PARADOX

Chapter Ten: Spirits and Solstice part 2

The village leader approached us and Sokka rudely asked for supplies.

The leader gladly gave us a bundle of supplies and told us if we wanted to reach the temple by sunset we would have to hurry.

I dozed off in the saddle and only woke up when the bison jerked to the side. I yelped at the sudden sliding sensation. I reached for the closest thing to grab but missed and slide right off the saddle. I screamed in shock reaching for the water in the air. I quickly formed it into an ice hang-glider. I felt my fall turned into a controlled glide. I forced some airbending I had learned to push the glider up higher.

I hovered right beside Appa and then jumped to his saddle even as I turned the ice back into water.

Once the other three saw I was safe they went back to their conversation.

"We have to run the blockade." Sokka said.

Aang directed Appa directly toward the blockade of Fire Nation ships. There were a dozen or more hot, stinky, fireballs coming toward us. I created a water shield in front of Appa quickly. It was see-through but it would extinguish the fireball.

"Good job, Kiara." Sokka said cheerfully.

I stood on the saddle. I quickly used some water to freeze my feet to the saddle so I wouldn't fall. I began bending water out of the air and some from the ocean. I quickly used the water to re-enforce the ice shield. Hopefully it would hold until we got out of range.

Then I got an evil idea. I collected as much water as I could, then gathered it into a several head-sized balls and froze them.

As we passed over the blockade I bended the ice balls over the side of Appa. Three or four of the ice balls missed completely. Two glanced a blow, and the last one landed directly on the head ship a foot away from the monkey faced commander.

"Score!" I grinned.

"Nice." Sokka said sincerely.

Katara looked at me disapprovingly.

"We made it!" Aang cheered.

"We made it into the Fire Nation. Great." This time Sokka was sarcastic.

We rode through the air for another hour or so before Aang shouted out, he had spotted the island.

Appa landed and I gratefully got off. I still wasn't very fond of heights, and my near fall to my death had made me like them even less. Aang hugged Appa praising him. Katara cooed at Appa and Sokka made a fool of himself.

"Come on." I said heading towards the temple.

We paused at the balcony and looked around the corner to see if there were any guards. There weren't.

"They must've abandoned the temple after Avatar Roku's death.

We snuck in quietly. We made our way into a large red room and figured out we were lost.

"Aang, which way do we go?" I asked.

"I don't know." He replied.

"I thought you came here in the spirit world. Even in the spirit world you would have to follow the path, right?" I asked turning to stare at him.

"Fang just went right through the walls." Aang shrugged back.

"And you didn't think it was a good idea to tell us you had no clue where you're supposed to meet Roku?" I asked.

Sokka and Katara were watching our conversation like it was a tennis match.

Aang shrugged again.

"Shh!" Sokka whispered harshly. "I think I hear something." He said.

We turned to see a group of four old men glaring at us. The fifth one wasn't glaring.

"We are the Fire Sages. Guardians of the temple of the Avatar." One of the glaring ones said.

"Great, I'm the Avatar." Aang said stepping forward with a grin.

"We know." The sage replied and all four of the glaring men shot fireballs at our group.

Aang quickly bent a blast of air to block the fire as we all ran out of the room.

Aang was behind us for a little while but he quickly caught up with his air bending. "Follow me." He yelled over his shoulder.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Sokka asked as we followed his lead.

"Nope." He said cheerfully turning a corner. Before we reached the corner he came back around it. "Not that way." He said before we could ask.

We stared at him confused until a sage came around the corner than we ran after him.

"Come back!" The sage yelled. His voice wasn't as harsh as the other sage's voices.

We ran around a corner only to come to a dead end. There was a hallway with a window at the end and no other doors.

We backed up to the window as the sage came around the corner.

"I don't want to fight you. I'm a friend." He said sincerely.

Aang and Sokka took fighting stances. "Fire benders aren't our friends!" Sokka yelled.

The sage took a step forward before dropping to his knees in a bow in front of Aang. "I know why you are here Avatar." He said.

"You do?" Aang asked dropping his guard.

"Yes, you wish to speak with Avatar Roku. I can take you to him." He answered.

"How?" Aang asked skeptically.

The sage showed us the secret passage that was opened with firebending. He then led us to a giant door.

"Why do all these sacred temple places have such big doors?" I suddenly asked. "Its a big waste of wood and its not like anyone but sages and the avatar will ever see the damn things."

The group looked at me like I just said something that was completely foreign.

"No!" the sage suddenly shouted. "The doors are closed." He said.

"Can't you open them?" Katara asked.

"No, only a fully realized avatar or five simultaneous fire blasts can open the doors." He told us.

"Five fire blast, huh." Sokka asked looking up at the lantern above them. You could practically see the light bulb go off. "I think I can help you out." He said.

"What you suddenly gain the power to fire bend?" I asked sarcastically.

"No!" Sokka objected. "I just need the lantern above us and our pouches.

The sage got the lantern while Aang and Katara emptied the pouches we had.

Sokka carefully poured the oil from the lantern into the pouches.

"What's to stop the oil from going through the pouches?"I asked.

"They're made of waterproof material. You see, I put the oil in the pouches, make a fuse and Shyu just lights the fuses and we have five fire blasts at the same time. Fake fire blasts but it should work." Sokka explained.

Sokka set the bombs up and all of us stood behind pillars to prepare for the blast.

"The other sages will hear the blasts so as soon as the doors open run in." He instructed.

Aang nodded.

Shyu lit the ropes on fire and in a few seconds we heard a tremendous BOOM.

Aang rushed into the smoke only to find the door was still closed which he then announced to us.

Aang started throwing numerous air blasts at the door. "WHY. WON'T. IT. OPEN!" He complained.

"Enough Aang." Katara said. "There's nothing else we can do." She continued once she noticed she had Aang's attention.

"I don't get it. Those explosions looked as strong as any fire blast I've ever seen." Sokka muttered.

"Sokka you're a genius!" Katara exclaimed.

"Wait, how is Sokka a genius?" Aang asked. "His plan didn't work."

"Let her dream." Sokka said.

"No it didn't, but it looks like it did." Katara continued.

"Did the definition of genius change in the last hundred years." Aang asked.

"She means that the other sages will think you got in and they'll open the doors to 'catch' you." I interrupted before it could go on any longer.

"If we send Momo through the pipe he can walk back and forth and his shadow will look human from over here." Katara added.

"When the sages open the door to get you, you run in and we'll distract the sages." I planned.

Just like we planned when the sages saw the shadow they thought it was Aang and all five of them firebended at the dragon mouths to open the door.

They froze in shock when they saw it was only Momo. I grabbed one of the sages around the neck with a sleeper hold knocking him unconscious from lack of oxygen. Then I went for as second sage. This one was a little more prepared. He had seen his fellow sage taken down and made sure to use fire bending to keep me at arms distance at least.

I attacked back with air bending because there wasn't enough water in the air to make a decent attack. The sage looked surprised for a second then attacked with renewed vigor. Apparently he thought I was the avatar and Aang had been a decoy.

Zuko came out from behind the pillar holding Aang. "The avatar's coming with me." He declared.

"He's not the avatar!" I bluffed. "I'm the avatar." I sent a blast of air at Zuko surprising him into letting Aang go.

Aang instantly ran into the room.

"He made it." Katara sighed in relief.

Monkey face came in next with his soldiers and caught the Gaang and Zuko and Shyu.

Monkey face whose actual name was Zhao, gave a monologue about how he was going to catch the avatar and blah blah blah.

When the door opened a while later Zhao ordered his men to fire. The did but the fire was suddenly redirected. It wasn't Aang that had come out of the doors. It was Avatar Roku.

Suddenly the temple was coming down around us. Our chains were melted including Zuko's and all of us ran for whatever cover we had. For the Gaang it was Aang/Roku, for Zuko it was out of the temple and for the rest of the fire benders it was out of the temple.

Aang used the bison whistle after he went back to his normal form. The ceiling of the temple was still falling around us.

Appa swooped out of the sky and carried us off just before the last of the temple collapsed.

We hugged and stayed that way until it was moon rise. Then we lay down for a well deserved rest.

We would find out what Roku said after some rest.