Avatar: The Warring Earth

Book Three—Water

By Twins of the Pen

Disclaimer: Avatar in itself belongs to Nickelodeon and Bryan Konietzko/Michael DiMartino. The only things that belong to Twins of the Pen are the original characters.

It all happened too fast.

Just as Shun realized what was happening, the Neo-Equalists had invaded the living room, and they already had Jin and Nyla down on the ground. Nyla's grunt of pain was enough to jar the giant waterbender into action a moment later; he swiped his canteen and summoned his water whip, using it to toss away the Neo-Equalist holding Nyla down. "Tiki!" Shun shouted, chancing a glance over at her as she stood there, her mouth frozen open in horror, "Call Bumi and get Syaoran out of here, now!" The mention of Syaoran snapped Tiki out of her stupor, and she stumbled her way up the stairs.

The glass door of the balcony whirled open, and while ZanYi was a little confused, it didn't take too long for her to catch up to the program. After jumping over the couch to avoid a Neo Equalist, the lieutenant moved into action, grabbing Jin by the collar to yank him back and striking down the soldier that had him pinned. "Where are Syaoran and Tiki?" ZanYi bellowed, dodging another blow coming her way and whirling a kick to the offender's face.

"Upstairs!" Shun called, bodily throwing one Neo-Equalist into the group that was trying to rush him. Sadly, more were coming. "Tiki's trying to summon Bumi so they can escape!"

There was a caw in the air, and an angry screech as Xie Xie tore through the room, slashing at anyone who dared to come near ZanYi. The lieutenant sucked her teeth to get the bird's attention, and then told him, "Go and make sure Bumi's coming!" The dragonhawk gave an obedient scrawl as it flew up and out, and when a couple more soldiers sprung up at her, ZanYi lashed out a swirling blast, burning a couple and at the very least pushing the onslaught back for a moment. Turning to Jin, she ordered, "Go upstairs to the others!" Then to her partner, ZanYi added, "Shun, get Nyla and get her to the roof too."

One Neo-Equalist slipped past her flame and got a jab at her side. It made the lieutenant curse as she torched the soldier and slammed him to the ground. "And watch out: these guys are Chi-Blockers."

Gritting his teeth, Shun bowled over a couple soldiers over to get to a nearby closet. He grabbed a couple of coats and shoved them at Jin and Nyla. "What are—?" Nyla began, but was interrupted by the punch Shun threw at a Neo-Equalist that had attempted to attack her.

"No questions, get upstairs! Come on, move!"

Shun practically shoved his brother and sister upstairs, making sure they actually got up there before turning to face the onslaught of Chi-Blockers. Luckily his canteen was still pretty full, so he was able to fully retaliate with a few well-aimed attacks of his water whip. There were too many of them, however, and he and ZanYi were being backed into metaphorical corners. That, in its own respect, was not good. So Shun did the only thing he could do: he grabbed the bags nearest to him, rushing to the stairs and taking down any Chi Blocker he could along the way. "Cover me!" he shouted to ZanYi, scrambling up the stairs after his siblings, the Avatar, and the Avatar's girlfriend.

"It's not working, why isn't it working?!" Jin was demanding when Shun reached the roof as Tiki blew long and hard on what looked like a whistle in the shape of a bison.

"What's it even supposed to do?" Nyla demanded to know. "Why are we just standing here anyway?! We should be fighting!"

"Just trust us," Shun insisted, pushing the bags he carried into his brother's and sister's arms. "Bumi can hear that from anywhere, right?"

"Within reasonable distance, but we should be fine," Tiki assured him. With a nod, Shun jumped back down the stairs, turning his water whip into icicles and flinging them into the oncoming Neo-Equalists. "ZanYi, I've got your back," Shun assured the lieutenant, taking his rightful place at her side and into a fighting stance. Until Bumi came, they would have to buy some time. And with her firebending and his waterbending, they would make the perfect—if not deadly—distraction.

ZanYi, finding it futile to even attempt to tell Shun to get up there with the others, nodded. They had to distract the soldiers long enough for Bumi to arrive and get them all out of there. A bit of back-up wouldn't hurt right about then. "Let's do this then," she agreed, sending a low wave of fire at the oncoming soldiers. A couple fell and cried out with burns. Turning, she saw one coming up behind Shun. ZanYi blasted back the offender before he even had a chance to get near the waterbender. "Watch your back," she reminded him, though she didn't really have to. He had the lieutenant watching it for him.

Shun glanced back to see the Neo-Equalist behind him fall, impressed as always with ZanYi's raw and fierce power. He turned to thank her when he noticed the Neo-Equalist sneaking up behind her, throwing a jab to her back. Shun had no time to bend—he merely pushed ZanYi out of the way. Consequently, this led to him taking the jab in the crook of his elbow, his arm immediately going limp. In retaliation, he took the back of his other fist and smashed it against the Neo-Equalist's face, dropping him like a stone. And still, more came.

It was as Shun was struggling to fend the rest of them off one-handed that he heard Tiki's voice cry out from the roof, "Bumi's here!"

Shun flung his water whip one-handed at the Neo-Equalists, forcing them back. "Let's go!" he called to ZanYi, deciding to retreat only when the lieutenant would retreat with him.

Urgently, the two could hear Tiki shouting down, "Shun, ZanYi! We have to go! NOW!"

Although she was told twice, ZanYi didn't need it. As soon as she heard the sky bison's arrival, she was already fighting back harder, to give the groupa that window to get out of there. "Go, Shun! I've got your back!" she ordered, urging the waterbender back and towards the stairs.

As they moved to the stairs, Syaoran caught sight of them and he yelled to the others from aboard their big, furry transportation, "They're coming! Get ready!" Thankfully Shun could climb into the riding basket on his own. That just left… "ZanYi!" Syaoran called back out, seeing the lieutenant still at the base of the stairs.

After ZanYi went up a couple steps, she got both legs jabbed and taken out while she was kicking away the Chi-Blockers. Turning back towards the horde following after her stead, the lieutenant cranked up the heat and blasted as much as fire as she could into her fists towards them. It blasted them back, blasted her back and up into the air. Flipping while airborne, she landed in the riding basket, albeit quite wobbly and not nearly as graceful as usual since her legs were now out of commission. "Okay, let's go! Get us out of here!" she called out.

"Yip yip!"

Those two simple words from Tiki were enough to rouse Bumi from his brief rest. The sky bison roared and soared into the night air, much to the displeasure of the few Neo-Equalists that managed to break through the fiery doom ZanYi had sent their way. As they rose higher and higher into the sky, Tiki glanced back to survey the team. Syaoran, Jin and Nyla were fine—with the exception that Jin and Nyla looked absolutely terrified to be so high up. Shun and ZanYi carried a few battle wounds—in fact, Shun was nursing a limp arm. But all in all, the damage wasn't too bad. Shun had even managed to salvage some of their bags.

"So, to the South Pole as planned?" Tiki asked, turning around to steer Bumi. "I know we never really got our supplies as planned, but—"

"No."

Tiki turned around to peer curiously at Shun. He was still cradling his bad arm, but there was determined set of his face. "The North Pole," he corrected Tiki. "We're going to the North Pole to find my parents, to give Jin and Nyla a safe place to stay."

"Little brother…" Jin breathed, surprised and touched.

"Don't coddle us," Nyla protested, but her voice was significantly less rough than it usually was. "We've survived this long without you—we'll be fine."

Shun shook his head. "I can't take that chance, Ny. We almost got you and Jin killed today—or worse. I'm not risking it again. We're going to the North Pole, and we're going to find Mom, Dad, and Kohaku. I will make sure you two are safe again."

"Not to contradict you, Shun," Tiki began, turning to glance at the giant waterbender apprehensively. "But… are we even prepared to take on the North Pole? I don't even have any warm clothes!"

"We'll figure something out," the giant waterbender promised, tugging one of the bags beside Nyla towards him with his good arm. "For now, Jin and I went out today before breakfast and got us all winter coats. They'll do for the time being."

"Good thing we went on your instinct to start shopping for supplies while we were in town… even if we only did get coats," Jin conceded, but he was still grinning. Yes, good thing indeed—the purpose of their stay in Republic City had gotten way off track, and all they had to show for it were a few winter coats. But Shun had his family, he had his friends, and he had ZanYi… that would have to be enough for him for now. Everything else would hopefully work out later on, if the giant waterbender played his cards right.

ZanYi used her arms to scoot over to the edge of the basket, leaning against the back of it next to Shun. "North Pole… even colder," she muttered under her breath, not taking to the idea at all. But she wasn't going to fight it; they needed to make sure Shun's family would be safe after their team's blunder in exposing them.

Syaoran moved his way over to the bag Shun had just pulled over, taking a look inside it and glancing at the pile of outerwear that had accompanied Jin and Nyla. "Those look like pretty warm coats," he observed and then looked up at the airbender steering their ride. "I'll stay up with Tiki and make sure we don't crash," he announced, moving towards the front of the basket to seat himself behind Tiki.

Tiki turned to eye Syaoran, disgruntled by his implication. "We are not going to crash," she insisted, her tone implying that Syaoran should know better than to even suggest such a thing. "How could I be so irresponsible twice in one day?" The tiny airbender turned to give Jin and Nyla an apologetic look. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to compromise us all."

"Don't worry about it, little dancer—you had no idea. None of us did," Jin replied, shifting the blame away from Tiki. Nyla scoffed.

"You should know better than to answer the phone in other people's houses." Nyla paused, and then added, "but I'm choosing to look on the bright side this time: no more slave-driving boss to push us around. We're free now. Thanks… Tiki."

Tiki gaped in surprise at Shun's sister, wondering if the singer was being sarcastic. But the slight tilt of Nyla's lips informed the tiny airbender otherwise, and she smiled in return before facing the front again.

"Are the rest of you all right?" ZanYi asked the group at large, looking amongst their numbers for any sign of injury. She found none and Syaoran confirmed as much.

"We're all good," he said with a nod. They'd all gotten out pretty quick, and the elder members of their team and done well in holding back the onslaught until Bumi got there. "What about you two?"

ZanYi appraised Shun and then turned back to the Avatar. "Shun's got a blocked arm, and I've got two blocked legs. Other than that, we're fine," she reported. Syaoran shook his head. Compared to other experiences in this team, this was very mild and he was thankful for that. Still, he was also thankful that they were airborne, where it was less likely that they would be attacked—less chance that these blockages would come back to bite them.

"Well, if we're going to the North Pole, we have a while for that to unblock, so we should be good to go," Syaoran assured her, recalling they were probably going to be flying all night.

ZanYi nodded, but then eyed Shun again. He only had one good arm right now, but he could still bend with his other hand… "Or we could experiment," she suggested. Golden eyes going up to Shun's face, the lieutenant proposed, "Do you think you'd be able to try unblocking the water with only one arm? I know it's been a while since last time you've had to try, but between the two of us, that's three chances to get it right this time."

Shun glanced over at ZanYi, considering her proposal. It had been a while since he attempted it, and truth be told, he was a bit nervous about trying his unorthodox healing with only one arm—he had failed last time with two. But Shun hated the feeling of having his arm blocked; it reminded him too much of when he was imprisoned, where they would only leave him unblocked when they wanted to run 'tests' on him… the giant waterbender shuddered.

"I can try…" he answered ZanYi, but both his expression and his tone were dubious. Nonetheless, the giant waterbender sat up a little straighter, beckoning water from his canteen. At least he knew exactly where he had been hit to be able to start healing the bruising that was there. Shun took a deep breath as he applied water to the crook of the elbow in his blocked arm. "Wish me luck," he joked feebly to ZanYi before closing his eyes. The strange sensation of searching through the injury past his skin came over him, and Shun's brow furrowed. The last time he had tried this out, he had had to search around in ZanYi's shoulder for the blocking point. It came easily to him now, because he knew exactly where he had been hit. The knot that went deeper than flesh and bone cried out at him, snatching his attention. Shun willed his waterbending to loosen the knot, to heal the block and make it disappear. This hadn't been enough last time, but would it work this time?

The knot disappeared, but still, Shun was unsatisfied. Some feeling was returning to his arm, but it wasn't enough. What was he missing?

"Tiki," the giant waterbender found himself calling out. "Can you do me a favor?"

"I'm driving, Shun," Tiki pointed out, turning to eye the waterbender. "Can it wait?"

"It's a small favor: I need you to see if you can sense the block in my chi flow."

Tiki blinked at him. "Huh?"

"You can sense chi flow, right?" Shun asked. Tiki's brows began to furrow.

"Well, yeah—but I'd have to be meditating. And unless someone else wants to take the reins, I can't help you right now." Shun sighed. Tiki was right: she was busy at the moment. It would be wrong of him to take her attention away from steering Bumi to help with his little experiment. He would have to figure this out on his own… unless…

"What about you, Syaoran? Can you help me out?"

The Avatar looked at Shun like he was nuts. "You're kidding, right?" he checked with Shun. Seeing however that he was not, Syaoran shook his head. "I may be able to airbend now, but I'm not that great at a lot of that spiritual stuff."

But he'd done that once before, hadn't he? When he was trying to find Tiki, he'd managed to do it by catching a trace of her chi flow. It wasn't like Tiki could let him steer—he had no idea which direction to fly the bison. So it would have to be him for the experiment, and it kind of was a worthy cause. If Shun could figure out how to unblock chi flows, that could help. A lot.

"…But I can try," Syaoran conceded with a grimace. "I can't promise I'll be good at it."

"Just do it, Syaoran," ZanYi settled it, giving him an expectant look. He sighed, but nonetheless shut-up. Folding himself up like he had every morning for what felt like far too long, the Avatar took a deep breath, and then slowly continued to breathe. He allowed himself to relax, to settle into the meditation. Considering he still wasn't great at settling into the particular groove meditation took, it took him longer than it would have taken Tiki to get there.

But when he did, he tried to focus on what he knew first. Syaoran could obviously feel his own chi, but he searched for Tiki's light and feathery chi. Considering he'd caught a fragment of it before, it wasn't hard to find right behind him. Then he spread out from there, searching for anything else. There was something quick and hot over to the side—that had to be ZanYi; besides, it seemed to cut off at the bottom. That would be her legs then. Knowing he was close, he kept going and found more chi, though this one was starkly different. It was slower and steadier, cool to his mind. That had to be Shun then. So Syaoran focused even harder, his brow scrunching in concentration. There was Shun, his torso, his arm…

Syaoran opened his eyes then and found the lieutenant looking at him for an answer. He nodded. Crawling back over to Shun, he tried to recall where he'd seen it. "Most of the chi is unblocked in your arm, except a small nick right… here," he pointed out to Shun, poking a spot directly right on the inside of the waterbender's elbow.

Shun nodded, and then smiled at Syaoran. "Thank you, Avatar."

Jin let out a low whistle. "That's a handy little trick to have—hey, Tiki! Since I suck at waterbending, do you think you could teach me airbending instead?"

Tiki scoffed, "I don't think you have the patience for it, Jin. It took me ages to teach Syaoran."

"Well, a pretty girl is usually great motivation, isn't it?" Jin joked, before Nyla smacked him upside the head. "Ow! Come on, I was joking!"

"It wasn't funny, idiot."

"Jeez, tough crowd."

Meanwhile, Shun was focusing on the place Syaoran pointed out. No wonder the giant waterbender hadn't noticed it before: it was an injury that was stretched beyond his senses. He was going to have to work hard to be able to reach that last spot. And so he pushed himself, willing his healing further into his arm, to reach that nick Syaoran spoke of. Minutes passed, and Shun was beginning to sweat from the effort. This was actually harder than he thought it would be; the nick blocking his arm was harder to heal than he had originally thought. But he remained determined. Now that he knew the answer, he would not give up until he succeeded.

And succeeded he did, finally. There was a drawback—the sudden burst of full chi through his arm, after Shun had dissolved the block—was painful. The giant waterbender hissed and clutched at his arm, his limp hand balling into a fist from the pain. …Wait. His limp hand had…?

Shun stared at his formerly blocked arm, clenching and unclenching his fist. Carefully, he tried to summon water from his canteen with that arm. It came to him effortlessly, weaving lazy spirals around his arm before he sent it back into his canteen. The giant waterbender sat back in shock, just staring at his hand.

"I did it… I did it!"

"I got the spot right…?" Syaoran marveled first, unable to believe that he'd managed to get it right. But he must have, in order for Shun to have found the spot and manage to unblock it. That hand was limp a minute ago, and now it was calling water without effort.

ZanYi, next to the two men of Team Avatar smirked, nodding a little. "You two did it," she affirmed, nodding slowly. This was a total breakthrough. It could become a start to finding an easier way to unblock chi flows and ultimately minimize the effect such actions had on benders. Glancing at the two, she commended, "Good job."

To Shun especially, she gave him a pat on the arm. "You finally got it, Big Guy."

Now Tiki wished she wasn't driving: it sounded like something really cool was happening back there. Still, she was proud of Syaoran being able to help Shun finally make his breakthrough. "Congratulations, guys," Tiki threw over her shoulder, giving them a brief smile before facing forward again. They could celebrate fully later, when they were on solid ground.

Shun looked over at ZanYi, still reeling. This was huge: he had been working for years on how to heal blocked bodies. He never really got far, but he always carried the hope that he would one day accomplish it, maybe when he was older and wiser. Twenty-three wasn't exactly that much older and wiser, but hey, he would take it.

"I couldn't have done it without Syaoran," Shun enthused, leaning forward to clap Syaoran's shoulder, a miracle grin spread across his face. "Thank you again, Avatar."

This was going to be big: if airbenders and waterbenders could work together, this would probably put an end to the only weapon Neo-Equalists relied on when it came to taking away the only advantage benders had—their bending. But, all of those plans could wait for later. For right now, ZanYi needed Shun's help… and Syaoran's help as well.

"Do you think you could help me with ZanYi's legs too?" Shun asked the Avatar, looking hopeful. They were on a roll so far. Hopefully they would be able to effectively unblock ZanYi as well.

Syaoran nodded with a nonchalant shrug. "Sure," he answered easily, turning then to the lieutenant. The woman nodded in agreement, moving to strip down to her shorts so that Shun could get to the skin around her joints. Syaoran looked away instinctively, but turned back soon after. This was ZanYi: she was never shy, but not indecent.

"Have at it," she granted them, straightening up against the rim of the riding basket.

Syaoran nodded and closed his eyes again to start searching for the blocked flow. It was easier to find ZanYi's chi this time, having found it just a few moments ago. He followed the spicy chi down to the blocks, trying to find the origin points. A minute later, the Avatar opened his eyes.

"The blocks are in her kneecaps, the deep nicks in the crooks underneath," he told Shun.

Shun nodded, scooting a little closer to ZanYi. "It's going to hurt a little when I release the blocks," he forewarned her, placing one hand, surrounded by water, each on her knee caps. Shaking away his exhaustion, the giant waterbender closed his eyes, letting his fingers work as he searched through ZanYi's skin, prodding and working at the blockages until they loosened, and eventually, dissolved. That took a few minutes, but that was the easy part. It was the deeper nicks that were going to give Shun trouble, and he was already tired. But he was refusing to give up. It would not do to quit when he was almost done… and if Shun did not heal ZanYi's legs, that meant he would have to carry her later—something he was sure the lieutenant would not like. No matter what, he had to keep going. He could pass out from exhaustion as soon as he was finished.

Moving his hands to the underside of ZanYi's knees, Shun frowned as he worked, searching blindly for a few minutes before he found what he was looking for: the hardened nicks that had the same feeling the one in his arm had. It was like a shard of diamond had been embedded into ZanYi's skin—the nick was stubborn, unyielding to Shun's coaxing fingers. Again he had to push himself, taking twice as long to get rid of the blockage. He was growing weary, his vision darkening…

Finally, he felt the nicks disappear. Shun barely managed to get the water he was using back into his canteen before he slumped back, brushing the sweat from his brow. That had unexpectedly taken a lot out of him. "Did… that do it?" he asked, turning to eye ZanYi weakly. He hoped that it had worked as well as it had on him—if his exhaustion had led to his failure in turn, that would really suck.

ZanYi winced, feeling that pain Shun had warned her about as it shot through both of her legs. That was a good sign, as well as the warmth that then flooded through them. It was comfortable and familiar. She lifted up a foot to move it around. That was good. Cautiously though after last time he'd tried that technique on her months ago, the lieutenant allowed her heat to flood through her leg. Sure enough, fire began to dance around her toes playfully. Then she tried the other foot and it did the same. "Yeah, that did it," ZanYi verbally confirmed to Shun, looking over at him. She could see how tired he was; whatever it was that he needed Syaoran's help finding in the blocks, getting rid of them took a lot out of him. "You should probably rest now. We've got a long night flying ahead of us. You're not going to miss anything."

Syaoran nodded, eyeballing Shun's exhaustion. "You really should, Shun," the Avatar concurred. "I'll stay up to make sure Tiki doesn't fall asleep. I've probably gotten the most sleep out of all of us anyway." Then he looked at the two of them collectively. "You both should probably take the chance to rest now. Nothing's going to happen up here, and nothing I can't handle definitely."

ZanYi frowned a little. She didn't like the idea at all of both her and Shun checking out, and Shun definitely needed it more right now. But considering the skirmish and her own personal demons plaguing her today, the lieutenant couldn't lie and say she wasn't tired—even exhausted, Shun would probably somehow pick up on it.

"Are you sure, Syaoran?" she asked skeptically, willing to push more to stay up. But the Avatar nodded at her.

"I'm sure."

Shun didn't have much to contribute to the conversation—he was already drifting. His eyelids were drooping, and he was about to slide sideways, away from ZanYi, to the empty space there. There was a shift in movement, however, and Shun found his shoulder braced against something. The tired waterbender opened his eyes to find Nyla on the other side of him, her smaller body blocking his sideways slump. Shun made an effort to sit up straight, but it was a struggle. "Sorry, Ny," he apologized. Nyla glanced up at Shun, only to look quickly away, her cheeks darkening with a blush.

"It's fine. If you need to borrow my shoulder for a while, go ahead. It's not like it's going to kill me," she grumbled grumpily.

A slight smile stretched across Shun's face for just a moment. "Thanks, Ny. But I'll squash you." Shun chose instead to slump down further, his feet touching the other side of the riding basket, since Syaoran was sitting at the front and Jin had claimed the back for himself. As Shun closed his eyes, he continued, "But feel free to use my shoulder if you need it. You're entitled to that, as my little sister."

"Hmph. I'm not a little girl."

"Everyone's little to me, Ny."

Shun didn't see it, but the corners of Nyla's lips lifted, just a little bit.

Tiki, who had glanced back to witness this exchange, resisted the urge to coo really loudly. Nyla seemed to like her a little, so the tiny airbender didn't want to make an enemy of the singer. Instead, her gray eyes went to Syaoran. "Want to sit up here with me?" she offered, scooting over just a little. "It's going to get cold as we head to the North Pole, and Bumi's warm. We can help keep each other awake too." Not that Tiki was tired—being up in the air always made her feel energized—but if Syaoran wanted to stay up with her, she wouldn't complain.

Syaoran shrugged, but nonetheless, crept cautiously out of the basket to sit next to Tiki. Bumi's fur was already pretty warm, and he was certain he'd appreciate that later. The idea of the North Pole was still a bit daunting, but it had to be done—besides, if the fiery lieutenant wasn't voicing a negative opinion on the idea, then it was a safe plan. Turning back to look, he found ZanYi still awake and thinking with great consideration. "ZanYi," he called back out, getting the woman's attention, "go ahead and get some sleep. Tiki and I have this covered; let us take watch for once."

He earned himself a bit of a scowl from the lieutenant, but nonetheless she eventually grumbled a "Fine." ZanYi tugged her jeans and boots back on, knowing she'd need it. It was going to get cold and she was already in a tanktop. This was going to be fun. Begrudgingly, the firebender situated herself a bit more comfortably against the side, propping her leg up and resting her arms across her waist.

Syaoran turned back around and looked to Tiki, a question on his face. "So, we flying all night?" he asked her.

Tiki sighed a little. "I think so," she said, glancing up at the waning moon. "We should be getting to the North Pole when it's still dark, though. I'd wager about an hour or two before the sun rises. Even so, we have a long way to go." The tiny airbender glanced back at the Jiangs: Jin had rustled up a pack of cards from one of the bags Shun had grabbed, and he and Nyla were playing some strange game that required them not to talk with rules Tiki did not understand—Jin's facial expressions were all the tiny airbender had to go on. Nyla didn't seem very interested in the game, but she played anyway, her back resting against Shun's side.

Shun himself was out for the count, his breakthrough in block healing apparently exhausting him. His head was resting on ZanYi's, her head resting on his shoulder as she already slept nestled into his other side. The scene was cute, and it made Tiki giggle and wish she had a camera.

"Looks like we're going to be with Shun's brother and sister for a while," the tiny airbender mumbled to Syaoran as she turned to face the front again, tugging a little on Bumi's reins to steer him back on track. "I just hope Shun knows what he's doing. I've heard rumors about the North Pole, so I'm not very sure how safe we'll be there." And they had no supplies, other than some winter coats. How willing would the people of the North be to help them out? Maybe Shun had some old neighbors in mind, Tiki didn't know. For the moment, her job was just to help them all get there safely.

Syaoran gave her a crestfallen look. "Really?" he asked before groaning, hanging his head a little. That was just great. They were going into a possibly hostile territory. Again. Hopefully it was just benders; if it was overrun by Neo-Equalists, then they weren't going to be any better off than they had been in Republic City. "Well, at least the rest of the team is unblocked, and we're back in function," Syaoran tried to be optimistic, grateful. "If anything happens, we can take it on." He looked over at Tiki, quiet then. Now that things were finally settling down, he could think back on the airbender's confession of them. Dating. Is that what this was? Syaoran had no idea—that would make Tiki his girlfriend, and that almost sounded like a foreign concept.

Reaching over, he ruffled her hair and then turned back forwards. The Avatar didn't have to have the answers right now, but considering both of them were willing, they would figure it out. One way, or another.

It was cold. That's all ZanYi could register at first. Actually, it wasn't just cold: it was downright freezing. That was a more than unpleasant feeling for the lieutenant to wake up with. At first, she moved closer to what warmth her body could find next to her, but then she opened her eyes and found Shun.

The night was no longer young, probably way past its prime. Still, there was a darkness in their sky with faded stars above. ZanYi sat up, rubbing her arms furiously to try and keep warm. They had to be getting close. One look over the edge allowed her to see ice below in patches across the water. They definitely were getting close. Conjuring some fire in her breath to hold in her hands, ZanYi let it warm her marginally as she looked up to the front. "You guys still okay up there?" she called out.

Syaoran was able to turn back to her and nod with a mild yawn. "Yeah, we're still hanging in there," he answered. Most of the ride had been a mix of him and Tiki talking and also the two of them in silence. Some parts were normal and other parts were awkward. This was going to take getting used to. "Tiki thinks we should be there soon."

Tiki turned back to give ZanYi a smile. "Estimated time of arrival is about fifteen minutes, give or take." Seeing the chill ZanYi had caught, Tiki nodded back to the bag of coats. "Shun marked every coat with our names. Yours is the red one, I think. You should put it on—the fur inside them is fake, thank goodness, but it's still really warm." About an hour previous, Tiki had gotten cold and asked Syaoran to grab her a coat from the bag. She was wearing it now, snuggled happily in the warmth, and pleased that Shun had thought to buy coats without actual fur lining. The man was nothing if not thoughtful. With another glance at the slumbering Jiangs, Tiki added, "You might want to wake everyone else up and tell them to get ready. I don't know what kind of territory we'll be walking into, so we need to be prepared."

ZanYi nodded, knowing there was truth in her words. Resistance interaction with the Northern Tribe was highly limited for a reason. The Southern Water Tribe was a completely different story, and the earthbenders had eagerly joined the movement because of the attack they personally were under because of the Avatar's origins. The firebenders had been eager to sign up and help, taking up the stead of her parents. But the Northern Water Tribe? That was a tricky situation.

First thing she did was go through the coats to find hers. Sure enough, it was the red one. The warmth consumed her being as she slid it on and ZanYi was satisfied for the moment. It was still freezing out, but the faux fur lining was doing a relatively good job. It even fit her snuggly and didn't inhibit much of her movement—the man was good at consideration.

Jin was kind of sprawled out across the back, and she threw his coat at him; with Nyla, she merely tossed it over into her lap, as she was slumbering with her back against Shun's side. "Wake-up," was all she said, though it was clear and firm. To Shun, she nudged his shoulder, kneeling next to him. "Hey, Big Guy: get up. We're almost there and need to be ready for anything."

The touch on Shun's shoulder was familiar. He struggled with his eyelids for a minute before he finally opened them, raising his head. ZanYi's face hovered close to his, and the giant waterbender smiled. "I could get used to waking up like this," he teased. "Good morning, Lieutenant."

"Ugh. You two are gross."

Shun turned to find his sister sitting up, pulling on the coat that was tossed at her over the expensive-looking dress she still wore from the club the night before. Shun felt bad about not being able to get her any clothes, but he would have felt worse if something had happened to his sister instead.

"Good morning to you too, Ny."

"Hmph. Hey, useless! Wake up!" the youngest Jiang began to order her other older brother, giving him a hardy kick, "I should push you out of this basket—your snoring kept me up all night!"

"Ooof! Ow, hey! Come on, Nyla! It's too early for you to be abusing me!"

"Shut up and get up!"

"You know," Shun called over the noise of his waking siblings, "I think it's about time to get our stories straight before we head into the city. NEs began to patrol the place when we left, so we don't know what kind of security we'll be up against. I don't think fake IDs will help us here."

Tiki turned back to give Shun an anxious look. "What will our story be, then? I still have my contacts if I need them, but what else do we need to get into the city?"

Shun rubbed his stubbly chin, frowning in concentration. "We'll need to hide Bumi somewhere first, of course," he stated the obvious before continuing, "there may be guards at the entrance of the city, so we'll have to get past them—without violence, if we can."

"How are we going to do that?"

Shun's frown deepened. If only they had connections in the city. If he knew for sure that his parents were there, he could claim they were all family coming to visit—heck, he could still claim that right. But what if that didn't work? What were they supposed to do then?

Dimly, an abstract idea began to form in the giant waterbender's head, revolving around someone he hadn't seen since his childhood… but no, that wouldn't work either. It had been ages—they wouldn't even recognize each other anymore. It was best to forget that idea. Shun supposed they were stuck with option one, then.

"…We'll all have to pose as family members," Shun decided, glancing up at the other five. "That's simple enough for Jin, Nyla and I… but you three don't look anything like each other. We'll have to make something up for you." Shun looked over his brother and sister. Nyla looked ten years older than she actually was in her wig, dress and make-up, and that gave him an idea. "Ny, you can pretend to be Syaoran and Tiki's mother. If Tiki puts her contacts in, her eyes will look similar to ours. As for Syaoran…" Shun trailed off as he dug around in another bag, producing a hat and stretching over to hand it to the Avatar. "Put that on and keep it on, Syaoran. You have earthbender eyes, and that'll make them suspicious. Just make sure you keep the hat low and don't make direct eye-contact with anyone."

"Hey, I didn't agree to this," Nyla interrupted with a glare, "what makes you think I'll pass for a single mother of two kids who look my age?"

"Your attitude?"

"Shut up, Jin!"

"Ow!"

"Enough," Shun insisted firmly. "Nyla, look: this has to be done, all right? Just until we get into the city. I can't do this without your help, so please."

Nyla was no match for her older brother's pleading look. She turned away, pouting and blushing at the same time. "Oh, fine. But just this once."

"Thank you, Nyla."

"Whatever."

"What about ZanYi?" Tiki asked, curious to see what the giant waterbender would make up for ZanYi. Shun glanced at his brother for a second before his eyes came to rest on ZanYi. Tiki noticed that he looked unhappy.

"I… suppose you could pose as Jin's wife for a while," Shun begrudgingly suggested. To this, Jin let out a whoop of joy.

"Yes, hot wife! I mean, I don't exactly believe in marriage, but still, score!"

"Don't go getting any ideas, Jin."

"No need to give me that scary look, little brother—I'll keep my hands to myself."

"Good," Shun sighed, knowing he was going to regret the next question, but feeling as if he had to ask it anyway: "Does anyone have a problem with this so far?"

"Yes," ZanYi immediately answered, leveling Shun a dirty look. Shifting that gaze over to send Jin a disgusted and irritable look—the idea of being legally stuck with Jin made her stomach roll—the lieutenant shook her head. "That idea isn't going to work." First problem was that she'd probably end up wanting to kill Jin, sufficiently blowing their cover. Two, ZanYi was not about to put on an act like that with Shun's brother. That was crossing lines. "Look, Jin needs to be the single brother. We all know he's going to be undressing every woman we pass with his eyes; that's not going to fly as an alleged married man, or at least not convincingly."

"She's definitely got a point there," Syaoran agreed, slipping the hat on over his head and keeping the bill down low. He allowed his gaze to go over to Tiki, thinking about her as his sister. It made him gag a little bit. He may not know what they technically were, but even that suggestion was just gross. Incest was not his prerogative, but he would put up with the plan if it got them in safely.

ZanYi nodded to the Avatar, but looked back to Shun. "If we're going through with this ruse to get inside, then it might as well be you and me. It'll be a lot more convincing than throwing me at your brother."

Shun sighed. He expected to meet opposition from ZanYi—and Jin hadn't made it any better with his comment. Now Shun was going to have to convince the irritable lieutenant. And that could go either one of two ways: a complete disaster… or a complete disaster with ZanYi not speaking to him. This was going to be fun.

Not.

"The thing is, ZanYi," Shun began, "I need you to pretend to be Jin's wife to keep him in line. If he's by himself, I know the Neo-Equalists will bar him from the city. He just has that irresponsible aura about him—no offense, Jin."

"None taken, little brother."

Shun turned back to meet ZanYi's unhappy amber gaze. "You have to be Jin's cover. Posing as his wife, it'll be your job to make sure nothing compromising comes out of his mouth. Trust me, ZanYi: I wouldn't ask this of you if it wasn't absolutely necessary. So please, just for a while, go along with it. It's only to get us into the city, I promise."

"I'm going to start our descent," Tiki announced to the group at large. "There's nothing but frozen tundra for a while, so I want to give Bumi some distance as well as some cover. There's a thicket of trees below us that we can hide him in for right now."

"Sounds good," Shun affirmed, keeping his gaze on ZanYi. "Please, ZanYi. It's only for a little while."

ZanYi couldn't help but agree with the logic, despite herself. Jin was the one most likely to get them caught or in trouble. If he was seen as unattached, then it would appear as if there was no way to reign him in, thus a liability. Seeing this was better than just thinking Shun was passing her off to his imbecile brother—it still didn't mean she relished the idea. "Fine," she agreed with narrowed eyes at Shun. "I'll do it. But if he tries anything, I will torch him later, regardless of whether he is your brother." The lieutenant moved to sit back against the basket as they started to descend, next to Shun again. Giving him a meaningful and lingering look from the corner of her golden eyes, she finished, "And remember that it's just a ruse. Nothing I do on the job is real."

Shun knew by now how she operated. He was at the bar. He'd seen her before going to the club the second time. If she had a cover, ZanYi fulfilled it to the utmost of her abilities. He was the one making it so that the unlucky victim was his brother; the waterbender just had to remember that and keep his cool.

Shun gave ZanYi a rueful smile. "I promise to keep my temper if you promise to keep yours," he bargained, only half-joking. Indeed, he knew how the lieutenant worked. And he was no happier about this than she was. But, like he had already said—several times—this was only temporary. Once they were in the city, they could drop any and all pretenses. Still, Shun wished he could claim ZanYi as his wife, even if only to fool the guards barring the city…

No, no. Now was not the time to be having those thoughts. First objective of this perilous mission was to get them all inside safely, without too much scrutiny. Shun would have to stay focused on that.

Syaoran looked away and back to the front, taking a deep breath and letting it go slow, twisting his lips in a frown. "This has the potential to blow up in our faces. Big time," he mumbled to the airbender next to him.

Tiki glanced up at Syaoran briefly, but not for too long—she had a bison to land. "Don't be so negative," she chided him for what seemed like the billionth time. "All we have to do is get past the guards and into the city. How hard can that be?"

A/N from Eva: Wow, stuff got real REALLY fast. XP Anyway, long time no chat, guys! (For me, at least. XP) DJ and I are pleased to see that you guys are still supporting us, even after our unannounced break for a while there. XP As you can see, we're getting back to work, and we come bearing a chapter a day earlier than usual: our gift to you! We hope you enjoyed it!

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So, guess what? DJ and I have an official dA group for The Warring Earth now! We'll be posting about what we're up to in between chapters, so you can check up on our status and even check out/contribute fan art of our lovely characters! Be sure to take a looksee! DJ and I should be back on schedule for updating now, so we'll see you next week! Bai bai!