Aang and Katara were waiting for Edward and Sokka by Appa as the two of them had offered to go and find food. Aang sat on a rock to relax, while Katara busied herself by folding up a blanket she had used during the night.

"I'm back!" Aang sat up at Sokka's voice as Katara turned her head to her brother.

"Where's Ed?" Aang asked curiously as he used his airbending to push himself to his feet.

Sokka shrugged. "Eh, who knows? We went our separate ways a while back. He said something about covering more distance."

"I see." Katara said, before she asked. "So, what have you got for dinner?"

"Let's see..." Sokka rummaged around in his sack before pulling out a nut. "First, some round nuts. Then some oval shaped nuts. And some rock shaped nuts." He paused. "Although, they're probably just rocks."

Sokka threw away the rock, which landed in front of Momo. "Dig in."

Katara and Aang shared a look. "Seriously, what else have you got?" Katara asked, not believing that her brother only found nuts, because nuts really wasn't a good choice for dinner.

"Maybe Ed found something more?" Aang said it like a question, not entirely sure if Edward had indeed found something more than Sokka, even if it was much more likely. But still, it's nice to imagine. "He does know how to find food."

"And I'm back." Edward said as he walked to them with... Green bread? "All the animals are hiding and all the plants are poisonous, one way or another."

"Uh... Ed, is that supposed to be green? And where's your coat?" Aang asked cautiously, pointing a finger at the bread. Okay, maybe it wasn't really that green. It just had a slight greenish tinge, that wasn't very noticeable.

"Unfortunately." Edward answered as he sat down. "Side effect of it being nutritious, I guess. As for my coat, it's been shredded by a platypus bear, and don't ask why."

"Okay."

"Yeah, anyway, I'm sure that's edible." Sokka sarcastically commented, giving the bread a pointed look.

"It is." As if to prove his point, Edward tore off a bit and threw it into his mouth, grimacing slightly. "Although it tastes less than pleasant."

"Where did you even get that?" Katara asked incredulously.

"Secret." Edward said. "All I'm telling you is that it's made from grass."

Before anyone else could say anything, a loud boom echoed through the forest. It sounded like rock hitting against rock.

"What was that?!" Sokka exclaimed in shock.

Another boom, louder than the first.

"It's coming from over there!" Aang pointed in the direction of the loud booms as he jumped up and ran to find the source, Katara following close behind.

"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms, and not towards it?!" Sokka yelled after them, exasperated, only for Edward to run past him and drag him along to investigate. "Nope! We'd never get done then!" Edward answered.

Upon arriving at the scene which was at what could have possibly been a dried riverbed, the group immediately noticed the cause of the loud sounds. A sole Earthbender was lifting boulders before mimicking a punching movement to send the boulder into the earth.

"An Earthbender!" Aang said, in complete awe.

"Maybe we should go say hi?" Katara suggested with a smile.

"I don't know," Sokka began, suspicion written all over his face. "He looks dangerous. I think we should approach him cautiously-"

"Hello there! I'm Katara, so what's your name?" Katara had already left the cover of the rocks and stood out in the open, hands cupped around her mouth in an attempt to amplify her voice.

"Does no one listen to me?!" Edward placed a hand on the frustrated Sokka's shoulder, an amused look in his eyes. "Unfortunately for you, no."

However, the Earthbender only stared at them in what Edward recognised as silent alarm for a few seconds before he turned and ran, bending the rocks to fall behind him to prevent the group from following him.

"I just wanted to say hi," Katara said, sounding slightly disappointed.

Suddenly, Aang lit up. "Hey, that guy's gotta be running to somewhere, right? Maybe there's a village nearby, and I bet they have a market!"

Catching on, Katara imitated the same look on Aang's face as she clasped her hands in front of her. "And that means no nuts for dinner!"

"Which also means I don't have to eat that poor excuse of bread!" Edward happily added as he followed Aang and Katara.

"Hey, I worked hard to get those nuts!" Sokka protested for a moment, before he wilted, following his companions. "Yeah, I hate them too."

0o0

True enough, there was a village nearby and fortunately, the residents didn't seem too wary of travellers, which meant they could go and get what they needed.

"Great hat! I'll trade you some nuts for it." Or in Aang's case, what he wanted. Although, Edward had to admit, while the hat wasn't as good as the ones back in Amestris, it had a decent quality.

"Hey!" The blond heard Katara's slight exclamation before he turned around, just in time to see the same person from before enter a house.

Katara was ahead of him, moving to confront the teenager who had just been speaking to who Edward guessed was his mother.

"Hey, you're that kid! Why'd you run away before?" Katara asked curiously.

The teenager froze momentarily, before he nervously said, "Uh, you must have me confused with some other kid."

"No, she doesn't." Aang said, following Katara. "We saw you Earthbending."

A look of horror crossed their faces as the teenager's mother gasped before she quickly shut the door and window. Internally, Edward mused to himself how suspicious that must have been to the people outside.

"They saw you what?!" His mother seemed terrified as she looked back at them.

"They're crazy, mom!" The teenager defended. "I mean, look at how they're dressed!"

All four of them self-consciously, checked their clothes.

"Don't you know how dangerous that is?" The woman scolded her son. "You know what would happen if they caught you bending, Haru!"

Just then, there was a loud pounding on the front door. "Open up!"

Sokka quickly made his way to the window and peered through the blinds before giving a warning of, "Fire Nation!"

Thinking quick, he said, "Act natural!"

Haru's mother opened the door, and the Fire Nation man let himself in, his eyes scrutinising the occupants slightly suspiciously.

Sokka and Haru seemed to be discussing about an apple, Katara looked like she was eating berries, and Aang was just grinning as he leaned on a water barrel, only for the lid to tip over and cause his hand to fall through. Edward just pretended to read a book he produced from his pocket.

"What do you want?" Haru's mother asked, hostility clear in her voice. "I've already paid you this week."

" The tax just doubled," The soldier said, a smirk on his face as he bent fire in his hands. A Firebender, Edward noted with narrowed eyes as he replaced his book back in his pocket.

"You wouldn't want an accident, would we?" The Alchemist was just itching to punch the soldier in the face with his automail. "Fire can be so hard to control."

Haru's mother had a resigned look in her eyes as she went to fetch the money. The chest she kept the money in was almost bare, with just a few coins.

Handing over what was left if the coins, the soldier counted the amount before nodding in approval.

"You can keep the copper ones." He said as he dropped the copper coins on the floor before he left, leaving Haru's mother to pick up the coins on the ground.

"Nice guy." Sokka sarcastically said, glaring at the direction the soldier had left in.

"He's so getting a fist to the face the next time I see him." Edward growled, clenching his fists tightly.

"How long has this been going on?" Katara asked, appalled at the actions of the Fire Nation and the blatant unfairness of it all.

"Five years." Haru's mother said grimly as she straightened up. "Fire Lord Ozai uses out town's coal mines to fuel his ships."

"They're thugs. All of them. And everyone is too much of a coward to stand up to them." Haru glared at the floor with crossed arms.

"Quiet, Haru!" His mother admonished. "Don't talk like that."

"But, Haru's an Earthbender! He can help!" Katara exclaimed.

"Earthbending is forbidden." Haru's mother explained grimly. "It's caused this village nothing but misery. Haru must never use his abilities."

"How could you say that?" Katara asked, shocked. To her, bending was one of the most important things to her. Therefore, hearing something like this shocked her. "Asking him not to Earthbender is like asking me not to Waterbend! It's apart of who we are!"

"You don't understand." The older woman said.

"I understand that Haru can help fight back!" Katara responded. "What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"

"They could take Haru away," Katara looked stunned. "Like they took his father."

0o0

"My mom said you guys could stay here for the night." Haru said, leading them to the stables. "But, you should leave here in the morning."

"Thanks!" Aang said, showing his gratitude. "We'll make sure Appa doesn't eat all of your hay."

Although, it seemed rather unlikely that there was going to be any hay left at the rate Appa was eating.

Katara left with Haru a few minutes later, probably to talk about what happened earlier. So, Edward took his chance to take a walk to clear his mind, and also plot how to secretly kick some Fire Nation butt.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. Even ten thousand years later, wars were still waged. It made him sad, really. One would have expected humanity to learn from their past mistakes, but no. Always the same cycle repeating itself over and over again.

He let a smile cross his face as his mind drifted to something. If his teacher was still alive, she'd have single handedly made all the Fire Nation troops in the area retreat with their tails between their legs. To say that Izumi would have been upset that her former home town had been occupied by the Fire Nation would have been an understatement. Hell, even saying that she would be furious would have still been a serious understatement! It made Edward shiver to think about it.

Soon, while Edward was walking through a forested area, voices drifted over to his position. Moving closer, he found that the voices belonged to Katara and Haru.

Keeping himself hidden behind a tree which was close to the small cliff the two were at, he listened in to their conversation since he was curious.

Loosing a parent... Edward felt his heart clench as he listened. The hardest thing for a child to experience was the loss of a parent by death or otherwise. The Alchemist could still remember when his father left as clear as day, and the day where he watched his mother succumb to her illness.

No child should have to experience the pain of loss.

As Katara and Haru left the area, Edward allowed himself one bitter chuckle at the irony before he himself left the area.

0o0

Nightfall arrived quickly for the group, and as soon as Katara and returned, she immediately retold the tale of how Haru had saved and old man from a mine collapse with his Earthbending.

"Haru was so brave to use his Earthbending to save that old man," Katara smiled, looking down at the lamp in her hands.

"You must have really inspired him, Katara." Aang said from where he was lounging on Appa's saddle.

"I guess so." Katara replied.

"Everyone should get some sleep," Sokka spoke up from his makeshift bed of hay. "We're leaving at dawn."

"Dawn?" Katara repeated in surprise. "Can't we sleep in for once?"

"Absolutely not!" Sokka exclaimed firmly. "This village is crawling with Fire Nation troops, and if they find out that Aang is here, we'll be eating fireballs for breakfast. Goodnight."

"I'd rather eat fireballs than nuts." Edward let out a snort of laughter at Katara's reference to Sokka's poor food haul that morning.

Sokka made a face at his sister as Aang and Katara laughed. "Goodnight!"

"Sokka does have a point, though." Edward said as his laughter calmed down. "I don't really want to deal with the Fire Nation so early in the morning, so goodnight."

As the remaining laughter died down, Katara extinguished their lantern and they settled down to rest.

0o0

It had seemed like a normal morning. Aang was helping Sokka pack up their sleeping bags while Katara had gone out to fetch water. Edward was just having a drink of water.

The peace was then suddenly broken when Katara burst in, nearly hysterical. "They took him! They took Haru away!"

Edward did a spit take and choked on his water before exclaiming, "What?!" At the same time as Aang.

"The old man turned him over to the Fire Nation! It's all my fault, I forced him into Earthbending!" Katara cried.

"Slow down, Katara," Sokka tried to calm his sister, who was nearly in tears, before comforting her. "When did this happen?"

"Haru's mother said they came for him at midnight." Katara told him.

"Then he's long gone." Sokka frowned. "It's too late too track him."

"We don't need to track him." Katara said, an idea forming in her mind as she broke away from her brother's comfort. "Because the Fire Nation is going to take me right to Haru."

"Why would they do that?" Aang asked incredulously.

"Because they're going to arrest me for Earthbending!" Katara said, determination shining in her eyes.

"That's it, she's lost it." Edward deadpanned as Aang and Sokka shared looks that clearly said that they thought Katara was off her rocker.

0o0

"I thought you were insane at first, Katara, but this might actually work." Sokka told his sister as they rolled a large boulder over a ventilation shaft.

"There a ventilation shafts throughout this mine, and all Aang has to do send an current through that ventilation shaft over there, and tada! Fake Earthbending!" Sokka looked proud of himself for thinking up something like this.

"Aang, did you get all that?" Katara asked the Airbender, who was playing with a butterfly.

"Sure, sure. I got it." Aang said, not really listening.

"Do you remember your cue?" Sokka added in.

"Yeah, yeah! Just relax! You're taking all the fun out of this!"

"By 'fun', do you mean intentionally getting captured by an army of ruthless Firebenders?" Sokka asked, eye twitching.

"Exactly! That's fun stuff!"

"Hey! Here they come!" Edward, who was on watch duty, called to the three as soon as he saw a troop of Fire Nation soldiers. "Get in your places!"

Katara and Sokka walked towards each other, pretending to bump into each other.

"Hey, get out of my way, pipsqueak!" Sokka tried to sound intimidating as he said this.

"How dare you call me a pipsqueak, you giant eared freak!" Katara responded, trying to sound annoyed.

"What did you call me?!"

"A giant eared freak! I mean, look at those things! Do herds of animals use them for shade?"

"You better back off!" After a pause, Sokka added. "No, seriously, back off."

"I will not back off! I bet elephants gather and make fun of how large your ears are!" Sokka self-consciously looked at his ears.

"That's it! You're going down!" The male exclaimed.

"I'll show you who's boss!" Katara exclaimed before she made a stance similar to that of an Earthbender's. "Earthbending style!"

When nothing happened, Edward facepalmed before he slammed his forehead against the rock wall of his hiding place.

"I said, EARTHBENDING STYLE!" Katara repeated, louder this time.

Finally, Aang seemed to remember what he was supposed to be doing and he immediately sent an air current through the vent, causing the boulder to rise up, making it seem as if Katara was indeed Earthbending.

"Look!" The soldier in the front gasped. "That lemur, it's Earthbending!"

Edward facepalmed for the second time that day. Sometimes, just sometimes, he feared for humanity, but not in the way one would expect.

"No! It's the girl Earthbending, stupid!" Sokka exclaimed, gesturing to Katara.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Edward mumbled to himself as Aang stopped the air current, causing the boulder to fall back to the ground.

"Oh. Right." The soldier looked embarrassed.

"I'll hold her." Sokka said, holding onto Katara's shoulders before discreetly whispering into her ear. "You have twelve hours to find Haru. We'll be right behind you."

Katara was arrested and taken away. As the Fire Nation soldiers left, Sokka must still have been feeling self-conscious about the comment about the size of his ears, because he turned to Momo and said, "Momo, you have some pretty big ears."

0o0

Afterwards, Katara was taken to the docks where she boarded a ship that would take her to wherever the other Earthbenders were.

Aang, Sokka and Edward tailed the ship until their destination was in sight. The monk was reluctant to leave Katara by herself, but with a bit of convincing from Sokka that Katara could take care of herself, they left with the intention of returning later during the night.

But for now, they had to find a way to pass the time.

"Discarding two." Sokka said, face scrunched up in concentration.

"Drawing one." Edward dismissively said.

"So, is this the part we show our cards?"

"If you want, yes."

"You're going down! Full house!"

"Royal Straight Flush."

"WHAT?!"

0o0

After sixteen rounds of Poker (After explaining how to play the game) and Sokka losing miserably each time (because a certain Alchemist was cheating, but Sokka didn't know that), nightfall finally arrived for the group.

The darkness of the night provided them cover from Fire Nation eyes as they headed to the rig on Appa.

Aang went to find Katara while Sokka and Edward waited. A few minutes later, Katara and the Airbender returned.

"Your twelve hours are up, where's Haru? We have to get out of here!" Sokka exclaimed as quietly as possible.

"I can't." Katara looked back to where she came from.

"We don't have much time! There are guards everywhere! Get on!" Sokka tried to convince his sister, holding out his hand.

"Katara, what's wrong?" Aang asked, surprised.

A look of pure determination crossed the Waterbender's face. "I'm not leaving." Aang and Sokka shared incredulous looks while Edward looked at Katara in surprise. There was more to Katara than he had expected. "I'm not giving up on these people."

"What do you mean you're not leaving?!" Sokka exclaimed, confused at his sister's actions.

"I can't abandon these people!" Katara responded. "There has to be something we can do to help them!"

"Maybe she's right, Sokka." Aang suggested. "What do you say, Sokka?"

"I say you're both crazy!" Edward chose to speak up the moment Sokka said that. "Make that three. I agree with Katara. We can't just leave like this. We have to help."

A search light came a little closer to them than they would have liked.

Sokka shook his head in frustration. "I hate it when you're all like this. Come one, we better hide."

Quickly darting into cover, Aang only paused for a moment to whisper something to Appa before he followed the rest. Appa soon left to hide as well, barely missing two Fire Nation soldiers who caught a glimpse of him.

0o0

The group was hidden by some crates. "Why are we going to do?" Sokka asked.

"I wish I knew how to make a hurricane." Aang lamented. Seeing the others deadpan looks, he explained. "Then when the warden escapes, we could steal his keys!"

"Wouldn't he just take his keys with him?" Sokka asked in a deadpan voice.

"I'm just tossing out ideas!"

"I'm so tempted to destroy the rig." Edward muttered to himself. "But then everyone who doesn't know how to swim would drown. Too bad that the only earth around is the seabed, and who knows how far that is down?"

"I tried talking the Earthbenders into fighting back, but they didn't listen!" Katara looked down. "If only we could help them help themselves."

"But for them to help themselves, we need some kind of Earth, something that they could bend!"

"But this entire place is made of metal!" Katara exclaimed.

Aang sighed, looking up at the sky as if to ask what they could do, before he noticed something. "No, it's not." He said in realisation. "Look at the smoke. I bet they're burning coal."

"In other words, Earth." Edward finished.

0o0

"It's almost dawn. We're running out of time!" Katara said worriedly. "Are you sure this going to work?"

"I'm sure." Sokka reassured her. "These vents remind me of our trick back at the village. So we're going to do the same thing, but on a much larger scale. There's a huge coal deposit at the bottom of this rig. It's been ventilated, so Aang closed off all the vents except for one, so when he does his airbending, the coal will have nowhere to go but here."

"Making use of the pressure, basically." Edward summed up the entire plan. "Not bad. You're smarter than most give you credit for."

Before Sokka could say anything, there was a shout. "There's the intruders!"

"Crap!" Edward hissed under his breath as he realised they had been surrounded before they had realised it.

"Stay back!" Sokka exclaimed, drawing out his boomerang.

"Katara, stop! You can't win this fight!" An older man exclaimed.

The warden stepped forward. "Listen to him well, child. You're one mistake away from dying where you stand."

Edward wouldn't have let that happen, even if it meant revealing what he really was. Luckily, he didn't need to do that, for exactly five seconds later, the coal burst from the vent, imitating a volcano eruption before falling back to the ground. Aang emerged a moment later, covered in dust before he started coughing, ridding himself of the coal dust.

"Here's your chance, Earthbenders!" Katara shouted, holding up a piece of coal. "Take it! You're fate is in your hands!"

No one moved, and suddenly, the warden laughed.

"Foolish girl," He sneered. "You think a few inspirational words and a few pieces of coal would change these people? Look at those blank hopeless faces. Their spirits were broken a long time ago! And you still believe in them. How sweet. They're a waste of your energy, little girl. You failed."

With those parting words, the warden turned and made to leave, bringing his soldiers with him. However, he hadn't moved more than five steps away before a piece of coal struck him in the back of his head.

The warden turned, rage clear on his face as he spotted the culprit. Haru had a few pieces of coal as he bent them over his palm.

The warden's rage seemed to fuel his firebending as he sent out a burst of flames at the young Earthbender. However, before the flames could even touch Haru, his father bent a wall of Earth to shield his son.

"Show no mercy!" All patience the warden had left went straight out of the window as he gave his order, he and the soldiers he commanded bending fire at the Earthbenders.

Three Earthbenders, including Haru's father, brought up yet another shield of Earth. "For the Earth Kingdom, attack!"

They sent the wall of earth crashing down to the soldiers, and from there on out, it was complete madness. A full out brawl with bending. Not that Edward really minded. Brawls were fun, no matter what day and age it was.

Edward laughed as he took down the soldier with simple punches, watching them as they dropped like flies. These soldiers were pathetic. If General Armstrong saw them, she'd come down like a bear on them.

Soon, Edward's metal fist came into contact with with the warden's nose, giving a satisfying crunch. "I've been waiting to do that!" He laughed.

A loud crash echoed through the rig. Haru and his father had compressed the coal into a huge ball, sending it right through the metal wall that prevented the Earthbenders from escaping, and sending a few soldiers falling off the top of the wall.

Edward winced. That had to hurt.

"To the ships, quickly!" Haru's father called. "Well hold them off!"

"Do not let them escape!" The warden shouted to his man, voice sounding nasal as he held his nose to stop the bleeding that Edward's punch had caused.

As Edward regrouped with his companions, Aang seemed to have an idea as he created a small air tunnel with airbending. "Guys! Throw me some coal!"

Katara and Sokka immediately complied, adding coal to Aang's air tunnel which had a similar effect to machine gun as the coal sprayed out and hit the soldiers, warden included. However the effect differed in how the soldiers currently didn't have holes in them.

Suddenly, the coal shifted beneath the soldiers who were down for the moment, moving them over the ocean.

"Please, no!" The warden begged, all bravery gone in a matter of seconds. "I can't swim!"

"Don't worry," Haru's father said while he held up the coal with three other Earthbenders. "I hear cowards float."

Releasing their hold over the coal, the Fire Nation soldiers fell to the ocean, screaming much like how little girls would.

0o0

Edward sighed contentedly as the rig gradually disappeared from sight as the ships they were on sailed away.

Turning to Katara, he gave a pat on her shoulder, making her look at him in surprise. "You did good, Katara." He smiled. "I couldn't have pulled that off."

Slightly embarrassed about the praise, she looked to the side. "I'm sure anyone could have..."

As Haru qnd his father approached, most likely to speak to Katara, Edward let his thoughts drift. A small victory like this in comparison to the war may not seem like a lot, but every bit counted for something.

"We can win this." Edward whispered to himself with a smile, but he was yanked out of his thoughts when he heard Katara's near hysterical voice.

"My mother's necklace! It's gone!"

[A/N Woohoo! I did this chapter in a few weeks or two rather than procrastinating for six something months! I frankly can't wait to write the next chapter, since there's so much I can do with it.

However, it would take me longer to write seeing as how school has just started. Really. It's like 6 in the morning here while I'm eating breakfast, and I'm just typing this thing out. So yeah. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and have a good day!

~Gwntan12]