ATER Book 2: Air

Chapter 14: Morada's Demise Part 2

A/N: I know I don't usually update this early in the week, but I know that some if you are getting very antsy for another chapter! So, here it is! Enjoy (if you dare)!

"I'm going in first," Khanu said. "If there's anything dangerous down there, I'll distract it while you go find Salwa."

"Ok." Khanu sat down and slipped his feet over the hole.

"See you soon!" he said. He pushed off the ground and slid into the hole. I waited about 30 seconds before thinking, Wow, two people missing? This is great. Then, I jumped in.

To be blunt, it was a dark and dirty ride. I felt pebbles and dirt falling on me, along with the occasional bug. It took only about a minute for gravity to pull me down to the bottom. But before I'd even reached it, one question popped into my head we didn't think of. How are we going to get back up?

The tunnel ended and I fell onto hard dirt, landing on my arm funny. I let out a moan.

"Well that was graceful," I heard Khanu say. I gritted my teeth and pushed myself up onto my feet.

Once I got my bearings, I looked around where we were. It was a hallway that we'd landed in. It went both left and right.

"Which way do you think she went?" I asked.

"I don't know. When in doubt, go right?" I shrugged.

"That's my best guess."

Khanu held out his arm and bowed. "After you, Avatar." Rolling my eyes, I walked down the hallway. As I neared the end, I saw a figure crouching near a doorway in the next hall. As I neared, I saw it was Salwa.

"Salwa!"

"SSSHHH!!!" She covered my mouth with her hand. "Be quiet! I'm spying on them!" I tugged her hand off my mouth.

"On who?" Salwa put a finger to her lips and pointed out the doorway. Inside, I saw two chairs. One person, a boy with black hair and a bandana, was strapped to one of the chairs with chains. The other chair had ropes on the ground, like someone had cut themselves out.

A crash to my left brought my attention to where the other person was. "That was a 6,000 yuan digital spy system, and you just broke it!" Two people were fighting: a woman decked out in red cargo pants and a black shirt, and girl wearing a dusty red knee-length dress.

It was Morada.

She was swiping water at the woman left and right, cutting off a piece or two of clothing. The woman would occasionally thrust a flame at Morada, but missed several times, so she mainly ducked and sidestepped.

Another clatter came to my right. The boy had the chains on the ground and was on his feet, rubbing his wrists. He ran to Morada and the woman, and began pummeling the woman with fire.

"You've hurt too many people, Mao Day!" he yelled.

"Guards!" Mao Day screamed. "A little help!" From all sides, guards began to swarm into the room, surrounding Morada and the boy.

I turned around to Salwa and Khanu. "We need to help them!" They both nodded.

"Yeah," Khanu agreed, "but how?"

A smile crept onto my face. "I have a plan."

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I was slowly running out of water. There were so many guards, and I couldn't reach the source of the water. It didn't help that the odds weren't in our favor. It was 2 to about 3 dozen.

I was starting to lose hope when I heard, "No one messes with our friend!" then a whomp! Salwa had swung on the rope that had tied me up, and landed right on Mao Day. Suddenly, I heard the sound of rushing water, then the outer ring of the 3 rings of guards froze into ice blocks.

The second ring was grabbed by the rock floor, and pulled down all the way to their necks. The first ring quivered in their shoes, afraid that they would be next. Luna and Khanu raced up next to me, breathing heavily.

"Press the button you fool!" Mao Day screamed at one of the guards. He ran to the wall and jumped to push a button high on the wall.

As soon as he pressed it, a pleasant female voice said, "Self destruct in T-Minus 2 minutes." On the one of the touch screens where Mao Day kept her her technology, a timer started counting down from 2 minutes.

"You're too late!" Mao Day cackled. "You'll be destroyed along with this building.

"We have to stop that timer!" Luna yelled.

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"We have to stop that timer!" I yelled.

"I'm on it!" the boy with the bandana said. He raced towards the screen where a bright green 'Stop Self Destruct' lit up, only to be apprehended by one of the guards.

I swung a piece of rock at the guards head with my mind, which knocked him out cold.

"Self Destruct in T-Minus 1 minute."

The boy was almost there, he was only meters away.

"Shoot him!" Mao Day screamed. A guard close to him held up his gun, aimed, and fired. But the bullet didn't hit him. Morada, who was fighting with a guard close by, pushed the guard away and stepped in front of the boy.

Time seemed to slow down. I saw her body rock backwards as the force of the bullet hit her. I felt myself light up with rage. Morada didn't ask to be here, to do this. I got her here because I had been selfish. I wanted Khanu found, and here was Morada paying the price for that.

I felt myself rising up in the air, a weird feeling spreading through me. I took parts if the air around and formed them into a spear. I aimed it at the guard's arm. The one that shot Morada. The guard howled in pain as the spear made contact with his arm.

The fury and the energy sizzling around me began to make me feel light-headed. Before I knew it, I was falling to the ground. Before I hit the hard ground, I felt a sort of cushion catch me. Then, I blacked out.

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I knew I was most likely going to die even before I jumped in front of Ummi. But this pain, the pain of death, was surprisingly mellow. It wasn't extravagant, like the time I broke me wrist slipping in ice. It wasn't excruciating like when I got my visions. It was numb.

Ummi was kneeling down next to me, saying words that I couldn't hear. I grabbed his arm. "Ummi," I said. (I thought I sounded echo-y) "It's okay."

"No, it's not."

"Ummi."

"You're dying and-"

"Ummi, listen to me." He looked into my eyes. "I want you to teach Luna firebending."

"What?"

"You want to help the world? Defeat the Lao Jee? Teach Luna. Please." I started to feel my breaths get coarser and coarser. My breaths had too of long of intervals. I coughed one last time. Then, I died.

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So what did you guys think? This was the first death scene I've ever written, so if it wasn't very good, you know why. Guess what? It's another LOK update! You can watch episodes 6 and 7 this Friday at 8 pm EST!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!! I hope you guys liked this chapter! Feel free to comment and don't forget to vote!

Ciao!-Lauren