Appa swam through the dirty, polluted river of Jang Hui with boulders around. Zuko, Toph and Katara were bored out of their minds, while Sokka sat on the edge of Appa's saddle with a fishing rod in his hands, waiting for a fish to take his hook, sooner or later.
"Momo!" Aang popped his head out of the polluted river, playing hide and seek, while Momo is gliding, trying to catch his owner. "Momo!" It took a few tries for Momo to actually catch Aang. "Heh, you found me." Aang chuckled, as he rubbed Momo's head.
"What are you doing, Aang?" Zuko asked.
"I'm just playing hide and go seek with Momo." Aang replied.
"You need to get out of that water, it's dirty." Zuko informed.
Aang sighed, as he noticed the polluted water. "Alright, I'm coming…" he jumped onto the top of Appa's saddle, where his friends sat at. He looked at his body and found some mud on some places, then airbended the mud off, causing it to fly onto his friends.
"Hey, hey!" Zuko responded, as he got hit with some mud.
"Plah!" Toph spat some mud out, after tasting it.
"Sorry, you guys." Aang apologized, as he blew wind in their faces to get the mud off, leaving Toph and Katara's hair shaggy.
"Well, that explains why I can't catch a fish around here. Because usually, my fishing skills are OFF the hook!" Sokka made a pun, as he held the hook close to his face. "Get it? Like a fishing hook?" Sokka had zero reactions from the group.
"Too bad your fishing skills aren't ON the hook." The group laughs at Toph's pun, which annoyed Sokka.
Katara looked at the polluted water. "It looks like we need to go somewhere else to get food." Katara suggested. "Assuming that it would fit into Sokka's master schedule.
"Hm," Sokka read his schedule. "It's doable, but only two poddy breaks today." Sokka said.
Aang stood up and pointed by a nearby village. "Maybe, we can get food there?"
"That's Jang Hui." Zuko recognized that village.
"You know that place, Zuko?" Katara asked.
"I came here at least twice with my uncle."
"Is that when you were hunting down Aang, when he was in a ball of ice?" Toph asked.
"The first time was when I was a kid, so no. The second time, yes." Zuko answered irritated.
The group had found land near Jang Hui and hid Appa in some large green moss.
"Now you look like a small green hill, with horns." Aang chuckled, as he left Appa with Momo. The group walked closer to a cliff, where they discovered Jang Hui.
Toph tried to use her seismic sense to search for the people of Jang Hui, but couldn't. "I don't see anything. Where's the village?"
"In the middle of the river." Sokka pointed. 'Oh yeah, Toph's blind.' He lowered his hand.
"It sure is!" said an unfamiliar voice. The group looked below the cliff and found an older man with a thin fishing boat. "My name's Dock." He introduced himself. "Where are you all from?"
Katara tried to make up an excuse, as she looked at her friends. "We're… we're from the-"
"We're just Fire Nation citizens who are just traveling the land." Zuko said.
"Nice one." Toph muttered sarcastically.
"Oh, you're citizens, then? Hop on. I'll give you a ride into town." Dock insisted.
The group sat on the bat in front of Dock, while he rows them to town. Zuko sat in the back, Katara sat next to Aang, and Toph held onto Sokka's forearm.
"Why do you guys live on the river?" Katara asked.
"Because…" Everyone ducked their heads, as Dock swung his stick to the other side of the boat. "We're a fishing town. The group then looked and saw a factory at the end of the cliff. "At least we were, before the factory moved in."
"Factory?" Zuko asked.
"Yes. That's where the Army makes their metal there. They moved in a few years ago and started gunking up our river." Dock explained. Zuko placed a hand over his eyepatch, thinking about what the Fire Nation has done to so many people. "And now our little village is struggling to survive."
"Thanks for the ride." Aang told Dock.
As they had arrived onto the docks of Jang Hui, they saw plenty of sick people. Women, children and the men were busy working.
"Look at this place. It's so sad." Katara started to feel a little depression.
"I know," Zuko looked around. "It was never like this when I first came here. The people were happy, and the river was… non-polluted."
"We have to help these people." Katara insisted, only to be met by Sokka. "No, we don't have time for that. We have a bigger mission to focus on. These people are on their own." Sokka said harshly.
"How could you say that? These people are starving… and you would turn your back on them?" Katara glared at her older brother.
"I'm not turning my back, I'm being a realist. We can't just go out and help every stinky polluted river we find on the way. We'll be helping them all out by taking out the Fire Lo-" Before Sokka could say another word, Zuko quickly covered his mouth, leaving him muffling.
"You can't say that out loud! You don't know who's listening!" Zuko yelled quietly, before releasing him.
Sokka inhaled a bit, then turned to Katara. "Come on, Katara, be reasonable. You know that our mission comes first."
Katara looked down and knew that Sokka was right. "I guess so…"
"Let's just get what we need and go." Aang said, before leading the way to the fish market.
Sokka rang a bell and Dock turned to face the group. "Hey, Dock. You work here too?" he asked.
"I'm not Dock. I'm Xu. Dock's my brother." Xu explained.
"But, we just saw you. You're wearing the same clothes," Aang looked at Xu's hat. "The only difference that you're wearing a different hat."
"Dock works on the docks. That's why they call him, Dock. And I work in the shop. That's why they call me, Xu." Xu said.
Aang twitched a bit. "I don't get it."
"Me neither," Xu slid down behind the counters. Xu jumped back up with a box. "Now, what can get you?" The group looked at the nasty, dead, polluted fish that was in the box and suddenly lost their appetites. "Hey, I'll make you a deal. If you buy three fish, I'll throw you a clam for free!" Sokka poked one of the clams and saw nothing but gunk from its mouth.
"Ugh!" Aang and Katara was grossed out.
"I lost my appetite…" Zuko said, as he walked away, grossed out.
"We'll just take the fish…" Sokka grabbed the fish. "You mind telling Dock that he can take us back to shore?"
Xu slid behind the counters and jumped back up with his first hat, taking the identity of Dock. "Hey, citizens. Xu says you need a lift." Dock walked to the raft.
"He's crazy." Zuko whispered to the gang.
"You said it, not me." Toph replied.
"Let's just follow him." Sokka said.
As Katara was about to leave, a little boy with a scar on his shoulder had approached her. "Can you spare some food?" he asked.
Katara gave him one fish. "I wish I could help more…" she watched as the boy gave a fish to his sick mother, before moving on.
Later that night, the group was at there camp sight, yards away from the fishing town, Jang Hui. Toph and Aang were separating the water from the gunk by bending. Katara bended the water that Aang separated the sludge from and put it in the boiling pot.
"Our detour into town today has completely thrown us off of schedule," Sokka filled his bowl with water. "It's going to take us some serious Finagling to get back on track." he said, as he read his schedule.
"Finagle AWAY, O' schedule master." Toph said sarcastically, as she walked closer.
"Well, for starters, it looks like we need to wake up forty-three minutes earlier everyday." Sokka suggested.
"Why forty-three minutes?" Katara asked.
"Look, we only have a few weeks to get to the Fire Lord in time for the eclipse," Sokka pointed at one end of the schedule. "Which, by the way, only last for eight minutes." Sokka pointed at the other end of the schedule. "So if we want to wake up on time and on schedule, we have to wake up pretty early!"
"But how early? We don't even know what time it is." Zuko asked.
"Simple. Early is early." Sokka replied.
"Well, I'm not getting up early, if it's gonna cost me my beauty sleep." Toph lied down.
"Or, we can just cut out all of our eating breaks..." Sokka stomach grumbled, as he turned to the side.
"What?" Aang reacted.
"No way!" Katara reacted.
"Forget it!" Toph sat up.
"Not happening." Zuko said.
"I got it!" Sokka came up with an idea. "How about we come up with food breaks and poddy breaks and food breaks at the same TIME?" he grinned.
"That's so gross." Zuko said. Aang spat out water from his bowl in disgust.
Sokka smirked. "Hey, it might be gross, but it's official." he picked up his map. "Either way, we have to leave first thing tomorrow morning." Sokka walked to his area of sleep. Katara frowned, as she just heard Sokka's schedule. She wanted to help those people badly. Zuko could tell the look of sadness on her face, as he glanced at her.
The next morning, Katara was checking out Appa's diagnosis, whom was groaning from sickness, as he lied on his right side. Aang woke up and saw Appa's current condition.
"What's wrong, Katara?"
"I think Appa's sick, you guys." Katara said.
"WHAT! Appa's sick!? That's awful!" Sokka panicked, as he got up.
"Wow, I didn't think you cared..." Toph said sarcastically, as she rubbed her eyes.
"Of course I care! I may as well throw our schedule away now!" Sokka checked through his schedule out of frustration. As he turned back to the gang, they all glared at him, telling Sokka that he's being selfish. "And, I'm concerned that my big fury friend doesn't feel well." he said, as he rubbed his big cheek.
"He must've gotten sick from being in the polluted water." Toph assumed.
"I don't think so. Aang would've been sick as well. It must've probably been something else." Zuko said. While everyone had their back turned, Katara had silently smiled for buying time for her to help the Jang Hui town more.
"He doesn't look sick." Aang opened Appa's mouth and discovered that his tongue was purple. "His tongue is purple, that can't be good!" Aang looked to Katara. "Katara, can you heal him?"
"It looks like he needs some medicine. Maybe we can find the right herbs in town." Katara suggested that they go back to Jang Hui. Zuko watched Katara, as he knows that something was up with her lately.
"Is it just me, or does this place seem different?" Toph asked.
The people in Jang Hui were more active and lively than before.
"Yeah, the people seems... happier." Aang noted, as Katara watched a girl play with a ball. The group made their way towards Xu's shop.
"Hey, Xu, what's going on with everyone today?" Sokka asked.
Xu had just drunk soup out of a ladle. "Ah, something just happened last night. Food was delivered last night, by a mysterious and wonderful person... the Painted Lady." Xu smiled.
"The Painted... Lady?" Zuko asked.
"The Painted WHO now?" Katara asked.
"Yes, the Painted Lady... she's part of our town's lord." Xu brought out a small sculpture of the Painted Lady. "They say that she's a river spirit, whom watches over our times of need. I always thought she was just a legend, until now." Xu pointed at the towns people and the gang discovered that plenty of people had sculptures in their hands.
"See? We don't need to help these people, they already have someone to help them." Sokka crossed his arms. "All we need is medicine for our sick friend." he told Xu.
"Sorry. All the medicine we have goes to the factory. That's why we have so many sick people in our village." Xu explained, as he wiped the counter.
"Looks like we need to stay another night so Appa can rest..." Katara said with ease.
Sokka sighed. "I guess you're right." he looked at Xu. "You got any food to sell?"
Xu slid under the counters and quickly popped back up with two fish. "Would you lie the one-head or two-head fish?"
"Two-headed!" Sokka took the fish and turned to the gang, whom had nasty looks. "What? You get more money that way."
"Get that away from me." Zuko said, as he took a step back.
"Ugh!" The group ran off with Sokka chasing them.
The next day, Team Avatar had approached the docks once more. Sokka leaned against the counter. "Hey, Dock. Is Xu around?"
"Hm. Let me check." Xu ran to the back of the shop and switched hat, then ran back to the front counter. "I'm here!"
Toph forcefully shoved Sokka out the way. "We need more food. Our friend is getting sicker by the minute, and we can't leave until he's better." she gave him some money and in return, got a plate with clams that had gunk in their mouth.
"That's too bad. If you're lucky, the Painted Lady might visit you in the night and heal your friend." Xu said with little remorse. Zuko once more stared at Katara from behind, as Xu mentioned the words "Night" and "Heal".
Sokka had started to get irritated by clams with gunk. "And maybe she'll cook us a good night snack and we'll all have a sing along." he said sarcastically.
"Yeah, that'll be great!" Xu replied, not knowing that Sokka was being sarcastic.
Zuko facepalmed himself, as he knew that Xu didn't understand sarcasm. 'I hope the rest of the towns people aren't like him.'
"You know, she visited us again and healed most of our sick folks."
Aang looked around. "Is that why this town is so festive right now?" he asked. The group sees its town people setting up statue of the Painted Lady and cheering it on.
"Yep, it's all because of the Painted Lady."
Katara was amazed. "Can you imagine how an entire village can be affected by one lady-I mean, spirit? It's so amazing!"
"Well, I hope she returns every night, otherwise, this place would go back to the way it was." Sokka said bluntly.
Katara twitching out of annoyance and turned to her brother. "How could you say that? Look how happy these people are."
"Yeah, now. Without them, they wouldn't be able to fend for themselves. If she wanted to help, she would blow up that spirit factory." he said. "Wooooh!" Sokka mocked the Painted Lady by making ghost sounds. "Ploom!"
"Spirit magic doesn't work that way, Sokka. It's more like..." Aang squiggled his body. "Wooooooooh, psssh!"
Aang and Sokka got together and started wooing along. "Woooooooh!"
Katara stormed to the edge of the docks and stared at the factory, that is polluting the entire river town.
Zuko stared at Katara from behind, seeing that she's frustrated.
Later that night, everyone were sleeping in their bags. Appa was sleeping on his legs, Momo was sleeping on Appa's head. Katara pretended to sleep, just to make sure that everyone was asleep. Katara wore some long dark cloth to disguise herself. She used waterbending to make an ice mirror out of a small whole filled with water. She used some red clay as makeup and placed markings on her face, her chin and her arms. She wore a hat so that no one could see her face. As she thought the close was clear, she ran off in silence. One of the steps had awakened Momo from his slumber. Momo saw her and alerted Aang.
"What's the matter, buddy?" Aang woke up and saw Katara in disguise and gasped. "Hello, Painted Lady spirit!" Aang waved. Katara gasped realizing that Aang was awake then ran off. Aang quickly followed Katara all the way to the docks. Aang chased after her on the rooftops. "Hey!" he yelled, until he ran into some sticks. Katara ran pass the town to the other side of the shore and hid behind a rock. She panted, as she went to check, and sighed, assuming that the coast is clear.
"Hello!" Aang suddenly appeared before her upside down, like a mole. "My name is Aang. I'm the Avatar." he lifted his headband to show her his arrow.
Katara tried to hid her face. "Well, hello, avatar. I wish I could talk, but I am very busy." she said in a fake voice.
Aang turned his head away. "Yeah, me too. I hate that." For a split second, he tried to look under her hat. "You're very pretty for a spirit." Aang complimented. "Most spirits that I meet are not very attractive.
"Thank you, but-"
"You seem familiar, too. Have we met before?" Aang asked, as he tried to peek.
"A lot of people say that." she said.
"No, you REALLY seem familiar." Aang noted.
"Look, I really should get going, bye." Katara in disguise walked away.
"See you later," Aang knew something was fishy, so he airbended to remove Katara's hit. At that instant, Katara turned, jumped and grabbed her hat before it could fly away. "Katara?"
"Hi, Aang." Katara responded in her normal voice.
"YOU'RE the Paunted Lady!?" Aang pointed in shock. "But how?"
"I wasn't at first, I was only trying to help the village. And since everyone seemed to look up to her, I sort of became her." Katara explained, as she dropped her hat.
"Wait, so you've been sneaking out at night? Is Appa even sick?" Aang asked.
"Well, he might have been sick of the purple berries I've been feeding him. Other than that, he's fine."
"I can't believe you've been lying so that you could help these people." Aang said with little disappointment in his voice.
"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have..."
"No, I think it's great! You're like a secret hero!" Aang smiled. "But wait, does anyone else know about this?"
"Well..."
All of a sudden, Zuko walked out of the shadows. "Hi, Aang."
"Zuko? You're in this too!?"
"Yeah. I caught her sneaking into the village last night. I knew how much she cared for those people, so I agreed to help her in anyway I can. So far, I've been stealing medicine from that factory up there." Zuko explained.
"Thank you, Zuko." Katara said.
Aang rubbed his head. "You know, all this takes me back."
"Back? Back where?" Katara asked.
"Oh, you and Sokka were sick at the time. I went to catch some frozen frogs in the swamp that one time, and then I got caught by Zhao in the Fire Nation. And then out of nowhere, Zuko came and rescued me. He wore a spooky blue mask and helped me escaped from Zhao." Aang explained.
Katara turned to Zuko. "Wow, Zuko. You never told me that you helped Aang."
Zuko rubbed his back. "Well, I couldn't let anyone have the Avatar back then..." he turned tried to hide his blush.
"Speaking of Zhao, where is he?" Katara asked.
"Yeah, I haven't seen Zhao, since he killed the moon spirit at the North Pole." Aang reminisced the time Zhao killed the white koi fish, then everything went gray.
Zuko remembered fighting Zhao, whom was escaping the North Pole. And then, a large hand of water grabbed Zhao's body. 'Take my hand!' Zuko tried to help, but Zhao refused to get help from a traitor and drowned. "He... drowned." Zuko hesitated.
"Oh, that's sad." Katara said.
"Yeah." Aang said.
"Now's not to the time to mope. We have a factory to destroy." Zuko said.
"Right!" Both Aang and Katara said.
Ten minutes later, the three benders, Zuko, Katara and Avatar Aang had approached the Fire Nation factory from below, by the pipes that release the dirty water.
'This is absolutely disgusting, when you look up close at it.' Zuko thought, as looked at the dirty water.
"So, you want to take out this factory?" Aang asked Katara.
"Yes. Sokka was kidding, but he was right. Getting rid of the factory is the only way to help these people., permanently." Katara said.
Aang collided his fist into his palm. "Let's do it. We have three benders that can take down a factory like this easily." A second later, Aang and Katara had forgotten about Zuko can't currently firebend. "Oh… Zuko. I-"
"None taken." Zuko swiftly replied. "Let's just take this factory down." He said quietly.
Aang and Katara nodded at each other, as the three of them then rushed into the factory through the front door. The place was active, there were no guards on sight. They split up as they looked around and started fiddling with things. Katara had saw some pots of lava hanging from the ceiling and used her water sash to cut the chains, making the pots fall. Zuko and Aang tipped some pots over, letting the lava fall to the floor.
Aang ran to one spot of the factory where there were pipes and controls and earthbended, causing a small quake in the area. Katara waved her hands in motion, causing a large body of water to break the windows behind her and have the water fall on top of the flooding lava. Within minutes, the factory had started exploding from certain areas, until the entire structure had collapsed.
The three had ran away from the crime scene with no casualties.
"We did it." Aang said with happiness.
"Now the factory won't be releasing more gunk into the river." Katara said.
The sun had risen and the three had walked to camp in stealth.
"We don't wanna wake Sokka and Toph, you guys." Katara said, as they made it to the camp, Sokka and Toph had waited for them to return and they both had looks of disappointment on their faces.
"Too late." Zuko said.
"Hi, Sokka. We were just… going on a morning walk." Katara lied.
"Oh really? A MORNING WALK?" Sokka said sarcastically and grabbed one of the sleeping bags and dumped the moss out. "I know you're the Painted Lady. I know you've been lying to everyone and sneaking night after night, and I know you've sabotaged Appa, by feeding him purple berries!"
"Ah…" Toph held a bag of purple berries and showed them that her tongue was purple. Momo took a few berries and put them into his mouth.
"Katara, what you did put our whole mission in jeopardy!" Sokka crossed his arms. "We're leaving right now!" Katara walked in shame, both Aang and Zuko started to follow her. "And how long did you two know about this?" Sokka looked at Zuko first.
"The night before." Zuko shrugged and walked off.
Sokka turned to Aang. "And you?"
"Hey, I just found out this morning." Aang said, then ran.
Five minutes of packing, the entire group heard the sound of Fire Nation motorboats. Then they ran to the cliff where they see more than a dozen soldiers and less then a dozen motorboats head towards Jang Hui, furiously.
"What's going on?" Toph asked, as she crouched down.
"Fire Nation soldiers are heading to the village." Aang informed Toph.
Sokka turned to Katara. "What did you do?"
"I kind of… destroyed their factory." Katara answered.
"You what!?" Sokka reacted.
"It was your idea!" Katara shouted back.
"I was only kidding! I also said to use spirit magic and make funny noises." Sokka added, then facepalmed himself. "Did you even think this through? The army is going to blame the villagers and get their revenge!"
"Well, what was I supposed to do?" Katara asked in frustration.
"Leave! Do nothing!" Sokka answered.
"That's enough arguing, you guys." Zuko said.
"You stay out of this, Zuko! I'm talking to my sister, here." Sokka barked at Zuko.
"Don't talk to Zuko that way!" Katara defended Zuko. "He was only trying to help!"
"So what? You convinced Zuko to come and help you anger the army?"
Katara stood up. "Yes! I needed him, and I will never EVER turn my back on him, nor those people who need me!" That last part made Sokka flinch, Zuko blush a little, Aang with no reaction and Toph surprised.
"Wow." Toph said, being amazed and left out of the conversation.
"I'm going down to the village. And I'm going to do whatever I can to help them…" Katara began to storm off.
Sokka took a deep breath and went after Katara. "Wait," he said, as he placed a hand on Katara's left shoulder. "I'm coming too."
Katara turned to face her brother. "I thought you didn't want to help."
"You need me. And I will never turn my back on you." Sokka said, with a calm demeanor.
"Sokka, you really do have a heart." Katara said, as they hugged it out. The rest walked over and saw them hugging. Aang teared up, a bit.
"He really does have a heart…" Aang glanced at Toph with zero expression, then she nudged Aang to the ground. "Ugh!" Aang groaned.
"He really does have a heart." Toph smiled, as she hugged Zuko.
"Um… right…" Zuko slowly replied.
Minutes later, the Fire Nation soldiers traveled to the village by motorboats and particularly terrorized the village by setting houses on fire and destroying pillars underneath houses, causing them to fall into the gunky river.
Suddenly, the mist had randomly appeared from where the soldiers had came from. The Painted Lady had floated across the water, towards Jang Hui. Aang had created a fog from combining his waterbending and airbending skills. In the distance, Toph used a boulder and to repeatedly hit part of the earth to make rupture sounds, and Appa lightly roared behind her. Sokka used a flute to make noises. Zuko was hiding behind a number of people, counting how many soldiers there were. The Painted Lady had set foot on the raft, facing the Fire Nation soldiers.
"It's her!" a kid yelled.
"Do something!" the General shoved two of his soldiers forward to face the Painted Lady. The drew their swords from their sheathes and slowly approached her. As the Painted Lady glanced at them, Aang blew Air at them from below the raft, knocking their headbands off. They both got scared and ran off, passed the General. "Stand your ground!"
The Painted Lady glanced at the General, then took out two of his motorboats by waterbending and launching them to a cliff, where they exploded right in front of everyone. As the soldiers turned to her, the Painted Lady slowly raised her hand forward and the rest of the Fire Nation soldiers had ran and fled on motorboats, leaving the General all alone.
"I'll take care of you, myself!" The General growled, then launched a wave of fire at her. Aang saw it coming, so he used his airbending to shoot the Painted Lady up in midair. Aang then thrusted his fist at the General from below the raft, causing him to fly and fall into the gunky river. The General exhaled, as he reached the surface. The Painted Lady had approached him, standing on water.
"Leave this place… and never return." The Painted Lady instructed. This struck fear into the General's heart and swam away. As the Painted Lady had returned to the docks, the village had applause her for her deeds.
"Thank you, Painted Lady!" One person said.
"I knew you'd come!" Another person said.
Dock had approached her. "Thank you! My village, my brothers and I owe you a lot." As Dock got closer, they were inches apart. Dock got a closer look and noticed something was wrong. "Hey, wait a minute…" Some of Katara's painting came off. "You're not the Painted Lady. You're that traveling Fire Nation girl!" he yelled out loud. Katara gasped, as she noticed some of the painting came off.
"Yeah. You're the lady that gave me a fish that other day!" A kid yelled.
"You tricked us! You're a waterbender!" Dock crossed his arms in disgust.
"She's a waterbender! How dare you pretend to be our Painted Lady!?" A guy yelled, then the villagers detesting and booing her.
Zuko saw that the plan had failed and rushed through the crowd to Katara's aid, defending her. "So what if she isn't the Painted Lady she saved all of your lives! If it wasn't for her, some of you wouldn't even be here today."
The rest of Team Avatar arrive at the raft, except Toph, whom decided to stay behind a crowd. "Yeah, and who cares if she's a waterbender? She was only trying to help you people!" Sokka raised his hands. "The factory is destroyed, and the army is gone! You should be down on your knees, thanking her!"
"Whoa, Sokka. A bit too far." Zuko added, as he glanced at him. Some of the people started to realize that Katara was trying to help and give them hope and started to feel guilt.
"It's okay, Sokka." Katara said, as she stepped forward and removed her hat. "I'm sorry that I lied to you all. And I'm sorry that I pretended to be someone I'm not, but someone had to do something. It doesn't matter if the Painted Lady was real. What's real is all of your problems… the river… they're all real. You can't just wait for someone to tell you, or for someone to do it for you. You need to do it, yourself." Katara protested.
"She's right. But, what should we do?" Dock asked.
Toph stuck her head out. "Maybe you should clean up the river!" she yelled, before poking her head back in the crowd.
"Yes, we'll clean up the river!" Dock turned to the crowd, who cheered on that idea, then turned back to Katara. "You know, you're not so bad, for a waterbender." Dock complimented.
"You wouldn't mind keeping it a secret, would you?" Sokka asked, assuming that if someone finds out, they're going to alert the Fire Nation. Toph had just arrived at the docks.
Dock laughed. "Sure, no problem!" Keeping my mouth shut is my personal specialty! My brother, Xu on the other hand is a blabbermouth." He whispered.
"Ugh." Sokka groaned, as he facepalmed his forehead.
"So, Dock, are you gonna help us clean?" Katara asked.
"No ma'am. I'm going to get my other brother, Bushi. He'd loves cleaning rivers." Dock said.
Zuko facepalmed himself, knowing what's coming next. "Oh no…"
Dock removed his Dock hat, revealing his Bushi hat. "Alright! Let's get some river cleaning done!" he said, proudly.
Aang walked forward. "Aha! I knew it! I knew you were the same guy. You're the shop owner, and the boat guy." Aang confidently smiled.
"Oh, you must be talking about my brothers, Dock and Xu." Bushi lowered his hat.
"No, I just saw you! You switched hats and called yourself a different name!" Aang complained.
"Oh… you know who does that? My brother, Dock." Bushi looked around before whispering to Aang. "He's crazy." He laughed, before walking off.
Zuko and Sokka had annoyed looks on their faces, Katara was confused and Aang was left furious.
Ten minutes later, the village grabbed plenty boats and started the cleaning process. Aang and Toph stood on a small boat, there was a bigger boat behind them, where they place the gunk. Next to Katara was a large barrel where she place the clean water. Aang and Toph earthbended, and Katara waterbended to separate the sludge from the water and placed both of them in separate boat and container. It took a full day's work of cleaning. Boats had rowed across the river removing the sludge, until the river was reflecting the color of the sky once again. The people were now happy that they could roam and row freely.
Team Avatar stood over a cliff, as they glanced down at the village, Jang Hui.
"This is exactly how I remembered it as a kid." Zuko said.
"Oh yeah, you did say that, Zuko." Katara said.
Sokka yawned. "Well, all we have to do now is get going on our quest!" Sokka said, as he held out his schedule, annoying Katara.