Chapter 25
The Ancient Tomb Part 1

The storm came just as Ryu had suspected. The clouds grew from thin and small, to thick and large. The pure snow like white faded into a shadowed black, indicating heavy rain was about to fall.

The gang flew midair, consciously eyeing the dangerous clouds. Appa groaned as the wind picked up, making their ride very unpleasant. The wind howled loudly as the thunder roared above them as the first bolt of lightning emerged from the ominous clouds.

On the other side, were Ryu and Zuko; the former prince clung to the guardian's thick fur for like his life depended on it. The rain poured down on them heavily. Small balls of hail, the size of marbles dropped recklessly onto their heads. Sokka was targeted by the universe as usual, along with Haru, who was having just about the same problem.

As for the others, it wasn't as brutal as how the two teenage boys were suffering. Teo made a helmet specifically for this kind of weather and just grinned to himself, satisfied that he had successfully created a fine new product. And the two waterbenders, both Katara and Aang waterbended their usual makeshift 'umbrellas'.

As for Toph….
She couldn't care less.
She just sat there as if none of this was happening.

"How could you just sit-, ow there and not-, ow complain-, OW!" Sokka exclaimed loudly, praying that his voice reached Toph's ears due to the deafening screams of the thunder and crackling lightning.

"What?" her blank face grew a smile, "It's quite charming if you ask me." She shouted back, her noisy voice overpowered the wind effortlessly. As result, everyone heard her quite clearly and shot her a strange look.

Aang, who was hanging on to Appa's reins tightly suddenly yelped watching Ryu take the lead as Appa followed quickly in order not to lose them.

Before they knew it, they found themselves screaming their heads off in horror, as the dove directly into the hell gates.
Or so that's what Sokka called it.

….Minutes before that happened….

"Are you freaking kidding with me?" the firebender burst out angrily, "There is no way we'd come out alive!"

The guardian inhaled deeply before replying, 'Trust me on this.'

Zuko winced, clenching his teeth to suppress his complaints of the hail dropping onto his head, before scoffing, "Do you really expect me to trust you?"

Ryu craned his neck to look over his shoulder and eye Zuko seriously, 'Yes, I expect you to trust me. I am you're guardian after all.' There was a pause, 'I have already discussed it with the bison.'

The former prince scowled angrily and whacked the dragon's neck in annoyance, "Don't you dare start have any more secret conversations then! You're plan is just reckless! I, no we, the world cannot afford losing the Avatar again!"

The creature snickered, 'Well you certainly won't have a problem finding him since you have hunted him down and found him when many of your ancestors have given up.' His master whacked him again, "Don't joke about that!"

Zuko quickly caught his grip before he could be blown off by the wind, and then added icily, "Whatever you do, don't do it."

Ryu's lips crawled up into a smirk, 'Ah, I knew you would say that.' The prince looked up sharply in surprise, but had quickly replaced it with a frown, "Just what are you-,"

'Oi! BEASTY!' Zuko looked over to the side, noticing how Appa turned his head to face Ryu who now had a wicked grin upon his lips, 'It's time to take the rough ride!'

The bison groaned in annoyance, but nodded ever so slightly as Ryu quickly suggested, 'You better hang on tight your highness.'

Zuko growled furiously, 'I knew it.' before he muttered, "You are so dead after this."

'That is, if we make it out alive.' Ryu replied excitedly, before entering a death cloud, causing Zuko to now grind his teeth to restrain himself from scolding his guardian anymore, knowing that the dragon was doing this all on purpose just to annoy him.
Just like his uncle would.

Zuko stopped at the thought of his uncle. His eyes sadden at the image of the jolly old man, who was always at his side…And was addicted to tea.

Before he knew it, he was yanked out of his daze and felt the wind lashed his chest, while in the mean time, Ryu was laughing his head off.

The ride was unbearable.
No, it was hell. A reality nightmare of some sort. But this, this was way too much for Sokka to handle; who was doing the pleasure of screaming his lungs out while Toph was laughing hysterically, Katara, Teo and Haru; gripping to the saddle, fearing that because of the speed they were going at, they could be thrown off to god knows where and into the vicious ocean below. Even so, before they even reach the ocean, there'd be a risk of being struck by a bolt of lightning.

Ryuji was going to get scolded big time.

As soon as they emerged from a large dark, black cloud; the gang was thoroughly soaked to their bones. The bison groaned and growled at the sacred beast, baring his large teeth as he did so, whiel Ryuji ignored him and continued laughing and swirling around in the sky, forcing his master to cling to his fur.

Before anyone could scold Ryu, Appa soared downwards towards the oddly shaped island. The one and only they were hunting for.

As soon as they landed onto the beach. The Bison dropped onto his stomach and rolled over onto his back and instantly fell asleep. Unfortunately, since the poor thing was so tired, he had forgotten about the group on his saddle, who instantly jumped off in order to avoid being squished.

Sokka landed painfully with a face plant into the sand. With that, it had instantly pulled the trigger, and now the Water Warrior had spat the sand out, he pointed at the dragon angrily and hollered, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING YOU FREAKING FREAKING FREAKING FREAKING FREAKING…." He waved his hand trying to come up with a word, "FREAKING, FREAKING, MONSTER!"

Ryu looked over at the Water Tribe Warrior, with an eyebrow arched and turned away, with the wicked smirk on his face. Zuko, on the other hand caught it and slapped the dragon's head in annoyance, "What the hell were you thinking?"

Everyone stared at Zuko, caught off guard how calm he was scolding his guardian, "You could have had us killed."

'Did you really think I'd put all of you people in a middle of a storm that had a possibility of killing you?' Ryu stared at his master, his playful smirk never leaving his face.

"Yeah actually, I think you would." The ex prince crossed his arm, "Because you just did." He then rolled his eyes while adding, "But then again, we didn't die, however you could've warned us to brace ourselves."

'I warned you.' He said, now smiling like an innocent child. Zuko flinched from the sudden response and turned his head the other way. He cleared his throat before continuing, "Anyhow, now that we're on the island, I think you should explain to us-," he caught the strange looks from the others and quickly corrected himself, ",to me why the island is so dangerous." He eyed Teo in particular who was eyeing his surroundings ever since he had jumped off Appa's saddle.

Before he had the chance to ask Teo a question, Haru poked the kid on the shoulder, causing him to jump in his wheelchair, startled. The young inventor glared at the earthbender who spoke first, "What's with you? You're eyeing the beach and the forest as if zombies are about to come out of the ground or something."

Teo huffed and turned away, adjusting his wheelchair's wheels, "Didn't I explain why already?" he looked back at the others, "This is the Abandoned Tomb, where powerful benders get themselves killed."

'Ah yes, that reminds me of something which I forget.' Ryu said suddenly, causing Zuko to glare at him with a look that could kill, "Glorious, that's really assuring."

"What is assuring?" asked Aang, not taking note of Zuko's sarcasm. The firebender looked at the Avatar and took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, "He said there was something, which he forgot, that is probably not important." He glared at the guardian as he said this. The airbender laughed, turning to the others, "Well shall we-," the sound of the child' stomach growling cut him off, blushing with a cheesy smile, ", eat?"

Katara couldn't help but giggle and nodded, "We'll have leek soup this evening."

Everyone except for Sokka groaned quietly in disgust, but didn't argue out loud. After all, ever since that last battle, and the volcano interruption, they lost some of their supplies due to the little time they had to gather new, non-water tribe ingredients.

As it happens, Leek was something Katara gotten earlier that week for their travels and had packed it in Appa's saddle not too long after.

Now Aang and the others wished it was burned away in the lava.
But then again, what would be their dinner now if that were the case?

Dinner was quiet, the gang refused to make a camp in the forest, however had to keep an eye on the tides since they were on the beach. Toph on the other hand was not happy with the sand issue, but was thrilled when Aang returned after supper, from searching for a better location, that there was a gravel beach not too far away from where they were now.

Soon enough, the group packed up again and arrived to the gravel beach where Toph express her love for rocks by making a stone angel, before flattening a small area into a smooth surface so that they can sleep on something flat rather than bumpy. It was dark by the time they completed putting up their tents to shield them from the sudden down pour during the progress.

Once more, no one spoke much. It was probably because they were thinking too much about the possibilities of the dangers on the island. However Toph just about had it with the awakward silence and shouted out of blue, "I THINK I GOT A NICKNAME FOR YOUR GUARDIAN ZUZU!"

Every must've of jumped out of their deep thoughts since every was in a battle stance only to realize there was nothing to worry about (yet). They all glared at the Blind Bandit who was laughing once again, and was very much amused by their reactions.

"A nickname for Ryu?" Zuko looked outside of the tent, eyeing the dragon who was bathing in the sea or something, before looking back with great interest, "Do share."

A wide smirk appeared on Toph's face, and folded her hands and resting her chin on her knuckles, "Ah, of course I'd love to share." She was in the spotlight now. Withdrawing her right hand from its pose, leaving the left as it is, she waved it as if she was holding tray, "Sushi."

The group blinked before leaning forwarded with confusion written all over their faces, "Eh~?"

"Sushi" She said in syllables, "Su-shi" she reunited her right hand back with her left and looked at them seriously, "Sushi." She then stood up and walked over to the entrance and shouted, "HEYSUSHI!"

Ryu flinched, as a nerve twitched on his head, 'Don't tell me…'

"FROM NOW ON: THAT'LL BE YOUR NICKNAME! I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!" she shouted enthusiastically, watching his face somewhat twitch before ducking his head underway where then steam came bursting to the surface.
The others all looked at her surprised and looked back to the thick steam that soon faded. When they all looked back at her, she had a wide wicked smirk on her face, "I knew he'd hate that."

'Why does every generation have a person who gives me the same nickname I hate the most!'

Zuko chuckled at the dragon's thought, nodding to Toph, "Yep. He hates it that much."

The group burst into laugher that lasted for a good few minutes before Sokka stood up and clapped his hands for their attention, "Alright, lets get the shift started." He looked at his sister and Aang, "Remember to keep at high alert, don't let anything fool you."

The two friends nodded and went outside into the rain, where no moonlight could reach the beach due to the clouds.

It was going to be one hell of an eerie night.

It wasn't that he was too scared to sleep.
And it wasn't because he had so much energy.
It was all because of Ryu's complaining, even when he's asleep.
As result, Zuko had to put up hearing about his past of why and who, and how many generations Ryu has been through, only to be receiving the same nickname.

He must've been awake since he fallen partly asleep then only to be awakened.
So, in other words: He had not received any decent sleep yet, not even a nap.
And what's worse: It was his turn for the night shift.

Toph was surprised to see him already outside when she had just woken up from her beauty sleep, but didn't bother asking why he was dragging his feet. Katara and Aang returned into their tents and the shift for the Firebender and the Earthbender began.

Each shifts lasted about 3 hours, which is a long time and extremely exhausting if you didn't get a wink of sleep.

Zuko was having a hard time trying to stay focused.
And Toph was fully aware of how out of it he was.

"Did you get any sleep at all?" she asked quietly, not wanting to wake the others, her head turned to where she sensed him standing. He didn't reply right away, but eventually he answered, "Ryu wouldn't shut up."

"Ryu? It's because of sharing his thoughts the reason why you aren't getting enough sleep?" she stifled a laugh, "How the heck does that work?"

He looked at her tiredly, "Guardians and their masters have a special connection, and that happens to be mind communication. We can hear and talk to each other in our heads. In this case, I'm hearing Ryu's complaints and whines about his nightmare." He didn't want to glare at Toph, but ended up doing so anyways, since in the back of his head knew; it was partly her fault for getting the guardian into behaving this way.

The glare had no meaning whatsoever since Toph couldn't see it in the first place. But judging by his tone of voice, she figured that he was glaring at her. She turned away and shrugged, "Well I apologize for that." She kicked a stone lightly, as if to entertain herself, "Unfortunately I'm not psychic."

"Trust me, you don't want to be." The firebender muttered as he forced himself not to yawn.

"What? You're saying you're psychic?" she asked with a grin on her face.

He sighed, "Well, not necessarily, but close enough to how people describe these kinds of things."

"Hey Zuko." The sound of a certain sleepy warrior came from behind them. Neither of the two made a move to attack since Toph didn't react, and Zuko knew if she didn't react, there's nothing to worry about.
And what kind of ambush would it be if someone called his name in a sleepy voice?

Toph studied Sokka before asking, "Are you here to switch with Zuko?"

"Bulls eyes." Sokka said as he yawned, and patted Zuko's shoulder, "Dude, get some sleep."

"But it hasn't even been 10 minutes into the shift!" the firebender protested. Sokka shook his head, "Okay listen. I had a weird instinct that someone was tired, so I woke up and-, look at you! You're half dead man!"

Zuko frowned, "I do not look half dead, nor feel that way."

Sokka ignored him, "Look just get some sleep, we need you to be able to fight."

"Guys."

"Not know Toph."

"No Sokka seriously." The earthbender hissed, as she took form of her defensive stance, "There's somebody coming."

"Coming? Do you mean like here, or on your way?" he whispered back, she shook her head, "Approaching. I just felt a real light vibration. It's very similar to Aang's when he jumps. They are fast, and they have a very light touch when they touch the ground."

"I'll wake up the others then." Suggested Zuko, only by the time he pivoted Aang was already awake and outside of his tent. A frown was on his face, "This might be tough."

"What will be tough?" Katara followed out from her tent rubbing her eyes, but then realized how everyone was very stiff. She immediately knew what was going on.

"An ambush?" she asked in a whispered tone.

"I would call it more of an attempt." Toph replied quietly, "You can't really call it an ambush when we're aware of it."

Katara nodded and waked up the other two sleeping boys, quietly telling them to get ready for a fight.

However…
Nobody appeared even after several hours.
And now the sun is rising.
The group is tired; none of them seem to get a decent sleep due to the sudden alert.

When the sky turned from dark to bright, the group all looked at each other, not certain if they should let their guard down.

Haru just about had it, plopped onto the ground in annoyance, "It was probably an animal." He glared at Toph, "So much for an enemy warning."

As if right on the cue: a dozen masked figures jump into the scene, fire, earth, water all coming at them all at once; giving the gang very little time to react, and giving them no time to warn each other what was behind their backs. The only choice they had was to somehow run and escape, or be captured by the unknown opponents.

"I can't believe I'm stuck with you two out of all people!"

"Shut up Pretty Face, or else you'll have to deal with my iron fist."

"What iron fist?"

"Duh, metal bending."

"With what metal, your pathetic hand?"

There was a sneer, "Oh? Would you like to see how pathetic my fists are? I'll have the pleasure of showing you since they are terribly weak."

"WILL YOU GUYS SHUT UP!"

"Shrrp!"

The two earthbenders glanced at the Water Tribe warrior and the flying lemur on his shoulder. Sokka glared at them annoyance, "This is not the time to be arguing." He waved his hand, gesturing their surroundings, "We need to find the others and fast. And secondly, we don't even know where we are."

"We're in the woods." Haru stated bluntly as he crossed his arms, "How much more obvious could it get?"

Toph shook her head, as she lowered onto her knees and placed her hand on the ground, "We're not in a forest."

The earthbender stared at her stupidly, "Huh~?"

Sokka looked up at the canopy above them, and then pivoted to study a tree behind him. Slowly he traced his hand along the smooth moss on its bark, feeling the texture before coming to a conclusion; which Toph beat him to.

"We're not in a forest, but actually a cave of some sort." She stood up brushing her knees off and pointed to the tree Sokka just inspected, "That is nothing more than a pillar covered in moss." She glanced at Haru, "Feel it for your own self satisfaction." She then turned to Sokka, "I'm going to take a wild guess that this is exactly what Sushi and Teo were concerned about."

The warrior nodded before he added, "This island, is most definitely a tomb." He withdrew his sword from its sheath, "A tomb that has the potential of killing us all if we don't take precautions."

Haru shivered from Sokka's serious tone of voice. He nervously looked around the 'cave' they were in before asking, "So how do we get out of here?"

They had no idea where they were fleeing to, but Aang remembered that as soon as he felt the enemy's vibration from behind; Teo was the first person he jumped to before taking off into the sky and dropping in the middle of a field.
So much for a great cover.

The two boys gasped trying to catch their breaths; of course Teo was trying to breathe since he was completely caught off guard and suddenly being thrown into the air and dropped into a field.

"You okay Teo?" the Avatar huffed as he closed his staff, before turning to face his handicapped friend.

Teo shrugged, "I don't know, but I was certainly caught off guard." He paused and looked around, "Where are we?"

Aang looked around as well before rubbing the back of his head, and shot Teo a cheesy smile, "In the middle of the forest?"

"This isn't a forest."

"Okay then a field."

Teo just raised an eyebrow before the two of them suddenly started having a laughing fit.

"No really." Teo said suddenly, who stopped laughing almost too quickly , that'd make someone think he was never laughing in the first place, "I'm not sure if it's just me, but I find it really hard to breathe here."

"To breathe?" Aang took a deep breath before exhaling loudly.
There was a silence pause before the Avatar answered, "Nope I'm fine." He leaned his head to the side expressing his confusion, "Is it because I'm an airbender?"

Teo shook his head, "I doubt so." He took a quick inhale, and exhaled shortly, "It's," he spoke more slowly this time, "really thick or something. It's like inhaling a gas or something…" he took a deep breath again, but Aang put his hand up and shook his head, "Don't waste your breath trying to describe it. You said enough to make it clear we need to get out of here." Aang looked at the ground briefly before asking, "Was it bothering you as soon as we landed on the island? Or is it only here?"

Teo frowned, "As soon as we landed here."

As if that was all Aang needed to hear, Teo found himself back into the air, only by the time they reached to the peak of the tree tops, they found themselves repelled by a great force back into the field again.

Aang managed to stop Teo from crashing, only to crash into the ground himself. Pushing himself off the ground Teo shot Aang a worried look, "What happened?"

Aang jumped over to Teo lightly and glared at the sky, "We were repelled or something." He then eyed the woods warily, "Looks like we're going to have to take the hard way, and fast."

Katara swore that the universe was trying to mess with her out of all people. She came up with a theory that they got sick of tormenting her brother, and so decided to mess with her life.

Oh hell why?

Why out of all people did she have to be suck with Zuko and Ryu!
Why couldn't she have been stuck with Haru and Toph!

Oh and what's worse.
They happened to run right into a pitch black cave.
Leaving Zuko to be their guide.
Just great! Everything's going to be just fine! With him as the leader, they'll surely get out in no time!

Oh and that's right! He got Ryu here, and they are probably having some sort of secret conversation or something! Why is that?
Because those two are too damn quiet!

The firebender sneaked a glance over at the waterbender behind him. Ryu, beside him said nothing, nor was complaining about the nickname anymore.

Uncertain whether he should break the silence, he took a deep breath and finally decided to speak up, "Um, so…" he was terrible at creating conversations. So why was he trying to right now?
He looked at his guardian, "Ryu," he said carefully, not wanting to accidentally call the dragon by his infamous nickname, "you have told us that there was something about the island that makes it dangerous."

Ryu shifted his lizard like eyes to his master, 'Are you asking if those people are responsible for killing those who take up the challenge or something?'

Zuko shrugged, "I don't now, all I noticed was that there were at least three different benders." He glanced back at Katara over his shoulder who had stopped walking, and was a good distance away from them. The firebender pivoted and waved at the waterbender, "Um, Katara?"

The water tribe girl didn't answer the first time, so he walked up to her and waved his flame across her face, which had certainly snapped her out of daze.
But at the same time, making her angry.
More like furious actually.

SLAP

"What the hell were you thinking? Waving a flame right in front of my face! It's like you're about to burn my face you idiot!" she shouted angrily as she lowered her hand and stormed past him, not bothering to apologize about the slap.

'That was one hell of a slap.'Murmured Ryu eyeing the red hand mark on the ex prince's cheek just below his scar.

Zuko glared at him, saying nothing and just followed Katara in a constant pace, in no hurry to rush after her.

'Not going to go after her?'

Zuko shrugged his shoulders, 'Not really. She'd probably run off anyways.'

Ryu snickered, 'So much of a gentleman.'

'I'm not a lady's man.'

'Oh really?'

'I'm pretty confident about that.' The ex prince said shortly.

There was a loud silence between the servant and the master.

'Regarding those people...' Ryu began. His serious tone caught Zuko's attention almost immediately; 'If I remember correctly…' he paused, then continued, 'supposedly there's a secret society on this island.'

Zuko frowned, furrowing his eyebrows, 'What kind of secret society?'

Ryu looked up then back down again, 'Well supposedly this society has existed over a thousand years.'

'Do you know what this society is called?'

Ryu looked at him apologetically, 'Unfortunately that I can't remember.'

Katara was furious.
But at the same time, very confused.

'What was that?' she stopped walking and found herself surrounded by darkness, 'I swore I saw something, something all too familiar…' she looked around again, 'I swore I saw somebody.'

She took another step, then quickly jumped back as she felt the ground beneath her feet start trembling. A sign that it was going to give away.

Surely just did as she backed up, she heard rocks fall down, deep down – and it was at least 30 seconds before she heard the rocks make contact to the ground below wherever she stood.

In other words, there was a huge death pi t right before her.
And now she can't see which direction she came from and can't find her way back to Zuko.

"Great." She huffed and placed her hands on her hips, "I can't believe I'm actually forced to wait for the almighty anti-prince charming."

"Right, Anti-Prince Charming. That's totally my character."

The waterbender jumped, startled that she was unable – no, was too deep within her own thoughts to hear Zuko approach her from behind. She eyed the flame, watching it dance on his palm calmly.

"Sorry about earlier." He said suddenly, almost as a mutter. She almost didn't catch it.
He made the flame grow bigger and held it above his head to make the area a bit brighter, he studied their surroundings and took note of the pit, "You were kind of out of it, so I did the fast method." Usually people wouldn't have been able to help themselves but smile slightly; however Zuko's lips did not budge once, "I really don't like doing that to people."

"Figured as much." Katara muttered back as they took a better look into the pit and added, "It's pretty deep."

"A death pit. There's probably skeletons down there." He said shortly as he turned away and headed down the narrow path. Katara shuddered, "I can somewhat see that as a fact."

"Hey Aang, what's the matter?" asked Teo as he was studying Aang's sudden defensive reaction, his eyes darting in every possible corner. He decided to ask again, "Aang, what's th-,"

"Teo." the avatar's tone of voice sent imeadite chills down the teenager's spine, "Whatever you do, do not express any sort of emotion."

"Wait, what? Why is-," he stopped when the Avatar's expression was emotionless, his tone was cold, oh so cold that it scared him, "Just listen to me and do exactly what I'm doing until I say it's safe."

Teo put on his emotionless face, but somewhere in the back of his head where he wanted to laugh knew in someway this was serious and was no joke.

'My, my I didn't think you could sense me coming Avatar.' A voice slurred, making Aang turn around slowly and face the spirit that everyone was warned about.

'Why won't you smile? Isn't this supposed to be a happy reunion?'

Indeed it was no other infamous spirit, other than Koh: the Face Stealer himself.

To be Continued…

A/N: *THIS NOTE IS LIKE FROM LIKE, FOUR YEARS AGO:
Oh. My. GOD! Well I actually MANAGED to find some SORT of INSPIRATION, and it makes me wonder if it's all due to the boredom I'm facing this summer! xD Anyways, well I suddenly noticed how the number of subscribers increased and the story going in favs, and…

Well, I suppose I'll try and wrap this story up.
Oh yeah: I also found that freaking brainstorm sheet that I've lost, which will (should) help me complete this story.

About the Chapter:

Mwhahaha, Koh is back! – I seriously really wanted to bring him back, just to I don't know…I just wanted to I guess (lmao)

Nickname for Ryu? – You know, that was REALLY hard to come up with (COUGHFOURYEARSCOUGH) I mean seriously, I'm not the kind of person who nicknames people unless it's for memorizing insane stuff like historical people.

What happened to Azula? - Fu fu fu, I actually can't wait to write up what's going to come up next.

July 10th 2011 Note:

Thank you very much for the patience and for those who have been reading it and reviewing it this year. I'll try my very best to get it complete. I know I abandoned this project for four years now, and looking back at it, I would really like to finish this somehow.
But please note I am really, really, really busy right now, since I'm blogging full time (although I'm actually not covering that many shows this season) and will have other life matters being pre-occupied with.