Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar.

Summary: Aang, Sokka, and Toph arrive at a village that doesn't appreciate the Avatar. In order to improve his image, Aang decides to save one of the village's heroes: Shin De, a Fire Nation factory owner. In the previous act, they have just rescued Shin De from an Earth Kingdom Post-War Restoration Forces (EKPWRF) camp.

Note: Here is the final act to "Shin De's List." I hope you enjoy this chapter and please review.


Book 4: Air

Chapter 4:

Shin De's List

...

"Being Fire Nation doesn't necessarily mean you are always evil and wicked. You've shown that a nation doesn't make the people. Rather, the people make the nation."

-Shin De, a Fire Nation factory owner, on the residents of a tiny village

...

Act 3:

Right after Shin De's rescue, Aang and the gang returned to the village. Shin De decided to hold a congregation in his factory, which was several miles off from the village. Aang Sokka and Toph are with him in the mess hall on a stage, while a crowd of villagers are in front of them. Appa and Momo are outside of the factory grounds.

"I've been saved today, and I have to thank the Avatar and his friends for all their help." Shin De said as he walked around the stage.

The crowd was wild, yelling a loud "Hurrah!"

"I head Avatar Aang's story regarding this village." Shin De pat Aang on the back. "He told me how most of you refused to lend him food or hospitality. Now is this why I protected this village from the Fire Nation? So you could survive and mistreat the Avatar? I think not."

The villagers all bowed their heads in shame. They, too, were disappointed in their behavior now. One of them shouted, "We're awfully sorry, Avatar." The others nodded.

"I protected this village because I believed that you, this village, could change the attitude of the world."

Sokka and Toph both rolled their eyes. What a sappy and overly sentimental lecture, they both thought.

Shin De continued. "And I expected better…" He sighed. The villagers were taking his words pretty hard. He could see that some of the more emotional ones began crying. Wow they're fragile, Shin De thought to himself. He had to change the course of the lecture or else have a huge cry-fest. "And though I expected better…we all make mistakes. We all will learn. Besides, I have to thank you guys…you have shown to the Avatar and perhaps even the world that trust can transcend nations. Being Fire Nation doesn't necessarily mean you are always evil and wicked. You've shown that a nation doesn't make the people. Rather, the people make the nation." He clenched his fingers into a fist to make an emphasis. "And I have to thank you guys for saving my life."

Some of the people stood up an applauded, but Shin De tried to calm them down. He wasn't finished. "I shall cherish my freedom. Tonight, we will have a party. We'll continue the production of Steel-Jade items, except rather than making weapons, we'll manufacture items that are less dangerous, like utensils and silverware."

The crowd cheered and hollered once again.

"And you know what? Part of the money we make will go to help restore the Fire Nation for its losses."

Some of them moaned. They obviously didn't like the fact that part of the revenue would go to the Fire Nation. After all, for several years, all they have been doing was make money for them.

Shin De tried to make a point. "Don't worry guys. Have I ever let you guys down before? Have I never fulfilled my end of the promise?"

One man yelled "No!" and the others nodded in assent.

"That's right. And I don't intend to break it now. The Fire Nation needs out help, and we're going to give it to them. This is our first step to show the world we are not just another insignificant Earth Kingdom village."

"And it's not just about the Fire Nation. It' about you guys too. Sure, I've may have helped you guys from the Fire Nation. But it was you guys who saved my life. You inspired the Avatar to come and rescue me. That's why, though part of our revenue will still go to the Fire Nation, the other part… you guessed it. It'll go to this very village." He shot flames into the air with his hands. "We are going to spend it to renovate this place!" He pointed to one of the people in the front rows. "You sir, what would you like to see?"

One of the men said, "A library!"

"Good choice," Shin De replied. "I'm quite the scholar myself—an archeologist during my free time. Tell you what: in perhaps just one month, we can have a library constructed. In a year, we'll have enough books for every person in Omashu. And that's a lot!"

They clapped. Another person raised his hand. "My family needs better farming tools."

"No problem," Shin De replied again. "We'll get some more machines and capital to manufacture farming tools." The man and the other farmers in the group smiled. Shin De continued. "But I'll tell you what. Do count on getting farming tools…because if we work hard enough, you'll have a better life in the city. Have your own house inside the magnificent walls of Ba Sing Se. Tour the capital or become an entrepreneur there. You may think these to be improbable dreams, but if we worked hard enough, nothing is impossible!"

Aang, Sokka, and Toph finally understood why the villagers loved Shin De so much. He cared about the people more than his own well being, yet he was still able to have a good time. He knew how the almost every villager felt and knew how to tackle each emotion. Shin De almost reminded them of Uncle Iroh. Aang waved his hand in the air. "Do you think you can build an Air Shrine in the village? Just as a token of appreciation?"

Shin De scratched his head. He didn't know what an Air Shrine looked like, but was happy to oblige. "Sure! We'll build an Air Shrine!"

Aang yelled "Yippee!" and circled the stage happily on his air scooter."

"Now with this all said and done, let's have ourselves one heck of a party!" He shot out flames once again. "Let me go visit my friends and we'll provide the drinks." He gestured to Aang. "And now, the Avatar!"

Aang finally understood that Shin De wanted him to entertain all of the villagers while Shin De got the refreshments so Aang began firebending. He performed a few tricks and then moved onto waterbending, with which he created a sphere of different colored liquids. The crowd cheered him on vigorously, and Aang was finally happy to have won the hearts and love of the villagers.

As Sokka watched the show, he scratched his chin. Wow. Shin De's quite talker. Perhaps he could be a spokesman for Aang.

Sokka wanted to go check up on Shin De and ask him some questions, but Toph grabbed his shoulders. "Where you heading for Snoozles? Not going to watch Aang do his tricks? He's probably going to do some earthbending next!"

"Nah." Sokka said, brushing Toph's arms off. "Need to check on something."

"Ha… I bet you still doubt the Shin De man."

"No," Sokka said, shaking his head. He really didn't doubt Shin De anymore. He was just curious about how new could read feelings so well.


Scene switches

Sokka walks out to the factory grounds to find Shin De. Shin De is at the gate of the fence of the factory, talking to someone inside a carriage. Sokka hops into a bush and begins eavesdropping on the two.

"I'll tell you Ru Fei. These guys are suckers…" Shin De said. "They actually believe that I will resuscitate this dying little village. What do I care about them? They have no resources, no talents, no nothing!"

Sokka gasped. He was right. Shin De was a con man. Sokka never knew that he would live to see the day he wished he was wrong. What did he mean that this village lacked talent, though?

Shin De continued talking. "So I've decided I'm going to continue my search around this village one final time. If nothing good shows up, I'll just move on to another village."

"Sounds good. But you promised this village so much. Seeing that the Fire Nation isn't in control anymore, make tomorrow the last day running this place. We'll leave after that." The man inside the carriage said. Shin De nodded and before the ostrich horse pulled the carriage off, Shin De picked up a crate holding beverages inside.

Sokka rubbed his eyes and hopped out of the bush. Did he just hear and see what he just saw and heard? He stepped out of the bush and headed in Shin De's direction.

Shin De turned and once he saw Sokka, his irritated face turned into a happy one. "Hello there, boy. You're one of the Avatar's friends, right? How long were you here?"

"Just got here." Sokka lied. "Heard you needed help with the crates." He picked one up.

"Why that's very nice of you," Shin De said. He headed for the factory while Sokka followed him. "This world needs more people like you…"

"Lee," Sokka lied again. When Shin De turned his face, Sokka groaned. He didn't know how to break out the news to his friends and the villagers that their savior had ulterior motives.


Scene switches

Shin De returned onto the stage and placed the crates down. Aang was demonstrating some cool airbending moves now. "Everybody, help yourselves to some good drinks!" Many of the villagers ran onto stage and took out some of the beer bottles. Sokka, however, once he finished placing the crates down, left the mess hall, which was the center of entertainment. He knew that he couldn't break out the news on the stage, for no one, not even Aang and Toph would believe him. If he did so, he would only reveal to Shin De that he knew his secret.

Sokka decided that he needed evidence, so he headed for Shin De's office building. Upon entering the room he found the office in disarray. There were scrolls and parchments lying everywhere. He took out some spark stones from his pocket and lit the candle on the desk. With more light in the room, he could easily see a paper on the table. He picked it up, and on it was a several marks. Seven were circles scattered across the Earth Kingdom, and one of them was an X on the peninsula to the north of Kyoshi Island. There was also a line connecting the two. Sokka scratched his head. He picked up the map and stuffed it into his pocket. He looked around and saw a banner with a green-and-gray mantis. Sokka opened the drawers, and a bunch more of scrolls popped out. One struck his eyes, since it had a huge list of names and markings on it. It was a list of some sort. Upon hearing that someone was heading for the office, he quickly rolled up the list, stuffed it in his pocket and slid out of the room.


Scene switches

Sokka ran back into the mess hall and noticed that Shin De had left. He ran up to Aang and Toph and said, "We have a serious problem. This Shin De man is a fake. He has other plans."

Aang was confused. "What do you mean by the fact that he's a fake?"

"He's not here to help out the villagers. He's here in search of something." Sokka replied. "He's been feigning kindness in return for…"

"For?" Toph asked.

"I don't know, but he's up to something!" Sokka whispered.

"Come on, Sokka," Toph said. "Give it a rest. You heard him. He's here to help out. He even brought these people drinks and refreshments."

"But he's faking it!" Sokka replied.

"So you think that he's been faking for all of the previous years?" Toph asked. "He's quite calculating then," She said, sarcastically, not believing Sokka's argument.

"But look at what I found!" Sokka handed out the list and the map to the two.

"So what about these?" Aang asked. "None of them explicitly states that Shin De is planning to do some horrible act."

"I know these aren't," Sokka said, "But I heard him. I swear I wasn't high or anything!"

"He wouldn't do such a thing," Toph said. "That would be utterly evil, destroying the hopes of this village!"

"You still don't believe me?" Sokka asked. "Well. You know what to do then."

"What, Snoozles?"

"Read my heart. See whether I'm lying or not. You know the protocol."

Toph hated it when Sokka said this. She didn't hate him because of the argument, but because he was the only person whose heart she couldn't read. Every time she tried, she would get all flustered and it would all of a sudden become heard for her to tell whose heartbeat was racing—hers or his—or whether they were racing at all.

"I'm not going to," Toph said, crossing her arms. "I know you're messing around."

Sokka slapped his forehead. "Fine, then! Do I have to do everything myself?" He stormed off from the gang.


Scene switches

The next day: Sokka wakes up extra early in the morning to go visit the villagers and gather information. Aang and Toph are still asleep at there own campsite outside the village.

Early the next day, after all of the villagers had returned to their respective homes, Sokka decided to further his investigation. He realized that the items on the lists were names of several of the villagers, so the first thing he did was to visit every villager's house. He knocked on each of their gates and inquired what the names meant.

"Hello, Miss." Sokka said to a lady who had just opened the door. "Do you know any of these names?" He pointed to his list and showed the lady all of the names that had been starred.

The lady read the names. "Tyko, Ho Chi, Minh…" She stopped reading. "Yes, I do know all of those names. They happen to all be children who auditioned to Shin De to be sent off to an academy."

Sokka nodded. "How about these?" He was referring to those that were crossed out. "Oh, those kids didn't make it."

"Didn't make the academy? Because they weren't smart enough?"

"No." The lady shook her head. "Because they weren't good enough earthbenders."

"Weren't good enough earthbenders?" Then it struck Sokka. Shin De stayed in this village not only to work for the Fire Nation, but also to search for earthbending children. That was the talent he was referring to--earthbending talent. He thanked the lady, who shut the door. Sokka walked onto the side of the road and sat down on a rock. He asked himself, "Why would he need earthbenders?" Though he didn't know the answer, he knew a way he could find out.

Sokka ran up to Toph, who was still sleeping. As he got close, though, Toph woke up. "You're awake at this hour, Snoozles?" she asked groggily. "Now I've felt everything."

"I now why he's here now," Sokka said, standing right in front of Toph.

"You and your theory, still, huh? I'm listening." Toph rubbed her eyes.

"He's recruiting earthbending children for some reason, but I don't know what." Sokka scratched his head, pondering.

"He's sending them to academies and schools for better education. We all know that."

"No he isn't, he's lying!"

"Really? You still don't have proof." Toph challenged.

"But we have a way to find out…" Sokka said.

"I know. You want me to hand myself over to him." Toph finished the sentence. "I'll see what's happening."

"Exactly."

"On one condition. We make a bet." Toph was always about bets and scams. "If you actually send me on a wild goose chase, you'll have to train with me the next time Aang and I do some earthbending practice."

"Fine," Sokka agreed. "And if I'm correct, you'll have to…" He thought for awhile but finally had a good idea. "You'll have to be my butler! Or my servant!" Sokka asked. He remembered how yesterday Toph was abusing her power during their plan to rescue Shin De.

"No problem," Toph replied. Though she detested the idea of serving someone, she was very confident that she would win the bet.

Sokka grabbed Toph's arm. "So the factory opens at noon. We still have three hours till then. I hear that he's holding auditions for the children at the factory. Why don't you go there and give him a show."

Toph nodded. She was already imagining what training with Sokka, a non-bender would be like. She let out a small chuckle.

Sokka continued his explanation. "And if you get accepted and sent out of the village and find out what Shin De is truly up to, just give me a signal. Any good signal or trail of earth would be fine. As long as I know where you are and what Shin De is planning to do with you."

"All right," Toph said, rubbing her hands. Let's get this bet started.


Scene switches

Toph walked into the factory, which hadn't opened for work yet, and noticed that the auditions had already begun. Shin De was testing a child who stood on a mat in front of him. Toph listened and felt what was going on. Meanwhile, Sokka is at the camp, peering through his telescope and studying the actions outside the main factory building. Other than the fact that Toph went in, nothing much happened.

"What's your name son?" Shin De asked as he raised his brush. He was talking to a small boy younger than Toph.

"Miro." The boy shyly replied. He was rubbing the sole of his boot on the ground.

"That's a nice name for a healthy young rascal like you. Show me what you can do and I'll see if I can arrange something special for you." Shin De winked.

Miro picked up a rock and threw it into the air and suspended it with his earthbending abilities.

"Not bad. I see you've mastered the basics." He continued writing with his brush. "Can you do anything else? He placed a slab of stone in front of the boy. Move this."

Miro pushed it, but fell over in the process.

Shin De laughed. "Nice try, sport." He bit the tip of his brush. He was clearly dissatisfied by Miro's lack of technique.

Miro stood up. "My mom wants me to go to a school in Ba Sing Se. She says I have what it takes."

Shin De rolled his eyes. No you certainly don't. Why is this village dry of talent? He was about to roll up his scrolls and leave, but Toph burst through the doors.

Shin De tried to hide his disappointment with the audition. "Why hello there, little girl. Weren't you with the Avatar?" He recalled how Toph was the one who had saved him from the Earth Kingdom Post-War Restoration Forces (EKPWRF).

"Yes I am," Toph said. "I'm here to show you that I have what it takes to be the number one earth bender in the world."

"Really?" Shin De said, smiling. He wasn't feigning his smile. If this girl was as powerful as she claimed to be, it would be his big break. "Show me what you've got. Suspend this rock in the air." He threw it at Toph's direction.

She caught it in the air with her earthbending. "Suspend it? I'll show you so much more." She swung it around like a yo-yo.

"Amazing," Shin De said, writing down several notes on a scroll. "How old are you?"

"Twelve," Toph said.

He nodded and picked up an earth slab. "Now I want you to shove this slab a few feet."

Toph nodded, but instead of shoving it, she carved it into a figure of a statue of herself. Or at least what she thought she looked like.

Shin De was astounded. "Is there anything else you can do?"

"Well," Toph said, "you've seen me do this when I rescued you." She took a big iron bar and twisted it painlessly. "I call it metal-bending."

"You're a genius! A prodigy! How come I've never met you before?" He reached around for a list he made to see whether Toph's name was on it. However, he realized that he misplaced it.

Toph shrugged. "I know I'm a prodigy. I get that all the time."

"How about I send you to one of the greatest Earth Kingdom School in the entire world?"

Toph nodded. "That be fine by me." She then raised his head to face him. "That is where you are sending me right? A school?"

Shin De laughed. I've finally found someone who can really earthbend, he thought, smiling devilishly.

Toph laughed, too. You're a real Joker, Snoozles, she thought. Too bad she couldn't see the ominous sign of a smile.


Scene switches

Sokka kept a lookout at the factory, but only saw one carriage leave there. Because Toph didn't do any earthbending or signal him at all, he suspected that the carriage didn't carry her in it and was unrelated to Shin De and his plans. By the time the sun was fairly high into the sky, he felt that something was off. After around two hours, Toph still hadn't responded to him. He began running toward the factory to check up and see what she was up to. As he approached it, the factory blew up.

The explosion was huge and sent vibrations all the way to the village. Aang woke up on Appa and scanned his surroundings to see what had happened. He noticed that the factory was on fire and ran there.

Aang found Sokka near the entrance and asked what had happened.

"What do you think happened?" Sokka asked angrily. "The factory blew up!" Sokka then realized that Shin De must have done so in order to destroy all of the evidence in his office and prevent anyone else from tracking his crimes. He also realized that the destruction of the factory meant that Shin De must have left with Toph already. Toph was definitely in that carriage that passed by earlier, but why didn't she send him a signal? It was really strange, really, since not even prison bars could hold her.

"The factory blew up?" Aang was startled already, but only then did he realized how serious the situation was. He was full awake in an instant. "We have to do something!"

"You think? We're lucky that the villagers haven't reported for work yet. You do your fancy firebending and waterbending stuff to try and stop the fire from going wild and burning a portion of land off the Earth Kingdom. Meanwhile, I'll run and check inside."

"You're going inside? It's dangerous!" Aang said.

"I have to, though," Sokka solemnly responded.

"Why?"

"Because people might be inside."

Aang nodded. He rode his airscooter around the factory and began digging a huge trench with earthbending to prevent the fire from spreading across the grass and into the village.

Next, he summoned huge mounds of dirt and tried to cover the fire but it wasn't enough to but the bigger flames out.

Some of the villagers ran up to him and asked what had happened to the factory. "There's no time for explanation, right now. Your precious factory owner, Shin De, must have blown up the factory. I need water in order to put this fire out. Can any of you guys point me to a source of water?" Aang continued to shove piles and piles of dirt all around the factory, but it couldn't stop the fire, which was growing too strong. He hoped that Sokka was all right.

One man was about to point out the direction to a river, but another put that man's hand down. He asked Aang, "What do you mean it was Shin De? He would never do something like this! He promised us an age of prosperity. And beside, this is his factory!"

Aang, annoyed by the village's stubborness and narrow-mindedness, angrily shouted back, "Can we stop debating whether Shin De did this or not? I'm the Avatar, and I need your help right now. If this fire isn't stopped, who knows what will happen to your little village? Forget an age of prosperity, your homes and basic standards of living will all be wiped out!"

The man was about to protest, but another quited him down, "Shut up! Listen to the Avatar for once. We don't know whether Shin De did it or not, but there's one thing for sure, we can trust the Avatar! He helped us even when we didn't ask for his help." He pointed northeast and told Aang that a river was there.

Aang nodded and ran off. He returned riding on a wave and poured the water all over the factory. He kept on waterbending over the factory until all of the flames went out. He ran into the rubble to search for Sokka, who was lying on the ground all dripping wet.

"Did you find anyone?" Aang asked.

Sokka shook his head. "No," he said flatly.

Aang sighed. He was glad that no one got hurt. Sokka got onto a stone and directed himself at the congregation, which included most of the villagers there. He spoke as he wringed his clothes.

"I know this may be hard for you to accept, but your Shin De idol, was actually a con man. He deceived you all." The crowd all booed at Sokka.

"I'm serious. Even the Avatar here believes so," Sokka argued. "Your children… The earthbenders. He kidnapped them all."

"Liar!" One of them shouted. "He's sending them to a better school that we cannot afford!"

Another one shouted, "Mines been studing for a year already! I bet he's a great earthbender now!"

"Quiet down!" Sokka said, waving his hands around. He couldn't speak under all the noise the crowd was emitting. He took out a piece of paper. "Inside the burning factory just now, I found this. It's a letter from his friend. From the details of the letter, it says how they need more earthbenders to dig a tunnel. Now I don't know what the plan is, but I know that your children have likely been taken to dig this tunnel." He handed the letter to one of the villagers, who passed the note around.

"It's true," A man holding the letter said. "It has some of Shin De's symbol or emblem on it--the mantis. Furthermore, his handwriting matches." Upon discovering that all of their children have been taken, the parents of the villages all shrieked and screamed.

Sokka once again signaled them to calm down. Aang jumped onto a rock. As the Avatar, his duty was to the world, and this village needed his help right now. "Don't worry everyone. We'll handle this situation. We'll go search for Shin De and recover your children." He turned to Sokka. "You do know where he went, right?"

Sokka shook his head, but then his face lit up. "They're digging a tunnel..." he said to himself. He took out a map, and scanned it. Though he was happy that he found out where the location was, his mouth hit the floor. "Oh, no." He said solemnly.

Aang whispered to Sokka, "What's wrong?"

"Look," he said, pointing to the cross marked on the Southern Peninsula. "That's where they're taking them."

Aang sighed. "I thought that by your 'oh, no,' this situation would be really, really, bad. Thank god it isn't."

Sokka shook his head. "But look at this line." It joined the peninsula to an island, Kyoshi Island. "That's the tunnel. They're digging it and heading for Kyoshi Island."

"They're planning a secret invasion onto Kyoshi Island?" He was aghast. He finally understood Sokka's shock and sadness. This certainly was bad news.

"That's what I think, at least," Sokka replied.

"Then we have to hurry on out of here. We need all the time we can get to stop them!"

Aang ran for Appa while Sokka made last reassurances to the villagers.


Aang hopped onto Appa and Sokka followed suit. He grabbed the reins and shouted, "Let's go!" But when he turned to check, he finally noticed, after all the time he was awake, that Toph was missing.

"Where's Toph?" Aang asked.

Sokka only shook his head in despair. "She's been captured by Shin De, too."

Aang's eyes widened in horror of the avalanche of bad news that came by this morning. Sokka only bowed his head, sad that it was his fault, his betting with Toph, that resulted to the loss of one of his closest friends.

Fades to white.


Note: So Episode 4, "Shin De's List," is over, and Shin De, with his cohorts are planning a surprise invasion or attack on Kyoshi Island, Suki's hometown... It is up to Aang and Sokka to stop the invasion and rescue Toph. The story will continue immediately in the next part/episode, "The Tunnel, the Tomb, and the Island," which will be filled with a lot of action. Questions regarding the previous and powerful Avatar Liang-Shek will be revealed.

If there's anything unclear, please tell me and I will revise any chapter as long as it makes the story flow nicer or better, so once again, reviews are highly appreciated.

One of the reviewers asked what happened to Suki. You'll find out in the next chapter, so please tune in!

I hope you enjoyed this act and please review!