/Hey guys! Sorry if my updates get infrequent, school's starting up on Tuesday. Also, I'm feeling a bit uninspired because I feel like I'm sticking to the plot too much, and I feel like it's too similar to canon atla. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please let me know!

So much had happened to the group since their escape from the tunnels. They tried to set out and find Bumi, only to discover that he had willingly given up Omashu. After Katara, Suki, and Ty Lee convinced him to move on, Aang decided to leave the city and hope that his friend would be alright. In the brief time that he saw Bumi, he was told to find an earth bending teacher who listened to the earth instead of forcing it to adhere to their will.

That wasn't all, though. Ty Lee had come into contact with some old friends. While they were sneaking into Omashu, they were wrongfully thought to be a part of the Omashu resistance, and the mayor's daughter had immediately jumped into action to try and capture them.

The mayor's daughter just so happened to be Mai, Ty Lee's old best friend.

Ty Lee knew Mai had seen her. She had stopped running after them: why else would she have stopped?

Ty Lee had forced the group to stop, explaining that she was once friends with Mai and that she could explain her way out of the situation. However, as soon as they stopped to talk, the floor fell underneath them and they fell into the underground prison where the resistance was plotting.

"So you really thought you could reason with her?" Katara asked. They were soaring through the sky, away from Omashu and hopefully towards an earth bending master.

Ty Lee shrugged. "I mean, she was always reasonable when we were kids. Plus she didn't seem to have changed much, so…"

"Wow, she must've been a fun kid…" Suki murmured, earning a playful punch from Katara.

"She was, though! That's the thing…she always had my back whenever Azula would try and bully me, and she was always honest!" Ty Lee began to smile at the memories. "When she was harsh it hurt, but that just made her compliments all the more sweeter!"

"Wait, who's Azula?" Aang piped up.

"Oh, you don't know? She's Zuko's younger sister!"

Suki, Katara, and Aang exchanged a shocked look. Horror flooded them all at the thought of another Fire Nation royalty trying to get to them.

Katara grabbed the reins from Suki and leaned forward.

"Is there any way to make Appa go faster?"

Sokka, Iroh, and Zuko were living off of virtually nothing. None of them could hold a job-they were too afraid to even ask for one in case they were found out- and their meals now consisted of whatever they could forage in neighboring woods.

The small berries and fish weren't enough. They had finally taken to begging, much to Zuko's disdain.

"We're royalty. They should be the ones begging." Zuko muttered while Iroh held his hat out to the townsfolk.

"They'll give us money," Iroh murmured, "if you are nice to them."

"Yeah, Zuko. It's not so bad." Sokka called. He had taken to sharpening other people's weapons; they paid him upfront and watched him toil away, dragging their weapons against a nearby stone to sharpen it. "At least, not if you have any talent."

"I HAVE TALENT!" Zuko yelled, earning a chuckle from Sokka.

"Well, then, let's see it." A man approached, holding a gold coin. "Gimme some entertainment and I'll consider giving you this gold piece."

"We don't perform," Zuko retorted.

Iroh stood up and cleared his throat, preparing to sing.

"Not professionally, anyway."

"Guys, this is gonna sound weird, but...I think the swamp wants me to land in it."

"Ooo, I love how spiritual your connection with the earth is!" Ty Lee squealed. "Let's land!"

"Where can we even land?" Suki peered down, trying to see if there was anything other than swamp guck beneath the vines.

"Wait, are you guys really agreeing to this?" Katara sighed. "It feels ominous...I don't think it's right to stop."

"Kat, he's the avatar. Are you really gonna ignore the avatar?"

"I guess, if it's what you think is right, Aang…" Katara nodded, "land Appa."
"Guys, guys guys! I don't think we'll have time to make a smooth landing!" Ty Lee lifted a shaky hand and pointed to the oncoming swirl of dust and air that was rapidly sucking in the surrounding trees.

As it got closer, Suki felt herself being tugged backward; the force became stronger and stronger until she was just barely holding onto Appa.

"Katara…!" Suki cried, "help!"

Katara immediately whirled around and rushed towards Suki, grabbing her in a hug right as she let go of Appa.

However, it didn't matter by that point. The tornado was already engulfing the rest of the group members, including Appa and Momo, and throwing them into the swamp.

Katara and Suki landed together in each other's arms. Aang and Ty Lee landed not too far away from them, so the four were able to reconvene quickly.

"Hey, where's Appa? And your lemur friend?" Ty Lee looked around.

Aang realized Ty Lee was right, that Appa and Momo were nowhere to be found. He decided to go out and look for them, and left the girls by themselves in the swamp.

"Suki, hon, you've got a leech. On your elbow."

"Ugh." Suki tugged at the creature, "they'd be cute if they weren't so...sucky."

"I don't know, I think they're kinda cute!" Ty Lee picked up the unstuck leech. It immediately attached itself to her arm, and instead of fighting it, Ty Lee just grinned. "I think it likes me!"

Hours later, Aang returned empty-handed. He decided that they all should proceed together to look for Appa and Momo, as it wouldn't be safe to be alone for too long. The group all agreed and took Ty Lee's ghostly-pale complexion and the fat leech that was still attached to her as proof.

"Nono-don't take him away! He's my friendddd…" Ty Lee mumbled while Suki tried to yank it off.

"I dunno about that, but this one's stubborn, alright."

Katara bended some swamp water into ice to cut through the vines, but Aang stopped her.

"Maybe...we shouldn't harm it. This place feels alive, I don't...I don't want to hurt it."

Katara nodded and let the ice melt.

"You're right. Let's go, you two!" She yelled to Suki and Ty Lee.

"I'm trying, I'm trying! I just-" Suki groaned, letting her fingers slip off the leech. "It's hopeless. Ty Lee, I hope that thing pops soon."

"Noooo! Sokka, she doesn't mean it. She's just mad because she doesn't have a friend."

"Ty Lee. Please don't call that leech Sokka."

"But Katara, he's my bro-"

"HE'S MY BROTHER TOO! AND HE WAS MINE FIRST!" Katara yelled.

Suki grabbed Katara's arm and rubbed her back.

"C'mon, she knows. She's just a bit delusional. We need to focus." Suki whispered to her girlfriend.

After wandering around for a few hours and calling out to Momo and Appa, the gang decided to make camp for the night. Suki begrudgingly went against Aang's wishes and made a fire using branches from a nearby tree, and Katara, Ty Lee, and Aang huddled around it.

"NOOO...Sokka!" Ty Lee sobbed as she watched the leech drop from her arm and fall lifelessly into the dirt. "Your spirit will always live in my heart…"

"Well his spirit wouldn't be the only one here…" Katara murmured, "I feel like I'm being watched."

Aang nodded, staring off into the distance. Once Suki dropped the final dose of kindling into the fire, a giant flame erupted in front of them, lighting up the swamp just enough for them to see the pairs of golden eyes glaring down at them.

"Y'know, Kat, you might not be too far off…"

The fire had been reduced to embers when it happened.

Katara and Suki were curled up together while Ty Lee and Aang slept with their backs against each other. The position helped them from falling too deep into sleep; that way, in case they needed to run, they'd be able to wake up quick enough to warn the others.

The technique, however, didn't work this time. Ty Lee awoke with a scream when she found vines wrapping around her legs. Aang shot up, but before he could fight them off, he was dragged away as well. Suki and Katara were also consumed by the vines and pulled away from each other, despite their pleading cries.

Suki whipped out one of her fans with her free hand and tried to slice through the vines that wrapped around her legs and arm. However, she could barely get a few steps in before more vines came from the distance and tangled her again.

Katara was able to water bend some swamp water and slice through the vines, using the water as soon as she spotted another vine approaching. Once she was in the clear, she sprinted away, towards the direction she saw Suki being held.

Aang was able to flee as well. He air bended a bubble of wind around him, causing the vines to float off of him and allowing an easy escape. While the occasional vine still tried to grab him from time to time, he was able to fight it off with either air or water bending.

Ty Lee also wasn't able to escape. While she was frightened, she also couldn't help being excited.

"H-Hi, friendly swamp monster…?" She said uncertainty as she was being dragged into the unknown. "Please be nice to me…! I haven't done anything bad, I promise!"

Two disheveled, greasy men approached the giant footprints that Appa had made in the mud.

"Hey Tho, whaddya think made those?"

"I dunno Doo, but I don't really care neither."

"Well, d'you wanna follow 'em?"

Doo nodded. "They'll lead us straight to dinner."

"Hello! Suki? Ty Lee? Aang…?" Katara yelled into the swamp. She saw a man standing up ahead. Though he appeared a bit...hazy. He sported a traditional wolf tail hairstyle, as well as traditional water tribe gear.

"Hello...?what are you doing out here all alone?" When he didn't answer, Katara decided to cut to the chase. "You haven't seen my friends, have you?"

The man turned around. He had bright blue eyes, a narrow chin, and a sarcastic smile on his face. Though he looked different in his traditional gear and hair cut, Katara recognized him instantly.

"Sokka! Is that really you?" Katara began to run after her brother, though every time she felt she was getting close, he just moved further away. Once she finally caught up to him, she realized she was crying.

"Sokka, you came to save me, didn't you?" Katara wiped the tears from her face and reached out to give him a hug. "I knew you-"

As soon as she made contact with the figure, however, it dissolved, and Katara quickly felt her hands come in contact not with human skin, but with rough, tree bark.

She gasped in shock and stumbled backwards before the hurt set in. Of course her brother didn't come to save her. Why would he? He was working with the people who were trying to kill her, to kill her friends.

She had really, truly let herself believe that her brother had given up his life in the Fire Nation to come and help her. And the worst part was that it had almost felt real, like a dream that was only just out of reach.

She kneeled down, her tears causing ripples in the water below her.

She'd been stupid to think her brother wouldn't let her die.

Suki had managed to saw her way out of the vines once they had stopped moving. She was booking it through the swamp, slicing vines whenever they stood in her way. She didn't care about preserving the swamp anymore: the swamp had attacked her and her friends, and she needed to get them back.

"Ty Lee? Kat?" Suki called desperately. Her legs were growing exhausted, and the water below her was making it hard to run. She tripped, and landed face first in the disgusting mud.

She sat up and began to wipe her mouth when a scream escaped her lips.

The whole swamp seemed to be on fire: flaming vines were falling all around her, but wherever she ran, she seemed to encounter another towering fire. She could hear the screams of women and children, and they seemed oddly familiar...

She couldn't place their voices now. She didn't have time.

She blocked her eyes and leaped through a gap in the flames, feeling the heat warm her clothes in the process. She stopped short and slipped when she saw Zuko towering over her, his ponytail waving in the wind.

"How does it feel, Kiyoshi scum?" She could hear his words echoing in her brain. "Your island is mine now."

"NOOOO…" Suki screamed, covering her ears and burying her head between her legs. She expected the fire to close in on her, just how it almost closed in on her, Katara, and Aang on Kiyoshi island. Only this time, she didn't have Appa to save her.

The flames never came. When she opened her eyes, Zuko was gone, and there were no burnt remains of vines, no scared townsfolk, no smell of smoke.

She drew in a shaky breath.

"This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real…"

Ty Lee had managed to chew her way through the vines. It was a skill she'd picked up while staying in refuge with a traveling circus, a trick she performed often in front of people. She could chew through ropes, wires, and apparently swamp vines.

As soon as she managed to untangle her legs, she also broke into a sprint. After about twenty minutes of running, a bright light caught her eye, so she changed course and began running towards it. She figured it had to be a good omen, right?

Wrong. When she reached the source of the light, she saw a gorgeous, ethereal figure dressed in white clothing, with pristine white clothing and dark skin.

"Yue…?" Ty Lee's eyes widened as she approached the figure. "Did you come to save me?"

"You didn't protect me, Ty Lee. You promised." The figure cupped Ty Lee's face in her hand, and it felt so, so real…

...until it wasn't.

Yue vanished when another voice rang out behind Ty Lee.

"Ugh. Did you already forget about me?"

She whirled around and was faced with Mai, her expression unforgiving as she held her knives.

"Mai! I-I...It's not what it looks like...I mean, you were with Zuko, right? We weren't really a thing-"

"Stop your whining. You're right, you know." Mai broke into a smile and approached her, knife lifted towards Ty Lee's heart. "I never really loved you."

Ty Lee scrambled to run away but ended up falling. When she stood up, Mai was gone.

Tho and Doo had finally caught up to Appa and Momo. The Bison simply glared at Doo, while Momo surveyed them both.

"C'mon, lil' buddies...we don't mean no harm…" Doo leaned forward, "...we just trynna eat ya, that's all…"

Those words sent Appa flying in the opposite direction, with Momo on his back. The swamp people, after arguing amongst themselves for a bit, started to bend the water behind them to propel their boats forward. They started to shoot through the water like motor boats, gaining speed and sight of the bison.

Appa was determined to keep running, but he wasn't sure how long he could keep up the pace.

Aang was following a strange vision of a young, polished girl. She had her hair tied back, and was wearing an elegant dress. However, similar to Katara's vision, whenever he got too close, she seemed to bounce away and laugh.

"Who...are you?" Aang hopped to a nearby tree and gazed at the girl. He had never seen anybody like her in his life...what was someone like her doing in the swamp?

He hopped down from the tree and ran towards her at a full sprint. He managed to tackle her down, though when she fell, her yells sounded a lot like Katara's…

When he looked down, he saw that it was, in fact, Katara that he'd tackled.

Where had the girl gone?

Aang heaved himself off of his friend and shook his head. It was so confusing in the swamp, he couldn't understand anything.

"Fire?" Suki slashed through some nearby vines with a shaky hand and rushed towards Aang and Katara. Her shoulders relaxed when she realized that they were fine. She grinned and hugged her girlfriend. "Kat, I thought you were a goner!"

"Hey-! I can survive on my own, you know!" She nestled her head into Suki's chest. Truthfully, she wasn't sure if she would survive either.

"I know you didn't survive! I-I'M SORRY!" Ty Lee came running blindly through the woods, head in hands and tripped over Aang.

"Wh-Oh! Hey guys!" Ty Lee forced a smile and hoped that her tears were covered by all of the watery mud that covered her. "I, uh, totally didn't think I saw Yue or anything…"

Suki bent down and hugged Ty Lee with one arm. "I thought I saw...well, I was reliving...Kiyoshi island," she choked out.

Katara nodded and kneeled next to the two, embracing Suki and Ty Lee in a bear hug. "I thought I saw my brother-our...brother…"

"I was chasing some girl...she was wearing something really fancy and kept laughing. I'd never seen her before, though…"

Ty Lee looked up and around. "I think all our visions led us here...I can totally feel some sort of energy coming from that tree!"

Aang looked down at the root he was standing on.

"It's the heart of the swamp. I knew it...the swamp wanted me to come here from the very beginning!"

"Well, now that you've fulfilled the swamps wishes, I think it's time we get out of here-"

Suki was cut off by a giant monster emerging from the swamp water. It was a being seemingly entirely made up of swamp vines, and the only thing it had that resembled a head was the wooden mask it wore with a smiley face carved into it. it swung its thick, green arms towards the Suki; it managed to grab her and it began swinging her around rapidly.

Katara came surging forward on a wave of water and shot a long spear of ice through the monster's arm. While it did release Suki, the arm quickly began to regenerate its vines.

The monster managed to grab Suki again. She tried to fight back with her fans, but they weren't good enough. Thankfully, Katara was able to push the beast backward using a wave of water. However, the monster still held a firm grip on Suki, and it began to suck her into its vine-y structure, constricting her in the process.

Momo and Appa were still able to maintain their lead on Doo, Tho, and the other swamp people. However, their lead wasn't big enough. Momo had taken to throwing the group's supplies at the swamp people to slow them down: shirts, sleeping bags, and food all went flying off of Appa's back.

As the shirt covered Doo's face, Tho looked confused.

"What would a lil' flyin' monkey need a shirt for?"

Momo and Appa came upon a low hanging tree branch that was too thick for them to crash through. Appa, too tired to fly, opten to slide under it. However, Momo wasn't able to duck in time, and the force of the tree branch hitting him sent him flying right into Tho's open sack.

"Help-! I can't-" Suki's words were cut off by another vine that tightened around her mouth.

Aang quickly worked to make a whirlwind of air around the monster, causing its vines to tangle up and rendering it unmovable. Katara then stepped in and sent a blast of icy water towards Suki. The water immediately froze over the vines that entangled her, as well as the ones around her. Katara then water bended the frozen vines, as well as Suki, out of the monster by pushing against them with a hard wave. The frozen block of vines went straight through the beast's stomach and landed in the swampy water behind it.

While the monster turned around to grab Suki again, Katara geared up waves of water to slice through the monster's vine-y exterior. With every slice came a view of what was inside, something unexpected.

"Hey, is that a guy in there?" Suki staggered to her feet and pointed.

Katara was able to slice the top half of the vines off of the monster, along with the face mask. Before the monster could recover, Aang swooped in with a gust of wind to disperse the vines and leave the man exposed.

"Who are you? Why'd you try and kill me?" Suki shouted.

"I try and protect the swamp from those who try and hurt it, an' I saw you choppin' the trees there with your fancy fans."

"Well, we needed to make a fire, but I see your point."

"So, were you the one calling to us?" Aang asked.

"Calling? No, the swamp does all the calling on its own." The man chuckled and stood up before extending his hand. "Come with me."

After learning from the man, Huu, about how everything in the swamp is connected, including the people, Aang and his friends decided to part ways to try and find Appa and Momo. Before leaving, though, Aang decided to try and locate furry friends by touching one of the tree roots and channeling their energies. He then saw a vision of Appa being captured in a net, and he knew exactly where to find them.

They set off through the swamp water, Katara bending it so that they sped through on a wave. As they passed through the greenery, voices started to echo around them.

"Oh no, is this another vision?" Ty Lee whimpered.

"No, I think it's who we're looking for…" Suki readied her weapon as the swamp people came into vision, as well as a tangled up Appa and a bagged Momo.

The group's wave smashed right through one of the swamp people's canoes, and Aang quickly jumped off of it and sent a wave of air towards Tho, causing him to fly backward and leave Momo behind.

As soon as Tho's grip on the bag released, Momo flew out, and the other swamp people started to panic. They tried to bend water towards the group, but Katara was able to keep it from hitting them.

"Hey, you're a water bender! That means we're kin!" One of the benders piped up, and immediately dropped his stance.

Katara cringed, and Suki doubled over laughing.

"Oh, man...Katara the swamp lady…" She snickered to herself. "Kat, hon, I'm breaking up with you."

"Oh, be quiet. Uh, if we're kin, does that mean you'll release Appa?" She asked.

The swamp people looked at each other and nodded.

"Why sure, just come 'n join us for a nice meal after he free. We got some possum chicken, you don't wanna miss that, do ya?"

Katara exchanged confused glances with the other group members.

"Uh...sure?"