Avatar: Macai's Journey

Chapter 34: Kanza Tow

Macai waits with his unit inside of the recently annexed fort. A Fire Nation captain named Jozo meets with Macai. Captain Jozo: "General Hamooni has ordered you to evacuate the area immediately. Our forces will be pulling out. Once you move to the nearest beachhead, take your fleet and leave. Ozai needs your unit elsewhere."

Macai: "Surely we can still do something here."

Jozo shakes his head, "The general said it isn't negotiable."

The captain departs and Macai huffs. Ronin: "We should leave the area since we will be on our own soon. The other Fire Nation forces are departing, and the enemies will know we are sitting ducks here."

Macai asks, "And give up on Kett?"

Ronin responds, "No, we won't give up on him. Let's just get out of here and take some heat off ourselves." Macai nods and evacuates his unit. Dade slowly emerges from the Prompt Adjudicator.

Dade: "What did I miss?"

Macai: "Kett."

Dade becomes uneasy, "Is he dead?!"

Macai: "I don't know, he disappeared."

Dade: "How?"

Ronin: "After we took the fort, our patrol team was ambushed. They took Kett, I tried my best. It was that girl Sada and a team of water warriors."

Macai: "They also had the warrior Ronu with them. He is a talented duelist."

Dade (to Macai): "Why didn't you stop them?"

Macai replies, "I wasn't there. I was in the fort while that happened. They were so fast. We weren't expecting them to use guerrilla warfare at the end of the mission. Usually, enemies are like the Sea Guerrillas where they use hit-and-run attacks the whole time. These water tribe forces switched it up on our patrol and scout forces after the battle was seemingly won."

Dade pouts. Ronin pats Dade on the back.

Rosh, Kanna, Samira, Arret, Basin, and the rest of Rosh's strike team arrive. Rosh and Kanna run to hug their friends. As she gets closer to Macai and Dade; Kanna stops in her tracks, "Hey wait a minute, where is Kett?"

Macai gets ready to open his mouth. Kanna puts her right index finger on her forehead, "Oh wait, don't tell me. He is hiding somewhere isn't he." No one responds. Kanna looks around then stops, "Ok seriously, where is that goofball?"

Macai: "We don't know."

Rosh inquires, "Did he wander off after the mission?"

Ronin murmurs, "Weeeell, not exactly."

Kanna smirks thinking it's a game, "Then what did he do?"

Macai takes a deep breath and Kanna raises her eyebrows as she views his reaction. Macai: "No... After we took down the enemy fort, we sent Kett and a few marines on a patrol. Just to make sure the area around us was clear while most of our team stayed in the fort to be ready to respond to anything." Kanna lowers her eyebrows, her heart starts sinking, and her eyes widen.

Macai: "A Water Tribe strike team hit his unit and he disappeared." Tears smoothly flow from Kanna's eyes. Kanna wipes her face and turns her head right. The teenage girl tries to compose herself but continues to weep. Dade awkwardly freezes and glances left to avoid looking at his sad friend. Dade huffs and steps a few feet away from the incident to gather himself.

Rosh realizes Dade is not mature enough to handle the situation. Rosh pats Kanna on the back and murmurs, "It's ok Kanna. We'll get through this as a team."

Kanna continues to cry but gradually calms herself. Rosh hugs her, "It's ok."

Macai kneels in front of Kanna, "Kanna, I promise you, we won't stop until we find him."