A/N: Oh yeah, did I mention that they're not gonna have the elemental dragons? Personally I consider that a higher level of strength, and since they're at like season 1 level right now, I decided they wouldn't be able to unlock that yet. 

. . .

In the morning, Master Chen had all the remaining fighters loaded onto a blimp for the next round. Skylor was glad when Garmadon followed them on board. She wasn't sure what would happen next, but ever since he had arrived, she felt like their luck had changed.

Well, mostly. As the Elemental Masters crowded into the blimp's hull and the ship took off into the sky, she picked up on the dark glares and contemptuous sneers thrown back and forth. Skylor blamed herself for letting their brief alliance fall apart. If she would have just told them the truth . . . .

But despite the fact that she had told her friends about her heritage, she wasn't ready to reveal it to everyone. She didn't want everyone to know that Master Chen was her father. Somehow she felt that, by acknowledging her family, that made it more real than if she managed to ignore it. And if admitting to it made it true, if he was her father and she was his daughter – admitting to it would be like admitting she was like him.

Skylor didn't want to be like her father.

When she had first left the island, all she wanted was to get away for a while, to have a chance to be her own person. To her surprise, she found more than she had wanted, and even found a family with her fellow ninja. Now it felt like her father would stop at nothing to take that away. Being back home, she was starting to realize more and more how wrong her father was. She didn't want to let him ruin her new family with his schemes, and she didn't want to let him hurt any other families in Ninjago, either.

And yet . . . she still loved him. Was that wrong? If he was the bad guy and she was trying to defeat him, could she still love him? Did he still love her?

Skylor tried to push these thoughts aside as the blimp climbed higher in the air. This round was unexpected territory for her, and she needed to stay focused. At first glance, the blimp's cabin appeared to be spacious, but as she looked around, she could see that it wasn't big enough for all the hostility compressed inside.

Jay was currently glaring at Griffon across the aisle in a completely unnecessary macho staring contest. "What are you looking at, Zippy?" he asked.

"The next one out of the tournament," Griffon replied coolly.

Jay simply chuckled as if that was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard.

"What's wrong, Shadow?" Kai taunted. "Worried you're gonna lose?"

Shade curled his lip. "The only thing I'm worried about is how I'm gonna use all your elements when I win."

Kai was still giving Skylor the cold shoulder. But she was finished with trying to figure out what had come between them and just let him go. There were more important things to worry about. That was why she didn't tell him about the note she had found in her fortune cookie the day before.

At her father's feast, Skylor had happened to get a fortune cookie with a message from the Master of Earth saying that he and Zane were planning an escape. She supposed that he had been hoping it would reach Kai or Jay by chance, but it had just so happened to fall into her hands instead. Skylor had considered telling Kai about it, but he had been so finicky lately, she didn't think he'd want to hear anything from her.

Their alliance with Master Chen was becoming more confusing every day. If the boys were supposed to be allies with him, why would he have imprisoned Zane and Cole in the factory alongside the other fighters? What's more, it concerned Skylor to think that he may have taken their powers and the Golden Weapons. The longer this tournament continued, the stronger he was becoming. Then again, maybe it wasn't all that shocking that he would betray them. Skylor knew that her father would do just about anything to achieve his goal for power.

Skylor was stirred from her thoughts again when, next to her, Paleman whistled a crude tune. Seliel tensed on her other side, and Skylor managed to catch her fist before it could connect with his face.

"Ignore him," she said. "You know the rules." Seliel reluctantly lowered her fist, but Skylor knew that she was one to hold a grudge. She'd probably find a way to get back at him later on.

"Tensions are high," Garmadon observed.

Nya was looking out the window. "As high as us? Because you can hardly see the island from up here."

Skylor glanced out the window and found that there were tufts of cloud drifting below them, and in the wide blue blanket of the ocean lay a small shape like a green paint splatter.

"Know anything about this round?" Nya asked.

Skylor shook her head. "No, I don't remember anything about a blimp or even leaving the island at all. This must be new. I can't figure out what his plan is."

"I've had enough of this!" 

Skylor's attention was drawn when Neuro got up from his seat and rushed towards the front of the cabin. "I can't stand heights! Where's Chen?" He threw open the door to the pilot's area and gasped. Skylor leaned forward with the other fighters to see that the cabin was void of any people.

Just then, a screen centered on the control panel flickered to life, and an image of Skylor's father appeared.

"How do I know if this thing's on?" he was muttering to himself. The fighters all stood and made their way to the cockpit, curious. Skylor's father was having difficulty understanding the video system, and Skylor felt embarrassed by his incompetence. It's not like it was hard. Not like executing a triple back flip or anything.

The camera was zoomed in close and his headdress blocked out most everything else. Based on the lighting, however, she would have guessed that he was outside.

He was still mumbling to himself when he finally seemed to realize that the camera was going. "Oh, I'm on? Right now? Ahem." Skylor's father tried to right himself and regain his dramatic air. "Hello, final ten. I see that you are all eager for the tournament to commence so one of you can win my Staff of Elements! Instead of fighting for a Jadeblade, today you will be fighting for something different." On-screen, Skylor's father pressed a button and the image changed to a bird's-eye-view of the jungle. The screen zoomed in on a figure, and the girls gasped.

"Lloyd," their sensei whispered.

"We have an uninvited guest on the island," Skylor's father said.

"Chen!" Garmadon shouted. "What have you done with Misako?"

Skylor's father waved a hand dismissively. "She's fine, fine. No elemental powers to take, anyway. Now, if you don't mind, I was about to explain the rules to the competitors." He cleared his throat before continuing. "Find the boy and you will automatically move on . . . to the final round!"

"That's what this is about?" Nya asked in a hushed voice. "Finding Lloyd?"

"If everyone is trying to hunt him down, he won't stand a chance," Skylor said. She had been certain that Lloyd and Misako would have made it off the island by now, but something must have gone wrong. She looked to Kai, wondering if he knew anything about this, but his expression gave nothing away.

Seliel was reaching for her hood. "Oh yes he does. He's got us." She tugged her mask over her face and the rest of them did the same.

"In ten seconds the bottom will drop." The fighters gasped. This high in the air? Even Skylor had to wonder what he was thinking. "But to show you I'm not a bad man, I've given you ten parachutes."

At his word, parachutes dropped from the cabin's ceiling behind the fighters. Then the floor slowly parted, and Skylor shoved through the other fighters as they all tried to grab a chute for themselves.

She only paused when she heard her father say, "Oh, that's right, Sensei Garmadon is there, too. Shoot, that makes eleven. Oh well, I was never good at math, heh. Toodle-oo!"

Great, Skylor thought. Now what? There weren't enough parachutes, but the girls had to save their Sensei, as well.

The floor was getting wider and wider, and Skylor couldn't stand up straight anymore. She felt her feet sliding on the tilted plane and she had to catch herself on the other side of the floor before she fell. Everyone was clinging desperately to both sides of the blimp's cabin as the open air gaped beneath them.

Skylor risked a look down at the island below. It was so far, she could have covered it with her thumb, if she wasn't already holding on for dear life. But they wouldn't be able to hold for much longer. Skylor braced herself as the floor inched further away and her fingers began to slip. But there was no use fighting it. Skylor took a deep breath, and as the floor stretched out of her grasp, she let go.

All at once the fighters dropped into the open air. The wind whipped into Skylor's face and through her hair as the parachutes, too, fluttered towards the ground around them. She tried to steady her racing heart. The shouting around her was almost drowned out by the wind roaring past her ears. The island still miles away, Skylor closed her eyes and tried to focus.

She needed a plan. Obviously the most important thing was to get herself a parachute –no! Her teammates needed chutes first. Seliel, Nya, and Sensei Garmadon. And herself. But there weren't enough. Once they had them, landing would be simple. Then they could track down Lloyd and regroup. After that, well, who knew what would happen?

All this went through Skylor's mind in an instant, and she flicked her eyes open again.

A couple of fighters had already caught a parachute and now floated high above her head. There was a chute not far from her, and she stretched out one hand to grab it. But just as her fingers grazed the material, a figure whipped by with a maniacal laugh, snatching it away.

"Shade!" she yelled as his chute bloomed into view.

But there was no time to waste on anger. Skylor was scanning the open sky for another one when something knocked her on the head. She was dazed for a moment before realizing that it was another parachute. Skylor seized it without hesitation, then found one of her friends in the air.

"Seliel!" she called, though her words were likely taken by the wind before they could reach. She caught Seliel's eye and flung the pack to her. She could see her friend's shock, but didn't dwell on it and turned her attention away. They couldn't very well toss the chute back and forth until they both hit the ground.

Just as she spotted Nya in the distance, the water ninja pulled the string on her own pack and was buoyed safely up. That was two taken care of. Most of the other fighters had found their chutes by now, including Wu's ninja. Now she only needed to worry about herself and Garmadon.

Except that there still weren't enough chutes. And the island was drawing closer every second.

Think, she told herself, trying to remember what other resources she had available. Even if she had a weapon, it wouldn't be much use in this situation, and she doubted that Spinjitzu could lessen her fall. She couldn't even be sure that she could use her elemental power anymore. It had been two days since her fight with Zane, and his ice powers had to be waning.

Another parachute – the last, by the looks of it – fell through space between her and her teacher below. Skylor drew her arms in so that she could get closer to Garmadon and snatched up the chute on the way.

"We'll have to share it," she told him above the wind.

"They're only built for one," he answered and she knew he was right. He opened his mouth to say something else, and she could see in his eyes that it would be something she wouldn't like.

So she yanked on the string and shoved him away, along with her last chance. His cries of objection were carried away on the wind, so she ignored him, focusing on her own survival.

But she couldn't see a way out of this. Perhaps she had been a little too selfless.

Dad wouldn't let me die, she told herself, trying to believe it was true. She had betrayed him after all . . . but he still cared about her, right?

Skylor closed her eyes and tried not to think about the ground that was speeding towards her like a bullet. She tried to relax as much as possible. Her father wanted to play games, she could, too.

At least if this didn't work, she wouldn't have to suffer the disappointment.

Her heart pounded even faster as she waited, her survival instinct screaming at her that she was wrong and stupid and needed to find another way right now. But she refused to give in. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter, fighting the temptation to see how much closer she was. Seconds passed without her trying to slow her descent, and she could only imagine how her friends must feel, watching helplessly from above.

Skylor tried to have faith in her father, but it was really difficult with the earth rushing towards her and the wind roaring in her ears. Come on, Dad, come on! Every muscle in her body was tense, and no matter how hard she tried to stay calm, her breaths came rapidly. She was growing impatient, scared even – but she told herself that she had to stay strong.

Just then, she did feel something. Something cold washing over her, like plunging into the icy ocean at dawn. And she began to slow down. Skylor smiled and opened her eyes ever so slightly.

As she did, she broke through the canopy of trees. Skylor curled up, arms covering her head as branches snapped past and some poked and scraped at her clothes, but they, too, were helping to break her fall as she began to slow down considerably. Suddenly, she jerked to a stop mere inches above the ground.

Feeling very relieved and a bit cheeky, she called out, "Thanks, Dad!"

Then she was released and fell hard on the dirt ground. A few residual sparks of Clouse's magic flickered in the air like fireflies before winking out.

Seriously. Thank you. 

Skylor didn't want to waste any more time as she scrambled to stand on shaky feet and then dashed through the jungle. She felt energized after her near-death experience, and she hoped the adrenaline wouldn't wear off too soon. Most of all, she was thrilled to know, to have proven, that her father still cared about her. Despite all that had come between them, he wouldn't let anything happen to her. And best of all, now she knew that she was her own greatest weapon.