It's A Long Shot Chapter 1: A New Beginning, an avatar: last airbender fanfic

Disclaimer- I do not own Avatar: the last airbender

This fic takes place when Jet, Smellerbee, and Longshot get to Ba Sing Se. I know its a while back, sorry.

It's a Long Shot

Chapter 1: A New Start

"What do you think, Longshot?"

The boy in the in the conical hat looked at the girl with his eyes that spoke a million words. Truth was, he wasn't listening at all. All he could think about were the rest of the freedom fighters. It was only him, Jet, and Smellerbee. Where were the others?

The three of them were walking around the lower ring of Ba Sing Se, hoping for a fresh start; a clean slate. The girl opened her mouth to speak again. "Jet thinks the old man and Lee are fire nation, do you?" Longshot stopped in his tracks and so did his friends. He looked at Smellerbee then at Jet and paused. Finally he shook his head. They began walking again.

"I don't think so either," Smellerbee said, "I mean, he helped us liberate food for everyone, Jet. I think you're just being paranoid. If he was fire nation, how could they have gotten into Ba Sing Se?"

Jet was quiet for a moment. Even he didn't know the answer to that question. "I don't know, but what I do know is that they're fire benders and I'm going to prove it. I'm not paranoid!"

Longshot and Smellerbee stopped walking and once Jet noticed they were no longer beside him, he stopped as well and turned around. "Are you going to help me or what?" The short haired girl bit her lip and the boy with a bow and arrows stood there without the slightest emotion on his face.

"We're pretty hungry. You follow Lee and we'll catch up with you later," Smellerbee said with uncertainty in her voice.

"How will you get food? We don't even have any money," Jet countered.

"We'll figure something out," she assured him. Jet just nodded and walked away from the two freedom fighters. Smellerbee let out a sigh of relief. "I'm not trying to sound mean, but I think Jet has lost it."

Longshot nodded and got a chuckle out of her. "I wasn't lying when I said we were hungry though," she said looking around. "C'mon let's go find somewhere to eat."

They had been walking for hours and they still hadn't gotten a single bite to eat. They went to many shops and stands that sold food but couldn't afford it, and when they begged they were just denied and sent away. Now it was almost sunset and they were walking around the streets of the lower ring where they would be staying for the rest of their lives. Longshot walked along side of Smellerbee in silence. He didn't talk much and the people that knew him, respected that.

As they tried to find some food to eat, it began getting darker. Longshot looked up and saw lanterns burning bright orange, and the memories of the fire nation burning down his village came back to his mind, as they always did. He could see the flames of red and orange stretching to the skies. He could feel the heat on his skin and the sweat streaming down his face. The innocent cries rang in his ears, and the smell of smoke and ash filled his nose. He was brought back to the current time when he felt a light touch on his arm. He looked at the hand and then to the face it belonged to.

"You don't look so good," Smellerbee asked. "You're sweating and it's not even hot out."

Longshot wiped his brow with his arm without a word.

"Maybe we should take a break," his companion said with concern in her voice. He gave a small nod and they sat on a nearby fountain that was in the middle of a courtyard. Longshot dipped his hands in the fountain and wiped the water over his face. He did seem a bit warm, but he didn't care.

"Are you alright?" Smellerbee asked. He looked at her for a moment and then looked at the ground. "Oh," was all she could say. She understood what was happening. It happened to her too sometimes. "It's going to be alright, Longshot."

He nodded his head. Deep down, Longshot wasn't okay though. He hated the fire nation. He wanted them to feel the pain and anger he and the others went through, but he knew he had to put all of that hatred behind him. He took in a deep breath and let it out and soon he was back to his normal self. He stood up and looked down at Smellerbee. When she made eye contact with him, he motioned with his head to go. She gave a faint smile and got up to continue their search for food. By then it was nighttime already and they had gotten lost. Ba Sing Se was a huge city and they were going to get lost sooner or later.

"We're lost," Smellerbee said. She looked around trying to find something that looked familiar but everything was new to them. Longshot heard some crying and looked to his right into a dark alley. He squinted his eyes trying to see who was there but he couldn't make it out. He grabbed Smellerbee's arm and brought her to the alley. As they got closer, Longshot could see that it was an elderly woman and a man with a knife. Longshot put his arm up, stopping Smellerbee in her tracks. He pointed to the alley and she saw what he was looking at. Quickly, they hid behind the wall.

Longshot looked into Smellerbee's eyes. We have to help her his eyes said. Smellerbee understood his facial expression and nodded. She got out her knives and Longshot grabbed hold of his bow and got ready an arrow. Then they came from behind the wall and entered the alley. The thug looked at them with his green eyes.

"Look kids, go run along and you won't get hurt, okay?"

Longshot squinted his eyes and shot an arrow, knocking the knife out of thug's hand. Smellerbee threw two of her knives and pierced his sleeves into the wall.

"How about you give back what you took from that lady and you won't get hurt," Smellerbee said. She unpinned the man from the wall. He took out the money he stole and threw it and ran out of the alley. Smellerbee gave a smile of satisfaction. The old woman came up to them.

"Thank you so much young lady and you too young man," she said. This was the first time somebody realized that Smellerbee was in fact a girl and she smiled. "Don't mention it."

The old woman took out the bag of money the thug tried to steal and handed it to them. "Here, take it. Consider it as a thank you gift." Longshot took the sack. "May I ask for your names?"

"I'm Smellerbee and this is Longshot."

"Are you the shadow benders?" the woman asked.

The shadow benders? Longshot thought to himself.

"Who are they?" Smellerbee asked.

"It is said that they live in the shadows. They are good, but also bad. No one knows who they are, but at night, they help those who are in trouble; in any ring of the kingdom. On the other hand, they steal from those who have what they need." The old woman looked at Longshot. "They saved my grandson and I am eternally grateful to them."

"Sorry, but we aren't them," Smellerbee said. Longshot held out the sack of money to give back to her.

"Are you joking? You saved my life. Keep it. Thank you so very much Smellerbee and Longshot." The woman left them alone with the sack full of money. Longshot looked at Smellerbee with a smile. He didn't have to say anything for her to know that they will be eating good tonight.

They walked out of a noodle shop, stomachs satisfied. Longshot took out the sack of money and looked inside. There were still many silver pieces and about two gold pieces. He handed Smellerbee the sack and her eyes widened.

"That lady had to be from the upper class!" she said, "But why was she down here?"

Longshot shrugged his shoulders. They were silent for a while as they walked.

"I'm still worried about Jet," Smellerbee finally said. "It isn't good for him to keep thinking everyone is a fire bender. We have to talk to him." She looked over at Longshot and as their eyes met, he nodded. They roamed for a few minutes until they found Jet, looking hard at a tea shop. Longshot stopped walking, but Smellerbee got closer to their leader.

**"Jet, we need to talk," she said.

Jet jumped. "What?" When he saw it was Smellerbee he calmed down. "Oh, it's just you guys. Where have you been? I can use some help with surveillance here."

"We've been talking and we think you've been becoming obsessed with this. It's not healthy."

"Oh really? You both think this?"

Longshot put his arm over Smellerbee with a faint smile.

"We came here to make a fresh start," she said. "But you won't let this go. Even though there's no real proof."

Jet's eyes widened. "Well, maybe if you'd help me...?"

"Jet, you need to stop this."

"Maybe you've forgotten why we need to start over. Maybe you forgotten about how the fire nation left us all homeless, how they wiped out all the people we loved?" He paused for a second, leaving them to think about what he had just said. Longshot didn't want to think about that again. He couldn't; it was too painful. When no one said a word Jet spoke again, "If you don't want to help me, I'll find the evidence on my own."**

He stormed off into the tea shop, leaving Longshot and Smellerbee alone. The girl with the markings on her face leaned against the wall, unsure of what to do. Longshot leaned next to her. They just stood there for a while until they heard the sound of dishes being broken. They made their way to the coffee shop and before they knew it, they saw both Jet and Lee fighting in the street. Smellerbee started to run to help Jet, but Longshot caught her arm and stopped her. Soon the Dai Li appeared.

"Those people are fire benders!" Jet yelled and that's all that Longshot and Smellerbee could hear as they saw the Dai Li take Jet away. The two of them walked away from the scene and Smellerbee just fell apart. She sat on the ground with her hands on her head.

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked her friend. He went up to her and put a hand on her shoulder and stared into her eyes. "Of course not," he said. That was one of the few times he spoke, and this made Smellerbee smile a bit. "Thanks, Longshot." She got up from the ground. "Let's go home."

Longshot nodded and they headed to their new home.

Hey this is Elisa! This was my first fic for the Avatar. I watched the whole season nonstop and I love it. So many important values are taught. Anyway, I really like Longshot so I wrote a fic about him:). I support Smellershot! The beginning is pretty boring, not going to lie, but this is just to set up for the plot. The plot will be in the next chapter whether i get reviews or not. There's a little foreshadowing in this chapter so I'm glad i used that skill. So leave criticisms in the review and I'll try to make my stories better. Thanks and have a great Avatar day!