Author's Note: Sorry I didn't get this up earlier. I'm just being a slacker. And the chapter is entirely about the unnamed guy from the last paragraph of "Crossing Over." Hooray for filler chapters!

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar… And I actually don't own Sapphire either. She was created by another fan fiction writer on the other site that this story was originally posted on and requested that I add her to the story.

He walked through the streets of the occupied town. He could have, would have helped these people at one point in time, but now it would be one guy against an entire army. And even he wasn't that crazy.

Lost in his musings, he ran right into a girl with long black hair parted down the middle.

"Oh, sorry, I-I wasn't looking," the girl apologized.

"No, it was my fault," he shook his head. He kept walking.

"Hey, my name's Sapphire," the girl followed him, "What's yours?"

"It's not important," he shrugged. Even if it was important, he didn't trust the Fire Nation and anyone could be Fire Nation here.

"You're trying to get away from them too, like me, aren't you?" Sapphire whispered. He nodded stiffly. "Then we may as well stick together," she continued, "I know how we could get food. It'll be easy, piece of cake. See that food stand over there?" she pointed, "I'll distract the guy and you can take some stuff and run. Or you could distract him, if you want."

"No thanks, I'm not hun-" his stomach growled loudly, "-gry…? You can distract him."

"Hello my good sir," Sapphire bowed to the merchant in the traditional Fire Nation way (he cringed a bit as he started gathering some ocean kumquats), "I'd like to ask you a few questions."

"What about?" the irritable merchant raised an eyebrow.

"Your… um… fine sea slugs!" Sapphire improvised, directing the merchant's attention to anything but her accomplice, "Where did you get them?"

"Trade secret," the merchant growled, "Anything else?"

He picked up some meat. Sapphire was a good distraction. At one point, she might have made a good-

"Hey you!" a Fire Nation soldier shouted, interrupting his thoughts, "Are you stealing that melon?" Oh, shoot, he knew he shouldn't have taken the melon! It was way too big! The merchant turned to him for a few seconds, and then looked back at Sapphire furiously.

"Run!" Sapphire stated the slightly obvious.

They dashed through the streets, leaving a wake of destruction in their path. He kicked over a trash can, Sapphire stepped on the tail of a pygmy puma, and a group of Fire Nation soldiers knocked a small cabbage stand to the ground.

"My cabbages!!" the Cabbage Merchant wailed.

"Piece of cake, huh?" he gave Sapphire a dirty look, which suddenly grew dirtier as they ran into a dead end. "Now what?" he asked. He had decided against making any new plans or schemes awhile ago.

"We fight fire with fire," Sapphire grinned, speaking quite literally. She got into her stance.

"Give it up!" a Fire Nation soldier commanded, "You're surrounded!"

"Not for long," Sapphire mumbled. She threw a kick into the space in front of her and an inferno flew toward the unsuspecting soldiers.

He took an involuntary step back. In that fire, he saw the village where he had grown up burning to the ground. He turned away. The memories were too painful.

"Come ON!" Sapphire grabbed him by the hand and pulled him through the crowd, "We need to get going!" He followed, too stunned to protest.

"Well, that was a full day," Sapphire yawned and stretched that night, "Good night."

He watched her sleep for awhile. She wasn't bad, but she was Fire Nation. He couldn't overlook that. It was easy for him to remind himself now, though; she wasn't the girl from his now-recurring nightmare. But during that dream…

"I hate the Fire Nation," he whispered to himself, "I hate them, I hate them, I hate them." He had to leave Sapphire behind.

He drew his swords and scratched out a message in the dirt.

"I have to leave. There's nothing I can do about it. It's nothing personal. Sorry."

He wrote his name and the name of the organization he had once proudly led. Then he put his swords away, gathered his things, took half of the day's spoils, and left.