New Imperium, Imperian Archives

Ranger groaned. Three hours of searching for something—anything—about the Administration or Jay, and he and Strider had not found so much as a sticky note about the matter. "There's got to be something here that can help us!" he exclaimed in frustration.

"What?" Strider asked. "We've searched everywhere in the archives. I'll give the Administration this—they really know how to cover their tracks." Apparently, Ranger thought, Strider was just as frustrated as he was. Suddenly, the two pups' pup-tags blinked. Strider and Ranger then heard Twinkle telling them, "Strider, Ranger, drop everything and head back to HQ ASAP! There's been an emergency!"

"An emergency?!" both pups repeated frantically. They lost no time in literally dropping everything and bolting out of the archives as fast as their legs could carry them. Ranger knew that leaving a mess like this wasn't really the best move, but if there really was an emergency, then time was of the essence.

Dojo of Spinjitzu

"All right." Twinkle told the two teams standing in the center of the Ninja's secret HQ. "It took a bit of time…"

"A lot of time, you mean." Ruffnut whispered sarcastically to Tuffnut.

"Ignore him." Cassie commented.

Twinkle paid no mind and simply continued. "But now I think we have a plan that just might work. We don't know where Toothless and Lloyd went, which means we've got a lot of ground to cover if we're going to find our friends before the Claws do. And the only way we're going to do that is by having all hands and paws on deck."

"So what's the plan, sis?" Andrew asked excitedly.

"Zane's analysis shows that Toothless appeared to be heading southwest. But in order to cover enough ground, we'll need to split up into three teams. Kai—you, Wyldfire, Skye, Marshal, Kijo, Matthew, Andrew, Strider, Cassie, and I will travel to Cloud Kingdom and see if the Scrollwriters know anything about what has happened."

"You got it!" Kai replied.

"This mighty puppy's gonna do the spin!" Skye cheered.

"I'm ready for a red-hot rescue!" Marshal exclaimed.

Andrew followed suit with, "In the darkest night, my power is bright!"

Matthew was next: "This Golden Pup is ready to go!"

Strider finished up with, "Look up—here comes Spider-pup!"

"What's up with the weird sayings?" Cassie whispered to Kijo.

"That's just how they demonstrate that they understand what they're supposed to do." Kijo replied.

"Cole—you, Arin, Rubble, Kito, Kirby, Chase, Rex, Hiccup, and Astrid will head southwest to this location." Twinkle pointed out the designated spot on the map in front of her. "Once you're there, you'll start trekking towards the coast, looking for any sign that Toothless and Lloyd headed that way. There's a lot of ground between the location and the coast, so keep your eyes peeled for anything that may help."

"I thought you'd never ask!" Cole exclaimed before the pups shouted their own callouts.

"Mighty Rubble's ready for trouble!"

"Mighty Chase is ready to race!"

"Let's dino-do this!"

"Ninja-in-training at your service!" At Kito's remark, everyone just gave him blank stares. "What?" Kito asked. "I'm still working on it!"

"Zane—I'll need you, Everest, Rocky, Tracker, Ranger, Kaiyo, Sweetie, Fishlegs, and Snoutlout to stay here in case Toothless and Lloyd come back."

"Affirmative." Zane replied.

"Ice or snow, I'm ready to go!" Everest exclaimed in turn.

"Green means glow!"

"I'm all ears! Todo oidos!"

"No need to fear—Mighty Ranger's here!" Ranger cried out when it was his turn to reply.

"This mighty pup rules!" Sweetie declared.

"My Fusion might will make things right!" Kaiyo shouted.

"That leaves just eleven team members to go to Merlopia and ask for Benthomaar's help. Let's see, that would be Nya…"

"Count me in!" Nya interjected.

"Zuma…"

"My mighty wave will get the save!"

"Sora and Riyu…"

"All right!" Sora cheered, just as Riyu squealed with delight.

"Tuck and Ella…"

"Mighty and small, I'll give it my all!"

"Time to think big!"

"Kelly…"

"With my spark of light, I can do this right!"

"Gracie…"

"Golden Pup, go!"

"Kaida…"

"Let's do this thing!"

"And finally, Ruffnut and Tuffnut."

At that, the two Dragon Rider twins just looked at each other as if they'd sooner be fried to a crisp. "Wait, you mean with her?!" Tuffnut said after a few minutes.

"No way am I going with him!" Ruffnut replied.

"You two may not get along so well, but the fact is, we need a sea team." Twinkle informed the two. "And let's face it, Fishlegs and Snoutlout are not built for the water."

The two glared at each other once again and then said simultaneously, "Fine. But don't get us into trouble!" Beside them, Tuck rolled his eyes at Ella, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. To be honest, Ranger thought, that was probably true. The two had always had each other's backs—they probably couldn't imagine always bickering and squabbling all the time, like Ruffnut and Tuffnut did.

"Okay, everyone understand the plan?" Twinkle asked one last time. "Yeah!" all the pups cried out, with the Ninja and Riders following suit.

"Great! Just remember to stick together and to—" Twinkle abruptly stopped and started panting profusely, as if she had been running a marathon.

"Sis, you okay?" Andrew exclaimed, on the verge of panic.

"I…I…" That was the only thing she could say before she suddenly fainted.

"Twinkle!" Andrew cried out as he caught his falling sister in his paws, carefully lowering her to the floor. For a second, Ranger and the others just stood there in disbelief. Then all the pups started talking at once.

"What's going on here?"

"What happened to her?"

"Is she going to be okay?"

"What do we do?"

"Could she have been hurt in the battle?"

"QUIET!" Chase yelled at the top of his lungs. Silence filled the room. The pups had never seen Chase react like that before.

"Andrew, can you tell what's wrong with Twinkle?" Chase continued.

"I know that look on her face." Andrew replied. "It's Lloyd! He's been hurt somehow!"

"Wait," Hiccup exclaimed. "If Lloyd was the one hurt, how come it was Twinkle who fainted?"

"Twinkle and Lloyd are connected! They share each other's power—and each other's every pain!" Ranger shouted.

"Exactly!" Andrew replied. "When one of them is hurt, the other will also be affected!"

"Then what do we do?" Cassie asked, as a tear threatened to trickle down her face.

"I…I don't know." Andrew answered remorsefully.

Somewhere in the Merged Realms

When Lloyd awoke, two facts became very clear to him very quickly—he was on his back, and he felt terrible. He had a massive headache, and his head spun. His vision was blurry, and his ears rang. He wondered if perhaps he had a mild concussion from hitting the ground so hard. Definitely not one of my best landings, he thought, smiling weakly. The question now was, where was he? And how had he gotten here?!

He searched his memory for what had happened, but for some strange reason, he couldn't remember! He panicked as his head started to hurt even more. Okay, I definitely have a concussion, he thought. But how had this happened? Why was he here? Why couldn't he remember?

At that moment, he thought he heard someone cry out, Twinkle!

Twinkle—he knew he'd heard that name before. But where? When? His panic started to rise even more as he realized that he really couldn't remember. He started panting in fright. What was going to happen to him if he couldn't remember?

Then, through his blurry vision, he saw some sort of creature approach him. It looked kind of like a fox, but his blurred sight kept him from being able to see details. All he could tell was that it was coming towards him. Soon it was standing right next to him. He closed his eyes as the pain started to overwhelm him. Then he could feel a warm sensation of energy flow into him, as if someone were placing a warm cloth on his forehead. The pain started to slowly ebb away, and he felt himself drifting off to sleep.

And as he slept, he dreamed.