Katara held Jet's hand as she led him carefully down the stairwell to the basement. It smelled like chlorine and blue reflections of light swam across the walls. Jet stopped and admired the rectangular pool Katara loved so much.

"I come down here almost every day, it's the only place I feel like I can really be myself. It's like, when I'm down here, I'm free."

Jet smiled. "It's so wonderful you have this place, that's how I feel about the Hideout." He frowned. "I know the fire nation is searching for it. If anything were to happen to the Hideout …"

"Jet." Katara squeezed Jet's hand and he looked into her eyes. "No one can take the Hideout away from you, not as long as we're willing to protect it."

He smiled at her. "How do you do that, Katara? How do you bring people hope?"

She blushed. "I just say what I know is true. But really … it's Aang. He's given me hope. And I know he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe, Aang can save the world."

"Uh-oh, should I be jealous?"

Katara giggled. "Aang? He's just a goofy kid."

Jet took her other hand and laced their fingers together. "Then I guess I have nothing to worry about."

Professor Zhao stood at the front of the class right in front of Aang's desk, a sick grin etched across his naturally unfriendly face. He looked over his students and even his favorite fire nation kids shuddered when his gaze fell on them. He explained that he had volunteered for the guards to use his class as a searching period. He assured the class that no harm would come to them so long as they had nothing to hide.

The guards came in and shouted orders at the colonists in the back of the room. They had them stand with their hands spread out on the wall as each was searched individually, they padded them down, inspected the desks, and emptied their book bags. No one was found with anything suspicious and the colonists were allowed to return to their seats.

Zhao once again stood in front of Aang and this time stared only at him. Aang stared back, anger and hatred written on his face, his jaw clenched, his hands in tight fists. "Is there a problem, Mr. Fire?"

"No."

"No what?"

"No, sir."

"Do you disagree with the search? Do you perhaps think we should not be trying to find the traitors who attacked the school?"

"I never said that, sir."

"Guards, search this one too."

The guards hesitated. "But, sir, he's fire natio-"

"I said search him!"

A guard approached Aang and kindly asked him to stand up. Aang stood and willingly put his hands to the wall as they searched him. They emptied his book bag and then put everything back the way it was. They said that he was all clear and left the classroom.

Zhao still stared down at Aang, not satisfied. "You don't want to make an enemy of me, Mr. Fire, it will only end badly for you."

"I'd say the same thing to you, sir."

Zhao raised his hand to smack Aang across his face and Aang stopped him, holding onto his wrist tightly. Zhao started to yell something and stopped suddenly as his eyes caught a glimpse of something blue beneath the boy's sleeve.

"Excuse me, sir, may I go to the bathroom?" Zhao pulled his hand away from Aang and said yes.

Aang's heart pounded in his chest, a mixture of anger and fear welling up in him. That was a mistake. A terrible, stupid mistake. Zhao suspected Aang, what just happened was proof. If Zhao ever found out about the Freedom Fighters -. Aang gripped the edge of the sink until his knuckles turned white. No. He couldn't let anyone learn of the Freedom Fighters, Katara thought they could help. Katara trusted them, she trusted Jet. Aang scowled into the mirror. Katara did a lot more than 'trust' Jet. Aang didn't know how to feel about Jet, he was a nice enough guy and seemed to know what he was doing. But Aang hated the way he and Katara looked at each other, it made Aang want to vomit.

Aang walked back to class slowly, his eyes wandering to the half open doors to classrooms. He stopped a moment to watch an upperclassmen all fire citizen class, some kind of math he guessed. They all looked incredibly bored, some of them scratching down notes or texting beneath their desks. There was one guy pinching a piece of paper between his thumb and forefinger. He watched that paper begin to burn and the ends curl into black ash that fell on the desk. Aang looked at the side of the boy's face, his amber eye cloudy and in deep thought. He watched that eye slowly, slowly, move away from the front of the room and land on Aang. The boy's eye seemed to clear, they saw each other and seemed to say something unspoken. Some hidden message of understanding between two strangers. Aang didn't move, just kept staring at him, and the other boy turned his head ever so slightly towards Aang. Aang's eyes widened in horror. The upper left side of the boy's face bore a pink-purple scar, the mark of burned flesh surrounding a half closed eye. Aang knew instinctively, that scar was not the result of an accident, that scar resembled pain deeper than a physical sensation, it reflected the hate of the one who put it there. The other boy saw Aang's horror and he looked away, his hand unconsciously went to cover the left side of his face. Aang walked away quickly, almost half-jogging. So this was the evil of the fire nation, not only would they resolve to take the lives and freedom of those who are different, but they would hurt their own if it pleased them.

Sokka sat down in Professor Zhao's class for colonist practices, a course specifically focusing on the duties and limitations placed on colonists like himself. Zhao taught them about the few industries they would be allowed to work in as slaves on minimum wages for the rest of their lives. He taught them that through hard work and obedience they would graciously be allowed to live in a peaceful society with the Fire Lord as their kind and superior master. What a load of bullshit!

Sokka sat in his desk and traced his fingers on the engraving under the desk. He didn't know who did it or how long it had been there, but last year he had discovered that under his desk someone had engraved the word 'Freedom'. He reacted with surprise and disgust when he felt someone's sticky chewing gum on his hand. He tried to pull it off and Zhao caught sight of the pink stuff.

"Sticking gum under the desks, Mister Wolf? I'll put you in detention for that."

Sokka gritted his teeth. "Permission to go wash my hands, sir."

"Fine, if you're not back in two minutes I'll make it a Saturday detention."

Sokka stood up and went to the bathroom. When he came back the classroom was filled with fire nation guards. The moment he came in they pushed him against the wall and padded him down. He saw similar things being done to the other students. When they let him go he was ordered to return to his seat and he did so.

As he walked by, a guard told Princess Yue to stand. The Princess held a steely gaze away from the guard and remained in her seat. This time the guard grabbed her arm and attempted to pull her from her seat. Her response was lightning fast as she slapped the helmet right off the guard's head. The guard was a short muscly kind of guy with amber eyes and cropped brown hair. His eyes looked at Princess Yue menacingly and he raised his hand to be level with her head. She turned her head towards him as the flame sparked into life. The guard told her once more to stand up to be searched. She only stared at the flame with a kind of terrified determination. "I refuse."

No one moved. Zhao turned his back. The guard smiled at the princess and the flame spit out sparks. He raised his hand to gather momentum for a hit. Almost from nowhere, a silver boomerang hit the guard on the head knocking him back on the ground and the flame immediately went out. Sokka had clearly not thought this through since he'd forgotten that the boomerang would come back and therefore provide proof that he had thrown it. The guards all began to step towards him. "Shit."