target and assure a complete knock-out. Harumi turned, her tornado instantly digging Zephyr deeper into the wall.
The man, feeling the stone dig through the back of his skull, yelped out as he reached a hand forward for her to stop.
It was in vain, his hand was just pushed aside as the girl, inside of the tornado, recognized what he was trying to do.
She pushed away from Zephyr though when she felt that she had done enough damage, the man was laying there against a cracked sewer wall.
Harumi exited out of her spinjitzu then turned over to the metallic bars in which she last saw her friends cling onto.
When she made it there, her eyes glistened at the sound of her friends' voices cheering her on once more.
"Yeahhhh, Harumi, you did it!"
"Nice work, Harumi!"
Her precious family members, all there, they all went out to find her and cheer her on.
She smiled, looking over to every single one of them even beneath this agonizing mask.
There was one thing left to do now.
"Now, quick! We need to get out of here." She tells them, looking over the bars for any method that she could possibly use to break them open then flee.
"If you use the mask of hatred, you can easily bend these bars." Garmadon tells her, one of his hands already holding onto the bar.
Harumi nodded, okay, that sounded like a plan.
Gripping the bars next to Garmadon with her two hands, the oni lord and the mask of hatred user managed to bend the metallic bars wide enough for the white-haired girl to escape.
She smiles at their work and slowly, she began to lift the mask off her face.
It was all okay now, she'd take care of Zephyr later if he ever wakes back up. But she begins to doubt it though, that was one critical hit to the scalp using stone fists.
Beginning to follow her friends out of the sewer tunnels, Harumi heard a small cackle from behind her.
"I think you underestimated me too much.."
The next thing she knew, she was rendered unconscious to the ground.
Her chopsticks fell out of her hair, they rolled close to the edge of the water stream.
'....what?'
She tried to flutter her eyes open again, she tried to reach out, but it was useless.
The mask was knocked out of her hands and she couldn't move anymore.
The culprit to that, was the blood stab wound to her chest. There was bits of wood sticking out, ah, it was Zephyr's staff that stabbed her, is that right?
"Harumi!" Lloyd cried out, turning around and running back over to sewer tunnels.
Nonetheless, Zephyr didn't allow them to get anywhere close to her.
He had picked up her unconscious body and without having to think twice, he dropped her in the water stream, smiling to himself softly.
He placed his hand on a wheel, if he pushed it to the left, it would form a water vortex, causing Harumi to sink in and eventually, get shredded.
Now, that caused an uproar among the resistance members when everyone realized what was going on.
"NO!"
"Enough, I said enough!" Mirage growled, her fist clenching as she felt a certain fuel override her. It was a purple energy ball, a destruction ball belonging to an oni.
She fired it towards Zephyr, who was on the brink of missing.
She had been training with Mistaké from time to time ever since she joined the resistance. The old lady had told her that she had potential, so Mirage exploited it.
Now, here she was, firing beams of her newly returned powers back to Zephyr; who continued to miss constantly.
She wasn't strong enough to take him down though.
The spellcaster gleams over to her, using his leg to turn the wheel to the left.
A water vortex was summoned and Harumi floated down over even quicker than before.
The former oni princess growled at that, that action had seriously annoyed her.
Picking up his lover's chopsticks sadly, Lloyd takes a deep breath before he turns to Zephyr, the scene of him tossing Harumi down the drain absolutely mortifying him.
"You....you've killed her!" He raged, unfortunately held back by the onis, Mirage and Garmadon. But they had agreed with the green ninja, this wasn't one of Zephyr's greatest moments.
But again, when does he ever get any?
Snickering and turning to watch ten water stream, "Isn't that what I've been trying to achieve for a while now?" Zephyr smiles over to Lloyd and the two other onis.
"I'll kill him, let me at him! Let me!" Cloud beared her canines, growling and huffing, most importantly, whimpering as the tears really started coming down now.
She couldn't kill him, of course. She was held back, by someone whom she hadn't been expecting to hold her so close.
"It's useless, we can't do anything now, Cloud.." Garmadon lifted her off the ground and pulled her in for a hug, he had blinked away the tears himself from his own eyes. Crying was useless now.
No, they were losing too much already, if they don't leave now they'll—
No, they will get out of here, all of them.
Frantically, Lloyd turns his head to the water ninja, "Guys, we need to—"
Lloyd was interrupted rather abruptly and instead let out a wild cry. He backed away and placed his hands over his mouth.
"...Guys?"
Their pupils were purple, all of them.
What was going on?!
They stood there, like empty husks and adorned grey-skin.
No...don't tell him...
The sole thing he wished that would never happen has come through.
His friends...they were corrupted.
All of them. Kai, Jay, Nya, Zane, Cole...
The ninja were all fighting on the opposite team now, they no longer followed him.
They were all under Zephyr, Matias and Ava's command now...
A small fit of laughter was heard from behind him,
"Sorry Lloyd, you took too long so I went ahead and performed my little spell." It was a woman's voice, it seemed that she was over-seeing the entire fight in secret.
Opal's eyes widened as she held on her sword tightly in case the new enemy decided to show themselves.
"What spell?!" She exclaimed in worry.
Wait a second if a woman was here, then that meant that Zephyr was truly not alone...
The figure decided to reveal themselves, she stood out into the light and shadowy succubus wings had faded away into a screen of fog. It was an illusion, after all.
"Corruption spell, of course." The
The puppies were the first to react to that revelation, they growled, having recognized who this woman was.
They saw her before, she was on the island with Zephyr, she helped him host the games with that blonde-haired man.
Cloud narrowed her brows and barked in alert, "Ava was here the entire time?!" The Pomeranian growled, especially not glad to see her of all people here.
Ava, the spellcaster of corruption nodded, her hand resting neatly on her waist.
"Of course! No one among the other spellcasters can cast it after all...corruption itself has enslaved me."
The cyan-haired woman chuckled, stepping down from the platform that she was watching from and walked over to join the brown-haired spellcaster.
As the enemies continue to cave in, the resistance soon learned that they were losing more and more of numbers, Zephyr had his powerful spellcaster ally with him the entire time not to mention..the other ninja were now corrupted.
He took a deep breath, making a painful decision.
He summoned the Night Crawler and got inside of the vehicle.
From the corner of his eyes, he watched how the others have done the same,
Mirage had summoned a motorbike using her now fully trained oni powers that she was working on from behind the scenes and had coaxed her mother to join her from behind.
Garmadon was sitting in the back-seat of Lloyd's vehicle along with Mistaké as Cloud and Nix laid down by their feet.
Placing his hands on the steering wheel, Lloyd was trembling deep down. He was truly alone now, not many people are left to continue fighting on.
"I don't want to leave but.."
The brown-pigtailed girl shook her head, her fangs baring out at Lloyd's insubordination.
"We have to!" Mirage cries out, her hands already on the handles of her vehicle.
If they continue to idle here for much longer, Zephyr will catch up and overwhelm them all over again.
But what could they do anymore? Harumi's gone, she went down the drain. How could she recover from that?
Lloyd didn't want to see her go, didn't want to see her go like that. But turning his head away from the tunnel, he hissed softly and started his engine.
'Ninja,'
No, he couldn't say that anymore. The ninja were corrupted, they were no longer allies of his.
Lloyd shuts his eyes, he rephrased.
"Team, we are leaving Ninjago city.."
With Mistaké, Mirage, Opal, Garmadon, Nix and Cloud, Lloyd led the remaining resistance members out of Ninjago city.
~~~~~~~~~
As Harumi lay there, afloat, she didn't acknowledge the spawn of a faint blue light from behind her. No one had known what it was, it was mysterious.
But it did something extraordinary, it had sucked the white-haired girl inside of the light, that's when she had disappeared from Ninjago city.
Elsewhere, in a completely different dimension, there were three girls who had just stopped by a junkyard. They had like mission to find some thrown-away materials to continue on a project they were all working on since last week.
They halted their bikes and took a look around, particularly not liking the smell of this place already. But the only reason why they even tolerated it was because of their project, after all. So, when they had arrived here at noon, they began to dig through the piles.
It was all rubbish for the most part, however, one of the girls did end up finding some empty toilet paper rolls, she claimed that she could use them as a side prop or something. The two other girls didn't quite agree, but creativity lies everywhere, right?
They continued to search for a good ten minutes until one of the girls, her name was Kaitlyn, tinted her head in confusion as she noticed a rather large figure toppled over a couple of used tires.
"Hm, what's that?" She had initially thought that it was the junkyard's drunk owner, asleep on on the give-aways again. However, her curiosity caused her to take a closer look, despite it not being a good idea due to them potentially becoming dangerous.
Finding an empty fish bowl and turning it to check for any breaks, Jade hummed at her friend's inquiry. "Did you find something?" She asked.
Kaitlyn stopped to stand right beside the unconscious owner. "I think so," she turns to Jade then turns back to fade the individual. Just at that, she had taken a good look at the stranger's face, then made a realization.
"wait hang on, isn't that Harumi?"
Jade and Lilla turned their heads in mild shock. Wait, did they hear that one correctly?
"Yeah, that's definitely her!" Lilla exclaimed, semi-impressed that the empress of Ninjago managed to find herself back here of all places.
Why their world? Was there something going on in Ninjago?
Bringing her hand down to the girl, Jade had noticed that she was still breathing. The three girls exhaled, well, that's a good thing to say the least.
Jade allowed her fingers to brush themselves on the white-haired girl's cheeks, meant to poke them to try and wake her up, this would work if she was lightly unconscious though.
It took a couple of pokes and a series of name-calling coming from the three girls, but eventually, their work wasn't in vain.
"Where...am I?"
The white-haired girl squinted her eyes at the sun's bright light. She placed a hand over her face, covering her view from the warmth.
If one thing's clear, she wasn't back in Ninjago. She was,, somewhere else.
~~~~~~
A/N: Hey, apologies that writing's a little off this chapter, I do take full responsibility to say that this was rather rushed,, I just didn't have the motivation to write or had the time.
As I write this(Thursday afternoon), my internet's been completely down and had to resort to using cellular data most of the time ;-; so I tried to get it done as soon as possible. Hope the chapter was enjoyable to say the least, see you in the next chapter, everyone.