I do not own any of the original Avatar characters.
Rescued
Sado sighed, rolling his neck and flexing his hands. Such a lovely position, hanging by his wrists against the wall, feet hanging off the ground. Definitely didn't make the shoulders feel like they were being ripped out of their sockets, or that the hands were being ripped off. Rotting in a prison in the middle of a swamp. Terrific. Such a glorious ending. His family would be ashamed. That is, if they weren't already going to disown him.
"Did you hear?" one of the guards asked. "The Avatar's locked up on the top level."
"No way," the other said. "The Avatar's way too powerful for that."
"No, really," the guard said. "Admiral Zhao just announced it."
"Wow, that's amazing!" the other said. "And meanwhile, we're here keeping an eye on some fourteen year old brat."
"For real," the first guard agreed. "Hey kid, I bet your plan to stow away on the first ship you saw isn't turning out quite like you thought, huh?"
"Oh, I don't know," Sado smiled. "It still has potential."
He blew a lock of his messy black hair out of his face, grinning as his eyes flicked to the ceiling of his cell where a blue and white Oni mask stared at him through a grate. After several moments, the mask disappeared before reappearing as its wearer, a man wearing black clothing and with a pair of broadswords on his back, dropped from the ceiling outside the cell, knocking out both guards before they could sound an alarm.
Sado held his foot out, toes up and the man tossed the keys, the ring they were on landing around his toes. "My thanks. You might try the top floor."
The man nodded and jumped back into the air vent. As he did, Sado lifted his foot, twisting his body then straightening his knee until his foot was beside his hand, gritting his teeth with effort. Finally, he managed to get the keys into his hand and quickly opened one shackle, dropping to the floor before unlocking the other. Then, he sighed, rubbing his wrists before walking to the gate, unlocking it and opening it before dropping the keys back onto the guard's chest and walking away. He had a few things to collect before he could leave, but it wouldn't be a problem. He strolled through the hallways in silence, finally reaching the armory and moving to the locked box that held his personal items.
"Oh now that just won't do," he said, picking up a helmet and smashing the lock, breaking it open. "Much better."
He opened the lid, pulling out his knives, relatively simple ones with a small cross guard and a six inch double-edged blade, then his jian. Finally, he pulled out his pendant. It was a gift that he refused to ever part with. It was a black string necklace with a pair of small rubies suspended from it on either side of a small playing-card-shaped jade pendant with a dragon carved into it, a ruby set into it where the dragon's eye would be. He slipped the necklace over his head and stood, slinging his jian across his back and slipping the knives into his belt. Then, he walked to the front door, arriving just as the alarm sounded.
He waited, and a couple of moments later, a boy a couple years younger than himself with a bald hear, yellow and orange clothes, and light blue arrow tattoos sprinted out of another door toward the main gate with the man that had freed Sado. Sado quickly left the doorway as everyone was running toward the pair, heading to the side wall. He would offer the pair a hand escaping, but he didn't want to fight the entire military force in the prison, as the other two were doing. Sado quickly climbed into a guard tower, grabbing three grappling hooks with rope attached and running out to the outside o the wall, dropping the hook then jumping, climbing down the rope quickly, then running to the next wall's closest guard house, doing the same. Just as he reached the ground in that courtyard, however, his luck ran out.
"Hey you!" a soldier shouted. "Stop right there!"
"And be executed? No thank you!" Sado shouted, spinning the grappling hook over his head then hurling it at the guard, hitting him in the chest and running while the guard was gasping for air.
He sprinted toward the other two escapees as the Fire Nation soldiers launched three streams of fire at them. Admiral Zhao shouted for them to stop and one of them spun toward Sado, who dropped into a slide under a blast of flame then stood at the last second, slamming an elbow into the soldier's nose and skidding to a stop beside the other two.
"Hello again," Sado said.
"Who are you?" the bald kid asked.
Before Sado could respond, the man trying to rescue them put his broadswords to the kid's throat. Sado stared at him then turned back to Admiral Zhao.
"Open the gate," Zhao snarled.
"Admiral-"
"Do it!" Zhao snapped.
The gate began to grind open and the man in the mask began to back out of it, taking the bald kid with him. Sado followed them, walking to the masked man's side. Suddenly, just as they reached a cross road, an arrow streaked out of the darkness, slamming into the man's mask and knocking him out. The kid swung his arms, blasting the ground with air to make a dust cloud and Sado grabbed the man instantly, lifting him as his mask clattered to the ground. The kid gasped, taking several steps backward.
"What?" Sado asked. "Grab his swords and mask. We need to get out of here before they get here."
The boy shook his head, taking the man and then taking off so fast he kicked up a massive dust cloud of his own. Sado groaned, picking up the mask and swords and running to the trees nearby, getting into the darkest part he could quickly, then quietly picking his way through them,
After hours of combing his way through the trees, Sado finally found himself in a clearing where the boy and the man that had saved him were, the man still asleep. Now that he looked at the man, he saw that there was a horrible burn over the man's left eye, reaching back to his ear.
"There you are," Sado groaned. "My feet are killing me. Thanks for the help, by the way."
"How'd you find us?" the boy asked.
"Foot prints in the mud, finally," Sado said. "Took me forever to even find those."
The boy nodded. "I'm Aang. The guy who saved us is-"
"Zuko, prince of the Fire Nation," Sado said. "I know. In the area I come from, where the Fire Nation is taking over, the disgraced prince is almost famous."
Aang nodded.
"So, you're the avatar?" Sado asked. "And you have some way of traveling around the world right? Quickly, I mean."
"Yes," Aang nodded. "Why?"
"Can I come?" Sado asked. "Please. I don't want the Fire Nation catching me again. And I promise you I'm not going to hurt you. I'll find a way to pay you back."
"Sure," Aang shrugged. "Why not."
Zuko groaned and they looked over at him as he began to stir.
"You going to be okay?" Aang asked.
Zuko sat up, sending a blast of fire at Aang but Aang leapt over it, landing behind Sado and picking him up before leaping again, landing on a branch before beginning to leap from one to the next. After a while, he landed at a swamp, setting Sado down and wading into it. Sado joined him, watching as Aang bent down, picking up a frozen toad. Sado bent down as well, beginning to pick them up and shove them into his pockets.
"Alright, that should be enough," Aang said. "Hop on."
He turned around, holding his arms behind him and Sado jumped onto his back, Aang catching his legs before taking off, Sado clinging to him as the wind buffeted his face painfully. Finally, he slowed to a stop and Sado climbed down, massaging feeling back into his face and cracking his eyes open then staring. In front of him was a gigantic six-legged buffalo with white fir except a strip of brown that ran up the center of it along its spine with arrow designs. It had a saddle on its back, and in front of it was a pair of people in sleeping bags, random objects piled either on or around them with a winged lemur that had white fir and a black tail sitting on top of the girl's head. At a glance, Sado could tell both were water tribe.
"Who's this?" the girl asked as Aang walked over, sticking a frozen toad in each of their mouths.
Sado emptied his pockets, tossing them aside, grimacing. "I'm Sado. I guess, I'm going to be joining you for a bit."
"Welcome aboard," the boy said. "I'm Sokka, this is my sister Katara, and this is the tastiest sweet I've ever had."
Sado grinned as Sokka closed his eyes, sucking harder on the toad. Sado motioned for Katara to spit it out and she did so, staring at it as it thawed, Sokka's doing the same. He spat it out, panicking and scrubbing his tongue. Katara spat, grimacing. Sado smiled and sat down against the wall, curling into the fetal position on his side and staring out over the cliff. After several minutes, he closed his eyes, dropping into sleep easily.
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