The Glitch

Prisoners of their own land

The sun was setting and we were looking for dinner. Sokka had gone off to try and find us some. While the rest of us sat around and waited. Katara was cleaning up our stuff taking care of the sleeping bags and whatnot, Aang was sitting himself down on a tree root and I had conjured up a cloud and laying down against it. Holding Momo in my arms.

And then Sokka came back with food, well nuts and maybe rocks that looked like they could've been nuts or vice versa. Which Momo hopped down from me and took from him trying to eat it. I'm sorry bud you probably don't want to eat that. I pet him. I'd offer you the candy ring but, I'm saving it for a special occasion. I cover my mouth giggling.

I wish I had some real nuts or berries for you. Not that you didn't give it the old college try Sokka. It's what I could find ok?! Now everyone dig in. When Momo tries to crack open the nut he strikes it against a rock and suddenly there's a shake from the ground that might has resembled a baby earthquake.

Which could probably only mean one thing.... Since we're still in the earth kingdom, those could be from earthbenders since I knew it wasn't my little lemur who was causing all that ground shaking. We run in the direction that it came from against Sokka's protests. We find a fallen tree and peek behind it watching a young boy practice his earthbending.

When Katara wants to just go over and say hello he gets scared and stops what he's doing and runs away using his powers to bend the boulders down to close off his exit. We decided that he must've been running towards some kind of village and that there might be a market and there would be food and that we wouldn't have to eat nuts.

I slung my satchel over my shoulder and had Momo jump inside and we were off. We strolled ourselves through the market until Katara saw the little boy run inside a building, and when he did it turns out this boy's name is Haru, and his mother had told him to start on his chores. That he was late for something, and then when we say something about seeing him use his bending, the shop windows and doors all close.

Moments later we're trying to act natural when a firebender tax collector comes by and says that the tax had doubled and that if he didn't get it that fire was hard to control sometimes and that sometimes accidents happen and they gave them what they wanted and he left. When they were gone Sokka had asked them how long they had been around, but to be honest the only words I heard I only needed to hear was that they had been there for 5 years, fire lord Ozai nd mining ships.

T: Oh no, Zuko's dad! My old friend, I had frowned. This deeply saddens me, that I had been friends with all of them and now the only ones that ended up staying kind to me were his mother, and Iroh that I knew Zuko was trying to keep his promise not to hurt me when we would meet up, even though I never asked him too and Azula I knew would stop being my friend, and I knew Zuko and I would be friends again. That they were even allowed to be my friend from Ozai's skepticism.

And now it was disappointing that he seemed to be taking over a part of the earth kingdom. For the last 5 years. When her son says that the village people are cowards, and won't fight back and when Katara defends the boy about his bending that he could help them fight against them, but his mother said that he wasn't allowed to because it was forbidden but to Katara that was like telling her not to waterbend that it was apart of us.

And when we asked what could happen more that the fire nation hadn't done already but then it was reveled that her son could be taken away just like his father had been for using bending. When it got real late her son told us that his mother said we could stay the night but that we should be gone by morning. Katara, Haru and I took a walk in the woods.

Haru told us about his father and how Katara's courage reminded him of his father. That it was hard for him not to be able to bend since it was the only way he felt connected to his father. Katara showed him the necklace that she had left from her mother but it's not enough she told him that she lost her mom to the fire nation. I started playing with a bracelet, and frowned looking at it, with a small sad smile.

What's that? Haru asked me. Yeah, you haven't showed that to us yet. Katara asked me. It's what I have left of an old friend, back when he was still my friend, I lost him to the fire nation too, part of him anyways. For now he's trapped in their world, but I know he'll rise up again and that he'll come back. He made it for me himself one of the last days we were together.

There are 16 of them on there, there's 4 of each color representing each of the elements. He was somehow able to bend not with his bending but with his hands, some old piece of metal, with fire and coals and they used to be little rocks but he was able to somehow put a hole through each side of them and we used to take flowers and crush them up into paint, he painted them with each of the different colors that represented each of the elements, and then he had put them into the coals and I guess someone the paint stayed and now they're like beads, I made him one too, we had agreed originally to give them to each other on each others birthdays, but this was before I left, and we didn't know when we would see each other next or if we would, so before I left we exchanged them.

I smiled but tears clouded my vision. I miss that part of him, I whisper wiping my tears away. But even if he's not here I know that those we have lost in the past are always with us in our hearts. We hear someone call for help, an old man calling for help he had been crushed under rocks and I wasn't sure if I wanted to revel myself as one of the avatars, or there would be trouble whether that meant Ozai or Zuko.

Either way we had fire nation trouble if they knew we were here, but he was too stuck so we made Haru use his powers to help the old man even though he was scared. But we inspired him to use his powers. And then we got back to the barn. We told Sokka all about what happened and he said he wanted to be gone by morning, by like the crack of dawn.

What? Can't we sleep in for once? Katara asks. No, because fire nation have taken over and they find out Aang and Farrah are here we'll be eating fireballs for breakfast. I'd rather fireballs than nuts. Katara tells him. Sarcastically might I add. But she still meant it, we didn't want to eat nuts.

We go to bed, as I roll my sleeve down for the night, too tired to process whether or not it was still there but I was sure it was it always is. But in the dead of the night the fire troops came and kidnapped Haru cause the old man turned him in. This is what we found out while Katara and I went to go fetch water and found his mother crying. We rushed to barn to wake up the others to tell them what happened but Sokka was convince that he was already long gone.

But I got tears in my eyes. As I clutched my fist as tears dripped down my face, and Katara was almost if not as much emotional as I was cause we knew it was our fault since we made him do it and that we wouldn't need to track him because we were going in after him.

How are you gonna do that? We can't earthbend Aang asked me. But we can airbend, and this is MY fault. I'm the original avatar and we're supposed to bring hope and freedom and good things to the world but we, I got a child kidnapped for using his special gift. By people that I grew up with and used to be friends with in my spirit form.

It will be easy, we've got rocks and I have airbending. We just make sure the troops see us levitating these rocks to make them think that we're earthbenders. When we set it up at first the guys thought we were crazy but then they saw what we were doing and thought it would definitely work, that we looked pretty convincing.

Ok, Farrah are you ready? As I'll ever be. We're gonna get in get the kid get out and maybe since we know his dad is in there that if there's hope they don't like kill them at some point while they're there that we find the dad and bring the whole family back together again cause that's part of what being an avatar is all about, even if I'm not the one that's supposed to save the world.

And Aang you're gonna help me since I can't do it by myself. From the vents throughout the mines. When the troops come around we'll use our bending to make it look like that Katara and I are earthbending. You know our cue right? Sure, sure I got it but can we stop going over it you're taking all the fun out of it. He tells Sokka. Being captured by the ruthless fire nation is fun he questions?!

Exactly that kind of fun stuff. Aang agrees with him. Especially if you're Farrah Aang replies. Oh shut up. Now here they come everyone get into your places. We had this plan to act like Sokka was just meeting us and that we were gonna get into a fight but then Aang missed his cue and Katara empathized her words as she got louder this time and then the guards thought at first it was Momo who was earthbending but then Sokka made it clear it was us and that when they began to take us away he said we had 12 hours and that we would be right behind them.

We got escorted into the truck thing that would take us to the prison so that we could further our plan. They are behind us until we get on a boat and travel out into the ocean to reach the prison hold. And the others are now on Appa flying after us. Katara and I have tattered brown disguises on covering our other clothes, as they bring us inside.

The warden at the prison tells us that are new here not to think of this as a prison and him as a warden but that we are his guests and that he is humble and caring, that is until someone coughs and he shoots fire at the guys leg saying he was being rude and interrupting him. Then he comes directly to Katara and I and makes sure that we hear him loud and clear while giving us his commands.

As we are taken on a tour around the prison we are reminded that there is no rock anywhere near us that everything is entirely made of metal and that escape is basically impossible. Once we are in the courtyard we find Haru and his father right away and ask him about his escape plan. He tells Katara and I that there is none that he hopes that someday they can wait out this war and hope to maybe make it back to their homes and their families.

But Katara isn't having any of that she starts making a speech about courage and fighting against them, that sure they had their power to earthbend taken away from them but that didn't mean that they couldn't fight back. And that they should start fighting back and that the avatar, both the real one and the glitch had returned and that they could help them free them, but all she gets is silence.

But while they are all here as prisoners who have lost the courage to fight, when the guys come when our time is up we tell them we're not leaving because we can't give up on them. That that's another part of what it means to be an avatar. There are lots of things that are part of being an avatar and other parts that are part of being a good avatar proving that someday we would save the world.

There are guards everywhere with spot lights and Sokka wants to get out of there before we all get captured but Katara and I weren't leaving and Aang thought we were right that we were doing the right thing. Sokka hated when Katara got like this and now we were all trying to hide before being spotted and when Aang told Appa to hide he flew into the skies and some guards saw Appa and told the warden, and after getting angry at the fool who didn't know the difference between a buffalo or a bison got thrown overboard into the water below.

Only problem was is that when he wanted to search the place probably for the avatar/an airbender because of Appa that he had just thrown the captain overboard. Which was bad. So.... So, now anyone who the warden hadn't tossed overboard was to be woken up and they were gonna search the prison.

The rest of us were somehow hiding sneakily away. We had to come up with a plan, but we wanted a plan that involved making the earthbenders help themselves and get their courage back, but we thought that it was all just metal, but Aang helped us point out that there was smoke so they were burning something. Something like coal which is rock.

We were running out of time now that it was almost dawn but we had a plan, Aang and I had sealed off the air vents except one where they coal would go, Sokka and Katara had guards chasing them soon, and then Haru's father Tyro tells us that it's pointless and useless that we couldn't win this fight, and the warden scolded Katara warning her if she didn't back down she would be killed where she stood.

And then a vent opened up with us inside where all the coal was piled and Aang and I and even Momo were covered in soot. And now with the rock the earthbenders had something they could use to defend themselves and start fighting back again, to help gain them courage. At first her words of courage don't seem to work but Haru is the one brave earthbender that bends the first coal piece and after a long battle, the warden is falling into the ocean saying he can't swim which sucks to be him, and we free everyone and get onto the boats and sail back to the main land.

Haru and his father come up to Katara and I thanking us for helping them. But we think all we did was give them coal, when we get them home they ask us to come with them, but our mission is to go to North Pole with Aang and Farrah. Momo jumps to my shoulder, as I pet him. That's him isn't it, and you.... He turns to me, you guys are the avatars aren't you? No, well Aang is, I'm just a glitch avatar.

Haru shakes his head.... That would imply that there is something wrong with you, but there isn't a single thing, you and Katara brought my father back, I just wish there was someway.... We know Katara puts her hand to her neck as I hold my hands out to the boy kneeling down to him.... As we feel that our oh so special jewelry isn't there. My necklace it's gone! Katara panics. And, and my bracelet. I *sigh* as I turn away as a single tear slides down my face.

A ways a way Zuko has approached, hidden between the left over the debris lay Katara's necklace and my bracelet and Zuko picks them both up in his hands. He knew we must had been close he knew we had been there and couldn't be far. She was here, he clutches the bracelet as he lets out a *sigh* lowering his head a single tear also leaving his eye as he gently clasps it into his hand.

He holds the hand with the bracelet in his hand to his chest, closing his eyes, taking a deep breath. Turning away, grunting softly in pain. He puts the necklace in one pocket, and the bracelet onto his wrist. Somehow he knows exactly whose bracelet is whose as he rolls down his sleeve to hide them both now back up.