Yue and Shujin trailed through the wilds of the Spirit World while Sen trekked right behind them, he was actually falling behind because the two spirits weren't even walking at all.
"Can you guys slow down. Please?" he said as he jogged up to them.
"Having trouble keeping up?". Shujin smirked.
Yue chuckled at this.
"You guys don't even use your legs at all." Sen complained.
"Sorry. It's a spirit thing." Yue said with a smile.
Shujin looked outward toward the horizon and saw Father Void continuing to swallow up the spirit world, she saw energy disappearing into the void and she gasped.
"We have to hurry. The void is swallowing everything." Shujin said urgently.
"We also have to hurry before you die here or get trapped." Yue said.
Sen nodded.
He was about to move but then his vision got blurry and he doubled over and fell, Yue gasped and picked him up.
"The Spirit world is taking its toll on his physical body. We need to go now!" Shujin said.
"I'll be fine." Sen said as he stumbled ahead of them.
"I'll keep an eye on him." Yue said.
.....................................
Chief Arnook watched the spirit oasis as his men paced the area, he sighed in aggravation. He knew the Avatar and his friends were gone for awhile but he just had to wait a bit longer, he was about to give up when he heard one of his men yell.
Then he saw a red figure break the surface of the oasis, it was Firelord Zuko. He immediately jumped up to his feet and grabbed the blankets that his servant brought.
Zuko climbed out of the oasis with the help from Arnook's men before crawling across the ground and lying on his back, he breathed out a puff of steam out of his mouth.
"Firelord Zuko." Arnook said before covering him with the blanket.
"Ugh. I'm not doing that again." Sokka said as he crawled out of the water.
"Me neither." Toph said.
Suki jumped out of the water and started to dry herself immediately, one of the men gave her a blanket and she took it with thanks and wrapped it around her.
Katara and Azula came out next, casually dragging each other out and lying on the ground. Aang came out last, he looked a bit distraught by the look of his face.
"Where's Sen?" Katara asked before grabbing a blanket that Azula handed her.
"He's still in the Spirit World
"Aang said before looking back at the oasis." He needs to reconnect with the energy that he separated from."
Katara took a hold of his hand and gave him a reassuring smile.
"He'll be back. I'm sure Yue won't let nothing happen to him." she said softly.
Aang gave her a smile but stared back at the water with a worried look.
"What happened in there?". Chief Arnook asked as he watched the wet group.
They all turned to face him.
"So much." Zuko merely said.
.....................................
Yue gazed with concerned eyes as she watched Sen stumbled ahead of them, he was getting weaker with each passing minute. Then she watched him stumble into a tree and lean against it tiredly, he breathed heavily.
"The Spirit World will start to corrupt his body soon if we don't finish this now." Shujin said with slight irritation.
"We're almost there. We just need to get him close to the place." Yue said.
Yue walked up and tried to help him up, he grabbed her arms and slowly pulled himself back together. She placed a hand behind his back to steady him, he smiled at her for that.
"We're close. Just a little further." she said with a smile, hiding her concerns.
Sen nodded and started to walk again.
Shujin watched the two for a minute before humming and following them, she did feel concern for the young airbender but this had to be done.
"Look! We're here." Yue yelled.
Sen looked up and saw they were walking up to the edge of a cliff, in the distance were other mountains with clouds surrounding them. Sen looked down over the edge of the cliff and saw nothing but clouds with the light of the sun shining from the right, it was mesmerizing.
"The sun shines here too?". Sen asked.
"Oh, that's just Agni." Yue explained. "But yes, some things that happen in the physical world can also be reflected into the Spirit World."
"Whoa." Sen said.
"I sensed the energy residue here. All you have to do is reach out and find it, then reconnect with it." Shujin explained as she approached them.
"How do I do that?" Sen asked.
"Approach the edge and stick your hand out as far as possible and try to focus and sense the energy." the Air spirit instructed.
"Ok."
"This isn't gonna kill him, is it?" Yue whispered to Shujin.
"No. Of course not." Shujin said before smirking, "but it will hurt like crazy."
"What was that?". Sen asked from in front.
"Nothing!" The two spirits said in unison.
Sen raised an eyebrow but decided to ignore them. He turned and stepped close to the edge and stuck out his hand, he tried to sense the energy by moving his hand around in the space in front of him. He closed his eyes to help better with sensing the energy.
He sighed and stepped back.
"I'm not getting anything."
"You're not trying. Focus." Shujin said.
"Breathe." Yue said soothingly.
Sen decided to follow the things he learned in the Air temples and decided to find his inner peace and hold onto it, he exhaled deeply after inhaling and then started to focus with his eyes closed. He reached his hand out again and moved it around, trying to sense the residue.
Yue watched with curious eyes and Shujin merely looked unimpressed.
As he moved his hand around, he felt his hand suddenly come to a sudden stop and he heard Yue gasp at this.
"Gotcha!" Sen smiled.
But before he could celebrate, he suddenly felt himself get pulled forward by an unseen force.
"What the-Hey!". He exclaimed as he struggled.
He kept getting pulled forward and he struggled desperately, but then he came to a stop. He sighed in relief but then a white hot pain flowed into his hand and slowly travelled up his arm in a painful manner, he screamed in agony as he felt by how slow and excruciating the pain was.
"So that's what you meant by 'hurt'." Yue said as she tried to block out Sen's screams.
Shujin smiled.
"Yes. A painful reminder to never separate from a spirit."
Then they watched him drop to the ground, the unseen force releasing him from its grasp. He fell to his knees and grabbed his right forearm and whimpered in agony, his entire body had a dim white hue glow to it.
But it was temporary. It died out a few seconds later.
The veins on his arms were glowing white and they looked like they would be glowing for awhile, a painful reminder of who humans are dealing with.
"That looks painful." Shujin said as she and Yue stood over the airbender.
"Of course it hurts! Look at my arms!" he yelled holding out his arms.
Shujin stared at the glowing veins and merely smirked. Yue tried her best not to laugh.
Shujin decided to step closer to the edge and watch the horizon. She noticed how the void stopped swallowing everything and watched as it reversed back into the abyss, undoing everything it caused.
"Father void is retreating. We have successfully restored balance."
"Thank the spirits." Yue sighed in relief.
Sen who looked weak, merely raised an arm in celebration.
"So is there a way to go back home?" he asked.
"Sure. You jump off the cliff." Shujin said with a smile.
Sen laughed and walked away from them.
"Nice joke, Shujin."
He continued laughing but then stopped, he quickly turned and saw their solemn expressions.
"Oh. You're serious." he realized. "You want me to jump off a cliff?!"
"Yes." Shujin said.
"I can't jump. I have a life to live an-aaaghhh" he was cut off, for Shujin silently approached and pushed him off the cliff.
They both looked down as they watched him disappear behind the clouds underneath.
"He is going to make it, right?" Yue asked.
"I don't know. This is my first time doing this." Shujin said with a shrug.
Yue stared at her with wide eyes.
"Calm yourself. He'll be fine." Shujin said before walking away.
Yue took a moment to snap out of her terrified trance as the Air spirit walked away.
"Shujin!".