A/N – Here it is! As always, thank you for your patience! And thanks to Looneyluna for her excellent suggestions and proofreading. You may notice some... gaps... in the story right now, but, fear not! They will be addressed.

Remember the Alamo! And that Avatar: The Last Airbender and all its characters are a creation of Michael Dante DiMartino and Brian Konietzko, and the property of Nickelodeon.


Chapter 5: Friends in Need, Part I

"Someone, help us!" Sokka yelled. He cradled his sister in his arms, as if he could hold her spirit in with only his bare hands. Toph stood beside him with Momo on her shoulder and Aang in her arms—the Avatar was no better off than Katara. This shouldn't have happened, Sokka fumed. We should have been more alert.

"Don't leave me, Katara."

He heard someone approach, and from the sound of it they were mounted. Sure enough, a silhouetted figure of an ostrich-horse rider stood just a few yards away. "We could use a hand over here!"

Clouds drifted away from the half moon in the sky. Its lunar glow illuminated the stranger: hiked-up red robes and hair the color of the midnight sky above them. Two eyes Sokka knew to be gray sparkled with recognition, even as he placed the cold, pale face. He eased Katara to the ground, crouching with sharply bent knees as his right hand slid to his belt. Behind him he heard Toph rest Aang on the ground and drop into an Earthbending stance. Momo chattered like a lemur—which made sense but didn't help much.

The Fire Nation girl watched them silently, although Sokka noticed she held her left arm tense. She was the one with all the arrows. He knew that with a slight motion she could send a blizzard of them slicing through the air.

"We beat your friends," he called out more bravely than he felt. "We can beat you."

For an instant there was a subtle change in her icy features, but Sokka could not place it. Her arm hesitated, and he took the opening. He bolted up into a stand and let his boomerang fly. It sliced through the air toward her, even as he saw the earth beneath her ostrich-horse lurch up, throwing the animal's legs to the side.

But the warrior from the Fire Nation was agile and sprung from her falling mount's back. Her hand limned an arc through the air and Sokka ducked, throwing himself over his unconscious sister. A line of arrows embedded themselves into the soil just inches from where he had stood. There was no change in Katara's breathing—slow, nearly silent... nearly not at all.

The windy sound of his boomerang spinning back his way reached his ears and he sprang to his feet. Their attacker was much closer now. He snatched the handle of his boomerang from the air.

"Sokka!" Toph shouted. "I can feel something coming this way. Something big!"

More arrows came at him, and too many to dodge, at that. A wall of stone burst from the ground.

"It's them!" cried the Earthbender. The rapid percussion of arrows against rock accompanied her voice.

"But we beat them!" Sokka saw them fall, thrown from the backs of their monstrous lizards as Toph crushed the reptiles between vises of living stone. The two girls from the Fire Nation did not get back up. And Toph said she didn't feel a pursuit as she and Sokka fled north, carrying their friends. In that moment he had felt the bitterness of wishing them dead. Now that bitterness returned.

"I know what I feel. It's that machine of theirs!"

Sokka clutched the tattered handle of his boomerang.

"She's gone," Toph said. "She's running north. And we've got more company!"

Several people had trickled out of nearby buildings, curious as to what was happening. The commotion grew louder. Sokka immediately recognized two emerging from the crowd: there could be no mistaking the villainous burn scar over Zuko's left eye. And the chubby old guy's still with him. The boomerang felt like lead in Sokka's hand. We can't keep fighting like this. The old man helped us back at the North Pole, and against that crazy Firebender girl, but Zuko might still be after Aang despite that.

"Sokka don't!" Toph stepped to his side and laid her hand on his forearm. "The old guy's pretty friendly. He might help us."

"How would you know?"

She patted his arm as if he was some kind of small child! He was a warrior of the Water Tribe, and vague answers weren't going to satisfy him.

"The girl is right, young warrior." The gray-haired Fire Nation man stretched his hands out and took a slow step forward. "My nephew and I intend you no harm."

He's Zuko's uncle? Talk about lack of family resemblance!

"Mai's gone north, Uncle!" growled Zuko. "We have no time to waste chatting with the Avatar and his friends."

"Her friends are coming from the south," Sokka told them. "In one of your war machines."

"They'll be here in a few minutes," Toph added. Even though she couldn't see, she turned in the direction of the old man. "Our friends are hurt, badly. That Fire Bender girl hit them with something; it wasn't fire, and it smelled kind of weird."

"Lightning," Sokka offered. "She bent lightning."

"Azula is a very dangerous foe." Zuko's elderly uncle rubbed his beard and lowered his eyes in thought. "We need to get out of Da Bao. The town will be safer if we are not here. A battle with Azula would be most unfortunate for our very generous innkeeper!"

"Perhaps you have forgotten that these people are our enemies?" The exiled prince of the Fire Nation snarled. He clenched his fist, and Sokka felt his own blood boiling.

"That's my sister laying there! We saved you back at the North Pole. We could have left you freezing to death in the snow. The least you could do is return a favor."

"I don't have to tolerate such words from a Water Tribe peasant!"

"Do you wanna fight, your highness?" He leaned in close to Zuko, just inches away from his face.

"I've taught you a lesson before." Sokka heard Zuko's knuckles crack. Oh, it's on now.

"Both of you stop this!" Toph and Zuko's uncle shouted in unison. Toph emphasized her words with a thin barrier of stone, which launched itself out of the ground between Sokka and that royal pain in the ass.

"Get your friends and let us leave," Zuko's uncle urged. "The sooner we are gone the better."

"What about all the people here?" Toph asked. "Will they be okay?"

"No one is completely safe from Azula, but she will burn the town to embers looking for us if she suspects we are hiding here. It is best she believe we fled. We came here with a friend, who will help get us out of town without all these prying eyes noticing. Hopefully he can also mislead our pursuers. In the meantime, I will see what I can do for your friends. And you can tell us what happened. The more we know about Azula's actions, the better."

Sokka looked back at his sister and Aang, still lying on the ground, their breathing slow. This is their only chance. He still didn't trust Zuko, but if Toph trusted the uncle, that would have to be enough. The Blind Bandit was already hoisting Aang, and Momo tugged along with her.

Gently, he squeezed Katara's hand and took her in his arms, lifting her from the dirt. She didn't feel warm like a person should: it was just a faint heat, like water briefly warmed by the sun. Hold on, Katara.

"Alright. Let's get going."