"Finding Aang before the cultists should be easy if you can time travel," Sokka said to Chromie.

"There are many things that, from your perspective, should be easy," she said, "but in practice, aren't."

"You can just put us back in the time we were, right? And we already know where Aang is; Jaina told us! We'll go get Aang, and if he's already been turned into some crazy all-elemental spirit monster, you can send us further back."

"And have several sets of you all in one point of time, attempting to alter events you've already interfered with? The paradoxes alone, not to mention the toll it can take on you..." She shook her head.

"Paradoxes? Toll?"

"Please understand, only the bronze dragonflight has mastered the magic of time. We can sense the timeways in ways no one else can, and we must navigate them cautiously. One mistake in the past will resonate down every branching timeline to follow."

"Like yanking out one rock can knock down a whole pillar," Toph said.

"So what does that mean for us?" Katara said.

"I won't burden you with the exact details," Chromie said. "Just know that some events are unalterable, even for us. I can take you back to near the time you left, directly to Mt. Hyjal, unless there's anything left for you to do in Stormwind."

"No, but if you could tell Anduin where we went... We don't want him to be worried."

"Katara, he's not going to be worried about us, he barely knows us," Sokka said. "He's got a lot more on his mind now."

"I can tell him regardless," Chromie said. "Are you all ready to leave?"

The group nodded and stood in preparation. Chromie raised her hands and whisked them away with a golden glow. They materialized on a grassy ledge overlooking a desiccated mountain valley. Behind them stood an elven encampment. Swiftly several leather-armored night elves, humans, and tauren brandished weapons at them.

"Wait!" Sokka said. "We're friends!"

"We're looking for Aang!" Katara said.

"The human boy?" one of the guards said. "He's been going off on rescue missions ever since he found one of his friends taken captive."

"One of his friends?" she echoed.

"He can't mean Azula," Zuko said. "Not even Aang is that nice to call her a 'friend'."

Realization shot through Sokka like a bolt of ice. "Where is she?!"

"Over there, recovering," the man said, pointing to a tent.

Sokka ran over and flung open the tent flap. Suki laid there on the bedding, her eyes closed.

"Suki!"

Sokka fell to his knees by her side and reached out to touch her face. Her eyes fluttered open, flicked around in different directions, then finally focused on him. She smiled weakly.

"Sokka..." she said. Her voice was hoarse and quiet.

"I'm here." He took her hand. "Suki, what happened? Are you okay?"

"The Twilight..." she said. "I was put to work... in the mines..."

"Did they hurt you?"

She nodded once. Anger boiled in him. How dare they! But he kept his face calm for her sake.

"And I saw... I saw..." She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her hand.

"What? What did you see?"

"Darkness, and the End. It was so, big, and empty, and loud. The voices, the whispers," she groaned, "they wouldn't stop. I saw them with my eyes open. They saw me back, they – they had so many eyes."

The guard had approached from behind, with Katara, Zuko, and Toph.

"All the servitors we rescued from the Twilight's Hammer say the same thing," the man said. "If they say anything at all. The cultists infect everyone with their insanity. We brewed up a draught to heal them, but we can't reverse all the damage done by... what they saw."

"But what is she talking about? Who's 'they'? The cultists?" Sokka said.

The man shook his head. "No, their 'masters'. The Old Gods."

Suki shivered at the name. Sokka patted her hand with his other one.

"They're not gods like, well, like anything else we properly call a god," the man said. "They're not like Elune, or Goldrinn and the other Ancients or any other spirits. They're just monsters of pure chaos who want to unravel reality. They're the ones responsible for all this madness – the cultists', and Deathwing's."

"Have you tried using healing magic on her?" Sokka asked.

"Of course. We've done all we can. Physically, her brain is fine. It's her memories of the experience that will haunt her."

"Thank you. I mean it."

The man nodded, then said, "Are you here to join the fight?"

"We're really just here to get our friend Aang out of harm's way," Sokka said. "No offense, but our own planet's got its own problems, and we need to get back and save it – Aang's the only one who can."

"Ever since he found Suki, he's been going back down again and again to rescue more slaves."

"This is bad," Katara said. "We can't leave him around those cultists."

Zuko finally spoke up. "By any chance, have you seen a girl who – looks sort of like me, but with longer hair and without the scar?"

"I can't say that I have," the man said. "The name's Ian Duran, by the way."

Zuko just huffed a bit and walked off to stare out across the valley.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "I'm Sokka, and the brooding one is Zuko. This is my sister Katara, and our friend Toph."

Ian nodded. "Good to meet you. The closest Twilight base is straight across from us. That's where Aang will have gone. Watch out, the place is full of ogres and enslaved air elementals."

The group collectively gasped or frowned.

Sokka turned back to Suki, leaning down to give her a kiss. "We'll come back for you. We'll get Aang and then we'll all get out of here."

"I know." She smiled at him, but it didn't reach her eyes.