Chapter 29

Movie Ninjago

The Serpentine were quite surprised when alongside the multitude of mechs, flying ship, and the giant cat the Ninja Force was famous for, a smaller red samurai mech and a carriage being pulled by a dragon landed outside their city.

They grew confused when almost double the number of ninja they were expecting came out of it along with a girl dressed in armor.

And they were alarmed when following the extra ninja was someone they hoped to never see again.

Lord Garmagon held up all of his hands in surrender when the Serpentine soldiers pointed their weapons at him. "Urgh, here we go," he grumbled as the Ninja all hung back, wondering if they should intervene.

"You only brought it on yourself, Brother," said Master Wu as he stepped off his ship, and played Bad Blood on his flute.

"Stuff it, you butt," Lord Garmadon shot back without missing a beat.

Hearing the song on the flute, Red Nya leaned over to her counterpart and whispered, "Master Wu listens to-?"

She trailed off, and Cyan Nya snorted. "Yeah, NOTHING he plays surprises us anymore."

"You swore an oath never to set foot in Serpentine civilization again, Garmadon," hissed the Serpentine guard in charge of the others. "Why have you returned?"

Lord Garmadon tapped his chin and pretended to think. "Oh jee, I don't know, maybe because my KIDS got KIDNAPPED in your stinkin' city! Ring any bells?!"

That threw the surrounding Serpentine off. It was easy for them to forget in their admiration of Charmer IronDragon that her son was also the son of their hated enemy.

Rolling his eyes, Lord Garmadon said snidely, "Look, I'm outside the city, I'm not 'setting foot in a Serpentine civilization' or whatever. But if you think I'm going to sit back and do nothing while my kids are missing, then you can take those spears and shove them up your-"

"GARM!" came a shout, and the Serpentine parted to allow Koko to race through them looking distraught.

"Koko!" shouted Garmadon, and heedless of the surrounding snakes, ran over to hold her.

"They were taken right out from under me!" Koko said, worry written all over her face. "What kind of mother am I?"

Garmadon pulled back from their embrace to look her dead in the eye. "The kind that's going to find them no matter what, not sit back and wallow like a pansy," he said firmly. "I know you, Kokes, you'll tear this world apart until you find them, then move on to the next one."

Koko managed to give him a strained smile. She'd needed to hear that.

"You've got help there," added Buddy Kai, as he and the other collective Ninja gathered around. "Just tell us where to go."

"I'm afraid the circumstances have grown direr," came a new voice, and all of the Serpentine guards hurried to bow as their king and queen approached, flanked by their generals. Koko and Master Wu were quick to bow as well, and the Ninja followed their example (with some reluctance from the dimensional travelers given who it was). Only Garmadon remained standing.

King Skales eyed him up and down suspiciously. "Lord Garmadon," he said in the barest hint of politeness.

"Your majesty," Garmadon said as if that were an insult. Beside him, the others rose from their bows, and Koko elbowed him in the side for his tone.

"Pleassse," said Queen Selma worriedly. "The lassst thing we need isss more trouble."

"The only trouble I'm causing is to the chum bucket that kidnapped the kids," said Lord Garmadon with a scoff. "He's shark food when I get him."

"SSSave some for usss," muttered General Skalidor.

"Well, I was going to blast whatever bits are left out of my volcano, but sure, you can have them," said Garmadon in an almost friendly tone at their mutual enemy's destruction.

King Skales regarded him for a moment longer, clearly not wanting to work with Garmadon, but with his son's life on the line… "Very well," he said reluctantly. "You may sssearch the desertsss, but ssset not one foot into any SSSerpentine town, city, or home. And lay not one hand on the Golden Weaponsss," he ordered.

That gave all of them pause. Except for Garmadon, who just looked confused. "The golden what-now?" he asked.

King Skales glanced at Koko, who shrugged. "My sons and I assumed you wouldn't appreciate us telling him."

The Serpentine king looked pleased to hear that, and Garmadon sent his ex-wife a pout.

"Wait, what was that about the Golden Weapons?" asked Spike Kai putting them back on track as he and the others exchanged a glance.

"Unfortunately, they have been ssstolen," said General Fangtom. "Not long after the tomb they were hidden in wasss sssearched, the changing guard dissscovered this when they arrived."

"And likely by the sssame culprit who abducted the prince and Lady IronDragon'sss children," said General Acidicus. "The poissson usssed to sssubdue the guardsss wasss the very sssame."

"Well this just got a whole lot worse," said Freckles Jay.

"I know, right! That's the exact thing we were trying to not let happen," agreed Nick Jay.

"Then we better get to fixing it," said Cliff Cole, turning to face the rest of the collective Ninja. "We should split up and search the desert."

The Ninja Force looked a little startled at him taking the lead, but Cyan Nya let out a relieved sigh, before nodding in agreement. "We can use our mechs to search. Do you want us to turn the carriage into some vehicles for you, or keep it in one piece?" she said and seeing their second in command go along with Cliff's lead reassured her teammates.

"How many vehicles do you think you can get out of it?" asked Cliff, looking at the carriage. "Going in as many directions as possible will give us a better range to search."

Pep scanned the carriage with his eyes, and said, "The wheels used are quite large. If we use one for each vehicle, we could potentially create four one-wheeled motorcycles for you to ride on."

"Oh, hey, one for each of us," said Nick.

"Then let's get on it," said DJ, and the Ninja Force along with Red Nya and Nick hurried to reshape the carriage into their rides.

Garmadon, however, wasn't waiting around for them to finish.

"Right, you nerds do that," he said lifting Koko bridal style and carrying her over to Luh-Loyd's Green Dragon Mech. "Me, Koko, and the boys' pet monsters will get this show on the road."

At his words, Meowthra immediately began padding off to search, and the Ultra Dragon took to the air to join her once they were detached from their harness.

Koko blinked as her ex-husband deposited her behind him on the Green Dragon and he began starting the mech up. "Do you even know how to drive this thing?" she asked, not complaining about getting out there to search.

"I drove it before," said Garmadon defensively.

"Once," said Koko. "And badly."

Garmadon scoffed. "Oh come on, how hard can it beEEEEE!" he yelped as the controls shot him and Koko into the air and rocketing off into the sky.

No one said finding the kids would be easy.


No one said escaping their enemies would be easy.

That was the general consensus of the two Green Ninja and the Serpentine Prince as they picked their way through the jungle outside the manor the younger two had gotten them out of.

By now their empty cell had definitely been noticed, and the jungle was swarming with more masked men searching for them while holding spears and swords.

Getting caught was not an option.

As it was, Lil'Loyd and SJ were currently hiding in the branches of a tall tree to avoid being spotted by a goon patrol (something novel for SJ, since he'd only ever seen desert flora before), while Luh-Loyd climbed even higher to try and get a better view of their surroundings.

Poking his head out from above the leaves, Luh-Loyd took a cautious glance at the sky to make sure there were no aircrafts around. Seeing none, he stood up more fully and looked around.

He could see the manor they'd escaped from in one direction, it's upper levels peeking over the trees. Lloyd ducked against the tree branches to shield himself from the view of any windows and looked in the other direction.

The manor and the forest they were now in was at the top of a low mountain, giving Luh-Loyd a good view of their surroundings on all sides. Unfortunately, one quick look around posed a problem.

"We're on an island," he hissed to his younger companions once he climbed back down to them.

The two boys looked up at him in alarm. "Doesss that mean we're trapped here?" asked SJ worriedly.

"No, not trapped," Luh-Loyd assured him. "I'm a Master Builder. I can build us a way off this island. The problem is, I'd likely have to build whatever boat we use from stuff in this forest, and just using trees doesn't make for the fastest ship."

"Meaning the bad guys could catch up to us before we get back to Ninjago," said Lil'Loyd, catching on.

"Pretty much," Luh-Loyd agreed. "From what I've seen, the only other way off this island is on a boat or a helicopter. The helicopter pad is part of the docks and it's empty right now, so we might be able to avoid that if it's off somewhere else. But if they see us sailing away and come after us in a boat that has a motor, we'll be in pretty big trouble."

SJ looked worried, but Lil'Loyd could see where he was going with this. "So we blow up their boats?" he asked rhetorically.

"Well, we'll try to steal a fast one so we can get home sooner, but all the rest, yeah, we're blowing them up," said Luh-Loyd with a nod as he wrapped one hand around the sword he'd stolen from the guard SJ had hypnotized.

"Piece of cake," said Lil'Loyd, alighting his hands with his energy powers, making Luh-Loyd grin at the sight.

SJ looked between the two ninja with a concerned look on his face. "You ninja are very… extreme," he said, looking like he was wondering if he should have taken his chances in the dungeon.

"The word you're looking for, SJ, is awesome," Lil'Loyd corrected with a smirk.

Luh-Loyd chuckled softly at that, before slipping into leader mode, even if those he was leading were just kids. "The dock is on the west side of the island, but we should avoid the path to it since it'll be crawling with guards. We'll have to go through the jungle."

"Is that hard?" asked SJ as the two humans climbed down from the tree. The young Serpentine hesitated at the height, like a cat stuck in a tree, but was able to jump down when Luh-Loyd held out his arms to catch him.

"Don't worry," said Luh-Loyd as he began leading them through the forest. "This isn't the first jungle I've gone through. At least this time we don't have to carry my dad in a cage."

For the umpteenth time that day, SJ had to do a double-take at a human's words and ask a bewildered, "What?"


Fortunately, they managed to make it to the docks without much issue, only needing to duck into the trees a few times to avoid the searching guards. Luh-Loyd was able to slap together some pieces to make a raft to escape on if they had to destroy all the boats, and left it in a cove on the way there.

Unfortunately, just as they were approaching the docks the helicopter returned from wherever it had gone to and landed on the landing pad. The Lloyds mutually agreed that if they weren't able to steal it, they'd blow that up too.

SJ was beginning to worry about their sanity.

However, when they saw just who was getting off the helicopter, their escape plans were put on hold from shock, before creeping closer to get a better view from the treeline.

The head bad guy, Master Chen if the children had heard Chope and Kapau right (though Lil'Loyd had to agree Turban Dracula was an apt nickname for him), was flanked by guards and strode up the dock towards the new arrival with a haughty expression. "You've got a lot of nerve calling my men back to collect you," he said tartly. "Especially after giving us damaged goods the last time we contacted you."

The newly arrived Pythor gasped, clutched at a large tapestry wrapped parcel in his hands and gave Chen his best-wounded expression. "What? Damaged goodsss? I gave you precisssely what you asssked for, old chum."

"I didn't ask for the Green Ninja to have his brains so scrambled he can't answer my questions," Chen snapped.

"You didn't not asssk for that either," Pythor replied smoothly. "Your only order wasss for me to get the bratsss to you through, what were the exact words… 'By any meansss necessssary', I believe, and that certainly fits the bill. And at great cossst to myssself, mind you, as I find I'll sssoon be no longer welcomed in SSSerpentine territory."

Chen's scowl at his words spoke volumes of how little he cared about Pythor's problems.

"SSStill, I'm sure I can make it up to you," Pythor continued, acting like he was the one doing Chen a favor. "SSSomething to sssweeten the pot and cover my ssstay here until our little plan comesss to fruition, hmm."

Chen glowered at him, before huffing and saying. "Oh, very well, show me what you have, and then I'll let you know if we have room for visitors."

Pythor's grin widened, and he dropped his parcel onto the deck.

The three hiding boys had to stifle a gasp as gold gleamed on the deck at Chen's feet.

Chen gaped in shock at the sight of them, before practically dancing in place in excitement. "The Golden Weapons!" he exclaimed at the top of his lungs. "You actually got them!"

"I did sssay I would, didn't I," said Pythor with a self-important drawl. "It was only a matter of time, and usssing the prince as a ransssom wouldn't have worked anyway. Thisss isss much more convenient."

"I'll say!" said Chen eagerly, he moved like he was about to pick one of the gold weapons up, but then paused and sent Pythor a suspicious glance. He then straightened and looked at the guard to his left. "You there, pick them up," he commanded.

The guard jumped at those words, and pointed at himself dumbly.

"Yes, you, who else am I talking to. Pick them up!" Chen ordered.

Hidden among the trees, Lil'Loyd and SJ let out horrified gasps, and Luh-Loyd only had a moment to wonder why SJ suddenly was clapping his hands over his eyes, before Lil'Loyd was pouncing on him to do the same for his older counterpart.

"Lil'Loyd, what are you doing?" Luh-Loyd asked as he struggled to get the younger to stop covering the elder's eyes.

The guard hurried to follow Chen's orders, picking up one weapon at a time. Seeing this, Pythor casually started to say, "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were-"

Luh-Loyd managed to get his vision clear just in time to see the guard pick up the fourth weapon before seizing up like he was in pain and vanishing into thin air, sending the weapons clattering back to the dock.

"-You," Pythor finished too late, but not looking too broken up about it.

Luh-Loyd could only stare horrified at where the man had once been. No scream, no body, he was just gone! Someone had just died in front of him, and there was nothing left to show he'd even existed!

Lil'Loyd had told them what would happen if someone tried to hold all four of the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu, but it was only now it sank in for Luh-Loyd what it truly meant.

Lil'Loyd was still hanging limply off his counterpart's shoulder as Luh-Loyd sat frozen with a horrified expression. "I tried to keep you from seeing that," the little Green Ninja muttered guiltily. "Sorry."

"... I feel I should be the one trying to protect you from that," Luh-Loyd said in a slightly strangled voice.

Lil'Loyd shrugged. "You're a little more innocent than me," he said. While he was also horrified to have seen someone just die, his counterpart being affected even more seemed to only prove his point.

"Isss it over?" whimpered SJ, who still had his hands clamped over his eyes.

As Chen prodded the spot his goon had once stood with his foot, while his other guard looked terrified, and Pythor looked amused. "That was rather wasssteful," the Anacondrai said like he was discussing the weather. "I did warn you what would happen if they were all touched."

Chen shrugged like the death of one of his men wasn't a big deal. "Eh, I had to see for myself. For all I know that could have been a hoax to keep people from using them. If the warnings were false, then things would be a lot easier going forward. Oh well, I still have a plan B," he said as he shrugged and picked up the golden shuriken and the nunchucks. "Besides, I had to be sure they were the real deal, and it seemed to be a good way to test them."

Pythor clutched at his heart like he'd been wounded. "Me? Give you fake weaponsss? I would never."

"Whatever," said Chen, clearly not caring. "You've just got yourself one of the finest suites in the manor." He then turned to his remaining guard and said, "You! Pick up the other two weapons."

The guard took a huge step back and looked terrified of the very notion.

Chen rolled his eyes, and kicked him off the dock into the ocean. "Big baby," he called down after him. "You need all four to get turned into nothing. I'm only asking you to pick up two."

The guard reluctantly climbed back on the dock and gingerly inched over to retrieve the scythe and sword at a snail's pace while Chen and Pythor watched on with annoyance and amusement respectively.

"He knew what would happen," said Luh-Loyd from their hiding place, his voice brimming with disbelief. "He knew and he made the guy pick them up anyway."

Not even his father had been so callous. Impossible as it seemed, during his years of attacking the city, no one had died due to a Garmadon Attack. Injuries were aplenty and destruction was assured, but somehow, whether from some weird form of mercy from his father or Ninjago City's well-oiled evacuation methods, death of innocent people was never something that stained Lord Garmadon's consciousness, and it was a methodology all those who worked under him followed as well. Something Luh-Loyd had always been thankful for, as it would have been a lot harder to forgive him otherwise. It was why his father managed to only receive a fine, house arrest, and community service instead of full incarceration when he gave up evil to become good.

This man had clearly had no regard for the life of his men. And if he cared so little for those closest to him, Luh-Loyd shuddered to think what he'd do to those in his way.

This… wasn't any kind of villain he'd ever faced before…

They couldn't let him succeed.

"We need to get those weapons back," he and Lil'Loyd said in unison, as the younger had clearly been thinking along the same lines.

SJ carefully peeked out from behind his hands. "How?" he asked.

"IIIII don't know," Luh-Loyd admitted. "But if this guy plans to use them to emulate the Golden Master we can't let him get away with it."

"If we can at least grab one before we go, we could potentially derail his plans, whatever those are," Lil'Loyd pointed out.

Luh-Loyd nodded absently, the start of a plan forming in his mind. "Okay," he said as he put the final pieces together. "Okay, here's what we'll do. SJ, can you swim?"

SJ blinked his red eyes in surprise, but nodded hesitantly. "Yesss, a little. My palace hasss a pool."

"Cool," said Luh-Loyd, reaching over to grab a pair of straw-like reeds and holding them out to them. "Then while I cause a distraction, I need you two to swim under the docks. Lil'Loyd, you can use your powers to attack the boats and helicopter. SJ, I'll try to kick one of the weapons off the dock. I want you to take it and run as fast as you can back to where we left the raft and start trying to get as far from here as possible. Me and Lil'Loyd will catch up to you or steal a boat and meet you on the water. Can you two do that."

SJ nodded slowly, but Lil'Loyd looked skeptical. "You wanna fight them?" he asked worriedly. "All of them by yourself? You just recovered from a concussion and they have the Golden Weapons!"

"They don't know how to use them and I have the element of surprise on my side," Luh-Loyd assured him. "It doesn't need to be a long fight. Just enough to get this done."

Lil'Loyd didn't look happy, but he nodded anyway.

Chen and Pythor were still watching the guard carefully pick up the scythe and reach for the sword when a yell came from behind them. They wheeled around in time to see Pythor get kicked in the face, as a green and black blur used his head as a springboard to jump over them and grab the Sword of Fire out from under the guard. With it and his other stolen blade in his hands, Luh-Loyd wheeled around and stood ready to fight.

"Oh, not you again!" Chen groaned at the sight of him. "You're supposed to be in your cell!" He then paused and studied Luh-Loyd up and down. "Wait, weren't you concussed a few hours ago? How are you up and moving already?"

Luh-Loyd blinked, a little thrown off by the question. Wasn't it normal for healing tea to clear things up that fast?

Taking advantage of his distraction, the guard charged him with a swing of the scythe. Luh-Loyd blocked it with both swords and kicked his opponent in the knee.

The guard yelped and stumbled, allowing Luh-Loyd to clock him over the head with the hilt of one of his swords, knocking him out cold and sending the scythe clattering to the dock.

Luh-Loyd quickly kicked it into the water below but knew it was probably too heavy for SJ to lift and run with. He'd either have to throw in the Fire Sword or try for another weapon and given he still had two opponents to face, he decided to go for the latter.

Speaking of, Chen suddenly came flying at him with the nunchucks in one hand and the shuriken in the other. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, given this was the leader of the bad guys, but when it came to a fight, Chen was good! He used the sparking chain of the nunchucks to wrap around Luh-Loyd's regular sword and yanked it out of his hand as the electrified charge went through the metal into his arm. Then, while Luh-Loyd was thrown off balance from the shock and the yank, he swiped at Luh-Loyd's eyes with the shuriken, it was only by Luh-Loyd managing to twist in the air in mid-fall that he was able to avoid losing his eyes.

Rolling across the dock, Luh-Loyd jumped back onto his feet and brandished the Sword of Fire in front of him.

"Give up, boy," Chen sneered at him, holding his own weapons at the ready. "There is no way off my island that I can't follow."

Luh-Loyd smirked. "You sure about that?" he asked.

Behind them, the helicopter exploded with a flash of green energy.

Now it was Chen's turn to be startled, and Luh-Loyd pressed his advantage to try and jump him.

Dropping the Shuriken of Ice to the dock, Chen was forced to use the nunchucks to block Luh-Loyd's strike, leaving the two locked in one place.

Luh-Loyd quickly kicked the Shuriken of Ice towards the edge of the dock, but his eyes never left Chen's. "You don't have to do this," Luh-Loyd said as he pushed against the nunchucks with the sword.

"Grind you beneath my heel like the ant you are? Yes, I think I do," Chen replied nastily as he pushed harder.

Luh-Loyd took a deep breath to steady himself against this. He was feeling a lot more reluctant to do this after seeing him kill someone out of curiosity, but still, he had to try. "We don't have to fight each other," he said as calmly as he could. "You can stop and we can work something out."

Chen stopped pushing so hard and just stared at him.

Hoping he was getting through to him (though he couldn't help the nagging feeling that he wasn't), Luh-Loyd continued, "What do you even want with this?" he asked. "Whatever your goal is, whatever you want those weapons for, there has to be a better way to do it. Something that doesn't involve hurting people and Serpentine! I can help you if you just stop!"

Chen just goggled at him, before looking down and his shoulders started to shake.

To anyone else, it would look like Luh-Loyd's words had done their job and the villain was now feeling remorse.

But Luh-Loyd didn't let his guard down. It felt almost like it did when he was facing down a monster and trying to earn its trust, but his mental stoplight wasn't showing him green or even yellow. It was blaring in a vivid blood red with alarm bells and danger sirens to go with it.

The shaking continued as a sound from Chen grew louder by the second, until Chen threw his head back revealing he had been shaking from laughter, not remorse, as he cackled long and loud.

It was fortunate Luh-Loyd was still prepared to fight, as Chen suddenly jolted forward and twisted the nunchuck in a way that forced Luh-Loyd back and barely was able to keep his grip on the sword.

"You!" said Chen almost gleefully as he giggled and swung the nunchuck at Luh-Loyd again. "Are funny!"

Luh-Loyd barely dodged a blow to the head as Chen continued. "You really think some pretty little words are going to appeal to my humanity," he said in a mocking tone. "That suddenly I'll care and we can skip off into rainbows of friendship and happiness. HA!" He rolled his eyes and Luh-Loyd was forced to continue to dodge as he attacked. "In case you didn't notice with one of my guards now being dust in the wind. I. Don't. CARE!"

Luh-Loyd tried to swipe him with the sword, but Chen caught it in the nunchuck chain, twisted it out of Luh-Loyd's hands, and caught it in his free one as he continued to monologue. Luh-Loyd quickly backed away and grabbed a net on a long metal pole off the dock to use as a makeshift weapon.

"I don't care, about the Serpentine! I don't care about people! I don't care if people see me as a villain! All I care about is getting the power I deserve!" He then sent Luh-Loyd a nasty grin as he pointed the Sword of Fire in Luh-Loyd's direction. "And I don't care how many people, Serpentine, or funny, little Ninja brats I have to kill to get it!"

Luh-Loyd stared at him, knowing deep in his gut that every word Chen had just said was the truth. Nothing he could do or say would change his mind, and even trying wouldn't end well for him.

"Speaking of brats," a sneering voice said, shooting a bolt of fear through Luh-Loyd.

He'd forgotten Pythor!

The snake in question was gliding down the dock with SJ and Lil-Loyd by the hoods of their clothes, his threatening grip on the Serpentine prince being the reason Lil'Loyd wouldn't risk blasting him, no matter how much it was clear he wanted to.

Seeing this, Luh-Loyd twisted the net-pole in his hand and threw it like a javelin at the Anacondrai. The pole rammed into his gut, forcing the evil Serpentine to drop the children, allowing them to get away from him. Lil'Loyd shot a blast of energy at Chen. The mafia leader dodged, but it was enough for the two dart past and regroup around Luh-Loyd.

"He got us before we could get the weapons," Lil'Loyd said grimly lighting up his hands with more energy as Luh-Loyd grabbed a coil of rope for his next make-shift weapon

"Sssorry," added SJ as he hid behind them.

"It's okay," Luh-Loyd replied as the three of them were backed up to the end of the dock by the encroaching bad guys. Wishing desperately that they could have help. "Let's just focus on getting out of here."

"Aw, leaving so soon," Chen taunted as he brandished the Golden Weapons in his hands at them. "But I was just having fun."

Behind him and Pythor back on the shore, more guards began spilling down the path to hurry and help their boss.

Cornered at the edge of the dock, Lil'Loyd's powers flared as he prepared to blast them. It would be tough. Chen had proved to be a formidable opponent, Pythor should never be underestimated, and with an army of goons backing them up, there was little chance they'd get out of this without being captured or worse.

Still, they wouldn't go down without a fight.

Just as Lil'Loyd was about to blast them, Chen and Pythor stopped in their tracks with looks of surprise on their faces, and behind them, the guards let out cries of shock.

The Lloyds and SJ only had time to glance behind them as a massive tentacle bust out of the sea, wrapped around all three of them, and yanked them off the deck and into the water.

Pythor could only stare at where they'd once stood, his mouth agape. "What was THAT?!" he burst out.

"A leviathan," Chen replied with a confused frown. "That's odd, normally this isn't their primary feeding waters. That one must be really lost and hungry to come here." He then gave a carefree shrug. "Oh well, that's one less thing to worry about."

Pythor seemed to think they still had plenty to worry about if how quickly he slithered off the dock was any indication, the rest of Chen's men were eyeing the water uneasily now too.

Chen rolled his eyes at their fear. "Oh, you idiots. The leviathan just fed, you have nothing to worry about. Now get down there and find me my Golden Weapons before the current washes them away!" he ordered, pointing beneath the dock where Luh-Loyd had kicked the Scythe of Quakes and the Shuriken of Ice.

His men still hesitated.

"NOW!" Chen roared, "Or I'll feed you to the sea monster myself!"

That got the men moving, as they trudged into the surf to search for the weapons and hoped they hadn't washed away.

They would be sea monster chow if they did.


Meanwhile, far off the coast, the tentacle holding the Lloyds and SJ resurfaced and set the three down on top of another tentacle.

The three of them coughed and gasped for air as they recovered from their surprise dunking, and then looked up at their impromptu rescuer.

"W-What isss that thing?" asked SJ nervously, having never seen anything like it.

Luh-Loyd stared up at the giant tentacle monster that saved them. Something about it felt… familiar. "It's the leviathan that was guarding Dr. Julien!" he exclaimed, recognizing it.

Lil'Loyd gaped up at it as well. "TAFFY!" he called.

The leviathan let out it's groaning call at the name, patting the two blonds on the head in a friendly manner. It was definitely the same leviathan they had seen on the other Ninjago.

"Seriously, can all giant monsters move across worlds?" Lil'Loyd had to ask in amazement.

"It's starting to look like it," said Luh-Loyd, patting the tentacle back and beaming up at the sea monster.

"Taffy? Acrosss worldsss? What are you talking about?" asked SJ, completely bewildered at this point.

The Lloyds exchanged an amused glance. At a silent request for permission from Lil'Loyd to tell his new friend the truth, Luh-Loyd smiled and said, "It's a long story, but we'll tell it to you on the way back to Ninjago. You've earned it. That is if Taffy doesn't mind giving us a ride?"

Taffy let out another groan and began swimming west towards the mainland, the tentacle the three were sitting on being held aloft out of the water so they could breathe.

"You ssseriously named it Taffy?" SJ had to ask as they settled in for their journey.

"WE didn't name it, Rusty Echo did," said Lil'Loyd. "See, the thing is…"

They spent their trip home telling SJ all about the parallel worlds and the story of how they were switched. After helping them fight through an island of mobsters, risking life and limb for his people, and riding with them on a sea monster home with them, SJ had earned it.

Lil'Loyd couldn't wait to introduce his friends to the newest Lil'Terror.


A/N And thus, the green boys and prince successfully escape the island. Unfortunately, the Golden Weapons are still there along with all the Serpentine hostages, so they're going to have to go back, and soon. Though, going back with back up while the enemy thinks you're dead has some pretty good advantages for them to take advantage of.

A big thanks, as ever, to Kay Hau for helping beta read this chapter. Some of the Nyas' lines about Wu's song choices, as well as Taffy's name were her ideas. Major thanks.

Next Time: While Penny and Skylor muse about what their friends are up to, the Lloyds and SJ are found and many things begin coming to light.

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