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It had been three months since Misako had seen daylight.
At least, that’s what Harumi had told her the last time she came. Misako wasn’t sure whether she could trust anything that psycho said, but she assumed the white-haired girl didn’t have much reason to lie about something like that. Her own, grey hair had grown out and now hung in front of her eyes almost constantly, and she was sure it looked very messy — and greasy, too.
Her assumptions were proven to be correct when the princess came stalking into the chamber. Harumi had a bag with her — filled with food, Misako knew by now — that she carelessly tossed into a corner, before looking to the elder woman. As she did so, a shit-eating grin made its way onto her face, and her eyes almost looked like they were beginning to twinkle with glee.
“Oh, wow. You look like absolute shit.” When the girl spoke, it was void of any sympathy or pity, and instead sounded rather amused. Misako had to keep herself from rolling her eyes, instead opting to simply glare up at the girl. She didn’t bother getting up; it wasn’t like sitting down like this during their conversation would humiliate her more than Harumi already had done.
“Yeah, well, no wonder.” She dryly shot back at the girl, who seemed to have forgotten about the fact that she’d kept the other locked up inside this tiny, dirty cell for what was apparently three months now. Instead of showing even the slightest bit of remorse or even pity, the teen cooed.
“Oh, have I been neglecting you? That must suck for you, you know, being on this end of it.” Harumi’s tone had turned to ice by the end of her second sentence. Misako had heard the accusation countless of time already, and she really should’ve seen it coming from miles away by now, but she still drew in a sharp breath.
“I didn’t...” she denied neglecting her son for what felt like the thousandth time that week. She wasn’t sure how many more times she had it in herself to keep denying it; she already felt like she was going insane, just from being locked up here for the past three months — maybe longer — and having to repeat the same thing over and over really wasn’t helping her sanity.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” the other girl scoffed. “He’s worried about you, you know. If it makes you feel better.” Misako noted that Harumi sounded less than thrilled about that fact, maybe even annoyed to a certain degree. She figured that, maybe, the girl just didn’t like having to deal with her son’s feelings.
“Lloyd...” her voice broke when she thought about her only son, her little boy, spending another minute with that psychopath. Whatever the girl was planning to do to him, he didn’t deserve it– but it wasn’t like Harumi would care. Thinking about how apathetic the teen was about this, and how heartbroken Lloyd would be when he found out about all of this, made her blood boil.
“Yes... Lloyd,” the white-haired girl answered, folding her hands behind her back with a serene smile on her face, that stood in stark contrast to her own raging anger. She lunged up at the bars to come eye to eye with the teen, towering above the younger just slightly, though Harumi didn’t quite look very impressed at her pathetic attempt to be scary; it wasn’t like she was going to be able to do anything to her from within her tiny cell.
“What do you want with him? He’s done nothing to you!” Misako shouted at the other girl in frustration, clutching the bars and imagining they were closing in around her throat instead. Harumi contemplated that for a while, pursing her lips in deep thought, before a grin spread on her lips as she came up with an answer that seemed to satisfy her.
“Well, he did steal something of mine.” If Misako didn’t know any better, she’d think the girl’s answer had the kind of playful lilt to it, that usually indicated that something was a joke. She didknow better, though, so she knew that wasn’t the case at all. Harumi wasn’t trying to be friendly and joke around with her; the only thing the teen was aiming to do, was to make her go insane down here.
“What? He would never steal!” She denied Harumi’s accusation — at Lloyd of all people, this time — without a second thought. Harumi just frowned, crossing her arms with an amused smile on her lips at the elder’s reaction. “...what did he steal?” Misako added hesitantly, remembering how, well , Lloyd had spent a lot of time wanting to be like his father before, and had spent a lot of time with him in general, as well. “What are you going to do with him!” She snapped instead, when the white-haired girl didn’t give her an answer to any of her questions.
“Well, I do need him for the ritual,” the teen replied with a calm hum. Misako raised a brow in confusion, turning her gaze to Harumi as she crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to get a better answer. She originally didn’t want to reply, but after pondering the girl’s answer, she concluded with irritation that it told her absolutely nothing.
“What ritual?” She questioned apprehensively. She wasn’t quite so sure whether she wanted to listen to the girl rave about her deranged plans again — she’d had to endure plenty of that the past few months — but if she ever managed to get out of here, or if someone would find and free her, at least she would be able to tell the Ninja about her plans. She glanced at Harumi when the girl didn’t answer, and saw that she looked confused, too, now, as if she’d thought that Misako already knew about this mysterious ritual.
“Hmm? To bring back Lord Garmadon, of course! It’ll be very grand, and beautiful, and happy,” Harumi informed the elder cheerfully, as if she wasn’t talking about raising someone from the dead. “And then we’ll take over the city, and no one will stop me from taking or doing whatever the fuck I want,” Harumi hissed the last sentence at her, smug as ever. This time, her eyes sparkled as well, and Gods be good, it was almost terrifying how absolutely mad she sounded.
“And then?” Misako took a handful of her own shirt in her hand, clenching it with dread until her knuckles were turning white. “What then! What are you going to do with Lloyd, after you take over the city!” She yelled at the girl, beginning to grow tired of Harumi simply ignoring her questions whenever she seemed fit.
“I’m going to keep him. Obviously,” Harumi spoke, as if it was a given that she would hang onto someone who annoyed her with their feelings. She looked up at the girl, unsure of why she would even do that, and Harumi seemed to read the question from her face, because she continued. “He’s real sweet and thoughtful and quite awfully pretty. Neither of which he got from you, apparently, but I’m guessing he never got much of anything from you in the first place.” The teen just had to keep taunting her about her not-so-outstanding parenting.
As if she could ever do better, Misako mused, but didn’t speak the words. She didn’t quite feel like losing her ‘food privileges’ again, today, as she was rather hungry. She had tried her best to be a good mother, and she was still trying her best, and that was enough, for her. It was enough for Lloyd, as well, seeing as he had forgiven her a long time ago already, so she really didn’t see why this girl felt such a strong need to keep pestering her about it.
The room fell into silence for some time as both women got lost in thought. Misako knew that Harumi didn’t like her royal parents — Lloyd had told her about it, before — so maybe the princess was just projecting her anger for her parents onto the elder. Or, maybe, she was just being what she was: a rebellious teen, who hated her parents and who tried to distance herself from them to create her own identity and go live her own life.
“You know... I think I’m going to see if he tastes sweet too, tomorrow.” Misako’s gaze snapped back up to the white-haired girl when she spoke again. Harumi just smiled at her, probably thoroughly amused by the fact that she could say and do whatever she wanted to her, and to some extend, Lloyd as well, since he had no clue what was really going on.
“Leave my son alone.” Her voice shook with repressed anger when she replied, but that didn’t make it sound any less deadly. She glared at Harumi, wishing she wouldn’t depend on this psychopath giving her food and water to survive, so she would be able to just tell her to go fuck off and die.
“Alone?” Harumi tutted, yet she clearly couldn’t prevent her mouth from curling into a mocking smile. “No, you’ve got that wrong. He doesn’t want to be alone anymore. He doesn’t like to be alone. As his wonderful and amazing mother, you should’ve been aware of that,” she sneered, hateful and mocking as ever.
“I never claimed to be a wonderful and amazing mother, but I do think you’re overexaggerating what I did wrong! Lloyd wanted to go live a normal life; he chose that life. He has lots of friends in the city, and I visited him often, until you locked me up down here! The Ninja meet up with him loads, and he could always go live with them again if he just wanted to!”
“Could he?” Harumi’s words made her pause for a moment and blink at the other in surprise. “Why did he have to choose between having a family and having a peaceful life in which he didn’t need to fight anyone?” The white-haired girl asked, though it sounded more like yet another masked accusation of how horrible of a mother she was.
“Because his family doesn’t have a peaceful life in which they don’t need to fight anyone,” she deadpanned after letting out a tired sigh, beginning to become seriously fed to death with continuously having to explain to herself to the teen, just to avoid being falsely painted as a neglectful and horrible mother.
“But he easily could have simply lived with that family without having to fight, if only they wouldn’t constantly drag him into their battles. But noo, that’s way too much to ask! He should be either useful, or locked away and all alone,” Harumi shot back at her, and she gasped, indignation pooling in her gut.
“That’s not true,” she quickly denied yet another stupid accusation coming from the girl, that was merely based on surface level observations, but as usual, Harumi couldn’t be bothered to care about what the other woman thought. “He wouldn’t have been safe being so involved without being able to fight!”
“And he’s safer in Ninjago city, far away from its glorious saviours, being just ever so slightly less involved?” Harumi fired the question at her like it was a death missile that was meant to shut her up, burdening the elder once again with giving her proof that was that was simply impossible to get. Misako knew that the younger girl was the one in the wrong here, though, so instead of giving in to the attempted manipulation, she firmly stood her ground.
“Stop trying to make me question myself! You’re a liar and a psychopath, and I seriously don’t want to hear whatever way you want to try to justify bringing back an evil man, because you worship him for some unexplainable reason, and hurting an innocent boy — who has never done anything to you, might I add — in the process!”
“Boy...” the white-haired girl repeated the word, her voice scathing and hateful. “He’s almost an adult by now, you know,” she continued with an icy tone, glaring at the elder as if Misako had personally wronged her — which was clearly not the case, since the girl had to resort to holding things over Misako’s head that didn’t even have anything to do with her.
“I am aware I missed his birthday, since I was down here instead because of you,” she retorted bitterly. It wasn’t the first time she’d missed one of his birthdays — she hadn’t been there for the fourth through the eighth, after all; she’d just sent a birthday card and a small gift to Darkley’s and that was it, because she knew that, if she went to see him, she would hardly be able to leave him behind there again — but she and Wu, as well as the Ninja, had recently been making an effort to be there.
“Right, because you would never dare to miss a birthday otherwise, due to the fact that you’re out travelling,” the girl mocked, somehow also knowing about what had happened two and three years ago. Misako couldn’t imagine Lloyd had complained to Harumi about it, since he had always told her that it wasn’t such a big deal, and since she had made it up to him by spending time with him when she did manage to return from her travels.
“I meant to be there! I wanted to return, but I just couldn’t due to circumstances! That first time it was that storm, and the second time we got lost in the jungle!” Misako defended herself. She glanced at Harumi, but the younger only raised a sceptical eyebrow, not even looking half as convinced as Lloyd had been, when she’d told him that. “How do you even know about all of this!” She exclaimed desperately, wishing the girl would just shut up and leave her be for a moment.
“You’ve raised a very talkative son.” Harumi cocked her head to the side, regarding her with no emotion. “Or, well. Didn’t raise, I suppose.” The white-haired girl shrugged, her tone growing infinitely more hateful. “Maybe that’s why he likes to talk to me so much, hmm? Because he’s usually lonely,” she finished with a teasing smirk.
Misako looked down at the floor sadly, wondering to which extend that could be true. Lloyd did really have those friends in the city, after all, and she and the Ninja really did often visit him, so he couldn’t possibly be that lonely. She had spent years researching some dumb prophecy in a museum all alone since she’d thought it referred to her son, after all, and she’d been just fine. Her situation was even more stupid, too, because it had all been for nothing, since Lloyd had turned out to not even be the Green Ninja.
“Oh, don’t worry. At least this time, I was there to celebrate with him and his friends. That took away most of the disappointment that his mommy didn’t show up to say happy birthday, again.” Misako began pacing around the cell, wondering why this girl felt the need to keep reminding her of bad parenting instances that she’d already been forgiven for. “Most of it.”
“You– Leave him alone!” She cried out, almost on instinct by now. Just the thought of an upset Lloyd, being comforted by this psychopath who couldn’t actually give two shits about how he felt, already caused her more than plenty of distress. Harumi, however, just laughed, thoroughly amused by her obvious desperation.
“No, I don’t think I will. He’s happier than he’s ever been,” she replied with a smug grin on her face, looking extremely pleased with herself for that fact. For a moment, Misako’s eyes widened in surprise, but then they narrowed in disappointment when she realized that Harumi was only pleased because she’d successfully completed her mission to wrap Lloyd around her finger, and not because she actually cared about his happiness.
“...which will make it even worse when you eventually break his heart,” she hissed at the younger girl, not understanding why this was so hard for the other to comprehend. Or maybe, Harumi knew very well that it would hurt him so much. Maybe, that was just her entire goal– Or maybe, Misako was wrong, because in response to her statement, Harumi only scoffed as if she was questioning whether Lloyd really would be hurt.
“I won’t break his heart,” she answered flippantly, sounding genuinely averse to the thought for some reason Misako couldn’t even begin to understand. Still, she noticed that the girl’s smug behaviour had given way to a certain form of doubt, at last. So, having finally found a way to get through to her, she pushed on.
“He would already be heartbroken to find out you’ve locked me up down here and you’re trying to bring back his evil father, while hiding it all from him,” she informed the other, feeling like the teen was just messing with her at this point, because, wasn’t that painfully obvious? Even so, the younger girl just scoffed cynically at the thought, giving her the fakest smile she’d ever seen.
“Then let’s make sure he never finds out, shall we?”