IMPORTANT TO NOTE! Remember chapter 7? I made an edit to it so that it would make more sense.

To all readers, especially Glacialis and Gumball187: You're right. China will not make an appearance. Neither will any of the Asians. Or America. I have already determined who is here, and too many characters will spoil the broth. Besides, China would get annoyed about how there are four elements, not five. Not to mention that four is bad luck…

Why does Lithuania use mainly kicks? Personally, I just think that kicks are cooler.

The placement is slightly different than it is in the actual episode, but I figured that Team Avatar and Team Zuko would be some distance apart, and the storm hit Zuko first.

Chapter 14 (Zuko POV)

When I got back, John was waiting for me. He was wearing an apron. "Do you have any idea how worried we were?!" he yelled at me with his hands at his hips. "All of us were freaking out!"

I stared at the ground. All this… because I ran off? "I- I'm sorry…" I managed to say.

John patted me on the head. "Just don't do it again, okay?" he said. "Now let's get back to the ship…"

Boarding the ship was like a wedding procession. Everyone was staring at the two of us the whole way…

Luckily for me, Uncle and Liet did not team up in scolding me. Neither of them seemed to be able to scold at all… "Phew… I'm glad you're safe…" Liet said. He looked exhausted…

"Prince Zuko, you really should at least leave a note or something," Uncle said. "That way, none of us will begin to freak out."

"And don't think that we don't notice!" John added. "All of us were going crazy with fright!"

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

John turned around. "Except for Jim…"

I looked at Jim, who was running back and forth through the hallways. "What's with him?" I asked.

John sighed. "He's been like this ever since he went to the bathroom…"

Liet spun around. "Vait… I know vot it is!" He sprang up from his chair, and bolted after him. "Jim! Vaaaiit!"

John watched him leave. "That idiot…" he said through bared teeth. "COME BACK HERE!"

John chased after Liet, leaving Uncle and I still in the room. "Uh… what was that?" I asked.

"Who knows?" Uncle said breezily. "But maybe we'll get to see some of the action."

Both of us peered out the doorway. Jim was accelerating, but Liet was catching up. "Jim!" he called, panting with the effort. "Please stop! I know what is wrong with-"

"Gotcha!" John tackled Liet from behind. Or at least, that's how it would have ended if Liet didn't have such sharp reflexes. Three and a quarter seconds later, John was moaning against the wall while Liet gave him a hasty apology and started running again.

Jim was the cook, not a soldier. He wasn't a runner at all. Without John to distract him, Liet caught up with him before long. "Atsiprašau," I heard him mutter under his breath.

CRACK! Without warning, Liet roundhouse-kicked him in the back of the head.

"Ouch…" I said.

"For a man of peace, sometimes I wonder…" Uncle said. "Then again, he did apologize."

"Did he?"

"I think… do you know what At-atsi-whatever he said, do you know what it means?"

Liet picked Jim up with relative ease, and carried him piggy-back to the nearest bed. "Ugh…" Jim groaned. "Wh-what happened? Wait… In the bathroom… I remember-!"

He tried to sit up, but Liet grabbed his wrist. "Calm down," Liet said. "You are not dying, or suffering from any disease."

Jim began to shudder. "B-but… blood… I was peeing blood…"

Liet sighed. "Zat is normal. You ate beets zis morning. All of us did. It vas ze borsht." He turned to the rest of us. "After consuming beets, for forty-eight hours, zere is a chance of your… vaste appearing to have blood on it. But zat is perfectly normal!"

CRASH! "WAAAAHHHH! I'M DYIIIIIING!"

Liet sighed. "Now I have to stop them from panicking, too…" [1]

He chased after… her name was Xiangjiao, wasn't it?

"Prince Zuko," said Uncle.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A storm's coming. A big one."

I didn't see any clouds. "Uncle… are you sure?"

"Positive. Now, we had better make some preparations…"

CRASH!

"And stop everyone from panicking about the beets..."

X (Latvia POV)

That morning, we were awoken by a loud scream.

"UWAAAAHAHHH!"

Wh-what was going on?! Within a second, my head cleared long enough for me to see Estonia wailing. "WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING!?" I screamed.

Sokka sprang out from his tent, machete in hand. "Wh- What's going on?!"

Sealand rolled out of his tent and prepared to fire his crossbow. "Where are you?! Show yourself!" he yelled at the bushes.

Katara and Aang rose sleepily. "What… was… that…?" Katara said groggily through her tent.

"Huh… hah…" Estonia panted, and he finally calmed down. "Ema? Mul oli kohutav unenägu… Ma unistasin, et igaüks Teadsin muutunud soo…" (Mom? I had this horrible nightmare…I dreamt that everyone I knew changed genders…)

Sokka crawled into our tent. "What did he say?" he whispered.

"He's delusional," I answered shortly. "I'll explain later. But Arthur had better not get up for a while…"

"Why not?" England peered in through the entrance.

"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Estonia screamed.

He fainted.

Sokka stared at me. "What was that all about?"

"What kind of a dream could he have had?" mused Aang.

"I think… he once told me about this dream he had," I said. "Everyone he knew had turned into girls."

"What about the girls?" Katara asked testily.

"Maybe they turned into guys," I suggested. "But he knows a lot of guys, and not very many girls."

"In other words, my presence here is intolerable," said England snottily. "Fine. I'll leave."

He left huffily.

"What was that all about?" Sokka asked me and Sealand incredulously.

Sealand shrugged. "Moodswings, maybe. He's just like that."

"Must be a heck of a problem, having a brother like that…" said Sokka.

Sealand shrugged again. "I have quite a few brothers, and they're all sort of mad. What makes it worse is that Matthew—he's the nicest—looks just like Alfred, who… isn't."

Sokka groaned sympathetically. "I can tell what happened next."

"Cuba hit Matthew for what Alfred did," said England from outside. "By the way, it might rain tonight."

"And why is that important?" asked Sokka. "We can handle a little rain, can't we?"

Katara nodded. "Don't underestimate us!"

England shrugged. "It's just that most people tend to get down after it rains a bit, that's all. What I don't get is why they always think that it's a storm or something."

"Me neither," said Sealand.

"Well, a little bit of rain shouldn't be too bad, then," said Katara. "Come on, let's break camp."

"What about Eduard?" I waved a hand in front of his face. "He's not going to get up any time soon, is he?"

"Just put a blindfold over him," said England. "He'll be fine as long as he doesn't see me."

I ended up tying one of Sokka's extra sashes over Estonia's eyes, while the others dissembled their tents. We broke camp rather easily, and left on Appa's back.

When we got to the port, Estonia was still unconscious. "Will he be okay?" I said to Katara.

She nodded. "Absolutely. It was only a little shock. He'll get over it soon enough. What we really need to worry about is food."

I looked at our shared purse and added, "And money."

"I'm telling you, there's a storm coming!"

An elderly couple was arguing at the docks; the woman yelling at the man. "A storm's coming; I can feel it in my joints!" she shouted.

"Bah, humbug," said the man. "There's not a cloud in the sky! When will you give up this silly superstition about your sixth sense?"

"But it's never been wrong!" said the woman. "The only ones who will be able to survive this storm are those born with good fortune… or those not human." [2]

"Setting your qualms aside, my Flying Pussyfoot is departing!" said the old man. "I'll pay anyone who comes with me double of what you get!"

"Double?" Sokka repeated. "I'll do it!"

Aang shook his head. "I… don't think that that's such a good idea… I mean, that woman did say that there was a storm coming, didn't she?"

"Come on, Aang. Arthur said it himself; it's only going to rain a little." Sokka turned to England for confirmation, who nodded.

England looked around. "I think that there should be at least a few people who need help. I'm going to check it out."

As England left, Sealand looked at him, and then at us. "I'm going, too."

Katara looked at me and Aang for a moment. "Well, I'd better get going, too. There's got to be plenty of people who could use a Waterbender."

Aang didn't seem to be paying attention. He was too busy looking at the horizon, which…

I blinked. "Is… are those storm clouds?"

Aang nodded. "I think so… Sokka?" he called. "I think that you might have to sit this one out.

Sokka stopped loading fish nets, and turned around. "Arthur said that it wasn't going to be that bad, Aang. Come on, you've got to trust someone who can make it rain."

I shook my head. "Sokka, Aang's been an Airbender for longer than E-Arthur has-" I stopped. I felt like I shouldn't have said that.

The fisherman turned to look first at me, and then at Aang. "An Airbender? So you're the Avatar, eh?" Something about the way he said it made me think that he wasn't happy.

"Then you abandoned the world for over a hundred years!" Called it.

Aang looked away, but Katara glared at the fisherman. "Aang never abandoned anyone!" she shouted.

"Oh, so these last hundred years of war and suffering were just my imagination?"

"A—It wasn't Aang's fault that-"

I grabbed Katara's wrist from behind. "Stop it," I croaked. "D-don't be mad at him…"

Katara turned to yell at me, but she stopped. I turned around to see Aang flying away.

"Why did you stop me?" Katara asked as Aang disappeared.

I hung my head. "No matter what I say, you're going to get mad at me."

I meant to sound reasonable, but to Katara I must have sounded pathetic. "I misjudged you," she said at length. "You may be a decent Bender, but that's it. You're nothing but a coward. Go away; you don't have a place on our team anymore."

She jumped onto Appa and said, "Yip-yip!"

Sokka emerged from the pile of crates he was stacking. "I'm sorry, what did I miss?"

The fisherman turned to me and gave me a sympathetic look. "Your friends ran off on you? Pah. Just like the Avatar and his friend to abandon-"

"No," I said quietly.

"Eh? What was that?"

"I don't agree with Katara, but I never said that I liked you."

I picked up Estonia and carried him off.

X (Back to Zuko)

"Okay, maybe this wasn't such a good idea," I admitted.

"No šūdas, Sherlock," said Uncle.

I stared at him. "Where did you learn that word?"

"Lietuva was shouting it in his sleep. Unless you're talking about the other one, which came from a book called A. Conan Doyle, which was written by The Hound of the Baskervilles. No, wait. It was called-"

"Okay, Uncle. I think we get the idea. Now, I can't believe that WE'RE KEEPING CALM IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKING HURRICANE!"

Jim blinked. "Um… Zuko? This isn't a hurricane. What you mean is typ-"

"Never mind," I groaned. "Gyah… Captain…Xiaping. What do you think we should do?" [3]

Captain Xiaping shook his head. "We shouldn't have sailed into this storm, Zuko. ALL HANDS ON DECK! Jim, John, fire the engine. Xiangjiao, Lietuva, focus on keeping the water out. Lanhuo, run belowdecks and plug up any leaks you find."

"What about you, Captain?" asked Uncle.

"I'm going to sail us right into the eye of the storm," said Xiaping, and moved for the wheel.

I made a move to follow him, but then someone screamed, "HEY!"

I glanced at the source of the noise. Yanjing, the lookout, had fallen out of the crow's nest. But he wasn't done yet. He flailed desperately as he hung from the railing of the crow's nest, gripping by the tips of his fingers for dear life. "HELP!"

"Hang on!" I shouted, already breaking into a slippery run. "I'm coming to get you!" I heaved myself up the steel bars that made up the ladder to the crow's nest, trying to move as quickly as I could without slipping on the sopping wet metal.

When I finally got close enough, I shouted, "Take my hand!"

Yanjing undid his grip on the hand closest to me, and with shaking fingers, managed to connect his hand with mine.

I tightened my grip on both the bar and Yanjing's hand, and said, "When I say go, try to swing onto me!"

Yanjing looked at me as if I was crazy. "W-"

"GO!"

Yanjing swung. It was a good swing, some disconnected part of me said. The momentum was enough for him to collide with me and at the same time slow enough to not crush either of us, and Yanjing still had a tiny chunk of his brain that wasn't screaming for dear life.

Of course, all the other parts were screaming, "FOR DEAR LIFE-AHGFEASNRDKFGNSBGVADSNF!"

Still, the tiny part of my brain that was still serene took over, and got both of us down.

Yanjing was still in shock, so I got him to hang onto a pillar to brace himself. That done, I grabbed as large a pot as I could carry and ran to help Liet and Xiangjiao splash the water off the deck.

"You're helping? Great," said Xiangjiao. She didn't seem to want to talk to me, but given the circumstances, I could understand.

"WAIT!" screamed Yanjing. He had somehow recovered from his shock and made his way to the captain. "There's this gigantic rock formation, up ahead! We're going to crash-"

"TAKE COVER!" screamed Xiangjiao.

"Tidal wave!" screamed Liet. "GRAB HOLD OF ACKGLUBGLUBGLUB-"

I grabbed the side of the ship and closed my eyes. Several tons of water crashed onto our heads, like a dozen liquefied elephant-whales. When I opened my eyes…

Liet was gone.

Five seconds later, Xiangjiao slapped me in the face. "Lightning hit the storage boxes! They're on fire!" she yelled, pointing at the boxes tied to the front of the ship. "It's only a matter of time before the gunpowder ignites! Quick, help the other Firebenders!"

John grabbed me and said, "Now, when the explosion comes, we're going to move it to the right, away from the ship, got it?"

"Taip," I said.

"What was that?"

"Never mind."

BOOM. FWOOOSH!

One crisis averted. I sagged from the sheer effort, and looked ahead. We had missed the rocks after all… "I'm going to get all of you back to port safely, do you hear me?!" said Captain Xiaping sharply.

"Aye-aye, captain!"

Little did we know exactly how much that one fireball had affected our destiny.

X (Back to Latvia)

I couldn't fly, but I knew that I could find Katara and Aang. I mean, a Flying Bison is hard to miss, after all. I followed Katara into the valley, and saw Appa fly into one of the caves. With Estonia on my back, I entered.

Katara and Aang were sitting across a fire. Judging by Aang's expression, I could tell that they were talking about something…

"I… abandoned them," said Aang. "I abandoned my people in their hour of need. The Air Nomads… Without the Avatar, they didn't stand a chance."

Katara looked down. "That's…horri—Raivis!? What are you doing here!?"

I walked further into the cave and let Estonia down. "I… Katara, Aang… I-I'm here to…"

"What, apolo-"

"No, Katara," said Aang. He put a hand on my shoulder. "You did nothing wrong, Raivis. You just tried to stop an argu-"

"That wasn't it…" I said. "I… I wanted to explain. It may be just an excuse, but…"

I looked into their eyes. "Katara, you may have thought that I thought that Aang deserved to be yelled at, but I didn't. And Aang, I never meant to let you down."

"Then why?" asked Katara.

"That's because… I understood." I took in a deep breath, and sighed. "I understood completely how that man felt. The pain, the suffering of war… he had a right to be bitter, I know it. I don't blame him. But at the same time, I understood you, Aang."

Aang blinked. "What do you mean by that, Raivis?"

"The pain of… being completely helpless," I said. "The country where I come from is tiny. Tiny, and bordered by a gigantic nation. Huge. And powerful, too. I can still remember that day… my country was forced to sign a treaty to allow troops from that big country to stay in my country. And then that country pretended that my country had violated the terms of that treaty, allowing them to annex us."

I sniffled. "I couldn't do anything on that day. No one could. Even Eduard and Liet were forced through the same thing…"

Katara began to cry with me. "I can't believe it… why would they do such a thing?"

"Special circumstances," I said. "There was a war going on."

"Even then… but still, there was nothing you could do about it," said Katara. "So please, don't feel guilty. Don't worry about what you can't control."

I looked down. "That's the thing. I could have done something. If I were stronger, or… no. I'm free now."

Before either Katara or Aang could ponder what I said, Estonia woke up. "Ugh… hah… I feel better now."

"Eduard!" I shouted, and threw myself onto him. "You're awake!"

Katara looked outside. "Now all there is to do is go back to town and find Peter and Arthur, and wait for Sokka to come back from his fishing job."

Aang followed her gaze. "I don't know… Arthur did say that it was only going to rain-"

He caught Estonia's horrified look. "C-can you repeat that?" he asked.

"I don't know?"

"No, after that."

"Arthur said that it was going to rain?"

Estonia punched the wall and began to mutter a string of Estonian curses.

"Um… is something wrong?" asked Katara.

Estonia spun around and grabbed my shoulders. "Raivis, you know how Arthur and Peter live where it rains a lot and all the time, right? Yes, of course you do." He hopped up onto Appa and shouted, "Get on! We have to save them!"

Aang looked confused. "Did I miss something?"

"GET ON!"

X

"I should have woken up earlier," Estonia muttered as we flew into the storm. "You can't rely on Arthur for a rain forecast…"

I blinked. "Wait… are you saying that Arthur's idea of a storm is so different than ours, he can't even tell that this is a storm?!" I shouted, trying to make myself heard through the increasingly intense rain.

"He knows, but his point of reference is completely different!" Estonia yelled back. "He predicted that it was going to rain, but he was so used to heavy rain that he thought that this was normal!"

"THIS is normal!?" shouted Katara. "I'd hate to see heavy…"

Estonia shrugged. "Normally, you'd be on land or something. Still, sometimes I hope that the conspiracy theorists who say that global warming doesn't exist are right."

"Global warming?" repeated Katara.

"What's a 'conspiracy theorist'?" asked Aang.

"I'll tell you later."

KRAKA-BOOM!

"WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"I said, I'LL TELL YOU LATER!"

I looked around us. "The storm's getti-"

KRAKA-BOOM!

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" shouted Estonia.

"I said, THE STORM IS GETTING WO-"

KRAKA-BOOM!

"THE STORM IS GETTING WHAT?!"

"THE STORM IS GETTING-"

KRAKA-BOOM!

"SPEAK UP! THE STORM IS GETTING SO BAD THAT I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"IT'S GETTING-"

KRAKA-BOOM!

I threw my hands up in frustration. "AGH! NEVER MIND!"

Aang grabbed our sleeves. "THERE!" he pointed. "THERE'S SOKKA AND THE OLD MAN! Appa, get us closer!"

Appa roared, descended, and hovered right next to the boat. The old man and Sokka hopped onto the saddle.

"Guys!" shouted Sokka as he threw himself onto Katara. "Thank goodness you're here. That storm… rgh." Sokka shuddered. "I don't know what Arthur was thinking."

"I'll tell you later," said Estonia.

"Well, that was the worst storm I've even seen, and I've seen more than a few," said the fisherman.

Estonia turned. "Hey, remember that one time, when we were with Sweden and-"

"Oh yeah…" I said. "I was wet for months…" [4]

"And when we were hanging around in Alfred's house and-"

KRAKA-BOOM!

"I can't forget that in a hurry."

"All right, can't we stop talking about all these storms you lived through and get out already?" said Sokka. "When we get to an inn, I am taking a bath. A long, hot bath."

The fisherman looked at Aang. This time, he didn't seem to be angry. "You know, I thought that the Avatar had shirked his duty and left ordinary people to fend for themselves," he said. "But now I know better. You risked your life to save us. That's not the act of a coward."

Aang looked up. "Thank you, sir."

I looked at him. "S-sorry you lost your boat… and all the fish you were catching…"

The old man looked at me, and broke out into a wide grin. "Do you know what happened to us back there?"

We all stared at him.

"Well, in my pants I found a-"

KRAKA-BOOM!

Estonia shuddered and said, "Let's just say that you found that your pockets were filled with fish, right?"

The man looked at him funny. "That's exactly what I was going to say."

X (Back at town)

"I am terribly sorry."

England knelt at our feet, looking the most sincere that I've even seen him. "I told you that it was going to rain… and I thought that you knew what I meant by that. I'm sorry."

Sealand looked down, forlorn, and said, "I should have told you. But the thought never came to me. I was being stupid. I'm sorry too."

Sokka looked at England, and then Sealand. "Who cares? What matters is that we're all alive," he said.

England and Sealand looked up. "Do you really mean that?" asked Sealand.

Sokka nodded. "Uh-huh. Look, it could just as easily have been you out there, trying to find your way through an ice field that I said was thick but you'd actually have to tread lightly through. I can't blame you for something like that."

Sealand and England looked at him in awe. And then England said, "Hey, Raivis. Can I borrow you for a moment?"

I stiffened, and then nodded.

"I found the local bar while I was working. There's a contest going on; if you win we get a free barrel of rice wine."

If I win? "So what you're basically saying is that if I win this drinking contest, then you get a barrel of wine."

"Precisely."

Estonia stood up. "Come on!" he said.

"Eduard's right," said Katara. "That's unbelievably selfish of y-"

"Huh?" said Estonia. "No, I was complaining about the fact that I don't get any."

"You're not legal," said England.

"That didn't stop you from trying to get Alfred drunk."

England stared at him. "And how the bloody hell did you know about that?"

"Well, for one, Lithuania heard that from Poland, who heard it from Belarus, who knew about it from Ukraine, who talked with Liechtenstein, who overheard Switzerland muttering about it, who got it from Austria, who got it from Hungary, who got it from Prussia while he was bragging, who got it from France who was drunk and knew because he happened to be there at the time."

"…Oh."

"Unless you want the simpler explanation, which was because we 'dirty red communists' happened to be spying the whole time." [5]

"I KNEW IT!"

"And so the entire Cold War was justified."

Katara stood up. "But that doesn't chan-"

"I'll do it," I said quietly.

"What?" said Katara.

"I said, I'll do it."

"But why?" asked Aang. "I mean, it only helps A-"

"But either way, I get to drink all that I want. Plus, if I lose, then Arthur doesn't get any of that wine and then I'm the only one that it helps."

There was a pause. "True…"

"…Wait, if I'm not legal, then why did you let Alfred drink?" asked Estonia.

"Because it's legal to drink where I come by the time you're eighteen," said England. "Alfred is nineteen, you are seventeen."

"Then what about Raivis?"

England blinked. "Er… LOOK OUT!"

All six of us spun around, and England grabbed me and ran off.

X (Back to Zuko)

In the end, we managed to get through the rest of the storm relatively unscathed. We found a port town that was fine with repairing a Fire Nation ship, a hospital for everyone who was injured, and a cart that sold ginseng tea.

Only then could we pay our respects to Liet.

"Liet was the man who made us breakfast when he broke my leg," said Jim.

"Liet apologized when he broke my neck," said John.

"Liet helped me save Uncle, and he never failed to be kind and polite to everybody," I said. "No matter if it was a soldier or a farmer, Liet was never cruel. No matter what they did."

Among the words spoken in the wake, no one said, Liet was the reason why Zuko opened his heart. He turned the arrogant, obsessed prince into somebody. Somebody to trust.

All of us knew that Liet was buried at sea; there was no body. So we built a casket out of bark and coal, and set it on fire. As I gazed into the flames, I made a vow.

"I will become stronger. Next time, no one will have to die."

X (Liet POV)

Somehow, miraculously, I woke up. Groaning softly, I got up. "Ugh… where am I?" I looked around. I was on a riverbank; in a forest… the currents must have swept me here.

And then it hit me. We were about to crash into a gigantic rock, but I was swept overboard before that could happen. And then there was the fireball…

Tears blurred my vision as I started to cry. "No… Zuko… everyone…"

"Who are you?"

I looked up. An old man was standing over me. He didn't appear to be armed, but he didn't seem to be happy, either.

Hastily, I got to my feet. "I-I'm sorry, sir, I just… uh…washed up here… C-could you point me in the direction of the nearest town? Th-thank you…"

"You never answered my question. Who are you?" The old man scanned my appearance, until his eyes rested upon my sword. "And why do you have a sword?"

I stiffened, and said, "I-it's a memento…"

"A memento that shows clear sign of use," said the old man. "Now, tell me who you are."

I gulped. There was nothing for it, then. "Toris Laurinaitis."

"Well then, Toris, I assume that you are telling the truth. The town is over there, but you must not let the townspeople know that I am here."

"Th-thank you… um… Mr…"

"Jeong Jeong."

X

It's not every day that you get saved from an Earth bender. And definitely not every day when you get saved from said Earthbender by a Firebender.

It all began when I was walking home from herb gathering. I had managed to acquire a rare scrofula herb, which would sell for a lot in a decent market.

Unfortunately, I was attacked by bandits before I got within smelling distance of town.

"Yer money or yer life, mate," said the leader.

"…in which context are you speaking of?" I said.

"What?"

"I mean, are you asking if I have my money or my life, or if I value money over my life, or whether… oh, never mind. I don't have any money on me right now." This was true; there's never any point in bringing money on an herb hunt when there's no one to trade with.

"Oh… then give us your herbs!"

"No."

"Okay—wait, LET'S GET HIM, LADS!"

The bandit on the left stomped and threw a boulder at me with Earthbending. I managed to dodge, somehow.

"HEY!" a voice cried from behind.

I turned around. A girl dressed in green was standing behind me, holding a strange sword. "Three against one isn't fair!"

The leader grinned. "And who are you to tell us, lassi-"

WHAM! The girl brained him with her sword—still sheathed, too.

The Earthbender neared closer.

"Oh no you don't," said the girl, who took a Firebending stance-

A pillar of fire dropped from the sky and crashed directly into the Earthbender. While he screamed about how his shirt was on fire, the girl slapped his last remaining companion. Fifteen times.

After that, none of the bandits wanted to be near that girl again.

"Th-thank you for saving me," I said in the aftermath.

"Aw, no big deal," she said. "I mean, I was just passing through."

And then she left, on the sunset…

"You're heading straight for a cliff!" I shouted.

"I-I knew that!" she yelled back, and quickly turned to the left.

That was the first recorded appearance of the Green Princess…

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Beets: This is true. After consuming beets, it is possible for your pee and/or poop to turn red, like blood.

[2] "The only one who will be able to survive are those born with good fortune and those not human," Line from the old lady: from the dubbed version of Baccano! The awkwardly put statement of the old man is a paraphrase of the episode title.

[3] Captain Xiaping: In Chinese, the X- sound has a sh- sound, basically. Xiaping is my transliterated Chinese version of 'Shopping'.

[4] Latvia being wet after storm: No historical significance whatsoever. Spur of the moment.

[5] Communists spying: I have no idea if the Russians were spying on the Allies in WW2 or not. However, since we don't exactly know whether the scene with England trying to get America drunk was before or after Germany betrayed Russia, it is entirely possible that if Russia was spying, he was spying on enemies and so would be justified.

KRAKA-BOOM just sounds like a cool sound effect.

Xiangjiao means banana.

Okay, maybe I was exaggerating when England thought that a typhoon was normal. Then again, I can explain. First, England thought that heavy rains in general were normal. And then there's the fact that while he can predict heavy rain, there is a margin of error; in this case, a huge one.

Who is the Green Princess? What do I mean by an oddly shaped sword? And will Latvia win the drinking contest?