Chapter One: The Black Fire

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."

Terry Pratchett

My eyes are wedged open by errant sunbeams and a suspicious noise coming from the sheer rock face protecting the Western Air Temple. It's one of those sounds that tickles the edge of consciousness, soft enough to suppress, but invariably there. I push myself upright and glance around to find Aang and Zuko tense and wide awake, just as aware of the faint scrabbling noises, like pebbles overturning. Aang's large gray eyes wander to the cliffside and then to me. He brings a finger to his lips and begins to edge his way towards the sound on his hands and knees. My mouth forms an 'o' of protest, but I swallow the words and watch in silence.

Aang's head slowly peeks over the edge, time stopping, and then he pulls back, smiling. "It was only a gila—whoa!" The pseudo-quiet shatters, replaced by a stunning shriek that shakes the stone walls of the temple. And then a wave of darkness and heat curls up and out, terrifyingly fast and elegant—black fire. Aang whirls out of the way in a ball of wind, landing in a defensive position.

"What's going on?" Hakoda shouts over the siren screams that grow louder every second. Everyone, now awake, stares ahead in horror and anticipation for whatever's coming.

"I dunno, pops, but whatever it is, it can't be good," Toph replies and kicks her heel back into the ground, lobbing a disk of earth into the air in front of her.

Then they come—two of them, the screeching creatures. Great, rippling, and black as night— reptilian creatures with mean eyes and white paint, like ash and withering branches, smeared down their flanks. The men atop are equally as intimidating with charcoal skin, searing golden eyes, and the same ashy war paint adorning their bodies.

"We can take 'em!" Sokka declares with a determined swipe at his nose.

Then the next wave of howling lizards sweep over the edge of the cliff in a burst of black fire that doesn't quite reach us, more to intimidate than to harm.

"Never mind," Sokka amends loudly. "Retreat!"

The greater part of the group books it towards the interior of the temple, while the rest of us take a more offensive route. I drag water up from the circular fountain and make two water whips, snapping them at the lizards' legs to drive them back. Zuko deflects the strange bursts of black fire from the men atop the howler lizards while Aang sends sweeping rolls of air low to the ground. The lizards hold fast, digging their stalwart claws into the stone, shrieking even louder and shaking the walls even harder. Rock begins to tumble from the columns.

The men leap from off the creatures with startling stealth and grace for their immense size. Five in all. They rush forward, the lizards fast at their heels with their mouths agape, screaming with all their might.

"Time to move!" Toph shouts from behind us. I send one last raging wave of water at my opponents, making them stumble backwards before moving towards the escape route. Aang turns to run, then hesitates when Zuko continues to blast fire out of his palms with no intention of turning back.

"What are you doing?"

"Go ahead! I'll hold them off!" Zuko shouts back and with a furious grunt, fends off a blast of black fire.

"Zuko! No!" Aang cries, but Zuko's already charging forward.

Sokka and I run up from behind him, grabbing onto his shoulders. "C'mon! We've gotta get out of here!" Sokka yells, and then the three of us race back to where the rest of the group is piled in the entrance to a gaping tunnel in the wall. Aang sends one last glance at Zuko before airbending the temple doors shut, quieting the shrieking by a few degrees, though the walls still shudder. Sokka and I meanwhile, frantically tug on Appa's reigns, trying to get him into the tunnel. Aang runs to join us.

"C'mon, Appa!" I coax, in as calm of a voice as I can muster.

"You can do it, boy!" Sokka encourages him, and pulls as hard as he can, leaning back on his heels.

Appa lets out a distressed groan and tosses his great, big head. "I can't make him go in there! Appa hates tunnels!" Aang finally says and drops the reigns.

"Aang, there's no way we can fly out of here," I reason just as the doors to the chamber shutter with a great a force being launched into them. My thoughts briefly flicker to Zuko out there alone, but I push them away. If he can't handle it, he'll just get what's coming to him.

"We'll have to find a way!" Aang says determinedly.

Sokka nods. "We'll have to split up." He turns to the rest of the group. "Take the tunnel and get to the stolen airship."

"No!" I stare fiercely at my dad and brother. "The Fire Nation won't separate our family again!" My hands ball painfully into tight fists and I blink hard as my face grows hot and my throat knots up.

Dad gathers some semblance of a knowing smile. "It'll be okay. It's not forever."

I hesitate for a moment and then rush into his arms, perhaps for the last time, not knowing once more whether I'll see him ever again. I try to fit all the things I want to say to him into one embrace and then I pull back, staring at the ground as I retreat to where Sokka, Suki, Aang, and Toph are. The larger half of the group sadly backs away into the tunnel and Haru slams a wall of stone into place and they disappear into the earth. I hope to see all of you again.

Just then, a section of the doors explode in an array of splinters as Zuko's body bursts through. He lets out a pained cry and the rest of the doors are breached as enormous ebony claws rake through them. The howler lizards stick their menacing heads through the openings and their riders launch over them and into the chamber.

"Appa!" Aang shouts. My head whips over to where a net pins the sky bison to the ground, then another net whirls into the air and captures Aang.

"Aang!" I begin to sprint towards him, but in my peripherals I see a great, black lizard lumbering towards me, its mouth slowly opening. I can almost hear it drawing a breath. A powerful scream blasts into my ears and then something hits me hard in the shoulder, in the chest, and then I'm slammed to the ground all at once. Something cold showers over me, lightly sprinkling dust in my hair and on my cheeks and lips. There's little pain and everything is so stunningly quiet and dark, like I've been launched into sudden night. I can see blurs through the fog, movement and color. And then a certain sound reaches me, faint, but all too familiar.

"Sokka!"

"Suki, no!"

And then the sound of fire, always that same rush of fire. Pained cries.

"Sokka!"

I feel a clenching in my chest, eyes swimming before me, maybe it's from the sudden pain, maybe it's from-Sokka, Suki, Aang. Something's happened to them.

My vision snaps into focus. There's movement. Toph is surrounded by men wielding nets and black fire. She grunts with each blast she deflects, but she's tired. She pulls up a tent of stone around her as a last-ditch effort. I flinch as the men tear it down. Toph would be disappointed; she's the best earthbender the world's ever seen, but she was outnumbered. I shut my eyes tight as a man carries my powerful little friend over his shoulder as if she were nothing. Nothing at all.

I open my eyes once more and sees Aang, Sokka, Suki, and Toph in wooden cages fastened to the backs of the howler lizards. Aang and Sokka and Toph are unconscious and Suki's struggling against the bars, battering at them with her bare hands. They begin to retreat down the cliff. I cry out and attempt to wrench my arms free, but I'm met only by sharp pain. I try to kick my way out, but my legs won't move, too weighed down by stone. I lay my head down painfully in the pile of rubble, ceasing to struggle. My heart pounds hard and fast and helpless tears streak down my face as my friends disappear from view.

I search desperately for a way out of this hopeless mess, but find nothing. Nothing but a man with the charcoal skin and swirling ashes of paint atop a howler lizard, staring intently at one last survivor. Zuko.

The lizard aggressively scrapes at the ground with his claws, but the man riding it corrects so it looms directly overhead. The moment seems to last for an eternity, the man and Zuko staring, but with one last calculated glare, the howler lizard eases away and then swiftly follows the rest down the cliff.