Happy Flag Day to my American readers, and happy Liberation Day to the people of the Falkland Islands!

Responses to Reviews:

Zigzagdoublezee: Yes, Kyoshi Island is a useful outpost for the Fire Nation in the southern sea, particularly if you have plans to attack any further south.

RonaldM40196867: In a show about a global war, politics is a little unavoidable I fear. Besides, one of the main points of praise for the main Avatar series is how well everything is handled.

As Always, Please Review!

The soldiers looked at the group uncertainly.

"What do we do?" One of them asked. Another, clearly the leader, stepped forwards.

"Hello Avatar," he said. "What an unexpected surprise."

"And an unwelcome one," Yue scowled.

"Surrender," the man said. "We have you surrounded, and you're never going to get on your bison in time before we fry you."

Rinzen stepped forwards, holding his hands up in the air.

"Alright," he said. "You got us."

The soldier blinked. "We did?"

"Of course!" Rinzen nodded. The others looked at each other, confused.

"And this isn't a trick?" The Fire Nation soldier narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"No trick!" Rinzen confirmed. Then he paused.

"Well, except this one."

And he looked down and blew.

The gust of wind kicked up sand which blew up, straight into the faces of the soldiers. They stumbled back, yelling and rubbing their eyes, as a thick cloud of sand began to settle between them and Team Avatar.

Rinzen rushed back towards them.

"Gembul!" He called. "Come on buddy, time to wake up. Let's go."

The sky-bison only grunted in his sleep.

"What are we waiting for?" A furious voice came from behind Rinzen's cloud of sand. "Get them!"

One of the soldiers yelled and charged through, appearing in front of Yue just as the Avatar summoned a stream of water which slammed into his nose. She winced as the man was thrown backwards. But more followed him, grabbing whatever improvised weapons were to hand as they charged out of the miniature sandstorm.

One rushed at Sokka, who sidestepped the stick he swung at his head and responded with a strike with his club that knocked the man down. Yue's attention was dragged away by a blast of flame which forced her to jump out of the way. One of the soldiers advanced on her, preparing to punch another fireball at her.

"Give up!" He said.

"Never again," Yue retorted.

The man grinned and punched, just as Yue did the same. Another jet of water rose to meet the fireball, and they met with a huge hiss of steam. The water, now boiling, carried on and splashed the man, who yelled in pain.

Yue didn't have much time to feel guilty about that though, because now two of them came charging at her, wielding sticks that had been set on fire. She jumped out of the way of the first, taking extra care to keep her clothes away from it, and grabbed the second. Its wielder leered at her as they struggled, before she realised he was physically stronger than she was and this was a fight she was never going to win. So she let go, stepped under the rest of the swing as he stumbled forwards into the shallows, and brought her arms forwards to send a torrent of water straight into his chest, pitching him onto his back.

The other one yelled and charged again, Yue feeling the heat coming off his weapon as he swung it and it barely missed her. He raised the weapon again, and was knocked off his feet by a gust of wind that blew him across the surface of the water, skimming off it like a stone three times, before he splashed down.

Rinzen scowled.

"Thank you," Yue told him. She watched the man in charge look on in disbelief at the scene in front of him. They locked eyes for a moment, and then the man was gesturing a subordinate over to him.

"Run back to the village!" He shouted. "Tell them-"

"To bring reinforcements?" The boy, for that is what he was, interjected.

"No!" The man raised his voice even louder.

"Tell the men to burn the village."

"What?" The boy asked, baffled. "Why?"

"Never mind why!" His superior yelled. He took out a note, scribbled something on it and stuffed it into the boy's pocket. "Give them this while you're at it. Just go!"

The boy stumbled backwards, glanced back at the battle for a moment, and then took off into the woods.

Yue turned to Rinzen.

"We need to stop him!"

"I know," Rinzen was deadly serious. Yue went to rush after the messenger. She knew she had to stop him before he got back to the village and this war hurt more people.

Briefly, the question of why the Fire Nation would want to do this for no obvious reason flashed through her mind, but the Fire Nation was waging this whole war for no obvious reason. What was one more village to them?

She rushed up the beach and felt the cool shade of the forest on her skin, Sokka and Katara's calls fading behind her along with the din of battle. Ahead of her, she saw the messenger look over his shoulder, spot her, yelp in fear and redouble his pace. She took off after him.

"Stop!" She shouted. "You can't give that order!"

He did not answer. She felt herself tiring, she hadn't exactly led an active lifestyle in the North Pole, but knew she could not afford to give up, must catch this messenger soon and stop him from giving the terrible order to the men back at the village.

They crashed through the undergrowth, dodging trees as they charged through the forest on their way towards a village that Yue did not know. The messenger reached a clearing and carried on running, panting as he began to tire out too. She could not hear her friends any more, but as she charged through the clearing suddenly a shout was heard. Men in red appeared all around the edge of the clearing, wielding slings as they stared at her.

Yue skidded to a stop, fear suddenly taking hold. She realised she was alone, far from the water, surrounded by the Fire Nation. The realisation that this must have been a trap, and she had fallen for it hook, line and sinker, caused her frustration to boil. She wanted to scream, at the fire nation, at this stupid war, at that messenger but most of all at herself. She was smarter than this! How could she have let this happen?

She just had time to take one step forward before the first stone slammed into the back of her head, and the Avatar slipped into unconsciousness.