꧁ chapter six ꧂
the fire nation girls

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"I CAN'T BELIEVE it, I knew the war had spread far, but Omashu seemed untouchable" Aang said, looking in shock at the fallen city.

"Up until now it was," Sokka said, crossing his arms, "Now Ba Sing Se is the only Earth Kingdom stronghold left"

"This is horrible," Katara said as the group continued to overlook the city, "But we have to move on"

"No, I'm going in to find Bumi" Aang replied, walking towards the city.

"Aang, stop. We don't even know if Bumi's still..." Sokka trailed off.

"What? If he's still what?" Aang questioned angrily.

"Around" Sokka completed, sounding unsure.

"I know you had your heart set on Bumi, but there are other people who can teach you earthbending" Katara spoke.

"This isn't about finding a teacher," Aang huffed before turning away continuing his way into the city,

"This is about finding my friend"

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"A secret passage? Why didn't we just use this last time?" Sokka asked, watching Aang attempt to open a small entrance.

"Oh!" Meiluna gagged as Aang revealed the 'secret passage' that was filled with sewage.

"That answer your question?" Aang retorted.

"Ew!" Sokka groaned at the sight as Meiluna reluctantly followed the others jumping into the sewer.

She used her waterbending to clear the water from her path, Katara did the same as Aang used his airbending to clear his own way.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought" Katara smiled as she emerged from the sewer.

Speak for yourself! Meiluna thought to herself, wondering how in the world she was going to get rid of this smell.

Sokka clambered out, completely covered in slime. Katara used her waterbending to wash him and Aang used his airbending to dry him off, revealing three purple creatures attached to him.

"Sokka, you have a little something here" Meiluna told him, indicating the spot on her own face.

"Ahh! They won't let go! Help!" Sokka cried out in a panicky tone as he tried to yank the creatures off.

"Shh! Stop making so much noise. It's just a purple pentapus" Aang tried to calm Sokka down as he tackled him to the ground, removing a pentapus himself.

"Hey! What are you kids doing out past curfew?" A guard asked as he approached the group.

"Sorry, we were just on our way home" Katara apologised, turning around as everyone followed her, walking in the opposite direction.

"Wait, what's the matter with him?" The same guard asked, eyeing the spots on Sokka's neck.

"Uh, he has pentapox, sir" Katara lied.

The guard slowly began to approach Sokka.

"It's highly contagious!" Meiluna blurted out before he got too close.

Sokka looked at Meiluna nervously before turning to the guard again.

"Oh, it's so awful, I'm dying" Sokka groaned, exaggerating his actions.

"And it's deadly" Katara added for extra measure.

"Hey, I think I heard of Pentapox! Didn't your cousin Chang die of it?" Another guard asked.

"We'd better go wash our hands and burn our clothes" The other guard said in fear as they both ran away.

Aang smiled as he spoke,

"Thank you, sewer friends"

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"Let's find Bumi and get out of here" Katara whispered as the four hid from the patrolling guards.

"Where would they be keeping him?" Sokka wondered aloud.

"Somewhere he can't earthbend" Aang answered.

Meiluna nodded as she added,
"Somewhere made of metal"

The group continued to walk before they came across a multitude of rocks crumbling down at a high speed.

Aang looked down in distress seeing a party of people walking past. He raised his staff and pulverised the rocks with a blast of air, the loud noise alerted the people passing by who looked up to the source of the noise.

"The resistance!" A voice yelled.

All of a sudden, numerous tiny arrows were sent flying toward Aang, who jumped up to avoid them.

Meiluna turned her head and spotted two Fire Nation guards climbing up a ladder nearby. Katara quickly used the water from her pouch to form a water whip and sent the guards flying off.

While Katara attacked the guards, Meiluna noticed a dark haired girl send more arrows in their direction, she instantly used the water from her flask to raise a shield of ice to protect herself and Katara before grabbing her hand to run away.

Aang had seen the Fire Nation girl chasing them and twirled his staff, collapsing the scaffolding beneath her. The girl noticed and threw a flying star at the Avatar, who used his air bending to catch it.

Out of nowhere, the ground underneath Sokka, Aang, Katara and Meiluna opened up, swallowing them, closing as quickly as it appeared.

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"So is King Bumi with you guys? Is he leading the resistance?" Aang asked the man who stood before them.

"Of course not!" He replied angrily, balling up his fists, "The day of the invasion, we readied ourselves for battle. We were prepared to defend our city, to fight for our lives and our freedom. But before we even had a chance, King Bumi surrendered"

Meiluna furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"The day of the invasion, I asked King Bumi what he wanted to do, he looked me in the eye and said I'm going to do... nothing!"

Katara gave Aang a look of concern seeing his expression.

"It doesn't matter now. Fighting the Fire Nation is the only path to freedom and freedom is worth dying for" He stated.

Aang looked up sadly at the man.

"Actually there's another path to freedom. You could leave Omashu. You're directing all your energy to fight the Fire Nation. But you're outnumbered. You can't win. Now's the time to retreat so you can live to fight another day" Aang implored.

"You don't understand, they've taken our home. And we have to fight them at any cost!" He spoke, attempting to inspire confidence amongst the other soldiers.

"I don't know, Yung, living to fight another day is starting to sound pretty good to me" A soldier spoke up softly.

"Yeah, I'm with the kid" Another soldier agreed, stepping forward and pointing to himself.

Yung observed his soldiers before turning back to Aang.

"Fine, but there's thousands of citizens that need to leave. How're we going to get them all out?" Yung gave in.

"Suckers!" Sokka exclaimed, pointing at Yung.

Everyone stared at Sokka with questioning looks.

"You're all about to come down with a nasty case of pentapox"

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All the residents of Omashu stood in front of Sokka, covered in spots from the pentapi.

"The marks make you look sick, but you gotta act sick too. You gotta sell it!" Sokka explained.

An old man walked by, hobbling around with a cane as he clutched his back, groaning in pain.

Sokka pointed at him,
"Now that's what I'm talking about!"

The old man turned around, tapping his wooden leg.

"Years of practice" He said with a mischievous look.

"Okay everyone! Into sick formation" Sokka ordered.

Meiluna was about to follow Sokka before she realised Katara had stopped walking next to her. She turned around when she noticed the Avatar going in the opposite direction.

"Aang, what are you doing?" Katara asked, "Aren't you coming with us?"

"No, I'm not leaving until I find Bumi" He said before turning back around, propelling himself into the air, leaving to find his friend.

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"We looked everywhere. No Bumi" Aang said sadly as Katara walked up to him to give him a hug.

"I'm sure we'll find him Aang" Meiluna tried to reassure the young boy.

"We've got a problem. We just did a head count" Yung said walking up to the group.

"Oh no, did someone get left behind?" Katara asked worriedly.

"No, we have an extra" He answered pointing at a baby who clung to Momo.

Meiluna stared at the child in surprise,

"Oh"

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The Fire Nation baby had decided to pick up Sokka's club and put it in its mouth.

"No! Bad Fire Nation Baby!" Sokka scolded as he snatched his club back making the child burst into tears.

Meiluna, who had the baby sitting on her lap while she played with him, glared at Sokka.

Meiluna absolutely adored children. Their pureness and innocence was something she just loved so much. She had always thought of having her own children, but with the War against the Fire Nation, she didn't know if that would be an option.

"Oh, all right" Sokka grumbled, feeling annoyed as he returned the club to the baby.

"Now say good boy Sokka" Meiluna cooed to the baby, smiling as he stopped crying.

Sokka rolled his eyes, walking away.

"Oh, you're so cute!" Katara said in a baby voice, picking up the child and hugging him.

"Sure he's cute now, but when he's older, he'll join the Fire Nation army" Yung warned.

Meiluna found it so hard to believe his words. The baby looked so harmless to her.

"You won't think he's so cute then. He'll be a killer" Yung continued glaring at the baby.

"Does that look like the face of a killer to you?" Katara asked, holding him up to Yung.

Yung remained expressionless before turning at the sound of a squawk.

"A messenger hawk!" Yung called out, identifying the bird.

Aang grabbed the canister on its back that bore the Fire Nation insignia.

"It's from the Fire Nation governor. He thinks we kidnapped his son. So he wants to make a trade. His son," Aang's eyes widened before continuing, "For Bumi"

"I guess this is goodbye cutie" Meiluna frowned at the baby as he held on to her finger.

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"You realise we're probably walking right into a trap" Sokka told Aang.

"I don't think so. I'm sure the governor wants his son back as much as we want Bumi," Aang smiled at the sleeping baby in Meiluna's arms, "It's a new day. I have a good feeling about this"

Meiluna watched as a group of three girls approached them, still standing a fair distance away.

She heard a faint noise before she looked up and saw a tall crane lowering a metal cage.

"Hi everybody!" King Bumi chuckled from inside the cage, only his head visible.

Aang smiled at the sight of his long lost friend as the cage continued to lower landing behind the girls.

"You brought my brother?" One of the girls asked.

"He's here" Meiluna gently held up the child, making sure not to disturb him.

"We're ready to trade" Aang confirmed.

"I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me. Do you mind?" Another girl asked the previous one.

"Of course not, Princess Azula" She replied.

"We're trading a two year old for a king," Azula paused to look up at King Bumi, "A powerful, earthbending king?"

Bumi nodded quickly his head in agreement.

"It just doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?" Azula continued.

"You're right," The dark haired girl spoke as she thought for a moment, "The deal's off"

She raised her hand, signalling the guards to remove Bumi.

"Whoa! See you all later" Bumi chuckled as he was lifted away.

"Bumi!" Aang cried out.

He ran forward as Azula sent a blast of blue flames in his direction, which he quickly dodged. He leapt into the air and opened his glider to chase after Bumi, losing his hat in the process.

"The Avatar!" Azula noticed, "My lucky day"

Her expression of shock quickly changed to a smug smile.

"We have to get the baby out of here!" Meiluna spoke, as she and Katara stood in front of the other two girls.

"Way ahead of you!" Sokka smiled at Meiluna before blowing a whistle.

Sokka, Meiluna and Katara ran to the edge of the platform toward Appa, but before they could make it, the girl in pink punched Sokka's foot causing him to fall roughly to the ground.

Katara quickly removed water from her pouch to create a water whip and lifted up several wood planks to protect herself from the knives thrown her way.

Meiluna noticed the girl in pink approaching Sokka.

She could almost admire the way she bounced around on her feet, easily dodging every attack that came her way. She seemed to dance and put on a show as she fought, Meiluna thought it looked interesting.

She shook her head, realising her mind had wandered and used her own water to freeze the ground near the girl's feet, making her slip.

As Sokka took this opportunity to get up and climb down a ladder, the girl jumped over to Meiluna, trying to attack her. Meiluna barely managed to avoid her hits.

"You're quick," She smiled, catching Meiluna off-guard, "But not quick enough"

She jumped up quickly and hit Meiluna at different pressure points on her arms.

Meiluna attempted to summon her water again, but frowned as nothing happened.

She ducked as the other girl sent a storm of stilletos out of her leg, narrowly avoiding them.

Meiluna saw the girl in pink come up to Katara from behind her, jabbing her arms as she had done to Meiluna before, taking away her ability.

"How are you gonna fight without your bending?" The dark haired girl taunted, eyeing the two.

"I seem to manage!" Sokka called out from the sky, sitting on Appa, as he caught his boomerang that knocked the girl's weapon out of her hand.

Appa landed infront of Katara and Meiluna with enough force to send the Fire Nation girls flying off the scaffolding.

They quickly hopped on to Appa's back as Meiluna smiled in relief,

"Where would we be without you Sokka?"

☆☆☆