Last of Our Kind

Sorry I took so long, I hit a creative roadblock and my attention-span stopped working. I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender or the following quote.

"Although I'm only fourteen, I know quite well what I want; I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child, I feel quite independent of anyone."
― Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank

She Never Gives Up

It had been a few days since they left Omashu and the gang decided to make a stop in a secluded forest. Inevitably, people began to get hungry.

"Oh man," Sokka whined, "I'm starving."

"Then go get some food, Meat-head." Wenona retorted.

"Where am I gonna find food in the middle of a forest?"

"Oh gee, I dunno, Sokka." Wenona said sarcastically. "Maybe you can forage like a normal person does when they're camping out in the woods."

Sokka began to grumble about how bossy Wenona was, but he set out to try and find something suitable for dinner. It was not long after that he returned with his bag, claiming to have found some food.

"Great, you're back." Aang exclaimed as Sokka approached. "What's for dinner?"

"We've got a few options." Sokka replied as he rummaged through the sack. "First, round nuts. And…some kind of oval-shaped nuts. And some rock-shaped nuts, that…might just be rocks." Everyone gave him disbelieving glances. "Dig in."

"No, really, what did you get us for dinner?" Wenona asked.

Sokka gave an affronted look. Suddenly, they all heard a loud rumbling noise.

"What in the Naraka was that?!" Wenona exclaimed.

Another rumble was heard.

"It came from over there!" Aang shouted as he pointed in said direction.

Everyone but Sokka immediately ran towards the sound.

"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms, not towards them?!" Sokka called after the others.

The group reached the source of the noise and saw a young man Earthbending. They observed him silently as they hid behind a fallen tree.

"An Earthbender." Katara stated.

"What was your first clue?" Wenona replied sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. Sometimes Katara's point-out-the-obvious attitude could get a little annoying.

"Let's go meet him." Aang suggested.

"He looks dangerous." Sokka pointed out. "So we'd better approach cautiously."

While none of them were paying attention, Katara had darted right into the clearing.

"Hello there! I'm Katara! What's your name?!"

The young man saw her and stopped what he was doing, he then hightailed it away from her, creating a rock slide behind him to cover his escape. The others approached Katara.

"Nice to meet you!" Aang called after him.

"I just wanted to say 'hi'." Katara stated.

"Kit-Kat, what part of 'approach cautiously' did you not understand?" Wenona snapped.

"That guy's gotta be running somewhere. Maybe we're near a village." Aang suggested. "And I bet that village has a market."

"Which means no nuts for dinner!" Katara exclaimed.

"Hey, I worked hard to get those nuts!" Sokka protested.

Wenona and Keng gave Sokka a 'look'.

"Yeah, I hate 'em too."

It was a short time before they came upon a small Earth Kingdom village. They searched around the village for a while before Katara noticed a certain person entering a shop. Katara went straight after him, the others right behind her, and entered the shop. There was no denying it was the same boy they had seen earlier, he was talking to an older woman that they assumed was his mother.

"Hey, you're that kid." Katara said. The boy turned around nervously. "Why did you run away before?"

"Uh, you must have me confused with some other kid." He replied.

"Uh, no we don't." Wenona replied.

"We saw you Earthbending." Aang added.

The boy and his mother gasped in shock. They quickly ran over and closed the door and window.

"They saw you doing what?" The boy's mother demanded.

"They're crazy, Mom. I mean, look at how they're dressed." The boy replied.

Wenona scowled.

"You got a problem with how we look?" She growled. Wenona had the misfortune of being a little sensitive, especially when it came to something that tied into her identity as a member of the Water Tribe. Her siblings just looked over their attire in confusion as Aang adjusted the hat he had purchased mere minutes earlier.

"You know how dangerous that is." The boy's mother continued. "You know what would happen if they caught you Earthbending."

"Who's they?" Keng inquired.

Suddenly there was a pounding on the door.

"Open up!" Came a loud voice outside.

"You just had to ask." Wenona muttered as she and Sokka moved forward to look out the shutters of the window.

"Fire Nation. Act natural." Sokka whispered quickly.

Everyone assumed the most unsuspicious poses they could manage, which wasn't saying much, and the Earthbender's mother let in the Fire Nation soldiers.

"What do you want?" She demanded. "I've already paid you this week."

"The tax just doubled." The man in charge explained. "And we wouldn't want an accident, would we?" He produced a ball of fire in his hands. "Fire…it's sometimes so hard to control."

Grudgingly, the woman handed over what little money she had and the man left. Through the entire exchange, Wenona had felt her blood boil as she glared at the man. Fire Nation thugs she thought no concern for anyone but themselves and their stupid Fire Lord.

"Nice guy." Sokka said sarcastically once the man left.

"A real character." Wenona added.

"How long has the Fire Nation been here?"

"Five years." The woman answered. "Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships."

"They're thugs." Her son stated. "They steal from us. And everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it."

"Quiet, Haru. Don't talk like that."

"But, Haru's an Earthbender." Katara spoke up. "He can help."

"Earthbending is forbidden. It's caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities."

"How can you say that? Haru has a gift. Asking him not to Earthbend is like asking me not to Waterbend. It's a part of who we are."

"You don't understand."

"I understand that Haru can help you fight back. What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"

"They could take Haru away! Like they took his father."

"Kit-Kat really doesn't know when to give up, does she?" Wenona asked the others as the group set up camp in the barn for the evening.

"And it really gets old sometimes." Sokka responded. "I mean, trying to be inspirational is one thing, but she just goes jabber, jabber, jabber. It is so annoying." Wenona scowled and thwacked Sokka on the head.

"I wasn't criticizing her, Meat-head. And you shouldn't talk about her like that behind her back, it's rude."

"You were the one who opened the topic for discussion."

"I was thinking out loud, Meat-head. You didn't have to respond."

"Hey, where is Katara anyway?"

"She went on a walk with Haru." Keng pointed out.

"What?! Alone with a boy?! He'd better not try anything, or else…"

"Sokka, could you please put a sock in it?" Wenona asked. She stopped when she realized the pun and burst out laughing. "Get it? Sock?"

Sokka joined in the laughter, even if it had been a bit of an insult. The two oldest of the group threw their arms over each other's shoulder.

"Aw man, you still got it, Nona." Sokka said as he wiped away a tear from his eye that came about from laughing so hard.

"Don't worry, Sokka." Wenona continued. "I'm sure Katara and Haru are just talking. And if he did try any funny business with little Kit-Kat, we'd skin him alive."

They bumped knuckles. Aang threw Keng a confused look.

"They're a little…overprotective." The Waterbender said.

"I'll say." The Avatar replied.

It was about an hour later when Katara returned, the sun was almost completely below the horizon and Sokka had been standing outside the barn tapping his foot irritably. Katara then launched into the story of how Haru had used his Earthbending to save an old man from being crushed by a collapsing mine.

"It was so brave of Haru to use his Earthbending to help that old man." Katara stated.

"Yes, Kit-Kat, for the hundredth time, we get it." Wenona groaned as the gang settled down for the night.

"You must have really inspired him." Aang said, causing Wenona to groan again that people were keeping her up.

"I guess so." Katara continued.

"No one inspires people like you do, sis." Keng said as he hugged his sister from his place in the sleeping bag between her and Wenona.

"Oh, for the love of Setna." Wenona grumbled. "Could everyone please let me go to sleep?"

"Nona's right." Sokka pointed out. "We all need some sleep. We're leaving at dawn."

"Dawn?" Katara exclaimed with surprise. "Can't we sleep in for once?"

"Absolutely not. This town is crawling with Fire Nation troops."

"Sokka does make a good point." Keng added. "If they find out that Aang is here…"

"We'll be eating fire-balls for breakfast. Goodnight."

"I'd rather eat fire-balls than nuts." Katara muttered.

"Goodnight." Sokka and Wenona both retorted irritably, though for different reasons.

Aang and Keng chuckled as Katara blew out the light. Soon, they all drifted off into sleep.

Wenona found herself sitting with Akari the Firebender once again. The dreams were becoming very frequent now. Almost every time she closed her eyes.

"What a beautiful necklace." Akari said as she pointed to Wenona's throat. Wenona felt her face contort into a frown.

"I hate it."

"Why?"

"It's a betrothal necklace."

"Well, isn't that good? Who's the lucky guy?"

"The chief's son. The most arrogant, pompous, sexist jerk who ever lived. He's forcing me to marry him, even had his father make it an official order."

"You gave me some great advice once. To be true to your heart no matter what others think."

The two were silent for a moment before Akari gave her a playful jab with her elbow.

"I think I know who you really wish had given you a betrothal necklace. That young Earth Kingdom boy."

"I don't know who you mean." Wenona replied, but her face was getting warm.

"Come now. You know who I'm talking about. That young vagabond with the crooked smile."

"Akari, you have officially lost it."

"I think it's sweet. You two would be perfect together."

"Yeah. If I wasn't being forced to marry that jerk back in my tribe. He's actually considering forbidding women from learning Waterbending. Can you believe it?"

"That's ridiculous. Women have just as much right to learn Bending as men."

"And even more of a right in the case of Waterbending. Why, a woman was the first person to learn Waterbending."

"Same for Firebending."

"Well, I'm not gonna take this. If there's anything else you can say about me it's that I never give up."

"That's my girl. Now when you get home to your tribe, you are going to throw that pendant back in his stupid, sexist face."

"I might just do that, Akari. I might just do that."

Wenona was woken the next morning by Sokka shaking her awake. Katara had gone to get some water for them while they packed up. Not even five minutes later, Katara came running back in and babbling about how Haru had been taken away by Fire Nation troops.

"Slow down, Katara." Sokka said. "When did this happen?"

"Haru's mother said they came for him at midnight." She replied.

"Then it's too late to track him. He's long gone."

"We don't need to track him. The Fire Nation is going to take me right to Haru."

"And they would do that why?" Keng asked.

"Because they're going to arrest me for Earthbending."

The others all exchanged looks.

"Uhhh, Kit-Kit, not to put a dent in your plans, but…you're not an Earthbender." Wenona pointed out.

"Well, we'll just have to find a way to make it look like I am."

"I think this is crazy." Sokka grumbled.

"No one asked you, Sokka."

"I'm just saying we need to be logical about this. How are we going to make it look like you're an Earthbender?"

"I don't know! But we have to try something!"

Wenona looked down at the ground in thought. They couldn't just abandon Haru. There had to be a way.

"Wait a second." Sokka spoke up. "I think I got an idea."

"And you thought this was crazy." Wenona teased Sokka as the three oldest members of the group rolled a large rock towards one of the air-vents.

"Yeah, but I made it not crazy." Sokka replied. "You see, there are ventilation shafts throughout these mines. All Aang has to do is send an air-current from that vent to this one right here. The boulder levitates and ta-da! Fake Earthbending."

"Aang, did you get all that?" Katara asked the Airbender who was currently entertaining Momo by Airbending at a butterfly.

"Sure, sure. I got it." He replied.

"You'll remember your cue, right?" Wenona asked.

"Yeah, yeah, just relax. You're taking all the fun out of this."

"By this do you mean intentionally being captured by an army of ruthless Firebenders?" Sokka inquired.

"Exactly. That's fun stuff."

"Don't worry, guys," Keng said to his siblings, "I'll make sure he doesn't miss the cue."

"Here they come." Sokka declared. "Get in your places."

Wenona ducked out of sight while the two eldest of her younger siblings stood ready to begin their charade. Wenona had tried to convince Katara to let her be arrested instead, but Katara insisted on doing this herself as she felt responsible for what had happened to Haru. As Katara and Sokka began their act, Wenona had to fight to keep herself from laughing at the ridiculous display. Then came the moment for the signal.

"I'll show you who's boss. Earthbending style!" Katara shouted.

Keng noticed the signal and nudged Aang with his elbow. Aang immediately snapped back to reality and sent an air-current through the vent. Then, one of the Fire Nation guards said something that made Wenona want to roll around on the floor in hysterics.

"That lemur! He's Earthbending!"

Wenona looked and saw Momo standing by the boulder with his arms outstretched.

"No, you idiot, it's the girl." Sokka snapped.

"Oh. Of course."

Wenona then had to wrestle with the urge to beat the living daylights out of the Fire Nation soldiers as they led away her little sister. Wenona knew that Katara would be fine, but that didn't change how she felt at seeing her baby sister taken away like that. She was so focused on watching Katara that she hardly registered what Sokka said.

"Momo, you have some big ears."

The four remaining members of the group followed the ship that they knew Katara was on, making sure that Appa stayed well-hidden in the clouds. Wenona stared down at the vessel below them.

"She'll be fine." Keng said as he placed a comforting hand on Wenona's shoulder.

"I know." Wenona replied. "You know Kit-Kat, she never gives up. She's too strong-willed."

"Something you both have in common."

"At least Nona is smart enough to realize when she's gotten in too deep." Sokka pointed out. "Katara never knows when to back out before she gets herself, or us, in trouble."

Wenona scowled.

"What did I say about bad-mouthing our sister behind her back?" Wenona snapped.

"Uh, guys," Aang spoke up, "I think I've found where they're taking her." He pointed to the ominous-looking structure in the distance. Aang looked worried.

"She'll be fine, Aang." Keng assured him. "Katara knows what she's doing."

They continued to circle through the clouds until nightfall, when they descended down towards the rig. Wenona made it quite clear that she would be the one to fetch Katara. Silently, the older Waterbender slipped onto the rig and crept about, looking for her sister. She peered into the prisoners' sleeping-quarters until she saw a familiar figure. She gently placed a hand over Katara's mouth in case she let out a sound that would draw unnecessary attention.

"Shh, it's me." Wenona whispered. She took Katara by the arm and led her outside. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Katara whispered back.

"Did you find Haru?"

"Yes, but there's a problem. He and the other Earthbenders refuse to fight against their captors. We can't just leave them all behind."

"Come on, we have to go see the others."

Wenona pulled Katara over to where Sokka, Aang, and Keng were waiting on Appa.

"Your 12-hours are up. Where's Haru?" Sokka inquired. "We've gotta get out of here."

"I can't." Katara responded.

"We don't have much time. There are guards everywhere. Get on."

"Katara, what's wrong?" Aang asked.

"She wants to stay and help the Earthbenders." Wenona answered.

"Katara please." Keng pleaded. "Be reasonable."

"I'm not leaving." Katara stated firmly. "I'm not giving up on these people."

"What do you mean you're not leaving?" Sokka demanded.

"We can't abandon these people. There has to be a way to help them."

"Maybe she's right." Aang stated. "What do you guys think?"

"I say you're both crazy." Sokka snapped. They then had to duck out of view of the searchlight. Once it was clear, they sat up again.

"It may be crazy, but isn't it worth taking a chance?" Wenona replied.

"Nona, this isn't like you. You always know when it's best to back out."

"Exactly, and my gut tells me that we need to stay."

"I'm with Sokka on this one, guys." Keng stated. "Normally, I'd be all for ya, but this just seems like too much of a leap of faith." They had to duck the lights again.

"Last chance, we need to leave. Now." Sokka cautioned.

"No." Katara insisted.

"I hate when you get like this. Come on, we better hide."

"I'll take charge of Appa." Keng stated as he hopped onto the bison's head and steered him out of sight.

The other four hid amongst some shipping crates.

"We don't have much time." Sokka said. "What are we gonna do?"

"I wish I knew how to make a hurricane." Aang said despairingly. The others all gave him weird looks. "The warden would run away and we'd steal his keys."

"Wouldn't he just take his keys with him?"

"And how would taking his keys even help us, Air-head?" Wenona snapped.

"I'm just tossing ideas around." Aang replied.

"I tried to talk the Earthbenders into fighting back but it didn't work." Katara bemoaned her failed speech. "If there was just a way to help them help themselves."

"For that they'd need some kind of earth or some rock. Something they can Bend." Sokka stated.

"Something like…that." Wenona pointed towards the vents where smoke was escaping. "Coal. They must be burning it to fuel this place."

"Of course." Aang agreed. "It's earth."

"I think I have plan." Sokka said.

"Wow, Sokka, two plans in one day. Must be a new record for you." Wenona sniped.

"My dear sister, I have not even begun to plan." He replied with a sly smirk.

"It's almost dawn. We're running out of time." Katara whispered frantically to her older siblings. "You guys sure this is gonna work?"

"Positive." Wenona replied.

Sokka then explained how the whole plan worked the same way that their fake Earthbending scheme from before had. Suddenly, they were interrupted by a shout.

"There's the intruders!" A guard declared.

"Stay back!" Sokka threatened while holding up his boomerang. "I'm warning you!"

"Katara, stop!" An old man, who Katara knew to be Haru's father Tyro, warned her. "You can't win this fight!"

"Listen to him well, child." The warden said as he approached. "You're one mistake away from dying where you stand."

"We've faced worse." Wenona retorted.

As the guards drew closer, there was a sudden rumbling and a fountain of coal poured forth from the vent, followed by a soot-covered Avatar.

"Here's your chance, Earthbenders!" Katara shouted. "Take it! Your fate is in your own hands!"

No one responded with the exception of a few people who backed away. Suddenly, the warden began laughing.

"Foolish girl." He said. "You thought a few inspirational words and some coal would change these people? Look at these blank, hopeless faces. Their spirits were broken a long time ago. Oh, but you still believe in them? How sweet. They're a waste of your energy, little girl. You failed."

The warden turned to leave. Wenona was about ready to charge at him and beat him to a pulp for what he said to her sister, but before she had a chance a lump of coal hit him squarely on the head. The coal was launched by none other than Haru. That one action soon became a full-on prison riot, with the Earthbenders emerging victorious.

Soon, they were all sailing away from the rig. Everyone was free at last. Haru and his father thanked Katara for inspiring them and helping them to find their courage once again. However, the happy moment was ruined when Katara realized something.

"My mother's necklace! It's gone!"

Meanwhile, back on the rig, a banished Fire Nation prince found a necklace lying on the ground.

"It's okay, Katara." Keng said reassuringly as the team flew away on Appa.

"No it's not." She replied.

"You're darn right it's not!" Wenona yelled. "How could you lose Mom's necklace?! It's your most prized possession! It's the only thing we have left of her!"

"Wenona, that's not helpful." Keng cautioned. "You're making her feel worse than she already does."

Wenona's angry expression fell and was replaced by a look of regret.

"I'm sorry, Kit-Kat. I didn't mean to take it out on you. It's just…"

"I know." Katara said as she hugged her sister. "I'm sorry I lost it. I know how you feel. I miss her too."

Wenona hugged back.

"We don't have time to go back and look for it." Sokka told them. "The Fire Nation is probably securing the place as we speak."

They all nodded in sad agreement.

That night, as they slept, Wenona had another dream.

"You can't make me!" She yelled. "I won't go through with it!"

"Please, child, see reason." Someone pleaded with her.

"I do see reason! And there is no reason in forcing me into a loveless marriage!"

"If you don't agree, you are no longer a member of our tribe." A man said to her.

"Fine." Wenona said. "I never want to see this place again!" She turned to a young man, who was looking furious. "I hope you burn in Naraka for all eternity." She hissed at him. She reached up to her neck and tore off the pendant she wore. She flung the object so it hit him right in the forehead. She turned and stormed out to where three people waited for her.

Wow, Wenona's getting more visions and stuff. Bet you all are wondering what all this means. Well, I'm not gonna tell you yet. You'll have to wait and see. This was a painfully hard chapter to write, but I'm sorry I took so long. See you soon.