"I love flying on Appa as much as the next guy," Sokka said as they finally had set up camp for the night in a forest, they were all sitting around the fire that Harry had built. "But it's nice to be on ground. No offence, Appa." He added to the sky bison that was currently sleeping.
"Thank you again for directing us," Aang said to the guide that the general had provided for them.
"It is a pleasure, Avatar Aang," The man said, bowing respectfully.
"How far away are we from our destination?" Harry asked, sitting against a tree whilst examining his gauntlets.
"If we keep going on our current path without stopping after morning then it would be roughly two or three days away," The guide answered.
"We're making good time at least," Sokka said happily.
"Hmm, I'm going to go and check the perimeter," Harry grunted as he stood up and stretched his shoulders.
"Oh, I'll come with you," Katara said, standing up. "I could use a walk."
"Sure," Harry nodded before looking to the other three. "Stay alert, if I come back and find out that a Platypus-bear has eaten you three while you were sleeping then I'm going to be furious." He told them warningly.
"Right, if I am being eaten by a platypus-bear then my biggest worry will definitely be the fact that you're angry," Sokka said sarcastically.
"As well it should be," Harry nodded in a pleased manner before walking off with Katara following behind him.
"You don't think that there are any platypus-bears here, do you?" Katara asked, a couple of minutes later as the two walked through the dense forest.
"Nah, maybe a wolf-bear or a mole-bear though," Harry shrugged. "Either way, they should be able to handle it."
"Yeah," Katara agreed before letting out a small sigh. "I like walking here," She said with a smile, looking around at the trees and the night sky. "It's so peaceful."
"Until a wolf-bear attacks, yeah," Harry joked.
"I'm glad you're with us, Harry, " Katara said suddenly. "You've been so helpful, not just to Aang, but also to the rest of us."
"I'm just doing what I have to do," Harry shrugged.
"No, you're not," Katara disagreed. "You could've just stayed in the Fire Nation, you could've just ignored all of us and ran away. But you're here, helping us, like a hero."
"I'm not a hero," Harry said, shaking his head. He stopped walking when Katara stopped and grabbed his wrist, he looked at her and saw a small blush on her face.
"I think you are," She said, she took a moment to gather her courage before she forced herself to look up into his eyes and lean forward. She closed her eyes, pushed out her lips and reached to where Harry's lips should be.
Except she ended up feeling something that was not his lips.
Her eyes opened and she saw that Harry had placed his hand in-between her lips and his and he was staring blankly at her, the two remained frozen in place for several long seconds before Katara jumped back as if she had been burnt. She looked down, her face red, this time with embarrassment. So much so that Harry was somewhat worried that she would burst into flames.
"Well, this is a bit awkward, isn't it?" Harry said before taking in a deep breath.
"I'm sorry," Katara whispered, looking ready to run.
"Look Katara, you're a great girl," Harry spoke before she could say anything. "You're pretty, smart, talented, and a kind person. Any guy would be lucky to have you. But I am not looking to start a new relationship with anyone. You should try and find someone else, someone better. Now, come on, the guys will be waiting." Harry added before he turned and walked off, it didn't take him long to hear Katara's footsteps behind him. Though she certainly didn't make any effort to hurry up. After ten minutes or so of awkward, silent walking, they had eventually got back to camp.
"Find anything?" Sokka asked.
"Not really," Katara said shortly before she walked past them and into her tent, closing it up behind her.
"What was that about?" Aang whispered to Harry.
"Don't ask," Harry told him before heading over to his own tent.
Azula's eyes suddenly snapped open, looking around in the room she was staying in, she couldn't quite work out why she was suddenly feeling annoyed and why she was all of a sudden wanting to burn something. For some reason, she felt like it had something to do with Harry. She got up and stretched her muscles before heading to the bathroom, after her short trip there she changed her clothes and headed out to the top deck, intent on burning away her frustration and anger with some firebending training.
As she walked up, she reflected on what had happened the last few days. She had taken Zuko and her overweight uncle to get her two friends, Mai and Ty Lee. Getting Mai to join was the easiest part, the girl had literally been so bored that Azula could have probably offered her the opportunity to watch paint dry and she probably would have accepted. The fact that Azula had brought Zuko, Mai's crush, had probably helped matters. Ty Lee took some convincing since she had been happy staying in the circus but wasn't too hard to get to join, she just had to reveal that she wanted her help to get Harry back and Ty Lee, being the romantic that she was, quickly jumped at the opportunity to help repair her friends romantic relationship.
For Azula, it was quite necessary to bring the two for a couple of reasons. Firstly being that the two were more than proficient at fighting, despite not being fire-benders, Mai could throw anything with deadly accuracy, even able to hit a fly from across a room. As for Ty Lee, the girl might have a happy and cheerful personality, but she was no push over when it came to hand to hand combat. Her ability to block people's bending - 'Chi Blocking' as she would say - was going to be insanely helpful. Though an even bigger reason for bringing the two was their relationship with Harry.
Azula knew that Harry found Mai's general lack of enthusiasm and dry personality to be highly amusing, especially since he was very similar to that as well. As for Ty Lee, the girl had slowly got Harry to warm up to her. Though, those two were the only girls that Azula was really comfortable letting stay around Harry since they were the only two that she was sure wouldn't try anything. Still all of these people together should help her convince Harry to return.
"Well...this isn't good," Harry said, taking a deep breath.
The group had continued travelling to Omashu, there had been a silent tension between Katara and Harry, but nobody was stupid enough to comment on it. Eventually they had arrived outside of Omashu, only...it didn't really look like how they remembered it looking. A bold red flag bearing the Fire Nation insignia was proudly hung, grey plumes of smoke filled up the air surrounding the fallen city. There looked to be plenty of construction going on and they could see what looked like a statue being built, a statue which would obviously be dedicated for Fire Lord Ozai.
"I can't help but feel like the Fire Nation might have just possibly gotten here before us," Harry added in a dry voice.
"This isn't good," Aang said, letting out a deep breath.
"That's an understatement." Sokka agreed, running a hand through his face.
"I must inform the general," Their guide told them. "Are you capable of making the rest of the way on your own?" He asked hopefully.
"We should be fine," Katara nodded. "Thank you for your help."
"A pleasure," The guide said before turning and rushing away.
"So what now?" Sokka asked.
"We need to find Bumi," Aang declared, looking worried for his friend.
"Provided he didn't escape," Harry said, nodding his agreement. Bumi was a valuable asset and a good friend of Aang so Harry had no intention of letting the Fire Nation keep him. "We need to work out a way to get in."
"I know one that could work," Aang said with a small frown. "Unfortunately, it's in the sewers."
"Of course it is," Sokka huffed.
"Well, we got to try and find the resistance and coordinate our efforts with them," Harry said thoughtfully.
"What resistance?" Katara asked.
"It looks like the takeover is fairly new, so there's probably still going to be a resisting force." Sokka explained before Harry could.
"Exactly," Harry nodded. "So, the plan is to go into the sewers and find the resistance and if necessary we shall kick some Fire Nation butt. Agreed?"
"Agreed," The three chorused.
Following the plan, it wasn't long before the group did manage to find the resistance and where they were hiding out, unfortunately for the gang's noses, they were hiding out in the sewers. While talking with their leader, a man named Yung, Harry learnt that Omashu was now under the control of Governor Ukano, causing him to stiffen as he remembered exactly who that was, that was Mai's father, meaning it was entirely possible for Mai and her family to be here as well.
"What about Bumi?" Aang asked suddenly. "Where is he?"
"During the day the Fire Nation attacked, I asked him what he wanted to do," Yung began explaining. "And he looked me right in the eye, leaned closer and simply said 'I will do nothing'. That was right before he let himself get captured."
"He let himself get captured?" Harry repeated with a thoughtful frown on his face. "What's his plan?" He asked curiously.
"I don't know," Yung answered honestly. "Truth be told, I am not really sure if he even has one."
"Do you know where he is?" Aang asked hopefully
"You didn't see him?" Yung blinked. "He's being dangled in a metal box from a massive crane, how could you have missed him?"
"We came into the city through the sewers," Aang explained. "So we haven't really seen much of what it looks like up top."
"That's actually quite brilliant," Harry hummed. "High up and in metal, so he can't earthbend. More than good enough for the average earthbender."
"But Bumi's not really an average earthbender though, is he?" Aang asked.
"But either way, it doesn't matter now." Yung said. "There's only one true path to freedom available to us now, we must fight the Fire Nation."
"You'll be squashed like bugs," Harry stated bluntly. "You're outnumbered, outmatched and quite frankly you wouldn't survive if you did it."
"He could have phrased it better but he's right," Sokka nodded his agreement.
"Our freedom is worth dying for!" Yung said testily.
"You could leave Omashu, live to fight another day." Aang suggested. "Harry's right, you can't win, not now at least."
"You don't understand, they've taken our home! Fighting is our only option!" Yung insisted, looking around for support but not finding any from his people.
"I don't know..." One of them said in an unsure voice. "...The leaving idea is probably the best one we've heard in a while." Yung continued looking around, seeing more and more people agreeing.
"But...but there's thousands of people in the city," Yung pointed out. "How are we supposed to get them all out?"
"An emergency of some sort will work," Harry replied. "The Fire Nation won't want them in here if it'll harm them as well."
"Maybe a sickness or plague or something like that," Katara suggested.
"We can work with that," Sokka said. "We'll need to make people look sick and do a bit of decent acting, but if we get enough people to do it then the Fire Nation will probably throw everyone out themselves."
"Alright, we'll get everyone out and then we come back in and grab Bumi," Aang told the gang who all nodded in response.
"I can't believe that worked," Sokka admitted once they had gotten all the people out of Omashu and had set them up at a campsite, Aang had even managed to somehow find Bumi's pet during the evacuation.
"Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve," Harry shrugged.
"Um guys," Yung said, walking up to them. "We've got a bit of bad news," He confessed.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Well," Yung coughed. "I did a headcount earlier, and I doublechecked before you start asking,"
"Are we missing someone?" Sokka asked in a worried voice.
"Um...no, quite the opposite in fact." Yung said as one of his men came over to him and handed him a baby boy before leaving. "We've got one extra."
"Who is that?" Sokka blinked.
"We believe this to be the son of Fire Nation Governor Ukano," Yung confessed.
"Shit!" Harry blurted out, realising that they had just ended up unintentionally kidnapping Mai's younger brother.