I Don't Own Miraculous or Avatar.
Chapter Twenty-Six. The Serpent's Pass Part One.
Sokka was apparently capable of getting a girlfriend.
After getting over the shock that Hawkmoth was in that world and the even greater shock that some of the missing Miraclus books from Tibet had somehow ended up in that parallel world, Marinette began to work long and hard to translate the Miraculous Book and began to Study Joan of Arc's translation of the past Ladybug's memoirs. Joan had put a lot of work into collecting and translating all of the various memoirs form so many different Ladybugs, that much was obvious. The book had to be a one of the kind edition. Marinette and Sokka sat on the same rock, each studying their respected maps and books. Suddenly there was a hug splash and water was all over the precious books.
"Gah!" Marinette squeaked, ignoring her own soaking clothes and trying to dry out the books. Sokka did the same with his maps.
"Sure, 5000 year old maps and really important books on Miraculouses for the spirit library, just splash some water on them!" Sokka scolded his sister, who was the cause of the splash.
"Sorry." Katara said sheepishly, before bending the water out of the ancient books and scrolls. Aang climbed out of the pond that him and Katara had been swimming in.
"So did you two figure out which route we are going to take?" Aang asked.
"Well, Sokka was just telling me-" Marinette began.
"The only passage connecting to the North and South is this sliver of land called the Serpent's Pass." Sokka interrupted.
"You're sure that's the best way to go?" Toph asked.
"It's the only way." Marinette said grimmly.
"Besides, it's not like we have Appa to fly us there." Sokka added. Katara elbowed him.
"Shush about Appa. Can't you at least try to be sensitive about Appa?" She scolded her big brother. Marinette looked over with worry at Aang. She felt partially responsible for Appa's disappearance. She was utterly useless in her civilian form. It had come back to bite her in the worst way possible. At least Cat had shown signs of being a good fencer in his civilian form. She had no true fighting experience outside of being Ladybug. She swallowed her guilt and went back to reading as Aang chose to reply.
"Katara, it's okay. I know I was upset about losing Appa before, but I want to just focus on getting to Ba Sing Se, finding Cat Noir, and telling the Earth King about the solar eclipse." Aang camly reassured the water bender, much to everyone's surprise.
"Oh, well, Okay. I'm glad your doing better." Katara said, managing a weak, reassuring smile.
"Then to Ba Sing Se!" Sokka said, "No more distractions!" Just as he said that, three people came into Marinette's view. One was a woman who looked very pregnant, the other was a man she assumed to be the woman's husband. Finally, there was a teenaged girl who looked a lot like the man, probably his sister.
"Hello there fellow refugees!" The man called. The team straightened. Rin quickly closed the Miraculous books and shoved them into her bag.
"So, are you guys heading to Ba Sing Se too?" Aang asked.
"Sure we are! We're trying to get there before my wife, Ying, has her baby!" He hugged his wife a little closer. She waved at them shly.
"Great! We can travel through Serpent's Pass together!" Katara said happily. Ying looked taken aback.
"The Serpent's Pass?! Only the truly desperate take that route!" She cried.
"Deadly route, fun pick Sokka and Rin." Toph scoffed. Marinette stuck her tongue out at the blind earthbender.
"Like you could read the map." She teased.
"Pft. Reading's overrated. I've gone this far without. I turned out alright." Toph replied proudly.
"We are desperate." Sokka said, ignoring Toph and Marinette's exchange.
"Well, you should come with us to Full Moon Bay. Ferries take refugees across the lake. It's the fastest way to Ba Sing Se." Ying's husband suggested.
"And it's hidden, so the Fire Nation can't find it." Ying said helpfully. The team didn't even mull it over. Ying's husband introduced himself and Than and his sister Kahn. They escorted Team Avatar down to Full Moon Bay. There, the found a small Ferry dock where hundreds of refugees were waiting for a chance to get into the great city. There,Marinette saw all of the refugees waiting for a chance for a new life away from the war, and her heart melted. She was angry that the Fire Nation had uprooted all of those people for the sake of the war.
"I can't believe how many people's lives were uprooted by the Fire Nation." Katara said, as if reading Marinette's mind. Marinette nodded numbly.
"We're all looking for a better life, safe, behind the walls of Ba Sing Se." Than said simply. Only, according to Hawkmoth, not even that was safe. Cat was somewhere in those walls, and someone was there with him, trying to capture her partner for whatever reason. Marinette's eyes narrowed. Her determination to get into the city only grew. If not only to save Cat, find Appa, and tell the king about the solar eclipse, but also to insure whatever evil that lurked behind the walls that threatened the Miraculouses in such a way that even Hawkmoth feared it couldn't hurt innocent people.
"Come on. We need to get in line for the ferries." Aang said, motioning towards the long lines of refugees waiting. Marinette sighed. It took a few hours, but finally their turn came after a very unfortunate event with a cabbage man. A bureaucrat called for them. Aang shly stepped up to the ticket podium.
"Five tickets for the ferry for Ba Sing Se, please," He requested.
"Passport." The bureaucrat demainded. Marinette winced. She wasn't sure about the others, but she did not have a passport. She didn't even know they needed those in that world.
"Uh, no one told us we had to have passports." Aang said in uncertainty. Oh no…
"But don't you know who he is?" Sokka asked, "He's the Avatar." He pointed at Aang's tattoos. Marinette straightened. Of course! The people here often made exceptions for the Avatar! Unfortunately, Sokka pointing that fact out didn't seem to phase the woman.
"I see fifty Avatars a a day," She jabbed her finger over at a group of boys with fake tattoos in airbender clothes. Aang smiled over at the false Avatars with pride, nodding at them, "And by the way, not a very impressive costume. Besides, no animals around. Do I need to call security?" Marinette groaned. She had her own share of peopling dressing up as her and making her life difficult (Chloe) and she really didn't like it. Aang seemed okay with the pretenders though, even though it cost them an easy and quick ride to Ba Sing Se.
"I'll take care of this." Toph suddenly said, pushing in front of the group, "My name is Toph Bei Fong, and I'll need five tickets." The girl slid a passport onto the podium. The bureaucrat's eyes widened.
"Oh! The Golden Seal of the Flying Boar. It is my pleasure to help anyone in the Bei Fong family." The bureaucrat said with a bow. Right… Toph used to be super rich.
"It is your pleasure." Toph said cockily, "As you can see, I am blind, and these four imbeciles are my valets." Marinette took offense to that statement. She was Ladybug, and Ladybug was not an imbecile.
"But the animal…" The bureaucrat said uncertainty.
"My seeing eye lemur." Toph replied. The bureaucrat heistated.
"Well… normally it is only one ticket per passport, but this document is so official, I guess it is worth five tickets." She stamped the ticket and handed them to Toph.
"Thank you, thank you very much." They began to walk off.
"Alight!" Sokka said, once out of earshot, "We scammed that lady good." Suddenly he yelped as a woman with brown hair and an earth kingdom uniform grabbed him and spun him around to face her.
"Tickets and passports please." She demanded. Sokka looked terrified, seeing as he only had a ticket and not a passport.
"Is there a problem?" He asked in fear.
"Yeah, I've got a problem with you. I've seen your type before, probably sarcastic and you think you're hilarious and let me guess, you're traveling with the Avatar?" She said, leaning close to the boy angrily. All she could think was, 'oh gosh, which of the Sokka's old revails had the run into this time?'
"Do I know you?" He asked.
"You mean you don't remember?" She grabbed him by the collar of the shirt and pulled him closer aggressively. Marinette prepared to transform and save him, "Maybe you'll remember this!" Marinette stared in surprise as the girl leaned in and kissed the boy on the cheek. Sokka's entire face lit up in delight.
"Suki!" He said happily, hugging the girl excitedly. Uh… what?
"Sokka! It's so good to see you!" Suki said happily.
"You look so different without your makeup and the new outfit." Katara laughed.
"That crabby lady makes all the security guards wear them." She looked over at Sokka, who was beaming like he'd gotten a puppy, "And look at you sleeveless guy. Been working out?" Sokka immediately covered his stupid grin and flexed causally.
"I'll grab a tree branch and do a few chin touches every now and then, nothing major." Sokka bragged. Marinette rolled her eyes. This must've been Sokka's girlfriend or something, because he was acting just like Cat acted around her or she acted around Adrien when she could form words.
"Are the other Kyoshi warriors around?" Aang asked.
"Yeah, after you left Kyoshi, we wanted to find a way to help people. We ended up escorting some refugees, and we've been here ever since." Momo jumped besides her, clearly pleased with the new person. She scratched him behind the ears, "So why are you guys buying tickets to the ferry? Wouldn't you just fly across on Appa?" Suki asked.
"Appa is missing. We hope to find him and Rin's friend in Ba Sing Se." Katara explained, motioning over to Marinette. Marinette waved. Suki smiled and waved at her quickly before looking over at Aang.
"I'm sorry to hear that… are you okay?" She asked.
"I'm fine. Would everyone stop worrying about me!" He huffed. Suddenly Ying, from earlier came up to the group.
"Avatar Aang! You have to help us! Someone took all our belongings. Our passports, our tickets! Everything's gone!" Ying said in fear. Aang claimed Ying down and promised to talk to the lady about it. He left for a few moments before returning with a solemn expression. Marinette knew that was his bad news face.
"Serpent's pass?"
"Yep."
"I'll find a safe place to transform, we'll need it." Marinette said, "I'll meet you at the entrance after scouting the area out. Aang smiled at Rin in appreciation. Rin snuck out of the bay area and transformed, running towards the passage as fast as she could. She got there, only to find it was a long, narrow path leading forwards. No place for a woman with child to travel through. Unfortunately, unlike in Paris, there were no buildings for her to use to simple swing Ying and her family to the other side to safety. The only way across was walking. She climbed up on the sign, hoping to get a better view of the path before she heard the group come up behind her.
"Rin!" Aang called, "Do you see any problems?" Marinette glanced down at the group. The family stared at her in horror. Suki looked alarmed. Oh, right, Fire Nation and red… they thought she was the enemy. Well, she better reassure them. She swung down off the sign, landing in front of Aang.
"I can't see anything. It's a straight shot, but pretty narrow. I have no idea why it's called Serpent's Pass."
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Suki asked. Marinette looked over at the girl, who now wore a strange uniform and makeup.
"I'm Ladybug. I am the wielder of Good Luck." She said simply.
"Wait, you mean you don't recognize her? You just saw her back at the bay." Sokka said in surprise, "Sure, her hair is up now, and she's in red, but she really doesn't look that different." Marinette laughed.
"Sokka, it isn't their fault they can't recognize me. That's kinda how my powers work. No one can tell who I really am unless I want them to. If they could, my identity would have been exposed to Hawkmoth years ago. I know you and transform around you guy's pretty regularly, so you can tell it's me… others… not so much." She shrugged, "I'm Rin. From earlier. No, I won't explain why I'm in red clothes or why you didn't recognize me. It's too dangerous for me to do that right now. All that matters is that I am one of Avatar Aang's traveling companions, and he can give his word that I can be trusted." Suki and the family looked over at Aang expectantly.
"Yeah, she's with us. She wasn't even born in the Fire Nation. That's just a costume she likes to wear. She'd from some village called Paris. She's on a quest to find her partner, Cat Noir of bad luck. She's really close to the spirits and stuff. Don't worry." Aang vouched. Suki nodded slowly.
"Okay… but this sign… it says 'Abandon hope.' why would it say that if this is literally a straight walk?" Suki asked.
"It says that?" Marinette said, looking up at the sign. Of course, she couldn't read it, "No matter, we have amazing benders and warriors with us. We will make it." Aang scowled at the sign. He looked like he wanted to say something, but Marinette didn't give him the chance.
"Come on, let's try and get across before dark. I don't want to be stuck here too late. Cat needs me. The group followed silently and cautiously behind the girl.
"We need to be careful. The Fire Nation controls the western lake. Rumor has it they are working on something big on the other side, and they don't want anyone to find out what it is." Suki warned. Marinette nodded, scanning the horizon carefully for any vessels while lifting her comrades pass. She spotted something in the distance and unhooked her yo-yo in alarm. A boat was nearby. Hopefully if they were fast, they could get past that part of the passage before they could be seen. As she thought this, the path gave away under Than. Toph saved him with her earthbending. Unfortunately, the ship had notice.
"They've seen us!" Marinette warned, spinning her yo-yo into a shield and the ship began to attack, "Go! Get to cover, I'll shield you!" She blocked many fiery blasts from hitting the group as the ran. The ship quickly realized they weren't hitting their targets because of the yo-yo and tried aiming ahead, resulting in a boulder nearly crushing Suki. Toph stopped the boulder and Sokka freaked out over Suki's safety, despite the dire situation. They soon go out of the boat's sight and onto the safer part of the path. They continued further, but Ying was getting tired and they had to make camp for the night. Aang looked irritated, but agreed to set up. Marinette was worried, and decided she needed to talk to him. He denied being upset about Appa, but she knew better. Appa was all he had left of his people, just as Cat was all she had left of her world. She pulled him aside before he could go to sleep.
"Aang. We need to talk."
"I already said I'm fine." He grunted.
"No. You aren't. I know. I miss Cat just as much as you miss Appa. Heck, I miss my parents and Adrien and my friends, but Cat is all I have left, and I have nightmares every night about what could be happening to him right now. I feel like I could have done something… anything to prevent us from getting separated. For the past two years of my life? He has been my best friend. I can't imagine living without that annoying, flirtatious, brave, kind, Chaton Noir. It's been hard. I know you miss Appa. I miss Cat just as much. I can't say I can understand the connection you and Appa had… But when Hawkmoth told me that Cat was in Ba Sing Se, I was so happy to know at least something. I haven't abandoned hope. I know we will find Cat in Ba Sing Se, and something tells me that a flying bison is much easier to find in a big city that a guy like Cat Noir. I know we will find them. I know it."
"That's easy for you to say." Aang grumbled, "You are Ladybug. Everything is supposed to turn out perfect for you. After all, Ladybugs are lucky." Marinette frowned. She sat next to Aang in concern.
"That isn't true. I want to tell you something I've never told anyone, not even Cat Noir." she said softly, she looked at her hands, "I didn't want to be Ladybug." Aang looked up in alarm.
"What?" Marinette nodded.
"Back home, I was one of the shyest and clumsiest people in all of town. I had no friends and was bullied relentlessly by a girl named Chloe. One day, on my first day of school, I was crossing the road when a… ostrich horse… almost hit an old man. Not thinking much about it, I dove in front of the man and got him to safety. He thanked me, and he told me he appreciated my help. Little did I know it was my master… the guardian of the Miraculous. He'd been testing me. That day, word got around that a terrible monster was attacking the town, unlike anything they'd ever seen. At the time I found out, I also noticed there was a small box in my room. Curious, I opened it. When I did… Tikki appeared. I was terrified and I didn't know what to do. She explained to me that me, and another Miraculous wielder named Cat Noir were to partner up and fight the monster rampaging through Paris. I objected immediately, but eventually, Tikki convinced me to help. Things went wrong instantly. I was looking for the stupid monster and I ran into Cat for the very first time… by accidently tangling us both up in my yo-yo. Then, I neglected to purify the stupid butterfly and a lot of bad stuff happened. I wanted to give up. I was going to do it. I was going to give the Miraculous away and forget I was ever chosen." Aang looked over in concern.
"But you seem like a person who never gives up."
"Yeah, well, I'm not actually as confident or brave as people think. Without Cat, I'm actually a bit of a coward. One of the main reasons I still am Ladybug is because Cat Noir told me he believed I was a hero."
"And now you are separated." Aang realised. Marinette nodded.
"From day one, he has been there for me. Now he's gone, and I am so terrified I might never see him again." Aang hung his head.
"And I've been mulling over Appa, not even noticing you are hurting just as much." Aang said in shame. Marinette put her hand on his shoulder.
"I'm not trying to say you shouldn't be upset about Appa, but if you are having trouble with it, you should tell someone. And you shouldn't lose hope that you'll see him again, okay?" Marinette advised. Aang nodded.
"Thanks Rin. I'll try to be better." Aang said with a smile.
"Goodnight Aang." Marinette said.
"Goodnight Rin."