Broken Wing

Summary – What would Jet do if one of his Freedom Fighters turned out to be a firebender? What would Zuko do if he found this person burned and broken, left alone to die? This is a tale of pain, friendship, and struggle.

"Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." - Helen Keller

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Yep, that's it. Pretty much ran out of cute little phrases to put here on my last fic.

Chapter 1 - Prologue

Three months had passed since the Fire Nation raid on the small Water Tribe village. In a small ice hut, a young woman tread back and forth across the packed snow that served as the floor of the modest dwelling. She nervously awaited a visit from the chief healer, an older woman with sharp eyes and a stern demeanor. She walked over to the door and pulled back the elephant seal hide that blocked the entry to check if the woman had arrived. She saw the same sight as the last time she checked, which was about thirty seconds ago, nothing. She turned and resumed her pacing, wringing her hands together and fearing the worst. A few tense minutes later the hide rustled as the elder woman ducked into the room.

"Welcome," the young woman said, unable to keep her voice from trembling.

"Thank you," she replied curtly. "Lay down over there and we shall begin."

The healer commenced in examining the apprehensive young woman, pushing on her abdomen and making small clucking noises. All too soon, she motioned for her patient to sit up. The girl's skin had paled and she looked up at the healer with uncertainty.

"So...am I..." unable to finish the sentence her voice trailed off.

"You will give birth just before the winter solstice."

The young woman had expected this but hearing it said aloud hit her like an icy ocean gale. She dropped her head and stared unseeing at the ground.

"I trust you are aware of what is expected of you."

"Yes." She remembered the conversations she overheard in the healing hut after the raid.

She lay in a room with four other girls. The training healers thought they were asleep and did not bother to lower their voices. The information she gathered from their thoughtless conversation was that babies born under such circumstances as these were not permitted to remain within the tribes. The healers didn't mention what would happen to the infants after they were taken from their mothers but this wasn't something she wanted to contemplate.

"Then, I will see you again when your pains begin."

Roused from her memory she watched the woman leave her hut without a backwards glance. She collapsed onto her bed, her mind struggling to accept the reality of her situation.

This cannot be happening, after everything else, now this.

She lay there for a long time, the truth of her situation weighing heavily upon her. She thought her suffering had ended. She had pushed herself to move past the terrible offense that had been committed against her. Now, told that she would not be freed from the grasp of that vicious assault for another six months, that she would be reminded of the attack everyday as her stomach swelled, that her own body had betrayed her and harbored the seed of an enemy, it became too much for her. She broke down as great sobs racked her body.

"Kasi?"

Hearing her childhood nickname, she lifted her head to see a young man enter the hut wearing a small smile that failed to mask the concern in his voice. They had been friends for as long as she could remember and after the raid, when everyone else treated her differently, whispered behind her back, and avoided her, he stood by her. He was the one constant in her life.

She sat up as he took a seat beside her. With one look, he knew the answer to the unsaid question.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Daisuke?"

He took one of her small hands and clasped both of his around it. "I'm here for you, Kasumi," he paused and looked poignantly into her eyes, "whatever you need."

The months passed and as the end of her pregnancy drew near, her anxiety increased. She had come to cherish the life that wriggled within her womb. Everyday she spoke to the child in affectionate whispers. How could she give up the little being that had claimed her heart?

"Daisuke, I can't let go." She sat down on her bed, resting her hands on her swollen abdomen. "I can't let them take my baby."

She expected him to be angry with her, to yell and try to convince her that she was wrong for loving this child. She looked up at him, his face had hardened and she braced herself for the outburst that she was sure would follow.

"Kasumi," his voice low and somber, "I told you, whatever you need."

The pair left the village under cover of darkness and made their way slowly to a small shelter Daisuke had prepared for them, hidden with the snowdrifts.

The labor was hard and several times Daisuke insisted on returning to the village to retrieve a healer. Kasumi vehemently rejected this citing that her child would be as good as dead if they failed to keep their plan a secret. After many hours, a very weak Kasumi took her child, whom Daisuke had cleansed and wrapped in thick furs.

"It's a girl," she heard him say in a cheerful voice that belied the gravity of the situation.

Kasumi looked down at the sleeping babe, "You will be named Kaiya." Then, turning large sorrowful eyes on her accomplice, "You told me, Daisuke, 'whatever I need'..."

Shocked by her thin voice and shallow breathing, he nodded.

"Take her. Take her to where she will be safe." She pushed the bundle back into his arms and closed her eyes.

"What? Why?" he asked, confused. He regarded the infant with apprehension. This was not part of the plan. He was to accompany them to the other Water Tribe village where Kasumi and her situation were not as well known. "Kasumi?" he repeated. When she still did not respond, he looked back at her.

"Kasumi!"

Bent forward against the harsh wind, he trudged through the falling snow, his eyes red and swollen. Making his way silently through the unfamiliar village, a small squirming bundle in his arms, he came upon the home of an elderly widow. Carefully, he laid the infant on the doorstep and tucked a tiny package into a fold in the blankets before he rapped on the door and quickly retreated into the shadows. He watched from his hiding place until a shaft of light pierced the darkness.

The woman peered from her doorway with narrowed eyes. Then she stepped forward, her foot brushing against the tiny mound. Daisuke held his breath as she knelt over the tangle of blankets. A feeble cry caused the woman to jump back.

"What on earth?"

The widow reached forward pulling back a corner of the material and gasped before quickly gathering the child in her arms and retreating back into the warmth of her hut.

His task completed, Daisuke sat and stared at his hands. Images of the past few hours flashed through his mind. He wondered when love began to hurt this bad. Was it from the moment he realized he cared for Kasumi, when they were barely adolescents and the world seemed so safe? Or was it when he found himself unable to protect her from the dangers they faced? The numbing shock of grief mixed with his fear of the future. As Daisuke began the journey back to his own village, his thoughts remained on a tiny babe with the dark skin of the Water Tribe and eyes the color of fire.

Thirteen years later

High above the encampment of Fire Nation soldiers, crouching hidden within the boughs of the towering canopy, a ragtag knot of orphans and runaways lay in wait. In various states of adrenalin-induced nervousness, the Freedom Fighters, as they were appropriately named, tensed in preparation for the signal to proceed. Their leader, a charismatic fifteen-year-old named Jet, was just about to gesture for them to descend when an arrow sliced through the air in front of him and embedded silently into the bark just above his right hand. As casually, as if he had been tapped on the shoulder, he glanced over at Longshot, a remarkably accurate archer who had joined the group a few months before.

Longshot motioned from his eyes to a point off the northern edge of the encampment. Following the boy's gaze, Jet sighted small movements in the brush behind the supply tent. Seconds later a small figure came into view before disappearing behind the canvas. His eyebrow arched as the figure reemerged holding only a few pieces of bread and a stolen canteen before silently sliding back into the bushes. Intrigued, Jet indicated for his crew to stay in position and complete their mission of pilfering food and weapons as he tracked the mysterious person.

Swinging skillfully through the branches, he used his twin hook swords to propel himself swiftly forward. When the mysterious character stopped, he saw that they had come upon the remnants of a tiny camp; a blackened circle marked where a campfire had been and a worn sleeping mat lay rolled out next to it. He settled upon a thick limb and pushed aside a branch to peer down upon the scene.

For a few minutes, he simply watched and gathered information on this individual. A girl who appeared to be about twelve, possibly thirteen, with the way her blue tunic draped loosely from narrow shoulders, it was hard to tell. Her clothing marked her as a traveler for it was of a style foreign to the Earth Kingdom. Over the tunic, she wore a sleeveless robe that hung past her knees. A wide leather band was tied at her waist and similar bands curled around her forearms. The raggedness of her apparel reinforced her slight appearance. A tangled mass of dark brown locks fell over her shoulders as she tore hungrily at the food she had stolen. So intent was she on her meal that she didn't seem to be paying attention to her surroundings.

With practiced stealth, Jet dropped lightly to the forest floor. She jumped back and pulled a whalebone knife from her boot before deciding running was a better option and sprinted away, leaving her meal on the ground.

She was easy to follow as Jet moved through the familiar terrain. He quickly closed the gap between them as he traversed overhead. Catching his swords on a bough, he flung himself forward to land directly in her path. She skid to a stop, half-stumbling in her attempt to keep a good distance between them.

Long bangs fell over bright, expressive eyes, now narrowed at the boy blocking her path.

"What do you want?" she snarled as her eyes darted around to find a route of escape.

"Hey, I don't want anything," he said, his arms raised in a non-threatening gesture, though the swords still clasped in his hands hindered the effect.

"Go away! Leave me alone!" she shouted as she tore off in the opposite direction.

Jet frowned as her back disappeared into the dense foliage. "Okay, so not the direct approach."

She crouched into the hollow at the base of a large tree, breathless from her sprint. She desperately tried to listen over her heavy breathing and pounding heart. She did not think she had been followed but still felt unnerved by the meeting with the tough looking boy. She was sure this boy was no different from the others, the men who leered at her as she passed by or the women who glared at her with contempt.

She had been traveling on her own for several months now and had yet to meet a friendly face among the sea of strangers she passed on her journey, if you could call her pointless drifting a journey. A year ago, she would have never imagined being caught in her current situation.

She had always been a bit of a loner, standoffish and withdrawn. An orphan in a society that held the bonds of family in the highest esteem, she had to sit by and watch as other children took part in the tribe's rituals and celebrations, but at least she had a home. All that changed last summer, after the accident. Ostracized from the tribe and forced into this struggle to survive, she wandered despondently across unfamiliar soil in search of a place to belong; a place she doubted even existed for one such as her.

She waited several hours before making her way back to her camp to retrieve her meager possessions. She eyed the trees above her warily before ducking into the small clearing that was her campsite. Her eyebrows formed a tight line as she glanced around.

Gone, all of it was gone, from the mat she slept on to the pack that held the only reminders of the life she led before this miserable reality. She dropped to her knees with slumped shoulders and growled in frustration.

It was then, as she was about to scream her indignation to the heavens, that she noticed a crumpled package atop the ashes that had been her campfire. She crawled over to the parcel and pulled at the cloth. It fell open to reveal a few pieces of fruit and a handful of jerky.

Utterly confused now, she gathered up the parcel and noticed that in the ashes beneath the cloth had been drawn an arrow. She stood up and debated with herself the wisdom of following this arrow. Digging her heel through the ashes to erase the marker, she set off in the direction indicated. She didn't care if this was a trap, for at the moment, her stomach was making the decisions for her.

After she had passed several more arrows and the food from the parcel had disappeared, she began to feel foolish for blindly following the trail. She paused and glanced back the way she had come. With only the clothes on her back for warmth and her only weapon a small knife, she wouldn't last much longer on her own but what was waiting for her at the end of this path could be much worse, she reasoned.

As she stood there in indecision, she heard the sound of a distinctive birdcall in the distance and jumped when the call was answered from the trees above her. Her eyes flicked upward and fixed onto a piercing hazel gaze. It was the boy who had chased her. He was leaning against the trunk of the tree with his arms crossed and a confident smirk played across his angular features. Feeling threatened, she took a step back and tensed, her muscles primed to run.

"Wait."

Against her better judgment, she held her ground as the boy descended, his dark hair falling into his eyes as he straightened up.

"You're alone..."

"...and hungry," he said with a glance at the empty parcel she held in her fist. "We've got more food and a place to sleep."

"Where's my stuff?" she said testily.

"We have it back at our camp."

"We?"

"Yeah, there's a whole group of us that live out here in these woods. We look out for each other, because no one else will," he finished darkly.

Surprised to find someone whose view of the world seemed to mirror her own, she relaxed.

"I'm Jet," He said reaching a hand out to her.

She clasped her hand to his forearm in a warrior's handshake, "My name's Kaiya."

Author's Note

Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for reading this. Normally I don't care much for OC's but I'm really excited about this story. Very soon, we will see many of our favorite characters and the action and drama will pick up considerably. The next five chapters are almost complete and I have my plot outlined pretty well so updates should come quickly.

Please take a minute to leave a review. I rely heavily upon the feedback I receive. Just a small note makes a big difference. Give me your honest opinion, what you liked, what you didn't, and maybe what you'd like to see happen next.

Just an interesting little tidbit of mildly interesting information for those of you somewhat interested in such things; here are the meanings of the names of my OC's.

Kaiya - forgiveness

Kasumi - mist

Daisuke - great help

P.S. If you like this, check out my other fic, The Test of Poison. And for those of you familiar with it, I haven't given up on the sequel. I recently made a lot of progress with the plot and I'm excited to get it going again sometime soon.