Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Chapter 9: The Siege of the North and Cave of Lovers

I was enjoying watching the male students get their butts kicked by Katara. I saw black snow falling from the sky, everyone started running for the palace war room.

There were too many ships to just take them out one at a time. I gestured to the city and told the others to regroup.

"How many waterbenders are there in total" I ask Pakku.

"There are about 150 why?" he replies.

"We could try and create a huge wave. If we create a strong enough wave we can bash the ships into each other, this would use their own power against them."

It was nearing midnight and all the waterbenders except a few were on the wall. My brother was trying to get help from the spirits and Katara was with him just in case something happened.

"Kokurai go take out some ships." I say as we start to create a massive wave. With the moon almost full it made our bending stronger

"Now attack" said Pakku. Everyone pushed the wave and it took out nearly half of their ships. That attack took a lot out of everyone.

"How many are there?" I ask as I look to see if anyone has enough energy for another attack like that. Only about a dozen could but then we would be defenseless. "Everyone, you need to rest. I'll take out some more of the ships. Get some rest we will need it in the morning when the remaining ships breach the walls." I grab my glider and fly over to Kokurai. "Come on boy let's take out some fire nation navy"

By morning there was only about a 1/3 of the fire navy left. I was exhausted and headed to where the oasis was. I watched the koi too tired to do much. It had been over 24 hours since I slept and 12 since I had last eaten; it was starting to affect my bending. I had grabbed three apples to eat before I had headed here I heard several people approaching. I quickly hid in the patch of bamboo behind the spring. It was Zhao I saw him head to grab the moon spirit. Iroh yelled at him to stop and I tried to stop him by using waterbending but as soon as the moon spirit in the bag I lost control over the water. The moon turned red and Iroh attacked. After we chased Zhao off, I felt my body leave my control. I saw Aang start to glow too. We both entered the pond and locking eyes with the ocean spirit, we headed out. We forced the fire nation back after all the ships were pushed away; we regained control the moon was back. The ocean spirit placed us on the outer wall and went back to the oasis taking Zhao with it, probably to make sure no one else tried to kill its partner in their vulnerable forms.

Everyone rested for a couple of days then the master waterbenders, myself included, helped rebuild the outer defenses. After only a couple of days the city was back to the way it once was. Master Pakku and some of the other waterbenders headed off to the South Pole and help them rebuild.

[Time Skip]

At the earth kingdom base we had learned that if either Aang or I died in the avatar state the reincarnation cycle would stop. We traveled to the cursed lovers cave after meeting up with some nomad musicians. The fire nation trapped us in the cave Appa and Kokurai panicked they did not like being trapped underground. We finally calmed them down and Kokurai shrunk into his smaller form and crawled up onto my shoulders, he was large enough for it to be uncomfortable carrying him. Kali was sleeping inside my shirt; she had hunted late into the night.

We had ran into 10 dead-ends and figured out that the tunnels were changing. We were attacked by a wolf-bat and after Appa panicked we were separated into three groups: Sokka, Momo and the musicians, Aang Katara and Appa; finally Kokurai, Kali Haki and I.

[Aang and Katara]{Aang POV}

We stumbled on to what we thought was an exit but was actually the tomb of the two lovers. We only had a few minutes left of the torch and Katara noticed an inscription.

"It says 'love is brightest in the dark'" says Katara. "Maybe if we kissed we could make it out of the tunnels."

"Maybe it would" says Aang after careful consideration of his words. They leaned in and pressed their lips together as their eyes closed. Without them noticing the torch went out. They pulled away and opened their eyes.

"Look there is glowing crystals in the ceiling. That is how the lovers found each other. That is the way out let's go!" says Katara excitedly. We had made it out alive.

{Sokka POV}

It was official I hated my life. I was stuck with some of the most annoying people I had ever met and we had no way to escape. The only bright side was Momo was with me.

We had managed to find another dead end and the lead nomad said he had an idea. His idea was to sing a love song. I slapped my head. Two badger-moles appeared. As I was crawling backwards I placed my hands on the stringed instrument when it played the badger-mole stopped. I started strumming and told the others to join in we then rode out on the badger-moles.

Aang and Katara were already outside.

"Hey guys, where is Kitty?" I ask just as an ominous rumbling starts farther up the mountain.

{Kitty POV}

I looked at the collapsed rock stunned beyond belief. I was trapped away from the others and without a way out. I started walking.

I had walked for an hour the only reason I could tell was that there was only half of the torch left. I looked in front of me and there was an injured badger-mole I walked closer humming softly to let it know I was there. It had been trapped under rubble from the cave in; there was a smaller badger-mole beside it, if I had to guess it was the older ones kit. I watched the smaller one using their form of earth bending to try to get its mom out. After observing for a few minutes I thought I had an idea on how to help out; I set my stance and pushed, imagining the rubble lifting and moving away from the injured badger-mole. I walked up to its side pulling out my water skin. It had a horrible gash on its side that it would not survive if it was left untreated.

"It's okay I am only here to help" I spoke calmly as I started healing her side. When I was finished she got up and looked towards me then towards her back. I got the idea she wanted to help me since I had helped her. I climbed up and put Haki on my lap off we went. We made it out I could see the others down on a lower edge and smirked. Before I headed down I turned to the badger mole and said "thank-you".

I vaulted over the edge of the cliff and using a mixture of basic earthbending and airbending skated down the edge. Haki and Kali rode down on Kokurai's back.

"Hey guys did you have any fun?" I ask as I slide to a stop inched from them. They all just looked shocked that I had just used earthbending to slide down the edge of the cliff. My eyes were drawn to Sokka's red forehead.

"How did you learn earthbending and when" asks a startled Aang.

"Well when I was in the cave I came upon an injured and trapped adult badger-mole and its kit. After watching the kit use basic earthbending I got the concept and helped free the mother. I had to heal her side and after that was done she helped me leave the cave. Sokka why is your forehead so red?" I ask curious.

After we all finished explaining what had happened to each of us while we were separated we headed towards the edge of the mountains where we would catch the first sight of Omashu. When we caught sight of the city we were stunned it had been captured by fire nation!