Hope's Revival

by Shawn45

Aang failed to defeat Ozai, eventually leading to the destruction of the Earth Kingdom. After over a decade of running, he and his small group of friends found a way to fix their past. In order to fix their past, they must relive their past once more. Discontinued

13. Chapter 12

Chapter twelve

It was nightfall, and the large fortress known as Pohuai Stronghold was going through the motions as usual. The Fire Nation base had the patrols lining the several large gates in the front, lighting the path with their Firebending and lighting each torch they came across. In the courtyards men would constantly train, as would the famed Yu Yan Archers.

"You will not get my archers on your wild goose chase; they're required to fight on the frontlines of a real war!" Shinu said, turning away from Zhao.

"Capturing the Avatar is of the utmost importance I hope you realize." Zhao said, trying to convince the equally ranked general beside him. They were high in an overlook, watching the archers down below in the courtyards training. Their accuracy was beyond impressive, able to shoot the dead center endlessly, piercing right through their arrows to do so every time.

"To the Fire Lord or to you?" Shinu asked, though his attention was focused on the Archers continual training, as if regarding Zhao was not worth his time.

Zhao growled at the blatant disrespect, but kept his tongue in line, "The Avatar seeks to destroy the progress we've made all these years. Surely you've heard of his exploits thus far!"

"Taking out two prisons?" The man laughed, "Impressive."

"You underestimate the threat he poses."

"And you fail to understand me when I say you can't use my men. We're fighting a real war here. Now go on."

Zhao closed his eyes, trying not to allow his dislike for the man rouse him into action, finally he sighed, "Very well Colonel."

When he turned to walk away a messenger hawk suddenly landed on the side of the tower the two of them were in, and Shinu took the message it had, his eyes scanned over the paper as he held it up, and his body went stiff. Zhao, seeing the reaction, walked back towards his equal, and snatched the letter out of his hand, reading it for himself before allowing a smile to cross his face.

"It seems the Fire Lord has seen fit to promote me to Admiral." He looked up towards Shinu, "My request is now an order."

"Very well." The man bowed, knowing that he had to abide to Zhao's orders now, or else it would be treason against the Fire Nation. He walked off to assemble a group of archers to do Zhao's bidding.

Zhao looked down at the archers from his perch, his whirlwind of thoughts consisted of his fame for capturing the Avatar, and how the Fire Lord would reward him for doing it. He allowed a small chuckle to leave his lips, and then he followed after Shinu seconds later, not wanting him to give him inadequate archers for the job.

The next day a storm was brewing, Aang could see lightning forming on the horizon, and he knew that it would be very dangerous to fly Appa through it, "We're going to land early today." He called back to his friends.

"What?" Sokka asked, "We've only been flying for like six hours!"

"Look at the weather." Aang said.

Sokka looked around. True, the gray clouds, the small sound of thunder off in the distance, and the light sprinkle was a good indication of a storm coming, a perfect indication even, but that still didn't stop him, "So? It's going to get a little wet soon."

Suki sighed, "Sokka, it's dangerous to fly in this kind of weather!"

Sokka crossed his arms, "Since when has weather stopped us before?"

"Quite a few times I can remember," She said, getting slightly annoyed, "Like the one time we were at the South Pole and-"

"Fine." Sokka said, knowing it was a lost cause trying to argue the point against them both, "It will give us time to go to town for supplies."

"We're out of money if you've forgotten Sokka." Toph said.

"We'll have to earn some then."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Suki asked.

"Toph of course! She is amazing at getting money."

"You mean scamming people." Aang said flatly. However, he shrugged, "Oh well, not like we have much else to do right now."

Suki had her arms crossed and her lips were in a thin line, a clear indication that she didn't care for what Sokka and Toph were planning as they huddled together on Appa. She shook her head, and instead crawled her way up the back of Appa towards Aang and Momo, who were both looking around for some place to land.

The weather was steadily getting worse, and Aang was getting lower to the ground due to Appa's uncomfortable grunting as he saw lightning flash in the distance.

"There!" Suki pointed out to Aang. It was some small ruins, probably some ancient temple or something, and it looked vaguely like the Air Temple ruins. Pushing that aside though, Aang nodded and slowly went down towards it, especially when he saw the roof over the place. It didn't take long, but by the time they were under the roof, they were all more than a little wet.

"We're going to have to put the sleeping bags up to dry for the night." Sokka sighed, "Can you bend us a fire Aang?"

"Sure." He said, jumping off Appa's head and landing on the ground. He looked around, and a sense of déjà vu hit him. Surrounding the roof were several pillars holding the place up, and further out in the distance they could make out a small town surrounding by the mountainous terrain. He wandered over to the side of the ruins, where a huge chunk was blown out, and water cascaded off the side of the roof down towards the ground where he was standing.

"You ok Aang?" Toph asked, walking next to him.

"Yeah, this place just seems familiar." He said, looking around. He saw Appa sitting on the ground, looking around the place, and Momo was flying around doing a little exploring.

"You've been here before?"

Aang let out a small gasp, "Yes, now I remember this place!"

"Huh, you do?" Sokka asked, coming up to the spot with Suki.

"Yeah! This is where you were really sick after that huge storm, and I had to go find the cure for you!" Aang exclaimed.

"Oh, the frogs?" Sokka said, but then realization dawned on his face, "This is the same place?"

"I'm positive." Aang said.

Sokka blinked a few times, and tried to laugh it off, "First we find Jet by accident, and now we come here? That's a pretty big coincidence."

"Almost too big a coincidence." Aang mumbled.

Sokka nodded, "Yeah."

"You guys are probably reading too deeply into it." Suki said, "It's been a week since we saw Jet. We've been camping in a lot of places since then, are you saying that it's that big of a coincidence? Do you guys remember the other places we've slept at for the past few days?"

"It's just that something significant happened in this place and in the forest we met Jet," Sokka said, trying to explain it, "It's happening in the same order as last time too."

"So what's supposed to happen here?" Toph asked.

"I'm supposed to get captured by a group of elite archers and taken to this really big fortress." Aang said, "We should get out of here as soon as possible. I have a really bad feeling about staying here too long."

"Now you're giving me the creeps." Toph said, shivering, "I feel like something bad will happen."

"We can't move out with this storm like it is now though." Suki said, "Tomorrow morning we'll go down to the village, get some supplies, and head out towards the coast and look for Zuko's ship like we have been doing for the past few days, is that good?"

Aang looked out at the rain and tried not to let his apprehension show. In truth, he wanted to get out of there immediately, but the weather forced them to stay put for now. He forced himself to calm down, and he nodded, "All right, we'll get supplies tomorrow morning and head out, immediately."

With that decided they began to prepare for the stormy night ahead of them.

Down in the village, the roads were becoming increasingly muddy from the constant downpour of the rain, and several shops closed due to the weather. It was difficult for any one person to see more than a few yards in front of them, so most people were inside their houses. However, one building that was still populated by lots of people was the local bar.

"Come on!" A rich looking man entered the bar, water soaking right through his finely woven robe and matting his hair to his forehead, "The rain is ruining my clothes!"

"Who cares about your dress?" The second man walked in, he couldn't help but frown as he watched his companion entering the bar, "I swear, you act like some sort of noble woman rather than an Earthbending teacher."

The Earthbending teacher rolled his eyes, "I have no idea what the Bei Fong's were thinking when they decided you had to come with me. I'm perfectly capable of doing this myself!"

"You're kidding me!" The smaller dirtier man said, "You take two HOURS in the morning to get ready for the day, grooming your stupid hair, and making sure there's no wrinkles in your clothes, or making sure your stupid mustache is perfect! You wouldn't even be a few miles outside of Gao Ling if it weren't for me pushing you along!"

The two sat at a table in the corner of the establishment. The air was really foggy, and was very humid; a thin layer of sweat was forming on their brows.

"Could this place get any more uncomfortable?" The richer of the two said, pulling out a cloth and patting his forehead with it.

"Master Yu?" The shorter of the two scoffed at the name, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms, "More like failure Yu."

Yu simply raised an eyebrow at that before ignoring the comment and continuing to pat his brow. A girl no older than sixteen came to their table shortly, she had a small skip to each step, and she seemed extremely happy.

"What can I get you two?" She fiddled with the lantern above the table until it became a little brighter for them to see through the thick fog forming inside the building.

"Strongest stuff ya got."

Yu's eyes widened in surprise at that, "You shouldn't get drunk now! We have an important mission to do right now if you don't remember!"

"Get him some too," He said to the girl, "He needs to loosen up."

Yu forced himself to stay calm, and decided that now was the last time he would be able to have a coherent discussing with his partner before he became too drunk to be tolerable, "So have you thought of my plan to capture the girl?"

"I dunno, you grab her or something."

"I really doubt that would work."

"Oh?" The man laughed, "You actually believe those stories that say the Avatar has a powerful Earthbender with him?"

"Toph is a very gifted girl, and from the two weeks before she went missing I knew she was holding back. We need to trap her in a cage! A metal one preferably!"

"A metal cage?" The man laughed at that, "Do you know how expensive those are?"

"What do you suggest then, Shu?"

"Wood." The man said, "It's far cheaper."

"A cage made out of wood?" Yu said, letting out a sigh, "Where can we find a cage made of wood?"

"A morgue I guess." Shu said, and he smiled when he saw the girl coming back with their drinks, "Be sure to tip her good, ok?"

Yu though couldn't get pass what Shu said right before that, and his jaw feel open, and his eyes were widening in horror.

"What?" Shu said, obviously annoyed before taking a long drink from his mug.

"A morgue?" He said.

"What of it?"

"A morgue?" He repeated again.

"Yes for spirits sake! We buy a coffin and put her in it! It's not like we're going to kill her! Sheesh!" He took another drink, "You rich folk always think the worst when it comes to us, don't ya."

Yu forced his racing heart to calm down, "The idea does have some merit to it."

"Just think. We can save probably ten times more money if we buy a coffin than if we buy a real metal cage, eh?"

Yu nodded, his greedy nature beginning to take over, "Yes, I do agree, anything to save a little money."

Shu smiled, patted his companion on the back, "Good! We'll buy one later tonight once the rain clears up! Now drink up!" Yu looked down at the mug of... whatever Shu had gotten him, and he grimaced at the smell of the stuff. Looking towards the door, and seeing the constant downpour, he finally let out a sigh and took a small sip of the stuff, and promptly spit it out across the table at his partner.

The following morning was not much of an improvement over the day before. Whereas the weather was horrid before, now it was wet, really wet. The air was extremely humid, all their clothes felt wet, and it was still sprinkling rain out there. The worst of it seem to pass however, so Aang and his friends flew on Appa down to the village to spend roughly an hour to resupply and get some money, not necessarily in that order.

"Ok Toph, you remember how you used to con people right?" Sokka said, prepping her up as they sat atop Appa.

She cracked her knuckles, and then her neck making loud and sickening noises, much to the disgust of Aang and Suki, and she smiled, "I never forget how to do that."

"Good!" Sokka said patting her on the back, "This'll be like the good old days!"

Aang forced himself to not listen to their antics anymore and again focused on the bad feeling he got from getting closer to the town. History has had a way of repeating itself several times over, but it has also changed a little bit. Regardless, did he really want to risk it? He glanced at Suki who was looking off to the side of the bison looking bored, and he reconsidered. Suki was probably right; he was probably just being paranoid.

That didn't help to ease the feeling of dread Aang was getting though.

They landed on the outskirts of town, Aang making sure to put Appa under a large enough tree so he couldn't get too wet. The terrain was a little bit muddy, and he knew Appa was going to need a bath badly wherever they went next. "We'll be right back for you boy!" Aang promised as he hugged his friend, Momo flew over and landed on top of Appa's head, "Momo will keep you company!" Appa grunted in response to that.

The four walked to town, Sokka and Toph going off on their own almost as soon as they pass the small wooden gate the village had to set its perimeters. Aang and Suki decided to just wander around together, it's not like they could do more, they were completely broke. The village looked to be pretty poor – not surprising considering the state of the world. The ruins nearby must have once been an Earth Kingdom base of operations that was long ago abandoned.

That was all speculation of course, but as Aang walked by a woman on the street begging, he began to wonder if Toph could get anything from this place.

"You're right, I think we should go." Suki said, looking around at the poor state of the village, the muddied streets, the rags people wore, the rundown houses. The two of them looked like royalty compared to this.

"Yeah," Aang sighed, "We have enough supplies to ration for a few more days until we run out of food completely."

"I'll go find Toph and Sokka, you head back to Appa."

A man suddenly bumped into Aang, "I'm so sorry!" The man said, getting up off the boy, and now helping the mud-soaked Avatar to his feet. He had a robe on, and the hood was up, covering most of his features. From what Aang could see though, the man was of average height, and was pretty strong from how much force went into his fall.

"It's fine." Aang mumbled, trying to shake the mud off his limbs, though it did little good.

"Wait, you're the Avatar!" The man said in awe when he noticed the mark Aang had. This caught people's attention, and Aang didn't even hide his frown and he groaned. Suki too noticed the attention he was receiving.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Tell me; is it true that you travel with one of the best Earthbenders in the world? One that is blind?" The man said, the awe not leaving his voice, as more people crowded around, causing a scene.

"She's one of my friends." Aang nodded, "Why?"

The man went stiff, and he paused before bowing down to the Avatar, "Very well Avatar, it seems others want to ask things of you. I won't bother you anymore." He left, leaving Aang to try and shuffle through over a dozen people. Suki did her best to help, but it wasn't doing much other than annoying the people.

The man walked off, and then he entered the Inn, a large building that was a little nicer than the rest of the village. He nodded to the Innkeeper, and went to the backrooms, and finally took his hood off as he entered his own room, "Yu! Get up! The Avatar is here!"

Master Yu was lying in a bed snoring lightly, so Shu went up and slapped the man across the face to wake him up, "Wake up!"

Yu's eyes shot open as the pain spread through him, "What?"

"The Avatar is here! I talked to him just a little bit ago, and you were right, the blind girl is as powerful as the rumors were saying! I managed to make a pretty big crowd gather around the boy, so we have a little bit of time to go set everything up to get the girl!"

"You mean to tell me that Toph is in this village, right now?" Yu sat up, eyes widening, "We have to capture her today, before she escapes on the Avatar's bison."

"I overheard the Avatar, and he plans to leave pretty soon. We have to capture her really soon, or else we won't get another golden opportunity like this again!"

Yu jumped out of his bed, and grabbed a comb, beginning to groom himself for the day. Shu noticed this, and he yanked the comb out of his companion's hand, and snapped it in two, "We have to go, now!"

"That was a very nice comb you just destroyed." Yu sighed watching sadly as the two halves fell to the floor. He snapped out of it though when Shu picked up the coffin they had placed in the corner of their room the previous night. It was a pretty small coffin, big enough for Toph and maybe another person if they were smashed in there together, but what was the chance of that happening? The two rushed out of the room and through the front door of the inn once more, confusing any bystanders that happen to come near them.

The two of them went to a small alley between two large buildings, and Yu pulled out a long length of rope from his hands, "You remember how to build it, right?" He asked Shu.

"We just need it to come down swing down from in front and behind her, closing the coffin before she has any time to react with her Earthbending, right?"

"Right," Yu said, "Now we just need to build this contraption." He looked at the height of the two buildings, and then down to the coffin, "This will take some time."

In a different part of the village, Sokka and Toph both collapsed onto a bench in defeat. Sokka didn't even take any time to consider the wealth of the village, and the lack of scams they could possibly do. There was gambling in the town, no doubt, but most of it relied on things that were far out of Toph's control, like a long, tedious, and boring game of Pai Sho.

"Aren't you supposed to be the strategist?" Toph asked, "You're supposed to evaluate things like this and save us time by saying that it's a waste of time."

He shrugged, "Hey, sometimes I can't do great all the time."

"That's an understatement."

Sokka rolled his eyes, not bothering to retort to that one for now, remembering everything Suki had told her in the past few weeks about Toph just trying to goad him into an argument.

"Is this rain ever going to stop?" Toph asked.

"It's not raining that hard, just sprinkling."

"Yeah, but I don't like the feeling of mud on my feet. It reminds me too much of water."

Sokka shrugged, having heard this confession from her before, probably a dozen other times in situations in their past life, "Is that so?" He let out, though he couldn't keep his bored tone from leaving his voice.

In retaliation she hit him on the shoulder.

"Ouch." He sighed, "Do you always have to hit so hard? It's really deceiving."

"Why?"

"Cause you're a girl." He said.

Again, another topic they had gone over at least a dozen times in their previous life. It was clear that they were both really bored at the moment. Toph didn't even say anything to Sokka when he said that, just because she knew what the ending result of the conversation would be.

"So…" Sokka said, trying to think of something, "Is Aang holding up alright with Katara not being around?"

"How would I know?" She asked.

"Can't you feel heartbeats or something?"

"Yeah, I can, but I don't know how that would help me figure out if he's doing ok. You can see him, does he look ok? He sounds ok to me."

"He looks ok I guess." Sokka said, "I mean, can you tell if he's sad or something from his heartbeat alone?"

"It depends on the situations really, but I wouldn't be able to determine what emotion he is feeling otherwise."

"What do you mean?"

"His heart beats fast whenever he and Katara got close when they first got together way back when, it also beats fast when he's fighting, and it also beats fast when he is really excited about something." She listed off, "So yeah, I wouldn't be able to help you out most of the time."

"Oh, well that sucks." Sokka mumbled.

"If you want my honest opinion though, I think Aang can handle himself. We've hammered it into his head enough that we're here for him, so I'm sure he does believe that, and we also told him a hundred times that Katara is safe. It's his own problem from here on out if he doesn't believe us."

"That's harsh."

"It's life." She countered.

"Since when have you gotten so philosophical?"

"What?"

"Never mind." Sokka sighed, "Let's just get back to Aang and get out of this place. We're not going to make any money here."

The two stood up, when suddenly a voice Toph dreaded to hear popped up, "Miss Bei Fong?"

"Master Yu?" She asked, turning towards the source of the voice.

"It is you!" He walked forth towards her, "Your parents hired me to come get you! They're worried sick that you'll hurt yourself, or even worse! Why would you do something so terrible to them like that Toph?"

"I had to."

"That's all?" Yu asked, sounding displeased.

"My parents were suffocating me; I didn't want to live like that for all my life!" Shaking her anger off, she calmly asked, "If I pay you off, will you stop chasing me?"

Yu actually considered the offer for a little bit. However, he knew that if he took it, bad press about him would go around Gao Ling, especially from Lao and Poppy Bei Fong. They surely wouldn't be happy that he accepted a bribe from their daughter, and they would let him know of it. They would stop hiring him, and his vast fortune would soon shrink from the cost of his schooling. That was a true nightmare!

He shook his head, "I'm sorry, but this is best for you."

"Look, I'm sure she has to fix the issues with her parents sometime." Sokka said, "But right now we need her to help us. She's essential to stopping the war, don't you understand?"

Another morality question? Yu thought. He knew that the war had been going on for a century, though he also never truly knew of it. Gao Ling was relatively unaffected by the effects the war has caused to other places like the village he was currently in. This question of his morals was easy enough – he would honor his duty to the Bei Fong family and bring their daughter back regardless of how important it was. It was an agreement of honor, and of money.

"You have to come back." He said again, not budging from his previous stance at all.

Toph groaned, and dropped into an Earthbending stance, and shortly after that Master Yu let out a shrill scream as she jutted a few rocks out of the ground towards him, and he ran began to run away.

"Well, that was effective." Sokka mumbled, watching his fleeing form.

"Yeah, I'll sa-" She stopped when a small rock hit her in the head. She turned towards Yu, and began to chase him, "You want to fight me? Then stop running you coward!"

"Toph? Toph! Wait! Toph don't run after him!" Sokka shouted, following right behind her, waving his arms frantically in an attempt to calm down the pissed off girl.

Sokka knew something was wrong when the man continued to run from them, avoiding Toph's tactics to slow him down easily enough. He knew that if Yu fought Toph head to head, he would lose, and even if they just ran like this Master Yu would still lose. There had to be more to this, and Sokka knew that he had to stop Toph before something really bad happened.

He knew yelling was useless, so he pulled out his boomerang, a weapon he had not used in quite some time, and threw it forward, his aim a little skewed so that if he was off mark, it wouldn't harm Toph. Thankfully for him, he hit his objective easily, tearing a small bit out of Toph's clothes, and it circled around in front of her, making her stop in her tracks and she turned to Sokka, and he was surprised by the intensity of the glare she was showing him, considering she was blind.

"It's a trap." Sokka said, running up to her, grabbing his boomerang from the air. He was a little behind her when suddenly he was thrust forward.

"What are you-" She was interrupted again when suddenly she felt something slam into her from the front , lifting her off her feet momentarily until she slammed right into Sokka, who let out a yelp of pain. The two of them were inside of something now, and Sokka lost his breath again when the object they were in fell to the ground, with Toph on top of him, "What's going on? Where are we?" Toph said, feeling around franticly.

Sokka felt the sides of whatever they were in with the limited room he could move in. He was really oversized for it, and he just barely fit. Toph was doing little better; she was at least able to move a fraction more than he could.

"I think its wood." Sokka said, rubbing his hand against it, "Yeah, wood."

Toph was moving around a lot more frantic now, "All of it? Are you sure it's all wood?"

"From what I can feel," Sokka said, he then tried to reach behind him to grab his sword out of his sheath, but failed, "This thing is too small! I can't reach back to my sword to cut us out!"

Toph was squirming now, "No! Not again!"

That stopped Sokka in his tracks, "Not again?"

"I was trapped like this before, but it was a metal cage. That is how I learned Metalbending, so I could escape that."

"I don't suppose Woodbending is a form of Earthbending?" She elbowed him hard, "Ok, ok, sorry!"

"This is bad." She mumbled.

Sokka tried in vain to reach his sword, and that is when he felt something knocking on the top of the wooden prison they were in, "Hello? Toph? How are you?"

"You got the wrong person!" Sokka shouted.

"Oh?" Yu voice said in surprise, "Well, in that case let me open this up and let you out." They could feel him begin to shift the top for them to get out, but his hands were ripped away from the top.

"Are you a moron? Did you not see that kid with the boomerang chasing her?"

"Oh?" Master Yu then laughed, "Oh, very sneaky!"

"I'm friends with the Avatar!" Sokka shouted, "You have to let us out now! It's essential to saving the world that we get out of here now." He tried not to sound too desperate.

"Nope." Shu said, tying a rope around the coffin, "You're going right back to Gao Ling."

"Gao Ling?" Sokka whispered, "That's almost two months away at least! You can't take us there! We have to leave now! Do you two really want to set the Avatar back from saving the world, or is your greed really that strong."

If possible, Toph have slapped her forehead, and told Sokka it was pointless, but the men told him the exact same thing.

"This is bad." Sokka said.

"You think?" Toph sighed.

"If I could only reach my sword!" He tried again, and groaned when he couldn't.

Toph was in even more of a panic than Sokka was however, "I can't see anything! Why is it wood this time around?"

"I don't know. Are they the same people who tried to capture you last time?"

"I remember Yu is one of them, but I don't recognize the second guy."

The two struggled in vain for a little longer as they were pulled along town, unable to get out no matter what they did. Soon, they stopped trying, and Sokka sighed, "We have to wait for Aang to save us."

"What if he doesn't find us?"

"He will." Sokka said, "Don't worry." He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, one of the few things he could do in the crammed coffin. Yu and Shu left the village almost immediately, getting on a cart, and having two ostrich horses pull them along on their journey back home.

Aang finally got away from the crowd, and let out a sigh of relief as he and Suki ran away, despite several dozen more people chasing after them. Suki grabbed his hand and led him through several alleys, and soon enough, the two had lost the crowd. Letting out a breath they didn't know they were holding, the two slid down the side of the building they were by and sat down on the muddied ground, not caring if their clothes got even more disgusting than they were beforehand.

Suki let out a sigh, "Don't you have a hood you can wear or something?"

"No, but I will have to buy one when we get the money." Suki nodded her agreement.

"Where's Sokka and Toph? You think they would've found us by now."

"I don't know." Aang said, "That crowd was around us for a long time."

"Well, let's go look for them." Suki shrugged, getting up off the ground, and helping Aang to his feet.

Aang didn't mention it, but the feeling of dread was slowly creeping its way back into him. The two wandered around the village for about an hour, being careful to avoid the villagers, and being sure to hide under cover when the storm started to act up again. Another hour passed, and their frantic searched turned even more so.

"Where are they?" Suki nearly shouted when she and Aang met under the cover of another house in the village, being sure to avoid the rain.

Aang could clearly see the worry etched on her face, she was biting her bottom lip and she was blinking quite a bit. He hoped that he looked more confident than how he was feeling, "Maybe they went to Appa?" He suggested.

Grabbing onto that thin line of hope, the two made their way towards the gate of the town, both of them quite soaked and feeling more miserable than they had for weeks. As they went towards the gates, they could see groups of people gathering randomly around the gate, usually in groups of four or more. Aang eyed them warily, and knew Suki was doing the same.

"Who are they?" She whispered to him.

"I don't know." Aang whispered back, his eyes never leaving them.

As if someone was waiting for him to say that line, an arrow imbedded itself into the mud in front of him, coming from behind. Aang looked at the arrow, and knew immediately what was going on. Suki on the other hand, looked at it in confusion, and turned to see a lone figure on a rooftop with a bow and arrow, quickly preparing another arrow. She looked back forward, and the four groups of four men each turned towards them, their own bows drawn and ready to shoot.

As they fired, Aang grabbed Suki and pulled her aside and he made a bubble of air around the two, sending all the arrows off into different directions, inside the bubble Aang turned to her, "When this goes down, run!" She nodded.

The bubble of air didn't last long, but its purpose was done. When it dropped, the two children inside bolted towards the gate, Aang using his staff to knock some of the archers aside, but more often than not the attack was dodged, and an arrow followed soon after. The entrance to the village was then blocked, by another group of archers who got in front and aimed at the two of them. With their escape blocked, Aang turned towards the village.

"We need to go find cover; we're sitting ducks out here!" Suki shouted as the two ran into the village, arrows dotting behind them.

When the villagers saw the men shooting the Avatar with arrows, panic began to arise within the village. People were screaming, and locking their doors shut, looking out their windows to catch a glimpse of the Avatar and to see who even dared to attack him. The streets which weren't even crowded to begin with due to the weather were now completely empty, sparing any civilians the wrath of the Yu Yan Archers.

Aang went to turn a corner, but the back of his shirt was caught by an arrow, and he was pinned to the wall of a house. He reached back for it, but immediately bended a wall of rock in front of him to stop an onslaught of arrows coming for him. He then tried again to reach for it, and as the rock wall crumbled down, another wave or arrows came at him.

Suki drew her fans and knocked a few of the arrows out of the air, and quickly pulled the one out of Aang's clothes so they could run again. She couldn't hit every arrow, due to the fact that it was immensely difficult to do so, and also the weather made it even more difficult to spot the arrows coming at them. The only good spot was that the downpour was also making the archer's job much more difficult.

"Come on!" She tugged Aang through the town, and from the corners of her eyes she could see the archers running parallel to her and Aang, except they were on the roof tops. Aang was constantly shooting air at them, and even bending the rain a few times to form an ice shield to block a few of the oncoming projectiles. Suki meanwhile would occasionally hit an arrow with her fans, and the other times she was more focused on pulling Aang and herself out of the way of the arrows, dodging them whenever she could.

"Don't they EVER run out of arrows?" Aang shouted, looking back at them.

She looked back too, and saw a few stay back and pick the arrows off the field where they missed the two of them quite a bit.

"I don't think so." She said.

This was bad. Really bad she decided. Had these men taken Sokka and Toph? She forced herself to stop thinking about it for now, and instead, she patted Aang on the shoulder before she ran to the side and began to climb up a building. She grabbed the ledge of the window, and flipped upward onto the roof. Facing several of the archers, she ran towards them and dodged the arrows, though one just narrowly missed her shoulder. With her fans she sliced forward, cutting a few of their bows, and arrows, hopefully making it even more difficult for them to fight back.

Unfortunately, they were prepared for this possibility, and they pulled out several swords that looked vaguely like Sokka's. She deflected a few hits with her fans, but an archer on a different roof shot one of her fans out of her hand, sending it sailing through the air to fall into the muddy ground below. She growled, but yelped when one of the men knocked her other fan out of her hand sending it away too. She glared at them as she pulled out the katana she had bought back in Omashu.

Now she was regretting not doing as many sword lessons with Sokka. She was constantly dodging the arrows, and had to contend with several men who were just superior to her in sword fighting. Knowing that she couldn't do anything else there, she jumped down, and ran through the alleyways of the town, hoping Aang was doing just fine.

Aang ran, letting out a small shout of terror as he heard the sound of an arrow imbedding itself into wood. He could even occasionally feel the splinters from the wood hit his back. They were all narrow misses. He patted himself down, where is it? He searched the pockets you usually kept his bison whistle in, but then his heart skipped a beat, No! I don't have it! He knew at that moment that he was in quite a bit of trouble.

Suki ran into him then, and the two darted down another alley way. The alleys were starting to look all the same to them, but that didn't matter as the constant barrage of arrows continued.

"When did you get a sword?" Aang asked.

"I've had it."

"Ah."

"Just never used it."

"Oh."

"How are we getting out of here?" She asked. With the Katana, hitting arrows was out of the question. The most she could do now was just run and hope for the best.

"Maybe we can glide out of here?"

"They'd shoot you out of the air."

"I could dig underground!"

"It would take too long."

"Maybe we could just rush them at the gate and hope for the best?"

Suki considered the option, and sighed, "It's our only choice now."

The two of them did just that, turning at the latest alley, they came back to where the entire chase started, and the two made their way to the gate. They could see several men still guarding it, and they all drew their bows and loaded them with an arrow. Aang got in front and sent a large wave of wind towards them with a huge arc of his staff. The wind fortunately got them off their footing enough that they couldn't shoot.

Suki and Aang made it out the front gate and were running in the woods, "Appa!" Aang shouted, hoping that he was close enough.

An arrow went sailing and imbedded into the fabric right above Suki's arm. She struggled to get the arrow out, and turned to Aang, "Get out of here! I'll hold them off!"

She ripped her clothing where the arrow was imbedded so she could get out, but it was a useless gesture, because in the few seconds it took her to do that, several arrows came and pinned her to the tree, making her drop the katana to the ground was a soft clang as it hit the roots of the tree. She looked back and saw that Aang had tried to help her, but was also pinned.

"No! Let us go!" She shouted as her captors came over to her. The last thing she was before she was knocked out was a one of the men picking up her katana.

It had been hours, and Sokka was finished trying to grab his sword, "Let us out!" He shouted through the coffin, hoping that the men would do so.

"Shut up! Don't you ever get tired of yelling kid?" Shu yelled, smacking the coffin a few times, "You'll be let go once get to the Bei Fong Estate, so hold your ostrich horses and wait until then!"

Toph was being oddly quiet, and Sokka whispered to her, "Are you all right?"

"Shouldn't they have come by now?" She asked, "It's been a long time… Do you think something bad happened to them?"

"No." He mumbled, "Nothing bad could have happened to them…" He remembered what Aang had said; about the last time he was there got taken out by some archers. He knew that it had happened again, he knew that he was in trouble.

Toph could tell he was lying, and sat there trying not to think of what was happening to Aang. It was something that she and Sokka could do nothing about.

"Aang! Thank the spirits you're awake!"

Aang slowly opened his eyes, but closed them again; the lights in the room he was in were incredibly bright. He went to rub his eyes, but felt that his arms were stuck where they were. Mumbling incoherently, and looked over to see that his arms were chained at the wrist. He blinked a few times, before the memories of what had happened came flooding back into him. His eyes widened, and he looked over towards Suki.

She was chained to two posts on either side of her, just like he was, and they were both chained in the center of a very large room with no other decorations, except that Aang's staff and her katana were hanging on the wall near the door to the room.

"We were captured." Aang whispered to himself, "No, no, no!"

"Aang, calm down!"

"No, why is everything being repeated? We keep doing the same things over again! How can things change if they keep repeating like this?" Suki watched as the almost always positive and energetic Aang began to break down right there. After losing Katara, losing Sokka and Toph, and then being captured, she didn't blame him; she felt that she could do the same at any moment. She had to be strong though, or else they wouldn't be able to escape.

"Aang, please, focus!" She said, but he didn't even listen to her, she wanted to go comfort him, to say that things weren't as bad as they seemed, but that was impossible, because things were far worse than they seemed.

"We're failing…"

"No, we're not. We just need to escape."

"How?" Aang asked, looking over at her helplessly, "there's nothing that can be done…" He slumped forward.

Suki forced herself not to cry out in both anger and sadness at how defeated Aang looked at that moment. Instead, she opted to try and struggle out of the chains that were on her wrists, but it was useless, they were far too strong. She looked up when the door opened, and her she felt like she couldn't breathe when she saw who stepped in.

"I told you I would eventually capture you Avatar." Zhao said, entering the room alone. The door closed behind him with a threatening boom.

They both stayed silent. Suki instead just glared at him, and Aang was too broken at the moment to do much of anything except mope around.

"To be honest, I thought capturing the Avatar would prove to be more difficult than hiring a bunch of guys with bows and arrows, but who am I to judge? You're just a kid after all." He noticed that Aang was completely ignoring him. This irritated Zhao, so he switched gears, "I wonder, how did it feel when I burned that Water Tribe girl?" He smiled when he noticed Aang's involuntary shake of his head at the mention of her.

"What was her name? Kaya? Katori? Katara?" He smiled, "Oh, yes, that's it. Katara."

Suki watched as Aang gritted his jaw tightly, "Don't listen to him Aang!"

"She was probably one of my favorite prisoners to torture you know." Zhao said off-handedly, checking his nails the entire time as if he had no care, though his gaze was on Aang, watching for any reaction, "She was very resistant at first, but in the end, she was begging for you, calling out your name through her tears."

Did he get lessons from Azula? Suki thought, "Aang, he's lying."

Aang knew he was lying. He knew Zuko had Katara. Yet, that hit home, he was all ready battered, all ready broken, what was with the Fire Nation and making him feel like complete trash in the end, "I'll kill you Zhao." Aang vowed again, the words again sounding foreign on his tongue. He meant it though. He would kill Zhao if he ever escaped. He never knew the man could be this awful, though it took a man like this to kill the moon spirit he supposed.

"I'd like to see you try. Though that does bring me to the next topic other than your dead girlfriend," He stood up straighter, "Your execution is being prepared right now. In three days you both will be dead."

"He'll just reincarnate and start the whole cycle over again!" Suki shouted at him.

"A Waterbender?" Zhao laughed at that, "I considered the possibilities of that, but then again, there's only the North Pole left that's even a remote threat against the Fire Nation. They will soon be dealt with if I get my way however. While I do admit that keeping you here for a century as you watch the world be conquered by our great nation is a tempting idea, killing you is so much more satisfying."

"You're a sick person." Suki said, disgusted by the man in front of them.

Aang didn't say any words; instead he took a deep breath, and blew Zhao straight across the room in the door, knocking his head against the door. Zhao stood up and stomped over to Aang and punched him in the gut, "Do that again, and I will dismember you."

Aang gasped for breath, but only glared at Zhao.

Zhao turned back around and left the room, leaving the two to contemplate their fate. Suki watched at Aang slumped forward again, his eyes glossed over. She didn't know what to do, so she slumped forward and silently prayed for anyone to come help them.

Chapter twelve – End