Through the Skies

A group of three could be seen walking towards a hidden hollow mountain, surrounded by cherry blossom trees. Two of them were women, one with tan skin, crystal blue eyes, and an eyepatch over her left eye with scars spread across her body. The other had fair skin, long dark brown hair, and striking yellow eyes; she wore long black and gold palace robes in a style that resembled the geisha of old.

In the middle there was a tall fair-skinned man with long, wild spiky hair that resembled a mane and sharp black eyes; he wore long fancy black and red robes and carried a huge fan on his back.

As they approached the hollow mountain, the man turned to the fair-skinned woman and skeptically asked;

"Are you sure you can pilot this thing, Nari?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

The woman, Nari, didn't take his question the wrong way and giggled while hiding her mouth with the sleeve of her kimono.

"Of course I can do so, Mr. Uchiha! Do you think that my husband would be able to learn how to pilot it on his own back at the Beifong Estate?"

After listening to those words, the tanned woman couldn't help but let out a loud laugh.

"Wahahahaha, I knew it! Jackie would never have the brains to learn this on his own! I told ye Boss, and ye didn't believe me!" she said while pointing to the man in the middle.

Sighing, Madara scratched the back of his head. "Well… I wanted to give the man the benefit of the doubt…" he coughed and avoided their gaze. "By the way Nari… talking about Jackie…"

"You don't have to worry about him, Mr.Uchiha, he is healthy, just…. Busy….." she let out eerie chuckles masked as a polite lady's giggle.

"" … Yeah…sure…"" both Madara and Kaliya replied at the same time.

Looking up towards the night skies of the northern region of the Earth Kingdom, Madara couldn't help but think out loud.

"I hope nothing bad happens when I am gone… I am sure that those spies around this place are just waiting for the moment that I am away…"

"You worry too much, Mr.Uchiha." said Nari with a motherly smile "You need to understand that those people are terrified of you right now, and they won't.. by any chance… try to strike this place and earn your rage. But… I do admit that it's not good to underestimate people's cunningness… Our trip will be short, we shall be back by next week."

"If you say so," he sighed, still worried. The people living in the Uchiha Resort trusted him with their lives for protection, he would never accept failing their trust.

"Relax, Boss!" shouted Kaliya while side-hugging him, with her arm over his shoulders. "It's not like ye appear for the masses every damn day, a week of seclusion is nothing new for them… Hell, I remember when ye didn't leave the house for almost a month!"

Nari chuckled. "It's incredible how both of you have this weird relationship going, you behave like you always did years ago, but at the same time, you have this ambiguous air… I will never understand how you two do it."

Shrugging, Madara replied "Not even I can explain it… All I can say is… it just works..." he chuckled as he concluded his answer.

"Says the man that locked me inside for a whole week after I came back from the last mission ye sent me on!" replied Kaliya playfully.

"Oh please… you are a pirate; you would've climbed through the chimney if you wanted to leave… no one would be able to lock you up that easily…" Madara rolled his eyes.

As their banter continued, they arrived at their old airship, it's been over a year since both Kaliya and Madara used this thing, and they both couldn't help but remember their times flying through Si Wong Desert back then.

"It's kind of nostalgic, isn't it?" Asked Madara as he entered the airship, looking to the sides and seeing everything just the same as it was before, he never touched or removed anything from within other than clothes and his weapon.

"Aye…" Was all that Kaliya could say as she touched the left side of her head, which wasn't burned like before, thanks to the spirit water Madara brought from the Northern Water Tribe for her. "It does bring back fond memories."

"Please, stop speaking like it has been ages..." said Nari with a chuckle as she moved to the control room. "You both talk like it has been twenty years since you last traveled, now… Kaliya, let us do as planned…"

Kaliya responded with a firm nod and walked to the balcony of the airship. They had a plan already prepared if they ever decided to fly openly and it wasn't stormy, they had to conceal the existence of the airship, and even being dark outside, the lights of the Resort would make the departure of such a huge ship very easy to spot.

As she walked outside, she opened a canteen of water and used her bending to pull a bit out, launching it towards her feet and freezing it to prevent herself from falling.

Afterward, she took a long breath, concentrated with her eyes closed, and started moving her hands slowly in circular patterns.

From outside, if one paid enough attention, they could see that in the span of thirty minutes, a huge pillar of clouds could be seen covering the top of the hollow mountain. As the airship took flight, the mass of clouds slowly covered the whole vessel, slowly retreating back to the skies where both the cloud and the airship moved southwest.

….

In a small settlement located within the scorched forest, in the westmost corner of the Earth Kingdom, a young tattoed bald boy was slowly sneaking outside. He reached his trusty flying bison and yanked on his reins trying to guide him to stand up, but the bison continually refused to do so.

With a strained voice, the boy spoke. "Let's go, Appa! Come on, boy!"

Appa roared in protest and sat down, while Aang kept trying to take command and failing.

"Look, I'm sorry, but Katara and Sokka aren't coming to the Fire Nation with us… if they got hurt… I … I'd never forgive myself!" he concluded sternly, emphasizing his command by straightening himself. "So... Get your big butt off the ground and let's GO!"

"I think his big butt is trying to tell ya something..."

A voice came from nearby, and startled, Aang jumps back a bit and looks back just to see Sokka coming from behind a tree along with Katara.

"We are not letting you go into the Fire Nation, Aang." Said Katara.

"She is right," said Sokka sternly, but then he grinned. "At least, not without your friends… We got your back!"

Momo appeared out of nowhere, flying towards the trio and gently perching atop Aang's shoulder at the exact moment that Appa gave Sokka a big lick across the face.

"EWWWWWW!"

As they soar through the skies, night eventually turns into day, and unfortunately for them… It happened to do so right before they could cross the massive blockade of ships that covered the whole east side of the Fire Nation waters, not only that… a single lonely ship could be seen following them from behind.

Looking back at the lonely ship, Katara shouted "Aang, we've got trouble!"

Sokka, panicking as always "Yeah! And it's gaining on us... fast!"

Out of nowhere, a massive flaming boulder is hurled towards them, only barely missing them.

"Damn!" shouted Sokka.

Katara who was paying more attention to the ship than to the projectile that almost reached them shouts "ANOTHER!"

"I'm on it!" shouted Aang while jumping up from Appa, and while in midair, using his airbending to destroy the flaming boulder and using the explosion to propel himself back to his friends.

"Can't you make Appa go any faster?" asked Sokka.

"Yeah… but there's just one liiiittle problem…" he said while pointing forward toward the blockade that finally became visible to them.

"A blockade…" from below, Zuko's eyes widen as he closes his fist in anger.

"Technically we are still in Earth Kingdom waters. Turn back now and they cannot arrest you." Said Iroh, who approached his nephew from behind.

"Yes but…." Zuko clenches his jaw as his eyes narrow towards the sky "He is not turning around!"

"Prince Zuko, there are times that a retreat is the best option! Don't let yourself be lost in your pursuit, remember that if they capture you… there's nothing that I can do! Do not follow the Avatar."

"Uncle.. I…" Zuko's eyes tremble, he finally got a trail of the Avatar after he left them on Kyoshi Island. It's taken him days to catch up, and if it wasn't for the incident of the Earthbender prisoners that the Avatar decided to free... he doubted that he would have been able to. He also doubted that he'd be able to get their trail again if he abandoned it now.

As he was suffering from this internal dilemma, Commander Zhao couldn't help but grin.

'Both the Avatar and the traitor come to me so easily…' While staring at the flying bison he turned toward the ship's captain and calls for his attention.

"Commander Zhao. What are your orders?" the Captain asked.

"Shoot the bison down, Captain."

The man was surprised "But there's a Fire Navy ship out there, Sir! One of our own! What if it's hit?"

"So be it," Zhao answered coolly "It belongs to a traitor, shoot it now!"

As fire started raining from below, Aang kept doing his best with his airbending to fend off the fireballs that were sure hits otherwise, while Sokka kept controlling Appa trying to dodge as much as he could.

"Aang!..." Shouted Katara in panic.

"I'm fine Katara" Said the bald monk while taking a breather, right before reading himself for another jump. "Don't worry."

Katara was about to shout again, she would never forgive herself if she allowed Aang to become all bruised like that day they escaped the Southern Water Tribe, but she saw something odd in the skies not that far away from them.

"Is that a .. cloud?.." She asked with a weirded-out expression.

Sokka shouted while pulling Appa's reins, dodging another fireball "We are in the skies.. there are clouds EVERYWHERE!"

"No Sokka," said Aang, finally paying attention "That cloud is going against the wind…"

"Yea SO?" Sokka Shouted again, forcing Appa to raise the altitude a little to dodge another fireball.

Suddenly they could hear a distant, faint but real laugh coming from the cloud.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

"What the..." Sokka passed the reins to Aang, the Avatar knew how to control Appa better than him, and took a spyglass and stared at the cloud just to see a man with wild spiky black hair, standing 'on top' of the cloud, dressed in black and red and with his arms crossed in front of his chest while laughing.

"Unbelievable…" he said as Katara took the spyglass from him while he was spending his time being dumbfounded.

The girl gasped as she saw what her brother saw "There's a man riding that cloud!"

"WHAT?!" Shouted Aang both weirded out and excited. "That sounds so fun!"

….

On the top of the cloud, Madara was laughing his ass off. 'I can't believe we came west at this precise moment … to think that I would have such a first encounter with Team Avatar, look… there's little Firecracker down below!' he kept laughing like there was no tomorrow.

After finally calming himself and cleaning the tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes he crouched down on the top of the balloon part of his airship, which was covered in a cloud, and spread his arms "Let's give them a sight to behold shall we?"

As the seconds passed, tiny whisps of fire kept escaping his fingertips, slowly merging with the cloud.

….

Down below, the old General looked up and noticed the odd cloud following a similar path to the Avatar's flying bison and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and tell his nephew.

"Prince Zuko, look at that.." he said while pointing upwards.

The prince who was still trying to decide what to do, looked up and suddenly his eyes went wide.

The cloud slowly became more and more red, until the color was fully a tone of orange-ish red.

"A red cloud.." said the prince as he held the railing of his ship. A smile slowly appeared on his face. "I get it Teacher… " he mumbled to himself "Men, let's head back to the earth kingdom, the Avatar will have to come way in one way or another… we shall be waiting for him!"

""YES SIR!""

On the other side, the old General couldn't help but bow toward the red cloud flying through the skies, a small genuine smile appeared on his face. 'Thank you.'