I... ended up writing the last chapter last night, so... here. Before I go.

Review replies:

Ms. Cipher: I killed Karen :')

Rwbygirl: Best meme.

Ebony: Oh yeah, Reena... I forgot about her... and that's the Preeminent. Her human form, before she turned herself into... that.

The Preeminent was dead, but the ninja's job wasn't over yet.

Most of the ghosts in Ninjago were dead, as the Preeminent had amassed a huge number of her subjects for the battle, but some struggles still remained. The ninja spent weeks travelling from town to town, purging any of the Preeminent's subjects in each one and helping rebuild.

Structural damage wasn't the only damage done to Ninjago. The people had been beaten down for so long that most towns struggled to get a basic leadership system started without the ghosts ordering them around. As such, Lloyd 1 ended up overseeing a lot of work done in each town before they were able to move onto the next.

Though it should have been obvious from the significantly fewer ghosts and the world no longer being tinted green, everywhere they went the people were shocked at the news that the Preeminent was dead. Except Ninjago city. As soon as they had walked through the gates, they had been treated as heroes. Though, with all the technology in the city, it wasn't a huge shock that the news had travelled this far.

The people had appropriated Morro's empty castle for their own use after Reena had left with the Preeminent, but they offered it to the ninja for their lodging when they arrived, something along the lines of 'only the finest for the saviors of Ninjago'.

It was there that Morro 2 approached Lloyd about his plan.

"Lloyd?" The blond tore his attention from a suit of armor that didn't quite match the others in the hallway, looking over his shoulder to see Morro approaching him slowly. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure. What's up?" Lloyd turned to face him, but Morro didn't meet his eyes.

"I want to… well…" he twisted his hands together. "Remember when we talked about all the timelines that had bad endings, with all the other decisions we've made? How there's all those people who are suffering more than we ever have?" Raising an eyebrow, Lloyd nodded. Where was he going with this? "I want to help them." Morro finished, finally looking up at him. Lloyd blinked.

"How?"

"Well, you got here somehow, right? With Traveler's Tea, I think. What if I took the Realm Crystal, and between two Jays and two Nyas," Lloyd noticed him flexing his now fixed – and waterproof – metal fingers. "I'm sure they could make some sort of modification that lets me hop timelines as many times as I want. I'd be free to help so many people!" He looked down, smiling. "And… I'd be able to visit you whenever I liked." Lloyd smiled back. That was a perk.

"But what about Nicole?" He asked, his face growing serious. "Won't she miss you?"

"Well, I was gonna… ask her to come with me." He shrugged. "I figure she'd kill me if I tried to go off without her." Lloyd laughed.

"Fair enough. Okay, I'll talk to them about it. But you'll have to wait until our group gets sent home okay? We kinda need the Realm Crystal for our return trip." Morro nodded.

"Of course. I'd want to see you off anyway."

"Alright. Great." Morro straightened up, moving to walk away, but Lloyd stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Wait. Be careful out there, okay?" Morro smiled.

"Okay."

TheDarknessReturn

It was another full month before the ninja could go home.

Some towns and villages were thrown into such chaos and confusion by the Preeminent's death that they actually started to fight each other, and the ninja were forced to sort out a few nasty arguments. The worst of it, though, was going into the Cursed Realm and finding every ghost who was wrongfully imprisoned and bringing them back to their families, Kai 2 among them, who had a tearful and apology-filled reunion with his parents and sister.

Unfortunately, Reena appeared to have died in the last battle with the Preeminent, and was now nowhere to be found.

They had also kidnapped Clouse and set him to work trying to replicate the spell that had turned Morro human, for the purpose of bringing Simon and all the other innocents back to life. So far, he had failed every time, but the innocents were immortal, they had all the time in the world to figure it out.

Finally, the day came for the #1 ninja to return to their Realm.

The Nyas and Jays had successfully created Morro 2's timeline-hopping device, and they planned to test it out by sending the ninja home. The goodbyes took nearly an hour – even if most of them were doubles, they had still become good friends. But, finally, they had all the returning ninja on one side of Morro's old throne room, and Morro 2 activated the device. A swirling, red portal appeared in the center of the room, and the group began to file through, Lloyd herding them in so he would be the last one to pass through. Finally, when all the others were gone, he turned to Morro 2 and called,

"Be safe! And if you ever need help, you know where to find us!" Morro smiled and nodded, and Lloyd waved to them all one last time before disappearing into the portal.

TheDarknessReturn

Lloyd was unceremoniously dumped out of the portal and onto the ground.

"Oh, nice of you to show up." The blond lifted his head from the dirt to see Morro clicking his tongue at him. "Was starting to think you weren't coming."

"Oh shut up and help me up." Lloyd reached up a hand, and Morro rolled his eyes and pulled him to his feet. "Thanks. Where are we?"

"According to my map of the area, not far from the monastery." Zane reported, observing the sunset on the far hill.

"Really?" Kai frowned. "It looks… different. We're not in the wrong dimension, are we?"

"GUYS!" A yell caught their attention, and the group turned to see a young man sprinting up the hill towards them, skidding to a stop and gasping for breath. "Guys! Thank goodness you're back! Terrible things are happening!" The ninja exchanged glances.

"Have we met?" Jay asked after a moment. The young man slapped his forehead with his palm.

"Right, sorry. I'm Tellen." The ninja stared.

"Tellen's a kid." Jessica pointed out after a few moments.

"No, no, this is one of the terrible things! There are these brothers named Crunch and Aatrox who are controlling time and amassing a snake army to take over the world! You gotta help!" And the young man ran off again. Cole sighed.

"Never a dull moment around here, huh?"

"How are we supposed to get married with all this nonsense going on?" Indigo crossed her arms, and Morro laughed and tousled her hair.

"We'll figure it out."

"So? What are we standing around here for?" Kai tapped his foot impatiently. "We've got another world to save!"

"Yeah!" Jay cheered. "Let's go! Ninja never back down from a challenge!" With that, Kai and Jay started off down the hill after Tellen. Morro leaned down, swooped up his fiancé in his arms, kissed her cheek, then followed. As the rest of the group trickled after them, Jessica sidled up beside Lloyd and took his hand, smiling up at him. Lloyd smiled back, then, as he started down the hill, raised his hand and his voice and yelled,

"Ninja never quit!"

The End

It's... over.

2 years, 9 months, and 24 days ago, I posted the first chapter of Return to the Cursed Realm. And I am being completely serious when I say that I owe it to YOU, my READERS, for getting me this far. If I hadn't gotten the attention I did when I first started, I wouldn't have made it halfway through the first book. And all my other fics, Ninjago related or otherwise, would not exist. I would have lost interest. I wouldn't have discovered my passion.

Yeah, I don't know about you guys, but I'm not crying.

I just... thank you all, so much, for getting me this far.

~FFF