We were on a small island outside Ba Sing Se. "I missed you more than you will ever know buddy." Aang said, he was still hugging Oppa. Oppa licked Aang.
"Look, we escaped from the Dai Li, we got Oppa back, I'm telling you, we should go to the earth king now and tell him our plan." Sokka said "We're on a role."
"One good hour after weeks of trouble isn't much of role." Katara said.
"We can build on it, if we wanna invade the fire nation when the eclipse happens we need the earth king's support." Sokka explained.
"What makes you think we'll get it?" Toph asked "I don't know if you've noticed but things don't usually go that smoothly in 'our little gang'."
"I know but I've got a good feeling about this, this time will be different." Sokka said.
"Sokka, Long Fang is in control of the city, his conspiracy with the Dai Li is too powerful, I think we should just keep flying and leave this horrible place behind us." Katara said.
"I'm with her; I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se." I said.
"I here ya." Toph agreed.
"But now that we have Oppa back there's nothing stopping us from telling the earth king the truth about the conspiracy and the war." Aang said.
"See, Aang's with me." Sokka said. "It's the whole reason we came here in the first place, we have to try."
"Well, I guess if the earth king knew the truth things could change." Katara said.
"I don't trust the new positive Sokka, LONG FANG BRAIN WASHED YOU DIDN'T HE?!" Toph yelled. Aang gasped and ran to the edge of the island we were on, there were three boats.
"That's probably the Dai Li searching for us." I said.
"So?" Sokka asked.
"Let's fly!" Katara said firmly. I smiled and nodded. Oppa carried the others while I rode on Kaida.
"Can we please buy a new saddle?! Riding bareback is terrifying!" Toph yelled. We kept flying.
"There it is, that whole thing is the palace!" I said over to the others.
"The earth king's chambers should be in the centre." Sokka said.
"We have to be careful, Long Fang's probably warned the king that we're coming." Katara said.
"Why would you assume that?" Sokka asked "If you ask me I think we're gonna sail in ri-"
"AAAAHHHH!" I yelled, giant rocks were being hurled at us. Kaida dodged the rocks easily, she had a long body and big wings, she was an expert flyer.
"What was that?!" Toph asked.
"More incomings!" Sokka yelled. As we flew closer Aang and I would use earth bending if the rocks got too close. There were rows and rows of Dai Li in front of the palace. Aang jumped down and earth bended them all out of the way. We landed and jumped off of our animals. As we ran through the path Dai Li appeared at the sides, Aang, Toph and I destroyed the blocks and rocks with earth bending. Katara whipped them with water from the side.
"Sorry!" She said. As more Dai Li agents appeared from the side Toph made giant dominoes out of the ground below the Dai Li and trapped them all. "Sorry! We just need to get through to see the earth king!" Katara said. When we were almost at the palace Dai Li agents appeared in front of it and shot giant rock statues at us. Toph, Aang and I made a shield over the top of us out of bricks. Katara ran out and knocked all of the agents into the small river. Aang froze the river over so they couldn't get out. Dai Li agents flooded out of the doors of the palace and shot boulders at us, they came down the steps. Toph ran in front of us all and held her hands up, suddenly all of the steps moves so it was a flat slope. Aang and Toph made the square underneath us move up and over the slope while I used earth bending to knock any Dai Li agents out of our way.
"Seriously, we're actually on your side!" Sokka yelled at the agents.
"Yeah, uh, sorry!" I said. We managed to get into the palace, we were now in a massive room with three corridors coming out of it, Dai Li agents came into the room through the corridors. Toph slammed them all against the ceiling.
"Toph, which way to the earth king?" Sokka asked.
"How should I know?! I'm still voting we leave Ba Sing Se." Toph said. While Sokka checked all of the doors the rest of us attacked the Dai Li agents. When we were done Sokka climbed over some rubble and saw some massive doors, they were the size of the whole hallway.
"Now that's an impressive door." Sokka admired "It's gotta go somewhere." We all climbed over the rubble and ran to the door. Sokka tried to kick it open but it didn't exactly work, he fell to the floor. He tried pushing it open but all to no avail.
"Just let me do it!" I said angrily. I used giant rock pillars to break down the doors, Sokka fell inside the room.
"Nicely done." Toph said.
"Thanks." I smiled.
"A little warning next time!" Sokka said. We ran into the room and saw some more Dai Li agents, they were standing in front of the earth king, and along with them was Long Fang.
"We need to talk to you." Aang said.
"They're here to overthrow you." Long Fang said.
"No, we're on your side." Sokka said "We're here to help."
"You have to trust us." Katara said.
"You invade my palace, lay waste to all my guards, break down my fancy door," the earth king said, the others looked at me angrily, I shrugged "And you expect me to trust you?!" the earth king finished.
"He has a good point." Toph said.
"If you're on my side then drop your weapons and stand down." The earth king said. Aang dropped his staff, Katara put her water away, Sokka dropped his sword, Toph put her boulder down and I stood up straight.
"See, we're friends your earthiness." Aang smiled. Long Fang put his hand up and the Dai Li agents put their rock gloves around our hands like hand cuffs. Long Fang smiled triumphantly, I so wanted to fire bend that look off his face right now!
"Detain the assailants." Long Fang commanded.
"But we dropped our weapons." Sokka said "We're your allies."
"Make sure the avatar and his friends never see daylight again." Long Fang said.
"The avatar?!" the earth king asked "You're the avatar?"
"Uh, no, him." Sokka said, he gestured to Aang.
"Over here." Aang said.
"What does it matter your highness?" Long Fang asked "They're enemies of the state."
"Perhaps you're right." The earth king said. The king's bear walked over to Aang and licked him, then he moved to me and licked me before sitting down next to me. I pulled the hand cuffs off with earth bending and scratched his ear before putting them back on.
"Basco seems to like them." The earth king said "I'll hear what he has to say." He said. I smirked as I saw Long Fang frown.
"Well sir," Aang said walking forward "There's a war going on right now, for the past 100 years in fact. The Dai Li has kept it secret from you; it's a conspiracy to control the city and to control you." Aang explained.
"A secret war? That's crazy." The earth king said.
"Completely." Long Fang said.
"Long Fang didn't want us to tell you so he stole our sky bison to black mail us and black mail is the least of his crimes!" Aang said "He brain washed our friend!"
"All lies. I've never even seen a sky bison your majesty, frankly I thought they were extinct." Long Fang said to the earth king.
"Your claim is difficult to believe, even from an avatar." The earth king said.
"Well maybe you'll believe me. I'm part of the fire nation royal family." I said.
"Hah, how stupid do you think we are?" Long Fang asked.
"Pretty stupid." I answered truthfully. I took the hand cuffs off and reached inside my pocket for my passport. I walked up to the king and handed it to him; he looked it over and nodded.
"Still, a war?" the king asked. I rolled my eyes and took back my passport. I put it in my pocket and put my hand cuffs back on and walked in line with the others.
"These hooligans are part of a cell that my agents have been tracking for weeks, if you listen to them, you're playing right into your own destruction." Long Fang said to the king.
"I have to trust my advisor." The king said. The Dai Li started to lead us away.
"Wait! I can prove he's lying!" Sokka said "Long Fang said he's never seen a sky bison, ask him to lift his robe."
"What?! I am not disrobing." Long Fang stated. I looked at Aang and raised an eyebrow, he winked, I sniggered. Aang blew out loads of air and showed a mark on Long Fang's leg. I realised what it was, it was a mark from when Oppa bit him outside the lake.
"There, Oppa bit him!" Aang said.
"Never met a sky bison huh?" Sokka asked.
"That happens to be a large birth mark, thanks for showing everyone." Long Fang said.
"Well I suppose there's no way to show where those marks came from." The king said.
"Of course there is!" Sokka said. Oppa was brought into the room and we were released from our hand cuffs. Aang opened Oppa's mouth and showed the king his tooth, he then pointed to the mark on Long Fang's leg, they matched.
"Yep that pretty much proves it." The king said. We all cheered "But it doesn't prove this crazy conspiracy theory." The king said, we all frowned and slumped over "Though, I suppose this matter's worth looking into." The king said, we all shrugged and muttered in agreement. The king had his guards escort him. We walked to the train station, while the others got on Aang and I stayed off. "Aren't you coming?" the king asked.
"I'm taking Oppa." Aang said.
"I'm taking Kaida." I said.
"Kaida?" the king asked, Kaida suddenly became visible behind me, the king jumped back and almost screamed. I laughed and got onto Kaida while Aang got onto Oppa. The train left and so did Aang and I. We were heading to Lake Laogai so we could show the king the Dai Li head quarters. We landed at the edge of the lake and waited for the earth king. Toph walked to the edge and brought up the path we used to get down earlier. But when she did it was broken and there was no sign of a hatch.
"It's gone!" Toph exclaimed.
"Oh don't tell me, that's okay, still got my positive attitude." Sokka said.
"The Dai Li must have known we were coming and destroyed the evidence." I said.
"Hmmm, that seems awfully convenient." The earth king said.
"Hey! If anything this proves the conspiracy even more." Sokka said.
"Long Fang was right, this was a waste of time." The earth king said "If you'll excuse me I'm going back to the palace."
"The wall, they'll never be able to cover that up in time!" Katara said.
"Oh yeah." Aang said. He jumped in front of the earth king and said "If you come with us to the outer wall we can prove that the secret war is real."
"No earth king has ever been to the outer wall." The king said "I don't have any more time for this nonsense."
"If you come with us, this time you can ride on Oppa." Sokka suggested slyly. I saw the earth king stop and smile. While I got on Kaida the others got on Oppa. When we took off the King yelled in fear, he was still doing this when we were flying steadily.
"First time flying?" Toph asked.
"It's both thrilling and terrifying." The king said.
"Yeah, I hate it too." Toph said.
"I have to be honest with you, part of me really hopes that what you're telling me about this war isn't true." The earth king said.
"I wish it wasn't." Aang said.
"When you find that it's real what will you do with me? I am part of the fire nation royal family?" I asked the king.
"If it is real then I'll do nothing, you've already proven yourself by being with the avatar." The king said. I smiled and nodded thankfully, I looked at Aang.
"I seriously owe you more than one." I said. We flew to the outer wall and edged around it so the drill came into view.
"It's still there!" Aang said happily.
"What is that?" the king asked.
"It's a drill, a giant drill made by the fire nation to break through your wall." Sokka said. The drill has a wall around it but was still broken. We landed on the wall above the drill.
"I can't believe I never knew." The king said. Suddenly Long Fang and two agents came through the wall.
"I can explain your majesty; this is nothing more than a construction project." Long Fang said.
"Really? Then perhaps you can explain why there's a fire nation insignia on your 'construction project'?" Katara asked.
"Well it's imported of course." Long fang said "You know you can't trust domestic machinery." He said. We all looked at him, not even the earth king believed that. "Surely you don't believe these children instead of your most loyal attendant." Long Fang said. The earth king looked from us to Long Fang.
"Dai Li, arrest Long Fang." The earth king said "I want him to stand trials for crimes against the earth kingdom." Long Fang gasped, and frankly, we were shocked too. The Dai Li shackled Long Fang and pulled him back.
"You can't arrest me, you all need me more than you know!" Long Fang said.
"Looks like Long Fang is Long gone! HAHAHAHAHA!" Sokka laughed "I've been waiting to use that one." We were taken back to the palace.
"I want to thank you young heroes for opening my eyes, all this time what I thought was a great metropolis was merely a city of fools and that makes me the king fool." The king said. "We're at war with the fire nation."
"That's why we came to Ba Sing Se your highness, because we think you can help us and the war." Sokka said.
"We don't have much time, there's a comet coming this summer, it's energy will give the fire benders unbelievable strength, they'll be unstoppable." Aang said.
"But there is hope, before the comet comes we have a window of opportunity, a solar eclipse is coming, the sun will be entirely blocked out by the moon and the fire benders will be helpless." Sokka said.
"What are you suggesting Sokka?" the king asked.
"That's the day we need to invade the fire nation." Sokka said.
"That's the day of black sun." I said.
"I don't know, that would require moving troops out of Ba Sing Se, we'd be completely vulnerable." The king said.
"You're already vulnerable, the fire nation won't stop until Ba Sing Se falls, you can either sit back and wait for that to happen or take the offensive and give yourself a fighting chance." Sokka said. We all looked hopefully at the earth king.
"Very well, you have my support." The earth king said. We all hugged each other.
"Your majesty, I apologise for the interruption." Someone walked in and said.
"This is general How, he's the leader of the council of 5, my highest ranking generals." The king said.
"We searched Long Fang's office; I think we found something that will interest everybody." General How said. We were brought to How's office. Someone brought in a box. "There were secret files on everyone in Ba Sing Se, including you kids." How said.
"Secret files?" Aang asked.
"Toph Beifong." The king said, he handed her a scroll. Toph handed it to Katara, Katara opened it up.
"It's a letter from your mum, she's here in the city and she wants to see you." Katara said.
"Long Fang intercepted our letters from home, that's just sad." Toph said.
"Aang." The king said, he handed some paper to Aang.
"This scroll was attached to the horn of your bison when the Dai Li captured it." How said.
"It's from the eastern air temple." Aang said.
"Is there a letter for me and Sokka by any chance?" Katara asked.
"I'm afraid not." The king said. Katara and Sokka looked at each other sadly.
"Oh." Sokka sighed.
"But there is an intelligence report that might interest you." How said.
Katara read the report out loud "A small fleet of water tribe ships." She said.
"What?! That could be dad!" Sokka said happily.
"Protecting the mouth of chameleon bay, led by Hakoda! It is dad!" Katara said. I didn't expect anything from my family so I was surprised when How handed me a scroll.
"From Fire Lord Ozai." How said. I gasped and took the scroll off of him. I opened it up and read it. A tear fell down my cheek.
"What is it? What does it say?" Katara asked. I handed the letter to her. "Dear Hotaru, I want you to come home and do your part to help our nation in this war. Your brother and sister are at home and doing well. I will not be asking again." Katara read out. She handed the letter back to me.
"How dare he! After all this he expects me to go home, just like that?! How dare he use Zuko and Azula to taunt me!" I yelled.
"Calm down." Aang said.
"No!" I yelled, I looked over the letter again and watched as it burned. Aang walked over and put his hand on my shoulder, I smiled "Sorry." I said quietly. We all sat down on the carpet and were left alone by the king and general How.
"I can't believe it, there's a man living at the eastern air temple, he says he's a guru." Aang said.
"What's a guru?" Sokka asked "Some kind of poisonous blow fish?"
"No, a spiritual expert, he wants me to take the next step in the avatar journey. He says he can teach me to control the avatar state." Aang said.
"And I can't believe we know where our dad is now." Katara said.
"I know what you mean." Toph said "My mum's in the city and from the sounds of her letter it sounds like she finally understands me."
"This is all such big news, where do we even start?" Sokka asked.
"I hate to say it but we have to split up." Katara said.
"Split up?" Aang asked "We just found Oppa and got the family back together and now you want us to separate."
"You have to meet this guru Aang, if we're going to invade the fire nation you need to be ready." Katara said.
"Well, if I'm going to the eastern air temple Oppa and I could drop you off at chameleon bay to see your dad!" Aang said.
"Someone has to say here with the earth king." Sokka said.
"I can but I need someone with me, I have a habit of making bad decisions." I said.
"Someone needs to help with planning the invasion." Sokka said "I'll stay with Hotaru."
"No Sokka, I know how badly you wanna help dad. You go to chameleon bay; I'll stay here with Hotaru and the king." Katara said.
"You are the…nicest! ...Sister! …ever!" Sokka said, he hugged her.
"Easy there big brother…thought you're right, I am." Katara replied. We were out with Oppa just as Aang was about to leave.
"Katara, I need to tell you something." Aang said to her "I've wanted to say it for a long time."
"What is it Aang?" Katara asked.
Aang looked at the floor and rubbed the back of his head nervously "Katara I-"
"All right! Who's ready to get going on a manly man trip!" Sokka yelled.
"Aang and Sokka, I wish you a good journey, Ba Sing Se owes you it's thanks and we look forward to your safe return." The king said.
"Your majesty, there are three female warriors here to see you, they're from the island of Kyoshi." A Dai Li agent said.
"That's Suki!" Sokka yelled, he fell off of Oppa.
"You know these warriors?" the king asked.
"Oh yeah, the Kyoshi warriors are a skilled group of warriors, trustworthy too." Sokka said.
"They're good friends of ours." I said.
"Then we shall welcome them as honoured guests." The king said.
"Wait Aang." Katara said, she hugged Aang and kissed his cheek, he went bright red.
"I'm really gonna miss you guys." Toph said.
"Me too." Katara said.
"Yeah." Aang said.
"You're my best friend, of course I'm gonna miss you." I said, Katara, Aang and I all hugged her then we ran over to Sokka and made him join in the group hug.
"Great…that's enough." Sokka said "Okay, we love each other…seriously." He patted our heads. With that Aang and Sokka got onto Oppa and left. Toph hugged me one last time before going to leave.
"Wait!" I said.
"What?" she asked.
"I'm coming with you." I said. I looked at Katara hopefully; she smiled and nodded "Thank you Katara." I said, I hugged her and grabbed my bag. Toph and I walked to where the letter said. When we got to the door Toph sighed and knocked. The door swung open anyway.
"Hello?" she asked, no answer "Mum? Anyone home?" We walked into the room. Toph gasped and looked around, so did I. Suddenly metal boxes were dropped on us. "HEY! Who do you think you're dealing with?!" Toph yelled.
"One loud mouthed little brat who strayed too far from home." Xin Fu said. I looked around the corner of my bars and saw Xin Fu and Master Yu. I sat against the bottom of the box and groaned, why does everything happen to us?!