(Cole)

We ran through the twists and turns of the labyrinth of narrow passageways until Zane stopped us.

"Ssh..." He said. He seemed to be listening for something.

"What is it, Zane? Jay asked.

"I hear... cheering... coming from the East.... This way!" Zane ran through a tunnel on the right, with the rest of us not far behind.

Cheering?

I heard it too. It sounded like ten baseball games were occurring in the same room. Yeah, it was that loud. I heard Arachne's voice calling over the din. Muffled at first, but as we neared the sound, it became clearer.

"...as we take over Ninjago, once and for all!!!!!!!!" Is what I heard.

As we became closer and closer to the sound, I saw an orange light coming from further down the hall.

"This way," Zane beckoned, leading us toward the light.

We stopped in front of a tall doorway. It was like a huge stadium, with spider people filling the stands. Arachne stood on a platform off to the side, talking loudly to her subjects. She was explaining things in a language I could not understand. In the center of the cavern, was a deep pit. There was a strange heat rising from it. And dangling above the pit, in a metal barred cage, was Brielle.

No.

(Brielle)

I crouched in the corner of the cage, my head in my hands. The heat from the acidic lava pit was getting to me, I think.

Beads of sweat were forming and dripping down my face, and the salt water mingled with my tears. Tears of hatred. Tears of fear. Tears of longing for Cole. Tears of sadness, depression, panic, and just knowing that it was all over.

Tears of hope.

Would they find me? I reached to rub my locket. It was gone. Had they found the clue? Had they listened to it? Where were they now?

I think I was getting a little too hopeful, because when I looked up, just to get my last glimpse of the world, I saw 4 figures standing in the East entrance. One Blue, one Red, one White, and one Black. Could it be? I pushed a damp, curly, strawberry blonde lock out of my face and blinked, causing more tears to fall. Yes, they were still there.

Yes.

(Jay)

Brielle was looking at us. No.. she was looking at Cole. I frowned. Cole was looking back. They were like communicating telepathically, or something.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Kai asked.

"Well, it sounds like they are going to um... lower Brielle into that pit filled with orange stuff..." Cole said.

Being interrupted by Zane, "It, in fact, is acidic lava, which I do not understand, as lava is not acidic, nor is acid anything like lava..."

"Zane, shut up." I gritted my teeth.

"Anyway, we have to get to Brielle without becoming too much of a distraction, and save her before she is lowered into the lava pit," Cole explained.

"And how, exactly, are we gonna do that?" Kai asked.

"Yeah!" I agreed.

"Well, we could sneak up to the cage without being too noticeable, and then free Brielle...." Cole started to say.

"And then someone could create a diversion, so most Arachneions would pay attention to them, leaving us a limited amount of time to get Brielle out of the cage, and back to the bounty!" I blurted.

"Why is everyone interrupting me?!" Cole said.

"Ssh, we ought to not be too loud, or we may drag uunwanted attention upon ourselves." Zane whispered.

"You're right, let's go..." Kai said.

"Wait! Who's gonna create the distraction?" I asked.

"Well.. how about Kai?" Zane suggested.

"Wait, why me?" Kai whined.

"Because you're good at creating distractions." I smirked. "C'mon, let's chop saki this lemonade stand!"