Chapter 1: Return to Republic City

Earth, Fire, Air, Water…Only the Avatar, Master of All Four Elements, can bring balance to the world. Almost 2 centuries ago, the Fire Nation began a war of global conquest, and the Avatar disappeared. After nearly 100 years of constant war and the annihilation of the Air Nomads, the Avatar finally returned. His name was Aang, and he was the last airbender. In less than a year, he and his Team Avatar brought this century-long war to a swift end, and with that, a legend was born.

Afterwards, Aang spent decades rebuilding the war-ravaged world and resurrecting the Air Nation. With that in mind, he and the newly-crowned Fire Lord Zuko built a new nation from the former Fire Nation Colonies. This United Republic of Nations was meant to be a symbol of peace and an example to the rest of the world, a place where all people from around the world could come together and share in their ideas and customs. However, time moves forward for all, not all dreams can be realized in one lifetime, and the era of Aang and his friends is over. It is up to the new generation and the next Avatar to try to bring about peace and the world that Aang envisioned…

The waters around the Southern Water Tribe were always cold. A young man wrapped his dark orange scarf around his neck a little tighter. He was reading a newspaper as he sat on the deck of a Water Tribe ferry bound for Republic City, the capital of the United Republic of Nations. The front page had a picture of a group of criminals tied up in front of a tall, bearded man, wearing a maroon-colored overcoat, with his arms crossed over his chest. However, despite his semi-serious posture this man had a huge, and almost contagious, grin on his face. The headline for the article read, "United Forces Commander Bumi Outfoxes Pirates in Southern Waters".

Although, the ferry that the young man sat on was Water Tribe in affiliation, it was clearly of Fire Nation design. Made from rough, heavy metal and billowing thick black smoke, the ship was most likely purchased shortly after the end of the Hundred Year War. The 18 year-old scanned the deck of the ship looking at the each of the other passengers.

It was a small ship, so there was only himself, a Water Tribe family with a mom, dad, and 2 girls, an elderly man who was the captain of this ferry, and group of 3 men all huddled together. The three of them were forced to share a blanket between them. He chuckled to himself, tugging on his dark brown winter jacket. They must not have come prepared for the arctic climate. He then turned his pale green eyes to the east, looking at a United Republic battleship heading back to its patrol after stopping off at the Southern Water Tribe.

"I hear that's Commander Bumi's personal battleship," said the ferry captain, "He's supposed to be some sort of mad genius when it comes to strategy. and his charisma is supposed to be so enthralling that he can lead his men headfirst into an obvious death, only to come out the other end smelling like roses."

"He-he. Yeah, you could say that again," the young man replied while casually running a hand through his unkempt, dark hair.

"Oh? Do you know Commander Bumi or something?"

"You could say I'm familiar with his work," he said, smiling fondly.

"Uh-huh. By the way, I don't think I caught your name," the captain inquired while rubbing his chin.

The young man smiled a lopsided grin. The captain just now noticing the small faded scar on the left side of his upper lip. "The name's Ketu. Republic City born and raised," he said jovially while pointing his thumb at his chest, clearly happy to be returning home.

The old captain scratched his balding head like he was trying to remember something mildly important. "Ketu…Ketu…Why does that name sound so fami-"

"IT WAS YOU!"

A shout sounded from the other end of the deck. One of the men sharing the blanket burst to his feet, pointing an accusatory finger at Ketu. The other 2 immediately jumped up and, without any warning, started to waterbend ice spikes towards him.

Ketu seemed completely unfazed by the surprise attack as he kept a neutral expression despite the situation. He dodged the incoming assault, expertly bobbing and weaving through the storm of ice shards. He quickly closed the distance between himself and his attackers with almost unnatural agility and speed.

Ketu moved in on the first waterbender and delivered a hard punch to his gut, causing him to double over onto his hands and knees. Not wanting to get hit while his back was turned, Ketu turned towards the second waterbender, who was just out of arm's reach, unwrapped his scarf from his neck and whipped the second attacker across the face with it.

The blow seemed to hit with more force than a simple cloth scarf should have, knocking the aggressor off his feet and hard onto his back. Then Ketu spun back and delivered a hard overhead kick to the back of the head of his first target, driving his face into the hard, metal deck and knocking him unconscious. All the while, Ketu casually wrapped his scarf back around his neck as he did so.

All of a sudden, a high-pitched squeal cut through the air. Everyone turned to see the man who first yelled holding a dagger on a little girl from the Water Tribe family. The captain and the girl's family were apparently too distracted by the attacking benders to notice as the third man crossed the ship during the initial attack and snuck behind his victim. "All right. That'll be enough of that, I think," he said, smugly as he inched the blade closer to the young girl's neck. The young girl was starting to tear up now, but too terrified to make a noise.

In response, Ketu raised his left arm, palm facing up. He really hated cowards like this guy. "Wow, you really are an idiot, aren't you?" Ketu asked, almost nonchalantly, as he glared at the villain, any of his previous humor gone now, "You know who I am and still decided to try something like this?" Ketu then flicked his ring finger back.

"What are you-?" the man with the knife began to ask when suddenly his weapon was ripped from his grasp and began to float in the air. Ketu clenched his fist and swung his arm around, the blade mirroring his movements. The dagger flipped around and hit the last assailant square in his temple with its hard pommel, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. With the threat now gone, the young girl rushed back into the arms of her parents.

"You're a metalbender?!" the ferry captain exclaimed in surprise. With the Ketu's jacket now open, the captain could see the metal armor the young man was wearing on his arms and legs, as well as two spools of cable strapped to his hips.

And as the sudden and tense situation seemed to have been resolved, realization seemed to dawn on old man. "Wait a second. You're him! That big-name lieutenant with the United Forces, Bumi's righthand man: Ketu the Sonar. You just took down all 3 of those guys in like 15 seconds!"

Ketu turned and smirked up at the old man. "Not quite," he said.

He then thrusted his right arm forward, a metal cable shooting out from one of the spools on his hips. The cable snaked over the edge of the boat, and an undignified scream came from where the cable disappeared to. Ketu then spun and whipped a fourth man up from over the edge of the ferry and dropped him none too gently onto the group of attackers. He and the others groaned in apparent pain.

Ketu then opened up his jacket and shot out several circular metal bands from inside his coat and used his metalbending to restrain all 4 of the men and then linked them together just to be safe. And not just because it would make the ride extremely uncomfortable; no sir.

"Now I took care of all the bad guys," Ketu confirmed, "Also, it's not Lieutenant anymore. I've resigned from the Republic military. I left from Bumi's battleship back at the Southern Water Tribe, so I could catch a ride on this ferry to take me back home."

"Okay," the captain said. He and the other passengers seemed to finally start to calm down now that the situation had apparently been dealt with. "But why did these guys try to attack you?"

"I have my suspicions," Ketu said as he walked toward one of the men in question. He reached down and ripped the sleeve off the man's shirt, revealing a tattoo of a blue sea raven. "Just as I thought. The Neo-Southern Raiders. Most of them are criminals, banished from the Southern Water Tribe."

"They use old Fire Navy ships from the War to attack traders and merchants on their way to the South Pole as some sort of revenge for their exile," Ketu explained. "They're from that last band of pirates Commander Bumi and I took down just before I left the United Forces. These 4 are probably stragglers that we missed. I bet they thought they could take me 4-on-1 now that I'm not with the military anymore."

"No, we aren't stragglers," one of the pirates suddenly said. He seemed to be sporting a pretty impressive welt on his face from where Ketu smacked him with his scarf. "We were on a scouting run when you attacked our ships and captured our crew. We did everything right. We disguised our ships as freighters and hid all our weapons and most wanted crewmen in smuggling compartments no one should have been able to find. No one except you."

"We have nothing left now, thanks to you," the pirate said with his voice now taking on a distinct edge. "I know who you are. You're nothing but worthless piece of garbage whose own father didn't even-" He was interrupted as the blanket they were all using was suddenly shoved into his mouth. It was followed by a swift kick to the side of his head, sending it bouncing off the metal deck of the ship, knocking him unconscious.

"No one asked you, filthy pirate," Ketu said. Then he summoned the pirates' dagger to him from its position where it had landed on the other side of the ship. The dagger then began to spin wildly in the air above Ketu's fist like a buzz-saw. "So, anyone else feel like sharing their opinion of me?" he asked.

The other three quickly shook their heads.

Ketu was sitting in a meditative stance at the bow of the ship. He was focusing his senses throughout the ferry, trying to pick up even the most minute details. Currently, he was attempting monitor the heartbeats of the 4 pirates on the other end of the ferry. This was a common practice he did when he was emotionally unbalanced. Ketu seemed to have been greatly affected by what that pirate had said to him.

He was taught from an early age that meditation would give him greater focus and allow him to become more spiritually attuned. He wasn't so sure about the spiritual side of meditation, but it did help him to calm down when he was worked up like this. As a byproduct, Ketu found out that by using meditation, he could greatly increase the range and clarity of his Seismic Sensing.

"Land Ho!"

Everyone turned to the front of the vessel, and sure enough, they could see the vast skyline of Republic City. Ketu chuckled at the ferry captain, "He-heh. I didn't know anyone actually said that, Old Man," his good mood clearly having returned sometime over the journey.

"Of course they do," the old sailor replied. "How else would everyone be able to know we're about to reach our destination?"

"Umm…Couldn't you just say, 'We're about there,'?" Ketu asked.

"Ha-ha! You're funny, kid," the captain laughed as though he had just been told a great joke. "By the way, when those scoundrels attacked it seemed almost like you knew that it was coming. Why is that?"

"Well, that's because I basically did see it coming," Ketu replied. "I knew that fourth guy was hanging over the edge since before we left the Water Tribe. Most people don't hang onto the outside of a boat in arctic waters unless they have something planned."

"But how'd you know he was there?"

"The same way I know that, on the way here, 8 fish accidentally ran into the underside of the hull and the you picked up 3 extra barnacles near the stern," Ketu explained.

"Huh?"

"By using my earthbending, I can use even the smallest of vibrations to give me a sense of the world around me," he explained with an easy smile, "They didn't call me 'The Sonar' for nothin'."

"About that, why'd you leave the United Forces?" the captain asked, "I heard you were the youngest officer in history. Joined up when you were 13 and made Ensign by 15, well on your way to beating out Iroh as the youngest General of all time. You are supposed be some sort of rising star."

"Well, it's kind of a personal story," Ketu said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Oh, I'm sorry I asked then."

"No, it's okay," he assured the captain, "When I was younger, I was lost and lacking purpose. I'd spent my whole life in Republic City just going along with what everyone else decided for me. Doing what they wanted me to do without ever really asking if that was what I truly wanted. I was being pulled in a lot of different directions. However, one thing I did know that I always wanted to do was to help people like Avatar Aang, but I wasn't sure what the best way to go about it was. Finally one day, I decided that I needed to go out to see the world like Aang did.

"I figured that joining the United Forces would allow me to get out of the city while giving me the opportunity to help the rest of the world. My uncle pulled some strings, and I was allowed to join on as a Junior Cadet, even though I was barely a teenager. Now after 5 years of barely getting to see home, I decided that Republic City is where I'd be of the most use. Also, I'd get to see my family more, and that's always nice," Ketu finished up, smiling fondly at the thought.

Just then a low, deep rumbling sound came from above their heads. Everyone looked up and saw a large sky bison soaring in the direction that they had just come from. "That looks like Councilman Tenzin," the captain explained, "Rumor has it that he's heading to the South Pole to train the next Avatar in airbending."

"Huh, you don't say," Ketu replied, only seeming mildly interested. He did seem to recall his grandmother mentioning that the new Avatar was being trained at home with teachers being brought to her, rather than traveling the world like previous Avatars.

Ketu noticed they were finally coming up to the docks. He grabbed his bag, preparing to disembark. "Well, kid. You seem to have things figured out. That's not something most your age could say," the captain said, "Have you got a job lined up yet? If not, I could always use a deckhand who can handle himself in a scrape."

"Thanks for the offer, Old Man, but I've already got that handled," he replied with a smile. He then turned to the four prisoners and started hauling them to their collective feet and led them near to where the exit ramp would be lowered.

"Now don't you worry about them, son," the ferry captain said. "I'll get ahold of harbor security, and they'll make sure that those pirates make it to the Police Department." However, speak of the Devil, and he shall appear. Or, in this case, she shall appear.

Standing at the pier, waiting for their arrival, was a grey-haired woman wearing the uniform of Republic City's metalbending police. She had a stern posture, and her steely, pale green eyes told all who looked upon her that she was not to be trifled with. This woman was Lin Beifong, daughter of the legendary Toph, and Republic City's current chief of police. What the ferry captain didn't know, however, was why she was waiting at his dock. He hadn't even been able to call in about the attack since his outdated ferry lacked a radio. She watched the approaching ferry as it came into dock; noticing the tied-up criminals being led by a young metalbender with an orange scarf.

"Well then," Lin said with a slightly-amused half smile, "It looks you're starting the job early, aren't you, Officer Beifong?"

"Oh, you know me, Mom," Ketu said wearing similar smirk, "I always like to get a head-start on my work."