Harumi's POV

"So..." I began, my teeth unconsciously chewing on the inside of my bottom lip, "Do you have a plan in mind?"

"Before that, I need to ask you about a few other things, if you don't mind," Morro said.

"Sure," I bit my lip, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable. Not knowing what to do, I traced the scales on the back of his dragon. Riding like this wasn't really steady, but the idea of wrapping my arms around Morro's waist like I had last time made me feel self-conscious. The dragon jerked upwards and I would've fallen if he hadn't grabbed my hand at the last second.

"Hey, be careful," he said, "Just hold on to me."

I felt my cheeks burn and did as I was told.

"So, uh," Morro began, taking a deep breath, "I don't really know how to start this, but, uh, did you have a shared dream at some point? Like you're dreaming the same dream as someone from Ninjago? I know this question might sound weird, but..."

"Yeah." I had been avoiding thinking about it for a while.

I felt his back straighten. "Could you tell me about it? Because there could be some important stuff in it."

"What was yours about?" I asked, not wanting to talk about mine. If Morro knew about the concept of shared dreams, then he must've had one himself.

"Hmm?"

"What was yours about?" I asked again, perhaps a bit too rudely, "Surely you've had one to know that they exist. Also how do you know it was a shared dream?"

"Okay, fine, I'll talk about mine. I don't actually know if it's a shared dream, it was just a guess. Basically I think I had one with Master Wu, the Ninjago one, and I admit I wasn't exactly Mr. Nice Guy there, but he basically just told me I'd never be the best, and that nobody will, because every person has so much to learn from everybody else. Cheesy, right? But that did help me with the whole wyvern thing, where I had to actually be a team player and not work solo for once," he said with a small laugh.

"You never told me exactly what happened with the wyvern," I said, still really not wanting to talk about mine. He'd actually learned a lesson, and I'd just been told to give up on a guy who I'd broken. Talk about shallowness.

"Eh, it wasn't nearly as interesting as you'd think," Morro shrugged. "Basically there was this dragon tormenting villages and Master Wu's counterpart and I were able to hunt it down and I killed it. We had some misfits join our cause along the way but that's about it. The whole dream happened because I was refusing to stick with the plans and wanted everything done my own way. I was gonna do everything by myself and uh, yeah."

"Oh."

"If you don't wanna tell me about your dream, it's fine. But lemme guess, you talked to Lloyd?"

As much as I didn't want to tell him, I figured I should. "Lloyd told me to get over him," I muttered, expecting him to burst into laughter.

"That must've been really hard," he said softly after a moment's hesitation, "But I mean, his counterpart is head over heels for you. I guess it's not the same, but..." I bet in his mind he was scoffing, thinking wow, what a meaningful dream.

"Can we not talk about this right now?"

"Oh, sorry." Morro leaned sideways and glanced down, probably trying to locate the raft. I felt my face warm and almost slapped myself on the forehead. He was my potential attacker and trying to protect me while I myself had completely forgotten about it.

"Sorry for being so rude," I sighed, "You've been really nice to me for the past week or so and I'm just..."

"Well, I still should apologize for being such a jerk before that past week or so. Just be a little meaner to me and then we're even. Wait, no, there's still that stupid forest magic." He turned around and grinned. "Hopefully it'll all be gone after this is over. It probably will, since it's Shadow Knight stuff. Then we can settle our debts."

I laughed. "Okay, so are we going to discuss the plan now? The others might get worried if we're gone for too long."

"Good point," he said, "But just one more thing. And you're not gonna like this question, but it's important. Just please don't attack me."

I felt the grin fade from my face. "What is it?"

"Well, it has something to do with the prophecy, and I know it because Master Wu told me, and I still remember. I've been thinking about it for quite a while now. Actually, the question by itself doesn't have that much to do with the prophecy, but you'll understand in a second. So basically, I have a hunch I know the answer, and the conclusion I'm drawing from it is not good, so hopefully you'll prove me wrong." He paused to turn around and see my reaction. I found myself smiling again at his rant.

"Just ask already," I said, rolling my eyes. "I promise I won't attack you." I wondered if he doubted that I was the Chosen One. Honestly speaking, if he even had the tiniest piece of evidence that I wasn't, I'd believe him right away. So far I'd done nothing that warranted the title.

"You can lie to me, but don't lie to yourself. I promise I won't call you a monster or anything, but did you feel any real grief when... he died?" His breath hitched a little.

I had not been expecting that. Now, looking back, the only things I'd felt were guilt and emptiness. I had been the one to drag everyone into my stupid quest, and I had been the one to lead Kai to his grave. He had been innocent. But like Morro said, I couldn't lie to myself. I couldn't lie to him, either.

"No," I whispered, hating myself for it.

"That's... what I was afraid of."

"I'm sorry, okay?" I snapped, suddenly angry. Not at him, but with myself. "I'm sorry that I'm a terrible person and have no human emotions! No, wait, I'm not even a person, I'm a monster! Just like Lloyd said in my stupid shared dream!"

"Hey, I wasn't accusing you of anything!" he shouted, "Look, I literally tried to curse all sixteen realms just because I wasn't given a green gi to wear. Do you have any idea how much pettier I was than you?" Morro took a deep breath, then continued, "Also, you're not a monster."

I bit my lower lip, silently disagreeing. Both my arms were still around his waist, and my hands were tightly knitted together at the front of his stomach. A part of me wanted to let go as I could sense the tension in the air, but I knew it would be a bad idea.

I felt him place one of his hands, which was somewhat rough but warm, on top of mine. My face burned at once, and I swore its temperature was well over forty degrees Celsius. I also felt my heart speed up, thumping so loudly in my chest there was no way he couldn't hear it.

"Don't," I said quickly, and Morro instantly let go.

"Oh, sorry," he muttered. I knew he did that to comfort me, but it still felt weird.

"I just wanted you to know, that wasn't the point of the question," he said after a while, "I wasn't trying to tell you that you're a horrible person, because you're not and we all have past mistakes. Sure, some outweigh others, but we're all striving for a better version of ourselves. You know what, maybe I shouldn't tell you. Let's just focus on the plan instead."

"Well, now that you've already gotten into it, why don't you just finish the job? It'll be nagging me for the rest of the day if you don't," I muttered, feeling terrible for directing my anger at him.

"Then promise you won't hate yourself."

"Fine."

"Do you remember the prophecy?"

"No, just tell me already," I said, starting to get impatient. What did the prophecy have to do with anything?

"Well, I remember, since Master Wu told me. The third and fourth lines are 'A white-haired princess shall arrive, through grief and pain she shall survive,' meaning that, if you haven't felt grief yet, you will."

The sudden pounding in my head drowned out the rest of his words, if he even said any, but I didn't need to hear them.

I knew exactly what he meant. And I hated myself.

Lloyd's POV

"Congratulations, you have succeeded in your quest."

The voice was ancient, and I could barely decipher the words due to the thick accent. Each syllable echoed in my ears, only amplifying the pounding in my head. I wanted to reach up and rub my temples, but I was immobile and unable to see. In my vision, there wasn't white nor black, just emptiness. Blindness. My only sense that was currently working was my sense of hearing, and that wasn't working well in my favor. I wanted it to stop. But it wasn't like I could tell it to.

"Be careful, for it holds immense power. And no matter what, do not let this sword fall into the wrong hands."

The voice faded and with it, the blindness. Soon, I could see again.

I found myself back in the room from before as everything slowly fell into place. Now I understood that that had been the last test, probably seeing if I would bring the sword to the Shadow Knight. My chest swelled with pride, and this time, I was no longer suspicious of the tests being too easy. This must be what Chrysanthe meant when she said that the Shadow Riders wouldn't be able to retrieve the blade.

I pushed myself to my feet, walked over to the Crystal Blade, and pulled it out from the beam of light. It didn't look or feel any different from the Blade in the test. I wished I had a way to carry the sword without having to hold it, but for now I didn't have any options. Sighing, I kept it in my right hand and headed across the room to the door at the end.

Like all the other doors I'd encountered so far, it crumbled away at my touch. Once outside, I found myself face to face with the cave entrance and not the place in the test. This would make following Ruby's symbols much easier. In case I came across any surprise attacks, I held the Crystal Blade up in front of me, ready to fight at any second.

I began retracing our steps, but after walking for at least ten minutes, I didn't see any carvings though I had been carefully scanning the ground the whole time I was walking. Of course I wouldn't be able to see one tiny symbol if I even ventured a tiny bit off course. We should've made a deal for her to carve a symbol every x amount of distance she covered or something. It wasn't like there was a path in these mountains.

I sighed, knowing that I probably wasn't going to be able to find her etchings anytime soon. At least the sun was still high enough in the sky that twilight should be in a few hours. I vaguely remembered which direction Ruby and I had come from, so I just went in the opposite way, knowing that going north would be my best bet.

The sword was really becoming a pain to carry, but it was the weapon that Rumi would use to save the world with, so I had to protect it with my life. Eventually I switched to holding it with my left hand once my right began to get tired, and every once in a while I would switch again. My body started feeling sore soon, a direct result of all the action that had happened in the cave. I looked down to examine my hands, which were bloody and scratched from the sharp rocks. The blood had pretty much dried already, leaving only traces of dark red. My shirt and shorts had been ripped a little, but I would still wear them again, since the damage wasn't too bad. I glanced down at my legs, which were also somewhat bruised and scraped. It wasn't important enough for me to bother with, though, so I kept going.

I took the time to admire the scenery some more, imagining myself in fancy clothes, standing atop a hill with the crowd cheering on me below. Just thinking about it put a stupid grin on my face.

Everyone stood, anticipating the return of Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, the hero who saved the day. To their delight, he appeared at the top of the hill and raised his sword above his head, his armor appearing like it was glowing under the light of the sun. Girls swooned as Princess Harumi walked up and took both of his hands in hers. The former Princess Ruby, now crowned queen, gave them her blessing. Lloyd swept his girlfriend into his arms and pressed his lips to hers.

His parents ran up to Lloyd and the princess and engulfed them in a giant hug. From below, his cousin Morro and all his friends gave each other a few looks then went to join him and Rumi atop the hill. Everything was perfect.

I couldn't help but laugh at the cheesy scene. Before meeting Rumi, I never would've thought that I was a hopeless romantic. Yet sometimes I did wonder if what I felt for her was love or just infatuation, since I knew that falling in love took a lot longer than a few weeks. Then what did she feel for me? What about me made her so willing to be my girlfriend that fast? She was the princess and any guy would jump at the opportunity to be with her.

I remembered asking myself these questions before, but they were still relevant now. No matter how attractive she found me, there was just no way she'd agree to be my girlfriend so fast solely based on looks, especially since there were tons of guys who were better-looking than me. There had to be another reason. My powers? But even before she found out about them she had acted in a way that suggested she might be interested in me, if I was being perfectly honest with myself. I wondered why neither she nor Ruby were surprised that we had powers. Most people were stunned when they'd first learned about them. When we'd first met, Rumi looked shocked to see me, but not in the sappy, "I'm in love" kind of way. She couldn't be impressed by my fighting skills, either, since she was a hundred times better than I was. The more I thought about it, the less sense her actions made.

Why did she want to be with me?

Now I would add that to the list of things I would have to ask the others once I got back. I recounted what they were. First, I would ask Rumi about her sword and why she was interested in me in the first place. Second, I would ask Morro about this other world. Third, I needed to tell everyone that I had Kai's fire powers. My chest tightened as it always did whenever I thought of him, and I quickly brushed the thought out of my head and remembered that I also needed to tell everyone that the Shadow Knight wanted Morro too. Maybe he somehow knew that Morro knew about this other place?

Lost in thought, I mindlessly ran my finger down the sharp end of the Crystal Blade. I was in such a bad situation. What if the others never found me? I could only hope that Morro would go out on his dragon searching for me. But what if they thought I'd died in the cave? I couldn't exactly throw an energy ball in the air to alert them of my existence since there was always a possibility that the Shadow Riders would find me first.

Why didn't I ever think anything through?

Harumi's POV

"Look, Harumi," Morro said, twisting around so that both his legs were on one side of his dragon and he could face me. I let go of his waist. "No one can blame you for not grieving over the death of someone you never got to know."

"Even Ruby cried," I said, feeling the lump in my throat and the ache in my chest return. "Because of me, someone else is going to die!"

He continued to watch me with his deep green eyes. "Still, you're the one who's tasked with saving the world. It's already a lot of pressure, so please don't put any more on yourself. I came prepared to fight to the death. And I'm sure the others would say the same. Don't hate yourself."

"It's hard," I mumbled.

"I know. I was you once, but we have to accept our pasts and move on."

"How?" I asked, "How do you expect me to think I can be a decent person?"

"Prove to yourself that you can change."

I bit my bottom lip. "What if I can't?"

"To me, you already have. But the hardest part is convincing yourself."

"I don't know. This whole Shadow Knight thing, I don't even know if I actually want to or am I being pushed forward by the prophecy. Am I really fighting because I believe in what's right or is it just because I'm the supposed 'Chosen One'?" Admittedly, the last part was mostly me talking to myself.

"What do you think?"

"That's just it. I really don't know."

"Well, what matters is what you believe. And I, for one, believe that it's the former, and the latter is what told you there was trouble in the first place. If you'd known about the Shadow Knight even if you weren't the Chosen One, would you still have come?"

"I don't know," I said honestly, "And even if I would, what if it's for my own selfish reasons? What if it was simply because I wanted to prove that I wasn't that bad?"

He shrugged. "Well, are you mad that you're 'forced' into this? If not, that still means you want to change, don't you? If you succeeded in redeeming yourself, would you still do good?"

"I would, but that's because I will never redeem myself. I'll be forever in debt to the Ninja and no amount of good will ever compare to my list of crimes," I muttered, surprised that Morro hadn't gotten tired of my rants yet. The old me certainly would've told me to shut up already. Still, letting everything out made it feel like a weight was being lifted up my shoulders.

He sighed. "A while ago I never thought I would forgive myself either. But I knew that every good deed I did would lessen that gap between my crimes and acts of good, and that made me feel better about myself. Forgiveness is about moving on, not accepting that what you did was okay. I know it's hard, but you have to take my word for it."

The atmosphere was kind of awkward, as Morro now avoided any physical contact. I felt bad that he was here comforting me and I would push him away whenever he got closer. But it was weird. After all, Lloyd was still my boyfriend. But why did I suddenly feel uncomfortable? The last time I rode on his dragon I had no trouble holding tightly onto him.

What was wrong with me?

"Thanks for talking to me," I said quietly.

Morro gave me a small smile. "Anytime, Harumi."

"Why do you call me that?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"Huh?"

"Sorry, I dunno why I asked," I mumbled quickly. Why was I such an idiot?

"Should we uh, talk about the plan now?" Morro asked awkwardly.

"Yeah," I said, feeling my face burn, "We probably should."

A/N: I just got out of math class and I guess I'm gonna go work on my summer camp application after this laksdnf awasorija kdjsmf alijon

Anyway, what did you guys think about the Crystal Blade tests? I hope they didn't feel like ripoffs of trap/tests in other books, movies, and TV shows, since I tried my best to make them somewhat original. 

The next chapter will be the last part of what I would call "part i" of TJC. I'm almost done with part ii, but gahhhh the ending is so hard to write. I literally wrote myself into a hole and now I'm trying (and so far, failing) to write myself out. 

So until I figure out what the heck I'm doing, uh... actually idk :D

Thank you, as always, for reading/voting/commenting! You guys are awesome and I hope you have an amazing rest of your week!!