Chapter 41: Movie Ninjago

Lil'Loyd's team spent the night in Luh-Loyd's Ninjago before departing back to their world the next day.

But when it came time to leave, almost none of them wanted to go just yet.

"You're not just going to leave and forget about us, are you?" asked Freckles Jay as he nervously picked at his scarf. "You're going to visit, right?"

"Of course we will," said Nick Jay clapping his counterpart on the shoulder.

"Can't get rid of us that easily," agreed Spike Kai with a grin. And he meant it too, spending the night with his counterpart's parents… Yeah, he wasn't about to give that up anytime soon, nor any of the new friendships he'd made.

"The Ultra Dragon knows the way here now," said Zen Zane. "And with Ninjago being one less evil lord safer, It would be a simple matter to visit, say, every weekend or so."

"Yes!" Lil'Loyd cheered from where he was being given a goodbye hug by Koko, having been in this world the longest and would miss them the most.

"Plus, now that we know Dr. Gary's portal works, we can contact each other any time it's on," added Pep Zane.

Lord Garmadon growled at the mention of the scientist, who, after sleeping for nearly a day, had woken up suitably horrified at what he'd done and hadn't stopped apologizing since. The former-warlord hadn't forgiven him (and likely never would), but he'd honor his son's promise to not take him off the project. He was, however, being heavily punished, and had definitely lost his espresso machine.

"Building a phone or something that can call them without the portal could be part of his punishment," Koko suggested, trying to soothe her irate ex.

Lord Garmadon snorted. "Not as a punishment, he'd probably enjoy that too much. But he's definitely building some eventually."

"Just don't stress the poor guy out again," said Cliff Cole.

Lord Garmadon huffed but made no promises.

"We'll help him out," promised Cyan Nya, waving to herself and Freckles.

"I downloaded his notes, and we can work on it on our end too," said Red Nya. "Between both worlds, we'll be in full contact in no time."

With a final round of goodbye hugs and farewells, they pried the Ultra Dragon away from Meowthra (who had all but adopted the dragon as her own), waved goodbye to the Secret Ninja Force, and boarded the carriage to fly away through a portal.

A moment later, they were still in Ninjago, but the one far more familiar to them.

Coming to a stop outside Ed & Edna's Scrap N Junk where the Bounty was still parked, Jay asked a question that had been on his mind for a while.

"Sooooo," he said as they all stepped out of the carriage, "What are you going to do with that thing?"

They all looked to see what he was talking about and saw him gesturing to the Mega Weapon, which Garmadon was still somehow able to carry despite no longer being four-armed or evil.

Garmadon eyed the weapon that had caused this entire mess thoughtfully. "In all honesty, I do not believe I will keep it," he said. "Even if my wish inadvertently led to my being cured, after so much time under the venom's influence, I find it and any weapon for that matter, distasteful."

"Well, we can't just leave it lying around," said Cole. "It's too dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands."

"Or if some unlucky person happens across it and gets vaporized," added Zane.

"Agreed," said Garmadon. "In that case, I believe it best I use one last wish to send it someplace it will do no harm."

Everyone braced themselves as Garmadon held the staff into the air for one last time. "Mega Weapon," he said as it began glowing a brilliant gold. "I wish that the ninja's powers were released from the Golden Weapons and that this staff was somewhere far away, where no man can reach it."

The Mega Weapon sent out a pulse of light, and its glow surrounded the four ninja whose weapons had made it, before rocketing out of Garmadon's hands and up into the sky. They all watched it fly up, up, up, until it vanished from sight in a final burst of golden light.

"Space, huh," said Kai. "Well, no one's going to find it there."

"At least not until Starfarer becomes a thing outside of comic books," said Lloyd.

"How do you guys feel?" asked Nya, looking concerned at how the last wish would have affected them.

Jay held up his hands, and a crackle of electricity danced across them. It wasn't as powerful as when Luh-Loyd had been boosting him, but it was definitely more than he'd been able to do since losing the Nunchucks of Lightning.

"I think we're back in business," he said with a wide grin, and the other ninja all tested their powers as well.

"I'll say," said Kai, more than happy to have his flames again.

"Even with my brother no longer being evil, Ninjago will still likely need protecting," said Sensei Wu.

"And we will be there to do it," said Zane, the others all nodding in agreement.

"You guys are still gonna train me to be the Green Ninja too, right?" Lloyd asked, looking slightly worried. The old fear of being left behind once he wasn't needed rising again.

It was quickly abated when Garmadon let out a soft chuckle and ruffled his son's hair. "Yes, son, your training will continue if you wish it to."

"Though, maybe at a less extreme pace now that you've already 'defeated' your greatest enemy," said Cole with a chuckle.

"The great Lord Garmadon, beaten in a splash fight," added Jay with a snicker.

They all had a laugh at how ridiculous their situation was. All that worrying about some great final battle, only for it all to be circumvented by one small ceramic cup that was now locked up safe in the other Ninjago.

As they left the carriage to be greeted by Ed and Edna rushing out to meet them, the future for them looked bright.

Epilogue 1: Show Ninjago

"... And that's why we haven't been able to come help you out sooner," Cole said as he and the other ninja finally finished telling Dareth all that had happened over the week.

It had occurred to them shortly after they had gotten back that they should probably go help out the poor dojo owner. It was his place of business that had nearly been burned down, and Garmadon wanted to apologize for his past transgressions (which Dareth had accepted, though it was clear he was still wary of the former evildoer). This ended up with them all pitching in to help repair the damage done.

"Wow," was Dareth's response as he processed the story he'd just been told. "If I hadn't seen that other Lloyd, I'd send you all to the hospital for taking crazy juice. But I did see that guy, so all I can say is… wow." His expression then brightened. "Hey, what do you think I'm like in the other Ninjago?"

The ninja all exchanged glances at his question.

"Don't know," said Kai as he helped Jay carry some boards to repair the holes in the wall. "We didn't get a chance to meet him, and the other us's didn't mention him."

Dareth slumped in disappointment.

"We can ask next time we visit," offered Zane, making him brighten again.

"Awesome," said the dojo owner. He then hesitated, and asked, "Uh, any chance I could come with you sometime? A whole 'nother world would be a sight to see, even if it is just like this one."

"It's not just like this one," pipped up Lloyd from where he was using a broom to sweep up ash and dust. "It's similar, but it's not the same. The people there are pretty different, but from what I've seen they're nice if a little nosey."

"Also, we don't have a giant cat wandering around," Jay joked.

"Like a dragon's so much better," Kai retorted.

"It is better," said Cole, quick to defend their dragon. "Without Ultra we wouldn't have been able to switch the Lloyds back.

"Meowthra's pretty great too," Lloyd muttered more to himself than anyone else, but they all heard him anyway.

"She did save us when we nearly crashed," Garmadon agreed from where he was working to help repair the damage he'd caused, privately wondering to himself if he should get his son a cat, he discarded the thought as Lloyd already had a dragon to care for.

"Though I do believe the Ultra Dragon didn't like her much," added Zane

"Aw, they're just not used to being mothered," said Nya as she walked by carrying a box of burned things to be thrown out. "I thought Meowthra taking care of them was cute."

"Definitely not something you see every day," agreed her brother.

"We will see it again soon enough," said Sensei Wu, who was taking a tea break from helping. "We did, after all, plan to visit."

"But only if we go to them. I wish that they could visit us too," said Lloyd, wanting to spend more time with his newly expanded family.

At that exact moment, there was a loud 'THUMP!' which shook the earth. From outside the holes in Dareth's walls, they could hear the Ultra Dragon letting out a distressed roar, and people shrieking in fear.

They rushed outside and stopped dead at what they saw.

The Ultra Dragon lay pinned on the street with a disgruntled look on their faces. All around them, people on the street were freaking out and running away as fast as they could.

And the reason for the chaos just sat purring as she began licking the Ultra Dragon clean.

"MEOWTHRA!" shouted Lloyd in delight as he caught sight of the giant cat.

At his shout, the cat purred louder but continued her task of cleaning the dragon beneath her.

But as she did so, a green figured caught their eye from up on her back.

Staring down at them with wide-eyes was Luh-Loyd, who had been riding on Meowthra and was looking just as surprised to be there as they were to see him.

As they stared at each other, it finally clicked what had happened.

"Ask and ye shall receive," said Garmadon with a chuckle as Luh-Loyd slid down Meowthra's back to the ground and his son let out a cheer and ran over to meet him.

Looks like traveling between worlds just became that much easier.

Epilogue 2: Cloud Kingdom

The Cloud Kingdom was in chaos!

Centuries of prophecy, preparation, and planning had gone down the drain with one magic splash of water.

This had never happened before and was not even supposed to be possible.

The Destinies of those on Ninjago had been written in stone since its creation, only now that destiny had been crumbled, beaten and then thrown down a volcano for good measure.

The monks of the Cloud Kingdom were all running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to do something, to fix this, but it would do no good. All of the futures they had written across multiple realms had hinged on the Prophecy of the Green Ninja, but with that fate so subverted, suddenly every destiny scroll in the entire kingdom was useless. No matter what they tried to write, none of it would come to pass unless the person they were writing about chose to do so.

For the first time ever, the monks had no idea what would happen next.

And that thought terrified them.

"What should we do, sir," said one monk to the head monk, Fenwick.

Fenwick, who had been doing a very good imitation of a statue frozen in horror since the entire mess started, managed to choke out, "I-I don't know!"

And considering that until recently he'd known just about everything, this was a massive upset.

Another monk named Nobu offered a solution instead, "If we can no longer write the future, then what we can do now is chronicle this new future being created. The people's destinies are now what they themselves make of it, so all we can do is watch it unfold."

Fenwick gave a stilted nod at Nobu's words, grasping onto some form of purpose now that his own had been subverted. "Yes… Yes, we'll do that," he said, though clearly still in shock from what had happened. He then turned and began walking towards his quarters. "If you'll excuse me, I… need to lie down."

Hidden behind a pillar, the monk who had ignored the scroll forewarning that this would happen, trembled in his robes.

He hoped to everything no one would ever find out who caused this mess.

A/N Holy Crow! This fic is finished! This story anyway, as I've said before, there's lots more to come in Greener Pastures, and I've been working on a sequel as well. The working title so far is In Need of Polish (title courtesy of Kay Hau), but it won't be posted for a while yet. The reason being it is set after several chapters of Greener Pastures and can't be posted until those are out to establish some things. When it's time to post, I'll be sure to let you all know in a future chapter.

Meowthra was able to reach the Show Ninjago because, well, she's a giant demon cat who's not from Movie Ninjago either. She had to be able to travel between the worlds to reach there in the first place, and now they both have a way to travel worlds. Anywho, the crisis here has been averted. Both Lloyds are back where they belong, both sets of ninja have a bunch of new friends, Show Garmadon's been cured, and destiny has been pretty thoroughly shattered beyond repair or at least the Cloud Kingdom Monks' control over it. Still, this is Ninjago we're talking about. Nothing is ever peaceful in either world for long, but with how things have been completely changed... well, that just makes writing what happens next so much fun. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Movie- Luh-Loyd, Buddy Kai, Cyan Nya, Freckles Jay, DJ Cole, Pep Zane, Master Wu, Lord Garmadon (Garm)

Show- Lil'Loyd, Spike Kai, Red Nya, Nick Jay, Cliff Cole, Zen Zane, Sensei Wu, Sensei Garmadon (after he chooses to be a sensei later)

I can't give enough thanks to Kay Hau. None of this fic would have been anything more than a plot bunny in my brain if not for her help and encouragement throughout the writing process. Major kudos and credit to her for all her contributions to this fic, and I highly recommend you check out all of her fics, as they're awesome.

Also a thanks to Savannah-the-Caracal, for getting me into Ninjago in the first place. I can't write a fic for a fandom I'm not into.

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. I really appreciate all of them. Special thanks to Kay Hau, Carrie2sky, EMPFangirl02, Kifo Entiegon, Luna Eevee, Bookkeeper2004, SJTiger, Watcher321, FallingToast, Lea1985, Lluvia-the-Wolfgirl, EchoAndAli'sWackyFics, Delta prime2, ThisMARVELous galaxy, squibkindabomb, Derpidot, Jaguar The RainWing, Mars, That Random User, ariixmoon, Skyla Talon, Katla1, Olivewhisker, RebelutionaryWrites, naoninja, Queen of Camouflage, MasterOfMusic139, kaiawesomlymonsterous, Hypothetical Alien17, CopperHillsGrizzly2010, Mesly Moon, GodofGreed, nightmaster000, Skyla Talon, Savannah-the-Caracal, nindroidzane, Jessica Jayme Bell, Dyphen, ChthonicUnraveling, Fabro de Omres, Ebony umbreon, Beaner97, Ailin Amy, Reyella, ElementalKeys, and various Guests