It's Jetaru Week, as hosted by deviantArt's WithinOurTemptation. I find Jet to be an interesting character to write, as he's definitely a bad sort of guy, but I have to keep a path open going both in and out of the badness. Haru is just Haru.


The Alliance

Part 1 - Treehouse

Haru was homeless until Jet brought him back to his treehouse.

Granted, "treehouse" failed to describe the scale and sophistication of the place. When Jet had first talked about it, Haru was skeptical. How could a bunch of kids and one bossy teenager put together a real shelter so high off the ground, hidden from the Fire Nation's searches? They must have managed it somehow, though. The various platforms, all completely stable, were joined by strong bridges and a chaotically functional network of swinging ropes. A massive amount of supplies could be hidden away in various shelters, protected from both sight and the elements. And everyone, no matter how young or important to the fighting effort, had his or her own little hut. The base had everything Haru could have wanted in a rebel hideout.

Except his parents.

Jet was the next best thing, though.

Being the second oldest kid in the group, Haru was in a unique position to truly appreciate Jet's leadership skills. He had a great charisma to him; if there weren't a war, he would have made a fantastic merchant, as he could sell pretty much anything to anyone. It wasn't just that he was smart, able to logically justify pretty much anything he wanted, or that he had one of those trick memories that could keep track of both the names of everyone he met and also their special skills. Those were certainly tools of a great leader, but not the most important thing. The key to Jet's success was the he believed. It was that extra emphasis to his wants and visions that carried into his demeanor and inspired everyone around him. It made the Freedom Fighters want to do anything for Jet.

It reminded Haru of his father and Katara.

Perhaps that's why he was never quite entirely comfortable with Jet.

Katara was water, flowing wherever she could reach to bring life to people. Dad was Earth, strong in body and providing a solid foundation for the beliefs of everyone around him. (All right, perhaps all that was overly poetic, but Haru really missed both of them a lot.) Jet, though, lived in a treehouse. He wasn't grounded. He didn't identify with an element. If he had an icon, it was his blades, stained red with the blood of the Fire Nation.

At first, Jet had Haru do simple things, like participate in supply raids. That was fine with Haru; he would fight with the others against the Fire Nation's soldiers, harassing those who would terrorize the Earth Kingdom, and winning needed supplies for the Freedom Fighters and anyone they could help. Then, there were the less noble missions, keeping Fire Nation colonists out of the forest, even if they weren't military, or even warriors. Haru understood the logic of it, that even if their treehouse home was hidden, the best way to keep it secret was to keep it isolated. Haru always did what he could to avoid really hurting those people, and he often succeeded, bending the paths into a maze that led intruders away. Sometimes, he failed, and had to fight.

Perhaps those memories were what kept him up at night.

Plus, he had never gotten used to sleeping off the ground in a treehouse.

Rewards came with these duties. Jet was much more open to his most dependable soldiers, who seemed to double as his closest friends. It sometimes helped when Jet admitted that he was bothered by some of the things the Freedom Fighters had to do, and when he talked about his few memories of his parents and childhood home. Haru would in turn talk about his father's Earthbending lessons, and things seemed okay for a little while. Jet would become human for a little while, a boy just like Haru who was trying to get by in a world where hitting first was the only way to survive. It was a lifestyle reflected throughout nature, across the entire forest. It was in the leaves that hid them and the branches that held them all up.

Then the special missions would ruin all that sentiment.

Haru missed sleeping on the ground.

.

Part 2 - Rejection

Despite all the warning signs, Jet was truly surprised when Haru left.

The Earthbender hadn't told anyone, or left a note, or anything. He simply wasn't around, then couldn't be found, and then became truly gone, all without any extra effort on Haru's part. To be honest, Jet was a little hurt by that. As the only Freedom Fighter near Jet's age, Haru had become the closest to him. He could talk to Haru, even though their lives had been almost completely different. (Jet felt that the biggest differences were that Haru's parents still lived, somewhere, and that the Earthbender actually liked Katara's preaching.) Also, Haru was an appreciative audience. The others were too in awe of Jet, too spellbound by his fantastic (honest assessment!) leadership skills. Haru, though, could see what was going on, and be properly impressed.

It was nice to be understood.

Plus, Haru's defection represented a major loss. The most obvious was, of course, Haru's Earthbending. Warriors were fine, but Benders had a level of power that couldn't be equaled by anything but machinery (creepy Fire Nation stuff), and a versatility that Jet found limitless. There wasn't any problem Jet's imagination couldn't solve with a Bender working for him. The Freedom Fighters, however, had made do without Benders for years, and could do so again. The thing that Jet really regretted was how much time and energy he had put into Haru's development.

Haru wasn't like the others. He wasn't blinded by a need for revenge, to strike the Fire Nation until his own hurts were lost in the haze of pain. He was old enough to remember his father's lessons, and his mother's gentleness. Haru had trouble doing what was necessary.

So Jet had helped.

He had made unraveling Haru's personality a pet project. Haru had to be educated properly, not with a speech, but with a steady insinuation about the rightness of their cause. Jet considered himself good at giving speeches, but he truly felt that he reached new heights of subtlety and conviction in his talks with Haru. It had hurt a little, throwing in so many uncomfortable truths about himself, but anything less would have failed, and the gains would be worth it.

Haru had led him on.

He had listened to Jet, pretended to be Jet's friend, and even helped his Freedom Fighters with their greatest victory when they destroyed that village with an engineered mudslide. But he had been their enemy all along. As everyone was celebrating the victory and destruction of so many Fire Nation colonists, Haru had slunk away and left them all.

Jet vowed that if he ever saw Haru again, he would kill the Earthbender.

Over time, the other Freedom Fighters noticed that Jet had lost his drive, that he couldn't work up the same enthusiasm or charisma. Jet iknew/i that they knew, but couldn't figure out what to do about it. He wished he could talk to someone about the problem, someone so like him, who would truly listen.

Since they had noticed the warning signs, Jet figured it would be all right for his Freedom Fighters. They would wake up one day, and their leader wouldn't be around, and then wouldn't be found, and then would be gone. But they would understand.

He had his own understanding to find.

Jet set off to find his Earthbender.

END