So...this is up far later than promised. Sorry about that. Soccer preseason, AP work, and all that jazz. I've been hard at work though and I think I've created something moderately enjoyable if I do say so myself. In other news, my trainer got a new XC horse, an eight year old gray TB gelding, guess the name. No really, guess. Alright fine I'll tell you. Rio Reverso (we all call him Rio). This fact made me smile quite a lot. Thanks go to Amuletspade and Healingspringwaters for reviewing. You guys make me happier than a Jack with pudding.

Disclaimer: New CSI in a month! That means new CSI jokes for you guys! In the meantime, deal with the boring disclaimer of doom. I own nothing.

Fire and Ice

The sun burns on her arms radiated heat in the light of the fading sun. Sand slipped from beneath her shoes with every step she took. Her lips brushed the rim of the last of her water bottles, searching for one last drop. Both in front of and behind her nothing but an endless expanse of sand. The red glow on the horizon grew brighter, stung her eyes more, by the minute.

The first two days here, she'd been fine. Her powers had kept her safe from the extremes in temperature and dehydration. Last night, she'd woken up shivering with cold, the stupid blanket wasn't nearly enough to keep her warm. She'd never really felt cold before. She'd never felt the fury of heat either.

At least at dusk the temperature would be bearable for a little while. She would be better prepared tonight too. She hadn't expected her powers to fail so soon, but she figured that it meant that she was getting close.

Her body shook as she reached the top of yet another dune and she wiped some sweat from her forehead, again, being careful of the burns. She slid down the dune, not wanting to waste time and energy climbing down. At the bottom, she started to untie her shoes to empty them of sand, but thought better of it. There would be no sense of burning her feet off on the blazing sand for momentary comfort. Her eyes moved from her hiking boot to the valley around her and her heart beat a lively jazz tempo.

Not a thousand feet to the left of her -she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it from atop the dune- there was lush green grass, date palms dripping with fruit, and midnight blue water sparkling with the light of ten thousand stars. An oasis in this hell.

The part of her mind not suffering from a combination dehydration or heat induced delirium told her to ignore it. She hadn't seen it earlier and an oasis just when she needed one had to be too good to be true. The clinking of water bottles and the rasping of her dry throat with every breath drowned this out. Without water she was, as Clay would put it, "buzzard bait." That was, of course, assuming that there were buzzards here, which she doubted. There hadn't been another sign of life since she'd entered this desert.

She broke into a light jog, not wanting to waste a second, but at the same time being unable to full out sprint. She could already feel the cool water splashing on her face, washing away days of dirt and grime, and running like liquid ice down her throat. With every step, it was coming closer and closer. One hundred feet, sixty, twenty-five, she never imagined she could miss the taste of water so much, ten, three. Almost there, almost there.

Just as her foot was about to touch the soft grass, the sparkling water and shady trees vanished. Her body went slack and she fell to her hands and knees, no longer caring about the blazing hot sand. She'd been tricked by an illusion. She prided herself on being skeptical, but she'd been taken for a fool.

Howling winds threw sand at her, and for the first time she realized just how alone she was. She'd give anything just to hear another person's voice. She shivered despite the heat, imagining how everyone would react to seeing her now.

"Would a hug turn your frown front ways up?" "Quiet the storm of your mind." "You were far better off on the Heylin side." "Hey, hey, it's going to be alright. Have a cookie." "Come on! You can't just give in. It's so much fun building the fireproof bots!" "You gotta get back on the horse little lady." "Being an immortal hag's better than having your eyes pecked out by vultures." "In order to be true warriors, we must stand and face our problems." "And here I was thinking the boy was the worthless one." "Ay phoenix. We had a deal. You don't do anything I'd do and I won't do it either. That includes guilt trips."

She dug her hands into the sand, closed her eyes, and shook her head. She couldn't let Ignatius get to her. She wasn't going to break here. She was fire, she wavered, she blazed, but she didn't break. It was just another set back. She was dying, she knew that, but that didn't mean that she couldn't give the old dragon hell first.

She picked herself up, and dusted herself off. A certain dragon was going to regret making her look a fool. He'd played with fire, he was going to get burned. If it was at all possible to burn the ruler of all fire. If not, then she'd be perfectly okay with old fashioned scaly ass kicking.

When she looked for the red glow, she couldn't believe what she saw. The entire horizon was bathed in crimson light. It couldn't be sunset yet. She had at least an hour, she hadn't run that far. She couldn't be that far off course. She whipped around, there were no footprints behind her, no way to tell how far away from the path she was.

A little voice in the back of her head whispered that there was a way to find the path or water. Many of the later memories she saw involved the sorceress failing to cast various tracking spells. That was one of the details of her curse, immune to tracking spells, yet unable to cast them herself. She knew the spells. She knew that she had the power. She also knew that she refused to become like Minerva or Chase.

"Please. You're going to put your pride over your life? Now that's acting just like them," the voice said. It sounded like hers, but at the same time, a little lower, a little rougher, more forceful, darker.

"No," she whispered. "Besides, she dulled my powers. I can't do anything."

"She lies as easily as she breathes. Anyway, if you try to cast a spell and she did dull them you're no worse off then you are now," the voice scolded. "And you know that losing an argument with yourself is one of the big signs of insanity."

"Shut up," she said, starting to walk back the way she came. She knew her subconscious was right. There was no guiding light at night and she couldn't make it another day without water. That didn't mean she had to like it. She pulled out one of her water bottles, there were a couple of drops stuck to the side. All she needed.

She'd tried her hardest to forget all of this, so it was difficult to recall even one of the tracking spells. It wasn't ritual magic, so no words would be needed, but she would need absolute focus. She shook the water bottle and droplets fell into her outstretched hand. She focused her thoughts on the droplets. How they felt, how they moved in her hand, just how wonderful water would taste right now.

Pressure built behind her eyes and she felt like her chest was pulled up. She was looking down on a black haired girl with something glistening in her hand. If she could breathe, she would have gasped. Then she was pulled forwards as if on a leash. She flew over dunes, not a long distance, but at the same time certainly not a quick walk. When she finally stopped, she was in the middle of a real oasis. Palm trees, water, grass, and between two of the trees a large hole in the sand. The edges had been turned to glass by intense heat. Just as she was about to peer into the depths, she was snapped back to her body.

She practically collapsed laughing. She was going to make it. The oasis couldn't be more than two hours walk. She was sure she'd found Ignatius's lair too. All that remained was to deal with the dragon and forget the spell. She had worked so hard to build up walls around the sorceress's memories and everything she knew about magic, and now she had to start rebuilding or risk losing herself.

But there was still one small problem nagging at her thoughts. If the sorceress hadn't dulled her powers, what had she done?

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

His fingers were burning. One of the first stages of frostbite. The mittens were of little help there. He was right earlier when he thought not to underestimate the ice. He couldn't see more than two feet before him because of the blizzard. He wanted to stop and rest, but that wasn't an option. If he fell asleep, he might not wake up.

He took a step and sank up to his knee in snow. He wasn't even sure if he was going the right way anymore. He couldn't feel the ice beneath him, couldn't feel the path. He'd lost it sometime earlier today and had just gone straight since then. Even if the path had turned, he would never have known.

He couldn't give up though. He was the chosen one. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat, hoping that they might defrost a little. Not likely, but there was always fuel for the camp stove had turned into an unusable icy slush, so there was no way he was going to warm up that way.

If the snow would let up then he would have a chance. He wasn't in control of the weather though and he doubted Shui would give him that much of a chance. He shivered and kept walking through the snow. This would be much easier if he were just a little taller. Some of the drifts he was walking through were taller than he was.

He put his foot down, it didn't meet snow. Rather it fell into a perfectly foot shaped hole in the snow. He reluctantly removed his right hand from his jacket and felt the snow before him. Another foot shaped hole. This was either a very convenient coincidence or something much worse. He wanted to believe a coincidence, but the evidence pointed elsewhere. He'd been going in circles.

He had no idea for how long. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. There was no way to tell in the blizzard. He desperately hoped that it hadn't been for a very long time. He couldn't be lost. The fate of the world was in his hands. He couldn't fail now.

He wasn't lost. He'd just taken -as Dojo called it- the "scenic route." He would be back on the path in minutes. He wasn't going to worry about it. He couldn't have made a mistake. He put a hand in front of his eyes to keep help him see a little farther. It didn't help much. Just another six inches of blurry white. It sort of reminded him of the time Raimundo tried to set up the temple TV to get a soccer match.

Once he was sure he wasn't still walking in his own footprints, he put his hand back into his pocket. It wasn't much help, but it was at least something. Walking through the snow was perfect training for the "Toucan doing the Cancan" move too. His landing was three millimeters to the left on that one.

As he moved through the storm, he noticed feeling returning to his fingers. He didn't think he was working that hard. He certainly felt less cold right now. For the first time in ages he could feel his nose. Oddly enough, the farther he walked, the storm weakened to gentle drifting snow. He could actually see where he was going now. The snow was changing too. Where it had been thick and icy before, it was now powdery and light. He sank a bit more, but it was far easier to get out now.

The entire thing was almost becoming enjoyable again. He could almost forget that he was trying to save the world. Almost. His cracked lips began to form a smile, but stopped cold. The ice beneath him was far too thin for him to walk on safely. That wasn't what worried him though. Icy air flew to his lungs as he gasped. He knew how thin the ice was. He'd been going the wrong way.

He couldn't be though. It must have been a trick. He couldn't have made a mistake. He didn't make mistakes. A chill ran through his body as he thought about what that meant for him. He couldn't afford to make mistakes. Not with the world on the line. He had his friends counting on him. They needed him there to...he wasn't even sure what they needed him for anymore.

Raimundo was the leader, he was responsible for them now. Omi accepted that. Kimiko could more than take care of herself in and out of combat. He'd known that for a long time. Clay helped everyone with their problems, not that Omi was very good with personal issues to begin with. All three of them were just as skilled as he was now, so he no longer needed to teach them anything. Any and all training had been turned over to Master Fung, Minerva, and Master Monk Guan. He knew that if they saw him now they'd probably try to encourage him, but he didn't deserve it. He'd failed everybody.

He sank to his knees and he could hear the ice cracking beneath him. Then he fell. He'd known there was no water beneath him. What he was unsure of was how far it was to the floor of the ice cave. The cold air rushed by his face and blue ice rushed up to meet him. That was when survival instincts kicked in and he shifted midair to land on his feet rather than his head. Even with that, he landed hard and sprawled face first on the ground.

He sat up and rubbed his aching nose. This just made things worse. Now he was stuck in an ice cave with no way to get back up. He glanced around and was amazed by what he saw. The ice surrounding him was remarkably thin, but strong. He could see the ocean around him as if through glass. Swirling currents that all seemed to flow the same way. The cave was far larger than he originally thought too. It was more like a tunnel than a cave, and it led the same way as the currents. To the heart of the ocean. To Shui.

So he set off towards the dragon, eager to set his original mistake right.

This wasn't exactly the best. I did web MD dehydration and hypothermia symptoms, but it was difficult to really get it right in the chapter so I'm sorry for any inaccuracies. I'm also sorry if Omi seems really OOC in this chapter. Out of all the characters, he and Guan are the hardest for me to get right. I don't know why, they just are. Anywho, no more angst. It's fun to give me a R-E-V-I-E-W. That really doesn't fit in with YMCA...I'll find a way to make it fit eventually.