Avatar the last airbender: The Samurai

The Lake

Shinta wakes up and remembers he's still in a cell in a place called Lake Laogai, he had heard one of the Dai Li agents say.
"I wonder if the kids will ever find me...what am I saying they will, hopefully before my execution." He says to himself smiling when the cell door opens.
"So you haven't tried to escape yet, good." Long Feng says as he walks in with two Dai Li agents, one of them holding a Shamisen and one holding his old uniform when he was apart of the fire nation.
"I've decided to let you entertain your self before your death oh and since the clothing your wearing belongs to the king we found your old uniform." Long Feng says having the Dai Li agents lie both of the items down in front of Shinta.
"How did you-?" He began to say because he knew he had long since gotten ride of the uniform.
           "I have my ways so hand over the clothes you stole." Long Feng said.
           "I will just leave so I can change oh wait my hands are still chained." Shinta says glaring at him. Long Feng rolls his eyes and makes one of the Dai Li agents unchain him.
         "Thanks..." he says and rubs his bruised wrist as Long Feng leaves.
           "I really hate that guy." Shinta says and picks up his old uniform, he changes into it quickly and lays the clothing he stole at the door and sighs.
          "Well like he said I should entertain myself......good thing father taught me how to play." He says while sitting down and picking up the instrument.
(Now play the song)
     He begins to play an old song his father taught him when he was little, as the memories from all those years ago began to fill his mind from each strum of the instrument.
~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~
        "Now remember this shamisen is very old so be careful with it when I'm teaching you ok?"  His father tells him looking towards the small child.
         "Yes father." He answers as he begins to ghostly rub his fingers over the instrument.
         "Now I want you to play these six notes." His father instructs as he shows the boy, the child nods and does as he says but makes a few mistakes. The man laughs a bit as his son tries to do it again but fails.
          "Here I'll show you again." He says as he guides his sons hands over the strings.
          "I think I get it now father." The boy says after a few showings, he plays it again and gets it all correct.
        "Good job you learn pretty quickly maybe you'll be a famous shamisen player like your grandmother." The man says as he smiles down at the boy but he turns away quickly and begins coughing.
         "Father are you ok?" The boy asks reaching towards him.
          "No I'm fine something probably got in my throat." He answers. "Now let's continue learning this song." He guides the boys hands over the next few notes. An hour passes as the boy finally learns to play the song.
         "Now I shall teach you the haiku that goes a long with it, it's simple so repeat after me." The man says as the boy nods eagerly.
       " The weak night is dead.
           Collapsing water cries,
            A Death to a new life." He says slowly making sure the boy understood.
          "Uuummm father what is that haiku about?" The boy ask noticing how sad it sounded.
          "Well it was said that it was about the original moon spirit on how she had fallen in love with the spirit of fire, it is said that Yin and Yang are there children but since spirits as powerful as them are not supposed to be together so she died when they were born, one with the power of its mother the other with the power of  water." The man explains looking down at the boy and he begins to cry.
        "Why are you crying son?" He ask him.
         "It's-It's so unfair and sad." He answers wiping away tears. "Why can't spirits like them be together? Love is love right why was she punished with death?" He cries out looking towards his father with tears streaming down his face. His father pulls him into a hug.
         "Life isn't all fair bud." The man says trying to calm him down. "Not everyone can accept change there are traditions that will refuse to change, the leaders that lead us are apart of the old ways but  soon the new will change it." he pulls the boy onto his lap.
            "Well it's time for dinner, your mother cooked your favorite."The man smiles and picks him up as he walks to the dining room to enjoy some Tonkatsu.
~~~~~~~~~~Flashback over~~~~~~~~~~~
       As the song ends he feels a tear slide down his face, he wipes it away quickly as he wipes it away.
        "If he only taught me to fight I could've saved the others......" Shinta says as he lays the shamisen down next to him.
           "I hope they find me before I join Sunako." He says to himself.
~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The gang are putting up posters of Appa after confronting Joo Dee from trying to make them follow the city's rules. When Katara is putting up papers she hears a familiar voice call out her name.
"Hey Katara." She turns to see Jet standing there smirking.
"I think I could help you." He says when Katara glares at him and uses her water bending to knock him into an alley.
"Please Katara ok not here to fight." He says but she pins him against the wall with ice . The others run to where they heard the noise and see what Katara is doing.
       "Katara what are you doing?" Sokka ask until him and Aang recognize who is pinned against the wall.
         "It's Jet...he's back." She angrily says.
          "I've changed Katara I swear I know where there keeping Appa." He says using his hand showing one of the posters that Aang had dropped.
           He had taken them to an empty wear house but sadly it was empty with no sign of Appa until Toph had found some of his fur.
"It's Appa's......we missed him." Aang says looking down at the fur.
"I heard they were taking that thing to Whaletail island." The old sweeper man says.
             "Really then where is it?" Aang asked excitedly. Sokka pulls out his map quickly but when he finds it his smile drops.
           "Far...very far." He says with dread in his voice. The others gather around him and he points out to how far away it is and Katara points out how long it would take them to get there.
          "But we'll be flying back when we find him so let's get going." Aang says as they leave.
           "Finally we're leaving Ba Sing Se. Worst. City. Ever." Toph says excitedly. As there making there way down a street Spellerbee and Longshot notice Jet with them.
          "Jet!"Spellerbee shouts as Longshot and her run over to them.
           "We've looking for you everywhere." She says with relief in her voice. "What happened to you after you got taken away by the Dai Li?" She ask.
          "What are you talking about I've been living in the city peacefully." Jet answers with a bit of confusion and fear in his voice. Toph kneels down and touches the Earth.
          "I don't understand......there both telling the truth." She says with confusion.
           "That's impossible!" Katara points out until Sokka steps in.
           "It's not impossible. Toph can't tell who's lying because they both think there telling the truth. Jets been brainwashed!" Sokka points towards Jet.
          "What!? No! Stay away from me!" Jet begins to yell as they all close in one him dragging him away to get some real answers.
~~~~~~~~~~Timeskip~~~~~~~~~~~~~
          They make there way through the entrance to Lake Laogai after jogging Jets real memories.
       "It's all starting to comeback to me now." Jet says as they make there way through. They pass class full of women being brainwashed to become 'Joo Dee', they continue on there way until they hear the sound of a shamisen and the voice of there friend.
"Shinta!" Aang yells as he runs towards the metal door.
"Aang is that you? Thank goodness you found me Long Feng was going to kill me in a few hours." He answers back as Aang prepares to blow down the door.
"Have you happened to bring my sword with just by chance?" He ask when it's finally knocked down and the group runs towards him until they notice what he's wearing.
"Shinta why are you wearing-?" Katara began to ask when he cuts her off.
"I took some clothes from a room so I could blend during the party, when I was captured they brought me here but after a while Long Feng came back with my old uniform which surprisingly still fits by the way and this shamisen. He told me that the clothes I was wearing belongs to the palace and not to some scum like me." He answers quickly. "Anymore questions?" He ask looking at them.
"Why are you all friends with a firebender?" Jet angrily ask holding his hooked swords ready to attack when Sokka hands him his sword.
"Sokka what are you doing he's the enemy." Jet glares towards him.
"He's not the enemy anymore Jet he's on our side we trust him." Aang says trying to calm him down, Jet sighs knowing he couldn't go up against what the avatar believed in. Shinta stands up and dust off his clothes as he slides his sword into his belt.
"We should get going before Long Feng and ha Dai Li agents comes to drag me to my death."he says "Oh and Sokka why did you have my sword?" He glares towards him.
"Well uuummm." He begins to say when Shinta sighs and looks down.
"Let's just go." He says and runs out as the others follow.
"Why do you even trust that guy?" Jet ask Aang.
"I just know there's something about him that I can trust as if a spirit is telling me to." Aang answers looking towards Jet until they pass a door causing Jet to stop.
"Guys here it is!" He yells causing them all to stop and walk back. They enter the room to see it full of Dai Li agents and Long Feng standing in front of a line of them.
"You are all now enemies of the state take them into custody." He says as the agents begin attacking.
Aang begins using his airbending to knock some of them away as Katara freezes a few and knocks. Sokka leans against Toph as they both take down some agents.
"There's so many." Shinta says as he knocks out a Dai Li agent.
"No kidding." Jet answers as he ends up leaning against him.
"Tell me why does Aang trust you?" Jet ask kicking an agent away.
"Probably because we all want to bring peace to this world and the fire nation in some way has taken something from us." He answers taking down a few more.
"....What did they take from you...?" He ask.
"My village......they killed everyone...I was the only survivor." Shinta answers still focusing on the fight.
"Oh...well I guess we have something in common then."Jet mutters and takes down another agent.
"Oh really......well I hope you don't hate me anymore." He runs into another direction and starts fighting off some more agents.
The others continue fighting until the defeat all of the Dai Li agents, they notice Aang and Jet are missing, they go looking for them until they reach the room and they see Jet laying on the floor and Aang kneeling next to him.
"Oh no..."Sokka says as they quickly run over. Katara looks down in shock, tears well up in her eyes but she quickly wipes them away and uses her waterbending to see how badly he's injured.
"This isn't good." She says when Spellerbee bends down and cradles Jets head.
"You guys should go. We'll look after them ." She says trying to make them continue to find Appa.
"We're not going." Aang says getting up and looking at the others but Longshot tells them to go.
"Just go I'll be ok." Jet says with pain in his voice as he looks towards Katara and the others they nod and begin leaving.
"He's lying..."Toph says to Sokka as they leave. Shinta runs ahead of them and takes down a few Dai Li agents as they try to escape.
They finally make there way through the exit when they look back to find the Dai Li chasing them.
        "How many those stupid agents do they have!?"Shinta mutters angrily when they get surrounded and the others prepare to fight when Momo flys off into the sun.
        "Hey wait...is that?" Sokka begins to say when Appa flys down and destroys the Earth walls surrounding them. Toph and Aang knock a few agents into the water with there earthbending and all that was left was just Long Feng, Appa faces him with glare and begins growling.
        "I'll deal with you myself." Long Feng proclaims when he attacks Appa but he his quickly flung into the lake. Aang runs over to Apps and hugs him.
        "I've missed you buddy." He whispers as a tear slides down his face.
         "We all did." Shinta says as he pets Appa. A few minutes go by when they begin flying in Appa. Katara looks down into the water remembering that Jet is most likely no longer with them, tears swell up in her eyes as she thinks this when she feels a hand on her shoulder and looks back to see Aang as he pulls her into a hug., the others join in as they make there way towards a small island in the middle of Lake Laogi.
       What will happen to our young heroes now?(you should know some of this) What will Long Feng plan for them next? And why did Yunako run off?