All Alice knew was that the lemurs were being transferred out and was assuming Maurice, one of the other zookeepers, was taking care of it. She didn't care enough to question anything. Zookeeper Maurice was emailed via chimps that Alice was taking care of the lemur transfer and he didn't want to make Alice upset by questioning her.

"This is it. You ready?" Skipper asked. They looked around the empty lemur habitat. The other penguins were finalizing preparations and stowing the lemurs' items.

"Ready!" Mort said.

"All packed." Maurice told them. "The bouncy was the hardest thing to pack."

The two of them looked at Julien who was staring at the spot his zoo throne once stood. It was bittersweet. He had people here, but they didn't love him as much as his people back home. In fact, most would openly state that Julien annoyed them. His people understood him, challenged his crazy ideas, and through everything...they loved him. Even Hector.

Mort and Maurice went on ahead to meet up with the other penguins.

Julien inhaled deeply and let out a slow breath. He took off his crown and held it to his heart.

"For a temporary kingdom, you were awesome through the good times and the bad and everything in between. My heart is telling me it's time to go, so I must go. My kingdom is no lady, she's my wife-" He put the crown back on and turned to Skipper. "-and it's time I returned to her. I'm ready."

Skipper nodded and they departed to the plane.

There was a lot of chatter and game playing, mostly from the lemurs, Rico, and Private. Kowalski was on navigation while Skipper flew the plane.

Julien was noticeably nervous when they flew over Africa. He admitted it was because he wasn't sure if his kingdom would take him back. He left them. He left Clover.

She was the one being on his mind who he felt he'd gravely offended. Sage was Sage, he really wouldn't care what Julien did or didn't tell him. Clover, though, she masked feelings behind a solid, highly trained, tough persona. She'd only ever wanted him safe. She'd even said once she'd die for him. What kind of friend was he? What kind of leader knows that his closest friend would lay her life down for him and just…leaves without so much as a goodbye?

They landed on a makeshift runway that Timo had built specifically for them. There was a large crowd of lemurs gathered.

The door opened and out jumped the four penguins. Rico hacked up a megaphone and gave it to the leader.

"Lemurs of Madagascar!" Skipper announced. "Your voyagers have returned!"

Mort and Maurice stepped out of the plane and cheers sounded. Skipper handed the megaphone over to Maurice.

"Attention! I present the return of our illustrious, magnificent, most booty-I really gotta say this?"

"Yes!"

"Oi vey. Most booty-licious hunk of party life. The one and only, the greatest king this island has ever seen. King Julien the thirteenth!"

Julien stepped out of the plane and the lemurs went nuts.

"KING JULIEN!"

"I'M EXCITED TINKLING!"

"KING JULIEN!"

"AHAHAHAAA, YES! REJOICE, MY PEOPLES!"

"COMIN' IN HOT!" A toucan squawked, crashing into Rico. "Sorry." She said. She produced a microphone and someone pushed a makeshift TV in front of her. The noise lowered so she could talk. "Xixi here, reporting live from the beach where we've just been treated to the most exciting news we've had in a long time. King Julien and his entourage finally came back to us after years in the great unknown! King Julien, how have you been?"

"Ah, Xix, it's wonderful to see you again. I've been living it up and getting funky every day!" Julien said.

The crowd cheered.

"Hi Xixi!" Mort said. "I rode an airplane and I was big, and I was a stuffed animal and-"

"Lots of stuff, now back to King Julien before Mort takes over the show." Maurice said.

"Aw come on, man!"

"King Julien, what took you so long coming back?" Ted asked.

"Ah Ted, Tedster, Teddy...I just got used to that life, y'know?" Julien asked. "The daily life of being pampered by zookeepers. But the call of the wild. The call of home. My kingdom sang to me like a songbird. I needed to be free like I was. DJ Glitterbuns, drop a beat."

The crowd murmured.

"Eh...Horst?" He looked around. "Oh no! Horst got eaten by fossa?!"

"No no, I'm still here." Horst lifted his beverage. "Yeah, when you left, we just kinda went all-" SLUUUUURP "-boring."

"We haven't been having a lot of parties...or any." Willie said.

"I'm okay with that." Hector said.

"Yeah, you. I am NOT okay with that." Julien lifted his hands in the air. "I demand we get started on a HUGE KJ bash! We're gonna let it all out, really go wild! We can go all in on the 'technics."

"Psst. Hey. Want things to explode? I can make that happen." A lemur said slyly, having popped up behind Private.

"Hm?" Rico asked, interested.

"Make it confetti explosions and stuff, Pancho." Julien said. "The penguin with the Mohawk can help."

Pancho grinned and rubbed his hands together. "I can make it happen. You, my new friend, can help me." He put an arm around Rico. "You seem like the kind of guy who likes when things go 'boom'. You don't squeal, do ya?"

"Nope." Rico said excitedly.

"Rico-" Skipper started. Pancho shushed him.

"Hey, hey, don't worry. He'll come back in one piece." The lemur said. "Most likely."

"I don't know. Kowalski, what do you think?"

Skipper looked around. Kowalski was nowhere in sight. The lemurs carried Julien off to organize the party.

"Can I go, Skippa?" Private asked.

"Yeah, but where's Kowalski?"

"He went off with a decent looking fellow."

"A-? I don't know-wait!"

Private had already run to catch up with the crowd. Skipper groaned and turned to Rico only to find that the pyrotechnic and the lemur had gone. He was alone now with the plane. Skipper shook his head and walked the beach until he found a bunch of trash and heard familiar voices.

"That's genius! Though, the aspect of not building an efficient door can be worked on."

"Y-yeah, I know. Maybe we can use these parts to build the new tree plane."

Kowalski and an animal, presumably Timo, were geeking out over old machinery. Kowalski saw Skipper. He laughed nervously.

"Sorry for ditching you, Skipper, it's just that science is science and I'm a scientist."

"You didn't have to use the same word three times to tell me what I already know, soldier." Skipper said, putting his flippers on his hips. "You could at least have given me the chance to grant you permission."

"Right...will do next time...so, can I-?"

"You're already here, so yeah."

...

Meanwhile, Julien and the kingdom had arrived at the baobab tree. He got up where he usually did his announcements.

"Alright, peoples, this is not a drill!" The king said. "Ted, you're on decorations! Willie, scream to everyone that the party's starting. Horst, I need DJ Glitterbuns, bring him out! Hector-"

"Nope, not doing this." The cranky lemur walked off.

"WE'RE ALL GONNA PARTY!" Willie screamed.

"Yeesh, I meant in a little while, but ok I guess." Julien saw Private raise his flipper. "Yes?"

"Who's that up there in the tree?" The penguin asked.

Julien looked up and scanned the branches until his eyes found a familiar orange shape. He gasped, forgetting that everyone was watching him. They'd also seen the lemur that Private pointed out and they fell silent.

"Julien?" Private said.

"Huh? Oh. Listen up, peeps! I need to take care of something. So, Maurice and Private will tell the rest of you what to do."

"Oh, ok." Private said.

Julien climbed the tree as Private got on the pedestal. Their voices grew faint as Julien ascended the tree.

He let out an audible 'whew' as he landed on the same branch. This seemed much easier when there was a plane there.

She sat on the branch, staring out at the empty space with an expression that made him feel bad. He sighed and sat next to her. She didn't scoot away or recoil, she just looked downcast.

"How goes it, Queen Clover?" Julien asked, trying to break the tension.

Clover shook her head. "Let's not be a queen or king right now." Her voice was full of sadness.

Julien took off his crown and held it in his lap. He really wanted to make noise or break the awkwardness, but Private had spent some of the ride explaining the delicate situation. Private explained how he knows what it's like living with two stoic penguins who didn't like showing much emotions in public.

"I never needed a fancy crown. Not with my lifestyle." Clover said, seeing Julien's foot twitch and knowing he was getting restless.

"This thing with leaves on it is only fancy because I say it is."

"Yeah…"

If there wasn't chatter and noisy activity below, the silence would feel too thick between them. Julien tried to think of what to say.

"Er...to be clear, because you know me, this is because of me?"

"If you're asking how my life is with Sage and the mountain lemurs, it's still everything I could have dreamed of." Clover said. "But part of that dream was returning to my old kingdom, my king, and my home to make sure everything was stable. I may be queen of the mountain lemurs, but I'm also still the lemur kingdom's protector. Your protector. It's what I was born to be."

"I heard 'that's a big fat yes'." Julien said glumly.

"I don't suppose you left me out of it because you knew I'd want to go along to protect you, did you?"

"No...I wasn't really thinking. Kind of a thing for me, just doing stuff because it sounds fun."

"Did I ever cross your mind?"

"Sometimes when the bossy penguin would be all commando or when Rico, the one who likes explosions and stuff, would have that look in his eye that you get sometimes." Julien smiled as he remembered fondly. "That one where you get to just let loose like a maniac. Smarty booty's more like Timo and the little one's like...I dunno, Willie, maybe."

"I made Timo tell me what happened to the plane."

Julien frowned.

"I didn't tell anyone else." Clover added. "Timo was right, you have this dumb, maybe Frank given, luck. If anyone survived that, it was you."

"We all survived and now the giants have a circus."

"I heard the lion was a bit of a showman."

"Then the penguins and chimps wanted to go back to New York for a while and we just tagged along-"

"-and stayed." Clover's walls were breaking. She sniffled and looked away from him.

"I came back." Julien said hopefully. "I came home."

Clover let out a sob and hugged him. He embraced her, one hand shooting out to stop his crown from falling down.

"I promise I'll let you know if I go on a world trip again." Julien said.

She let go and smiled, wiping her face. "That would be nice."

"Still up to party?"

"Someone's gotta keep you lot safe if Ted's on decoration duty."

Julien laughed and they headed down to the busy lemurs. Everyone knew that if they questioned Clover's slightly red eyes, they'd be punched, so they didn't ask. Skipper showed up with Kowalski and Timo a while later. Rico and Pancho were a little late to the party, sporting huge grins and refusing to tell anyone why or what they were planning.

"How did you almost blow up the entire island?!" Skipper scolded Rico.

"Uhh…"

"Never mind, I don't want to know. You're just lucky Kowalski and Timo found a way to stop the volcano from exploding. Do I even want to know where the missile-yeah, no I don't. I don't want to know."

Rico laughed sheepishly. The anxious lemurs had started trying to party again. Pancho was sent to be Clover's assistant guard for the rest of the day aka he had to be under Clover's supervision.

Rico, Kowalski, and Timo were in charge of building a new plane for Julien's throne. The scientists were glad for something to do since they weren't really into the party scene for too long. Willie almost started panic when Rico threw up a skeleton for Julien to call Amelia the second. It took several minutes to convince them all that it was a fake lab skeleton that Kowalski hadn't wanted anymore.

The penguins weren't staying the night, so they found themselves with the three lemurs they'd left with, Clover stood behind them. Mort couldn't stop crying, causing Private to become emotional.

"We can always radio." Kowalski said in a strained voice.

"Yeah." Maurice said, avoiding eye contact with the penguins.

"WAAAAAAHHHH" Mort hugged them all, zipping among the four of them.

"Aw, Mort, don't-" Private dissolved into tears again.

Mort ran off towards his stump, unaware if it was actually still there or not.

"I-uh-I'll go comfort him." Maurice said, he sniffled. "I'm gonna miss you guys." He held out a hand. They shook it, noting how he trembled as he tried to maintain his composure.

"Go ahead, Mo-Mo." Julien said, not bothering to hide his tears.

They heard Maurice let out a sob as he hurried to catch up with Mort.

"G-goodbye Ju-Julien." Private squeaked, hugging the lemur king. Julien patted his back.

"I'll miss you, buddy-whoa!" Rico had scooped both of them into a big hug. "I'll miss you too, Rico."

"I'm astonished you know his name." Kowalski said. Rico put them down and they stared at him. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"Since when do you make jokes?" Skipper asked. "That's why they're staring."

Kowalski shrugged. "Something about nostalgia and traveling with companions…with friends-Rico I need to check some calibrations, please come with me, it's been nice knowing you Julien, we'll be in contact soon." He inhaled sharply, shook Julien's hand, and hurried into the plane. None of them missed the tears shining in his eyes.

"Could you let him know that I feel the same?" Julien asked.

"You understood what he was trying to say? I think I barely did." Skipper said.

The lemur nodded. "I've spent time with the guy, heck, got frozen in time with him…I know he's not good with emotiony stuff, but he basically just said we're friends. It's pretty much an I love you bro-bro. It's hard for you and him to say. I get it."

"We are…best friend." Skipper cleared his throat and held out his flipper.

"Nope." Julien laughed. He hugged Skipper, fully expecting to be shoved off or slapped and definitely yelled at.

He hadn't expected Skipper to hug back.

"Silly penguin…"

"Thank you for everything, Ringtail."

They heard Private cry again, then the quick pattering of webbed feet and metallic door creaking indicated he entered the plane.

The two parted. No more words exchanged, just eye contact and the same expression. It was an expression of respect after all Skipper had heard that the lemurs went through. It was respect for the penguin who put up with the wild lemurs for so long. Their gazes lingered for a moment longer before Skipper broke it first. He nodded and entered the plane.

Tears slid freely down Julien's face. He knew the penguin wouldn't cry. At least not in front of him and he was too proud to admit it. Clover put an arm around his shoulders as they watched the plane take off. They waited until they couldn't see it anymore before returning to the lemurs.

The penguins didn't speak even when three of them heard their leader sniffle. They all understood this was part of Skipper's emotional process as they returned home. But they also understood it wasn't forever. They'd see them again one day.