Avatar: Two Brothers

Fugitives

After a month of traveling out in the open sea, the four benders could finally see the docks of the fire nation. Chloe was extremely excited to see land again as being out of her natural element for too long was beginning to make her sick. Da-Wei and Isabelle were trying to calm her down and make sure she didn’t barf from all the excitement while Dilraj was focused on steering their boat towards the docks safely.

As the boat hit the dock, Da-Wei, Isabelle and Chloe jumped out with joy. But, Dilraj had his focus on a group of fire nation guards having a discussion amongst themselves. Eventually the boat was secured and they were greeted by a firebender who knew Isabelle very well, her name was Samnkua.

She introduced her to Chloe, Da-Wei and Dilraj. They exchanged pleasantries before Samnkua had matters to discuss with Isabelle. She said she wanted to speak with Isabelle alone. As much had happened since she left the fire nation.

Isabelle agreed to speak to Samnkua in private. Samnkua called for a group of fire nation guards to guide Isabelle’s friends to where they would be staying. So Chloe, Da-Wei, and Dilraj followed the escort guards in a different direction from where Isabelle and Samnkua were going.

When the two firebenders arrived at a warehouse near the docks where they were alone, Samnkua congratulated Isabelle. “Phenomenal work out there!” Isabelle was confused as to what her friend was celebrating.

“Oh come on Isabelle, you can drop the act now. I don’t know how you convinced those three to become your friend but that’s pretty crafty work.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

Samnkua threw out three pages of paper in front of Isabelle. She picked them up and saw that they were wanted posters for Chloe, Da-Wei and Dilraj. They were dangerous fugitives that had abducted the avatar and needed to be arrested upon sight.

“We have been trying to locate them for a while now but you just showed up with all of them all wrapped around your finger! We are going to get a huge reward for this!”

“There’s been a mistake! Those three aren’t fugitives, they are my friends!”

“Isabelle seriously, you can stop pretending now. It's not funny anymore.”

“Where is Fire Lord Risensa? Let me go talk to her, she will understand!”

“Unfortunately that will not be possible?” Samnkua informed.

“How come?”

“Fire Lord Risensa has been deemed a traitor for conspiring with air bender Ruthar. Therefore, she is no longer the fire lord.”

After hearing everything Samnkua had to share, Isabelle couldn’t believe how much had changed in the fire nation since she had left. It was a lot for her to take in but her first priority was to free her friends. “Please Samnkua, just take me to my friends, they are innocent!”

Samnkua had her head down and was completely silent for a moment before she responded. “So those three are really your friends?” Isabelle nodded.

“How disappointing. Seize her.”

Suddenly a group of firebenders appeared from hiding behind the massive crates. They tied up Isabelle and pinned her to the ground preventing her from using her bending.

“What are you doing?” Isabelle yelled.

As Isabelle struggled, Samnkua threw one last page in front of her. It was the last wanted poster and it showed a drawn portrait of Isabelle.

“When I first saw this I didn’t believe it. I tried to convince all the other fire nations guards that you were on our side. Why couldn’t you just admit that you were pretending to be their friends!”

“Listen, they are good people. There is a lot more going on than you have been told.” Isabelle attempted to get through to her friend but even though Samnkua could hear her words, her heart had completely shut out her former friend.

“Enough! I will no longer listen to the words of a traitor. Take her away!”

As the guards were about to drag her away, Isabelle fought to ask one last question. “Wait, what about my friends? What are you going to do to them?”

“It seems General Gursehaj is willing to pay quite the reward for turning those three over.”

Hearing those words enraged Isabelle but she was still unable to break free. She kept squirming but it was beginning to get on Samnkua’s nerves. She was about to walk towards her old friend and silence her for good but she heard a noise coming from outside the warehouse that caused her to stop.

With all her might, Chloe crashed through the warehouse with her brute strength, creating an entrance for Da-Wei to enter. Da-Wei used his airbending to blow away all the guards restraining Isabelle. That left only Samnkua. She attempted to flee but Dilraj encased her body in ice from her neck all the way down to her feet, preventing her from escaping.

“Aw yeah! Now that’s what I called a successful rescue mission!” Chloe celebrated.

“You know we could have just used the door. You didn't need to smash through a wall to make us an entrance.”

“Listen Da-Wei, sometimes you have to go for style points.”

As the two were having their banter, Isabelle thanked her friends for saving her. “What happened? How did you not get captured?”

“Oh you can thank Dilraj for that.” Da-Wei replied.

“Dilraj?” Isabelle questioned.

Back at the docks when they had just arrived, Dilraj saw a few of the fire nation guards discussing something. Although he couldn’t hear what they were saying, he could read their lips and hand signals. Being on watch guard duty back at the Northern Water tribe allowed him to easily decipher that the guards were planning to arrest them.

Isabelle turned to thank Dilraj for what he did. Dilraj wasn’t sure how to accept the gratitude so he looked away.

“Hey Isabelle! What should we do about this one?” Chloe asked, standing over Samnkua.

Isabelle walked towards her old friend with her fist ignited with fire. When she was within a foot away from Samnkua, she raised her fist to strike. As Isabelle’s fiery fist came raging towards her, Samnkua closed her eyes in anticipation of a painful attack.

However, the punch never made contact against Samnkua. Isabelle held her fist about an inch away from Samnkua’s face. She then pulled back and walked away from her.

“Hey, what are you doing? Come back here traitor! Don’t you dare walk away from me!” She yelled at the top of her lungs but Isabelle continued walking. Chloe and Da-Wei ran up to catch up with her while Dilraj stayed behind a few seconds longer to speak to Samnkua.

“The ice should melt on its own in about twenty minutes. That should give you plenty of time to cool off and figure things out.”

“Figure out what?” She asked, aggravated.

“If your friend really is a traitor or have you been lied to?” Dilraj then left the firebender.

With the information that they were wanted fugitives, they began to disguise themselves by covering their face with a hood. They also had to change some of their normal outfits to blend into the fire nation crowd.

“So was it a good idea to leave your friend alone like that?” Chloe asked Isabelle.

“It will be fine. She shouldn’t be a problem for us.” Isabella assured her.

“Where are we headed now? Is there any safe place left for us?” Da-Wei questioned.

“There is a place and it's not too far from here.” Isabelle responded. Both Da-Wei and Chloe were skeptical after all the bad luck they have been through. Sensing that negative atmosphere was growing, Dilraj decided to support Isabelle. “Isabelle has been honest with us. We should trust her judgment.”

After hearing Dilraj’s comment, Da-Wei and Chloe stopped their skeptical remarks and allowed Isabelle to lead them the rest of the way. It took an additional hour but they arrived at a shack out in the open field area, away from the city. From the outside, the shack didn’t look too shabby but it didn’t wasn’t an exquisite place to stay.

Isabelle approached the door and as she placed her hand on the door knob, she felt something was wrong about the situation.

“Everyone get down!” Isabelle ran away from the door and dove onto the ground and everyone else followed her lead. As they hit the ground, a giant fire pillar appeared and that could have scorched them if they hadn’t reacted in time. Appearing from the entrance of the shack was one masked fighter dressed in fire nation armor.

“Seriously? The fire nation followed us all the way here?!” cried Chloe.

“Man you fire nation are quite persistent aren’t you?” Da-Wei added.

“This can’t be though. Nobody else should know about this place.” Isabelle thought.

“No time to think, let’s take this one out before he calls in reinforcements.” Dilraj asserted.

Dilraj, Chloe, and Da-Wei surrounded their opponent to prevent him from escaping. They weren’t too afraid of his skill level as they easily took out all the other fire nation guards before. Chloe had the first attack as she lifted a rock and threw it at her enemy. However, this guard was extremely vigilant and jumped over the attack, causing the rock to slam Da-Wei right in the gut.

The guard was now right in front of Chloe’s face, and she was completely defenseless. Dilraj reacted by blasting a wave of ice to separate him from Chloe. Unfortunately, the enemy avoided the ice wave, leaving Chloe encased in ice. The guard then appeared behind Dilraj and struck him from behind. In just a few minutes, this one guard easily handled the three benders.

While the battle was going on, Isabelle continued to piece together her thoughts. Every way she thought about it, there was no way any normal fire nation soldier could know about this place. This was a secret place that only she was shown by one other person. It was then that she started paying attention to how the enemy was fighting. Isabelle finally picked up the subtle weird motions in the opponent’s movements.

Dilraj, Da-Wei and Chloe were still giving it their all despite being outclassed by their one opponent. They pulled themselves up after taking quite the beating. They were determined not to be embarrassed as they had the clear advantage in numbers. Each of them regained their fighting stance and were ready to launch a simultaneous strike. However, as they were about to strike, Isabelle stepped in front of them and had them halt their assault. After she got their attention, she slowly approached the enemy by herself.

“Isabelle, what are you doing? That person is way too dangerous!” Da-Wei shouted.

She continued to walk to the enemy. “Don’t worry, this person isn’t here to cause us harm.”

“Are you sure about that? Because the bruises on my body tell me otherwise.” Chloe added.

“That’s true, this person is strong but for some reason she hasn’t even tried fighting you all at full strength. She’s had plenty of opportunities to land a finishing strike but has deliberately chosen not to take them.” Isabelle stated.

“Wait, how do you know that person is a ‘she’?” questioned Dilraj.

“Because I know the person underneath that mask. It's you isn’t it? Fire Lord Risensa!”

The guard took off the helm and revealed her face. She was indeed Fire Lord Risensa and the sight of her brought massive relief to Isabelle as she ran to give her a big hug.