General Fong sat uneasily at his table that was used for war planning. Sitting across from him was the calm militant Long Feng. He looked almost the same as when he had been Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se, save for a large scar across his forehead left by Sokka's boomerang when he had tried to kill the Earth King. The proud General scowled as he was face to face with his new enemy while Long Feng smirked arrogantly. The leader of the Dai Li had surrounded Fong's base with over 5,000 men and forced negotiations between both sides. The General had no choice but to agree; even merely against enraged peasants Fong did not have enough soldiers and resources to win a battle of that scale painlessly.
As he calmly sipped cool liquid from an expensive cup Long Feng said, "You make excellent wine in the western Earth Kingdom. Is this sake?"
"It's plumb wine" Fong said with the air of someone who didn't want to speak any more than he had to.
"Exquisite" said Long Feng as he finished another gulp.
"You've threatened the lives of my men. I should have offered you water from the gutter" scoffed the General.
"Oh really General I don't want this to be a hostile meeting between us. I honestly came here without the intention of taking any of your men's lives."
"Your barricade out there would seem to suggest otherwise."
"Nothing more than precaution I assure you."
"Precaution for what?"
"To ensure that you hear what I have to say, that you listen to my proposal and then honestly consider it."
"You're a traitor to the Earth King" said Fong angrily. "Official military policy is to arrest or kill you on sight."
"Loyalty" Long Feng said admiringly. "That is something to be respected, though loyalty to the wrong person is something to be pitied."
"I don't have all day Long Feng. If you're going to attack go ahead and do it so those of us who survive can get on with our lives."
"You are quite keen on fighting General I wonder why that is."
"Perhaps it's the war we've been fighting for the past 100 years. Oh wait you wouldn't know about that! You were safe and sound in Ba Sing Se the entire time weren't you?"
"Well I won't deny that, though all of us would have been safe and sound if the war had ended a long time ago."
The expression on Fong's face relayed his annoyance at having the obvious explained to him.
Long Feng went on confidently, "This is a magnificent base, secluded in the West Coast. It is the perfect place to launch strategic assault against the Fire Nation, and yet all throughout the war you sat here and waited for the King's order, or for the Avatar to return. The former never came and the latter was a disappointment was it not?"
Fong clenched his fist and inhaled angrily. Long Feng's brow was risen as that happened. As if he had been forced to say it General Fong said, "Though the Avatar and I had our disagreements, he did defeat the Fire Lord and end the war."
"Yes but how many men women, and children were killed while waiting for him to defeat Ozai? How many lives did his selfishness cost?"
Fong cringed again. Long Feng could tell as it went on the General agreed with his own statements less and less. "The Avatar had to learn the other three elements before he could…"
"Why?" Long Feng interrupted. "The Avatar State gives him godlike power and invincible wrath. He could have defeated the Fire Lord any time he wanted."
"The Avatar State is a power too difficult to be controlled so easily."
"Oh really? It is ironic that rumors and stories traveled to the Eastern Coast of the Earth Kingdom faster than the West when it is coming from the West."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh I think you know. According to all those legends and rumors out there the Avatar was losing his battle with Fire Lord Ozai at the beginning, the tables were turned when he entered the Avatar State. Surely you must know this."
"Of course I do, but the Fire Lord provoked him into entering it by threatening his life. It was nothing more than a primal response."
Long Feng's voice shifted ever so slightly into insurmountable confidence in that moment. "Is that so?" he said. "The way I heard it at the moment of truth Avatar Aang was about to bring the wrath of a thousand Avatars down on the Fire Lord to punish him for his misdeeds and yet the poor merciful naïve child stopped himself, sparring the evil savage of a bender's life. In order to do so he wrestled control of his body away from all the other Avatars. In other words he was in complete control."
"I do not believe he had complete control when I first met him."
"He also did not during the majority of his fight with Ozai. Like I said, he wrestled control away from the other Avatars, showing he could have gained control of it any time he wanted if he tried hard enough."
Fong's face shifted ever so slightly, just barely revealing his shock. Long Feng sensed his defenses weakening. He had chosen the right nerve to pick at.
"Why would the Avatar not want to immediately defeat the Fire Lord if he had the ability?" Fong asked angrily, though not sounding angry at Long Feng.
"Oh what miniscule glory could he possibly have to gain by merely becoming the hero of a single nation? The Avatar is far more ambitious than that" Long Feng said coolly.
"…What do you mean?"
"Well if the Avatar simply faced the Fire Lord and killed him right away sure the Earth and Water Nations would praise him as a hero but what of the Fire Nation? The Avatar can never have absolute power over the world if the Fire Nation continued to hate him, so naturally a by-the-book Earth Kingdom invasion did not appeal to him. After all what would the Fire Nation hate more than being occupied by the people they are so used to oppressing. A rag-tag invasion where he disabled the Fire Lord single-handedly and caused as little damage to that nation as possible was much more up his alley."
"You're saying the Avatar wants absolute power over the world?"
"Well of course! Don't be naïve my friend. It has been the way it is throughout all history. The Avatar belongs to no single nation no matter where he is born and is so powerful and respected that he is allowed to do whatever he wants in any nation. The Kings of this world may believe they are in charge of it but trust me, the Avatars have always been the highest authority. Do you think it is a coincidence that Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko are such great friends? Achieving power was in their mutual interests."
Fong sighed and clasped his head in his hands. Long Feng knew that his defenses had crumbled to pieces.
"So that is why…" the weary General said. "…that is why he refused to help me fight the Fire Nation even with his awesome power. He didn't want to end the war to save the lives of innocents; he just wanted glory and power."
"Naturally" said Long Feng. "After all what concern are the problems of us mortals to the great Spiritual Medium of our world? Of course it wouldn't have been so bad if the Earth King had ever ordered you to invade the Fire Nation before the Avatar came; after all at least then you would have had a fighting chance."
"You're right Long Feng. For all of history those in power have cared too much for their own interests to do anything to help the rest of us. The Avatar, the Earth King, the Fire Lord, they're all the same. That's why the war lasted 100 years, not because there was no hope without the Avatar."
"And it is why our people continue to suffer even in the aftermath of the war because of cruel taxation and the ever-prolonged occupation by these Firebending savages" Long Feng added.
"Yes it is."
"That is why my army is here today General Fong. We are here to change things. For centuries the current corrupt bureaucracy that is the Earth Nation Government has been allowed to rule unopposed and not give its citizens so much as a sideways glance. These men surrounding your fortress are not merely the upper-crust of Earth Kingdom society; many of them are peasants and farmers, the main victims of the war. They are tired of being mistreated and ignored. We are going to rebuild are country into a true paradise, with wise caring men leading it. Is that something that interests you General?"
Long Feng stood up and extended his hand across the table welcomingly. For a second Fong merely stared at it then he too rose and clasped The Liberator's hand.
"All right, I'm in."
Aang glided across the air with his staff and landed on a stretch of land on the outskirts of the Si Wong desert. The remnants of a deserted camp surrounded the area and it appeared it had been a long time since it had been abandoned.
"Ugh, this is the millionth Spirit-damned dead-end I've found!" cursed Aang. "Every time I think I'm getting close to Long Feng he slinks away!"
Aang kicked the dust beneath his legs and grunted angrily. He felt his foot lightly brush against something on the ground. He bent down and picked it up. It was a torn piece of cloth wish writing firmly stitched onto it.
"The seal of the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se" Aang read. He smirked. "Long Feng, I bet a Shirshu could easily use this." He popped the wings out his glider and began flying.
Katara was eating lunch with Sokka and Suki in the Earth King's palace. It was a relatively quiet, peaceful and uninteresting day as all the days living in the palace tended to be. Though Katara at least never found a reason to be dissatisfied with the food or service, both were excellent which was to be appreciated; she was now three months into her pregnancy and had just started to show so her appreciation of being taken care of had increased though so to did her boredom and her wish that Aang would finish his search for Long Feng and return so the Earth King would stop insisting she remain in the palace under guard all the time.
"Aang sure is taking a long time getting back" Suki said as she filled her bowl with rice. "I wonder if he's even found Long Feng."
"If I know Aang he's already found Long Feng beaten him to a pulp and taught everyone a warm-touchy lesson about hope and love or eating your vegetables or something" said Sokka as he stuffed his face with roasted chicken.
"Still this is a lot longer than he said he would be gone" Katara said. "I'm starting to get worried about him."
"Aang's a fully realized Avatar he can take Long Feng and his agents with both hands tied behind his back" Sokka assured.
The cooing of Sokka and Suki's child Hakoda became noticeable when he had reached over the table towards one of the plates of food. Everyone was so distracted by that they didn't notice Momo swiping dozens of pastries from the table.
"Sorry little Hakoda, this is grown up food" Sokka said as he picked his son up and held him in his arms. The baby resembled his father in almost every way, except he was slightly paler than him and had greenish eyes, traits inherited from his mother. "Guess he's going to end up liking meat too."
"He sure is just like his daddy" Suki said.
"Heaven help us" Katara teased. She and Suki laughed.
"Very funny" Sokka replied.
"Hey what's the baby doing now?" Suki asked.
"What do you mean?" Sokka said as he turned his head back towards his son. He then knew what Suki had been talking about. Hakoda was pushing his arms forward and pulling them back rhythmically.
"Is he doing some kind of dance?" Sokka asked.
"I don't think so Sokka" Katara said. "Look!" She pointed to an open teapot on the table. The tea inside of the pot was moving being pushed forward and pulled back in waves at the same time that little Hakoda moved his arms.
Sokka held the baby's arms for a second. The tea ceased to move. He released Hakoda's arms and he resumed pushing and pulling merrily as if it was some kind of game. The tea responded to his movements once more.
"Sokka, little Hakoda is a Waterbender!" Katara shouted.
"Spirits almighty!" Sokka exclaimed. Suki was left speechless.
"Another Southern Waterbender!" Katara beamed joyfully. "I never thought I would see the day!"
"I was worried he would turn out too much like his aunt" Sokka joked as the shock began to wear off.
"Still a bender with warrior parents, that's a potent mix Sokka" said Suki.
"You're right" Sokka agreed. "Imagine how strong he'll be if we train him as a Waterbender and a Kyoshi and Water Tribe warrior! He'll be like an Avatar only a million times better!"
"Where do you get that logic from Sokka?" Katara asked.
"Water, boomerang, club, fan, sword and other sword beat Air, Water, Earth and Fire easily" Sokka boasted.
Katara simply rolled her eyes.
"When you say 'other sword' do you mean mine or yours?" Suki asked.
"Your sword" Sokka said simply.
"What? My sword is way better than yours, your sword is the 'other sword'!" Suki protested.
"My sword is made from a meteorite!" Sokka defended.
"My sword is a katana, that's way better than a jian!"
"My sword can cut through solid steel!"
"If you made a katana out of meteorite ore it could slice through a wall of diamond like a wet noodle!"
"Ok, ok both of your swords are awesome but what would Hakoda need with one, he's a Waterbender?" Katara interjected.
"It would sure come in handy during a lunar eclipse or if he was stranded in the middle of a desert attacked by Sandbenders" Sokka pointed out.
"Yeah like with Zuko and his twin swords. He could also use one of them with his bending" Suki added.
"I guess that makes sense" Katara said, remembering how helpless and frustrated she felt when away from a source of water during an emergency.
"Of course someone does have to teach him Waterbending in the first place" Sokka said. "Is that something that interests you?"
"Really me?" Katara asked surprised.
"Who else?" Suki asked.
"Well Master Pakku…" Katara started.
"Is a jerk" Sokka finished. "Little Hakoda here would have much more fun learning from you."
"Wow, I'm flattered guys, I'd love to teach my little nephew Waterbending" Katara accepted happily.
"And maybe Uncie Aang can give you a hand with that every now and then too" Sokka said.
"Of course he'll have his hands tied teaching four little ones to master Airbending" Suki said.
Katara's smile suddenly sank for a moment. "…Yeah…" she said.
Suki and Sokka looked at each other worriedly.
"Uh is something wrong Katara?" Suki asked concerned.
"What? No…well…" Katara stuttered.
"Come on Katara" Sokka encouraged.
"It's just that…" she started, "…well it's not like I never thought of Aang and I having kids when we were dating and I knew that there was a good chance they would turn out Airbenders but it's just that…well when I didn't know what they were going to be it just felt more natural but now…it may sound selfish but knowing that none of my children will ever be Waterbenders just feels so planned."
"Well that does make sense" Suki said. "It's only natural that you would want one of your children to be a Waterbender like you."
"Yeah but it's still selfish" said Katara. "There are hundreds of Waterbenders in the world and counting these children there are only five Airbenders. The world needs more Airbenders to be born than it needs Waterbenders but still…I always wanted to raise a Waterbending daughter in our tribe the way mom never got to raise me. I always wanted to be like her."
"Katara you're already exactly like our mother" Sokka said seriously.
"…You really think so?" Katara asked.
"Of course, you've been acting like my mom and the mom of the entire group your for as long as I can remember. You've been training for this your entire life!"
Katara smiled and laughed.
Sokka continued, "Katara these are still your babies and when they come you're going to love them more than anything in the world and they're going to love you." He placed his palm on her belly. "And these are still my nieces and nephews whether they're Waterbenders, Airbenders, or even Firebenders. They're still our family."
Katara reached out and hugged her brother tightly. "Thanks Sokka" she said.
"You were never that good with words when I was pregnant" Suki said.
"You're a lot tougher than Katara" Sokka said simply.
"Hey!" Katara shouted.
Suddenly a loud knocking came from the other side of the door that was the entrance to the room.
"Come in" said Suki.
The door swung open. In its entrance stood the head guard of the palace.
"Forgive us, we have failed" he gasped as he fell flat on his face. A knife was protruding from his back, just above his heart. He had been murdered.
Sokka and Suki quickly drew their swords and stood up. Sokka hid Hakoda in the back of the room. Katara rose as well.
"Get behind us Katara" Sokka said direly. "We've got to protect the babies." Normally Katara would have objected to this plan, but in this case she agreed so she complied.
The sounds of scuffling continued outside until four men burst into the room, their hands incased in gloves of solid stone.
"The Avatar's wife!" shouted one as he pointed to Katara. Katara immediately recognized two of the men. They had previously attacked her in Iroh's tea shop. They were Ling and Ping, Long Feng's second and third in command.
"You're not laying one hand on my sister!" Sokka shouted protectively.
"It's Sokka of the Water Tribe, the warrior who scarred our leader's face!" one of the lesser agents shouted.
"Two birds with one stone" Ling said with malice.
Ping had been promoted to second in command since the failed assassination attempt on Katara in the Jasmine Dragon where Ling's hand had been injured so it was he who ordered, "Capture the Avatar's wife!"
"And kill her brother!" Ling said, repeating Long Feng's orders.
The two lesser agents ran forward. One went to Suki, the other to Sokka their rocks hands outstretched. Suki parried her enemies attacked and sliced the inside of his leg then kicked him to the ground. Sokka used his left hand to throw forth his boomerang and as the man dodged it Sokka cut his right arm with his jian. As the man jumped up and prepared to attack angrily again Sokka's boomerang came whirling back and struck him in the back of the head. He fell to the ground, throbbing in pain. Sokka caught his boomerang.
"Get up men!" Ling ordered.
"Long Feng's wrath will be brought down on all of us if we fail again!" Ping hollered.
The men struggled to their feet. This time their superiors weren't going to risk one-on-one fights anymore.
As Sokka and Suki focused on defending themselves from their assailant's attacks Ling and Ping shot their rock gloves forward, which grabbed Suki and Sokka's arms and strapped them to the walls. The lesser agents used their gloves to fasten their legs to wall. They had dropped their weapons during the impact.
Ling and Ping faced Katara themselves. Opening her water skin she shot out a whip of liquid but the two Dai Li agents jumped to the side. Her technique was slowed; pregnancy had begun to shape her body in a way not conducive to battle.
Ping launched forward the metal cuffs in his sleeves usually reserved for trapping Earthbenders and they clasped around Katara's wrists. Pulling back on the chains harshly he made Katara drop to her knees and Ling kicked up slabs of rock that trapped and immobilized her.
"We meet again" Ling said as he knelt down in front of her. Katara said nothing and looked defiantly at him. "You mean you don't remember? I got this handsome wound because of you." He held up his right arm and slid down his sleeve. A healed-over stub was where his right hand should be. Obviously it had been amputated.
"Ling" she said horrified and guilty.
"So you do remember me. I wonder if you remember that I wasn't a lefty before this happened!" he shouted angrily.
"Ling I'm sorry about your hand we were protecting the babies…"
"Save it!" he said, gripping her throat in his remaining hand.
"Ling stop it!" Ping barked. "We were ordered to bring her to Long Feng alive!"
Katara remembered that voice, the voice of the man who had hesitated to kill her when he had learned of her pregnancy. She couldn't help but hear a similar tone this time.
"Fine" Ling said, grabbing one of Katara's arms as Ping took the other. Together they encased her in a cocoon of rock using the slabs that had trapped her.
"Stay here and finish off the rest" Ling said to the other two as little Hakoda began crying.
"No!" said Ping. "We were only ordered to kill the Water Tribe warrior. We have no reason to harm the woman and baby."
"Ping she heard…!" Ling started, pointing to Suki.
"She heard nothing the king's forces wouldn't assume without her" Ping protested. "Just kill the Avatar's brother-in-law."
With that Ling and Ping left with Katara.
"Katara!" Sokka shouted desperately trying to wrench himself free. The two remaining agents stepped in front of him, removing knives from their sleeves.
Quick as a flash Suki pulled her fan out from her waist and threw it at one of the agents. Distracted by his given task to kill Sokka the assassin did not notice and the fan struck him in the back of the head. The steel lining and frame of the fan was so hard that when it struck him it knocked the agent unconscious.
The remaining agent momentarily looked to where his comrade fell and Sokka saw an opportunity and seized it. He reached behind his back to where his club was fastened and took it with his free hand. He swung it forward and hit the final agent in the leg. The agent's femur shattered like glass and he toppled down. Sokka struck him once more in the head, knocking him out.
Using his club, Sokka smashed the rock gloves binding him to rubble, freeing himself. He did the same to Suki. Suki went to grab little Hakoda but Sokka immediately ran out the door to where Ling and Ping had fled with Katara. Their feet had been covered in rock boots as well as their hands so there were indents in the ground that served as tracks. He followed them out to the balcony.
"KATARA!" he yelled hopelessly when he reached the balcony. He looked urgently around for more tracks, any indication to where his sister had been taken. There was none, they had completely disappeared.
"NO!"