*Bee's POV*

I shook my head, laughing. "Leave it to you to blow up half the city," I said to the Duke.

They'd just finished telling us about one of the villages they'd passed through on their way to Omashu. No one had been hurt, but they'd been chased out.

"What about you guys?" the Duke asked. "Anything happen to you? And what did Katara mean 'Is Jet okay?' Where is he?"

My spirits sank. I'd hoped I wouldn't have to tell them. That somebody already had, or they somehow already knew.

"He's dead," Longshot whispered next to me.

Their faces fell.

"What?" the Duke said.

"Please, just go ask Aang, or one of them," I whispered.

"We wanna hear it from you," Pipsqueak said.

"Well–" I started.

"Troops!" a voice said, cutting me off. I turned around. Chief Hakoda was standing on the platform, Katara, Aang, Sokka, and that blind girl (Toph?) sitting behind him.

"My son will now tell you about his plan," he said, sitting down next to the boy in question.

"After," I whispered. We sat down.

Sokka gulped. Even from the back row I could see that he was nervous. Chief Hakoda said something to him, and he took a deep breath and stepped up.

"Good morning, everyone!" he said, holding a scroll above his head. He tripped. Hard. He grabbed his scrolls and stood up, grinning sheepishly.

"Um…" he started. "So. As you know, today, we're invading the Fire Nation! I mean, I know you know that, because, otherwise, why else would you be here?" He laughed nervously.

Oh, this was not going to go well.

"Anyway," he said. He dropped half of his scrolls and scrambled to pick them up. He hung one on the board behind him. It was something I was too far away to read written on a strip of yellow surrounded by Fire Nation signs.

"The Fire Lord's palace is here," he said, pointing. He noticed he had the wrong scroll. "Uh, no, uh, wait," he said, flipping through them, "uh, wait, uh, wait," he got to the right one, "it's here, and, uh, there's an eclipse today! And Aang's gonna fight the Fire Lord! And… the firebenders won't have any fire to use! So… that's good for us! And! Uh… I'm sorry. Let me start at the beginning."

Oh, boy.

"Katara and I discovered Aang frozen in an iceberg. Now, I didn't like Aang at first, but I grew to love him over time. And then we went to the Southern Air Temple, where Aang used to live. And then we met Suki, who's a Kyoshi Warrior. She must be, like, a woman, because she kissed me. And then Aang's friend was a crazy old king. And then Katara got Haru arrested, and then now he's grown a mustache, which, if you look in the front row, you can see it–"

Hakoda stepped up. "Thank you, Sokka," he said. "It's okay, why don't you take a break." Aw, he didn't get to us yet!

Sokka walked off.

"Let me just clarify a few points for everyone," the Chief said. "Today is the day of Black Sun. And I wanna thank you all for your self sacrifice and your courage. There are two steps to the invasion. A naval stage, and then a land stage. To gain sea access to the Fire Nation capital, we have to get past our first major obstacle, here." He pointed at the map.

"The Great Gates of Azulon," he continued. "Next," he said, flipping the map over, "we hit the land. And we hit hard. We must fight past their battlements and secure the plaza tower. Once we do that, it's up to the royal palace. At that point, the eclipse will begin."

…Wait, what?

"Excuse me," a deep voice said from the front. It seemed… familiar. I tried to see over the heads of the people in front of me. "The Boulder is confused," it said.

The Boulder.

The second most powerful earthbender in the world. (Toph seemed to hate me, so…)

He was a legend! And I was sitting a few yards away from him!

"Isn't the point to invade during the eclipse?" he asked. "When the firebenders are powerless?"

"The eclipse only lasts eight minutes," the Chief said. "Not enough time for the whole invasion. And the royal palace is heavily guarded by firebenders." Okay, now this was starting to make more sense. "So that's where we'll need the eclipse's advantage the most. When this is finished, the Avatar will have defeated the Fire Lord. We will have control of the Fire Nation capital, and this war will be over!"

We cheered. If only the war had been over eight years ago… I couldn't think like that. I had the Freedom Fighters. That made up for it.

But not enough that I didn't hate the Fire Nation.

All of it.