A/N: Back to the main plot with Aang...

Chapter 6: The Prison

After the swamp had been saved from the Fire Nation, Huu recommended that Aang and his friends leave the swamp. If he stayed the Fire Nation would return to finish burning down the swamp, and it was best to leave and take the Fire Nation's attention elsewhere. Aang reluctantly agreed, since he was now on a time limit to master all four elements. While Aang hadn't fully mastered waterbending, Huu claimed that Katara had mastered it and could teach Aang herself.

It was time to find an earthbending teacher for Aang. He wanted to find one in Omashu, but when Aang and his friends arrived there on Appa they discovered it had been taken by the Fire Nation. Aang had hoped to find out what happened to his old friend Bumi, but that wasn't an option with the city occupied and Aang didn't even know if Bumi made it to 112 years old. At Suki's insistence they left to find an earthbending teacher elsewhere.

With no specific location in mind to find a teacher, Aang guided Appa along the Earth Kingdom's coastline. Suki reasoned that there would be earthbenders fighting the Fire Nation in the western Earth Kingdom, and that one of them could be a suitable teacher. So they headed north along the coast, looking for a village that would have earthbenders in it.

One morning Aang had a good feeling about finding a teacher. There were several villages nearby and they could check them out the next day. What they didn't expect was hearing someone practicing earthbending as they packed up the campsite. Aang was the first to investigate, and found a young teen with brown hair levitating some boulders in a ravine.

"Excuse me!" Aang yelled. "I need to talk with you!"

The teen panicked and ran away. As he ran he dislodged some boulders to block the ravine behind him in an attempt to prevent Aang from following. Aang unfolded his glider and flew above the boulders, then landed in front of the teen.

"What do you want?" the teen asked.

"What's your name? And where did you learn your earthbending?" Aang asked.

"I'm Haru, and I learned from my father," he said. "Now please leave, I have to go home before anyone notices I'm gone."

Aang went back to his friends and helped finish packing. When they were finished Aang, Katara, and Suki all walked to the nearest village, leaving Appa in the woods. In the village there didn't appear to be any earthbenders, except for Haru. Katara followed him into a shop that he appeared to work in with his mother. Aang and Suki quickly entered after Katara.

"Hey, why did you run away before?" Katara asked.

"Look I don't want any trouble," Haru said.

"Hey is your father here?" Aang asked. "I need an earthbending teacher."

"Don't say that around here," Haru's mother said. She closed the door and the shades on the window.

"Why not?" Aang asked.

"It's dangerous to earthbend here," she said. "The Fire Nation takes away anyone they find earthbending."

"Like my father," Haru said.

"I don't suppose you know where they are kept?" Aang asked.

"No," Haru said.

"Well there is one way we could find out," Suki said.

"How?" Haru asked.

"Well we have a sky bison," Suki said. "If someone were to get captured for earthbending we could follow and break him out."

"No I won't allow it," Haru's mother said.

"Mom it could work," Haru said.

"And what if it doesn't?" she said. "I can't afford to lose you too."

"Fine," Haru said. To Aang and his friends he said "Maybe you should leave now."

That evening Aang and the others set up camp in the woods just outside the village. The trees provided sufficient cover to prevent any Fire Nation patrols from spotting them. They were about to get some sleep when they heard someone approach.

"Who's there?" Aang shouted.

"It's me," Haru said as he approached. "I thought about your idea, and I want to try it."

"What about your mother?" Katara asked.

"I know she doesn't like it, but if there's any chance to save my father I have to take it," Haru said.

"Alright, we'll do it tomorrow," Suki said.

In the morning Haru intercepted a patrol while Aang and the others watched. He 'accidentally' earthbended within view of the soldiers, and they arrested him. The soldiers hauled Haru onto a ship which sailed out to sea. The people on the ship never suspected that they were being followed by a sky bison.

The ship took Haru to a shipyard, where he was reunited with his father in prison. Haru tried to explain the escape plan to Tyro, who refused to go along with it. The other earthbenders in prison needed him, and he wasn't going to abandon them. When night fell Haru snuck out of the prison yard to talk with Aang and the others.

"Where's your dad, it's time to go," Katara said.

"He's not coming," Haru said.

"What do you mean he's not coming?" Suki asked.

"He won't abandon everyone here," Haru said. "If we're going to do something here it's all or nothing."

"The only way we could get everyone out is if they had some earth or rock to bend," Suki said.

"This whole place is made of metal to prevent that," Haru replied.

Looking around, Aang spotted smoke coming from chimneys in the shipyard. "Look at the smoke," Aang said. "I bet their burning coal, or in other words, earth."

"If we can get the coal here the earthbenders can free themselves," Katara said.

"Let's move," Suki said.

It took an hour to find where the coal was stored in the shipyard. Aang started closing several ventilation shafts, leaving only one open which led to the prison yard. Katara and Suki waited at the end of the shaft, keeping an eye out for the guards. Haru returned to his father, trying to get him and the other earthbenders into position.

In the morning Katara and Suki were spotted by guards when they let the prisoners into the yard. As the guards closed in on them Aang made his move. He used airbending to push the coal out of the storage room, sending it out the only open shaft and into the prison yard. With the task complete he moved through the shaft and jumped out, landing on the coal and coughing up some coal dust.

"Now's our chance!" Haru yelled, taking foot on top of the coal. "We can escape together, and take back our freedom and our villages."

When none of the earthbenders responded to Haru, the warden started laughing. "Foolish boy," he said. "You really think some inspirational words and some coal will change these people."

"Yes!" Haru yelled and then earthbended a chunk of coal at the warden. The warden blocked with a fireblast, and then sent another one at Haru. Haru panicked and didn't block, but was saved when the coal formed a wall in front on him.

Tyro wasn't willing to stand idly by while his son was attacked. He created the wall of coal to save his son, then bended it forward at the guards. The coal had been set on fire, and burning pieces of it struck the guards. The firebenders blocked the attack and retaliated with several fireblasts. Tyro created another wall of coal, assisted by other earthbenders.

"For the Earth Kingdom, Attack!" Tyro yelled.

The earthbenders sent the coal forward, striking the guards and forcing them back. The guards were overwhelmed by the sudden defiance of the prisoners, and several of them ran for cover. Then Tyro and Haru condensed some coal into a boulder and threw it at the door to the yard, breaking it open. The earthbenders ran for the hole, on their way to freedom.

While most of the earthbenders headed for the ships docked with the shipyard, Tyro and Haru struck down the warden. Then they created a platform of coal under him and lifted it into the air. After moving it past the edge of the yard and over the water they let go of it, sending the warden plummeting into the ocean.

With the warden dealt with Tyro and Haru rejoined the other earthbenders and escaped on one of the ships. On that ship Haru introduced Tyro to Aang, Katara, and Suki.

"Thank you for saving us," Tyro said.

"All it took was a little coal, and your son," Katara said.

"You helped bring us back together," Tyro said. "I'm grateful."

"Hey Tyro," Aang said. "Do you think you could teach me earthbending?"

"Well I may be a little rusty," Tyro admitted. "But it would be an honor to teach the Avatar earthbending."

"Thanks," Aang said. Then he looked at Katara and noticed something missing. "Katara, where's your necklace?"

"What!" she yelled and felt for the necklace around her neck. "It's gone!"

Back at the shipyard Katara's necklace was lying among the pieces of coal strewn about the prison yard. No one had picked it up, for the guards were too busy being harshly punished by the princess sent to investigate what happened. When she was finished punishing the guards Princess Azula walked into the yard to observe the scene of the prison break.

What's this? Azula thought when she saw a small bit of blue among the dark coal. She picked it up, recognizing the design as Water Tribe. Azula knew that there were no waterbenders held here, and that the necklace had to come from whoever helped the earthbenders escape. She pocketed the necklace and left the shipyard, knowing a way to use the necklace for her own goals.

A/N: I didn't like Katara's speeches to the earthbenders in the episode. It seemed like something that should have been Haru's role.