Author's Note: there's an rvb (red vs blue) gag in here! props to the first person to find it XDDD i love that show! and the guys that made it rock! they signed a bunch of stuff for trombe and i at comicon a couple years ago - they're funny people.

so, i'm trying to keep the chapters a bit longer here since we're posting slower - i've been kind of swamped with an animation project for my boss. but i made a jet amv in the meantime! i still might make a few adjustments (jet and zuko's scenes are so dark! damn their mysterious and angry auras!) but it's here: www . youtube . com / watch?vYz3j6AzUPo (just take out the spaces). anyway, hopefully we'll pick up speed again since my project is (please please please) almost done.

also, please leave us comments! i know trombe had his anonymous comments blocked, but i convinced him to unblock them, so comment away if you want to have a say! (and stop texting me if you know me and can't comment 'cause you don't have a fanfiction account! love you guys anyway!) - artsyelric

(ps, there's been some confusion on the author's notes - from now on trombe will leave author's notes in bold, and artsyelric will write hers in italics! hooray! )

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Avatar: The Last Airbender

Freedom's Prodigal Son

A New Home

"Wait! Why would a fire nation soldier have a cane?" a girl with three ponytails called from the back.

"Are you going to let me tell this story or not?" Longshot asked sarcastically.

When he was met with silence, he continued.

"I said," the man repeated, "who's in here?"

"Stay away from me, you fire nation scum!" Jet yelled, swinging his arm as he backed away from the man.

But the reaction this drew was not the one Jet expected. The man started laughing. Jet blinked in confusion as the rich laughter filled the room. Father used to laugh like that... "Stop it! Stop laughing at me!" Jet found himself yelling.

The laughter stopped quickly. "I'm sorry, my boy. You just looked so fierce, you reminded me of a friend." Jet quirked an eyebrow. "I'll let you in on the joke then. Take a good look at me." Jet did. he was an older man, maybe forties - Jet was too young to be good at guessing grown-ups ages; old was just... old. He wore mostly greens and browns in the traditional style Jet was used to, and was sporting a wooden cane. His long black hair now graying, was braided in the tradition of the people Jet's father had told him were from the capital city of Ba Sing Se."Now, have you ever seen a fire nation soldier who looked like me?"

Jet had to admit he hadn't.

The man smiled knowingly. "Don't worry. We often see only what we expect to see, and not what is really before us. You were so focused on fire nation troops that they were all you expected to see. But, as you can tell, I am not a firebender."

"Well if you're not fire nation, then who are you?"

"Now there's a worthy question," the man replied, his green eyes twinkling. "I'm from the nearby town of Riverford, and I came with some of my friends to help."

"You heard the bells then?"

"We did, but it seems we came too late..." The man's face held a grim expression. "When we arrived the place was already crawling with fire nation soldiers. Some of the women were taken prisoner. At least they're alive though..."

Jet's head hung. She's dead kid.

"Well, we're looking for survivors now. We may have been too late to help save your town, but we want to do what we can. So, are you by yourself, or are there more of you?"

"...There's another boy," Hesitant at first Jet grudgingly admitted, marveling at how this strange man spoke to him so openly, as if he were already an adult. Usually when adults talked, Jet was left out, either because he didn't understand, or they didn't want him too. But this man spoke to him so directly and plainly, Jet didn't feel that way at all. Perhaps that was what made Jet reveal Chizun's situation - he already felt like his could trust this calm, smiling man. "He's sick though. His arm got cut, and now he's got a fever."

"Well then, I know just the thing," the man replied, leaving his post beside the door. Jet could run now, but he didn't want to anymore. Instead, his eyes followed the man as he browsed the plants and potions on the shelf. "Ah, here. " Stopping at a particular vial, the man plucked it out of the shelf."The wound is probably infected. We'll need to clean it thoroughly, and then bandage it with this salvo so it heals well. After that, the fever should go down. If it breaks, he'll be well again." Jet wondered how grownups always knew things like that. "Is this boy your family?"

Just like that, Jet's heart clenched. He had been so focused on living, or surviving, that he hadn't been thinking about his family. But now Liu's face swarmed in his vision, laughing, bleeding, burning. Hot tears welled up inside him, and his stomach lurched uncomfortably. "No," he managed, choked up. "We're not related. But he's my friend."

The man was eying him, and when Jet blinked away the beginnings of tears and met the adult's gaze, he found compassion and understanding in the deep green eyes. Jet felt a little odd about someone pitying him, but the eyes didn't seem to look down on him. When the silence became awkward, the man spoke. "You know...you're quite lucky to be alive, boy. "

I'm not lucky. I just did what I was told.

"...What's your name? Or would you prefer I call you rude little boy?"

Jet quickly glanced back at the man.

"I'm Jet," he sneered.

The man must have found that amusing because he smiled, leaning his hands on his cane. Then he before he slowly extended one to Jet.

"Hahaha...such defiance for such a small child...thats more like it."

Jet looked at his hand, as if it was strange or unfamiliar. Yet something compelled him to move his own and meet the man's hand.

The handshake was strong and firm. Much like his father's hand.

"Well then, Jet. My pupils call me Master. But you can call me Huo...and I would be honored to be counted as your friend."

Chizun was sicker then they had anticipated. Scared and confused, it took Jet a while to calm him down. But giving into exhaustion, the younger boy fell into an almost lifeless daze as they inspected him.

Jet saw his cheeks were red, and one they got the makeshift bandage off his arm, the cut was red, puffy and swollen, and infected in places. Jet got scared then,but the man who introduced himself as Huo was as clam as ever. "It's infected alright," he said, "but I've seen worse. The ointment I brought will help a lot."

"He won't die then?" Jet's voice was full of hope.

Jet realized right there and then how important Chizun was to him. He was Jet's last friend, the only person he'd been able to save. He didn't want the boy to die.

"He'll be sick for a while..." Huo replied, "but if his spirit's anything like yours, he'll be just fine."

Chizen cried and whimpered as Huo applied medicine and the bandages with herbs wrapped inside them to his wound. The whimpers were the first sound Jet had heard him make since the fires. That means he can still talk. He just doesn't want to. With that, Jet made up his mind.

When asked the question, he was ready. "What's your friend's name?" Huo asked, after the bandaging was done and the boy was resting peacefully again.

"I just call him Runt," Jet said.

The man frowned. "Well that won't do. He must have a name."

Jet shrugged. "When he gets better, he can tell you if wants." Chizun looked at him with dazed, half dead eyes. "Hear that, Runt? You better live, or no one will know your name."

The Runt just stared at him, and for a while, Jet wasn't sure he understood, or maybe cared. But then, he nodded, solemn-like and slow, and Jet could sense deep meaning behind the motion. Runt or not, Jet could tell that his friend was fighting off the fever , and that he would try to live. Yes... living was something they both could do. They wouldn't die. They would live, and they would remember. And someday they would find some way to make this right again.

Huosaw the unspoken pact cross between the two boys, so he decided not to push the name. Instead he reached out and picked up the Runt, nodding to him in that same respectful way he adressed Jet, like he was talking to a peer, not a child. "Well then, my new little friend, I look forward to the day when I can call you by your true name. Until then, we should return to the village and meet my friends."

Jet hesitated. "Where will we go?"

"Back to Riverford, if you boys would like." Huo paused as he considered a thought. "This place is no longer fit for anyone to live in."

"We were going to try and get to Riverford anyway," Jet considered, glancing at the Runt. The boy nodded, and Jet agreed. "We'll go with you. Besides," he added, with all the finality of his eight years, "the Runt still needs you because he's sick."

"Then I will do what I can for him."

Jet nodded his silent thanks, before turning his back on the man. He was tired. So very tired.

The journey took longer than Jet thought it would. Of course, they moved slowly to be careful of running into fire nation troops, and because they had sick people with them.

Jet and Runt weren't the only survivors, just the ones in the best shape. There was a man they'd found wounded from fighting, and covered with burns. He was alive, but they didn't know how long he'd last, and he hadn't regained consciousness. Jet remembered him from the blacksmith's shop, though he looked much different, and Jet couldn't recall his name. He asked Runt, but, as predicted, the kid didn't answer.

There was also a woman who had been uncovered hiding in the basement under her collapsed house. She was alive, but her mind was lost. Jet knew she'd been the youngest daughter of the man who ran the tea shop. Her name was Lyn, and she used to smile as she served the villagers. Now she just cried all the time, and she spoke to people who weren't there. said she was sick in her mind. It was possible she'd get better, but there was no medicine for the mind. Only time would tell. Jet wasn't holding his breath. He'd never met a crazy person before, but he didn't think the strange girl before him was still the same Lyn he'd known before.

In fact, no one who lived was the same. The Runt was still very sick and had to be carried the first two days. Fortunately, he was small enough one man could carry him and he didn't have to be on a stretcher like the blacksmith boy. There were only six men from Riverford - the rest had returned to their own homes when they saw the destruction and the massive amounts of fire nations soldiers that covered the land. Only five other men had stayed behind to hide out and look for survivors.

It was normally a three day trip to Riverford, but they'd already been traveling four days when the young man from the blacksmith passed away. Jet was glad that he'd died and not the Runt. Not that Jet wanted anyone else to die, but if it was a choice, he knew who he'd pick. Runt had gotten even sicker the second day, and Jet had been afraid, but by the forth day, he was much better, and even walked most of the time beside Jet. The evening after he walked, Jet cooked sweet plums on the fire (the last of the season) to celebrate how much better Runt was feeling. It was while the two were sucking the sweet, hot juice that came to break the news to them.

"That man from your village." Huo started, "he just died. We're going to bury him. Would you like to come say a prayer?"

Jet was scared. He'd never seen someone buried, and he didn't even really know this man.

Huo seemed to sense his hesitation, and smiled his warm smile, the one that reminded Jet of soft silk draped over strong steel. It was comforting. "You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, but this man fought and died to protect his village, and you two are some of the last ones left. I'm sure it would honor him to have you at his burial."

"How do you honor the dead? They're...dead." Jet muttered under his breath.

Huo smiled as he laid a strong hand over Jet's shoulder.

"You-"

"Let me guess," Jet pouted, "it's something I'll understand when I'm older."

"I certainly hope not." Huo's smile was sadder now.

Assured that he wasn't being treated as a child again, Jet nodded his assent.

The funeral was extremely simple. An earthbender in the Riverford men opened a hole in the rock deep into the ground. They laid the young man's body in it, stood for a minute over him, each with their own thoughts. Then thanked him for his sacrifice, and the earthbender lowered him into the ground. A stone erupted at the tomb's head when the bender commanded, and scratched the words Though we never knew your name, the men of Riverford and Grasshaven will never forget you.

"What does it mean?" Jet asked. read it to him. Jet's face dropped. "There are no men from Grasshaven to remember him." The boy's voice was heavy with regret.

"Sure there are," replied. " Theres the two of you."

Early the next morning, Jet untangled himself from the Runt, who had become his constant and inseparable shadow, and wrapped his blanket around himself. He started out, away from the camp, until he had a clear view of the sunrise. He was heaving himself up onto a big rock when suddenly Huo appeared in front of him. Jet let out a startled cry and fell backwards off the rock. "Sorry I scared you my boy." Huo smiled as he helped the young man up. "What are you doing up so early Jet?"

Jet glanced away sullenly, and then finally admitted, "I had a bad dream."

"Ah. That is to be expected though. Your friend has bad dreams too, and I think Lyn is stuck in a dream she can't wake from. Even I have bad dreams of my own." His eyes seemed to grow distant as he said the last, but when he looked back at Jet's concerned face, he smiled that reassuring smile again. "Most people have at least one tragic thing happen in their life. Most are just older before they have to go through it."

"Do they go away?"

"What?"

"The dreams," Jet said. "Do they ever go away?"

"No. But with time, they will grow less painful, and haunt you far less often. Do you want them to go away?"

"Yes."

"But..." The older man tapped his cane."If they go away, you forget."

Jet's brow furrowed. "Isn't that the point?"

"Then, you want to forget completely? Come up here, Jet, sit with me."

Jet scrambled up the rock and sat down beside . The man glanced at him. "Jet, if you forget one thing, you forget everything. Everyone's life has a purpose, a beginning, and an end. What is there at the end of our lives, Jet?"

The boy shrugged. "Death?"

"Usually. And then?"

"Then? Well, that's it. After you're dead, there isn't any more, right? Because your dead?"

"Think first, and then speak. We sound wiser that way." Huo gave him a small wink.

Jet considered it. After somebody died, what was there? The people he had known his entire life had just died. Everyone but the Runt had left him, so wasn't that the end? They were gone. Only he was still there.

Then he remembered the words on the nameless soldier's tomb. "When we die... people remember us?"

"So, if you forget them?"

"Then it really is the end!"

"Right! But, if you remember them?"

"Then..."

"Then it's not the end of them. They are still alive, with you. You lived for a reason, Jet. Because that young man died to save you. Because you fought. Because you're brave and kind, you must not forget them, but remember everyone, even after they're gone."

"Can't I remember them, but forget the part where they died?"

"Look at these trees. Would they still be trees if they had no branches? Or no leaves? Would it be the same?"

"Well," Jet grinned, remember the leafless trees of winter, "they would be uglier."

Huo smiled. "Exactly. So too would be a memory of someone that was incomplete. We are people. We grow, and change. Some people die the same person they were when they were born, and others die someone completely different. Our deaths can make a statement worth remembering too."

"I don't understand that." Jet admitted; the older man seemed to like saying things that confused him.

"That young man died for his village. Even if he had always complained to his father about wanting to leave it, or picked fights, or claimed to hate the town, when he stood and fought, and when he died for that village, it means that he loved it. Even if I didn't know him, I know that about him." The man's eyes turned on Jet. "And I know about you too. You will remember everything, even if I told you not to, because you are brave and strong, like your father."

"My father!"

"Before that young blacksmith apprentice died, even though he didn't tell us his own name, he told me who you were. He also told me about your father. I knew Tenyu from ... well, many places. But most recently, when he would travel to Riverford. He was someone I respected very much." Jet felt his throat burning. "Your father was just like that man. He died for something he loved. The things a man would die for often define him, and if I defined your father, he would be a brave, just, and courageous man, who loved and protected his family and his village with his last breath." Huo met Jet's watery, determined eyes.

"I see much of him in you." Huo said fondly.

Jet swallowed. "Before... before he went to fight, Dad told me to never forget what I'm fighting for."

"Wise words. It is easy to lose our focus in this world. But your father knew what he was fighting for in the end. He inspired the people of your village, and the young apprentice back there. That boy died a brave soldier, but he woke up that morning a scared young man. It was your village, and your father, that gave him the strength to pick up a weapon and fight. That's what he chose to remember, and to leave to us. The memory of your father, a strong leader, who died with his family's name on his lips. He knew what he was fighting for, and it made him strong."

"He fought well then?" Jet asked.

"He was a terror to the fire nation troops. He fought the leader of the Rough Rhinos himself. Your father, and mother, were heroes."

Liu was too then, Jet realized. He died fighting, just like dad.

"I think I understand," Jet told . "If I forget Dad and the others so that I don't dream about them dying, then I won't remember how brave they were, or how much they love me. Mom would want me to remember. They all would."

"Very good, Jet. Very wise...for a rude little boy." he added, a more playful tone in his voice, and Jet glanced up, he quirked an eyebrow at the boy.

"Maybe one day, I will be as brave as Father, and as wise as you," Jet predicted.

The man laughed. "Oh, what the world would be in for if you were, my boy. One of me is more than enough." He rubbed Jet's hair as he chuckled. He looked back at Jet more seriously. "Someday, you will be yourself, and that will be worth much more than either of us, I hope."

"What does that mean?" Jet asked.

"That I hope you will be someone who can make a difference," the man replied. "Now, enough chitchat. The sun is up, and we need to move on. If we move quick enough, we should reach Riverford before lunch..."

Jet followed back towards camp as he contemplated the man's words. Someone who will make a difference... I will make a difference, he decided. I will remember, and someday, I will stop the fire nation!

"Riverford is just over this hill," Huo told the boys as he pushed back a branch.

Jet's eyes widened. The town was much bigger than Grasshaven had been! To Jet, it was a huge hub of trade, the largest he had ever seen. Houses stretched across the whole valley, with actual stores, and a river! Blue and white, it wove through the red trees and golden grass, and the sound it made was musical. In actuality, this village was not nearly as large as even the smallest earth kindom city, but to Jet, it was humoungus. The Runt tugged at his sleeve, gesturing harshly, and Jet's eyes followed his excited motion. "The dam!" he realized.

What he had taken to be a mountain wall rising sharply behind the building was really a giant, man made wall of earth, through which a controlled stream of crystal water was flowing. Above the dam, Jet could see the widest expanse of blue, blue water he had ever laid eyes on. Runt folded his arms triumphantly across his chest and Jet conceded. "All right, all right, you win," he said. "There is a giant lake here..." Runt nodded smugly, and Jet shook his head as they followed the group down into the town.

Riverford was filled with people, and Jet knew he would never learn all of their names. There was easily three times as many people living and trading here than had lived in his entire village. The shops were filled with merchandise both familiar and terribly foreign. He stared at furs and pelts of creatures he'd never dreamed of, his eyes hovering over the giant fang of what he thought was a saber-toothed moose-lion's, but was the shopkeeper was claiming to be a walrus-whale's from the south pole. Jet thought the man was just making up animals, but the customer seemed to believe him, so Jet moved on.

The food booths were filled with fruits and vegetables Jet recognized, as well as prunes and kumquats, which the Runt seemed to recognize, but Jet had never tried. Runt made a horrid face though when Jet eyed a prune, so he decided he didn't want to try one. He also saw meat shops, and stands with what the vendor called fire flakes. Those made Jet angry. Even the word fire rubbed him the wrong way, a way that made his stomach knot in fear, and his jaw clench in anger. But then his stomach lurched for real as he saw the sticks of rock candy beside them.

Daddy said I get rock candy!

"Liu..."

Jet hadn't realized he'd stopped dead until the Runt bumped into him. But the he realized that the voice wasn't Liu's. A small boy tugged at his mother's arm as he pointed at the stand. "Daddy said I could!" he insisted.

Jet blinked. The boy had to be at least Jet's age, but he seemed so much younger. So much... happier. I've grown, Jet realized. He met the Runt's gaze, and saw how much deeper his eyes were, how the carefree nature Chizun had possessed was almost gone. Jet wished he was still begging his mother for rock candy, or telling Liu off for crying about it.

He turned away from the stand, wishing he could look at anything but the rock candy. But what he saw next made him amend that wish. He heard himself shout as his eyes locked on the fire nation uniform.

Red stained it's way through the green and brown of the earth kingdom, even more sharply contrasting than the blue water had been. The man walked with deadly grace, and Jet wondered why everyone else wasn't running. Quite the contrary, they were simply standing by as if the man were nothing out of the ordinary. Jet started to yell, but Huo's hand closed tightly on his shoulder.

"I should have warned you both," he said, and Jet felt the Runt shaking beside him as Huo's other hand squeezed him tighter. "Two days after Tenyu left this village, we were invaded. They offered a peaceful occupation rather than annihilation and gave us three days to decided. The next morning, we heard the bells and knew Grasshaven was under attack. That's why so few of us came. Riverford surrendered, and now the fire nation soldiers command this town. We are allowed to live as we want, as long as we don't go against the fire nation. We are a conquered colony now."

"So... you just live with ... THEM?" Jet yelled.

"Yes," Huo replied. "As will you, if you want to live." Jet felt as if he'd just been had in pai sho. The older man nodded. "Don't worry," he added, the twinkle back in his eye. "They will find us harder to control than they think. And you'll learn to fit in soon enough."

Jet watched the fire nation man round the corner, and only after he was out of Jet's line of sight did Huo's words sink in, and Jet realized something horrible. "But... where will we live?"

"Oh, I thought that was all settled," Huo replied. "I was hoping you would live with me."

"With you?" Jet echoed, and the Runt seemed amazed at the hospitality. "For how long?"

"Why thats completely up to you my boy."

"Really?"

"As long as you don't let slip that we saved you from Grasshaven, I don't think anyone will bother us about where you came from. The fire nation hasn't been here long enough to know how many people I have at my house. We should all be safe, as long as you can keep the secret."

"Of course we can!" Jet declared.

"And I guess I don't have to worry about you running your mouth?" added to Runt.

The boy shook his head enthusiastically, almost looking like his old, excited self again.

"Well then," Huo concluded, putting his hand on a giant wooden door with a flower and a sword carved into it, "welcome to your new home."