Summary: Kya was only recently married to Hakoda when a Fire Nation raid caught her alone, gathering what few plants grew in the icy tundra for the winter ahead. Under usual circumstances she would've at least had the company of the other village women, but it was so close to the Sunless winter that no one thought the Fire Nation would dare strike.

Nine months later she sobbed as her daughter was welcomed into the world by breathing flames.

Disclaimer: Ownage of Avatar? Unlikely.

Chapter 9: Desperate Inferno.

For the record, there are some things that should never see the light of day. There are just some things man was not meant to know. And following that, there are just some places man was not meant to go. The Spirit World is one of them.

I don't even remember most of it. Earth and sky were switching places and a bunch of voices kept shouting in my ears. I was running away from them when I stumbled out of the bamboo Hei Bai left behind. Other people, the other lost villagers, followed after me. I couldn't tell if they'd had the same freakish experience that I'd had or not. I didn't really ask.

"Sukka!" Suddenly my arms were full of adorable baby sister. Her arms wrapped around me so tightly I didn't dare breathe for fear of hearing something crack.

"Easy, baby sister." I eased her off. "What happened?"

"You were in the Spirit World for twenty four hours." She informed me. "How do you feel?"

Which, of course brought my attention to the fact that my body had basically been frozen for an entire day. I noticed the other lost souls were all heading in one direction and bounded off after them. My instincts told me that they had the same problem I did.

After everything was settled down, we all met in the center of the village again so that the Headman could thank us for, you know, basically saving everyone's butts.

"I don't know how we can ever repay you." He polished it off.

"Well, we wouldn't say no to some supplies…or money." I suggested with a careless shrug. I still hadn't gotten the hang of hunting in these forest areas. I miss the tundra.

"Sukka!" My dear, sweet, beloved, baby sister elbowed me.

"Katara, maybe you can survive off berries and nuts, but I require something more substantial in my diet!" I growled under my breath. She completely ignored me to tell Aang how proud she was. She sounded like a new mother praising her baby for using the chamber pot for the first time.

"Yeah, but there's something else." Not another monster, please! I do not want to go back to the Spirit World! Do not want!

"I need to talk to Roku, and I've figured out a way to contact his spirit." He explained.

"That's great, Aang." Did she not realize that Roku was dead? As in, a long time ago dead?

"Sure, great." My shoulders slumped and I whispered. "Not like there's anything wrong about talking to dead guys."

"There's this crescent shaped island, and if I go there on the solstice, I'll be able to talk to him." He said with a smile. His smile was wider than usual, and his voice a tad too confident. I waited for the other shoe to drop.

"But the solstice is tomorrow!" Katara pointed out.

"Yeah, and there's another problem." I eyed the airheaded twit with suspicion. "The island is in the Fire Nation."

"…Of course it is." I groaned. Why couldn't it be at the North Pole? Or in the Earth Kingdom? No, Aang just had to talk to his freaky ancestor/incarnation thing, and that same freaky ancestor/incarnation thing just had to live in the Fire Nation.

"I can't ask you guys to come with me. It's way too dangerous." Aang started, walking over to his giant, fluffy snot monster and picking up the reins. "Come on, Appa! Yip yip!" Appa lowed and refused to move.

"Sukka and Katara aren't coming with us this time! They might get hurt and I couldn't live with that, now get your giant furry butt moving!" Another tug on the reins, another low.

"I think his giant furry butt is trying to tell you something." I pointed out once the amusement had faded a bit. As funny as it was to watch Aang have a battle of wills with his snot monster, I couldn't help but remember that we were working under a time limit.

"We're not letting you go to the Fire Nation, Aang!" Katara declared. We both stood in front of Appa's snout. "Not without us!"

"I don't really want to go to the Fire Nation, hits a little close to home, but if you gotta go then I'm not letting you leave on your own." We did not need crispy Aang. Appa moaned and I noticed Katara had stepped back. This left me in the splash zone.

"…Why me?" I slumped.

"You must fly swiftly if you want to make it before the end of the solstice." The headman warned us, handing up a bundle of supplies. A quick inspection revealed that it was mostly hard tack and bread, although there did seem to be something similar to seal jerky.

"Thank you, I—!"

"Go!" He roared, cutting off Aang's gratitude. Appa was startled into flight and we rose to the sky. I felt my brows clench together, wondering why he'd suddenly been in such a hurry for us to leave.

Katara and Aang decided to get some sleep, but I couldn't relax. It still felt uncomfortable to not be wearing my mother's necklace, and I wondered if I'd ever get used to it. I hadn't been able to see what made the headman so nervous, and I hadn't been inclined to find out, but it rubbed me wrong anyway. I was doing a lot more worrying and fretting than I ever had back home. Not even running out of food during a blizzard wired me like this.

The sun brought a measure of calm with it. Today was the winter solstice. Back home the days would be getting shorter, until finally the sun stopped rising. I had stored up most of the food they'd need for the winter, but what if this helping the Avatar thing lasted for longer than a year?

They might be able to bring in some fish, and if they journeyed a little farther north they could set up some simple traps. They'd tighten their belts like good tribal women, and wouldn't complain. Maybe we'd be able to meet up with dad. By now he's probably got some injured men he can afford to send back home. They weren't supposed to be gone for so long anyway.

I meditated for a while, until Aang and Katara woke up. It wasn't quite noon yet but we'd made a fair amount of distance. Things were going alright until the barricade came into view.

"We could try going around." I suggested. That was a lot of Fire Nation ships below us, all armed with trebuchets and flaming stinkballs. I wasn't too eager to face that, I still swore that my clothes smelled like Appa's breath.

"There's no time, the solstice is today." Aang reminded me, like I'd forgotten or something. Yeah, I totally forgot that this was the day when Fire Benders were at their weakest. Thank you, Aang, however would I remember the date if not for your amazingly accurate biological clock? Please enlighten this poor mortal.

Please ignore the sarcasm. I get grouchy when I haven't slept.

"We'll just have to run it." Katara said, her voice infused with the very essence of determination. I realized that I had begun clenching the side of the saddle hard enough that my knuckles had turned white. I didn't let go.

There were a few more tense moments as we finally flew into range, and then it was like hell fire was raining down on us from the Heavens. Appa bawled, rolling out of the way of fire balls as we clung to his saddle. There was a point where I was upside down, hanging by my fingernails.

Small fires erupted on his fur when some shrapnel caught us. Katara, Momo, and I put them out quickly. Aang tried to give us cloud cover by going higher but it only made things worse. Now we couldn't see the projectiles until they were right up in our faces. That caused a panic flurry of motion from our bison, which finally succeeded in throwing me off.

Let's just get it out of the way here; otherwise I just know it'll be distracting. At first, I didn't realize I was falling. One minute I'm sitting next to my sister, trying not to breathe through my nose, the next I'm weightless, completely at the mercy of gravity.

When I realized what had happened, I have no shame to admit that I began screaming like a little girl. My hands flew around wildly, trying to find some purchase. A few flames flickered into being and died around me, clouds really were made of water and they snuffed them out. Not that I think fire would've really helped me at that point, but still.

Aang caught me on his glider and we somehow got back to Appa. I silently vowed to never fall off again, as I half expected to be finding gray streaks in my hair the next time I saw a reflexive surface. A few more flaming balls of death came flying towards us, including one that nearly hit Appa on the nose.

Aang leapt in front of us, kicking out a blast of air that made a perfect circle through the fireball that we glider through. It was the last one that got anywhere near us. We were beyond the range of the blockade.

We found the crescent island, it wasn't that deep in Fire Nation territory, thank the spirits. We landed by an outcropping that hid Appa from view of the temple. I dove for solid ground, collapsing as I tried to convince my stomach to get out of the air and rejoin my body on good old mother Earth.

"Aw, poor baby, you must be tired." I heard Katara crooning. For an instant I felt very indignant. She had better not be talking to me! Then I turned around and saw her rubbing Appa, who had flopped onto his side and groaned theatrically at the attention.

"I think the poor baby's just fine." I remarked. He'd already fallen asleep. I wished I could join him, being on this island, a volcano, made me edgy. I couldn't stay still. I fidgeted, tugged at my hair and clothes. Lava was running in rivers down the side of the mountain but our area was safe. I didn't know enough about volcanos to know if this one had just recently blown or was getting ready for a repeat performance. I didn't want to stick around and find out.

"Shouldn't there be guards?" My sister questioned once we got closer to the building. It took my breath away. I had never seen anything like it before. Red and black with gold prongs, standing tall enough to reach the sky! I tried my best to hate it, so different from everything I'd grown up with, but my entire being yearned to step inside and explore!

"Maybe they left after Avatar Roku died." Aang shrugged, rather nonchalant about the whole thing. They were silent for a minute, contemplating, and then both turned around to look at me with the same confused expression.

"Isn't this the part where you lecture us about letting our guard down in the Fire Nation?" Katara prodded me. Some of my adventure in the Spirit World came back. I felt strange, unsettled.

"Do you really need me to? I would've thought that was common sense." I poke back. They are satisfied with my answer, and we approach cautiously. Part of me wants to throw caution to the wind, I'm a firebender, I have every right to enter this temple. The rest of me is ganging up on that part trying to destroy it so irrevocably I would never remember that I had thought it.

"Looks like no one's home." Katara shrugged after we snuck through the door. Well, I'd like to say snuck. It implies quite a bit of stealth on our end. Sadly, the doors had obviously not been oiled in some time, they made this unholy creak when we forced our way inside.

Which is part of why I was so stunned that it could slam shut so fast. I expected it to fight back when someone tried to close it again, maybe give more creaks and groans and threaten to collapse. It actually slammed fast enough that I felt a good breeze on the back of my neck.

"We are the sages to the Temple of the Avatar." The oldest one intoned. I stared at this man being held together by sheer force of will and glue. His voice was healthy and strong, despite his advanced years. Again I felt the completely insane urge to show respect. Here was a fire master, someone who'd been on this earth decades longer than I had. Part of me, I hereby named that part Fire Insanity or FI, wanted to bow to this man and beg him to teach me.

"That's great, I'm the Avatar." Stupid little air-headed twit! At this rate, I'm going to need a better name than twit pretty soon.

"We know." They shot a blast forward so quickly it was all I could do to leap in front of my friends and divide it, parting it down the middle to flow around us.

"A firebender?" One of them muttered, completely floored.

"RUN!" Aang shouted. We all dove for a side corridor, taking twists and turns that I'd never remember if we were forced to back track. Aang ran like the wind. Silly thing to say, he's an airbender, but I couldn't very well say he ran like fire, can I? He got ahead of us, but turned straight around after going down another turn.

"Wrong way!" He yelled, leading us down a different one instead. Someone called for us to wait, not that we had much choice.

We'd run straight into a dead end.

I took a stance in front of Aang and Katara, drawing my club and ready. I would've liked Boomerang better, but the halls were too narrow. The fire sage panted, out of breath from chasing us so fiercely, but every breath was even. I had no doubt that he could breathe plenty of fire for all of us if I let my guard down.

I really wasn't expecting him to prostrate himself on the ground like that. Actually, I kind of wish that I had known what that meant in the Fire Nation back then. Would've been useful.

"Please, I don't serve the Fire Lord, I only mean to help you speak to Roku." He pleaded with us, barely lifting his head.

"How do we know we can trust you?" I demanded. His eyes shifted from Aang to me and widened. I felt my grip tighten and my stomach clenched with certainty. Who knew who, what I was.

I didn't have time to panic or freak out though. We could hear the other sages catching up fast.

"I know a secret way to the chamber." He rose to his feet and twisted a lantern, revealed a hole that he pressed his hand to. A sharp breath later let fire bleed from his hand into the crevice, and an entire stairway appeared before us. "Quickly!"

We didn't have a choice. It was either take a risk and follow him, or wait below for the rest of those master level firebenders to find us.

"I'm Aang, this is Katara and Sukka." The little arrow-headed twit grinned as we raced up the steps two at a time. I lightly tapped him on the head with my club.

"If we get out of here, I swear that I'm going to tie you to a tree with a Lost Airbender sign hanging around your neck!" I growled at him. "Don't go telling Fire Nation people who we are!" Especially not my sister, thank you.

"I swear not to reveal your identities, but worry not. I have known the Avatar's name for some time." The sage spoke evenly despite racing up a seemingly never ending spiral of stairs. My calves were crying, I could feel it. And there was no end in sight.

"I was contacted by one Amba, granddaughter of one called Dohna, whom she said you knew." I think if I hadn't shoved him, Aang would've frozen there on the steps. "She contacted me one month ago, I almost thought she was the avatar, for she was an air nomad."

"Airbenders survived." Twelve year old kids shouldn't sound that relieved. They shouldn't have any reason in the world to have so much relief in their cracking voices. Twelve year old boys should be just looking at pretty girls for the first time, learning things from their fathers, and playing games with their friends. They shouldn't sound like they'd just set down the weight of the world.

"I was just as surprised as you are!" He finally told us his name, Shiyu. We didn't have any more breath for talking though. It was hard just to keep running.

The chamber we were led to reminded me of the Air Temple Sanctuary. The door was just as pretty, just as big, and just as locked.

"How do we open them?" Katara panted, clutching at a stitch in her side. We weren't exactly out of shape, you can't be out of shape and survive in the South Pole, but we weren't equipped for running up fifteen flights of stairs. Yes, I counted.

"We would need five master fire benders, or a fully realized Avatar's power." And Aang wasn't exactly fully realized if you catch my drift.

"What about one master and one novice?" I asked, igniting my palm. I saw his eyes widen again, looking first to my palm, and then studying my golden eyes.

"It wouldn't work, especially if you are untrained." I cursed and let the fire die. I looked around the room. There had to be something I missed, something that we could use to pry open those doors before the Solstice was over.

"Blasting jelly." My mind whirred faster than a penguin could slide down a steep slope. There were three large barrels of the stuff wrapped with canvass in a secluded corner of the room. I guess if they aren't using the temple for worship then they use it for storage. I tore the canvas and made a pouch, poring some jelly into it, Shiyu caught on and raced to help, followed by Aang and Katara.

We got the sacks settled and Shiyu ignited the fuse. I watched the flame dance up the thin rope and crossed my fingers, sending up a prayer to Agni himself that he would light the way. The boom was nearly deafening, and a lot of smoke poured from the mouths of the golden dragon locks, but there was still no difference except for the soot now marring their gleaming surface.

"It didn't work." Katara moaned quietly. I didn't even turn to look at her. I walked to the door and lifted a finger to wipe away some of the soot.

"But it looks like it did." I commented. My brain wasn't finished churning out ideas. If this worked, man no one in the tribe would ever believe me. My brain surprised even me, tying together separate experiences until I got the bare bones of a possible plan all laid out. Momo's shadow in the Sanctuary, the tiny vents in Omashu, and the soot on the fancy doors.