Chapter 1: The Coming Storm

Hey guys! Welcome to my new story "Stormborn"! It's going to be my first action-based story and is going to be a little different than the ones I've written so far. In this AU, Aang was never raised by the Air Nomad way of thinking, so there will be lots of violence and killing done by him throughout the story, just so you guys know. I should also mention that Aang's primary weapon is going to be a lot like the hidden blade from Assassin's Creed and will wear a hood when out on missions, but otherwise will not include anything else from that, so I'm not calling it a crossover. Also, in this story, there are benders, but there is no Avatar or reincarnation cycle. The Stormborn people are basically all Avatars, as in they can bend all elements and were stronger than the other benders, but they were a whole people instead of just one Avatar. Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoy!

Ages: Aang: 24 Katara: 23 Sokka: 25 Suki: 25

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

It was a cool, crisp night in the city of New Ozai; Or as it was more commonly known, the city of a Thousand Lies. Two guards stood watch outside of a gigantic warehouse behind them, enjoying the fresh autumn breeze blowing softly through their hair. They had recently been hired for a job that they could not refuse. "Can you believe it Paul?" the first guard asked the other excitedly. "We're getting paid thirty bucks an hour to just stand out here all night while they do whatever it is they do in there. I almost feel bad for taking their money."

"Trust me Jack, you don't want to know what they do in there," the other guard told him. "It's not pretty."

Jack's curiosity peaked. "Oh, you've been in there before?" Paul nodded. "What goes on in there? I mean, I know I hear screams sometimes, but-"

"But nothing," Paul interrupted him. "We're not supposed to know what goes on in there. The only reason I know is because there was a security breach a couple weeks ago that required everyone on hand to help with it. There's some pretty messed up stuff going on in there, so I wouldn't think about it too much."

Jack looked like he wanted to argue, but he eventually let it drop with a sigh, "Okay, if you say so." He looked around at the sky before him and noticed some dark clouds coming ahead. "Looks like we're going to get some rain soon."

"What?" the other guard asked. He looked up into the sky and saw the dark clouds approaching and gasped.

"What's going on?" Jack questioned. "Is someone afraid of thunderstorms?" he teased.

The guard was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "No, not of thunderstorms, but of what their presence in this city usually means."

Jack raised a brow and leaned back against the wall. "What do you mean? Thunderstorms happen all the time here."

"Yeah," he agreed. "They do, but not naturally."

Jack looked at him as if he was crazy. "What do you mean 'not naturally'? Last time I checked, no one could create a storm."

"That's where you're wrong," Paul shook his head. "Thousands of years ago, there used to be these people called The Stormborn."

"The Stormborn?" Jack asked sarcastically. "What exactly did these 'Stormborn' people do? Send rain to helpless villages? Make some loud thunder to annoy their neighbors?"

Paul chuckled lowly, "No, more like summoned tsunamis and hurricanes to fight for them." Jack's eyes widened in surprise, but kept his mouth closed. "Legends say that these people had the power to control the clouds and the ability to control the winds and the waves. Some even say that they could use lightning to their will."

Jack scoffed, "Please. There's no way any of that's real. Legends are legends for a reason. They're made up, make-believe."

"If only," Paul said wistfully. "I guess you'll see eventually."

"I'll see what eventually?" Jack asked slowly.

Paul didn't say anything for a moment. "What a lot of people don't know about the Stormborn is that there's one left."

"Yeah right," Jack waved him off. "Those are just legends."

"But they're not," Paul argued. "I've seen security tapes from another facility where the Stormborn attacked. It was a massacre," he shuddered. "No survivors."

Jack just rolled his eyes. "Okay, whatever you say, man. If you want to believe in stupid legends, go ahead." The dark rain clouds were now above them, crackling with energy as the thunder rolled. "See? Nothing to worry about. It's just a-" The lights went out before he could finish his statement, making him get a little nervous. "Um, Paul?" There was no response. "Paul?" he asked more nervously. Still nothing. He heard a footstep from behind him and turned around with his gun out, but saw nothing. He let out a sigh of relief just as a large knife appeared from his chest and a hand came over his mouth, stifling his scream.

"For what it's worth," a low voice whispered to him, "I'm sorry." The knife slowly pulled out of his body until Jack dropped to the ground dead at the stranger's feet. The attacker looked down in pity at the recently deceased man. "I'm sorry to have to waste your life, but my work is too important to allow liabilities," he spoke softly as he looked down at the body. "May you find peace." And with that, he stepped back and took a good look at the building in the light of the full moon. This building is well protected, he thought as he surveyed it. Looking for any kind of entrance, he noticed an open window on the third floor. Perfect. He wiped off the blood on his blade and couldn't help but admire it. It had been of his own invention: A retractable knife that was placed on the inside of his sleeve, making it nearly invisible to the human eye, and the perfect concealed weapon for close-quarters combat. Now's not the time for admiring my handywork, he chided himself. I've got a corrupt official to kill. He took a deep breath and started running to the window. Just as he was about to run into the wall, he guided the air around him to boost him up onto the window ledge, hanging onto it before he went inside to survey the room. Two guards and one of them's asleep. This'll be too easy. Slowly pulling himself up into the room, he crouched down and moved noiselessly to the awake guard who was sitting in a chair watching the entrance. He quickly stabbed him and covered his mouth as a small scream was muffled into his hand and soon fell limp. Aang took the computer chair the guard was sitting in and moved it over to a dark corner of the room, making it nearly impossible to tell that he was dead. Once he was sure that no one would be able to tell, he creeped over to the sleeping guard and made him go into an endless slumber as well, quickly covering the body with blankets before he got back to work.

The room ahead of him was completely out of place for a warehouse. It was designed beautifully with expensive looking furniture and artwork on each wall and polished marble floors, giving it the appearance of a vacation home. The problem with it was that it was filled with guards, too many to take on without raising the alarm, so he would have to find a way around them. A large chandelier hung from the middle of the room, high enough that no one would notice him climbing it to get to the balcony on the other side of the room. "That'll do it," Aang whispered to himself. Checking to make sure there were no guards around him, he crept his way over to a wall that led to the center part of the room and looked around the corner, seeing a few guards laughing and playing poker. I need to find a way to distract them. An idea formed in his mind as he noticed a large expensive-looking vase sitting on a pedestal on the other side of the room where one guard stood watch. Perfect. Making a motion with his hand, the wind obeyed his command and knocked over the vase, startling all of the guards in the process. "Franky! You knocked over the vase! Do you know how much that was worth?!"

"No I didn't!" Aang assumed the guard who must be Franky argued. "It just fell!"

Another guard scoffed, "Yeah, right. You just so happen to be right next to it, and it magically falls on it's own?"

"But I-"

"Save it!" another one shouted. "You've broken too many things of the boss, Franky. Now you're going to pay." The group of guards grabbed Franky and dragged him outside of the room.

"Wait! I'm sorry! I promise, it won't happen again!" he cried out desperately.

"It's a little too late for 'sorry' Franky. The boss wants you to pay," the first guard informed him without much regret.

They dragged him out of the room and Aang let out a sigh of relief. "Sorry 'Franky', but you become a target when you work for an evil man," he whispered to himself. Seeing that the room was now clear, he dashed to the middle of the room and had the air carry him up to the chandelier and flipped over so that he was crouched on the outside of the chandelier. He took out the schematics of the warehouse he had acquired and looked at it closely, memorizing every last detail. "Okay, Zhao's office is down that hall," he pointed to straight across from him and put it back in his pocket. "You've betrayed the people you were supposed to protect for the last time. It's time to meet your end." Jumping quickly to the ledge in front of him, he checked to make sure there were no guards and pulled himself up. As he crept down the hall, he noticed prisoners being held in cells. Some looked like they were beaten and others looked like they were starved. One stood out from the rest: a beautiful caramel colored young girl sitting in a corner with a defiant expression on her face. I need to know what's going on here, he thought. She may be the only one who's not scared enough to tell me... But what about the mission? An internal battle raged through his mind until the girl looked up and noticed him, staring deeply into his eyes curiously. He put up a finger to silence her and moved over to her cell while she came closer against her better judgement. "What's going on here? Why are these people being held captive?" Aang whispered.

She didn't say anything for a moment and took in everything about the stranger. He wore a white t-shirt underneath a leather jacket with a black hood on it which obscured his face along with a pair of jeans and a pair of worn out sneakers. For some reason he also wore dark leather gloves on his hands, despite it being just barely out of August. Muscles bulged from his clothes as if they were trying to escape their confines, causing her jaw to drop and a little drool to escape her mouth. "Hello?" Her eyes snapped back up to his face and she got a better look at him. He had pale white skin and black hair covering his beautiful dark gray eyes; not to mention that he was very good-looking. "Hello?" he repeated worriedly. "Are you alright?"

Finally snapping out of her daze, she nodded. "Yeah, I'm just a little out of it since they've been starving us," she half-lied.

"So what's going on here?" Aang asked again.

"Who are you?" she countered. "How do I know that you're not one of the guards trying to get me in trouble?"

Aang grinned, "Trust me, I'm not with the mayor. Let's just say I've got some… business to settle with him."

Her curiosity peaked. "Really?" He nodded. "Well, what are you going to do?"

"I don't have time to explain," he said quickly while checking to make sure there were no guards. "Can you please just tell me what's going on here? Who are all these people?"

The dark-skinned beauty was silent for a moment before she finally gave in. "Everyone here are benders. The mayor here has been rounding up different benders from the city for some reason," she explained. "They starve or beat us into submission until we agree to do certain tests that they ask of us. From what I've seen, they're not pleasant. People who do the tests usually come back looking worse than before, but I have no idea what the tests are. All I know is that they're working on something big."

"Thank you," he told her gratefully. "How long have you been here?"

"Two weeks," she grumbled with a roll of her eyes. "They've tried beating me and starving me, but I won't do their stupid tests. They'll have to kill me first."

Aang reached inside the bar and squeezed her hand reassuringly, making her blush at the sudden contact. "Don't worry. Once I've… taken care of Zhao, I'm going to get you all out of here."

She quirked an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Of course," he chuckled. "There's no way I'm going to leave you all here. Just do me a favor and don't tell any guards about me until I get back, then I'll get you all out of this horrible place."

A small smile crept over her face. "You know, for a complete stranger you're really nice."

He smiled back and squeezed her hand again. "Well thanks, I try to be." A dark look shadowed his face. "But for people like Zhao… that's a different story."

Katara nodded in understanding, "Good luck."

He smiled again and got back to work, leaving her alone with her thoughts. The rest of the hallway was packed with prisoners, some looking like they were just barely alive. It angered him greatly to see people being treated like animals; locked in cages and being fed only just enough for them to survive. You're going to pay for this Zhao, Aang thought darkly. He finally reached the end of the hallway at the door. No guards? Either he's not here or he's become arrogant. It doesn't matter. One way or another, Death will claim him today. The door creaked slightly as he walked in and surveyed the room. A small light was on at the other end of the room, barely illuminating a man sitting at a desk who appeared to be busy filling out paperwork. Aang closed the door softly and put a chair up against it, ensuring that there would be no reinforcements coming to help the now isolated mayor. "So, you've finally come to claim my life have you?" The Stormborn whipped around to look directly at his target. "Well, it's taken you quite some time. What took you so long?" Zhao taunted him with a smirk as he stood up from his chair.

"Oh, you know..." Aang started nonchalantly as he showed off his blade, "Just been busy taking out other people like you who want to cause harm to the city. Nothing new."

Zhao sneered, "Oh really? Other people like me? You wouldn't happen to mean my associates who have been dying left and right, would you?"

Aang pretended to think about it for a moment. "Hmmm, possibly. They were just as cowardly and corrupt as you, so I would say yeah, probably. So," he flexed his blade again. "How do you want to play this? Surrender and die quickly or fight and draw it out longer?"

"I think I'll stick with living, thank you," Zhao chuckled darkly. "Gentlemen?" A group of soldiers came out of the shadows, all armed with assault rifles and heavy combat armor. "You see Stormborn, my boss has grown tired of your meddling in our affairs. He's decided that you need to be put down like the dog you are. Any last words before you meet your end?"

"Of course," Aang smirked and looked each guard in the face. "I just want to say… I'm sorry," he said, catching everyone in the room by surprise until he continued, "I'm sorry that there will be no survivors when I'm done." The small light quickly went out, making the room completely dark.

"Open fire men!" Zhao commanded. The guards let it all loose, spraying everywhere in front of them until they ran out. They waited in silence to make sure that their work was done, but heard nothing as the minutes passed.

One soldier spoke up, "It looks like the target has been taken care of sir. We will-" but was silenced before he could finish his sentence. A muffled scream could be heard from another point of the room and another and another until there was nothing but complete silence.

"Soldiers!" Zhao yelled, "Are any of you still alive?" There was no response. "Shit, shit." He took out his desert eagle and held it out in front of him despite not being able to see anything in the room."Stay away from me Stormborn! What we do is none of your business!"

"But it is," a voice whispered behind him as he felt a hand press against his back. "When you mess with my city, when you put innocent people in danger, when you starve and beat them for 'tests'... that's completely my business. Because I will never sit back and watch people suffer when I know that I can do something about it. Any last words?"

Zhao growled, "Damn you Stormborn! Damn you and your fallen people! May you rot in-" Aang finally had enough and put the knife in his back straight through to his heart, shutting him up instantly. He retracted the knife as Zhao slowly fell to the ground, trying desperately to hold on to what little life he had. "You may have taken me out, but you will not get to my boss. He is untouchable."

Aang crouched down and looked him in his slowly dimming eyes. "No one is truly untouchable, Zhao, as you now know. What I do is for the good of the people instead of the good of myself. Can your 'boss' say the same?" Zhao could not answer as he was now dead. "Even if you were my enemy, I hope that you find peace in death," he told the unmoving body. Shaking his head at the dead mayor, he lit one hand on fire and rifled through his clothes and found a letter with the seal of the Agnis', the richest family in the city. Opening it slowly he read aloud, "Mr. Zhao, I would like to thank you for your help in our plans. Your work is very important and will no doubt help us succeed in our goals. Thank you for your efforts and all you have done for our family. We will remember it always. Sincerely, Azula Agni." He put the letter in his pocket and hummed thoughtfully. "So the Agnis' are involved in this, huh? This could prove harder than I thought." Turning back to the light, he turned it back on and looked around the room. "There's got to be something else here that says what they're up to." A stack of papers laid on the desk that Zhao had been working on. Curious, Aang looked through them until he found one that took his interest. "Another warehouse in the North? I'll have to look into that." He folded up the paper and put it in his pocket. Making sure that there was nothing else of help to him, he turned around and removed the chair from the door before taking one last look at Zhao. "And to think, I thought that you would be a good mayor," he shook his head at him. "Was I wrong or what?" Finally having enough, he walked out the door and noticed two guards standing at the end of the hallway.

"Stormborn, come in Stormborn," a voice said on his earpiece.

"What's up, Teo?" he asked his friend quietly as he hid around the corner of a wall.

"Just checking in to see how the mission's going," Teo responded. "Is the bastard dead yet?"

Aang frowned. "Hey, I know that the guy made bad decisions, but he was still human and deserves some level of respect."

Teo didn't say anything for a moment. "Yeah, a human who tortured innocent people and abused his position as mayor for people who paid him enough money. Some human he was," he grumbled.

"I know Teo, but that doesn't mean we have to be lower than them," Aang reminded him. "Why should we stoop to their level when we work to help people and they work for themselves?" Teo was silent. "Good, I'm glad you agree. And in case you didn't figure it out, Zhao is dead."

"Good. It's about time!" Teo cheered. "So what's the plan now?"

"There are a bunch of captives in the warehouse who have been used for 'testing'. Now that Zhao's dead, I'm going to create a diversion and get them out of here," he explained.

"And then what?"

Aang smiled a little. "And then I'm going to destroy this place once and for all so no one will ever be tortured as these people have been."

"But Stormborn!" Teo protested. "If we destroy the building, you're only going to anger the people who are behind this even more than you already have!"

"That doesn't matter," Aang dismissed his worry. "What matters is making sure no one has to go through this ever again. Thank you for reminding me though, I found out who's behind all of this madness." Teo waited for him to tell him. "The Agni family were the ones paying off Zhao."

Teo gasped. "The richest family in the city?!"

Aang chuckled a little, "Yep, it looks like it. I found a letter from Azula Agni on his body after I finished him. It had the Agni family seal on it."

"Shit, shit, shit. This is not good," Teo mumbled.

"Relax Teo!" Aang whispered loudly. "One thing at a time. I need to get these people out of here."

"Okay, okay. Hey, have you tried out my new device for you yet?" he asked.

Aang raised a brow. "What new device? You haven't told me about any new inventions, Teo."

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," Teo apologized. "I added a new feature to your blade. Take a look at it." Aang did as he was instructed and noticed a lightning symbol on it that wasn't there before. "There should be a button on it that looks like a lightning bolt. It'll allow you to channel your lightning powers through it so that you can zap people with small bolts like an even more deadly gun. If you concentrate enough, it can even be silent."

He couldn't help but be impressed. "How did you think of that, Teo?"

"Well, one day I was watching you mess around with lightning and I thought "What if he could wield the lightning like a gun?" since you don't use guns," he explained. "Then I figured out that the metal in your blade can be used to concentrate your lightning if it's designed properly. When you press that button the blade will stay out and you can aim it like you would a gun. Once you concentrate on keeping the lightning around the blade, all of the energy will pool on the tip of your blade and will be waiting on its release. All you have to do at that point is aim and let it go. To make it be silent, focus for five seconds or more and it will be silent enough as long as there's no one within five feet of your target."

"Perfect," Aang grinned. "What would I do without you, Teo?"

"Oh, I'm sure you would be fine, just without so many gadgets to help you out. After all, how many people in the world can say that they are a Stormborn?"

Aang sighed. "Only one, unfortunately." A guard moved from his position to look at a painting twenty feet away. "Looks like I've got the perfect chance to test it out. I'll talk to you later Teo, I've got a factory to blow up." Teo's line went dead as he moved slowly behind the guard who had stayed. He took him out quickly and moved the body into a nearby supply closet. Going back to his original position, he activated the lightning feature on his blade and concentrated some lightning into it, staring in amazement as it traveled down to the sharp edge of his blade. "Wow, I really need to thank Teo more," he whispered to himself. He aimed the blade at the other guard and took a deep breath, counting to five until he let the barely restrained energy go. Fortunately for him, Teo's advice worked and the bolt was silent as it took out the second guard. "Awesome," Aang grinned as he looked at his blade in amazement. "You are definitely going to come in handy." He turned around and opened up the cells as he walked by until he reached the caramel colored girl's. "Alright, time to go," he told her as he cut her lock open with his blade and opened the door. She attempted to get up, but stumbled a little right into his arms where he caught her. They both looked into each others' eyes and blushed a little. "Um, are you okay?" he asked a little nervously.

She smiled weakly and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little woozy. I haven't gotten anything to eat in a couple of days."

He dug his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a granola bar. "Here, eat this. It should hold you over until we can get you home." The girl took it and took a bite quickly, savoring how good it tasted on her tongue. "Will that be enough to hold you over?"

"Yeah, it should be fine," she told him as she finished off the last of the bar. "Thank you."

"No problem," he smiled. "Now, I've got to free the rest of these people and figure out a way to destroy this place."

She spoke up, "If you're wanting to destroy this place, there are some pipes in the other part of the warehouse. If you can cut through them and let the water flood the place, it'll ruin all of the technology and probably do some structural damage."

Aang thought it over and realized she was right. "Okay, that sounds like a plan."

"Let me help you," she offered. "I'm a waterbender, I can help drain the pipes and get this place flooded."

He shook his head, "No, you're already weak from being beaten and starved. If you tried to fight, you might get seriously hurt. Besides, I need someone to help these people get out of here."

She looked like she wanted to argue, but she understood. "Fine," she sighed.

He put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to create a diversion so that you guys can get out of here. There's a hidden exit near the entrance. If you kick down the bookshelf there, it will reveal a tunnel that will lead you to main street. Do you think you could lead these people out there?" She nodded. "Good." He looked around and grabbed the radio from the fallen guard and switched it to a private channel as he handed it to her. "Once I've gotten the guards distracted, I'll radio you and tell you guys to go. Grab whatever weapons you can just in case some guards decide to stick around." She nodded again. He offered her a small smile. "Be careful out there, Miss. I'd hate to have to see such a pretty girl get hurt." They both blushed again but he quickly went back to freeing the rest of the prisoners and telling them the plan.

"Come on, people!" Katara called quietly as she ushered them to the door. "We'll wait here until he gives us the signal!" Aang slowly opened the door and started walking out until he heard Katara behind him, "Wait! What's your name?"

He looked over his shoulder and grinned. "You can call me 'Stormborn'." And with that, he took down the hallway, watching out for other guards as he looked for something to distract them from the soon-to-be fleeing prisoners. As he passed by a window, he saw a large tower being loaded with explosives. "That should do it," he smirked. Luckily for him, he noticed a large open window above him that he could use to access the roof. The air carried him up there as he got a better view of the tower. "Teo, come in Teo."

His earpiece buzzed. "Teo here. What's up Stormborn?"

"I need to take out this tower ahead of me to create a diversion for the prisoners who are being kept here," Aang explained. "Can you see if there are any entrances that won't alert any guards?"

"Sure thing. One sec," Teo responded. "Okay, put on those sunglasses I gave you a couple weeks ago."

Aang rolled his eyes, "Teo, it's night. I don't need sunglasses right now."

"They're not for blocking the sun, man. Just put them on," Teo complained.

"Fine," Aang sighed. He put them on and was surprised to see them zoomed in on a hatch on top of the tower. "Woah, nice going Teo! Smart glasses?"

He could hear Teo's grin in his voice. "Yep. Just another of my many amazing inventions," he boasted.

"I gotta hand it to you, this is impressive," Aang complimented him.

"More impressive than a feature in your blade that lets you use lightning like a gun?" Teo asked incredulously.

Aang laughed, "Okay, maybe not that impressive, but still very impressive."

"That's what I thought. Now, as you can see through your glasses, your best bet for getting in that tower is that hatch up on the roof." It zoomed in even closer and showed a soldier standing guard by it. "You're going to have to take that guy out before you can go in. If you're going to blow up the tower for your diversion, you're gonna want to set off one in the center so that it activates all of the other explosives in the tower."

"Got it. Are there any other obstacles that might come in my path?" he asked.

Teo scanned the tower and its surroundings. "Nope. Just watch out for the guards and you should be fine."

"Cool. Thanks Teo, I'll let you know once I'm done here," Aang told him.

"Good luck, Stormborn."

Aang moved over to the edge of the roof and looked at the distance between the roof and the tower. It was about twenty feet apart, but that wouldn't be a problem for him. He crouched down lowly and started collecting air beneath his feet. Once he was sure that he had enough, he jumped up and let the built up air launch him towards the tower. The cool breeze hit his face as he neared the tower, watching to make sure that the guard didn't see him coming. As he landed, the air slowed his descent and he landed silently behind a pipe. Fortunately, the guard heard nothing and was still in place. One guard for a roof entrance? Either they underestimate me, or they're cheap. Maybe even both, he thought. He slowly snuck up behind the guard and quickly took his life, watching the body fall before him with pity. With that taken care of, he walked over to the hatch and saw that it was fingerprint activated. "Really?" he groaned quietly. "How am I supposed to get a fingerprint for this without being discovered?" Then he remembered the ex-guard who laid dead a few feet away from him. Shaking his head at the situation he found himself in, he dragged the body over to the hatch and put one of the fingers on the scanner until it chirped and swung open. "Thanks, buddy," Aang said awkwardly as he let the body drop back to the ground. He jumped in and landed quietly as he looked around. "Hmmm. Maybe the glasses can tell me where the guards are. Glasses?"

"Yes, Stormborn?" a robotic female voice responded.

"Cool," Aang grinned. "Could you do a scan of the building and show me where all of the guards are?"

"Yes, Stormborn. Just one moment," it responded. "Thermal vision activated." Dozens of orange blobs came over his lenses.

"Awesome. Now I can see where they are before they can see me." Fortunately for him, there were no guards on his floor. He walked over to the railing of the floor and looked down right into the center of the tower. A large crate was laid in the center of the building, but was protected by many guards. "Maybe I can just send a flame down there and blow it up," he mused. Lighting his hand on fire, he aimed it down and shot a fireball at the explosives, taking a few guards by surprise as it set the box on fire and did nothing. "Well, that was disappointing," Aang frowned. His eyes widened in shock as the crate exploded below him, destroying half of the building and sending the rest listing forward. "Time to go!" He ran back over to the open hatch and jumped out just as the tower started leaning towards a smaller building. At the last second, he jumped and flew over to the warehouse, just barely grabbing a hold of the ledge as he watched the tower demolish the building next to it. He let out a sigh of relief and pulled himself back up on the roof. After taking a few calming breaths, he switched over to the private channel on his earpiece. "Miss?"

There was some static in his ear before a voice finally came over it. "Stormborn?"

"Yep, it's me," he told her. "I've taken out a tower on the other end of the warehouse. You guys are good to go for getting out of here. The guards are all scrambling to find out what happened." He watched as a majority of the guards were running to the remains of the tower. "Scratch that, they are en route to my little distraction. You should be fine, but be careful. They might have a couple of guards stay behind to make sure that no one escapes."

"Don't worry about us. We'll be fine," she assured him. "We found a gun locker in the hallway and are locked and loaded. We'll start heading out now."

"Good. Be careful out there, Miss," he said a little worriedly.

He could hear the smile in her voice. "We'll be fine, Stormborn. You just worry about yourself. You're the one who has to destroy a warehouse, after all."

Aang chuckled, "Oh, I'm not too worried. It's not the first warehouse I've destroyed and it won't be the last. I'll meet you on Main Street once this is all over. Good luck, Miss." He switched the channels and looked through the warehouse. "Glasses, show me where all the main water pipes are in the warehouse."

"The main pipes are located in a room near the back of the warehouse." The lenses showed live footage of guards running out of a small room, leaving the door wide open and revealing the pipes he was looking for.

"Perfect. Thank you… um," he paused. "I don't really want to keep calling you 'glasses'. What should I call you?"

"You can call me whatever you want, sir."

He thought about it for a moment. "How about I call you… Brooke?"

A beep sounded. "Brooke it is, sir. I will be available whenever you need me."

"Great, thank you Brooke," Aang smiled. "I have a feeling you're going to come in handy." With that settled, he took off his glasses and made his way to the other side of the warehouse with ease as most of the guards were occupied with trying to figure out what had happened to their explosives. After a few minutes of walking, he reached the room he was looking for and was surprised to find that it had already started flooding. Curious, he jumped down from the catwalk he was walking on and walked inside of the room to see…

"Miss?" he asked in surprise as he saw the beautiful girl he had rescued earlier pulling water out of the pipes. "What are you doing here? I thought you would be leading the other prisoners out of here."

She looked up from her bending and smiled at him. "Yeah, I was at first, but I got them out there quickly enough and now they're all going home. And I have nothing better to do, so I figured I would help you take care of this horrible place."

He quirked an eyebrow. "You call going back to your family or boyfriend who are probably incredibly worried about you 'nothing better to do'?"

"Um… I don't have a boyfriend," she said with a blush but didn't tear her eyes away from his. "And yeah, I can go see my family after I help you, but you helped me, so it's only fair."

"Miss-"

"Katara," she interrupted him.

"Katara," he corrected himself, "I'm sure that you're a strong warrior, but you've been hurt and starved for two weeks. I wanted you to go home so that you could get started on recovering from that. Besides, I don't do this for people to return favors for me, I do this to help people and nothing more."

Katara nodded. "I understand that and I appreciate your concern for me, but it's not like I'm fighting anyone right now," she pointed out. "I'll just help you get this place flooded and then we can get out of here."

Aang looked like he wanted to argue, but he found he couldn't resist those beautiful cerulean eyes. "Okay," he said reluctantly. "But if any guards come back, let me take care of them please. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Okay," she agreed with a smile. "Fair enough. Now, I've been trying to get this water out as quickly as possible, but I'm only one person. I should have brought another water bender with me," she cursed.

"Oh, you don't need another water bender," Aang assured her. "I can help you with that." Katara gave him a puzzled look, but he motioned for her to step back and she did. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and felt for all of the nearby water in the pipes. Water doesn't like to be restrained, it likes to be free. It needs to flow freely like it's supposed to. All it would take is a bit of encouragement to all of the water in the pipes to unleash on the warehouse. Once he was sure he could feel it all, he moved his arms backwards, causing the water to burst out of all of the pipes and at a far quicker rate than before. Katara gasped in amazement, but did not have a lot of time to think about it as the water in the room was rising rapidly. "Come on! The water will flood until it weakens the building and then I'll deliver the final blow." He took her hand and ran out of the room as the water had risen to half of the room. They waded quickly through the water that was quickly filling up the warehouse. It was going at such an alarming rate, if Aang wasn't fast enough, they would have gotten swept up in the currents. Before they knew it, they were at the entrance which was already flooded enough to where they wouldn't be able to get out that way. "Shit," he muttered to himself. He looked up and noticed an open window that they would both be able to fit in. With not much time left, he grabbed Katara and held her as she yelped and clung on to him. "Hold on tight!" Crouching down, he sprung forward and used the air to guide them up to the window safely until they reached the roof. Once he was sure they were on solid ground, he put her down and looked at her. "Are you okay?"

She didn't say anything for a moment, but broke out into a huge smile. "That was amazing!" she cheered excitedly.

"Good," he chuckled. "Because we're probably going to have to do it again soon." A large crash sound came from the other side of the warehouse as half of it toppled down. "Looks like it's sooner rather than later. Get on my back," he instructed quickly.

She did as she was told and jumped onto his back as he prepared for another jump. Another crash sounded behind her and she turned to see another part of the building collapse. "Um, not to rush you or anything, but we gotta go, Stormborn!" Aang nodded and took off running while Katara's arms were wrapped securely around his strong torso while her legs were wrapped around his waist. Just as it looked like he was going to run off of the roof, he jumped at the last second and catapulted them over several buildings until they landed on a building that wasn't anywhere near the wreckage that used to be a warehouse. As they landed softly, the last remains of the warehouse collapsed and were washed up in the tidal wave that was slowly coming towards them. "Um, Stormborn!" Katara yelled over the loudness of the restless waves. "It's still coming towards us!" He didn't respond as he got into a stance and took a deep breath. Opening his eyes, he motioned with his hands to stop the incoming wave from going any further and forced it back out into the lake that was behind where the warehouse used to be. When he was done, not one remnant of the warehouse or any of its guards remained, making it look like nothing had ever happened there in the first place. Katara looked at him in amazement. "How did you do that?"

"Long story," he told her weakly, having had most of his energy drained from that feat. "Now, how about we get you home?" Before she could say a word, he picked her up bridal-style and jumped from rooftop to rooftop. "Where do you live?" he yelled over the wind.

"I live on Kuruk Road!" she yelled back. "It'll be the only dark blue house on the block!" He smiled down at her in response and made his way quickly to her neighborhood, taking in the beautiful view of the night sky along the way. After a few minutes, they finally arrived at her house and he landed softly on her porch. Even though he knew that he should, he was reluctant to let the girl go. She was very pretty and one of the most fierce and brave women he had ever met. But he knew better. There was no point in getting attached to someone in his line of work unless you wanted heartbreak, and he had enough for a hundred lifetimes. As he finally set her down, she turned around and smiled at him. "Thank you so much for helping me. I honestly thought I was going to die in there," she admitted with a slight frown.

"It's no problem at all," he smiled back. "I'm more than happy to help those in need. Though I've got to say, if you had been given food and water, you probably could have gotten out on your own."

Her frown quickly returned to a smile again at his words. "Yeah, you're probably right," she agreed. "But still, thank you anyways." She kissed him on the cheek quickly before he could object.

"Um, no problem," he laughed nervously. "Well, if you're sure if you're okay, then I've got to get going."

"Oh? Do you have to?" she asked sadly. "You could come in and meet my family. They would love to meet you." She paused. "Well, except for my protective older brother. He might try to kill you."

Aang chuckled and shook his head. "As fun as that sounds, I've got some work to get done and I need to lay low for a while. A lot of people have it out for me in this city."

"Okay," she sighed sadly. "Maybe some other time?" she asked hopefully.

"We'll see, Miss Katara," he told her. "Have a good night." He started walking down the stairs before she called out to him. "Wait!"

He turned around and looked at her from underneath his hood. "Yes?"

"How will I be able to see you again?"

His heart fluttered a little, but he quickly shut it down. No attachments, he chided himself. Returning his attention to the beautiful girl, he looked her in the eyes and gave her a soft smile. "Oh, I'm sure you'll find me somehow. Until we meet again, Miss Katara." He gave her a quick bow and sped off down into the night without looking back, wondering if he really would ever see her again.