I do not own Avatar: The Legend of Aang, if I did a lot of things would be different XD I own nothing in this fanfiction except the idea of the plot (and even then, someone might've thought of this before me XD I don't know, I didn't check) No money or profit is being made from this fanfiction.

'This isn't good!'

Somehow he was managing not to show the agony he must be going through. His ribcage had been shattered, his left lung was badly damaged, and his heart-rate was erratic. His breathing was shallow and laboured, it sounded like it was taking a lot of effort just to maintain consciousness.

'You guys go find Appa. We'll take care of Jet.'

No! She wanted to help too! She couldn't just leave him like this!

'We're not going to leave you!'

'There's no time. Just go. We'll take care of him. He's our leader.'

She'd never heard him speak before... He sounded so calm, and yet there was a sense of urgency in the way he looked at the group. His eyes were serious and, as he looked at her, he seemed to know exactly what was going through her mind.

'Don't worry, Katara... I'll be fine...'

It was even worse to hear him talk, to see him force a smile onto his face... to have him trying to spare her the pain of worrying over him... and maybe of watching him die. She knew that there was little hope for him to survive with such serious injuries. Tears in her eyes, she forced herself to stand and leave with the others in search of Appa.

'He's lying...'

'Katara!'

Toph's yelling snapped Katara out of her memories. Looking around, slightly confused, she jolted back into reality. She and the rest of the Gaang (even the new Fire Lord Zuko) were riding Appa to the Freedom Fighters' forest. And, right now, all of them were staring at her.

'W-what?'

'We've been trying to get your attention for ages,' Toph said, huffily.

Katara realised that she must have looked rather odd, staring blankly at the horizon. She noticed Sokka's look of concerned sympathy and quickly composed herself.

'What did I miss?' she asked, trying to sound happier than she really felt.

'We're here,' Aang said, softly.

-.-.-.-

Jet was doing his best to ignore the dull throbbing in his chest as he worked with Longshot. The two had been working on one of the larger buildings for about two hours. Or, rather, Longshot had been working for two hours; Jet, on the other hand, had been taking much needed breaks quite a lot, and his total work time was probably around thirty minutes or so, and that fact alone was irritating him no end.

Longshot watched Jet as he placed a hand to his chest, trying to breath through the pain that was currently stabbing through his lungs. His look was one of concern that Jet, despite the pain, noticed at once.

'Don't look at me like that, I'm fine,' he said, forcing himself to carry on working even though ever cell in his body was screaming for rest.

Just a little longer, he told himself, willing the pain to subside.

-.-.-.-

'Wow, that's a big village,' Zuko marvelled at the only half-complete construction just visible in the distance.

'It's even more impressive when you consider they've only been working on it for a few months,' Aang agreed.

Sokka was gazing awestruck at the buildings, eyes almost as wide as plates.

'Toph, how come you're being so quiet!?' Sokka demanded, tearing his eyes from the village. 'How can you not be amazed by this!?'

Toph had been silent ever since they had dismounted Appa. No-one had thought anything of it at first; considering she hadn't been particularly keen to leave her students and ride Appa quite a long distance, her silence had been quite understandable until now, but now it was actually starting to get a little worrying.

'I... I can feel someone...'

'You're going to have to be more specific,' Sokka said. 'There must be loads of people here.'

'I know this is going to sound crazy but... I think it's Jet.'

Katara stared at Toph for a few moments before running towards the village as fast as she could, ignoring the calls that followed her. Her heart was racing and she felt as though she had just plunged into the icy waters of the South Pole. Could Jet really be alive? But why hadn't anyone said anything? She had seen some of the Freedom Fighters just a few months ago, why had none of them told her?

-.-.-.-

Smellerbee was, naturally, in for quite a surprise when Katara came charging up to her, out of breath and looking like she'd just been chased by a wild ostrich-bear, babbling something about Jet.

'Calm down,' Smellerbee said as the rest of Katara's friends caught up with her, looking equally out of breath.

'Katara, don't run off like that,' Sokka groaned.

'Where's Jet?' Katara asked Smellerbee, ignoring her brother. 'He's here, right?'

'Y-yeah...' Smellerbee looked extremely taken aback and even took a step or two away from Katara, obviously uncomfortable with being so close to the near hysterical young woman.

'Where?' Katara repeated, desperately.

'He should be in the eastern part of the village,' Smellerbee said, managing to regain some of her usual cool. 'Come on, I'll show you.'

-.-.-.-

Jet was now in quite a lot of pain. His lungs felt like they were on fire and every beat of his heart was like a knife being plunged further and further into his ribs. His breath was coming in ragged bursts and, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't seem to get enough air into his searing lungs. He blinked furiously, trying to clear his vision which was starting to become blurred, probably due to the lack of oxygen. He was ignoring Longshot's worried looks and continuing to force his body to carry on through the agonizing pain in his chest.

'Jet, come down here, you've got a visitor.'

He could have kissed Smellerbee; he could take a break without seeming weak. Almost at once, he grabbed one of the ropes that he and Longshot had used to climb up onto the roof of the building and abseiled back down to the ground, closely followed on the second rope by Longshot.

Katara stared at Jet as he landed, her sea-blue eyes wide, on the verge of tears. He was really there. The man she'd thought dead for the past year was now stood before her, staring back at her with a look of equal shock on his face.

'Jet?' her voice was barely a whisper.

'Katara... What are you-' Jet suddenly stopped, his hand flying to his chest.

In a split second, Jet was on the flour, coughing violently. Smellerbee and Longshot were at his side instantly, Longshot trying to help Jet up while Smellerbee did her best to calm him as he gasped frantically for breath, clearly in a state of panic as his body was robbed of its ability to function.

'We told you not to overdo it,' Smellerbee cried, almost in tears herself.

Katara watched, stunned and horrified as blood began to trickle down from Jet's mouth. She felt helpless while she watched Longshot give up on trying to move Jet and let him sink back down to the ground where he continued to hack up blood, eyes screwed up tight against the pain as he curled up, drawing hs body in on itself in a useless attempt to combat the excruciating feeling of his chest constricting.

Constructive crit is more than welcome.