A few notes:

1) I'm so sorry for taking two months to post this chapter. Finals and final projects started up, then a trip to China where google is blocked (I keep everything on google drive). Additionally, this chapter was kind of hard to work with. I hope you don't mind the delay, and that you're satisfied with the final product.

2) Thanks to DreadingTheDayWhenYou'reGone (Author of, among other things, the Alone trilogy, an Avatar fanfic that I remember reading way back when I started reading fanfiction). He's helping me to revise my story, and has gone through the first few chapters already.

3) Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, or favorited. It's nice to see that people like my story, and want to see more of it. Special thanks to RaphaelplusMikey for helping to make Rin's drunk experience more accurate.

4) I completely rewrote the first chapter so that it's entirely from Rin's perspective. It's the last time I'll change the first chapter, I promise. The plot is the same, but if you want to read a bit more new writing from me, go ahead.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender in any way. I'm not even sure if I own Rin.


Chapter 7: The Northern Air Temple

After traveling for a few days on Appa, the group found the climate around them growing colder. The terrain slowly turned from forests to tundras, and snow occasionally fell from the clouds. One particular night, the group found a small campsite where a local was telling a story to a small group of people. Aang led Appa down and the group of four sat down and listened.

"...so the next time you think you hear a large bird talking, take a closer look," the storyteller said, waving his arms for dramatic effect. "It may not be a giant parrot, but a flying man! A member of a secret group of air walkers who laugh at gravity and laugh at those bound to the earth by it!"

"Airbender stories are the greatest," Aang said as the storyteller started to go around the audience for money.

"Was it realistic?" Katara asked.

"Yup! I laugh at gravity all the time," Aang said before letting out a small chuckle. "Heh, gravity."

"Jingle jingle!" the storyteller said as he came around to their group, shaking his coin-filled hat. Sokka reached around his parka for a moment before coming up with a few crumbs and, to Rin's disgust, a beetle.

"Seriously? Here, I'll do it," Rin muttered, pulling a few coins from her pocket and throwing them into the hat. The storyteller gave her a smile and went on past the group.

"Huh, you're actually being generous. That's new," Katara said.

"Not really. That was your money," Rin replied with a smirk.

"Wait, what? " Katara asked.

"Eh, Water Tribe money is near useless in the Earth Kingdom," Rin explained. "Better to use it on some random storyteller; it's not like he's going to complain."

"First of all, that isn't justification to take what's not yours!" Katara argued, furrowing her brow. "Second, we're going to the Northern Water Tribe! They'll accept those coins!"

"Think for a second," Rin said. "This is the Avatar, and if I remember correctly, you and your brother are children of the chief of the Southern Water Tribe. You're practically prince and princess. You think that they won't provide for the Avatar and representatives from their sister tribe? They're pretty much obliged to give you food and shelter, and I'll just be along for the ride. Shit, I'll bet you five coppers that we're going to get a feast when we arrive."

"I guess that's true..." Katara muttered, just as Aang ran up to the rest of the group with a wide grin and an eager face.

"Guess what, guys! I talked to the storyteller, and he said that there are some airbenders at the Northern Air Temple!" he explained. "We should go see if they're really there!"

"If they haven't been around for a hundred years, I doubt that they're gonna pop up today," Rin muttered.

"Well, Katara and Sokka found me hiding in an iceberg after a hundred years. Maybe the other airbenders were hiding too," Aang suggested.

"You're the Avatar, that's an exception. And how did they find you, anyways?" Rin asked.

"Katara exploded an iceberg," Sokka explained.

"Seriously? What else happened before I joined you guys?" Rin asked.

"It's a long story; we'll tell you tomorrow," Aang said. "When we're going to the Northern Air Temple!"

"The North Pole is only a day away," Rin argued. "Shouldn't we be going there?"

"This is the first time we've heard that any airbenders survived besides Aang," Katara explained. "We should go and check it out."

"Fine, we'll go to the temple," Rin sighed. "But afterwards, we're heading straight to the North Pole."


"... and we flew off, leaving Jet frozen to a tree."

"Wow," Rin muttered. "That guy's... impressive, in the wrong way."

"I know, right?" Sokka said. "He was a psychopath. I can't believe we trusted him."

"Actually, if he were tuned down a bit, I could see him leading troops into the Fire Nation. From what you've told me, he's ruthless and cunning. Perfect for a war leader," Rin said.

"He'd just go killing everyone, not just soldiers," Sokka argued.

"I guess, though that's why I said he'd have to be tuned down a bit," Rin said before turning to Aang. "Hey, how long 'till we get to the temple?"

"We're almost there!" Aang called from Appa's head. "This is where they had the championships for sky bison polo!"

"It's just clouds!" Rin called back. "How are you supposed to tell?"

"I just know!" Aang shouted, just as the clouds cleared away to reveal the temple. It sat on the peak of a snowy mountain, with towers and ledges jutting out of the side. While it looked fairly old, some of the buildings seemed to be new and different from the rest of the structure, with smokestacks rising into the air. Rin could see people flying around and over the temple on large, green gliders.

"They really are airbenders!" Katara exclaimed, crawling over to the front of the saddle to get a closer look.

"No, they're not," Aang muttered, folding his arms in disappointment.

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked. "They're flying!"

"Gliding, not flying," Aang said. "You can tell by the way they move, they're not airbending. Those people have no spirit."

"So you have to be an airbender to have spirit? How did you come to that?" Rin asked, just before she saw something coming closer in the corner of her eye. When she looked, she saw a boy flying towards them, laughing cheerfully as he sat in a seat suspended from a green glider. She and the others ducked as the boy flew overhead, still laughing.

"I don't know, that kid seems pretty spirited to me," Katara said. The boy flew out in front of Appa and looked back towards Aang with a grin. Aang seemed to see it as a challenge, because he suddenly unfolded his glider and jumped from Appa, following the boy.

"Hey! Don't just leave us here!" Rin shouted, jumping from the saddle and taking the bison's reins. As she dodged a glider, she heard Katara shout from the saddle.

"Everything okay?" Rin shouted, not bothering to turn around as she pulled away from another glider.

"We're fine!" Sokka shouted back. "Find some solid ground before it finds us!"

"You try flying this thing!" Rin shouted, trying to pull the bison towards a large courtyard. After a few flyovers, she finally managed to direct Appa to the ground, where they were safe from the people gliding above.

"Solid ground!" Sokka cried, jumping off the saddle and hugging the stone courtyard as Rin and Katara climbed down after him. As Rin looked around, she noticed a crowd gathered at the edge of the courtyard, watching Aang and the boy fly around each other.

"Looks like the Avatar's showing off," Rin mumbled as Aang let go of his glider, running along a wall before jumping back on. The crowd gasped as they watched him shoot back into the air, just behind the other boy in the green glider. Suddenly, smoke started pouring out from the back of the boy's glider.

"Well, that seems bad," Katara muttered. "Is that glider broken?"

"I don't think so. The smoke's coming out of a bottle in the back," Sokka pointed out. Indeed, the black plumes of smoke were pouring out of a container attached to the back of the boy's seat rather than from a malfunction of the glider. Now that Rin thought of it, the entire glider was made of wood and cloth. There was no machines to catch on fire. Suddenly, Rin heard cheering from the crowd.

"Seriously..." Rin muttered, staring at the sky. The boy had used the smoke to draw Aang's face in the clouds. The two flew down into the courtyard with the boy landing next to the crowd and Aang landing next to Appa.

"Don't go flying off on your own," Rin said to Aang. "We had nobody controlling the bison for a moment, and there were gliders everywhere."

"Sorry," he replied, just as the boy he was flying with rolled up in a wheelchair.

"Wow, you're a real airbender!" he exclaimed. "That means you're the Avatar! I've heard stories about you; you're the greatest! I'm Teo. It's an honor to meet you."

"Thanks," Aang replied with a grin. Sokka ran over to Teo's chair and started looking at the various contraptions attached to it.

"This glider chair is incredible!" Sokka exclaimed.

"If you think that's impressive, you should see what else my dad's designed," Teo replied, heading off into the temple. The group followed him and saw an incredible sight: the room was filled with pipes, lifts, and pulleys, extending from the ceiling to the ground. Various contraptions scattered around the room were doing complex tasks, using machinery that Rin could never hope to figure out.

"My dad is the mastermind behind this whole place," Teo explained. "Everything runs on hot air. We even pump it outside to create thermals for gliding."

"This place is unbelievable," Aang said, looking up at the machinery.

"It's great, isn't it?" Teo asked.

"No. Just unbelievable," Aang muttered, walking away to observe the area.

"Aang used to come here a long time ago," Katara explained. "I guess he's just shocked that things are so... different."

"And so much better!" Sokka exclaimed, running off to examine the machines.

"I don't understand how any of this works, but I think some of this is kinda unnecessary," Rin said, pointing to one of the pressure lifts, which went up to a walkway a few meters above the floor. Off to the side was an abandoned staircase, obviously neglected in favor of the lifts.

"I think we should go check on Aang," Katara said, following the Avatar further into the temple. Rin followed her, and they found Aang in front of a contaminated fountain. The water was green, and a statue of a sky bison in the middle of the water was dirty and stained. Putrid gases spewed out of the statue's mouth, fouling the air.

"This place was supposed to be the history of my people," Aang said, looking up at the statue.

"It's probably not all like this," Katara assured, placing her hand on Aang's shoulder. "I'm sure there are some parts of the temple that are the same."

"I doubt it," Rin muttered. "These guys have been here for quite a bit of time. I'm pretty sure they've gone through the entire temple by now."

"Rin, be quiet!" Katara whisper-shouted, pulling Rin away from Aang. "This place is important to him. Be respectful."

"Hey, it's the truth," Rin muttered. Katara gave her a nasty glare before going back to Aang, who was still looking into the fountain. Rin followed behind her.

"Let's go explore the temple," Katara suggested. Instead of saying anything, Aang simply nodded, following Katara as she went off into the temple. Rin was about to follow but realized that they were forgetting someone.

"Sokka?" Rin called, trying to find the boy among the machines. After a few moments, she found him examining a large, noisy contraption by the entrance.

"Come on, we're going!" Rin shouted over the clangs and hisses of the machine.

"Give me a second!" Sokka shouted back. He leaned over to look into a pipe and was met with a blast of smoke.

"Gah!" he shouted, recoiling away from the machine. His face was covered by black soot, and his hair was blown back as if he had been caught in a windstorm.

"Stop playing around and get over here!" Rin shouted one final time before turning around and heading to where Katara and Aang had left. She stifled a snicker at Sokka's misfortune.


After wandering around for a few minutes, the group found a small, circular courtyard surrounded by a large wall. Lining the edge of the courtyard were statues of what seemed to be airbender monks.

"It's nice to see one part of the temple that isn't ruined," Aang said, looking up at the statues.

"See? Not everything's changed," Katara said to Rin, who let out a quiet growl. Suddenly, she noticed a man off to the side waving his arms.

"Look out!" he shouted, pointing at the wall. Suddenly, an entire section of the wall fell towards the group, along with one of the many statues. Everybody leapt out of the way, avoiding a giant stone ball that came crashing through the rubble.

"What was that?" Rin shouted, reaching back to draw her hatchet. However, what came through the destroyed wall wasn't an enemy, but a group of construction workers, led by an odd looking, balding man wearing what looked like an apron. Behind them was a large, wooden contraption that had swung the stone ball.

"What the doodle? Don't you know enough to stay away from construction sites?" the man lectured, waving his finger. "We need to make room for the bathhouse!"

"Do you know what you did?!" Aang shouted, raising his staff. "You destroyed something sacred for a stupid bathhouse!"

"Well, people around here are starting to stink," the man said, fanning his nose as if he had smelled something bad.

"This whole place stinks!" Aang yelled, suddenly jumping into the air and shooting a blast of air forwards. The attack blew past the construction workers and hit the contraption behind them, blasting it off the cliff and down the mountain.

"Aang, what the heck!" Rin shouted. "Was that necessary?!"

"That machine destroyed a part of my history and culture!" Aang shouted back before turning to the construction workers and the man. "This is a sacred temple, you can't treat it this way! I've seen it when the monks were here, I know what it's supposed to look like."

"The monks? But you're twelve!" the man exclaimed, rubbing his chin.

"Dad, he's the Avatar," Teo explained. "Aang used to come here a hundred years ago."

"What are you doing?" Aang asked. "Who said that you could be here?"

"Hmm... a long time ago, but not a hundred years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood destroyed our village," the man explained. "My infant son, Teo, was badly hurt and lost his mother. We needed somewhere to rebuild, and we stumbled across this temple. We couldn't believe it! All along the walls were paintings and statues of flying people! But it was empty. Nobody was there. Then, we came across these wonderful, fan-like contraptions!"

"Our gliders," Aang said.

"Yes! Little flying machines!" the man exclaimed, waving his arms up and down. "They gave me an idea: build a new life for my son, in the air! Then everyone will be on equal ground, so to speak. We're just improving upon what's already here. After all, isn't that what nature does?"

"Nature knows when to stop," Aang argued.

"That's true... but progress has a way of getting away from us," the man admitted before turning to the side. "Oh, would you look at the time! We must oil the pulley system before dark!"

What's he talking about? Rin wondered, following the man's gaze. She saw a large candle burning off to the side with layers going up the body of the candle.

"Why are you burning a candle in the middle of the day?" Rin asked before coming to a sudden realization. "Wait, are you telling time with that?"

"And how does that work? The notches are all the same!" Sokka added.

"Just watch," the man instructed, leaning towards the candle. Suddenly, the flame flared out four times, accompanied with four short bangs.

"You put spark powder in the candle! That's genius!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Four flashes. That means four hours past midday," the man explained. "Or as I like to call it, four o' candle!"

Rin sighed at the man's joke, but Sokka seemed to find it funny, since he was laughing like a seal.

"If you like that, you should see my finger-safe knife sharpener! It only took me three tries to get it right," the man continued, holding up his left hand, which Rin saw had three wooden fingers. With his other hand, he pulled out the fake fingers and threw them at Sokka.

"Augh!" the boy shouted in disgust, throwing up the fingers and stepping back. The man walked past him and tapped him on the shoulder, indicating for Sokka to follow him.

"Hey Aang, I want to show you something," Teo said, heading off into the temple. Aang and Katara went to follow him. Aang stopped and turned back towards Rin, who was standing in place.

"You coming?" He asked.

"Uh... I'll go with Sokka," Rin replied before going the other way, down the stairs where Sokka and the bald man had gone. However, she soon found herself in a maze of hallways and rooms, without any indication as to where the two had gone. While wandering around, she passed by one of the construction workers who had taken down the wall.

"Hey, do you know where that bald guy is? The wheelchair kid's dad?" Rin asked.

"I'm not sure, but I believe he should be in his office," the man replied, pointing down the hall. "Just go down there, take a right, take the lift down, and you should be there."

"Got it," Rin said, following the man's instructions. She found the lift he was talking about, which consisted of a circular platform with guardrails and a small roof. The top of the lift connected to a rope, which led to a complex pulley system. The lift looked like it couldn't fit more than a few people.

So how does this work? Rin wondered, stepping onto the circle. The platform was slightly wobbly, but stable enough, considering that it was suspended by a single rope. Off to the side was a lever, which Rin assumed operated the system. She pulled the lever downward, and a sudden jolt went through the lift.

"Shit," Rin muttered, grabbing onto the guardrail as the lift suddenly dropped downwards. After a few seconds the bottom of the lift hit the floor, causing the impact to reverberate through Rin's body. She released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding and stepped off the lift.

How the people here got used to that, I'll never know, Rin thought. Ahead of her was a wooden door. She walked up and turned the knob, but it was locked.

"It's been a long time since I've done this," Rin mumbled, taking her bag from her back and digging through, eventually coming up with a small metal pin. Kneeling down, she stuck the pin into the lock, poking and twisting for a few seconds. A click came from the lock, giving Rin a small feeling of triumph.

That was easier than I remember it being. She twisted the now-compliant doorknob and found what looked like an office room with a large desk pushed to the side. A large shelf was filled to the brim with papers and contraptions, as was the surface of the desk. Larger designs were scattered around the room. A window on the wall overlooked the side of the mountain. As she looked around, she heard two voices approaching the room. It was Sokka and the bald man.

"How did you figure out there were gas leaks in the first place, if you didn't know how to find the gas?"

"Well, I came down one day, and I found holes in the sealant. However, the basement is dark and pretty far down, and it takes a while to gather so many fireflies, so... huh, I don't remember leaving my door open."

The two entered to room to see Rin standing there, looking directly at them. "Oh, it's just Rin. How'd you get here?" Sokka asked.

"I followed you guys down here and the door was unlocked, so I just came in," Rin claimed.

"Hm, I remember locking it on my way out..." the bald man muttered, before looking up and grinning. "Oh well, maybe my age is just catching up to my brain. I need to work on some designs."

The two teenagers started to look around the room as the bald man walked over to his desk. Rin poked around for a few moments before Sokka tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, what do you think this is?" he whispered, pointing to a metal box sitting against the wall that reached up to their knees. The object was bare on all sides, except for a small slot and a button on the top.

"I dunno," Rin muttered, crouching down. She pushed the button, and the box whirred for an instant before going silent again. After rubbing her chin for a moment, she reached into her bag and drew out a knife, placing it into the slot and hitting the button again. This time, there was a grinding sound as the box and knife started vibrating intensely. "I think this is the finger safe knife sharpener he was talking about."

"Huh, that's pretty cool," Sokka said, reaching out for the knife. Suddenly, it shot upwards out of the slot, barely missing his fingers as it drove itself into the ceiling. "Okay, I think I figured out how he lost his fingers."

"Hey, don't touch that! In fact, don't touch anything here. My designs are very delicate," the man shouted from his desk. Rin jumped up and picked her knife out of the ceiling, then heard crashing behind her. Sokka was holding some sort of balloon in his arms, crying out as a rack of scrolls fell onto his head.

"I told you not to touch anything!" the man shouted, walking over and grabbing the balloon while Sokka knelt down to clean up the mess. "Well that experiment's old, and the egg in there was part of last week's lunch."

"Eww, week old egg smell!" Sokka exclaimed, pinching his nose and grimacing.

"Quick, find that egg!" the man ordered, getting down on all fours and searching the room with Sokka. Rin remained standing, watching the two scramble across the floor. She had already spotted the egg wedged between the wall and a desk, but decided against telling them. The looks on their faces were entertaining, especially Sokka's.

"Rin, help us find the rotten egg!" Sokka said. "I don't think I can take the smell much longer."

"Why? It doesn't bother me, so I don't really feel a need to find it," Rin replied.

"Seriously? You can't smell that?" Sokka asked.

"Sokka, I've been in swamps full of rotting animals. I've slept in sewers. I've waded through rivers of shit. A rotten egg is nothing," Rin explained.

"Ugh, how can something so small that you can't even see it make such a big stink?" Sokka asked. The man raised his eyebrows and sat up, as if something just blew his mind.

"That's the solution to our problem!" he exclaimed.

"If we put a whole mess of rotten eggs in the cellar..."

"The gas will mix with the rotten eggs!"

"And if there's a leak..."

"You smell rotten eggs! Then you just follow your nose..."

"And plug up the hole where the gas is coming from!"

"YOU'RE A GENIUS!"

"YOU'RE A GENIUS!"

What the hell just happened? Rin wondered as they looked at each other in realization. Suddenly, a bell next to the desk started ringing.

"Something's wrong; I've got to go!" the man shouted, running out the door. Rin and Sokka looked at each other, shrugging.

"Should we follow him?" Rin asked.

"Why not?" Sokka replied, and they ran out the door, following the man. Eventually, they made it to a long hall, where the man was facing Aang, Katara, and Teo. Behind them was a room full of what seemed to be weapons, tools, and contraptions, all with the Fire Nation insignia.

"You're making weapons for the Fire Nation!" Aang shouted, pointing towards the man.

"You were working for the Fire Nation the whole time?!" Sokka asked.

"Explain this!" Teo demanded.

"It was about a year after we moved here," the man muttered. "You were too young to remember it. Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement. They were going to burn everything to the ground! I pleaded and I begged, and they asked me what I had to offer to their nation."

"Your mind," Rin interrupted.

"Yes, I offered them my services as an inventor," the man continued. "Please Teo, you must understand! I did it for you!"

"I... I can't believe... just go away, Dad. I need to think," Teo said, turning away. His dad sighed, then turned around and headed back to his office.

"So, now what?" Rin asked. "Should we destroy all that stuff back there? If the Fire Nation is keeping this guy around, his inventions must be valuable."

"Give me a second. I'm going to go ask him something," Aang replied, running down the corridor, with Teo rolling along behind him. After a few minutes, they came back with disappointed looks on their faces.

"Bad news, guys. We just refused to give the Fire Nation the inventions, and now they're about to attack the temple," Aang explained.

"This is bad," Teo muttered.

"What are we going to do? How can we possibly keep them all away?" Katara asked.

"I think I have a plan..." Rin muttered. "Katara, how much stuff can you bend at once?"

"Uh, maybe... about a wave's worth of water? Why?" Katara asked.

"Huh, that's not going to be enough..." Rin muttered, looking out the window.

"I think I know how we can win," Aang said. "There's something we have that the Fire Nation doesn't, and that's air power. We control the skies, and they can't do that. We can win!"

"I'm here to help," Rin heard Teo's dad say. The group turned, and there he was, smiling at the end of the corridor.

"Great, we'll need it," Aang replied, smiling back.


They had gathered everyone in the temple to discuss how they would repel the Fire Nation attack. All that Sokka told them was that the Fire Nation was going to attack, without saying anything about the betrayal of Teo's dad.

"We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka. He's a genius!"

"Thank you, you're a genius!"

"Thank you!"

As Sokka went into some long explanation about the war balloon, Rin tuned out, looking around the room. While everyone was generally fit, they were definitely not ready to fight a battle. Well, I guess we can just run if things go bad. I don't think we should worry about a few dozen refugees on the top of some mountain.

"So we've got four kinds of bombs: smoke, fire ..." Sokka explained, catching Rin's attention.

"Wait, bombs?" Rin asked. "How powerful? How many?"

"Hey, let me finish," Sokka said. "Anyways, as I was saying, we have smoke, fire, slime, and..."

"Stink!" Teo's dad finished. "Never underestimate the power of stink."

"Never overestimate it either," Rin muttered before turning to Sokka. "So how many bombs do we have? They explode, right?"

"Well, yeah. They're bombs, of course they explode," Sokka replied. "They're decently powerful, and we should have about... how many do we have?"

"About thirty of each type," Teo's dad answered. "Why? Do you need them for something?"

"I think I have a plan to take down the invading army," Rin said. "But it'll need perfect timing, or else it won't work."

"We'll give it a shot. What is it?" Sokka asked.

"Well, there's a lot of snow on the mountain right now, and that's where the Fire Nation will march up," Rin explained, drawing a rough sketch on the table with her finger. "If we bury a bunch of bombs in the snow, it'll cause an avalanche and shove everything off the mountain. If they don't die, they won't be getting up anytime soon. Believe me, I've been caught in one."

"But... won't they die if they fall off the mountain?" Aang argued.

"Urgh... Aang, this is war! Dozens die every day, and this time, it's either us or them!" Rin shouted.

"Hey, calm down!" Katara said. "We can't be arguing now, not when the Fire Nation is coming."

"Thank you, Katara," Sokka said. "Rin, how many bombs do you need?"

"About... a dozen, maybe?" Rin suggested. "Enough to layer the side of the mountain."

"I guess you can take them," Sokka said. "Now, let's go prepare."


Some help would have been nice.

Rin waded through the snow, planting bomb after bomb into the side of the mountain. The rest of the group was in the temple. Aang and Teo were going to lead the gliders, Katara was on resupply duty with Appa, and Sokka was driving the war balloon with Teo's dad.

"Hey Rin, aren't you cold?" Aang called from the temple.

"No. Why?" Rin replied, putting down the last bomb. She had ordered them in a grid pattern to maximize the snowfall.

"You're knee deep in snow, and all you have on is that cloak and tunic underneath," Aang said.

"I guess I just don't feel it," Rin said, climbing back up to the temple. "Now, if I remember correctly, the man said that the bombs should start a chain reaction if they're close enough..."

"They're coming!" Rin heard one of the lookouts shout.

"Are we ready?" Teo asked.

"Almost, but where's Sokka with the war balloon?" Katara asked.

"We'll have to start without him. Let's go!" Aang shouted, jumping onto his glider. He, Teo, and about a dozen other gliders flew into the sky and down below the clouds to meet the enemy while Katara flew after them on Appa. Rin sat down, waiting for something to do.

I told Aang and Katara to give me a signal when the troops are close. Now I just have to wait...

After about a minute, Aang emerged from the clouds, flying towards Rin. "They're close! Do your thing!"

"Got it!" Rin shouted back, grabbing a firebomb and lighting it. She immediately threw it onto the snow, right in the middle of her bombs. Please let this work...

BOOOM!

The snow exploded, and the side of the mountain was white for an instant. Then, as if it were a liquid, the snow started flowing down the mountain. Rin smirked, glad that her plan worked, then turned to Aang as the snow fell over the side. "How is it down there?"

"The avalanche got a lot of soldiers, but there are more coming up the mountain! There are tanks coming, too!" Aang called, before diving back under the clouds.

So there's backup coming... the chances of us winning are bad, Rin thought, watching as tanks and troops advanced up the mountain. Aang and Katara landed to try and fight them off. As Rin watched, one of the kids from the temple came up to her and tapped her back.

"Are we going to be safe?" the boy asked, almost pleadingly. "Can we stay here?"

"Honestly? You should probably go find a glider and head down the mountain," Rin replied. "This place is about to burn to ashes."

"But this is our home!"

"Better away from home than dead in it, kid. Now go away, I'm thinking," Rin muttered as the kid started to tear up. He ran away, just as Aang, Katara, and Teo came up to the temple.

"We're out of bombs!" Teo shouted.

"Come on, Sokka... where's that war balloon?" Katara pleaded just as a giant red balloon rose up next to her, carrying the Fire Nation insignia and four large sacks of slime. Sokka and Teo's dad were in the basket, tinkering with whatever mechanisms made the balloon fly. As the flew over the Fire Nation army, the slime was dropped, splattering all over the soldiers and tanks.

"Was that supposed to win us the battle?" Rin muttered as the tanks and troops continued up the slope. Suddenly, she noticed Sokka messing with the engine of the balloon.

Hey, what are you... did you just throw that overboard? Wasn't that your engine? And... what's that smell? Is that-

KABOOOOOOOOM!

The entire mountain suddenly erupted into flames, shrouding the temple with smoke. Ear-shattering explosions rang out for a few seconds before fading away into a ringing noise stuck in Rin's ears.

"Sokka, what the hell did you -" Rin shouted before looking over the edge towards what remained of the mountain. "Oh, shit."

"They're retreating!" Rin heard someone say, and indeed, the Fire Nation was backing off. Not because they were losing the fight, but because the entire mountainside had been blown away. There was no path for the troops to climb, no ledges for the tanks to grapple onto. Everyone behind Rin was cheering, but she was more focused on the now engineless balloon.

"We're going down!" Sokka shouted as the balloon, which was now partly collapsed, started dropping down the mountain. Aang immediately jumped down to rescue them, ducking beneath the clouds once again.

"Is he going to be okay?" Katara asked.

"I dunno," Rin replied. "Depends on how fast the Avatar is."

After an anxiously long minute, Aang came back up from the clouds with Sokka and Teo's dad hanging by a rope. Finally, everyone was safe, and the battle was over.


"Can we get going already? Sokka's already up here," Rin shouted down to the rest of the group. After the battle, everyone started celebrating their victory against the Fire Nation, but she and Sokka were already on Appa.

"We need to get to the North Pole," Sokka said. "We're almost there, and if the Fire Nation's already here, Zuko won't be far behind. The Northern Water Tribe will be safe."

"I agree, let's go," Katara replied, climbing up into the saddle. Aang jumped up onto Appa's head, and after a quick "Yip Yip," they were off into the air. Once they were away from the temple, Rin looked out over the clouds, away from the group.

"Is something wrong?" Aang asked.

"Nothing," Rin replied. "It's just... I have a bad feeling about something."

"What is it?" Katara asked.

"Well, something just occurred to me. Aang, you refused to give over the inventions to the Fire Nation earlier today, right?" Rin asked.

"Well, yeah," Aang answered.

"And they attacked just a few hours later. That means that they already had a small army waiting nearby. I doubt that being ready to attack a small refugee dugout would be high on their priority list, so why would they have that many troops so far north?" Rin asked.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence?" Sokka suggested. "Like they have an outpost nearby or something. Or maybe they needed a bunch of people to transport the stuff. You saw the war balloon; it was huge!"

"True," Rin muttered. "Maybe I'm just overthinking things. Whatever, let's just get to the North Pole. I'm tired."

And so they traveled on to their next destination.


Thanks for reading, and I would appreciate it if you left a review and let me know what you think of the story, or what you want from it. Right now, one of the many things that I'd like feedback on is the swearing. Do you like it, or would you rather have it removed? Note that I don't use "hell," even though I would like to, since I believe the Avatarverse doesn't have a hell or underworld (if there were, Zhao would have gone there). Because if this, the main swears used will be "fuck" and "shit." I like to use curse words to add to character, but if you guys don't like it, I can tone it down or remove it. Reader feedback is awesome, and it always helps me improve, so don't hesitate to review, and if you see a typo or error, don't be afraid to tell me. Again, I'm sorry that this chapter took so long, but I hope you like it and will stay for future chapters. Have a nice day.