Chapter 8: Taking Seats

Movie Ninjago

When Koko finally saw the venue from the Green Dragon Mech, she let out a soft gasp and her eyes went misty.

Ahead of them was a volcanic beach, though the volcano that created it had long been removed to act as Garmadon's base of opperations. Its shores were covered in black sand, and it gave a spectacular view of Ninjago City when standing on the coastline. The wedding decorations were almost completely set up, but there were still a few generals bustling around for the last-minute preparations.

Lloyd glanced over his shoulder at his mother curiously. He had never understood why Garmadon had been so insistent that the wedding take place on this particular beach. He refused to even think about marrying Koko anywhere else but never bothered to explain why.

"You know why he wants to do it here?" he asked, hoping to finally get the answer.

Koko sucked in a deep breath before answering slowly. "This… This is where I left him," she said, her expression a mix of sad and fond.

Lloyd's head snapped back around to look at the beach with new eyes. "Here?" he asked.

Koko nodded, though Lloyd couldn't see it. "I carried you to a small rowboat on the shore and sailed across the gulf to Ninjago City. Garm didn't try to stop me, but he didn't stop watching us until we were gone." She let out a sad laugh. "I think you knew we were leaving him. You wouldn't stop crying the whole trip."

Lloyd felt his throat constrict even as he pulled the Green Dragon down for a landing. "Then I guess it makes sense why this is where he wants to come back together."

Koko let out a suspiciously wet-sounding laugh behind him as the mech touched down on the black sand.

She couldn't think of a more perfect place to get married.

When Lil'Loyd got off the Ultra Dragon as he and his dimensions' side of the guests showed up, he was happy to see SJ and Poisinthia running over and dragging Tiny Echo along with them. The Serpentine Nobles as a whole had declined to come to the wedding, but his friends had mentioned they were going to try and sneak out to come anyway. As it was, the only Lil'Terrors invited to the wedding were the four of them and Rusty Echo (who was the plus one of his father, because Lord Garmadon had decided to invite the 'zombie' he'd rescued from a lighthouse, thereby inviting Dr. Julien to the event).

Or so they thought.

"No way!" said Lil'Loyd.

"Way," said SJ, pointing into the crowd.

Lil'Loyd and the Echos followed his finger and stared at the trio of teenagers chatting in a corner.

All three of whom were definitely familiar, but for different reasons.

"Yup, that's Brad and Gene alright," said Rusty Echo.

"They're so tall," marveled Tiny Echo.

"I know, it'sss so weird," said SJ, looking like he still didn't quite believe it. "Like, here'sss the facesss of my friendsss, but it's also not them and they're older too. Ssso freaky."

"What? Me and Luh-Loyd are counterparts at different ages, and you don't think we're weird," said Lil'Loyd, looking confused.

SJ snorted. "You're plenty weird, just for different reasonsss," he said. He then shrugged and added. "I don't know. I guessss because I thought you and him were two different people when we met. Even Russsty and Tiny look and act too different to be missstaken for each other. Plusss, I met them together."

"Ah, I see," said Rusty. "It's the first time you met someone you know's counterpart and you know it but they don't that's freaking you out."

"Sssounds about right," said SJ. "It'sss weird ssseeing our friend'sss faces in total strangersss."

"And look, they have another friend, too," said Poisinthia eagerly, pointing at the white-haired girl alongside the boys. "And she'sss a girl. Do you think thisss meansss we can be friendsss with her counterpart? It'd be great to be friendsss with another girl, even if she isss human."

"That's Harumi, the mayor's daughter," said Lil'Loyd. "She's friends with Mom, and I met her the first time I was here. She seems nice enough."

Poisinthia pumped her fist in the air. "We're ssso going to get a new friend," she said gleefully. "Alright!"

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, Little Red," said a new voice, making them turn around to see Morro walking by dressed in a tux and his usual pink bandana done up in an ascot tie.

"What do you mean, Morro?" asked Lil'Loyd curiously as the rest of the Lil' Terrors exchanged confused glances.

Morro glanced over at Harumi, Brad, and Gene. "Just that she's not quite what she makes herself out to be. Try to keep out of her way, okay."

"Okay, but why?" asked Tiny. "How do you know? Do you know her? Do you know her counterpart? What do you mean she-?"

But Morro pretended not to notice the stream of questions the short Nindroid directed at him and continued on his way to his friends.

They were all already seated and chatting with each other about any old thing that came to mind.

"Everyone doing alright?" Morro asked.

"Peachy," Tox grumbled, looking far from comfortable wearing her formal green and black lace dress. It was clear the only thing she possibly liked about it was the black leather belt she'd added and decorated with pink skulls.

Karlof, meanwhile, was bouncing in his seat. "Karlof cannot wait for it to start!" he said.

"Really?" asked Tox sarcastically.

"We couldn't tell," said Shade with equal deadpan.

Neuro rolled his eyes and reached over and grabbed Karlof by the shoulder to get him to stop bouncing. "Please stop doing that," he said. "You're going to break the chair."

Karlof stopped bouncing, but still was radiating an air of excitement.

Morro laughed and glanced around the room. "Where's Paleman?" he asked, not seeing his friend.

"He's around," said Shade disinterestedly.

Morro raised an eyebrow. "Around as in blending in, or around as in looking for trouble?" he asked.

"With him? Probably both," said Griffin with a grin.

Morro couldn't deny that.

"I'll go see what he's up to," he said and headed back off into the crowd.

If nothing else, whatever Paleman was doing was sure to be interesting.

Harumi's eye could not stop twitching even as she kept her demure smile on her face.

When she heard there was assigned seating at the venue, she didn't think much of it.

Now that she was here, though, she could see a few problems.

For one thing, she was separated from Brad and Gene. Not the worst thing in the world, as they could be annoying at times, but she'd at least have their running commentary to entertain her while they waited for the ceremony to start, and they had enough sense to know when to shut up.

Unfortunately, her current seatmates left a lot to be desired. All of the people on her row were a bunch of doting old ladies, and they would not leave her alone!

"It's so nice to finally meet you, dear…"

"Your hair is lovely, you must take such good care of it…"

"So polite. If only my granddaughter were more like you…"

Oh, they were perfectly polite, complimenting her on her looks, and how sweet she was, and comparing her to whatever grandchildren they had.

But they were not giving her a single moment to breathe, or, more importantly, reach her phone to inform the Sons of Garmadon of the wedding's location.

Finally, she managed to get a moment of peace when Gayle Gossip walked past chatting with a young police officer and one of Garmadon's generals, and the old ladies all started gossiping like the old nags they were about how such a trio could come about.

Squeezing past them to hide behind a floral arrangement, Harumi pulled out her phone and prepared to send her location in an innocent-looking Chirp.

Only for her phone to be snatched out of her hands before she could post it.

"Hey!" Harumi squawked indignantly, rounding on the culprit.

Standing before her was an utterly unremarkable young man. The kind of person you could see and then forget what they looked like the second your eyes were off them.

But Harumi saw him now, and he had her phone. "Hey! Give that back!" she demanded, some of her inner brat leaking through as she tried to snag it back. Given this jerk had just stolen her phone, she figured it was warranted.

"Sorry, kiddo," said the man with an utterly unapologetic smirk as he held her phone out of her reach. "But it said on the invitation no social media posts at the wedding. Garmadon has dibs."

Harumi scowled inwardly but outwardly tried to give her best innocent look of confusion. "Oh, did it?" she asked. "I must have missed that. Could I have my phone back, please? I won't do it again."

The unremarkable man tapped his chin like he was thinking about it, before shaking his head. "Nope. No can do," he said in a teasing tone. "I see the temptation is too great, so I'm confiscating this. I'll give it back to you at the reception."

Harumi's eyes widened and then she looked furious. But before she could say anything else, a voice caught both of their attention.

"Paleman, there you are," said a young man Harumi recognized as Lord Garmadon's nephew, Morro.

"Hey, Chief," the now identified Paleman said, waving cheekily at his apparent friend.

"What's going on?" Morro asked, looking between him and Harumi.

"He stole my phone!" Harumi said pitifully, hoping to garner some sympathy from the new arrival to get it back. "Please, could you get him to give it back?"

"Confiscated," Paleman corrected, not looking concerned at the accusation. "For her own good. After all, Garmadon's rule about posting about this could get her kicked out."

Harumi's eyes widened. She hadn't noticed that bit in the rules.

Morro sighed and rolled his eyes at his friend's antics. "He's right," he said to Harumi apologetically. "Uncle Garmadon wants it to only be his social media getting attention for this. I'll make sure Paleman gives it back once the ceremony is over. But for now, we better find our seats."

Paleman gave Harumi a victorious grin, before stuffing her phone into his pink-brimmed fedora hat, and followed after Morro as they headed away.

Harumi watched them go and seethed once their backs were turned. So much for that idea.

But she was nothing if not prepared.

It was slightly riskier, especially if it was found on her, but she had another way to send her followers her location.

Reaching up to the mermaid clip in her hair, she pressed on one of the decorative gems that made up the mermaid's green eyes. The mermaid's eyes flashed and blinked for a moment before settling in a solid red glow that was unnoticeable in the sunlight of the beach.

With a spring in her step, Harumi shuffled back to her seat and prepared to endure more doting from the old ladies. It would all be worth it soon.

Her troops were notified.

The show was about to begin.

A/N IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ! Hehe, funny story. So, remember before I started this fic when I said I only had about 8 chapters and would go on hiatus after posting them until I was inspired again... Yeah, things changed. For months I was burned out on Ninjago (it took me so long to write this chapter) and had actually fallen back into TMNT and finally watched Rise of the TMNT, which was very fun. The animation for that show was awesome. But when my interest in TMNT started fading too, what should I find but another show animated by the same people called Lego Monkie Kid. I was (and currently still am) hooked. Monkie Kid may not be Ninjago, but it had a similar vibe, and that, along with the awesome reviews I had been getting for this fic, sparked my motivation to keep writing this fic and... I finished it! This fic is going to be completed, so look forward to the last five chapters in the coming weeks. Also, go watch Monkie Kid. It's great! I'm actually working on a crossover with it and my Ninjago series for after this fic is over.

However, just a heads up I might be changing my update schedule to Fridays or the weekend. I mentioned before my work changed my schedule, and it might be easier for me when I don't have to post after working so late.

Anywho, about this chapter. It did not want to be written. I made it when I was in the worst of my burnout. I knew what I wanted to write, but the motivation to do so was hard to come by. Still, it was needed for the last bits of setup before the action starts. I thought the beach from Koko and Garmadon's breakup scene in the movie would be the best place for them to get married. In the movie, it might be Garmadon's volcano, but I don't know for sure. For the sake of this story, it's another beach far off the coast instead. I hope this better explains SJ and Poisinthia's reactions to seeing Movie Brad and Gene last chapter. The scene was from Harumi's perspective, and she doesn't have proper context to understand them. Though, Morro seems to know more about her than the kids do. Harumi's still up to her tricks, and the action's about to start next chapter.

As always, massive thanks to Kay Hau for beta reading and contributing ideas for this chapter. Harumi getting stuck among a bunch of old ladies for seatmates was her idea. She thought it'd be funny since Wu made Morro arrange the seating she get stuck somewhere unpleasant. She had an idea for Morro to also try that with Buddy Kai, but Koko caught that one.

Next Time: The wedding starts off smoothly, but will it stay that way for long...