Balance | Old Version

Chapter 76

Elua's POV.

"We can't trust anything Jet says," Katara tells us as we stand in the alley, Jet still pinned to the wall by ice spikes.
"But, we don't even know why he's here," Sokka points out.
"I don't care why he's here. Whatever the reason is, it can't be good," Katara states.
"Okay," I start to say, I had no idea who this guy was and I had no idea what they were talking about. "What is going on and who is he?" I ask them pointing to the boy in confusion.
"His name is Jet, we stopped him from killing hundreds of innocent people," Katara says glaring at Jet in anger.

"I'm here to help you find Appa," Jet says as he holds one of our posters in his hand.
"Katara, we have to give him a chance," Aang whispers to her, desperate to find Appa.
"I swear, I've changed. I was a troubled person, and I let my anger get out of control. But I don't even have the gang now. I've put all that behind me," Jet says, trying to get Katara to trust him.
"You're lying!" Katara shouts in anger.
"He's not lying," Toph tells her.
"How can you tell?" Sokka asks in confusion.
"I can feel his breathing and heartbeat. When people lie, there is a physical reaction. He's telling the truth," Toph states.

"Katara, we don't have any leads. If Jet says he can take us to Appa, we have to check it out," I tell her, she looks at me unsurely.
"Alright...but we're not letting you out of our sight!" Katara tells Jet as she lets him go and we follow him down the streets until we come up to an old barn.
"This is the place I heard about," Jet tells us as we walk in and see...nothing, it's empty.
"There's nothing here," Aang says sadly.
"If this is a trap...!" Katara trails off in a warning tone.
"I told you, I work nearby! Two guys were talking about some giant furry creature they had. I figured it must be Appa," Jet explains.

"He was here!" I tell them as I pick up some of Appa's fur from the ground.
"We missed him," Aang says sadly as he takes the clump of hair from my hand.
"They took that big thing yesterday. Shipped him out to some island. About time, I've been cleaning up fur and various, uh leavings all day," An old man says as he sweeps the floor.
"What island?! Where's Appa?!" Aang asks as he rushes over to the old man.
"Foreman said some rich royal type on Whaletail Island bought him up. Guess for a zoo or such, though could be the meat, would be good," The man tells us. I see Sokka take out the map.
"We've gotta get to Whaletail Island. Where's Whaletail Island?" Aang says as Sokka looks at the map with a grim look on his face,

"Far. Very far," Sokka says, his shoulders slumping. "Here it is. It's near the South Pole almost all the way back home," He says pointing to a small island on the map.
"Aang, It'll take us weeks just to get to the tip of the Earth Kingdom. And then we'll need to find a boat to get to the island," I tell him. It was unrealistic to go that far.
"I don't care. We have a chance to find Appa. We have to try," Aang says in determination.
"Must be nice to visit an island. I haven't had a vacation for years," The man says.
"Don't you have some more hair to clean up?" Katara asks him, somewhat rudely.
"Shuffle on, I get ya. No more need for 'old sweepy.'," He says as he continues his work.

"You're right Aang. Right now, our first concern has to be finding Appa. We can come back when we have him," Katara says. I look at them in shock, we had no time to do this. I was going to have to make a hard decision, whether they liked it or not.
"No," I say sternly, they all look at me shocked.
"What do you mean 'no'?" Aang asks in confusion.
"Aang, it will take us months to get there, we don't have months. We have to defeat the Fire Lord before it's too late," I tell him. Was I the only one with a realistic mindset?
"So what, we just don't find Appa?" He asks, becoming angry.
"We have to focus on defeating Ozai, and you don't even know any firebending yet!" I point out.

"You just don't want to find Appa!" Aang shouts angrily.
"Of course I want to find him! But, we don't have time to go back all the way to the south pole!" I tell him, he was most likely going to hate me for doing this.
"I'm finding Appa, with or without your help!" Aang shouts as he starts to walk out. I sigh as I watch him walk away, obviously furious with me.
"All right, let's get moving," Sokka says, as he takes my hand and we start to walk out.
"I'll come with you," Jet says as he turns to follow us.
"We don't need your help," Katara tells him angrily.

"Why won't you trust me?" He asks her.
"Gee, I wonder?" She asks as we all walk out of the barn.
"Was this guy your boyfriend or something?" Toph asks Katara.
"What? No!" Katara shouts as her face turns red.
"I can tell you're lyyyyying," Toph teases her, making Katara blush even more.
"We can take the train out to the wall, but then we'll have to walk," Sokka states.
"Don't worry, on the way back, we'll be flying!" Aang says.
"We're finally leaving Ba Sing Se. Worst city ever!" Toph says smiling.

This can not be happening. I stop walking, making them all turn to me with looks of confusion.
"What's wrong, Elua?" Sokka asks me worriedly.
"I can't go with you guys," I tell them. We would never be able to defeat the Fire Lord if we did this.
"What?" Sokka, Katara, and Toph say in shock.
"I'm sorry, but it will take you to long to get to Appa. The Earth King has to know about the eclipse and if Aang isn't at the invasion in time, I have to be," I explain to them.
"So, you just want to what? Split up?" Katara asks me.
"Yes," I nod. Sokka is about to say something but before he does...

"Jet!" Someone shouts from behind us. We turn and to see two people run over to Jet.
"I thought you said you didn't have your gang anymore?" Katara asks with a glare.
"I don't," Jet says as he turns around, his eyes going wide as he sees them.
"We were so worried. How did you get away from the Dai Li?" The short one asks.
"The Dai Li?!" We all shout in shock.
"I don't know what she's talking about," Jet says as he backs away.
"He got arrested by the Dai Li a couple of weeks ago. We saw them drag him away," The girl explains.

"Why would I be arrested? I've been living peacefully in the city," Jet says in confusion.
"This doesn't make any sense. They're both telling the truth," Toph informs us.
"That's impossible," Katara says.
"No, it's not. Toph can't tell who's lying because they both think they're telling the truth," Sokka states. "Jet's been brainwashed," He says as he points to the teen in front of us. 
"That's crazy! It can't be," Jet says as he begins to back away from us. "Stay away from me!" Jet shouts as we surround him, making sure he can't run.