<<Content and trigger warning. Details in the bold text at the end of the chapter because I don't want to spoil>>

Harumi's POV

I stared off into empty space, horrified. Slowly, I revolved on the spot and turned to face the others. My head instantly exploded with pain, but before I could even register with it, it was gone.

Suddenly, a branch swooped down and slashed across Kai's shirt, leaving a tattered piece of cloth, a vicious gash in his chest, and blood. Lots and lots of blood shot out of his chest, and he staggered backwards, the dark red liquid staining the little of what was left of his shirt. Kai backed up against another thick tree branch behind him that had appeared out of nowhere. It punched him hard on the backside, sending him lying facedown on the ground. Another branch came flying out and smacked Jay from behind. He lurched forward and fell over on top of Kai, who was losing consciousness and blood very quickly. I drew out the small dagger from my belt and feeling stupid, stuck it back in. It was no match for tree branches that size.

When I looked back up, swirls of colors were flying through the air. My first thought was magic, then with a jolt, I realized that they were actually the Ninja's bodies. I worried for Lloyd, since his wound from the battle with the zombies still hadn't healed yet. Specks of sticky, dark red liquid landed on my face. I could no longer hear any screams. Then I noticed how the branches went out of their way to avoid hitting me. They would come swooping out of the air towards me, and before I managed to duck, changed direction. I wasn't the only one, though. One more person managed to stay unharmed, using the branches as a boost to leap into the trees. A streak of green mixed in his jet black hair told me it was Morro. He drew a sword and, with surprising force, chopped off the branches slightly smaller in diameter.

I narrowed my eyes. Morro. He was making it way too obvious that he was the Shadow Knight. Maybe he thought that the Ninja wouldn't notice because they were being thrown around. But why'd he let me know? Unless... unless he wanted me to. He'd get rid of the Ninja with his branches... How stupid, I thought. The flaw in this plan was so obvious that I would never have thought anyone would ever make such a mistake. As if chopping the branches would redeem him in any way. But then... who would the Ninja be more likely to trust? What if they thought I was the bad person? I needed to prove myself as someone worthy of being a hero. Being a weak and helpless princess didn't save any lives. If anything, she'd only let everyone down.

I took out the dagger again and turned to the nearest tree, sticking it into the wood. Then I started climbing, scraping my knee every once in a while. Twice I paused, wondering whether I should check to see if I was all right. I stopped myself both times. Minor injuries were nothing compared to what the Ninja were experiencing. If I wasted precious time whining over some little scratches, while everyone else risked their lives, how selfish would I be? Not long after, I'd climbed to the top.

There, I had a clear view of what was going on. The Ninja looked like little puppets that the trees were playing catch with. I noticed how all of the attacking branches were bare, and didn't ever strike with the tip, except when that one branch had attacked Kai, who was still getting thrown around, and probably the source of the blood.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Morro leaping lightly from tree to tree, throwing puffs of wind in every direction. I glared at him, but decided not to do anything. For now.

Just as I wondered what to do next, the branch on which I was standing shook a little. I threw my arms around the tree trunk and spun around, hair whipping my face, to see Morro crouching on the very branch I was standing on. He wasn't looking at me though. I scooted away from him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, the distaste clear in my voice.

Morro didn't answer. Instead, he lifted his arms with a look of concentration on his face. I watched as the Ninja were blown up by his wind, away from the branches. He then sent them over the trees, to the outside of the forest, where the branches couldn't reach them.

"Get down," he said to me.

I didn't want to take orders from Morro, but I did as I was told. Anything to get away from where he was. With surprising speed, I soon reached the ground.

Not long after, Morro landed next to me, a limp Kai in his arms. Then, with surprising gentleness, set him down on the ground at my feet.

"I'll check on the others." Morro said quickly. I noticed how quietly he spoke.

I looked down at Kai to see the wound and immediately wished I didn't. The gash had stretched to twice its original size, and his ribcage was exposed. Normally I would throw up, but something stuck in my throat prevented that from happening. His flesh was sliced apart, and bright red blood was still oozing out, but it wasn't as fast as it had been while he was in the air. In fact, there was barely any blood coming out anymore. I looked around frantically for something to wrap his wound with, then noticed the bags. Someone had said something about a first aid kit. But there was no time.

Without a second thought, I ripped off my sweatshirt and carefully pulled Kai up into a sitting position, placing it on his chest as I did so. I knotted the sleeves of the sweatshirt behind him so it wouldn't fall off, the whole time barely aware of my heart thumping wildly in my airway. Everything was okay, I told myself, but even inside my head the words sounded feeble. I laid him back down on the ground.

"What are you doing?" someone said from behind. I looked around to see Morro, walking towards me, his expression hard to read.

"Tending to his wounds," my voice trailed off as my breath hitched in my throat, my head throbbing with my pounding heart. I highly doubted what I had done even counted as tending to his wounds. Deep down, I knew my futile attempts weren't working.

He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. Morro looked up at the branches, still swooping around like great bats, getting dangerously close, but not daring to touch us, and glanced back at the path we'd come from.

"R-Harumi," he said quietly, "Didn't you realize, the blood stopped flowing? And his arteries have..." He couldn't bring himself to say anything else, and only then I realized the sheer look of devastation on his face.

I looked back down at Kai and suddenly felt lightheaded. No. Morro was implying... I didn't believe him. I couldn't.

But the truth slowly sunk in. Kai had lost most, if not all, of his blood. I stared at his lifeless body, wanting to say something, and realized my voice had left me. Pictures of his face flashed through my mind. Though he was mostly a source of negativity and had been complaining for the majority of the trip so far, I suddenly found myself missing his angry outbursts. I never even got to know him.

It was as if all my organs had been torn out by force, leaving behind a void that I didn't know how to feel. I had dragged him into this. It was my fault and he never should have gone through this ridiculous journey. I felt just as I did when I realized I'd never be able to feel the comfort of my parents. And what about the Ninja? What about Nya? What about his parents? They had no idea what just happened. And when they did...

I could've saved him. While Morro was doing whatever he was doing, while the Ninja were being thrown around, I could've done something. Anything. But I didn't. It was my fault. I'd caused enough pain in my life, and it seemed like I wasn't going to stop anytime soon. All those innocent people whose lives I'd destroyed. And now this. Something else to add to my long list of crimes. I should've done something. Shielded him from being attacked more. Saved him from the trees' grasp. But I did nothing. Nothing. I was weak. Weak and helpless. A waste of space.

I knelt beside the Fire Ninja feeling numb. No tears flowed from my eyes, and I didn't expect any to anyway, since none had in years, not since my parents died. My mouth felt dry; my arms hung limply at my sides. Soon, my eyes were simply staring off into empty space, with a strange ringing in my ears that blocked out all other sounds. I couldn't even feel my heartbeat in my chest. Did I even have one?

"It's not your fault," Morro said softly after what felt like an eternity. I had forgotten he was even there and leaped up, confused. Less than an hour ago I had been so convinced that he was the Shadow Knight. Was he or was he not? If he was, did he want me to feel weak?

I tried to speak, but no sound came out. Only then I saw him clearly for the first time. He was staring at me, sword held carelessly at his side. Tears that he couldn't have faked sparkled in his deep green eyes. He was crying. Genuinely crying. Something I'd thought he'd never be able to do. And he wasn't crying due to happiness or victory. That was when I realized and appreciated the fact that he, too, was on our side. Morro wasn't, and couldn't be, the Shadow Knight.

"Come on," he whispered. I realized that he was suddenly standing next to me. And that he was holding out his hands. I took them without a second thought.

Slowly, he helped me to my feet.

"Did you notice how the trees attacked with their sides instead of the tips?" Morro asked carefully, his voice quavering.

I nodded. So he was observing the trees' movements, the same thing I was doing.

"Except when that branch attacked..." his voice trailed off. I knew he couldn't bear to say Kai's name anymore. Neither could I. Morro continued, "Meaning the branches were aiming to kill. But just one person."

"We have to find the source of this forest's magic. Only then will the others be able to travel through it unscathed. I noticed how the... animate trees flinch when they feel my wind. I just hope they won't wander in when they wake up," he added. My insides churned at the thought of another one of the Ninja getting attacked.

"But what about—" I had found my voice, but still couldn't say Kai's name. He seemed to understand.

"We'll bring him with us. We can't leave him with the others, in case they wake up." Morro was breathing heavily, as if something in his throat was making it hard to breathe.

I nodded in agreement. "But first we should first check on them."

He agreed and we moved their limp and bruised bodies into more natural positions. Before leaving, Morro assured me that they were fine and fed them each several healing tea leaves from his bag. Luckily, their wounds didn't seem to be too bad. Any scratches could easily be covered by band-aids. Lloyd's gash from the zombies had pretty much healed, thanks to the teas. I wondered just how potent those leaves were.

Taking Kai with us, we walked along the forest path in complete silence. Whenever we reached a fork in the road, Morro would throw a small puff of air at the trees. We'd turn where the trees twitched.

The only sound accompanying our footsteps were the distant birds chirping in the air. I was grateful for the leaves crunching under our feet, since otherwise I'd have to face the numbing silence that lingered in the air. The forest was pretty dark, the trees above casting shadows on us. I mostly stared at my feet so that I wouldn't have to see Kai's lifeless form draped over Morro's shoulders. The pungent smell of iron would normally make me gag, but I had no right to do such a thing.

As much as I tried to avoid it, I found myself stealing multiple glances at the boy clad in red. My sweatshirt was still tied around his torso, clearly looking out of place and terribly wrapped. I lost all feeling in my legs but somehow managed to keep going forward. Morro breathed heavily as he walked, still shakily, and never turned around to see if I had caught up or not. But then, why would he anyway?

"Don't you think it's funny," I said after a while, "That there's actually a path in this forest? I mean, anyone venturing in would be attacked at once, and if they made it out alive, they definitely wouldn't go further."

"Maybe it had something to do with you being here. The trees sensed your presence, so they came to life. It probably has something to with the Shadow Knight." His voice was soft, not in a bored, emotionless way, but instead it sounded empty.

I noticed how he said "you" instead of "us" when clearly the trees reacted to him as well, but I didn't push the matter. After all, we were finally getting along, though I felt ashamed that it took someone actually dying for us to finally set aside our differences and tolerate each other.

After my feeble attempt at making conversation I decided that I probably shouldn't talk. I figured I was the last person anyone wanted to have to deal with in this situation, and shifted my focus to the various plants growing around the path.

"How are we gonna tell the others?" Morro asked quietly, a clear edge to his voice.

"I think we shouldn't try to downplay it," I said after thinking for a few seconds, "We should just tell them straight on, but maybe use a euphemism, I guess."

"I guess," he said heavily, still staring straight ahead. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kai's head lolling back and forth. His face was ghastly white, and his mouth hung slightly open. A trail of dried blood went from the corner of his mouth down to his chin. I quickly looked away with a twisted feeling in my stomach.

"I'm just really worried about how Nya's gonna react," Morro said, surprising me, since I didn't think he would say anything else, "And once we get back, we're gonna have to tell his parents and his girlfriend."

"Wait, he has a girlfriend?" I asked, and immediately regretted it. That was absolutely none of my business.

"Yeah. You've met her." He sounded like he didn't want to keep talking about it, so I decided not to say anything else. Besides, I already hated myself for being so nosy about Kai's love life, especially since I had gotten him killed. What a terrible person.

Still, that didn't stop me from racking my brain and trying to recall every girl I'd met back in Ninjago. From what I had seen, Zane and P.I.X.A.L. were probably together. There had been pictures all over the Destiny's Bounty, but I'd never really looked at the ones that didn't have Garmadon on them. Lloyd's resistance group had several girls in it, though...

I wanted to smack myself hard on the forehead and clear those stupid ideas away. One again my eyes trailed to Kai's head, which rolled from one side to the other, and seeing the sight made the lump in my throat feel even larger than before.

For the rest of the walk I just decided to repeat the words "I hate myself" over and over again to distract myself from all other thoughts, and for the most part, it worked.

<<Content warning: major character death; Trigger warning: blood/gore>>

A/N: So.

That happened.

Please don't hate me.

(And if you're wondering, yes, that's "the major thing" that I said was gonna happen)

Does anyone have anything to say?

*in a small voice* Thanks for reading tho...