A/N: Whoooooah lookout, it's chapter THIRTY! How did we even get this far?? I think we only have like six chapters left after this. And things are definitely starting to pick up! Eeeee, I'm just so excited! Hope you enjoy this chapter!!

. . .

Kai was sure of only one thing: he'd had it with Chen.

Kai and Jay had gotten a brief overview of this round and how they were expected to help find the kid along with any other fighters, but Chen had said nothing about dropping them out of the sky. That guy was seriously a few logs short of a bonfire. Or maybe he just knew that Kai and Jay would have never agreed to it.

Either way, Kai was tired of working for him. He trudged through the jungle, grumbling to himself, hardly looking for anyone at all. What was Chen doing, having them track down some kid, anyway? Kai recognized him as Garamdon's son, the same kid he had seen with the girls when they were spying on them before. He had disappeared from the tournament altogether after that, and Kai had almost forgotten about him. The kid had probably just gotten loose and Chen was using this as a way to clean up his own mess.

Kai was broken from his thoughts when something rustled in the undergrowth nearby. He whirled around, eyes scanning for movement. He thought he glimpsed a face and pulled out his golden sword, the blade lit aflame. "Whoever's there, I'm fired up!" he called.

Skylor slowly emerged, removing her mask. "It's just me."

Of course. It just had to be her. Kai huffed as he turned away, extinguishing his sword as he went.

"Hey, wait up!" Skylor hurried after him. "This is silly. At least tell me why you're so upset. What did I do?"

Kai pulled up short and rounded on her. "You used me!" How could she not understand why he would be mad about that?

Skylor frowned. "What, you mean the kiss? You said it yourself before, I was just trying to win. Besides, you used Nya to get the Sword of Fire, remember?" she said, nodding to the sword in his hand. "How was that any different?"

"Because –" Kai paused, trying to think of a way to explain why it bothered him so much. Why he could be mad at her, and not the other way around. "Because . . . that was serious!" he said. "I had to get the sword. But this is all just a game to you."

"Of course it's not!" Skylor said, crossing her arms. "I did mean it."

Kai glared at her a while longer. A part of him wanted to believe her. But he couldn't trust anything she said anymore. "Did you?" he asked. "Or are you just saying that so you can get my element again?"

Skylor shook her head. "You know what? Fine. I don't have time for this, I need to find Lloyd."

She had started to turn away when Kai said, "So you do know the kid."

"Yes, and he is just a kid, who you're chasing through the jungle."

Kai shrugged and answered in a tone that bordered on mocking, "Well I'm just trying to win."

"Don't you see that this is wrong? How can you keep saying that we're the bad guys when you're the ones hunting down an innocent child?"

Kai hesitated. When she put it that way, it did sound kind of wrong. But he was just following orders – Chen's orders. And if Kai was right, Chen was a madman who couldn't be trusted – he was nothing like Master Wu. 

"I just thought that it was part of Chen's stupid game," he lied, scrambling to defend himself.

Skylor scoffed. "Don't try to play dumb. We already know that you've teamed up with my father to make sure we lose the tournament."

Kai was about to retort, but paused. Had she just said what he thought she said? ". . . Your father? Chen is –"

"Yeeeesss!" Skylor jumped at the sound of Chen's voice as he took shape nearby. "And now your time in the tournament is over, dear Skylor. Take her!"

Skylor bolted, but Kai was too shocked to follow. Chen rolled his eyes and, with a wave of his chromatic staff, a vine sprung up in front of Skylor, tripping her. It wrapped tightly around her foot as more vines snaked towards her. Kai wasn't sure what to do, he could only look on as Skylor tried to tear herself free. But the vines were too supple to break. Desperate, she tried to freeze a vine that coiled itself around her arm, but all she got were little spurts of frost.

Kai just couldn't watch. He had to turn away as shame flared up inside him. He had known, ever since the tournament started, that his mission was to capture Skylor and the rest of her teammates and present them to Master Chen so he could take their elemental powers away. And yet, he didn't want to be the one responsible for Skylor's fall. He felt like he had betrayed her just as he had betrayed Nya.

Maybe Skylor was right about him. Maybe he had become the bad guy.

. . .

It was already getting dark. The sun had disappeared behind the dense jungle trees and the light was fading. The air had grown cooler, and Nya was worried about how much more difficult it would be to find Lloyd after dark. He might be in even more danger if he was running around the jungle without being able to see well. It also concerned her that they hadn't run into any of their teammates yet either.

"Maybe he's hiding somewhere," she said as she and Sensei Garmadon pressed on. She didn't know why this thought gave her comfort. It would only mean they would have a harder time finding him. But at least it would mean he was probably safe as well.

Sensei Garmadon was silent for a long while. Nya wished she could give him some encouragement, but it was hard to think of anything she could say when it all just felt like lies. They didn't know where Lloyd was, they didn't know if someone had already found him or even if Seliel and Skylor were alright. It was hard not to let the hopelessness overtake her.

Finally, Garmadon said, "Chen didn't bring us out here so we could find Lloyd and take him home. There's something more going on here."

"But . . ." Nya hesitated. "What would be the point? We're already outnumbered. The chances that someone else could catch him first . . ." She didn't want to finish. The chances that someone else would find Lloyd first were higher than she wanted to admit.

Sensei Garmadon shook his head. "He wouldn't want to run that risk. This has to have been a distraction for something greater. Lloyd may be in danger, but so are we."

"Then . . . what is his plan?"

Garmadon didn't answer, but halted suddenly.

"What is it?" Nya whipped her head around, looking for any sign of danger. Then she followed her sensei's gaze to the distant trees, and a moment later, a figure came running towards them at breakneck speed. "It's Lloyd!"

"Dad!" he called out when he saw them. Coming out of the brush behind him, Nya saw that he was being chased by the blue ninja.

As soon as she saw Jay, Nya grew angry. That ninja just didn't know when to quit, did he? She summoned the power within her, building up a reservoir she could unleash on him once Lloyd was out of the way. Jay's eyes met hers and he halted.

He raised his hands in surrender. "Whoah, wait a minute, can't we talk this out?"

Nya glared at him, furious. "You're chasing my friend! There's not much to talk about."

He took a step back. "Okay, that's fair, but –"

Nya cut him off. "Sorry," she said without the least bit of remorse. "But someone told me I should save my hostility for the ring. And I've been saving this up for a while now."

Jay's eyes widened as he looked at her with what she hoped was fear. With Lloyd out of shot, she sprayed Jay with a jet of water that sent him sprawling on his back.

Garmadon reached out as his son waded towards them through the undergrowth, and as soon as he had his hand, they ran. Nya kept an eye out behind to make sure that Jay wasn't following them, but he seemed to have given up. When they had put some distance between themselves and Jay, Garmadon slowed to a stop.

He turned to Lloyd. "Are you alright?"

The boy was gasping for breath, his eyes wide with fear. "They took Mom! And Skylor and Seliel and – they took everyone!"

"It's okay, son, it's alright. I'm still here." Garmadon hugged his son close, trying to calm him down.

Nya stood by, trying to quiet her own nerves as the news sunk in. All her friends had been captured. What were they going to do now? Soon, Chen would have nearly every element. He would be too powerful, and there would be no one strong enough to stop him.

. . .

Despite being captured and chained in element-blocking vengestone, Seliel had held out hope that one of the others would be able to find Lloyd. There wasn't any way for her to know, though, as she was being held captive now in the midst of the jungle, surrounded by the rest of the Elemental Masters that had been found by Chen's men. She found it ironic that, even though they'd had such a turbulent rivalry, now they had all ended up in the same place. She supposed that was what happened when losing sight of the true enemy.

Seliel gazed out into the trees as the sky grew darker and darker. Soon, shadows had overtaken the clearing, but Seliel was, in a way, relived. Every passing moment that her friends weren't there was a victory in itself. If Chen hadn't caught them yet, he wouldn't get their power and they could still fight him. And between Skylor and Garmadon and Nya, the chances of one of them finding Lloyd seemed pretty good.

But her heart sunk as, moments later, Skylor was dragged out of the forest, closely followed by her father. Kai trailed behind them, unrestrained, which wasn't much of a surprise to Seliel. But she couldn't miss how downcast Skylor looked. Seliel had been worried that something like this would happen, and she only wished Skylor would have listened.

With her own hands bound, Seliel couldn't reach out to her, but she said, "Sensei Garmadona and Nya are still out there. They can still save us."

But Master Chen overheard and chuckled darkly. "I'm counting on it!"

Seliel realized that he was right, and that their friends would only be playing into his hands by trying to rescue them. Chen began to laugh to himself, and for the first time since the tournament began, Seliel got the feeling that, maybe, Chen just might have a shot at winning.