We jumped off the skimmer and turned to Aerrow with his arms open to me. I hugged him as tight as my weak mussels could handle. Then everyone else wanted some hugs too. I was so elated to be safe again. It was the old crew including the unfamiliar people. The Revs and Storm Hawks. Everyone said they were so worried and happy to see me.
I had a million questions to ask but I was much too happy, tired, hurt, drained, weak, hungry, and bloody to remember.
The first thing Aerrow did was tell everyone to ask questions later until we got settled down on a safe terra and until I was comfortable.
"We need to get her gashes treated before they get infected." Piper was looking at my shoulder.
"Yeah that just happened. Then I think yesterday Damon knocked me out until this morning." I tiredly explained, suddenly I remembered something. "LILLY! Oh no! She's still stuck with them! No… We can't leave her there…"
"Who is this Lilly you speak of?" A voice asked.
I smiled knowing who it was right off the bat.
"How did you get away?" I asked turning to Lilly.
"I drove. It was pretty easy actually. I just hit the throttle." She snickered.
"Smart ass," I chuckled.
"She told us she didn't want to have anything to do with Cyclonians, plus Chet and Shane were yelling not to let her escape. That was convincing." Diana laughed.
"Okay come on we've got to get you taken care of." Aerrow gently scooted me inside and away from everyone. I jumped in the shower while he got the stitches ready to go. I put on my good old clothing, which was baggy now. Aerrow knocked on the door and he came in with the first aid kit. I rolled up my sleeve and he started to stitch it up.
"I really missed you." He smiled as he worked.
"Same to you." I blushed.
"We snuck in earlier today to see if we could get you out of there, but there were too many cyclonians around. We were there when they tried to hypnotize you. Then we heard their plan and left to prepare." He explained, "We would have gotten you out sooner but every time we tried, they'd be attacking more terras or guarding their terra. Now we found some other benders to help us out. We searched and had people touch the Sfix stone until we found a few."
"That's great," I grinned. He stopped and looked me over. His fingers ran down my arm, examining all the bruises and cuts. He sent goose bumps up my arms.
"I shouldn't have let you go by yourself that night. This would have never happened…" He sighed.
"Hey I was the stupid one, I shouldn't have went off alone with him anyway. I was so sure he had no idea who I was." I shrugged.
"How could they do this to you?" he asked softly pushing some hair out of my face.
"Most of the bruises are actually from training. Carver's training and practicing with the three traitors." I replied. "I didn't really have to deal with anyone higher than Carver until today and last month. One day of that was quite enough."
He just kept watching my reaction. I could see how worried he was. I looked away and in the mirror on the door. Then I saw why.
I was so skinny and pale. There were bruises all over me, and cuts here and there. There were bags under my eyes from lack of sleep. I looked very sickly. I didn't just feel horrible.
I sighed and shook my head. Aerrow started working on finishing the stitches.
That night after everything started to settle down, The Rex Guardians hosted a dinner for us all on terra Rex.
The guy with the white spiky hair was Nate. The girl with blond hair was Naomi. There was another girl with ginger hair and blue eyes. She was also another bender named Dee. Starling took them in and they formed the new Interceptors squadron. They gladly accepted Lilly into the squadron. Piper had let us know the good news about them slowing their aging down to our speed, with a special rare bonding of 15 different stones as we sat around the table. Only the revs and storm Hawks will have the life span of us, that included Lilly.
After a good meal for once, we all went to our ships for the night. I was first to excuse myself to my room.
I expected to have the best night of sleep ever but my dreams had other plans.
I was running through a deserted town. The air was cold and the sky was filled with dark depressing clouds. I looked frantically behind me making sure I was far away.
I rounded a corner and into an ally way. Before I realized it was a dead end I heard him laughing behind me.
I turned around and he was right in my face. He drew his blade and aimed at my heart. It caught flame and he smiled cruelly.
"Say good-bye sweetheart." Derek snickered.
I snapped awake, startled and very shaken. Aerrow ran in and turned on the light. He sat down next to me and let me talk about it to him. Once he calmed me down and left, I slept soundly.
Every night for the past two weeks, Derek would show up in my dreams one way or another.
Other than my dreams everything started to return to normal. I was enjoying my life with my family again. I looked like my normal self again. No one had brought up anything about it unless I would start the conversation. No one even brought up what Cyclonis had said about Aerrow and I either.
This morning started like any other, Aerrow, Tyco, Finn, and Junko crowding the radio to see if anything exciting was going on. We usually expected something little every morning, but this morning we heard that there were Cyclonian battle ships headed to terra Amazonia. We got right on it.
That terra was where they hid the Sfix stone. Everyone kept looking at me worriedly.
"Are you going to be okay?" Aerrow asked looking back at me.
"I'll be fine. I'm not worried. The heads may not even be there…" I hoped.
The terra came into view and there was no sign of anyone.
"Well this is odd…" Piper shook her head.
"We're doomed. They are waiting for us… Including those natives…" Stork shivered remembering when they all got stranded there. We landed and so did the other two ships. We all piled out.
"Let's investigate anyway. Skyleigh and I will go take a look in the temple where the stone is. Everyone else needs to split up and make sure they aren't here." Aerrow directed.
Everyone paired up and disappeared. We hiked through the dense forest until we came to a temple, hidden by moss.
He grabbed my hand lightly and helped me over the logs in front of the door. He lit a torch with his hand and the torches lining the hall way lit up as well. He held onto my hand and guided me to the end of the hall. It opened up to a room with a glowing crystal centered in it. The blue calming light from the crystal illuminated the room beautifully.
Aerrow sighed with relief. He let go of my hand walked up to it losing himself in the stone.
"It's amazing isn't it?" Aerrow asked.
"It's pretty, I'll give it that." I shrugged. I walked over next to him. He looked at me and looked away when I noticed. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
The glow outlined Aerrow's perfect features and made me blush as he looked at me again. He took a deep breath and faced me. I turned to him confused.
I was about to ask what was wrong, but his hands slipped around my waist and gently pulled me close to him. I was speechless.
"We never got a chance to do this back on Gale." He smiled sweetly.
My face reddened. I shakily rested my hands on his shoulders and my heart just about stopped as his face neared mine. Our lips finally met for the first time. His lips moved against mine in perfect rhythm, it felt like it could last forever. His one hand moved to my face and his fingers intertwined in my hair. My hands moved up and around the back of his neck. It got more intense and passionate. We pulled back and just looked into each other's eyes bewildered.
The moment was broken when we heard a familiar laughter in the opening of the cavern. I was so stunned with terror, I started to shake and not be able to breathe. Aerrow pulled his blades out and jumped in front of me.
Dark Ace stood before us holding the stone.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt, but thanks for showing us the way to the crystal." He cackled and took off down the hall.
"We need back up! Dark Ace is headed out of the cave with the stone!" Aerrow shouted into his head set.
Aerrow quickly kissed me again and pulled me along. I ran after him and whipped out my blade to back him up. We got outside.
"Three for the price of one!" Dark Ace snickered as he stood outside waiting. We looked around confused. I looked up and there was the infamous crowd of head talons on top of the temple.
"I take that back! We need SERIOUS back up!" Aerrow yelled.
"Long time no see," Derek jumped down in front of us. "You know since last night in your dreams."
"You infected her with a dream stone?" Aerrow yelled.
"I warned her, did I not?" he chuckled. Aerrow slashed at him and started their one on one battle. Both firing shots at one another.
Someone grabbed me into a choke hold and bent me backwards. I flipped myself the rest of the way backwards, kicking Shane in the face doing so.
I fired water at him and it snaked around his wrists. I froze it around a tree so he couldn't move his arms.
I tried to go help Aerrow but Chet came up and swiped at me. I froze ice around my hand, still able to flex my hand, and grabbed his sword. I kicked him where I knew it would hurt real badly and he collapsed to the ground. Ravess took aim at me from on top of the cave and I noticed as she fired. I snapped it in half with Chet's sword. I blasted her bow and it froze so she couldn't pull it back to fire.
A big shadow overcastted me and turned around to see Snipe with his club above his head. Someone behind me caught the club as it came down. I looked back to see Junko holding the club. I scooted out of the way and they started to fight. Everyone started to come back and fight. Dark Ace and Derek were both after Aerrow. I flung my blade as hard as I could hitting Derek's blade from his hands. He turned around angrily. I panicked and hid behind the tree.
I peeked around the other side and he was right there in my face. I summoned my sword back without thinking and it flew back into my hand. He slammed my wrist into the tree so I couldn't use my sword.
"Now the nightmare is real." He smiled. I bended ice around my fist and tried to punch him in the face. His free hand pinned that hand back as well.
Someone linked arms around his neck and pulled back. I was dropped down and I sent ice down through my feet and under his feet. He fell to the ground and Diane snickered and we ran off before he could get up.
"Retreat before this gets worse guys, we are outnumbered!" Aerrow yelled over the headsets and to everyone around them.
A wall of fire erupted before Diana and I. It faded and Damon stood smiling.
"Don't you have a score to settle?" He snickered.
"Now you can't cheat." I smiled back. I took a stance with my sword.
"Bring it on old friend." He did the same
"We were never friends." I gritted my teeth and my sword surrounded itself in a blue frantic flame. His did the same but red.
"We have to get out of here, Skyleigh! He's tricking you to stay! We don't want you to go back!" Diana yelled at me.
"You want a fair shot, don't you?" Damon taunted.
Aerrow suddenly was in front of me with his hands on my shoulders. He pushed the hand holding my blade, down carefully. He quickly turned around and fired at Damon. He turned back and replaced his hands.
"Diana is right, we need to leave now. Snap out of if Skys…" He shook me gently. He fired again and we took off back to the ships. We took off and they didn't bother following.
