1. Sneers

If you were dead or still alive…

Most of these kids, they'd chop off their own legs to see their parents again. I hear them, at night, thrashing in the throes of a nightmare and I hear them, during the day, cursing the Fire Nation with their every breath. I join in, because the Fire Nation is as good of an enemy as any, but I don't really feel it. My friends called me coarse, unfeeling, morose and then finally, the name that stuck, Sneers. They never asked why, nor would they ever ask that. They all assumed that I am here for the same reasons they are.

They never suspect that I would chop off my own legs to never have to see my parents again.

I don't care.

--I Don't Care, Apocalytica

2. Longshot

Would she hear me, if I called her name? Would she hold me…

The first time he killed a firebender, it had been for her. There had been no time to think, he'd caught a flash of Fire Nation red and the glint of a blade and simply fired. He'd even comforted Bee after, his usual stoic mask in place. But once he was alone, he'd puked behind a bush. He felt terrible. If he'd saved Bee's life, then why did it hurt so much? Subconsiously… Did he regret it?

If she knew my shame?

--Tears Don't Fall, Bullet For My Valentine

3. The Duke

Was it all too much, or just not enough?

The first real family he'd ever had was the Freedom Fighters. They cared for him, looked out for him, loved him, played with him, treated him as both a kid and warrior when they should have beaten him senseless for stealing supplies. They embraced him as one of their own and let him fight the Fire Nation. They taught him everything he knew. It was all he could have asked for and more. It was his home.

And then the stupid Avatar came, and wrecked it. They said that Jet, wonderful Jet, leader Jet, was revenge-crazy and that was bad. The Duke didn't understand. They told him that the Freedom Fighters were over, and, for the first time in memory, he'd cried. Not in front of anyone, mind, he still had his pride, but he'd wept for his lost home. He didn't want to lose them. He didn't want to leave the forest. Pipsqueak had come, tussling his hair and vowing to go with him, stay with him, whatever, wherever, through everything. But it wouldn't be the same.

The Freedom Fighters were gone…

Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare…

--Time of Dying, Three Days Grace

4. Smellerbee

In the memory you'll find me, eyes burning up… The darkness holding me tightly…

It had been Longshot who'd found the small girl crying beside the river. He'd put an arm around her shoulders, and pulled her tight to his chest. She repaid him with a new wound, a nice, long scratch running diagonal along his face. If Longshot had been a little slower, the knife would have decapitated him. He had said nothing. He'd kept quiet about it, even after she'd attacked him, because that was what he did best. When asked what happened, he'd simply shrug and walk away, which wasn't saying much, even for a mute. When she was asked what was wrong with him, her face turned a brilliant shade of scarlet and she babbled the first nonsense that came to mind and fled.

It had been Smellerbee who'd found the lanky boy trapped in the throes of a nightmare. She'd crawled right into bed with him, wrapping tiny arms around his scarred chest. He'd repaid her with a startled look, a fist raised as if to hit whatever was plaguing him only to find her instead. She had said nothing, waiting for him to calm down enough to lower the fist. And he had. So, they lay in silence, unmoving until Longshot reached up with a un-bandaged hand and grabbed hers, giving it a small squeeze.

Even the strongest of people needed comfort sometimes.
Until the sun rises up.

--Forgotten, Linkin Park

5. Pipsqueak

In silent moments, imagine you would be here…

I had always been big for my age. By the time I was twelve, I could easily throw kids my own age across a room. It still took years to finally learn how to defeat my soldier brother when we wrestled. I only beat him once, and he'd tossed back his head and let out a booming laugh, tussling my hair with a smug smirk upon his lips, proclaiming, "Well, little brother, I guess this is the end of the world as we know it."

The firebenders came the next day.

I don't know why I'm alive and he's not. I really don't. Maybe I was in the right place and he in the wrong. Maybe his duty as guard of our small town was what did him in. No matter what it was, he was gone, along with everyone I'd ever known. So, needless to say, I was confused when I saw his smug smirk again, but this time on a boy younger than I. The boy didn't have his booming laugh, but he and my older brother were so alike, I stayed on, becoming a solider my own self. There was just one thing different…

Jet has yet to beat me in a wrestling match.

All of my memories keep you near.

--Memories, Within Temptation

6. Jet

I have seen the others, and I have discovered…

They were gone, and it was my fault. Not the Fire Nation's. Not the Spirit's. Not even the Avatar's. But mine. All mine. That much was clear. What was unclear was why it was happening now. I had been operating as I always had, nothing had changed… So why desert me now?

"Jet? We—Longshot and I, we're leaving."

I was presented with a choice, the why and how I got to these crossroads unimportant now. I could stay here, brooding in the forest, continuing to launch attack after attack against the village until they killed me. Or… I could leave, start over. Sure, I wouldn't be avenging my parents, but I don't think they would want me dead too… One thing was sure, I couldn't lose my family again.

I looked up, giving a shaky ghost of my normal smug smirk, at the only family I had left. "Well, guys," I said, to Smellerbee and Longshot, getting slowly to my feet. "Mind if I tag along?"

That this fight is not worth fighting.

--The General, Dispatch

Yes, I am alive. No, I will not be updating this as regularly as I had originally hoped (if you couldn't tell from the long hiatus). I have been workin on something else, my first real multi-chapter story, which will be a Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and a Numb3rs crossover. So, that is what is eating my time. I hope to return someday to the Avatar universe, but it probably won't be until after that story is finished. Unless something strikes me, of course.

"I use my traffic figures to measure my worth as a human being." -- Ben "Yahtzee" Crosshaw.