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Chapter Text

“Princess Harumi. There is a guest for you.” Hutchins said, sliding the door to Harumi’s room open with one hand, the other behind his back in that regal pose he always kept. 

Harumi stood up, brushing off her dress as she did. She stretched, her body sore from sitting hunched over her books. Though the Emperor and Empress told her that young girls ought to learn proper manners, she preferred to sit on the floor in her room, doing as she pleased. 

She peered in her mirror, patting her hair flat. She hadn’t been aware that she would have to see guests until a few seconds ago, so she had not put on her makeup or even one of the kimonos she was supposed to wear to meet guests. Harumi hoped that her current attire would be enough. Who could have possibly been granted an audience with the Emperor and Empress on such short notice that Harumi had not been made aware until now? 

Hutchins had waited patiently for her, and she followed him through the palace. As she walked, she forced her face to return to a neutral expression, though her mind wandered through a growing maze of questions. 

He led her to the throne room, where the Emperor and Empress sat, completely at home among the gold and jewels. Harumi stood up a little straighter in their presence as Hutchins introduced her to the guest. His beard suggested that he might be a very old man, though his stance was strong and he did not lean heavily upon his walking stick. 

“Princess Harumi, this is Sensei Wu.” Hutchins said. The old man looked upwards, and Harumi viewed his face. Though he was old, he still had an ageless quality to his face, in the way that Harumi could only tell he was old, but not how old. He did not appear tired in his old age, rather, he appeared wise beyond any man’s years. 

“Is it true that you have an elemental power?” Wu asked. Harumi nodded nervously, afraid that she had stared at his face for too long. She quickly averted her eyes, studying his staff instead. “May I have a demonstration?” 

Harumi nodded again, taking her eyes off his strange staff. She widened her stance as far as her attire would allow, feeling the gazes of the Emperor, Empress, and Hutchins bearing down upon her. She adjusted her stance with unease, looking up to Wu for some sort of signal. Wu nodded gently. Harumi took it as her signal. 

She began to panic when she could not begin to feel anything. Three sharp gazes burned into her and she felt heat rising in her face. In the end, her panic was unjustified. Power began to surge within her, and it was all she could do to guide it. She had been cautious with it before, almost afraid of it. After all, it was unfamiliar to her. It glowed a pretty kind of golden green, spinning in strands like delicate threads in front of her. It’s glow was reflected around the room, in every gold-gilded surface, making the room seem so much brighter than before. The Emperor and Empress looked sideways at it, turning away as if to shield their faces from a light much brighter than it. Even Hutchins closed his visible eye, but Wu simply gave her a thoughtful nod. 

“You may stop now.” Wu said. Harumi let the power dissipate into the air, hunching her shoulders as all tension left her body. She quickly stood up straight again, feeling the unspoken disapproval from the Emperor and Empress. “Are you familiar with the prophecy of the green ninja?” 

Harumi couldn’t be sure whether Wu addressed the Emperor and Empress or her, so she opted to stay silent, clasping her hands together in front of her body. Had her demonstration been good enough for Wu? Nobody had given her the opportunity to explore the strange power yet. 

The Emperor gave his answer. Yes and no, they were familiar with ancient Ninjago folklore, but they did not accept it as full truth. They were modern people, he said, though they came from old blood. 

And Wu gave his revelation.

“Our daughter is a princess, not a ninja.” The Emperor said firmly, once Wu had finished speaking. “And she is too young to be on her own.”

Wu began to debate with the Emperor, though Harumi knew that there was nothing he could say to change the Emperor’s mind. He had delivered his ultimatum, and he was not the kind of man to change his mind. 

Something changed. Something Wu had said had gotten to the Emperor, and he finally caved. Harumi wished she had paid more attention to their exchange! What could he have possibly said? She looked back and forth between the two in surprise. 

Go get your things, Harumi. You are to train under Sensei Wu. 

She followed Hutchins back to her room in a daze, hearing words echo in her mind but not fully processing them. 

Hutchins saw her to her room, standing in the doorway as he usually did. Harumi stood in the centre of the room, staring out her window towards the city, her mind full of words but no thoughts. 

“What do you want to do, Harumi?” Hutchins broke the silence. “There is still choice in it for you.” 

“I-“ Harumi began, with no particular words in mind. She shook her head. 

“I know you are unhappy here.” 

That was true. She did not fit in among the gold and jewels of the throne room, nor did she enjoy the intricacies of the palace life. Though, what was her choice? She stood at a crossroads, but she had not made a decision of this volume before in her life. Her days were planned to the minute. How could she choose her path? Destiny, after all, had chosen it. She had caught that much of Wu’s words. Destiny had chosen her to bear the power of the green ninja. She had to answer its call, but Hutchins made it seem like there was a choice. No. There wasn’t. 

“I want to go.” Her voice came strong and steady, to her relief and surprise. She had said the words with so much ease, she could believe that they truly reflected her desires. 

In her mirror, she saw Hutchins nod. 

“Very well, then.” He said. “I wish you luck.” 

She left with Wu, now following him instead of Hutchins through the streets of Ninjago. She had bowed her goodbyes to the Emperor and Empress and hugged Hutchins goodbye. He had returned her embrace and told her how he’d miss her. She smiled, but couldn’t stop herself from crying. The Emperor and Empress remained stoic in their expressions and stances, saying some things that Harumi was quickly forgetting as she walked behind Wu. She carried her own things, just some plainer clothes and her journal. She had not taken her fancy kimonos, nor much of her jewellery, not that she thought she would miss them. 

Wu walked slowly. Harumi did not expect him to be in much of a hurry. She followed him, having not much choice but to trust him. The streets of Ninjago City were much bigger from the ground. She felt the stares of each passerby as they gave her a passing look, afraid that somebody would see her and recognise the Jade Princess. She told herself that that fear was foolish. She had gotten dressed in front of her mirror in plain clothes, just a green jacket and pants which more or less matched it, with a white shirt underneath. She had done her hair in a simple bun and kept it in place with two black hair sticks, for lack of a regular hair tie. 

She followed him for a long time, beginning to grow concerned as the sun grew lower in the sky. They were coming upon the edge of the city and her legs began to ache from walking for so long. She did not dare speak up, out of fear of disrespecting Wu. Destiny kept them together for now, but only destiny, so they walked in silence. She had many questions, but one rang in her mind louder than any others. What had he said to change her father’s mind? Perhaps she would never ask. 

Finally, they approached their destination. Harumi stared, wide-eyed, into the darkness. The sun had set completely, and the top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds and shadow. 

“Up?” She asked, her voice quiet and hoarse. A staircase twisted around the mountain, carved into the stone and winding their way beyond the point where Harumi could no longer see. 

“Yes.” Wu said, taking the first step up the mountain. “Then, your training will begin.” 

He started up the mountain, but Harumi stopped to stare after him just a little while longer. 

There was no use waiting. The longer she waited, the longer she simply put off the inevitable. She had already said her goodbyes. 

No way out but forwards. In this case, forwards and up. 

She took the first few steps running, holding her bag firmly across her shoulder. Running up the first few steps, she felt like she was flying. In the palace, she could never run. Her shoes were uncomfortable to do anything but walk in, and the Empress would scold her unladylike behaviour if she took them off to run down the halls. 

After the first steps, her tiredness caught up to her. She began to walk, and soon, she had to fight for every step. Still, the staircase stretched forwards, around the mountain. Every time she rounded a turn, there were more stairs beyond it. The spiral did not seem to have an end, and the only measure of Harumi’s progress was the growing distance between her and the ground. Whenever the wind blew, she clung tighter to the mountain. She had not been afraid like this before, but soon the ground was out of sight and she refused to let herself look down anymore. She continued to fight for every step, trusting that she was moving forward.  

Dawn came. Harumi collapsed before the red-painted double doors, her heart beating out of her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut, wholly focused on her laboured breathing and pounding heart. The doors loomed before her, illuminated by the first light of the young day. Though her legs threatened to give out beneath her, she forced herself to her feet once more. 

Pride washed over her like a wave once she realised her achievement. She had made it up the mountain. She hadn’t quit, she hadn’t stopped moving forward. A smile crept onto her face and she began to laugh. She laughed in relief and pride at her achievement, and in surprise at herself. She hadn’t quit! 

It gave her the strength to walk up to the door and knock. The wood was cool beneath her hand, but she did not lean upon it. The doors opened slowly. 

There had been times during her long upwards trek where she had doubted that she could become a ninja. Perhaps destiny had been wrong, and she was not the one worthy of the power she possessed. Every time the thought had occurred to her, she had looked down and wondered if the path down would be easier than the path in front of her, but every time the thought had occurred to her, she had pushed it away.

Now she stood before open doors, and she knew she was worthy to enter. 

Chapter Text

Harumi’s training was far from easy. Though Wu had promised the Emperor that he’d take care of her, he spent day and night trying to break her. She hadn’t exactly fallen behind the boys, because she had never been in front of them to begin with. 

“Sensei! You never said the green ninja would be a girl.” Kai said, the first night Wu had gathered them all in the same place. 

“And just what is that supposed to mean?” Nya asked. Wu had introduced her to the ninja and told her their names and elemental powers. They all seemed older than Harumi, though Nya appeared about her age. 

“Nothing!” Kai protested as Nya glared at him. “I was just expecting…” 

“You wanted to be the green ninja, Kai.” Zane said. “And you’re disappointed that destiny chose her, not you.” 

“Well, all the pictures on the scroll had masks on. Nothing to say the green ninja couldn't be a girl.” Jay shrugged. 

“You saw the scroll?” Wu raised his voice and Jay flinched. 

“No- I mean- yes? Just a peek. It was an accident.” 

“You seem familiar.” Cole said, interrupting before either Wu or Jay could say something more. “I think I’ve seen you somewhere before.” 

“We’ve travelled all over Ninjago. Realistically, we have probably seen her before.” Zane said. 

“No. Like she’s someone we’re supposed to know.” Cole frowned. “I just can’t remember. Harumi…” 

“Princess Harumi. Daughter of the Emperor and Empress of Ninjago.” Zane said. All the ninja turned to look at him, then Harumi. She felt like she was melting under their intense glare. 

“A princess is gonna be the green ninja?” Kai stared. “Now I’ve seen it all.” 

“Welcome to the team, Princess.” Jay said. 

“Just- just Harumi, please.” She smiled weakly, hugging her arms across her chest. 

“Alright then, Harumi.” 

The other ninja were kind, but that did not change the fact that no matter how hard Harumi tried, her teammates always seemed to be one step ahead of her. Wu insisted that she should not be discouraged, but it was hard to keep a high spirit. 

The other ninja surrounded her, holding their weapons between themselves and her. Each was poised to attack, circling slowly so Harumi could get a view of each one and start to guess who would make the first move. The sun began to cast the long shadows of dusk within the monastery walls, and Harumi could barely focus on one of the ninja at a time. She adjusted her stance, suddenly too conscious about everything. Her hands felt too heavy to keep up in her guard, but she knew Wu was watching so she did not dare let them fall. 

Kai shouted and made the first move, attacking with his sword. Harumi instinctively jumped backwards, stumbling over her heavy feet and sloppily regaining her balance. Kai did not stop, advancing forward. This time, Harumi turned as she had practiced, dodging his attack. She tried to summon a scrap of strength to call on her powers again, but she was so utterly exhausted from the day that nothing came to her. 

Kai jumped backwards, and Harumi paused briefly until it hit her. He was giving another one of the ninja a chance to attack. None of the ninja in sight were moving towards, but she could see their eyes following her. No, something just behind her- 

From behind her, Cole swept her feet out from underneath her body in one swift motion. She had practiced falling, how to roll and get back to her feet, but all her training abandoned her and she fell to the ground. She laid there, staring up towards the sky and making no move back to her feet. Eventually, Cole extended a hand to help her up. She weakly took it, nearly collapsing into his body. 

“That will be enough for today.” Wu spoke up. “Go get some rest, ninja.” 

The others happily made their way inside, striking up a small conversation among themselves as they slid the door closed behind them. 

Harumi did not move from where she stood as Wu approached her. She tried to straighten herself, almost instinctively holding her hands together in front of her body before she remembered that she was no longer in the palace. Her hands hung awkwardly by her side. 

“I’m sorry, Sensei.” Harumi blurted out. “I know I’m supposed to be the green ninja, and I’m trying. I am.” 

“I am.” She repeated herself, choking on the words as she held back tears. She knew if she said any more, her tears would fall. 

“I know.” Wu reassured her, stopping in front of her. “I am proud of you, Harumi. The path forward is not often a straight line. Go get some rest. You deserve it.” 

She could not stop her tears from falling anymore, and Wu gave her a shoulder to cry on. Harumi couldn’t tell why she was crying, only that she thought she’d never be able to stop. 

That night, she collapsed on her bed unable to feel much of anything. 

The first day she had woken up in her room, she had been confused. Her legs and feet ached, and she had sat up completely disoriented. She got to sleep in her own room, thankfully. The place was small and the walls were plain, and the decorations were nice but humble. It had been a completely different world than the palace life she had lived for the first fifteen years of her life. 

Wu had given her clothes to wear to train. They were made for moving and comfortable enough to wear, much more practical than anything she had been allowed to wear around the palace. She had left her traditional makeup in the palace. Though she had brought some makeup of her own, she never found any time to wear it. Nya had shared some of her things with Harumi, so she had better things to tie her hair back with. 

As for the decoration of the room, Harumi had not brought anything with her that she could display, so the walls remained humble and bare. Now, she laid on her bed, staring at the same walls as before. 

“May I come in?” The voice of Zane came from just outside her door. 

“Sure.” Harumi called, sitting up on her elbows. 

He opened the door slowly with one hand, carefully balancing a tray on the other. 

“You didn’t come to dinner, so I thought I’d bring some here.” He said, placing the tray on her desk. 

“Thank you.” Harumi said, quickly crossing the room, pulling her chair out to where she could sit, and beginning to eat. She hadn’t realised how much training had starved her until she actually ate. At first, she had been painfully aware of how much training had drained her, but by now she was used to being tired all the time. It had become one of those things she didn’t notice until they were gone. 

“I hope my cooking is good enough. I’ve never cooked for a princess before.” Zane said. 

“Here-“ Harumi began, covering her mouth as she began to talk. She chewed a little bit more before swallowing. Whatever Zane had made- some kind of fish, maybe? Whatever it was- it was good. “Here, I don’t have to pretend that I like things. It’s good- really.” 

Zane smiled sadly, sitting on the floor beside her desk. 

“Thank you.” He said. 

They both searched themselves for words, and something unspoken went between them. Neither of them found exactly what they were looking for, so they sat in silence with the other’s company. After all, neither of them was good at speaking. 

I’ve never really gotten to just pass time with people like this before. I don’t think I’ve ever had real friends. It’s nice, I think, if we could be called friends. 

I can’t help but feel different from the other ninja. I cannot understand them. We are close, but… it is nice to have company. 

Weeks passed. Some days dawned bright, and the ninja rose with the sun, but some days dawned a sort of dark and gloomy which kept the ninja in their beds. Wu insisted they train no matter what the mood of the dawn was. They were training for something, he insisted. He soon told them what it was. 

Wu told them the tale of his brother Garmadon, who he feared had been stuck upon the path of evil for far too long. 

There was a little increased urgency to their training. It was not enough, though. Harumi could see it in how Wu watched them. He expected more than they could give, and Harumi pushed herself harder than ever. Wu reminded her that he could not be more proud of where she had come, but she began to have a hard time believing it. 

It soon came time to put their training to the test. 

The ninja moved as fast as they could, each on their own vehicle but more or less keeping pace with the group. Harumi led the team on Wu’s instructions, pushing forward through the scorching desert heat. They pushed onwards, just passing through the desert on the most direct way to their destination. 

Their destination appeared on the horizon, and the ninja pushed on just a little bit faster for the final stretch. Harumi squinted, leaning as far forward on her bike as she could without losing her balance. The engine strained, and Harumi almost audibly apologised. 

As soon as they could see their destination, they could see the smoke rising. They parked their vehicles as close as they were willing to risk, jumping down and running the rest of the way to the scene. She felt panic rising, tightening her throat and choking her. 

“What happened here?” Kai asked for her. They all stared, wide-eyed at the wreckage, the acrid smell of burning wood and something else foul filling the air. 

“Darkley’s boarding school.” Zane said. “Or it appears, what used to be Darkley’s boarding school.” 

“Darkley’s.” Jay wrinkled his nose. “Don’t they have a bad reputation?”

Zane nodded solemnly. 

They learned the details from the few survivors that they could recover. A terrorist attack, perhaps, or a prank gone horribly wrong. The disaster, whatever it’s nature had been, had been no accident. There had been something deliberate behind it, though what it was remained shrouded in mystery. Almost each survivor gave the same testimony, or said nothing at all. They had heard an explosion. The buildings began to collapse, the top floors completely burying the bottom as they fell. Any clues beneath the wreckage had certainly been destroyed, though the wreck was too dangerous to search for it. 

A fire burned somewhere within the ruins, black smoke rising to the sky like a beacon. A sinking feeling had begun in Harumi’s gut. She led the ninja home, feeling worse and worse as the black cloud disappeared behind them. 

“Back already?” Wu looked surprised to see them. Harumi could not meet his gaze. 

“There was nothing we could do.” Kai said. “We’re sorry, Sensei.” 

The feeling did not go away. She could not shake the feeling of guilt by laying in her room, nor writing in her journal, so she took to training. She rose before the sun and did not allow herself to rest until the sunset. If she had been stronger, if she had been there, she could have stopped it. The news reached the monastery of spinjitzu and the ninja had all gathered around as Kai read it out loud. The mystery surrounding the disaster remained, though the people of Ninjago suspected some kind of terrorist group. 

Harumi pushed herself harder than ever. She had to hone every skill to perfection. Even if she couldn’t change the past, she could make sure it never happened again. She would become stronger, and would be there before things went down. It was her destiny, after all, she had to be the Green Ninja. 

At first, he could not walk. He pulled himself forward, clawing and scratching his way out from beneath the fallen boards. His classmates had not been as lucky as he had. He could hear their weak voices, muffled by the debris which had crushed their small bodies. He squeezed his eyes closed and continued to claw his way forward. There was no time to stop and mourn. The smell of something burning was growing stronger with every passing second.  

When he gathered the strength, he began to crawl. He crawled away from the smoking ruins, through the dust and the dirt. Sweat dripped down his face, but he did not stop to raise a dirty sleeve to wipe it. 

He drew himself to his feet as soon as he gathered the strength. Black spots swam in his vision and pulsed in time with his rushing heartbeat. Still, he moved forward, taking stumbling steps as he fell. 

When he recovered his rhythm, he began to run. He did not stop running. He slowed down out of no choice of his own when his legs would no longer carry him, and he collapsed. 

Once more, he began to crawl, until he could no longer move. 

He woke up to bright lights and adults in doctor’s clothing. Every part of him ached, his body and his mind. A pounding headache shook him, and he squeezed his eyes shut and prayed the light would vanish before he opened them again. 

“The school?”

“Likely.” 

“Do we have a name?”

“No.”

“School records?”

“Probably destroyed.” 

“Hey, kid.”

He opened one eye. Two people in white coats stood before him. The first smiled gently, the second standing a little bit farther away with no expression at all. 

“Do you have a name?” The first asked. The second still said nothing. 

…

“Did you go to Darkley’s?”

…

“Hm. You’re quite the quiet one.” 

Chapter Text

Lloyd Garmadon sat in front of the empty house, staring out towards the sunset. The wind blew gently, and he wished he had a jacket. A few stray strands of blond hair fell into his eyes, but his gaze was fixed upon the darkening sky. 

“Lloyd! Come inside!” 

A voice from the house called him back, and Lloyd stood. He brushed his hair back and stood slowly, taking a sweeping look at the horizon. They lived at the edge of the village. Before them was forest and beyond that was desert, and somewhere around that was a certain pile of rubble that he did not wish to return to. 

He turned back into the house, his footsteps heavy on the creaking wood. The house was nearly empty, only holding the bare essentials. Everything else had been packed in boxes and crates and had been taken in trucks to Ninjago City. He only had a few more days in this house, then their new apartment would be ready and they could finally leave. 

His parents sat at the table borrowed from a kind neighbour, dinner on paper plates and water in plastic cups. His mother beckoned him to the table, and he sat in the chair that had already been pulled out for him. 

The man and woman at the table were not his true parents. His father had been Lord Garmadon, but he had never known him well. Lord Garmadon had left when Lloyd had been young, giving him his name but nothing else. His mother had not wanted him. Like his father, his mother looked for the first chance she got to leave him behind. She had left him in that school and she had not returned. 

His adoptive parents had been looking for a child at the time he had arrived in the village. They took Lloyd in as soon as the doctors let him go and cared for him, but he did not feel the same way for them as they felt for him. They loved him as a child and they were doing well to raise him, but Lloyd could not bring himself to care. 

Why had Garmadon left? Lloyd did not know, but he asked himself the question every day as if one day he would wake up with an answer. 

The next two days crawled by with nothing to do in the empty house. Lloyd had kept one book with him, something about old Ninjago mythology. It had not particularly interested him before, but the skies began to pour rain and he could no longer spend his days outside. 

He began to read it, skimming the worn pages. Dragons. Humans with the power to command elements. A dark island, hidden beneath the ocean on the other half of the world. The Boiling Sea, a stretch of ocean with something treacherous hidden beneath it. 

Only one page caught his eye. 

The Oni Masks. 

He began to study the page, taking in every word twice, though there were not many words on each page. He studied the pictures, though in the end, he closed the book and did not think about it again for a long time. 

The ride into Ninjago City was long. Lloyd sat in the back seat of his parent’s small car, squeezed between suitcases and boxes with the last of their things. He stared out the window as the buildings became taller and taller, less farmland and more concrete. They stopped a few times along the way to eat something and stretch their legs. 

They finally stopped in the centre of the city, parking the car in a strange kind of place, and taking their things up more flights of stairs than Lloyd wanted to count. By the end of the day, he was exhausted and his parents were as well. 

On the first morning, he woke up in a disoriented daze. He stared around the strange room, towards the strange horizon outside of his window. His things were still in boxes in the large room he now had to himself. He slid off the mattress on the floor, stumbling towards the window. He studied the new view. He could get used to living here. 

Through his new neighbours, he heard tales of masked ninja. Apparently, elemental masters had not been simple village folklore. They showed up at the right times, the five of them, and saved people from unimaginable evils. 

Something clicked in Lloyd’s head. Where had the ninja been on that day? His mind ventured back to the school. He had not seen the ninja, and they did not save him from evil. He had only been lucky. The ninja had not saved him, nor had they saved his classmates. His neighbours began to praise the ninja, and Lloyd’s face twitched. He wrinkled his nose as he tuned their praise out, choosing to live within his own thoughts for a little while longer. 

They called it the Great Devourer. 

It crashed through the streets of Ninjago City in a mindless rage, crushing anything in its path without mercy. 

“We’re stuck.” Lloyd’s mother called, trying the door with tears in her eyes. A part of their apartment building had taken a glancing blow from the Devourer as it persuaded some kind of prey in the street below. Their apartment had not taken heavy damage yet, though it was simply a matter of time before it did. The hallway had collapsed, blocking their only exit. The height of the place prevented any hope of escape through the windows. Lloyd’s stomach churned as the remaining parts of the building swayed dangerously underneath his feet, but he could not move. 

His father made an attempt to push the door open, slamming into it from a short running start, but it did not budge. They were sealed in, and the building’s fate was theirs. 

A loud noise from outside shook the ground, making the building tremble on the verge of collapse. His mother began to sob, holding her face in her hands as she shook. She screamed into her hands as his father embraced her without words. Lloyd had never heard her so wrecked, so defeated. The miserable sound spurred him to his feet, and he ran into his bedroom to escape it. 

The Devourer was just outside. It faced someone who Lloyd recognised from a deep memory- his father, wielding the Golden Weapons. Lloyd ran to his window, pressed against it so close that his breath fogged up the glass. He quickly wiped the fog away, his hands remaining on the cool pane. 

His father was there. Lloyd wanted to cry out, but he knew his father would not hear him. Why? Why did you leave? He hit the glass as he began to cry. Hot tears clouded his vision, but he did not want to lose sight of his father. 

For a moment, Lloyd wished the battle would not end, so that he could see his father just a second longer. He lost sight of it too soon, but he knew what had happened. 

His father had defeated the Devourer. The ninja had been credited with the day. His father had left, again. His father had not looked at him. 

He watched the news broadcast from a family friend’s television, sitting in between his parents in a small house far from the wrecked parts of the city. It had taken a long time, but they had finally been rescued. Nobody spoke much and nobody did much. Lloyd clutched his mythology book against his chest, not feeling much of anything. The room was almost full with other families like his, scared and quiet, staring at the TV. 

The reporter stood in front of the palace where the Emperor and Empress lived, with the five ninja and their old master. A bit of anger rose in Lloyd as he stared at them, breaking the monotony of his numbness. The ninja smiled at the camera and at the crowd as reporters took pictures and asked questions. 

The Emperor and Empress gave a short address, thanking the ninja for their good work. Lloyd’s mouth twisted into a frown. The ninja had not saved anybody. He remembered the way his mother had cried. He remembered the way he had stared out the window and thought that there was no way to escape out of it, how his thought had been interrupted by the falling body of an upstairs neighbour, how he had thought that the escape attempt was foolish, and when he realised that the man’s intentions had never been to escape with his life. 

He remembered that his father had been the one to defeat the Devourer, but the reporter did not mention his name. Lloyd held his book tighter, unsure of why he had brought it with him when the firemen came with their ladders and empty reassuring words. 

The Emperor was the only one who spoke as the Empress stood quietly beside him, adorned in jewels and rich silk. The Emperor acknowledged each of the ninja by name and praised them. He spoke for the longest to the one in green. He congratulated her and Lloyd saw true pride in his eyes when he called her his daughter. 

He longed for something like that, but he knew that that wish would not be granted. His father had not looked at him. He put his hands over his ears to block out the sound of the old television, squeezing as tight as he could before he was sure his skull would split open from the pressure. 

He lay in bed that night, staring up at the ceiling. He shared the tiny guest bedroom with his parents and another family whose home had been destroyed. There was only one bed, which was taken by the parents of the other family and their newborn child held between them. The rest of the people slept on roll-out pads or the floor. Lloyd had been lucky enough to have a pillow to rest his head on. 

Something clicked in his mind as he stared up at the darkness. Harumi had earned her father’s love. He would have to, as well. His father had not looked at him because he had not done anything to be deserving of it. He could not catch the gaze of Lord Garmadon from the edge of the battle. He would have to do more. 

One day, he told himself as he rolled over on the thin pad, hugging the thin sheet tighter to his body. One day. 

He began to doze off as the beginnings of a plan pieced themselves together in his tired mind. 

Chapter Text

Harumi stood alone in front of the doors of Sensei Garmadon’s monastery. She closed her eyes, carefully extending one hand to push the doors open. She flinched as her hand made contact with the wood and the doors opened slowly. The doors were not very heavy to her, and she pushed through them with her shoulder. She closed them carefully behind herself, not turning her back to the dirt path ahead of her. 

The monastery was certainly alive and she sensed no malice within its walls. The other ninja believed that Garmadon was doing well to atone for his crimes by swearing himself to a life of peace, and Harumi wanted to believe it as well. 

The day was still bright, though night was fast approaching. The monastery was a long ride from New Ninjago City, where Wu forced her and the other ninja to humour his wish to be teachers by day. 

“I’m a ninja.” Harumi had laughed nervously. “What could I possibly teach them?”

“Ninjago history.” Kai had suggested. “You’re also the princess, you should know something about it.” 

“The royal family is like a figurehead. They don’t have any real power. It’s just tradition.” Harumi had said. “Besides, I don’t think children are very interested in that.” 

Wu was very firm and did not let her avoid this responsibility. 

“You just want to do it because your brother’s teaching kids, too, right?” Kai had asked, to no response from Wu. 

Harumi left as soon as she could after school, changing into her much-more-comfortable green gi. She parked her bike just outside the monastery, leaving her weapons behind in its secret compartment. 

She found Sensei Garmadon where Wu had said she would find him in one of the more central buildings of the place. She waited nervously just outside the door, her old habit of holding her hands clasped together in front of her resurfacing once again. She stood up a little straighter, pulling her shoulders back and searching for appropriate first words to say. 

“May I enter?” She asked. 

Sensei Garmadon turned away from the small altar, though Harumi could not tell to whom it was dedicated at first glance. 

“Yes. Come in.” He smiled, and Harumi allowed herself to cross the threshold. 

They sat on the floor mats, facing each other, alone together in the room. Harumi had brought some questions for him, questions which had been bothering her for a long time. She asked them, and Garmadon did his best to answer them. They were questions about everything, questions about the elemental powers, the nature of the Golden Weapons, the nature of Ninjago. They were questions she had asked Wu, but he had not given her a clear answer. In her frustration, she had turned to Garmadon in the hopes that he would give her the answer that Wu would not. 

Harumi respected Wu, but he was a man of many secrets. 

Sorrow played across Garmadon’s face when she pushed him to answer her questions about the Golden Weapons and the Serpentine Wars. Those were questions, he told her, that could have been asked to a younger version of himself. He had seen too much fighting in his life and wanted nothing more than to escape it. 

Still, he answered her questions. 

How had she come to be the Green Ninja? Neither of her parents were elemental masters. 

“The element of Energy is a strange one.” Garmadon had mused. “Perhaps destiny chose the one most worthy to wield it, regardless of her parentage.” 

He invited Harumi to visit again, and she did. It was not very often at first, only when she had questions for him, but over time she started spending more and more of her time off there. They quickly grew close, becoming like friends and then like family. 

She understood why he had to sacrifice himself to halt Chen’s crazy ambition, but it felt like she was losing her father. Then, she had to sacrifice him again in the belly of the Preeminent to save Ninjago once more. He told her not to mourn- if he could sacrifice himself to save Ninjago, then he would accept that fate with grace. Still, she wept. She had sworn that she would never let anybody be hurt again, but the longer she tried to keep that promise, the more impossible it felt. 

The Devourer had brought Ninjago City to its knees and left more dead than living to bury them in some parts of the city. She had failed to save them, as she had failed to save Morro, as she had failed to save her father. 

After the battle with the Devourer, the Emperor had congratulated her and called her his daughter, but she could tell that he did not mean his words. They were for the press, not for her. She had smiled politely for the cameras. She had never thought of him as her father. 

Ever since she had been a little girl, she had read books about children and their parents, how they had loved each other as family. She had snuck looks at the Emperor and Empress, but she had not been able to see her stories in them. Garmadon had given her everything that they couldn’t. 

That no longer mattered. He was gone. 

He was gone. He had been gone for a very long time. 

Lloyd scowled at the newspaper he had taken from his adoptive father. Ninjago City had been rebuilt after the Devourer, and though the city no longer carried the scars of the battle, they were still fresh wounds in his mind. 

‘Sensei Garmadon’ had died. That did not matter. Lord Garmadon had been dead for a long time, replaced by an empty shell of a man sworn to peace, sworn to a path of good. Revolting. It made Lloyd sick. 

Garmadon’s change had done nothing to change the hate within Lloyd’s heart. Actually, on the contrary. It had done everything to change the hate within Lloyd’s heart for the worst. Garmadon had changed for the better. Lloyd smiled, proud to know that he could never say the same. 

His father had lost himself. Lloyd had to help him find himself again. He would help his father regain his strength and earn his respect. 

The pieces of his plan finally began to finish falling into place, though there were still a few loose ends. 

He could give his father power, but he still had a few more people that he would like to deal with. 

The ninja had not protected him. They had been falsely credited with the day they did not save. They smiled for the cameras like movie stars, and none of them had known a day of the pain Lloyd had felt. He would make them feel his pain. One day, he would make sure that they felt what he had felt, what all of Ninjago had felt, the day of their greatest failure. 

Harumi was the worst ninja of all. To say she was the most worthy one among them was a glorious lie that Lloyd refused to believe. Worst of all, she had earned his broken father’s love. Who was she to have what he couldn’t? He was the son of Garmadon. His father should have chosen him to love, so why would he pick her? He had not been in his right mind. He would show him the truth, that Lloyd was the one deserving of his love, and he would make Harumi suffer the worst of all, and remind her that she had no place to call Garmadon her father. 

His broken father had sworn himself to peace at the feet of the Emperor and Empress, and for that, Lloyd chose to hate them as well. After all, hating the Emperor and Empress could earn him some dangerous friends. 

He and his dangerous friends bided their time, waiting from the shadows for their perfect moment. Each tick of the clock’s second hand brought him closer to the hour of his revenge. 

Lloyd listened to the gentle ticking of his alarm clock, staring up at the ceiling. His plan consumed every waking hour like an insatiable hunger. The more he thought about it, the more restless he became. He hugged his journal tightly to his chest. It held the pages torn out from his mythology book, and pages and pages of notes and research and details and plans. He hid it from his adoptive parents. They could not know. Nobody could know until he was ready, but once he was ready, all of Ninjago would know his name. 

Chapter Text

They came at night, maybe six of them in the group, all wearing masks and something resembling armour. They wielded swords, though Harumi could tell who had trained and who had not. One took an awkward stance, glancing behind themself every other second. A few held their blades warily at arms length. One in particular wielded their twin blades with mechanical precision. They walked in silence. Perhaps they had not been breathing. Harumi could not believe that they were walking, rather, they floated just above the ground. 

The others’ breathing was muffed by their helmets, identically decorated but of vastly different make and model. One appeared to be a size much too big for its owner. Except for the one in red, Harumi could tell that they were a ragtag team thrown together not very long ago. She would believe that a few of them had not had any formal training at all. 

Their target was clear. An Oni mask, owned by Cyrus Borg. The one in red had little trouble retrieving it, cold and calculating as clockwork. 

Harumi crashed their little party once she had learned enough. 

The lights of New Ninjago City swirled and flashed beneath her as she leapt and spun through the air as if gravity no longer bound her to the ground. She pursued the red one, the mask in one of their hands. The others had easily dropped, right into the hands and handcuffs of New Ninjago City’s police. The red one proved more of a challenge. 

“Pix! Bike, please!” Harumi called, watching the freeway fast approaching. 

“Yes, Master Harumi.” Pixal’s smooth voice filled her earpiece. 

“You know how to find me.” She said, turning her attention back to her target. They moved too expertly to have been trained by any master, too perfectly to be human, though the mask was still tightly clutched in their hand and Harumi’s task was to retrieve it. Clearly, both of them had been sent to the mask, and one of them would not return home happy. 

The mystery man met with his vehicle, crashing dangerously onto the road below and speeding east down the freeway. 

Harumi met her motorcycle in midair as her opponent had, gasping once as she hit the seat and once again as the bike met the road. She quickly pulled her goggles from beneath her hood, adjusting their fit on her face with one hand but never taking her eye off her target. 

“I’ve got it from here.” Harumi said. 

“If you say so.” Pixal said unreassuringly, and turned off her bike’s autopilot. It veered dangerously to the side for a moment before Harumi wrestled control back. She followed the stranger, following his glaring red taillights as they streaked through the night. 

He turned on a dime as they approached the interchange, making a few careful turns and riding through the westbound traffic still due east. Cars honked, swerving to avoid the masked man as he drove, unfazed, through the oncoming onslaught of traffic. Harumi narrowed her eyes, speeding up as fast as her bike would go. Cars collided as they swerved to avoid the mystery man, two to Harumi’s left and quite a few to her right. She drove through the opening the mystery man had created, moving to the right to ride right on the line dividing the lanes as quickly as she could. 

In her caution, she had lost her target. She quickly found him again, his lights standing out against the white headlights. He was too far ahead and moving too fast. Harumi would need to cut him off. 

“Pixal, can you tell me where they’re going?” Harumi yelled, the wind tearing the sound from her voice. 

“I cannot. They appear to be going east, but I cannot access their GPS.” 

“Where does this highway end?” 

“It goes all the way to and through the desert.” 

“Is there a way to cut them off?” 

“If we do not know their destination, then I am afraid not.” 

Harumi waited for the next break in traffic to move to the shoulder lane, slowing to a stop. It would be pointless and a waste of fuel to pursue him farther. Harumi 

pulled her hood off, setting the goggles on her forehead and wiping sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. 

“Get the team back together.” 

And one Oni mask fell into Lloyd’s hands. 

“I need a favour.” 

“And what would the Green Ninja need?”

“Please. Think of it as a favour for an old friend.” 

Hutchins cracked a smile. 

“You ought to use the door, old friend.” 

“I’m a ninja.” Harumi grinned. “Ninja don’t need doors.” 

She had entered the palace courtyard over the back wall, where she had known that the guards had a blind spot and prayed that there still was. There wasn’t much time to ask for an audience and even less time to explain why she needed Hutchins. 

“You need to take the Oni mask and hide it again. Keep it a secret.” Harumi said, her voice dropping so that only she, Hutchins, and the wind between them could hear her. “Somebody is trying to collect them. One’s already been stolen.”

“By who?” 

“I’m not sure.” Harumi said. “There were six of them, one got away, and the other five aren’t talking. One did say something, though. It got my attention.” 

She had stood in the corner while two police officers interrogated one of the detained. He has said next to nothing, save one phrase.

“You’ll never stop the Sons of Garmadon!” 

He hadn’t said anything else of use. Harumi had looked up at the name, remembering it and repeating it in her head until she got back to the empty Monastery of Spinjitzu to ask Pixal to search for anything and everything she could find using the name. 

She hadn’t come up with much. An insignia. Only one name. No previous crimes. Harumi saved the picture of its insignia. The name had been Garmadon’s. She knew everything she had to know about him. 

“Sons of Garmadon.” She had mused, leaning over the computer. “I can’t remember him talking about a child.” 

“He did consider you his daughter.” Pixal had said, as much as she could say from the computer screen. “But that is all I know.” 

“Did he have a wife? Husband?”

“He did have a wife, some time ago.” 

“Find her.” 

“The Sons of Garmadon.” Harumi told Hutchins. “They use this symbol.” She pulled up the image and showed it to him, and he nodded. “Do you know anything about it?”

“I am afraid not.” Hutchins said. “But I will look after the mask.” 

“Where will you take it?”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret.”

Harumi knew she could entrust the task to Hutchins. She left the way she had come. The sky was growing brighter, but she still had somebody else to visit. 

“I’m looking for Mystaké?” Harumi asked, pushing open the tea shop’s door. It was empty, save for an old woman hunched over the counter, sorting something beneath it. She had the same aged look at Wu, as if wisdom, not age, had made her grow old. 

“Mystaké? Never heard of her!” The old woman called. 

“Please. I need to talk to her.” Harumi said. “I’m doing… research.” She said. “It’s for a school project.” 

She’d never felt particularly bad for lying. She’d lied to the Emperor and Empress. She’d lied to Hutchins, on occasion. It had been more convenient for her then and it was more convenient for her now. She didn’t know enough about her problem at hand to explain herself with the truth. 

“You’re lying.” Mystaké said curtly. 

“Huh?” 

“You’re lying. I see it in your eyes. What do you really want?” 

Harumi sighed. 

“I need to know about the Oni masks.”

“Why?” 

“Someone’s after them. I don’t know why, but they’re up to no good.” Harumi said. “Please. I need your help. Wu’s gone, Garmadon’s gone, and I don’t know who else to talk to.” 

“What do you need to know?” 

Mystaké told her things that Wu wouldn’t. Things about the Oni and the Dragons, things about the Oni masks, things about Wu and Garmadon and herself. Harumi listened, sitting in the back of the tea shop while Mystaké told her the stories. Still, she couldn’t quite piece together what any of the information had to do with each other. Garmadon had never mentioned any children. Who could the Sons of Garmadon possibly be? What could they want? Garmadon had been a good man, at the end of his life. What could his legacy do with the Oni Masks? 

She thanked Mystaké as many times as she could on her way out. 

“Did you find the wife?” Harumi asked Pixal through her earpiece. “Bike, please, Pix.” 

“Right away, Master Harumi. I found a little bit of information about his wife.” 

“What do we know?”

“Her name is Misako. She worked at the Ninjago History Museum, but I cannot find any information from the last two years.” Pixal said. “It’s as if she vanished.”

“Dead?” Harumi took a quick look across the street, running across to meet her bike. As soon as she got on, Pixal gave her back control and Harumi got to drive herself home. 

“If she had died, I would be able to find a death certificate.” 

“Did she have any children?”

“None recorded.” 

Harumi frowned. 

“Any other partners?”

“None that I could find. I advise you to hurry back. The ninja are waiting for you.”

“An Oni mask?”

“The Oni mask!”

“Didn’t we send five of us out to get it?”

“Six.”

“Who’s that guy?”

The Sons of Garmadon gathered beneath the city, in the abandoned subway station they’d taken and made their own. One among them stood out. The one with the mask. 

“Can we touch it?”

“Let me hold it!”

“Is it the real deal?”

“Only the Quiet One touches the mask.” Killow bellowed, his voice slapping the prying hands away. 

“We left with six and came back with one.” A voice called from the crowd. “How do we tell the Quiet One that?”

“We have the mask. That’s what the Quiet One wanted.” Killow said. 

That was, indeed, all the Quiet One wanted. He met Mr. E in the tunnels, taking the mask without a word passing between them. He looked at it and inspected it carefully, each and every crack and crevice, where it was chipped on the side from some previous battle. Power coursed through it. Power unlike anything Lloyd had felt before. Power enough to bring Ninjago to its knees. Power enough to buy him respect. He smiled in the dark, Mr. E standing in perfect silence. 

Lloyd gave Mr. E the mask to keep and use. Mr. E was loyal to him. He could trust the robot, because he was just that. He was a robot, a nindroid, programmed to be true to him and nobody else. Of all the Sons of Garmadon, Lloyd could only be certain that he could trust Mr. E. 

As for the other five who had left for the mask with him, they easily slipped his mind. They were fools, who could easily spill secrets, but none of them had known his goals. The masks were all he cared about, for now. He had one now. They had taken it quietly. Cyrus Borg had quite a collection of artifacts, surely he wouldn’t mind Lloyd borrowing one. 

The next of the masks would take a little more to get. The third would be the hardest. One day at a time, Lloyd told himself, one day at a time. 

Lloyd went home as if nothing had happened. He blended into the crowd of afternoon traffic exiting the subway.

“I’m home.” He called. 

“How was school?” His adoptive mother called. His fake mother, standing in the other room. 

“Good!” Lloyd put on a smile, dropping his backpack by the door. It held books, pens, paper- but he hadn’t been at school. He hadn’t been to school for a long time. It made him feel on-edge. Anxious. As if something could happen at any time. The building could collapse. The building could explode. Each ordinary creak and crash sent his heart and mind racing. 

“What’d you learn today?” He hadn’t been able to learn anything for a long time. After all, he already knew everything he had to. About his real father. About his real mother. 

“Things.” Lloyd shrugged. 

“That’s what you said yesterday.” His fake father said, putting on his hat. He moved behind Lloyd to leave. He had found new work in New Ninjago City, a night shift at one of Cyrus Borg’s factories. “What kind of things?”

“We learned about the Oni.” Lloyd said. 

“Those bedtime stories?” His fake father asked. 

“Not just bedtime stories. They’re real.” 

“What kind of things are they teaching you?” His fake father ruffled Lloyd’s hair. It took everything he had not to wrinkle his nose and back away from the touch. “See you in the morning, son.”

“Bye, Dad!” 

The Oni were real. With luck, all of Ninjago would know it. No, Lloyd told himself, not luck. His plan. His carefully-crafted plan. His perfect plan he’d spent everything on. 

He watched the royal palace, waiting for the right time. The Emperor and Empress had one of the Oni Masks. The fact was rather convenient for him. Most of the Sons of Garmadon were a different kind of people. They couldn’t understand what his father was to him or why he had to do what he had to do, but putting a target on the heads of Ninjago’s Emperor and Empress was enough to convince them that they wanted the same things. They were simple people, disposable henchmen for Lloyd to hire, and he wanted all the hands he could get. 

Harumi returned to the palace, and Lloyd knew that it wasn’t for a father-daughter reunion. The other ninja were with her, welcomed into the palace without ceremony, but the palace was a rather public place. Nothing that went in or out went unnoticed. They were there to guard the Oni mask. Lloyd just knew. After all, what else could they be there for? He told his disposable henchmen it was time, and his revolution started with a bang and a cheer as the royal palace went up in flames. 

He was careful to be caught in the riots. Crossing paths with the ninja didn’t hinder his plans. Actually, he was thankful that they had involved themselves. It made his work a little too easy. 

“Help!” He called into the fires. It had been easy enough to sneak into the burning palace under the cover of all the chaos. “Anyone?!” He began to panic, the fires suddenly too hot, the air thin and suffocating. A section of the ceiling groaned, splintering and missing Lloyd by almost nothing. The roof on its way to collapse and bring the upper levels with it. A gamble Lloyd should never have made. 

“Nya! Zane! Put out as much of the fire as you can! Cole, you go that way, get as many people out as you can. I’ll go this way. Jay! Kai! Don’t let them get the mask!” Lloyd heard Harumi’s voice. 

“HELP!” He spun and yelled in Harumi’s direction. He had been here too long. The room around him began to grow blurry. Shallow breathing. The room swaying on its own. All sounds a little too faint for comfort. 

Harumi appeared in the doorway. She shouted something to him, but he couldn’t make it out. He collapsed to his knees through no choice of his own. Harumi must have carried him out. He felt grass beneath his hands and back and gasped for breath. 

“Are you alright?” Nya asked. He hadn’t noticed her until she had stopped right beside her. She walked quietly, and her grey and blue gi blended into the evening. 

Lloyd found himself staring at her, then remembered his character. He quickly shook his head. 

“I- my parents!” Lloyd exclaimed. “Where are they?” 

“Who are your parents?” Nya asked. 

Lloyd lied, describing people he knew didn’t exist. Servants, personal staff to the Empress. A man and a woman. He watched Nya’s gaze become fearful as he went into more detail. 

“I’m sorry.” Nya whispered. “We saved everyone that we could.” 

“You mean…”

“I’m sorry.” 

Perfect. 

“We’re sorry, Harumi.” Jay said mournfully. They stood on the deck of the ninja’s flying ship. The Destiny’s Bounty. 

“We failed.” Kai said. “They got the mask.” 

It took everything in Lloyd not to grin. Another mask had fallen into his hands. 

“Then they almost have all of them.” Harumi muttered. “We have to get moving.” 

“But we still do not know the location of the third mask.” Zane said. 

“Mask?” Lloyd asked, keeping his own mask on, his innocent expression. 

“Who is this?” Cole asked. 

“This is Lloyd. His parents… didn’t make it out.” Nya said. “He said he has family just outside the city, but I don’t think we’ll find them in this mess.” 

“Like the Oni Masks?” Lloyd asked. 

“How do you know about the Oni Masks?” Kai narrowed his eyes. 

“The Emperor and Empress have one.” Lloyd said. “And they said it was one of three.” 

“What do you know about the Oni Masks?” Harumi asked. 

“There were three. The Emperor and Empress have one, a collector has one, and nobody knows where the third one is. They say an adventurer found it and made a map, but nobody can find the map either, and even if you had the map it’s almost impossible to reach it.” 

That much was true. That was the part Lloyd needed the ninja for. He would never be able to get to the mask on his own, and they were a ride straight to it.

“Go on.” Kai said. 

“When the masks come together, they can make a portal. They can bring back an Oni from the dead.” Lloyd said. “But on their own, they’re powerful. My parents always said not to get too close.” 

“A map.” Harumi frowned. “We have to get it before the Sons of Garmadon.”

“Sons of Garmadon?” Lloyd asked. Hopefully his innocence didn’t sound fake. It had been a long time since he had felt anything like it. 

“The gang responsible for this.” Zane explained. “Little is known about them.”

Lloyd pretended to think for a moment. 

“Hmm.”

“What is it, Lloyd?” Nya asked.

“I think I’ve heard that before.” Lloyd looked up into the faces of the ninja. On TV, they had been smiling. In person, they looked a little more real. A little younger. A little smaller. A little more like him. It was enough to make him stumble over his thoughts. “I was- I was exploring. I found an abandoned subway tunnel a-and I went in. There were people in there, and they said… ‘don’t come down here! This place belongs to the Sons of Garmadon!’.”

“Where was that?” Harumi asked. “Please. I know it’s a lot to ask, but if you found their headquarters… we need your help.” 

“Really?” Lloyd asked, eyes widening. 

He told them it would be his honour to help the ninja, his heroes. They looked more desperate than honoured. 

They retrieved the map that Lloyd had been careful to put somewhere just hidden enough that they could find it. They returned with it, relieved and excited. Lloyd felt the same way, but not for the same reason. Manipulating the ninja was so much easier than he had thought it would be. It was almost too easy. 

They offered to take Lloyd someplace safe, but Lloyd refused. He wanted to help the ninja, he said. The ninja looked at each other warily. 

“We can’t.” Harumi said. “It’s too dangerous.”

“They killed my parents.” Lloyd lied. “I want to help you.”

“I can’t risk anything happening to you.” Harumi said. Couldn’t she see that she already had? She had taken everything from him. Maybe she had forgotten, but he hadn’t. 

“He got us the map.” Zane said. “And he seems to know something about the Masks. Maybe he could be useful.” 

It took some time, and Lloyd began to fear that he was going to lose his ride to the Oni mask. He had gambled by giving them the map. If it didn’t pay off, he didn’t know what to do. Maybe he could beat them to the destination, but they were the only ones who could get him to the mask.

He had not gambled in vain. Harumi gave in. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling this time. 

They set off for the third Oni Mask, the ninja racing against the Sons of Garmadon, Lloyd winning either way. Victory on the horizon right next to the sun as the Bounty bore onwards, full speed ahead, the wind in Lloyd’s hair and New Ninjago City behind him. He laughed. Victory at last. 

“It’s really something else, isn’t it?” Harumi asked. Lloyd jumped, surprised by how quiet all the ninja managed to walk. 

“Huh?” Lloyd asked, quick to get back into his character. 

“It’s so peaceful here.” Harumi smiled, pulling the hair sticks out of her bun and letting her long hair down to move as the wind desired. She held them in her hand, leaning onto the railing of the Bounty. She was much younger in person. Lloyd’s age. None of the makeup she had worn on TV. Her green gi sleeves rolled to her elbows. Had they been too long for her?

“You’re Princess Harumi.” Lloyd said. 

“Please.” She smiled. “Just Harumi.” 

“What’s it like?” Lloyd settled, copying the way she crossed her arms on the thick wooden railing. “Being the Jade Princess and the Green Ninja?” 

“I can’t tell.” Harumi looked out towards the horizon and Lloyd followed her gaze. “Can I tell you something?”

“Anything.”

“I’ve never felt like either.” She murmured. “I didn’t feel like the princess. I was never happy. I didn’t know anyone, I never got to do anything. I had to sneak out of the palace to even see the outside world. It was a shock every time. When Wu- he was my teacher- told me I was destined to be a ninja, I didn’t know what to think. I felt like a ninja for a while, but it wasn’t what I thought it would be.”

He hadn’t cared about the question, but her answer surprised him. 

“Really?” Lloyd asked. He couldn’t bring himself to coat the question with more words. 

“I know I can’t save everyone, but I can’t help but think I should.” Harumi looked down at the ground beneath as it sped by in a blur. “And if I couldn’t go back to the palace before, I really can’t now.”

“You lost your parents, too.” 

“We have that in common.” Harumi said. “Are you alright?” 

“Not really.” 

“You want to talk?”

“Not really.”

“I’m here, if you change your mind.” 

“Thank you.” 

Harumi’s words had given him something to think about, but it would take more than that to change Lloyd’s mind. After all, things were already in motion. One more mask and he could have everything he’d ever wanted. 

Chapter Text

They had been able to see the storm brewing upon the horizon for quite some time. Zane and Pixal had searched for any way around it, but came up empty. There was no time to go around it. They would have to fly through the storm. 

The Bounty creaked and complained, battered by the storm as Nya pushed it as fast as it would fly. 

Harumi found Lloyd by himself in the spare room they’d given him. He sat on the lower of the bunk beds, holding on to the railing as the ship rocked in the storm. 

“Hi.” Harumi said. “May I…?” 

Lloyd nodded, and Harumi took it as a yes. She closed the door behind herself and sat on the opposite side of the bed from Lloyd. She finished the song she had been humming, a lullaby she had heard from Hutchins, to keep herself calm during the storm. 

“We’re going to arrive soon.” Harumi said. “When we get there, we need you to stay on the ship. I know you want to come, but I have to keep you safe.” 

“No!” Lloyd’s sudden exclamation shocked the room itself. “I… I want to go with you.” He said. “I want to see the mask.” He whispered. “Just once. You’ll destroy it there, right? So the Sons of Garmadon won’t get it?” 

“Yes.” Harumi said. “I can’t risk it falling into the wrong hands.” 

“I won’t hold you back.” Lloyd insisted.

“No.” Harumi said. His face fell, and she had to remind herself of the magnitude of what she was doing. All three Oni masks would fall into the hands of the Sons of Garmadon if she failed here. 

“What was your father like?” 

The question caught Harumi off guard. 

“Hm?” She tilted her head, sure she had misheard him. What was that question doing so out of place?

“What was he like?” Lloyd pressed on. 

“He was distant. And cold.” Harumi muttered. “He was never there. He knew I existed, and he chose not to care. Hutchins did more to be my father. He was there for me, but his duty was to the Princess. Not me.”

“Oh.”

“Then Sensei Garmadon.” Harumi said, her eyes on the wall on the other side of the room so she did not see Lloyd stiffen. “I miss him. It took a long time, but he was like a father to me. A real one.” She smiled in fond memory.

“Did he regret anything?” Lloyd asked another strange question. Harumi ignored the sense of him prying into some personal space. He had lost his parents. He needed some time to collect himself.

“He never talked about any regrets.” Harumi said. “I don’t think he had any.”

“Did he talk about his life before becoming good?”

“He didn’t like to talk about it. He wanted to leave it behind and start a new one, become a new man.” 

“Did he talk about his family?”

“He talked about Wu.” Harumi said, trying to think back to their conversations. “And his father, once or twice. He never said he had any children of his own.” 

“Oh.”

“Why?”

“No reason.”

“Are you alright?” 

Harumi caught Lloyd’s gaze, and he quickly looked away. 

“My father never had time for me.” He said bitterly. “He forgot about me.”

Harumi tried to reach out, to lay a hand on his shoulder and comfort him, but he quickly slapped her hand away. 

“I’m sorry. I want to be alone.” 

Lloyd’s blood boiled. He gripped the wooden railing tighter in his hand, the firm thing not bending in his grasp. A scream built inside him. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to shout and kick and trash this room, but there was no place to scream. The ninja would hear. The ninja would come, and they would ask questions. They would ask him questions that he couldn’t answer. They would ask him questions that he would have to answer, and he wouldn’t be able to stay in character. He hated the ninja. He hated Harumi. They would give him comforting words. She would touch him and say something to make herself feel better. 

He took a deep breath, which did nothing to calm him. The storm raged outside, as if it was taking all the hatred from his heart and raining hell in payment, though rage as it did, Lloyd felt no better.

Endure it, he told himself. His gamble would pay off. All he needed was the mask. That was all that mattered now. His pain was secondary. 

The Sons of Garmadon met the ninja on the ground, them and the storm bringing the Bounty crashing into the forest. They could not be happy about meeting them out in the storm in this way, but the mask was all that mattered. Lloyd’s pain was secondary, and their pain mattered even less. 

Forward momentum dragged the Bounty along the ground until it ground to a stop, losing a sail and an engine and leaving half the hull in a useless, splintered mess. 

Harumi pulled him from the room. Lloyd could barely move, paralysed with real, deep, genuine fear. 

“We can’t stay here. They’ll find us.” Kai said, shielding his eyes from the rain to no effect. The wind blew the rain sideways and in every direction. Water quickly soaked through all their clothes and began to pool in the wreckage of the Bounty. “How did this happen?”

“We have to go for the mask.” Harumi said. 

“We also have to protect the Bounty.” Zane said. “There is too much sensitive information on the computers, and we will need something to fly back to Ninjago.”

“I don’t think this ship is flying anywhere again.” Cole said. “But Zane’s right. We can’t let them get the Bounty.”

“I’ll go for the mask.” Harumi said. “The rest of you stay here.”

The ground shook but no lightning had flashed through the sky. From the trees, the Sons of Garmadon emerged, surrounding the Bounty. 

“The Quiet One will be pleased.” Ultra Violet winked at Lloyd. He couldn’t make any signal back. 

“The Quiet One?” Zane called. 

“Must be their leader.” Cole said. 

 The Sons of Garmadon began to close in. 

“Not good.” Kai said. “No time to argue, then.” 

Harumi disappeared from the deck of the Bounty. Lloyd thought quickly, running back inside to grab the map. She would have to take him along if he had it. He took it, hiding it from the storm as best he could underneath his sodden jacket. His feet slipped on the deck and he fell most of the way off the ship. Which way had Harumi gone? The mud didn’t hold her footprints well, and they mixed with tire tracks until he almost lost her trail. He ran, and prayed that he would find her. 

He caught up to her as she turned back. 

“What are you doing here?” Harumi asked, almost out of breath. 

“I thought you’d need the map!” Lloyd exclaimed, producing it from his jacket. “I couldn’t stay there. I’m sorry!”

“It’s fine.” Harumi took the map, turning it once, then once again. “Come on.” 

The storm hid his giggling as he followed Harumi through the pouring rain. 

They were careful not to move too fast, the ground threatening to give out every time they stepped in the wrong direction. The map led them to a rain-swollen river which had risen so far over its banks that the natural edge of the river had completely vanished. They walked in the forest alongside it, the ground beside it already completely saturated. At least in the forest, roots held the ground together. The journey was much too slow for either of their liking, but any time they tried to run, the ground held them back. It could have easily taken forever to reach the temple. 

The Oni Temple looked in front of them, coming out of the storm as if it had been marching slowly to meet them. They could see almost nothing in the rain. 

“The Oni Temple.” Lloyd breathed. They slipped inside, the entrance like a mouth of sharp teeth waiting to snap shut. Finally out of the storm, they took a moment to catch their breath. The inside of the temple had nearly no light. Harumi summoned a shining sphere of energy in her hands and sent it floating lazily upwards to the ceiling. It gave them almost no light, but it was better than nothing. 

Harumi made the first jump to the column sticking out of the shadowy floor. She peered downwards, summoning another ball of light but still not catching sight of a floor. 

Lloyd jumped to the column beside her and looked to the remaining distance in front of him. It was a long way, but compared to all the way he’d already come, it was nothing. His heart raced, and not just from the walk here. 

They moved slowly from stone to stone. A strange symbol appeared on a few of them. Harumi cautioned him away from touching it, but he did nonetheless. 

“Lloyd!” Harumi cried out, unable to reach out a hand from her column. The marked stone crumbled beneath him and he was just able to reach the one beside it. His legs dangled into the nothingness beneath him. Harumi had not seen a bottom, and neither of them could know if it truly did exist. If he had fallen, it would have been the end. He couldn’t die here. The mask was just beyond the shadows in front of him. He would claim his reward in just a moment, and with it, his world would be made right again. It would be that simple.

He pulled himself back onto the column and they pressed forward. 

What little light spilled through the open mouth didn’t reach the next part of the temple. Again, Harumi lit the way herself. Lloyd tried hard to focus. He did not know his way through this part of the temple, and he would have to memorise it to find his way out in the dark. 

Drawings covered the walls, drawings telling stories and a drawing of the same marking from before. 

“There has to be a way in.” Harumi said. “Maybe by breaking one of these walls.” 

“The one with the symbol on it?” Lloyd asked. 

“No. If it has the symbol, that must mean it’s a trap.” Harumi said. “But the Oni must have known this would be the conclusion of anyone who made it this far.”

Water trickled slowly through the hollowed-out space. It went without saying that one mistake would spell both their dooms. 

Harumi broke through the door in one blast and led the way to Lloyd’s prize. 

“The Mask of Hatred.” Harumi said, the horrible thing coming into view. “Stay here.” 

She made her way slowly across the narrow bridge, one foot in front of the other. Lloyd couldn’t wait any longer. It was right in front of him, and he couldn’t let her get it first. He ran, blocking out the sheer narrowness of the bridge from his mind. He pushed past Harumi, taking her balance but making it to the other side himself. 

She cried out, extinguishing the light from her hands and drawing her knife. She thrust it into the stone, stopping her fall as the metal screeched against stone. 

“Lloyd!” She yelled. “Lloyd, what are you doing?” 

He heard her scramble on the stone, trying to claw her way back up. 

She made it up as Lloyd’s fingertips brushed the violet flames bathing the mask. 

“Stop!” He heard her order and ignored it. A blast of energy hit him from the side, knocking him from the mask. 

“Don’t get in my way!” Lloyd yelled, picking himself up and running towards the mask again. Again, Harumi knocked him back. 

She ran for the mask too, and made it there first. She thrust her hand into the flames, but they held her back. She yelled and tried to push her hand in, but it did not let her take the mask. Gasping, she drew her hand back and cradled it against her chest. 

“Looks like only someone with Oni blood can take the mask.” Lloyd said, swiping the mask away. The fires extinguished themselves, and the final Oni Mask fell into Lloyd’s hands. 

“How?” Harumi whispered. 

“It’s an Oni temple. It makes sense that those of Oni blood can take-“

“No. How do you have Oni blood? Mystaké never had children. The First Spinjitzu Master had two children. Wu had none. G-“

She faltered. Lloyd turned the mask over in his hands. As perfect as the day it had been made. Silent. Powerful. Undamaged. Not a scratch or chip upon it as it had passed through the hands of collectors and historians. Power, all for him. 

“You’re the son of Garmadon.” Harumi said. “You’re the Quiet One. It all makes sense now. The questions. You were never anywhere by chance, were you? It was all too convenient.”

Lloyd did not answer. 

“Give me the mask.” Harumi said, summoning energy to both her hands in some kind of threatening motion, but no matter what she could produce, it would do nothing against the power of the Oni mask. 

“You don’t know how much I’ve suffered for this.” Lloyd growled, hugging it to his chest. They began to circle each other, around the podium where the mask once lay. 

“You didn’t have to.” 

“But I did, and it’s too late.” 

Lloyd put on the mask. Power surged through him, tearing through his body as if it was threatening to rip him apart. He laughed, uncontrollable, manic laughter. When he laughed, the sound came out warped and distorted in a voice that could command the world to its knees and crush it if so much as one person risked to disobey him. 

Hatred clouded his vision and his thoughts and soon he couldn’t think at all. Harumi might have attacked him, but he felt nothing. He might have fought her, and she likely lost. He could only be certain of two things- that he had put on the mask within the temple and he had taken it off outside of it. Everything else was a blur. 

The clouds had cleared, the ground still marshy and pooled with water. The mask was smooth and cold in his hands. Behind him, the mouth of the temple had closed, and he stood alone in front of it. Where was Harumi? This had not been his plan. She wasn’t meant to die here. 

The Sons of Garmadon met him shortly to take him home. There was no time to go back for Harumi, after all, things were in motion that couldn’t be stopped. 

Lloyd had a long ride back to think about things. He held the mask tightly, never letting it out of his grasp. He had suffered for it. He had nearly died for it more than once. He’d had to face all the horrible things he was trying to dispel from his mind along the way. Would the mask make good on its promise of such fantasy power? 

It had to.

And if it didn’t? 

Lloyd shook his head, trying to banish such thoughts. This was not the time for doubt. It was time for action. Still, he could not help but think. 

What is it that I want? 

He looked at the mask, tracing his finger along the painted lines.

This? 

The mask looked up at him and offered no answer. 

He turned his gaze back upwards to New Ninjago City as he raced towards it. He still had things to do here, and doubt had no place in his plans. 

Chapter Text

Lloyd gazed upon the face of his father. 

He had had little trouble finding everything he needed. He had been careful to make sure that nothing could go wrong, and nothing had. All three masks made it to that part of the royal palace, the fires that had raged inside long extinguished. It had rained, nothing like the storm that Lloyd had endured for the last mask, but it had rained enough to put out the fires in the streets and dampen the spirits of the Sons of Garmadon. 

The ritual had been simple. Lloyd had memorised it a long time ago- three masks, and a hair from the brother, the son, and the wife. 

It had been easy to find his brother, reduced to a helpless infant to be stolen away without a sound in the night, hidden somewhere safe, not for the safety of the child but for the security of Lloyd’s plan. 

Lloyd was the son. He knew it, soon all of Ninjago would know it, and his father would remember it. 

It had not been so easy to find his mother, but he had found her nonetheless. She had disappeared, living a life that was nearly untraceable. In the end, it had not saved her, and the Sons of Garmadon had found her. Lloyd had not been with them then, but those who had been there told him what had happened. They made it to the village, an isolated little place by the edge of the mountains, arriving with the dawn and making their demands. Find Misako. Bring her to us. They had sent out a warrior in a sword too heavy for his hands and a helmet made for a much larger man. He had not stopped the Sons of Garmadon, on their bikes and with their two Oni Masks. 

They had found Misako and took her away screaming, and kept her out of sight of the ninja and any other prying eyes. 

After that they had moved her to a cage by the ritual site. They had not chosen to move the child Wu to watch. He would just be a meaningless presence, one more thing to keep track of when something went awry. Nothing had, in the end, but better safe than sorry. Misako had to be there. Lloyd insisted on it. He wanted her to watch and he wanted her to know. 

“My son-“ Misako had begun weakly. The sky had been dark, but the ritual site was lit in glaring spotlights dragged from all across the city. She had sunk weakly to the floor of the cage as it swung dangerously in the air. “Please. Don’t do this.” 

“Why?” Lloyd had not raised his head to look at her. He hated her. A look upon her face and he would lose what precious restraint he still had. 

“I love you. And I know this isn’t you.” 

Lloyd had had to laugh. 

“You love me?” He had bitten scornfully. “You know me? How long has it been? How long has it been since you put me in that school? You tried to forget about me.”

“My son-“

“Do you even remember my name?” Lloyd had asked, his voice strained and breaking mid-question. “You didn’t want me. You hated me.”

“I never hated you.”

“Yes, you did. Why else? Why else would you put me away? You didn’t come looking for me. Why was that?”

“Work. I was busy.” She had pleaded, her voice hoarse from underuse. 

“Then we know what you really love.” 

He had turned to the altar and raised his arms. 

Misako had begged and pleaded in a voice Lloyd chose to ignore. 

And then Lloyd looked upon the face of his father. 

Harumi strained against the rock caging her in on all sides. She had opened her eyes in the dark, disoriented and aching in her body and her heart. Lloyd had taken the mask. She had felt his anger when he had spoken to her, and it had torn her apart to hear him laugh when he put it on. Uncontrolled, too far gone, like the last fury of a dying star. Then he had moved with superhuman speed, bringing the temple crashing down on Harumi as the power of the Mask of Hatred saved him. 

How long had it been? Lloyd could be back in Ninjago City by now. Harumi looked around the small space, watching her breathing. She couldn’t tell how much rock lay between her and her next breath of fresh air. She arranged her body until she was in the closest possible position to standing, pressing upwards on the rock above her to no result. There was no light in the space and the darkness only served to raise her panic. Water dripped somewhere off to the side, the sound gaining volume until it built into the sound of water rushing, filling the space between the rocks. It tumbled downwards, growing closer and closer. 

Her hands flew about the space, pushing against the rock to no success. The water came closer and closer from every direction. This would be it. The Oni Temple had collapsed, now it was flooding, and Harumi was still stuck inside it with unfathomable distance of rock between her and sunlight and no hope left in this world or the next. 

Water pooled around her feet. It seeped in through cracks and soaked her damp clothes. They had not had enough time to dry from the storm. 

Sensei Garmadon had told her not to let her fear control her. Control your fear, he had told her. They had been on Chen’s island, playing his twisted game. He had been by her side the whole time. She had conquered her fear that day, and she had learned the meaning of the word pride from his expression. 

“Don’t let fear control you.” Harumi gasped, prying her eyes open to stare at the rock above. The water reached her ankles now, and showed no signs of stopping. 

She thought about him again and stilled her mind. She had moved mountains before with his guidance. The water reached her knees now, colder than anything she had ever felt before, colder than the hands of death, but she did not feel panic anymore. 

The ruins of the Oni Temple did not move easily, but they did still move. She pulled herself up the dangerous path towards the small opening she managed to make before the water reached her neck, the water chasing her the whole way up. Her fingers slipped against the smooth sections of stone, her grip all but gone by the time she could reach the first bit of evening light as it shone sideways into the hole. 

She dragged herself out, breathless and weak, to the night sky. She only managed a few stumbling steps away from her exit before falling to her hands and knees. She rolled over to lay on her back, gazing at the cloudless sky and thinking about nothing at all. 

Dawn broke before the other ninja found her. 

“Harumi!” Cole called. She opened her eyes. When had she fallen asleep? “She’s here!” 

The other ninja followed him, careful to watch their step on the uneven ruins. 

“Where’s Lloyd? Did you get the mask?” Kai asked. 

“He was the Quiet One.” Harumi muttered. “He betrayed us.” 

“Which means?” 

“He stole the mask, and he’s probably back in Ninjago City by now.” 

“Then we have to move.” 

The Bounty still lay in ruins, somewhere in the forest, but they still had their power dragons. Kai questioned if they would be able to keep their power dragons up long enough to reach the city, but they had to take the risk. 

Their power dragons appeared, the technique still a little rough around the edges from years of being out of practice. 

“Hurry up!” Jay called. 

“It’s not working!” Harumi exclaimed. “I- I can’t do it.” 

Her narrow escape must have taken more out of her than she thought. As hard as she tried, nothing happened. She didn’t have time for this. 

“Come on!” Nya circled back on her dragon, pulling Harumi onto its back.

The ninja made their way in the direction of Ninjago City, the pace of their journey balancing delicately between pacing themselves too slowly or pushing themselves to exhaustion before they arrived. They would need to arrive with some strength left, but time was of the essence. The ninja rode in silence until Ninjago City appeared on the horizon. Black smoke rose from multiple places within the city and no cars moved in or out of it. They made it as far as they were willing to risk on their dragons, then moved the rest of the way on foot as to not attract any attention to themselves. 

They walked through the streets, clinging to the side of the roads. The roads had not been abandoned, but anyone on the street darted into the nearest building at the sight of another person. There were no lights in any building, but Harumi could see curtains being drawn quickly shut as they approached. 

“Not good.” Nya said. “Come see this.” 

The other ninja backtracked to stand beside her, in front of a store that might have sold TVs before Ninjago City descended into some post-apocalyptic image. 

A girl, clearly not a news anchor, stood in front of a shaky camera. She gave a bounty for the ninja’s friends. Emperor Garmadon wanted them in prison, she said. Emperor Garmadon. The words together were like a punch to the gut. 

“If they’re looking for our friends, then they must be looking for us, too.” Kai said. “We need to find some place to hide.”

“I don’t want to hide.” Harumi said. “We have to end this as soon as possible.” 

“Trust me, I don’t like the idea of running away, either.” Kai leaned on the store window. “What choice do we have?”

“I say we fight.” Cole said. “What Harumi said. We have to end this as soon as possible.” 

“Do we even know what we’re up against?” Jay asked. “She called him ‘Emperor Garmadon’.”

“They also have all three masks.” Zane said. “We saw what Lloyd did with one.” 

“Psst.” 

The ninja all turned, instinctively covering each other’s backs in a fighting stance, but there was no opponent in front of any of them. 

“Down here.” 

Harumi looked down to her feet, a rat standing on its hind legs by her feet. 

“Did that rat just..?” Jay raised an eyebrow. 

“Follow me.” 

The rat began to scurry down the street, but the ninja were too lost in their shock to follow. A low rumbling came from the distance, the sound of engines. Anything willing to make so much sound now clearly had no good intentions. 

The ninja decided to follow the rat. 

Lloyd followed his father as he paced the rooftop of Borg Tower. The Mask of Hatred hung heavily from his belt, swinging when he walked and hitting his leg after every step. He had to walk quickly to keep up with his father’s long strides. His gaze shifted from his father to Ninjago City. They could see the whole place from here, a panoramic view of the destruction. He had thought that he would feel more pride.

“What is your plan, father?” Lloyd asked nervously. 

“Where are the ninja?” Garmadon asked. His voice was low and dangerous and powerful. Had Lloyd expected it to be loving? 

“I don’t know.” He admitted. “W-we’re looking for them.” He added quickly, his father raising an eyebrow, the gesture almost threatening. His heart raced. Was it supposed to be this nerve-racking? Was he supposed to be this scared of his father? 

“Find them. Find her.” 

“Her?”

“Harumi.” 

Lloyd stiffened at the name. 

“What do you want with her, father?” 

“Why do you call me that?” Garmadon asked, avoiding his question once again. 

“B-because I’m your son.” Lloyd stammered, crumbling underneath Garmadon’s gaze. “You’re my father.” He whispered. 

“Hm.”

That was all Garmadon said. Lloyd left him be, finding a nice secluded spot in abandoned Borg Tower to sit. Even as he stood next to the man he thought was his father, he was still lonely. As if Garmadon wasn’t really there. He told himself it was nice, Garmadon finally saw him and recognised him and stood beside him, but was it? Even as Garmadon looked at him, it was as if he was staring through him, regarding him how a chess player regards a pawn. 

He shook his head. His father respected him. He had cast Ninjago City to ruin and made it an offering, and he had accepted it. His father would never use him. Lloyd’s goals were his and his goals were Lloyd’s. They ruled Ninjago City together, father and son, as things should be. 

Maybe destroying the ninja once and for all would bring them both the closure they needed. Would it, though? The masks had not been enough. His father alone had not been enough. What said that destroying the ninja would be the end? 

His lip trembled and he pressed his hand to his mouth. He couldn’t afford to be weak here. He drew his knees up close to his chest and put his head in his arms. 

Mystaké had led the ninja to the back of her tea shop. She had revealed herself as the rat, and therefore as a shapeshifting Oni. The ninja had taken the news with varying levels of surprise. Nya had gasped and Jay had stumbled backwards into a shelf of jars filled with tea leaves. They had all laughed, their stress momentarily forgotten. 

She let the ninja rest there. She had been all throughout Ninjago City, she told them, and she had seen no other havens they could enjoy. 

It had taken some persuading to get Cole to lay down and rest. He wanted to fight as much as Harumi, but sleep had won him over. 

Harumi was not so easy to give up. She stood by the door, facing out towards the empty streets. Headlights flashed between distant buildings. The Sons of Garmadon were enjoying themselves. Harumi’s hand hovered over the door handle. 

“Going somewhere?” Mystaké’s familiar voice asked. She stood in front of the counter, her expression unreadable in the low light. “Go.” 

Mystaké nodded, and Harumi stole away into the night. 

She hugged the shadows. She had not been exhausted from keeping her power dragon up the whole journey over. She still had strength, strength that she planned to use to fight. It didn’t take much to find Borg Tower. She could tell it was their commandeered headquarters. It was a strategically ideal place. She drew her sword, approaching cautiously, allowing the remaining streetlights to bathe her in light. 

“Harumi.” 

She looked up, the face of the Mask of Hatred looking down on her from a broken window, the glass long kicked out by some riot or little skirmish. 

“Lloyd.” Harumi muttered. “Come down. Let’s end this.” 

“I knew you’d come.” Lloyd said, his voice muffled and distorted by the mask, but there was something off about him. Something was slipping. 

Lloyd laughed, jumping down from the window and cracking the pavement where he landed. He stood, the power of the mask keeping him from being injured. Harumi dropped into a fighting stance. 

He moved swiftly and it was all Harumi could do to step out of his path and block his strikes. She had to take the mask from him to stand a fighting chance, but he fought so hard that he offered her no opening. 

They battled their way up the rickety fire escape of some nearby old apartment complex, Lloyd pushing her backwards and up to the rooftop. The wind began to pick up, sending a chill through Harumi’s entire body. 

“Are you happy?” Harumi yelled. The mask still obscured Lloyd’s expression. 

“Happy?” Lloyd asked. “I’ve never been better!” He exclaimed. “I have everything I want. All of Ninjago finally knows my name. All of Ninjago finally respects me. You would never understand. All the things I want are all the things that were handed to you.” 

He faltered, making a motion to claw at the mask before his arms snapped back to his side. His stance broke and his knees caved in. 

“No.” He said finally, his sincerity not stolen away by the mask. “But I think beating you will make me feel better.” 

Then he lunged at her, and their battle resumed.

Garmadon watched from the top of Borg Tower, hands clasped behind his back and no expression upon his face. Lloyd and Harumi saw him as they circled each other on the broken rooftop as it swayed, taking heavy damage from their battle and threatening to collapse. Neither of them backed down, locked there in the calm before the storm. 

A flash of purple appeared in both their peripheral visions and they both spared a moment to look. Garmadon raised a hand engulfed in flame, the broken segments of road beneath him beginning to rumble and shake and move, pulling themselves from the ground. Neither Harumi nor Lloyd seemed to breathe as they watched the rubble tremble in the air. Ninjago itself held its breath. No wind blew. Nothing made sound. Time slowed as Garmadon held the rubble above their heads. 

He had said nothing, but his message to each of them was clear. 

Harumi, I am not the man you remember, and you are no longer my daughter. 

Lloyd, show me that you are worthy to be my son. 

Garmadon let the rubble fall. They watched it come, each snapping from their hazy daze to move out of its path. 

Harumi jumped backwards, feeling it crash into the rooftop. Dread filled her. This building was old. Wood splintered and cracked, and the rubble crashed through the rooftop, purple sparks still flying as it crashed through the lower levels. The building shook, finally collapsing as it had threatened to do. 

She ran as far as she could, making it to the fire escape she had come up from, jumping to it and running as far as she could before the metal began to screech as it bent and folded over itself. 

“Ninja-go!” She yelled, jumping into her airjitzu tornado and letting it carry her down to the ground. She stumbled on the asphalt, pain shooting through her ankle as she landed. She cried out but did not dare to fall. “N-Ninja-go!”

Spinjitzu carried her away from the building as it collapsed to the ground. She looked away, covering her mouth and nose as the dust cloud billowed out. 

Lloyd had not been so lucky. 

He looked at the unforgiving face of the rubble, imagining that his father’s expression was equally heartless. His heart sank as it crashed down, the fantasy power of the mask saving him so far. 

He scrambled away, losing his balance as he tripped on air and crashed to the rooftop. The mask started to come loose around his face, the power quickly ebbing away. The numbness the mask brought faded away and panic took over. He clawed against the smooth surface as it began to tilt backwards, the sound of splintering wood and screeching metal filling his senses. 

He screamed, falling backwards down into the wreck, the mask still on his face but not protecting him from scratches and scrapes from rough exposed edges as he fell. 

Lloyd raised one hand and pressed the mask tight against his face, its power returning. He crashed into the ground, the impact knocking the wind out of him but the brunt of the force taken by the mask. One hand holding the mask to his face, he used the other to pull himself from the wreck. The mask did nothing to heal him. He felt his injuries, every cut and scrape from his battle and fall screaming out in agony every time he moved. 

He almost made it out. 

He scraped his way back to the former rooftop, exhaustion taking him before he made it to safety. He gasped and panted, sweat stinging his eyes. He grabbed the former ledge that stood between people on the rooftop and plummeting to the ground below. His grip was all but gone. It was everything he could do to hold on. He looked up to where his father stood. The Mask of Hatred enhanced his vision, and he saw his father clearly. 

Garmadon frowned, narrowing his eyes. He blinked slowly and hung his head. He moved his hand back to its place behind his back and turned away without another twitch of his face or word from his mouth. 

Lloyd’s heart dropped. If he had had the luxury of energy, he would have screamed and cried out to his father, to Harumi, to any higher power that would hear his prayer, but search as he did, there was nothing left to use. There was no more fight left in him. 

He pulled himself up with the last of his strength, climbing over the ledge. Beneath him was nothing but air and the asphalt below. He had no energy left to fight. He had no energy left to hold on. He let gravity take him. He had no energy left to care whether the mask saved him or not. 

Harumi watched Garmadon turn away. She got up before the dust cleared, coughing and shielding her eyes as best she could as she limped around the destruction. 

“No!” She rushed to Lloyd’s side, pain shooting through her leg with every step. He lay on his back, not moving save for the weak rising and falling of his chest. The mask lay skewed on his face. It had not saved him. She moved it away, looking upon his face. His expression was pained, his eyes barely open but full of tears, his mouth twisted into words he couldn’t bring himself to speak. 

She could no longer think of him as her opponent. 

She cast the Mask of Hatred to the side, trying to search for words of her own. What could she tell him? What could he hear? How dare he. How dare Garmadon. How dare he do this thing and then leave, without a word, without even a spark of remorse in those cold, red eyes. Fury boiled within her, a kind of fury she wouldn’t dare to tame. She stood, snatching the Mask of Hatred from the ground. 

Hatred clouded her vision and she simply let it. She had come to finish things, and she would end this reign of apathy before the night was over. In the blink of an eye, she was atop Borg Tower. She found Garmadon easily. He would pay. He would pay for what he did to Ninjago, he would pay for what he did to Lloyd, his own son, and he would pay for the way he had tortured him. She had recognised the expression on his face, the expression of a child who wanted nothing more than to please a father who barely knew of their existence. She knew it well, for she had worn it well. It was the only image in her mind, the only thought she had. It fuelled her, and it gave her the strength to do battle with Emperor Garmadon. It gave her strength to push through the battle, and it gave her the strength to prevail. 

She did not stay to witness her victory. Keeping the mask on tight, another blink of the eye carried her back to Lloyd’s side. She tore the mask off, throwing it against the pavement with all the strength in her body, and it shattered. She felt its power one last time as it dissipated into the air, like a dying breath. 

Harumi fell to her knees, Lloyd’s breathing ragged and gasping now. There was nothing she could do. She couldn’t risk moving him, and by the time she found Mystaké, he would be dead. 

“I’m sorry.” Harumi choked. Her mind rushed to find words. He deserved so much more than a simple apology. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. I’m sorry, for everything.” 

“Me too, Harumi.” Lloyd whispered. “I see now.” He met her gaze, but his eyes were glazed and unfocused. He stared through her, at someone Harumi couldn’t quite see. “Could you sing me that song?”

“Which one?”

“The one you sang yourself, on the Bounty, in the storm.” He said, his voice weak and strained. 

Harumi fought to keep herself calm, but sorrow pulled hot tears from her eyes and dragged them down her face. Lloyd’s tears spilled over as she sang. Her voice trembled, but she did not let it break. 

The spider’s in the house

Sleep, sleep

The spider bit a mouse

Sleep deep

Don’t wake up 

Or else you’ll find

A spider in your mouth 

He was gone before she finished.