Broken Bridges:

"How's he taking it?"

"Better than we expected. He knows Iroh will take good care of Akemi while he's away."

Tilia nodded. "He's her grandfather after all. I just didn't expect Kazon to willingly leave her so soon."

Anik shrugged. "I guess he's just relieved he's found her. She's been gone for what, 2, 3 years? They'll have plenty of catching up once we stop Jahn's dad and end an inter-worldly war," he said in a casual tone.

"Do you think Jahn has a plan?" she asked, watching Kazon talking with his daughter softly nearby. The great airship was docked beyond the town, having turned round to collect them. With their destination now set for Republic City, Iroh had offered to take Akemi back to the Fire Nation capital.

"Nope," Anik answered honestly. "He never really does. I guess fighting, running, maybe some flying. I'm sure Jinora and Kazon will come up with something; they're the planners. Jahn's basically the muscle and we're the reliable and trusty backup."

"Backup?" Tilia said incredulously. "Give us some credit, this team would be in pieces without us. We're the happy core of the team, surely," she said with a smile.

Anik chuckled. "You've got a point; the others are far too moody. As long as we stay cheerful, we'll always win eh?" he said, giving Tilia a squeeze round her shoulders with one arm.

"Hey you two," Jinora said by way of greeting as she walked up behind. "How's Kazon?" she asked carefully.

Anik rolled his eyes, still smiling slightly as Tilia nodded. "We were just saying, he seems alright. I guess this was the boost he needed after his loss. You've helped him considerably Jinora. He doesn't seem quite so broken anymore."

"He's found something to fight for. That's really all we need; we all have someone we're trying to protect," Jinora said, her hand on her heart. "Once this is over, I'm going straight back to my family; we'll need to be a united nation to help rebuild everything."

"Once this is over…" Anik mused. "Something else will probably crop up but let's face it, nothing quite compares to this war."

Jinora cocked her head to the side, considering his statement. "I don't know, Vaatu was quite a large threat. Still, Kuvira's war was far less messy than this. It was over a little quicker as well."

"Speaking of getting over quicker, how are we going to get back to Republic City? Rizem has a considerable head-start on us," Anik pointed out, watching as Kazon hugged his daughter and stood, saying something to his father.

"I think Jahn's sorting something out in town," Tilia said. "I'm sure he can get us some kind of boat or something; being the Avatar must have some perks, surely."

"I just hope Asami and Lin have prepared their forces. If Rizem gets to the portal, he might unleash the spirits or fire on them with the spirit cannon," Jinora said glumly.

Anik sniffed. "Yeah, loving that positivity," he said, winking at Tilia, who stifled a laugh. Jinora frowned and walked past them, moving over to where Kazon stood with his father and daughter.

"How are you all doing?" she asked gently, smiling down at Akemi.

"We're fine, thank you," Kazon said softly, returning the smile. "I've explained things to Akemi and she's happy to go to the Palace until I'm back," he said, one hand on his daughter's shoulder reassuringly.

"I'm a Princess!" Akemi said with an excited expression on her face. "I can't wait to run around the Palace!"

"Are you not scared at all?" Jinora queried kindly.

Akemi frowned. "Lady, I'm a Princess and my grandpa is the Fire Lord. I'm not scared of anything!" she said heatedly.

"She's definitely part of the family," Iroh chuckled. "We'd best be departing before we attract even more attention. Are you coming, Kazon? The funeral will be held immediately," he said quietly, trying to whisper it over Akemi's head.

The Fire Prince sighed. "I…can't. I'm needed elsewhere. Zukoh and Akirai would understand."

Iroh nodded. "They would; they put duty above everything and they'd be as proud as I am that you're trying to end this war. If you succeed, their sacrifice will be a key part."

Kazon blinked. "I'll try my best. Goodbye father," he said, bowing. Iroh bowed back, taking Akemi's hand as they walked back towards the airship.

Jinora stood by Kazon, watching him closely. His gaze was fixed on his family, though he seemed determined, not upset. Turning to her, he smiled ruefully. "I understand now," he admitted. "When Jahn was angry that you had disappeared, I saw where he was coming from. I've found my daughter after years of searching and now know who was responsible for taking her from me," Kazon continued, his fist tightening. "Kairna is dead, though Rizem has to pay for this. If it wasn't for that thought and the mission, I don't think anything could keep me from jumping on that airship with them."

The Airbender smiled softly. "It's a difficult thing, to leave a child behind, no matter how important the mission. You'll see her soon, Kazon."

The Firbender nodded. "I will. If anything, I'm excited to get to Republic City, just so we can finish this and I can see Akemi again. I've been denied being a father for too long. She deserves a family. Once we finish this war, I can finally…"

"I know," Jinora replied. "There's no time like the present though. We should find Jahn and try find a way back to Republic City. If we don't hurry…"

Kazon's fist slackened. "I know. Come on," he said, turning back to Anik and Tilia. "Oh and one more thing Jinora..."

She looked sideways at him. "Yes?"

Kazon grinned widely. "Thank you. For everything," he said sincerely.

"Saall, you were one of my officers. Kuvu, you were a close acquaintance of the Avatar's. Explain yourselves. NOW," Beifong said, slamming a paperweight down on her desk.

The two culprits stood before her, heads bowed in regret. Saall had fled back to Taku after their little stunt by the portal, taking Kuvu with him. Insubordination followed by treason followed by desertion. It was taking all of Lin's self-restraint not to throw something at Saall's head.

"We…thought the spirits wanted Jahn," Saall began quietly, before Lin snorted angrily. When she didn't speak, he continued, still staring at the floor. "We thought…if he went through the portal…they'd leave us alone."

"Because that worked out great," Lin retorted sarcastically.

Kuvu looked up at this, frowning slightly. "Don't talk to him like that," she snapped quickly, before realising her mistake. Lin's gaze turned to her slowly, making her look down at the floor once again.

"You're both lucky I haven't thrown your asses in jail already. Jail conditions here aren't great and I'm sure you'd hate having separate cells," Lin said carefully. "Do you even realise the enormity of your blunder? Not only did you impersonate the President's authority, which is a felony in itself, but banishing the Avatar was probably the most idiotic thing anyone could have ever done in the history of idiocy. You thought they wanted the Avatar? He was the only thing keeping them at bay!" she said quickly, her voice and her temper rising.

The two Taku locals stayed silent, shuffling their feet awkwardly. "Chief Beifong, I-" Kuvu started to say before Lin hit the desk with her hand once again, shutting her up immediately.

"There's actually something you can do to try and redeem yourselves slightly. You've been up in Taku, doing spirits know what. We need intel; have you noticed anything strange going on up there?" Lin asked.

Saall looked up at last. "Nothing much Chief. Everyone's been focused on the war effort, although obviously we had Chief Mako and his brother turn up. That's been about the strangest thing happening."

Kuvu glanced his way. "What about all the metal?"

Saall gasped slightly. "Oh yeah. Erm, basically we noticed a lot of metal was disappearing; nothing major, just little things like spoons and the like. We thought maybe spirits were taking them to annoy us."

"So we're aware that plans of a huge spirit cannon made of metal were stolen and nobody considers all the metal around disappearing?" Lin asked ironically. She wiped one weary hand over her face, totally bemused. "It's a miracle this nation is still standing with blockheads like you 'helping.'"

"What about Jahn? Is he ok?" Kuvu asked, seeing her opportunity to question Lin.

"Don't act like you care now. Clearly didn't when you broke the poor boy's heart or when you banished him. You knew he probably wouldn't survive, right?" Lin queried. She knew the answer. She just wanted this childish girl to admit it.

"He was always the second best Earthbender in Taku," Kuvu started, blinking at Saall, who straightened up slightly with pride. "We knew he'd be ok."

Lin looked from the girl to the young man and back again with an amazed expression on her face. "You two are seriously something," she said, not complimentary. "The world is in chaos but you still feel proud about being the best bender is some god-forsaken back-water town on some mountain nobody ever goes up? You're just children, both of you, with stupid dreams of glory. Let me tell you, glory is earned, not given. Whatever the Avatar has done, at least all of his time is dedicated to stopping this war and saving lives; time which is hindered considerably by the likes of you."

Silence fell once again. Lin sighed heavily, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she looked at the two kids. They were only twenty; she remembered Su at their age. She'd been just as unruly, just as stupid. Maybe she was being a little too harsh, though they'd certainly messed up big time. Still, if they were willing to investigate Taku for her, she could recall Mako and Bolin permanently.

"Go back to Taku," she said at last. "When you arrive, start snooping around; anything suspicious, you let me know. Anything to do with Jahn, call me directly on this radio," she said, handing it over to Saall. "Once we're off red alert, I'll send some officers to escort you back here. If you manage to unearth anything, that might help in your trial."

"Trial!? For what?" Kuvu asked, alarmed.

Lin frowned. "The Avatar had a thing for you, right? I usually couldn't care less about stupid relationships but I'm bloody relieved he's with that Tilia girl now because you clearly aren't very bright. Enjoy this one while you can," she said, looking at Saall and nodding at Kuvu, "because once this is over, you're both going down. Now get out."

He hadn't been back home for quite some time. Ten years, in fact. Taku still looked very much the same, however. Barely anything had changed, though the hut atop the mountain was now dormant. The Wise Seer had been destroyed by some of his Liberators a while back. They should still be stationed here; they'd informed him of Jahn's visit after the Red Lotus incident, chasing their order. It was only down to luck that Kuvu and Saall had distracted him.

"Freedom and serenity, this is Rizem. Meet me in town by the stalls," he said quietly into his radio. The night was dragging on and he didn't want to be spotted when the sun came up. Hopefully by then, his plan would be underway.

A voice crackled through his radio. "Affirmative sir. Be there in 5."

Rizem nodded, satisfied. He looked around, taking the sights in. He'd settled here with Saraa all those years ago. They'd been happy until…their daughter…then the illness…

"Oh Saraa, I'm so sorry," he whispered quietly. "I really wish everything had turned out differently, I really do. You know that's why I'm doing all of this. If it wasn't for the spirits, none of this would have happened."

He fell quiet again as he heard something move down the street. Watching closely, he relaxed slightly when a small cat walked across the street. They were a curious creature; the lack of a hybrid element made them look rather weird. The cats could only be found here in Taku, a fact most people would boast about to strangers.

"You always liked those funny little things, didn't you sweetheart?" he whispered again, one hand caressing a small bracelet he wore on his left wrist. "You liked to chase them, to pet them. I remember your little laugh…" Rizem said, his voice breaking as he spoke to his daughter. "I tried, sweetheart. I really tried. If it wasn't for that stupid spirit, I could have saved you…"

A tear rolled down his cheek slowly. One hand reached up and wiped it away, a look of confusion on his face as he observed the water on his finger. He didn't cry easily. His work wasn't done either; he needed to steel himself for the next part. Only then would his little girl and his wife be avenged.

"What's taking them so long?" he muttered under his breath, looking round. He felt exposed out in the open, especially with his precious cargo. If the key fell into the wrong hands, their plan would be ruined.

He stood around for a few more minutes, aware that anyone could literally walk along and recognise him. Before his tragedy, he'd put down some serious roots here. It was one of the reasons he'd assembled the cannon here; if anyone stumbled across it, he could reason with them and convince them he was on their side. If he did it well, he might even have the entire town on his side. Convincing others was his most useful skill, aside from his work with his knife.

The Red Lotus had deferred leadership to him through Kairna once he'd promised unlimited power. Kairna, or Scarlett as she'd preferred to be known, had been their leader, though she was his inferior. The Liberators had been pure circumstance; his father had been killed in his meeting with Jahn and his friends, their mountain base brought down by spirits. Ornatok was confused, lost but powerful. He was a rallying point for their order and Rizem sought to monopolise on that. Their goals were aligned; if Ornatok started a war between humans and spirits, Rizem could have enough time to rid them of spirits altogether so that Ornatok could return to his family. The other Liberators followed suit, though for different reasons. It was two of these Liberators that made their way down the street to him now, looking around cautiously.

"About time," Rizem growled.

"Did you get it? The key?" one of the Liberators asked, a woman, her face covered by a hood and intricate mask.

Rizem rolled his eyes. "You couldn't look more out of place wearing that here; literally everything about that," he said, gesturing at her attire, "screams Spirit Eater."

"That's not our name and you know it," the woman hissed.

"I couldn't care less; once my plan is over, you'll only have a finite stock of prey left. It'll be a race against the others to claim as much power as possible. Are you two going to scrap as well?" he asked, looking between the man and woman.

"We're an item now; we stick together," the man said in an extremely deep voice. "Give us the key and we can take it to the cannon."

Rizem frowned. "What, just hand it over? I don't think so. This is all my doing; I'll be the one to activate it. Where have you hidden it? Someplace underground I assume."

The woman nodded, though the man quickly held up a hand. "We'll take you to it once you hand the key over."

This situation was unexpected, he admitted to himself. The Liberators had followed his commands up until now, though he could sense they were feeling slightly powerless. His point about their looming lack of prey had struck a nerve; if all the spirits were gone, the Liberators had no power source. There would be a mad dash to destroy the remaining spirits and whoever was quickest would be most powerful. In truth, that had been part of his plan, though clearly these two weren't happy with it.

His hand whipped down to his belt and within a split second, he'd held his knife up against the man's throat. The two Spirit Eaters froze, watching carefully as Rizem sized them up. "If you don't take me there now, your bodies will lie here for the villagers to find when the sun comes up. Of course, you could try your bending but I don't bend; there's no point competing because a knife is more efficient every time. Take me there now, Spirit Eaters, or I'll kill you both now."

The man swallowed awkwardly. He was huge, even taller than Rizem, standing at an impressive seven foot tall. Even so, he nodded carefully and stepped back slowly. Rizem twirled the knife in one hand, the blade dancing round his nimble fingers as he looked around. "So?"

"Fine," the woman spat, "but I told you, we're called Liberators. Call us that or we'll have a problem."

The man pointed down the street, towards the town limits. "The entrance is slightly out of town. The cannon has been assembled so it can fire down on the portal; we'll have a bit of a walk."

Rizem shrugged. "That isn't an issue. I've essentially walked the entire bloody way anyway. After you. If you detour or try to run, you get to see my knife up close again," he said, waving it about.

The Liberator nodded, his walk slow and measured. His partner followed, though Rizem could sense her hostility. "Your problem. Care to share?"

The woman shook her head. "Think you can just waltz on in and order us about. We've been sat here in this town in the middle of nowhere, assembling a powerful weapon and now we're just to hand it over to you? We should be keeping it Hajar," she said quickly to her partner, tugging at his sleeve.

"No. Rizem is correct; his work is more important," Hajar said, his voice steady.

"See? Hajar knows; he gets to live. Now be a good Spirit Eater and move along," Rizem said, gesturing forward with his knife.

The woman twirled round on her heels, hands raised. "I told you, we're not called Spirit Eaters!" she shouted loudly. Hajar span round, hushing her instantly, though Rizem stepped forward and grabbed her by the neck of her hooded jacket. "Shut up!" he hissed in her face.

"Erm…" Hajar said awkwardly, pointing behind them. Two figures were stood by the side of the street, clearly trying to remain inconspicuous. "They've heard."

The figures turned quickly, determined to escape before they could act. Unfortunately, Rizem was well ahead of them. His knife flew through the air with pinpoint precision; it struck one of the figures in the leg, sinking deep into his muscles. The man yelled in pain, falling to the floor as the other figure knelt down, holding his hand.

"Get them," Rizem said, pointing to the couple on the floor. It was unfortunate, although he couldn't have people knowing about the Spirit Eaters running around.

The Liberators burst forward, sprinting quickly until they reached the couple. The other figure was a young woman, who seemed terrified. Rizem made his way over as his Liberators hoisted both of the eavesdroppers into the air with Waterbending. "It's rude to eavesdrop," he said nonchalantly. It was clear where Jahn got his flair for the dramatic; Rizem enjoyed savouring the little moments as well.

"Into the well?" Hajar suggested, pointing at a nearby well.

Rizem nodded. "Out of sight," he agreed. "Just make sure nobody finds them until the cannon is fired," he said, not bothering to hide his secrets. They were essentially dead already anyway.

The man was gritting his teeth through the pain, dangling upside down by the water tendril wrapped round his ankle. Through his agony, however, he managed to open his eyes and stare down at Rizem. Slight recognition flashed over his face, his eyes wide. "You're Jahn's dad," he said.

Rizem frowned. Shit. Recognition, even by someone about to die, was not a good sign. Maybe he DID need a disguise after all. "And you are?"

"My name is Saall. I…used to spar with Jahn. You won't remember me; you left before…argh…this hurts…" he whimpered, unable to remove the knife sticking out of his leg.

Jahn's father shrugged. "No idea. Sorry about this Saall but you've heard too much. I'll need that knife back," he said, pointing. The water around the hilt swirled; the knife withdrew slowly and dropped to the floor, where Rizem picked it up. The water tendril was wrapped completely around Saall's leg and was slowly turning red as the knife wound took hold.

"Kuvu…" the captured man said weakly, "get ready."

"No, please…" the girl whimpered. Something about her name sounded familiar to Rizem but before he could ask, the man had lifted his arms quickly and the ground beneath their feet rose up quickly, knocking them all down. He landed heavily in the dirt, his hand automatically clutching his bag close. The two Liberators were also caught off guard; the woman landed on her feet but the man hit the floor.

The Earthbender, Saall, dropped to the floor instantly; he threw something to the girl and waved her away frantically. "Go! Kuvu! Get yourself to safety and let the Chief know tha-" he shouted before the water rushed back up and smothered his head completely. His yells turned into muffled gargles as the water rushed down his throat. His partner yelled, tears rolling down her face, though she backed away quickly and with one fleeting glance back, she turned and ran.

"After her!" Rizem pointed angrily. This was a total disaster; the town would be waking up en masse with all the noise they were making. The woman didn't bother arguing; she ran after the girl quickly, following her as she turned a corner and vanished.

Rizem looked down at the younger man, who now lay motionless on the floor. "I think that's enough," he said quietly. Hajar nodded and the water withdrew, soaking into the ground. "Come on, we need to move. Find the girl, silence her and then meet outside the town. The townsfolk will no doubt be looking for us," he said, nodding down at the body.

"The well?" Hajar asked.

"Knock yourself out," Rizem said over his shoulder, following the escapee. They'd obviously outpaced him, though Rizem set himself a different course. The girl would have panicked, running haphazardly. She would then try to hide, finding a safe haven.

A faint noise caught his attention. He followed it stealthily, between the houses, until he could hear words echoing from nearby. A girl was speaking from a small alleyway, cowering behind a bin.

"Yes, Chief, they're here, they killed Saall, please, you've got to help…" she whimpered between ragged gasps.

Another voice sounded through a radio, metallic and distorted. "Kuvu, calm down! Who's there? What's happening?"

"It's those Spirit Eaters, Chief Beifong, they've killed Saall and they're hunti-" she said quickly, though a knife suddenly flew through the air, knocked the radio from her hand and impaled it in the nearby wall, sparking and beeping as it died. Kuvu stood instantly, a shocked look on her face as Rizem approached.

"Kuvu. My Jahn used to speak to a little girl called Kuvu. You wouldn't happen to be the very same?" he asked, walking slowly towards her.

The girl nodded, her hair messy from her ordeal. She was slowly sidestepping along the wall, as if to run away.

"Don't think you're going anywhere. Look," Rizem said, nodding at the other end of the alley where Hajar stood imposingly. "I'm very sorry for this Kuvu, and I'm sure Jahn won't be pleased, but you really shouldn't have called the Republic Camp…" he said, taking another knife from his belt and twirling it slowly as he drew closer, closer, closer…

((Hi all! In classic style, a nice happy chapter for you all...not. On the upside, it's my birthday! It's strange to think I started this when I was three years younger...thank you all for reading for the last few years! Not long until the finale now!))