It was past noon, just barely. But the room was quiet and not much activity had been happening for the last couple of hours. Here, Harumi was sitting in her sleeping chambers, a book in hand.

She had found it in Garmadon's office a couple of months ago when she, Killow and Ultra Violet snuck inside by total accident, having thought it was the break room. The three of them, concluding that day as their official: "We found our boss' office" day, had gotten a few things from there.

Killow and Ultra Violet stole some rather questionable things — such as his little marbled horse statue by the desk and a fake pistol that was heavily referenced from a cowboy movie up in theatres. Judging by how eccentric both can be, it's quite easy to tell which belonged to who, mind you.

Meanwhile, Harumi was a little more passive with her choice-making for this one. She had shuffled through his files, resisting her curiosity not to read them and stumbled upon a book in one of his drawers.

It was a velvet-coloured novel with an estimate of 400 pages. Its genre was fantasy, of course, and had golden laced linings on the side.

"That's what you're going for?" Harumi vividly remembers the disappointed state Ultra Violet was in when she saw the girl take the book out of the drawer.

It was only now that Harumi ever got the opportunity to start reading it. The day that they got it, she had to discard it in her sleeping chambers and get to work on minimizing the protests of resistance around the city.

At the moment, she was on chapter 3. She had read quite a bit to know what the book was talking about — it talked about the tale of a young vampiress who wandered off in a forest one night and managed to cut her finger on the thorns of an enchanted rose, meaning her injury wouldn't be healing anytime soon.

As she continued to wander, she left a blood trail and eventually, it's gotten the attention of a couple of vampire exterminators that lived not too far from the woods. Harumi needed to read more from the novel to really know what else is going to happen.

Though judging by the title, "Young blood's resurrection", she figures that the blood from the vampiress' wound will have a bigger meaning to the rest of the story.

She flips the next page, eager to continue in her reading. She doesn't get too far though, only managed to process a couple of words before she was interrupted by a knock to her door.

She was quick to stand out of bed, place the book back down on the covers and walk over to answer the door. She glanced over to the clock for a second,
looking at the time, it was bound to be lunchtime.

So whoever was behind the door was sure to be Garmadon, he was the one always giving her lunch at this hour.

She opens it, excited to be able to speak to her emperor once more this afternoon but was quick to hide her excitement when who showed up at the door instead was a couple of guards — in whom she didn't recognize at all.

Holding the knob of her door, she gave a grimace to the supposedly acquaintances of her boss. "Who are you?" She dared asked. It wasn't like she wasn't allowed to ask such things. She had authority here after all, as Garmadon's second in command.

One of the men, one with silver-locks, stepped up to her. He placed a hand over his chest, genuine intentions in his pale green eyes. "Quiet One, we have been asked by Emperor Garmadon to give you lunch." He tells her quietly and softly.

Hearing that, Harumi instantly grew skeptical. She raised a brow and crossed her arms, not really liking the position she upheld herself in. "He's usually the one who gives it to me, though." Her mood had soured at the revelation.

Behind the silver-locked one, a man with spiky blue hair had replied in their friend's place: "He's in a meeting at the moment. So that's why we are here instead." He explained to her.

Despite the really quiet tone, the Quiet one and the three guards could hear as a soft growling was heard in the background. Harumi sighs, concerned that she may know who could be making such a sound.

She turns around and spots Cloud, who was resting on her doggy bed earlier, to be completely awake and growling at the three men. Harumi thinks for a second: if Cloud was wary of these guards, then something must be wrong, right?

She shakes her head, couldn't be it. She acts this way around any stranger that approaches them, even Garmadon from time to time as Cloud hadn't grown to trust him yet. She turns back around ti the guards and gives them an apologetic look.

"Sorry, for making you all come all this way, I'm not really hungry." She regrets rejecting such a lovely platter of burritos carried out by three guards of the same team as her. However, she just couldn't seem to have the appetite to eat something coming from a stranger.

"Are you sure?" Izuma, the silver-locked one, frowned at her dismissal but completely understood either way. Harumi nods once again, liking his politeness. "Yes. Thank you." Her lips barely part.

Thinking that they would be on their way now and that she could return to her reading, she sees one of the guards extend his arm out to her — for her to take a bite out of the burritos.

"Quiet one, we insist." Soujo, the blue spiked-haired one pleaded, having stuffed the food onto her chest, that way, she couldn't deny it.

More offended than confused by their sudden determination, she grabs the burrito and shakes her head out at them.
"What is your problem?" She addressed to Soujo, the one who drastically changed his manners. "Why are you so desperate to get me to eat?"

It was becoming a little weird, she admits. The way all three of them are close to her face, eying her down whether she was ready to take a bite out of the food before her very eyes. It was nicely wrapped and it didn't have any vegetables, just meat.

She hears out their response shortly and while listening, Harumi's expression softens. "Because we're new recruits and Garmadon really wanted us to give you this food. Please do it, he's in a meeting and he wishes you'd eat." Soujo explains, his lips trembling to form a well-known "puppy face", a begging face to many.

Ah now, Harumi did really feel bad. Screw authority today, she didn't want somebody getting fired because of her.
"Fine, if I eat this, would you leave me alone?" She had to admit though, she was a tad pressed about their desperation.

The three guards all looked at each other before a small relieved smile lifted their lips. "Yes, absolutely." Izuma answers for the three of them.

There really was no helping it, huh? She'd have to eat lunch eventually. What if Garmadon was really disappointed in her for not eating in that hour-long meeting of his? Even if she didn't want to eat this, she unwrapped the cute little wrapper and was face to face with the food.

She took a deep breath before bringing the burrito to her mouth and biting into it. The minced meat fell into her mouths and she was left with several flavours that she couldn't recall — different spices and she honestly wished there was at least a bit of tomatoes. However...

The white-haired girl feels funny. Her head was spinning and her stomach didn't feel too well after she swallowed.
Panicked, she glanced over to the three guards, immense concern on her face as she tried to keep herself together.

"What....what did you do?" She managed to whisper out, her hands having dropped the burrito and now clenching her stomach intensely.

But no, the three guards, Izuma and Soujo were smiling at the girl. The two others hid away the burritos they had, hand in hand. Those were back-ups, in case that she refused he first one.

That's how Harumi knew that she had fallen straight for a trap, how could she be this stupid? Her head continues to spin and her world goes upside- down.

Her mind began to shut.

She fell to the ground, losing all sense of her body. What could have happened? Only the men knew, it was most likely a sleeping elixir inside of that burrito.

"Perfect. Now, to bring her to our initial meeting place." Izuma, the more dominant one between the three, gave orders as usual.

The three unfamiliar SOG members all picked her up from the ground and began walking inside of the bedroom.

From the upper floors, the crime wasn't at all evident. Coming out of the meeting room with what the other members thought was Garmadon's lunch, a plate of miso ramen, the oni lord heard a loud thud from downstairs.

What else was downstairs? Harumi's bedroom of course. Oh and, his tiny office. But his office wasn't the least of his concerns at the moment, holding the bowl in his hands, he ran down the stairs, refusing to take the lift and headed quickly to Harumi's sleeping chamber.

This was a kidnapping for sure and Cloud wanted it to remain only as an attempt. She barked and scratching the sides of her doggy bed with her nails, she threw herself over the blue-spiked SOG member and tried to distract him.

Unfortunately, her fighting attempts to save her owner fell into vain really quickly as she was fighting a losing battle against humans. She was dismissed to the side and her back hits the wall, a small whimper escaping her bruised snout.

She couldn't keep fighting on due to the fact that her opponents had disappeared. She saw how Garmadon, who was out of breath now, slid inside of the opened room and inspected his surroundings for a second.

The room was clean, there was no struggle, aside from the burrito crumbs on the ground that Garmadon thinks that someone impersonated him.

He only assumes that the fight was very one-sided then. Which meant that whatever happened was unfair to Harumi.

Along with Cloud, both ran over to the window and growled to themselves, the puppy's eyes blinking at the sight of a white van immediately driving away from the tower.

~~~~~~~~

Having awakened, it was no surprise to find that she couldn't speak. Her lips were sealed, her eyelids were heavy and she couldn't seem to see much in this dark and barren room.

'It doesn't feel like rope...but it can silence me anyways.' She tells herself mentally. She lips her lips, trying her best to feel the texture of whatever was on her mouth. Again, it didn't feel like a rope, it was softer and was way more stretchy.
'Must be duck tape.' She concluded.

No ball, her feet and hands were cuffed to chains that are connected to the wall of the room. She couldn't get out of here if she wanted to, the chains will tug and she'll stay bound to the wall.

But aside from positioning and the disgusting room choice, she hears a briefly silent conversation happening from a couple steps away from her. She tried her best to listen in.

It was the three same men again, the silver-locked one named Izuma, the blue-spiked Soujo and a long green spaghetti-haired man whose name has yet to be revealed to her. Harumi quickly picked up that they were talking about Garmadon.

"Ummm boss, I don't think I like it very much. What if the rumours are true and he does actually come and save her?" The blue-haired man spoke with hesitance in his voice. It seemed that he was the only out of the two who still had a bit of humanity left in him, a moral perhaps?

Joining in their comrade's claim, the green-haired one, named Terano, in the end, chewed his lip before looking up at his teammates. "That's the emperor that we choose to follow, no?" He added.

Albeit frustrated — but mostly scared for his life of what would happen if Garmadon found out, "Yeah, but still. His wrath is legendary, we wouldn't want to get caught in it." He tries his very best to convince his team leader, especially, to drop the plan and just return back to the tower.

Luckily, Izuma, who was listening calmly, nodded his head and thought on his own for a second. "Hmm. You do have a point, Soujo." He murmured.

Soujo's face contorted from worry to relief in a matter of seconds — that meant they were dropping this place, right?

Moving away from the wall that he recently leaned on, the silver-haired locked man told his comrades: "Okay, new plan. We leave her here and make sure that she is nowhere to be found, that way, Garmadon won't suspect anyone in the SOG." He had planned it already, of what they would do.

Soujo and Terano all raised brows, not being able to comprehend his logic here.
But only one of them spoke up about their clear confusion about the situation.

"Alright, how?"

The specks of humanity left in their team leader had fanned out like a series of flames. His calm demeanour rilled and his lips twisted into a wicked grin. His fingers clawed on something that was resting in his pocket the whole time.

"Simple. We burn this place to ashes!" He claims, accompanying his speech with a forced out laugh.

Almost instantly, Harumi jolted from her spot — later finding herself on the ground and stuck there. Due to the shock of the situation, she had almost forgotten that she was still restrained.

She moved her head off the ground and now her chin rested on the cement.

"WAIT!! NO, DON'T!!" She yelled out — or she thought she did. She had forgotten as well that in this moment, she was gagged.

Her pleads came out as mere squirming to the other three. She couldn't be heard, no matter how loud she shouted, she'll forever be left here to rot.

Turning around, stopping in his tracks, Izuma had heard her cries. His other two friends had already ran out of the building, gasoline in hand so really now, they were just waiting for their team leader.

"And you'll be staying here." He says calmly, the lighter in his hands. Harumi had to watch how she was completely defenceless against these upcoming flames. She couldn't stop it, couldn't think. She didn't have time for it all.

Her head was spinning for the second time today and she tried to breathe, to overcome the shock of what was happening.

A loud explosion was heard, the colours of her surroundings all reduce to red, orange and yellow.

Within a second, her world turns completely white, she had no control of it.

She gets engulfed in flames and she doesn't know what to think anymore.

So now what?

How was she supposed to escape death this time?

The building was up in flames and she coughed — she coughed and coughed and coughed. She wanted to get out of here.

Restrained and gagged, she knew she had to somewhat try. So, she crawls, coughs, and desperately tries to find a way to escape. Through these thick flames, she couldn't even think about going out the right way.

All the hope in her eyes seem to disappear as she feels like she was getting nowhere with her steps. They were tiny little crawls, an attempt to escape from the flames. She didn't want to die here, she had so much to do.

Her eyes scanning the walls, she finds pipes along the walls, they were falling to a crumb. She quickly dodges the falling pipes and found herself leaned to a wall. If she hadn't found a window nearby, she would've believe that this position was incredibly unfortunate.

However, a few metres above her, she spots a window. The light return to her eyes momentarily and she easily hoists herself up to stand on the ledge of it. She brings her wrapped wrists to the hook of the window and manages to get free with little to no struggle.

The ropes were cut off and she gasped, ripping the duct tape right off her lips. She exhaled.

Next, she brings her hands to the window and quickly opens it, her fingers slipping a couple of times. With the window now open though, she wastes no time and leaps out of it.

Her body hit the cold cement, a couple of metres away from the burning building, it was clear that she came right out of it to the stranger's eye.

Harumi didn't have the strength to turn her head over to face the two individuals who distinctly made their way over to her.

Her mind shut off the instant she heard a semi-relieving message: "Emperor Garmadon, we found her."

~~~~~~~~~~

140 hours, five days, later.

The white-haired girl found herself waking back up in her room. The blinds were shut and she found herself reopening her eyes in dim darkness.

Her head couldn't move, it stayed against the pillow.

There was distinct chattering on the edge of her bed, it was blurry for starters. However, "What happened..? My head feels kind of.." She spoke lightly after confirming the presence of two people in the room with her.

One of them was Garmadon. He swiftly turned around and smiled at the newly awakened white-haired girl. "Oh, you're awake." He observes calmly.

Now, Harumi was confused about this one. She raised a brow when he sat down beside her on the bed. "What's happening? Why am I bandaged?" Her frail hands travelled to her forehead to find soft fabric wrapped around it.

Seeing her getting all worried wasn't something that he wanted. So, he places his hand on the blankets and pulled them up to her nose. He keeps that small smile on his lips. "Shhh, you still need to rest." He whispers to her.

Relatively away, as if watching from the door frame of the room, present day Harumi was watching with a smile on her face. Ah yes, she was spectating her dreams here. Every night, Zephyr plunges her into continuous nightmares.

Now this was the continuation of the dream that she wanted every night, not some twisted and terrifying ending.

But it went all too quickly, right?

Ah, she felt the chills go down her spine.
Her breath hitched as her grip on the frame gradually became tighter.

It felt like somebody...was watching.

Without another risk, the white-haired girl turns around. There was a shadow standing directly behind her with the creepiest of smiles.

Her eyes widened at the sight of who she found; The familiar green-streaked spellcaster stood perfectly still behind her.

A perfectly vivid image of him as well...

...it really looked like him, it was almost if he was...alive?

"Wait a second...how are you..." she stepped inside of the room. Of course, she couldn't be seen. She was just a spectator with free-roam, she couldn't interfere.

Dream Harumi and Garmadon were peacefully discussing with each other as she now backed away.

Now Zephyr, who had pulled a little present from his pockets, approached the girl and grinned.

"You didn't think I died in that hellhole now, did you?"

Yes, it was really him. She felt herself hyperventilating at the mere sight of him.

Continuing to laugh, he passed her, the present — more like the knife, still in his hands. It took only a second for Harumi to realize what he was planning to do.

She stretched a hand out, a mortified expression on her face.

"No wait, don't! Don't!" She yelled out, her hands clinging on the bedside handles.

The knife that Zephyr had in his hands hand, plunged straight into Dream Harumi's heart.

The world became black again for her.

~~~~~~~

This time, back in the present world, she reawakens from her nightmare. It was less dramatic than how she always would — since Zephyr's appearance had made it very anticlimactic for her.

Slipping out of bed, she muttered curses — very inaudible ones for the time-being as if someone were to hear them, Harumi would feel little to very much shame for even saying them.

Now being awake from such a displeasing nightmare, she rubbed her eyes and agreed that the first thing that she must do is wake up the others and tell them: "Zephyr is alive and well. We need to stop him again."

She shifts over to the doggy bed further away from the room. She approaches the sleeping Cloud and as she places her hand over to gently nudge her, she was stopped by a small poofing sound being heard from behind her.

Harumi barely had the time to spot the orange mist spreading across the room as the poofing sound came to a close. She backed away, her eyes clearly focusing on what had just entered the room with her.

But before she could try and yell out why form of alert, she was tossed to the wall and her mouth was covered by a giant palm.

Such a ruckus luckily had woken up the neighbours right by Harumi's room. The green ninja leaped out of bed at the sound of a loud thud by his bedroom door, he knew that it belonged to Harumi, it meant that she was in trouble.

Adjusting his gi and grabbing his precious fighting partner, his sword, he proceeded to open his door by pulling on the knob.

Lloyd sees that Nix was also awake just as he is and he wanted to check if everything was okay with both Rumi and Cloud.

"You heard that?" He hears the puppy whisper to him with beated breath. Of course he heard that, how could he not? He could literally hear the thud from his end of the room. The green ninja nods sadly and he twists his palm, opening the door.

Now out in the hallway, Nix slowly turns his head to look at his owner again. "What do you think that was?" He questions, wanting a good idea of the threat they'd be facing.

Thinking logically for a second, Lloyd tries to remember all of the times that something remotely similar has happened to them....all his mind gave him when it came to answers though is nightmares, the never-ending ones.

"It's probably just a nightmare. But it's best to check up on her." He replies to Nix. Back at Zephyr's island, he recalls a similar reaction had happened with Harumi. But even so, that may be their 99% answer here, it was still wise to check up on her.

The two of them exit the room and planning to turn to their right to enter Harumi's, they get stopped in the middle of their actions at the sight of a four-armed oni leaned by the wall.

It was Garmadon, in his robes, he must've heard it too, huh? At this point, the whole resistance will be awake to gather around her room to check if she was alright.

"Harumi?" Lloyd hears the man inquire from his place. He had wanted to make sure that him and his son were going after the same target here.

Lloyd nods at his inquiry, standing right by the door. "Yeah, she's in trouble." He replies calmly.

Garmadon approaches closer to the blonde-haired boy and the husky. Just like Lloyd was doing, he placed one of his hands against the door — "Well, what are we waiting for, then?" He rolls his eyes in impatience and without further ado, the three of them all push open the door to her bedroom.

The sight before them stunned them in place — no one said anything yet. But what they saw was Harumi, of course, but something was terribly off. It didn't take very long for the three of them to find out that she was being held by the throat. She was off the ground and struggling.

The first one to react was Lloyd, he pressed his fingers together and summoned an energy ball through his gloves. "Harumi!" He called for her, firing the energy ball directly at whatever was holding her captive.

He couldn't tell what it was, or who was her attacker. Their back was turned and through the moonlight, they could only make out a shadowy form.

Whoever the stranger was, they predicted the green ninja's movements well and scoffed. They turned around, thus turning Rumi with them and used their other hand to cancel out the energy ball.

The enemy smirks. They moved themselves closer to the moonlight. Lloyd and Garmadon had seen how their enemy looked nothing like them. They had orange skin, fangs and a black ponytail.

Not to mention, they had no legs, instead, they had a mist-like trail sort of acting like some sort of tail.

Something was awfully familiar about them, Lloyd thinks. But he couldn't think about where he could've seen this man before. In prison, perhaps, during his many visits?

No, there's gotta be another explanation for this. Lloyd feels uneasy with the thought of somebody as strong and magical as he is, to be trapped in Kriptarium.

He hated to admit it, but he knows that place has terrible security.

Grinning, the enemy lowered his hand, still feeling the shards of the energy ball intertwine in between his fingers. "That's pretty clever...for a ninja." The stranger remarks. Continuously spiting all of them in the room, he didn't let go of Rumi for a single second.

The enemy even made it evident that his hold was tight as he waved her around without a single care. Now, that, obviously triggered Lloyd's fight or flight response. He charged towards the strange creature and attempted to knee him. "Let her go. Let her go or else!" He threatened, his canines clenched.

The commotion had woken Cloud up, all of them all took a second to glance over the now growling dog. She stayed close to her friends for now. But it didn't keep her from protesting against all of this.

"Let her go, right now!" She threatened the enemy at her turn, maybe sounding less convincing than the others.

Waltzing around for a little, his partner of course being Harumi, who was held by the throat, the djinn was messing with all of them. "Hmm, unfortunately I can't. Harumi here, has something that Zephyr Gwdyion wants." He laughed.

"Oh not him and lunatic self again!" Cloud rolls her eyes, charging towards the enemy at her turn to pounce and bite his face. Though, the enemy sees what she was attempting, as she was a predictable dog after all.

Her attack fails and she was tossed to the side. But she wasn't out of commission that easily.

Seeing everything, the husky growled at the stranger and took a step in front of Cloud, to shield her in case the enemy had other ideas. "Please just stop, just stop!" He begged.

His polite pleads didn't work, for the stranger, wanting to spite him more, clenched his fingers, thus tightening the hold around Harumi's neck.

The white-haired girl gasped at the sudden pressure and due to that, she began wildly kicking her legs despite being suspend mid-air.

Luckily, it was in this moment that everyone had arrived on site after heading such a commotion occur in the middle of the night. Right through the door, the first one to view the scene was ironically, the lightning ninja.

He stood in place for a second, not believing his eyes for even a second.
"Nadakhan?!" Terrified and furious, both at the same time, he stayed near his friends, not sure if he could handle another confrontation with this guy.

The djinn, now revealing to be Nadakhan,
smirked at the sound of the voice of the ninja whom he recognized the most. Ah yes, he did remember that battle they had timelines ago.

Even if it may be erased from everyone else's mind. It was chilling that some had the privilege to remember.

"Oh yes, hello Jay." He greeted, not being too confident and overstepping his welcome.

Even the mere voice of his, how it was so identical, how it was him directly in flesh, terrified the blue ninja and he was forced to recoil his thumbs through his gloves. His eyes didn't leave Nadakhan, too afraid that he'd try something.

To him....or to Nya.

"What is going on?!" Cole asks the blue ninja, his hand shaking his shoulder when he noticed that he didn't dare move any longer. He was glued in place and the black ninja knew that was concerning.

They couldn't just stand here though for long. If they were all here and gathered around, they had a bigger chance of defeating the man. Without another doubt, the ninja including Garmadon all charged towards Nadakhan and took their weapons out, hoping to slash at him.

The djinn was incredibly talented, he twirled around with ease and made sure Harumi was his shield for all of this. That way, her precious family would halt whenever they tried to attack him. They wouldn't dare hurt Harumi, wouldn't they?

Watching how their eyes turned from anger to shock really amused him, he loved this feeling very very much.

So that's why, he didn't realize the soft attempts of Harumi, gasping out her orders to the white-furred puppy below them.

"Cloud...grab...th...the thing...from the closet.." through beated gasps and attempts at breaths, Harumi gave an order to her puppy.

Now that was the signal for their big plan, Cloud, who was in the middle of fighting, stopped attacking Nadakhan by the tail and barked. She rushed over to Harumi's closet.

She threw herself inside and began searching for the object her owner wanted before she came back out with a small needle.

"Got it, Rumi!" She calls back to her owner, reassuring her that she didn't need to wait any longer. The Pomeranian quickly rolls the needle over to Nix, who was standing a few inches beside her.

The needle landing by his feet, Nix grabs it between his canines — after a questionable eyebrow raise first of course. He then gave it Lloyd but questioned Cloud right after: "Is that tiger venom widow?" He asks, having picked up on the strong scent.

The green ninja quickly threw the needle over to the girl, who luckily caught it and from there, the others didn't need to try so hard as to battle him.

Before she could even plunge the needle into the djinn's arm though, Nadakhan brought his two hands together to teleport onto the deck, unfortunately, he had brought Garmadon, Rumi, Lloyd, Cloud and Nix with him.

The djinn gave a concerned look as due to him teleporting away, it caused Harumi to break free. The girl smiles as she held the tiger widow venom in her hands.

Lloyd, who was scratching the back of his head as he watched her step away from them, "Rumi, why did you have that?" He asked a question, a little confused as to how she managed to find the djinn's weakness without error.

He couldn't have possibly known that himself.

Or would he?

Even Lloyd couldn't put aside his own memories, he swears that this man was more than familiar to him, the more he looked at him, he feels that they fought before.

Launching herself over the djinn, she applied pressure on his arms to keep him pinned down. "Back when I was confined to the palace, I caught up on my reading. I had read about them a long time ago and knew they were immune to everything else but that."

She replies, struggling in between her sentences as she tried to keep him down. He was a djinn after all, and he could do anything at any time. However, his free roam was put to an end when she finally managed to catch him by surprise and stab the needle in between his rib-cage.

She had wanted to insert the needle by the shoulder at least, but....the rib-cage works as well, maybe even better.

She sighed and got off the enemy, relieved that she had finally put an end to his squabbling and fighting. She then turned over to Garmadon, who was already ten steps ahead of the two of them and he grabbed the tip of his misty tail. They slid over to the railings.

"Hey, don't grab me like that!" Nadakhan argues, trying to break free. But his head hung low as he couldn't do anything about it in this moment.

Not listening to a word he said, the oni lord grinned and gave a small wave with one of his hands — then proceeded to toss the pirate captain off their ship.

"Well, that takes care of him." He shrugs, turning back around to face a very shocked Lloyd Garmadon and a grinning Harumi.

"That was so cool!" She clapped, cackling slightly as they completely showed that guy a lesson for sure.

"You...tossed...a weakened djinn off the...offf...." But contrary to her, Lloyd was still having a hard time believing what just happened.

All three of them have had a good laugh before the other resistance members all came running into deck.

"What's going on, what's happening?" The blue ninja, mortified and utterly confused as to why his worst enemy was present a while ago, inquired, wanting some sense into this situation.

Standing up from the ground, Harumi exhaled and wiped a trail of blood from her bottom lips.

"The bastard got what he wanted in the end." Harumi clicks her tongue in disgust, walking away from the group little by little. "He has successfully brought back the former villains of Ninjago, the experiment having to have used my blood worked."

The others, questionably looking at one another didn't stop her as they saw her dismiss herself and enter the hallways. If what Harumi was saying was true, then this was bad, really really bad.

Why was it still so hard to believe? They saw the djinn for themselves, especially the blue ninja who remarked it several also times as he couldn't forget a face like that one.

Closing the door to her room, she wastes no time to exhale and opens a tiny box that was sitting pleasantly on her desk. Her hands tremble as she opens it and what was inside of it emits a glowing blue aura.

The empress of Ninjago stared at it for a little while, certain that this was the right way to go. Her eyes matched the spark of the precious artifact that was entrusted to them — the real crystal.

She grabs the realm-travelling teleporter out of the box and turns her head back to the door. No, she couldn't leave just like that. With the realm crystal and a couple of daggers equipped on her, that was close to going to a fight empty-handed.

She shifts to the side, over to her wall of hung-up weapons. She pauses for a second as she makes eye contact with many katanas and many other daggers, what she didn't think she'd see again was the Oni mask of hatred.

Ah, now Harumi is quite familiar with that certain purple-painted mask, she has used it many times in her life as well. So she was no novice when facing invincibility — it really has become ironic how she practically became invincible herself without it, she escaped death way too many times.

Figuring that it would be the best choice to go, she walks towards the walls and using her free-hand, she unhangs the delicate mask and keeps it at her side. Now, she was ready to go.

She knew what she needed to do, she knew why she would be walking out this door right this instant with so much equipment.

Her eyes narrowed as she placed her hand on the knob — she needed to put an end to Zephyr once and for all, kicking him into lava didn't do at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Hello guys, it's Lilla here! and thank you for reading chapter 143 of Reconciled Hearts!(so close to 200 :0 !!)

I'd like to clarify that the book Harumi is reading is referenced over the fact that her blood was used to resurrect the villains of Ninjago, I'm debating whether I should make it as a spin-off/joke novel for this series....should I?

Anyways lore discussion because that's what you all want, right?(/lh). Now that the spellcasters' motive had been revealed, how will the resistance handle the newly risen villains of Ninjago? Do they have a plan? It seems not.

Not to mention, Harumi is planning on fighting Zephyr all on her own, would the oni mask of hatred suffice? Find out in the next chapter! Cya you all next time! ^0^