About several metres up in the sky,

Peering dully by the side, a curious four-armed man sighed as he noticed his companion wag her tail excitedly as she got her pilot goggles on her ears for the fifth time today after they kept sliding off.

"Are we there yet? It's been an hour since I had to stay in this,, cramped room." Garmadon mentions, sticking his arms out and attempting to get out. The door was half-busted and he didn't have much room inside of there in the first place.

"Shhh, I can't hear a thing. We're so high up." Nix comments, his ears raising as more of the mysterious island became clearer and clearer. Originally, he and Cloud were the ones going alone, however, Garmadon was determined to save Harumi as well.

Cloud, amused by the oni's struggle, laughs and turns her head over to the windshield of the helicopter. "We're here." She announces over to the two shortly.

Taking it as a signal that it was safe to leave the compartment he was in, he wipes a sweat bead off his face and quickly joins both dogs. He too, stared at the windshield and noticed Zephyr's island coming into view. He refrained from letting out a snarl at the familiar and dangerous island.

Yes, the fearsome and nightmare of an island, where a tournament that lasted a week, was held. He couldn't think about plotting vengeance to the spellcasters yet though, there were other things he needed to keep in mind. Including,

"Uhh, Cloud?" Nix turned to the white-furred Pomeranian, distress showing up on his face for a split second before he neutralized himself. "Do you even know how to land this thing?"

Of course she wouldn't know, right? She's a dog let alone hadn't had many experiences mid-air before.

The concern returned to Nix's face as he anxiously awaited an answer from her.

Cloud, who was hesitantly using her paws to move the steering wheel from side to side, giggled nervously at his question.

"Well you see, I've been watching Nya whenever she steers the bounty so—" she was interrupted by an uproar coming from Garmadon's direction.

"The bounty and a helicopter aren't the same thing!" The man was scared for his life here.

In a panic, he glanced to the control panel, trying to put some sense into his mind of his but came to no understanding to how it worked. He hurriedly looked back up to Cloud, a glint of the island's ground nearing closer.

"We're gonna crash!" He claimed, backing away from their "pilot". If they were really going to crash land, he didn't want to get anywhere near the windshield, potentially due to the glass shattering and entering his eyes.

The pilot of the helicopter however, didn't even flinch. Instead, she grinned and pressed her paws on the steering wheel even more, applying pressure.

She was holding on and she was thrilled to be landing soon — even if they were,, really just about to dive head first into the ground.

"Relax, we're not! But hold on tight, this'll be a bumpy ride!" She chimed, not warning Garmadon and Nix that she was close to pulling levers to the extra measures. The extra measures that both didn't know about, of course.

Both screaming in fear, Garmadon abandoned Nix and proceeded to confine himself back inside of the small room he was idly waiting inside of for an hour now.

The helicopter continued to dive down, as it shouldn't be doing, however with Cloud who lacked experience, she didn't know to properly land the helicopter.

Though, luckily, the three of them landed the helicopter safe and sound. They landed on Zephyr's island behind one of the palm trees.

Cloud, who was the one responsible for such a landing, was the first one to bark out a comment. She let go of the steering wheel and stretched. "That was kinda easy!" She admitted, surprising the man behind her.

He shut the door — or more so slammed it shut, then rejoined her and stood behind her chair. "Easy?! That was a close one!" He gasped, baffled how she was perfectly calm by the fact that they could've gotten almost killed.

Cloud shook her head and poked her snout to press on a button, from there, straps strapping her to the chair — making sure she wasn't to bounce out, came undone and the puppy was free to leave the helicopter.

"To be fair, we did wear our seatbelts." Nix told Garmadon with a small pout. Seriously, there were chairs in the back with seatbelts. Didn't he think of them?

Apparently not, as that fact shocked Garmadon greatly. He turned to Cloud with a perplexed look of realization.

"S...Seatbelts...?"

He proceeded to face-palm, letting out a frustrated groan afterwards then followed the two of them out of the helicopter.

There weren't any changes to the island as they suspected. Aside from the fact that it looked deserted as hell, Cloud and Garmadon knew that Zephyr was expecting them back here eventually.

He didn't activate his special reinforcements nor showed any sign of change whatsoever. So, they better do this quickly while they're here.

The fact that Cloud somewhat crash-landed this helicopter, didn't help at all with being discreet. This could leave them with less time to look for clues and rescue Harumi.

"Where are we headed now?" Nix asked, ready to follow her if needed.

Cloud narrows her eyes and begins walking away, her paws in the sand, and her sense of direction leading her straight towards the main building.

"Over there."
~~~~~~~
Successfully managing to sneak inside of the building without the spellcasters' guards spotting them, Garmadon, Nix and Cloud had trouble finding the white haired girl's room as there were many floors in the building.

They eventually found it, having seen the green that snuck out of Lloyd's room, Garmadon remembered fondly that his boy's room was close to the girl's, from the many times he came in and out of the hallway to check on her.

"We're coming here because Harumi's diary is here, right?" Garmadon asked again, after Cloud had remembered back in the helicopter that Harumi's diary should be back in her room.

Having opened the door, Cloud peered inside, then seeing that it was safe, she stepped inside. She wandered in like no stranger, the sheets were changed but still kept its usual light jade colour. What interested Cloud more however, was the fact that her belongings were still in here.

That meant her diary was still here!

Garmadon, who kept an eye on the door, watched as she ran back and forth, knocking down items from shelves and searched under the bed. He gave an impatient sigh and began closing the door slightly, his eyes on high alert as he watched out for any guards.

"Ugh, make it quick. Why'd you have to make so much noise?" He asked, not exactly watching the dog continue to pull on the drapes and search the cabinets. If Cloud was anything, she wasn't stealthy, for sure.

"Trying, trying!" Cloud says, in response to his complaint. Eventually, the search came to an end when she found a tiny book on top of the desk inside of the room, Cloud mumbles out that she should have seen it sooner. She immediately knocked it down to the ground and gestured Garmadon to come closer.

Confused by a little, the man shut the door and picked the book up, inspecting it a little and concluded that it was in fact Harumi's diary. He then looked down at the tiny Cloud, who was prompting him to read it. He raised a brow and flipped the pages.

"Uh, aren't you gonna read it yourself?" He questioned, his eyes landing on the words as he didn't really pay attention to the writing just yet, he wanted to hear Cloud's response. The puppy shook her head at that.

"Even if I can talk, I didn't learn how to read yet. Same applies to Nix. Mistaké's tea could only do so much." She responded sadly. She nudged her paws over to Nix, who looked over Garmadon's shoulder and tried to make sense into the writing inside of the diary.

The words blurred as he had really wanted Garmadon to read it out for them so they can understand.

And so he did, Garmadon read it to himself first and grew hesitant at every word that was written further down. It was if he didn't want to read this anymore.

He froze in place, having dropped the book to the ground without realizing it. It startled the two puppies as they wondered what could possibly be written inside of Harumi's diary.

"What, what is it?"

"Judging by that reaction, it doesn't seem good, huh?"

Respectively, Cloud and Nix noticed the alarmed and uncomfortable look on the man's face. The man wasn't calming down anytime soon, he shut his eyes tightly.

"Zephyr, that bastard.." Garmadon grunted, clenching his shaking fists. He was angry now — rather startled at what Zephyr had planned for Harumi. It only confused the puppies more as they hadn't made sense of what Garmadon had read. But they sure saw the terror in his eyes.

Then, he finally cracked. He picked the book up and stored it back on top of the desk. Then, he turned over to Cloud and Nix and claimed these shallow words: "Zephyr, he'd like to use Harumi's blood for his plans."

If there was a way to cut Cloud's blood circulation in that moment, it would be now. Her blood was solid, frozen. Her eyes dilated as she processed through his words. "What..? Why..?" Her owner was in danger, she needed to save Rumi.

Nix cursed under his breath and blinked.
"Does it say what kind of spell it was?" He contributes to the conversation, despite having hard time to believe that this was the reason of Harumi's disappearance, he couldn't believe how low Zephyr was.

Experimentation, especially on humans, was borderline illegal!

Garmadon sadly shakes his head. "No, it doesn't say. As Harumi didn't learn anything about the spell thus far." He explains to the puppies. He made his way over to the door, wanting to leave this place already, it was like his motivation dropped. He wanted to see Zephyr already.

Still not understanding why Zephyr was doing all of this, or mostly blinded by her own anger, Cloud followed him — which prompted Nix to follow them without a warning.

"What if that guy takes too much of her blood, what if he kills her?!" She growls, the scenarios of what could happen to her beloved owner was haunting her. She didn't want that to happen, she didn't want Zephyr touching Harumi in the first place.

As they walked out of the room and into the corridors in complete silence. Garmadon was left to visualize once more.

He remembers the scene vividly.

"The nightmares, they're controlling them! They want to use me for their spell, they want to kill me, Garmadon!"

The girl yelled — begged at him, so long ago.

He shuts his eyes again, suppressing the memory, suppressing the guilt, rather. As his sole mistake of not helping her that day, came biting him in the back.

A question from the black-furred husky snapped him back to reality. They were walking towards large imperial doors that were very similar to all the other ones around here, Cloud and Garmadon can never tell them apart.

"What lies behind those doors?" Nix had asked, his snout experiencing all the brand new scents around here. He smelled Chinese noodles, mostly, and potions. If he tried hard enough, he could smell the glass shards laying on the ground somewhere.

Cloud narrowed her brows. They walked been faster towards the doors, as if they'd like to go there and search for Harumi.

"The arena. It's probably the best place to start looking." She claims.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The arena was deserted now that the tournament was over. But it was easier for the three of them, it meant more liberty and time to look around, look for anything unusual. So that's what they did for the time they were permitted inside.

They searched the stands, listened through the walls, checked the grand carpet leading towards the portal to the treacherous underworld. Garmadon has chills every now and then, upon remembering his own son and white haired empress being sent there for the purposes of the tournament.

"Hey, look at this." Cloud called over the two of them, thinking she had found something. It did interest Nix and Garmadon though, so they hurried over and left the corner they were looking at and came straight to her. What they saw fascinated yet confused them.

Through a wall, there was a button. It was in a rather unnoticeable spot if Cloud had to be honest, she'll give them that. Nix, who was peering down at it and contemplating whether to push it or not,
"Huh, what's a button doing around here?" he questioned, possibly voicing out what everyone's main question was at the moment.

It was unusual that a button resided in this room, Cloud thinks that it's possibly there to start up the event — add a few podiums, light up portals. But still, the evergrowing urge to press the button was there. It wasn't like she didn't have a choice anyways, they needed to find Harumi.

And so, she did, she pressed it without anyone telling her not to do and all three of them heard a noise —- an object came into view.

"What's that?" Nix questions, staring at the opened hatch rather curiously.

Groaning, as he had terrible experiences with these things, "It's a minecart." He explained, not seeing much more of an alternative, so the man gets inside. This would be a clue to finding Harumi, right?

"So you're telling me Zephyr has an underground lair?" Cloud asks, getting inside of the minecart and making sure not to crush Garmadon's lap. Nix followed the both of them inside of the cart shortly.

It had began rolling on the rails and the hatch behind them shut.

Their sense of direction twisted as they came close from hitting a few of the cavern walls along the path down. The wheels were unsteady and rusty, the cart rocked back and forth, scaring the four-armed demon and the husky.

It was dark, very poorly-lit. Yet, the white-furred Pomeranian was having the time of her life at the moment. In the front, squished against Nix and impressing Garmadon, she laughed and held onto the cart tightly.

"Wooooo! Yeahhhhh, this is the time of our lives! This is wild!" Cloud cheered as the cart picked up pace. Nix and Garmadon, were both terribly concerned for what Cloud calls fun.

Almost flung out of the cart himself, Nix gulped and shook his head rapidly at Cloud. "Nope! We're gonna crash!" He was a pessimist about this for sure.

"Just have fun, we won't get hurt!" Cloud assured her companion, the smile off her face not disappeared.

The minecart continued rolling until it reached a halt rather brutefully and launched the three adventurers out of the cart and straight towards a stone wall.

~~~~~~~~

Exiting the minecart rather dazed, the husky was the one to help his furred-partner out of the cart. Everyone was dizzy with excitement and fear from that trip just now.

As Nix wanted to check in if she was alright, his words formed a different response as he noticed her eyes were fixed towards a large rock in front of them.

"Huh, what's up, Cloud?" He asks quietly, keeping his distance from her slightly.

Cloud however, shook her head and stayed away from him. Her eyes narrowed and she slowly begins approaching the rock. "Shhhh, wait.." she whispers.

.....

She looks away for a second, her thoughts clouding her mind. There was only one thing that's gotten her attention now and she believes her friend had noticed it too.

"Nix, do you sense it too?" She wonders quietly. She didn't expect much of a response nor was ready to react if he did.

Nix of course knew what she meant, seeing as they were both puppies with the same abilities. "I think so...you don't mean..?" He was looking away too at the first half then gradually brought his head to the left to glance at her.

Cloud nods at him. She runs behind the evident large rock a few inches away from them and inspects it, figuring out from where she should begin climbing from. She paid no mind of course, and climbed nonetheless. She struggled at the start but made it to the top where she frowned, her brows lowering.

There was a white haired girl down there, her head was low as her hands were tied in rope. The two men that were accompanying her, respectively a blonde man and brown-haired one did nothing about it.

They knew that these two would be their enemies at this point. Cloud quickly caught the glimmer of a mischievous smirk on the green-coloured spellcaster's face. That was definitely Zephyr.

"I sense Harumi." Nix comments, answering Cloud's concerns.

Yes, that was definitely Harumi.

Garmadon, curious by their proclamations, had climbed the rock as well, wanting to see whether they had seen the empress or not.

He didn't react a single bit upon finding her again down there, however, hatred and distaste for that spellcaster remained in his deceased heart. But, there was one thing he needed to warn Nix and Cloud despite his want to save Harumi from Zephyr's clutches.

"We shouldn't be here." He said simply. His eyes showed a serious man who merely wanted to keep his life in tact. He didn't want to put himself in any danger for no reason, even if it meant to watch a loved one suffer.

He always needed to put himself first. Right?

Wrong.

It was hell to watch this, Garmadon wanted to save her right here right now. But they couldn't be blunt about this, they needed to strategize.

Unfortunately, not everyone had that kind of patience. The white furred Pomeranian took his denial in the wrong way. "What, you're backing down, coward?" She glared at the four-armed Oni. The man didn't even flinch at her hostile words.

Iced in place, "I think we should wait for the others first. We have no chance to defeat them if it's just the three of us." He explained himself. It earned him a cold retort, a snap belonging to Cloud.

She growled at the oni and stepped off the rock. "No, we aren't waiting for the others. I what to save her now, who knows what they could do to her!" She urged him, she was desperate to save her owner. She just wished the man understood her feelings, was he being selfish for not caring about her?

No, Garmadon cares about Harumi, unknowingly to Cloud. She didn't see the amount of times that he cared for the girl and even tried to save her.

"We don't stand a chance against them, Cloud. Zephyr and his lackeys have a whole army, what do we have?" Garmadon speaks to the puppy, hoping to snap some sense into her.

He looked after her when Zackery and Mirage's kingdom took possession of Ninjago.

Cloud sighs but still doesn't agree with him.

"I don't care! I'm not waiting around until Harumi gets killed!" She argued back.

The two arguing parties had not acknowledged the group of five minions — possibly workers of the spellcasters, peering from rocks in a nearby area.

No one had noticed them during their little feud.

But Nix had.

"Uhh, guys..?"

It was too late, though. Ropes had been tied around them as the minions closed in on them.

No one saw this coming.

"Oh for the love of the FSM master." Nix sighed, fed up with the amount of times that this had happened to them. He didn't fight willingly with the ropes around him.

"Ugh..." Cloud jabbed, her canines chomping through the ropes now tied around her.

They weren't budging.

No, she couldn't be scared now.

She needed to act tough, or else she wouldn't be able to save Harumi.

As a shout of defeat, Cloud growled and lowered her head to the ground. The three of them having been surrounded by a pack of minions.

"Dammmmmmmit!!"

~~~~~~~

It was bubbling. She couldn't see a thing. It had been happening for a while now, where she couldn't find herself breathing for a period of time. It was mere minutes but it felt like hours. They'd grab on her hair and force the information out of her.

"Tell me!" Zephyr's voice became wild. He clapped his hands and she felt the hand tugging onto her hair pull her back up.

Ah, her head was out of water for a few seconds before she needed to go back down below.

"Isn't it lively in there, hm?" Zephyr chuckled, enjoying his perfect view of the massive tank in front of him. A sadist — a lunatic son of man.

She had a pretty bad fear of drowning.

A violent cough attacked her lungs in the moment. Water was spat out of her system as Zephyr watched in absolute amusement.

He grinned once again, the head of the poor white haired girl was dunked into cold, cold, water.

When she was returned to the surface however. Harumi reattempted to open her eyes and look around. It didn't work out too well, her vision was blurry as she could barley make out to what was her surroundings.

If she didn't memorize this lair's layout, she'd be lost and terrified of where she was. She hated this, she hated how the minions assumed control over her and forced her head to drown and struggle deep under pressure.

"Well well, what do we have here?~"

She barely made out Zephyr's voice talking to a staff member of his.

She squinted her eyes — she saw three figures watching her punishment. Water entered her pupils and they stung. She hissed in pain as her arms were pinned down and she couldn't use them to wipe the water drops away from her forehead.

"Harumi!" It was Garmadon, he was yelling at her. He wanted to see her safe.

Such words, they enveloped her in even more fear. Even more coldness.

Where had the sun gone?

Ah, there was no sun. Again, this is an underground lair.

He kept making it even worse, he was the puppeteer of this whole event. He couldn't be any prouder of his actions, Harumi hated that.

"Oopsies." Holding onto a taser that he had been given to, Zephyr ditched it to the tank and nodded at his minions, a signal for them to dunk her back inside.

They watched as the minions grinned and pushed her forward without her consent.

"Noooooooo!" Nix barked, the ropes around him limiting his movements.

Her face was slammed first into the tide, with the taser's power charging up the waves, her face contorted into pain as the bolts had almost entered her eyes. She screamed in shock and pain — not expecting to be met with electrified waters.

Her face burned and ached.

To see her owner like this, it was devastating for her. Cloud didn't know how much longer she can just sit here without doing anything.

Ropes, ropes, please, come off.

"Stop it!! Please, stop it!!" Cloud raged, tears in her eyes as she did not want to watch this all break down.

Her begs were futile, absolutely pointless.

It was if Cloud's begs were bounced back from wall to wall in an empty white room.

All lonely and alone, defenceless, it was just her calling for help. Despite Nix and Garmadon being beside her and screaming for Harumi too, she couldn't feel them, sense them.

Her owner was now thrown onto the ground, her fidgeting form sobbing from all the pain.

"Zephyr...I don't want to be here anymore. Kill me, just kill me now.."

Harumi muttered, rolling her head down to the ground and pressing her cheek against the stone, a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Zephyr looked down at her, finding her request absolutely ridiculous to fulfill. He bent down a little to grab her by the hair and he proceeded to pull her up at his level.

She was slouched, not having enough energy to stand back up on her own, she felt useless.

"Wrong. I can't kill you now, I don't want to play now." He claims, the twisted and sickening smile not leaving his face for a single minute. "I still need your precious family now to attend the funeral and everyone else too!" He was as excited as a child about all this.

But one thing confused her, as well as Cloud, Nix and Garmadon.

Who did Zephyr mean by everyone?

Close to being on the verge of passing out, Harumi sighed and lowering her head back down to the floor, she didn't realize Zephyr had let go of her.

The pain was mind-numbing.

"I can't do this anymore.." she gaped, whimpering out as she couldn't even curl to a ball like she always did whenever in peril, her legs felt weightless and she couldn't control her arms. Everywhere hurt.

She didn't notice the swarm of enemy guards surrounding her and the three other intruders. She couldn't care less, she just wanted to get out of here and be somewhere safe.

Zephyr, unsatisfied with the tank's waters spilling out and his sacrifice of his on the ground like this, walked away and with a single wave of the hand, "Take her away, no, take them all away." He commanded.

Obeying to their boss's command, the minions latched onto Harumi's numb arms and brought her away. They didn't bother to carry her as prisoners didn't deserve such treatment. She was a slaughtered boar to them, they had every right to drag her away from the three intruders.

The first one to snap back was the four-armed oni, he snarled and shook his head. "You're not taking her anywhere!" He struggled from the guards' hold. They were strangely stronger than him, pinning him down on his knees as he couldn't find himself getting closer to Harumi.

His arms were bound and he was forced to throw daggers at Zephyr via eye contact.

He felt the sensation of the rope tightening around his wrists. Even so, he still tried to reach out for the girl who was being taken away from him. Desperate to break free, "HARUMI!!!" He cried out, stunning the whole room in a single heartbeat.

The spellcaster had stopped walking. He turned his head and let out a single: "tsk."
Things needed to be taken care of. So, he turned to his friend, the blonde-haired boy with the silky light blue bandana.

"Matias, buddy. Be a pal and take care of them too." Zephyr called from the distance. He opened the throne room door to head out of the room all and all.

Matias nodded, listening to his friend and approached the three spectators. He recognized them, of course he did. Thank goodness that they weren't competitors as Matias wasn't sure if he could outsmart nor overpower a full-blooded Oni like Garmadon. Nonetheless, he sighed and helped his minions pull away the intruders one by one.

No matter how much they struggled and felt their energy draining because of these damned ropes, they didn't give up. Not even when they had ended up piled up and abandoned in a rusty jail cell.

.....

"Great! Just great!" Cloud barked, her canines fearsome and roaring. She didn't manage to intimidate the guards one single bit. She remained desperate behind bars and lowered her ears, pulping down to a sigh. "So, now what?"

"At least we have Harumi back, right?" Nix pointed his snout towards the semi-conscious white-haired girl drenched on the ground. He lowered his brows in concern as he stood away from her in case she recognized him as a threat when really, he wasn't.

He understood that things may be blurry for her at the moment. "I say we figure how to get out of here with her." He proposed to the team.

Leaning by the wall, Garmadon rolls his eyes at the puppies' concerns. Arms-crossed, "Maybe this wouldn't have happened if we didn't rush in head-first like that." He mentioned, mainly getting back at Cloud's poor decision-making back then. "That's why we needed a plan." He jabbed.

The white furred-pomeranian didn't take it too lightly. She snarled at the four-armed Oni and barked. "Hey, you shut up! At least we're actually with Harumi, imagine if we didn't come here, we'd still be looking for her!" She raged, showing reason in her statements. However, Garmadon saw none.

Giving her cold and lack of understanding eyes, "Why are you so reckless?" He really questioned her. It was unclear to him that Cloud didn't like being asked such a thing. Instead, she huffed out at him. She didn't attack — physically, by all means, verbally, rather.

More rage had fed her well. Garmadon had a big storm coming and he was unaware of such a thing.

"Guys—" Nix attempted to butt in, having no luck at calming down the both of them.

Without thinking twice of what she had blurted, "Look. I can't help it! I was alone out the door, ever since! I relied on my instincts and I'm sorry it doesn't please you! Actually— you're well aware that I'm

"I wasn't, no." He broke the news out suddenly. He didn't look affected by it at all, but he did respectfully look at her while she spoke. As if doubting her, "That really happened?" He inquired.

The two of them went silent.

The jail cell was cold today.

"..."

No words escaped Cloud. She bit her tongue in that moment as she looked away, shame dreading her over. Garmadon sighed and focused his attention to the small calls of pain coming from the side of the room.

Whimpers and proof of pain itself, Harumi required comfort.

"Is she okay?" Cloud looked over to her friends, her legendary anger calming down for a second to focus on her owner's condition.

"I'm not sure." Garmadon replied, ignoring his argument with Cloud for a second and turning to her for just a brief minute. "Forget what I said, Cloud." He then proceeded to approach the white-haired empress to see if she was okay. Cloud allowed him to do so.

"C....Co..."

Harumi was shaking, she was all soaked.

The husky looked at her, completely perplexed. His head tilted each time he watched her tremble beneath the puddle.

"I don't understand what she's saying." Nix claims, going quiet right afterwards to try and think about it. There wasn't much luck and his attempts were useless.

Cloud looked around, searching for any drapes that she could use to help her owner. "I think she's cold." The Pomeranian says, taking the massive hint of what Zephyr had done to her. Luckily, the spellcasters were nice enough to leave behind some blankets in the jail cell.

Zephyr wasn't that nice, right? So why were blankets left here for them?

Was there a reason behind this?

The image of a man with blonde streaks of hair appeared in the white-furred Pomeranian's mind.

He had kinder eyes compared to the mastermind of all this.

Cloud narrowed her brows as the realization hit, that Matias could've left these for them. Wasting no time, she pulled the blankets off the bed and quickly brought them over to wrap around her owner.

Hopefully, these will warm her up.

With all four of them now trapped together, Cloud and Garmadon conclude that their mission was semi-successful. They could always work towards getting out of here, but for now, no one had the energy to even say a word. This was a terrible place to be in and curse Zephyr for all eternity for this.

Sitting by the bed, "well, we've got Harumi. But she's in no condition to move after this. What do we do?" Nix asks the group. He was all for doing anything, the one between him and Cloud having more stamina as he was in a pack before everything.

The four armed man was the one to answer him and make decisions for the team. "We're pretty beat ourselves. Let's take an hour break and rest." Garmadon says to the group, he was responsible enough to decide for everybody here.

No one disobeyed though, which proves that they trusted his judgement for now.

"You can't tell me twice," Cloud laughs. She turns her head to face her owner, who was dozing off and possibly dreaming of something pleasant as the whimpering had stopped.

"She's already asleep."

Harumi flinched, shivering in her rest.

~~~~~~~

The dreamworld returned to eat her up.

She found herself running for her life, she didn't want to return to those dungeons, she wanted to see Lloyd and go back home.

Why was he always after her, he scared her enough.

She wiped her tears and caught her breath, coming to a stop as she limped by the walls of the alleyway. She exhaled, knowing she was safe to rest now.

She continued to walk alone, very very slowly. Little by little, she'll find her way, for sure. She was in no rush, she escaped, after all. Her hands clung onto the sides of the wall. It was no secret that she was tired, but she needed to keep moving.

They were waiting for her, she couldn't disappoint them. She couldn't make them believe she was betraying them again.

If they did, where else would she go? She couldn't return back here in Borg tower, not again. Not in that....room...

Just the thought of being abandoned by a family again made her tear up. "Dammit, stop crying." She whispered instinctively to herself, bringing one hand to wipe her forming tears away.

The wind was blowing, the skies were turning grey. The waters beneath her were calming. If there were a rupture now, she'd feel uneasy.

She continued to walk.

The lanterns were still lit-up and the flowers were at bloom. The canals were lively even if no one was around.

Footsteps, they belonged to hers.

She doesn't recall walking that quickly.

Footsteps, they were hers.

She was walking.

Her breathing picked up.

No, she wasn't walking that quickly.

Nor was she breathing that loudly.

....

Dreadful fear in her eyes, she turned around and was met with a beast.

"Where do you think you're going?" The familiar glowing red eyes and the sharp fangs, it was lord Garmadon, coming back to retrieve her.

He knew that she had ran away, upon being alerted from guards of the tower that the dungeon doors had been left wide open.

He instantly came here and oh his luck to have found her here on his own.

Gasping and genuinely surprised that he had found her so quickly, she sprinted away from him. Her hands fidgeting to lift her hood back up to hide from view. As if that's help her in a place like this as there were many twists and turns.

He was gaining on her, he was outsmarting her. She growled and bit her lips, praying that her legs would provide her just a bit more of her body's strength to outrun the man running behind her. She could feel his fingers reaching out to grab her by the hood.

She found herself stopping by the bridge, a minute to just calm down and hopefully hide away from him.

It didn't work, as Garmadon had spotted her crouching behind one of the bridge's rails and he smirked, coming closer. He had found her and he was preparing to tackle her down once and for all.

She prepared to move again, running away from the oni that was furiously after her. She didn't anticipate that he'd closer enough to whisper a single world in her ears:

"Don't run from me, Harumi."

His voice rung in her head, she tensed up. She kept running and didn't think back.

She had reached a dead-end, the only way to escape him was to either turn back or to ride the roofs, she obviously chose the latter for this one. She looked around, for any opening to use to get up there. She found none exactly nearby till her eyes scanned over a few wooden boxes.

They seemed to be packages for the villagers that lived nearby and she'd have to apologize to whoever they belonged to for stepping on them and using them as a stepping stool. But, she reached the roof and didn't take any breaks to await her pursuer.

Managing to follow her from above, Garmadon didn't let go of Harumi for even a second, he continue to trail her down — hoping to return her to the tower without any more minor setbacks like these.

But even if she felt like she could run forever from up here, — she couldn't.
Her run had eventually came to an end as she stopped herself from running when she reached an edge. She sharply exhaled and turned around to the sound of the oni's laughter.

"Stop. You have nowhere to go." He was practically mocking her, standing away a pretty safe distance in case she tried anything funny.

Harumi shook her head, denying his claim as she began to look around beneath her. These houses were small and low-roofed, she could attempt to jump from roof to roof, doing a little bit of parkour herself. But, that'd be too risky, what if she looses her cool and misses? She didn't want to get hurt here.

"Uh..."

She stalled; as she looked around for any safe landings. Buildings, buildings and a lake in the centre of them. Harumi really had nowhere to go. Unless...

She turned away from Garmadon and gave him a bittersweet smile. She proceeded to turn around and prepare to fall backwards from her distance.

"Yes I do!"

She fell into a pile of garbage bags beneath her.

.....

Growling, Garmadon saw no problem as to jump down there as well. However, he had spotted something that he could use to his benefit; a prop that Harumi missed when she examined this waste.

He jumped down, scaring the girl due to his recklessness. But he was ever so quick to grab what interested him in this pile. He took possession of a handle — and with all of his force and speed to catch the girl before she was escaping her landing, —

whacked a broom stick to the back of her head. She found herself to topple over and go out, cold.

Unsatisfied with her easy defeat, he dropped the broom stick and walked over to the girl. He had picked her up from the pile of garbage bags and checked whether she was still conscious or not — she wasn't.

He sighs. This will be rather easy for her to bring back to her home, Borg Tower.

~~~~~~~
A couple of hours later, having put her back in the dungeons of the tower. Garmadon had finished overseeing his beloved empire. He walked down the stairs and entered the dungeons, the darkness of each cell not affecting him.

He only had one prisoner so far, his most prized one as everyone else who ended up down here were all clumsy idiots —disappointments. It wasn't the same for Harumi though, seeing as she was his former Second in command.

Shutting the jailed door, Garmadon didn't get anywhere close to her. He only gleamed at her raging form. She was all chained up and beaten to the bone. He had smelled blood upon entering here but he knows that she'll get treatment soon.

"Hey. I heard what happened." He brought up so casually, it often made Harumi wonder whether he cared or not.

Shaking her head at him and keeping her hostility, "What do you want? Look what your guards did to me." She was fed-up with him. She had been beaten down to a husk by his guards and her former workers.

She couldn't believe such humiliation.

She found herself in torn-down clothes of hers, rags to put it simply in the lord's eyes. She looked pathetic and her wrists ached from the chains scraping against them.

"I know." He claimed, his eyes showing little to no remorse whatsoever.

His hand held a roll of bandages, the fabric falling loose and rolling itself down to the ground.

~~~~~~~~

The dreamworld had spared her for today, it seemed.

She woke up in a burst, huffing to herself and generally just looking around, she gulped, having caught her breath.

This was a jail cell, once again here trapped with no companions. This was great, just great. She inwardly groaned and lowered her head back to the ground, wanting to return back to sleep and testing her luck again in terms of nightmares.

Ah no, she couldn't. She needed to strategize on how to get out of here. She couldn't rest anymore and continue to waste time.

"She's awake." A female voice was heard among the bars of the prison cell. Harumi lifted her head back up and searched around for the source of the voice. No, it almost sounded like —

"Garmadon, Nix, Cloud?" She had recognized them the minute her eyes fluttered open. She raised a brow as she sat up and wrapped the blankets around her. "What are you guys doing here?" She croaked, still rather weak from the punishment.

None of them were having it. They all had questions of their own and they were all targeted towards the white-haired girl and her behaviour back there with the spellcasters.

Of course, the four-armed Oni insisted that he asked his question first. Continuously staying by the wall, he only needed to turn his head to face her. "Why do you insist so badly that Zephyr kills you, what's going on?" He interrogated.

The husky had joined in. "Why did he go so far as to trap you down here all alone?" He inquired, just like Garmadon had. At this point, there was mo dodging these questions.

Yet, every second of knowing that they expected something from her, made her anxious.

The words weren't coming out. She fiddled with her fingers, desperately stalling for time here. She didn't want to answer such a thing as she felt like she had been repeating herself.

It was their faults they didn't take her seriously; so why should she give them a second chance?

"This is what I've been trying to tell you and Lloyd back then, but you just won't listen! Now...now it's my fault if they come back. They need the blood for the spell.."

She found herself blurting out, stammering out as least as possible, but the attempts to cover it up was there.

Ah, she couldn't keep quiet about this. She needed her friends' support despite her tiny bit of anger and frustration for not being taken seriously.

"What spell? That's what we want to know." Garmadon attempted to ask, noticing how uneasy and dazed she was. He didn't know whether he'd get much success when asking such a question.
He didn't want her to break right here, right now.

As expected, Harumi closed herself off from her friends. She stared at the wall and sobbed, the blanket still over head as she preferred to keep it that way.

Cloud and Garmadon glanced at each other. Nix only dove farther into his thoughts. They were all so curious and ready to know what Harumi knows about Zephyr's plans. However, she didn't say a word, it frustrated them.

Instead, she whimpered and brought the blankets to cover her face from view from the others.

"They're all coming here now, and it's all my fault.."

~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Ooooo, what could this all mean? Zephyr's plans are coming to a halt here as Cloud, Garmadon and Nix found their way back on his island....can he manage to keep going even with their intrusion? Possibly, possibly not! That's for you to find out in two weeks ahead of time!

Next set of chapters will be sure to blow your minds so get ready for Reconciled Hearts' first time release of three chapters!