Harumi's POV

"Uh, Rumi, I kinda need to talk to you," Lloyd said quietly, looking visibly distraught as he fiddled with his index fingers.

The sun was beginning to set, and everything from the water to the sand had a golden glow to it while seagulls squawked in the distance. It felt like nothing could go wrong at the moment, but when Lloyd had said those words, my heart rate sped up at once.

"Yeah?" I asked, turning back towards the sunset and trying to ignore the way my ears began to pound. Was he going to ask about Ninjago? Had I been acting suspicious?

"Uh, I have a question," he mumbled uneasily. I didn't look at him, for fear that my eyes would give everything away. It was wrong to hide the truth from Lloyd and the others, but I wasn't ready to face them yet.

"Okay," I said, barely able to keep my voice steady. While I was good at hiding stuff when no one was suspicious, the same could not be said of my acting skills when people were starting to catch on and I needed to make up lies on the spot. Earlier I would've spent time thinking of what to say, but if I didn't contribute to the conversation much, the Ninja might start to suspect me as well, and I couldn't risk that.

"I know this might be a really weird question," Lloyd began, "And I dunno how to start it, but... why do you like me?"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw his face turn beet red, and at the same time, my own began heating up dramatically.

"I know it's really weird, and I'm not saying you have some sort of ulterior motive, but I mean, there's so many other guys out there and you're the princess and then you just chose me and I'm flattered, really, but what is it about me that's so special?" he babbled, tugging at the hem of his shirt.

I turned around to face him, and his emerald green eyes darted all over the place, flicking back and forth between mine and every other direction. Not knowing what else to do, I placed my hands on his, hoping that they would be a comforting presence. I wanted to say something like "Does it matter?" but figured that it would just make him feel worse, and ended up finding myself at a loss for words. My heart seemed to sink into my stomach, leaving a dull ache in my chest as I scoured my brain for anything I could say.

Did I even have feelings for him? Or was I only with him purely out of guilt? How selfish would I have to be to still be taking advantage of Lloyd's counterpart even in death just to make myself feel better?

My eyes trailed to Morro, who was currently talking amiably with Ruby with a smile on his face. What had happened back there to make him suddenly so interested in her? Did a word of comfort really make that big of a difference? She'd liked him for so long but he'd always rejected her advances in an almost rude manner. I wished I'd gone to talk to Morro instead. Besides, of all people, I should be the one to go comfort him at a time like that. Why hadn't I gone?

Lloyd shuffled in his seat, bringing my attention back to him as I found myself feeling guilty again at how I was treating him. He began chewing on his bottom lip again, stealing a few glances at his cousin before lowering his head and staring back at the ground.

"Sorry, I didn't know it would be so awkward," he murmured, then looked up at me and smiled weakly. But I could still tell he was disappointed. So was I.

"It's because you're kind and sweet, and you would always stand up for what is right," I said hurriedly, the words feeling terribly ingenious and cliché. "You're always putting others in front of you and you'll do anything to protect the people you care about."

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wanted to slap myself. Those words better described his Ninjago counterpart, and we both knew he was more scared than anything. My so-called "reassurance" didn't even accurately describe him, and even if it did, I wouldn't know.

His hands tightened in the sand. I bit my bottom lip, and strands of hair fell from my shoulders. For a long time, neither of us spoke.

"I just don't understand," Lloyd said quietly, his jaw set, "There's so many other guys out there, so why would you agree to date me? I'm sorry for acting like this, you must think I'm some stupid, insecure idiot..."

I reached over and placed a hand on one of his.

"We all have our doubts, and it's okay." I didn't know what else I could really say. Comforting people was never one of my strong suits. I was better at threatening them.

Like the messed-up sadist everyone knew me to be.

Then Lloyd leaned over and pressed his lips to mine. Suddenly panicking and feeling the need to make it romantic, I tried to think of all the romcoms I'd watched and remind myself of what a good kiss was like, only to have come out with nothing but a blank slate. And by the time I thought to at least hold his hand, he backed away, a pained expression on his face.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to drag you into this," Lloyd mumbled, blushing profusely and refusing to look me in the eye, "You could've told me earlier, you know."

"No, I―"

"It's okay, you don't have to pretend. I can't see why you would like me anyway," Lloyd said, his voice barely a whisper, "I hope... this won't make things too awkward between us."

Just as I opened my mouth to say something, Shadow Riders attacked.

Morro's POV

They sprung out of the trees behind us, and the others were in no shape to retaliate, as I had conveniently placed our weapons out of arm's reach. Though I knew that the surprise attack was going to happen, I didn't expect it to occur this early, but I guess Ruby (I continued to call her that, even in my own head so that I wouldn't accidentally slip) was worried that my acting skills weren't on par with hers.

The Shadow Riders, or Sceadu, as Ruby actually called them (that was when I remembered Jay had made up the name, which I guess just stuck), tied everyone up quickly, barely giving the others any time to react. In that short period of time the surprise hadn't left me yet, so I gave a relatively convincing performance.

I watched as Harumi attempted to put up a fight, but with seven Shadow Riders tackling her at once, she didn't really stand a chance.

Vengestone cuffs were placed over everyone's wrists, preventing the Ninja from using their powers. Watching everyone struggle as I half-heartedly fought against the cloaked figures chaining me up would be amusing if I didn't feel like garbage.

Tearing my eyes away from the sight, I fake-growled at the Shadow Riders as they tightly wrapped a rope around my torso. Though I was thankful that my long black hair fell over my face so that I wouldn't have to see the others, that wouldn't block out all their shouts.

Soon enough, we were up in the air, flying towards Ruby's headquarters, which she had told me was her actual one, as she had two for some reason that she hadn't revealed yet. Jay began screaming about how everything had been going right then we just had to get ourselves captured at the worst time possible. I pursed my lips, blankly staring forward and ignoring the way the ropes cut into my skin.

Cole's mouth was hanging slightly open, his dark skin much paler than normal. I could see parts of the bandage for his stab wound under his shirt and hoped that it wouldn't reopen after Zane and Nya had struggled to close it. At least Cole didn't seem to be in pain, however, and was probably still trying to process what had just happened as Jay continued shrieking. One of the Shadow Riders kicked the Lightning Ninja in the stomach and he flinched, instinctively curling up his legs.

"Leave him alone!" I yelled, still staring at Jay, whose red face was scrunched up in pain.

The Shadow Riders just looked at me for a split second then turned away and continued to jab at him. I clenched my jaw and didn't say anything else, but made a mental note to tell Ruby later that torturing them for fun was off-limits. She was holding the Crystal Blade tightly, and the Shadow Riders initially tried to pry it away from her but she wouldn't budge. Eventually, they pretended to give up and just let her keep it. The others would probably just assume they planned to seize it later.

My eyes traveled to Harumi, who wasn't flailing and kicking at the Shadow Riders as I expected her to. Instead, she was simply staring off into empty space, with an expression that was almost sad. Was Harumi not furious with her situation?

From my peripheral vision, I saw Lloyd staring at her with a forlorn look on his face. Maybe something had happened between them that made her so disinterested in whatever was happening around us. But then it was none of my business.

Nobody seemed to realize that we were headed in a different direction, but then, maybe it was because nobody wanted to talk and risk getting assaulted the way Jay did.

The ride was long and slow, but in time, we reached our destination. I couldn't help but notice that the entire time, the others were awake. Wouldn't it be better to put them to sleep so that they wouldn't have any sense of the base's location? I made another mental note to ask later.

From the outside, Ruby's headquarters looked like the dilapidated ruins of an old temple, but once we entered from under a fallen column, I would be lying if I said it wasn't breathtaking, though chills ran down my spine from just looking at it. We were in some sort of large lobby, and there was yet another giant temple built into the mountain, this time a lot more polished than the one outside.

Dozens of blazing torches lined the walls, casting a warm glow over the otherwise dark and cool colors of the temple itself. Everything besides the torches were black and varying shades of blue. The temple, at least what I could see of it, was at least four or five stories high.

Five enormous equally-spaced columns stood before the three main doors, each bearing a symbol. After a closer look, I realized that they were the Ninja's five animal emblems. There were several balconies above the ground floor of the temple, and the roof was shaped like a dome, so high that I got dizzy from craning my head upwards to look at it.

Two Shadow Riders guarded every possible entry while others milled about, some walking, some flying. Despite how many of them there were, it was completely silent other than the sound of their cloaks flapping in the wind.

The figures bringing us continued moving at the same pace, barely giving us any time to take in the sights. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the Ninja were temporarily speechless as well. They all were except Harumi (and Ruby was faking her amazement, of course), who only glanced up for a quick second before continuing to sulk.

Instead of taking us through any of the main doors, the Shadow Riders carrying us went their separate ways, moving towards the various tunnels built into the sides that I hadn't even noticed. I frowned, glancing back towards the others, who were being led away in other directions. By now they had all stopped staring at the temple in amazement, panic now written in their eyes. I tried my best to fake a troubled expression, but was more confused than anything. Ruby had better explain later.

A blindfold was tied over my eyes as soon as I entered the tunnel, though if I was being totally honest, it was so dark I probably wouldn't be able to see anyway. They led me through many twists and turns, and I didn't even bother keeping track of how many lefts and rights I'd taken. It wasn't as if it mattered. I knew I'd be set free soon.

As expected, only a few minutes after I'd been thrown into a prison cell, Ruby arrived. She threw a thick black cloak and a set of keys on the ground in front of me.

"Put it on," she said as I unlocked my shackles.

"So disrespectful, that hurts," I smirked, folding my arms across my chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ruby crooned, playing along. She picked up the cloak and held it up so that I could easily slip my arms into it. Grinning, I put it on and turned around, still keeping the hood down.

"I'm guessing you have some questions," Ruby said.

"How'd you know?" I asked, "I also have a request. Or maybe I should say condition."

"Oh?" she seemed mildly interested, instead of incredulous as I'd anticipated.

"Don't hurt my friends."

Ruby thought for a minute, as if considering the pros and cons. "And what will you do if I don't agree?" she asked playfully.

"I'm assuming you need the fresh blood of two people from Ninjago? Otherwise you would've begun your plan as soon as I was around. Anyway, I could always kill myself." I was not interested in doing so anytime soon regardless, but I wasn't about to let her know that.

"I won't touch a hair on any of your friends," Ruby said without hesitation.

"Okay, now I have questions," I said at once, my eyebrows slightly raised at how quickly she agreed.

"Of course you do. But I actually have things to ask you first." She began making her way down the hallway and I followed.

"Oh?"

"Jay mentioned that Harumi had a sword from the zombies and a vial from Chrysanthe? What do they do?"

"I don't know," I said thoughtfully and grinned, "I just know that she can summon and wish them away at will, so good luck trying to confiscate them."

"Are you lying to me? If I find out you're not telling me the truth about something, there will be consequences."

"Of course not."

Then I remembered that Lloyd had interrupted Jay's story with his question about Ninjago. Ruby didn't know about the pearl...

"Good. I sure hope not."

"Yeah, just lemme think for a sec about this and make sure I didn't miss anything," I said, and she nodded.

After Ruby opened the portal to Ninjago, she would aim to kill Harumi, since she was meant to defeat the Shadow Knight. As much as I wanted to take over, I didn't want her dead. I knew Ruby would want to get rid of me once I was no longer useful to her, especially since I had someone in Ninjago I was definitely going to spare, so if Harumi defeated her, that would leave me free to do whatever... Looking back, I didn't even want to take over. I just wanted the brat Lloyd Garmadon gone.

"Yeah, there's nothing else," I said, keeping my face blank and frowning as I spoke to look thoughtful. It was a relatively easy task, since I rarely showed emotion on my face besides anger and triumph. "Any other questions?"

"For now, no. Go ahead." She began making her way down the hallway and I followed.

"First of all, why are you still like this? Like you don't have to pretend to be 'Ruby.' By the way, what happened to her? Or did she never exist?"

She paused in her tracks and turned around, then tossed a few strands of hair off her shoulder and gave me a half smile. "When you have an arbitrarily long lifespan, Morro, you have to get by. How do you think I've survived over the years? All I've had to do was find some couple willing to take in an abandoned infant, and then I would be able to comfortably live on for some twenty years. Then I'd leave and find a new family." Ruby resumed her walk through the corridor and I fell into step beside her.

"Then what about the people who raised you?"

"Why would I care? They chose to take me in; whatever happened to them afterwards is none of my business."

"Well then," I said after a brief pause. It was still a little weird walking side by side with Ruby down the hallway, especially since I towered over her. "Why are you still in this form?"

"Why not?"

"Okay. Well, it looks like you've beaten Harumi at her own game."

Ruby scoffed. "She was never a player to begin with."

I shrugged. "If you say so. Also, why didn't you put everyone to sleep during the flight? Don't you want to keep the whereabouts of your base a secret?"

"There are parts of the plan you don't understand yet," she said, turning to the right. I followed.

"I see. Do share."

"Are you done with your questions?"

"Actually, no. Why do you have two bases, especially one so close to the Crystal Blade? Or is it so that you could prevent people from getting it? But then why didn't you stop Lloyd from taking it? Wouldn't it have been better for you to just leave it there and stop them from taking it instead? And do you even know how to destroy it? Now that it's out in the open, you're kind of in danger."

Once again, Ruby stopped and looked at me with a smug expression on her face. She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest.

"No, I'm not. They are."

Seeing the confused look on my face, Ruby continued, "I guess the legends that I passed around accidentally left out one tiny detail about the Crystal Blade. You see, it's actually my weapon. The portal opener, or as I like to call it, Aportus."

A/N: I wonder if anyone saw that coming... 

(also I came up with the name of the sword by combining the Latin words for open and portal I was like "damn, so clever" lolol)

Anyway, I know I haven't updated this book in forever, basically there's a ton of stuff I have to do this summer but hopefully I'll be able to push out another chapter in August (thank you so much, by the way, I can't believe people are still reading this lol. Thanks for 4k reads wow). 

I've been feeling kinda dead lately too just with life in general, especially because I'm lowkey scared for junior year but whatever

Thanks for reading/voting/commenting as always, and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and have a great day!