Black Dots – Are You Crazy?

Author Note: Thanks to everyone for reading/reviewing/favoriting! Almost 900 hits, wow! =o Please please please review! Sorry for the short length, but I had to give you guys something. Next update will be longer – promise!

Disclaimer: Do not own ATLA. Unfortunately.

"Who are you and how do you know who I am."

I blinked; huh? I'd never seen this boy before in my life.

"I have no idea who you are," I said truthfully, wrenching my head away from the blades.

He paused, lowering the blades a couple inches.

"You said 'oh, it's you again,'" he said slowly, still eying me warily. Huh? Oh.

"I said that to the black dots," I said quickly, flushing at how ridiculous that sounded.

The blades rose again; great. Now he thought I was crazy.

Although I didn't really care what he thought of course. Nope. No way.

"Right, well…are you a fire nation assassin?" he asked, his voice suddenly filled with a mixture of determination and pride. Pride? Did he want to have assassins after him?

I glanced down at my clearly-water tribe clothes before eying him coolly.

"Oh. Right," he said, lowering his blades all the way.

"Pipsqueak, you can untie her," he called over his shoulder. So, he was obviously the leader. The short kid protested, saying, "But Jet! She could be lying! What if the fire lord is finally sending assassins after us? You know how much trouble we've caused him!"

I raised an eyebrow skeptically; from what I could gather, Jet seemed to only have a rag tag team of untrained boys. I doubted he'd done a lot of damage to the fire nation.

He glanced back at me, smiling. Did he expect me to smile back after he'd tied me up?

I stared back stoically, refusing to blink as he crouched to my eye-level. The ground shook a bit as Pipsqueak – oh, the irony of his name – approached slowly and bent down, fumbling to untie the knots that confined me to this rope prison.

"Who are you?" I asked, finally dragging my eyes off of Pipsqueak's excruciatingly slow fingers.

Jet paused, his brows lowering.

"You don't know?" he asked, a hint of dejection appearing in his voice.

I shook my head; should I? I studied his face; tan skin – almost as tan as mine – dark brown eyes, shaggy brown hair. Nothing really stood out.

"I'm Jet," he said after a moment before gesturing behind him.

"And we," he began. A crowd of a dozen or so scruffy-looking boys ranging from around ten to their late teens suddenly crawled in from the windows, each one eying us curiously.

"Are the freedom fighters," he finished triumphantly, noticing my shock at their sheer number.

"Freedom fighters? As in…?" I began, hesitant to finish the question; they could still be Fire Nation in disguise.

He nodded.

"Yes. We are against everything the Fire Nation stands for."

I felt a brief flush of cool air as the rough ropes fell from my body, pooling on the leaf-strewn ground. Somehow I could forgive them for the capturing; after all, they probably just thought we were Fire Nation. Besides, if they were against Fire Nation…well, enemies of our enemy are our friends.

I stood, feeling the withered leaves crunch under my feet. Rubbing my arms, I ran over to Sokka and Aang.

Ignoring the onlookers, I scrabbled at the rock hard knots with raw fingers. Wincing as the jagged rope bit into my already-sore fingers, I pulled fruitlessly at the knot binding Sokka's arms to his chest.

Tanned hands appeared from the periphery of my vision, reaching down to slide the knot open smoothly.

Well then.

Sokka's head lolled as it dipped towards his chest, his closely shorn light brown hair flopping a bit.

A delicate glob of white drool dripped down to the earthen floor, connecting Sokka's mouth to the ground.

Reaching down to my hip, I uncorked the bottle and flicked my wrists up, sending a thin stream of water to splash my brother's face.

He spluttered awake, water droplets clinging to his eyebrows and lashes.

"Wuh?"

I leaned closer, hissing softly, "We got captured by the Freedom Fighters. I think they're okay though – they want to defeat the fire nation!"

He eyed me skeptically, whispering loudly, "Katara, what if they're lying?"

I heard an angry snort from behind me, and my cheeks burned.

"Sokka!" I hissed.

"It's alright," came Jet's noticeably cooler voice. "Your friend is entitled to his own beliefs."

Sokka eyed him warily, his freed hand going towards the metal boomerang he kept at his hip.

"Even if they are misguided and foolish, considering the fire nation's destroyed pretty much everything in its sights," Jet added, his voice wafting from behind me. Raucous cheers resonated around the small room. I glanced back to spot his band of Freedom Fighters grinning broadly and hooting in support of Jet's words. Jet smiled smugly, his arms folded loosely against his chest.

Sokka snarled, his hand reaching to whip out the boomerang.

Twisting my fingers in a zig-zag motion, I shot a small, unnoticeable spurt of water and his hand and clenched my fist suddenly, freezing the water around his fingers and rendering them unmovable.

"Katara!" he complained, struggling to move his hand. I shot him a glare before bending down to pluck the boomerang from its hilt. Weighing it experimentally in the palm of my hand, I reached to the left and slit the ropes encircling Aang.

The severed ropes drifted to the ground, landing with a soft thud. I heard the familiar chittering sound of Momo's call, soon followed by the soft woosh of air as his leather wings carried him to Aang's head. Momo gazed at me with wide yellow-green eyes for a moment before bending down to lick Aang's head.

Aang started awake, scrambling to his feet as he saw the crowd of armed boys behind me.

I smiled broadly before enveloping him in a hug.

"Aang, meet the Freedom Fighters," I whispered after letting him go. He eyed the group with an inscrutable expression on his youthful face.

I paused; why wasn't he more excited? They were against the Fire Nation, you know – the people who had completely murdered everyone in his tribe.

I felt Jet's presence as he neared, his hand lowering on my shoulder. Sokka tensed, moving to tackle Jet.

As he rushed forward, Jet slid smoothly forward, flipping Sokka onto his back in a single fluid motion.

Sokka twitched from this ground, glaring angrily at Jet.

Jet ignored him, instead turning towards me again.

"Katara, is it?"

I nodded, flushing a bit when I realized his hand was still on my left shoulder. I ducked a bit, letting the hand drop from the shoulder.

His mouth twitched as he stared at me for a second longer than was necessary before turning to face the rest of the Freedom Fighters.

"Katara, will you help us attack a Fire Nation fort tomorrow?"

I glanced first at Sokka and Aang, who were both strangely silent, before gazing at the eager faces of the Freedom Fighters. They were all young; Jet and Sokka were the oldest ones in the room.

And yet, they were determined. Each boy showed signs of battle and each one had some weapon or another strapped to them.

I smiled, determination flooding my thoughts.

They could do this.

No, we could do this.

"Yes," I answered, a broad grin on my face.

Cheers resonated from the Freedom Fighters. Jet nodded before turning to address his band once more.

"With the help of our new friends, we will destroy the Fire Nation!"

And with that, the Freedom Fighters went wild.

AN: Thanks again for reading and being so patient! I've started a new fic for Harry Potter (Of Quills and Serpents) which is a bit more light-hearted if you guys want to check it out!