Aria awakens in the Cursed Realm, it was very ghost like, and a prison. She heads away from the nearby ghosts and passes different souls imprisoned in the cursed realm. Eventually she turns a corner to see Garmadon bound in chains on either arm.
"Sensei!" Aria shouts, running over to him.
"Aria?" Garmadon looks up and Aria hugs him
"I'm so happy to see you," Aria smiles "let's get you out of here."
Aria goes to break his chains but Garmadon stops her.
"Sensei?" Aria looks confused.
"There's no use, these chains will not break" Garmadon tells her.
"What?" Aria questions "Why not?"
"Aria, the Cursed Realm is the Preeminent, and the Preeminent is the Cursed Realm." Garmadon replies "Why are you here child? You're not dead are you?"
"Of course not," Aria shakes her head "Morro claims himself as the Green Ninja and he's stolen the Realm Crystal. Lloyd and the ninja are fighting their hardest, but I don't know what else to do."
"If he has the Crystal, all is endangered," Garmadon tells her "You must leave here and destroy the Preeminent. Save Ninjago. Save the Realms."
"How am I supposed to do that?" Aria asks "I haven't been able to do anything for my team. I know Lloyd can defeat Morro, but something of this size.."
"Aria," Garmadon puts his hand on her shoulder "the preeminent is a being created by your mother. It was her attempt at creating her own world before enticing the war. As her daughter, you're the only one who can destroy it."
"..but.." Aria looks up at him "if I destroy it, it could destroy you."
"Whatever happens to me, wherever I am, I will always be with you," Garmadon smiles "All of you."
Aria wipes a tear from her eye before Garmadon pulls her into a hug.
"You're growing into an amazing woman Aria," Garmadon tells her "I believe once you truly find yourself, your true potential will be reached." he looks her in the eyes "Tell my son I love him, and tell Reika I'm sorry I couldn't be a better master."
"You were the best Master," Aria tells him "your teaching's will forever be with us."
"Thank you," Garmadon puts his hand on her head "you're going to be a great Empress, don't let your mother tell you different."
-
In Stiix, the Ninja continue their desperate battle against the Preeminent and Morro's army of ghosts. Wu and Misako arrive, telling them that their only hope now is to flee the city with its citizens. The Ninja flee the scene, heading to the docks where Ronin slashes apart the Preeminent's tentacles to allow citizens to get on the ship.
"We need to get this ship to sea to put as much water between us as possible" Wu orders
"No problem" Ronin cuts the rope "Maybe one problem" He sees Morro land in front of him.
"It's Morro!" Cole shouts
"Look out, Ronin!" Jay shouts
Ronin and Morro fight. Morro laughs as he knocks the sword out of Ronin's grasps. Then Lloyd, jumps in and takes the Sword of Sanctuary from Morro.
"Oh you're still here?" Morro mocks with a laugh.
"Yeah, I believe you have something of mine" Lloyd says and Morro looks at the crystal and attacks him.
"Ronin, get to the ship and protect the people!" Lloyd shouts "Ninja sever the stilts, we need to drop the Preeminent into the sea"
"We're on it Lloyd" Cole says
"What about you?" Zane asks
"Just let me handle the blowhard" Lloyd replies
"You think you're better than me? No one is better than me!" Morro shouts and they start fighting.
-
Aria cuts through more ghosts that were around her. Morro's army of ghosts were all targeting her now that she broke out of the cursed realm.
"Damn it!" Aria shouts
As Lloyd battles Morro, the Ninja sever many of the stilts, which causes the Preeminent to begin falling towards the sea. Morro orders his army to protect the Preeminent, as he and Lloyd are thrust into a battle that jumps from realm to realm.
Back in Stiix, in order to prevent the Preeminent from being killed, Morro's army of ghosts attach temples and buildings to its body to create a massive "suit" for it that would give the beast legs and prevent it from making contact with the water.
Aria makes her way to the Preeminent slashing apart the ghosts to stop them from helping, it seemed futile though because they just reappeared minutes later.
With help from Morro's army of ghosts, the Preeminent moves slowly through Stiix, heading towards the ship as it flees from the city. Kai, Cole, Jay, Zane, and Nya return to Stiix using Airjitzu.
"Aria!" Kai shouts "You're ok?!"
"Yeah I'm fine," Aria replies
"This thing's really getting on my nerves," Jay says annoyed
"Well boys," Aria's eyes glow purple "and girls, let's take her down!"
When the beast makes it to the docks, it is initially stopped by the water, but with help from the ghosts, it manages to wade into the sea. Master Wu orders everyone to throw anything they don't need off the ship so they can move faster.
In the meantime, Morro and Lloyd go from realm to realm, including the Underworld and the Realm of Madness. Back in Stiix, the Ninja continue battling Morro's army of ghosts, defeating such adversaries as Soul Archer only for them to re-emerge from the mouth of the Preeminent.
"We can't stop it, the best thing we can do for the time being is protect the ship." Nya says
"right" Zane agrees
The ninja all regroup with the civilians as Aria keeps fighting the ghost.
"Aria!" Cole calls out "Stop fighting!"
"Get to safety!" Jay shouts
On the ship, Ronin tells Wu that they only have enough fuel to get back to Stiix, and not further away from it towards Hallows Trench. Kai then has an idea to drown the Preeminent using the trench, as it wouldn't expect the sheer drop.
The ship continues on, but just as it passes the trench, the Preeminent knocks off its rudder, stopping it completely as Morro returns to Ninjago, having trapped Lloyd in a separate realm. The civilians on the ship run around in a panic, but Nya stands still.
Encouraged by Wu telling her not to be afraid to fail, Nya unlocks her True Potential. In doing so, she creates a massive tidal wave that crashes into the Preeminent, sending it toppling forwards but it stands back up.
"That's not good" Jay says worriedly
Aria turns to look up where Morro was laughing. Aria glares at him and jumps behind him, he turns his head and moves quickly as Aria throws fire at him, he nearly dodged it.
"Hah, what are you so angry about?" Morro laughs "missing someone?"
"Where's Lloyd?!" Aria demands
"You're so-"
"Where's Lloyd damn it?!" Aria shouts
"I don't get why you're so clingy with that guy?!" Morro shouts "You're so worried about your new boyfriend, like he can't take care of himself. Is he so weak of a man to need a girl to protect him?!"
"Lloyd's more of a man then you," Aria glares at him
Morro is hit with her dark energy beam and he holds where it hit.
"You think you're strong enough to be the green ninja," Aria walks towards him "when you can't even stand near me? How pathetic."
"I was your boyfriend before he came along!" Morro shouts "We planned to take over together!"
"That was a long time ago Morro," Aria creates fire in her hand "you're no longer the man I love. This is my home, and I won't let you take over!"
Aria grew dragon wings while still remaining human-looking. Her eyes changed to slits like dragon eyes. She flies up as the Preeminent turns to face Aria.
"No!" Morro shouts
Morro attempts to follow after her but his chest pulses where darkness hit him, and he falls to his knees in pain.
"Well mom brought you into this world," Aria says as the fire in her hand turned black "and I'm about to take you out of it."
The Preeminent screeches as large glowing chains made of dark energy wraps around it.
"Woah!" Kai shouts
"That's our girl!" Jay shouts
"Get him!" Cole agrees
"That's my wife!" Reika screams "Beat their ass!"
"This," Zane looks at Wu "May be dangerous."
The large chains pulls the Preeminent down and it starts dissolving into the water. Aria puts her hands above her as the fire in her palms grew bigger. It shoots out at the Preeminent and began burning through it. The Preeminent screeches as it burns and dissolves, destroying the Cursed Realm and killing all its inhabitants, with the Cursed Realm pulling all of the ghosts into the water except for Morro, who stays above the surface.
Wu summons his Dragon and finds Morro struggling to break free of the Preeminent's grasp. As he makes his way over he sees Aria atop of the water grabbing onto Morro's hand using all her strength to keep him up.
"Take my hand too," Wu says extending his hand out to Morro
"Why? So you can take the Realm Crystal and use it to find your own prized pupil?" Morro questions
"You are all my prized pupils, but none of us can do this alone. You're strong, Morro, but it takes others to make us stronger. Even me. Take my hand, so we can be stronger together. Please, Morro!" Wu begs.
"I was wrong.." Morro looks at Aria "If you love someone you let them go."
"I'm not letting you go Morro, you can still live." Aria shakes her head and attempts to pull him up again but he wouldn't budge
"You don't even remember me do you?" Morro asks sadly "You really are my Aria.. but not."
"Morro I know I said some mean things.. I know this is hard.. but you were my friend in a past life! So don't give up, it's not too late!" Aria encourages "I don't what I was in the past, and I don't know what made you fall in love with me. But I'm grateful that you were there."
Morro grabs Wu's hand "You can only save those who want to be saved. I'm sorry, both of you."
"Morro, please" Aria begs
"Dont ever let him make you cry, goodbye Aria, Sensei." Morro gives Wu the Crystal before letting go of their hands and is then pulled into the sea, where he dies as he is permanently dissolved by the water.
"No!" Aria shouts and her wings disappear
Wu reaches out and grabs Aria before she falls into the water. He helps her climb onto his dragon as she wipes the tears from her eyes.
"Thank you sensei.." Aria takes the realm crystal from him
"You don't remember him," Wu says as he directs his dragon back to the dock "but you still tried to save him."
"In this life.." Aria looks down "I was alone a lot as a child, until my mother let me train with Garmadon. Then I met Lloyd.. I had a friend.. I wasn't alone anymore." she looks at Wu "I just thought.. what if I was alone in my last life too.. and he was that friend.."
Wu rubs the top of her head "You have a big heart, Aria, and that's what we love about you."
Aria slightly smiles as she stares down at the realm crystal. The others return to Stiix as Wu and Aria landed back. The ninja and Reika ran up to her cheering, before piling into a group hug
"You were amazing!" Kai shouts
"The Preeminent was like 'grrr' you were like 'bitch' and she was 'ahhhh'" Jay says
The ninja all just stared at him.
"Ok," Reika turns to the group "I think Jay's brain has reached max compacity."
"Really good job Aria," Nya smiles
"You too Nya," Aria says "I saw you use that big wave to push the boat away and you reached your true potential, it's amazing."
"Oh yeah.. I mean.. I'm not that great," Nya rambles embarrassed
"You really did save the day," Zane says
"Well I'm not done yet." Aria lifts up the realm crystal in her hands.
The ninja stare at her as Aria tosses the crystal into the sky, it glows and a portal opens, out came Lloyd. Aria catches the crystal and it stops glowing.
"Lloyd, you made it" Misako says happily
"And so did all of you" Lloyd looks at them
Zane smiles "Good to have you back. You just missed—"
"Oh, I know what I missed. I caught a glimpse of what would happen next" Lloyd grabs the Sword of Sanctuary "and knew Morro had to return alone. Just 'cause I'm the Green Ninja, doesn't mean I have to save the day. Especially when I have friends to rely on."
Misako smiled "And that's why destiny chose you."
"The cursed realm is gone," Aria looks down "and that means Sensei's gone too."
"I know," Lloyd wraps his arm around her "but he's in a better place now Aria."
Aria looks at Lloyd and Reika "I saw him, he wanted me to say he loves us."
Reika tears up and hugs Aria. Lloyd smiles as he kept his arm around Aria's shoulders.
"Thank you," Lloyd lays his head against Aria's head.
Aria nods as she rubs Reika's back. Reika wipes her eyes and stands next to Aria as the Ninja stand behind the three.
"Some of us may look a little different" Cole gestors to himself "but like our team, some things never change."
Nya nods "And if they do.. that's okay. Sometimes, we just need to go with the flow."
"Cause even if the path isn't always straight, we go forward, with confidence, because we trust where we're headed" Kai says
"Yeah, and speaking of where we're headed, I've been dying to know. What are the other Realms like, Lloyd?" Jay asks "C'mon, spill it. We hafta know what we're saving, right?"
"Let's just say, the future looks bright for Ninjago" Lloyd replies taking Aria's hand "and for all of us"