Chapter 27:
"Suki, you know about giant sea monsters. Make it go away!" Sokka snapped at her and she looked at him angrily.
"Just because I live near the Unagi doesn't mean I'm an expert!" she snapped. Sokka turned to grab Momo and held him up towards the serpent.
"Oh great and powerful sea serpent, please accept this humble and tasty offering. Thank you."
"Sokka!" Katara snapped outraged.
The Serpent roared at them again and Freya huffed annoyed before she ran forwards and jumped into the water. An ice sheet appeared and quickly began to move off over the water. With a wave of her arm she shot icicles at the Serpent. It didn't penetrate but it caught it's attention and it dove at the girl who avoided with a launch into the air and a twist before landing back on another ice sheet which was risen up with a wave.
"Freya and I'll distract him. Katara, get everyone across." Aang said before rose his glider and flew off to help the older girl.
Katara iced up a path and shot it for the island to the other side of the pathway. She waved her hand and the others moved after her quickly before Katara helped Ying with Than.
The younger girl than turned to the serpent as Freya jumped into the air and she lashed forwards her hand. A line of white fire went flying at the serpent like a whip and it wrapped around it's snout as it made a bite for Aang. The Serpent cried out as Freya landed on it's body, holding the fire as it burnt at the water monster. Katara iced up the side of it but the ice broke with a twist of it's body and the serpent went after Katara.
Freya waved her hand and she was iced onto the serpent by her feet. She turned and saw that all but Toph was across the ice bridge and the earth bender was still on her island. Aang was in the air and Katara was evading the monster.
"Katara, get out of the water!" Freya shouted and the girl looked confused before Aang swooped and caught her as she jumped. Freya took a breath and circled her hands before lightning cracked around her. The Ice broke on her feet and Freya jumped backwards before she shot the lightning at the serpent. it roared and cried out and the lightning went shocking through the water. Sokka was shouting at Toph to cross towards them but stopped as the sparks shot around.
Freya spun herself around before fire shot from her feet and she hovered in the air on it, slightly unsteady at first. The Serpent had thrashed around before falling still and Toph was crossing the ice bridge as it didn't move.
Freya stayed and waited, not believing that would be enough to kill it and she was right. It turned and screeched up at her before launching. Freya shot backwards before she moved her feet and went zipping through the air as the white fire alternated strengths from foot to foot. Occasionally she lost her balance and lost several meters before she finally dropped back onto the water and was surfing over it again.
Despite her situation she had to give herself props for her fire bending currently and sent Iroh a mental thank you note for his instructions on how she could better her bending.
"We need to stop it's movements." Freya said as she noticed the tail had smashed the water and Suki was diving in to save Toph who had not crossed over it yet.
"Let's circle it. Trap it in a whirl pool!" Aang shouted and the two girls nodded before they began to do just that.
The water slowly began to swirl before the beast was crying out and swirling within the waters, unable to move or fight the current and unable to escape. Eventually it's head was being thrown around as the water was stronger and it smashed into the rock of the serpents pass, causing rocks and dust to go everywhere. The force was enough for the serpent to disappear under the water and it swam away from the group as Katara and Freya shared a high five in passing. Freya had the water wave her over towards the path and Aang grabbed Katara to fly her over as the others began to cheer at them.
"And let's hope it's smooth sailing from here." Freya smirked as she landed and pulled the water from her clothes as Katara dropped beside her and Aang did the same.
"Well what more can we run into?" Aang asked
"Don't jinx it." Freya sighed and the others laughed before they began to move on.
They reached the end of the pass safely and they all stopped when the ground had levelled out, releasing a sigh of relief. Sokka was in front and pointed out excitedly ahead of him.
"There's the wall!" The wall sat towering over the horizon ahead of them and gleaming white. "Now it's nothing but smooth sailing to Ba Sing Se." as he said that Ying suddenly gasped and clutched her stomach.
"Oh no!"
"What's wrong?" Sokka asked
"The baby's coming!" Ying was eased to the ground as she began to gasp.
"What! Now! Can't you hold it in or something?" Sokka panicked.
"Sokka, Calm down. Freya and I helped Gran-Gran deliver lots of babies back home." Katara assured the boy and Freya nodded.
"This isn't the same as delivering an arctic seal! This is a real… human…. thing!" Sokka freaked
"It's called a baby, and I helped to deliver plenty of those too." Katara assured.
"Stop freaking out Sokka." Freya said "It'll be fine." the girl crouched down beside Ying and Katara turned to the group still standing.
"Aang, get some rags. Sokka, water." the two boys ran off to do so "Toph, I need you to make an earth tent. A big one." Toph did one around the refugees and Freya with a small gap in which Katara moved towards. "Suki, come with me." Suki ran in to follow.
Ying was covered in a blanket by Suki and the refugees held both of her hands as she panted and worried, sweat dripping down her face.
"You're doing great Ying." Sokka turned to the entrance of the tent behind Katara who sat opposite Ying. "Sokka! Where's that water?" she shouted "Get ready to push." Sokka entered behind his sister and Freya reached for the pouch. "One, two, three…PUSH!" Ying cried out and Sokka suddenly collapsed sideways. Freya sighed.
"Toph will you remove Sokka please." The girl grabbed the boys arm and pulled him out in response.
With Katara, Freya and Suki's help the sounds of a baby crying eventually filled the air. Aang, Sokka and Toph were all waiting outside the earth tent as Momo hopped around in a tree.
"It's a girl!" Katara called and Toph turned to Sokka who was rubbing his face from beside her.
"So, you want to go see the baby? Or are you going to faint like an old lady again?"
"No no, I'm good this time." Sokka assured and he stood up before he followed Toph inside, leaving Aang alone. Katara however walked out as Freya poked out her head grinning.
"Aang, you have to come see this." Katara admitted as Freya nodded, the two disappearing back in again. Aang debated for a second before he walked into the tent. Ying sat with the baby wrapped in her arms and everyone else around her as she smiled.
"She sounds healthy." Toph admitted
"She's beautiful." Katara believed
"It's so… squishy looking." Sokka thought
"I don't think you were any different when you were born." Freya smirked and Aang smiled from behind them at the entrance.
"What should we name her?" Than wondered
"I want our daughter's name to be unique." Ying admitted as she looked to Than and then at the baby in her arms. "I want it to mean something."
Aang suddenly wiped away tears that ran down his cheeks before he stepped forwards and gained everyone's attention.
"I've been going through a really hard time lately. But you've made me… hopeful again." he admitted and Freya let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank god." Sokka and Toph chuckled as Ying smiled.
"I know what I want to name our baby now. Hope." she decided
"That's a perfect name. Hope." Than agreed
Aang looked up at Katara before him and then to Freya who smiled. Aang nodded his head and she followed him out before he turned to her.
"I'm really sorry Freya, I guess I really frustrated you."
"Well yeah, first you took your anger out on everyone for no reason and then you just seemed to give up on everything. Both of which are uncharacteristic of you."
"So was loosing control in the desert, and I didn't know what to do to cope with that." Aang confessed "but you were right, blocking it out was not the answer."
"Aang you weren't the only one who lost it back there. I did too remember. If I hadn't managed to find my sanity behind all the anger who knows what could have happened. Unlike with you, no one could approach me and help without getting hurt and that was one of the things I realised." she walked towards the boy "I also realised that Appa is the only sky bison in the world at the moment, there is no way we cannot poke around and not find anything about him, and in a city were new people are always arriving too it's even more likely we'll hear something." She smiled "I love Appa too and I'm not going to stop till we have him back, but we couldn't do that locked in the desert and we couldn't do that without somewhere to get intel. We've been pointed to Ba Sing Se, so we start there." she smiled. "Appa's saved us more times than anyone, I'll be dammed if we don't do the same."
Aang smiled and nodded happily.
"And don't worry about your emotions. It took all the other avatars several years to master the four elements and become level headed. And they all started at the age of sixteen. You're twelve, have three elements under your wing and have done so in only a few months. It's a lot to take on, but you clearly can do it. And that includes mastering control of your inner fire."
"What's your excuse then?" Aang asked. Freya looked at him annoyed and he chuckled
"I'm a fire bender who needs more practice and also has a very bad temper." she said simply. "But I will do it!" she said with determination. Aang laughed before Katara moved over to the two of them.
"Told you showing him the baby would work." Freya mumbled to her and Aang looked surprised as Katara giggled before Freya moved back to Sokka, Toph and Suki who'd exited the earth tent.
"What are they doing?" Toph asked as they didn't speak at first.
"They're having a moment." Freya shrugged simply and they watched as the two hugged before Sokka stepped forwards.
"I promise I'll find Appa as fast as I can. I just really need to do this." Aang believed as they all followed the bow. Toph handed the boy his staff.
"See ya in the big city." Sokka assured placing a hand on the boys shoulder
"Say hi to that big fuzzball for me." Toph punched Aang's arm and the boy winced as he rubbed the spot.
"You'll find him Aang." Katara assured
"I know. Thank you Katara." Aang nodded "Freya." Freya looked at the boy surprised
"Oh, I'm coming too am I?" she asked and the others chuckled
"We both know you'd be mad if I didn't bring you with me." Aang admitted
"And we all saw how that turned out." Sokka mumbled earning a scowl from Freya.
"I guess you all learned something then." Freya said before she smiled at Aang "And we both know you wouldn't be able to do this without me anyway." They chuckled before Aang opened his glider and Momo stepped up beside the boy with his wings stretched.
"You ready Momo?" Aang asked and the lemur flapped and Freya launched herself into the air with a burst of white flames before Aang flew underneath her and she landed to surf on top of the boy.
"Okay, so we looked for Appa in Ba Sing Se…" Freya began over the wind "Where the hell do we begin? I mean have you been to Ba Sing Se? Because I have and it's huge!"
"When did you go to Ba Sing Se?" Aang called to her
"Oh I was like, child child, still just a beginner bender child." Freya confessed "My dad took me and my mum on a sort of holiday." she smiled. "And I mean Appa's big and people will be able to tell us, but we need to find the right people to ask." she said thinking
"I say we find people and we ask around until we find him."
"Appa's been gone for a few days now, it'd make me feel better if we could think of something a little more strategic." Freya mumbled as they flew straight at the wall. The girl grabbed the glider with her hand and Momo and Aang soared straight up the great wall to the top were they soared through the clouds and over the top to land on the giant wall's top. Aang gapped at it as he moved to the other side, running the length and staring out at Ba Sing Se's landscape.
"It's huge!" Aang said surprised as he looked over the plane on the other side.
"Told you. And this is just the outer ring." Freya grinned. Aang nodded before he suddenly gasped and looked past Freya.
"What?" she asked and turned around herself. Her eyes widened.
"Oh no." she mumbled.
Tunnelling through the sand and kicking it all up was a giant long metal machine. The front of it was turning and had a slight point, looking like a drill as along it's sides were more of the metal carts that the group had faced at the Northern Air Temple. On the top of the drill was a Fire Nation symbol and it was heading straight for the magnificent wall of Ba Sing Se.
Freya and Aang looked at one another surprised before their faces fell and Freya took a deep breath. Aang turned to Momo on his shoulder.
"Sorry Momo, Appa's gonna have to wait." he believed.
"I think you should go back and get the others." Freya said as she watched the drill get closer and closer. "We may need some help." Aang looked at her and nodded.
"I'll wait here. Bring them to the wall and meet me back here." Freya said
"You're gonna wait?" he asked
"I'm gonna watch." the girl corrected and she looked at the drill determinedly. "Maybe find some soldiers and see what's gonna happen, it's sort of hard not to notice after all." Aang nodded and he opened his glider before disappearing off the edge of the wall and back towards the lake. Freya moved to the edge of the wall and stared down, eyeing the Fire Nation symbol.
"Well Azula, what have you concocted this time?" she whispered.