I want to apologize for my lack of updating. My commitment has been on and off these days, juggling between school, finding work, and Star Wars; The Old Republic (hey, my free-time is my own, don't judge :).

However, I know how I want this to play out, even if it's just concepts.

But enough of my excuses, on to the story!

Chapter 15

The shore moved out to meet the ships. Moved. The lore of the world was well understood. However, having not experienced it much in his lifetime, it was still shocking to observe.

Two people appeared to have control over the earthen slabs that provided nifty docks for the four ships as they settled in. One was a young boy. His most distinguishing feature were the blue lines that ran over his back and arms. The blue line ended on his forehead as an arrow.

Riker blinked again to confirm this sighting. Picard had been discussing his visions with the crew. This boy was probably the one he had been in contact with. He was the one who could help them get to their shuttle. As much as a kid could anyway.

Riker sighed, no matter how much mystical power he possessed, he was still a kid. The battlefield was for men like him and their ship captain Hakoda. Kids shouldn't get involved in war. War, however, was a cruel thing.

"Lower the docking clamps," Riker heard Picard say. He smiled. Even out in sea, the captain was still at home.

"Alright men!" he heard one of the tribesmen say, "Disembark!"

Riker didn't need to be told twice. He found Wesley on his boat and stuck close to him as they walked down to the makeshift dock. Seriously, D-day would have been a lot simpler with this kind of power.

Wesley saw Haru run out to meet the people on shore. He had become well acquainted with the young man, though there wasn't much to talk about. When your main interest is in warp-cores and starship systems, and the only mechanics Haru knew were that of a wheel burrow, there would not be that many interesting conversations. However, he did hear about Haru's travels throughout the Earth kingdom, beginning with when he was helped by their Avatar to free his father from a prison. It appeared Haru himself was on pretty good terms with this Avatar and his group of friends.

"Oh, guys," Haru began, "I'd like you to meet someone I've gotten to know." He gestured over to Wesley, who, after glancing at Haru, stepped forward to introduce himself.

"Wesley Crusher," he stated, a bit stiff. He held out his hand to the lead kid, who he assumed was the avatar, with the arrow on his head, who, after a small look of confusion, shook Crusher's offered hand.

"Greetings," the kid replied, his expression and voice open.

There was a pause between the group. Wesley had time to observed them all. Two were of Hakoda's people, a girl and a boy, and in the standard blue water tribe outfits. The other one, who appeared to be mingling with the two wrestlers that had wandered into their little celebration circle was very short, and covered in green garments. No matter, he had to see if his captain was right.

"Your name's Aang, right?" he said to the bald one.

"Right," he answered, keeping his happy mood and expression.

"Just want to tell you, I work for Captain Jean-Luc Picard," Wesley stated.

The kids face froze in recognition. He then said, "Oh yeah! I need to talk to him! Face to face!"

"Thanks!" Aang said to the crowd of people he left behind, leaving exasperated expressions on their faces.

Wesley looked as the kid as he hurried off. Did Picard mention anything about his spontaneity? He did not seem like a kid burdened with the world on his shoulders.

Aang dived through the thong of people. Many gave him greetings, some enthusiastic, some normal, some almost antagonistic. However, he finally found the man. And the feature that he shared with the man was covered with a strange hat.

"Captain Picard!" he shouted out.

The man turned around, obviously surprised.

"I suggest you don't disclose anything else besides that name," the man said.

"What?" Aang replied.

Picard leaned in close to the boy's ear.

"The fact that I captain a massive starship that is currently my little secret."

"Oh!" Aang said, his eyes widening in understanding.

"If you want to talk, we can speak in an enclosed location," Picard continued.

"Right," Aang replied.

And just like that, the crowd swallowed him up. Aang was overwhelmed. There was so many people. Too many. All were relying on him to fulfill his duty as the Avatar. As if that duty was not hard enough.

Aang felt something in his shirt robe. A piece of paper. Curious, Aang pulled it out, a bit too quickly as he fumbled with it a bit. It was folded up, yet it had writing on both sides. One side held a strange language that he had never seen before. The characters were very simple, yet they were numerous. The other side held writing he recognized, but the writing was crude, and rudimentary.

"Meet, Ship, Freedom "

What did that mean? It appeared Picard had slipped him a message. Was it indicating the meeting place?

"It was difficult staying in that Fire Nation Navy monster for nearly a month," Aang heard one of the water tribe men say.

"I don't know", Aang heard another voice say, he turned to see were the voices were coming from, and he could identify two men in water tribe garb conversing.

The other man continued; "I mean, even though this ship was forged in and for the Fire Nation, I've grown quite attached to it, I mean..."

As the man trailed off, his gaze was directed towards the shore.

And Aang saw it, the massive hulking Fire Navy ship. It was slightly submerged as Aang saw earlier, the side of the ship had opened up to dispatch various ships to meet them at shore.

The ship's name was Freedom, or it had Freedom in the name of it.

Aang spied a small ship heading out to it, and while his eyesight was not the sharpest (it was miles better than Toph's), he could make out the buret-covered Jean-Luc Picard at the forefront.

...

"You really want to hold this meeting Captain?" Wesley asked, "I've heard that the preparations are rolling forward with the invasion."

"It is absolutely imperative, I want to know our role in this," Picard answered.

"Don't we already know our role?" Riker asked.

"We can never be for sure," Picard responded.

However, he and his crew had prepared meticulously for the upcoming day. Deanna had to learn three words in their written language, his crew had debated where they should meet. He even had Lieutenant Worf and Commander Riker stage a conversation in Water tribe garments to point Aang in the right direction. Hopefully they were convincing enough.

As his mind trailed off, Riker and Worf had been engaged in a debate.

"Your place is here, as a Starfleet officer," Worf stated.

"Oh, come on, think about it, I was employing top notch acting," Riker playfully responded.

"No, it sounded forced, you need to make it flow more naturally."

And the end of that statement cued everyone to stare at the Klingon in the most peculiar way.

"What?" Worf stated, "I have experienced your entertainment culture, I know what it requires."

"I guess this universe is still full of surprises," Picard said.

Picard glanced out to the shore. His crew had set up camp on the deck of the Freedom. Picard had to fib that one of his crew members left something very important on the boat to Hakoda. He scanned the surface of the water, glittering in the morning sun. He looked towards the shore, what was Aang doing? Didn't he know how long it took to ride a boat out here?

"Hey!"

Picard leapt as he heard the familiar, yet unfamiliar voice of Aang calling from him at the exact opposite side he expected to spot him.

As Picard turned around, he discovered that Aang was also joined by his band of companions.

"I was under the impression you would be coming alone."

"I was never alone on my journey," Aang replied, "And I cannot get this job done alone, I need my friends more than ever. And I think they should know this as well."

"Right," Picard confirmed.

"But can we hurry?" the boy with the ponytail said, "We can talk all about these dream wishy washy and all that, and massive ships in space, that probably don't exist-"

"Oh they do exist" Riker bumped in, "And that guy happens to command it."

"Wha-?" the boy began, "But that doesn't make sense! It's illogical! I don't think you can survive in space that long!"

"Well," Riker continued, "Neither did we. Until someone was actually sent up there."

"Will, this conversation is going nowhere," Picard said, putting a hand on his First Officer's shoulders.

"And what's wrong with his face?" the boy finally stated, pointing at the Klingon who was sporting a very dangerous look.

"Oh silly Sokka," the short girl clad in green stepped in. Despite her size, and possibly age, she sounded very tough and commanding

She continued, "I don't see anything wrong with him."

"Well how couldn't you?" the boy shouted back, "He has like these ridges, I mean, you'd have to be blind-" the boy's eyes seemed to widen in realization, and then he sneered back, "You are a terrible person."

Ignoring the exchange, Worf forced himself to the forefront of the conversation.

"Our captain wants to know if you are fine with our role in this invasion. We plan to return to our ship once we have located our shuttle."

"So in other words," the blue clad girl iterated, "you're going to leave us once you find your way back to your ship?" Her expression could have been described as unforgiving. And her eyebrows were raised as well as any Vulcan could have.

"Believe me," Picard said, "We are not abandoning you. Once we reach our ship and make the necessary repairs, we will be able to assist you."

"How powerful is this ship?" the short girl butted in, all of the sudden, "'cause ponytail boy here has mentioned that the best chance to strike the heart of the Fire Nation, and defeat the Fire Lord is during the solar eclipse. Even though I'm one of the best Earthbenders in the world," and at this moment the blue girl rolled her eyes, "I see that the hot-heads have the place really locked up."

Aang took this time to add, "I hope Chief Hakoda has informed you of this, the Fire Nation will be at their weakest when-"

"-The eclipse hits, yes, Hakoda informed us," Picard answered back. The silence that followed emphasized waves and the excitement of the invasion on the shore. There wouldn't be much time.

"Time's running out," Picard finished. Both groups headed in their separate directions, so that they would join again in battle.

The ride back to shore was incredibly quick. The events that transpired seemed to flow by in a mess which went rather quickly, yet Picard could remember every detail. The young water tribe man known as Sokka had actually composed a strategy on how to attack the capital. Picard was impressed with the boy's intelligence, however, he was less impressed with his speaking skills as Hakoda had to present the information for him.

The primitive technology the people had developed turned to be less so than Picard had originally thought. By combining the use of their powers with simple mechanical concepts, these people had developed submarines, even armed with torpedoes!

The submarines would be the key to getting past the first line of defense, the gates of Azulon. Picard had to speculate about the effectiveness of such a defense, but he would have to see it to believe it.

Using various vehicles developed by the captain of the sister ship, Enterprise, the invasion force would establish a beach head on the port of the capital, also heavily fortified. The capital itself was apparently on the top of a volcano. The key was to reach it once the eclipse had struck.

Aang appeared to be tasked with dealing with the Fire lord himself. It was a heavy burden to put on the kid's shoulders, facing one of the most dangerous men in the world, or so Picard heard. However, if he was able to find and subdue him with the help of the eclipse, the Fire Nation would suffer a major blow.

And before he had time to gather this information, Picard was directed towards the invasion ships, each one housing a submarine. Picard made sure his crew stuck together as the forces were organized by ship. Sooner than later, the boats were on a direct coarse with the capital.

Picard studied the faces of all of his crew members as the boats sailed on. All were anxious. Everything that had transpired, that had been planned for had led up to this.

The invasion was upon them.

Apparently the crew has some really covert planning that the narrator couldn't see, right? Next up will be the invasion of the capital. My inconsistent commitment to the story could see this either released in a week, or not until the summer months. Summer months should be a big improvement in the update schedule of this story.