Chapter Six: New Friend, New Enemies

"I'm coming too!"

Suki- The Serpent's Pass

"Ugh.. Are we landing yet? Please tell me we're landing soon!"

Sokka couldn't quite help the unkind snicker that escaped him as he beheld the rather sick expression of their new passenger. "What, don't tell me that you're getting woozy from flying for one measly hour!"

Suki, three shades paler than usual beneath her warrior's paint, glared weakly at Sokka's ribbing attempts and tried to ignore the weird flipping sensation inside her belly. "I am not woozy!" She protested, determinedly keeping her eyes away from looking over the edge of the saddle."I'm just... I'm not used to this, okay? The highest I've ever been was in a tree, and that wasn't flying top speed over the ocean!"

Katara and Aang couldn't help their amused laughter at the idea of a flying tree from their place at Appa's reins (where Aang was currently trying to teach the young Avatar the finer points of guiding a flying bison in flight), and they earned another sour glare from their newest friend.

It had been a pleasant surprise to the Gaang when they had all gathered for breakfast two days ago to hear Midori announce that she and the other Kyoshi Warriors were inspired to help the Avatar change the world for the better, and she asked permission from Oyaji to take her warriors and leave for the mainland to help with the refugee relief effort they had heard about. However, the real shock of the morning was when Suki stood and specifically asked to join Katara on her journey up to the North Pole. After a long discussion between her mother, Katara, and Oyaji, it was decided that she would act as a representative of the Earth Kingdom when up North, as well as take account for the Islanders what was really going on with the war. Midori would be sending reports back as well, and it seemed that the staunch isolationism of the town was finally melting away into a slightly proactive society, beginning with the Kyoshi Warriors.

The rest of that day and all of the next had been a flurry of activity in the newly repaired town. Oyaji had sent a letter to one of their two neighboring villages and requested that their band of warriors could be called in should an emergency require them in the absence of his own. Suki was busy packing and saying her goodbyes to her family and friends, as well as getting last minute orders from both Oyaji and Midori. Katara had taken it upon herself to restock as much food and supplies as possible, while Sokka trailed behind carrying the baskets, grumbling that the air would be filled with 'ball shrinking estrogen' with the two girls in the same saddle. He had received a slap upside the wolftail for his comment, and Aang laughed in the background, taking the preparatory chaos in stride and feeling better than he had since the whole journey started. Things were looking up, and it felt great to be flying in the fresh morning air and feeling the wind on his face, and it felt even better to have Katara still be his friend after all the ridiculous drama that took place on the Island.

Now, if only he could teach her how to steer properly...

"Okay, let's try this again. Slowly steer us both down and to the right."

Suki let out a surprisingly high pitched shriek when Appa took a sharp, curving dive, and the ocean came up to meet them at a terrifying pace before the bison righted himself with a mighty downward sweep of his tail that sent ocean spray everywhere. Sokka gripped the saddle's edge with one hand while snagging a rolling basket with the other, and though he was internally laughing at Suki's reaction, he was starting to seriously question Katara's driving skills. "What the heck was that, Katara? You just about dumped us and all our supplies into the ocean!"

"Sorry!"

Momo, who was flying beside Appa catching bugs, didn't seem to mind his giant friend's erratic flight patterns, but Appa blew out a long, whooshing breath through his nose, offering a scolding 'Chuff chuff!' at the two young Avatars for their less than stellar attempts at steering. Aang petted Appa on the head soothingly. "Sorry buddy, but it's all a part of an airbender's training- she's gotta learn how to handle a flying bison sometime. I might be the last Air Nomad, but nobody ever said that the bison or lemurs are all gone- look at Momo! By the time we find more bison, Katara will already know how to properly handle her own, am I right?"

Properly mollified at the idea that it was a reverse breaking in, Appa nonetheless uttered a low hum deep in his throat, a sound that adult bison reserved for silly calves that both amused and annoyed their elders.

Katara angled a suspicious look at Aang, who muffled a laugh with his hand. "What did he just say to me? I know he was saying something about me just now!"

The smile on his face radiated mischief, and the all too familiar expression made her suspicion skyrocket. "...Nothin', just that he says he likes you a lot but you have a ways to go in trying out for a polo tournament."

She huffed, though she couldn't quite fight off her answering smile. "He did not! I'm just starting out, what does he expect?"

Appa glanced up at her with a very ironic expression for an animal, and offered a 'Grummmmmmm' in reply.

"He says-"

Katara held up a hand and rolled her eyes. "Oh shush, you two."

"Who are you talking to?"

Katara turned to see Suki peering cautiously at her over the saddle lip, her brow twisted in confusion. She mentally smacked herself for not introducing Suki to Aang before. "Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot to tell you about Aang!"

Suki's brow rose a notch. "Who is Aang?"

"It's her invisible boyfriend that no one else can see or hear but her."

"He is not my boyfriend, Sokka!" Katara blushed madly, scowling at her brother's gleeful needling. She turned to Suki, wrangling the conversation back to the original topic with a warning glare at her smirking brother. "Ignore him, Suki. Aang is the Avatar who came before me," She explained, "My father found him inside an iceberg on a hunting trip, and when he freed Aang, he died, since he was frozen inside for almost ninety years and the Avatar Spirit can't keep someone alive forever. Since I happened to be born that very day, I guess the Avatar Spirit decided to choose me as the next Avatar. Aang has been by my side ever since."

Suki straightened, her eyes widening and momentarily forgetting her fear of flying in her astonishment. "Wow! You can talk to him, whenever you want?"

Katara nodded. "When I was little I followed Aang around like a baby otterpenguin begging him to tell me stories, and sometimes we would go on little adventures on the tundra outside our village and play pretend." She smiled at Aang fondly, and their eyes both shone with the shared memories of their little adventures together. "I'm pretty sure he's the reason Gran Gran had amulets and charms strung up in our home. I suppose she caught me talking to him, and thought I was talking to a ghost."

"She's pretty sharp for an old lady," Aang agreed with a grimace, remembering the very incident that had caused it. Though Katara had forgotten bits and pieces of it, Aang fully remembered the time when she had discovered that he could walk through solid objects (something he had decided to do one day to entertain her), and she had grabbed his wrist with the intention of running off and telling her family about it. Being a rambunctious three year old, she had never given much thought to the fact that she was the only one who could see him, and tried to talk to him (and about him) wherever they were, including when Gran Gran Kanna was babysitting. "You tried to show your Gran how I could walk through things, and she went to see the Shaman two minutes later."

Katara coughed self consciously. "Oh yeah, now I remember."

Suki tilted her head to the side, studying the seemingly empty spot next to Katara (and the one-sided conversation) with unconstrained awe. Intrigue and wonder finally forced her to cave in to her childish curiosity, and she clasped her hands together as the questions poured out of her. "What's he saying right now? What does he look like? Is he a really old man, then? Tell me everything!"

Sokka tipped his head backward and let it clonk on the saddle lip with a groan as Suki's excitement fed his sister's enthusiasm over having someone to talk about Aang with. Not that he really minded or anything, but it just made a weird situation for him become even weirder. "Great. Now we have two fan girls for you, Invisiboy- one of them a literal fan girl. Maybe I should freeze myself in a magical iceberg and become a ghost so I can hang around a girl all the time."

Conveniently forgotten for the moment, Aang rolled his eyes and floated into the saddle. "Believe me, being dead is not as cool as you think it is, Sokka." He paused, then quirked an eyebrow at the boy. "Wait, what do you mean 'hang around a girl'? Suki's a girl."

Of course, it went unheard by everyone as Katara continued filling Suki in on Aang's story and his appearance (He blushed when he caught something about his tattoos, which prompted even more questions), and Sokka uttered an annoyed whine at being ignored himself. The teenager stretched out on the saddled floor and pulled out the map again, studying their route with ever growing despair as the girls chattered on in the background. Two months worth of traveling on a flying bison with two girls, a lemur, and an invisible kid who liked to pull pranks on him? "Ugh... something tells me that this is going to be a long trip."

Zhao was in the most foul of moods.

The soldiers and crew had survived the storm none the worse for wear (minus the unfortunate three who were washed overboard), but the same could not be said of the Interceptor. Deep in the bowels of the ship the captain scowled at the two engines that had failed as he contemplated what his options were, his back ramrod straight and his hands clasped behind his back.

Two of five engines down. Of all the damnable luck! Now I'll never get to Fong's base, and that idiot Yao will end up heading the mission while we're stuck limping along the Earth Kingdom coast.

As they had cut through the worst of the storm and headed south, the first engine's crankshaft ground to a halt when the piston broke around halfway through the night, and the second engine succumbed to the same fate when Zhao had ordered the other four to take up the slack. To prevent the boiler from getting too pressurized (and blowing up the Interceptor sky high), he had the engineers bleed the pressure from the remaining three; and without the forward momentum of all the engines, the storm had taken over in steering the ship. Once they cleared the storm's path and morning's light became a very welcome sight for sore eyes, Zhao was able to see the damages, and just how far they had been blown off course. There was no way they could go back towards Fong's base with two engines out of commission and still win the battle (though, once he thought about it, he'd still be faster than that miserable tub the Fire Lord had recently given the banished prince). The only thing that could be done was get to a nearby port, send a messenger hawk to Admiral Ochir to tell him of their predicament, and do what they could for repairs. Now, a day and a half after the hawk was sent, the Interceptor was docked at a pitifully small Earth Kingdom port called Ban, and was currently awaiting further orders from the Admiral as well as word from the three crew members Zhao had sent ahead to scout out the town.

Thankfully, the soon-to-be retired admiral was very prompt, and it turned out that his fleet wasn't too far away from where Zhao's current location was. Light poured in the dimly lit boiler room where Zhao brooded, and he knew without bothering to look up that First Mate Lan Fan must be bringing him steps made hollow tak tak tak as she marched down the stairwell, and once she was by his side she bowed and held out a scroll, the metal cylinder reflecting the dull red glow of the fire. "Captain. A messenger hawk came today, sir. It's one of Admiral Ochir's, by the seal." It was passed into his waiting hand, and with another smart bow the tall, dark haired woman backed up a respectful few feet and faced the engines as she waited for Zhao to give his next order.

Cracking open the seal, Zhao scanned the contents of the letter. The news didn't make him happy, even though he had been expecting something like this. "We are ordered to try and repair the Interceptor as best as we can, and rejoin the Western Fleet after we restock our provisions and repair the engines." He silently read the post script, and felt a flash of satisfaction at how Ochir commended him for getting through the storm with so few casualties. Hopefully this will bump me up to the rank of Commander, if all goes well and I rejoin the fleet soon.

"If there is anything else needing to be reported, we shall let him know." He continued aloud, "For now, we will do what we're ordered, and get the Interceptor repaired as quickly as possible." He tucked the scroll into his belt and handed back the empty cylinder, feeling even more irritated. At least a week would pass before the two engines could be up and running again, provided this backwater town had the parts they needed, and he hated the idea of being stuck here longer than absolutely necessary. "Get into the mess and get the engineers for me. I need to discuss some things with them."

Lan Fan concealed the urge to wince as she recognized the look in her Captain's eyes. The next few days were going to be very difficult with a very irate Captain on board, and it was her unlucky job to run interference. She bowed, and backed away quickly. "Yes sir."

Evening was well under way when Aang (and a thankfully improved Katara) steered Appa into a forest clearing, just outside a small port town called Ban. Suki was the first to slide down from Appa's tail, taking a moment to stretch her legs and revel in the feeling of solid, unmoving earth beneath her feet; and as the others dismounted Appa let out a pleased groan and settled heavily in the grass with a billowing sigh of relief. It had been a long day of travel for everyone, and this was the first time Appa had gone so far with so many passengers and supplies on his back in a long time. Aang patted his nose and offered an apple as a 'thank you' while Katara enlisted Sokka's help in removing the saddle. Suki watched with interest as the young Avatar easily bent a small cushion of air beneath the saddle once Sokka loosened the straps, slowly lifting the heavy burden off of the bison and half setting/half dropping it in the dirt beside her brother, who turned and waved Suki forward.

"I'm sure it's a little late to ask this," Sokka began, sifting through the packs and baskets for the one containing the supplies for supper and hefting it on his shoulder, "But you did bring a tent as well as a bed roll, right?"

Halfway bent in picking up her personal pack from the saddle, Suki froze and her eyes flared wide. She straightened slowly, suddenly feeling stupid beyond belief. "Umm... you know, funny you should mention a tent..."

Everyone (including Aang, who had just retrieved the grooming brush from the saddle) stared at her. "Oh no," Katara groaned, "You only brought your clothes and a bed roll?"

It had been a long, long time since Suki had ever felt so horrifically embarrassed- not since her first day of training when she was eight. Her face flushed a deep scarlet, and she adjusted her headband compulsively. "Er... well, at home we never had a need for anything like a tent, and there isn't a single one on the Island. I completely forgot that I would need one on our travels, with all the things that happened before we took off this morning."

Sokka uttered a noise stuck somewhere between panic and outrage. "What!? How could you forget something like that? Where did you expect to sleep!?"

Suki blushed, immediately on the defensive. "I thought we would be either sleeping under the stars or we would be in some sort of shelter, like an inn or something!"

Her face flushed even deeper when Sokka had the audacity to slowly smirk at her. "An 'inn'? You mean have someone in a town have us sleep in their house?" He shook his head with an amused snort. "Katara might be the Avatar, but we can't rely on people's kindness every single time we stop for the night, and we don't have money to pay anyone yet! Besides, even if we did, we would need to buy food or other things that we'd need, not a room."

He was right. Secretly, the idea of traveling with the Avatar in her mind prior to this had been very romanticized, without the gritty, everyday realities of bugs, wild animals, or bad weather clouding her preconceptions of adventure. Now that she was forced to look at that side of things, she felt like an idiot for not thinking of it beforehand.

Katara held up a hand to halt the argument before it could go farther. "Okay, let's calm down. Thanks to Oyaji we do have a little money on hand, so we'll just have to go into town and buy one in the morning. For now, I guess you can sleep next to me in my tent."

"Aww, come on," Aang whined childishly, "I won't be able to talk to you if she's right there. It'll get all weird, just like back before you told everyone about me."

The whole thing was becoming more and more ridiculous by the second, and Katara swallowed down a laugh at his petulant expression. "Aang, I know you've been with me since the day I was born, and I like talking to you before I go to sleep. But Suki needs a place to sleep too, and I'm sure Sokka isn't going to want her next to him."

"Darn right I don't!" Sokka shuddered at the mere thought, and decided that he needed to be as far away from the conversation as possible. "I'm going to collect firewood. Tell Aang that he ain't allowed to haunt my tent while I sleep. Bad enough he plays tricks during the day!"

Katara finally allowed a giggle to escape as Aang blew out a sarcastic raspberry at her retreating brother's back, and he turned to grin impishly at her. "What? He's just too much fun to rile up! I can't help it if he just gave me a great idea for tonight."

"Oh no you don't," She playfully whapped the side of his head, prompting an amused yelp as he danced out of the way too late. "Don't you dare keep us all up with his rants! We need to visit the town for Suki's tent before we leave, and I'd like to do it earlier rather than later in the morning."

Suki watched the one sided conversation between the Avatar and the empty space next to the floating grooming brush with a growing sense of concern and awkwardness. Did... did Katara just hit her own past life? Was that even allowed?

Apparently it is, She concluded when Katara yelped as her long braid suddenly straightened with a jerk (the past Avatar- Aang, she corrected herself- seemed to have tugged on it). She deftly stepped aside as Katara took a running leap and seemed to jump on the invisible spirit, laughing like she was five instead of twelve when she (and presumably Aang as well) went down in a smoldering wreak after weaving around a few steps, dust flying everywhere and generally shattering Suki's preconceptions about the Avatar all over again.

Doing her utmost not to stare like an idiot, the warrior girl busied herself with unpacking the saddle and tried to come to terms with what she had just witnessed. No wonder Sokka acts the way he does about his sister talking to her past life. He's seen this since he was a kid and is ...used to it!

She wasn't sure that she would ever really get used to it herself (how does one get used to seeing the Avatar goof around with her own invisible past life like they were brother and sister?) but one thing was certain: Suki would be keeping one eye open tonight... just in case Aang got bored harassing Sokka.

The next morning's breeze was stiff and chilly coming in from the ocean, and the gray sky promised rain later on in the afternoon, reflecting Lan Fan's mood. She wrapped her crimson cape a little tighter around her shoulders and narrowed her dark brown eyes warily at the equally wary milling crowd of green in the pitiful town below. She stood to attention along with the engineers gathered and allowed the Captain to sweep past her before following. Studying him, Lan Fan couldn't quite shake the feeling that the day's events were going to be outside of their initial plans- Zhao seemed to be in a much more upbeat, purposeful mood than the day before. "Captain, are you sure this is our only option?" She finally asked cautiously, "Taking all of our engineers with us into port... won't it leave our ship open to sabotage?"

Ignoring the chill in the air, Zhao smoothly reassured her as they made their way down to the docks. "On the contrary, this is the best thing we can do to prevent any sabotage attempts. Our firebenders are all on board with orders to stand watch, and our engineers will be able to look carefully to be sure that the parts we need are in fact sound and ready to use."

Glancing back down at the rather seedy market, she allowed a frown to work it's way over her deceptively delicate features. "What if no one cooperates with us? We are in enemy territory now."

It was an understandable and sensible concern, judging the people who were now openly staring at them with hostile and frightened expressions as they entered the busy marketplace. Zhao waved it away with a slow smile as he shouldered past the Earth Kingdom citizens and purposefully scanned the stalls. "You forget that we are the sons and daughters of Fire- we both wield the superior element. If they don't willingly cooperate with us..." His smile grew dark with anticipation, "Then I suppose we'll just have to convince them that it's in their best interest."

It was a commendable thing for Suki to have survived her first twenty four hours as a part of the group relatively unscathed, all things considered. In the time that it took for everyone to become settled for the evening, everyone realized that even though Suki was a fierce and brave warrior with unquestionable talent and loyalty, she was most certainly not the most reliable when it came to doing things like preparing camp and cooking over an open fire. Sokka had the fortune to stumble upon a nesting pair of pheasantsquirrel in his quest for firewood, and as the girls got busy skinning and cleaning the animals the earth kingdom girl needed to be instructed on how to properly dress the creatures out. Even setting up the camp involved Katara doing the main work, with Suki watching and copying as best as she could.

As it was however, a lot of her initial hopes about traveling with the Avatar proved to come true, and after supper they traded stories, cracked jokes, and even sang a few songs as they lounged around the warmth of the campfire before bed. It was immensely interesting to hear about the South Pole, and see how refreshingly new and different their time honored stories and songs were from her own (She now had a deeper appreciation on the similarities as well- it turned out that their warriors painted their faces too). It was also interesting to spend the night next to Katara, and the two chatted for a long time after the fire dwindled down to a few bright bits of embers.

Now, after a stiff night's sleep and everyone had a quick wash up in the nearby frigid stream, the young Avatar dished out leftovers for breakfast while Sokka tried to convince the girls that there needed to be an established name and leader for their little group.

"I'm tellin' you!" He insisted enthusiastically around a mouthful of rice and pheasantsquirrel, "Now that we have three people (plus Aang), we need a good group name. Something catchy that reflects our awesomeness!"

Katara traded a dubious glance with Suki before raising a brow at Sokka over her mug of water. "Our 'awesomeness'?"

He shrugged and waved a hand. "Well, besides Suki, of course."

"Hey!"

The water tribe boy ignored her and tapped a finger on his (already nearly empty) plate and mulled it over. "I got it!" He perked up, "How about the 'Boomerang Squad'? See, it's perfect because it's got Aang in it!"

Katara glanced over at Aang as he rocked back on his heels and ran the name in his mind a few times, not quite understanding before bursting into a fit of laughter. Boomer-Aang. It was touching that Sokka thought to include him at all."I kinda like that one." He said, wiping tears of mirth away and still fighting off giggles.

"That's a ridiculous sounding name!" Katara protested, equal parts amused and dismayed that he would come up with it at all. She could just imagine her brother shouting something along the lines of "Boomerang Squad, assemble!" every time they got ready to break camp and fly.

Suki seemed to agree. "Why do we even need a name in the first place?" She wondered aloud, finishing off the last of her pheasantsquirrel and chewing thoughtfully. "Aren't we fine as we are?"

"Nope! We need a name. Your girly warriors have a group name, why can't we?"

Katara groaned, the matter suddenly making sense now. "Oh Sokka..."

Momo snagged a piece of meat from Katara's plate and perched himself on Sokka's head, sitting upright and swaying with every movement the water tribe boy made as he spoke, making the whole thing look even more comical. Sokka soldiered on. "No no, I'm on to something here! We should have a name. We can't go around calling ourselves 'The Group' or 'Us Kids On The Magical Ten Ton Monster'. How boring. What would the others think of us?"

Katara snorted, finally cracking a smile. "...Others?"

He threw his hands in the air in frustration, narrowly missing the lemur. "I don't know! Just... people. Even ourselves. We. need. a. name."

"Oh for goodness sake." She took his empty plate, and held out her hand for Suki's as well, stacking them in one arm while propping the other on her hip. "We don't need one, and we don't need a leader. We're all doing things to make this work out."

Sokka dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "You're just saying that because you're mad that I'm the obvious choice for the job."

Aang tuned it out by then, already knowing where this conversation was going before it got there, and got up and walked over to Appa and started getting the already packed bags into the saddle. The others trailed behind him with the same intentions, chattering away about names and leaders and dirty dishes that needed to be washed before being packed up in the last bag, and generally sounding like a bunch kids on an epic road trip. The leadership/group name topic still continued however; even when they were all packed up and ready to go into the nearby town and get the supplies for a new tent, Sokka was still insisting that he should be the leader, and as such he declined riding in the saddle and instead led the way into town himself. "We'll go in, get our stuff, and get out. If we're going to Omashu at all within two days time we can't stick around for long."

Suki rested her chin on her crossed arms as she looked down at him from the front lip of the saddle, smirking in ever growing amusement. "Lead on, o fearless leader."

He preened, missing the sarcasm altogether and relishing his new title. "I am fearless, aren't I?" He whipped out his boomerang and grandly pointed it forward, intentionally lowering his voice so it wouldn't crack and ruin the manly effect. "Let us depart, Boomerang Squad!"

Katara smacked her forehead, and Suki sat back in disbelief. "He cannot be serious."

Aang snickered, feeling a little sorry for her. "You have no idea."

Katara just shook her head. "Oh Suki, just wait until we get to the marketplace."

The warrior girl saw just what Katara meant when they arrived five minutes later at the run down marketplace. Sokka strutted his way into town without breaking stride, and poor Appa did his best to follow the boy into the narrow lanes, grunting as he struggled to move past the first row stalls and the crush of people without knocking things over. Suki glanced down at him uncertainly. "Um... shouldn't Appa stay in the woods until we get back? I think he'll be too big to go with us the whole way."

Appa lowed, sounding almost offended, and Aang turned to him with an apologetic shrug. "Sorry buddy, but she has a point. You probably wouldn't want to knock over all the stalls. We'd get into more trouble than the time Kuzon and I found those dragon eggs!"

The ten ton bison was clearly disgruntled, but he blew out a huffy breath and did as he was told, backing up a few yards and settling down to wait patiently on the absolute outskirts of the market, where everyone would still be in view.

Suki carefully slid down from the saddle and landed with a puff of dust, calling for Sokka to wait for them as she dashed ahead, but Katara lingered for a moment by Aang's side after she gracefully airbent herself down. She recognized the reluctant look in his eyes as he looked at Appa, and she touched his shoulder. "Aang, maybe you want to stay put with Appa, just so people won't bother him?" She suggested kindly, "We won't take too long here at the market, and you'll be able to see us from here- with all these people dressed in green, you'd just have to look for the two spots of blue!"

He frowned a little as he thought about it, not at all pleased with the choice of leaving one or the other out of his immediate line of sight. What if something happened to the one while he looked after the other? "Well..."

"Come on, Katara!"

Sokka's distant, impatient shout from within the market made up Katara's mind. With a quick "We'll be back in just a minute!" She took off after her brother and Suki, not entirely certain if Aang had stayed put or not as she dodged a few people in her haste to catch up. She winced when she accidentally jostled an thin older man, sending his produce flying all over the place from the wheelbarrow he had been pushing. "Sorry!" she called over her shoulder, waving and dashing out of the way of the mess and merging into the crowd again while the man's cry of "My cabbages!" was lost in the murmuring bustle of the crowd.

Sokka was both relieved and annoyed all at once when she finally caught up with them a few lanes ahead. "Sheesh, Katara! I know you like chatting up your invisible friend, but we've got places to go and things to do! We have no time for- oooooh, are those roasted chickenlamb kebabs?"

His head swiveled to the right and he made a beeline to the vendor, his scolding completely forgotten in the face of hot rotisserie meat. Suki stared blankly at him for a moment. "...Okay, now I understand what you meant earlier."

Katara rolled her eyes with long suffering amusement. "Speaking from experience, Sokka will be at that vendor for a little bit." She turned to look at the busy atmosphere of the Earth Kingdom market, scanning the nearby booths for what they needed. It didn't seem like there was any dry goods sold in this section at all. "Why don't I go on ahead over on the west side and look for some rope and a canvas? We'll get it done faster that way, and Sokka can romance his meat for a while longer without any interruptions."

Suki laughingly agreed, and it was due to that arrangement that Katara found herself on the side of the market closest to the docks, where the fishmongers and dry good dealers were most likely to be gathered. In her single minded pursuit for the things she was looking for, she didn't notice the Fire Nation ship that had caused ripples of disruption in the crowd surrounding her until she had purchased the canvas for the tent body. "One waterproof canvas, please."

The scrunched faced elderly woman running the stall snatched the coins away as soon as they landed on the rough pine plank counter, and she studied her suspiciously as she handed the canvas over. "You're water tribe, huh?" She noted with a hoarse rasp, leaning over the counter and looking her over thoroughly. It took everything in Katara not to instinctively recoil from the strong scent of tobacco and ripe 'unwashed old lady' that hung around the woman's fat, sagging frame like a toxic cloud. Her rheumy gray eyes darted upward to a point just above Katara's shoulder, and they narrowed as she clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "My, but this is an unusual day. Fire Nation and Water Tribe all in the same morning! Tch. Whatever is our town coming to?"

Her eyes widening, Katara allowed the backhanded comment about her nationality to slide in favor of the more important bit of information. "Fire Nation? What do you mean?"

The woman pointed and Katara turned, only to back up with a sharp gasp when she saw the unmistakable hulking form of a Fire Nation ship anchored in the waters, dwarfing the little fishing boats beside it. Fear seemed to physically trickle through her body like ice water and pool painfully in her belly as she stared at the metal monstrosity that haunted many of her nightmares.

Surely... surely they weren't here for her, were they?

It doesn't matter if they are or not, She thought, breaking the grip of fear enough to turn and run, I've got to warn the others and get us out of here!

"Th-this is an outrage! How dare you march in here like you own the place and demand parts for your ship? This is not a colony that you can push around and bully. We are Earth Kingdom only!"

Though he exuded a lot of bravado, the skinny, middle aged dealer with the trailing Fu Manchu and spring green hat cried aloud and flinched away violently when Zhao casually held up his hand, cupping a sizable flame that flickered brightly. "I came here with a reasonable request, and I see the pistons we need are indeed here." He began evenly, enhancing the flames a bit and watching the man sweat with great enjoyment. "You can accept our money and go home to your family with your face still intact, or you can incur our wrath and be sure we target this village the next time our fleet comes by. Your choice."

Trembling, the man backed away from the giant pistons in question and allowed the six burly engineers to look them over. It was only when Zhao received the nod of approval from the lead engineer that the two gold pieces were tossed onto the ground by the man's feet and the flames in his hand extinguished. So pitifully easy. "The Fire Lord thanks you for your cooperation." He smiled, relishing the helpless hatred stirring in the man's faded mud colored eyes before turning on his heel and leaving the engineers to their task while nodding for his first mate to follow. "You see, Lan Fan? It's places like these that we will clean up one day. Our empire will be a glorious thing to behold when we get rid of the weak and worthless like that man. Perhaps this port will be something to look at then."

She inclined her head indulgently. "Yes sir."

"Now that we have the parts we need, I want those engines repaired as quickly as-"

He trailed off, a blur of blue catching his eye as a figure ran full speed towards them, obviously not watching where they were going. He stepped out of the way and instinctively shot out an arm to grasp the person's wrist. With a sharp tug, he jerked the person backward with the intent to yell at them to watch where they were going; and when they fell in the dirt, stunned by the jarring force, he was startled to see it was a mere girl...

...a water tribe girl?

Their mutual shock lasted a single, lasting moment, and it was only that moment he had a good look at her before the frightened girl lashed out. Zhao let out a startled cry when the girl's arms thrust out and caught him in the chest with a powerful blast of air that sent him flying back into the market, carving a pain-filled path through customers and merchandise alike before crashing into a nearby jewelry stand. Pandemonium instantly broke out among the surrounding crowd of villagers, and everyone ran for cover in a screaming mass as they dimly recognized that there was a fight going on and that there were fire nation soldiers involved.

Lan Fan only spared a single moment to stare in shock at the display of airbending before her arms sprang forward with a shout, fingers clawed and flames bursting forth in a brilliant plume that arched towards the girl.

Still stunned from her fall (and not daring to waste a moment thinking about what a terrible thing it was she had just done), Katara got to her feet and twisted out of the way in a loose spiral, and coming out of her spin her arms slashed forward in a punishing outward sweep. With a shriek the first mate was blown a good twenty yards away as Katara turned and dashed her way into the chaos of the panicking crowd, calling for Sokka and Suki as she weaved her way through the crush of terrified villagers.

"Sokka! Sokka, where are you?!"

"Katara!"

Suddenly, Aang appeared next to her, his expression hardened with fear and something else that Katara couldn't catch as he grasped her wrist and pulled her in the right direction. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

"What about Sokka and Suki?"

"Don't worry, we'll find them once we get to Appa!"

Bursting from the thinning crowd and the market limits, Katara and Aang ran towards the agitated bison, just as Sokka was pushing Suki up into the saddle. His eyes widened with relief when he spotted her. "Katara! Are you hurt? What happened?"

"I'm okay, but we've got to get out of here!" She let go of Aang's hand and vaulted up onto Appa's head, taking the reins and shouting 'yip yip' as soon as Sokka had swung himself up into the spot next to Suki. Momo curled around Appa's horn and screeched in confusion at the sudden departure, and as Katara looked back down, she spotted the two firebenders standing like a tiny island of red in a churning sea of green, staring up at them in stupefied shock.

Aang curled an arm around her as he peered down at the shrinking firebenders as well. "What happened? Who were those guys?"

Staring, Katara felt a shiver of foreboding when she realized that she had used airbending to ensure her getaway. It would only be a matter time before they figured out how in the world a water tribe girl could do that. "I... I don't know who they are. But I think they might know who I am."

Once Lan Fan shook off the stunning effects of being airbent at and picked herself up, Zhao was already making his way over to her, picking off pieces of jewelry from his armor and staring up at the fleeing skybison with an inscrutable expression before shaking himself. "Come, we have work to do."

Lan Fan obediently fell into line as they walked at a fast clip back up to the ship, her mind working to catch up to the seemingly ordinary sounding order. "Work, sir? What about that girl?"

Zhao breathed a sigh through his nose impatiently. "We have our parts we need, and I want both engines to be in working condition as soon as humanly possible. As for that water tribe girl..." He trailed off thoughtfully, looking one last time at the speck in the distance before smiling to himself. "I believe I have a few letters to send."

Author's Note: There were tons of rather sizable cut scenes from this chapter (six of them to be exact!), so hopefully it reads okay and your aren't too mad that I seem to have a track record of one chapter a month. There were a lot of things I wanted to do with this chapter, and I'm afraid it would have gotten too long winded if I didn't cut what I did. A real shame, since I had some great lines regarding Aang watching the others devour meat for supper.

Since there will be questions, I'm going to take a preemptive strike and answer a few before they are asked.

1: As one reviewer asked, yes, there are bits and pieces of canon events and even lines that are cut and rearranged for the purpose of the story. Katara, as the Avatar, will be going to different places and making different decisions than Aang had in canon, and therefor there are going to be things that are wildly different and/or seem out of order. However, that doesn't mean I can't add certain things that are from canon, and Sokka's boomerang squad line was just too good to leave alone.

2: Yes, I made the First Mate a woman. No, she is not Zhao's bed warmer. Don't bother getting that in your mind. She's wholly committed to her job, and Zhao is married to his own ego, and cake. No romance there at all, and there never will be.

3: More to come on Earth Kingdom prejudices in the future. The Fire Nation may be the most prejudiced of all, but I get the feeling that the Earth Kingdom doesn't think much of the Water Tribes, and I want to explore that a bit more later on.

4: Yes, Zhao's made the connection, and now he knows that she could easily be the Avatar. Bad news for her, but it was a while in coming.

5: Just to clarify for one reviewer, no, Sokka is not angry, nor does he have anger issues. He's just being his sarcastic, easily annoyed self.

6: Hush, Zuko is coming soon, just be patient.