Chapter Text
From the moment her eyes met Lloyd’s, Harumi knew it was her end.
As the roof sank beneath her and the concrete foundations crumbled— the two shared a silent understanding. That Lloyd was right. The ninja had been incompetent fools who did not understand the weight of their actions— But so was Harumi. She had resurrected an evil without fully comprehending what it meant. Father— No, Garmadon— he was meant to liberate all of Ninjago, meant to liberate her.
She had felt so furious after Garmadon had been purified of the venom in his veins. He groveled at the feet of the emperor, begging for forgiveness like a coward. He rejected his power, the very thing that made him so formidable, and took on a vow of pacifism. It all felt like a sick joke. That was not the Garmadon that saved her. But the Garmadon she brought back, that was not him either.
She thought she could control him, the Destructor. He personified what she admired so much in Garmadon— His power, his ruthlessness, his rage. He had been so suggestible too– So eager for her to help him reach his true potential and claim Ninjago as his. But the power she held over him was an illusion.
She should’ve realized it sooner. The first crack appeared upon Mr. E’s death— and continued to ripple. Garmadon had torn apart Mr. E right before her, deaf to her pleas, and he was so quick to threaten her in turn. Harumi had called Mr. E just a machine, but in truth, he was her friend. The only friend she had. The two had spent countless nights together as Harumi cleaned and repaired his rusted parts. He was so earnest then, and had not felt tender hands in so long. He bared his mechanical soul to her and became disillusioned– just as she had been. She let him into her grand ambitions and paved the path for him to enact his vengeance.
Later that night, after Mr. E was destroyed, Harumi went behind Garmadon’s back to salvage his parts. She had tried—tried to repair him. But he was torn apart by the element of destruction itself. He was gone. Harumi couldn’t allow herself to grieve. (And now, Harumi never will have the chance to.)
It hit her. Believing in her facade of control, that vengeance was worth any price– It was this foolish line of thinking that led Pythor to resurrect the Great Devourer, wasn’t it?
She couldn’t help but laugh— an empty desperate laugh— as the rubble buried her, crushing her body and trapping her in darkness. How fitting! This is how she should have died in the first place— The Great Devourer should have killed her all those years ago. Then, she would've stayed with her family and died a tragedy. An innocent child who died too soon the world would cry, yet quickly forgotten as just another name on the lackluster memorial.
That memorial was a gift from the Emperor and Empress, she distantly recalled. The royals did not care that she was still too shaken from losing her entire life. They still dressed her like a doll and dragged her out to the city, the bug-eyed lenses of the press waiting for them. What a treat for the royal highnesses to show themselves to the mere peasants, her adoptive parents must’ve thought. When they unveiled the memorial to her— a marble stone pillar with all those who died carefully inscribed in tiny writing— they expectantly stared at her, waiting for her to give the reaction they wanted. For her to break into a smile, give her empty thanks— as if some stupid rock could fill her gaping heart. Would they have even bothered to have it commissioned if she weren’t their charity case? They certainly never cared for all the other orphans left in the wake of the city's countless disasters.
Harumi did not know how long she had sat in that darkness. In the enclosed walls of rubble, there was no day, no night. Harumi had spent the first few hours fervently clawing at the stone until her fingers were raw, sobbing until her voice was coarse for anyone to help her— For Lloyd to help her.
But no one came.
Each breath brought a sensation of pain, the concrete dust choking her lungs. Blood mixed with hot tears dripped down her face, ruining her make-up. Harumi gingerly touched the jagged piece of rebar pierced through her stomach and traced it down to her bleeding wound. Her hand came back sticky and wet, no doubt with her own blood. It was undeniably fatal. Yet Harumi could not help but resist her fate, desperately clinging on to consciousness.
In the face of death, Harumi could not help but reflect on those she had killed.
Harumi thought of all the nameless faces who were surely caught in the crossfire. Seeing that family being torn apart, her history repeated— What she had done had finally sunk in. She destroyed Ninjago to save it and let innocent people die, to save them. How contradictory, she thought.
The Emperor and Empress however, deserved their deaths. Their inaction spoke louder than all their empty sympathies in the wake of all the tragedies that fell upon the city. Never once did they open the palace gates to offer refuge, too set in their archaic ways. Harumi reveled when they finally opened the gates to protect themselves, not knowing what they feared was already inside.
Harumi was nothing to them, just a puppet to prove their "generosity.” She was drowned in the silence of those empty halls. Her so-called parents cared not for her loneliness, the overwhelming sorrow that threatened to swallow her whole— As long Harumi played her part. It was with great pain she painted the mask of the Jade Princess.
The Jade Palace’s guards and all its servants were complicit in it all. Their loyalty blinded them to the rotten hearts of the Emperor and Empress. Harumi desperately buried memories of Hutchins’ moments kindness, for he was just like the others in the end, she will not let guilt taint her memories of finally being free from them–
Pain shot through her, reminding her of her plight.
...The ninja’s final moments must've been like this– if they were not fortunate to have been crushed instantly, Harumi thought. She pitied them. She might’ve been enraged at just the thought of them–
But this death… It was such a lonely one.
Perhaps this was justice. The kind of twisted justice Harumi thrived on.
Harumi had written her own death and recreated her own tragedy. She may have saved one child from becoming like her— but saving one soul meant so little when compared to an entire city’s worth. She distantly wondered how many stone memorials it would take to fit the names of those who died under Garmadon’s reign— and if they would even bother to include hers.
Harumi slowly closed her eyes for the final time and—
In death, she was met with the last thing she saw in life. Complete and utter darkness.
It seemed endless, eternal– It terrified her to her very core. As her soul drifted away from the mortal realm, she felt the claws of something sinking deep into her. It felt so cold, it permeated throughout her very being. As an eerie pink glow creeped into her vision— Another force tugged her away. Its hands enveloped her, gentle and warm, like being in her parents' embrace as a child.
Warm golden light flooded her vision, and Harumi came to, disoriented. Her clothes were still torn and bloody, but her body felt light. The pain and fatigue that plagued her last moments was gone. Before her, was an endless field dotted with golden flowers, looking above to the cerulean sky scattered with floating islands in the horizon. She pushed herself up, her bloodied red hands contrasting the spring green grass.
Was this the Departed Realm? It wasn’t what she expected. It was so ethereal, yet empty.
From the light of the sun, emerged a man donned in a black robe and straw hat. Tried as she might, she couldn’t make out his face in harsh shadow— but his silhouette felt familiar to her.
“Harumi Sato, Jade, Garmadon. It seems you have taken on many names throughout your life, have you not?”
Harumi grimaced at that. None of those names belonged to her— At least, not anymore. Sato belonged to a little girl long dead, Jade belonged to a broken mask, and Garmadon? Harumi knew deep down— that name was never hers at all. She took advantage of Garmadon's turmoil to take his place as his daughter. She reasoned to herself that it was a ploy to cement her control, but she knew the true reason deep down. It was a childish dream she had when she was still a little girl trapped in the cold confines of the Royal Palace.
Harumi shook those thoughts away. “Who are you?” Something about the man tugged at her mind.
“Who am I? You know my history well, Harumi, better than most mortals.”
The man stood right in front of her, yet she still could not make out his face. It was as if it was constantly enshrouded in shadow— But the other details of his appearance started to piece together. The dragon embroidered on his robe in golden thread, his pointed ears, white braid— the man's painted form was in every scroll she pored over for hours. Those scrolls detailed Ninjago’s creation, from whence its creator came, and the power its creator wielded to create its lands. It dawned on her.
“You’re the First Spinjitzu Master…” Harumi said breathlessly.
Though she could not see his face, she felt as if he were smiling at her.
“That I am, young Harumi. Yet for all I tried, even I could not evade what destiny had set in place. Destiny set for my battle with the Overlord to be finished by another; destiny set my eldest’s descent into evil. Garmadon did not have a choice.” He strolled past her and knelt down to a patch of golden flowers, gently petting its petals. “Yet you did have a choice, Harumi— You lived without the constant temptation and corruption of the venom. You lived to a time where the forces of destiny lost its domain over Ninjago. It was your choice to go down the path of darkness. “
Harumi held her breath. She wanted to lash out and defend her actions as righteous, and yet, an overwhelming sense of shame washed over her. She wanted to cry, to apologize, and to admit she had been so painfully wrong—
Harumi said nothing.
“Your past is filled with sorrows, yes, but that does not absolve your actions. You have maimed and killed. You have plunged Ninjago into chaos and—” He turned his back to her, staring up at the endless sky. “You have hurt my family.”
With each step towards her, he listed her sins.
“You twisted my eldest son’s very soul and being, tarnishing the legacy he left behind. “
A step closer. Harumi clenched her fists until her knuckles were ghastly white. All the fear she felt could not drown out her anger. He tarnished his own legacy, she thought— With his pacifism and cowardice as his time as Sensei, rejecting his true title of Lord. But she remembers those rage-filled eyes boring into her upon her failure, his telekinesis choking her— That is what power meant to the Destructor.
“You kidnapped my youngest from his family, in such a vulnerable form and worse– let harm befall him. “
A step closer. Harumi’s body started to tremble. She delved into the history of the ninja in search of weaknesses– But Harumi had found a plethora of more reasons to hate their master. Wu was as guilty as all the secrets he kept close to his chest. Ignorance was a dangerous thing– Ignorance nearly led to Morro cursing all sixteen realms. Ignorance nearly led to the Hands of Time controlling time, controlling everything.
But was it right to place those wrongdoings onto an infant, one that has not committed the sins of his adult self? Harumi had let that infant be crushed to death. Perhaps it was a mercy, she reasoned to herself. It was nothing compared to what Garmadon would have done personally.
“And you have especially hurt my grandson. He opened himself to you in a way he had never done, and all you have given him are scars that will never fade— reopened wounds that will forever fester. Lloyd is strong. He will persevere. But that strength is something he should not have learned so soon. I never wanted his life to be filled with so much strife.“
A step closer. Harumi’s breath caught in her throat. Lloyd. They may have reached a wordless understanding in her death– But still hated him with her entire being. She had spent half a decade hating him, she did not know how else to feel. Their romance was all just an act, yes, every romantic gesture had felt revolting to her. But their budding friendship? Sometimes she forgot she was wearing a mask. It was paradoxical. Her hatred never stopped burning, and yet she could not stop growing attached.
Oh, she tried, tried to rip out those roots, burn it to ashes. She doubled down on that hatred, tore his heart to pieces, until he would hate her just as much. Why did he continue to resist? Continued to see the good in her?
Her heart leapt out of her chest. When had the First Spinjitzu Master gotten close?
Was she to receive divine punishment? Despite all his power, Harumi never saw the First Spinjitzu Master as truly divine. He held no actual presence in the world after his death— His only presence was in the knowledge and relics he left behind.
But Harumi was now dead too. In the hereafter, the First Spinjitzu Master surely had the power to enact his revenge.
Her body would not stop shaking.
“With your death, you will never be able to atone to the Lloyd of your time and all those you have hurt.” Harumi flinched as he reached his hand toward her— Only for it to rest upon her shoulder. “Yet still, you have a choice, Harumi. I will give you a chance to save another— a Lloyd who was left behind like you, parentless and misguided. It would do him well to have a sister.“
That took Harumi aback.
“A sister? Fath…Emper—” She winced as she tumbled over her words. Her emotions still felt so raw, she could not put on her mask like this. “...Garmadon wasn’t exactly in the right state of mind when he took me as his daughter. Lloyd and I aren’t siblings. You said it yourself, I hurt him.” Was he taunting her?
“My son was the type of man to always take responsibility for his actions. Even though it was the venom in his veins that made him evil, he owned what he had done and sought to redeem himself.” The First Spinjitzu Master softly squeezed Harumi’s shoulder- steadying her trembling body. “Harumi, he would not have seen you as a mistake. Regardless of circumstance, you are his daughter and I in turn, am your grandfather.” The First Spinjitzu Master slowly let Harumi go, and turned towards the blinding sun, hands clasped behind his back. His long braid flowed in the wind as the petals slowly rose around him.
The sincerity was evident in his voice, but they could not be family. Even if a shameful part of her wished what he said was true, it was wrong— Harumi did not deserve this, not when carved out her place in blood. She had cut through Garmadon’s jagged flesh and forced herself into his rotten heart.
“It is time for you to take responsibility for your actions, just as Garmadon had done. Afterall, when you asked to be a daughter— you also asked to be a sister. Be there for Lloyd when he had no one else. Ease the burden of his destiny and all the pain it will bring.” Her flowing white hair danced as a whirlwind of golden petals swirled around them. “I know you are capable of good— That good is what led you to me, in death.”
The First Spinjitzu Master stood tall before her.
“Redeem yourself Harumi. Your end is a new beginning.”
The First Spinjitzu Master reached out his hand—
Harumi hesitated. One good act did not make her a good person. Saving one family meant little compared to the grand scheme of all her grave mistakes. And to be there for Lloyd? That was a twisted joke. She dedicated herself to making his life a living hell, and now she was to save him from it? Combined with the tangled emotions of hatred and shame she felt about Lloyd, it was bound for disaster.
But the First Spinjitzu Master himself is giving her a second chance at life. It would be idiotic for her to say no. She didn’t want to die. She couldn’t face eternity just yet, she couldn’t face her parents with all the blood staining her hands—
Harumi reached back.