A/N: Hey! I'm sorry it took a little while. Thank you so much for all your nice reviews! You guys really inspire me! I hope you like this. Things are gonna get pretty serious from here on, so yeahhh

Chapter 5. Lightnings

The thunderstorm got worse throughout the day, and continued tirelessly into the night.

Jinora was sitting in her bedroom window, dressed in her white button up pajamas shirt and trousers. The window was cracked open, allowing the cool air to seep into her bedroom. The night was tainted by an unexplainable purple light with every lightning. Thunder rumbled through the sky and roared loudly; as if it was attempting to tear down the city by sheer volume alone.

Jinora paid no mind to it. She was staring intently at the mountaintop across the sea. The one where the lightnings kept striking earlier that day, when she was out with Opal. It had happened several times throughout the day, and it was driving her out of her mind.

It was impossible - yet it was happening right before her eyes.

On a piece of paper in her trembling hands, Jinora drew a line for every lightning. She was keeping count. So far, she had drawn eleven lines on the paper.

The aching in her chest had come and passed throughout the day. By now, it was scaring everyone else more than it scared Jinora. When she had prepared for bed earlier, she nearly jumped at the sight of herself in the mirror. Her skin was so pale, her eyes were red, and her hands wouldn't stop trembling. She was also sure her veins had become more apparent on her skin - even though she had a nagging feeling she might have been imagining that part.

A soft knock on the door broke her intense concentration. She had to blink a couple of times when she realized she had forgotten to do so for a while.

"Come in," Jinora called.

Pema stepped into the room with a worried expression on her face. She left the door slightly open, allowing a ray of yellow light to seep in from the hallway.

"Honey, what are you doing out of bed?" she asked and hurried over to the window.

"There's something really weird going on out there, mom," Jinora started, but her voice was groggy and lacked the urgency she meant to express.

"Let your father and the others worry about that, sweetheart. You need to focus on getting better," Pema said and put a hand to Jinora's pale cheek. "Jinora, you're freezing! Get down from there."

Jinora allowed Pema to drag her to bed. As Pema wrapped her up in blankets, Jinora's eyes were glued to the paper. It had fallen to the floor. Pema paid no notice of it, but Jinora couldn't take her eyes off it.

"How's your chest feeling? Any more pain?" Pema asked. There was a long silence that Jinora didn't register. "Jinora?"

"Huh? Oh. No," Jinora said.

Her words dissapeared in her mouth at the sight of her mother's expression. Pema's frown was dead serious. She stroke some stray strands of hair away from Jinora's forehead, and let her hand linger over the blue arrow on her forehead.

"I don't care how big you get," Pema said quietly. "You'll always be my baby."

"Mom," Jinora started, but Pema shook her head.

"What on earth is happening to you, Jinora? I don't know how to help you," Pema's voice trembled dangerously.

Jinora bit down on the insides of her cheeks, feeling guilty for some insane reason. She reached up and took her mother's hand in hers. She tried to ignore the way Pema eyed her trembling fingers.

"I'm gonna be fine, mom," she promised, and squeezed her hand as reassuringly as she could.

"But you look terrible," Pema said and put both palms on Jinora's cheeks. "Did you eat something? Did something bite you? Can you have caught something from the spirit world? Are there even diseases there?"

Some kind of spark lit up inside Jinora, as if she got an idea, only she didn't know exactly what it was yet.

"I'm going to try and call Katara again. This wretched storm is making it impossible to reach anyone," Pema said and stood up from the bed. "You get some sleep, honey. Don't worry about anything but getting better, okay?"

"Okay, mom," Jinora said absentmindedly.

Pema lingered by the door for a moment, not sure whether leaving her daughter alone in this state was safe. Jinora barely even noticed when the warm light from the hallway dissapeared, and the door was closed. She didn't even respond to her mother's quiet "Good night."

There were no diseases in the Spirit World, as far as Jinora knew. But the Spirits could become dark spirits by the slightest imbalance. Which was how Jinora was feeling: completely out of balance, as if something was pushing at her from within.

She wanted to blame it on her lack of meditation the last days, but she knew better.

Jinora stood up from bed and picked up the paper from the floor. She looked up in time to see two flashes of white light strike over the very same mountaintop.

Jinora furrowed her brows as she tried to connect the pieces. If this storm was a result of a spirit out of balance - maybe that imbalance had something to do with what was happening to her?

She picked up the pencil from the windowsill and drew two new lines on the paper. She was struck by an unwavering need to go there, to the mountain. To see what was going on with her own eyes.

Glancing back at the bedroom door, she felt a guilty ache in her stomach. Pema was already so worried about her. What would she do if she came back and found that Jinora was not in her bed? But if Jinora was to ask, she knew Pema would refuse to let her go.

Maybe she should just go back to bed? Jinora's shoulders sunk at the thought.

Three new lightnings struck. Right before her eyes. Purple light shot through the night.

Jinora bounced back to the window. One more lightning. Then another. Then two at once. The urge to go out there came from deep within her. It was powerful. Too powerful for her to fight.

Soundlessly, she slipped out of the window and into the night.

The airship had never moved so slow in its entire existence. At least that was what Kai was ranting to himself as he hung over the railing at the front of the ship. He was glaring at the purple clouds. Glaring at the flashes of light in the horizon, where he knew Republic city was.

Of course that's where the storm would break lose. Of course.

"Hey, Kai..?"

Mako's voice called out hesitantly.

Kai rolled his eyes. Both Bolin, Korra and Asami had already attempted to console him; but none of Bolin's jokes, Korra's pep talks or Asami's compassion could ease his mind.

Not as long as Jinora was in trouble.

"Hey, man, how's it going?" Mako asked as he rested his arms on the railing next to Kai.

Kai scoffed. He leaned down and put his chin in his folded arms on the railing.

"Okay, dumb question, I know," Mako sighed. "Common, Kai, you can't shut down like this. Everyone is worried about you."

Kai didn't respond. His frown only deepened. None of them should worry about him. He wasn't the one who was about to be sacrificed so that an ancient spirit could go home, and maybe not destroy the world in the process.

"Kai, you can either talk to me, or to Tenzin. He's next in line," Mako said and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "And let me tell you: he is not in a good mood."

Kai glanced at him with a pained expression.

"I just can't be inside with... with him," Kai said quietly.

"The munk," Mako said. "He's still insisting we can't stop the spirit. Korra is giving him the full avatar treatment," Mako said and laughed without humor. He was just trying to defuse the tension, but it didn't work.

"He deserves worse," Kai said.

"Kai," Mako started.

"Don't try and lecture me," Kai said a little louder.

"I know how you feel, oka-"

"Oh, really? Is your girlfriend's life in danger?" Kai asked bitterly, holding back his anger to his best ability.

Mako sighed irritably.

"No, but I went through something similar with Korra the first year I knew her."

Kai bit his tongue. He remembered Bolin telling him all about Mako and Korra's past - to Mako's annoyance.

"When she was kidnapped?" he asked, glancing at Mako.

Mako nodded his head. His jaw relaxed, as if he felt relieved to finally get beyond Kai's defense.

"Not being with her, not being able to help, was driving me out of my mind," Mako said. "But losing your cool isn't going to help. Especially when you're on an airship, and there is literarily no faster way to get to her."

Kai sighed. There was a moment of silence between them. Mako let the moment stretch out, hoping Kai was taking the time to think about what he had said. However, Kai was fighting an inner battle on whether or not to open up.

The sky above them grew ever darker. The clouds were thick and heavy. Irregular blasts of wind raced through the air, and grew stronger with every blast.

His guts twisted uncomfortably inside of him as he tried to plan his words. Why was talking always so hard for him?

"I'm really scared for her," he said. His voice was so forced that it was raspy.

"I know, man," Mako said and put an unexpected hand on Kai's shoulder. He squeezed reassuringly, despite Kai's jolt of surprise. "But we'll save her together."

With the wind pushing at their backs, Mako managed to pull Kai back inside.

The bridge was once again filled with tension. The monk was seated in one of the sofa's in the end of the lounge. Korra was marching back and forth in front of him. Asami was by the dashboard, managing the enormous ship. Bolin was sat awkwardly in the sofa opposite of the munk, and Tenzin was sitting next to him, glaring daggers at the old man.

Kai half expected to be met with cheers for coming inside with Mako, but all he got was a stern nod from Korra and a half hearted smile from Bolin.

"More bad news?" he asked without wanting to know the answer.

"He just told us about how the Spirit will affect Jinora if it possesses her," Tenzin said through gritted teeth. Kai felt a cold wave rush through him.

"Do we know if it has reached her yet then?" Mako asked.

"I've tried to call the island one million times," Asami said from the front of the bridge, just as she moved to hang up the phone once again. "The storm must be disrupting the signal."

"How does it affect her?" Kai asked.

Everyone fell quiet. Bolin and Asami looked at Kai with worried frowns. Korra stopped and crossed her arms.

"He can tell you," she said and nodded towards the monk.

The monk glanced up at her. He seemed to be in pain. His wrinkles seemed deeper, his eyes were watery. Kai felt no sympathy for him. He could not pity someone who defended putting a death sentence on Jinora.

"We can't know for sure," the monk started. "But from what we've gathered from the scrolls; once the human body is possessed by a spirit; a scattered spirit no less, it will start competing for her awareness."

"Basically, it'll make her lose her mind," Korra said, having no patience for the monks carefully selected words.

Tenzin stood up suddenly. His robes fluttered behind him as he marched across the bridge and walked down the spiral staircase in the middle of the room.

"I'm sorry, Tenzin..." Korra called after him, but trailed off once he disappeared into the first floor.

Kai leaned his hip against the arm lean of the sofa. He stared at the old man. He knew the look in his eye was dark and unlike him self. He could feel the anger pulsating in his very veins. He wondered briefly if this was what it was like to really hate someone.

A lightning struck in the horizon, just over where Republic city was meant to be. It was so powerful that it lit up the entire landscape. Kai saw stars swirling around the room for a moment.

"Damn these lightnings," Asami muttered, rubbing her eyes.

"There is one more thing," the monk said with a low voice.

"What?" Korra demanded.

Kai's frown deepened.

"Once the spirit has started taking hold of her, it'll start calling for her; or for the parts of it inside of her. It'll do everything in its power to become whole again."

"And how will it do that?" Kai asked monotonously.

"With its energy."

Everyone looked to the windows as another lightning struck by the city.

"The lightnings," Mako said.

"Why would Jinora go out chasing lightnings in the middle of the night? You flippin' moron. She's not some mindless brat; she's a genius!" Korra shouted.

"She's not herself," the monk said, staring at the floor. He looked up, ever so slowly to meet Kai's stare. Kai felt the urge to look away, but forced himself to stay put. "She's becoming the spirit."

Kai wanted to scream at the top of his lungs. Instead he groaned through gritted teeth and plunged to his feet.

"How long until we're there?" he asked Asami.

"Another six hours," Asami said, glancing to Korra for reassurance.

Kai wanted to shout at her, but it wasn't her fault. She couldn't magically make the ship fly faster.

Instead he spun on his heel and climbed down the stairs, ignoring Bolin's pleas for him to stay. He stopped in the end of the hallway, near the entrance of the ship. He leaned his back against the metallic wall. Allowed the coldness of the metal to seep into his body.

He could hear the sound of a phone number being dialed, and then the slamming of the phone as someone hung up angrily. Then it repeated. Kai took a deep breath. He knew who it was.

He soundlessly moved up the hallway. In one of the offices, he found Tenzin leaning over a desk, dialing the number so violently that Kai half expected the phone to break under the pressure of his finger.

"Common... Call!" he shouted at the phone, before he threw it across the room. The lead stopped it, and the phone swung backwards through the air and crashed into the desk. A faint beeping was audible across the room.

"What do you want, Kai?" Tenzin asked without looking up.

"Still not working?" Kai asked, avoiding the question. He nodded towards the phone.

"Yes," Tenzin sighed and sunk into the arm chair behind the desk. He looked a hundred years older now. His face was paler, his eyes were shadowed.

Kai felt selfish for some reason. Tenzin was Jinora's father, and still he managed to at least stay with the group and do something relatively helpful. All Kai had done was lose his patience and then shut down.

What kind of an airbender was he?

"I'm sorry," Kai said.

Tenzin looked up. It was the first time he had looked properly at someone since they had boarded the ship in the village.

"For what?" he asked, surprisingly softly.

Kai blinked away tears from his eyes. Felt like a little boy. Felt helpless.

"For losing my cool with him, back at the temple," Kai said. The words hurt in his throat; made him feel thirsty. "For... for having such little self control. You've always told me to learn to control my impulses if I wanted to be a good airbender."

"Kai..." Tenzin said and rubbed his chin tiredly. "You've come a long way since I told you that. But it takes an impossible amount of self control not to blow up when someone you love is in danger. Especially when you have the one responsible right in front of you. I don't blame you for losing your patience; I'm proud that you held back."

Kai had to take a moment. Had to swallow the lump in his throat; remember how to speak.

"I just..." He trails off.

Tenzin stood up from the chair. Kai kept his eyes on the floor, until he felt the weight of Tenzin's hand on his shoulder. He met his eyes.

"I know I can trust you to do whatever it takes to save Jinora's life," he said.

Without warning and before Kai could respond, Tenzin pulled him into a hug. The very first hug he had ever given him. Kai was torn between feeling awkward and grateful. But he couldn't deny it made him feel a lot better.

Pepper flew soundlessly through the air. Jinora cluthed the reins tightly, worried that the tremble in her fingers were getting worse. She regretted not taking time to change into her air suit. The thin cotton in her pajamas was no match against the harsh wind.

They had been flying for about five minutes, and were already half way across the sea. It wasn't far. She purposely steered pepper in a curved line, staying far away from the light from the city.

She had gone out thinking that this was important; that it would help her. Instead, she was feeling worse by the minute. The closer they got, the more her chest started aching.

Jinora haunched over and gasped for air as a wave of pain rushed through her. It was completely new to her. It felt like electricity exploded inside of her, and then raced all the way out into her fingertips and toes. It made her feel numb and dizzy.

Pepper made a worried sound in the back of his throat, as Jinora gripped his fur.

"It's okay," Jinora mumbled between gasps for air. She stroked peppers head with a shaky hand.

They made it all the way across the sea. Jinora landed pepper on a grassy hill, where she had trees to find shelter under in case it started raining. She slid down from her head and took only a minute to say goodbye.

"I'll be back in a little while, okay?" She said and gave her bison a weak hug.

Pepper growled at her, but Jinora hushed her. She put a finger to her lips.

"You have to be quiet, girl. Just relax here for a little while. I'll be right back," Jinora said.

Jinora stood up and jogged up the hill. She forced the thought of Pepper staying back all by herself to the back of her mind and focused on making her way up the mountain.

It was so dark it was nearly impossible to see where she was going. She tried to use the airflows to orientate herself, but the winds were so irregular and chaotic that it was no use. She stumbled over rocks several times.

A lighting struck far up the mountainside, making her surroundings light up for only a second. Jinora was so blinded that she couldn't see a thing, once the darkness settled again.

Turning back was no use. She had come this far and she was not going to give up now.

In her chest, the ache became constant. It pulsated within her. Made it harder to breathe and to move. She cried out as another explosion of electricity raced through her. Her feet were so numb, she felt like she was standing on needles. She tried to keep moving, but another wave raced through her and made her fall to her knees. Sharp rocks scraped against her skin.

The electricity kept exploding within her. She clutched the ground, tried to fight her way back up to her feet, but it was no use. She lost track of time. She started crying. It was completely hopeless. She wished she would just pass out, so she could have a break from the pain. All she needed was a break.

Through squinted eyes, she got a glimpse of a warm, yellow light, farther up in the dark. A tiny spark of hope erupted within her. It had to be the airship. They had come back. They had found her.

"Kai," she breathed. "Down here."

Another wave of electricity hit her. She could no longer keep her eyes open.

A/N: Woop woop, you made it through! You're awesome! xx