A/N: From here on out I will be following the Avatar timeline. I may skip a few episodes here and there, only the ones were the addition of my character would have changed nothing. This story picks up as the group is leaving the Southern Air Temple.

Also, for those of you who read the first few chapters, i decided to change Shion's name to just Shio. just an Fyi so there's no confusion.

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Chapter 5: Reunion

As Aang looked forlornly back at the receding Southern Air Temple the other three settled back for the long journey ahead of them.

"So," said Sokka, breaking the silence, "Where are we going Aang?"

"Well," said Aang pulling out a map and coming to sit with the rest of them, "I thought we'd go here," he said pointing to an island, "There's something I want to do there."

"Well," Shio commented, "It's on our way to the North Pole so I don't see why not. Besides we'll have to stop for supplies soon since Aang burned up all our seal jerky."

Aang grinned sheepishly, "Well it's settled then," he said, he rubbed his eyes, "I'm gonna take a nap," he curled up in one corner of the saddle and Momo curled up right next to him and he was soon asleep, exhausted by his ordeal with the Avatar state.

"Hm," said Shio thoughtfully, a wry grin on his face, "If you two are his family, then what does that make me?"

The Water Tribe girl turned with a smirk on her lips, "Oh, you can be the weird cousin that no one talks to!" this caused the other two to laugh.

"A water bender with a sense of humor; I'm starting to like you more and more." said Shio.

Katara looked closer at the now blue clad swordsman; he had changed into a long sleeved jacket when they had got to higher altitudes due to the cold. The jacket was several shades of blue with some white patches mixed in. "May I look at that?" she asked.

"Sure." he said. He took the jacket off and handed it to Katara, "Careful it's a bit heavy,"

"Oof! It sure is! I know you have a lot of stuff in it but it shouldn't be this heavy!" she said admiring the stitching and handiwork.

"I put weights in some of the pockets so I get a workout everyday just from moving around. Also if I'm ever faced with a really tough opponent, I can take it off and be able to move even faster than before."

"That's a good idea." said Katara, "Where did you get this?" she asked examining the fur-lined coat, "It looks like Water Tribe work."

"I had it commissioned when I was visiting the Northern Tribe about eight years ago. I was studying water bending at the time and I got sick of freezing my butt off every day." He noticed the confused look she was giving him, "Oh, I was just studying the technique, it's useful in hand to hand combat; I can't bend."

"Oh, that's cool," she said handing the jacket back.

"Yup."

They lapsed into an awkward silence for a time; then Shio offered to help Sokka sharpen his weapons, having noticed that they were rather dull. So they flew on towards their destination.

A few days later, Aang had gotten them hopelessly lost. "You have no idea where you're going do you?" Sokka asked Aang as he looked at the map.

"Well, I know it's near water," said Aang.

"Well, that narrows it down," commented Shio, "considering that we're in the middle of the freaking ocean!"

"I guess we're getting close then." said Sokka sarcastically.

Aang tried to impress Katara with an Air bending trick; which she ignored due to her concentration on her mending of Sokka's pants. Sokka made a rather sexist comment which got Katara all pissed at him. About an hour later they arrived at their destination. As Appa touched down they all piled off and stretched.

"Do we have to stop now?" asked Sokka, "We just made a pit stop yesterday!"

"Well, Appa's tired already!" said Aang rather unconvincingly.

Suddenly something hurled itself out of the water into the air; "Look!" shouted Aang.

"Holy crap!" exclaimed Shio, "That is one big fish!"

"Actually I think 'Holy carp' might be more appropriate in this situation." said Sokka smiling.

"Nice one!" said the swordsman, slapping him a high five.

"Actually, that's an Elephant Koi! The reason we're here!" Aang said as he stripped down to his underwear, "I'm gonna ride it! Watch this Katara!" he dove into the water and grabbed a hold of one of the monster fish; showing off to Katara as he rode it.

"Not too subtle, is he?" commented Shio.

"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Katara.

He raised an eyebrow, and sighed, "Never mind."

Katara ran back to stop Appa from eating some of their supplies, when Sokka suddenly spotted something in the water. He yelled a warning to Aang, but the Air Nomad only realized that something was wrong when the beast's giant fin rose out of the water behind him. At this point Aang ran so fast that he actually ran over the surface of the water; he couldn't check his momentum when he got back to shore and ended up plowing right into Sokka.

"Yeah," said Sokka rubbing his head as Aang got dressed, "I think it's time to go." Suddenly several green blurs dropped from the treetops and quickly subdued, blindfolded, and tied up the group. "Or not,"

They were taken to the small village and tied to the statue of Avatar Kyoshi in the town square. The village leader and the leader of the warriors that had ambushed them demanded to know who they were. When Sokka made a sexist comment about how a "bunch of girls" could never have taken them down, the all female squad took great offense. Aang said that it was his fault and when it was eventually revealed that he was the Avatar. The village was instantly elated and they were released. Sokka had noticed Shio looking at the head of the Kyoshi Warriors with keen interest. As the group headed into the village with the villagers Shio walked up to the girl.

"Hi!" he said, "I think I know you from somewhere, but I can't place your face. Have we met before?"

"I don't think so…" replied the Fan master uncertainty, "I would have remembered a sword like that," she said admiring the sword attached to the bandolier across his back.

He peered at her face closely through his glasses, "Wait…Suki?"

Startled, she took a closer look, "Shio? Oh wow, it's so good to see you!" she exclaimed hugging him.

"Wait a second!" Sokka said clearly confused, "You two know each other?"

"Yep!" said Shio, "I trained here for about three months. Suki here was my sparring partner, and fellow student. My master wanted me to learn all kinds of martial arts so he took me here to learn the fighting style of the Kyoshi Warriors."

"Yeah, that was seven years ago." said Suki.

"Time sure does fly. This place has changed quite a bit though; I didn't recognize it when we landed."

The two friends walked off talking and reminiscing about the time they spent training on the island. The group was given rooms on the upper floor of the Kyoshi Warrior's Dojo and they made themselves at home.

The next morning the group woke up to an excellent breakfast. Sokka was still fuming about the fact that he had been beaten by some girls and decided to confront them directly. Shio tagged along because he wanted to talk to Suki some more, and he wanted to see what would happen. Sokka ended up getting his ass handed to him by Suki and walked out in humiliation. Shio spent some time getting caught up with Suki, and then amused himself by watching Aang get chased around the village by a bunch of pre-teen girls, and seeing Katara pretend not to notice or care. Later in the day, Aang dropped in on Katara as she was practicing a little water bending; he announced that he was going to ride the Unagi, the dangerous monster that almost ate him the day before.

Katara's only reply was, "Good for you…"

"You're not going to stop me?"

"Nope, have fun,"

"I will!"

"Great!"

"I know it's great!"

"I'm glad you know."

"I'm glad you're glad!"

"Good!" said Katara losing her concentration on the water.

"Fine!" shouted Aang and stormed out of the room.

Shio, who had heard the whole conversation, poked his head into the room that Katara was in, "You two fight like an old married couple," he commented with a smirk on his face.

"We do not!" Katara denied, turning bright red.

After about an hour the Water Tribe girl decided to go find the Air Monk just to check on him. She arrived just as all the girls that he had been trying to impress were leaving. They both apologized for being so rude to each other earlier and Aang started to swim back to shore; suddenly the Unagi surfaced right under Aang and shot him high into the air on its massive head. It tossed him around a bit before Aang lost his grip and landed in the water, unconscious. Katara quickly swam out to the unmoving boy, yelling his name; she reached him and blasted them both back to shore with her water bending just as the Unagi slammed it's body down in the spot they had just been in. as she scrambled to get herself and Aang to cover, the Unagi blasted the area with water, trying to draw them out of hiding. As she peeked up over the boulder she was hiding behind, she saw a Fire Navy ship off load a squad of Komodo Rhinos, with a familiar face at the head of them. "Zuko…" she said Venom dripping from her voice. She quickly extracted the water from Aang's lungs; he coughed and weakly advised her never to ride the Unagi.

Meanwhile, in the village, Sokka had sucked up his pride and asked Suki to train him; he had been at it for several hours now and had made some progress. He was sparring with the fan master while Shio watched the two, when the village leader came to them and informed them that the village was being invaded by fire benders. They quickly sprinted into the village and took up positions on the roofs with the other Kyoshi Warriors. As the troops mounted on rhinos came into the village they sprang their trap; several warriors leapt from the rooftops and knocked several riders off their mounts. Shio leapt from his position, and knocked a fire bender from his saddle, then slashed a flesh wound into the rhino's flank causing it to panic and run off. Suki rushed the Fire Prince, who was hanging back from the rest of the group, but was swatted away by the beast's tail. The angry prince sent a blast of fire at the fallen warrior, but Sokka stepped in front of it and blocked it with a fan.

"I guess training's over," he said.

Another Kyoshi warrior knocked Zuko from his saddle and Suki, Shio, Sokka and another Kyoshi warrior surrounded him.

"I will capture the Avatar this time!" he growled, "And you," he said pointing to Shio from his position on the ground, "I will kill you personally for what you did to my sister!" he lashed out wit his foot sending a wave of fire out that knocked everyone down. He jumped into the street and yelled a challenge to the Avatar.

"Hey! Over here!" yelled Aang and they started to duel. The battle was actually quite brief and ended with Aang blasting Zuko through a house with the aid of a couple fans. He flew to where Katara was, "Look what I brought to this place," he said.

"It's not your fault," said Katara, "but if we want this village to survive, we need to leave; Zuko will follow us."

Aang hung his head, "You're right, I'll call Appa."

They quickly left but not before Sokka got a kiss on the cheek from Suki. Shio smiled as he saw this, "Come on lover boy! We gotta go!"

As they flew over the village Aang knew he had to do something; in idea occurred to him and he dove into the water, resurfacing moments later on the head of the Unagi. He used the giant sea monster as a fire hose and doused the town with water. He returned to Appa, "I know, I know," he said, "that was stupid and dangerous,"

"Yes it was," said Katara and hugged him tightly.

The look of joy on Aang's face made Shio smile; but he also, to his surprise, he felt a twinge of jealousy . His eyes suddenly pained him, "Ow," he said putting a hand to them.

"You ok?" asked Aang.

"Yeah, I just don't like fighting fire benders; even with my glasses the fire hurts my eyes."

"Well you should probably get used to it," said Sokka, still dressed in the robes of the Kyoshi Warriors, "I have a feeling that we're going to see a lot more of them from now on."

Well that wraps up this chapter. The next one will probably be their visit to see King Bumi.

I'm thinking of changing Shion's name to Shio instead; please tell me what you think; of both the name and the story! Please review!

Until next time!