Wow, sorry for the long wait but I've been super in playing video games. Between Digimon Cyber Sleuth and my Legend of Zelda binge, I've been preeeetty busy X3.

Rai and Takumi were taking a leisurely stroll through the thick woods as the sun began setting. Rather than both being on Haku as they had been for the past few days, Takumi was now riding his very own ostrich horse, which he named Kiwi. She may not have been as fast as Haku, but she didn't lack for effort.

"We'll make camp here for tonight," Rai said, climbing off Haku as they found a nice, small clearing surrounded by trees. The pair pulled out their bedrolls and lay them on the ground. Rai waited patiently until Takumi fell asleep against Kiwi, who slept just as peacefully. "Ok, come on Haku. Let's go," she whispered as she and her massive eel hound carefully and quietly tiptoed out of camp. "Don't worry, we'll be back before he even wakes up." She mounted Haku's saddle as the eel hound took off back to the direction of the ranch that Takumi had gotten Kiwi from. She had unfinished business there and she didn't need Takumi getting involved in it. They hadn't traveled very far from the ranch and with Haku running at full speed, they crossed the distance in no time. As she neared the ranch once more, she quickly spotted Pian exiting with all his belongings packed on a cart. As she approached him from behind, she could hear him grumbling under his breath angrily. She placed her hand on his shoulder and whipped him around, immediately placing her hand over his mouth to silence his shouts. "I have some questions for you and I'm not leaving until they're answered." Pian tried to struggle and break free, but Rai easily pulled him behind the ranch and threw him against the wall.

"What is the meaning of this? Haven't you bothered me enough?" he shouted.

"No," Rai answered. "I want to know what you have to do with slavers."

"S-slavers?" he gasped. "Wh-what are you talking about?"

"I saw you with that letter, the one with the slavers' emblem: the sword and the chain. Now, tell me what use for a ranch and inn do the slavers have?" Rai asked, her tone growing more sinister as she glared at the frightened man.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" he stammered, terrified.

"I wouldn't test my patience if I were you. Do you want to know what happened to the last slaver I encountered? I burned him to a crisp," she whispered sinisterly. "Even if you aren't a slaver, I'm more than happy to get rid of those willing to help scum like them."

"Ok! Ok! Just please don't hurt me!" he cried, desperate to save his own skin. "I never participated in the trade, but I just gave them a place to stop and rest on their routes."

"Routes? You mean slavers have been here?" she asked roughly, gripping the collar of his jacket and shaking him for answers.

"They used to! But I've already sent them a letter that I don't own this ranch anymore. I swear, I don't know anything else! They're sure to change their route in the future once they get my letter!"

"Then when was the last group here?" she asked.

"Th-they left the day before yesterday!" he stammered scaredly.

"And how many were there?"

"Not many," he replied quickly. "Four of them; they didn't have any slaves with them though. I-if you hurry, you can probably catch up to them on your eel hound. They tend to stay off the roads and usually hide in cav-"

"I know where they like to hide. You've been very helpful, Mr. Pian. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind about sparing you."

"Y-you're just going to let me go?" he asked.

"Did you want me to turn you over to the authorities?" she asked, but he quickly shook his head. "That's what I figured. Besides, if the authorities don't come after you, the slavers will. They don't take kindly to associates failing them. To me, you're just the dainty appetizer and I've got my sights set on the main course."

Back at their campsite, Takumi slowly stirred and sleepily opened his eyes. Kiwi didn't seem to notice him wake up as she continued sleeping peacefully. Takumi rubbed his sleepy eyes and yawned, noticing that it was still pitch dark. As he looked around, he quickly noticed that Rai and Haku were absent. "Rai?" he called out, "Haku?" When there was no response, he stood up and looked around curiously. "That's odd… Where are they?" He stepped out of their campsite and began wandering through the thick forest looking for the two missing members of their party. As he searched, he found a small cave and saw a faint light coming from inside. "Rai? Are you in there?" he asked, calling into the cave as he slowly entered. Suddenly, he felt something hard strike his head from behind and he fell forward, unconscious.

"Where the hell did this kid come from?" one man asked.

"Who cares? He almost discovered us!" shouted the second one.

"What are you two yammering on about?" a third man approached them from inside the cave.

"This kid almost found our hideout!" the second one explained.

"Where'd he come from?" the third asked.

"That's what I said!" the first one exclaimed.

"Well, he must be a traveler or something. Was he alone?"

"I didn't see anyone else with him," the first replied.

"Then we'll take him with us. He's young, decent build, he'll fetch a good price." As the third snapped his fingers, ordering the two men to lift Takumi up and drag him further into the cave.

Later, Takumi slowly awoke, feeling a sharp numb pain on the back of his head. He raised his arms to feel the back of his head, but felt something weighing his arms down slightly. He opened his eyes to find his wrists shackled to a long chain. "Wh-what's going on?" he cried.

"Hey! Quiet down over there!" one of the slaver shouted.

"Who are you?" Takumi asked.

"I said quiet down!" The slaver was ready to strike Takumi with his bare fist, but one of the others intervened. "Hey, people don't pay a lot for ugly slaves! You leave a mark on his face and we get a smaller cut and that'll come out of your share!"

"Grrr, fine! But I'd watch that mouth of yours," he whispered maliciously to Takumi.

"Y-you're slavers?" he whispered in terror and shock. This couldn't be happening! All he was doing was trying to find Rai and he had somehow ended up captive to slavers. Even in the city, he had heard stories of slavery and human trafficking, but he never thought they were real or that he'd ever become one of the victims! He could scream, resist, try anything! But he could see that these men were dangerous and armed and they certainly had no problem threatening him with harm. He didn't want to risk seeing them follow through on those threats.

"Come on, we can't stay here any longer! We can reach the next hideout before sunrise if we leave now! And who knows, maybe we'll happen on some more travellers?" The slavers quickly packed up their things and took ahold of the chain that Takumi was shackled to. Takumi lingered behind, looking back to the direction of their camp, hoping that Rai would find him in time. before he was roughly pulled along by his wrists. When the slavers weren't looking, Takumi tore off his headband before subtly dropping it on the ground. As he was yanked forward by the shackles around his wrists, he looked back at the headband. 'Come on, Rai. Please find me…'

When Rai arrived back at camp, she raised a suspicious eyebrow at the noticeable absence of Takumi. "Takumi?" she called out, but there was no answer. She did, however, wake Kiwi up. The bird stood up and yawned before stretching her legs and shaking her feathers. "Where's Takumi?" Rai asked Kiwi, but the bird gave no answer. Instead, the ostrich horse bent her head down and began sniffing the ground. As Kiwi searched for her rider's scent, Rai and Haku followed closely behind after packing up their campsite. Following the bird, Rai quickly spotted the small cave and noticed the disturbed dirt outside it. "Hm… someone's been here recently." She looked up at the cave and entered it, holding a small flame in her hand to light her way. To anyone else, the cave would have appeared extremely ordinary, but Rai knew what to look for. She moved towards one of the walls and saw the metal spikes that were firmly buried into the rock. She lightly traced her fingers over the metal as memories flood her mind; memories of the shackles on her wrists rubbing and chaffing against her skin and uncomfortably falling asleep against rough, rocky walls.

Just then, she was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Kiwi cawing loudly. She ran out of the cave as Kiwi approached her, holding a piece of pale red fabric in her mouth. Rai took the fabric from the ostrich horse and examined it in her hands, quickly recognized it as Takumi's headband. "No, no, no, this can't be happening…" First Takumi goes missing and then she discovers his headband abandoned near a cave that had just recently been occupied by slavers. She gripped Takumi's headband in anger, saying nothing as she held out the headband in front of Haku.

"How's your sense of smell?" she asked. Haku responded by leaning his hand down to her level and sniffing the headband. Once he got the scent, Haku raised his head, sniffing the air and searching for a trail. He grunted and shook his head, motioning ahead and that he had picked up Takumi's scent. Rai jumped onto Haku's saddle as the eel hound followed Takumi scent, with Kiwi closely behind them. With Haku's amazing speed, they would no doubt catch up, but that didn't mean they were going to take a leisurely pace.

If Takumi really was just in the wrong place in the wrong time and was taken by slavers, then she knew exactly what he would be in store for. If she didn't find him fast, he'd disappear off the face of the earth and into the underground slave market where he would spend the rest of his life as someone's property, being treated like an object rather than a person and being beaten every single day for even the slightest mistake. Only the lucky ones managed to escape. But still, to this day, slavery persisted as a lucrative market right underneath the noses of the greater judicial systems and ignorant masses. Knowing what Takumi's fate could be, she couldn't stand aside in good conscience and just let it happen. She knew they were still on the right track when she spotted a bright golden-yellow sash hanging from a tree branch. She pulled the long piece of fabric off the branch and recognized it as Takumi's as well. "We're on the right track. Come on!" At her call, Haku sped through the woods, closely followed by Kiwi, who followed as quickly as she could.

Takumi continued being pulled along by the captors, who only grew more impatient with his slow pace as sunrise drew nearer. His sluggish pace got on their nerves as they yanked so hard on his chains that the force of it pulled him to the ground. "Get up!" the slaver yelled, roughly grabbing Takumi by the arm and lifting him up onto his feet. Suddenly, a pillar of earth shot out of the ground at an angle and struck the slaver right in his side, knocking him to the ground several feet away roughly.

"What was that?" cried the other slavers, suddenly alert.

Rai suddenly burst through the trees and slammed her fist into the ground, shaking the earth beneath the slavers and causing them to lose balance. She quickly turned around and moved her arms in a sharp, open fashion as the shackles around Takumi's wrists suddenly opened, releasing him from his bonds. "Run!" she shouted to him before turning her attention back to the slavers. One shot a fireball at her, but she raised a wall of earth to block the attack. "Go!" she shouted, more urgently.

Takumi nodded and quickly took shelter behind a thick tree as he watched her kick up three boulders from the ground and punch them towards the slavers. Two managed to evade them but the third got hit right in the chest, knocking the air right out of him. One of the slavers circled around her while she was focusing her attention on the other. When she wasn't looking, the slaver behind her pulled the water out of his waterskin and bent the long tendril towards her, wrapping around her ankle. Just as she felt the tendril wrap around her ankle, the tendril pulled and she fell to the ground on her chest. In response, she dug her fingers into the earth as the ground beneath the waterbender suddenly swallowed him up to his waist. The disruption was enough to break the tendril as the water fell to the ground and soaked into the earth.

"Rai look out!" she heard Takumi yell. She sharply turned around just in time to see the firebender lunge towards her with a dagger. She stepped aside and grabbed his arm, using his momentum to effortlessly throw him over her shoulder. She advanced on him and the other two slavers once more until the firebender unleashed an endless stream of flames at her. In response, she raised the earth to shield herself once again. When she felt the heat finally die down, she stomped the ground, submerging her barrier back into the earth and prepared to attack, only to see that the slavers were gone.

"Dammit," she cursed. She was ready to pursue them without a thought, but quickly remembered her reason for tracking them down in the first place. She turned around and shouted in urgency, "Takumi!" She sighed in relief at the sight of him quickly running up to him at her call, slowly followed by Haku and Kiwi. Up until she found him, her mind had been reeling with images of Takumi in chains having to endure the horror she did, but the sight of him alive and well purged those dark thoughts from her mind.

"Before you say it, I know. How could I get captured, I need to be more careful, and…" he began listing off everything he expected to be lectured by her for, but was instead cut off when Rai suddenly and securely embraced him. She wrapped her arms around his body and rested her chin on top of his head. "Umm...It's good to see you too?" he asked awkwardly, unsure of what exactly was going on.

"I'm just so glad you're safe," she whispered before quickly pulling away and placing her hands firmly on Takumi's shoulders as her typical, stern expression returned. "But you should have been more careful! Wandering around on your own in the middle of the night?" she scolded.

"Wandering?! I was out looking for you! I woke up and you and Haku were gone!" Takumi countered.

"It doesn't matter where I was," she quickly replied. "I had something to attend to that didn't concern you. I'm just glad I found you before…" Takumi's expression softened when, for the first time since he had met Rai, he saw true and genuine fear and concern in her eyes.

He sighed. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. We should go before any of their friends get wind of this. I don't relish the thought of being rescued by you twice in one day," he chuckled, making his way over to Kiwi, who greeted him affectionately.

"Agreed," she said, handing Takumi the headband and sash he had dropped, "but there's just one thing I need to do." Takumi looked at her in confusion as she made her way over to the leftover slaver still trapped in the earth. With a firm stomp of her heel, the slaver was lifted up to her eye level, but still completely trapped within a cylinder of earth. "Hey! Wake up!" she yelled, slapping him awake.

"What are you doing?! Let's go!" Takumi cried, tugging on her sleeve in urgency.

"Not yet!" she shouted pulling herself from Takumi's grip and turning her attention to the waking slaver. "Where were you and your party going?" The slaver remained silent, which only served to infuriate Rai, who punched him square in the jaw. "Talk!" The slaver merely grunted from the hit and began snickering as a sinister grin spread across his face.

"What was it the boy called you? Rai?" the slaver asked, cocking his eyebrow confidently as if he was the one leading this conversation. "Those defiant green eyes, the scar over the left eye, the blonde hair is new though and you're wearing it differently. They'll need to update their info. I'll have you know, he's told us all about you: the one that got away, and he's put out a generous bounty."

"Umm…" Takumi stepped up nervously, confused about the conversation between the two. "Rai, what is he talking about?"

"You know him then?" she asked with a smile before leaning in close and darkly whispering, "Where can I find him?"

"I don't answer questions to scum like you!" he answered, spitting in her face.

Rai blink and briefly flinched as the wad of spit hit her cheek. She casually wiped it off her cheek with her glove, as if she was completely unphased by it. "If you won't talk, then you're of no use to me…" Rai took a step back and stopped her foot into the ground and raised a large boulder over her head, threatening to drop it on his head and crush his skull. "You're just another filthy slaver that the world can do without."

Just as Rai prepared to drop the boulder on the slaver, Takumi jumped between them. "Rai! Stop this!" he cried desperately.

Rai held herself back from releasing the boulder and glared angrily at Takumi for interfering. "Get out of the way, Takumi! You have no idea what this is about!"

"I can make an educated guess. I'm young, not stupid. But this isn't the way!"

"The world is better off without scum like him! How can you stand there and defend him?" she shouted.

"Calm down and I'll tell you," he pleaded. Rai narrowed her eyes at him angrily as this little boy stood in her way of vengeance. She wasn't sure what compelled her next action, whether an unwillingness to hurt Takumi or admit that he was right, she couldn't be sure, but she did harmlessly drop the boulder aside.

"Talk then, before I change my mind," she said firmly.

"I'll start by saying that I have no intention of letting him go. He needs to pay, there's no doubt about that, but killing him...That's not the way. Bind him, and we can leave him with the local authorities to deal with in the next town."

Rai pushed past Takumi and continued to interrogate the slaver. "Tell me what I want to know and I'll let you live. If you do know about me, then I'm sure you know all about what I did to Goro's subordinate."

"But I didn't hear you say please," he snickered darkly.

Rai growled under her breath, but before she could move, Takumi sighed and stepped forward to take over. "Please...Tell us what you know."

"Oh yeah? And what do I get out of it?"

Takumi glanced over at Rai for a second before turning back to the slaver. "I don't think I need to explain what she will do to you. I can't hold her back forever."

Everyone remained silent for a few moments, with Rai frowning at Takumi, who did not notice since he focused on the captive slaver. Finally, the slaver cracked a smile and snickered. "Heh, I like you, boy. Very well. Unfortunately, I don't know his current whereabouts. He keeps moving from place to place, never staying for too long. You should know this much, girl," he said looking at Rai and earning a venomous glare before continuing, "However, I can possibly point you in the right direction. You see, I don't think you're the only ones hunting him."

Rai scoffed, "Heh, the list of people that want him dead isn't short. You better start giving me something useful or I'll-"

"Look for the Blue Spirit," the slaver interjected. "Find that one, and I'm sure it can lead you to Goro. Word is, the Blue Spirit's been hounding his movements and disrupting slaver parties for some time now."

"The Blue Spirit? He's just a myth, an old wives' tale!" Rai exclaimed in disbelief.

"Wait, the Blue Spirit. As in THE Blue Spirit?" Takumi asked.

This caught Rai's attention. "You know something about this?"

"Are you kidding? Everyone knows about the Blue Spirit. They say he first appeared shortly after Avatar Aang returned before just disappearing. Now they say he's back hunting all sorts of criminals. But nobody can figure out whether he's just a person or if he's really a spirit. Almost as soon as he arrived, stories of him all of a sudden stopped. Like he just disappeared without a trace overnight!"

"So, someone's continuing the legend for his own purposes," Rai noted before turning back to the slaver. "But what does he want with Goro? Your people must know something about his identity!

"I've told you all I know. But where Goro goes, the Spirit goes or at least tries to track him down. I don't know where Goro was going exactly, only that he had some business in the Fire Nation."

"The Fire Nation? Who else knows about your party here?"

"Only our commander, but he and his troop are weeks away. I am at your mercy," he said, bowing his head in defeat.

Takumi looked at Rai, silently anticipating her next move. "You held up your end of the deal. We're done here. Let's go."

"You're just going to leave him here?" Takumi asked.

"Yeah, you're just going to leave me here?" the slaver asked as well.

"I said I wouldn't kill him. If anything, I'm sparing you from seeing it, Takumi. When we're gone, he can yell for help all he wants. Someone'll find him… eventually," she replied nonchalantly as she mounted Haku's saddle. When she noticed Takumi's concerned expression, she continued, "You wanna bring him alone, then you can carry him."

"Fair enough, then. Hear that, pal? You're coming with us."

"Swell," the slaver replied with dull enthusiasm as he rolled his eyes.

Takumi called Kiwi over and reached into his pack, pulling out a bundle of rope. He looked at Rai and back to the slaver. "My friend is going to release you now. But don't try anything."

Rai stomped her foot, lowering the earth that restrained the slaver, who fell to the ground on his knees. He didn't resist or try to fight and instead raised his hands behind his head in surrender. Takumi moved behind him and took a hold of the slaver's wrists, tying them behind his back securely with the rope. "So uh...Haku's not gonna try and, I dunno, eat this guy or something, is he? I can see him giving this man the stink eye."

"I make no promises," she replied. She leaned forward and gently pet Haku's shoulder, whispering, "Good boy," as the eel hound glared at the slaver maliciously.

Takumi proceeds to help the slaver up onto his mount, since the slaver lacked the use of his hands. "Isn't there another way we could do this?" the slaver asked as he lay across Kiwi's body on his stomach. "This is rather demeaning."

"Well, it's either that or you risk falling off every few feet because you've got no hands to hold on with," Takumi replied. After getting onto Kiwi himself, Takumi turned his attention back to Rai and Haku. He just smiled and nodded his head, which Rai did not respond to. Instead, she and Haku simply took off towards the path leading to the next town. "Let's go."

For the most part, the ride was silent. Rai and Haku kept a faster pace ahead of Takumi, keeping some distance from the captive slaver that rode with him. They were still a fair ways away from the next town while the sun slowly began rising. "What is it that you and Rai were talking about?" Takumi asked, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence, "Who's Goro?"

"Heh," the slaver chuckled, "She went through all that trouble to rescue you from us and she never even told you anything about herself, did she?"

"Well…" Takumi had known Rai well enough now to know that she wasn't the sharing type. But he did know something about her that no one else did, a secret that she trusted him to keep.

"Heh," the slaver chuckled again. "Let's just say she and Goro have a history and it's not a good one. You may have been able to stop her from killing me, but if she and Goro cross paths again, that is one fight you'll want to stay out of."

"What happened between them?" Takumi asked.

"What always happens when a person in power uses that power to oppress and abuse those beneath them. You want to know so much about it, ask her yourself." The slaver remained silent for the rest of the ride as the arrived into the next town. Rai did nothing as Takumi set about turning the slaver over to the local authorities, who were more grateful than he expected. Apparently, catching slavers much harder than people gave it credit for. They asked him a few questions of their own before taking the slaver and letting Takumi be on his way.

"You should have let me kill him," Rai said plainly as Takumi rejoined her.

"What would that have accomplished?" Takumi asked. "When you take a life, you'll hurt part of yourself too."

"He wouldn't have been my first and he would have been far from the last. Besides, I seem to recall Avatar Korra and her allies offing a few of their enemies: Unalaq, the Red Lotus… What's the difference between this and that? Why should I stay my hand when my enemies will try just as hard to kill me?"

"Well…" Takumi started, trying to come up with a response.

"Human trafficking extends far deeper than you realize, Takumi. I'm betting that he'll be released by tomorrow. It's not uncommon for members of law enforcement and politicians to secretly support the slave trade. It is a lucrative business after all. Corruption runs deep, especially in the big cities. So if the justice system can't be counted on, what other way is there?" Takumi stood there, silent and unable to come up with an answer. "You're a smart kid, Takumi, and you have a good heart. But you are also naive, naive and ignorant to the true hardships and horrors of this world. But, maybe it's better that way," she said as Haku turned to continue moving forward and out of the town.

"What do you mean?" he asked as Kiwi kept a leisurely stroll next to Haku.

"You've got an air of optimism about you, Takumi, that's probably what I like most about you. If you knew half the stuff I knew, experienced what I had to go through…"

"What did you go through?" he asked.

Rai hesitated to answer, but eventually spoke, "Not today, Takumi, not today."

A big thank you to a best friend of mine, Powershade117 for helping me with this chapter with his wonderful ideas and super fun RP.

Next chapter: Takumi convinces Rai to seek airbending tutelage, but she immediately changes her mind upon discovering the airbender is a Nomad.