Yo~ I noticed I've been avoiding my other stories but my mind has been focused on Assassin's Creed since the new game came out :/ So, I started two stories for that and then this story comes into mind and it won't leave until I type it -.- I suck I know…

Anyways, I don't own the Avatar series!

Here is my story called Realization Hits Hard.

Realization Hits Hard

"Bolin! Stop it!" a short girl with short brunette hair yelled at her friend who was trying to make a mad dash for the door in their shelter they took refuge in.

"No! We need to go save her!" the black haired man argued, trying desperately to escape in order to help his friend that was captured a few days ago.

For the past few months, Republic City has been at war with a guy named Amon. He wanted everybody to be equal and that meant eliminating all benders in the world. So, he gathered an army and took all the benders in the city that they could find to take away their ability with something he could do. When their friend was taken, they searched high and low for her but came up short handed in the end. Now they heard an announcement on the radio about "The Fire-Breathing Dragon of Republic City" to have her bending taken away at the Pro-bending Arena tonight.

"If we go then all of us will be killed!" a blue haired man tried to reason but seemed to only stir up more trouble.

"She needs our help! We just can't leave her to suffer this kind of pain!" a silver haired man retorted.

"Yes but if we go and find out that she already had her bending taken away then they would capture us and it would leave us in the dust!" the brunette argued with a final heave to push her friend back from escaping. She sighed out, "Look, I want to save Ariel as much as the next guy but if we go in like this, they would kill us and Ariel would be disappointed in all of us."

"But Ashlie, we need to go save her! She has saved us so many times that we owe her that much!" the green eyed male whined out, trying so hard to convince the girl to let them go save their friend.

"Don't you think I don't know that Bolin! I WANT to save her but my fear of losing everybody over powers my judgment to save just one person," Ashlie growled out in a lie. She agreed with Bolin. They needed to save her but her fear is smothering her to the point where she can't do anything besides stay in place and watch her friend suffer.

"Ariel wouldn't let that stop her," the gray eyed man grumbled out but it was loud enough for everybody to hear.

"Shiroi, I'm not Ariel ok?! I am not brave enough to save a mountain of people without a second thought! I just can't do it!" the brown eyed girl threw her hands up in frustration.

"Sister," Ryu sighed out in sympathy. He knew his sibling wanted to save her best friend but she couldn't let go of her fear to face Amon and his lackeys.

"I don't care what you guys do but I'm going to go save her myself," Shiroi declared but was stopped by a hand holding him back.

"We need to go together in a group if we stand a chance. If you go alone, you'll be captured just like Ariel," Bolin said in a surprisingly serious voice to show he was serious about this.

The silver haired man was about to retort but stopped himself at the realization of his actions. If he went, there would be one last airbender in the world. He growled and stomped off to a nearby chair to sit down angrily in.

"What do we do then Bolin?" Ashlie asked with hopeful eyes.

"I don't know," the earthbender admitted with a downcast look but changed it quickly with one full of determination, "But I do know we need to save Ariel from Amon."

His three companions nodded their heads to show their approval.

"The only problem is how are we going to get in the Stadium? There are guards surrounding it everywhere," Shiroi informed his mood a bit better now that they are going to save their friend.

Suddenly the door to the room opened to reveal Mako and Korra. "Did you guys hear about Ariel?" the new Avatar asked the group.

Her answer was four sets of glares from the original group in the room.

"Sorry I asked," Korra mumbled with a cheesy grin.

"So, are you guys going to save her?" Mako asked seriously.

"We need to find a way to get in without drawing attention," Bolin answered for the group.

The brunette's mind suddenly clicked at something, "The underground passage ways!"

Everybody else's little light bulbs clicked with the sentence. "We can use them to get in to the stadium!" the older sibling exclaimed in excitement.

"And I know exactly where to go," Mako smirked. "Follow me!"

The group of benders left the house and made their way through the city until they appeared at the Stadium to only go around it where an underground passageway was. Korra stopped to hold open the door then grabbed Mako when he was about to join his friends.

Bolin turned around to see what happened but was confused when he saw his brother and Avatar standing there not joining them. "Come on guys!" he gestured to where the other three were waiting just a few feet away.

"Go on ahead. We'll be sure to keep the guards out here secure enough so you won't have too much trouble. No GO! Ariel needs you guys!" the brown haired girl shooed as she turned and left where they came from, the red eyed male soon following after giving the small group and thumbs up for support.

The earthbender was confused but simply turned back around to face his friends with a small smile, "Let's go save our friend."

~On the Stage in the Stadium~

The stadium was filled with a lot of people, every corner about filled in order to see what was about to happen. The stage only held a masked man named Amon, a handful of his lackeys and a chained up green eyed girl with short auburn hair in the middle of it. The girl wasn't moving, analyzing her surroundings secretly as she tried to find a way out of this mess. She moved her arms a little bit to test how far the chain would move. It stopped after a good minute signaling it was long enough to move her around if need be.

The prisoner didn't like this situation. She was tied up in metal and being watched by thousands of people that came to see her be removed of her firebending. It sucked also knowing that these people knew her as the 'Fire-Breathing Dragon of Republic City'.

"I would like to welcome you to this fine event to show you that we are serious about this revolution we started," a deep gruff voice interrupted the noise of the crowd. He turned his head slightly to look at the girl glaring at him, "As you can see, we have captured another bender but she is not just any bender."

Murmurs could be heard throughout the crowd, asking the obvious question of who she was. The auburn haired girl wanted to scoff at their idiocy. Anybody who doesn't know her in this city must be the most oblivious person out there.

"This girl right here is what you call the 'Fire-Breathing Dragon of Republic City'," Amon answered the unasked question the crowd wanted to ask.

This caused the audience to gasp in shock, not believing that a mere girl has made so much trouble in their peaceful city. The shock soon simmered down to an angry protest, many saying to take her bending away while others said to kill her on the spot.

"I have thought this over for quite a while and decided to deal her the ultimate punishment," the man inserted a dramatic pause, "To take her bending away."

The crowd cheered at the statement while the girl's heart rate increased tenfold. She became desperate, anything to help her get out of this mess. She didn't want to lose her bending! That was something she couldn't lose without feeling dead! She looked up and saw her executer coming her way, her eyes growing wider at each step he took. She did the first thing that came to mind.

Ariel sprung to her feet and used jet propulsion to fly up in the air but was slightly taken back because of the chain constricting her arms behind her back. She looked down at the crowd looking up at her in awe but didn't care about their stares. She wanted to get out of there as fast as possible without hurting anyone.

Amon continued to look up at the floating girl but gave out one single command, "Get her down."

The nearest soldier heard him and nodded his head as he powered up his electrified glove. The firebender still floating in the sky looked down and saw what the soldier was about to do and screamed, "NO!" as soon as he touched the chain connected to her.

The auburn screamed in agony as the shock went into her body, her jet propulsion stopping and having her drop to the ground with a sickening thud. She groaned in pain but soon heard footsteps coming her way. The footsteps belonged to the man trying to execute her, she knew it somehow.

The green eyed girl was forced to sit up on her knees by a tug of her hair but the person left her head hanging low as he continued to speak to the crowd to ease their anticipation. It left her to think about her friends, slowly having a knowing feeling that this was her final hours as her true self. Suddenly her best friend showed up in her consciousness with a bright smile that made her day every day. Behind her friend were the two guys she put her heart and soul into, smiling their own cocky smile at her. Next to them were her three new friends she made during her time in the Pro-bending tournament also smiling at her like they knew her all her life.

Ariel could feel her tears brimming her eyes at the sight. She didn't want to face her friends without her firebending. It was something she was secretly proud of even though she always cursed at having the ability. She wanted to keep it and become a Police Officer. Become something that she could tell anybody without feeling bad about it.

The auburn's head was yanked back to reveal a thumb positioned right where her forehead was. It was time to say goodbye to her bending abilities. Time to say goodbye to the person she once knew. The person everybody once knew. She slowly closed her eyes to accept her fate, feeling the thumb come closer to where its target was.

When the thumb just barely grazed her forehead, she heard a loud smash and the hand be removed from her face. The girl opened her eyes to look forward and see her friends, a certain black haired man with his arm out like he threw a piece of earth.

"Come on Ariel! It's not like you to give up so easily!" the silver haired man called out as he jumped up and created an air bubble to carry him down to where his friend was. Equalists on the stage came after him but he simply just swept them away with a quick movement of his arms.

The short brunette grabbed some water out of her water pouch to use it to slide down to the stage then whipped it on two soldiers that came from behind. Her older sibling and the green eyed male made a stepping stone path to reach the stage then sliced a disk shaped piece of earth to throw them at more soldiers coming their way.

Ariel was at a loss of words that was going on right about now. Her friends were here defending her. This wasn't what she wanted but somewhere deep down, she was…happy. Happy to see her friends here protecting her instead of doing the protecting herself. She was soon snapped out of her shock when she felt the chain behind her move and be removed from her arms. She rubbed her wrists and looked to see who got her out but wasn't surprised when she met chocolate brown eyes she knew so well.

"Ariel! We came to save you!" Ashlie exclaimed with a small smile.

The auburn could only nod her head as she leaped forward and gave her friend a hug, "I'm so glad that you're here."

The brunette was surprised but soon wrapped her arms around her friend as well with a content feeling, "I know Ariel."

The moment was soon ruined when Bolin was thrown back near them. He got up but noticed he was being watched by two pairs of eyes and looked to see his two female friends, "I see that you two are re-united again."

Shiroi and Ryu bounced back behind the two girls with the earthbender but kept an eye on the huge group of soldiers coming their way. "I know you two are happy to be together again but right now we need some way to get out of here and fast!" the blue haired man said in a rushed tone because he didn't know how to get out of this situation.

Ariel stood up, helping her friend up as well, and then popped her neck, "I have something in mind."

The soldiers came closer; her friends becoming anxious and nervous that whatever their friend was planning wouldn't work in time. They were only about ten feet away from the group and everybody was sure their violent friend's plan won't work at this point.

"Do it now Ariel!" Ashlie yelled as she covered her eyes from the big burst of fire that came from in front of her friend. She opened her eyes slightly to see the fire covering top to bottom in the building, soldiers nowhere to be found but she heard screams and thuds close by to signal they got hit by her friends attack.

The green eyed girl slowly stopped her breath until it stopped completely to reveal burnt material everywhere where the fire once was. She smirked and scoffed to have a small burst of fire come out to show she was satisfied with her work. "I've wanted to do that for forever!"

"You could do that all along?!" Ryu exclaimed in shock, his eyes wide to show just how shocked he was with the girl.

"Why else do you think people called me a dragon?" Ariel retorted like it was nothing. "I can breathe fire just like a dragon."

"I always thought it was because of your snappy attitude," Shiroi said with a cheesy grin.

The violent girl glared at the man and tackled him to put him into a headlock, "You wanna say that to my face?!" She was soon tackled off of the man by another person and landed a few feet away from the airbender, "What the hell was that for Bolin?!"

The black haired man made one quick movement and grabbed the girl's head to pull her down so his lips met with his. They separated but the normally violent girl quickly scrambled away from the man that just kissed her with a flabbergasted expression.

"Why did you do that?!" the auburn stuttered out through her hand that was covering her mouth.

"I figured that would show what I felt instead of trying to put it into words," Bolin answered truthfully with doe-like eyes to show his innocence.

Ariel could only stare at the man like he grew two heads. Her friends, especially her short one, had to bite her hand to keep herself from ruining the moment. She knew of the earthbender's affection toward her firebender friend and was so tempted to tell her but she knew she couldn't in fear of ruining the chances of them getting together.

The green eyed female didn't know what to say but only to sigh at the confession. Truthfully this was the first time a guy admitted his feelings toward her and she always had a plan to decline them but with this guy, everything was thrown out the window. He was too perfect for her and she didn't want to ruin him with her bad personality. It was no or never.

"Look Bolin, I appreciate the thought but-," she was cut off by the man she was talking to.

"If you start saying how you're not perfect then I don't want to hear it because I believe you're perfect for me. That's the whole reason I confessed isn't it?" Bolin argued with a stare that showed she had no choice but to accept.

Ariel couldn't think or speak but only nodded her head and whispered, "Fine. I accept."

Cheers surrounded the couple as the green eyed male sprinted toward the firebender to give her a proper hug.

The group celebrated by having a small party at the brunette's house. The day went by well. Amon was stopped for another day and a new couple has shown itself within the group. It couldn't have gone better than they have thought.

The ending sucks! I know T.T I didn't really think of the ending. It wouldn't come to me naturally like the other part of the story. Hiss~ Curse my brain!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it somewhat :) Hope I didn't make it too horrible T.T