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This chapter picks up after "The King of Omashu" I decided to skip that chapter because Shio wouldn't have changed anything.

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Anyhoo, enough begging, on with the story!

Parents

The four made a stop at the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu and had a very interesting few days as the guests of one of Aang's old friends: King Bumi. After he wished them luck they had went on their way. Currently they were camped out in the forest and Sokka and Shio were returning after searching for food.

"Oh, boy! Dinner!" exclaimed Aang.

"Not much of one," said Shio shaking his head, "There's really no wildlife around to hunt so we had to settle for a bunch of nuts."

"Yup," said Sokka, "We got round, oval and rock shaped nuts; but I'm pretty sure those are just rocks."

"Aww," complained Aang, "We haven't had a decent meal since we left Omashu,"

"You're telling me," said Shio, "I've lost like five pounds since we left the Fire Nation,"

Suddenly they all heard a big boom. "Ok," said Sokka looking around, his eyes big, "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know." said Aang.

The sound repeated itself and the group rushed over to see what it was. They saw a boy who was a little older than Sokka practicing earth bending in a ditch. Sokka told them all to be cautious but even as he said that Katara was climbing over the log to say hi to the boy. She yelled a greeting; but upon hearing her, the boy turned and ran bringing down a portion of the ditch in order to cover his escape. They figured that they boy had to have run somewhere so they went in the general direction he had fled.

They soon arrived in a small town. Glancing over at Shio, Katara noticed that he looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"Everything ok?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered, rather distractedly, "I'm going to go see if there's any Fire Nation around. I'll meet up with you guys later." And he walked briskly off.

"What's up with him?" asked Sokka.

Katara just shrugged; she glanced over and spotted the boy they had seen going into a shop on the other side of the street. They followed him into the shop and confronted him about what they had seen in the woods. They learned from Haru, the boy they had seen, and Haru's mother, that earth bending was illegal and that the Fire Nation had taken Haru's father from him for that reason; during their discussion a Fire Nation soldier came in and extorted money from Haru's mother. Luckily they offered to put Aang and company up for the night in their barn.

As Haru was showing them to the barn, Shio walked up, "Man, this place is crawling with Fire Nation! Oh, pardon my manners," he said to Haru, he bowed and said "Thank you for letting us stay here for the night,"

Haru looked closely at the new arrival; suddenly realization and rage filled his eyes. "You!" he shouted pointing an accusing finger at the swordsman, "You're the one who took my father from me!" He bent a boulder out of the ground and hurled it at Shio, who tried to dodge it but took a glancing blow to the side and fell to the ground.

Katara stepped in front of the two "Enough!" she said to Haru, "He's with us!"

"I don't care!" replied the enraged earth bender, "He took my father from me and he has to pay!"

"Is this true?" she asked Shio who was sitting up on the ground, "did you kidnap his father?"

"No, I- damn," said the swordsman.

"What?" Katara asked.

"I can't lie to you; yes I was involved in taking his father," he said hanging his head, "I was part of a Fire Nation squad that put down the rebellion here three years ago,"

(A/N: Yes I know it was five years ago but I'm going to bend the timeline a little to make this work, hey time bending, there's an idea…)

"I had just started being friends with Azula and she wanted to test me," he looked up at the furious earth bender "I'm truly sorry, I was confused and misguided back then; but I don't think that excuse is going to be good enough for you."

"No, it isn't," said Haru, "You are not staying here tonight, the rest are welcome though."

Sokka stepped up, "I can vouch for him; he's changed a lot. We were captured by Prince Zuko and locked in a Fire Nation prison; he single-handedly knocked Princess Azula unconscious, broke us out, and killed fifteen guards in the process; and, mind you, this was in the Fire Nation Capital!"

"He's on our side now," added Aang, "At first, I wasn't so sure about him either, but he's saved our butts several times now; I trust him, not as much as these two, but still."

"I'm sorry," Shio said again.

"Take off your glasses and look me in the eye when you say that." said Haru.

"I can't, I would literally go blind if I did."

The earth bender threw up an earth tent around the two of them, "How about now?"

The swordsman removed his glasses, "I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused you and your mother, and I vow to do anything I can to make it up to you."

Haru dropped the tent and nodded, "He can stay." he said and walked off. Katara followed.

"He really has changed," she said as they walked.

"I'll believe it when I see it," replied Haru.

"I know you're mad that he took your father from you; but believe it or not, the Fire Nation has hurt him too."

"How?"

"They took his childhood," Haru gave her a quizzical look; "The Fire Nation destroyed his village when he was a newborn, leaving him an orphan. He was adopted by a swordsman who trained him to be a living weapon from the time he could walk; he never got to have a real father or mother."

"Hmm," said Haru, still not convinced.

"All of us in the group have been affected by the Fire Nation," She put her hand to her necklace, "My mother was killed in a raid on our village; this is all I have left of her…"

"It's not enough," said Haru stating a fact

"No, it's not."

They eventually started walking back to the house; on the way they saw a man trapped in under a mine cave in, and Haru was forced to use his bending to free him. They escorted the man back to the village and went home to get some sleep.

The next morning, as Sokka, Aang and Shio were waking up, Katara burst in yelling "They took Haru!"

"When?" asked Sokka.

"At midnight! This is all my fault!"

"No it's not," said Shio, "From what I heard you did the right thing yesterday."

"Well, I'm going after him," she said, determination burning in her eyes.

"Its way too late for that," Sokka said.

"No it's not;" she replied confidently, "The fire Nation is going to arrest me for earth bending."

Later, as Katara and Sokka rolled a boulder over an air vent Shio rubbed his chin, "You know," he said, "this is just crazy enough to actually work!"

Aang and Shio hid behind a rock as Sokka and Katara staged a fake fight when a Fire Nation patrol came along; Aang almost gave the ruse away when he forgot his cue and made Katara shout "Earth Bending style!" twice. Luckily the soldiers weren't all that bright, and they arrested her anyway. They took her to a Fire Nation prison rig with the other three following the whole time. They waited for twelve hours before going to pick up Katara.

The pick up time came and they landed on the far side of the rig under the cover of night. Aang snuck in and got Katara; "Let's go!" whispered Sokka, "We got to get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving these people," countered Katara and she told them of all the things that had happened to her on the rig. "Well?" she asked after she had finished, "Are you guys going to help me bust these people out or not?"

"I'm in," said Shio, "I relish any opportunity I get to kick some Fire Benders into next week."

"Sure," said Aang, "These people sound like they really need help."

"I'm not going to win this argument, am I?" sighed Sokka.

"Nope," said Katara "Let's go!"

They snuck back into the rig and hid behind a bunch of crates. "You know," said Shio, "Maybe these people would be more willing to fight back if they had some tools to fight back with,"

"Yeah," said Sokka, "If only we had some rock. We could carry some in on Appa, but that would take hours."

"Hey," said Aang, "What about coal?"

"What about it?" said Katara.

"This rig burns coal! So if we could get some up on the deck they could fight!"

"I like it!" said Shio, and the four started to plan.

Just as the sun was starting to rise as they put the finishing touches on their latest plan. Sokka was recapping the details to Katara when a squad of Fire Nation soldiers surrounded them. The two got into fighting stances.

"Katara!" yelled Tyro, Haru's father, "Stop this before someone gets hurt!"

Suddenly the grate in the middle of the deck burst open and the entire coal content of the rig poured out along with one really dirty Air Bender. As Aang dusted himself off Katara climbed on top of the pile "This is your chance Earth Benders!" she shouted to the assembled prisoners, "Your freedom sits right in front of you! Don't waste it!"

To the group's surprise, instead of rushing forward and attacking the Fire Nation troops, the Earth Benders took a step back, apprehension on their faces.

"Stupid girl," laughed the warden, "These people's spirit was broken a long time ago; no matter what you do they will not change." He turned to one of his officers, "Get this cleaned up."

As the warden strode away, a large rock hit him in the back of the head; h turned to see Haru standing there giving him a death glare that could stop time. "No mercy," the Warden snarled and launched an attack at the boy. The other earth benders were forced to act to save the boy and the battle was on.

The earth benders quickly overwhelmed the troops with the warden in the main yard, but reinforcements soon arrived. Sokka charged a group of spearmen and chopped their spears in half with his boomerang and tossed them up to Momo. Shio bounded into a group of soldiers and using a series of non-lethal slashes dispatched the lot of them. As the group was getting ready to make a run for the ships, Aang created a kind of coal machine gun using Air bending; the rest fed coal to it and knocked the rest of the soldiers down. Haru and Tyro made a giant platform using coal and prepared to dump the Fire Nation personnel into the water; the warden pleaded them not to do it because he couldn't swim. "Don't worry, I hear cowards float," replied Tyro and dropped them into the water.

The large group then stole every ship from the rig that they could get their hands on. Katara hugged Tyro and Haru goodbye after many thanks on their part; she joined the other three on Appa. As they flew northward, she caught Shio starring at her with a weird look on his face.

"What?" she asked.

"Huh? Um, er, nothing," replied Shio, clearly embarrassed, "I just noticed that your necklace was gone."

"Oh no! My necklace!"

Back on the prison rig Prince Zuko picked up the necklace; At last, he thought, I'm back on the trail.

Sorry it's been so long, I got lazy; I promise the next one will be up in a more timely fashion.

As usual, please review!

Until next time!