Calypso-Avatar The Last Air bender (Being heavily edited! Finally right?)

2.29 King of Fools

Between having Asha back unharmed, especially after the whirlpool of emotions she went through, and having Appa back in his grasp, Aang was emotionally overwhelmed. He hadn't gone ten feet away from Appa and was almost always checking in with Asha-- which she joyfully implored with a soft smile as she looked over Gumi. Having the two back was such a big relief and it was obvious in the way the two just felt...looser. Like their nerves weren't constantly on edge.

"Look, we escaped from the Dai Li, we got Appa and Gumi back, I'm telling you, we should go to the Earth King now and tell him our plans. We're on a roll." Sokka's voice breaks the silence as he attempts to convince his fellow teammates to get on board with his plan, even if in the end it was up to the two Earth benders.

"One good hour after weeks of trouble isn't much of a roll." Katara snorts, eyeing her brother.

"We can build on it! If we want to invade the Fire Nation when the eclipse happens, we need the Earth King's support." Sokka continues, ignoring his sister. He can hear Gumi roar out happily, assuming that Asha is still cuddling him. 

"What makes you think we'll get it? I don't know if you've noticed, but things don't usually go that smoothly for our little gang."  Toph stretches her legs as she speaks, the dirty bottoms raising from the ground as she stretches her arms 

"I know, but I've got a got a good feeling about this. This time will be different."

"Sokka, Long Feng is in control of the city. His conspiracy with the Dai Li is too powerful. I think we should just keep flying and leave this horrible place behind us." Katara remains stone cold, unconvinced. 

"I'm with sweetness. I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se, and I can't even see!" Toph throws her arms up, eyes wide as she faces Sokka's direction (based on where his voice is coming from).

"But now that we have Appa and Gumi back, there's nothing stopping us from telling the Earth King the truth about the conspiracy and the war." Aang interrupts, walking over to the four. He looks back to his fellow air bender, the girl slowly getting off of Gumi to join them as well. 

While at a distance it looked like the duo weren't listening, they were. Weighing the pro's and con's with each other while simultaneously putting the best interest of the group at the forefront, both deciding this was the better option of the two. It was almost amusing at the levels they were operating at now, compared to when this journey started. 

"See, Aang's with me." Sokka grins as he puts an arm around Aang's shoulder, flashing a wide grin. "It's the whole reason we came here in the first place, we have to try."

"Well, I guess if the Earth King knew the truth, things could change." Katara looks down thoughtfully, the two boys smiling at her. 

"I don't trust the new positive Sokka. Long Feng brainwashed you, didn't he?!" Toph screeches, pointing to Sokka as she stands to her feet. 

"Okay, that's great and all, but what about Asha?" Raiko stands, unimpressed and bored, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. 

"What about Asha?" Sokka looks over to the quiet air bender, who looks up as she feels his gaze. Aang remains standing next to Sokka, watching as Raiko turns his counterpart around, a large char mark on the left sleeve of her shirt. She had already healed it while washing Gumi, but she couldn't fix her clothing.

"We ran into a fire bender-" 

"Aki. We ran into Aki." Asha is quick to interrupt Raiko, watching as Aang's eyes widen, the boy stepping closer to Asha. 

"As in Aki Aki?" His eyes are focused on the mark, only for them to look back to Asha's blue eyes. 

"Yes. As in that she-demon, Aki." The girl huffs again, looking to the shore of the lake. She's quick to do a double take, three Earth Kingdom ships in the distance catching her eye.