*Bee*

We ran through the hole they'd just made in a wall.

The tanks formed a semi-circle around us. Over the tops I could see the other soldiers flinging fireballs at us.

Sokka, another Water Tribe guy – his name started with a B… whatever – and an earthbender were looking at a map. Sokka jumped up. I glanced back and saw the Chief limp in, leaning on Katara. And I thought I'd had bad luck.

Toph and Sokka ran over to him. I turned back to the field.

A few seconds later, I looked over at Abi. She was looking up at the sky, confused. I looked up and saw… Aang?

He landed in front of Katara, Sokka, Toph, and the Chief.

Stay focused, I thought. Just stay focused.

We ran through the space between two tanks. I looked around. I noticed Longshot and the Duke getting cornered by about six firebenders. Longshot sucked at close combat and, from the looks of it, the Duke was out of explosives.

I sighed. "Abi."

She turned to me.

I nodded in their direction. We ran towards them.

I dropped, slid, and sliced at two soldiers' legs. She bended the water off a truck and froze two more. I sliced through another, she froze the last one.

"Where the hell were you guys?" I asked the boys.

"What do you mean?" the Duke asked.

"I mean I was hurt. Bad. And I couldn't find you idiots!"

(Are you okay?)

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks to her." I nodded to Abi, who was leaning against a wall, catching her breath. She obviously wasn't as used to running as I was.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Appa take off.

"Who's she?" the Duke asked.

"Her name's Abi. She's a swampbender."

"Hi, how you doin'?" she panted.

"You sure she's a swampbender?" the Duke asked.

"She's half Water Tribe, half Earth Kingdom," I explained. "The only place her parents could agree on was the swamp."

"Yep, that's pretty much it," she said, finally walking over. "So, who are these guys?"

"This is the Duke," I said. "I've been taking care of this little guy since I found him about three years ago."

She turned to me, eyebrows raised. "Found him?"

"Yeah. We were part of this group of refugee kids trying to take out the Fire Nation. We're all orphans. There's one more of us somewhere around here, and everyone else kinda scattered when our home was burned down."

"Where'd you live?"

"A forest. Oh, and this is Longshot. He's one of the two boys I mentioned earlier."

"This is the guy that named you?" she asked, laughing.

"Uh, no, that'd be the other one."

Awkward silence…

"C'mon, we'd better help out," I said. The three of them nodded. "The Duke, you got any explosives left?"

He shook his head.

"Um, how old is this kid?" Abi asked, looking concerned.

"Eight, why?" I asked, looking around for something he could use.

"An eight year old with explosives?"

"We all need something. I'm a fourteen year old with daggers; Longshot's a sixteen year old with arrows, why not an eight year old with explosives?"

"Whatever you say…"

There were a few soldiers on komodo rhinos a couple hundred yards away, cornering a couple of ours. I got an idea. "Hey, the Duke, you remember all those sword lessons Jet and I gave you?"

He nodded.

"Good. Abi, back me up."

I unsheathed two short swords, ran at the rhinos and up a tail, and sliced through a soldier. Abi froze the others.

I grabbed a sword from the corpse and knocked it off. "I'm so gonna regret doing this," I muttered under my breath, taking the reins.

I rode it back to the boys. "Here!" I yelled, tossing the sword down. The Duke caught it.

"Hey, Abi," I said. "You know how to ride one of these things?"

She shrugged. "I can try. Why?"

I slid off. "It's all yours."

She looked startled, but climbed up. "I'm just wondering; why didn't you want it?" she asked.

"Memories. Not-so-great memories."

She nodded, like she understood.

I knew she didn't.