A/N: I loved writing this one, enjoy!!
Disclaimer: If I owned avatar, there would be a season four. (I obviously don't)
Responses from chapter 6:
Vapor23: Thank you for your review! I can't believe you actually think that chapter was my best! I'm glad you think I do action well, as it's something I very much struggle with. The sad scene with Aang and Akira was my fav part to write :) Thank you for your continued support of my fic, and I can't wait for the next chapter of urs!
micheala.s14: Thank you for the kind review! Once again, it is astonishing to me how people think that last chapter was the best one.
Eagle-Eye2029: Akira really didn't like being stuck in the rock candy, lolll! Thank you for the comment about how I wrote Bumi, I feel like I did him well :)
Aang, Katara and I were all sitting in a rocky area, waiting for Sokka to come back with food. Suddenly, I could see the older boy coming over the hill, and my heart began racing.
"Hey,Sokka!" I exclaimed, hopping down from the rock I was sitting on,"Did you find any food?" Aang hopped down from the rock he was on and sat across from me.
"Yeah, what's for dinner?" He asked.
"We've got a few options," Sokka said, "First, round nuts, and some kind of oval shaped nuts, and some rock shaped nuts that might just be rocks,"
"How exciting," I said sarcastically.
"Seriously, what else you got?" Katara asked after giving Aang and I a confused glance. Sokka examined the contents of the bag, I could tell there was nothing else inside. Momo was sitting in a rock, pressing the rock-shaped nut against another rock to see if it would crack. On one of his attempts, a big booming sound could be heard all throughout the forest.
"What was that?" Sokka asked worriedly. Momo dropped the rock again, and the same booming noise followed.
"It's coming from over there!" Aang exclaimed as he pointed left. My brother, Katara and I began to run towards the booms, but Sokka stayed put.
"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms, not toward them?" He asked. We all continued running, then stopped at a fallen tree, and I gasped at the sight of what was making the loud noises. It was a teenage boy, around Sokka's age, earthbending. Suddenly, Sokka came from behind us and stood next to me, making my heart skip a beat. I looked into the older boys crystal blue eyes, and felt my cheeks get warm. I then heard another boom, followed by a grunt, that made me turn my attention back to the other guy.
"An earthbender," Katara stated.
"Let's go meet him," Aang suggested.
"He looks dangerous, so we better approach cautiously," Sokka said.
"Hello there! I'm Katara," Katara exclaimed, "What's your name?"Apparently, she had already hopped over the tree, and was now announcing her presence to the guy. He quickly got freighted and ran away, using earthbending to conceal his path.
"Nice to meet you!" Aang called out after walking over to Katara with Sokka and I.
"Well that was weird," I said.
"I know, I just wanted to say hi," Katara agreed.
"Hey, that guys gotta be running somewhere, maybe we're near a village!" Aang said, "And I bet that village has a market!"
"Which means no nuts for dinner!" Katara responded. Aang, Katara, and I all began running towards where the boy had ran off.
"Hey, I worked hard to get those nuts!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Great hat, I'll trade you some nuts for it," Aang said to a man once we were in the village. I snorted as my brother put the straw hat on.
"What?" He asked, turning to me.
"You look ridiculous!" I blurted out with a laugh. Aang frowned before taking the hat off.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" I started, feeling bad for making him sad. I was stopped, though, by Aang putting the hat on my head.
"Who looks ridiculous now?" He asked. I giggled before taking off the hat and handing it back to him. Aang put it back on and turned to Sokka, who looked as though he was examining the straw hat.
"Hey!" Katara exclaimed, making all of our attentions turn to her.
"The kid that we saw earlier lives there," She stated, pointing to the house in front of us.
"Should we go in?" I asked.
"Are you crazy? That would be like breaking into someone's house, just leave-" Sokka started. He was interrupted by Aang and I running away from him to go up to the house with Katara. He sighed and made his away over too. Katara opened the door to the small house.
"Hey! You're that kid," She said, making the guy gasp,"Why did you run away before?"
"Uh…you must have me confused with some other kid," He responded.
"No she doesn't, we saw you earthbending," Aang said, walking into the house. I followed close behind him. Both the kid and an older lady behind him gasped and closed up the windows and door.
"They saw you doing what?" The older lady asked. I could only assume that she was the kids mother.
"They're crazy mom, I mean, look at how they're dressed!" The kid exclaimed. Aang looked up at his straw hat, and I examined my clothes to see if there was anything "crazy" about the airbender training clothes.
"Rude," I muttered under my breath.
"You know how dangerous that is, you know what would happen if they caught you earthbending," The mother stated.
"Who's 'they'?" I asked. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"Open up!" A man called from outside.
"Them," The older woman responded quietly. Sokka walked over to the window and lightly opened the blinds.
"Fire Nation, act natural," He said. We all began to scatter around the room, choosing a position to be in for when the fire benders came in. Katara grabbed a bowl of cherries and pretended to be eating them, Sokka looked as if he were talking to an apple, the boy looked like he was observing Sokka talking to the apple. Aang was awkwardly smiling and pressing his hand against a barrel, and I was sitting up against the barrel, staring into bun-bun, who was holding's, beady eyes. When the soldier walked in, the barrel's top slipped and Aang fell, being smacked by the top in the process. I resisted the urge to laugh.
"What do you want?" The woman asked coldly, "I've already paid you this week,"
"The tax just doubled, we wouldn't want an accident, would we?" The soldier asked, lighting a fire in his hands.
"Fire is sometimes so hard to control," He continued. The woman looked down sadly and opened up a chest that contained only a few coins. She picked them all up and handed them to the soldier.
"You can keep the copper ones," He said as he dropped the copper pieces on the floor. As soon as the soldier came, he left. I scowled as I thought about the interaction that had just taken place.
"Nice guy," Sokka said dryly, "How long has the Fire Nation been here?"
"Five years," The woman responded, standing up from picking up the dropped copper pieces, "Fire Lord Ozai uses our towns coal mines to fuel his ships,"
"They're thugs," The boy added, "They steal from us, and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it,"
"Quiet Haru!" The mother exclaimed, "Don't talk like that,"
"But, Haru's an earthbender, he can help," Katara said. I had a feeling that she liked this Haru guy.
"Earthbending is forbidden, it's caused nothing but misery for this village," The woman explained, "He must never use his abilities,"
"How can you say that?" Katara asked, "Haru has a gift, asking him not to earthbend is like asking me not to waterbend, it's a part of who we are,"
"You don't understand," The older woman said, shaking her head.
"I understand that Haru can help you fight back," Katara continued, "What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"
"They could take Haru away, like they took his father," The mother said sadly.
Luckily, Haru and his mother had decided to give us a place to stay for the night.
"My mom said you can sleep here tonight," Haru said as we walked into the small barn room. It wasn't the nicest place I had ever stayed in, but it was better than camping.
"But, you should leave in the morning," He added.
"Thanks, I'll make sure Appa doesn't eat all your hay," Aang said. My attention turned to the bison, who was busy munching away at the hay in the corner.
"Hey, Haru, can I talk to you for a second?" Katara asked. The boy nodded and they both walked out of the barn. Sokka sighed and got up to leave too. There was this aching feeling in my body that wanted me to ask him where he was going, so I did.
"Where are you going, Sokka?" I asked. He turned around before responding.
"Just out to the shops, I wanna see if they have any good meat," He responded. I nodded and he walked away, leaving me with Aang. I sat in silence, looking at the wall across from me, thinking about my feelings for Sokka.
"Wait, Sokka, where are you going, Sokka?" Aang said in mockingly a high pitched voice, batting his eyelashes, "I just love you so much Sokka!" I glared at my older brother, my cheeks turning bright red.
"Oh Katara, don't go off with Haru! Stay here, with me!" I said in a deep voice, "I love you so much, I just wanna kiss you!" It was Aang's turn to become red.
"You're so pretty Katara, I just wish you didn't have a thing for Haru!" I continued.
"Alright, stop!" Aang whined. I laughed.
"You started it," I stated playfully. Aang sighed before perking up.
"We're in an open field right now, Kiri!" He exclaimed. I raised an eyebrow, confused by my brother's sudden excitement.
"No, we're still at the South Pole," I said sarcastically.
"What I mean is, we're in the perfect place for gliding!" Aang said. I gasped.
"We are!" I exclaimed, "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Later, Katara had came back from her walk with Haru, and Sokka had come back from buying food. Aang and I were both tired from gliding around all day, so when nightfall came, we were both more than happy to go to bed. Sokka was using a piece of hay as a bed, having his sleeping bag to cover him. Katara had her sleeping bag on the ground. Aang and I were both on Appa, and I was holding bun-bun.
"It was so brave of Haru to use his earthbending to help that old man," Katara said.
"You must have really inspired him," Aang responded happily.
"I guess so, Katara replied.
"Everyone should get some sleep, we're leaving at dawn," Sokka said.
"Dawn? But that's so early!" I exclaimed. "Can we at least eat breakfast or something first?"
"Can't we sleep in for once?" Katara asked.
"Absolutely not!" Sokka replied, "This village is crawling with Fire Nation troops, if they discover Aang's here, we'll be eating fireballs for breakfast," I groaned and turned over.
"I'd rather eat fireballs than nuts," Katara said.
"Good night," Sokka replied annoyedly. The rest of us laughed before Katara blew out the lantern in her hands.
The next day…
I was packing my things with Sokka and Aang, getting ready to leave, when Katara suddenly walked in, looking distraught.
"They took him!" She exclaimed, "They took Haru away!"
"What?" Aang asked.
"The old man turned him in to the Fire Nation, it's all my fault, I forced him into earthbending,"
"You didn't force him, you inspired him," I said, "If Haru didn't want to earth bend, then he wouldn't have done it,"
"Slow down, when did this happen?" Sokka asked.
"Haru's mother said they came for him at midnight," Katara responded.
"Then it's too late to track him, he's long gone," Sokka said.
"We don't need to track him," Katara said, "the Fire Nation is going to take me right to Haru,"
"And why would they do that?" Aang asked.
"Yeah, it's not like you can earthbend and get arrested," I added.
"Actually, I can," Katara said. Aang, Sokka and I gave each other confused glances.
"I thought you were crazy at first, Katara, but this might work," Sokka said as he and Katara rolled a rock on top of a vent.
"There are ventilation shafts throughout these mines, all Aang has to do is send an air current from the vent to this one right here," He explained.
"What about me?" I asked after clearing my throat loudly.
"Akira, you're going to be back up just in case Aang isn't paying attention when Katara gives the signal," Sokka stated. I sighed.
"Great, I'm just back up," I thought bitterly.
"Aang, did you get all that?" Katara asked. My attention turned to my brother, who was using airbending to push a butterfly into the air.
"Sure, sure, I got it," he said. I smacked my forehead. Maybe I'd be needed as backup after all.
"Do you remember your cue?" Sokka asked.
"Yeah, yeah, just relax, you're taking all the fun out of this," Aang replied.
"By 'this' do you mean being intentionally captured by an army of ruthless firebenders?" Sokka asked annoyedly.
"Exactly, that's fun stuff!" Aang said. I sighed in exasperation.
"Here they come, get in your places," Sokka commanded. Since Aang and I were hiding behind a rock, we couldn't see what Sokka and Katara were doing. Not like Aang was paying any attention to what was happening, anyway.
"Get out of my way, pipsqueak!" Sokka exclaimed in a deep voice.
"How dare you call me pipsqueak, you giant-eared cretin!" Katara responded dryly. I really hoped that this would work.
"What did you call me?" Sokka asked.
"A giant-eared cretin! Look at those things, do herds of animals use them for shade?" Katara continued.
"You better back off!" Sokka exclaimed, "Seriously, back off,"
"I will not back off!" Katara exclaimed, "I bet elephants get together and make fun of how large your ears are!"
"That's it! You're going down," Sokka said.
"I'll show you who's boss," Katara replied, "Earthbending style!" I knew that this was Aang's cue, so I looked over to see that he wasn't paying attention, and was still playing with the butterfly. I quickly began blowing air into the vent, making Aang lose his focus on the very important butterfly.
"That was my job!" He whined.
"Hey, I'm backup," I replied, "I was just doing my job,"
"That lemur, he's earthbending!" One of the soldiers exclaimed.
"How could he possibly think that Momo was earthbending?" I thought.
"No, you idiot, it's the girl!" Sokka said.
"Oh, of course," the soldier replied. I decided to stop blowing air into the vent.
"I'll hold her," Sokka said dryly. Katara was then taken by the soldiers. Aang and I walked over to look at her, and I noticed that Sokka was covering up his ears.
"Momo, you have some big ears," he said, pointing at the little lemur who was perched on Aang's shoulder.
A little while later, Aang, Sokka and I were all standing in the streets, waiting for the cart that Katara was in to pass by. We were all wearing straw hats for disguises. We watched as Katara came and went, a sad look on her face.
"Alright, we know that she's taken off, let's get on Appa," Sokka instructed. Aang and I nodded and we left to get on the bison.
We flew high in the sky, not wanting to be seen by the Fire Nation ship below.
"She'll be fine, Aang," Sokka said, "Katara knows what she's doing," I noticed that my brother, who was next to me on Appa's head, was looking very concerned. We turned around, heading back for the village as we knew where Katara would be heading.
Many hours later…
We had headed back to the prison where the earthbenders and Katara were kept, Aang peeked his head over the railings before running over to an area full of sleeping people. About a minute later, he had arrived with Katara.
"Your twelve hours are up, where's Haru?" Sokka asked. "We've gotta get out of here,"
"I can't," Katara whispered, making me quietly gasp.
"What do you mean you can't?" I whisper-shouted.
"We don't have much time, there are guards everywhere," Sokka whispered, "Get on!" Katara looked to the side.
"Katara, what's wrong?" Aang asked.
"I'm not leaving," Katara responded. The three of us who were on Appa gave each other surprised glances.
"I'm not giving up on these people," she added. Aang, Sokka and I all hopped off of Appa and crouched down near Katara.
"What do you mean you're not leaving?" Sokka asked Katara.
"We can't abandon these people," His sister replied angrily, "There has to be a way to help them,"
"Maybe she's right," Aang said, "What do you guys think?" He turned to Sokka and I.
"It would be nice to help people, but how are we supposed to get them all out of here? It's not like we can just fly them all on Appa," I replied.
"I think you're all crazy," Sokka answered. Suddenly, a flash of light came through.
"Last chance, we need to leave now," Sokka said.
"No," Katara answered flatly,
"I hate it when you get like this," her brother whined, shaking his head. Another light came through.
"Come on, we better hide," Sokka said. The Water Tribe siblings and I ran, but I stopped when I saw that Aang was still sitting there he whispered something into Appa's ear, and the bison flew away. As Aang caught up with the rest of us, I began to run again.
"We don't have much time, what are we gonna do?" Sokka asked. We were hiding behind boxes as we discussed our plan on how to get the prisoners out.
"I wish I knew how to make a hurricane," Aang sighed.
"Why would you need to make a hurricane?" I asked.
"The warden would run away, and we would steal his keys," My brother explained.
"Wouldn't he just take his keys with him?" Sokka asked.
"I'm just tossing ideas around," Aang replied.
"Well maybe you should start tossing around ideas that could actually happen," I said, flicking his head with my fingers.
"I tried talking the earthbenders into fighting back, but it didn't work," Katara said, "If there was just a way to help them help themselves,"
"For that they need some kind of earth or rock," Sokka stated, "Something they can bend,"
"But this entire place is made of metal," Katara explained, putting her hand on the floor. Aang looked up, his eyes going wide as something caught his attention.
"No it's not, look at the smoke," He said, "I bet they're burning coal, In other words…earth,"
Aang and I were watching as Sokka explained to Katara our plan. We had closed off every vent in the coal system except for one, and when Aang and I would airbend, the coal would have no where to go but the vent near Sokka and Katara.
"You ready, Kiri?" Aang asked, turning to me.
"Yep," I replied. We jumped down into the coal system. When we got to the bottom, we airbent to make the coal go into the one open vent. It flew up from the ground, covering us in soot. We jumped up out of the system, both landing on the same big pile of coal. Aang started coughing while I used airbending to push the soot off my body.
"Here's your chance, earthbenders!" Katara exclaimed, "Take it! Your fate is in your own hands!" Haru began to walk up, but was stopped by the arm of an older man who I believed to be his father. The earthbenders began to walk away.
"Did we seriously just do all of that for nothing?" I thought. Suddenly, I heard an ugly laugh behind me, and turned around to see an aging man in a Fire Nation soldier uniform.
"Foolish girl, you thought a few inspirational words and some coal would change these people?" The man asked mockingly, "Look at these blank, hopeless faces,their spirits were broken a long time ago,"
"Oh, but you still believe in them, how sweet," He yapped, "They're a waste of your energy little girl, you failed," I watched annoyedly as the man walked away. Suddenly, a rock was chucked at his head, causing me to laugh. The man proceeded to growl. I turned my head to see that it was Haru who had chucked the rock at him. The old guy whipped some fire out, but luckily Haru's father blocked it with wall of earth.
"Show no mercy!" The old guy yelled. I watched as the earth and fire benders fought.
"For the Earth Kingdom, attack!" Haru's father yelled as he and the other earthbenders threw a giant wave of rock towards the soldiers. We all started running away. Sokka fought a soldier with his boomerang, tossing the soldier's spear to Momo, who was collecting spears. Together, Haru and his father created a giant rock and threw it at the wall, making a large hole.
"Get to the ship! We'll hold them off!" Haru's father commanded. The prisoners quickly started running towards the hole.
"Do not let them escape!" The old firebender man yelled. He and his soldiers began to blast fire in all directions as we were getting closer to the hole. Aang suddenly stopped running, causing the rest of us to stop too. My brother created an air funnel.
"Guys, throw me some coal!" He exclaimed, "Kiri, make a funnel too!" I nodded and stood near Aang, making a funnel of my own. Sokka and Katara quickly started placing coal into our funnels. Sokka split a large pile of coal in half, giving half of it to Katara. The water siblings threw the large pile into Aang and I's funnels in unison, sending a ton of rocks towards the soldiers. Suddenly, the earth benders began to pick up the fallen soldiers with the coal, sending them overboard.
"No, please, I can't swim!" The old man exclaimed.
"Don't worry, I hear cowards float," Haru's father responded before dropping them into the water.
Later, all of us except Katara, who was having a conversation with Haru and his father, were sitting on Appa. Aang was tossing a piece of coal up and down, and I was putting a small bow in bun-bun's ear. Momo started chasing the coal the Aang was playing with, and when he stopped bending it, the lemur leaped into his arms. My brother picked up Momo and smiled, raising the lemur above his head.
"Can I have him?" I asked.
"Sure!" Aang replied, handing me Momo. I pulled another bow out of my bag and put it on the lemur's head.
"Now you're matching bun-bun!" I exclaimed, causing Aang to smile.