Aren't you glad I'm not leaving you on that cliffhanger for a week? haha

review replies:

Entity: Garmadon is the best boy.

Rwbygirl: I didn't turn him human just so I could do this, I swear.

Ms. Cipher: Yeah tbh. You remember GotG 2? She'd be like Mantis.

Ebony: Yeah, the Preeminent sucks. I mean, kinda Reena's fault for getting Kai to reveal it to them. This would have gone so much better if not for her.

KitKat: :3

MNM: AINT THAT THE TRUTH

Enjoy another 3300 words of this haha

Nicole's hands flew to her mouth as her boyfriend was dragged into the ocean, eyes open wide. The tentacle emerged a second later – without him, of course – and the dream mistress rushed to the edge of the bridge to wait for him to come up. She only saw bubbles. It was a few moments before she came to the horrible conclusion that he wasn't going to come up, that he was hurt, or he couldn't swim, or-

Nicole barely heard Lloyd yelling her name as she jumped in after him.

She spotted Morro immediately, about five feet below her. His eyes were squeezed shut, and he was flailing wildly in the water, trying to find something to hold onto. Kicking her feet, Nicole swam down towards him, straining to grab his hand. When she finally reached it, grabbing his hand and squeezing as hard as she could, he squeezed back. He was okay, at least for now. But she had to get them up to the surface.

As she turned, trying to pull him back up, she immediately felt resistance. Was he stuck? It wasn't until she felt something cold and slimy coil around her ankle that she realized what – strangleweed.

Nicole was starting to panic. Even if she had the time to remove her earring, her powers were useless here. She couldn't manipulate murder seaweed! If she couldn't get up soon, both of them were going to drown!

As she struggled against the strangleweed, which was slowly making its' way up her leg, Morro's hand began to go slack in hers. No, no! This couldn't be happening! She couldn't lose him!

A flash of light from above, blinding her, made her gasp, losing some of her precious air. But, as she struggled to see in the sudden brightness, a firm hand grabbed her wrist, yanking upwards with such force that both she and Morro were pulled out of the strangleweed's grasp, back up towards the bridge.

The moment she was pulled out of the water, all her attention was on Morro.

Nicole barely noticed Lloyd, landing his dragon next to her as he set her and Morro down on the bridge. Morro's eyes were closed, his face was tinged blue, and he wasn't moving. He definitely wasn't breathing.

Lloyd shoved her out of the way, barked, "Get Andreea." And rolled Morro over onto his front, pounding on his back with his fist. Nicole didn't move. She could only watch, frozen. After a few, horrible seconds, Morro's body shuddered and he started to cough, vomiting out water onto the bridge.

"Morro!" Nicole's knees went weak and she collapsed, feeling faint both from almost drowning and Morro almost dying. He was alive.

"Nicole, I said-" Lloyd started, turning to her, but his eyes softened when they fell on her. She must look pretty pathetic. "Jay, get Andreea." He called instead. "Hurry." Nicole rubbed her eyes, willing her fuzzy vision to focus, then looked back up at Morro. He'd propped himself up on one arm now, his body shuddering violently from the force of his coughing. Lloyd put a hand on his shoulder, and Morro reached up to cover it with his hand – his left hand. Nicole noted his metal fingers laying limp, unresponsive. Broken?

"Morro?" She said again, and he looked up, his eyes shining with tears. Whether it was from the force of his coughing or from him being really upset, she didn't know, but it made tears spring to her eyes too.

"I have to say, I'm impressed, Morro." Morro stiffened at the Preeminent's voice. "I didn't think you had it in you to defend your worst enemy." Lloyd 2?

"He's- not- my worst enemy." Morro choke out. "You are."

"Oh, fine. But you still despise him. And don't lie, you know I can read your mind."

"You're lying." Morro snapped. "I know Lloyd can hear you. Everyone can. And I'm on his side now, of course I would defend him from you." His arm holding him up began to tremble, and Lloyd pulled him back into his arms. "Just shut up. You're going to lose." He mumbled, closing his eyes.

"How confident of you." But Morro didn't answer, and she didn't say anything more.

A minute later, Andreea arrived.

"I've honestly gotten used to patching you up at this point." She said with a sigh upon spotting Morro, limp against Lloyd's chest, sopping wet and miserable. "You almost drowned?" Morro nodded a bit. "You're gonna be fine. The worst of it is over, okay?" Another nod. "Nicole, help me get him back to the base. He'll be safer there." Still dazed, Nicole nodded, getting to her feet as Lloyd helped Morro do the same. Andreea then wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leading him towards the base and motioning for Nicole to follow.

"You're being pretty nice." Nicole found herself saying as she obeyed. "Why? You don't like me."

"I just know how it feels to watch someone you love almost die." Andreea didn't meet her eyes, glancing over at Lloyd 2 instead. Oh. Now probably wasn't a good time to ask about that, since whatever incident she was referring to probably involved Morro as well.

Andreea lead the two of them back to the base – which Nicole could swear didn't always look so flimsy. Was she just worried, now that Morro had been in danger? That was probably it.

"I can't really make you feel better, I can't heal the aftereffects of a lack of air. The best you can do is get dried off and get some rest, both of you." The diamond master instructed them, leading them to Lloyd A and Morro B's room. She lowered Morro down onto his bed, Nicole sinking to the floor next to it, then left the room. The moment she was gone, Nicole scrambled to her feet, nearly tackling Morro to the bed as she hugged him tight.

"I was so scared." She gasped into his shoulder as he wrapped one arm around her. "I was gonna lose you. You were drowning, and you weren't breathing, and you were blue, and-"

"Nicole, Nicole, hey." Morro cut her off, patting her back gently. "It's okay. I'm gonna be fine."

"But you could have died! We could have both died, if Lloyd hadn't come and saved us!"

"But he did come and save us, and we're going to be fine."

"But we- if he- but-"

"Nicole. Stop." Morro put his working hand on her shoulder, pushing her back so he could look into her eyes. "There's no point on getting all worked up. It's over. Breathe." Nicole took a deep breath, then let it out in a nervous giggle.

"'Breathe'. That's funny, cause we just almost drowned." She felt tears well up in her eyes again, and Morro sighed, pulling her close again and lying back on the bed.

"Andreea said we should rest, so just... rest." Nicole closed her eyes, and rested her cheek on his chest with a sigh.

"Okay."

TheDarknessReturn

Morro 2 and Nicole almost drowning had rattled Lloyd way more than he liked to let on.

Lloyd tried to keep his focus on the Preeminent, on the water masters' rising wall of water, but he kept seeing Morro's pale face, his still body, whenever he blinked. He had to focus on their job, he had a world to save. But trying to be a good leader was a lot harder than it looked.

Good leaders were supposed to care about the greater good. About the Realm, the Universe. They were supposed to put the greater good over the lives of their friends. Lloyd was really bad at that. Since arriving in this dimension, he'd recklessly gone after his friends in danger at least twice, one time being forced to stay and physically attacking those who restrained him. Though it felt like everyone had forgotten about it at this point, Lloyd still regretted it, and was determined to make up for it by being a better leader.

Unfortunately, if this kept up, he was going to fail miserably.

He was trying really hard to keep his focus on beating the Preeminent, but Kai 2, shaking on the ground behind him, and Morro 2 and Nicole, half drowned and hiding in the base, were making it really hard. He wanted nothing more than to run and try to comfort Kai, or stay with Morro to defend him, but he had to stay put. He had to run things. Had to keep things under control.

"And you're doing a wonderful job of it, believe me." Lloyd bristled at the Preeminent's patronizing voice in his head.

"Shut up."

"That's not very polite." Lloyd ignored her. Maybe if he didn't answer, she would go away. "I wouldn't hold your breath." Couldn't Nya and her mom move any faster? The Preeminent was partway through the wall of water, and though ghosts were falling from around her left and right, she didn't even slow in her progress. Apparently, she had a lot of faith in her shield. Why she was so confident, anyway? She must know how easily the water masters could kill her ghosts.

"Maybe I just don't care." Lloyd groaned.

"Don't you have anything better to do than bother me?"

"Regrettably, no."

"Ugh." Lloyd crossed his arms and glared up at her, having to crane his neck to see her eye with how big she was. Not that he really probably should put the effort into it, she was so ugly it was probably better to look away. "Did your mother never teach you how to treat a lady?"

"You are not a lady, first of all. Second, I grew up in a boarding school, so, no."

"How tragic." Lloyd wished he had the self-control to just ignore her. Nya and her mom were getting kinda close, anyway. Hopefully this would be over soon. "You don't really think they can do it, do you? I have too big of an army."

"Numbers don't matter. My group is more skilled." He retorted.

"Oh? My army contains thousands of elite fighters, including elemental masters."

"None of them are from my team."

"I'm sure you're very proud of them."

"You're right, I am."

"Still, you don't seem to have a very good handle on some of them. Take Indigo, for example. Very impulsive, reckless-"

"Leave Indigo out of this." Lloyd snapped.

"She tried to kidnap you? That's fascinating."

"Cut it out!"

"You love her… almost like a daughter. That's hilarious, really, considering your history." Lloyd huffed and covered his ears. A pointless gesture, since she was a telepath, but it made him feel a bit better.

"Oops." 'Oops'? Lloyd looked up, then dropped his hands to his sides, scrambling to summon his dragon as he registered Zane 2 and Maya falling from the sky, Zane's dragon vanishing in the grip of one of the Preeminent's tentacles. Stupid, he let her distract him! He heard her nagging voice in his head again, but he paid her no heed, catching first Maya, maneuvering his dragon so she would land behind him on the saddle, then grabbing Zane as he flew past.

"Get me back up there!" Maya yelled to him as he started heading down to the ground. "I have to help my daughter!" Lloyd nodded, swooping down to the ground and setting down Zane before taking his position alongside Nya. The wall of water was almost high enough, they just have to hold on for a few more minutes.

Screams began to echo from the city.

Lloyd's head jerked back to look over his shoulder, and his heart sank. It was too late. The Preeminent was already reaching into the city, grabbing buildings, support poles, anything in her path, and just tearing them down. The others were trying to hold her back, but water had no effect on the tentacles, and those that were cut with deepstone just grew back – usually into two. All they could do was slow her down, Lloyd needed to take her out.

Charging an orb of energy, Lloyd hurled it at the Preeminent's eye. She didn't stop, but it got her attention.

"What? Did you think that would hurt?"

"I kinda hoped it would." Lloyd threw another one. Maybe he could use the same tactic on her that she used on him.

"Doubtful, since I can read minds." Rats. Whatever. He threw another one. "You're only going to wear yourself out."

"You talk too much." Lloyd looked over his shoulder at Maya, who nodded, then glanced over to make eye contact with Nya. She nodded too, then leaned closer to Zane to say something to him.

The Preeminent read his mind too late.

Tightening his grip on the reins, Lloyd shot upward, Maya holding on tight to him with one hand and lifting the wall with the other. Zane followed him up, Nya and Maya lifting a huge chunk of the wall of water with them as they rose. Once they were over the Preeminent, the water masters moved the chunk of water over the Preeminent, flattened it out like an umbrella, then dropped it.

There was a sort of collective scream from the ghosts as they all died.

The Preeminent stopped short, and started backing up, but she moved too slowly. She was slowly regenerating her shield, but the ghosts died as soon as they emerged from the portal, leaving her vulnerable again. Swooping back towards the ground, Lloyd and Zane got close enough to the ocean for the water masters to raise it up underneath her. This time, when the water made contact with her, Lloyd felt a sudden feeling of just rage. The Preeminent wasn't speaking, and with no face she had no expression, but apparently she could make her emotions clear without it.

"Do you really think you can kill me?" She hissed in his head. "You might be able to damage me now, but I am still too strong. Even without my shield."

"We'll see." Lloyd muttered as she started heading back towards the mainland. "Nya, Maya, go get in position. Go!" Maya jumped off her dragon, summoning her own and flying past the Preeminent towards the mainland with Nya trailing behind her. Lloyd started back towards the ground, but a tentacle yanked him off his dragon's back, lifting him up to the Preeminent's eye. Oh, not this again-!

"Impertinent boy!" She snarled. "We'll see if your ninja can fight without their oh-so-precious leader." She began to lift him towards the portal, but this time he was ready. Lloyd charged an orb of energy around him, forcing the tentacle to let go, and he dropped towards the ocean, summoning his dragon again and dodging a tentacle grabbing at him. He just had to keep her attention on him…

"This isn't over." She hissed, and he had the uncomfortable sensation of her leaning close to him to whisper in his ear. "Even if I am forced to retreat, I can just come back. You cannot save Ninjago." Lloyd didn't answer, focusing on dodging her attacks. "Oh, before I forget, I killed Kai." Lloyd's eyes widened, then narrowed. It was probably a trick to distract him. "Good thought, but I'm serious. I did kill him. When you killed the rest of my army, I was forced to transfer damage to him. He's dead." Didn't matter. Once they killed her, they could get him back. "And what makes you think you can kill me?"

"Hope." He replied, finally speaking. Apparently this was his undoing, as he finally slipped up and a tentacle caught him around the middle. She immediately began to squeeze him, the tentacle constricting around him and pinning his arms to his sides. He couldn't use his powers-!

"I'll crush you like an insect." She growled. If someone didn't stop her, she would. Lloyd was struggling, trying to fight back, but she was too strong. Was this where he was going to die?

"LET GO OF HIM!" A dragon smashed headfirst into a tentacle holding him, and he slipped free, plummeting towards the sea. Before he could move to summon his dragon, wind roared around him, and he looked up to see Morro 1 flying down towards him. Lloyd's face broke into a grin. Morro wouldn't let him die.

The wind master set him safely on one of the bridges, then landed next to him. The Preeminent had moved too far away to reach them anymore, apparently fleeing. Good riddance.

"Zane, get ready!" Lloyd yelled, watching as the Preeminent steadily approached the mainland. She'd given up. It was all on Nya and her mom, now.

TheDarknessReturn

Morro A stumbled out of the base to see the Preeminent running away.

"What in the world…?" He muttered, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the sunlight. "How?"

"I am impressed." Nicole admitted from behind him. "He didn't kill her, but he scared her off." Despite Andreea's orders for them to rest, the pair had been too tense to sleep, and had ended up getting up again after about ten minutes. When they came out, they found, to their amazement, Lloyd had beat the Preeminent. Her cloud of ghosts spinning around her was considerably smaller now, Lloyd must have managed to kill them all off.

"Morro! Nicole!" Lloyd had apparently noticed them, and Morro looked over to see him grinning and waving. Evidently his plan was working perfectly. "Good to see you up! I'm glad you're okay!"

"Thanks to you, yeah." Morro gave him a weak smile, starting towards him. "What happened while I was gone?"

"Quite a bit. I'll tell you in a minute. Just watch." Morro frowned, but obeyed, Nicole coming up beside him and taking his hand. Together, they watched as the Preeminent finished crossed the ocean gap and started over the mainland, back towards the desert. Abruptly, Lloyd whirled around and yelled,

"Zane, cue the Nyas! NOW!" The nindroid pressed a hand to his ear, and, barely a second later, dozens of jets of water shot out of the ground.

Right underneath the Preeminent.

Half an hour earlier,

"Coles, I need you to repair the reservoir. We need to get the trap operational again." Lloyd ordered. "Once the Nyas are finished defending here, I'll send them to refill it."

"But- but won't she just keep attacking Stiix?" Cole 2 protested. "How can we make her go back?"

"I have Maya. I'll force her back somehow, get her to flee. Now go! And whatever you do, don't tip her off. Count to a thousand, sing the alphabet song in your head, do something to keep from thinking about it. She can only read surface thoughts, don't let her find out. Understood?" The Coles nodded. "Good. Go!" Obediently, the Coles summoned their dragons and flew away. Letting out a breath, Lloyd stared up at the hulking form of the Preeminent, towering over the city. Now he just had to figure out how to make her flee.

Present,

As Morro watched with stunned awe, the jets of water cut straight through the Preeminent, some continuing out through the top of her. He could see the remains of her ghost 'shield' disappearing like popping bubbles, and she began to fade away, her body disappearing into nothing. When the fading got to the portal, the rest of her vanished in a flash. Morro could swear he saw a female body hanging in the air for a split second before she died.

For nearly a minute, there was silence. Then, wild cheering broke out from the city behind them.

Morro dropped to his knees in shock as the first rays of sunrise peeked over the horizon, staring blankly at where the Preeminent used to be. Was she… dead?

"MORRO!" Lloyd fairly tackled him to the ground, hugging him tight. "We did it! We BEAT her!"

"We did?" Morro asked, still trying to register what had happened.

"YES!" Lloyd squeezed him tight, laughing, and Morro's face slowly broke into a grin.

"We did it." The wind master hugged him back, burying his face in his shoulder. "We did it."

"We did do it." Lloyd agreed.

"We won."

Not the end quite yet! I've got a few loose ends to wrap up. But this is a decent ending for me to leave it on while I go on vacation, eh?

I hope you've enjoyed the final battle!

~FFF