Chapter 18: Nameless Renegade

SEVEN YEARS AGO

The streets of Republic City paid little heed to the two men walking down the road. To the innocent bystander they appeared to be nothing more than an old grandfather walking a grandson down the sidewalk. Few would have guessed they were brothers, their births separated by just short of a decade.

The duo enjoyed their incognito walk to a seemingly innocuous street corner. A small group of men had been waiting there for several hours. Kalden had trusted only his best to escort them through the Spirit World.

"Kalden," A handsome young man said. A necklace of bird skulls clattered slightly as he turned to greet his master. He nodded towards Sarin.

"I assume this is your brother?"

"You are correct," Kalden said. "Sarin, this is the Harrier. I have spoken of him before."

Sarin nodded. Kalden had often spoken of the men he trusted the most. The Harrier was far and away one of his favorite followers, though many vied for the same position. A few such men likewise lingered by the street corner.

"Lock, keep an eye on the road ahead of us," Kalden commanded. A large, bearded man nodded and set out down the street. He kept a length of coiled chain concealed beneath a heavy coat. His trademark weapon was not so inconspicuous as Harrier's necklace.

"And you," Kalden said, turning to a figure lurking deep in the shadows of a nearby alley. "Make us unseen."

The figure in the back alleys shifted wordlessly. From the cities canals and beaches, a slow chill began to rise, filling what had been a pleasant sunny day with grim, chilling shadows. It took some time, but the fog began to rise and spread throughout the city streets. Harrier nodded forwards and led them through the fog-laden streets. Sarin looked over his shoulder as the grey silhouette of their mysterious follower haunted them through the fog.

"You haven't told me about that one," Sarin said.

"They don't appreciate being made to leave the Spirit World," Kalden said. The Fogbender had made a home for itself in the other world, and mastered an art few would consider as possible, much less be able to practice. Kalden was lucky to have recruited them.

"What's their name?"

"If you must address them, call them the Fogbender," Kalden advised. The strange bender wore a mask for a reason.

"Harrier, Lock, Fogbender," Sarin listed out, frustrated. "Do we work with anyone who actually has a name?"

The Harrier and Kalden shared a glance. At a subtle command from Kalden, the Harrier advanced a few steps to allow Sarin and Kalden to speak more privately.

"We walk a dangerous path, Sarin," Kalden explained. "Everyone who chooses to follow us takes on a great risk, and they naturally seek ways to lessen that risk. Taking on a false name, a false identity, creates a sense of separation, a way to dissociate themselves from risk."

Sarin nodded. Kalden continued on, offering a further explanation.

"I recruited these men personally. I trust them, they trust me, and that mutual respect we share makes them feel safer around me," Kalden said. "I know their names. When the time comes, and you have proven yourself as a leader, they will come to trust you as well."

Kalden noticed that Sarin lagged behind. He gave his brother an impatient tap on the shoulder to get him up to speed, and they continued onwards towards the Spirit World.

It had been several hours since Whistler had woken up, and she was still not quite awake. She had grown quite accustomed to sleeping on her schedule, and any interruption to that schedule was not easily handled. Had there been a fight, it might have been enough to get her adrenaline pumping and wake her up, but at the moment she was just being escorted to a meeting.

This interruption to her routine might have made her incredibly angry under different circumstances. Even good friends like Miyani risked a solid whack to the head when waking Whistler up. The only reason the unfortunate messenger who had roused Whistler from her slumber had gotten off without physical violence was the source of the message he carried. It was a summons from Sen, and it was urgent.

The Avatar did not make social calls, nor did he make any decisions lightly. If he was calling Whistler, he absolutely needed Whistler, and it was for something important. The war was on its downward slope now, and every move brought them closer to victory. It was entirely possible whatever mission Whistler was being summoned for could be the decisive moment of their war.

The vehicle ground to a halt and Whistler groggily stepped out. She recognized the city of Xian, though the activity in the streets was much different these days. The hustle and bustle of their early war efforts was gone. Sen's grim energy had overtaken the Coalition from top to bottom. Xian ran rigid and regular as a machine now. Whistler didn't much like the new atmosphere, but she kept her mouth shut about it.

Whistler was a disruption to the system, which she was a bit used to, but it was for vastly different reasons when it came to the Coalition. People here only partially avoided here because of her abrasive nature. The soldiers here actually had some kind of odd respect for her. They parted ways and bowed or saluted as she passed as if she was actually in charge of them. Whistler scowled and kept moving.

The rigid structure of Xian grew less and less active as Whistler approached the center of the city. Once upon a time the central command building had been swarming with activity, but that had faded with time as the nature of the war had changed. He was no longer fighting a war on ten fronts at once, tracking down dozens of bases and reacting to potential threats. Now his sole focus, his sole purpose, was finding Sarin.

The office of the Avatar was thick with a harsh, foreboding atmosphere. The intensity of Sen's hatred for Sarin radiated outwards and infected the very air around him, warping everything with his anger.

Sen was shuffling no papers and reviewing no documents as Whistler arrived. She couldn't decide if that was good or bad. She nodded as the Avatar ceased staring blankly forward and looked to her. His face did not brighten at all when he saw her.

"Whistler," He said. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything."

As angry and demanding as Sen could be nowadays, he still remembered a few basic facts. He knew Whistler didn't appreciate being pulled away from her own desires, and it was hardly productive to order her around when she was unwilling to listen.

"I wasn't doing anything important," Whistler said. Like most of the Coalition's activities nowadays, the leads she had been following were dead ends.

"Do you feel like doing something important?"

"Depends what it is," She said. Whistler sat down and crossed her legs. "Give me the details."

Sen nodded and pushed a page of documents forward. They weren't Coalition, Whistler knew that much from sight. They were poorly organized, and heavily encrypted. Luckily for Whistler, each encrypted page was also paired with a matching translation.

"The documents we seized from Hua-Long's palace," Sen said, nodding to the papers. "Shipping manifests, some dealing with food, equipment, but mostly heavy metals, all going to one location."

Whistler looked at the page. Durable materials, but relatively light. Perfect for an airborne mechanism.

"You think you found out where Sarin's helicopters are coming from," Whistler concluded.

"I know I've found out," Sen said firmly. "The problem is our enemies will likely know too. With Hua-Long's documents in our hands they'll know we have the intel to track them down, and they'll be on guard. If I tried to lead an army to that factory they'd know before I was even halfway there, and they'd clean house before I arrived."

"So what's your plan? Stealth mission?"

Whistler's years as a pickpocket had left her well-versed in the art of stealth. Even Ada, the secret agent who'd been trained by one of the most duplicitous men in history, couldn't match Whistler's ability to move unseen.

"Exactly that," Sen said with a nod. "You have a habit of vanishing for days at a time already. They won't suspect anything if you don't appear on the battlefield for a few days."

Whistler nodded again. As usual, Sen had thought this through exceptionally well.

"I'm going to make a show of preparing my forces to move, while you sneak across the backlines to the factory. While they prepare to retreat, their security will be more lax. Should give you the opportunity to sneak in and out unseen."

"Alright, this sounds like a plan," Whistler said, satisfied. "What's my objective, though? I can't do much against an entire factory all by my lonesome."

"You don't need to do anything to the factory itself. The rest of our intelligence," Sen began offering the papers once again. "Says there's a man working there, one they call 'The Engineer'. The man responsible for designing the helicopters in the first place. You get him, we get our own helicopters, and we level the playing field."

"Infiltrate and extract," Whistler said. "Sounds a bit military for my tastes, but I'll live."

"There is…one more thing," Sen said hesitantly. "This mission, it's going to be a tipping point. I don't want to take any risks I don't have to."

Sen stood up and crossed his arms. He walked a few steps away from his desk and then turned back to look at Whistler.

"You won't be going alone."

"You say that like I'm not going to like it," Whistler said. She didn't inherently dislike company. She'd be willing to partner up with Ada, Hanjo, or Miyani, and even tolerate Ariak or Suda for a mission. Something about Sen's tone, though, said it wasn't going to be any of these people.

"I've been holding some recruits in reserve, people he won't be expecting," Sen said. Whistler interrupted.

"Recruits? As in new? As in they don't know what they're doing?"

"As in precisely that," Sen said with a sigh. "I had a feeling you'd object to that."

"I'm barely okay with following orders, Sen," Whistler groaned. "What makes you think I'd be okay with giving them?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't absolutely need this, Whistler," Sen pleaded. "If all goes well, you'll barely have to give any orders. They'll just follow you in and out, fighting a few people along the way."

"You and I both know nothing's ever that easy," Whistler moaned. She slouched back in her seat, a classic complaining pose.

"I can't force you to do anything," Sen said. "But I hope I'm stressing how important this is-"

"Yeah, okay, I never said I wouldn't do it," Whistler said quickly. "I'm just going to be a grump about it."

"Thank you, Whistler," Sen said. He handed over a folder with a few more details on the mission, and Whistler set out.

The first stopping point was in a diner in a podunk town on the far eastern side of the Earth Kingdom. Whistler felt right at home in the distinctly lower-class surroundings. She arrived a bit earlier than intended, so she settled into a street corner alongside a napping hobo and relaxed.

She was not happy to be here. She was not happy to being dong this. She did not want to follow orders nor did she want to give them. But Sen needed her, far more than he knew.

Whistler had easily noticed the change in his behavior. The slowly rising anger, the rage that bubbled just beneath the surface. Sen was not the same as once had been. His war with Sarin had driven him to unfortunate extremes. He was no longer the inspiring, hopeful Avatar he had once been.

It was all because of Sarin, Whistler knew. As cruel and as dangerous as Sen had become, Sarin was still far worse. Sen's rage all came back to the Energybender. So, for the sake of her friend, and getting him back to the person he had once been, Whistler was willing to go to great lengths, even to do something she truly despised.

Whistler checked the time. Her spare time to squat alongside the napping hobo was just about up. She headed down the street, trying to keep a low profile. This town was far-removed from the problems of the world, so there was a low chance of anyone recognizing the famous Whistler, but it was always good to keep your head down when on a stealth mission.

A bell above the diner door chimed slightly as she entered. Whistler took a quick look around the restaurant to spot any suspicious figures, and found none. A hostess quickly jumped up to greet her.

"Hi! What can I do for you?"

"Yeah, hi," Whistler said flatly. "I'm here to meet the flute club, I guess?"

It wasn't the codename Whistler would have chosen, but she was working with what she'd been given.

"Oh, yes, over there," the hostess said, pointing to a small group in an isolated corner booth. "Better hurry, one of them ordered without you already."

Whistler nodded and walked across the diner, jumping into the booth. True to the hostess' word, a rather chunky fellow was already eating his fill of a very large sandwich, paying little attention to Whistler's arrival. The other two were slightly more reactive. Another young man, decidedly scrawnier than his counterpoint, smiled wickedly when he saw Whistler. The third member of the group, a girl far younger than the other two, practically burst with excitement when she saw Whistler sit down. She kept staring, her eyes practically sparkling with glee, as Whistler nodded to them all.

"So, you're my company for this outing," Whistler said. She was not particularly impressed. When you were used to having a combustion bender for backup, anything seemed lackluster in comparison.

"Like it or not," The scrawny young man said.

"Alright then, let's hear it," Whistler said disdainfully. "What am I working with? You look like a firebender."

The scrawny one chuckled. He had the sharp angles and frenzied, busy eyes of a firebender, and the burn scar on his cheek was also a good clue. Apparently he found the idea that he was a firebender amusing, however.

"My old masters used to say that," He chuckled. "But, no. There's only one element sitting at this table."

Whistler looked back and forth between the chunky one and the girl who wouldn't stop staring at Whistler in a highly uncomfortable manner. Her sparkly eyes were going to shrivel up like raisins if she didn't blink soon.

"You're all airbenders?"

"Yup, all of us," The skinny one said. "Some of the first to leave when you got the Nomad Masters to open the door."

Although all airbenders were now free to leave the stewardship of the Air Nation and live however they pleased, few had taken them up on that offer, and even fewer had sought out the Coalition. The few sitting here were the sum total of defectors from the Air Nation under the Avatar's command.

"Name's Noto," The skinny one said. "Never quite meshed with the old airbenders. Bit like you in that sense. Always had more of a firebender style to me. Fella with the sandwich is Eurus."

"Let me guess," Whistler said. "You left because you had issues with the whole 'spiritual fasting' thing."

Eurus briefly stopped chewing on his sandwich.

"I like food," he said apologetically, gesturing to his very large sandwich before tearing back into it.

"And the girl is-"

"My name is Zephyr," The little one said energetically. "I mean that's not my name but it's what you can call me because I know how much you hate using peoples given names."

"Her name's Nia," Noto concluded.

"Please call me Zephyr," Nia pleaded.

Whistler stared unblinkingly at Nia for a while, clearly disturbed by something she had said or done.

"She's a fan of yours," Noto explained.

"I'm not a fan I'm the fan," Nia said. "You're the greatest airbender ever and I learned everything about you! I know your favorite food is dumplings and you weigh one-hundred and forty-six pounds and you're actually the youngest member of Team Avatar-"

"Don't tell anybody that," Whistler demanded. She didn't need any teammates rubbing her nose in that. She was a whole two years younger than Sen.

"I asked all your old classmates and masters and the Coalition soldiers and they told me everything," Nia said. "The only thing I don't know about you is your real name!"

Whistler's eye twitched visibly. There was a palpable sense of aggravation from her that calmed even Nia's near-psychotic energy.

"My name is Whistler," She said firmly. She poked Nia in the forehead stiffly. "And you get to be Fangirl."

Nia nodded. She really had wanted to be Zephyr, but she would accept whatever nickname Whistler gave her. Whistler relaxed slightly and turned to Noto, pointing at him.

"Sparky."

Noto nodded. He'd been expecting a nickname, and there were far worse ones than Sparky. Whistler turned at last to Eurus and his sandwich.

"Chunk," She said. Noto's skinny eyebrows bounced upwards.

"Chunk? That's a bit offensive, eh?"

"I'm comfortable with my body," Eurus said, patting his large stomach contentedly. Noto nodded begrudgingly.

"Now that we've got that settled out, everybody get any questions out of your system, and make sure to head to the bathroom while you can," Whistler said sarcastically. "We're going to get this over with."

Chains rattled slightly as the foreman made his way through the halls.

The quiet sound of rattling metal was barely audible amidst the noise of the factory. Forges hissed as molten aluminum flowed into place, and metal scraped against metal as complex mechanisms were assembled. A fleet of helicopters took shape in rooms across the massive structure.

Lock cared little for the helicopters. While he was technically here to guard the growing fleet, his first responsibility was to watch over The Engineer.

The darkened chamber at the center of the structure was barred with iron and tightly locked. Lock double-checked the security one more time before heading back to his starting point.

The command center at the heart of the factory had been a hectic place lately. Messages had been rushing in and out with words of warning: the Avatar was preparing to move his armies, and all signs indicated that he would be marching on the factory. Panic had quickly set in.

Lieutenant Ahn-Li had come to oversee the evacuation personally, but as it stood now, there was no evacuation to oversee. Lock was refusing to move.

The chains he wore rattled again as he sat down, matching Ahn-Li's rattled nerves.

"The prisoner is secure and production is on schedule," Lock said. "We will remain for now."

"We're running needless risk," Ahn-Li said nervously.

"If we abandon our factory now, all these helicopters will be lost regardless," Lock said. "If we remain, there is a chance they will be finished and ready to assist our war effort."

Lock looked over the wall to his left, at the many cameras he had overseeing the facility. Production was going well for now. He had every intention of leaving, but not until the latest batch of helicopters was complete. The Engineer had recently designed improvements that would make their flying machines more efficient and more deadly than ever before. Lock would not abandon such a resource so easily. He kept a careful eye on the halls through his security cameras, ever vigilant for the slightest sign of trouble.

A quartet of shadows clung to the wall, sneaking just barely below the lens of one camera. Whistler kept a cautious eye on every angle and every corner. She had spent years lurking the crowded streets of Republic City, where the streets were crowded people. A few cameras in corners was no match for a hundred eyes watching you at all times. She could easily slip past the security.

Some of her companions were not so gifted.

"Suck it in, pal," Noto cautioned. Eurus inhaled deeply and tried to prevent his prodigious gut from hanging out far enough to alert the cameras.

Whistler led their slow-creeping movement down the halls. Nia was following her movements with almost eerie precision, but Eurus's size and Noto's slight twitchiness made it harder for the two of them to sneak around. Whistler grit her teeth and resolved to never work with amateurs again.

The hallways were quiet for now. This factory was sparsely populated, the only human presence being the workers on the floor and a handful of patrolling guards. Whenever they were about to round a corner, Whistler held up her hand, signaling the other three to stop breathing. Together they quieted their breaths and focused, watching for the breath of others. When they knew the coast was clear, they rounded the corner and proceeded further and further.

They had no real idea where they were going, but Whistler could easily assume that the massive iron door led to something important. She ran up to it and cautiously tested it for a lock. The door opened oddly easily for such a massive construction. She opened it just a crack and peered through. It was too dark to see anything, but she only felt one source of breath. She cautioned her temporary team to halt and then crept through the door while they stood guard.

She moved slowly and cautiously, feeling out the area in front of her. She was glad she did, because it was only a few feet before Whistler nearly ran into something. She gingerly stepped around it and stepped further forward, following the source of the breath. It was ragged and slow, heavily stressed by something. That ragged energy just made it all that much easier to track down.

In a swift lunge through the darkness, Whistler grabbed at the source of the breathing and clamped her hand down over it, muffling their voice. Arms flailed and legs scrambled for footing, but Whistler quickly pinned the stranger in the darkness to the ground. Her target continued to flail, but Whistler kept them pinned down. Their panic only increased the longer Whistler held them.

"Shut up," She whispered threateningly. "Listen, listen, shut up! You be quiet, you don't get hurt, got it?"

The sound of her voice was both oddly calming and confusing to the person she was grabbing. The flailing ceased and the panic calmed, though they were still clearly stressed. Whistler carefully removed her hands from the darkened figures mouth. They did not scream for help, but just went back to their ragged breathing.

"Good job not screaming," Whistler cracked. "You're off to a good start not getting yourself hurt."

"Who are you?" The stranger in the darkness pleaded. "You're not them, you're not it. You're not supposed to be here, who are you?"

"I'm looking for the Engineer," Whistler said. "Tell me where I can find him."

"Can't find him, you've found him," The strange voice said. "I'm here, he's me, I'm The Engineer. The Engineer. The Engineer."

Whistler raised an eyebrow. That was odd, to say the least.

"Why are you here in the dark?" She asked. The Engineer was one of the cornerstones of the Energybender's military success. That at least deserved a corner office.

"The thing likes the dark," The Engineer moaned. "Makes it easier, easier to make me forget, easier to make me make the things I don't want to make."

Whistler jumped quickly to her feet. She'd known since they'd broken into the facility that it had all been too easy. This explained everything. She swore loudly as she made a mad dash for the heavy iron door.

If The Engineer was an unwilling prisoner, then this structure wasn't designed to keep people out. It was designed to keep them in.

There was a loud slam followed by a swift click as the iron door closed and locked itself. Whistler heard pounding fists against the door and muffled shouts of confusion from her teammates as they tried to get her out. Whistler leaned on the door and swore again.

The lights in the room snapped on all at once. The Engineer, now finally revealed to be a nearly-skeletal man in ragged clothes, dove underneath a workshop table in fear as the lights came on. Whistler looked upwards. A large speaker flickered to life in a corner.

"You almost beat me to the door," Lock taunted. He was quite happy his decision to stay had paid off. "I'm impressed."

He could see Whistler on the camera now, staring out at his radio with hatred in her eyes. Her lips moved briefly while she stared at the radio. Probably asking whether Lock could hear her or not. He could not. There was no point having a two-way radio in this room. As Whistler gradually realized she could not be heard, she turned to the camera and made a rude gesture. Lock chuckled slightly.

"We have a captive," Lock said. "Maybe now we can make something of this mess of a war."

"We should radio Sarin," Ahn-Li suggested. "He'll need to know."

"Not just yet," Lock suggested. He would not make any promises he could not keep. He had to make sure he had the situation locked down. With that in mind, he leaned in to the radio receiver.

"All warriors head for the Engineer's room," Lock commanded. His voice echoed through every radio in the structure. "Keep the one inside the room alive. Terminate the others."

"Oh man, we're the others," Eurus whimpered.

"Keep your head on, mate," Noto said. He turned to face the hallway. "Least we've got a heads up that the bad guys are coming."

While Eurus panicked and Noto tried to find some way to set up a defense, Nia continued to pound her fists on the massive steel door and shout for Whistler's attention.

From her side, all Whistler could hear was a bit of thudding and muffled noise. It was clear she wasn't going to be communicating with her team. She vowed never to go on world-saving missions with strangers again and took a look around at what she had. It was mostly a bunch of scrap metal, some mechanical equipment, a few large piles of paper, and a whimpering Engineer cowering beneath a table. He clawed at his torn clothes with bony hands as absolute panic set in.

Whistler took a look at the raw materials. She wasn't a complete idiot when it came to mechanics, as she'd custom built her staff, but she doubted she was good enough to build anything that could punch through a solid steel door. That left her with one very unlikely option. She walked to the other side of the room and looked under the table.

"Hey, how's it going?"

From the look of the tightly-balled fetal curl the Engineer had wrapped himself in, it was not going well. This was not exactly what Whistler had been expecting from The Engineer. Most of Sarin's lackeys were very scary looking brutes with uncanny superpowers. This guy didn't even want to be here. Luckily, Whistler didn't want to be here either, so they had a common goal.

"Hey, I get that you're having a rough time, but I think we both want to get out of here," Whistler said. "You're an engineer, right? Why don't you get out from under the table and engineer us something to get out of here?"

"No no no no no," The Engineer repeated. "No. They don't let me think things like that, I can't think things like that, or else it'll come and it'll take the thoughts away again."

In other situations Whistler might have thought he was crazy, but vanishing memories had been a longstanding concern of the Coalition. Enemy soldiers never remembered any important details and intelligence mysteriously vanished. Sarin had some way to erase memories, and only Sen had any inkling of what. Whistler bit her lip. Maybe it was time to change that.

"So, hey, this thing that takes away your thoughts-"

"No!"

The Engineer shouted once and then rolled to face away from Whistler. Clearly he didn't want to talk about it. At least not right away. Whistler nodded slowly. The Engineer's plight was touching one of the few threads of actual goodness in her heart. Whistler, for all her flaws, cared deeply about imprisonment and believed everyone deserved to be free. The fact that The Engineer had been imprisoned both physically and within his own mind was inexcusable to her.

"Hi, I'm Whistler. What's your name?"

It was always a good idea to start with the basics. People were more likely to trust you after you made introductions. Barging into someone's workshop and asking them to help you escape a deathtrap slash prison didn't usually go so well.

"I don't have a name they took my name," The Engineer chittered. Whistler shook her head.

"That sucks," She said.

The Engineer shivered a bit, but did not make any other response. Whistler turned towards the door. The pounding and muffled screaming had stopped. That was either very good or very bad. Whistler clenched her teeth and turned back to the spot under the table.

"You know, you can get a new name," Whistler advised. "I got a new one, you know. I didn't get mine taken from me, I mean, I'm a little different than you. The name I had…didn't fit, so I got a new one."

"What's it matter," The Engineer complained. "They'd take it away again. They always take it all away."

The Engineer clawed at his head for a minute.

"All they let me do is think about their weapons," He moaned. "There's nothing else, I can't remember anything else, but I- I remember remembering. There was more, I know there was, but that thing keeps taking it away."

He still had vague fragments of a life before. A house, a man, stacks of books piled to the ceiling, he could remember turning the pages in his hands to drink deep the knowledge within. Now all those pages had been ripped violently from his head. He could still feel the scars of the black beasts fangs sinking into his head.

Overexposure to the Hssk had warped The Engineer's mind in cruel and strange ways. It made him a fearful slave to the Energybender's will, but it also gave him a modicum of awareness of the beast itself, and the effects it was having on his mind. It was a vague awareness, but it was the only awareness possible when dealing with the Hssk.

"Okay, so, work with me, this thing you're talking about," Whistler said. Caged in such vague terms, anyone could discuss the Hssk. The Hssk could only naturally erase memories dealing directly with itself, not the concept of a similar creature. "I think I know how to get you away from it."

"No, that's impossible," The Engineer moaned. He started pounding his fists into his head in confused rage. "It's everywhere, it's everything!"

"Hey, hey, no, listen," Whistler continued. "It's having you build weapons, right? Why would it need weapons if it was all powerful? It needs weapons because there's something out there it's afraid of, buddy."

The Engineer ceased his self-harming behavior. There was a faraway look in his sunken eyes, a clear sign that Whistler's words made sense to him.

"Do you remember the Avatar?"

"I don't," The Engineer said.

"Because that's what it's afraid of," Whistler said. "The Avatar is stronger than whatever's haunting you. I guarantee it. You help me get out of here, and I'll make sure the Avatar keeps you safe, alright? You'll never forget anything again."

Whistler extended her hand, reaching out under the table. The Engineer eyed it cautiously. After a long period of hesitation, he extended a bony, pale hand and grabbed on to Whistler.

The trio of renegade airbenders caught outside were facing a challenge of their own, though it was a more literal one than Whistler's.

"Where do all these people keep coming from?" Eurus shouted. They were currently facing the fourth or fifth wave of enemy soldiers trying to charge down the hallway.

"It's a big building," Noto said. He reached out and spun both his hands in a quick spiral, sending out a spinning drill of air that slammed his enemies against the walls. The unconscious bodies of the previous waves of opponents also trembled in the forceful breeze.

Their opponents retaliated, launching a barrage of the four elements down the hallway in a single concerted strike. Noto and Eurus took cover behind small outcroppings in the fortified hallway. Nia took a more acrobatic approach, leaping and dodging and spiraling to avoid every strike. It was a risky play, but she felt it necessary. Every blow that sailed down the hallway eventually struck the door, and that had a chance at weakening it enough for Whistler to escape.

A very small chance, as it was. Nia was not exactly a genius, but at least she was trying. Luckily for her there was an actual genius working on the other end of the door. His efforts were still in progress.

With the retaliatory volley ended, Eurus took some time to strike back. He waved his arms in slow, sweeping motions, pushing out walls of air before him. The strikes were slow, and not altogether damaging, but very forceful, pushing the horde back and away from their barely-fortified position. It gave them some room to think, at any rate.

"Nia, we could use an extra hand up here," Noto called.

"I'm trying to get Whistler out," She shouted back.

"The lady can handle herself, we, on the other hand, are kind of facing imminent death," Noto said. They were boxed into a very small hallway and vastly outnumbered, not a good situation for anyone to be in. At this rate defeat was a matter of when, not if.

Nia groaned and relented. Her only plan wasn't making much progress anyway. She moved away from the sealed iron door and dashed slightly closer to the horde of enemies, striking out at them with swiftly thrown bolts of air. The approaching enemies were knocked off their feet by the rapid barrage of force.

Had Whistler been around to watch the display, she would have been impressed. The renegades of the Air Nation had all developed their own styles and their own techniques, exactly as Whistler had always wanted. The Air Nation had only ever taught one school of thought and one set of techniques, and though it was powerful, it didn't represent the full potential of the art of Airbending. With freedom to experiment and grow, young airbenders could accomplish so much more.

The display of wild and prolific airbending was brought to a sudden halt by an astonishingly loud slam that filled the narrow hall with a wave of noise. The wall behind them rumbled loudly. The airbenders and the Grey-Face soldiers paused in unison.

A second slam echoed through the building, and a large cloud of dust shot out of the door and down the hallway. The upper hinges on the steel door ripped from the wall, raining down small chunks of rubble on the ground below. Soon after, a third loud slam rang out, likewise displacing the hinges on the bottom of the door.

A cloud of dust and the sound of groaning metal filled the hallway as the heavy door leaned forward and collapsed down to the ground. Just as the noise of collapsing steel halted, there was a slight click of metal as a staff unfolded.

The cloud of dust flew forward like a sandstorm, flying into the eyes of the enemy and blinding them. Just behind the swift racing cloud of dust and debris ran Whistler, her staff spinning to drive the wall of air in front of her forward. She slammed into the ranks of the enemy like a charging bull, knocking the front line backwards . The dual impacts of the dust and Whistler's charge sent the grey-masked soldiers into disarray. Whistler spared a moment to look over her shoulder.

"You guys planning on letting me do this all alone?"

The three rogue airbenders ceased cowering and charged forward, their courage bolstered by Whistler's return. The four finally reunited in a massive brawl. The four rogues threw everything they could at the enemy, but their best efforts were always a few steps behind Whistler. While the fighting style of the three Air Nation defectors were unique, they were also experimental and unrefined. Only Whistler had truly mastered her art.

Her swinging staff flowed seamlessly between physical blows and airbending strikes, leaving her opponents always guessing which was going to come next. One soldier fell from a metallic blow to the head, the next to a swift cyclonic strike. Whistler circled her way through the battlefield, spiraling away from enemy attacks but towards the enemies themselves, always moving into position for her next brutal attack.

Led by Whistler's dynamic assault, the group quickly reached the end of the hall, where it branched off into three different paths. They found themselves surrounded from all three sides, but this was no problem now. Whistler had a broad smile on her face as she looked around at her enemies.

"That's enough," The voice over the intercom shouted. "Stop throwing yourselves at the children. Fall back and defend the exits."

The Grey-Faces hesitantly backed away from their enemies, retreating on all sides. Whistler took a few potshots as they retreated, but resisted the urge to charge after them. Noto attempted to chase them down himself, but Whistler held him back.

The hallways emptied, leaving them alone, and the four finally stopped to take a breath and rest. Whistler let out a heavy sigh and took a look over her shoulder.

"Coast is clear, buddy," She called out.

The Engineer cautiously peeked out of the room and looked around at the hallway. He wandered out slowly, dragging a large metal object behind him. The metal mechanism made a very loud noise as it scraped along the ground. Whistler covered her ears.

"Chunk, would you help him carry that hammer thingy around?" Whistler asked. Eurus was quick to his feet to help the considerably scrawnier Engineer haul his prize around.

"Do be careful, this is a pneumatic hammer with enough crushing power to bend steel," The Engineer cautioned. Eurus very gingerly took hold of the hammer and helped move it down the hall.

"Why are you even bringing that thing?" Whistler asked.

"We're locked in, big heavy doors all around, all locked and sealed," The Engineer rambled. "Need something to knock down the doors, break us out, break us free."

There was a curiously twisted smile on his face as The Engineer contemplated freedom. For so long he'd forgotten even the concept of freedom, and now it seemed possible. He was more than eager to get out of this infernal prison, and his pneumatic hammer could help.

"Who is this guy, Whistler?"

"That, Sparky, is The Engineer," Whistler said. "We were here to get him out anyway. I think it's a good thing that he actually wants to leave."

"Does make our job easier," Noto said with a nod. "What's the next step in your plan?"

"My plan? I don't make plans," Whistler said. "Sen had a plan, I'm just following his ideas."

"The Avatar thought this place would be a fortress, not a prison," Eurus objected. "Our plan was made for getting in, not getting out. We don't know what to do next."

"Well, come on, I mean, we leave," Whistler said. "All we have to do is find an exit, right?"

She turned to The Engineer.

"You live here, right? Where's the way out?"

"I've never been outside my room before," The Engineer stated. "I have no idea."

"Okay then, let's just…go…" Whistler looked around at the three hallways that branched off into unknown directions. "Does anybody remember which way we came in?"

All three airbenders shook their heads. The labyrinthine construction of the prison-factory and their battle with the enemies had gotten their sense of direction quite fogged up.

"Alright, let's go that way then," Whistler said, pointing down a random hallway. "We're bound to find a way out sooner or later, right?"

The small troop set out in their randomly chosen direction, watched over carefully by Lock and Ahn-Li.

"And that, Lieutenant, is why we didn't radio Sarin right away," Lock growled. The Engineer turning on them was an unexpected problem. Sarin had assured them all the mental torture he put The Engineer through would ensure his cooperation. It seemed Sarin had been wrong –again.

"They haven't escaped just yet," Ahn-Li said. "You have something else in place, don't you?"

"Yes, I'm already locking the facility down," Lock said. "But we're not equipped to deal with airbenders."

"How are airbenders a problem? They can't do anything to break through metal and stone walls."

"There are other problems," Lock grumbled.

"That looks like a very big problem," Noto said.

He had his face plastered against a large pane of glass, staring at the frightful display on the other side.

Arrayed in front of them were more than a hundred helicopters, some fresh off the line, some just a few steps away from completion. The hangar was practically bursting at the seams to contain them all.

"That's a lot of helicopters," Eurus said, stating the obvious. Nia shook her head.

"It's not a problem right? You guys beat helicopters all the time," She said. "You can handle this, can't you Whistler?"

Whistler said nothing in response but a loud "Umm". It had taken less helicopters than this to take out the Fire Nation zeppelin fleet and crash most of the Iron Dragons squadron. Sen was running out of ways to control the skies. Letting this many helicopters take to the battlefield might not turn the tide of the war completely, but it would make for a lot more Coalition losses than necessary.

"I remember those," The Engineer said hesitantly. "They're my latest designs. They're faster and more durable than any that I designed before."

"That settles it. New plan, boys and girl, we have to take out the fleet here," Whistler said, pointing at the field of helicopters.

"We haven't even figured out how we're going to leave yet," Eurus moaned.

"I just did," Whistler said. She then pointed upwards. "The hangar doors."

The helicopters had to get out of the building somehow. Massive hangar doors made up the roof of the building. They were highly elevated, but nothing an airbender with a running head start couldn't glide over.

"We destroy the helicopters, we open those, then we make a run for freedom, that sound like a decent plan?"

"It sounds like the start of a plan," Noto said. "We don't know how we're going to do any of those things."

"Just trust me, okay?"

"I trust you, Whistler."

"Thank you, Fangirl. Now, let's start with opening the doors."

Whistler pressed her face against the glass and looked around the hangar. She saw what looked to be a viewing area overhanging the hangar. It was as good a place as any to start looking for the bay door controls. She led her group down the hallways towards the presumed hangar controls.

"We should start thinking about how we're going to crush all those helicopters," Whistler said. "I'm leaning towards that self-destruct feature they've all got."

Every helicopter in Sarin's fleet was strapped with bombs on both rotors and the engine, which annoyed Sen to no end. It was impossible for him to reverse-engineer the tech used to build the helicopters from the wreckage if they all exploded when they crashed. Hopefully they could turn that unfortunate self-sabotage in their favor. Noto crossed his arms across his chest and thought deeply. Even with the bombs already included, blowing up the helicopters without blowing themselves up in the process was a conundrum.

Whistler found a door which she presumed would lead them to the hangar controls, but to no ones surprise, it was locked.

"Alright buddy, time to use your weird super-hammer thingy again," Whistler said.

"Is my name Buddy?"

The Engineer paused and stared forward blankly. Whistler turned to look at him.

"You said I could get a new name," He said. "You keep calling me Buddy. Is it my new name Buddy?"

"I mean, it could be," Whistler said. "It's up to you. You could probably come up with a better name than Buddy if you waited a bit."

"I don't want to wait," He said impatiently. "I want to be somebody again."

"Well then you can be some-Buddy if you want," Eurus said. He began to laugh heartily to himself while everyone else glared angrily at him. Even The Engineer, who had no concept of puns, found it offensive.

"I don't want to be The Engineer anymore," He continued. "I want to be more than the machines I make."

"Well then you're Buddy," Whistler said flatly. "But we still got to knock this door down, so maybe you take over, Eurus."

Eurus took the pneumatic hammer out of the newly-christened Buddy's hands and, after a brief rundown on how it worked, held it against the fortified doors handle. With a loud thud and a crash, the locked door snapped in two.

"You missed slightly," Noto said, staring at the broken chunks of the door.

"I'm hungry, I lose focus," Eurus said defensively.

"Doors open, mouths shut," Whistler commanded. She broke down what was left of the ruined doors and stepped through. There didn't seem to be much to the room. It had been abandoned in favor of defending the exits from the structure.

"There's nothing for you here," The prisonkeeper taunted, his voice crackling through the intercom. "If you want control, you'll have to find me."

Whistler looked around at the small viewing room. There was a large panel of controls, and in the midst of it all, a microphone next to a few buttons. She looked up at the security camera that watched over the room. She then sat down at one of many empty chairs and pressed a button next to the microphone.

"If this room is so unimportant, why does it have a way to talk to you?"

Dead silence. Whistler had spent a good chunk of her life lying. She knew deception when she saw it, reverse psychology included. She turned to her teammates.

"Start pushing buttons, one of them has to do something useful."

As one, they hunched over the controls panels. Noto went one by one down the rows quite methodically, Eurus pressed every button that looked important, and Nia mashed everything. Whistler took a long look at the panel in front of her before pressing one button quite deliberately.

"-no risk of them finding the opening sequences," the intercom blared suddenly. Whistler had managed to turn on the two-way radio, apparently, letting them eavesdrop on the command center. The room fell quiet as they stopped to listen.

"It's a four-number sequence, there's hundreds of possibilities, far too many for them to guess," the first voice said. It was the voice of the man who'd been taunting them so far, though he was sounding much more casual now.

"Did you set the code yourself?"

The other speaker was a woman Whistler had never heard before. She sounded peculiarly authoritative.

"No, I let the men set it," The controller said. "Why?"

The five people in the hangar control room shared a look. Eurus was the one sitting closest to the number keypad. He slowly extended one finger and began pressing out a sequence of four buttons, speaking each number aloud as he did.

"One, two, three," He said. He slammed his finger down for a final press. "Four."

Nothing happened.

"Try four ones," Whistler suggested.

"One one one one," Eurus said as he pushed buttons.

A loud claxon blared and metal gears began to groan as the hangar doors started to open. Eurus looked around at the room with a broad smile on his chubby face. Whistler just groaned.

"Oh man, I didn't know there was going to be an alarm," She whined. "We still don't know how to blow up the helicopters."

"You won't get any further," Lock shouted over the intercom. "You've had your fun but it ends-"

"Quiet quiet quiet, be quiet!"

The intercom speaker shook slightly as Buddy hurled himself at it and grabbed it with both hands. He struggled for a brief second to pull it free from the wall but found himself unable. He struggled for a few more seconds before acknowledging that his bony arms probably weren't suited for this job.

"Please help," He said, turning to Eurus. The large airbender walked over and very easily ripped the intercom off of its wall mount.

"Thank you," Buddy said. Then he bent over the intercom and started pulling it to pieces.

"Hey, good for you taking out your anger like that," Noto said encouragingly.

"I thought it was bad to let off steam that way," Eurus said.

"It's bad if you take it out on people, big guy," Noto said. "It's actually quite therapeutic to damage inanimate objects."

Eurus nodded in understanding. Whistler shook her head and stepped forward.

"I'm glad you're standing up for yourself, Buddy, but we're on a tight schedule," Whistler said. "We have to blow those choppers before-"

"I'm helping!"

Buddy suddenly stopped tearing the radio apart and started to reassemble a seemingly random collection of parts. As he worked, he looked up, and for the first time since Whistler had met him he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

"I remembered something about the helicopters," Buddy said. He spoke with surprising clarity for someone in his mental state. The Hssk had left the inventive, engineering-oriented portion of his mind intact, that he could better serve to create weapons of destruction. He was almost a whole person when dealing with machinery.

"The explosives on the rotors aren't wired to the detonator," Buddy continued. "They use a remote transmitter. I can use the parts from the radio and some from the detonators inside the helicopters to create a universal remote that will trigger all the explosives at once!"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Whistler said. "Let's go disassemble a helicopter, kids."

"Yeah! Let's go!"

Nia picked up a nearby chair and hurled it through the glass viewing window, shattering it to pieces. They watched the glass fall down to the hangar floor. A few of the shards bounced further into the room, scraping against the still-active microphone.

"As your leader I think I'm supposed to criticize you but that was actually a good idea," Whistler said. Nia smiled broadly at any amount of praise from her idol. Whistler carefully blew away the last dangerous shards of broken glass and then leapt downwards into the hangar. The four airbenders made the descent quite gracefully. Their last party member was more hesitant.

"I don't remember, can I fly?"

"No, you can't Buddy," Whistler reminded him. "I'll catch you, though. But while you're up there throw down the smashy-hammer thingy. We'll probably need to break more stuff."

There was a short moment of silence followed by a swift fall and a loud clang as the pneumatic hammer slammed down into the ground. The scrawny body of buddy followed shortly thereafter, buoyed to a more gentle landing by a spiral cushion of air from Whistler.

"Okay, let's grab the universal whatever components and start blowing things up," She commanded. She strolled over to the nearest helicopter and examined the dashboard. There were a lot of buttons and levers to be manipulated, but she could ignore those. Whistler stuck her staff in a loose spot in the panel and pulled for a second.

"Whistler, don't!"

Whistler summarily did not. Buddy ran over to the panel and forced her staff away.

"There are high explosives in there, you could accidentally trigger them!"

"That is a very good point," Whistler said, taking a step away from the helicopter. Buddy sat down in the chair and started fiddling with the dashboard in front of him.

"As leader I am appointing you our official helicopter disassembler person," Whistler said. "You can take care of all that business, and we will stand over here and hopefully do nothing."

Whistler stepped further away from the helicopter to join the other three airbenders, fulfilling half of her plan. The other half, to do nothing, actually went surprisingly well. Almost too well. As Buddy continued to disassemble and fiddle with the mechanisms of the helicopter, Whistler started to look around suspiciously. Her hands weren't quite shaking yet, but there was definitely something wrong here.

"Stay on guard, all of you," Whistler said suspiciously. The other three airbenders tensed visibly and looked around the room. Eurus took a quick glance at a security camera and then looked away quickly.

"Don't make it obvious, Chunk," Whistler scolded.

"I still don't feel comfortable with that," Noto said.

"I told you it doesn't bother me," Eurus said.

"I'll call him what I call him," Whistler said with a shrug. Nia ceased kicking her feet aimlessly and looked up at Whistler, struck by sudden curiosity.

"Why don't you call anyone by their names?"

In all her obsessive investigations of Whistler, Nia had never thought to ask that question. Whistler used a nickname for almost everyone, never referring to them by their given names. Everyone except Sen. Nia wanted to know why.

"Because I do," Whistler said.

"Is that it?"

"Yup."

Nia sighed in disappointment. Whistler crossed her arms across her chest and looked away from the young airbender. There were, of course, other reasons, but none that she would be telling to Nia. She didn't want anyone getting too chummy. She had enough friends.

From far above and far away, Lock watched them, his fists clenched in frustration.

"They're mocking us," He grunted.

"They're not doing anything, Lock," Ahn-Li cautioned.

"They nearly have us beat," He shot back. "I've had enough of this. I'll handle them myself."

"Lock, that's an unnecessary risk," Ahn-Li said. "We need you-"

"Yes, you need everything you can get," Lock said mockingly. "This organization is a sinking ship. I'll plug this hole or I'll jump ship."

Whichever way this battle went, Lock would see an end to his war. A defeat here would be the last straw. If he could not even rely on himself to defeat his enemies, there was no point, because he certainly could not rely on his leaders. He had watched Sarin fail over and over again, far too many times for Lock to have any hope left.

Great chains dragged across the ground as Lock proceeded through the halls. His signature weapon trailed behind, making it clear to all that he was on the warpath.

The loud rattle of chains echoed through empty halls and into the empty space of the hangar. Whistler's keen hearing was quick to pick up the sound.

"Figured there'd be some kind of trouble," Whistler said. He staff unfolded with a sharp clicking noise and she swung it in a circle as the clatter of chains grew louder. She stood firm, her stance tense, her hands clenched tight around her staff. Sarin's forces were by and large a bunch of rubes, but he had a few freaks who were not to be underestimated. Whistler still got chills whenever she thought of the Fogbender. They had only just barely chased that one off.

The hangar doors were shut and barred, but that was no obstacle to Lock. His chains gripped the metal sheets and pried them apart, cracking the cement that held them in place. He stepped through the ruined doorway as Whistler appraised the new threat.

"Okay, so you got some chains, that's your gimmick," Whistler said mockingly.

"They're not a gimmick any more than that stick of yours is," Lock retorted.

"Ah, good, you talk. One of your friends didn't talk, kind of freaked me out," Whistler said. She shouldered her staff, putting on a confident façade. She hadn't quite made up her mind about the new guy yet. He could still turn out to be a threat.

As he walked forward, Lock reeled in his chains, gathering them tight around his arms. Whistler wondered just how much chain a single guy could carry. He had to be wearing at least two-hundred pounds of metal wrapped around his arms and waist.

"Look, I don't know if you've noticed a pattern by now," Whistler taunted. "But these things usually don't end well for you guys. Especially not when you're outnumbered."

Lock raised an eyebrow questioningly. Whistler took a quick look over her shoulder. Her back up was backed way up, hiding behind a helicopter far behind her. Eurus' head vanished as Whistler looked, though the other two still peered around the side of the vehicle.

"Come on people, seriously? It's four against one."

"Yeah, but you're the toughest one," Eurus said.

"I like to watch," Nia said excitedly.

"Get out here and help me fight this dude," Whistler ordered. The trio looked at one another, shared a nod, and then dashed to Whistler's side. Aside and slightly back, to be more specific. They still didn't want to be on the front lines.

"Good," Whistler said, turning to look at them all. "Now we can get back to beating this guy."

Whistler tried to turn back to her target, but the first thing to take a beating was her sternum. Noto jumped backwards as the length of chain struck swift as lightning, hitting Whistler in the chest and pushing her back. Whistler went flying backwards and slammed into the metal side of a helicopter hard enough that the flying machine wobbled slightly to the side.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Nia protested. Lock roared and lashed out with his chains in a snakelike strike. With a little more warning than her idol and her natural swiftness, Nia managed to sidestep the blow. The rattling chains hit the ground and veered to the side. Eurus and Noto did not possess such swiftness. He two soaring chains wrapped around them lifted them into the air, and then threw them down hard.

Whistler got to her feet with a loud, groan, nursing several bruises, and surveyed the situation. Noto was getting back on his feet as well, though Eurus was staying down, and Nia was still skittering around like a frightened rabbit.

"Any chance that detonator of yours is about done?" Whistler asked. She usually liked fighting, but this was not exactly her type of fight.

"I need more time," Buddy said in a panic. The presence of his prison keeper was not doing anything to improve his nerves.

"Fine, we do this the hard way," Whistler grunted. She readied her staff once more.

Rolling forward in broad, sweeping spins, Whistler moved forward while hurling massive blades of air at Lock. The prisonkeeper threw a chain into the ground to anchor himself in place and let the forceful wind roll over him. The hurricane force wind pushed him backwards, but he did not lose his footing, nor his chance to strike in retaliation.

A snakelike chain struck once again, but this time Whistler was ready. A burst of forceful wind slowed the chains momentum enough for Whistler to dodge the strike. The blow still hit the ground hard. Air wasn't a good defense when dealing with something as heavy and solid as metal.

A one-on-one battle might well have been unwinnable due to those circumstances, but a four on one had slightly more favorable odds. While Lock focused on striking Whistler, Eurus and Noto struck from either side, and Nia was always releasing an endless barrage of smaller, weaker blows for distraction. Lock wrapped his chains around him in a shield against the aerial barrage and bunkered down for a moment.

When he noticed a slight pause in the onslaught, Lock struck back, spreading his circular shield of chains outwards. The wall of coiled metal expanded outwards in a bubble of steel, forcing the airbenders to retreat as it moved.

The slowest of them all, Eurus, did not retreat quite fast enough. The metal wall reached him, and Lock commanded the chains to coil around. Eurus grabbed at the chains as they encircled him, holding them tight. He struggled against their grip for a moment, but found himself unable to break free.

Eurus stopped trying to free himself with physical force and remembered he was an airbender. He watched the way the coils tightened around him, seeing them spin counterclockwise, and nodded his head. Eurus jumped off the ground slightly and spun clockwise, against the encircling chains, using airbending to spin more rapidly. The forceful spin unwound the chains and freed Eurus.

Whistler watched this happen, and her face split into a broad grin. She had an idea. Whistler retreated from the battlefield and found Buddy.

"Hey, Buddy, which of these buttons turns the spinny bits of the helicopter on?"

"This one," Buddy said, indicating a certain lever. "I hope you don't plan on flying one of these out. Even I don't know how to fly one."

"Nope, nothing like that," Whistler said. She went back to the battlefield and found Nia. Her skillset was best suited for assisting Whistler's plan, and she'd be the most likely to do anything and everything Whistler said. The two boys distracted Lock while Nia nodded enthusiastically and agreed to do anything and everything Whistler said.

Eurus and Noto took hits hard enough to knock them back, and Whistler chose that moment to put her plan into action. Demonstrating the talent that had become her name, Whistler whistled loudly, drawing Lock's attention. From the other side, Nia stuck her tongue out, likewise drawing Lock's ire.

Two chains shot out in either direction, chasing after Nia and Whistler. The two women danced amidst the helicopters for a moment, drawing the chains out and around –and through the rotors of the waiting helicopters.

After stretching the chains out just far enough that Lock wouldn't be able to retract them in time, Whistler and Nia dove into the cockpits of nearby helicopters and pulled the switches. Lock realized his mistake one second too late.

The rotors started to spin, pulling the tangled chains with them. The metal chains were pulled both ways, tightening around Lock's arms and waist, and then lifting him upwards as the chain ran out of length. Whistler and Nia stopped the rotors before anything unpleasant happened, but they left Lock dangling in midair. With his wrists bound tightly by his own chains, he was unable to bend, and let out a resigned sigh of defeat.

"Told you, you should've seen this coming," Whistler taunted. She walked in front of the airborne Lock and smiled smugly. Lock did not look her in the eyes.

"I know," He said quietly. "I've seen defeat coming for a long time. I suppose I just wanted to go out fighting."

Buddy strolled up to the scene of the victory and handed Whistler a motley assortment of plastic and wires with a large button on top of it. Whistler made certain to avoid touching anywhere near the button as Buddy examined his former captor angrily.

"You kept me prisoner," He growled.

"We do many unpleasant things for our beliefs," Lock said. "For what it's worth, I regret what was done to you. I had hoped it would turn out to be worth it."

"I'm going to enjoy watching you blow up," Buddy said.

"Uhh, that's not going to happen," Whistler said. "We're the good guys, remember?"

"Well what else are we going to do with him?" Noto questioned. "He might try to attack us if we let him go."

"Don't worry about that," Whistler said. She raised her staff high. "I'm not that good."

Whistler swung her staff downwards, and the loud bonk of metal on his skull was the last thing Lock heard before falling unconscious.

"I'm afraid there's not much I can do to repair the damage that's been done, or restore your memories," Sen said. "But I can make good on Whistler's promise. The beast will never take your memories again."

Sen removed his fingertips from Buddy's temples, and the slight harmonic ringing of Energybending faded. Buddy nodded slowly, somewhat disappointed, but overall satisfied. He quietly stared over Sen's shoulder at the blue sky, and the pillar of smoke that marked the location of his former prison. Whistler had blown the building sky-high as soon as they were all clear.

"We're going to get you somewhere safe now," Sen said. There was no way Sarin was going to let such an attack go unpunished. The helicopter was one of his only advantages in this war. Losing his engineer could lose him the war.

Buddy nodded and let himself be escorted away by Coalition soldiers. He looked back at Whistler and waved goodbye as he walked away. Whistler subtly returned the wave, making sure to cross her arms again by the time Sen stepped up to face her.

"The airbenders say you did a good job," Sen said.

"The airbenders are idiots," Whistler said. "I was making mistakes left and right. I'm leaving leadership to the professionals from now on."

"Professional leaders are usually the worst," Sen said sagely. "The best leaders act like themselves, and other people decide they're worth following."

Whistler tilted her head to the side wordlessly. She looked over Sen's shoulder at Buddy as he walked away, and bit her lip. Sen nodded professionally and turned his back on Whistler. She waited until his back was turned to show the concern she'd been feeling inside.

She thought about Nia's question. Why Sen was the only person she ever called by his real name. There was a great deal of complexity to that, far more than Whistler could ever adequately explain, but at its most fundamental level it was an issue of trust.

Sen noticed her hesitation and beckoned her forward.

"We should get moving, Whistler."

"Hey, wait," she said, stopping him in his tracks. "Sen, I, uh…"

She trailed off for a moment. Sen turned around and watched her as she fidgeted nervously. After a bit of twitching, she settled herself and placed a hand on her chest.

"Nimh."

Sen blinked twice. Whistler did not elaborate.

"What?"

"Nimh," she repeated.

"That's not a word, Whistler," Sen said blankly.

"It's not supposed to be a word, Sen," Whistler said. She was aggravated for a moment, and then switched back to her awkward, quiet tone. "It's a name. It's…mine. It's my name."

Whistler's shoulders drooped as she looked at the ground and sighed heavily.

"My name is Nimh."

It had been a long time since she had heard it, and much longer since she had spoken it. It was not a name she was proud of, it was not a name she wanted, but it was her name all the same. She trusted Sen enough to call him by his name. It was time he could trust her the same way. Sen paused for a moment to consider this expression of trust, and then responded.

"I'm still calling you Whistler."

Whistler let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Oh thank goodness," She said with a slight chuckle. "Nimh is such a stupid name."

"It really is," Sen agreed. The two shared a nod and walked off side by side.

Ahn-Li had born the unfortunate responsibility of delivering the news to Sarin personally. The Engineer and Lock were both lost to the Avatar's forces, and their primary factory had been destroyed. They had only a handful of helicopters left, and no way of producing new ones. Sarin turned his grey eyes to the floor.

"We have to pursue them," Sensheng demanded. "We may not be able to create more helicopters, but we cannot let the Coalition make their own."

"We're running out of assets and opportunities," Ahn-Li said, backing up Sensheng's claims.

"Losing Mogar alone was a substantial blow," Sensheng continued.

"Mogar?" Sarin said questioningly.

Sensheng and Ahn-Li paused to look at one another for a moment.

"Mogar…Lock was only a pseudonym. His name is Mogar," Ahn-Li explained.

"He never told you his name, did he?" Sensheng questioned.

"It doesn't matter," Sarin said defensively. "You are both correct. We must move now."

Sensheng nodded. Finally the Energybender was seeing reason.

"The Avatar is on the run," Sarin said. "We will pursue."

Sarin turned his grey eyes to the rapidly darkening sky. A waxing moon rose. In only a few days time the moon would be at its fullest. The Energybender's army had lost its machines, but they still wielded older, far more devastating power. Kida sharpened her stolen spear. In just a few short days, there would be a blood moon rising.