A/N: sorry this sucks!! Its not beta read and its like being copied and pasted from Google docs so it might look weird
Uhhh yeah that's it

Harumi shivered as the bitter cold blizzard raged on outside, her clothes not thick enough for the frosty environment. 

Trying to distract herself from the cold, she thought about how she got here. 

…How did she get here? 

The last thing she remembered was being in Ninjago City, walking around. And then there was a big, purple crack in the sky. She was sucked into the chaos and, by the end of it, she found herself in the middle of a squall. 

She had walked around for a while and found a cave, where she was hiding in now. But, the cave didn’t stop the cold. The entrance was wide open and it was very icy in the cave itself. Though she was wearing long-sleeves (Lloyd had critiqued her on it, causing an argument about Gis and Harumi’s fashion), it was still too cold. 

Thinking about how she got here was not helpful, she realised. Harumi stands up and leaves the cave. Snow blasted her, but she kept going. She’d helped in two separate attempted-destructions of Ninjago, a little snow wouldn’t hurt anyone, right? 

Harumi wasn’t sure how long she’d been walking when she heard something other than the howling wind (although the wind had died down in the forest Harumi found herself in, it was still there). An animalistic growling noise came from the trees that surrounded her. 

Two wolves jumped in front of her, and started to close-in on the freezing girl. She sighed, not ready to fight anyone or anything. But, whatever, she didn’t have a choice, so she removed her hands from their wrapped-around-her-stomach-position and put them up in a boxing position, ready to fight. 

One of the wolves started to lunge at her, but, before she could even move, a white and red blur knocked the wolf out of the air. The ‘white and red blur’ turned out to be a white wolf with red accents throughout its body. ‘White and red’ growled at the wolf it was pinning down. 

Harumi watched for a bit before deciding to do something. She grabbed a sharp stick off the ground and threw it pointy bit first at the second wolf. The natural weapon managed to stab the wolf’s foot. Despite the injury, it managed to run away. 

“That’s right! Leave!” an unfamiliar feminine voice shouts. 

Harumi spins around to see a black-haired girl standing above the wolf ‘white and red’ was pinning down as it runs away. The girl turns to Harumi, eyeing her up and down. 

“Come with me,” she says, swiftly turning and walking away. 

Harumi doesn’t move. Why should she follow this random girl? What happened to the wolf? Who even was she? Why did the girl want Harumi to follow her? 

The girl stops to glare at her. 

“You coming?” she snarls, 
“No,” Harumi’s voice comes out cracked and pathetic,
“You’re cold, you’re defenceless, you’re lost. I can help,” the girl countered,
“How can I trust you? You just appeared and expected me to follow you?” Harumi responded, 
“I saved your life!” she retaliated. 

At that, Harumi paused. 

“No, you didn’t,” she states. 

The girl scoffs. 

“You humans are so ignorant. The hat should be a dead giveaway,” the girl mutters before shifting into the wolf that had tackled the other wolf. 

Harumi stared. She shouldn’t be surprised. Weirder things had happened to her. 

“Oh,” was all Harumi replied with. 

The girl shifted back. 

“My name is Akita. I am a Formling. Now, come,” the girl - Akita - starts to walk away. 

This time, Harumi follows. 

She isn’t entirely sure why. Maybe it’s Lloyd and his trusting nature rubbing off on her. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s cold and desperate. Whatever the reason was, she was following this wolf-girl and she should probably get to know her. 

And that name. “Akita”. It was… familiar. She didn’t know where she heard it, but she’s heard it from somewhere, she knows she has. 

“So…” Harumi starts, not sure what to say. 

Akita doesn’t respond. Harumi stares at her. 

As she noticed before, Akita had short black hair topped with a white wolf hat. On Akita’s face were red markings that were also on her wolf form and on her hat. She noticed how many layers Akita wore. 

“Are you from here?” Harumi asks, 
“Yes. And you’re not, are you?” Akita replies, her gaze still fixed on the snow ahead of her. 
“I… don’t think so. Where is here?” she questions, 
“The Never Realm,” Akita responds, 
“I… I see,” Harumi nods. 

“The Never Realm”, huh? That name was also familiar. Where had she heard it? Where had she heard both of those names? 

“Where are you from?” the formling inquires, 
“Ninjago,” Harumi snaps out of her thoughts, 
“Oh. I had a friend from there. I… haven’t seen him in a while. His name is Lloyd. Do you… know him?” Akita asks. 

Oh. Oh. So that’s where she heard those names. Lloyd, after forgiving Harumi and giving her a second chance, had done what he did before everything. Talk. Harumi had learned that Lloyd loved talking and rambling about his adventures and past. Sometime throughout their “sibling bonding time”, Lloyd had talked about his time in The Never Realm and about Akita while Harumi half-listened. She then remembers how Lloyd had mentioned that he had mentioned Harumi to Akita. She remembers how Lloyd had awkwardly laughed and admitted that he’d said some pretty bad things about her. 

“Oh. Oh, yeah. I know him,” Harumi answers. 

She’d never told Akita her name. 

“You do?” Akita seems to perk up at that. 

Oh, she seems so happy now. Harumi can’t just deject her by telling her who she is. Oh, well. She might as well keep up the charades. 

“Yeah. He’s a bit…” Harumi replies, 
“Annoying? Talkative? Irritating?” Akita finishes for her, 
“Sounds like him,” she laughs nervously. 

The conversation hits a lull and they walk in silence for a bit. 

“We’re almost there,” Akita breaks the silence,
“Where is ‘there’?” Harumi questions, 
“Oh. Right. We’re heading to The Great Lake village. Or what’s left of it. After… that thing, some of the village and villagers got sucked into it and some buildings were added. We’ve been finding people scattered across the snow. You are one of them. Me and my brother, Kataru, are lucky that we weren’t taken away by… whatever that was. Some of us have started calling it ‘The Merge’,” she explains. 

Harumi nods. 

After a bit more walking and a bit more silence, they finally arrive at The Great Lake village. Except, it looked a bit odd and although Harumi had never been to it prior, she could tell something was off. 

There were wooden houses that actually looked like they’d belong, but then there was a skyscraper from Ninjago (probably), a lookout (or that was what Harumi thought it was anyways (it was a tall and skinny building made out of rusty and broken down metal)) and there was even a building in what Harumi assumed was The Great Lake. 

Akita didn’t stop walking, and instead headed to a wooden house. Harumi, of course, followed. 

Inside the small building, there was only one person out of the three people that Harumi didn’t recognize. Well, ok, she didn’t know any of them, but one of them looked like someone she knew and the other she had heard of (and seen in a museum). 

The one she didn’t know had black hair and a brown bear hat. And one of the others… looked like Zane. Well, a really rusty and broken down version of him, but still a version of Zane nonetheless. And the last one was… 

“Morro,” 

The green ghost sitting next to the broken Zane perked up. 

“...Who’re you?” he asked, 
“I-...” Harumi glances at Akita, who has walked over to the brown haired boy. 

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re here. I thought you were gone,” she explains, 
“I wish,” Morro spat. 

Harumi didn’t know how to respond to that, so she didn’t. 

The broken Zane stands up and steps towards her. 

“My name is Zane! I was built to protect others who cannot protect themselves!” it smiles. 

Harumi raises an eyebrow. 

“We’re going to have to think of a new name for you, buddy,” the brown haired boy chuckles, 
“Really!?” the broken Zane lights up, 
“Yep. Now, uh, who’s this?” the brown haired boy asks Akita, 
“Oh, this is uh…” Akita turns to Harumi. 

She freezes

“You never told me your name,” Akita says. 

Oh, shit. 

“My name is… 

My name is Harumi,”

A/N: gtrhudfguhhhffh sorry