Few minutes after Harumi and 'Sons of Garmadon' disappeared girls from resistance heard way too familiar voice "Damn it, they got away!" As they looked at the person that said these words their eyes became large. There stood no one else but ninjas. Skylor immediately ran towards the red one to hug him and check whether she was only dreaming "KAI!" Feeling him returning the hug she pulled him even closer to her not wanting to ever let her beloved go again. "I knew that you're alive." Master of fire was at first shocked yet more than happy that his crush and family were OK. Although at first he only could say "Uh..hi?" Smiling softly at the feeling of her being so close to him he put arms around her "Don't say you've missed me...I mean us so much?" After realization that boys were really there Nya and Pixal followed Skylor and hugged other elemental masters smiling as wide as it was only possible. Cole smiled after receiving two hugs from girls "It looks like you really missed us." Master of water somehow still couldn't believe that their family was really alive "You...really are here." Yet she couldn't help herself and started lecturing them "Seriously, I could kill you! Never ever do something like this again, do I make myself clear? We've thought that...do you have any idea how we felt? Where the hell were you, why didn't you come back sooner? It's about half year since you were gone!" Hearing this Kai let Skylor go and looked more than shocked at his sister "What did you say? For us it was only couple of days, it's impossible." Cole was even more surprised than his brother "You're kidding...right?" OK, was it possible that time went much slower in the first realm than in Ninjago? It looked like this and that meant that they had way more questions for Mystake than they originally thought. Master of amber let Kai go and looked at others "We're dead- worried about you, guys." Cole decided that it was him, who should at least try to explain what happened to them and where they were "Nya, do you remember that tea that Mystake gave us before we left to fight Garmadon? It sent us to the first realm and we couldn't go back though we tried almost everything. We fought with 'Dragon Hunters' and as we defeated them Kai got an idea of combining our powers into one. Thanks to this we could at last come back home." Pixal, who stood next to Zane and was holding his arm thought about this "Actually it was more than half year and this time was actually pretty hard for us. Only Nya and Skylor had their powers, Lloyd lost his right after he woke up back then. I have no idea why it suddenly came back but it can have something to do with the fact that you're back. Another realm...is this even possible?" Zane set himself gently free, walked up to unconscious 'chosen one', picked him up and looked at his girlfriend "We can explain this later on, right now we have to take care of 'the young one'." It was clearly to see that he was worried about their friend. Despite that managed to lightly smile at her "You guys did really well." About an hour later everyone were at the tea-shop or to be more accurate ... whatever was left of the building, they lied green ninja down on the exact same bed as before. Kai looked at Mystake "Can you help him?" After moment of hesitation explained how they managed to come back "About the way that we finally came back..this was the only thing that we haven't tried yet." Cole looked in kitchen's direction since Mystake was there preparing tea for their younger brother "By the way, it's shame that you didn't give us at least small clue that would point at the way to get out of the first realm. Girls said that we were gone for half a year!" Mystake was busy getting everything ready as if nothing ever happened "I didn't tell you since it was obvious. After all it's not the first time when you combined your powers to make something work, am I right? Besides you had to understand who 'the chosen one' really is." The way she replied was quite similar to the one that you use by explaining something totally obvious. Jay straightened himself uncomfortably. He didn't mention Lloyd's little secret about his origins to anyone and that meant that he'll have to act as shocked as others will surely be. He was more than sure that Mystake was getting everything ready for telling them the legend about 'Oni and Dragons'. Red ninja looked more then confused at their old friend "We do know who our brother is, green ninja?" Old woman only sighed heavily shaking her head at such reply "You didn't understood anything, it was totally waste of precious time. It doesn't matter anyway. Right now the most important is helping young lord Garmadon by discovering his true potential. He managed to defeat his father by concentrating and using secret energy, to which he never before had access to. That's why his body reacted that way, he just needs his rest. Be aware though that controlling new powers won't be easy at all" She finished preparing nectar and as Cole lifted slightly Lloyd's head so he could drink she slowly put the cup to his mouth. 'The chosen one' started unconsciously drinking it "It was just a fluke woken up by his strong desire to win. The thing is that his feelings are what keeps blocking his new true potential and looking at what's lately happened this won't be walk in the park." Master of earth looked seriously at her "We'll help him as much as we can, you can be sure of that." Skylor looked worried at everyone present in the room "But..his powers will come back...or not?" She learnt in her life that nothing was sure or as simple as it appeared to be. Mystake gave her sad smile "Friendship is really important in healing's process but I'm not sure whether this will be enough. We're talking about feeling that is way stronger and deeper than that, it's love. Thanks to it his father could so long resist darkness within him, who knew that exactly same feeling will be the reason of his son's downfall." Nya gulped and looked concerned at still sleeping young boy "It's true, we tried to cheer him up before the battle..saying the pain will disappear but the only reply we got from him was that he has enough and doesn't want to be in love never again. Right now I wish I could have one more chance to kick her royal ass." Hearing this Kai didn't know for the first time what to say. He just felt hopeless and honestly hated this feeling with all his heart. He sat on the chair, which stood next to bed. Exactly in this moment he saw how destroyed physically and mentally his leader was. Not being able to stand it master of fire felt how his anger at himself only became bigger "I promised to watch over him right after sensei Garmadon sacrificed himself. We failed him as older siblings and guardians, we were supposed to protect 'the young one'. We should have known better, she was kinda desperate to stay alone with him. We..failed him." Skylor quikcly walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder trying to calm him down "It's not true, we didn't fail. When you really think about it then you'll see that we won. Garmadon is gone and Harumi is weak. Lloyd will soon regain his strength and everything will be as it used to be." Cole gave small nod since he couldn't agree more with Skylor right now "She's right, we didn't loose. That doesn't matter right now though, we have to help Lloyd." Kai slowly relaxed under his beloved one's touch and even managed to smile "You're right, guys. Right now most important is that he'll regain his strength." Nya joined others and also tried to cheer red ninja up "I'm more than sure that he'll quickly come back to himself. We're talking about Lloyd here, the most stubborn guy that we've ever met." After couple of hours master of energy started waking up "What's...happened?" Everyone in the room hearing his week voice looked in bed's direction. Skylor smiled with relief "See? He's waking up." Four brothers immediately walked up to the bed, when they were close enough Cole smiled at Lloyd "You defeated Garmadon, really good job." Kai also added "We're proud of you." Lloyd slowly blinked hearing voices. Was he dead or still dreaming since it was impossible that his friends were there, with him. The pain he felt as he sat up said otherwise. He was very much alive and wasn't dreaming. Looking at his brothers smiled happily "You guys are really here? But how..?" Finally, everything was how it's supposed to be. After this he quickly looked at Nya "We've finally made this, we really did win." Nya had to smile seeing 'the chosen one' so happy and excited, yet she knew he had to rest. She pushed him gently so that he could lie down again "You weren't bad back then and now you have to rest. Guys told us everything." Cole, who saw still confused look in Lloyd's eyes added "Short version: we were taken into another realm, fought with 'Dragon Hunters' and then Kai got an idea with combination our powers. This worked out and we're here." 'The young one' looked even more confused than before, that's why he had to know couple things that mattered to him the most "Another realm, how is this even possible? Where's uncle Wu, are everyone OK, Harumi and 'Sons of Garmadon' arrested?" Kai smiled and ruffled his hair in brotherly way "Not so many things at once, we got into the first realm thanks to tea, that Mystake gave us, sensei Wu is sleeping, no one got hurt and they escaped. Don't worry, we'll get them for sure." Master of amber reassured him as well "We'll put them behind bars, this...bitch won't know what hit her. Right now she's weakened after the battle and even lost. I mean what can she do now when Garmadon is gone?" Lloyd sighed heavily and avoided looking at everyone. It was clearly to see that the whole case with 'princess' still hurt him even when he tried to act though. "The faster they'll get into the prison the better it will be. We can't underestimate them, she's more dangerous than you can imagine." Jay tried to cheer their little brother up as well "We'll act fast then, everything will be all right. Don't worry about it too much." Pixal thought about something as others tried to cheer Lloyd up, finally even she tried to do this "Our group is bigger and way stronger than they are. Chances for success are 100%." This was exactly what green ninja missed during this time the most: his family, who was always there for each other. Nothing and no one could break the bond they had. Hearing how they tried to make him feel better just had to smile "You're right, guys. Now when we're united again nothing and no one can stop us." Plus he had his powers again, when he tried to call them and it didn't work he looked kinda put down again "I don't understand though. I had my powers during battle, did they disappear again?" Zane put hand on his shoulder and shook his head "You didn't use powers of 'the chosen one' back then, don't worry though. We'll find the way to make them come back." Cole nodded "We'll figure something out but first we must rest, I'm dead-tired." Lloyd sat up again and looked at others "Then lets go home." He made a break for yawning "We all need our rest and good sleep. We'll talk about this tomorrow." Kai stretched himself as small yawn escaped him "I have one question though, where can we spend this night. 'Bounty' is crushed and our base is rather far from here." Skylor looked at them, boys really did had troubles holding himself on legs "We can go to my home, I mean the rest of resistance are already in depot so there's no really room for you guys to sleep. There won't be any problem with finding mattresses." The youngest of them looked unsure though "Thanks, Skylor but...are you sure? I mean you helped us a lot and I don't want to overdo it." The truth was they wouldn't survive one day without her back then. At other hand her house was near the palace and this was a definitive pros. The truth was that this whole catastrophe for Ninjago started many years ago when Harumi's parents died. This meant that whatever 'the quiet one' said this truly was the case between him and her and green ninja planned to finish this whole mess...this very night.
OK folks, this chapter is shorter than the last one. Please, write in comments whether you prefer short or long chapters. Looking at myself I can easily tell that sometimes too long ones are tiring to read. Please, help us find the 'golden apple' so to speak. We know that so far action is very slow but we promise you, in later chapters action will be much faster.
To all girls: Next chapter will be full of romance and a lot of things will happen that won't be really for little kids...OK I don't know what are you thinking about right now but not such things. You and your dirty minds...or maybe? Who knows xD