So this is 90% speculation and 10% drawing from what we've been given, but here's my hot take on these two green children making poor life choices in the jungle.

(And Harumi I love you but you're walking a real thin line playing with my boy like this.)

Lloyd doesn't really know what he's doing.

That probably should have been obvious when he jumped straight off the side of the Bounty with nothing but his sword. It jumped to crystal clear when he took the map-turned baby blanket and tried to use it as a parachute. But hiking through a dense jungle no one's ever made it through with an arm out of commission and the girl he (kind-of-sort-of-hasn't-figured-out-yet) likes looking to him for protection, Lloyd's ready to admit that he's a hundred percent, guaranteed in over his head.

(Just maybe not to the other ninja. Kai's going to be ribbing him about this for months.)

The other things - that his family is somewhere in this same jungle in who knows what state (alright, they have to be alright), that the Sons of Garmadon (who gave them the right to that name anyways, not him) are still out there trying to bring back his father-

Lloyd swallows the wave on nausea back, focusing on the river beneath them. His arm doesn't hurt as badly now - he's pretty sure he just dislocated it, and must have managed to half-fix it when he was getting dragged around. He shouldn't be ungrateful - it's a miracle he got out with only his arm hurt. He owes his life to this stupid map.

That, and Harumi's excellent sword-throwing skills. Maybe she was just really good at…frisbee, or something. To be honest, Lloyd's mind keeps short-stopping when he gets to Harumi's lips on his cheek-

Right. Does not know what he's doing, at all.

He starts as the staff is almost yanked from his hands by the river, and Lloyd shakes his head, trying to focus. Survive the jungle, find the mask, find the others. Don't get caught by the Sons of Garmadon. And don't make any more of a fool of yourself in front of Harumi-

"What else do you think is out there?" Harumi says, breaking the silence. Lloyd turns to her where she's at the wheel of the small boat, her light hair starting to curl at the ends from the humidity. She's staring at the thick trees with trepidation, clearly out of her element.

"Probably nothing too friendly," Lloyd says, rubbing at his chest where the vines had grabbed him. "We should be fairly safe for now, though. All the creatures we've seen tend to stay pretty far from the water."

"I hope there's not a reason for that," Harumi says, warily. "This boat isn't exactly quiet. Or inconspicuous."

"Well, on the bright side, we blend in pretty well," Lloyd says, eyeing the green of his suit ruefully. "First time that's ever come in handy."

"I didn't want to say anything," Harumi says, with a slight smile. "But all green head to toe does seem to defeat the purpose, if you're trying to be stealthy."

Lloyd shrugs. "It's how we've always dressed," he says. "Besides, stealth has never really been our…biggest strength," he says, rubbing the back of his head. "Once we start doing spinjitzu, it's all out the window anyways."

Lloyd bites the inside of his cheek as he thinks of the others. Not for the first time, he wishes Kai were here - he'd be able to ground Lloyd, at least.

"Well, I like the green," Harumi says. "It's a good color for you."

Lloyd flushes, looking anywhere but at Harumi. He settles on the water. "Uh, thanks, uh - it's a good, uh, color for you too?"

Nevermind. Lloyd's never been more glad Kai isn't here.

Harumi giggles softly. "Thanks," she says. "It's the color of the royal family, so pretty much everything I own is this color," she says, gesturing to her jacket. "The color of peace, they would always say. The color of the jungle, too, I guess, which is a lot more helpful."

"The color of snakes," Lloyd says, distantly.

Harumi frowns. "Huh?"

"Oh, sorry," Lloyd says, ducking his head. "I was just - uh, remembering. I used to have this dumb book on colors when I was younger, and they always used green for snakes."

"Oh."

"Which is totally wrong, by the way," Lloyd says. "I hung out with at least a hundred snakes and the majority of them were, like, blue and purple."

"You mean the serpentine?" Harumi says, in surprise. "What were you doing with them?"

Lloyd winces. Congratulations, you walked right into that one, idiot, he thinks. "I wasn't the, uh, best of kids, when I was younger," Lloyd says, awkwardly. "I did a lot of stupid things."

"Like getting mixed up with the serpentine?"

"Try letting them out," Lloyd says, ruefully. "I singlehandedly caused ninety percent of Ninjago's serpentine problems when I was ten."

Harumi bursts into giggles. "You didn't," she says, delighted. "The famous green ninja, collaborating with the serpentine to take out Ninjago in his youth?"

"I didn't say I was a smart kid," Lloyd mutters. Harumi keeps laughing, apparently finding the idea hilariously amusing.

"Oh, that's wonderful," she says, as her giggles subside. "How did your father take to that?"

"He, uh, wasn't around for most of it," Lloyd says. "My uncle was the one who had to deal with me."

Harumi sobers. "He…wasn't there?" She says. "What about your mother? Surely she couldn't have been on board with a ten year-old child running around like that."

"She wasn't there, either," Lloyd says. This conversation is abruptly entering territory he'd really rather it not. "I was…on my own, a lot, when I was a kid."

"Oh," Harumi says, quietly. "I'm sorry, Lloyd."

"It's okay," he says, eager to get off the topic. "So, uh, did you ever play frisbee when you were younger?"

"No," Harumi says, bemused. "But…I did play a lot of Sitar Hero," she says, blushing slightly.

"No way!" Lloyd says, grinning. "That's one of my favorite games. Hah, did your royal instructors recommend that one?"

"Hush," Harumi says, flushing. "Even a princess needs to entertain herself. And I wasn't allowed outside that much, for my own safety."

"And look where you are now," Lloyd says, soberly. Great job he's done at protecting her.

"Hey, I'm not dead yet," Harumi says. "And it's been…worth it."

She smiles at him, soft and full of things Lloyd can't put a name to - isn't sure he wants to put a name to. But-

"I'm gonna make sure you stay that way, Rumi," he says. He turns back to the river with renewed determination. "I'll make sure we both stay that way."

They can do this. They're a good team, even if Lloyd is a terrible mess and Harumi is inexperienced. They'll find the mask and get out of here.

And then he'll find the others and put a stop to this, once and for all.

It's the very least his father deserves.

Harumi knows exactly what she's doing.

She just needs to keep reminding herself of that.

Sure, her plans have been a little derailed - she never meant for the other ninja to get quite this far, or for Lloyd to be quite this stubborn, but it's all worked out perfectly. The Sons of Garmadon should be able to take care of the other ninja, and she's in a better position than she could've dreamed. She's got everything she needs in one place - the map and Garmadon's son, who is more than capable of finding her the third mask. Cut off from his friends as he is, he's vulnerable even without the injured arm. And so, so easily manipulated.

She does, perhaps, feel guilty about that. For all that she prides herself on what she's built with the Quiet One, Lloyd doesn't deserve what she's doing to him. That doesn't mean she'll stop, of course - it's all too perfect. As long as she has Lloyd twisted around her finger, she's safe.

But only so long as that. She's not stupid enough to think that Lloyd will hesitate once he figures out who she is, simply because of his feelings for her. She's seen the way he fights for his family. No, she needs to keep him compliant at all costs.

The truth is, Lloyd scares her. Not because he's the green ninja, or even because he could demolish her plans in a single blow, if he knew. No, Lloyd scares her because the more time she spends with him, the more time she looks at him, the more she sees herself.

Or, rather, who she could be.

They're alike, the two of them - not just in the fair coloring of their hair and the way they're drawn to the color green. Lloyd is the first person she's talked to who gets it. Who understands loss, what it's like to be abandoned - just to end up responsible for protecting the very things that left you that way.

She can see the same grief in his eyes - only his is quiet, like the gentle fall of rain. Nothing like hers, loud and raging against her heart like a hurricane. Lloyd's grief has made him quieter, but it's also made him wiser, made him kind. Harumi's grief has made her something far different.

Harumi is scared of Lloyd because she could be him, if she tried.

But the coin works both ways. He could just as easily be her - he's the son of one of the greatest evils Ninjago has ever seen, it wouldn't be a stretch.

The Sons of Garmadon are made up of people who are angry, people who have been hurt. Every single person she's seen recruited has something in their past she can pull at, manipulate. Everyone has something.

Even the green ninja, the great hero of Ninjago. Because the green ninja is Lloyd, who grew up without his father and mother as well. Who was abandoned and rejected by Ninjago, only to be forced to protect it as he took on the mantle of the green ninja. She couldn't have orchestrated a better background herself.

Surely, he would want his father back. He's noble, too noble for his own good, but Harumi knows people. She knows how badly people can want their parents back. And she knows how much Lloyd relies on hope, as childish as it can be.

If she can get him to hope for his father, that's half the battle won already. If she can just get him to understand - to see the world the way she does - they could be something powerful. Something unbeatable. Together, they could be something far greater than the Sons of Garmadon, or even Garmadon himself. If she could just get him to see that-

Harumi drums her fingers on the boat's wheel, staring at Lloyd's golden hair. His back is turned to her, his attention preoccupied by the changing river.

She can't be the first person to manipulate him. And she probably isn't the first person who will claim to be doing it for his own good. And he certainly won't see it that way, at first.

But he will. He'll see her side.

Everyone will, in the end.