Days went by, which turned into weeks. Lu Ten, who had at first been determined to find a way out of this situation had now resolved himself to it. He talked with some of the others, and occasionally someone would yell for help, to no avail. They were truly trapped, and because people were so afraid they might be next, the prisoners assumed that no one was coming for them. That is until the next full moon came. Out of nowhere, three children stormed into the underground prison. One was tall with dark skin and blue eyes. The other was shorter and wore a headband. The third was a girl, whose eyes showed that she was blind, and yet she showed no sign of being disabled. It was the strangest thing. The boys went off to get to Hama, and the girl stayed behind to release all the prisoners.
"What's your name?" she asked as she unlocked Lu Ten's shackles.
"Ping," he told her automatically.
"That's a lie," she said, matter-of-factly.
He shot her a confused look.
"I have a gift," she said with a shrug, but he got the sense that she too was not telling the whole truth.
"That must be a very special gift indeed," he replied. "I wish I had such a gift. It might have spared me this trouble."
She chuckled. "Well, the old lady kinda had me fooled too, to be honest."
"I've never heard of a water bender doing something like that," Lu Ten said as they made their way out of the cave to find and detain Hama.
"Me neither, but great benders can create new techniques," the girl returned. "Like the man who created the lightning technique for fire benders."
Lu Ten was surprised at how much this girl knew. He had the distinct feeling that she was a bender herself, but it might put her in danger to say. He guessed that she was an earth bender, based on her movements and attitude. But he didn't want to be questioned, so the last thing he was gonna do was question her. So they walked until they found Hama. There was another girl there with the boys who had left earlier. Some of the prisoners who had been there a long time took hold of Hama.
"Don't be fooled," Hama said, looking right at Lu Ten. "That one is Fire Nation royalty. He cannot hide who he truly is."
Lu Ten shook his head. "You are mistaken, Hama. You are the one that could not hide your true self. I am from the Earth Kingdom."
"You crazy old witch," said one prisoner. "Let's go."
Hama was dragged away. He had heard Hama refer to the girl as Katara, and that name struck him as familiar. He had definitely heard it somewhere before. He seemed to remember it coming from Ursa for some reason. Then it hit him that Ursa had mentioned her lover, Hakoda, had children called Sokka and Katara. It had been in passing, so he was surprised he remembered it. The part he really remembered was that Hakoda's children were travelling with the Avatar. He looked very hard at the boy with the headband, and wondered if he could be. It had to be. He did not follow the other prisoners. He had to know. This was the Fire Nation. Could the Avatar be so foolish as to go around the Fire Nation out in the open?
"Excuse me," Lu Ten said. "I'm sorry to ask this when you're in such a bad spot, but do you two happen to be the children of Chief Hakoda of the Water Tribe?"
All the kids blinked at him. Katara's eyes were still a little red. They looked mildly surprised.
"Uh, yeah," said Sokka, sounding very confused. "Do – do you know him?"
"No, my aunt mentioned him last time I saw her," Lu Ten explained. "In Ba Sing Se before it fell to the Fire Nation."
"I'm confused," Katara said. "Our dad isn't traveling with any women."
"I'm not sure it's a situation I can fully explain," Lu Ten replied. "My main concern is that if you are Hakoda's children that makes this kid the Avatar."
They gasped, but Lu Ten held up a hand to calm them. "Relax. I won't reveal you."
"If you're from Ba Sing Se, what are you doing in the Fire Nation?" asked the blind girl.
"That is a very long story," Lu Ten said. "And not one that is likely to interest you all."
"I'm certainly interested," said the Avatar. "I mean, you've heard of Sokka and Katara, but you're from Ba Sing Se, and now you're taking refuge in the Fire Nation? And Hama claimed you were royalty!"
"I don't know about the crazy lady's guess, but he did lie about his name earlier," said the blind girl.
"Why don't we start from the beginning?" Lu Ten suggested.
"Okay," the Avatar agreed. "I'm Aang. This is Katara, that's Sokka, and that's Toph. Who are you?"
"And don't say Ping," Toph warned.
Lu Ten sighed. "My name is Lu Ten. I'm the son of General Iroh."
They all gaped at him.
"That would make you Zuko's cousin!" Katara gasped.
"Yes," Lu Ten confirmed. "I am Zuko's cousin. From your tone, I can guess you're not allies."
"More like mortal enemies if you wanna get right to it," said Toph.
"It's sad, Zuko had such a good heart as a kid," Lu Ten continued. "But that is not my concern."
"What is your concern?" Sokka demanded.
"What is the Avatar doing in the Fire Nation?" Lu Ten questioned. "You must know how dangerous this is."
"It's hard to explain," Aang replied. "And I'm not sure we can trust you just yet."
"Yeah, tell us your story," Sokka agreed. "Then maybe we can tell you why we're here."
Lu Ten understood their suspicion. With the blind girl able to sense lies, he took a deep breath before choosing to tell them the whole truth. No one was around to hear and he wanted them to trust him. The Avatar was the only hope of ever seeing his wife and daughter alive and safe. He started with his mission to find the weak spot in the wall, and then spent almost an hour explaining the rest. He had a family and a normal life now.
"I don't love the idea of facing my Uncle Ozai or Zuko," he said. "But I do love my family, more than anything. I know that the only hope for them is for you to defeat Ozai, and for that reason, I support you, Aang."
"Wow," Katara sighed. "That's an incredible story. Faking your own death and abandoning your family to be with your love…that's so romantic."
"Katara, don't you see what a great opportunity this is?" Sokka cried. "Lu Ten is normal, so when we do defeat the Fire Lord, there's someone who can take the throne who is on Aang's side!"
"Whoa, I don't know about that," Lu Ten said. "I don't want the throne."
"But if you're Fire Lord, you can change the rules and still have your family," Toph pointed out. "You can do whatever you want."
"I don't want to be Fire Lord," he insisted. "When all this is over, I want to return to Ba Sing Se and run my inn with my wife and daughter."
"But we'll need someone to lead the Fire Nation in the right direction," Sokka pressed.
"Hold on, Sokka," Aang interrupted. "We don't even know if we're gonna win."
"Yeah, we just need to take this one step at a time," Katara agreed. "Let's focus on the invasion first, and worry about what comes after when we get there."
"What invasion?" Lu Ten asked.
Katara's hand jumped to her mouth with a squeak of surprise. Toph groaned disappointedly and Sokka buried his face in his hands. Aang, however, looked directly at Lu Ten.
"That's what we're doing here," he said. "We're planning on attacking the Fire Lord during the solar eclipse."
Lu Ten's eyes went wide. "Solar eclipse?"
Aang nodded. "Yes. We thought it would be easier for me to take on the Fire Lord when he doesn't have the ability to bend."
"Ozai will be prepared," Lu Ten said. "He keeps in contact with the sages, and there will be security measures in place in the event of an attack."
"We know it's not gonna be easy," Sokka said. "But we have a plan. And it's a good one."
"Hold on, maybe Lu Ten could help us," Katara suggested.
"How?" asked Toph.
"He's bound to have knowledge of the Fire Nation capital," Katara said. "Especially the palace. He knows how Ozai will think and where he might go. We could use him."
They all turned eyes on Lu Ten, who now felt incredibly uncomfortable.
"No, I couldn't," he said. "I mean, the whole point of this was to fly under the radar and avoid being noticed by Ozai and the rest. If I go barging into the capital, I could be killed on the spot."
"You said yourself the Avatar is your best hope for your wife and daughter," Katara reminded him. "Don't you want to do your part to ensure that they have that future?"
Lu Ten considered this. She made a hard point. He looked at these children who were preparing to take on the most dangerous man in the world. Their faces showed a courage and determination he had never seen before. It moved him.
"Okay," he agreed. "I will help you on the invasion."