A/N: Since this chapter basically marks the end of Part I (and I just finished draft 1!!!), I thought it would be fit to dedicate it to squidneyxd. I just wanted to say, I can't believe we've known each other for so long, and thank you for sticking through with TJC even through the downright terrible parts (and I was too embarrassed to show anyone I knew irl). If it wasn't for you I doubt I would've joined Wattpad in the first place, and knowing that someone was there to read it helped me with finishing this book. And of course, thanks for giving me advice as I went along. 

If you guys haven't already, please go check her out and give her a follow, she has this amazing book called Departed, with a great story, compelling characters, and amazing prose. It's also completed, so you don't have to wait indefinitely for each update (oops). I'll link it here--> 

Anyway, onto the story!

Harumi's POV

"So basically you're saying that we should get the Crystal Blade before we rescue Lloyd and Ruby?" I asked, "I had assumed we were gonna do that after." My hands were on the back of the dragon again, but since the ride was quite steady at the time, I didn't have to worry about falling off.

"Yup," Morro said, having already turned back around, "I figured maybe the Shadow Knight will be there and we'll be prepared for him. If we get to the lair before we get the Blade, we'll waste a lot of time trying to get out and who knows when he's gonna cross over to Ninjago. Besides, my gut instincts tell me Lloyd and Ruby are fine and they're not being tortured or anything. And if I've learned anything from my time here, my gut instincts are always correct. Anyway, if it turns out he's not there, then we'll rescue them and get to the North Tower. He'll have forces situated at the Tower, but if worse comes to worst and he's someplace else, we'll destroy the building and get rid of the magic somehow. I've spent some time there and I'm pretty sure the source is the top."

He sounded so confident I believed him completely.

"Why would you spend time there?" I asked after making sure he was finished talking.

I stared at the seemingly endless gulf on my right so that Morro's hair wouldn't be all up in my face. I could still feel a few strands of it stroking my left cheek but somehow I didn't mind. Luckily it wasn't sweaty or anything since Zane had been there the past few days to keep us from getting too hot. I had also borrowed one of Nya's hair ties to put my hair up in a ponytail so that it wouldn't keep slapping against my face.

"Well, after the wyvern I noticed I could see what was going on in Ninjago through it. I would go to the top every Sunday and I could see what was happening. So it makes sense that would be where the portal is."

"Doesn't he want my fresh blood?" I asked, remembering what Zane had said, "And Jay said he wants you too, didn't he? Probably also fresh blood?"

He paused. "Wait... maybe I have to kill myself."

"If you weren't facing the other way I'd slap you," I said, my anger levels rising again. How could he suggest such a thing? The mere act of considering such a course of action was irresponsible. And what was worse was that from his tone of voice, he seemed serious.

"No, but seriously. What if I'm supposed to die so that the Shadow Knight can't get my blood? If I died would that be why you feel grief?"

"Oh shut up!" No part of me wanting to imagine Morro dying, or how I would react if he did, which certainly wouldn't be anything good, but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I even remotely cared. He was already irritating in how he even suggested such a thing.

"Okay, sorry," he said, "Chill, it's not like I meant to make you mad or anything, but it's definitely possible."

I wanted to slap him even more. "Oh really?" I snapped, feeling my chest rise and fall quickly, as well as the blood rushing to my face. "Well maybe you should stop."

"But regardless of whether or not he wants my blood, I'm going to go with you to the tower anyway."

"You know what, we'll figure out the details later, I'm probably going to forget if we draw out every step here," I said, trying to keep my voice calm and not wanting to continue on with this conversation. If he said any more stupid things, I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't punch him.

"Okay."

There was a long, awkward silence.

"Also, what do you think your head pains mean?" Morro asked.

"I honestly don't know and don't care."

"Okay," he said again.

"We should go back," I said, not really knowing what else to say. Being alone with him suddenly made me feel very self-conscious.

"Yeah, I guess," he mumbled, and the dragon dipped its head to go downwards. Having not had a steady grip on the dragon, I fell into his back. "You okay?" he shouted over the wind whistling in my ears.

I brushed his hair out of my face. "Yeah."

Soon we were only several feet above the raft. Morro's dragon vanished into thin air and the two of us landed into the space in the center that the others had cleared for us.

"Someone took their sweet time," Nya said.

"We were really starting to get worried, even if you were above us at all times," Zane chided.

"You're both lucky a certain Master of Wind didn't go berserk," Cole said.

Morro shrugged with a smirk on his face. "I had everything under control, don't worry." 

"Anyway, you better have a good plan ready," Jay said in between mouthfuls of some green glop. Morro and I shared a look, knowing that our "plan" wasn't really a plan at all.

"What's that?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Kelp that the merpeople brought for us. It tastes better than it looks," Cole explained, "But that's not really saying much," he added under his breath, and several of the merpeople shot him a glare.

"I think it's good," Jay said as he chewed. Nya shot him a look that said "Don't talk with your mouth full" and he quickly swallowed and said, "Either way, it's still better than your cooking."

The Earth Ninja coughed and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"How much longer until we reach the shore?" Morro asked.

"According to what I have gathered so far, 2.5 hours would be a suitable estimate," Zane said.

Satisfied, Morro nodded and went to the other side of the raft. I resumed my sitting on the edge on the opposite side of him and staring off into the distance, wondering who was going to die because of me. Even worse was the nagging question that, if more than one person died, would I even feel grief for all of them? Did I even have human emotions at this point?

Anyone else in my position would feel something. And any half decent human being would've felt heartbroken after seeing Nya mourn over her brother. Yet... I was just there, feeling like nothing but a shell of the person I might've been.

I didn't want to start imagining terrible scenarios, so when Jay suggested a round of Truth or Dare, which could distract me from these thoughts, I joined in.

Lloyd's POV

After what seemed like hours of walking, my legs were becoming sore. About an hour ago, I'd passed the point where Ruby and I had woken up this morning, though to be honest, what did I know? I could only guess since I had no record of time passing, as the only metric I could go by was the sun, and I'd never learned how to tell time with it. Strangely enough, I hadn't come across a single Shadow Rider. Their lair wasn't far from where I stood, so either nobody ever came out or I was really that lucky.

But also, by this point the Shadow Riders should've realized that Ruby and I had escaped, so why didn't they come looking for us? Did they assume we'd gone to the cave of the Crystal Blade and died? Had the guards conveniently let slip that the sword wasn't too far away on purpose so we would die because they thought only the Chosen One could take it? Still, these plans had so many flaws.

There was still a possibility they could sneak up on me. Sometimes I wondered if I was being too paranoid since the slightest rustle of a bush would make me jump and I was getting tired of the battle stance.

I walked on for a while through a dense forest, praying that I was headed in the right direction. It looked like I was getting closer to the gulf, though, since it seemed that the types of trees I was seeing were getting more tropical. Sure enough, when I exited, I came face to face with a beach.

Now wasn't the time to celebrate, however, since I had no way of knowing where the others were. I could only hope that they were still somewhere on the water and hadn't ran off to the Light Alps yet. At least they probably wouldn't be going to the Shadow Knight's lair since they had no way of knowing where it was, unless they got captured, which I hoped didn't happen.

Unsure of whether to go left or right, I recalled brief glimpses of Zane's maps. The gulf was a body of water that cut into the left of the continent. That meant that when we were on the island, we were most likely to the west of where I was standing now, so if I wanted the best chance of finding them, I would have to travel left. But what if they weren't that far west and had assumed that they were and were now headed southeast? If only I had found Ruby's carvings... I leaned back against a tree to think.

"Lloyd!"

I immediately jumped to my feet at the sound of that familiar voice. "Ruby! Wait... oh my god, I thought I lost you!"

She ran over and threw her arms around me. I beamed, having not seen another human in what felt like forever.

"I got the Crystal Blade!" I said, grinning, after we pulled apart. Her sapphire blue eyes immediately lit up. "Wait, just one more thing. How do I know you're actually Ruby?"

"Um, on the first day we met you were telling my sister about the Shadow Knight and I left? Then that night we went to Cole's, and then the next morning we set off and then―"

"Okay, okay, good enough," I said, laughing, and handed her the sword. Ruby slowly took it from my hands.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, running her finger along the edge of the Blade in awe. Ruby stared at it, wide-eyed, for a whole twenty seconds before I coughed to remind her that I existed.

"Oh, right, sorry," she said and returned the sword to me, "I got kinda carried away. Wow, that was... wow."

I laughed. "Don't worry about it. We should probably find the others though. At least I know I'm not alone now."

"I'm assuming you never found my symbols?"

"Nope," I answered with another laugh, "It's fine though, we did find each other, didn't we?"

Ruby nodded. "I think we should go that way if we want to meet up with the others," she said, pointing leftwards. "My gut instincts tell me so."

"Are yours like Morro's?" I asked as I fell into place beside her, "He loves to brag about how his are always right."

"I wouldn't say mine are always right, but most of the time is good enough," Ruby said and smiled at me. "I have a good feeling about this one though."

"Well, lead the way, Princess."

Harumi's POV

The Truth or Dare game had ended a while ago, and once again I was sulking at the edge of the raft.

I stared at my reflection in the water. My hair had grown out a little, and I could see the blonde roots poking out beneath the white. I recalled hating every time the emperor and empress took me to bleach it. They knew it was damaging to my hair and sometimes I had nightmares about going bald but they'd said that to maintain my princess appearance I needed to.

With these memories, a surge of anger rushed through my body as it always did whenever I recounted all the times they'd wronged me. Before I'd planned the attack on the palace I'd made a long list of reasons why I was better off without them to spare myself of the guilt that came with their deaths. Even thinking about that list right now made me hate them, but in the end I knew I was the one in the wrong. I was a murderer.

Regardless of how terrible they had been as parents, they still gave me food and shelter, even if it came with the stupid princess package. Hutchins had been less strict with me and was more aware of my problems, but his opinions on matters when it came to me meant little to the emperor and empress, who were positive that they only had my best interests at heart.

I loved cats, but they made me stay away from them since the fur got everywhere. Garlic noodles made my breath smell bad, so they were forbidden. I wasn't allowed to slouch because it was "horrendous." Bedtime was at 8:30pm. Every day, I had to attend social gathering behavior practices even though I rarely interacted with anyone outside of the palace walls, at least to their knowledge.

But of course, revenge was never the way one went about things.

Morro had told me to forgive myself, but how could I? Even now I was thinking of how much I hated being a princess and how much I despised my adoptive parents, and the more I thought about it the more I hated myself. And even if I did see my real parents again in death (I wasn't sure if I was currently alive or dead), they would probably disown me as their daughter.

There were so many things I hated about my adoptive parents, but I needed to forgive them as well (which I admit, was easier than forgiving myself), or I was nothing but a boiling pot of hatred. I had to let go. But if I was still that petty, grudge-holding princess at this point, would I ever change? Morro said he believed I had, but I believed him wrong.

If only I could be someone other than Harumi. If only I could just start over as a blank slate without needing to beg the world for forgiveness. No matter what I did, it would never be enough.

"We are almost at our destination!" Zane announced, pointing towards a line of green far ahead. His voice snapped me back into reality, and I sat up at once. Grins spread across everyone's faces.

"Laaaaaaand!" Jay squealed with glee, "Ah how much I missed land!" He grabbed Nya and wrapped her in a tight embrace. She giggled and nuzzled her head under his chin.

"My butt hurts from sitting for so long," Cole said, "Can we all rest for a bit later?"

"Yeah, but we should get going soon after," Morro said.

"Don't worry, it'll just be a little break," the Earth Ninja replied.

"I never thought I'd be saying this, but I'm so sick of seeing water on all sides of us," Nya remarked.

"No kidding," Jay agreed.

"Thank you for helping us," Zane said to the merpeople, and they blubbered in response.

"And then while we take a break we can discuss the plan," I said, wanting to contribute to the conversation. The others murmured in agreement.

"Wait," Morro said as we got closer to the shore, "Is that... Lloyd and Ruby?"

I stood up and squinted in the distance. Sure enough, there were two tiny figures, one of them throwing energy balls into the air, though to me it looked more like tiny, barely visible sparks.

"They escaped!" Nya exclaimed, "I can't believe it!"

Jay jumped up and whooped in delight. "We don't have to rescue them!" He turned to the merpeople and asked, "Can you guys just go a little faster?" with a nervous smile, and they complied.

"Nya and I can help," Morro said, and he and the Water Ninja used their powers to speed us up. Cole tried to stand up to get a better view but Zane pushed him back into a sitting position.

As Lloyd got bigger, we watched as he splashed into the waters, holding a stick. I heard his laughter, though distant, resonate in the air, and soon we joined in. His bright green eyes were practically glowing. Lloyd's face shone with excitement and at a closer glance, I realized that the thing he was holding was a black and blue sword. The Crystal Blade.

I let out a little gasp, my eyes widening. The others seemed to understand as well and glanced at each other in excitement. If anyone was saying something, nobody could hear them over the shouts of everyone else. The merpeople sunk into the waters once they got too shallow, bowing as they went. We nodded to thank them while simultaneously screaming Lloyd's name. The raft shook and wobbled as the Ninja bounced on it, making the ride pretty bumpy but nobody cared. With one last blast of water and wind, Nya and Morro pushed us forward, sending us crashing into Lloyd.

Everyone was a tangle of limbs, and I could no longer tell which arm belonged to whom. It didn't really matter, however, except that we were holding Cole above everyone else since he needed to keep his wound dry.

"You're alright!" Lloyd's voice boomed over everyone else's. I grinned, laughing, and that along with the shrieks of the Ninja, would surely make me go deaf if this went on for too long.

"And so are you!" Zane shouted.

"I knew you would escape!" Jay cried.

"This is so uncomfortable!" Cole hollered from above.

"Can't... breathe..." Lloyd gasped, but nobody let go. If anything, the hug was even tighter. I felt the Crystal Blade scrape against my legs and was sure several others did too, but nobody wanted to be the first to break it up.

"I told you," Morro yelled.

"I'm so happy to see you again!" Nya exclaimed.

"I'm not crying, you're crying!" Jay sniffed.

As everyone screamed, I wanted to say something, but still felt a little out of place amongst the others. The position I was in was extremely awkward but I couldn't care less. Hair of unknown origins was getting all up in my face but I didn't mind. Everyone around me was squeezing me on all sides and my vision was a blur. The temperature was already quite warm, and with all the body heat generated by the others and me, it was even worse. But who cared?

"How did you escape?" Zane asked loudly.

"Yeah Lloyd, spill!" Cole said, "You have to tell us everything!"

"My back... is cracking," the Green Ninja choked, "Let go of me, would you?"

At that, we finally released each other and collapsed into the water laughing, still holding Cole up above us. Water splashed onto our faces and our clothes were now drenched wet, but that would be a problem for us to address later. Lloyd looked around at everyone, grinning from ear to ear. And then we were in yet another group hug, since we couldn't seem to let go of each other. Cole was once again balanced on the top of our heads. How we managed to pull that off in the chaos of the pushing and shoving both times, I would never know.

"Guys," a nervous voice I also hadn't heard in forever said, immediately drawing all our attention. Ruby stood a few feet away holding the bundle of weapons we'd wrapped in Morro's rope. "These are yours, right?"

For once, Morro's gaze didn't immediately turn cold. "Yeah, but don't worry about it."

He held out his hand with a smile and the rest of us nodded enthusiastically, especially me. Ruby dropped the weapons and took his hand, and we pulled her into the embrace. I met the Master of Wind's dark green eyes gratefully and at his grin, felt a warmth blossom inside my chest. A large part of me felt guilty for not thinking of her earlier, but after seeing her so happy next to Morro, I figured everything worked out for the better.

And in that moment, everything was perfect. 

A/N: Sooo this might be the last update for quite a while, but things might change depending on various factors. Basically I realized I need to flesh the characters out a bit more and fix some issues so there's a lot of editing that's gonna happen. 

I do genuinely think that the later chapters get more interesting, though that might just be my opinion. Still, congrats on getting this far! I can't thank you guys enough for sticking through with this story even in the slow parts (especially the mountains chapters lol. If I have time I might go back and make them better at some point). 

As of right now, I really like the ending, and I hope you'll think it would be worth sticking around for and if so, you'll like it too! As I edit, I'll start working on my next fanfic, which is going to be called Escape, and more information will be coming soon (you may remember I posted an excerpt on my conversations page once lol).

Thoughts/predictions?

Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and again, go check out squidneyxd and her story Departed if you have time! 

Thanks for reading/voting/commenting as always and have a great day!