After the ninja had gotten the Sword of Sanctuary, they returned to the tea shop. Zane and the others were ghostproofing the shop with hidden moats, catapults filled with water balloons, and trip wires that would set off alarms. Nya was by the riverbed practicing her powers while Ronin was washing Rex. Tina was inside with Misako, Wu, and Garmadon, trying to decipher the final clue. "We know the skull represents his tomb," Wu began to say
"But from everything that was ever written about it, there's nothing in Ninjago that matches its description. Where is it? The clues are all right here, but what are we missing?" Misako questions as she looks at the opened books
"We mustn't give up. If Morro finds it first and takes the Realm Crystal, I'd hate to think what would happen next," Wu stated.
"And Lloyd," Garmadon added.
"We'll get him back Sensei Garmadon," Tina assured.
Tina tried to use her spell to see inside Morro's mind to find out where he was but she had no luck. Morro somehow figured out how to block her from entering his mind. She tried with Lloyd's just to see if he was ok but it was the same. Suddenly, someone stepped on a tripwire and the bell rang, "Intruder!" Kai shouted.
"Let him have it," Jay ordered
The four of them pulled the catapults, launching water balloons at the intruder. Only to find that the person shakes the water off and reveals to be the postman. "No wonder you're going out of business," The postman said with a sigh.
He handed a letter to Kai who started reading it. "No, you're the one going out of business," Jay states, "Heh, who sends letters anymore?"
"Guys, he's right," Kai said, looking at the letter "It says the Ninjago Bank is gonna shut us down unless we drum up some business,"
Cole takes it. "Well, don't tell Ronin," He uttered. "If this place is worthless, he won't stick around and we need all the help we can get. Come on, we're gonna need more water balloons,"
Meanwhile, Ronin whistles while he cleans R.E.X. while Nya tries to control Water, again. "Come on, Nya. Become the water, reverse the flow," she puts her hands together and shuts her eyes but the the water droplets won't go up.
She sighs then groans "Ugh! What am I doing wrong!?"
Ronin fetched a bucket of water but he also heard Nya struggle "Giving up already?" he asked.
Nya shook her head, "Course not. Sensei thinks if I get over my fear of failure, I'll be able to control the water. Sure, I made it rain when I wasn't even paying attention, but here I can't seem to stop a single drop." Nya complained.
"Wanna know about failure?" Ronin asked and chuckled "Should've asked me. Heck, I made a career out of it. Word of advice: don't try so hard. You can't fail if you don't care,"
"Don't try?" Nya says with a raised brow "What sort of backwards advice is that? Of course, I'm gonna try hard. That's how one excels and—"
"Speaking of backward..." Ronin trailed off, gesturing behind her.
The droplets were flowing backward, "Oh my gosh! I'm doing it. I'm really doing it!" Nya cheered.
Ronin chuckles as he walks back to his airship, "Like I said, don't care so much. Usually, when someone wants something too badly, they'll trip over their own feet,"
But when Ronin went back to cleaning Rex, someone started to whisper in his head, the Soul Archer. He offered Ronin a chance to repay his debt in exchange for the sword. After that, Ronin snuck into the shop while everyone else was out and tried to find the sword. But he didn't get the chance when everyone else gathered in the tea shop to discuss their next move. Zane had his falcon perched on his hand. They both closed their eyes and when they opened again, the falcon projected an image of the third clue, the skull, onto the wall. Sensei Wu turned off the lights so everyone could see it better.
"To bring you up to date, the skull symbol refers to the tomb's entrance," Misako explained.
"We also know our father's resting site, where the Realm Crystal resides," Sensei added, looking at Garmadon and then glazed back at the symbol, "is protected by three deadly tests designed to keep anyone unworthy away, and only the Sword of Sanctuary can see past its riddles."
"Yeah, but where is it?" Cole asked.
The projected image changed to show the Airjitzu scroll and the Sword of Sanctuary. "We started to wonder if the scroll and sword combined held a secret," Misako said. "That's when Kai reminded us there was a map on the back of the scroll-"
"And if you use the sword on the map, the blade's reflection will reveal the tomb's location!" Kai finished just as he figured it out.
"Exactly," Garmadon spoke.
While everyone was distracted, Ronin snuck away to find the sword. Tina knew that Ronin was up to no good just from his lame excuse. She waited a bit then she slipped out of the shop to find Ronin. She heard sounds of a struggle coming from the tool shed and that was when she saw Ronin with the sword. Nya shouted for help and that was when the other ninja came out to stop Ronin. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! We can do this the easy way, or the hard way." Ronin said.
They were successfully backing Ronin into a corner until Jay and Kai stepped on one of their tripwires. While Jay got a water balloon to the face, Kai tripped and fell into the moat that'd been covered by bamboo. Cole scurried away from the splashing water as fast as he could, accidentally shoving Zane into one of the catapults, which launched him into the air. He landed on another catapult by the gate, then came flying back. Jay took another water balloon to the face. The balloons kept launching at them, and all of the balloons seemed to want to hit Cole, who was scrambling away from each of them as best he could. Zane kept getting tossed from catapult to catapult.
Tina stood off to the side, utterly astonished. "Are you kidding me?" Tina grumbled.
Before Tina could jump on Ronin, Nya came charging out of the shed, armed with a hoe. She swung it at him but missed as Ronin leaped aside. He turned, hopped off of Kai's head to get over the moat, and landed next to Jay right as Zane landed on him. Tina used her powers to block Ronin from entering the tea shop with some of the bamboo. He saw Tina then looked down at the sword and knew how to deal with Tina. He swept under her legs, knocking her off balance, and the bamboo wall fell. Ronin burst into the tea shop, only to be met with Sensei Wu, Garmadon, and Misako, who were armed.
"We're not gonna let you get away!" Misako exclaimed.
Sensei ran at him, swinging his staff, but Ronin easily blocked it with the sword and knocked him into Misako. She tried to swing her katana at his feet as he ran by, but he leaped onto the counter before she could. Garamdon leaped at Ronin with a flying kick, but that was a bad idea, as he easily knocked him aside with the sword while he was in midair. Sensei Wu and Misako swung their weapons at him. Suddenly, Ronin swung the sword at the tall bundles of herbs hanging from the ceiling. As he sliced them all at once, it created a thick cloud of dust that filled the room. The cloud made all three of them cough.
"Oh, now that's a nice blend," Ronin quipped. "We should fight more often!"
Ronin made a familiar series of whistles, the ones that summoned his ship, Rex. Kai uses Airjitzu to try and catch Ronin as he flees in his ship. He just barely missed it, falling back down to earth and getting caught on the edge of the roof. "He's getting away!" Kai shouted.
"Oh no he's not!" Tina exclaimed.
She shifted into her dragon form while the others took off in the bounty. She flew after Ronin but his ship was faster than her. Something shiny flashed in her periphery. She glanced over to her side and she was surprised to see Sensei Wu following her, astride his very own magnificent white and gold power dragon. Along with Sensei Garmadon and Misako perched behind Wu on the back of his dragon. 'There's something you don't see every day.' Tina thought.
"Let's get him!" Sensei Wu exclaimed. "Hyah!"
All three dragons swiftly closing in on Rex then flew on either side of the ship, boxing it in. For a moment, they thought they trapped Ronin. Except...there was no Ronin. His ship was completely empty with no pilot at all. "He's not aboard the ship," Misako announced.
"It's a trick!" Garmadon exclaimed.
Even when they rushed back and returned to the tea shop, Ronin was long gone with the sword. After all they did to get the sword, Ronin had stolen it from under them and now he was gonna give it to Morro. Everyone gathered in the tea shop to come up with a plan. "Well, obviously he's taken the sword to Morro," Jay exclaimed.
"But where's Morro?" Zane asked. "He could be anywhere."
Cole frowned. "Look, Nya, I know you're not a ninja yet, but if you're gonna be one of us-"
"Knock it off, Cole." Tina interrupted to jump to Nya's defense, "Nya did her best to stop Ronin from getting away while we got sent on a wild goose chase."
"No, he's right," Nya agreed with a sigh. "I'm sorry! I should've told you when I first suspected Ronin would steal it."
"Enough!" Sensei Wu's loud cry made everyone quiet down. "We all knew the path to save Lloyd was never going to be a straight line. We were all fooled by Ronin, but that doesn't make us fools. At a time like this, we mustn't butt heads, but put our heads together."
Jay loudly snickered. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "You said 'butt heads.'"
"Not the time, Jay!" Tina shouted.
Before anybody could say anything more, Zane's falcon squawked from its perch up in the rafters above everyone. Flapping its wings, its eyes glowed and cast a blue projection down on the floor in the middle of the semi-circle we'd been standing in. A holographic image flashed into existence, and to everyone's surprise, it was a message from...Ronin?
"I can't talk loud," the image of Ronin whispered, "but I wanted to let you know: Nya, you were right. Morro didn't hold his end of the bargain. And Misako was right, too. The scroll and sword did reveal the tomb. I know where it's located. I know you don't have the sword, but I know you can beat them to the tomb." He glanced over his shoulder, then gasped. "They're coming!"
"Where is it?" Jay frantically demanded. "Where's the tomb?!"
"The Caves of Despair! " Ronin replied. "The tomb is in the Caves of Despair! "
The hologram flickered, chopping up his last words, then eventually was cut off altogether. Tina could sense that something was off about Ronin. Ronin's voice to her sounded strange, different, almost. It could've easily been that his whispering was just distorted by the falcon's speakers. But her gut was telling her that this was just a distraction. "Caves of Despair?" Garmadon questioned.
"We've been there. I don't remember seeing any tomb." Sensei Wu stated
"But there are still miles of unexplored mines," Misako pointed out. "It could be there."
"But why should we believe him?" Nya asked, frowning. "It could be a trap."
"Well, in case you forgot, we don't have the scroll and we don't have the sword," Kai stated, sounding irked.
"Guys, I'm with Nya on this one. Ronin scammed all of us. Who's to say he isn't working with Moro? I have a bad feeling about this." Tina spoke up.
"With Lloyd's life at stake, what other choice do we have?" Kai asked.
"The ninja are right," Sensei declared. "Even a misstep could be a step in the right direction. We cannot afford to do nothing. The ninja will go." He turned to face Nya. "As for Nya, you're still not ready."
Nya let out a frustrated, defeated groan. Tina felt bad that Nya wasn't going to join them. The boys ran off to the bounty but Tina told them she would catch up. She just walked off towards the river and stared at her reflection. Something was telling Tina that Ronin's message was fake. Suddenly, her dragon sensed something; it was very faint but she knew who she was sensing. "Lloyd?"
Tina closed her eyes, focused her magic, and then used her mind spell to see where Lloyd was. The spell worked and her spirit was able to see where Lloyd was. She found herself in a room bathed in an eerie green lamplight. The walls had been draped in torn, green cloth, and a few other ghostly objects decorated. She recognized the place; Ronin's shop in Stiix. Her spirit hid behind a crate when she heard the sounds of laughter. She saw Moro and his friends hovering over Ronin on the ground. The wheels in Tina's head clicked, Moro had possessed Ronin and tricked the ninja.
She then heard someone familiar above her. In a cage high above the shop, was Lloyd but he wasn't looking too good. He was very weak from Moro possessing him and he looked like he hadn't eaten anything in days. "You're no Green Ninja. The Green Ninja would never need to lie." Lloyd said in a raspy voice.
But Morro didn't care what Lloyd had to say. Tina's spirit made her way to the cage just as Morro was preparing to head to the tomb at dawn. She used her magic to let Lloyd see her spirit then she gently touched his shoulder. Lloyd knew her touch and turned to see her spirit. Tina spoke in a low whisper, "Lloyd, are you ok?"
"I've been better." Lloyd replied in a whisper, "I shouldn't have gone alone to the museum…"
"Lloyd." Tina cut him off, "It's not your fault. We didn't know Moro was there. But if you and Moro shared a body. Did you see the tombs' real location?"
"Yes. But you need to tell the others. Get to the crystal before he does." Lloyd stated.
"But we don't have the sword."
Lloyd touched Tina's hands and looked her in the eyes. "I believe in you. Trust in each other and have faith."
Lloyd then whispered the tomb's real location in her ear. She told Lloyd that she'll save him from Moro. Before she vanished, Lloyd whispered the words "I love you." to her. She then whispered to him, "I know." and then her spirit vanished.
Tina was now back by the river near the tea shop. She ran back to the tea shop where Garmadon and Misako were inside. Tina barged into the shop, startling Misako. "Tina? Is everything alright?" Misako asked.
Tina caught her breath and then dropped the bombshell on Misako and Garmadon, "I felt Lloyd."
Misako and Garmadon were shocked, "Is he ok?" Garmadon asked.
"For now. He's very weak. But Nya and I were right, the ninja were walking into a trap. Moro possessed Ronin and lied that the tomb was in the Cave Of Despair to throw us off. Lloyd told me the real location of the tomb." Tina explained.
"Where is it?" Misako asked.
Tina grabbed one of Misako's maps and then she whispered the location of the tomb in a location spell and it revealed the tomb. Misako and Garmadon were shocked when they saw where the tomb was. The reason why no one found the tomb in Ninjago is because it's not in Ninjago in the first place, but under the ocean. "We have to tell the others," Misako said.
"Moro probably has a head start. By the time we get to the Cave of Despair, Moro will already be at the tomb. We need to get there first." Garmadon stated.
"I can get to the tomb before the others. Something tells me that Ronin might make up for stealing the sword. You guys take the Bounty with Nya and Wu and meet us there." Tina suggested.
But Garmadon refused to be on the sidelines. "I'm going with you. Moro has my son. I intend to save him." Garmadon said.
Tina agreed then she used a spell to create an orb with the tombs' location. "This is our beacon. It'll help us get to the tomb." Tina explained.
She was about to turn into her dragon form when Garmadon said that he had a better idea. He summoned his own elemental dragon, it was black and purple to represent his power. Tina looked completely surprised, "First Wu, now you! You never told us you could do that."
"A Sensei never tells," Garmadon stated.
Tina hopped on the back of Garmadon's dragon then the orb floated in front of them and then started flying off. The two of them followed the orb to the tomb, hoping that they weren't too late.