Kai's POV

There's a feeling of defeat throughout the Bounty. We've lost battles before, like on the Dark Island, but this one hit differently for some reason. There's a silence across the room we're all sitting in, something that never happens.

I sit on the couch next to Lloyd and Cole, staring at the wall above our blank tv. I can't get last night out of my mind. It all seems like a weird fever dream, but I have a large bruise on my side to validate that it's real. Plus, if it was fake, our morale would be better.

I can't get the orange ninja out of my mind. When I went back to get her, I had no idea how beautiful she would be. Her hair was long and scarlet, pulled back in a pony tail with the exception of the side bangs that draped across her forehead. Her eyes were golden like honey. Her facial features were all perfect. It took all of my control to not flirt with her.

I feel guilty for enjoying picking her up and carrying her in my arms. She's our enemy, yet when she stopped attacking me, I felt remorse for her. She was an advanced fighter, but even she has a weak side, and I saw it.

"What now? They have the first gemstone," Cole breaks the silence. He holds an ice pack up to the back of his head, courtesy of Zane.

"We must travel to the city of Stiix to find the second gemstone, the Ruby of Fire. It appears in approximately 12 hours, but it will take us 16 hours until we arrive," Master Wu tells us, placing his staff against the ground.

"What did you discover about the elemental masters? Maybe we can find some potential weaknesses?" Misako takes out a note pad and a pen.

"Well, one can teleport. She turns into a cloud of smoke and reappears somewhere else," Cole winces as he moves the ice pack from his head briefly, most likely replaying the incident in his mind.

"A master of smoke, Sarah's daughter," Misako turns to Wu and Garmadon.

"The other disguised herself as Cole. Once she got the gemstone, she shapeshifted back into herself," Lloyd explains.

"Form."

"There was an android girl with them, but from my scans, she had no powers," Zane informs Misako, who nods and writes it down.

"The girl who I was going against seemed to have multiple powers. At first she used smoke, which the other girl has, before being able to manipulate fire," I explain, replaying the scene in my head.

"By any chance, did she touch you before she used your powers?" Garmadon asks. I raise an eyebrow.

"Yeah, why?"

"She's an elemental master of amber, meaning she can temporarily absorb other elemental powers and mimic them. When using them, she shares the same elemental properties as the original master," he explains.

"Were there only four?" Misako asks the five of us.

"There was a fifth," Jay answers briefly, not taking the chance to blabber for once in his life.

"And?"

"AndshewasKai'slonglotsisterwhoisthemasterofwafer," he blurts out quickly. All of us raise our eyebrows.

"Slow down, Jay," Misako instructs him.

"And she was Kai's long lost sister who is the master of water. I said her name, and she responded," Jay answers nervously, looking over at me.

My heart drops, all thoughts of the orange ninja escaping my mind,"Nya was there?" He nods nervously. "And you didn't tell me?"

"You seemed out of it. I wanted to wait until you were a bit calmer," he scratches the back of his neck.

It all makes sense. Ciara killed my mom on Nya's birthday. After she killed my mom, she had to of taken Nya. There's no other way a newborn would have gotten out of the house.

The thought itself makes me sick. The most evil person ever, the woman who killed both my mom and dad, raised my little sister, the only relative I have left. She was one of the only role models that Nya had. I can only hope that she can be helped.

"I can't fight her," I tell Wu. "I can't."

"She won't have any attachment to you, Kai. You might be attached to her, but she has no clue about your relationship to each other. She won't hold back," Garmadon warns me.

"I can't fight her. I'm sorry, but she's my sister," I look down at my shoes.

"It's alright, Kai. We, out of all people, understand how difficult it is to fight against your family," Wu gives me a warm smile. "Just have one of the other ninja face against her in battle."

"Alright. We know what we're up against. Let's try to find any weaknesses in their elements," Misako looks up at us. None of us talk. "You didn't observe any weaknesses?"

"Don't look at me. I wasn't there," Cole defends himself. When there's even more silence, Master Wu sighs.

"Let's start with smoke. From facing one in the past, I have learnt that they can only teleport with things they are touching. If they aren't touching something, or if someone they are touching isn't touching something, they can't teleport with it. However, they don't have to teleport with everything they are touching," he explains. "Nephew, can you stand up?"

"Sure," Lloyd stands up, walking next to him. Master Wu takes the pen from Misako.

"Let's say I'm the master of smoke..."

"Seliel," Cole chimes in.

"Let's say I'm Seliel. Since I'm holding this pen, I can materialize somewhere else with it. However, if it on the table like this," he sets the pen down,"I can not bring it with me. The same thing works with people. Since I am touching Lloyd," he grabs onto Lloyd's arm and places the pen in his hand,"and Lloyd is touching the pen, I can take both Lloyd and the pen with me. However, I can only take so much, or else I'll be too weak and won't be able to teleport it."

"Next is form," Garmadon steps forward. "The master of form can alter her appearance and voice to look like anyone else, regardless of contact with them. While this trick can be deceitful, it is not as big of an asset in battle. She will fight like anyone without an elemental power.

The same thing goes for the android girl. While she might be a skilled fighter, she has no real advantage over you. If you utilize your powers, she'll have a hard time keeping up," he explains.

"Now, for Nya. Masters of water can manipulate the water around them. The more moisture around them, the more powerful they become. The best element to combat this would be fire, considering they are opposites, but since that isn't going to work, just try to face her in a dry area. Stiix is definitely not ideal, since it's built atop the ocean, but you will manage."

"Finally, the master of amber. Through skin to skin contact, she can temporarily mimic the power of the last elemental master she touched. She can only hold one power at a time, so if she were to touch Lloyd then Kai, she could only use fire. She also gains the elemental properties of the last elemental master she touched, explaining why she was invincible to fire when she last touched Kai. If you don't want her using your power, make sure she never touches your skin," Garmadon explains.

"I'm sorry, but how are we expected to beat the elemental master of water and her teammate who can use those exact same powers in a town that's literally build on top  of water?" Jay asks. Garmadon and Wu look between each other.

"You hope something goes wrong."

---

Skylor's POV

"I think I found an exit," Kai says, his voice filling my ringing ears. He holds me tight as he quickly tries to make his way through the burning building. I let out a cough from all of the smoke, and so does he. "Damn it."

"What?" I barely squeak out, my lungs weak.

"The door is blocked. I need to break it down," he informs me, sounding a bit panicked. Through my blurry vision, I watch his face as he tries to kick down the pillar blocking the door.

"Kai," I say, his head snapping towards mine as soon as I say his name,"thank you."

With more drive than before, he lands one last kick, busting through the pillar blocking the door. Quickly, he hops over it, shoving open the door in front of us. He gets us out as quick as possible.

Even as I hear the building collapse behind us, I can only focus on Kai. I stare into his eyes the entire time he carries me away from the burning building. His arms are strong, supporting my fatigued body.

Once we make it down to the other guardians, they bombard him with hugs. Once they let him go, he uses his hand closest to my head to brush some of my hair away from my eyes. "We got out. We're safe now."

The scene keeps replaying in my mind over and over again as I lie in my bed. The girls all insisted that I need to rest, so I've been here lying in my bed, all alone. No one has checked on me since Auntie initially checked out my mild burns and the cut on my arm.

All of the alone time has lead to my thoughts always wandering back to Kai. I can't get him out of my mind. I can't stop thinking about the way he held me, or the way his eyes looked down at me with concern even though I was trying to hurt him minutes before, or the way he risked his life to go back and save me. The thought makes my chest tight.

Why? Why did he go back to save me? The question buzzes through my mind that's a a lot more clear now than it was then. We're enemies, yet he risked everything for me.

"I can't believe you girls!" I hear a yell from the room next to me, perking my attention. "How could you leave her?"

"You say that like we had a choice. There was a beam falling on us! I can't just take the time to decide exactly where inside the fire to go! If I don't have time to focus, I'm not accurate in where I land!" Seliel tells her, obviously exasperated.

"Did you just raise your voice at me?" Auntie raises her voice at Seliel. "I know I'm typically the nice one, but I will not tolerate dumb mistakes!"

"In all due respect, you were not there. You do not know the situation. According to my analysis, Seliel doing anything else would've resulted in a 99.04% chance of all of us dying," PIXAL explains calmly in her typical manor.

"So you guys played it safe and left one of your teammates to die. Sisters don't do that," Auntie chastises them.

"Excuse me? All of us were crying outside. None of us wanted to do that! Maybe if it wasn't for your stupid plan, that would've never happened!" Nya snaps. There's a period of silence for several seconds.

"Did you just question me?" Auntie grits.

"Yes I did. Five against four would've been good enough odds, but you decided that we needed to catch the building on fire!" Nya counters.

"I've had enough of your nonsense. To your rooms, all of you!" Auntie commands, and I hear the door to the other room open. I close my eyes to pretend like I'm sleeping in case Auntie comes to check on me. Quietly, I hear my door open and shut.

"You don't need to pretend to sleep," Nya tells me quietly. I open my eyes. "How's your arm doing?"

"It hurts, but Auntie stitched it up. It'll be healed soon enough. The worst part was the blood loss," I move over in my bed so Nya can lie down next to me.

"You know we didn't want to leave you, right?" Nya checks after a period of silence, awkwardly staring up at the ceiling.

"I know, but it was the only way that ensured your safety. Seliel made the right choice. I'm not upset about it," I tell her. She sighs.

"Auntie surely doesn't feel the same way about it," she sighs.

"Auntie is just upset her plan wasn't perfect. She really wants us to get these gemstones."

"Speaking of the gemstones, you're not coming with us tomorrow," Nya informs me. I sit up, wincing.

"I'm so coming. You guys need me," I tell her, no sign of wavering.

"Tomorrow is going to be the easiest one. I'm going to be surrounded by water. Besides, Seliel and I came up with a back up plan in case one of them gets it," she informs me. "If anything, we need you for the Obsidian of Earth."

"Which one is tomorrow?" I ask her, blanking.

"Ruby of Fire, which I know you'll hate to miss, since you'd want to shove it in that fire master's face that you got his gemstone," she laughs at the end.

"Yeah, for sure," I laugh along halfheartedly.

"Skylor?"

"Yeah?"

"One of them knew my name," she tells me, sounding a bit scared.

"What?" I ask in shock.

"Yeah, the blue one. He seemed surprised to see me," she explains.

"Did they know any of our sisters' names?" I ask.

She shakes her head,"No, only mine."

"We'll get to the bottom of this. I promise."

A/N My update schedule is wack, but oh well. This just shows some of the aftermath of the past two chapters

So...the girls won't have Skylor. How do you think they'll do without her?

I found this super cute Kailor fan art and wanted to include it sooo...

I'm finally in double digits for chapters (it feels like it's taken forever) hopefully I can speed up. I want to at least finish this book before school starts again (my updates will DRAMATICALLY slow down)

Predictions? I feel like you guys definitely are not expecting the end of next chapter

Thank you for reading! You guys are the best