Hi again guys! Well, I was pretty satisfied with my last chapter, and I hope you liked it! Okay, here's the thing, I'm going to be switching from character point of views every now and then, like the first part of this chapter. It's coming from Jade's point of view as she struggles to remember what happened to her. Then it will switch back to Katara. Heh, I just love to make things more complicated...Also, you guys have convinced me not to change my name. So alright lets get to the story!

I do not own A:TLA

Bad Memories

Flash Back:

"Onee-chan, your gonna make us late!"complained a high pitched voice of a seven year old as Jade Onishita rushed to apply her blush in front of their only broken mirror for the big celebration. A little girl of age five with short dark brown hair, and a pale lime dress was sitting in an old wooden chair across from her, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Ana, patience is a virtue..." she lectured her little sister, putting down the blush, and turning around to face her sister.

"Well, how do I look?" she asked her, twirling around in her dark green silk dress. Her best friend had given her that dress, if only for the night. For tonight, she had to look her best. The dress had long long open sleeves, the neck line lowered just enough, but not enough to reveal anything, the dress reached her ankles, and fit her slender form perfectly. She had bought a dark green ribbon to match the dress the previous day, and had tied it in her long, shiny black hair.

"You look like broccoli, now lets go!" Ana ran over and grabbed her sisters hand pulling her out of their one room house. The streets outside were overcrowded with people. The decorations that she had helped put up the afternoon earlier were hanging across the buildings, and people were throwing confetti everywhere. Everyone was heading towards the center of the town for the birthday celebration. It was the mayor's daughters 15th birthday, and it was always the biggest party of the year. The mayor spared no expense for his daughter, and luckily for Jade, the mayor's daughter was her best friend. Brii (the mayor's daughter) shared whatever she had with Jade and Ana, and they had a special spot at the front table next to the birthday girl.

"We get to sit at the big table right?" Ana asked her older sister, bouncing of the walls with excitement.

"Yes, Ana. For the thousandth time, yes." she said with a sigh.

"Wow, the front table, you sure are lucky girls." came a young male voice from behind the two sisters.

"Ryo, get lost. I don't want you to spoil this for me,or Brii for that matter." she gave him a dirty look, and walked faster, Ana jumped up into the tall blonde's strong arms for a hug. Ryo was a year older than Jade, and was her supposed fiancée, and also her friend. Jade's father had arranged their marriage, but once he left for the war, and never came back, Jade herself called off the wedding.

"How can I ruin it for you? I just wanted to say you look beautiful tonight Jade. Can't your future husband say something nice about you?" he embraced Ana, he then let her down gently, and put an arm around Jade's shoulder.

"Yes, but your not him. Now get lost before I have to alert the whole village that you were the one who put old Nana tang's tea set in that tree." Jade picked up Ana and walked further into the crowd. 'This place is so crowded it's taking forever to get to the town square.' Jade thought to herself.

"Hey, it was just a joke. Besides, you could use my protection, I saw some fire nerds crawling around earlier." Ryo warned her in a scary voice.

"What? No, no you were just imagining things Ryo, why would the fire nation be here?" she looked at him, as if he'd gone mad.

"I heard that the mayor had stolen some fire nation gold in order to pay for the celebration, maybe they came to get it back..." he sounded serious, maybe he wasn't just trying to scare her...

"Well, I got to go. Have fun at the front table Jade. Catch ya later Ana." he waved good-bye to them and went into the crowd, away from sight.

"Ryo was just trying to scare us, right onee-chan?" Ana gave her older sister a fearful look as she fiddled with her hand made bracelet. Jade looked down at her younger sister, uncertain whether Ryo really was trying to scare them or not. It did seem like something he'd do, he was always trying to scare them. But he knew not to scare them about the fire nation, it had always been a touchy subject for them, so why would he start now?

"Yeah, he..he was just trying to scare us Ana..." she reassured her sibling, but unable to assure herself.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

They were reluctantly walking back to Jade's village. Katara and Sokka had made a promise after all, but this would delay their search for their father for a bit. Jade was leading the way, lost in her own thoughts, Sokka seemed preoccupied, and Katara was getting a feeling that someone was watching them. The grass was damp with dew, and the sun was pouring in through the cracks in the trees. It was warm, but the softly blowing wind was chilly. Katara shivered, wrapping her arms around her. Jade looked deteremind, and Katara noticed that her brother was gazing at Jade. Oh, this would be fun...she walked closer to her brother and leaned in to whisper in his ear.

"Whatchya lookin at?" she said calmly arching an eyebrow. Sokka nearly jumped out of his shoes.

"I'm not looking at anything! Why would I be looking at something? There's nothing to look at! Nope nothing!" Sokka panicked, keeping his distance from his sister.

"Riiight...boy Sokka, you fall fast don't you?" she giggled.

"Shut up." he said coldly, walking up to Jade to evade Katara. This should keep things interesting...Suddenly Jade broke off in a run, Sokka quickly following behind. 'We must've reached the town,' Katara thought to herself, as she caught up to them. They followed Jade to a small house, with two tiny windows on each side of the door. It looked so shabby, did she live here? Jade slammed the door open.

"Ana! Ana are you here?Ana!" she screamed, looking around wildly in the bare room. After looking around the room, she ran outside and kept calling Ana's name.

"You think she'll find her?" Katara asked Sokka as they watched Jade run around the town screaming for Ana. She turned a corner, and disappeared from sight.

"No." he said voice empty of emotion.

"Why?" Sokka gave her a stern look.

"You, most of all Katara, should know why." Katara looked away from him. Why did he have to bring that up now? A few minutes past, then Jade approached them slowly, with a horrified look on her face, her fist clenched tightly. She held out her hand to show them what she held. In the palm of her hand laid the green and brown hand made bracelet Ana made for herself. She never went anywhere without it, she always said it had brought her good luck. Jade had always believed it had brought them bad luck. Three days after she made that bracelet, mother had died. And now this...

"It was her bracelet. She never went anywhere without it." she told them, staring intently at the object.

"Oh, Jade, I'm so sorry." Katara pulled the sobbing girl into a big hug, and Sokka joined.

"I know how you feel, we lost our mother to the fire nation, and our dad joined the rebel army. In fact, we're on our way to find him. Why don't you come with us? There's nothing left for you here." Jade sniffled.

"Come...with...you?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes, we would love for you to come with us." Sokka added, looking hopeful.

"I..umm...alright. Just let me grab one thing." she said, rushing into the house, and a few minutes later she emerged with a small knife wrapped in a blue cloth.

"It was my father's, and if I ever find the person who killed my sister, I intend to use it." she said gravely.

"Jade-" Sokka started.

"Sokka, please don't go against me." she gave him a dead sort of look. Sokka backed down, Katara said nothing. She wanted revenge on the person who killed her mother too, but killing them wouldn't bring her peace. But, the chances of finding Ana's murderer were slim.

"Lets go." Katara said to them, heading back into the forest trail. It would be a few days till the reached the next town, and they needed to get going.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

AGH! sorry for the kinda short chapter guys, but I'm already working on the next one so expect it soon. Aang and Zuko are about three days away from the fire nation now. Cause I know your wondering. Umm...I saw the episode last night, and I can't get out of my head that one girl Aang saw. I know I like both pairings, but if Aang falls in love with some other girl I'm going to be furious. Okay, till next update! Laterz!

The Ever Cheerful Shojo Butterfly