Okay, it's chapter two!! Woo! Thanks to all those people who reviewed and all those who didn't. Love all of you. Enjoy!!
They had been walking for hours. Days in Sokka's opinion. The Avatar's group left with that strange girl very early that morning, earlier than what Sokka would have wanted.
But what he hated most about walking was the fact that he had to much time to think (since no one talked and Aang wasn't even conscious to cheer their group up.) He thought, while they were walking, about everything. He thought about the day that they met Aang, the day they met Zuko, Toph, Suki, and Yue.
Yue. What a beautiful name. She had been, well Sokka couldn't describe her. She was beautiful, for one thing. She was kind and good hearted for another. But what he remembered her for mostly is how much she loved him; the fact that she didn't care that he wasn't the best looking person around, or wasn't the most well spoken person, or was a peasant from the Southern Water Tribe, she just loved him. And how that man had killed her; how he had made her give her life up for the moon. She didn't deserve that.
He thought about Suki. The second girl that he really cared about; he didn't necessarily love her, at least he didn't think so. He didn't like her like he loved Yue.
Yue was beautiful while Suki was tough. Yue was kind while Suki was kind, but ready kick anyone's butt if they got on her bad side. But there was one thing they had in common: they were willing to put their life on the line for the people that they care about, especially Sokka. Yue had died, protecting her people and Sokka couldn't protect her. Suki…well Sokka had no idea where she was. She had fought Azula for some reason and had lost…she could be dead; another girl Sokka couldn't protect.
How many more people was he going to lose, that were dear to him? First his mother, then father, then Yue, and now Suki, he didn't protect any of them. They all could, and some were, dead.
He looked in front of him to that girl, who called herself Jun. She was holding that basket so close to her body, like she was protecting it.
He picked up his speed and fell in step with her. "What do you got in the basket?" he, glancing at her. She didn't look at him, she just kept walking.
"Headbands," she simply replied. "For one of my patients. All her comrades died in a fight that she had with three crazy ladies. She had to bury all of her friends, and when I found I saw that pieces of their clothes had been torn off of their bodies and their headbands were scattered everywhere. I wanted to surprise her with these. I'm not sure if she'll like it or not."
"May I see one?" Sokka asked. The truth was, as soon as she Jun had said "crazy ladies" he immediately thought of Suki. Could one of these headbands be a headband of a Kyoshi Warrior, one of Suki?
The girl shrugged and took out one of the headbands from her basket and handed it to Sokka. He took it from her hand and then stared at it in disbelief.
It was a headband alright, one of the Kyoshi Warriors. It wasn't Suki's but…if the Kyoshi Warriors were in these woods, which meant…Suki must have been. Was she the patient that Jun was talking about?
"By chance," Sokka said, his heart thumping madly, his eyes still on the object made of gold plates and a green band he held in his hand. "By any chance is the girl at your house…is her name Suki?"
The girl stopped, dead in her tracks. "How did you know?" she asked, looking at him, her eyes wide, her face twisted in confusion.
"You're telling me that a girl named Suki is at your house, right now? Short hair kinda red-brown? Gray eyes? Pretty but tough?" Sokka asked a grin spreading wide across his face, a huge load being lifted off of his back.
"Yes. How do you know her? Are you…Sokka?"
It was true he hadn't given his name to the girl, none of them had; they still didn't trust her, even after she had said she would help heal the Avatar.
"Yes! Yes I am."
"Oh—she's talked about you"—the girl turned around and pointed to Katara—"you're the waterbender, Katara"—she pointed to Toph—"you're the blind earthbender, Toph—"and the Avatar—he's Aang, isn't he? Oh—we have to hurry! She was going to leave for Ba Sing Se today! Come on!"
Sokka, Katara, Toph, the Earth King, and the girl immediately started running. Appa walked more quickly behind her, with Aang on his back.
……
Suki walked back from the river squeezing the water out of her hair. She had taken a long, lukewarm, bath in the river not far from where she had been staying.
Today was the day she was going to leave Miss Fay's house and go back to Ba Sing Se to find Sokka and the Avatar to tell them about the Fire Princess and her comrades. She was going to join them in their fight and win with them. Either that or she would go back to Kyoshi Island.
She reached a small wooden house that had eight windows in all: two up front, two in back, and two on either side. There were ten beds inside and two separate rooms, one was Fay's and one was Jun's. Suki herself, slept on one of the beds outside in the main room. And it was only her. There was no one else there except for her. It made her feel very, very alone.
She reached the back door of Fay's home and opened it her hand still squeezing the water out of her hair. She looked up, into the common room and heard voices. One was Jun's. She was saying that she was sure Suki would be back soon.
Fay was talking to the person or people waiting for her. She was being her kind "Suki's a doll, I love having her around" self.
Suki looked down at what she was wearing. Just a plain long sleeve shirt that was dirty and was torn at the neckline. And her pants were ripped, so they were actually shorts. She didn't have her makeup and her hair was soaking wet and wavy. Whoever was out there…hopefully they didn't care about appearances.
"Jun," Suki called, walking out into the common room. "I need to find my bag, I"—Suki stopped dead in their tracks. In front of her was none other than Sokka, Katara, Toph, an older man, and Aang.
Suki's breath was get heavier. "Sokka?"—she said. "Sokka…"
Sokka stood up. "Suki?"
"SOKKA!!"
"SUKI!!"
The two warriors ran to each other and threw themselves into a huge hug. Sokka had his arms wrapped around her back and Suki had her's around his neck. "Suki—I—I—I thought you were dead. I knew…well I didn't know…what happened?"
"Sokka, it's so good to see you again. No, it's great to see you again. I was going to go and find you today. That Fire Nation Princess took my clothes and my weapons. They"—
"Took over Ba Sing Se," Sokka replied, his face very serious. "Princess Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. They've taken over Ba Sing Se. Aang's hurt and the Earth King is with us."
Suki gasped and felt tears weld up in her eyes. She let go of Sokka and back away. She shook her head. And then turned around and ran back outside the back door.
She ran out the back door. She didn't know why she ran. It wasn't like her. It was weak, it was not who she was. She faced her problems head on. But she couldn't face that. If she had beaten those three girls…then they wouldn't have taken over Ba Sing Se. They wouldn't have hurt Sokka or Aang.
Aang…he was unconscious with a huge gash in his back. What did they do that put them in so much danger. Did he too try to defeat Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee all by himself?
She ran into a big animal that was very fluffy and very familiar. She looked up and saw Appa. "You gotta away," she said and sat down by the animal. "I'm very glad."
Suki had never cried before. Not when her mother died, not when her father went away, not for her teammates, and not when Sokka rejected her that night when he had been looking at the moon. She didn't cry, for fear of not being able to stop.
But now, she let Ba Sing Se be taken over. Those three women had taken her clothes, used her name, and had taken over the last safe place on earth. And she had let it happen.
She felt someone wrap an arm around her. "It wasn't your fault, you know."
"Yes it was!" Suki cried, a tear falling down her cheek. "If I hadn't been distracted by Appa I could have helped my teammates, then we could have taken them down together."
"Wait a minute," Sokka said. "What was Appa doing there?"
"We found him. He was dirty and hurt…we cleaned him up and then those ladies found us. They wanted him and we protected him. I told him to go away. All my friends were protecting me…if I just left him alone he would have left. I—I had to fight Azula and…and…when I woke up…they were all dead. All of them. The only I knew was that Appa got away and we had lost to those three women."
Suki calmed herself down. She didn't Sokka thinking she was a cry baby. "You saved Appa?" Suki nodded. "And you took on Azula, by yourself?" She nodded. "You've got to be the craziest girl I met." He laughed to himself and Suki looked up at him, confused. "But if it wasn't for you, we would have never got away from Ba Sing Se without Azula capturing us. You saved us, Suki."
She looked up at him.
It wasn't like him to be kind and sensitive. He was trying to make her feel better. And it was working. If she didn't find Appa, he would probably still been lost.
"I guess you're right," she said quietly.
"I'm always right. I am the man of my little family. And men know all." Suki hung her head and he punched him on the arm, laughing.
"You haven't learned a thing, have you?"
……
For the next two days, Aang slept soundly in one of the gurneys. Katara never left his bed side and Suki taught Toph a little bit of swimming (which wasn't fun for either one of them.) The Earth King played with Basco, Appa, and Momo, while Sokka either stayed with Aang or watched Toph struggle to learn how to swim.
At night, he planned on what they were going to do. Suki was the only one who stayed up late with him to figure out, once Aang got up what they were going to do. "Do you want another cup of tea?" Suki asked from another room.
Sokka sat down the tea cup he just finished saying, "No thanks." If he drank one more of her cups of tea he might throw up. She came back into the room and sat down next to him.
Maps from the Library were spread out on the table along with maps they already owned and maps that Fay had let them borrow. "We have to go somewhere where the Fire Nation won't look for us," Sokka said for the hundredth time.
"Kyoshi Island," Suki said, pointing to her home island on the map. "If you go to Kyoshi Island the Fire Nation won't look there because you've already been there before. They'll think you've gone somewhere else."
Sokka sighed. "That's a good plan…but…"
"Sokka you have no where else to go. And besides, we can protect you. Even if the Kyoshi Warriors are just me right now…I can find new recruits. And besides, Kyoshi Island is the spiritual ground for Avatar Kyoshi. If things get really bad, Aang might be able to go into the Avatar State with her help."
"True," Sokka said. "Okay, we'll go to Kyoshi Island. But there's another problem: Aang has to learn firebending. Who will teach him?"
"We have a library," Suki said. "If we get scrolls of firebending, he can teach himself. He's done it a million life times before. He should be able to. And besides after he wakes, it doesn't mean he'll be completely healed. He'll need time."
"We don't have time!" Sokka said harshly. "But…that's a good idea too. I guess we can do that"—
"AHH—KATARA!!" they heard Aang scream. Sokka got up and ran over to the Avatar's bed. Suki lit a candle and ran in after him. The rest of the gang wasn't far behind. "Where's Katara?" he kept asking.
"She's fine," Sokka said to the boy covered in a cold sweat.
"So I got her out of the ground?" Aang asked.
Sokka was confused. "Aang…she was never underground. What do you mean?"
"What do mean "what do you mean"? Sokka, the general, when I was trying to go into the Avatar State. He put her underground. Don't you remember?"
"Yeah, of course."
Katara and the rest of the house were now by the Avatar's bedside. Aang looked around at them confused. "Who's that?" he asked, pointing to Toph.
"Aang," Katara said, panic rising in her voice, "that's Toph. She's your earthbending teacher. You don't remember her? We found her at the Earth Rumble Six arena."
"We did?"
All eyes were wide and plastered on Aang. He didn't remember. "What about the fight with Azula, do you remember that?" Katara asked.
"Who's Azula?"
They all gasped. Katara could feel tears in her eyes. "Amnesia," Fay said quietly. "He has amnesia. His injury must have hurt his spinal cord. He doesn't remember anything from the time you fought this general guy."
"No—no," Katara said. "Aang, do you remember waterbending."
He laughed. "Yeah—of course. Guys what's going on"—
"Earthbending?" Toph spoke for the first time. "Do you, Twinkle Toes, remember earthbending?" Aang sat there for a minute just staring at her. She had ebony hair that was wrapped up in a bun and eyes that were green but seemed to be glassed over. She was wearing a green shirt that was covered by a golden vest. She wore shorts and a belt. She looked mean and fearful. And why was she calling him Twinkle Toes?
"Uh—I—I—yes. I remember earthbending. I just don't remember how I learned it. I remember the lessons. Rock-a-lied…Move a Rock…whirl pool of rocks…"
"Well at least I don't have to teach him earthbending again," Toph mumbled to herself, a little hurt that he didn't remember the girl that gave up her life just to teach him earthbending.
"Aang," Katara said seriously, "do you remember anything? Zuko?"—Aang nodded—"Suki?"—Aang nodded again and waved to Suki—"Jet?"
"Why are asking me this?" Aang asked. He went to stand up but stopped and groaned. He put his hand to his back and lay back down on the bed. "Why does my back hurt so much?"
And slowly, Katara along with the rest of the gang told their story all the way back from when Katara went underground when they were on their way to Omashu.
The next day, Aang sat in his bed, with his head in his hands. He hadn't shaved his head so the tiniest bits of patchy light-brown hair were showing. His eyes were red from lack of sleep and his back was throbbing with pain. Why couldn't he remember anything? Why?
Suddenly the door opened and Jun came running in. She had gone to Ba Sing Se to do some shopping and now she was inside, panting and not carrying any shopping bags. "Avatar Aang, you need to get out of here," she said between breaths.
Katara, Toph, Sokka, Suki, the Earth King, and Fay came running from the rest of the house. "What's wrong?" Fay asked, walking over to the girl.
"That princess…she's looking for you. She's sent out a ton of Dai Li officers to find you guys and bring you back to Ba Sing Se. The prince is leading them."
"We gotta get out of here," Katara said, just the slightest tint of pink rising to her cheek. It was true Zuko hadn't changed, at all. He betrayed her. And now he was after Aang again.
It was pure chaos after that.
Sokka helped Suki and then the Earth King and Basco onto Appa's back, while Toph climbed up and then helped Aang up also. Katara was helped by Sokka, and Sokka got up on his own. Then they were off leaving the Ba Sing Se behind.
Okay that was a very uneventful chapter…kinda weird. And if you didn't catch it Aang has lost his memory from the first episode of the second season and some of before (the Blue Spirit) Review are always appreciated!!
