*Bee*

Ugh. I officially hate running.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two balloons go down.

The brown ones were raining fireballs down at Aang and Katara. After a minute, the two of them flew down towards us.

Sokka stopped, turned, and faced the group. Aang and Katara landed behind him. "Try and find cover!" he yelled, looking up. "I think we're about to see some bombs!"

Toph bent a roof over us. A moment later, the bombs started.

The roof started collapsing, but Toph bent pillars to hold it up.

The things kept going. They stepped out from under the roof.

"Why aren't they turning around to attack us again?" Katara said.

"They're headed for the beach…" Aang said. He jumped, realizing the answer. "They're gonna destroy the submarines!"

"How are we all gonna escape?" I heard Sokka say.

"We're not," the Chief said, coming up behind them. He was leaning on Bato.

"Then our only choice is to stand and fight," Sokka said. Okay, even I knew that was a stupid idea. And I'm the one who doesn't back down if I'm outnumbered 20-to-1. "We have the Avatar," he continued. "We could still win."

"Yes," the Chief said. "With the Avatar we could still win. On another day." He straightened up. "You kids have to leave. You have to escape on Appa together."

Did he mean we were supposed to stay here and be tortured?

Alright, I could deal. It'd happened before. But what about the others? Pipsqueak was tough, so was Longshot. But Abi was so new, and The Duke was just a little kid!

"What?" Katara said, running to her dad. "We can't leave you behind! We won't leave anyone behind!"

"You're our only chance in the long run," he said. "You and Sokka have to go with Aang somewhere safe. It's the only way to keep hope alive."

Katara turned away.

"The youngest of our group should go with you," Bato said. "The adults will stay behind and surrender. We'll be prisoners, but we'll all survive this battle."

"I've got some experience with Fire Nation prisons," Haru's dad said, walking up to the group. "It's not going to be easy, but we'll get by."

Sokka turned to the airships. "They're at the beach already!"

Sure enough, they were raining bombs down on the subs. There were some swampbenders there, trying to protect them, but they couldn't do much.

The seaweed monster imploded. I heard Abi gasp next to me.

The seaweed landed on the other two benders. Three heads popped out.

Abi sighed with relief.

The subs exploded.

We were officially stranded.

Toph bent Teo and his dad up to Appa's saddle. The Mechanist set him down. "Bye, son," I heard him say.

"Bye, Dad. I'm… really proud of you."

Toph bent him down.

The Duke was hanging on one of Appa's horns, struggling to get on. Pipsqueak walked over and lifted him up.

"I'll miss you, Pipsqueak."

"Take care, The Duke." It hit me that Pipsqueak couldn't come with us.

I ran up and hugged him. I don't know why. I just… did.

"I'll miss you, too," I whispered.

He pat my head. "You'll be fine." But would he?

We just stood there for a moment. I could barely make out Haru talking to his dad.

I felt something tug the back of my shirt.

(Come on, we need to get going.) I turned. He looked concerned. I didn't act like that. I was the tough one.

I swallowed and nodded. We climbed up. I saw Katara and Sokka hug their dad, but I wasn't listening to what they were saying. I was thinking of the fact that Abi wasn't with us.

"Abi!" I yelled down.

She looked up and smiled sadly. "I can't come. My family's here. I can't leave them. I'm stronger than them." She chuckled. "Yeah, a sixteen year old girl is stronger than three grown men."

I felt another pang. I realized I'd begun to really consider her my friend. The first non-Freedom Fighter friend I'd had in a long time.

"I'll be fine," she said.

I nodded, turned back, and slouched against the saddle. Longshot put his arm around me.

(Trust her.)

I looked at him. "I do, it's just… everyone's leaving us. Jet yanked us away from everyone, then he…" I took a deep breath. "And now we have to leave them again."

(We'll see them again.)

I bit my lip and nodded. "You're right. We'll all be fine."

Aang stood up. "Thank you all for being so brave and so strong," he said. "I'm gonna make this up to you."

Katara hopped into the saddle and Aang sat down.

We took off.

I glanced back and noticed the zeppelin–I guess that'd be the word–behind us. But it wasn't following.

"I know just the place for us to go where we'll be safe for a while!" Aang said. We turned to him. "The Western Air Temple."

Appa sped up.

This episode is over! And we say goodbye to Abi. I'm almost possitive she'll be in the finale, but other than that I'm not sure I'll ever use her again...