Author Note; Hiya everyone! Things are gonna start heating up! *cackles an evil laugh.*
R&R!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~*`~~: Chapter Fifteen: ~~`*~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ally looked down at the ocean below them. The morning sun was starting to rise from behind them. "Come on, boy! We've got a long way to go! Faster!" Aang said to Appa.
"Come on Snow-fire." Ally murmured to the Ermine-wolf, as Appa flew in front. "Aang's right, we have to go faster then this if we stand a chance in reaching the temple in time. Common girl, you can do it." Snow-fire growled and shot forwards, pulling up alongside Appa keeping pace.
Ally looked at Aang, "How long until we reach the temple, you reckon?" she called.
"By this rate, late in the afternoon." Aang shouted.
"We can't push them faster or they'll be exhausted before we get there." Ally yelled.
"Aang, Ally, we got company." Katara said.
"And it's gaining fast!" Sokka said over his shoulder.
Ally stood up and jumped onto the back of Snow-fire's saddle. She strained her eyes to see what the people on the ship were doing. They were loading a catapult! Ally took out her staff and got ready.
Suddenly a fire ball hurtled straight at them; Ally leapt toward it and swang her staff at it, the tail of her glider fanned out. Ally closed her eyes tightly in concentration, her teeth gritted in determination….
Whoosh!
The ball of fire was sliced in two by a blast of air and they fell towards the ocean, Ally blinked; she wasn't excepting that to work… Ugh! What the hell was that smell? Her stomach churned and she fought the bile that rose in her throat. She glided back onto Snow-fire, "Couldn't they shoot us down with something more fragrant?" She chocked, covering her nose in a vain attempt to get rid of the vile smell.
Spirits even Commander Lee wasn't that mean! The smell was beginning to make her eyes water.
"This is Zuko we're talking about; he never gives us a brake!" Sokka shouted. "Cant you make them go any faster?"
"Yeah, but there's just one little problem." Aang said hesitantly. "Look up ahead."
Stretching along the horizon was a double line of Fire Nation war ships. "A blockade…" Ally murmured with narrowed eyes. Was this usual fire-nation behaviour or did the fire nation know about the solstice and believed that Aang would try and contact Roku? If so then there were bound to be more then Fire Navy ships waiting for them at this island.
Suddenly things just seemed down right miserable.
"Fly up! Fly up!" Ally called uselessly, "They mightn't have seen us yet."
"It's too late for that!" Sokka said, "They'd have already spotted us by now, Snow-fire and Appa are just too noticeable."
"If we fly north we can go around the Fire Nation ships and avoid the blockade." Aang said looking at them.
Ally shook her head as Katara said "There isn't any time for that."
"Running the blockade it is then." Ally called, "Yip, Yip!" Snow-fire shot forwards. Appa was quickly catching up.
Out of all the things she did in thirteen years, this had to be the most stupid, but what else could she do? Ally's eyes widened as she watched the gigantic wall fire balls launch towards them at alarming speeds. She narrowed her eyes and kicked up a gigantic ball of revolving air and wrapped it around Appa and his ridders. Snow-fire dodged around three balls of fire and twisted her body to fly up and join Appa above the clouds.
Suddenly a new wave of fire balls shot up from out of the clouds just as Ally opened her mouth to ask if they were okay, what came out of her mouth was a scream as she lost balance as Snow-fire swirled around a ball of fire. Her hand automatically reached for her back but then remembered she left her glider on Snow-fire's saddle. Cursing like a drunken sailor she flipped open her fans and spun up a house sized tornado. Suddenly Sokka fell from the sky and Ally let the tornado dispatch and shot after him, the wind whipped around her long dark hair in an irritating fashion.
She briefly through to remind herself to either cut it, or put it in a plat after all this is over.
She gripped Sokka's hand and pushed hard with her feet trying to slow their descent long enough for Appa to reach them. A few heartbeats later everything righted itself when Sokka was safely back on Appa and Ally jumped back on Snow-fire.
"Let's not do that again anytime soon." Ally laughed to Snow-fire who growled in agreement. She flipped her fans in and put them back into her belt. Unexpectedly a fireball landed in the ocean near them and Ally gave a shout of surprise. She pulled on the reins so to avoid another fireball; she glanced over at Aang, who was handling the fireballs pretty well.
She turned back to the task at hand; dodge ball.
She almost had a heart attack when Aang jumped in front of a fireball and made an excellent air kick. That's what Ally called 'Diverting disaster with style.'
But there was someone on one of the ships towers. There wasn't a doubt about it, it had to be. He looked only five years older then when she had last seen him. Commander Lee. Stormy blue and fiery gold clashed. He was wearing the new fire nation soldier garb, his hair streaked with dark gray and tied up by a traditional fire nation emblem. His complexion was still lightly tanned and by the looks of it he still kept his muscled figure.
And standing next to him was John the young fire nation soldier and his commander. John looked more then shocked at seeing her again. And the unnamed commander looked faintly surprised if not amused at seeing her again, with the legendary avatar no less.
What felt like ages they finally cleared the blockade.
"We made it!" Aang shouted, punching his fist high into the air in victory.
Ally let out a shaky laugh, as Sokka and Katara's faces showed pure disbelieve and amazement.
The day went by with amazing slowness, and Ally soon slipped into blissful slumber out of boredom.
Commander Lee looked at the Fellow Commander, "At first I thought you were joking, Commander Ty Lin, She really is alive."
Commander Ty Lin raised his eyebrow, "You believed I'd joke about something like this?"
"No disrespect intended of course." Commander Lee smirked. He looked down at the fifteen year old. "Do you wish to accompany me John?"
John bowed his head, "I'd be honoured to uncle."
"Uncle?" Commander Ty Lin asked in disbelief. "Now that's a little far fetched."
Commander Lee smiled, "Let's just say a very close encounter with the fire spirit can do that to you." Then after a second thought he said, "A second chance if you will." He looked over the rigging to see Commander Zhao, who in his opinion reminded him of Zarkus – a bad leader. He frowned as the smoke trail they were following, it didn't seem right.
"Uncle, Look! Is that Prince Zuko?"
Commander Lee looked to where his nephew was pointing, "Ah," He commented as his golden eyes spotted the banished Prince on a small war boat heading away from the main ship. "Good eye John." He looked at Commander Ty Lin, "How about you tell me about your encounter with Ally again while we follow the banished Prince?"
"There it is! The island Roku's dragon took me to!" Aang shouted excitedly.
Ally groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes groggily in confusion, what was in that vision again? Something about that fire nation boy… John and Commander Lee and Prince Zuko… shaking her head and giving a wide yawn she looked over at the island that Aang was shouting about.
The island was a perfect crescent shape and in the centre was a large volcano, Ally frowned as fire and steam belch forth from its cone. She didn't know much about volcanos but she knew that was a very active one, highly dangerous if it erupted… Her eyes went to the tall fire temple that stood dangerously close to the volcano. Shaking her head at the insanity of the fire nation's choice of destinations to put their buildings, she scanned for an isolated area to land.
Giving Nyx and Neo a rub behind the ears she shouted to Aang a place where they could land not to far from the temple. "Good girl Snow-fire, I knew you could make it." Snow-fire slumped against the stone wall in exhaustion, but soaking up Ally's praises and the scratching behind her wolfish ears. Her large tongue lolling out of her mouth, she was panting. "You can rest for a while now Snow-fire."
"Come on Ally!"
"Come on Nyx! Neo!" the two lemurs flew after her as Ally raced to catch up to the others. Ally slowed to a walk when she caught up to them. Ally took out her fans nervously; everything about the island had a menacing atmosphere about it. Perhaps it was the fact that even the rocks had a reddish colour to it. The sinking sun that was shooting red across the sky wasn't helping much either.
Oh, and don't forget your in the fire nation, Ally thought wryly.
Neo and Nyx perched on either side of her shoulders, their ears swivelling around anxiously.
Ally entered the Sanctuary right after Aang, anticipating an attack she tightened her grip on her fans.
"Wait." Sokka said behind her, "I think I heard something."
Ally turned around to look at him then quickly got into a defensive stance. A group of old looking fire nation men were blocking the door way they had recently entered by. "We are the Fire Sages. Guardians of the Avatar's temple."
"Great," Aang said relaxing. "I am the Avatar."
"We know." The one who had previously spoken said, before shooting a fireball at Aang.
Ally pounced forward and flipped in front of Aang, she created an Air shield with a quick circular motion with her fans just before the fire could connect to her, she then landing beside a startled Katara in a crouched position, her fans flared like large green wings attached to her hands.
Aang swang his staff around and blasted the Fire Sages off their feet, he turned heal and ran further into the mists of the fire temple shouting for them to follow.
Ally gripped the sleaves of Sokka and Katara and sped after Aang with the agility only an Air Bender could achieve.
Ally was half afraid that they had lost Aang but he suddenly came skidding around the corner, almost bumping into the wall in his haste. "Wrong way!" he shouted, jumping over Ally's head.
Suddenly a fire sage came around the corner and Ally rapidly backpedalled, and let go of her two water tribe friends so they could spin around and run with Aang. Ally, still running backwards, shot a blast of air at a hanging lamp, which landed in front of the Sage, sending up lose ambers. She turned around and sped after her friends.
"Wait!"
Ally looked behind her, how in the names of the great spirits can an old man keep on running like that? Her attention to the sage was cut short as she ran headlong into Sokka. "Why have you – Oh," a dead ended corridor.
Sokka muttered a cuss before he got out his boomerang. Ally reached for her fans, but only grasped air. Great, not only had she lost her necklace but she had lost her last pair of fighting fans as well. She pulled out her staff.
"I don't want to fight. I am a friend." The fire sage said placidly.
Ally narrowed her eyes; this had to be a trick.
"Fire Benders are not our friends." Sokka said his boomerang raised an inch, clear mistrust edged onto his face. Ally happened to agree with that sentiment as she protectively inched closer to Aang as the Sage came closer.
Ally's eyebrows rose in confusion as the fire sage bowed down to Aang. "I know why you're here Avatar."
Katara and Ally shared a brief look of uneasiness. Katara and Ally had become friends almost at once and Katara reminded Ally of Kin's caring nature. They could already communicate with brief eye contact. Both girls of the group were clearly cautious about this turn of events.
Ally coiled to spring as the fire sage stood, but her suspicious nature was unnecessary as the fire sage used his fire bending to open a passage way, "This way."
Aang turned to look at Ally, who frowned; she never thought Aang would look to her for a slight show of leader ship. Never the less, two months of leading the last surviving air benders had given her more then enough skills in leader ship.
Ally gave Aang a decisive yet sharp nod. There were four of them against one fire bender, Aang and Ally were air bending masters while Katara was a adapt water bender and Sokka was skilled with the boomerang, add three lemurs. Yeah, one fire bender shouldn't be a problem.
"Have you found them?" asked a voice in another corridor.
"Quickly" The fire sage said nervously.
Aang, Ally, Katara and Sokka filed through the passage, the fire sage entered last, closing the door behind him.
The fire sage introduced himself as Shyu, he seemed trust worthy enough as he told Aang the history of the temple and war. But looks were deceiving; Ally slipped in between Aang and the fire sage, just in case.
"-They lost hope the Avatar would ever return." Shyu continued. "When Fire Lord Sozen began the war, my grandfather and the other Sages were forced to follow him." Ally sighed heavily; she had almost forgotten that not all of the Fire Nation was bad. "I never wanted to serve the Fire Lord. When I learned you were coming, I knew I would have to betray the other Sages."
Aang smiled up at Shyu and bowed, "Thank you for helping me."
Shyu returned the smile warmly.
That made it official; Shyu had made his way into Ally's circle of friends.
Nyx sensed the change in Ally's opinion in the fire bender and jumped onto Shyu's shoulders. Shyu chuckled and stroked Nyx's furry white head.
"Sorry, about Nyx" Ally said, as they approached the end of the passage. "She can be a handful at times." Neo chattered in agreement from the top of Ally's head.
"Not to worry." Shyu smiled, he wasn't the only one to notice the change in Ally's attitude towards the fire sage, Aang beamed at Ally. "Once you're inside, wait for the light to hit Avatar Roku's statue." Shyu said as he paused at the end of the passage. "Only then will you be able to speak with him."
Easier said then done apparently, the sanctuary doors were closed.
Even Sokka's 'genius' plan didn't work.
"It's never easy for us is it?" Ally muttered to Aang, who glared half-heartedly at her, then began to angrily air swipe at the doors.
"Why." Aang grunted, swinging another air blast. "Wont." Ally was the only one the Air didn't touch, via protective sphere. The others had to take a few steps back under the gale. "It." Aang grunted as he swang a high kick at the door. "OPEN!" he shouted.
"Aang, calm down." Ally said calmly, "We haven't come this entire way to fail because of some simple door that's more stubborn as the two of us put together." Aang gave her a confused, slightly hopeful expression. Aang had seen that look on Ally's face before; it was the face that said, 'I'm not giving up before I've even started.' Ally winked at him before turning to Shyu, "How good are you at acting?"
"Ally you're a sneaky genius." Aang whispered, grinning broadly from his hiding place.
Ally snickered, giving him a large grin in return and an extra thumbs up.
"Shhhh." Sokka's voice whispered.
Ally recovered herself and nodded; this was no time to be irresponsible, she silently slipped out of view and air bended herself onto a statue of a dragon near the ceiling.
"Hurry!" Shyu called to the other fire sages. "The Avatar has entered the sanctuary!"
"How did he get in?"
"I don't know, but look at the scorch marks! And look!"
"He's inside." Ally smiled at Neo, Momo must have been able to get inside through the pipes. Nyx was perched near Katara and Sokka; Ally could see them getting ready to jump the sages from behind a pillar.
Ally quietly repositioning herself into a good pouncing posture as the fire benders lined up and blasted fire at the door. Ally watched as the door opened.
"It's the Avatar's lemur! He must have crawled through the pipes! We've been tricked!" the sage that had spoken was promptly attacked in the face by Momo.
Ally lurched herself downwards as Katara and Sokka came out and subdued two fire sages each. Ally came down on the last one, who was abruptly whacked by a blast of air and he was unconscious before he hit the floor.
"Now Aang!" Shyu called, after he had secured the one Momo had attacked.
Ally looked towards the place she had last seen Aang, a terrible forbidding clutched her throat.
"Aang?" Katara called, clearly feeling what Ally felt.
Ally paled as Zuko appeared behind the column, holding Aang in a near impossible grip to break.
"The Avatar is coming with me!" Zuko said with distinguishable pride. "Close the doors! Quickly!" He ordered before pushing Aang towards the exit. Ally's stormy blue eyes narrowed and she shot forwards – but fortune did not shine down on Ally; because at that moment, Commander Lee stepped out of the shadows of a pillar and Ally slammed right into him.
*Cackles evilly* so…. you know you want to! Press that shiny review button and tell me if you like this turn of events.
*Cackles evilly* you just got to feel sorry for Ally.
As Tiger would say, 'TTFN; Ta, Ta for now.'