As promised, here's chapter three. Chapter four will be up soon. Read, review and favorite!

Be brave. ~BraveGirl

The Avatar and the White Dragon: Book One, Guidance

Chapter Three

"Drop your arms lower. You want to be able to protect your face and your abdomen when in hand combat. Putting your arms at equal distance from both will allow you to do that."

Rai watched as Kwan skilled two Earth benders, both boys out of breath and sweating on the ripped and tapped up mat, taking turns swinging at each between trying to find their second wind. It was pathetic, really, to the firebender, that two seventeen-year-old boys had only been sparring for ten minutes and were already out of breath.

"That's enough. You both need to work on your stamina before you can continue on in your training. Hit the showers and then go lift some rocks."

Even from across the room, Rai could see the two boys brighten up as they were released from their match. This round of recruits were obviously not going to impress anyone. At least not with their work ethic, the firebender thought as she watched the two boys jogged off and out of her line of sight.

"Rai. You're up."

Steeling herself, much like she'd been doing since Kwan's return over a week ago, the firebender stiffly stood up, grabbing the tape from one of the other firebender's outstretched hands and wrapping them while trying to look everywhere but at her boss. Doing so only seemed to anger and sadden the girl.

"New girl. Yeah, the one with the pony tail. Let's go, you're sparring with her."

Rai managed to glance up in time to see the person Kwan had been talking to. She stood broader and taller than most of the guys in the compound, her brown eyes raking up and down Rai's form from the other side of the mat with humor. "You want me to fight her? No way, I'd squash her like a glowfly. Come on, teach, give me something to work with here."

The firebender, who had finished wrapping her hands, now stood with them crossed across her body, waiting and watching the newcomer from her corner of the sparring mat. Kwan sighed, taking a step off the mat and motioning for the large girl to step on. She did so reluctantly, eyeing up the shorter girl in front of her.

"Easy first round for our first-timer. First one to be…let's say…knocked out of the mat wins? Sounds good to you girls?"

The larger girl, who Rai couldn't for the life of her remember the name of, nodded, jumping up and down as she "shook" herself out, something that only made the firebender roll her eyes before assuming her first stance. After giving a short, stiff nod, the room quietened to almost complete silence.

From across the mat, the tall Earth born native, judging by the green two piece shirt and shorts set the girl was wearing, stepped forward, her fist flying out in the direction of the firebender. However, Rai was prepared, easily side-stepping the girl's advance, the firebender's eyes drifting from the match to the opposite end of the room where her team was sitting, each watching the match with different expressions. Asha looked bored, having never really been into the whole combat part of their line of work, while Hayate looked clearly amused as he chewed on a wheat-stem, relaxing against the cement wall, sending a wink to the firebender. And of course, Kayo was on the ground in front of them, looking halfway between worried and…proud? Whatever it was, it was an emotion that Rai had seen on her friends face a thousand times when she'd caught her attention during one of her sparring matches. It was also a look that Rai couldn't quite pinpoint to an exact degree. The older girl confused her and messed with her too much. Sometimes to the point that the firebender would get an ache in her head from thinking too much.

The sound of her opponent's foot sliding across the mat pulled her attention away from her friends, managing to barely miss the arm that swung by her face. It had been so close that Rai had seen the indention of scars along the girl's knuckles from what she guessed was hours dealing with rocks. Waiting until the moment was clear, Rai ducked under the girl's still outstretched arm, grabbing the girl by the back of her shirt before tugging her backwards, successfully sending her flying across the mat, but not outside of it's boundaries.

Internally cursing herself for getting distracted by…people, the firebender attempted to gather herself as the Earth Kingdom-girl pulled herself off the mat and glared up at her. Despite seeing the broad girl as an angry bull that seemed to see her a target, Rai relaxed her posture, watching as the other girl barreled across the mat, ready to knock the firebender out until a wall of flames stopped her from reaching said girl.

From through the flicker of the wall of flames, the Earth Kingdom-girl watched with wide-eyes as a smirk appeared on the firebender's face, the flames flickering higher until they seemed to reach the ceiling, and with the distraction, Rai collided with the taller girl, sending her reeling backwards and off the mat in a matter of seconds.

Silence echoed around the room, until the sound of hands clapping pulled everyone from the girl groaning on the ground and towards their leader, who stood leaning against the cement wall with a small smile on his face. Eventually the whole room joined in on the clapping, until Rai stepped off the training mat and began to unwrap her hands, leaving Kwan to draw all the attention in the room towards himself again. "Lesson number one, recruits. Never let your guard down and be prepared for anything. You're all dismissed."

The members started filing out of the room, the sound of chatter and light laughs filling the room and the halls outside. Rai was fully planning to join her team for dinner when the sound of her name being called pulled her attention to where Kwan was standing, Cam on his left. "Hold back a second. I need to discuss something with you."

The firebender nodded once at her roommate, who had walked up to the shorter girl following the statement from their boss, silently telling her that she'd find her after whatever he wanted to talk about. Rai watched as all three of her friends left the room, her roommate being the last to walk out, throwing her one last worried look over her shoulder before closing the training room doors behind her, leaving the firebender alone with the two Earth bending brothers.

"You know, I never got the chance to ask how things went while Cam and I were gone. Everything seemed to be in order when we returned, and no one died, so I supposed that's a victory on your part. Well, I did notice the broken nose Nakio has been sporting recently. That have something to do with you?"

Rai shrugged, sitting down on the bench she'd been occupying earlier, slipping her jacket over her head while trying not to make eye-contact with either of the two men. "He got drunk and took his anger out on my roommate. Wasn't it you who said any form of mutiny needed to be put out before it could spread like fire?"

"Yes. It does. Now, the reason I asked you stay behind is because I wanted to ask you something. I went to fetch something from my bottom drawer this morning and realized that the lock had been picked, and everything inside the drawer was missing. You, my little fireball, are my right-hand pick besides Cam. Please don't tell me you suddenly decided to become reckless and go breaking into my things."

The firebender stood up straighter, letting her eyes close as she heard the two men approaching her. Tugging her bag over her shoulder, Rai turned, coming face-to-face with the man who'd taken pity on her all those years ago. Or at least what she'd thought was pity. Now, all the firebender could think of when seeing him was anger, hatred.. All of it, every single moment that she'd acted for him, in the name of what his movement stood for, had been because he'd planned it all along. Suddenly, standing this close to him, Rai didn't need Kwan to confirm anything to her. She knew the truth just from the look in his eyes.

"It was you, wasn't it? You ungrateful bit-!"

"Ungrateful?! You're kidding me, right?! You told me my parents were dead. You've been lying to me, and using me for years! You-!"

Before the firebender could finish, her vision tunneled and the world around her turned to shadow and darkness. The last thing Rai could make out before completely blacking out was Cam and Kwan standing over her, looking down with angry looks on their features. "You really should have just kept your nose out of it kid. I told you that you wouldn't like what you'd find."

"Hey! You with the white streaks and the split lip! Wake up!"

The firebender sucked in a breath as she squinted one eye open, the throbbing across her lower jaw and lip creating a headache large enough to force a groan from the sixteen-year-old. Remembering the voice that finally pulled her out of unconsciousness, the firebender glanced around her, flashes from the sparring match and afterwards filling her head. Eventually Rai's eyes settled on a younger boy off to her left, sitting against the cement wall in grey clothes that were splattered with dirt and blood, looking worse for wear. "It's about time you woke up. You've been out since they brought you down a few hours ago. Judging by that nasty looking lip you got there, you got it pretty rough. Where'd they pull you from?"

Swallowing, and flinching at the soreness from her apparent face injuries, the firebender shook her head, moving slightly until the rattling of metal and something cool to the touch around her wrists kept her from moving any further. Glancing over her shoulder, Rai frowned at the chains shackled around her wrists, both of which were behind the girl's back. The chain itself was short, only a foot or two away from the wall where it was connected to. "I don't…where the hell are we?"

The younger boy shrugged when Rai turned her attention back to him, the firebender watching as he glanced around the room, her own eyes following. It was relatively dark, and off to her right sat another kid, their own hands chained behind their back. Beyond that, the firebender couldn't make out much of anything, maybe what looked like another human form. It was also quiet, Rai's and the unnamed boy's conversation echoing around the room. Or pit. Or wherever they were.

"I'm not sure. One second I'm at the market in Zaofu and the next I'm waking up here."

Rai's frown deepened as she looked over the boy. "As in the Earth Kingdom, Zaofu? That's where you're from?"

"Yeah, why? Are we not in the Earth Kingdom anymore?"

Letting out a sigh, the firebender let her head fall backwards, connecting with enough force to cause her lower jaw to flare up in pain and a kiss to come out. "Shit. Ow. Uh, no. We're in Republic City. Unless they took me from the compound."

"Republic City? Why the hell would they take me to Republic City?"

The firebender shrugged, turning her head slightly to squint at the boy. "I don't know. How long have you been here?"

"I…I don't know…I tried to keep track at first, but…they always bring bread and water down at some time. I've counted at least eight times they've been down, so maybe eight days? A week? Like I'm sure you can see, it's kinda hard to keep track of time here. But you said something about a compound earlier? You're from here? You're one of them?"

Rai scoffed, closing her eyes as she tried to channel through the fog of the headache and pain. "I used to be."

"Ooh. So you must have done something really bad to earn that lip. What'd you do?"

Cracking an eye open, Rai caught the boy's gaze. "I found out the leader of the group was possibly paid by my grandfather to fake my death."

The boy's eyebrows shot up. "Wow. Tough life then, huh, orphan girl?"

"So it would seem."

The boy let out a chuckle as he glanced around the room, the sound of his laughter echoing back to him off the cement wall. "My name is Souta, by the way."

"My name is Rai. How old are you, Souta?"

"I just turned fourteen. You?"

"Sixteen."

"Wow, really? You're kinda small for your age aren't you?"

The firebender rolled her eyes, pushing herself off the wall. Despite the ache in her jaw and lip, nothing else really hurt. She was a little stiff, although the girl pegged it for sitting in the position she'd been passed out in. "I get that a lot."

"You don't say much do you?"

"I don't have much to say."

"I like that line. Can I use it sometime?"

"If you make it out of here, knock yourself out."

"You think I won't make it out of here?"

Even from where she was sitting, her face angled away from Souta's face, she could practically see the sadness on the boy's face. His voice had wavered upon asking the question, but the firebender wasn't going to tell him any lies. She knew Kwan, and she knew this group. She knew what they were capable of. "I don't know what to think anymore. Sorry, kid."

From across the room, a door opened, flooding light into the room. Squinting against the sudden brightness, the firebender glanced around. Pass Souta, there were others chained up to the wall the same was they were, each of them dressed the same way as the boy.

"You're awake. Good. I was afraid Cam had used a little too much force back there. How's the lip?"

Rai could feel every muscle in her body tense at the sound of the voice. Glaring up at the figure encased in light, she didn't need to see any details of his face to recognize the man's voice. "What the hell are you doing with all these kids, Kwan?"

The figure shrugged, turning slightly as if surveying the other occupants in the room. "They're a part of a…special project my brother and I are operating. I had actually hoped to bring you into the business, but, plans change, huh?"

"Cut the shit, Kwan. You're selling them, aren't you?"

The figure dropped down to the firebender's level, grabbing a hold of the girl's shirt collar before tugging her forwards slightly into the light, his hand moving up to grip the girl's chin. Kwan let out a small smile when he heard the girl hiss at the contact. No doubt the girl's jaw was hurting like hell from the blow she'd received. "What I'm doing with them is none of your concern. Now, I'm going to give you a second chance to redeem yourself here. I need another bender to stand by me when I publicly announce ourselves at the festival next month. If you agree to come with me, I'll forgive you for your treachery."

The firebender glared at the man, ignoring the throbbing of her cheek as she felt her hands begin to warm slightly. "And if I refuse?"

Kwan let go of the girl's chin, refusing to break the girl's steely gaze. "Then you can rot in this hole. But keep in mind, I made you. I took you in when no one else wanted you. You owe everything to me."

As if possible, the girl's green eyes darkened, and the older man was vaguely aware of the sound of metal clanking against the cement floor before the firebender's fist connected with his face, successfully knocking the leader backwards and out of consciousness.

Standing on slightly wobbly legs, Rai shook her fist out, looking over towards the boy from Zaofu, who was wearing a shocked expression on his face as he stared at the unconscious man on the floor. As the firebender made her way towards him, Souta looked up at her, his mouth still hanging open after witnessing what the small girl had just accomplished. "Remind me to never piss you off. How did you break the chain?"

Bending down in front of the boy, the firebender shrugged, lighting a small flame in her hand to illuminate the area around them. The open door behind her offered little in visibility, but the flickering flame in her hand at least allowed her to see the boy's face. "I've got my ways. Listen, by the time I get these off you and everyone else, he'll be awake and will most likely kill me. I'm going to come back for you, okay? For you and all these others. I promise. Just hang in there, okay?"

Souta nodded, urging the firebender to hurry before the man woke up, promising to keep quiet about anything she'd told him or that he'd even talked to the firebender, something she hoped would keep the boy alive and stationary until she could figure out what to do next. Because the only thing that was running through the firebender's mind now was getting the hell out of this place.

Hurrying through the open door, the firebender glanced around the hallway, leaning against the door frame to try and gather her bearings. She recognized the hall as one of the lower levels and automatically bee-lined for the staircase, taking the steps two at time before bursting through the doorway, earning confused looks from the other members around her. The firebender continued down the hallway, ignoring the people around her as she tried to mentally calm herself. Breathe. Find the team, gather what you need, get out.

Finally the firebender managed to make it to her room, fumbling with the door handle due to shaky hands before it opened and she stumbled through, the three occupants in the room snapping their heads up to look at the intruder with confused looks.

Kayo was the first to stand up, briskly walking towards her roommate, taking in her panicked look, the split lip and the bruise forming the left side of her jaw. "What the hell happened to you? And where have you been? You've been gone for hours and-."

The firebender shook her head, wrapping her arms around the girl in a tight hug that lasted all of two seconds before she pulled away and hurried further into the room, pulling out a bag from under her bed before beginning to pile clothing and whatever she thought she'd need into it before turning to face the other two members of her team. "Not enough time to explain. You two need to go and pack a bag with clothing and anything else you want. Kayo and I will meet you at the University. Move quickly, but be quiet and get out before anyone sees you. Go. Now."

The two simply nodded, hurrying off the bed to follow their team leader's orders, leaving a still slightly-frazzled firebender with her equally confused roommate. "Rai, what's wrong?"

The firebender moved to her roommate's side of the room, pulling out her own bag before handing it over to the taller girl. "Please, just do as I say and I will explain everything to you when we get to the meeting place, okay?"

Kayo frowned, but knew to trust her friend, so as she began to hurry in packing whatever she needed and a few of her other personal belongings into the bag she'd been given, choosing to keep quiet as the firebender rummaged through the rest of their room. Rai managed to grab her side-bag, kneeling down by her dresser to grab the papers and file folder she'd kept hidden there and quickly shoving them into the bag. When she turned around, her roommate was waiting patiently by the door, her grey-blue eyes filled with concern. "Ready?"

The older girl nodded, following her roommate out of their room and down the hall, sticking as close to the firebender as she could. "We're not coming back are we?"

Rai shook her head, reaching behind her to grasp the girl's hand in her own, feeling her feet begin to quicken their pace. They'd managed to make it all the way to the common room when the firebender stopped mid-step, her grip on the older girl's hand tightening as her eyes locked on to Kwan's brother leaning against the make-shift bar counter, two large Earth bender Rai remembered meeting once on either side of him.

Shifting her body slightly, the firebender took a few steps backwards, making sure to keep her body between the two men and her roommate as two large chucks on concrete were pulled up from the floor.

"Did you really think Kwan wasn't expecting this? How'd you break the chains?"

Letting go of her roommates hand, the firebender gently shoved her towards the entrance to the compound, handing over her pack as she did so. "Go. Meet the others. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Kayo nodded, although she knew her roommate couldn't see her, keeping an eye trained on the men before silently disappearing up the staircase and into the bar, out of sight. The firebender waited until she could no longer hear her friend's footsteps on the wooden floors above her before returning her attention back to the three men in front of her. She narrowly missed a piece of flying cement that one of the Earth benders through at her, ducking under the rock and throwing herself out of the way of the dust and rubble, taking the opportunity of the cloudy room to take off towards the stairs, sending a series of blasts of fire behind her to dodge the three men charging at her. "Stop her!"

The firebender let out a string of curses when she noticed the piece of wall start that served as the entrance of the compound begin to move inward, the gap between the rest of the wall and the block closing by the second. In motions that felt snail-like, Rai pushed herself off the last step, using whatever energy she could muster up to make it through the small opening of the wall and into the bar before time began to speed up again, the firebender falling onto her knees while the dust that had been disrupted due to the closing of the block of rock behind her.

Jax, the bartender and all the other patrons of the bar watched as the sixteen-year-old scampered to her feet, shouldered the wooden side door and stumbled onto the pavement. Behind her, Rai could hear the sounds of the wall being moved again, and she took off, not daring to slow down as she sprinted down the alley way and through the dimly lit streets of the city, not even bothering to stop at any sign of traffics and even barreling through a group of men in suits. She didn't hear their protests, or the sounds of the Satomobiles' horns, her rapid heartbeat filling her ears even as she begun to slow upon seeing the University in the distance.

Breathing heavily, Rai slowed until she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk leading to the front entrance of the University, spinning on her heel so quickly she was sure she'd just given herself whiplash to make sure she hadn't been followed before leaning forward and resting her hands on her knees, breathing in and out slowly to try and regain some composure.

"Rai?"

The firebender jumped, flames automatically engulfing her hands as she stumbled backwards, eyes wide and heart rate returning to abnormal speed until she met the worried gazes of her teammates. Almost immediately, the flames withered out, and the four teenagers found themselves staring at each other, no one knowing how to approach the topic of what just occurred.

"What the hell just happened?"

Rai let out a sigh, glancing between her teammates before her eyes scanned the area around them. She wasn't expecting to find anyone out at this time of night. The sun had gone down long ago, the only illumination coming from the lights surrounding the University's main building and the surrounding shops that were still open. "What I'm about to tell you all will probably sound…absurd, but…I recently found out that my parents are alive. Or at least my mother is. It, uh, turns out that Kwan was hired by my grandfather to basically fake my death."

The only two members who hadn't been a part of the "investigation" to figure out the mystery revolving the firebender's findings stared at their team leader with expressionless faces. Eventually Hayate frowned, shaking his head. "Wait, you're being serious?"

Rai nodded, taking her side bag from her roommate before pulling out the letters sent between Hiroshi and Kwan, the fake death certificates and the articles and police reports they'd borrowed from the library and handed them over to her friends. Both Hayate and Asha were quiet as they glanced over the papers, their faces returning to expressionless. Moments later, when they both had read and re-read through everything they'd been given, Hayate handed the papers back to the firebender, shaking his head. "If all of this is true…what about us?"

The firebender frowned, carefully placing the papers back in her bag. "What?"

"Us. If Kwan was manipulative and sadistic enough to fake your death and the attack on your mother, then there's a possibility that the events surrounding our own involvement with the group could be lies, right?"

Rai glanced between her friends, catching the uncomfortable look on her roommates face before shrugging. "I can't say whether or not that's a possibility, guys. I don't even know what I re-opened when I found all of it, but I know I can't go back. I refuse to. And I can't let any of you go back either, because the first thing they'll do is try and get something out of you all or use you guys to try and force me out of the shadows. Kwan is not who we thought he was. There's a lot of things we were kept in the dark about."

Silence passed between the four after Rai recounted everything that happened after the mact, the firebender watching with concern as Hayate began to pace the small area between the four of them while Asha just sat down on the sidewalk with a look of panic on her face. Kayo stood off to the side, her arms crossed over her chest as she stared down at the ground.

"You do know what this means, don't you? Leaving like we just did. They're going to come after us and it's going to be a death sentence."

The firebender nodded, picking up her pack from where the others sat, slipping it over one shoulder. "I know, and I am fully prepared to face it head on. I'm not going to ask you all to do that, though. Just gather whatever you can and get out of the city, okay? Get somewhere safe. I have to go to the police station and do something. Anything. I just can't let Kwan keep doing all of this. It has to stop."

Kayo's head snapped up at the firebender's words, tensing at just the thought of her best friend facing the entire movement all alone. "What? No. I'm not leaving you. Not now, not after everything that we just found out and after what just happened."

Rai watched as her roommate grabbed her own backpack before practically stomping over to where the firebender stood, looking annoyed at the thought of even letting the sixteen-year-old face any of this alone. "Seriously? Why can't you just listen to me for once and see that I'm only doing this because I want to protect you?"

The older girl's eyes narrowed. "I don't need your protection, I can handle myself. Just shut up and let me help you, okay? I'm not leaving you all alone to fight this or face whatever could happen by yourself. You and these two are all I have and I'm not about to just walk away from that."

The firebender huffed, turning to look at the other two who had gathered their own bags. Hayate raised an eyebrow, nodding his head once. "She's right, you know. Since we were first teamed up, you've kept us from getting our asses handed to us and we've done the same for you. We're not about to just walk away from everything we've been through together."

Asha nodded, bypassing her three friends. "I agree, but I feel like we need to get out of the open like this. Kwan's probably sent a whole bunch of his loons to look for us. To the police station, then?"

Hayate shrugged, taking off after the girl, leaving the firebender alone with her roommate who was still sporting a rather pissed off look. "Kayo-."

The older girl shook her head, waving her hand in the air. "No. Don't even…I told you earlier that I wasn't just going to stand by and watch you do all of this alone. You are my best friend, and I care about you a whole hell of a lot more than you'll ever know. Stop trying to push me away and let me help you."

The firebender frowned, staring at her friend's retreating form as the blue-eyed girl took off in the same direction as their two friends. "I'm not trying to push you away."

Before Rai could realize what was happening, a piece of rock came flying towards her head, barely missing. The firebender rolled her eyes, following after her team. "That could have hit me, you know!"

The firebender watched as her roommate shrugged, never turning around to face her as she followed the others. "But it didn't! Move your ass, Rai!"