Aang's POV
I dropped Kya off a little over a half an hour ago, she seemed happy to see her friends, and they were in a pretty well lit up area. I'm not worried. I told Katara all of this and she seemed to relax a bit too.
They finished cleaning up from dinner so she is now watching me and Sokka put the fireworks into their position for the New Year's show. Bumi sits somewhere to my left trying to convince Tenzin to light the fireworks with him, but I doubt he'll get him to.
We're almost done when Sokka realizes something, "Aw, man! We didn't get the swirly one!"
Katara and Suki look over at him skeptically, Suki saying, "The swirly one?"
"Yeah, the one that goes whoooooooooo-!" He dramatically demonstrates how the firework explodes, leaving a trail of mist and lights that in is opinion looks like a dragon.
"I thought you were supposed to be picking that one up from the warehouse yesterday." I look at him, standing up from my kneeling position on the ground and stretching out my back.
"Well-! ... I must have forgotten. Do you think we have time to get it?" Sokka asks me, and after looking from him to the clock on the outside of our shed, to my wife, and back to him, I say -
"Yeah, I'll fly in - AGAIN - and grab it."
"Thanks, bud, you're a life saver." Sokka says, obviously relieved.
"Well, that's my job." I grin and walk over to Appa's barn, riding him back into the city.
The woman at the warehouse is very nice and lets me pick up the firework from the back room where they were keeping it. I step in and see the firework sitting on the floor against the back wall. I slip the explosive into my arms and am beginning to walk out when I hear a strange scuffling sound from the building to my right. The walls are thin, so I can also make out a lot of the music and loud conversations coming from the other side of this warehouse.
I turn back to meet up with the woman and I comment on it, "Is there a party going on in that warehouse?"
The women shrugs, "It sure sounds like it. It's been a party central to all these young people for many years since I've been here when we first opened these warehouses. I tend to just not pay attention, especially with all of the craziness of New Years."
"I see. I might check it out though, it sounds like there's a fight going on nearby though, so that's my cue." I smile slightly and wave goodbye to the woman, thanking her for her services.
I quickly place the firework onto Appa's saddle, then I make my way over to where I heard those scuffling sounds coming from, ready to break up whatever drunken fight that is taking place there.
Kya's POV
"Stop..." I mutter as one of the boys wraps his hand around the collar of my dress. My head is still throbbing from the impact of them slamming me up against the wall, so I'm finding it hard to regain my senses and push him away. The other boys are holding me back anyways.
I try digging my free hand's nails into the boys shoulder, but that only gets him mad. In one swift movement he pulls down on my collar, effectively ripping it and exposing my chest bindings. I yelp and start kicking furiously as he starts to go for the wrappings.
"Come on, Kya!" He sounds angry, I don't understand why, since I'm the one being attacked here, "You know you want it."
"No, actually," I growl through the throbbing of my skull, "I don't!" I rip my other hand free from the boys using my nails and gather water from the air quickly, just like my mother taught me. I use the water to send the boy in front of me back. For a second, I think I'm winning, but then the other two boys take me down again.
They shove me into the corner of the alley and one of them takes out a knife.
"Wha-what are you-? No. D-don't do anything stupi-" The wind is knocked out of me as one of them kicks me in the stomach. I'm unable to speak for a moment as they shove me down on my stomach and proceed to cut through my chest bindings from the back.
I don't know what to do. Somebody has to come... please...
But I'm alone. My so-called friends are too drunk to care about anything and my parents are far away on their island. I'm in an alley between two empty warehouses. No one is coming for me.
The boy sitting on my back just sliced my back with his knife. It could have been an accident, but I don't care because he's reaching around me and. This is... this is terrible. I'm wiggling with all of my might but he's too heavy. He stands and kicks me again, causing me to flinch and groan.
But then, he's lifted off of me by something, or someone. I quickly sit up and curl into the corner, sobbing, too scared to look at what was happening to my attackers. I hear impacts, repeated ones, along with the groans of whoever was hit. The earth shakes a bit as someone in the group earthbends. There are cries of descent, but I still don't turn around, my arms firmly locked around my chest as I cry.
A few moments later, there is silence, and then an all too familiar, and all too calming voice.
"Oh, Kya..." My father.