This one's a shorter chapter, but better short than forced. Sorry for the long waits, but don't expect them to stop-my internet connection will be if-y the next few weeks. Enjoy!

Chavez had known he would get into trouble with the other Masters, but he hadn't expected it to be this bad. As soon as they came through, Nadia turned on him.

"Where's Michaela?" she asked.

Chavez was confused. "She went to get you."

Kimora shook his head. "She called us and said to come here and summon a creature for you to come back with."

"She said she went with you."

"She was supposed to go back to the temple!"

"Well clearly she didn't!"

Kimora could see Nadia was running on a very short fuse. "It is odd that Michaela was the one to disobey instructions. Usually it would be these three." He gestured at Ray, Allie, and Gabe.

"We need to get back to the temple and figure out what happened." Nadia said with forced calm. No one disagreed with her.

Michaela didn't know where she was. She seemed to be floating, but she didn't feel weightless. She couldn't see much, and everything was cloudy. And she couldn't breathe.

She was fighting back panic, knowing it would take up more oxygen, oxygen she couldn't spare. She had to get help. But there was no one to yell to…. A creature! She would summon something that could help. She started the summons for Athena, but stopped. She only had one shot, and Athena took more concentration to summon that she had. So she summoned the first creature she thought of.

And then she blacked out.

Ray, Allie, and Gabe had been kicked out of the war room. Moodily walking down the steps, the trio didn't speak. It seemed like every time they went off to fix something, the next thing they knew Michaela was in trouble. And every time, they were sent away while the Masters tried to save her.

When they reached to bottom of the stairs, Allie kicked the rock making up the walls of the massive cavern. The others looked at her. They knew exactly what she was thinking. Gabe was no longer alone in believing the best thing to do was let the Masters deal with the problem, but that didn't make it any easier to sit around and wait. Finally Ray spoke. "We should go practice." Allie and Gabe mumbled agreements, but none of them moved towards the training area.

Suddenly they heard a shout from the pavilion above them, and Master Chavez practically ran out. Seeing the kids below, he walked down to meet them, looking a bit frazzled. "Master Nadia's…. a little stressed right now," he explained.

"Have you found anything?" Ray asked.

The duel Master shook his head. "For some reason there weren't any Stalker Spheres in the park when the rift occurred, so we have no idea where she is." He sighed. Clearly he was worried, and at least partially blamed this on himself.

"So what do we do now?" Gabe asked.

"We train." Chavez said, pulling himself out of his gloom.

Allie groaned. "Isn't there something we can do to help?"

Chavez shook his head. "Nadia's about ready to kill someone, and she's already angry at the four of us, so I suggest we all stay away from the war room for a few hours."

Just then Gabe gasped. "Wait!" he said. "Gargle! He was with us during the battle, but he wasn't fighting like the others were. He might have seen something!" The kids all looked at Chavez for approval, and he shrugged.

"It's worth a shot," he said.

So Gabe summoned Gargle.

And clinging to Gargle's arm was a figure in a Water realm fish suit.

Chavez immediately shouted for help, and they all ran for the person, Gargle all but forgotten. Masters Nadia and Brightmore were down the steps almost before Kimora or Jaha had gotten out of the war room. They pushed the kids aside roughly and knelt with Chavez next to the person, who wasn't moving. Gargle stepped forward, and Brightmore moved to push him away, but before he could the Reef Prince tapped a spot on the suit and it rapidly shrank into its original ball. Gargle quickly moved back to Gabriel's side, and Master Brightmore decided to let it go and focus on Michaela, who had just been revealed by the suit's removal.

After a moment Kimora came up to them. "Come," he said, and started to lead them away.

"Is she okay?" Allie asked.

"I—I don't know," Kimora said honestly. "But we aren't helping her."

So the kids allowed themselves to be led away to sit in the library.

"Her pulse is weak."

"But she's breathing."

"Well?"

"A little shallow, but cons—"

Michaela suddenly started coughing.

"On her side!" Nadia shouted and she and Brightmore rolled her onto her side.

She hacked and retched up water for a minute before she started breathing normally and fell back. After another moment her eyes focused on Master Brightmore, who was leaning over her worriedly. Abruptly she sat up and hugged him tightly around the neck. As surprised as anyone, Brightmore awkwardly hugged her back as she started crying into his shoulder. He turned to Nadia, unsure of what to do.

Gently, Nadia placed her hand on Michaela's back. She jumped away, but when she saw who it was, relaxed. She kept crying. Master Nadia leaned forward and hugged her student, and heard her choke through her tears, "I want to go home."

"We'll get you there," the Water Master replied.