Chapter One: The Jungle Creed
The jungle creed says the strongest feed on any prey they can. But I was branded beast at every feast before I ever became a man.
Footsteps. The indisputable sound of footsteps echoes throughout the still alley as a nameless man runs for his life. He's a big guy, the kind of guy who could frighten you with a hard look. But now he's scared, running as if the entire world is chasing behind him.
Around him Ba Sing Se looms like a concrete jungle, with its bustling, chaotic, frenzied streets echoing his state of mind.
The man glances back, sees nothing, and redoubles his already grueling pace.
He turns a corner and powers along the street, arms pumping like pistons, shoes thumping evenly against the ground. He creates a rhythm and continues running, turning corners-left and right- until he reaches a dead end.
He spins, scanning for exits.
There are none.
He freezes, back against the wall. Knife pointed at the mouth of the alley, held in a shaky grip. His breathing is sporadic as he tries to prepare himself for whatever comes around that corner.
The man waits, sucking in air, finger on the hilt... waits... waits...
Nothing.
He relaxes just a bit.
WHAM, he's jerked upward as if plucked by an invisible hand.
Make it a noose. He dangles from it, losing his knife in the process, the tips of his toes scraping against the ground. A liquid, kerosene by the scent, splashes from above, drenching him.
He chokes. Footsteps. His hunter approaches.
A figure, clad in all black sporting a blue mask with a devilish grin approaches watchfully. As he nears his victim, he removes the mask to reveal a hardened face. One side badly scarred, but not too scarred to make him unhandsome. His golden eyes assess his prey.
The man stares back at him, eyes wide with terror. Gurgling. His mouth trying to form words that never come.
It doesn't matter though. Zuko has heard it all before.
"This isn't how I would do it." He sighs.
"But this is how they wanted it done." He takes one last look at the man he's just killed and reapplies his mask.
He feels no remorse as he lights a flame on the tips of his fingers and shoots it at the man's kerosene soaked body.
After all, he reminds himself, it's just a job.
The man lights up like a bonfire and screams as he burns alive.
Zuko keeps walking.
Suddenly, an eerie wind sweeps along the street.
Lanterns blow out one after the other.
Zuko spins, sensing something coming up from behind, a split second before-
Darkness. It's too late.
Zuko's eyes snap open. He's disoriented, groggy, panicked. His mind is racing, coming back online, trying to regain its bearings. Discovering that he is-
IN FREEFALL
He's plummeting through the void like lightning, an earthbound missile dressed in the same clothes he wore a moment ago. He's twisting, tumbling, screaming. The wind is howling, whipping mercilessly at his hair and flesh.
Just like the nightmare. Except-
THIS. IS. REAL.
Reality is like a relentless tornado. With each rotation he catches a glimpse of the blue above and the vast expanse of green below, the latter closing in fast.
He notices some sort of harness crossing his chest. And spots the strap he hopes will save his life. He clumsily pulls it and the parachute deploys with a pop.
His speed decreases in less than a second, deceleration jerking him up. But the jungle still looms ahead.
He crashes through the canopy, bashing against trunks, clipping branches, before finally hitting the ground. HARD.
In a second he's climbing to his feet, trying to steady his ragged breathing. He detaches the harness with shaky fingers and takes in his surroundings.
He's in a small clearing framed by monstrous tropical trees, plants and bushes, obscuring vision in all directions. Shafts of light stream from openings in the foliage a hundred feet above. The steady buzz of insects breaks the eerie silence.
It's haunting, humid, and hot.
He stares about in a state of shock with one question on his mind.
"What the-"
He's interrupted as another screaming figure plummets from the sky, yelling obscenities the entire way down.
Zuko watches. All he can do is watch.
The man lands a few feet away, twin hooked swords strapped to his back. He appears to be in his early 20s, like Zuko. His real name is unimportant. But to most he's known as-
"Jet's the name." The brown-eyed stranger declares as he struggles to detach his chute. "And who might you be?" He questions wearily.
CRASH! A body smashes on the ground like a cannon ball, stealing their attention. This one won't be getting up.
"Who is he?" Jet questions again.
POP, the dead man's chute unfurls. Too little, too late.
"The guy whose chute didn't work." Zuko replies, a little too flatly.
Before Jet can respond, Zuko motions for his silence.
He hears the faint chatter of hushed voices coming from deeper within the jungle and begins to move towards them.
"Hey! Hey!" Jet shouts. "Where are you going? Hey!"
Zuko ignores him and keeps walking. Jet tries to follow but gets tangled in his own chute lines. The sound of his cursing fades into obscurity as Zuko moves further into the jungle.
He slices a path through the thick vegetation with his twin dao swords, the voices becoming closer and closer all the while.
When he finally reaches the source of the noise, what he sees is chaos.
Parachutes litter the ground.
A tall, air nomad, armed with a wooden staff is yelling at-
A watertribe woman, who stands defiantly with her own waterskin pointed back at him, as she yells "Look Aang, if that's even your name, I don't know who you work for but you better give me some answers and fast!"
"I-I don't work for anyone, Katara", he stammered, "My people are peaceful. What reason would I have to kidnap you?!"
Heads and weapons turn to Zuko, as he appears. Both yell at him for a change.
He raises his hands in mock surrender, indicating that he's no threat.
All of a sudden, branches are cracking and leaves are raining down on the three of them. They all spin toward the source.
Fifteen feet above, another stranger hangs from the trees, cutting the lines of his chute with a…boomerang?
He drops and lands on his feet like a cat. His head's shaved and he's got a crazy look in his bright, blue eyes. He's wearing a maroon jumpsuit with the faded words Boiling Rock Prison stenciled into the fabric
"I'm not afraid to use this!" He declares, as he waves his boomerang back and forth, eyeing the others.
He's backing away from the rest of the group when a hand shoots out of nowhere, pressing a blade to his throat.
The hand's owner materializes behind him with the silent swiftness of a ghost. She's got red hair, in her early 20s. And she's dressed in the most ridiculous outfit Zuko has ever seen.
"Drop your weapons." She commands. "Or he dies."
The confused group takes one another in with weary eyes. Paranoia is setting in. As Aang reaches for his staff, Zuko's hands edge ever-so-slowly to his swords.
All is silent when-
The water tribe guy's head whips around and he exclaims. "Suki!? I thought you were dead!"
"Shut it, Sokka!" She replies. "And I would have been if it were up to you!"
He ignores her comment and scoffs. "You're not gonna kill me."
"Oh, trust me." She asserts, as she presses the blade closer to his neck. "I would."
Aang is about to say something, when Zuko motions for quiet.
Despite what everyone thinks he'll do, Zuko doesn't talk. He listens.
And then he's moving again.
That's when Jet emerges out of the bushes and surveys the new arrivals.
"Can anyone tell me what's going on around here?" He demands.
"Water." Katara replies, as if keying in on what Zuko realized a few moments ago. She follows a few steps behind him.
"I said I'm going to cut his throat!" Suki threatens again.
Aang just ignores her and follows Katara and Zuko. Jet isn't far behind.
Suki watches them walk into the foliage and realizes the futility of her threat. She shoves Sokka aside.
They stand there for a moment, sizing each other up. Before they stride off in the same direction as their new companions, Sokka glaring daggers at his assailant's back the entire way.
They catch up to the others standing in the clearing Jet left only a few moments before.
A figure steps out of the bushes. It's a woman. She's wearing a white dress and a jade bracelet with the name Toph engraved in gold. She stands there stock straight, appearing to be staring them all down. But if you look closely enough you can see she isn't really staring at anyone. Her green eyes are too cloudy and unfocused.
She's blind, they all realize at once.
She begins walking towards them when one of her dress shoes sinks into the mud.
Toph, utterly undeterred, takes them off and lays them neatly on the ground. She lets her feet linger in the mud a moment longer before she continues toward the group confidently.
They don't say anything. And neither does she.
Zuko starts walking again.
The ragtag group continues pushing their way through the foliage until Zuko just stops.
A shallow creek runs in front of him. To the right, sitting on a rock, his back toward Zuko, is a small unassuming man. Black hair. Goggles. Green Shirt.
He stares at the water with the wonder and innocence of a child. He turns, taking in Zuko and all the others. A trickle of blood travels slowly along the side of his face.
"Who are you?" Katara asks.
"I'm Teo. And this is not where I was before." He tells the collective group.
Ignoring his comment, Katara responds. "You're bleeding."
He brushes his right hand against his face and his fingers come away red and wet. He studies them absentmindedly.
"Oh that." He replies nonchalantly. "It's not mine."
An eerie silence permeates throughout the group. Creepy doesn't even begin to describe this guy.
Zuko turns towards Aang. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"War." Aang replies.
Suki nods. "Same here."
"I was…working" Jet adds. "And then everything just-"
"Stopped." Sokka finishes for him.
Another long silence pervades the group.
"What happened to us?" Katara questions barely above a whisper.
"Waaait." Sokka says wide-eyed. "You don't think... we could be... dead?"
That gives everyone pause. It's obviously a possibility the group hasn't considered.
Sokka begins to freak out, walking around in circles, hyperventilating.
"I can't believe it!" He shouts between wheezes. "I'm dead, aren't I?! I'm dead, and this is hell!"
"Last I checked, you didn't need a parachute to get there." Suki interjects.
Sokka stops his wheezing. "Good point. But still…"
"Why put us here?" Aang adds.
"How do I even know 'here' exists?" Katara questions. "Maybe I'm asleep and this, all this, is just some bad dream."
"I'm real. That fall was real." Suki replies with conviction.
"And these are definitely real." She adds, as she motions towards the two metal fans hanging from her sides.
"Maybe we ticked off the wrong people. Maybe this is punishment." Jet proposes.
"Nah." Sokka discounts the idea. "Where I come from, you tick someone off, they jump you when the guards aren't watching. Not dump you in the middle of a jungle."
"A test then" Aang interjects. "To see how we do under pressure. That's why they armed us."
The conversation drawls on, but Zuko isn't paying attention anymore. He's staring into the jungle surrounding them. And realizes that-
They're being watched.
He looks back towards the group to see Toph staring at him with those milky green eyes. As if she's seen what he's seen, as if she's realized it too.
He hones back in on the group's conversation to hear that dreaded question again.
"What happened to us?" Jet demands.
Zuko's had enough of that question and ALL the others Jet has yet to ask.
"It doesn't matter." He responds. "It happened."
They look toward him, eager for solutions, for answers, for something, anything, to make sense again. But Zuko's just as clueless as them, he's just better at hiding it.
"Water means life." He continues. "There might be a camp or a village downstream."
The exhausted group begins to move down the creek. Together. For the moment.
A/N: Hey guys! This story has been sitting on my computer for a while; I figured it was about time for me to publish it. It's based off the 2010 Predator movie which is amazing. Please leave any comments, questions, or concerns in a review! :D
Oh and just to clarify. No, Katara and Sokka do not know each other. Yes, Sokka and Suki do know each other. But that will be explained later.
By the way, appropriate reviews include but are not limited to "llama" "I hate this fic" "Digital style" and "I love this fic" All opinions and thoughts are welcome! Thanks for the read!