"Alright! You win". Tang's words echoed in Jiang's mind as she watched hold his hand eye out. Then his eyes began to glow, and Jiang clutched her chest, letting out a strained groan as it felt like something was literally being pulled from her body.

Then, the feeling increased as the Rings caught on fire. The same fire Jiang had seen surrounding the little child. Her heart ached as Mei cried out in a fearful voice, "No! Wait! I want to get off this ride!".

Then, a bright beam of golden light erupted from the center of the circle. "Yes!" Macaque said before turning his head as something appeared in the sky, coming in at a fast pace. "Stop!" Wukong yelled, but he was too late.

Mei let out a sharp cry of pain, and her body was engulfed in a ball of dark red flames. A harsh wave of heat expanded from her, and the ice that was still buried in Jiang's arm, and well as keeping her pinned, finally went away. Jiang collapsed out of sheer exhaustion, and that made her come to a realization.

It had been her own energy that was drained to essentially provide fuel for the ritual. "Jiang! Kid!" She heard Wukong call. Hearing him call out to her brother made Jiang raise her head, and she looked over.

Sheer relief flooded through her body as she saw her brother slowly getting up. "MK!" She cried out. The boy looked up, blinking away the haze in his eyes, then he zeroed in on Mei.

He shot up to his feet. "What's happening?! Don't worry, I'm coming for ya! Someone get some water! Stop tuck and roll Mei" He cried. "MK, wait!" Jiang cried out as her brother flung himself towards Mei.

Thankfully, Wukong tackled the boy away, and set him down on his feet. "Mere water cannot extinguish the Samadhi Fire. Nothing can" Nezah called as he appeared on the scene. Jiang managed to get to her feet, panting slightly at the effort the simple action seemed to take while holding her injured arm as Nezah freed Pigsy and Sandy.

"The Fire will destroy this girl. And burn everything in its path" the Lotus Prince added. "What?!" Mei cried out. "Yeah! What?!" MK agreed.

Jiang watched as Wukong turned his gaze towards Macaque. "You! You ruined everything!" He cried as he rushed towards the edgy Monkey. Macaque suddenly looked, scared?

He placed his hands on the rock behind him and tried to disappear into one of his shadow portals, but Wuking landed beside it, and thrust his hand in. When he pulled it out, his hand was wrapped tightly around Macaque's throat. And in a second, he had Macaque on his knees, gripping the hand that was on his throat.

"I didn't do, this!" He cried, referring to Mei's current situation. "Well, you weren't not involved!" Wukong snapped as he drew his fist back. Macaque closed his eyes and turned his head away.

However, before Wukong could land the hit, "Stop! It was me!" Tang cried, making everyone look at him. "I mean, yeah, Macaque forced me to do it, and I'm definitely starting to have second thought on the whole thing now, but, I don't know how, and I don't know why, but it felt like I had to. Like it was, destiny" Tang said. Jiang watched as Wuking had an internal battle with himself before he finally let go of Macaque, letting him fall to the ground.

"I hate to interrupt, but can someone explain, what is going on? What's happening to Mei?!" MK cried out. Jiang watched as a strange look crossed Wukong's face. "Wukong?" She asked.

"Okay, this is going to sound really bad, but hear me out" the ginger monkey said. "Wukong, what have you done?" Nezah asked him. "I made a mistake. During the ritual, a piece of the Samadhi Fire got away from me. I don't know what happened to it, but I guess part of it was sealed in the closest vessel that could contain it. My loyal companion, the White Horse Dragon, Ali Ei" Wukong admitted.

"Mei's great, great, great, a thousand times great grandfather!" Sandy cried. Then, all the pieces of the puzzle came together in Jiang's mind. "Making Mei the fourth Ring!" She and MK chorused.

And that knowledge seemed to make something snap in their best friend. "You, knew! All along, you knew I had this, thing, inside of me!" Mei cried. "Mei! Hang on a second!" MK called out as he joined Wukong.

There was another sudden blast of heat that was stronger than the first. "And you hid it from all of us. Why? What were you afraid of? That you'd have to tear me apart to get your precious Samadhi Fire?!" Mei screamed out the last part, and a continuous blast of heat exploded from her. Nezah shielded, well, Sandy shielded him Pigsy, and Tang while Wukong shielded MK and Wukong.

"Jiang!" MK cried out. Jiang raised her arms up to protect herself but, surprisingly, nothing happened. Looking up, Jiang was shocked to see the fire going around her like it was with Wukong and Sandy.

She only felt the force of it pushing against her. Along with the heat. "What?" She breathed, but her attention was quickly caught when Wukong began to speak.

"This wasn't supposed to happen. I thought if I could somehow get the Samadhi Fire out of you, without hurting you of course, then I could put it inside myself, then, I don't know, use it to burn up the Lady Bone Demon or something? I was kinda making this up as I went-" Wukong explained before Nezah cut him off with a, "That was your plan?!". "That's, not a good plan!" MK cried. "Wukong, what the hell were you thinking?!" Jiang yelled.

"Yeah, to be honest, this is the first time I've said it out loud, so-" Wukong said before he was interrupted by another powerful wave of force and heat. Mei's dragon, which was now colored red, made its appearance. "We trusted you! All of us! And some of us even loved you!" Mei cried.

At that, Jiang glanced over at Wukong, and her eyes met his gold ones. For a moment, there was realization in his eyes, and Jiang looked away from him, then looked back at Mei, who continued. "How could you lead us into this fight without a real plan?! Time, and time again, I've watched you put Jiang and MK in danger, leaving them to figure out everything on their own! Don't you realize your hurting the people who care about you the most?!" The girl sobbed.

And the wave of heat and pressure grew even more. "She's completely out of control! If there's a time to go, its now!" Jiang heard Macaque shout over the din. "No!" She and MK chorused.

"Mei is our best friend!" Jiang shouted. "We'd never abandon her when she needs us!" MK cried. "Thats what real heroes do! Stick up for one another!" Jiang called out.

She watched as Macaque went wide eyed for a second. Then he took a step back, and disappeared into a shadow portal. "Macaque is right. We must leave. There's no saving the girl!" Nezah called out.

Jiang sighed, then went wide eyed herself as MK put himself in the brunt of the flames, despite Wukong's attempts to hold him back. "MK! For the love of everything, please try to be careful!" Jiang called out to him. Her brother waved her off, then began to approach Mei, battling against the harsh waves of heat she was letting off.

"Mei, you have to stop! I know your upset, and that's okay! Me and Jiang know what it's like to have a power you don't know how to control. To feeling the fate of the world is in your hands and you have no idea, what to do. But you always had our back, and help us through it. We will figure this out together!" MK cried as he slowly inched closer to Mei. And on the last word, he lunged forward, and pulled the dragon girl into a hug. And just like that, everything stopped. The force, the heat, the fire, all of it.

Jiang panted a bit, then her heart broke as Mei's quiet sobs echoed throughout the place as she hugged MK back. "She controlled the fire? This, is impossible" Nezah said, sounding shocked. A small flame appeared behind Mei, and though it disappeared as quickly as it came, she still pushed MK back.

"Mei" Jiang called as she got closer. "No, I can't. I don't want to hurt you. Any of you. I'm sorry" Mei said as she floated up into the air, engulfed in flames, before shooting away. "Mei!" MK called out in a voice that shattered Jiang's heart even more before he began to fall backwards.

His sister was too far away to catch him, but she was grateful when Sandy and the others did. Jiang watched as Wukong turned away, an unreadable expression on his face, then she looked back as MK stood up on his own. "We have to go after Mei!" He said.

"Kid! Your in no state to be going anywhere" Pigsy told him. "But the Samadhi Fire-!" Jiang starred to say before she was cut off. "Should've burned the dragon girl to ash by now. And yet it hasn't. Which is curious" Nezah said.

"What do you mean? You know, for people not paying attention" Sandy asked him. "It means there was method to Sun Wukong's madness after all" Nezah told them as he glanced over at the Monkey demon. "If she can learn to control the fire, the perhaps its power could truly be used to defeat the Lady Bone Demon" he added.

"So all we gotta do is get Mei some fire training? That's easy! All the more reason to go after her!" MK said. "There's no time for that. Now that the Samadhi Fire's forged, the Lady Bone Demon will stop at nothing to obtain it. If we show up unprepared we might as well hand Mei over to her right now! No. I'm gonna do what I should've done originally. Stop the Lady Bone Demon, alone" Wukong told them. "Wukong, no! She's much more powerful now than she was when you last faced her. You'd practically be handing yourself over to her! Besides, you told us that the Samadhi Fire was the only thing that could take her down!" Jiang cried.

"Jiang, I know what I said!" Wukong snapped at her, and Jiang couldn't help but feel a little hurt. Wukong sighed before continuing. "I've beaten her before! I'll do it again! Mei was right. I need to stop dragging you into my fights. All of you. I'm sorry Jiang, but I need you and your brother to sit this one out" Wukong said before he hopped down from where he was standing.

He disappeared for a second, then reappeared, shooting away on his cloud. "Wukong!" Jiang cried out. She began to tear up, but quickly blinked them away.

She had to stay strong. She didnt have a choice on that matter. "If one more of my friends flies off today, I'm gonna lose it! The only way we win is together! That's Monkey King 101!" MK yelled.

Jiang turned around to face her friends as Nezah zipped over to them. "If Wukong fights the Lady Bone Demon alone, the chances of him surviving are slim" he said as he came to a stop. "And what are the chances of Mei not destroying everything in existence with the Samadhi Fire?" Jiang asked him.

"Uh, less, slim?" Nezah answered her. "Then its settled. We gotta go bring Monkey King back" MK said. "Before the idiot destroys himself" Jiang added.

Everyone gave her a look. "What?" She asked. "Admit it kid. You like him" Pigsy told her.

"It is, blatantly obvious" Nezah added. "What, no, I... Ugh, fine. Yes. I may or may not have developed some feelings for the bastard during this entire journey. Now can we please move on to more pressing matter at hand right now?!" Jiang admitted. "You guys go. We'll only slow you down" Tang said with an encouraging smile.

"Yeah, the three of us will fire up the old T.E.A. and track down Mei" Sandy added. "Go show em what your made of kids" Pigsy told them. Sandy then trapped them all in a group hug.

"I just love you guys so much!" He cried. MK and Jiang shared a look and a chuckle. Then, they all parted ways.

Jiang and MK, after getting him a new jacket, hopped into Nezah's jet and took off. And Sandy, Tang, and Pigsy got into the van to go after Mei. All the while, Jiang was desperately hoping that they would be there in time.