Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar guys.
I tried to make this on a bit longer. Enjoy!
Chapter 2: Destiny is trouble any way you look at it.
It was about two in the afternoon, and everyone was buzzing about their visitor, because even though they brought her with them, they still did not know anything about her.
"I just don't know. I've never seen anyone like her. I can't even tell what nation she's from!" Katara retorted. She had been fuming all day, with the thought that they could be hoarding a fire nation spy. Usually it was Sokka who suspected as much, but Katara had been spending quite a bit of time with him.
"Come on now Katara, you know we couldn't just have left her there to die." Aang said softly so that only Katara could hear.
"That's another thing! I can't even heal her wounds! I mean what kind of person is she!"
"If you can't heal her, then how do we even know her cut is real? For all we know she could have smeared some berries on herself!" Sokka exclaimed, with his obsession of the fire nation rearing back into action.
"You egghead! I would have noticed if she smeared berries on it! All I said was that her wound would not heal to my touch." Katara replied, her motherly instincts going back to her. Even though she was not sure if the young woman was fire nation, she would not let Sokka convince the whole gang to hate the girl before they actually new her.
"Well, how do we know she's not fire nation!" Sokka shot back, by the look on his face he obviously was not quelled by Katara's response.
"Of course she's not fire nation you idiot! Don't you remember her saying that she didn't know who I was? I mean even the lowly farmers know who I am." Zuko interrupted before Katara said anything. Zuko's response had the rest all flabbergasted.
After about five minutes, Toph was the one to break the silence.
"Even if she isn't fire nation, how does she not know you? Not to boost your ego Zuko, but you're the most well known person here, besides Aang of course."
"What has she been doing? Living under a rock? So we don't know her name, nation, and we don't even know if she's going to try and off us!" Sokka yelled. He was having a hard time, trying to except the fact that they knew nothing about her.
"W-e-l-l, she did have a bag full of stuff with her . . ." Aang answered. Even though he felt bad for implying it, he was still extremely curious about this girl.
In that instant all of the teens raced to Thea's room.
Aang got to the door of the room first and he was just about to enter the room when he heard someone speaking inside.
When Thea awoke, her whole body was throbbing like she had fallen off a 200 foot tall temple. Of course though the pain was nothing next to the mental anguish she felt, when she found herself in an air temple.
Oh dear lord! What have you gotten yourself into? Isn't it bad enough that you allowed yourself to be found by the aizsargs? To top it off, you also managed to find the Avatar? The ONE person in the whole world you don't need to find and you find him?
"Oh my gods I have to get out of here!" Thea said mumbling herself. "I'm never gonna make it around here. I have to get out of here. I have to get out of here. . ." Thea kept on repeating that to herself, while she was looking around for her things.
In the middle of her search she noticed that the outer layers of her shirt were torn up to such an extent that she was just wearing strings of cloth (A/N I'm not some weirdo for making her shirt destroyed, I just enjoy the thought of creating an uncomfortable situation. mwa ha ha ha!). This caused her to go into over drive for search of her things. Thea was never self-conscious of her body, but if it was one thing she knew from experience was that some people – Namely guys – became extremely uncomfortable, with her in that state. "OK where is my bag?" Thea asked herself while she was searching the room. She finally caught site of it in the corner of the room behind a couple of chairs. So she hurried over to the bag, hoping to just grab it and dash, but when she bent over to grab her bag, a rush of pain rammed her like a ton of bricks. So she slumped to the ground trying to hold herself together, in the process of her falling, she reached onto a table in hopes of holding herself up. The only thing it did though was knock the table over along with a couple of plates and a flower vase; creating a loud enough crash for the dead to hear.
Well Aang was listening to Thea's ranting; the rest of the teens had finally met up with him. After a while they too decided to listen in. It was when they finally heard a loud crash that they stormed in.
They expected something along the lines of the girl destroying everything in the room, so they rushed in the room, ready for anything . . . well almost everything.
When they went into the room, they saw the young woman crouched in the corner attempting to get up. Everyone immediately let down their defenses at the sight of the girl. Thea was in her own little world at the moment so she had no clue that she had an audience.
"Hey . . . uh . . . ma'am? Do you need some help?" Aang finally said after no one else seemed to know what to say.
It was then, that Thea finally noticed the eyes on her. She turned her head to look at them. Her eyes were full of a mix of emotions all the way from pure fury to embarrassment.
"First off Aang, my name is Thea; don't ever call me ma'am. And secondly I need one of you to go into my bag and grab me a shirt, seeing as how whoever tried to give me first aid needed to take off my outer clothes to get to my cut." Thea snapped, while she pointed to her torso.
Thea's words caused the group to become relieved and uncomfortable at the same time. They were relieved that part of the mystery was solved by knowing her name, but now that they weren't focused on her possibly harmed, they had finally noticed that she only had her bindings on. Zuko, Aang, and Sokka all blushed at the sight and immediately looked away from her. Toph just stood there, considering she couldn't see Thea, she felt no pressure not to look in Thea's direction.
Seeing as how Aang was too afraid to look or anywhere, Katara sprang in to action by hurrying to Thea's bag in hopes of finding a shirt on the top of the bag. Yet, as with everything else that ever happens to the gang it's never that easy.
Inside Thea's bag varied all the way from knick knacks to maps and medicine. Katara let out a long sigh as she started fumbling through the bag.
"Maybe you guys should go and train, while I get Thea a top." Katara said as she finally noticed how awkward everyone was looking.
The rest of the group – mainly Sokka, Zuko, and Aang – agreed happily at the thought of being able to escape a situation that would surely turn into an argument by having one of them look in the wrong direction.
Katara had gone back to looking in the bag. She had decided to just dump everything on the floor when something caught her eye.
On the ground was a scroll with teal blue paper on it. The fact that the paper was blue alone would have caused enough curiosity, but the paper had a gold seal on. Katara expected the seal to have whatever nation she was from on it, but with closer inspection she saw symbols on it, that did not even seem to be the same language. Interest had gotten the better of her, so she grabbed the scroll and started to pull it open.
Thea had been secretly keeping an eye on Katara from the other side of the room to make sure she didn't find something she wasn't supposed to find. Just as Thea suspected though, Katara did find something she found interest in and it was nothing something Thea wanted others to see. So even though she was still withering in pain she bound across the room and grabbed the scroll from Katara's hands.
Thea though had grabbed the scroll too late, Katara had already open if enough to see what the mysterious paper was. It was a map. A map to what, Katara didn't know but she was going to find out.
"What was that?" Katara asked, not even bothering to be tactful about it.
"Can you pass me that, grey shirt underneath the sage? I may not cover much but, training clothes aren't supposed to." Thea asked, decisively pretending to ignore Katara's question.
Katara just sat there, glaring at Thea's face. She was determined not be led off track.
"So are we just going to pretend you didn't just jump across the room, tear something out of my hands, all the while you were not five minutes ago in a corner having trouble getting up?" Katara asked as her blue eyes narrowed.
"Yep, pretty much." Thea replied as she carefully bent down and grabbed her training shirt. She put on the shirt admiring herself in the mirror acting as if there wasn't a pair of eyes on her. The shirt she put on was nothing special, it was just a plain grey shirt with no sleeves; it only went down to her midriff but, it helped a lot when she was in training.
"Well, I'm not. Either you tell me what that was or I go get the guys."
Damn! That's not going to work. If you plan on escaping from here then you need to have the least amount of witnesses. You can knock out this one if you have to, but it won't work if all of them are here!
Katara smirked as she knew that Thea was trapped. Katara though thought she had Thea trapped because of her state of clothing. Not that she needed to escape with the least amount of observers.
After a long internal debate Thea finally gave in. "Here, just take it." She answered in a glum tone, as she handed the map back to Katara's hand. The young water-bender happily obliged by taking the map. Even though she had a look at the map, she did not have enough time to see what the map was of, only that it was a map of the world. When she finally looked at the map, her eyes grew wide with disbelief. On the map were multiple X's and lines indicating where Thea's target was last sighted. The map was to help her track someone. The thing though was that, Katara knew the locations that had the X's on it. She knew because the gang and herself had been to all those places. Thea was following them and marking all the places they had been!
"You lied to us! You told us you found us on accident!" Katara screamed at the top of her lungs.
Thea had taken a step back from Katara's furious glare. "Whoa. What do you mean?"
"This map! It shows every place we've gone to, ever since we found Aang!"
"Well, I'm not surprised there! Every time you bozos get in trouble, they always run to Aang!" Thea shouted back at Katara. Being yelled at was like a disease, once you get yelled at someone the other person want's to spread it.
This sudden outburst caused Katara to falter for a minute before she shot right back. "Who always goes to Aang! Why are you tracking them?"
"Ugh! I don't want to do this right now!"
"Either you do this right now on your own, or I have someone make you." Katara answered finally able to control the volume of her voice again.
"Either way I won't be doing it on my own." Katara gave Thea a stare that said she was in no mood, so she started up again. "Let's see where to start? So you know, I'm injured, but do you know how I got it?"
At this Katara shook her head to signal a no.
"Alright get comfortable, cause I'm not good at retelling things."
"Hmm…. The last report said that they found them in Ba Sing Se." Thea mumbled to herself while she marked an X on the map indicating what she was just told.
Thea had been settled in her camp for a full three weeks. She had always felt safe in the forest, it was an easy place to hide and it was great for a surprise attack in case there were intruders. As much as she hated to admit it, she had over stayed her welcome and had to start to move onto the next area. Thea had already packed up most of her belongings into her single bag. All she had to do was finish marking where the aizsargs were and she could leave.
"Alright! Just gotta cover my tracks and I can –Crack-." Thea whipped her head around in time to see a man in a grey cloak step on a twig. In the blink of an eye multiple more men converged to the scene, possibly trying to give their "Brother" some back-up. Thea quickly hid the map into her bag and stood up straight, attempting to scare them off with her confidence. But, she already knew it would not work, because first they were willing to die for their cause and secondly, after getting to know Thea, they learned to hate her enough that nothing could scare them away from her.
"Good Evening Thea." Greeted a man on the far right, with an utterly bored voice. Thea had come to know this voice. This was the only voice she actually ever heard from the group. She kind of figured that he was the spokesperson for the group. He had never said his name, so Thea had taken it as her job to give him a name, , because he was always tactful of what he said and did. Hey, you would you give him a humiliating too if that person was always trying to get to you.
"Can we just skip the crap?" Thea asked already knowing what they would ask. They always asked the same thing.
"Aren't we a little snippy today?"
"What do you expect? A how was your day conversation?" Thea asked while she was tapping her foot on her ground just waiting for what was soon to pursue.
"I guess not but, I was just hoping it would be different."
"And?"
"And what?" asked, his face must have shown some confusion but, his face –like all the others- was covered by a hood, so it showed no features at all of his face.
"I'm just waiting for you to ask so I can refuse."
"Perhaps if I sweeten the deal then? If you are willing to come with us, we are completely willing to allow you to have your elements." Replied , Thea could clearly clear the smugness in his voice, so she knew there was a catch.
"Let me guess, those elements you promise me are pebbles, a fan, match, and a bowl of water? Or something along the lines of that?" Thea questioned, although she already knew the answer. None of the men spoke, so Thea took that as her answer. "Sorry boys but, I'm going to have to pass on that. You know how I am, I can't stay in a place too long and being stuck in a cell would not do me well." Thea continued.
"Then I guess that you know if you don't come with us, we will have to go with the second option." Sighed . This was what Thea had been waiting for, the rest was just formalities. They always knew she would say no. She always said no. Thea grabbed her backpack and put it on her back. She was ready, she usually was. They came for her so many times that it was just habit now, a game of cat and mouse if you will.
"Can you just give me my sentence, so that I can kick all your asses!" Thea exclaimed, they always did this to her.
"Alright, alright. It is just that I hate to have to kill you."
"You could ya know? Let me go free then." Thea said with some hope finally seeping through. That made all the men laugh, which only plummeted Thea back into frustration.
"You are well aware that we can't do that Thea. It is just that the minute we execute you, we will have to start the search all over again for the next Engle Duisternis. As you should know, it took us 10 years to find you and we honestly don't have time to start the search again." He answered clearly annoyed by having to explain it to Thea.
"Sorry to trouble you men but, the answer is still a no."
"And I am sorry to say that by the decree of the Aizsarg Society, you are sentenced to death."
There it was, the words Thea had been waiting to hear ever since the conversation had started. Those few words he had spoken had caused her to run in the opposite direction, while trying to organize a plan.
"So no you see. I was not tracking you guys. I was tracking them. I need to know where they are, before they know where I am." Thea said as she finished her story. Her face had an underline emotion behind the mask she wore but, Katara thought it would be best not to press further.
"So why are they after you and why do they go to Aang every time we get in trouble?" Katara questioned.
"Now that story is a much more complex one . . . and I am wiped out from all the jumping around. Do you think I could have a few minutes alone?" Thea asked as innocently as she could, without throwing suspicion on herself.
It didn't work though, Katara saw right through her charade. "Actually, I should probably pick up this room. Seeing as how this temple isn't ours to deface."
"I was really, really hoping that you would have just left, because when I come back in a few months, I didn't want to have to come back with a white flag and some cake." Thea sighed as she walked over to the Katara, sat her in a chair and then earth bent the brocks on the floor to hold her feet in place.
"Thea! What do you think you're doing!"
"Don't worry, I'll make sure you have water so that you can get out sooner or later. Just not too soon now ya here me?" Thea then moved over to the bed and grabbed a bowl of water and set next to katara's feet.
"I'm really sorry Katara but, I won't survive here at the moment." With that Thea grabbed her bag and jumped out the window. The room Thea was in was 3 floors above so she dug her nails into the wall, create a depression into the wall, so she slid down the wall with speed and precision. When her feet finally met the ground, she ran to the edge of the temple. What she didn't know though was that below the temple was a lake . . . about 500 feet below. She probably could have made the jump if she wasn't injured.
Oh well, maybe this is a sign. If I live, I'm supposed to and if I die it is just destiny.
With that train of thought, she was just about to jump when something tugged her arm and pulled her from the ledge. Thea turned around and was just about to give the person a piece of her mind, until she found out who it was. It was the one person who she would never dare speak to in the wrong tone. Roku.
Roku stood there holding her arm with an annoyed expression on his face. With the long flowing red robes he had on and the wrinkles on his forehead that stood out from the expression he wore on his face, Thea could tell she was in a heap of trouble.
"Are you suicidal now?" Roku questioned, his arm still holding firm onto her arm.
"No sir. I just needed to get a way out of here and that was the only way I could think of." Thea said with the most proper tone she knew.
"You are supposed to be helping the new Avatar. That's part of our deal and here I see you trying to escape from him?"
"But, you said that I had a year before I had to go find him. It's only been seven months; I still have at least five more months."
"That was before you were almost killed by them. . . again." Roku replied as though it was painfully obvious. Something in Roku's words though bothered Thea. There was some underline meaning in what Roku said.
"Did you tell them where I was?" Thea accused, for the first time she was furious with Roku.
"You were sitting in a forest for almost a whole month. The only thing you did was obsess about where they were. I specifically gave you a year so that you could find yourself, not learn to hate the world even more!" Rokku Roared.
"So you sent them to kill me so that I could learn a lesson?"
"No. I gave them your position, so that they would lead you to the Avatar. They of course did not know that the Aang was near." The former Avatar slightly loosened his grip on her but, his eyes bore into her soul. Trying to make her understand.
"Please. I just want to go. I won't be able to live with myself if kill him." Thea had resorted to begging. She didn't want to be the cause of some much anguish.
"I won't allow you to, after seeing how close the aizsargs got to you; I don't think you will be able to survive in the next few months." Remorse was clearly evident in his voice.
"Please Roku! They've hit me way harder than this." Thea pleaded as she pointed to her wound. She was right though, Thea had once been in a coma for a month because the aizsargs had made her fall off a waterfall.
"That is just my point. You can't keep running from them forever. Once you are with the Aang you should be safe from them. At least for a little while." Seeing that Thea was about to object he continued. "That is an order. If you run away now, you will be turning back on our deal and I don't think the others won't be happy you, when you return to them." Seeing that Thea had given up fighting, Roku released his grip on her. He made sure she was not about to jump of the ledge again and into the water and then gave her some warning.
"I will be watching. I will work my hardest to make sure you don't harm anyone but, I need to help." With the end of his warning, a wind came blowing through and the minute the wind hit Roku, he disappeared as though he was never there.
Thea took that as her queue to leave, so she stormed into the temple. She didn't even want to think about the trouble she was going to get in, with the gang for chaining Katara up.
So yeah! I'm hoping to upload a bit faster.