You know, I was rewatching old Disney and Dreamworks movies including this one Dreamworks called 'The Road to El Dorado(my childhood). During that time, I suddenly imagined Akemi and Zuko taking the roles of Miguel(Akemi)and Tulio(Zuko).

At first, I was just laughing, but then I thought: it works! XD I don't know why, but, yeah...

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The last airbender.


Chapter 49

2 weeks later...

Akemi woke up and immediately noticed they weren't flying, anymore. The whole saddle was empty except for her and their supplies. She looked around and got up, removing the blanket that was strewn over her before jumping off of Appa.

The bison groaned tiredly. Akemi walked up and patted the beast's fur on his head. "Hey, there, big guy. Tired, huh?" she mumbled, earning a growl of content from him. It was then she noticed Toph and Katara at a small distance, readying their elements as if they were about to...fight? Aang was there as well, standing between them. Wait, so...what was happening here?

Her eyes drifted to the side, and then spotted Sokka hiding behind leveled ground. He didn't seem to notice as she sneaked over and crouched down next to him. Observing his mischievous gaze, she asked,

"Why are we hiding here?"

Sokka freaked and spazzed out at her voice, before staring at her in mellow fright that looked as if he had just recovered from a heart attack. "DON'T do that!"

"Does it bother you?"

"Kind of!"

"Then I should keep doing that."

Sokka face-palmed and shook his head with a groan, immediately realizing his mistake. Akemi would pull that stunt on him more often, now. Great...

Akemi grinned before glancing at the other three father away from them. "So what exactly is going on, here?" She asked while watching as Aang put on a blindfold on. Akemi blinked in surprise.

Blindfold?

"They're training, of course..." Sokka suddenly grew a smirk. "And while Aang's not looking, I'm going to jump at him with a sneak attack!"

"Really? What is your plan of action?" Akemi asked, suddenly curious. Sokka trying to sneak up on Aang? This ought to be amusing.

"Simple. I'm going to run at him from behind and surprise him by calling out my sneak attack!" Sokka said and puffed out his chest in pride as if he had just gained victory.

...

Akemi stared at him tiredly. Sokka noticed her look. "What?"

"You know that'll never work, right?" She deadpanned.

"Of course it will!" Sokka protested. Akemi rolled her eyes and placed a hand underneath her cheek, shaking her head, muttering something under her breath along the lines of "Whatever you say..." She watched as Aang swiftly avoided Toph and Katara's attacks in amazement. She was even more moved when he redirected their elements back at each other with ease, and voiced her thoughts,

"He's got really good teachers."

That must've reminded Sokka of something, because he suddenly asked, "Hey, since you're, y'know, here with us..." He started and looked at her with a curious look. "Are you going to help teach Aang firebending?"

Akemi was caught off guard by the offer. Teach Aang firebending? He was implying that he hasn't found a firebending teacher yet..."You haven't found a firebending teacher for him, at all?"

"Well..." Sokka started. "Sorta. But he disappeared without a trace when Zhao came around."

'They've met Zhao as well, eh?' She blinked. "So I take it you've met Zhao?" she asked.

"You, too? Well, yeah...I mean, I hate to say it but...he was worse than Zuko-" He stopped and glance at her expression, which had darkened slightly at the mention of Zuko. He lowered his head apologetically. "Sorry...no offense."

She sighed tiredly. "It's okay. I know what you're talking about. He did have a bigger temper and...he was creepy." She stated incredulously.

"Agreed."

Akemi scratched the top of her head thoughtfully. Well, she was touched by his offer, but...she wasn't sure about teaching. "I'm not sure, honestly..." she replied truthfully. She thought maybe she would be a bad teacher when it would come to training the AVATAR(the person who's trying to save the world, for Agni's sake...).

Sokka looked flabbergasted at her response. "Wh-You're not SURE? I mean, come ON! You're the only firebender who's here AND who wouldn't be after Aang even if the world knew he was still alive!"

Akemi had been told that the whole world was supposed to think Aang is dead ever since they'd escaped from Ba Sing Se. It wasn't a lie at the time; he HAD been dead, and now...well, bottom line, now it was the perfect time to get him to learn all the elements without any trouble once the firenation had confirmed him dead.

However, he hasn't learned firebending, the world believed he's dead, and there wasn't any other firebender who would be willing to teach Aang firebending to stop the firenationfrom winning the war. Most firebenders have a strong feeling of nationalism to their nation, and they wouldn't take too kindly to the person wanting country to LOSE the war and make them lost their honor.

Honor...she didn't EVEN want to start on THAT.

"I guess I could teach Aang the basics..." Akemi suggested. Suddenly, she felt the life being squeezed out of her by Sokka, who glomped her in a massive platypus-bear hug.

"OH, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!" Sokka cried, spinning her around in a comical manner, almost looking like he was crying. "You're the best, you know that?"

"Yes, yes, and one more thing..."

"Yes!"

"If you're done squeezing the life out of me...your sister and Toph are fighting."

Sokka's eyes widened. He dropped Akemi and spun from the girl who had landed on the ground non-too-gently. "What?" he cried and peered over the edge. Indeed, the two girls WERE having a fall out. But by the looks of it, it looked like just another one of their spats; except they're using their bending skills against each other. He then noticed Aang's back was to him, blindfold still on. His mischievous smirk returned and, taking this as the perfect opportunity, he jumped over the edge and ran towards Aang, with a hand ready to strike.

"HYAAAAH! SNEAK ATTACK!"

A slab of earth shot up from the ground and stopped Sokka halfway with a wave and a flick of Aang's hand. The chunk of earth receded back into the ground when Sokka fell backwards in shock of nearly getting hit.

"Sokka, sneak attacks don't work if you yell them out loud." Aang pointed out with a chuckle while he removed his headband from in front of his eyes and faced him.

Akemi popped her head out of the edge and walked towards the two. She came to Sokka. "Told you." she said.

Sokka let out a grunt. A hand was in front of his face, and he looked up at the person whose hand was connected to. Akemi stared down at him with an impassive expression.

"But whilst you make mistakes, you learn from them. That's how we progress." Akemi said.

Sokka stared at her in bewilderment. He'd never seen this side of her, before; wise, like an old philosopher, at the moment. Well, it wasn't as if she was stupid...she was WAY smarter than she acted, they'd all figured out a long time ago. Although while not being hyperactive, she actually looked like an intellectual person.

It scared him in someways.

He took her hand wordlessly and she helped him up. "Thanks." he said and Akemi nodded, then shifted her eyes over to the girl-fight between Katara and Toph, who were now wrestling in the mud...they all walked over and watched them wrestle, no one saying a word to stop them because it actually looked interesting. They would wait until it got worse...

As she looked around the area, including the factories about a few miles away exhausting smoke, she inquired, "This isn't exactly the firenation, isn't it?"

"Huh?" Aang responded dumbly at first, and followed her example and looked around. "Well, yeah, it isn't...we're in the colonies. How come you ask?"

Akemi lips thinned into a line. "Well, I was thinking whether or not it's illegal for me to actually be in this area."

"What?" Both boys asked in confusion and shock. Why would she be saying such things?

Akemi sighed in their confusion. Oh, right, they didn't exactly know that she was banished from the firenation, but then again...she's been locked up in a prison in the firenation. She then realized that the exile was never really lifted, so technically she still was banished.

"Well, I didn't tell you guys but a couple of years ago, you guys know about Zuko being banished back then, right?" She asked, and continued when they both nodded. She glanced at her feet. "I was also exiled from the firenation as well...and I still am. That decree was never terminated when I was locked up, so it's still illegal for me to set foot back in the firenation. So I'm asking: does being in the colonies of the firenation technically mean I'm banished from them, as well?"

They were both looking fearful. After thinking about it for a while, Sokka inquired as he put the pieces together, "Well, technically, you can't banished from the firenation colonies. According to you, you were exiled from the firenation itself, not the colonies. It's full of earthnation citizens and maybe even firenation fugitives."

Akemi placed a hand underneath her chin. "Well, I guess I hadn't thought about it that way..." she muttered to herself, just before a small droplet of mud ended up on her cheek when Katara bent the mud onto Toph and some of it traveled over to where they were. Toph earthbent a pillar of earth from beneath the mud and sent Katara flying to the boulders behind. Okay, now this was a good time to stop them. Just as Toph and Katara were going to clash again, they were stopped by Aang reminding them,

"Uh, guys? I thought we were supposed to be training me?"

Realizing the mistake, they still managed to regain their composure and let out a huff simultaneously. Katara peeled herself away from the boulder and walked up, brushing some of the mud off of her. "Very well, pupil. I believe we've had enough training for today." she stated and walked away.

Toph let out a smile. "While Katara cleans up-" She used her earthbending to get the mud off her before walking towards the others. "Let's go have some fun!"

Akemi smirked and used a finger to wipe off the mud on her cheek while Aang and Sokka whooped cheerfully. "I'm good with this." She commented.


The air was murky, and the colony was small, but other than that, it wasn't half-bad. Attractions around every corner was what made the somewhat run-down area more lively. Meanwhile, Sokka was observing with interest at all the dragon hawks, also known as the messenger hawks that the firenation used for communication, as they flew to a mail post they walked by, with messages in the container the strap held onto their backs.

"Look at all those messenger hawks! Y'know, I've been thinking about getting one, for myself." Sokka said as they, but Toph, watched the hawks fly over their heads. "That way, I wouldn't have to talk to anyone! I could just send them messages!"

"I gotta say, I like the idea of not talking to you." Toph commented with a smirk, and Sokka frowned in irritation.

Sokka looked ready to take her up on that offer, but Akemi wondered if Sokka realized yet that he wouldn't be able to annoy her in that method because she couldn't even read. She seriously hope he wouldn't send her a message...it would make him more gormless than he seemed.

Aang took out a silver piece from his pocket and asked, "So guys, what're we gonna get with out last silver piece?"

"You can't really get anything with a silver piece..." Akemi muttered to herself.

Toph suddenly stopped in her tracks. "We can get more money."

On cue, everyone stopped and turned towards her, all wearing a variety of confused expressions. Toph pointed to the sublevel beneath, and they all zoomed over to her side in an instant, taking in the scene.

It was one of those simple games of three shells and hiding a pebble underneath it; the con-man moves the shells around very quickly in random patterns, confusing the player, whom had to guess which shell the pebble was under correctly or lose their bet.

"This is where you seeing-people are at a disadvantage. Everyone does this wrong because moves the rock at the last minute." Toph explained, and then smirked as they stood behind some people who were watching someone participate. "But I can feel it with my earthbending." This meant her plan to win is fool-proof, Akemi thought and let out a small grin; that little girl was so sly and evil. "Lucky little blind earthbender..." she told her, and Toph gave her a thumbs up as if saying 'don't you forget that'.

The player in the front had picked out the wrong shell(even though none of them contained the pebble, since the dealer had somehow managed to conceal the rock back into the sleeve of his robe), and he ended up leaving empty-handed while crying.

Now, their plan was too look uninterested so the dealer would notice the fact that their best player(Toph) was blind, and it worked. "You there! Wanna play a friendly game?" the dealer called, while suppressing a smirk.

They all pretended to just notice him and the game. "How can I possibly play? I'm BLIND." Toph asked in a faked innocent tone, taking the silver piece Aang's hand and slipping it into her pocket while she waved a hand in front of her face to emphasize her point; in order to make him persuade her even more to play the game, so she wouldn't look suspicious.

"You don't have to see to be lucky." The dealer said 'encouragingly' and motioned them over.

Toph kneeled in front of the table and put up her 'innocent-clueless-poor-blind-girl' act by pretending to not know where the shells were by gliding her hands around and feeling for them. Akemi bit her tongue and held back a snicker while still retaining her poker face. If she was like the other bystanders watching, she'd probably thinking and looking at her the same way: 'the poor girl, so pitiful and she's going to lose instantly'.

Toph took the silver piece from her pocket and placed it on the table. The dealer revealed the pebble as he lifted the shells and placed them down, and started shuffling them around, while only Toph knew that he had slipped some more pebbles from the sleeves of his robe into each shell; letting her deliberately win so she would supposedly feel more confident and spend more money.

Toph smirked as the dealer stopped shuffling the shells around. She picked the one on her left and a pebble was revealed underneath it, of course.

"Flame-o, Toph!" Aang praised as she won double of what she had given, which was two silver pieces.

"Wow, fancy guessing! You're amazing at this!" The dealer inquired in 'surprise'. "Would you like to make the game a little more interesting?" He asked.

"More interesting?" Toph asked 'innocently'. "How?"

Battle of con-artists; how interesting Akemi thought to herself.

"Well, let's say you toss in your friend's fine sword there, then I'll put up 20 silver pieces against it-" At this point, he took a bag from behind him from his stash of money and put it in front of him. "-And THAT'S more interesting." Sokka looked livid at first, but when Toph snatched it away and put if up for 40 silver pieces, his jaw dropped and looked as if the game had already been lost.

"40 silver pieces it is." The dealer challenged and placed 20 more silver pieces into the bag before placing it on the table on top of where Sokka's sword was.

Suddenly, he started moving the shells around more quickly, which the three couldn't even follow where the pebble had gone, now. Now Akemi was hoping Toph will win, since Sokka's sword was a really good one; she would know, she'd seen it and practiced with it once. It was a VERY good sword(What was she thinking? She envied him for having such a sword, which he had MADE himself). Akemi noticed Toph's hand clench in her lap. That was most likely her earthbending going, and also noticing the smirk on Toph's face, she knew that Toph got this in the bag.

The dealer looked smug as he waited for her to pick. Toph pointed to the shell in the middle.

"Sorry, little lady but-" He said as he lifted the shell, but was flabbergasted when he saw that the pebble he'd originally had concealed into his sleeve(he thought it had been)there. "HUH?"

"I WON!" Toph cried in victory, took the stash as Sokka snatched his sword back, and they all took off lighting speed, dust trailing behind them.

Brilliant, just brilliant!


With baskets of food in each of their hands, they all laughed as they returned to the campsite where Katara was clean and stirring stew cooking in a pot. They threw the food in front of Katara, who looked surprised at the amount of supplies they had. She knew they had no money for this. "Where did you guys get the money to buy all this stuff?" She asked curiously.

"Toph got us money." Aang replied, and took a bite of his apple he ate while sitting down. "She scammed one of those guys in town who moves the shells around all sneaky-like." Katara frowned in disapproval and a flicker of something flashed in her deep azure eyes as they directed to the mastermind behind all this, whom was also chewing on an apple.

"She used earthbending to win the game! Classic!" Sokka praised as he was the last to sit down.

"Ah." Katara said as she put her hands on her hips. "So she cheated."

Toph only bit halfway into her apple before she defended herself, "Hey, only cheated because he was cheating! I cheated a cheater. What's wrong with that?"

"I'm just saying, this isn't something we should be making a habit of doing." Katara inquired worriedly.

Toph leaned backwards with a hand supporting her on the ground. "Why, because it's FUN, and you HATE fun?" She said while smirking at the look of disbelief on Katara's face.

"I don't hate fun!" Katara cried in defense. Randomly, she picked up Momo who was sleeping next to her and placed him on her head, as if trying to prove her point. "See? FUN!" Momo slid off her head and chattered angrily at her, then ran off. Akemi raised a brow, looking at her weirdly.

Aang stood up. "Katara, I'll personally make you an Avatar promise that we won't make a habit of doing these scams." He said, revealing his arrow and bowing.


This is half the chapter, but since I'm busy, I have to leave it at here. I'll write the other half whenever I can get to it. Hope you enjoy it, though! ;)

1/30/12: DEVIANTART GROUP CREATED! Here's the link if you're interested in joining: