Chapter 6

Kichi couldn't believe what a crazy day she'd had. She hadn't seen Aang or Katara for hours, not since the incident with Appa, and had no idea where they might be. It was the middle of the night now, late into the night, and Toph, Zuko, and Suki had finally left her to her own room. But she wasn't going to be able to sleep tonight. Instead she made her way for Aang's room again.

When she got there, she noticed that Toph had made a sort of large metal cell for the tied up Appa, but she phased right through the wall. It was completely dark inside, there being no windows, and very cramped. She could hear Appa's deep breathing and knew that he was awake. She heard him grunt as he sensed her approach. She may have been invisible, but animals always had a way of knowing she was around.

The bison made no attempt to move, which surprised her. Even though they had tied him down and locked him up, these ropes and metal walls were nothing that could hold a seven ton bison. "Hey, Appa," she said calmly. "Long time no see."

Appa gave a small growl, and she could hear Momo chittering away curiously at her. Before she knew it, something small and fuzzy was on her shoulder and wrapping its tail around her neck. "I've missed you too, Momo," she added with a small laugh.

It was funny. Appa was acting perfectly fine now. As if nothing had happened. Though she admitted that he sounded very sad.

"What was today all about, Appa?" Kichi asked, kneeling down in the dark beside the beast and trying to find his face. When she did, she rested her hand on his muzzle. He grunted in appreciation, but offered nothing more to her question. She wasn't one for understanding animals.

Just then, there was a sound somewhere outside of the metal cage. Kichi froze and listened, wondering if Toph or someone had come to check up on Appa just as she had. But it didn't sound like it. The person was obviously taking great care not to be noticed. As soon as whoever it was approached, Appa began to growl. It was a low, terrible growl, and Kichi suddenly knew who was probably out there. She instinctively went invisible, even though it was pitch black, and became transparent as well, so that even an animal would not know she was there. Momo slipped from her once solid shoulder and swooped away, hissing.

Kichi left the crate then, slipping through the metal as though it were nothing. She was right in thinking it was Aang. He was standing outside of the cage and staring at it as though interested in its construction. He ignored the growls and hisses coming from inside of it and began to circle the walls. "I don't know how you escaped from that cave," he suddenly said, his voice a soft hiss. The tone was dark, and it surprised her. "I buried you in there," he continued, to which the growls began to rise to small roars.

Was she hearing him correctly? Aang had buried Appa in a cave? That was not something Aang would do! She had to be hearing things, or maybe she was dreaming.

"I bet the lemur helped you," he added, mostly to himself.

Aang had made a full circle by now, and Kichi still had no idea what he was getting at or trying to do. But it was when he took a step back and his face was revealed in the moonlight that she almost cried out. Aang's eyes were completely black, like dark sockets, and the figure of a fox overshadowed his features, as though he were wearing a thin silk costume. She knew this fox… She had met him in the Spirit World a year and a half ago when she had gone looking for Aang. He was just as ugly as she remembered him being.

"I'll just have to kill you here and come up with an excuse for it later," he said. "Make it look like you escaped. "

With that said, he pulled back his hand, palm up. There was a strange sucking sensation as Kichi felt the energy from all around them zooming to the palm of his hand and forming a bright blue and purple ball of light.

Without thinking, Kichi rushed forward. She may not have been able to bend, but she wasn't going to let this imposter kill Appa. She ran at him and charged straight into his side, letting herself become solid again. She felt the ball of energy from his hand skin her arms before it plunged somewhere down into the ground. She cried out as they toppled over into the grass.

Aang was back on his feet before she was. She clutched at her arm as it screamed in pain. She was too afraid to look at what the ball of energy had done, and so kept her hand clamped hard over it and she rose.

What she was looking at was Aang. She knew it was his body, but the black fox figure overshadowing it was NOT his spirit. The moonlight revealed him for who he really was.

Goikan gave a small fox-like hiss when he recognized who it was that had interfered with his attack, then he chuckled lightly. Inside the crate, Appa and Momo were roaring and hissing. She could hear the bison straining against the cords that bound him, several of them snapping.

"A bit late to be seeing the big picture, aren't we?" he said, black eyes gleaming.

"You've been using his body this whole time, haven't you?" Kichi asked through clenched teeth. It felt like her arm was going to fall off. She might have even welcomed that.

Instead of answering, Goikan leapt at her, but she dodged out of the way. He was still laughing, as though this whole incident were so amusing to him. "It hurts, doesn't it?" he asked, pointing at her arm. The way he spoke about it sent chills down her spine, as though he knew something she didn't. What exactly had the ball of energy done? She still wasn't going to look, but if the pain continued to increase like it was, she was going to have to scream. "And what a shame that you can't bend…"

Here he stopped, staring at her, looking rather proud of himself. "I knew my energy would spread out like it has, but I had no idea it would be powerful enough to affect YOU. I guess you're just the weaker of the group."

What was she going to do? It's not like she could fight. Her arm was hurting her so much that she was finding it too hard to even think. Without bending, she was useless. She'd jumped in rather stupidly, without thinking, and this was what it cost her. She'd thought she'd beaten him back in the Spirit World… but it had apparently all been a trick. He must have waited for her to leave him when she thought she'd knocked him out, then gone into Aang's body. But then that meant… that Aang had been in the Spirit World this whole time! An entire year and a half!

"I can finish both you and the beasts off, now. You've saved me a trip." He pulled back his hand and once again Kichi felt that strange sucking sensation as energy gathered in his palm. But before it even had time to form there, there was a horrible grating sound and the metal cage that contained Appa went flying in the air, ripped straight out of the ground. Goikan turned in time to see the great bison charge him but was not fast enough to move out of the way. The force behind the charge sent him flying, and he smacked into the nearest wall and slumped unconscious to the floor. Now in the shadows, the moonlight no longer touching him, Kichi only saw Aang. But she knew it wasn't really him.

She opened her mouth to thank the great bison, who was snorting triumphantly at the fallen fox, but instead gave a small cry of pain. She finally looked her arm, which was hurting her so much that she thought her vision would burst with stars. It looked perfectly fine, which surprised her more than any gruesome wound would have, but there was a strange back aura pulsing from it, like smoke. She felt Momo land on her shoulder, his sensing her pain but not knowing what to do about it. Suddenly, her vision went black, and last she felt was her body hitting the ground.