"MY NAME IS NOT ZANE!" Zane yells at Lloyd angrily. He bangs his staff onto the floor.

"Yes, it is!" Lloyd walks towards Zane until he was standing between Zane and Akita. "And you're gonna remember it, even if I have to knock it into your thick Nindroid skull!"

"You...know the Emperor?" Akita gasps in disbelief.

"He's not an emperor. He's my friend. He's the one I'm here to rescue," He explains to her. She widens her eyes in surprise. "It's hard to explain, but I can't let you hurt him, Akita."

She growls angrily. "MY WILL IS NOT YOURS TO COMMAND!" She breaks her hand free from the ice and quickly stands up, about to attack Zane. Lloyd quickly moves in front of her and holds her wrists, preventing her from trying to kill one of his brothers.

"Akita, no!" He moves her further back, seeing the murderous look on her face and feeling her struggle against him. "This isn't the way! You're letting your anger control you!"

She pushes him back a little. "Stand aside, Lloyd! Or fall with him!"

"I won't let you hurt Zane! He's my-!" Zane moves behind Lloyd and swats him away from Akita. He yells in pain, and tumbles at least a dozen feet away from Zane and Akita.

"THERE IS...NO ZANE!" He pushes Akita back and aims his staff at her.

"NO!" Lloyd quickly gets back up and performs his Spinjizu. He gets between the both of them, using his Spinjizu to block the staff's ice attack.

In his bear form, Kataru, Grimfax and Katarina were doing their best to hold off the Blizzard Samurai. After doing their best to get them off their backs, they try to run away in one direction, but the army blocks their path. They turn around and found they were surrounded on all sides.

The army points their weapons at them threateningly. Vex walks towards them, a cruel smile on his face.

"Well, well, well..."

Katarina, Kataru and Grimfax share a look. They lunge at the army again and start attacking them. But they were overpowered easily; Kataru and Katarina were chained down, and Grimfax got dog-piled on.

"Lock this traitor in the dungeon, and throw the animal and demon in with him." Vex orders the Blizzard Samurai holding the trio down. "The rest of you, follow me!"

Lloyd leaps away from Zane and summons his powers to block the staff's next attack. He leaps away again and dodges the next attack when Zane comes runnning towards him. He kept fending off the attacks, even running up a pillar and using his powers to overwhelm the staff's.

Lloyd got close to Zane and threw a punch at him, but Zane managed to dodge it. "Wake up, Zane!"

Zane uses the staff to hit Lloyd's back. He picks Lloyd up and spins him around multiple time, until he finally let him go. Lloyd's eyes widen when Zane manages to trap him in the corrupted ice. Zane laughs.

"LLOYD!" Akita throws her dagger at Zane. He dodges the weapon, and points his staff at her, freezing her instantly.

"AKITA!"

Zane walks over to Lloyd. "Zane...please..."

"I told you," Zane growls. "There is no Zane!" Lloyd shudders. His friend was really gone. And he was going to be killed by him.

Vex and a group of Blizzard Samurai walk over to Zane. "Do it, Master. Finish it!" Zane subtly nods and points the staff at Lloyd.

Lloyd gives Zane one final pleading look of desperation. "Zane..." Zane stares at Lloyd for a few seconds. He shakes his head. Why was he hesitating?

Vex growls and rolls his eyes. "I'll do it." He snatches a spear from a Blizzard Samurai and pushes Zane out of the way. He walks closely to Lloyd. "Some savior you turned out to be. You couldn't defeat the Emperor. You couldn't protect your friends."

Something sparks in Zane.

"Protect?"

"You couldn't even protect yourself." Vex snarls. He moves the tip of the pointed weapon closer to Lloyd's exposed throat.

"Protect those who cannot protect themselves."

Zane gasps.

Memories of his friends, his father, Pixal, all their adventures and the good times they've had began flooding back to him in an instant. The memories continued up until he sacrificed himself to save Wu and ended up in the Never Realm with the scroll and the mech. The last thing he remembered was plugging himself to repair the mech, until everything went dark.

Zane looks over to see vex about to deal the final blow against Lloyd, who was bracing himself against the deathly blow. Zane rushes over and knocks the spear out of Vex's hand.

"VEX!" Vex, shocked at the suddent outburst, whipped around to see his Emperor tear off his face mask and look at Vex furiously. "DON'T!"

He knocks Vex across the room with his staff, then spares one last glance at it.

He knew what he had to do.

He raises the staff high up in the air and smashes it down hard against the floor.

In a flurry of ice and snow, all the corrupted ice and the cold vanishes from the realm. The villagers and the Formlings were freed from their decades-long ice prison, including Akita, and the realm was back to what it once was before the Ice Emperor's reign.

Even the castle was nice and welcoming without all that ice.

Zane throws his helmet and chest armor off and rushes over to Lloyd. "Lloyd!"

Lloyd weakly gets up and smiles happily upon seeing his brother back to normal. "I knew you'd remember. I knew it!"

Zane smiles back with relief and helps Lloyd up. "Thank you, Lloyd." They hug each other momentarily. "Where are the others?"

Before Lloyd could answer, they both jump when they see Vex running towards them with his spear. Zane summons his ice and freezes Vex up to his neck.

Akita, still a bit weak from the corrupted ice, gets up. Her eyes widen when she sees her brother Kataru running into the throne room, followed by the Ninja and some strange creature. "Kataru!"

He runs even faster towards her and wraps his arms around her. He picks her up as they both laugh happily with tears in their eyes. "Akita!"

Katarina teleports to Lloyd and hugs him tightly from behind. Lloyd turns his head around and chuckles happily. "Sis, you're okay!"

"Of course, I'd be!" She says. She almost squeals when Zane picks her up by her waist and brings her in for a hug. She laughs. "We're so glad you're okay, Zane."

"So am I." Zane says happily.

Nya, Jay, Kai and Cole run up to Zane and Lloyd with relieved smiles. They hug Lloyd, Katarina and Zane happily, relieved that they were okay after spending days worrying about their friends to death. The creature, who Cole says its name is Krag, watches the happy reunion from a distance.

So ended, the reign of the Ice Emperor. I was reunited with my brother, Kataru. Akita and Kataru were running happily together in the forest.

And the King was restored to his throne.

The Emperor, who happened to be Grimfax, standed up high on his throne and raised his arms in the air. His army, reverted back to normal from being Blizzard Samurai, cheer triumphantly for their restored Emperor.

His people and my people were released from their curse.

Two of the warriors, including Akita and Kataru - who chose to personally oversee Vex's banishment - watch Vex with looks of hatred as the Formless ran away.

Vex the Formless was banished from our lands. And peace returned to the Never-Realm.

After many days, the time at last came when the ninja hoped to return to their own. The Ninja were inside Sorla's house, who was inspecting the Traveler's Tree leaves.

But this, was not so simple.

"I have consulted the spirits of the Hearth's Fire and I have learned of this Ninjago. It is far from here. The leaves of the Traveler's Tree will not have the strength to bear you home." Sorla says sorrowfully.

"But I-I can get more!" Cole elbows Krag, who was inside with the Ninja. "Right, Krag?"

Krag nods in agreement.

"You can help me up back the mountain and-and we can—"

"It is no use. No amount of leaves will suffice. If we only had something more potent." Sorla explains.

The Ninja look at each other for a solution, but nobody had an answer to bring them back home.

That was, until Cole had an idea. He searches himself by patting his gi, which confused his friends, even when Cole brought out a berry. "Sorla, what about this?" He shows Sorla the berry. She examines it for a moment before nodding her head.

The Ninja cheer.

They were finally going home.

Before leaving through the portal outside the village, Zane apologized to the villagers, the Formlings, Akita and Kataru for his actions as the Ice Emperor. He knew he was never going to get their forgiveness right away.

Everyone accepted his apology, even Akita, who still harbored some hard feelings towards Zane - which was understandable.

Jay, Nya, Kai and Zane went through the portal, and were instantly greeted by Wu and Pixal - who jumped into Zane's arms and gave him a passionate kiss.

"Well, so long, buddy." Cole says to Krag sadly, who was whimpering and looking like he wanted to hug Cole more than anything. "Alright, bring it, buddy. Give Cole a hug." Krag immediately does so, making Cole whimper when he felt his back bones pop.

Katarina watches Lloyd and Cole wish everyone goodbye and go through the portal. She looks at Akita. "Thank you, Akita. For helping me and Lloyd. It was a pleasure meeting you, Akita. I'm so lucky to have met a girl as remarkable as you-"

Akita takes Katarina's hand immediately and brings her in for a kiss on the cheek. Katarina's eyes widen, her jaw dropping open as her cheeks blush profusely at the sudden gesture. She slowly looks at Akita, who was smiling happily at her and blushing slightly.

"Woah."

"You were remarkable too, Katarina." Akita says to a still-speechless Katarina.

"Katarina, you must hurry!" Sorla warns her, snapping Katarina out of her lovestruck trance. "The portal is closing!"

Katarina's eyes widen when she sees the portal shrink slightly. She turns back around and summons a white hibiscus flower with pinkish-red in its center in Akita's hair. She kisses Akita on her cheek. "You take care of yourself, Akita."

"You too, Katarina." Akita whispers. She watches Katarina sprint to the portal and leap into it. When the portal closes, Akita touches the flower in her hair and smiles softly.

I love you. She mouths. Kataru walks up behind her and places a comforting hand on Akita's shoulder.

"Come, little sister. I know what will cheer you up."

She smiles, a bit bigger this time. She wipes the tears welling up in her eyes. "You always know what to do, Kataru."

When Katarina leaps through the portal, her friends and Wu breathe a collective sigh of relief.

"Thank god. We didn't know when you'd come through the portal." Jay says. She gets up and brushes some imaginary dust off herself.

"Uh huh." She says absentmindely, a smile creeping on her face. Her friends share a look with each other. She looks at their faces carefully. "What?"

"Oh nothing." Nya says.

Kai snickers. "It's just that you look a little pink on the cheeks."

Katarina could feel the heat rising to her cheeks again. Was it that obvious? "I'm sorry?"

"What Kai means is that you're blushing. A lot." Zane points out. "And your heartrate has increased." He feels her forehead with the back of his hand. "You're not developing a fever, are you?"

"Nope."

"Then why are you blushing, Kat?" Kai asks with a smirk on his face. "Does somebody have a crush?" He says the final word with emphasis.

"...No." She says.

"You're lying." Jay says immediately.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"But you appear to be avoiding eye contact with Kai and Zane. And you also appear to be defensive and hesitant when asked about this crush of yours." Zane explains. "You are definitely lying."

Katarina blushes a bit more. Kai elbows her. "Don't worry, I'm sure whoever this crush of yours is is a lucky one."

She chuckles. "...Yeah." She shakes her head a bit, then says, "Look, can we just drop it?"

Her friends nod, agreeing collectively to her request. "Sure, we will...for now." Kai remarks with a smirk on his face.

"Come inside, all of you," Wu tells them all, gesturing them inside. "You must be exhausted. Once you all have rested up, you must tell me of your time in the Never Realm." The Ninja agree and head inside, with Zane and Pixal sharing a chaste kiss as they head towards Zane's room.

Katarina looks at where the portal once was. She smiles softly and sighs. She walks inside and heads inside her room. She removes the hair tie from her hair, and lays flat on her back on the bed.

"That was...incredible." She whispers.

"The adventure, or Akita kissing you?" Keres asks with a chuckle.

"Shut up." Keres laughs at Katarina saying that. She turns her head to the right. Her binder was on her dresser, hidden from everyone's view. She had been wearing her sports bra for two weeks at least, starting from Aspheera's invasion to now.

"You gonna do it?"

"...I don't know."

"Come on, you've been thinking about it for weeks, hell, months! Why the sudden hesistation?"

She removes her gaze from the binder. She stares up at the ceiling. "I'll think about it, okay? I just...I don't know right now."

"Okay...it's up to you. No one's forcing you to do it, it's your call."

"I know," She puts herself in her bed's covers, and closes her eyes.

She fell asleep fifteen minutes later.