Chapter Seven: Annaliese Gemma Hawthorn the Greatest Actress of All Time...

I paused to listen to the conversation that was going on down below. It was mostly Cole questioning whether or not anyone had noticed that they were locked underground and thus, a rocket was a bad idea. You know...Cole has a good point...Wait! A large group of people are coming this way! Star warned me, her voice sharp at the sudden interjection.

I narrowed my eyes, peering through the slits of the vent cover to see the door open...and most of the competitors being shoved inside. As soon as the goons were gone, Zane and Cole popped up from where they were hiding. "Where's Lloyd? And the kid?" Cole questioned the others.

"Hey! I'm at least thirteen!" I yelled back at him, even as I popped open the vent and climbed down to join them.

Jay nodded as an outward sign of his impression on my avoiding getting caught. Neuro however stared at me as if I were nuts. "You still have your powers...and you came here?! You should have left, child."

I glared at him, my fingers curling tighter around the journal in my hand. "Ok two things. One, as I have already said I'm at least thirteen years of age. And two, my name isn't child, it's Ella." And Star! I rolled my eyes, though I didn't tell them about her. Not yet anyways.

Zane frowned, peering over at me. "Isn't everything going on here too dangerous for someone your age to be here? And what is that you are holding in your hand?"

I glanced down at the journal, before walking over to Zane, handing the journal to him. "It is an old journal that I found in a secret room in Chen's private quarters. It belongs to another elemental master from the last generation."

"Estrello Emotican." Zane read out loud, carefully examining the old journal. "It appears to have been in a fire at some point..."

"Wait...fire?" Did he just say fire? I froze, my earliest memory fighting to get to my front of my mind.

"Yes...fire. Did you not see the scorch marks along the side? And how the edges of the pages have been crisped?" Zane pointed out the markings from the fire.

"We noticed...we just didn't registered that little detail." I grumbled to myself, even as Star began to mumble to herself about different ways that could happen.

"What do you mean by we?" Cole, Zane, Jay, and all of the elemental masters stared at me as if I were crazy.

I scratched the back of my neck nervously, taking a step back away from them. "Did I say we? I meant me..."

"Ok... we'll just ignore that. What does it say Zane?" Cole nodded to the journal now in the original nindroid's hands.

Zane cracked open the book, scanning on of the pages. "Interesting... everything is smudged except for a single name. Annaliese Gemma Haworn… I think that is what it says..."

"Annaliese Gemma Hawthorn!?" I squealed alongside all of the female elemental masters. To say that the boys stared at us as if we were crazy would be an understatement.

Tox clapped her hands together, a dreamy sigh escaping her. "She is the best female actress of all times! She stared in The Ninja Bride... Samurai Princess and the Thief... One Less Lonely Duchess... Eight Grooms for Eight Sisters..."

"Whoa there...those sound like chick flicks!" One of the guys complained as he waved his hands though the air.

I spoke up, a grin on my face. "That would be because they are. I haven't seen any of them of course... I only know about her because she was murdered years ago and no one has yet to solve the mystery."

"Should we be concerned..?" Zane whispered to Cole, clearly disturbed that I was so excited about that little detail.

…..

I pressed a hand against the wall, a frown crossing my features. Maybe the whole idea of a rocket ship was a good idea. "Ella! What are you doing over there?" Cole called out to me, worry creasing his brow.

"Someone is on the otherside of this wall. By the way their emotions are flaring... I say that they are being held against their will. We can use the rocket to break the wall down to rescue them." I paused, allowing the sense of fear that was rolling over from the room next door to smother me. "Uh...I also think we need to do so now. Something big is moving around in there with them."

No sooner than I had said that, than Karlof started the rocket ship...which one of the guards discovered. I quickly scrambled onto the rocket ship, followed closely by the rest of the elemental masters. "Aim for the wall!" Jay demanded as he pointed to the wall that I had just left.

The rocket roared to life...right before it crashed into the wall shattering it. The wall, not the rocket. As I coughed at the dust filled air, I waved my hand trying to clear it up. Glancing down, I was surprised to see Nya and Garmadon chained to two poles, a now dead giant snake by their sides. "Talk about timing! That thing was about to eat Garmadon!" Nya blurted out, relief surging forward in great waves.

"Thank me later! Let's go!" "Where's Kai?"

Eesh, maybe someone should have warned me that Cole has a one way mind... Nya scowled, anger flashing in her eyes. "He betrayed us. When I get my hands on him..."

"What!?" I whirled around to stare at her as if she were insane. "No! Skylor was supposed to betray Chen! Her emotions said so!"

"Ella!" Everyone yelled at me out of shock, turning to stare at me as if I were the crazy one.

Nya gave me a weird look, before titling her head. "Who are you?"

"Ella, Master of Emotions." I stuck my hand out to shake her hand.

"We need to get out of here and save Lloyd! Chen is planning on draining him of his powers any minute now." Garmadon informed us, even as he climbed up onto the rocket.

"Forward!" Dareth yelled, causing sniggers to escape the rest of the escapees.

…..

I rubbed my forehead with my left hand, wishing that everyone would just chill out enough that I could... "Ella! The battle's over with. You can breath better now, right?" Kai was kneeling in front of me, worry creasing his brow.

Skylor had disappeared, though I could still follow traces of her fear through one of Chen's many tunnels. "I was right... Skylor betrayed Chen! And now he has her... I'm sorry." I hung my head in shame, even as Star began to protest that wasn't my fault at all.

"Not your fault." Cole stepped behind Kai, his emotions making what he was planning very clear. "We should have realized that emotions ran high during battles and held you back instead of letting you fight." Reaching a hand over, he smacked Kai in the back of the head hard.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

Cole crossed his arms as he glared at his red clad friend. "What do you think? For tricking everyone into thinking that you swapped sides!"

"Can we not fight...and I could have warned you that he was going to do that." I timidly spoke up, rubbing my forearms now.

"Ella!"