Last Time…

I was just drifting off when Katara suddenly asked, "How can you sleep at a time like this?"

I guess she must've come in without me noticing. That's a surprise. I rolled towards her and sighed, "Everything will be fine. Aang will get Sokka back. I don't need to worry myself and lose sleep over it."

I rolled back away from her and fell asleep with no other problems.

Back in my own world, I'd always wake up to my alarm clock and hit the snooze button. It would always make me late to school. The habit got so bad that I had to move the clock all the way across my room. Though, it didn't really help as I robotically stood up, hit the snooze button and fell back onto my bed to sleep for just five more minutes. When I arrived at the Southern Water Tribe, I quickly learned that they didn't really have a set sleep schedule. You were free to wake up when you wanted to, unless there was a small child who wanted you to play with them or an angry elder who asked you to do a specific set of chores three days earlier came and yelled at you to get up. As I was a newcomer, I mostly didn't have children asking to play with me and I usually did all my chores on the day that they were given to me. So, I started to sleep in and got very accustomed to the practice. So when our little group set off for the North Pole, I was very worried about how early we would have to wake up. It turned out that wasn't going to be an issue though until right then when I was awoken very violently with a number of jerks and pushes.

"Rei! We need to go!"

I moaned and rolled away from the loud blob that had Katara's voice. She grabbed my blanket and tucked it under her arm.

"Come on, get up."

I curled up into myself, trying to get some of the warmth back, and whined, "Why?"

"We'll explain on the way. Let's go. We already got your stuff onto Appa."

She pulled on my arm and, with her help, I got up and stumbled out to Appa, who took off as soon as I got in the saddle.

"Sooooo… whad's goin' on?"

"Aang had a vision and we're going to the Fire Temple so he can talk to Avatar Roku."

I nodded, "Riiiiight. That is what happened, uuuuuh right."

I fell over on my side and muttered, "G'night."

They didn't disturb me, which surprised me a bit, but what didn't surprise me was that I woke up in the middle of danger again with Katara yelling, "We got trouble!" cause of course I wake up right in the middle of danger. I sighed and bonked my head a couple of times before sitting up.

"Yeah, and it's gaining fast." Sokka yelped. I blinked rapidly and held my head in my hands as a severe headache formed from getting up to fast.

"Fireball!"

"I'm on it!"

We swerved and I barely had time to grab a hold of the saddle before I could fall into the ocean.

I opened my mouth to yell at Aang, but then a gust of disgusting wind flooded my senses. As I had a coughing fit, Katara said, "We have to get out of Zuko's range before he shoots another hot stinker at us!"

"Ugh! That is terrible!" I added holding my nose and breathing as little as possible.

I swiftly moved over to Sokka, who turned around to check on Zuko's ship and paled, "Can't you make Appa go any faster?"

"Yeah…" Aang muttered, "but there's just one little problem. Look!"

A huge Fire Nation blockade sat in front of us, spanning from the edges of the horizon. Shit.

"If we fly north, we can go around the Fire Nation ships and avoid the blockade." Aang said, "It's the only way."

Katara shook her head. "There's no time!"

Aang groaned, turning to us angrily, "This is exactly why I didn't want you to come. It's too dangerous!"

Katara set her jaw. "And that's exactly why we're here."

"We're here for you Aang, through thick and thin." I agreed.

Sokka said confidently,"Let's run this blockade!"

Aang smiled and our eyes locked. I returned his smile and I saw the determination build in his eyes before he turned back around. "Appa, yip yip!"

We headed straight for the blockade, intent on getting past it head on.

"Hope you're ready for this Appa. It's gonna be a bumpy ride." I grimaced, thinking about the close calls that were coming.

As we got closer, fireballs started heading right for us. The siblings and I held on for dear life as Appa weaved and twisted around and managed to get past most of them. He got a little burned, but we put out the fires quickly. Aang decided to go above the clouds. Good strategy on the whole, but we should've been doing from the start since they now knew we were here and so sent fireballs through the clouds. Two fireballs collided caused Appa to buck wildly.

"Sokka!"

I looked back and just managed to see Sokka fall through the cloud layer. Aang steered Appa down and caught him, barely getting him above the ocean's surface.

"Sokka, are you alright?"

"I'm good Rei. I just fell a thousand feet and just barely managed to survive." I jabbed him with my elbow. "Hey!"

I smirked, "Deserved it."

A fireball came hurtling right at us and Aang gave it an airbending kick and made a hole for us to get through. Looking over the edge of the saddle, I saw Zhao glaring at us harshly as we flew past. I gulped hard. Zhao scared me. That fear was so much worse in person. I was not looking forward to the day when we met up close.

"We made it!" Aang cheered and I smiled at him.

"Woohoo!" I chorused and started jumping up and down and all around.

"We got into the Fire Nation. Greaaaat…" Sokka gulped nervously and I dragged the two siblings into a big hug.

"Oh Sokka. Don't worry about it. Getting out will be easy now that we know to avoid the blockade." I pulled back and grinned at him.

He rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Yeah, I guess."

"That's the spirit. Katara?"

She nodded confidently, "I'm sure we'll be fine. I trust you guys."

"Hey! You guys are doing a group hug without me?!" Aang yelled and we barely had time to react before he did a massive airbending jump and landed on top of the group, making us all fall to the ground.

"Aang!" Sokka yelled.

The boy grimaced and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Oops. My bad."

Sokka seethed, "Oh I'll show you bad."

"Sokka…" I warned, but it was apparently too late as Sokka jumped on the young Avatar, sending them rolling across the saddle. I sighed and shared a glance with Katara. We smirked at each other and jumped on the boys, getting us all tangled up in an array of arms and legs going everywhere.

"Now we're all included Aang." I teased.

"You happy?" Katara laughed.

"Yes! Now get off!"

I tried to pull myself free, but to no avail.

"Hey guys… I'm stuck. Can anyone else get out?"

A couple of painful grunts later and a collective muttering, "No…"

"Alright, Aang, can you airbend us out of here?"

"Well, we might end up falling out of the saddle."

"What if we had Appa fly down to the ocean surface? Then we wouldn't fall that much and we can just climb back on."

"Appa! Go down to the ocean!"

Appa started to circle down and we started getting thrown to different parts of the saddle.

"Slowly Appa! Slowly!" I yelled and we stopped rolling around like a human bowling ball. We all heard Appa splash into the water and Aang jumped into action, blowing us all off into the sea.

Slumped in a wet, shivering heap, Sokka panted, "We are never doing that again."

All in similar situations to him, we chorused, "Agreed."

Loosely wrapped in my blanket, I sat looking at my feet and thinking through everything that was coming. At one point, I even thought about what would happen if I just took the gang away from the story. They didn't deserve to be thrown into this at their age. I regained my sense after a second. We had to stick to the story. No deviations. Though, I supposed I would never be able to trust myself. It would probably be best if I left the group sometime soon. Then, nothing would be changed because of my presence. Katara already didn't lose her necklace. That seemingly small alteration might end up spiraling out of my control. How was Zuko going to track us down without it? The gang would fall apart when Bato showed up if Zuko didn't find us. I'd probably have to patch that situation myself and get them to talk to each other. That was not going to be fun. As I worried endlessly, a sudden half-stifled yawn broke through my mental cloud. I looked up.

Frowning slightly, I shifted my eyes between Sokka and Katara who sat at opposite sides of the saddle. Their drooping eyes stared blankly at the thick cloud cover that protected us from any more Fire Nation attacks.

"Hey guys, you should get some rest. I know you all stayed up late for the past two nights. I've still got some steam left. I can take watch."

Swiftly reaching over and wrapping himself into a messy blanket burrito, Sokka panted, "Thanks Rei." I rolled my eyes playfully before checking on Katara. She shivered nervously, obviously still cold from the short dip in the freezing winter ocean. I grabbed my own blanket and layered it over hers. Her hands unconsciously grabbed the fabric closer to her, but she protested, "No, we got you up from your sleep. You should take a nap. Get back some of that lost-"

"No!" I insisted, "You've been super stressed out and the little sleep that you got was fitful. You need sleep more than me." She opened her mouth to argue, but I cut her off, "Uh-uh. No, I'm not gonna take no for an answer." I pushed a bit and she acquiesced to my movements. Softly and slowly, I let her down onto the seat of the saddle.

Sighing contently as I heard snoring coming from Sokka, I climbed into the front seat next to Aang. I asked, "Hey Aang? What do you think Avatar Roku wants to talk about?"

His grip on Appa's reins tighted. "I don't know. He showed me a vision. I don't know what it means, but he showed me the crescent island and that's where we need to go."

I nodded,"So, what do you know about the past Avatars? Like what do they do in the spirit world? Do they see everything that happens here? Do they know the future?"

"The monks told us that only the Avatar is able to contact them, but no Avatar has told anyone about their meetings with their past selves. So, I don't know. After we talk about my vision, I could ask for you?"

"No, that's okay. I'm just curious. There's so much I don't know about the spirit world."

"Well, I don't know much cause the monks never taught me how to travel between the two worlds."

"Well, I hope that Roku can help you with your vision." I patted his shoulder reassuringly.

Aang gulped slightly, but tried to give me a smile back. He mumbled, "Me too," and looked away.

I gave his shoulder a squeeze and sighed. Looking back at the sleeping kids, I offered, "Aang, why don't you get some rest too? You were in the spirit world for a while. I can steer Appa for a while."

"No, I better keep going since I know what the island looks like and how to get there."

"As long as you're sure…"

He grinned, "Sure! If anything, going into the spirit world gave me even more energy."

Pulling him into a swift hug, I laughed, "Ha! You already have so much energy. Guess I'll have to keep you out of the spirit world as much as possible." I let him go and gave him one last smile before hopping back into the saddle. Wrapping my torn flannel around me as much as possible, I took up station at the back of the saddle, watching the clouds float by below us.