This is not over. This is not over. We still have a chance.

Seliel kept repeating these words of encouragement to herself as she and the other remaining fighters were marched through the island. Garmadon was still out there, along with Nya, Lloyd and maybe Misako, too. She couldn't give up hope yet.

Right now, it was just her and Skylor. She had been hoping that, if they put their heads together, they would be able to come up with something clever to escape. But it seemed that Skylor was too downcast to be of any help right now. Seliel wasn't sure they'd have been able to do anything, anyway. They were surrounded by Chen's henchmen, and with the vengestone cuffs around their wrists, they were unable to use their elements. It wasn't going to be easy.

The pounding beat of drums grew louder as they were led into a large room. They were underground, and so it was dimly lit by fires encircling the room. More of Master Chen's cult following were there, banging on their drums and chanting ominously. Their small group was led down a flight of stairs. At the bottom, Seliel could see that Clouse was waiting for them. And, surprise, surprise, Kai and Jay were there, too. 

When the fighters were brought to a halt at the foot of the stairs, Seliel caught sight of Skylor and Kai exchanging a glance before they both looked away. Seliel glared at him. If she ever got the chance, she would see that Kai paid for all the hurt he'd caused her friends.

The elemental masters were forced to kneel as it was announced, "All rise for Master Chen."

Despite their dire situation, Seliel almost burst out laughing when she saw Master Chen, floating in on his throne. The staff was glowing with power as he utilized the elements to keep himself aloft.

"Look at me, I'm floating!" he gloated as his followers cheered him on. But the throne took a sudden, ungraceful dip as Chen struggled to maintain focus. "I got it, I got it," he assured them, righting himself. Then he shakily settled the throne next to Clouse on the platform. "I just got distracted by how awesome this place looks. Well done, Clouse. You've really set the mood."

Clouse nodded in appreciation of his master's praise.

"And look at this. Soon I'll have more power. It's good to be me!"

Seliel had had enough of this. "You may have caught us, Chen," she said, leaning forward against the chains that held the Elemental Masters together, "But you won't be able to catch Garmadon. He and Nya are still out there, and they'll soon return to defeat you once and for all."

Chen stood and gesticulated grandly. "Ah, yes. I bet right now he'll swoop down and save you in the very last moment and teach me a valuable lesson." His mocking tone set Seliel even more on edge. "Well, I'll wait. I love lessons." Chen sat back down.

But Seliel wasn't going to give him the chance. Now wasn't the time to wait, it was time to take action!

With a grunt, Seliel flipped forward, twisting the chain and dragging half of the other Elemental Masters forward with her. One of the guards was immediately upon her, but she kicked him in the stomach. His spear fell from his hand and she caught it. Despite being restrained, she was able to fend off a couple more guards and, for a moment, Seliel felt triumphant. 

But before she could move again, she was racked with a splitting headache. She stumbled and then was shoved from behind and barely caught herself before she hit the ground, and the headache faded as quickly as it had come.

The henchmen recovered. As she was forced to her feet again, she caught a glimpse of Chen's staff, glowing with the elemental power he had just used on her. No one bothered to untangle the distorted chain and now she was even more trapped than before.

"Ooh, good try," Master Chen said, grinning smugly. "But sadly, not good enough. Now here's a lesson: don't be a sore loser!" He waved his staff as he shouted, "Only one can remain!"

Seliel gasped as she was gripped with cold and all of the adrenaline from her escape attempt was seeped out of her, until she was left  weary and drained, as if she had just swam all the way to Ninjago and back. She fell to her knees, her head spinning. She barely registered Master Chen's voice as he gloated over his newfound power.

When Seliel recovered somewhat and looked up again, she was almost surprised to see that Master Chen was aiming his staff, not at the detained Elemental Masters, but at Kai and Jay.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kai growled. He and Jay both had their weapons out, ready to fight. They looked like a couple of scared, defensive animals, trapped at the end of a hunt.

"I need all the elemental power I can get," Master Chen said threateningly. "And you have outlived your usefulness to me."

"Master Wu won't like this!" Jay tried to threaten back, though there wasn't nearly as much force behind his words.

Master Chen just laughed. "Wu won't be able to stop me!"

"But there's nothing to take!" Kai argued. "All of our elemental power is in our weapons, and we're the only ones who can control them."

Master Chen pretended to think about it. "In that case, I suppose that you can go free . . . but then what am I going to do with these?" He pressed a button on his throne and a compartment opened from which he retrieved the golden scythe and shuriken.

"I knew it!" Kai's gaze burned with fury. "What did you do with them?"

"Same thing I'm going to do to you," Master Chen answered. "Now hold still!"

Kai and Jay's eyes darted around, looking for a way out. But before they could try anything, Chen shouted, "Only one can remain!"

Seliel wanted to feel some satisfaction as she watched Kai and Jay's powers being stolen from them as they finally got what was coming. But for some reason, it wasn't nearly as gratifying as she would have thought. Instead, it just felt more than ever like Chen had really won.

When the small spark of power that the boys had was gone and they were left incapacitated, Clouse stepped forward and removed their elemental weapons. Chen attached all four golden weapons to his staff, like a bunch of clunky ornaments. "The power is mine! All mine!" he shouted with glee.

A couple of guards seized Kai and Jay before they could get their strength back.

"Take them to the factory," Master Chen ordered. But before the group of powerless masters could be dragged more than couple of steps, Chen seemed to change his mind. "Wait." He stepped forward, his expression suddenly changed from malicious glee to something else. "Skylor?"

Skylor's gaze was fixed on the stone floor.

"My darling daughter. Are you ready to end this silly rebellion and come back to me? I promise, I will overlook everything you've done against me."

Seliel's heart broke when Skylor didn't even hesitate. "Okay."

"No!" Seliel struggled in the cuffs again, hoping against all odds that she could break free. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. If she could just teleport out of these chains, she could get them both out of here.

But nothing happened. All of her power was gone.

When Seliel opened her eyes again, Skylor was being released and led back to her father. "Skylor, I know you don't want to do this! Don't give up hope!"

"Forget it, Seliel. We never stood a chance in the first place. This is the way it has to be."

"That's not true!" But Seliel was already being forced away as she and the other masters were taken to the factory.

Master Chen chuckled and waved as they went. "Bye-bye!"

The last thing Seliel heard was Skylor call, "I'm sorry, Seliel!" before the door was shut between them.

. . .

In just one moment, everything had gone from going fine to going terrible. 

Jay couldn't understand how they had let this happen. Even after having finally captured nearly all of Garmadon's students – meaning that for once they were succeeding in their mission – Chen had to go and turn on them like that.

This wasn't supposed to happen. What will Master Wu think? What if he leaves us here forever because we let him down? What if Chen's right and Wu can't stop him?

Now the group of ex-Elemental Masters had been forced to change into ill-fitting orange jumpsuits like prisoners and were being led to the alleged 'factory.'

"What are we going to do, Kai?" Jay asked desperately.

Kai was silent for a moment. "I don't know yet. But wherever they're taking us will probably be the same place Cole and Zane are. They might have a plan, or we'll at least be able to come up with one together."

"Pixal will have a plan," said the girl with the fuchsia hair, Seliel. "She always has a good plan."

Jay sighed. "I hope you're right." Otherwise, he had no idea what they were going to do.

"Hope is all we have left," Seliel said quietly. "We can't let them steal that, too."

They soon arrived at the factory, which Jay hadn't known until now was a noodle factory, which was apparently the backbone of Chen's Noodlehouse. Jay couldn't help but wonder how business would be affected if the world knew that the famous restaurant chain was built on slavery.

The technology itself was just sad, a clear sign of Chen's estrangement from the outside world. On the other hand, the security appeared to be the strongest part. There were guards all around and on the catwalks above where they could see everything. There was only exit, and that was well guarded, too.

One guard shoved Jay towards a conveyor belt and said, "Work!"

"Hey, no need to push," Jay said to the man's back as he walked away. He had half a mind to push him back, but he was in no position to be picking fights right now. "Ugh, this just gets better and better every the minute!" he griped. "How are we ever going to get out of here? There are guards everywhere you look!"

"Hey, stay positive," Seliel reminded him. "We'll find a way."

Kai crossed his arms. "Well I do know one thing. There is no way I'm doing any work for that backstabbing snake."

"At least that's something we can agree on," Seliel said, looking somewhat disgusted by the idea of taking the same side as him. "I hate to be the one to say it, but while we're here –"

She was interrupted by a loud, "Psst!" from nearby. The three ninja glanced across a conveyor belt and caught sight of a few familiar faces.

"Cole? Zane? Is that you?"

"Pixal!"

"Not so loud," Cole warned, glancing around. "They think we've escaped and don't know we're here."

"But, why would you come back?" Kai asked in bewilderment.

"We couldn't leave anyone behind," Pixal answered. "We're all going to break out. Together." Kai still seemed skeptical, but Jay was just glad to be reunited with their teammates.

"Correction," Zane said as he exchanged a look with Pixal. "We're going to build our way out."

Cole pointed at a contraption that was covered with a large tarp. The Master of Metal was hard at work on whatever lie beneath it. "They think we're fixing the noodle machine, but we're actually fixing a Rotojet."

"A Rotojet?" Kai said, still very doubtful. "But aren't we underground?"

"That's what I've been saying!" Cole burst out.

The metal master paused in his work to ask, "What happened to positive thinking?"

Another voice cut in from above. "No talking!" a guard shouted. "And hurry up with that noodle machine."

"Okay, okay. It will be ready soon," the Master of Metal reassured him in his thick Metalonian accent. "When ready, noodles will fly out of here."

"Hey!" Seliel waved to the guard, drawing his attention. "I know a thing or two about mechanics. I could help get the job done twice as fast."

"So does he," Kai said and pushed Jay forward. Jay tried to smile in a genuine, reassuring way, but he caught Seliel glowering at him out of the corner of his eye.

The guard thought about it and said, "Fine. But no talking. Now get to work."

When the guard had left, Seliel took another look at the jet. "It's not going to be easy," she said in a low voice. "We're pretty limited on resources. If there's even once piece missing, it could mean the end of our plans."

"Well, I'm kind of used to working with spare parts, so I guess that'll come in handy," Jay said.

"See, what'd I tell you?" Seliel said, casting a smug glance at Cole. "You gotta be more positive. Now, we don't have much of a choice if we want to get out of here . . . so we'll just have to work together to build it. As long as you four can hold off on the backstabbing for a bit."

"Only if you can get off your high-horse," Cole retorted.

Before she could come up with a good comeback, Pixal came and pulled Seliel off to the side. "Do you know what has happened to Nya and Skylor?"

A bout of sadness threatened to return at the mention of Skylor. "I haven't seen Nya since we split up for the last round. Garmadon, either. I assume they at least got away. As for Skylor . . ." Seliel bit her lip, feeling uncertain. "She . . . she went back to her father."

Pixal furrowed her brow. "Really?"

Seliel shrugged. "I think she's just scared. Maybe she thinks that Chen will spare us if she does what he wants."

Pixal put a hand on Seliel's shoulder. "Skylor is clever, and she knows her father better than the rest of us."

Seliel took a deep breath.

Hope. There was always hope.

"Okay. Then I better get started on this jet. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can help her out."