(A/N: I apologise for this chapter being early, and on the day Dragons Rising was to be released. Reason: I broke my toe on a door, discovered I broke the bone, but not bad news, they didn't have to amputate it. Still, I've uploaded this, as well as a chapter of a side story you'll need to read after certain chapters of the main story)
Outside, Lloyd moves along the shingled roof before jumping and flips to the other side.
In his bedroom, Dragon was meditating while incense was lit in front of him, the box to his right, and his staff and a rucksack to his left.
In the ceiling, Lloyd creeps along a board from the rafters before kneeling down to see his elderly master and uncle meditating, and turns to the box. He immediately continued on before eventually dropping down into the room silently, on the left side of Dragon. He quickly creeps past before coming up to the box and opens it to see the two sacks. He tries to pick which sack it was before eventually going for the right one, closes the box, puts the sack in his pocket, jumps back onto the rafters and swings back up.
Outside, Lloyd slides down the shingled roof before jumping and flipping, grabs a beam, and swings down to the front entrance.
In the living room where the couches were turned over to make barriers and the secret elevator open, the other Ninja, who have their hoods on, P.I.X.A.L., Maggie and Cirrus see Lloyd come in before he closes the door and came up to them. He gets out the sack to show them before opening it, only to find a sandwich inside it. Everyone soon groaned upon seeing that he had grabbed the wrong sack and Lloyd rubs the back of his head, embarrassed.
He returns to the rafters above Dragon's bedroom to see him still meditating and looked down at the box before clucking was soon heard. Knowing what it was, Lloyd looks up to see that it was the chicken, who looks at him, suspiciously and curiously. He shakes his head to try and get it not to blow his cover, but it soon realises what he plans to do before energising as Lloyd kept shaking his head before it immediately charged at him. The noise caused Dragon to look up before the chicken drops down next to him and he pets it while Lloyd was outside, just behind the window, falling.
Back in the living room, Kai and Nya were busy conversing, Jay was having a nap, Cole, with his hood off, was eating Dragon's sandwich, Geoff was doing squats, Gewuji and Maggie were playing rock, paper, scissors, Blake was rubbing some oil on Cirrus' baby bump and P.I.X.A.L. just stood where she was before Lloyd soon came in, sporting a black eye before they all turn to him. He wordlessly takes off his hood and spits out a feather to let them know the chicken had attacked him, and they all groan again.
For the third time, Lloyd came into the rafters above Dragon's bedroom to see him pacing a little before sighing and sits down to get back to meditating. Once he had done so, Lloyd prepared to drop down, but Dragon opens his eyes, only to see nothing, and resumes meditating, unaware that Lloyd was holding onto the rafter beam from his left side before he drops down, cartwheels to the other side, opens the box, grabs the other sack, closes the box again and ashamedly puts it in his pocket. He then immediately cartwheels back to the left side, jumps onto the wall to get up to the rafters, and swings out.
Back in the living room, the other Ninja, P.I.X.A.L., Maggie and Cirrus see Lloyd coming in before Gewuji hands him his sword and they head for the elevator.
Once the door closed, the Ninja take off their hoods. "Did you get it this time?" Cole asked.
Lloyd gets out the sack to show them. "Got it." He replied.
"Great." Blake said. "We have our return ticket."
"I wonder why Dragon was so adamant about going alone?" Cole asked. "Sure, the Never-Realm sounds creepy, but how bad could it be?"
"Beats me." Lloyd replied. "Come on. Let's get the staff."
Geoff turns to the scanner where he puts his hand on it and the elevator started to go down. "What about the tracking device?" Nya asked P.I.X.A.L.
She gets it out. "Right here." She replied.
Gewuji takes it. "What's it keyed to?" She asked as she looks at it.
"The mech. Assuming Zane is still with it and within a 500 mile radius, you will see it on this display."
"Master Wu's gonna be pretty upset when he wakes up and finds us gone." Jay said.
"But he is upset." Lloyd replied. "He's not thinking rationally."
"Yeah, he'll understand." Cole said.
"He could've at least agreed to taking one of us." Blake replied. The elevator soon stops and the door opens to the hangar bay. "I mean, what if there's no one inhabiting the Never-Realm if he said his father told him it was a dang-" Blake was immediately cut off by Jay suddenly yelping, and they all look at what he was yelping about.
"Master Wu!" Geoff yelled.
Dragon was holding Aspheera's staff, head engulfed in gold flames, and his eyes were glowing gold. He was completely angered. "How the hell did you get down here?" Lloyd asked as they slowly approach him. "You were just upstairs."
"Give me the Traveler's Tea, Lloyd." Dragon replied, skipping to answer his nephew's question.
"I can't do that. It's for your own good, Master."
"That is for me to judge. Give me the Traveler's Tea."
"We stand a better chance of finding Zane and you know it. There are more of us, and we're younger and stronger and-"
"GIVE ME THE ****ING TEA!" He holds his arms out, energy spreading out of him.
Lloyd slowly got out his sword. "You're holding the Forbidden Scroll, Master. Why don't you put it down?"
"You disobey me?"
"I'm sorry, but... yes. And Ninja never quit."
Dragon screams as he charged at them while throwing his cape aside. He swings the staff at Lloyd, Kai, Cole, Gewuji and Blake, who were at the front, but they quickly jump back before Dragon turned to strike Lloyd, who quickly blocks the strike with his sword, only for Dragon to swing the staff, making the sword fly out of Lloyd's hand before preparing to strike him, but he quickly tilts backwards to avoid it. Lloyd immediately threw the sack to Geoff, who backflips to catch it with his feet before jumping to land on his legs while tossing the sack in the air and catches it while avoiding Dragon's slash attack before somersaults over him while getting out his bisento, lands, and quickly turned to block his next attack while throwing the sack to Kai before being kicked to the side. Kai catches the sack while Dragon spun the staff before trying to strike him, but Kai moves back and tries to grab hold of the staff, only to be forced back before Dragon turned the staff around and jabbed him with the handle into Kai's hand, making him lose the sack. Before Dragon could catch it however, it is suddenly blown over him as he turned to see Blake catching it, and charges at him, but Blake backflips to avoid his strike before raising his left foot to block Dragon's next strike, forces it back, and barrel rolls before kicking it away. Dragon pushes Blake aside and runs after the sack as it soared through the room with the Ninja chasing after him. Nya rushes quickly as Dragon does Spinjitzu to try and stop her, but she catches the sack and rolls forward, jumps and twirls before landing as Dragon disperses. "Give it to me, Nya." He charges at her.
"No, Master Wu." She said before jumping aside and does Spinjitzu to avoid Dragon's strike.
"The tea is not the answer."
She disperses to throw the sack in the air where it comes up to Gewuji, who gets out her baton and strikes it, sending it to Jay, who slides to grab it and Dragon runs over to him. "Master, please..." Lloyd called out as he passed him and Cole.
Dragon jumps in the air to try and strike Jay, who quickly jumps back and flips to the side to avoid a stabbing attack. "Yeah, come on." He said before tilting back to avoid a slash and then to the side to avoid a stab. "Let's not fight about this." He moves to the other side to avoid another stab before ducking down to avoid another, then tilting back from another.
Cole starts to run to the right side. "Yeah, Dragon, try to understand..." He said as Jay throws it to him before Cole hits it with his hammer, sending it to Lloyd, who catches it. He soon gasped as Dragon soon struck him, sending him flying to the ground.
"Lloyd!" Nya yelled as Dragon spun the staff before holding it out to him.
"It's the scroll, Master Wu, don't you see what-"
"I will not risk anyone else's life!" Dragon cuts Lloyd off. "Now, do as I command, and give me the Traveler's Tea!"
Lloyd slowly gets up to kneel down and puts the sack in his pocket. "Master, I'm really sorry about this. But you're not giving us any choice." He moves his other hand behind his back to get out a shuriken while Jay gets out a rope. Lloyd soon threw the shuriken. "Get him!" Dragon tries to get out of the way, but the shuriken hits the staff, knocking it out of his hand and turning him back to normal. He quickly turned to try and grab it, only for it to be pulled back and caught by Blake, whose head was soon engulfed by ivory flames and his eyes glow ivory.
With Dragon surprised by the sudden swipe, Jay throws one part of the rope to Gewuji, who catches it, and they start to run around Dragon, wrapping him in the rope. "The tea... the tea will not-" Geoff soon wraps a handkerchief around Dragon's mouth to gag him and he falls back.
"Oh, boy." Jay said, completely shocked.
"Did we just tie up our own master?" Kai asked as Dragon shook about to try and get free.
"At least we know we're back in shape." Cole replied.
"Last time was just embarrassing." Gewuji said.
"And his chicken broke Maggie's ankle." Geoff replied.
"We didn't have a choice." Lloyd said before looking at Dragon. "I'm sorry, Master Wu. But you're not thinking very clearly. Just like you weren't before Zane disappeared." He then looked at the staff in Blake's hand. "And that's just making it worse. Blake, give me the staff."
"No." He replied before holding it out to Cirrus, who wordlessly took it while Blake returned to normal. "I'll let her hold onto it before she has to give it to Pix."
"Okay then. Everyone else, on the Bounty!" They start to head towards the Land Bounty Lloyd picks up his sword before turning to Dragon. "I'm really sorry about this, Master Wu. I hope one day you can forgive me."
Dragon tries to get free. "Please." He muffled through the handkerchief. "Don't do this. Don't do this."
"We'll be back with Zane. I promise." He moves to catch up with the others.
One by one, they enter the Land Bounty before Blake turned to Cirrus as P.I.X.A.L. and Maggie were heading over to a nearby platform. "Watch over things with Pix and Maggie while we're gone?" He asked.
"I will." Cirrus replied before she brings Blake close to quickly lock lips with him. "And please make it back for the baby."
"I will." He soon heads in.
Inside the Land Bounty, Blake puts his seat belt on as Lloyd comes up to the front, next to Geoff, who was at the controls before getting in the seat next to him and puts his seatbelt on. "Lock and load." Cole said, holding an arm up in triumph.
"Girls, do you copy?" Geoff asked into the radio.
"We read you." Maggie replied through the radio.
"Are you ready?" P.I.X.A.L. asked through the radio.
"Anyone having second thoughts?" Lloyd asked the others. "It's now or never."
"Next stop, the Never-Realm." Jay replied.
"No decision to be made." Gewuji said.
"What are we waiting for?" Cole asked.
"No turning back." Blake said.
"I'm in." Nya said.
"Let's get this show on the road." Kai said.
"We're ready." Geoff said into the radio.
On the platform, P.I.X.A.L. faces the Land Bounty as Cirrus holds out the staff for her. She takes it and her eyes glow white. "Here we go." P.I.X.A.L. said, raising the staff before preparing to hold it out, but stops.
She soon remembers the events. "Look out!" Geoff yelled.*
Maggie comes up to P.I.X.A.L., who shakes her head. "I can't do it."
"It's okay." She replied, holding her hand out. "Let me."
P.I.X.A.L. hands the staff to Maggie, whose head immediately engulfed in light grey flames and her eyes turn light grey. "Geoffrey." She said into her communicator. "I love you."
"I know." Geoff replied through it. Maggie raises the staff, which the blade started to glow pink before she holds it out to the Land Bounty, firing a shot at it. The Land Bounty soon started to glow pink before it soon disappeared.
The Land Bounty moves through a portal as everyone was yelling. "What's... what's happening?" Jay asked.
The Land Bounty soon does a barrel roll. "Whoa!" Kai yelled.
"I think I'm gonna be sick!" Gewuji yelled.
"Hold on, everyone!" Lloyd replied as the Land Bounty kept moving and everyone kept yelling.
