Story: Through Blind Spirits

Chapter: The Start of a New Gaang

Summary: Zuko's party has arrived, but it does not go as expected, and the children find themselves in a very unfortunate predicament.

Author's Note: This is 2 years later. Jaang, our heroine, is 12 years old. Her brother is 14, and her cousin's are 15. Roku is 14, and Ursa is 16. Onto the chapter!

Hakoda's POV

Jaang was right. The party wasn't as glamorous as Ursa set it out to be. But that's what she does best. Making things sound better than they are. She'd be good at selling things.

I straightened out my blue and green robe. Such beautiful colors, but when they go together, it just doesn't mix. Well, that doesn't stop dad from dressing us in them. Sometimes I wish mom could see how much he's torturing us.

After chatting with a few hot firenation girls, I set off to find my friend Ursa. I haven't seen her the whole time. Not that she's usually the life of the party, that's my cousin Mei's job. Ursa usually sat in a corner, mumbling to herself, criticizing people's manners and the way they were dressed. She was such a pessimist, but it was a breath of fresh air from the rest of my positive family.

And of course, there she was, sitting on a chair in a secluded section of the ballroom, with her back straight and head up. She always has to look proper, even when no one's watching. I smiled.

"Yo, Urs. Whatcha doing sulking in a dark corner? You should come and dance with me." I held out my hand.

She laughed, "You're funny Hakoda. Me, dancing? Right after your mom regains sight and my mom smiles."

"Fine. Don't dance with me. Be like that." I pretended to storm off, hurt.

She got up quickly. Success! "No, wait you pansy, don't do that. I'll dance with you. Will that make you happy?"

I smiled, "Maybe."

Ursa rolled her golden eyes. Her hair was propped up how it always was, two tight buns with braids hanging down them. Except today, gold ribbon shimmered in between each section of hair in her braids.

I know what you are probably thinking. That I'm in love with her. Heck no! She's not my type. I mean I love her, but as a best friend. We grew up together. She understands me. My shoulder was always vacant for her to cry on, and she was always there to listen to me rant about some horrible thing that had happened in my teenage life. She was older than me though, only by 2 years, like Aunt Katara and Uncle Aang. But that didn't matter to her or me.

We danced a little, as I showed off, may I saw, my awesome moves. I could tell girls were just drooling over me. Except that one girl that screamed when she saw me and ran for her life. Eh, she probably is just extremely jealous.

A slow dance came, and we danced anyway. It wasn't awkward or anything. It was just a dance. I looked over Ursa's shoulder and saw my mom and dad. They just looked...so right. Although mom was about a head shorter than dad, it didn't look weird. Dad held mom close, like he would never let her go. Now that's what I call love. Not the kind of love that I chase, or Jaang thinks she's in with Roku.

"Hakoda!" Jaang swam through the crowd of dancing couples. I sighed, speak of the devil.

"What?" I asked, trying not to sound irritated.

"Can you and Ursa come with me? The twins, Roku and I are having a meeting. You should join us."

Ursa shrugged, "Sure, I don't see why not. What's it about?"

"You'll see," she said as she grabbed both of our hands and dragged us into another room.

The six children sat around on the carpeted floor in a circle, with Jaang in the middle. They all stared at her, waiting for the 'meeting' to start.

"Thank you all for err...coming."

"You blindfolded me and threw me in here!" Lei announced.

"Yeah, and you told me there would be cake!" Mei pouted.

Roku shrugged, "She just told me to come, so I did."

The twins glared at him.

"Anyways," Jaang pushed forward, ignoring the twins. "We have a problem. I don't feel so good..."

"Well. You don't feel well. And if you want, my mom's a healer; she can take a look at you..."

Idiot, thought Jaang, glaring at Lei, "I am fully aware of your mother's ability. I mean I don't feel go--, well, because I feel like something really bad is going to happen."

Hakoda shook his head, "Then why the heck are you telling us? Shouldn't you be telling Lord Zuko, or Dad, or Mom, or..."

"No, because I don't want they to flip out over something that might be just me getting a case of polka-pox."

Lei was about to correct Jaang's disease names when she interrupted with, "Shush. Now please listen. Can you guys just keep your eyes open for me? There are too many people for me to sense ever liar in this place."

The group muttered sures and fines. "Good," Jaang said, "So I guess you can--"

A large explosion was heard from in the ballroom. The twins shrieked, and everyone jumped back.

"What the..." Hakoda said, shocked, trying to hide the fear in his voice.

"We should help them, we need to see if they are alright-" Ursa was shaking, gripping Hakoda's robe tightly.

Roku interjected, "No, we need to get out of here! I'm sure all of our parents are fine, they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves."

The group nodded. Jaang took her role as leader, "Okay guys, we can't escape through here...wait, yes we can." she turned to the wall directly opposite of the one with the door and metal bended it so everyone could fit through. She was disappointed when she felt more carpet on the other side, "Another room?"

Ursa nodded, "Yeah, there are like a trillion rooms. Follow me."

Everyone ran fast through the maze of rooms, trying to escape from whatever was trying to kill them and their family. The siblings stuck by each other, not wanting the other to get lost or harmed.

Finally, they had made it to the Firenation Palace's backyard. Ursa, who was leading the group, stopped them abruptly.

"Wait. Look," she whispered. The firenation guards were down, and men and woman with large weapons stood around the bodies, guarding the exit.

"Aw no." Hakoda said under his breath, "What are we going to do?"

"Make a plan B, "Jaang said, hearing him."There are underground escape tunnels, right?"

"Yeah," Roku replied, "Underneath the palace."

"Let's role," Hakoda and Jaang said together, earthbending the floor beneath them. They created a pathway to the tunnels before.

"I hope this works," Mei said softly to her other half. Lei nodded, and plunged into the darkness below.

"It's SOOO dark in here! I don't know how you live like this Jaang!"

She turned around and punched her brother really hard in the stomach. He collapsed to the ground.

"Get up, you wussy. We aren't even half way out of here." Jaang spat at her brother. However, she didn't start to walk again.

"What's up?" one of the twins asked.

Jaang shook her head, "Someone's down here with us."

It got quiet. They had been walking for a good 20 minutes, with Jaang leading the way. There were rivers of elaborate tunnels, most of them leading to a dead end. Ursa continued to thank the past Avatars for having Jaang with them.

The children tried to look around; their eyes were use to the dark by now. But it did not help them much.

"Look! Up ahead!" Roku whispered loudly to his teammates. He pointed ahead, where he saw a little flame walking towards them.

"Sounds like a woman. About Hakoda's height...and about mom's age. Do any of you firenation brats know a woman of that description?" Jaang said harshly.

Hakoda was about to make a comment on how much she had just sounded like mom, but kept it to himself, waiting for one of the fire lord's kids to speak.

"Well, we have a nanny...Lily!" Ursa had shouted, running towards the dark figure.

"Apparently you do know her."

Roku shook his head, "Yeah, that's our nanny. She takes care of us when mom and or dad are gone. Or busy. Which is like...all of the time." He too ran up to the figure and hugged her.

"Oh children, I'm so glad you are okay! I was so worried..." she had long black hair, as everyone did in the firenation. But, Hakoda had noticed briefly, her eyes weren't gold, but a very light purple. Her attire was that of a slave in the royal house, clean, elegant robes, but several stains were present from an over abundance of chores and housework.

Her smile almost lit up the whole tunnel when she looked down at the kids. Everyone knew that Ursa and Roku's parents loved them very much, but the bond the children had with this woman was remarkable.

She ruffled the hair on their heads and stared into each of their identical golden eyes, "What are you guys doing down here though?"

Everyone turned to Jaang. She shrugged, "Instinct?"

"We were frightened, and we saw guards outside. We thought this was the best way...just until the fighting is over." Lei spoke up.

Lily smiled, "That's very smart of you children. She switched her firebended light into her other hand and pulled out a map. "You might need this though..."

Jaang rejected the gift, "No, please, keep it. I've got it covered." she smiled and lifted a foot, while her brother pointed to them with a smile on his face. The woman smiled again.

"Very good. But children...I should warn you. I don't...think we are going to win this fight." Lily said, her smile fading.

Mei gasped, "Are you joking? We have, like, the greatest benders in the entire world in that palace! There's no way anyone could take them down."

Her twin nodded in agreement, "I agree. It's nearly impossible for our mother and aunt to lose!"

Lily looked down at the floor and said softly, "You children do not understand. This is seriously. These aren't normal benders. In fact, they aren't even benders."

Hakoda shifted an eyebrow, "What are you talking about? Are you saying non benders can take down our parents?"

Roku scold, "Hey, I can't bend! We aren't totally useless!"

The water/earth tribe teen winced, "Sorry dude, I didn't mean to offend you."

The non-bender brushed off the insult, "It's okay. Whatever. Now seriously, are there really non-benders that are revolting?"

Lily nodded; her purple eyes looked as if they were drowning in sadness, "Yes. They have learned a secret on how to make the benders lose their powers. That explosion you heard...it was gas."

Mei stifled a giggle, while her sister stepped away from her, embarrassed that her twin was so immature. Jaang had a serious look on her face, with her unseeing eyes scanning the ground, looking for her thoughts. "A non-bender transforming gas? That's weird. Why weren't we affected? We weren't that far..."

"I'm not sure. The effects on the gas weren't tested very often. It's a new thing, and that makes it even more dangerous."

Hakoda's eyes shifted, "How do you know all of this?"

He seemed to have caught the woman off guard. She grinned widely and merely said, "Safe journeys children. Be careful. If I was you, I wouldn't come back to this palace in a long time." she hugged Ursa and Roku quickly, and as she walked away, she added, "This situation is just going to get worse."

The children looked at each other in sorrow. All of the hope they had that their parents were okay had just diminished.

Ending Author's Note: Oh noes, what will happen to our new Gaang? And what happened to Toph, Sokka, Zuko, Mai, -breaths- AND Katara! Stay tuned!