The Honor of Love (ATLA fanfic)

18. Return to Omashu

"So... is King Bumi with you guys? Is he leading the resistance?" Aang asked immediately. " Of course not. The day of the invasion, we readied ourselves for battle. We were prepared to defend our city, to fight for our lives and our freedom. But before we even had a chance, King Bumi surrended." The man said.

I sighed. "Surely he has his reasons...? Maybe he waits to-" Before I could finish my sentence, I got interrupted.
"-He looked me in the eye and said he was going to do nothing," he sighed, "it doesn't matter now. Fighting the Fire Nation is the only path to freedom, and freedom is worth dying for."

"Actually, there's another path to freedom..." Aang said and everyone looked up, you could leave Omashu. You're directing al your enery to fight the Fire Nation, but you're outnumbered. You can't win. Now is the time to retreat so you could live to fight another day."

"You don't understand," the resistance leader replied, "they have taken our home, and we have to fight them at any cost."
I hesitated, but stepped forward. "I know what the Fire Nation is capable of, I think we all do," I said, looking around, "but you can't win this, trust me."

"What does a watertribe girl know of this war? "The resistance leader sneered. "Because I have seen it," I replied calmly, "up close. I have seen their weapons, it's beyond anything you can ever imagine."

The men started to whisper and the man next to the resistance leader looked to him. "Living to fight another day sounds pretty good, Yalo."

"Yeah, they are right!" Another said. Yalo sighed and nodded. "Fine," he said, "but there's thousands of citizens taht need to leave. How are we going to get them all out?"

Sokka put on his 'thinking face' and started to 'hmmm...'. "Suckers!" He shouted. "What?" I asked confused as everyone stared at him in confusion. "You're all going to come down with a nasty case of pentapox." He said with a big smile. "Sokka, that's a great idea!" Katara said happily.

They sent some of the men down to the sewers to collect our small purple friends. While they were getting ready I sat down and overlooked the poor refugees. "Are you okay?" Aang asked as he sat down next to me. I nodded slowly and sighed. "It's just difficult to see, you know. So many people who have lost their homes, who have to live underground in fear." I replied.

"I know, it's truly heartbreaking..." Aang said sadly and he looked up to me. "You recognized that girl back there, who is she?" He asked carefully. I looked at Aang and growned. "Mai... We were in the same class at the Royal Fire Nation Academy. She was friends with princess Azula and Ty Lee, they were really a trinity. They always bullied me and Zuko, quite annying actually. But Mai always had a crush for Zuko." I replied grimly.

"She looked pretty dangerous to me." Aang mumbled. "She is." I replied, but Azula is the one you need to be most careful for.
The men came back with buckets full of pentapi. We covered ourselves in the marks of the pentapi, but we also had to act sick, of course.

Sokka intructed the men of how to do so, and we went back to the streets. "Ok, everyone! Into sick formation!" Sokka yelled. The people started to walk towards the gates, grunting and wailing. Aang grabbed his glider and didn't follow us. "Aang, aren't you coming with us?" Katara asked. "I'm not leaving until I find Bumi." He replied when he put Momo on the ground. Katara, Sokka and I made our way among the people to the gates. The guards were hysterially yelling 'plague!" over and over, and they opened the gates. We safely made our way outside of the city, and set up a camp.

When it was dark, Aang came back with Flopsy, but without Bumi. Yalo walked up to us and sighed. "We just did a head count." He said. "Oh no, was someone left behind?" Katara asked worriedly. "Eh no, we have an extra." Yalo said and he pointed to the ground. A baby was holding on to momo, dragging him across the ground.