Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender.

Chapter 8: New Plan

An arrow flew towards me and I had to duck at the last second to prevent getting hit by it. Six of our attackers advanced on us, but two hung back. One of the two started loosing arrows, one right after another, at Zuko and me. The arrows accuracy was perfect and Zuko and I had to do a lot just to avoid them. Soon the two of us were on opposite sides of the courtyard.

This seemed to be what our attackers wanted because as soon as we were apart they broke off into two groups. Three of them came at me and three went for Zuko. I blasted a ball of blue flames at the nearest of my three attackers. She had short, dark brown hair and looked about my age. She carried a staff which she used to deflect my fire ball. The other two were younger and male.

I kicked, sending another fireball their way. The two boys dove out of the way, but the girl used her staff like a javelin to jumped over my fire ball. She came down at me with her staff which I caught in both hands. Using her momentum against her I sidestepped and hurled her and her staff to my right.

She skidded hard on the ground but regained her footing quickly. This time instead of charging she lifted her staff and sent a blast of air towards me. I summoned a wave of fire and pushed it towards the air. My quality of fire surprised even me as a wave of white flames flew at my attacker.

The flames hit the air creating an explosion that knocked me back a couple of feet. I didn't lose my footing but my hood, which I had kept on as an extra precaution flew off. Before I could think about what I had done I turned around grabbing the hand of one of the boys behind me. He had a dagger in his hand and had been bringing it down at my head before I had stopped him. I placed my foot on his chest and kicked him back several feet. I raised my fist towards the second boy whom had been about to throw a small bomb at me when I was interrupted.

"STOP!!!" A voice behind me made me freeze. The boy across from me lowered his hand and looked at the girl walking towards us. I knew I had heard that voice before. I turned wide eyed towards the brightly clothed girl approaching me and I finally figured it out.

"Kimi?!" Mimi flung her arms around my neck. "I can't believe I found you! I'm so sorry if I had known it was you I'd have never attacked. I- I missed you so much!" She started crying and I patted her back. A smile broke onto my face as I hugged my sister to me. I had never thought I would see her again. My heart began to beat with pure joy as Mimi cried into my shoulder.

When Mimi was done crying we broke apart. She was shorter then me, and dressed in the yellows and oranges of the Air Nomads. She dropped her staff by her feet as she wiped her gray eyes. I was so happy to see my sister that I had almost forgot about Zuko.

"Hey, a little help here!" I turned to see Zuko crouched on the ground bound with rope. Mimi turned to the three people surrounding him and told them to cut him free. Just like the group whom had attacked me there were two boys and a girl.

The boys looked a little older than me. They seemed about eighteen and looked exactly alike. They were also dressed in bright Air Nomad clothing with dark brown hair. They reminded me of the twins from back when I lived with the Air Nomads. Then I realized they probably were. They each held a sword and the one on the left leaned down and cut Zuko free with it.

"What's going on here?" Toph said entering the court yard followed by the rest of the group. Toph had obviously sensed intruders, our fight, and then random stop. They looked like they expected a fight but were surprised to see us talking normally.

"Hey Mimi," the girl who had helped attack Zuko bounced over to my sister and me. Her long brown hair was tied up in two pig tails and seemed to bounce with her as she hopped up and down in front of Mimi. She was wearing a childish green dress and looked about twelve or younger.

"I found this in that boys pocket. Can I keep it?" She held out a small red candy which was clearly Fire Nation.

"How'd you get that?" Zuko asked rummaging through his pockets. She had clearly taken it from him without his knowledge while he was tied up.

"Taz," my sister began taking on a slightly motherly voice, "it's his so you should ask him not me."

"Okay!" Taz bounded over to Zuko who still looked slightly confused. "Mister, can I please have this candy?"

"Um sure, I guess." Taz screeched with delight and popped the candy in her mouth then she ran between Toph and Sokka into the house. Everyone watched her go with confusion except for Mimi's group.

"Okay, seriously who are you guys and why are you here?" Toph asked. The two girls joined us in the courtyard. They were the two whom had held back during the fight. One girl held a bow and was obviously the archer whom had started the fight. She had short, strait black hair and was dressed in red and black. She seemed to be from some sort of nobility because of how she carried herself and the quality of her clothes.

The other girl had long brown hair that she wore down except for a head band that they all seemed to have in different colors. She was dressed in a lime green dress that barely covered her. She wore lots of make up and walked with a sort of swagger that made it look like she wanted attention.

As the two girls joined the rest of us Mimi began to explain. "We are the Tempest Troup. At first it was just me and Soku and Yaku," she gestured at the twins. "We were just trying to find my sister. After we saw what the Fire Nation had done to the world we felt we had to help. We started messing with their food supplies, their weapon shipments, and anything else we could do to weaken them."

"So you're like the Freedom Fighters but not insane?" Sokka asked, receiving an elbow in the ribs from his sister. "Ow, well it's true. She's like a female, mentally sound version of Jet."

"Well I don't know who the Freedom Fighters are, but I can assure you we're not insane." Mimi said with a slight note of humor in her voice.

"Well except for Taz," the girl in the lime green said.

"Taz isn't insane she's just…"

"Hyper?"

"Yeah, very hyper," the twins said to themselves. The rest of us laughed in agreement.

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We told the Tempest Troup about our plan to attack the Fire Nation and they were immediately on board. As we sat in the kitchen the rest of Mimi's troop introduced themselves. I remembered the twins, Soku, and Yaku, from the Air Nomads hid out. They were eighteen, a year older then Mimi and me. They sat on Mimi's left and I sat on her right. I couldn't help but notice that one of the twins held Mimi's hand while we talked.

The boy who had almost thrown the bombs at me was sitting on the kitchen counter. His name was Ashi. He was fourteen and made weapons such as bombs. He was Taz's older brother and apparently preferred high places. Taz was twelve and relied mainly on hand to hand combat. She was very fast and flexible. She had set off on her own to explore the house because she didn't seem to be able to sit still.

The archer was named Hokori but everyone seemed to call her Kori. She was very quiet and kept mostly to herself. She was from the Fire Nation and was the daughter of one of the famous Yuu Yan archers.

The guy with the dagger was named Motenasu, Nasu for short. He fought with twin daggers and was also rather quiet. He was a childhood friend of the girl in the lime green dress. Her name was Yasashii, but was known as Yasa. She mixed herbs and plants to make different concoctions. Yasa also seemed to flirt with any guy that was around her age, making Suki rap her arm territorially around Sokka's.

"We're so sorry that we attacked you guys," Mimi apologized. "We saw firebending and we thought the worst. We probably should have realized that not all firebenders are working for the Fire Nation."

"That's okay Mimi," I replied. "In the end nobody really got hurt. Besides if you didn't attack us we probably wouldn't have ever seen each other again and now we have more people to fight the Fire Nation."

"Yeah," Sokka agreed, "the more the merrier. We are going to need all the help we can get."

"Yeah, I was thinking about that," I said. "Even with bloodbending and the Avatar State I don't think a full frontal assault is going to work. Azula already has shown that she can take down Aang in the Avatar State. What is to stop her from doing that to him again?"

"I agree," added Hokori, speaking for the first time. Her voice was low and monotone without much emotion, "it seems pretty desperate." She folded her arms across her chest, "and probably won't produce any results. Unless, of course, your goal is to get us all killed."

"I know the plan is pretty flimsy, but what else can we do?" Sokka cut in defensively. "We are running out of time. The Comet is coming quickly and most of our troops are imprisoned. What else can we do? Besides, my father and a few more people will be joining us soon. I don't know why they aren't here yet."

"It still seems desperate," Kori replied. "It's just like that Mai girl with the knives. She tried to take on way more then she could handle alone. Now she and her friend have been sent here to the Ember Island prison."

"Wait, Mai's here?" Zuko suddenly jumped into the conversation.

"Yeah, she and some circus performer have been transferred because Azula thought that her uncle might help them escape if they stayed at the Boiling Rock." Yasa cut in. Her voice was filled with way too much enthusiasm compared to what she was saying.

"She saved us from the Boiling Rock," Zuko said turning to Sokka, "do you think we could-"

"No." Sokka said before the firebender could finish. "I know what you're thinking Zuko. She helped us of her own free will, but we can't put our mission in jeopardy to get her out of jail."

Zuko sighed but didn't argue the point. However, I could see in his eyes that the issue was far from resolved. I spoke up, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Well speaking of prison I think I have an idea." All heads turned to me. "There is a prison right by the Fire Palace where a lot of war prisoners are imprisoned."

"Again, it's too dangerous to try to attack a prison, especially right by the palace," Sokka said. "Our energy would be better spent using the people we have to attack now before the Fire Nation can pick us off."

"Yeah, but what if we only make it look like the prison is our main goal?"

"Then what would be our main goal?" Ashi asked me leaning towards us from his position on the counter.

"The palace." Nasu said surprising everyone.

"Exactly," I said. "Some of us will attack the prison and free as many prisoners as possible drawing most of their soldiers there."

"While the rest of us attack the palace!" Sokka said finishing my train of thought.

"Well, they wouldn't be expecting it," stated the guy holding my sister's hand.

"And there would be less soldiers to get by," finished his twin excitedly. I still couldn't tell which one was which.

"You know, that might actually work," said Sokka scratching his chin thoughtfully.

"We'll distract them," said Mimi gesturing at her group. "That way, they won't be tipped off by some of you being there and some of you not."

"Good point," said Suki, "They know that we are together so they might get suspicious if they don't see all of us." The rest of us nodded. We all agreed that this was a better plan then just blindly attacking the palace.

"Well," Sokka said, "I'm going to go outside to see if there is any sign of my father's air balloon. The rest of our group should probably be here. I don't know what's taking so long."

Before he could leave however Taz burst into the room, "Wow guys, this house is huge!" She spread her arms out as if to demonstrate just how huge. She bounced over to Mimi and pulled her out of her chair. "Come on Mimi, come on! I want to show you how big it is! It's got like six bathrooms and the beds really big and…" Taz's voice was lost as she dragged Mimi up the stairs. Mimi had always been good with kids. They seemed to gravitate to her which is why I wasn't surprised that Taz had taken such a liking to her.

We all chuckled as Taz left the room. Her cheerfulness burst the serious nature in the room. It was nice to see that some youthfulness and innocence had been preserved in these troubled times.

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The moon shone through the window creating a pool of light on the counter. I stood there in a dark corner of the kitchen watching the staircase. Sooner then I had expected I heard footsteps descending the stairs. They sounded three times as loud as they would normally be because they were the only sound in the sleeping house.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked a startled Zuko as I stepped out of the corner.

"Oh, um," Zuko began, "it's really none of your business."

"Look Zuko, I know you. Mai and Ty Lee are me friends too. So, I'm going to help you get them out of prison." With that Mimi and the rest of her group stepped out of the shadows.

A/N: Okay so more names. Again I just went through my Japanese to English dictionary and picked things that sounded cool. The meanings of the names don't really have anything to do with the characters. So Yasashii = fond, Ashi = foot Motenasu = entertain, Yaku and Soku put together = engagement, Hokori = Dust, and again Mimi = ear.