Emeralds and Roses

The Last Round

Lloyd was out of sorts, to say the least. A lot had happened in a very short span of time and he wasn't too sure how to feel about it.
Struck by grief at losing his teammate and the girl he loved but also somewhat relieved after Nya showed up and gave him some sense of reassurance that they might all make it out.
He didn't want to lose hope but at the same time his happy-go-lucky nature was slipping and in all honesty
He was scared

Now him and the other 7 remaining competitors along with his dad were sitting in some sort of hot air balloon contraption, most likely another bizarre invention of Master Chen's. Tensions ran high amongst the elemental masters, their hopeless attempt at forming an alliance had crumbled and they made more enemies instead of friends.

"what you looking at zippy?" Jay snapped at Turner and he was quick to counter "The next one out of the tournament"
Jay was currently sitting with an injured foot after hurting himself in the ninja ball run so now technically what was left of the ninja was down another teammate.
Lloyd just stared out of the window, lost in thought and trying to figure out what they were going to do.

"why so scared to show us your back, shadow?" Kai was convinced that Shadow was the traitor, all servants of Master Chen regardless of standing had an anacondrai tattoo on their backs so in order to sniff out the traitor the contestants ordered everyone to prove they didn't have the tattoo and show their backs. Shadow was the only one who refused.
"I hope this next fight is between you and me because I'm gonna put you on your back." shadow growled, he wasn't guilty but he wasn't their friend either and the accusations were honestly starting to piss him off.

"tensions are high" Garmadon whispered to Lloyd and he agreed they were. But not as high as the altitude the contestants were currently flying at. "can hardly see the island from up here" Lloyd commented. By then Neuro had snapped "I've had enough of this, I can't stand heights. wheres Chen?" opening the door to the cockpit he found it empty, suddenly the screen flickered on and it played a recording of master Chen

"how do I know if this things on? Oh, oh, oh, I see, the light. Oh, oh, I'm on? Right now? Ahem, ahem. Hello, final eight. I see you are all eager for the tournament to commence so one of you can win my staff of elements. Instead of fighting for a Jade Blade, today you will be fighting for something different." he pressed a button to reveal Nya wandering the forest and Kai felt his stomach drop knowing his sister was in danger but Chen continued
"We have an uninvited guest on the island. "
he knew she was holding the proof that would stop Chen
"find her and you will automatically move on to the final round"
Jay didn't like the idea of having to hunt her down, he still loved her very much and this felt like a stab to the heart.
The bottom of the shuttle began to open up and eight parachutes fell down for each of the contestants to grab but Chen, knowingly, didn't account for Garmadon as well. Laughing about how he was never good at math Master Chen shut the screen off leaving everyone to scramble to find parachutes.

Everyone had found a parachute now it was just up to Lloyd and Garmadon. Lloyd was desperately trying to summon his dragon but it wasn't working, he wasn't controlling his fear. Instead, his fear was controlling him. Both men grabbed onto either side of the parachutes Lloyd insisted that they just shared while the ground got closer and closer. "They're only built for one. This is an easy decision son"
"your right." pulling the string Lloyd pushed the chute away allowing his father to have it while he continued to plummet to the ground.
Grounding himself Lloyd put his all into just focusing and low and behold he did it, just as he was about to break the treeline he summoned his dragon. Nya watched from behind a few trees hoe eight parachutes and a green dragon got closer and closer to the ground "This doesn't look good" she whispered before running off trying to come up with a solution to her little problem.

One by one each master landed and ran off into the trees in search of their prize. Kai nearly landed in a volcano and Jay got stuck in a tree leaving them both with a pretty sucky start to this so-called hunt. Lloyd and his father began the race together finding Nya's footprints right from the get-go but Garmadon was smarter than that. He knew she wouldn't leave such an obvious clue, searching his surroundings he noticed the samurai X symbol carved into a tree and they followed that instead trecking deeper and deeper into the dense jungle terrain.