6 months ago...

Merlok frowned, watching the statue of Clay. He couldn't believe that this had befallen his nephew. He hadn't been able to find a cure in time, even with Ava and Robin's help. He let out a depressing sigh. He had been watching the battle over the monitors. And he had been even more surprised to see his own sister now in Monstrox' army.

Ava and Robin stepped up to him. "Merlok..." they began. Merlok could see they were both upset. Ava looked worried and Robin's nose was red an his eyes puffy. He had been crying.

"We have this project we've been working on," Robin said.

"We were going to tell you earlier but..." Ava's eyes wandered and Robin looked down.

Ava pushed her tablet in Merlok's direction. "It's a defense program," she said.

"We're calling it the Merlok Power Protical," Robin explained. "It takes the best Nexo Powers and spells in your database and turns it into seven different powers," he said. "And they're physical. Just in case something were to happen to you. So they can only be used in the most dire of circumstances."

Merlok forced a smile and nodded. "I'll install it, but hopefully we'll never have to use it."

Present...

Jestro could hear fighting just above his jail cell. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. He looked up. "What is going on up there?" he asked himself. A few guards ran by the cell as if on cue. They drew up their weapons and rushed themselves out of thw dungeon. Jestro looked across the hall to where Arnaldi was in another cell. "What do you think?" Jestro asked.

Arnaldi shrugged, distracted. Holding onto the bars, he looked around the corner, searching for any guards. "I'll cut a deal with you, Jestro," he said in his accent. Jestro watched him confused. "The guards are gone, making this the perfect time to escape. Not to mention the power's out. We can escape together and you can help me come up with a plan to take down the king again," Arnaldi said.

Jestro was taken back. "What! No! Look at the mess that happened when we were evil. You really still want to do that?" he said.

Arnaldi narrowed his eyes. "Si! He had me banished and disgraced my art!" Arnaldi said.

Jestro rolled his eyes, holding his head in his hand. "And I thought I overreacted," he mumbled. Arnaldi shot him a look. Then he pushed open his cell door. The door was unlocked as the locks had been electronic. Arnaldi started to leave the dungeon. Jestro bit his lip. He didn't want to be evil again, but he didn't want to be left alone either. He swung open his cell door and ran after the sculptor.

"Wait! Arnaldi!" he called.

Arnaldi spun around to face him. He smirked. "So, you will come work for me, former boss?" he asked hopeful.

"Heck no! I'm just..."

Arnaldi raised an eyebrow.

"I'm scared of the dark, alright?" Jestro admitted, fists clenched. Arnaldi snickered. "What? It's not that funny!" Jestro snapped. Arnaldi stopped laughing and gestured for Jestro to keep walking.

"Alright, Jestro the terrible," Arnaldi said. When Jestro walked far enough ahead of him, he added, "scared of the dark."

...

Ava sat on the roof of the palace. She blew her bangs out of her face. The wind nipped at her and she hugged herself. She had the chills as she rubbed her arms. Looking over the courtyard, she frowned. The knights were still fighting off those... creatures. Ava was scared, but she would never admit it. Show no emotion and you can't get hurt. The only ones she ever opened up around were Merlok and Robin.

She took her laptop and opened it up. The screen glowed while it loaded. She let out a breath, visible from the cold. She began to talk to herself. "Just fix the power, get a Nexo scan, save the kingdom, again, and it'll all go back to how it was." She closed her eyes, thinking. She could do this.

She opened her eyes and the computer had started up. Allowing a smile to cross her face, she began work. No sooner had she pressed a key than a robotic spider crawled on her computer. She gasped with a jump. She tried to smack it away but instead it just crawled on her hand. Her eyes widened and she jumped to her feet, letting her laptop drop in the process. After flinging away the spider, she ran after her laptop, which was now sliding off the roof.

"No, no, no, no," she cried frantically, chasing it down the roof slope. It was inches away from falling off the roof. She jumped for it as it reached the edge. It tipped off, like a seesaw. It began to fall, but she caught it out of the air. Her elbows hit hard on the shillings, but she sucked up the pain. Her thumb hit a key, causing a video to play.

It was Merlok, glowing orange, with a blue background behind him. "If anyone's getting this, this is a prerecorded message!" he said. He sounded worried. Ava tilted her head confused. "What is this?" she asked. The video continued playing.

"Nexo knights, we don't have much time! Monstrox has found a way to turn himself into a di- di-" Merlok was interrupted as he began to glitch. He glitched into a green figure Ava couldn't really make out. She breathed heavily, still holding the computer at the edge of the roof. She was on her stomach.

"Digital virus so can infect all of Knighton and-" Merlok was glitching once again. Ava watched the video, trying to make sense of it. "Hack into our system," the wizard said between glitches. Ava let out a gasp. Seven golden Nexo shields appeared around him. "I have initiated the Merlok Power Proditcal to assist you in the coming battle," he explained.

Ava frowned. She knew what that meant.

Suddenly, Merlok transformed into the green hooded figure. His voice changed drastically as he said, "Oh no you don't!" Ava gasped, recognizing the voice as Monstrox. Merlok fought back against him strongly. The Merlok powers were still loading behind him. Finally, Merlok preformed a spell, sending the powers out. Then the video ended.

Ava grabbed the laptop and pulled herself back on the roof. She frantically pressed buttons on the keyboard. "No! Wait! Magic man!" she shouted, her lip quivering. "Merlok!"

She melted on the floor, her eyes glistening with tears. She quickly wiped her eyes and sucked up her sadness. She began work on the laptop again, trying to get the power back on. Her eyes wandered to the knights. They were fighting down below.

Ava stopped. They were depending on her, waiting for a Nexo power, but even if she got the power back on, they wouldn't have one. It was hopeless. She continued working, but while she did, a spider crept into her bag.

...

Clay kicked one tech monster in the cheat, knocking him back. He stood next to Macy, their backs against each other. "I hope Ava can get us a power soon, or we're done for," she said. Clay nodded, watching her back. He stiffened when he saw a woman beyond the hoard of monsters. She had electric blue hair and was made of stone. Clay's face dropped. "Mother?" he said under his breath.

Aaron took his spot behind Macy as Clay went up to Ruina. "Mother, what are you doing here!" he gasped, standing a few feet away.

She put a hand on her hip. "Taking over the kingdom, my boy, what else?" she smirked.

Clay was almost in disbelief. "I- I thought I lost you, along with all the other statues," he said. Ruina blew her hair out of her face and stepped closer to him.

"I have my magic," she said, gesturing to her wand. She put a hand on Clay's shoulder. He stood with his mouth open, unsure of what to say.

"What happened to you? Why are you doing this," he asked pleadingly.

Wanda smirked, rubbing her hand through his hair. "Let's talk somewhere a bit more private, shall we?" she said. Before Clay could protest, she raised her wand. A soft blue colored smoke formed around them.

When the smoke cleared, they were out in a forest. Clay looked around startled. He could still see the palace, causing his to calm down a bit. He turned back to his mother.

"Where are we?" he asked, clutching his sword tight. She walked circles around him. "The woods just outside the palace. I thought it would be easier to talk without the sound of fighting in the background," she said. Clay followed her with his eyes.

"Why, mother?" he began.

She twirled her finger in her hair. "Heh, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. And I know that my dumb brother probably won't ever tell you either. I don't know why you're so mad at me when he's the one keeping secrets from you," she said.

Clay took a step back. "I'm- I'm not mad at you, I just don't understand why. Just tell me," he said, his hands clenched in fists.

"Well, the reason I'm like this, the reason you were raised as an orphan, the reason my own brother betrayed me, turning me to stone, is..." She pushed her hair back, giving Clay a glare. He tensed up, scared for what she would say next. "You."

Clay stiffened, looking her in the eyes for any sign she was lying. "What?"

"You did this to me Clay."

"H-how? When? It's impossible!" he gasped. She stepped up to him, putting a hand on his cheek.

"Oh, my sweet, innocent child," she said, smiling maliciously. "There's so much you don't remember. You may think you're the good, rule following, by the book, orderly boy everyone thinks you are," she said. "But you're not. Not even in the slightest."

Clay looked down at his feet. "Stop it," he said.

"Though I don't blame you. There was also the Gray Knight to ruin your reputation too," she said, holding his shoulders from behind.

Clay froze at the mention of the Gray Knight. "I-I'm not the Gray Knight."

Ruina leaned against her staff. "When you first go to magic school, the first rule is always this: even after you've cured a spell, there will always be some part left in you."

"You're lying!" Clay snapped. "I'm not the reason you're evil and I'm not the Gray Knight!"

Ruina smirked. "Look at yourself Clay. You'll never get over the things you've done. Defying the knights' Code. Hurting your friends. Threatening the princess," she said. She clicked her tongue. "That last one especially. I see the way you look at her," she said, softly.

Clay snapped. "Enough!" he shouted, shooting a beam of magic from his hand. She moved out of the way and he sliced a tree vertically, right down the middle. Ruina grinned as the tree fell over in two. Clay gasped at what he had done, looking down at his glowing arm.

"You are still the Gray Knight," she said, referring to his anger.

Clay breathed heavily, glancing from her to his arm. "I- I-" he stuttered. His heart raised and his head spun with memories of his time as stone. He shut his eyes defiantly.

He looked to Ruina. She lifted up her staff, sending more blue smoke. It surrounded the blue knight. "Wait. Wait!" he called, taking a step forward. But when the smoke cleared, he was back at the palace.

"Clay!" Macy called him back to reality. He spun around to see her. She was holding of a monster, but she was looking at him. "You alright?" she asked, a look of worry on her face. He nodded speechless. She watched him a moment before deciding to drop it.

...

Running through the palace, Jestro and Arnaldi came to the door. Arnaldi held the door for the jester. He stepped outside to find an army of tech monsters. Jestro outside hesitant. Arnaldi went ahead of him. "What are you waiting for? Come on!" he said.

Jestro looked from the fight to Arnaldi. "The palace is under attack!" he said.

"Si, that is why it is the perfect time to escape!"

Jestro stood still. "Come on, let's go," Arnaldi said impatiently. "What did they ever do for you?"

"A lot, actually. Clay was my first friend, Macy was always nice to me, Lance got me a job, Axl shared his lunch with me in school, Aaron-" Jestro said.

"Alright, I get it!" Arnaldi cut in. "But you've already chosen your side."

Jestro shook his head. "No, I didn't. Monstrox did. But I'm done!" he said, running into the fight. Arnaldi face palmed. Then he went on. If Jestro wanted to go, let him.

19 years ago...

"I know what I'm doing! I'm not a little girl anymore!" Wanda shouted. She angrily stepped downstairs, Merlok following her.

"But Wanda! You know the rules!" he said.

When she reached the bottom of the staircase, spinning to face him. "And it's a risk I'm willing to take. Why can't you trust me!" she steamed, her hands balled in fists. She stomped to the front door, raking her light blue purse. She blew her deep brown bangs out of her face.

"Wandy, listen to me. What would mom and dad think?" Merlok said. He took her hand.

"Well, they're not, okay!" she snapped.

Merlok took a step back. "Wandy, I-"

"Quit calling me that!" she shouted, turning to face him. "I'm a grown woman! Mom and dad are gone, and you're not my parent."

There was a moment of silence between the siblings. Finally, Wanda said, "I'm done."

Merlok looked up. "Wait. Wanda," he said sternly. She put her hand on the doorknob. "Wanda, you step out that door and you are no longer allowed in this house!" he said upset. She glared at him.

"Fine. And don't even think about coming to the wedding." Then she left.

Present...

Rift snuck through the castle halls. The power was still out so it was easy. After finding himself going in circles, he stopped. "Now, where is the dungeon again?" he said to himself, putting his hands on his hip.

He had been there a dozen times before, and yet he still had no clue where anything was. He put his hand on the wall and followed along it, determined not to get lost. After a while, he soon came to a door. He took the handle. "Maybe this one?" he said under his breath, unsure.

He opened the door to find a dark room. The room was thin with a simple two way mirror on the wall. Next to the mirror was a door that led to another room. Through the mirror he could see what he had been looking for.

"Ace!" he said, stepping into the other room. The squire bot looked happy to see him, despite being tied to a chair. "What happened?"

"They interrogated me sir. Nothing terrible," Ace said.

"What did you tell them?" Rift asked, getting to work on untying the ropes. He wasn't very good at it though and if anything he was just making it tighter.

"Not much. Just a bit about you," Ace said.

Rift looked up at those words. "You didn't tell them about-"

"No, sir, I didn't. But you do know I'm programmed to obey the law," Ace pointed out.

Under his helmet, Rift smirked. "Yeah, I probably should've thought about that before I turned to a life of crime and joined up with Monstrox," he chuckled. After failing to untie the ropes for the tenth time, Rift threw his hands up in the air. "Why can't I untie this stupid thing!" he let out.

"Here, let me," Ace said, fiddling with the knot. In a matter of seconds, he had the ropes untied. The robot got to his feet and rubbed his wrists. "Done."

Rift stared at his partner. "You couldn't have done that before?"

"I'm-"

"Programmed to obey the law, yeah yeah."

...

Outside, the knights were still fighting the hoards of monsters. Lance and Clay ended up back to back, facing off against the green eyed freaks. "Is there a pause button to this? I'm getting kind of exhausted," Lance said, kicking at a monster. He held up his shield to block anymore attacks while he caught his breath.

"We can't go on like this forever," Clay put in. "We need a strategy."

"Of course you would say that," Lance said, rolling his eyes. Clay took out a monster coming on Lance's left.

They went on fighting, Clay's mind searching for a plan. His eyes darted around the battle field, looking for a solution. He bit his lip as he stared at Ruina. She was off on the sidelines, simply enjoying the fight and staying out of harm's way. Clay's face turned red with anger at the sight of this, but he pushed it away. For now he had to keep his head in the game.
A lightbulb went off in Clay's head. "Hey Lance! How do you kill a snake?" he said, looking back at his teammate.

Lance just shrugged, fending off another monster. "Now's not really the time for a riddle," he said.

"By cutting off its head," Clay said. "If we can take down Ruina, maybe we can get rid of the rest of these monsters."

"You'll never make it to her. There are too many monsters," Lance said.

Clay bit his lip. "All we need is a distraction."
Just then, an armored car drove through the horde of monsters blocking Clay's path. The car then crashed into the castle wall, releasing smoke.

"Never mind," Lance commented.

Clay ran to inspect the crash. He came to the car just as a certain jester fell out. Jestro stumbled around, rubbing his head a bit dazed.
"Jestro?" Clay questioned.

Jestro shook himself and smiled at Clay. "Hey Clayman," he said. "I found this in the garage and you needed help so..."

Clay smiled. "Glad to see you coming around to our side," he said.

Jestro gave him a thumbs up. "Now go save the castle."

Clay nodded before running off to find Ruina. It was relatively easy with the monsters cleared. Clutching his sword tightly, he confronted her. "Call your monsters off!" he demanded.

"Oh, well, since you asked nicely... No!" She raised her wand and shot an energy ball at him. He ducked and rolled to dodge it.

Clay ran at her with his sword. She blocked his blow with her staff. She pushed him back and swung at him. He jumped back and tried again with the sword. She let him have the upper hand for the moment. Then she used his inertia against him and slipped out from under him, letting him fall flat on his face.

She grinned, aiming her wand. She took another shot but he rolled out of the way. He kicked her legs out from under her and got to his feet. "You've lost mom," he said, standing over her.

She let out a laugh. "That's what you think. You're so naive," she said. She used her staff to get to her feet and continue the fight.

...

Ava was finishing up on getting the power back. She typed away. The further she got, the more hope rose inside her that they might win. She pressed a key, completing the process. She plugged a thumb drive into her laptop and waited for it to download.

"Now all I have to do is plug this into the power box and it's fixed!" she smiled. She shut her laptop to see a virus monster in her face. She jumped back with a yelp and dropped the computer. It slid off the roof and dropped onto the ground from stories high. It landed with a sharp crack. Ava winced.

The monster cane me closer for her. She jumped to her feet and took off, the monster following close behind her. She slid down the side of the roof, trying to get away fast. She ended up going faster than she intended, stumbling a bit. She just barely caught her balance long enough to jump back onto the balcony.

She landed on her feet and pain sprang through her body. She fell onto her chest, gasping for breath. She had her flash drive tucked tightly in her hand. The monster jumped to the balcony too.

It growled at her, making her heart race. She tried to crawl away but it kept coming closer. She searched around for something to defend herself with. Finally she decided on her shoe, taking it off and throwing it at the monster's face. It was stunned just long enough for her to get away.

She climbed to her feet and tried to run off. She found it difficult to do so with only one shoe. She stumbled a bit and finally just settled to lose her other shoe too.

Breathing heavily, she raced away to find the electrical box.

...

Clay pressed back against Ruina. She glared at him, struggling to hold him back. Clay tried to reason with her.

"Mother, this isn't you! Come on! Whatever happened to you, we can reverse it!" he said.
"Ha! That's what you think!" she spat, starting to overtake him. "You know, I wanted to be with you! I wanted you to join me! And when you were turned to stone, we could've had that!"

Clay narrowed his eyes. "Being the Gray Knight was the worst moment of my life!" he shouted, a new anger coming over him. He thrust her back hard with more strength than he intended.

She fell on her back and stared up at him, a smirk on her face. "Told you. You'll always be the Gray Knight," she said.

Clay avoided eye contact with her. He was just playing into her hand, but he wouldn't let her get to him.

Suddenly, the outside lights turned on, as did all the other electronics. Clay looked up and smiled. "Ava! She did it," he said. Then he turned back his attention to Ruina. "Call off the monsters."

Ruina smirked, getting to her feet. "Alright, fine. But only because I know when to quit. I'm not like that Monstrox that goes until he can't anymore. But let me tell you, this isn't over. I will be back and you will see I was right."

With that, she tapped her staff on the ground. All the monsters disappeared in a smoky cloud, sucking back into her wand. She stared Clay directly in the eyes. She mouthed one thing to him. You'll see.

Then she herself disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Clay stared back at his fellow knights. They all smiled, happy to be monster free. Except Clay. His mind remained on other things. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Clay? You good?" Macy asked. Clay shook himself and nodded.

The knights looked to see a palace guard taking Jestro. The guard held his hands behind his back and proceeded to handcuff him.

"Wait. What are you doing?" Clay asked the guard.

"Taking him back to the dungeon," the guard said.

"But we wouldn't have been able to fight the monsters off without him," Lance put in.
Jestro smiled at that. The guard tightened the cuffs, causing Jestro to make a face that showed he was obviously in pain. But he tried to hide it. The guard continued to take Jestro back inside.

"Don't worry, we'll get you a good lawyer," Lance called after him.

Ava came running out of the palace to meet them. "Ava! You did it!" Aaron said, ruffling her hair.

"Nice job," Axl put in.

"No time for that now. There's something important I have to show you!" she said.

...

Back at the Fortrex, Ava showed the knights and Robin Merlok's recording. They were all shocked.

"Merlok's gone?" Robin gasped.

"No, he can't be!" Macy said.

Ava sighed. "I'm afraid so. But not for good. If we can get the Merlok powers, we should be able to restore his programming."

"But not only that! Monstrox is back too!" Aaron put in.

"That explains the monsters and-" Axl said.

"My mom," Clay said distantly. He stared down at his glowing arm.

Macy put a hand on his knee. "Don't worry, we'll get him back," she said, smiling reassuringly. He put his hand on hers and squeezed it tight.

"Well, knights, it looks like we've got some Merlok powers to find."

Thanks for reading! Also, this is supposed to be like a season 5 for the show, so if there's anything from the promos you remember that I don't that you'd like to see in this, tell me.