The walk to Jet and Katara was a tiresome one, feeling way longer than it should have. Aang wouldn't stop going on about how cool he thought Jet was, and it annoyed both Sokka and Charlie to no ends. She felt like she was babysitting a hyperactive toddler.
They found the couple setting a large wooden table with dishes of cooked food in preparation of the feast they'd be having that night. It was so domestic. Charlie raised her eyebrows at the display.
"Charlie!" Katara smiled, finally tearing her eyes away from Jet long enough to process her and Sokka standing side-by-side. "Where have you been? Jet just showed us around his hideout, it's amazing.
"So we've heard," Charlie replied, wrinkling her nose slightly and peering over the table of food. "What's the occasion?" she asked casually.
"A toast—to celebrate our step closer in defeating the Fire Nation," Jet said casually, placing down a bowl of bright red berries.
"Right..." she drawled out, rolling her eyes.
Just then, Smellerbee and Pipsqueak came hurrying around the corner. They pulled Jet to the side and talked in hushed tones between themselves. Charlie would have crept closer to them to hear the conversation, but she noticed Katara giving her a strange look—or more so, the orange mess that sat atop her head. "I thought Sokka said you went to brush your hair?"
Charlie tensed, glancing back and forth between her and Sokka, who let out an extended, "Uhhhhh."
Sensing that he would be no help, she turned back to Katara and nodded her head. "Uhh, yeah," she said in as convincing of a tone she could muster. "Yeah, turns out, I couldn't find my brush, so uh, funny that!"
Katara's quizzical look only deepened when she narrowed her eyes slightly. She was smart enough to make sure Jet was still out of range when she replied. "You sound like Sokka when you lie."
Sokka let out a highly offended gasp, throwing his hand to his chest. "Hey, I'm a great liar!" he argued, voice cracking slightly. Katara raised an eyebrow, letting out a light scoff.
"No you're not. Remember the time you ate seven servings of arctic hen then tried blaming it on a wild polar bear dog?" she drawled out in a tease at the absurdity of the situation.
"It could have happened," he muttered with a pout, twisting his head away.
"Okay, first of all—that comparison was rude," Charlie interjected, holding up a finger. "I'm a fantastic liar. And second, even if I was lying, it's most likely for a good reason. I could have had a vision."
Katara blinked at her. "Did you have a vision?"
"Would you believe me if I told you Jet's a manipulative sociopath who's going to blow up a dam with four barrels of blasting jelly and flood an entire town?"
"No."
"Then never mind."
When Jet turned back to the group, he wore a troubled expression, but suppressed it almost immediately with a smile. "Smellerbee, why don't you show these guys to their treehouse?" he suggested, making Aang perk up in excitement.
"We get our own treehouse?!" he beamed, hopping from foot-to-foot.
"Of course," he said, a proud smirk spreading across his face. "You guys should put down your stuff and relax for a while. Meet back here for dinner at sundown."
Charlie pursed her lips and turned to leave, following after Smellerbee who walked slightly ahead of them, put paused when Jet called out to Katara.
"I was wondering if you wanted to stay back for a bit, help us set up?" he asked quietly, making her cheeks flush a dark red.
She nodded somewhat frantically. "Sure!"
Charlie rolled her eyes and followed Smellerbee to their appointed treehouse. Aang had gotten distracted by the ziplines again at some point and ran off, leaving Sokka and Charlie sitting alone in the room. They could only joke around for the next hour or so, having nothing important to do, and not particularly feeling comfortable enough to venture out on their own.
When Katara finally met up with them at their treehouse, it was almost time to leave again. Charlie raised an eyebrow when the girl walked through the door. "I didn't realise it took so long to set a table," she said, leaving her back against the panelled wall.
She didn't miss the dark flush that spread across Katara's cheeks. "Oh, we talked for a while too. He's got some amazing stories."
"Sure he does," Sokka muttered bitterly. Katara narrowed her eyes at her brother.
"Anything interesting?" Charlie prompted nonchalantly.
"Actually, something did happen just a few hours ago," she began, taking a seat in front of the two. "Smellerbee and Pipsqueak told Jet that some animal knocked over their cart with the blasting jelly they found at the Fire Nation camp."
Charlie immediately laughed, but covered it up with a spluttering cough when she saw the looks she was receiving. She hid her smile with a sly frown, the corners of her lips pulling tensely downward to stop them from rising. "Oh really? How unfortunate."
"Apparently they said it looked like they rolled down the hill. He's hoping to recover them sometime tomorrow," Katara barreled on, running her fingers through her low ponytail. After Charlie had 'lost' her hair tie, the watertribe girl let the bottom of her hair lie in loose waves, still bound by her neat bun and classic hair-loopies.
"What do they even need the blasting jelly for?" Sokka questioned.
Katara shrugged and shook her head slightly. "I'm not sure, he didn't say."
"So what, you didn't ask?" he pressed.
"Why would I?"
"Because blasting jelly is a weapon," Charlie explained, draping an arm over her knee. "And that much of it could blast clean through a stone wall. Or a dam wall. Just saying." Katara threw her a quick unimpressed look, which Charlie responded to with a lazy shrug.
When the sun had set below the treetops, casting a calm darkness among the forest, the three met up with Aang and went back to the table on a communal platform, where Jet and his Freedom Fighters were already stationed. They'd set up glowing red lanterns hanging from ropes connecting to nearby wooden pillars, and extending high into the trees. She looked up to find children scattered all around, not all joining for the feast, but making their presence known with cheers and whoops.
Charlie took a seat on the edge of the table closest to Jet, right beside Sokka, who was positioned next to Katara, then Aang.
"Today, we struck another blow against the Fire Nation swine," Jet announced, stepping up onto the table. He proudly raised his cup, letting the Freedom Fighters voice their approval with enthusiastic cheers. Few gathered around the table, with most taking preference on the tree branches that twisted around them. Sokka crossed his arms and turned the corners of his lips downwards when Katara and Aang joined in, looking up with admiration.
Jet's eyebrows dropped slightly, his eyes narrowing with his smirk. "I got especial joy from the look on one soldier's face when the Duke dropped down on his helmet and rode him like a wild hog-monkey!"
Across from Charlie, the Duke joined his leader on the table, throwing his hands up as he danced around, making another chorus of cheers and laughs erupt through the hideout.
"The Fire Nation thinks they don't need to worry about a couple of kids hiding in the trees. Maybe they're right," Jet continued with a knowing smirk, closing his eyes mischievously. He let the Freedom Fighters voice their resentment through a strain of boos, casually swirling the water in his cup. "Or maybe…" Jet's expression morphed into one so intense it sent a chill down Charlie's spine. "They're dead wrong."
The eruption of joy from the fighters was somewhat alarming given the sinister tone in Jet's voice. She narrowed her eyes at the back of his head as he twisted away, jumping off the table with a thump. He positioned himself between Katara and Sokka, and Charlie wondered if it was tactical, trying to subconsciously create distance and tension between the two sides.
"Hey Jet," Katara said shyly, looking up at him through her lashes. "Nice speech."
Charlie shifted forwards slightly to look past Sokka at Jet. "Yeah, I especially liked the touch of racism and implications of murder. It really added to the delivery," she drawled with a smirk, leaning her chin against her hand.
Jet made eye contact with her so briefly that she didn't even have time to register his expression. With a slight twist of his body, he turned his back to Charlie and Sokka, blocking their view of Katara and Aang. "Thanks Katara. By the way, I was really impressed with you and Aang. That was some great bending out there."
"Well, he's great," she said, tilting her head towards Aang. "He's the Avatar. I could use some more training."
"The Avatar, huh?" he muttered, twirling the leaf stem in his mouth. "Very nice."
"Thanks, Jet!" Aang smiled out, completely oblivious to the sly undertones in Jet's voice.
"Actually, I might know a way that you and Aang can help our struggle," he said, cutting straight to the point. Was he kidding with this act? There wasn't even a segway into him trying to get their help, and Charlie had no idea how they were buying it.
"Unfortunately," Sokka began, standing up to look down at Jet. "We have to leave tonight." He walked past the table, away from the group with clenched fists.
"Sokka, you're kidding me, you can't leave now. I needed you on an important mission tomorrow." Jet knew exactly what to say to pull Sokka back in. He froze in his spot, loosening his fists and he slowly glanced back over his shoulder.
"What mission?"
Jet gestured towards the seat Sokka abandoned, luring him back. Sokka let out a struggled sigh and spun on his heel, making his way towards the fighter's side. Charlie didn't miss the sly smirk Jet's lips twitched into for a split second before he clapped a hand to his shoulder.
"I'm glad you decided to hear me out. A few days ago, we got word that there were a group of Fire Nation assassins coming after us, trying to find our base. They'll kill everyone here if they find us." His expression hardened as he paused, looking over his Freedom Fighters before settling his gaze back on Sokka. "I need your help stopping them, before they get to us first."
Judging by the look on his face, Sokka was obviously conflicted. Charlie knew he didn't trust Jet, but he couldn't lose an opportunity to prove himself and save innocent people from the Fire Nation. He grit his teeth and averted his eyes to the table in front of him.
"Okay, I'll help. But afterwards, we really do need to leave."
Jet nodded then looked to her, an expression of false innocence painted on his face as he cocked his head to the side. "Charlie, you're coming too, right?" She knew what game he was playing. She was too risky to be left unsupervised, especially after the recent misplacement of the blasting jelly that Charlie knew Jet was already suspecting her of orchestrating.
Charlie scrunched her nose. "Look, I don't think—" She was cut off by a sharp jab to her side. She shot a glare to Sokka, only to find him staring at her wide-eyed with a pointed look. Charlie narrowed her eyes and shook her head, but Sokka raised his eyebrows, bouncing his gaze rapidly between Charlie and Jet. A moment after their silent conversation, she let out a struggled sigh of annoyance before staring at Jet with an emotionless expression. "—I'd even consider missing it."
She hated how he considered this a win. So when Jet gave his signature proud smirk, Charlie hardly brought her elbow down on the table, propping her head on her hand with wide eyes and a smirk to rival his. "So Jet. I hear your plan to save the village is going well."
To anyone else, it sounded like a compliment, but given what Katara had told her earlier about losing the blasting jelly, she knew it was a sore spot. The intense glare she received from him wasn't surprising, but the fact that no one else noticed was. Or, maybe they had and chose to ignore it, giving the benefit of the doubt to the roguishly charming teen. It was the hair, probably—that semi-dishevelled but undeniably attractive mop that swayed everyone. Charlie only beamed back in response.
The rest of the feast was somewhat uneventful until Katara and Jet scampered off on their own, and Aang left to check on Appa who'd been lazing in the treetops. Sokka and Charlie both decided to retreat back to their treehouse. He walked at a fast past, wanting to get away from the Freedom Fighters, leaving Charlie trailing after him. When she caught up, Sokka turned to look at her.
"Do you know what happened to the blast jelly?" he whispered with a knowing smile.
Charlie quirked back her own pronounced lip-purse. "I may have… temporarily requisitioned it earlier."
"So you stole it," Sokka corrected.
"Let's not get caught up in the details," Charlie said, waving her hand through the air. The two of them came to a stop in front of their treehouse, stepping through the archway into the small room. They were quick to whip out their sleeping bags and settle in, but not before Sokka asked her one last question.
"Do you trust Jet?"
Charlie gave him a quizzical look. "Hell no. Why would I trust that leaf-munching prick?"
He seemed to relax slightly under her words. "Okay good. Neither do I. I still think it was a bad idea for us to stay, even if Jet really did need my help."
She drummed her fingers on the floorboards for a moment in thought. "Well… you're right, but we can't leave."
"Why not?" he quired somewhat impatiently. "Obviously somethings wrong with the guy, so why aren't we high-tailing it out of here?"
"Jet's gonna blow the dam," she muttered, clenching her jaw.
Sokka's eyes went wide. "What?"
"You heard me."
"So that thing you said earlier about Jet being a manipulative sociopath—"
"Yep."
He looked at her dumbfounded for a minute before frantically flailing his arms. "Wha—I would have been more inclined to believe you if you hadn't made a joke out of it."
"It's how I deal with things, don't judge."
"Charlie," he groaned out, rubbing his head with a palm. "Why aren't you taking this more seriously? People could die."
"You think I don't know that?" Charlie narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm taking this seriously, Sokka. That's why I made a back-up plan." She knew it wasn't fair, but she felt a tiny pit of anger grow within her.
"Back-up plan? But we don't even have a main plan!" he argued, throwing his hands out to the side. "And if you do, I'd really like to know, because I'm kind of freaking out here."
Charlie sighed, feeling guilty for getting so blunt with him. "Look, the main plan is to let things run out how they're supposed to." Seeing Sokka's quizzical look, complete with narrowed eyes and a small shake of his head, she continued. "In my vision, you do end up saving the people in the village, and that all happens without my intervention. I know that you'll make the right decisions, and that my vision will follow through. The back-up plan is just a fail-safe. I've already changed things more than I was supposed to just by being here, so I'm not letting the death of hundreds of innocent people be on my shoulders. Okay?"
She didn't make eye-contact with him after her short rant, feeling kind of self-conscious. After a second, she heard him let out a calmed sigh. "Okay. So just act normal. I can do that."
Charlie hummed in agreement. "Good. Just let me handle the back-up, alright? You've got enough weight on your back."
Sokka nodded, and the two turned away from each other in their sleeping bags. Even though Charlie knew the village would be safe, she couldn't help but worry that her mere presence would affect things so much that the outcome would occur differently. She wasn't sure at what point she'd fallen asleep during the night, but before she knew it, it was morning already.
Jet had come around to wake up Charlie and Sokka, instructing them to prepare for the stake-out then meet him outside, which they did slowly and unwillingly. He and a few other Freedom Fighters led them to a gravel pathway which streamed through the forest, just slightly off where the hideout was stationed. They all split up, Jet instructing Charlie and Sokka to climb a tree for a better vantage point.
"Yeah no, I can't do that," Charlie stated casually, blankly staring up the mountainous trunk.
Jet gave an almost condescending tight-lipped smile. "And why is that, Charlie?" She noticed he was starting to slip up his innocent front.
"What makes you think I know how to scale a whole tree? Have you seen my arms?" For good measure, she slightly lifted up the drooping sleeve of her dull green shirt, showing off her thin freckled biceps.
Jet narrowed his eyes with a set jaw. "Fine, you can stay down here and keep watch," he finally decided after a moment of contemplation.
"Works for me," she shrugged easily, walking off the gravel just beyond the red-leaved bushes. She positioned herself in front of the tree Jet and Sokka climbed, squatting behind the shrubs, trying to get the best position to see where Jet would confront the old Fire Nation civilian due to walk by any minute. In the time between being roped into coming at the dinner and the morning, Charlie had formed somewhat of a plan. There was a chance nothing would come of it, considering how stubborn Katara could be, but it wouldn't hurt to try.
After only a few minutes of waiting around, a bird call rang out from above her. She looked up to find Jet cupping his mouth with his palm. A few trees away, Smellerbee completed the call with a response of her own. With one last song of a different tune, Charlie peeked over the red leaves and found the old man hobbling at a slow pace along the gravelled path, coming to a halt when Jet landed ahead of him. He gasped lightly, holding a hand over his heart when Jet stood up, flashing the metal of his hook swords.
"What are you doing in our woods, you leech?" he spat with a glare, scowling the old man down.
"Please sir, I'm just a traveller," he pleaded in an unsteady tone, holding out a hand in surrender.
Jet's eyes narrowed further in response. With a raise of his right arm, he swung his hook sword and brought it down on the old man's walking stick, flinginging out to the left, right where Charlie was. It collided with her chest, and she fell back with a small yelp before muttering obscenities under her breath. Charlie pushed herself up again quick enough to catch the next part of their conversation. Pipsqueak had his foot pressing down on the man's spine while Jet pointed his weapons in his face.
"Do you like destroying towns? Do you like destroying families? Do you?!" he growled out with an icy glare.
"Oh, please let me go, have mercy."
"Does the Fire Nation let people go? Does the Fire Nation have mercy?" Without another word, Jet pulled his left leg back, letting it swing towards the cowering man only to be caught at the last minute by Sokka's club. He yelped and hopped on one leg before stumbling around to face the teen.
"Jet! He's just an old man!" Sokka shouted in defence.
"He's Fire Nation," Jet spat as if it were diseased, taking a threatening step forwards and grinding his teeth while staring down Sokka. Without looking back, Jet ordered, "Search him."
"But he's not hurting anyone!"
"Have you forgotten that the Fire Nation killed your mother?" At Jet's words, Sokka briefly glanced in Charlie's direction somewhat self-consciously. He never talked about his mother. Ever. At least, not to her. She recognised he was wondering if Charlie knew about his mother already, and if she didn't, this wasn't how he wanted her to find out. "Remember why you fight!"
"We've got his stuff, Jet," Smellerbee announced.
In her moment of distraction, Charlie had forgotten to carry through her plan. She whispered out a curse and flicked her eyes over to Smellerbee, who held a small wavy knife and a dark brown bag encroached with a maroon Fire Nation insignia. Did that knife belong to the old man? She couldn't tell. Charlie scrambled to pick up the old man's discarded walking stick and push her way out of the bushes, behind Jet near Smellerbee and Pipsqueak.
"This doesn't feel right," Sokka admitted, eyebrows furrowed with his hands clenched by his sides. He looked over Jet's shouter to make eye contact with Charlie, who only gave him a serious look in return. She was counting on him to follow the plan.
Jet was still towering over him, taking another step forwards, close enough for the leaf stem which protruded from his lips to brush at Sokka's skin. "It's what has to be done. Now let's get out of here."
Pushing his way past Sokka, the two Freedom Fighters went to follow until Charlie held out her hand, making them pause and look at her with curiosity. "What's wrong?" Smellerbee asked.
"I can carry his stuff," Charlie offered casually, gesturing to the old man's bag. Seeing the unsure look on her face, she continued. "If we run into another assassin, it's probably better your hands are free instead of mine."
The answer seemed to satisfy the two enough, as Smellerbee handed over the bag and knife without further question. So, the knife was his then.
The Freedom Fighters followed after their leader, leaving Sokka and Charlie behind. She took the moment alone to quickly inspect the knife in her right hand. It was strange—she distinctly remembered in the episode that the knife Jet showed the gang had a hidden poisonous cartridge embedded in the hilt, but there was nothing like that on this one. He must have switched the knives out at some point.
When she glanced up at Sokka, he wore a sympathetic expression, full of regret. Silently, she placed the walking stick she'd picked up on the ground next to the old man and sent a nod of encouragement to Sokka. His frown deepened further when Jet had called out to them once more. "Charlie, Sokka, come on!"
Hesitantly, he turned away from the old man and walked next to her in silence. Charlie clapped her right hand to Sokka's back over his leather boomerang sheath for a few moments in solidarity. When she finally stepped away, she rummaged through the old man's bag, finding nothing important.
Arriving back at the hideout, Jet had taken the bag from her, his jaw locking while that smirk that she hated so, so much spread across his face. She was glad he was finally gone. Charlie didn't like being around him for extended periods of time. Her and Sokka sat with their backs pressed against the tree on the platform outside their treehouse, simultaneously emitting a mixture of regret and anger.
Not long after, Aang had swung past on a zipline with Momo, jumping off with childish glee. "Guys, look what the Duke gave me!" he exclaimed, reaching into the bag hanging from his shoulder. Aang pulled out one small circular pellet and gave Momo a sly grin before tossing it between the lemurs feet. He hissed in shock as it exploded into a cloud of sparks and smoke. Momo leaped onto Aang and dug into his bag, pulling out four more pellets of his own and throwing them at Aang's feet in retribution. "Ow, quit it!"
Just then Katara walked out from their treehouse at the sound of the commotion. "Hey guys." she greeted. Charlie twisted around, balancing one arm out on her raised knee. Katara stood shyly, a hint of blush to her cheeks and her arms hidden coyly behind her back. "Is Jet back yet?"
Charlie rolled her eyes and turned away from the waterbender, thumping the back of her head against the tree. She couldn't wrap her head around Katara's crush on Jet. To put it bluntly—he was a dick, and Charlie wasn't even sure he had enough redeeming qualities to compensate for it. Occasionally she could see through him, finding the remains of a scared child behind his darkened eyes, but he always seemed to shove it away. She didn't like him at all, and she was more than sure the feeling was mutual.
"Yeah, he's back, but we're leaving," Sokka started abruptly. Charlie didn't say anything. She knew that he was only saying what was necessary to follow the plan, and he wouldn't actually be able to convince them to leave.
"What?" Aang asked, stopping his struggle with Momo in confusion.
"But I made him this hat." From Katara's back, she pulled out the most hideous orange and red beanie type of thing Charlie had ever seen. She grimaced at it and looked away again.
"Your boyfriend's a thug," Sokka said darkly, arms crossed over his chest.
The waterbender was taken aback. "What?" she protested, raising an eyebrow at her brother. "No he's not."
"He's messed up, Katara. Charlie tried to tell us from the start, but no one's listening," he pressed further, gesturing to her beside him.
"He's not messed up, he's just got a different way of life," Aang added lightly in defence. "A really fun way of life!"
"He beat and robbed a harmless old man," Sokka argued with a frown, slight hostility in his tone.
Katara crossed her arms, giving both Charlie and Sokka a dark look. "I want to hear Jet's side of the story," she demanded, staring them down.
Charlie decided to finally intervene, standing up and slowly making her way over to the girl as she spoke. "Listen Katara, I get you're not used to meeting guys your age, and you're probably feeling flustered when you're around him. Fine—he's got nice hair." From behind her, Sokka threw his arms out to the sides in confusion. "But listen to me closely. Right now, Jet is not a good guy." Katara's expression faltered, her folded arms loosening until they slowly retreated downwards.
"N—no. You're wrong, Charlie. He's trying to save a village."
"He's trying to save himself. Come on, Katara, why would I lie to you about this?" Charlie asked rhetorically, cocking an eyebrow. Seeing the waterbender remain silent, Charlie sighed and shook her head. "Do what you want, but when he asks you to refill a dam, maybe try second guessing his motives," she stated casually, taking a step back.
"Refilling a dam? What are you talking about?" Katara questioned, narrowing her eyes.
Charlie looked back at Sokka with a casual expression. "Does everyone just forget that I'm psychic when it's convenient to them? Like, come on, guys."
Katara's eyes widened noticeably, and she stumbled on her words. "I—I need to talk with Jet." Charlie nodded and looked back at her one last time before spinning on her heel, holding her arm out to Sokka, who still sat cross-legged on the platform. Quirking a small smile of gratitude, he latched onto her forearm and pulled himself up. They followed after Katara and Aang, who were already hurriedly crossing the plank bridge towards Jet's hut.
When the four of them walked in, finding Jet sitting on a hanging bench at the back of the red-lit room. He greeted them with a friendly smile. "Hey guys! I've been meaning to thank you for all your help today in protecting our hideout." Charlie scoffed for two reasons. The first being that he'd conveniently waited until they had an audience to thank the two, and the second, she'd hardly helped at all. Jet was obviously searching for a way to humble himself in front of Aang and Katara.
"I'm glad to see you guys getting along," Katara mentioned in sceptical surprise.
"Yeah, Sokka, Red and I are good, in fact they were great on the mission," he lied easily with a grin.
Charlie recoiled slightly, furrowing her eyebrows. "How original. Since when am I Red?" she snorted out, unimpressed by the nickname.
She and Sokka seemed to be the only ones in the hut that caught his smirk. "Since you helped save my life." It was Charlie's turn to be surprised now.
"Since I did what?"
"See Charlie, I think this was all a misunderstanding," Katara urged, walking to her side before looking back at Jet. "Her and my brother said that you beat and robbed an old man," she said, sending a glare towards the two. "But I'm sure there's more to it than that, right?"
Jet shut his eyes and inhaled sharply. "You guys told them what happened but you didn't mention that the guy was Fire Nation?"
Sokka groaned, pressing his back to the wall of the hut with crossed arms. "No, they conveniently left that part out," Katara drawled out, looking cooly back at her brother.
"Fine, but even if he was Fire Nation, he was a harmless civilian," Sokka argued back, looking past his sister. He pushed himself away from the wood, coming to stand by Katara and Charlie.
Jet reached behind his back and pulled out a sharp knife with a spiked golden hilt, and a ring protruding from the end. "He was an assassin, Sokka." He plunged the tip into a wooden log in front of him, letting it stand straight. Charlie smirked at his mistake. "See? There's a compartment for poison in the knife," he explained, twisting at the ring until a clear vile of a bright red liquid was lifted out. "He was sent to eliminate me. Sokka, Red, without you guys there I might be dead."
"I knew there was an explanation," Katara smiled in relief.
"Not so fast, Jet," Charlie began, her lips curling into a smirk. "That wasn't the knife the old guy had on him." Jet's expression faltered for a split second, and everyone turned to look at her. "You switched them out."
Jet scoffed at the accusation, rising to his feet. "Of course I didn't," he lied.
"Charlie, do you have any proof?" Aang asked, his grey eyes wide.
"Duh." She reached over to Sokka—or more so his back—and pulled the real knife out of his boomerang sheath, holding it loosely between her fingers as she held it up to Jet in all its glory. The small, wavy knife glinted red under the lanterns.
"Wha—" Sokka reached over his head to his back, feeling the leather weapon holder before giving Charlie a shocked look. "When did you put that there?"
"While we were walking back. I call it reverse pickpocketing. Comes in handy," she said casually, carelessly waving around the knife. Turning back to Jet with a glint in her eyes, she stopped moving the knife, pointing it directly at him. "What's wrong, Jet?"
He froze in his seat, but kept his expression black. "You guys don't actually believe this, do you?" Jet asked, not removing his eyes from the knife.
"Well…" Aang began, unsure of himself. He shifted his weight from foot-to-foot uneasily.
"I'm not sure," Katara admitted, looking between them all.
Charlie let her arm drop, and Jet let out a breath of air through his nose. "You guys can make that decision on your own." She slammed the knife into the wall of the hut, letting it remain stuck there as she let her hand go.
"We're out of here," Sokka muttered, turning on his heel and pushing his way out of the room. Aang and Katara shared a worried look and quickly left the hut, leaving Charlie and Jet staring each other down alone.
Jet broke the silence with a smirk. "We found the blasting jelly barrels earlier," he began, the floorboards groaning as he stepped closer.
"Good for you. Now you can use them to—oh, what was it again? Prompt my memory, Jet." Charlie tapped her chin tauntingly.
"Don't think I don't know what you did, Red. Behind a bush? Thought you would have done a little better than that."
Charlie shrugged, a small frown playing on her lips. "I did my job. Have fun trying to do yours. I have a feeling Katara and Aang are going to be a bit less-than-willing to help you out."
"We'll see about that," he said with a locked jaw, the smirk crawling across his face. He pushed past Charlie, jogging after Katara and Aang. She could still hear his muffled voice through the thin walls. "Tell me you aren't leaving. I really need your help. The Fire Nation is planning on burning down our forest. If you both use waterbending to fill the dam today, we could fight the fires. But if you leave now, they'll destroy the whole valley."
Charlie smiled in satisfaction before leaving after Sokka.
She found him back at their treehouse, shoving all of his belongings back into his bag. "Woah, woah, hang on, you're not actually leaving right?" she asked, standing in the doorway.
"Of course not," Sokka said, giving her a strange look. "Whatever Jet's planning is happening soon, so we've gotta be ready to leave straight after we're done."
"Oh, right," Charlie uttered out in realisation. "Good plan."
Hearing commotion outside, she popped her head back out the door, peering over the platform's edge. Five Freedom Fighters stood far below, pushing and pulling at the cart which held four barrels. She furrowed her eyebrows. There was something wrong about what she was seeing, and it took a moment for the cogs in her brain to catch up.
It was still day time, and they were already trying to prepare the blasting jelly. This was supposed to happen overnight. Charlie's eyes widened and she flung back to Sokka.
"Sokka. Sokka, it's happening now. We've gotta go," she rushed out, tugging at his arm.
"What? As in right now?" he asked, dropping his bag.
"As in if you don't get off your ass right now there won't be a village to save. Shit! We were supposed to have more time," Charlie rambled, not noticing that she started pacing circles around Sokka. "This was supposed to happen tomorrow. Why are they changing it? Did I push too far this time?"
"Hey hey hey, slow down, we still have time to fix this." Sokka stood up and grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to stop pacing.
"Okay. Okay let's think this through. Jet, Katara and Aang are together right now, probably already starting to fill the reservoir. The other Freedom Fighters just head up to the dam so they can rig it to explode," Charlie explained quickly. "Where do we need to be?"
"We could split up?" Sokka suggested. "One of us goes to evacuate the village, the other tries to stop the dam from blowing."
Charlie grimaced slightly, then sheepishly smiled. "Oh… about that, I kind of have a confession to make."
Across at the reservoir, Katara and Aang trailed slightly behind Jet, sharing a look of discomfort. After Charlie confronted Jet earlier, they weren't so sure they could trust him anymore, but they made a silent agreement to play nice and see what happened.
"So Jet," Katara began after a moment. "Sorry about how Charlie and Sokka have been acting."
"No worries." He took the leaf stem from his mouth, holding it between the pads of his finger and thumb. "Red already apologised for both of them, right after you two left."
Aang furrowed his eyebrows and met Katara's eyes briefly. That wasn't like her at all. "She… apologised." It wasn't so much of a question, but more a statement of disbelief.
"Yeah, I was surprised too. She really seemed to have it out for me," Jet said with a small chuckle. "But I think we're good now."
Aang sensed the air shift before it happened. Under his feet, a burst of hot hair rose, throwing him upwards. He landed softly, using his airbending to slow his fall.
"Alright, we're here," Jet announced. "Underground water's been trying to escape from these vents. I need you guys to help it along."
"I don't know…" Katara muttered, looking at the steaming geysers. "The rainy season is just about to start, what will happen if it overflows? This reservoir leads straight to the village."
"Oh, that won't be a problem. I know you guys can do this," Jet said with a small smirk. Katara furrowed her eyebrows in thought. It wasn't exactly reasonable for Jet to assume the village would remain safe. In fact, filling the reservoir would probably amount to a danger hazard more than anything. She thought back to the words Charlie said earlier about the dam.
Second guess his motives.
Suddenly, Katara didn't think she could trust Jet all that much anymore.
She threw a look at Aang, encouraging him to follow along, just for now, and he nodded in return. Together, they worked the water out of the geysers until the pressure built up enough within to pour a steady stream into the reservoir without their guidance, and when Jet left, they stopped.
Charlie and Sokka rushed to the dam together in time to bump into Aang and Katara on a cliff's edge. The Freedom Fighters were in the midst of removing the blasting jelly barrels out of the cart and arranging them around the wall of the dam.
"Charlie! Sokka!" Aang gasped, jogging over to the two. "We're so sorry, we should have listened to you guys. Jet really is gonna blow up the dam! I shouldn't have questioned your ability to lead, Sokka." He then turned to Charlie. "And I should have known to listen to you too, you're psychic and you've always tried to help us—"
"Aang, I appreciate the sentiment, but now really isn't the time for this," Charlie cut him off, holding up a hand. The airbenders lips formed into a small 'oh' and he nodded frantically.
Katara hurried forwards to join them, saying, "We need to stop Jet!"
Flipping open his glider, Aang went to leap off the cliff towards the Freedom Fighters, only for Jet to tackle him from the side, sending them both crashing down.
"I can't let you do that, Aang," he said cryptically, eyes closed as he stood up from the squat he'd landed in.
"And we can't let you blow this dam," Katara stated in anger, clenching her fists by her side. She could really be terrifying, sometimes.
"If you guys would just stop to think for one second, you'd see I'm doing the right thing! Think about what the Fire Nation did to your mother." Jet's gaze fixed onto Aang. "To your people. We can't let them do that to anyone else, ever again."
"This is not the answer, Jet!" Katara said, rage spiking through her.
"I want you to understand me, Katara." Jet fixed Katara a coy smile, his head slightly tilted and his eyes so intense that it almost made Charlie want to gag.
"If you think that's gonna work on her now, you're stupider than I thought," Charlie quipped, taking a protective step in front of the waterbender. His eyes darkened, almost blackening as he glared at Charlie, who only scoffed in taunt.
Without hesitation, Jet reached behind his back and brought out his hook swords, raising his left arm and bringing it down towards Charlie. She raised her arms to block it, but it was thankfully caught in mid-air by a wall of ice. Sending a grateful smile to Katara, Charlie ducked around the ice wall just in time to see Sokka take a swing at Jet with his battle club, who struggled to free his hook sword from the ice. Jet ducked and rolled away as the club shattered the ice, allowing Charlie to rip the hook sword out and point it threateningly at the boy, as if daring him to move. When he tried standing, Aang picked up his glider and sent a compressed wave of air towards Jet, causing him to fling into the base of a tree. Katara melted what was left of the ice and blew the steam at Jet, confining him in an ice block as he lay collapsed on the floor.
"I can't believe I trusted you," she growled out, holding her head high. "You lied to us. You're sick!"
Jet only smirked as if he'd already won. Turning his head away from them to stare at the dam in the distance, he whistled out a bird call.
"What are you doing?" Katara asked, eyes slowly widening in realisation as the call was responded to with a similar tone.
"You're too late," he taunted, the smile playing at his lips. "You've already lost."
Katara whipped around, the wind blowing through her low ponytail as it seemed to pick up at that very moment. "No," she breathed, watching as a flaming arrow soared through the air before shooting on a downwards trajectory in front of the dam. "NO!"
When the dam didn't explode, Charlie let out the breath she'd been holding and gave a single perfunctory and condescending laugh, to which she gained multiple confused looks. "What's wrong, Jet?" she asked, tilting her head back over her shoulder to stare down at the boy. "Was something supposed to happen right about now?"
His face quickly morphed into one twisted with resentment and burning rage. "What did you do?!" he screamed, thrashing in the confinement of ice.
"I didn't do anything. You were the ones who mixed up the blasting jelly and the jellied candy." Charlie turned her body to fully face him and cocked her head. "Well, I suppose I did do a little something. I had to swap the two somehow, so I tipped the cart as a diversion, emptied the barrels and filled them with the candy, then hid them in the bush. I did want you to find it, after all."
"Why not put them back in the cart?" he asked through gritted teeth and narrowed eyes.
"I just wanted to inconvenience you," she admitted with a shrug. "And those things were heavy." It wasn't the full truth, to be honest. She wanted to play him, to make him feel like he was winning when he'd confronted her about finding the barrels. It made this part more fun. "Come on, Jet. You didn't really think you were the only one of us capable of being vindictive, did you?" she whispered sweetly, a chaotic smile playing on her lips."
"Ch—Charlie, that's genius! When did you have the time to come up with that?"
"Within five minutes of us meeting them," Charlie said with a shrug, turning her back to a seriously pissed off Jet.
"Wait, so you knew he was gonna blow the dam the whole time?" Katara began with furrowed brows. "Why didn't you tell any of—oh… sorry."
"You're all fools," Jet muttered, shaking his head. "We could have freed this valley."
"Who would be free?" Sokka asked. "Everyone would be dead."
"You traitor!"
"No, Jet." Sokka stated strongly, looking down at the damned boy. "You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people."
"Katara," he pleaded, looking at the waterbender with wide eyes. "Please, help me."
She closed her eyes, pulling the invisible threads away from him as she walked towards her friends. "Goodbye, Jet."
The four ventured further into the red forest, making their distance with Jet. When they were far enough, Aang called for Appa, who Sokka and Charlie had already prepared with all their belongings. It was sunset when they'd finally flown away from Jet's forest, a victory in their hands.
"Just for the record," Charlie piped up, trying to lighten the mood. "I tried really hard to hide it so this might come as a shock to you—I never liked Jet."
Sokka and Katara deadpanned at her from the opposite side of the saddle. "Wow, really?" she snarked, leaning against the curved lip of the leather. "I would have never guessed."
"You know Charlie," Aang piped up from Appa's reign. "That was pretty scary what you said to Jet back there."
She did think she may have gone a little over-the-top with her victory speech—if that's what you'd call it. "Oh, yeah, I guess that's just something I picked up from my dad."
"How so?" he asked curiously. She could tell how it also piqued Sokka and Katara's interest, considering she'd never actually spoken about her family to them. She didn't see much of a point most of the time.
"Don't take shit from men. That's a direct quote from him."
Katara's face broke out into a smile. "I like that quote."
Charlie closed her eyes, letting the afternoon sun warm her as they flew slowly through the air. She relaxed into the saddle with a content sigh.
Feeling a presence shuffle next to her, she peeked open one eye to find Sokka staring down at her, blocking the path of the sun. "What's up?" she asked, settling back into her position.
"Just wondering what's got you so happy."
She shrugged lightly, lazily flopping her hand as if to say, 'move, you're blocking my sun'. Sokka seemed to get the hint, instead sitting with his back against the supplies behind them.
"I mean, Aang and Katara didn't fill the dam, the village was saved, and Katara broke up with her sociopathic boyfriend. I don't know about you guys, but I'm counting this as a major win," she insisted, casually pumping her fist.
"Did everything go according to your vision?" he wondered aloud, fiddling with his hands.
"Technically, no. The village was supposed to be destroyed because Katara and Aang filled the dam, but you managed to evacuate everyone." Charlie cracked open her eyes again, lulling her head over to her right where Sokka sat. She found that he wasn't just twitching his hands, but carving that piece of wood again with his knife.
"Good to know your visions are wrong sometimes," he chuckled out. She knew he wasn't really being offensive, so she wasn't really bothered by his comment. That, and that she wasn't a real psychic, so nothing he said about them would annoy her anyway.
Charlie hummed in response. "Seriously, what're you even trying to make with that thing? I swear you've been hacking away at it for weeks at it looks exactly the same. Maybe even worse."
Sokka's jaw dropped slightly. "Hey! Don't hate on the process, okay? Wood carving is a skill."
"A skill you don't have, apparently," she drawled out, eyeing the wooden blob in his hands.
Before he could retort, Aang spun around to face them. "Guys! I know where I want to go next!" he announced, hopping over to the saddle and placing the map in the middle. Charlie pushed herself up and looked at his finger, where it pointed to some spot that looked like a squiggle. "One of nature's wonders! The Great Divide."
Charlie let out an extended groan, continuing it as she flopped back down onto the saddle. "I hate that episode," she muttered under her breath, gaining three looks of concern.
Why was this episode so long? I don't even like this episode. Anyways, I always thought it would be funny to see Jet mix up the blasting jelly and jelly candy since the show seemed to give so much attention to that scene. I also figured I wanted Charlie to save the village people from being homeless because of Jet, so I did :D I hope you like the little twist I put in at the end, it was hard writing without giving it away. I wrote Charlie a little more badass in this chapter, rather than her usually witty/carefree self, so I hope you guys like it. Also this chapter title is a pun.