(A/N: I apologise for the longer wait, it was a public holiday yesterday and I just got back from out of town that day and needed to recover, but here I am now)
Within minutes, all of the villagers were in Sorla's hut, crowded around the Hearth Fire, speaking amongst themselves. "What do we do?" A moustached villager with an ushanka asked. "The pass is only a few hours away."
"We have to hide." Another villager with grey hair and a moustache replied. "We must abandon the village."
"And leave the Fire behind?" A villager with sideburns asked. "Are you mad?"
"What choice do we have?" The villager with the ushanka asked. "I say we hide in the village of the Formlings."
"I won't go there." Some of the Ninja look at each other. "Not after what happened. That place is cursed." The villagers start to talk amongst themselves again before Sorla puts a hand on her head.
"We cannot abandon the Fire." She said. "The Fire is life. We must protect it."
"I don't understand." Kai replied. "Can't you just light another?" Everyone looked at him, confused. "You know, with matches or something?"
The villagers start to talk amongst themselves again as Gewuji moved close to Kai. "I don't think they know what matches are." She whispered and Kai puts a hand on his forehead, embarrassed.
"They are new to our realm." Sorla said. "They do not know." She turns to Kai. "The winters have grown too cold. It is impossible to light a new fire." She then turned to the Hearth Fire. "We have kept this fire going by adding wood every morning and every night." She points to some wood just behind Blake, who turns around to grab one, and holds it out. "It has burned for decades." She takes it and throws it into the Hearth Fire.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Kai replied.
"The Fire is life. If the Fire dies... so will we."
"What if we moved it somehow?" Lloyd asked. "Maybe we could transport it with torches?"
"The risk is too great. The Hearth Fire is the heart of our people. It keeps the darkness at bay and gives us hope. If the fires goes out, our hope is lost." The villagers lower their heads. "No. We must stay and protect it. We must fight."
"Then we will fight with you. You have my Energy." He holds up a hand to conjure some, surprising them.
"My Lightning." Jay said, holding up his hand to emit some sparks.
"My Earth." Cole said, bringing his fists together to activate his Earth Punch.
"My Sand." Geoff said, holding up his hand to conjure a ball of Sand.
"My Glass." Gewuji said, holding up her hand to conjure a few shards.
Blake feels a bit reluctant before soon moving forward. "And my Wind." He said as he holds up his left hand to blow some air around. The villagers soon cross their arms and bow to them.
"Go!" Sorla said to the villagers before they start to leave. "Prepare yourselves." Jay, Cole, Nya, Geoff, Gewuji and Blake leave first and guide the villagers out. Lloyd looks at Kai, who had his arms folded, for a bit before leaving to catch up with the others. "Do not fear for us, Kai. All will be well."
"I just wish I still had my powers." He replied. "I was the Master of Fire. I could have made a new Fire like... like this." He clicks his fingers, but nothing happens.
"And now, you cannot?"
"No. A snake-woman named Aspheera stole my elemental powers."
Sorla soon chuckles and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Do not worry, Kai. Elemental power comes from within. Like courage." Kai puts a hand to his heart. "Sometimes it wanes, sometimes it waxes, but it cannot be stolen."
He simply sighs. "I'm pretty sure it's gone."
"What comes from within will grow again. Give it time."
Within minutes, the villagers started to prepare themselves for the defence. Blake helps carrying some arrows while whistling. (A/N: A-Team theme) Some villagers were a little confused before joining in on whistling, although a little off-key. Geoff and Gewuji help set up some watch towers made from ice blocks, some villagers saw some bamboo sticks to make spike barriers, and Lloyd and Cole help set them up. They later shovel some snow while Kai helps a villager carrying an ice block, briefly looks up over the tower before sliding the ice block on top. Nya hands some villagers some weapons while holding a spear herself. And Jay helps a villlager bring up buckets full of arrows. Pretty soon, they were all at the watch towers.
Many hours later, Cole was starting to get bored as he yawns while Geoff does some squats, with a few curious villagers joining in. Pretty soon, sounds of arrows fired in the air are heard as they all look up to see some arrows about to come down on them. "Look out!" Lloyd warned. They quickly duck down as the arrows hit the towers, completely evaporating since they were made of ice. Some of the arrows pass over them and hit close to some villagers. Lloyd peeks up to see the Blizzard Samurai arriving and turned to the villagers. "They're here. This is it." They immediately start to prepare themselves.
Boma comes up to the barrier to see them for himself. "There are so many." He said.
The axe wielding samurai holds out his weapons, indicating for them to charge before moving himself. "We can take them." Gewuji replied as another row of arrows passes by.
"Yeah, just get ready to bring it." Cole said.
"Take what?" Uthaug asked, confused at Gewuji's words. "Bring what?" And Cole's words.
"'It.' You know, like, uh... Let's rock, throw down, brawl."
"I don't get it."
"Oh, never mind." He puts his hood on. "Just follow my lead." He brings his fists together to activate his Earth Punch.
The Blizzard Samurai then fire another row of arrows with their crossbows before Nya swung her spear, deflecting them before Jay fires a bolt of Lightning at them. Some get hit by it before soon crumbling apart. "Are these guys made of ice?" Jay asked as some villagers start to fire back.
"Some of them are frozen warriors, others are just ice." Blake replied before holding his left hand out to fire a wave of Wind out at them, blowing some Blizzard Samurai down and making them crumble apart.
The Blizzard Samurai start vaulting over the barrier before some have their backs toward the ice towers to help a few of their own up them. "What about these guys?" Cole asked. As one warrior was about to come at Lloyd, an arrow hits it, making it crumble apart, as a few more come up before another arrow hits them. The Blizzard Samurai keep coming up before they're hit and crumble apart. "All ice."
Lloyd, Cole and Gewuji briefly look at the archers before turning back to see the Blizzard Samurai putting up some ladders. As they climb up the one they're on, Lloyd soon does Spinjitzu, knocking them off and making the ladder fall back. Jay punches one down as another one was about come up to him, only for Blake to come and strike it with his prosthetic. Some more Blizzard Samurai then came before they hold out their hands to fire the Elemental Powers on them, knocking them down. A few more soon came up and try to attack them, but Jay dodges one's attack before Blake kicks him off, grabs another one and throws him off as well. They both land behind the watch towers and get up to face Boma and Uthaug, who back away. "Take this!" Gewuji yelled as she jumped down to them and struck one with a Glass spike before Cole comes down, using his Earth Punch on the other while Boma and Uthaug run away.
Prinz soon charges at them, sword raised, and tried to strike them, but Cole manages to cartwheel away while Gewuji holds up her spike to block it before Prinz kicks her hand, knocking the spike out of her hand, and went to strike her, but she manages to move to the side, only to end up struck at her right ear, through her hood, causing her squeal in pain. "Gewuji!" Lloyd yelled as he soon pushes Prinz down. He forces him off of him before suddenly, his face turns to a normal human one. Lloyd was soon shocked at the discovery before Prinz' face changed back, grabs hold of him, throws him down while getting up, and prepared to strike him, only for Lloyd to throw him and kick him over before getting up. "Whoa." He said before he turned to Cole, who was tending to Gewuji as she had her hand by her right ear, blood luckily not coming down onto her gi. "Did you see that?"
"We saw it." He replied. "It's like the ice was controlling him."
Another Blizzard Samurai lands behind them and prepared to strike them. "Look out!" Cole and Gewuji turn too late as the samurai prepared to strike, only be struck by something that made it crumble apart.
"Gewuji!" Geoff said, coming over to them. "Are you okay?"
"What was that?" Gewuji asked, looking at where the thing that struck the samurai had landed in some nearby snow. Geoff heads over to it to see a black substance as Lloyd and Cole did so as well before Geoff touches it and became confused as he moved his hand back to look at it. He looks in the direction it came from to see a young boy, who was peeking out of Sorla's hut before he quickly went back inside. A loud noise soon made them turn in another direction.
Kai kicks some Blizzard Samurai off the watch tower he was on before pushing another one off. Once it landed and crumbled apart, the axe wielding samurai jumps over to the watch tower. "Kai!" Sorla yelled to warn him.
It was too late as the samurai strikes him, knocking him off the watch tower and lands on the ground as the samurai landed in front of him while some nearby villagers ran away. "You dare defy the Ice Emperor?" He asked, raising his axe and charged at Kai. Kai quickly rolled to the right as the samurai tried to strike, but missed while Kai gets up. "You will obey." He tries to strike Kai again, but he jumps and slides out of the way to grab a nearby bamboo stick. "Or perish!" He quickly cartwheeled to avoid another strike before turning around to face the samurai and held up the stick, only for the samurai to chop it in half. He drops one half to hold the other half like a sword, only for the samurai to chop a piece off, then another one, and another one, leaving Kai with a piece the size on both of his hand when one is on top of the other. He immediately threw it at the samurai, who isn't fazed by it before preparing to strike him. Kai immediately flinched as the axe was about to come down on him, but it was suddenly blocked.
Kai turned to see that it was Lloyd, holding Prinz' sword. "Oh, hi, Lloyd." He said.
Lloyd forces the axe away before Cole charged at him. "Heads up!" He yelled before punching him, sending him flying.
He soon lands on the ground, and prepared to charge, only for Blake to land between him and Lloyd, Kai, Cole and Gewuji. "Cool off!" He yelled, holding his left hand out to blow some Wind, sending him flying again and losing his axe in the process.
The samurai hits the wall of a hut before landing on his chest. He slowly got up as the villagers start surrounding him and Lloyd took off his hood. "It's over." He said. "You've lost."
The samurai turned to see some kids peeking out of Sorla's hut before they head back in, scared, and close the door. "You sheltered the newcomers." The samurai said to Sorla. "You should have known not to defy the Ice Emperor." He growls as he picked up his axe, runs to the hut and jumps onto a villager to bounce off of him to reach the roof.
"The Fire." Kai said, realising where he was going and takes off. "He's going for the Fire!"
"Stop him!" Geoff yelled as they start to head for the hut with Jay and Nya jumping off the watch tower they were on.
The axe samurai breaks through the roof just as the Ninja barge in and raises his axe. "No!" The samurai soon struck the Hearth Fire, extinguishing it.
"You have won the battle, but without your Fire, you have lost the war." The axe wielding samurai said. He soon jumps out through the hole in the roof, landing next to a nearby samurai as he was firing a crossbow. "Fall back!" The Blizzard Samurai start running as the villagers shoot arrows at them with Prinz dragging an injured samurai.
Several minutes later, everyone in the village were around now extinguished Hearth Fire as they're provided blankets to try and keep warm as best as they could as Geoff and Gewuji are wrapped around a blanket they had to share. Geoff sees the boy he spotted peeking out of the hut when he found the substance being wrapped in a blanket. "Could it be him?" He muttered to himself. (A/N: That sudden power shot was done at the last minute. Could the boy who saved Gewuji be an Elemental Master?)
As a villager wrapped a blanket around him, Blake notices David and one of the women being wrapped in a blanket, but had to share it. "Mo... mommy, I'm c... cold..." David said to his mother, shivering. Feeling altruistic about seeing that the two only had one blanket between them, Blake stood up, takes off his blanket, went over to them, and wraps it around them, over their own blanket.
They both look at him with surprised faces as well as everyone else before seeing him head back to where he was, rubbing his left arm with his prosthetic as he sat down. "Oh, Blake, aren't you gonna be cold yourself?" Sorla asked.
"I don't want to see a child being harmed at all." Blake replied, sitting down. "Especially when my kid is born."
"You're gonna be a father?" Blake simply nods. "I guess, congratulations."
"Thanks. I just hope to be there when the time comes."
As he was soon wrapped in a blanket, Kai lowered his head before looking up to see the moon through the hole in the roof and lowered his head again. "I'm sorry." He said.
"It is not your fault, Kai." Sorla replied.
Kai soon sighed. "I just wish there were something I could do."
"You have done all you can. Have you not?" Kai looked down before standing up, throws his blanket down and held his hands out to the Hearth Fire, hissing as he does so to try and light it. He keeps trying as everyone looked at him, until suddenly, a small spark of fire appears underneath the wood. The villagers were soon surprised as Kai kept trying, until his right hand ignites, and the Hearth Fire soon slowly started relight and he then shouts with determination as the Hearth Fire was soon burning once more. Now completely exhausted, Kai breathes heavily from overusing his returned powers as the villagers were surprised.
"Fire Maker." A villager said as Kai almost fell down, but Cole and Gewuji quickly caught him.
Two villagers then throw some wood on the Hearth Fire. "Fire Maker." The villagers start to chant. "Fire Maker."
"I did it..." Kai said, still a little exhausted.
"You sure did." Nya replied.
"Just listen to them." Lloyd said.
"All hail Kai, Fire Maker." Geoff said.
"Fire Maker, Fire Maker." The villagers keep chanting as they start to get up. "Fire Maker, Fire Maker! Fire Maker, Fire Maker!" Kai looked on, completely surprised. "Fire Maker, Fire Maker! Fire Maker!"
In the Ice Castle, Vex sees the whole thing on his crystal before growling and walks away, angered.
