Double Bender

Part 14

I have to admit, sleeping while flying is one of the best feelings in the world. The wind rushing over you like a cool breath, the soft sounds of the world below you. The only problem is everyone else sleeps while flying too, even the guy who's supposed to be flying. So when I woke up, we were floating in a random river. At least, I thought it was a river. It was brown, sludgy, and it smelled horrible. "Where are we?" I asked as I sat up. "Airhead fell asleep while flying last night!" Said Geo angrily. "We have no idea where we are." Sokka pulled out a scroll with tons of writing on it. "I think we'll work this into our schedule somehow." I looked up and I saw a huge, frightful-looking factory and near that, a small, floating, quaint town. "Maybe we can stop there for supplies." Katara said. Sokka looked over his oh so important schedule and said, "I think we'll be able to work it in." We all rolled our eyes.
Aang flew Appa to a nearby cliff and covered him with moss. "See?" Said Aang. "Now you look like a little hill with horns." "Like that's logical at all." Geo muttered. We walked to the edge of the cliff and saw an old man with a red hat tying up a raft. He wore an orange vest, his chest was flat and his stomach was round and sunken. "Excuse me!" Katara called. "We're from the colonies. Can you give us a lift to that town?" "Colonials." The man said. "Sure! Hop on! My name is Dock." Dock gave us a lift to the floating town. "What happened here?" Katara asked Dock. "Well," Said Dock. "This place used to be a fishing town. But ever since that factory was built here, their pipes have been polluting the river. Killed all the fish and the water made everyone sick. But the factory workers took all our medicine and 'donated' it to the war." "That's terrible." Katara whispered. When we pulled into the town, we were all shocked with what we saw. There were no children running around or playing, everyone was sick or... I shuddered even though it was at least eighty degrees out. All these people, dying just because of the stupid Fire-Nation and their dumb war policies. "Do you think we could buy some food?" Sokka asked. "Sure thing!" Said Dock as he tied up the raft. "I'll get my brother, Xu. He runs the local store around here." If you can even call it a store. It was just a run down little stand made out of wood that wouldn't have been able to hold if you blew on it.
Dock went behind the stand, ducked, and emerged wearing a pointed red and yellow hat. It was the lamest disguise ever. "Hello there." He said. "My name is Xu." "No it isn't." Said Geo. "You're Dock. We just met you. All you did was put on a different hat and called yourself by a different name." Dock, uh, Xu ignored her and said, "So what can I do for you folks?" "What do you have in the way of food?" I asked. "Well, I gotta tell ya, not very much. See, ever since that factory moved in and started polluting our river-" Geo cut him off. "We know! You already told us. You are Dock, not Xu." "Dock's my brother. They call him Dock because he works at the docks. They call me Xu because I work at a store." "I don't get it." Said Aang. "Neither do I." Said Xu. He pulled out a crate full of repulsive seafood. "I have a special deal for you today." Xu said. "If you buy three fish, I'll throw in a clam for free." He put a plate of the disgusting things down on the table and I poked one of the clams. It was soft. It was a clam, for crying out loud. Clams are not supposed to be soft. Sludge oozed from the clam's mouth and I wanted to throw up. "We're good." Said Katara clutching her stomach. "We'll just take the fish." Xu wrapped up our fish in brown paper. Sokka picked up the package and said, "Mind telling your brother that we need a lift back to shore?" "Sure thing." Xu disappeared beneath the counter and emerged as Dock again. "Hey colonials. My brother said you needed a lift." Sokka handed the package to Katara and followed Dock. As we walked away, a little boy caught up with Katara and tugged her skirt. "Can you spare some food please?" He asked sadly. I turned around and walked to Katara and the little boy. Katara unwrapped the package and gave the little boy a fish. "I only wish I could do more," She whispered. I patted the boy on the head and he ran off to a little shack where a sick woman lay. I knew instantly that she was the boy's mother and she was dying. Katara and I shared glances. Something had to be done.
Katara and I were still in a rather melancholy mood when we got back to our camp. Sokka was still only concerned about his stupid schedule. "Our detour into town today has completely thrown off our schedule. We'll have to start finagling it." "Finagle away, O schedule master." Toph said sarcastically. "For starters," Said Sokka, "we'll have to start getting up at least forty-three minutes earlier." "FORTY-THREE MINUTES?!" Geo yelled. "Nuh-uh. No way." "Look," Said Sokka. "We only have three weeks to get to the Fire Lord in time for the invasion and the eclipse- which, by the way, only lasts for eight minutes- and we just wasted an entire day. So if we want to make up the time and stay on schedule, we'll have to get up earlier." "I'm not getting up early." Toph huffed. "Or," Said Sokka, "We could just cut out all our eating breaks." Sokka said. "What?" Said Aang. "No way!" Said Katara. "Forget it!" Toph and Geo said at the same time. Sokka got another idea. "How's this," He said. "From now on, we'll take eating brakes and potty-breaks at the same time." "Ew!" "Gross!" "Dis-GUST-ing!" We all said at the same time. "Hey," Said Sokka. "It might be gross but it's efficient. Either way, we're leaving first thing tomorrow morning." I glanced at Katara. We had other plans.
"Wake up." Katara whispered. I opened my eyes. "Time already?" I asked. She nodded. "Come on." I sat up and rubbed my eyes and groggily followed her to the shore. I looked over at the floating town in the distance and suddenly started to get cold feet. "Are you sure this is such a good idea?" I said. "It's better than letting those poor people die." She said somberly. Anything was better than letting those poor people die. Kissing Zuko was better than letting those people die. "Do you remember how to water-skim?" She asked me. I nodded. "Good." She said. We stepped into the water. I shuddered. The thick, disgusting water seeped over my bare feet and sloshed its way into my skin. Ugh. Katara made a face too. She shook off the gross seeping feeling and swung her arms forward then back, propelling herself forward. Well, I thought, can't help anyone just standing here awkwardly. I copied Katara's movement and I saw the town moving closer and closer. It was really sad, seeing everyone being hurt so much by the Fire-Nation's greed. How is it that one country could cause so much hurt and suffering? Almost all of them, each and every one are just a bunch of greedy, self-righteous pigs!
We made it to the town and wondered where to start. Moving quickly, Katara pulled a large basket out of her jacket and put it smack dab in the square. "They need food." She said, looking at my expression like I was going to object. "I'm not arguing." I said. "But still, Sokka's not gonna like that." "He'll never find out." She reassured. "Besides, that doesn't matter right now." I locked eyes with her and said, "Okay, I'll take the western half of the town and you take the eastern." She gave me a nod and ran off. Let's get started, I thought. I turned to the left and started walking. This is just a little crazy, I thought. I walked into the nearest house. I think I might be crazy, I thought. There were three children; two little boys and one small girl as well as a mother, all huddled together in one bed, if you can even call it that. I'm leaning towards crazy, I thought. I waved my hands forward and pulled water out of the pouch Katara lent me. And one by one, I healed them. I'm definitely crazy, I thought.
After finishing with as many people as I could, I made my way back to our hiding place and waited for Katara. She came back looking tired but still pleased with herself. "Oh good. You're still awake," She said. "So?" I asked sourly. I was in a bit of a bad mood seeing as I spent my whole night trying to heal people and I was exhausted either way. She pulled a thing of berries out of a pouch. "What are those for?" I asked. "Appa," She answered. My eyes widened. "Are you trying to kill him?!" I asked frantically. "Keep your voice down." She whispered. "No I'm not trying to kill him, are you crazy? This is just to buy us some time." She coaxed Appa into waking up and fed him several of the purple berries before coaxing him back to sleep. Then she shot me a look and said, "If anyone asks, we had nothing to do with it." "Agreed," I said.
The next morning, we were packing to leave when we noticed that Appa was lying on his side and groaning. "Aang," Said Katara, "I think Appa is sick." Sokka stood up. "What?!" He said, his voice cracking. "Appa's sick?! That's awful!" Toph wasn't moved. "Wow," She said sarcastically. "I had no idea you actually cared so much." "Of course I care!" Sokka said. "I might as well just throw our schedule away now!" We all gave him a death-glare. Realizing he had just made a prick-move, Sokka ran over to Appa and started stroking him. "And," He said. "I'm upset because my big, furry friend doesn't feel well."
Appa opened his mouth and his tongue drooped out. It was purple. "This can't be good." Said Aang. "Do you think you can heal him?" I asked Katara, trying super hard to be subtle. Katara looked at Appa and said, "It looks like he needs medicine." "Are you saying we have to go back to that town?" Geo asked. "Yes, if we want Appa to get better." Said Katara. "But we have to face that crazy hat guy again!" Geo complained. Aang shot her a look and Geo gave him a scowl.
Geo stayed behind because she volunteered to stay with Appa, by that I mean that she refused by all means to go back to that village. But the whole town was acting strange. Everyone was hanging some sort of decoration or running around happily. It's like the whole town changed over night, oh wait... Anyway, we walked up to the stand and Xu greeted us (we could tell it was Xu because he was wearing the yellow pointed hat). "Hey, Xu," Sokka greeted. "So what's with everyone today?" A dopey, bucktooth grin passed over Xu's face. "Ah," He said. "Something amazing happened last night. Food and healing were delivered to our people last night by a mysterious visitor; The Painted Lady." "The Painted who now?" Katara said confused. She obviously didn't know who the Painted Lady was and if she did, she was doing a great job hiding it. Xu placed a small statue on the counter of a woman wearing a ratty brown cloak over a thin brown dress. There were red markings all over her face and on her forehead was a yellow crescent moon turned horizontal. Her face was hidden by a translucent veil and on top of that was a large, circular hat that looked like it was made of straw. Her arms were outstretched as if to say, "It's alright, I'm here." Her eyes were closed but she had a sort of motherly expression about her. "The Painted Lady," Xu said. "She's part of our town's folklore. She said to be a river spirit who watches over our town in times of need. But I always thought she was a legend. Until now, that is." "See?" Said Sokka turning to Katara. "We don't need to help these people. They already have someone to help them." Katara looked at the ground guiltily. I could tell what she was thinking. It wasn't the Painted Lady who helped those people. I didn't know how to feel; relieved, sad, angry, or guilty. Relieved that Katara and I hadn't been revealed because we had some sort of scapegoat; sad that the people actually did need our help but we couldn't help them once we left; angry at Sokka for being so heartless, or guilty that we had raised these people's hopes for no good reason and that their situation was still a turn for the worst.
Sokka turned to Xu. "All we need is medicine for our sick friend." He explained. "Medicine?" Xu said. "Sorry, can't help you there. All our medicine goes to the factory. That's why we have so many sick people." The mixed feeling washed over me again. No medicine? And I thought things were bad in my town. Living in this place seemed like torture.
Katara looked at Sokka and said, "Looks like we need to stay another night so Appa can rest." Sokka shrugged and said, "I guess you're right. Hey Xu, got any more food to sell?" Xu grinned again and pulled out two fish, one in each hand. One of them looked normal but the other one had...two heads. "Two-headed or one-headed?" Xu asked. "Two-headed." Sokka answered quickly. "Ew!" We all said. "What?" Said Sokka. "You get more for your money that way." Those fish had been swimming in polluted water for too long. I felt like throwing up, for more reasons than one.
That night, I waited for Katara along the banks while she gave Appa some more purple berries. However, she seemed to be taking a little too long just to give an animal some berries. When she finally showed up, she looked...odd. There was a veil and a hat on her head and a tattered brow cloak around her shoulders. Red paint was spread across her face in the weirdest pattern. She was dressed like the Painted Lady. "You might have told me that we were playing dress up tonight." I said sarcastically with a little bit of annoyance. "Sorry," Katara said. "I just figured if we dressed like the Painted Lady, we won't get as many questions if we're discovered in the village." "Oh, I disagree." I said. "I'm sure they'll have loads of questions for us." Katara stood there for a moment, then said, "Well, here," as she tossed me a ratty brown robe, hat and veil identical to the one she was wearing. I put the clothes on over my dress as Katara pulled out a little bowl of red paint. "I'm sure we can make some time to-" I cut her off. "No way." I said. "I don't care if she's the Painted Lady or the MakeUp Lady or...whatever! I am not wearing that glop on my face."
That night was one of the most intense nights of my life. If I wasn't messing up a healing, I was being caught by a little kid who stayed up late because he wanted to meet the Painted Lady. By the time I got back, I was starving, exhausted, and extremely annoyed. I dreamed another dream of Zuko. Not a nightmare, not a pleasure dream, just a dream. We were sitting in a room, just talking. It was odd because if it were real life, I would have beaten the crap out of him. We were sitting at a table and just talking. "Why did you do it?" I asked. "I don't know." He said. He looked at the ground. "I still love you," He said shallowly. I huffed silently. "Oddly enough," I said, "I think I'm still in love with you too. It's odd because I should be hating your guts right now." Zuko looked at his hands. "I don't know why I left but I gotta tell you, it was the worst decision I ever made." I smiled a little bit. "Is the Fire-Nation nice?" I asked ominously. "It's okay." He said. "So, how's the Avatar?" He asked. "Alive," I said. "No thanks to you," It came more harshly than I had intended. "I thought we were being civilized today," I chuckled because he had just used the remark I had said to Toku a few moths ago. "I really miss you and I still love you." "I still love you." I said. "Do you know why?" He shook his head. "This is a dream." When I woke up, I didn't know if it was just a dream, or a vision. I didn't whether I was the only one who saw it, or if it was mutual.
The next morning, I mainly kept to myself about the dream. We went down to the village again and saw Dock at Xu's stand. We could tell it was Doc because of his red hat. "Hey Dock." Said Sokka. "Is Xu around?" "Let me check," Said Dock. He ducked under the counter and emerged wearing the yellow pointed hat. "Hey there," Xu said. "Back again, are ya?" "We need more food." Toph said. "Our friend is still sick and we can't leave until he's better." Xu pulled out a plate of clams that were oozing sludge. "I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe if you folks are lucky, the Painted Lady will come and heal your sick friend," Sokka was skeptical. "And maybe she'll cook us a midnight snack and we'll all have a sing-along." He said sarcastically, laced with a little bit of annoyance. "Yeah, maybe," Said Xu, completely unaware of Sokka's sarcasm. "You know," He continued, "last night she visited us again. Healed most of our sick folk." "Is that why the town is so festive?" Aang asked. I looked over my shoulder and saw several of the villagers erecting a large statue of the Painted Lady. "Yep," Said Xu. "It's all because of the Painted Lady," Katara shared his relief and happiness. "Can you believe how much an entire village can be affected by one lady... I mean spirit?" Sokka decided to be an idiot. "Well, I hope she returns every night. Otherwise, this town will go back to the way it was," Sokka suspected something. I was sure of it. "Why would you say that?" Katara said defensively as if Sokka had just insulted her. "Look how much better off these people are," "Yeah," Said Sokka. "For now. But without her, the people won't be able to fend for themselves. If she really wanted to help, she would blow up that factory with her spirit magic," I felt my face flushing. Blow up the factory? It was certainly a thought but it was a crazy thought. Imagine what would happen. What if we made the Fire-Nation people mad? Oh geez...what if we killed someone? I'd never live with myself if we killed someone. Sokka stupidly made a a noise that he thought sounded like spirit magic. Aang corrected him and the two of them started making ghost noises. Boys are idiots.
That night, Katara and I readied ourselves to go back to the village as the Painted Lady. She also insisted that I wear makeup. After some serious persuasion and a little bit of wrestling, I left with a face covered in paint and a temper that had run out. I floated over the water and started towards the village. First, I stopped at a community house that sheltered about ten people. I healed a coughing lady with a baby under her arms. Just for good measure, I healed the baby too. After I finished healing the sick people in the community house, I headed towards some of the other houses. Suddenly, I heard a terrible boom that still rattles in my ears today. I looked over in the distance just in time to see an explosion and then fire. The explosion came from the direction where the factory was. Someone blew up the factory! People came outside to see the commotion and then saw me. "It's the Painted Lady!" Someone called. People started to surround me. "Tell us what that was!" Someone commanded. A lady came up to me and said, "Please heal my baby," The people got closer and closer, demanding me to heal their sick or asking me what the explosion was. They were pushing me closer and closer to the edge of the dock. I looked behind me. It was either face the hundreds of people (Okay that's a slight exaggeration) or swim for it... I decided to go for a swim. I jumped into the water and swam for the camp. I didn't even care that my makeup washed off. I probably should have considered the fact the water was just pure brown sludge.
When I emerged, I looked like a half brown slime-monster. Sokka even said so. "Wait," Said Sokka. "Why were you in the water?" "Midnight swim," I said vacantly. Sokka looked at me skeptically. "Swimming in that water? Yeah right, have fun throwing up!"
Sokka seemed oddly peeved about something. "What's the matter Sokka?" I asked. "Katara's been sneaking out after dark." I froze. He found out? Did he find out that I went with her? "I'm sure," Geo said as she pulled a tiny sack out of Katara's bag, "that Katara had good reason to sneak out in the middle of the night and disobey her brother's orders. Besides," She pulled out a berry and popped it into her mouth. "We get to snoop in her bag and find food. Hey Toph, you gotta try these berries," She handed a couple of berries to Toph and the two of them feasted on the purple berries. Wait, berries? Purple berries. Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap CRAP! "DON'T EAT THOSE!" I shouted. They looked at me like I had water squirting out of my ears. "Why not?" Asked Toph. "Uh Toph?" Asked Geo. "What?" Asked Toph. To this day, it was the only time she ever sounded worried. "Your tongue..." Said Geo. Toph opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. "It's purple!" Geo said. "Wait a second...Geo, open your mouth!" I commanded. I knew Geo's tongue was purple but it would have been a bad idea if I didn't act concerned because then Sokka would have known something was up. Geo did as she was told (well that was a first). Her tongue was purple too. Geo went cross-eyed to try and get a look at her tongue. "My tongue is purple!" She screamed, even though it sounded like "Mah thung ith flufle!" "Wait a second," Sokka said. "You ate berries and now your tongue is purple. Are you feeling sick at all?" "Who are you? My mother?" Geo said. "Answer the darn question!" Sokka snapped. "No," Said Geo. "I don't feel sick, there, happy?" Sokka didn't answer her. He went over to Appa, who was no longer laying on his side. He suddenly snapped his fingers and said, "Appa's not sick! Katara's been telling us that just so we can stay here longer and she can pretend to be the Painted Lady!" I couldn't just stand there and let him chew out Katara like that, so I stepped in. "I'm sure she had a good reason..." My voice trailed. "You've been going with her!" "Um...well..." I said pathetically. "You're just as much of a liar as she is!" He yelled. "Don't talk to her like that!" Geo snapped. "Oh yeah?" Said Sokka. "Well what do you have to say about it?" Geo was shocked with how he was acting, I was too but I've seen people act worse. "You don't have the right to talk to either of us like that after all we've been through!" "All you've been through?!" Sokka yelled. "What about me?! I've been planning this for a month now and Tatiana and Katara just had to go and be saints and waste our time!" "You never think about anyone but yourself, you are so selfish!" Geo yelled. "Oh," Said Sokka sarcastically. "Is that what selfish means? I never knew!" They kept getting angrier and angrier and angrier. And I just stood there and watched. I watched Sokka call Geo childish names and I heard Geo say the foulest of swear words to Sokka. Then, over in the distance, Katara and Aang came back smiling and laughing. Sokka became even more steamed. Katara saw the look on his face and said, "Hi, Sokka. We were just out for a morning walk." "Oh really?" Said Sokka getting even more annoyed by the second. "A morning walk?" Sokka said. He reached into Katara's bag and pulled put the bowl of paint. "I know you're the Painted Lady and I know that Tatiana's involved in this-" "Hey!" I cut him off. Sokka spun around. "You, stay out of this!" He turned back to Katara. "And I know you've been lying about Appa being sick and that you've been feeding him purple-izing tongue berries!" Toph stuck out her now purple tongue and held up the bag of berries as evidence. "Katara, you and Tatiana put our whole mission in jeopardy. We're leaving right now! Wait, how long did you know about this?!" He said turning to Aang. "Hey, I just found out this morning." Aang shrugged. Sokka huffed. "Alright, everyone start packing! We're leaving!"
Suddenly, as we were packing to leave, we heard a buzzing sound, like an engine. We rushed to the side of the cliff. "What is it?" Toph said, looking in the wrong direction. We didn't answer. What we saw frightened us all; Three jet-ski's each holding at least two soldiers. "Fire-Nation soldiers." Aang said nervously. "What did you do?!" Sokka snapped at me and Katara. "I don't know." I said. "I was at the village this morning. I don't know what made them so mad," He looked at Katara. "I..." She said. "I kind of destroyed their factory." "You WHAT?!" Sokka screeched. "It was your idea!" Katara retorted. "I was joking!" Sokka said. "I also said to use spirit magic and made funny noises. Did you even think this through?! The army's gonna blame the villagers! They're probably headed there right now to get their revenge!" "Well what was I supposed to do?!" Katara yelled. "Leave!" Sokka said. "Do nothing!" I couldn't believe him! He was literally saying that we shouldn't care about other people and we should only care about ourselves, even if that someone else needs serious help. Katara said exactly what I was thinking. "No," She said. "I will never ever turn my back on people who need me." Sokka looked like he was going to explode. They both looked angry enough to tear a Fire-Nation ship in half. I couldn't take it any longer. "Stop fighting!" I yelled. They looked at me like I was crazy. "It doesn't matter what happened in the past! What matters is that those people need help! NOW! And standing here and arguing like a bunch of little kids is not going to help them at all! I'm with Katara. We need to help them no matter what. Sokka, if you want to just sit here and be a little kid about it, go right ahead. You were never any help anyway! All you did was stand there and make us look like idiots! But you were wrong, we aren't the idiots, you are! And if you want to make a big deal out of it, fine, see if I care." I meant to say see if we care. I didn't realize until a while after the argument that I was talking to Sokka but I was talking about Zuko.
I stood up and said, "I'm going to the village. And I'm gonna do whatever I can." I gave Katara the You coming or what? look. She nodded and followed me. But Sokka stopped us. He stood in front of Katara and she gave him a death glare. "I'm coming too," He said. "I thought you didn't want to help," Katara said sourly. "You're my sister," Sokka said. "You need me and I'll never turn my back on you." "You do have a heart!" Katara said. They hugged each other. They pulled away and Sokka said, "Tatiana, I'm sorry about everything I said. It was really inconsiderate and selfish, considering everything you've been through. And I'm just standing here thinking about our stupid schedule," I looked at the ground and tried not to cry. Man, I need to control my emotions. Breaking down whenever someone apologizes is pretty pitiful. I gathered myself and said, "We can do this mushy apology stuff later. Right now, there's a whole village of people who need our help."
We climbed down the mountain and Geo and I got ready to cross when Katara stopped us. "Why are we waiting?" I asked. "Yeah," said Geo. "I'm hyped up and ready to kick some Fire-Nation a-...booty." She corrected herself. "Wait just one minute," She took out the face paint and started making herself up. Then she put on the robe, the veil, and the hat and became the Painted Lady once again. "Now what?" I asked. Katara grinned. "Now?" She said. "Now we get creepy," Geo grinned. "This is gonna be fun,"
Katara and I worked up a fog, Geo and Toph started smashing rocks to make a spooky noise like someone big and angry was coming closer and closer, Sokka stood to the side for "support" (by that, I mean that he stood by and was completely useless but still acted like he was doing something), and Aang started blowing a bitter breeze. I couldn't really see from the distance, but I could tell that the soldiers were definitely starting to get creeped out. Then Aang nodded at me and Geo and dove into the water. "No way," snapped Geo. "You wanna go swimming in sludge, be my guest." I dove into the water and formed a bubble of clean water around myself and Aang so we wouldn't die of poisoning under the water. Anyway, we slowly made our way through the water, careful to make sure the soldiers didn't see us, and swam under the dock where the guards stood. Once we got to the dock, Katara started skidding over the water to the guards. "Do something!" an angry guard shouted. Just for good measure, I brought my arm up and bended a pile of sludge into the guard's face. "Now who's the sludge sucking bottom-feeder?" I whispered bitterly. Katara brought her arm up and a wave followed wherever her arm went, which was right into the side of a mountain...unfortunately for the soldiers, two of the jet-skis went with it. Suddenly, the general threw a ball of fire straight at Katara. Leaving no time to think twice, Aang blew it out of the way and sent Katara flying into the air on a column of wind. Then, I brought my fist into the water and sent a huge wave in motion, which demolished the dock on which the soldiers stood. The general sat floundering in the water as Katara floated over him. "Leave this village!" Katara and I spoke in unison just to add a bit of a spooky edge. "Leave and never come back!" The spineless woodworm of a general swam away from her, whimpering. As Sokka, Toph, and Geo joined us, Katara, Aang and I climbed onto the dock and the people applauded Katara. "Thank you, Painted Lady!" said the little boy we gave a fish to earlier. "My brothers and I owe you a lot," said Dock, coming up to Katara and grinning like a dork. Then his smile faded. "Wait a minute," He said. "I know you! You're not the Painted Lady, you're that colonial girl!" "Yeah," said the little boy. "You're the lady who gave me a fish." Aang and I stood next to Katara. "Hey!" said another villager. "I know her! She's the on who dove into the water when I asked her about the explosion!" "She swam away when I asked her to heal my baby!" "They're water-benders!" Another villager shouted. "How dare you act like our Painted Lady?!" Katara and I clung to each other in fear as the villagers started to surge foreword in anger. Then, oddly enough, Sokka jumped onto the dock. "Maybe they are water-benders," he said. "But they were just trying to help you! Because of them, that factory won't be polluting your river and the army is gone. You should be down on your knees thanking them!" Wow, he was actually defending us. He really did have a heart. "Sokka," said Katara. "It's okay." Then she turned to face the villagers. "I'm sure I speak for both me and Tatiana when I say we shouldn't have acted like something we weren't, we shouldn't have tricked you. But we felt like we had to do something. It doesn't matter if the Painted Lady is real or not. It doesn't matter because your problems are real and this river is real. You can't just wait around for someone to help you. You have to help yourselves." Little by little, the villagers' sour faces turned to smiles. Dock stood in front of the crowd and said, "She's right, but what should we do?" What they didn't know was that Toph had snuck into the crowd and was about to give the villagers an ingenious idea. "Maybe we can clean the river!" Toph said in a disguised voice. "Yeah!" Said Dock. "We can clean the river!" The crowd started to cheer Toph's idea. Dock came up to Katara and I and said, "Thank you. You know, you aren't so bad for water-benders." "You mind keeping that a secret?" Sokka asked cautiously. I was with him. It wasn't the best idea to have a whole village of people knowing that we weren't Fire-Nation. "No problem!" Dock said. "Keeping my mouth shut is personal speciality. My brother Xu however, woo! He's a blabbermouth!" I rolled my eyes. "So 'Dock,'" Geo said in air quotes. "You gonna help us clean?" "No ma'am." Dock said. "But my brother, Bushi, is. He loves cleaning rivers," He took off his red hat and put on straw cone hat...one that looked like the one Zuko wore when he found me. Uh, never mind. Where was I? Oh yeah, Dock switched hats and called himself Bushi. "Alrighty!" he said. "I'm Bushi! Let's get some river-cleaning done!" All of us were thoroughly confused. "Aha!" said Aang. "I knew it! You're the shop guy and the boat guy," Aang looked very proud of his discovery (which all of us already knew). "Oh you must be talking about my brothers, Dock and Xu," he said. Now Aang was more confused than the rest of us. "No," Aang protested. "I just saw you. You switched hats and called yourself by a different name." "You know who does that?" Bushi asked. "My brother Xu." His voice lowered to a whisper. "He's crazy." It was obvious that Dock had been drinking polluted sludge-water for far too long.
The river-cleaning wasn't all that hard, actually, it was kinda fun. I got to use both of my bending abilities; Like this; I would make a column of sludge-water, bring up my arms, and then pull them down again. Then the water (now clean) would go back into the river and the sludge would go into a bag. We were done by nightfall. Then came the best part. Toph and Geo made a fire pit and we dumped all the sludge into the pit. Then, Dock lit a match and threw it onto the pile. Who knew that industrial sludge was flammable?
That night at the campsite, everyone had gone to sleep. But I stayed up late looking up at the stars. There was Oma and Shu again, looking down on me. My hand absentmindedly wandered the my neck where my mother's ring was. A tiny tear trickled down my face. She's watching me, I thought. And Dad too. I knew she was. And she was proud of me too. This is what she wanted me to do; good. She wanted me to work for the better. The stars seemed close enough to touch, close enough to speak to. "Two lovers," I sang quietly. "Separated from one another," "Are you singing that awful 'Two Lovers' song?" Katara said. I blushed. "No," I said. "It's alright if you were. I just really hate that song. About a month ago, we had a run-in with a group of a few of the dumbest nomads in the world. They ruined the song for me," "Sorry," I muttered. "Why were you singing it anyway?" she asked. My hand wandered to the ring again. "My mother used to sing it to me. Every night, the same song, same story," I looked at the ground as those warm memories came flooding back. My mother's laugh, the one she used to use whenever I told a terrible joke but she still laughed. The annoying face my father made whenever I called him "Papi". I knew it never really annoyed him but he acted like it did because he knew his reactions made me laugh. I clutched the ring,trying to hold onto those memories as long as possible. But the memories slipped away just as quickly as my parents did. I opened my eyes and Katara was looking at me with the kind of look a sad rabbit-dog gives you when it's hungry. "I lost my mom too," Katara said, putting her hand in her pocket and pulling out her necklace. "It was a long time ago, I was only six," "I was only six when I lost my parents too," I said looking into the fire. Katara gave me a little smile. "At least we have each other, right?" She said. I brushed my cheeks and nodded. "C'mon." She said. "I need to wash this glop off my face, anyway." I followed her down to the river and got a drink as she washed her face in the now clean river. Suddenly, the water started to glow. Katara and I looked up in awe as we saw a glowing woman floating over the water. She was wearing a ratty brown robe over a brown dress. On her head rested a brown hat over a veil that hid a face with red markings on it. The Painted Lady. She looked at us and we looked at her. An illuminating smile passed onto her face. "Thank you," She said in a silky, warm voice. We smiled and nodded as she faded away. We got up and headed back to the campsite.

Okay, I know, they're really long and I really twist the plot, but that's the fun of fan fiction! You get to be yourself while hanging out with your favorite characters! Anyway, thanks for all the reads, I looked this morning and I saw I was up to about 93. :) Keep reading and vote and comment. Luvs u!