Hey everyone... Sorry for the long wait... again... but I'll try to make it up to you by cutting this short so I can introduce the arrival of our DP character!

Hope you enjoy!

~Ned

Chapter 8- The Sword

"Do you really expect us to believe that you have snoring problems?" Toph asked with an amused laugh. "If you really want to help us sleep better you should take Sokka with you." She finished as she jabbed her thumb behind her where Sokka just so happened to be setting up his sleeping bag. "I'm sure even Appa will thank you."

"Hey!"

Danny laughed at her statement, but started to back away from the group as he did so. "That is a very valid point, but I think I'll be just fine on my own, and honestly I'd prefer it."

Katara looked over Danny for a second before letting out a sigh. "I think it's fair for you to choose where you sleep, after all we did take you away from Schim and her forest."

Everyone looked at Katara in shock, even Danny. He did not expect her to be so laid back. He had thought that she would be the mama bear of everyone in the group based on the way she cooked, cleaned, and somewhat ordered the whole team around.

"Um… thanks." Danny stated as he started to back away from the group again, "Just yell if you need me." And with that he zipped away from the group to find a perfect area to sleep.

"So they were they alright with you sleeping alone?" Sam asked in Danny's head as he walked through the dense forest. He was generally amazed that they still shared their mental connection so far apart.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a second." Danny stated as he continued to look around for the perfect place where the Gaang could not find him even if they went snooping around.

He eventually found the picture-perfect spot. It was a bundle of branches up a large pine tree. No one would find him there unless they had advanced sight like Danny achieved thanks to his spirit half.

However before he had a chance to climb, or fly, up the tree he heard something. "So… does wanting to sleep alone have anything to do with the glowing tattoos I saw this morning?"

Danny could have sworn he jumped ten feet into the air when he heard a female voice speak behind him. To be completely honest he half expected Valerie to be standing behind him, but instead he found Katara, with a suspicious look on her face and her arms crossed.

"Wh-wh-what tattoos?" He stuttered as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"The ones that are all over your body." Katara pointed out as one of her eyebrows started to rise. She then sighed again as she shook her head slowly. "Do they have anything to do with the white haired spirit in Schim's forest?"

Danny stared at Katara totally shocked, 'White haired spirit… does she mean Phantom?!' "Ho-How much did you see?"

"Enough. Now what does the spirit have to do your tattoos?"

Danny could not help but look away from her questioning face. Never once had he had such a hard time answering one simple question. However he was half tempted to tell her the honest truth.

He looked back at her again, with curious eyes. One question plaguing his mind. "How much waterbending do you know?" He finally voiced, it was probably the number one reason he would ever consider telling anyone about Phantom. After all, he needed to know how to water bend, otherwise all he would have against all the raids in the forest is his ice, and sooner or later that will not be enough.

"Don't try to change the subject!" She stated irritably.

Danny could not help but sigh. "I'm trying not to, but if you truly want me to answer your question honestly I really need to know how much you know about waterbending."

Katara looked right into Danny's eyes, as if measuring how much she trusted him. "I know enough."

Danny could not help but smile. "Awesome, so if I was able to waterbend would you teach me?"

Katara looked startled, "Maybe, but you said you were raised in the Fire Nation. I honestly can't imagine a waterbender living their entire lives here without being detected."

Danny smiled at the statement, which was totally true. "You see I've only been able to waterbend for a couple months now."

Katara looked at Danny wearily. "What do you mean? Most benders are at least able to bend when they are young."

"Good, now we've made a fool circle back to the beginning!" Danny stated in excitement. "Now, before I can answer anything else I need you to promise me a few things." Katara seemed reluctant but eventually nodded. "Good, now first, no screaming; second, no attacking me in any way; and third, please don't tell the others, they might just take it worse than you're about to."

Katara looked at Danny totally startled. "Wha…what exactly am I supposed to be expecting?"

"Something you've probably never seen before." Danny answered with a shrug.

"A-alright I promise to not to scream, attack, or… tell my friends what you have to tell me. Now please answer my question."

Danny nodded, "To start off, for as long as I can remember I have never been able to bend anything, but when the Fire Nation attacked everything changed. It was around that time that the white haired spirit, or Phantom, came to the forest. When he appeared Schim had come to recognize that he was a spirit called a Halfa. The reason is… well he is only half spirit and half… well… me?" Danny then flinched, expecting Katara to react in a violent or even loud way, but when he looked over to her, after hearing nothing, she saw that she had a confused look on her face.

"Are you trying to say… that you are Phantom… a spirit…? How?"

Danny looked at Katara, not entirely sure how she was taking this so well. "Well, when the soldiers killed my dad they had seriously injured me. To the point they actually thought I was dead. So they ended up dumping me in the forest, where Schim found me and gave me some of her spiritual energy. I believe a similar transaction was used on a princess in the Northern Water Tribe…"

"You mean Princess Yue?!" Katara exclaimed.

"Ah… maybe… was she saved by the moon spirit?" Katara nodded. "Then yeah, that would be her."

Katara then seemed confused. "Wait, Yue's hair turned white when she was human, why is yours still black now?"

"Oh, well… I can't be sure… but if I could guess the princess got a lot of spiritual energy from the moon spirit making her almost a spirit herself. Sam had tried to do a similar thing with me. However instead of trying to make me mostly spirit she tried to make me completely spirit, but I messed everything up by accidentally giving her some of her energy back, turning me into a Halfa."

"That is extraordinary!" Katara exclaimed, "So now you're able to become a spirit and protect Schim's forest when you are sleeping!"

Danny was about to put on a cocky smile and make a smart remark, but when he realized what Katara was stating he sighed. "Actually I'm able to become Phantom whenever I want." He then let a single white ring appear around his waist, however before Katara could make sense of the magnificent light it split, one going down, the other going up, until the unmistakable spirit she now knew as Phantom stood before her. "See," Danny stated with a triumphant smile. "I'm just able to split Fenton from Phantom while I sleep."

Katara looked him over before nodding, "So that it why you wanted to sleep alone, so everyone else won't see your tattoos glowing."

Danny smiled at her, "Correct!" He yelled as he smiled widely. "Now, when you said you knew 'enough' waterbending, you did mean you knew enough to teach me right?"

"These people have no idea how close they were to getting toasted last night." Aang stated as he sat down with his breakfast.

"Yeah, the worst thing about being in disguise is that we don't get the hero worship anymore. I miss the love." Toph stated with depression, while Danny just stared at them with a smile. Sure he should be a little put down that he was not a part of the 'save innocent people' team, but after his talk with Katara last night and successfully kicking yet another raid out of Sam's forest nothing could ruin his good mood.

"You all really got worshipped?" He asked as he stared at them all in awe.

"Yeah, all the time!" Toph exclaimed. "Being in hiding really sucks." She finished as she laid her cheek on her hand.

"Boohoo, poor heroes." Sokka complained as he sat by himself on the ledge.

"What's your problem? You haven't even touched your smoked sea slug." Katara examined.

'It's only when a platypusbear stops eating that you know something is wrong.' Danny thought with a small smile. That was the one of the first ever saying Sam said to him that sounded like a stereotypical spirit like thing for her to say. It was the day after he realized his mother and sister were leaving that Sam said that to him after he refused to eat for three whole days, practically pouting.

"It's just…" Sokka started, and Danny could already tell where this was going, "You guys can do all this awesome bending stuff like putting out forest fires and flying around than make other stuff fly around." Everyone at the table exchanged looks, except for Danny; he kept his eyes on Sokka. "I can't fly around, okay. I can't do anything."

"That's not true," Katara started, "no one can read a map like you."

"I can't read at all!" Toph exclaimed.

Danny shook his head at their statements, knowing that trying to point out his good points was not what Sokka wanted, he wanted to do something amazing, something worthwhile, something that would make him equal to everyone else in the group.

"Yeah, and who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time?" Aang added as he looked around until he found Katara. "I mean look at Katara's hair right," He then picked up a part of it, "what's up with that?"

"What?" Katara asked in both shock and embarrassment as she pulled her hair out of his hands. It took all of Danny's willpower to keep his laughter down. "What's wrong with my hair?"

"Nothing…" Aang started, apparently trying to fix his mistake, "I was just trying too…"

"Look." Sokka cut him off, "I appreciate the effort, but the fact is, each of you is so amazing and so special, and I'm…not. I'm just the guy in the group who's regular."

Normally Danny would point out that he was just as regular, but that would be a lie. Sure as far as most of them knew he was regular, but if he really wanted to he could have helped the Gaang, but at the risk of letting Phantom out of the bag.

Katara then got up and started for Sokka until she was sitting next to him. "I'm sorry you're feeling so down, but I hope you know that none of us see you that way."

Danny was impressed by her efforts, but knew his feeling had nothing to do with them or their opinions. He felt so useless because he saw himself that way, and knew that no one was going to convince him but himself.

"I know something that's going to feel better!" Katara exclaimed and Danny was a little shocked by her sudden chipperness.

"You do?" Sokka asked, his voice only slightly hopeful.

"SHOPPING!" Sokka yelled as he clapped in delight and ran to the nearest weapons rack that looked even the slightest bit interesting.

"Seriously…" Danny started looking around, "Shopping makes him feel better?"

"Yeah, especially now that he needs new weapons," Katara explained. "After all he can't use his Water Tribe weapons in public. Why don't you pick something out also?" Katara stated and Danny nodded and started to look around.

After last night Katara knew almost everything Danny did about what being a Halfa entailed, including only being able to waterbend in Phantom mode. However he kept his firebending abilities to himself, still not sure as to how the rest of the group would take it. So getting some weapons was probably a good idea since he was not going to learn how to control his firebending anytime soon.

As Danny went from weapons rack to weapons rack he found nothing. The spears were a little too long and would be useless in Danny's incapable hands, he later classified the nun chucks as 'off-limits' the moment he saw Sokka hit himself in the head with one. And none of the swords looked interesting, even if he did know how to use one. Too bad he never took his mother's offers when he had the chance, she was a master.

When Danny gave up he went to check out Sokka's predicament, which seemed to have gotten better once he saw a weapons rack filled with swords that made all others in the store look like insignificant sticks. How Danny knew the difference, well his mother had a large collection of swords. A majority of them were made by a man whose name Danny had long since forgotten. However Danny remembered that out of all of them she had one, and only one, that she made herself.

"You have a good eye." The shop keeper stated as he walked over to Sokka, the rest of the group following suit. "That is an original from Piandao, the greatest swords master and sword maker in Fire Nation history. He lives in the big castle up the road from here." He then walked away, as it knowing that no one in the group could afford the swords, which was true.

Danny looked at the swords in front of him with a curious look on his face, 'Piandao…?'

"That's it!" Aang yelled, startling Danny a bit. "That's what you needed all along Sokka."

Danny rolled his eyes, his past thoughts forgotten. 'Lee, call him Lee!'

"A sword?" Sokka asked.

"Not the sword, a master." Aang stated as Sokka then picked up one of the swords, measuring his odds. "We've all had masters to help us get better. We should see if you could study with Piandao."

"That's a great idea!" Katara stated, "I could have never gotten where I am without master Paku. Everyone needs a teacher."

"I learned from badger moles." Toph added. "They don't talk but they're still good teachers."

Sokka then unsheathed the sword and looked at it closer. "I would be nice to be a master sword fighter… Alright," he finally decided, "I'll talk to him."

Danny and Sokka looked at the huge red and gold door in front of them. It had taken a while for Sokka to convince the group that he should go alone, and even longer for Danny to convince everyone that he should go too. After all, Danny did know Fire Nation customs and could help, also because he could also use a good sword, and the knowledge on how to hold one.

So Danny stood with Sokka as he started to knock on the door. However, just as Sokka put his hand on the knocker Danny recognized something. On the door was the Fire Nation symbol, but that was not what caught his interest, it was what was surrounding the symbol, a golden image of a Pia Sho piece that he instantly knew was the White Lotus. He was so focused on the image that he did not notice the man who opened the door, or what Sokka was saying to him until he saw the man hold out his hand.

Danny look at the man for a moment until he noticed that he wanted something. "Well… ahhhh…" Sokka said as he checked his clothes, for who knows what.

Danny was about to pull out some money he was able to scrounge up in the forest when the man sighed and let them in. "Let's get this over with." The man said as he and Sokka started to walk inside, Danny following shortly behind them. As they continued to walk Danny thought back to the door and why the man would have a Pia Sho piece on his door. He had been taught how to play by both his parents, though it was his mother that got his father so into it. A sad smile appeared on his face as he thought about his parent's Pia Sho matches. However the memories were shoved into the back of his mind when he realized that they had stopped in a large room with a middle age man painting inside, his back facing them.

Sokka immediately walked into the room and bowed before the man. "Master, my name is Sokka and I wish to be instructed in the way of the sword." Danny all but slapped his forehead when he heard Sokka give the master his real name.

"Sokka, that's an unusual name…" the master started making Danny's heart jump.

So before Sokka could give him some weird or stupid explanation Danny jumped in. "I'm sorry master, but Lee here is fond of making up nicknames for himself. I'm not entirely sure where he got the name from, but please, call him Lee so his ego doesn't get any bigger than it already is."

The master seemed to pause as Danny's words. "I see you brought a friend." He stated casually to Sokka, "If it is not too much to ask, but can you send him outside."

Danny was about to argue that he was here to learn also, but before he could he was forcefully pulled out by the man that led them into the room. "Wait here." The man said as he closed the door in Danny's face.

Danny stared at the door in shock, not sure why he was so forcefully removed before he could say much of anything. He was about to barge his way back into the room, if not so much to get permission to be trained, but to attempt to save Sokka before he could mess everything up. But right as Danny backed up to give the door a good kick someone came literally running down the hall with a packaged wrapped in some kind of cloth. However Danny, being as clueless as he was, did not see the boy, and right when he backed up, the poor boy ran right in front of him, and ended up tripping on Danny's foot.

"Whoa!" The boy screamed at the packaged he was carrying was flung into the air, and he started falling towards the ground. Danny looked at the scene in shock, before he realized that the package the boy was holding was actually a sword that had come out of its cloth wrapping and was now coming back down, right at the boy. Danny did not have time to think. The moment he realized the boy was in danger was the moment all rational thinking was flown out the window.

"Watch out!" Danny yelled at he tackled the boy towards the door that he planned on kicking down. They were both flung into the room just as the sword stuck itself into the wooden floor where the boy was not even a second ago, however not before giving Danny a cut on the leg when he and the boy finally hit the ground.

"Danny/Tucker!" Sokka and the Master yelled at the same time, shocked by the sudden intrusion.

Danny looked up at the two who were now rushing towards them. All he could really do in this situation was put a sheepish smile on his face and say, "Surprise?"

"I'm sorry Master, I should have been watching where I was going." The boy, Tucker, said to the master with a bow. Tucker, the boy Danny unfortunately tripped then saved, was probably the strangest boy Danny had ever met. His clothes still seemed Fire Nation, but had strange alterations like his shirt seemed to have twenty pockets and his pants seemed to have over a dozen more. He also wore a red hat that would usually be just plain weird, but actually looked really good on him.

Piandao smiled down on Tucker, the sword that almost hurt the boy in his hand, unwrapped. It did not seem like much, but for some odd reason Danny thought it was the most breathtaking sword he had ever seen, and he's seen a lot. It seemed to be made of regular steel, but seemed to glow anyway. The hilt was probably the most magnificent hilt he has ever seen. It was made of white bark that seemed to be formed into an elegant design with a large white marble looking stone imbedded in the middle, like the bark grew with the marble inside of it.

"Don't worry about it Tucker," Piandao stated, causing Danny to look away from the sword, "as long as you are unharmed everything is alright." The master stated as he set the sword on his painting table.

Danny looked down in shame. If it had not been for his carelessness Tuck, Danny's new nickname for the kid, would not have been in danger in the first place. However when he looked down he saw the place where the sword had cut him. It had not been too bad, only a small scratch that would easily mend in no more than a day or two thanks to the spiritual healing he inherited from Sam. However where he expected the scratch he found nothing, the pain had long evaporated and his clothes had even taken it upon themselves to mend, and he had only been scratched a few minutes ago. To say that Danny was shocked would be an understatement.

"So your name is Danny right?" Tucker asked with a wide smile.

Danny looked over to him, a little startled by the boy's bluntness. "Yeah, and you're Tucker. Look man, I'm really sorry about tripping you." He said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Don't worry about it dude, I should actually be thanking you, if it wasn't for you I'd be a Tuckabob right now."

Danny let out a chuckle, "It was nothing."

"Dude?" Sokka asked with a curious look on his face. "What is a dude?"

Tuck smiled widely at the question. "It's a word Tucker made up not too long ago." Piandao stated before the young teen could get much out. "It's what he calls most men."

Danny let a wide smile spread across his face, "That's awesome!" he said looking over to Tuck. "You really just made that up?"

Tucker nodded. "Yeah, I've invented a lot of stuff! You should see my PDA, it's a Personal Data Assessment device."

Piandao let out a sigh, "Tucker, you'll have to wait to show them. I have to get started on Sokka's training."

Danny looked up at the master in shock. "You'll teach him?" he asked. The master nodded slowly, and Danny looked at him then Sokka who smiled triumphantly. "Then master, will you be willing to train me?"

Piandao looked at Danny in shock. "Your name is Danny correct?" said boy nodded. "That is a rare name here in the Fire Nation…" He said with a knowing smile. "Well I'll teach you, under one condition."

Danny looked at the master a little shocked, then to Sokka, who looked confused, then to Tuck, who had a similar face to Sokka's. He then looked back at the master, "What would that be sir?"

"You fight Tucker first."

Yes... I know... in the first chapter I said that Tucker would not be in the story, but after many people throwing ideas at me it was to hard to resist. However I did mention me changing my mind in the small chapter (4.5 or 4 and a half) I made with Valerie, read it if you don't believe me ;) So as I said, here he is, as the greatest sword master's assistant! (you can thank reviewers like almostinsane for that :D)

Alright here is when I have to say some bad news. Since my schedule has been so off lately I cannot promise that I can update on a regular bases like I used to. I might be able to when I get back to school, but I can't promise anything Sorry :(

So review, PM me, whatever. I'll even take evil flames at this point... I deserve then *Holds head in shame*

~Ned