While Skylor trained to perfect her mastery of Earth, Wu and Misako continued to hunt for a cure. After weeks and weeks of searching, Wu came across an old recipe that just might work. The only problem was he wasn't sure if he could get all of the ingredients in Ninjago. He, Misako, and the ninja decided the best place to start would be Mystaké's tea shop.

Everything was covered in a layer of dust but neatly organized. Mystaké clearly had been expecting to return to her shop after defeating Garmadon. They were able to find what they needed rather quickly. Misako and Lloyd went to the hospital to talk to Lou while everyone else stayed behind to mix the ingredients together.

Lou was hesitant to allow them to do anything to his son. They offered no guarantee that it would make things better, and they couldn't promise him that it wouldn't make things worse. It took a few hours, and even though he felt it was against his better judgment, Lou agreed to talk to the doctors.

The doctors were even less willing to allow the ninja to experiment on one of their patients. Two weeks of begging and pleading later and the ninja weren't any closer to getting permission to try Master Wu's solution on Cole. Only when Lou threatened to not only stop donating to the hospital, but he threatened to convince his parents to stop their donations as well did the hospital staff allow the ninja one day to try their unorthodox medical experiments.

Wu prepared the tea and brought it to the hospital. Only Wu and Misako were allowed in the room, as Lou was still mad at the ninja. Everyone else waited downstairs in the waiting room. Lou watched nervously as the nurse fed Cole the tea through his feeding tube. Nothing happened. They waited nearly two hours, and still nothing happened. Wu wanted to try giving Cole more tea, but Lou wouldn't allow it. He kicked the pair out before they could change his mind.

Once they were gone, Lou stared out the window. It was starting to cloud up like it was going to rain. He took a shaky breath and sat down on the bench. He was mentally kicking himself for allowing Wu and Misako to get his hopes up. Lots of people had visited in the five weeks Cole had been in the hospital, and they had all tried their best to give Lou hope. His parents and brothers all regularly visited. Even Lou's sister, who only vaguely knew other people existed and had lives, was aware that one of her nieces or nephews was in the hospital and sent all three of her brothers a quick "I hope your kid gets better soon" text. But, none of them could do anything to make Cole wake up. The doctors were telling Lou to prepare himself for the worst. Lou didn't know if he could bear to lose his only child, not after losing Morgen and Anna. He looked over at Cole. He would give up everything if only Cole would wake up.

"You're wrong, Anna." Cole crossed his arms and stared at his step-mother.

"How am I wrong?" Anna asked.

"Because Birdpocalypse was designed to be a cheap B movie. I mean, did you even see the effects? I could take one computer graphics class and turn out more realistic looking birds than what they had in that movie. Lost Avatar, on the other hand, was supposed to be the next great epic movie series. Instead, it was a huge slap in the face to all the fans of the show, which is pretty much everyone around my age. They had to cancel the other two movies in the trilogy because it got so much hate. Hands down, Lost Avatar is a worse movie than Birdpocalypse."

"I don't see how that is possible."

Cole smiled. He didn't want this moment to end. He had already given Anna a summary of everything that had happened the past seven years (though he did "forget" to mention the tiny detail of him turning into a ghost for a year), but rather than talk about the elephant in the room, they had somehow started talking about movies. That ended with them arguing over bad movies. He missed his pointless arguments with Anna. He couldn't really have them with his dad, and it wasn't the same with his friends.

"Trust me, it is. The real question is Birdpocalypse or Squidnado," Cole said.

"What is Squidnado?"

"A superstorm formed over the ocean, picked up a bunch of man-killing giant squid, and dumped them over Ninjago City. Five times. Then they went to space. And the Squidnado followed them. To space."

"… I am so glad I missed that."

"Eh. It's stupid fun. Everyone dies pretty much, and everyone wants to be in these movies for some reason. And I do mean everyone. The Royal Blacksmiths died in Squidnado 3."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. No, be grateful you missed out on The Rooms. Oh, that was painful to sit through. The same guy wrote it, directed it, edited it, produced it, and starred in it. It was horrible! We only went because he gave us free tickets."

"Why?"

"PR I think? 'The ninja saw The Rooms and loved it, so you will too!' But then, we weren't allowed to say anything bad about it while it was still in theaters. I had to text Uncle Wil for advice… on what… to say… I…"

"Cole?"

"I… I can't…" Cole grabbed his stomach and gasped for breath. He felt like his insides were on fire. Anna grabbed him just before he collapsed and held him upright.

"Shh. It's okay." As she brushed his hair out of his eyes, she could feel how hot his forehead felt to her touch. A minute or two later, and his breathing started to return to normal.

"… What… What was that?" Cole asked when he had his breath back.

"Someone is trying to force you to return to Ninjago," Anna explained.

"Why?"

"It's probably been a long time since your soul left, but your body is still alive for now."

"… Anna, how long have I been here?"

"It's impossible to say. Time moves differently in the Departed Realm, and I imagine it moves differently in limbo. You told me it's been seven years since I passed, but to me, it hasn't felt like more than a week. And now, to us, it's felt like a few hours, but to everyone in Ninjago, it's probably been a few weeks if not a few months."

"Months?"

"Yes. That's why I've been trying to get you to go back. You don't belong in the Departed Realm, not yet. You're still so young. You have so much life ahead of you, but only if you go back now. If something happens to your body and it dies, you won't get a second chance at life.

"I can't. Not yet."

"Why not?"

"Because, I need answers. Answers I won't get from Dad. I've been thinking about this whole situation, and I know there's something he's not telling me, and…"

"And what?" Anna put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her with tears in his eyes.

"Did Morgen kill you?"

"… Not directly, but she is responsible. She realized that if she wanted to get to you, she needed to take me out. And that's exactly what she did."