Mountains of memories rushed to the forefront of the mind, as the dream began again.
Harumi found herself in the barren, but familiar landscape of her reoccuring dream. The precipitate of her worry and sorrow driven into her head like the knife of a carpenter. Archives of information and mindless musings manifested itself forward, as the land faded into view. It was a sight Harumi was used to, and one that took her mind off of the plight she had found herself in after being cast asleep by the man at the docks, or at least, what little of that event she retained in her subconscious. This was a dream she had experienced many times ever since being adopted by Sensei Garmadon.
It was unfortunate that Harumi was still unsuccessful in locating the source and let alone the meaning of the dream. It was repetitive like a vision, but vague, like a warning from the powers that be. As it stood before, the land around her was an empty plane, void of anything, but hollowed out stone huts. Each stood in order, and as a worshiping testament, to the large obelisk in the middle of the earth. Its center hollowed out, emitting the faint green light of hope. One which reminded Harumi of her own power.
As she approached the obelisk this time though, she saw brief glimpses of what was going on from the outside of her head. Strange, brute men and criminals lined up in cult-like attire, a large staff of various colors, and the maniacal laughter of familiar voices past and present. The light in the obelisk vanished. Suddenly, it felt as if the world around her was failing to support itself. Not a sudden collapse, but a ceasement of existence.
The nonexistence around her now scared her. The idea of being entirely forgotten, unreachable, and unknowing in an endless void of black unconsciousness left her with worry. Harumi could tell she wasn't dead, but then, what was this? Was this still part of her dream? An extension of her prophetic vision? She didn't know. There was nothing around her that could justify her own thoughts. There was simply, nothing.
Almost in sequence, it was as if Harumi herself became the only thing she could focus on in the bleak, blackness of nothing that encompassed her sleeping soul. Harumi gazed back into herself, but she wasn't as she remembered looking. This Harumi had longer hair, a dark outfit, and a red mask around her eyes. She was older, different, in a way that was hard to describe. Something about her radiated tragedy, and malice. It reminded her of the anger that resonated deep within. Harumi was left with this bitter reflection of herself in front of her, unaware of when, or what it was meant to represent.
Somehow, she was reminded of her own descent into darkness that had befallen her. Its origin was hard to pinpoint. Sometimes she assumed it started after the fight with Garmadon in the car, other times it was after Wu and Cyrus Borg had died. But most of the time, it all circled back to the origin of her plight, her very encompassing philosophy. The dark pit where her real mother and father may lie, was the same pit in which her innocence laid.
The figure in front of her, the reflection of herself from a time and place unknown, was from this very place, the deep recesses of her mind from which The Overlord had alluded to in their brief conversation. Harumi held the question at the tip of her tongue, and though she did not speak it, she could hear it echo across the emptiness of the void that was her own desires.
"Who are you?"
Harumi awoke suddenly. While her dream had been surreal and unnerving, she wouldn't quite say she admired this new prison she was trapped in. The ground was coarse and sandy, with walls lined with shackles of iron. The warm light of fire cascaded in from the bar doors. Harumi could see several unconscious, (though still living), bodies against the wall. Suddenly, she felt a sharp poke against her back.
"Excuse me, you must not have heard me, who are you, and why are we in this dreadfully disgusting prison? And more importantly, who are all these people lined up on the walls?"
"What?-" Harumi was taken aback by the forwardness and influx of questions. "Oh.. Sorry. I'm Harumi, and no, I don't know where we are. Do you?"
The girl in front of her stood at attention. She wore an elegant, yet dirtied dress, with faded, messy white makeup. Her hair was light brown, and her hands were awfully shaky. "I'm afraid not, as I have been here for as long as you have. Though I thought it rude to wake you up from your nap, you seemed to have been sleeping peacefully. Of course, most of these other people are also sleeping, I surmise we might all have been-"
"Alright, alright, I get the idea." Harumi immediately got to work surveying her surroundings. Their cell was both large in the wrong ways, and small in the wrong ways. The actual size of it was rather large, but all around them were large wooden beams or stone debris. She turned back to the cellmate. "Who are you anyway? Some kind of royalty?"
"Hmm? Oh yes. Please forgive my bad manners. I swear it's the ill tempered folly of those brutes that captured us is what it is. Their gross blubbering and stumbly demeanor is hopefully not rubbing off on myself. I am Princess Paige of Ninjago. And it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Harumi." Princess Paige said, trying to wipe the dirt off of her dress as she stood at attention.
At the mention of the name, Harumi had a sudden flashback to her time in the orphanage, when The Emperor and Empress of Ninjago came to adopt an heir to their fortune. It was one of the many days where she actively hid from potential step-parents, as it was early on, and she had not yet had time to recover from her trauma.
However, when she emerged from her solitude, she remembered that Paige had been the one taken. This was that same girl from before, whom she had sparsely talked to as it was anyways. "Paige? You're the girl from the orphanage right? You got taken in and became princess?"
"Oh right.. I remember. The happiest day of my life that was. They taught me how to be proper and polite. To use my extraordinary abilities to lead Ninjago to glory!"
Harumi scoffed. "Yea? And what extraordinary abilities do you have as a 'princess'?"
"Well, I-..." Paige had to genuinely remember what it was she was supposed to say. The Emperor and his wife had done their best to raise a level headed and reasonable princess, who did as they said and didn't throw a fit. However, in their attempt to raise their new princess, they skipped out on some of the few fundamentals of independence that would've helped her avoid situations like the one she found herself in. She was not unintelligent per say, moreso raised irresponsibly.
"Alright, I might not exactly be some sort of genius, but I'd like to think my charisma could carry me out of this situation unscathed, if I so pleased. Well, more unscathed than the rest of these people. Save… You?"
"What? Why'd you pause? Harumi questioned inquisitively.
Paige looked Harumi up and down. Something about the white hair and the small figure felt familiar. "You… You! Harumi! You're that weird girl from the orphanage! That's how you knew about me! I should've guessed, you were quite popular, you know."
Harumi's face remained curious, and confused. "I… Was?"
"Well, popular in the sense that everybody knew who you were. You'd walk into a room and suddenly strange things would happen. Fires would burn brighter, lightbulbs might shatter, earth tremors, colder water, you were like a walking weather hazard! Which- of course, I don't mean in offense-"
"None taken Paige.. I guess. I assume, judging by your uhm.. 'Lack of awareness' that you were kidnapped too. Do you remember how you got here?"
"Unfortunately, no. I just woke up and heard those tattooed thugs laughing. Oh- God! I know what this is! They'll use me as leverage! We are all hostages! They'll barter me off for RICHES! Ohhh mother and father will be so mad when they buy me back! What do I do-"
"Calm down! It'll be easy enough to blast out of the bars. I just need to harness my energy.." Harumi tried to channel the green power of Energy to remove the obstacle in front of her, only to find nothing in her hands. "What- my elemental energy? Why can't I feel it?"
"How's that for lacking in 'extraordinary abilities'? What happened to; 'it'll be easy to blast the bars?'" Paige jokingly teased.
"This isn't funny! I can't feel my elemental powers anymore! I don't know how it's possible- but.. I feel like how I did before I inherited them.. This- this isn't right!"
Outside, the loud noises had caught the attention of the guard, who had been offly annoyed at the shouting and ramblings of the princess and the ninja, turned to the bars. "Shut up! The boss is gonna be here in 5 to give you's all a warm welcome to your new life assignments! I dont want his ears to fly off because you couldn't keep your mouths shut!"
"And who is your 'boss' exactly?" Harumi questioned.
"You ain't getting easy info off me like that ninja-lady! Master Chen'll put me on kitchen duty if I told you something I shouldn't've!"
Paige held in a giggle and turned to Harumi. "Master Chen?- The noodle house mascot? What's he gonna do, put us in the potstickers?"
Harumi looked down thoughtfully. "No.. something tells me their noodle chains a front for whatevers really going on. The call that brought me here was connected to their phone line.. And the docking bay I was led to wasn't too far off from the restaurant."
"Oh quit your detectiving! It's Master Chen! Everybody loves his noodles! Well, except father. He calls them 'the malicious stew that those less fortunate devour in truckloads.' Rather punctual if you ask me." Paige mused over to herself. The guard covered the sides of his head with his hands and turned to the cell again.
"Ain't you ever stop talking?! Be quiet or i'll come in there and make you sleep like the rest of them!"
"We'll see how well that ends for you." Harumi says, clenching her fist. Before anything can break out, a booming is felt entering the prison halls. The stumbling of guards at attention, the long golden shadows cast off of the robes of the mysterious figure, this was indeed the boss they had been told about previously, Master Chen.
"Why must you yell so loudly!? I pay you to stand still and stay shut up until your shift ends!" Master Chen poked the large guard with a staff of some kind.
"Y-yes Master Chen. Sorry Master Chen."
"I believe someone needs some reassignment! Bring him to the noodle house immediately!" Chen commanded, having 4 of his entourage grab the now terrified guard, hauling him off to the warehouse not far off. "My! I'd think you'd all be gracious to be under my employ! Nobody ever visits, nobody ever invades, this is the perfect line of work for such.. 'Flattering individuals' such as yourselves!"
The guards around him nodded in nervous approval. Master Chen angrily squinted his eyes into the cell, looking at the now courageously defiant Harumi, and the less confident Paige, who had resorted to hiding behind Harumi out of fear for the strangely dressed man. "Clouse! That imbecile! The spell was supposed to last until tomorrow morning!"
"Yea, real shame for you. Who are you and what did you do with my father?" Harumi questioned.
"And her power- energy- thing-" Paige added meekly.
"Hmm! I see you have not had the pleasure of eating at Master Chens! That or you just never paid attention during history class." Ironically, Master Chen had been exiled from both ninjago as a whole, and their archived history. Ironically still, nobody in Ninjago who was alive during the times of The Serpentine Wars, including Garmadon and Wu, found it odd that a noodle franchise named after this person conveniently popped up recently. "Yes. I am 'that' Master Chen! I hope you like your cells, girls. It'll be the most free space you'll have for the rest of your lives!"
"And Garmadon? Where is Garmadon?"
"Ah yes.." Chen stroked his stubble, deep in thought. "I took the liberty of having that sad sack brought here for a bit of a vacation! Clearly it worked as intended. You've come to join him! And we cannot forget the wonderful and valuable princess of Ninjago! I am honored to have such guests!"
Paige whispered into Harumi's ear from behind. "Told you we were getting ransomed."
"Yes, yes. Two very important people among a sea of losers. You'll both be instrumental in bringing my plans to focus!"
"And my powers? The only way an elemental master can lose their powers alive is Chronosteel.. But all of that was mined out centuries ago."
"I know right!? Lucky me!" Master Chen proudly held the staff in his hands. The glass orb contained a light green glow, and was surrounded by sharp jagged edges. "How else would I have been able to collect it? But that's not at all where your usefulness ends!I need my enemies all here at once. But a straight forward offer from someone like me might come across as 'suspicious', for some reason."
Harumi folded her arms as Chen rambled through his motives in front of them. Paige, losing the sense of danger around her, walked out of Harumi's shadow and stood next to her.
"So, I kidnapped Garmadon to lure you here, kidnapped you to lure The Ninja here, and kidnapped the whiny little princess to lure the royals! And by then.. Let's just say, me and my army will be more than a match for whoever they send to collect you, little miss princess!"
"The Ninja?" Harumi regained her focus. "You.. You're going to steal everyone's power. You're gonna take over Ninjago!"
"Mhm! Isn't it great? I've already sent the ransom letters and proof out. Expect your respective friends to be here by next week. I've got some lounging to do, so enjoy your new jobs!" Chen smiled, chuckling under his breath and leaning on his elemental staff for support.
"You- you barbarian! You lock us up- and expect to use us as bartering chips!? If you wanted us to suffer, why haven't you killed us already!?" Paige asked shyly from the side.
"Because! What's the fun in just letting you off the hook that easy? I just like to mess with you! Now get up and make me some high quality noodles!" Chen slammed his foot on the ground as the door was opened, and the large guards rushed in and shackled Harumi and Paiges feet to the sleeping prisoners beside them.
With the clanging of the shackles, each woke up to their own horrifying fates as they were brought to the work room. Harumi caught one last grasp at Master Chen before she was brought in. Paige nervously sized up the situation behind her. "So this is it. An eternity working in a noodle factory. My parents worried sick, the heroes will walk into that mustachioed man's trap, and Ninjago becomes the noodle capital of the world."
Harumi, her long hair flowing behind her as they marched, turned back with a determined expression. "I'll get us out with days to spare. We can save my dad and get Chen and his goons locked up for good."
"I sure hope you know what you're doing, weirdo." Paige said, as the new objective became clear. Somehow, someway, the two would free the other prisoners, and bring order to the island for the rest of time.