Tina was crawling back into her tent when she heard Luke whisper to her.
"Tina, hey Tina."
She paused and eyed him. "Come here," he said.
She cautiously walked over to him to see him hold out his chains.
She laughed, "No, I'm not letting you go."
"Please, I know where she is. If she can trust me why can't you?"
She glared at him, "Just how stupid do you think I am? If she was in any danger I could go find her myself."
He smirked, "No offense or anything, but you aren't exactly the fighting type. Sure, you're not a bender, but you also don't have a weapon."
She grabbed his collar and stared at him angrily, "Say that again and I'll show you my weapon." She tuned to leave but stopped. She looked at him briefly, "Anyway, it doesn't matter, Alex is fine." With that she went into her tent.
Luke held out the key he had taken from her pocket when she had grabbed him, "she will be after I find her," he grinned eerily.
Raidon offered her a hand, and after a few seconds of staring at it and it alone she grabbed it. As he led her away she made sure not to make eye contact with him again. The first time she had already felt herself slipping away, and she wasn't going to let go that easily.
As she passed people, many did not look at her; they only remained frozen on the ground, unwilling to move.
"What is this place?" she asked herself.
She was led into what seemed like a large marble palace, the black rock shimmering her reflection as they walked. He let go of her and went to sit on a large marble throne in front of her.
He frowned, "Look at me Alexa,"
She did not, "I can't be in the spirit world," she mussed to herself.
He laughed, having heard her apparently, "No, I'm afraid not. This is my mortal realm, a place where everything is as it should be."
"They are afraid of you, how can you say this is good?" she demanded, eyeing the details around the foot of the throne.
He stood, "in this place you will see people who would have normally been shunned by the whole world! These are my people, and I could not stand by and watch them suffer!"
She blinked, "you mean there are more people here like Kaida?"
He froze, "I see you've met her,"
"Is—is what she says true?" she asked tediously.
He did not hesitate, "They all are, and now you must see why I cannot release them!" he saw that she still refused to look at him and made his way down to her.
She shivered at his every nearing form, but did not cry out when he touched her neck. He spotted the diamond that lay softly against her skin and did not touch it.
"I see you are protected by other spirits." He said, almost with regret. Look at me then, you cannot be harmed."
She slowly looked up and saw his face clearly this time. He was very handsome for a spirit, but then again they all were.
He touched her cheek lightly, "Oh Alexa…I had lost all hope when you had died."
She froze, "What do you mean? Why is everyone saying I died?"
He sighed and turned away, and as he walked he spoke, "You see child, our world and your friend's world are connected by the spirit world, two parts joined as one. But when someone under eighteen is killed in either world…they are reborn of the same age in the other, as a second chance."
She gulped, "so…so I was killed when I was fourteen here, and reborn as fourteen in their world?" she was confused, "But how—"
"You are given memories that you would have had as a child and your new parents as well. It is only as if you ultimately sped up time."
"So how did my friends and I get back here?"
He eyed her, "That is something you must ask your friend Shakra. But I believe it was because you could serve him a purpose," before she could answer he held up a hand, "you need to help the avatar defeat Azula. Ozai will be nothing then, she is the real threat here. If you destroy Azula you can easily destroy her father in return. But you need the diamond for that."
She eyed him questionably, "so I know how I got here now, but what about my—"
She froze, realization sweeping over her face. She fell to her knees, "no…no, no, no, no!"
He turned and placed a hand on her shoulder, "That is why you need to send them back. By bringing you back here Shakra destroyed the balance, but in return he must send the other four back in an attempt to even it out."
"How will using the diamond help the others?" she asked shakily, "How can it stop Azula?"
He held both her shoulders and stared deep into her eyes, "You must give its power to the Avatar so that when she dies…she will not be born into your world. She is much too evil to allow that to happen."
Alex nodded her head, "I understand. May I return now?"
He bit his lip; he did not want the lady to return. He had grown fond of her since she had been born, and he wished to keep her here with him always.
He smiled, "of course you can. But I insist you stay with me for the night."
When Haku woke the next morning, he made sure everybody else was up too.
"EVERYONE GET UP NOW!" he yelled at the through their tent walls.
Tired and disoriented, they stumbled out of their tents to see Haku standing next to Zuko, holding chains in his hand.
Tina gave a small gasp that no one else heard, and Haku tried to remain calm.
"I'm only going to ask this once: Who. Let. Him. Go?" he said through clenched teeth.
Tina gulped, "I—"
He turned on her, "Traitor!"
"NO! I swear, I don't know how he—"
"You were the one with the key; you were the one responsible for him!"
Tina didn't answer. Haku closed his eyes and dropped the chains, "Fine, I'm leaving."
They stared at him as he grabbed the few things he had brought with him. He looked at them, "I'm going to Ba Sin Sai, the battle starts today."
Aang blinked, "Battle?"
Sokka jumped in, "What are you talking about? I thought we were—"
"We were going to meet with them, until they were captured. I received a letter from Alex's father last night, via Watcher. I need to go,"
"We're coming too!" Tina said quickly.
He stopped, "I don't care what you do, but you're going to wait until I'm gone before you do anything, I don't want to be a part of this anymore. Good luck to you Aang," he nodded his head, and was off.
Tina turned on Zuko, "Where did he go?"
He looked at her seriously, "I have no idea. I was sleeping."
"Well I don't see—"she stopped.
"What is it?" Sokka asked.
She looked at him and Aang, "He went to find Alex."
Alex awoke the next morning and carefully slipped out of the bedroom she had been given by Raidon. She could sense that if she didn't leave now, she wasn't going to get out anytime soon.
On her hasty return to the mountain she once again ran into Kaida.
Kaida smiled nervously and stared at her feet, "I'm sorry if I scared you before, I tend to do that sometimes."
Alex smiled, "No, it's alright. But please, I need to find a way out of here,"
Kaida grinned, "That I can help you with, even if I can't get out myself."
She leaned in and whispered to Alex, "There is a large bison at the top of this mountain."
Alex was so relieved she thought she would die. She thanked Kaida profusely and asked her if she could help her get to the top.
Kaida smiled, that weird smile again, and pulled out—a bison whistle?
Alex stared at the object which Kaida had placed in her hand. She eyed the girl, "Why do you—"
She shrugged, "Always prepared you could say."
"Is it because of that whole mind thing?"
"Yup,"
Alex smiled, "Well that's good enough for me." Taking a deep breath she blew on the whistle.
What happened next was almost a blur. She was overjoyed to see Appa flying down, but as she climbed atop him he became surrounded by frightened people.
She hesitated, she couldn't possibly take them all out…and when she saw Raidon's face appear, she knew she had no time.
So with reluctance she hurried Appa up the side of the mountain, in which they entered a fog so dense that she could not see. But eventually they emerged onto clear, dry land. Momo greeted them and she smiled as he ran up to her as well.
She reached into her pocket to give him a treat but stopped when her hand touched paper. She slowly pulled it out and read it:
There is a war today at Ba Sin Sai…
In spite of everything Alex gave the weakest of laughs, "Thank you Kaida, I owe you one," she said to herself.
"Come one Appa! We have a lot of flying to do and not much time!"
When Haku climbed over what seemed like the millionth hill he was greeted with a horrid sight.
The entire city of Ba Sin Sai had been burned down, and fighting upon its ruins were hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers, from fire nation militia to earth kingdom troops to rebel forces.
Haku took a breath and raced down the hill, arms at the ready.
War had begun…
And this was the final hour.
