Chapter 2: Return to Omashu

"Well... that was... fun."

The group had just exited the Cave of Two Lovers, after being separated in two groups: Katara and Aang, and Tyler, Sokka, and a group of hippies with annoying music. Tyler had no idea what had happened with Aang and Katara, but had a feeling he didn't want to find out. He had enough to deal with due to the hippies. If Tyler heard that stupid banjo one more time, he'd smash it over the head over the guy that played it.

"The journey was long and annoying," Sokka said, "But now you get to see what it's really about: the destination."

As they mounted the top of the hill, Sokka presented the city, "I present to you the Earth Kingdom city of O..."

Sokka stuttered to a stop, devastated with the realization, "Oh, no..."

In front of them was the devastated fortress city of Omashu, surrounded by what appeared to be siege towers. The city was smoking and appeared to be on fire in several places. And on the main gate hung the flag of the Fire Nation.

"I can't believe it," Aang said, turning to face his friends, "I know the war has spread far, but Omashu always seemed... untouchable."

"Up until now, it was," Tyler grimaced as he looked at the ruined city, "Now Ba-Sing-Se is the only great Earth Kingdom stronghold left."

"This is horrible, but we have to move on," Katara said.

"No," Aang said firmly, "I'm going in to find Bumi."

"Aang, stop," Sokka said, "We don't even know if Bumi's still..."

Aang turned to look at Sokka, his expression hardening, and replied defiantly, "What? If he's still what?"

Sokka found it hard to meet Aang's eyes, "...Around."

Katara spoke gently, "I know you had your heart set on Bumi, but there are other people around who can teach you earthbending."

"This isn't about finding a teacher," Aang said, "This is about finding my friend."

XXX

The group traveled on Appa, the bison floating deep down in the city's moat to avoid being spotted. They stopped next to a capped drain pipe emerging from the wall.

"A secret passage?" Tyler asked.

"Why didn't we just use this last time?" Sokka asked as Aang tried to open the drain with his staff.

The cap popped off, releasing a huge gout of greenish sewage, some of which washed over Sokka.

"Does that answer your question?" Aang responded.

XXX

After a long, disgusting crawl through the sewer pipe, the Gaang entered the city through a manhole. The streets were barren, the sound of silence made the entire city seem deserted. Tyler went out into the open first, using his bending to lift the manhole cover and drop it to the ground. Everyone else followed, and Tyler put the cover back on.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought," Katara said, fairly dry.

Sokka was not so lucky. The guy had so much gunk on him, he looked like a slime monster. Once they got the gunk off, Aang swung his staff at him, whipping a gale of the wind that blew him dry. Sokka raised his head to reveal two purple octopus like creatures stuck to both sides of his head. He cried out in terror, tugging at them hard, to no effect.

"They won't let go!" Sokka yelled, "Help! Aaaak!"

Aang and Tyler pinned on Sokka to a nearby wall andsat him down on a crate.

"Stop making so much noise," Aang scolded, "It's just a purple pentapus."

Aang rubbed the heads of the creatures, and they popped off with relative ease, leaving only spots where they once were. But as they removed the last one, a yell made them freeze.

"Hey!"

A patrol of Fire Nation guards entered the street, Aang quickly disappearing and reappeared a second later with a red, flat top hat on to hide his airbender tattoo.

"What are you kids doing out past curfew?" one of the guards asked.

"Sorry, sir," Tyler said quickly, "We were just on our way home."

The kids turned to walk away, Sokka bringing up the rear. But the guard notices the red welts on the back of Sokka's neck.

"Wait!" the guard asked, "What's the matter with him?"

The Gaang stopped and turned back around, and Katara puts her hands on her brother's shoulders, "Uh...he has pentapox, sir."

As the guard walked up to Sokka to touch him, Tyler panicked a bit, saying, "Um...it's highly contagious!"

The guard hesitated and pulled his hand back. Sokka realized the ploy and began to act ill... very dramatically. He raised his hands in front of him in a zombie-like fashion and began to moan.

"Uuuuuu..." he said, "It's so awful...I'm dyiiiing..."

"...And deadly..." Katara said.

Sokka continues to moan and lurch forward, the guards beginning to lurch backwards to avoid contact.

"Wait, I think I've heard of pentapox," one guard said, turning to one of his comrades, "Didn't your cousin Chang die of it?"

Sokka advanced, coughing and spitting up sewer gunk at them, sending the guards into a frenzy, one saying, "We'd better go wash our hands... and burn our clothes!"

The guards ran away in a hurry, and Sokka stopped his act and straightened up. The Avatar smiled, rubbing the head of the pentapus he held his hand.

"Thank you, sewer friend!" Aang thanked cheerfully.

XXX

Later on, the Gaang were sneaking around the city, avoiding patrols of Fire Nation guards. They hid behind some construction material as a patrol passed by.

"Let's find Bumi and get out of here," Katara said.

"Where would they be keeping him?" Sokka asked.

"Somewhere he can't earthbend," Tyler said as Aang was looking up and around, "Somewhere made of metal."

They kept sneaking around, spotting a caravan making its way through the street. Suddenly, there were boulders crashing down the hill, about to crush the caravan. The Gaang panicked, and Aang swung out his staff, creating wind that crushed the rocks into dust. Unfortunately, the people below saw them and misinterpreted the situation.

"The resistance!!" a woman, the governor's wife, cried out.

A girl, the governor's daughter, threw a hail of small arrows at them, all of which Aang and Tyler dodged, the arrows embedding into the wall. Katara and Sokka ran, pursued by Fire Nation soldiers, who were climbing up a couple ladders from the plaza below. Katara turned and used the water from her water skin to whip them off the ledge.

The girl, Mai, ran at Katara, her arms spread to either side. She fired another hail of arrows from some unknown mechanism around her hand and forearm. Katara created a wall of ice in front her, stopping the arrows. Mai continued the pursuit as Katara fleed. Aang and Tyler let Katara pass as they turned to face Mai.

As she approached, Tyler finally got a good look at her. She was a young woman about his age, with a large quantity of well coifed black hair. Her expression was emotionless, her eyes a light brown color. Despite her emotionless expression, she seemed like she was bored out of her mind until the trouble started.

Aang caused some construction scaffolding on his right to collapse between them. As the scaffolding collapsed, Mai is able to get one throwing star through the falling debris, but Tyler twirled his staff in front of him and stopped it just in time. The dust from the falling scaffolding cleared, once again giving Mai a clear shot.

She throws another hail of arrows, but the kids disappeared through a large trap door which closed instantly above them.

XXX

The Gaang fell through a tunnel, landing in a large, underground clearing with green sewage drips from the ceiling. They rubbed their heads in pain and looked up. The cavern was filled with Earth Kingdom resistance fighters, the Resistance Leader standing on the ledge in front of the main exit tunnel from the room, which was lit by several lamps hanging from the walls.

They walked up to the leader and Aang asked, "So, is King Bumi with you guys? Is he leading the resistance?"

"Of course not!" Resistance Leader said with quiet intensity, "The day of the invasion, we readied ourselves for battle. We were prepared to defend our city... to fight for our lives and for our freedom. But before we even had a chance, King Bumi surrendered."

The Avatar's eyes widened at the revelation and the Resistance Leader continued the story, "The day of the invasion, I asked King Bumi what he wanted to do. He looked me in the eye and said..."

XXX

Flashback

King Bumi laughed hysterically, "I'm going to do... nothing!"

Flashback End

XXX

"It doesn't matter now," the leader finished, "Fighting the Fire Nation is the only path to freedom. And freedom is worth dying for."

"Actually there's another path to freedom," Aang put in, "You could leave Omashu. You're directing all your energy to fight the Fire Nation. But you're outnumbered. You can't win. Now's the time to retreat, so you can live to fight another day."

"You don't understand. They've taken our home, and we have to fight them at any cost!"

"I don't know," one Resistance Fighter said with uncertainty, "Living to fight another day is startin' to sound pretty good to me."

Another Resistance Fighter stepped forward, "Yeah, I'm with the kid!"

The cavern became filled with the whispers of other fighters and displaced citizens of Omashu speaking their agreement.

The Resistance Leader turned back to the kids and consented, "Fine. But there's thousands of citizens that need to leave. How're we going to get them all out?"

Sokka stroked his chin in thought before blurring out in excitement, "Suckers!"

Everyone stared at him, bewildered, before Sokka smirked, "You're all about to come down with a nasty case of pentapox."

XXX

After a long day of gathering pentapi and sticking and unsticking them on the citizens of Omashu, the Gaang got everyone into the city.

Sokka raised his voice to address the crowd, "Okay everyone! Into sick formation!"

The citizens and Sokka walked to leave, and Katara and Tyler moved to join, but turned to see Aang heading in a different direction.

"Aang, what are you doing?" Katara asked.

"Aren't you coming with us?" Tyler questioned.

Aang turned to face her, "No. I'm not leaving until I find Bumi."

Aang airbent himself to the surrounding rooftops and bounded away. Tyler thought for a few seconds before turning around and followed the rest of the citizens out of Omashu.

XXX

One successful escape attempt later, Aang, along with Bumi's pet goat-gorilla, Flopsie, had made it back to the campsite that the citizens had set up. Aang hung his head sadly.

"We looked everywhere," he said, "No Bumi."

Katara hugged Aang as Flopsie makes sad noises, and Sokka hugged him. Tyler lowered his head in shame, feeling guilty that he didn't help Aang search.

The Resistance Leader walked up behind them, "We've got a problem. We just did a head count."

"Oh no," Katara said, "Did someone get left behind?"

"No..." the leader pointed, "We have an extra."

They turned to where he was pointing to see Momo walking towards them, a terrified expression on his face due to the baby that was attached to him around his neck.

XXX

A while later, after Katara coddled the baby for a bit, the group received a letter via messenger hawk. Aang unrolled the message and read it.

"It's from the Fire Nation governor," Aang summarized, "He thinks we kidnapped his son. So...he wants to make a trade. His son... for King Bumi."

XXX

After a near unanimous agreement, the Gaang was walking down a hill, Aang, still wearing his hat, carrying the baby in his arms. It had taken a bit of convincing, but the fact that Bumi was Aang's friend and possible earthbending teacher overruled any arguments.

"You know this situation screams 'Trap!', right?" Tyler asked, being the hesitant one.

"I don't think so," Aang replied, "I'm sure the Governor wants his son back as much as we want Bumi. It's a new day. I have a good feeling about this."

"Alright, but if things go south, I'll be there to say I told you so."

The group arrived at the bottom of the scaffolding of a huge statue that was under construction, Sokka now holding the baby. Not much later, three girls mounted the platform, Mai being one of them. One of them was a pretty, bright eyed girl with a long, black pony tail, dressed in red and pink. But the last girl seemed to be the leader.

This girl had golden/light brown eyes, black hair wrapped in a Fire Nation ponytail, and appeared to be just a bit younger than Tyler. But what caught the Image's attention was how she presented herself. The smirk on her face showed that she could have complete control over any situation thrown at her, a calm, collected persona. Not to mention, despite this, she looked darn terrifying. Tyler knew she must be someone to be feared.

The two groups faced each other at opposite ends of the construction platform, tension filling the air. At the top of the scaffolding, a crane was lowering a metal coffin suspended by a chain, and inside, the laughing and snorting of King Bumi could be heard. Sure enough, the coffin twisted on the chain to reveal Bumi's face, visible through a porthole just large enough for his face.

"Hi, everybody!" Bumi greeted as if nothing were wrong.

It was at this point Tyler realized that Bumi was completely off his rocker. The coffin landed standing straight up behind Mai and her friends.

"You brought my brother?" Mai asked.

"He's here," Tyler answered, "We're ready to trade."

The lead girl whispered to Mai, "I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me. Do you mind?"

Mai turned to her, "Of course not, Princess Azula."

"We're trading a two year old for a king, " Azula turned to Bumi, "A powerful, earthbending king."

King Bumi just smiled, closed his eyes, and nodded at her, "Mmm hmmm!"

Azula turned back to Mai, "It just doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?"

(Mai looked away from Azula and towards her brother in Sokka's arms. And Mai began to walk forward.

"You're right," Mai then said to them, "The deal's off."

She raised her left hand and Bumi was lifted back off the ground as the chain was reeled in from above.

King Bumi was enjoying himself, "Whhhoa! See you all later!"

"Bumi!" Aang cried.

Aang rushed towards Mai, Azula, and the third girl, Ty Lee, and Tyler chased him. Azula bent a plume of whitish blue fire at knee level towards them, both of whom jumped high into the air to avoid it. Tyler transformed his metal into a board and flew, mentally cursing himself later for revealing his own identity. Aang landed on part of the partially constructed building and jumped off again, opening his glider in mid air, but lost his hat, exposing his tattoo.

"The Avatar!" Azula said, surprised, but now looked smug, "And the Image... My lucky day."

Azula ran over to the elevator winch and released the break with a blast of blue fire. The winch began to spin rapidly as Azula grabbed one of the chains attached to the mechanism, raising her rapidly toward the top of the construction scaffolding.

Aang and Tyler landed atop Bumi's coffin as it continued its ascent, the king saying, "Aang, is that you? Where did you come from? And who is this new friend you have here?"

"Hang on!" Aang said, "We're gonna get you out of here."

The Avatar took a deep breath and began to blow on the chain connecting the coffin to the crane, slowly freezing it.

"Aang, stop your blowing for a minute," Bumi said.

The chain was now encased in ice just as an explosion of dust announces the arrival of Azula. She jumped high into the air after having been carried up at high speed by the winch. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as she unleashed a blast of blue fire from her foot at the two. Aang partially deflected it with his staff, but the chain holding the coffin broke.

"Now hold on just a-" Bumi tried to say something, but was too late due to the chain breaking and them falling, "Duahhh!!"

As they are about to hit one of Omashu's chutes, Aang created a huge airball that deflected their fall as Tyler tried to slow their descent as much as possible, finding the coffin a bit too heavy to metalbend properly. They landed in the chute and began to ride down it.

Azula watched from her perch, scowled, and jumped into a nearby box, which fell into a nearby chute. Aang and Tyler, meanwhile, surfed atop Bumi's coffin as it rocketed down the chute.

"Just like old times, isn't it, Bumi?" Aang smiled and laughed.

"Aang, I need to talk to you!" Bumi yelled.

But Aang couldn't understand him because of the noise, "It's good to see you too!"

"Aang, I don't think that's what he-HOLY!!!" Tyler tried to repeat, but cried out as Azula's flames nearly torched his back.

Aang and Tyler looked up to see Azula riding a box in a chute just above them. The Avatar began to twirl his staff rapidly to dissipate the blue fire bolts rapid fired at them by the girl. Their chutes merged, and Azula was now behind them. Aang launched a gale at her, but she parted it with her hands steepled in front of her.

She followed, launching more fire blasts at them before they finally entered a portion of the chute that has arches over it at short intervals. Tyler knocked them down with his staff and they came tumbling down on the chute between Azula and them. She and the box disappeared as they entered the dust cloud.

The box emerged from the other side without Azula. Both Aang and Tyler breathed a sigh of relief, but gasped in shock as she stood up from where she had been crouched in the box. She launches another blue blast of fire, but they ducks and avoids it.

"Are you kidding me?!" Tyler exclaimed, "Who is this chick?!"

Azula continued throwing blasts of blue fire ahead of her. Aang deflects them with his staff and Tyler blocked them with his metal as Appa and the others pull up alongside them.

"Hang on, Bumi!" Aang said, "Our ride's here!"

Aang struck the side of the chute with his staff, launching the coffin out of the chute, Tyler trying to lift it again. Katara and Sokka tried to grab the coffin as it passed overhead, but they missed and the coffin sailed over Appa and fell down the other side. Bumi screamed on the way down and they landed crosswise on another chute and broke right through it and fell through to another chute, this time landing lengthwise and they begin to slide down once more.

Azula continued to pursue them in her box and created a circular saw blade of blue fire and launched it at the coffin. As it approaches, Bumi strained in his bonds and caused a pillar of earth to rise up through the chute just in time to absorb the blast. Azula jumped out of her box just as it impacted the pillar of earth. She slid to a halt in the chute, looking displeased, and she watched the three slide away.

XXX

Meanwhile, Bumi's coffin began to plane out as it reached the bottom of the chute.

"You could earthbend all along!?" Aang yelled.

"Well, they didn't cover my face," Bumi retorted, straining again within his bonds, then an outcropping of rock appeared at the end of the chute.

The coffin hit it as it exited the chute and ended up standing straight up on the newly raised rock, Aang and Tyler landing on the ground.

"I don't understand," Aang said, getting angry, "Why didn't you free yourself? Why did you surrender when Omashu was invaded? What's the matter with you, Bumi?!"

"Listen to me, Aang," Bumi explained, "There are options in fighting, called jin. It's a choice of how you direct your energy."

"I know!" Aang replied, holding up his fingers as he counted them off, "There's positive jin when you're attacking, and negative jin when you're retreating."

"And neutral jin," Bumi added, "When you do nothing!"

Aang was startled, looking at his hand which now had three fingers raised, "There are three jins?!"

"Well, technically there are eighty five. But, let's just focus on the third. Neutral jin is the key to earthbending. It involves listening and waiting for the right moment to strike."

"Man, I'm good at that already..." Tyler muttered, remembering all of his time doing nothing in that earthbending prison.

"That's why you surrendered, isn't it?" Aang said with dawning understanding.

"Yes," Bumi answered, "And it's why I can't leave now."

Aang looked down and turns away, clearly sad and disappointed, "I guess I need to find someone else to teach me earthbending."

"Your teacher will be someone who has mastered neutral jin," Bumi said, "You need to find someone who waits and listens before striking."

Momo appeared and jumped onto Aang shoulder and chittered, Aang smiling at him, "Hey, Momo!"

King Bumi laughed, "Momo's mastered a few jins himself!"

Momo just looked at Bumi and screamed.

"Goodbye, Aang," King Bumi said, "I'll see you when the time is right."

Bumi leaned back and his coffin tumbled back into the chute. Laughing maniacally, Bumi used his earthbending to drive his coffin back up.

"No offense, Aang," the Image said, "But your friend seems a little... nuts."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," Aang grinned as Appa and the others appeared.

XXX

It was nighttime now, the Governor holding his wife, still crying of the 'kidnapping' of their son. Tyler glided silently down from above them, and released the baby, who toddled over to his parents. Tyler departed as silently as he came and the baby was greeted with joy.

"Tom-Tom!" the Governor's wife gasped, holding onto her child for dear life.

Tyler watched from the roof with a smile, then flew away.

XXX

Well, I can honestly say, I'm excited now! Azula has been introduced! Seriously, if not for Mark Hamill as the Fire Lord, Azula would be my favorite villain. And if you're wondering why I skipped "The Cave of Two Lovers", well... let's be honest, it's a pointless episode, really only meant for filler, and I couldn't find a good way to incorporate Tyler into it. So I included the end of it as a prologue for this chapter. Till next time guys!