All of the elemental masters had been flying on the back of their new elemental dragons to return to Ninjago City to stop Chen. Chen had a day's head start since they had to go back because they forgot Darreth on the island. However, when they arrived in the city, people took one look at Skylar and Garmadon in their snake forms and they all ran away screaming. There was no sign of Chen which begs the question, why hasn't Chen attacked yet? Lloyd had the other elemental masters stick together and watch over the city while he, the ninja, and Tina got Skylar and Garmadon off the streets. Tina quickly transformed back into her human form.

She noticed that the spell was slowly wearing off when she saw Skylar's hand turn back to normal. The ninja took Tina, Skylar, and Garmadon took the Samurai X cave. Zane's falcon was so happy to see him along with Wu and Misako. She was a little startled to see her husband as a snake. "Don't worry, the spell is wearing off. But that also means that makes Chen more desperate to act now." Tina stated.

Kai just gave Tina an eye roll; she introduced herself to Wu and Misako as Zane's adopted sister. Kai only introduced Skylar who was exempted into their group. With the other masters on standby, the ninja needed to know where Chen would strike first and if they didn't show up to stop him then Ninjago would succumb to war. The only problem was that they hardly knew anything about the Anacondrai. Just bits and pieces of info; all of the real Anacondrai died in their tomb. Just then, the falcon opened a file on the monitor about a prison which caught Wu's attention. They knew someone who knew more about the Anacondrai in that prison.

The ninja, Garmadon, Wu, and Tina headed to Kryptarium Prison, home to Ninjago's worst of the worst. They were invited inside by the warden, but he had all of their weapons confiscated since he was trying to foster a more peaceful environment. The warden deactivated the security system and then brought them all to the more dangerous part of the prison where most of the ninja's enemies were in. They walked past several cells until the warden led them to the last cell on the left. He walked away after opening the door. When the ninja walked in, all that was in the cell was a mini doll house.

"A doll house?" Tina asked, "Who exactly is going to help us?"

She heard a small high-pitched voice talking when Lloyd said that they needed help. Cole grabbed the doll house and turned it around, inside was a tiny white snake with an attitude. That was Pythor, the last remaining Anacondrai and he wasn't pleased that Chen and his cult are now Anacondrai imposters. He must know how to stop Chen, but he wasn't willing to help until they figured out how to make him big again. But he wasn't willing to trust a ninja. "Would you trust a snake?" Garmadon asked.

The second Pythor saw Garmadon, he was now willing to make a deal. Zane seemed to be more on edge since Pixel told him to be on his guard because someone was poking around the database on Pythor. Pythor only wanted them to get the spell book and make him big then he would tell them the weakness of the Anacondrai. Unfortunately, the speaker announced that two Anacondrai had broken into the prison. Pythor was freaking out about the Anacondrai, screaming that there was no escaping one. Pythor was freaking out about the Anacondrai, screaming that there was no escaping one. 

He tried to hide by covering his head with the lampshade. Garmadon was impatient "Tell me! How do we stop them? What is their weakness?" he asked.

"Don't you get it?! There is no weakness! They're Anacondrai!" Pythor screamed.

The two Anacondrai soldiers came into the prison; Kai, Jay, and Cole ran to fight them. Just as Garmadon was about to grab Pythor, Tina already grabbed him. "We need to get Pythor out of here," she stated.

"Why?" Zane asked.

"Chen needs him to make the spell permanent. The spell was dark magic, so it needed the essence of the real form. And since Pythor is the last real Anacondrai, Chen needs his essence." Tina answered.

"Tina's right, we have to get him out of here." Lloyd stated, "If he's the key to preventing a war, we can't let him fall into the wrong hands. Literally."

"Oh, I get it, it's literal because of my size. Ha, ha. Very funny." Pythor said, sarcastically. "But I'm a little sensitive to all the size references."

"Oh really? A little sensitive?" Tina said with a smirk.

"Okay, I stepped right into that one," Pythor stated, 

Zane went to help the others with the snakes but that was when the alarms went off. The prison was going into lockdown. Tina gave Wu and Garmadon a fake Pythor to escape the prison with, while she would use her magic to teleport her, Lloyd, and the real Pythor to a new location that Chen didn't know about. As soon as Garmadon and Wu left to escape the prison; Tina used her magic to get herself, Lloyd, and Pythor far away from the prison. They ended up somewhere in the city's alleyways. Tina had the boys follow her since she knew a place where they could hide out. She led them to the abandoned homeless shelter that she had been staying in.

Tina made sure that the coast was clear before opening the door to the shelter and letting herself and the boys in. "What a dump," Pythor commented.

"Better than a prison. And for the record, this is my place. Make yourselves at home." Tina stated.

She managed to pull out her book of spells to try and find at least something that could help defeat Chen. Pythor revealed something that changed Lloyd and Tina's view on the Serpentine War. The old Anacondrai Generals had every intention of honoring the truce but Chen told them that the humans were going to betray them. Chen had told Wu and Garmadon that the Anacondrai were going to betray them. Chen had played both sides just to cause chaos. Lloyd placed Pythor down on the bed which was old and worn out. He walked over to where Tina was reading her spell book and offered to help her look for a solution.

His hand touched Tina's as she continued looking through her book. She looked up from her book to see Lloyd looking worried for her. "If you're going to ask me something, go ahead," she said in a calming voice.

"Would you join us on the bounty?" Lloyd asked.

Tina stared at him looking confused, "What do you mean?"

"You're alone here. And I know we agreed to keep our new relationship a secret but, what if you stayed with us? I mean, you would get to be with your brother again and we could hang out more." Lloyd explained while his cheeks turned red.

Tina took his hands into her own, then she gave him a small kiss on the cheek, "You know if I agree to this, then Kai will have your head." Tina said.

"I'm willing to risk it," Lloyd stated.

"Ugh! Any more of this sweetness and I'm gonna be sick!" Pythor said, rudely. "We're supposed to be focusing on Chen. I don't need to remind you that those charlatans are ruining the true Anacondrai's true nature."

"That's it! Pythor, you're a genius!" Tina shouted before turning back to her book.

She showed them a page in her book that has a spell that can deliver a message to the former Anacondrai generals in the cursed realm. If they knew the truth about what happened during the war, then they might help against Chen. But before they could even start the message; something grabbed Pythor, one of the soldiers. Tina and Lloyd tried to fight back but another soldier grabbed Tina and they escaped with them. "Zane is gonna kill me," Lloyd muttered.

Chen managed to get all of the essences that he needed from Pythor and now his soldiers were full Anacondrai. He put Pythor in a cage with a hamster wheel and even used a swamp rat to make him run and sweat out enough essence. He had a plan to trick the ninja, but he made sure that Tina couldn't figure it out. Back at the Samurai X cave, all of the ninjas had returned when Nya had told them that twenty noodle trucks were heading for the city. Lloyd was the last one to arrive at the cave; he was so sure that Zane was going to have his head. 

When Zane asked him where Tina was, Lloyd confessed that they got ambushed and the Anacondrai took Tina and Pythor. This was the first time he had seen Zane incredibly angry. Zane pinned LLoyd to the wall of the cave with murder in his nindroid eyes. "You let my sister get captured?!" he shouted.

"I swear, we didn't see them. We'll get her back." Lloyd said, nervously.

Thankfully, Zane released him, but Lloyd also saw Kai almost smiling at him. Everyone split up to deal with the truck, but it turned out to be a diversion. Chen tricked them by pulling them so far away from his attack. Their greatest fear had come true, the next Serpentine War had just begun.