Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the last airbender (but you've seen this already so many times, right? Heheh)

Chapter 36

Aang rubbed Appa's nose, barely leaving the bison's side even long after they landed on a nearby peninsula, temporarily to be out of sight of any possible Dai Li agents but at the same time not too far out so that they were out of Ba Sing Se.

After all that just transpired, there's no way they could just leave Ba Sing Se peacefully, now that it was known that Long Feng was the leader of a corrupted organization.

"Guys, we can't just sit around and think over this," Katara spoke, sitting up from next to Toph on Appa's paw looking uneasy. "We have to warn the earth king. There's a chance Long Feng hasn't told him about any of this!"

"Look, I get where you're getting at, but Ba Sing Se is as terrible as it can be and irredeemable. I vote we just high tail it out of here while we're still under fire." Toph responded nonchalantly from where she was lying on one of Appa's paws, sticking a finger in her ear and flicking away ear wax that came from it.

Sokka was pacing in front of where they all sat on Appa, thinking. He seemed to be deeply considering their options at the moment. He responded, "We can't just leave now after everything that just happened. Leaving things as it is, I wouldn't be able to sleep well if we just let this go." He looked at all of them. "We have to do something. We have to get to the earth king and tell him what Long Feng has been doing under his nose."

They all looked at each other expectantly, and nodded simultaneously. Momo chittered on Aang's shoulder, and the boy rubbed the lemur's head in reassurance. "Don't worry, buddy. We won't let Appa get caught this time. He's going to be with us," He reassured his small companion, who relaxed at his comfort.

"Yeah, but, what about her?" Toph suddenly asked and pointed to the side.

Everyone followed the path Toph's finger pointed in and then realized what she meant.

Akemi, the nearly forgotten one of the bunch, was sitting at the edge of the high plateau overlooking the large body of water that stretched for miles, away from the group. She was out of sight and out of mind, until now.

Aang noted how hunched over in her position she was with knees tucked to herself and her arms folded over her knees. He couldn't see her face, given that she was hiding it in her arms, but he could assume correctly about to why she was carrying herself out this way.

Sokka peered in the direction of the girl Toph referred to and gave her a once-over. His expression closed up and no one could seem to read him as he started to pace again after pausing momentarily. He once again stopped pacing and crossed his arms, shaking his head.

Katara let out an exasperated sigh at Sokka's silent message: we shouldn't bring her. She got off Appa and strolled up to her brother, saying, "Look, I get where you're going at, but—" She glanced over at Akemi, who hadn't seemed to notice that they were discussing things. "—but we can't just leave her like this."

Sokka blinked and unfolded his arms. "Like what?"

Katara's eyelids dropped and she gave him a deadpan stare. Her hand reached out, gripped his chin, and she turned his head in the girl's direction once more, "Like that." She emphasized, gesturing Sokka to how reclusive the girl was being, but he still seemed like he didn't get the message. Eventually, she gave up and released his face, grumbling an, 'you're so thick-skulled.'

Aang suddenly strolled between the two, startling them both and they watched in mild surprise as Aang slowly made his way over to Akemi, who still continued to remain almost motionless from her place.

Momo flew off Aang's shoulder and landed on Appa as he made his way closer to Akemi; he knew that Momo was still untrusting of the fire nation girl. In the intervening time he made his way over to Akemi, he took note that she didn't even react even as his footsteps were more than likely apparent to reach her ears. Even as he stood next to her, she didn't do or say anything; he took a seat next to her and surveyed her form.

Again, not much reaction on her part. Aang, over time, even started to appear gloomy the more he continued to stare and wait for her to respond; he glanced at his crossed feet, arms placed in his lap, looking downcast. He twiddled his thumbs together.

"…I'm sorry." He spoke. "Back then, I had the chance to save Jet, but—"

"Stop apologizing."

Aang stiffened at how terse her response was.

"You didn't do it. You didn't cause this, okay?" Akemi lifted her head and Aang spotted how sunken the bags underneath her eyes were. Though they just escaped the headquarters nearly an hour ago, she looked as though she hadn't slept for days. "So just…" She refused to meet eye contact as she fully raised her head up. "…please, stop…blaming yourself."

Aang nodded, and he once again glanced to the side as he waited patiently for her to speak. Right now he was making progress with pulling her from her depressed state, and he didn't want to accidentally cut her off from speaking if she had something to say.

Akemi slowly turned her head in his direction, which was all he could hear as he glanced to the side in case she would feel too overwhelmed if he were to continue staring at her the entire time while she was like this. His head angled slightly when he heard her shifting off the ground and felt her presence start to stand.

As his ash-grey eyes darted up to her, he let out a small air of relief when she stood waiting for him, a hand stretched outward to him. He gratefully took the hand held out to him, but nearly stumbled as she yanked him up with more force than he had expected her too.

As he stumbled on his feet with a yelp, he became aware just how broad-shouldered and buff she was for the first time in all of his run-ins with her. She released his hand and he immediately dismissed the random thought and followed her to join with the others.

As though she wasn't brooding moments ago, she suddenly dropped her sullen look and tried to look more positive. "So...what do you guys plan to do now?" She asked.

Katara looked at Akemi and her brows furrowed. "Us, what about you? After what you did back there, you…you aren't considering about going back where you came from…are you?"

Akemi stiffened and she gave a half shrug. She glanced between all of them, who all looked suddenly curious as to what her next plan of action was for her, then waved a hand dismissvely at them and she forced a smile. "As any other sensible fire nation fugitive-now-found-out in an earth nation: escape, and hope I don't get caught!" She started to laugh, but nobody seemed to find her joke funny; in fact, for the most part they seemed unsettled by her response, and her forced laughter died down almost instantly.

She quickly cleared her throat, awkwardly trying to pull herself together after inappropriately reacting. "Sorry…truthfully, I'm not entirely sure," Akemi suddenly admitted and rubbed one of her arms while rocking back on her heels back and forth. Beneath the surface of it all, she seemed downtrodden and distressed about her situation.

After all, now that Long Feng had seen her firebend, which in this nation was dealt with corporal punishment of death, she had every right to be like this.

Katara's eyes darted between everyone else in the group.

Aang was the first to break the silence, "Well, you—y'know—can always come with us!"

At this bombshell that was dropped in the conversation, everyone, including Akemi, suddenly all looked morally shocked by Aang's suggestion; or, invitation, given by his tone of voice.

Unlike the certain fish out of water of the bunch, the rest of Aang's companions looked perturbed by his offer. Or for the most part, only the water tribe siblings looked uncomfortable about Akemi joining the group. Toph, however, looked rather elated.

"Aang, can we discuss this…over there?" Sokka spieled through his teeth, but he didn't give him much choice as he grabbed the collar of his shirt and dragged him to the side.

Katara and Toph glanced at Akemi, who noted how borderline hostile he became after Aang's offer and her face fell; shoulder's slumped, and eyes downcast, she turned and slowly meandered to her previous spot at the edge of the elevated plateau to leave them to their business.

They made their way over to where Sokka and Aang were, who were both now caught in a rather heated discussion. Or rather, Sokka seemed to be the only one to be nearly going into a frenzied state, and Aang looked unmoved and steadfast.

"Okay, I let it go last time because we needed help, but Aang—" Sokka threw his hands in the air. "—you've officially led to believe that you have actually lost your mind!" Eyes round and forehead creased, Sokka was the poster child for the definition of a nervous wreck.

His attempt at trying to convince Aang otherwise were all for naught; the boy seemed stern with resolve.

Toph crossed her arms and let out a huff. "Considering not even that long ago you brought her into a hug not that long ago, the fact you're so adamant about bringing Akemi in has somehow made you surprise me! Congratulations." As sarcastic as she was, her hardened expression showed how incredulous he was sounding to her in this moment in time.

Sokka's eyebrow twitched. "Look, I only did that because it didn't seem right to leave her out of it while we were all sad about the same thing, lest we look horrible."

As Katara once again drifted her gaze over to Akemi, who stood overlooking the body of water, her expression softened.

Finally glancing back at Sokka, who was taking up arms against both Aang and Toph now to argue his point, Katara said,

"Aang's right, Sokka. We should bring her along."

Sokka's jaw dropped to the ground, and Aang gave her an appreciative look of 'thanks,' and Katara hoped that in the long run this wouldn't come back to bite them all. Despite her doubts, a part of her deep down believed that given Akemi's track record of helping them out, maybe she will turn out to be a core ally for them.

"KATARA! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Sokka shouted, which in the distance was heard by the odd one out; the fire nation girl turned her head in their direction at hearing his shout, but seemed to only hold her gaze for a moment before she turned away again. He sputtered at the frown of disapproval his sister gave him.

Katara placed a hand on her hip. "Just for now! Given that she just gave up her chance of living in Ba Sing Se peacefully, and now having a death sentence hanging over her head because she decided on a whim to save your butt, yes, we should. The least we could do for her after that is make sure she doesn't have to face any consequences for saving us!" She peered over at Akemi. "After all of this is over, we'll find somewhere she'll be safe and is comfortable in being in and we'll move on from there!"

Toph didn't seem quite pleased with that answer, but didn't say anything.

Sokka, immediately at Katara's statement, became silent; he seemed to register the truth of her statement and his eyes peered at the girl standing a distance away. His eyebrows turned upwards as he looked to be thinking over what Katara had just said, then looked back at everyone thoughtfully.

Seeing as everyone was staring him down, continuously holding onto the small shred of hope that they had just been trying to pull his leg the entire time, he slowly calmed down. "…you guys really are serious about this, aren't you?" He muttered, and they all nodded.

Sokka let out a defeated sigh and rubbed the back of his neck, his brows furrowed tightly. "Now that you put it that way, it really would be unfair if we just left her like this."

Aang beamed. Toph pumped a fist in the air and whispered a silent 'yes!' in victory. Katara's shoulders slumped and she let out a long exhale.

"This'll sure be interesting," Katara mused aloud and walked over to Akemi who continued to stare off into the distance.

She looked over her shoulder as Katara walked up to greet her after being left to her own devices for quite some time. Akemi blinked and she tilted her head slightly in curiosity.

Katara said, "Well, it looks like you can stay, but in any case do you have any objections to this?" Though the likelihood of that being the case was small, it didn't' hurt for her to ask.

Much to Katara's displeasure, Akemi broke eye contact and glanced once again out on the horizon. She shifted and placed her hands on her hips, crinkling her nose at Akemi's antisocial act. Seems that there was a lot about Akemi she wasn't aware about, and this just happened to be one of them.

However, Akemi responded moments later. "...it's not like I have much of a choice, anyway." She sardonically responded, and Katara thought she was being rude and was about to lecture until Akemi turned and greeted her with a a smile of gratitude.

Akemi let out a small laugh at Katara's expression and jested, "All right. You guys lead the way." When there was no hint of irony in her tone of voice, Katara then knew that her gratitude was genuine, and she managed to give her a small smile of her own.

'Maybe...bringing her with us for the long run might not be so bad.' Katara then thought to herself and gestured Akemi to follow along and meet up with the others.

As they came up to the rest of the group, Aang asked Akemi, "Now that you're coming with us, this means you're going to take part in invading the palace. How confident are you about all of this?"

Akemi's face blanched, and Katara flicked the back of Aang's ear at how abruptly he had given away the plan without considering how she would react to it. He let out a whine of distress as he wondered why she had done that.

Katara grimaced when seeing the rising concern etching in Akemi's features gradually. She pointed between everyone in the group as she sputtered,

"I…you…guys want to—" She stammered and slapped a hand to her forehead and slowly dragged it across and stretching her face. Now looking stressed, she looked as though she was going to go off on a rant.

But Akemi surprised everyone when she paused midsentence and held up her hands, raising and lowering them as she self-regulated her emotions and tried to calm herself and whispering things to herself.

She then lowered her hands and let out a breath of air, combing her disheveled hair from in front of her face with one of them. She then replied, "Okay, you know what? Never mind, never mind! I'm not even going to question this, I'm not going to judge. But—"

Akemi relaxed her stance as she finally recovered from her initial shock at their plan, but now looked concerned. "How do you expect me to help? I mean, I don't see how I'll be of use now that I'm rendered without a way to fight."

Aang blinked and scratched his chin, now looking confused. "But, you can firebend, can't you?"

She seemed uncomfortable with that statement. Akemi shifted over on one leg and folded her arms over her torso.

Sokka seemed to have voiced her thoughts, as he interjected, "She could, but, if we're going to try and argue our case to the earth king, bringing along a firebender isn't going to exactly help us—no offense," He looked over at Akemi as he redirected his last statement to her in apology, who waved him dismissively with a nod of understanding. "And, we don't know if Long Feng has already told him about her, so we shouldn't risk it."

Akemi gestured her hand towards Sokka and stated, "He pretty much just voiced my concerns, there. So that's a no-go for me."

Aang looked dejected, but nodded in agreement at Sokka's point of fact. Katara rubbed her chin as she continued to ponder over the wisest choice of action.

"Well, that sucks." Toph commented with a straight face. Akemi snorted at the girl's remark and brought a hand up to rub the nape of her neck absentmindedly.

Aang suggested, "Don't you have any more weapons you could possibly use?" He seemed defeated when Akemi shook her head.

"No." Akemi responded and glanced at her feet. "And even if I did, chances are my weapon would just end up breaking…again. I'm good at hand-to-hand, but, I don't think close-ranged attacks will do much against the Dai Li if I they intercept my attacks with all of that earthbending nonsense before I could even possibly reach them."

Again, Aang looked stumped.

Sokka shrugged. "I mean, even then, you'll still be with us and we'd be able to back you up if that happened."

"Huh," Akemi acknowledged and placed a hand on her chin as she considered his suggestion. "True…I hadn't even thought of that." She let out a small hum thoughtfully and she rocked back and forth on her heels. Going to see the earth king would mean they would have to fight against a whole palace of earthbenders, and even the Dai Li, who were possibly marauding around.

'Could we actually take them all on without getting caught?' She pondered to herself as the others continued to converse,

"Look we're going to need the earth king's support if we're going to invade the fire nation!" Sokka argued.

That certainly caught Akemi's attention from her thoughts. Her eyes bugged out and she darted her eyes to them.

"Wait."

Everyone looked at a wide-eyed Akemi, who pointed at them as she questioned,

"You guys are…planning to invade the fire nation?" She questioned in disbelief. Something flashed through her eyes as Sokka grinned confidently and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Well, you'll be the first of firebenders to hear about this. Though, I assume you're going to keep it a secret when you find out," Akemi noted how was nearly glowering at her in his last insinuation, and quickly responded.

"Uh…well, of course," Akemi declared. "Honestly, I don't know what you guys have in mind, but I'm really looking forward to it." She felt bad for not sounding as eager as she truly was for this when responding to Sokka, who nodded and accepted her response and released his grip on her shoulder.

"Not to be that person, but, what makes you think we'll be able to? I don't know if you've noticed, but things don't go smoothly for our little gang." Toph commented grimly.

Sokka sighed, "I know, but, I've got a good feeling about this. This time…it'll be different."

"Long Feng is in control of the city, his conspiracy with the Dai Li is too powerful!" Katara retorted, logic coming into play. "I think we should just keep leaving and leave this horrible place behind us!"

"I'm with sweetness. I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se...and I can't even see!" Toph proclaimed, throwing her arms in the air.

Akemi blinked and rubbed the nape of her neck as she looked at Toph with a deadpan expression. 'What have I been missing out on with these guys?' She then elected to ask them later, because the more they mentioned their horror stories with Ba Sing Se, the more they made her interested.

Aang contended, "But now that we have Appa back, there's nothing stopping us from telling the earth king the truth; about the conspiracy and the war."

"See? Aang's with me! It's the whole reason we came here in the first place. We have to try!" Sokka insisted.

"Well, I'm not sure I'll be able to partake in this. I'm better off lemur-sitting Momo at this point..." Akemi remarked, her hand still pressing against her neck. She glanced at Momo, who slid off Appa's horns when the bison tilted his head and plopped on the ground. Momo then jumped up and chattered to Appa angrily and the bison let out a tired growl and rested his head back on his paws.

"Well, you could." Aang mentioned, and immediately Akemi gave an exasperated look at him. He smiled nervously and he held up his hands up in front of him in defense. "Just kidding." He responded and backed off.

Akemi rolled her eyes and blew a strand of hair that hung in front of her nose.

Katara glanced to the side. She seemed to be thinking this over. She hummed, "Well...I guess if the earth king knew the truth, things could change..." Sokka and Aang grinned at seeing they got their point across.

Akemi drummed her fingers together and bit her lip. While she was on board with this plan, given she's got nowhere else to really rush back to now that she knew going back to Zuko and Iroh would risk them getting revealed as fire nation fugitives by associating with her, she still thought this idea was ridiculous.

Toph stood up, arms crossed. "I don't trust the new, positive Sokka...LONG FENG BRAINWASHED YOU, DIDN'T HE?" She yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Sokka. Everyone stared at her oddly, but at the mention of Long Feng Akemi's expression darkened and her nervous fiddling stopped.

It was then she then she had no qualms about risking it all if it meant exposing Long Feng as the traitorous scum he was.

Akemi shook her head and blurted at Sokka's plight, "Hey, I could've been fooled." She teased, joining along with Toph who seemed pleased that she was starting to look emotionally stable since whatever happened back then.

Sokka looked at her tiredly. "Nice to know I have some encouragement."

Aang's eyes widened as he saw some boats sailing a few miles away. "That's probably the Dai Li searching for us!" Sokka stated, voicing his thoughts and he looked at Katara expectedly.

Katara nodded. She marched to Appa.

"Let's fly!"

Akemi hoped for the best.

..

..

..

"CAN WE PLEASE BUY A NEW SADDLE? RIDING BAREBACK IS TERRIFYING!" Toph shrieked over the harsh wind billowing in their ears as they flew on Appa.

Admittedly, Akemi wasn't afraid of heights, but she agreed with Toph: this really was terrifying, but she could imagine this was less terrifying for her than it was for the younger of the two right now.

She scooted stiffly over, mindful of the threat of falling off if not careful, and quickly looped an arm over Toph's shoulders and firmly gripped onto Appa's fur, giving Toph the assurance that wasn't going to fall off as she secured her grip on the girl.

"I gotcha." Akemi told Toph, and hoped her ears were acute enough to pick up her reassurance.

Toph buried her face in the fur and shifted closer towards Akemi, a muffled 'thank you' heard despite how loud the air was and the fact that Akemi's eardrums were nearly threatening to explode from the ever-changing altitude.

"There it is! That whole thing is the palace. The earth king's chambers should be in the center!" Sokka shouted and Akemi looked up. She nearly gasped in wonder when she saw the whole courtyard, and the palace itself.

It was absolutely huge!

"Holy…this is so much bigger than the fire nation palace!" She remarked in awe, her eyes taking in the wonder that was the earth nation palace even though the looming threat of what was to come when they landed hung over her head.

Katara addressed worriedly, "We have to be careful! Long Feng's probably warned the king that we're coming!"

Seems that Sokka was trying to remain optimistic, as he turned to Katara and looked quite the opposite of worried as he responded, "Why would you assume that? If you ask me, I think we're just going to sail in-"

Appa jerked to the side just as a large rock boulder was launched in their direction.

'Somehow, this doesn't surprise me.' Akemi thought to herself and tightened her grip on the fur and on Toph, pressing the weight of her arm on her shoulders more to secure her even tighter now that it was apparent they were going to be dealing with a lot of movement soon.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Toph called in fright. Akemi felt sorry for her, and could only imagine how scared she was right now given she wasn't on the earth to 'see' what was happening.

"They're launching boulders right at us!" Akemi responded back in a leveled tone so that any hint of fear wouldn't make Toph panic from where they flew even more, even as she admitted mentally that she was sure as hell terror-stricken over this whole ordeal just as Appa swerved again dodging another giant boulder launched at them in the air.

"Blame Sokka for jinxing it!"

"BELIEVE ME, I WILL!" Toph shrieked again as they swerved to the side once more.

As they started to dive towards the palace, Aang, thankfully, destroyed a few more boulders that were sent at them just as they landed. He jumped off Appa and slammed his staff to the ground, and a wave of earth obliterated the guards away that stood in their path.

Toph scrambled from Akemi's hold, noting that they had final landed and jumped off Appa. Everyone else followed suit except for Akemi, who took this moment to recover from that experience and slid down onto Appa's head next to Momo and watched as they advanced between the earthbending soldiers that launched blocks of earth at them.

Momo immediately got frightened and clambered onto her shoulder, much to her surprise. Akemi slowly brought a hand up, in case Momo would protest, but when the lemur didn't she rubbed a hand on his head in comfort. The lemur continued to surprise her as it relaxed in her hand. She let out a small laugh and turned her attention back to Aang and Toph, who were blazing the trail with Katara behind, using a water whip to get rid of any stragglers in their path.

More soldiers came running. Toph pressed her hands backwards, then forwards, and many layers of earth trapped the soldiers beneath them, allowing themselves to run around them.

As they came to the moat of the palace, two large statues of badger-moles were launched at them. Aang and Toph formed a large earth dome over their heads, causing the statues to crash and land behind them.

'Geez, that was WAY too close!' Akemi thought to herself in relief, placing a hand on her chest. 'I'm just glad that Toph and Aang make a good team, otherwise I can't guarantee I won't accidentally firebend in a panic trying to get out of this!'

After the dust cleared, Katara ran ahead, used water to form a ramp, and jumped over the bridge, with a water whip from the moat, and knocked over the soldiers into it. She did the same with the other guards on the small flight of stairs. While they crossed over, Aang froze the water holding the earthbenders so they wouldn't drown if they couldn't swim.

On the large flight of stairs that went for a mile, more soldiers came.

Akemi shifted with unease at the sheer numbers.

Toph suddenly ran forward and held her hands up. The stairs rumbled, and then Toph yanked her hands back, flattening the stairs completely. The guards lost their footing and started sliding down the stairs, whie Toph and Aang created an elevating platform beneath them all and rose towards the palace.

Akemi stared in wonder and watched as they passed by tumbling soldiers on the ramp, and she let out an excited laugh at the rush of beating past all of this. "This is incredible!" She cackled to herself. "Do they actually do this all the time?!" Initially, she would've doubted being able to breach the palace, but now of her worries and doubts had been tossed to the side without a care.

She suddenly wished she had the privilege of being able to fight alongside with them in this, but then she remembered that the last time she didn't think of the consequences, she had firebent in front of earth nation agents, and already she was already at a huge risk by just being here. Given that it wasn't that long ago she royally messed up, she knew that she would seem careless if she did that, again.

But still…the lingering thought of the excitement paired hand-to-hand with being with these guys made her want to stay. Akemi stiffened as that thought of wanting to be with them crossed her mind. In the meantime, she had to hang back but took comfort in the fact that she would be safe…for now.

She no longer seemed to pay attention to the battle raging on as she was suddenly pulled into reflecting over the thought of traveling with them from now on. Even as they finally entered the palace, the noises of destruction and chaos passed as a blur through one of her ears and out the other.

Akemi suddenly thought, 'Do I have an option to stay with them…? Or should I just go with my other plan and just be dropped off into a place no one knows who I am and live out the rest of my days…alone?' As she half focused on the guards that were present, she focused her eyes on Aang who was a master at keeping them off their tail.

She laughed ironically. 'How did it come to this? Heh…half a year ago I wouldn't have even dreamt of it, and I'd be busy trying to help Zuko catch Aang. But here I am, helping them get Appa, tossing away my opportunity to live the rest of my days out in Ba Sing Se to save them, and now I'm storming the earth nation palace even after the fact I'm considered a criminal.'

Akemi couldn't help but laugh to herself in amusement, and she wondered if she was indeed losing her mind. 'Now that I can't return back to Iroh and Zuko, I guess I can decide whether or not I wanna stay,' Another lingering thought remained in her subconscious, though. 'But...I'm sure they'd rather just dump me in a random village and move on then keep someone like me, around. I doubt they'd want someone who's flunked so many times in their group.' She suddenly looked crestfallen.

'I doubt they'd want someone as useless as me.'

"Toph, where's the earth king?" She heard Sokka asked Toph.

"How should I know? I'm still voting we leave Ba Sing Se!" Toph responded and Akemi managed to crack a smile again at hearing them interact this way despite what was going on. She glanced up and noticed that they had arrived at a large door stretching to the ceiling up ahead.

Akemi's fingers twitched and she bit her lip. 'Well, here goes nothing.' She slowly slid off of Appa's head, grateful the beast was relatively calm around her presence now, and jogged over next to Toph. She petted Momo's head and said, "You should go back on Appa." Momo flew back onto Appa's head afterwards, and Akemi felt content that even Aang's furry companions were starting to be more accepting of her.

She can't say that for the water tribe siblings to an extent, but she reminded herself how much progress she's made with them since the first time she's met. After all, one of the two did drag her into a group hug a while back when they were all mourning, even though they didn't have to.

As much as she wanted to put up a front and say she doesn't care what others think of her, she knew she would be lying to herself; she had accepted back when she was first helping Aang find Appa that she desperately sought for peer approval. The only exception to this was Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee, but even Ty Lee was someone she hoped over time they would somehow be able to meet again and not worry about Azula hovering over them and telling her how to act.

Toph nudged her side, indicating Akemi to 'pay attention', and Akemi snapped out of her chain of thought and focused back on the matters at hand.

Akemi crinkled her nose. "Have any suggestions of what I should do once we get in?" She asked Toph casually. She could feel her increasing heart rate pounding against her chest and wondered if it was possible for her to bruise internally.

"Don't firebend, obviously." Toph answered facetiously.

Akemi murmured a 'hmm' to herself and nodded. "Fair enough."

She suddenly felt Toph nudge her arm with a fist. Akemi glanced down at Toph, who was impassive to read.

"Smalls, relax. We've got this." Toph reassured and strutted forward to where Sokka was admiring the gigantic door. Still not on board with the nickname Toph has given her, nevertheless, her kind gesture flattered Akemi, and she felt a hand linger in the spot she had placed her fist on. She felt her body subconsciously relax and her heart rate slow down; something about the way that Toph was confident alleviated most of her worries over this mission.

Toph seemed to be the only one fully accepting her into the group. Her, and Aang of course. Akemi then wondered what she could do to further gain the sibling's acceptance.

"Now that is an impressive door! It's gotta go somewhere!" Sokka called back to them while marveling at the door. He sucked in a breath and suddenly charged towards the door. Akemi could only assume this would go so well—

He jumped in the air with a battle cry, leg outstretched, and kicked the door.

Nothing happened, and he plopped comically on the ground as a result. Unable to control herself, Akemi snickered loudly. She couldn't help but almost laugh when Sokka relentlessly tried to push the door open. As silly as he was, Akemi admired how persistent he was.

She and everyone else came up behind, and without warning, Aang airbended the door open, knocking Sokka through as well in the process. "A little warning, next time!" Sokka complained and rubbed his head.

As they made their way inside, Akemi stopped to hold a hand for Sokka to take. He immediately seemed wary of how she was trying to help; in the past she would've been affected by this, but now him regarding her this way was more than understandable for her. That didn't mean, however, she was going to retreat her offer.

Eventually, Sokka seemed to give in and took her hand. She quickly pull him up, and he muttered a silent thanks. They scooted over to where everyone else stood and took in the surrounding room. It was large, enormous, and on the throne sat the earth king himself.

Unfortunately for them, however, Long Feng was right next to him. Akemi narrowed her eyes and glared daggers as Long Feng frowned at seeing them appear and silently ordered the Dai Li agents to form ranks in front of them.

Akemi raised her fists, ready to help fight if absolutely necessary. She reveled in the fact Long Feng's eyes widened and the lines in his forehead wrinkled when seeing her get ready, and glanced at the earth king. She scoffed to herself, 'Oh-ho-ho, nice try. I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of making me firebend in front of the king!'

"We need to talk to you!" Aang declared to the earth king.

Much to her annoyance, Long Feng turned to the king and insisted "They're here to overthrow you!"

"No! We're on your side! We're here to help!" Sokka asserted.

"You have to trust us!" Katara insisted.

The earth king rose from his throne with a frown. "You invade my palace, lay waste to all my guards, break down my fancy door-" The king looked really upset at his last accusation, but quickly composed himself. "And you expect me to trust you?"

Silence.

"He has a good point." Toph conceded blankly.

Akemi's mouth set in a hard line. '…this is NOT gonna be good.'

"If you are on my side, then drop your weapons and stand down!" The earth king declared.

'DEFINITELY NOT GOOD!' Akemi panicked internally and looked at everyone else to follow their lead; she nearly wanted to run out the door when they looked at each other before lowering their stances and dropping their weapons.

She quickly slapped her hands to her sides in an attempt to not be out of place; the last thing she wanted was her to draw more attention herself than she previously has.

"See? We're friends, your earthiness!" Aang piped innocently. Sitting on his thrown, glaring down at them, his brows furrowed, Akemi knew that the earth king was not amused by Aang's attempt at humor.

A bead of sweat ran down her temple comically. "World's last hope, ladies and gentlemen." She muttered under her breath, but Aang caught her and his eyebrow twitched in response. She elected to ignore the half-annoyed look he sent her.

"You're not helping!" Aang told her between his teeth, and they were both caught off guard when they found their hands forced together behind each of their backs by the earth hands shot from the Dai Li in front of them.

Akemi felt her lungs leap into her throat, and she could no longer hide the panic of the realization that they were caught; she struggled in a frenzy against the cuffs while thinking, 'No, no, no, no, no,' This mantra repeated over and over in her head as she realized that this was probably going to be it for her:

When Long Feng dragged her into custody, he would have the freedom to eliminate her, with or without the earth king knowing. She felt herself once again curse herself for letting her secret out in front of them.

"Detain the assailants." Long Feng ordered, and the Dai Li suddenly appeared behind them in a flash. Akemi struggled violently, and she started making noises of distress.

"No, no, no, no—"She repeated aloud now, and it drew the attention of the other members of the group who realized the consequence of what this meant for Akemi. Katara's eyes widened when seeing how distressed Akemi was being and she struggled against her cuffs as well.

Meanwhile Sokka even seemed to have the same idea as his sister. 'We can't just sit down and take this!' He glowered at Long Feng, who smirked at all of them, but he noticed how his cold, calculating gaze was lingering on a desperate Akemi. 'We have to do something. He's going to sentence her to death if we're dragged away!' He wasn't sure if Long Feng had already told the king about her being a firebender, but he didn't want to take the chance.

"But we dropped our weapons! We're your allies!" Sokka pleaded. Never had he thought he would ever try to resist for the sake of trying to save the life of a firebender, but seeing as she saved them back then and they were indirectly the cause of her exposing her secret by allowing her to help out, he had to do something. Anything.

He knew he would not be able to live the rest of his life guilt-free if Akemi were to be executed because she had made herself known as a firebender just to defend them from Long Feng.

"Make sure the Avatar and his friends never see daylight again." Long Feng ordered.

The earth king suddenly looked surprised. "The Avatar? You're the Avatar?" He pointed to Sokka at his question.

Akemi stopped struggling when hearing the change of tone in the earth king's voice, but she was far from relaxing too soon. Long Feng still had the king wrapped around his finger, but a glimmer of hope flashed in her eyes anyway at hearing the king inquire.

Sokka blinked. "Uh, no...he is." He replied in a deadpan voice and tilted his head over towards Aang's in emphasis.

"Over here!" Aang chimed, using airbending to release his hands from the cuffs before allowing himself to be cuffed again.

Long Feng 'hmph'ed. "What does it matter, your highness? They're enemies of the state!" Akemi was so stressed to the point she was half tempted to run at Long Feng as it was and just boot him in the face.

She definitely hadn't forgotten that he was responsible for Jet back there. She was still upset. She was still mourning. And she wanted vengeance for him, of the opportunity for a friendship lost, of the life of a brave-hearted fighter lost.

"Perhaps you're right..." The earth king mused, and she wanted to kick and scream in frustration.

Long Feng smirked once again. A large bear, out of nowhere, crawled over to Aang, sniffed him and licked his face, earning a childish laugh from the boy.

Akemi couldn't help but flinch in disgust by the saliva coated on his cheek, but remained silent.

The earth king smiled in amusement. "Though, Bosco seems to like him!" Akemi's ears perked and the glimmer of hope once again flashed through her eyes.

He straightened up and declared, "I'll hear what he has to say."

Long Feng's smirk faltered. He reluctantly ordered the guards to release them, and Akemi sighed in relief and rubbed at her hands as she continued to simper at the man from where she stood.

'How sad of an advisor are you if the king trusts the bear more than you? Hah! Serves you right!' She mocked mentally. When she made eye contact with Long Feng, Akemi held her ground as he scrutinized her.

Until now, she had forgotten the possibility of the group's case they're going to argue not going their way if Long Feng already told the earth king about her. But seeing as the king was now smiling, she desperately hoped that was the case and she felt her nerves bunch up.

Akemi started to doubt everything would go swimmingly for her. Maybe the others will have more luck than she will at this point. Now she wished Iroh was here with her, along with Zuko. She felt as though the world was suddenly now against her in this moment in time, and her life was hanging on a slim margin now and whether or not everything went well with the earth king would determine her fate.

The smug look on her face ebbed away.